Why I Walked Away From My £100M Fashion Brand!

0:00When I was around 16, my dad was into criminal things, drugs. the house would get raided. This isn't how I wanted my life to be. So I started in the style and the business was valued at£100 million.

0:13Post-COVID, there was less interest around fashion businesses. Boohoo, ASOS, starting to decline. The team at the time, they were kind of like, we're going to have to possibly shut down. But I thought, I can't let this slip away now. And then we put it on the stock market. I did become a millionaire, but the reality was everything changed. I've never really spoken in detail about it. I got a legal letter for the first time with suing Adam Frisbee for£100 million because he stole this idea from this guy. Although I was ultimately the heart of the business, I didn't have a say. People were crying down the phone to me saying, Adam, we're not being paid.

0:47I looked online and I saw the business being sold. I loved it so much and I hoped that I would always be part of it. But in the end, I sent a letter of resignation. I surrendered all of my shares and I left. And I never heard back ever. I can see that everything that's happened in your life has led you to this point. You're going to be a dad. And we're bringing a child into the world that is going to have so much love. My biggest fear in life is that I'm not a good dad. You both will be winning father of the year consistently. I have no doubt. A quick one for me before we get into it. I want to say thank you.

1:25Genuinely thank you. It means so much that you're here. The team and I put a lot into these conversations. and seeing how much they're resonating is really amazing to see. If you've been enjoying what we do, we'd love for you to follow the show by clicking the subscribe button or hit that bell icon. It takes a second, but it makes a huge difference. Now, let's get into it.

1:53Adam Frisbee, we need to talk. Yes. Okay. So when you think back, what was your earliest memory as a child? If I'm really honest, when I think back to my childhood, I struggle sometimes because I've blocked so much of it out. And, yeah, I want to say, like, you know, it wasn't horrendous in the sense of, you know, I had no abuse, I had nothing like that. You know, there's people that have gone through much worse situations. But I think for me, I just remember, I grew up in, I think, a surroundings where I didn't really feel a lot of love, if that makes sense, at home. And I think my earliest memory is just really, I think, like my mum and me just arguing all the time, even from as young as like six, seven, eight years old.

2:41But I also, on the flip side, you know, I have a memory at a very similar time of having a really nice Christmas with my family, my nan and granddad being there. And, you know, there were some really nice memories as well. When you now reflect back on childhood and the relationship that you had with your parents or a lack of relationship, you know, maybe with your father. How do you think that that time shaped who you've become? I just remember being very lost as a child, not knowing who to turn to, where to go, what to do, and obviously, you know, finding out I was kind of gay as well, kind of stems with that.

3:14And I just, I think that's made me more of a fighter today, if that makes sense. It's made me more determined to achieve something. It's made me, yeah, it's definitely shaped who I am hugely. At 13, your family, moved yeah um yeah so I I came home from school one day and my mum just said we are going to Gran Canaria we're moving to Gran Canaria um and if I remember rightly I think it was literally the next day maybe the day afterwards but we you know things were packed up my I remember saying where's my BMX you know and she was like we've sold it and it was so crazy and you know I was really scared as a kid because I loved school well I loved my education and I I was conscious that I wanted to achieve some of my life.

3:56And, you know, that was my first thing that kind of hit me. But more than that, I was really close to my nan and my family. And I was like, what, you know, what am I going to do? So that was a really traumatic event for me. My family were concerned. And I remember my nan, you know, in the evening before kind of coming over and asking questions like what's going to happen with the boys and, you know, are they going to go to school? And we were promised we'd go to an English school and, you know, it would be great. And they'd come over and we'd come back and visit. it and you know I thought well I've got no choice you know we've kind of got to do it so we moved there but none of that none of that happened you know we got put into a Spanish school quite quickly um and nobody spoke English so we were literally and you didn't speak Spanish I didn't speak any Spanish no so we literally were like drawing crossword doing crosswords drawing picture like it was it was really bad and it got I think we were a few days in and because we didn't speak any English and we were like the new kids in school like we got quite badly bullied like we'd go out in the playground and we'd get stones thrown at us and it got really bad that me and my brother ended up skiving off school for like the entire six months um that followed and I'm sure that you know I don't know for sure but I'm pretty sure my mum knew about it because the school would have contacted her right so we just used to go eight o 'clock leave the house go sit in a park somewhere and literally wait until one or I think it was one thirty the school finished and go home and we did that every day for for like six months you know so um incredible and sad at the same time about that is one is that you and your brother and your brother was how you were 13 so he was 18 months younger than me so yeah he was about yeah like just 11 and a half 12 yeah two two young guys actually almost the age of my boys they're 14 and 11 you know and and uh i cannot imagine them deciding yeah to do something like that yeah but but and that's why it's almost incredible that you were able to decide that but sad because it feels like yeah you there was no one that you can go to that you felt safe to be able to say hey we're being bullied at school yeah totally and and home was really bad at the time you know we i remember you know what i will say is you know with my mom like i look back and i understand how hard it must have been trying to raise four children and you know my my dad leaving and you know for a long long time i was really really angry at her because of you know our relationship and everything but I think over time I'd sort of let that go and it's more kind of sadness now really and I remember that I used to write letters to my nan to kind of let her know I was feeling how down I was about it and I found out you know months and months later that those letters never got sent they went to my mum to be put put a stamp on and they never actually made it to my nan so yeah it was a really it was a time where I felt so isolated and there was nothing I could do and I couldn't even speak to the people I love because I had no phone.

