Our podcast guest is -  Evan Carmichael - author of Built to Serve, founder of Evan Carmichael Communications, Inc top 100 leadership speakers, Forbes top 40 Social Marketers.
 
An inspiring conversation, we discuss:
Why leadership is an endless mountain to climb but help others climbing behind you
Why it's important to do things that scare you and give you a boom, boom moment!
Help others get where they want to be
Why he fired a great employee 
How to deal with self-doubt
Evan's 3 practical tips for getting ahead as a leader
The importance of the 2% rule
Connect with Evan at his website
The Lead To Succeed podcast is presented by Callum and Rebecca Jenkins.
Sponsored by RJEN, unlocking the growth potential in businesses. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This week our guest is Danny Matthews, the Founder & Creative Director of Danny&co. Danny has had significant experience in two different industries, the financial sector and creative graphic design and shares insights on leadership and entrepreneurship.
Danny kicks things off by sharing a  leadership analogy he remembers from a picture he once saw, a pack of wolves climbing a mountain, but being led from the back by the lead wolf, not the front. For Danny this summarises his perspective on leadership - it's all about empowering and motivating your team from the back, encouraging them to be their best selves so they want to get better, rather than being the leader at the front who is 'pulling' their team forwards.
Danny's take on effective leadership is centred around the beliefs that a leader has, not necessarily the traits they exhibit. For example, Danny is currently growing his team from 3 outsourced members of staff to 8 fully-fledged employees, which in itself is a great achievement, but his focus is on a results only work environment (ROWE) style of working, which is about results output rather than hours worked. This gives employees a sense of freedom and builds trust in the team, going back to a core belief of how leadership should be, rather than a specific trait. 
Danny goes on to share his views on the challenges he has faced in growing an SME business. This is about the trade-off he experienced between focusing on creativity and focusing on lead generation and growing the business. Coming to the realisation he had to step away from the creative side of things for a period of time in order to focus on growing his business for it to have the impact that he desires.
Lastly, Danny shares his advice for aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs about purpose. Understanding what is your purpose for creating a business and having a clear answer to this will enable you to put in the long hours and go above and beyond to deliver your goals of setting up and growing your business. 
You can follow Danny on LinkedIn.
A big thank you to Danny for being on our podcast with us!
 
The Lead to Succeed podcast is presented by Callum and Rebecca Jenkins. It is sponsored by RJEN a business that unlocks the growth potential in companies by finding, gaining and growing the best fit clients.
 

Our review episode with guest Jordi Ferrer of ServiceNow. 
Original podcast description
Our guest this week is Jordi Ferrer, VP & GM ServiceNow - UK & Ireland, one of the fastest-growing global SaaS companies. 
 
We talk about what traits make an effective leader and this comes down to the ability to listen to your team, seek to understand them and enabling a sense of trust. Jordi shared an analogy we really liked,  'allow the team to take the risk & I'll provide the safety net.'  This relates to helping your team feel supported and empowered, knowing that if things don't quite go to plan they will not be negatively affected or blamed. As a leader, Jordi is there to encourage people to be proactive and give them praise when it works out, but if things go South, he is there to be held accountable, not pass the blame to his team.
We discuss one of the challenges he first faced when he became manager of a team, many people unfortunately referred to as the 'screw ups' team.  However, after taking the time to understand each person in that team and building the right culture of transparency, respect and purpose, the team went on to become very successful within the organisation.
We discuss the importance of building mutual trust with your teams, in order for both parties to get more out of the relationship of working together. Listening more to one another to ensure both are understood, especially important if the relationship between an employee and manager is perhaps not as smooth as one would like. But also being able to reflect and be hungry for feedback as a leader is essential, like holding up a mirror to yourself, how do you know how well are doing if your team don't tell you? This comes back to the aspect of building mutual trust so that your team feel enabled to give you honest feedback, without fear of recrimination. 
We wrap things up by discussing what the future holds for business in the UK. Jordi believes we will continue to see the creation of new jobs that don't currently exist, flatter structures in organisations (such as managing upwards) and more emphasis on being an emotionally intelligent business - exciting times ahead!
As always a big thank you to Jordi for being on the podcast with us today and thank you for listening.
 
