Simon is joined by Katie Coombes to discuss how to adapt your business to the current climate, how to come up with new and exciting ideas and keeping productive whilst at home. RECORDED LIVE: 2nd April 2020
Note: This transcription has been generated with AI and there may be errors present.
Well the sun it says we’re meeting meeting is now streaming live on Facebook that may be happening let’s see what’s happening I’m just going to wait for a few seconds to see if something arrives on the screens is very exciting. Is that a giant Poppy you’ve got on your shelf by the way Katie
No it’s a giant are a giant art is a giant ah, it’s like a cuddly are if it’s such a thing. It was for an is my son’s who’s called Rufus
like a publisher. Anyway, enough of this whimsical nonsense. We’ve got some serious things to discuss tonight. And I guess Yeah, it’s been another it’s been another epic day. I think when I before I met you, but before Coronavirus, stuff happened. Working from home day wasn’t necessarily the most productive but I’d sort of work in Sprint’s you know, I’d kind of go for an hour, two hours, get a load of stuff done. And then, you know, Potter, maybe sort of, you know, play with the kids get the train set out for an hour or two, have a spot a lunch like over another sprint, maybe take a call in between, but ever like for the last three weeks. I’ve been literally flat out every single day at the moment. So I don’t quite know what’s going on. I’m a little like, I’ve been hit by a train today. But like behind this cool, calm, relaxed exterior is a giant Swan pedalling like. So Katie, how are you today?
Today I first of all, what day is it? Is it Thursday? Is it Thursday today? Yep, yeah, okay, cuz it’s a bit like, it’s a bit like blurs day for me, I’m kind of losing, losing where we’re up to when we started the lockdown about two weeks ago, and we started in our family with a really good routine, we thought yes, we put on the blackboard, we had a really good routine, and we were going to stick to it. With our homeschooling and our breaks, and we were going to do baking and cooking. We’re gonna go for dog walk every day, we’re gonna, you know, we were on it, we were that family, we would have hated. If we were kids were little. And then by today, it is all a blur. Honestly, I had my breakfast at 10 past one. And I didn’t clean my teeth till about quarter past five. That’s the thing, it’s all kind of going a little bit and we’re gonna have to reset and get back on it.
So I kind of got I think I’ve gone the other way, I think I think I started off with those plans. I’m going to get my sheet out later because I got this giant sheet of paper, this beautifully crafted design mindmap of all of the things that I’ve got this time now to create and reshape the business and do all this cool stuff. And and then nothing happened for about six or seven days that was on my list at all. Because we were just pedalling like beliau trying to figure out what the New World was going to look like and how we adapt pop up and what we’re doing. So as an events company, in this day and age and we’re going to dive into this actually, as an events company, during Coronavirus. What do you do? Because there’s no events anymore. So the whole thing needs to be reinvented and reinvented very, very quickly. Or we just need to stop and we need to furlough everybody. And I was having a conversation with a business owner today and use the term mothball do I mothball the business to protect the cash in the business and take advantage of the support packages on offer. And but anyway, that’s not been us. And we’ve been paddling, paddling and playing really hard. But now my to do list I’m starting to watch. I took vitamins three days on the trot. I had seven points of water three days on the tree and stuff kind of coming out of the thing. Any second, of course it could crash and burn. But I think maybe we’ll dive into that. I just wanted to say hi to a few folks that have joined us. Laura jumped in the pool. Who I know you know Katie, Laura is watching now. Hello. Russell had of electricity for the whole of Kent is watching. Good evening, Russell. And the pop up Business School is watching which is probably frankly a really for all of us. And John cod, head of PR for the whole of the UK is watching things, John. And actually John John is going to join us on one of these live streams in the next two or three weeks. He doesn’t know it yet. But he has agreed. And John has got some really, really interesting stuff. John does a lot of the work with us around around PR and around storytelling. We were in the Telegraph on Saturday, which some of you might have seen the post. Behind the scenes, amazing people like John and his wife, Karen. And his particular focus is how to make your company famous and he’s written a book about it. And John is going to come on and talk about that. He’s going to talk about how businesses can get money media attention at a time when the media is very, very noisy. There’s lots and lots of stuff going on. So he’s going to talk about that. But I also want to dive into with John, for those people that might want to take this opportunity to write down their life story, their experience, their expertise, that angle, a piece of fiction. How do you go about writing a book and self publishing your own book, John’s got lots of insights and experience about the writing process and how you make that project a reality. Now could be the time to do that course. So John’s gonna join us soon. I hope, John, I hope you haven’t deleted the account. Now that I’ve said that out loud. Graham Carter, the fabulous Graham Carter from the south is watching Simon morilee from the market harbour mafia, Teresa and Linda. Hi, Linda. And Kim. Happy Blair’s day John says to you Katie Brucey Farrell, head of magic for the whole of England is watching Leslie from Newport Great to see you guys here. And Theresa suggested that John sounds like a great person tonight. Yes, he really is. And he’s got lots and lots of knowledge and insights there. John was a journalist for The Guardian, The Times and lots of lots of publications for many, many years before starting his own business. And he’s been going through all the stuff that every single small business in the world is trying to figure out right now. And we’ll have another viewpoint from him. So that’s going to be fantastic. Hello, Carrie from Tunbridge Sonia from Kent. Hello, Sonia rakibul. A great to see you. Good stuff. So Hi, Fran, from Wales as well. Great. So where are we? What did you say it was again? Blair’s birthday. I said to Jack like is it day or night, it’s all blending into what now.
