Kerrie Finch is the founder of FutureFactor, a reputation management company with offices in Amsterdam, London, and Los Angeles. Kerrie founded the company years ago as a solopreneur. Recently she decided to take on partners to increase the flexibility of the organization. Hear how she has navigated the change and the life-threatening health scare that helped her make the decision.
Originally published Dec 22, 2018
Transcript link (uncorrected machine translation)
Kerrie Finch is the founder of FutureFactor, a reputation management company with offices in Amsterdam, London, and Los Angeles. Kerrie founded the company years ago as a solopreneur. Recently she decided to take on partners to increase the flexibility of the organization. Hear how she has navigated the change and the life-threatening health scare that helped her make the decision.
[00:00:09] Welcome back to the I Am Virago podcast, where we get real about the struggle, drop the occasional F-bomb, and hear how amazing Virago women imperfectly navigate the world around them.
[00:00:20] I met today's guest, Kerrie Finch, during the Women in Tech Regatta in
Amsterdam. He grabbed a few minutes before a panel appearance to talk about a
company, Finch Factor, a communications company. What it's like to take on business
partners. After years of solid nurturing and living with a rare blood disease and being in
a coma for 10 days taught her about true love and the power of relationships.
[00:00:44] So grab that cup of ambition and let's get started.
[00:00:48] Hey, everybody, we are live at the Wet Regatta, Amsterdam, and I'm very
excited to be here with Kerrie Finch. Kerrie. Can you introduce yourself?
[00:00:58] Of course. My name is Kerrie Finch and pay the bills. I founded a
communications company called Finch Factor, and I'm really passionate about women
becoming the very best version of themselves.
[00:01:12] Oh. So tell me a little more about the Finch factor.
[00:01:16] It's a it's a communications company and we help while we help brands
become the best version of themselves also. And we do that through strategy and
content and PR and our focus, our sweet spot is working with creative businesses, tech
innovators and ambitious disruptors. So, for example, we do a lot of tech companies or
digital.
[00:01:41] We've helped digital production company called Media Mongst go from one
office to an unprecedented record breaking merger with Simitis Sorrell's company to the
tune of 352 million dollars.
[00:01:53] Oh, my God. That was in July. Congratulations. Well, congratulations to
them. Yeah, well, we helped build that reputation. That's what we do for a living. But we
also, for example, will help companies like BMB.
[00:02:05] We'll work with them globally from their HQ in San Francisco and we'll work
with them on their creative agenda and on their inclusion agenda at you.
[00:02:16] And you told me before we started that you travel quite a bit. Yeah. What's
that like?
[00:02:21] So I love traveling. I love adventures. I really love it. And I travel a lot on my
own. We have offices here in Amsterdam. I'm a Brit, but I've lived in Amsterdam for 18
years. So we have offices here in Los Angeles and also in London. And so I travel
between the offices and we are building our power team in L.A. on the West Coast. And
so I am there quite a lot. I'm there. Yeah. Gosh. Up to six months of the year. And then,
of course, there are other reasons for travelling. So, for example, I'll travel to
conferences in the first week of November. It's the three percent conference in Chicago.
So I'm very curious to know what's going on there. We've got clients speaking on stage.
So I'll do a lot of that kind of thing as well.
[00:03:08] And how is traveling for you? You'd mentioned that you sometimes have
health issues.
[00:03:14] Sir, I really love travelling on my own. The older you get, the worse jet lag is.
So that, I think, is really difficult. Going to the states from Europe isn't as bad as coming
back from L.A., where it's brutal and I feel broken, to be honest. But I love being
elsewhere. I am the sort of person who I guess is very naturally an outsider. I think
that's why I moved to Amsterdam. I love that outsider mentality and the outside of
viewpoints, because I think that gives you a very different perspective on life. And I think
that, you know, if I had my way, I'd have everybody in the world doing some kind of
national service, which meant they had to work abroad for at least a year to see how
another country lives and works, because I think we all will stay in our own comfort
zones too much.
[00:04:05] Absolutely. In current country or in city rules, the world.
[00:04:09] And actually, you know, step out of London and go to Amsterdam. Step out
of Paris and go to Dubai. Step out of Seattle and, you know, go to Stockholm. Yeah.
There's nothing better for me than travel, for learning.
[00:04:23] I think actually, I worked for a travel company for many years. And I believe
that travel does lead to peace. Yeah. To peace. To play is really interesting because
you can't. It's hard. I think it was Rick Steves who is a travel travel guru from the Seattle
area, who says that it's difficult to bomb people, you know. Yeah.
