Visual PR LIVE! Ep. 5 – The Power of Collaboration

Visual PR LIVE! Ep. 5 – The Power of Collaboration – Combining Strengths! – With guests Graeme Leighfield (GEL Studios) and Clare McDougall (Phoenix Enterprises)

Tuesday 11th June 2024 - 1pm

Visual PR LIVE features three main parts.

Part one: Tips from Visual PR on how to use live and/or long-form conversational video and resulting assets, and how to get the most of out of them all by linking them together.

Part two: A guest from the business community to not only touch on what they do but to leave you with at least one golden nugget of advice from their speciality to help you or your organisation.

Part Three: Charity Spotlight section where we welcome someone from a charity either chosen by our business guest, or by Visual PR. With many charities operating across the world, it is easy to miss just why it is so vital, and what they do to achieve their objectives. Charities are not just about raising money but about making a difference, and there are various ways this can be achieved above and beyond the money that is raised to help them do it, and this makes more sense the more we can understand their motives, objectives, and methods.

In this episode, the content of the three sections are:

• Visual PR – “The power of collaboration – Combining Strengths! How video and audio content featuring others within and guests outside of your organisation can enhance the message and its credibility you are trying to share. But the collaboration doesn’t stop at collaborating with people, but how it is vital to make all of your marketing and PR assets and efforts benefit from feeding to and from each other to maximise their results.
• Business Guest – Graeme Leighfield, Founder, GEL Studios. GEL Studios is the brainchild and labour of love from Graeme and is an award-winning, B-Corp-certified creative agency based in Swindon that provides everything from branding to website and marketing services or workshops. But Graeme has championed the mantra of “collaboration, not competition” as he truly believes that so much can be achieved from working together rather than against or overly protective against each other. We will discuss his advice and feelings on this matter, following his eye-opening and thought-provoking presentation on this subject that we saw earlier this year. – www.gelstudios.co.uk 
• Charity Spotlight – Clare McDougall, CEO, Phoenix Enterprises. Phoenix Enterprises’s mission statement is “Improving social and financial inclusion for people in Swindon with mental health issues and learning difficulties through holistic support and work experience.” Each year they provide a vital safety net for over 100 vulnerable adults in Swindon with mental health issues, learning difficulties and physical disabilities. Their challenges range from Autism, Asperger’s and Down syndrome to depression and anxiety. Phoenix enriches lives by building employability skills. - www.phoenixenterprises.co.uk 
  
  

Visual PR is the missing link between PR and Marketing to create and maximise authentic connections with joined-up thinking. Regular, engaging, and natural conversational broadcasts which can be live and interactive, and then spawn social video clips, podcasts, blog posts, dynamic QR codes, and all linked and promoting each other to drive up the credible sharing of information, and deeper personal connections with you and your brand.

Don’t forget that on the live show viewers can add their questions/comments in the comments section of wherever you are watching the broadcast (YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn), and they can be put up on screen with your profile name and photo. So, get involved and ask away.

The shows can be watched back after the live broadcast (without the interaction) from the following locations:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@visualpruk/playlists
Facebook: www.facebook.com/visualpruk/live
www.visual-pr.co.uk
@VisualPRUK (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
[e-mail] 
01793 915110

Creators & Guests

Host

Chris Dawes

Sports Commentator, Voiceover Artist, Host/Presenter, founder of @visualpruk & @Open_Dawes Training.

What is Visual PR LIVE!?

Visual PR provides deeper public connections with longer-form natural conversational shows at the core, which then spawns marketing and PR collateral that all interlink with each other, joining the dots between your Marketing and PR efforts. All of which then link to each others to maximise the exposure and authentic and credible personal connections with your clients or potential clients.

Visual PR LIVE is the monthly show with each episode being split into three main sections - Visual PR tips to get the most out of using video content to maximise the personal touch points with your viewers and social media users, Business Guest to provide advice and leaving the audience with relevant take-aways to apply and think about, and a Charity Spotlight.

Each episode is the audio taken from the live video broadcast, which can be seen at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-9Avh0E8GT8Zs82ObLkDn8A9SuSWdiaH

We'll be right back.

Greetings, welcome to what we are,

episode five of Visual PR Live.

Greetings to everybody watching.

Don't forget, you can put your comments,

your questions,

and we'll be able to put

them up on screen,

including your photo and

your username and everything.

So please do get involved.

Probably more a little bit later,

I'll talk about things.

It may conjure up some

comments from your own experiences,

some questions you may have.

good news is it won't be just for me.

I am going to be joined by

two wonderful guests very shortly.

To start with,

I just want to explain what

this is all about.

This subject is about the

power of collaboration,

combining strengths of

different people and different things.

And I'm going to start with

the things part because

it's much more obvious

collaboration people,

and my special guest Graham

Leefield is going to be

touching more in detail on

that because I've seen him

do this presentation before.

I wanted to just quickly

touch on how you can

collaborate some of your PR

and marketing collateral and effort.

People run off and do something.

Let me pick one of them as a podcast.

Everybody runs off at the

moment and creates podcasts.

And I do encourage you,

definitely do them.