6:43I got maybe, you know, a phone call a week and my mum would sort of sit there and listen to everything. So I felt very trapped at that stage. And looking back, it was a really traumatic time for me. Yeah. My God, how long were you in Spain? So we went to Spain for, I can't remember exactly, but we were there for like maybe six to 12 months originally. And what actually happened was I ended up moving back to the UK. I live with my sister, my older sister for a little while. So she knew what was going on at that point she's come over to visit I don't think she was very happy she said to my mum like these boys need to be back in the UK let's try and get them in school and my mum kind of let us go with my sister which I was just thrilled about at the time sure but my sister was young I mean I can't remember age at the time but she would have been in early 20s so she was kind of finding her feet and like you know had her lifestyle and it was chaotic you know there's no doubt but she tried her best and we lived with her for a while and I got to a point I think at this point I must have been 14 and a half maybe and maybe in 15 and I had um I started seeing a therapist at the time my nan had we're back in the UK my nan had put me in to kind of see a counselor therapist and they'd put me on some antidepressants and I was in a really low place because obviously for me my mum didn't really want us and I was living with my sister who had her own sort of life going on and I didn't go to school at this point I had no friend you know it's a really I knew I was gay and no one knew so it's a very chaotic time in my life you said you knew you were gay yeah but no one else did no no one knew no um yeah I knew I was gay I think from a young age um I'd say probably like nine ten I just knew it was a little bit different and I knew like it sounds probably strange to say but like I probably just had certain connections when I would like you know meet certain boys or whatever and I think all that you know that feels a bit stronger than a friendship like I I don't know I feel something it's a bit strange so I kind of just tried to hide it for a long time but deep down I kind of knew that I was yeah um but I just didn't feel comfortable enough to tell anyone and I think people knew like you know I used to obviously my brother used to take the mickey and be like you're gay mate you know or whatever you know in a jokey way as you would as siblings um I think my sister kind of had an inkling and probably the family you know you kind of do sometimes but yeah I was too scared to kind of say anything and I was trying to come to terms with it myself really at the time yeah so how did you and when did you come to terms with it um it took me a very long time um i would say i didn't really truly come to terms with it until i met jamie really how old were you there i was 24 24 25 when i met jamie yeah okay i think so yeah so until you were 24 yeah you never felt no truly happy no in who you yeah knew you were yeah I felt ashamed, yeah.

9:26I felt ashamed of being gay for a long time. And I don't truly know why, because I had gay people in my family. My uncle was gay. My sister ended up coming out as a lesbian. So, like, I did have people around, but I just carried that shame. And I think in truth it stemmed from childhood and not feeling very wanted. And I think that, in addition, made me feel like I'm going to feel even less wanted. I would imagine as a 15-year-old who already doesn't feel safe, who feels marginalized, you don't want to at all signal to anyone that there's something else that can be different about you. So that therefore you could be further marginalized.

10:06Exactly, yeah. What seems to me is that you were at a place where you were just looking for an escape. Yeah. Was there any joy in your life as a young boy? No, there wasn't, truly. And like I say, you know, I don't want to, you know, there's people that go through so much worse. But I think, yeah, I just was in a really, I just was a really lost young boy. And I guess to make matters worse, did your mother kick you out? Yes. So that was really the last, I sort of had a relationship with my mum, really. So I was 15 years old and, you know, we probably had an argument. I was never a bad kid. I never did drugs.

10:45I never did lied. I never did anything bad in that sense. I just probably was a little bit hard work because I was struggling myself at times. And we just used to argue. But can we explain on that? Is that when you said you were hard work, what does that mean? Well, to be honest with you, it doesn't really mean anything. I think I was just a kid. I think I was just a teenager. And honestly, when I see teenagers now, I think I wasn't half as bad as that. I think the only thing I really wanted was to feel a bit of love really and yeah I didn't so I probably used to fight for that a little bit you know so we used to argue a lot and yeah I just remember one day I got my things packed and she said you're going you go and get out and they drove me to the train station they give me 50p on the platform they said to me yeah use that to to ring your Nan when you get to the train station and that's it, you're on your way.

