He built a 1,000-person festival in 7 months with no audience

0:00Someone's listening to this now and they're thinking, I want to start a business in X. What's the one question that they should be asking themselves before they kind of go out and do that? I was in a bath and I even put in chat TPT. If you were speaking to Jamie Lang on stage tomorrow for 45 minutes at an event in front of a few hundred people, what questions would you ask him? So I've owned businesses from the ripe age of 21, was my first limit company I had. I'm 42 now. I have 29 years of owning businesses. The sort of problem that I solve is starting new things, creating chaos, and then fixing it and rinse and repeat.

0:32I was the youngest landlord Green King I've ever had. I opened a bar, but in the same breath, I then opened a women's clothes shop just randomly with a friend. We had 1 ,000 people in the field, three stages, 40 speakers. Did you learn to delegate? If someone doesn't turn up, you do that job. If the cleaner doesn't turn up, you clean. If the chef doesn't turn up, cook. If there was one pivotal moment within owning the business... Andy, we have a meeting. We do. We have a meeting. Locked in. You're here, live in Manchester. Big question to kick off. Who are you and what problem do you solve? So who are my problem?

1:05So my name's Andy Coleman. So I've owned businesses from the ripe age of 21, was my first limited company I had. I'm 42 now. So I've had 21 businesses, 21 years of owning businesses. So really my sort of problem that I solve is starting new things, creating chaos and then fixing it and rinse and repeat over and over again. So generally that's what I've been doing. Nice. When I was 21, I was thinking about Jager bombs and buying Topman T-shirts. Why were you thinking about starting a business? So at 21, so I was managing a pub. So just quickly, I was in sixth form and I got kicked out of sixth form and I was washing up in a pub at the time.

1:46And I remember my boss at the time, Steve, who actually I later employed in life. So it's pretty cool, pretty full circle thing there. He said, what do you want to do? I said, Steve, I haven't got a clue, mate. I said, I haven't even told my parents. I'm not going to sixth form anymore. And it was the last century to college. They're trying to be a chef. So I'd done that for like five years. And then I ended up managing a pub. And then this pub come up. And I was like, I'll give it a go. I think that was the sort of the gut feeling. I thought, I'll just try it. But I feel like if it was a pub or I was a plumber or a postman or whatever it might have been, I feel like there was always going to be that level up where I go, I think I could do this.

2:17So why don't we just suck it in the sea and see what happens, you know? When you mention that to people, like you say, right, I'm going to, I think in this, I mean, this day and age and this economy, I don't think anyone's thinking about starting a pub. But when you're saying that to your friends or your family of like, I might just give it a go. What was the general consensus from them? It's a good question. So strong backing because I've already proved my worth. So I managed that pub for a couple of years beforehand. So I knew it. So it wasn't an initial, you know, building something in your bedroom, you know, startup situation.

2:48situation i'd already run the course slightly in terms of that business so um it was a case of then just going through the motions i was really fortunate that my parents um gave me uh like i went to the bank borrowed some money and then they guaranteed it which obviously a lot of people haven't got that you know that ability to do so i was really fortunate in that respect um and it was just just went for it i mean i was living in the pub already i was running it you know so really the handover was like it was nothing i was the youngest landlord green king i've ever had i know So, yeah, so it was all systems go.

3:19And because it was really interesting, one of the learnings I had from that, when you get a USP like that and you say to people, I'm the youngest landlord Green King I've ever had, they think, well, the whole of Green King, what, you're the youngest? I go, yeah, me, yeah. And then by default, they almost want to come see you like you're some sort of freak. So they'll be like, you know, like the greatest showman. And he goes, yeah, you're£300, now you're£400. So I was like, so it was like, let's go see what this guy's doing. And then by default, it's got busier and busier and busier. And the more you, I've always found that the more energy you have, the more you, it's nice to be nice, right?