But the problem is they then

just throw those out there

and wonder why they're

getting 10 downloads a week

if they're lucky or something like that.

The problem is unless you're a celebrity,

how are they going to find you?

It's the right thing to do it,

but to rely purely on that

and expect it to just work

is a risky tactic.

It's not the right way to go.

So we are working on

collaboration of efforts,

collaboration of assets.

And one of those, for example, visual PR,

we do these live, and this is live now,

or as live.

Sometimes we don't put them out live,

but they're still just hit

record and go because it

gives us that authentic, credible,

engaging conversation type

content that we create and

then it's really from that

one piece that the client

shows up for we're able to

then create a whole load

more assets and start

feeding from one to the

other so I'll give you a

for instance we create this

content here this episode

that would go out every

month every fortnight every

week depending on the client

from that we strip up the

audio and we put that as

your podcast we put all of

the descriptions and your

seo content is within that

as well your video

content's now on youtube

and facebook and linkedin

but youtube's the big one

it's the second biggest

search engine in the world

So we make sure the

description is what people

will find when they go

looking for particular

topics that you and your

organization experts out

and they find it.

But we then say,

do you want to carry on

listening while you're

walking your dog or you're

driving the car or you're working out?

Take them to the take.

Sorry, my phone's going.

That was very unprofessional.

It's like.

um yeah listen to it go here

to the podcast the podcast

then feeds do you want to

watch this because within

the episode they're

listening to it talks about

something visual feed them

back to the youtube video

we then create clips from

the full episode that then

your social media that goes out

The collaboration there is

that you turn around and go,

do you want to go and watch

the full episode?

Do you want to listen to the full episode?

And it's pointing you to both of those.

It's pointing you back to

your social platforms and

everything's collaborating.

Heck,

we can even transcribe the content

and we can put that as a blog post.

Remember that page that you

probably haven't looked at for two years?

It hasn't been a new post on for ages.

Well,

suddenly you're guaranteed every

single month

There is content that's

going to go up there that's

going to help the SEO of

your website that is going

to let you be found.

We embed the YouTube video

in it and we get in there

what we call link juice.

We're allowed to say that?

Yeah.

One of many terms.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Link juice.

We'll go with that.

Link juice from the YouTube

video in there.

And, of course,

you can put the podcast in

there as embedded.

And it will split you back

to the different channels

and everything like that.

Heck,

we can even do branded dynamic QR

codes that you can put

either in your printed PR

that are going out in

journals or papers or whatever.

Have a QR code that takes

them to the video and gives

you stats for how many

people have gone from that

magazine to watch the video in full.

Start getting analytics from it.

That pop-up banner that you

created a year ago,

Could have had a QR code put on it.

And yet even today,

we redirect it so it'll

always point to the latest episode.

It's able to be dynamic.

So we're suddenly collaborating.

Our marketing with RPR,

the different assets from

it all are working together.

Rather than making a bed and lying in it,

just one route we're going

and then getting frustrated.

We then get involved however

much people want us involved.

Do we just create,

go and break with everything?

Or we do it for you so that

we make sure everything's

going out to the right place.

Everything's connecting back

from one to the other.

It's just a really fun way

to do it because these

conversations are just naturally flowing.

It's not a script that

someone suddenly says, right,

you stand there and say that.

Okay, I'm going to talk about this now.

It's just genuine.

It's off the top of their head.

And from that one show up,

All this asset,

all of these assets are

created and then linking.

So that's where we come out

from the power of collaboration.

Now,

we ironically are doing a lot of work

personally collaborating as well,

because we don't

necessarily have to do as

much for you because we

work with organizations that do that.

for you work and we provide

the assets for them to do.

And one of them is my first

guest that I'm going to, I mean,

you're going to see both of them now,

but the first one I'm going to speak to,

I will introduce both

because it will feel weird,

is that first of all,

Make sure I get this right.

The CEO of Phoenix Enterprises,

Claire McDougall.

Hi, Claire.

I love it.

But the first person we're

going to speak to, no offence, Claire,

is Graham.

Yeah, I did, yeah.

Is Graham Leefield,

the founder of Gel Studios, who, A,

we work collaboratively,

easy for me to speak with, but B,

my big one is that I saw

you do a presentation at a

networking breakfast that

wasn't only me that was

impressed that resonated

with a lot of people what

was it two three months ago

wasn't it yeah I think it's

a total uh total boardroom

network yeah it was it was

um you know competition

yeah is the polar opposite

of collaboration

and I think what made it

genuine a really personal

place you know um it's

actually my business was a

birthday tomorrow and

probably about three four

years ago it was very much

we must go out we must we

must get this work we must

have everything internal

and the realization you

know when the pandemic hit

we had to pivot diversify

explore any new opportunities and

We saw a lot of other people's struggle.

Some were clients, some were peers.

And we had to really lead

from the front and change this mindset.

And the mindset really, by my own,

to be honest,

it was wanted to do really well,

but it walked off missing pieces of work,

you know, to people, you know,

it would be an outward spiral.

It's just not a good place to be.

So I came up with this idea.

mini paradox so classic oh

you may like that I said I

didn't do this at one talk

it's my old school kings

down here nobody knew what

a classic mini was

Basically,

if you're ever on the road and

you're going out there and

you see two minis pass one another,

what do they do?

