From Panic Attacks to Dream Job : Stu Macdonald | ManiLife Peanut Butter

0:03The way we make has always been geared towards us doing it ourselves. It just took us a while to realise that. And also, because of how we make, there's so much quality work that happens at the margins that's very hard to do when you're signing off samples that were made on Monday or Friday. So from a quality perspective, it's always been geared towards us doing it ourselves. from a commercial perspective because we haven't been showing the overheads of massive factories it's geared towards towards us doing ourselves and then because of this kind of thesis on innovation being a driver of noise ultimately you make your own stuff you're going to be a way faster and it just feels like i know when you walk around your own factory it feels different like it feels a lot more real so how involved in that setup in setting up the factory and the design and the build have you been fiona i've done absolutely fucking nothing and it's been unbelievable i think if i've been doing it it would have been a disaster i mean so i guess ultimately like the the purchase of the blenders like the blender i i had sign off one because i'm kind of the custodian quality but the technical selection of the site was like sign-off process so you so you've obviously got people you really trust around you though right amazing people in your business yeah okay yeah we have we got a um a guy on our board a great guy david collard he used to run a business called bar bar ingredients and they've had done a few factory builds the guy who he worked with there helped us as a kind of consultant and without him it would have been really hard our md has worked in manufacturing business in the past of various sizes so he's kind of he's never set up a site but he's adept enough to know what good looks like we've had an amazing team on it which speaks to the timing because probably had we done this two years ago we wouldn't have had we definitely wouldn't have the people in house and we probably wouldn't have the firepower to go and get them and then also the volume to to fill it well what you're doing is you are recognizing core capabilities that have allowed you to get where you've got to today needed to almost be concretized and souped up and professionalized and made into something that you guys own.

2:15Okay, so is the factory then up and running? It is. We'll be making everything out there, bar the coconut peanuts, by next week. Wow, it's incredible. What's it like to, because you've had a really busy life the last year, your twins are three, nearly three in November, isn't it? What is it like sitting here now, thinking about everything that you've achieved? Does this feel different? there is a different feeling when you walk around a factory that's yours and i don't know whether it's because it's for whatever reason it becomes so much more common for brand to kind of piggyback off other people's factories but there's something really cool about like walking in seeing a product made and like i mean obviously i knew the people who operated the factory lines at other people's sites by name but there's something quite cool about it kind of being one team and that's we've had to think about quite a lot because the site is based just north of nottingham the team are largely based in london and so like a lot of thought and continuous thought is going into how we maintain that like we're one team going towards one goal so we've got a big team day in a couple weeks time uh up here which is great in terms of pride i mean it's the classic answer like you're always thinking about the next thing the big difference between now and maybe three years ago is three years ago we had a good team that was all kind of linked into me and I was working insanely hard probably too hard and not smart enough whereas now it just feels like we're humming which is which is amazing and it's great for my wife as well because she's obviously born the brunt of my like busy work life for far too long does she get to see you now a little bit more yeah probably probably still not enough but uh but then I always say like carefully wish for if I was here all the time.

4:03Talk to us about the low points. So I mean, like, like anyone who sets up something, and hasn't really done anything else before, you go into, like, I would say, aggressive work holes. And I think, probably maybe eight years in, where it was eight years is a pretty like relentless work where whenever I encounter a problem personally, I would like work my way out of it. And as the business grew, the problems became less like dig yourself out through grit and work, which I've always been pretty good at, to more like step back and problem solve. And I think I just, I hit a point where, I mean, it was, it's almost laughable.

4:54and it is laughable looking back on it because it's just peanut butter but like burnout to like a horrific degree and what was wild is it hit in probably like end of 21 and i spent a year trying to work work my way out of it so it just got deeper and deeper and deeper uh so that was quite like everyone who's experienced it knows what it feels like what does it feel like because i mean you know everyone says burnout but what is he not sleeping i mean it was like okay so So, fuck it, I'll share. So there were times where for maybe like several months, wake up on the dot 3 a.m. every night, can't go back to sleep.

5:37There were spells. This is just laughable now. And like we are fully through it and flying now, which is great as a team and as a person. So you can kind of look back on it laughably. uh there were spells where i'd like wake them in like screaming just like and wake up says um you know there's like the panic attacks thing like it's really wild and it's and it's funny because there's like a little bit probably to some extent so it's like a little bit of shame associated with that because you kind of feel like i've always been quite capable because i'm quite capable what point did you kind of go okay this isn't just something that i can work through I actually need to take a break or this is only going to get worse or what was that moment it was probably when the month of like a panic attack every day like just in like insanity yeah but then but kind of but it's also like what's come from that is the the team is now set up in a way that my job is like the dream job for any founder ever everything I do I enjoy

6:48As the founder or leader of a scaling challenger brand, finding the right people to join your growing business can be much harder than you think. That's why we've teamed up with FMCG specialist recruitment consultancy, MKJ Ignite, to bring you the best people and recruitment insights from some of the most successful founders out there. Recently, I asked co-founder Paul Jones to explain the real value that a specialist recruiter like MKJ Ignite can offer founders. Maybe what people don't realize is that the best candidate for the brief may not be applying for their job. Indeed, may not be in their networks.

7:25They're happy being successful in their role. So that's where a business like MKJ Ignite comes to the forefront. because the network, the ambassadors, the relationships we have gives us access to this passive talent audience or hidden talent, as we like to say it. So when a founder asks us to help them support and we shape the brief, we have then build a sense of who they're looking for and how to get them. We can take discrete references along the way, building not just a sort of a technical set but also a behavioural set because obviously that's key in a small business, that the cultural fit and the mindset is bang on.

7:59And quite honestly, that's why businesses do continue to use us on a repeat basis. And 85 % of our business currently comes from the same clients. Honestly, besides the obvious value of having a deep network and tons of experience in recruitment, so much more time and effort goes into finding the right people than you might think. No matter what stage of the journey you're at, MKJ Ignite can help you find the right people for your marketing, e-commerce, sales or operations teams, whether that be at middle management or senior leadership roles. They have an extensive network of deep personal relationships in the space and I think that's because they are really lovely genuine people.

8:39So if you want to chat to Immy, Paul or Billy about all things recruitment or indeed if you just need a piece of advice then please do reach out to them. There's a link in the show notes to book a no obligation chat or you can email them at info at mkj-ignite.co.uk Thanks to MKJ Ignite for bringing us this nugget of brand growth value today. Don't forget to hit follow so you won't miss the next one.