Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

Jim Cregan joins me to talk about how he went from British building site to Australia and back again. In the process he launched his own brand of Iced Coffee having not been able to find it in the UK on his return from OZ. You can now get Jimmysicedcoffee in Tescos, Sainsbuys, Waitrose, Selfridges and even in Animal's clothing shops. We talk brand building through University tastings, his Ride Club, Cinema Club and festivals. Let's StartUp!

"So what happened was that I was making these amazing contacts and making all this content about them, but there wasn't a natural home for it. So I did some research and put together a pitch to the two Managing Directors and I had this idea for Startups Magazine. They were really fantastic and took a leap of faith with me and they just said run it for a year and see what could happen...and here we are." On today's show I welcome Daisy Stapley-Bunten from Startups magazine. An interesting question is always "Can someone be an entrepreneur within an existing organisation, eg when it's not their own company".  Well Daisy had an idea to start a magazine, so she went to the directors of the publishing firm she was working for and pitched them her idea. A magazine for startups that champions all tech startups, and passes on the stories of experience from those who took a leap of faith with their idea. Time Stamps:   Soundbite: 0:33 Intro: 1:30 Getting Started: 2:30 Testing: 4:22 Launching: 5:35 Growth: 6:30 The story: 7:20 What Is it: 8:58 First Steps: 11:15 Ambitions: 14:00 Industries: 15:35 Coming up: 17:27 What is success: 18:50 The Journey: 21:00 In the future: 22 Closing statements: 25 They said yes, and Startups Magazine was born. In this episode I find out how Daisy got the startup bug herself and took her ownleap of faith with her idea for Startups Magazine.

"To be an entrepreneur you kind of have to like being punched in the face and overcoming these adversities... because you will get them every single day." On today's show I welcome Rob Thorp form Vite who's founded one of the leading Nootropic brands in the UK. Rob comes form a background in foreign exchange trading. He had an entrepreneurial scratch to itch and decided to do just that by leaving to set up his own business. He decided to look at competitors, their reviews and looked at different ways he could improve different products and services and this is what he decided to settle on. So he launched a performance nutrition brand on Amazon aimed at students and busy professionals that aid energy and productivity - something he could relate to. After just 12 months Vite is ranked 3rd in it's sector but now finds the challenge of trying to grow a brand outside of Amazon which offers instant traffic and feedback, but lower profit margins. Let's StartUp!   Time Stamps:   Soundbite: 00:17 Intro: 00:31 Introduction to Vite: 1:30 The story: 5:17 What are nootropics: 7:10 The recipe: 8:40 First Step: 10:20 Why that manufacturer: 11:20 How did you launch: 12:55 Any advice: 14:20 Long Term goal: 15:30 How did it start: 16:40 How long to reach the market: 18:30 How did you leave your previous job: 19:10 A year on: 19:40 Worst thing that could have happened: 22:00 Lessons learned: 23:30 Failure?: 24:50 Tools: 25:40 Tips: 26:00 What is success? 28:30 Closing Statements: 30:25

" When I had my son I thought I would spend a year gazing into his eyes and being a real earth-mother. Very quickly it didn't go to plan and I ended with an emergency caesarian, I couldn't breastfeed and I felt like a real failure to be honest. I was also massively sleep-deprived and I couldn't imagine having the same career and because TV was incredibly sociable and was about going out for drinks. But I was in a different place now." Erin Thomas Wong, created the Making Mumpreneurs online community for mothers starting and running businesses around family life. Having children has inspired a new generation of mums to start their own businesses.  The Making Mumpreneurs online community is designed to support and empower mums running their own business. Founder Erin Thomas Wong formerly worked in TV production, but once her son was born, Erin set up a number of businesses from home including Ealing Mums in Business and Pitter Patter Hub, a hub for parents and carers with young children and babies. She was awarded a Mumpreneur UK Top 100 award in 2015, but moved to Abu Dhabi, where the idea of Making Mumpreneurs was born. Erin says that; “I launched Making Mumpreneurs because I wanted to create a global online community to connect mums in business and help to support them on their entrepreneurial journey. The internet clearly makes starting a business around family life possible. Being able to work from anywhere, at any time, gives parents the flexibility they desire. For Erin, having an online business means that she can reach more mumpreneurs and support them with masterclasses, expert advice, support and camaraderie all from the comfort of their own home with her Cocoon member club. This is ideal if you are a mum looking after children and can't get out to networking events. I explore the parent entrepreneur with Erin... Let's StartUp!

"So I was in New York at the time filming & Ed phoned me up..and it was our first big one...and you could walk into the shops and see your own brand there on the shelves...& that was so significant at that time as we would have had another two or three months...before we went bust." I talk to the founders of Candy Kittens about their health conscious sweets that aren't just for kids. Candy Kittens was an idea that Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing originally had but, after meeting entrepreneur Ed Williams they pivoted from sweet shops to packets of sweets, and after five years are stocked everywhere from Top Shop to Tesco's. We cover everything from how they grew their brand through social media and the Candy Kittens army, through to how it's better to be an entrepreneur working for yourself - than building someone else's dream.

