Dyslexia, Doubt and a Doctorate: Dr Alison Edgar’s Raw Journey as an Author and Speaker

In this episode of Your Mind Your Business, host Carina McLeod from eCommerce Nurse, sits down with Dr Alison Edgar MBE, author, speaker, and creator of The Entrepreneur's Godmother brand, to dive into the raw reality of overcoming dyslexia, self-doubt, and building a successful speaking and training business from the ground up.

Chapters:

[00:01:00] Introduction and Meeting Dr Alison Edgar

[00:03:45] From Dyslexia Diagnosis to Bestselling Author

[00:12:30] Leaving Corporate and Starting The Entrepreneur's Godmother

[00:25:15] The Seesaw Method and Early Business Struggles

[00:38:20] Building a Team from Day One

[00:47:50] The Power of Behavioral Profiling and Compassionate Leadership

[00:58:30] Achieving the MBE and Honorary Doctorate

[01:10:45] Alison Edgar's Big Balls Time Management System

[01:18:20] Finding Balance and Future Plans

💡 Topics Covered:

✅ Overcoming dyslexia and the internal voice that says "you're not good enough"

✅ Why writing a bestselling book seemed impossible but became a game-changer

✅ The Seesaw Method for starting a business while still employed

✅ Building a team from day one and knowing your strengths and weaknesses

✅ Using behavioral profiling (Insights) to become a compassionate leader despite naturally being "98% red"

✅ The gender pay gap and social mobility challenges in the speaking industry

💪 "We start to believe these negative things about ourselves... I think that's something that I try and conjoin and I just literally, in the words of the final book, I just try and smash it."

🎯 "X amount of days a year times X amount per day equals your target. Are you going to achieve it?"

💎 "You're a 360 of a person. The reason I can be so strong in work is that I'm happy outside work."

📌 If you've ever struggled with self-doubt, wondered if you're "good enough" to start a business, or felt held back by your background—this episode is essential listening. Dr Alison Edgar's journey from a council estate to MBE and Honorary Doctorate proves that belief in yourself and simplicity in execution can create extraordinary results.

🔔 Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated with more episodes of Your Mind Your Business!

Follow Dr Alison Edgar MBE: linkedin.com/in/dr-alison-edgar    

#Entrepreneurship #DrAlisonEdgar #OvercomingDyslexia #YourMindYourBusiness #MBE #HonoraryDoctorate #SocialMobility #TheEntrepreneursGodmother #SpeakerLife #BusinessPodcast #Mindset #TimeManagement #CompasionateLeadership #StartupJourney #BelieveInYourself #WomenInBusiness #GenderPayGap #EntrepreneurPodcast

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Transcript

I was diagnosed, dyslexic when I was in my late twenties, early thirties.

So I've always really struggled reading, writing, spelling, anything with that sort of space. And at school I was basically told, oh, you're not trying hard enough. You're not doing this enough. So that then teaches the voice in your brain to say, you're really stupid. You're really thick. You can't read, you can't write, you couldn't write a book because who's gonna read it?

And if they do read it, they're going to think it's rubbish. So you hold yourself back in lots of different ways.

​Welcome to your mind, your Business, the podcast that dives into the real grit of entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Corin McLeod, CEO, and founder of e-Commerce Nurse and e-Commerce Growth Agency, and today we have a special guest, Dr.

Allison Edgar. Welcome Allison.

Oh, thank you Karina. Thank you so much for having me.

Super excited to talk to you today. 'cause we briefly met, I think it was a couple of months ago, 

September. 

September, when you were speaking. And um, I loved what you were talking about. I loved your energy and so the fact that you are here today to share your story is something that Yeah, I'm, uh.

I'm really grateful that you've, you've made it today and, uh, excited to hear, hear your whole entrepreneurial journey. So for those that are listening today, they're probably thinking, who is Dr. Allison Edgar? So I'll let you introduce yourself and then I'm gonna hit rewind and go to the very start of your entrepreneurial journey.

Perfect. So I'm an author of two bestselling books. I'm a speaker, um, at events a lot of the Fortune 500, Fu C 100, and I really work on high performance individuals and high performance teams.

So that's who I am now.

Who you are now. So if we hit rewind, you know, the fact that you've got your, your books and everything and uh, is a huge, you know, something.

Well, congratulations. That's a huge success. Was that ever something that you thought about? If we go to the very start, 

that would be a hard no on that one.

So the books came as a sort of result of change in the business because I started off working. I've got a brand which is trademarked as the Entrepreneur's Godmother, and my background originally was sales, so I, I was working with small businesses, startup businesses to teach them how to sell.

But

fundamental flaw in that business model, most of them don't have any money.

So although they need everything that I can teach them, you can't really sustain that. So I wanted to try and work on a way that I could teach people the skills that I had learned, which I know are tried and tested and they work. But if they don't have much money, how do I get that to market? So I was diagnosed, dyslexic when I was in my late twenties, early thirties.

So I've always really struggled reading, writing, spelling, anything with that sort of space. And at school I was basically told, oh, you're not trying hard enough. You're not doing this enough. So that then teaches the voice in your brain to say, you're really stupid. You're really thick. You can't read, you can't write, you couldn't write a book because who's gonna read it?

And if they do read it, they're going to think it's rubbish. So you, hold yourself back in lots of different ways. And I've got a friend called Lorraine. So we were talking off camera about how important it is to have a support network in your business, or a mastermind or a mentor. So I've got a friend from school who's she's not.