11:39So I was on the train to Norwich and I got to the train station and I rang my Nan when I got there and she came and picked me up from the train station and yeah that was kind of the end of my relationship with my mum really and I went to sleep on my Nan's, my Nan put a mattress on the kitchen floor because my uncle was living with her still at the time so she had no kind of spare room. So I was there for a few weeks really, yeah just kind of thinking wow what like what the hell am I going to do with my life I've got no GCSEs I've got no parents around and you know I don't know what to do um and I remember that being a real kind of crossroads of like shit this is this is going to be tough now yeah I can't I can't fathom what it's like to be a 15 year old boy and to be literally kicked out of the house yeah right yeah so when you were on when you were given the money, if you can even, if you feel comfortable going there, is what were you thinking?

12:39What was going on in your mind as this scenario was playing out? I think I was just pleased to escape from what was a really toxic time because my mom's boyfriend and I really didn't get on. I remember before I got kicked out being held by my throat against the fridge and it was really toxic. So I was pleased to be out of it. So then you're temporarily with them. I would imagine it's temporary. Yeah, it was temporary. It was really temporary, actually. I was there for a few weeks and my nan sort of said to me, look, I think you should try and make contact with your dad because, you know, we can't have you here forever.

13:12And what are you going to do down here? You know, it was in Great Armour at the time. And I grew up and, you know, there wasn't loads of opportunities there and whatnot. So she was like, I think you need to try and contact your parents. So I did contact my dad. I made contact with him. And for whatever reason, in the end, he did kind of agree that he would see me and we kind of met up. And, yeah, one thing led to another. And he kind of agreed that I could go and stay with him for a bit. Oh, wow. OK. Yeah. So I was nervous. I remember being nervous because he'd not been in my life at all. So I didn't know my dad whatsoever.

13:44But it was kind of a bit like, OK, I've got, you know, someone here that's interesting, that wants to take me in. Was this the first time that you'd seen your dad? Not the first time I'd ever seen him. like there had been bits where I don't know like maybe when I was younger he'd turn up once at the house and I kind of seen him and you know but I never I never spent time with him or anything like that it was just very much like in passing or something so it was the first time that I'd properly met him yeah okay um yeah and he had four he had four daughters um which I kind of knew about growing up because you obviously get told but I didn't really know the full extent and he was with the lady that he the woman that he left my mum for so they were still together um and yeah he said I could come and stay with him for a bit and see how we got on so I was I was happy that I had an option if that makes sense at the time yeah I started to apply for jobs um straight away and I remember I got an interview at Burger King and I managed to get a job there so I was thrilled because I was like this is great I can earn some money um yeah it was amazing really so for the first few weeks I felt I think content happy I remember reporting back to my nan being like yeah this is like quite quite good really yeah yes when you look at just those first few weeks do you feel as if you were happy um I think I was happier than I've been for a long time um I was still uncomfortable because you know I was struggling my sexuality at the time and I was then at that age of like coming into 16 just turning 16 where you know you start to explore a little bit more you know maybe i was speaking to someone on online at the time because obviously you know that's the only way i could really sort of chat and there was like online chats and stuff and yeah i start speaking to a guy through that but i kind of made a girl's name up um at the time and i remember telling yeah my dad and her that i kind of been speaking to this girl i've been sort of going to go meet her and yeah it turned it was a girl but in reality it was it was a boy and i did that i did that for probably a good two years wow so you had to keep it even secret i would imagine in the town yeah yeah everything couldn't be in public no we just used to go and like meet somewhere meet for coffee like i used to yeah we just never went to each other's houses or anything like that and because i hadn't come out to my family even like my nan and granda at that point i kept it secret from them i told them the girl's name and it wasn't because i felt they would be ashamed but i think it was just obviously where i was in my life i wasn't yet comfortable to tell people um and eventually I kind of did tell my nan was the first person um yeah yeah yeah uh when you told your nan yeah what was her response um it was it was a really emotional call because I wasn't I wasn't with her at the time I was obviously my dad's and I think what happened is I think my uncle had said something so my uncle was gay and I think he'd sort of said something around me being gay and I think there was a question that had come up in the family and I thought you know what I need to I need to be able to do this myself I don't want her to find out for other people and um yeah so I rung her and I I sort of said you know this girl that I've been talking to you about um it's not a girl it's it's a guy and yeah she she got really upset and I got upset but in a nice way you know she was like you know you really didn't have to worry about this and And yeah, I felt a huge amount of relief because I've carried it for a number of years feeling like I was ashamed of who I was and people wouldn't accept it.

17:08So to kind of be able to sort of tell the first person, the person I was closest to, and then being so supportive of it made me think, you know, it's not so bad out there. You know, I can kind of be myself more. Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. Yeah. You know, to be able to say that to someone that you love. Yeah. And know that their love is truly unconditional. Yeah, totally. Now, you mentioned, Adam, that first few weeks were good at your father's, but then it took a turn. So how so? Yeah. I realized probably after a few weeks that they were kind of into more criminal things is the only way I can describe it really.

