Oli Broom: Founder of The Slow Cyclist

0:00Welcome to the Jazz Shapers podcast from Mishkondorea. What you're about to hear was originally broadcast on Jazz FM. However, the music has been cut due to rights issues.

0:13This is Jazz Shapers with Elliot Moss on Jazz FM. In partnership with Mishkondorea. It's business, but it's personal.

0:26Listen in colour. Welcome to Jazz Shapers with me, Elliot Moss, bringing the shapers of the business world together with the musician shaping jazz, soul and blues. My guest today is Ollie Broom, founder of The Slow Cyclist, a cycle tour operator leading adventures across Europe and Africa. In 2009, having left his uninspiring desk job in London, Ollie cycled 28 ,000 kilometres, yes, you heard that right, 28 ,000 kilometres over 14 months to Brisbane to watch the Ashes Cricket Series between England and Australia in the Gabba. A life-changing adventure, the expedition raised over£75 ,000 for the British Neurological Research Trust and the Lord's Taverners, a youth sports charity, and gave Ollie a deep love for bicycle travel.

1:07Taking a job as the project director of the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation and part of the team that built Rwanda's first dedicated cricket ground, Ollie spent weekends exploring Rwanda's natural treasures by bicycle and began hatching plans to share what he saw with friends. But it was in the remote Transylvanian villages with his wife Clemmie, where Ollie designed the very first slow cyclist journey, founded on the belief that great travel experiences mean taking the time to get to know a place, and it's food, therefore, it's history, it's customs, and it's people. The slow cyclists now offer small group cycling and walking adventures across 12 countries, working with local experts and guides for, as they say, curious, open-minded travelers with some juice in their legs.

1:48So, Ollie, welcome. You didn't arrive on a bike. You're crocked. I am indeed, yeah. Yeah, nice to be here, Elliot. I did not arrive on a bike. I've got a broken ankle. But it wasn't done falling off a bike, because that wouldn't be cool for a guy who runs a business where you take people on bikes. You're exactly right, yeah. I was playing with my kids, forgot I was 45, not 20, and had a fall. But we're going to go back in time for a bit, because when you were a bit younger, and you were back in 2009, you decided to travel, as I said, 28 ,000 kilometres, 14 months, to go and watch a bit of cricket.

2:21I did, as you do. As you do, I was going to say, what possessed you? not happy in my job, wanting an adventure, thought 14 months on the road might help me figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Arrived 14 months later, still didn't have a clue, but had one hell of an adventure. Yeah. What does one, in all that time, what does one think about? I mean, don't you partly think about getting, you know, one bit closer to your end goal, which is to arrive and watch a bit of cricket? Yeah. God, you're going back now. Like, what did I think about? What were you thinking about? Does it absorb you, that sense of, I'm exhausted, but I've got to keep going here.

2:55There's weirdly not that much time to, you sort of get into a rhythm of thinking. I sort of, I would wake up in the morning and I'd look forward to that thing of being on a bike and thinking about something specific. So I would definitely plan my thoughts for the first half of the day, for the first part of the day. And it might be like, right, I'm going to think about what I want to do the rest of my life, or I'm going to think about how I'm going to get over the border in a few days time or whatever it was. But inevitably something would then happen to just take your mind off that thought, that planned thought, whether it was a puncture or a man running out offering you lunch or someone desperate that you stay in their house overnight or a car that stops and they want to chat.

3:39So it's just endless things to, you know, whether the rain comes or the snow comes and you have to find a little somewhere to shelter. So it was weird. It was like, I thought there'd be loads of time for thinking but it didn't didn't seem that way and and preparation uh bike arrives the night before for the first time you've got a panniers on and panniers if you don't know are little bags that sit either side of the bike where you can store things and then along this journey of course was it by design that you hadn't and you couldn't map out every last stop and every last left and right was that kind of part of the plan yeah so hadn't ridden my bike until the day before you're right um so preparation was not not not the best and then in terms of like planning the route i planned like semi-planned a route through europe um along following the blue lines on the map the rivers so i thought it's flat i'm really unfit i'll start flat and then you know it's going to get hilly as i get towards eastern europe so i may as well be fit by then and this is probably pre-proper digital map so this is on paper right yeah i had paper maps all the way and i used to tear off the bit of the map that I just covered and chuck it away but yeah it was all paper maps yeah and the wonder lost um your dad had done a big journey to cape was it cape town yeah my dad drove from London to cape town in a Land Rover in the early 70s and his stories and his he'd do slideshows on a weekend for us in the house and stick them up on the wall and talk us through all these adventures and they seemed really exciting so I definitely inspired my travels um and maybe somewhere deep inside and as I was dreaming up my own travels I wanted to go one better and go on a bike instead of another you know with the help of an engine.

