'You sort of pinch yourself and think, did that really happen?' - Crawley entrepreneur gives an insight on what it is like to receive an MBE from King Charles III

Matt Turner was named the King’s Birthday Honours List for his achievements and services to Business and Charity in June but received his medal recently at an investiture ceremony held at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, November 12.

The King’s Birthday Honours celebrate the remarkable achievements and contributions of individuals across the UK. The Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) is awarded to someone who has excelled in their field and made a meaningful difference within their community, setting an inspiring example for others.

A multi-award-winning entrepreneur and philanthropist, Matt is driven by a passion for forging connections, accelerating growth, uplifting others, and making a positive impact through charitable and community work.

And we caught up with Matt, who is CEO and founder of Creative Pod, based in Manor Royal, to tell us about the whole experience from finding out to receiving his honour.

He first found out in the middle of May when he received a letter. “It's literally just a normal envelope and it says, on His Majesty's Service on the front. I realised it wasn't to be asked for an audition to be the next James Bond and it looked like it was a request for jury service so I was unbelievably reluctant to open it. But it wasn’t.”

Matt said it’s in the strictest confidence so you can’t tell anyone but he had to write back and accept. "Then you hear absolutely nothing,” he said. “It's all embargoed until the midnight of the night before the King's birthday. And then the London Gazette announce it. Obviously you're sitting there at midnight, refresh, refresh, it's crashing, and it's refresh, refresh. You're then thinking, ‘well it's a prank’. But no, it was there and it was a great privilege.”

And Matt had no idea. “Literally no idea. But then you find out the amount of people that have been involved in terms of references and interviews and questions and letters and all the rest of it. It was a really special moment,” he said.

Matt’s wife Michelle and the Department of Business and Trade were the people to nominate Matt for the award but charities he’s supported and youngsters he has mentored we also involved.

The Investiture ceremony took place at Windsor Castle and Matt arrived with his family at 9.30am. He said: “You're escorted into the grounds and there's a big green, you go up and into the castle and you can literally wander around the castle and it's done very well in terms of how they move you through.

“And there's Rembrandts on the wall and it's unbelievably surreal. And then they put a little clip on you. So there's no sort of faffing around with the medal.”

Obviously Matt was not the only person receiving their honour that day. Tess Daly and Anita Dobson were amongst those receiving award. Matt said: “I know Anita Dobson quite well, she came with Brian May, which was quite a treat.”

He then went into detail about the ceremony. “You're ushered into the ceremony room. The Lord Chamberlain is stood there and talking to you. I think it's calming your nerves. Your family are stood there and then it starts.

“You probably get a good sort of two and a half, three minutes with him. Your head's racing. But he was on really good form and he knew so much about me. He'd been unbelievably well briefed.

“He knew about the stuff at the Department of Business and Trade and countries I'd been to. He knew about Creative Pod and the length we'd been going, the stuff that we do. He asked a lot about the charitable work that I've been doing. I raised the concern around hospices in the UK. I think over the next 24 months, we're going to see hospice after hospice after hospice go bust. And it's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. So using those opportunities to highlight things like that, I think is really important.

"And as he shook my hand and said goodbye, I said to him, ‘happy birthday for Friday, I hope you get spoiled rotten’. And he said to me, ‘you're terribly well informed’. It was one of those really funny moments.

“Then you go for photos and then you sort of pinch yourself and think, ‘did that really happen?’”

But this was a long time coming for Matt as he revealed he and his brother used to pretend to ‘Knight’ each other in the garden when they are kids. “We always had this pact that if one of us ever got a gong from the Royal family, if the other one wasn't invited to the investiture, they would never be invited for Christmas again. So for them 30 odd years later for it to happen, it's just that surreal, almost funny kind of moment.

“I've been very well rehearsed because I've been rehearsing for it for 30 years in the garden.”

And Matt wanted to thank his wife and colleagues for the part they have played in him getting this honour. “Michelle stood by me for the best part of 15 years. And that's the highs, the lows, a period of the football club, that was like being in panto all year round. She had to sort of just stand there and put up with that, the late nights, the weekends. The optics from the outside always look very glamorous, but there's often a lot of sacrifice that happens behind that. So, without her, I definitely don't think I would have got to where I got to because your spouse, I think when you're an entrepreneur, your spouse determines how successful an entrepreneur you are. You need to have that balance between lifting you up when you're down, bringing you down when you're too high and just keeping you on the straight and narrow.”

He added: “My MD at Creative Pod, Sarah Lyons, she's been with me for nearly a decade. My brother Jamie who works here, he's been here for nearly 12 years.

“They are people who have seen me through the good, the bad, the ugly. And I think when people can see you at your worst, that's when you know who your real friends are and there's been key people across the business community, my personal life, who have always been honest.”

Matt is also not going to rest on his laurels. “I think for me, I'm excited to put it into practice, to use it to help the charities that I work with and to actually use it rather than sort of it being on a shelf somewhere.

"In my world, marketing is so competitive, so it's nice to have something to differentiate yourself from your competitors to a certain degree. That won't change me. If anything, it will probably spur me and motivate me to do more.”