this is TOO MENTAL

0:00Hello there people and listeners of Hungry podcast. Today I welcome my fucking self to the podcast no guest this week so yeah I wanted to kind of just do a bit of a solo episode actually this week has been completely mental like 50 shades of bonkers I set myself the goal at the beginning of this year of showing up every Monday come rain, sun, shine whatever the weather be there Monday ATM to release a podcast episode whereas this week it's just been absolutely mental we've got the supper club tonight in Peckham which is going to be amazing we, well not we, it's I I'm getting on a flight millions and millions and millions well not millions, hundreds of miles away on Monday so when this goes live I'll probably be somewhere in the sky eating a rather tepid, revolting meal but yeah, I've got one of the biggest interviews of my life next week so I've been going ham and getting all the prep done for that but what I wanted to do with today's episode is I wanted to go like everyone all of us who are building 200 brands are going to have these moments where it's like oh my god I just there's just so much to do I don't know how to do it there's so much pressure I've got to show up I've got to get this listing to work I'm going to do it for the investors and it can feel quite overwhelming so I wanted to go through well a couple of things first thing is go through some of the key fundamental lessons we've what I've learned from the guests that I almost keep in my back pocket so when things are going Pete Tong I'm like right I'll use these and they're just principles that guide me through they're like a compass then I want to talk about a new project that's just dropped whoopsies cuff me rewind but yeah I've just started a new creative project that's given me boundless satisfaction and joy and I'd love to share it with you because I think it'll really help you and then I want to talk about YouTube because that's a new thing that is coming on my radar um so yeah so this this week is completely mental um I've yeah it's just crazy like I haven't been able to get my my stuff edited I've got loads going on and I want to go through through some of the principles and I think people often think I only spend two hours with each guest I mean that's a load of bollocks like I spend I was thinking about this the other day actually on a walk pre my cold shower was, you know, I actually probably spent about 38 hours with these guests.

2:34By the time I've done the prep, by the time I've done the interview, by the time I've done the write-up, by the time I've done the posts and the micro content, etc, etc. So you really get to kind of understand what makes that person tick. And then I just have these principles locked and loaded in my back pocket. So the first one I want to explore with you is bite off more than you can chew then chew like hell i mean that is just so banging and it's delicious and it's from stuart forsyth who is the founder of minor figures and he was like mate when you're stressed all right just bite off more than you can chew then chew like hell and i was like yeah why not and i think being a challenger brand you should feel these moments of like ah it should feel whoa this is intense i think the more you're biting off and the more you're like this is insane it feels like a roller coaster that's actually a good thing like uncertainty is a compass it means you're dreaming big it means you're doing good things so I always remind myself to yeah you should bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell you should be doing a summer club tonight you should be doing a podcast today you should be doing a podcast tomorrow you should be getting on the plane you should be doing a book differently so just embrace that bite off more than you can chew than chew like hell uh number 12 por favor never give in make it happen uh this is by paul ainsworth so paul is maybe one of the most revered chefs in the country he's got restaurant empire down in cornwall uh and this was by far the most nerve-wracking interview i've ever done um but he taught me two things and he taught me one is is you just never give in you you never give in and the amount of times this week and i think you'll all experience so you're just like I can't be asked to do this I can't be asked to go to that meeting I can't be asked to see that um investor I can't be asked to go and look at the rate of sale on Excel I mean I've always struggled with that as well um but but you just never give in and I just I just think there's a lot of times I'm like oh I can't be asked but you just never give and you just you just you just show up um and actually Jamie Lane from Candy Kittens his his whole thing is success is just showing up just show up come rain sun snow sleet clouds whatever and then the other one is make it happen so I think another key theme from our guests is that when their backs against the wall they kind of just make it happen and I think if you just have that mindset um you can really kind of as Bruce Lee says it's kind of corny be like water you can flow through obstacles um and And yeah, I suppose this is what I'm trying to do now.