5:19So as much as the cycling may have been coincidental to your life the travel probably was from a very young age you know your dad's there going just look at this and it must have felt magical. Yeah it was definitely about travel and then the bicycling bit came later. I remember stories like you know them breaking down in Ethiopia somewhere. And there's photos of him being surrounded by tons and tons, you know, an entire village basically. And then one of them had to go off on a donkey for two days to get petrol. And so my dad waited with the car and these villagers. And, you know, stories like that were just, to me growing up, just magic and were definitely a big part of the inspiration for me wanting to go off and have my own adventures, yeah.

6:01Oli Broom is my business shaper. He's the founder of The Slow Cyclist. We were talking about 14 months of time on your own. to have space to think about what you wanted to do in life. And as you arrived at the Gabba in Brisbane, and of course you hadn't made up your mind. You were in an uninspiring job. You're a chartered surveyor, which is an honourable profession. And then you kind of had this break and then various things happened. The Rwanda piece, you went to set up, you know, they create the cricket ground and all of that. What's it like finding something that you love juxtaposed with not being in love with the thing that you do?

6:36For me, it's really important to do something. I love. I don't have Sunday blues, you know, whatever, these days. I used to do all the time. I need work to be the thing I really, really care about or something I really care about. And yeah, it means a lot to me that I couldn't be getting out of bed every morning if it wasn't something I was really passionate about. Was it brave or was it just, were you compelled to do something you wanted to do? Yeah, I don't think it was brave, actually. I think you're exactly right. I think I just, I was compelled. I just couldn't go on. You know, charter surveying was, was fine.

7:09And actually it's a really good career. And, you know, you could see a lot of my mates were still thinking, why are you chucking this way? It's like, it's great. You know, just wasn't quite right for me. Just didn't, didn't quite sit right. Um, so I think it was a, yeah, it was that sort of thing of being compelled to, to do something, to take action. And as I, you know, as I said, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wasn't doing what I should be doing long term. And that moment where it wasn't on the bike going to Australia, it was in conversation with your wife in Transylvania, which has a ring to it.

7:41I was chatting to Clemmy and we decided, was there an aha moment or did it just evolve over a few days or weeks? It evolved, as I think lots of the best things do. It was definitely while I was out in Transylvania, I realized that it was going to work. It was a bit of a leap into the dark, going to Romania and finding this beautiful place and thinking people would probably come cycling with me there. But it was while living out there and learning how tourism worked and being a nascent tour operator worked, that it evolved into something that I felt like would be really good fun and that was something I could spend the rest of my career doing.

8:22And your minimum viable product, just give me a quick overview of that very first time you took a bunch of people out on a cycle, on a tour. Well, I invited 15 friends out to join me. Test the product on friends, that was the idea. And gosh, it was very different to what it is now. It was really simple. We were sort of camping in orchards and we were on normal bikes, whereas these days most of our guests are on electric bikes. but you could see the joy that it gave people just being out in the forests and meadows of Transylvania somewhere that perhaps they felt like they couldn't explore on their own too easily seeing bear prints in the forest and hearing bears it was exciting so yeah I knew I had something from there and the faces I imagine the problem with being an adult is that you lose your sense of play and of wonder and you disconnect because you end up in your bubble of life whatever it is that you're doing.

9:17If you can go back to that first campfire and you look at these people, these grown adults, what were you seeing? Well, I realized that it was about joy. We were giving people the joy of being somewhere new, somewhere exciting, somewhere with friends. And I think joy is so important. We wake up most days and we know what's going to happen. When you're on a journey like the journeys we take people on, you have no idea. really what's going to happen. I mean, there's all sorts of ways that we design our experiences like that. You know, we don't share all the details in advance. We're quite pared back in what we provide to people in advance.

