Threading Success: James Worthington on Evolving Manufacturing and the Fabric of Networking

Step into the realm of  manufacturing leadership  with James Worthington, the innovative co-founder of MyWorkwear, as he charts the course through the evolving landscape of manufacturing and service excellence. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the confluence of business leadership and manufacturing innovation. James discusses the strategic shift from traditional manufacturing processes to a service model that epitomizes efficiency and quality, akin to the precision of a perfectly tailored work uniform.
 
 Dive into the heart of manufacturing leadership as James shares his journey of integrating just-in-time systems at MyWorkwear, striking a harmonious balance between exceptional customer service and leveraging the latest in technology. The episode shines a light on the transformative power of networking and community engagement in the manufacturing sector. James reveals how authentic relationships and a robust community presence have woven the fabric of his company's expansive growth.
 
 Moreover, this conversation explores the pressing challenges and burgeoning opportunities within the UK's manufacturing industry, spotlighting the skills gap, the indispensable role of governmental support, and the vital need to attract new talent to the field. As a fervent supporter of Race Against Dementia, James also touches upon the personal and philanthropic drives that propel his ambitions beyond financial gains. Plus, anticipate exclusive insights into an upcoming project set to revolutionize MyWorkwear's digital interface and customer interactions.
 
 Join us in this insightful episode that interlaces personal achievements with professional acumen and deep-seated industry insights - a compilation of lessons from a business leadership perspective, dedicated to not just outfitting businesses but also pioneering industry-wide transformations."
 
 

Please subscribe to the channel for more content! Theo James are a Manufacturing & Engineering Recruiter based in the North East, helping Manufacturing and Engineering firms grow across the UK. Please call us on 0191 5111 298

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of the manufacturing leaders podcast with me, mark Bracknell, my director of Theo James recruitment. Today you're welcomed on James Worthington to the podcast and I couldn't wait to get James on. James is the co-founder and co-my director of my work where based down in Telford. James is a big advocate of LinkedIn. You might have seen him on there, so I couldn't wait to get him on here and talk through his journey with the business and it was such a good episode.

Speaker 1: 0:29

We talked in detail about building the business. We talked about the importance of customer service and actually having customer service and improving their reviews on things like trust pilot as a key KPI within the business and that full transparency across the full business. He talked in detail about playing to your strengths. He is now, as a co-owner, solely out there selling the business, networking, building relationships and removed himself from the operational part of the business and there's some real key lessons for people there to try and make sure you are playing to your strengths and absolutely delegating good people in the business to do certain aspects of it. He did a real sort of call to arms about manufacturing, about the challenges in manufacturing and what we need to be doing what the government needs to be doing to improve this tremendous industry that we work in. We're talking in detail about so much else and so much value in this, and he talks very passionately about not only manufacturing but also the charity Race Against Dementia. Fortunately, james lost his father to the illness three years ago and the charity work is doing is phenomenal and we'll be talking in detail about that and I will put that link in the show notes and the link as well on the comments so you can hopefully donate to this fantastic charity.

Speaker 1: 1:49

So please sit back, grab a coffee, watch, listen whatever you're on, do and again, please subscribe and like the channel, whatever channel you're watching on or listening. That will be an honor to do so. Thank you very much. Hope you enjoy the episode. Excellent, so a warm welcome to James whether he's on the podcast today. How are you, james?

Speaker 2: 2:07

All good. Good morning, Mark. Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me on today.

Speaker 1: 2:11

No, thank you very much for coming on, really looking forward to it. So first question is the same question I asked everyone who comes on what does it mean to you to be a leader?

Speaker 2: 2:21

Oh, that's a good one. Well, actually that's a really good one because up until about six months ago I was very much involved with the day to day running the business. We've got an unusual set up here. I've got a business, we've got about 40 odd people working for us now and we've got two co-managing directors. So I'm the co-managing director and my business partner, ben, is a co-managing director. But, as I was saying, almost six months ago we restructured the business. I don't actually get as a leader, I don't get involved with the day to day running anymore of the business. Ben, whose background is fantastic at the ops side of things and the technology side of things. We just made a decision that I would step away from the day to day, which means our commercial director, gail, who used to report into me, and obviously our marketing team and our sales team reported into Gail and still do. She now reports into Ben and, as I say, I've stepped away from the day to day. Well, I'm now looking after what's.

Speaker 2: 3:27

What I do is. I'm the face of the business. I'm very, as you probably know, very passionate about manufacturing, engineering. I'm a sales guy. I love sales, but then they do a lot of business networking go to a lot of events and shows and to support the industry and I look after, obviously, our big VIP customers. We've got a few very big customers that I look after and I'm constantly out there, like today. I'm very grateful I'm on your show today trying to get on the aim out there, but I'm always looking for opportunities such big opportunities for the business, and then obviously the really big stuff I get involved, the big decisions that we need to make about the business, how I'll get involved with all the board meetings and stuff and I'll have a management meeting with Ben and Gail just once a week just to have a catch up. So, in answer your question, sorry but we're running the back way.

Speaker 2: 4:18

To me, leadership is someone that's very aware of himself, self awareness. It's all about having respect for your colleagues. I think respects are very important thing. Gratitude is something that I think is really important for good leaders, just to be grateful of you know, help, who and who they work with and why. It's all about communication. Communication is a real key thing Because communication is obviously how you run a business, if you can communicate well to your staff and if you can get them on the vision that you have as a business owner. You're halfway there. You've cracked it really. I mean, I mean, it's so important, you know, as a leader, to embed the culture that you want as a business owner short leader into the business and that's, that's how you do it really.

