Escape the City has been in my sights for many years. There is something revolutionary about a company that helps its members escape from boring corporate jobs to do something interesting. And it's all the more interesting and authentic because Rob and his co-founder Dom have been there themselves. Desperate to do something more worthwhile with their working lives they figured that if they felt his way, then other people must feel the same way too? They were right!
Escape has evolved over the years and impressively raised crowdfunding of £600,000 via Crowdcube from their original 50,000 members. Now their membership stands at over 200,000, many of them not even in the UK. First and foremost Escape is a community and this has allowed them to offer new services such as 'Tribes' which provide training, support and guidance in both setting up a new business (Start-up Tribe) and finding a new, more interesting job (Escape Tribe). Inspiring and honest, Rob Symington tells the story of Escape The City.
What you'll learn from my interview with Rob:
- Techniques he has used to beat fear and worry
- What the business model is and how it has evolved and scaled.
- Some of his worst business ideas!
- What came out of taking 100 people to the woods for a weekend and throwing a micro career festival
- The power of reciprocity and how it has benefited the company
Favourite book:
Tribes by Seth Godin. Community has been the building blocks of the business and this is a book on the topic Rob reads again and again.
Favourite quote:
“Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." Samuel Johnson
Productivity hack:
...and post it notes!
Links:
on twitter at @escthecity
I really hope enjoyed the interview with Rob. If you have any thoughts or comments about this episode, please do share them with us on Twitter or Facebook – we’d love to hear from you!
And finally, if you get a chance I would be hugely grateful if you could leave an honest review for The Mission Driven Entrepreneurs Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They're so important to the ranking of the show and I do read every one. If you've left one already, thank you so much!
Thanks again to Rob for sharing his story with us.