3:51So I think the nicer you are to everyone, the more they back you. And then by default, with like a service industry, they go, we'll go there, see Andy. Oh, he's doing a good job. Oh, isn't he working? I'll tell you, let's go there. You know, we want to go out for lunch Saturday. Let's go give him a couple of quid instead of Nando's. You know, that sort of thing. And it just grew and grew and grew. And that first business was absolutely just, it was ridiculous. But like you said, you know, thinking about Jagerbombs and Topman T-shirts, I was thinking about making a few quid and then spending it as fast as I physically can, you know, on nights out or, you know, buying a city car or doing something.

4:25I just love that materialistic goal. And I think at that age you do because you haven't got anything else really. You know, I didn't want to, you know, save the planet or reinvent the wheel or, you know, take the kids on amazing holidays. It's just me with like, and you work really hard and you're getting instant gratification at the end of every day. And you just think, well, what can I turn that into? stuff at that point, whereas now, later on in life, you realise that that really doesn't matter at all. Yeah. When you reflect on 21-year-old Andy, why do you think he didn't fail? Why didn't he fail at that point?

5:00Probably the same reason why things are going okay now because grit, determination, resilience. I think it's an underlined resilience of that age. You have to do it. So when, like, for instance, with that business, and I had like four staff do you know what I mean and I lived there so that you could never switch off or turn off it was just us me really you know if someone doesn't turn up you do that job if the cleaner doesn't turn up you clean if the chef doesn't turn up you cook you know and then fundamentally that's why a lot of business end up failing because you end up doing everything that you shouldn't be doing because you're trying to spin so many plates but what I found was on a spin of that you learn your trade and I learn oh I'll do the books today or I'll pay the wages or I'll learn to cook a bit better or I'll learn to run a business or get an order in or talk to customers.

5:49All these other things that you know from a granular level but now you're skilling up. Whereas I think a lot of people, they end up owning their own business and they do everything but they don't learn the skills. They just do it to put a fire out. I was more honed on I need to know how all of this works because when it breaks, I need to know how to fix it. Did you learn to delegate at any point when you were... No, it was useless. Totally useless, yeah. I mean, I was shy at doing that too. I was 28, I reckon about seven years of owning a business probably. And that was when I got, I started another couple of companies, but I remember hiring my first manager, a guy called Ben.

6:25And it was the first guy I'd like let go, like the tiniest little amount for all of that time. I just went, no, it's me, me, me, I can do it. But then I just let go. And it's like that feeling of like, oh God, Ben's really good. like the more you let Ben do the more Ben wants to do and I was like wow this is like this is a whole other world of business because by default you're not the guy doing all of these individual tasks anymore you're the guy that's like watching someone else do the task and teaching them how to do it so it's then you have to hone the skill of mentoring and teaching and also like everything all the boring bits that come off the back of it like making sure they hit their KPIs or making sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing every day or you know doing appraisals and you know the new boring things instead of the first boring things.

7:11Yeah, yeah. So seven years running the pub, and then at some point throughout running the pub, you're thinking, I'm going to do something else alongside this. So within those seven years, I already sold the pub. I'd started on something else. So I had the pub for like three or four years, and then a smoking band come in. Right, OK. So I was like, oh, God, smoking band. My pub was like just a plume of smoking. I couldn't imagine it now, but like it was literally spent half the time ending in ashtrays like you would do pouring drinks, right? So he'd come across and went, oh, I'll get rid of this.

7:42This isn't going to work. So I actually done a year out. I was roofing for you. I had nothing to do really. So I messaged a friend and I ended up roofing and I quite enjoyed it. Got a good tan, got some muscles. And I was like, yeah, why don't I do this for the rest of my life? I assumed you suffered, that's not it. So then I started another business. So I opened a bar and that's where I met Ben. So I was like, look, this is my second hospitality venue. I'm not going to be working all the hours under the sun. I need a manager. So that's where Ben come along. But in the same breath, I then opened a women's clothes shop.

