Interview with Oriana Gorrin

The Wise Scribe (www.orianagorrin.com) is a Hampshire-based small freelancing business. Our goal is to offer high-quality written content creations. Launched in June 2020, The Wise Scribe aims to offer a good, affordable copy to solo-entrepreneurs and online businesses. Oriana Gorrin is the founder and the mind behind this appealing project. She is passionate about doing small things in a great way. She is a fully qualified teacher and a Spanish native speaker.

The Wise Scribe was born in Oriana’s studio over the unparalleled lockdown times. Having a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in Education, she has always had a way with words. After almost five years of experience in creating and editing content in different local schools, she was ready to specialise in content creation. As a storyteller, she believes in the power of words whilst providing an exceptionally crafted and curated copy.

The Wise Scribe’s philosophy embraces a sense of authenticity and innovation in her works. She prides herself on providing an efficient, personable approach while having a strong organizational skillset in her day-to-day work. Oriana finds inspiration for her copy from a wide variety of sources including nature, movies, music, videogames, mindfulness, passages from different books, and even in the magic of the ordinary experiences, among others.

The Wise Scribe offers her content creation services on Upwork freelancing platform. There, she is a top-rated content writer with only 5-stars rated projects and will be happy to connect with you today.

Interview with Finola Sloyan

I set up SloyanPR in 2015 and work with sales’ teams, C-suite and global solution providers of technology to maximise visibility and relevance of their brand (individual and company) to the end customer. I believe that PR builds credibility and validation of a brand, and of the people in front of it. Mediums used to relay information are, in the main, articles, blogs, media releases, video interviews, LinkedIn profiles, social messaging.

People buy brand names they know and trust and it’s important (truthful and sincere) messaging makes a prospect feel there are:

1. functional benefits (it will do the job),

2. there is a psychic value (we see something of ourselves in the product or salesperson)

3. Investment value – it must be a good investment.

Employee advocacy of a brand is another very effective way of communicating a company’s culture and expertise through the voices of key personnel. It’s authentic and people respond to people more readily than with a brand. Having your employees speak for your brand is very powerful.

Interview with Felix Leech - The Flexible Stuntman

Bringing flexibility stunts to film & TV while transforming people with chronic pain & stiffness to thriving again in work, social and day to day life. For any query big or small, just drop me a message. 

Interview with Wendy Harris

WAG is a no nonsense telemarketing and LinkedIn training expert with over 30 years in the B2B field. Our bespoke training package “Making Conversations Count” has been designed to relate to each person and their needs when introducing their product or service to new customers. Whether it is a team or individual that needs support in picking up the phone we are able to help them gain confidence which turns into credible connection with opportunity to do mutual business. Wendy has a podcast and a book all connected to Making Conversations Count. Passionate about enabling people to talk more and email less, it’s important to use our online activity to drive our real world relationships.

Interview with Richard Woods

Introducing The Million Dollar Sprint Facebook Group…

We want to challenge you to stretch in 2021 beyond getting leads. To stretch in all six of the important areas of your business for scale. We want to challenge you to Sprint to a Million Dollars!

Our community have said that its one of the most inspiring groups to be part of, with value bombs flying thick and fast!

Every week we share:

- Exclusive training on how to scale your service business to 7 figures and beyond

- Marketing, Sales and Service Delivery tools, software and methodologies that will jump start your growth and save you a ton of time

- Answers to a variety of questions all about how build a sustainable scaled business.

It’s totally free to join if you’re a service business owner.

To join the Million Dollar Sprint Facebook group CLICK HERE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MillionDollarSprint

Interview with James Perryman

Momentus was founded on the belief that becoming our best selves starts with understanding ourselves. We help individuals and businesses realise their potential through carefully-crafted coaching and communication programmes centred around them. Our core three areas of focus are Career & Leadership Development, Team Effectiveness & Engagement and Customer Experience & Engagement.

We work with businesses to help them develop (and retain) leaders who inspire, breakdown barriers between teams and functions, and create customer experiences that convert. We support individuals to help them navigate career crossroads and find new ways forward, to embrace the unknown and unlock new professional possibilities, helping them to communicate more effectively.