So a couple of stats from us, because I think we’ve noticed some things that have happening been happening to our website and our Facebook. So we engage 10,000 People online through the live streams, we did two live streams last week. And through the shares that people have done, sharing it with their own audience and tagging their friends and neighbours and family that have got small businesses 10,000 People have seen the live streams and watched some or all of the live stream, which is phenomenal. The whole point of this is that we want to help as many businesses as we can. But also those people that sat at home thinking I haven’t got a business anymore, I need to make a new one, or I’ve never had a business and now is the time to make one. The stuff that we’re talking about on these live streams is all about helping to get in the right mindset, some tips and tricks and practical knowledge and experience. Answering questions figuring out the government help is designed to support as many people as we can through that process. So please, can you like this post and comment, please tag your friends and family that have got businesses? And please please, please share it. Thank you very much in advance for that, because that’s going to help us continue to be able to put out content. And we’ve got, I tell you, we’ve got some fantastic guests lined up as well. Nevermind the fantastic guests that joined us this evening. You might notice that you’re going Yeah, well. There you go. There’s a good link was. So the good news and the bad news. So the the I guess the bad news is that Alan isn’t going to join us this evening. Because Alan is frantically trying to get out of the USA before his visa expires in a month’s time. And he’s booked flights. And he’s back to the UK. So the bad news is he’s not joining us. The good news is that he’s on his way back. Also good news, that there’s no chance of anyone showing their nipples this evening, which is what happened on the previous last live stream. So I’m not planning to no good right, let’s move on then. So so just a couple of comments and then I’m gonna ask you a question about being positive. Katie. So the questions. Trevor’s doing a book called swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. I think you’re gonna get some traction on that one, Trevor. Your sense of humour is cracking me up every night Brucey is started online teaching. Send me the link Brucey I think my I think my kids and I would like to learn some magic from you. Emmys watching John’s looking forward to it. sybers is on Linda’s. Linda had a good last year but hasn’t sold anything since December. She’s been getting some commissions but needs sales. She’s had to sign up for Universal Credit. I think we’re going to talk a little bit about that. And where I’ll be Kelly, Kelly has the time to join the live streams which you wouldn’t normally have, which is excellent. And John’s posted the link to the Telegraph article in The Telegraph of very graciously put us in the COVID-19 heroes section, which is very humbling but that’s because we’re going out of our way to help as many businesses as we can. We might not make it through We’re doing all that we can to ensure that we do. But we’re going to make sure we help as many people as we can over the next few months on that journey. And that’s what that’s all about. So So Jimbo is watching as well. Nice one, Jimbo. So in my mind, Katie, we had we sent an email out, we’ve got some, we’ve got some 20,000 people on our database, we sent out an email. And the email has been opened by a few 1000 people. And one of the replies that came back was someone that reacted negatively. To us using the word, the word stay positive in the email. So some of you might have received the email. And at the bottom of the email, it was sent from Alex, Alex made in the team. So made, I sent the email out. And at the bottom of the email, it says the words stay positive, stay safe. And we had a reply to the email that says, you can’t tell people to be positive, when all of this stuff is happening around us at the moment. And some of us are sick, some of us have lost our jobs, some of us are stuck at home, all of us are stuck at home. And some of us can’t run our business. I just wonder like, I just wanted to get your view on that. Because you’re always a very positive person. And I think, you know, even in a freezing cold room in the north of England delivering an event, you’re always smiling, and you’re always very positive, despite some challenges that are being thrown at you. What do you think about that? Katie? Can we be positive at the moment?
Yes, I think we can. But I think that at this stage, when you’re feeling down, and you feel a bit miserable, and we will have that when sort of, you know positive Pete’s next to you telling you everything’s fine. And what what, cheer up? It’s that cheer up thing, isn’t it? You know, why don’t you cheer up? Give us a smile of is another one. Yeah, gives us my love. You don’t realise about the way saying that you know what I’m going through. So that’s another one I really hate. So I get it. I understand when people say Cheer up, give us a smile and be positive. If that’s not how you’re feeling at the moment, then it can be really irritating. It irritates me. So I understand. But from my, the way I see it, and what I do to remain positive is the simple things. Is, and it’s it you know, is it a cliche? I don’t know. But I do think about what is going well, for me, I think about the small things, and I don’t just think about and try and really feel them as well. So it’s not a tick box, are I lucky, you know, it’s really trying to focus on them and feel those, those small things in your life or big things in your life that you’ve got to be thankful for. We talk a lot about gratitude, pop up. And people have told me with their children, they at night, they do like the five thank yous, you know, what are you, you know, where’s the gratitude, what is going well, what’s good, and actually connecting with it and feeling it and reminding yourself every single day. And I do that every single day. And sometimes I’m doing it, I’m almost irritating myself. To me. Here we go again. But I know that I feel better when I’ve done it. And I genuinely do or else, I get lost. I get lost and irritated by small things. I get lost with sometimes the routine of life and the grind of doing the shopping and getting the car or picking the kids up or walking the dog or all the duty that we sometimes have. I get lost in that. And I get resentful of it. And I’ve got to remind myself and I connect with those things every single day. And that’s exactly what I’m doing at the moment. So I purposely get myself into a positive mindset. I don’t it doesn’t happen by accident. I do it on purpose intentionally, to feel better, because if I feel better, my life’s happier. And in the end, everything is about happiness. But not everything goes well for me lots of things go wrong. And you know, not everything’s perfect. If it seems like on here’s a bit of a social media snapshot of my life. There’s plenty of things that aren’t going too well. But I’m focusing on the good stuff and seeing what I can change and what positive actions I can take.
