Jordan Brompton joins me to chat about what it really looks like to build a business from the ground up, the messy middle, and why chaos, freedom, and fun are non-negotiables.
From building a £65m company to walking off stage at Google mid-talk (yep), this episode is one for anyone who’s ever questioned whether they’re cut out for the next level.
Spoiler: you absolutely are.
Highlights:
(03:15) Starting work at 12 for sweet money
(12:42) Why Jordan ditched comfort for chaos
(21:08) The £1.6m funding story
(27:50) Hiring a CEO and stepping back
(36:35) Keeping team culture fun (and a bit wild)
(49:22) Choking on stage at Google (and surviving)
Connect with Dawn:
- Instagram @dawnmcgruer @dawnofanewerapodcast
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnamcgruer
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsort/
- Web www.dawnmcgruer.com
This podcast is in association with @HerPowerCommunity – The #1 Female Founders Global Community where connections flourish & growth is intentional.
Transcription:
Dawn McGruer
Hey, it’s Dawn McGruer, the business growth.
Jordan Brompton
Coach, and welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast where we talk all things health, wealth and happiness and where founders share the good and bad and ugly of being an entrepreneur.
Dawn McGruer
Welcome to Dawn of a New Era podcast, Jordan. And I’m going to start off because literally every time I start my podcast, I always go back into kind of the how did we get from where we are today?
Like, how did it all start? Because many people will know your story, and it is an interesting story because it’s not really a woman’s world, I wouldn’t have thought.
So how do you get into it? And where did it all start?
Jordan Brompton
Firstly, thanks for having me, Dawn. It’s nice to be here. And where did it start? I mean. Oh, my gosh, my business journey.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
So I’ve always been, like, quite entrepreneurial, and I’ve never truly known what I’ve wanted to do. Like, I’ve always been jealous of people that have gone through school and been like, I want to be a doctor.
I used to love at them and think, how do you know? Like, I just don’t know what I want to do.
So the second that I was, like, old enough to work, and I mean, 12, 13, not technically old enough to work, but you know what I mean, I just started grafting, like, either. At the Sunday market, I would collect glasses, I would help out just wherever I could at shops, or even younger than that.
My nana used to bring me to her office and I would help her on days I’d used to think I was doing important, doing, like, admin work for the farm. Like, I’ve just always been interested in working. So the second that I. I could do that, I guess I did.
And I’ve always wanted financial freedom and independence, not because of anything other than just being able to not be a burden on anyone or not be beholden to anyone. I don’t like owing anyone anything. So I think I’ve always just had that natural independence.
So I just threw myself into the world of work from the youngest age that I can remember.
Dawn McGruer
And when you think about, like, the value of money, like, one of the things you just mentioned, there is working as a child, and for me, one of the most precious moments was, was actually doing those jobs.
So many people I talk to have never gone through that, but I feel like it literally got me to a point where when I was kind of going to interviews and things, it didn’t phase me. So I. I did breakfast waitressing. I worked in a Sandwich shop. I mean, I did all of these things. I did car washing, like, paper rounds.
And I remember one of the worst things was the IKEA catalog. Like, when that came and you got like an extra seven quid bonus, it was amazing.
But honestly, it felt like some of it, you know, was tough, but it was a real kind of like, carving out of, like, who I was to be. And I think my ethic about work, my ethic about money, and my mom and dad would always say, you know, we’ll match whatever you earn.
So what was your feeling about money? Because you said that you never wanted to be sort of beholden to anyone. What’s your kind of mindset about money?
Jordan Brompton
I’ve never grown up without. So my mom and dad have always the very working class, but have always done whatever they can to provide a good life for me and my sister.
So I never felt like I went out. But I understood very early on that my dad didn’t love his job.
He was like, getting up at five in the morning every morning or going working month on, month off and leaving us girls at home. And it used to break him, like, having to leave, but he would do it. And he used to say to me, drum it into me, Jord.
Just don’t ever do something that you don’t enjoy. Don’t wake up every day doing something that you don’t enjoy and get trapped in that rat race. So I guess that really, really resonated hard with me.
And I didn’t want to put any pressure on them, added pressure from a young age to provide things for me. I didn’t want them to feel, like, the pressure of having to sort out my first house or, you know, anything like that. So I just.
And I just wanted to earn my own money. And I think I got addicted to that feeling at a young age.
Like, even if it’s just a few quid, it’s like, that’s my few quid that I can now go buy my own sweets with or toy with or whatever it is that I choose. I felt something quite. It felt quite liberating in that. And then I used to look at business owners around my town.
Like, I grew up in a working class town, Grimsby, and I’d always be more drawn to people that had their own businesses. And I’d be, like, studying them, watching them, looking at the lives that I would sort of want.
Grew up watching Hollywood, and in an era where social media was popping off and it was like people posing in Lamborghinis and you thought that that Was all real. Do you know what I mean? Now you look at it and realize people just hire and stand outside of them and a lot of it’s fake.
They call the credited up to their eyeballs. But when you’re growing up, you’re like, oh, like that’s what I want to aspire to be. And I was, I was quite just young mindset.
Like, I want all of that shiny stuff. I want to experience the world. And it’s money that allows me to do that.
It was from an innocent place of really just not wanting to be a pressure and added pressure to anyone and also just enjoying having money.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong about it.