[00:04:42] Because, you know, the old fashioned racism is X, Y, Z person is black. Yes,
but I know X, Y, Z person. So that's okay. Kind of there. Okay. So I know them, you
know, sort of idiotic racism. Yeah. Yeah. I get, I get, I get what you're saying. I get what
you're saying. But when it comes to. Travel, you know, as I said, I like that into outsider
mentality, and that's how we staff up our company, actually. So across three offices we
have 20 people and there's actually ten different nationalities. And that's not because all
we must have a German. We must have a German speaker or somebody must be from
Venezuela. It's simply I like that perspective on life, which is somebody is bothered to
get up and cross the water by plane, train or automobile.
[00:05:29] You know, it shows a certain amount of, you know, Fitzpatricks and curiosity
shows curiosity and it shows drive. Yeah. And that's so important to me. When you're
running a business that takes you as an individual a long way.
[00:05:42] Absolutely. So a recent professional or personal win you'd like to sell.
[00:05:47] Golly. My company's been going now. I founded it in. I think it was 2009. And
just this year, in July this year, I took on two business partners. And so that's been really
interesting to me.
[00:06:02] So you founded it as a solo? Early. And now after this many years now
you've brought in partners. Yeah.
[00:06:08] What's what's it that's about? Realizing that business changes you as an
individual. Change my industry changes. And actually I want to stay ahead of the curve
and I want to keep learning. And I felt like I'd got to the end of my run, as it were, on my
own. You either flourish or you die. So I chose to flourish. And that flourish meant I
wanted to become a we not. And I was a massive, massive change, actually.
[00:06:39] You know, when you've been an entrepreneur and a solo entrepreneur. You
know, I founded my company in a recession. I've never borrowed money. We've always
been in the black. We've always grown. And actually, you get to a point where you think
to yourself, this isn't what I want anymore. I want more or I want change or I want
different and different men bringing on business partners, which has been brilliant and a
challenge.
[00:07:03] Yeah, well, it shows a great amount of self-awareness and also humility.
[00:07:09] Well, perhaps it is humility. Yeah, I think I was aware of my limitations and
that I wanted to learn more and I couldn't do that on my own. And so one of my
colleagues who's actually worked with me for years before I founded the company,
she's now been promoted and been brought into the role of partner. And then I brought
in actually a guy who was originally a client 10 years ago. So it's a really interesting
triangular triumvirate. S team now.
[00:07:42] Yeah, that sounds amazing. You know, and as listeners that this podcast
now when we go hi, we also like to go low. So is there a professional or personal
struggle that you'd like to talk about?
[00:07:55] Personally, something very personal to me is my health, actually. I have
certain health issues.
[00:08:00] I've got this very boring, very, very rare blood condition. And, you know, when
I was younger and growing up, I would be very, very concerned that people would see
this as as a weakness and that I wasn't a hundred and twenty eight percent strong.
[00:08:13] And so I would not talk about it and not talk about it. And I lived on my
adrenal glands. I lived on adrenaline. And actually, you just get to the point as you get
older one, that you can't do that anymore because your body changes and add to that
dumbass. You've got to look after your house. And so that's been a real learning curve
for me. I was in a coma about five years ago. I had a giddy combination of swine flu and
pneumonia. And so I was in a daze. So that was if you're gonna talk about a person
who lo- you know, I guess that was it. And that was a lot for the team at the time to
struggle through when they had their boss in a coma. And that really taught me at the
time the power of friendship. And it taught me what true friendship and true love is,
actually, because it was my friends who came to my rescue and protected me from the
world and helped my family through it. You know, as a single person, no kids, my
friends were there to help my family deal with it. My parents thought I was going to die.
And that taught me about truly being loved. And that's where you learn humility.
[00:09:25] Yeah. Yeah. And did it change your perspective on how you treat yourself
and treat your body?
[00:09:33] I'd love to say yes. I'd love to say I had an epiphany and everything changed.
And now I only protect myself and share myself in golden joy, actually. And then the real
world gets in the way. Yeah. So, yes, I think it changed me in many, many ways.
[00:09:51] But I think it was a slow change. And I did have post-traumatic stress
disorder because apparently that's very common when you have been in a coma and
you've been in intensive care. Apparently, it's very, very common for folks who have
been hospitalized to have that. I had no idea I was strong and brave. And six months
later, I you know, I went through this whole period of of stress. So what did it teach me?
I guess it taught me about love. You said it's helped me that I'm not invincible. And that
I'm vulnerable. And it taught me, I guess in the long run, to run a business. So it's about
a team. I don't want to do it on my own.
[00:10:28] Yeah. Yeah. And actually, that's really something that I've obviously taken on
board now when now that I've taken on business partners. Yeah. You know, that's that's
a slow lesson maybe that I don't really do it on my own.
