Ep. 114 Mike Ellenthorpe: a case study in taking opportunities when they appear and remaining proactive and resilient when they don't.

Mike is Head of UK Sales at McLaren Automotive. 

He is navigating a fascinating career journey that’s seen him progress  from selling Fiats for DC Cook in Manchester through multiple countries, automotive brands and levels of seniority to arrive at his current position. 

In our conversation Mike shares the personal stories behind many of the job moves he’s made. Like most of us he’s had some good fortune but I found myself noticing that he has often taken decisive action to increase his chances of success. 

His approach has seen him secure roles in Bahrain, Dubai and the Caribbean and he’s traveled extensively as a consultant. 

His international background proved to be more of a curse than a blessing when he was looking to return to the UK. He talks openly about those times, how they made him feel and the proactive steps he took to cope with what was going on and finally find a role. 

I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated having this opportunity to talk with Mike. In listening to his stories there are lessons we can learn and examples of proactive behaviour that I find inspiring. There are clear reasons and demonstrable actions that reveal how he has been able to do what he’s done.

I first had the pleasure and good fortune to meet Mike in 2008. I’m excited to introduce him to you in this episode and I look forward to hearing what resonates with you. 

Reach out to Mike:

LinkedIn: Michael Ellenthorpe

Thank you to our sponsors:

ASKE Consulting

Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

Aquilae

Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

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If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app. 

Episode recorded on 13 April, 2023

Transcript

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Mike Ellenthorpe: 0:00

I sit in the these palaces waiting to be taken in and thinking. There's only a few years ago, just a simple guy from St. Helens, and here I am. What am I doing here? This is amazing. It's unbelievable. Difficult to actually just put into words to anybody if I'm really honest with you.

Aquilae: 0:20

Welcome to Career-view Mirror, the automotive podcast that goes behind the scenes with key players in the industry looking back over their careers to share insights to help you with your own journey. Here's your host, Andy Follows.

Andy Follows: 0:52

Hello, listeners, Andy here. As always, thank you for tuning in. I really appreciate that you do and love hearing from you when you give us feedback. In this episode, we're celebrating the career to date of Mike Ellenthorpe. Mike is head of UK sales at McLaren Automotive, he's navigating a fascinating career journey that's seen him progress from selling Fiats for DC Cook in Manchester, through multiple countries, automotive brands and levels of seniority to arrive at his current position. In our conversation, Mike shares the personal stories behind many of the job moves he's made. Like most of us he's had some good fortune, but I found myself noticing that he's often taken decisive action to increase his chances of success. His approach has seen him secure roles in the UK, Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait and the Caribbean, and he's travelled globally as a consultant. Ironically, his international background proved to be more of a curse than a blessing when he was looking to return to the UK. He talks openly about those times, how they made him feel and the proactive steps he took to cope with what was going on, and finally find a role. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated having this opportunity to talk with Mike in listening to his stories, there are lessons we can learn and examples of proactive behaviour that I find inspiring. There are clear reasons and demonstrable actions that reveal how he has been able to do what he's done. I first had the pleasure and good fortune to meet Mike in 2008. And I'm excited to introduce him to you. In this episode. I look forward to hearing what resonates with you. Hello, Mike, and welcome. And where are you coming to us from

Mike Ellenthorpe: 2:38

Hi, Andy. I am in a little village called Hale today? which is in the it's in Cheshire, in the northwest of England. And probably the nearest landmark is Manchester Airport as a geographical reference.

Andy Follows: 2:55

Well, thank you very much for joining me. Now I'd like to start right at the beginning with where you were born and where you grew up.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 3:01

I come from a working class town called St. Helens, which is probably most famous for two things. Number one Pilkington's glass, which has obviously provided glass for the automotive industry for many years. So that was a real backbone of the town. And the other thing that they are probably as famous for, from a sporting element is rugby clubs in Helen's Rugby League, which had recently won they ,become the world champions. And the people really, so they've got three things, not just two, so they're, they're a good breed. But that's my background.

Andy Follows: 3:42

Right, so you're born in St. Helens, and tell me a little bit about family, please. So if have you got brothers and sisters?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 3:50

Yeah, I do. Yeah, Mom and Dad's got two brothers. I've got Sean who is older. And I've got my younger brother Richard. So yeah, but strong, strong family background, strong parents and grandparents. So yeah, very, very good, good memories of the childhood.

Andy Follows: 4:05

I always like to ask my guests what sort of jobs they had sight of growing up. So what did you see Mum and Dad doing?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 4:12

My dad was a joiner by trade. And basically, that's what he did for as long as I can remember. What was really great about that he made little leather belts for me and my brother, and we had our little hammers and toolkits. And we would go with him on certain weekends we were when were allowed. So that was good fun. I have to say that I did apologise to my dad because it had served no purpose whatsoever because my DIY skills are pitiful, I have to say, but my mom, various roles really obviously predominantly, that sort of time, Mum was around a lot for us as kids, she was then working in a school in a sort of an infant school and that's really what I remember mum for really, but that was really and then she moved into a little bit of retail herself always extremely good with people very jovial, very friendly as they both were but very different characters.

Andy Follows: 5:13

Okay and what sort of expectations did you feel were put on you when you were growing up from say how you should achieve at school or what you should be trying to make of yourself?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 5:27

I think that's a brilliant question. And actually, it's really relevant being honest, Sean and I had a conversation about that a few weeks ago. And I would say, and this is no disrespect to to my mom and dad, but they were working class parents who just did the very best they possibly could to support the family and all the ways that they felt were important, and then was a priority. But really, when I when we thought about it, when we talked about it, we never was never really given a great deal of direction, from parents is the truth. So we've probably just had to make it our way in the way that we thought was right. But what I would say is we took some of the key principles from our parents, which is from my dad, in particular, it was work ethic. So work ethic is a very, very strong feature in all three of the boys, myself and my brothers. I'd say we've all equally got that, I'd say in abundance really, because we've we've had it from early days. And we, I still see it myself, and I still see it with my brothers, that that is a real key pillar in the three of us. So with regards to direction, very little, we were encouraged in certain ways just to be happy, which I think is important, and be kids and play and enjoy as much as you possibly can. But from a career point of view, there was never really that guidance. So when, when we look at what we do now for our kids, and again, Sean and I talked at length about this, and we're grateful, really grateful that we've got the opportunity to give them more guidance. But there's always pros and cons to that. There are pros and cons. But I don't know what you think about that.

Andy Follows: 7:20

I think it's fascinating. And I like to ask the question, I like to find out where my guests started out and try and picture what their environment was like, and you know what factors were impacting on them. And it sounds like it was supportive, lots of support, but no really high expectations or direction given but there was role modelling of a strong work ethic. And I've had, interestingly, a number of guests quite recently, David Palmer comes to mind who is also from the northwest and Ian Cooper from Callidus who both mentioned work ethic, and it clearly is a really important contributing factor to your career. I don't judge sort of whether it's better to have a lot of direction from your parents, or just more support and some curiosity yourself and you know, some good characteristics that are going to fuel you on the journey. I just find it all fascinating to see how people have got to where they have got to from where they started, which is why I like to go back to the beginning.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 8:26

What I would add to this Andy, I'll give you an example. There was say my Granddad who stood out to me with regards to high standards. So he was absolutely impeccably dressed every day of the week. And one thing that he was non negotiable with was his shoes. And the fact that they had to you could see your face in them. And I was I picked up on this. And to be honest, when I first got into having a job and started in the working world, one thing that I was absolutely bang on with was my shoes had to be clean. And I remember him and I said to him why why is it Grandad? why are your shoes always ridiculously so clean? And he said clean shoes are happy shoes. And it's hilarious. So when obviously I got my boys I got two, Elliott and Jordan, actually, as they were bringing up, I drilled into them about shoes. And you know, when it comes school shoes and black shoes, and because of this, they scuffed them to death, it was always a case of I'd leave the cleaning kits when they were old enough to make sure that the shoes were clean. And I'd always say to them if they weren't, what do you think those shoes look like at the moment? Are they happy or unhappy? And they go, daddy, they're unhappy. I said, Well, let's make them happy. As long as it's little things like that, that stick with you.

Andy Follows: 9:57

It's very clever, isn't it? You've sort of anthropomorphized the shoes, or given them the ability to feel happy or sad, and then your kids can empathise with the shoes and start thinking, Oh, no, I need to take care of my shoes. It starts to teach that taking care of things. I love it. What about you as a student? And how were you when you're at school?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 10:21

I would probably describe myself as a continuous work in progress.

Andy Follows: 10:27

Oh, I love that. I love yeah.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 10:30

Yeah that's I don't know where that's come from. So I've just pulled it out the boot laces if I'm honest with you. But that's how I really look at myself reflecting back I struggled is the truth. When I was a really young guy, I lost my hearing. So I was in hospital a lot with multiple operations and rebuilds and various devices sort of fitted. So that was a real challenge. And again, going back to parents, one thing that my Mum and Dad did do is fought really hard for me to stay in the school system, rather than be outside of that system. But I had to endure, which probably when you look at it was all character building, and, and builds up those sorts of thickness of skins that we all need, as we get older, I'd have to turn up with school with with a hearing aid or some device that would help me to to basically partake, I remember one of the big challenge is for me personally, and it was a big deal. But again, seemed to find a way of overcoming it was the the school would go swimming on a Friday, and I couldn't. So I would have to walk up with my class. And then I would then have to walk back with a different class that I'm not part of. So I either had to make a decision to feel sorry for myself, or I made a decision to try and interact. When I reflect back and I think what was the making of that situation, the positive of the situation? Was it made me be a lot more sociable? Because if not, I was gonna sit at the back of the class and basically, you know, again, not be accepted, to struggle. So it helped me I suppose to find a way to engage with people. And then I realised that actually, that wasn't so bad. It wasn't so difficult to do. So yeah, I think I realised then that actually, I suppose I could, I had a some sort of skill. At the time that was obviously embryonic and developing that I found a way to be able to talk to people that I didn't actually know so...

Andy Follows: 12:45

That's really interesting. So when you were described when you first shared then that you had difficulty hearing, and you had to come to school, wearing devices, I thought, oh, no, because school is hard enough, isn't it? We would spend that time, please don't let me stand out is often what we're looking for. So anything where you do, you know, you're clearly made to look different and then behave, you know, have to behave differently from the rest is, it doesn't usually end well. And when you said that it was character building, from my experience, things that are character building are seldom very pleasant at the time. Character building is great with hindsight, but it's pretty unpleasant when you're in the thick of it. So really great story that you managed to turn it to your advantage or to take, as you call it an embryonic skill, and decide to lean into it. And I'm going to talk to these kids. And so you developed that skill, Mike, and you've used that to your advantage since?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 13:51

I do believe that foundation has been the catalyst for me feeling comfortable with people.

