What I Learned Interviewing Alana Spencer at GrowthCLUB

There are some conversations where you find yourself making mental notes while you're supposed to be asking the questions.

This was one of them.

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Alana Spencer, founder of Ridiculously Rich by Alana and winner of The Apprentice, at ActionCOACH Sheffield's GrowthCLUB.

GrowthCLUB is built around something I think more business owners need to do: stop, get out of the day-to-day and actually plan the next 90 days.

And having the opportunity to sit down with Alana in front of a room full of business owners felt particularly fitting.

Because behind the success, TV appearances and recognisable brand is something much more interesting:

The reality of actually building a business.

Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the conversation.

Success Rarely Looks Like A Straight Line

One of the dangers of social media is that we tend to see businesses once they've already become successful.

We see the announcement. The new office. The big client. The award. The TV appearance. The revenue milestone.

We don't see nearly as much of what happened beforehand.

The uncertainty. The wrong decisions. The long days. The ideas that didn't work.

The moments where the founder wondered whether they were doing the right thing at all.

Alana's journey is a brilliant reminder that entrepreneurship is rarely a straight line. You make decisions with the information you have. Some work. Some don't. Then you adjust. I think that's important for any business owner to hear.

Especially when you're comparing your messy middle with somebody else's highlight reel.

Being Visible Creates Opportunities

This is something I'm probably slightly obsessed with.

I've spent a large part of my career talking about visibility, and it's ultimately the idea behind my book, Built To Be Seen.

You can be brilliant at what you do. You can have the best product. You can deliver an incredible service. But if nobody knows you exist, you've got a problem.

Alana's story demonstrates what can happen when you put yourself and your business into situations where opportunities can find you.

Of course, appearing on The Apprentice created enormous visibility.

But visibility alone isn't enough.

You still need something worth paying attention to when people arrive.

That's an important distinction.

Visibility amplifies what's already there.

If your offer is poor, visibility exposes it.

If your offer is brilliant, visibility can accelerate it.

As business owners, we shouldn't just ask:

"How do I get more people to see me?"

We should also ask:

"When they do see me, what are they going to find?"

Your Personal Brand And Business Brand Are

Connected

This was particularly interesting to me because it's something I've experienced myself. People buy from people.

For founder-led businesses especially, separating the person entirely from the company can be a mistake.

Customers want to know who's behind it.

What you believe.

Why you started.

What you care about.

Your story gives people something to connect with that a logo never can.

That doesn't mean your entire marketing strategy needs to become selfies and personal updates.

It means recognising that the founder can be one of the most powerful marketing assets the company has.

I've seen this with Hello Social Avenue.

Some people discover us through the company.

Others discover the company through me.

LinkedIn posts, videos, events, speaking, this website, my book — they all create different routes into the same ecosystem.

Your personal brand and company brand can strengthen each other.

Business Growth Requires Evolution

Another thing I took away from the conversation was how much businesses have to change as they grow.

The business you start isn't necessarily the business you end up running.

Your role changes.

Your team changes.

Your customers change.

Your ambitions change.

Sometimes your entire business model changes.

I've experienced this first-hand with Hello Social Avenue. What started as predominantly a social media agency has evolved into something much broader.

Strategy. Video. Events. Training. Coaching. Technology. And increasingly, helping businesses build complete marketing systems rather than simply creating social media posts.

That's not abandoning the original idea.

It's responding to what you learn.

One of the most dangerous phrases in business must be:

"But that's how we've always done it."

Growth requires evolution.

You Need To Get Out Of The Business To Work On The Business

This was perhaps the most appropriate lesson for a GrowthCLUB event.

Business owners are busy.

Really busy.

There's always another email. Another customer. Another proposal. Another staff question. Another invoice. Another problem.

You can easily spend 90 days working incredibly hard without making meaningful progress towards where you actually want the business to go.

That's why 90-day planning is so powerful.

It forces you to ask:

Where are we now?

Where do we want to be in three months?

What's actually going to move us forward?

And what do we need to stop doing?

I've become increasingly convinced that one of the most valuable skills a founder can develop isn't working harder.

It's identifying what deserves their attention.

Because there will always be more things you could do than things you should do.

The Best Business Advice Usually Isn't Complicated

One of the things I enjoy about interviewing successful entrepreneurs is that you rarely come away with some secret tactic nobody has ever heard before.

It's normally the opposite.

The lessons are surprisingly simple.

Know your customer.

Build something people want.

Talk about it.

Be visible.

Look after people.

Learn from mistakes.

Adapt.

Keep going.

The difficulty isn't understanding those things. It's doing them consistently for years. We have an obsession in business with finding the next hack.

Sometimes the real competitive advantage is simply doing the obvious things for longer than everybody else.

My Biggest Takeaway

If I had to boil the conversation down into one lesson, it would be this:

Don't wait until you feel ready to create opportunities for yourself.

Apply.

Ask.

Attend.

Publish.

Introduce yourself.

Make the call.

Start the business.

Create the video.

Walk into the room.

You won't know which opportunity changes everything.

Looking back at my own journey, so many of the biggest moments have come because I put myself somewhere something could happen.

Music taught me that.

Building Hello Social Avenue has taught me that.

And interviewing entrepreneurs like Alana continues to reinforce it.

Final Thoughts

A huge thank you to Alana for being so open about her journey and to Jon Asquith and the team at ActionCOACH Sheffield for inviting me to be part of GrowthCLUB.

There's something powerful about putting a room full of ambitious business owners together and giving them the space to think beyond tomorrow's to-do list.

I came away with plenty of notes myself.

And perhaps that's the sign of a good interview.

You go there expecting to ask the questions.

You leave questioning a few things yourself.