Facing the Canon with Liz Warom

Liz a very warm welcome to facing the cannon thank you for joining us let's start at the beginning where were you born I was born in Suffolk in the East of England and three brothers yes three older brothers I I was the youngest of four right so how was that growing up no easy I thought my corner very well thank you great upbringing yeah we see you quite assertive as a child I feel we all were to be honest we were a very noisy household very happy household but three older brothers enjoyed sort of football and so I did the opposite of everything that they did but yeah it was it an amazing upbringing amazing parents now you got the opportunity I think you got a scholarship to go to grammar school but you didn't want to go no I didn't like the uniform didn't much care for being picked up at half-past seven in the morning so and also all my friends were going to another school because I passed my eleven plus I was actually the only person in in school to do that so I got a scholarship to a grammar school but kind of decided I wanted to be with my friends and I think my parents just got a little tired of arguing so said so what just go ahead and do it and actually it was a good choice and now when you were a teenager you started dating and then you got engaged at the age of sixteen sixteen so what was the reaction from your parents you know my parents were really fine about it I think that they were people of great faith and they'd entrusted God to you know look after he's their children and they just felt they met mark my husband and they just really loved him they loved him like another son and I think they felt that he was a safe pair of hands strangely and you know they were just really happy about it you know it's amazing when you think about it but they were how old were you when you met mark at 14 so you dated for two years yeah he then proposed yeah you said yes yeah um how old were you when you got married 17 17 yeah and how old was Mark and he's 18 years older than me right no he was 22 when we got when we met and got married and when he was 25 and we're just celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary so you can work out congratulations okay so then what did you do when you left school when I left school I had absolutely no clue what I was going to do I wasn't career minded at all and obviously I wasn't going to go on to uni or anything so I just I was sitting in a dental surgery with no clue of what job I was going to do and I looked around it was a really kind of nice place to be and it's quite futuristic and I suddenly had an idea I said to the dentist I've always wanted to be a dental nurse because we have a job and if you'd like to apply so about two weeks later I'd started my I ended school and started being a dental nurse and did that for a couple of years but while you were doing that you you began to explore other possibilities as well will it with money I had no money you'll prepared when you first get married at any age but certainly when I was 17 for how poor I was gonna be and you don't realize how much your parents pay for and I suddenly thought I've got to make some extra money so I had to explore what else I could do and I heard about this opportunity to become a skin care consultant for a company and I thought well I'll give it a whirl and so I did and I just found my niche I guess and that you were around 18 with 18 you know but by the time you were 20 you had consultants working for you yes I did I guess what I did what I do naturally which is communicate you know I'm not particularly an academic but one thing I can do is is talk and I've made a career out of it and I found I could talk to other women and slowly but surely well actually quite rapidly these other woman would say well I quite fancy what you're doing how could I do it so by the time I was 20 I mm consultants that I had actually brought into the business I was living in East Anglia and they were in London and the Home Counties and East Anglia and I just did what I did naturally oh it sounds ridiculous but it wasn't really a huge effort it just pulled out of me just being a magnet for other women I guess so your your enthusiasm is very contagious then so you just naturally talked about what you were doing yeah and these women just wanted to do it so you just yeah brought them in yeah that's what I do today so right you're twenty years of age you you're now pretty I mean it that's quite successful for a twenty-year-old yeah to have so many consultants yes so then what did that lead into well the company was owned by Gillette obviously a large corporation and I think I was spotted by Gillette and they identified means I think it's classified as a young promising manager and I was noticed in the company so I ended up having a corporate position because I started off as a self-employed consultant having my own business and then eventually I guess they just pulled me in and I became part of the corporation so yes I stayed with that company for eight years I think and then you moved into the body shop well via a manufacturing company I changed I stayed within cosmetics but I had an opportunity to work for a manufacturer and my job was to create concepts and sell them into companies like Marks and Spencer and and and I did that very successfully but one of my customers ended up being the body shop and in an interview in the interview for this this job in this manufacturing company they asked me did I know Anita Roddick he was the founder of the body shop and it just so happens that two weeks before I had been at a luncheon of a thousand people and Anita was there so in the interview that became a bit of spin and I said oh yes yeah I was actually having lunch with her a couple of weeks ago which was true that's true in London with 1999 they were impressed don't your aunt longish with her yes and I got the job and on my first day I was inquiring about the body shop and what they've done previously and to my horror