September 8, 2025 • 37 mins
What does it take to build a successful sales training business - and still be laughing 25 years on?
In this special anniversary episode, Bob and Jeremy reflect on the lessons, surprises, and stories they’ve collected over a quarter of a century of running a training company.
One of the biggest revelations? Learning to take business a little less personally. As Bob admits, “Every knockback felt like a blow to the heart” in those early days. Over time, they learned to separate self-worth from outcomes - building resilience, perspective, and a clearer sense of what drives long-term business success.
From standout leadership moments to spontaneous karaoke, the stories span cities, countries, and conference rooms. You’ll hear tales from Dublin to Delhi, and Amsterdam to Atlanta - all reinforcing a simple truth: business growth often comes from the unexpected. Whether it’s a three-hour wine-fuelled lunch in France, or a client mix-up that sparks a brand-new idea, there’s wisdom in the unplanned.
There’s practical insight here too - around investing in personal development, taking time to reset, and remembering that culture, connection, and not taking yourself too seriously are all part of a sustainable leadership journey.
Whether you’re leading a business, growing a team, or reflecting on your own path, this one’s for you.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your own business journey? We'd love to hear your stories and questions!
For more info, free resources, useful content & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy Blake (00:14):
so, bobby, happy birthday to you, of sorts happy
birthday, I suppose.
Bob Morrell (00:23):
So yeah, 25 years yeah 25 years A quarter of a
century.
Jeremy Blake (00:31):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (00:33):
So if you take any 25 years going back over the
last few hundred years, imaginethe historical things that took
place in that time.
Jeremy Blake (00:42):
And in this episode we'll see the vast
difference between great 25-yeartranches of history and ours.
Bob Morrell (00:52):
Almost certainly.
Yes, listeners, this episode isfocusing on the fact that
Jeremy and I have been inbusiness now for 25 years.
Now, some of you will beshouting at your smart speaker
saying, my God, you don't getthat for murder these days, and
you'd be right, but it is asignificant amount of time and a
(01:17):
lot has changed over thatperiod.
So we thought to mark theoccasion.
We're doing a number of thingswe're having a new logo designed
and various other fun thingsand we thought we'd do an
episode to reflect back on those25 years, and the value for you
, mr and Mrs Listener, is thatwe are going to go through some
of the things that we've learnedover that period and also share
(01:40):
with you some of the moreamusing and enjoyable times that
we've had together over thattime.
So that's what we're going tobe looking at today.
Anything to add, jeremy?
Jeremy Blake (01:50):
No, but not really my style is.
I was going to ask youquestions about it and if you
ask me some, that might workquite well.
Bob Morrell (01:58):
Why don't we do that?
So okay, well, why don't youstart with the first question,
and then I'll reciprocate?
Jeremy Blake (02:03):
Okay.
So I said to my wife two daysago I'm doing a podcast this
week on our 25 years.
She said it's not 25 years.
I said it is darling.
She said that's nearly as longas we've been married.
I said well, it's kind ofexactly about how long we've
been married, or at leasttogether.
And she said which isinteresting, being a teacher.
(02:23):
She said what do you thinkyou've learned?
And that's a typical teacherfor you.
So I took that away and thoughtabout it.
Your memory is better than mine.
But I said I'm not going to comeback to you straight away, but
she did say to me what's thesingle biggest thing you've
learned in 25 years?
Bob Morrell (02:42):
about business, which is interesting, rather
than about people so I thought Iwould start with that one for
you well, that is my number oneon my list, actually good, um,
and the thing I've learned aboutbusiness which has taken me
many, many years to learn, and Inow know that I've learned it
(03:05):
is to take business lesspersonally.
Good, because if you think backwhen we first started, every
minor knockback felt like a blowto the heart.
Everything that we thought weshould be doing that we didn't
get we took very personally Idefinitely did, and over time
(03:31):
maybe that comes with sort ofexperience and confidence in
what you're doing, but also arealization that there's so
little sometimes that you can doto influence these things that
it's best not to take itpersonally and just see it for
what it is, which is just thesort of highs and lows of
business.
Jeremy Blake (03:50):
Well, that's valuable.
As we reach this point, that'sreally good.
I would say.
I've seen that in you as well.
So I've definitely seen thatchange in you taking it less
seriously.
Bob Morrell (03:59):
Well, let's ask the same question what's the
biggest lesson you've?
Jeremy Blake (04:01):
learned Is that the vast majority of people I
work with are not like me and Ithought they would be, and what
I've learned is that most peoplewe work with, client wise, are
not massively entrepreneurial.
(04:23):
They're not massivelyentrepreneurial, they're not
very.
They're quite risk averse.
But for years I thought I wouldbe working with lots of kindred
spirits when I was an actorwhich I was, other actors and
creative types, but actually weseem to have ended up working
with very large corporateorganizations that want to do
(04:44):
all sorts of things that wedon't do as a business in how we
behave, and that's a reallyweird balance to try to walk.
Bob Morrell (04:53):
I think, if I look back on, that you always wanted
the best for people and youalways wanted them to aspire to
things beyond what they wereactually doing them to aspire to
things beyond what they wereactually doing I won't stop that
, because that's me.
Jeremy Blake (05:10):
But I sometimes think, gosh, they think that's
important, or they're askingabout measuring that, or they're
looking at that.
Wow, don't they really get this?
You know okay.
So I suppose what I've learnedis to is to you worry less about
business.
I worry less about that.
These people might be differentor change.
I now don't worry about thatand realize that's how they are
(05:33):
and let's try and connect asbest we possibly can okay,
anything else I learned thatpeople are obsessed about
measuring, often things thatdon't matter half as much as
they think they do.
Yeah, and I think what'sfascinating for a business like
(05:53):
ours, that is all about how wellyou communicate to somebody,
how you make an impact on ahuman, internally or externally
what you say, how you listen,how you express, how you're
there for them.
So many businesses think thatthe task efficiency will move
the needle in terms ofprofitability and margin and
growth, whereas it's absolutelyall the other stuff, or a large
(06:19):
amount of the other stuff.
Of course, wonderful innovationand process improvement and
technical innovation, yes, butto really get a workforce to be
phenomenal, they've got to feellistened to, cared for,
understood, inspired.
Good, and you Okay Any more onthe learning side, yes, I've
learned that it's importantoccasionally to take time out.
Bob Morrell (06:45):
Yeah good, you and I have both had chunks of time
out of the business occasionallyfor various reasons, and I
think it's an important thing.
I don't think you can continueworking at a certain pace
without taking time outoccasionally to sort of reset
and restructure, and um, I thinkthat's important and I didn't
(07:11):
think I would ever do that.
Jeremy Blake (07:13):
So when you do, you just think, gosh, what, why
didn't I have more?
Or sure you know and my wifealso right now, who I can see
gardening in the distance.
When the end of the holidayscomes and I say, okay, hon, time
to go back, she'll go.
(07:34):
Oh, I don't want to go back,you know, from that time off.
Yeah, and that's nice, becausewe all get that when we have a
proper break.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, you're better at breaks than I am.
Bob Morrell (07:47):
I'm working on that one well, I, I, I don't just
mean, I don't just mean holidaysand a few days no, I agree.
Jeremy Blake (07:57):
Time a few months out yeah, is is important.
Bob Morrell (08:01):
um, I've also learned to appreciate my own
business achievements, our ownbusiness achievements, even if
other people don't reallyappreciate it in my life and why
should they?
It's just, it's, it's mybusiness and I get on with it,
and the things that we achieve,I suppose, are solely to do with
(08:27):
that business.
And so I should feel a sense ofachievement.
And why should anybody else?
But I think sometimes I've beenguilty of diminishing my own
achievements because yousometimes think you know this
job we turn up, we train people.
It's relatively straightforward.
But actually, when I look back,we've trained so many thousands
(08:50):
of people over the years and ifwe've made a tiny bit of
difference, then it's good andwe should appreciate that and
celebrate it more.
Jeremy Blake (09:00):
You often use literature and things as reasons
not to, so you often quotepride comes before a fall which
is very, you know, bleak.
That you can't be proud attimes, and you've trounced that
one out quite a few times inyour career and you haven't said
that for a while.
So that's good.
Bob Morrell (09:18):
No, because.
And then that comes back to thepoint where you would feel hurt
in terms of pride if you takeit personally.
Hurt if in terms of pride, ifyou take it personally, yeah,
but if you don't take itpersonally, then that's fair
enough.
The other one I've got.
It's important to invest inyourself, and you and I have
both invested in ourselves innumerous ways over the years
been coaching and other coursesthat we've gone on, and also
(09:38):
I've done my pilgrimages, whichhas been an investment in myself
which I would highly recommendto anyone.
