Espresso: Why All Challenger Brands Should Watch Braveheart - James Cosmo

0:06There has to be this bigger why and as I said to you before we hit the record button James is for challenger food and drink brands founders watch brave heart like there's a lot of lessons in that as as being a founder it's almost like william wallace it and the founder's journey are like intertwined you've got the scottish almost like the challenger brands they're the they're the david you've got the english who are the life who for in our language is sort of the the mars the pepsico the unilever um will wallace has a strong why obviously his wife gets murdered by the the english he has it he has that he has that big fucking fire burning in it burning in his soul i think a lot of founders have that they've got to have that that relentless fire in their soul of course you do there's that famous scene which uh i love when he when he rallies rallies the troops together you know that um what are you in horseback yeah he's on horseback that's one of the best yeah watch yeah if anyone watch i'll put it in the show notes watch four minutes out on youtube if like if you that will get you out of bed that is just insane so yeah but that's leading mobilizing people people listen to this have to get teams together they have to get they have to convince supermarkets to take a part on them there's so much in that yeah and then there's that bit and i think it's when you're trying to go into the uh i think it's the casting you're when you know when you're you're like a shield and you're battering down that oh yeah yeah that is that is the founder's journey every day is i genuinely believe you're getting up i've got this with this podcast suddenly my friends with brands you're running at a brick wall yeah no one's there to support you just need to just keep going and i think i i just it's such a good film for for brands to watch actually and to get them to keep going um but what i want to talk about is how how how you prepare for a role right so because it was campbell the role yeah right yeah um how how did you prepare for that because people see a smidge right they see they see i saw the film it's a two hour three hour film yeah you know what what's the prep what what do you do in the run-up to that first day on set well i uh i mean some actors like to sort of deeply immerse themselves as daniel d lewis and method actors or whatever to deeply immerse themselves and in in the role that's that's that's not me um i think for me it's a more subliminal process i i you know you read the script a few times you start and some subliminally and maybe when you're uh lying in bed falling asleep you think of imagine that character what what was he like what sort of what sort of life did he lead you know how did he how did he regard um living what value did he have on life on other people's lives on his life how how desperately would he cling on to that uh or would he know it would he were those people very different all those questions that you ask yourself and then you have the the the physical side of it you know i can ride horses pretty good anyway but you know going out and riding horses all day and and rehearsing fight scenes it gives you a sort of physical manifestation of of what they were like you know and so that all blends into one you know and then you have your first day on set you're you're like a jelly you're just so nervous but that passes really quickly and then you just get into the the core of the work when you say method acting so that's that's almost like keith ledger in the joker isn't it so yeah that's right all came from stanislavski you know what's what are you actually doing so you're literally walking around like today pretending you're the fucking joker just about yeah yeah yeah i know i remember brendan gleason i said what it was like uh to work with daniel day lewis on gangs of new york and he said he said well he just he had eminem in his earphones and he used to sit outside his winnebago sharpening lines all fucking day you know well just sitting daniel alone just now you know was there on set they are the actor they are yeah the yeah i mean he when he did uh my left foot you know he spent all his time in a wheelchair and having to get carried to the wheelchair and things that was you know but if that's how you and he's a magnificent actor um if that's how you want to approach it and and do it what works for him it sure does you know he's he's one of the finest actors ever um so that's great quick one guys espresso's got a brand new sponsor unleashed Unleashed is inventory management software that talks directly to your finance and econ software.

4:50We use Unleashed daily at Ireland. 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. Candykins, tiny rebel trip always religiously look there's a link in the show notes please feel free to book a call with josh he's a 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 there's a lot of empathy i think what i'm like so what i'm so excited about this conversation right is i've interviewed so many founders in food and drink right and i and i know kind of it's hard but i kind of know the roadmap map to build a great brand i've had a hundred conversations but i've never had a conversation like this but i almost think there's a lot of empathy what you've said there you're like almost thinking about how x character would think in this situation or how they respond to that would they let go of that it's like a there's a lot of empathy in that and i think that in is is such a vital skill in everything for our listeners in terms of being able to see what that other person's feeling thinking and you can almost apply that to leadership so yeah yeah um so so you go on you go on the first day on set and i just have curiosity and like how long would it take to i think i hear stories where that on set is like redentlessly tough and working conditions it's redentless it's a lot less repetitive like what does it say that fighting scene that infamous fighting scene yeah how does that take to film oh we spend on specifics you have to remember that the the um the battle scenes that we filmed in ireland they had about eight hours of battle scenes just fights that they they cut down and cut down and cut down and got the best bit so we spent half of the film doing just battle scenes just fighting so it was you know it it was um physically it was hell you know you're what you're riding about on a horse you're throwing a sword around you're having these what's wrong with that you know so you're tired at night yeah big deal you know um for people that say it's very arduous they've never been down a fucking coal mine yeah yeah yeah so again that's it that's that's arduous because my grandfather was a coal miner and my uncles were all coal miners.

7:26Yeah, so swings and roundabouts, but believe me, acting of any kind ain't as tough as that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a quote from Danny Boyle, and we'll get on to Danny Boyle, but for listeners, he's the director of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, I think did a few other amazing films as well. But he's got a quote and it says, to be a filmmaker you have to lead you have to be psychotic in your desire to do something people always like the easy route you have to push through to push very hard to get something unusual something different again back linking this back to food and drink founders is a lot of our guests are founders uh sort of get more guests are founders but they're having to be that sort of religious psychopath that person believes in themselves what what are some of the leadership lessons you picked up from mel gibson as when he was directing that you think could help listeners because he would always go the extra mile you know if things were tough he would he would he would the first one there the first one they are doing it you know if everyone was exhausted at the end of the day he was the one that was saying right we're going to do this scene because we need to do it it's going to be a fantastic scene everybody up let's go he was the one that was in front you know really and like like that famous book says you know the leader eats last he made sure everyone was okay and up for it before he fed himself that was not literally yeah yeah yeah yeah he was he was he was very much um follow me and it's going to be great that's so interesting so it's almost like like in real life yeah william wallace when he's saying me.

9:11It's like he was actually doing that. He was very much the same. Very much the same. Is there anything you didn't, I asked this to a guest the other week whose business partner is Gordon Ramsay actually. Oh yeah. I love speaking to people who are formidable and have hung out with formidable people. It's just interesting. Is there anything that you didn't expect to learn from Mel Gibson that kind of took you by surprise? Maybe something subtle or something?

9:40I think actually Mel is quite a shy person and just through circumstance and through his profession and what he loves doing, he has to be gregarious and be out there and enthusiastic. But I think he's obviously, should I say introverted, not shy, but introverted. And he's a deeply religious man, which is absolutely fine with me. But I didn't realize how much his faith impacted on his everyday life. And his generosity is extraordinary. Generosity not only in gifts, but he was generous with his time to lots and lots of people. He would always have time to talk to actors to discuss what they were doing.

10:49That was never the question. It was always, you know, if you said, Mel, he was always there. And I remember we were doing my death scene and he came up and he said, it was just after lunch we were going to shoot it so it's the afternoon and he said jim he said do you know the cheapest thing on this set and i said i've got no what what do you mean he went it's the film in the camera he said use as much as you like just do it just go for it and that was psychologically that was really smart because it took the the heat the nerves out of it and i knew that i could have this great big film crew all standing around and i could shoot that scene i could just keep saying i'd like to do another one i'd like to do another i could do that for the next six hours right of course the heat was off and we did it in an hour it was all done yeah i don't really psychological yeah yeah not a trick but it was it's changing yeah it's changing the the frame like I remember I used to work for a brand and again kind of playing this sort of food and drink lens and I used to get super nervous going to speak to like the big retailers and someone said to me it was like don't forget that like it's quite crass right it was like don't forget that that buyer's probably taken a shit in the last 25 or 4 hours and it's just like oh yeah I'm just speaking to a human being but that's a great lesson in leadership thank 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 fun episode it will be in the show notes a link will be in the show notes the full episode thank you so much please stay friends as well it means the world to me