17:45The house would get raided sometimes. There was things going on, you know, drugs, things being stolen. You know, it got a bit hectic. um and it at the yeah that that kind of happened and I was a bit worried about what I was going to do um and I think there was a couple of conversations that happened about getting me involved in things and I just remember thinking do I do this or do I do my own path and I you know even at that young age at 16 I'm I knew like my moles and values were very important to me and I just like doing the right thing was always important so I just knew I was never going to do that and I think it just started to get uncomfortable because things start to mix a little bit you know like I start to get questions of like you know do you think you could do this at where you work for me and it started to become uncomfortable and so very quickly I kind of yeah ended up moving in with a friend that I'd made at the time from from working so you moved in with a friend.

18:48Now, this is an interesting word because I've not heard you use that word. Yeah, I made a friend. I know, yeah. Yeah. So you had a friend. Yeah. I made a few friends actually at work. And I think getting in a workplace was a really positive thing for me. Now, you just mentioned 16 is when really your life changed. That was, I would imagine, that's a major inflection point for you at 16. And it's what put you on the path of entrepreneurship. sure so so how so how did you then and or should i say begin your entrepreneurial journey at 16 um yes burger king ironically like really played a big part in my life it did and um you know when everybody's talking business now people say you know burger king to you know and it's like it didn't quite happen that you know like that burger king to millionaire yeah it's a part like that but it really shaped me and i i got you know i got really in enjoyment out of sort of working hard and earning money from it and thinking okay this is how life works and i really enjoy this and very quickly like they were really impressed with with me and gave me more hours and i remember i think before 17 i'd become one of like the region the youngest regional supervisor or something oh wow yeah so i mean for me that was i was chuffed with that i was like this is such an achievement and it kind of made me hungry to achieve more if that makes sense i was like this is something that was shouted about i think through you know you get emails through the system or whatever and you know it was like congratulations to adam where he's employee of month he's done this he's done that and i really i really felt reward from that if that makes sense it's like great i've done i've done hard work and i've been recognized for it i probably hadn't through my childhood much so i think that really felt like okay i've achieved something here yeah and then i i went for a job at barclays um which you know i can say this now but i completely lied on my cv you know about gcses and hope that i would get away with it and i did um and i think 17 and a half probably I became a cashier at Barclays okay yeah and then the next few years really at Barclays really shaped my career because I became a personal banker where I was kind of advising people on you know bank accounts and stuff like that so when you were at Barclays yeah at that at that highest level how old were you at that time so I think by the age of 18 I think I'd become a personal banker at Barclays which was a really you know good job I loved it I had my own desk kind of in the bank hall and, yeah, would speak to customers.

21:09I was 18, yeah. Yeah. I mean, look at that, though. Yeah. 18, you're making, I'm sure, good money at this point. You have a friendship circle, I would imagine. Yeah, I was really coming into my own. I moved to Manchester at 19, and I was there for a few years until I then started in the style. Okay. When do you first have the idea to create this company? So there was no big plan. with it I got made redundant and I got paid my month's salary and an additional month on top um and I had no idea what I was going to do next and I just was chatting to a friend at the time and we were talking about like online brands that were kind of coming up and you know fashion being sold on Facebook and things like that and it just clicked um and I remember thinking social media's on the rise like I've seen these people selling fashion online it was quite cheap at the time I thought there's something in this it doesn't look difficult and I just started researching straight away I was researching where you could buy dresses from you know for cheaper and sell them for more um yeah and I would say in one afternoon it literally just happened because I remember Jamie coming back from work he worked in travel at the time and he came back from work and I told him about this idea and we had we had a big argument because he thought that I'd planned it for weeks and weeks and I hadn't told him about it and he was just a bit like how can you how can you not tell me about this and I was like Jamie I literally just decided this afternoon he's like there's no way you've got all this together and you've got an idea and you've got a name and you've done this in one afternoon but I genuinely had um it just clicked it just kind of clicked in place and I just thought this is this is what I'm going to do wow so uh yeah that was one hell of an afternoon yeah that really was there really was an afternoon and and it was you know when I started it was nothing what it became you know you know the initial idea was kind of sell some dresses online and make some money from it and let's see where we can go like it really was a very early concept but I just knew very early on that I felt I could make it a success now why and then also yeah why do you believe you could make it a success and then also why choose that route so for example why ladies dresses versus men's trousers yeah um so really the truth is that the route into in the style was the easiest route um and by that i mean i researched wholesalers where you could go down to a wholesale and you could buy six dresses at like a cost price and then you could sell them online at three times the price ultimately that's literally the initial concept and men's clothing was much harder to find and i didn't have the money to kind of go manufacture my own clothes or make anything from scratch so it literally started for me going in a shop and purchasing six dresses um and just listing them on a website which i got jamie's sister to build um cost me 100 pound or whatever she probably did it free at the time bless her um and i remember i spent some money on printing a thousand leaflets with the name of the brand and an off discount on it and i physically went up and down market street in manchester and handed them out myself um on august bank holiday and launched the website look at that yeah look And I got one order.