In fact, my son's justcompleted one yesterday, so I
think that's a great thing forpeople to have a an investment
in themselves in terms of theirpersonal development.
And then my last one is I thinkthat it's been so essential in
(09:59):
such an important part of whatwe've done that life would be so
much harder without curry and,certainly in the early days,
karaoke.
I wonder if the business wouldhave survived without those two
things my god, karaoke was likea vital pulse for us, wasn't it?
I'm going to go back to that.
We've got a big tour coming upand wherever I can.
(10:20):
I'm going to seek out karaokebecause I think such a good idea
yeah, yeah, changed it tokaraoke.
Jeremy Blake (10:28):
It wouldn't quite work quite so well because you'd
be full of full of curry beforeyou sing yeah, I don't.
Bob Morrell (10:33):
Yeah, you couldn't have to combine the two in the
same building, I think, um.
So those are mine.
Any others from you on thelearning?
Jeremy Blake (10:39):
front.
The only other learning thingwas collaboration has
dramatically improved us as abusiness and people we yes, we
were a bit more insular, goingback a bit well, there are only
a few of us well, exactly, butnow we get other perspectives,
other ideas.
I've just been working with lisa, who's joining us again, you'll
be pleased to know, um yeah,and she's just given an amazing
(11:00):
insight on objection handling bycombining two of our models
together, which, which is reallydelicious.
You're going to love it, soI'll share good, good, and I
said that's great.
Bob Morrell (11:11):
That's I mean.
I definitely feel that I mean,I loved it the other day when we
had all our trainers togetherand everyone's dipping in with
ideas yeah and you then realizethat you've got people who
really know what the hellthey're doing so that makes it
so much easier for us, doesn'tit?
Jeremy Blake (11:24):
and the other thing which we'll come on to is
humor is is the key to all ofthis having a giggle, taking the
piss, allowing the piss to betaken out of oneself yes is
glorious, really well, thatbrings me on to I've got five
what I've called the best timesthat I've thought of off the top
of my head.
Bob Morrell (11:46):
So I'm going to and they're under these titles best
gig, best tour, best night out,best conference and best lunch.
Okay, so I've got five best ofthere, so you can have a think
about those while I go through.
Okay.
Jeremy Blake (12:02):
So I put in best times generally.
So.
Bob Morrell (12:05):
I would like to see if they are the same.
Okay, so the best gig?
What do you think I got forthat?
What was the best gig?
Do you mean a one-off Yep, okay, best gig.
Well, it may have been part ofa tour, but we did a day.
It's us doing our training.
We turned up, there was anaudience of people.
Jeremy Blake (12:27):
Okay, I'm going to go for Benidorm.
No, oh, that was one of thebest.
No, I won't guess anymore.
Bob Morrell (12:35):
The best gig was 35 people from all over Ireland
who we met in Dublin at a hotelnear the airport, and that day
was one of those days where youhave your audience.
Yeah, halfords, you have theaudience in the palm of your
hand.
(12:55):
The laughter was justhysterical all day and at the
end of it it was just so warmand so fantastic.
That was a top gig.
Jeremy Blake (13:07):
And they had.
Actually, the guys fromnorthern part of Ireland had
flown to Dublin as well, hadn'tthey?
Or come into Dublin, and theysaid why don't you come to
Belfast next, do you remember?
Bob Morrell (13:19):
Absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that was a brilliant gigand I've always loved going to
Ireland ever since.
And that particular trip, youmay recall, was the night we had
dinner in the Restaurant inDublin and Marie, a lovely
waitress gave us a fantasticclose, an assumptive close.
(13:41):
Now, none of your nonsense.
Which dessert are you going tohave?
And we immediately ordered twosticky toffee puddings whereas
we had been feeling quite full.
But her assertiveness gave us aclose that we talked about for
years, so that was a great one.
Jeremy Blake (13:55):
Well, one of my best times is in Belfast in
Northern Ireland.
We were doing some training andI can't remember it could have
been a travel group.
Bob Morrell (14:05):
Yeah.
Jeremy Blake (14:06):
And people were coming from different agencies.
Bob Morrell (14:08):
Yes.
Jeremy Blake (14:09):
We then went to the Crown Bar.
Bob Morrell (14:12):
Fantastic bar.
Jeremy Blake (14:13):
And we met John Linehan who plays May McFetridge
, very famous pantomime damecharacter.
We had an evening with him andthe chap who'd been in holby
city and jerry, jerry, spring ofthe musical we had an evening
with both of those two.
Now, john linehan is absolutelylegendary in belfast, but it
(14:34):
was literally just the four ofus chatting for hours with him.
He's still doing the panto.
I looked him up before thispodcast.
Bob Morrell (14:41):
This year will be his 35th there we go, that's his
, that's his pension 30, oh yeah, but he's just done an
interesting podcast.
Jeremy Blake (14:49):
We should go and see him again we had a great
night with him.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
He was an adorable man.
Bob Morrell (14:53):
He's an absolutely so that was a terrific night now
let's extend this, so I've nowgot the best tour, and it was a
toss-up between two um, but inthe end there was no contest for
the best tour well, the firstone we ever did was pretty
important at growing ourconfidence for twoe so that was
just an amazing experience ofbecoming trainers and growing
(15:16):
our business yeah I don't knowwhat have you got?
The best tour was, withoutquestion, travelocity, which
took us to india, pennsylvania,texas, seattle, um yeah, all
(15:38):
over the us.
Jeremy Blake (15:40):
The other place place on the border of Mexico.
Bob Morrell (15:43):
No, that was San Antonio.
Jeremy Blake (15:44):
San Antonio, sorry , yeah, yeah.
Bob Morrell (15:46):
So that was a fantastic tour.
We traveled around the world.
We went to Delhi and trainedover there.
That was a huge project,training hundreds of people.
We had some wonderful gigsthere, very funny gigs there.
We can't say some of the thingsthat came out of, some of the
(16:06):
things we were asked in Texas,but it was hilarious.
Jeremy Blake (16:11):
I nearly lost you safe to say, I nearly lost you
wanting to remain in India,didn't I?
Bob Morrell (16:17):
Oh, I could have remained in India for a long
time.
You were rather smitten withsomebody's love.
Of english poetry I mean, youknow, english literature is a is
a wonderful thing you thoughtthat was great.
Jeremy Blake (16:29):
You thought you could live in india.
You loved it, didn't you?
Bob Morrell (16:31):
oh, I, I mean india is just one of those places
which is so fast moving and soum so full of excitement, and we
had wonderful nights andstriker's bar yeah, with the
brewery again.
Yeah, with the brewery andwatching uh ragu dixit do his
fantastic gig and meeting him.
It was.
That was a great trip, so thatwas all part of the same project
(16:52):
, so we can't complain aboutthat.
My sec, my runner up, was theubm tour we did.
Jeremy Blake (16:57):
Oh yes.
Bob Morrell (16:57):
Which, across the US, took us to New York,
minneapolis, which I lovevisiting as a big Prince fan.
Jeremy Blake (17:05):
Michael Casehammer .
We went to see the jazz artist.
Bob Morrell (17:07):
We saw Michael Casehammer, and then we flew on
to Los Angeles and worked there.
Oh yeah, and so that was afantastic trip.
And all the Netherlands trips.
Jeremy Blake (17:15):
Oh, absolutely.
That was a great tour.
Do you remember you weresinging in the bar in the
Netherlands?
Bob Morrell (17:21):
Well, that's my next one, oh okay, right, good.
So my next one is the BestNight Out.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Is that it, that's it .
Bob Morrell (17:35):
Oh yeah.
So we were in Amsterdam and wedid a day's work, and then we
weren't flying home to the nextday, and the night before we'd
found this fantastic jazz bar,which, when the jazz finished,
became you guessed it a karaokebar.
So we got all the people thatwe've been training that day to
come along and meet us there,and we absolutely stormed it on
the stage that night, didn't we,jay, do you remember?
Jeremy Blake (17:56):
I did love shack with half who was, uh was one of
the Welsh members of UBM youdid Holding Back the Ears by, of
course, simply Red.
And a Dutch pilot came up to me, still wearing the uniform, and
said is your friend MickHucknall?
And I had to say no no, that'sBob, and you've always not liked
(18:19):
that, but he couldn't see you,didn't you?
And I also do ebony and ivoryno, not.
Bob Morrell (18:24):
We did um easy lover, which brought the house
down.
Jeremy Blake (18:29):
That absolutely nailed it you did the phil
bailey high bits?