Speaker 1: 5:07

I like that.

Speaker 2: 5:08

I hope that's your question.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Yeah, it's interesting actually because you mentioned that you've transitioned, if you like you know, from from being the business to, obviously, you know, go more to the sell side, which obviously comes naturally to you. Yes, I've gone, recently gone through, still going through, that process actually. So it'd be, I guess, a good selfish question for me, just my own insight which might help people have also gone through that. Did you feel any sort of almost I don't guilt, sort of the wrong word, but obviously how did you feel going through that process when obviously it was your, your baby, and then you've got it's might, yeah, yeah, so I guess?

Speaker 2: 5:47

yeah, it was. I'll be honest with you, I hadn't had sleep this night but I thought is this the right decision? Yeah, we're an ambitious company. Am I been in the business since 2000? So 24 years now? So for 23 and a half years, you know, I've been very much involved in the day to day but running on the business, which has been great, and knowing everything and anything if that makes sense about the business. But as I say, we're ambitious, we're going to do. We've grown again about 25% this year. We're going to do about 4.3 million this year. Ben and I want to get to 10 million and we want to get to 10 million in the next four years.

Speaker 2: 6:24

And I suppose what it was I just we just sat down and had a frank conversation and what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses? And my weaknesses is operations. It's the, it's the gritty bits, it's all the processes which Ben is fantastic at. It's the. You know, it's actually not saying you're going to do something, but then actually going out there and actually putting a planning place and doing it. And that's where Ben and his team are great at it. It took me a while to to let go, I suppose, but ultimately, I believe that we've got a great senior management team out there now who are better than I am at what they do. That I'm, you know, I'm paying experts basically to make sure that they run the business better than I can and I can focus on the bigger things basically.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Was that a difficult process, I guess, accepting that there's people in the business who are better, or did it feel the opposite of that? They feel quiet. You know, it was almost like you read commoment. This is what I need to do.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Ah, it wasn't a eureka moment. I've known for a while, really, I've known for while, that we want to go from four million to ten million. Yeah, it's a big beast, it's you know, it's you know, you go talk. I mean we've worked now I think we've got about 40 odd people now to get to that 10 million. You're probably gonna have about a hundred ish people, if that makes sense. Yeah, and that's a big beast to manage. And then you're gonna obviously have all the management team below that and so on, all the structure in place.

Speaker 2: 7:50

And yeah, it's um, I won't say it was a eureka moment, but it's been coming for a while. If that makes sense, we I mean obviously in our board meetings we talk about this a lot and we've actually got some. One thing I do recommend, actually for all leaders out there, is we've got a great mentor for the business. We've had a few mentors over the years, but then we've got a great mentor at the moment that helps spend more than me. But again, it's these discussions is like you know, it's great that you want to get there, but how are you going to get there? So I think so it wasn't a eureka moments, but I'm I'm definitely with six months in there, and I'm I think, yes, I definitely think it's the right thing to do. I've got great, we've got a great you know great bunch of guys out there when I say out there, just out there in the office, doing their job, in the jobs.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Well so, it's interesting because I interviewed a chap I know, actually a chap called and cause ones be, who is a Specialist, is a partner, a love firm, who specializing in selling businesses or going through management bias. And One of the key piece of tips he gave to maximize a value in a business and we know, we use manufacturing as a good example it is that the, typically the owner, who might, the person to sell, or to some say, eggs, the business can, yeah, operationally be the most important person, the crucial person, because if you take that out of the cog, that obviously a problem. So it's it. But he said, actually the difficulty is a lot of people have, he's almost the, the subcontinent, subconscious ego thing, because it is everyone's baby, they've done it forever and then obviously they have to sort of. Now they go, but yeah, you've really embraced that by sounds of it and obviously paying trends.

Speaker 2: 9:28

Yeah, in the early days I was you know bit. I didn't want to tip up, you know um, tread on people's toes sort of stuff, and I wear things I'd have got involved with. Yeah, I'm sort of actually, no, I'll leave it. I'll leave it, you know, I'll move on. It's, there's bigger things out there. Let's see how they deal with it. And they've to our shoot that dealt with it Well.

Speaker 1: 9:48

So excellent stuff. I love to talk a bit more about the business. Obviously it's 23rd year now it's it's well no, so I've, I've been here.

Speaker 2: 9:56

I Okay family business set up in 1976 by my dad yeah, bless me, he's passed away now and I've come up to 10 years. I've been managing director now. But what about? All? Ben will kill me for this. I can't remember exactly what date is, but hey, I say 10 years ago I've seen, met up with Ben and then we saw part of the business to Ben. Dad then stepped down and then we've just been going from Strengths to strength. Really. So but as I say, business to be honest, in 76 I came on board in the year 2000.

Speaker 2: 10:29

My background before then I had about 10 years out in the IT world show my age. You know I was when I graduated from university. The. The internet just became commercially viable, so I actually went into selling Domain names and dial up internet accounts and stuff like that. Then I lived abroad for a while in Vancouver, canada, but then I came back to the UK. In fact I came back. And then when it was a dot-com crash in the year 2000 and I didn't plan to go into the family business but I just started to help down out and got more and more involved and dad basically Convinced me to stay in the business. I said, well, if I'm gonna stay in the business, we need to set up my it's not there today, but my work where doccouk, we need a website present. Yeah, so I set, it's my base. Why set up my work where doccouk 24 years ago, the website, and then the rest is history ready. I've been here ever since yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Do you think it helped you having that obviously IT background? But you classed yourself as a salesman and I think, yes, you get owners who either come from the F you know the finance route some of them come from a shop floor or someone come A lot come from sales. Do you think that's helped you in that aspect?

