3 Steps to Being an Inspiring Entrepreneur with Co-Founder & CEO of The Lighthouse Group, Andrew Powell #25

After all, all art is experience.

Hello and welcome to The Company Doctor. In this episode, we're very lucky to be joined by CEO and co-founder of The Lighthouse Group, Andrew Powell. Andrew discusses his unconventional journey to becoming an entrepreneur and how he's looking to disrupt the worlds of sport and entertainment in a positive way. Gary, Andrew, it's over to you. Hey Andrew, thank you so much for joining this episode. I was really pleased to have you on, being an inspiring entrepreneur, and I thought, who should we have on? And I thought immediately, Mr. Powell. How are you?

Yeah, I'm good, Gary. I'm good. How are you, my friend?

I am excellent. I'm really pleased you're here. I think just to kick off, I mean, there's— I've got lots of stuff on you that we'll pull out through the conversation, but For the people listening, it'd be great if you could quickly introduce yourself, tell us about yourself and the company that you've just established.

Yeah, sure. So my background is very untypical. Military straight from school, 11 years, including 6 years of the Special Forces. I've been lucky enough to serve in FTSE companies as an executive. I've bought and sold companies. I've worked in private equity, and latterly I've found a passion for building businesses with a purpose. And my latest adventure is the Lighthouse Group, where we are going to positively disrupt the world of sports and entertainment by looking after talent properly.

I love that. And when Andrew says he's going to positively disrupt, he absolutely is. You're going to find out about Andrew in a minute. It's great. Tell us a little bit more about the Lighthouse Group, because I think it's a really interesting idea, and I think people resonate with it. Just, just a little bit more.

Yeah, two of my key passions throughout my whole life have been sport and helping people. And I've always wanted to build a business with a why around it that could actually do good for society and also leverage the inordinate amount of surplus cash in the world of sport. And therefore, what we've done is combine those two passions to build a business that is technology-driven and is looking to really look after the talent in the world of sport in a way that it's not been historically. And there was an independent report published last year as an example. I'll just give you two key statistics. One of the statistics was that athletes go bankrupt or in severe financial difficulty within 5 years of finishing their primary careers, and the stat was 52%, so one in two. Another stat is that 97% of young talent today in sporting academies are across the UK will never make it to their first professional contract. And the mental health challenges associated with that are astronomical.

Wow. Yeah, this is big stuff. And you know, I didn't know it was that much, but I knew, I knew it was a challenge. Well, that's fantastic. So let's get into the topic and we'll come back to this because I think it will link back quite nicely. Now, being an inspiring entrepreneur, I did look up a dictionary definition, which I'll share with you, 'cause it's interesting, but I've got a question for you. What is being an entrepreneur? What is it and why, why may you be one?

To be honest, I fell into being an entrepreneur. It wasn't a conscious choice. I jumped into a private equity invested business in 2014, and that business I'm still a non-exec director for, and that takes predominantly disadvantaged inner city young talent, educates it, and puts it into work-based opportunity. And we created about 6,000 work-based opportunities last year for that, uh, through that business for talent all across the UK. And because I'm an avid networker, my network has been reaching out to me for, to, for me to get involved in multiple different things. And suddenly you find yourself being termed an entrepreneur because you are wanting to help so many people and people want your brain at the table. So it wasn't really a conscious choice, it was something I sort of fell into.

Yeah, I mean, I, I think it's interesting because if we go back in your past, it is not necessarily an obvious thing. I mean, when I looked up the dictionary definition, I'll share it with you, you'll relate to it. It's a person who sets up a business taking on financial risk in the hope of profit. What do you think of that?

Uh, well, I've done that multiple times, much to my detriment, in the hope of profit, right? Yeah, yeah. And, and certainly to much angst of my lovely wife, who has supported me to remortgage my house 3 times in the last 5 years to make investments into, into businesses. So yeah, I do take risk, but the risk I take is normally quite calculated and managed and with a view that I can provide some form of influence over the investment that I make.

Is that what you tell the wife so she agrees?

That's right. That's, that's what I do tell her. Luckily, she's— she can't hear this, so she can't hear—

she will hear this, by the way. Just to let you know. So this is interesting. This is why I want to link back to your past, because if an entrepreneur is someone who takes risks, If you think about your background, you know, back to the forces where taking risks cost lives, how does that work for you?

