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This is David and John from the David McWilliams podcast,
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ACAST recommends.
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Hi, I'm Ryan Tuberty.
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And for those who don't know, I love books and
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I love a great story. And on my podcast, The
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Bookshelf with Ryan Tuberty, I sit down with fascinating people
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And we talk about the books that have shaped their
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lives and the stories behind them. We talk about the
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book they loved as a child, the book that brings
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them joy, and the book that changed their life.
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Over the seasons, I've chatted to.
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World leaders, cultural icons, sports stars, and some of my
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favorite authors. Well, season five is now available. So if
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you love books, if you love stories, and you love
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great conversation, come and join me on the bookshelf every Tuesday.
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Watch on YouTube or indeed listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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Acast is home to the world's best podcasts, including Red Room,
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Catch up with Louise McSharry and the one you're listening
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to right now. Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 is Jordan Brompton,
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My Energy.
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Jordan Brompton, one of my idols, and she's ended up
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running a nine-figure energy company. The fact that she walks
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into any room, breaking every single stereotype, she's one of
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the most impressive people I have ever, ever met.
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So in November 2016, we started My Energy, and it's
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been a bloody whirlwind ever since. We started in our
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shed to now like a 65,000 square foot factory. Indirectly,
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we invented smart charging.
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I mean this in the least offensive way possible. If
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I met you and you were like, yeah, I own
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an energy company, I would be like, oh, I've.
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Grown up with nothing. From 13 years old I started working.
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My dad graphed. I grew up on a scrapyard. I
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did Zumba instructing. I've worked in bars. I danced in nightclubs. God,
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you've lived a hundred lives. Especially with a name called
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Jordan and they'd expect a man to walk into the rooms.
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You know, I don't get invited to the golf course.
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Why would a woman have a job? It'd be ridiculous.
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It drives me fucking insane. I've nearly been bullied out
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of my own business. Every day's a challenge. Every day
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you've got imposter syndrome. Every day you don't think you
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deserve to be there. I think as women we just torture, torture,
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torture ourselves. I'm winging it like my terrible eyeliner.
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So what is the big end goal? What is up
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guys and welcome back to the podcast. Today we have
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Jordan Brompton who is just one of my idols. She
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is an incredible entrepreneur and I think the reason I'm
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so obsessed with her is the breaking every single stereotype.
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And she's so unapologetic about it and she owns it.
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And she's just so impressive. She owns an enormous, an
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IPO level energy company. I almost feel offensive sounding like
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so surprised, but I think we're so ingrained into expecting
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women to do certain things. And those women who do
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those certain things to look a certain way and to
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act a certain way and all of this, And Jordan
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just comes in and she just like debunks all of this.
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She's so incredibly impressive. Her story is absolutely unmatched in
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terms of tenacity, the background she's come from, getting obsessed
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with the whole world of energy and renewable energy and
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making people self-sufficient. And I mean, she's been a dancer.
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She's been a hairdresser. She's worked in bars and she's
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ended up running a multi-million business. nine-figure energy company. And
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I hate to sound surprised. I really, really, really do.
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But I think that's exactly what stereotypes do to us. Anyway,
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I just need you to hear Jordan's story, what she's done,
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how she's got to where she is now, and just
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her unapologetic attitude. We were talking before the episode and
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I was.
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Like, yeah, I always feel like I need to act
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like this or whatever.
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It might be like this for people to take me
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seriously or not dress like this, et cetera, et cetera.
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She's like, I just play into it. Like, I literally
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do everything that I think is going to make them
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take me less seriously. And she still just wins. And
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I think it's so impressive. And I think she's my
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new idol. So anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this episode.
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I think you really, really, really well. She's one of
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the most impressive people I have.
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Ever, ever, ever, ever met.
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And as always, if you do enjoy the episode, please
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make sure to rate and subscribe and follow the podcast
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on whatever platform you are listening or watching it on.
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That really helps us and enables us to get amazing guests.
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So thank you so much. And as always, have a
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wonderful day.
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Jordan Brompton is the co-founder of My Energy, one of
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the world's fastest growing renewable energy companies. With a turnover
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of over 70 million pounds and 400 staff, it's safe
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to say My Energy is turning heads in the renewable
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tech space. The company's huge success started with the invention
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of the Zappi charger. the world's first solar charger for
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electric vehicles capable of using 100% renewable energy. It began
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as an idea over a bottle of wine with her
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business partner and now drives tens of millions of sales
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each year. However, my energy's journey hasn't always been plain sailing.
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I wanted to sit down with Jordan to get to
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the bottom of what it's really like running an energy
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company as a woman. We discuss how she's scaled the business,
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the obstacles she faces on a daily basis, and why
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it's important to learn your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
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Now My Energy's CMO, Jordan gives a realistic view into
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the whirlwind of being on the front line of a
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startup in an often tumultuous industry. I am so excited
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to share this episode with you. I'm very excited to
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have you here.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I want to get straight into it. Firstly, I always
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ask guests for just a little bit of background on
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themselves and their career. So I'd just love to hear
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like right from the very beginning, I guess school type
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of time, what were you like and where did you
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think you were going?
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So I was pretty useless at school. I was like,
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I loved the social aspects of it, but I was
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just never very academic. I was always into the arts, singing, dancing.
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But growing up in Grimsby, there was not very many options.
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I was very lot sort of like C's, D grades students.
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um going to university was just not an option it
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was not something that you grew up aspiring to do
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in my sort of hometown um so I like left
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school not a clue what I wanted to do but
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I wanted to be independent from my parents because they're
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super hard working I understood the value of money and
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I didn't want to put any extra pressure on them
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because they already worked hard as it was and had
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my little sister so I think like from 13 years
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old I started working I was whether it was a
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paper round or whether it was on the Sunday market
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down town at the beach selling scooters I was just
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grafting to have my own money because I always wanted
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to travel um but then I was also a homebird
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which is totally weird so I'd want to travel but
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I'd want to come back and I'd want to get
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a bit of culture but I had absolutely no idea
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what I wanted to do as I said I grew
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up singing and dancing and But then at about 16,
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I just lost all my confidence, stopped going on stage,
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stopped doing anything that was sort of like performing arts.
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And it was, I think it was after I'd come
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down for an audition in London and the girls sort
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of locked me in the toilet and said, like, who's
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that geek from like up north or whatever? It was
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like a very clicky London crowd. And I come down
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for a dance audition and I went back home and
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I was like, I am never... oh my god yeah
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so I was like that's my career over and because
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I was too young and like vulnerable and ginger and
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geeky and just I don't know so I thought right
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well that's not a vibe so I just I just
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got stuck into work and yeah left school tried college
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tried law I did like a year of law which
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I found interesting but I was like I'm not academic
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so it's starting to get hard and I just don't
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get it I just did what the teachers told me
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I could do, which was hairdressing or travel and tourism.
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So I picked hairdressing, went and worked in a salon
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for a bit, but I was allergic to every product
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that I got, like dermatitis up my arms and up
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my neck. And I was like, so this isn't for
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me either.
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I'm so sorry.
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That's also such a niche thing. But I'm also very
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happy about it because if I'd have loved it and
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I wouldn't be where I am now, but... I've just
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always had an interest in business, even though I've had
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no one to really, I guess the closest person that
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I've had to look up to in business is my granddad.
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So I've grown up in a real male dominated family,
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even though my mum's super feminine. Like my dad had
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like 13 brothers and sisters. They're all very like. huge
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minor Yorkshire men with big hands big outside jobs and
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he used to buy and sell cars and just a
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total dell boy really and I used to I've grew
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up on a scrapyard watching him up north like hustle
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and then my dad graphed and my dad used to
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say to me whatever you do kid don't matter about
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being academic you're a great communicator you've got great common
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sense and not a lot of people in this world
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have got common sense so lean into that He said,
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whatever you do, you'll be fine as long as it's
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something that you enjoy because I hate what I do.
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My dad used to say to me, I hate getting
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up at five in the morning, driving to a job
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that I physically hate, surrounded by idiots that I hate,
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still working with them so sus. We should have him on.
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I know. He's very inspiring. I'm really liking this speech.
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So he said to me, just do whatever you enjoy,
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do whatever you want. And they've always just been so
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supportive of whatever I've wanted to do. And I've been
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like a social butterfly that's flitted into every job, tried everything.
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I followed my mum. I did Zumba instructing. I've worked
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in bars. I danced in nightclubs. So then I went
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full opposite. You've lived a hundred lives. I have actually.
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I traveled the world. And then I came home, met
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the love of my life and who I'm married to now.
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I've been with him 13 years. And I went and
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I thought, what am I going to do? Need a
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little admin job. and I rocked up and it's my
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now business partner Lee it was his little bit set
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up that he had and it was in like a
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shed and it was him and five or six other
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staff hand soldering these little devices there were like now
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what's called our ready product which was a power diverter
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so anyone that had solar panels could essentially keep all
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the power in the home by diverting it to a
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hot water tank. We parted ways briefly because he had
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two other shareholders at the time that just didn't want
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to put the money back into the business or grow it.
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And I just, I said to Lee, it's such a
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shame I didn't meet you at the beginning of this
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because I'd have loved to have partnered with you because
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I think there's true potential in this brand, like in
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your products and in your brain. So if you ever
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want to do something in the future, like let me know.
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And we parted ways for a bit and I went
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and set my own business up called Spitfire Distribution. It
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was a cycling distribution business where I was buying parts
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from France and selling them to the UK. What types
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of parts? Like chain rings and ceramic bearings and things
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like that. And then clothing for bikes. Yeah. And it
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was because I had a French friend who ended up
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being my business partner who used to cycle in France.
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And he got these few brands and I said, I'll
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sell them to the UK because I've just been doing
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that for Leib for these little gizmos. I was like,
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how hard can it be? Let's set up our own business.
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But then I realized very quickly that I hated being
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a distributor because I was getting squeezed from the French
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with the supplier and I was getting squeezed from the customer.
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And I realized that it was going to have to
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be super high volume to make any money. Whereas when
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I was with Lee and he was manufacturing these little devices,
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I'd learned that you could control your destiny, your margin,
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your costs. He just didn't have the best business partners
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at the time to take it to the level that
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it needed to be. And also the solar market crashed,
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which meant all the feeding tariffs were took. So his
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poor business, he went through a right nightmare. He had
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to close all that up. And then in 2016, he
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come knocking on my door and was like, that business
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is all boxed off now, gone. Do you want to
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do something together? Only thing is I don't have any
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brand rights, any manufacturing equipment. I'll have to redesign it.
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It's actually nothing, but I'm here. Yeah, but I'm here.
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My brain's here. And your love for the actual industry
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and passion for what you wanted to do before is
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hopefully still there. And let's do something together. And I
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was like, yes. That was like my moment where I
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was like, finally. because the cycling ain't doing it for me.
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No matter how hard I try, I had a pink bike, obviously.
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And I was like biking around the country and trying
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to sell these fricking chain rings. And I was like, oh,
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just not a vibe. I've got to sell too many
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of them. So yeah, the rest is history. I said, look,
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I'll join you. So we registered the business in June, 2016.
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I said, but I'm not starting until I've like got
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my wedding out of the way because that was in September,
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my honeymoon. And then you've got me fresh, like I'm
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all yours. But let me just get this period of
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my life. Let me get Spitfire sorted. yeah so in
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November 2016 we started My Energy and it's been a
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bloody whirlwind ever since it was like that you know
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when you've got that gut feel that something's gonna work
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yeah and because you I'm passionate about it I knew
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I could sell it and I fell in love with
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the industry and the whole concept of being off-grid like
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taking somebody without being a total hippie that's living in
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the woods that's like connecting some old rusty solar panel
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together and building whatever and fires I thought we should
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be able to be off grid in the modern day
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right like use technology to be as off grid and
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as energy efficient and I just love.
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That whole yeah so for for people who might not
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know anything about that I'd love to know because I
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don't think when you walk this is one of my
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favorite things about you I don't think when you walk
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in a room so if someone was like I'm gonna
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guess 10 things that this person is obsessed with I
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do not think in that top 10, they would be
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like little gizmos.
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That connect people to being off grid and therefore having
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alternative uses of energy.
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And I want to know what you love about this
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because I am obsessed with the fact that we always
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see online now, like all of the most glamorous businesses
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in terms of like what to start, what looks good
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and all of this.
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And you're here.
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Running this enormous energy company, having just been like, loved
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the gizmos.
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I did. I love tech, but you know what it
309
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boils down to? I'm actually a bit of an anarchist.
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You weren't expecting.
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It, were you?
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No, I wasn't expecting that. Please don't. I'm a total
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conspiracy theorist. I'm a total anarchist. And I like the
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idea of decentralized power in any capacity. I don't like
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the power of money. of our energy, of our food,
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of our water supply, of whatever it is. I don't
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like it being in the hands of like a few people.
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Right.
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And so explain the concept of off-grid. So off-grid basically
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means that if you're generating your own power, you don't
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have to pull as much power from the actual grid. Right,
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the national grid. Yeah, the national grid. So you're basically
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taking yourself as off-grid as possible. So in the UK,
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it's quite complicated to go completely off-grid. You've got to
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stay grid-connected. But I like this idea of being virtually off-grid.
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So you've got solar panels in your home, and what
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My Energy does is just help you consume and divert
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that energy wherever you want it so that you're not
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sending it back to the grid. You're just essentially your
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own little... Pocket of energy. Yeah. Which is obviously great
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for the environment too. Great for the environment, supports the grid,
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like the grid love it, because that allows then more
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large renewables onto the grid. it gives us energy security
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as a country. So if all the people that can
335
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have solar panels on their roof or a little turbine
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or hydro, if they live next to some water, if
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they can get themselves as off grid as possible, we
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are actually energy secure as a country, which is in
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the current climate, obviously very important. So I'm just like,
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I've just got a fascination with it and I fell
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into the industry. And at the time there was no
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women in it. Like when I joined, you know, I've
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worked in solar now for, I think it's coming up
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about 14 years or so. And there was no women
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in it at that time. It was very like, you know,
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I had to traipse around Europe, traipse around the UK
347
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with my little roll-up banners at trade shows and stuff.
348
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I had to know my stuff technically because I'm dealing
349
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with electricians. I'm not dealing with like women and just,
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I just, it was, it was hard graft at the beginning.
351
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But that's the time that I love as well. Like
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that building the brand, that start up, that hustle, that
353
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not knowing if you're going to make next month's paycheck.
354
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Keeps you going. Yeah. You have to, aren't you? You've
355
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got no choice. I know.
356
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I always think that entrepreneurs are like a special type
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of weird. In the way that we're like, this makes
358
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me feel alive.
359
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And it's like, you could just, you could just not.
360
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A few times I was like, why can't I just
361
00:16:07.179 --> 00:16:08.820
get a job at Tesco and be happy about it?
362
00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:10.649
And then I have my weekends and why am I
363
00:16:10.669 --> 00:16:14.789
doing this to myself? Because it's freaking hell. But no,
364
00:16:14.830 --> 00:16:17.250
it's paid off and the rewards have been amazing. And
365
00:16:18.049 --> 00:16:20.509
I mean, it's stressful, but... Yeah, but worth it.
366
00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:22.789
And so right at the beginning, when you two sat
367
00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:25.950
down together, what was your concept for My Energy, for
368
00:16:25.970 --> 00:16:27.429
what you were starting and what you were building?
369
00:16:27.629 --> 00:16:29.789
So we were starting with what we knew, which was
370
00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:32.370
the very first product that we had ever designed, which
371
00:16:32.409 --> 00:16:34.529
was our ready product. So we was like, I am
372
00:16:34.590 --> 00:16:36.950
going to design it now. Just it's going to be
373
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like the seventh version of it because I know inside
374
00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.889
out I'm going to do it amazing. And let's do
375
00:16:41.929 --> 00:16:43.820
it for the German market because the German market is
376
00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:45.620
just about to take off. And I was like, yeah.
377
00:16:45.870 --> 00:16:47.529
I'm here for that. Like I know how to sell it.
