Espresso: How POPHAM'S Founder Deals with Mental Torture

0:06What's been the darkest day when you've sort of looked at yourself in the mirror thinking, I can't do this. there's lots of those days genuinely and I mentioned when I worked in F1 I was working super long hours and so when I'll talk to people about opening my own place they'll be like long hours you've got to put a lot into it and I'll be like whatever I've done that, I've worked really hard, I know how to work hard, I can graft, don't worry about that and then you get it very very very quickly you realise it's not the physical work, it's not working however many hours in a day to achieve what you want to achieve it's the mental strain and it's it's it's that finishing work and not go and you know sitting on the sofa and then you're just chilling with your mates or whatever and you can just not think about anything you go home and that's all you think about work how can i do better here what do i need to do to improve this is this going to be okay are we going to make sales are we going to make money am i going to have to shut this business yeah you have all those conversations and they're you know the two weeks covid the two weeks leading up to furlough coming out that was the most terrifying part in terms of like well we actually have to shut the business there was no you know we had so many people to pay and and we didn't have the cash to do that but if we go yeah the dark days at the beginning it's just it was just the relentless nature of a bakery it's seven days a week it's with customers there it's with people you know it's I always try and compare it not that you know I did six months of working in an office and I realized that I can't sit still for five minutes so it was the last thing I could do but you know when you come in on a Monday morning in office I'm to all the people listening I'm not saying that it's a it's easy workplace at all but you're usually in your own space and you know you've got whatever you need to do to to deal with whereas when you're in hospitality you're monday morning at 7 30 and you've got people to deal with straight from the off and you've got situations to to manage and you've got fridges that are breaking you've got equipment that's not working you've got your coffee machine that's just gone down and that's that's what your business is is based on alongside pastries and so it was just it at the beginning it was like why am i doing this to myself and you have amazing like you know without Lucy alongside me in that process you know would have given up for sure would have given up what like I don't want to do this anymore I can't do this anymore um and I want to live a life of of no stress or less stress certainly why am I doing this to myself and it's those feelings are strong and they're hard and they lasted at times for you know for days and yeah there were times that I would be when we're closed at 6 p.m I was lying in the floor of the bakery why am I doing this this is stupid get out and you just you know I was so lucky to have an amazing group of people around me that could that could get me up in those times and and allow me to fight further forward everyone who's sat opposite me or has basically said is it's this ability to take pain and I'm really funny because obviously i was when it was in a job for six months and i was like i think people think doing a podcast is like just sitting here having this conversation it's it's like just saying oh you make making one one thing of it's much easier than bake uh baking goods right there's a whole other stuff around the other side it's like is this going to work like am i going to get the sponsorships where can this grow is it too niche is it it's just the constant all on my own like in in this fucking room and my parents and i'm just like it's it's relentless yeah and i'm sort of like am i losing not the will to well yeah just definitely what am i doing what am i like where is this going how's this going to work so what were those people saying to you on when you're lying in on the bakery floor yeah coffee machine's broken it's all going pete tong yeah what are they saying saying to ollie to get ollie back on the ground back on his feet sorry putting it back on the ground that would be stupid just like knowing that they're they're supporting you and that they're you know we're all in this together we will get through everything we can look you know look at the product look what we've created there yes it's quiet but people are still enjoying it people can you know people have come to Poppins they still have the experience and just it you know just you know we can do this and rally together um and i always in those times i always as much as i wanted to give up i'm not like i i'm not someone to give up i'm not gonna however dark those times were you know i'll always fight to to get there and and i did i knew at the back of my head that there was there was something there that we could impact a community on and there was something there that was eventually going to work and even after that when it wasn't necessarily quiet but still tough it was it just you just do it you just you know you you don't want to get rid of something that you put so much love and time into and it gets there then comes a point it was like obviously i'm going to crack on with this i can't let this go this is this is all i know this is my baby like it's this is what you do quick one guys espresso's got a brand new sponsor unleashed unleashes inventory management software that talks directly to your finance and econ software.