Bob Morrell (18:32):
yes I couldn't do any more from earth, wind and
fire.
Of course that's right.
Jeremy Blake (18:37):
Yeah, that's right oh, it's a great song that was
a top night.
We had a few drinks and a goodlaugh do you remember the man
running the place as we left?
Bob Morrell (18:45):
oh, he was delighted.
Jeremy Blake (18:46):
He shook our hands and thanked us so much for our
business coming that night andtook for quenting his bar I mean
, when we went in it was quiet,yeah, but when we came out, the
whole place was jumping, thankedus personally for what we'd
done in there.
Oh, it was a good night.
Bob Morrell (18:59):
Yeah, it was a good night, so that was good.
Now I've then got two more.
So the fourth one is what's thebest conference we've ever
attended?
And I really had to think aboutthis one but I have hit on it.
Jeremy Blake (19:12):
Well, it could be Benidorm, because that was a
wonderful speech.
You just went off on your ownthe next day talking and
distilling the essence of travel, and then the, the lady gaga
stuff.
That was all wonderful, butyou've got something better,
have you?
Bob Morrell (19:27):
oh yeah, as an experience, I've got the.
Jeremy Blake (19:30):
I've got the best one we did and my brain has gone
blank, of course dubai.
Bob Morrell (19:36):
Oh yes, yes, that was a great conference.
We flew out, we did a gig, wedid an hour's work, we had a few
days in Dubai, we went out intothe desert.
That was a fantastic trip.
Jeremy Blake (19:48):
We met Martina.
Bob Morrell (19:49):
We met Martina Navratilova.
I mean life doesn't get muchbetter than that.
We ate well, we drank well.
Yeah, I mean.
Dubai, I think, is very much aMarmite place for lots of people
, but I think for a few days wehad a great fun there and we
(20:10):
affirmed our relationship withlots of companies there who we
have worked with and work withover the years, and it was a
really fantastic experience.
Jeremy Blake (20:19):
Yeah, that was tremendous.
So, Martina, what she did whichis a good tip for anyone
listening is, if you want to getquestions at the end, you won't
quite be able to do what shedid, where she said any
questions and no hands went up.
And she then got a tennis ballout from a massive box of 24 or
12 tennis balls, started towrite Martina Navratilova on the
(20:39):
balls and said any questionsand I'll throw you a ball, and
every hand went up.
It was brilliant.
So what can you throw out intothe audience to get?
Bob Morrell (20:47):
questions.
Very good idea.
Now, the last one I've got isthe best lunch and I really had
to think about this, but then itwas obvious to me.
Jeremy Blake (20:56):
Are we working or just eating?
We're working.
Oh, is it the cocktail coachingtype thing?
Bob Morrell (21:02):
No.
Jeremy Blake (21:03):
Give me a clue.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
You're listening to the reality of business, created
by Reality, training the mindsbehind the five principles that
power so many successful salesmodels today.
These principles deliverconsistency and certainty in
your sales approach.
Bob Morrell (21:25):
Discover how we can help you sell more at
realitytrainingcom um.
it was the best lunch on atraining day god, this is
difficult, oh, montpellierabsolutely yes yes, so we went
out to Montpellier on a fewoccasions actually, and this was
something that we realized wasa big thing in France was that
(21:46):
when you do training yourtimings for the day, kind of go
out the window watches and theysay, look, we've, we've got to
go because we booked a table forlunch.
We go, okay, so you go down tothis little restaurant and you
have three courses and coffeewith wine, yeah, for lunch in
(22:09):
the middle of the day.
So everyone gets stuck into thewine and you come back at sort
of half past two quarters tofeeling slightly warm and
relaxed.
Jeremy Blake (22:21):
But it's been lovely in the chat and the
conviviality of the team.
Bob Morrell (22:24):
We got to know everybody better.
Jeremy Blake (22:25):
It was lovely.
Bob Morrell (22:26):
That was brilliant and I think that was a real, you
know a real sort of… Everybodywalked down together, oh yeah.
Jeremy Blake (22:33):
Everyone walked down together into the
restaurant with the sort oflovely canopies and whatever you
call it, the tent-likestructure.
You know, it was all fabulous.
Yeah, oh, that was glorious.
Bob Morrell (22:47):
Absolutely.
Now it's interesting when Ilook back on that list.
The sadness for me is that alot of those things are foreign.
In fact all of those things areforeign.
Jeremy Blake (22:58):
For starters, yeah , Well, because we're Europeans,
aren't we, Bobby?
We like to collaborate.
Bob Morrell (23:04):
We're internationalists.
Jeremy Blake (23:06):
We are actually internationalists totally.
Bob Morrell (23:07):
We are internationalists and also I
think it says something thatthese days there are less
foreign gigs going around, andthat's for various reasons that
we're not going to bore thelistener with now, which are
probably self-evident.
But I think there is somethingin that thing of going away
(23:30):
somewhere, and we've had manygreat conferences and many great
trips, you know.
But, those ones stand outbecause there was something very
special about them.
You're also joined by veryspecial people who you remember,
who in many cases we're stillfriends with, and that's really
nice, and also for us.
We're running a business andlots of businesses don't have
(23:54):
many perks, and our perk is thatyou get that social engagement
along with your work, which isextremely lucky, I think.
Jeremy Blake (24:03):
Yeah Well, and you get to know, you see lots of
companies cut back on thesethings and people go out of the
room to get lunch and they don'teat together and lots of these
natural things that othercountries do quite well, we
don't always do as well.
Bob Morrell (24:19):
No, I agree.
Jeremy Blake (24:20):
Because it comes down to cost sometimes.
Bob Morrell (24:22):
It does.
But then I think recently wedid a conference that was thrown
together at the last minute bya large brand and was very
successful and had a really goodfocus and maybe it's coming
back round.
I think the world is goingthrough a huge change at the
moment.
Maybe there is more of a marketfor a more international view
(24:44):
on business sales.
I think it's going to come back.
I think it's just.
Jeremy Blake (24:50):
In fact, it's almost certainly to come back,
because the pendulum can'treally swing that much further.
Bob Morrell (24:56):
Do you know?
You've just made me think ofanother trip we did for a
conference which must go on thelist.
We went out to Madeira.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
And do you?
Bob Morrell (25:04):
remember we did the treasure hunt around the island
of Madeira over that day,finishing up at Reed's Hotel for
a cream tea.
That was all right and my teamwon.
Do you remember that?
I think I won, actually, Ithink I got all the questions
right and I went and collected aprize Brilliant, Even though I
was a speaker and I remembersaying we've had a brilliant day
(25:25):
today because, the ladies whoorganized it were the sponsors
who made sure that we saw 10major aspects of this beautiful
island which you would neverhave done under different
circumstances.
Jeremy Blake (25:35):
That was very well organized.
I remember that she did reallywell.
That was Michelle, michelle,michelle, yeah, Sharon.
Yeah, brilliant.
Bob Morrell (25:44):
But there's one other thing I must draw
listeners' attention to, becausethis is something which,
whenever I think about thesetrips away, always comes back to
me.
There are people who may listento this podcast who know that
they've booked us for things,not just because they want us to
speak at their conference,whatever it may be, but because
(26:04):
they want us to sit in the coachat three in the morning going
back to the hotel with themicrophone telling jokes and
doing funny sketches and gettingeveryone going.
we haven't done that for a while, jay, no.
Jeremy Blake (26:20):
Maybe we're promoting ourselves incorrectly,
as well as the speech.
Bob Morrell (26:24):
this is what we do.
I remember once we were on themic and there were various
people walking on the road andyou were commenting on them and
it was just bedwettingly funny,very, very, very, very funny and
doing impressions and all thatsort of thing.
Jeremy Blake (26:41):
It was just and the signs, which is unrepeatable
, I said, oh look, the localclub yeah, yeah with signs that
look similar to various thingsyou know.
Bob Morrell (26:49):
Oh, it's just great so I I think so I've got
another quick round biggest bull, biggest blur, biggest?
Jeremy Blake (26:59):
oh my gosh.
I don't know quite how toanswer this, and it's usually me
where I've stumbled out withsomething to manage the
situation.
Do you mean?
You mean the?
biggest bull that we've come outwith yes, absolutely, but
usually I come out with slightlymore bull than you.
You think a bit longer.
I've had to sort of cover somethings and I've got my favorite,
(27:19):
which I know is one of yourfavorites.
Go on then.
So we had a project selling amachine to to newspaper
companies or their printers, andthe machine would.
You've got it and the machinewould apply a sticky note to the
front of a newspaper.
