Welcome to Episode #119 and on today's show I want to talk about Reload - our first Mid Year Mastermind This event is for you and is being held on May 3rd at the 5 star Hilton Hotel in Bournemouth on the sunny South Coast of England. I've put this together for listeners of the show and it follows on from last year's StartUp & Scale Summit - which Piers Linney from Dragon's Den headlined. I didn't want to wait until the autumn before our 2nd summit so decided to put this together for you. I'v...
Mar 30, 2019•18 min•Season 1Ep. 119
"Why are you coming to my site? Who are you? Because personally I couldn't explain to anyone why have you got 6 million visitors coming to your site every month? I know what they're doing on my site, but why are they doing it?" Welcome to episode #118 of Screw it, Just Do it where I welcome Chris Parker. Chris has a problem that most of us would love to have - what to do with 6 million web visitors a month? He's the founder of whatismyipaddress.com . He's an entrepreneur, and online privacy and ...
Mar 27, 2019•36 min•Season 1Ep. 118
"If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying "Circus coming to the showground Saturday", that's advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk into town, that's promotion. If an elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that's publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it that's public relations. If the citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun the...
Mar 20, 2019•35 min•Season 1Ep. 117
"The lowest point in that journey had to be a debt collector coming round to the house. And if I hadn't found that money...that day...then things were getting taken away. And that's a real blow to your pride. I didn't want to feel that I was letting my wife down. I didn't want to feel that I was letting my girls down. My family down. It was horrible. I think that was the lowest point I ever reached. This guy rocking up in his car and refusing to move his car out of my driveway until I paid him w...
Mar 18, 2019•56 min•Season 1Ep. 116
“In for £100k, six months before the first ever festival, thinking it was going to cost 100k to put on. I ran out of money. We had to remortgage the house. Had to find another £200k. It cost £300k to put on in year one. I was expecting it to be £100k. It was a big risk and if no one turned up to that front gate on that first day, we would have lost the house. It’s as simple as that. Looking back now, 12 years on, I'm glad we did take the gamble but year one was a huge gamble." On today's show, i...
Mar 13, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 115
"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 Thi...
Mar 11, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Welcome to Episode #113 of Screwitjustdoit. On today's show I bring you a 'live' event when I hosted the recently resigned billionaire founder of Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin cbe. On Monday, March 4th Ray resigned, bringing the curtain down on one of the most remarkable careers in British fashion retailing during the last three decades. Sky's Ian King said that Ray's business achievements should be noted as a cloud hangs over his departure. He says that "many successful retailers are good traders, like...
Mar 06, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 113
”Don’t take on Big Money. Because the moment you take on big money, it’s like sliding doors. Your world is determined. You’ve turned left and the options of right will never come back to you ever again. And the amount of people who have never asked themselves ‘Where do I want to be when I’m 70’...put your hands up if you’ve answered that question” At our latest London event, we got FOUR amazing brands to tell you how they did it. Hear from entrepreneurs Holly Tucker (notonthehighstreet.com, Holl...
Mar 01, 2019•46 min•Season 1Ep. 112
"I've done a lot of pitches and it was just an experience that I don't think that you can replicate or ever go through again. I'm glad I did it but it was just horrific, it wasn't fun! It was very surreal. I've been watching since I was a kid and then you walk into that den and you see these people you've been watching for so long...it was just crazy! I wouldn't do it again!" Dan started his career by working as a chef at three Michelin star restaurants, and also later became a private chef to c...
Feb 27, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 111
"I think influencers are a key driver in our brand building process. Today, you're talking a lot of start-ups and scale-ups, every euro we invest needs to come along with a certain return on investment and I think working with influencers, obviously targeted influencers, they can help scale your business, Build that awareness level on a very rapid basis, and add a considerable amount of investment. It's not a huge investment from going on the radio or TV campaigns but it does allow you, at an ac...
Feb 20, 2019•33 min•Season 1Ep. 110
"It was really tough times we faced. We were in for a hundred. Run out of money. No banks were loaning. No sponsors were getting onboard. Everyone shut up shop. So, what's the last thing to do. Re-mortgage the house. Which wasn't a good idea at the time. But is a good idea now. Thank god. It ended up costing us £300k to put on. So if no-one turned up on the first day we lost the house. As simple as that." Welcome to episode #109 of Screwitjustdoit - a special bonus episode recorded at our first ...
