Episode 15: How to harness team building to drive business results with Kate Healy, The Together Collective

Matt Nally  00:13

In today’s episode, we have Kate from The Together Collective. So, thanks for coming on today.

Kate Healy  00:33

Thanks for having me. It ‘s a pleasure to be here.

Matt Nally  00:35

Great to have you on. Just for everybody else, just to give us a bit of background as to who you are and what The Together Collective is.

Kate Healy  00:42

Yeah, absolutely. So as you said, so my name is Kate and I am the founder of the together collective. So we are the home of every group experience you could possibly dream of. So our company helps build positive company cultures by bringing you the highest quality experiences and entertainment. And we do that both virtually and in person. So we ‘ve got almost like our umbrella company put together collective. And then we ‘ve got different collections. So we ‘ve got virtually together for our virtually hosted experiences, which are amazing for remote based or global teams. And then we ‘ve got actually together, which is currently just in the UK, and for people who are more kind of office based, where we bring the activities to you. So yeah, that ‘s awesome, nutshell.

Matt Nally  01:43

How long have you been going?

Kate Healy  01:44

So I actually started the business back in the first look down in April, May 2020. And at that stage, it was just virtually together that we had. So I launched, you know, naturally, we were all stuck at home, launch batch together to kind of help, you know, bring groups of friends together really whether it was you know, just for Friday night get together or for birthday celebrations. And then it ‘s kind of evolved, like from there.

Matt Nally  02:20

It is, what was the transition from sort of doing it for friends and family and stuff to actually doing it as a business. That ‘s quite an interesting pivot. Yeah, what was sort of moments decide to switch?

Kate Healy  02:30

Yeah, so well, so I started, I started virtually together, I guess, as a business. And that stemmed, interestingly, from a previous business that I had, called lady to hen, which was a luxury hen party planning company. And naturally with lockdown, the hen parties couldn ‘t happen, it was a recipe for disaster, we can, you know, have any group get togethers and people couldn ‘t travel abroad. So at the time, I was thinking, goodness, you know, all these poor hen parties that, you know, can ‘t go ahead and you know, the brides aren ‘t gonna have their weddings. Is there anything that we can do? And it sounds silly now, but at the time, I was thinking, gosh, like we could do something virtually, you know, online for them. So reached out to a few suppliers and set up a few activities like afternoon tea, where we ‘d send little afternoon tea kits out. We had wine tasting dance class. We even had new life touring, crafty workshops. And it was that that was kind of the catalyst really, because that went so well that we had other random people coming and saying, Oh, could I do this craft workshop for my birthday party, for example? And then that ‘s kind of how I launched virtually together. And yeah,

Matt Nally  04:07

I love that. So what was your background before? I was it was hence maybe I got stuck stuck in my head. If you always been an event, so did you. Is this something that got you into that? Gentleman?

Kate Healy  04:21

Great question. So after university, I went to work for L ‘Oreal. And I spent about I think it was about seven years in the end, working there in sales, across various different brands, but always had, you know, that inner desire to go and do my own thing really. So I set up ladc Han, kind of as a bit of a side hustle, I guess initially so I was still working at L ‘Oreal and doing that at the same time. And then it was only once things start had to pick up that I then decided to give it a go.

Matt Nally  05:06

When they found out all the free gifts for the hens were from love, that ‘s really cool. I think it ‘s really a scary moment making the decision to move from from that into, into doing anything or actually having a sales background. Did that give you the confidence? To know that you could bet yourself? And

Kate Healy  05:25

yeah, so I ‘d probably class myself as quite a low risk person if I ‘m being completely honest. And, and so it was quite a big decision to, you know, go and do ladies you hen. But I was very fortunate that L ‘Oreal let me take a sabbatical. So to like, try and make it work. So I guess I had that reassurance that if everything went belly up, then I could go back to my job. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I was I had a bit of a safety blanket, I guess.

Matt Nally  06:03

That ‘s true. But it still is, there ‘s still other things you could do in a sabbatical that, you know, very different to still taking a risk and seeing whether something works, you still got to back yourself, which is. So that ‘s really cool. I, one of the things I ‘d love to look at is because this relates, I think any industry surveying teams would be the same as like the what are the importance of team building and team building events? And what the benefits? Because I think, I think there can be misconceptions that they are just nice days out of the office sometimes but but actually, if they don ‘t, well, they really can bring teams together. So I suppose there ‘s loads of myriads of questions, we go down, but what what do you see between the companies that do do team building days? And those that maybe choose not to? Yeah, how they ‘re things work together?