And we were working with a guyand he had an example of how the
Sydney Morning Herald had run acampaign for McDonald's deli
(27:43):
choices and you would simplypeel off this kind of yellow
sticky note, take it into theMcDonald's where you would
redeem it and then they wouldgive you some money off your
coffee or a salad.
And we were asking this blokewas saying, okay, how do they
measure the success of this?
I said, right, well, and hewent yeah, how would they
measure this in the McDonald's?
(28:03):
You know how's that going towork?
And I went.
Do you know what they did?
He went, no, what.
What did they do?
They got three spikes and aspeople would come in, they would
take the sticker and push itdown on the spike, and they
needed three of them becausethere were so many of these
stickers coming in the end ofthe day.
They'd pull them back off thespikes, count them up and say,
(28:26):
all right, we've done 500 of theredemptions.
And they counted by pushingthem down onto spikes.
Bob Morrell (28:32):
I mean that that is a great load of bull there.
Um I can.
I think you've probably come upwith even more extreme than
that over the years, but thatwas one of the best.
But I think what your thing isis analogies.
So you always want to use ananalogy to illustrate something,
whether it's required or not.
(28:53):
You always sort of leap to ananalogy and in most cases, I'm
afraid, they come from yourclass.
Okay, which is undeniable.
And so we've had some beautiesover the years.
So, talking to people who workin a, you know, in a frontline
position in a major retail store, telling them about the
(29:15):
difficulties of buying a saddlefor one of your daughter's
ponies Minty's saddle saddle, Imean that context is brilliant
um flooring.
Jeremy Blake (29:26):
I had the saddler over for me.
Bob Morrell (29:28):
Yeah, I mean, I remember joe working with me,
crying with laughter flooringhas been a constant theme for
you as well, because everyone'sbuying flooring, aren't they?
I mean, we all have the optionto buy new flooring, so that's a
good one.
Um, there are others, but, yeah, my favorite is actually a
personal one.
Jeremy Blake (29:45):
When I was tash and I was staying at your house,
you were changing broadbandsupplier.
No, we were changing broadbandsupply, me and tash.
I received the call because wejust moved house and we are
staying at your house.
I received the call and I'mgoing what?
What do you mean?
I won't have broadband nextweek.
And then I said, right, do youknow what this is like?
And the bloke went, like what Isaid it's a bit like studying
(30:09):
GCSE Hitler, gcse history andthen, years ago, finding out
that Hitler didn't exist.
What does that mean?
And I heard I said this line,you were getting ready.
I heard you erupt in the otherroom and you just laughed for
ages.
Just the sounds coming out theroom attached, looking at me,
going.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
what are you talking about?
So good, how is?
Jeremy Blake (30:30):
installing broadband in any way connected
to study history, anything to dowith history.
Bob Morrell (30:35):
It doesn't work.
Anyway, that was very funny.
I mean we've all come up withit, though.
I mean I mean there's anotherone which I could tell.
I mean we won't say who thiswas with, but one night we were
booked.
Uh, we did a day's event andthat evening there was a gala
dinner with awards.
Okay, oh, lovely we.
(30:55):
We had nothing to do with theawards, nothing to do with the
awards at all.
We were just there for the meal.
I was staying, you weren't, andI'll come to my bit of the
story.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I know well.
We don't want to break people'shearts.
No, no, no, it's okay but butso.
Bob Morrell (31:10):
So I um was on a table with a load of a load of
guys who I didn't know and I hadnothing to do for the rest of
the evening.
So I had a few glasses of wine,a few, and then, well, a fair,
a fair few glasses, because youknow what do you, what you're
gonna do.
And then the guy came over andleaned over and he said, bob,
and do you think, jeremy, youthink you and jeremy could
present the awards for us?
(31:30):
And I was like, yeah, sure,sure.
So we got up and went up andthere's a picture of me hanging.
Jeremy Blake (31:40):
I chose to recede at this point.
Bob Morrell (31:42):
I let you go on your own and I was hanging on
the podium.
I think I got away with it, butI.
Jeremy Blake (31:48):
So what you did was you took the P out of every
company name.
If it sounded like somethingelse, you would make it
something else.
So there was a company thatsounded a bit like well, I'm
going to say what you saidinstead.
So you said instead.
So you said now aunt sally havegot an award here.
They weren't called aunt sally,they had a name a bit like that
, but you called them aunt sallyand they're sponsoring an award
(32:10):
.
Bob Morrell (32:10):
Yeah, because it was our character of wurzel
gumming.
Jeremy Blake (32:14):
Then the karaoke came on and you said jay j
you've got to do one song beforeyou go, so I came on and I
chose common people.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Now, I was in a very weird mood.
Jeremy Blake (32:25):
So I was going common people like you and I was
pointing out in the audiencedoing this slightly abusive
common people song and then as Iwent I said I've got to go back
, I've got to put my cat down inthe morning.
Good night.
It was just so odd, as I droveaway away, suddenly switching my
emotions to being really upsetabout my cat, I heard you go,
come on, real, light my fire, myheart's you really I don't.
(32:50):
I don't remember as I drove awaywith the windows down I heard
you trying to get them all goingto relight my fire oh oh my god
, that was brilliant.
Bob Morrell (33:01):
See this.
This is this.
Is you know, again classictimes?
Jeremy Blake (33:05):
um so actually what we've discovered on this
podcast which we haven't reallydiscovered you've hinted at
earlier is when people book usto speak, they don't really book
us to speak, they're going toget that anyway, they book us
for this other stuff of course,and only the existing clients
know this.
We need to let new clients knowthis.
Well, absolutely, we just have.
Bob Morrell (33:23):
And then we come back to this.
You know, your common peoplething brings us right back to
the beginning, which is you'realways a little bit different,
jay, aren't you?
You're just a little bitdifferent to everybody else.
Well, different is good Noteveryone's like you, which is
good which is a good thing, andeven if you're pointing at them,
calling them common, it's okay.
Jeremy Blake (33:40):
I was just being abusive.
I was in a weird mood, oh dear.
Bob Morrell (33:44):
I know Bless you, but you know, it all comes from
love, which is you know which issomething like that.
Jeremy Blake (33:53):
Yeah, but yeah, it's been 25 years of training,
development and I suppose as weget older we do more and more
leadership work, helping leadersin how they can inspire their
teams.
Companies get us in to lift thesales graph, improve their
communication.
It's actually a never-endingjob.
We think that a company mightbe sorted, but then they're not.
Bob Morrell (34:15):
Why not no, and that's often the case where you
start with the company in oneplace and then they move you to
the next division and sometimesit's other countries, and of
course we do lots more on Zoomnow and that means you can get
to more people more quickly, butI still enjoy.
I know you enjoy it less, but Istill enjoy the travel and the
(34:39):
fun away.
And, having had thisconversation now, the next two
tours that we're going to be on.
I'm going to make sure I ramp upthe fun element because I think
we've got to bring back karaoke.
Jeremy Blake (34:52):
Got to.
A lot of our trainers havebeautiful voices as well.
Yes, let's get on the carriesing unless they're paid, which
is fair enough, because they'reuber pros.
Bob Morrell (35:01):
Well, I think that, when it comes to karaoke, we
should look up the karaokenights, look at the competitions
.
We should go in and win somecompetitions.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Why not?
Bob Morrell (35:12):
I'll go and do George Michael, you do a very
good, frank Sinatra.
Yeah, I was amazed once when hedid Frank Sinatra in Benidorm
brought the house down.
Jeremy Blake (35:25):
I couldn't believe it.
Well, you do your george nicely.
Yeah, it's better.
I do that rather my melancholic, depressive, depeche mode stuff
you know my morrissey.
My morrissey stuff, you know,depends on the audience these
days.
Now, the other thing that wemust say we couldn't have done
any of this without our amazingemployees, our team um of anne
harris and lorraine collins yeah, and also our amazing employees
, our team of Anne Harris andLorraine Collins, and also our
amazing trainers.
Bob Morrell (35:44):
Yeah, you know who you are.
Jeremy Blake (35:46):
We won't list you on it in case we miss one off.
Bob Morrell (35:48):
No, they're a great group.
I'm looking forward to seeingthem soon when we get ramped up.
Jeremy Blake (35:53):
Well, we're working with nearly all of you,
nearly all of you on this nexttour that is starting tomorrow.
No is it?
Yeah it?
No is it?
Yeah?
Bob Morrell (36:01):
uh, yeah, starts tomorrow bob starts tomorrow,
you're on it yeah, I'm on ittomorrow, yeah so, ladies and
gents, I hope that was aninteresting float down memory
lane for you and opens the doorto the character of your hosts,
but also, I hope some of thosethings we learned may be of use
to you as well.
