Tom Skinner | Extraordinary Life Stories

0:07Tom, I've been really looking forward to this. Thank you so have I. Tell me, who is Tom Skinner? I suppose I'm a market trader from Romford. Love buying and selling. Love my friends. Love my family. Love a pint of beer. We're having well afters, aren't we? 100%, mate. 100 % looking forward to that. Just go out there. I enjoy spreading positivity and trying to help people when I can. I suppose that's me. Just a geezer that worked at a market stall, went on The Apprentice, and now I'm sort of doing everything, which is I want to come to that because it does feel like he's doing everything but that positivity like I'm smiling uncontrollably and I have been the minute I've been sort of listening watching to anything in the build up to today even thinking about you coming in do you find that with other people as well it's like a real magnetism you rub off with real positivity one of my mates Big Lanks like larger than life character he suffers with his mental health a little bit you know he's very up and he's very down and one thing he always says to me is Tom I just love being around you because you're just always positive.

1:10You bring him up. And he's one of my best mates in the world. And I just, I don't know what it is in me. I just always value what I've got. I always have done. I don't know what, like, you know, people go, I think, hang on a minute, I've got that. You know, I've done that. And I enjoy working and people around me. And what makes me happy is seeing other people at me. And that sounds mad. I love bringing people up. Because if I'm having a good time and you're having a good time, we're having a good time. If you're down, it ain't going to be as good as we're all up. And that's what I just like doing.

1:40Who brings you up? Is it a complete... Do you actually need it? It doesn't feel like you're lacking in anything. I don't mean it in an egotistical way or arrogant way, but it's like you wake up and you're on 100 mile an hour. I mean, I've done a... I'll tell you out there before we come, I've done this thing where they put a heart monitor on you for three days and it's about people. No, I don't sleep. One thing I don't do is sleep. I'm a very, very bad sleeper. Have you always been like that? Always been like that. I'm up at a crack of dawn. three, four, five of them, every single day without a foul.

2:09I go to bed and I wake up three or four times a night. Weird, they actually sell pillars and beds, but I just don't sleep. And they put this monitor on me, and when I've done it, they went, mate, you've got a resting heart rate of like 35 beats per minute, which is like athlete, or I've got a saturn in my heart. Olympian. Yeah, but then he said, the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, you're non-stop. So you're literally the extremes of the whole kind of access of your life. Yeah, and I said, is that good? Is that bad? He said, you will get burnout. He said, you will get, without a sin of that, you will get burnout.

2:42But look. When was this? Well, this is a little while ago, a couple of years ago now. It's not happening. You look like radiating. I know you've just come back from Tenerife. But it's in your eyes. There's a real healthy, positive vibe from your eyes, right? Which would not describe any lack of sleep at all. Is that because you're churning things in your head? Are you spending things? You've got lots of different things on your plate, right? But it's not like you're worrying about them. I don't know. I feel like, back to you, what brings me up? Look, now it's my family, you know, my little kids.

3:11I've got three beautiful little babies. I'm very lucky. I've got twin girls, Roma and Dala, and a little boy, Henry. They're my world, you know, and that brings me up. When I come back from work and I've had a stressful, long day and they go, daddy, daddy, and they'll jump up and give me a cuddle, that's the world to me. My beautiful wife, you know, she listens as much her as it is me for where I am today because of her. She brings me up, you know, my friends. And obviously West Ham brings me down because we're pony at the minute. But yeah, look, I get brought up, I suppose, from having people around me.

3:48I can't be on my own. I don't like being on my own. Like I even, this is going to sound like a weird one, I leave the light on at night or I leave a telly on. That's why you can't sleep. Yeah, but I can't. I would go crazy sitting in a room on my arm. Because you've got a tribe around you, right? And that's one of the things that I'd imagine any of your friends, you're so important to them, so valuable. But they are all equally valuable to you, right? That's what I was on hearing. So you're picking them up, but then you seem to have a natural desire to help people. Which isn't just your friendship kind of group.

