Saturday Strategy

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes Richard North, Co-Founder and CEO of Wow! Stuff, a company that builds brands and partners with licensed brands to deliver fun and innovative toys and pop-culture gifts, trading in over 30 countries around the globe. Richard is here to talk about his start-up journey, sharing expert advice for aspiring and beginner entrepreneurs and highlighting the importance of leveraging your network, work experience, and knowledge of the market. Richard shares insight into effective hiring techniques, dealing with restlessness and failure as an entrepreneur, thinking outside the box, and leveraging money from stakeholders to grow your business. Then, he speaks on his experience overcoming challenges in growing a small business, acquiring and selling businesses, and building ecommerce platforms. “Whether they’re customers or they’re people you meet through business, keep those contacts close and be kind, be nice to those people, you’ll need them.”   - Richard North To learn more about Wow! Stuff, visit: www.wowstuff.com About our Guest: Richard North is the Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Brand Officer at Wow! Stuff, which is a UK-based company that builds brands and partners with licensed brands, working until their brains hurt to deliver toys and pop-culture gifts that are really, really, INNOVATIVE, ON BRAND, IN UNIVERSE. ALWAYS! Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-north-b91b8a9

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes George Blakeway, Owner of The Fruitful Toolbox, which helps business owners create real, sustainable, behavioural and cultural change, develop world class leaders and managers, and transform organisational performance using Everything DiSC and The Five Behaviours. Do you want to learn how to manage your team better and be the best leader you can be? George is here to talk about his strategic framework for team development and team management, as well as the advantages of his recently developed diagnostic team culture tool, Team Performance Scan. George also describes the critical roles of culture, recruitment, and skills-based development in building and retaining a successful team. “We need to invest a bit more time and thought in: How do I get the most out of encouraging people to collaborate and to actually feel a sense of collectiveness?”  - George Blakeway If you’re interested in improving the performance of your team and your organisation, tune in to learn the strategic tools and tactics that will help you become a better leader. Team Performance Scan: · Team Performance Scan is a tried and tested tool which enables teams to reach their full potential and deliver enhanced results · TPS measures the 10 key themes of team performance and highlights strengths and areas for development · TPS then suggests course of action to work on which will improve development areas · TPS tracks improvement over time to maintain focus and measure your return on your investment To learn more about Team Performance Scan, visit: www.team-performance-scan.com/about About our Guest: George Blakeway is a learning and development consultant, as well as the owner and Managing Director of The Fruitful Group and The Fruitful Toolbox. Working with some of the highest performing teams in both sport and business, George and his team have developed the Team Performance Scan. This powerful tool helps us measure, improve and track the success of our team as we strive to realise our business ambitions. Connect with George on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/george-blakeway-b5560016 To learn more about The Fruitful Toolbox, visit: www.thefruitfultoolbox.com

Host Johnny Themans welcomes Sophie Walton, a brand and social media expert, e-commerce and lead generation Facebook Ads marketer, and Founder of 3twleve, a talented, experienced team of marketing professionals on a mission to create impactful brands and marketing campaigns. Did you know that Facebook is a great source of highly valuable and qualified leads for B2B companies? Sophie is here to talk about why your business could benefit from improving lead generation and marketing on Facebook, along with the four steps you should take to successfully market your business with Facebook Ads. She details how long you should run a Facebook ad campaign for, the importance of paying attention to on-site conversion, and how to offer attractive incentives to customers in your marketing. “Whether you’re coming from a B2C or a B2B angle, Facebook Ads is a great platform to shout about your business, for sure.”     - Sophie Walton Ready to showcase your small business in front of a large audience? Tune in to learn how! About our Guest: Sophie Walton helps SME businesses refine their brand and social media marketing strategies according to their business objectives and ideal target audience. She also strategizes, sets up and manages lead generation and e-comm Facebook campaigns that generate leads, sales, and drive business growth. Sophie is passionate about branding, social media and Facebook advertising. She loves seeing the teams that she works with get excited about creative design, compelling social media content and leads and sales being generated through marketing activity to help their business flourish. To learn more about 3twelve, visit: www.3twelve.co.uk Connect with Sophie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-walton-3877b221

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes Josie Hadley, a leading expert in online marketing with over 30 years of experience specialising in social media as an accredited trainer and coach. Have you ever had difficulty trying to build and launch a website for your business? Josie is here to talk about the best, quickest way to launch a professional website that looks great and showcases your value. She highlights the benefits of Go Paperless, which is an online platform that enables your business to access paper free document management computing solutions in a single point system. “Go Paperless is an online portal, it’s much more than a digital business card… It is a way of sharing your personal and business credentials in one single place.” - Josie Hadley Go Paperless is a powerful business tool for small and medium-sized businesses, like you, to increase your productivity and ROI, as well as present a professional profile to your clients and colleagues. This doesn’t replace your social media platforms, in fact, it enhances the effectiveness and the reach of your social media presence! Josie explains the main features of Go Paperless, the impact of going paperless on the environment, and how this savvy software improves your business’s customer relationship management (CRM). “Websites are crucial, without a shadow of a doubt, for any business.”      - Josie Hadley Whether you are a hair stylist, a therapist, a realtor, or a retail store… your online presence is an essential part of your success is a business. Josie will help you through the process of building a credible and attractive presence online. Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! To learn more about Go Paperless and Josie Hadley, visit: www.gopaperless.eu/josiehadley About our Guest: Josie Hadley has become a leading authority for online marketing having worked in this fast moving and exciting arena for over eight years. She has extensive knowledge and appreciation of both SMEs and multi-national brands – working with clients such as Pirelli Tyres and Moet & Chandon – gained from 30 years’ experience. Josie launched her business, Online Marketing Growth Limited, in 2015 after realising the growing potential to businesses who did not have a strong online presence. She manages a wide portfolio of clients’ accounts - giving her daily contact with each platform and keeping her fully abreast of current trends and working practises. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Connect with Josie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/josiehadley Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 07977 437360