5:07It's like we don't have a podcast for Monday, but I've got to be there on Monday. So I'm doing this and maybe this could be good. Maybe it could be shit. Who knows? We'll find out. But yeah, I think just never give in and make it happen is a really good one if you're struggling. The next guest is Rich from Moju. And he, I mean, he's an epic guest. But his whole piece was just no optionality. You don't give yourself an option. There's no, oh, there's a plan B, there's a plan C, there's a plan, you know, no, no, there's no option. Like, well, linking this to Paul, you never get it, you make it happen.

5:41And I think there can always be that thing of, oh, maybe I should do this. If you're not full hog, you're not full in, like, don't bother. So I think I don't let, there's no option. I just have to keep pledging, pledging forward. And this really helps me. So I think if you are feeling a bit wobbly or you are feeling a bit, like, this is mental, as is the title of this post or this little mini podcast, then, yeah, just don't give yourself the option. Just keep plowing forward. The next one is, well, the second to last one is by Jimmy Cregan or Jim Cregan, who's an absolute G. Love that guy so much.

6:21And there's this whole thing of fear. And fear is something every founder, brand faces. Fear going into a buyer's meeting. fear speaking to that investor fear that the purchase order hasn't gone out fear that there's no availability just fear is kind of a constant in the challenger brand journey but fear is actually excitement and this is something that jimmy taught me and this is just before he used to do gigs uh and be like the mc and like get people hyped up come on g um before they would go out on stage and uh yeah he he was just like mate fear is excitement so fear is excitement like tonight I've got to do a little speech probably and I'll be like you know touching 50 shades of cloth but having that fear is excitement like this is sick like we've got people in a room together we're you know it's amazing just have a little uh slurp of coffee so yeah fear is excitement so if you're feeling scared just realize it's excitement they're they're cousins they're brothers they're sisters the final one is by well it's serendipity versus strategy and it's by camilla from rude health and i literally this is my i mean i would get this tattooed just above my derriere so when i'm in ibiza people know that i am very hashtag serendipitous hashtag no strategy um but yeah this is amazing so i think you can get so wrapped up in is the strategy right is the strategy right am i doing the right thing am i doing this am i doing that i'm just like fuck that just serendipity if you just keep showing up if you do all of the of the above if you bite off more than you can chew then chew like hell if you never give in you make it happen if you give yourself no option if you embrace fear serendipity will happen like and i really do believe that if you are feeling really wobbly and you're feeling like oh is this actually going to work just keep taking a step keep taking a step and then serendipity will come your way um i mean serendipity does sound a bit like a david brandt david brent or david brent um cover band but yeah serendipity is probably my favorite word on the planet mate um um cool so i hope those i hope those help you and yeah i'd love to know if you've got any other key lessons or nuggets of wisdom please um drop me a line or dm me i'll put my email in the show notes the next thing i want to talk to you about is a new project that has given me kind of boundless endless creative freedom and i love linkedin i'm a linkedin whore to be honest i'm obsessed with it I check it all day every day and you know I'm a bit of a light fiend but LinkedIn's been amazing but I do think writing content now on LinkedIn has become somewhat popified Taylor Swift eyed Marley Cyrus eyed it's become kind of like pop music you know you you put you know what's worked you put three little emojis being like you know maybe a picture of yourself crying after you've fucking shat yourself on the train back from Waterloo to Farnham and you know you it's it's just so easy to get that content it's short content it's popified it's amazing and I love it and I do it but it is popified but I've just started a newsletter called A Hungry Feast and it's like the depth and the level of creativity I'm going into I'm like almost feel like I'm just almost like say I was almost surfing on the or swimming on the on the top of the waters writing content on LinkedIn this is like diving deep down into the oceans of all the abyss of creativity that's a bit deep my well hashtag lol um morning coffee's kicking in but yeah so that's um it's yeah it's amazing and I really love doing it and the way it works is just super simple start a main dessert so each week you get three pieces of wisdom so it's learning from the biggest learnings from the podcast guests or it could be biggest learnings from stuff I'm reading and it's all about helping you as a challenger food and drink founder you know scale and I really love doing it and I'd love you to come on board with the journey and on that note I've now teed me up very nicely for the next part okay so I'm actually going to read one of these to you this one got really good feedback and it is the only certainty is uncertainty and they are quite verbose and crass but i am verbose and crass and they are i always get nervous when i'm reading things out i think there's some sort of trauma when my year six teacher was trying to make me read of mice and men in front of the class i was like Yeah, then he's petting a puppy for whatever other bunnies.