Interview with Mike Bristow

About Mike Bristow: Mike Bristow is the CEO and Co-Founder of CrowdProperty (www.crowdproperty.com), the UK's leading specialist property project online lending platform. With a background in strategy consultancy advising major corporates and private equity funds on corporate strategy and buyouts, Mike has been investing in property since 2002, investing in high potential proptech businesses since 2014 and sits on the Investment Committee of Pi Labs, Europe’s first and most prolific venture capital fund investing exclusively in early stage ventures in the proptech vertical. Mike has an MBA from London Business School, was named in the Peer2Peer Finance News Power 50 list in both 2018 and 2019, is a founding board member of the Innovate Finance 36H Group alongside other leading peer-to-peer lending platforms and was named 'Entrepreneur of the Year' at the Midlands Business Awards 2020.

About CrowdProperty: CrowdProperty is a fintech/proptech online-lending innovator, exceptionally efficiently matching the demand (quality property professionals undertaking quality property projects) and supply (retail/institutional investors) of capital for value-creating property projects, delivering a better deal for all – borrowers, lenders, the under-supplied UK housing environment and spend in the UK economy.

Actual property development and investment experience lies at the heart of the business meaning hands-on, expertise-led due diligence and loan monitoring. Lending is focused on the SME property professional market, a key segment for supplying much needed UK housing stock, which is poorly and inefficiently served by traditional funding sources. CrowdProperty funds property professionals undertaking any sort of property project (including auction purchases and bridging), structuring the perfect funding product and doing so with greater speed, ease, certainty and expertise than anyone in the market. As property people providing property finance, we intimately understand the market needs. CrowdProperty has lent £100,000,000, funding the development of over 1,200 homes worth over £200m since 2014 and has grown both lending and revenue by over 1,000% over the last 3 years.

CrowdProperty is authorised and regulated by the FCA, is an HMRC approved ISA / IFISA manager, attracts significant SSAS Pension and SIPP Pension capital and is a founding member and only property specialist platform in the Innovate Finance 36H Group (and formerly on the board of the P2PFA / Peer-to-Peer Finance Association). CrowdProperty became the first and only property P2P lender to become Brismo Verified, independently validating CrowdProperty’s market-leading performance, showing significant outperformance of Brismo's UK P2P Index.

Interview with  Dr Alisha Damani

Alisha is a Junior Doctor working in the NHS. She is also the company and medical director of her wellness business, The Drip Stop: a medically-led service delivering intravenous infusions and intramuscular shots of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to support a healthy lifestyle and to improve our wellness from within. Providing increased hydration, a boost to your immune system and even plugging in amino acid building blocks following workouts, 100% of all vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are delivered straight to your circulation for immediate use. All her products are vegan and certified for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Aside of her business, Alisha is a Mindset for Success Coach and has founded The Medic Today: a podcast discussing what it really means for us to be human before who we are as our academic and vocational backgrounds. In these conversations, she shares the personal, emotional and mindset challenges encountered by professionals who are defined yet limited by their career, as well as the tools to navigate this growth in the process of creating a life that is the fullest most authentic expression of who we are in every aspect of our lives. For those of us feeling 'stuck' and in search of a glimpse of what's possible and the opportunities waiting for you out there - this is the place to be.

Interview with Sheryl Andrews

When we are at our worst it is often hard to ask for help. Those that do reach out often experience frustration because the response or reaction often makes them feel worse not better. What many don’t know is there are as many as 8 different kinds of listening and many start chatting without making it clear to the listener what they need from their time together. This can result in overwhelm and frustration for all involved. When this pattern repeats it can leave you feeling quite alone and isolated. If talking doesn’t help and staying quiet doesn’t either what do you do?

Step by step listening work with small business owners to make sense of what is happening and what kind of listening they need to transform overwhelm into clarity and confidence.

Interview with  John Holden

CABiz (Calling all Businesses)

An exciting new Launch of a Digital Networking Academy to help boost Somerset businesses throughout the COVID Pandemic has been launched in Taunton.

John Holden lives in Bishops Lydeard with his family and is a Local businessman, entrepreneur and founder of CABiz.

 John’s vision is to encourage businesses, community groups and charities across the region and beyond to learn, adapt and go digital to promote their message using CABiz online training platform. 

