Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

I'm surprised that I've never talked about this in #175 episodes of Screw It, Just Do It, but I don't think I ever have. I wanted to put it out there to firstly, help anyone else who's feeling that they're on the verge of burning out, and secondly, to put measures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again. So, the end of 2019 is in sight and we're all trying to finish the year strong, smash the goals we set out at the end of 2018. Plus we've also got an eye on 2020 and planning for next years success. So there's a lot to take in, and if you're not careful you'll be on the edge of burning out and not accomplishing either. This past week to ten days has probably been the craziest time this year. I was launching new podcasts for clients in London, hosting my annual summit in Bournemouth, then a few days later speaking at the Nec for the first time in Birmingham. All whilst trying to produce two episodes of this show as well as meet with potential new clients for my new podcast agency, and liaise with potential new guests for the podcast. So, I hope this episode reassures you that you're not along in feeling on the edge of burning out, and gives you some of the tools to prevent it happening again. And if you'd like to know what I've taken form speaking to some of the most successful entrepreneurs on this planet, then listen to #072 Success Habits, Rituals & Routines here

"There were people there from Marks & Spencer & John Lewis. They were asking ‘how do you get people working for you?’ And Mark said ‘we’ll we take all the ones that you don’t want! We’ll take people with piercings, facial hair, tattoos, coloured hair, whatever you like. If you’ve got the passion and you want to work with us and you’re going to enjoy what we do, then you’re very welcome” Welcome to episode #175 with LUSH UK Co-founder Rowena Bird, recorded live at last Thursday's Entrepreneur Summit 2019 at the Hilton in Bournemouth. This is how we opened Entrepreneur Summit 2019, myself and Rowena in front of our sold out audience for our 2nd annual summit in Bournemouth. It was difficult to pick a highlight, but this has got to be up there. Rowena was one of six people who founded LUSH, the cruelty-free cosmetics brand 25 years ago in Poole, Dorset - the town in which I now call my home. Lush was set-up after the demise of the six partners previous business, Cosmetics To Go. They started with just one shop on Poole High Street, and have grown to over 900 worldwide, and a turnover of over $1 Billion. This, is my chat with Rowena Bird. We talk about: All Are Welcome Always Be Curious  Autonomy Let's StartUp!

🔥 Lit A Fire Under My Arse🔥 ..probably the most memorable comment I’ve been tagged in after last nights Entrepreneur Summit That was 💯 % THE BEST EVENT I HAVE EVER BEEN PART OF 🙌🏻 Listen to all the podcasts watch as many YouTube videos, read as many blogs & take as many courses as you want But you CANNOT beat attending a live event If you’re looking to start, grow or scale your business you can’t NOT be inspired after hearing:  LUSH’s Rowena Bird helped grow a $1Billion business Social Chain's Hannah Anderson leverage 80 million followers on social media for the likes of Superdry Mylkplus’s Camilla Ainsworth leverage the platform BBC Apprentice Show has given Piers Linney about his 5 Key Business Planning Tips Be humbled by Change PleaseFounder Cemal Ezel’s quest to solve homelessness Be amazed at how Grenade®started a business with less than £500 & scaled it to the fastest growing sports nutrition brand in the Uk with Alan Barratt & Juliet Barratt Beyond grateful to our sold out audience & speakers for attending & my team Russ Taplin 🇬🇧 Georgia Fearnley, & Sunny Bird PR for being legends Now there’s a fire lit 🔥 under your ass take 1 action today to move you & your business fwd🙏🏻 Join me next at the Festival Of Enterprise in Birmingham, UK, October 23rd & 24th for FREE

On episode #173 I welcome Brendan Kane, innovation strategist, best-selling author of One Million Followers: How I built a massive online social following in 30 days, and who for the last decade has worked on improving online strategies for Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Disney. He's somebody therefore who's learned to optimise analytics, data and paid media to help companies achieve massive growth. Is this someone we could all learn from? 100% YES! When Brendan set out to achieve his one million followers he was aware that the people he worked with had the advantage of fame and influence. He wanted to see if he could use that he'd learned to build an audience for someone unknown - someone building a following from scratch. He put it into practice and one month later had one million followers on Facebook. He says the experience changed his life and he wrote the book to hopefully impact yours.  Let's StartUp!

