speak, Jason. Well, the theme this year
is Bollywood and I don’t know whether
this is good thing or a bad thing but I’m
doing a romantic scene.
JE: I think I read somewhere that you do
some work or you have done some work
with the Ministry of Justice.
KD: I qualified as a life coach and I was
approached by the Probation Office
who asked if I would be interested in
working with some young offenders,
volunteering? They felt that I could be
a great role model - my life, where I’ve
come from, the background that I’ve got,
the direction that I could have taken. I
thought, “yeah.” I went and gave a talk
to these young offenders, which was
quite daunting. They recognised who I
was and said “it’s okay for you, you’re on
the telly. You don’t know what it’s like.”
And I thought “I want to rewind now, my
life, and my choices, and talk about my
friends, who I grew up with and I was
just like them. But, somebody, my father,
gave me an opportunity to change,”
and I said, “I’m doing that for you today.
I’m going to now give you options that
you can take. It’s up to you. You’ve got
to make the right choices”. That went
down really well. I really enjoyed that. So,
every Saturday morning I work for the
Ministry of Justice and I talk to young
offenders, we spend an hour and a half
discussing the crime that they committed
and how they can address that. I also
spend another hour and a half working
out some plans for them, a gym plan,
I talk about nutrition, talk about health.
Talk about physical health, mental health,
all of those things. It’s a really good three
hour session for these guys and we have
some great success stories.
JE: You’re now doing some work with a
local company called Overline.
KD: I lived in Spain for about four
years, it was a quality of life move and I
wanted to give the kids an opportunity
to learn another language. It was a great
adventure. It was the most expensive
Spanish lesson I’ve ever had to pay for
I’ve got to say. But, all the kids are fluent
in Spanish now so, for me, that was
worth it. But work was a little thin on the
ground and I didn’t know whether I was
coming or going. It was great when I
was younger, it was all exciting but now
in this part of my life I wanted a bit more
stability, a bit more security, and I didn’t
like the idea that I wasn’t in control. So,
when I came back from Spain, I realigned
and I thought I’d put all my eggs in one
basket, and thought what do I enjoy
doing?
I got a call from a recruitment agency
saying, “got three calls come in
straightaway for you. They want to have
a chat with you.” One of them was for
a telecommunications company, and
I thought, “great, okay.” She told me
about the other two companies as well
and… I don’t know what it was, but I
just had a gut feeling about it. So, I’m in
Spain, with my wife saying, “stay there,
and sort the house out.” But I said, no
we’ve got to fly back because I needed
to see this guy. The next day I got on the
plane and went straight to the interview
which was more of chat with Jason
Young, MD at Overline. I’ll never forget
it. My interview was 10.30. I think I left
there about 3.00pm. He asked me the
questions about why I wanted to work
at Overline and why telecommunications
and I said to him, “look, I’m being
totally honest with you, this is a career
change for me and all I’m looking for is
an opportunity, I’ve got these skills.” He
then asked me why I wanted to work in
sales so I said, “well, I haven’t done sales
in the traditional form but I’ve worked for
QVC and did Argos TV so I did a lot of
shopping TV.”
JE: If you can sell on there, then you can
sell anything.
KD: Exactly. So, I was sitting there
looking at Jason thinking all I want is an
opportunity and Jason’s looking at me
and I think he’s saying, “Kevin, I think
you’re going to get snapped up. I’m
going to give you a job.” So, I didn’t know
anything about telecommunications at
all but what I did know is that this felt
like something that had longevity, had
stability. Overline looked like a really great
fun company to work for and I’d been
given an opportunity. That’s how my sales
career started with Overline and that was
only 13 months ago. But, in the back of
my mind I always knew with all of the
skills that I’ve got I wouldn’t be doing that
for long. So, I hit the ground running in
sales. I did field sales. I drove round and
sold telecoms and mobile phones and
sold Overline. I enjoyed it but I wasn’t
fulfilling my potential and Jason could see
the same thing. We had a conversation.
“You know, you’re doing really well,” he
said, “but, you’ve got so much more to
give really.” He said, “Look, what can
you do? You’re great talking to people,
great at building relations, you know
the sales, you teach young offenders,
you’ve got teaching qualifications, you’re
a good communicator. What can you
do?” And then we sat down and we
thought, “Well, let’s put it all into one
basket,” So, we came up with my job
title, Relations Manager. My job now
at Overline is to build relations with
clients - if a client wants something in the
telecommunications industry then I find
the right person, send a specialist in and
say, “he’ll sort that out for you.” I then also
do the networking side of things. There is
always a chance people will recognise me
so it breaks down that barrier and they’ll
see me as a genuine and honest person.
It’s about not cold calling so much, it’s
about building the relationship up first
and then people completely trust you
and I always say, “look, if there’s anything
that we can do for you, great, but if not
then it’s not right for you, it’s not right
for us, let’s leave it. It’s not going to ruin,
the glass of wine we’ll have and it’s not
going to ruin the evening we’re having
or whatever.” I’ve taken over the sales
training as well because I love coaching,
I love teaching. I’ve been in the team and
I know how difficult it can be, I’ve got
some great experiences to share with the
guys and the girls and on top of that I do
the recruiting as well because I’ve done
auditions and try and get the best out
of people. So, my role is now to recruit
good people for Overline, then train them
in sales, life coach some of the staff that
we’ve already got and then ultimately
client liaison as well. So, I’ve been given
an opportunity to use all of my tools and
have the longevity. So, it’s surpassed my
expectations really because at Overline it’s
just going to give me an opportunity to just
go on and do more and more and more.
JE: Well, it sounds like a really allencompassing role, a really busy role.
But does it leave anytime for you to still
do any TV or radio presenting?
KD: Interestingly enough I still do quite
a few voiceovers for radio, which are
really easy to do. You know, they’re
given down the telephone now so it’s
not an issue. I’ve been approached by
Channel 5 to do a programme for them
and I’ve always been honest with Jason.
The Channel 5 thing, it’s a late Friday
night show so, it won’t have any impact
on my job at Overline and it keeps my
hand with TV as well. So, I’m still doing
little bits and bobs, which is great. But
that is just not like work at all. I was in
Slough last Sunday doing an educational
training video for BBC2, I just went in
there, put my ear piece in and I was done
and within two hours I was back home.
So, really it’s not even work. It’s second
nature now and what I like ab out that is
that’s it’s really fun and good to do and
what I like about my role at Overline is
that it’s business. It’s serious and there’s
a lot more substance to it.
JE: Thanks for your time Kevin, see you
on the dancefloor.
KD: Thanks, Jason. Thank you.
By Jason Edge
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