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The CEO Files: The Importance of Learning

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Learning is crucial to development

Throughout my career, I’ve prided myself on always being willing to listen and learn. Even as the CEO of MID Group I still strive to develop and grow myself, both personally and professionally, and learning is key to this. In my opinion, you won’t get anywhere in your career if you are unable to take on advice and new information. Learning opens up new opportunities, it changes the way you do certain things for the better and rapidly improves personal growth. I wouldn’t be in the position I am today without it.

 

MID will always be a promoter of apprenticeships and further training

 So, the main thing I wanted to talk about in this blog is how myself and MID Group will always be an advocate for apprenticeships with one of our current brilliant apprentices having just reached a year with the business. We currently have two apprentices working with us full-time at MID Group head office and we are proud to have several employees who have graduated through apprenticeship programmes over the years. I believe that apprenticeships are extremely important. It’s fantastic that through our business we are able to train apprentices and give them relevant on-the-job skills and experience whilst they are earning money.

 

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Around eighteen months ago I realised that what was lacking in MID Communications was someone dedicated to social media who would develop our online presence. Previously, myself along with several of my colleagues split the social media duties between us. Due to us all being busy in our own roles we couldn’t give too much attention to it. With the help of the wonderful Juice Academy, who provide a brilliant social media and digital marketing apprenticeship programme, we hired Jamie Kelly, our Social Media and Digital Marketing Coordinator, towards the end of last year.

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Fast forward and Jamie has now been with the business just over a year. In this time Jamie has developed massively and done a fantastic job managing all of our social media platforms, taking on even more channels with the expansion of MID Group. Last week I had the proud moment of watching Jamie interview Sam Jones, Managing Director of Tunafish Media, at a great event put on by the Juice Academy. It was amazing to see how Jamie has progressed and grown in the space of a year, becoming a much more confident and assertive young professional.

 

This is the power of apprenticeships, the power of training and learning. As mentioned, we have people who have graduated through apprenticeships and currently have pivotal roles in our business. I love to watch these people flourish and better themselves with the correct training and mindset. Hiring apprentices gives young people great opportunities, brings fresh ideas to your team and allows you to mould the shape of your future workforce.

 

I hope this blog has given some good insights into the benefits of learning, both as a young apprentice and an experienced, established professional. I also want it to make other businesses think about hiring an apprentice when they have future roles opening up.

 

Thanks for reading, until the next CEO Files…

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MID Group – Elevating Your Experiences

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Expanding the MID brand with the formation of MID Group

MID Communications has been our core business for the last 12 years trading as an independent franchise of O2 (Telefónica UK Limited). We have enjoyed many years of success and growth, from our first site Thornton-Cleveleys in 2006 to our seventeenth site O2 Buxton. Buxton joined the business in July 2017 and has just celebrated its first anniversary with MID. However, it is now time for expansion with MID Group.

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Whilst we continue to grow our footprint and business portfolio with MID Communications across the North-West, we have seen an opportunity and have the desire to expand and diversify into different industry sectors. The development of MID Group is part of our five-year growth plan.

 

What is MID Group?

MID Group is an umbrella corporation which MID Communications and all our other future ventures, such as My Ideal Destination, which you’ll learn more about soon, will trade under. Danny Simpson is keen to create an ecosystem for both customers and staff to operate and transact in while continuing to deliver great service to both its customers and people.

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This is a hugely exciting time which presents a fantastic opportunity for our team at MID as the business expands.

Danny Simpson had this to say “This is a fantastic and exciting time for our business to show growth to expand and diversify into new industry sectors. It will create more jobs and career opportunities in our growing group. We will continue to focus and build on our North-West relationships and look forward to expanding our presence and trade across the UK”

Our web page will give a more inclusive overview of our group and we look forward to seeing our customers, partners, friends and business acquaintances start to visit www.midgroupuk.com. You’ll be able to see all of our current brands and any future acquisitions through this brand new site.

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HR Director Jennifer Hulme is thrilled at the prospect of new job roles and openings becoming available “I am proud to be able to offer greater employment opportunities in the North West for ambitious and talented individuals. MID Group is delighted to have its roots in Manchester and I am passionate about making sure we offer exciting jobs locally, whilst ensuring the business continues to develop and engage our current teams so they in turn always operate with a forward-thinking, ambitious approach to their work”

So, please be sure to give our group site a visit to roam around to view our brands of present and future. We can’t wait to Let everyone have a look at our new brands and welcome you to MID Group properly. This is just the beginning of an exciting vision for the MID brand and we’re happy to let everyone be a part of it.

What can businesses learn from film?

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Can Films Teach Us Ethics?

On Saturday night sat in front of the TV, my little man in his cot, my wife, and 13-year-old son sat beside me. Just your standard night in, watching some rubbish TV and then I saw a classic come up on the TV guide. A favourite of mine since I was a kid that I remember watching over, and over again. An iconic film that most know, even a lot of the younger millennial generation of today will recognise the famous scenes. Watching it again made me think, what can businesses learn from film? What was this film I hear you ask? A film that showed 2 men, compete. One using the latest tech and education, one using hard work, determination, and persistence and pure blooded passion…

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Rocky 4 can teach great life skills if watched right.

My son Brad turns 14 next week and he’d never watched Rocky 4 before. I said to him, watch this and I know you will love it, and you will learn so much.

So, what can businesses learn from film and what are the key takeaways I got from Rocky 4 that can be applied to your career and life in general?

 

Lesson 1 – Persistence & Resilience

You will see the main man Sylvester Stallone, Aka Rocky, take some serious knocks both in and out the ring but pure resilience and persistence get him through the challenge, that not many think he can do. Not even his wife! These are essential in life and business as there will always be times when people tell you can’t do something and want to hold you back.

