Addicted to the Entrepreneurial Journey & the Fun Side of Business with Jordan Brompton

Hey, it's Dawn McGruer, the Business Growth 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, the bad and ugly of being an entrepreneur. 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?

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.

Yeah. 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 look 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 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. 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— The most precious moments 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 faze me.

So 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 catalogue, 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 mum 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? I've never grown up without. So my mum 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, like, 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, Jod, 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 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. 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, or they're 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 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. 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 approached 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.

Yeah. What do you think has kind of kept you, like, hungry and determined, like even when things were challenging in business? I think providing some support for my family, so being able to help family out feels good. I 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 of 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 to 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 thirties, I wasn't bothered about, like, 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.

Keeps 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 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 shouldn't be taking or that you don't want to take or take a bad deal because you're skint or you need to. I want her 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. And, 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 fuel to kind of get you the life or the dreams and goals you want. Exactly.

So for people who don't know about your business journey, what was your first job and how did you start your first business? I don'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 was now 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 Being pinched by the supplier in France, and I was being squeezed by the customers in the UK, like large customers like 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. I 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.

Dawn 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 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 we've developed was you could heat your 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 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. 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 to see if they'd push the product once we got it out, and just started like 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 product. So our whole world just went crazy. Like, we climbed to market leader position, like, within the space of three or four years, 65 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 much as it was great, it was also like bloody, bloody difficult. But it has just been the maddest decade of my life building that business. 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, every stage. Chaotic and out of control.

Yeah. Like on the outside, it looked like amazing because it just—we were winning awards, we was just 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— There've been a point in my life where I haven't felt stressed because you're still worried at every single point.

Every bit's 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 sales 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.

No, and I think there is a thing where entrepreneurs do kind of love a little bit of that chaoticness, 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 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? 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'd 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'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 so on. I was like, You mean I'm not going to 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 going to work because of how it made me feel straight away, like 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 taken 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 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 Currie, 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. Like, 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 Curry'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 is 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. 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. I love it.

Jesus Christ. Love it. It's like, at 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, and me and Lee just looked at each other.

It was a bit like Dragon's Den vibe, 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 lift, like, bouncing a little bit because I was, like, jumping up and down and bouncing. And then we was just driving home, and I was rapping Eminem to him all the way home.

And then when the money landed in the bank and we could see that amount of numbers in a bank account, I was like, Holy shit. Oh, this is it. Yeah, we're gonna do it. Like, people believe in us this much, like we've got to.

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 whole kind of future. So what was the kind of the next step? Like, where are we now in terms of your business journey?

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'm in, 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 don't 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 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 doing.

Yeah. So we've got a really great team, really great CEO. The business is over— 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 market's— 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— This 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. But I mean, freedom is what we all do it for. And 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 is an element of freedom and the fact that sometimes just the responsibility 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? Yeah, it was heavy at times. I tried not to think about it too much like that, like, Oh my God, this is like 300 people's mortgages, essentially 400 people's mortgages.

I was like— I don't think you'd sleep. 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 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 involved and 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, I 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 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 behalves that I don't agree with or haven't made. I'm like, Ah, that's where I'm like, Oh, I think I'm a builder and I'm a scaler.

I'm not a corporate girly. And I'm comfortable with saying that now. You know, like I tried to, tried to fit the mold. It's not in me.

It's not in my DNA. 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, Oh, 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— And I definitely challenged the status quo, especially in my career, like working with the Chartered 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 fun activities. But I think the thing here is, is that you can still be really 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.

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 decisions together, enjoying the wins, like, you know, celebrating. I'm definitely goofy in the sense 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 middle of a board meeting.

He won't mind me saying it. It's always like, it's just, it's just Jord, and I feel like I got away with it because 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 it does relax people. The better ideas come out.

People are more honest with you if you're more like... And it's not an act. It's not like an act. I don't go in thinking I'm going to 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, like, in the workplace and with customers and stuff as well. 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've built that bridge, that means that conversations happen and, I guess, creativity in some ways, because people feel that they're being seen, that they're being heard, and that they're valued. People would 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 my energy came along. We were sponsoring football clubs. We were sponsoring the fastest electric car in the world. We were sponsoring electric race teams, and not for, like, huge amounts of money.

We were 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 E.ON size.

E.ON 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. But the 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 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. Yeah. And I like to break people out of 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 to get someone moving? 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, a bit too comfortable in this scenario, I'm like, 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, it makes no sense for our business and in this scenario. Like, we're trying to make this piece of software fit. It's not going to work. 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. Same.

But personal brand is what's really, like, helped me grow my business and helped develop me as a person, helped get my network. So that was one thing that I had to work on was I was terrified of public speaking because I was a female in tech and a female in manufacturing. Everybody wanted— At 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 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 scaredy cat. 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. My dad always used to say things were like character building.

Yeah. And I remember when I started my first business at 21, I'd 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 still get your health. Like, no one's died. I'm like, Okay. I kind of have that approach like now in terms of— Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Like, what can— what's the worst that can happen? 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 growth.

Public speaking, I absolutely hated it. And once I'd 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. So true.

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, 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 worked with tech businesses in terms of the marketing. I faced a lot of maybe unwelcome experiences, but I— I always just kind of try to rise above them. I see women sometimes, like, you know, they're going to the board, and these have been the strongest 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. It's so difficult. And actually, the higher up the success ladder, theoretical success ladder, 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 start to realise with experience that there are tactics that are being played to that as well, and people will take the piss.