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes Andy Whyle, a Sustainability and Circular Economy Practitioner who’s an expert in advanced manufacturing. We’re all aware of the global environmental sustainability movement, but where should we start when incorporating sustainability into our business practices? Andy is here to talk about how to run a greener business and why it’s a smart business decision that aligns with the goals of increasing sales and improving long-term efficiency and sustainability. “Sustainability is a journey that you shouldn’t take on your own… it’s about understanding that your small part can contribute to a greater sum.”  - Andy Whyle Andy highlights how three local businesses are putting sustainability standards into practice by addressing pollution and improving water quality. He then explains how people, planet, and profit are the 3 P’s of sustainability and gives insight into the incentives for business owners who are actively working to become more environmentally friendly. “The customer is only going to buy from you if you give them what they want in a responsible manner.”    - Andy Whyle He speaks on sustainability in the supply chain, specifically for SME’s, and the simple, yet powerful steps you can take to become a more sustainable business. Wondering how you and your business can become more eco-friendly? Tune in to learn how from an expert! Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: Andy Whyle is a Sustainability Specialist who has over thirty years’ experience of sustainable manufacturing. His specialisms cover sustainability leadership, circular economy, natural capital development, networking and collaboration. As an IEMA Fellow, he Chairs the Circular Economy Network Steering and Corporate Sustainability Fellows Working Groups. Recognised as a Sustainability West Midlands Green Leader, he is a proven leading practitioner on a local, national and international basis. As a subject matter expert on the circular economy, he co-authored the Business Lens evidence chapter of the Government Office of Science - From Waste to Resource Productivity report, which was utilised to create the Resources and Waste Strategy. Andy has also utilised his experience for DEFRA advisory groups and the UK Resources Council, representing the manufacturing sectors’ material users and producers to increase circularity in the UK. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/andywhyle Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest David George, Founder and CEO of choiceMaster Limited. Technology advances at such a fast pace, that it’s important for us, as business owners, to try and keep up with it. With all the movements in artificial intelligence (AI), there are challenges that small businesses face when trying to integrate AI and automation into their systems. David is here to address the misconceptions and controversies around AI and to speak on what small business owners can do to control and develop their business processes and IT systems, enabling sustainable growth and the ability to remain competitive. “AI, artificial intelligence, deals with the creation of systems that can learn to emulate human tasks using acquired knowledge and prior experience without any manual intervention.”  - David George David gives us insight into the differences between machine learning and artificial intelligence, along with how large organizations, like Netflix and Google, are implementing these concepts into their business operations. Then, he scales it down to speak on how small businesses can learn from these implementations of AI to achieve greater outcomes, such as saving time in better understanding their target audiences and finding qualified leads. The good news is you can find free resources for learning about AI from open source platforms created by larger companies, which David touches on. There are also SaaS (Software as a Service) companies that can help you so that you can focus on more important tasks, allowing you to scale your business. Are you interested in implementing AI in your company? Listen in to learn how from an expert! Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: David George has founded/co-founded two specialist software companies and subsequently made his exit, semi-retiring in order to sail and travel globally. Having achieved many personal goals, he decided to re-engage professionally and thus founded choiceMaster, a company that applies an ensemble of intelligent methods and algorithms which collectively implement a Choice Decision Engine, facilitating decision simplicity — the ease with which customers can gather trustworthy information about a product and confidently and efficiently assess their purchase options. David’s experience encompasses research (PhD), software engineering, specialist software technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Database Management Systems (relational, post-relational, multivalued, columnar) and large-scale project management. Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dfgeorge Email him: david@choicemaster.org

