Screw It Just DO It with Alex Chisnall

"Hey, I was a part-time mermaid, I’ve been to Australia, come home and now I make this iced coffee that I’m really proud of. Do you want to come on this journey with us?"  Join Jim and our sold-out 'live' audience in Bournemouth as he recounts his journey, as well as providing tips on how to grow your brand and how to pitch to buyers for your product/service. Fresh from pitching his iconic drinks brand, Jimmys Iced Coffee to the Co-Op in Manchester, Jim jumped in his car and drove 4.5 hours back to Bournemouth to speak to our audience of entrepreneurs and start-ups on 'How to Start a Drinks Business'. An entertaining and informative evening unfolded...    

"I suffered a pretty heavy burnout...anti-depressents, the whole thing. On the outside it probably looked like I was on top of the world, but deep down I was working 16 hours a day, living on coffee, wasn't working out, wasn't eating well..I ended up hiring eight people..to remove myself from the business." Chris Ducker is a serial entrepreneur who moved from London to the Philippines seventeen years ago and now owns and operates three businesses employing 450 people including a recruitment consultancy, call centre and co-workign space to support local startups. He managed to remove himself from the day to day running of these businesses and now helps entrepreneurs like you and rebuild successful businesses around their personal brand. He's worked with well-known entrepreneurs such as Pat Flynn, Gary Vaynerchuk, John Lee Dumas and John Jantsch. I'm also joined by John Auckland who is the founder of Tribe First, a crowdfunding support agency that works with startups both nationally and internationally, helping businesses meet their crowdfunding targets and gain funding. After crowdfunding the biggest ever sports crowdfunding campaign with David Brabham, former triple Formula 1 champions, for over £300k, he knew he was on to something. John started his own business with a Virgin StartUp loan, and he's gone on to become Virgin StartUp ambassador. 

"...I would go up on stage and I would trip and my nose would bleed... and then people would throw tomatoes at me..or even worse, potatoes, and then I would wake up in a ditch somewhere..naked". Pat Flynn has been called "the crash test dummy of online business" and in this interview you'll find out why. Forbes named him as one of the most transparent leaders in business  and the New York Times profiled him as a case study in smart online business building. He has a top-ranked business podcast with over 34 million downloads, a best-selling book "Will it fly?" and a number of successful seven figure businesses. Pat is well known globally as a global thought leader in the areas of online entrepreneurship, digital marketing and lifestyle business. We talk about how he overcame becoming redundant and found his own path and true passion in helping others build successful online businesses. We also speak to Seb Francis, co-founder of startup Titus Learning, and one of Richard Branson's self-appointed Virgin StartUp ambassadors. Seb talks to me about his experience working with hundreds of schools around the world and how he's at the forefront of the digital transformation of the classroom.

"Work hard..any idea that you have can be come a reality just by sharing it and getting people inspired". Conker Spirit are at the forefront of the Gin Revolution. Founder Rupert Holloway talk us through his journey from self confessed "miserable surveyor" to happy head conkerer. Rupert has taken Conker Spirit from a one band foraging, distilling and marketing to building a team with his best friend and getting their gin stocked everywhere from farm shops to Fortnum and Masons.  Also on this episode I speak to David Humston, Virgin StartUp's youngest entrepreneur when at just 18, Virgin StartUp funded Viewpoint Videos who create personal action videos for extreme sports for customers of experience days. David talks about the challenges a young entrepreneur faces in being taken seriously and how he has used Virgin StartUp funding to grow his business to the point where one of his videos with a multiple world record holder received millions of downloads on Youtube. Here are their stories

"I can't accept failure. I can't have it. I will not accept failure..I'm not scared. I'm not frightened and I'm not going to fail". So spoke Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin in the 2nd part to my live Q and A with him. Ray tells the story of how he started with one shop in Glasgow. He brings us right up to date with Ted Baker currently valued at £1.6 Billion, as well as his latest ventures. These include investing £80 million into the UK's number 1 Hilton hotel which he owns as well as launching This WorkSpace, his co-working vision set to rival We Work.  During the course of the interview he covers a lot of ground including the Grenfell fire tragedy, how stressful he finds it living in London as well as the importance of fishing... having a work life balance before finally offering opportunities to a student, a tailor and a model in the audience to work for Ted Baker. 

On today's show I'm joined by the billionaire founder of Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin cbe I hosted a 'live' Q & A with Ray at a sold out www.thiswork.space in Bournemouth at Ray's first brand new co-working space, set to rival We Work. We started with a question direct from Richard Branson on Necker Island and continued for over two hours. I have therefore divided the show into two parts. In Part 1 Ray tells us how he still works every saturday in a Ted Baker store, and still doesn't even own a computer! The self-titled "boy done good" goes on to share insights including how he built Ted Baker without any formal advertising based on "common sense", hugging (!) and his four 'P's': People, product, passion and profit. You don't want to miss any of this, it's pure gold dust. And as Ray says, anyone late at Ted Baker has to do press-ups..so get listening now!

Ollie Forsyth is the 'dyslexic entrepreneur'. Ollie first demonstrated his entrepreneurial traits at the age of just six years old when he started charging his parents 20p for making them tea and coffee..and again for refills. He formed his first business at the age of just 13, and despite being diagnosed with dyslexia, has gone on to form a number of companies, including launching The Budding Entrepreneur's Club in 2016 in the Shard with Levi Roots among others. Ollie talks to me about the importance of having a mentor, surrounding yourself with the right team as well as the future plans he has for The Budding Entrepreneurs Club. We also speak to Virgin StartUp Ambassador Darcy Ida from Idapod, who talks to us about her photo booths business and their uses..including attending an increasing number of funerals....

Jim Cregan joins me to talk about how he went from British building site to Australia and back again. In the process launching his own brand of Iced Coffee after not being able to find it in the UK when he came back 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.   Also on todays show are sisters and Virgin StartUp ambassadors Michaela and Lois Wilson, who talk about their edible art business, Saint Aymes. We talk building a brand that transcends genres - whilst I eat their amazing chocolate that really does look too good to eat...

John Lee Dumas went from serving as a a US Army Officer in Iraq to generating over $10m in under 5 years. JLD has interviewed nearly 2,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs: from Gary Vaynerchuk to Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris and Seth Godin. He joins me on todays show to talk about the lessons he has taken from these interviews and has implemented in his own business - one of the world's top-ranked business podcasts offering free courses in webinars, podcasting and funnel-building. He also gives his top tips on increasing productivity, discipline and focus. Also joining me on todays show is Virgin StartUp ambassador Tom Birbeck from Arc Marine who is on a mission to increase awareness of ocean conservation. Arc Marine specialise in generating marine habitats by crowdfunding projects through marine-friendly artificial reefs - a subject close to Necker Island-living Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson

Vin has launched two websites that got to over a million visitors a month, got into the Techstars accelerator, was voted best talk at SXSW V2V 2016. His debut book/course "Secret Sauce: A step-by-step guide to growth hacking" has raised hundreds of thousands via crowdfunding and he joins us on todays show to tell us how he is able to grow early-stage companies through a combination of rapid social media growth, guerrilla community management tactics, and growth hacks which have seen companies go from zero to thousands of signups/followers/users virtually overnight. I'm also joined by Rob Manley who recently appeared on Dragon's Den and secured investment from Deborah Meaden for his glow in the dark t-shirts.