Um, I'm sure we'll be returningto this theme of the 25th
anniversary, because 25 years isa long time to do what we do
(36:27):
and we're still doing it.
So there may be other thingsthat come up as we go through
the year, but in the meantime,thank you all for listening and
we look forward to speaking toyou soon on other
business-related topics.
Jeremy Blake (36:40):
Yeah, have a look through the list of other
episodes.
If someone sent you this andyou can always send this to
somebody else you can give us areview, forward it.
But thank you for pressing play.
Bye for now.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Bye.
so, bobby, happy birthday to you, of sorts happy
birthday, I suppose.
Bob Morrell (00:23):
So yeah, 25 years yeah 25 years A quarter of a
century.
Jeremy Blake (00:31):
Yeah.
Bob Morrell (00:33):
So if you take any 25 years going back over the
last few hundred years, imaginethe historical things that took
place in that time.
Jeremy Blake (00:42):
And in this episode we'll see the vast
difference between great 25-yeartranches of history and ours.
Bob Morrell (00:52):
Almost certainly.
Yes, listeners, this episode isfocusing on the fact that
Jeremy and I have been inbusiness now for 25 years.
Now, some of you will beshouting at your smart speaker
saying, my God, you don't getthat for murder these days, and
you'd be right, but it is asignificant amount of time and a
(01:17):
lot has changed over thatperiod.
So we thought to mark theoccasion.
We're doing a number of thingswe're having a new logo designed
and various other fun thingsand we thought we'd do an
episode to reflect back on those25 years, and the value for you
, mr and Mrs Listener, is thatwe are going to go through some
of the things that we've learnedover that period and also share
(01:40):
with you some of the moreamusing and enjoyable times that
we've had together over thattime.
So that's what we're going tobe looking at today.
Anything to add, jeremy?
Jeremy Blake (01:50):
No, but not really my style is.
I was going to ask youquestions about it and if you
ask me some, that might workquite well.
Bob Morrell (01:58):
Why don't we do that?
So okay, well, why don't youstart with the first question,
and then I'll reciprocate?
Jeremy Blake (02:03):
Okay.
So I said to my wife two daysago I'm doing a podcast this
week on our 25 years.
She said it's not 25 years.
I said it is darling.
She said that's nearly as longas we've been married.
I said well, it's kind ofexactly about how long we've
been married, or at leasttogether.
And she said which isinteresting, being a teacher.
(02:23):
She said what do you thinkyou've learned?
And that's a typical teacherfor you.
So I took that away and thoughtabout it.
Your memory is better than mine.
But I said I'm not going to comeback to you straight away, but
she did say to me what's thesingle biggest thing you've
learned in 25 years?
Bob Morrell (02:42):
about business, which is interesting, rather
than about people so I thought Iwould start with that one for
you well, that is my number oneon my list, actually good, um,
and the thing I've learned aboutbusiness which has taken me
many, many years to learn, and Inow know that I've learned it
(03:05):
is to take business lesspersonally.
Good, because if you think backwhen we first started, every
minor knockback felt like a blowto the heart.
Everything that we thought weshould be doing that we didn't
get we took very personally Idefinitely did, and over time
(03:31):
maybe that comes with sort ofexperience and confidence in
what you're doing, but also arealization that there's so
little sometimes that you can doto influence these things that
it's best not to take itpersonally and just see it for
what it is, which is just thesort of highs and lows of
business.
Jeremy Blake (03:50):
Well, that's valuable.
As we reach this point, that'sreally good.
I would say.
I've seen that in you as well.
So I've definitely seen thatchange in you taking it less
seriously.
Bob Morrell (03:59):
Well, let's ask the same question what's the
biggest lesson you've?
Jeremy Blake (04:01):
learned Is that the vast majority of people I
work with are not like me and Ithought they would be, and what
I've learned is that most peoplewe work with, client wise, are
not massively entrepreneurial.
(04:23):
They're not massivelyentrepreneurial, they're not
very.
They're quite risk averse.
But for years I thought I wouldbe working with lots of kindred
spirits when I was an actorwhich I was, other actors and
creative types, but actually weseem to have ended up working
with very large corporateorganizations that want to do
(04:44):
all sorts of things that wedon't do as a business in how we
behave, and that's a reallyweird balance to try to walk.
Bob Morrell (04:53):
I think, if I look back on, that you always wanted
the best for people and youalways wanted them to aspire to
things beyond what they wereactually doing them to aspire to
things beyond what they wereactually doing I won't stop that
, because that's me.
Jeremy Blake (05:10):
But I sometimes think, gosh, they think that's
important, or they're askingabout measuring that, or they're
looking at that.
Wow, don't they really get this?
You know okay.
So I suppose what I've learnedis to is to you worry less about
business.
I worry less about that.
These people might be differentor change.
I now don't worry about thatand realize that's how they are
(05:33):
and let's try and connect asbest we possibly can okay,
anything else I learned thatpeople are obsessed about
measuring, often things thatdon't matter half as much as
they think they do.
Yeah, and I think what'sfascinating for a business like
(05:53):
ours, that is all about how wellyou communicate to somebody,
how you make an impact on ahuman, internally or externally
what you say, how you listen,how you express, how you're
there for them.
So many businesses think thatthe task efficiency will move
the needle in terms ofprofitability and margin and
growth, whereas it's absolutelyall the other stuff, or a large
(06:19):
amount of the other stuff.
Of course, wonderful innovationand process improvement and
technical innovation, yes, butto really get a workforce to be
phenomenal, they've got to feellistened to, cared for,
understood, inspired.
Good, and you Okay Any more onthe learning side, yes, I've
learned that it's importantoccasionally to take time out.
Bob Morrell (06:45):
Yeah good, you and I have both had chunks of time
out of the business occasionallyfor various reasons, and I
think it's an important thing.
I don't think you can continueworking at a certain pace
without taking time outoccasionally to sort of reset
and restructure, and um, I thinkthat's important and I didn't
(07:11):
think I would ever do that.
Jeremy Blake (07:13):
So when you do, you just think, gosh, what, why
didn't I have more?
Or sure you know and my wifealso right now, who I can see
gardening in the distance.
When the end of the holidayscomes and I say, okay, hon, time
to go back, she'll go.
(07:34):
Oh, I don't want to go back,you know, from that time off.
Yeah, and that's nice, becausewe all get that when we have a
proper break.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, you're better at breaks than I am.
Bob Morrell (07:47):
I'm working on that one well, I, I, I don't just
mean, I don't just mean holidaysand a few days no, I agree.
Jeremy Blake (07:57):
Time a few months out yeah, is is important.
Bob Morrell (08:01):
um, I've also learned to appreciate my own
business achievements, our ownbusiness achievements, even if
other people don't reallyappreciate it in my life and why
should they?
It's just, it's, it's mybusiness and I get on with it,
and the things that we achieve,I suppose, are solely to do with
(08:27):
that business.
And so I should feel a sense ofachievement.
And why should anybody else?
But I think sometimes I've beenguilty of diminishing my own
achievements because yousometimes think you know this
job we turn up, we train people.
It's relatively straightforward.
But actually, when I look back,we've trained so many thousands
(08:50):
of people over the years and ifwe've made a tiny bit of
difference, then it's good andwe should appreciate that and
celebrate it more.
Jeremy Blake (09:00):
You often use literature and things as reasons
not to, so you often quotepride comes before a fall which
is very, you know, bleak.
That you can't be proud attimes, and you've trounced that
one out quite a few times inyour career and you haven't said
that for a while.
So that's good.
Bob Morrell (09:18):
No, because.
And then that comes back to thepoint where you would feel hurt
in terms of pride if you takeit personally.
Hurt if in terms of pride, ifyou take it personally, yeah,
but if you don't take itpersonally, then that's fair
enough.
The other one I've got.
It's important to invest inyourself, and you and I have
both invested in ourselves innumerous ways over the years
been coaching and other coursesthat we've gone on, and also
(09:38):
I've done my pilgrimages, whichhas been an investment in myself
which I would highly recommendto anyone.
In fact, my son's justcompleted one yesterday, so I
think that's a great thing forpeople to have a an investment
in themselves in terms of theirpersonal development.
And then my last one is I thinkthat it's been so essential in
(09:59):
such an important part of whatwe've done that life would be so
much harder without curry and,certainly in the early days,
karaoke.
I wonder if the business wouldhave survived without those two
things my god, karaoke was likea vital pulse for us, wasn't it?
I'm going to go back to that.
We've got a big tour coming upand wherever I can.