Getting people to come to an event that you put on is a huge challenge. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why it's tricky to pull off. Far from wanting to put you off, I wanted to give you some actionable advice on the eve of Entrepreneur Summit 2019 this coming week. ✅ Just because you have a 'well known' name in your space as your headliner - doesn’t mean anyone else knows who they are - or that they share your enthusiasm ✅ There has to be a genuine reason why you want to host an event, and that has to be more than purely financial, or simply because you're passionate about the theme. ✅ Which leads me on to the theme itself - A big mistake people make is when an event blends in with everyone else with an overall ‘business’ topic theme. There are plenty of inspirational talks on podcasts, YouTube and online generally ✅ The value you create for someone else has to be worth their time and money for coming to what you put on - especially on a cold, dark, wet, winter night - in the UK at least! You're competing, especially in big cities with loads of other events, and yours has to stand out above the noise. ✅ It's a fine line positioning your promotional activity, and to not being seen as being 'spammy'.  So address the above, and if you want to throw that event then I'm not going to be the one to tell you not to. I've been throwing events for nearly four years now - and the rewards are pretty awesome. Just seeing one person make a connection, take one actionable insight away, or inspire them to change their life. That makes it all worthwhile. For those of you coming this Thursday for Entrepreneur Summit 2019 - I look forward to meeting you. Last remaining tickets  

Welcome to #171 with former hedge fund entrepreneur David Yarrow  who is now one of the world's best-selling fine art photographers. His photographs can sell for upwards $100,000 and hang in the homes of actor and fellow conservationist Leonardo De Caprio and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to name but two. Indeed his latest book includes a forward by Tom Brady, whilst his previous book, Wild Encounters, sold out numerous times and featured a forward by Prince William. But it wasn't always so. He chose a career in finance over a career in photography, spurning a job with Getty despite taking the iconic image of Diego Maradona holding the World Cup aloft in 1986. He eventually launched his own hedge fund before losing it all in the financial crisis - his marriage, his business. Everything. David decided to go all-in with photography and has built an unrivalled reputation documenting the most remarkable aspects of human nature and the animal kingdom whilst exploring some of the most dangerous, remarkable environments on earth. You may not think you've even got an interest in photography, yet I guarantee that you will have seen at least one or two of David's iconic photographs in your lifetime. From Diego Maradona holding the world cup aloft in 1986, he's now the world's best-selling wildlife photographer with images including great white sharks, lions, tigers, bears plus actresses and supermodels including Cara Delvingne, Pamela Anderson and Cindy Crawford. I caught up with David at the Maddox Gallery in Notting Hill, London, fresh from his appearance on the Piers Morgan TV show. In this episode David and I chat about: Getting out of a job that's becoming redundant Research - Your unfair advantage  How - Why people want to know how you do what you do.. Reinvention - Losing it all in the the financial crash & reinventing himself Let's StartUp!

You Are Your Own Media

On today's show I welcome Chris Edson, Co-Founder of OurPath, who are tackling one of the world's biggest health issues globally. In light of the NHS in the UK recently warning that obesity is becoming the 'new smoking', I chat to Chris about OurPath helping those trying to lose weight and prevent the onset of Type II diabetes. Before we dive in, I've got a new podcast for you to check out. Those of you who are regular listeners to the show will know that I launched the Screw It, Just Do It podcast agency back in the summer. The aim is to help busy entrepreneurs and brands connect wit their ideal customers by creating podcasts for them.The first one is off the production line and straight into the Apple Music Chart at #39. It's called the Festival Of Enterprise, a FREE two-day event at the NEC in Birmingham, which the organisers wanted a podcast to promote as part of their marketing strategy. The event features 150+ speakers over two days and is for entrepreneurs and business owners, with the aim of helping you grow your business faster. I've put together interviews with the likes of Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, Trustpilot founder Peter Holten Muhlmann, Fran Boorman, Melanie Eusebe and a few former guests of this show in Piers Linney and Camilla Ainsworth. Got to Festival of Enterprise to grab your free ticket and download the podcast. I'll be there over the two days speaking and chatting to a number of the speakers. I'm working on another six podcasts for a mixture of brands and entrepreneurs to launch this autumn, and have capacity for another three more before the new year.If you'd like to have a chat about helping put together a podcast for your brand, be that business or personal, please get in touch by emailing alex@screwitjustdoit.org Chris Edson and his Co-Founder, Mike Gibbs, met whilst both were working as advisors to the NHS. Having seen the impact of lifestyle diseases on both people and health services first-hand, they decided to quit their jobs back in 2014 to try and find a solution. Diseases like Type II Diabetes cost the NHS over £10 Billion per year and are preventable through lifestyle interventions. So they created a programme that would help people live a healthier life, free of chronic conditions. Within a year of launching they became the first online behavioural change programme to be commissioned by the NHS. They've since been recognised in the Top 50 startups in the European Union and both Chris and Mike were featured in Forbes 30 under 30 list. I met up with Chris to find out more. Let's StartUp!    

