Co-Founder of the Scottish Business Network and ScotsCare Ambassador
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[Music] Hello I’m Marcus Railton and this is the Scotscare podcast. Scotscare is the only charity dedicated to helping disadvantaged Scots in London through a range of support including mental health therapy, financial grants, advocacy, sheltered housing for older Scots, job coaching, social events, befriending and support for Children and Families. The Charity’s been running for 400 years to help break the cycle of poverty experienced by some Scots.
In this series of the scotscare podcast I’ll be chatting to celebrities and supporters of the charity that have also forged a life in the capital away from home and about the ups and downs that can bring.
Scotscare: supporting Scots away from home in London.
Joining me this week on the podcast is businesswoman Christine Esson Christine is the co-founder of the Scottish Business Network an organization that helps Scottish companies develop and grow globally she’s also an ambassador for women’s Enterprise Scotland breaking down barriers for women in business Christine
is a wonderful example of success not just in London but the world over and it’s great to have her on the program
today Scott’s care hi Christine
Hi Marcus thank you for being on the scotscare podcast I know you’re really busy you know it’s a pleasure always good to
talk to another Scott about life I know you’re best north of the border now but
do you do a lot of business South of the Border and you did live in London for quite a while didn’t you that’s correct
in fact I just returned yesterday evening from being down in London and
but yes I’m now living in Glasgow in my home city of Glasgow and my proud glass region and yeah as most courts do we we
commute back and forwards not only to the rest of the world but down to London London being London and England being
Scotland’s largest export Market whereabouts in Glasgow were you brought
up born and raised in Bears Den all right and uh absolutely love uh this part of
the world although I was very blessed when we did live in London we lived north of the city we were on the Thames
link line and we were in Hertfordshire and it was absolutely beautiful there as
well but today I’m looking out uh that lovely or Scottish word Greek I’m looking out
in a very dry Glasgow sky here and having come back from the autumnal
colors and the the warmth of the southeast of a little Pang to be back down the road at the moment Marcus I
know there’s such a difference was it 450 miles or something that’s such a difference I was looking at it’s it’s raining here where I am in greater
London and I was looking out and I was talking to my kids this morning and they were saying oh it’s raining Dad I said well it’s not really raining it’s more
Smurf and uh my nine-year-old boy said what’s he went what smear so that’s just
smart it’s kind of like really wet rain you know it’s just so Scottish it’s smart it was what brought you to London
what brought me to London has so many Scots it was work uh at the time I made
the move I was working for the Irish government I was working for a fantastic organization called Enterprise Ireland
the Irish trade and investment board and I had taken that role actually after
taking a year out I went traveling for a considerable period of time and shows
when this job came about it was 2008 and there was a little advert in Friday on
the Glasgow Herald in those days and saw this advert for economic development
which is my specialism and I applied for that job so they had done office here in
Scotland and I was the Scottish rep as it were helping Irish companies export
into the UK and Scotland as we saw that as a good launch pad into the the rest
of the UK so I took that job and then I was offered to take on the role to head
up Enterprise Ireland UK so the UK has was and will likely to be the largest
export market for Irish companies so I headed up that team and a particular
specialism within that was helping companies who were relatively new start
and Enterprise Ireland investing a hundred new businesses each year 75 of
whom 75 percent of which the First Market overseas Market is the UK so I
worked specifically with those companies but it was work work brought me down so
when whereabouts did you move down to I I’ve mentioned this to another guest where I remember when I moved down I was
I moved down and the strange thing was it was exactly the same as you I saw an advert in the paper and when you
mentioned it there it made me think how we’ve all changed the way we apply for work now and I saw in the Glasgow
Herald and it was they were looking for journalists at ITN and I was at BBC uh Scotland at that point on radio 2. and I
thought I could do that so I wrote to them and then they called me up on the telephone and I was skint at the time
and I got the the bus down to London and uh then then after that I got the job
and I moved relatively quickly but I remember moving to London and being almost shell-shocked because I moved
from the West End of Glasgow down to Grayson roads you know the you’re just beside King’s cross and