I was lucky enough to have kind of two military careers. My primary military career was in what we call the Green Army, where really the leadership style is relatively autocratic. I— you knew what your daily routine was. You woke up being told what to do and when to do it. So that was one element of my military career. The second element though was with the Special Forces for 6 years. And, you know, I served in the First Gulf War, did a couple of tours of the former Yugoslavia, served in Northern Ireland and a few places in South America. But that was really about learning how to be innovative and take managed and calculated risks in small teams. And that's where I think my budding entrepreneurialism come from, because when you're in a small team operating where if you get it wrong, it can cost lives. You start to trust people in a very different way, and you start to understand that even if you are the leader, you aren't the leader knowing everything about anything that's going on. And therefore, your small team, you have to bring the right skills to the front of the, uh, to the front of the leadership opportunity, depending on the scenario under management.

Yeah, no, it's interesting. It's not an obvious one in a way. And so do you think you need to be brave to be an entrepreneur?

Wow, that's a big question. Um, personal courage is a, is a real passion of mine in understanding how talent evolves, and I think bravery and personal courage are absolutely necessary if you're going to excel in any type of career. It's all too easy, I think, to take the easy path, but I've sort of trodden the path where I've never done that. So, um, So I'm quite lucky, I guess.

Yeah, no, I'm sure. But if you draw on your experience, have you got an example where things really did work and what you needed to do? What was your mindset to make sure it happened?

Um, there's been so many different facets to my career that I've made huge mistakes which I've learned from, and I've had some successes which you're obviously aware of. I think where things have worked really, really well for me is when I've put people around me who are better than me. And I don't mean better than me holistically, I mean better than me at what they do functionally. And I always look to build teams where, yes, okay, I can provide an environment for them to grow and be successful, but really where I am providing a service level of leadership orientation versus a a dictatorial or autocratic style of leadership. Because, um, you know, why would you employ great talent and put great people around you and then tell them what to do?

It's a great question to ask a lot of businesses, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I'm lucky enough to have gone into loads of different businesses across my career, and, and I've been called in because there's an issue or there's a challenge or there's several challenges, and Many times across those engagements, we've found that actually the challenge is actually with leadership and not actually with the business. And it's about how leaders are engaging, managing, leading the talent that they have available to them and remembering sometimes they have one mouth and two ears.

Yeah. And sometimes may not use them in that proportion, I'm sure.

Yeah, for sure.

But you know, when you, when you're about to do something, in your mind, is it always going to work? Do you believe it's always going to work? And where does your mind go through, through the whole journey? I know because you expect success, of course, but where does your mind go through the journey when you're doing something?

I think if anybody ever tells you they never have any self-doubt, they're lying. I think every person, every good leader I've met has moments of self-doubt and probably a bit of imposter syndrome as well. And I'm no different to anybody else. You know, there are times when I think, oh my God, what the bloody hell have I done? You know, because I jump out of secure type environments where, as an example, I'm in a big corporate role where I decide, you know what, I'm just not fulfilling my potential here, even though I'm leading in an executive capacity, you know, a global FTSE business and into a very small private equity venture because I needed to make sure I worked in businesses that could give me or had a purpose. So I think everybody has doubt about what they're doing, even with Lighthouse now. You know, we are going into a market I have no real experience of. I've never worked in the sport vertical, but what I bring with me is a value set, a level of integrity, some transparency, a bit of vision, and a willingness to disrupt and get things wrong, but to learn quickly or to fail quickly. Such that we, um, we really do build a global business in the next 2 to 3 years. On that journey, will we have challenges that I'm not expecting? Definitely. Well, I have— well, I have many doubts along that journey that will have me picking up the phone to great counsel like yourself, Gary Gamp. But I think the power of network can't be underestimated when you go into something where you are not 100% sure. Because if you put great people around you and you spend time with great people when there's nothing to gain from that interaction other than to just spend time with great people, you will make sure that you build a network around you that can get you through these challenges.

Yeah, and just dig into that because you've always been a prolific networker, you know, really good example of a networker. In fact, you started something called the Dot Joiners, which I'm proud to be a part of. How important is your network and how do you cultivate it?

Um, when I came into business at age 27, so I was quite late to come into business really because of my formative military career. And one of the things I realized very, very quickly is business is not so much about how good you are in isolation, it's actually about who you know, you know. And I've been lucky enough, having spent time with great people and sought out great people, to never have to really go for a job interview. Because my network know what I'm capable of. They sort of know my background a little bit, and I've spent and sought time with just great people. It's amazing for me, really, when I talk to young talent about building networks, they get terrified because they think, why would somebody who's a senior business leader want to spend any time with me? And I just say to them, look, you do— please never underestimate the power of ego, because ego is there for us all somewhere in some way, shape, or form. And I've said to them, look, Just reach out to whoever you want to speak to and say, look, I think what you're doing is amazing. I would love to spend half an hour with you just to learn from you. Could you please give me that time? And then just go and listen. And it's amazing how many people's careers have been transformed by just taking that attitude, because I found if you reach out to talent and you sort of come at it to flower the ego up a little bit on the way in, but coming genuinely wanting to learn, you'd be surprised how many doors will open for you.