She works in as a finance, um, director for a hospitality chain. So she's in business, but she's not like a business mentor. But anytime I get stuck with anything, I speak to Lorraine and she said, oh yeah, you can write a book. And I'm like, Loraine, I love you, but I don't think I can write a book. She goes, well, you better learn.

So that book, the first one went on to be. Amazon number one around the world, A WH Smith top 10 business book. And the independent voted it one of the top business books written by a woman. They translated it into d Nish and different languages and they now use that as the framework for, um, all the apprenticeships in Ireland who are going through their, um, sales apprenticeship.

So. I think to me that just reiterated the fact that we start to believe these negative things about ourselves and how we start businesses. And again, like not even just from a business perspective, but from every level. Like, oh, I can't swim, I can't send, I can't ski, I can't, you know, we tell ourselves these negative things and we believe them.

So, um, I think getting the book to have that much success maybe changed my mind. So I am an off. Like,

like

if you'd have asked me that a few years ago, I'd have been like, oh, I don't think I'm an author. I'm not one of those people. Um, whereas now I am an author and the book has changed, like the fortunes of a lot of businesses.

That's an amazing achievement. And I love the story there of like, you know, where you are questioning yourself and you actually weren't diagnosed dyslexic until the end, uh, of your twenties.

Yeah. Um, and so you've got those voices in your head. So I guess as you say, you never expected that you would be where you are today if you're going hit rewind. So you, you started off with the entrepreneur godmother.

Yeah.

Yeah. And you were doing the selling and that, what, what made you get into that point where you're like, right, I wanna go and.

Share this and teach others. 

So

Again, you must hear this all the time as well. Sometimes you're sort of thrust into entrepreneurship, aren't you?

Like I had worked for a company that we will all know as being the leading brand in directory advertising. Um, thank you to Robbie Williams for Resurging My Content because he obviously sang Look Me Up in the Yellow Pages, I'll Be Your Rock of Ages, and I'm like, great. It really brings my content back into relevance because I worked there for 15 years and at the time when I started Karina, it was the just, there was so many people wanted to work for that company.

It was the market leader. It had, it was a monopoly. So when it came to pricing, we couldn't put prices up because we were fixed. 'cause we had no competition. We won the European Quality Award twice, but again. The thing that started my entrepreneurship journey was the CEO roadshow came to town to announce the direction moving forward, and the CEO said, yay.

We've just invested loads more money and more paper directories in North America and Europe because that Google thing will never catch on.

Oh,

So that gives you a choice. 'cause you know, from a business perspective, you can't sell something you don't believe in. And when your company and the direction it's going in is completely swimming like the wrong way, it for what my I thought was right.

I then decided that it was time to set up my own business. So I set the business up not really knowing much about business, but what I did was. I invested the whole Pricely sum of drum roll, 99 pounds for a three day course to learn about business. And it was done through like the Chamber of Commerce.

And I thought, right, and even then, at that stage, 99 pounds was this. That's a lot of money because I had two young kids at the time. I had a steady job. And it's like, oh, even spending that on myself to learn business skills, I thought, hmm. And I went down, um, the course and the guy who taught me went on to be one of the mentors for the NatWest, um, hatcheries and the, the business programs they do.

And I can remember sitting there watching and there was somebody who wanted to start a skate park, somebody who wanted to make petty fours, somebody who wanted to make thermal underwear and me who wanted to be a sales trainer. And he ran through. How to make money in business. And I think this is the fundamental, isn't it?

Because we know according to Forbes, 90% of startups will fail. Mm-hmm. And, um, I, I love numbers, so I might not be able to read very well, write very well or spell very well. But, oh, I love a number and I was counting it up. And like basically the petty fours lady got a little bit of a roasting on the course because she was trying to work out how much she would settle a petty four for how many she would have to make more than she would earn on the tills and Tesco or whatever her job was, how long her oven would be running, and basically the business was flawed.

It was, it wasn't gonna work. So when I did that with my rates and my skills.

I was like, oh,

I could be onto something quite good here, but what I didn't take him into place was how difficult it is.

it

is

To get new clients at the start of the journey. And again, I come from an advertising and marketing background and you know, I, I had been working, doing consultancy on how much like the acquisition costs were and the ROI were, and I, I just found it so hard at the start of the journey and I was prepared for that.

'cause obviously after I had invested my whole 99 pounds of my savings, I had had a bit of money to put in at the front end. Um, but I think the hardest lesson was. Just, it was so much harder than I thought, and it was so much more graft than I thought. But the power and the determination at that stage, the purpose was I knew that I had something that other people wanted and needed to help their businesses.

So it wasn't really about me. My grip, my strength, or my determination, it was what they needed. And that was really the power that kept me going was that really my knowledge will help other people. And the same with the book. That was, I could have jacked that in so many times. Karina, honestly, I'm like, oh, I don't like this.

Oh, it's really, I, oh, I'm a wonder and I'm crying. And again, it's the people that surrounded me went, well, people need that, so you better buck up and get on with that. And that, that's what helped me really keep going in business. I think

I love that 'cause it's the focus on the output and what it's gonna do and how it's gonna benefit others.

'cause as you say, you can easily, those voices will get wrapped in, um, sort of pulled in by questioning your yourself in, where have I got this? What is it? Right in, you know, questioning the, whether or not you can take it to. Level or finish the book, or et cetera, et cetera. But the fact that you focused on that output, I guess, you know, could, 'cause you went from like 15 years in a corporate

environment.

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

a long time to then go, right, I'm gonna do it alone.

Was there any like moments of like question, what have I done? Shall I go and get another, should I get another day job?