my boss said to me well no we don't have that business but obviously because you know Anita very well we've hired you my exaggerating really has yes beaten me this time but I went out and got the business with the body shop and and ended up then changing from being a supplier to actually working at the company but you went oh you went on a flight and you ended up sitting next to no that was that was just that was a miracle there is no doubt about it I was sitting on a flight waiting to go to Germany and they said we're waiting for one more passenger if they don't come on any minute then we're gonna take their bags and we'll take off and the person the seat was next to me and suddenly Anita Roddick was gone I don't believe it you're on this flight and you couldn't pin her down for even a ten minute meeting yeah and then we were gonna have this exclusive two hours together during which time she said to me why don't you come and work for me and so all right then so gee that was more than a coincidence Oh amazing isn't it yeah I think that was God orchestrated Oh completely you you couldn't describe it what would be the chances of that and I guess it I wasn't looking to change I wasn't looking for a change of employment but it seems such a right thing to do and now I look back that each of those positions were strategic in being what I am today and what I do today is so when you anita came and sat next to you okay own over the body shot found her and all that so then from London to Germany you did a pitch to her not knowingly I didn't even realize what she was doing I think this is the whole point I do what I do naturally I am naturally enthusiastic and I I'm kind of evangelistic if I like something I should all about I guess she saw that enthusiasm passion and she's felt well I quite like to work with that directly rather than indirectly so yeah now you're has mark I mean he he was an engineer yes but then he joined the body shop as well yeah and then the two of you started to work together yes and they didn't even ask me they are they they invited him to have a chat we he just met them socially and I think they thought well he's a really nice guy and in those days that's how you've got a job in the body shop you got a you know there were lots of jobs going and often it happened by having a conversation and he came to me and said hey you'll never guess what they've offered me a job working with you in this division of the body shop and I thought I haven't even asked me what I would think about working with my husband I really wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea no it works for us but again that was another important stepping stone in what you know would eventually be us running our own business one interview you said that you and your husband Mark to two people that two sides of the same coin is that what you said yeah in other words what were you what were you meaning by that well Mark's an engineer and what comes with that is a mindset he's a perfectionist he's very pedantic about detail he likes things done just so I tend to take a broader picture here he gets things that I have ideas he makes them happen yeah I'm very interested in product and people and brand and he's very interested in business so actually it is a perfect marriage in the business sense really so in the body shop in the area that you were given how successful were you to be honest amazingly successful we had an opportunity to take a business over that wasn't doing terribly well and we put a proposal forward to the board of the body shop though we would like to relaunch that brand it was called colorings that was a makeup brand worldwide and they gave us that opportunity and it took us one year to completely relaunch the brand and we went around the world and relaunched it to body shop franchisees and we took the cells from about three million to one hundred and twenty four million in four years so where's my results that exceed your expectations way way beyond where yes yeah it was a real real success story so that was going well but a sense that there must be something else or something more and you ended up meeting Richard Branson how did that come about well while we were in the body shop I think we started to feel that maybe it was time for us to create our own brand we were doing this for other people and so might this be the time for marking leads to create their own cosmetic brand so he came up with a concept we called it V which is French for life and we were kind of getting excited about this idea and then felt maybe we ought to talk to someone bigger someone who have more money than us and we were out to dinner with some friends and they were saying well come on when are you going to launch this brand and they survived we don't know whether it's the right time to launch a leash brand it was all about power labels and big brands like coca-cola and Nike and I said I just wonder if we ought to talk to a big power brand and they said like who so I said we you know like virgin and the whole table laughter I said yeah right so you're gonna get hold of Richard Branson and it's like the best thing you can say to me is you can't do something so you don't think I can get ahold of Richard Branson I'll show you and within a very short time we were in his house in Holland Park presents you managed to get an appointment yes yes now he I think he only gives a 20-minute appointment yes so we it's too too complex to explain but it was another miracle getting a meeting with Richard Branson was a miracle and so we went to his home we took our concept and we were told that the appointment was at 2:20 on a Thursday and we were within two hours so to 20 minutes became two hours and at the end of which he said so it's it's V so it would be verging v yeah I like it that sounds really good and that was his way of sort of saying let's do a deal I think we walk down the street still going do you think he said yes amazing yeah amazing you so obviously he put money