And I watch you do that in both directions. I watch you reach out to your network to help people. I see that a lot. But I also see you actively driving your own network. And in fact, one of the things I noticed that I didn't know about you is that you, you've managed to put— you get yourself on the decision-making panel for the Bank of England. Was that a network employee, or was that— there was another reason behind that?

No, no, it's not as grand as it sounds, Gary, to be very honest with you. Basically, there's a study being undertaken by Nottingham University. You know, our economy at the moment is in a huge state of flux. Businesses coming out of COVID if they survived, you know, have gone through a period of time that hopefully they'll never have to go through again. And I think the Bank of England were very smart in reaching out to Nottingham University to do a study with business leaders to ascertain the temperature of the local economy from a business leader perspective in terms of how decisions being made by the Bank of England were affecting businesses. So we do a monthly survey which goes into Nottingham University. The results are compiled. It's from many, many hundreds, if not thousands of business leaders across the UK. So I'm not unique.. And that then informs, I believe, some of the decisions being taken by the Bank of England. So it sounds grandiose, but it's really not.

That sounds great. So is it your fault that the interest rates have gone up on my mortgage?

Well, I would encourage anybody to try and get a fixed mortgage if they can. Yeah, thanks for that. But, um, but no, I can't take credibility for that one.

No, fair enough. But I think it is great. I thought it was a networking ploy, to be honest. You talked earlier, Andrew, about your wife being supportive. It's a bit of a leading question, but is a supportive partner at home important?

I couldn't do without— what I do without Sally, absolutely not. You know, I mean, when I was in the large corporate job, when I was working with you, Gary, all them years ago, I was on a plane pretty much every week when I started to reach the executive suite. And the reason why I did that and why I chose to do that is I believe that Whilst technology is amazing and allows us to do things like this very remotely, being a leader means sometimes you have to be present, especially when you're delivering change, and especially if that change you're delivering has a potential negative impact on the talent that you are meant to be leading. So I chose to be on a plane pretty much every week during my corporate career, and I could leave on a Monday morning or a Sunday night and and not be back until a Friday. And so all Sally would do is say, you know, how's your week been? You know, there was no kind of pressure, tension. I hate to use the word nagging because that is very stereotypical, but you know, without, without having a solid foundation to build from, I've seen so many executives or leaders never reach their potential because their home environment just isn't stable. Yeah. So, so yeah, it's been a godsend for me to have a stable home environment.

Yeah. And that's what I wanted to ask you. I mean, I, again, I'm fortunate. My wife will always say, just do what you need to and I think that just takes the pressure off. But do you— so therefore, do you think if someone doesn't have a supportive partner, it's, uh, difficult, or is it impossible to build— to be an entrepreneur without that?

I don't think anything is impossible because I— any, you know, anything I've done in my career, I've never really found impossible. There's always a way through anything. I do think it makes it far easier, you know, and lots of people choose not to have a partner which is, which is, you know, a pretty natural choice also. But I do think if you've got a stable environment around you that enables you to be all you can be and be at your best all of the time, it's a massive help and it's an enabler for you fulfilling your potential for sure.

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with that. So let's, let's get into giving some people guidance. I mean, I think your advice already is, is really helpful. There's a lot of people that want to be an entrepreneur. They like the idea of it, but it's pretty hard. They probably don't know where to get started. So I thought I'd ask you, if someone wants to take the leap, what are the steps that you would recommend for them to, you know, to become an entrepreneur as we described before, which is basically someone who wants to set up a business and take some financial risk and hopefully get some profit? What would be the steps you'd recommend?