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Emma Alston, a Voice Coach who helps business owners find confidence in their voice. Many business owners are challenged in communicating with their customers, their suppliers, and their teams. “A speech impediment is the reason, believe it or not, of why I do what I do because I had an incredibly pronounced stutter as a child.”         - Emma Alston Do you find it anxiety-provoking or downright terrifying to speak in front of a group or present a pitch? Many people do! Communicating through spoken word isn’t always about what is said, it’s often about how it’s said and how we’re heard… and it comes down to the skill of how your message is delivered. Emma emphasizes the connection between the body, the voice, and the breath, detailing how that relationship impacts the way we project our voice and the way we’re perceived. She demonstrates with Johnny a useful, interactive exercise to strengthen this connection and release tension, noting the harmful effects of sitting and working at home all day. “Our voices are like musical instruments, they need to be practiced.”  – Emma Alston Do you feel uncomfortable participating in digital meetings or Zoom calls? That’s okay, it takes a bit of adapting and adjusting to feel confident in online video calls. Emma offers advice on how to appropriately and effectively present yourself and communicate through digital meetings. She also shares a powerful technique that will help you reduce the amount of filler words and sounds you add in while speaking (such as like or uh). Tune in next time for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: Emma Alston is a Voice Coach whose practice is tailored to the needs of individuals, regardless of age or ability. Working with Emma will help you overcome any self-consciousness or apprehension you may feel regarding communication. Our voices carry an immeasurable potential of our own creativity and therefore should never be diminished by sociological expectations. For a FREE 15-minute consultation, contact Emma on mobile: 07538903616 www.emmaalstonvoice.com Visit her website: www.emskialston.com Connect with her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/emma-alston-ab4908154 Give her a ring: 07538903616 Email her: emskialston@gmail.com Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 7977437360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Phil Chambers, memory expert, speed reader, and mind mapping champion. Many businesses owners struggle with being too busy and being pulled in all different directions, while struggling to allocate time to personal development. Though, one of the most important parts of ourselves to keep fit is our brain! Thus, Phil is here to share tips for maintaining the fitness and performance of these incredible machines. “There’s actually some really good research showing that if you train your working memory, it actually improves your fluid intelligence and your ability to problem solve.” - Phil Chambers How do we juggle all of the information constantly being presented to us, our networks expanding, and systems changing? Phil gives us practical context as to how memory techniques, mind mapping (integrating and making sense of information in a graphical format), and speed reading can all be applied in our lives and why it’s important for business owners and leaders. “Most people are reading at half the minimum effective reading speed.”  - Phil Chambers Phil breaks down how reading speed is measured and what functional literacy is, as well as how mind mapping. He shares the three key principles memory is based on, along with practical memory techniques you can implement in any situation to strengthen your memory of specific data and enhance your work performance. Are you curious why we tend to remember stories relating to data better than the data itself? Listen in to find out! Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: Phil Chambers is a World Mind Mapping Champion, Chief Arbiter of the World Memory Sports Council, a member of the Professional Speaking Association and MENSA. Visit Learning Tech’s website: www.learning-tech.co.uk Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/phil-chambers-0b1964 Email him: phil@learning-tech.co.uk Find his books: www.ecpcbooks.com Remember Equations eBooks: www.rememberequations.co.uk Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 07977437360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Anthony Tattum of Big Cat Agency. Anthony is here to discuss the importance of aligning your marketing efforts with your operational efforts, as well as his approach to helping hospitality companies through the challenges of the 2020 pandemic. “Now is the time to think about all of that unused space that you haven’t made the most of.”     - Anthony Tattum Anthony speaks on the power of focusing on the effectiveness of your marketing tactics and making sure it aligns with your marketing expenses. He details the challenges his clients are facing regarding reengaging their customers post-lockdown and how they’re pivoting their innovative efforts to serve their customers in different ways. What would you want your best customer to say to their friend about your establishment? Anthony offers insight into the value of storytelling, word of mouth, and building a brand by creating myths based on history or passion. He also shares his positive outlook on the future and how he’s encouraging people to use behavioural science in their business practices. Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: For over 20 years, Anthony Tattum has helped grow global and independent brands, which has equipped him with insight, experience and the desire to make a difference no matter the brief or size of project. He’s now building Big Cat Agency to be a top 5 UK Independent Marketing Communications Agency. Our clients include Capital & Regional, Mitchels & Butler, Absolutely Leisure, Hammerson, Minor Weir & Willis, WMCA, BHSF and Colliers International. Big Cat Agency works with clients who strive for best in class solutions and growth and across many industries, including Retail, Tourism, Hospitality, Health and Wellbeing, and Charity. Big Cat excels at building brands and maximising profit. Visit Big Cat Agency’s website: www.bigcatagency.com Connect with them on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/big-cat-group and www.linkedin.com/in/anthonytattum Follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BigCatAgency and www.twitter.com/anthonytattum Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Graydon Radford, an enigma who is a former NHS nurse and is now a part of the Shrewsbury Morris Dancing group. Graydon is here to detail his journey into social media and how he grew their Twitter account to over 100k followers. “I concentrated on Twitter because I preferred the brevity of it at the time.”       - Graydon Radford How do you build such a following? Graydon talks about the value of strategically following others and in mutually promoting other businesses and Twitter accounts to help grow your following. He shares the three principal values he runs the Twitter account on and breaks down how each one has helped him build a tribe on the popular social media platform. Graydon also divulges what his interactions with businesses on Twitter look like, noting the significance of sponsorships and general discussion. How do you manage your time when trying to grow your social media presence? Graydon offers insight into efficient time management with social media and the surprising method he uses to stay organized and systematized in his Twitter engagements. He then shares how Twitter has helped his group remain lucrative and for what purpose Twitter holds in growing their presence in the world. Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: Graydon Radford (the person behind Shrewsbury Morris), is a former NHS nurse who lives in Shrewsbury and is part of the Shrewsbury Morris Dancing group. He set up the twitter page and now has over 100,000 followers on the page. Follow Shrewsbury Morris Dancers on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shrewsmorris Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd 