into this yes in it we had to raise the money actually we personally had to raise the money through through the city and through investors but we left the body shop we started this brand from scratch so it was virgin v and we got our team together and in 18 months we took it from an idea to rolling out in stores and a direct sales business and online and yeah amazing yes did you do that for three years three yeah so a body shop virgin V I mean in many ways you're kind of looking after other people's children yes so was that fee we did you start feeling a little bit frustrated um you know it's the funny that you have these epiphany moments maybe many in your life or maybe few but there are times when you'd have to say we had an epiphany moment and I think it was when mark suddenly said to me you know what Liz we were really good nannies at the body shop we knew it wasn't our baby but we we looked after that with love and care and we were safe pair of hands you know what we are in virgin where surrogate parents and it was when he said that to me I just said you're absolutely right I gave birth to that baby I named it I felt the pain but I've it's not mine really I have to give it back and I guess in that moment there was a knowing deep within our hearts that sort of said you know you're destined for something different and and Mark also said you know I I just believe this has been training I don't think this is the destination I think this is part of our journey and we've we've learned our craft and now is the time for us to go alone and that's when you decided to have a sabbatical yes so when you decided to have a sabbatical a break you didn't actually know what you were going to end up doing no not at all I think we just truly felt it's exhausting you know you you you're working 24/7 and and it was it was amazing but very very tiring and we'd lost three parents during that time and I think we suddenly felt you know we're on this we're on this crazy crazy roller coaster and I think there might be a time for us to step back and review and and recharge and consider our future and we had an opportunity to leave at a certain time and we felt there were other people that could the company forward probably better than us and and so in that industry very often you have a non-compete imposed on you which we did so we had a legitimate time out to rethink and then you toured the Mediterranean that was during your sabbatical yes we we sort of we've always found travela way of escape we love travel and so we hadn't a clue where to go or what to do so we bought a one-way ticket to Calais drove our car and I remember looking at the map the huge map of Europe and all I cared about was seeing the blue sea and I said it's just get down to the south as soon as we possibly can and we'd no clue really where we were going what we were doing but we had a car and suddenly felt you know we've done Asia America we've never done all the countries in the Mediterranean what about that being the focus for this trip and again only God could have known how purposeful that would be because our brand today is very much inspired by the Mediterranean so it ended up being the footer if you like the future dream and then you found yourself in my country of origin in Cyprus yes and you woke up one morning and that was the the day you were going to renew your marriage vows yes was there something wrong with your marriage well you know that's a funny thing that when we use the term renew your vows I felt well you know I I've kept them yeah but maybe we need to set some new ones Oh at 17 what do you know I just knew I loved my husband and and I I don't offer I don't know if I said I'd be you know it just felt like this this we did we've got a sense of future here so why don't we seal it and just recognize the fact we've got an amazing marriage but you know let's let's think what that looks like for the future we still didn't know really what we were going to do in our future and Marc would constantly say you know what about this what about that what about us having our own brands and I said mark I just I think I've given all of my ideas away I don't think I've got any more ideas and then the morning we were going to renew our vows Marc went had a swim in the hotel pool and he was swimming and looked out and saw the Mediterraneans see and the sky and the pool he thought I've got to take that photo so he took the photo came back to the bedroom and I was having my early morning tea and he showed me the picture and I looked at it and I quite literally said what do you think of the name temple Spa and he being a person that he said I loved it and immediately went on the balcony and started calling trademark lawyers and saying I want to register the name temple Spa yes every region it was an idea and that was really that was the birth of that was the conception and and right so temples Spa those two words what what do they mean to you well from a personal point of view obviously your body is a temple it's a gift and I think life is the most incredible thing that we can ever be given and we have to look after our lives so temple is another word for the body and so in that sense that's how we've used it and spa for us is another way of saying space take some space it's your space put the two together and our goal is really to remind everybody to take some time for themselves every day so you had the name but you didn't have the business plan you didn't have any products so tell us how did you cry and mark create this I used to worry about a business plan I used to feel like we've got to understand how long this is going to take how much money this is going to take and it used to bother me and Mark said you know what at least we've had a lot of money at our fingertips in the past we don't have that so we're gonna have to draw from within and we're gonna have to use everything that we can do to make this business successful but it's gonna have to be one step at a time if you worry too