“Not Everyone Is Made To Be An Entrepreneur” - Building A Community For Ambitious Founders

0:00Entrepreneurship is brutal sometimes and it's not for the faint-hearted. I don't personally think that everybody can be an entrepreneur and I think that's completely, completely fine. Hello and welcome to another episode of The Businessmen. I'm Ben Shepard holding the fort while Joel navigates the wild, sleepless frontier of new fatherhood, arguably the toughest enterprise of them all. Our mission to build a male skincare brand is still very much in the works. I'm speaking to more brilliant founders and innovators who've shared the highs, lows and lessons from their own ventures and in turn have given us some invaluable business and general life insights.

0:38If you missed any of it, you can catch every episode on your favourite podcast platform. Don't forget to hit subscribe. You can also, of course, watch the full show over on YouTube. So make sure you subscribe there as well. Now, today I'm joined by the brilliant Frankie James, the dynamic founder behind IdeasFest, the organisation known for championing entrepreneurial excellence through platforms like the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Frankie has built a reputation for bringing business communities together, for spotlighting innovation, creating spaces where founders can thrive. She is undoubtedly a connector, a catalyst and a driving force in the UK's entrepreneurial landscape.

1:16and I'm confident she's going to have a lot to say about being successful in business. So let's get stuck in.

1:25Frankie, great to have you here on The Businessmen. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. So look, I thought what would be really interesting for our listeners, because many of them have small businesses or thinking about starting businesses, is understanding entrepreneurship and what it takes to become an entrepreneur, what is an entrepreneur, which is exactly in the sweet spot of what it is that you do. So can you break that down for us? What would you describe an entrepreneur as? An entrepreneur who is someone who looks at something and thinks, I can do that better. I can do it cheaper.

1:55I can do it faster. So they look at a problem and they want to break it. They want to fix it. And, you know, there's lots of different types of entrepreneurs. I think when I was growing up, I thought that an entrepreneur was a man in a suit. And actually, this sort of diverse network that we've created shows that entrepreneurs are in every corner of the UK, in every industry. some with purpose at their heart, some around, you know, focused on a very techie, science-y problem and everything in between. So, you know, what is an entrepreneur? I think it's extraordinarily broad. But I think it's a curiosity, a tenacity and probably a bit of a frustration with the status quo.

2:33So you talked about your community. What was it about what it is that you do that you felt like you wanted to create this platform for entrepreneurs to be able to come and talk about what it is that they do? Because your entrepreneurship is slightly different to all of those things as well, in a way. Yeah, it actually took me a while to kind of identify with the label of being an entrepreneur. I thought I was someone that curated entrepreneur spaces. But essentially, I started off with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, and it was about celebrating and recognising incredible individuals that had gone on to do amazing things and built brands that we see on the TV or we see on the shelves.

3:10And what I recognised over time is that a lot of those people were feeling very lonely in their endeavours because, you know, unless you're in the business with your partner, and I am, and that comes with its separate challenges, you know, who do you necessarily talk to when you've got a problem or when you've got a challenge or when you're just feeling a little bit frustrated and someone who will understand it? So essentially, we really lent into creating those spaces for people to come together, to learn from each other and to support one another. Talk to me about the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

3:40I think Stephen Bartlett, am I right in saying, described it as the Grammys of entrepreneurship, which is quite a label to get from somebody like Stephen. Yeah. Where did that idea come from and how has that influenced what you're doing now? Yeah, so my background's in publishing, which sounds way more glamorous than it was. I used to work for our family business, which was called Fresh Business Thinking. It was an online resource for business owners, directors and entrepreneurs. and at that point I was the young person so it was give the young person a social media because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and in doing so I you know I got to learn that you know this product that I'm picking up off the shelf there's a real story behind it there's a person who drenched that idea up at their kitchen table and now it's in out into the world and it just really really inspired me so we launched the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2012 and it was our purpose was to celebrate the stories and not just the balance sheet so it doesn't always the prize doesn't always go to the the biggest business it's that it's it's that spirit it's that story it's that why and that purpose that we really look for and it went on a bit of a rocket ship you know the first few years we'd get maybe three or four hundred applications and then uh just before covid we got five and a half thousand yeah wow which is a lot of work It is.

