The Business Village People Podcast S2 E3 "Who is Fozzie Bear?"

The Business Village People

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is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode three of series two. Here we showcase unique stories from the companies, service providers and staff at the Business Village in Balsey, South Yorkshire. Well, if you're ready, let's go!

In this episode of Business Village People, we meet the mum who was so unimpressed with the quality of face painting her daughter received that she decided to wipe the wonky smile Off her face and do it herself. 14 years later, she's turned face, body and bump painting into a thriving business. We'll hear her story shortly.

Working alone can be very isolating. That's one of the reasons the business village began its monthly creative collective. A place to share ideas, listen to guests and chat, and we'll get the full story of what happens at a Creative Collective session a little bit later on.

Donna Godfrey's business started with a Well, if they can do it, I'm sure I could moment and has since become a thriving venture. A company has achieved so much success that she's even been invited to the United States to train people in the art of face painting. Here's Donna's story. I used to work in finance, so I was doing payroll for, oh my gosh, years.

I just fell into it. But what I'd found was like, I would go into work on a Friday and then I'd be like bouncing around the office going, Yay, the weekend's here. And they were all like, Donna, it's month end, get serious. Do you know what I mean? I was like, I just don't feel like this is my place and I'm not kind of fitting in.

Um, and then my daughter at the time just was into face painting. So we just queued up everywhere for it. And I thought, how hard is this? And bought a little cheap set and then. It's gone from there. Did she get a really dodgy face painting dump ones? Um, I think it, it varies where you go. Some places should have an hour.

Well, I, I can do better than that. And we hear a lot of these stories with the students that come on my course as well and they get the same thing. They go somewhere and it's a bit naff and they go, how hard is this? I'm gonna give it a go. But then there is some people out there that's absolutely phenomenal.

And like beautiful kind of artwork, so there's a huge variation in what you can kind of get. So what did you want to do when you were at school? When I was, when I was like primary school, I wanted to work at ASDA. That was like the huge aim. For some reason, I don't know why, but watching people kind of scanning, I was like, this is, We're going back some time.

So like till then we're like high tech. Um, but in high school there was a period of wanting to be a fashion designer, which I never even went into. Um, and I don't, um, thank God I did. Cause I have no idea about fashion now. So, um, I didn't really kind of have anything specific. Um, I just, I did a lot of retail when I left school.

I've worked ever since leaving school though, always worked. Um, so I did a lot of retail, worked at some car garages on receptions. Um, I've even worked in an egg factory. It was like one of my first ever jobs. So I've always worked. Go on then, what were you doing there? So it was a very thrilling job. Um, it was weekends and school holidays that I'd do it and I literally had to stand in this like booth with a curtain behind me and then eggs would come over the factory kind of belt and they would go there would be a light underneath and my job was literally to look for cracked eggs and you would pull them out and put them on the shelf if any were cracked and that was all day just doing that.

Hated it. But I wanted money. That's all I was bothered about was the money. Your daughter had come back looking like Charlie Carolli, having her face done. And you thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this meself. What did you do next? So I bought a little, um, Snazaroo set, which everyone can kind of get hold of from What?

Sorry? Snazaroo. Bless you. You can get them from like, Amazon, um, eBay, uh, some like, the range sells them. It's like the, the main at home kind of face paint that's safe to use. So I'd bought a little set like that. And I'd painted my daughter at home and I painted her as a tiger and it wasn't actually half bad.

It was, it wasn't, it wasn't the best, but it wasn't half bad. But it was more the enjoyment of it. It was, I thoroughly enjoyed painting her and her reaction, Kind of after being done, just, it gives me goosebumps now just talking about it. That's the main part of our job that I love the most, is the kids reactions and even adults reactions.

And it was just, it was, I just loved it. So I thought I'm just going to carry on playing. I went online and then you find there's a massive world of face and body painting that you You know, you wouldn't know unless you were in the industry. So we, I followed a few other people, got a few different tips, just kept practicing.