Speaker 2: 11:39

Massively the fact. Yes, because obviously my father, the blessing, is now passed away. The internet wasn't his generation at all. But then when, when I came in 2000, we had a factory full of machinists, I mean we had a lot of machinists actually manufacturing the work. Where we no longer do that, that's, that's gone and that was you know. Unfortunately, it's just the way of the world.

Speaker 2: 12:04

We are what we specialize as. Obviously we specialize in branded work where. But we do. We do all the Embroidery and printing in house. We've got a lot of embroidery and print machines downstairs but we buy an embadger in essence, basically. So we run a just-in-time stock system. We pull off about 12 major UK suppliers, next day delivery and if you look at our website, we offer over 5,000 work where Related garments products, if that makes sense, yeah, so there's no way we could obviously keep make that and keep it on the stock. I mean the money involved just to just to stop that, would you know, was Was huge even back in those days. The stock would keep for our customers in 2000, for you know the stuff that we made from scratch. So, yes, it was a bit was done.

Speaker 2: 12:50

I don't think, if I'm being honest. I mean, obviously you don't know how the world, you know you can't see the future. But I don't think we, if I had have come on board Dad would have had the vision to see that, because it just wasn't his generation so I don't think he realized just how important the internet would become and how important it is. I mean we do about 40% of our business is of our turnover is done by the internet or self service. So people come on. We never actually have, you know, never have to speak to them, or very little. Let's say. You know what I mean, it's all. They come on and they pay for their orders and it comes in, the goods come in, we get them in broad and we get them straight out of ASAP.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Have you seen almost consumer habits change at all of the years? Because, like you say, there's obviously a massive shift when the internet people started using to that, and it was. I need something. I'll Google it and that's. Have you seen anything, I guess, of the 5, 10 years change in terms of the habits of people, that by people by then?

Speaker 2: 13:45

Yeah, yes, obviously the turnover generated by the internet has gone up steadily year by year. So obviously there's more people out there doing business over the internet. It's definitely become a lot more competitive. We are in a competitive industry, there's no doubt about it. You could go on the internet now and just type in branded work where, and you could, you know, you could go and select, I think, 20 people for the first page. That doesn't mean as simple as that. You know what I mean. But it's become a lot more competitive.

Speaker 2: 14:18

But where we have won and I'm proud of this where Ben and I have grown the business it's very much about. It's not been the cheapest, it's not been the most expensive. It's that customer service. I did a presentation this week to a potential big customer and actually our slides are slightly wrong at the moment. It says we've got a trust part of 4.7. We've just gone up to 4.8, which is great. So we've got thousands of very positive reviews and that's how we have built the business. It's customer service.

Speaker 2: 14:50

As a business, we realize that people's work wear is very important to them. They need work wear to go out on site. So it's all about communication. It's all about communicating with the customer and giving them top notch customer service. Now, we're not always going to get it right. We're humans. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes where Ben can explain to you more from a tech point of view, we're really tech-savvy, ben's put. We've invested a lot of technology back into this business in the last few years. We've had a new ERP system, a new CRM system, but we're clever. So Ben's written some more, he's team written some, a program where an order coming off the internet and then we'll shoot out whatever it is, some type of amazing bit of script that's called it that will go off to our suppliers and find the cheapest price in the most stock with that supplier and put the order in a straight away.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Now, sometimes, obviously, things happen and even though the supplier says they've got it, they haven't got the stock for every reason. It's just a glitch sort of thing, but what it is the key thing is is that we'll let the customer know, within hours of then placing the order, that we're very sorry, this item's out of stock. Are you happy to wait? Nine times out of ten they say, yeah, that's fine, I can live with that, that new date's fine. But sometimes they'll say, no, that's no good. I need this branded polo shirt within the week. Whatever it is, we're up to and we'll make it happen. We'll give them an alternative.

Speaker 2: 16:15

So for us in honestly question the world has the internet has changed in the last 10 years, but I think the people that are doing well, the people, the ones that have been really professional and slick with their business and customer keeping your customers happy is absolutely key and there's so many, not just in my industry but in so many industries out there they just don't realise the importance of customer service. It's absolutely critical to this business and if you come here and look around our factory, we've got these big KPI dashboards on the screen. So in customer services there's a response time that the first response has to be important. You know, and these guys work hard out there to meet these KPIs and it's just, it's key. It's absolutely key to the business and to our success and that's how we've managed to grow reputation.

Speaker 1: 17:03

I love that. I love that and I would love to push the learner because in most industries now it is competitive and I think in a market like this people, some people might slash their prices to try and get ahead, and I agree that you're not the way to go because you know price does not dictate the service. So I love the fact that you've prioritised that service over that. I mean you mentioned the trust pilot thing.

Speaker 1: 17:24

That is a website I guess people do go on With that a conscious, this is important, we must try to improve this, et cetera. Is that a conscious effort or was it just organically? Oh?

Speaker 2: 17:35

yeah, we've done. We've done a lot of internal reviewing, internal processes and stuff like that. So I mean we've got a voice of the customer now on our. So if you go into our canteens we've got a couple canteens here voice of the customer, because I think it's really obviously ourselves, people and especially our customer service department, will very much have a feel of how our customers are feeling.

