Espresso: James Smith, Neutonic founder - The Power of Authenticity in Brand Building

0:05James Smith:I feel like we're slightly disconnected from reality. A lot of people kind of almost constantly semi-gastened by the state of the economy, politics, everything as a nation. I always feel like we're never really true and bringing ourselves. We have to put a certain face on around people, whether you're on the train, catch someone, you put your feet up in some strange seat, oh fuck, you know, put my feet down because I'm a polite young man. I don't put my feet on train seats. There's no one there that you fucking put on. fucking foot beyond the sea. So everywhere we go through life, we're putting these facades on.

0:35James Smith:And it's just quite, I think, for most people exhausting. I think it's more about energy preservation than anything else. And I remember going from the corporate world into personal training. I'd wear a polo shirt, I would have an iPad, I would try and be professional. And I attracted the wrong people. And it was exhausting. It was only when I started swearing, put a black t-shirt on didn't wear my uniform would sit eating out my tupperware at the side so i'll be like two more reps you know like yeah i started being myself i started attracting people just like but just like myself and to me that's just a much less exhausting way of doing things and on social media even if there were you know there are potential let's say there are buyers supermarkets whatever potentially listening and they're trying to gauge whether or not this founder is going to be right blah blah blah it would be so inappropriate for me to talk about snorting cocaine doing mdma you know having unprotected sex with strangers or whatever but i know out there somewhere someone could potentially listen to that and go fuck me that's refreshing he's gonna get a meet in the sainsbury's you know and not all of them would these bars are sniffed yeah yeah yeah no no come to the christmas party and while everyone's trying to go one way of being super professional you know oh yes you know our brand is the best oh you should see our return and i'd spend just coming out and just saying look anyway you send me in the uk i'll give out cans for free don't give a shit how many millions of followers i've got send me to fucking sunderland take me to newcastle put me outside of greg's with a backpack i'll do it because that honesty people aren't really real with some people and founders of drinks because you have to get to almost a certain amount of clout to be in a position to create your own brand a lot of the time especially in the creator market whatever it just so happens to be at the point that people's ego takes over and i just i think that's such a shame for so many people but when you say ego takes over so have you read ego is the enemy by ryan holliday yeah yeah that's i've actually got a question about that yeah yeah so exactly the point that when you start doing well you start telling yourself a story about why things have gone well and you can tell yourself a story it's because of you know your demeanor your charisma your ethos, your work ethic.

2:42James Smith:But really, it was the fact that you're a fucking psychopath for three years and got up at 4.30 and drank 15 cups of coffee a day. And you neglected most of the girls you dated and that you barely saw your parents trying to build your business off the ground. If you believe your story, you stop doing the things that made you successful. But if you don't believe your story, you can keep doing the things that make you successful. And so many people that experience success and get to a certain point can sometimes lose connection of the person that got them there how is your ego your enemy um it's interesting my friends say to me that i'm the same person but with just more money and not a huge amount of money by the way a good amount enough that i can bully my friends uh i joke and if my friend hasn't responded for a while i'll like send them 200 pounds on monzo but then i'll often get it sent back but it's the fact i'm i'm doing it or you know i'll just i'll just uh i love doing a thing where say i'm with friends I haven't seen for a while, I pretend that I've lost a touch of reality.

3:41James Smith:I'd be like, oh, dinner was only 300 pounds. I can't believe how cheap that was. And they're like, are you fucking kidding me? I would honestly say I'm still the same person, but I quite like the fact that earning better has changed me because it's not in a bad way. It is in a sense, I'm more playful, I'm more fun. I like getting dinners. But as far as ego, I would say it's probably the only bad thing that I get really annoyed that the things that used to be big to me aren't anymore. I flew business class somewhere not too long ago and I got off the plane and I was like you fucking prick you were nearly crying the first time you flew business because it was it was such a big feat to you I'd like six glasses of red wine and I had a moment where I was like this is amazing you should be proud of yourself I was like tearing up on a plane I flew first class didn't even have a glass of champagne I was like you're a prick that would say my ego has become an issue only where I lose gratuity of the things that used to be massive to me first time I wasn't an overdraft was amazing but then you take a dividend and you won't feel anything so for me now it's just trying to remind myself what 25 year old james would have done with that thing 25 year old james would have seen that business class and been like oh my god he would have uh you know looked at the dividends you just took from the business and that would have been life-changing the only time my ego kind of really pisses me off at the moment is this kind of lack of emotion towards what were once great achievements and i think that's part of my motivational mechanisms but i beat myself up about it i actually said to my business partner a few months ago we took a dividend from the business and i said to my missus i go this is really annoying that's a good amount of money and i feel nothing and i was so i go i messaged my manager i messaged luke i go look i shouldn't i'm only 35 i shouldn't be feeling numb to this amount of money 10 years ago i would have been fucking ecstatic i would have gone to this bar i would have said everyone's on a fucking drink come on i know who knows a dealer and uh i would have just had so much fun with it so then i said to my business partner he goes do you know what we're going to take 10 of this dividend we're going to go to a bar in sydney we're going to put our card behind the bar and we're just going to get shit faced and anyone we bump into some lad from tiktok was like i follow your stuff i'm like get a drink are these your mates get them a drink cards behind the bar i said how old are you boys 19 i was like get him on a drink you're probably poor at 19 i was and we had the best time on 10 of it so for me it's still having fun still enjoying the little things so fun almost dissipates the the yeah the the ego thing that annoys me is what has become normal and i never want to lose track of that like i never want to you know there were little things you buy dinner and not even think about it and then i leave the restaurant i go mate you you didn't earn that in a week when you were younger and then you just tap because you can't be bothered for people to split the bill thank you so much for listening to that espresso i hope you enjoyed your morning coffee and are ready for the day let's be having your boy and please do subscribe follow the podcast share this espresso on whatsapp if you liked it and also there's a link to our newsletter in the show description i spend 15 hours toiling and writing this bad boy it's full of wonderful wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink.

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