And I think there is this kind of like whole issue about people saying it’s bad to talk about money. And sometimes, you know, people have been brought up where, you know, you don’t talk about money. It’s one of these things. I was lucky.
I grew up in quite an entrepreneurial family where I just kind of believed that anything was possible. Like my future was kind of, you know, infinite in terms of whatever I wanted to do. And I think. Yeah.
And it definitely made me sort of more risky in the way that I approach things. And I started my first business at 21. It was actually after losing six people in six months. And it was something at 19, 20 that I hadn’t experienced.
But all of those things made me even more resilient in business.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
What do you think has kind of kept you, like, hungry and determined, like, even when things were challenging in business?
Jordan Brompton
00:05:42.350 – 00:07:17.140
I think providing some support for my family. So being able to help family out feels good. I like, like to give. And also just with financial freedom comes choice.
So I guess having choice is important to me. Like, I don’t want to, I guess because my dad don’t want to be stuck in anything that I don’t want to be in.
Or if you’re being treated a certain way that don’t feel great, you know, being able to walk away or leave from it. Leave it. Or being able have time with family.
Like, I’ve got a daughter and a husband, and I didn’t want the hustle to be everything to the detriment of, like, my family. So I’ve been really trying to get the balance right in life. And I believe that, like, financial freedom brings that.
But I’ve only learned that as well with a bit of age. Like, as soon as I hit my 30s, I wasn’t bothered about, like, the, the Lambos and the extravagant Stuff I didn’t ever fall into that trap.
I put my money into my family and time with my family, and I think that’s what gets me up and keeps me going. Because I’m like, how do I achieve this for as long as possible? How do I make sure that I’ve got that for life? And then now I’ve got a daughter.
It’s like your whole, you’re not doing it for yourself anymore. You’re now thinking, well, how do I create sort of like generational wealth? Or how do I do it so that she’s got the choice from the off?
She’s not having to hustle and take those jobs that you don’t, you shouldn’t be taking, or that you don’t want to take or take a bad deal because your skin or you need to. I wanted to be able to just have free reign.
But then I’m also, I’m like, well, I had all that stuff and I quite like how rounded it’s made me as a person and self aware. So I’m like, oh, God, you don’t want to make it too easy for them either. But it’s balance. Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
And I, you know, if you look back to some of your favorite things you did as a kid and things, I do think that if you experience things in the right way and you have like an education around money and its importance, because really, everyone I interview on this podcast, it’s not money, it’s the freedom that it provides. It’s like the business is the. The fuel to kind of get you the life or the dreams and goals you want.
Jordan Brompton
Exactly.
Dawn McGruer
So for people who don’t know about your business journey, what was your first job and how did you start your first business?
Jordan Brompton
00:07:47.400 – 00:12:49.670
I can’t even remember. Like, my first job was probably. I’ve done all sorts from like hairdressing to working in education, to caring to working in all the nightclubs.
I used to be a dancer. I’ve danced all my life as well. So I was a dancer and did DJing for a bit. Like, you name it, I’ve done it all.
But I guess my first mini business was like I was teaching Zumba and that was my first taste of self employment. Yeah. So I wanted to keep my dancing up when I left, like dancing in the clubs and things like that. I wanted to keep my fitness up, so I did Zumba.
But then me and a business partner set up a cycling distribution business.
So I had a French friend who was mad into his cycling and was like, I can get these brands from France and I was like, okay, I can sell them into the uk. And his English was really broken. I didn’t speak any French, but it was like, okay, get me those brands and I’ll sell them into the uk.
And before that, I’d had a taste of the renewable industry for a few years. I’d worked with a friend who’s not my now business partner within my energy, which I’ll come on to.
But I worked with him for a little while doing sales and admin sort of bits and he was a manufacturer and I loved being able to control the prices and working out the commercials as a manufacturer.
But then when I did my distribution business in cycling, I realized very quickly that I hated being a distributor because I was being pinched by the supplier in France and I was being squeezed by the customers in the uk, like your large customers, like you wiggle, chain reaction, things like that.
And I very quickly realized that in those few years I got the business to a point where it was comfortable, had a nice little company car, was making money, but it was never going to give me financial freedom. It was going to be a slog.
And it wasn’t really like my passion, but it taught me enough, like base, base level stuff and made me realize what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to be a distributor because I was like, I can’t. You’ve got to hit serious volumes and it’s so competitive.
And really my passion was within the renewable energy industry.
When I did this little job, I like somehow found it and clicked with it and really worked with it and built my whole LinkedIn and network around that.
So when the opportunity came up, unfortunately for my business partner Lee, his business went out of business and he didn’t think he was going to go start a business again or anything. He was going to go get a job and chill out.
He’d made a few quid, but he come knocking on my door and was like, you was mad passionate for the industry. We didn’t give you what you wanted at the time, which was just some commission basically for what I was selling.
But he was like, do you want to start this, this thing up with me? Because I’ve got a few ideas for some products. And I was like, oh my God, yes.
Because I just knew everybody in the renewables industry, been reading about it, loved the idea of energy independence. So although we talk about financial independence, I fell in love with what renewables could do for you as individuals.
So like just solar panels on the home and the product with we’d developed was you could heat hot water for free from your solar panels. And I just saw this whole world unfolding that wasn’t even there yet. So it was like an epiphany.