far into the future we won't do anything I mean we are risk takers we are quite adventurous but we took a blank sheet of paper and I remember thinking I've given all these ideas and these names to other businesses what if I don't have any more ideas that was 40 and I was kind of doubting my own abilities I guess and I took a big artist pad and I thought I'll start with her in line and we'll have the cleanser mask serum and moisturizer and I put my pen to paper and I said I said how about be gone be calm be still and be strong and the names just flowed out of me I choose suitable I'm back yes and you know it was just amazing we've never thought too deeply about it we've just got on with it but so how do you actually create the products where did you go how did you well wick obviously if you've done that for a long time you have connections and so we knew laboratories and we knew packaging designers and so you kind of connected but we went to a new laboratory actually in Suffolk that I'd never worked with before my home can see and we also work with an amazing laboratory in Switzerland so new people who didn't know us but they knew of our reputation and so we just had to explain our concept and inspire these people to work with us because we were tiny we hadn't got the big numbers of body-shot and virgins so we had to just share our passion and our plan and I'm still working those we put a day I can't break it down for a stone how did you make the cream how do you do it you know did you you sit down with these these scientists and say hey we want it Mediterranean yes we want it replenishing you want it yes I start with the end in mind I think I have a good sense of using the phrase what women want I think I do know what women want and I think texture is really important I think if you I've watched women for years you might have men for that matter you put that you give them a product and they try it on the back of their hand so they're kind of feeling the texture and then they smell so texture and fragrance is really important but then it's about results you've got to have great results and so that was important to us as well because people will buy anything once but if you want to engage them you've got to have them come back and say that it's the most incredible eye cream I have ever used and that's the end in mind that I visualize what I want people to say and then we come back and I I like to have a team that do that now in the early days mark would take the packaging perspective he loves design and loves engineering so he would look at the packaging and I would work with the chemists and use layman's language really and so I wanted to feel like this I want it to look like that and then they go they do they stir the pots and they do the magic and we would say we want Mediterranean greedy n't so we want Tomatoes or whatever so it's conversation it's like cooking just like cooking in you and I could talk about yes but you know like we could like facial creams your creme award-winning mm-hmm truffle which one what price and beauty Bible best anti-aging product yeah I still have that prize that's the anti-aging product so so that's chemistry isn't it so you had found the chemistry to make it but expressed it in a very Mediterranean if I'm using that's probably a very good product for me to explain that process because we were in Switzerland it was actually coming up to our 10th anniversary and temple Spa and the laboratory people were talking about another product but they said how are you going to celebrate this this very monumental getting to this point and I said well with champagne and maybe some chocolates and and as I said that I started thinking well wouldn't be amazing if we could create a product out of the ingredients that are synonymous with celebration diamonds gold silk champagne chocolate truffles and when you engage with someone if you inspire them they catch it and I've been very fortunate to work with people that have said I've got it I've got it I know exactly what we need to do and so out of that wording that language came a product and then of course five years to get that product perfected to the standard that we felt we wanted to get to and obviously since that origin you have a number of products now yet many the range is nearly a hundred products strong so yes very why is it doing well amazingly well it is we're really blessed yeah the and is doing really well in the business is doing really well so we're yes I think we would just we feel we're just at our tipping point which is very exciting now you went and went to Harrods did your little presentation normally at Harrods it takes three years for something to get processed well it's it's quite funny we were ready to launch in a spa that was gonna be our first experience there spa that's very close to our head office and home and they were building the spiral we were going to launch and they had a newt infestation so building was delayed and we just thought oh my goodness move we've got products coming into a warehouse if we don't sell them we're out we're out of business before we've started and so again similar situation with some friends I said I guess we've got to go to Harrods and one of the friends just said well you can't just walk into house you know there's a three-year waiting list and again that is the best thing you could say to because it's like well I'm going to circumnavigate the waiting list and they did indeed say they wouldn't take a meeting and so they said put your products in a jiffy bag mark said I'm not doing a jiffy bag and he created an amazing presentation handcrafted it all weekend and we dropped it off at the head office and I remember they called within a couple of minutes and said are you the person that just dropped off the past select Harrods and I wanted to say that was my secretary and they just said would you like to cut your products are amazing actually and when we were still in the store we were just having a coffee in Starbucks