CABiz Academy has 12 experts and specialists to help train, coach, people and organisations needing help with their online technology skills. 

John Holden a former Royal Marine based at 40 Commando Taunton and is passionate about Local communities and its business economy. All the evidence points towards technology as a useful solution to work through this pandemic. Using technology to collaborate better, will provide many simple solutions for our businesses, local communities/charities groups to collaborate and work together. Helping to overcome some of the mental pressures such as isolation, loneliness is key in supporting people's mental Health during this winter lockdown. 

CABiz networking Events provides a free business online Zoom event platform for all types of businesses, start ups, community groups and charities, to promote their message via the digital means, Zoom, Google Meets, Teams, What’s App Messenger and so many more. 

CABiz Academy provides the skills along with free Video and Podcasting rooms for its members along with pre-booked office space (COVID SAFE) to work from if required.

Almost all businesses are having to work from home and adapt their working environments along with having to use online video tools to communicate.

Many people find talking through a screen extremely daunting and lack the technical ability and confidence to join in or attend, along with suffering from anxiety and fear being seen as foolish.

CABiz offers a simple friendly approach to find your way into these changing times.

Interview with Nancy Hyne

True Horizon to support SMEs develop a triple bottom line strategy that balances people, planet and profit. We are facing a climate crisis and although many businesses recognise the need for change, they struggle to know where to start and how to sift through all the complex and conflicting information that we seem to be bombarded with on a daily basis. My mission is to simplify sustainability and support brands in building an effective strategy that will reduce costs, improve resources efficiencies, boost customer loyalty and trust, all while improving their bottom line.

Some areas I support on include:

- Environmental certifications like ISO 14001 and B Corporation

- Setting science based targets

- Developing a net zero carbon strategy

- Emissions calculations and reduction strategy

- Swapping to renewable energy

Interview with John Ryder

Lifestyle Choices also known as LSC is an award winning a social start up, small charity organisation founded by myself John Ryder.

We have been Winners of Nest Stand Out Participant Enterprise Showcase Portsmouth. University Award 2018.Nominee for start-up of the year award 2019.Nominee for entrepreneurial spirit award 2019.Winner of the Southcoast University Dynamo challenge 2019.Runner up Santander Student funding award 2019.Dedicated civic impact award winner Portsmouth university 2020 .We also have a numerous amount of volunteers and champions .

Our aim is to help, support and assist agencies and their service users and in general members of the numerous communities across Portsmouth and Hampshire and anywhere in general with any life issues that they may come across.

Our ethos is to offer professional and friendly advice guidance and signposting regarding those wanting to better their life choices LSC Lifestyle choices is a small non-profit charity I started whilst at university in Portsmouth studying a degree in criminal justice and criminology , we have been running now since ,2017 in that time we have manged to help many people from all across the social spectrum, in issues ranging from domestic violence , debt support ,legal signposting , civil court and family court support and signposting ,career empowerment , employment tribunal support and guidance, confidence building, bailiff issues ,policy and procedure business ideas alcohol and drug awareness issues , mental health and much more ,

Interview with Cynthia Wihardja

Many self employed professionals struggle to position their uniqueness and market themselves. I have a 9-step approach to help you find your genius and create a comprehensive marketing approach that suits your style, so that they can reach the life of their dreams without wasting any more time, hope, and money. See my BRAVE marketing framework here https://thebravezone.com/a-comprehensive-approach-to-market-your-services/ and if you want to talk about your business and get some fresh insights, please book a free discovery call here https://thebravezone.com/book-a-brave-discovery

Interview with Richard Pointon

The Employees of Get Fresh Shower Specialists Ltd have over 25 years within the shower industry, we specialise in the Repair and Replacement of all shower types. Our aim is to ensure that our clients can make an informed decision on whether their shower could be repaired to help reduce landfill and thus helping the environment or would it be more cost effective to replace the shower with a product that suits their needs and the water system within their properties.

Interview with Katharine Rose

Your Sales Partners Ltd – A Podcast on why it’s more important than ever to stay in direct 1:1 phone contact with your customers and your prospects in this new ‘remote reality’, with tips on how to build your own call script, sales process and strategy.

