My big idea: learning and development firm Good Shout

Hi Amy! What does Good Shout do, and why do you exist?

I believe all the best companies were established from a place of fury and frustration! I started Good Shout in response to my frustration at the lack of diverse voices in every industry. I wanted to help everybody speak, and be heard, regardless of gender, or background or experience. We’re a learning and development company that provides communications training for everyone, not just the irrationally confident, not just the loud, simply anybody with something to say. Any way in which you use your voice - public speaking, listening, writing, giving feedback, having difficult conversations - we provide training in it. And we’re changing the world, one voice at a time!  

You say you practice “extraordinary learning” - what is that?

Very few people had a nice time at school. That’s because the old fashioned way of teaching focuses on memorising facts and repeating those facts in exams. The education system is geared towards creating workers, not opening minds. This means that, mentally and emotionally, school does very little for individuals, and barely prepares them for life. All the research states that the more immersed you are in learning, the more likely it is that the learning will stick. That’s why our training is filled with surprises, simulations and intense social dynamics. It’s extraordinary, and people remember it forever.  

Give us some examples of your work!

We took 80 people from ITV’s commercial team to a 17th Century mansion in Devon to teach them about communication at work, across empathy, collaboration and creativity. The twist was, as soon as they walked through the doors of the mansion, they became stars of their own reality show called The Experiment. The entire two-day learning experience had a storyline and a host!

We’ve trained entire teams at LEGO on how to find their voice, and last week I was with the marketers at Heieneken, educating them on brave leadership and using their voices with power in this very weird world we’re living in now! Every week has a new challenge, and an exciting client embracing new ways to communicate and learn.  

Why are you needed in the L&D space?

We’re needed because the L&D profession rarely cares about people and their enlightenment, it cares about process. Ticking a box with a management framework and some dull leadership training run by a dude called Gregg who hasn’t actually worked in the weeds for about 20 years. So much of the L&D space is 8 hours in a stuffy room with a projector and bad biscuits. That just makes people associate learning with boredom. There’s some amazing people in this space… using new reflective methods and innovative storytelling: we’re really proud to be one of those companies.  

What’s your most popular product?

Our flagship course is called Good Shout, and it’s a couch to 5k for your voice. Where most other public speaking training gets you to mimic the idea of a confident person, our course is introspective. We help you work out what you want to say first, and then help you say it with the most impact. This is the stuff that changes careers - and lives - which is why we have a steady stream of individuals and companies queuing up to take our training. So far, we’ve trained nearly 1000 people on this course. Our testimonials are next level; we’ve been described as “sky diving for your voice” and are often referred to as “the best training I’ve ever done.”  

What kind of experience do you need to do this job, and what’s your background?

Facilitation is an art form, and not everybody can do it. You need to know your material inside out, you need to read the room, you need to have ridiculous amounts of energy, you need to talk and listen at the same time. I worked in advertising for about 17 years, which made me pretty agile and creative, and then I worked as a university lecturer and writer. All of these skills combined are poured into the Good Shout IP. It’s extremely difficult to find great facilitators - most people have one of the skills required, but not all.  

How’s business doing?

In theory, I’m a terrible business woman, because I want to give away so much stuff for free. My view is that our voices are the most important thing we own, and in life they can be a leveller. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or your gender or ethnicity or social class: if you say the right thing in the right way to the right people, you can make magic happen. But some of us weren’t born with as many opportunities. Personally, I’m from a working class background and know that having a voice and being loud with my perspectives wasn’t promoted when I was at school. So, I give huge discounts for people who are out of work, and we have a special course for mums returning from maternity leave, which we make a loss on. We use the money from our big clients to fund those who wouldn’t normally have access. We’ve also just launched a charity, Good Shout for Girls, which offers free public speaking training to girls in the UK aged 10 to 16, primarily from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. So we’ll never be millionaires (I think!) but at least we’re making money and doing some good with it at the same time.  

How can you make decent money in L&D?

The really exciting space - that also pays well - is events. And we’ve just started curating extraordinary events! Full days of amazing learning on specific topics, like history or feminism or emotions. Just two months ago, we ran The Unlikeable Woman Summit, in a church in Farringdon, for 300 women to discuss feminism and activism. It was incredible. And we’re just about to run an event called Link. Laugh. Love (ironic title) dedicated to using LinkedIn in a way that feels authentic, rather than hyperbolic. The key with L&D is to build your reputation as a safe space that people can trust, and then make your audience as big as possible. That’s where we’re at right now.  

What is the secret to making the business work?  

People. It’s all about finding the right people. And as a growing business, who you trust with your brand and clients is the most important decision you’ll ever make.

There’s a real difference between the corporate and startup world. In big businesses, each worker has their set lane, you’re a cog in a huge machine, and projects can take months, even years to get off the ground! In a startup, everyone has to sprint, multi-task and roll up their sleeves to help others. The pace is faster and you need to be focused on outcomes rather than effort. Startup life is a slog, but you see the rewards immediately, and it’s a great feeling. People from big business making the transition to startup life can be painful, and it doesn’t always work. There’s an accountability that some folks don’t like.  

People really matter when your company provides an experience. Good Shout provides learning experiences and every single one of them has to be exceptional. I think it’s important for entrepreneurs to be honest about their failures as well as their wins, and when it comes to people I’ve had some shockers. I don’t believe in naming names, but over the last few years I’ve had people turn up to facilitate on drugs, I’ve had them turn up 90 minutes late to a two hour workshop, I’ve had facilitators refusing to work last minute because “they’re a little big hungover”, I’ve had facilitators running online sessions whilst refusing to turn their cameras on, and every single time this happened, it chipped away at my brand reputation. These were unfortunate incidents, but I’ve definitely learned from them!  

How do you get Good Shout out there?

With an experience business you need great reviews, and word of mouth is everything. Social media and positive reviews have given us a steady stream of clients. My own LinkedIn profile (55k followers) has helped tell the story of our business - warts and all - from day 1. We encourage our trainees to share photos from our sessions and talk about us online. All of this has created an amazing sense of community, which has served us really well so far. We also give free places to TikTok creators and influencers, who (authentically!) rave about us, too. We’ve tried social advertising and paid search, but they’ve never had the same amount of impact.  

Tell us about the business model  

A place on one of our speaking courses costs £1500+VAT, and it’s worth every penny. You’re not just paying for the experience, you're paying for the decades of experience our facilitators have. On our team we have bestselling authors, radio presenters, award-winning journalists, ex theatre bods and LinkedIn Top Voices. You’re getting the best in the business. When we work with organisations in house, we’ll charge a day rate based on the number of people attending. Last year we launched e-learning, which has made a pretty healthy contribution to our bottom line. At a time when you can get online courses everywhere for £10, we charge £200 for our e-learning (we run courses on how to give feedback and how to be a good panelist) and people love them!  

What is the future vision?  

Through our charity and corporate work combined, I want everyone in the UK to experience Good Shout training in some way! It’s so essential that we all stop taking our voices for granted, and we have big plans to create tools and services that have more of a national footprint. As a country, we need to get better at communicating with each other, and I want Good Shout to be leading that revolution.