And then a princess party approached me, like a party company, and said, would you do face painting for us? And I said, well, I'm still very new, and they were like, no, that's perfect. Um, and I did all the parties for them, and just gradually got better and better, and then eventually was able to kind of do it on a much bigger scale like we are now.

So how big is it at the present? There's only me, but we do subcontract to, gosh, probably over 20 face painters. And it's something that I'm really pleased that we do subcontract, because it still allows a lot of freedom for the subcontractors. So rather than bringing them in, um, kind of on an hourly rate, where it's much lower than what they could kind of get, uh, subcontracting, they can still charge their normal kind of fees to us.

And it keeps the community kind of together. We're all sharing work, in a sense, and things like that. But there's just me, uh, that kind of does all the admin. And I keep saying I'm going to employ somebody and then I go, no, I'm not going to, because letting go of anything is so hard. So hard. But yeah, so I'll travel up and down the country now as well, doing all the training courses and things.

I might drag a friend along with me now and again so I can enjoy a nice pint at the end of the day. The training course, but that's probably about it. And your training courses are all over the country, aren't they? And, in fact, into Europe as well, aren't they? We haven't gone into Europe yet. I get asked.

I'm asked to do it in America, and I'm asked to do it in Ireland, and there's been a couple in, oh, somewhere in the Netherlands, where. And I need to sit down and try and work about logistics, like, there's a lot of gear that comes with us. It's not like just a couple of face paints. The, I have an estate car and that is rammed when we go on tour.

So it's just figuring out how can I get all this equipment over there cheaply, and still not have, like, to keep the prices low for kind of the training. So it's, it's a possibility, a possibility. Tell us more about the courses that you run. So, I was approached about, about 8 years, 9 years ago, um, by another facepainter who wanted to learn.

And I said, um, yeah, sure, I'll, I'll, I'll show you. And I'd got another lady who'd asked at the same time, so I thought, right, there's two people that want to learn. I wonder if I can get a few more and kind of do it as like a group thing. So I'd asked around a few kind of beginner facepainters I'd seen in the area.

And I think I got a group of about, what was it, six that joined and we hired, um, a room in a pub in Wakefield and set that up and we did this training course. Since then, it's kind of gradually then, we'll, we'll go for another one and we'll try and advertise it. And then people were joining and now people were asking for like Scotland, will you come to Scotland?

Will you come to London? Will you come here? Will you come there? And I was like, well, why not just take it on tour and we'll, we'll cover the whole UK. And so we teach up to 20 people. on a Saturday, 20 people on a Sunday, come home, clean it all, then go off again and teach another 20 on a Saturday somewhere else and we're all over the place.

So how do you teach somebody to face paint? So, um, you have to go through start very basics, uh, with face painting, it's all about line work. It's a line, if you think of like a face paint, like a tiger design, the tiger stripes kind of on there. If you were to do very thick kind of lines, just very straight lines, it's quite dull and boring.

Whereas what we're teaching is to vary the shapes and sizes of each stroke. So they look kind of thin going to thick, going back to thin again. They might have curves in them, things like that. Um, but it's a A lot of moving of the brush. It's not as simple as what it sounds. So we spend the first half of the class just focusing on that.

One of the good things that we do in our course is at the beginning, I say, um, right, this is how the paints kind of work very quickly. Uh, you've got ten minutes to paint a tiger. So they've got no training whatsoever. They come straight into the course. They're all quite scared because they're in a room with all these other people.

Um, so they have ten minutes. They have to paint a tiger however they think. And then later in the day we, I teach them how to paint a tiger using the techniques what they've learned. So we have a really good before and after tiger. And the reactions of the people when they do the after one and they put the pictures kind of together, they're like, wow, look what I've done in just a day.