(10:20):
I'm going to seek out karaokebecause I think such a good idea
yeah, yeah, changed it tokaraoke.
Jeremy Blake (10:28):
It wouldn't quite work quite so well because you'd
be full of full of curry beforeyou sing yeah, I don't.
Bob Morrell (10:33):
Yeah, you couldn't have to combine the two in the
same building, I think, um.
So those are mine.
Any others from you on thelearning?
Jeremy Blake (10:39):
front.
The only other learning thingwas collaboration has
dramatically improved us as abusiness and people we yes, we
were a bit more insular, goingback a bit well, there are only
a few of us well, exactly, butnow we get other perspectives,
other ideas.
I've just been working with lisa, who's joining us again, you'll
be pleased to know, um yeah,and she's just given an amazing
(11:00):
insight on objection handling bycombining two of our models
together, which, which is reallydelicious.
You're going to love it, soI'll share good, good, and I
said that's great.
Bob Morrell (11:11):
That's I mean.
I definitely feel that I mean,I loved it the other day when we
had all our trainers togetherand everyone's dipping in with
ideas yeah and you then realizethat you've got people who
really know what the hellthey're doing so that makes it
so much easier for us, doesn'tit?
Jeremy Blake (11:24):
and the other thing which we'll come on to is
humor is is the key to all ofthis having a giggle, taking the
piss, allowing the piss to betaken out of oneself yes is
glorious, really well, thatbrings me on to I've got five
what I've called the best timesthat I've thought of off the top
of my head.
Bob Morrell (11:46):
So I'm going to and they're under these titles best
gig, best tour, best night out,best conference and best lunch.
Okay, so I've got five best ofthere, so you can have a think
about those while I go through.
Okay.
Jeremy Blake (12:02):
So I put in best times generally.
So.
Bob Morrell (12:05):
I would like to see if they are the same.
Okay, so the best gig?
What do you think I got forthat?
What was the best gig?
Do you mean a one-off Yep, okay, best gig.
Well, it may have been part ofa tour, but we did a day.
It's us doing our training.
We turned up, there was anaudience of people.
Jeremy Blake (12:27):
Okay, I'm going to go for Benidorm.
No, oh, that was one of thebest.
No, I won't guess anymore.
Bob Morrell (12:35):
The best gig was 35 people from all over Ireland
who we met in Dublin at a hotelnear the airport, and that day
was one of those days where youhave your audience.
Yeah, halfords, you have theaudience in the palm of your
hand.
(12:55):
The laughter was justhysterical all day and at the
end of it it was just so warmand so fantastic.
That was a top gig.
Jeremy Blake (13:07):
And they had.
Actually, the guys fromnorthern part of Ireland had
flown to Dublin as well, hadn'tthey?
Or come into Dublin, and theysaid why don't you come to
Belfast next, do you remember?
Bob Morrell (13:19):
Absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that was a brilliant gigand I've always loved going to
Ireland ever since.
And that particular trip, youmay recall, was the night we had
dinner in the Restaurant inDublin and Marie, a lovely
waitress gave us a fantasticclose, an assumptive close.
(13:41):
Now, none of your nonsense.
Which dessert are you going tohave?
And we immediately ordered twosticky toffee puddings whereas
we had been feeling quite full.
But her assertiveness gave us aclose that we talked about for
years, so that was a great one.
Jeremy Blake (13:55):
Well, one of my best times is in Belfast in
Northern Ireland.
We were doing some training andI can't remember it could have
been a travel group.
Bob Morrell (14:05):
Yeah.
Jeremy Blake (14:06):
And people were coming from different agencies.
Bob Morrell (14:08):
Yes.
Jeremy Blake (14:09):
We then went to the Crown Bar.
Bob Morrell (14:12):
Fantastic bar.
Jeremy Blake (14:13):
And we met John Linehan who plays May McFetridge
, very famous pantomime damecharacter.
We had an evening with him andthe chap who'd been in holby
city and jerry, jerry, spring ofthe musical we had an evening
with both of those two.
Now, john linehan is absolutelylegendary in belfast, but it
(14:34):
was literally just the four ofus chatting for hours with him.
He's still doing the panto.
I looked him up before thispodcast.
Bob Morrell (14:41):
This year will be his 35th there we go, that's his
, that's his pension 30, oh yeah, but he's just done an
interesting podcast.
Jeremy Blake (14:49):
We should go and see him again we had a great
night with him.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
He was an adorable man.
Bob Morrell (14:53):
He's an absolutely so that was a terrific night now
let's extend this, so I've nowgot the best tour, and it was a
toss-up between two um, but inthe end there was no contest for
the best tour well, the firstone we ever did was pretty
important at growing ourconfidence for twoe so that was
just an amazing experience ofbecoming trainers and growing
(15:16):
our business yeah I don't knowwhat have you got?
The best tour was, withoutquestion, travelocity, which
took us to india, pennsylvania,texas, seattle, um yeah, all
(15:38):
over the us.
Jeremy Blake (15:40):
The other place place on the border of Mexico.
Bob Morrell (15:43):
No, that was San Antonio.
Jeremy Blake (15:44):
San Antonio, sorry , yeah, yeah.
Bob Morrell (15:46):
So that was a fantastic tour.
We traveled around the world.
We went to Delhi and trainedover there.
That was a huge project,training hundreds of people.
We had some wonderful gigsthere, very funny gigs there.
We can't say some of the thingsthat came out of, some of the
(16:06):
things we were asked in Texas,but it was hilarious.
Jeremy Blake (16:11):
I nearly lost you safe to say, I nearly lost you
wanting to remain in India,didn't I?
Bob Morrell (16:17):
Oh, I could have remained in India for a long
time.
You were rather smitten withsomebody's love.
Of english poetry I mean, youknow, english literature is a is
a wonderful thing you thoughtthat was great.
Jeremy Blake (16:29):
You thought you could live in india.
You loved it, didn't you?
Bob Morrell (16:31):
oh, I, I mean india is just one of those places
which is so fast moving and soum so full of excitement, and we
had wonderful nights andstriker's bar yeah, with the
brewery again.
Yeah, with the brewery andwatching uh ragu dixit do his
fantastic gig and meeting him.
It was.
That was a great trip, so thatwas all part of the same project
(16:52):
, so we can't complain aboutthat.
My sec, my runner up, was theubm tour we did.
Jeremy Blake (16:57):
Oh yes.
Bob Morrell (16:57):
Which, across the US, took us to New York,
minneapolis, which I lovevisiting as a big Prince fan.
Jeremy Blake (17:05):
Michael Casehammer .
We went to see the jazz artist.
Bob Morrell (17:07):
We saw Michael Casehammer, and then we flew on
to Los Angeles and worked there.
Oh yeah, and so that was afantastic trip.
And all the Netherlands trips.
Jeremy Blake (17:15):
Oh, absolutely.
That was a great tour.
Do you remember you weresinging in the bar in the
Netherlands?
Bob Morrell (17:21):
Well, that's my next one, oh okay, right, good.
So my next one is the BestNight Out.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Is that it, that's it .
Bob Morrell (17:35):
Oh yeah.
So we were in Amsterdam and wedid a day's work, and then we
weren't flying home to the nextday, and the night before we'd
found this fantastic jazz bar,which, when the jazz finished,
became you guessed it a karaokebar.
So we got all the people thatwe've been training that day to
come along and meet us there,and we absolutely stormed it on
the stage that night, didn't we,jay, do you remember?
Jeremy Blake (17:56):
I did love shack with half who was, uh was one of
the Welsh members of UBM youdid Holding Back the Ears by, of
course, simply Red.
And a Dutch pilot came up to me, still wearing the uniform, and
said is your friend MickHucknall?
And I had to say no no, that'sBob, and you've always not liked
(18:19):
that, but he couldn't see you,didn't you?
And I also do ebony and ivoryno, not.
Bob Morrell (18:24):
We did um easy lover, which brought the house
down.
Jeremy Blake (18:29):
That absolutely nailed it you did the phil
bailey high bits?
Bob Morrell (18:32):
yes I couldn't do any more from earth, wind and
fire.
Of course that's right.
Jeremy Blake (18:37):
Yeah, that's right oh, it's a great song that was
a top night.
We had a few drinks and a goodlaugh do you remember the man
running the place as we left?
Bob Morrell (18:45):
oh, he was delighted.
Jeremy Blake (18:46):
He shook our hands and thanked us so much for our
business coming that night andtook for quenting his bar I mean
, when we went in it was quiet,yeah, but when we came out, the
whole place was jumping, thankedus personally for what we'd
done in there.
