Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

What would it be worth to you if you could 100X traits in yourself like confidence, self-belief, discipline, & grittiness...& completely transform your life? These are not traits you are born with, but skills you develop. Andy Frisella is the host of podcast MFCEO Project an entrepreneur and CEO of $100m US Supplement business 1stPhorm. He's spent more than twenty years figuring out how to master mental toughness and put everything he's learned into a program he calls 75HARD. What's it all about & how can it help you become who you are meant to be & get the life you want? Well, I came randomly came across episode #290 of his show when checking out who else was in the iTunes Top 5 most-listened to shows one week. And I was hooked. There was something about him. Something about this guy's energy. He's 100% marmite. You'll love him or hate him. An unashamed alpha dog. But I was hooked. So I gave 75HARD a try. Today I'm on day 22. And it's tough. Really tough. But that's the point. This episode tells you what this worldwide movement is, and where I'm currently at it with it. I've had a number of people who follow me on social contact me privately about this programme. Contact me on all social @alexchisnall or email alex@screwitjustdoit.org

"What I've discovered, what probably makes me different is that lots of people try, try, try and give up. They're like 'This isn't working, I'm over it'..Even when I'm over it I try and find something. I try and build myself up, to find something to keep going." In Episode #135 I welcome Sherrille Riley, the founder of Nails & Brows Mayfair and her award-wining collection Beauty Edit Mayfair. Sherrille's exposure to entrepreneurialism began at an early age. As a child she took inspiration from her mother, grandmother and great-aunt who each ran their own businesses. After developing an interest in eyebrows as a teenager Sherrille moved to London to work at the famous Red Door Spa. Nails & Brows Mayfair is the culmination of her life's work. It began as the first luxury concept nail and brow styling boutique in London and remains the go-to beauty destination for A-List celebrities, beauty editors - and royalty. After spending twenty years in beauty she identified a gap in the market and has grown from a team of seven to thirty-one from seventeen different countries, and is now looking at franchise opportunities. She also went on to launch Beauty Edit Mayfair, her own exclusive collection which has earned her plaudits from Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Hello magazines. On today's show I chat to Sherrille about: Additional revenue streams - and their importance in your business Mindset - and ensuring your staff's is aligned to yours Perseverance - and never taking no for an answer Let's StartUp!

Welcome to episode #134 in which I discuss how you can figure out your competitor's Facebook Strategy. Following the fall-out from Facebook's data breach last year they decided to be a little more transparent. So transparent in fact, that you are now able to view your competitor's Facebook ad strategy. Shortest episode I've done, but something I wanted to share with you asap! I found this super-interesting & believe a little bit of education for fellow entrepreneurs can go a long way. By the way, our next event is coming 'live' from Bournemouth Beach, celebrating the anniversary of both the show and our live events. Plus celebrating the start of summer..and a brand new product launch for Jimmy's Iced Coffee. Just 50 tickets available for this intimate event here.

"When we were younger we were really passionate about the spirit-mixer market and always quite fascinated by the limits and choice in the tonic water and mixers. We used to make sodas for friends and family in our kitchen, we were always in the tonic-mixer market so we were definitely just following our passion.  We were only going for about 6 months when we got the Foodpreneur award from Richard Branson so we didn't really have to change much because there wasn't so much going on, it was really interesting and it helped us a lot later-on as well.  We had one bar who said, "we love the pomegranate and basil and the cucumber and watermelon but the packaging is really not on point so we'll have to find a way to serve drinks without people seeing the brand"! So we walked out of that meeting and we thought 'oh my god'. We've had this branding for about 3 years now and we'll probably keep on changing it. We came to the UK and didn't have a lot of friends or family here, didn't know anyone in food and beverage so we needed investment for the cash but also to get investors on board who could actually help us with our strategy and with networking. We are super lucky that we have each other, if you're a bit down you can pick each other up again, and especially because we're twins we can 100% help each other, it's definitely amazing to do it with the two of us." On today's show, I welcome Raissa De Haas, one half of Double Dutch, a premium mixer brand started by Dutch identical twins Joyce and Raissa. I met up with Raissa at their offices in London and we talked about how to disrupt, how to raise finance and how to get help. Originally from the Netherlands, they moved to the UK to study at University and they launched Double Dutch Drinks back in 2016 and you can now find their premium mixers in over 4,500 outlets including Michelin Star restaurants and luxury hotels and they're about to launch into their first supermarket with Waitrose. They are also previous Foodpreneur winners, an award chosen by Richard Branson to mark the UK's most exciting food or drinks business. They've gone from starting their business from their kitchen table and bottling by hand to now selling over 10-million bottles in 22 countries. Let's start-up!