11:06But anyway, here goes. I shut my eyes tight. They burned. I bit down hard. Grimaced. Explosion. Kaboom. In the face. Arriba, arriba. Sorrow explosion. Zoom, zing, zag, sorbed around my head like an iridescent orange and pink and chlorine blue pinball machine on Mars. Yeah, I'd certainly have a coffee when I wrote that. My third tequila of the night. Waitrose festooned a semburo upon my nut, crowned off nut. And then if you subscribe, which I hope you do, you'll see a lovely picture of me wearing a sombrero. I chortled through volcanoes of nachos stacked high, dalsan afari, red hot sauce, tempered with cooling puddles of sour cream and lizard green guacamole.

11:44Azteca, a little Mexican joint bolted on, jutting out of the King's Road, Chelsea like an odious bat mole, on a hairy pugnacious penny loafer, ha ha ha, salmon, chinos, banka wanky, wanky, wanker, sorry. yeah that was a bit harsh but I think I'd probably been at the ship on a Sunday so yeah please forgive me wearing sombrero I felt uncertain anxious insecure out of place I did and this is a metaphor for the last month at Hungary the constant feeling of insecurity uncertainty often I think what the fuck am I even doing and as I'm recording this it's 6 41 a.m in the morning I'm thinking what the fuck am I doing this is kind of a constant theme back to the post is this going to work what's the right way to do this where's the blueprint who's got the roadmap then we go into the starter so the starters the only certainty is uncertainty humans crave certainty so do founders certainty certainty if we hire the ceo from mars everything will be okay certainty if we launch this npd will lock unlock heaps of new listings certainty if we raise the amount of money and just follow this plan it'll work out but certainty is the fire extinguisher that kills potent creative dynamite.

12:55One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Peter Thiel, aim for creative monopoly, escape competition. You should also check out my episode I did last week with Alex. We talk all about this banging and I got so much great feedback on that. Defo, check that out. Anyway, back to it. Uncertainty is the key to unlock the door to the path of creative monopoly. Founders and teams must do things that have never been done before. We must lean into uncertainty and fear it's a superpower the other side of uncertainty is innovation and like i truly truly believe this uncertainty means you're miles from the competition equals creative monopoly uncertainty means this hasn't been done before equals creative monopoly monopoly sorry um creative uncertainty sorry it means this there's no roadmap or plan you create it creative morality the other side of fear is boldness fear is a calling a sign to keep pushing forward when others won't fear means you're about to escape the bloody red competition drenched excuse me oceans to find gin clear serene turquoise seas um then i don't know i think this was just after they'd done the coronation so i've got a picture of hugh edwards there saying news at 10 fear and uncertainty are the compass um how bloody good was i with the bloody crown and the bloody bbc coverage eh um but yeah so then fear and uncertainty are the compass for challenger brands if you no longer feel fear and uncertainty you're becoming bland and it's so true if you if you become bland you ain't got a brand bro um founders and leaders must foster um and encourage fear and uncertainty how how are you gonna do that so what i've written down here is what is the opposite of this idea so the opposite of a good idea is a good idea i'll have rory sutherland to check that um episode out he's got a great bit about saying um you know uh what's what's the opposite of star what's flat whites or fuck off genius um another quote i love and this is what i've written down is how can we view this problem from the one one way one way wound one way wound wrong way round and James Dyson and then the peronator the peronite peronice to general always always ask why why why why why why embrace fear and uncertainty cool now on to our main course so gin and tonics fiery in Dido white flag cool let's jump in so why your packaging actually changes the taste of your products after six weeks lots of questioning it finally made sense neighbors rolled their eyes gave me repulsed looks in february thursday evenings were like church service shut the lappy pour myself a ginny tom tom wet the baby's head uh can you get that's me by the end of the close of the play please i don't know why i wrote this ages ago but yeah i find it weird when people say close of play it's like fuck it now um they probably sign their email off with a j or a g or a y um anyway saunter upstairs slip into my violent mustard yellow crocs start shuffling to paul simon's you can call me out hashtag first move advantage hashtag early adopter dancing mellowed out the malevolent mania of lockdown so yeah i actually wrote this in lockdown after my first song and in between my dido white flag fire eating break dancing set i dropped back um i dropped a big old hunk of ice into my gnt bosh it made sense perry hayden taylor taught me your packaging changes the taste of your product at the time i was baffled.com but now I understand.