behind and and so we said yes yes we're here she went back in we went back in and we went into the buying office and we walked in and we could see the staff like bees around a honeypot with our products in the middle and it was just one of those moments that you thought oh my goodness and within a week we were in Harrods and here we are today 13 years later and doing really well in that store so you're inheriting the Selfridges and many spas yeah and and then we have these are scars all over the country yes all over the country and Greece and Turkey and more planned and products on some of the airlines that you yes yes that's worked really well for us as well and providing amenity kits and products for people who are turning left when they get on the plane nice then it's great awareness for us and we've had some amazing contracts we had American Airlines for five years and that was it was like our bank it was unexpected and I used to sort of think wouldn't it be amazing if we could have a million pounds investment and we never have we've never had the investment it's always come through just doing what we do and then you get these breakthroughs like an American Airlines contract and that was that was truly like our bank for five years so yes and we still have some airlines now which is great so back to the products okay what do they really do for you Skinnygirl you know what no one I think they boost self-esteem I think they they are a tool in the hand to make you feel better about yourself and that's a good thing but then there is a there is a process we do have a skin we are getting older we do need to preserve and look after what we've been given and the natural aging process means that there are areas that need a bit of extra help so a moisturizer will soften and protect the skin and it will make it feel better but it's what you should do it is the right thing to do I say yes but what but what about look if you're hurting inside Liz and you've got a low self-image a bit of cream isn't going to make much difference is it there are deeper issues aren't there that can't be fixed and in fact one of the things we do say this won't be fixed with a we're mission of it with an essential oil and that that is true we make no promises about that at all but I have seen women in our business we have a beautiful business called sparked ago which is where we have consultants that bring spa concept into private homes and I have seen women literally get transformed that might start with them using a product and then what comes with that is I'm actually gaining some confidence here I'm gaining some self-esteem here I'm actually starting to look at myself in the mirror and I love myself and so if we're a tool towards that I think that's a wonderful thing now you're a Christian Liz and you often speak about your faith as a Christian have you always been a Christian I don't ever remember a time not having a relationship with God no I was always brought up in a Christian family so that was very much the language and the lifestyle of our family so I've I've never known anything different I've had times when I have felt very distant or I've wondered if you like but certainly for the for the last 20 years it's been very much part of my well it is my life so how does your Christian faith affect your business well I guess really it was born out of an absolute passion to do something differently and Mark and I took a vow many years ago not to live an ordinary life and I think that's a prayer that's definitely been answered and what we've done is is is quite extraordinary really because we're just two very ordinary people that have a passion to do things well to be passionate about excellence and for me if I if I just think about the fact I serve a Creator who created this incredible world and chose us to live in it and have life and breathe life into it then why wouldn't I take that same expression into business and so I think it affects the ethics I think we're very driven by generosity and and being kind it's not always you know easy but in business but - it's so it's an expression of what I am NOT a preacher it just it flows out of what I am and what mark is really are there areas in business that you didn't do because you were a Christian did you hold back because of your values and principles well my choices for our spa treatments would be very scented on a Mediterranean lifestyle so in that sense we don't take ourselves into the new-age community that is not something I have any interest in but I suppose we would avoid anything that is in that area because we're very central to what well we've got a wonderful platform and Mediterranean how is the most incredible platform that is it has no boundary it doesn't have a political strain about it and it just is what we Center ourselves on so for me it's been fairly easy to stay in that but no we're fairly careful about things that would pollute that that you don't test on animals no and we never have to be fair no one does really there are a few people that do I just think we're fairly transparent about our products and about our statements and I think we feel a very open brand so we've expressed it through that really yes we are careful about the ingredients that we use and we don't exploit people that's as important if not more important than animals so that's been but we don't shout about it that's in there but it's not something that we use as a marketing platform now it's true to say that this whole industry the the appeal is a majority women and a minority is the men what why is that well you will it's a grown men it is a growing market definitely I think that it's becoming guys are becoming far more understanding that I may not always look like this so I think it's the market for many is growing our market is predominantly women but we've got some male consultants working in our business and we have guys working in head office so I don't think I think just its history you know women love products you with