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. Like, and I don't know why that is.

Like, it's years of unconscious bias or oppression, I guess, that's still built in there that we're trying to, like, undo. And there's a world of little boys' clubs, 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% of 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 arses off to be in that position and sacrifice so much, probably family, like having children or whatever it is, to get in that position, that position of power, that then 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. Yeah. 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? And I think there's also a judgmental thing on your appearance, isn't there?

Oh God, yeah. I break that norm, 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've, you know, you're an expert in your field and your gut's telling you something, don't let someone beat that out of you or gaslight that out of you or logic their way out of it or spreadsheet their way out of it.

I 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? Exactly. No.

So let's just call it with you. Yeah. Judgment, shall we? 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, 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. No. I never showed up in what they wanted.

Even when I got invited to some of these members' clubs in London that had dress codes, I always challenged it. Rock up how you wanted, yeah. Absolutely. 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.

But you're only dressing 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.

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.

I think 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'd 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, 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 ten years? 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've found that, like, that's my comfy and that's my easy.

And I'm like, Why am I doing that? And I also just said to you, I ain't a corporate girly. And I'm like, part of me again, like my own internal dialogue's 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'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 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 going to get offered a keynote speech and it feels, you know what, that's a really good one, I'm going to 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 an amazing job comes up and I think, you know what, I'm going to 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, am I allowing myself till September, October to be off? Yeah. To do all my self-work, and then I'm going to start thinking about it then.

But I keep being drawn to December, as we were talking about the snake and the year of the snake, and I keep reading all that sort of stuff. And I do feel it this year. I feel like I've stepped into my power, so I'm quite ready to see where that sort of, like, takes me. 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. Yep. 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 fun and experiences.

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. Yeah. I'm like, I said to you, didn't I, 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. Boner 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. Boner for you, and I was like going, Boner, boner.

I'd not pressed mute. Oh my God. So she heard the entire thing, and she just lost her mind. The manager at the time went, Hello, Mrs...

Jordan, like it's... And I was like, oh my God. So yeah, always make sure that you've— press mute, 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, forgot what I did for a living. So it was one of those keynotes. I thought, I'm going to do this keynote speech.

It's 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 a hundred, 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, it 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 I 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, or should I do it with the flashcards, or should I do 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 ten minutes, nailed it.

Just summit hit, ten minutes. It was a 20-minute keynote, and at ten minutes' time, I thought, I've just said that. 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's going on? What's she doing? Because they didn't know what was going on in my head. No, they couldn't see it, and probably to all intents and purposes, you looked all right.

Yeah, and you just nailed the first ten minutes. And so I just went, I'm so sorry, I just am 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 post. People love a little underdog story, don't they?

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 so grateful that mine 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 underprepared, and that was my lesson. And everybody was great about it.

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 shizzle and the venue and things like that, there's almost like a sense of just, I vision it. Yeah. So I just go through in 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.

Already in it. Proper manifestation. 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 it 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. Yeah. And I'm in my vision. Yeah.

So I never bring flashcards. I just speak my vision and whatever I've been talking about and how I think. Love 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.

Yeah. But I've not attached to it as much. I used to build myself up to it and think, Got big stage, 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 like a fire alarm.

Get cancelled last minute. Yeah, like, Oh, Dawn can't come on stage. Oh dear, we'll all go home, have a glass of wine. Oh, I've showed up.

How was you? Not my fault. Yeah, I know. So tell us then, if people want to kind of reach out, LinkedIn's kind of your main social channel, is that best place to get in touch with you?

Well, it is, but it's like it gets bombarded, so sometimes I miss things on LinkedIn. So it's through my website, jordy.co.uk, and that's J-O-R-D-W dot co dot 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. One book that I always go back to and read as, like, my comfort blanket is The Alchemist. Ah, 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 binge them all. I've always listened to Joe Rogan from day one, and that soothes my critical thinking sort of mind, so I always go back to Joe.

And I listen to Steven Bartlett occasionally if it's a guest that I've got on that's interesting, and Grace Beverley. I went on Grace Beverley's podcast, so 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 it's brilliant just for that zone out, and Theo Von. I literally watch podcasts over TV. Yeah, same. Cotton.

Yeah, I just, I'll put a podcast on, I'll listen to it. If it's a guest that I want to hear talk, I'll binge whatever podcast it is, and I do the circuit, and Call Her Daddy, that's a good one. Love it, yeah. So yeah, podcasts are my jam.

And Dawn ofs now. Obviously, Dawn of a new era. Yeah. So what's your parting thought for anyone?

What's your lasting statement that you want people to remember you by? Oh, to remember me by? Yeah. 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. Love it. And what are you up to after the podcast? Probably just get some dinner and then drive home, because I'm retired.

This is it. I'm semi-retired. So I might enjoy Manchester a little bit and then drive home and see my husband and my daughter. Amazing.

And the doggies. And the doggies, of course, yeah. Ah, well, thank you so much. Thank you.

And it's been an absolute pleasure. I could have talked all afternoon and, yeah, have an amazing journey back. Thank you so much. 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. So come and support us on Instagram at Her Power Community and find out more about what we're doing to support female founders to scale and grow their businesses.