Speaker 2: 17:58

When you're in a factory, obviously you're down there, you're operating the machines and obviously things are going on and you're doing your job from day to day. You don't really get any feedback on how the customer is feeling about the job that you're doing. So what we do is we actually in the canteen up on the boards, we put voice of the customer up there. So we'll put up some good comments from our trust pilot reviews. Joe Blobs has done a great job, really happy, which is brilliant. But we're also just as important. We do occasionally get negative reviews and it's important that we put those up there as well so our colleagues can look at this and reflect on it and know that they are generally doing a good job. But sometimes they might not be doing a good job and they might actually say, oh, actually I did that order. Why isn't that customer happy with that? Enables them to reflect on the customer journey as such, so it works very, very well.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:53

I love that and it's so much to learn. I think that's fantastic, james. I love to talk about the wins, probably more than the challenges, but I think it's important sometimes to reflect on things that have. Times have been difficult. For some people that was COVID, for some people that was other times. Have there been any periods you're building the business that you've, you know, reflecting back, you've really learned some valuable lessons, from which were quite, quite tricky at times, would you say.

Speaker 2: 19:17

So obviously I've been at it for 20 odd years now. We've been through a couple of recessions, we've been through Covid. Covid actually worked out well for us as a business. We were doing well before Covid hit and then obviously, covid hit and I had some big deals on the table and they obviously stopped there and then and our website traffic just suddenly stopped and the oars didn't come in and Ben and I looked at each other and thought, oh my god, what's?

Speaker 2: 19:42

going to like the rest of the world, what's going to happen here? And we closed down for three weeks, say, ben and I just worked around the clock behind the scenes, but we shut the factory for three weeks and obviously we stopped taking orders on the website. But obviously we kept looking at the traffic and it went. We're expecting the worst. It went better than we're expecting because what actually happened was people obviously were at home, people were bored, the weather was nice and we started to notice traffic going up and up on our website and then, after three weeks, we actually opened up again because what was actually happening were people were, as I say, that you can there's no minimum order on our website and you can buy unbranded. When I say workwear, you can buy unbranded garments. So people were looking at our website and started buying shorts, caps, t-shirts, polo shirts. So we opened up and the demand went through the roof that we couldn't keep up with demand at one point. So we learned a lot from that. We had to really improvise and just I think, yeah, yeah, we had to really improvise and at times we just couldn't meet the demand. So it put us in a position where we had to really think out the box, and it's not just about getting more stuff, and it was about in fact it was a.

Speaker 2: 21:12

It was when we had to look at our this, how we were doing business with our processes, and again Ben and his team started writing little programs to make things a bit better with our stock control, I mean. And I think actually that's when we, as I say, we've moved over to. Obviously, we've got this new ERP and we've got this new CRM system. We've actually upgraded our current system. We were using sage line 50 for many years. It was just didn't work. It was just too clunky, clunky and I think again, that pushed us to, just pushed us to said right, this demand is not going to go away. What are we going to do about it? There's only so many people we can obviously physically get in the building to run the machines. We've just got to be better at what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 21:53

So, although it was great you know we're really busy, um, but our systems at the time were letting us down and it and it pushed us as a management team to invest, you know, and get these new systems in place. And we, we look I mean, ben, I'll have to explain this to you, maybe you can get Ben on the podcast at some point. But, um, I believe at one point our touch points and Ben I'll tell you about this on a product that came into the building was like 30 touch points. Now it's like four or five just me. So the actual touch points and the technology that drives the business now has just made us so lean it's. It's fantastic, really. So, yes, that was a very good experience of that. We've learned along the way of how to improve and, you know, to meet demand.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Really, it is all about looking at these efficiency gains through our, through technology apologies for interrupting this podcast for a very quick 30 second pitch of my business. Theo James are a specialist in manufacturing and engineering recruitment search firm based in Seam in the northeast. If you're looking for any staff or a new opportunity yourself from a semi-skilled level, write the way up to C Suite executive and please get in touch. We have a specialist consultant in each discipline ready to help. I'm extremely proud of what we've built over the years and I'd love to extend that service out to you. Thank you, enjoy the podcast? Yeah, thanks.

Speaker 1: 23:18

So I love that and I first sort of saw you on LinkedIn because you're very visible on that and I love to talk to you a bit more detail about how that journey has gone for you. But it's very obvious on there. The passion you have for manufacturing, the passion you have for engineering and I know you're involved in in, you know, make UK and other organizations to try and prove the sector yep is that. Is it because you've worked in it and just found this passion? Or you know what? What sort of what's led you to have this sort of just love for the sector?

Speaker 2: 23:54

I, yes. So with, obviously, with what I've done for the last 20 odd years, I've been into a lot of factories over the years, a lot of manufacturing sites and engineering sites, construction sites, all sorts of sites. I'm very passionate about the UK and what we do and stuff like that and I just love seeing how things are made. Obviously, I haven't got an engineering background or anything like that, but I love going in and I love just to see how I call it widgets how people make their widgets in their factories. Um, linkedin has been fantastic for our business and, yes, I am, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I think it's a fantastic business tool and I, you know, I encourage all my staff out there that LinkedIn is a great way to build a personality to the world out there.

Speaker 2: 24:43

People, at the end of the day, mark, as you know, people buy from people, don't they? And it's all about I said, the more you can be out there, you know, in the world, supporting other people in their businesses, the more people will naturally gravitate to you and at some point, obviously from a business owner hat, at some point they will think, oh, I need some work where, oh, I've seen that guy, james on LinkedIn and they'll come to you. It's a, it's a, it's a very soft sell. We don't, we don't push. You know what we do? Um, we're not, we're not hard sales people at all, but it's just being in people's minds.