24:22I got one order. But that one order was enough for me to think I can make this work. Look at that. Yeah. Now, how does it feel? Because, you know, I remember my entrepreneurial journey and the first sale is just like, it's different. Definitely, yeah. How did that first sale hit for you? It was amazing because it really felt like something that I had done. Even though the concept initially was sort of buying dresses for my wholesale and selling online, I'd kind of used my initiative I'd use my own money I'd kind of bought these dresses I printed leaflets I'd hand them out and someone was buying from this little thing that's out how much money did you have when you started in the style so I started in the style with about a thousand pounds thousand yeah and I know that because I physically put that into a separate business account I've set up and I put a thousand pounds in and yeah I that's that's all I ever used yeah I spent a little bit on leaflets um a little bit on stock um yeah and then I sold the dresses and that's how it sort of started yeah so then tell me about the growth of the company uh and I'm a super nerd on these things so walk walk me through like how you built this company so I for the first three months I remember reaching out to a lot of you know celebrities on Twitter because Twitter was huge at the time and I remember go you know go out to a lot of celebrities and sort of saying can I gift you this dress and look when I look back those dresses were tacky they were they were really pad but at the time you know that was all I could do so I reached out to some celebrities and who'd you reach out to I remember like you know Geordie Shaw was big at the time Towie was a lot and I remember actually you know Sophie from Geordie Shaw she was one of the first people to ever wear the brand and I gifted her a jacket um and that that was my first ever 1000 pound day of sales because she wore the jacket and i was absolutely thrilled and at the time we did everything for my flat um i was with jamie at the time obviously and we had printer in the in the hallway and we used to print off the orders just used to fall into the hallway and i used to go and pack the parcels up myself and send them to the post office and i remember just we were thrilled and we just run the supply and was like can we get more can we get more and it just kind of that was a real point for me where i was like wow, I can link up celebrity with social media and this brand, and there's something that I can really do here.

26:48And I'd say that's when it really hit for me. The pin really dropped. I feel as if, Adam, you were ahead of the curve. Yeah. Right? Because that model that you just described is what many, many, many people do now, but they were not doing it then. Yeah. And what year is this that we're talking about? So this was 2013. Yeah. Yeah. So it was very early days. I mean, I think at the time of starting in the style, I'd only just joined Instagram myself. So Instagram was very kind of new. I think it'd been around a couple of years, but it wasn't like a big, big platform at that point as much as Twitter, for example.

27:20And influencers weren't really a thing then either. You know, it was kind of celebrities and then bloggers started. Influencers kind of became a thing later down the line. So yeah, it was really early on and yeah, we jumped onto it pretty quickly and that's what really excelled growth. So who was the first celebrity that you did a, you said a range with? Yeah, yeah. The first person was Lauren Pope, who was in The Only Way of Essex at the time. So there was a little bit of a, in the market, I would say with fashion brands, there was a little bit of snobbery at the time. Like, you know, these were reality stars and you didn't really want to have stuff seen on them.

27:55Whereas I saw it as the opposite. I was like, these are relatable people that actually, these women that are 18 to 30 or whatever are watching these people. and that's who they want to what they want to wear and they they relate to them so I thought they're missing a trick here so I kind of started to really reach out to to these people and yeah Lauren Pope was one of the first I got a meeting with and I obviously made the business sound better than it was at the time you know of course like I was in my flat you know packing the orders myself but they didn't have to really know that at the time that was minor information and I sort of said to her you know and she told me afterwards like she really believed in my vision and my enthusiasm and trusted me and she just felt that straight away and so she signed with the brand and I remember at the time I signed and I thought shit because this is real now and I didn't really have any fund I had no funding so obviously to manufacture a range was going to cost a chunk of money yes so I started to reach out to like some people close people banks you know a friend of mine just to see if there was any option of like getting 10 ,000 pounds in for example to help the range in the end my friend a good a good friend of mine at the time sort of you know he's well off and and invested a few thousand pound into the business and that helped me get my first range off the ground um he obviously later was you know really rewarded with that when the business you know went on the stock market so it's the best investment he ever made but i was so grateful at the time because he believed in me when a lot of people didn't and it was a way for me to raise money without having a huge interest on it yes um and yeah and that was the first range and it catapulted from there really you know we launched lauren um it was great and then the next person was charlotte cosby wow look at that yeah um and i think charlotte was quite she was you know it's early days and she was just going for a fitness journey and she just she'd just done big brother actually so she was a big you know she was big um and i remember thinking wow and i went in and met her and um yeah i remember she ordered chips and gravy she spilled she spilled it all down her and i just thought what the hell am i doing here but we just connected really well and she became the second collaboration of in the style and then from then it just went it just came so in these in these ranges that you pitched uh lauren and then uh charlotte yeah it was for them or for you to co-design what exactly with them and then if you can can you even disclose financially what the structure yes of course um so yeah the idea was and i think what really worked within the style right up to the end was that it was so authentic and i wanted it to feel authentic all the time it wasn't a case of we'll give you some money put your name to this it was like we want you to come in work with me and the suppliers and create a collection that truly is you that you would wear you get your say in it um and you'll get rewarded for sales and i think early on it was like 25 i I mean, it ended up being 25 % of the profit that they got from the range.