5:45We use Unleashed daily islands. I bloody love it. We've got our admin time in half, saving approximately 30k a year. Why use it? Save money, save headaches, save stress, get granular clarity on your margins. Know where your stock is. Don't miss availability. Look, your favorite brands literally use Unleashed as their backbone. Candy Kittens, Tiny Rebel, Trip, Always Religiously. Look, there's a link in the show notes please feel free to book in a call with josh and his wonderful sales team at unleashed they're amazing even nothing comes of it and even better news you'll get your first month free if you reference hungry thank you another common lesson from guests is you just you just take the word quit off the table like this quite simple reframe you just take off the table it's like it's going to be hard what did you do in terms of i really relate to this you never really finish work even on the weekend you may not physically be there but i'm like mentally constantly on this constantly like it's and it's kind of pathologically relentless sometimes it's like just give me a breather mate it's like even going away tomorrow i'll be thinking about this whether i like it or not how is that something have you can you have can you switch that off or how what are some of the ways to switch that off or maybe like temper it down i've definitely massively improved on i can't switch off 100 as in i will be thinking about what is going on most of the time but it is like i'd say the last 18 months couple years you know i've really spent time on improving my work-life balance and whereas before i'd work every single day on the weekend every single day in the week it you just can't it's not good for you but it's also just not good for the team either and that you know becomes apparent and also yeah and I realized that a bit late as well um so I I still don't 100 % switch off but I do I would be lying you know I 90 % switch off now I'm not I'm not sitting there on a weekend if I'm off or if I'm on holiday I'm not you know constantly you know i used to be checking sales the whole time i used to be checking in with people like that stuff goes i don't i can really eradicate myself from that and that feels 10 times better being in that feeling though i do look forward to a day one time in my life where it's just it's zilch it's nothing there's no responsibility there um but and that will come and i'll i'll get there so yeah it's definitely improved over the years um and you have to you could like you but how how what were some of the things you put in place was that oh trust you just i was yeah you you you realize that you can't do anything yeah my me being there's not going to do anything something happens like nothing i can change i'm not that i'm not that good i'm not that powerful that I can come in and you know affect a situation all the time like you trust your people trust the members of the team that you have which I do so much so and I don't as I said you know unless I know that we're really short staffed one day and the sun's out and there's going to be mega mega busy I will be sitting at home or I wouldn't be sitting at home in that case but if I'm on holiday then I would be thinking oh this is going to be tough they're okay but yeah you realize you can't do anything and and you can't there's no point in straining yourself but also and more importantly to that point is you have good enough people in the business and that that's where we're at now is our management team is brilliant and I know they're leading those operations to the absolute best of their ability and that ability that they're doing it to is is what Poppins needs and what Poppins knows so me being there is is thinking about this about it is pointless.

9:42What are some of the... You're now at 75 employees, which is mad. Yeah. What are some of the weaknesses you've had to work on from day one opening in Islington to, I don't know what day it is, but further down the line, right? What are some of the company's weaknesses? No, no, your personal weaknesses. Because I think founders can get in their own way sometimes. times I mean definitely the weaknesses is what I just talked about is that trust element I was I felt like I had to be everywhere before I felt like I had to be leading the team I felt like I had to be on site every day and as I said that doesn't help anyone it doesn't help myself it doesn't help the team there's constantly and and I'm constantly working on how I can be a better leader myself and and leadership qualities in that and and learning how to manage still learning how to manage and learning how to allow people I manage manage their teams and you know we started problems at you know 26 27 where I didn't have loads of management experience at all you know really like managing tiny teams before and I've constantly just learned on the job and I've constantly made mistakes and I look back at times and and I couldn't believe I dealt with situations like that and I couldn't believe I managed situations like that.

11:08Thank you so so much for listening, it honestly means the world to me I hope you enjoyed your morning coffee and go and have an amazing day let's be having ya if you want the full episode it will be in the show notes a link will be in the show notes for the full episode thank you so much, please say your friends as well it means the world to me