8:12Wow. Just randomly with a friend. Why? Why would you do that? Well, yeah. So I don't know why. Why would I do that? I think at that point, I figured out that all businesses are the same. Fundamentally, the core values of that business are generally the same. It's around product or service, people, and just pure energy and excitement day to day. right if you've got that you can pretty much get away with most things so um a good friend of my amy come to the bar one day she goes oh she was working in harrods she's like i've always wanted my own shop i was like well go do it she's like i don't know where to start and i'm like well just go get one you've been working how you probably you know your craft you just need to sell clothes you know how hard can it be so we're me and her done that for like a couple of years owned a couple of shops it's pretty cool i learned new things new skills you know like product placement and stuff like that and like random sort of like things i mean i had to cover the shop one day which was again total disaster like women coming in going have you got this in a size whatever i go i've got no fucking but it was exciting because you're learning new stuff right so i've done that and we had a couple of shops and then i opened another bar and we started the events sort of company and things just started escalating because i figured out this it's not that hard you just have to keep going you know and at that point i had no kids you know there There was no other external pressures as such.

9:30Didn't have a massive mortgage. Didn't have all the things that you do once you start scaling up because you start living your life to your means. At that point, everything felt easy. And I think the economy was obviously a lot better at that stage. People were shopping local, drinking local, supporting local businesses. They weren't asking ChatGPT, how much should it cost to get an event put on? And you go, well, they'd just come to me and go, what would it cost, Andy? I go, okay, cool, let's do that. You're brilliant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The buyer's more switched on. Oh, 100 % now, yeah. The bit that you keep alluding to is this energy and excitement.

10:07So you've obviously been in hospitality for a long time. What are some of the core lessons you've learned about customer experience? So customer experience, one of the main things I said, one of the main things I learned, is you don't have to keep them all happy all of the time. What you do have to do is make sure that the people that are coming in, it's nice to be nice and the ones that you balls up on that don't have a good time if you pull them round there's more chance of them being a raving fan than there is someone that's come in five times and you've nailed it every single time so by default it's actually a statistic by default you're better to fuck up and then try and get them back round again than you are just keep them happy every single time they turn up it's really the psychology behind it's wicked I think with hospitality energy happiness smiles can get you through anything you know So I think, and that's where I think hospitality now is lacking.

10:57I don't think there's as much of that. It's almost like people just want it cheap, fast. They want the Amazon effect of eating. And by default, it's hurting the industry. There's a brilliant book by Will Gadira who talks about like hospitality and like going above and beyond. You were talking there about like people that have maybe had a bad experience and then bringing them around. Can you think of any experiences from like your days in hospitality of like, or I remember that one person that had this and this is what we did to bring it back. Oh, God. I could probably write a book on that, to be honest with you.

11:30I think what would be a bad one? I gave someone fairly chronic food poisoning once. Wow. Yeah, at my first pub, yeah. It was, what was her name? I think it was like Emma. Anyway, she used to come in every day and I remember she having this cheesecake and then she called me the next day and said, Andy, I've been like, bad, bad, bad, bad. and in the end I was chatting to her oh I'm so sorry I can't believe it how did it happen like you do your brain starts fixing the problem but without actually doing anything right you're like where did it go what did I do wrong what could I do different and then as I was talking to her if you're open like open honest vulnerable you just say you know hands up we've balled up I can't apologise enough I'm so sorry and then next thing the phone call's gone from like an out and out argument to like oh that's okay Andy thanks for being honest look you know I know we've got a table booked in for Saturday, but I might miss that one.

12:23But you'll definitely see us next week. Okay, yeah, no problem. When you do, we'll have a drink and we'll probably laugh, but yeah, we probably will. All the best by it. And you just figure, like, you come off these conversations and you think, well, how does it happen? Well, when you've already got a solid, positive, happy relationship with someone, those conversations are a lot easier. You know, and people mess up. And there's no problem. And I think there's nothing wrong with it. I've got no problem with anyone making mistakes because you're going to. And if you don't, if you don't make a mistake, you're lying.