Speaker 2: 25:15

But, um, yeah, so obviously I do myself. I do a lot of business networking. I go to a lot of manufacturing and engineering events, particularly that sort of stuff. I have a passion. I like my cars as well and can't say too much due to NDAs, but, um, we supply some well-known automotive sports car manufacturers. You know, and I'm very proud about that. I'm you know, and it's you know, it's something I'm very proud that you know as a, as a business owner, that we've got. You know, the people trust in us, their branding and their work, wear their team, wear with us as such, and they'll put.

Speaker 1: 25:54

An important part of your role has been has been, networking. You know where that's getting out there and selling the business, where that's, yeah, meeting other people and I think networking is still something that a lot of people feel they haven't got the time to do because they don't see the benefit. Yeah, what would you, what would you say to people with that mindset because I know you've it's the wrong mindset.

Speaker 2: 26:13

Um, I encourage ourselves guys to and later sorry when I say sales guys, sales people to network, network, network, because it's all about building relationships and the way I see it as well is these people, these people that you meet, ultimately can become your salesperson for you when you get to understand what they do. I mean, I'm a massive believer of I refer people all the time. Um, so when, if I I meet lots of interesting people, when I find out what they do, um, there'll be and it happens weirdly, to my question, I've done a bit away this week, but I've referred about three people this week to each other because I just think, oh, such and such should meet such and such, because such and such does such and such and such and such and such and such, and put them together. So, um, yeah, networking is absolute and that's how we have managed to build this business. It's it's, it's it's just meeting people.

Speaker 2: 27:09

I always say, um, people don't care what you know until they know what you. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. And if you really think about that, it's just, it's so important. Um, but yes, networking is a massive part of this business and, um, I would recommend to anybody out there if they've got sales people and they're thinking, oh, should I send such and such to it, get them out there, get them at these business networking events, these whatever networking events. It is because it's all about working together. It's all about, you know, sharing the knowledge, sharing the passion. You know, especially like, yeah, as I say, go to a manufacturing engineering events and it all comes around. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 27:45

It all comes around you do somebody a favour, they'll do you a favour, and that's yeah definitely think a lot of people that apprehensive about networking, because it's quite, um, if there's a lot of people, that can be quite an unnatural medium to do I, do I sell the business, do I just do me? Have you almost got a tactic, if you like? For you know, if you walk into a networking event now where you didn't know anyone, because that's the bulk of what it is what people, where's your, where's your mind take going? What's your, your tactics?

Speaker 2: 28:12

look, okay, I also appreciate that. Yes, what you're saying it's not. It comes very naturally for me and it's different for me as well because, because I own the business with Ben, it's very easy for me to be very passionate about what I do and I can just talk until the cows come home about my business. In fact, I don't really talk that much about my business when I go out business network, you know, when I do networking sort of stuff, I do, you know I talk about it a bit but, um, it can be done. Yeah, because it's not not easy for everyone, it can be done. To daunting for people to walk into that room and think, oh my god, I've now just got to go and talk to people. Um, so you do need somebody that obviously that is confident to just go and talk sales people. I suppose that the that are confident to go out there and just talk to people. I'll be honest, you know I say this to myself team you sort of get a hunch, like especially in sales meetings and stuff like that you know when you're, you know when you're selling, when you're not selling, when you're talking to this person You've met about their kids, about hiking in the lake district, about cars or whatever. You're building a relationship and that's and that's so, it's almost.

Speaker 2: 29:21

My advice would be is to go out there. Don't do you elevate a picture, someone. Just Go and talk to them, have a chat, some, and just just be, be be yourself, be genuine. Don't ever try and be somebody or not, but just go out and just find out what they do, just be interested in what they do. Let them tell you what they do and the conversation will flow. And then what you'll generally find is that people will then, once they've told you, this is my company, this is what I do, this is what we blah, blah, blah. They'll then probably say to so what do you do, james? And then you'll be all well, I do blah, blah, blah. So that's that's where I'd recommend it.

Speaker 2: 29:56

I would, I would always ask when you go out there To these network working events, don't do the elevator pitch, but you ask them how they are. You know Chitchat, what do they do? And then you're nine times out ten. It'll come back to you what do you do? And then you can tell them what you do. But yes, going back to what you've asked me networking is Key and going back to also.

Speaker 2: 30:18

I was gonna say something else. Actually, this is a beauty of LinkedIn, I find so I do. I last year went to as a way Works out 40 odd nights last year and most of those night, those nights, work, dinner, events and stuff like that. And people say, god, you get around a lot and I do and I enjoy it. I enjoy, I'm a people person. I like meeting people.

Speaker 2: 30:39

But another key thing is I say to myself, people is, go to these events, meet these people, make sure you connect with them on LinkedIn, because what you'll find is you, you will start. There are people out there do Network. What there's quite a few of us network is that I'm like I'm going to an event tonight and I'm interested. Tonight, the mechanical engineering networking event, dinner event going to start should be great and there will be certain people in that room that I see quite regularly because they, they get it, they network and sort of stuff. But there'll be a lot of people there that I've never met before. If I get chance to chat tonight, be great.

