Recent figures released by The Sutton Trust report show that 75%
of Scottish students attend a university less than 55 miles from
their home, which is higher than the 56% average within the UK. For
some reason this is reported as a negative statistic. I completely
disagree.
I'm proud to say that my 30 years on this planet have been spent
in the south side of Glasgow, travelling west for university and
now into the city centre for my work.
I attended a Glasgow Chamber event at the Hydro when it was
hosting the Gymnastics World Championships and something was said
that day which has lived with me since. The athletes were staying
in the Crowne Plaza hotel - a short walk from the arena - and they
were amazed by how close everything was. No matter where you are in
the city, you can almost always get to the other end in around
10-15 minutes. This is not the case in other major cities.
Since then, Glasgow's USP for me has been how lucky we are to
have so much on our doorstep and it is so accessible by public
transport. If you want to venture a little further, you can be on
the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond within the hour.
I could write about Glasgow for hours. It is a passion of mine.
Another is helping people to be the best that they can. That is
probably what led me to Kissing With Confidence, a training company
which gives people the skills to grow their business.
A typical week for me starts with our Monday morning meeting
where we look at targets for the week. Throughout the week I am
very closely connected to closing sales and developing new
relationships by going to networking events and meeting people for
a coffee. Towards the end of the week I draft and send our weekly
newsletter.
My job is essentially to speak to people, find out about their
challenges and see if there is anything we can do to help. About a
third of our business is in the Financial Services sector - we
regularly work all over Europe with a range of clients from the
largest professional services firms to SMEs.
Kissing With Confidence focuses on results. On average, clients
will sell around £1 million more after one month as a direct
consequence of being on our Rainmaker journey. So there is a
fantastic return on investment.
In my spare time I enjoy playing football with my friends, going
for a walk (I have completed the West Highland Way - twice) and
eating (mostly Italian) in the various restaurants Glasgow has to
offer. Paesano is a particular favourite.
I love meeting new people and finding out what they do, so if
you are reading this and fancy a chat drop me a
message on LinkedIn - the first coffee is on me.
If you'd like to find out more about Kissing With Confidence check out our
website, and feel free to sign up to our weekly newsletter
while you are there.
***Sutton Trust report:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/16050357.___Stay_at_home____Scottish_university_students_more_likely_to_study_here_than_the_rest_of_the_UK/