Uh, I think, I think the term entrepreneur is kind of overused a little bit these days. You know, because anybody who backs themselves in any way, shape, or form is sort of an entrepreneur. You know, you could be in a large corporate ecosystem and feel like just a number, but you also could potentially be relatively disruptive in a positive way in that environment if you chose to just change your mindset and think about some of the challenges the organization is throwing at you in a different way. That's sort of taking a little bit of personal risk to not conform to what is accepted within the corporate culture. I see that as a little bit entrepreneurial. You know, if you, if you genuinely want to build a business of your own, which I would encourage anybody who's thinking about doing that to just think about the purpose of what they're doing first. So rather than think about the end goal is to be a multi-millionaire, or the end goal is to build a global business, you know, why are you actually thinking about starting this journey in the first place? What is your why? So when I sat down as an example and explained to Sally that after several years of building the Route to Work business that I know is going to leave for a complete startup— I was going to sit on the board, but I'll leave her for a complete startup and do it all over again. Yeah, you know, that was a very interesting conversation, but I knew that my why was, if I look back on my life at some stage, and I'd never really gone after my combining two of my passions of sport and helping people, which I knew was my why, I would have regretted it. So I would encourage anybody thinking about jumping into building a business of their own to start with their why. And there's a brilliant book, as you know, by Simon Sinek on this. So if anybody's not read it, I suggest they do. It's a brilliant book. Start with a why, and then start with thinking about How do you translate that why into something that can be commercialized in the external market? Because if you can't commercialize your why, then you're in trouble before you start. And lots of people definitely have a why, but the market isn't ready for the commercialization of it or won't understand it. So step 1 is find your why. Step 2 is make sure your why can be commercialized. And then step 3 is when you go through the dark moments of uncertainty and self-doubt and imposter syndrome, which you will, make sure that your ego is not allowing you to not reach out to great people, even if you don't know those great people. Because I can tell you now, LinkedIn is a fabulous tool, and if you are struggling with anything to do with your daily business, there will be somebody out there who will know how to navigate the challenge you are going through, will have a scar or two on their back having got it wrong previously, who you can reach out to. And again, if you play to their ego and ask to learn from them, pretty much guaranteed you'll get into their diaries.

I love it. You do talk about purpose a lot and you've spoken about it now. When did you realize that purpose was an important thing? I mean, I agree with you, but how did you wake up and go, you know what, purpose is—

Not really until my early 40s, if I'm honest. So, you know, I work with a lot of young talent today who are like, I don't know what I want to do in my career. And they think that that's a problem for them. And I understand why they think it's a problem for them, because they're at that stage in life where they want to create meaning in the work that they do. But I have to be very honest and say I didn't really realize my true purpose around what I wanted to do with my career until I was in my early 40s. I think my tours of the former Yugoslavia shaped a little bit my thinking, my formative upbringing on a a relatively rundown council estate in South Wales also helped because I knew at some stage, if I could, I'd like to be involved in a business that could give young talent like I was the chances I never had. So there was something burning away in the background, but it wasn't until I jumped into the private equity venture in 2014 really that I really understood how you could build businesses that could change people's lives, genuinely change people's lives. And suddenly there was a whole awakening around, oh my gosh, I can genuinely build commercial entities that have genuine social impact and genuinely can change lives. And that's when kind of my awakening came. But I would say to young talent out there today, if you're struggling with where am I going, what is my career, you know, don't worry about it too much. It'll come to you at the right time.

Well, I think it's a great story because you said, you know, you went from, let's say, 28 to 40 before you realised it. And I've known you for years and you've always been a make-it-happen kind of guy. So you've always been a deliverer of making things happen. Can we just look back to look forward a little bit? So, because I think it would be helpful, people listening are kind of business-to-business people or people that are aspiring. Now you could look back, if you were looking at something based on your experience, because you've got lots of experience of doing this quite a few times. If you had your next venture, and I appreciate you've only just started one, so I'm not trying to get you to jettison it, but what would you do differently in your next venture based on what you know now?

That is a great question. What do I do differently? Well, I think I'm lucky enough to have failed at so many things on so many occasions. The term failure for me is not catastrophic. The great Muhammad Ali has had a fantastic saying that said, you know, if you get knocked down 9 times, get up 10. You know, it's, it's the person who stays down that's in a bit of trouble. So I, I try, if I can, if I'm going to fail, I try and fail and learn quickly. So one of the biggest learnings I've had is in isolation you can be an amazing individual, you can be an amazing leader, you can win hearts and minds of talent very quickly but that's not scalable. You are a single point of failure if you believe you can build something of meaningful value based just on your own individual brand. So my biggest lesson, which is what I've done at Lighthouse, is I've put myself in the middle of a wider group of companies called Armco. And the reason why I've done that is because the 11 or 12 companies I've now surrounded myself with I can access IT, HR, infrastructure, operations, legal without actually paying for it. So actually Lighthouse can focus on its core opportunity whilst all of the other things are taken care of for me in the background. And from an equitable perspective, you know, I do not own 100% of Lighthouse because I want to build a business with people and therefore creation of value needs to be shared. And I think lots of entrepreneurs make the mistake of wanting to retain 100% ownership of everything they've got because they think that 100% ownership means that they'll create more value for themselves personally. I have a different mentality. My mentality is if I can put great people around me who can share in the equitable ownership of what I'm building and therefore they've got some skin in the game with where we're taking this business and the future, then that actually allows me to offload a lot of the burden of being a sole entrepreneur very, very quickly. So put great people around you and don't be greedy.