Today I bring you episode #168: a show, with a difference. Now normally Saturday's are a solo episode from yours truly. A bit of background: Back at the start of the summer we hosted a live episode with Jimmy's Iced Coffee's brand new product launch - their Flat White in a can, with the whole Jimmy's crew including founders Susie Owen and Jim Cregan - plus a live audience at Urban Garden in Bournemouth. We also ran a competition to win a mentoring session with Jim, myself, Virgin StartUp mentor Russ Taplin from Mmm thoughtful business. The winner was Jean Daniel Francois, professional chef and entrepreneur who owns the Grill Shack and Tikki Bars in both Bournemouth and London, and who this year also launched his Caribbean Magic range of sauces. He's also a husband and busy father. His passion is his cooking and serving that to his customers and getting their feedback.  It was great to dig beneath the surface and find out what his biggest challenges were, and work through therewith Jim, who's got a decade in the food and beverage business, plus Russ, who's helped many businesses form a wide variety of sectors. A quick note before we dive in is that we have just released a limited number of half day tickets to this years Entrepreneur Summit on October 17th in Bournemouth. Full details are here In today's episode we discuss: Productising - and bottling your USP The move to plastic free Family - and work/life balance If you liked this episode, and think we should do more of them, email me alex@screwitjustdoit.org or message me on social @alexchisnall everywhere except Instagram where I'm @alexanderchisnall

In episode #167 I welcome Maria Hatzistefanis, beauty entrepreneur, businesswoman, best-selling author, speaker, mentor - and podcast host. She founded her ground-breaking skincare group, Rodial, in 1999 by identifying a niche for treatments targeted to specific skin concerns. With a growing global beauty empire, her results-oriented products excite with evocative tongue-in-cheek names such as Dragon’s Blood and Snake Serum. There are 2 brands – Rodial, and Nip + Fab – sold through 20,000 doors across 35 countries worldwide including Saks Fifth Avenue, Space NK, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Today, the cutting-edge products are available in the most prestigious stores around the world, while high profile celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Sofia Richie fronting the brands campaigns. Maria is a patron of the British Fashion Council and is heavily involved in working alongside the BFC to support and promote young, emerging talent and promoting British fashion. She has become a respected and sought-after opinion- leader. Her point-of-view attracts followers both online and off, and she is increasingly in demand to speak at fashion, business and digital conferences such as her latest appearance at London’s Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design, Web Summit, Fashion Tech Forum and WWD Digital. Along with speaker events, Maria is also known for her mentoring and entrepreneurial guidance, where most recently she was a judge for the BFC Vogue fashion fund, as well as guest appearances as a mentor on US fashion series, aired on Lifetime TV, Project Runway: Fashion Start-up. Maria also appeared as a guest mentor at the Project Runway: All Stars in Fall 2017. Maria is author of best-selling book How To Be An Overnight Success and hosts her own podcast show Overnight Success, both of which I highly recommend. I visited Maria at Rodial's London HQ where we preceded to talk about  podcasts, especially each others..before remembering the interview, and finding out about the secrets to her success. Let's StartUp!