30:51So they got well-funded. You know, it wasn't a huge amount of stress for them, and it was a great reward depending on how much they sold. And it was great for the business. And obviously, we were able to mark the stock up a little bit more than we had done before because we had Celebrity's Name attached to it, and we were manufacturing it ourselves as well, so we were getting cheaper cost prices than we would from wholesale. So it worked really, really well. And, yeah, they were rewarded for it. um but yeah i think you know it's so interesting to me because it feels like this is done all the time now yeah yeah yeah but at that time it was the first yeah it really was in that in that way yeah so on that note here is your first surprise adam you ready okay yeah all right Surprise!

31:35I wanted to do this video. I just think I'm going to start crying. I wanted to do this video as a surprise. And you already know all of these things, Adam. I'm just going to have to try and calm down a second. Because this is really hard. You mean you don't mean the world to me and the girls and everyone in your life. I know you're being the world at Jamie and I just want you to know you should just be so proud of yourself and know how excited you were to do this podcast. The very first time I met you at that very first meeting, who would have thought over 10 years ago that right now we'd have gone through all our wild partying years, all of our businessy years, all of our serious years, heartbreak.

32:27well, on my end, not on yours, you've absolutely given us the best advice the whole way through life and now, now, you're the godparent of my children and now we get to go through this stage of life together and have our two young kids, like, go home together, like, what the hell, I'm just so happy. Oh, and I don't think I'll ever stop crying about this. I'm just so happy that literally every single part of life we've got to just do it together and I just, it's just made my whole year and I love you so much and I hope that you're having a great time with Paul Hi Paul, miss you I'm going to go now Oh, that's all right That's really nice, yeah We have, Charlotte, yeah, it's crazy to think when I met her and how intertwined we are of each other's life now is just crazy.

33:24Yeah, she's such a lovely girl in character and, yeah, it means a lot to me and Jamie, yeah. Yeah, yeah, she's super. She's super. Yeah, you would have obviously worked for her at the times, yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. I found her to be so incredibly warm and kind. In an industry where not everyone is kind, she truly is kind. Yeah, she really is. And what you see is what you get with her. And that's why I think we built a friendship over time because we just were so natural with each other and it just naturally happened. But, yeah, she's really a lovely, lovely lady. Yeah, yeah. So look at that.

34:04Yeah. So you could see even by that that you were not just establishing business partnerships. Yeah. You were establishing partnerships. Yeah, yeah. and these celebrities trusted you. Yeah, yeah. And so then you continued to grow because I saw that, you know, we had Lorna Lux on. Yeah, yeah. I think that you, did you do her first range? Yeah, we were, she was with In The Style for three years. Wow. Yeah, and that was her first, obviously she's got her brand now, but that was her first, yeah, collaboration she did, yeah. Look at that. Yeah. We worked with so many, you know, big names in the end over the years.

34:37You know, Stacey Solomon was one, Jacqueline Jossa, which she won The Jungle and then came and signed. And yeah, all these people trusted me. And it was the root of success, really, you know, that we had so much trust with each other and we built relationships. And that then, you know, that then helped the success of the Rangers and the company. Yeah. Look at that. So the company grew and grew and grew and grew. Yeah. The company grew. Grew so, yeah, so big. And I would say COVID was a really pivotal moment for the business because, you know, I'd looked at it and changed the business model completely because obviously you had to.

35:17You know, it was lockdown, things were changing. We moved our collections. We changed it all around. So I think in our first year of In The Style, we'd done, I'd got to four million pounds of sales, which was incredible. You know, like. First year? Yeah, first year. Look at that. A thousand in. Yeah. Four million in sales. It's a minority of companies that are able to survive after one year of business, let alone more. But you were able to do it. So just from a business advice standpoint for everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur or maybe is in their early phase of entrepreneurship, what advice would you give in that first year?