378
00:16:47.529 --> 00:16:49.450
I know the tech inside out. I've got customers that
379
00:16:49.470 --> 00:16:51.879
I can already go to. I've got, you know, loyal
380
00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:54.600
friendships in the industry that I can go straight to
381
00:16:54.659 --> 00:16:57.059
and say me and Leah partnering up. So give us
382
00:16:57.100 --> 00:16:59.100
your money. We had customers that were buying them in
383
00:16:59.139 --> 00:17:02.039
advance before we even had manufacturing equipment or whatever, like
384
00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:04.490
helping us bankroll and our business partners in other parts
385
00:17:04.549 --> 00:17:07.490
of the world. So I had a loyal few customers
386
00:17:07.529 --> 00:17:10.609
from relationships that I'd built before. So I was like,
387
00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:13.299
let's just get stuck in with the Eddie product. But
388
00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:15.799
it was when Lee was driving a little Nissan Leaf
389
00:17:15.859 --> 00:17:18.799
at the time. And I remember him saying, I've still
390
00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:22.009
got export, like I'm still exporting to the grid. So
391
00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:25.410
he's like, the Eddie is heated my water by midday.
392
00:17:25.890 --> 00:17:28.609
And then I've got all this power and I'm exporting
393
00:17:28.630 --> 00:17:30.309
it to the grid. It's not going to my electric car.
394
00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:34.019
And I said, my God, mate, get cracking. Get cracking.
395
00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:35.940
Get in that shed and don't come out until you
396
00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:36.759
figure something out.
397
00:17:36.779 --> 00:17:39.920
Until your car is running off the hot water somehow.
398
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:43.049
Literally, like I want that. I want free miles from
399
00:17:43.089 --> 00:17:46.349
the sunshine. No fuel ever again. I'm not paying for
400
00:17:46.390 --> 00:17:48.950
fuel ever again. So get in that shed. And that's
401
00:17:48.990 --> 00:17:53.269
when Zappy was sort of born. And Zappy just like,
402
00:17:53.690 --> 00:17:57.170
oh my God, took us to next level because it
403
00:17:57.210 --> 00:18:01.460
just turned out that all the electric vehicle drivers of
404
00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.660
that time, which weren't very many, but there was quite
405
00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:06.440
a few, Most of them had solar panels. Of course.
406
00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:09.859
And most of them were like dying for this product,
407
00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:11.579
which we didn't even know. It was just by accident
408
00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:16.680
that we saw a problem and solved it. And indirectly,
409
00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:19.970
we then invented smart charging, as it's known today. We
410
00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:22.109
were the first sort of in the world to think
411
00:18:22.170 --> 00:18:25.230
about balancing the grid, balancing the home, even if you
412
00:18:25.250 --> 00:18:26.930
don't have solar panels. Like if you've got an electric
413
00:18:26.970 --> 00:18:29.119
shower on, a kettle on, and all these different things,
414
00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.990
like just reducing the power to the car. because otherwise
415
00:18:33.009 --> 00:18:34.950
you're going to get your main fuse pretty hot. And
416
00:18:35.190 --> 00:18:38.089
the grid responded to it. Customers responded to it. Electricians
417
00:18:38.150 --> 00:18:41.130
loved it. So it was just, it just took off.
418
00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:45.190
And what was Lee's background? So Lee's an electronics engineer.
419
00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:47.559
He was self-taught originally. Then he went to uni and
420
00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:50.779
he's had like jobs at Ericsson and places like that.
421
00:18:50.819 --> 00:18:53.680
He's had multiple, he had a little company called Big
422
00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:58.400
Cat where he was making electronics for cars, like little
423
00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:02.160
boy racer stuff. He's always been tinkering. He's like a tinkerer.
424
00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:04.890
And we're both Grimsby kids, like he's just worked his
425
00:19:04.930 --> 00:19:08.049
way up to being an absolute top dog that he
426
00:19:08.150 --> 00:19:12.579
is now. To signing 30 million pound rounds. Yeah. Casual little.
427
00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.240
Just a little casual, you know, just a drop in
428
00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:16.039
the ocean really.
429
00:19:16.220 --> 00:19:16.500
Yeah.
430
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:17.619
Not a lot, not a lot.
431
00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:20.519
Where did you kind of get that matter of fact,
432
00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:24.609
like tenacity in terms of just getting on with things
433
00:19:24.789 --> 00:19:25.950
and just figuring it out?
434
00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:28.660
One thing that's good, when you are brought up in
435
00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:32.059
somewhere like Grimsby, I hardly ever came to the city.
436
00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:35.480
I had no external import, no analysts telling me to
437
00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:38.480
do this, no people checking the data, no one doing
438
00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:41.130
the market research. Because if they had, they would have
439
00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:43.740
told me not to do it. Yeah, it's too hard.
440
00:19:43.740 --> 00:19:47.049
So my first instinct was to get online. I was like,
441
00:19:47.089 --> 00:19:48.970
trying not to give too much away, but build the
442
00:19:49.009 --> 00:19:52.289
brand and build some contacts online and through LinkedIn and
443
00:19:52.309 --> 00:19:54.569
things like that. But I guess I looked and my
444
00:19:54.670 --> 00:19:57.730
first point of contact, I thought, it turned out that
445
00:19:57.950 --> 00:20:00.369
one of the market leaders in EV charging, because there
446
00:20:00.410 --> 00:20:02.980
was a few other like electric vehicle charge points that
447
00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.180
were around, but they were just what we call dumb chargers.
448
00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:08.359
So they were just putting full power to the car regardless.
449
00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:10.819
And these companies were making a mint because the government
450
00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.019
was giving away a grand for every charger, even though
451
00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.609
they cost about £ 25 to build. We opened one up
452
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:18.150
and we were like, the electronics in them are so minimal.
453
00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:20.470
They were like caravan hookup points. Why are there none
454
00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:24.150
on my road then? So the government was like throwing
455
00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.349
money at this point. It was called the OLEV scheme
456
00:20:26.369 --> 00:20:28.329
and we didn't have a charger at this point. And
457
00:20:28.380 --> 00:20:31.180
I said, let's go to who's winning in this market
458
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.279
space at the minute and say, like, we can make
459
00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:36.019
your tech smarter here. can we put our zappy in
460
00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.759
your product and do like a licensing thing I tried
461
00:20:38.819 --> 00:20:41.299
everything at the beginning to get the brand off the
462
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.240
ground and I just got doors slammed in my face
463
00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:46.440
this one I remember this one company actually saying to
464
00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:49.769
me why why why should I help why should I
465
00:20:49.789 --> 00:20:52.609
help you I don't care about the environment I don't
466
00:20:52.710 --> 00:20:55.329
care about the grid I just want to sell units
467
00:20:55.589 --> 00:20:57.170
and he looked at me and he went you could
468
00:20:57.190 --> 00:20:59.339
be a competitor one day so what and I was
469
00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.220
like no not not one day like I am going
470
00:21:02.269 --> 00:21:04.130
to be your competitor now you've just tricked me like
471
00:21:04.150 --> 00:21:07.849
that yeah you will see me again yes goodbye it
472
00:21:07.890 --> 00:21:10.990
was honestly like that is what yeah so I left
473
00:21:11.049 --> 00:21:13.190
the office like well that's fine that's his opinion whatever
474
00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:16.309
and then a year later I saw him um at
475
00:21:16.410 --> 00:21:18.569
one of our customers because I'd gone to what I
476
00:21:18.589 --> 00:21:20.150
thought right I'm gonna look at all your customers mate
477
00:21:20.250 --> 00:21:21.869
and I'm gonna jump on the back of it and
478
00:21:21.890 --> 00:21:26.019
then with the product so I went to all the electricians.
