Inside A One Person Business - An Interview With Alex Merry
Join Ellen as she sits down with Alex Merry a Public Speaking Coach and Founder of MicDrop; a public speaking community for tomorrow's thought leaders. They discuss Alex’s journey from COO to Founder to Coach, despite not liking public speaking.
Alex Merry is Founder of MicDrop, Founder and Curator of TedX Clapham and is a self-confessed reluctant public speaker. In this, the first interview of 2024, we dive into Alex's process and approach to sharing his journey authentically online and how it is the key to creating genuine growth and community. Alex openly shares his experiences of painful identity shifts throughout his career trajectory and advice to listeners hoping to make a similar leap from business leader to solopreneur. Alex discusses his most important lesson; that ultimately nobody knows what they’re doing in business - especially the people that look like they do - and how that realisation transformed his approach to growing his new business.
Listen to the Podcast episode to learn more about:
How he went from not loving public speaking or the spotlight, to growing a public speaking coaching business for Founders! And how that put him into therapy, to work through.
His honest take about how his business is really going, and the perception vs reality when it comes to social media
About his build in public mentality, and how he sees his business as one big experiment, spending 12 months on one product before attempting to scale
How he's become less punchy with his messaging over time, preferring to be open to not having all the answers -- and building a 54 person community as a result
Why he axed a number of his services to focus on just three, and how this has accelerated his growth
Read on for the full transcript.
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ED; Hey, Alex, thank you so much for joining the asks one person business interview series. How are you doing?
AM Yeah, very well. Thank you. Thanks for having me. We've, we're almost like linking on, on color code here for bright themes.
Traffic lighty, but, but yeah, we, uh, no stop sign between us. So yeah, nice to have the opportunity to like, find out more about you, what you do. Do you want to give everyone watching an intro?
AM: Sure. So I'm a public speaking coach. I'm the founder of a thought leadership community that's public speaking focused called Mic Drop. I've been in this game for the best part of eight years professionally. And. I, I love it. You know, typically I tend to work with people who have got really big ideas.
My job is to help them communicate that well to large audiences. So I work with a lot of people who get to challenge my own thinking around certain subjects. And that's probably one of the main reasons why I do what I do. Sounds fascinating.
ED: I think we share that in common. I, I coach people that I'm like, I can't believe I get to be in a room with these people and learn from them as much as, uh, you know, hopefully they learn something from me. And the reason that we have connected today is I see you on LinkedIn sharing what you know about public speaking, but also that community angle is really clear. People are very engaged with your work and loving the, the. nuance of what you bring. And I saw that you obviously used to be the founder of TEDx. Is that right?
AM: Yeah. So I used to, I totally fell into that. I used to, used to run a TEDx clap and run that for a number of years. And that was really my introduction into public speaking. On a, on an impact level, I suppose we had some of those talks went on to go and do some really amazing things. And it, it just taught me that one talk done really well in front of the right people can, do amazing things for the people who have delivered them - let alone the audiences you've heard them. So that's really why I got into this. I don't even like public speaking. I'm not your natural speaker. I am the reluctant speaker. My brother's incredible. He, he's more than happy to take the limelight. I'm much rather he did it too. Uh, you know, when it comes to family, family things, but I just found myself in this world where it is such a catalyst for change if you can, if you can use the medium in the right way,
ED: Okay, well tell us a bit about how you ended up being a public speaking coach if you're not a huge fan of public speaking because there's so many people who have, who watch this, who are defining their entrepreneurial journeys, they're piecing their professional experiences together and saying, well, I'm not the best at this, so I shouldn't do this.
You know, what's your experience packaging up Alex and being where you are today?
AM: Sure. I mean, I never used to tell people I didn't like public speaking that much. And I've really leaned into it in more recent years because I think it's a real strength, actually, you don't have to be, you know, my job is to prove that you don't have to like public speaking to be okay at it, and to put yourself out there and, and take opportunities that may end up on your plate.
I fell into this world because I used to run a startup which became very, very people heavy and incredibly unprofitable, but we grew very quickly. And the way we grew was by delivering talks at universities across the UK every day for three months of the year. So I forced myself, that was my public speaking boot camp.
