People Before Profit: Redefining Leadership with Jennifer Davidson

0:00Welcome back to The Serial Entrepreneur, I'm your host Anna Wood. On today's episode, I'm joined by Jennifer Davidson, the founder of Fleek Events. We discussed how leadership isn't about knowing all the answers, the choice to not pivot to virtual events during the COVID lockdown, and her mantra of people before profit. Let's dig in. Welcome to the podcast today. How are you doing? Hi, I'm well, thank you. Yourself? Yeah, I'm really good, thank you. Thank you for coming on. So we begin every episode of the podcast with our signature icebreaker question, which is what is your favourite breakfast cereal and why?

0:42Well, breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, although cereal's not on it. We did have a breakfast tub this morning. But if we did put cereal on it, it would be Weetabix chocolate minis because it's the comfort of Weetabix with chocolate as a treat and especially great in the colder months. Yeah, honestly, in my opinion, like anything slightly chocolatey is a yes for cereal. I was going to put Coco Pops initially, but I thought I'd go a bit more balanced. Yeah, that makes sense. Everyone is kind of on a bit of a health kick as well. So I get it. So would you be able to introduce yourself and tell me about your background, please?

1:24Sure. So I was originally born in Germany, although I've lived most of my life in the UK now. I studied business studies with languages, so German and Spanish, and originally thought my career would go down the marketing route. Although then what happened is I discovered events, realized it was the right fit for me. It was fast paced, people focused and always different. So that is a real quick snapshot of how I've ended up where I am today. Perfect. So you're the founder of Sleek Events. Could you tell me a bit more about this and what the inspiration behind starting the company was? Yeah. So Sleek Events is an independent experience partner.

2:05What that means is we are known as an event agency, ultimately. We collaborate with global brands across multiple different industries. We've got a large presence in the tech sector. And we're proud to say that includes some of the biggest brands that they're around. And yeah, the inspiration behind it was truly the people. So early on in my career, there was a lot of judgment based around academic growth, grades, rather than drive and potential. And really, it was around also noticing that a lot of talented people were overlooked. So what I wanted to do was build a business that put people before profits, as well as create an environment where individuals are supported to be the best version of themselves, regardless of their background.

2:51And the main kind of thing you'll always hear me talk about is people before profits, the culture. And I truly believe that culture growth and client success don't have to compete against each other and that they can coexist where people come first. That's fantastic. So you kind of said how you initially thought you'd be going down the marketing route, but then you found events. is so what was your professional background in before you started Sleek? It was events within property investment franchise and also a sports marketing company. Initially in the property investment franchise I worked with as part of a marketing team and that was kind of my dabbling into the world of events very different to what I do today or what Sting does today.

3:41But that was the initial taster of how I got exposed to it. I then moved into a more tech focused company where I looked after different companies on a sponsorship level and execution. And that's kind of where it all started to build from there. And my curiosity, I would say, for what the world of events was started. Yeah, great. So how do you think that your professional background influenced the way that you approached building the business? so what I would say is that there's probably two themes that would spring to mind that shaped how sleek is built today number one was how I was treated there was definitely a way of talking down at less experienced members at different companies and there was also I also experienced judgment and lack of respect early on in my career of what my capabilities were and I suppose the realization around that was that behavior is driven by company culture.

4:44It was based on the companies that I was choosing and the cultures that they created. Really that being nice shouldn't be a big ask and that success didn't need to come through kind of what's a nice way of putting it, stepping on your teammates on the way, you know, to make your way up the ladder. So I would say the way that that kind of influenced is that I put huge emphasis on the culture. The takeaway around that really was the culture that we create and then how that shapes the people around us. The other theme that I would say that had an impact would be the pressure to fit into corporate environments.