The Lead to Succeed podcast is presented by Callum and Rebecca Jenkins. It is sponsored by RJEN a business that unlocks the growth potential in companies by finding, gaining and growing the best-fit clients.
 
 
 

Our guest this week is Jordi Ferrer, VP & GM ServiceNow - UK & Ireland, one of the fastest-growing global SaaS companies. 
We talk about what traits make an effective leader and this comes down to the ability to listen to your team, seek to understand them and enabling a sense of trust. Jordi shared an analogy we really liked,  'allow the team to take the risk & I'll provide the safety net.'  This relates to helping your team feel supported and empowered, knowing that if things don't quite go to plan they will not be negatively affected or blamed. As a leader, Jordi is there to encourage people to be proactive and give them praise when it works out, but if things go South, he is there to be held accountable, not pass the blame to his team.
We discuss one of the challenges he first faced when he became manager of a team, many people unfortunately referred to as the 'screw ups' team.  However, after taking the time to understand each person in that team and building the right culture of transparency, respect and purpose, the team went on to become very successful within the organisation.
We discuss the importance of building mutual trust with your teams, in order for both parties to get more out of the relationship of working together. Listening more to one another to ensure both are understood, especially important if the relationship between an employee and manager is perhaps not as smooth as one would like. But also being able to reflect and be hungry for feedback as a leader is very important, like holding up a mirror to yourself, how do you know how well are doing if your team don't tell you? This comes back to the aspect of building mutual trust so that your team feel enabled to give you honest feedback, without fear of recrimination. 
We wrap things up by discussing what the future holds for business in the UK. Jordi believes we will continue to see the creation of new jobs that don't currently exist, flatter structures in organisations (such as managing upwards) and more emphasis on being an emotionally intelligent business - exciting times ahead!
As always a big thank you to Jordi for being on the podcast with us today and thank you for listening.
 
The Lead to Succeed podcast is presented by Callum and Rebecca Jenkins. It is sponsored by RJEN a business that unlocks the growth potential in companies by finding, gaining and growing the best fit clients.

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Lauren Tickner, the CEO of impact school and Forbes 30 under 30!
Lauren kicks off with an insight into how her 7 figure business came to be. From deferring entry to university, Lauren decided to work at an asset management firm where she had the realisation that by staying in a role like this she might ultimately end up feeling unfilled and unsatisfied. Combined with the difficulties her brother faces in his daily life, Lauren realised her ability to create freedom for herself whilst impacting the lives of others, she felt almost a moral obligation to live her life to the fullest and achieve the freedom she desired. 
Around this time she was hugely obsessed with the world of fitness and always dreamt of creating a physical product somewhere in the fitness niche, but having tried several attempts at this, it didn't quite go to plan. Lauren was massively intrigued by the growing number of people she saw online, providing fitness coaching for others and being able to travel the world. Lauren decided against the advice of her colleagues to start making content that helped others and get herself out there!
After being dropped from sponsorship by one of the industry's leading fitness companies, Lauren was still able to travel and live the life she wanted, which gained the interest of her friends who were in a similar position. By sharing what she was doing with her friends and word of mouth marketing - led to the creation of what is now Impact School.
Following this story, we talk about the importance of mindset and taking care of yourself, physically. Whether you aspire to run a lifestyle business or leave a legacy and create something huge, fundamentally it comes down to the mindset you have, that dictates the decisions you make. As well as this is the importance of personal development, being able to grow as a person to become the individual that delivers on the goals and vision you set for yourself. Taking time to focus on yourself every day and doing the things that will move your business forward the most, is really important.
By overcoming some of the challenges faced, Lauren shares how this has ultimately made her a stronger person and completely transformed how she handles certain situations and having an outlook such as 'how can this make me stronger?
Lastly, we discuss how anyone can start to hit their goals and achieve their dreams:
Get real with yourself and don't put off making a start, don't wait for things to be perfect, get yourself out there and listen to the feedback from your customers to improve. But make a start.
Focus on who are you serving, exactly, and constantly focus on your business development based on the needs of your clients.
This was a really inspirational and motivating podcast! A big thank you to Lauren for sharing her story and the lessons learnt along her journey.
You can check out Lauren's free course at: https://www.impactschoolmba.com/optin-424046561599145628038
Connect with the podcast hosts
We'd love to hear your feedback on our podcast, such as how to improve it, so feel free to get in touch with us
Callum Jenkins
Rebecca Jenkins
 