Feb 15, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 109
"I've managed things that I didn't even dare to dream of! We played Glastonbury festival, you know, I've been on stage at Glastonbury, something that I've been to for decades as a punter. The DJs that I've worked with are just jaw-dropping. These are people that I've hero-worshipped for years and I'm chatting to them!" On today's show, I welcome Hannah Saunders founder of Big Fish Little Fish, an exciting music and dance party for the post-rave generation of parents and kids. Around 6 years ago ...
Feb 13, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 108
"It was a big risk financially. I was solely responsible for my daughter, I had a big mortgage, I had lots of commitments. The #Screwitjustdoit moment came when I was sat at a breakfast meeting with my clients after 9 months of Ed and I discussing this new business we wanted to set up. He'd just had enough of my delays and my "yes when, yes when, yes when" and he just picked up the phone and said "Look, Lucy, give me a decision by Friday or otherwise let's just move on"... On today's show, Lucy ...
Feb 06, 2019•34 min•Season 1Ep. 107
"I truly believe that I and Graze would not have been as successful without what I learnt at Innocent. I think it was a good quality start-up and I think it was a good quality scale up and I learnt a lot. I learnt a lot of good things, you know, also some things didn't work which you take a different set of lessons from." So, cast your mind and can you remember a key moment that transformed your life? Maybe it hasn't happened yet but I'm sure it will. Well, that's what happened to Anthony Fletch...
Jan 30, 2019•27 min•Season 1Ep. 106
"This is an amazing opportunity. Women who are mothers are worth trillions of dollars per year to the economy. Women who are earning who are monthers, 90% of their earnings goes back into the family, versus 45% of men's income". Welcome to episode #105 of #Screwitjustdoit. On today's show I welcome entrepreneur Michelle Kennedy, Founder of Peanut, dubbed 'Tinder for lonely mums' by the New York Times. Michelle is very much a veteran of the dating app industry, having spent 5 years at Badoo and e...
Jan 23, 2019•39 min•Season 1Ep. 105
" Probably one of the greatest pleasures that I get is taking my mum and dad and walking down a supermarket aisle and seeing my dad's face when he see's a picture of his father and his father's name on a shelf in a supermarket. That is a massive plus and a massive pleasure for me. And to think that I made this happen." On today's show I welcome Paul Turner - butcher turned brand building entrepreneur. Paul comes from a really traditional business - a butchers that was his grandfathers that was p...
Jan 16, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 104
"At the time that I realised PlanSnap was the thing that I wanted to do - to build the fastest way to get friends together it's very hard if you're tachnically-minded but not from a technical background to find a technical partner to bring on to the team. I realised that was going to be a struggle, and raising investment was going to be a struggle. Not least because women get less than 2% of Venture Capital worldwide. But also because I wasn't ex-Google or something. I knew I could do it, but I ...
Jan 09, 2019•37 min•Season 1Ep. 103
"And he pushed me, saying 'Don't be such an idiot', slightly harder than I think he intended...and I fell off my chair. It was one of those moments in time, drunk as I was, but that conversation haunted me. And I kept coming back to 'Yeah, why not? Why can't we get law into a space where there isn't a premium on information and people do understand how everything fits together and can access that really easily. I never set out to replace lawyers. I'm still very proud to be a lawyer myself, and I...
Jan 02, 2019•32 min•Season 1Ep. 102
"So I phoned them up and said that I would like to buy some razors. He said the minimum order was 100,000 units. I thought "This is the end of the business, I can't do it, I can't get the money." But then I said 'How's this as a concept..I come to your front door tomorrow with 5,000 Euros in unmarked bills in a bag, would you go for it? "I was just joking... But he said "if you're crazy enough to come from London to East Germany overnight to give me 5,000 Euros you're on. I'll see you tomorrow m...
Dec 26, 2018•45 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Well here it is..no - not Merry Christmas - that's another week away folks. It is in fact #Episode 100 of my #Screwitjustdoit podcast! Something I'm super-proud of and will be celebrating this important milestone on my journey. Something I never envisaged actually getting to! I thought I would use the opportunity presented to record only my third ever solo round since I started by deciding to #Screwitjustdoit - and launch my own podcast. With a week to go until Christmas, and two weeks still 201...