5:22I feel like there's a real, when you start working, I feel like there's a real feeling of pressure to conform and fit in and find your feet. And when you're early on in your career, you're still trying to work out who you are and what you want to do. and then when you find yourself navigating toxic environments or coded language it kind of makes you feel like you almost need to adapt to be the same and I suppose that really made me value transparency and fairness and speaking up when something didn't feel right and focusing on real relationships not transactional relationships both with clients and with teams and that kind of made a huge impact again as to how I formed Sleek making sure that I spent time getting to know myself and feeling comfortable in my own skin so that when I did hold my own in a room or in a meeting I did it with confidence and comfort and yeah as you kind of start to find yourself you really start feeling a lot more comfortable and finding like-minded people around you that allow you to thrive yeah it's it's kind of what you were saying it's kind of like that saying that's like be the change you want to see in the world it's like you you saw this industry that you really enjoyed but you saw all the problems with it as well so you kind of went out and went no I want to change this yeah that's basically what happened like all the experiences were great experiences and I definitely learned along along the process but I really do think it's about being true to yourself and you know owning that definitely so in the early stages of the business how easy was it to get clients and what was that experience like so the early stages it was interesting because of the way I went about building sleek and how it came about so initially I was contractor at different companies and then I kind of found myself in this world of it I actually discovered agencies after being in-house and corporate side and it really wasn't about the quick wins because what I realized was that I'd already experienced all the things that I didn't want so how was I going to build something that aligned with my values and what was true to me so I really had to step away from environments and situations that no longer aligned with that and networking has never come naturally to me yet building relationships with people where I can be myself does and I had to really kind of remove that pressure of wanting to sell myself to forced connections so again coming back around to be comfortable in your own skin was super important to me so I started saying no to the things that misaligned with me and kind of yes around things that were clear and aligned my values and the direction I wanted to go in.

8:10I became a lot more intentional with the places that I put myself in. So rather than forcing myself into certain networking events where I knew I would feel uncomfortable, I made a point of choosing things where I would be able to show up as a better version of myself because I ultimately felt more comfortable. And really realizing that relationships are built over time. And it's about finding that the right people, whether that's people you work with or for or collaborate with. There are, you know, your kind of people everywhere you go. So it's about building those relationships. And what was interesting was the relationships that I had forged over time started coming to me and started recommending me, introducing me to more people that were aligned with what I wanted to do.

8:58So really the recommendations followed and people started reaching out to me, which was super important. And I kind of, yeah, became more genuine and everything I did and realized, you know, actually, I'm not a good liar. It doesn't serve me. And it's okay to do honest business and to be nice. And that word of mouth became the key driver for our early clients and still our clients today. 80 % of our business is word of mouth. And it's about the relationships feeling authentic rather than transactional. So it's not really about being lucky. It's about the perseverance and the alignment of who you really are and what you're wanting to achieve.

9:33Yeah, I think what you said there was quite interesting near the beginning, how even kind of early on in the business that you would be able to say no, I feel like so many founders start a business and feel so much pressure to say yes to everything. So I think that's quite interesting that you said that you knew what kind of didn't align with you or wouldn't work for you. So you could just say no, because that's not where you wanted to go. I would definitely say that pre-COVID I was a yes person and it wasn't until COVID that I kind of pivoted and became a lot more. I think we all worry that it's not going to work out.

10:12And I think that's the moment of doubt that makes us do kind of fight or flight decisions rather than, you know, really owning your position and kind of going back to knowing yourself and what you want to achieve. And there was definitely a time within Sleek where we were like, yeah, we're all about saying yes. And then we were like, actually, no, we don't want to do that anymore because there is enough business to go around. We don't need to work with the people that aren't kind to the team or that don't necessarily see, you know, the value we bring or respect the work we create. And I think the moment you do that, you kind of feel at peace and everything feels a bit more calmer, even though startup life is quite frantic.

10:50Yes. So how have client expectations evolved over time? I think that's an interesting one because events obviously evolve constantly, whether it's the technology or the experience people want. Everyone wants to Amazon Prime their life and have everything kind of instantly. And I think as the environment and the whole world constantly changes, whether that's around sustainability or the technology available, I think it's evolved drastically. I think the one common theme that I would say that's never gone away and that became more prominent when COVID appeared was relationships. You know, I think we think we're able to create so many things through technology and and automate elements.

11:38But ultimately, unless we feel connected to someone or part of a community, something doesn't quite feel right. So I would say, although the expectations have evolved over time, clients are still looking for partnerships. They want to feel like they have an extended team. They want to know that they can call you when they need you and something isn't right and vice versa. You know, the days of kind of dictating to an agency, maybe it still does happen, but it doesn't happen. of kind of treating people very differently has gone away, at least at Sleek. So for us, it really is about a partnership rather than a sole service provider.