35:59Where are the areas that everyone should focus? um i think well firstly anyone that wants to to just go for it as is a first because i think so many people say things and it is such a big thing to try and do and believe in yourself and leap but that believing in yourself and just going for it is the biggest thing um and it's hard because in that first couple of years i think resilience again comes down to it honestly i knew nothing going into business at all um like the roles that i was recruiting for after a couple of years i didn't even know what they did you know I just had to learn like wing it all on the job and I think that's probably the biggest thing for me is like you know you don't need to have qualifications you don't need to know certain things if you've got an idea and you can believe in yourself just go for it and I think when you fall down which you will many times is you know dust yourself off and get back up and go for it and that's what I did over and over and over over over the first few years because there were so many setbacks and there were so many reasons to not continue um but i just believed in it and just kept getting back up and going again okay all right so then let's let's talk about going into covid uh you just mentioned your your nan and i think that it's important to you know look at the fact that you're growing this business you've become successful as an entrepreneur but you still have life yeah absolutely going on i really didn't have much of life going on really i um i must admit you know for the 10 11 years i was in the style you know it was my whole life and i missed out on a lot of time with family and different things and that was my fault because i was so focused on on the goal and the business but yeah we you know life was still lifeing and yeah we we hit covid and my nan passed away suddenly actually you know she was to me she was very healthy in the sense of she looked amazing she looked incredible she was 81 and we just didn't expect it she did have heart problems over the years and you know she did suffer with her health but it was still such a shock to us um and i remember yeah we literally i think we've gone into lockdown like three days or something and i'd spoken to her the night before um and yeah my uncle rung jamie actually and told him and jamie had to tell me um and i just remember at the time thinking wow like because my nan to me was like my mum really she was the equivalent of my mum and that hit me big time and um I think for the next two three days I struggled to even leave my room I just was really I just couldn't cope with it and then something just clicked in me and I um I remember thinking you know I know how proud she was of me and this business and she used to tell me all the time how proud she was of it she just used to find it fascinating amazing and every time i went to visit her she says i'm so proud of you for doing this i knew how much she she loved it and i thought i can't let this slip away now you know i can't i need to be there and make this work so i kind of it kind of created a bit of a fire in my stomach almost and i was like i know we're hitting covid and this the voice i was getting well the team at the time the board of directors and stuff that were on the board and they were kind of like we're gonna have to possibly shut down we're gonna have to do this we have to reduce sales and i was like know guys like i've got ideas like let's try and do this and we changed all the collections and did work from home collection you know different things going on and the business just catapulted um wow grew yeah it grew hugely uh during a period where you think it would have been on a decline yeah during that covid period it really grew and it was it was really about just completely changing and pivoting the business model you know like not the business model as such but like you know we'd had so many collections planned for summer and everything and we were like hang on a what do people kind of need um we did loads of stuff we raised money for nhs at the time like there was loads of things that we we kind of did and the brand just grew phenomenally and i think you know a lot of people on social media of course um and yeah it went i mean i think pre-covid we were doing probably i mean we were we were doing well anyway 30 40 million sales post you know over the next year we were doing 80 million sales 80 million in sales yeah post covid yeah a period where many businesses were shutting down yeah yeah yeah some fashion businesses really grew and some fashion businesses you know didn't but yeah we we did and it um got to march 2021 and then we floated on the stock market look at that yeah was that that must be a moment that you'll never forget do you know what um i feel bad saying this but i kind of got convinced in a way to do it because you know we had a board at the time which was you know had some directors on it and they were like look Adam we think this would be a great idea um and there was two reasons really from my perspective you know one of course financial freedom for me and my family like I'd never really taken any money out of the business even up to that point which was like eight years in seven eight years in um so that was you know one opportunity that was going to be on the table but bigger than that for me actually was that the business would be okay like we wouldn't need to get any more funding because it's on the stock market you've got shareholders um so if you ever need to raise more money you can via the stock market so i was like this is a win-win really you know it makes sense but i was scared because i ran the business in my way um i could get my arms around it and this was going to become a whole different ball game yeah because you'll have other yeah owners in essence other equity holders essentially it's no longer my company it's a public company yeah you have shareholders you're answerable to you've got a big board that you know that comes in and you know we knew there was going to be like potentially other heads directors you know lots of different things and it was like okay this is this is this is going to become a lot but it made sense it made a lot of sense but you were reluctant to do it yeah initially i was reluctant to do it um but i you know i was on board totally you know by the end i thought this is going to be a game changer for the business and it's going to be life-changing for for for me and my family which was which was which is the goal right in life in a way um so yeah we we did it and you I worked really, really hard over that year.

42:06And being honest, I put a lot of it down to my nan as well, just having that fire in my stomach of, we're going to get there, we're going to do this. She'd be so proud. I can help my family, which I always promised my nan I would. I always said to her, she used to say to me, one day if you get rich, you can help me out, you can put me in a nice home. And we used to joke about it so much, but it was never really a joke to me. I always wanted to help her out. Can I ask too, when you go public, then what becomes the valuation of the company? How big is it? So we floated on the stock market in March 2021, and the business was valued at 100 million pounds.