Speaker 2: 31:13

Well, whatever happens, even if it's not a business card, I will make sure I'll connect with them on LinkedIn and then they come into your, they come into your ecosystem, they're into your channel and obviously, as you know, you probably say I do a lot of content, a lot of posting stuff. But what I say to myself, team, yesterday, was we've had a very big inquiry that came through to me through LinkedIn yesterday and I won't say who it is, but I've met this person probably. I've met this person probably Two, maybe three times in the real world Over the last five years at various networking events. Well, if you think of the actual time spent together physically, it's probably been a couple of hours total tops. But that person has come to me because they've they've followed me on LinkedIn for a long time. They've got to see my subconsciously, they've got to see me and my business and Subconsciously they've seen this and they've obviously Subconscious mode decision that they like me, they trust me in what I do and they've approached me Through LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 32:20

So the power of networking and also linked connecting with LinkedIn and building that personality on LinkedIn is Absolutely came I'll play you great, and you've nailed it there as well, because you, you just got to be yourself. Because You've mentioned the word trust, and it is all about business is all about trust, isn't it? You want to go. You know, even if you get something done in your house, you want to be able to trust the people doing it. If you were going to business, you need to be able to trust them and there's all. There's always gonna be a level of of Will. They won't they, because you can't tell for sure, but you know there's it, as humans, is a good feeling there that you know. I've met this person. They seem like a good person. I wonder if it's with him. And I completely agree that LinkedIn consistent Transparency of just, and this is when we bring people in here. We tell them just be yourself, be authentic.

Speaker 1: 33:09

You know, read up the script, because it's yes, red tape, corporate nonsense, and no one, no one, buys from that. That's not you?

Speaker 2: 33:15

Yeah, I mean I, you know I do quite a few, I do a lot of posts and probably once a week, ish, maybe, or couple weeks, I'll do a video post. Yeah, but with my video posts it's literally there in the moment, there, and then I don't think about it too much. You know, to me it's not scripted and it's quite obvious. It's just James being James, he's had a thought about something, or supporting something, or doing something, and I'm probably, you know, I've probably mixed my words up a little bit. You know, to me I've probably not, but that's just me, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:47

Yeah me.

Speaker 2: 33:47

I mean, it's just just be yourself. People buy from people, don't they? And it's like you say, people you know who wouldn't want to do business is somebody that you like, that you you trust and you know they're gonna look after you. Know they're not gonna. You know they're gonna give you a good price. You like them, you find them pleasant to deal with and you trust them. And if something goes wrong Because things do go wrong in business this way is you know that they'll look after you. They're not like, you're not going to ignore you. They'll make sure they sort it out. Now, that's how you run a good business.

Speaker 1: 34:18

Yeah, absolutely, I completely agree, I'm. I want to speak to one of your vise-a-rear on manufacturing, because manufacturing is an industry that you've been, you've worked in for a long time now and, like anything that the cycles of recessions is all sort of stuff and I know you've all heavily with with me you came other other bodies that are trying to improve the industry. If you, what do you see is the biggest challenges right now to the industry and and I guess, what would you think the solution should be, which people can start doing today?

Speaker 2: 34:49

There's two, very sadly, I feel there's two. This was some very big challenges in them in the manufacturing and if we talk about the manufacturing engineering world, obviously I've got a lot of customers that are in this industry sector. Firstly, I don't want to get too political here, but I think the government in general Just do not shout out the good news stories enough, and the media, especially the bigger name, the bigger I won't mention, but you, the media, do not. They're quite happy to shout about the negative things. Yep, it's going on in the manufacturing and engineering world, but there are so many good manufacturing and engineering things in this UK that we're doing. It's really good. They don't, they don't shout out about it.

Speaker 2: 35:36

How do I say this? I obviously we, because what I do? Naturally I go into a lot of manufacturing engineering Establishments throughout the country. If there is a ticking time bomb, it is, and I hate to say this and I don't I don't offend anybody by saying this, but it there's a lot of Fred and the Sheds out there. There's a lot of people that are getting on a bit that have been fantastic Just talk about the engineering world that being fantastic engineers.

Speaker 2: 36:06

At some point they will be retiring and we haven't got the young blood coming through to take up these positions they will be retiring from. So there's a huge, there is a huge problem going forward. You know it's and I hate to say this because I do feel that it's getting the manufacturing and the industry and engineering industry Is getting smaller and smaller because we just haven't got the people coming through to To continue what we're doing. As such, we're too obsessed, you know, kids of today are too obsessed about being a footballer, a vlogger, a youtuber or whatever. Well, engineering, for example, is a great thing to get into and and again, this is, you know, it's the way we portray it. People think, oh, engineering it's mucky, it's dirty. Well, some of it can be, but somebody can be really exciting. I mean, look at Formula one, you know. Look at the cars they're making. Look at the cars we make as a, you know, as a nation anyway, yes, sorry, I'll get by heated and passionate about this. So I think government just don't realize the importance. It's all about the service sector and I get that, you know banking and all that and it is important and obviously we're from a, obviously we're.

Speaker 2: 37:21

I don't know what we are in the world from an educational point of view and overseas students, fantastic, great. But where did the? You know? Again, I just think it's. It's that British pride, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 37:34

Where did the industrial revolution start? Here, in fact, here. When I say here, we're based in Telford and the iron bridge is just literally a stone's. So away from here, you know it's mean. This is the industrial revolution we started.

Speaker 2: 37:46

We started here in good old blighting and we don't share it with just the two conservative amount of. We don't shout out about it. So I think it's got to come from the top and I think you've got me all you've got. You got me on one here now. It's got to come from a top, but it's got to get into schools, it's got to get into education. You know education. You know we're not teaching kids. You know about the importance of. You know the end, our engineering Mindsets and background.