12:52You just haven't told anyone about the words you have made, right? The honest admission. So you said before there was like it's the same sort of framework you could take to any business, like any products and services, the same sort of rinse and repeat. But you spotted something in the smoking ban where you were like, people are going to change it, buyer behavior, it's not going to be as busy. So like when you're thinking about someone's listening to this now and they're thinking, I want to start a business in X. What's the one question that they should be asking themselves before they kind of go out and do that?

13:23I would probably go, if there was one pivotal moment within owning a business, would you jump or be pushed? So, for instance, smoking ban, that's coming. I think I'm jumping because I feel a hard push coming. You know, some situations in business, you do get a push, but you can bounce back. That, I felt like I've got to jump. It's coming. This is a wave. This is an uncontrollable wave that's coming, and I cannot pivot to overcome it. You know, and there's a lot of companies now, like you were saying, that would be startups where they're getting that wave effect of like AI come flooding at them, right?

13:57So by default, I think, is it going to wipe me out? Should I jump ship now, pivot, try something else or should I push back and it'll all be all right, you know? And I always use the analogy, there's a friend of mine, Will Poston, always speaks about this. And I say, if you've got an unstoppable wave like that coming, there's nothing you can do about the wave it is coming to you. So what are you going to do? You're going to stand and get smashed by it. You're going to grab a surfboard and try and surf your way out of it. And if you can surf it, do that. But a lot of people, and me included, when you start a business, you're never really looking at the risks of it because you're so overexcited about the opportunity and what could happen and what great things are going to happen.

14:35What colour should I order my Ferrari in? You know, you're already at that point, but you're sitting in your bedroom, you know? So by default, it is good to stop, sit back, take stock and go, actually, like these risks are around the corner. And we really do have to think about them because, you know, it could be detrimental to, you know, not just your business, but your mental health, your life, your sort of relationship with family, friends, you know, your wife, anything like that, you know, and people do make humongous sacrifices to chase success. But success is objective to them, isn't it?

15:09So it does. It is a challenge when you're doing something new. How do you define success? Happiness, 100%. So my why is to make everyone I've ever met happier, end of. And that's where, like, pubs come in, don't they? Because it by default just sits in there. But I've got a content creation agency now. We've just started BizFest, which is amazing, which we'll talk about. And generally, off the back of that, it's just making people happy. And I think that goes a long, long, long way. It's almost like an unstoppable force. So I just think, and to me, that's a successful day. Like today, I've come up, seen you guys in matches.

15:45Hopefully, you'll come away. I think I'm a bit happier now. So I've met Andy, nice guy. You know, so there's that sort of thing. And I just feel like if you can do that as much as physically possible, then everything else that comes with it is just a bonus. Oh, God. I'm so tired. I've just been talking to qualified prospects all day without any wait time. How have you been doing it? Because I've been cold calling people on my mobile, and I reckon I've spoke to one person. No, no, no. Stop that right now and use Nooks.ai. Why? What does Nooks do? It finds me the right people to call and it calls them and it connects with them over and over and over again.

16:19So you're saying it's Nooks.ai and I can just be speaking to qualified decision makers all the time? No other better connection, right? Wow, Nooks.ai. You know they say, show me the boy at seven, I'll show you the man. If we looked at like a seven-year-old version of Andy now, was he the same thing of like, I just want to go in a room and make everyone happy? Yeah, definitely, yeah, class clown, you know, that sort of thing. or equally, so it's really interesting. So I'm in a couple of sort of not networking groups, but peer groups, one of them called Vistage. And we do like a little mini awards ceremony.

16:50There's only like 15 of us in the group. So we meet up every month and do things. And every single year for like the last five, six years, I've got like a member's member. So it's like, you know, like the guy that sort of keeps the energy up, makes everyone happy. And you'll have others that have gone above and beyond in tech or someone who's like changed the planet, changed the world, you know, huge successes. Some of them are like giants in terms of revenue and what they're doing on the day today. But mine's always just been that. Now, if we rewind back to the age of seven, on the sports field, when I was playing football and rugby and stuff, I'd always get player's player.