And it is really amazing what they can learn in just a day. And are the practicing, I can't even talk, I'm sorry, I've dried out, are they practicing on each other? No, so we use, um, the first cast I did was on each other, um, and I just found that what that meant was one person was kind of sat there for a good 15, 20 minutes not doing anything, um, and the other person was kind of having a go, and then that person who'd been painted would have to wash it off in the kind of the toilets to then come back and have another go, and I was like, this just isn't working.

So, um, we bought some practice heads. So they're like mannequin heads at what my daughter's cleaning at the moment. Um, but they look freaky, like they're really weird looking. So those are really good because if they paint on those, it's got the same curves of a head. But if they make a mistake they can wipe it off and just have another go, so it's a lot easier.

The downside is having 40 heads to clean on a Monday, which I absolutely despise doing, so any volunteers who want to clean heads, you're very welcome to. Where do you get your inspiration from? For the faces? For the paintings? No, you can go online and you can find loads of design ideas and any beginner will do that, will find somebody else's work and they will just copy it.

And that's what I did at the very beginning and it takes a good few years to find your own kind of style. Kind of theme and the way that I paint now is very kind of cartoon illustration. It's um, very cheeky as well So I would go on to say if somebody had asked for a character that I've never heard before I'd Google it But I'd find like a cartoon of it or something like that that I can then recreate from that So I don't need to look at other people's designs now and copy theirs I would prefer something like a clip art or something like that That's my inspiration to kind of put my own spin on things.

But we get asked for bizarre stuff all the time, it's super cool. But you don't only just paint faces, do you? There's other parts of the body that you go for. We go for the full body. The full body? The full body. Right, I've had a look at your gallery online, obviously. Tell me about the M& M's. Oh, the M& M's!

So that was, um, that event I got given the theme was candy. Oh, okay. So, um, I had to do a full body paint surrounding kind of candy. And when I get a theme for a body paint, I'll again do the same thing. So I'm looking at clip arts and illustrations and cartoons and whatever else. And then very much with my personality, any body paint I do, I want it to be like stand out in a sense of, Not the actual painting, but the, the story behind it.

Like it's gotta be a little bit cheeky and a little bit silly. And it's just how I'd, how I've always done it. So m and m's on the boobs. Perfect. Put 'em there. Let's know. Better place. Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. Where'd you put the Tober on? ? Well, this is it. This is, it depends on the model, I suppose, doesn't it?

I'm gonna have, have they got some tops on or other? Naked. So they have, naked, they have, um, they'll wear a thong. A what? A thong. Um, there is other things that they can wear, but they will have that kind of covered, and nipple pasties. So they're like circular kind of stickers that go over the nipples, and then we paint over them.

Because we can't have any pictures with exposed nipples on in the UK. In other countries it's absolutely fine, but for us it's not. So although it is, they're very naked, the main places are kind of covered what needs to be. And is this like a big competition? So yeah, some of them are competitions, some of them are just for fun.

Some of them are just kind of to express how you're feeling at the time. We did a lot of it kind of, uh, when lockdown, you were able to kind of be with so many people. We started doing that just as a way of kind of expressing and, you know, how we were feeling. So a lot of them were quite deep and depressive kind of body paints because we couldn't do his job and we were all stuck at home.

So, um, but yeah, the, the competitions are really great fun. It's not a competition where it's, aggressive or anything like that. It's a very supportive competition. Um, they'll have a newbie kind of category and uh, they say advanced but if you've done a body paint comp you go straight into the advanced bit, you know, next category.

And you'll see the beginners kind of so nervous and shaking and everything else and then all the other advanced ones like myself will go around and we're like, you're doing amazing, why don't you try this and why don't you try that. Um, And then at the end when they'll do, all the models will do a catwalk to a specific song around the theme of the body paint.

Um, and the winners will get announced and everyone's cheering everybody. There's nothing like, there's no negative side to the competitions at all. It's very much just promoting kind of each other and supporting each other. What's life like at the business village? It's super nice. I haven't been in this week cause I've like, just festival season is manic, but it's.