Kate Healy  06:47

Yeah, it ‘s a really interesting question. And I think team building is just so important, and really is, you know, the building blocks of a company ‘s culture. And, you know, everybody wants to work in somewhere that they resonate with. And, you know, they like that company culture. And I think over the past few years, we ‘ve seen a really interesting transition with COVID, now that companies are leaning more towards kind of a hybrid way of working, so you might actually have people in teams that don ‘t really see each other. And, you know, you ‘re constantly run on, you know, video conferencing systems, which is totally fine and very efficient, obviously. But it ‘s much more difficult to build that kind of personal rapport, like, Build Team bonds, I guess, like with that kind of new hybrid working structure. So I think, even in the last few years, the need for team building has just, you know, exponentially grown. And, you know, not only does it have the benefit of, you know, enabling people to build those personal connections, but also reduce, like loneliness and kind of disconnection. And, you know, there are countless studies out there, which, you know, kind of link positive company cultures and effective teamwork, to boosting like efficiency, productivity, idea generation, team cohesion. And I think all of that packaged up, you know, results in a more happy and engaged team that are going to be more loyal to you long term. And so yeah, there ‘s lots of pros for sure.

Matt Nally  08:44

So yeah, what are the what are the reasons that people would, or the triggers people to come and approach you for, for doing events? Because I imagine it ‘s less so they ‘ve read a study. I know that studies back it up, but that ‘s not something that people would that would trigger, I suppose. To inquire Was it their core reasons why people go about it, like, are they? Is it because they have an issue in the business with the team and therefore they listen, and they implement it at a later stage? Or are they generally more proactive? As a company in terms of getting a good good ethos?

Kate Healy  09:16

Yeah, it ‘s really, yeah, really interesting. So I ‘d say that there are different like occasions that people book for. So there might be so there might just be a monthly team social that companies have which is like quite popular. So we have companies that book something different with with us each month, which is nice. Or it might be like an organised team building, like afternoon, which is maybe part of like a quarterly, like sales meeting, or something that ‘s kind of like unique integrated into, like a conference style event. And we also do quite a lot of events for, like new joiner onboarding. So let ‘s say your company has got a batch of interns that have started, they quite often would do one of our, like team building escape room games, for example, where they have to work in like smaller teams together to solve various kind of cryptic puzzles and, and challenges. And then, you know, you ‘ve got the people that do the yearly Christmas party. Christmas is a big busy time for us. So yeah, there ‘s lots of opportunities, I guess. And I think, naturally, some companies are probably more proactive than others. But it ‘s definitely something that, you know, is only going to have a positive impact on on the wider team.

Matt Nally  10:57

Definitely. It ‘s interesting, you have people that sort of use your monthly, which is great as a business model, but also shows that they actually there really are seeing benefits from making it a regular thing, Otherwise, they wouldn ‘t keep doing it. So it does really gelled the team. And then they tell you what type of benefits they ‘re getting out of it.

Kate Healy  11:16

Yeah, do you know what we, we see we have some particular activities, more. So on the wellbeing side, so we ‘ve got. So generally, if just a little quick overview, with the activities and experiences that we list on our platform, they would tend to sit under different categories. So we would have, let ‘s say, you know, foodie experiences, which might be kind of like cooking classes, or, you know, arranging a beautiful grazing platter with a wine tasting. And we also do tastings, like cocktails, whiskey and chocolate, and wine tastings. We do creative experiences, like terrarium workshop or candlemaking. Lots of interactive games. So they ‘re the more team building ones, like the escape room game quiz shows. And then we also have a huge wellbeing arm, which is particularly popular, I must say, with virtually together, so the remote teams. And with those well being workshops, we do, I guess, capture a little bit more data. So at the beginning of the session, you know, you might get asked on a scale of one to 10, where are you sitting right now. And then at the end, you ‘d be asked again, and, you know, everyone both be feeling better by the end of it, or, you know, you hope so. And so in that sense, we do have some kind of quantitative data. But otherwise, I think it must just be the qualitative kind of feedback that people enjoy themselves. And, you know, they want to keep on doing it, which is, which is really nice for us and nice for them.

Matt Nally  13:08

Yeah, definitely. I think one of the things I was interested in was, cuz I think there ‘s some people that really hate individuals that hate the idea of doing a team building deck because they ‘re more introverted, and which is absolutely fine. Everyone ‘s different. But are there ways? What are the types of events or ways that everyone can feel less stressed about the idea of going to a team building event or less worried that ‘s gonna be something they ‘re gonna hate all day, and then just be glad to get away? Get away from it the end of the day? Because you must you must see a whole range of people when they turn up in terms of eagerness to, you know, get on with it.