I forced myself to, to get relatively good and good enough for the, for the business to grow. And someone saw me speak once asked me to speak at a TEDx event. It was years ago before people really knew about TEDx. And then that event got canceled about a week before I was due to give the talk. So I never gave a talk.
I still have never given a talk, but that led me to wanting to explore TEDx and how all that works. And I love the idea of running an event. And that was really my gateway that first group of speakers that we had speak on that stage I was just tweaking the odd little thing about their talk and their messaging and And they thought that that's what I did as a full time job.
So it happened very organically. I didn't choose it
ED: Yeah, you're literally dragged into the world of like, okay guys This is how we build our business now and how we get customers. We're doing public speaking And then from the background you're like seeing so many repetitions by the sounds of it. What's working, what's not working and you know, they say the, the best people we see have someone in the background that's supporting them, be it a partner, a business partner, chief of staff, whatever it's like, you've become that for, for your clients, a public speaking coach. And it's interesting, isn't it because you've had to create a profile for yourself in order to get the results that you now have. So what, what was that transition like being in the spotlight?
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AM: I didn't, uh, I didn't really enjoy it. I've got to say, but actually now I found where I like to produce my content. You know, most of my spotlight stuff isn't really in person. It's not delivering talks to big events. I do occasionally do that, but actually my audience really is on LinkedIn. I choose one platform. I've doubled down on that and I've just got a really simple goal. Post three times a week and when I post I tend to be testing something that I want to make clear in my own head and it's a brilliant experiment to see what resonates with people what doesn't and sometimes the things that you think are really average posts and the things that tend to go down really well and people can really resonate with. So I came up with the BOG principle the other week.
It's called the ‘Bubble of Glory’ I just made it up on a sunday morning and that tended to go down really well It's really funny, but it's so useful to to be able to constantly just throw little ideas out and see what lands with people
ED: Interesting, isn't it? Because if you are sharing ideas on a public stage in person as your form of promotion. That's so refined. It's so like I had to prepare to be here I'm i'm ready to share a message and you probably share that same message on stages versus what you're doing. You're behind your screen on a Sunday morning. Get your phone out. Have a think. Did that work? Test it. It's a very iterative and yeah quite detail oriented way of building your business and it's it's working, right?
Like do you want to share where you're at some stats around like, I know you have a big community now, and some some followers?
AM:
What goes what what people see publicly is not necessarily what's happening On the inside. I mean, I think if there is any sort of illusion out there that I know what I'm doing. I mean, that is completely false in this whole business is just one big experiment.
And I think the hardest, you know, the one thing that I try and remember is if you can last a little bit longer than everyone else, you will, you will be that step closer to success. I'm not in this for the short term. I'm in this for the long term and taking that long term is to approach. Just stay in the game. Just stay in the game has has been really, really pivotal for me rather than focusing on the short term wins.
We've in the last sort of 18 months, we started building a community. We have got 54 people in that community right now on in the last six weeks.
That's where we've really started to see demand for that community increase. And, and I think one of the reasons why we're doing or why it started to happen is because we're not trying to go all big growth at all costs. We want to, we spent 12 months really making sure that we had a product that really.
Works and we're starting to create tangible results for people, uh, you know, landing specific speaking engagements, uh, increasing people speaking fees, uh, removing the stress and the fear before a panel, you know, these are, these are big wins for people. And when we started to see that was happening more regularly, we've now got something that we know is worthy, right?
And that is worth promoting and getting out to people, but it's taken time and patience and experimentation and pain.
ED: Well, it's a great message to remind people of, you know, it's, it's a lot easier to go out and promote something once you're super proud of it, because you have tangible results to show.
Compare that to, I have an idea for a community, let me go see how many people I can sign up day one and just throw them in and then figure it out. You're like, let's start with a group of people, get them the real results they came for, and then actually go, yeah, this is working, come on, like, let's grow this thing.
AM: That's, that's essentially how it's been. And I think that if you can bring that first group of people on into your products or whatever, whatever it might be, and, and tell them we're going to, the reason you're in here is because I'm going to help you work it out and we're all going to work it out together.
You know, and, and almost say you are part of this, this journey, we're going to learn together. You don't have to be the person necessarily with all the answers. The amount of goodwill that buys you from the people who are with you is absolutely huge. Yet we often think, you know, if I look at how I used to write myself in the first three years of my business, that's how I promote myself now, I was so punchy with my messaging. I was like, this is how you need to do things. This is the way I'm not like that anymore. And I think actually letting go and showing that, and being open to new ways of doing things and learning from other people can really help with that too.
