Hear how Carrie Rose went from launch to £7.2m turnover in four years, winning 80 awards in two years on the way, how she turned down Lord Sugar, the importance of brand and company culture, the importance of processes and systems, the issues she encountered managing exponential growth and how she copes with managing staff older than herself.
There's also a great 'how to', in building your own personal brand.
INTRODUCING CARRIE ROSE
Carrie Rose, is founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing agencies in the UK & US - search-first creative agency Rise at Seven. After working at Branded3, one of the leading SEO agencies at the time, Carrie saw a gap in the industry for brand advertising and SEO to collide. She founded Rise at Seven to push the boundaries in both creative and technical SEO because that’s what is needed to own the most competitive search results. Rise At Seven are now across the UK, Europe and US with clients including SIXT, Bumble, Capital One, Bacardi, PrettyLittleThing, Amazon, Revolution Beauty and more.
Rise at Seven launched the first reactive marketing service driven by live search trends, and believe in multi-channel search realistic to how consumers behave now. Their content marketing case studies is what they're famous for, with 78 awards in a roll top bath to show for it. Carrie is featured on the 30 under 30 Forbes list because of her success.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[00:01:00] Introducing Rise at Seven
[00:03:30] The launch of Rise at Seven (and Lord Sugar’s offer)
[00:08:00] Why and how Rise at Seven exploded
[00:12:30] How to manage exponential growth in the business
[00:15:30] The importance of brand in creating employment demand
[00:18:00] The problems with culture and people that come with fast growth
[00:23:45] Expansion into London and Manchester
[00:27:30] The issues with employing staff older, and better, than yourself
[00:30:00] The ying to Carrie’s yang; Stephen Kenwright
[00:32:00] How to build your personal brand
KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS
• Swim in the blue ocean not the red ocean (where everyone is)
• Apply yourself to what your customers look like
• Figure out how you did things, write it down and then use the processes again later
• Education is the best sales strategy
BEST MOMENTS
“I promised the team we’d take them away if we hit £1m. By the time we did we had 80 staff”
“I applied for The Apprentice, got down to the last 30 and Lord Sugar offered me investment then and there”
“I took fake members of staff to our first pitch to make us look bigger than we were”
“It was crazy, every Monday we won an account…”
“I spent days writing down the process of how we did everything. And then told the team to 'follow the script'
“I haven’t read a CV in four years; it’s about proving your creativity and thinking”
“In a time of fast growth I didn’t protect our culture"
VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU
Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Website: https://meetglimpse.com/
Website: https://riseatseven.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieroseballoch/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/riseatseven/
Instagram (personal): https://www.instagram.com/carrierosepr/
Instagram (business): https://www.instagram.com/riseatseven
Twitter (personal): https://twitter.com/CarrieRosePR
Twitter (business): https://twitter.com/riseatseven
Shout out tags: https://www.mothernutter.co.uk/
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.
As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.
As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.
Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.
LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST
Carrie Rose, Rise at Seven, Misguided, Leeds, Leeds Business, Business in Leeds, Nous of Fraser, Business Sounding Board, Business Coach, Business Mentor,
Email: phil@leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Pre roll November
As November is my birthday month, I've got three special offers for you.
If you can say yes to the following four points, you qualify.
You have to be a business owner, have three to 15 staff, a turnover of between 350, 000 and 3 million, and wanting to develop and improve yourself and how you run your business.