stepped off the bus and everything was just going a hundred miles an hour did you feel that culture difference
and maybe not as dramatic as you felt it as soon as you see King’s cross you know
that the Redevelopment there I mean the king’s cross that you would have faced is completely different to the king’s
cross that there is now it no it wasn’t quite rabbit in the headlights my um my
much loved older sister moved down to London in 1987 and has only recently
returned uh to Scotland but so she was already down there so there is a lot of
commuting back and forward and then through my job with Enterprise Ireland
because I was already working I would work you know a couple of days if not a
week a month in London I took the flight into London City from Glasgow and then
took the line along um our office at their offices is in shaftesbury Avenue so I was you know
coming out at Covent Garden and quite often I could leave from Glasgow and be
in quicker than somebody coming from another part of London or the suburbs
there so for me it wasn’t a culture shock I had been traveling a lot and
having my sister there and there was a lot that I thought I knew however
I would always see him a city girl I love if I’ve grown up in a city in
fabulous city of Glasgow but London is on another level it really is I mean
it’s huge and in that way it’s interesting to talk about the travel and my wife was working in warping for a
while and and we’re in greater London so you’re still on the outskirts of London but it would take her two hours
to get there she would drive to the train station get the train to Waterloo
and then the tube to somewhere else and then another tube and then she would walk and I always thought when she was
doing this job I could get to Manchester with the time it took you to get to warping it is it is crazily big but
you’ve moved back now to to the West End of Glasgow I’m quite envious of that I do love the West End of Glasgow I spent
a lot of time there when I was growing up what was it drove you back or or what was the catalyst
the catalyst I think just circumstances happen and we we move by in fact a year
ago this week and you know recording this at the end of October Marcus but it’s a year ago this week it was a
number of things but primarily we’d always kept our home here in Scotland because we knew we would
come back at some point and my husband that you know part of my story is the
fact for 20 odd years my husband hasn’t lived in Scotland he is our glass region
like me but sadly so many of us find career-wise he moved out of the country
in order to develop his career so Alistair has lived and worked in in
Ireland interestingly enough not at the same time I was working for the Irish government he’s living worked in Ireland
uh lived and worked in in South Africa worked in Germany worked in in London
um and Ulster retired just just before covert and so I think just circumstances
I can’t say there was one big thing but sometimes you just go with the flow and
else don’t I just sometimes just go with the flow and that floor has brought us back to Scotland
Scott’s care has a dedicated employment service to help people back into work
our job coaches can help with skills ranging from writing a CV to building
confidence in interviews job applications can be tough and we’re here to help with this too
now what I want to talk to you about now is the Scottish business network is that you are the founder of the Scottish or
the co-founder of the Scottish business Network what was it inspired you to create this was it all the back and
forth you were doing in seeing a niche there or seeing an opportunity yes to that seeing a niche seeing an
opportunity I mean any business you have to address a market Gap a market opportunity and the market Gap and
opportunity that myself and my court fantastic co-founder Russell dog leash
and identified there’s 346 000 businesses in Scotland yet only 11
000 11 000 of them export that’s just over three percent and in fact a hundred
businesses account for 60 of Scottish exports so there is a gap there in order
to help and support companies who have the ambition the passion and commitment to go global and
what we do is very very simple is we make meaningful connections
but the driver behind that was the fact that as we spoke earlier I moved to
London I was working for the Irish government with the Scottish husband I
just needed some Welsh link there and I could the full full Suite
um but I would be out morning during the night telling the story of great Irish
entrepreneurs and you know that that is fantastic because they have a wonderful
story to tell but I started to wonder who telling the story of great Scottish
entrepreneurs who’s telling the story of Claire Campbell of prickly thistle first
woman to own a weaving Mill in the highlands of Scotland who’s telling the story of Karen Somerville of angels
share a fabulous glassblowing business in in Bridge of Allen has just won a
phenomenal export award to take her into the Far East of glencraft her mattress
makers the royal family who do again phenomenal work out in the Far East who
is telling their story to the Scottish diaspora and you know
yourself Marcus and maybe people who are listening to this as well know that when