5:00That's a lot of ideas. Yeah, a lot of incredible ideas, a lot of businesses that have gone on to become household names. And over the last 13, 14 years, we know that we've been very early in recognising many of the superstars. And obviously, you never know that until you look back. But it's been quite extraordinary. Who are some of those ideas or some of those businesses that are household names now that were just sort of, you know, basically just jumping off the page at you? Yes, you've got the likes of Grenade, Little Moons, Clear Score, Zilch, Tangle Teaser, Simmer Eats, to name but a few. There's an incredible number that have come through.

5:37That's amazing because I have enjoyed Grenade products for a long time now since I've been doing quite a lot of work with Tough Mudder. And I just think they've been around forever, but of course, that's not the case at all. And that starts as an idea that somebody had a few years back. And now the fact that we see it everywhere doesn't necessarily mean that's not been a very long, hard journey. Yeah, I'll get the numbers wrong put on the spot, but we met Alan and Juliet quite early on in their journey. And there was a point when they said that they were down to£27 in their bank account. And then they went on and had a very significant exit to Mondeley, who owned Cadbury's.

6:11And they're the most wonderful people. But what I find really special about what we do is because we meet people earlier on in their journey. You know, I still consider Alan and Juliet both friends. I love watching the journey they've been on. I love seeing the success they've achieved. but also they are both extraordinarily passionate about helping the next generation and letting people know about the pitfalls, the things that they wish they'd done differently and just sort of sharing that. And I find that the whole entrepreneurial community is very, very generous in that way. You must have seen some amazing ideas that come into all of your networks and communities, some that look like they're going to be incredible that don't work and some that sort of are slow burners and suddenly explode.

6:51What are some of those mistakes that people make, do you think? I mean, obviously, there's, you know, there's a lot of mistakes. Sometimes it can be, and it sounds, maybe it doesn't sound right, but growing too fast. You know, businesses often can't keep up with the growth. You know, there's funding challenges, particularly if you look at, you know, if you look at female-led businesses, the stats in the investment that women receive in comparison to men is shocking. You know, you've got challenges with, sometimes it can be luck and it can be timing. You know, I've seen some incredible businesses that were just too early to market.

7:24And some of the best entrepreneurs that I speak to often say that there's a huge amount of strength in being the second or the third to market. You know, that trailblazer can make those mistakes, can introduce a category to the world. And then it's actually quite, it's a lot easier to sort of follow in that path. Yeah. So, you know, hundreds of entrepreneurs, people have started businesses, big and small. What are some of the characteristics that you think sort of really lend themselves to being an entrepreneur? The best entrepreneurs I spend time with are always learning. They don't think that they know it all.

7:58They don't try and do it all. They recognize when they are not the right person to do something that they maybe were six months before or a few years before. And they deal with that quickly and head on. And it can be quite tough. There's this sort of phrase called founder's disease. I've absolutely got it. which is that you really struggle to let go of things. And I've got an incredibly capable team, but I know that I still wrap my arms around far too much. And then also, you know, there's a really big decision is when does the founder decide that they might not be the person to actually lead their business?

8:34We ran a session at Ideas Fest last year, which was how do I know when to step down as CEO? And we had four founders being extraordinarily vulnerable. There were tears on stage. There were, you know, real. I felt like I'd lost myself. I was losing my baby. You know, how can I pass this over to someone else? So it's not being afraid to make those really tough decisions, even if they hurt you, if they're right for the business. And it's having that sort of self-awareness, I think.

9:12we met a few weeks ago at a an event that you were having for a lot of founders and it was absolutely fascinating and it rings true because the two or three that i spoke to martin who set up coffee nation yeah uh particularly um was talking about what happened at the end of that business and the frustration and the period afterwards, how hard it was to come to terms. Albeit having had a great exit where he did really, really well, but having to come to terms with the fact that that was no longer his business and what it could have been, but it didn't quite happen. And then it's gone on to be, was fascinating for me.