Well,

they beep their horn and they do a

little park.

The VW's the big one as well.

The other ones as well, yeah.

If you see a classic mini going by,

you know if they see another one,

they will go mental.

Yeah.

Yeah, in a really, really good way.

Another thing, like my struggles as well,

I mean, this

go they'll tweet and I was

the most I used to have a

motorhome with my

motorsport comp all the

time if you pass another

motorhome owner yeah that

you would it was always a way

body would weigh yeah yeah

yeah you know all traffic

has been slowed down yeah

my point is I looked a lot

at the same car where you

know they're on the same

roads they're doing the

same thing they enjoy this

thing it's just a really

pure example of

collaboration and since

coming to peace with my

history um and what was

driving me talking about that little

The idea of being, you know,

an agency which

collaborates with other places,

referring work to them, income streams,

something I never had when

I was starting out.

But also working with

organisations such as Phoenix Enterprises,

you know,

we have a responsibility as a

sustainable profit to do

something more worthwhile

and benefit shareholders.

And that's why the B Corp

survey for that made complete

And that drive peak now is changed,

is more to, well,

if I can do that with a team of 10,

what can bigger

organisations do to commit to the cause?

You know, local impact and stuff.

And that's why I thought I

was going to put together that talk.

I've done that quite a few times now.

It's gone down.

It really is great to hear that feedback.

But it's also an element of

being part of it.

Because sometimes to collaborate,

people might not be in the same place.

So it's really important to

go first and to be brave

and to reach out for that one.

Maybe just to say,

I know that we've spoken before,

but I know we're in the same circles.

Can we go out for a coffee?

And one thing would

definitely come away from

that being bettering yourself.

Or equally,

knowing that they're not there yet.

That's part of the collaboration journey.

You go first, you start.

Sparks of thought, inspiration.

The other person in their own realisation.

So it's been incredibly rewarding.

The benefits in terms of the bottom line,

collaborating with other businesses,

work goes out, works really, really well.

You've got to have some

confidence to know that that

utopia will happen very well.

Well,

we can all strive towards working

towards a better place, right?

And I think that's certainly

what the B Corp movement at its core is,

you know, environmental,

which people think the B Corp will be,

but it's also about

community impact and it's

also about the wellbeing of the team.

There's this three really,

really key areas around

that and that's them.

Up until that point,

we've really been like

investors in people and that was,

you know, around one very,

very important thing that we just put

which is the people.

But for us going for the B2B certification,

that wider way of knowing

that we're running a business well,

knowing that we operate in

policies and pace,

actually adjusting our

incorporation documents to say,

we are here to benefit the

community and local places,

not just shareholder return and value.

I got an element of confidence,

certainly as a business owner,

to try to do what I

perceived as right up to that point.

Yeah, because it's all, you know,

we talk about the

competition or

collaboration being the

important business, but as businesses,

it's very easy for any of

us to kind of get caught in going, oh, no,

they're doing something, and I've got to,

you know,

there's enough business to go

around for business.

and but to take it not only

to accept that but also

kind of go actually we can

collaborate here in some

ways it doesn't mean you

live in each other's

pockets for goodness sake

but there are times and

places to go I haven't got

the uh you know capacity to

take any more of this on I

uh it's not quite right for

whether industry geography

type of work maybe who knows

such a variety of things,

to be able to kind of go,

I need to pass that to

someone else and not be

there kind of going,

I guess it's like the

Christmas present or

birthday presents you don't

give to receive.

But you've got to really get

yourself into that.

And to be completely honest,

that mindset shift came from a place of,

I can't carry on the way that I am.

So when you start running a

business in a situation that I did,

I had to make sure I had

enough money coming in, quite frankly,

to pay the bills, pay the mortgage,

And then the team grew and grew.

And that mentality about

wanting to do anything for

clients came from a really genuine help.

But when you're managing

around seven or eight people,

your margins are small.

You are getting stressed.

It's like these little

things that are coming in.

You've got to actually realize,

what are we actually better than them?

So it's quite easy for a

full service agency to do

anything and everything, you know,

and it's perceived that

we're going to do it.

And that has been our approach for a very,

very long time.

But actually understanding

that we want to only work

with people that are

interested in having

long-term commitments with us.

They see us as a provider, not a, you know,

a doer.

They want to be involved in the strategy.

We want to know their business really,

you know, really,

really well to ultimately

give them a great ROI with us.

It's like, well,

we've got a lot of clients

and a lot of inquiries that

just don't fit our mold.

And it's not worth taking those things on,

because I can't forecast a

business off the back of

short term relationships.

But also, it's the mindfulness stuff.

I get good night's sleep at

night worrying about

clients that might end

because we've done

something for them in a

specific way they wanted to

because they've not adhered

to our process.

