Please find below feedback from my clients. From a confidentiality perspective they are mostly anonymous, unless that have gone public with their endorsement!

Hopefully you will get a sense of the seniority of the mentee and the type of company, and how I have helped them 🙂

Mark Scoular
Director – Protect and Prepare

“My mentor Phil Howell and the [Help to Grow] course lead, Paul Bennett, have been outstanding so far”

Credit LinkedIn

LinkedIn Video Testimonial by Mark Scoular

Annalisa (Annie) O’Rourke – Founder and Principal Consultant at Apex Business Compliance Ltd

AnnalisaO’Rourke posted

Oliver Nelson Director at Nelson Dish & Glasswashing Machines

Ross MacLennan – Leadership Consultant – Wild Logic

Marc Bourdé – Partner at PwC UK | EMEA SAP Alliance Leader

UK Manufacturing Director

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our sessions so far and heave learned a lot that I have been able to apply both personally and to the business.”

“In terms of the business, the value is that we now have a clear strategy for the Service Department which the entire senior management team are aligned with.”

“The session was incredibly helpful in preparing for the meeting. I came out of it with far more confidence in both the content of the presentation and my ability to present it. It was also useful to get your insight into how to manage the meeting properly”

“The meeting was a success. From a personal perspective, the preparation I put in meant I was confident in my delivery and able to communicate the message and vision as intended. In terms of the meeting itself, there was real buy in from the entire senior management team and everyone was very much on the same page in relation to where the business needs to go and how we can achieve our objectives.”

“The advice you provided around how to structure the follow up meetings and the frameworks presented, such as teams boards and the Hoshin Kanri matrix, will definitely help to maintain organisation throughout the execution process and ensure all stakeholders have clearly defined roles and responsibility. They will also provide a tool that will enable us to track progress over time.“

“I found the session to be useful in a variety of ways. Firstly, it enabled me to create a clear plan as to follow up steps of the training and development programme for engineers having completed the skills matrix”

UK Commercial Director

“I believe the potential added value of embracing TAYA is huge. The session offered numerous insights and suggestions that will help us to successfully adopt this strategy. For example, the Scorecard provides a framework to track performance and success. The recommendations you offered in terms of sourcing suitable content marketers will help to find a method of consistently generating content during the early adoption stage”

“The discussion around leadership around leadership provided food for thought in terms of the best strategy for building a management team with the required knowledge and skill set.”

“The Staff Training Matrix will be a great tool for measuring the strengths and weaknesses of our staff across a variety of areas.”

UK Director

“The two issues discussed have been significant disruptions to the business over the past couple of weeks and have shed some light on internal problems within the organisation that we weren’t aware of. Discussing them in detail and hearing your advice on how to address them has given me some clarity on what we need to do to create a better company culture and minimise the disruption caused.”

“The measures we discussed (employee satisfaction survey and suggestion portal) will help us to better understand our team and create flags to identify potential issues so they can be addressed quickly. They will also provide our team the opportunity to contribute to the business by suggesting improvements that will add value to the business. “

“I have never carried out an investigation/disciplinary procedure before, so it was helpful to learn the correct process to follow and the resources available for support. “

Technical Director – Engineering Consultancy

What did you think of the session? “Brilliant – Hugely valuable as it helped me focus my mind and advance the projects I am working on. You have given me a lot of tools. Its helped me really relax thinking about the options of what could be. Discussing the tools around implementing technology has been really useful. Also valuable was reviewing how I come across to others, how engaging I am and how much listening I do and the difference I can make in influencing others, by better understanding them, which will help me to bring them on board with proposed change programmes.“

Business Owner – UK Food Manufacturer

“I can run my numbers accurately, and know my profit, margin and how much I can afford to give in way of discounts.”

“A good opportunity for accountability, to get my thoughts out, to be challenged and kept to a high standard, to be kept on track and great in getting to explore my next steps. I like the sessions as they help to keep me in line with my goals in a good, timely manner.”

What insights, ideas or new learning did you gain? “Getting ideas out on paper. Sticking to my plan. Improving the way I run the business. Understanding that I need to run the business on logic and not emotion. Getting to know my numbers.”