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Niamh Kelly, a Human Resources executive with 25 years of experience in employment relations at the highest level in the corporate, public, and voluntary sectors. Many businesses have either changed the way they’re operating or have decided to open up into new markets, including hers, and she’s here to talk about it. Niamh also details why two specific HR issues, redundancy and recruitment, are keeping her busy. Niamh explains how The Taylor Review led to the Good Work plan that led to changes in employment law, which means we’re looking at different processes and procedures for working. She also explains how people are now more than ever engaged in a conversation around doing work differently and how productivity has shot up since employers have begun heavily supporting working from home. How do we figure out the best model for the future? Niamh touches on the concepts of checking the right of people to work and immigration points-based system, then notes the trend of people acting on entrepreneurial opportunities and taking risks during this pandemic. She shares her thoughts on side hustles and challenges that come along with them, as well as employees’ social media impacting employer reputation. “A recession is ironically a great time to think about starting a business or going in a different way.”     - Niamh Kelly Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! About our Guest: Niamh Kelly FCIPD is the Director at The HR Dept Shropshire and The HR Dept Wrexham and Chester. She’s a Human Resources executive with 25 years of experience in employment relations at the highest level in the corporate, public, and voluntary sectors. Visit her website: www.hrdept.co.uk/licensees/shropshire Email her: niamh.kelly@hrdept.co.uk Connect with her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/niamhkellyhrdeptshropshire Follow HR Dept on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hr-shropshire Find them on Facebook: www.facebook.comHRDeptShrop Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

Welcome to the 30th episode of Saturday Strategy! On today’s episode, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Scott Brown, CEO of EiB Group Ltd., to discuss bidding for large contracts and the main opportunities they provide for SME’s. He explains that SME’s don’t exploit these opportunities as they could because they usually don’t understand this process or how to find those opportunities and they’re not prepared in advance. For business owners who are focused on growth, you’ll want to give this episode a listen to learn important information on the range of size of contracts, examples of types of contracts that are available to you, and the risks to be aware of. He also divulges helpful tips to help you along the way in the bidding process. “The worst position to be in is finding a procurement opportunity at the point that it’s published... The best thing is to be looking at procurement portals and understanding that something’s going to come to market in a month’s time, two months’ time, three months’ time...” -  Scott Brown Recognize the opportunities that are out there and reach out to EiB for support in growing your business! Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy. “Answer the question that you’re asked, not the question that you wanted to be asked.” -  Scott Brown About our Guest: Scott Brown is the CEO of EiB (Excellence in Business) Group Ltd., which is a group of companies that includes EiB Professional Services Ltd; Preferred Bid Writers Ltd; and Excellence in Business Ltd. The group specialises in supporting clients with strategic work winning and implementing new collaborative delivery models. Scott is a visible, highly energetic leader who is passionate about building high performing teams. He enjoys growing profitable businesses through employing and working with exceptionally talented people. Success for him is a motivated and inspired team with happy customers built on long-term relationships, innovative solutions and excellent service delivery. Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scott-brown-65006516 Visit his website: www.eibps.co.uk Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 07977-437-360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Jason Batty, founder of HJR Tax, to discuss a special tax savings opportunity valued at an average of £25,000 for people who have commercial property. He explains (in a way that’s easy for folks like us to understand) the process of making claims for embedded fixtures in commercial buildings and how it leads to this huge tax relief. For anyone wondering whether one of these claims has already been made before, it’s not likely, and Jason explains why this is. He also details the relevant rules regarding what criteria is required to qualify for this savings opportunity and it’s so simple that he could even let you know in five minutes whether you qualify or not. Then, Jason shares the story of his company’s growth along with some of his noteworthy achievements. “We’re in a recession, there’s no better time to make a claim than now. And ultimately, this is money that you’re entitled to, you just probably don’t even know it.”  - Jason Batty Reach out to Jason to see if you qualify for this fantastic tax relief opportunity! It won’t cost you a penny and there’s no upfront cost for their service. Tune in next week for another episode of Saturday Strategy! “You’ve got nothing to lose and all to gain.”   - Jason Batty About our Guest: Jason Batty is the Founder of HJR Tax, an independent property tax consultancy specialising in capital allowances claims for commercial property acquisitions. HJR Tax is a fast growing, award-winning company based in South Wales. Visit his website: www.hjrtax.co.uk Call HJR Tax to find out if you qualify: 01633 386017 Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jason-batty-6aa11023 Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Geordie Wardman, serial entrepreneur and founder of Onestop Devshop, a software development company. Geordie is here to offer insight on scaling any business, while focusing on software companies. A problem that many people in business face when they start out is the challenge of transitioning from a solopreneur to the business owner they want to be. Identifying and taking action on the steps in between your start point and end point is often the hardest part. Geordie describes what life as a freelancer is like, what the ambitions and goals could be at the end, and which steps to take during the transition from freelancer to agency to product owner. How do you know your skills are valuable? Geordie details the answer to this and it’s simpler than you may think. He then offers insight on looking for a problem to solve, generating leads, and augmenting agency income with products to diversify cash flow. He talks about what you can do to start planning your journey towards owning a lucrative business and shares his views on virtual agencies, divulging a few that he utilizes himself. Software as a Service (SaaS) is an easy way to take part in this booming remote work trend and it’s definitely not going to end. If you would like help with your software idea or would like to start down that path, Geordie would like to offer you a FREE 15-20 minute consultation to brainstorm and answer any questions you may have. You can find his contact information below. About our Guest: Geordie Wardman is a serial entrepreneur who is currently working on developing online software products. He is the founder of Onestop Devshop, an online software development agency that he started last year which is on track to hit $1 million in revenues this year. He has one start up SaaS for lead generation where he is in the process of finalising raising funds for it and another distressed SaaS that he purchased recently which helps people get online reviews. Geordie has a team of 45 and the business is growing steadily each month. He lives in Switzerland with his family, skiing 100 days a year while running all of his businesses from home. He’s especially passionate about Software as a Service (SaaS), software start-ups, marketing, entrepreneurship, bootstrapping, and lifestyle businesses. Contact Geordie via e-mail: geordie@1stop.io Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/geordiewardman Visit his business’s website: www.gemm.tv Follow his business on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gemmsupport Listen to his podcast: www.bigbreaksoftware.libsyn.com Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