Speaker 2: 38:14

It's just not this, not, it's just not talked about and it really needs to be so. And again, I think you know the government really needs to. I know, you know you got this apprentice. You know the apprenticeships and apprentice levies and all that sort of. We supply a lot of apprentice providers, but again, I don't think it's done quite and I won't go into it because very political, but it's not a big deal. I think it's done quite and I won't go into it because very political, but I think it could be done better. I really do think it could be done better. So I'm afraid it comes from the top and I just don't think government doesn't matter which government, whoever they are in power at the time, they don't, they talk about it, they talk the talk, but they're more negative about it than positive. And there's so many good, positive things going on out there. We're a great nation of thinkers, doers, inventors, and we just need someone just to tell the world how great we are.

Speaker 1: 39:07

Love that and thank you so much for that, because I know how passionate you are and I really wanted you to talk. So people heard you talk about that because I think there's a lot of great, great leaders in manufacturing who are doing amazing things in their business but aren't getting involved Like they need to get involved externally, outside of their business to try exactly what you're talking about there, get the government to move and push, because I can see the issues in manufacturing. Being a recruiter, I can see the problems. There's fantastic things happening with all these great projects where the skills coming from it needs to stem from exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 39:49

Not going too political. Again. I was at the May UK event this week and obviously there's a few ministers up there doing their bit and saying this and saying that. And again, this is the problem, the problem you've got.

Speaker 2: 39:59

These guys are great at communicating, great at doing what they do and all this sort of stuff, but when you look at their CVs they're wet behind the ears. They haven't got any, and I mean literally they haven't got any industrial experience. They don't come from a background of starting on the shop floor doing their CNC machining all the way up into management and stuff. They don't feel the pains of what it is to be a manufacturing or an engineering company, if that makes sense Again. So this is where I think this is our downfall. I can't think nobody springs to mind that I can say well, that person who's in government now they've led this big company out there, they've started on the shop floor, they get it, they know how it is. They don't know how it is. They want to help, which is great, but you really need to start from the bottom up and get to the top and then you know what it's like to be in the manufacturing and engineering industry Because we are in a soup.

Speaker 1: 41:03

Britain should be an absolute powerhouse of manufacturing and I can see it going that way, but it is, and it needs more people like you to do what you're doing and talk about it passionately and meet with people. If 10% of every leader of a manufacturer from the UK decided they want to do something, there'd be a massive, massive movement. Huge, huge, huge, huge. So I love that and thank you for that so much. I can't leave it without asking you about the amazing stuff you're doing right now, because, sharish, I know you've got it branded there as well. I can see the race case dimension there.

Speaker 1: 41:39

So tell me about that, james. I think that's some amazing stuff you're doing.

Speaker 2: 41:42

Yeah, okay. So I mentioned a bit earlier in this chapter today lost dad, unfortunately far too young, to Alzheimer's. He had a condition called Lewis body, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, which is a form of dementia, basically. So we lost dad just under three years ago. We touched upon the fact that I love cars and always been into my motorsport, love cars stuff. We actually sponsored a couple of cars and stuff like that. So two years ago I made a fantastic charity called Race Against Dementia, our official charity for the business.

Speaker 2: 42:22

For those of you who don't know, race Against Dementia was set up by a Formula One legend, sir Jackie Stewart. And this is all coming out because, unfortunately, I think it was about six years ago his wife Helen got diagnosed with dementia and Sir Jackie Stewart, being Sir Jackie Stewart, said oh, this is terrible. Okay, Obviously, being a physician where obviously probably Monday's no object. He turned around and said well, what medicine do I need to buy to cure Helen? And they said I'm very sorry, sir Jackie, there is no cure for dementia. Your wife will die from this, sorry.

Speaker 1: 43:02

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 43:08

It gets a bit emotional by dad.

Speaker 1: 43:13

There's no time to be there.

Speaker 2: 43:15

So yeah, sorry, sorry, so, yeah. So he said right, okay, when he's changed this. So he has gone out and set up Race Against Dementia, which I think I believe at the moment is about 12. So basically, this charity sponsors about 12 doctorates around the world who are racing against the clock to try and crack the cure to dementia, because, sadly, one in three of us right now I know we talk about cancer, which obviously is a reffit and kills a lot of people, but one in three of us will die at this moment in time from something related to dementia. So this charity is being set up. It's been going for a few six I don't know many years now. We've been involved for about three trying to, you know, on. All the money that goes to this charity goes to these doctorates who are working around the clock, these very bright people using Formula One technology, which is very important because obviously you know Formula One, they're at the top of the game when it comes to engineering and technology and they're using these sort of processes to try and crack the cure. So anyway, cut long story short, because of that and because of the idea, it's just a natural thing for me to be able to support Race sketch.

Speaker 2: 44:32

Dementia is our official charity for the business and we work very closely with them. We try and help out where we can. So if they're doing events, I try and send some. You know, myself or some staff members will go off and help for the day doing some supporting. But we've got but because that also we've got a couple of events.

Speaker 2: 44:48

I started them three years ago the Radical Roads Rally, which is basically go back it's into our third year now, but go back two years in 2022, we did the North Coast 500, there were six cars about six cars that went round the North Coast, the North Coast 500 in Scotland, which was amazing, lots of signage all over the cars and just shut this charity page up and raising lots of money and awareness for race against dementia. And then last year we did it again. We went round Wales this time and there were six cars again and we did 500 miles round trip and it was amazing and we raised lots of money again. And then this year and I'm going to plug it if that's okay we're doing the Ring of Kerry and there's eight cars this year and it's getting bigger and bigger each year, which is great.

Speaker 2: 45:36

So we're in May 17th we're off to go and do the Ring of Kerry in Ireland, setting off from here in the Midlands up to Holyhead, over into Ireland, and it's about a 16, 1,600 mile round trip, obviously doing lots of stuff on social media again. So I'm very pleased to say we set a target of £5,000 and I've looked this morning and we're over 50% already, which is fantastic. If I could just plug that, if that's okay, justkibbingcom forward slash page forward slash radical rogues rally 2024. If anyone of you are listeners out there, I've got some spare pennies?