“This is the best mentoring I have had to date. The impact has been immeasurable. I am deeply appreciative.”

“Thanks for all you have done. For being straight forward. For pushing back when I do not make sense. For challenging me to think differently. For going above and beyond with helping me [with the pricing model and strategy]. For just everything, you have been wonderful and I have already seen the impact to my business from our sessions! Thank you so much!“

Business Owner – UK Manufacturer (Personal Care)

  • “Although we had thought about asking our customers, the session made it more evident that we need to engage  with our customers better and get info out of them to help us understand the business’ situation.”
  • “We feel supported which is something we were looking for to give us encouragement. We are more hopeful that we will find a way forward to be successful.”
  • “I think you listen super well, we felt heard and you show great interest for our business”
  • “The conversation about the email marketing was a kick in the butt for me as I feel motivated to do it.”
  • “We love the document you sent us and it will help us to get more organised with the actions.”

When you reflect back on the last 10 sessions, what value did you get from it?

  • “The whole thing. You have helped us to think outside the box, to help us see things in a different way. That helped a lot.
  • You helped us understand how to approach shops and other channels.
  • You helped with organising ideas. Giving us a path.
  • That you really listen and reflect what we have said.
  • The way you conduct the sessions is brilliant. It is very motivating. You certainty in what you say gives us confidence.”

HR Manager

“To my business, it gave a strong sense of direction and motivated me towards a path that I was maybe afraid to follow. The idea of focusing on a teaching mindset to set in motion an inbound marketing strategy was perfect. The idea of the customer avatar is just brilliant.”

“I feel you have been able to give me some precious advice by sharing your experience and knowledge. I always feel you are listening carefully while trying to understand me as a person and my business to adapt to my needs and to where I currently stand. I appreciate you are not afraid to share your ideas and can add so much value to my own.”

“All you have selflessly done for me these past months has been a true revelation. I hope you can appreciate how much it has meant to me.. If anything, it has restored some faith in humanity 🙂 “

HR Managing Consultant

“Hi Phil-a really helpful session again yesterday! Very helpful discussion on making my purpose, mission, and vision reflect my personality and be more engaging.

“Useful to have an ‘accountability partner’ to review progress against targets”

Where do you feel it added value to you or your business? “Provided some excellent suggestions to consider re building the right team for the tasks I need to have completed”

“The session yesterday which was very helpful.”

Business Owner

“You seemed to understand my business and were able to read my body language re the areas of my business which I find most interesting and would like to develop. You gave me some clear actions to complete to progress my skills and e.g. Linkedin knowledge. I think it added value by pinpointing issues to focus on.“

“I found this mentoring session very practical with clear guidance on the actions which I need to take.”

What insights, ideas or new learning did you gain? “The idea of a metrics scorecard and how exactly to create one which will work for my business. The idea of testing the diagnostic questions live with a few friendly clients to make sure that they hit the mark before adding them to the scorecard app. The idea of creating a ‘stable’ of associate talent and have a metric in mind for the number of associates I need with particular skills to be able to meet client requirements.“

“Another great session thank you, it was super helpful again.”

“Very useful to think through how to assess potential associates. Great hints and tips re how to build the right team and what aspects to focus on.”

CEO

“I really feel you will be able to help mentor me and looking forward to spending time with you”

“You helped me think through all the competing priorities and work through what to do first.”

Director

“You have made me think about what’s important and what my business needs”

“The ideas generated have been great”

“Knowing the events we could run have been really insightful”

“Having a 3rd party perspective has been phenomenal”

As you look back over these last 11 sessions, what’s been the value of mentoring for you? “From my perspective, from the initial few sessions, where we focussed on change management, to now, I act differently, they [other stakeholders} act differently. We changed the system. When you look at how we do these sessions, we ‘chew the fat’, much like todays session, where we talked about packaging; branding; tenders; international contracts and how to get better deals; managing disputes; distribution; leveraging client testimonials in our marketing. I gain experience from you so I don’t need to do the 20+ years as I learn from your experience. It is speeding us up. Its been exciting, and I have enjoyed it,”

UK Food Manufacturer

“You gave great advice on how to make the most out of the terrible [trade] show”

Any feedback for me as a mentor? “All good as always”

“You came up with some great ideas,”

“It’s always good to be challenged, especially when it comes to ideas such as customer communication and looking at different sales channels.”