I still have these things, like, I don't think that goes away. I, I think now obviously I'm, I'm more established in the speaking market and the business model is very different, but like it, it still comes and goes some days, oh, I could just.

I could just jack this in and go and get a job. But again, I think it comes back to that purpose and the impact for me, a lot of it is on the impact that I can make. So, yeah, it still happens. And I think there was another bit of a turning point that I. I mean, I'd been surrounded by small businesses because that's who my target market was.

I that, you know, I've, I've been like, enveloped. And prior to working for Yellow Pages, I worked for BT for a few years, so I 20 years in corporate, but the target market was B2B, and it was B2B small business. So, although I worked in corporate, I was surrounded for 20 years by, you know, the grafters, the trades guys, the, you know, startups, the everything, and, um.

The, I did a swing and I think this would be a top tip for anybody starting a business. I set the business up when I was still working for Yellow Pages and I was working part-time and running my own business, so that gave me the breathing space to the, if the business had failed. I had somewhere to go back to.

So I talk about the Seesaw method that, you know, Seesaw, when the money's from your own business starts to become more than the business from the job, that's when you start to swing down on your hours or that's when you start to consider leaving again. I think the reason for startup failure is people think they're gonna make a fortune.

And I don't think the media helps that social media specifically. 'cause I think we're brought up like, do you wanna start a business? You could just live in Dubai and drive your Maserati. It's so easy. I dunno why you're not doing it. Come on my course and I'll teach you how to make these millions. And again, I'm so anti all of that messaging because it's, it's, it doesn't take into consideration how hard it was and especially with two young kids, and again, I've got a brilliant husband.

We've been together for over 35 years. He is literally just a great support. But at that time, I think again. One of the bad days. I said to him, I don't feel that you're supporting me, and I'm still having to empty the dishwasher and do the washing and do the, and he said, Allison, the reason I'm not supporting you is I don't think you're taking it very seriously.

I think you're playing. Running a business and I don't think you're all in. And again, a lot of people would take that feedback as a negative, but I believe that feedback is the Breakfast of Champions. And I went, right, okay, let me analyze that. Of course, at first I was mad, but let me analyze what you've just said.

And I thought, right, okay, it's time now. I'm going, this is it. And honestly, from the day that. I stopped playing at it and took it really seriously. I've always had his support and I think, again, coming back to the challenges and tribulations of business, you do really need a support network because it is, you know, people compare it, your businesses like your baby and, and you know, it takes a village to run, you know, to, to bring up a child or whatever.

It takes a village of supporters. To raise a business and scale a business as well. So I think that's, you know, one of the most important things in my opinion.

definitely. And as you mentioned, social media, right?

Because they do make it out. Like you can have overnight success and you just, you know, you can get to X to. From X to Y in this short space of time. But the reality is, and what I find when I speak to a lot of guests, there's this moment, like you say, the seesaw moment of do you get complete, do you completely jump off the corporate ladder or do you do it gradually?

And it isn't about overnight success.

No. I don't even think there is such a thing. I mean, it's the same, you know, I, I compare business a lot to music and you do hear people saying, oh, that's musician's an overnight success.

I mean, I think Lola Young's one that's been under a lot of pressure and a lot of stuff, and. You know, she's a brilliant singer. She's a brilliant musician, but she's been learning her art. She might still be young, but she's been learning to sing since she's been four, you know, so there is no such thing as an overnight success.

Sometimes, again, being in the right place at the right time, doing the right things, gets you noticed again, Lola Young's another example of that, you know, she got the song, it went out viral on TikTok. She became friends with Elton. You know, there's a lot of. Stuff in that, but that's not an overnight success.

That's graft. Somebody's noticed how hard you're grafting and they've acknowledged it and it's helped your journey a little bit. And that's the same as how you grow a brand and how you grow a business.

Yeah, 100%. And, and you mentioned about the support being something that's really key and I like what you say about what your husband said to you. I'm sure it wasn't, as you say, probably a bit mad at first,

Didn't go down well at the starry arm.

Can imagine. But fantastic advice. You know, it's, it's sort of, you know, any, any sort of feedback is actually gold really.

Um, and the fact that, that was like that pivotal moment it sounds like, when it's like, right, okay, this is no longer. I'm no longer sort of testing the water. Now I'm fully in and committed. Was there any, how did you feel about that? Were there any sort of moments where you're just like, oh, sort of, oh crap.

Moments of like when you start panicking and thinking, how I, can I really do this?

Well, there were so many. I think we initially, I mean, the business hadn't been going that long and I'd been approached by a massive retailer to run their customer service program and I thought, Ooh, and we didn't win it.

But I tell you what, what it did do was give me, the content that I deliver now was based on this content that I created nearly 14 years ago, and I just kept like evolving this content, but. I always knew it was something that was really strong. So I think it was that belief. I think something I did, which was again, against the, maybe against the green.

I always, from the very start. Employed people. So I started off having somebody who was self-employed. But again, I think it's known your own strengths and weaknesses as a business owner, that I know what I'm really good at and I know what I'm really bad at, and I'm not gonna try and learn the things that I'm really bad at.

I'm going to invest in double down, in paying somebody to do those things. And then from the start of that. I took on employed staff. So, you know, at one point we had four to five of us and, and then it was really interesting with the evolution of the business because I had a training company, that's what it was.

It was a sales training company. But everybody wanted me and I'm like, how do you scale this one? So what I did was, again. It evolved the training into the speaking eventually. I mean, it took eight years to do this. It wasn't an an, it wasn't an overnight success. It took us a long time, but I, I now have great back of house.