You just reminded me actually, I had a conversation at home about that exact thing today. You know, when you’ve got I had an unexpected, positive consequence of practising gratitude today, like the way that I do I pick three things and I do exactly what you just said. And I do it every single day. Pick three things and I close my eyes and I think about them about what I see what I hear what I feel. And I imagine I imagine and see, you know, like for example, I like I one of the things that I picked today was the cuddles from my four year old my my four year old is a cuddling machine at the moment. So I close my eyes and I imagine the cuddle and then I actually because I’m at home, I can get a cuddle too. But that thing about actually feeling it. What I really There’s that when you practice the gratitude, it stops you thinking about things you can’t control and brings you right back to the present moment. And I’ve never really realised that before. I thought, yeah, okay, gratitude, that’s a good thing makes you feel good and stops you kind of thinking about all the things that you haven’t got, and gets you to focus on the things that you have. But it really took me back to the present moment at a time. Like, you know, I saw a news flash come up tonight. And the news flash that came up tonight wasn’t a positive one. And it sent me to a place of Blimey, this thing is really going, isn’t it, but just spin back into the gratitude. And it takes me out of what I can’t control. And I think just looking at some of the comments here that Teresa said, Don’t focus on that one negative comment and amongst hundreds of good ones. And that’s exactly what we did. We know. We’ve had some really incredible comments, I get an emails and messages coming in on all the social media platforms, people that I’ve never met before. That said, I got one message today, actually, I’ve had a couple of messages from this guy guy called Trevor. Trevor has contacted me on LinkedIn sent me a couple of messages saying I’m really enjoying the live streams. You know, thank you for doing that. Stuff. Like that makes me want to keep this thing going. So that’s all good. And so good news for Joanne she’s got a a gig booked, not a big a big gig. Just call it a big gig Joanne where she’s had to eat some frogs. She’s doing a zoom with an audience from across the world. That’s super exciting. Please tell us more about that. That sounds brilliant. Is that John’s bizarre because I haven’t got Facebook is that. Yeah, it’s bizarre. Yeah. Yeah. Doncaster. From the Doncaster mafia. Yeah. Carry didn’t get the email. We’ll look into that. Okay, we did get the email it was in the junk folder. You need to add us to your favourites, carry. That’s what we need to do. Hi, Kate. From from Wales. Great to see you from the Bridgend team. And Kelly Kelly says she feels very fortunate despite not being able to work at the moment. Actually, she’s quite okay being in lockdown, time to recharge, focus on other things that we wouldn’t normally have time to take for granted and so on. I couldn’t agree more. And Amy’s watching as well. Amy says you’re amazing. Katie. She misses you. And Sonia is big in the daily gratitude stuff. Yes, Carrie, I will suck. Yeah, yeah, my kids look at the paper and they go, Yeah, whatever that like, Stop doing that. It’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it? Whereas Carrie says she wants my autograph. Thank you for making me feel good. That’d be the first one ever. Helen, you’re absolutely right. And this is this is key, isn’t it? And I want to dive into this. In terms of where, where you’re at currently with Lindsay, if you don’t mind talking about that, because Helen suggested is the beauty of the support is that you’re going through it with us, which is really interesting in it because like often you if you go to a if you watch a webinar, or you go to a course, you’re going there to listen to someone who’s in a loftier position than you and they know some things. And so like we’re inventing this in real time right now. So what you hear, see and feel from pop up is exactly what we’ve experienced that day. And I know you’re going through this stuff as well, what I was going to ask you is like if your events company that you started all those years ago, was six months in and the virus thing happened? What would you do? How would you do it? And then I remembered that that’s actually a very real challenge. In your household right now. What’s going on?
Well, yeah, goes back to what I was saying. It’s not going well, we’ve got you know, we we started this year, or the beginning of where are we now caught? beginning of April, aren’t we? So we were looking at the beginning of March, we’re looking at all the bookings Lindsey who freelances in events, corporate events, and TV, making TV ads, I freelance in training, and we have a little limited company called Project two. And that’s our limited company. And that’s how we operate. And we looked at all our bookings for the year. And we looked at like close, we’re doing really well. We’re really like pleased with ourselves. We’re working out our profit. And thinking, yeah, we’ll do that holiday, we’ll have that big holiday in France we’re talking about. And we’ve also got a house for sale, and houses sold. And we’re going to a different a new house. So we want to do a lot of work to the new house. And with it, we’ve got the money to do that. So we were really like patting ourselves on the back is going well. And this was the first time we’ve got to a similar income since we had our other business because we had an events, our own events business, which we sold a few years ago. And after we sold that we thought that life would be easy and wonderful and straightforward and everything would be rosy, and it kind of wasn’t and we had lost our purpose. And we’ve been doing something for 15 years together and we weren’t anymore. So it’s taken us you know, close to two and a half years to get back up to where we were. So we were really pleased with ourselves And then lockdown happened. And every single every single piece of work booked with us, in Lindsay’s work and with with mine as well. So I’m doing pop up work has been cancelled, every single, including this year I was going to New York with pop up business school. And that’s been an imperious personal ambition to, for somebody to pay for my flight to go to New York and pay me to go to New York and speak to people that got cancelled, which is a massive thing. So everything’s gone. Everything’s gone. Now, fortunately, and because we’ve done some planning, we have cash to get through. So we’ve worked out exactly what we’re spending now was to say the other night about as we were already saving money, could McDonald’s is closed, we can’t drive anywhere. And we’re kind of like realising how much money we waste. So we’re going through every line on the budget, and we are really, you know, pulling it all in, and working out how much how long we’ve got before, we have to raise some money. And it will be towards the end of the year, we can last towards the end of the year. And then it’s going to be like we need to do something, we need to do something radical. So we’re watching. Or watching, there’s a thing called escape to the chateau. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, where people buy chateaus in France, and then do a mop. So watching that today. And then when I’ve got it, that’s it, we’ll sell a house, or buy a chateau in France, because they’re massive. And then when weed is legal in France will grow weed and sell it.