With a phone call, you only get one chance to create the best impression and lay the foundations of your future business relationship.

If you aren’t calling them, then your competitors will be.

If you are customer facing, in sales, or using the phone in any way for business then being comfortable and confident with taking and making calls is essential. But knowing how to use tone, actively listen, question, use empathy, spot and manage timewasters, get past gatekeepers, handle objections and close are not skills all of us have and even the best of us get rusty or stuck in a rut.

Your Sales Partners was set up this year by Katharine Rose and Samantha Lakin as the training and consultancy arm of their B2B telemarketing businesses having originally started working together on various lead generation projects since 2009.

Katharine began her telemarketing consultancy Telemarketing4business in 2007 and in 2015 it became Ahead4business Ltd which better reflected the range of work she was doing with clients This included training their staff to have more confidence on the phone, get better sales results and adopt sales processes that build their sales funnels, as well as providing lead generation and telemarketing support.

Katharine and Samantha have a combined experience of over 50 years between them working across a range of sectors including recruitment, technology, life sciences, manufacturing, commercial, IT and creative, with businesses large and small. New start-ups to expanding sales, customer service and recruitment teams have benefited from their first-hand experience in the field and their natural empathy, warm approach and delivery.

Your Sales Training

They have written and developed a series of specialist Sales, Phone Skills, Customer Service & Recruitment Training (The Happy Recruiter) modules that can be formed into bespoke workshops. These are designed for the complete novice through to the experienced professional to help them keep customers happy, close and consistently generate more new business leads over the phone, remotely and face to face.

Your Sales Starter Kit

This is a complete ‘sales process in a box’ that works brilliantly alongside the training modules or as a standalone sales system that can grow with your business.

Tried, tested, proven processes and templates that, by following the instruction video clips as you download each one, can be adapted to your own business and enable you to build your own sales process. The kit includes:

• Your Cold Call Script & Your Softer Call Script
• Your Sample Open Questions, Your Sample Objections & Your Closing Techniques
• Your Proactive & Reactive Emails
• Your LinkedIn Connect messages
• Your KPI and Weekly Report
• Your Sample Database & Qualification Process

Tele-coaching

Evidence and feedback strongly demonstrate that having a weekly short 1:1 tele-coaching call alongside and after the training significantly improves the overall results and ongoing outcomes for the trainees. Increased phone confidence leads to more consistent lead generation, more retained customers, more closed sales and overall higher job satisfaction and sales.

If you recognise that you and/or your team are not using the phone to its full potential to keep your customers close and your sales funnel full, then it’s time to get in touch.

• yoursalespartners.co.uk
• katharine@yoursalespartners.co.uk
• T: 01903 770711
• M: 07958 716428

Interview with Alexandra Galviz

At the age of 24 Alexandra found myself employed as the Head of Training and Development for a Foreign Exchange Company in The City. After experiencing her very own quarter-life crisis, she decided to leave the corporate world and create my own definition of success. On the day she left that job she wrote a post that went viral on LinkedIn.

Since then she’s been named LinkedIn Top Voice UK twice and has become an official LinkedIn Learning Instructor. She’s best known for blogging under the hashtag #AuhtenticAlex where she smashes one stigma at a time. She’s also the co-creator of #LinkedInLocal, the biggest hashtag campaign on LinkedIn that created an offline community and scaled it in over 100 countries and 1,000 cities.

She now help individuals and businesses grow their presence on LinkedIn, helping them find their sense of purpose and tell their own stories. By doing that herself she’s attracted work from brands such as Shell, Deloitte, Dyson, Microsoft, BP, Institute of Directors and Fiverr all through the power of building her Personal brand and Thought Leadership on LinkedIn.

Interview with Danby Bloch

Helm Godfrey Partners Ltd – how tech is boosting better client outcomes and adviser productivity

Danby Bloch

The pandemic has accelerated the use of tech in our business, although there has already been a revolution in the use of tech in the financial advice sector in the last five or more years.

Helm Godfrey is a 25-adviser independent wealth manager and financial adviser firm mainly operating in the south east of England. The main office is in the City of London but we have clients all over the country, especially around Oxford, and geography is increasingly irrelevant with the greater use of tech for meetings with clients.