Oh, it was a good night.
Bob Morrell (18:59):
Yeah, it was a good night, so that was good.
Now I've then got two more.
So the fourth one is what's thebest conference we've ever
attended?
And I really had to think aboutthis one but I have hit on it.
Jeremy Blake (19:12):
Well, it could be Benidorm, because that was a
wonderful speech.
You just went off on your ownthe next day talking and
distilling the essence of travel, and then the, the lady gaga
stuff.
That was all wonderful, butyou've got something better,
have you?
Bob Morrell (19:27):
oh yeah, as an experience, I've got the.
Jeremy Blake (19:30):
I've got the best one we did and my brain has gone
blank, of course dubai.
Bob Morrell (19:36):
Oh yes, yes, that was a great conference.
We flew out, we did a gig, wedid an hour's work, we had a few
days in Dubai, we went out intothe desert.
That was a fantastic trip.
Jeremy Blake (19:48):
We met Martina.
Bob Morrell (19:49):
We met Martina Navratilova.
I mean life doesn't get muchbetter than that.
We ate well, we drank well.
Yeah, I mean.
Dubai, I think, is very much aMarmite place for lots of people
, but I think for a few days wehad a great fun there and we
(20:10):
affirmed our relationship withlots of companies there who we
have worked with and work withover the years, and it was a
really fantastic experience.
Jeremy Blake (20:19):
Yeah, that was tremendous.
So, Martina, what she did whichis a good tip for anyone
listening is, if you want to getquestions at the end, you won't
quite be able to do what shedid, where she said any
questions and no hands went up.
And she then got a tennis ballout from a massive box of 24 or
12 tennis balls, started towrite Martina Navratilova on the
(20:39):
balls and said any questionsand I'll throw you a ball, and
every hand went up.
It was brilliant.
So what can you throw out intothe audience to get?
Bob Morrell (20:47):
questions.
Very good idea.
Now, the last one I've got isthe best lunch and I really had
to think about this, but then itwas obvious to me.
Jeremy Blake (20:56):
Are we working or just eating?
We're working.
Oh, is it the cocktail coachingtype thing?
Bob Morrell (21:02):
No.
Jeremy Blake (21:03):
Give me a clue.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
You're listening to the reality of business, created
by Reality, training the mindsbehind the five principles that
power so many successful salesmodels today.
These principles deliverconsistency and certainty in
your sales approach.
Bob Morrell (21:25):
Discover how we can help you sell more at
realitytrainingcom um.
it was the best lunch on atraining day god, this is
difficult, oh, montpellierabsolutely yes yes, so we went
out to Montpellier on a fewoccasions actually, and this was
something that we realized wasa big thing in France was that
(21:46):
when you do training yourtimings for the day, kind of go
out the window watches and theysay, look, we've, we've got to
go because we booked a table forlunch.
We go, okay, so you go down tothis little restaurant and you
have three courses and coffeewith wine, yeah, for lunch in
(22:09):
the middle of the day.
So everyone gets stuck into thewine and you come back at sort
of half past two quarters tofeeling slightly warm and
relaxed.
Jeremy Blake (22:21):
But it's been lovely in the chat and the
conviviality of the team.
Bob Morrell (22:24):
We got to know everybody better.
Jeremy Blake (22:25):
It was lovely.
Bob Morrell (22:26):
That was brilliant and I think that was a real, you
know a real sort of… Everybodywalked down together, oh yeah.
Jeremy Blake (22:33):
Everyone walked down together into the
restaurant with the sort oflovely canopies and whatever you
call it, the tent-likestructure.
You know, it was all fabulous.
Yeah, oh, that was glorious.
Bob Morrell (22:47):
Absolutely.
Now it's interesting when Ilook back on that list.
The sadness for me is that alot of those things are foreign.
In fact all of those things areforeign.
Jeremy Blake (22:58):
For starters, yeah , Well, because we're Europeans,
aren't we, Bobby?
We like to collaborate.
Bob Morrell (23:04):
We're internationalists.
Jeremy Blake (23:06):
We are actually internationalists totally.
Bob Morrell (23:07):
We are internationalists and also I
think it says something thatthese days there are less
foreign gigs going around, andthat's for various reasons that
we're not going to bore thelistener with now, which are
probably self-evident.
But I think there is somethingin that thing of going away
(23:30):
somewhere, and we've had manygreat conferences and many great
trips, you know.
But, those ones stand outbecause there was something very
special about them.
You're also joined by veryspecial people who you remember,
who in many cases we're stillfriends with, and that's really
nice, and also for us.
We're running a business andlots of businesses don't have
(23:54):
many perks, and our perk is thatyou get that social engagement
along with your work, which isextremely lucky, I think.
Jeremy Blake (24:03):
Yeah Well, and you get to know, you see lots of
companies cut back on thesethings and people go out of the
room to get lunch and they don'teat together and lots of these
natural things that othercountries do quite well, we
don't always do as well.
Bob Morrell (24:19):
No, I agree.
Jeremy Blake (24:20):
Because it comes down to cost sometimes.
Bob Morrell (24:22):
It does.
But then I think recently wedid a conference that was thrown
together at the last minute bya large brand and was very
successful and had a really goodfocus and maybe it's coming
back round.
I think the world is goingthrough a huge change at the
moment.
Maybe there is more of a marketfor a more international view
(24:44):
on business sales.
I think it's going to come back.
I think it's just.
Jeremy Blake (24:50):
In fact, it's almost certainly to come back,
because the pendulum can'treally swing that much further.
Bob Morrell (24:56):
Do you know?
You've just made me think ofanother trip we did for a
conference which must go on thelist.
We went out to Madeira.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
And do you?
Bob Morrell (25:04):
remember we did the treasure hunt around the island
of Madeira over that day,finishing up at Reed's Hotel for
a cream tea.
That was all right and my teamwon.
Do you remember that?
I think I won, actually, Ithink I got all the questions
right and I went and collected aprize Brilliant, Even though I
was a speaker and I remembersaying we've had a brilliant day
(25:25):
today because, the ladies whoorganized it were the sponsors
who made sure that we saw 10major aspects of this beautiful
island which you would neverhave done under different
circumstances.
Jeremy Blake (25:35):
That was very well organized.
I remember that she did reallywell.
That was Michelle, michelle,michelle, yeah, Sharon.
Yeah, brilliant.
Bob Morrell (25:44):
But there's one other thing I must draw
listeners' attention to, becausethis is something which,
whenever I think about thesetrips away, always comes back to
me.
There are people who may listento this podcast who know that
they've booked us for things,not just because they want us to
speak at their conference,whatever it may be, but because
(26:04):
they want us to sit in the coachat three in the morning going
back to the hotel with themicrophone telling jokes and
doing funny sketches and gettingeveryone going.
we haven't done that for a while, jay, no.
Jeremy Blake (26:20):
Maybe we're promoting ourselves incorrectly,
as well as the speech.
Bob Morrell (26:24):
this is what we do.
I remember once we were on themic and there were various
people walking on the road andyou were commenting on them and
it was just bedwettingly funny,very, very, very, very funny and
doing impressions and all thatsort of thing.
Jeremy Blake (26:41):
It was just and the signs, which is unrepeatable
, I said, oh look, the localclub yeah, yeah with signs that
look similar to various thingsyou know.
Bob Morrell (26:49):
Oh, it's just great so I I think so I've got
another quick round biggest bull, biggest blur, biggest?
Jeremy Blake (26:59):
oh my gosh.
I don't know quite how toanswer this, and it's usually me
where I've stumbled out withsomething to manage the
situation.
Do you mean?
You mean the?
biggest bull that we've come outwith yes, absolutely, but
usually I come out with slightlymore bull than you.
You think a bit longer.
I've had to sort of cover somethings and I've got my favorite,
(27:19):
which I know is one of yourfavorites.
Go on then.
So we had a project selling amachine to to newspaper
companies or their printers, andthe machine would.
You've got it and the machinewould apply a sticky note to the
front of a newspaper.
And we were working with a guyand he had an example of how the
Sydney Morning Herald had run acampaign for McDonald's deli
(27:43):
choices and you would simplypeel off this kind of yellow
sticky note, take it into theMcDonald's where you would
redeem it and then they wouldgive you some money off your
coffee or a salad.
And we were asking this blokewas saying, okay, how do they
measure the success of this?
I said, right, well, and hewent yeah, how would they
measure this in the McDonald's?
(28:03):
You know how's that going towork?
And I went.
Do you know what they did?
He went, no, what.
What did they do?
They got three spikes and aspeople would come in, they would
take the sticker and push itdown on the spike, and they
needed three of them becausethere were so many of these
stickers coming in the end ofthe day.