Andy Follows: 13:58

And was it effective enough for you to not have too miserable time at school? Were you accepted and

Mike Ellenthorpe: 14:05

Well, yeah the reason I was accepted or included? accepted, I should say is that I probably didn't come across as somebody who was easily rolled over. What I did do is when we used the the phrase before about leaning in, I suppose one of the areas that I did lean into was sport. And from an early age, I played rugby. And I actually found that I was quite good for my age group and I happened to have a good teacher who spotted something. But what I ended up doing I thought to myself, well, if I got I wouldn't have thought exactly this then, but probably something similar in a younger younger guy's mind was that if I'm not so good at school, or my hearing isn't so good, I'm going to make sure that my rugby is better. So I would practice, I'd practice in the park, I think I'd go with my dad, I would try and train as much as I possibly could. I wasn't a particularly big guy. But I made sure that I tried to tackle the biggest guy. So it was almost in a way I was a bit overcompensating in a way. But I wanted to make sure I was a little bit of a little tiger on the, on the rugby field, and made me feel good. And if I was a good player, and I was important to the team, then I would be more accepted. And that sort of did pan out, that's what happened for me. If I didn't have the rugby, that could have been a bit different, is the truth

Andy Follows: 15:42

That's really interesting. And rugby prides itself on being a sport that's very inclusive, where there is there's a role for different body shapes and sizes. And it's great that you were able to take advantage of that. And I can imagine how, if there is a risk that you're going to get excluded because of something being slightly different about you, then nothing beats being successful in a team to bring with it inclusion, and a whole host of teammates and some status in the school. What happened, then, from an academic point of view, were you leaning towards particular subjects? Did you have certain things that interests you more than others?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 16:25

Honestly, no, I was a little bit lost is the truth, I mean, again, when you listen to the generation around now, it's such an epidemic, where they, they don't feel as though they belong, they're under pressure, they've got anxiety, they haven't got an identity, they're lost, I suppose we suffered with all of that many of us, maybe it wasn't the guidance, or I just didn't know where I actually fitted in. But I didn't understand what anxiety was, I didn't understand what pressure was the generation that I was from. And obviously, from a working class background, you have this sort of stoic type of environment around you, with your grandparents, and then with my Mum and Dad, and, you know, you just found a way to get on with it. And that was that. So no, I didn't is the honest truth. But what happened for me and from a development point of view was, I ended up missing quite a lot of exams towards the end of school, which was then obviously, then you get your grades. But then I ended up at the time, which obviously is becoming much more popular is what we would know as an apprenticeship. But I joined what was called the YTS. So I did that, and I ended up working in a hospital. So that's where my work journey. But before all of that, when we were younger, Sean and I, he led the way working for the local milkman. So eventually, I was old enough and big enough to carry a crate a milk, which was almost the size of me. So because I was quite fit, and I was playing a lot of rugby getting used to run everywhere with this crate, and I'd hop over fences. And so I'd do that. So we would do that before school in our, so you

imagine getting up at 4: 18:13

30 before school, I used to run two or three miles down the bottom of the lane to meet the milkman who's an absolute character of life. And then I joined my brother. And then he then moved on. And in, as well as that, I then did a double paper round on a Sunday, which was at the time you remember you got these big heavy the Times the Telegraph and the others. There were times where that my paperback was that heavy, I couldn't even get on my bike. And in fact, to be honest, I fell off a few times. And there was even times where it was wet and everything else and I'd walk back and get my Dad out of bed and he had a little mini van that he had for his joinery business. And I'd ask him, I'll split my three pounds that I get Dad if you can drive me around and help me to deliver the papers because I just number one I can't get on my bike. And number two, it's too bloody heavy. And anyway, I remember a few times bless him on his only lie in he would go and help me with the papers.

Andy Follows: 19:17

Decent of him Yeah and that work ethic from a very early age and then you said you I think is YTS is it was a youth training scheme something like that.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 19:27

It was yeah, I think that's spot on Andy to be honest with you.

Andy Follows: 19:31

So you found yourself in a hospital?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 19:35

I did. Yeah. The one thing I loved about the experience was that you did a rotation of every six months in different hospitals and different departments. And my favourite one was I was based in hospital called Whiston which is in Merseyside. It was in the general office and you were dealing with many people but part of my one of my responsibilities I used to go all the way around the hospital with security guards on a Monday, so we used to empty the telephone boxes and the vending machines. What the massive positive for me is that, you know, I'd go into the maternity department and see new life. And then then the other side of the scale, you'd see the other end, which is the end of, and then everything in between the burns department, the accident and emergency and you've got to see all different levels of joy but suffering and you sort of started to work out that life is unfair, sometimes life is incredibly tough. Some people you would see elated, and then others you would see absolutely devastated on their knees. So I was observing this and soaking this up on a daily basis. And I think with all of that exposure, again, going back to earlier times about building those sorts of skill sets, I found myself that I was able to talk to the youngest and the oldest and everybody in between. And a few people had said to me, you'd be perfect in sales, you should really think about being in sales, you're very customer friendly, very customer orientated, very comfortable. And you just had this way about you. And sort of, I took it on board. Then actually shortly afterwards, as the YTS the scheme was was coming to an end, I was actually offered a job in the hospital. But I knew that wasn't for me, it had served its purpose. And then I got a heads up of a role in Manchester. So when I think back of, you know, where I've travelled to, I've been very fortunate to travel sort of far and wide, I used to think Manchester was like, the other end of the world. Because you don't, you know, we were lucky as kids, because we know we got to go to Spain as a family earlier than a lot of a lot of families. And, you know, we thought we were real pioneers. And, you know, it's really quite funny when you think back but yeah, I used to think, you know, when I told my Dad and my parents, you know, I've got a job in Manchester, Manchester, so far away, but I see it was 25 miles, you know, it was quite daunting being on M62 For the first time. So I got a job working in the motor industry my working life started, the first brand that I joined was Fiat. And it was run by a really tough ass Yorkshire man called Derek Cook. It was DC Cooks, which were very big as a business. But he was a real tough guy, and enjoyed employing tough ass Yorkshire men as his general managers. It was in an area of Manchester, it's probably still classed as a regeneration area. Now it's in an area called Ancoats. But again, tough area, really not pleasant in many other ways. But again, another experience for me and another part of my foundation or building up of that ability to deal with things that are not easy. And this wasn't easy, because there was a young guy in the middle of Manchester. Mancunians are a tough hatrdy bunch. Don't take prisoners at all lightly. And I had to find my way in a quite a large sales team. Obviously I had to sell to survive, to sell to earn a living. And I've managed to do that.

Andy Follows: 23:38

How did you, Thank you, Sorry, I'm just fascinated now because I've heard stories about Derek Cook, and the culture in imagining what the culture was like, how did you reconcile that with how you would have liked to have treated people? You know, you're this friendly, approachable, affable guy, were you able, how were you able to be yourself and work in that environment?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 24:06

Probably because I, the work ethic is one thing, but I suppose, again, going back to the challenges with the hearing, and I think it's probably just building up that tenacity young, that young version of the tenacity or that survivability, and just working out that for me to continue. I can work hard but I have to after try and be savvy here. And what I did is try and work out where were the key areas that would help to facilitate my survival or my success. And it was all strangely enough, whilst I had the lack of hearing, it was about listening. And it was listening to the key points that actually they were pushing on a daily basis. So making sure that you were looking for the appointments, making sure that you had everything set up. The basics really that still apply today. And what I worked on was I worked on trying to make sure that my basics were really good. And my basics were consistent that allowed me then to have more often than not daily success that I needed, or certainly be enough of a weekly success, to keep me out of the firing line. But you're absolutely right. It was incredibly cutthroat the attrition rates was horrendous. You know, they wouldn't get away with how they dealt with people, then in today's world. And I think what I take from that is that I flipped the other way. And I goes, right, okay, I'm working in this environment. But when I get into a position of influence, I'm not going to treat people this way. So, again, just another part of the journey that showed me a way of how things were and how what I was experiencing but they were also teaching me again, I didn't always necessarily recognise it then.

Andy Follows: 26:04

Yeah, yeah. That makes, sounds like yeah, it does make sense. It sounds like you had the resilience that you've built up at school, you are bright enough to watch what's going on and to work out, right. That's what they want me to do. So as long as I keep doing that, then I'll be okay here. And I'm imagining you are still great with your customers. And then I know and our listeners will get to hear that you ended up with some incredible brands in some very desirable locations, leading some big teams. So it's going to be fascinating to hear the journey to there. Can you remember any of the thoughts that you had at that age about? Was that an ambition? Did you aspire to run the business to work for particular brands? Or was it more a case of putting one foot in front of the other and making sure this day goes well, on this week goes well, on this month goes well, and we'll see where it takes us.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 27:07

Do you know what the only thing I can recollect and I've used this in a couple of customer forums and sort of product launch events. And I've shared it because Well, number one, it's true. And Number Number two, I feel that it's probably my really earliest memory that I would, again, your phrase lean into. And I remember seeing a car, which stopped me in my tracks. And I'd looked at this car and saw the shape, and then obviously the noise. And I didn't have a clue what it was. And then I looked and I said to my dad, I said, What's that? And he said, No, that's a obviously in the UK, everybody calls it Porsche. But I'll share a different story another time where I was pinned up by three, six foot three Germans when I was in Stuttgart, and they said you English you always say Porsche, Porsche. And from ever that they aren't, I've always corrected everybody. So he said to me, Oh, that's a Porsche Carrera 911. So obviously, it was a very early one. And it always stuck with me. And he said, What do you think? I said, Well, I love it. Absolutely love it. I said, I'm either gonna own one dad or work for them. And when I am skipping forward, Andy, but when I actually there's a relevance to this, and I'll we'll come back, is when I got offered the job with Porsche. The first person I rang was my dad. I said, You remember when I saw that car? And I asked him, he said, a Porsche 911. He went I do, so what did I say to you? And he said, Well, you know, you'll own one or you'll work for them? And I said, Well, I'll just to let you know that I've had a phone call from the managing director, and I managed to get the job. I've got the job with Porsche and I just wanted you to know first. And yeah, it was a teary moment is the truth. There was a lot of emotions. But it was a great moment. I'll never forget that is the truth.

Andy Follows: 29:05

That was a lovely story of you at an early age, saying, I'm going to own one of those or work for that company. I love that. So thanks for sharing. Let me take a moment to tell you about our sponsors. Could you use some additional experience resources who can work alongside you and your team on a flexible basis to help you achieve your priorities? I started Aquilae in 2016 and since then, we've worked internationally with established automotive OEMs, EV startups, fintechs, and insurance companies to achieve their unique mobility goals. Aquilae team members are highly experienced senior leaders with complementary areas of expertise who've run businesses and divisions internationally in our industry, because we've all had many years experience of operating in the industry ourselves. We don't just advise our clients on what to do. Instead, we tend to work alongside them delivering their specific projects. We're happy to develop strategy and we're equally happy to then get involved delivering the plan. Mobility businesses are all about people processes and technology. We leverage our Aquilae Academy for people development, and Aquilae Consulting for those wider business topics. To give you some examples of the sort of work we do through the Aquilae Academy, we work with CEOs and their first line to develop cohesive leadership teams. We create continuous learning environments for leadership development, we develop bespoke programmes to improve the performance of specific teams and we provide one to one coaching for high performing individuals. To give you some examples of the sort of work we do through Aquilae Consulting. We help create paperless digital end to end customer journeys. For direct to consumer finance and subscription models, we conduct strategic reviews. For example, one client asked us what's the best financial services structure for each market we operate in. We produce feasibility studies for new market entry, we advise on and support regulatory applications. We help design, implement and monitor regulatory compliance procedures. We run tenders and vendor selection projects we conduct end to end operational reviews to improve effectiveness and efficiency. If you're looking for some help with people or business topics, and you like the idea of having some additional very experienced resources, who can work flexibly alongside you, please get in touch with me for a conversation, you can email me directly at andy@aquilae.co.uk. This episode is brought to you by ASKE Consulting who are experts in executive search, resourcing solutions and talent management across all sectors of the automotive industry in the UK and Europe. I've known them for almost 20 years and I can think of no more fitting sponsor for Career-view Mirror. They're the business we go to at Aquilae when we're looking for talent for our clients and for projects that we're working on. ASKE was founded by Andrew Macmillan, whose own automotive career includes board level positions with car brands and leasing companies, all ASKE consultants have extensive client side experience, which means they bring valuable insight and perspective for both their employer and candidate customers. My earliest experience of working with Andrew was back in 2004, when he helped me hire regional managers from my leasing Sales Team at Alphabet. More recently, when Aquilae was helping a US client to establish a car subscription business, ASKE Consulting was alongside as helping us to develop our people strategy and to identify and bring onboard suitable talent. Clients we've referred to ASKE I've had an equally positive experience. Andrew and the team at ASKE are genuinely interested in the long term outcomes for you and the people they place with you. They even offer the reassurance of a two year performance guarantee, which means they have skin in the game when working with you. If you're keen to secure the most talented and high potential people to accelerate your business and gain competitive advantage, do get in touch with them and let them know I sent you. You can email Andrew and the team at hello@askeconsulting.co.uk or check out their website for more details and more client feedback at www.akseconsulting.co.uk. ASKE is spelt A S K E you'll find these contact details in the show notes for this episode. Okay, let's get back to our episode. So where were we up to before we went?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 33:17

