Doqaru Sofa Chats

In this episode, Yekemi Otaru introduces Matt Hughes, King of Video. If you're thinking about doing more videos for your business or personal brand, this video is for you. Matt Hughes has been helping businesses and entrepreneurs to build confidence with video. Matt has been making video professionally with his video production company Kinetal since 2013, during this time he has travelled the world making video for some of the largest tech companies as well as SME’s and Owner Managed businesses. After a few years behind the camera, he decided it was time to step in front and he created his personal brand King of Video. King of Video enabled Matt to help small business owners and Entrepreneurs get started making video using just their mobile phone, through Mentorship, Strategy Calls, Online Training and Courses, Matt has helped hundreds of people improve their Confidence, Consistency, Clarity and Focus as they step into the world of Video.

In this podcast, Sarah Downs invites Ben Leonard to present on the opportunities to drive sales through E-Commerce strategies. Ben is a classic millennial entrepreneur who started his first business from a laptop at home grinding away in his spare time. He went on to grow a 7-figure brand and achieved the holy grail exit after 3 years. The content is followed by a Q&A with the audience creating a live time discussion on the topic. If you’d like to know more about Ben and his business please visit his website http://www.benleonard.pro

In this episode, Anja appears as a guest with Yekemi Otaru. Anja Peter is a Graphic Designer and Branding Consultant based in Aberdeen, Scotland. She joins us on this webinar to talk about the role of branding in business success and she gives the example of the Doqaru brand. All elements of a brand come together - logo, colours, imagery and tone of voice - to make a brand identity. Anja covers each step and provides actionable steps for business owners, business leaders and marketers looking to brand a new business or refresh an existing brand. Anja owns Creative Communication and works with technology, food & drink and oil and gas companies.

14% of startups/startup ideas fail due to poor launches or marketing. And only 24% of products are successfully launched i.e. actually generate any revenue. In this podcast, Yekemi Otaru, Co-Founder at Doqaru, covers the key considerations for launching a business. She highlights 3 main types of launches: Rocket, Pilot & Community. Some of these approaches are used by companies like BrewDog & PingGo. Listen to ideas on what you need to consider before launching your idea. About Yekemi: Yekemi is a serial entrepreneur with a background in Petroleum Engineering, Technical Sales & Strategic Marketing. A bestselling author and named one of 40 under 40 business innovators by Scottish Business News in 2016, she now co-owns Doqaru Limited, a sales and marketing consultancy based in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her 15-year experience spans companies like Schlumberger, GE & Lloyd’s Register. She works with start-ups, SMEs and large corporate organisations in the Oil & Gas and technology sectors. Over the past 4 years, she has supported over 50 companies in driving sales and strategic marketing objectives.

Our third episode of the series is hosted by Yekemi Otaru. If events and networking have been your #1 source of sales leads, these times really suck! I've had conversations with several business leaders and salespeople. "How do we keep engaging with offline contacts now?" This topic will benefit you if you’ve typical being using events and networking to drive sales. It’s time to make that conversation and relationships online. You’ll learn: 💥Why engaging online is easier than you think 💥How to go from zero engagement to adding value 💥What you can do NOW to start getting results

We started a webinar series during the 2020 COVID-19 series. It's for business leaders and employees who want to keep their businesses going with fresh ideas for sales and marketing approaches. We are faced with COVID-19, a drop in Oil Price and most of us need to now work from home. These are unprecedented times and we all need to get creative, innovate and pivot our business strategy. Doqaru believe that times like these create a huge amount of opportunity for those of us willing to change and adapt at a fast pace. In this Webinar, Sarah Downs (Director of Doqaru Ltd) talks about the need to be able to RESPOND as businesses, trying not to just REACT to the situation around us. Sarah goes over ideas on how to re-invent your sales strategy, useful online tools and ways to use them effectively.

On the second webinar in this series, we will discuss how to prospect using LinkedIn for the Oil & Gas Industry. Hosted by Sarah Downs, some of this content will be generic but we focus more specifically on the sector from time-to-time calling on our experience. This would also be relevant to other B2B that are technical and/or have a complexed sales cycle with multiple buyers. Doqaru have helped a number of companies in the industry to build their strategy around LinkedIn over recent years. You can use this content to either kick-start or enhance the way you are using LinkedIn to prospect. I’m going to cover current statistics, why you should be using LinkedIn if working in the sector, how to get focussed and some key points you should be thinking about. If you are ready to take action please get a pen and paper at the ready and listen in.

Anne Farr is the Managing Director of Rothera Group. In this episode, Anne discusses her varied career journey, from starting out as a Civil Engineer to launching her own tender and bidding training business. Anne delivers high-impact tender and proposal training which improves the quality of written submissions and bid processes. She has an excellent track record of helping companies win business with robust financial margins. Anne’s courses are intensive, tailored and highly productive. She is skilled at working with technical and commercial staff; ensuring they can apply the good practice in their own working environment. As a qualified bid professional, who has seen many changes in the sector, she draws on over 20 years’ experience of biding and tendering. Anne started her career in engineering and retains a pragmatic and efficient style of working which results in easy-to-use tips during her courses. Anne has a notable client list and has worked on numerous successful projects; prestigious ones include the Queensferry Crossing and luxury caravans for the Saudi royal family however she says her most enjoyable work is helping technical companies become self-sufficient in writing winning bids.