479
00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.859
I thought I'll start with the solar installers because they're
480
00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:31.029
the ones, they're a target market. So I was like
481
00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:33.829
contacting every solar installer in the country that I could
482
00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:37.309
find online, telling them about our tech. And then I
483
00:21:37.329 --> 00:21:39.349
was like, okay, so how do I get in front
484
00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:41.950
of more electricians through the electrical wholesalers? So then I
485
00:21:41.970 --> 00:21:44.910
started knocking down the doors of the electrical wholesalers and
486
00:21:44.950 --> 00:21:47.549
saying the CV market's going to happen and take off
487
00:21:47.589 --> 00:21:50.930
in a big way. Why don't you sell our products? And, um,
488
00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:53.150
it didn't want as easy as that got a lot
489
00:21:53.170 --> 00:21:55.289
of no's got you know some people said yes and
490
00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:58.230
just it just started like snowballing but i guess a
491
00:21:58.269 --> 00:22:01.180
real big catalyst and a big point was there was
492
00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:03.920
a there was a youtube channel still is called fully
493
00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:06.700
charged and they've got like a million subscribers and it's
494
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:10.039
people all interested in electric vehicles and renewables and debunking
495
00:22:10.059 --> 00:22:11.829
all the myths that you'll see in the prop like
496
00:22:11.849 --> 00:22:14.230
loads of propaganda at the minute about the industry yeah
497
00:22:14.250 --> 00:22:16.549
so you can go there for like actual studies and
498
00:22:16.849 --> 00:22:20.680
talks from professionals that are saying that you know about
499
00:22:20.740 --> 00:22:23.700
cobalt and mining and where the energy is coming from
500
00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:25.599
and all that. You can get all the actual information.
501
00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:29.890
So I knew that they were going to be at
502
00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:32.910
an event up in Orkney. So I drove in Lee's
503
00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:36.170
Nissan Leaf, which only had 55 miles range up to Orkney,
504
00:22:36.230 --> 00:22:39.710
which is a long way, by the way. And I
505
00:22:40.089 --> 00:22:42.170
had to stop 12 times to charge. I didn't even
506
00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.880
make it to the first charge. I ran out and
507
00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:47.589
I rolled in like downhill. to the charge and then
508
00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:49.269
I got there and obviously it didn't work because this
509
00:22:49.289 --> 00:22:52.740
was like seven years ago right before the infrastructures is
510
00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:55.119
what it is now and I met Robert Llewellyn the
511
00:22:55.140 --> 00:22:57.099
guy who owns the YouTube channel and I just said
512
00:22:57.140 --> 00:22:58.700
to him look I've got to show you our tech
513
00:22:58.759 --> 00:22:59.880
and he just fell in love with it and he
514
00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:01.339
said I'm going to do you an episode I'm going
515
00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:03.019
to do an episode on it and normally don't do
516
00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:06.829
episodes on like tech and things like that yeah But
517
00:23:06.849 --> 00:23:09.089
he was like, but this is so innovative and just
518
00:23:09.130 --> 00:23:12.880
so needed. And that, you know, that day our website
519
00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:16.779
that I built broke and the phone began to ring.
520
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.319
And it just, we manufacture all of our products as well,
521
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:23.140
by the way. So we are completely vertically integrated. So
522
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:26.440
we'd gone from, I was hand soldering them myself, like
523
00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:31.220
packaging them up, walking them to the post office. You
524
00:23:31.259 --> 00:23:35.289
with your zappies. Carrying my zappie up there. up the
525
00:23:35.309 --> 00:23:38.349
hills in the local village where we started in our shed.
526
00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:41.509
So now like, you know, I don't know, we're just
527
00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:44.890
building a 65,000 square foot factory with all the latest
528
00:23:45.130 --> 00:23:47.660
manufacturing equipment in so we can churn out millions of
529
00:23:47.700 --> 00:23:50.640
these things around the world. Yeah, no more soldering for you. No.
530
00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:53.680
And so that obviously hugely started to take off. What
531
00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:55.799
kind of size was your team at that time?
532
00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:59.710
It was probably about 15, 16 or so. people by
533
00:23:59.750 --> 00:24:00.450
that point.
534
00:24:00.450 --> 00:24:02.910
Right and how did that feel to suddenly be managing
535
00:24:02.910 --> 00:24:06.710
15 16 people were they were they in office side
536
00:24:06.730 --> 00:24:08.460
or were they doing the manufacturing yeah it.
537
00:24:08.430 --> 00:24:11.380
Was office and manufacturing it was all very hands-on yeah
538
00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:14.579
it was like orders were growing in momentum and right
539
00:24:14.779 --> 00:24:16.599
everybody was doing a bit of everything and you know
540
00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:19.319
when you're starting up you hire people you know you'll
541
00:24:19.339 --> 00:24:21.640
hire anyone who's willing to help you right you don't
542
00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:25.839
hiring on skill you're hiring on help me like family
543
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.980
and friends and just begging people to work for you
544
00:24:29.589 --> 00:24:31.950
and pulling in the family and the husband and stuff
545
00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:35.170
on Easter, buying holidays and stuff to get orders out.
546
00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:38.940
And it was wild. But I found the hardest part
547
00:24:38.980 --> 00:24:42.539
going from about that size to probably about 40, 50,
548
00:24:42.539 --> 00:24:44.819
because it had gone from feeling like everyone felt like
549
00:24:44.859 --> 00:24:47.079
there was family. So then all of a sudden you're
550
00:24:47.099 --> 00:24:50.700
trying to put processes and procedures in and bring people
551
00:24:50.769 --> 00:24:53.819
in that are qualified. And it starts, I went for,
552
00:24:53.869 --> 00:24:55.369
I remember going, and that was when I was pregnant.
553
00:24:55.450 --> 00:24:58.130
I remember going through a really hard time and a
554
00:24:58.269 --> 00:25:01.930
really hard transition of going from like friendly family startup
555
00:25:01.970 --> 00:25:03.569
fun vibes to all of a sudden this is getting
556
00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:05.759
a bit too successful and people turn in and being
557
00:25:05.779 --> 00:25:10.200
a bit weird. And then somebody just, oh, the politics.
558
00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:13.029
It was hard work. But now I think once you've
559
00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:16.150
got over like the couple of hundred mark of people
560
00:25:16.430 --> 00:25:19.930
it's a fully functioning business it's less like personal it's
561
00:25:20.009 --> 00:25:21.230
more yeah.
562
00:25:21.069 --> 00:25:24.569
I definitely have found that that transition between being like
563
00:25:24.809 --> 00:25:27.130
four people in a room to being like I mean
564
00:25:27.150 --> 00:25:30.880
we're only like 35 people I'm finding this stage so
565
00:25:30.950 --> 00:25:33.240
hard in terms of people and team and actually being
566
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.400
able to like work out exactly the types of people
567
00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:38.599
we need exactly like the types of processes we need
568
00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:41.440
what's too much what's too little how do you incentivize
569
00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:45.799
like innovation within the team whilst also putting things in
570
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.059
place to mean things that don't go wrong. It is just,
571
00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:51.650
I mean, I think I'm finding it the hardest I've
572
00:25:51.670 --> 00:25:53.150
ever found it in terms of people at the moment
573
00:25:53.210 --> 00:25:54.309
for exactly that reason.
574
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:56.710
It's normal and it's the hardest stage. I think once
575
00:25:56.730 --> 00:25:57.819
you get through that growing.
576
00:25:58.180 --> 00:25:59.759
Yeah, except you said it's fine when you get to
577
00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:02.859
a few hundred. And I'm quite far away from that.
578
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:04.660
And I'm having a tough time, Jordan.
579
00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:07.720
Do you, I think good management, good management is key.
580
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.180
Like you need your core, like a team. Cause that's
581
00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:12.349
what I found. I call them my a team. Um,
582
00:26:12.470 --> 00:26:15.150
and that's like getting that right is a blessing enough.
583
00:26:15.349 --> 00:26:17.170
You know, it's like anything in relationships, you kiss a
584
00:26:17.190 --> 00:26:19.829
few frogs, you go, You get it wrong a few times.
585
00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:22.150
I've had the imposter syndrome where I've let people come
586
00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:24.170
in and be really corporate. And I think, well, I
587
00:26:24.430 --> 00:26:26.329
trust everything they say because they're better than me. And
588
00:26:26.349 --> 00:26:29.710
then it's gone horribly wrong for the culture. And we've
589
00:26:29.730 --> 00:26:31.470
had a bit of, we've just done a culture session
590
00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:34.069
because I feel like we've got a culture war where
591
00:26:34.109 --> 00:26:37.230
it's old world versus new. And it's like, I'm wanting
592
00:26:37.269 --> 00:26:40.359
to run it really like liberal and relaxed and trusting.
