Mike Southon is a serially successful entrepreneur who has co-founded, built, and sold over 20 businesses over the course of his career. He is also a bestselling author and is renowned for bringing the magic of entrepreneurship to all the organisations he works with. Mike has gone on to mentor thousands of entrepreneurs and has spoken at thousands of events sharing his leading knowledge on how to ensure a business thrives, specialising in start-ups, and explaining the simple steps a company can take to ensure their sales double.
At the University of Bradford Mike studied Chemical Engineering and Management Economics, the former being a far cry away from becoming a hugely successful entrepreneur. An incredibly diverse and talented individual, Mike has been a Producer, Writer and Actor, a Workshop Fabricator, lab Technician and Process Engineer, Site Manager and Sales and Marketing Director to name a few. From 2010-2014, Mike was a weekly columnist for the Financial Times and has also been an Entrepreneur Mentor for Aylesbury Vale District Council. Having proven his ability to produce high-performance teams, Mike has lectured at numerous business schools, including as a Visiting Lecturer at Bayes Business School where he taught an 11-week undergraduate module ‘Marketing Strategy’ and delivered other modules such as ‘Introduction to Entrepreneurship’ to hundreds of students. During his tenure as a lecturer, he also delivered over 200 tutorials and provided face-to-face tutoring to over 100 students.
Mike’s success comes from specialising in creating and nurturing high-performance, ethnically diverse teams, focussing on mindfulness, face-to-face selling, and ethical purpose in line with his strategy of helping companies dramatically increase their sales. Mike is the author of several internationally bestselling books; his hugely popular book ‘The Beermat Entrepreneur’ has been translated into numerous languages, has over 100,000 copies sold, and uses examples from Mike’s successful career as a highly successful salesman. Mike’s specialist subject is The Beatles, and uses the famous band as an example of everything we can learn from the ‘greatest creative team in history’.
Having worked with countless companies across a huge array of sectors including retail, manufacturing, transportation, education, government, financial and entertainment to name a few, Mike has become one of the most sought-after speakers to help companies increase their sales and the productivity of their high-performance teams. When looking for a seasoned speaker to help your organisation continue to grow no matter its size, Mike Southon is the speaker you need to hire.
Books
Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea Into A Great Business
Sales On A Beermat
How to hire Mike Southon
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Mike Southon for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do not accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
"Mike will never be repeated- you know when he’s in the room and he’s an extraordinary force of nature - but also a great philanthropist! One of the best and also really knows his stuff around becoming an entrepreneur!" - Graham, Director, Missing Pieces Theatre Show
"Mike is a brilliant mentor, networker, lecturer, entrepreneur, tour de force, and all-round good egg. You will know if you have met him! His alter ego, the rock singer Mike Fab-Gere, is unforgettable too, not to mention his role as frontman and singer for the Oxcentrics Dixieland jazzband." - Jonathan, Professor of Computing, London South Bank University
"I've had the honour of being mentored by Mike and I'm very grateful for his generosity and wealth of experience. I'm a coach and therapist and in theory can help anyone with anything! Mike is brilliant at seeing the big picture and then quickly determining what needs to be done in practical terms. He talked me through some of the principles from his best-selling book Sales on a Beermat and gave me actionable steps to make my material and sales process more customer-focused and relevant. Mike is a natural networker and connector and excellent company.
I've also seen him in action as a speaker and his Business on a Beermat talk is unlike anything I've ever seen. He's a highly engaging act that's tough to follow! Many thanks Mike." - Olivia, Personal performance Specialist for Public Speaking
"Mike is an absolute one-off. His combination of expertise in a variety of businesses and ability to connect successfully with his audiences or mentees makes him a top-class and highly entertaining business speaker, writer, mentor and advisor. As Mike Fab-Gere, he's also a great pop singer!" - Sally, journalist, Sally Jones Features Limited
" regard Mike Southon as 'The Guru' of the business world. You could write on a beermat what he doesn't know about business and how it all works, and still have some space to do some doodling. He can often be seen on television, speaking after a dinner, traveling around the country 'mentoring' or as his confused sixties throwback Mike Fab Gere fronting his very good band.. He could have retired years ago but if you know Mike, he's not the retiring type. Oooo and by the way, to top all that, he's a very nice man as well." - Mike, Freelance Cameraman
- 2019 - Visiting Lecturer, Bayes Business School
- 2019 - Visiting Professional Fellow and Lecturer, Regent's University London
- 2010 - Weekly Columnist, The Financial Times
- 2007 - Monthly Columnist, The Daily Telegraph
- 1984 - Co-Founder, Sales and Marketing Director for The Instruction Set