you’re down south or even just out with another good Scottish word when you’re out with Scotland
finding those stories about great and current
Scottish entrepreneurial activity is difficult so I met quite by chance Russell dog
leash in a coffee shop uh one day in Tottenham Court Road and as we’ll possibly go into later I
don’t drink tea or coffee so you know I was in this coffee shop and I met Russell and I told that story I made
that comment and I have the expertise because I know how well the Irish use their diaspora I mean
they are the world leading in diaspora engagement and Russell has a great link
and uh you know great understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Scotland and it was bringing those two
elements together to address a clear Market Gap in helping Scottish companies
Go Global I think when I look at the the members of the Scottish business Network
I’m blown away because a I kind of think wow it’s it’s just so interesting
there’s so many interesting people there and and and be all doing all these interesting things and did it grow quite
quickly I I’m always amazed at how a friend I mean English people worship lives people are not uh are friendly but
you know Scots I find maybe it’s because I’m Scottish we’re all particularly friendly did it did it exceed your
expectations that the growth the growth oh absolutely I thought those would just
be a nice way thing to do in parallel was my job at the Enterprise Ireland you know a couple hours a week maybe
um and it just grew like Topsy but I think yes Scots are friendly yes we like
to get together but we’re also don’t suffer fools gladly and I think with we
are all so busy not just in business but in your own personal time and
particularly in London because if you go to something out with your work hours
there has to be a purpose because you know we spoke there about your wife to
our commute many most people have that Community most people are thinking well this is lovely to go to the theater but
I don’t know about you Marcus but I’m always thinking right okay hopefully they won’t go for an encore in that show
because if they leave now I can get up to clings or some pancreas and I can get the Thames link home so for me it had to
have a purpose and it had to be very a clear identifiable purpose that people
could get behind so yes friendly great we love to network
but it had to be clear in its message and the message is we will tell you
practically the stories and the ambition of Scots and Scottish entrepreneurs and
they will very clearly share with you their laser focused ask and that is our
USP I don’t want someone saying yeah here’s my business and here’s how I’m aiming to grow the business because I
always say right what can Scottish business Network across the world do to help you and they have to be laser
focused don’t tell me you want to speak to someone an HR in an engineering company in London now I want to talk to
Christy Nelson who’s head of HR and Company X in London why because I
believe our software product meets their needs at the moment because I’ve seen through their they’re going through a
significant change be brief be specific be gone that is well that’s quite
refreshing Christine isn’t it because if I get that introduction and then I come to you you can say yes or no and
then we can all move on and we can you know we can remain friends but at least at least there’s no gray area about it
you know our Mantra is our our statement as we make meaningful connections so you
need to know what it is you’re wanting from us what it is you want from our community because we’re all busy but
what you have as a community uh we we haven’t spoken about it but yeah a lot
of this is about trust that you trust the other members in that community that we trust the people who have an Ask we
have a fantastic session and Tuesday night there are a partnership at Scotland house London and we were
focusing on the creative Industries we had a fantastic story from Rachel McClelland of Planet shine now she is
very much in focus on taking your sustainability story out to the rest of the world and is looking to grow their
film studios in the borders of Scotland she had an Ask of the audience you know
it’s they ask about helping establish that film studio in Scotland and
um that that’s what we’re about but it’s meaningful connections and it’s value-add and trust and what what level
of business do I have to have to come to you do I have to have a fully formed business or could I have an idea and say
look I need feedback on this is this should I grow this or leave it so at what level do I
have to be at before I come to the Scottish business Network we’re you know we’re open to all
businesses however our focus is on going global and any company who is looking to
go Global you have to have the finances and you have to have the people resource and a strategy for that we always talk
about think Global as you start your business so yes come to us at the start yes come to us because you want to find
out from our ambassadors you know Fiona McFadden is is out in New Zealand she’s
a great insight into taking the food and drink industry into that market and be
