Andy Alderson is an entrepreneur (in every sense).

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from him and to say the least, it was surreal.

Basically, to cut a long story short, he was 12 hours from making the biggest decision of his business life and he wanted my advice.

Giving advice was the easy bit. 

I've advised global business leaders, I've coached TV stars and I've prepared sports stars for a global TV audience of 500 million viewers.

But this was different.

Here's why.

Andy's business is Vanarama. For 95% of people reading this you won't have a clue who Vanarama are - and that's by design.

If however you are a 30 something self-employed plumber/builder/joiner (with a van) I guarantee you will have heard of Vanararma.

Andy knows his 'avatar' - his perfect customer. 

He doesn't want to appeal to everyone. He couldn't care less if you don't like his adverts.

But he passionately cares about his customers who need commercial vehicles.

I've mentioned his adverts in blogs before, more cheesy than a stone of Stilton or a bucketful of Brie. 

You can see the latest one here. It will make you smile.

But back to Andy. He had a challenge.

He knew he had to raise the profile of his business, he knew sports was a good way to do this and he knew he had to go big or go home.

So he pitched to become the main sponsor of the Conference Football Leagues.

That's massive! It means the BBC have to mention your company name alongside Barclays and Coca Cola. You'll be in every newspaper when it comes to the results and mentioned thousands of times on the radio and in online media.

But there's more.

Andy also wants to create world-class customer service to back up his brand promise. That makes Andy and Vanarama different.

And that's why Vanarama chose Hearts and Minds for their Staff Development and Customer Service training.

Oh, he's a smart guy!