Well, yeah, so I think what we were talking about was the period of influence or how that journeys progressed. And I think from my side, I realised that the location of where I was in St. Helens was never going to be for me. And what was interesting, both of my brothers decided that also, what we did is what we were taught with regards to the work ethic was because we were doing the milk rounds, the paper rounds early, we started to understand by having a few extra pounds in our pocket. That gave us a little bit of independence. And actually, that gave us predominantly some choices. We weren't dependent we didn't waste the money. So I always used to love shoes and clothes and I'd make sure that I you know, again from my granddad that want the best not that I'm a materialistic person to be honest but that sort of gave me whoa I'm really proud of myself, but going back on to the career side, the journey that I had from from sort of the hospital in Manchester, certainly then obviously into the motor industry and has continued to this day. So...

Andy Follows: 34:34

Let's go back I think we were at DC Cooks in Ancoats selling Fiats and doing okay at it because you'd worked out how to thrive in that challenging environment. What was the transition out of that? Where did you go to and how did it come about?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 34:50

What happened was one of the guys moved on and happened to be I think he was friendly with a general manager. A Nissan dealership in Prestwich, which is North Manchester. It's actually the largest Jewish area outside of London. So very, very different environments, very different customers. And I was introduced to Kieran who was the general manager. And we had a good meeting. And he found out where I lived somehow and turned up at the family home knocked on the door, my mom answered, introduced himself and she let him in. I was out. And as I came home Kieran was in my lounge in my dad's chair, having a cup of tea talking to my mum, and I just couldn't work out what was going on. So it just basically said, Hi Kieran well, can I help you? And he said, Oh, I'm not leaving here without you agreeing to come and work with me and the team and my Mum sat there and you know as Mums do they fuss and talk very proud and telling him all the good things that and what a great lad he is and he'd be an asset to any team and all the things that Mums do it's completely embarrassing not that I needed that at all but anyway, it seemed to help so thank you Mum. Anyway long and short of it but I ended up getting into his car he's asked to use the phone he rang, this will show you the time, rang ahead to the dealership asked them to get a Nissan bluebird 1.8 LX prepared for PDI. We got in the car drove drove up to Prestwich, and by the time we've got there, showed me around the business and then he threw me a set of keys. He said, I'll see you Monday. And I thought I was absolutely I thought it I'd made it. Brand new 1.8 LX Nissan Bluebird, in silver, electric windows electric aeriel Blaupunkt, stereo, gee. Life isn't gonna get any better. So obviously, I took that opportunity to go around my friends, that first in there like, you've got to be kidding. For us. This is amazing. So yeah, that's what happened. It moved on to that one very nicely, had a great time. And he was a great bloke Kieran. And I remember him with fondness. To be honest, a real character helped me a lot, obviously, gave me the opportunity. And I never, I never forget people who are kind enough to recognise something maybe that I am that they could utilise. Or it could be leveraged to better the team. So every one of those people, I still remain friends with a lot of them. A lot of previous bosses have become really good friends. So did Nissan for a few years, and then the automotive side of my career then developed with Vauxhall. I was then asked then to step up a level and I ended up working with Saab in Manchester.

Andy Follows: 37:59

So was that upper level in role or in brand?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 38:03

We're still saying it well certainly not in role. I was still a sales guy. But I was joining a brand that what I would see is perceived as a step up in status. Yeah, more premium, the client base was more particular and that they had a very loyal customer base Saab. But what was interesting for me was it put me right into the centre of Manchester into the city. So that for me, I felt would be great for my development. And that's again, where I had to figure out how to survive because there was a team of four of us. But three of the guys been there for like five and six years plus, and every customer belonged to either Bob, or Robin, and another guy. And every single one was coming in, it was one of them. And so it took me a year to get any traction whatsoever. And I almost quit to be honest with you on numerous occasions, but for some reason I just I just wouldn't be beaten. And I thought now I've got to find a way for this to work. Anyway, all of a sudden, the year kicked in, I started to get a bit of traction, and it ended up being an absolutely brilliant job I loved it did that for five years. And in the latter part of that I was finding a lot of my customers in the city centre, I seemed to pick up a skill of networking and business development and opening doors and going hang on a minute. I don't want to wait for customers to walk in whilst I had a very good customer base, I wanted to be proactive and why should the city come to me I'll go to the city. What that did that gave me USP but it gave me a presence and I was the guy that was visible. I was the guy that people would recommend. I would turn up at networking events, you know, you'd have the dinners various things going on. I was always visible . And that taught me another massive skill. Number one, it taught me that I was comfortable with it. I was sort of comfortable being uncomfortable, if that makes any sense. It's not really not a natural thing to be out there all the time. We've all got a degree of gregariousness about us. But it helped to develop and fast track my comfortableness, of putting myself around and put myself about.

Andy Follows: 40:28

So some of them were formal networking events when you'd had this idea. How did you go about deciding, I'm going to have a USP, I'm gonna have a unique selling point, which I'm not going to wait for people to come in, and I'm going to rely on my own customer base, I'm going to be proactive, I'm going to go out and go to the city, what did you do?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 40:46

Well, through building relationships with the customers that I had, and one of the best things about selling well being in the automotive industry is being a young sales guy. What I loved was the diversity, every customer was different came from every different walk of life, they all had stories themselves, they were all generally interesting people, some were really lovely, and some were the opposite. But they you would build your skills up in in order to deal with those. But what happened was with the customers that I build the relationships up, predominantly, they were business people. So I thought, well, the best way to learn is to ask them was simply by asking as many questions as I could and say, Well, how do you grow your business? And what do you do to find new customers? How do you look after your customers better than the competitors? By asking these questions, what happened was when you do a lot of reading now, and there's a lot more resource available, is when you start to see key characteristics and traits of successful people. When you start asking those questions to business people and all my clients, and they were saying similar things? Well, there has to be something in that there's a trait. And then I worked out that, well, maybe that's what I have to be, I have to then maybe develop my offering, I have to be this, I have to look at that. So then I take it another level and just say, if I was to go and develop myself and my offers and my business and acquire more customers from the city, where would you recommend that I start? So they would say, Oh, well, I'm a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Mike, why don't you come as my guest? Oh, what's the Chamber of Commerce, because I didn't know too much about it didn't really know the impact of what that would do. You know, that's one example Andy really I would use is that all of a sudden the door opened. And then I was introduced to this person who would introduce to that person who would introduced to another and if you stay the course, and that's the key is if you go for a short while you won't be successful is the truth is the bottom line. If you just keep chipping away, and as the phrase, we've heard many of us keep kissing the frogs, there will be a number of princes at the end of it. So they were my building blocks into acquiring that confidence and those early skills that then taught me when I then moved into bigger roles, that I wasn't going to sit and wait for business to come to me. Yes, we will service that business. And we'll do it really well better than anybody else. But what if we really want to be successful, we need to understand our marketplace, understand where the gaps are, understand where the competitors are good, strong or weak, and actually then formulate our action plan and attack to go hang on, we're gonna be better than the rest. So those skills really helped me and still do is the truth. They're still very relevant for me today.

Andy Follows: 43:57

I love that answer. And it demonstrates your genuine curiosity, you'd also taken ownership of your business you saw what you were doing is this is my business, and how do I grow my business, and then to have the curiosity to talk to your customers about how they grew theirs. And it's a great reminder that people like to help they love to be asked by someone who's genuinely curious. And they love to help people very true, who they believe are going to actually take advantage of their help. And you clearly did so them inviting you along to the Chamber of Commerce. I think it's really good advice. And I can imagine you're really standing out because most people would have been very comfortable to stay in the showroom and wait for the retail customers to come in. So was this the beginning of you transitioning from being sort of a showroom based salesperson to something more or did you do that for quite a long time? What was the...

Mike Ellenthorpe: 44:49

Yeah, I did it for about 18 months and then what happened was, was recommended to a guy who was the general manager of Mercedes Benz, but he worked for a family called HL Gorner, which was based in Wigan, Warrington and in Clapham, in that North Lancashire Yorkshire border. And again, for me, I saw that as a progression, because obviously it was then going into, again, another higher status of brand. It was another challenge for me with regards to that type of clientele. I always had the aspirations I'd learned, you know, from starting right at the bottom as the young rookie guy that I described at Fiat, I realised that I wanted to be more at a certain end of the market. So I took that opportunity, I joined Simon, again, sales guy, obviously, you could tell that I was offering a bit more than maybe a couple of the other guys that he had in his team, he could see and sense that there was an opportunity to leverage maybe some of the skills that I've learned and that I was wanting to develop further. And I was quickly elevated to showroom manager, which again, was quite a brave move on his part, because the guys were very established that some of the guys had been there for 10 plus years. So for me to come in, and within six months, be then promoted was a real challenge. Because number one, I was just trying to get established and accepted into that environment, a very mature environment. But again, that never fazed me because I drew on all of the stuff that I'd had in my locker. And the journey so far. And thought, okay, well, it's not my fault that I'm being given this opportunity, you guys have all had the same opportunities, just that I have been seen that maybe I could offer something that they don't have. So I didn't take any prisoners, to be honest with you. I didn't feel you know, I didn't deserve it, I felt that I did. And I felt that it was another part of the challenge. It was my first step really going into having other people where I'm having to help them. And I was having, you know, your budget and your targets and various other things. So not just your own individual targets, collective profit targets, performance targets. And I was then tasked with trying to get performance out of them, rather than just myself, which as anybody, we've listened to the stories, and what we're talking about is, if they remember their first time when they had to move into that position, it's quite daunting. It's a very different dynamic. Because when you're quite good at what you do, and you've got your domain, you're very comfortable with it. And you can make a few mistakes. And but I think but you were dealing with you, when you have to deal with others. It's a whole different challenge. So that journey carried on for a number of years, it was fantastic love that. Mercedes Benz then terminated. I don't know if you'll remember that Andy, but Mercedes Benz terminated. Every dealer in the UK, it was actually unprecedented. And it really did throw a cat amongst the pigeons. It unsettled everything. And what Mercedes decided to do is as OEMs sometimes have tried, they thought that they they would want a bigger slice of the pie and that they could retail cars. What was interesting is it turned out that they worked out but that wasn't really the business model. And then they ended up selling it back to multi groups. But what I did is because we were under termination, Daimler Chrysler retail, then opened up, if I remember rightly, it was Manchester, Birmingham and London. So they took all of those areas. So all of the families who had the dealerships they all sold to Daimler Chrysler retail, and then the employees have the option to join or not. So Simon got offered the role of general manager for Manchester. And he then came around to my house and just said, I want you to come with me.