Australia in the Far East Fraser Morrison and Singapore he has some great
expertise about you know at least secure 10 10 clients before you physically come
into market and say you’ve got an export strategy so yes we could help you at that early stage and but I would say
that you you’re possibly would get greater value you from us if you have a
fully functioning business and you have a clear strategy because that commitment
to go Global needs that commitment within the business do you think that that
zoom and virtual communication has opened up the Scottish business networks
more globally now with kind of pre-covered the zoom was around but it wasn’t a big
thing so so hey hold on I said let me ask you that but then could you also maybe before that could you could you
talk to him about what covert did to the Scottish business Network and how you bounce back from that
so I still remember the last event we had in person event in February 2020
with 150 people in the room Scott’s wanting to hear about you know other
Scottish businesses Going Global with 150 in the room but Russell and I were still wrestling with this question we
will get members across the world we have ambassadors across the world who are there to help us how do we connect
them in to what’s happening in the room and then lo and behold the world stopped
but the world stopped in a way that allowed us all to go on the same platform I mean I’m of an age that the
only zooms that I knew were a nice slowly in the 17th and a song by the fat Larry’s band you know so didn’t for me
was a whole other world they’re both quality products though both quality products absolutely but what
um as all businesses had to do you had to react you had to be flight of food
and it occurred to me hang on a minute we have Scots all around the world who
are experiencing this in different ways so what we did was start to bring our
community together online using zoom and we brought them together and started the
first event that we had and we entitled them view from my window and we’d escort
living out in Beijing and of course in Beijing at this point they had opened up again come I think that was April we ran
that might have been the end of March it was no later than April they had opened up again so Tom told us a story about
Ava the view from his windows was okay it was late night in Beijing but there were still cars out and about there was
nothing happening in the UK as he walked into work people were handing out leaflets saying come to our
restaurant come to our gym now September we’d eat out to help out so he was able
to share what was happening there okay China has gone through another phase because of its Zero Tolerance but he was
able to show what was happening to then we worked our way across the globe
ending up with Anne in Los Angeles by the time we got to and they were
entitled lockdown and there was robots going around the streets of Palo Alto delivering food and so we’re able to say
well we can still connect you as as a member and as a trusted network with
what’s happening elsewhere and the key message there was don’t go into your
rabbit hole don’t bury your head keep that connection going the world operates
people do business with people and the world operates on connection so Zoom
gave our community the opportunity to keep those connections going find out
what was happening in the world but it also gave us a platform that we are
still using so Tuesday night it was a platform a hybrid event with a group of
folk at Scotland house London down at Blackfriars on the Thames and we had people joining us from all over the the
globe so it’s working for us it gave us a an answer to a problem we were already
facing you you mentioned earlier you’re talking about Scottish business Network ambassadors now you’re an ambassador for
the women’s Enterprise Scotland could you tell me how that works and what that is sure women’s Enterprise Scotland
something I’m incredibly Proud to be an ambassador for um came out of the fact that women-owned
businesses in Scotland account for 20 of the business base and and we contribute
8.8 billion to the Scottish economy now already the rose report which came out
in 2019 Alison Rose head of um NatWest if women started businesses and scaled
at the same rate as men that would bring another 250 billion to the economy now
we are heading into extremely challenging times and what women’s Enterprise Scotland is doing is looking
to break down those barriers for women in coming into business so we support
women-owned businesses we seek to provide equal access to Resource and
opportunities as women grow and build their businesses and a lot of that now
we’ve fortunate a fantastic piece of research not from women’s Enterprise Scotland but
um a lady called Joe page it started this called the gender index review
where all 435 000 active businesses in the UK have
been analyzed uh go on and look at it gender index report and it gives you
data on how many of the as businesses are women owned how many of them are women in the management team how much
funding they’ve got less than one percent of venture capital funding goes into a woman-led business in the UK