On this episode of Saturday Strategy, host Johnny Themans welcomes guest Lucy Key, Owner and Performance Director at Performing Perfectly, to speak about communication and how performance and business are connected. To clearly articulate our message to who we’re working with, we need to be able to use our voice and body language to communicate better and improve our chances of success in business. The two discuss the parallels of the world of performance and the world of business. Effective communication is essential for any business to succeed and when you communicate in an engaging way, you get the best results. Lucy explains how much of stage performance comes from being a natural and how much comes from learned skills. She details why knowing your audience and environment is so important and how to actively develop your skills in this area, including techniques such as breath work and filming yourself. Then, Lucy shares how remaining authentic and confident, especially when making mistakes, and not being too polished makes a huge difference when presenting to a group. Johnny and Lucy then discuss cultural stereotypes and prejudices toward voices, while exploring the importance of personal ‘blind spots’, constructive feedback, and pushing people outside of their comfort zones. About our Guest: Lucy is a professional actress who has worked in theatre, opera, television, concert and cabaret. After training at Guildford School of Acting, Lucy’s performance credits include: Maria in West Side Story, The Prince of Wales Theatre, London and UK No. 1 tour, Grace Farrel in Annie, Perth Repertory Theatre, Of Thee I Sing, The Bridewell Theatre, London, Midsummer Nights Dream and Two Gentlemen of Verona, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, London, The Marriage of Figaro, New Vic Theatre, The Birthday Party, Chichester Festival Theatre. Television credits include the role of Manda in Being April for BBC One. Lucy has also worked extensively as a performing arts tutor, choreographer, director and workshop practitioner. Along with her husband, Chris, she directs Key Theatre Academy and Performing Perfectly. Directing and choreography credits include numerous projects with Leaps and Bounds, including The Young Roots Presentation at The Birmingham Hippodrome, choreographer for The Olympic Handover celebrations in Shropshire and Assistant Director on the world premiere of the musical Chasing Fate at The Birmingham Hippodrome. Lucy is Performance Director at Key Theatre Academy and Performing Perfectly. Performing Perfectly teams up with psychologists, fellow West End theatre and TV actors, executive coaches and business leaders to nurture performance in the broadest sense. They provide unique opportunities to learn and develop essential skills for successful communication, presentation and peak performance. Visit Performing Perfectly’s Website: www.performingperfectly.com Follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PerfPerfectly Email Lucy: lucy@performingperfectly.com Contact Johnny through WhatsApp: 0 797-743-7360 Follow Saturday Strategy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SaturdayStrate1 Follow Good2Great on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GOOD2GREAT_ltd

In this weeks episode, we are joined by presentation and pitching expert Michael Trigg as he guides us through how we can implement effective changes to improve our overall presentation skills. He discusses the importance of face-to-face presentation and what we can be doing to make our Zoom calls/ online discussions as engaging as possible.  The age of live video has truly arrived.  Links mentioned in the interview:  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/triggmichael/ Website - http://www.presentationmaestro.com/ Masterclass - http://www.presmasterclass.co.uk/ Email - michael@presentationmaestro.com YouTube - Presentation Maestro

This week we are joined by marketing expert Robert Elding who guides us through how we can take a new look at our business website to freshen up our homepage to engage fully with our customers. He shares his ideas on how we can identify what our customers are looking for, understand what their needs are and cater for them by using a practical step-by-step plan for mapping our pages out.  Links mentioned in the interview:  LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertelding Website - https://www.channeld.co.uk/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/robertelding/videos Email - robert@channeldynamics.io

Marketing expert Hannah Montgomery joins us this week to guide us through the advantages of developing an effective direct mail strategy and ensuring that we implement it as a vital part of our wider marketing plan. She shares her ideas on how we can create high quality, targeted material that considers our customer demographic to engage with them most effectively.  Links mentioned in the interview:  Email- hannah@golddust.marketing LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahmontgomery/ Website- golddust.marketing 30 minute consultation - golddust.marketing/connect

Mickey Bushell (MBE) is a truly inspirational local athlete from Shropshire who has competed at five world championships, five European championships and three Paralympics representing team GB- all from his wheelchair. Alongside this, Mickey has built a career as an emotional intelligence coach, focusing on non-verbal communication and has started his business Project Emotion in which he works with clients to; channel emotions to their own advantage, body language coaching for career success and influencing techniques for better success rates in business. In this show, Mickey shares his expertise and experiences and gives us tips on how we can overcome our own hurdles and make better use of what we have got, rather than focusing on forces preventing us from moving forward. He talks about how we can release inhibitions and risking failure as a means for making improvements.  Links mentioned in the interview:  Website - http://www.projectemotion.com Email - mb@projectemotion.com Instagram - mickeybushell