9:57And when I set the Slow Cyclist up, one of the things that I wanted to recreate from my trip to Australia was that sense of serendipity or surprises. And, of course, it's much harder to do when you're going on a journey that, you know, someone has planned pretty well, i.e. the Slow Cyclist. but we do, it is about getting those little surprises and moments that amaze into each day. And that, from the very start, that was a thing. So yeah, around the campfire, I mean, I'm thinking now about the singing and music around the campfire on that very first trip. It was joyous. Yeah, stay with me for joy and serendipity, I hope, from my guest.

10:35It's Olly Brim. He's in the hot seat today. He'll be back in a couple of minutes. Right now, we're going to hear a taster from the Mishcon Innovation Series, which you can find in all the major podcast platforms. Lydia Kellett invites business founders to share their practical advice and industry insights for those of you thinking about starting your very own thing. In this clip, we hear from Paul Biestel, CEO of HutenBio, a technology company aiming to decouple long-distance transportation from fossil fuels with HBX. What a good name. Their zero-carbon biofuel. The Mishcon Innovation Series. Inspiration from founders of cutting-edge businesses.

11:07In association with Jazz Shapers with Mishcon Derea. What advice would you give to those who wish to bring a new idea to the energy industry? I think parts of the energy industry are quite closed. They do what they've always done. They tend to be very safety critical. And actually, if you're worried about and you need to keep people alive, you have to be cautious about new. So you need some resilience. You need the ability to navigate obstacles. But I would say I think the tide is turning. I think the energy industry as a whole is seeing lots of new opportunities. is they're used to spending capital on large projects.

11:41They're used to going large. So if you can convince them what you're doing is good, there's a big opportunity. And I think the final thing is actually the energy sector needs people to not avoid it. I've talked to lots of new graduates who are saying, I don't want to work for oil and gas. And I kind of get why they take that position. But the only way you can evolve an industry is by actively engaging and moving it along with them. The Mishcon Innovation Series. In association with Jazz Shapers, with Mishkon Derea. Jazz Shapers on Jazz FM. In partnership with Mishkon Derea. It's business, but it's personal.

12:19You can enjoy all our former Business Shapers on the Jazz Shapers podcast and you can, in this very programme again, if you pop Jazz Shapers into your favourite podcast platform. We don't mind which one that is. My guest today is Olly Broome, founder of The Slow Cyclist, a cycle tour operator leading adventures across Europe and Africa. So here we are nine years later. The thing's happening. I went on your website. I got some FOMO pretty quickly. I've got my eyes on Armenia, amongst other places. You're running a business now. Has the joy and the serendipity gone? How do you hold on to it if it's still there?

12:51It's evolved. It's changed. I used to spend my days taking our guests on bike rides around different parts of Europe. Yeah, you were in it. You were the hands-on guy. Exactly, yeah. So it's definitely changed. But I'm very lucky that I love all different, challenges. So I love that in the early days. But I've got a growing family now. Well, actually, hopefully not growing, but in some ways. Health warning, two children, plenty. We will remain at four, four of us. But yeah, it's evolved. I don't want to be out on the road the whole time now. I love it when I do, but it would be too much. Now I love the challenge of building a team, making sure the team are getting what they want out of their careers.

13:35but particularly it does remain that my sort of incessant insistence on quality and improvement and i keep coming back to like giving joy um you know there's definitely new challenges coming up in the next decade or so of the slow cyclists like making sure that we really have a positive impact on the places that we travel through uh would be one you know building a team that are really happy in their in their careers there's all sorts of new challenges coming along all the time So that's what I really love. And how do you know if it's good enough? How do you know if what you're looking at is at the standards that Ollie Broome is, you know, is A, good enough for Ollie, but B, is going to be good enough for the people that want to enjoy the ride?