that’s a shocking statistic in fact I think that’s even the global statistic but those are figures that
um women’s Enterprise Scotland are seeking to address through policy
through data and through ambassadors that we seek to be role models for other
women going into business did you know Scott’s care provides homes
for older Scots across London if you or yours are finding it hard to find a home
we’ve closed on a hundred high quality sheltered housing Flats to help make a
fresh start [Music] my wife was very impressed by it because
when um we were talking over email prior to this interview or this chat this bladder
um I was to I then spoke to my wife about the women’s women’s Enterprise Scotland and she works in advertising
which is a a very male dominated industry and and my wife was talking about being
perimenopausal and she’s struggled to find help emotionally
and physically you know her confidence has been knocked she questions her decisions she gets brain fog and and
I’ll be honest with you she said to me because I said do you mind if I talk about this to Christine um and she said no that’s fine you talk
about it because I think we all have to talk about it my wife’s a successful executive at a well-known london-based
Global advertising firm and I just wonder if we are ignoring 50
of our Workforce because you know there is the biggest Democrat growing demographic as menopausal women 40 45 to
55 year old women are we not do as business and as policy not doing enough to look after women
totally and what your your wife’s issue as you know this is something that will
affect God dwelling every woman and and the fact is this is not a woman’s
problem and that’s what people need to wake up and realize this is a societal-wide
problem we all have to address it because if you’re suffering from that
brain fog if you have had a horrendous night’s sleep because of the hot flashes
if you’re sitting in a meeting and you have that hope flush that is horrendous
for you but if we are talking about it because this is a societal-wide problem
as is the issue of ensuring women get equal access to business support that’s
not a women’s problem that’s not down to women to fix it or to raise the issue it
is a societal-wide issue and the more that we talk about the more open that we
are about it then the better it is because you can only by talking about
these things understand what is happening to a woman as she goes through
this in her life and by talking about these things and also breaking down the embarrassment
about it and actually even though you and your wife will have been together all these years
it possibly took a lot of guts for your wife to say that to you and and to talk about it it’s not something that’s
easily spoken about you know you can see people sort of little crumbs particularly
um you know males head down and off we go but this is something we need to address
we are disabling a significant amount of our Workforce yes because of the
economic conditions because but also because of of society you know opening up and being aware these are the
challenges we’re all facing yeah there was a I read a statistic from the office of national statistics the other day it
said 10 of women are leaving the job because of what they are going through and I I suspect some of that is because
emotionally and physically they can’t handle what’s going on but they’re not getting supported and another part of it
will be like you talked about like the embarrassment of going into work and colleagues not understanding or
acknowledging what they’re going through yeah I mean that you start to think you’re going mad and you know that whole
brain fog thing forgetting things and so often as was identified during you know
a covert crisis the fact is that that women and and I often when I’m asking
people you know what is it what is it you do what is it I I don’t often say what’s your job I don’t like that
question I often say what what is it that keeps you busy and people always start if they have a job and for me
anybody who I worked with in the workplace who was also uh a wife a
mother a carer you know that you’re balancing all that as well meanwhile
because of who you are you you’re going through this menopausal situation and
the impact that that has on you and you talked about it there your feeling of
self-worth and and for many women it’s such a you know you’ve moved on in life
you’re no longer of child bearing years that has quite a significant mental impact on people as I say we need to
talk about it so thank you for raising that question with me do you know I’d
like to talk about I wonder because you’re you’re a you’re in a senior role and the Scottish business network is
more than a job to you it’s it really feels like a vocation and it’s a passion the way you speak about it you know
can you create a work-life balance have you got that good question
um if Mr anything was sitting here the answer thought would be no um I just got an awful lot of fun from
it you know it is fun it is flipping hard work absolutely really really really hard
work but I meet such interesting people and
the opportunities that Scottish business network has given our members
um the growth opportunities that our members have benefited from is phenomenal and when you see that and