It was like I just knew that that’s what I was meant to be doing. So I folded my other business and just went all in with Lee for my energy. And that was in 2016. So he approached me early 2016.
We registered the business 26th of middle of the year. But I said, look, I’m getting married in September. I’ve got a few things to do with my previous business.
Let me settle everything down, let me get married, because I’m in like bridezilla zone where it’s like wedding on the brain. Let me go and have my honeymoon and I will come back and I will give you my all, like all my energy and we’ll grow this business together.
So that was 2016, so. And it has been like the maddest roller coaster since then.
Literally went from me and Lee and a few engineers to begin with who were developing the products.
I was developing the brand, building data sheets, going and speaking to my customers, building out my LinkedIn pre selling, speaking to influencers online, see if they pushed the product. Once we got it out and just started like sewing the sowing the seeds. When we launched the product, it just sort of started snowballing.
And then we got the product reviewed on one of the biggest, like, podcasts and YouTube channels in the industry, totally by chance, because they don’t do that normally. But they fell in love with the British manufacturing story.
They fell in love with the fact that you could charge your electric car directly from the sun and no one had done that before with our new products. So our whole world just went crazy.
Like, we climbed to market leader position, like within the space of three or four years, million turnover profitable, built a factory, employed. We had 400 people at one point all around the world. And it was just wild, like crazy growth over those first five years or so.
And then we experienced some difficulty, like all businesses do. Subsidies were all pulled by the government.
The Suez Canal blocked all the supply chain microchip shortage because silicon wafers and things like that were all of a sudden obsolete after Covid. Covid. So it was just as, well, as much as it was great, it was also like bloody, bloody difficult.
But it’s just been the maddest decade of my life building that business.
Dawn McGruer
I love how fast everything goes. Like all of these entrepreneur stories that I hear, there’s always like A turning point.
And when you get into that fast growth, was there a point where you really felt the fear? Oh, yeah. Everything was staged chaotic and out of control.
Jordan Brompton
00:13:04.790 – 00:14:06.750
Yeah. Like on the outside it looked like, amazing because it just.
We were winning awards, we was expanding all over the world, we had an amazing team and it was fun. Like, I will never, ever forget that time, but I don’t think there’s ever been a point in my life where I haven’t felt stressed.
Because you’re still worried at every single point. Every bit. Still new. Every single second you feel like an imposter. Every single second you feel like it’s just going to collapse tomorrow.
Like, I used to wake up and be. I’d be like, surely everybody’s got a zappy by now. Like, how are we just still manufacturing these products? Who’s buying them?
Like, I couldn’t believe how many electric cars were being sold and how many people were buying our products. And I was like, how many? It just blew my mind because I used to wake up every day thinking that that would be it, the sails would just be gone.
So it was always like this internal stress and I guess that drives to keep you going and keeps you on your toes. And every day you’re presented with a new problem, new challenge.
You’ve got no choice but to overcome it when it’s your face and your name at the very front of it all. So it was an epic ride, but a bloody stressful one. But I wouldn’t change it either.
Dawn McGruer
No.
And I think there is a thing where entrepreneurs do kind of love a little bit of that chaotic ness, the cortisol and everything, and that’s kind of what spurs people on. And I think the thing is, is when you have an idea, you don’t really know the direction it’s going to go. And then there’s.
There’s a catalyst and then it just gets crazier. What was the point where you kind of really, really knew that this was going to be something different?
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, I think the second that Lee told me that he had the idea for the car charger because we’d already had the water heater and I’ve been doing some work in renewables and with water heating for a while, but the second he was like, I think I can use this similar sort of tech to charge my car, I was like, shut up. I was like, no, you can’t, can you, actually? Because I. He was like, yeah, because it’s like, it’ll be cheap energy.
I’m like, mate, it is Free, like girl math. I’m like, it’s free energy if you’ve got your solar and sun. I was like, that’s. I’m not. You mean I’m not gonna have to pay for fuel?
I was like, make it. Get in that shed and go make it. So I was like, I knew at that point that product was gonna work because of how I. How it made me feel straight away.
Like that, that freedom of. And sticking it to the man a little bit. We were being approached all the time because we had sales and because we had growth.
We were being approached for investment all the time. Like, how are you funded? Private investors were wanting to put money in. Institutions were wanting to put money in.
Being two kids from Grimsby, we never knew that that was even an option. We’d always just grown our own businesses organically or dabbled, not really taking on cash.
It was like, prove that it works and then we’ll consider it sort of thing. And people were approaching us to invest and nothing felt right. You know, the sharks were out.
They wanted their to take the business and none of it felt comfortable.
But then we met through a contact in the industry, introduced us to Sir Terry Leahy and William Curry, who were two angel investors in Liverpool and London area. Big names in the business world that I had no idea about at the time. It was when they were really interested about putting money in.
And we had those first meetings with them. Like, I literally googled Terry and I was like, oh my God, it’s the ex CEO of Tesco.
We’ve got to actually practice this pitch because we were just going in and chatting to people, but I was like, no, this is actually a pitch. And I went to Liverpool to William Currie’s office and gave the pitch. And it was nerve wracking. But I really came alive in those moments.
Like I come alive under pressure and I knew that I did a good job. And then they literally rung us and said, what you’re asking for? Cute. You need more. Because we was asking for £150,000.