4:22You're doing that in so many other ways. I'm on this mad little train journey, yeah? I don't know when it's going to stop. So there's no destination? There's no destination. I don't know where it's going. But he's full steam ahead at the minute. And I'm like, look, everyone's coming with me. You with me? You're on it. You know what I mean? We pay hours of jobs. I've set up business for me, mate. We go together. We're like a little team. With my little team, I know people say this, but I've got the best team in the world, my little mates. We could take over a country easily. That is what I've got.

4:55Formidable. You know, it's like us, we've got this little click and we don't rat. We don't, like, fight. We don't argue. We just get on with things. Mate, sort it out. No problem. Done. That's how it is. Do you know what I mean? Mission aligned. And what is that journey? What are you really enjoying doing? You clearly have always got up early in the morning. There's that sort of market trader side to you, that mindset, you know, paper round, all the stuff that's got you. But what's driving you now? What's the purpose now? Just to carry on going, you know, just to carry on moving forward. You're enjoying it, right?

5:25I'm loving it, you know, I enjoy making money who doesn't. You know, anyone that says money don't buy you happiness is a liar, let's be honest, like money does buy you happiness. There's things that I can do now that I couldn't do 15 years ago, you know. Gives you options. Gives you options, opens doors. It's not me that I get buzzing out of. It's seeing other people happy that I get a big buzz out of and coming up, I'm going to do this with you. I love doing things like that. That's a buzz for me, you know what I mean? so what are you doing now because um there's we know from an apprentice point of view which is instantly gave you kind of fame if you like and recognition and then that sort of personal brand if you like but every time i go on my instagram you know it was golf two weeks ago that looked fun i want to know i want to know why you're doing things and what you haven't done yet that you really want to do well we've just been filming a new golf youtube series with all different That looks fun.

6:20Do you know, before we had a meeting in King's Cross and I watched the first episode and it is hilarious because I ain't the greatest of golfers, but I'm all right. You know when you go on YouTube and you type in golf and you watch Golf Life and you watch all these other golf shows? Listen, they're brilliant, but they're all scratch golfers. When I'm a 15-an... It's not relatable. Yeah. Listen, I duff shots, I throw me clubs, I get the um, and I thought, why don't we get some rubbish golfers on there? Or people starting out. and like this, you know, everyone wants to be good at golf but we ain't and most people never get there.

6:52Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I play golf because I enjoy it. You know, I know that I ain't going to be a scratchy handicap player. I know that because I ain't got the time. You know what I mean? Some people, that's what they do. They play golf and it's fantastic but I've got kids, I've got businesses. You know what I mean? I can't just play golf. So I wanted to do a YouTube series playing golf where people can see real golfers, not scratch golfers. We've been doing that in the background and that's getting edited up and that's going live in the next few weeks. Tom's Guinness Golf Club, that's number one.

7:19Number two, got my market stall still, which I still work when I can. I love it. It's in my blood. I've done them. That's the first thing I ever started doing. That's probably the last thing I ever do. It's not about the money anymore. It's about I enjoy it. I love the buzzer. I was going out, finding the stock, having a deal, having a bargain, going out and selling it, nicking a pound. That's a constant. Mate, it's a constant. The markets ain't what they were. But with markets, when you lose the markets, you lose the high street. When you lose the high street, you lose things like the NHS, the roads.

7:47People forget that small, like SMEs, small-million businesses is the backbone of the UK. So it's a social reason to keep that going as well. It's so important. Not just me, market traders in general and shopkeepers in general. We can't give up because small businesses pay the taxes that pay for the roads, pay for the hospitals, the ambulance drivers, civil servants that keep this country going. That's funded by SMEs, not big corporations that send their money elsewhere. Small businesses, the one-man bands, you know, the small people within the room. And they've had such a hard time, you know, with everything going up, taxes going up, you know.

