Fred has a 35 year career in Sales. His focus has been in high growth markets such as Financial Printing, SaaS, and Adtech, and has held a variety of roles with global remits. He has been involved in multiple company exits and and two IPO’s.

Fred is a Partner at Advisewell, a consulting, advisory and investing practice. Advisewell’s unique approach combines a diagnostic analysis with the experience of what is necessary for companies at any stage to succeed commercially. Through Advisewell, Fred has invested in numerous startups, early stage VC’s, and is currently preparing to raise a Fund. He is also Executive Vice Chairman of Pavilion. Pavilion is a networking group of approx. 10K leaders across any industry and role that supports individual growth.

Fred lives in NYC and Connecticut with his wife Jackie, he has two grown up kids. When not working, Fred loves soaking up all the culture NYC has to offer, and loves the rural outdoors. He is a big music and sports fan, and also enjoys cycling and tennis.

Some Key Topics

– [04:14] Pavilion started as a dinner club and evolved into a nationwide networking group of 10,000 members.

– [07:42] Pavilion is a great group for young sales leaders to network and learn from experienced professionals.

– [09:15] Starting a business requires updating your resume and online presence, which can be challenging after being in a job for a long time.

– [11:00] Diagnostic assessments are an immersive and analytical process that helps consultants get close to the business and make credible recommendations.

– [14:57] There are many sales opportunities in the US, and it’s important to understand the different regions and cultures.

– [15:22] New York City is a cultural hub with a lot to offer, but it’s also a sharp-elbowed and materialistic city.

– [15:49] New York City is convenient and offers immediate access to everything, but the subway smells terrible.

– [17:00] The most important thing to carry with you all the time can be physical or metaphysical.

– [18:56] Fred Mather offers coffee and beer meetings to help fellow entrepreneurs.

– [19:30] Entrepreneurs need to be resilient and willing to take risks to succeed.

Find Fred Online

https://advisewell.com/

https://www.joinpavilion.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredmather/

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Transcript (Provided by Castmagic.io)

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneurs Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, for the wins and the fails that we all face be entrepreneurs. How we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. You. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast. As always, I’m Seth, has not changed. I am here with Fred Mather. He is the co founder of Ava as well. He is the chairman of Pavilion, which is a great group online of senior level executives, entrepreneurs, and he was part of it with Sam Jacobs, who was on the program previously. Hey, Fred. How’s it going?

Fred [00:01:02]:

Doing well, thanks, sir.

Seth [00:01:04]:

He also has a great British accent, too. He also has a great British accent.

Fred [00:01:09]:

I’ve had some sort of a career, by the way.

Seth [00:01:11]:

Oh, everyone loves the British accent. Fred, you have been around a lot. You have had some exits, you’ve had some IPOs, you’ve been in and out entrepreneurship. And I wanted to have you on the show because you also help other entrepreneurs along the way. You advise them. You say, hey, here’s what I learned, here’s what worked, here is what didn’t work, and all that stuff. So, Fred, give me a little bit of a background on how this whole journey got started for you.

Fred [00:01:46]:

Yeah, sure. My background has always sort of been on the commercial side, so variety of sales positions in the UK. I moved here to the defined country of the USA. In country, exactly.

Seth [00:02:02]:

As an American, I laugh at that.

Fred [00:02:04]:

Yeah, well, we were big travelers and we were chasing a bit of a dream. We didn’t necessarily come with a plan. We had two young kids. We thought we’d enjoy it for a few years, and here we are 25 years later. It’s funny, I think when I reflect on my career, I would say that one, I’ve learned a lot about what I now do in Pavilion that is probably different in terms of how I help and advise people. I think for myself, I probably could advise myself a little bit better. I didn’t necessarily have a full plan. I took the jobs that came and I got lucky. And I hopefully I applied myself. I did okay out of it. I was in operating roles for better part of 25 years.

Seth [00:02:40]:

Wow.

