“The more I was coaching my clients, executives, businesspeople, the more I realized how meetings were at the heart of what they were doing as a leader.”

“The most common mistake I would say is that we're not clear on the purpose of the meeting”

“But then we actually, you know, did some work in developing our brand and understanding our why and so that was really valuable for me. And then that's how we came to, well, let's build our brand around what we actually our passion.”

“That vision is all that drives me now. And I just keep having conversations with people and that find out who's with me and who's not and the ones that are with me, I keep working with them.”

Working as a healthy, functioning cohesive team, typically working with the leadership team, getting them playing well with each other. Because so often, that's not the case in businesses, but when we can make that shift happen, that then sets the tone across the rest of the business sale going on vision, traction, unhealthy. We utilize a variety of tools and different processes, but ultimately, that's what we're looking to help people.”

“And what's it going to mean for me as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as a supporter of other people Am I actually going to get satisfaction from that? Am I going to enjoy it? Am I going to be happy?”

“And as I continue to learn more and more, I wondered if others knew the little golden nuggets that I had come across along the way. So, I really wrote the book to share what I'd learned in the hope that it might have some impact on others in terms of how it lands with them, and really helping them live their journey.”

“I think I think team approach in terms of preparation is absolutely key. And that's just we don't need to be the expert in everything. But if we can recruit and align with the right people that can help us in different ways, it can be an incredibly powerful combination. ”

“I would say, everybody knows how to manage their time, but not everybody has the same beliefs about time. And then the second thing is, they don't have the motivation to want to start managing their time, like time management isn't rocket science.”

“If you want things to change, you will make the time”

“And the doctor said, yeah, we know. So, the next thing I then said was Can I go to work on Monday? To which the doctor said No, ma'am, you're going to the intensive care unit so that we can work out why this happened.”

“During lockdown, maybe life has just totally fallen apart for them. And they're now saying, I want something different, or maybe they've spent more time with their families and have decided that the lifestyle that they had before is the one that they want. So, 2012 was my lockdown. It was my awakening.”

“So, a really simple one would be where you're looking at your expenditure. And you might be able to kind of say, you know what, we're using that software and that software and that software, but if we consolidate it and use this tool over here, we could save nearly $4,000 a year. So that might be something really simple”

“I call it a seven minute meeting each day, and then a weekly meeting where you look retro, like look back and then a weekly meeting where you look ahead which is in the mind, we have a sheet that we call better every week and you can just get everybody to be thinking about how they could have improved things so that you can then because those standard operating procedures are always fluid you know they need to be updated and new and improved but it's not that hard.”

“But people with ADHD, the fact that everybody around us says they have ADHD, it's, it's, it makes this condition a cheap condition. Now everybody can have it just got to have a mobile phone doesn't mean you have ADHD. It just means you're rude, impolite, or just not concentrating at this moment doesn't mean you have a problem to disconnect from one thing and go to another thing, it doesn't mean all the things that ADHD means.”

“And that's what I think that's why I think passion is the most important thing to say to a 20-year-old. Don't chase money, don't chase, ego position, whatever it is. Chase passion. And if you don't know what your passion is, then say to yourself, I don't know what my passion is play around with it for a few years and figure it out. And don't be afraid.”

“My golden rule is not to decide anything on spot. That's, that's my golden rule”

“Well, essentially, I guess because I do teach it. And I also love it. And my clients and colleagues do like to say that I'm the embodiment of joy, because it's, I just can't hold on to it. I mean, even growing up, I always had a big smile and had big energy about me.”

“But then this larger voice a louder voice was like, you need nourishment for the soul more than anything.”

“Yeah, to have a meaningful moment. And that's where the practice of mindfulness as I teach it as present moment awareness.”

“But people always ask me what it is. So, I work with business owners to be, in effect, their extra pair of eyes and an extra pair of ears. You know, the cliche out there is it's lonely at the top. And it very much is, and you know, what I find these business owners just need somebody to talk to and bounce things off.”

“We had five years when we only had freelancers, we then take the big scary step of an office and staff that's proper grown up, you know, that's proper grown-up stuff, and at the time is scary. And then, you know, the business growth and business growth isn't linear. It's, you know, it's up and down around backwards.”

TIME STAMP SUMMARY

00:40 What is a business sounding board?

04:16 Being coachable

07:51 Building the business space

14:44 Running the business

19:43 Working with clients

23:07 Problem solving

Where to find Philip Fraser:

LinkedIn at @philfraser.

https://philfraser.co.uk/

Who is Philip Fraser?

Phil went from a kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million-pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey.

Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach, Business Mentor, and ‘personal NED’). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. The key time most Business Owners look for outside help is when they reach a ‘next stage/step up’ point in their business journey. That’s where Phil comes in. It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’.

As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.

Over the last 12 months Phil has appeared on over 25 podcasts, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.

Phil is also a volunteer Mentor with a number of organisations including The Prince's Trust and Young Enterprise and is an active Angel Investor. He also mentor’s start-up businesses.

