Emily Shenton - FreshIdeas Events Mentee

The end of the beginning

2009-05-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

At the start of this week I attended a mentoring-debrief over at Business Link by London Bridge. This provided me with a great opportunity to reflect on the journey of the last 6 months, which is formally coming to a close on Thursday evening (which means this is my last blog!)

At the start of the relationship I had set some goals for the 6 months and I am pleased to report that I hit a sum total of '0' of them. In the spirit of Eurovision this weekend, "nul pointes for Ms Shenton".

So, I'm not sure I will be in the top contenders to win the 'mentoring competition', but I don't mind.

When asked on Monday about what I thought I had got from the mentoring process I broke it down into two parts. The first I described as 'technical business knowledge' (hiring, funding, sales process etc) which has obviously proved really valuable. The second, which I have commented on througout my blogs, was the personal development side of things.

In terms of the latter, I spend a lot of time talking to young people about 2 core concepts - expanding what 'you don't know you don't know' and 'closing the gap' between where you want to be/ achieve and where you are now - and working with Caroline, especially in the last few months, has been a structure to help me develop in both of these areas.

If I am ever asked to mentor I will try to approach it in a similar way of looking at both the 'nuts and bolts' of business, as well as the internal 'person dynamics' part. After all, the growth of our business is completely dictated by the speed at which we learn, develop and adapt both ourselves and our knowledge.

One final note, thank you to the people who have slightly unnerved me over the last few weeks by telling me that they have read my blog. I never expected anyone other than Jackie - the great lady behind the competition - to actually read anything I wrote.

This has been a tremendous opportunity and would really like to thank Jackie for all her efforts - including chasing me to post my blog! - as I think this is one of those things that I might look back on in a few years as a key point in the development of AE and ES.

Mining a rich seam...

2009-05-01T06:40:00.000-07:00

About ten years ago I visited a silver mine in Bolivia, a place of vast natural deposits that almost single-handedly funded the Spanish Empire at the height of its power. 400 years on and the miners are working exhausted seams, living in povety and dying at the average age of 36 from a combination of respiratory problems, liver damage (96% proof alcohol anyone?) and coca- addiction.

"Fascinating, Emily", you might say (but probably won't) , "but how does this relate your mentoring relationship with Caroline?" When I wrote my last blog I was about to see Caroline and I went armed with a long-list of things I wanted her advice on and with hindsight I wish I had taken that approach right from the start. Like that silver mine 400 years ago there is simply so much of value that I haven't yet tapped in to.

Our last conversation swung from recruitment, to equity partnerships, from really understanding the profitability of the business (with one fell-swoop of a pen and napkin my business went from being pretty to pretty ugly) to working with the government and then, finally, thoughts on how to structure the business. As a result my bank holiday weekend consists of arranging a meeting with an accountant friend to move us from a cash accounting system to a projects based system; writing up job descriptions and writing an initial template for recruitment. I will also be producing a weekly template to keep track of all our deliverables across the business and producing targets for all areas. Sounds terrible I know, but I am actually (sadly) quite excited as I can see the difference this will all make to our growth.

Fortunately, Caroline has already offered to keep meeting over the summer and I am hoping that before we end working together formally in the Autumn I can mine the untapped riches of information/ experience to power the expansion of the Arrival Education empire - without resorting to alcohol, coca-addiction or the Inquisition.

Moving up a step

2009-04-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to seeing Caroline tomorrow to help me think about how to build a really successful team. Recruiting new people is exciting but also a little daunting. Mentally and financially it is a big step and one that I know there is no magic answer too, but one that I feel I have very little experience in. Why is it that some people fly and others don't. I have seen many people come and go in past jobs and there is no single answer. However, to build a strong foundation on which we can grow hiring the right people seems to be the first place to start. There are so many potential pitfalls - that I have tumbled into in the past - but now the stakes seem so much higher. I will be asking as many people as possible (with the relevant experience) for their view so that we can avoid any really schoolgirl errors. Any top tips from any readers would be much appreciated!

For the last 2 weeks I have been delivering programmes which has been an exhausting but exhilarating experience - who wouldn't love working with 17 year olds to help them work out what they want to do with their lives and helping them develop pathways towards success? Having had a mental break away from the day-to-day running of the business Dan and I have been having lots of chats about all the gaps in what we are doing. He has been spending a lot of time capturing all the questions/ delivery aspects that and I believe a 13 page document awaits me tomorrow. Although its been challenging discussing and facing up to all the things we are not doing well I think it will provide some much needed focus and help us define our recruitment needs/ funding needs etc so that we can make some momentum-building decisions.