Jason Green is a health and wellbeing specialist who's High Performance Program focuses on implementing high performance habits that help business owners reduce stress so they can take control of maintaining a healthy work/ life balance. In this episode, Jason shares his expertise and tips on how we can remain positive throughout this period of uncertainty and habits that we can bring into our routines to maintain our physical and mental health.  Links mentioned in the interview:  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-green- Facebook - The High Performance Program  Website - https://hppmastermind.com/thepathway36801514 Podcast - http://hpp.buzzsprout.com 

Our guest today, Jemma Redden, is one of the key founders of Access Generation, a social enterprise that encourages businesses to employ young people by empowering employers to attract the next generation. In this show- she shares her expertise on how we can make our businesses more attractive to young people and offers straightforward guidance on how we can actively adapt our businesses to meet the needs and desires of the next generation. Her key points address:  Challenging how employers go about reaching out and engaging with young people. What options there are to bring young people into the workplace. What questions young people are looking for the company to answer. Employability process and steps that employers can take to make their candidate journey better. Creating and developing entry level roles and offering progression so young people can continue to learn as they work.  Links mentioned in the interview:  https://accessgeneration.co.uk/ #AccessYourTruePotential Contact details for Jemma:  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jemmaredden Email: jemma.redden@accessgeneration.co.uk

Following a successful career in education and working in supportive roles with a whole host of different people, Maggie Everett set up her transformational life coaching business Soulutions4life last year. In this podcast, Maggie offers useful, practical advice for how we, as business owners, can look after ourselves during this lockdown period and beyond. She shares a variety of techniques we can use to focus, regain control and learn to acquire a sense of calm throughout this difficult time.  Contact details for Maggie:  soulutions4life@gmail.com Facebook: Soulutions4life LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-everett-5224aa45/

In our 20th Saturday Strategy episode - Sarah Bishop - long serving recruitment specialist and sales guru - provides her expertise on how we can best communicate with our customers throughout the Lockdown period and how to sell sympathetically, considering their needs. It seems that many businesses are finding it difficult to sell during the lockdown and this advice helps us all to continue to build relationships and continue the development of our businesses. Contact details for Sarah:  Website - https://www.recruitrecruit.co.uk LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/sarahbishop1    Email - sarah@recruitrecruit.co.uk Mobile - 07827 860358

Lisa Richards is a trained Grief Recovery Specialist & Mental Health First Aider based in Shrewsbury Shropshire. She is part of a growing network of specialists managed & licensed by Grief Recovery UK set up over 10 years ago to teach recovery from grief and loss. Having suffered from a series of traumatic events in her life, Lisa uses & draws on those experiences to empathise, educate & empower others struggling to enjoy life after any loss. In this show- Lisa shares her expertise on grief recovery and shares some of her top tips on how to approach grief recovery and guide those around us who are dealing with loss during this difficult time. Links mentioned in the interview: Grief Recovery UK:Tele: 01234 862218. Website: https://www.griefrecoverymethod.co.uk/ Advice for living through Lockdown: https://www.griefrecoverymethod.co.uk/blog/ Contact details for Lisa:  Tele: 07762 615277 E-mail: Lisa@grmspecilaist.uk Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisatheheartwithears/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LisatheHearTwithEARs/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/aheartwithears

Denise is an award-winning HR professional who provides local, pragmatic and affordable HR advice, support and services to SMEs. In this show- she shares her ideas on how we can adapt to life after lockdown. She talks about the effect that the UK lockdown may have on our businesses and offers us practical advice on what to expect when we eventually return to a new found version of 'normality'. Links mentioned in the interview: Website - hrdept.co.uk   Contact details for Denise: Email - denise.waite@hrdept.co.uk LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisejwaite/

Sophie Thomas is an experienced marketer with a history of working in technology and SaaS industry sectors. She is motivated by creating marketing campaigns that deliver tangible results and aims to make a difference by highlighting the importance of company culture and values for business growth. In this show, Sophie shares her thoughts on the importance of building trust and honest, open relationships with customers. Sophie summarises her tips for business networking into 5 key points. They are: Creating engagement isn’t as difficult as people are led to believe. Anyone can do it. It is important to acknowledge and understanding ourselves and our strengths (as a business and an individual) Understand who exactly our audience is. Figure out how to reach them. Contact details for Sophie: LinkedIn -  linkedin.com/in/sophieanthomas        Email - hello@sophiealiceco.com Web - https://www.sophiealiceco.com/

Interview with Sally Themans on BBC Radio Shropshire. Talking about the Let's Get Local campaign to support our local economy. 