We look after more than £1bn of clients’ money with a growing emphasis on responsible investing’. Helm Godfrey specialise in investing for individuals but we also have an employee benefit business that looks after companies and their staff. The firm in its current form goes back to 2000, when five separate smaller businesses geo together, some of whom dated back to before WW2.

The main driver of the introduction of tech in the business is the improvement of the client experience and the impetus to provide better and more consistent advice and processes across the business. Providing financial advice is a complicated process covering investment, pensions, insurance and tax planning. We need to record, analyses and understand each client’s aims, circumstances and needs.

Our aim is to digitise our care of clients at all stages from recording their aims and objectives, values and circumstances through to buying, selling and reporting on their portfolios and other financial plans. Increasingly, and especially as a result of the pandemic, we are seeing clients regularly by video conferencing. That saves time for clients and advisers but something human and valuable can be lost if we aren’t careful. So we expect to go back to a lot more face-to-face meetings for clients who want that when it is safe and possible to do so

We regard the tech we use so extensively as a means to make the advice more personal and more powerful. It is a means to enhance the personal advisory service rather than to replace it. 

One of the key ways to enrich financial planning is to use a tech approach called long term cashflow modelling to help clients think about their future needs and spending by prompting them to focus on their lives in the future after they stop work. They think what they will need to spend money on each year and the adviser projects their likely income to see how long it will last, using reasonable assumptions about their pension income and their investments. We normally assume an expected lifetime of up to 105 years – because an increasing proportion of people live beyond age 100. The danger we are aiming to avoid is that people will run out of money before they die – we need a margin.

These projections of income and expenditure need reviewing each year to monitor how clients’ investments are performing in relation to their current spending and future plans. We use a well-known technique called stochastic modelling or Monte Carlo simulation to gauge the probability of achieving the projected outcomes – an approach that has only relatively recently been applied to this planning technique. If a client’s portfolio goes up more than expected that might allow higher expenditure – but if there has been a decline it might mean that spending will have to be trimmed for a time.

Long term cash flow planning has also become one of the main ways to help decide what sort of portfolio to recommend to particular clients – how much risk they can afford to take on. We can project the impact of a decline in the value of a portfolio on possible future expenditure. Some clients can invest very substantially in riskier assets that should grow in the longer term better than assets that are less likely to fluctuate in value – they can afford to see their portfolio decline for a time without it affecting their spending. Others can’t afford to take this risk.

It is also possible to use the technique to help a client determine whether they can afford to make substantial gifts to family members – which would have much the same potential impact as an investment loss.

Interview with Alice Elliott

Alice Elliott, aka Fairy Blog Mother, has adapted her “explaining things simply” skills to move from blogging onto commenting. The Commenting Club was set up to educate people about the value, benefits and powerful connections commenting, engagement and interaction offers both businesses and individuals, so they will not only do more of it, but do it correctly, profitably and strategically.

Interview with Louis Morris

Founded in September 2017, LGM AVIATION LTD is a global supplier of commercial aircraft parts and integrated services. Core customers include commercial airline operators, banks & financial institutions (aircraft lessors) and aftermarket services providers worldwide.

The company provides a range of services including Part Sales, Repair Management, Tailored Technical and Financial Solutions & New Aerospace intelligence.

Interview with Elton Boocock

Elton Boocock is the founder and Managing Director of two companies in different sectors, proving that good business skills are transferrable and experiences learnt in one business, can only but help the other to succeed. Having started his first business (Urban Media) aged 24, a lot of what he now takes for granted, has come through learning at the coal face. During the last recession he established with the help of other local business owners, the Wycombe Business Expo in a bid to help struggling small local companies. He was chosen to help Dragons Den’s Peter Jones select the pilot group of new entrepreneurs for the National Enterprise Academy, has won various awards and is a regular on BBC Three Counties Business and Finance show. With a list of business successes to his name, he insists that it is the failures and mistakes that have made him the business person he is today.

Elton’s original company is the one he is still at the helm of and is a digital marketing agency. Given that he started the business before anyone had heard of Google, he has seen many changes. He also runs a ‘software as a service’ business whereby installation companies use his software to run their entire business.