Find our more
The podcast is sponsored by RJEN, helping companies to unlock the growth potential in their business at pace and with tangible results.
To find out more contact us at email@rjen.co.uk
 

Our podcast guest is Leon McQuade - Technology Evangelist | Co-Founder, Think Cloud | Trustee Andy's Man Club | The Pig Wrestling Podcast
What we discuss
Leon shares insights into his career and how it was an appointment with the Doctor that made him appreciate that he needed to gain leadership skills.
We talk about:
How his children helped him to make up his mind to make a big decision about his work.
How he has to work at not making everything perfect, better to get it out there.
Why being authentic as a leader and asking for help is essential.
How being so focused on the goals might not always the best way forward.
Leon's commitment to helping others through Andy's Man Club.
Connect with the podcast hosts
We'd love to hear your feedback on our podcast, such as how to improve it, so feel free to get in touch with us
Callum Jenkins
Rebecca Jenkins
Do you want to take your leadership and business to the next stage of success?
If your goal is to grow your business and you're feeling stuck or you'd like to become a more impactful leader, book a complimentary consulting session with business growth specialist Rebecca Jenkins to gain a fresh perspective and clear guidance to reach your goals.
RJEN.online
Rebecca has over 25 years of business growth experience, growing a previous business to over £55 million in sales. Rebecca now helps many other businesses to successfully scale.  
Click here to book your session.
 
Thank you for listening and if you enjoyed it please leave a review and subscribe for more leadership insights or email us at email@RJEN.co.uk with any questions.
 
 
 
 
 

Our podcast guest today is - Matt Giggs | Property Industry Leader | Agency Mentor | Entrepreneur.
What we discuss - How Matt went from lacking direction in his life when he faced challenging times, losing his brother and being rejected at football, to growing a number of profitable and successful businesses. 
We talk about:
Is working from home at the peak of its trend?
What is emotional intelligence?
Know your direction as this enables you to have the right team onboard
How the right role model makes a significant difference to your progress as a leader
Learning every day is essential
Connect with the podcast hosts
We'd love to hear your feedback on our podcast, feel free to get in touch with us.
Callum Jenkins
Rebecca Jenkins
 
Find our more
The podcast is sponsored by RJEN, helping companies to unlock the growth potential in their business at pace and with tangible results.
To find out more contact us at email@rjen.co.uk
 
 
 

Today we talk with Leanne Bonner-Cooke, the founder of e-bate LTD, which provides Rebate Management Solutions. 
Leanne shares her story of leaving her corporate consultancy role to start her first business and what she learnt from this experience. We talk about having the right vision, strategy and values in place in your business so that you can use this as a target and evaluate progress against it in order to keep driving forwards and push through tough times to achieve the vision. In addition to knowing your vision, it's the ability and importance of communicating this to everyone in your team.
We go beyond talking about vision and discuss how to evaluate if this is the right vision, based on where your business is vs the competition - is the strategy correct? And appreciating that whilst we are a team everyone is also on their own journey. It's about getting buy-in from the team and breaking down the overall vision into objectives for each team and how that translates into specific KPIs for each team member. 
Leanne also shares her views on the importance of looking outside of the business, both for new team members, to recruit individuals who share the same values and attitude you hold as a business but also for support, mentorship and networking, to help you grow as an individual.
 
Leanne shares a very personal story of how she was diagnosed with cancer, yet still had funding to complete, a team to support and a business to run and the resulting worries that arose from this.  A really helpful piece of advice was shared, that will help others in challenging situations.
To wrap things up, Leane shares her key pieces of advice for aspirational leaders and business owners: 
- remember to focus on the health of the business and your vision - it's your responsibility,
- try not to instruct others, but inspire them,
- the importance of adapting and continuous professional learning.
A big thank you Leanne, for sharing your learnings throughout your journey of setting up and running multiple businesses, in addition to the major personal challenges you've overcome. All of which  showed insights into your resilience and leadership.
 
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The podcast is brought to you by Rebecca and Callum Jenkins and sponsored by RJEN - helping companies to achieve high-performance growth.