And they said, but you’ve got like so many sales, you need more. You need to buy components, like, go away. And manufacturing equipment, more manufacturing equipment.
So go away, think about what you really need and then come back to us and ask. And we were like, right, okay, we need £1.6 million. And they were like, oh, that’s a big jump. Jesus Christ. It’s like the same deal.
And we ended up getting it. And I guess it was like when the lift closed on that meeting, after they’d said they’d do it. I mean, Lee just looked at each other.
It was a bit like Dragon’s Den.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
But, like, bigger. And we looked in the mirror and we just looked around and I was, like. Started dancing. Like, I can remember the.
The lift, like, bouncing a little bit because I was, like, jumping up and down and bouncing. And then we were just driving home, and I was wrapping Eminem to him all the way home.
And then when the money landed in the bank and we could see those. That. That amount of numbers in a bank account, I was like, holy, this is it. We’re gonna do it. Like, that people believe in us this much.
Like, we’ve gotta.
Dawn McGruer
And that’s it. It’s not just your passion then. It’s the fact that someone has joined that journey and, like, bought into that dream and sees it as this.
This whole kind of future. So what was the kind of the next step? Like, where are we now in terms of your business journey?
Jordan Brompton
Yeah. So it’s a weird one for me. Like, I’m now on the board.
I’ve been on the board, like, since we set up a board, but I mean, like, officially a board member and not an exec anymore.
So I’ve taken a step back from the actual job, which is so nice because I was tying myself in knots with pressure and stress and shattered and a bit burnt out. And I was like, I need to do this because I’d sold some shares a few years prior.
And I was like, why am I putting myself through this when I could be spending time with my daughter and my husband and being a little bit more hands off now that it’s the size that it is and that it’s moving. So we hired a CEO, got a CEO in, and I stepped aside, and I’m on the board, and I’m just.
I’m enjoying being at board level and not feeling, like, the immense pressure. Not that anybody really necessarily put me under the pressure. It’s all pressure that I put on myself and, like, faux pressure. But I did.
And I guess when you. The company was, I’ll be honest, was like, paying me what it was paying me. In the end, I felt, like, so attached to it.
And I’ve got, like, this allergic. Not attached, like, stuck. I’ve got an allergic reaction to feeling stuck to something, even if it’s something I’ve created.
So I guess I just needed, like, a little bit of freedom and shackles off and freedom of choice again.
And I don’t know, I feel a little bit liberated since I’ve stepped back and I’m on the board and I’m not like being paid to just commercial do the sales, do the doing. Yeah. So we’ve got a really great team, really great CEO. The business is over. It’s.
It went through a bit of a hard time when all the subsidies were pulled from the government. Cars aren’t selling, you know, like the markets. You name a company at the minute that’s having a fantastic time. There’s not very many of them.
It’s a tough old gig out there, but the business is a lot more stable. Got a new CEO in at the beginning of the year and I’m just enjoying this a little bit more. Hands off approach.
And I invested in another couple of businesses so supporting them and being there for them and the founders and just having some time off, I’m having this summer off, so.
Dawn McGruer
But I mean, freedom’s what we all do it for.
I think one of the things that whenever I work with founders at any stage, even if like they’re in startup or they’re, you know, they’ve done the build and they’re going to the next level, it’s always the same thing that there’s an element of freedom and the fact that sometimes just the responsibility.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
Of what you’ve created because it’s now not just a business, but you’re responsible for people’s careers. You’re responsible for people’s like career development.
I mean, I know a lot of female founders who’ve hired their husbands, family and things like that. And then you know that you scale to a team of 10, but then the hundreds, I mean, it’s a big thing.
What was the feeling of responsibility and the toll on you during that time?
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, it was heavy at times. I tried not to think about it too much like that. Like, oh my, oh my God. This is like 300 people’s mortgages, essentially a 400 people’s mortgages.
Dawn McGruer
I was like, I don’t think you’d sleep.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, I couldn’t think about it too, too much. But to be honest, I’m quite good if I’m in control. So as long as I’m the one making the decisions and I can die by my. On my sword, I will.
But the second that, you know, naturally as businesses get bigger and bigger and there’s more shareholders and more people invol bigger leadership teams, it’s not just you making all the decisions. And I found that quite hard. Like, I enjoy the building, the scaling sort of time. I like being the one that’s at the front making the decisions.
The second that that starts to feel a little bit out of control, I’m like, oh, no. Because that’s where I feel really responsible for everyone. So I guess I’m fine if it’s me making the decisions, because I can live.
Live by it if it’s not me. That’s where I start to get wobbly and struggle with if there’s decisions being made on people’s behalfs that I don’t agree with or.
Yeah, haven’t made. I’m like, ah. That’s where I’m like, oh, I think I’m a builder. I’m gonna skate, and I’m a scaler. I’m not a corporate girly.
Yeah, I’m comfortable with saying that now. You know, like, I tried to try to fit the mold. It’s not in me. It’s not in my DNA.
Dawn McGruer
See, we were just talking before the podcast, and, like, I always have these conversations before I go on the podcast. And you kind of think, I wish we started filming sooner. But the bit that we were chatting about is the fun element in business.