17:22You know, and I always think it's incredible now because you go, player's player or like member's member. Exactly the same thing. You're just a team-spirited guy that just wants to make everyone around you a little bit happier. And by default, I think I've just kept that forever. and I'm pretty sure it would have been an old people's home and they're feeding me soup and I'm sitting in a chair I'll be just doing exactly the same thing The carer's carer Yeah the carer's carer Andy's a great guy over there hasn't got up in three days but he's got people a while of the time It's so interesting to see that through line all the way through so then you get to a point where you've got the wine bar you've got the clove shop I imagine that's when things are starting to work like you're maybe for the first time in life really comfortable financially like after the pub but like there's a bit more money floating around being honest i've never been overly financially comfortable ever but only because like a lot of businesses and business owners every pound you get just disappears right so you you know so you get so like for instance like close shop number one working right let's go do another one right don't draw that money down or over just go do another one you know my first bar works brilliant let's get another one you know and then by you just reinvesting reinvesting reinvesting and it's like a drug you sort of just want more of it you want to keep going and keep going so then by default i would say i've never really been in that situation where i always think that um being comfortable financially is like financial freedom in terms of income and outgoings right so if you've got more coming in that's going out every month and you're not having a bust of bollock you're financially stable as such you know but like a lot of business owners entrepreneurs it's pretty much never happens there's always a challenge a financial challenge whether it's cash flow or you know or investment or you're trying to do new things and there's always going to be that element of like madness but i feel like that's almost like the unicorn you're chasing all the time and even if you did even if you did get to a point you just turn it up again you know so and i think that for me it'd be interesting i mean you get a lot of viewers on this and i bet if you went across them all they'll be like yeah know exactly what and he's talking about and and that is it Do you find like when, probably not now, but like especially in like the early days of business, you've got the clothes shop and stuff like that and the other businesses that came from that.

19:43Was it, did you ever get to a point where you felt I can leave this now and it's just, it's a stable house, it shuts the door? Or did you always feel like you had to be there? Like how did you get it to a point where it felt comfortable? Yeah, so obviously you just go back to like systems and processes, right? So there was one, probably three years ago-ish, maybe. I tasked myself to have a month off. So I've never had longer than like a week off in my whole working life. But I've always been all right about it. But I sort of just thought, I'm going to try and do a month off. I've never done it before.

20:16You know, work's going all right. I don't want to start anything new at the minute because we're finding our feet. So when I set that goal in stone, so we'd done an SLT meeting, I just said to all the guys, look, in six months' time, I'm going to have a month off. So what that means is we've got six months now to figure out how that's going to happen. So we've got to work me out of the business, right? What the best thing pretty much I've ever done because then by default, like, you know, you get stupid shit. Like you'd get a text message when, I don't know, you get a code for a banking app or something and I'd get it and I'd send it to my bookkeeper and you go, right, write that one down.

20:50We're going to have to change that corner because I'm not going to text message when I'm off, right? So then you do that once and you would do that a hundred times in a week. and these are all things that you don't even know that's happening but until you sit down and take stock and then you go right now the beautiful part of that process was I got to a stage whereby I didn't have to do it I didn't have to do it so I come back from a month off I was like how is everybody and oh yeah good so I secretly wanted not for them to fail but there to be a little bit of like thank god you're back but nah none of it I was like oh fuck That's what I'm going to do now.

21:27I'm going to start something else. Is that the lesson? Like, every time it feels like I've conquered that, I need something new to keep you busy. Always, yeah. Yeah, I've always had that. I was chatting to a guy the other day about it, and he said, do you ever want that to stop? And I said, well, I don't think so. I wouldn't know what it felt like, because I've been in it for, like, 20 years of, like, do something, start it. If it doesn't work, shut it, sell it, start something else, open something else. And, you know, when you own multiple businesses, you've got to pivot. So like we were saying, you might have someone that starts their own business and they think to themselves, that isn't working, so I'm going to change.