Fred [00:02:40]:

Stopped working and became, I suppose, a true entrepreneur. Seth in about 2017. But, yeah, I’ve been fortunate in many ways, both financially and in the career. And I would say that I’ve reached a better stage of happiness professionally right now. Always met brilliant people, thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the jobs I did. But I would say I was more content and financially driven and entirely happy in a lot of those roles. I feel in a very good place.

Seth [00:03:05]:

Right now, and that’s a great thing. About entrepreneurship. I mean, there are ups and downs, there is terror at times, but you’re also in charge of your own destiny, and it’s rewarding that way. At least that’s how I feel. So let’s go a little bit about Pavilion. I think somewhere, I think in the bio you sent me, there’s like, 10,000 members of this group. It’s insane, it’s international. How’s you getting started with Pavilion? I guess you met Sam in New York.

Fred [00:03:41]:

Yeah, it started as a dinner club. I mean, the simplicity back then of just getting a group of people together to talk about imagine that personal and professional things in a forum, often over dinner, is somewhat still of what’s at the heart of this group. Today. 10,000 members actually, is what we’re now up to.

Seth [00:04:00]:

Wow.

Fred [00:04:01]:

And so I attended those dinners and we were a pretty small group for a few years. And then Sam came out of an operating role roughly around the same time as me, and we found each other. I was sort of deciding what I was going to do next. I got into consulting and actually did some initial work with him before I went to Advisor. Founded that with Jess Wilkerson, a fellow pavilion member. And he gave up the consulting. He went full time into what is now establishing the membership. Yeah, I think other than the one to one and the group sessions, it was all really about coaching. And we ran small cohorts of associate members and gave them some help and support on their careers and where they were going. I evolved into two things. One, I wrote a lot of the executive compensation guide, and one of the reasons I’ve been fortunate to get some half decent exits is probably because of the structure of what I negotiated on those contracts. So I took what I learned there and applied it into Pavilion and alongside a few others, become a little bit of a guru around how to navigate that test.

Seth [00:05:05]:

That’s a big thing, getting the best.

Fred [00:05:06]:

Package and to protect you, frankly, as well. So I do a lot of that. And then at the beginning of COVID sam asked me if I would help people get back into work. There wasn’t really a brief. Sam said, hey, listen, let’s set up this thing called on the Bench and let’s see what we can do. I threw myself at it and have been doing it now for three years. And I have to tell you, Seth, it’s one of the most rewarding things that I’ve ever done in my life. It’s been a wonderful chance to give back at this stage in my career and to make any type of contribution, small or large, to people who are in need at a place or time where they are seeking employment a good thing. So those are the two main tracks that I’m on inside Pavilion.

Seth [00:05:47]:

It’s a crazy time for the economy on the Bench. I heard about it. I’m like, that’s great to know that it’s there. I’ve told a few people that have been going on to the bench in Pavilion, go check out on the bench area because I feel like you need support. My wife was during the pandemic, she got a job during the pandemic. She was laid off from that job, and then she obviously had to decompress and all that stuff. But I find that you need support when you’re because it’s a job, it’s even more of a thankless job looking for a job because some people string you along and it’s just nice to have a group of people saying, hey, we’re going through the same thing. You can do this. Here’s some tips on this, here’s a tip on your resume. Here’s all that good stuff. And I think it’s really important to have and I think it’s very beneficial in a group like this of sales leaders and coming sales leaders. There’s kids in this group. Not kids. I say I’m 41. I’m calling them kids. But there’s like young millennials actually now, even generation Z, even I think are yeah, they’re in the workforce now. So generation Z and young millennials are kind of at the beginning of their careers, and I think it’s great. And they should definitely check out Pavilion.

Fred [00:07:01]:

Good stuff. And I think the job hunt is a deep process these days, particularly for executives in this current environment, as you just touched on Seth, it’s even harder. It’s very much in the control of employers right now. And a lot of people historically tend to be a little reactive when they think about a job search. And that may bear fruit, but typically you have to put a lot of work in up front, do a lot of research. You have to be really proficient and ready for the path ahead to get that new job. And, yeah, I feel that what we’ve been able to do, other than that emotional point you make to provide a consolidated, complete curriculum, if you will, of where you can go to for all the elements of what ton of speakers and ton of frameworks. Yeah, it’s been really cool as well.

