Start-up to Scale-up with Channel 4 Ventures: Scaling to Success with Nikki Wicks

In this exclusive series I interview five distinguished entrepreneurs, courtesy of Channel 4 Ventures, starting with the incredible Nikki Wicks, CEO of The Body Coach.  He shares fascinating insights on the evolution of their business, their content strategies, the shift to mobile app development, and the challenges and opportunities in separating a personal brand from the business. Ideal for small business owners, course creators, membership owners, and coaches looking to understand the dynamics of scaling a business and attracting investment, this episode highlights the importance of investment when scaling a business. Full of practical tips and inspiring stories, you’re going to love it!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Nikki Wicks on Linkedin Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter Transcript Teresa: Hello and a really warm welcome back to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. And this week I have something very special for you. You see, we're not just doing one episode like [00:01:00] normal. We're actually doing. Five, which I know sounds a bit crazy, but I have a super special podcast series that we're doing for this week only. You see some time ago, I was invited by channel four to go to their offices in London because they were having an event alongside other media sort of business outlets and leaders in business. amazingly got invited along to go and see what they were doing. And as part of this, I have put together a special series of podcast episodes. As part of this event, they had four really amazing entrepreneurs come along and talk about various things. And I was given access to these entrepreneurs and the ability to interview them for the podcast. So this is going to be really, really cool because I have got some people who are coming up that you will probably recognize their [00:02:00] business names, if not their names. For those of you who are not in the UK, Channel 4 is one of our main channels. So like the BBC, you'd probably know about that if you're not in the UK. Channel 4 is one of those channels. So it's, you know, one of the first four channels that we UK. So it's quite a big deal from my point of view to be part of this. But basically, Channel 4 has an arm of their business called Channel 4 Ventures and it's an investment team within Channel 4 that specializes in media for equity, where high growth, unprofitable startups exchange shares, i. e. equity in their business for Channel 4's advertising space. So if you want some investment in your business rather than getting money, you can do that. You will get advertising and Channel 4 would get a, you know, part of your business. They would get a section of your equity. Channel 4 Ventures has completed over 50 deals backing companies such as What3Words, Oddbox, Purple Bricks, [00:03:00] Crowdcube, and Pinterest. So the reason I was invited is because Channel 4 Ventures did some research about who was most likely to get given investment in their business. And I know this is going to surprise you all, but it was mostly well educated white men. And they basically did this research, which didn't really come as a surprise to anyone in the room and the entrepreneurs that I speak to in this special little series I've got here. So basically, um, They profiled hundreds of founders that had secured investment valuing their company at a hundred million or more since 2013. And the data was based on analysis of founders own disclosure of their race, gender, education, background, employment history, and company base. And this was just some of the data that was found. So 94 [00:04:00] percent of founders were men, despite men representing only 41 percent of all UK graduates, and those founders We're 51 times more likely to have graduated from an Oxbridge university or it's us equivalent. Consumer companies in London, Oxford, and Cambridge are 11 times more likely to have raised valuation of a hundred million plus than companies located anywhere else in the UK. And white university graduates are 10 times more likely to have founded a consumer company with a valuation of a hundred million plus than a black university graduate and nearly twice as likely as an Asian graduate. So like I said, none of these stats, I mean, they are all shocking, but when you think about it, it's not that shocking to hear in terms of not that shocking from an unexpected point of view. It feels surprisingly, yes, that sounds like what it would be like, although it's not fair. It's not [00:05:00] right. It's not okay. It does feel like, well, I get it. I get that that's the case. That's not a surprise to us. And it's broke and they need to fix it. So when Channel 4 came to me and spoke to me about doing these podcast episodes, I was a little bit kind of, is this going to fit with my audience? Obviously you are my audience listening to this and most of my audience, that listen to the podcast are small business owners, lots of online business owners, very female heavy, or people who identify as a female heavy audience. And part of me was like, this really doesn't fit. Like I'm talking about bigger businesses. I'm talking about capital investment, media for equity, things that I don't necessarily understand well enough. But then. I thought about it and I thought, no, that's the reason I should do it. The reason I should be doing it is because we should be having these conversations in places where they don't typically happen [00:06:00] in places where you wouldn't typically hear about it. And I was being given an opportunity to bring some information to you and in the process, bring some really cool business owners to you. And actually, that's what I'm going to do. So I am really, really happy about doing this, about bringing a conversation to you that might seem like it's not one that you've thought about. It certainly wasn't one that I've thought about. I had the conversation, I think, with one of the guests about, you know, I don't ever see me ever wanting investment in my business because it's just me. And I, I can't see why I would need that. However, This type of things, the investment sort of, you know, space has been behind closed doors and in most cases, from my opinion, quite fancy closed doors, so unless you're a white straight male from Oxford or somewhere like that, then you don't have these conversations, which is why I thought it was even more important. to have these [00:07:00] conversations. So Channel 4 gave me the opportunity to speak to some amazing, amazing business owners. And this week I am going to be sharing with you an interview from those five different people. So we have four business owners and then someone who works for Channel 4 who heads up their Channel 4 ventures. And They were fascinating conversations for so many reasons. There is so much that you're going to get from this, not only hearing what some incredibly successful business owners have to say about how they became incredibly successful, the drive they have, the way they look at problems, but also you're going to get an understanding of this may be part of a world that you didn't know about, or maybe you did, and I'm just kind of bringing it back to you. The world of capital investment. private equity, all words that I wouldn't understand a lot about. I know a little bit, but not a lot. So this was as educational to me as hopefully it will be to you. And it [00:08:00] was super inspiring. So like I said, we have some amazing, amazing guests coming out. And today we are kicking off with the super, super lovely Nikki Wicks, CEO and creative director at The Body Coach. Forward slash Joe Wick's. Brother, if you have not heard of Nikki or Joe, the Body Coach is a global fitness and wellness company on a mission to make the world fitter, healthier, and happier. Previously, Nikki was a journalist and an editor working across sports, lifestyle, and trade magazines. Prior to joining the Body Coach, Nikki was based in Singapore, where he worked as an editor at Campaign Magazine. His team, Austin affectionately. Call him the crying CEO and Nicky thinks one day this will make a great title for a biography if he ever writes one. Fun fact, Nicky was an extra in the final Harry Potter movie where he played a snatcher, a member of an organization of bounty hunters formed by [00:09:00] Lord Voldemort, which I'm completely gutted I didn't read prior to interviewing him, so I wasn't able to ask him about it, but still, it's still an amazing episode. So like I said, This week, you're going to get an episode every single day,...