I was like, but we don’t know anything about DIY. We don’t know if in about I don’t want Chateau what you’re talking about. And I’m not interested in weed. So why even saying that? I’m just saying, just say. So it started a conversation about all the other things that we could do. And what we realised was that we have to have it, whatever we do has to be rooted in the stuff that we’re interested in, and the stuff that we’re good at. Because there is no point thing, there’s a gap in the market, or I’ve seen that TV programme, or you can make a few quid there. Because unless we’re interested, and it goes back to the pop up thing as well, the way we talk about it, unless we’re interested and passionate about it, the likelihood of us being successful, is very small. So I think that we’re looking at how we can look at the events work that we do in terms of my training work. And what actually is the essence of it if you like so mine is helping people start and learn from some of the mistakes that we’ve made. I’ve made and connecting meeting people all over the country. And I particularly like the face to face element of it. But embracing the training and the online side of it. And eating that frog is something that I’ve done via doing these live streams. So there’s opportunities for me to do that. And Lindsay was saying that a lot of her clients are really furloughed, I always want to say Furlong furloughed at the moment. And she’s having trouble getting to speak to them. And it was kind of like gone on pause. And they’re all like, yeah, we’ll be back in three months. We’re back in three, don’t worry, we’re back in three months. So she’s travelling, what can she do in that time. And so we sat down, and we worked out. But in that time, we are going to do what some people call the deep work or the golden tasks I used to call it and all the big stuff. So there’s kind of busy work of you the usual stuff of sending emails by new people, which is all important. And but there’s this other stuff. So we’re going to have those ideas that we always say on those brainstorms and those proposals for new stuff that we haven’t, or we make the excuse that we don’t have the time for because if anything, we’ve got the time to do it. So we’re going to look at new markets. For Lindsay’s talents, which is project management, event management, production skills within those new markets. And that’s really what we’ve decided today. But it’s got to be for us rooted in something that we’re interested in. So a weed farm on a, you know, in South of France isn’t really going to cut it with me equally if you’re a filmmaker, and there’s no films and I was watching a podcast today and someone said if you know you’re a filmmaker, and you make films and you think well, nobody wants this at the moment. I know I’ll be I’ll do podcasts. But why are you interested in podcasts? Are you good at podcasts? Or are you just trying to pivot the pivot sake? So I think it has to go back to what you’re interested in, and how you can adapt it for this world now, because every business has changed. I don’t think there’s a I don’t think anyone’s lives really hasn’t changed and every single business has changed. Some have changed for the better, and some are doing really well. But I’ve gotten what question was now kind of gone with yourself a bit.
I just I just liked listening to you. I agree with Katie. I think like the bit that we would chat you know the thing about So I’m really interested in this thing now because now I know that if you can get yourself into a good headspace, you know, and the whole be positive thing. Yeah, okay, we’re going to be sad, we’re going to be down, we’re going to be anxious at times. But you know, there’s some things that we can do to look after our mojo and not dwell on it and take the moment to go Blimey, this is a bit worrying, anyway, I can’t control it, can I? So I got to make sure I look after myself and my family and so on. And there are some people that don’t have a business anymore because of what’s happened. And they either need to adapt what they were doing, or they need to come up with something new. And there are some people that sat home and either out of necessity, they’ve never run a business before, but they want to run a business. And they think maybe now’s the time to prepare for it a little bit like Russell, PAT test down in Kent is saying that he’s laying the foundations now. And I think Teresa was saying something similar about all about getting prepared for the future. Kim Kim from Bolton, you know, Kim, thank you. Amazing Kim Pickering from Bolton and we’ve got so dead from Bolton on as well. The Bolton mafia are ganging up here. They’re coming on a pincer movement. Kim’s massively pivoted, and now collaborating with local secondary school to make face shields for the NHS. It’s opened up my mind to so many more possibilities for my capabilities moving forward. I mean, I don’t want to say the P word again. But I’m going to say that’s massively positive. And like, I just wonder, do you think that the advice that we give and the courses that we want to pop up? Do you think that the stuff that we say in terms of how to approach starting a business? Do you think that’s, it’s different now, albeit, that we might have to think more about online and other things? But do you think that the core message is the same? Do you think it needs to adapt? Or do you think it’s even more important that the fundamental way that we get a business started is as applicable, if not more applicable now than ever before? What’s on your mind you think?
more applicable than ever, because the energy that you need the action, the massive action, you’re going to have to take. And if that is driven by a passion, and an interest in something, then that’s going to get that’s going to push you and do some of the hard work, the stuff that we don’t always want to do, or every single bit of work that’s got to be done, you know, we are attracted some some areas of our business and other ones, we might not like, for instance, might not like making sales calls. But if we’ve got an interest and a passion and a love for that business, the core business and that’s going to drive us through. And I think that that goes without saying I think well, it goes without saying Never mind without saying you need to be interested and passionate about it. Because you’re going to convince people that you’re there, to serve them to help them. And I you know, if you’ve got that, if you can transfer that passion to somebody else, that’s what we say in the course, that gives you a head start that sales. We’re trying to sell something that you’re not interested in, and you’re not, you know, you know, you know, love it you don’t really care about it’s very, very difficult. We know ourselves when somebody is trying to convince us of something if they love that thing. If they genuinely love it is much easier, and I believe them more when they’re trying to sell me something, rather than just going through the motions. So to me, yes, absolutely. But we do have to think, again, we are in a different world, the world has changed, and it’s changing all the time. The first week was almost of this, this thing, almost like a novelty. may best be light. But it was kind of interesting. Week two is quite clear. This thing is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. And we’re kind of settling into week two. And I think as we go through the next few weeks, it’s going to get darker, and we’re going to get deeper. And we’re going to have to sort of settle into this and think well, if I want to start a business, I still can at this time. But keeping ourselves positive, and rooting it in something that we love has to be the right advice.