22:00So instead of selling that in blue, no one likes blue anymore, I'm going to sell it in red. With me, it would be like, that business doesn't work. I'm just going to go start another business. Like the women's clothes shots, I got to a point and they just weren't really working. They weren't really getting a great return. Amy herself was probably losing a little bit of momentum because it was a bit safe. And then just, well, just close them. Don't worry about it. Don't stress. You know, just, you know, take your learnings, take your winnings, take your learnings, and just go off into the sunset, go do something else.

22:32It's all going to be okay. But I think so many people get in that realm of, oh, we're all doomed, the world's coming to an end, I'm a failure, how can I tell everyone? Do you know what all it is? Go, it just hasn't worked, it's absolutely fine. You know, were you ever at school, and then you tried out for the basketball team, and then they'll go, no, Andy, you know, you're shit. we like you for morale you can stay but you're not on the team yeah could you be a cheerleader yeah that's a good idea it is a pom-pom stop bouncing the ball and you go oh come on go do something else and i think a lot of people and you'll know better than i will that you probably and they get so downhearted that it hasn't worked and but that's absolutely fine but you get that through your whole business whether that's an employee you know how many people you sit down And I go, look, you know, it's not working out.

23:19You want it to be X, but really you're Y. Let me help you be a Y now because this moment hasn't really worked. And nine times out of ten, they need someone to tell them that for them to just come to terms and go, yeah, I totally understand. You keep using the word pivot rather than stop or quit. So why pivot? That's a good point. So why stop or quit and pivot? So I suppose pivot is a positive way of saying stop. Kind of. Yes. It's a nicer reframe. Yes, yes. Pivot is like a basketball term, isn't it? I'm just going to turn the other way rather than I'm going to retreat. Yeah, exactly that, right?

23:58So it would be like a football team going up a pitch and going, can we score? No, all right, we'll just come back and then we'll just go again. And I think that's exactly what happens. I just think it's really interesting. So we're at a couple of points now in a couple of businesses where we are pivoting because we want to do some things just aren't working, right? So you just go, well, let's change. So the bars are gone now. You go, oh, that cocktail menu isn't working or that. No one wants to come here on a Friday and get smashed anymore. They want a non-alcoholic offering. Go, well, let's pivot and go sell them that.

24:30Don't stop what you're doing. People still want to leave the house. It's just that they want a zero instead of 20 Yeager bombs for six quid. And you go, okay, well, that was then. This is now, right? So you just have to change. Can you think of any, like, we're going to get into, like, the festival and a set, but can you think of any, like, from your other businesses where it's felt like there isn't really a pivot here, I just need to shut shop and just accept that this one hasn't worked, like some big lessons from failure? Definitely, yeah, yeah. So I've had a couple of companies, so I'll just put a round-shaped peg into a square hole, you know.

25:07And what I would like to sort of, which I haven't actually done, so it's a good point, is actually sit back with a pad and pen and go, is there anything I could have seen before, you know, setting that up that would have taught me the lesson that I learned six months or a year down the line? and generally there probably would have been but I get so overwhelmed by excitement I'm like yeah that's all going to be brilliant I can't see anything that's going to go wrong you know whereas actually like we were saying earlier you need to have those moments you go with there will there be a moment where you're pushed instead of when you jump and the the pushing point was it was just the wrong idea for me so by default you're not going to learn that lesson until you've started the process um i do feel like the biggest learnings i've had in terms of businesses that have failed are just dragging them on for too long so i think it'll be all right i think it'll be all right oh the government will change it'll be all right oh the budget's coming april i think it'll be all right you know you're looking for outside elements of life that are going to make a fundamental difference to you and your business generally don't happen really within the businesses that I've got.

26:16Nothing has got to be, they're never that monumental moment outside of your like mini ecosystem that will make massive amounts of game-changing difference. Usually the big changing moments would be a big customer or a big opportunity or a big new product launch or something like that. It's never like something miles away that's going to change everything. So that's been a big, big learning. Nice. Yeah, like even when these icebergs come ahead, it might not be your fault, but it's your responsibility to think of it. So let's talk about maybe biting off more than you can chew. Yeah. Biz Fest. Yeah.