So like, Rebecca's been with me for eight years. Jazz has been there for four years, and then some of the other girls that were there, one still edits the book. She's the final editor. She's in Australia. And then Kaya, she's been with me now like on and off for. 10 or 12 years, she co-authored some of the books.

And then for the next book, Rebecca's gonna co-author. So for me, the other thing around purpose is my team are all young because they keep me young. They're like switched on, they're quicker, they're slicker. You know, it's really having that balance of. A lot of people are scared to employ younger people because, oh, they're real.

You know, we hear again on social media that they're a nightmare to work with or this or that. They're not. To me, I find them amazing. They might not come with the skills, but that's my job to give them those skills. But I've got to think about legacy. So I'm 58 this year or this month, so what's the legacy for my team?

And somebody's worked for you for that amount of time. Um, and we know that obviously you get employee schemes and things like that, but to me it's the thinking about the whole business, even as a small business. We work with some of the Fortune 500, fruity 100, keeping that together to make the impact for them.

Yeah. And has, has a team always been something that was important to you? Like even in the corporate days?

Massively. Massively. 'cause I think I. And this is where I think a lot of people are scared. You know, coming back to this, being scared when you start a business, because it's a big commitment. You're paying people's mortgages and of course you're like, what if we don't make enough money?

What if this happens? What if I, what if I don't get paid? What if this, you know, you go through all those challenges, but to me, I knew from day one I couldn't get to where I want to go on my own. I had to do that. And yes, it was a gamble, but I think the gamble really has definitely paid off on, on taking a team on at the start.

Yeah. Because that's when we, I speak to a lot of business owners and they feel that they should have made a decision sooner. To make that first hire because that hire is almost really scary because you are, you are letting go of control to some degree, but also there's that responsibility.

But I'm guessing, as you said, you know what your strengths and weaknesses are. So I'm guessing you feel quite comfortable in terms of delegating.

Yeah, I 

love that and, and again, I think it's delegated to fail, you know, because they've got to learn like, I welcome fail. You're in my organization. And you know, I know that there'll be people listening to this who've got like a much more staff than I've got and go, oh yeah, you've only got three staff or four staff.

But I think. If you get that in at the fundamental in the start, then it's easy to scale your team because you've already set, and there's a lot of focus, again, especially in the corporate space, the mission, the vision, and the values. But if you really do get people to buy into your mission, your vision, and the values at the start of the journey.

Then you get the right people who are in the foundations. And if you look at high performance teams, trust is the main thing. Like I trust my team a hundred percent, like literally I trust them sometimes more than I trust my children. So like it, it's those kind of things. But I think knowing your numbers, I mean, I can't imagine the petty four lady would ever be able to take a team on because she wasn't making enough money.

The business model wasn't set up for that. So to me, knowing the fundamentals of a business. Gives you the peace of mind to be able to scale 'cause you know that you can afford the salaries if you've got your business module set up correctly from the start.

100% definitely is, I guess being sort of. Sounds like you were, look, being on, you were on the business quite early days, rather than being completely sucked in as a result of having that team on board

Best 99 pound I ever spent, that's 

99 pounds.

I love that.

All 

of that for 99 pounds. Brilliant.

I wish, was it still

99 

pounds. I don't know about, this is over a decade ago, so it's, it might be 199 now. It might have gone up, but it was sponsored and I think this is the thing that even though that. The public sector, we know that the cash pot there is reduced because of the, the global economies in the UK economy.

But there are things like your growth hubs or your Chamber of Commerce or, and people kind of overlook the support that they can get there for free. And this is where, 'cause they spend a lot of time with social media, they get sucked into all the things that are not free or, and spend. Thousands people can spend thousands on personal development and come out with absolutely nothing.

Whereas if you are canny, maybe it's a Scottish bit anyway, but if you're canny and look at where you, um, gain your support from specifically a start when you don't have much money, then like it's all out there. You just have to apply it Now, that's the challenge in itself, isn't it? Because you know, the business formula, sell more stuff, spend less money, stay in profit.

I mean, that's simple as you can get it, but you know, you've got to apply the principles at the start around knowing your numbers. And a lot of businesses, specifically, when they are seeing that they may be getting into trouble, they're not reconciling daily, they're not really looking at their, their budgets, their forecasts, their, you know, their revenue, where's the pipeline at?

They're not doing that. They're ostrich and just hoping it gets better. And I think that's one thing that I've always been really good at because I, I daily reconcile. I know where the number is. I know what's going on with the finances. I can make educated decisions that come at the right time.

And it, there's a an interesting point that you said about you kind of put your head in the sand. Yeah. Some business owners do and think that it will all work out, but the fact that you are, you come across as someone that's got really great energy, but also you are not afraid to tackle any head challenges head on.

I mean, if we look at the, the remodeling of the business, you know, I had to make redundancies at that stage of the game because that model wasn't working.

And nobody likes to do that. Nobody likes to, you know, affect anybody else's life. But as the business owner, you're the captain of the ship. If you see there's an iceberg coming your job to kind of turn it around and go somewhere else, and you know, it's better that you, you know, you do that earlier rather than.

Losing the whole business and everybody lose their job. You have to make those tough decisions fairly early on.

Yeah, definitely. And you know, you mentioned about that eight year period, I'm guessing that has um, sort of, I always call it the rollercoaster of the highs and lows and some stress points, right, of like wanting, you've gotta get your book out, you've gotta do this and that.

Are you someone that's quite balanced? 'cause you come across to me very balanced. I love your energy, really positive. Are there any moments where in actual fact you are just kind of. Really finding that quite difficult from a stress perspective and just how struggling to, to manage everything.