This week I'm super-proud to announce the first ever #screwitjustdoit 'StartUp & Scale' Summit on October 13th, 2018 Held over one full day at This WorkSpace, Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin's will speak at his 1st co-working space, along with a host of other successful entrepreneurs who have featured on the podcast and at our 'live' events. Head over to 🚀https://bit.ly/2JDgVIv🚀 to find out more...and enter the code 'startup' to get 20% off if you use it in the next 48 hours💥 This week I speak to Radh Vyas, founder of 'The Flash Pack. A lacklustre group holiday of her own was Radha’s inspiration. She was single, in her early 30s and wanted to experience the authentic Cambodia. So she booked a group tour. It was there she realised the 30s-40s niche was “there for the taking” – and the Flash Pack was born. And when a selfie on top of a the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil went viral weeks before the 2014 football World Cup, it was the boost that launched Radha Vyas’ start-up. The image was soon all over the worldwide press and got over 100 million views. Radha had the opportunity she needed to reach her audience. I caught up wuth her to find out how she did it... Let's StartUp!

It has been an insane year for Amber Venz Box. In the course of 12 months, her online-shopping app, LIKEtoKNOW.it has drummed up more traffic than Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter did in the same length of time... A few years earlier Amber and her boyfriend now husband, Baxter Box, had revolutionized the fashion world when they figured out how to do the near impossible: easily monetize the content of fashion blogs.  Amber Venz Box, the Co-Founder of both rewardStyle and LIKEtoKNOW.it, has created two platforms that have not only shifted our behavior as consumers but have also disrupted an entire industry. Her idea that brewed in a coffee shop and grew in a tiny apartment has exploded into a multi-national business with 250+ employees across eight offices around the world.   In 2011 Amber, who had just started her blog VENZEDITS.com, and her boyfriend at the time (now husband) Baxter Box, co-founded RewardStyle to provide a way for bloggers to monetize their shopping referrals, similar to personal stylists. Fast forward to today, and rewardStyle has 20,000 content creators monetizing their influence and 4,000 global retailers marketing directly to this generation’s social media shopper. RewardStyle is now the dominant source of mobile referral traffic for some of the most successful retail brands in the world. Not to mention, LIKEtoKNOW.it, the platform she co-founded in 2014 that this year alone will be responsible for $300 million in purchases by consumers from LIKEtoKNOW.it influencers. She's done all of this whilst juggling being a mother of two children, with another due later this year. I wanted to know how she did it! Let's StartUp!

On this week's show I speak to Vasiliki Petrou, Group CEO and Executive Vice President of Unilever Prestige, the premium division of Unilever Personal Care and home to eight differentiated brands across luxury skincare and hair care, including Dermalogica, Murad, REN, Kate Somerville, Living Proof and Hourglass Cosmetics. With more than 25 years in the industry, Vasiliki champions authentic, innovative and purpose-driven brands that drive social change and offer truly progressive products, and is passionate about supporting female entrepreneurs. Fluent in four languages, Vasiliki holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in NYC and a Master’s degree in English and Communications from University of Texas. Vasiliki is a Fulbright Scholar, recipient of the Kellogg Foundation Fellowship recognising female leaders, and current Chairwoman of CEW UK, the leading beauty industry association. There's an intro for you! Vasiliki's role with Unilver's is to help the brands they acquire reach their full potential and is something she is very proud of.  Unilever's aim to is to keep the founders of the businesses they acquire with them, so they can harness their expertise to help shape the future of their business. With that in mind, I thought she would make a great guest. I wasn't wrong. Let's StartUp!

I believe how you start and end your day really matters. Since starting this show just over a year ago, I've gotten a lot of questions from listeners about what my morning routine, daily habits and routines look like. So, I decided to record my first solo episode answering this exact question. Between this podcast and the 'live' #screwitjustdoit events, I've interviewed well over a hundred and fifty successful entrepreneurs now. In those interviews I've found that some of the commonalities that these successful entrepreneurs share are in their success habits, rituals and routines. I had some of my own from my health and fitness background, as well as from avidly reading everyone from Tim Ferris to Tony Robbins. I try to take one thing away from each interview and try implementing it in my life. A lot of those success habits, rituals and routines have now become my success habits, rituals and routines. I'm certainly not saying that what I do is perfect, but I'd like to share my learnings with you, and hope it adds some value and improves your business and personal life.  I 100% beleive that when I'm consistent with my success habits, rituals and routines I see improvements in all aspects of my life. And when I'm not consistent, anxiety and overwhelm kick-in. I hope you enjoy my first solo episode. Let's StartUp!    

"Privacy is an inate right of every human being in the world. It's not something we're going to give away." Mark Weinstein is the Founder and CEO of MeWe, the Next-Gen Social Network known as the "anti-Facebook." Mark is world renown as a leading privacy advocate and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. He is ranked one of the "Top 8 Minds in Online Privacy," and was named “Privacy by Design Ambassador” by The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada.  Mark's articles about privacy and social media have appeared in The Mirror (UK), HuffPo, USA Today, InfoSecurity Magazine, Dark Reading, The Nation, and many others. He’s often quoted on MarketWatch and has appeared on PBS, FOX News, and CNN. Mark has been a featured speaker and social media/privacy expert on the stage at many conferences around the globe, most recently at EY’s Strategic Growth Forum and at the KNOW Identity Conference. He has also spoken at the 16th Annual Privacy and Security Conference, Global Security Conference, GMIC New York, Security BSides Vancouver, and at Customer Experience Asia. Mark received his BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz; and his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. He resides in Los Angeles. Mark joined me from L.A. and we talked about Facebook being a data company and not a social network, helping your kids navigate through the social media minefield, taking the road less travelled... and learning to forgive yourself. Let's StartUp!