Andy Follows: 48:54

Was your mum there this time?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 48:58

Thankfully not. But she'd have done exactly the same to be honest with you as what she did in the first time, so I wouldn't have been able to stop her even if I'd tried Andy to be very honest. So yeah, so what happened was I joined Simon in Manchester, and the facility was quite an older facility, but it's opposite the Etihad Stadium and Manchester City stadium and that that area was a real regeneration area and at the time, just didn't know what was going to happen with the area. But it certainly wasn't a Mercedes Benz location is the truth. Because of the termination, You know, the likes of say Goodman Reed, Portman, who were massively established businesses for Mercedes Benz, they were all gone. And we were in this location that nobody knew anything about. So the one positive is the obviously I'd had some time served with the brand. The other positive, which fell right into my favour, was it was back into the City of Manchester. So I'd kept a lot have really good relationships anyway. And we quickly worked out that we were in a really difficult location. And customers didn't know where we were, they weren't coming to us, we're obviously starting to become under pressure with volumes, Daimler Chrysler wanted some serious action. So what we did is I, again, used my contacts to go into the city. And probably one of my best achievements was that through my contacts previously, I got introduced to a lady who was still the CEO of the Law society and absolutely brilliant lady. And her name is Fran Eccles. Basically, she ran the Law Society in Manchester, got talking to Fran, and found out that she had about three and a half 4000 members, and they took in predominantly Manchester, but certainly in the area surrounding. And these were top lawyers, barristers, and the accountants that served that industry. So they were perfect Mercedes Benz potential owners. So I talked to her and I said, well, what could we do? And she well, one thing you could do, Mike, is that the sponsorship is up for renewal soon, and the the other company who have it they're making noises that they might renew, but they may not? Would you like to have first refusal? Would you like to know more about it? I said, Absolutely. And it ended up working out that we took the sponsorship, I positioned it internally, we paid several 1000 pounds to sponsor the Law Society, we tend to put on their balls we put on functions, we put on test drive events, dealership events, promoted the cars, we had a fleet of cars available for exclusive test drives that they could use on a weekend. And that snowballed to be honest. Because we put ourselves on the map that made people aware of where we were, and and we made them understand that we were in location to visit and consider. And then by those who didn't want to come to us, we made it very simple and easy for us to go to them. And that was a catalyst for really strong growth. So we smashed targets and both units and profits become well recognised within the group. And that was superb. I mean, I loved it because I had some contacts and a few football clubs that had started developing with a previous role. And then I leveraged those and got introduced to other football clubs. And I was then the face for the football clubs. So I would go down to the training grounds, which was fantastic for me, because I love sport. I love that environment. I love the whole team ethic. So to learn from that environment was superb. So yeah, I mean, I have absolutely amazing memories. I'm forever grateful. Simon always reminds me that he opened the door and kick started my career, which obviously, I have to just say yes, Simon, you're absolutely right.

Andy Follows: 53:05

However, it was built on your entrepreneurialism, the USP you developed it was that network you'd created? Yeah, that entrepreneurialism to say, I'm going to go and talk to some people and see how...

Mike Ellenthorpe: 53:18

Simon Simon, Yeah, Simon needs to take credit for this because he could have easily kiboshed the idea because the end of the day he was my boss, but what he saw was an opportunity. And again, equally, this is something I learned from him is that actually you may not have all the answers. So you may have people around you. And don't be afraid to surround yourself with people who also have stronger skill sets that you do. Your role is to extract those skill sets and that strength to actually make your position your offerings even stronger. And that's what I learned those things from Simon in particular, but he embraced it massively. I was grateful that he recognised it and didn't suppress what I could see was a great opportunity ended up being a great achievement for the whole team.

Andy Follows: 54:12

Yeah, so that so easily could have been a story that we never got to hear couldn't it could so easily have been? Well no that's going to cost money. So, ya know, that is you're right to recognise the leadership that had to be involved. You know, the acceptance, okay. It's not my idea, but I still think it's a good one. Let's do it.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 54:32

Yeah, absolutely.

Andy Follows: 54:35

So there's a lot of, you know, a lot of places you've been to. So when did the international piece start? And how many roles are the before you got overseas?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 54:46

Well, actually, it's coming. So it's a perfectly timed question. So it looks as though we've even scripted this Andy, to be honest, but that's not the truth. Yeah, what happened was, I was sort of five years in with Mercedes. Still loving it. But I'd always had an itch that I wanted to scratch, which was, I'd always had this fascination with working overseas and testing myself in another environment. So that was always there. And what happened was I subscribed to Automotive Management, which was a sort of an online subscription. And one morning, an email popped in from Automotive Management. And it said opportunity in the Gulf, and I'd had a couple of guys that I knew that had gone to Dubai. And as soon as I saw opportunity in the Gulf, I was like, let's have a look. So I was intrigued. I was super excited. So I progressed it. And then what happened was, I got a phone call from a headhunter A few days later, saying, Mike thanks, got your CV, I'd like to talk to you a little bit more, asked me lots of questions. And that was the end of the conversation. And then I didn't hear anything for about a week or 10 days went quiet. And I was like well that didn't go as well as I thought then. And then I got a phone call from the headhunter. And he said, Mike, could you make a meeting in London in two weeks time to meet the owners? So I said, Well, can I have a little bit more information about the business and work the location and what is it, it says it says opportunities in the Gulf? I'm not quite sure what, is it Dubai?

Andy Follows: 56:30

It's quite a big geographies.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 56:34

Yeah. So he said, Oh, sorry. I thought I'd covered that with you. No, no, it's in Bahrain. And he thinks to himself where the bloody hell is Bahrain? So I'm sort of blagging it to be honest with you. Oh, right. Okay. Obviously ended the conversation got straight online to see where the blood hell is Bahrain. So then saw this tiny little islands thinking, really? Wow. Okay. And what happened was, I went down to London to meet the owner, Zayed Al-Zayani, the Al-Zayani family in Bahrain are probably within the top three influential families, very, very strong, very well connected with the royal family and government. And they have an English GM, or who was also on the sofa in London in Zayed's apartments. So headhunter showed me in. He said, you've got 45 minutes, then soon as 45 minutes is over, Zayed, and Paul needs to carry on with the others. No problem. Anyway, it went very, very well. And two hours later, the headhunter kept walking in. Zayed said no, it's okay they can wait, please apologise, I just need to carry on talking with Mike. And it went very, very well. And it was brilliant. Such a great, great experience. First time for me to be in that environment. I was extremely nervous for, but quietly, sort of confident. It was almost the proverbial Swan really trying to be serene on the surface, but really paddling madly underneath. Because he's..

Andy Follows: 58:06

Thanks for saying that you were nervous. You've already said you sort of trained yourself to be comfortable being uncomfortable. So this sounds like this might have been uncomfortable. But I'm going to stay with it. Because this is worth it.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 58:21

Yeah, definitely. And I think I think that one thing I would draw before I sort of continue is that as life's gone on, it's certainly I would say, only recently, but I've really worked out the truth is that, you know, a lot of us don't really recognise that there are some opportunities we get when they never ever get again, sometimes we get these opportunities, and we don't necessarily put a massive value on them. So I, I remember being mindful, a little bit of going, Wow, I actually think this is a special opportunity. This could be massive.

Andy Follows: 58:55

What made the meeting? What made the meeting take so long? Or what kept the engagement going? Can you remember?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 59:05

If I recall correctly, I remember sharing examples of growing businesses. And the tools that I've created and the processes that I've created as an individual, but collectively as part of a team. And what they actually then generated. Number one, what we learned what was good, what was not what worked, what didn't, and then basically sharing those, but before I'd shared them, asking them a question of what are your current challenges? Where would you like to be as a business? Where do you see the brand in the next three years? How would you like to get there? How have you not got there in the past what's prevented you? So then what I would try and do is then ask those questions first, like you would on any qualification, when you're dealing in a sales environment is to qualify the situation. And then if you can, because going back to what I shared with you before, whilst my hearing has never been good, I'd like to think that I've tried to develop a better listening, which sounds ridiculous in some ways, but it's what I had to do, I had to adapt. So what I did is I listened, try listening to where the challenges are, where the gaps are, and then go okay, well, I've potentially got a solution for you. And and let me explain why.

Andy Follows: 1:00:37

And that kept a dialogue going for a couple of hours with you mindful that this is an opportunity. You weren't casual about it. I'm sure that every minute ticked by you were thinking this is, you know, every minute I'm still in here, it's got to be a good sign.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:00:55

But you know what, I swear, I swear to God, Andy but when the headhunter came in, and it was over, I genuinely thought it was the 45 minutes. I didn't realise as I walked out, Bill said to me, you do realise you've been in there over two hours. And I couldn't tell you have any recollection of that. So absolutely not. Okay, I have no recollection of time at all.

Andy Follows: 1:01:14

You are in the zone, you are in a state of flow.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:01:17

Yeah. But it's a really, I want to share this part of this. And we can maybe thin out other parts. But this this is a really, for me is a key moment. And I was driving home on the M6 northbound town from London. And I got a phone call from Bill, the headhunter. And obviously it was a couple of hours later. And he said, Mike, just wanted to touch base. Thank you very much for coming down. Just wanted to give you some feedback. It went very, very well. In fact, to be honest with you, just to let you know, you're down to the final three. I went, Wow, brilliant. Thanks, Bill. Really appreciate that. And he said, No, no, no. It obviously went well. He said, I can't believe how long you're in there. So yeah, no, no, it's really, really good. I'll be in touch with the next steps. I said, Okay, thank you very much. So I arrived home. And I got straight online, went on to British Airways. And I found a flight to Bahrain. And Gail came up said, What are you doing? And I said, I'm gonna fly to Bahrain tonight. And she went, what? She says you can't. I said, I can because British Airways says I can. So I remember it being you know, at the time you thinking, wow, you know, 550 600 pounds, you know, I had a young family and I had Jordan was a baby and Elliot was was only a little guy. So anyway, I booked the flights. I got the shuttle down from Manchester in the following morning, six o'clock down to Heathrow. I bumped into this guy by mistake. And his name was Andy and he ended up befriending me works in Bahrain himself for a number of years, he could see that I was an absolute rookie on the international potential scene. I told him the story. He was in business class, I wasn't. But he kept coming back to me to make sure I was okay. And that stuck with me forever, because he recognised something in himself when he first went out there. So anyway, I, I hired a car arrived into Bahrain, it was about 35 to 38 degrees. So what I decided to do was I mystery shopped, all of the dealerships, and I mystery shopped, the company that I was in the running for that evening, I went back to the hotel, and a rang Paul General Manager, the group General Manager, and I said, Paul, can we meet? Is it possible we can meet again? And I said, Mike, thanks for calling. I'd love to sit. But actually, it's my birthday. And I'm not in London. I'm in Bahrain. I said, Oh, great. So am I. And then it went quiet, because he couldn't quite sort of digest what I just said. And he said, You're in Bahrain. Why are you in Bahrain? I said, Well, if I've got a 33% chance of getting the what I consider to be a life changing opportunity, I thought it was worth coming out to see what Bahrain has to offer and what you are like as a company, he said Mike, let me ring you back. So anyway, he rang me back about an hour later, he said, Mike meet me in this bar in this hotel, and we'll have a bit of dinner, and we'll have a beer. We'll just have a chat. So anyway, that's what we did. And we chatted, and he said to me, said, I've rang Zayed and I've told him what you've done. I know that you weren't his number one choice. You were one of the three but you weren't number one choice. He said you just elevated yourself to number one spot and I have a contract here in my pocket. And Zayed would like to offer you the role. And he's happy for you to take the contract back home with you talk to your wife, and then you can let us know in the next 48 hours if that's convenient. If you need longer, let us know. And I said I don't think I do. I think as far as I'm concerned, I will speak to Gail. But you've got a provisional yes for me. And that's how it was Andy. That's what happened. So I did get home. I did climb back into bed with Gail, it was late one night and she said, you're going aren't you, you've got the job. And I said, let's get some sleep. We'll talk in the morning.