And, like, I’ve always had fun in business, and I definitely challenge the status quo, especially in my career, like working with the Charter Institute of Marketing. I do not fit that mold in terms of the way that everyone else was. And I’ve just kind of carved my own way through.
And, you know, sometimes that has been to my detriment because people don’t always enjoy my. My fun activities. But I think the thing here is, is that you can still professional and have fun.
So tell me a little bit about, like, the crazy chaos of, like, you know, having fun in business. Because, you know, this is the bit that we want to hear as well.
Jordan Brompton
Oh, my God. I had, like, so much fun with the team. Like, before, it was a corporate beast, and we were just building.
We were all making decision decisions together, enjoying the wins, like, you know, celebrating. I’m definitely goofy in the sense that.
That I hate it if it starts to feel too corporate or too, like, I’m always the person to break the ice in the room or to make people as comfortable as possible in the room. Whether that’s, like, definitely cracking an inappropriate joke or dancing or bending my business partner over and bumming him in the.
Dawn McGruer
Middle of a board meeting.
Jordan Brompton
Try humping him. He won’t mind me saying it. He’s always like, it’s just jawed. And I feel like I got away with it.
Cause it’s like my people and my tribe and we have a laugh. And it’s just so unorthodox that people just don’t expect it. And straight away I find that, that it does relax people. The better ideas come out.
People are more honest with you if you’re more like. And it’s not like an act. I don’t go in thinking I’m gonna say this joke or say whatever. It’s just.
I’m just quite inappropriate at times and it puts people on the back foot. But it’s also what’s made me have the strongest teams and relationships in the workplace and with customers and stuff as well.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, because you’re building a relationship. And I totally agree. I mean, I think the thing is here is that fun means that you can still be professional.
You can still obviously, you know, carve out all of the important things. But the approachability that you. You’ve built that bridge, that means that conversations happen and I guess creativity in.
In some ways because people feel that they’re being seen, that they’re being heard and that they’re valued.
Jordan Brompton
Come to me with an idea, you know, to market the brand. And we were so different. Like that is literally what got us to where we were really was the difference in our marketing approach.
Like everything was so boring in our industry before myenergi came along. We were sponsoring football clubs, we were sponsoring the fastest electric car in the world. We were sponsoring race, electric race teams.
And not for like huge amounts of money, we’re profitable anyway. But we were putting a decent like chunk in.
But it was alternative ways that were bringing us lots of eyeballs to the brand and also like inflating us way bigger than what we were. So people were looking at us and thinking we looked like eons size guys. Eon started copying us and sponsoring the race team after us.
And it was like, okay, you know, what was important to me was putting the brand in front of people. Not just trade people, not just our industry echo chamber.
It was about like breaking outside of that if we’re going to have a, you know, longevity in our brand. So yeah, there was a lot of fun doing that and thinking outside the box for marketing and sales.
And it’s more one that you’d have to ask the team what I get up to.
Dawn McGruer
But thing is, is not having a fear about standing out and owning your personality and living congruently and sharing the person and the personality that you are, I think is really important as a founder. So I work with a lot of female founders who go through a turmoil of kind of guilt. I Guess. And there’s, there’s always. Mindset is the biggest thing.
I always talk about success barriers, but what would be your biggest advice in terms of. For people in business who have maybe got to a point and are scared to go to that next level?
Because I often see that there’s like a barrier that people like to stay comfortable.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
And I like to break people out the comfort zone and get into that crazy chaos quite quickly. And the quicker we get that going, the easier it is to shift the mindset. What would be your sort of best advice? Get someone moving.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, I’m the same as you. Like, comfort actually scares me more than anything.
So the second that I feel too comfortable, a bit too comfortable on this wage, bit too comfortable in this scenario, I’m like, oh, maybe I’m addicted to the chaos as an entrepreneur, but I do think that success is on the other side of chaos. It is. Thinking differently is thinking outside the box. It’s.
I can’t bear it when someone’s coming to me and saying to me that, well, that’s just how we always do it. Or that’s how I’ve done it in a previous business. I’m like, what makes no sense for our business?
And in this scenario, like, we’re trying to make this piece of software fit. Don’t. It’s not going to work. Like, like, I don’t care if that’s how it’s always been done.
And you get looked at like an outcast or an alien sometimes. But I guess it’s think outside the box and try be brave and put yourself outside of your comfort zone.
Because I never used to like to do public speaking. I was like painfully shy.
Dawn McGruer
Same.
Jordan Brompton
But personal brand is what’s really like, helped me grow my business and help develop me as a person, help get my network. So that was one thing that I had to work on was, was I was terrified of public speaking.
And because I was a female in tech and a female in manufacturing, everybody wanted my opinion because there’s not very many women in it. So it’d be like the news outlets would reach out, people would ask me to do keynote speeches.
And I used to sit there and deliberate and be like, God, I’m going to be so cringe and I can’t do this. But then, then I’d be like, it benefits me. It’s going to bring more eyeballs to your brand.
Like, what are you trying to achieve and why are you scared? You’re scaredy cat. Like, get out of your comfort zone. So I think Everything good is just on that other side.
And it’s never as bad as you fear it to be.
Dawn McGruer
My dad always used to say things were like, character building.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
And like when I remember when I started my first business at 21, like, ring him up and I’d be like, oh, my God, you know, things are not working. I was like, in that feast and famine thing, and my dad would be like, you’re still alive, aren’t you? Yeah, you’ve still got your health.