We are moving up several gears and about to make some big next steps. The next month could see us transform quite rapidly as a business...I'll let you know how it all goes.

Looking back/ Looking forward

2009-03-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

My mindset is always about seeing how far I still have to go, but coming up to the end of the quarter its quite useful to look back to the start of the year to reflect on how far we have come.

We had our plan at the start of the year and we are on track to achieve some targets, but not others. We have some rabbits to pull out of hats over the next fortnight and we are looking at 'to-vc or not-to-vc' to help us grow at a much faster rate. In some respects we are completely 'at' where we wanted to be, in others we still have a long way to go and the interesting question as I write this is why I think some goals have been achieved and others have not. I don't have an answer just yet - that'll be my thought to mull over as I head to the pool for an end of week swim.

At the same time I think my focus has gone from 'surviving' to thriving and over the last few weeks we have started taking steps to build up our reputation as the best people working in the area of behavioural change, business engagement in the community and life-education for young people and their communities.

This thought process has been helped not only by Caroline, but also by having a few other great, super-experienced people come into our orbit and helping me to expand my thinking. Its sometimes easy not to see the wood for the trees and making sure I have people who I see regularly who can help me see the wood is invaluable. What is starting to become clear is that we will only achieve what we want by building a team of people who can help us...in the same way that we talk to our students about creating a 'success team' we are starting to build ours.

So, with the first three months of the year gone I would give us a 6/10 - not bad, but not great - but with some of the foundations we are laying I am excited about what the next quarter will bring.

The cusp...

2009-03-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

The 3 weeks have been all about 'firsts' - the first time we have run programme 'x', the first time we've had a 'celeb' visit one of our programmes, the first really substantial funding application, the first pitch for a programme involving not only students, but their parents and teachers. Its been exhilarating, illuminating and challenging and we have learnt so much.

So many of the things we have talked about over the last 24 months are actually starting to happen and as a result it feels like we are moving into a new phase of expansion. We know that what we do works and is setting the standard for the market - at least that's what everyone is telling us - and now its about resourcing and finding great people to help us fulfill on our vision.

No doubt Caroline will have some great pointers when I see her later today. Its invaluable having people to talk to who have gone through this process and who can help navigate the tricky waters to hopefully avoid hitting the rocks.

The joy of adventure

2009-02-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

The recent mentees/mentors get-together at the sumptuous HSBC private wealth quarters was useful in particular when one of the 'mentees' declared her frustration at the (slow) pace of progress in the early part of the business. It seemed to be a feeling shared by a number of us - myself included. Karen Darby replied with a nugget of great advice that has stuck with me. Whilst I can't recall the quote accurately, what she said went along the lines of 'Ladies, this is the best bit of it all. Its the rollercoaster. When you get to the point of boardrooms and management that's just not as interesting'. And it reminded me partly of why I went into this in the first place - for the (as-my-mum-would-say) 'heebie-jeebie' moments, the wondering if/ how/ when it will happen, the 'can we pull it off?' feeling, the 'if that doesn't happen...' train-of-thought. In short, for the adventure. For the need to be creative, innovative and resourceful. To find ways through a seemingly impenetrable wall. To get-going and keep-going. On that note, its Friday evening and I have prospecting for new people to call to get on with...

The challenge of finding a niche

2009-01-24T02:50:00.000-08:00

When I last met with Caroline before Christmas we discussed how to go about testing a proposition in the market place and discussed the idea of 'soft pitches' - talking to potential customers and testing out the proposition to see what resonated and what didn't. At the end of the conversation we set the challenge of 5 soft pitches to potential customers before we next see each other at the beginning of February. The point of this is to avoid the pitfall of going away and working really hard at a 'fantastic concept', announcing it to the world, and realising that the 'genius idea' in our heads wasn't actually what people wanted to buy. She also told me not to bother with a business plan at this stage but a simple proposition (a paragraph or two) to convey the idea. I have managed to 'pitch' a couple of people in the sector (and a lot outside) and its been really interesting watching people's faces and hearing their instinctive response to what I've been saying. Its fascinating what 'washes over them' and what they say 'I've not heard that before - that's really interesting'...and its often been the small throwaway thought that I didn't think had much merit that they have responded the best too!

Our proposition is steadily evolving - although I wish we could find a way to speed up the process, or that I had a faster brain...but as someone once said "There are no shortcuts for experience" - ain't that the truth.