8:22No one backing them, right, especially the last 15 years. No one in the last 15 years of government have really supported and got behind them. The decline in the ice, the increase in rates and rents and things like that. So I just enjoy it because, A, look, let's not give up on that, yeah. It's hard, listen, you can't earn nowhere near what you could do 15, 20 years ago, but there's still money to be earned, there's still funds to be had, you know. And think about the older generation, the people that ain't got the smartphones, that can't work on the computers, that are single on their own, that have lost their loved ones, that wake up and their life is going to the market on a Friday afternoon.

8:57My grandma, she's no longer with us, but you're absolutely right. And she'd go along and talk to them all. And when she died, it was a massive loss to all of those people because they knew she was part of the community. That person that comes down and buys a tea towel, comes and says hello. That social element, that is keeping... We are becoming an environment where we don't talk to each other. We're all so fixated on our phones, on our laptops, on our screens. Like, let's be honest, that element we're losing out. People now go and buy a coat, don't fit, send it back. What happens when you go to the shop, talk to the man in the shop, grab a cup of tea?

9:32That whole social element, we're losing it. And I feel like I've got a little, because I've got a bit of a platform, I've got a little bit of a role to play here to try and push it out. Real passion coming through as well. That's got you animated. It's scary because when my kids are my age, that might not be there. And that worries me that we're going to live when there's no emotions in buying products. When there's no, oh, look at that. That's lovely. Touch it, feel it, rub it. You know what I mean? Like anything. And when we lose that, retail's dead. And when we lose that, energy's gone. And that's a real worry.

10:07That's why I'm so keen on pushing doing the market stalls. That's one of the things. Then I've got my boxing gym, Boss Gym, which I got a few years ago because, look, since coming on The Apprentice and going and doing everything else and all that, I thought, you know what, I want a gym where I can go with my mates, yeah, and we can do what we want to do in there and we can take our shirt off and no one moan at us, we can film a couple of videos, we can eat a donut without no one giving us grief. and I just bought a gym and I've done it all up and specced it up bossed gym and then he started taking off listen it doesn't earn fortunes of money in fact it's some months it doesn't earn any money but the one that I've done at gym is we do like the anti-knife crime campaigns we put an amnesty box in there it's in Brenton Essex but I've done work with Newham councils and London councils and said look like you know any kids that carry a knife if you ain't got no money come up to my gym you know what I mean you ain't going to get judged there and I'll give you three boxing lessons, we've got coaches at work, you can talk, you can get out of your problems because one of the biggest problems you'll find is that a lot of these kids, and they're normally single parent families, their mums and dads are normally, you know, not working, got no money, on drugs, and these kids as young as eight, nine years old are carrying knives because they're getting involved in things, they get money elsewhere, and they haven't got no hope.

11:30And the gym now has sort of come into that sort of way, and I'm trying to, look at this, I'm a one-man band, and I can't help everyone but if we help one kid we save one life that's blindness it's role model stuff isn't it giving people hope if you're leading by example which you are everything you're saying now is so compelling and actually quite rare in this society everyone's in it for themselves they're taking and about listen the gym don't earn money we rely and I'll be honest we rely on we get the odd small bits go Tom we'd like a sponge can you give us a shout and I go of course I can and I'll go and talk to somebody and say thank you to so and so do you know what I mean and I'll do that in exchange they'll give us 500 quid and that'll pay for like 10 lessons.

12:08Do you know what I'm saying? So that's what I'm trying to do with that gym. It is what it is. It's there for me and my friends. We're trying to do what we can in the community. Do a few free kids lessons. We've got the amnesty box. The maddest thing is the local council weren't too happy that we were doing that, but we're going to carry on doing it anyway. I couldn't care less like what they say. Do you know what I mean? So that's that one. Then we've got a workwear brand company where, you know, if you've got a scaffolding company and started off years and years ago me my mate we used to snide up snide lacoste t-shirts and stitch them on and sell on the markets and now we do it professionally and that's that's another thing we're doing and then obviously just got fingers and all sorts of little pies what have you not done that you'd love to do because there's like you're clearly a super creator and you're a lot of what you're doing is creating stuff to fulfill a purpose or help help yeah so like you've got your platform you've got a really loyal, passionate tribe, which I'm now part of as like a following, if you like, social media.