I love that Teresa said she spent the last two weeks going back through the course notes and videos and they are bang on more relevant than ever. And all of that stuff is freely available on our website, pop up business school at CODIT. UK on a step by step guide, which is on the website. We’ve got the server business survival guide, which is all of the content that we’re putting out to support people and various other places where you can dive into that stuff. And of course we’re working on online course right now. Joanne says has been approached by Lady has shifted her yoga and wellbeing company to 100% online and cross referring clients to other small businesses in the similar position, wanting to keep clients fully engaged by offering something hence the talking teacups as demonstrated at Doncaster wool market and I will be getting paid That’s what we love. Bruce, he’s confessed that he is actually from Bolton, although he’s lurking in some assets, but they haven’t discovered yet. And I guess, I think the question I wanted to ask you in a second was about the genesis of your first events company. Because I think at a time where people are starting to go, okay, yeah, right, we are where we are, I want to start something or I need to adapt my business into something different, or I need to try something completely new, because my business is over in this current climate. I want to ask you about how you started, because I think there’s some really cool stuff within that that’ll really help people. And before I do, I was just wanted to invite people to put in the comments. How, like, in what way, are you stuck right now, because there is there’s some really cool stuff that we can share. If we understand where you’re getting stuck, then we can think that through is the team, make the videos, develop the live streams, bring on the guests, and just kind of answer those questions as quickly as we can. And for that, we need to hear from you guys. Because every time someone asked me a question, it triggers another three or four ideas as to how we could support people differently. Let me give you before I ask Katie about how she started her business, I want to give you a quick flavour of, of some of the things that we’ve coming up. So Matt esslli, is a YouTuber, he’s got over 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. And the number is probably a lot higher than that, that was the last time I looked, he makes videos involving bits of wood, I might be devaluing that a little bit, the videos are phenomenal, I just don’t know much about carpentry. He’s coming on, because video, and online video has suddenly become super, super, super important. So Matt’s going to talk about his experience of taking a YouTube channel from zero, all the way through to 1000s and 1000s of subscribers, he’s going to talk about the algorithm, how he makes money from his YouTube channel through adverts, and through affiliate links, and how he upset Amazon and lost his ability to sell through Amazon and what he learned through that process. So Matt’s got loads and loads of experience, he has written a YouTube blog series for us, and we’re going to be launching it in the next few days. So if you’re someone that’s thinking about video for business, and how you get on YouTube, and how all of that stuff works, then then, you know, Matt’s gonna not only is he doing the post, but we’re gonna get him on the live stream. So you can ask him direct questions that are going to help. And we’ve got a very special guests from, I don’t know if I can say this yet. I’m going to wait till we confirm this guy before I say it out loud. But I’m super excited about that. It’s another events company that have pivoted their business in the last five days, and put the whole thing online. And I watched the live stream from him last night. And it was phenomenal, very, very exciting. And if there’s one guy that will get us off our backsides doing something, it’s going to be him. So he’s gonna join us. We’ve also got financial independence experts from different parts of the world. We’ve got the escape artist, we’ve got Christie and Bryce coming on, who are going to talk about the millennials, millionaire kind of mindset, and about all of the things that people that are very, very smart with money. We’ve got Ken from the humble Penny blog, they’re going to help us with money issues. So we’ve got all of that stuff coming up lots of exciting things in the pipeline over the next couple of weeks. So I’m going to dive into a couple of comments here. Laura said that procrastination is the thing that she needs help with. But let’s deal with that next time. So I’m sorry, Laura, we’re not we’re going to talk about that tonight in France. Right. Okay. I’m going to go back to the comments in a second. Katie, how did you start the events company? What happened?
Right, well, those people who have been to an event that I’ve, I’ve been the trainer on will know this story. So forgive me if you’ve heard it before. But it’s quite simplistic. The way we started the company, so we didn’t even know what we’re doing. So I’ll take you back to 2003 because that’s where it all kind of happened when I was considerably younger. And Linden islands is my wife. Now, she wasn’t at the time. We just worked together in an advertising agency. And Lindsay is one of these people who is very entrepreneurial. And I always make the joke that it’s cool. She was breeding and selling stick insects. So that’s kind of where she came from. She’s the same one who said earlier, that’s by a chateau and grow weed. So um, you know, she’s constantly looking for a different angle on things. And I’m not really like that. I always, you know, I always say because between the lines, I had a career and a job And now wasn’t interested in my own business. This is quite strong character. And for those of you who may have met assignment, I will know that she’s a very strong character. And she’s like, Oh, no, forget that. Let’s start our own business. And I was like, Why do I know I don’t do anything? I just work in advertise. I’ve done all right. I’m quite happy. Thanks. I’ll take my money. So at the weekends, she would go face painting, because we worked at the same ad agency, weekend, she would earn more money fit pace facing painting faces, Alton Towers, and I would spend money, because I would go and see Manchester City play. And so that’s what I did. And that’s what she did. And one day I was in one city and I noticed all the kids are got sort of smudgy homemade face paint on. I was like, Oh, they look rubbish. So I said to Linz, that evening, why don’t we ask Man City? Like, yeah, we have small city? Yes, last month at on Monday. So I went into work on the work email on our own computers at work. Using a Hotmail account, we emailed, we found the name of the marketing manager at Manchester City, and we emailed him from a Hotmail account. We didn’t have a company name or logo, or no, we don’t know what we’re doing to be quite honest, we just thought we just do it on a whim. And we emailed him and said, you need any face painters, for your next home game, wins and Katie, and that’s really what it said. And he emailed back immediately, like in a heartbeat and said, Yes, please, we’ll have 10. And what else do you do? And that, that is how we started. So we obviously hit the roof, oh, my god. Amazing. And then the reality set in that we actually had to do this thing. And we had to get to face painters. And we had to quote, we had to make up a price, which we did, we made about an incredibly expensive price. And we recruited Lindsay’s mates, and we were down one. So we had nine face painters, including Lindsay, and I had to be the 10th face painter. And that’s how we did it. And I went in there on that day. And if anyone’s ever seen, you know, good face painters, they are really artistic and talented. And it looks amazing. But that’s not really what happened. So the other nine did a great job. They are on the row, we’re at Man City, they were all in a row when I was there, and Lindsey, give me a quick sort of, you’ll be fine, you’ll be fine. Just just do this, do this logo. And she could just do it, you know. And I was like, really? So I did it. And I had a queue and we are curious to lift the kids on the on the seat, and I was doing it. And the kids started to cry when I saw you know, you see, it looked in the mirror and I was crying. And it was like chaos near me. The other night, it was going really well. And mind by the end, I had crying kids and no queue and complaining moms and dads, but the other nine did all right. And luckily, the marketing manager only really caught the other night. He didn’t get as far as me. So we got away with it. And we carried on working there for years. And what simply what happened is me. The Manchester City painters, we paid the face painters, and we took a cut in the middle. So between you and I, each sort of Saturday, we were making like 1000 quid. And this was in 2003. This is a laugh isn’t this is good. So from there, we started to see the opportunity. And we started to do all sorts of random things. We’d even know what we were starting, we weren’t even aware that this was an event company. And we got to the point and we do that thing, which I think Simon you talk about, really, we have to focus on one tip, you know, you’ve got lots of different ideas, you get the tip of your arrow, the one thing and we realised it was events that we were good at.