It's so much better here, like how it was. So I was working from a little office in my garden. My husband built me a shed cause he hates glitter. So he's like, get it out of the house and put it in the shed. And coming in here though, you literally can switch off from everything else that kind of goes on at home.

So like the dog and the postman come in and a noise outside that you're like, who the bloody hell is that? You know, anything, at least here I can focus and literally focus. And. As well, like I've already been chatting to kind of certain people thinking, oh, they could help with, you know, with this, with this side of my business.

So like my website, I need to have a chat with them. And then social media, I can have a chat with them and It's people you can trust because you know that they're here because they are doing the same thing you want to do. They just want to grow their businesses. They're not some cowboy that's, you know, you've just found on Facebook or whatever.

You can definitely trust everybody here and if you're ever stuck with anything, you've just got to drop an email and somebody will help you. I can have people contact you. Email is the best way, so, uh, but if you go on our website, all those details are there, so it's donisfacepainting. co. uk You can find us on Facebook.

Instagram and TikTok. You down with TikTok? Yeah, baby. TikTok has been amazing. Really? In what way? Honestly. So I, I currently advertise on Facebook and Instagram for the training courses. Um, I think so far this year, I think I'm up to about 13 grand in marketing costs, what I've gone out. Obviously that's targeting specific kind of people that would book our course.

TikTok, free. I haven't had to pay a penny. And that is literally it. automatically targeting the people that would want to book on my course and they have. So probably about 15 percent of people who've booked on our course have booked through TikTok and I haven't had to pay a penny for it. Unreal. Unreal.

And it's just, it's, it's a lot of fun though. The only thing is I go into TikTok comas on a night regularly, so. I'm up at one, one o'clock thinking hey, what am I doing? I've got to go to bed and get off TikTok. And what kind of content do you put on TikTok? I thought you were going to ask what content am I watching then?

But no, that's the total opposite. But yeah, my content, it's hard to find time to do it. But when I do, a lot of it is, the ones that do really well is when I paint my own face. So, you'll see from start to finish. What are you laughing for? Because I just had an image of you getting a great big roller.

Straight over with emulsion, painting my face, that's all. If only it was that easy, like, bosh, six quid, thank you. What's your favourite face you paint on yourself? I like it when I can do something a little bit scary, or like, gory or some kind of monster kind of thing, stuff like that I like. And what would you suggest for a round faced middle aged guy about 58 years old?

What would you think? 100 percent drag queen. No way! No way. I'd set fire to your pants if you did that. Well, I would be saying to you, what kind of things are you into? What do you watch on telly? I watch, I watch lots of stuff. I watch a bit of football. I like space. I like puppets. I like cartoons. So automatically there, you've said puppets, so I would be like Could you make me look like Fozzie Bear?

What's Fozzie Bear? You don't know who Fozzie Bear is? No, hang on. I'm gonna Google. Is it from, um, Rainbow? No. Who's Fuzzy Bear? I'm gonna Google it. Wacka Wacka. Fuzzy Bear. I've got a green friend. Oh, right, a vague, that's a bit before my time, I reckon. What's that offer? Muppet Show. Yeah. Vaguely. I did watch Muppet Show.

How old are you? 21. Yeah, shut your face. 42. But, I do remember it, but I wasn't a massive Muppets fan. When I was a kid it was more Well, I've had enough now. If you're telling me stuff like that But yeah, that would be doable. But I, with you saying like Puppets, I automatically thought like Pinocchio because I'd turn your face into kind of like a wood effect.

Oh. And kind of, um Possibly like with holes and things like that and I don't know like big eyebrows again, the drag queen's coming out and stuff like that That's where i'm automatically kind of was drawn to them. Donna. Thank you for your time. Oh, thank you for me I'm, so buzzing. So yeah, thanks. That's been a nice chat.

Thank you. I'll try my best Now let's record it

Good morning, the Business Village, Holly speaking, how can I help? Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs, from solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high speed internet, conference rooms, a bistro, and a thriving business community with networking events.