Andy Follows: 1:05:36

Oh, my goodness, thank you for sharing that. That is a cracking story. And well done for sorry I'm actually shedding a few tears. Here. I am a big softy. But that was just moving. So

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:05:48

Why are you? Why? Why? Tell me why though. Interesting. You're, we're talking together. But it's interesting for me to know why is that? What what's the impact?

Andy Follows: 1:05:57

I love, I just love people grabbing hold of stuff, and taking steps beyond what would have been expected. And coming good in it. I mean, it's the stuff movies are made of. I just love that spirit. And nothing fills me up more than stories of people overcoming adversity. Or, as you did, you took yourself from one of three to I'm gonna get on a flight. And I'm gonna go and I love the fact that you're sharing. That's the sort of stuff that people do who end up getting good opportunities. It's not because they're just lucky. It's because they take risks. They they go the extra mile. So I'm thinking I'm sitting here thinking this is fantastic content. However, I want to go back, because I am curious about how much did Gail know, when you were coming up the M6 from London? Did she know why you're in London? Had you talked about there's a job in the Gulf? And I'm gonna go and if if I get it, are you up for this? How well aligned were you before that?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:07:07

That again, that's that's a cracking question. But the truth of the matter was, was the one thing I had in my favour is that Gail was a professional dancer. And she fulfilled her dream, and travel the world and she was nomadic from an early age. You know, I learned things from Gail. So I knew that I knew there was opportunity with both of those because she broadened her horizons massively, lived in three or four countries before I even met her. But obviously, at the stage we were at, she'd become a young mum. Whilst Gail recognised that I wanted to broaden my horizons, I wanted to challenge myself. So she sort of got that. But where there was a misalignment was I had just been offered a GM job with Volvo with a dealer group, which was a big step up for me, in the UK market were interested in. It didn't excite me. And I walked away from it. And I sat with Gail and said, Listen, I'm going to give this a crack. Let me go for six months. And I'll give it a go. But before I did have that conversation, I needed to talk to Dad, and I wanted his wisdom and his advice. And I told him the situation. And he just was very simple about his response. And he shared a story with me that I didn't even know about. He said, When I was a young guy and I had a young family, and I had an opportunity to live in New Zealand, it was a job in New Zealand, it excited me and you know, then I was put off, Mum didn't want to go and various other things came in and I decided to back down when my instinct told me that really its a shoot that we should be doing. So I let that opportunity go. And I've regretted it ever since. So my advice to you would be don't let the opportunity get on. Don't regret it. Try it. If you don't like it. The worst case scenario is you come home. So don't give yourself some space with Gail just have an agreements whereby she knows where the boundaries are. So she's she has the detail, then she can work it out if she's comfortable or uncomfortable or so I took that sort of advice and wisdom and I then used what he shared with me as an alignment and an agreement with Gail. And when I did sit down with her, she's basically said well if you think I'm going to the Middle East you can sod off. So she was quite a little bit anti didn't take it as well as I had hoped. So I thought okay, I'll leave it, leave it with her for a bit. So what I did is, I decided to go online and create a little pack for her. Like of all the schools, all the social side of things, the cultural side of things a bit more about the country, all the stuff that she'd need to know, not just all the flowery stuff, but I think some of the balanced content, and I've decided just to leave it on the bed, and basically had a label on the front, and it just said, Bahrain. So she then digested the contents. And then she wanted to talk. And then she'd ask a bit more. And that's what happened and and I ended up going out, I took the job and and then four weeks later, Gail and boys joined.

Andy Follows: 1:10:42

And how important was it to you? How important was it to you that all the family would be going at some point?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:10:49

Well, it well, it wouldn't have worked without it. I was conscious of the risk, but I was conscious of the risk of not doing it. And so when I got there, I, I had a very strong feeling that Gail would like it. But yes, of course, I did take a risk. And the other risk I took is not seeing my two little boys for four weeks, which seemed a very long time. So when I first got into the apartment in Bahrain, it all became very real. I felt very isolated, very lonely and thought, Oh, my God, how am I gonna deal with this? And then each day just got slightly better. But there was times where I was, you know, I was tearful. I thought, am I, what am I doing? I had lots of self doubts. I really was all those emotions, were almost overwhelming. But I just about found an extra little bit of something in the locker, there was a lot of self talk. But there was a lot of a lot of doubts. And I just kept listening to what my Dad had said and that was just give it six months, just take each day as you can, I'm sure it will get better. And that's how it worked.

Andy Follows: 1:11:59

I find it's so helpful. I always imagine other people find it so helpful as well to hear that the reason you were able to do that wasn't because you're somehow don't feel fear, or don't feel doubt, or have overwhelming levels of confidence. You felt doubt you felt concern, you felt nerves, all these things. But you pressed on any way you had the self taught you had the inspiring component of your dad saying, Don't let this be something you regret. Don't miss the opportunity. And I think it's so helpful for people to hear that. That's what it's really like, and then it gets gradually better and better. And you've got your comfort zone has grown to including working in Bahrain, now is something that you feel totally comfortable doing. Yeah, absolutely. So thanks for sharing that. And thanks for sharing about how it worked with Gail because when organisations offer somebody a job or when someone decides to go and work in a different place, one of the things that frequently causes that to end prematurely is personal circumstances don't work out. So you have to look at it from that rounded perspective. I think so that's why I wanted to dive into that. And hats off to you for sharing it and to Gail, for going on the journey with you. So tell us a little bit about life in Bahrain and what happened? And what came after?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:13:27

Yeah, I mean, what I would say is I'd start by sort of saying what, what the end point was the whole journey, and it had such a massive impact on us as a family. It was the best decision that we ever made. Gail came out with the boys shortly after me arriving four weeks. I could sense that actually, it was going well, but I didn't say a word. Gail then returned, returned to the UK.

Andy Follows: 1:13:56

Don't mess with it.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:13:58

Now it's a coward. Exactly. Absolute coward who just thought you know, let's let this evolve.

Andy Follows: 1:14:05

You were canny you were playing it well.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:14:08

So what happened was Gail returned about six weeks later, and it was the first time I'd ever experienced Ramadan. So that was fascinating for me, I was soaking all that experience up and so Gail came over. I just moved into this new place. And I was very fortunate the company had given me a furniture allowance. So I I sort of as most blokes do just sort of go right. There you go babe, I'd like you to go and furnish so obviously that was played right into Gail's hands. She thought that was a great task. And off she went and I met her later. I could see that this was going extremely well. She basically came out and said I've decided that me and the boys are going to come out. We need to crack on and find schools. So that was brilliant news. I'd already been working on the schools been one of the benefits of working with the family that I did is that obviously the influences and the doors that could open so we've got the boys into the best school great school. Absolutely fantastic. There's a there is a slightly funny story with Elliot our, our eldest, he was really happy in the UK and and Gail has given me the heads up to say Elliot's not coming he does want to, he's quite angry about it. So I said, Right, okay, so set up a call with him and said, right, buddy, what's on your mind? He said Dad that I'm not coming to Bahrain, I'm staying here. I said Aw Okay. All right, fine, no problem. I've said number one, you're only 10? Or you're about to be 10. I said the other thing as well is that I can I ask you a question? How are you going to go to Tesco or Asda and do your shopping? I said, Do you know how to use the washing machine and the microwave? And how were you going to get yourself to school. And you can see his sort of confidence is spinning around and he said, I'll sort it Dad, I'll find a way. I said, you know what It's a shame that you're not thinking of coming. He said, why? I said I was gonna get your new laptop. And he said, No, that's interesting. He said, What type? And I said, whichever one you'd like. So I used complete bribery. That happened to be the catalyst for him to say, Yes, I'm coming not that he had any choice. But he almost felt that he'd made a big decision, a big boy decision that he was going to come. But what was really interesting, he was the one who wanted to leave the least, he was upset with me for going. And then he was upset for me when the journey sort of came to its end. So but yeah, I mean, the the experience was brilliant. The boys have benefited massively from it, they have more international friends than they do, I suppose UK, France, we use the location to travel one thing that's really important to Gail and I was when one thing that we love is to travel, and we use that location to travel East predominantly, we're very, very lucky, incredibly lucky to have done that, and actually share that with the boys. So that travel bug, seeing new places and experiencing new cultures are stuck with the boys massively, so much so that Elliott, our eldest, actually lives in Bali. So we went there as a, as a young family, you could tell that he connected with that area in that particular location. And so yeah So that's what that's what that experience as provided to him. They realise his eyes were wide open be exposed to so much more is that he's absorbed a different way of life. The whole thing was, was amazing. From a job perspective, having worked very closely with Zayed in particular, obviously, with Paul, I was exposed to things that I've never dreamed of. And this is what I would share with anybody is that if you do take risks, and you do push your boundaries, you'd be amazed at what could come out from the other side. And the things that come into your life that you'd never ever dreamt would happen. So for example, I was responsible for dealing with the senior members of the royal family to sit in the these palaces waiting to be taken in and thinking it was only a few years ago, just a simple guy from St Helens. And here I am. What am I doing here? This is amazing. It's unbelievable. Difficult to actually just put into words to anybody if I'm really honest with you, not many people, really, I suppose understand. It can't relate to it. And a lot of the things I experienced Andy was really difficult to talk about. You didn't want to tell your family.

Andy Follows: 1:19:01

Oh, I see. You could have talked to people about it.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:19:03

Well, I couldn't because it would sound as though you're boasting or you were elevating your situation. And it was a difficult thing to share. Anybody that on the international and any of the expatriate friends, they understood, you could talk to it, but people back home, you just couldn't. So it was a strange, strange thing that I observed. And it's a dynamic that I had become aware of very quickly. But yeah, I didn't talk about it much when I came home. My family knew but but I didn't really talk about it too much.

