Going for Gold – Spencer Gore on ambition, achievement, and audacious boardroom and pitch side goals.
Dylan Carroll sits down with trailblazing entrepreneur and football club chairman Spencer Gore, in the latest inspiring episode of Outward Bound and Me. Long before founding the European and American Medical Journals, earning a Queen’s Award for running one of the UK's fastest-growing businesses, and becoming owner and chairman of his hometown club, Chelmsford City Football Club, Spencer Gore attended a life-changing three-week Outward Bound course in 1994, to discover firsthand that nothing great is ever achieved in your comfort zone.
In this advice-fuelled and reflective conversation, Gore breaks down the relentless mindset that drove him to become a multi-award-winning business leader. He reflects on his dyslexia as a superpower, setting ‘big, hairy, audacious goals’, and believing that to achieve extraordinary success, you must be prepared to do what 99% of people won't. Gore explains how the wilderness taught him humility, teamwork, and the crucial habit of celebrating mistakes rather than fearing them. These foundational Outward Bound lessons directly shaped his career and the culture of the successful teams he builds and leads.
Will we see Chelmsford City lift the Premiership title before 2038? With Spencer encouraging others to take every opportunity by creating gold-medal-winning team environments, anything is possible.
Creators and Guests
Host
Dylan Carroll
Dylan Carroll is the Head of Partnerships at The Outward Bound Trust, leading the Corporate, Trusts & Foundations, Alumni and Legacy teams. Following a career in sales and marketing working across Europe, he now has 20 years fundraising leadership experience, working previously at Barnardo’s, as a consultant, and chairing the Institute of Fundraising. Dylan believes in the power of storytelling to showcase the impact an Outward Bound experience can have on individuals at a pivotal time in their lives, and how Outward Bound pedagogy has influenced countless futures, career, and life choices. He hopes that through this podcast, individual stories of resilience, failure and success, adventure and fun, will be shared with a wider audience, so that people will think on their own connection to the charity, the outdoors and nature, and possibly their own lives and autobiography, and the impact they have on others. The stories in this podcast are individual, but contribute to a collective 85 year tapestry of a charity that has had a lasting impact on many lives.
Guest
Spencer Gore
Spencer Gore is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Gorely Group, home to EMJ, EMJ Learning, AMJ and Chelmsford City F.C., where he is owner and chairman. Over the past 20 years, Spencer has built and scaled successful businesses across publishing, education, healthcare, and sport. Spencer is passionate about continuous improvement, and believes exceptional cultures drive exceptional results. His focus is building gold medal-winning teams and organisations that consistently outperform expectations. Spencer attended a three week Outward Bound course at Eskdale in 1994, sponsored by Barclay’s Bank. He attributes his course for pushing him out of his comfort zone to believing anything is possible.