9:50Yeah, it's an emotional rollercoaster. I mean, the amount of founders I speak to who say, you know, the holy grail is an exit. You get there, you go to the bank, you type in your pin code, you look at it and you're like, wow. I mean, Simon Woodruff, the founder of YoSushi, tells a story of how he literally was at the cash point, you know, his jaw dropped and he literally had to say to the man behind him, have a look at this, mate. But then so many founders tell me that, you know, yes, you get that, that warm, fuzzy feeling for a while where you feel like you've accomplished all your dreams, but then what is your purpose?

10:22You know, what's your, what are you going to do next? What's going to fill your time when likely if you've succeeded, your entire personality has been your business for 5, 10, 15 years, sometimes longer. So it's definitely something that a lot of really successful entrepreneurs grapple with is life after exit and what that looks like. Would you suggest then, although I guess it's quite difficult because you tend to be, if you're a founder of a business, you tend to be consumed with that business, not having half an eye on what comes next or forward planning, that that's actually something that's definitely worth having in your back pocket somewhere because purpose is so key to suddenly have it all taken away.

10:59Like the first few months might be lovely because you don't have to get out of bed early and all that sort of stuff, but then you can feel quite empty. Yeah, and I think that's why you're also seeing quite a lot of a trend towards founders creating a personal brand that sits alongside their business because then at least when it's the, you know, what's next, there's more than the brand that you created and you maybe have a voice or, you know, an audience that will allow you to go on to the next thing. and it's something that I struggle with enormously I didn't sign up to this to become someone that shot YouTube videos and you know Instagram reels and my team wish I would do more but there's definitely a trend in founders you know putting themselves front and center which I think is great for when you're growing a brand but also really important for whatever happens in that next chapter.

11:46So you talked about Simon there who created Yo Sushi yeah and I know that he's helping you with IdeasFest, isn't he? Getting entrepreneurs involved with IdeasFest. Let's talk about IdeasFest and his involvement in that. Yeah. So I've known Simon for about 21, 22 years. Back then, I used to run a monthly entrepreneur's lunch for a client where we'd bring 15 people together and we did it every single month. It was a lot of lunches and a lot of wine. But I met some of the most extraordinary people. And yes, I knew they were extraordinary at the time. But when you look back 20 years, you know, in hindsight, you realize they've created category defining bars, businesses, you know, like sushi bars, like just the most incredible brands.

12:32And so when I reconnected with Simon a couple of years ago and said, I've had this crazy idea, which is let's create a Glastonbury for business. Let's take over a field and let's bring thousands of entrepreneurs to it, I was just delighted when he accepted. So he's been coming along to Ideas Fest ever since, as of many other household name brands, and it's really become quite a special event. Yeah. I love the idea. I love the tagline, the Glasserbury of business. Yeah. And the Glasserbury, because, of course, that makes sense to us all. We've all got an idea of what that looks like. It's a lot of tents in the field, a lot of people sharing an experience.

13:06Yeah. And in this sense, sharing ideas. Yeah. So just to be clear, I didn't come up with that. someone else did, which is great because I can say that. You can take the credit for it though, Frankie. No, do you know what? I'd rather not because I can, you know, from a legal standpoint, I could say everybody else calls us that. We're Ideas Fest. People have also called it the annual pilgrimage. And I think that it's really good to have, you know, sort of a strapline that looks like that because if you were to just say Ideas Fest, it's a business event in a field, what does that look like? How do you, you know, how does that come to life?

13:39Is it any good? but the way people talk about it allows us to really kind of sell the prospect for people that haven't been before. I mean, we know that over 5 million was raised in the field last year. Really? Yeah, and that wasn't by us putting on pitch competitions. That was people meeting and that's only the stuff I know about. We've got far more sophisticated in our tracking for future years but that was just the WhatsApps and the messages that I had since saying, met my investor in the coffee queue, you know, closed half a million pounds. I'm working with this person and this is what we're doing now.