Yeah, I like that a lot. When you were talking about Muhammad Ali and keep getting up again, where my head went to, and I think people listening would feel the same way, is Is there a time where you shouldn't get back up again? I mean, you said 11 times, what about— or 10 times, what about 20 times? Is there a point where you go, you know what, this isn't working?

Yeah, so I've had that scenario back in 2005, just before I came to work for you actually, Mr. Gamp.

Okay.

If you remember, I built an interim management consultancy business, and my commitment to the bank at the time was year 1 trading would be I ran about £400,000 turnover, year 2 £550,000, year 3 £700,000, and by month 18 it was turning over £2 million. And I was on the startup stars of the particular bank, whose name I won't mention, as being a very successful entrepreneurial startup business. And I got invited to their head office for a conversation, and I thought they were going to invite me to head office to congratulate me and tell me how amazing the business was, when actually what they invited me there to do was to tell me I was overtrading against my plan, even though the business was hugely successful, and that they now needed me to remortgage my house and put all of my spare equity into the business to prove I was really committed. I was earning less than I'd ever earned in my career because all my money was going back into the business. I was spending less time with my family than I'd ever spent with them because I was building the business, and now I was being asked to remortgage my house and put all of my spare equity into the business itself. And that was a time when Sally and I sat down and said, we shouldn't get back up from this one. You know, I had a very young family at the time. It just wasn't a risk Sally and I were prepared to take together, to throw everything we had into a business that basically was me on my own really leading and growing that business. Which is why now when I go into a venture like that, I put people around me immediately who have some skin in the game and who share in the risk. So massive lesson learned, and I didn't get back up from that one. I have to be honest, it broke me because I'd never perceived myself to fail in my career prior to that moment. And for about 6 months after that, I felt like a complete failure. But actually, it was probably the best learning opportunity I've ever had in my career.

Yeah, I mean, it's just— you never failed because it was a springboard to many other things. Obviously working with me was one of the key ones.

Yeah, well, you were my savior at that time, Mr. Gamp.

Bless you, bless you. I've got one last question, and I want to talk about your musical taste, which will also be interesting. So again, for the people listening, what are the 3 top attributes of an entrepreneur that are the most important? If you just like one word, 3 one-word attributes for an entrepreneur.

Self-belief. Yep. Never give up. Surround yourself with good people.

Love it. 3 takeaways that are perfect. Andrew, that's, that's been amazing. I must admit, a really good insight. I love your journey because, you know, starting, you know, in the forces, and as you say, you had 2 careers, it wasn't an obvious choice. If someone had met you back then, they wouldn't have expected you to be an entrepreneur— no disrespect— because of, you know, because of that career that you've chosen then. But actually, from what you're saying, it's been a springboard the experience you've had there and the mindset you have has made you successful. So thanks so much for joining us today. I've got one last question about your musical taste. As you know, we, we have a playlist for all our guests. And so if we could ask you to give us one or two tracks that either inspired you or things that you like and get you going, we'll add it to the playlist and that would be great. Any thoughts?

Yeah, one of my favorite artists is Seal, actually. I love his music and I love the way his voice sounds across tracks. So one of my favorite tunes is Crazy by Seal. I absolutely love that song. I have a very eclectic and wide musical set of tastes. One of my favorite records actually is I Believe I Can Fly. We won't talk about the artist, but that song I think embodies everything that an entrepreneur is about, you know, finding your wings, learning to fly. And achieving your potential. It's just a shame it was, um, someone that shouldn't be positioned in the market by the particular artist we are talking about. But yeah, those two tracks I think are very important to me.

Fantastic, Andrew. Listen, thank you so much for spending time today. It's been really great and insightful, and hopefully we'll get to see you again soon. Thanks so much.

Thank you for having me.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Company Doctor. If you did, then head on over to thecompanydoctor.com to peruse our previous episodes and sign up for notifications and bonus content. Thanks once again to Andrew Powell for joining us today, and thanks to you all for listening.