So I am one of those people that what you see is what you get.

So I'm a little rager and screamer and I think when I reflect back on my, um. Career. Prior to setting up the business, I was a cow. I would say that I was like a shouty. I'd be an absolute bloody nightmare because I'd never taught to be, I was never taught to be a leader. And I think this is where it was interesting, like working in corporate organizations because prior to sales, I worked in hospitality.

So I worked for Radisson, I worked for Southern Suns, I worked for some of the biggest hotel, hotel chains in the world. Worked in Sydney, worked in Cape Town. Like, you know, I did a lot and. You default back to your natural behavior types. So I was a, an order giver. I wouldn't bring people along. Uh, you know, I don't think I wasn't a great leader.

I wasn't, which I was a worry for me when I went into setting up a business. And when I went into part of my career, I concentrated. Sales rather than sales leadership, because I thought, I can't, I can't take this pressure on. But what I did, it was a game changer. And this is what we sort of bonded on at Biz Fest was, uh, as part of the sales training when I worked for the big corporates, they do the behavioral training.

So they teach you, the one that we did was insights and it was the red, the green, the blue, the yellow, and things like that.

And

I, I talk about this still even now in my talks, and I go like, who's done this stuff? Hands go up. Who put it in a drawer and doesn't action it? You know, can't remember what I was, I did it so long ago.

Now that's what happens. I think what I did was I really started to live and breathe this stuff and what I then became. I would say was more of a compassionate leader. I really knew the people that were working for me because we knew the behaviors we'd had them profiled, and I thought, right, okay, this is gonna go one or two ways.

I can stay being shouty demanding and I'm, and when pressure is on, I have to double down on being a compassionate leader. Because it's my natural that I get, you know, shouty worried, horrible to work for, and that I've got to think, right, okay, stop now, step back, breathe, and move into compassion. Not worry, the team don't rock the boat.

It's okay for me to be worried, but I've gotta make sure that there's, if I keep this boat steady, then everybody will perform at work and we'll get the results that we want. So that was the. Again, this is not my natural behavior. So again, I know that you've done that. I'm 98% red, 98% yellow in basic and adapted.

So again, that doesn't really shift, which is where the energy comes from. I'm 4% in basic and adapted in blue, and I am, I think it's something like 12% in basic. Green to 48% in adapted green. So when you adapt so much, you've really got to create your own space. So that's why I need space to pull away from my team to be able to scream and shout and cry on my own, to regain my strength to stay in that compassionate leadership space.

I find that absolutely fascinating, just sitting here as a a with very much strong sort of red energy, and you could be, because you come across very compassionate, very calm, very composed, and the fact that what you've said shows an incredible level of self-awareness.

Yeah. But also I'm guessing a lot of. Work to be able to understand that because it's not something that you go, oh, okay, I've got this color. Great. I'll go ahead with that. There's, um, I'm guessing years of, um, work

and reflect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, um, I've never had therapy, but I could have spent a fortune on therapy to come up with these things. So I like to work on myself and really analyze, although I've only got the low analytical, I'm very self analytical and I, I think I'm very interested in psychology.

So I think a lot of the things we do in business are. Varies very psychology led and like leadership is psychology led seals is psychology, led everything. Life is psychology led and because it's a, a topic I'm really interested in, then it's, it's been a journey to try and evolve and to, uh, just. Being a, being a better,

A

compassionate person, you know?

And it doesn't come natural. Even when I write an email, like literally I am like, like I just like ffy. I cut to the chase. No, please, no thank you. No asking how your weekend is. I've got to read every email that I write. Based on the behavior. So again, I know the behaviors of a lot of our clients. I know the behaviors of my team and I tailor every email.

'cause if it's, if I was sending you an email, you don't, you don't want me to start with, how was your weekend? How are you? You just want me to cut to the chase and tell me what it is you want? So I think there's a lot of, this has made me a better, I don't know, a better person. A better leader, but a better person to work with, which I think is the most important thing when it comes to business.

'cause if you're not good to work with, nobody wants to work with you, no matter how strong your product is. But I am the product. Yeah. So that's where sort of the, for me, that's been a lot of work.

Yeah, definitely. But I obviously you're doing an incredible job. The fact that you've got your team members that have been with you for, for years, um, as well, which is

they don't leave. Literally. They're great. I love them. They're, they're like family. So when I got, I got the honorary doctorate a year ago yesterday and when we went down, thank you so much. And it's for education, which is ironic 'cause I don't have an grade to hire or a degree, but now I'm a doctor I education.

So, um, so when we went down to Bournemouth to get it. Yeah, I took my kids, I took my husband, I took my sister, I took my brother-in-law, but I took the girls, like the girls come on the journey with me because, um, not only are they part of the business, family, they feel like part of the family now. So, uh, yeah, I love it.

It's, it's a great situation and again, you've always got to keep that boundary between business and personal. But I think that's something that we've managed to nail, really, and, and that that helps to the success of the, the business.

definitely. And talking about the doctor of education, 'cause I think that's, that's really something that's important.

'cause as you say, if you go back to your school days and everything, and when you were writing your book and that to be where you are at, that's a phenomenal achievement. How did that, how did that feel?

I cry, I'm a crier. Yeah. Um, so as soon as good things happen, I cry. I cry more at good things than bad things.

Bad things I seem to be able to control, but good things, I'm just, oh, I can't believe it. And so there's two things. Obviously the MBE came before the doctorate and the MBE. The application for that, or the nomination for that was written by Kaya, who's, again, you know, she was with me for three years before she went to Portugal and still freelances for me, but she wrote it and she was 21 years old.