593
00:26:40.390 --> 00:26:42.619
And then there's some that I want no processes, procedures.
594
00:26:42.630 --> 00:26:44.819
It's black, it's white. There's no gray area. And I'm like, no.
595
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:45.480
Yeah.
596
00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:47.619
And also what I find tough is that it's so,
597
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.000
management style is so specific to who you're managing and
598
00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:53.880
the types of people you're managing. But in a bigger organisation,
599
00:26:53.940 --> 00:26:56.509
you can't run things based on the person. Because I've
600
00:26:56.569 --> 00:26:59.269
always managed people differently, whether I know, like, whether it's
601
00:26:59.289 --> 00:27:01.490
like a, you know, I always think it's best when
602
00:27:01.529 --> 00:27:03.250
it's on like a trust relationship and it's on the
603
00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:05.230
type of thing where you can really easily just be like,
604
00:27:05.890 --> 00:27:09.099
you're essentially... I like people to be able to act
605
00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:12.160
self-employed within an organisation because if they feel trusted, I'm
606
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:14.880
not micromanaging, it's better for me, it's better.
607
00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:15.539
For them, all of that.
608
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.609
But then there are also, you can't hire fast enough
609
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:21.430
and therefore not everyone you hire is going to be
610
00:27:21.470 --> 00:27:23.930
like that and not everyone thrives in that situation. So
611
00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:26.470
as much as you can say in the interview process, like,
612
00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:28.329
you know, how good are you at like this type
613
00:27:28.369 --> 00:27:29.329
of thing and whatever it might be.
614
00:27:29.750 --> 00:27:32.430
And then also... it's not always good to have all
615
00:27:32.450 --> 00:27:33.910
the same types of people too.
616
00:27:34.329 --> 00:27:37.660
And so it's, I found it so hard to adapt
617
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:42.119
my leadership and management style, both to manage people correctly,
618
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:44.660
but also to be like, we've all got to have
619
00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:46.839
some sort of homogeneity in terms of like the way
620
00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:47.460
we do things.
621
00:27:47.579 --> 00:27:51.700
Otherwise it's just, it's chaos. It's chaos. It's hard work.
622
00:27:51.859 --> 00:27:54.829
And I don't think there's any like right or wrong
623
00:27:55.410 --> 00:27:56.630
way of doing it. I wanted you to say, I
624
00:27:56.650 --> 00:27:58.109
wanted you to give me tips and then all my
625
00:27:58.130 --> 00:28:01.170
problems will be gone. We can offline, I'll chat and
626
00:28:01.190 --> 00:28:04.390
see what the real problems are. Yeah, so fair enough.
627
00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:08.259
And in terms of that, I guess, going from, I mean,
628
00:28:09.579 --> 00:28:11.880
how many people are you now? I don't actually know.
629
00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:16.539
I think it's about 400 at the moment. We've had
630
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.299
a bit of a wobble this year because the energy
631
00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.059
crisis and the cost of living. We were growing at
632
00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:25.299
like 200% year on year. And then we just hit
633
00:28:25.339 --> 00:28:28.160
this massive slowdown because of the cost of living crisis.
634
00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:31.019
And because all the subsidies were cut for EVs and
635
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.319
it's all being politicized now, the whole world signed up
636
00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:36.720
to this, like the whole world's doing it. And now by,
637
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:40.049
by us reversing it, we're just, we are just literally
638
00:28:40.109 --> 00:28:43.670
destroying this country in any economic advantage that we could
639
00:28:43.750 --> 00:28:46.309
have had. And we was doing so well, like we're
640
00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:49.470
leaps and bounds ahead of like the US even in
641
00:28:49.529 --> 00:28:52.930
terms of like tech around the home and EVs and
642
00:28:52.970 --> 00:28:56.440
EV charging. And, It's just, we could have really grabbed
643
00:28:56.480 --> 00:28:59.480
hold of it and been a leader as our little island,
644
00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:02.980
as off-grid as possible. And it's just, who cares anyway?
645
00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:05.539
We'll just keep doing it. I think the cars have
646
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:09.279
made the switch. We'll carry on. Consumers have made their
647
00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:12.240
minds up, most of them, even though the media is
648
00:29:12.259 --> 00:29:14.619
not helping so much at the minute with the fear
649
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:19.009
mongering and the propaganda. But I just think, how can
650
00:29:19.049 --> 00:29:23.750
it be wrong? Literally, you know what it's like. You
651
00:29:23.769 --> 00:29:26.869
live in the city. Just not having the fuel pumping
652
00:29:26.890 --> 00:29:30.420
out the back into the atmosphere. And it's so energy
653
00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:33.460
intensive to produce fuel, to drill it out the ground,
654
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:35.220
to then turn it into something that we can use,
655
00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:39.250
to then burn it into the atmosphere. Yes, making a
656
00:29:39.269 --> 00:29:42.519
battery isn't the... isn't completely emission free but once it's
657
00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:45.480
with you yeah and it's no more emissions after it
658
00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:47.519
and you can recycle it after it's.
659
00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:49.769
Not even like we were super close to the deadline
660
00:29:49.789 --> 00:29:51.049
and then they were being like we're going to add
661
00:29:51.069 --> 00:29:53.470
a two year grace period so that you can do
662
00:29:53.650 --> 00:29:55.509
x y and z it's not even that like it's
663
00:29:55.569 --> 00:29:59.049
literally just like a flat switch where you're so right
664
00:29:59.109 --> 00:30:01.430
we could have been leaps and bounds ahead and we
665
00:30:01.490 --> 00:30:04.829
as a country we are getting political but like we
666
00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:08.450
as a country very much need some sort of angle
667
00:30:08.549 --> 00:30:10.390
where we can be like actually no.
668
00:30:10.170 --> 00:30:13.089
We do you know we're leading in this we're.
669
00:30:12.930 --> 00:30:15.440
Leading in this and actually that's because we've set targets
670
00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:17.299
which mean that we have to lead in this and
671
00:30:17.339 --> 00:30:19.640
now look where we are this is amazing like we
672
00:30:20.099 --> 00:30:22.339
you know are way ahead in this specific area as
673
00:30:22.380 --> 00:30:24.400
you said ahead of the US that's amazing like it's
674
00:30:24.420 --> 00:30:27.940
specifically that like With the cost of living crisis and
675
00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:30.650
with this many crises over the past few years, we've
676
00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:34.809
never had this intense amount of, whether it's recessions, COVID, crisis,
677
00:30:35.329 --> 00:30:36.529
over and over and over again.
678
00:30:36.549 --> 00:30:37.670
What a time to start a business.
679
00:30:37.710 --> 00:30:38.170
Yeah, I know.
680
00:30:38.269 --> 00:30:39.029
Brilliant.
681
00:30:39.109 --> 00:30:42.480
I know what I should do. Make myself more insecure.
682
00:30:43.259 --> 00:30:45.400
But yeah, it's exactly that type of thing. And it's like,
683
00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:48.259
it just doesn't, I mean, it just doesn't make any
684
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:50.400
sense at all. You as a business, when you get
685
00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:53.710
that type of news... that obviously you've planned to change,
686
00:30:53.950 --> 00:30:57.269
to ramp up production, to account for the increase in demand.
687
00:30:57.730 --> 00:30:59.630
I can imagine that's a lot of your business plan
688
00:30:59.670 --> 00:31:03.140
over the next few years. How have you adapted to
689
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:05.339
like when big news like that comes in, how do
690
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:06.200
you even deal with that?
691
00:31:06.420 --> 00:31:09.279
It was so hard. So the slowdown has been awful
692
00:31:09.619 --> 00:31:13.180
because it meant that we were too top heavy with,
693
00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:15.410
and you can't just turn off your suppliers. So if
694
00:31:15.430 --> 00:31:19.390
you've got like hundreds of thousands of components on order
695
00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:23.130
to manufacture your products based on, The market growth rate
696
00:31:23.269 --> 00:31:26.009
that was happening last year and the year before and
697
00:31:26.029 --> 00:31:27.759
what everybody's predicted and then all of a sudden it
698
00:31:27.779 --> 00:31:31.660
slows right down. You've got to recuperate those costs somehow.