This is where the

collaboration comes in hand, you know,

realising that we've got a

mission over here which is, you know,

great to bring in leads in

to other trusted partners,

but also to openly and

honestly share with other people,

regardless of their business history,

that there comes a time

where it shifts from paying

the bills to actually

sustainable work that you

and your team enjoy.

and that's that's that's

where I came from and and

I'm sure we'll come back to

this again but I want to

make sure I go but I've

kind of accelerated a

straight to all of the the

beef and stuff there but gl

studios you did call

service now make sure

everybody's clear what

those full services are

yeah so ultimately it's you

know look if you want to

spend a market budget you reach goals

we can either help you reach

those goals by a various

array of services, digital marketing,

website design, graphic design.

But it comes from a position

of real deep understanding.

So we are the agents that

love to ask questions.

We want to take time to get

something right.

We want to collaborate in

workshops so that we have

common understanding and

work towards goals which are achievable.

We've seen so much in the agency space.

It's all about onboarding people.

there's no real cold so what

happens when it comes down

to renewal we're not

getting an roi we're going

to leave that not to us we

used to be seen as website

builders that was very much

myself um the team at the

time but then realizing

that the website has an

important part to play in

other areas naturally

started to expand well

we've got graphics which

could be on social we've got

marketing in all of the

various many guises we then

use a marketing strategy

the website isn't part of

that you know all that all

that collaboration of

services and um you know

look here's a great example

we used you for our uh gel studios live

um you know old grail you're

like well we can get a

camera you know anybody we

need to have a shot of the

back or the equipment it's

very costly exercise you're

missing out the x you're

missing out the expertise

you're missing out on the

passion you're doing it for

the wrong reason to

collaborate with a trusted

company that makes complete

sense to do that and what

does that look like and

we've collaborated with um

for you know tomorrow yes and a couple

other things you know when

you introduce people as

trusted partners there's an

element there and also with

lockdown and everything

else the the landscape of

buying would change

knowing that they've

obviously contact which

build trusted relationships

to you know spread the load

so to speak people are so

okay with that now before

lockdown it's very very why

we want to treat under one

under one arena it's really

a case of just riding that

that way right I think

that's a way moving forward

also just other smaller

startups fantastic way to

really have a good night's

sleep yeah no and i

I think there's even a

collaboration that kind of

expands out of that, where it's,

you mentioned workshops,

that's something that's

fairly recent for you,

I'd say fairly probably isn't anymore.

It's been 18 months.

I was going to say, it's fun quite,

isn't it, when we're having fun,

but it's how,

you are not just going, no,

we've got to do up to

everything for them.

It's like also empowering

them to be able to do some

themselves is a big deal.

And you've now got this collaboration.

They're fully invested.

They're fully on board and

doing their bits and pieces.

But where it gets distinctive, actually,

you could do with someone

that naturally knows how to

do that to work with you.

But you're now empowered.

Everything for me,

the screams of

collaboration in the whole

services you guys have done,

which is why I asked you to

be the business guest for

this particular episode of

Visual PR Live.

The most recent thing of

collaboration which I wrote

was we were at the NTT

award in Birmingham last week.

And at the beginning, well,

at the end of last year,

we had a fellow from Flow

Software reach out and say, look,

we've got a client.

They want to redo their website.

we haven't got the design

scoping capabilities,

but we can build it.

So obviously spoke to him,

he'd seen my stuff,

talked about collaboration.

We went in,

collaboration started from

putting a proposal together, you know,

getting over to them.

We won that deal and beat

national agencies with

campaigns that were on the

television to win that.

Part of that was because, you know,

they are all about fair

qualifications in the

engineering industry to build gaps,

skills gaps.

one of the unique things

collaboration very much why

we're here yourself today

is that we say openly to a

client if you come to work

with us here that funds

budgets which enable us to

do stuff over here in the

form of you know hosting

sites for charity to

discount your rates

sponsoring good things

doing peter chips um all

that kind of stuff but the workshops

was amazing around those and

while they were distributed

to our office in swindon

and they were having

conversations I've ever met

in person wow ever

and we designed it and they

built it on time on budget

exactly what we said it was

and then we got invited to

these awards and to see

some of the stories of

people that had been

through that and we've been

involved with workshops

that we're getting to get

into the mindset people

that are you know looking

for t levels for employers

that are looking at things

I think um all through

solutions that we built

together that is the

collaboration because we

wouldn't have been able to do that

And all that.

No, 100 percent.

I mean,

that's just what delights me about

the whole collaboration.

And it was even ironic that

your speech wasn't just

sort of making me go, oh, my God,

I need to change.

It also confirmed some

things that I happened to

be doing and hadn't really

appreciated how important they were.

We just talked about that

before we went on air, didn't we?

I asked, you know, how's it been going?

Is it what you thought it was?

Your response was?

Being more distant, absolutely.

But no less fun.

No less fun.

That's, dare I say,

what it is about leadership.

You've got managers and

you've got leaders.

And I think that the mindset of, you know,

competitor or collaborator, you decide.

it's putting an idea out

there and that's our job as

leaders right it's to

inspire other people and

that doesn't necessarily

mean people are in our

organization it can be

other people outside of

that as well um I spoke to

you many times about

climate finance you know

find your why leadership

fantastic but anybody can

be a leader and this is

where what I'm trying to do

with my organization is

that anybody has the

ability to uh invoke check

do something different to

challenge the legal system

or when it comes down to our

mission statement building

strong you know sustainable

long-lasting relationships

from a place collaboration

partnership with our

clients yeah and I and I'm

you know well I'm on board

with that because obviously

I'm very privileged but I

get to uh I get paid to

travel around europe

commentating on my favorite

sport motorsport and from

that kind of led on the

voice over and radio and

hosting awards nights,

all of those kind of things.