Collaboration opportunities. Contact us today to schedule a tour. Call 01226 249 590. That's 01226 249 590. And start your success story at the Business Village.

This is the Business Village People podcast. Every month the Creative Collective meet at the Business Village in Barnsley. It's a great place for bouncing around ideas, teaming up on projects and getting answers to your burning questions. Caroline Allert runs the sessions. So the Creative Collective is a group of people who work within the creative sector in Barnsley and we get together and Second Monday of every month, and we talk about, uh, well it's like a peer support group, really.

So what we do is we have a, a speaker each month, and we also provide peer support. A lot of people who work in the creative sectors, they tend to work on their own, a lot of the time. Um, they don't have, you know, colleagues or whatever. And so therefore, what I mean by that is having other people who you can get together with.

Um, talk about problems or challenges you might have. It is one of the things I've found the first 18 months I've been working for myself. So the focus has changed recently, hasn't it? Yeah. So what happened is, is that we had, um, prior to me, um, there was a lady called, uh, who ran a company called Ask Zoe, who used to do it.

Um, and then the baton got handed over to me and I changed the format somewhat. In that I wanted it to be more of a Q& A session with some of the professionals in the building because I think that sometimes you go to these events and you sat round and you don't really truly know the backgrounds about people and I wanted to know, uh, not pull them apart, that's the wrong, wrong way to put it.

The backstory. Yeah. Why did you get that job? How did you get that job? I wanted to know more about that, you know, asking the questions that you don't generally get from, you know, standard networking, I suppose. Finding out more about the person, I think is interesting, their backstory. Yeah, 100 percent 100 percent like, um, for example, you know, some of the people that we've had to come and speak you, you good self included, I didn't know anything about your career or the background of it.

So instead of going to a networking event and saying, Hi, my name is Caroline, I do digital marketing. Well, I had a career in publishing before I did do that, you know, I've I've published books. I've got two children. You know, I do it all by myself. They're the things that make people interested, I think, not just I'm Caroline and I do ads.

There's more to me than that. And everybody else, it pans out, obviously. So, who have you had at the meetings? We've had your good self. Thank you. And what did you learn about me? What I learned about you, which was different to all the other people who, uh, interviewed me, Who's done it so far is as I learned that you wanted to do what you do now when you were at school And you're one of the only people I've ever met who you know if you like ask most people What did you want to do when you were at school and?

They're never what they you know wanted to be but you are and that really really was interesting to me So, yeah, that's what I learned about you. Thank you. And what did you reveal about you? Oh, wow. When you were under the spotlight? Well, I've not done it yet. I thought you had. No, I've done a talk about ads and I've done, uh, advertising tips, but I've never actually turned it on myself, actually.

So, maybe it should be me next. I don't know. I think it should. We're all having a go at it. So, we've had you, we've had, um, Alex, we've had Kevin. Okay. business development director here. So really just understanding the history of people, how the workplace has changed as well. And what did you learn about Alex?

Because Alex is what, 22, 23, something like that. He's only a young lad and he's making waves already. Yeah. So what I learned about Alex, he's always been somebody I've always thought were ace from the moment I met him, just because, um, you know, he is so young, but I don't go against him. I just think he's, um, so professional and so smart.

He has to go in and get to know someone really, really quickly to pull out their essence of what their business is. I think that is a lot of skill for somebody as young as what he is. We've had Rita, Britain. Not the designer fashion icon. She doesn't like the word fashion, by the way. No, she hates it. Oh, it's one of my favourite songs.

Well, you're a big Bally fan, that's why. No, because she says if it's in fashion It's current of the time, blah, blah, blah. But her clothes that she designs and manufactures with her team, you couldn't be wearing them in 20, 30, 40 years time. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Because they are so well made and so The material's so good.