Dec 19, 2018•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 100
"Managing the team and managing the workload is a huge challenge that I'm battling with all the time but the team are absolutely amazing. I couldn't ask for a better, hardworking team. They really love what we're doing, which I believe is quite hard to find". On today's show I welcome Charlotte Sweet, Founder of Sewn Right. Charlotte left a job in luxury fashion to set up her own business in early 2015. She was inspired by her grandmother, a lifelong seamstress. Driven by a love of fashion and a...
Dec 12, 2018•45 min•Season 1Ep. 99
"When my grandparents passed away who I spent a lot of time with I'd been thinking why I didn't record their life stores which is something I had in mind but never did, and realised how quickly their stories faded. And I've had that regret for a long time and been thinking since then about solutions... and why this problem exists if a lot of people want to capture the stories of their loved ones. Rutger Bruining's grandfather was a member of the Dutch resistance during World War II but died befo...
Dec 05, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 98
"I have so many different passions: fitness, fashion and food - the three "F's" - plus music of course. So it was a natural progression once I came off the x-factor...to get into fashion and release my own clothing line. And as soon as the W8 Gym came along... it's funny how timing works out, as when Nick approached me I was actually thinking of venturing into fitness. So as soon as I saw the product I just jumped on it..quite literally. This is what I was looking for. This was amazing. You may ...
Nov 28, 2018•56 min•Season 1Ep. 97
"He and my my mum used to wear a necklace with five little charms. Each charm was a stone that represented each of us. I was a pearl and my brothers had their own stones. They used to wear it around their neck and we used to carry our own as well in a little gold chain so for me jewellry is about this special meaning, occasion, something that you carry with you, like. talisman." Adriana creates jewellery, she's originally from Brazil, but trained in Italy - and now lives in London. She comes fro...
Nov 21, 2018•34 min•Season 1Ep. 96
"The great thing is a good mentor will always get you to answer your own questions. They'll ask you the right questions, you'll just have to go away and work on it and come back with an answer. They'll either give you a tick or a cross. That's the scret of a great mentor. They don't tell you what to do, you have to learn for yourself what you should be doing with the information and advice that they give you." On today's show I welcome candle chandler Rachel Vosper. Now, not many visitors to Bar...
Nov 14, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 95
"I was doing a paperbound and I thought it was a mug's game. So I cut the local newsagent out of the equation. No-one was delivering papers on a Sunday so my dad said "you go and get my paper I don't want to get out of bed, i'll give you 50p". My neighbour said the same and I eventually built a paper round that made four times as much on Sunday than I had made on the whole weeks work. That was my first introduction to business and finding a niche, monetising it in a very small way - and hard wor...
Nov 07, 2018•30 min•Season 1Ep. 94
"The realisation happened when I lost twenty million dollars. It took me losing everything in my life and starting over and asking a different question. The question is what is true? Looking at what I had done over twenty years and saying that was very hedonistic, that was very me, that was all about consumption. And then losing it all, I think the universe was saying ok, here's the opportunity." Damion Lupo has shown time and again that the human spirit is only limited by the scale of one’s ima...
Oct 31, 2018•47 min•Season 1Ep. 93
"We're not getting any younger. So you may as well get cracking. That's my main advice: get cracking, get selling, get making and get spending." On today's show I chat to Anglo-Italian entrepreneur and Pasta Evangelists founder Alessandro Savelli. Pasta Evangelists are trying to do for fresh pasta delivery what fever tree did for tonic. They deliver artisinal restaurant-quality pasta to your front door whilst you work and they'll even deliver it through your letterbox. They're backed by some of ...
Oct 24, 2018•38 min•Season 1Ep. 92
"I find working, doing a startup, and trying to manage a family life and keep all the balls in the air extremely difficult - and I mess up all the time. My children are incredibly patient and understanding. I'm always the mother who's not at the football match at the school, or that I get the date wrong for the cake sale. Then I get really guilty. But the good thing about working for yourself like when they have the nativity play or concerts then you do have the time to take that time out of you...
Oct 17, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 91
"The initial feedback we got from people was that it was worth us exploring. So we got started, and I guess at each stage there were sufficiently encouraging signs that it was worth carrying on. So we quit our jobs, put in our savings and went out to try and raise money to enable us to start marketing and to start building a team. And it went from there." How do you fit a Christmas tree through a letterbox? It might sound like a bad cracker joke, or the premise for a festive TV film. But it’s th...
Oct 09, 2018•38 min•Season 1Ep. 90