16:25Great packaging is putting ice in your G &T. It awakens your product and makes it taste a hundred times better. If product is beer, packaging is sun-tept. If product is fish and chips, packaging is seed-sized. Great packaging tells a story and makes people feel something. That feeling subconsciously makes the product taste better. So that was the main course of the Friday feast or the hungry feast and on to desserts. Maybe grab yourself a drink maybe, you know, relax nip to the loo, you know I'll get you a nice hot towel before we tuck into the desserts, okay but yeah, a dessert of denim, so there's a guy I absolutely love, he's been a big, big inspiration for the book, so this is me just talking, I'm not reading, I'll tell you when I'm reading it it's a guy called David Hyatt he's the founder of Hyatt Jeans and the Do Lecture series But anyway, this guy's been a huge inspiration for me.

17:23So this is what I wrote. You need to enjoy the wondrous work of David Hyatt, of Hyatt Jeans. And I deeply implore you to check out his do lecture series, which I do. Some of David's quotes that wet my whistle. Let's have another sip of coffee.

17:44What you dream is what you do. So dream big. Yeah, big, bigger. I don't think I'm dreaming big enough right now, like dream fucking big, interesting things happen, you do interesting things, your gold is new gold to somebody, someone else, yeah, say no, it's okay to scale slow in a world that's addicted to scale and growth, I've become more and more thinking about this, scale is great, but there's a fucking fetishization with scale, isn't there, it's like you watch all this stuff in silicon valley it's like did i scaled and then it was just so so let me start the business it's like this whole thing of scaling fast and look i'll be honest like the podcast is poor gassing on growth maybe i need to change that but i think there's something in scaling right scaling slow um you know you could get a waitress listing tomorrow or a sainsbury's listing tomorrow if you haven't built slowly into the indies and the foundations and built the brand awareness what is the fucking point you're going to get kicked out and then you're back to square one i think there's a big piece on growing slow and growing right and going organic um strategy gets you a better result without more effort love that my whole thing uh is do less better say no focus is saying no david singh is from the same hinge sheet as me is um never underestimate the small gathering of remarkable people i've got that tonight i cannot wait it is the supper club in peckham i've even got myself a tote bag and some new effort ones for it which is kind of cool uh yeah just went to like this kind of hipster store in shornwich um yeah it's gonna be weird and they've actually got an earring as well which will be quite cool uh anyway um but yeah so yeah never understand the small gathering remarkable people so yeah that is it really appreciate reading it if you've got a question or idea let's chat so that is the newsletter the reason i love doing it is it's it's a slow conversation i think um you LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, I love it all, but it's like machine guns of fucking posts, isn't it?

19:44Whereas this allows me to have a slow conversation with you. I write these as if it's me and you having dinner. That's literally how I think of it. It's like, imagine you and I having dinner. This is what we talk about. And then I'd love you to kind of reciprocate that and say, yeah, this is what I love. This is what I didn't love. This is what I'd like you to talk more about. But yeah, so that was today's episode. it was short, snappy, off the cuff, off the hip tell me if it was shit tell me if it was good oh and the final thing is YouTube so I'm going to put the link to our YouTube channel which has been a right palaver getting all that shite sorted I wish I'd started that earlier but I haven't but yeah that is now live so I'll put a link to the episode with Alex because I think lots of people have been asking me to watch this on YouTube so yeah have a wonderful day and yeah please subscribe to the email and the podcast both you'd make me so fucking happy mate honestly it doesn't take me a lot to be fucking happy do you know what I mean um cool nice one bros