699
00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:35.480
Up until that point, we were a self-funded business. We'd
700
00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:37.480
got some investment, 1.8 back in 2019, we raised 1.8 million.
701
00:31:40.410 --> 00:31:43.589
from angel investors. And we'd been growing off our own
702
00:31:43.630 --> 00:31:46.390
profits ever since. We've been completely profitable. Which is unbelievable.
703
00:31:46.490 --> 00:31:49.609
And then this took a massive dent in our cashflow.
704
00:31:50.190 --> 00:31:52.259
We had to let some staff go. It was honestly
705
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:57.859
the worst, most brutal time, experience I've ever gone through
706
00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:00.660
as a business owner. Cause it's all, I'm stressed even
707
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:03.420
when it's going good. Like I find it high pressured
708
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.630
and stressful and it's not like I just, I'm living
709
00:32:05.670 --> 00:32:08.690
my best life. I'm always under pressure and stressed. But
710
00:32:08.710 --> 00:32:11.000
when it's like going, the wrong direction all of a
711
00:32:11.019 --> 00:32:13.779
sudden and you're having to like lay people off or
712
00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.079
let it was just savage but we seem to be
713
00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:21.220
over the hump of that and we have just closed
714
00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:23.960
out on a round which I mentioned here we've raised
715
00:32:23.960 --> 00:32:27.519
30 million which is nice which is unbelievable yeah like
716
00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:37.230
trademark wait launch date wait open bank account wait invoice
717
00:32:37.730 --> 00:32:39.569
wait payday.
718
00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:43.670
We spend enough time waiting in business, but when it
719
00:32:43.710 --> 00:32:46.890
comes to banking, we've waited long enough. It's why Monzo
720
00:32:46.990 --> 00:32:51.130
offers simple business accounts to help make life easier for you. Monzo,
721
00:32:51.470 --> 00:32:54.440
a new era of banking. Only sole traders are Irish
722
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see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Incredible.
741
00:34:02.549 --> 00:34:05.390
Also, I'd like for context for anyone who's not in
742
00:34:05.410 --> 00:34:09.730
the fundraising sphere. This year has been absolutely savage in
743
00:34:09.769 --> 00:34:12.869
terms of fundraising. like there's been almost no deal flow
744
00:34:12.929 --> 00:34:15.530
in like any direction at all like no one's really
745
00:34:15.550 --> 00:34:18.590
been getting checks um and for you to just like
746
00:34:18.889 --> 00:34:20.530
work out you need money a bit ago and come
747
00:34:20.570 --> 00:34:23.730
into like essentially at this point and and get it
748
00:34:23.750 --> 00:34:25.909
yeah is amazing.
749
00:34:25.530 --> 00:34:28.619
We also got super um supportive bank like we had
750
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:30.679
some help from the bank as well and give us
751
00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:32.880
a revolving credit line of 30 million so we've got
752
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:36.179
that you know we've now we're now well capitalized and
753
00:34:36.219 --> 00:34:39.210
ready to to grow because we're looking at other markets
754
00:34:39.250 --> 00:34:40.869
as well and we've got a list as long as
755
00:34:40.929 --> 00:34:42.590
our arm of other products that we want to bring
756
00:34:42.699 --> 00:34:44.860
out but all of that's like you know we've had
757
00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:46.860
a bit of a hold obviously on recruitment for a
758
00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:49.719
long time and the team are all stretched and so
759
00:34:49.739 --> 00:34:51.840
we're ready to just take that pressure off everybody and
760
00:34:52.179 --> 00:34:53.960
yeah take a breath and go again because it's been
761
00:34:53.980 --> 00:34:57.590
a really intense six seven eight months.
762
00:34:57.210 --> 00:34:59.829
Yeah no I can imagine I want to talk a
763
00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:04.610
little bit about being a female business owner mm-hmm Having
764
00:35:04.670 --> 00:35:07.570
raised funding as a woman, obviously we've discussed you have
765
00:35:07.610 --> 00:35:09.710
a male co-founder, so the stats are slightly different.
766
00:35:09.789 --> 00:35:11.449
However, they're still not great.
767
00:35:11.989 --> 00:35:15.480
How have you found the process of, I guess, we'll
768
00:35:15.500 --> 00:35:18.139
talk about raising funding first. Did you feel like there
769
00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:20.960
was anything you were up against in terms of walking
770
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:23.739
into a room as a very feminine woman being like,
771
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.260
I run an energy company? I mean, I guess you
772
00:35:26.280 --> 00:35:28.329
have the numbers that speak for themselves now.
773
00:35:28.349 --> 00:35:32.809
Yeah, I didn't really. So we were going to IPO.
774
00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:33.840
Really?
775
00:35:33.880 --> 00:35:37.389
Before the war happened, we was going to IPO and
776
00:35:37.409 --> 00:35:40.690
we had everything in motion to go. And we'd been
777
00:35:40.730 --> 00:35:44.070
on the glory parade. We'd been around meeting investors. We've
778
00:35:44.090 --> 00:35:46.590
got the pitch nailed. We were on this mad trajectory
779
00:35:46.610 --> 00:35:48.699
where we were growing 200% year on year. And if
780
00:35:48.739 --> 00:35:50.679
we'd have got that over the line. It'd have been
781
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.199
great personally, but it would have fell off a cliff
782
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:55.969
not long after and share prices. And then who knows
783
00:35:56.030 --> 00:35:58.030
what would have happened. So I'm so glad we didn't
784
00:35:58.110 --> 00:36:00.289
IPO when we did, but we knew that we were
785
00:36:00.309 --> 00:36:03.849
going to need cash and not our own like organic growth,
786
00:36:03.929 --> 00:36:05.949
even though organic growth has been impressive. It was like,
787
00:36:05.989 --> 00:36:07.889
we need some extra help if we want to do
788
00:36:07.929 --> 00:36:09.429
all the things we're going to do. So let's switch
789
00:36:09.449 --> 00:36:14.530
to private equity. And then it's been, they won't mind
790
00:36:14.550 --> 00:36:16.590
me saying it, it's been hell. It's been a really
791
00:36:16.670 --> 00:36:21.639
difficult time. And I've learned so much through this process.
792
00:36:21.929 --> 00:36:26.829
And in terms of being a woman who kind of
793
00:36:26.989 --> 00:36:29.989
owns this company and from the original, I guess you
794
00:36:30.010 --> 00:36:33.280
were originally starting to be a leader. Mm-hmm. how have
795
00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:36.269
you found that being a woman has impacted people's I
796
00:36:36.289 --> 00:36:38.489
guess perception of you as a leader.
797
00:36:38.469 --> 00:36:41.489
Yeah it blows people's minds I think especially because it's
798
00:36:41.690 --> 00:36:44.150
in this industry like you say it seems to like
799
00:36:44.250 --> 00:36:46.929
it's a conversation starter and it's interesting it's like me
800
00:36:46.949 --> 00:36:48.929
and my husband have just been away and we've been
801
00:36:49.010 --> 00:36:51.039
in um in Dubai and people always say to me
802
00:36:51.059 --> 00:36:52.860
more like what do you do like they ask the
803
00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:55.300
right yeah it's natural to go to the man why
804
00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:57.960
would a woman have a job yeah I mean ridiculous
805
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:00.500
and it's all people lead with it don't they're like
806
00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:02.949
what do you do and blah blah but Being a woman,
807
00:37:02.969 --> 00:37:05.610
I don't know. I actually just hate that we have
808
00:37:05.630 --> 00:37:08.769
to still talk in 2023 about being a woman in business.
809
00:37:08.789 --> 00:37:11.550
We said, just also for context before we started recording,
810
00:37:12.030 --> 00:37:14.010
this is literally exactly what I said. I always feel
811
00:37:14.130 --> 00:37:16.889
so almost like horrible that every time I have like
812
00:37:16.929 --> 00:37:20.250
a really impressive woman here, I'm like, but being a woman.
813
00:37:20.710 --> 00:37:23.380
And it's like, you do get treat differently. And I
814
00:37:23.429 --> 00:37:25.400
noticed it in sales and things like that. You know,
815
00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:27.639
I don't get invited to the golf course, you know?