Andy Follows: 1:19:39

Yeah. How long did you spend in Bahrain?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:19:43

Six years, or with the same company and from a performance side of things for the company we took that really from when I qualified Zayed of where the company was one of his big things that he wanted to achieve was to break Mercedes Benz dominance in the country, because all of the government contracts or royal contracts, a lot of obviously the blue chip companies out there that we're using. And I was responsible for the BMW brand. And we set out a strategy, basically a three year strategy to break that stranglehold. And what I did is I replicated the approach that I had in Manchester. And what you'll find with the senior figureheads in the family, they don't like to be seen to actually ask for favours. But if you're able to position things in the correct way, and this is what I learned in dealing with another culture in another language, number one, I worked hard to learn the language, because I wanted to earn the respect. So I would always open my conversations in Arabic, and try and that develops and became to a good standard, what was always interesting, they will switch the conversation back to English, because they wanted to flex their English, but then I'd always end the conversation in Arabic. But what we what we did is I got an understanding quickly with Zayed that, if you open the door just a little bit, leave the rest to me. So for example, one of the strategies and opportunities that I see was with the national carrier, Gulf Air, the airline, and they had around about 550 600 pilots, these guys were very well paid. I knew a few of them, but we weren't selling cars to enough of them. So I approached BMW. And I said, I need your help to structure, a corporate deal. I need special pricing. But what I understood from BMW, is that they are probably the best brand I've ever worked with regards to understanding commercial deals and structuring a strategy of how to capture more business. So their philosophy is we're willing to back you, but you need to tell us what we're going to get in return. And so I went with a plan, I said, I need this much. And if you give me this much, I'm gonna sell that many more cars. So then they understood what the return on investment would be. And we did that, we then got the business that escalated word of mouth business, was very positive. And then within that three years, we then overtook Mercedes Benz, which they had never done ever.

Andy Follows: 1:22:39

That would have gotten down very well Mike.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:22:42

Well it does for Zayed because you know what it's like for these guys. They like their toys, they like the bragging rights, they sit in their majlises at night. And then if you've got any one ups, they escalate that. So that it all helps. So I'd let Zayed fluff his feathers and be the big guy. But actually that ended up benefiting those who filtered down into into the business. So that was recognised by BMW was recognised in the whole of the region. So one of the mantras that we use when we represented the company, I always used to say when in any of the meetings are Bahrain may be small, but we think big. And that was grasped by the regional office, they absolutely loved it. And it was interesting, we were the smallest market, but we were almost outselling Saudi Arabia, is because we had a proper strategy, we went tackling the business consistently. And then we were used as best practice in the region. And then even in Munich, they would come over and look at well, how does the small island actually do that? Why is the rest of the region not doing more? So yeah, it was just an unbelievable experience that I will never forget, be eternally grateful that I got the opportunity, eternally grateful that my family have had the exposure and the experience. And I do believe it's it's benefited, us all massively to be honest.

Andy Follows: 1:24:12

I love the way you were using skills and experience that you've developed, for example, in Manchester, and you brought that across. That's another thing that I find fascinating when you have people learning as they go through life and leveraging that experience in different environments, hopefully find themselves in a role where they can use as much as what they've learnt in the past as possible in the next role. What happened after Bahrain then what caused you to leave? Where did you go?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:24:44

It was well documented, there was some issues in the region. And unfortunately, Bahrain encountered some local uprising, which was very unpleasant. And with the contacts that I had and the level of exposure I had with the royal family and other influential people, I was always getting a flavour for what was going on what was the thinking And the sentiment wasn't looking good. So from absolutely nowhere, I got an opportunity or I got a contact, they rang me and just said, I've been given the details, would you be interested in talking to us with regards to a role for Porsche. And obviously, as I shared earlier, that Porsche is a brand that had been an aspirational brand on myself, something that made an impact on me when I was younger, and I'd always had that ambition to to be part of the brand. So long story short, is that I have had a couple of interviews, I met up with the managing director of Porsche Middle East, which again, there's a guy who's become a very, very dear friend, I went for the role got down to the final two, then when I was down to the final two I had to do a presentation to the board, one of the presentations was 30 minutes about yourself. But I'd rang home, Jordan answered my youngest and just said, Oh dad, I heard about the Porsche job that brilliant, well done down to the the final two, that's amazing. And what happened was, it was him a, he looked into the camera. And he just said to me, Dad, what can I do to help bearing in mind, he is 11? And I said, Well, actually, just give me an idea. And they just come to me, and I'll just, I'll position it with you and see what you think. He said, Yeah, what is it Dad? I said, Would you mind doing a testimonial about that? And he said to me, yeah. He said, What would you like me to say? Say anything other than what you're saying. So he went off, and within an hour, he had taken his laptop, created a video. And he had sent it to me. And I still have that video on my phone. And I never edited it never changed a single thing. And what I did is I got my best friend, he did a little overview. And then Simon, who was my boss at Mercedes Benz, who is a very dear friend. He was somebody from a professional capacity. And then I ended it with Jordan. So I got this video done. Did it all add it all edited. I then did an overview of me ie what my interests were and various other things and just said, Guys, I've got to be honest with you, I can't stand up in front of you talk to you about me for 30 minutes. But what I am going to do is introduce you to three people who know me better than anybody else, please, I'd like you to see this video, bang, and I just played the video. And it was incredible. And it was a massive risk. But I was prepared to take the risk because I thought it was the best approach. And the bottom line

Andy Follows: 1:28:15

I think Sorry, I just the originality the genius there and the the authenticity of it and the thought of getting your son to do that. And I just love it Mike its brilliant.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:28:31

Now honestly so I and I'm genuinely delighted to share it because it may just inspire may just have an impact, it may just help somebody just in some way so for me it's it's not about my journey, what I've done, it's how it can potentially just help others.

Andy Follows: 1:28:51

What's coming very clear to me though is you've taken some risks, you've jumped on a plane to Bahrain, you've you've done this thing, you know, thought outside the cliche think outside the box, you've done some incredible things that have facilitated this journey that you've been on. So sorry, there you were, you shoot you said you've hit play and let them watch the video. What were you thinking when you're thinking about okay, this is a bit of a risk. Were you watching their faces and thinking how....

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:29:23

I so was, honestly, so was I don't profess to be an aficionado of body language, but you can sort of sense that some people were like, what's going on? Others were like smiling. Others were very closed. A bit formal, but I internally I was smiling to see you know, a friend, a boss who's become a very good friend and then my my son, who to be honest with you absolutely smashed it out of the park. And what happened was George, the managing director, it all finished, and it was three or four days later that I got the phone call. And it was the longest three or four days of my life is through. Just wanted to know. And I was so tempted to pick up the phone and being in, you know that sales guys always, you know, making sure you're following up and making sure that you know you, you're not letting an opportunity pass those instincts were sort of bubbling away. And I found that incredibly difficult, but I had to learn the patience and say hang on a minute. It'll only come when they're ready. I'm not in control of this. So then I got the phone call from George. And he just said, Mike, I just wanted to give you a call. Apologies not rang you earlier. But I just wanted to let you know that we're extremely happy to be offering you the role, we'd be delighted for you to join the team. It was incredibly tight between you and the other candidates. And I said to him, I said, George, can I ask you what was the difference? And they said, Well, I've got to be honest with you, the video was the difference. But in particular, your son's part just touched a nerve with me, because I'm a dad of two myself. And that was the bit that got you across the line. And the scoring mechanism that we have, you outscored the other candidate by two points, which is incredible. I've never seen anything so close. So Jordan is often referred to as the little chap that helped to facilitate Dad getting the job. So just as a just a dovetail into an earlier part. Once I'd received that phone call from George, the first person I rang was my Dad. And that's when I rang him to tell him that I'd got the job with Porsche. And he was obviously naturally over the moon. So yeah, we move to Dubai, which obviously I knew Dubai very well, because the head office for BMW was was based and still is Dubai, which obviously you'd known yourself well.

Andy Follows: 1:31:59

Yes. And how did that compare?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:32:02

It was very different because it was my first move into an OEM role. So working outside of the retail world so I'd basically worked in retail from being that rookie sales guy up to sort of that sort of senior management role within an operation so but I'd always had again, he was a bit like the lean in the northwest of England wanting to be international I had another itch, that needed to be scrapped, which was if I want to progress and in this industry, I need to have as many skill sets as possible and diversity is valued if it's obviously it's positioned correctly if it has a value. So I thought to myself, well, it would be useful if I moved across to the OEM side and shared my retail experience so again, going back to that qualification that I've done with the Bahrain job on sat on the sofa in London, when I met with George initially I qualified George to say, what is it that you need from me? What What would you require from me? Why are you talking to guys from a retail world? What are you missing? What gaps are you looking to fill? What are your biggest challenges? So again, by having that conversation with me, I was able to extract that George wanted a very strong retail operator because the regional partners that they have needed that leadership and experience and and the processes and the tools and obviously somebody who could have credibility number one who sold cars for two who's managed teams and number three years run operations, from before who was P&L responsible for several million dollars and who understood the region. Thankfully, I seem to tick all of those boxes so obviously there was a value to them that they needed and obviously I was massively grateful for the opportunity and found it exciting. So I sat down when I got the job with George. He then gave me the markets that he wanted me to look after he held me back for about four weeks and then couldn't hold me back any longer because he was going no, just get used to the office get used to this get used to that and I'm like knocking on his door going George let me go please let me just book some tickets I'd like to go to this market want to go to that market wants to go to this market want to introduce himself. I wanna I want to just peel back the layers I want to understand. And he was he was going no no just hold black and in the end just said no way I'm going to hold you back any longer just right crack on. So I did and it was brilliant. And yeah, I'd have Kuwait as a primary market, Abu Dhabi as a primary market and there are just several others as well around the around the region. And yeah, put those things into into practice sat down, built really good relationships, very structured action plans, opened up communication very transparent on the ground, sleeves rolled up with them, I could see opportunities in their marketplaces that they hadn't identified. So I use my Gulf Airr experience with Bahrain to open up the same principle of a deal with Etihad. So I managed to get a meeting with the managing director of Etihad, who was formerly the CEO of Gulf Air. So leveraged that contact sat with them and anybody using the OEM world and certainly understands automotive, they would never get an OEM, representing a retail partner in a meeting like this to try and grow a business. The business growth is generally done by the retail partner. So this was quite a unique, but I could see that the partner in Abu Dhabi didn't have that skill set. And if I was going to benefit at the end of the day, we benefited as a brand and as a region through the performance of the partner. Anyway, I've managed to convince the, the CEO of Etihad to take a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. And from that, we then put in the pilots programme, which we've got Porsche to support, we did lots of other activities, the retail partner can also make great initiatives around VIP packages and how it's all all about the loyalty programme. So they became what was classed as a really underperforming market. And certainly when you benchmark them against Dubai, it was, you know, doing extremely well, they really, really raised their game, and actually, they're now one of the strongest partners in the region. So that was, that was brilliant, I loved it. Because again, I could lean on those experiences that I've had before I could give people confidence and like anything, all of us are resistant to change. But if you're going to be successful, and you're gonna change something, number one, you need to have the plan. Number two, you need to convey that plan properly, all the way through the business, one of the areas I it's only my opinion, I see businesses not succeeding as well as they could, because they don't cascade their strategy or their message from the top, through the business all the way through. So if you look to even the football clubs like Manchester City or Liverpool, they've done very well in recent years, because you can see that the businesses are structured correctly. And that message you this coming all the way through from the chairman to the boot boys. And that's what you need to create. But there's a lot of siloed information in businesses, people are very protective. So what we were able to do is create a message that everybody bought into, unlike anything because I've experienced this myself a number of times is that you have this period where you're in no man's land, where people sort of want to follow you but they are scared. And then all of a sudden, they end up seeing some of the light at the end of the tunnel and then a few more coming to your camp, then a few more come in to your camp and then all of a sudden we get to that tipping point. And then obviously you've got momentum on your side. And once you've got the momentum and that belief, you then got the positive energy that you've not just got what you think is gonna work and be successful. You've then got that multiplied by your team. And then what happens is, is they own that because they want to be part of something successful. So all of a sudden, they're generating that success. So so that's that's what happened. That worked really, really well. I did a number of things with the other markets. One of the markets I worked very well with was with Kuwait, and I got on very well with the family. The Behbehani family are one of the biggest families in the region, nevermind Kuwait itself, very influential family. Ali's dad was an absolute pioneer, and unbelievably brought Porsche to Kuwait in the 1950s, along with VW, he was the only non member of the royal family who was allowed to walk in front of the Royal Bank. That's how high his standing bought into the country. So that's how strong family are really great family. Basically, there was an opportunity. The group general manager had moved on. I was supporting, and I got a phone call from Ali. I was in the role where I was with Porsche Middle East at least for about two years. And Ali rang me up and just said, I shouldn't be doing this. But is it possible that you could fly over or we could meet somewhere I'd like to talk to you about potentially you taking over and looking after my business and running the group for me. And obviously, I knew the size of the opportunity, and everything else. So it was the third oldest Porsche operation in the world. For me to get this opportunity was amazing. And obviously, it was a prestigious role. It was a very senior role. It was an incredibly challenging role. It was a big step up for me. For me as well, even though I was used to cultures in the region, I was taking on a lot more cultures, different management cultures, different backgrounds, there was a workforce that in excess of 450 people. So yeah, it was going from working in the regional office and just having a few people then to be back into the operation role , looking after being solely responsible for many more. So that's how that evolved. I then took the role was a bit of a risk, Kuwait was very different to Bahrain, culturally, Bahrain, very relaxed, very comfortable. Dubai, obviously was that glitzy very modern but happy to give Dubai a lot of credit. Everything works really well. But as long as you play within the rules, everything is absolutely fine. And you've no reason to fall out of the rules. And for me, the Middle East has been the safest place that we've ever lived. So Kuwait. Yeah, I did that for a couple of years. But again, very different marketplace, a different way to live. It wasn't as comfortable. But it was still fantastic. So yeah, the journey in the Middle East has been a fascinating one. And, um, you know, it lasted for me 12 years been in the region. So I've only got the fondest memories, I would recommend to anybody who gets an opportunity to broaden their horizons, travel, look down the rabbit hole, and take some of my dad's advice. And that's, you know, get on the plane, have a look, use the worst case scenario, but if it doesn't work out, you can always come back.