I often think, we feel like we have to convince people we have all the answers. And no one's got all the answers. And the trust and the goodwill that that creates and the long term benefits that's certainly had to my reputation, it's really helped.
We're, we're now at a point where people rec, uh, most of my work comes from word of mouth or a LinkedIn post. So, and I try to be very explicit with how things are going on LinkedIn, uh, from a business perspective, what's worked, what's flopped, all of that stuff.
I think it's important to share that people will buy into you, as a person, as well as whatever it is you're trying to create.
ED: So that kind of build in public mentality, it sounds like it's serving you because you can be really authentic with how you're showing up rather than, Hey, I have all the answers.
It's this is what we're trying this week or whatever. Yeah. But the byproduct is people are trusting you more and buying more from you.
AM: Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think, uh, you know, I'm starting to build a newsletter called Founders to Thought Leader, and it's just one public speaking tip a week. For people who are looking to, you know, go into speaking and thought leadership stages and all of that stuff.
And I've been doing newsletters in their various guises for like four or five years. It's never really landed, but we now have a newsletter that it's got super high open rates, super high click through rate. But guess how many subscribers? We've got 600, 601 subscribers today. We are tiny, we are tiny, but that group is incredibly engaged and we've got a formula that is starting to work now.
So, you know, a good example, I posted the other week, these are the tweaks I've made to my newsletter this year. And I don't have millions of followers like everyone else does. I can't tell you how to get them I'm still trying to work that out myself. But what we do have is a newsletter that people are. Uh, finding useful way. We're hearing it from people. We're not asking for that feedback.
ED: I think the lesson I want people to take from this isn't, ‘Oh God, I have to make this newsletter really engaged and really high click through rate.’
It's ‘Alex got here because of the four years he spent figuring this stuff out. And now he's launched this newsletter with a new lens on it and for any audience with a new vibe.’ And like, I don't imagine it's a complete coincidence going so well. Like it's the accumulation of everything else you've been doing that allows you to launch something and it kind of succeed straight away.
And yes, it's small, but I'm imagining that will grow quite, quite fast based on your LinkedIn.
AM: Don't put that pressure on me. I have no idea. I have no idea, but I think if you can treat it with that building in public experimentation, particularly as a solopreneur, you know, what we're really selling is trust. Belief that for me, it's, I'm the person that's going to have this group of speakers back no matter what, that's the trust that I'm trying to build and it might not always be perfect. And often I've often found for the LinkedIn posts that I do, accounts narrative is incredibly useful. We have this perception of what a great public speaker is, but actually we have great public speakers in our community. They forget their words. They say, um, they, uh, don't put any prep until the very last minute and then they panic. They get nervous before they go on stage, even though they get paid good money to deliver talks. The perception of what the world of what my business might look like on the outside versus the reality of what it is inside is often two very, very different things and embracing that.
I wish I knew that in the early stages, that it was still going to be really, really messy and you never really arrive at that place where. You're going to have answers.
ED: We'll make it a bit less intimidating, wouldn't it? For people who see the shiny exterior and think, Oh, I'm nowhere near that. Like, how can I even begin?
I have this coaching conversation all the time, twice today with people. It's like, Oh, I'm waiting for it to all be clear. And for the penny to drop for me to kind of keep moving forward. It's like, it might never drop. Like you have to just kind of take those steps and figure out as you go. It doesn't mean that you're failing in public necessarily. It just means that you're figuring stuff out and knowing that it's. is an evolving thing. A business is never done. So, what would be helpful just to share a little bit more about the offerings you have, the services, how do you kind of split your time?
AM:
You know I've started working with an advisor recently and because I had so many of these products, so many products that I was offering and it's been really interesting because I've massively streamlined my offerings, I've become everything to everyone, and now I'm trying to really narrow down and try and be one thing to one group.
And that's been a really big learning for me.
So I run a thought leadership accelerator once a year, so I help people land right and deliver a big stage presentation and we get the talks filmed at a big theater at the very, very end.