Failing is something you will do a lot but keep going as success is around the corner. Don’t give up and don’t let people tell you can’t do something. If you want to do it then do it but you will need a lesson to support you.

Lesson 2 – Motivation & Focus

You will see how Rocky has complete focus on his goal to win and beat his opponents. This makes him get up do more and keep moving closer to the goal no matter what it takes.

This is so essential in business, you need to motivate yourself and you need absolute focus on your goals. Choose something that motivates you when you feel like giving up, or when people want to pull you down.

I use the rocky soundtrack, I have it saved in my playlist, I use pictures of my sons and wife, as I have them all the time on my desk and on my phone. You can also find some fantastic motivational videos on YouTube. Find yours and make sure you keep them prominent.

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Lesson 3 – Have Good People Around You

Rocky obviously succeeds in the film. He could only do this with great people around him. His trainer making sure he commits to training, his wife and Polly to keep him humble, grounded and focused, the Russian guards to keep him safe and make sure he can train with freedom.

In life and in business, you need people around you helping you, pushing you on, and keeping you going in the right direction. Clear your locker out from people that only want to either bring you down and hold you back or want to be around you because of your success.

I have always believed that you are an average of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely!

 

In conclusion, what can businesses learn from film?

So there are my thoughts on this topic, films can be great to watch in terms of entertainment but can also teach you really important life skills. I think that the Rocky films are so motivating and uplifting and have taught me a lot.

I know that you will find them addictive, the story of rags to riches and the underdog, it shows you can achieve what you want, but you have to put all your effort in. I don’t think they make them like they used to!

Feel free to tell me the 3 lessons you’ve taken personally or what businesses learn from film on twitter @DannyMIDSimpson, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are.

If you missed my last blog on building relationships rather than sales in business then take a look here.

Good luck with what you’re doing and I’ll see you in the next blog!

Partnership To Success with Macclesfield Town

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Macclesfield Town go up to the football league – #Champions

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Firstly, a huge well done to everyone at Macclesfield Town Football Club, with thanks to all the commercial family for their huge support throughout the season.

Almost 12 months ago we partnered with the Silkmen and became their official digital media partner, supporting their online presence with our fantastic digital team, by creating some great ideas and keeping it simple.

Empowering your people

After we signed the agreement, I passed this relationship over to a couple of our team members with Martyn Barrow our regional business development manager at the front of the team to lead this partnership to success, for both us and the club and help galvanise the commercial family.

Together Martyn and the the team have taken the relationship and partnership to a whole new level, we now see the club as an extension of our business and team.

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Giving people a goal, with some guidance mixed with opportunity is a great way to get success. This is a great demonstration of that.

Some people asked me, why leave it to them? They are not experts. I believe we can build even higher next season as we have laid some very solid foundations. What we have done in the first year has given me confidence to answer those sceptical people. I wanted them to have no walls and no boundaries with ideas, no idea of what works and what doesn’t, after all success comes from failing but having the passion and persistence to try again and keep learning. This is what the team and Martyn have done, and I can say they have made a great success of it and had a lot of fun along the way.

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Empowering people and letting them feel comfortable and confident to fail is a must for me. I didn’t do this partnership all for ROI even though we did get the ROI after 6 months. I wanted to see what can be achieved by enabling some committed, trusted, passionate people to write some goals down from a crazy bunch of ideas. Then empowering and directing the team, and finally adding lots of fun.

The results speak for themselves. We have helped get an average video viewing of between 5-8 thousand per video, engage the local stores and supporters, had over 1 million interactions across our joint social platforms, won lots of new commercial and corporate business, made strong relationships, brought people together, created a reciprocal place for business support, advice and help, and the results carry on…

The club also learned that collaboration of your commercial partners and creating a tighter family of commercial relationships & group will drive the business’ & club’s success. I think more teams should adapt a relationship approach and move away from narrow minded transaction type mentality.

Building relationships, not sales – our approach with Macclesfield Town

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Seeing us build strong relationships with people and businesses such as with Jon from Big Brand Ideas, Nick Bianchi from Arighi Bianchi, Macclesfield Town front of shirt sponsor, and so many others shows the power of team work and group passion.

Next time you’re thinking about doing a sponsorship or partnership, think about what is it you really want to achieve. How can you help the club or business? How can you help other businesses already associated move forward?

Doing business like this, builds strong relationships, gets great engagement for your business and people and adds value to your brand and others associated. I’m proud of my team for how they’ve handled this relationship and want to strive for this approach going forward!

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Well Done – How Do You Say It?

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The MID Awards 2018, giving a deserved well done!

On the 17th February we said well done to all our MID Commers on our biggest stage possible at our annual awards, The MID Awards 2018!

This year was amazing as we hosted our awards at the Midland hotel in Manchester, and a night that was hosted by our newest board member and HR Director, Jennifer Hulme.

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It was an incredible evening full of energy, passion and recognition, and our teams loved it, as they always do, especially the more competitive ones.

We also use this as a platform to recognise all the amazing people in our business and all the amazing highlights of the previous year. It’s a great opportunity to pull our entire operations together and say well done and thank you for everything you do!

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It was an opportunity to have some wonderful food, have a drink and a laugh with our big community which is crucial to promote togetherness in the business.

This was our 7th awards and every year we have got bigger and better, and I know this plays a part in our success, growth and also performance.

I remember when our first one was done in the premier inn with just certificates, and you know what, I am glad we started somewhere. So often people are put off as they can’t get to the desired goal straight away…

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This is why you have to dream big and start small. A start is already a step in front of many others that are still procrastinating.

So, make 2018 your year, make a start and say well done to your team on your own big stage, where and what ever that may look like…….

After all, without people you don’t have a business…

Please share with me your stage and shout about it!

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