The GM Business Growth Journey continues with our BGH Alumni
Back in June, we hosted our first ever BGH Alumni Showcase at Bruntwood Bloc in Manchester city centre. It was a fantastic event, and it was great to bring our community together to hear about what we've been up to, what’s going on across the GM landscape and what we have planned in the future. Our BGH Alumni community focuses on continuing the GM Business Growth Hub journey, so it was wonderful to see a mix of BGH Alumni, clients, Partners, and other guests from the business community making connections and having a proper chat over their coffee!
Our Alumni Showcase
With insight, inspiration and community engagement central to our offering, the showcase started with an intro from our Business Development and Partnerships Manager Nick Shepherd who provided a warm welcome to our community. We kicked off the morning with our keynote speaker, Ryan T Williams. You may have already heard Ryan’s story. In a nutshell, he’s a multi-million-pound exited founder and a dynamic public speaker, consultant, and business coach with a fervent dedication to inspiring entrepreneurs and innovators through his remarkable journey in the digital media landscape. Starting his social media company from scratch with no initial investment, Ryan bootstrapped his way to success, leading to a lucrative exit.
However, he went much deeper than that. He told us about how, when he worked in IT, he set up his Slow Sports News and Deluded Brendan parody accounts on Twitter as a hobby. When his combined Twitter following exceeded 2 million (!) Ryan made the biggest decision of his life and set up KOMI with his friends, Andrew Trotman, and Matt Thomas. Yet it wasn’t all plain sailing. Covid followed hot on the heels of a move to bigger premises and an extended team, plus there were more challenges along the way.
Then in 2022, following a successful exit from the KOMI Group, Ryan shifted his focus towards nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs through his mentorship and speaking engagements. The key points of his session? Be a risk taker, be resilient, be ready and be positive.
Next up, Your Affordable Board’s Andy Henderson facilitated a YAB session with our guests. So YAB is a peer-to-peer business leader community, focused on growth through structured helping and NOT awkward selling. Andy explained that it was a bit like therapy for business owners! We split into small groups and worked as teams to solve a problem in a 'mini-Mastermind' activity. It was really interesting to get to grips with the problem through discussion, and to then offer guidance one by one as to how to solve it.
This exercise demonstrated the essence of YAB's mission: 'to create a space to support each other through the highs and lows of business ownership...working together to do valuable and meaningful work, solving problems and celebrating successes, whilst growing ourselves and our businesses in a profoundly meaningful way.'
We then had lightning taster sessions from our Partners Carla Speight and Jennifer Dootson. First up, Carla discussed the keys to Unlocking PR and Marketing to elevate your business. She stressed how important it is to know your brand story and your target market. She talked about Soap Box Topics and content columns (a simple way to generate content if you get stuck). She explained how to familiarise yourself with the news landscape so that you know where you fit in within the media. And she provided a simple formula to create a perfect 1-liner pitch, which is not always an easy exercise.
Our final speaker, Lightbulb Moments’ Jennifer Dootson, considered how to create a company culture that supports growth. We began by asking ourselves what is culture, and does it matter? We agreed with the definition that culture is the 'norms, behaviours, and values that are displayed and accepted by individuals in an organisation'. And that you are on a hiding to nothing if you are resistant to (necessary) change and your approach is 'well that's the way we've always done things round here...' Jennifer also identified five Company Culture quick wins that everybody immediately saved on their Favourites bar!
A final brilliant equation from Jennifer? E = D x A x S. In other words, Empowerment = Direction x Autonomy x Support. And her parting shot? DON’T RUSH THINGS…
Community Spirit
As you can tell, it was an epic, hugely productive morning. Thanks again to everybody who attended and a big shout out to our guest speakers Ryan, Andy, Carla, and Jennifer, whose contributions gave our audience plenty of food for thought and highlighted how being part of BGH Alumni can really help you and your business.
Also, thank you to Harley Bainbridge for capturing these great moments on camera.
Start your BGH Journey
If you would like to find out more about BGH Alumni, you can contact the team at bghalumni@growthco.uk.
And if you would like a more general chat about starting your own Hub journey, please get in touch.
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