Andy Follows: 1:42:06

years. So not after six months or less. But after 12 years, what was the catalyst for coming back? Because it sounded like you were going from strength to strength in terms of the brands that you're working with the size of the opportunities, the successes you were having you were continuing to expand the geography that you had lived in and the cultures you'd worked with? What was the catalyst for coming back? And how did that play out?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:42:32

Yeah, the catalyst was a family reason Jordan was getting to a stage in his schooling. I wouldn't say he was struggling, but he wasn't comfortable. For him to have done his A levels in Kuwait. One of the things with the schools in Middle East for an expat, it's predominantly a private environment that the kids go to. They are a very high standard, but they're also to varying degrees, quite demanding. So Jordan didn't quite like the amount of demands that were put on him because they were wanting to excel as a school. So I've got nothing against high standards, but obviously, there has to be, you know, justification for how you achieve those. So what happened was, we as a family decided that we would come home and Jordan could finish his A levels in the UK. So Gail went on that mission. She was fantastic in finding Jordan a great school and not far from where we live in Knutsford. It was just perfect for him. And it works really, really well. So that's what we did. So whilst the plans were done several months before, I had the opportunity to talk to Porsche, and just explain, and be open and honest with them. And they said, well, we don't want to lose you from the brand, what can we do? And they then referred me to a company that I was aware of, and I ended up then working as a consultant a global consultant for Porsche. And they had a business excellence programme, again, a global programme for all retailers. And that was really then me almost learning another skill of not being a retailer, not working for the OEM, but then working for both. So I was then off in to Asia into Korea. I was in India, Asia, Pacific, South Africa, across the Middle East. What my deal was my agreement with them was that I wanted to do a few days away, or a couple of weeks away, and then I'd be back home for a couple weeks. And then the dynamics changed where actually I ended up because of the roles and the distance and the opportunities i.e there are priority markets. The roles were four or five weeks away, one week at home, so that all of a sudden that dynamic wasn't really working out. So what I tried to do is I've tried to re engage back with the UK. And I think this is a really important part to share with you and and those that do listen, I experienced probably one of the biggest challenges of my life. And I really struggled adapting and finding a way of how to deal with that. And that was when I tried to re engage with the UK and the motor industry and find and seek additional opportunity, where I felt I could add value, every door that I knocked on, was closed quite quickly. So I was getting a lot of rejection, which I had not experienced. And I found that incredible. I was like, Whoa, hang on a second. But what was happening was, the guys who I was meeting they didn't understand they felt that I was working in a market, that was easy. But actually, it couldn't have been further from the truth, to deal with different cultures and to deal with the sensitivities and to get all of these people to work in the same team and understand one message, and then take them on a journey. And then see them grow as individuals, and actually then achieve the results that you achieve by being able to speak one language but and people interpret those things differently. They have different motivations, different skill sets. And I always said to all of my teams that I'm prepared to compromise on skill sets, but I'm not prepared to compromise on standards. So let's keep high standards. But we'll work on the skill sets together, I'll work on my skill sets to be a better colleague, and understand your challenges, but you need to meet me half way and do the same. And that's how they are the things that the UK just didn't understand. That didn't value, they thought that I was out of touch. And that was really hard to hear. To be honest, I took that quite personally, I took that quite hard. I would even say that it impacted me. I don't like to say mentally. But I certainly became quite vulnerable to those type of thoughts to say Jesus is my time over Am I Am I done what's going on. I even drew on all of my skill sets and creativity, my networking. But that still wasn't doing anything, nothing, the doors just remained the shut. So you can imagine that had a dent in the confidence. So was suffering a lot with self doubt, I was feeling a little bit lost. And I've tried to explain this to people. And the way that I try and describe is that when you see people who are being professional sports people at the top of their game, and then also as well, drawing from the military, when those guys have been sort of institutionalised and they've only known one thing, and they've done very, very well. And they like that environment, when that's you sort of stepped out, or so the sporting world, that type of thing is ended, a lot of sports guys have struggled massively to adapt or deal with what is afterwards. So I was I was feeling a bit like that, to be honest with you. I was feeling like I didn't belong. Am I not supposed to be here? I felt that I'm good enough. But at the end of the day, the truth of the matter was that the industry didn't think I was. So that was a tough one to swallow is the god's honest truth. I've been very, very open about that. And I struggled I didn't make any inroads at all into the into the UK market. So I continue to do some consultancy. But ultimately, it was a period of my personal life and my professional life, which was very, very challenging.

Andy Follows: 1:49:06

Thank you for sharing that as well. It's fascinating. You've gone out of your comfort zone, you've gone out there and taken risks. You've been scared, you've been uncomfortable. You've stayed with it, you've kept pushing forward, and over a period of 12 years, you've delivered some incredible career successes. And the problem is it sounds like they don't count. We didn't see it. Pictures or it didn't happen. Yeah, we didn't see you doing those successes. And even if you did, it's not same as it. So as you said earlier in the conversation, life's not fair. That really is not fair. And to find yourself feeling Do I not fit in here anymore and coming off the I'm going to paraphrase now or get maybe a bit carried away. But the adrenaline rush of an international career going from market to market, all the cultural stimulation all the getting up in the morning, and even breakfast is different. Everything is just so exciting all day, every day for 12 years, to then not be welcomed back with open arms to come and bring some of your experience. That must have really hurt.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:50:27

Yeah, it did it did. I didn't think it at the time. And it's took me a while to process it. In some ways, it made me then. Right, okay, then I'm in this situation, how do I deal with it? I can't sit here continuing to feel sorry for myself, I have to find a way. So I suppose all of the previous experiences, whilst they didn't count to those who I was approaching, they counted to me. They are valued to me. So

Andy Follows: 1:50:59

That was yours to keep is an expression.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:51:02

Yeah, they were. They were earned. They were in the bag. But they were in the past. So I had to try and deal with with the future while I was dealing with on a daily basis. So what I decided was, right, okay, number one, I've got to stay fit. Because if you're not fit, physically and mentally, then that is even more difficult to deal with the emotions and the challenges that you have, if you sort of lost that, that purpose or that direction. And then really, what I tried to do is is to read, educate myself on disruptive things that were happening in markets, I would then I'd create a mythical situation as though I was a consultant for a company that had a problem. So then what we're doing, I'd use that period. So I'd get up in the morning. So I've convinced myself that I was working whilst I was still looking for a job. So I would train, I'd look really presentable, I'd had my granddad shining shoes, I' have those standards, because if I let them slip, then actually then I was on a bit of a slippery slope. So they were sort of I kept them as sort of my backbone as to operating in the way that I like to operate. And the way that I, I've always operated. So yeah, I was doing that. And I still not not still not making progress. And then all of a sudden, Lady luck shone brightly presented me on another life's curveball and took me off to the Caribbean. So that is a, again, another paradigm shift hat happened. Another amazing family that I worked for. And the family just to give some context as to gravitas of them. People in the UK will have heard of Sandals, which is the all inclusive Caribbean resorts and the Sandals group were the pioneers of the all inclusive and, and I think they have around about 34 or 35 resorts now. So they're a real powerhouse in the region. And that was created by Butch the chairman who sadly left us but 18 months two years ago now, unbelievable character. He was a maverick beyond maverick. So you could see where the company had come from and and the culture that they have. So for me to be part of this was was amazing, so to parachute into Jamaica, I reported to Butch's son, which is Adam, who was the deputy chairman and CEO of Sandals group. But within this group, they had a really large portfolio of other businesses. Whilst Adam loved the Sandals side of it, his dad's business, he was a petrol head. So his business was ATL automotive. That was his baby. That's the bit that he loved and he was no lesser of a maverick than his dad. It was a younger, slimmer version of his dad. He tried to pretend he wasn't but he absolutely was a restless, energetic, entrepreneurial, that I've never seen anybody like energy, drive, dedication, humility, an all around gorgeous spirit of an individual loved him to death still do still in touch with him today. But a powerhouse to work with. So yeah, but basically what I got the opportunity to run the group, they had multiple brands from volume brands right up to Porsche. Interestingly, George had a say in the appointments because George moved from being the managing director of Porsche Middle East to be the managing director of Porsche in Latin America. And it happened to be that Jamaica was one of these markets. Adam reached out to George to say, Have you heard of this guy? If you have what do you think? So he did his due diligence. That obviously went quite well. And yeah, I started with them and that I went on an 18 month journey with with ATL, it didn't last as long as I thought it was going to do not through any fault of theirs or mine. But there was a was a family reason for that coming to an earlier end. And there's a few things that happened. But the the experience and the journey, and everything. Again, all of the things that I've learned previously, that international experience came into the call, again, dealing with lows, getting them to believe in me as an individual having that ability to connect with the guys who wash the cars. So I've had breakfast with the guys who wash the cars, and they've never seen a white guy come around to the wash bay and have breakfast with them. So I would do that. And I did it not to tick a box. I did it because I wanted these guys to feel valued because they were really important. But I also wanted to let the rest of the business understand that if I was prepared to do that, Why could you not do the same. So these guys got respected more. They were rewarded with kindness and more appreciation. And I thought that was really important. The Jamaican people for me are the most smiliest people in the world. Just a little story, again, just to bring some humour to this particular role. When I got to Jamaica, there's a way of speaking. So I got into the local dialects, which is patois I think they call it. So everything yama, and you know, you just get into this lingo everything man, man, yeah, man. So I remember being on a call with girl and we were chatting away. And she asked me a question. And I just said Yama. And at the end of the conversation, she said, Why are you saying yama to me, suffered, sort of slipped into this, it just becomes second nature that I started talking patois because you got the respect from the locals that you were giving this a really good go. And it made them laugh, because obviously I got lots of it wrong. But that was part of I suppose the charm. But that yeah, broke down barriers very quickly. So that was a great, great experience. I've never change it for the world. I love the family. I love the people. And to stay in touch with Adam was also incredibly important to me as well.