And we started to niche, our company, and we grew it over 15 years. And it turned into quite a big business. But it all started from me seeing a kid with switch face paint, and having to go and asking, and kind of doing a bad job, you know, Done is better than perfect. So we did all those sort of things. And that’s how it started. What would we do now? I don’t know. I mean, I think that we would look where the problems are. And I think if everybody who was already started, asks, you know, how were we serving? What were we serving our customers before this virus? You know, how can we serve them during this this situation that we’re in? And how do you think we can serve them after? And I think if you’re already trading and have customers, those three questions, what were you doing before they everything went wrong? What can you do now? What do they want from as what are their needs now? And what would they need to be afterwards? I mean, that you can’t see into the future. But if you can somehow imagine or visualise from the earnings you’re getting at the moment You can come out of this as a much stronger, potentially bigger business.
Love, one email, one email,
email one and simple email, email. Yes, we were lucky. They were lucky. And we didn’t it didn’t all hinge on one email. That was that’s what started us. And obviously over the years, we had to carry on marketing. But yeah, we didn’t have a loan, no, no loan,
you want a business plan? Do you want a loan?
We didn’t have a name. The company was called may 19. And that was the date. That was the date. But yeah, well, yeah, the day after, I think it was May 19. And that’s the day we actually started a limited company. Because we didn’t know any better. We thought, Well, isn’t that what you do? You start a limited company. And it was May the 19th. And that’s as clever as we were, which was not very.
So I think, the bit that I take from from that, that applies to now, to me that the circumstances are the same, except there’s potentially more channels where you can connect with people now than maybe there were in 2003, because you’ve got this explosion of social media, and each of those platforms is developed. And by the way, just on the loan thing. So James, in the team has been trolling governments, Representatives today, I think there was an MP that was encouraging businesses to take on loans. And look, you know, who are we to judge? If the loan is the thing that needs to happen? That’s the thing that needs to happen. But our position on that is it’s the absolute last resort, because it’s, it’s you’re going to be saddled with this thing for years. So, so James was I don’t know if James, whether you got a reply from that tweet that you sent. But if you’re on Twitter, check out James’s creative ways of engaging MPs and conversations. And yeah, that anyway, the bit that I took from this was that without a business plan without a loan, you spotted something. And you asked the question via email, and you just sent one email. We can’t guarantee those results. But I can guarantee you won’t get any results if you don’t send the email. So for those people that are stuck here thinking, I’m not sure which direction to go in, what’s the email that you could send? Who could you reach out to who could you ring even better ring? And I guess, like, let’s dive into some of the comments and questions here. So I think Russell electricity testing can’t get to a place of work, because it’s classed as non essential with the skills that he’s got. Carrie is a photographer in Tunbridge. So confidence, confidence in teaching what I know, that’s what I’m stuck on. Laura’s stuck on procrastination. Maybe there’s a link between the two, actually. But I just wonder, you know, what gave you the confidence to send the email. Let’s talk about confidence for a second that hopefully answers Carrie’s question. One or two other questions, where does confidence come from? How do you find the confidence to send that email and put yourself out there?
I’ve considered myself not to be a I’ve labelled myself as a shy person, somebody who lacked confidence. And in fact, I was sent on assertiveness course, when I was when I was younger, by my boss. So I’ve always decided that’s my label. And that’s what I was going to be. And there’s a little bit of me, that’s a little bit gung ho as well. So a bit like, oh, sorry, let’s just go. What’s the worst that can happen? There’s a bit of me like that. So with that email, it really was, why not? What can we lose? There’s nothing to lose there at all. The worst that can happen was that he wasn’t going to email back or would have emailed us saying, Don’t email me again, who are you? That was the worst thing that could happen on you know, nothing else really. So it came from that. And then over the years, working on my confidence, I’m not naturally a confident person. But like, my positivity, it is something that I do. I work on it every single day and put myself in confidence states, but then I am also quite proud introvert. So when I’m ready, I’ll switch it down and I’ll just not speak to anybody for a while. So there’s a bit of this Coronavirus, locked down which I’m quite enjoying. I live in peace.
I saw a meme about that earlier on with extroverts that are climbing the doorframes and shaking the windows out of the building but the introverts are quite happy that it’s happening around the computer they’re reading listening to music and similar questions similar but slightly different. And I really want to ask you this one because Helen has said Helens refusing to be stuck. Now I really love that. Don’t let this thing beat you. Don’t let this thing Stop your dreams, now is not the time to abandon the plans and abandon the dreams. Now is the time to make something happen. Do not let this thing disrupt any more than it already has that I love that Ellen’s mantra of refusing to be stuck. She’s made a decision. But she said, nevertheless, she’s disappointed at how hard she finds it going online with the training, and I bet you went through this in Doncaster a couple of weeks ago, where do you go? I haven’t got a room of people to bounce off. When I train. It’s all about the experience of being in the room and that human connection? How did you get over that when you were suddenly you know, you went from the room for the people to its urine in the bedroom with the computer and trying to figure out how to work the damn thing. When you haven’t got that bounced back off of people and you’re doing stuff online? How do you get over that? What was what did you tell yourself? And and how did you cope with the challenge? was a
little bit of what’s the worst that can happen? No one’s gonna up to be Morrison’s and start laughing in my face. And that’s not happened yet. There’s still
time that’s happened to me a personal story.
