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Name: Mike Martin

Name of Business: Odyssey Health and Wellbeing 

What does your business do? We support companies & individuals to improve their physical & mental wellness.

 

What does your job involve and what do you enjoy most about the role? 

I lead a small team, we run sessions for personal training clients and do wellness checking.   I write nutritional programmes, I do business development, so trying to get more corporate clients.  What I enjoy most is doing something different to what other companies do and coming up with new ideas and working with different people to support them in improving their wellbeing. 

How did you get into doing this? 

I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school, I took a gap year, then I was torn between sports and theatre, I did a performing arts degree at Uni and did a few roles but didn’t find my feet with it.  I had various bad jobs after leaving university but gained experience with interacting with people, I then decided to do a L3 Personal Training qualification, from that I set up a little company in a small hotel and from there it has grown into what it is now today. 

What advice would you give students thinking about a career in this field? 

The most important skill you need is communication and people skills.  You need to understand people’s characters and interests as well as their issues and find out what’s holding them back so that you can adapt to changing situations with people.  Also, educate yourself, by this I mean listen to podcasts, read relevant books, speak to other professionals and gain experience in the industry as it will fine tune your skill set. 

What advice would you give young people who want to set up their own business? 

  1. Most important, look for a niche and exploit that area, you need to do something that no one else is doing, look at ways of working differently and explore ideas, strive to be better than everyone else.   
  1.  Surround yourself with the right people and learn from them, never be scared to ask for advice. 
  1. Search for failure, this might sound strange, but you never hit perfection.  If you fail, then you grow from it, you learn to be better and you don’t get complacent because it means you take risks which builds resilience, and it makes you stronger. 
  1. Put the time in, work hard, you’ve got to be proactive and be invested in what you do.