The second episode in our podcast series, HeadBox Connect, was Stan McLeod CEO and Co-Founder of Headliner.
Headliner is on a mission to reinvent the entertainment industry providing find out how Stan switched careers from the NHS to entrepreneurship, what Headliner looks for in the people they hire and their big ideas for the future.
Ann-Marie: What would surprise our listeners about you?
Stan: I started out doing a medical degree. So I trained in Cardiff qualified in 2006 and specialized in foot and ankle biomechanics. So it’s looking at the sports injury and the way that people move walk run and, you know, it was a really interesting subject to study and I ended up finishing up in the NHS looking at kind of efficiencies and looking at trying to introduce innovation in our particular sector.
Ann-Marie: What sparked the idea for Headliner?
Stan: I got married and I was given the one job which was to put the wedding band. So I went through that process as a customer looking for live entertainment for an event and realised what a minefield it was.
Putting together the experience of trying to book a band for an event like that with the experience that we already had around kind of building technology products and platforms it made sense to us.
It was a really interesting opportunity in this space to deliver a product that could meet the needs of people like me.
Ann-Marie: I would assume that music is a big passion of yours. Being able to start a business in an industry that you are very interested and passionate about must be awesome.
Stan: Yeah absolutely. And I think when you look at kind of the creative industry the nature of how people earning money is changing but for us we one of our main goals is to try and enable artists to create a sustainable income from live music performance from their career.
Ann-Marie: What’s the biggest piece of advice you have as an entrepreneur?
Stan: I think in order to overcome these hurdles you need to constantly be asking people for help, you need to surround yourself with good people that are able to help you navigate those waters. I think early on I probably didn’t do enough of that.
It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from you’re always going to need help you’re going to need advice you’re going to need people to open doors. And if you don’t ask you won’t get it. That’s been my big learning curve.
Ann-Marie: So what does success look like to you and Headliner?
Stan: We are a mission-based business, I want to change the face of talent booking. I think we are helping people book entertainment immediately, easily and securely. Being able to book safely and securely online is what’s needed. So that’s what we want to do for the booker.
On the artist side, Headliner wants to contribute to the sustainable career of entertainers. We want people to sell their skill sets using Headliner as a vehicle. I think any business that has a genuine mission is important because without it you’re not gonna be able to sustain and achieve things as you scale because you need to have that core idea that core drives the core concepts to help you continue to build your company.
Find HeadBox Connect on iTunes and Spotify and listen to Stan’s episode in full or to listen to the other episodes in the series.
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