Welcome to episode #132 and on today's solo show I'd like to talk to to you about designing your ideal workday. This is not your dream retirement plan Richard Branson-style, sat in your hammock having played a game of tennis on your private island. This is based on reality...This is meant to be achievable and where you see your future in however many years. Let's StartUp!

"I ended up having a one-to-one experience myself with this exercise - pair up with a stranger and look into their eyes - I'm introverted, generally speaking. I didn't have a partner, I thought I'll sit this one out and it struck me the only person in the room who didn't have a partner was Tony Robbins so I walked up and suggested maybe he be my partner and he agreed and we had this eye contact moment for about 5 minutes and I was crying and screaming with gratitude for what he'd done and thought "you know what Andy, I know you don't know what he knows, I know you don't know you can do this but this is your moment."  "Can I, within a year, correct a whole new business and build up the same level of income I've now got in this other business in a year. I didn't quite pull it off to be fair, I was a bit lower but I had enough momentum to get there fairly quickly after that."  "I discovered over the years that most clients are actually afraid of the solution, not the problem. And the reason is they live with the problem, they've got coping mechanisms for that but the solution carries with it the fear, the risk of loss and rejection and failure, now you see that is scary. So for me, it's influencing things - that's the greatest skill - and that's not about being manipulative, it's not about getting them to do something you want them to do, it's about generally finding out where somebody is right now and where do they want to be and how do I bridge that gap between A and B, with my product or service and how do I convince and influence them to walk across my bridge between A and B so that they will buy from me."  "What people need to do that don't have the pockets of Nike is realise is you don't need to be famous for 50 million or 5billion people you can be famous for 5,000 people actually and still create a very good business and build that 5,000 strong community of people." "The answer is content. the content today is not "buy my stuff, buy my stuff" it's one of 3 things. Content is either E for educational, E for entertaining or E for emotional." And actually, if you can create bits of content for all 3 they get shared a lot more. So, I want people to realise that today, the tools, the infrastructure to get you 'out there' are within your grasp." Welcome to episode #131 of #Screwitjustdoit. On today's show, I welcome Andy Harrington, Sunday Times bestselling author of 'Passion into Profit' and Founder of the Professional Speakers Academy and the Public Speakers University.  Andy is an award-winning entrepreneur who has shared the stage with the likes of Tony Robbins, Sir Richard Branson, Steve Wozniak and two US Presidents. He's improved the performance level of thousands of people around the World including Hollywood movie stars, premiership football players and top CEOs of bluechip organisations. I've been a huge fan of Andy's ever since reading his Passion into Profit book a few years back and currently, I'm rereading it as I'm looking to put the finishing touches to our Podcasting Academy. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did, let's Start-Up! 

Would you like to know how you can build out your entire week's content plan from just one pillar piece of content? To take just one piece of content and turn that into 10, 20 and even 30 pieces of content.   On episode #130 I talk you through how you can build your entire week's worth of content from just one piece of 'pillar' content and map out your entire week's social media posts. If you'd like to see how I do that from just one podcast episode - my 'pillar' content - go to the Screw it, Just Do it Facebook page  or on my personal pages just search @alexchisnall. To explain, your pillar content could be taken from a podcast interview, a blog you've posted on your website, a talk at an event, a vlog you've posted on Youtube. And all of your week's content will be taken form just this one pice of content. At the moment I take my weekly Q & A podcast and repurpose that into something like 7-10 pieces of 'micro-content' but it could easily be repurposed into 15-30 pieces.  Would you like to know how you can do that with your business? Let's StartUp!