Speaker 1: 46:13

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 46:14

So doing that, and also another plug I'm doing an ultramarathon for the charity in July this year. It'll be my second ultramarathon. I haven't done one for six years. But I'm doing another one and that's a 50 kilometer ultramarathon run starting or finishing in Cardiff. I know I've booked on it. I haven't actually looked at it. It's along the coast of Cardiff that way. So I'm doing a lot of training at the moment, lots of time next week, all again, all for a great, great cause.

Speaker 1: 46:42

Yeah, amazing and yeah, unbelievable. I'll definitely definitely put the link in there, because what you're doing is fantastic for a great charity. And then someone has done a couple of ultramaraths as well. They are not easy to train for. No, it's a lot of space.

Speaker 2: 46:56

Yeah, what I'm finding is obviously I've got two small kids, obviously got business, I'm aware a lot and stuff. I'm trying to try to fit the runs in, isn't it really? More than anything, it's time very thick. I mean, once I'm out there doing it, it's not too bad. I must admit I was a bit grumpy this morning when I went off first thing at Sineacot this morning because it was wet, windy and cold. Once you're done it, you endorphins are kicked and you're super chef. That did it 100% Excellent.

Speaker 1: 47:23

I've got some lasting, well, sort of quickfire questions which I normally have written down, but I haven't got them. I'll have to just remember them, so I'll find that. Who's the best manager you've ever had? What do you say and why?

Speaker 2: 47:39

Ooh, so I haven't been managed. Oh gosh, that's an interesting one. See, I've not been managed myself for 20 odd years. But actually I'm going to say okay, I'm going to say my business partner, ben, and I'm going to say my commercial director, gail, and I'm going to say they don't manage me, but they do. We as a management team hold ourselves accountable. That makes sense. So we've got great relationships, we can talk, we can be very frank with each other's stuff. So although I'm not managed you know, no one's 100% perfect we do get things wrong or we don't do the right things sometimes it just happens. So although I'm not managed by anyone, I am held accountable, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 48:38

So yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:39

I'll say that answer to that question.

Speaker 1: 48:44

What's been your biggest influence from either sporting business? I guess someone you've never met, I guess who's been a real inspiration for you there. You might have met them, but Ooh, biggest is a good one.

Speaker 2: 49:01

Okay, I mean to be honest, I listen, because I'm on the road a lot. I listen to a lot of podcasts I find it great time to listen to and probably you know a lot of these podcasts are very much business orientated. So I listen to the Diary of the CEO. I listen to the Rest is Politics, which is fascinating. So I'm not very political myself, but obviously politics is very important in this world. So I listen to.

Speaker 2: 49:33

I find a Roy Stewart and I was accountable Fascinating and I love the fact that these guys are very, very bright but they make politics for someone a simpleton like myself, so a simpleton, but not to me. Somebody that's not really that political. It makes it very interesting. Those guys have obviously different ends of the spectrum and their political support, if that makes sense. Sorry, I'm going to go on about this for a very long winded way. I draw off a lot of people. I do find a lot of business leaders very inspirational about how they have built these businesses. I haven't got one person I can say that's really inspiring me, if that makes sense. It's a lot of people inspire me, if that makes sense. There's a lot of people out there and I just find it fascinating people's history and life stories and how they've got to where they've got.

Speaker 1: 50:31

Sorry, I'm very last, I think if you're naturally a curious person, then you take inspiration. I'm just actually yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:39

I'd actually just find people that were successful, but then I find a lot of my business associates and customers have actually become friends as well over the years. I've got a lot of friendships that I can draw on from inspiration as well, and I've got some friends with some cracking businesses. You know they've done really well for themselves and they're inspirational with how they've achieved what they've done themselves.

Speaker 1: 51:05

Nice, excellent. And just finally, we talked quite a bit about the business. It's in great shape. What are the plans for the next 12, 18 months? Anything on the horizon, which are you excited?

Speaker 2: 51:17

Yes, so obviously from a Okay. So obviously we've obviously set the budget for 24, 25. And I think, off the top of my head, we want to try and grow it. I think it's about 27%. We've worked for next year the big project, the big project. So obviously we put these ERP system in place, the CRM system in place, etc. Etc. They were big projects. So it's the big project for this year that they've already started work on it. But it's going to be the big project. It's a new website. Nice, we're actually, in some ways, it's fantastic. It's a big project, it's going to be a big investment and obviously we've really got to get that right. Yeah, so it'll be a new website that we're hoping it won't go live in 24, 25. But it will be going live 26, if that makes sense. That's the big project for next year.

Speaker 1: 52:16

Love that, james. Thank you so much. This has been great. It's amazing. It's sold me takeaways and I would reflect after what takeaways I've had, and absolutely so many. I love the fact that you put a real emphasis on a business, on that feedback, the customer feedback, and that being the biggest importance to the business, I think has shown the success. I love that side to it and, again, how important it is to meet people, to network, to keep selling the business. But actually, ultimately, I love the fact that the message is just be yourself and don't try and be somebody, not.

Speaker 2: 52:49

Yes, just be you, Because people will see through it. If you're not you and you're promising the world or whatever it is, people know, people will know.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Just be yourself and the chat we're doing is absolutely phenomenal. I think we'll put a link there. So make sure people please don't, please don't. So thank you, james, it's been great. We appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 53:11

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, much appreciated.