14:13That's an expensive coffee for that investor, by the way. Well, you know, it could be the cheapest coffee in the world. The return could be extraordinary. And then I had a message literally last week from one of our speakers saying someone came to speak to them after their session and they've just closed their first round. It's a recently exited founder. So I think it's her first angel investment post-exit. And that stuff just is happening at Ideas Fest. and people come very open to it. So yes, they come and listen to what's on stage. We put on a great agenda, amazing topics, incredible speakers.

14:45But I think the bit that makes it stand out is those sort of magic moments in between who you meet in the coffee queue or on the deck chair at the silent disco. And this year, because we're in a health spa, who you might meet in the hot tub or the sauna, which adds another layer to it. That does, doesn't it? Certainly if Joel's in his thong. Not a very thick layer, knowing Joel. When it comes to being an entrepreneur and having that idea, how much is it about having a special idea and how much is it about hard work and just putting the time in, do you think, Frankie? I mean, I think ideas are cheap.

15:19Anyone can have ideas. It is on the execution. When I speak to any investors, you know, yes, they're excited by great ideas, but actually what they tend to look at investing in is the person. has that person got the drive, the tenacity are they going to make it happen because there's no point in having an idea if you don't have that behind you and I think that's sort of the common message that I get from investors all the time is they're looking at the person who's going to drive that business Have there been elements along the way that could have derailed our ideas fest from getting to where it is?

15:57Yeah And what are some of those you can share with us? So, firstly, I didn't know how to organise a festival. You know, I'm a festival girl in that I love going to a festival, but literally that was my experience. So a very good friend of mine runs a big rugby festival called Bournemouth Sevens. And he said to me, you're mad. He said the average festival takes seven years to break even. You know, you haven't got a festival background. None of your team have organised a festival before. Most of my team are under 30. What are you doing? cranky. And I just was like, there's an itch. I like doing things differently.

16:34And also the initial decision was made because it was survival mode, you know, in the pandemic and events business that can't run events. How are we going to get through? So gosh, yeah. I mean, the first year we piggybacked on the infrastructure of an existing festival to learn and to be able to kind of just play around with, is this the format that's going to work? Are people going to get it. We then moved to our own venue. We outgrew that. So we're moving to Champneys. So last year we had to negotiate with three or four different landowners. I get a call from my operations guy 48 hours before we start build last year saying the weather's about to turn.

17:15You're going to need to spend another£10 ,000 on track matting. I'm like, oh my God, that wasn't in the budget, but I've got to do it because if I don't do it, then the whole site will be ruined. and there's a good chance that I might do it and it will never be needed. Yeah. And it's all the hidden cost, Ben, as well. Like I put a post up on Instagram the other day is how much do you think it costs for us to put on the parking at Ideas Fest? And I had people guessing, you know, £1 ,000,£2 ,000 and it's actually sort of 15 to 25 grand just to put on the parking. Just for the infrastructure for the parking?

17:50To get people in, to get people out. Safely. to get the signage up, to get the marshals, to put maybe the tracking down. And you probably need to put£5 ,000 down the back of the sofa just in case. Touch wood, the weather's horrendous and you end up having to pull cars out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So could a lot of things have derailed us? Yeah. Like so many things. But I think that people get the purpose of why we're doing it. And I love it. Do you? Yeah, I really love it.

18:23It wasn't ever going to be a significant part of our business. It was kind of an event that we'd run. And now it's 50 % of the business. And we're expecting 6 ,000 entrepreneurs, investors, media supporters. And it's just such a special environment. And you talked earlier about you get people that don't think of festivals for them. By the end of day two, they're doing the country hoedown with a sparkly cowboy hat on. And that's just wonderful. And you just see all of these friendships blossoming and people coming alone and then leaving with friends and just knowing that they've got a community.

19:09One of the key parts of what Joel and I are trying to do with Foreskin is use our community to understand not only is there an appetite for this, which it certainly feels like there is but also what are the products that they would like to see where's the gap from their perspective and how can we fill that gap it's so smart I love the way that you're building foreskin I think it's brilliant yeah who doesn't love how we build foreskin and it just makes us laugh every time that's literally going to be clipped now it's just the gift that keeps giving Joel's foreskin I think but it's a really but that is something that has come out of social media essentially the digital landscape has shifted so we can now do that.