They'd pull them back off thespikes, count them up and say,
(28:26):
all right, we've done 500 of theredemptions.
And they counted by pushingthem down onto spikes.
Bob Morrell (28:32):
I mean that that is a great load of bull there.
Um I can.
I think you've probably come upwith even more extreme than
that over the years, but thatwas one of the best.
But I think what your thing isis analogies.
So you always want to use ananalogy to illustrate something,
whether it's required or not.
(28:53):
You always sort of leap to ananalogy and in most cases, I'm
afraid, they come from yourclass.
Okay, which is undeniable.
And so we've had some beautiesover the years.
So, talking to people who workin a, you know, in a frontline
position in a major retail store, telling them about the
(29:15):
difficulties of buying a saddlefor one of your daughter's
ponies Minty's saddle saddle, Imean that context is brilliant
um flooring.
Jeremy Blake (29:26):
I had the saddler over for me.
Bob Morrell (29:28):
Yeah, I mean, I remember joe working with me,
crying with laughter flooringhas been a constant theme for
you as well, because everyone'sbuying flooring, aren't they?
I mean, we all have the optionto buy new flooring, so that's a
good one.
Um, there are others, but, yeah, my favorite is actually a
personal one.
Jeremy Blake (29:45):
When I was tash and I was staying at your house,
you were changing broadbandsupplier.
No, we were changing broadbandsupply, me and tash.
I received the call because wejust moved house and we are
staying at your house.
I received the call and I'mgoing what?
What do you mean?
I won't have broadband nextweek.
And then I said, right, do youknow what this is like?
And the bloke went, like what Isaid it's a bit like studying
(30:09):
GCSE Hitler, gcse history andthen, years ago, finding out
that Hitler didn't exist.
What does that mean?
And I heard I said this line,you were getting ready.
I heard you erupt in the otherroom and you just laughed for
ages.
Just the sounds coming out theroom attached, looking at me,
going.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
what are you talking about?
So good, how is?
Jeremy Blake (30:30):
installing broadband in any way connected
to study history, anything to dowith history.
Bob Morrell (30:35):
It doesn't work.
Anyway, that was very funny.
I mean we've all come up withit, though.
I mean I mean there's anotherone which I could tell.
I mean we won't say who thiswas with, but one night we were
booked.
Uh, we did a day's event andthat evening there was a gala
dinner with awards.
Okay, oh, lovely we.
(30:55):
We had nothing to do with theawards, nothing to do with the
awards at all.
We were just there for the meal.
I was staying, you weren't, andI'll come to my bit of the
story.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I know well.
We don't want to break people'shearts.
No, no, no, it's okay but butso.
Bob Morrell (31:10):
So I um was on a table with a load of a load of
guys who I didn't know and I hadnothing to do for the rest of
the evening.
So I had a few glasses of wine,a few, and then, well, a fair,
a fair few glasses, because youknow what do you, what you're
gonna do.
And then the guy came over andleaned over and he said, bob,
and do you think, jeremy, youthink you and jeremy could
present the awards for us?
(31:30):
And I was like, yeah, sure,sure.
So we got up and went up andthere's a picture of me hanging.
Jeremy Blake (31:40):
I chose to recede at this point.
Bob Morrell (31:42):
I let you go on your own and I was hanging on
the podium.
I think I got away with it, butI.
Jeremy Blake (31:48):
So what you did was you took the P out of every
company name.
If it sounded like somethingelse, you would make it
something else.
So there was a company thatsounded a bit like well, I'm
going to say what you saidinstead.
So you said instead.
So you said now aunt sally havegot an award here.
They weren't called aunt sally,they had a name a bit like that
, but you called them aunt sallyand they're sponsoring an award
(32:10):
.
Bob Morrell (32:10):
Yeah, because it was our character of wurzel
gumming.
Jeremy Blake (32:14):
Then the karaoke came on and you said jay j
you've got to do one song beforeyou go, so I came on and I
chose common people.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Now, I was in a very weird mood.
Jeremy Blake (32:25):
So I was going common people like you and I was
pointing out in the audiencedoing this slightly abusive
common people song and then as Iwent I said I've got to go back
, I've got to put my cat down inthe morning.
Good night.
It was just so odd, as I droveaway away, suddenly switching my
emotions to being really upsetabout my cat, I heard you go,
come on, real, light my fire, myheart's you really I don't.
(32:50):
I don't remember as I drove awaywith the windows down I heard
you trying to get them all goingto relight my fire oh oh my god
, that was brilliant.
Bob Morrell (33:01):
See this.
This is this.
Is you know, again classictimes?
Jeremy Blake (33:05):
um so actually what we've discovered on this
podcast which we haven't reallydiscovered you've hinted at
earlier is when people book usto speak, they don't really book
us to speak, they're going toget that anyway, they book us
for this other stuff of course,and only the existing clients
know this.
We need to let new clients knowthis.
Well, absolutely, we just have.
Bob Morrell (33:23):
And then we come back to this.
You know, your common peoplething brings us right back to
the beginning, which is you'realways a little bit different,
jay, aren't you?
You're just a little bitdifferent to everybody else.
Well, different is good Noteveryone's like you, which is
good which is a good thing, andeven if you're pointing at them,
calling them common, it's okay.
Jeremy Blake (33:40):
I was just being abusive.
I was in a weird mood, oh dear.
Bob Morrell (33:44):
I know Bless you, but you know, it all comes from
love, which is you know which issomething like that.
Jeremy Blake (33:53):
Yeah, but yeah, it's been 25 years of training,
development and I suppose as weget older we do more and more
leadership work, helping leadersin how they can inspire their
teams.
Companies get us in to lift thesales graph, improve their
communication.
It's actually a never-endingjob.
We think that a company mightbe sorted, but then they're not.
Bob Morrell (34:15):
Why not no, and that's often the case where you
start with the company in oneplace and then they move you to
the next division and sometimesit's other countries, and of
course we do lots more on Zoomnow and that means you can get
to more people more quickly, butI still enjoy.
I know you enjoy it less, but Istill enjoy the travel and the
(34:39):
fun away.
And, having had thisconversation now, the next two
tours that we're going to be on.
I'm going to make sure I ramp upthe fun element because I think
we've got to bring back karaoke.
Jeremy Blake (34:52):
Got to.
A lot of our trainers havebeautiful voices as well.
Yes, let's get on the carriesing unless they're paid, which
is fair enough, because they'reuber pros.
Bob Morrell (35:01):
Well, I think that, when it comes to karaoke, we
should look up the karaokenights, look at the competitions
.
We should go in and win somecompetitions.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Why not?
Bob Morrell (35:12):
I'll go and do George Michael, you do a very
good, frank Sinatra.
Yeah, I was amazed once when hedid Frank Sinatra in Benidorm
brought the house down.
Jeremy Blake (35:25):
I couldn't believe it.
Well, you do your george nicely.
Yeah, it's better.
I do that rather my melancholic, depressive, depeche mode stuff
you know my morrissey.
My morrissey stuff, you know,depends on the audience these
days.
Now, the other thing that wemust say we couldn't have done
any of this without our amazingemployees, our team um of anne
harris and lorraine collins yeah, and also our amazing employees
, our team of Anne Harris andLorraine Collins, and also our
amazing trainers.
Bob Morrell (35:44):
Yeah, you know who you are.
Jeremy Blake (35:46):
We won't list you on it in case we miss one off.
Bob Morrell (35:48):
No, they're a great group.
I'm looking forward to seeingthem soon when we get ramped up.
Jeremy Blake (35:53):
Well, we're working with nearly all of you,
nearly all of you on this nexttour that is starting tomorrow.
No is it?
Yeah it?
No is it?
Yeah?
Bob Morrell (36:01):
uh, yeah, starts tomorrow bob starts tomorrow,
you're on it yeah, I'm on ittomorrow, yeah so, ladies and
gents, I hope that was aninteresting float down memory
lane for you and opens the doorto the character of your hosts,
but also, I hope some of thosethings we learned may be of use
to you as well.
Um, I'm sure we'll be returningto this theme of the 25th
anniversary, because 25 years isa long time to do what we do
(36:27):
and we're still doing it.
So there may be other thingsthat come up as we go through
the year, but in the meantime,thank you all for listening and
we look forward to speaking toyou soon on other
business-related topics.
Jeremy Blake (36:40):
Yeah, have a look through the list of other
episodes.
If someone sent you this andyou can always send this to
somebody else you can give us areview, forward it.
But thank you for pressing play.
Bye for now.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Bye.
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