From Zero Experience to Building UK Business Giants | James Ashwood on Entrepreneurship

24:16You're trying to build your contacts out, right? People you might be able to do business with. You know, it's an information game, so we're always trying to kind of keep on top of whatever the latest information is. And I want to create, you know, sort of two days in the year where you come here and it's like that on steroids, right? You can make 100 connections. You can, you know, you can hear from people who have trodden the path. You know, you can increase your technical knowledge. You know, and be at home with other entrepreneurs, right, that are going through the same kind of challenges. It's really difficult.

24:43If you've got friends who are civil servants, for example, you're going to have absolutely zero in common.

24:48James Ashwood:Yeah. Absolutely zero, completely worlds away. Not to say that one is more important than the other, but completely worlds away. So I set out to do that, and there's no substitute from learning from people who have trodden that path before. The one regret I have in my earlier days, I should have read more. I should have read more. Maybe that was young and didn't have the education for it, but I kind of just assumed I'd just figure everything out. you know it's like kind of I was sitting in the film industry you kind of meet these new kind of independent filmmakers and their work doesn't fit in any genre everything fits in the genre right there is nothing that's really that's happened before it's gonna happen to you that haven't happened before yes so we thought would we'd kind of get some some really kind of heavyweight entrepreneurs together who'd share that story you know we had founders from Lush Cosmetics and Ted Baker and Grenade bars that they were amazing you know that story was Richard Hart again from home serve and you know the interesting thing is everyone was always five minutes away from it all going probably wrong.

25:44They found the extra gear, they found a way through, you know, and they are the people that I tip my hat to because they've done it. You know, and you will learn more listening to them for half an hour than you will reading, you know, books from people who talk about it but haven't done it. So that's really quite important. You know, we also want to, he says, what is the kind of grandees? We also want to get together, you know, some really cool founders from brands that, you know, you might see around your house yeah we had Siri toothbrush and absolute collagen it was really cool you know kind of hearing how people are doing it today that was really good and then and then going back to what's kind of the lean too early about kind of having a you know a really rounded set of knowledge around all the key pillars for growing a business it doesn't matter if you're in you know baby care or biotech but you need financial literacy but you need to understand capital you know one pound from that person is not the same as a pound from that person you to understand the different types of capital when to look to raise them how to raise them.

26:38So we were really in depth over two days, we looked at every possible avenue to capital, panel after panel, forward with absolute experts, they're really cool. There was another really kind of interesting sort of segment around technology and marketing, specifically how that intersects with AI, and we will no doubt touch on this later because everyone wants to talk about AI, but that's fascinating. I think we were able to present that content through the lens of the entrepreneur. I don't necessarily need to know how the developers are doing X, Y, and Z, but I want to know if I'm investing here, what's the result going to look like?

27:11So it gave us the opportunity to do that. And then we ran a fourth stage, which we're going to rebrand this year to people, leadership, and culture. What it takes to really build a really good team. Because you know this now, as you get further on, you're the shining light to begin with, but unless you put a team around you, you're not going to go anywhere. And And then also being able to focus on that kind of leadership piece as well and resilience. It can be a long, difficult journey if you're not well supported as an entrepreneur. 100%, yeah. I think some of those sessions around kind of mindset that we put in there, I really enjoyed them because it kind of, yeah, yes, I'm going through that as well.

27:50Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was really cool. So the event, we got to hear from 150 amazing speakers. It was really cool. It'll be 200 this time around. Maybe more. Maybe more. And I want to keep, you know, I want to keep kind of thinking about researching, hearing people's opinions on, you know, the right type of strategies, tactics and executions to move business forward.

28:12James Ashwood:I mean, it was an incredible event. And I'm not just saying that because you're sitting in front of me. Genuinely, it was. And it was the first, obviously it was the first one anyway, but it was the first event like that that I've attended, you know, whether they were even even across all the years of going to different you know focus right and going to all the travel you know sort of events and stuff but it's the first one I've been to with that real genuine focus on entrepreneurship so it was it was a huge success so much work and effort involved in it and like you say you know you had some incredible speakers really amazing speakers yeah it was brilliant I mean people were you know people were prepared to share you know yeah really kind of share and then not only that prepared to kind of stay around afterwards and meet everyone absolutely i mean i interviewed juliette barrett on on stage who was a co-founder of grenade and i'd interviewed juliette before so so and then we re-released that interview on brave bowl brilliant as well so you know that which is fantastic because then we share her her stories even wider and and then of course you know maxine laceby absolute collagen uh piers linney again all these people have actually been on my podcast as a result of either the connection that I made at the Festival of Entrepreneurs or you know a prior connection by someone so this this human to human relationship in especially I think in a world of AI and tech is even more important I believe not less important I don't know how you feel.

