Screw It, Just Do It | Alex Chisnall Chats With Ray Kelvin, Richard Reed, Steven Bartlett & Others Every Week. Alex Chisnall:

"I can't accept failure. I can't have it. I will not accept failure..I'm not scared. I'm not frightened and I'm not going to fail". So spoke Ted Baker founder Ray Kelvin in the 2nd part to my live Q and A with him. Ray tells the story of how he started with one shop in Glasgow. He brings us right up to date with Ted Baker currently valued at £1.6 Billion, as well as his latest ventures. These include investing £80 million into the UK's number 1 Hilton hotel which he owns as well as launching This WorkSpace, his co-working vision set to rival We Work.  During the course of the interview he covers a lot of ground including the Grenfell fire tragedy, how stressful he finds it living in London as well as the importance of fishing... having a work life balance before finally offering opportunities to a student, a tailor and a model in the audience to work for Ted Baker. 

On today's show I'm joined by the billionaire founder of Ted Baker, Ray Kelvin cbe I hosted a 'live' Q & A with Ray at a sold out www.thiswork.space in Bournemouth at Ray's first brand new co-working space, set to rival We Work. We started with a question direct from Richard Branson on Necker Island and continued for over two hours. I have therefore divided the show into two parts. In Part 1 Ray tells us how he still works every saturday in a Ted Baker store, and still doesn't even own a computer! The self-titled "boy done good" goes on to share insights including how he built Ted Baker without any formal advertising based on "common sense", hugging (!) and his four 'P's': People, product, passion and profit. You don't want to miss any of this, it's pure gold dust. And as Ray says, anyone late at Ted Baker has to do press-ups..so get listening now!

Ollie Forsyth is the 'dyslexic entrepreneur'. Ollie first demonstrated his entrepreneurial traits at the age of just six years old when he started charging his parents 20p for making them tea and coffee..and again for refills. He formed his first business at the age of just 13, and despite being diagnosed with dyslexia, has gone on to form a number of companies, including launching The Budding Entrepreneur's Club in 2016 in the Shard with Levi Roots among others. Ollie talks to me about the importance of having a mentor, surrounding yourself with the right team as well as the future plans he has for The Budding Entrepreneurs Club. We also speak to Virgin StartUp Ambassador Darcy Ida from Idapod, who talks to us about her photo booths business and their uses..including attending an increasing number of funerals....

Jim Cregan joins me to talk about how he went from British building site to Australia and back again. In the process launching his own brand of Iced Coffee after not being able to find it in the UK when he came back from OZ. You can now get Jimmysicedcoffee in Tescos, Sainsbuys, Waitrose, Selfridges and even in Animal's clothing shops. We talk brand building through University tastings, his Ride Club, Cinema Club and festivals.   Also on todays show are sisters and Virgin StartUp ambassadors Michaela and Lois Wilson, who talk about their edible art business, Saint Aymes. We talk building a brand that transcends genres - whilst I eat their amazing chocolate that really does look too good to eat...

John Lee Dumas went from serving as a a US Army Officer in Iraq to generating over $10m in under 5 years. JLD has interviewed nearly 2,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs: from Gary Vaynerchuk to Tony Robbins, Tim Ferris and Seth Godin. He joins me on todays show to talk about the lessons he has taken from these interviews and has implemented in his own business - one of the world's top-ranked business podcasts offering free courses in webinars, podcasting and funnel-building. He also gives his top tips on increasing productivity, discipline and focus. Also joining me on todays show is Virgin StartUp ambassador Tom Birbeck from Arc Marine who is on a mission to increase awareness of ocean conservation. Arc Marine specialise in generating marine habitats by crowdfunding projects through marine-friendly artificial reefs - a subject close to Necker Island-living Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson

Vin has launched two websites that got to over a million visitors a month, got into the Techstars accelerator, was voted best talk at SXSW V2V 2016. His debut book/course "Secret Sauce: A step-by-step guide to growth hacking" has raised hundreds of thousands via crowdfunding and he joins us on todays show to tell us how he is able to grow early-stage companies through a combination of rapid social media growth, guerrilla community management tactics, and growth hacks which have seen companies go from zero to thousands of signups/followers/users virtually overnight. I'm also joined by Rob Manley who recently appeared on Dragon's Den and secured investment from Deborah Meaden for his glow in the dark t-shirts.

Steven Bartlett, the founder of Europe's fastest growing social media agency, Social Chain, joins me on todays show. Steven left University after just one lecture and has since gone on to create an agency built on harnessing social media influencers on social media platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and LinkedIn. With Social Chain under two years old, with a mentor in Gary Vaynerchuk and offices in London, Manchester, New York and Munich, he's certainly going places fast. We're also joined by William Ferriera, recent Virgin StartUp business of the month with the creative agency he co-founded, Unbxd, who like Steven set up his agency after quitting University. Seems to be a theme developing here...