[00:10:38] Yeah, well, but it's a lesson that I think we all learn at different frequencies, at
different volumes over time, depending on the situation.
[00:10:47] And now that you're taking on these partners, what skills or values or
qualities are you looking to focus on as you're learning how to work with partners?
[00:10:58] For me, it's about trust and sharing and learning how to be a better coach
and also learning how to accept coaching. And trust is a big thing for an entrepreneur,
and I'm personally struggle with that. And I think I've got better at it. And I found a
business partner who's who I trust wholeheartedly. And we have a very good, trusting
dynamic and we really understand each other. And before we went into this partnership,
we really talked about what we want from a company and what we want from our lives.
And that was a very different dynamic for me because, you know, my life is what has
actually often been business, business, business, business. And actually, we talked
about, well, where does family fit in what you want outside of work? What does success
look like? Yeah. And so it's that balance of it's not all about me.
[00:11:55] She's a big loan. Can be a big ask. I'm enjoying it. But it's also a real
challenge.
[00:12:00] You've been doing this for a lifetime as a sole solo entrepreneur. And what
you're doing and that we talk about is designing Alliance. You're designing an alliance
with your team.
[00:12:11] Yeah. I mean, there's yeah, there's a team of 20 across three offices. But at
the moment what we've got now is a tribe. Yeah, my tribe. Yeah.
[00:12:21] And for listeners now, you may have heard an increase in volume. One of the
panels just got out of the way regardless. So bear with us as we continue our interview.
[00:12:31] And so, you know, this is the I am Virago podcast. And what makes you ever
again? I mean, I could think of so many things, but in your own words, what are you of
a.
[00:12:41] I am really feisty and I know I know how feisty I am. I can be a really
challenging. I mean that on or am off. So I do a lot of hosting.
[00:12:49] I'll do a lot of panel discussions. I love hosting events. We run this she says
Amsterdam chapter.
[00:12:56] So if your listeners know about she says as an organization know we host
that and I love supporting women to be better for me. Virago is you used the word
warrior earlier, you know, as we were talking before this podcast. And I think of Virago is
a really, really strong woman. To me, it's a very positive thing. And it's it's somebody
who's idiosyncratic, who's an individual, who knows what they believe, who strives for
what they believe in. It's about passion and it's about positive force. It's about strength.
[00:13:31] I got to tell you, that's the best answer I've got for her. That's all. So we're
coming to a close. And this is a point where I. I like to ask, what do you wish I would
have asked you that? I didn't.
[00:13:44] So what could you have asked me? You could have asked me more about.
She says.
[00:13:48] She says, yes, please tell us more about that.
[00:13:50] She's. Well, if you don't know for Edie, if your listeners don't know, she says
it's an organization with, I think, 30 or 40 chapters around the world in different cities.
And it's basically predominantly about helping women in business and in the creative
industry through mentoring, through training, through sharing experience and different
chapters do it in different ways. What we do in Amsterdam is we always say, doesn't
matter who you are, but bring along somebody of the opposite sex. So we're very open
in terms of who comes along. We always, always, always, of course, have women on
the stage. And usually that's been 100 percent women. And then our last events, we
had two men out of five speakers. And we we want to hear about what's going on in
people's lives and to be inspirational. And so we get speakers who are telling us about
their own lives and then the audience can learn from that. It's about mirroring and it's
about, you know, hearing from from other speakers and being inspired by that to help
you help yourself.
[00:14:54] Well, and I will go investigate that because I haven't heard of it and I will put it
in. Notes for the podcast I linked to, she says, in the end, the links for the podcast.
[00:15:04] Yeah. And if your listeners check it out, it's in cities around the world. So
there's probably an organization near you. Check out the Web sites, because if you're
interested, they're very open to people setting up a new chapter in their own in their own
community or in their own city. And, you know, really, that's all that we did. We just said
we'd love to get it on board. And we host events probably once every two or three
months. And they're anywhere from 50 to 300 people will come along to the event
depending on what it is and what it's about. So, yeah, it's great. It's really positive.
[00:15:37] It sounds amazing. Thank you, Carrie, for taking time out. I know that you're
on the next panel. It's just coming up. And so I really appreciate you taking time to talk
with us. And I look forward to to your panel.
[00:15:49] Thank you. And thank you so much for talking. Because I think celebrating
what a virago is is is a brilliant way forward into the future for women. So
congratulations on the podcast series. Thank you.
[00:16:05] Thank you, my Viragos, for listening to the I Am Virago podcast. Check out new episodes every Tuesday. If you have ideas or suggestions of whom you'd like to hear from on this podcast, go to IAmVirago.com and leave a message. And remember, you are Virago.