Seth [00:07:50]:

Because if you think about it, when you’ve been in a job for 510, 15 years, even three years, you come out and you’re a little rusty on the job search. Your resume needs updating now. You need a website now. You need to have an online presence. And when you’re out of company, a lot of times you don’t focus on that. It’s a whole new ballgame from back when I was a plea in the corporate cog. We’re going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show. So, Fred, what is the best thing about being entrepreneur? Because you’ve been the cog, you’ve been the executive, and now you’re doing the entrepreneurship thing. What’s the best thing that you see as being an entrepreneur now?

Fred [00:08:30]:

Well, definitely having freedom set. I do enjoy the fact that I probably got a lot better sort of work life balance now than I have. The hamster wheel of the 24/7 startup world was thrilling at times, but now I can do what I want, when I want. I’ve got a wonderful partner in Jess, as I just mentioned. I think on the consulting side, the thing that’s most appealing is you get to play in a lot of different places and we’ve done everything from work with traditional engineering businesses all the way through to SaaS, and we just have a whole variety stage industry profile. Accompanying humans are the biggest factor in all projects, not least of which consulting, because what can be done by who, their willingness to change and adapt and all that kind of stuff. So I like the pond with which we play in and it’s been a lot of fun. We picked up on some things that Sam had been doing. We apply these diagnostic assessments to the work we do, so the process is super immersive. It gets us very close to the business, which is important to be credible when you’re making recommendations analytical, which think people like, particularly in this environment. So it’s been really good and we have worked with a lot of companies here, south America, over in the UK, where Jess is based, she’s an American.

Seth [00:09:45]:

Married to yeah, I always thought that was funny when I first met you, you said the Brits in the US and Americans in Britain love it.

Fred [00:09:52]:

Yeah, exactly. We compare those. She’s a little bit more recent over there than I am here, but, yeah, it’s kind of amusing. And it’s all been culminating for me evolving into possibly raising a small VC farm. And we got hooked up with a company a couple of years ago called 82. I Jason Shaipiro, and he was on the venture side, working maybe more of a sort of principal venture partner type role. And he set up a financial consulting firm with many components, but a key one around helping startups with their readiness to raise capital. So he and I went through a little bit of a courtship and we decided to try and raise a fund that it’s going to be an operator driven fund, which is not incredibly novel. There are a few around. Stage two is a form of that, I think, GTM fund, a few others have raised successfully recently and we believe that we can put a lot of money to work, but most importantly, we can apply our expertise as commercial leaders to do some value creation type work for these companies. Beyond the check that we write, that’s a freedom. The entrepreneurship media do, something like that.

Seth [00:10:58]:

And I love that for you. It’s as much, yeah, you put money in, yes. You get your return on your investment eventually, hopefully, but you’re also about giving and you’re about helping and advising a lot of people, especially during COVID and before that, everyone’s like VCs are just in it for the money. If you find the right VC or the right angel, they’re in it for the money. Money does talk, but they’re also in it to help you succeed. And I think that’s when I’m working with the startup now and I keep telling them, I’m like, look, we have to find the right people as much as we need to find the right people in the company for the cultural fit. We need to find the right investors for the cultural fit. They believe in the mission and all that stuff. So on the flip side, what keeps you up at night?

Fred [00:11:45]:

Well, my kids of course, worry about them, they’re grown up, but they still have parental breathtal days. So then for sure, the state of the economy is worrying. I don’t want to be naive, but I’m a little confused as to exactly what is going on right now. I think we are there is kind of there’s these alternate universes of the tech side and then the rest of the world, or the rest of the country, if you will, that seems to be holding up somewhat. Better not to get into a testy path, but I’m concerned proliferately about what’s going on in this country on a lot of levels. Listen, whenever you move or wherever you leave, frankly there’s always trade offs. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in the States. It’s a country of opportunity and for a salesperson, it was always enlightening to me when I first worked for a married company in London before I moved here, that sales was at the forefront of companies and when I worked in the UK, prior you was like a little bit of a deep in the background. Sales is the unspoken role inside the company and so being able to thrive in that function has been really wonderful for me here. But hey, listen, we’re ridiculously fortunate. I have stuff to worry about, but compared with most, I should consider myself incredibly fortunate. We live in New York, our kids are healthy and well, my wife too. We have a wonderful family around ourselves, so yeah, and you can also escape.