It's really cool, and I love doing that.

We're in lockdown.

I've got to do Casting Circuit.

Tonight, I'm doing episode 83,

so they've not let me go.

They've not let me go at all.

And I did this show, and what I love

i love interviewing people

because I love hearing

their stories their their

knowledge their passions

their experiences but also

the way that they

articulate it I mean we've

been doing some wonderful

ones with festival tomorrow

those science shows I

forgot that I used to enjoy

science I hadn't done it

since secondary school and

I'm just glued to these

conversations going this is

amazing but it was a prime

example for me that that

collaboration is that visual pr for me

was I want to give a

platform for organizations

and individuals not to sort

of jump in front of a

camera and it to be a

corporate video with a

sales pitch and a script

and everybody's

uncomfortable doing it

everybody's uncomfortable

watching but to sit down

and just have this kind of

conversation that flows and

I get those you know those

those experiences the

knowledge coming out

And that's my kind of

collaboration that then

provides people with the

ability to get those out

that they've not really harnessed yet.

Whether you love it or hate it,

social media is here to stay.

We need to get everything out there,

don't we?

So, I mean, it makes sense.

And that was why I

desperately wanted to get you on board.

I did put up and I'm going

to put it up again.

So gelstudios.co.uk.

Get in touch.

And as you've heard, at the very least,

is that you may be able to

assist or it may actually

be that you advise who will.

Yeah, exactly.

The collaboration that's on board.

But leading us now

seamlessly on to our next

guest is the one thing I've always,

you know,

you and I personally get

together over calamari and gin.

but is you do you you try to

do as much as possible with

and I'm going to say with

because it's not just for

charities but with

charities collaborating and

what have you and that's

something that you're very

passionate about

yeah I mean I did it the

other day and it's now over

the quarter of a million so

if you were to put in all

the websites we've done

different we've made um the

the you know good

old-fashioned money in the

bank stuff over 11 years

it's been back yeah so um it's it's

It's all about attracting

people in terms of talent,

wanting people to be able

to know they're working for

an organization.

It's not just about what are

the norms now?

I get an Apple Mac,

they go home and they can

know so yeah working which I

started in lockdown

collective um we did that

there are a whole lot food

poverty and everything

that's fantastic all their

stuff still going around

and then evolved into um a

website every quarter um

now it's going like

marketing and supporting um

you know great events which

benefit you know young people the best

tomorrow we have a signal

festival coming about the

arts and they said magic

and it's just grown that

but the commitment that

like I said we will take

profits and they directly

go to other things and the

prp company comes in here

it's coming over there

that's the form of a

I mean, ultimately, it's a USP.

You know, people say never pitch well.

I love pitching first.

But the things that make me

unique and then compare

against everybody else.

So, yeah,

it's in everybody who's into that.

We're even in a...

sponsoring a local football game.

I'm one of the members of my team,

so it makes me feel proud

and filled with pride to

see a logo on a mat over

there and a little

sideboard on the side of a pitch.

It's got little brollies and

I'll go and wrap them up as

I football in the rain,

which is probably the rest of this month,

I don't know.

That's really come down to it, hasn't it?

pride that I want everybody

that works with me or even

clients that are associated

with it to feel.

And that's why we love

working with organisations

like Southland and doing anything we can.

And on that note,

this is why I've got this

section of every month's

Visual PR Live is it's

called the Charity Spotlight.

And it really came to me is

that I was working,

I was having a conversation with

a particular charity and he said, oh,

we do this.

And in my head, I kind of went, well,

I'm not going to go into

the details in this one,

but I kind of went, well,

I don't understand why that's necessary.

And I inadvertently almost

dismissed it in my head and

I got given a leaflet.

I skim read it.

I don't mean any disrespect for that,

but we're all busy.

It's what happens if it's a

lot of text to read,

we don't necessarily read it.

But when I actually did raise the question,

I said, I don't understand because of X,

Y, and Z. He then went, oh, no, no, no,

you've misunderstood.

And he went into more detail.

And I got it.

I got why it existed, what it was doing,

why it was doing it.

And he really made me

understand something else as well,

is that charities aren't

just about raising money.

In actual fact,

the raising money is there

to help achieve an objective.

And that's the most important thing.

What is the objective?

And how can people help them

achieve that objective?

Yes, funding is one of them,

but there could be practical exercise.

There could be collaboration

that we've been talking about,

all these things.

And that really lit

something in me that made

me realise I want to try

and shed a spotlight on more of these,

you know,

Steve Tombson,

Charities that we don't

understand about and this one,

I have to say, I have to admit,

is a prime example of one

I'm going to now look into

that charity spotlight

section and you've already

met her but we're going to

go into detail about this

particular charity.

Alone, we can do so little,

but together we can do so much.