13:08But what, if you sort of fast forwarded imagining what you were doing or could be doing, what would that look like? I don't know, is the honest answer. I get that because you're living in the moment, right? Mate, I don't worry about, listen, I don't worry about tomorrow. Like I don't, I've never have done, I know that I can go out and earn a pound, whatever, I go and get in my van, I'm going earn a pound, wherever I go, yeah. Money's not my God. It ain't never have been. I've earned thousands of pounds I've spunk thousands of pounds like I've never really I'm not a money manager I'm not involved in that I've got nice things I've got a nice home I've got nice cars I've got all of that you know my friends are looked after my family's looked after but if it all goes tomorrow I don't think it'd change the way I am I'd still just go out there and just be me you know what I mean you've also got confidence that you could just go and do it again make money you know you've proven that to yourself and you've done it from such a young age I imagine that's through upbringing and through kind of influences you saw, but, you know, how would you sort of give the advice to someone that's looking at you, seeing real confidence, real enthusiasm, and is lacking that, but wants to be, you know, maybe they're ambitious, but it's all locked up with voices in their head.

14:12You need to find what you're good at first. Look, like, I knew from a young age, look, I'm dyslexic, I got expelled from school, right? But one thing I knew I was good at was selling things. Even from paper rounds, you know, I was, like, from a young age, doing my bits and pieces, selling chocolate at school sweets, selling broken handbags that my dad was selling. I knew I could sell. I knew I could talk to people. That was one thing I was good at. I was always confident in coming forward. And so I built on that and worked on that. Now, whatever it is that you are good at, or something you enjoy doing, right?

14:44You might not be great at it today, but if you want to be really good at saying, yeah, do not give up on that goal. Set yourself a target. Whether it's to, let's just say layman's terms, If it's to earn£50 a day or whatever that target is, set yourself on that target. And do not stop until you get there. It might take a week, a month, a year. But do not give up. Because you could be that close. You could be centimetres away from cracking it. And if you don't get there, you give up beforehand. You'll never know. So you need to believe in yourself. Because every single person on this planet, I believe, can do greatness.

15:17Every single person is able to overcome their fears. we are a lot stronger than we can ever imagine we all are it's just putting our mind to it we believe in ourselves and we push ourselves and we set a target and we don't give up the world's our oyster you can either sit there at 80 years old well I wish I tried that and pushed myself and alright it didn't work out but that one did you will find it if you keep on going totally and you've got a great relationship I imagine with failure you're a serial entrepreneur so many things you've tried even going back to The Apprentice I know the story of you I've never won a part of that.

15:52No, but it's like, it's this whole, actually, if you don't try something, you won't know. And actually, you might not even achieve the target or the goal that you set out to, but you'll have kept moving and you'll have then actually potentially speared into something else that's allowed you to do that. John, the harder you work, the luckier you get. Yeah. That is true. And when you work hard and you really do work hard, you'll find people will help you. If you're lazy and you don't push yourself, people won't help you. People that are successful in life love to see someone trying. I love to see someone giving it a go, and they'll always give you advice, yeah?

16:25You know, and you should never ever, I've said this a million times, take any criticism of anyone you want to take advice from. That's a big thing, you know? Someone might come in there and say, well, I don't think you should do that, I don't think you should do that. Well, would you take advice from? That's so interesting. If you don't take advice, if you wouldn't take advice from them, don't take any criticism from them. So we're both dads, right? And I'm a bit further ahead than you, but I'm sort of wondering, like so much of what your kids are learning about that real life message is probably so much more important than what they're learning in school.

16:55Personally, I think it's archaic and a bit broken and needs updating. What are your thoughts? I think the world's gone soft, John. I think that we are too soft on kids. You know, like I do, listen, like people probably won't agree with me with this, yeah? But like with my little boy, he was, this is going to sound really bad, he was culling in this thing and he kept getting the ump, He kept going, because he was doing that. I went, what are you doing? And he was going over the lines. I went, no, no, no, do it again. He's gone, no, Dad. And he was four. But I kept pushing him. And he was getting upset.