19:52It makes it sort of quite empowering just in terms of sort of going, you can go and find out these decisions. If there is somebody though that wants to do it but doesn't have that community, Frankie, is there places where they can go to exploit other people's thoughts and experience? Yeah, well, you've set me up perfectly for a plug for Ideas Fest. So I'd say it comes to Ideas Fest, but then there's lots going on in local areas. there's lots of events being put on by local universities or have you hit Eventbrite and search entrepreneurship events and some of them will be free and won't be far to travel to and just go out and talk to people, validate that idea talk to some experts, people are generous with their time but don't try and do it all alone because I think that's the quickest way to failure I think you can absolutely learn such an enormous amount from other people's successes and of course their mistakes And is that more important than having the perfect idea?

20:51Or what would you say is more important than having the perfect idea? It's the execution, but also it's the willingness to, you know, entrepreneurship is brutal sometimes. And it's not for the faint hearted. I don't personally think that everybody can be an entrepreneur. And I think that's completely, completely fine. A lot of my good friends from school think I'm mad for living my life the way that I do, but I don't know anything differently and anything different. What are the things that they think are mad? Oh, you know, I'm glued to my laptop that I probably haven't. I probably neglect health and my relationships and, you know, all of that stuff.

21:33But I am obsessed with my business and I do think that you do need to be absolutely obsessed with your business. Now, you know, there are businesses that you can run and you can run as a lifestyle business. And I think that fantastic. In some ways, I kind of wish maybe I'd done that. But I don't know. I started my career off doing door-to-door sales on 100 % commission. I'm very competitive. What were you selling? Phone packages. Wow. In the South Wales Valleys. Goodness me. Merthyr, around there. I filmed in Merthyr Tidville. Did you? A few years back. Yep. What a lot. I mean, you know, it's an extraordinary place.

22:12I filmed in the old Hoover factory. It was derelict at the time. That enormous Hoover factory. Unfortunately, there's a lot of that area has seen better times, right? Just in terms of infrastructure and investment and stuff. But beautiful area, but tough door to door sales, I should imagine. Do you know what? It was probably one of the best because people are open for a chat. When I moved to London for the first time, I thought it was odd. You know, I was the odd girl on the tube trying to talk to people. and but when you go to they did love a chat in Merthor I did have a lot of really lovely chats I used to get taken I mean I was 18 and I'd knock on someone's door and then they'd say oh my brother would like this I'll drive you there and you know you get driven in an ice cream van to the next valley but the reason I mention that is that I'm competitive and like so when I knew I had to sell phone packages door to door I was sure as hell going to make sure I sold the most that I possibly could and I was going to get really good at it and I'm And I've sort of taken that same attitude, that competitive, that I will not fail into business.

23:11Ambitious drive. Yeah. And yeah, probably a bit of naivety and a bit of just kind of hope and hope and pray. Because a few of the people we've spoken to, you turned around and you said they have said, if I knew when I started what it was going to take to get here, I'm not sure I would have done it. Yeah, I have that thought. You know, I think show me a founder that doesn't. And that said, the people that I have got to meet through doing what I'm doing, I would not like to have a life where they weren't in my life. You know, so I'm inspired, cheered up, encouraged and just in awe of so many of them all the time.

23:52And yeah, I wouldn't trade that. It's really fascinating to hear you talk about it and not least sort of where Ideas Fest could end up being down the line and what you will be doing in 10 years time. I mean, globally taking over the world. Well, yeah. I mean, I wouldn't mind a rest, but yeah. Get back to the valleys. Absolutely. Frankie, thank you for joining me on The Businessmen. I'd like to encourage all of our listeners and viewers who are watching on YouTube to head over to Patreon because Frankie's going to go over there and she's going to give some more of her entrepreneurial tips. So do head to patreon.com forward slash The Businessmen.

24:29It is, of course, completely free to subscribe. there's loads of videos and extra insight from all of the guests that we've had on the show and remember you can subscribe on YouTube and follow wherever you get your podcasts I'm going to be back next week with some more insights from the brilliant guests that we have on The Businessmen thanks for joining us goodbye