Visual PR's charity

spotlight is about shining

a light on the amazing work

and objectives of charities,

as they do not do it for publicity,

but it is important that we

know about them, what they do,

and understand why.

Charity is not just about

making a donation,

it is about making a difference.

So there we go.

The charity spotlight, I just love that,

that we're really making a point.

The problem is, I'm a portfolio artist,

so you've still got to hear

me on that bit as well.

Sorry about that.

It's Chris Corso, hello, I know it is.

But massive welcome, properly now,

to Claire McDougall,

CEO of Phoenix Enterprises.

Tell us, what is Phoenix Enterprises?

So it's a mental health and

learning disability charity.

And people come in.

Outside the day,

the party is a warehouse

where people have come in

and they are working.

Instead of other charities

where you spend your time,

you might play crafts and crafts,

here you're doing hand-assembly work.

You come to us for really

one of two reasons.

Either you want to risk paid work.

We're a game changer because

we'll give you a real experience,

prove your skills, duality,

things like hygiene, time management.

But we also help and we help job searching,

ensure that you find the job.

And then the other reason,

there are those that don't want paid work,

but they want the dignity of work.

And so if they go down the path,

they go to the Blundstone Island.

Another placement.

They're whinging about their

path or whatever.

They can come in because

they're in the workforce.

So you meet everybody.

They're such a joint, friendly tribe.

Everybody's working.

Interestingly, the customers,

the plastic collaborations,

we work with so many partners.

Customers pay us.

the work our people do.

The pairs that are commercial,

what we do is we're slower

than a business that makes

money doing hand assembly.

We can only go at the pace

of the skills they've got.

But that covers 40% of our overheads.

And then the balance,

we fund these and grant

hundreds of grants, et cetera.

So collaborations for us,

anybody that either helps

us with services, websites, PR, marketing,

places, jobs with us,

anybody that's got hands to do work.

And we actually get jobs in from Harrods,

you know, I mean, it goes far afield.

It's not just in the hand assembly.

Because presumably,

you were talking about how having that...

forget the word I'm supposed to use,

but you're really trying to

get back as an organisation,

is that those organisations

are going to have it within

their mind as they're going, hey,

we need the work done anyway.

Let's give something back.

And we go through that route

and we accept it.

We don't ask quick.

We got less control, whatever.

But what a wonderfully

rewarding way for them to

have that work carried out.

And in terms of collaborations,

the more that you can help out,

so if somebody's helping you,

if you can help out back by

giving them some positive PR,

by giving them a great case

study they can put on their website,

social values.

so that they can shout about

the contribution they're making.

I mean,

you try to find those sweet spots

where people get payback.

So we do have loads of corporate teams.

There are at least 12

organisations this year

will do volunteering days with us.

So they bring in the,

you were saying earlier,

you have team members that

haven't seen each other for months.

sitting there doing hand-in-hand,

talking to our service users, giving back,

being really proud of themselves,

the organisation that lives

in these volunteering days.

And then, lo and behold, they'll go, oh,

we've got a charity Christmas raffle.

And the opportunities then

just... It just spreads, doesn't it?

It just naturally spreads.

Exactly.

You're not forcing that.

A phrase that comes to mind

with what you're hearing

there was a song,

but it was great before the song,

is give a man a fish and

he'll eat for a day,

teach a man a fish and he'll eat forever.

I said that without singing it as well.

That's gone.

A bit of arrested development there.

But for me, that's what really,

I immediately picked up,

we've got an ice cream van

in the background now as well,

immediately picked up on that,

giving them dignity, worth,

growing as well in terms of the knowledge,

the skills,

the CV that they can actually

get and look after

themselves going forward

possibly a little more.

The people that just don't

even give them a chance,

they get that opportunity

to go and do it.

I just love that it's not

just we're a charity that's

going to do it for them.

They've got to step up in

helping them do that.

I think that that's the

beautiful way to do it.

But the problem,

the reason why I do these

parallel spotlights,

you're on our doorstep.

You're in Dalgian industrial

today in Swindon that just

took us eight minutes, I think,

from our office to get here.

And it's probably about that to go.

Yeah.

And I didn't know it existed.

And that's the problem that

we face in this world of

too much information almost, isn't it?

But, so yes,

we need to get better at

shouting about what we do.

But equally, so it's almost like, yes,

if you're in Sweden, you know,

you'll now have heard about

us getting in touch because

we can collaborate and do something.

But equally,

so anybody who has to be watching this,

if you aren't currently

working with at least one,

but also not a number of charities,

really do because you know

they are sweet spots they

are the givebacks and you

know work in a

collaborative way so it's

not about just building

some money you know it

might be about time it

might be about giving some

expertise you know whatever

skill you've got you know

you will have HR experience

even if that isn't your

core yeah you know charity

you need this everything so

whatever it is there's this

contribution that you can

make that will be appreciated

and they look don't be shy

to look for the sweet spots

you know don't be shy to

say actually it would be

great if I got a case study

out I'm delighted that's

what makes it strong and

then you find yourself

climbing and being nervous

for the damn charity but

along with an end and then

the mp happens to help you

out so it goes on you know

No, exactly.