17:30I said, no, I don't want to do it. I said, no, look, you're getting upset that you can't do it. You can do it. You can. Keep going. And I kept pushing him. And he was like, oh, yeah. And he'd done it. I know it sounds stupid, but I pushed him. And I think people just need a little bit more of a push. I mean, one thing I was talking to you earlier was these chill-out rooms. He's calmed down. Mate, whatever happened to telling someone off and being a bit hard on someone? I think, like, look, I know, listen, bullying is terrible. Bullying is bad. But every single person in the world at one point in their life has been bullied, me included, many a times, by different people.

18:13that has been probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. That's built your resilience. Of course. You know what I mean? And I think as well, like, kids in school, you know, now are taught to label themselves. They're all taught to label themselves as something, yeah? I'll tell you how I'm going to explain this right now. Is, right, the classroom is full of monkeys. There is 20 monkeys in the classroom, yeah? And there's one kid that's a shark. right now the lesson today is to climb the tree okay all the monkeys are going to be at the top of the tree and the teacher is going to go up the shark oh you keep trying like you you must be stupid you must be an idiot yeah you must be dense why can't you climb the tree yeah well hang on a minute chuck that shark and all the monkeys into a sea who wins then I think find out what everyone's good at first brilliant And then teach them.

19:12One size doesn't fit all, right? 100%. So well articulated. I think that's awesome. How do you look after yourself? So you've come through your... But you do. You look fit. Listen, I go to the gym. I'm strong. Tell me about that. Is that a routine? Is that every day? When do you fit it in? Because you've got such a crazy schedule, right? I go to the gym as many times as I can. If I've not got an hangover, I go there every day. I enjoy the gym. I enjoy keeping strong, keeping on my tights. I do a lot of boxing. I do a lot of weights. I'm physically very strong. Always been strong, setting up market stalls as a kid.

19:47It just makes you naturally strong, lifting up, loading up lorries, loading up vans, physical. And as well, in this day and age, you never know when someone's going to try and jump you and nick your watch off you. You need to be physically... Is any of it to do with that? Did you feel a correlation? Because I feel like there's been a needs must. You have to lift the things into the van, the market stall. Yeah. Then there's an element of like, you look good, strong, right? It suits you. So like, maybe you feel that. Is there any part of it? Because I don't feel like, not in an arrogant way, I don't feel like you struggle with your mental health, but it's partly because you're so focused and you're so busy, there's no room for that, and it doesn't come into your head.

20:20Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. I'd be a compulsive liar if I said I've not had down days. Every single person in the world has had a down day, me included. I bet you probably have a down minute, though, don't you? I can't imagine being a down day. You'll have a down hour, and then you're out of it. But don't ever, A, let anyone ever see that. Ever. in a million years, and B, like, you know what? Yeah, all right, it's going a bit wrong at the minute. Take a deep breath, carry on. Do you know what I mean? That's how I am, like. That's good, so you recognise it. I was going to ask you that. Like, there's being present, and there's, so you're quite good at it, because you're crazy busy, right?

20:53And you use that analogy of the athlete at sleep, and then athlete during the day for different reasons, but like, but actually on those bad days, tough times, you take stock and have a little chat with yourself. Of course. And then you go again. Have a cup of tea, have a cigarette, whatever it is that you know what I mean have a go and a pint of beer go and ring up one of your mates whatever it is talk to your wife if you have to do you know what I mean just do something to calm yourself down and then like I mean one of the things that I do and he's going to say I'm like a complete loony here but when I'm having a mad mad day and things ain't going right at the end of the evening before I go to sleep yeah I've got a diary I've had a diary my mum buys me my mum buys me a diary from Aspinall's every single year for Christmas, yeah, with my initials on it, which my initials are THS, Tottenham-Otsburgh.