29:41I'm finding my clock being wound up now as I start to talk about the impacts of AI. Right, no, absolutely. There's nothing beats meeting people in the flesh. Nothing beats listening to them firsthand. The second best is recorded media, and as we're about to talk about, no doubt, a distant third place now is written media, which has absolutely been disrupted and not necessarily for the better by AI. But meeting people, and that's the really nice thing. We've had loads of thank you emails and testimonials, and people make connections, but they got themselves to the event. you know whether they're attending as a as a delegate whether they're exhibiting whether they were you know presenting or as a speaker you know people got there and they made the best of it yeah but that is that's just typical day of entrepreneurs right you know people just you know it's a level of enthusiasm and and sharing which is i've never seen in any other industry no exactly so the dates

30:32James Ashwood:for this year for 2026 what what are the dates and where's the location so we're third and fourth of november third and fourth of november people remember yes back at the nec again yes more space more everything you know really building on what we would put together you know people will double the attendance yeah we'll kind of you know keep the core content and the opportunities that also create more structured ways that people can meet each other yeah more kind of mini events within the event kind of cool stuff yeah yeah so it's gonna be another second year but actually even bigger and better than than last year from yeah and I think you know like um like all second-year events you know when you launch an event as we did you You start 10 months out, you're absolutely nothing.

31:16You've got an idea, you've got maybe an AI image on the front of a media pack, and you've got a floor plan, and off you go, and you're promising people that you're going to deliver something amazing. I was really well supported. I got the pleasure this time of putting together a team that involves Celine Fox as the chairman of the event. He's just an amazing person, full stop. but his knowledge and contacts around businesses is second to none. It's unbelievable. You know, easily one of the smartest people I've had the opportunity to spend time with. Alex Chisnell. Yes. He's a really close friend.

31:52You know, we worked together before the pandemic. We sat down and we tried to run, oh, Christ, there were so many virtual events and that during the pandemic. We kind of kept in touch. It's really cool to work with Alex. He's really well liked. Just a super person. He is. And then, and the rest of the team too. So yeah, it was a good event. Loads of bloody hard work. and it was really nice that the feedback we got from people who participated found value in it

32:15James Ashwood:yeah usually because i think if you're going to take a day or two out of the office as an owner driver of a business with some traction well you know you're going to be convinced you can get some return on investment yeah you know and i think you know some of the best feedback i got was sort of take my badge off and just wandering around chatting to some of the visitors who don't know who i am yeah you know i was chatting to one guy you know business selling over 10 million and he said it was really interesting hearing uh people from other uh industry sectors you know how you know he's a kind of an engineering company but he was talking about how it's interesting to look at kind of staff retention and building brand if you're a consumer-facing brand you know or fintech brand yeah it's really interesting i think to see different perspectives on the same challenges yeah and actually it was alex chisnell how i found my way to you and i'm alex during the clubhouse crazy clubhouse days during the pandemic and then all these years later well quite a few years later still in touch and then of course we've got podcasting in common so my advice to anyone if you're in a job if you're in the corporate world if you're an entrepreneur whatever whatever you're doing your soul opener get yourself out there get networking and do not do not take those human relationships for granted they need to be nurtured loved and you never know who's in the room you never know and it could be the guy with the scruffy trainers and the battered bloody jeans that is the deca millionaire or the billionaire that could have an interesting impact on your life, right?

33:42And just be nice to everyone. And be curious. It's been nice to be interesting. There's a million people out there. And I wish I'd taken some of this advice on early in my career. I was like Kaiser Soze from Usual Suspect, I'd just disappear. I think I'd just rebuild my contacts. I did that in a few different incarnations. When you get a bit older, you realise those connections and those contacts, you might not require anything for each other for five years, but all of a sudden you might suddenly find yourself in a place where you do. You've either kept in touch or you certainly haven't done anything not to keep in touch.

34:12It's really important, I think, more and more, especially in the age of AI, those personal contacts are absolutely indispensable.

34:21James Ashwood:Yeah, and I always think lead with value first. There's nothing worse than when you've not heard from someone for years and years and years, they've not bothered, all of a sudden they want bloody something, right? they've maybe been fired or something and they're like, give us a job and okay there's a place for that, I get it. But actually a much more meaningful way is just give first, right? Of course, you've got to play these things for you. Give first, but we all help each other out, don't we? And I think it's much more of a real relationship when you do take the time and effort. You do, I mean like advice, connecting people, this is just your opportunity cost, right?

34:52And in the grand scheme of things, you know, that can be worth considerably more down the line when these things come back to you. But also some people are just naturally good at it just being a good agent and sharing. Some people are just not particularly good at it. It's a skill you can definitely work on. I think people always remember difficult people. It's only difficult. But people always remember those that were enthusiastic, that were just excited about what they're doing. And I think keep that.

35:19James Ashwood:Yeah. And someone said to me, I can't remember who it was now, but I think it really landed me. and he said people might not always remember exactly what you said but they will remember how you made them feel yeah i guess yeah i guess do you know what i mean whether it's energized or you know kind of quite emotional whatever but you know that that that human to human for me is so important i i think it's i think it's i think it's absolutely indispensable it's the reason i've gone you know it's the reason i went back into another event business a couple of years ago yeah because I think I've made some pretty bold predictions about what's going to happen in the age of AI.

35:54To myself, I don't post on Twitter or anything like that. But I think we're now starting to, we're at the thin end of the wedge for how large language models and AI is going to change the fundamental nature of communication. Human-to-human contact, conversation, what used to be taken for granted is suddenly going to be a massive premium.

36:17James Ashwood:Yeah, it's interesting isn't it, that basic human skills are now becoming sort of almost like you know. Well they are because you know, technical skills, you go to university, you can study vocational things, law, accountancy, medicine, a lot of that you know, you can do it faster, quicker, cheaper, you know, with AI stuff, I'm really just scratching the surface of it. But you know, kind of, you know, like you say, how you make people feel after you've met them, you know, are you creative, are you, you know, have you got good social standing, all these kind of things. these are really important skills I think as we move forward.

36:47James Ashwood:Yeah, yeah. And AI, I mean obviously we mentioned AI, so we've got to talk about AI a little bit, haven't we? And you know that it can really power a business to go very, very fast. It's breaking down barriers in lots and lots of ways. There's lots of really positive things about AI, I believe, in all sectors and all business. But there's also a lot of fear around AI. So how do you see AI, the positives and maybe more of the challenges, if you like, in the world of entrepreneurship? So I'm just about old enough that I can remember the dawn of the internet age, around sort of 96, 97, you know, and people thought it might change the world a little bit, you know, absolutely bloody changed everything.

37:24Yeah. It really did. And we're sort of sitting at what I imagine to be, you know, a similar phase with the development of AI. And I think, you know, a year and a half ago, I made some pretty bold predictions, which I'll share with you in a second. And I think I'm right on those, but probably not right on the timing.

37:38James Ashwood:Yeah. And I think, so going back a year and a half ago, you know, agentic AI was about to hit it you're suddenly gonna have to scale a business up you're not gonna need any staff you know your marketing cabinet pick your data make me creative send your stuff out but none of that's happened or at least none of it's happened in a reliable enough way you and I can go and take a subscription to a platform and trust it yeah we're miles away from that right but I think it's always what do they call it a k-shape isn't it where you kind of go like this you know I think on on one hand you know the potential for AI and I suppose an interesting kind of recent stories that the whole kind of anthropic battle with the US Department of Defense.

38:14I think there's a lot of people that have suddenly got their eyes open. It's like, well, if Anthropik are pulling out their contracts with the US military, that's not going to please their shareholders. But that tells me that I don't think the US Department of Defense are necessarily interested in saving money. What they're interested in is optimization. And I think what that's hinting at to me is the fundamental potentials of AI to make those kind of real world decisions better than humans. otherwise it wouldn't even be a topic of conversation. I've got a friend who's setting up an AI association, which is around how AI can do good in science and therefore how we can cure the world of all of its ills.

38:52And that, I think, is the two completely different things. But these, to me, are the positive impact that AI can have as soon as we work out a way of providing enough energy for it to scale up and what's that and the other. And I think that the other side of that kind of K-shape is the sheer disappointment these days when I kind of, you know, I'll go on to LinkedIn. you know, and it's the first 10 posts, it's like, this is just being written by AI, you know, and it's like the uncanny valley, isn't it, in like robotics, when things are human enough, but just not, you know, it really kind of, it really kind of turns you off, and I think, now I sort of grade people on, you know, well, your prompting's better than the last prompt I read, but there's a little part of my heart that sinks when I see someone who's kind of, you know, sort of lifted an entire piece of surface output from ChatGPT and just reproduced it on,

39:38James Ashwood:on LinkedIn. But then even really seasoned professionals, I use it as well, I use it to edit, I use it to sharpen things up. Yeah, of course. But even lots of writers that I follow that haven't got anything to do with entrepreneurship, I'm starting to see it creep in. And humans are really good at recognising patterns. A year ago, you might have noticed that words like foster suddenly became everywhere. We're fostering this environment, we're fostering this community. No one really wrote that. now everything's we're quietly doing things we can I need to see that kind of creeping in you know and I think you know so what where's it all leading to I think going back to the analogy at the beginning of the the instant age but there was a million different interfaces for websites when you navigated them but there was no standardization Google come in and all of a sudden if you want to be ranked right you need to standardize the way that you present your website and what it did over time was it pulled all everybody to kind of produce their websites in a certain way so yeah you're not going to get ranked and if you start coming up with fancy interfaces users just like not bothered not going to invest the time this is without question going to happen with with the written word you know we're going to get to the point now where all we're really doing is just aligning ourselves or our company with a with a with a prompt and an output from chat gbt right so what does that lead to so what it leads to is you know first of all you know quite rightly people can't be bothered to read what people can't be bothered to write but secondly and probably more more concerningly is is it's gonna be breakdown of trust rate of the written word at the very least you know the written word press releases articles I mean all this sort of stuff back in my early days of working in print that was what differentiated the you know the really professional from young you know from the less professional but now it's two a penny so what's going to replace that stuff like this you know you know video communication I suspect you know the announcements of the future sort of 15, 20 second videos.

41:27You start to see that a lot on LinkedIn now, with cameras pointing and stuff. That'll get professionalized and people will think it through a bit more, they'll grade it in colors and record the sound differently. And then most importantly for me is that desire to get back and actually kind of meet people in the flesh.

41:43James Ashwood:Yeah. It is a fun. Well, I mean, it's a good perspective, because there's always two sides to the coin, isn't it? We were talking earlier around when you have a difficult situation, there's two ways of looking at it, isn't there? you know glass is half full glass is half empty and I think you're absolutely right there's the two the two aspects your K as you as you well described there and and when it comes to starting a business versus scaling a business versus possibly maturity and maybe exit where do you think AI plays the biggest role in that sort of life cycle of a business and then I'm going to ask you a secondary question which is just in general what do you think is hard it's starting scaling or exiting having done a few of these over the years James but yeah where does where does AI play play the most positive role do you think so what say I say if you're in a if you're in a startup many people are it's really really good for doing the type of desk research that you might spend four or six weeks doing yeah you can set it on some deep thinking give it a few times yes I've done in a couple of hours you know when I when that was originally first possible the hard thing was accepting how quickly you get that and then you still got to process the information yourself right so getting kind of research but also you've got to you know you've got to treat the outputs of AI like the early days of Wikipedia like it don't believe everything that's down there you know ultimately it's a business it has to deliver an answer that answer is not always the correct answer but I think for kind of you know sort of entry-level research and stuff like this absolutely unbeatable you know you don't need to necessarily hire the consultants or the specialists you do because you can find this information yeah that's really good for that it's actually really quite good you know if you think of I suppose like the training models that they're taught on you know I've read every book that's been published it knows all sorts of structure you know you can get it to you want to go to market strategy you'll give me the the bits right when it was be perfect so I think the kind of you know making kind of outline frames to stuff is absolutely brilliant you know you can come up with a not particularly brilliant but not rubbish marketing campaign off the back of it probably enough to get you through the doors.

43:48So what it can do is it can save a shed load of time and to that level of expense. I think as you start going up the ladders a little bit, it's potential to work with different data sources. That's probably the next big thing that's likely to be adopted. Exiting, I don't know. I haven't thought it through.

44:13James Ashwood:Yeah, we'll talk about that later then. But yeah, so I think particularly powerful, it breaks down the barriers to entry for starting a business in lots of ways where cost may have been prohibited. It does. Maybe I'm just talking from my own experience. I think, you know, you've got to, in my experience, the best thing I've found with ChatDVD, I've got different chats for different things. Like it's supposed to remember stuff, but you don't really sort of get back to square one half the time. So I've got different, yeah, different sort chats where I'm quite in-depth and the outputs that I've get I've given lots of sort of parameters around like what the language to be this I want it to be framed like this that so what I'm getting out of it is kind of feels a little bit more like what I might produce myself yeah yeah but what it will do is it will sometimes throw up you know little ideas I didn't think of that I want to kind of investigate so yeah yeah so so just in general then so I think that's hugely helpful from your perspective start have you sold any of your businesses no I got absolutely spanked twice spanked twice on two that were were absolutely in the position probably the most disappointing one was the pandemic right yeah yeah of course okay so so that that's that that may be a that may be a part of your journey that's yet to come right in the future definitely I mean like you know years ago you hear that sort of American phrase of you know fail fail better fail better it's like obviously succeed first time around.

45:34I've done it all right out of what I've done. But have I had a£10-20 million exit? No. That will come in the next wave.

45:42James Ashwood:Well, I have no doubt that will come in the next wave. I'll be there for the party, James. I should think so. I'm clinking some nice glasses with some bubbles in it. But starting in scaling, you have done, right? You have done both of those. Yeah, I've started lots of businesses and some of those have grown pretty well. And And I just seem to have this knack of finding a piece of global catastrophe just at the point when something's going well. There's some lessons to be learned in here as well. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Have a plan B if black swan events do happen. But I got really quite close to something interesting happening before the 2008 global financial crisis.

46:21Where no one who was investing in a project we could actually get money out of hedge funds to put any money in. So I sort of whittled down to a slow death. But the most disappointing with our question was, you know, the thousands of days and everything that all the investment I put into the business I had before the pandemic. You know, and then, you know, government policy was to make events effectively illegal for two years.

46:41James Ashwood:Yeah. And, you know, that was a hard learning curve. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to adjust your scarf again. Sorry, I'm not. See, it's all, there you go, look, going cock-eye. But I think, you know, I suppose where I do have probably a little bit more experience than the average person is, I have started a lot of businesses, right? So I've gone from, so from that idea to, you know, idea in your head, you know, first sketch on paper to actually seeing paid customers, you know. And I think if I was focusing on the bit that I really enjoy, it's that part. It's that building, you know, that initial from idea to it actually being a going concern.

47:19I love that part.

47:21James Ashwood:Yeah, yeah. So that's what really kind of gets you ready. because it's really bloody hard that's a really hard part you know when you when you launch a business you've got you've got nothing but for your credentials and your ideas yeah you know you've got to be able to you know sell your vision people have to buy it well I think I think it's like that world's strongest manager my age now I don't give us all the world's strongest man it was a program on TV and you used to have to pull these big strong guys used to have to try and pull this bloody truck they would see it and and like it's not moving and then it moves like a tiny little inch and then before you know it they're kind of pulling this big truck for you know behind them and i think that's what it's like starting a business it's like god so much effort you're not getting anywhere and then once you start to get that momentum it you you're absolutely right you know you spend so much bobbing along bobbing along bobbing along and then it takes off yeah but at the point it's taken off you put so much bloody work in you're already in your head you're always miles down the line yes and then it's starting to get some some some kind of traction and that early you know and then you know sort of keeping that flame burning right so that it becomes you know a business where you can you know replace yourself build a team in you know grow it out it's exactly what I've really created the festival entrepreneurs for right to kind of come up with you know to sort of discuss strategies and tactics for doing exactly that yeah there's no one way to grow a business there's lots of things that you know people will universally say don't do this do this yeah yeah but you know that's what makes it such a fascinating landscape yeah absolutely And I always think there's three things around business.

48:50James Ashwood:Leading yourself, leading your teams, and leading the business. The strategy, the plan, the offering, et cetera. And it's always the intersection of those three that really makes the difference. And that's why when we created Rise Academy, it was very much focused on those three elements. And we bring it into every program that we do with teams and businesses, et cetera. but in particular for entrepreneurs, because it can be a really lonely place. You know, you do have to build a team and let go, because otherwise you become the blocker for the growth. And you do actually have to have a bit of a plan as well, you know.

49:29James Ashwood:So when we created Rise Academy, because we launched, right, we went live with Rise Academy on the day we were at the Festival of Entrepreneurs. Oh, there we are. All good things happening at that event, right? Well, wasn't it bonkers? And then we had so many people come in and said, oh, this is really interesting. and you know celine fox you know again lots of interest there um but leadership and i want to loop back around there is a reason why i've mentioned this you meant you said that when pandemic happened and you had your events business and then it just kind of it was a you know it was it was you took a kick in a huge kick i think apocalyptic would be a fair apocalyptic so can you just i don't want to kind of put you into into counseling or anything or therapy um but can you just share a little bit around kind of how that felt what was going on how you managed to come back from it mentally yes concatenation of circumstances which is the right possibly the worst moment yeah and then we've been six months before six months after for me it would have been a completely different thing but you know I kind of built an event business up you know like doesn't people working like which is really cool established event for three years at the NEC just about to do deals with a couple of venues in London to kind of kind of build it out you know it was really good I've taken plenty of external investment invested myself you know done what entrepreneurs do and sell your property to fund it all that kind of crazy risk-taking stuff yeah but you know I did so to back my own ability and I knew I was on the right track you know and the reason the festival entrepreneurs worked first time around I've already spent a thousand days thinking about it I've learned quite quite a few you know quite a few lessons from from earlier incarnations I think you know it was it was I remember it so vividly come off-site in in November and it's like everyone loved it it was brilliant slightly bigger than what you saw before you know amazing sponsors like you know triple-a global brands behind it it was really cool and then you sort of like you know it sort of got to around Christmas time and then so you start getting murmurs of you know there might be something happening and you know I started realizing that quite a few my big sponsors with offices out in the Far East they're selling they're not they're not committing to anything and I'm like yeah but at the same time you just can't believe it's gonna happen yeah and you know so it's sort of built up gradually And then really suddenly, you know, and then all of a sudden, suddenly we're in lockdown and, you know, we're, no one knows what's going on.

51:40But, you know, I think, you know, what we were doing, which I'm sure lots of other businesses, we were like, yeah, this will be lifted in eight weeks. You know, so you're kind of keeping a full roster of staff on, you know, furlough's not touching the sides. You're bleeding cash, right? You're burning. But you've got this kind of weird position where, right, I can't scale back because I'm dead in the water. If restrictions get lifted and we're out there, you know, we've got no firepower, we're dead in the water. And you're sort of going and then you're kind of like stop, start, stop, start and then eventually you realise that this thing is just not starting again.

52:09But in the meantime, everything is just kind of gone right down. And I mean I'm not the only one that went through it but I think I definitely had a disproportionate amount of downside off the back of that. And there's no magic hand of the government that comes in and helps you, it's just like good luck. So at that point, to be honest, I was in a pretty dark place.

52:30James Ashwood:Yeah, yeah. One of the best bits of advice you can possibly give entrepreneurs that are going through that is, you know, stay away from the drinks cabinet, right? Unfortunately, that didn't apply for me. I'm still five kilos heavier than I used to be. Because, you know, what else do you do? You just can't believe this is happening. No, yeah. But I did pick myself up. You know, I was on the brink of going under and I had support from some close friends and I had an idea. and an idea for a climate change event, which Celine Fox ended up being the chairman of that as well. So I did pick myself up and I did go back out to battle again and mixed results with that one.

53:07But the contacts that I made and the experience I had through launching that has given me the confidence now to know that if I'm going to launch new events, I actually do understand the process pretty granularly now and I can apply that to almost any area. So I suppose, what's it cost me? It's cost me six years. It's cost me six years. I had to move out of my lovely place I was living in London and start again. And you think, I look back now and we're all second guessing. Did we probably go a little bit too hard on the restriction? Well, obviously we bloody did. In my opinion, because I just, you know, it's absolutely devastating, so I'm really biased.

53:45But I think that was, but that's a lesson there. And that lesson is to hold something in reserve, right? Don't put all your chips on red, even statistically it's likely to come up. Because something will happen. I mean, we're now, you know, as soon as the pandemic kind of lifted, we go straight into the Ukraine crisis. Now, you know, hopefully that's on its way out. We're going to another Middle Eastern crisis. There's always something. There's always something that's going to disrupt. So have a plan B.

54:11James Ashwood:Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, and it sounds like the climate change business in between was almost like the bridge from where you were to kind of with Festival of Entrepreneurs as well, you know. You sort of, you know, you end up, you put all this kind of sacrifice in, you know, because you're not getting paid for bloody ages. No, of course, yeah. You put these things together. It's hard. You come up with these ideas. You have this, like, one lovely little moment when you're just sort of wrapping up the second day of these events. You're like, okay, that was a pretty cool experience, right? Yeah.