I mean, that was, Graham,

it was yourself that

suggested that I turn to

all the business guests we

get on to make it a charity,

which I know was the

impossible task for you, Graham,

with the fact that you're

involved with so many.

And it was kind of like...

with my involvement,

tried to select the one.

And I think, ironically,

even better than you anticipated,

because the collaboration

that we're discussing here

is fully relevant in this

particular party.

How many people are...

To say the truth,

how many people are you looking at?

How many people are working

here at any one time?

So at any one time, about 60 people.

And every year, we help just over 100.

So the reason is we are

aiming to move those who

can onto paid work.

For the first time ever.

but people take a different

amount of time to move on.

The shortest we've ever

succeeded is about 12 weeks.

And others might be,

and it amazes you that after five years,

suddenly the breakthrough

moment and somebody moves on.

Also,

somebody often moves on to a job and

you say, and they come back to you.

But it's about building that

resilience and bit by bit,

they will then move on.

Well,

I have in one of my other companies

where I do public speaking

training and things like that,

and I've got this analogy

that we can even apply to, say,

when you learn to drive a car,

where when you first start,

you're subconsciously incompetent.

You don't know what you don't know.

Then you become consciously incompetent.

you know what you should be

doing but you're probably

running at it so you keep

practicing you keep getting

instructed but you then

have to accept you go to

the next phase which is

consciously competent which

means you can do it but

you've got to keep

reminding yourself you've

got to have the point of

that before you eventually become sub

And the reason why I go

through that detail is that

people get frustrated

forgetting that they need

to be that consciously competent.

They think they can jump

straight to the subconsciously and go,

why can't I remember?

Why isn't it second nature?

And that will set them back a lot.

They'll give up.

They'll go, forget it.

I can't keep remembering.

It's like, you will.

It's repetition.

You know,

if we now think what we're driving,

I don't have to think

mirror signal manoeuvre.

just all happens now but I

went that wouldn't have

been the case to start with

and so it's about making

sure and you guys have

provided as I can see safe

space that is not just the

the packing as a prime

example down there I saw

that there's some strategic

spaces that look like it

teaches life lessons and

all sorts of things like

that is that a right

perception absolutely and

it's a person-centric

approach so whatever you need

And sometimes it happens right,

but sometimes it happens off right.

So, for example, somebody,

you aren't going to fall

into it unless you feel

some element of passion towards it.

You suddenly find a glimmer

that somebody's into gardening.

It's about them taking you

to a garden place or motorbike.

Mark was taking somebody

down to a motorbike.

wherever they were both

equally exciting finding

that each person will make

them overcome itself the

anxiety barrier and if it's

disability then it's those

other barriers but it's

about finding the right

place for each individual

and you mentioned about the

the disabilities or

difficulties it's a very

wide spectrum that is

incorporated within that

Very much so.

And I've learned so much.

Interestingly,

I've been here two years and

we were saying, is it what I expected?

What I hadn't expected is to

like the people so much.

And everyone is diverse and

people talk about diversity,

but I hadn't an idea of

what that really means in the real world.

And the joy and the

different things you gain

and benefit from

by being open-minded and understanding.

I mean,

I always think the most obvious

examples of that is autism

and other associated...

I've even struggled to put it

I know that they are challenged,

but they're such special

people because they're far

more intelligent than us.

Superpower in many ways.

Yes, 100%.

Their memory, they're intelligent.

It's just phenomenal.

I've got some colleagues in

the motor racing commentary

circuit that are on the

spectrum at varying levels.

And honestly, their recall is ridiculous.

And it's like going,

I could never have that.

And so as soon as you

understand that whilst some people

Behaviours,

I don't really know how best to say it.

It might be different to our norm.

there are things that they

can do miles better than we ever can.

And it's about understanding

and accepting and working

with those differences.

I'm sure I probably said

those things in a disrespectful way,

but it's just... And apologies if we have,

because it's really... 100%,

but I'm meaning it in the

absolute most positive

possible way that I can say it,

because it is incredible.

And I get your comment about

being the people.

How long has the charity been going?

We had our 20th anniversary last year.

Wow.

So, long time.

Going back to how

organisations can help charities,

I think one of the things

that we're probably weakest

at is marketing and promotion.

And I think the reason for

that is the running of a charity.

You'll have somebody in a

CEO position who clearly

has the financial ability,

the management ability.

You know that you've got

safeguarding absolutely

right you really risk and

you know the actual

governance piece I think

most charities are pretty good at

The thing that they might be less,

you know,

effective at is just

understanding how to do

good PR and marketing.

Because that often isn't the

skills that you'll have come in with.

And your time is so focused

on the running that the

promotion probably comes first.

So in terms of, you know,

if you are somebody out

there listening that wants to give back,

that is something that

they're crying out for.

and you're knocking at the door,

but they might not know it.

So it's about, you know,

helping them understand.

But Jill already, so, you know,

we had a website that was

fairly scruffy and two of your guys,

and they really sat down with us,

understood.

who we were as a charity, what we were of,

what was the core message, you know,

made us concentrate on who

is our key audience,

who are we talking to.

There was no point in us

going on socials that were, you know,

not met, that we wanted to,

what was it all about?

Yeah, it's all about that strategy piece.