42:40Yeah. 100 million pounds. Once again, from 1 ,000 pounds to 100 million pounds. Yeah. But honestly, you know, going back to your question, sorry, in the moment, everything changed. You know, in reality, everything changed. You know, I did become a millionaire from being, you know, from that. I my business was really well funded which was incredible um it benefits so many people in lots of ways and the business was changing but the reality on the floor was I was working so hard I was literally at burnout I had not taken any sort of break or anything really from the business at all and although I was so proud of the moment I didn't feel what I thought I would feel if that make sense i felt really numb um i think because the reality was my nan wasn't there to see it and she was my biggest driver and i think that i had so much work to do to get it there and post it doesn't stop you know you then got shareholders you know the work really gets bigger so i think i just remember being in a moment of like this is amazing and and you know people the outpour of like congratulations and you know was amazing but in the actual moment i just felt numb that's the only where I can describe it and at this point I'd realized and I think Jamie had realized that I'd hit burnout and up until this point you know someone would have said to me you know you you work too hard or careful of burnout I'd have been like oh burnout whatever you know I'm an entrepreneur this is how it works and you know that last year really changed it for me because I'd realized that I had given everything to this business over eight years and I had nothing left almost I I just was so I'd worked myself into the ground ultimately um so when we did do the IPO and float on stock market before we did it I'd kind of said to the guys look if we do this I want to bring in a CEO because it's bigger than me this now you know I don't know how to deal with the stock market and shareholders it's new to me and I'm absolutely burnt out you know I have to I'll still be in the business I'm still going to work as hard as I can but I just need someone to help take it to that next level.

44:49And they agreed, you know, they wanted me to stay a CEO, but I was like, you know, this is the reasons and they agreed and understood. So that was always kind of the plan when we floated on the stock market. Hey, Paul, it's time to tell our listeners about our new show sponsor, Treatwell. Let's talk nails then. I just had my manicure and pedicure too. And for those of you who might be a bit shocked to hear this, where have you been? I get it done because think about My hands are always being filmed, usually more than my face. So I've got to make sure they're always looking camera ready. But honestly, this is my tri-weekly reset, and I always book through TreatWell.

45:28You probably know it. It's Europe's number one beauty booking app, where you can find five-star salons near you, and you can book 24-7, even after midnight, just from your phone. And you could see real reviews from people who've actually been. They've got so many treatments available too. Nails, facials, massages. Last week, I tried a brow lamination. Now, I'm not sure I'd do that again, but you know what? The brows did look great. If you want to treat yourself to something new or try that treatment you keep seeing on TikTok, now's the time. Use code PAUL10 for 10 % off your first booking when you go to a new salon.

46:07Treatwell.com or through the Treatwell app. Now, this code is just for our listeners and it's for you to try a new salon. Have you ever been on a date where you're trying so hard to just be yourself that suddenly it feels impossible? You start overthinking everything. How to sit normally, what to do with your hands. Then you end up doing something weird like this. Now, let's flip that. I want you to think about how you are when you're with your best friend. It's usually when we're our truest selves. And when you're in that zone, it's actually a great time to meet someone new. In that setting, you're naturally thriving.

46:45It's why our sponsor, Tinder, created their new double date feature, where you and your bestie can connect with other single pairs. Instead of that high-pressure one-on-one environment, now you're at a group hang. Conversation flows better. And if you stumble, your bestie is literally right there to catch you. If solo dating makes you act like a glitchy version of yourself, invite a friend along. Download Tinder today and try Double Date because everything is better with your bestie.

47:18but now after the company goes public um it feels as if this is where we start to see a decline yeah you know um in sales and increase in in losses so what do you think happened with regard to the the the demise um being really honest like the way that i'd always run the business over the years was sales first everything else comes second if i don't have those sales i can't i'm not growing that team i'm not doing this and that's how i always run the business and that had sort of changed a little bit you know we'd end up having you know directors in for director's sake it would just become so big and there was so much cost involved in being on the stock market um and just in every area of the business really and i would say that was the the biggest thing and i think it wasn't just us you know if you look at lots of business out there you know at the time boohoo asos many businesses you know it was starting to decline on the stock market and there was less interest around fashion businesses post-COVID.

48:16So the share price started to decline as well, and we couldn't raise further investment. So I would say it was a combination of things, even things like, you know, the war in Ukraine and Russia had impacted freight costs, and it had been massive to the business. So there were so many things that had impacted it that we weren't expecting. And yeah, it started to decline, really. But it sounds like it was this court case that exacerbated your mental health issues. So what was the court case? And from what I understand, you've never talked about this. I've never talked about it, no. This court case.