MARTIN JOHNSON
4x Founder
Emcee
Moderator
Keynote Speaker
I’ve built businesses turning over £20m+ and I’m nowhere near finished
Business builder. Storyteller. Question asker. Conversation starter.
For 15 years, I’ve been building businesses, making mistakes, taking risks and developing some fairly strong opinions along the way. Now I bring that experience to the stage as an emcee, moderator and speaker.
from the desk of Martin Johnson
Stories from 15 years of building travel businesses, exploring some of the world’s most extraordinary places, and the lessons I’ve picked up along the way.
Two stories each month. Sometimes travel. Sometimes business. Always from experience.
MY STORY
I started with two second-hand laptops above a pizza shop.
In 2011, my co-founder and I decided to start our first travel business. We quit our jobs. Around ten banks refused to fund us. So we built it anyway.
Our first proper office was above Tops Pizza on Kingston High Street. We had two second-hand laptops, a couple of phones, one printer and very little money.
It hasn't been a straight line. I've dealt with cash-flow crises, given away equity I later wished I hadn't, made hiring mistakes, taken risks I couldn't really afford and backed ideas other people thought were mad. Some worked brilliantly. Some didn't!
But that business above the pizza shop became Latin Routes, now one of the UK’s biggest specialists in Latin America travel.
And I didn't stop there.
My second, Polar Routes, went on to become a leader in its field too. Together, those two businesses now turn over more than £20m.
My third business, the Expedition Cruise Network, has grown into a global b2b community.
And with my fourth, Cruise Routes, I’m doing it all over again, taking everything I’ve learned and using it to build something even better.
15 years on, I’m still building. And I’m nowhere near finished.
wHAT I BELIEVE
15 years in business has left me with some fairly strong opinions.
Niche beats broad
Trying to be everything to everyone is usually a very effective way of being memorable to nobody.
Being the cheapest Isn't a competitive advantage
I'd rather build something worth paying more for than spend my life finding new ways to discount it.
Most decisions are reversible, lost momentum isn't
I've watched good ideas disappear while people waited for enough information to make the “perfect” decision.
Perfection is the enemy of progress
If it's better than what we did yesterday, I'd rather try it, learn and improve it than discuss it for another six months.
Great service still needs humans
I’m interested in AI when it gives good people more time to be good at their jobs. I'm considerably less interested when it's used as an excuse to remove the human experience altogether.
These aren't theories I've picked up from business books. They're what 15 years of building businesses has taught me.
ON STAGE
Emcee. Moderator. Speaker.
I work at events in three ways: running the room, leading the conversation and sharing my own perspective.
As an emcee, I keep the energy moving and make an event feel connected from start to finish.
As a moderator, I ask the questions that get beyond the prepared answers and turn panels into conversations people actually want to listen to.
And as a speaker, I share the lessons, mistakes and fairly strong opinions that have come from 15 years of building businesses.
Three different roles. One thing in common:
Making sure the audience gets something worth listening to.
STAGES I've Been On
Book Me
Got an event coming up? Whether you need an emcee, moderator or keynote speaker, tell me what you’ve got planned and we’ll take it from there.