In this episode of Doqaru Sofa Chats, we talk to Mark LaCour, the Founder of the Oil & Gas Global Network (OGGN), speaker and renowned podcaster. OGGN is a media company totally focused on the Oil and Gas industry. They are leading the way with the goal of getting the industries stories told accurately, and with a passion. OGGN have a very large global audience of people who work in Oil and Gas and provide valuable, useful and honest content to the future leaders. Mark has sold over $305 million to the Oil & Gas industry during his time in sales. He worked in senior account management roles at Forrester Research, IntraPoint and AT&T. With over 2,200 meetings with almost every oil & gas company that you can name, Mark has done business in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the UK, Middle East, Mexico, Canada, Norway, Scotland, Brazil and the US. Now with over 780,000 subscribers to his Oil & Gas podcast. In this podcast, Sarah and Mark discuss how the role of sales and business development has changed in the Oil and Gas industry over the years, from educating the buyer to the importance of insight selling. Sarah asks Mark about his own experiences and career history to paint a picture of why he is so passionate about sharing stories and insight with others around the world. Mark will be launching his new podcast live from the DoqaruCon stage and they discuss the topics that will be covered.

In this episode of Doqaru Sofa Chats, we talk to Adam Roberts, Sales Director at Introhive. Introhive help organisations to unlock revenue using advanced technology to reap the full benefits of relationship intelligence. Founded in 2012 by CEO Jody Glidden, Introhive is the fastest-growing enterprise relationship management (ERM) solution in the market, recently recognised as a top 10 fastest growing technology company in Deloitte’s Fast 50 Awards. Introhive is an AI-powered SaaS platform designed to help organisations realize the full value of their relationships and underutilized data across their business to increase revenues, employee productivity and to improve customer experience management. About Adam Adam is currently acting as Sales Director for the Energy sector at Introhive, a relationship intelligence platform. For Adam, business always has and always will be about the relationships that exist between companies and their customers. The opportunity to help clients understand and leverage their relationships to grow their businesses is something he is very passionate about. He has spent his career building and executing sales and marketing strategies for all types of companies in the B2B and B2C space. More specifically the last 5 years of his career has seen him working in and around the CRM space, helping clients achieve better experiences, more dynamic results and ultimately ROI from their CRM investments. In this podcast, he talks about the history of Introhive and the vision for the company's technology to fill a gap in the industry. Introhive has had much success in other sectors such as professional services, engineering and technology; Adam talks about the new Energy team that has been set up to help the sector to unlock unprecedented revenue.

Mark Wright won BBC's The Apprentice in 2014. With Lord Alan Sugar as his business partner, he launched Climb Online in 2015. The company has become the UK's fastest-growing digital marketing agency, serving clients like Emirates, HP, Groupon and MADE.COM. Mark has become one of the UK's most successful and influential entrepreneurs, known for building a 7-figure business. At DoqaruCon, he'll reveal his journey from backpacking to business leader and share insight on how to transform and condition your mindset for success. He will highlight how this mindset transformation precedes effective sales and lead generation strategies that allow you to scale your business. Listen to this podcast to learn a bit about Mark's background and the challenges that he's overcome since he won BBC The Apprentice.

Louise Wood is Managing Director at Prodill Energy Resources Solutions. Her 30-year career in recruitment covers a variety of industry sectors including oil & gas engineering and commercial/finance disciplines. She's highly experienced in dealing with C-suite, senior executives, search and selection campaigns as well as retained and contingency recruitment project. She has strong IR35 Off Payrolling knowledge and her diverse business skills include, people management and development, finance legal, contracts, commercial, and business development. Louise became MD at Prodrill following a management buy-out (MBO) over 10 years ago. In this podcast, Louise discusses her career journey and the main issues that face recruitment in the next few years. She highlights what she learned during the MBO and the people that supported her along the way.

Founded in 2010, Nimbus Blue is a strategic IT management provider based in Aberdeen. The team has grown along with its client base. David leads a team of 4 that supports companies in the energy, professional services and third sectors. We talk to David about his career journey and his role at Nimbus Blue. We chat about the different periods of growth in the business and what he's learned about leadership and growing a business organically. If you'd like to keep up with Nimbus Blue's journey, visit their website at https://nimbus-blue.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nimbusblueuk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nimbus-blue-limited/

As Managing Director, Sarra leads SmartPA in its quest to inspire, educate and empower people to become financially independent. An experienced global business leader, Sarra has led multiple operations across the finance sector and has directed learning and development contracts for Governments & Global Corporations. Sarra is passionate about people and how they perform. Her dedication and attention to the link between personal happiness and quality customer service make for a seamless brand experience. SmartPA is the leading expert within the PA, Secretarial and Administrative sector. We deliver efficient and effective remote business support services globally via our SmartPA Partnership network. We talk to Sarra about her career journey and her role at SmartPA. We discuss the company's growth over the last few years and how it identifies and supports its franchisees. Sarra shares her view on cultural fit and some insight on experience at overcoming the challenges that franchising can bring. If you'd like to keep up with SmartPA's journey, visit their website at http://www.smart-pa.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smart_PA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmartPA1/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartpa/

Steven Dunbar joined Global Resource Management Ltd as a Business Analyst in 2012 (now part of Envoy & Partners). Since then, he has risen to Managing Director of a number of the acquired businesses. Steven is experienced in identifying companies with potential for acquisition and spends his time getting to know the owners/directors of the businesses, ensuring not just an economic fit but all a cultural fit. The businesses he currently manages are Global Resources, specialist suppliers of all personnel to Drilling Contractors; Maris Subsea, a recruitment specialist in the Renewables Subsea market; TCS, a training and competence specialist and Expertec Recruitment, a specialist in trades and engineering recruitment. We talk to Steven about his career journey and his role at Envoy & Partners. We discuss the company's growth over the last few years and how it determines which companies to acquire. Steven shares his view on cultural fit and some insight on experience at overcoming the challenges that emerge during and after an acquisition. If you'd like to keep up with the Envoy & Partners journey, visit their website at https://www.envoygroup.com/