“It’s given me a better understanding of how affiliate programmes can add value to our business”

At the end of these 10 sessions, what has been the impact and value to you?

  • “Huge! – Its been great to have someone with your experience. It could not have been more appropriate. It was really useful to have new ideas, really useful. Our business would not be where it is without it. I am now feeling confident with what we are doing and that it is going in the right direction.
  • You have been really good at seeing if there are alternatives and seeing where I am coming from.
  • You have done things before and are talking about real life scenarios which are so much more effective than just anecdotes.
  • I need to be challenged, but I don’t have someone to do it apart from you.”

Managing Partner in large law firm

  • “I have really enjoyed the sessions and have found them very valuable. “
  • “Talking through what is going on in my mind and getting a 2nd opinion has been invaluable.”
  • “Its helped me clarify things”

Head of Finance – Industrial company

What was of value in today’s session “Definitely getting under the skin of [the issue I needed to focus on] because it is not something I’ve gone into detail and discussion with anyone before, so I think it was nice to just discuss that and come up with a solution that is an easy one to try out. I think that would genuinely make me feel just a lot happier. I also valued taking the time to look at things from a new perspective, giving myself the space and time to reflect on what’s going on and giving myself permission to step away from my desk; thinking about how to further develop my team. It’s given me some new tools to use in managing conflict and influencing others.“

Early Startup

  1. In what ways did you find the session useful? “Informative, eye-opening, thought provoking”
  • Where do you feel it added value to you or your business? “Making us think about things we had not considered from an outsider prospect.“
  • Are there any aspects you would like to do differently? “It was a good session, and we like that we have an experienced person to use has an sounding board.”
  • Any feedback for me as a mentor?
    • “You are really welcoming, informative and relaxed. I can feel the connection with you and can see your genuinely want to help us.”
    • “You pushed us to think differently and give us more things to think about [things]”
    • “You are on our wavelength and your ideas and suggestions are really helpful.”

What did you value about this session? “You helped us think through things we had not thought of. You helped us asses the differences between business growth opportunities for wholesaling, franchising, retail, and consider how to optimize different channels we want to operate in. We will do proper analysis of our event costs and revenue so we know what works and what does not.”

Managing Director – Vehicle Manufacturing

“Talking and sharing, sounding board was useful and added value to me”.

Managing Director and Pharmacist

“The session has been really good, eye opening even. Going through how to think about things when managing staff.“

“It’s been valuable going through the process of running our team meetings to improve the way we work. Getting clarity on the stuff I need to do and how best to tackle it with my team. Defining training requirements to help with business development, and how to manage ‘upselling’ when we are busy. “

UK Managing Director

“It was really good to meet you and I appreciated how you listened carefully to all I said in the session. Even when I went off on a bit of a tangent at times.

I felt comfortable and that made it very easy to be open. Thank you for the way you created that atmosphere/environment. I really enjoyed the session too.“

“These sessions have given me concentrated time to address core issues on my business. They have taken me out of the vortex of daily work. Without your mentoring it would have been hard to do on my own, as it would have been easy to ignore the issues I needed to face. I have felt reassured working with you. Its been amazing and its had an impact on my wider staff as I have changed too. The benefit to my business has been invaluable“.

“I have valued the encouragement. Our sessions focus on identifying and dealing with difficult emotionally charged issues, and helping me plan how to carefully deal with them“.

Leanora Harper – Occupational Health Coach

Artisanal Wood Worker

“Brilliant – Really really useful. You have helped me find more about how to do the things I enjoy. How to do things more efficiently, to develop processes and systems“

“It will be really useful doing discovery calls with clients using Teams so I can read the prospects body language, and respond if they look unsure about proceeding”

What do you want to achieve?

To move forwards towards your business or personal goals you need to take action. We can help you do that so please consider one of the following actions to do now.

I am looking forward to working with you to help you achieve your goals.

Lets speak soon,

Phil Howell