Andy Follows: 1:57:42

So that ended a little bit earlier than you expected. And you came back to the UK at that point. And was the environment any easier this time around?

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:57:53

No, I suppose the benefit was my expectations were lower.

Andy Follows: 1:57:58

You knew what you were coming into potentially.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 1:58:02

I knew what I was coming into, but that didn't dampen the spirits, because I knew I had to try and find a solution. So again, I didn't put any pressure on myself, I took some time out, you know, to evaluate what I wanted to do. I use the time very productively, I worked on myself, just removed that pressure, I was fortunate enough to be in that position to do so. You know, when when you do get that opportunity, you should take it with both hands, because it doesn't happen very often, where you get that little break in life, because we know how challenging and demanding life is on a daily basis. So yeah, so I took that there were times where I found that hard was a bit restless is the truth. Obviously a man who needs a purpose, bit hard on myself at times. So that's one thing I did observe. So what happened was again, I was in this cycle of let's stay active, let's stay positive, keep working you network. And then all of a sudden, a few months in, I got a phone call from a former colleague. And then I was introduced to McLaren and McLaren were looking for somebody who understood the Middle East, because the retail partner and the network that they had had some gaps and challenges. They also wanted to grow the amount of partners in the region. And what was interesting was the managing director of the region used to work for another brand. And he used to go into the company that I worked for in Bahrain, and used to operate with Paul, who was the group general manager who appointed me in Bahrain with Zayed. He'd come across my name he'd had a look by CV saw this company and rang Paul and said, Paul, I want you to be honest. Give me an overview of Mike. So it just shows you in life that, you know, you should always keep every door wide open, you should protect every bridge, you should operate with the highest of integrity, and the highest standards you possibly can operate. Because you just never know if that's going to benefit you, or potentially bite you in the bum. So today's world is a very connected world. And it's very easy to get to peel back some layers of understanding of that particular person may or may not be. And that the same applies to me to you to everybody. So that was a real positive. So Brett's got a green light from Paul to say, you should definitely speak to Mike. And ended up meeting with him on a couple of occasions. And then he offered me the role. What was really bizarre was that it was based in Bahrain. So yeah, so talking almost sort of full circle, which was like, blew me away. And I was almost going back to my second home, which became sort of our favourite place. And the reason for that just getting a bit again, a bit of context is not that again, not many people know this. You think well, McLaren, Bahrain, why is that? Well, the main shareholder for McLaren is Mumtalakat. Mumtalakat is Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund. And in Arabic Mumtalakat needs belonging to. So the Crown Prince is massively into Formula One. And obviously he was the one who convinced Bernie Eccleston at the time, for Bahrain to have a track. And they had that built, I think it's 2003 to 2004. The track that I know very well in Sakhir. And the Crown Prince wanted the regional head office to be based in Bahrain. And that's where we had the base and they fast they had offices as the main entrance to the Sakhir Formula One track just before you go in. So yeah, I joined a joint Brett, the team, I was responsible for the network and the business development and helping to sort of restructure the network and the partners they have some partners that were really good, but needed help. There's other partners that were struggling and needed a bit more of an action plan. And unfortunately, there was other partners that were not going to be coming along on the journey. So there's a real mixed bag of having to deal with that. But the the thing that was exciting for me was then exploring the region and finding other partners. So I got introduced to the British ambassador in Bahrain, and I basically had a meeting with him. And I said, we're a British brand. You're the British ambassador, you have very close ties with the department and trade industry. I need your help to be introduced to the embassies in these countries. I can then with the DTI, set up some meetings with local businessman, local companies who would have the appetite and the capacity to take on the McLaren brand. And he was amazing. Absolutely amazing. So number one, he was Uber excited. Number two is Uber receptive.. And number three was Uber supportive. He opened the doors to several of the ambassadors and the countries that I'd earmarked and those meetings went extremely well and was progressing. And then unfortunately, in March of 19, the world came to a standstill. And we all suffered, obviously, with what happened, we'll all never forget that period, obviously, the COVID period. So the world stopped. So all of that work that we were doing, then became not relevant. And then it was challenging. So we had to sort of recalibrate it on what what's the priority, the priority isn't going looking for other partners at this moment in time? It's protecting what we have. And how do we do that? Because obviously, car production have come to a halt, because supply chain had ground to a halt. Commercially, everybody is then obviously impacted because they couldn't sell, customers were buying. So my role, my role in the region, was then turned into more of a emergency and support and making sure the partners were kept in touch at all times. One of the other dynamics was, as that hit, Gail was literally on an aircraft with Jordan coming out to Bahrain. And Bahrain closed its borders, and cancelled all visas. So Gail had to get off the ground with Jordan and couldn't get to Bahrain, where I was. And basically, I spent for six months in Bahrain myself, Gail couldn't she had to stay in the UK. But at the end of the day I didn't get to see my family for six months. So that was a really challenging period. But again, you have to find a way. I wasn't in the worst place in the world. It was sunny, had fantastic facilities. I got introduced to Joe Wicks during a hit session because they closed all the gyms. So you're like, Oh, my God, I was given doing a hit session in morning in the leotard and hot socks. I wasn't, by the way, still picture that? Yeah, no, it was it was just again, another another period where you had to adapt, I couldn't get out of Bahrain, there's nothing I could do about it. So I just had to try and accept it, the best I could. There was amazing people, I have great friends there. So that was a real massive benefit for me as well. So I had that as a cushion. And as a support network. Several months in you know, during that period, I was in conversations. And my boss was then promoted into a wider role within the company looking after UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, just a very big, big remit. And He then spoke to me and said that he'd like me to take on a role back in the UK, would I consider it. So that's what happened. So the role that I'm currently in is, I look after the sales operations from McLaren for the whole of the UK. Look, after the dealer partners, I drive the strategies and, and implement what we need to implement in order to grow McLaren in the whole market. So again, weirdly, by joining McLaren, British company ended up being in Bahrain. I've ended up then getting a role back in the UK with McLaren. But I'm about to circumnavigate and go on a journey to get back here. But what had happened is the guy who I was reporting to and I worked with, even to this day, saw the value and actually went right okay. That's the role that I want you to take on, we've got a career progression in place, and that which is really positive. So yeah, I mean, again, I've been very fortunate to be representing, you know, a very global brand and iconic brand, and incredibly rich racing history, just about to celebrate 60 years. This year, we're well documented with the Formula One successes, I'm sure those glory days will come back in the next few years, the team are working incredibly hard to do that. We've got amazing drivers, but the brand is a fascinating brand. So what it will I'll just draw to a conclusion is just that you just really never know what your journey is gonna produce is, buy a ticket, get on the bus, and just enjoy the ride. And I have to say that, for most of it, it's been an incredible journey. Incredible ride.

Andy Follows: 2:07:56

Oh, Mike, it's been amazing. It has been an incredible ride. I've been all over the place. Yes, you've been everywhere. And there's been ups and downs. There's been this constant through it all, though. Certainly, that's what's come across to me in this conversation is your approach to it. So you can't control things, but you can control how you respond to them. And each time there's been real adversity, you've contemplated it and you've thought what can I do, and you've put your happy shoes on, and you've done whatever you need to do to stay sane, and to stay valuable and held in there long enough until things turn around. And I love that you found your way back into a role now in the UK, which sounds worthy of you it sounds like it's a big enough challenge, you know, with a very respected brand and lots of heritage and exciting cars as well. So it's got a happy ending it certainly and it's not the end now the story as we've come to ends in a great place and throughout the conversation you've just kept dropping in such original thoughts and transferable valuable ideas and inspiring behaviour that you took. So I'm so so grateful for you sharing I'm glad it took us a little while to get together and I'm so glad that we have done it because it's there's so much value in the conversation. Really enjoyed it. Thank you.

Mike Ellenthorpe: 2:09:26

Yeah, me too. I've I've enjoyed it and I've never really I've never really sat down and done almost a bit like I used to watch this is your life you know, with Eamonn Holmes and he used to come up with the red book and I almost waiting for you to walk through the door with the Red Book. So so you know it is fascinating, but it's also I think, to be honest and for anybody you know who does this and anybody who's done it with you before I don't know if it'd be great to have like a reunion of a few people of their experience but you It's almost therapeutic in a way. Because sometimes we feel that we're not succeeding or we're not doing as well as we could do, or we're just a bit off the pace or whatever is happening. And but actually, I would never have imagined when I was on my YTS in the hospital, that I would be doing the things that have happened. And it's been a it's been a bonkers journey. And like you said, it's certainly isn't the end, I'm very fortunate that I'm very lucky with my energy levels, I've a high energy level, I've still got a lot to offer, I really want to explore and continued learning, 110% I still love learning.

Andy Follows: 2:10:43

I think that's key. And I'm wondering, because And I'll hold you to that. And I'll by the second round. there were, the hospital is one place, but let's start at DC Cooke selling Fiats in Ancoats, there were people with you, on the showroom floor, who might have had similar background to you, but not many of them will have had the journey that you've had. So I'm really curious and you know, part of sharing these stories to say, it doesn't actually matter where you start. It's what you do every single day. And what you've done is share examples of good and bad days you had and what you did every single day between them. And now to find yourself in this incredible role with McLaren in the UK. And that, to me is just such a valuable content that you've got in your head in your experiences that we're now saying, Have a listen to this and just find that inspiring, if you will. So thanks again, Mike. And I look forward to seeing you in Hale and buying your beer before too long. You've been listening to Career-view Mirror with me, Andy Follows. I hope you enjoyed hearing Mike's story as much as I did, and found some helpful points to reflect on some key moments in Mike's story that stood out for me, were him losing his hearing at school and not being able to go swimming but still having to walk to the swimming bath with his class and then having to walk back with another class and deciding to make conversation with the kids from the other class who he was walking with playing rugby and wanting to be good at the work ethic he demonstrated from an early age with his milk round and double paper round, that he had supportive parents who didn't force any direction on him, him starting a youth training scheme in a hospital and recognising that all of life was on display within those walls and wards that he started out in automotive selling fits for DC Cooke in Ancoats in Manchester, and found a way to succeed in that environment. His colleague making a move to Nissan and turning up at his home to insist on taking him with him. The gradual progression to more premium marks the interview he had for a role in Bahrain and the story of him driving home and booking a flight to Bahrain that night. I love the picture that paints of Mike as someone ready to take action in pursuit of his goal. That story of Jordan creating a video for the Porsche job, which turned out to be the deciding factor winning in the position. The struggle he had to find a way back to the UK, and how he approached it. And the fact that he's now back in his home country and working in a role that's worthy of his capability. If you'd like to reach out to Mike, you'll find his LinkedIn contact details in our show notes to this episode. If you enjoy listening to my guest stories, please could you do me a favour and share an episode with someone you lead parent or mentor or a friend who you think might also benefit. Thank you to Mike for joining me for our conversation to our sponsors for this episode, ASKE Consulting and Aquilae and to the Career-view Mirror team, without whom we wouldn't be able to share I guess life and career stories. And above all, thank you to you, for listening.