14:17Because that's a tricky one. You're your own boss. Yeah, I mean, there's a reason we've grown, I suppose, at the pace that we've grown at. And when I say the pace, I mean like relatively slow pace to match the slow cyclist, I suppose. You know, a business like ours, I'm not interested in growing it really quickly. I'm interested in growing at a speed that feels natural you know we're self-funded we're not trying to grow for growth's sake we're sort of growing actually because the experiences we host our guests on are really good and everything's all included isn't it and they want to come back and is that right you get the number and for that flights as well or is that separate flights is excluded but everything else and actually a lot of the feedback we get from guests is that that's just an absolute joy it's that we call it a decision detox so people don't have to think they don't have to reach into their wallet they just have to enjoy themselves well they don't have to but we try to help them enjoy themselves we get that feedback a lot I think we're faced with so many decisions these days in our everyday lives actually what a joy to be just switching off for a few days and letting us look after everything and you just have to follow the bike in front of you people often say you're passionate your hobby shouldn't become your job because then it's no longer a joy it's actually just a job where do you get your decision detox from where do you switch off that's a very good question um i i do create time for you know i mean i i switch off actually when i go for a dog walk um i go for a bike ride locally i occasionally i've been known to throw a pot um as in you know ceramics that sort of thing that that playing the piano that sort of stuff like where I'm actually probably a walk is not the best example because I do then still think of work but actually like playing piano or throwing a pot or something like that is focusing on that thing and you can't think of anything else and that's really where I where I find I'm able to switch off and a yes no answer have you are you still in love with cycling?

16:16yes absolutely yeah yeah more than ever I mean I love being like in the forest of Transylvania or yeah I mean yeah one of my favourite bike rides is along this chain of volcanoes in northern Rwanda. I think of that bike quite an awful lot. I haven't done it now for a few years, but, you know, God, I would love to be there. I was about to say right now, but I'm very happy where I am talking to you guys. You can't go in here, Oli Broom. It strikes me that leadership, I imagine people working for you would like you. Why do they like you? Why do you think they like you? Why do you think they enjoy being led by Oli Broom?

16:52Yeah, I was about to say you're asking the wrong person. I know I am. And I'm going to get, obviously, when your team listens to this, I go, you should only know, Elliot. Why didn't you ask us before talking to him? But why do you think they might enjoy working for you and the business? Actually, this question is relatively prescient because we did a session on Monday in the team about appreciation. So everyone went around the table and said, why are they appreciated a different member of the team? I'd appreciate if you left, Ollie. That's actually what we really want to do, but they didn't tell you that.

17:21I actually can't. Right now, I can't remember what someone said about me. But I suspect what they might say is that, going back to the point I made a minute ago about growth, we're not growing the slow cyclist for the sake of growing the slow cyclist. We've just got a business and it happens to be doing okay because people are loving what we do. And I think that translates into how the business operates. We're ambitious, yes, but there is that sense of like, we all want to do something that is good. We want to do good. We want to have an impact. We want to spread joy. We want to dedicate ourselves to really high standards.

18:00We want to be unique. I think probably that, the beginning, the start of it, that comes from me. Maybe that's what people say, but God, I don't know. But is there something intrinsic to cycling and being physical is the sense of you've got to do the activity, you've got to be in it. And when we are as humans, we do something physical like that and repetitive, we tend to stop thinking. And psychologists talk about being in flow. And ideally, when you're doing something academic or intellectual, you're in flow. But actually, mostly it happens when you're doing stuff. Do you still touch that, do you think, in your business, even though people aren't literally on their bikes?

18:36Is that something that's inherent to the way that you run your business? Yeah, I think there's an element of flow to things. And I think when you're standing still, it's not a good place to be for a business. Actually, the rate we're growing at at the moment feels exciting. What is that rate? Does that have interest? A couple of percent growth each year? No, it's more than that. It's been up way higher than that. This year, it's around 15%. But that feels exciting. And I think, as I said, That's growth for growth's sake, it's not what we're after. But moving forward and developing as a team, we're big on everyone coming up with ideas.

19:17It's not just about the directors or those at the top coming up with ideas. So everyone's encouraged to think for themselves. So there's that, yeah, I don't know. Maybe there's something in that idea of the flow. But you enjoy being the captain of the ship, as it were. I don't mean because it's the title. I mean because you feel like you're in that place you want to be and that you want these people to be led to somewhere that you enjoy? I do like being, I do like the slow cyclist, you know, being my baby. And yeah, I do enjoy that. And I think, you know, going back to, to what I was doing before, one of the, you know, chartered surveying, for example, one of the things I, I just didn't like working for other people.