Alex Lowe is an automated marketing expert. Following 10 years experience in the digital marketing industry, Alex has become a specialist in creating traffic funnels and generating leads online. Prior to marketing, Alex started his career as a hypnotherapist - his knowledge on psychology is immeasurably interesting and useful. In this show- he shares his 6 ‘T’ Step System for effective online marketing. The 6 T’s he mentions are; transformation, temptation, transition, traffic, truth-dive and testing. Links mentioned in the interview: https://www.alexlowe.com/home Contact details for Alex: Email - alex@alexlowe.com LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/mralexlowe        Tel - 01926 34 33 05

Carl Jones is an award-winning journalist who now divides his time between PR, media consultancy, magazine editing, hosting radio and TV shows and performing master of ceremonies duties at awards events, conferences etc. He is now the editor of B2B glossy Shropshire Business, which was named Midlands Magazine of the Year for 2018. In this show - he shares his expertise in the world of PR and gives us invaluable tips on how to use journalism and media to best advertise our businesses. He covers: How to be more ‘streetwise’ in the modern age of media. What components make a striking and interesting news story. The importance of taking a step back from our businesses to recognise what we look like to an outside perspective and how we want to be recognised by potential customers. Links mentioned in the interview: https://www.shropshirebiz.com Contact details for Carl: Email - editor@shropshirebiz.com LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/carl-jones-2348a745    

Teresa is an international Keynote speaker who works with Directors/Senior Managers of small to medium size businesses to ensure their Marketing budget is being used to full effect through a range of Marketing tools. She specialises in Social Media Marketing and works with businesses to understand the benefits of Social Media, integrating it into their current Marketing strategy. In this show, she shares her 5 step model on how to update our marketing strategy during the lockdown to present our customers with solutions to their ‘pain points’. Her 5 step plan guides us through: Identifying who our perfect/ target customers are. Recognising their ‘pain points’ and sourcing a solution- a ‘lead magnet’. Reviewing how to use technology to support our marketing plan. Pushing the lead magnets on social media. Reaching out to our customers and offering solutions to the problems we’ve identified. Links mentioned in the interview: thwmarketing.co.uk   teresaheathwareing.com/  Contact details for Teresa: Email - hello@teresaheathwareing.com LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/teresaheathwareing      Twitter - @theathwareing

Ian Preston is a LinkedIn expert who helps businesses increase their bottom line by using LinkedIn effectively to generate more opportunities. In this show, he shares his expertise on how LinkedIn can be used effectively to benefit businesses and the importance of having an active LinkedIn presence. He covers: How to get your profile in order so that your first impression exemplifies the quality of your business. How LinkedIn can help to get you found, give value and improve your credibility. The importance of balancing personal profiles and corporate pages. How to build valuable business connections through the LinkedIn platform by interacting most effectively. Links mentioned in the interview: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ianjpreston http://www.ijpconsultancy.co.uk https://ianjpreston.wordpress.com/ Contact details for Ian: 07504056368 ian@ijpconsultancy.co.uk

Scott’s business, DCS Digital, is a design company specialising in design, software development, systems integration and automation. Having run a successful business from home for a number of years, Scott shares his tips for running a business remotely to help those of us navigating the adjustment during the lockdown period. Read Scott’s blog to review his invaluable advice here: https://www.dcsdigital.co.uk/2020/03/16/12-tips-to-stay-sane-when-working-from-home/ Contact details for Scott: Email- scott.bowler@dcsworldwide.net LinkedIn- linkedin.com/in/scott-bowler        Tel- 01604434505

As a former actor and LinkedIn evangelist, Jill really understands people and the importance of establishing meaningful online connections during the COVID-19 isolation period. In this show, she shares her expertise on how to adapt our businesses to this changing context by re-evaluating our marketing strategies and taking our clients from fear to hope. She emphasises the importance of empathy and emotional understanding/ support throughout this time and navigates us on how to ‘be the life raft’ for our customers. Links mentioned in the interview:  jillchitty.co.uk/   https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jill-chittys-pop-up-online-networking-event-tickets-100539771162 Contact details for Jill: Email - grow@jillchitty.co.uk Twitter - @JillChitty LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/jillchitty       

Lloyd is our accountant here at Good2Great, has three offices in the West Midlands who support 450 small businesses locally. He is part of the TaxAssist Network who work with over 60,000 small businesses nationwide. In this show, he uses his expertise to break down what the COVID 19 pandemic could mean for us and what measures the government are putting in place to support us and our businesses. He also provides solid and real advice to help us all understand what we should do right now and what we can expect to happen automatically… He covers: VAT & Income Tax Payments Deferral Sick Pay for Employees Business Rates Support Loan Scheme HMRC’s Time to Pay Approach Links mentioned in the interview: http://www.taxassist.co.uk/lloydevans HMRC Hotline: 0800 0159 559 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyddevans?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BLZw%2BM8buQHCGtw9Lf4RKRQ%3D%3D Contact Details: Email: lloydevans@taxassist.co.uk Phone: 01384 913888 Mobile: 07811 956258

Interview with Sally from Good2Great on Radio Shropshire on 19th March 2020

This is a must-listen for all business owners who already network and want to be better, who have tried and abandoned it as a strategy and for those yet to dip their toe in the water of networking. Michele Ibbs (AKA “The Networking Queen”) founded I'm Your PA as a novice business person in 2007. Very early on, she was introduced to networking and quickly caught on to the fact that it could provide her with a constant flow of new business. Now, 13 years later, her company doesn't advertise and all new business comes from recommendation and networking. In fact, in 2019, I'm Your PA generated £162,000 of new business from one single network group. Michele tells us how she was frustrated by poor networkers who didn't get results and immediately blamed networking or the specific network group. She recognised that to be successful requires a specific set of skills that need constant honing so, in 2015, she set up the UK Networking Community to give business owners and consumers an online space to network that is not driven by sales alone. She shares her knowledge in the art of Networking and stresses the importance of engaging in both online and face-to-face networking. You can find her at - imyourpa.co.uk / thenetworkingqueen.co.uk or visit Facebook and search for 'The UK Networking Community'