Like, no one’s died. I’m like, okay. I kind of have. I kind of have that approach, like now in terms you die. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Like walking around, know what’s the worst that can happen?
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
But in all seriousness, like now my approach to something is I can tell myself false truths about why I’m not doing something. Like, oh, I don’t need to do that because that’s not going to benefit.
But you know, in my heart of hearts, I know that I need to do it because it will. Yeah. Benefit the, the growth. Public speaking. I absolutely hated it.
And once I’ve done it, like three or four times and I hadn’t died, I was like, well, this is okay. And like, I used to kind of tell myself, like, all the worst scenarios that could happen. But the thing is, you can’t think yourself out of a problem.
And I always say to people is, like, if you just think and think and think and think in your head, you’ve only got the reference of, like, what is in your head? In the past, if you’ve never spoken on stage, we don’t have a reference.
We have to do the thing to find out whether we have any valid reference of being scared.
Jordan Brompton
So true.
Dawn McGruer
So with growth, if you think about, you know, female founders and maybe some of the societal stigmas that we still have and we’ve been through, through. I know when I started life as a programmer, God knows why I did.
I worked heavily in tech and then I started working in tech and still work with tech businesses. In terms of the marketing, I faced a lot of maybe unwelcome experiences, but I. I always just kind of tried to rise above them.
Yeah, I see women sometimes, like, you know, they’re going to the board, and these have been the strongest women, women. And then they’re faced by a whole different dynamic. What’s your advice about sort of handling these experiences?
You know, being a woman in business is not always easy.
Jordan Brompton
It’s so difficult.
And actually, the higher up the success ladder, theoretical success ladder, that I think the more Challenging it becomes because mainly with the inner dialogue, we like gaslight ourselves quite hard. But then there are things, there are forces working against us and it is intimidating.
And you, you start to realize with experience that there are tactics that are being played to that as well. And people will take the piss out of you if you let them.
So my bit of advice whenever I meet a female founder or a female board member or C suite member or something like that, is do not let people take your power away. Because I feel as females, we just give it, give it over. And I don’t know why that is.
It’s years of unconscious bias or oppression, I guess that’s still built in there that we’re trying to undo. And there’s a world of little boys club and we’re just not involved in that clique. We don’t get invited to the golf course, we’re not in the deals.
We struggle to raise money. Still only 2% females getting capital. And you are just. Even by other females at senior level in some cases.
Just maybe if you’re like looking at you as a threat or because they’ve had to graft their asses off to be in that position and sacrifice so much, probably family, like having children or whatever it is years to get in that position, that position of power that then they. There’s only. It’s like 50, 50 split. There’s some women that will pull you up, there’s some that will keep you down.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
There’s some blokes that are so supportive and there’s some that are just like, look at you. As if to say, what the hell do you know?
Dawn McGruer
And I think it’s a judgmental thing on your appearance, isn’t it?
Jordan Brompton
Oh, God, yeah. I break that norm. But on purpose as well. But no, I just think don’t give your power away.
Like actually, especially if it’s your business and you, you’ve, you know, you’re an expert in your field and your guts telling you something. Don’t let someone beat that out of you or gaslight that out of you or logic the way out of it. Or spreadsheet the way out of it.
Find like people looking at spreadsheets running a business or people because they’ve always done it that way. They’ve worked as a consultant all their life or whatever.
I’m like, have you literally started with minus 30 grand in your bank, like literally not got a clue what to do and built a business from scratch and paid however many people’s mortgages, wages?
Dawn McGruer
Exactly.
Jordan Brompton
No. So let’s just call it with you.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
Judgment, shall we?
Dawn McGruer
And this is it. And I think, like, I think back, to start my business, I got a Prince’s trust loan. £5,000. Yeah, that five grand.
Literally, I needed just to kind of, like, get things going.
And I remember going for the interview and I was wearing fishnet tights, a black silk skirt with ball bearings on, you know, just dressing kind of in my marketing way that I did. And I thought, why would I put a suit on if I don’t ever wear a suit? And I.
And, you know, one thing that I always stand strong on, like, standing in your power, like you say, is the fact that I never changed the way that I dressed. I never showed up in. In what they wanted. Even when I got invited to some of these members clubs in London that had dress codes, I always found this.
Absolutely.
Jordan Brompton
I’d wear the pink, I’ll wear the tight outfit. I’ll wear what I feel comfortable with in. Because it’s just another battle that I don’t have to face today in my own mind how I want to dress. Yeah.
And comfortable. Because you’re only dressing in a way that you want to be seen or show up for someone. Oh, God, the comments. Comments.
Don’t you think that’s a bit inappropriate? Don’t you think you should change? I’m not. Jesus Christ. I’ll wear what I want, mate.
Dawn McGruer
I think it’s there. You’re challenging their own insecurities. And I think this is the thing. It’s like holding the mirror, isn’t it?
It’s like, you know, they probably bloody love to rock up and wear the things that, you know, we’ve probably both done in business.
So if you think about where you really want to go in this kind of, like, next level of journey, like, a little bit of the conversation we had before was about, like, the freedom. The more kind of enrichment now and the experience led life. Like, where do you see yourself going, like, in the next five to 10 years?
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, I honestly, like, you know, I said to you, like, public speaking scares me. I’m still working on that.