21:45I'm a West Ham fan, Thomas Henry Skinner. But it says THS at the top of my diary. So you don't want to think it's a Tottenham-Otsburgh diary. And I've had it every year since I can remember my mum buying me one. And every evening, or most evenings, when I've had a day, whatever, I write down the things that I wasn't happy with just before I go to sleep. And that's journaling. There's people who swear by journaling. It's getting rid of all the bad bits. It's starting a fresh tomorrow. Look, you know, you got through yesterday. Yeah, you're going to get through tomorrow. You know what I mean? But let's start again.

22:13New chapter, new page, bang. I just write it down. Right, you know what? I weren't too happy. Like, boom, boom, boom. That's it, right? That's what I've forgotten about. Move on to the next. I think it works for you, right? And I can see why. And for someone so positive, naturally positive, and probably trained to be as well, you've probably not even remembered or even been able to sort of go back as far as to being anything other than just take that day on because you've not even had time. I've got to talk to you about food. I've said this to you off camera. Again, I'm smiling to think about it.

22:43I'll go on my Instagram, I'll click on a story, and it's literally larger than life, a plate of food, often at breakfast that most people associate as a dinner. Where does that come from? Because it's that non-conformist bit about you that I love and think everyone watching and listening is the same. It's just like, I'm not going to have bacon and eggs. I'm not going to have porridge. I'm having roast beef, Yorkshire. And you describe it. You articulate it. And before you know it, I'm starving. Out of my little circle of mates, I'm the smallest one. I'm the little one, yeah? And they're all just massive.

23:12They're all giants. I'm six foot tall and 18 and a half stone. Do you know what I mean? I'm the small one. You've got big presents as well. And I'm the small one, right? And we've worked on market stalls. We deliver beds all over the country. We're in the gym. We don't stop. But we always get up cracker dom. What is that? What time is that? between three and five, more or less, six to seven days a week. And there's a cafe, a very special cafe called Dino's Cafe in the New Spitalfield Market in East London. And New Spitalfield is the fruit and veg hub for the south-east of England. All the market traders, we've got a stall that we try and do a little supermarket on Ilford with.

23:53We try and do affordable food on there, tinned, close-to-date food and fruit and veg. Another thing that I didn't even mention. But we go there, and I've been going there for years, and when we're doing our beds, when we started off in London, we're going there, so load up the vans in London, go to the cafe, have a bit of breakfast. But wherever we're all lumps, wherever we're at, you know, 15, 16-hour grafting days, a little bacon sandwich, a little bowl of porridge just ain't going to cut it. You're going to be hungry in two hours, you're going to eat junk food all day. And I've always been taught you have a proper meal, don't matter what time of day it is.

24:27My mum's always been a feeder my whole life, yeah? You know, an army don't march on an empty stomach. They don't. And we're going there. And because this cafe's open from midnight until 9 in the morning for all the people buying the fruit and veg that are going to work during the day, it serves whatever you want. Like, if you wanted a chicken curry at 2.30 in the morning, you'll get a chicken curry at 2.30 in the morning. If you want a shepherd's pie with steamed veg, roast potatoes, and a bowl of soup on the side, you'll get that. Ernie and the boys will make it for you. And we've always gone in there.

24:58When we started out our days and we're going there, me and my little team, normally like six or seven of us, go and sit down and we'll have our lasagna at 4.30 in the morning. And I'd normally give this pep talk to my pals. Right, listen, today, you know, yesterday we smashed the life out of it, but today, right, you're up to Manchester in the van. Go up there, go and smash it, go and get yourself a tip, go and take a few quid. Right, you're on the warehouse for me today. We've got a load, unload two lorries today. okay let's go out there let's not stop let's not have a break let's go and crack it get it done get it over with get in the pump one o 'clock yeah but what you boys are not you boys on the market okay right listen i'm going to both give you 50 quid extra on your money if you reach two grand in your belts each what are you going to do you're going to do it of course you are let's go and let's go and do it and i'll give you some little pep talk to me and i've already done it it's a motivational speech yeah and then and then and then like we sort of you know i've done it on a video for one of my friends, it wasn't very well.