Meet a Chamber Member: Lee Bridges

Hi Lee, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?

Hi, my name is Lee Bridges, I run a company called Reform Financial. We’re a brokerage and marketing company, and we source funding for businesses.

Previously, I ran a company called Beach Music for nearly ten years. We were in the entertainment industry and so got massively hit by Covid. I originally set up Beach Music to help musicians get full-time work and a regular salary. I noticed a gap in the market and it worked great until Covid hit, and then we lost everything overnight.

So I set up Reform off the back of that, because I wanted to be able to offer companies like mine that are ‘going through it’ the potential to get funding when they needed it. I’ve always figured there’s transferable skills as a business owner so I put a team together and got to work. We’re about a year in with Reform, we’ve recently got an investor on board and we’re really getting there now. 

What’s the biggest thing you learnt from going through Covid with Beach Music, and then setting up Reform Financial?

The answer to that question is always have a toupee to hand, because all my hair fell out!

The thing with me is it’s all about effort. I got used to enjoying the word no and how the fear makes you feel, and started teaching myself to enjoy the pressure, and turn it into something positive.

I suppose the real answer to that question is resilience – I know it sounds obvious but it’s really not. Stuff’s hard for everyone, and if you can’t work out a way of choosing to enjoy life when it’s bad, you’re going to struggle. I put a lot of effort into self-improvement and I have a daily set of things I do to try and not set myself up to fail…and to expect the curveballs. So it’s resilience, either stupid resilience, or stubborn resilience!

We know you have a book, and podcast, about mindset and mental wellbeing. Can you tell us how that came about?

Working with young adults has been something I’ve always been drawn to, and I do a lot of guest lecture spots at different universities. This started out as music initially, then performance, then music business.

I went through a fairly self-destructive phase in my life, and started writing things down – mini lifehacks to make things easy so I can’t fail. Instead of climbing Everest I would climb Snowdon enough times until it’s as tall as Everest.

I found that a lot of students I met were worried and anxious about life, all the things that we all feel at some time. But because they’re in a very important development stage at that age it’s a good time for them to learn. So, I set up ‘The 100 Club’, a free club for young adults, teaching a mix of things. We call it the stuff you didn’t learn at school but the stuff you need to know. Fitness, health, mindset, entrepreneurship, motivation etc.

I turned my little lifehacks, the ones I’d written down and been teaching, into a book. We hit #1 on Amazon in the first month and were featured on BBC1. It’s awesome as I now get some amazing emails and messages from people all over the world saying things like ‘I quit smoking’ or ‘I left a domestically violent relationship’ or ‘I stopped taking drugs’ after reading the book or listening to the podcast. 

You’ve been able to turn a self-destructive phase into helping yourself, into helping others. How important is that to you – helping others?

I think everyone’s on autopilot a lot of the time, there are so many distractions. And people are embarrassed to ask for help. Over the last few years I’ve made a point of asking for help, as often as I need it – and I hope people ask me for help when they need it.

Heartbreakingly, my business mentor, Nik Askaroff passed away recently, over Christmas. He’s been instrumental in helping me out this year. As a business owner, it can be fairly lonely – school doesn’t set you up for owning a business, it sets you up to have a job and follow orders. There’s a lot of information you have to go and find yourself, or just gets missed entirely.

Having a mentor is really handy, and I was extremely fortunate to have Nik as mine for the past year. He’s left one hell of a legacy, and the kind of thing I aspire to myself. 

How have you used the Chamber in finding that support network? Have you got any advice for other members?

Weirdly enough, it was Nik who said why the hell aren’t you a member of Brighton Chamber! So far it’s been about four or five months, and everyone’s been really lovely to meet. Like I mentioned earlier on, it can be lonely as a business-owner. But the Chamber is one of those places where it’s not lonely, and can sometimes be the door opener.

I’ve kept in touch with loads of people from networking events. One event I went to, Slo-mo Networking at the Grand, out of the 25-30 people in the room, I’m still in contact with 15 of them regularly. We do favours for each other, make referrals, and it’s nice to have that support network to stay in contact with.

Advice-wise, I would say just talk to people, be curious and ask them questions. The majority of the time, if you mention something you’re struggling with, they might be able to help, or you’ll find someone going through the same thing.

And a last question to finish, as you are a musician – what song is guaranteed to get you on the dancefloor?

For me, any really cheesy numbers will get me on the dancefloor – like the Pina Colada song. Anything like that.

But 9 times out of 10, I’m on the other side of it, playing the music. I find anything really obviously simple, or with a good beat and tempo will get people up and moving. 

Lee Bridges is Founder of Reform Financial. Find out more about the business by heading over to their website.

And you can find Lee's book here, or listen to his podcast here. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk