Jenni Falconer | From Blind Date to Broadcasting, Business & Building a Life You Love

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0:42Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. who sat me down and he basically annihilated me to my face. I just sat there smiling and he said, the only good thing about you is that you smile even when I'm attacking you. And I was, honestly, I was heartbroken. Tell me, who is Jenny Faulkner? I am a radio presenter now. I'm a television presenter.

1:19I'm crazy about running and golf and fitness. I mean, honestly, I have loved absolutely everything I've done and every show has been very different. There's been entertainment. there's been documentaries, consumer shows, travel shows, everything, a real mix. So there's the action you take to go towards your destiny, but someone then has got to be, there's a bit of luck, the rest is history. But back then I think there was a lot of luck, a lot of being in the right place at the right time, a lot of having the confidence to get in touch with people. I would never sit and wait for the phone to ring.

1:50I was writing letters to bosses and then following up with a phone call and going in and having meetings. I was being really proactive. It's like, you know, they say you have to learn from failure. Well, a knockback is that feels like total failure and rejection, but actually use it to your advantage. And I mean, I had knockbacks from jobs for years and you just go, OK, maybe there's something else or maybe I have to be better or maybe that job just wasn't for me.

2:28Sorry to interrupt. I've never asked this before, but if you can subscribe and follow, that will allow me to keep bringing extraordinary guests onto the show. Now let's get back to it.

2:41Jenny, welcome. Thank you for having me. Pleasure. Looking forward to this. Tell me, who is Jenny Faulkner? You see, this is the kind of question you don't get asked, so you never really think about it. No. Hardest question. Hardest question. Well, Well, do you know, I am, if someone didn't know who I was or what I did, and there's millions of people that don't know, I am a radio presenter now. I'm a television presenter. I'm crazy about running and golf and fitness. I'm a mum. I've got a gorgeous dog, a lovely husband. And also my husband and I together, we launched a health supplement brand.

3:17So we've got a lot going on. and for 30 years, 30 plus years actually, I have worked in television and now radio. So yeah, that's kind of in a nutshell who I am. That's great. There's lots to unravel there. A lot of people will know you from TV days and we were talking briefly off camera. I love the idea, the fact that you're raging about when you talk about what you do now and your passions are all intertwined, even to the point where the business you've launched, which we'll come to. But the whole element of all the experience you got, all the exposure you got doing TV where you were perhaps reading on auto cue and enjoying it but not necessarily at all times talking about what you're interested in now you're able to do that through the podcast through all the different things you do have you kind of acknowledged that transition I know it's funny isn't it I just I have always loved every single show I've worked on you know when I started age 19 I was doing an outdoor adrenaline sports and travel show in Scotland loved it then I was doing travel shows for BBC and ITV loved it then I was doing live television gm tv and this morning loved it i mean honestly i have loved absolutely everything i've done and every show has been very different there's been entertainment there's been um documentaries uh consumer shows travel shows everything a real mix and i'm i feel really lucky to have had so much variety um and i've never done radio until maybe 15 years ago and so So that feels like something exciting and fresh and new.

4:44And so when I decided to launch a podcast, which means that I am now in charge of who I speak to much like you, you know who you want to speak to, you know what you want to talk about. It's quite exciting because it's all on you as opposed to, yeah, you're writing television when you're kind of given a script or you're working on a script with the team. And yeah, maybe there is an element of excitement in having more control over what I do now. Yeah, I think that's because the skills have been honed and the experience you gained from all of that. But of course, this wasn't an option. The podcast is still a relatively new thing.

5:22When you were mainstream media, if you wanted to be a presenter, a broadcaster, there were four channels at one point. I mean, I'm old enough to remember that. And now you've got social media, you've got podcasting. There's so many ways of getting your message across. Oh, the whole industry has changed. Yeah, it used to be you'd be really lucky to get a break and make it into television. And genuinely I was going to university I was going to study Spanish Italian Latin. I was studying Spanish Italian and Latin and I got a lucky break And to be on blind date just before I started uni So I just left school just on my a-levels and they called me and they went you've passed the test or Succeeded in the auditions.

6:04That was a huge show for context, right? That was massive. And it was just a bit of fun I just kind of went on it for fun so I did that and that's where I got a taster for television but they just they poo-pooed it they kind of went me everyone says this after being on the show and I went no I really want to work in media and they went well go do hospital radio or something like that and I thought well I'll see what see what I can do and I started doing work experience at Leeds when I was at Leeds University I started doing work experience at the local Leeds radio stations and then when Blind Day aired I did an interview on the local Leeds radio station because they liked the story that I'd been on Blind Day so instead of having me make teas that Sunday morning when all my student friends were hung over and I was there instead of having me make tea they might come on the show and talk about Blind Day and I said I would like to be in television and as it happened a producer from BBC Scotland was in Leeds and was listening and gave a call to the studio said uh can you hook me up with any because i'd be interested in flying up to glasgow for an audition and that is how it started i love that it's great you shared that because there's there's the initiative you took to go and do the the lees radio so there's the action you take to go towards your destiny but someone then it's got to be there's a bit of luck someone listening then someone that comes in spots you and the rest is history i think it happens a lot i think people can get lucky breaks maybe maybe it's harder now because there are there's so much competition in media now and so many people have this like little taster of fame from social media and they want it more and more and also you can create your own channel and you can be your own boss by you know creating social media content so it's very different game now but back then I think there was a lot of luck a lot of being in the right place at the right time a lot of having the confidence to get in touch with people I would never sit and wait for the phone ring I was writing letters to bosses and then following up with a phone call and going in and having meetings.

8:04I was being really proactive at 18, 19 years old. And I kind of helped create those opportunities by being so proactive. The hard part is staying in the business. So getting in, maybe not so hard. And maybe still to this day, it's quite easy to get in and be noticed. the hard part is to stay in and stay noticed and stay relevant what would you say advice we're both we're both parents here we've got 14 year old daughters right so that that work ethic that experience you that you you sort of passed on there where you put yourself or you wrote those letters you know there's so much rejection in the industry that you're in and now with ai taking it's mainstream news taking jobs where grads that were promised the kind of a good job get yourself a degree and they're not getting that yeah this is a really important message really important time i think it's just it's so important that a knockback it should be it's like you know they say you have to learn from failure well a knockback is that feels like total failure and rejection but actually use it to your advantage and understand what you didn't have to get that job i mean i had knockbacks from jobs for years and you just go okay maybe there's something else or maybe i have to be better or maybe that job just wasn't for me because there are other people who are doing brilliantly too and there's there is space for everyone you've just got to find what's out there for you and i think just don't give in have an area of expertise and be willing to learn new skills all the time always say yes to an amazing new opportunity because who knows what it will lead to and be nice to everyone on the way up because you might need them on the way down and uh just just honestly just stay positive and be willing to be flexible with your career choices as well that's so much good advice there Jenny honestly that's incredible and the rejection side of things you know people will know your career through different senior in different places doing different things and therefore by default will see you've had a successful career doing lots of different things lots of variety is there one rejection that stands out where you really wanted it and you didn't get it and then kind of what happened afterwards because often when the door shuts yeah another one opens and well very early on in my career actually it happened quite a bit so i was 19 years old i've been doing loads of shows in scotland and i was i was doing really well and they they wanted me to go in and have meetings at bbc for the broom cupboard which was quite an iconic kind of children's um daily show philip schofield andy crane i don't know lots of people that kind of were in television started there Zoe Ball and and then there was also the Saturday morning television shows so they wanted me to come to London and audition for these shows I'd never done live television I'd only done recorded TV but ultimately I was 19 I was a presenter and I kind of ticked some of the boxes so I went down and did this audition and I was dreadful I was terrified I remember I had my I had broken my arm arm horse riding for a TV show my whole arm was on the cast I was nervous as hell had never done anything live didn't know how an earpiece worked let alone how to deal with it with people talking to me I'd never had any training in that respect and also all the television I'd done to this day age 19 had been for adults I had no idea how to talk to children I literally probably still don't I'm only my own child but um I was terrible I didn't know how to do it and so I made such a mess of it I've failed miserably and they called me back to London to go through the audition and basically there was someone very very senior and who sat me down and he basically annihilated me to my face and I I just sat there smiling going but inside I think I was so so so so upset I was 19 I was still a baby I had never done this before I was completely out of my comfort zone and he just laid into me and told me I was dreadful and I was awful and blob and he said the only good thing about you is that you smile even when I'm attacking you and I was honestly I was heartbroken and all that it made me realize is I didn't want to do children's television I was like I'm going to do anything else but I'm never going to try and do children's television again and and I always I just always remember that it broke me but it didn't destroy me and all that happened is I remember who that person is.

12:31Never come across them since actually but there is an argument that being quite rude and quite you know annihilating someone to their face could be a good move. Brutal feedback. Brutal feedback could be a good move but also it could be really cruel. I don't think you'll get away with that today. No there's still a piece some HR person will be on it. I mean there's a fine line as well. There's brutal feedback that breaks you and then that person never comes back out from under the rock they crawl which you know probably has happened to some people and clearly there was a part of you that compartmentalized not doing kids tv but i'm good at the other things i'm going to focus on that and was prepared to come back stronger and keep going in the industry i'm in and in many jobs nowadays there is an element of learning as you go and learning on the job and the unfortunate thing in television is you're making your mistakes in front of a lot of people and then on the radio if I ever make a mistake everyone can hear and probably it is my fault on radio because I'm the one pushing the buttons so unfortunately you do make your mistakes quite publicly but the the ultimate lesson is you will never do that again.

13:41Is there a mistake that stands out? Oh my god I've got so many I can't even begin to list them. Well I'll tell you what I love about that though is I think we live in a culture now which I actually like which is that we embrace mistakes this perfectionism in tv in the days when you were coming through as 19 20 years old and onwards it was probably all about perfectionism and you know needing to be the absolute best whereas now the stuff that goes viral if you like is when someone does mess up but it's funny is there such a thing is the way you deal with it and the way it's it's real that's the thing people want real now they want authentic content they want they want to know that it's you and it's like when you go on instagram and someone puts an ad up everyone goes and scrolls on don't they if you if it's fake, you don't fall for it anymore.

14:23We've got a massive filter for it now as well, don't you think? I think with AI and perhaps the fact that there are so many more people in the public eye doing content, this is quite new to me, but I'm watching, I'm consuming and I'm thinking, he doesn't mean that. There's something in my brain telling me that that's not right or it's not real or there's AI involved in that. Although how many AI videos have you watched not realising it's AI and going oh my god look at that person cuddling that polar bear wow my daughter's like oh my god you've fallen for another one that's so funny it's my it's my kids my wife bless her is sort of spinning the phone going look at this and then my kids are going that's not real mum and she's like oh oh no i actually did we did an ai my husband has become an ai expert and i'm actually and um which i think if you know there's ai out there what's the best way to deal with ai learn it be a master of it right advice and a lot of people are scared of it but then you're not going to know right be be able to exploit it yourself and use it to your advantage anyway he helped me create this video and it's just me in a massive inflatable wine suit obviously such a thing does not exist i had that that video went nuts i had thousands of people asking me where they could get the wine jacket from and i was like oh it's a business there jenny yeah i know but people people still can always tell what's real and what's not slightly scary but it creates opportunity talking about opportunities so i love the fact that you've always been into your fitness always been into your sport yeah so clearly then you've always you've got your media presence and then you've married the two for the run pod i want to know that sort of the journey of putting that together where you're like this is what i'm interested this is what i want to talk about this is what i talk about when i'm not on perhaps tv and so on and then just how well that's gone and how you've been able to to have so many different people that clearly have that as a passion that you must so enjoy having that whole camaraderie conversation well it's it's really funny do you remember when podcasts started and there weren't that many and the one that always stood out to me that was doing really really well was um my dad wrote a porno right okay so this is uh there are three of them they all got together and they discussed the fact that one of them's dad wrote a porno and they'd found it and that was an entire series at smash day it was doing brilliantly so i always i've always run home from work it's a thing i've done because i like running my commute is that is that a release for you so you think about works high pressure you know especially if you've been doing uh film cool around you and so on is that your moment where you just leave everything in order well i want to go for a run i want to do exercise it's a perfect time to fit it in it means that i'm two birds one stone getting it done and it's just it's the perfect window of opportunity before having to go to the next job or you know whatever else it means i get that exercise done and yes there is an element of um i feel a bit of release it's my relaxation place so running for me is just something that I love doing I can think I can make choices in life um it's almost like I can see clearly and I'm quite creative when I'm running I mean I bet loads of people are by the time I get home I've usually forgotten what I've been creative I was going to say do you ever stop and make a little no because I'm guilty of being creative and I'm doing certain things exercise wise and then I don't wipe them down and then so many other thoughts are coming I forget yeah it's almost like dreaming when you're when you're doing exercise and you're having all these amazing wonderful thoughts that you're like yes that's going to be brilliant and if you don't write it down you'll never remember the worst i don't want to break your face the worst one is swimming i like to swim for like a half an hour you can't stop it right that 15 minutes in i'm like i've just worked out the whole clarity around something and it's gone by the time i get out of the pool i wonder if you can the way of doing voice notes while you're swimming um when i was running home one day and i was listening to my dad wrote a poor note and I was like this is good but it's not helping me run it's just something I'm listening to music is a bit boring now and I want to listen to something that reminds me about the feel good of running because sometimes I run and I want to stop and sometimes I just want someone to go no don't stop you do really well keep going even run slower I just want a conversation in my head about the feel good of running and I'm running on my own I'm not having it with someone else so how can I create that and i thought well there's no podcast that celebrates the joy of running i don't want to know stats i don't want to know about cadence i don't want to know oh use these trainers because of this lift i don't want any of the those details i just want someone to tell me how joyful running is and i shouldn't stop so i came up with a podcast called run pot and i got a couple of friends i got my friend ben shepherd or my friend peter andre to come in and do a pilot so they did two episodes great pilot yeah episode one I got Ben episode two I got Pete but the other way around and at global who I was working for global doing heart radio and I said I've got this idea for a podcast they just started podcast there's like one other one and they went okay let's demo it and they said but running is a little bit niche I am not sure many people listen let's demo it and see what happens so I created my ultimate dream running conversation and to me it was exactly what I wanted to listen to while I was running and hear that that's now crispy and mccrispy strips meeting creamy caesar sauce sounds extra crispy caesar sauce at mcdonald's for a limited time They were like, I took the full work.

19:52But anyway, we launched it and I have not launched it early 2019. I've not missed one week since. So I've been one, two or three episodes or sometimes more ever since beginning of 2019. And I'm really proud because, first of all, I never thought I'd be able to get that many guests to talk about the feel good of running. but there are so many people that enjoy listening to it whilst they run or people that listen to it using it as a tool to motivate them to get them up off the sofa and that's all it is all I want is to encourage people to move and you never know you might you might like it that's kind of one of the things you'll never regret going for a run you will regret not going and if this is a tool to get you out the door and being active then that's a win for me and I know that not everyone's into running i completely embrace that there's something for everyone but if you are on the fence and thinking about even just going for a jog or a fast walk then runpod is there to just be your companion and you can listen we do the talking that's brilliant i mean firstly congratulations on the sort of longevity piece there's probably a part of you that would do it until the day you die i love it i love it yeah because and i can relate to that with this right you know people say oh what's the what's the goal or what's the a bit like you it's a business podcast well i'm not talking about stats and data i don't want to talk about the government and effects on it's like it's the human element and you'll never run out of conversations because everyone's got different perspective and the curiosity that you have to learn and that's what i'm bringing to this i'm learning from you right now it's i don't want to say addictive because but it's uh what it is isn't it it's like i'll keep coming back for that and it's clear that you you got that as well but also and i know this will happen with you as well that um by doing a podcast it's just a great way to meet new people and um i have spent years just i mean i have it's like your network grows through years of working in television traveling i there's so many people that cross paths through the years and and we still kind of come in touch like i've been kind of walking down the street and i'll meet someone that i didn't feel 20 years ago or that i worked with and it's quite a small world really and i love the fact that i'm meeting more people and we all have this kind of like well common ground a love of running with run pod or you know work in media it's just a nice way to meet new people i totally agree with that i've got to just bring something in the running part for me yes i do but i've got i'm in a really bad vein at the moment so i'm doing something every day so i can tick the box of exercise in the endorphins and and the release that i i want i typically try and do it in the morning um and i feel like it sets my day up better but i want to ask you this like that passion you got for running is there a day where you wake up and you just don't feel like it and do you allow yourself to not go for one or do you push through it because you know you're never going to regret going for a run and so do you know what I mean where where you're at with that day where for whatever reason it's like I love it I don't feel like it oh my god every day I'm like oh I can't be bothered and the only time I leap out of bed so I go to work in the morning so I never run before work and unless I'm on holiday and I am that person that loves being on holiday because i can get up at 7 a.m or 6 30 as the sun is rising and go for a run and i just love it my husband thinks i'm a nutter my daughter literally cannot be bothered with it and i've got friends they're just like why are you get the whole you're on holiday can't you have a break but actually that's what you want to do for me being on holiday get up go for a run come back from the run go to the gym then go and eat the most enormous breakfast then lie by the pool then yes have a cocktail in the afternoon and have an amazing evening the only time it's hard is if you have a really late evening and then it's quite hard to get up but getting up on holiday and going and doing exercise and going for that is part of the holiday and in fact it's i know everyone's worked out now in my family but for years they didn't realize that everywhere we were going because obviously i chose and booked it was conveniently next to a running path along the seafront or was really near a golf course so you basically mapped out where you were going to the other yeah fair play and what about um you mentioned um 14 year daughter and for me i brought my two daughters up to be in the park hanging off the monkey bars swings running playing tag and it was great for me you know as the dad i was i was actually it was ticking my box of fitness and so on sweating away while these two kids are chasing after me and i've gone through a bit of a heartbreaking journey of the last couple of years where i'm not suggesting so much because they're at that age where it's slightly kind of like we're not and we're not playing paddle and stuff together which could keep the sport going so that whole social media use of the phone messaging snapchat and someone's taken over and i've watched that sport element and that kind of competitiveness go and i imagine you've got a good hold of that but i think this is something i'm i'm experiencing a lot of people are like kids are just not doing enough exercise and not getting the benefits from it yeah well so my daughter's an only child as well so when she's at home if like me and my husband been chatting or then she's not oh god I'm so bored so she will sometimes turn to her phone to speak on FaceTime to her friends or to kind of like be in touch with her friends and so I kind of get that um she has always done loads of sport I mean oh my god growing up she was doing gymnastic five times a week she was doing tennis she was doing netball she's doing lacrosse she does loads and loads of different sports and they have as she's got older she has had to kind of reign them in to really focus on certain ones she does more winter sports and summer sports she's recently been doing rowing it's not for her but i love the fact i think it's really important and i know my parents did the same with me encourage your child to try everything but don't get annoyed if they don't like it because it's not for everyone but if they if they can try it's great to be a jack of all trades you don't have to be a master of them all but it's great to have a little bit of knowledge of every sport so that you can always pick up a badminton racket or you can you know row a boat whatever it's just so you understand about it and if they love it and they want to keep going amazing and if they don't fair enough so be it so my daughter has tried loads of different sports she knows which ones she likes and that is great but they're really winter sports however what I have noticed is yes she might be on her phone like every other child out there but when she's with her friends she is not on her phone at all and it's been really lovely seeing her hang out with her best friends at weekends when they've done their homework they've she volunteers at park run on a saturday morning so she'll do that then she'll hang out with her friends and they all they they might have their phones incoming calls from other people they're not on their phones they are literally chatting laughing they're off doing their own thing and i love that i long may not continue i know because i mean we've just lived through the the last few weeks where the government's going to ban social media for under 16s from both our daughters by the time it comes in so it's like i don't know where you i don't know i we tried it so we we were like look we don't want you to be on your phone the whole time she's like well everyone else is on it it's like social suicide for me if you ban me from it and all my friends are on it i just got left out and we're like okay there's a fair point to that but we did rein it in a little bit and we were kind of going you're not allowed to be on it we kind of like really limited her social media but she's never she's not been obsessed to the point that she's living and breathing it which is a good thing and I think maybe because we have allowed her to do it but we're not sitting on our phones the whole time you know maybe she sees that and I don't know we're just maybe we're just lucky but the fact is yes she's on it but not to a point where we think it's so bad that we are yelling at her and confiscating it but if we do ever confiscate it she goes okay fine fair play yeah it's a it's a it's the biggest conversation we have amongst all our sort of friendship group is that whole managing the phone with the kids because it's it's you can't you know the kids copy what you're doing yeah not necessarily what you're saying and so many of them aren't guilty that i can be just constantly sort of doing something messaging people and so on and then you look up and you see your daughter's sat away from you who maybe come in to be with you and then they're on their phone and you're like oh no i feel like a bad role model now the other thing i worry about is the i mean and the opportunity to learn when i was at school when we got to like gcses and a levels and you go to the library you'd really you'd focus on the work because there was no distraction of a phone okay and something as simple as a phone binging a snapchat message whatever coming through continuously you are looking up you are being distracted and that is a bit worrying as well my daughter's not started gcses yet but when she gets there that's a little bit worrying because our neighbor's son he turned around after sitting his a-levels and he said I really wish you'd taken the phone off me because it has been all through my a-level revision and he goes and I can't not reply it's just there I'm aware of it and so that's the only thing and we we were discussing it we discussed it with my daughter and we were like what about if when it gets to that revision period if we get you what they call a dumb phone which has not got the apps but it is a phone so you can make the calls you can text people probably can do something you have a phone with whatsapp maybe sure but you don't have everything else so it's not binging and you can use it you get your phone when you know you have a day off revision or if you have time off but it's just just to allow you to focus because this window of opportunity and this is what's really hard to explain to kids you have this really short period of life two years on GCSEs, if you do A-levels, two years on that, that's all it is.

29:38That's the only time you have to really focus and knuckle down. And if you don't, that opportunity has gone. You have one opportunity to do your best at those exams. And that can really determine everything in the future moving forward. And that's really hard, really hard to get them to listen when they're in the middle of a great Snapchat chat. I know. And then this fight for attention, which with some of the most addictive algorithms and uh you know snapchat the whole streak and so on it's really hard for we grew up knowing life without a phone so you can i can sort of dip in dip out i can manage it whereas you know particularly kids younger than ours coming through now they they that's all they know you've got it from such an age and that's where i think it needs managing especially if the parents aren't um i was talking about that kind of almost role model piece you're an entrepreneur now you could argue you've always been an entrepreneur but with the business side of things to your husband i want to open that up i want to know the kind of the why behind it and how well it's going it's it's it's really exciting it's um so we have uh i love running basically that's what it's everything stems from but isn't that great that passion that's thrown through into you can feel it 100 feel it yeah i i just love it and i i was taking supplements and i got home one day and my husband had he's he's he's really annoying he's one of these people that does something does it well and then he'll move on to something else and he'll learn he'll learn everything so he becomes a total master of his trade so he's you know various things through his life from directing to live streaming acting um he has done social media marketing he's had his own company and then he was in the kitchen at home uh working with tash who works who works with him a friend of ours who works alongside him and i came in and i was like oh i was whinging about these supplements i was taking just saying they're not very good and they just went why don't you make your own and i was like oh yeah it's that easy and they went no it might be and they're both that kind of like excited about opportunities they went you should and i went well if i did i would need this this that's all and they went okay well let's all look into it so that was it we all sat down at the kitchen table and came up with this plan none of us had ever made a supplement this sort of.

31:54Brilliant. So then there's obviously quite a lot of learning involved. We wanted it to be a British brand. So we found, we sourced a really amazing kind of factory. We went and sourced this amazing lab, these amazing scientists that helped us create our dream product. We sourced the best collagen and we were quite transparent with what we use. We use a collagen called Naticol and we that in and we introduced that to the warehouse the battery we said this is the collagen we want to use we want to create the ultimate collagen liquid collagen marine collagen because we looked into it marine was best liquid was best we wanted certain vitamins in there so we created this dream product and it was all ready to go and to launch it was very exciting we spent ages kind of developing the logo i just wrote collo one day we went that'll do and anyway we we're kind of like real newbies in the world and we launched it as lockdown hit it was so stressful so our big project with all our collagen which by the way had a life shelf life we're like okay we're launching it and we've just gone into lockdown but we had to keep going and it was because it's an entirely d2c direct-to-consumer online brand and it was being launched through my Instagram.

33:18It was still possible to do this it's just we had no idea what the market would be like so I went on and did this video for Instagram and we were massively successful in the first week. In fact we were so successful that we were at risk of selling out because obviously if a subscription brand once you sell one product you need to fulfill the order next month and we were growing and growing and growing to the point that we didn't have enough collagen to fulfill all the orders that were coming up so we had to then stop all marketing we're like oh my god it's going too well and then quite quickly had to kind of put sold out for a period of time so we could fulfill all the orders that was a lesson that was a major lesson in the first month of of um of trading yeah apparently less than that we kind of obviously have balanced out since and it's been going very well ever since in fact i I think now we are the most awarded collagen brand in the UK.

34:14And we're very, very proud of that. Obviously, since we've launched, we launched in 2020, there has been a mass of collagen brands to the market. It seems to be something that's very much out there. And fair enough, everyone takes collagen, everyone takes powder, liquid, whatever you want. All I will say is if you do take a collagen brand now, please do due diligence because there are so many products now, especially with TikTok shop and maybe not being policed as much as they could. You could be buying a white label product brought in from China. You don't know what's in there. It could be packed with filler.

34:46So just make sure that the brand you're using, much like ours, very transparent, that you put your clinical studies on there, that you put all the information about what's in it. We are informed choice. So everything that's in our product is very much proven. So just make sure that whichever one you choose that you do, because there's plenty out there. There's a collagen brand for everyone. I mean ours is obviously the best but I just think there are people spending money unnecessarily on on products that maybe aren't what they say on the tin I love the story of the fact that you were able to influence you already knew the ingredients you wanted in there and that came from you that came from your knowledge and what you knew that benefits you and then you kept control of that rather than in any way putting your name to something else or having compromising I'm so proud of it I mean we are also a brand as well that we're not we're not spending money on celebrity ambassadors you know which it's fair enough a lot of brands do that i mean i created it so i'm not i'm not a paid celebrity ambassador i'm i'm there with my husband and my friend tash helping with this business now they run it on a day-to-day basis because i'm busy doing other stuff as well but you know we are all in this together and we're so proud of what we've what we've achieved so far we've got several products we've got some amazing new ones we've got one we've created called flex plus which is just the most incredible joint pain supplement there's nothing like out there we've brought in um we've brought in products that aren't actually really on the market here they are incredible it's my husband's baby that one and he created it because he was getting really bad elbow pain and he was trying to find a way to relieve it so he found these two ingredients and he merged them together and he's annoying his joint pain went in a week and he's like I've got to make this so Flex Plus that's what we have there we have creatine now and just pure creatine we've also because of the the demand for collagen powder even though we said we would never do it we have created a collagen powder because people do want it but our number one liquid collagen is still the ultimate and we have another product coming out very soon which is just amazing it's brilliant because it tells you about the entrepreneur world I love it It's the innovation.

37:00So many people go into entrepreneurship and become a founder of something to just make money. Whereas both examples, the collagen in the first place and then the joint pain come from something that you wanted or your husband wanted to help him, help you. And then you make a business out of it. And that's always, there's storytelling there as well. So that video you did, clearly people felt the empathy, felt the relatability. and it's working for you regardless of the fact that you had a big social following through all the previous which of course anyone watching this seems to say well must be great but you need that build a platform and then you can actually have that that kind of why behind it it's it's just i mean along the way we've done where there was a stage where we were doing all our own fulfillment and it was i mean it was huge we had a huge warehouse but actually what we've realized is that we have we don't need to be doing all this we have a very lean team we've got amber and Rebecca who have worked with us from the very start and that's pretty much our team got a couple of other people that that is it we we do everything yeah it's a brand that was born in our kitchen and it is still very much all hands on deck from us and the fact that you know James myself and Tash who lives nearby we we can work on a Sunday afternoon making videos we can we can constantly be on top of what's going on and it's it's it's our a huge passion it's an amazing product all the products are amazing but the collagen is just incredible and we're so proud of it and um yeah it's it's it's really good it's an exciting time light up talking about it and we've been connected by good friend mutual friend and global and it's so clear that you love being on the radio 15 years yeah what is it about the radio that you love so much i'd never done it before so I do you know what it was I just had my daughter so it was almost 15 years ago and I was still working in television but I was having to go away a lot so I was working to love travel I was doing property shows so it's random random like clearly I was not a property expert I was doing property shows it's hilarious and and I I just remember going it's really hard my little girl is a baby and I am working away week on week off when I was at home I was working on this morning which was amazing when I was away I was you know out of touch my mum would come and help look after my daughter and I just remember saying to my agent it'd be really good just to even see if there was any any opportunity in radio because I know that's that would mean I have to be in London so she went okay I'll set you up with a meeting and they got me a meeting at Global I've never done radio in my life it terrified me because it's just a microphone and you I have no idea what to do I literally had zero idea we're talking on television and talking radio isn't it's an entirely different skill set lots of people think that it's an easily transferable skill set it's not I mean yeah you've got to be able to talk and you've got to be able to you know have a story to tell but you've got to condense it and you've got to be able to push the buttons it's hard at radio anyway I got I got a gig there I did a demo and I got my own show on a Sunday morning six till eight and that was amazing I was so excited so I learned again through making mistakes how to do radio then they offered me early breakfast which is a really difficult one four till 6 30 a.m Monday to Friday and then Sunday six till eight I mean my social life was out the window and I did those hours for almost eight years wow um that's why I took up golf because I had afternoons free a lot of the time so um I learned radio by going back to the beginning and I'd sometimes finish the radio and then go and do like Lorraine or this morning so I was still doing all the other work but I was learning radio at four till six thirty in the morning every day and I absolutely loved it and I would cover on the breakfast show every now and again on heart and then in 20 in 2019 they offered me smooth breakfast so it was exciting I love being part of the global family I have so many friends there it's just a joy going to work every day and I get a lie in there because I don't have to get up till half four and what that whole knowing you've got a live audience we have the luxury of the fact that if there's a mess up here or there's a mistake or you want to say it again it's not live whereas you you know it's going back to this morning and so on as well as the radio not intimidated by that at all we just got used to it and almost how do you get used to it because there's the pressure that behind that camera millions of people watching or behind the microphone if you like and millions of people listening yeah i guess don't do it too often because they'll all notice but if you do make a mistake just go with it you know if you make a mistake in conversation you go well what am i saying and you carry on it's the same on the radio you're just still talking the radio is still just talking to one person essentially who is that one person i don't know it depends it depends could be my mom could be my husband could be my mates could be someone i met on the train i don't know you've got to just think that you're talking to one person i love doing interviews and chats and i've done oh my goodness i've interviewed so many people over the years i started in it was 2000 I got my first I was GM I was at GMTV and that was um my first job my first job for GMTV was to fly to the Venice Film Festival and interview Clint Eastwood that's cool pretty cool and that was really the start of me doing interviews and I'd done you know documentaries and I'd spoken to people that all very quite scripted actually for those kind of shows and But this was an amazing kind of eye opener and very exciting.