I have MicDrop, which is a thought leadership community for people who speak. A place to narrow down your message all the way through to getting paid and building a side income through speaking and then I work with CEOs of tech startups and scale ups one to one over a long period of time, and work with them on the high stakes speaking engagements that they've got either internally or externally, and then I had a million other products after that, but the three core products that I have now.
ED: Oh my goodness. I can't imagine how busy you must have been before. Because that sounds like a lot of different things that you're working through, but also aligned. Right. I'm sure their feed is into one another as well.
AM: They're certainly starting to become feeders into one another, which has been, which has been really useful. And what's been really interesting is despite kind of honing in and narrowing down on that, I'm still getting opportunities for all the other stuff. But now I can now, and from a mindset perspective, rather than be like, oh, I need to, need to do that. I can actually be like, well, is that, is that going to sap the life and energy from my soul if I say yes to this and make me miserable and stressed? Or is this something that actually will be quite fun to do?
ED: What's your relationship with saying no?
AM: Not great. Not great. Working with it. It's very, very difficult. Um, that's a really good question. It's, it's not great. No. It's because I think When you're living in the fear of not being able to pay your rent, you will say yes to things that you don't want to do.
Like, that is the, that's the sad reality of the life that we have all chosen to, to be in, you know.
ED: I don't profess to have answers to that, but one way to navigate that, that at least has felt helpful to me, is having this idea of like, the shop window has, in your case, these three things. But in the back door. You know, at the back of the shop, there might be some other things you can buy. I'm not going to go and advertise them in the front because they're not always available. Sometimes I don't feel like giving them away. Um, and they might actually be really expensive because they're, they're worth a lot to me, right?
So it's this idea of like, what am I willing to give at some point versus what's always available and I'm trying to get, you know, through out the door. So take that if it resonates.
ED: Yeah, I love that approach. It was awesome.
AM: I have so many questions for you, but I'm also like, I feel like we've covered so much that that's really valuable here and I'm just trying to work out.
You've covered your business model, your, your customer acquisition, it sounds like, is LinkedIn and referrals. I guess the piece that we haven't covered that might be helpful for some people is, what about your, um, kind of network or background, do you feel prepared you for, for where you are today? Is there anything that you would tell somebody who's still maybe in the early stages in a corporate even, it's like thinking about what they can do now to prepare themselves for later on?
AM:
I ended up in therapy, about my struggle with being a public speaking coach is a profession that I'd chosen to be in the idea of speaking became very, very difficult. And I think one of the reasons it became difficult was because of the attachments I had to previous jobs. You know, I was at CEO of a fast growing startup - 250 people - they all had to listen to me. I had a job title that said that I had such attachment. I play such attachment and value to the experience that I'd had.
And one of the things I noticed with a lot of high, high profile. Leaders in large corporates who are looking for their next step, they might be a, you know, this household name and they can walk through the door and get these opportunities like, like that you leave your job, it's not like that anymore. The world changes. And I think that a really important piece of internal work I've had to do way later than I realized was finding what my value is outside of job titles and being attached to anything, you know, I think we hold these things very, very closely and no doubt I've now got too much of an attachment to my current business and I'll struggle with that one day soon too.
ED: And so it's identity pieces and it's like building the internal value you have for yourself and what you bring outside of an endowment somebody else has given you of COO or whatever, or an employment contract that says you can take this job. You know, you have to choose yourself when you work for yourself and that's a daily choice often to pitch yourself or put your prices up or whatever it is. You're like, I'm going to choose my promotion to this next level as a business owner. You don't wait to get it handed to you because it won't come. What's the future hold for Alex?
AM: We're taking a step at a time. We don't really know what the future is.
But right now, the short term is provide an amazing service for the members of our community. And hopefully the groundwork in that is going to be the platform for where and how the how the community grows.
Love it. Well, we came kind of full circle there with the start of the advice that you gave. So thank you so much for joining.
Um, we'll, we'll wrap up there and yeah, I'm sure people have learned so much from you. You've got so much wisdom to share in such a short time. So where can people find you? How would you like to connect with anyone that might be thinking, I'd love Alex's help?
AM: Connect with me on LinkedIn. That's, that's where, that's where I am. That's probably the easiest place. Alex, Mary, there aren't too many of us around.
ED: I'll link it as well. Thanks, Alex. Take care.