as a little girl you play with dolls and then that kind of goes to makeup and then it goes from there to you know hopefully top to toe but you would encourage men to use your products yes anyone yes I think that we we try and make her products unisex in appeal now obviously we have one or two girlie products which sort of pink and fluffy and lovely and we've got those but on the whole we find we have got a very mixed audience and and will you use the product so I do okay but get gone make a comment on my skin I'm greets it free I think you have your alright a detail right so go and tell me great what would you advise I mean if I do use your products but what what would you advise to somebody like me I think one of the things that that guys generally don't do but they're starting to do which is good is exfoliate they shave and then you look at I look at men sometimes and I think you you haven't got a moisturizer on you shaved and that's about as much as you've you've done today and I hear guys say as although I don't use aftershave like well you should actually because it is beautiful to take that moment to have an aroma to look at yourself in the mirror and think actually I can exfoliate get rid of these dead skin cells which men have more off because they they shave and they're moisturize and just protect and that's the very minimum that you should do and I think I have seen a difference in your skin since you've used truffle it just I can see you do have dark patches here these wrinkles but I think I suppose is because men you know we when we were teenagers in our 2030s we didn't use products I think it's a familiar much more recent oh I think it is I think the onslaught of the the metrosexual man means that he he he wants to look good and that that you know there's an agenda choice that's basically he accepts the fact that skin is dry we do get wrinkles we do get dead skin cells and we've noticed even in our spots the number of men having treatments and facials not just massages is is really a growth area okay let's go back to business okay someone's listening now they've got a heart passion and they've listened to what you've done and what you you and marker pioneered as you look back in hindsight what advice would you give someone listening who wants to be a pioneer and start out in business I think one key thing is that you have to accept that it's gonna take twice as much money it's going to take twice as long and your sales will probably be half as much economics don't work they really don't you you've got to face the numbers you can't ignore the numbers but I think you've got to know your subject and I do I meet people and they say oh I'm thinking of opening a restaurant and that's just because they like cooking because it's going to take way more than just having a hobby or an interest if you if you want to go into something you've got to know your subject really well I don't think there's that many gaps for things so therefore if you're going to do something it's because you want to do it better and differently and have something unique about what you do and you have to take the time to have that picture there's a lot of dreamers but you know it's no dream running a business it can be really really tough see to endure you've got to have your idea you've got to know your numbers you've got to know that it's going to be you want to a holiday for a long time you've got to be prepared to work six seven days a week and then the benefits come later if you if you put the time in and the effort and the the hours if you like at the early stages now when you moved on from virgin VIII okay you had this sabbatical and you're still thinking about obviously your experience was in these kind of products but there was so many products so how did you create another niche when when there's already enough products what was it it was it your branding what was it well I suppose for us it would we would have to say it was having control it was not having to answer to anybody and and feeling if we want to do something if it feels right then we can do it and I don't have to consult with anybody I've never had that opportunity I'd always work for someone else and served their vision we had a vision and we wanted to serve it as well and and so no there wasn't a gap and there certainly wasn't a need for another skin care company but I think we felt that if we could combine beautiful products beautiful packaging with great ingredients and beautiful textures and fragrance and names the very characterful names that some of our personality would come through because it is like being parents of a child and then looking at that child and thinking oh they're just like me there or they're just like him there and I think we do feel that temporal spar is a reflection of us and that was what we wanted to start with we only started with probably 20 products and we thought we'll do those well and if they do well then we'll do some more and having the airline contract gave us the funding to actually widen the range and then be able to to do what we do today but how did you get the airline contract that really is another miracle there was a person who was connected to the airline industry and he had known Richard Branson and we'd worked with him when we were in virgin and he a piece of to this person all what are the Warren's doing I haven't heard from them recently and he very cleverly said to them top secret they're actually work underground actually on something really secretive and that only just you know cancer that I've got to know about it and we met him and we showed him our range and he said I think I know exactly who you need to talk to and it ended up being Scandinavian Airlines he said I know that they're looking to refresh their amenity kit long story short our products went out to Stockholm and the person the buyer opened the parcel and they'd already decided to take another brand in so I don't know really why we were in the mix and they opened the parcel