Yes, yes. I think, yes, how on earth could I have forgotten Rita? Um, because she's like, um, an icon round here, isn't she? And I think it was really, really interesting to say, well, how on earth did you even start? How did you become this girl from Barnsley and you became that? And like, literally, she talked about her school days, how she grew up and everything.

So it weren't just a case of her business, it were, who are, who are you? Who are you? We aren't meant to sound like cheesy, do you know what I mean? Um, very, very down to earth, very inspiring lady, so yeah. Do you know that she used to live next door to my grandma and grandad on Honeywell Street in Barnsley?

Did she? What, did you ever see her then, when you were young? No, no, I mean, she'd be about three or four, I think, then, then, then. It's a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, um, apparently, according to Rita, Her grandad and my grandad would turn up swolled after a night out at the Honeywell in Ower every year and start fighting in the street.

Sorry, for any non Basel listeners, that's fighting in the street. Yes, having a set too. Having a set too. So who can attend the Creative Collective? Well, anybody who works within the creative sector. Um, but we've had people rock up from all different sort of walks of life. I think it's just, yes, I suppose it started as a Creative Collective, but if you're like, on your own, or if you're working for a smaller business, or, you know, even if you just feel like you want to just sit down with a group of people who are a little bit, Maybe eccentric, dare I say that word?

People are a bit unusual. You know, and sort of talk about, um, business from the perspective of not being a suited and booted sort of type of person. Then I think that, you know, we do throw the doors open to anyone. All are welcome, I think. Can I tell you what I got out of it? Go on. If I could talk. I think my voice is going.

I'll shut up for a minute. Yeah, shut your face. What I got out of doing it was Realise how much stuff I'd forgotten I'd done and the kind of skills that I've got and the kind of passion I had. That's really, really interesting. Yeah. And I think most people who were there when you spoke, because it were like a discussion, really.

Most people who were there, sort of, like, looked at you like Wow, I didn't know you'd done that, you know. It was interesting, everyone was just like leaning in looking at you, fascinated by it all. You know, usually, I just, everyone's got a story, ain't they? And that's, that's what I wanted to, to get at, you know what I mean?

So if you actually got something from it, as someone who spoke and did the QA, that's amazing, isn't it, really? Yeah, yeah. I found it very kind of, you know, get on with it, David, get back to it, get, get working again. I do fall out with it every now and again. We all do that, don't we? Well, yeah, yeah. That's why we need a creative collective.

Yeah, that's what I mean by peers apart. So, we know who can attend. When does it happen? Right, so the next one is on the 8th of July. Um, and it's 30. You just have to book online. I always share it on my social media pages Uh on my facebook clear digital page and then so we do at the business village Last time we spoke you just rebranded your business and that'd be about a year ago.

Yeah Yeah, um How's it going? Really well. Um, I found that, uh, so since I rebranded my business, because of the way that I approach that in terms of the way that the logo looks, the way that I present myself online, I attract different kinds of clients now. Mmm. Perverts. With any look. No. Um. Mmm. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Um, no, I attract people who are bigger businesses. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I think that, um, without meaning to sort of beat the, the, the marketing drum again, uh, the way that you present on yourself online is really, really key. I think, but I'm also, uh, evolving that as well. I think that because of the way that things change all the time, like, short form video is more of a thing now.

I think that, uh, I'm always looking to evolve it, but that's what every business should do. Because we're in a changing environment where digital media is concerned. Well, thank you very much for your time again. You are. How can people contact you? How people can contact me is, so go on my Facebook page which is Clear Digital or go on my website which is cleardigital.

co. uk or, well that's it really. That's it. Ah, well stop then. Yeah, that went alright, didn't it? It'll do.

For all the latest news from the Business Village, subscribe to our free newsletter at business village. co. uk. Thank you for listening, and special thanks to my guests, Donna Godfrey and Caroline Aylott. If you've enjoyed your time with us, please share the podcast with your friends. Your support helps us grow and reach more listeners just like you.

I'm David Markwell, and this is Business Village. is a pod one creative audio production.

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