816
00:37:29.030 --> 00:37:32.690
where's my invite because that would be weird and might
817
00:37:32.750 --> 00:37:35.469
cause problems like at home you know I don't know
818
00:37:35.610 --> 00:37:38.369
I don't know yeah it's just not the same when
819
00:37:38.409 --> 00:37:40.889
you're a female leader you don't get it's still a
820
00:37:40.929 --> 00:37:44.250
little bit of a boys club yeah but I've never
821
00:37:44.309 --> 00:37:47.409
felt any of the guys treat me with any disrespect
822
00:37:47.449 --> 00:37:49.340
really even in the banking world and when I've been
823
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:52.300
raising cash and when I've got amazing investors I've got
824
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.420
amazing like males around I've always had a lot of
825
00:37:55.699 --> 00:37:58.829
men around me and I guess growing up By a
826
00:37:58.869 --> 00:38:01.250
very male-dominated family, I've learned how to, my dad's always
827
00:38:01.269 --> 00:38:04.650
taught me how to handle myself. And I really recommend
828
00:38:04.690 --> 00:38:06.739
getting into bar work when you're young because then you
829
00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:09.300
just meet every type of walk of life, don't you?
830
00:38:09.820 --> 00:38:12.059
And being a dancer, I'm very street smart and learned
831
00:38:12.099 --> 00:38:14.539
how to read a room and read body language. And
832
00:38:14.579 --> 00:38:16.980
don't get me wrong, like people, especially with a name
833
00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:19.679
called Jordan as well, because back in the day, someone
834
00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:21.769
would email me and they'd be speaking to me and
835
00:38:21.789 --> 00:38:23.630
they'd expect a man to walk into the room. So
836
00:38:23.650 --> 00:38:27.469
when a blonde with a pink blazer walks in. Walks in.
837
00:38:27.789 --> 00:38:30.130
Walks in. It's like it puts them on the back
838
00:38:30.210 --> 00:38:32.630
foot because there was expecting a bloke until, you know,
839
00:38:32.769 --> 00:38:35.429
now we've got pictures everywhere and people sort of know now.
840
00:38:35.449 --> 00:38:36.969
But in the early days when I was starting off,
841
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:39.760
I used to see people physically like disarm when I
842
00:38:39.800 --> 00:38:40.420
walked into a room.
843
00:38:40.440 --> 00:38:40.980
Like, oh, what?
844
00:38:41.139 --> 00:38:45.800
What? Yeah. So there is like this. There's a bias
845
00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:48.550
and there's. You get tread different and you might get judged,
846
00:38:48.610 --> 00:38:51.119
but I don't just find it from the blokes. I
847
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:52.760
find it quite a lot from the women as well.
848
00:38:52.780 --> 00:38:53.619
I think it is.
849
00:38:54.179 --> 00:38:57.210
I really think that is very true. And I always say,
850
00:38:57.230 --> 00:39:02.670
I think we all have. underlying preconceptions and biases that
851
00:39:02.789 --> 00:39:05.409
I even find like I even find like in myself
852
00:39:05.469 --> 00:39:06.929
you know when you're talking to someone you're like oh
853
00:39:07.230 --> 00:39:09.929
yeah like like I mean this in the least offensive
854
00:39:09.969 --> 00:39:12.130
way possible if I met you and you were like
855
00:39:12.170 --> 00:39:14.369
yeah I own an energy company I would like as
856
00:39:14.429 --> 00:39:17.610
in it's so it's terrible that that's even in it
857
00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:18.150
but I would be like.
858
00:39:18.260 --> 00:39:21.420
Oh yeah amazing that's really amazing but.
859
00:39:21.300 --> 00:39:24.920
It's so in our heads yeah we are so especially
860
00:39:24.980 --> 00:39:27.800
like we've talked about the fact that you like you've
861
00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:30.199
deliberately lent into the fact that you're a.
862
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:34.780
Very feminine yeah like yeah exactly I've not toned it
863
00:39:34.820 --> 00:39:36.539
down people have tried to make me tone it down
864
00:39:36.559 --> 00:39:40.139
I can remember yeah yeah I've been through that I've
865
00:39:40.179 --> 00:39:42.599
had one guy that I'd never say his name but
866
00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.110
I'll say it to him I pointed him, he was
867
00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:47.280
one of our first big hires. And I remember him
868
00:39:47.300 --> 00:39:48.920
saying to me, I think you should change your profile
869
00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:51.110
picture because I don't think it's very appropriate. Is that
870
00:39:51.130 --> 00:39:53.730
what we want to portray? And I was like, how?
871
00:39:54.300 --> 00:39:57.130
I've just literally employed you.
872
00:39:58.170 --> 00:40:01.769
And it was like, would he ever say that to
873
00:40:01.809 --> 00:40:02.889
his male boss?
874
00:40:03.090 --> 00:40:07.090
Exactly. Like people do say things when you're a female
875
00:40:07.130 --> 00:40:08.409
or when you're a little bit more, cause I am
876
00:40:08.449 --> 00:40:12.489
very open there for everybody. Super like warm, engaging, like
877
00:40:12.550 --> 00:40:15.449
welcome people. And I do, people take chunks out of
878
00:40:15.469 --> 00:40:17.590
me and people take chunks out of me because of
879
00:40:17.639 --> 00:40:19.780
my kind nature as well. And I find like I'm
880
00:40:19.800 --> 00:40:22.000
a bit of a punching bag and I am probably
881
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:25.800
the most judged of the C-suite and, I'm judged internally
882
00:40:25.820 --> 00:40:28.420
I'm judged externally but then when you get into the
883
00:40:28.679 --> 00:40:31.079
nuts and bolts of it like I'm also I am
884
00:40:31.340 --> 00:40:34.139
also really respected I'm just unconventional I think people don't
885
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:37.210
know what to what to do with it and they're
886
00:40:37.230 --> 00:40:40.610
battling their own social conditioning and but I get through
887
00:40:40.630 --> 00:40:42.730
I get by I get my knockbacks I get chunks
888
00:40:42.769 --> 00:40:44.389
taken out of me I build myself up I mean
889
00:40:44.409 --> 00:40:46.670
you can ask my my EA she's the closest to
890
00:40:46.690 --> 00:40:48.909
me Lindsay she sees it on and my husband they
891
00:40:49.010 --> 00:40:51.610
probably family and that they see me roaring behind the
892
00:40:51.630 --> 00:40:53.570
closed doors when I've I've had a day of it
893
00:40:53.650 --> 00:40:56.869
but I always just like managed to pull it together
894
00:40:56.889 --> 00:40:58.849
and I'm like an elephant. I don't forget. So if
895
00:40:58.869 --> 00:41:01.050
someone's like took a chunk out of me or made
896
00:41:01.090 --> 00:41:04.030
my energy feel not nice, I remember that. And I'll
897
00:41:04.170 --> 00:41:07.150
always sort of not get my own back because I'm
898
00:41:07.190 --> 00:41:09.050
not like malicious, but I won't let it go. I'll
899
00:41:09.070 --> 00:41:10.929
make sure that it's nipped in the bud and I'll
900
00:41:10.949 --> 00:41:12.809
make sure that it's been made clear that you've made
901
00:41:12.829 --> 00:41:15.369
me feel like that. And then we'll, and I don't
902
00:41:15.389 --> 00:41:16.190
hold grudges.
903
00:41:16.250 --> 00:41:16.570
Yeah.
904
00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:18.650
And how have you managed to, I guess, build that
905
00:41:18.690 --> 00:41:20.889
muscle of like a thick skin and being able to
906
00:41:21.309 --> 00:41:24.989
take that type of behavior whilst also remaining authentic to
907
00:41:25.030 --> 00:41:26.800
the fact that you want to be yourself.