19:57And I didn't feel like, actually, you know, my, my trip to Australia, you know, that was my idea. I executed it. And I found great satisfaction in that. And I suppose, you know, we're getting into like, psychology territory here earlier this is dangerous but um this is what happens ollie the um i suppose there's something i don't know whether it's an appealing trait or not but there's something in the idea like the slow cyclist was was my baby i really enjoy you know like really enjoy that fact um but equally like i brought people into the business who challenged me you know endlessly and i think that's really important my business partner you know looks at looks at the world in some ways and pretty differently although there are many similarities as well but you know it's important to bring people on who are you know frankly better than you at almost everything and different and i have yes you have different yeah ollie broom final chat coming up he's not available for hire just to be clear he's also um bringing in some music here on jazz shapers from john batiste that is what ollie broom has managed to do well done that's in just a moment don't go anywhere jazz shapers on jazz fm in partnership with mishkondorea it's business but it's personal ollie broom is my fabulous guest just for a few more minutes he's the founder of the slow cyclist i think right at the heart of um what i hear from you ollie is a sense of the importance of connection whether that's to nature whether that's to travel and therefore people culture history food, which I love food, whatever it might be.

21:29How do you stay connected with all of this from the role of the CEO and the founder? Well, I still visit all the places that we travel to. And although, you know, the reason I set up the Slow Cyclist was not necessarily to do with all these things, but very quickly I realized that it was, and you've hit the nail on the head, it's like, it's about connecting people from all, you know, from all different parts of the world, connecting people with these wild and beautiful places that we go to and asking them to appreciate these places. So how do I stay connected? I mean, I'm involved in the day-to-day running of these trips.

22:04I was talking to someone in Rwanda yesterday, someone in Transylvania yesterday afternoon as well. I have personal relationships with all the people we work with around the world. And I really love that element of it. As I say, I still get to travel. You know, I'm planning a holiday, family holiday to Rwanda next summer. Lovely. So I'm desperate to go back there for the first time in a few years. You know, I lived in Transylvania for probably a year and a half of the first couple of years that I started The Slow Cyclist. So I feel like a personal connection to some of these places more than others.

22:39But it's something I do feel. And I suppose the stories just keep coming back and it's lovely to hear from our guests what they appreciate about the place they travel to and then for us to eke out these stories and to sort of try and find more guests to come and enjoy. It's almost like I have another 10 hours and we haven't even touched on the millions of stories that one has that you have had traveling. But that sense of openness, of course, enables people to have understanding which then leads to no conflict rather than lots of conflict and obviously that's just a philosophical thing that I think we all would wish would be at the heart of the human condition and what's happening right now.

23:17Speed is the other thing, or rather the absence of speed. If you could wave a magic wand on society now, what would you do in terms of the speed piece? I mean, I think we'd all slow things down a bit, wouldn't we? This is a runaway train at the moment, lots of stuff going on at the moment. And I would like people to spend more time in nature. I think that's just a tonic, isn't it, for slowing down. I was talking to a guy this morning on my way into London and he would say, I don't like London, it's too fast I love living out in the sticks and being a bit slower I don't know what my magic wand would be but I think everyone just needs to get out and experience these wild places there's still so many of them in the world and actually in our country too and I think that's going to have a huge benefit for society generally and get off your phone as well Get off your phone, get out into nature and go slow Those are the things that we give you here on Jazz FM and it's Jazz Shapers and Ollie Broom, you've been brilliant.

24:14Thank you so much for being my guest just before I let you slowly leave. What's your song choice and why have you chosen it? It's a song that I grew to love during COVID. I discovered Sonia Spence during COVID from a playlist a friend shared with me and absolutely love. The first song I fell in love with was a song called Damn Him by Sonia Spence and since then I've chosen today Let Love Flow On. I just think it's silky smooth and just magic and I cook to it quite often and it's just a lovely tune. Sonia Spence there with Let Love Flow On, the song choice of our business shaper today, Olly Bloom.

24:51At the heart of what he does is gives people joy and enables them to reconnect with themselves and with nature. The sense of serendipity that he brings to people who are travelling, leaving a positive impact, being light on the environment, critical to him, and finally, and I really like this, the idea of a decision detox. We take it all away so you don't have to think about anything. You can just be. Great stuff. That's it from me and Jazz Shapers. Have a lovely weekend. Jazz Shapers on Jazz FM. In partnership with Mishkondorea. It's business, but it's personal. We hope you enjoy that edition of Jazz Shapers.

25:25You'll find hundreds more guests available for you to listen to in our archive. To find out more, just search Jazz Shapers on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform. Or head over to mishkon.com forward slash Jazz Shapers.