And the the way that I did it was I’ve always well, first of all, I’ve always put off the idea of doing online and decided that wasn’t for me, it was kind of something I didn’t want to do. So I’d made that decision. That it wasn’t going to be for me, it wasn’t the right thing for me, I didn’t, didn’t thrive in that environment. I need people to do this. So I’ve made all these kind of limiting beliefs. I think some people call those and decided to put that box around myself. And then when Doncaster it was quite clear that we couldn’t carry on in Doncaster. But I had a room full of wonderful, beautiful people that were having a good time. And we were going through the pop up principles and everything that we were working on. But we had to leave it. So when I was told that we’re gonna do it online, it was like, Well, yes, I’m gonna have to do it now. And I can’t use any excuses. And I’m gonna have to find a way to do this. So I set up in this room, and I use my phone, and on the ironing board with a bottle of gin on the side. And, and it’s the first time I’ve ever live streamed on my own only one other time or two of the times, I think when Alan’s done it to me, where he’s put his phone on live stream to me. And I had to do it. And the way I did it was I imagined the people in the room. So the energy that I get from people and the faces because when you do as a trainer, you’ll probably know this yourself that the regulars you get your especially in week two, you’ve got the people who are really into this now. And it tends to sit in the same place. So you know, where they’re sitting, you know, your front row, and you know, all your different people that you speaking to, and you see their faces. So I simply imagine they were all in front of me. And I started to talk to them as though they were in the in the room with me. And that got me through and actually I really enjoyed it. And that was a massive, massive frog. So now not only am I live speaker, but I’m an online trainer.
I love that, you know, it’s taking the Alan years to get me to do video and online live streaming stuff like that it never really excited me. It’s much more his bag. He’s really good at it. And like you I think now that I’ve done it, I’ve eaten the frog and just kind of got on with it. And after that, after that Monday, the 180k Monday that we had after that day, I think I went on live the following day and did a live stream and then did another one the next day. And then again the next day. Weirdly, I went on I really liked this actually this is quite good fun are quite enjoying myself. So I guess there is something about that comfort zone breach that you might accidentally stumble across something that you didn’t think that you’d like that you’ve been putting off for ages. But when you actually do it, you know it’s actually kind of fun. So I’m hoping that some people have that experience to Bruce, he’s taken a dislike to me something to do with the Bolton comments probably sorry Brucey. You did you did make my signature disappearance or crunchy bar though. So we’re quits now. What’s what some of the comments are really, really interesting. Lucy works in fashion. b2b offering a design service retails ground to a halt, and will probably go on for a while beyond the virus as it was bad before but was starting to pick up a little. I don’t know how
to comment on that because I actually sorry to interrupt but I have a nod back and scenes the future. But part of our conversation today about how things were changing. I have a real feeling that retail will get a bounce from this once we’re allowed out because we’re all dying to do things together and stop doing stuff online. So I think that actually we may find that retail gets a bit of a bounce. Sorry, Simon.
No, no. So I hope that I hope that for everybody. Lucy like the thing that’s gone through my mind when I read that that message that you don’t know how to pivot you You have got incredible skills that has got massive value and interest and lots of people. And I think that there is there’s a number of things that you could do. Whether it’s online tutorials, teaching your skills, whether it’s doing bespoke designs for people, because whilst there’s a whole bunch of people that don’t have money at the moment, there’s a bunch more that do for various reasons. So, you know, imagine if you knew 100% of your job was safe, but you just happen to be working from home, you know, government workers, for example. You know, they’re not spending any money anywhere else, this could be an opportunity to engage a different audience and try something different. Maybe you could sell your patents online, maybe you could interview other designers and drive traffic to a website that way. Maybe there’s a digital download that you could perhaps, you know, do an e book or a podcast, there’s lots of different things that you could do. But here’s here’s how to think about it. I always, whenever I’m kind of faced with a question like that, I always, I always look at the three areas of pop up I go, what’s the one thing that excites you the most, that coincides with something that is possible to do in the current climate? Who is the customer that’s most likely to buy it and take massive action, don’t do one Facebook post, do five a day, don’t follow, you know, three people on Instagram, follow 30 people every few hours, don’t send one email, send 100 Don’t make one phone call make 500 phone calls. It’s the size of the action that you take that link to something that excites you the most that’s possible, but only if you focus on the target customer. And the wraparound for all of this is love heart. Do what you love, all of that stuff still applies. And there’s lots and lots of help on the pop up website, the step by step guide will help you through some of the intricacies of marketing and, you know, thinking about okay, so I gotta reach out to people, I get that. But what do I write in an email? How do I make the phone call? What do I put? So we’ve got all of that sort of stuff there. I think one of the things that we wanted to do was to make an offer to the people that watched our live streams and the people in the pop up support group, if you’d be interested in us coaching you, through this time, when it’s linked to business, specifically, when I don’t mean life coaching, I mean, you know, some specific one to one coaching that you think I’ve got a business, I’m trying to pivot, I don’t know which direction to go, for example, or I’m actually making a few sales already. But how do I turn that into a bigger income? Or I’ve had to abandon my business completely, and I need to come up with something new, please, can you help me? If you would like the pop up team to coach you through that, then we are exploring ways that we could do that maybe we would record some of the coaching session and put that out as content because the the way that we answer your questions, and the way that we help you think about it will help other people. And the thing that inspired me to do that was I watched a an Instagram video this morning. It was a recording of a video coaching session delivered by someone famous and gazillions of people watched it. And I thought it was a below average job compared to the sort of coaching that Katie does. The Allen does that I do and other members of our team can do. So if you want to be coached by us, please put a thing in the comments and say, Yes, please, we’re going to figure it out. And we’ll come back to you on that one. We can’t promise that it’s going to be round to everybody. But we would love to help people in that format. Because I think if we can help you it’s going to help other people as well. So bear that in mind. Tell us in the comments if that’s what you want to do. marshy still work Marsha. You’re burning the midnight oil here. You can take the evening off please bless you, Carrie sold nappies door to door whilst on maternity leave. What else have we got down here? A handy tip from Oliver Oliver after dark. I do hope that’s your actual surname. That’s genius. handy tip affinity products are free to use for a few months if you want to learn graphic design skills. Interesting. Sonia loves your story. Katie, she never tired of hearing it. Joanne struggling to transfer the teaching to an online version as it has to be reduced dramatically. And I consider that less value derived. I want to talk to that specifically. I used to think that to get the pop up business school,