And there’s a thing, like, I get invited to do keynotes and I always go, oh, I’ll only come if it’s like a fireside chat or a podcast. Because I found that, like, that’s my comfy and that’s me easy. And I’m like, why am I doing that?
And I also just said to you, you, I ain’t a corporate girly. And I’m like, part of Me again, like my own internal dialogues going, don’t let that world like beat you. That world needs critical thinkers.
It needs people that have built businesses. It needs a female’s voice at leadership level. I, I’m just done like this year I’m investing in myself.
I’m trying to remove some of the barriers, I’m trying to remove some of those voices in my head and I’m trying to remain being open so that if something, if the right opportunity comes along and it is corporate and I feel that I can add a lot of value, I’ll take it. If I decide to launch a podcast, I’ll do it.
If I’m gonna get offered a keynote speech and it feels, you know what, it’s a really good one, I’m gonna do it. I’m just, I’m in my very open minded, self aware era and I’m just trying to evaluate where I know I add real value before I make like my next move.
I’m doing a lot of reflection, a lot of documenting my experience, a lot of sitting back and thinking about where I made mistakes. A lot of sitting back and thinking where I really changed the game and added the value.
And then I’m going to think about how I can apply that in my next move. Whether it’s another business, a podcast, whatever, or I. An amazing job comes up and I think, you know what, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do it.
So I’m just, I don’t know, I just know that it’s going to be roughly, I feel like I’m being drawn to December this year. So I’m like, I think I’m allowing myself till September, October to be off.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
To do all my self work and then I’m gonna start thinking about it then. But I keep being drawn to December. We’re talking about the Snake. Yeah, the year of the axe and the year of the Snake.
And I keep reading all that sort of stuff and I do feel it this year, year. I feel like I’ve stepped into my power so I’m quite ready to see where that sort of like takes me.
Dawn McGruer
I mean it’s almost like a sort of philanthropic evolution as well, isn’t it? Because you’ve done a lot and then sometimes it’s like re. Establishing what that purpose is.
Jordan Brompton
Yep.
Dawn McGruer
Like if you’ve done all the things, it’s like, well, you know, you’ve got multifaceted levels now. There’s the business, the family, the, the fun and experiences. So, so in my podcast I always ask about the Most embarrassing stories.
And we had some before, and honestly, they were crazy. So share with me and our listeners one of your most embarrassing stories or moments.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah, I’m like, I said to you dinner that I don’t really get embarrassed. I don’t know what that is about me. I’ll talk about one jokey one that always comes up. It was before my energy.
It was when I worked in Lee’s previous business, and we had a customer that called up, and she was just a nightmare. She was one of them that always rang up and complained and was just hard work and nothing you could do would make it right. She was called Mrs.
Bonus or something like that. Sorry, I doubt she’s listening, but she was. Yeah, a pain in the ass. I took the phone and I went, It’s Mrs. Boner, Mrs. Bona for you.
And I was like, going, boner, boner. I’d not pressed mute.
Dawn McGruer
Oh, my God.
Jordan Brompton
So she heard the entire thing and she just lost her mind. The manager at the time went, hello, Ms. Jordan. Like, it’s. I was like, oh, my God. So, yeah, always make sure that you’ve.
Dawn McGruer
Press mute.
Jordan Brompton
Press mute. Double checked it, Double checked it. And then I guess where I felt deep embarrassment, that’s not like, on a jokey level.
Was when I choked on stage at Google. Not, like, physically choked. I’m talking like Eminem choked. Like, forgot my name. Forgot where I was. Oh, no. Forgot what I did for a living.
So it was one of those keynote. I thought, I’m gonna do this keynote speech. It’s Google. Google, of course I am.
And it was to talk about the future of the home, and I know about the future of the home, and I know what our business does. And it was, like, about an audience of about 100, but it was really intimate. And I’d not been and seen the venue before.
I didn’t imagine it to be this. The setup that it was. It had big screens behind me. Everything was being filmed. I had cameras and everything. And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God.
And I could feel myself getting nervous. I had, like, flashcards and all was like. And then my PR person said, maybe not take the flashcards. Maybe do this.
And I was like, should I just do it off the top of my head? I should have it with the flashcards. I should have it.
And it was like, right up until the last minute, I was unsure of what I’d done, and I’d not practiced it. And I went on for the first 10 minutes. Nailed it. Just summit hit.
10 minutes it was a 20 minute keynote and at 10 minutes time I thought I’ve just said that I don’t. Oh my God, have I just said that? What’s the next slide? I don’t know where I’m going with this.
And I honestly just had a total malfunction breakdown on the stage and I just went, I’m sorry, I’m going to have to leave. And I just walked off the stage halfway through the presentation and everybody was just sat there. The audience was like, what, what? What’s going on?
What’s she doing? Because they didn’t know what was going on in my head.
Dawn McGruer
No, they couldn’t see it. And probably to all intents and purposes you looked alright.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
And you just nailed the first 10 minutes.
Jordan Brompton
And so I just went, I’m so sorry, I just, I’m having to wrap it up. And then I did a LinkedIn post about how I choked at Google and it was probably one of my most popular, popular posts.
Dawn McGruer
People love a little underdog story.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah. And they were like, oh my God, like go Jordan. And I couldn’t have done that. And oh my God, I had this exact same situation.