12:18I think also so many things are easy to kind of like fake it till you make it. But with relationships and building relationships, it's not something that you can just fake and pretend is there when it might not be. It does take a long time to build decent relationships that you know you can rely on each other yeah and you know ultimately you know events is one of those things that you can't predict everything and there will be that occasion where a pigeon flies into a keynote that you're not expecting and it's about knowing that you can laugh about that in those moments or you really need to kind of I don't know bring in some umbrellas before the pigeon does something that it shouldn't but it is totally about those moments of coming together that's super key yeah definitely what would you say are some of the biggest trends you're seeing in events right now that either clients want or that you're really interested to put in them everybody always wants something that hasn't been done before you know what i what the common question is what are others doing that we're not doing and with the technology out our hands there's loads that we could do but that also comes with a price tag attached so there's nothing in particular that you could pinpoint but the common theme does seem to be I'd like to do something bigger better but on the budget from 2020 please which is a real challenge we're all up for a challenge but sometimes that's not possible I do think there is a drive to just in every industry right now where it's like we want to be bigger than the next path we want to be better than them but it's kind of like at some point there must be a ceiling to what what can even be done yeah what's quite interesting simon cynic's book recently the infinite game he kind of comments on that how you know some companies they're in the same can't remember which companies are referenced now but he said they're in the same field i think it was microsoft and apple and some way you know they're never neither of them are ever going to win it's just a different periods of time, one of them's going to be more successful than the other.

14:24And that's kind of how it's going to go. So I think that's quite an interesting way to look at it as well. Yeah, definitely. So looking at more of your kind of journey, what challenges have you faced on the journey so far and how have you overcome them? I think I've already mentioned the kind of main ones that have been part of the journey as to how we've got to where we've got to today. I think the other one major challenge that was completely out of our control was obviously COVID. Events disappeared overnight. The entire industry paused instantly, which no one would predict. And really strangely, two weeks prior to that, I was on a Goldman Sachs course and I jokingly said, they said, you know, you've got, at the time we had one client which had quite a high percentage of our business.

15:10And they said, you know, what would you do if they stopped? And I was like, well, they're never all going to stop at the same time. So yeah, I know. Be careful what you say out loud. So there was a huge uncertainty for the business, the team, the industry. But I have this weird way in these moments of crisis not to panic. So I immediately said to the team, do you know what, let's do a SWOT analysis of the business. And let's not pivot to virtual events, because I'm the worst person selling something I'm not passionate about. So that was not something that I was going to be able to advocate. Everyone became overnight experts and we redirected our internal focus on training and development for the team.

15:52We looked at which area of the business every week we could kind of elevate. We went for a rebrand. We talked about how we want to be positioned when we come back. We were announced the 19 fastest privately owned company by the Sunday times just before COVID hit. So we were in a real, you know, growth trajectory. And it was a good time to stop. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't say that. But actually, for us, it was good to take stock of where we ended up being. And we just invested time in relationships, you know, coming back to that common theme. It really was about knowing your clients, your suppliers, looking after each other, and knowing your team were there.

16:32I was very transparent with the team. they thought I was definitely losing my marbles because I also found out I was pregnant in COVID. And every weekly call we had, I said, don't worry, we're going to come back bigger, better and stronger. And yeah, that was kind of our mantra for the entire time throughout COVID. So, you know, I would say we navigated the situation together rather than in isolation across the board. and we returned post-COVID with an unbelievable growth, 465 % in six months when it was legal to run events again. And we rebuilt the business staying true to our DNA. You know, we're office by design and we were keen to like bring back the magic of sleep, but we've oomphed behind it.

17:15So that's exactly what we did. I think that's really interesting to hear that COVID came and instead of pivoting to virtual events, because that's when they were going for so long, literally overnight, everything was online. Some weren't that great, but some could be really interesting. And I think kind of as an event company, taking the chance to say, actually, we're not going to do that. Instead, we're going to develop what we already have. And like you said, it was kind of the perfect moment to take a break. If lockdown stuff wouldn't have happened, you probably wouldn't have. You probably wouldn't have even got the chance because like you said, you're on that trajectory.

17:53you couldn't have stopped it but when you're almost like when life gives you lemons make lemonade and you did and you kind of let everyone develop their skills that's I think that's a really interesting take I think I hear a lot about founders and what they did during COVID but kind of an events business who didn't do virtual events is rare I think yeah I think we only we We did our first one maybe 12 months in because somebody approached us. But by then I felt the team was empowered. They were trained. What we were selling was genuine. It wasn't, you know, a sales pitch. It was something we could genuinely advise on.