So again, I think sometimes as well, people think. Business. It's about age and wisdom, and it's not, to me it's generational contribution is so important. So she wrote the application and we found out about the MBE during COVID. So there was a time where you were allowed to work from your garden and you were allowed to have six people in your garden, but you didn't know whether they were allowed to go for a wee.

And Kaya and I were doing the last of the edits and the email came in and I said. I think I've, again, it was tears. It was more like this. I think I've just been given an MBE for entrepreneurship and business. She said, oh, I knew that three weeks ago. And I went, how did you know? She goes, I nominated you three years ago.

So she was 21 when she wrote the application. So to me, you know, talking about the commodity, um, and talking about the kindness and genuine.

like.

I gave a lot to small businesses. I did a lot, which is why honestly, my husband thought I ran a charity for many years, but it was double whammy. I was given, but it was growing the profile and then landing the MBE grows the profile again.

And then how the doctorate came about was bizarre. So I was doing a talk for Bourmouth University for their, um, customer excellence. So it was their, um, non-academic, um. Team, like the, the admin staff in the back of house staff, and they paid me. So it was a paid piece of work. It wasn't, you know, that I was doing anything to get a doctorate.

It was just, they booked me to do this event. And the lady that I did the event for came up and she said, Alison, you're the best speaker we've ever heard. We absolutely love your story. We love what you've left us as the takeaways. And I'm like, oh no, it's fine. Don't worry. So she then contacted Jazz again, jazz, at this stage of the game is about.

20. I don't even know if she was 21. She could have been 21, maybe 22. Time flies when you're having fun. Um, but the lady said, I'd like to nominate Allison for an honorary doctorate. Could you please help to, um, put together the application and the timeline and all the things that Allison's done so, and.

She said, can I share this with Allison? She goes, oh yeah, yeah, you can share. 'cause to be honest, Ja, the chances of her getting it slim to none, but I feel she deserves it. So I again, here comes the tears again. Oh. Can't believe it. Oh, and it's not put on tears, you know, like, because nobody sees what's going on here.

It's just like me going, oh. I, I think it's disbelief and even now I'm talking about it, I feel disbelieving and it's not even imposter syndrome, it's just disbelieving that a, a girl cly bank with no qualifications that thought she was thick, that was brought up in a high rise council flat, that mom was a cleaner dad worked in the shipyards, can achieve these things.

And I don't find myself inspirational, right? I just get up every day. I do my, do, do my best, help as many people as I can. But to have that recognized and people think it's inspirational, and if it can change somebody's life, then that's, it's great for me. But if it can help somebody else, that's the main thing.

So what then happened was. Bournemouth University do their graduations at different time of the year. They do it in November. So Jazz had done all the things. It went to Suzanne, she put it in and said, look, honestly, don't hold any hope. Don't hold your breath. 'cause they give out one a year or two a year.

There's a backlog from COVID. Very rarely, you know, probably not get it. OMG. The day that the email came in and we got it and I was, oh,

oh,

it's straight away. I'm emailing back and again, I am like, what you see with me is what you get. This is not an act. I am, sometimes I'm an absolute nightmare. 'cause I'm like, people say you've got a lot of energy.

Sometimes I've just got too much energy. It drives you bananas. And I go back and I'm replying in capitals. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't believe it. They've got to ask like the same with the MBE, they ask you if you want to accept it and I'm like, oh, of course I'd love to accept it. And again, the same with the MBE.

You've got to kind of keep it quiet. So I know I've known for like the MBE, I knew for five months and I couldn't tell MD 'cause they can take it away. The honorary doctorate. That happened, we found out in July and we weren't getting it until November. And you can't tell him until you've got it. So in, in, in Scotland, there's this phrase, you've got to ho your wish, which means you've got to be quiet, you can't say anything.

And I'm not very good at ho my wish. I'm like, I was so excited about it all. So, um, and so that's when it came about. And, and then the, so again, talking about imposter syndrome or not believing it. When I got both of them, I spent about the same as I invested in the course learning about business to change the name on my passport.

So, and it was only when my passport said Dr. Allison Edgar, MBE. And any day that I do feel. You're not worthy, you're not good enough. Or how the hell did they pick you? There's all these other people that are much better than you or much pier than you, or much everything than you. I just get my passport and go, but I have got it.

I'm this. So I think, you know, I talk about people doing this for themselves, but I pr everything I talk about. I practice what I teach. 

Yeah. 

You know, so many people talk the talk, but they, they've never walked the walk or they don't walk the walk. Everything I talk about in all my talks or all, all the books, I'm doing that on a daily basis.

Yeah. I absolutely love that. I love the fact that you've said that you've got it on your passport. And you look at it and it reminds you, because sitting here, I would be like, wow. You know, to be able to have those achievements and those awards, that's phenomenal.

You should be said, well, obviously you are proud of yourself, but I would see you as somebody that wouldn't question that. But then people, you know, and everyone listening, but the fact that you've openly said that, you're looking and thinking, oh, I do have it. You know, to que 'cause you when you question yourself, because it just shows you, no matter some of the achievements that you can have.

There's still self-doubt that kicks in.

I even had a call last week. So I've, I'm sort of evolving. I'm always looking for better ways, right? So I'm always, I never like, people say, oh, you've achieved so much. I'm like, I'm at Base Camp one. I've got so much more, there's so much Mo Mountain for me to climb. I'm still at the base camp and uh, you know, I look back at it and.

But the achievements aren't just mine. Like that comes back to where we've sort of full circle from. Why it was important for me to have as team from the start. Because if I hadn't brought the team in at the start, if I hadn't brought the right people in to support me, that really, like I. Can see the, the, the vision.