54:38And there were thousands of people there. And it was really, really quite good. I had that same experience the day after Festival of Entrepreneurs, which kind of makes all of the very late nights and the weekends that you give up to make it happen kind of worth it. So there's always some bright spots. But, you know, going back to what you were saying earlier, glass half full, glass half empty. You know, I was reading some articles from Charlie Munger, who was a Berkshire Hathaway guy, so partly really old. He was saying the worst thing in the world is self-pity. If you hear someone that comes up with a heartbreaking story, he will say to them, that is one of the most tragic stories I've ever heard.

55:16I'm really sorry to hear your news. Once you get that in your head, you realise that people will sympathise with you, really care. You're not going to build anything off the back of wallowing in it. So you've somehow got to pick yourself up. And as you're going through the loop again, you're kind of trying to dust off the disappointment. This is just life, isn't it?

55:36James Ashwood:Yeah, 100%. You know, and I think you've got to, you know, it's hard to be, you know, thick skinned all the time, but you do need it. Yeah. You know, because otherwise, you know, if you overthink these things that, you know, set you back years, well, then you never get back on the horse again, would you? No, no, no, exactly. And all credit to you. I mean, you know, now with Festive Entrepreneurs, there's so much positivity around it. You know, second year coming up, it's going to be bigger and better than ever. And this is just the start, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. We've got aspirations to build it into a real pillar of the UK event scene.

56:08But also, it's just really nice. The visitors are entrepreneurs, a lot of the exhibitors are entrepreneurs, speakers are entrepreneurs. Every conversation I'm having, I'm having hundreds a month, they're the most interesting conversations. So to that end, I'm also learning. I'll go through these pre-calls with speakers and that. And I'm really interested in what they're going to be talking about, because I'm learning myself. And I think, you know, keep learning, keep being curious, all that kind of stuff, you know, getting to do it. And it's, you know, it's a nice space to be in.

56:42James Ashwood:Yeah, no, and I am really excited and, you know, huge congratulations. And, you know, for coming back and recovering post-pandemic and coming into this space that you're in now, it takes balls to do that. But like you say, it's a choice, isn't it? And yet everyone that I speak to that's ever made anything have all gone through this kind of thing in one way shape or form. Fairly a way to greatness, as they say. You've got to be resilient. You can read a book on resilience. Being resilient means you don't need to read the book, right? You just get on with it, you accept it. You've got to learn it.

57:12Like lots of entrepreneurs, I get hammered absolutely by something, catastrophic, and 48 hours later you're back on the horse again.

57:20James Ashwood:Yeah, I think that's the key, isn't it? You know, find, shed your tears, feel sorry for yourself for a little bit, but then get back as soon as you can. Don't stay there too long. Because going back to Charlie Munger's advice, you know, self-pity, no one cares. Yeah. You know, no one cares. People will be sympathetic because they're humans, but they can't do anything about it. No, no, no. And no one, unfortunately, is inspired by people who've got negativity coming out left, right and centre. No, exactly. So you've got to kind of sweep all that under the carpet and get back on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is exactly what you've done, and that's fantastic.

57:48James Ashwood:So, last few questions for you, James, if you don't mind. Of course. You've already given some, shared some advice that you've received but is there any final piece of advice that you've received that has really helped you over the years final piece of advice which is something i've really tried to take on board in the last couple of years right when your back's up against the wall and you need to focus right you've got to massively reduce your inputs right that means no social media no pouring over the news no conversations with with people who aren't adding to your business and you've got to focus right and i've started to kind of be able to do that now i'm in a horrible one for you know spending six hours reading about geopolitical news that has to go you've got to reduce your inputs and you've got to focus right and compartmentalize your day right you're going to worry about x and x between these hours and these hours you can do family time between here and there you go to the gym between here and here eat well get some sleep break your day into small pieces right and if you want to focus just reduce the amount of unnecessary information that clogs up your head that's the best piece of advice yeah because if you follow that you'll actually get stuff done and then you'll suddenly find as you're getting stuff done your problems are now starting to reduce.