I'm very much somebody which

is like things on my feet.

My team will probably kill me for this.

But understanding in turn is really,

really important.

So getting somebody to come

along and do something is fine,

but understanding

internally is really important.

why don't we see if people

like yourself who need to

understand the strategies and direct,

get them into our offices

and we'll put a day on.

We'll do a strategy day.

Let's see if we can get for charity,

sort of, you know,

people that are in charge

of making decisions and

direction and we'll put a day on.

And you can come by and we can...

probably collaborate there

you go all the different

issues which all of you

individually have with a

view that you can come out

of that with some sort of

individual marketing plan

and then at least you know

a direction yeah yeah and

that's calling on story I

think you know it is then

it comes back to the phrase

I used earlier about teaching how to fish

um and and they'll be

forever and I think that

that's a key thing and

that's what I love about it

where does your personal

involvement come from where

what brought you here yeah

Well, isn't life like that?

It's one of those funny

things where all your

skills then suddenly line up in a row.

It was actually one of the

previous trustees rang me up and said,

you don't happen to be free, do you?

We have a CEO vacancy.

And, you know,

the timing was just right for me.

But I've got a grandmother

who set up a physical

disability charity way back

in South Africa.

So, you know,

these things just come together,

don't they, in one explosion.

There you are.

Is this now take all of your

focus or you do another thing as well?

I've got another random job.

Yes.

No, I know that.

I think we always get that one.

You know, earlier you were like, oh,

I don't know how to frame this.

I don't know how to work this.

This is where me and my team

learn from collaborating

with organisations like yourself,

because there's a piece out

there in terms of the value

that you could consult to smaller,

larger companies,

them aware of opportunities,

things in the workplace.

So, you know,

we recently moved into my new office.

We had somebody come round there,

obviously audited for

suitable disability access.

That was like a nationwide

organisation that did that.

Surely that work, like yourself or others,

where there's education, seminars,

just another way of naming the charity,

but also then delivering

that knowledge that you

want in your droves here, back to small,

like myself or maybe other

people or whatever in local places,

to give them that education.

Well, this is it.

So anybody who wants to

genuinely address inclusion,

actually have a bunch of you

know with real lived

experience you know we can

absolutely chat about what

it's like if you wanted to

make employability

accessible if you're amazon

with warehouse and you

genuinely want just come

talk to some of our people

you know that's what it's not theory

being brave is and you you

are brave that one of the

career and saying you were

being brave then we are a

society where we don't know

we don't know whether we cause

disability or a condition,

we worry about how that proceeds.

That was brave to address

that and to say you weren't

aware of doing it.

There are quite a few people

that have HR incidents

because they've just

handled something wrong

because they've not known

how to do something.

And that is a cornerstone of inclusivity.

It does go both ways.

As long as it comes from a

place wanting to do things

right and as long as

they've got the right we

brave colleagues we can't

say things in a way which

might be technically wrong

but we understand where

we're coming from that's

where the reassurance from

organizations like

education police can really

bolster that I feel really proud

No, I do,

and it genuinely has been

wonderful to hear all about

the charity here.

I have put up on the screen

phoenixenterprises.co.uk, all one word.

You can go and find out more

a little bit about that and

get in touch with the team.

And I think it's fair to say

that this conversation has

been very decently taken by

Claire to more than not just Phoenix,

but to the wider community.

both charitable world and

with the various challenges

that have been looked after,

that there are other places

that we can be supporting all of this.

And I love the description

about various different

ways that we can be doing with it.

And that's what the

spotlight was all about.

Yes,

there's still funding required and I'm

not trying away from that.

There is most definitely

funding is required.

However,

the spotlight is trying to make

people realise there are

multiple ways to support a

charity to achieve its

objective and its wonderful objectives.

We walked in here and we

were instantly greeted with

just such lovely smiles and brought up,

let me go and find out, yep,

you can come upstairs.

And they're just, it was so helpful.

um it was wonderful and I i

love that whole feeling

that it's it's given in

that sense of purpose back

sense of of helping them to

go and achieve it's not

just doing everything for

that that really resonated

with me a lot so phoenixenterprises.co.uk

Do you have any final other

words that you'd like to share, Claire,

or have we covered it all?

You've covered it all,

but if anyone's interested

in anything more, please get in touch.

Please, definitely, definitely.

And your website will have

all your contact details, doesn't it?

Graham from GEL,

thank you for the

collaboration piece in particular,

and obviously all the great

work that you and your team

do over at GEL.

Lovely to talk to people

like yourself about issues

which not very many people

are talking about.

No, exactly.

And I've got that on the screen again.

I know Graham won't mind.

It's been wonderful to speak to you both.

Thank you so much for being

wonderful guests on Prism PR Live.

Thank you for those that have watched.

been an absolute joy to

share this conversation

with you you can see that

this is why we do it is it

the conversation just flows

and we could sit here

probably another half an

hour at least very easily

talking about this but

we'll leave you in peace

now I'll be back next month

keep your eye out to see

what episode six will be

all about it'll be the same

it'll be a business guest

and a charity spotlight but

from gel studios and of

course in extent of us

myself chris doors from

video pr see you next time cheers

Bye.