You can usually find him on LinkedIn at @philfraser.

Email – phil@philfraser.co.uk

Mobile – 07960 490416

Web – https://www.philfraser.co.uk

YouTube - https://bit.ly/2OyDYaK

“But what really, what really hurt was the fact that not very few people came and wished me Well, I had alienated so many people”

“But what was the I guess the really satisfying part of all of that was when I left there were tears, not of sadness, but of joy that the fact that I'd left behind people who had I’d empowered and given them the knowledge and skills to be able to do their job.”

“I am not going back to that stinking office. If they make me go back to the office. I'm quitting. And this is I hear it over and repeatedly. And it is such a huge thing that's happening in America right now. We are witnessing what our company calls, the employee revolution.”

“I saved about $40,000 American US dollars, my first year, just from doing that, and I kept thinking, I'm going to take that money, I'm going to put it into the business, I'm going to reinvest in something that I care about, and I'm passionate about. “

The short answer is that we have to get good at choosing that which we want. And the truth is, we don't spend a lot of time choosing from a place of what we would truly love. We make choices through a process of elimination, we make choices by default, not choosing is a choice, we make choices by consensus, what are other people going to think about me, my friends, my relatives

Good automation solves two litmus tests. The first I think is fairly obvious and that's it's an increase in efficiency when you add automation in right? Does this thing happen quicker? Because automation is a part of the workflow? Typically, that answer is yes. The second thing is that's if automation improves the efficacy of what we're doing does the outcome of what we're creating become better because we've added automation into the workflow or not? It's difficult because it's not always a black and white, yes or no answer. It's dependent on you and your business and your understanding of what you're trying to achieve by adding automation as a tool into your workflow.

I grew up in Northern Ireland in a pub, my parents owned the pub, we grew up above it. Later in life, as I started working with organizations and leaders, one of the common complaints or one of the common concerns was around engagement and people, how do you get people engaged? And how do you get people to feel like they belong in an organization?

The more I thought about that, I thought hey, here's this, institution that's been around for hundreds of years that people voluntarily go to, they call it their local. In there, people make connections, and people have sense of belonging and they're vulnerable. They tell stories, they don't feel they have to be perfect and I thought it was a wonderful institution to look at to see what's happening, what's some of the dynamics in there that might inform businesses and leadership today?

"people have this image of what retirement looks like in their head, right. And it's like sitting around playing, maybe playing golf, watching TV, just not, you know, doing much. And I knew that that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a coach, I wanted to be a podcast host I wanted to still give back. And so I decided to call it a graduation "

"And the onward movement is about releasing the fear of judgment. So that you can create the life of your dreams or a life that you love with confidence. And I think for women, sometimes we don't have that confidence, sometimes we get imposter syndrome. So the different steps deal with, you know, just making that decision to go on a transformational journey. "

"I realized that one of the biggest issues that small businesses have in terms of marketing is the disparity it's all over the place. And if you can align it into one line, that does not talk about your product or service, it ignites your marketing, because you have one line, and that line becomes a tool "

"What we do is we come down and say what is keeping your target audience awake at night. And if you can reflect their pain back to them better than they even know their own pain, something very interesting happens. your credibility increases, and suddenly they see you not just as a spammy salesperson, but somebody that understands them, the industry, their job title, what's keeping them awake at night, and then they are open to discussing that problem with you. "

Every time I see someone self-sabotaging I understand, having had that experience makes me a bit more empathetic towards people who are doing it and I and I call them on it really quickly.

The benefit of situational awareness is it doesn't care how fast you're going in and you know, I see ample bad decisions made at a slow speed, let alone bad decisions at high speed. One of the things we learn is good or bad decisions is irrelevant, the decision itself is what's important.

I strongly believe we are going to have a huge spike in mental health crisis

mental health is the foundation of all health. And once you have mental health and wellness, you're complete. Because the other term I actually coined myself is a holistic wellness strategist. Now that's what how I see it, but lay person, it's a mental health and wellness coach. So the holistic part refers to the wellness wheel, and the different components of our health. And if you address each part, you will be balanced and healthy.

And it's just my pleasure to try to help people get unstuck, because what I find is, so many entrepreneurs, they're stuck in their ways, you know, their business may be stuck, but they may also be stuck in their ways as far as not having sort of a Northstar, not having a business goal, let alone a personal goal "

I think when it's something so close to you, and sometimes so personal to you. It's hard to make that decision or to see it clearly

The way I've discovered success later in life is like the old Bob Dylan quote, “If a man wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night, and in between does what he likes, then he is a success”. I think, that is the best definition because it's really a story you can write yourself.

We always think that when I get to this stage in my business I’ll sell it, I'll be happy, but you won't. That won't make you happy in all this sort of state of yours, hold your happiness hostage to something in the future, I'll just do this deal, or do another year, or sell this business, and then I'll be happy. It doesn't happen.