the full force of the experience, you need to be in the room to get it that’s exactly what I used to believe me till 12 months ago, I met someone 12 months ago who’s just sold recently sold a training business for an eight figure sum. And she said to me that when she started that business, she spent the first two years delivering it in the room and she believed that it had to be in the room to have the effect that it has. Do I want to say this Your training will work and could potentially work better online and will add more value online. It’s you’re probably thinking it’s the face to face interaction and the peer support, and the conversations that happen in the room where the value is then lost. Some of that can be replaced. But there are many, many ways that you could add more value than you could possibly add, just by doing it in a room full of people. So I want you to think that actually it’s the reverse just as a reframe for you on that stuff. delivering training online can actually have significantly more impact than you can have face to face. So I want you to consider that and we can chat about that some more. What else have we got here? Seven times. naivete is a blessing in disguise because you can just go for it without overthinking it. Yesterday’s I love that. Ellen’s preparing for opportunities. Buta overthinking, says Emma can Emma thanks for connecting on LinkedIn today. Kate’s dried up sales of the craft business craft packs have sprung back to life. Because I reached out to family and friends. Plus kits are now arriving and being made and word is spreading. I think it was just a blip. Yes, Kate TEDx your efforts go for at least as watching from Taunton. Russell’s very kindly said that we’ve helped him with confidence. Lisa’s saying no is not personal. Absolutely right. Kate, sorry, Lisa said she took my confidence in hand last week after the first zoom call and took the business from face to face online. And she’s had 50% of our existing customer base sign up. She’s really pleased. That’s brilliant. And those are the early adopters. Lisa, I bet that’s going to grow. Get them to tell their friends and family, online and live scares the living crap out of a brilliant Deb, let’s get you on the next live stream. Let me know if you’re up for it. Frog Legs are quite good says Chad, I agree with you. There’s lots of cracking comments in here. I’m not going to have time to answer them all. Now. I think what we need to do is I’ll be talking about actually people terrified going online. It’s quite a lot of that stuff. Tanya says yes, please. She wants some help coaching. She’s an MS and struggling with how to move forward and stay optimistic and confident. Sorry, that’s Ranua. Is that anymore? Tanya? can’t quite see my eyes going. Yes, it’s Tanya, not Ranui. There’s a Rania and Italian next to each other. Just to confuse me. That’s what was going on. Right? Blimey, it’s 10 o’clock already. So I guess like, Katie, if there was one thing that you would go, okay, so we are where we are, aren’t we? And I’m stuck at home. And I’m struggling a bit to get in a place where I can be confident to try something new. What’s the advice that you would give him that like confidence to try something whether that’s get online, make a phone call, send an email, volunteer, and we’re going to be talking about volunteering a little bit more on the next live stream. Because there’s a whole a whole army of people that are stuck at home that can’t do anything, we should be figuring out how to turn them into our virtual social media, warriors that if you can convince a couple of friends or family to jump online, on your behalf for a couple of hours a day. Imagine that you don’t have to do everything yourself. You could get other people to do it. But it’s got to start with you. How do you find the confidence to get started? Katie, what’s your tip? Get confident? Help us get confident? And feel it? Come on? You can do this? Not here. How are we going to get confident.
I go back to the here the core principles of pop up, change your state. Absolutely 100% Change your state don’t overthink things don’t catastrophize is another thing that I kind of do. catastrophize where I see Well, this is going to happen and then that’s going to happen and it’s going to go this and everything’s going to be awful. So try and pull yourself back from their focus and focus on the good things focus on the positivity Keep telling yourself and the things that you said, you know, we’re really with the with you now Simon You know, move, enjoy music, dance, walk like Beyonce, whatever it is, do those things you enjoy I love a bit of kitchen strictly put a bit of ABA or whatever it is just just do it doesn’t matter. And let yourself go and have some fun. And remind yourself that just just what’s the worst possible thing can happen going online or phoning somebody up. It’s not that bad. Nobody died from embarrassment that I’m aware of. It just is the worst a little bit cringy when you look it back to be honest, I don’t look at these back. I’m still at that point. I’m not going through them. Maybe one day I’ll go through them and I find it a little bit cringe a bit cheesy as the kids say, but just give it a go. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain and go back to basics. I think people need to go to back to base Six, just a conversation with Linda was having before we were talking about what to do, she went, you know what I would face paint. I could go back to face painting when all this is done and we’re allowed out again. And actually maybe she needs to do some face painting videos and teach other people how to do it. We’d go back to the very basics and give it a go.
I love that the thing that I’ve taken from that up until recently, my gateway has been Rage Against the Machine or nirvana for a state change. But now, I think tomorrow I’m going to be walking like Beyonce. So if you’d like to see that video go live, then tough, because it’s not going to happen. Oh, maybe it should. I don’t know. Nikki says that she loves us, too. When I came to Westerham, especially for our chat about confidence and social media. Yes, I remember that. You made me cry. Sorry about that. Nikki, I do have a track record of making people cry. That’s something to watch out for if you agreed to coaching, but it helps us get out the other side. Katie, you changed my life last year in Maidstone, from the menopause hag? I want to comment. Nice. I love that.
And is that supposed to be me? Or her?
It could be? I don’t I don’t know. Like, you’ll have to sort out with her. I’m sure. So look, folks, there’s one message from me. And that is please tag and share anyone that you think needs a little bit of help with their business, if you think that they would benefit and enjoy and, you know, get some support from having a coaching coaching session with me or with Alan or Katie or the pop up team to help them make some changes, adapt, pivot or start something new in their business? We’re up for that, because we think that would actually, we think that would actually be fascinating content for lots of people and help many people. So we are going to do that. Please say yes, please in the comments, if you think you’d like to go ahead, and we’ll make a note of those and we’ll come back to you on it. final message for me is YouTube if you want to figure out how to get your videos on YouTube, if you want to learn about how to do video effectively from someone who’s got 1000s and 1000s of subscribers from scratch and they didn’t take very long to do it and a couple of years, a few years of making these videos. Then tune in nine o’clock on Tuesday evening for a Facebook live with myself and Matt esli and maybe Alan if he makes it back from America in one piece. Thank you very, very much everybody for watching and for listening. And we will see at the next one