when you see the connections that are made and you know a lovely story is about Jamie Harris of essence of Harris
um if anybody wants that moment out of your day um have a look at Jamie Harris a Jamie
McGowan’s feed and he talks about living life in Harris while he travels around the world but he worked alongside one of
our other members Karen Somerville of angels share I mentioned earlier and if you go into their store in Princess
Square in Glasgow you will see the most beautiful glass and dispensers up on the
wall in order you can bring in your essence of Harris product your soap and
get it refilled now that came about because of trust because they were both in our Network and Karen would say if
anybody else had come to me and asked me to make this glass product I would have said no I don’t have time but because it
was Jamie and because it was SBN she went with it um and that’s what makes this job
exciting so for me a lot of my job was talking to people doing this so it
doesn’t feel like work but work-life balance could get better and I’m always working to do that yeah well I feel the
same I care I think you know we live in an always-on Society with phones and my wife and I do try and say do you know
what we’re going to sit down try and find something interesting on Netflix but the phones are not in the room because otherwise it just creeps in and
all of a sudden you’re there you’re on your phone now listen this is the you know this is my big
question how did you end up in an Ian Rankin novel I have read everything that man
has ever read and I know who detective Constable Christine Essen is Yo and then
then I started talking to you and I thought it was just a coincidence and I think I read it in a newspaper article
but that is actually you how did that come about it is me yes and the gift that keeps on
giving um and last week he started talking about me to Janice for sight on BBC
Radio Scotland and my brother-in-law nearly smashed his car because you know you’re laughing at and he started
talking about Christy Nelson who is a real person you know and how did that come about that came about because a
very very dear friend of mine Lorna who younger took a table at a charity night
many years ago in Glasgow and the charity was Nordhoff Robbins a fantastic
charity music therapy charity and you know you all turned out and on the table is that thing of things they
can bid for and one of them was be a character in the next day in ranking novel
there was a bit of drink consumed there but I started bidding and bidding and
bidding till eventually in Rankin stood up because he was in the room and he said look I can tell there’s two people
in this room who’d really want this so tell you what I’ll put you both in oh fantastic that’s that’s how it came
about but um I mean I we could do a whole podcast on the impact of that and the number of
people that sidel up to me literally from across the world who will walk up
to me and see Kevin and that’s got each other in Rag and I
always know it always starts with that question and there’s always a kind of sideling up and I go yes because I know
what’s coming next and they go um have you left um don’t you know there’s somebody and
my point always is how many christines do you know oh not many not many okay other than myself my husband how many
Essence do you know oh nobody such an unusual surname and I went it is me because it’s me even more so because as
I mentioned earlier I don’t drink tea or coffee and the key thing about detective because Christie Nelson is she drinks
hot water and that was an email correspondence between Ian and myself and because he asked you before you go
in the book would you like to be a goodie or a bad day and because of what I’ve just described I have a very unusual name that I said it better be a
goodie but please whatever you do Ian don’t have me is this girl in the coffee shop because you see I don’t drink tea
or coffee I’m actually actually you see the loops I get in coffee shops I’m a very cheap date that was what I said to
him and that was taken almost verbatim and put into standing in another man’s
grave the book that I first appeared in which was fantastic because that was a return of the Fantastic Rebus character
who’d who’d retired earlier but because Ian Rankin writes them in real time
there had been a change in police Scotland that allowed those who would have a certain age to come back and to
the police force so I knew it was going to be a character but I didn’t know what book and of course when it was
discovered that it was Reba’s coming back yes not just a character a recurring character he’s turning card
it’s a character but I’m glad you’ve noticed I have family members who’ve read books and I say oh really that’s me
I have a cousin who had to be pointed out to him that that Christie Nelson was
definitely thought about that yeah so there’s I honestly we could do a podcast of what happens when you become a
character in a book novel that’s brilliant maybe we shall Christine thank you for joining me today it’s been an
absolute pleasure talking to you best of luck for the future I’ll speak to you soon thank you Marcus it’s been a