It turned out I was just so grateful that my mind wasn’t filmed because I think if I’d have had to like watch that over and over and over again because everything’s filmed these days, isn’t it? I’d have just.
But I shared it, purged it, learned a lesson from it, like don’t go in that unprepared, make sure you know what type of venue it is, like all that sort of stuff. But I just didn’t know. I thought, everybody told me I’d be fine. I’d done it before, you know my stuff, you know your business.
And I was just a bit under prepared and that was my lesson. Everybody was great about it.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
And I think the thing is, is with public speaking and things, it’s like we put this immense pressure on it and like the more I’ve detached from it the better.
So as long as I kind of know what I’m talking about and I kind of know the chisel and the venue and things like that, there’s almost like a sense of just. I vision it.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
So I just go through my mind of like, you know, this most amazing, like I’m strutting on stage, I’m talking, it’s all going well, everyone’s laughing, clapping and I just kind of do that in my head. So I’m just kind of retraining, rewiring My subconscious into this is it. I’m already in it.
Jordan Brompton
Proper manifestation.
Dawn McGruer
Absolutely. So now I go on stage and I always stop for the first five seconds and I think people are always like, what’s going to happen?
But actually always works for the best because I kind of just. I do my breathing and then that first sort of like five seconds that come out of my mouth. I know. Like, I’m still alive, not died. It’s all good.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
And I’m in my vision.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
So I never bring flashcards. I just speak my visioning, whatever I’ve been talking about and how I think, look at that. And then I have my three points.
And as long as I’ve covered the three points, I’m like, we’re all good.
Jordan Brompton
Yeah. Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
But I’ve not attached to it as much. I used to build myself up to it and think, got big stage. I’ve got like 100 people, 3,000 people. Like, oh, my God.
And then I just kind of go back into my visioning. So it’s almost like being in my own head and creating. Like, I’ve already done it. I already know what’s happening. I love that.
And that’s been like my best advice I can give you on the public speaking, because I hated it. I used to wish that there’d be.
Jordan Brompton
Like a fire alarm get cancelled last minute.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah. Like, oh, Dawn can’t come on stage. Oh, dear. We’ll all go home. Home, have a glass of wine.
Jordan Brompton
00:41:07.610 – 00:41:08.970
Showed up. I was here.
Dawn McGruer
Not my fault. Yeah, I know. So tell us then, if people want to kind of reach out. LinkedIn is kind of your main social channel.
Is that best place to get in touch with you?
Jordan Brompton
Well, it is, but it’s like it gets bombarded. So sometimes I miss things on LinkedIn. So it’s through my website, jordi.co.uk and that’s j o r d w e.
Dawn McGruer
Co.Uk and just for our final bit, has there been like one book or podcast or person that has been kind of the pinnacle to how you’ve lived your life?
Jordan Brompton
One book that I always go back to and read is like my comfort blanket is the Alchemist. I just love it. So I always go back to that. I’m not like a big reader. I should be. I’m trying to train myself to be better at reading.
But the Alchemist is just such an easy read and it always. Something new pops out of it every single time. And it’s so poignant in life. So that has really just sits right with me. And I always Go back to that.
And then podcasts. I’m such a podcast, like, I don’t know, junkie, I guess. I like. I binge them all.
I’ve always listened to Joe Rogan from day one, and that suits my critical thinking sort of mind. So I always go back to Joe and I listen to Stephen Bartlett occasionally if it’s a guest that I’ve got on. That’s interesting. And Grace Beverly.
I went on Grace Beverly’s podcast. I’ve been listening to Grace for some time. I think she’s brilliant. I like fun ones as well. You know, like my therapist ghosted me, I think. Brilliant.
Just for that. Zone out. And Theo Vaughan. I literally watch podcasts over tv. Yeah, same cotton. You know, I just. I’ll put a podcast on. I’ll listen to it.
Just if it’s a guest that I want to hear talk, I’ll binge whatever podcast it is and I do the circuit and let’s call her daddy. That’s a good one.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
So, yeah, podcasts are my jam and Dawn obvs now, obviously, during a new era. Yeah. Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
So what’s your parting thought for anyone? What’s your lasting statement that you want people to remember you by?
Jordan Brompton
Oh, to remember me by.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah.
Jordan Brompton
Oh, my God. I don’t know. Always thinking outside the box. Unorthodox yourself, no matter what. And don’t let people take your power away.
Dawn McGruer
Love it. And what are you up to after the podcast?
Jordan Brompton
Probably just get some dinner and then drive home because I’m retired.
Dawn McGruer
This is it.
Jordan Brompton
I’m semi retired, so I might enjoy Manchester a little bit and then drive home and see my husband and my daughter. Water.
Dawn McGruer
Amazing. And the doggies.
Jordan Brompton
And the doggies. Obvs. Yeah.
Dawn McGruer
Well, thank you so much and it’s been absolute pleasure. I could have talked all afternoon and yeah, have an amazing journey back. Thank you so much.
Jordan Brompton
Thanks for listening to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast brought to you in association with the Her Power Community.
This initiative was founded by myself and it’s all about empowering female founders to recognize their limitless potential and pursue their ambitions with confidence. Now, there is less than 1.8% that goes into investing in female founded businesses and we are here to make positive change.
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