"The minute the website launched, two days later, we had an order for 20,000 and that was very much the pivot because that became very full-time, very quickly. Emile and I were both in the kitchen all day, every day for about 3 months, and in the evenings to keep our cash flow afloat we were working as Secret Cinema selling the gummies, with the help of a couple of friends. It was this very vicious cycle of wake up, make, pack, go to an event, be back at 1 am, do the same thing, until we could get the 20,000 out and then we could structure what the business would look like." On today's show, I chat to Melanie Goldsmith, Founder of Smith & Sinclair, founders of the World's first alcoholic sweets and the UK's first edible fragrance. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Melanie has won Natwest's 'Every Woman' award in 2018 and has also been a winner at the National Business Women's awards and The Great British Entrepreneur awards as well. Smith & Sinclair are the founders of the alcoholic gummy and are on a mission to make 'adulting', as they say, more fun. They create innovative products and experiences that range from patented alcoholic cocktail gummies through to effervescent tablets you can drop into prosecco and turn into a mind-blowing cocktail. What started out as an ice-breaker for events has scaled to a lucrative 500% growth trajectory and ambitious plans to launch in the US by the end of the year. Pretty incredible story, I hope you're going to enjoy this interview as much as I did. I met Melanie back in 2015 at a Virgin party and she has no recollection of me being in the photo booth with her, she probably thinks I had far too many of their alcoholic sweets.  Anyway, more information about their story and about all things #Screwitjustdoit, including our upcoming 3rd birthday party which we're celebrating with a live event and some very special friends, head on over to the Facebook page for #Screwitjustdoit and you'll be fully up to date.

Successful entrepreneurs F.O.C.U.S Follow One Course Until Successful. If you're anything like the typical entrepreneur then you've got more ideas than you know what to do with. The problem can be that we get distracted by shiny new objects and are forever not following our original business idea through to it's logical and successful conclusion. We're forever launching new products and services, or even a new startup business or three. On this week's solo episode I want to talk you through a useful exercise to get clear on your your one big idea. We'll work through what you're passionate about, and what skills you have acquired - and exactly where the two merge and result in your potential one big idea. We'll then list out the pro's and con's of each potential big idea to find out which one of these is going to be Your Big Idea, generate income for you and be the one that you F.O.C.U.S Let's StartUp!

"America has the bones of many British businesses, strewn across it, failed British businesses...because at that stage when he was doing business, it was a massive logistical challenge but obviously these days with technology it's been made a lot easier. We were talking to people and they were saying "well, it's going to start with a four", as in, four-hundred thousand dollars, it'll be 50% bonus on that number and what we worked out was you weren't guaranteed to get someone very good for that amount of money. It's not very difficult for a company to get rid of someone after working for them for 15 years, with two weeks notice, that's the type of thing that will happen. Sometimes, you'll hear people that have been in the US, they'll say things like "it was kind of different because we'd have lots of meetings and everyone smiled and said lots of positive things and then nothing happened" and he decided that he would Air BnB when he first got there, so, he Air BnB'd for a couple of months and he chose Harlem and he didn't leave his apartment at night for 3 months because it was too terrifying. Then in the first year, we did $2million of sales, that was pretty clear then that it was a big opportunity." We all know that the transatlantic trading relationship is one of the most successful on Earth and everyday goods services worth millions of pounds are exported and imported across the Atlantic. Thousands of British and US firms have already invested in, or are finding their way towards, successful transatlantic growth. So British American Business have put together a series of events titled 'Accelerate' which showcases a business and invites other businesses with similar growth aspirations to listen, to ask questions and to learn, to enable them to accelerate their own growth.  In the first of these events, I chatted to Richard Townsend, Co-Founder and CEO of Circus Street, an online school which teaches companies how to do business in a digital world and upskills teams at scale. Richard believes we're just at the very start with what is possible when combining technology and education. I spoke to him about the realities and pitfalls of expanding and transforming businesses across the Atlantic. In this episode, we talk about: talent, and how to obtain it facetime, meeting people 121 product, and ensuring yours in the best in its class and referrals, making sure that you're maximising every opportunity You'll also briefly hear from Emanuel Adam, he's Executive Director and Director of Policy & Trade at British American Business, who are the leading authority in the UK for transatlantic trade.