If you have any internet marketing presence, then there are gems in this episode to help you get more from your efforts. Helen Culshaw, owner of Ascendancy Internet Marketing, is a Google expert and she shares insights into how her company helps business owners improve the returns from their marketing spend. Paradoxically, we discuss almost nothing relating to using Google ads. Instead, Helen gives us an ‘under the bonnet’ insight into what to do with traffic once is arrives at your site… In other words, it isn’t about how you get people to your website… The biggest gains for most of us exist in what we do with people once they get there. Helen tells us about having focussed calls to action (CTA’s) and telling people about these on targeted landing pages… https://www.ascendancyinternetmarketing.com https://www.facebook.com/AscendancyInternetMarketing/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARAWHWkWS6QcQcy6IwkPBQ5gBXcxvYxN28m1NIZeSR3q8myjh0wQgwwIhab-Jk6JFLvqNSWv9SGXRZZB

An introduction to content marketing: What it is, how to do it and why it matters... Everyone needs quality content – for your web pages, your social media posts, your newsletters, articles and blogs. Good content is so important – it’s why marketers still say Content is King. Kim tells us why, it’s quality over quantity, make your content interesting, helpful, entertaining or educational. Hook the readers in and give them some top tips, tell a story, get that emotional connection, help solve a problem or give then a real insight with relevant information. Your content can, of course, be written or an inspirational image, Instagram is currently the fastest growing social media platform. YouTube is a great platform and podcasts are very popular for busy people who like to listen on the go. Six reasons why you need killer content Improve your SEO and website rankings To showcase your business To establish your credibility and reinforce your brand To target different channels and audiences To create a library of material To generate leads and sales All this is covered in Kim's recent blog called 'Creating Killer Content' [https://www.connect-consultancy.co.uk/connect-consultancy-blog/creating-killer-content/] You can contact Kim on 07870 541 726  Email: kim@connect-consultancy.co.uk Twitter: @KimGConnect LinkedIn: kimgilmourconnectmarketing

If your target market is under 25, if you want to recruit people under 25 or if you just want to start to learn how your business is going to have to adapt. In this episode we think about how to ensure we are relevant and accessible to young people – The people we refer to as Generation Z or Gen-Z. The oldest of this generation are now around 25 years old and firmly established in the workplace. They are our new customers, suppliers and colleagues of today... Our expert guest, Gemma Hallett, shares some amazing insights - she’s run at this challenge head on and has really captured the secret recipe to how to make her business work for this age group.  There are really valuable lessons for us all on how to relate best to our target markets and how to be “easy to buy from” Check out Gemma's business at https://www.mifuture.co.uk/ You can reach out and contact her via email: gem@mifuture.co.uk or connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gemhallett

Sarah Bishop - long serving recruitment specialist and owner of RecruitRecruit - provides guidance and tips to help us business owners to be more effective recruiters by answering the question, "ow do I scale the people side of my business so that it enables my growth ambitions... The first thing is to understand who or what your business needs: List everything that needs doing now (tasks and projects) List everything that needs to be achieved (goals) List everything that needs doing in the future to achieve the goals (your people requirement) Create a current organisation chart (this might be just one box right now!) Then (with your three list of tasks, projects and goals) create a future organisation chart... Useful links: Values based assessment tool: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register Preferred behaviour assessment tool: https://good-2-great.co.uk/disc/ Sarah's contact details: sarah@recruitrecruit.co.uk 01902 763006 

Sam Shaw from SBC Training helps us to understand the ups and downs of employing apprentices and what benefits there are for small companies. https://www.sbc-training.co.uk/ Sam.Shaw@sbc-training.co.uk

Seasoned broadcast professional, Nick Margerrison, shares his insights into how to create great marketing content using the spoken word. Right from the basic concept of what a Podcast actually is, through to how and why you can exploit this media in your business. Nick understands the trends and explains how 'narrowcasting' is challenging general interest broadcast radio. Is shows us how this media can reach highly targeted audiences and how it can be highly engaging by being valuable and relevant to the audience. He gives presentation tips and helps us to "Get out of our own way" so we can focus on the 'audience of one' to earn their trust and to keep their attention. Nick is currently immersed in a project promoting medical education called TopMedTalk (https://www.topmedtalk.com/) That said, he has offered to talk to anyone interested in launching or improving their own podcast - drop him a line at nick@topmedtalk.com

In this show we talk Branding with Tristan King of Voodoo Design Tristan has over three decades experience – helping companies give the right impression via the fields of graphics, publishing, advertising, marketing, branding and illustration for an extremely wide range of industries. In this episode we cover: Why graphic design done right, will help make a great first impression How to achieve recognition just through consistency With some brilliant tips on how to self check the quality of your existing branding Check out his work at Voodoo Design.

In this show Dominic Borsberry a Conditioning Neuroscientist and Trainer at Me myself and Mind discusses perception and stress with podcast host Johnny. Dominic provides simple steps that we can all take and practice at home to improve self-esteem and ultimately our productivity. You’ll no longer be filled with dread when your next invited to a networking meeting. The show references: Clive Woodward’s book Winning! Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People Dennis Waitly’s book The New Dynamics of Winning You can learn more about Dominic here: http://www.dominicborsberry.com/