42:41And interviewing people is just a joy. I have another podcast as well called Roots. And we just chat to people about travel. It's just so nice having a chat with something that you are passionate about. And that they're passionate about. And you can learn their take on it. I love it. Who have you enjoyed interviewing the most out of all those people who've interviewed? Oh, I don't know. Would it be wrong for me to say people like, I don't know I mean it could be vacuous and say Leonardo DiCaprio was always a joy to chat to and you know Tom Cruise is because they're so exciting but in terms of interviews do you know what the ones I really enjoy the people I really enjoy interviewing are the people with really remarkable stories to tell and yes that might be an actor but also it might just be someone that's done something incredible had so many brilliant interviewees on Runpod and just been in awe of their story and their background and they might not be a name you necessarily know but when you hear their story you will you'll be in awe of them I can relate to that with this you know you can sort of pick a name that lots of people will have heard of but then there's people that I've chosen to interview extraordinary life story where you're just blown away by what they've done the resilience yeah the lack of victim mindset to come through it and yet they're not a known name if anything it's nice to then give a bit of amplification to that right yeah absolutely you're already successful with it all the best success for you in the future and on that success as jenny from blind date to right here right now as a flourishing entrepreneur how do you define success do you know what um for me i think i think success is still being busy still doing something finding still having work i think look this is a really difficult time there's so many people struggling and so success now is finding an area that you're passionate about and that you can you can if you can turn it into a profession you're still you if you can work and if you can love what you do that is success without a doubt you you epitomize that it doesn't it meant I feel like it's you but we've actually ran out of time and I feel like we've only just got warmed up there's so there's so many things bark harping on I'm so sorry oh not at all not at all you're genuine and inspiration to talk to you and I think that whole passion for what you do and then leaning into it and backing yourself and I'm going to call you out I've already said I think as a role model because for our daughters for particularly young girls aspirational with lots stats that have been against women for years less than two percent of VC funding going to women there's a there's the sort of male chauvinistic elements that can go with that but also there's a lack of belief and a lack of role models it baffles me there should be no difference my daughter goes to a school i'm sure yours is saying that that they are believed they can do anything and i have never thought i can't do something not once and i i i just it's it look i know i know there are all these limitations and they shouldn't be but limiting beliefs yeah but as long as you believe you can do something and if you want to do it go for it try it's brilliant you are awesome thank you so much so nice to chat to you today