Kate Healy  13:48

Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. And I think there are definitely I think the term teambuilding is probably quite a, like scary one for the more introverted people, isn ‘t it? You think the alarm bells are going off? But yeah, we have lots of, I guess, different activities and experiences that are suitable for different like types of groups as well. So if you ‘ve got a really extroverted group, then, you know, I ‘d be recommending a murder mystery party where everyone dresses up in a character and you have like a role to play. Whereas if you ‘ve got a more introverted group, they might prefer, you know, one of our, like a mindful art workshop where there ‘s not necessarily as much pressure but there ‘s still time to kind of chat with the people that you ‘re around, which in itself is, you know, a great kind of bonding kind of moment. So it ‘s definitely a question that we like to ask our clients so that we give them the right recommendations of what they do. So yeah, it ‘s a very good point.

Matt Nally  15:00

I was asked about that, who How do you shape what, what you choose for the day because you often find people come to you. And they ‘re like, we definitely want to do this type of thing, or that actually, they ‘re really unsure. And you have to shape the, the options.

Kate Healy  15:14

Yeah, we get a bit of both, actually. So like you say, some people have perused on the website, and you know, something ‘s caught their eye. And, you know, they absolutely 100% want to do, you know, a painting workshop. And then other people might have a vague idea, let ‘s say, but need a little bit more guidance, because I think it can be quite overwhelming, seeing all the different options that you could do, especially from like a budget perspective, and the time that somebody has and the group size and where it is. So we do offer, like complimentary discovery calls with the team. So you can book like a half an hour call with us. And we would just have, you know, a really informal chat like this, and discuss the brief. And then we would be able to, I guess, almost like match them up with a few possible possible options. And then they tend to go away to their team and see what, you know, sets well with everyone, and kind of make the decision from from that.

Matt Nally  16:30

Yeah. I imagine there ‘s a lot of logistical things to plan as well. I mean, I more thought of this, when I saw you were doing with the together, virtually together sorry, with during COVID. Because I know I know a lot of what you did was things around tastings as well. And of course, getting stuff to people to the arrives on time, and they don ‘t open it too early and kind of things that that must be quite fun, but equally doing an actual in person event where there ‘s a lots of stuff to get together. That ‘s a lot of challenges there.

Kate Healy  16:59

Yeah, yeah. So we yeah, we ‘ve we ‘ve had our fair share of of clashes with the careers, I must say, is that, you know, everything ‘s everything ‘s ironed out now. And yeah, so how it works is, if you book a virtual experience with us with, which requires, you know, some form of ingredient or material, that we, we will send that out to everybody in advance. So, we tend to ask for everyone ‘s kind of postal addresses, you know, a good like two weeks before the event, so that there ‘s plenty of time for a parcel to, you know, get lost, potentially invite us to resend it, so that everybody ‘s happy. So that ‘s fine. And then we we have the ability to ship globally as well, which is, which is great. So going back to the full inclusion piece, you know, if you ‘ve got a team scattered around the world, then you know, everybody can, you know, nobody feels left out, then everybody ‘s enjoying the same, the same thing, which is great. We just need a little bit more lead time for that. Yeah. So so yeah. So that. So that ‘s that. And then with the with the actually together kind of face to face experiences. We would bring everything that you need to your office or to your venue, or we ‘ve also got some venues that we work with. So yeah, the client doesn ‘t need to talk very.

Matt Nally  18:39

Yeah, I imagine there ‘s a lot of challenges around that. Just like basic things I ‘ve done in the past nothing on that level at all. And it ‘s that ‘s hard enough. So yeah, it ‘s always worth working with a professional, I think. I think more more generally, might come back on to events, specifically latex. It ‘s certainly an interesting one for a surveying industry where, if, you know, if you ‘re a smaller company, find your team, are we more local nearby, but as your team starts to grow, you ‘re covering a large geographical patch. And actually everyone is quite spread out. And they don ‘t necessarily see each other that much because they ‘re on the road a lot. And they don ‘t necessary always have a central office, I think there ‘s a lot of merits to having a either a day where you get everyone together and having a bit of fun or you can have those regular virtual meetings to keep things fun. But one thing I was really interested in is like the the team building or events type industry is really, really crowded. It ‘s a big competitive market. How did you go about standing out and and getting a message out there that you were different in order to be able to grow and become more successful that

Kate Healy  19:43

so, so interesting. Well, I mean, I guess it ‘s an ongoing, an ongoing thing. We really pride ourselves on our customer service for for one. So we ‘ve Got a five star rating on Trustpilot, which we ‘re very proud of. So I think, you know, we always try and get back to clients, you know, within an hour, we ‘re always at the other end of the phone. You they ‘ve got that support network there for them if they need, and they ‘ll just have one contact throughout the entire process. So it ‘s not like, you know, somebody ‘s being passed along, you know, his, the, you know, booking the, you know, the post booking team or whatever, that you will be speaking to one person, which is, which is really nice. And then we, we try out everything. So every experience on our website has been tried and tested by us, which I think is super important. So, we ‘ve built a lot of trust up, I hope with with our clients that they know that whatever they choose, it ‘s going to be top notch and really good quality. And, and then the people that we work with as well. So, you know, contrary to popular belief, I do not host all of the workshops, which I do get asked sometimes we partner with some amazing small businesses and specialists who just blow my mind, you know, every time kind of I sit in on events. So you know, we would have a summer Lea hosting a wine tasting, we ‘d have an artist hosting, like, you know, a drawing class, we ‘d have a chef, professional chef hosting a cooking experience. So all of the people that we partner with are, like, independent or small businesses. And yeah, I think that ‘s really special as well, like we ‘ve built almost like a little community of people. And so I think our clients like the fact that when they book with us, they know that that also kind of supporting like small UK businesses.

Matt Nally  22:08

Lovely, I think, I think there ‘s there ‘s two things, one, because you go and try things out yourself, when you can sell it better, because you you know it inside out, rather than to sort of I read, I ‘ve read some of the sales bits off eBay for but also when you are working with smaller suppliers, they do care a lot more like it means a lot more to them to see someone getting a good, good experience, because it ‘s their own business and say, yeah, they put a lot more passion into it.

Kate Healy  22:34

Yeah, totally. Yeah. No, it ‘s and yeah, personally, for me, I love working with with small businesses, because you just be much more flexible as well, can ‘t you? It ‘s not like a computer says no. type thing. Yeah, you know, if we ‘ve got a client that wants, you know, something added to a box that we ‘re sending out, then, you know, it ‘s like a sure that ‘s no problem, pop it over. Whereas it can be a bit more difficult if you ‘re dealing with, you know, more large scale production lines, let ‘s say.

Matt Nally  23:08

Yes, not in the warehouse. Yeah. Interesting. What challenges have you faced when when trying to grow? Because it ‘s, I ‘m always interested, because from a surveying perspective, I suppose I suppose there ‘s a lot of surveys in the industry that will offer different types of service. And each of them has the challenge of trying to understand get a customer to understand why they ‘re different, you know, Joe Bloggs down the road. So how do you convey that that message about the fact that you work with either no small was passionate, smaller suppliers or the fact you ‘ve you ‘ve done the events yourself? Or it has been to them? How do you convey that as a, you know, marketing message or a sales message when you speak to people?

Kate Healy  23:47

Yeah. I mean, we, we have that kind of information, like on our website, and like in, in our, I guess, our, like, sales kind of communications or like communications on, you know, in our Google ads and things like that. But otherwise, it ‘s just through these discovery calls, really, and having kind of getting people in, you know, in the door as such, and being able to kind of have that conversation with them. It ‘s, yeah, it ‘s, we ‘re very lucky, actually. Because we, we do have quite a lot of clients who come back to us. And we also have quite a lot of clients who refer us as well. So we ‘re very fortunate in that respect that we do have quite a lot of cheerleaders out there.

Matt Nally  24:42

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah, that ‘s That ‘s true. Once you start building up a reputation, you get more repeat business theory, but I think I suppose there ‘s two things I took from that. And to correct me if I ‘m wrong, is one of them was ultimately you ‘ve got a good enough sales process. It ‘s intended to get the inquiry so you ‘ve got a good You ‘ve got a good Google advert Nice landing pages that gets you the inquiry, then it really comes down to team and team culture and how you engage with people. So has there been a challenge, then, as you mentioned before the course before we started recording that you ‘ve grown into a sort of a team of about five now. So is there been a challenge getting the right people in the right times to keeping that? That same sort of passionate and interesting way of engaging with people? Yeah,

Kate Healy  25:26

well, yeah, I ‘ve been very lucky, actually. Because I ‘ve had a very good friend of mine who ‘s worked kind of in our sales team, right from kind of our first year. So she ‘s, she ‘s been amazing. And like a real, like, constant rock. For me, kind of over the past few years, where they she ‘s, she ‘s actually just gone off now to have a baby. So yeah, so we ‘re going through a bit of a transition period with the team, we ‘ve now got a lovely new sales girl, who was very lucky as well to spend quite a lot of time with Alex, and has kind of absorbed everything she knows. Yeah, but yeah, it ‘s, it ‘s, I guess, it ‘s, you know, my job to kind of, I guess, lead the way in terms of how, you know, we like to treat our clients and how we communicate with them. And, you know, I hope that kind of nurturing that I can do with the team will then you know, help them in the long run, to ensure that we ‘re giving a consistent experience across across everyone, no matter who you deal with, really?

Matt Nally  26:42

Yeah, training is a key one, and there ‘s regular touch points. That ‘s actually an interesting question, then do you do you as a team have two days or teambuilding days where, where you decide together?

Kate Healy  26:53

Yeah, well, do you know where it ‘s not a bad job to be in? Because naturally, we have to try all the experiences out. So we do stuff every week. I mean, so next week, so this this week, I ‘ve, I ‘ve done a terrarium workshop. And I ‘ve also a terrarium. So it ‘s where you have, it ‘s almost like a mini garden in like an enclosed jar. And what happens is like the the condensation then kind of falls on the jar and ends up like self watering itself. So we just had a birthday. So Earth Day was last day. So it was a very popular one Earth Day. And you have done a cooking class this week. And then next week, I ‘m going to an in person music quiz show with the team. So yeah, we do stuff all the time. They ‘re probably sick of it.

Matt Nally  27:56

I love that you ‘ve chosen a very good industry to go into. Yeah, that ‘s fun. Is that is that? Why would you not take a certain event? Or are there certain reasons why when you try something new, gosh, it ‘s not quite right for us. Not that it ‘s bad event or bad day or whatever, but it ‘s just not right for your collection.

Kate Healy  28:17

Yeah. So we say I guess my first kind of golden rule where possible, is that we only really list one of everything, if that makes sense. So we only have like one, like cocktail masterclass, partner, we only have one cooking class partner or whatever. And we want to make sure that they ‘re the very best, really. So that ‘s why we try and test them out to you know, make sure that they ‘re kind of hitting, you know, I guess things that probably clients would expect. So, you know, making sure that all the kits look nice, and the ingredients is high quality. And, you know, the, the level of engagement and interaction from the host is, you know, lending itself to the whole team building, you know, building company culture. You know, that kind of that kind of thing. So that ‘s, that ‘s why we try and test everyone out. And we have had some interesting, interesting partners that we haven ‘t proceeded to partner with which haven ‘t met those standards. So it ‘s definitely worthwhile doing it.

Matt Nally  29:47

I think yeah, I suppose it really shows that the importance of actually going, going and doing it yourself so that you don ‘t end up having your trial run is with a live customer and then

Kate Healy  29:57

yeah, exactly. Like you said before it ‘s, it ‘s, it ‘s then lovely to, you know, then you know exactly what ‘s going on because you ‘ve done it. So if a client ‘s got a question you might be Oh, and you know, for a bingo, let ‘s say on what happens with the bingo cards and you ‘re like work well, you know, what we do is we pop up a QR code at the start of the event, and everyone scans that with their phone, and that generates a unique bingo card, and then you play from your phone, you know, that kind of thing is all really important to for, you know, for everyone to understand. So, you know, our new team members right now are meeting every single one of our partners for like a demo induction, so that they will have that level of knowledge as well.

Matt Nally  30:46

Yeah. Awesome. I ‘ve got some more general business questions that are in my head at the moment. Yeah. If you ‘re happy to answer those, but I think how much do you plan as a business? And how much do you sort of have a loose plan? As a as a business, but as a business owner? Do you have a very structured like, this is what we ‘re gonna do over the next three years? Or is do more loosely define the goals and just see how things pan out what, what, where, where the direction comes from, in terms of, you know, our different events run and stuff like that.

Kate Healy  31:19

So I definitely have like a top line, like vision and goals, kind of in my, in my head, I guess. You know, there are financial requirements that kind of come with that. But me personally, I try to not be too rigid, I ‘d say with, with, like, exactly what we ‘re doing. I mean, if you think about, you know, in the three years, since we started virtually together, how much the business has changed. You know, we started really as like a b2c kind of company, like, you know, organising people ‘s birthday parties, and you know, that then changed to being predominantly corporate, all b2b kind of team building stuff. And then, you know, the pandemic ended, and we launched our in person experiences. And more recently, we ‘ve launched away days together. So I think, I think as much as I love, I would love to plan more, I think, in our particular industry, it ‘s not a bad thing, just to keep our ears to the ground and seeing exactly what our clients want. And then trying to like react to that.

Matt Nally  32:38

Yeah, it ‘s interesting, cuz I have a similar mindset where, yeah, I ‘ve got a top down plan in terms of where I think that the functionality and the business will be. But, but equally, I ‘m not too prescriptive with how we get there, in terms of, there will be customer requests that come up that we haven ‘t thought of, or certainly it might take longer, or there ‘s a brand new integration that suddenly pops up that was not possible before. And so the roadmap has to be able to adapt based on what people are asking. You can ‘t just be like, No, this is what we plan to do.

Kate Healy  33:07

Exactly, exactly. And like, and clients can sometimes come up with the best ideas. So we have, we have lots of seasonal experiences. So almost like limited edition ones that we bring out for, like key calendar moments. So I mentioned Earth Day before, imagine we ‘ve got Mental Health Awareness Week, which is really popular in June, it ‘s pride, you know, other kinds of celebrations, whether it ‘s Black History Month, or Divali, Christmas, etc. And, and clients will, you know, come in and be like, oh, yeah, I ‘m, you know, Steph awareness week, next week, like, you know, can we do this, that and the other and, you know, they ‘ll bring things to our attention, which I think is really special as well. So, you know, being able to pick up on that is it ‘s like, good, good research in a way.

Matt Nally  34:01

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And even if you can ‘t get it in time for this year, you know, it ‘s coming around next year. You mentioned about you started off spaces, b2c, and then moved to b2b. I was just actually interested do find one customer type, but as a consumer or business is easier to deal with and the other people much more fussy if it ‘s consumer because it ‘s for themselves, whereas there ‘s a business they ‘re a bit more relaxed, and it sort of just see how it gets shaped for the team or was it the other way around?

Kate Healy  34:33

Yeah. So, um, I personally prefer b2b. And I think it ‘s much more transactional. Like, you know, the budgets are coming from one place. And, you know, there ‘s potentially one person needing to sign it off. Whereas with the beat To see side of things which, which actually, we don ‘t really do much anymore. That kind of stopped kind of probably 2021 it was a little bit more, I guess, complicated to get a booking the line, because, you know, maybe the whole friendship group needed to agree on the price. And then I might have needed to have sent off, you know, a payment link to each individual to pay rather than one invoice for a company.

Matt Nally  35:36

To do that, yeah.

Kate Healy  35:37

So, yes, I think b2b is definitely more streamlined.

Matt Nally  35:45

Yeah. Perfect. So I think my final question just around sort of general business aspects. I think there ‘s probably been more recently, but what have you found the pros and cons of running a business versus working, working in a, you know, for L ‘Oreal, for example. And not L ‘Oreal specifically, but just in terms of in an employee role versus? Yeah, going doing your own thing?

Kate Healy  36:09

Yeah. So it ‘s definitely, it ‘s definitely a lifestyle choice. So what I love, I wouldn ‘t change it for the world, I, I really love you know, being my own boss. I like being able to, like, follow my own strategic thinking, you know, I think you can be much more agile as a small business as well. And I guess, you know, when you ‘re a part of a big corporate, you are, you know, a cog in the machine. Whereas, you know, you ‘ve you ‘ve got a bit more of a an identity, kind of when you ‘re, you ‘re running your own your own business, and there ‘s less politics. So I don ‘t know, there ‘s pros and cons of both. I mean, I do I had such an amazing, like, friendship group, you know, working for a big, like company, and I do miss that. But otherwise, I, yeah, I wouldn ‘t change it for the world.

Matt Nally  37:20

No, I, I think part of why I always wanted to get into my thing was the fact that if I had an idea, and I believed it was going to be good and work, I could just implement it versus having to go through a lot of bureaucracy. And then someone says, No, I don ‘t necessarily agree. And you ‘re going back, I know it ‘s gonna work. I ‘ve heard that a few times. And and that ‘s it. I ‘ve always been driven just isn ‘t like you have to have their own creative creativity. And then yeah, you know, you can make a decision about whatever you want to do. Yeah. I think the other topic that ‘s that it talks about a lot. I ‘m just interested in your perspective on it is I ‘ve seen statistics recently about it as the founders, the fact that the majority are still male led businesses in terms of fewer women go into setting up businesses. Jean, what what prevented that being a barrier for you, not in terms of the fact that that ‘s a statistic, but what stops you seeing it, or fearing going and doing it? Or why do you think there ‘s barriers potentially for other people to do? Is it confidence or is there other factors at play this? Potentially? People don ‘t go into it?

Kate Healy  38:27

Yeah. To know what I don ‘t know. I don ‘t know. I don ‘t know. The answer to that question. And I?

Matt Nally  38:37

Yeah, big toes. Exercise questions. Yeah. Tough ones.