Seth [00:13:10]:

New York, which is nice too. You can go to your house up in Connecticut if you need to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York because I mean, New York is a lot. I’m a Philadelphia guy and Philadelphia is a lot. When I go to New York, I’m like, I need to decompress for like three days. It’s a lot. Oh, it’s a sharp answer.

Fred [00:13:29]:

Oh, 100%. It’s a sharp elbow city, for sure. Yeah, it’s a material city suit. My daughter always reminded me I can never afford to live here, that she saved me. If you have the faintest hint of interest in anything cultural, arts wise, and we’re big in music, we go to all museums. I mean, there’s so much to do here. The other thing actually, is I think people forget how convenient the city in York is. I mean, obviously the strike boroughs, we live in Manhattan. I mean, you anywhere in ten minutes. I mean, his London is a vast city by comparison, and so I think you enjoy the immediacy of everything that’s available to you here.

Seth [00:14:08]:

Max Mel is terrible. The subway people knocked in New York subway, but there’s nothing quite like it. I mean, the tubes over in London is good as well, but like, New York City subway, for better, for worse is lifeblood, really. You can get anywhere, anywhere with that system. Yeah, it doesn’t catch on fire like the Metro in DC.

Fred [00:14:31]:

But it is a city, New York, where they don’t really invest a lot in the infrastructure. I always talk about the fact they need an Olympics or a World Cup. I think there’s actually a World Cup partially coming here. So then they’re forced to put the investment into improvements in the infrastructure. I mean, they put like, 5 billion into Laguardi. To improve it, but they don’t put a dollar into the way that you get to the airport.

Seth [00:14:51]:

Oh, it’s a murder game there. Forget about GfK. Forget about GfK.

Fred [00:14:56]:

Yeah, exactly. But these are small prisoners. There’s so much to be enjoying in a crazy, wonderful place like New York.

Seth [00:15:05]:

It is. So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time? This can be physical or metaphysical. Go as deep as you want.

Fred [00:15:14]:

Bear with me all the time. Well, a book, probably. When you’re on these shows and you talk to people, they always want to find out what current business books you’ve read. I’m a little bit more of a fiction reader, to be honest with you. I do read, of course, business books. I read a lot of articles. I’m currently reading the new Emerald Tool Toll’s book, the Lincoln Highway, and I’m about to read Bono’s book about his life, his biography, which is brilliant, really, and I love the band as I grew up, so there’s a lot of musical interest beyond sort of tracking his story. But yeah, that’s it. Carry a backpack everywhere with all my worldly goods in there. Up and down from Connecticut. Yeah, exactly. That’s about it. I generally travel with empty pockets because I have a cell phone on me like everybody else, but that’s it. I like to be nice and lean on the wall, if you will.

Seth [00:16:18]:

There’s a lot of walking in New York, too. Absolutely. So where can people find you? Where’s your watering hall online? Where do you hang out the most?

Fred [00:16:29]:

Well, I’m all over the pavilion. I’m on email. I’m in slack, obviously. I have a work email, too. That’s where most people are going to find me, obviously. We have a website advisor, for sure. We’ll have a website for the fun, which I’m obviously excited about getting going. I’ve always considered myself to be an accessible guy. I’m an action oriented person if you need me for something special, and I’m always going to give my time. I’m fortunate to be able to do that. I do a ton of meetings every week. If you have a coffee, if you want to meet for a beer, whatever the topic, I’m certainly around and make my time available to people. So come and seek me out.

Seth [00:17:06]:

That’s awesome. And guess what, everybody? We’ll see you next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying entrepreneurs Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than The Marketing Podcast Network@marketingpodcast.net. You Goldstein Media hopes you have enjoyed this episode. This podcast is one of the many great shows on the MPN Marketing Podcast Network.