and they literally got onto the agent straightaway and said have we made a commitment to this other company and they said no they said don't we want to go with temple Spa and our savings had literally gone down to 2,000 pounds that wasn't even enough to pay the mortgage survived used up all our assets yes no because we weren't making any money we were spending money and we weren't making any money and the next day we had a phone call to say Scandinavian Airlines are going with you and they're going to bank what fifty eight thousand pounds so our bank account went from two thousand pounds to sixty thousand pounds in 24 hours and that's why I often say to people you know the darkest hours before dawn keep going we all have these moments where we think oh my goodness I don't know if I can carry on and you have to keep the faith and that's happened to us on many many occasions so yeah airlines have got a special place in our heart because they were our bank so for people listening Liz who are in business maybe have their own business maybe it's going well or they're struggling you know what would you advise them about the future well so long as you you you feel there is future and you have to just keep the vision you have to keep that in front of you all the time only last year we did a five-year plan and that was a roadmap for us that felt like that was a good thing to do because although I said we didn't necessarily do a detailed business plan in the beginning obviously the scale of the business is such now but you you have to keep your eye on the future and I think you have to know the difference between tactics and strategy and a lot of people get those things mixed up mixed up tactics are whatever what are the tactical things that I can do right now that will affect my business now but at the same time you've got to keep your eye on the future of where you're going with something and I think often people get the two mixed up they are they spend all that time thinking about the future and not for now and they're losing customers or they're not keeping their eye on their staff or whatever it is now and then the other conflict is that you look at now and you're not thinking about the future and I think what we've tried to do is always balance those those those two those two now obviously you left school at the age of 16 16 you didn't go to business school you don't have an MBA what do you think about people who are going to an MBA well I think it's brilliant it's absolutely brilliant if I don't have children but if I had have had children I think they I would have been absolutely encouraged them to go for their education and if you're gonna be in business that's got to be the ultimate but what that doesn't do is give you empirical knowledge empirical knowledge is knowledge that comes through experience and there's nothing that can exchange experience and I'm fortunate that I'm in an industry that I've always been in so I sort of know it very well so it wouldn't interest me to go to business school because it would probably ruin me I'm very instinctive so I do what I do instinctively and I'm grateful for that because I have an influence over 2,000 women who also have their own business and for most of them their instinctive they're using their people skills and communication skills and they wouldn't have a formal business training some do but the majority don't so so you and Mark how do you see the future for yourselves and for Temple Spa and what's the future well I think for us a market we haven't tapped his America we are in many hotels in America about 60,000 rooms a night so there's a lot of people knowing about your yes 60,000 rooms yes a night yes so that's that's a good list we've done the hotel in the street yes in the States but I think there's an opportunity for us to really expand the business there and we've got some great people that work with us and so I think increasingly we feel that we must dip into the future and remain visionaries for the business and and have the big idea and and then inspire the people around us to carry out those plans and and that's the the benefit of growth is you can work with good people but they do need a leader you know we all need a leader and and for the for now and the as long as we can see that's our role but we'd like to helicopter above rather than necessarily being in the detail so you still feel you have the the energy and the creativity to keep going and growing yes you should have listened to us at one o'clock in the morning last night it was like mark was saying well who are we gonna charge this hour to because it's just we we're full of ideas yes yeah you you don't anticipate in the near future doing what Joe Malone did and sold her name and her products no that is not in our heart it really isn't well we love the ownership we love the fact that we we have no no debt we've never borrowed we've never had investors shareholders stakeholders so we've loved that no one can ever say never I think that's a ridiculous thing to say especially as a Christian because you're not giving God any place to you know influence your future but for now we're loving what we're doing and we can't see that changing anytime soon so that you explain to us your home in your office yeah where are they situated well our home used to be a farmhouse so actually we when we moved we had no idea what these buildings would be useful but now we have our home and that's our house and and then we're surrounded by barns and all of those barns have been turned over to Temple Spa offices so it's beautiful I have no excuse for being late to work no.not and how many people you've got working there we have about 50 employees and some work at the warehouse which is five miles down the road and we have about 20 people in head office and then some field people as well so so it's a lovely team big team so you look back and you've had a pretty successful career but you look forwards with anticipation for more I think if you've I