2009 - some non-resolutions

2009-01-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

I don't buy into the effectiveness of New Year's resolutions. However, there are some things that I have started to do in 2008 that I am excited about doing more of in 2009:

- Tune into my instinct more and understand what feels right to me
- Make more decisions and make them more quickly
- Find great people who are great at doing things I am not great at - and then find a way to work with them
- Make time and space to expand my mind and thinking - find ideas and opinions that challenge my world view to help me work out what I believe
- Make sure I step back to see the big picture of what we are creating - I think I can do this by regularly connecting with all those wonderful people who think that we are doing great work and spending time in different environmental spaces
- Remind myself to enjoy the journey
- Change the way I view exercise - rather than a luxury of time that I cannot afford in my empire building, it is a fundamental part of my success. It helps me be more balanced, clearer and energised. That's got to be a good thing for our mission
- Spend time on the things that matter - both professionally and personally. I think my life will become simpler and a lot more fulfilling
- Work out what I love doing and what I am great at and spend my time on this rather than spending time doing things that I don't enjoy not very well
- Be more choosy about what I listen to and tune into - enough of the doom and gloom!

I think if I can continue to develop my faculty in these areas I will have a great year

2008-12-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

One of the things I find fascinating about running my own business is observing how in tune (or not) I might be with this 'thing' I am creating. Where is it going, what is it doing, who do we need to help us along our way...With my natural controlling tendancies I often want to manage the process and put nice structures in and whilst that is a very useful thing to do (especially when trying to create a scalable model), too much of that limits the scope of my thinking, putting a cap on opportunity and growth. I notice that when I do take a step back interesting people and opportunities appear (often people - including potential clients - who I might have given up hope on). So, whilst I often think of breaks as 'luxuries' I am increasingly realising that taking a regular 'mental' step away (in this case - a weekend on the south coast with my grandmother who doesn't give two hoots about my business - she just wants to make sure I am fed good 'n' proper) is as necessary as doing my VAT return.

The challenge of juggling detailed operational thinking with big picture strategic stuff is part of what I love about my life, but sometimes I get the wrong thinking style going at the wrong moment with very frustrating consequences. I think I am going to start breaking my week and days into operational detail work and the big picture stuff - perhaps by using these two categories when drafting my to-do list, I might be able to use my brain in a more effective way.

I have also hugely enjoyed a book recently that has really challenged some ideas that I have held. 'Talent is Overrated' by Geoff Colvin is a treatise of hope about what it takes to be a high performance individual. He brings to life the idea of 'deliberate practice' and debunks the myth of innate extraordinary performance - its all down to specific practice...which if I can bring that to my working life should help me achieve some of my long-term goals (although I hope I have made some headway as he states that it usually takes 'ten years' of four hours of deliberate practice a day as the benchmark for any extraordinary achievement). Its already had an impact in a couple of areas where I realise I had told (sold!) myself that 'I'm just not good at that...' - I realise now that I had given myself a great get-out clause that justified avoiding just doing the work. Ouch!

Meeting with my mentor

2008-12-11T03:39:00.000-08:00

I met with Caroline this week and she has set me a challenge to meet with three HR Directors before we next. I have managed to set up two meetings so far and just need to find one other. Caroline has also been flying my flag and has already introduced me to someone pretty senior and experienced operating in our area of interest.

Intense Experience
My hour and a half with her was an incredibly positively intense experience. What was great was that in spite of identifying a number of gaps in my knowledge and work the way she approached it was so supportive and helpful that in spite of my 'Doh!' moments she always made me feel like everything was completely natural and that we were doing a good job.

Given the difference just one session has made has made me feel so enthused about the future.

This week has been about lead generating and creating our 2009 overview. We have been pretty successful at generating some new leads as well as helping my existing team produce some strong results.

So far..

2008-12-11T03:36:00.000-08:00

I am meeting with Caroline next week and have sent her over various things to look through (business plan; marketing materials etc).

What's been going on

We just completed a foundation programme this week with a group of students from Essex and the last day was held at Skanska at St Paul's. We also saw a real behavioural shift amongst another group of students we are working with from Paddington Academy.

At the previous session (held about 2 weeks ago) they were 45 minutes late. For the session we held with them this Tuesday one group was an hour early (getting to the venue at 8am) and everyone was there at least 30 mins early. So something obviously shifted.

What's next

Next week I am drafting a potential leadership development programme with Virgin focussing on a Summer Success School for our students based on the Virgin values and 'Star employee model'.

We also had a meeting about a potential JV which we have put on ice and we have sent out our first 'we're hiring' communication.