Like, you know, we, we know where we want to go. Like, ah, whole minute. We've got a mind map that everybody can share. They can tell me what the, the target is. They can tell me what exactly what we need to do. I don't have to tell them 'cause they're, they're behind it. They're the cheerleaders of that. And again.

I think as you scale your business, that's harder. Right? So I'm not saying like it's, it's definitely easier when you've got a small team, but if the small team are leading the next step to the base camps, then that we're all going in the base camp and we're all climbing the journey together.

Yeah. I love that. And you, you come across as someone who, who's always been quite clear on.

Your purpose in terms of you've always wanted to help others.

The purpose has always been clear. Right. That's, but again, you know, coming back to supporting business, 'cause we were talking about this earlier. So I do a lot of work with the Great British Entrepreneurs Awards.

I won one in 2015, um, and I'm still mentoring two the boys that won in 2014, 2016. And literally we are just like a little, they, they're young entrepreneurs. So I met Ben when he was 15. I met Simon when he was. I wanna say 20, maybe he was 19. And uh, literally we are best friends, so having best friends in business and now Ben's like 25 and Simon's 30, so it's been over 10 years.

We speak every day. We've got a WhatsApp chat, like I, I'll see them like I'm in London. I see them like literally they're another support that really helped me through. But like when I had it, I was having a call last week with. Again, a woman who's helping me to just take me on to the next level, get me to the next base camp from the speaker perspective.

And I said, and again, this is why I practice what I teach because there is a gender imbalance in the speaker market. Um, I did market research independently to show it. There is definitely, um, gender pay gap in the speaking market. I've got evidence to prove this. So I had a hunch and I thought, right, I'm gonna invest in getting some evidence.

So it made me feel a wee bit better that I wasn't just. Been cynical. I've got something to back it up, and so when I lose out. Every time I lose out to my man, I go, that's 'cause a man and it's gender imbalance. Right. And I, I have now got evidence that this is actually there, but I also sometimes get a bit like if I lose out to a woman because she's posh or privately educated or, but that's not about them.

That's the chip on my shoulder. Mm-hmm. And I said, oh, you know, I don't know if they want a chavy speaker. Right. So even this is two weeks ago, or last week, I'm referring to myself as a Chavy speaker and the lady was like. I can't believe you just said that. What makes you think you're a Chaffy speaker?

I'm like, oh, I grew up in a council house. And she said, but you're not in that council house. Now. Look at what you've achieved. Look at what you've done. You've gotta stop that. And I'm like, again, I'm going against what I teach you. Because if somebody said that to me, I would be like, where did that come from?

Look at what you've achieved. So even then, I've gotta it, it comes to the forefront all the time, and I've gotta kick those messages and that noise out. Everybody's got a noise that's telling them something that's not true about themselves. And I think so many people keep listening to it. I've, I've really had to work hard to switch it off, but this is two weeks ago.

That's, yeah. And uh, thanks for sharing that because I think for those that are listening, you know, the fact that you say that, you know, even me sitting here, it surprises me 'cause I'm like, I, you come, you don't come across a cha speaker at until you come across as a really strong, inspiring speaker. And it's interesting that.

As you say, you only had those thoughts two weeks ago that you are, you're still

But I think even social mobility, I'm really like, I, I talk about in the second book Smash at the Art of Getting what you Want. I talk about social mobility and I'm really passionate about helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds to find that passion and that purpose because they are disadvantaged.

It's, it's a, it's fact. Um. But there's only one person that can really help them to take that to the next level, and that's themself. Hundred percent. You know, and I think that I'm evidence of it, but you still have this, again, comes back to the psychology. It comes back to the, the, the mindset piece of it that.

No matter how hard you practice, no matter how hard you try that, that voice is there to protect you. So you don't wanna go up in front of a room full of etonians or whatever and then go, ah, so, um, I have to work hard. That's, I'd say that's one of the things I have to work hard just on in my business.

sure. And you mentioned about having somebody that's helping you, you said base camp level one. Yeah. In level two. So you are then, because you are helping other people, so you are helping them grow and you are then, right? Well, who helps me grow now.

Yeah. But I think that's also helped why I have to overcome the things that are holding me back.

Because we, like, one of the things that I talk about, and I, I trademarked this because time, you know, people are overwhelmed. They don't have enough time. It. 82% of people don't have a personal time management system in place, which is shocking and I thought, right. Okay. So if time is one of the things that holds people back from achieving their goals, achieving their dreams, scaling their businesses, starting a business, then how can I help people to.

Clean that out. 'cause I think that's one of the things that I worked on early on in myself, was staying on top of my time. Mm-hmm. And I had to, 'cause I had two kids and my, I was a caterer to my parents and you know, I'm running two, I'm well, I'm doing a job, running a business, and all the other things, I've gotta stay on top of this.

So I didn't understand the Eisenhower quadrant 'cause I didn't put not or so. I trademarked this thing called Allison Edgar's Big Balls, right? And it set off the red flags at the Peyton office and, but it did go through, so we got that. But what I looked at was really how people manage their own time. So when we look at how people manage their own time, they're not really feeding into feeding the P plan.

So as a business owner, you've got to look at the tasks. Tweaking your website, that's a ping pong ball. We've got a bit of time on that one. Whereas getting an invoice done or getting any of these things that put money in the bank, which keeps the cash flow going, become really important. But the thing you've got is it's not just you the owner doing that.