18:33Because for me, you know, an online platform was no different to finding a venue. You had to find the right one. And how would you possibly know? And everyone was finding their feet. They were suddenly developing online platforms. And they were coming out of nowhere. So the last thing I wanted to do was jeopardize our reputation, which we'd built up to the position that we had, which we could have damaged overnight. And that was too much of a higher risk. Yeah, definitely. Wow. It's a very interesting story. So also, again, once about the journey, what would you say have been the biggest highlight so far?

19:10It's definitely the people, whether that's people that I've had the pleasure of having on the team, the people I've got to work with. the people we get to meet, the places we get to go and experience. Like events is amazing. Like we get to experience something that some people never do and you get to bring that alive and you get to stand back and watch that. So that all together is why I love what we do as much as I do and why I probably fight as hard as I do for the team that I have. Amazing. I think people do make or break what you do. Just if you have a job you love, but the people aren't great, then people leave because of other people most of the time.

19:58Yeah. People can stick out a bad job if they love who they work with. Very true. So what lessons, well, what are the biggest lessons that you've learned on the journey so far? I would say, I mean, the lessons, there's a long list of lessons. I would say the most important ones, if they were takeaways for other people that might help them get there a bit faster, is that leadership really isn't about having all the answers. It's not about being the person in the room that kind of is the Mr. Know-it-all. And it's about creating a space for others to thrive. It's about recruiting people that are better than you, ultimately, and allow you to be the best version of you.

20:39of yourself with that support network around you. I would say that growth can be possible without compromising what you stand for and what is important to you. And it's relationships, you know, whether they are internal or external, being nice doesn't come with a price tag. And as long as you treat others the way you expect to be treated, good things come of it. There are always those that take advantage of it unfortunately but they are far and few between great and what is one piece of advice or just one thing you wish you could go back and tell yourself before you started sleek believe in yourself and follow your gut instinct I think those two things are massively overlooked I think soft skills in generally are overlooked versus hard skills the more I find myself making decisions where inside I have a little niggle that doesn't feel right and I try and go against that tide almost you know like I'm really trying to push against it every single time I'm proved right if I had just followed my instincts and being proud of that I think you know people are like that's so fluffy how can you make decisions based on that well we're physically unable to lie to ourselves as individuals you know when we lie to ourselves we instantly get a feeling inside that we are lying so if that sort of energy happens and that force is there then why would it not be there if you are trying to make a decision that you really feel strongly about.

22:15Do you think that gut instinct has got better over time and as you've gained experience yeah I think I make decisions based on fat and gut instinct I like to look at the data and make sure that I thought about it from a kind of 360 angle I suppose whether that's our clients or our suppliers or the team depending on the situation it's like a muscle you need to nurture because it feels strange just following something you feel you know especially if you're a mail I would see you in an industry like if you stood there and said I've made this decision because I feel like it's like this I don't think you'd get many big shots doing their big talks you know when they're announcing their strategy again I feel like this is the way we should go or be like well we're basing it on market research so the short answer to your question is yes but it's definitely something that you do have to kind of feel comfortable with yeah definitely I think my final question is what is next for Sleek Events and what goals do you have for the upcoming year?

23:20It's a good question and our company year runs from the 1st of August to the 31st of July so we are actually halfway through our year. I am not primarily driven by financial goals. You might have got that through the conversation we've had although they're a necessity for any business. the personal priority for me as our company and the team grow is that I'm setting the business up for future success so that means I stay true to our vision I own what the magic of sleek means to us as a company and that spreads across all areas of the business so from the office to the systems to the people that will be my huge focus going into the future and focusing on an evolution so not necessarily change for the sake of changing but coming back to your question you know what our client's expecting it's adapting to the environment that we're operating in it's keeping our finger on the pulse and really it's being aware of what others are doing around us so that we can stay competitive and selective with our clients and really coming back to my biggest focus is the people before profit make growing but with intention and not just growing for the sake of growing but that is amazing and also another last question almost is there anything else that you wanted to add or plug at the end of the podcast I think the biggest thing is a lot of people always say oh would you sell when are you going to sell for me it's not about that wouldn't be an achievement for me.

24:56So I think for anyone starting a business, my advice would be, you know, don't feel pressured to following what seems to be the norm and is celebrated the most. Do what's right for you, your lifestyle, your team, your business, and ultimately follow what feels right. Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been really interesting speaking with you and learning more about how you've got to where you are. Thank you. I really appreciate it. thank you bye bye if you like this episode be sure to subscribe to the podcast and check out startup magazine socials to stay up to date on the latest startups news