Kate Healy  38:41

Yeah, it ‘s, it ‘s, I guess, I was probably, like, blissfully, I think sometimes you can be, it ‘s better to be naive to certain things, because then you don ‘t necessarily know, you know, what pressures you ‘re going to come up against. And I think I was probably blissfully unaware of, you know, any, you know, gender stereotypes with setting up a business. So it never really kind of crossed my mind. But we have loads of women that we work with, which is great. And I think the like, I don ‘t know, if their stats are increasing, but certainly, it seems like it ‘s becoming you know, the opportunities are there for people to kind of set up little side hustles these days, which is really nice. And the power of, you know, selling platforms like Etsy or not on the high street, or, or even what we ‘re doing, you know, we ‘re essentially a marketplace. It enables and empowers people to kind of have that little thing on the side. So, I think, you know, if there ‘s anyone out there thinking of starting your own thing, then you know, you ‘ve got nothing to lose really. Just, you know, jump jump in there and do it and, you know, I think you There are lower risk options that you can take. And then if it starts to take off, then you can, you know, keep just, you know, going where the wind takes you.

Matt Nally  40:11

Yeah, I think you ‘re right. I mean, people in general, I think there ‘s a perception that if you ‘re going to set a business up, you have this, you ‘re employed, or you ‘re starting something up. And that ‘s there ‘s this big chasm of between one and the other, and how much you ‘re saving is going to help tie you over. But actually, really, you should be where you can get do as a side hustle. Like you said, before, you know, the, what you were doing originally was a side hustle, and then it then it progressed. And you can start to build it up and see whether there is attraction. And then, and then if there isn ‘t fine, do something else or pivot slightly or? Exactly, exactly, I believe.

Kate Healy  40:44

Yeah. And then and that ‘s the best way to find out if something because then you ‘re basically testing the market, aren ‘t you? So you can test the market in a way that, you know, not going to prevent you from paying your mortgage each month or paying your bills or whatever. So yeah, there ‘s, there are options out there for everyone.

Matt Nally  41:08

Do you think it helps having a sales background because I think being sales you have to be more, more outgoing and more confident? Perhaps that ‘s the perception, at least in terms of, you know, being confident to be able to sort of sell a product or service put a value to it, convince someone of that? So does that, do you think that helped? Going into it because there ‘s there is that is the cool thing about owning a business, you have to sell at the end of the day, you finally got to have the ideas and you have to sell it the processes and everything else. But that is a big aspect of it. Does that help you think or

Kate Healy  41:40

I think it definitely helps I think in in multiple ways, you know, one of one of those ways being you know, having the commercial understanding to, you know, not necessarily undersell yourself, or to price something, right. And then also, in terms of the hustle, you know, like, I really get like a kick from getting a booking in and, you know, really, like, you know, great experience with the client. So that that really motivates me. So I think that ‘s probably a good thing like being salesy, that that, you know, I care about that. So I think, yeah, and, and I think, you know, someone gave me some very good advice, you know, when I, it ‘s not always possible when you ‘re a one man band, of course, but, you know, you ‘re not going to be good at everything. When you run your own business. And, you know, you do you and you get other people to help, you know, in the specialty areas that you ‘re not so good at. So if there is somebody that isn ‘t particularly salesy, you know, then you know, I ‘m sure there ‘s somebody out there who would who would help in that department for for them?

Matt Nally  42:56

Yeah, definitely. Delegation is the key, isn ‘t it, it ‘s knowing what you ‘re good at focusing on that, and then getting other people to do what you can. And it ‘s surprising what you can do for less than you think in terms of duplicate depends on the IRS, but you can get people to do some marketing content for you. And then, and so you can focus on other things, and there are ways to get stuff done. It ‘s awesome. So again, getting back to the event side of things, because I ‘ve had a few ideas like money in my head. I suppose there ‘s two aspects I ‘d like to look at one is internal teams, and then maybe one with where people can engage with other business stakeholders, whether that ‘s like adding a referral partners or bits and pieces like that. If you ‘re let ‘s look at the internal team, I suppose if if you ‘re like a more spread out team, because obviously, there ‘s cover different patches around the country. What ‘s your kind of general suggestion about team days or building the team culture and stuff? Do you suggest a certain number of in person events a year or a certain number of virtual ones? Some split or both in order to make it as effective as possible, but if you do it too little, does it lose the benefit? And is there like a sweet spot for?

Kate Healy  44:07

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So we see, I guess, companies with a similar kind of setup, really interestingly, doing a mixture of both virtual and face to face events with us. And so they might do, they might get the whole team together for a face to face gathering, maybe twice a year. And, you know, of course, it ‘s incurs more cost, isn ‘t it like 30 And you know, maybe paying for overnight accommodation or flight. So that would be you know, more of like an all out, you know, whole shebang, maybe you ‘ve got some meeting room for the day and then you do some, you know, nice kind of team building activities in the afternoon and then, like an evening exercise And, and then you can intersperse those with virtual get togethers. So then you ‘ve got kind of almost like the best of both worlds then, because you ‘re still putting that team building in the diary, but it ‘s obviously more economical and easier for people to join, like online. Like throughout the year. So, yeah, there ‘s definitely, you know, ways to keep in contact and still kind of maintain those relationships, even if you ‘re not together, like all the time.

