Harry Hastings, Co CEO & Founder Ocean Holidays - How to go from Zero to £100 million
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Show Notes
Jeannette talks to Harry Hastings, the co-CEO and co-founder of Ocean Holidays. Harry shares his personal and professional journey, starting from his early days as a self-employed sales agent to the growth and challenges of building Ocean Holidays over the past 20 years.
He discusses the importance of perseverance, resilience, and learning from mistakes in business. Harry also opens up about his personal experience as a parent of a child with special needs and the impact it has had on his life and the company's commitment to accessibility in the travel industry
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Harry highlights the significance of having strong controls and processes in place, especially in the early stages of a business.
- Our upbringing and experiences shape our entrepreneurial mindset. We should use the lessons of the past to shape the outlook for our futures.
- There have been major setbacks in the travel industry, including thin margins and global shocks, which is why there’s a great need for resilience in navigating these challenges.
- The culture at Ocean Holidays is happy, fun, and high-performing, with a focus on personal relationships and high standards. This drives the company to greater heights constantly.
BEST MOMENTS
"I think that if we look at my childhood and we go up to when I was 18, 19 years old, both my parents were creatives. So they're both playwrights and they never had full-time jobs."
"You know your children better than anybody, any doctor, any expert, any specialist, anyone that gives you advice, you know them better than anybody else and have confidence and belief in what you know."
"Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment."
This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It’s never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you’d like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at [email protected] or sign up via Jeannette’s linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970
Carolin-Marie Roth LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/carolin-marie-roth-lenzen-06330114
ABOUT THE GUEST
Harry Hastings is one of the four founders of Ocean Holidays Group, one of the UK’s fastest growing travel brands, specialising in long-haul holidays and luxury travel.
For nearly 20 years Harry, alongside his brother George, has worked in the travel industry, specialising in selling holidays to Florida. As Co-CEO of Ocean Holidays, Harry has overseen the growth and expansion of the business from pages on Teletext to a company turning over more than £100mil a year.
Harry oversees all of the company’s business planning, managing commercial relationships as well as implementing the company’s people-first philosophy. Harry is a firm believer in taking a responsible, human-led approach to travel and believes trust in Oceans Holidays, both as an employer and as a consumer brand, is the secret to their success. This people-first philosophy led Ocean Holidays to double in size since 2019. Harry is passionate about fostering a supportive culture and embodies a leadership style which is both fun and purposeful.
Born and raised in Brixton, South London, Harry mostly splits his time between Ocean Holidays’ Romford headquarters and the Ocean Holidays Florida office. Husband to Nicola and father to 3-year-old Rudy, disabled due to a rare genetic condition, their family are long term supporters of Haven House children’s hospice in Woodford, Essex which cares for children with life limiting or life-threatening conditions. As well as walks in Epping Forest with their cocker spaniel, Stella, Harry himself is a lifelong tennis player and played ice hockey in the UK and internationally until the age of 19 when he swapped his love for the game with travel, co-founding Ocean Holidays.
ABOUT THE HOST
Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development.
Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.
CONTACT THE HOST
Jeannette’s linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot
https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/
YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q
LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot
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Podcast Description
Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big’ international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true’ to yourself is the order of the day.