have been blessed with a wonderful career I really have and I suppose now I am I am of an age where I can influence other women and I've got a voice and I I treat that you know with great care I realize it's a position of influence and I use it wisely and I find increasingly now I'm being asked to speak at different events and we have you know charity work we're involved with and a great church that I'm very involved with so we have a life outside of Temple Spa and I think that gives us balance and it keeps us dreaming and thinking bigger what kind of charitable working involved in I would probably say more from a giving points of view and an encouraging point of view our churches has a massive activity with the homeless our churches in Brighton and we support that financially but also with product and and also Mercy Ministries has always been something we've been very close to residential program what do they do where's mercy really is a charity founded by a wonderful friend of ours called Nancy Alcorn and it's a residential program for girls between the ages of 14 and 28 who've got on the wrong side of the track but the depth of their problems can't be fixed and the quick cancelling session so it might take six months a year to really unravel the depth of what they've gone through and we feel because our products our brand are about giving self-esteem but to people who've possibly already got a good self-esteem so it would be right that we would support those that haven't it's been taken from them so they're they're really our key charities what would you say Liz to anyone listening you know we're listening to someone you look good you've been very successful that and they might be feeling I haven't been successful maybe a sense of discontentment and really don't know what the future is all about what would you say to somebody like that I guess really it's about knowing what your giftings are and I would I would say a prayer I would honestly even if you haven't got a relationship we've got my tense tendency would be to say why am I here what was I meant to do you know I I need help I do I've got to know where I'm going on and perhaps you're wondering financially or in your marriage or in your career and I've always felt that so prayer God can answer and I've seen that happen in people's lives where if they've kind of surrenders the future or where they're going and a lack of hope I'm not saying things happen instantly they don't it's a journey but I think that's that that's the best advice I could give anybody because it's got to be something beyond ourselves really hasn't it wait does really it is that what what do you do to relax what are your hobbies well we live near the beach and so I absolutely love to get outside and and to walk the beach we're in the south down so that's an amazing place to be to be outside entertain we actually really love to cook and so having friends over and cooking supper or just hanging out together if it's the summer sort of having a swim together having a weekend together we have a lovely house and so I enjoy searching for things for a house and you know we're always developing things so for us that's relaxation and obviously travel but yeah I'd love to be home and entertain and cook and just the usual thing I'm really ordinary actually and I just love to to be with people that I can be myself with so you said you said about a hundred products already do you keep buzzing with ideas for tear ducts all the time I just I'm just an ideas person so I I can listen to a sentence and suddenly think that's a great product name and and I write it down and then think of a product around it so we're introducing less products now because we've got an amazing range and we need to sell what we've got and and refine those so yes I'm a developer so I'm always thinking of new ideas and one of your most recent additions to your collection is a CD of music yes what what what birth that well we felt that we had touched all of the senses in tempo spell we had smell we had feel sight you know we'd done all of that but we didn't have a sound there was not a sound of Temple Spa and when you go into sparse of course they played lovely relaxing music and when our consultants go into the home they might take their own CD and put some chill-out music on and then we suddenly thought well why don't we have our own music and we met a very wonderful couple Kristin a be eaten and he's a composer he's an amazing composer and singer and she's one of our consultants too and we came together and said well wouldn't it be amazing to create something that's like repose one of our relaxing beautiful face creams but do that as a sound and so we have an album that's playing when we started today and it's just fabulous we love it and Mark and I literally put it on every night to go to sleep it's on his iPhone and that just goes on as gentle music and it just transports you to a place of tranquility Liz you're a fascinating woman and so is your husband so 40 years of marriage I know amazing we've just been on holiday we went on a cruise and first cruise you've ever been yes it was and we we were bit sort of hesitant whether that was going to be what we wanted to do but we loved it and so we kind of it was like a honeymoon bubble all over again so yes it was it was amazing yeah 40 years it's incredible feels like yesterday well Liz and to your husband mark I'm aware very aware of your kindness generosity and the work that you do with needy people as well but well done for stepping out of virgin V setting up temple Spa and we wish you well in the future Thank You Liz Warren thank you you

Channel: Facing the Canon

Views: 8,903

Rating: 4.5151515 out of 5

Keywords: facing the canon, j.john, interview, jjohn, j john, philo trust, philo, trust, christianity, Jesus, Lord, God, Holy Spirit, Liz Warom, Temple Spa, Cosmetics, Businesswoman, Business Woman

Id: sTx2bPakF40

Length: 53min 47sec (3227 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2016