58:55James Ashwood:Yeah and you get momentum, you get the positive vibe, you get the adrenaline rush, all of that good stuff. You get all that but it's really hard to do that in today's age and everything is like bite-sized bits of information, it's kind of flooding the system. If you wake up at 4 in the morning like I do sometimes, I've had 3 hours of checking every possible news site, by the time I'm ready to sit down at 7 o 'clock I've already used up half my days worth of thinking space. get rid of all of that that's the best bit of discipline I've learnt recently I think that's really good because there's a lot of noise and it's a bit like you mentioned diet, rubbish in, rubbish out it's the same with what goes into your brain you have to be selected, you need to know what's going on in the world but if you start catastrophising about all of the terrible things that are going on then it's just going to completely mess with your head the brain's going to do so much processing it wants, so don't process stuff that isn't going to move the needle and get you to where you want to be because if you can actually knuckle down, focus, get the work out the door, then the results start to happen and all the things you were worrying about seem to disappear amazingly.

59:55James Ashwood:Yeah, exactly. And it's funny actually because I often say to my husband Chris at the end of the day, he'll say, well, you know, it might be a simple question, oh, what would you like for dinner? And I'll go, I can't make any more decisions today. I have a quota. I'm done. My brain is about to fry. Please, whatever just food is good you know to me then I think it's the same kind of there's only so much space and if you're filling it with rubbish then you can't you haven't got space for the good stuff you're absolutely right there's a couple of things that are worth investing in and what you eat and how much sleep you get yeah really important yeah I'll be the most important things so make sure you eat well I mean I've got down to the art of batch cooking on Sunday now you know spend my five hours trying to get as close to a Michelin recipe as I can and then I have to think about that in the evening but I know I'm getting the right level of nutrition and I'm trying to get my try and get the sleep in because I think lots of entrepreneurs and you know we've done it you know you wake up at 3 in the morning cortisol kicks in you start running the algorithms you know that is not good no you know you will not help yourself long-term if you can't sleep yeah yeah yeah no it's I mean it's simple stuff but it but it's so often the stuff that doesn't people that you know don't pay attention to they don't respect their bodies they don't you know you go to the gym you don't have to go to the gym but it helps do something you know be be be active that really does help eat well be active you know give a lot of love to your family and stuff you know take everything so bloody seriously focus when you have to yeah you know just keep moving the needle yeah no that's great and if you were to describe this year in one word james what would that word be and why yeah so i'm optimistic this year um i'm optimistic this year because you know why the hell not you know and i mean again going back to you look at what's happening there's always something in the world happening which shouldn't be happening all right it's really easy to get caught up in it.

1:01:37I'm really optimistic. I think despite the economic conditions, the lack of support for entrepreneurs through policy, I'm really optimistic. I think we've had a lot of downside. If you look at the last 10 years, quite a lot of that's been downside. That pendulum's got to swing back. Why not 2026?

1:01:56James Ashwood:Why not? This is our year. It's all happening. So James, music. Music is a big emotional kind of you know thing for all of us it brings memories back everyone's trying to say something cool now it's like right say something that's like not too obvious but quite cool that kind of reflects don't overthink it favorite song an artist favorite song I don't know I mean I'm terrible I don't have a favorite song an artist just pick a good one do you know what I've been listening to you recently and I've been sort of like dancing with the children in the kitchen like like vanilla ice ice ice and it sort of like reminds me of like when I was a kid and it's like god everything was so bloody simple then but i don't know since i've had children i used to you know i used to dj a little bit i used to have an encyclopedic knowledge of dance music as soon as i had children it's just like that went i stopped listening to music you know stopped watching movies stopped doing all that stuff so if i hear a song that i like i end up listening to about 50 times on repeat you know um but anyway that was my you know not quite so cool i can't think of anything better to say vanilla ice ice ice baby definitely yes shaved eyebrow the kind of See, we've not had that one, James.

1:02:59You know, the big trousers that come out, the dancing.

1:03:02James Ashwood:I knew you'd deliver the goods. Classic. Excellent. So, James, when you hear brave, bold, brilliant, what does that mean to you? Well, do you know what, actually? Interestingly, it just reminds me of you. It's your brand, and you absolutely embody all of these things. And I thought that the first time you gave me the business card with it, I would never look at those three words without thinking about you. So, you know, more credit to you for, you know, taking ownership of that. I think it's an amazing thing that you're doing. Oh, thank you, James. What a lovely way to end. Thank you so much. I really hope you've enjoyed this episode of Brave Bold Brilliant.

1:03:39James Ashwood:Remember, check out our new website, www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. You're going to find loads of resources on there that's going to help you with your leadership journey and with the businesses that you're trying to scale up and grow. so take care everyone and remember there are no limits to your growth but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliance