Meet Lee Chambers, founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing
Lee Chambers is a British entrepreneur and psychologist and is the founder of PhenomGames and Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing. In 2021, he won the Great British Entrepreneur Award for Service Industries.
Tell us about the founder behind the brand?
Ultimately, I'm still just a curious young man who grew up on a council estate in Bolton, who had a dream of building something meaningful and doing my parents proud. I've been through some relative successes, taking PhenomGames from a tiny bedroom to a seven-figure turnover, but have learnt more from the challenges I've faced, including redundancy, mental health struggles and learning to walk again after illness. It's those challenges that have taken me into a whole new industry, disrupting the workplace wellbeing sector through looking at wellbeing as both a culture creator and a competitive advantage. And when I'm not busy making wellbeing and inclusion effective and engaging, I'm playing with my son and daughter, writing my book or popping up on the news.
There's always a lightbulb moment before the beginning of a new venture. What was that moment for you?
My lightbulb moment came in 2014, but it took me five years to finally find the right bulb to plugin! I had been running my video game business, PhenomGames, for five years, and even though I was a success on paper, I didn't feel very fulfilled or particularly happy. My immune system failed one weekend and put me in hospital, unable to walk and in an awful lot of pain. This would be a turning point for me as the damage to my knees left me not able to walk or look after myself, with my wife six months pregnant and my world falling apart. It took me 11 months to get back walking again, with the help of my newborn daughter and my son, giving me a reason to get well again. I pledged to beat my daughter taking her first steps, and managed it, despite not being able to beat her at much else since!
But it was that period that gave me a lot of time to reflect, and realise that I wanted to build a business that changed the world, one step at a time, rather than moving video games around Europe. I studied, listened to what companies needed, and did my research while spending lots of time with my children before they started school. And when my daughter went in September 2019, Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing went into pre-launch.
What's the biggest lesson you've learnt so far as an entrepreneur?
The biggest lesson I've learnt so far as an entrepreneur is to take time to build your personal brand and find your voice and what you stand for. I was totally against this for the ten years running PhenomGames; I wanted to hide behind the scenes and do good work, not enter awards, not create content, not selectively network, not build an online presence. When I started Essentialise, I knew I had to stop being anti-social, especially as it's a service-based business, and nobody had a clue who I was. I started putting some time in, created social accounts, and before I knew it, I was recording some content with Steven Bartlett. Chatting, he said the biggest thing for him was just consistently promoting his brand, his views and his advice. Two years later, from no followers and no media, I've been interviewed by Vogue and the Guardian, am regularly on BBC and ITV News, have modelled for Charles Tyrwhitt and have worked with a variety of FTSE 100 companies. I never want to be famous where it impacts my day to day life, but just building your personal brand will bring you opportunities and options that will make your life exciting and certainly help you build a business.
Do you have a morning routine or ritual to get your day started on the right foot?
There are lots of gurus out there who tell you to wake up a 4am, meditate, read, exercise, and then go and smash your day. Well, that might work for some people, but my advice is find out what works for you. Lee Chambers morning routine works for me, but you should experiment to find exactly what works for your lifestyle, commitments and circadian rhythms.
My morning routine is fairly simple, get up at 7am, wash my face, drink some water, sort mine and my kid's breakfasts and sit at the table chatting to them. When they've finished, they go upstairs to get ready, and I do some bodyweight exercises and read a few pages of the book I'm currently reading. Then I go make sure they are good to go, make a coffee to go and take them to school before heading to the office myself. It's simple, and yet it works for me, and having a business that I enjoy and feel passionate about, I never have that feeling of dread about going to work, which means I'm pretty chilled in the morning, and get to spend quality time with my family which is the best energy I can get.
What keeps you motivated as an entrepreneur when you hit bumps in the road?
I always enjoy talking about this, as even if you have a business you love and it might look like you've always got it all together, the reality is that most entrepreneurs are constantly dealing with lots of variables. Sometimes you just want to climb on the roof of your office and have a cry. Whether it's your finances, your customers or clients, your employees or the government, there is usually something happening that is out of your control, and you have to make decisions when you don't have all the information.
My motivation comes from having been through challenges before and seeing them as a challenge to step up to rather than a threat to the business. I've come to accept there is a lot that I can't control, especially over the last 2 years, but have taken ownership over the things I can. I like to think being an entrepreneur is like sailing around the world; sometimes it's sunny and the waves are calm, and other times, it's stormy and the waves are crashing around you. No matter how it is, it will change and you've just got to get your boat to the next port.
What does your business offer its target audience?
Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing specialises in supporting HR team to build wellbeing strategies and deliver engaging wellbeing and inclusion training, so they get the benefits of evidence-based wellbeing and don't waste their budget on things that aren't effective or their employees don't use or turn up to. We assist our clients in planning and measuring the impact of wellbeing, so they can do more of what does work and stop doing what's not making a difference, and help them to improve their KPI's and the health of their teams. And at the moment, doing wellbeing that works and inclusion that makes employees feel like they belong can save companies a fortune, as they attract the talent on the market and retain the talent they already have. Because we utilise data to measure and embed change and design bespoke workshops, our clients are always getting unique and relevant content, which makes it appealing to the challenges of your team and sustainable to keep delivering as we grow together.
What are your top three tips to hire and develop new talent?
Hire on attitude, effort and potential: Skills can be learnt, confidence can be cultivated, previous experience isn't always an advantage. Look out for attention to detail, ability to be challenged, hunger to learn and potential to be teachable.
Don't just look in the same old places: A whole variety of studies have shown in the past 10 years that when it comes to team performance, having a cognitively diverse team is a significant competitive advantage. So look at your recruitment process and make it more inclusive, from the wording on the job spec, where it's advertised, and how you interview. If you do this well, you will get a range of candidates who will astonish you, as sometimes the talent is hidden if you keep doing the same old thing.
Don't skimp on the onboarding or training: It costs more than a whole years salary to replace a typical employee and can be more than double for a senior member. If you give them an onboarding to remember and actively invest in them, giving them the opportunity to feel appreciated and valued, you are much less likely to spend even more replacing them. Find out what drives them, where they want to go, and ensure that they feel that you are encouraging them to reach their potential.
Describe your business in three words.
Wellbeing That Works
What social media channel would you say has worked the best for your business and why?
Generally being a little anti-social media, given its impact on increasing polarity and a whole host of other challenges, we have decided to use it mindfully and consider where our target audience is most likely to be active. We started using Linkedin due to there still being able to organically reach a wide audience without paid ads or a huge following, our target market being active there both personally and professionally, and it being congruent with our business, which isn't particularly visual, but is innovative and challenging sector norms.
We have actively used Linkedin to build relationships, and around half of our client base has an origin point of a discussion on the platform. We have also gained strategic partnerships, collaborations and even new associates from using Linkedin, with the only cost being Premium, which reflecting back, has been massively valuable given what we have gained from the platform. Our advice for using Linkedin is to be consistent, share stories that articulate why you do what you do, be open, vulnerable and human and incite conversations with your target audience.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?
When it comes to getting your business out there, my number one thought is to be bold. It is vital to find your voice as an entrepreneur and your brands voice in what has become an increasingly noisy world. Fewer businesses can be effective without a presence, and I found that when moving from PhenomGames, which worked very much intra-industry and didn't need a presence, to Essentialise, where our presence creates trust, credibility and plays a part in our marketing and brand strategy.
This has certainly required courage, as we have put ourselves out there own social media, applied for awards, engaged in PR and even been on the television and radio. When getting yourself out there, it's important you are clear on what value you bring, what you solve and the benefits and impact on your potential customers and clients if they choose you. Knowing this gets you clear on the message you can take out there, and the angles and hooks you can utilise to shape the message across platforms and audiences. It is also beneficial to think about where those most likely to engage hang out, what do they watch, listen to and read. Consider where they network, which bodies they are part of, and create a plan to end up in front of them regularly, creating touchpoints that build your presence and make others feel like they already know you and your business before you even engage them.
What would be your top three tips to fellow entrepreneurs to look after their mental health?
A great question to end on, as I tried the fine line between working in psychology and health innovation, yet being a driven and focused entrepreneur building a second business. My number one tip is to prioritise your sleep. It may almost feel counterproductive when the business gurus tell you it's time wasted and that you should be hustling harder, but sleep is where you recover effectively so you can perform at your peak during the hours that matter. It's also vital for your health and emotional balance, and you don't want to be the business owner who’s charging around losing his temper like an underslept toddler. I advise trying to get 7 hours where possible, and you will feel more energised and resilient for it, especially in those challenging moments.
My second tip is to schedule breaks into your day. We've all been there, so much to do, fighting fires and making it happen. But to be highly effective, we have to take breaks, move our bodies, disconnect from work and stimulation, actively resting and charging up to connect to the next task and be productive. Book in those breaks like a client meeting, and in just a few minutes, you will be ready to go and tackle the next thing with a clearer mind and more vitality.
And the third thing is to really cherish your time. It's so easy to get carried away building your business, but if you don't put time into your health, it will come back and take away things you cherish. Going through losing the ability to walk really brought home to me it didn't matter if I had a massively successful business if I was stuck in a hospital bed. Your health is your business, so book out time while you build your health, and your human balance sheet will be exactly where you want it to be for years to come. And if you need help implementing that, it's what we specialise in.
