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:

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:

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:

• The harder I work, the luckier I become
• You have got to put yourself in the position for things to happen to you
• Stories are important
• There are high's and low's in business, both of which you need a solution for
• Crafting your message specifically for your audience is critical
• Collaborations are key to success

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.

Episode 9 of Vic's Take On podcast and today I am with Tom Kennard of Granted Consultancy. 

This is a fascinating interview as we talk about grant funding and how it can be used by a business as a great and often overlooked form of funding.  Tom's knowledge and experience are clearly evident as is his passion for the environment and what is currently happening to the planet.

Granted Consultancy focuses on a number of key areas and have developed a team of specialists in these fields.  

My fascination in the discussion was around how this form of funding can enhance the business and can provide an alternative to the regular debt or equity models which most of us think about when we think of business growth.

We also spoke about the challenges businesses face and how these can be overcome and worked through.

If you want to know more about Tom or what Granted Consultancy, please click on the links below.

So what is mindset and can you change yours?

Mindset is a mental attitude that determines how you interpret and respond to situations you encounter.  It is the preconceived ideas you have for the potential outcome in any given situation or set of actions.  So, for example, if the government increases the tax rate on business, some people will see it as a disaster, while other people will see it as an opportunity to operate leaner and meaner.  These differing viewpoints are due to conditioning and preconceptions, and that is due to a mindset.

Another definition of mindset is a lens or frame through which the mind orientates us toward a particular set of circumstances, associations and expectations.

You may have heard people say this person has a positive mindset or that person has a negative mindset.  If you look at the results of their actions and the effect they have on those around them, you see a clear correlation to their way of thinking or mindset and the outcomes they achieve.

Over the past 30 years or so a huge amount of research has been done regarding mindset, the mind, thoughts, etc with Professor Carol Dweck at the forefront of some of that research.  Much of the research shows that generally in terms of ability, skill, product, service, etc, there is often very little difference between one entrepreneur, business person and another.  The big differentiation between the massively successful entrepreneur and those who are not, between the great employee and the not so great employee, is mindset.

The attitude toward everything which determines actions and results.

Do forget to follow us on LinkedIn using the link below:

Karen is the owner and Managing Director of Exeter Gin and is a passionate advocate for the city of Exeter.  She also owns Exeter Street Food, which is an award-winning events company.

Exeter Gin has 2 distinct, trade-marked brands and in this interview, I talk with Karen about her journey to this point.  We chat through the process she went through to become self-employed as well as how the passion for the city developed.

It is a fascinating story and journey, which has many lessons business leaders can learn from.  It was one of those interviews which could have lasted all day and yet not scratched the surface.  It is a story of learning, of tenacity and of courage and you will benefit from listening to this episode.

If you want to know more about Karen or would like to contact her, the link to her LinkedIn profile and Exeter Gin are below.

This interview with Joanne Manville was so much fun to do because I learned so much about the role of a VA (virtual assistant for the uninformed) and we laughed a fair amount.  

It was also interesting from the perspective of someone who has started their own business and works collaboratively with other self-employed people to achieve a common goal.  

So jo is obviously a self-employed VA who has been in the business of supporting senior executives for the past few years and has extensive experience in that environment prior to becoming self-employed.

The key things that stood out for me in this interview were the 3 areas core reasons businessmen and women should make use of a VA:

1. Outsource first the things you don't like doing
2. Outsource the things you are not very good at
3. Outsource the things you don't have time for

Great advice and likely advice I need to listen to!

You can find out more about Jo and her business from the links below.

As a change leadership consultant, speaker and trainer, I often hear M.D's, CEO's Directors, Business Owners and managers talking about the need for change in their organisation or business.

And I have been witness to the aftermath of fairly disastrous change management efforts, particularly those facilitated by some highly paid experts.  And of course, we have all heard the big stories of companies that have failed to implement the changes needed to survive their disrupted environment.

From the famous stories around Blockbuster Video to Nokia, from Kodak to Pierpoint Langley's attempts at building a flyable aircraft.  Or we could talk about Yahoo or Blackberry.  If you are in the UK, you could add names like Woolworths, Maplin and Toys 'R Us.

And to be fair, the list would be extensive, but these companies and many others around the world have on the face of it got to a point because they have either failed to implement change fast enough or they have failed to see the changes that needed to be made.

And of course, we are all aware, we live in a world which never stands still.  A world that is disruptive, unpredictable, complex and accelerated.

So you need a different mindset if you are to be successful in your change process.  And in this podcast, I outline 10 things you can do to develop a mindset for change.

Please leave a comment on our LinkedIn page and let us know how we can help you.  This link to that page is below.

Episode 4 of the Vic's Take On podcast and in this episode I share some ideas from my personal experience of the value inherent in continual training and education for leaders and in particular for change leaders.

Training is the practice of developing skills and education is the practice of acquiring knowledge and as a leader, you need both.

You can become educated on any subject by, for example, the books you read and there are thousands of really excellent books on the market which contain nuggets of information that can transform your experience as a leader.  

Books like Leaders Eat Last (Simon Sinek), Rebel Ideas (Matthew Syed) or Team of Teams (Stanley McCrystal).  There is also my own book, Audacious Leadership.

But training to is important as it should take that knowledge and transform it into workable skills.  and training can come in the form of classroom training, coaching or mentoring.

So in this episode, I share a story from my military career which gave me an invaluable perspective in this regard.

I look forward to your feedback on this episode, so drop me a message on the LinkedIn page.  The link is below.

Episode 3 of Vic's Take On and I am chatting with my good friend Daryl Fulls, managing director of Scribble & Ink based in Newton Abbott.

Daryl, who is well known for his choice of bright shirt, spent 28 years building up a family shoe business, before leaving and starting Scribble & Ink in 2013.  He is, in my view, the epitome of the phrase, 'what you see, is what you get.'  A guy with huge integrity and honestly, who loves life and laughter.

On the show, we talk about the different ways in which people use language in leadership and what certain terms mean for his business.  We talk about mission and values, about vision, strengths and weaknesses.  

Daryl has some incredibly interesting ideas around leadership and change which I found really captivating to chat through and I am sure you will gain some valuable ideas from this podcast.

We had a great time doing this interview and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

If you want to know more about Daryl, please follow the links below.

Episode 2 of Vic's Take On and we talk change leadership with Recruitment firm owner Tom Murphy.

Tom is the founder and director of Aptus Personnel in Melbourne Australia, although hie currently lives in Exeter to be near to his 2 boys.

In this open and frank discussion, Tom shares some of the very personal challenges he has faced as a business owner.  He goes into some detail of his experience in leading change in his business at various times of the business's existence.

There is an authenticity about the things Tom talks about and in places you will hear the rawness of the truth of his story.

We had a great time doing this interview and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

If you want to know more about Tom, please follow the links below.

Episode 1 of Vic's Take On and we talk all things networking with John Harvey - Super Connector.

John is the founder and owner of the Samphire Club, an invitation-only membership club focused on offering business owners and valuable networking opportunities.  

John shared a bit about his work background before we got into chatting about networking from his unique perspective.  

He never had designs on going into business for himself, but circumstances changed and almost by default he fell into the thing he had been doing naturally for many years.  Networking.

It is obvious for the chat with John that he is passionate about what he is doing and the way in which he does it.  John's system is not for everyone, but I think as you listen to this podcast, it will very quickly become clear that he has some great ideas which everyone can apply to their networking immediately.

If you want to know more John and the Samphire Club, please follow the links below.