If you've got a team of entrepreneurs who see that through the same eyes, then it really helps the team to function a lot better. 'cause you're all following this. Same vision. Um, but what you find in a lot of organizations is the disparity of the balls. So for example, I worked with an organization and they had a sales team.

So the sales team are all feeding the pay plan. They knew the basketballs, but credit control. Order processing, like they weren't putting the orders through timely enough, and they weren't passing enough through credit, and again, it was the disparity of the balls. But as a result, I did two sessions with them, like two hours one, and then maybe an hour a month later, two hours.

Again, the uptake between H one and H two was 54 million pounds. Wow. I know. Literally, and this wasn't new inquiries coming in, it just worked in a higher conversion between half year one and half year two. So it, it surprises me that people use it, but like companies like Louis Vuitton, D-H-L-C-B-R-E, like some of the biggest brands in the world, British Airways, like they're using Alison Edgar's big Balls.

And it, to me, it sounded simple. So I've got a bit of a, like, surely this is really basic, but sometimes the basics. Really work because if you go too high on the academic, like to me, the Eisenhower, you're eliminating some of the people that don't understand it and if they don't understand it, they don't use it.

So to me it comes back to simplicity in everything that we talk about.

A hundred percent. Definitely. And I guess that's helped you, you mentioned about the eight years 'cause you are doing what you love, you are able to speak and you're not in the, in the weeds and everything. I guess that helped your organization to allow you to then free your time to, um, focus on the

percent. 'cause everybody knows what they're meant to be doing. And, you know, coming back to the targets that we spoke about in mentorship, I worked closely with, um, great British Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Again, I've met some of the young entrepreneurs. I still work with 10 years old, but there was a, a man there that I met.

He was a judge the year that I won. And I said to him like, oh. Maybe two or three years ago. 'cause I've never had a mentor or I've never had a coach. I kind, I've got friends that support me. I've got my business friends that support me and I've got my team that support me. And I said, will you be my mentor?

He went, what do you need a mentor for? And I went, well, I'm really struggling to work out my targets. And he said, oh, right, I'll give you five minutes and that's it. Don't ask me again. I'm just gonna tell you in five minutes. Just take notice. I said, right, okay. He said, can you work? X amount of days a year.

I said, yeah. He said, can you charge X amount per day? And I went, yeah. He said, well, X times X equals your target. Are you going achieve it? And that's literally what I did. I was that

incredible.

five minutes and my whole team know what our target is. They know how many days they need to book me out. They know what I need to charge.

And then that's it. Job done.

It just shows you, like you mentioned about the simplicity. So many people are trying to overcomplicate or it's almost, there's an element of ego there of uh, saying, oh, well this is, this is what you need to do. Whereas, uh, there's the simplicity part there as well.

It's key, key element.

Yeah. I think I learned that from my 99 pounds as well. Yeah, 

exactly.

There you go. So what does the future look like for you?

So we're gonna hit this target that, uh, my lovely mentor friend that gave me five minutes of his time, uh, the new book is coming out, we're about halfway through, and it's on int entrepreneurship.

So again, it's aimed at senior leaders to get their teams to think like. They're running their own business and their employees, again, feeding the P plan will be in there. The big balls will be in there. Mindset's definitely in there. What would you do if it was your first day? So that's our next one. And then, um, I, again, I think the other thing that is also really important is your life outside work.

So my husband and I in, I wanna say July bought a motor home. And it is, it is brand new. Out the box. It is an absolute stoker of a motor home. It's 7.5 meters, so it's quite a hard thing to drive. We had, when we went to France for the summer, we had the angles, morts, 'cause it's a heavy vehicle. And so, um, we can work from that.

My job is seasonal now. So we spent the summer there, uh, kicking around in the motor home in Europe. We were gonna plan to do Christmas, but we've had a bit of a family, really close family bereavement, which has meant, you know, that the priority goes there. Um, and then. Anytime I'm not working, we're just gonna tle around in the motor home.

So I think again, you're a 360 of a person. I think the reason I can be so strong in work is that I'm happy outside work. And I think if you're happy in work, you can be happy out work that people really don't see the conjoining between business and personal. And I think that's a big flaw. Um, that's something that I try and conjoin and I just literally, in the words of the final book, I just try and smash it.

Smash it. Indeed. And you are smashing it. And I absolutely love that. In terms of how the personal and the business do sort of, they are tangled together, you know? And one, one will affect, affect the other. And the fact that you're go, you've, you've gone to seasonal now cruising around. Oh, I dunno if it's cruising, if you're driving something that

ask 

me. I don't drive, I'm not driving it. I just sit there. I'm the passenger princess here she comes. I choose the tunes. We had a lot of Taylor Swift on holiday. I love a bit of that.

I think that's wise definitely in terms of, uh, not driving a, a huge motor home. And, um, I always ask one last question to our guests. Um, if you were to go back right to that very start when Allison sort of left, uh, the Yellow Pages and took that step forward, what would that piece of advice be?

I think really believe in yourself. You're not a chave. You have actually got the skills that people want to hear and believe in, and just believe in yourself.

I think that's the main thing.

I absolutely love that. I absolutely love your story and I love how open you've been. So thank you. Congratulations on all your successes, your awards, everything, and also in being able to find that balance, as you mentioned in terms of your personal life and professional life.

'cause I think that is something that. So many business owners I speak to are still seeking. Yeah. And they and they can't, can't find. Um, so it is incredible. So thank you so much for sharing your story today. I'm sure our listeners have found it truly inspiring 'cause I know I definitely have. And uh, yeah, it's been fantastic talking with you today.

Oh,

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you again for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.

And thank you everyone for listening today.