Matt Nally  45:38

Is that and is there an ideal frequency, but it ‘s once a month, too much is a quarterly too little, in order to sort of keep the momentum of and the benefits of doing this session?

Kate Healy  45:48

Yeah, I mean, it ‘s, I think it ‘s completely down to each individual team. Like, like I said, before, we ‘ve got some companies that do things monthly with us, we ‘ve got some that do that do quarterly, socials, we ‘ve also got some companies that change what they do. So they might do, let ‘s say, you know, something in inverted commas more fun, one month, and then the following month, they might do a wellbeing workshop, which is a bit more of an educational piece. So they might alternate between Team social, like a lunch and learn, then meet in person, just then you ‘ve kind of got a different type of experience to, you know, I guess not lose the, the excitement around doing something together.

Matt Nally  46:42

I think there ‘s also another important aspect that shared what you said there, which is, different events will bring out different things in different people. So someone who ‘s very extroverted will have one type of someone who ‘s more introverted will feel more comfortable and another and therefore, actually, what you get out of people in different environments, and what you see from people, and therefore the bonds you build, I guess would benefit from them doing those different types of different types of things, rather than it just being the same type of

Kate Healy  47:06

Exactly, yeah, we ‘ve actually got a really interesting, like client who, they ‘re a bit bigger. So I don ‘t know whether this will be applicable for like all companies, but they, they actually give their clients or their employees a choice of what they want to do. So they do like a, like a, you know, like a high value virtual experience, once a quarter. And they will pick like one of each different like type of experience. So then there might be a tasting. So there might be, let ‘s say, a beer and cheese tasting. There might be a chocolate truffle making workshop. And there might be a, like a clay sculpture making workshop, let ‘s say, so you ‘ve got your tasting, you ‘ve got your foodie, and you ‘ve got your creative, and then each person actually signs up to what they want to do. And then, you know, they ‘re more engaged, because they ‘ve kind of made that decision, everyone ‘s excited because they ‘re receiving a kit. And then inevitably, they ‘re then on the call with people that they, you know, might not necessarily have seen in a while. And so yeah, there ‘s lots of different ways that you can go about it.

Matt Nally  48:21

Awesome. And then I think that is my final question that we touched on, which was, is it just for teams internally? Or actually, does this type of thing work really, really well with other stakeholders? So if you ‘ve got that in this surveying industry, if you ‘ve got referral partners, for example, or other people you work with in some format, is does it work well, to do those types of events with others?

Kate Healy  48:45

Yeah, definitely. I think client entertainments a huge opportunity, we particularly do lots of tastings, I ‘d say, which kind of either like one company ‘s kind of sponsoring to kind of bring everyone together, or you ‘re inviting prospective clients or, you know, partners. And I guess one real positive about doing something like that is that we can intertwine business content with the experience. So, you know, let ‘s, for argument ‘s sake, call it a wine tasting, you know, the smell a might kick off with, you know, the first wine and then there might be 10 minutes of business content whilst everyone ‘s enjoying that wine. And then that you might go back to wine to bit more business content, and you almost do like a bit of a, like an amalgamation between the experience and like the information session for want of a better word. So yeah, there ‘s, yeah, there ‘s and that particularly I think, what from what we see gets an amazing signup rate is because people don ‘t need to leave their house to do it. So it ‘s really easy for Uh, you know, people to do it at the end of the day or you know, when they ‘re home and it might actually open up opportunities to, you know, connect with people that otherwise wouldn ‘t come to an in person gig in central London.

Matt Nally  50:15

Yeah, that ‘s very interesting. Actually. It ‘s remote can remove a barrier. Yeah. Awesome. I found today really, really enjoyable. And get to talk, actually. So thank you very much for coming on. I appreciate it.

Kate Healy  50:28

Thank you so much. I really hope it so it ‘s been useful if you ‘ve enjoyed it. So yeah, thank you so much for your time.

Matt Nally  50:36

No problem, if any, if anyone wants to get in touch, actually to to, to inquire about different events and a bit more. How do they get in touch?

Kate Healy  50:43

Yes. So our website is www dot the together collective.com. And I don ‘t know whether you got any like notes that you can maybe write my email address in as well afterwards? Potentially?

Matt Nally  50:58

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. We ‘ll put that in the in the in the bio online as well. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Wonderful. Thanks for listening to this jacket on LinkedIn posts, and you ‘ll see the details there. Thanks very much. Speak to you. Thank you