908
00:41:26.519 --> 00:41:29.219
I don't think I'll ever have thick skin I don't
909
00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:31.179
think I'll ever be used to it I think I'll
910
00:41:31.219 --> 00:41:33.940
always struggle and that's why I fear quite you know
911
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:36.389
I fear doing stuff like this because I think people
912
00:41:36.489 --> 00:41:39.530
come at you so easily these days especially online I
913
00:41:39.570 --> 00:41:42.809
don't understand I'm ready yeah you know like they come
914
00:41:42.829 --> 00:41:44.610
for you and I just think I do sort of
915
00:41:44.659 --> 00:41:47.159
hide and But I've had a moment where I was like,
916
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:49.949
it was literally an epiphany recently. I was laid in
917
00:41:49.969 --> 00:41:51.889
the bath and I sent a TikTok video and it
918
00:41:51.929 --> 00:41:53.650
just summed it up where I thought, oh my God,
919
00:41:53.690 --> 00:41:56.090
that is so true. Don't let anybody shrink you because
920
00:41:56.130 --> 00:42:00.010
they're uncomfortable with your energy and your way of like leading.
921
00:42:00.130 --> 00:42:03.030
And it was just such a pivotal moment that this
922
00:42:03.070 --> 00:42:05.329
film like popped in, this little clip popped into my life.
923
00:42:05.349 --> 00:42:06.309
And I was like, do you know what? I'm not
924
00:42:06.349 --> 00:42:09.650
shrinking myself anymore. I'm always unapologetically me, but I'm going
925
00:42:09.670 --> 00:42:12.409
to be a little bit more unapologetically me because I
926
00:42:12.449 --> 00:42:15.070
guess I have shrunk myself to suit society and to
927
00:42:15.130 --> 00:42:18.130
suit everybody internally and everybody externally and I know I'm
928
00:42:18.170 --> 00:42:20.440
not a crazy person I know I don't run around
929
00:42:20.460 --> 00:42:22.940
I'm not like you not a bad person why do
930
00:42:22.980 --> 00:42:26.079
people feel that they can be this way with me
931
00:42:26.099 --> 00:42:28.019
but they wouldn't dream of saying something like that to
932
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.130
Lee and I've just woke up from it I'm like
933
00:42:30.150 --> 00:42:32.650
I'm not standing for it anymore and it's been a
934
00:42:32.690 --> 00:42:35.269
recent thing so I have to it's a constant battle that.
935
00:42:35.150 --> 00:42:37.349
I've And it will slip as well, too, because I
936
00:42:37.389 --> 00:42:39.429
feel like I've had that realisation a few times where
937
00:42:39.469 --> 00:42:42.420
I've been like, like, stormed out the bath and I've
938
00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:45.519
been like, yeah, do you know what? I never say
939
00:42:45.579 --> 00:42:47.179
something like that. So if I do say something, I
940
00:42:47.239 --> 00:42:49.929
really mean it. And no one should take advantage of like,
941
00:42:50.449 --> 00:42:52.210
you know, because I start putting this wall up around
942
00:42:52.250 --> 00:42:54.630
myself where I'm like. actually, for everyone new that starts,
943
00:42:54.670 --> 00:42:57.969
I'm gonna be really clear that I'm really stern and
944
00:42:57.989 --> 00:42:59.869
like all of this. And I'm like, it's just so
945
00:42:59.889 --> 00:43:02.590
far from who I am. And it doesn't do me,
946
00:43:02.889 --> 00:43:05.409
like I then go into the office feeling like I'm
947
00:43:05.449 --> 00:43:07.900
putting on this act so that I will be taken seriously.
948
00:43:07.940 --> 00:43:09.840
And it's like, no, I can be kind and it
949
00:43:09.880 --> 00:43:12.590
is your duty To receive it in the right way
950
00:43:12.690 --> 00:43:14.780
and do your job. And then if that doesn't happen,
951
00:43:14.820 --> 00:43:17.219
that's fine. It's not the right thing for either of us.
952
00:43:17.460 --> 00:43:20.260
But I'm not going to change my entire personality.
953
00:43:20.280 --> 00:43:21.219
To suit your needs.
954
00:43:21.320 --> 00:43:21.739
Yeah.
955
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.820
As a person, I'm running a business. But it's also.
956
00:43:23.719 --> 00:43:28.610
Society's needs as a whole. Like, we really need women to... Like,
957
00:43:28.630 --> 00:43:31.170
I've talked about this before, how the fact that we
958
00:43:31.210 --> 00:43:33.809
need women in order to be liked, we need them, A,
959
00:43:33.869 --> 00:43:34.630
not to be successful.
960
00:43:34.969 --> 00:43:35.389
But fine.
961
00:43:35.690 --> 00:43:37.510
If we can remove that, if we want to like
962
00:43:37.530 --> 00:43:40.110
a successful woman... We need them to be like violently
963
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:42.960
humble and self-deprecating. Like we really need them to be like,
964
00:43:43.380 --> 00:43:46.780
to basically qualify their success in a way where we're like, no,
965
00:43:46.840 --> 00:43:48.699
you wouldn't actually want it because these are all the
966
00:43:48.760 --> 00:43:50.780
like bad things about it. Like we like to make
967
00:43:50.940 --> 00:43:53.500
other people comfortable with our success by saying it's not
968
00:43:53.559 --> 00:43:56.199
as good as it actually is. And like, that's a
969
00:43:56.260 --> 00:43:59.570
big thing that we need. But then from leaders and
970
00:43:59.610 --> 00:44:01.409
we also need women to be vulnerable. We need them
971
00:44:01.449 --> 00:44:03.510
to share all the shit things they've been through. Like
972
00:44:03.809 --> 00:44:08.090
We require that of women to predicate their success, for
973
00:44:08.110 --> 00:44:10.010
their success to be like worthy. We need to have
974
00:44:10.050 --> 00:44:12.050
known they've gone through all of this. I always say
975
00:44:12.110 --> 00:44:15.289
that like, I know the background to every single female
976
00:44:15.349 --> 00:44:18.309
founder within like, every single female founder in the UK.
977
00:44:18.329 --> 00:44:20.289
If I know about them, I know their background. I
978
00:44:20.329 --> 00:44:21.690
know what type of education they've been through.
979
00:44:21.730 --> 00:44:23.389
I know all of this. Because we need to, to
980
00:44:23.429 --> 00:44:25.210
be able to somehow be like, oh yeah, do you
981
00:44:25.230 --> 00:44:26.150
know what? They do deserve it.
982
00:44:26.510 --> 00:44:28.349
Or whatever it might be. Or to be like, oh yeah,
983
00:44:28.489 --> 00:44:30.820
but they came from this background or whatever it might be.
984
00:44:31.110 --> 00:44:34.429
Whereas every single man... that is an entrepreneur, I don't
985
00:44:34.449 --> 00:44:36.099
know anything about their background. If I do, it's probably
986
00:44:36.119 --> 00:44:38.739
because they're so famous and so successful that we're like, yeah, cool.
987
00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:41.380
But we never concentrate on their background. We never concentrate
988
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:43.059
on where they came from. Like as in, we don't
989
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:46.440
need to in the same way. But then, I'll stop
990
00:44:46.460 --> 00:44:50.800
my rant soon, maybe. Then for leaders, we ask them
991
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:53.599
to be the opposite. We ask them to be strong
992
00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:56.340
and not show their vulnerabilities in the same way. We
993
00:44:56.440 --> 00:44:58.039
ask for them to be able to like ring fence
994
00:44:58.139 --> 00:44:59.820
and put on like this persona and all of this.
995
00:45:00.139 --> 00:45:03.159
So then we're saying, well, to be a woman, you
996
00:45:03.179 --> 00:45:04.730
need to do all of these things. And to be
997
00:45:04.750 --> 00:45:07.190
a good leader, you need to do all of these things.
998
00:45:07.710 --> 00:45:12.039
And unfortunately, they're mutually exclusive. So unfortunately, we can't have
999
00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:16.159
any likable women leaders. Like it derives me fucking insane.
1000
00:45:16.380 --> 00:45:18.280
Because when you think about it, you're like, Okay, but
1001
00:45:18.300 --> 00:45:20.039
you're asking for the two completely different things. So I've
1002
00:45:20.059 --> 00:45:21.179
got to go into a room and I've got to
1003
00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:23.179
be vulnerable, but I've also got to be strong and
1004
00:45:23.219 --> 00:45:24.719
show none of my weaknesses. But then I've got to
1005
00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:26.300
be really humble, but then I've got to be sure
1006
00:45:26.340 --> 00:45:28.000
of myself because I've got to show that I deserve to.
1007
00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:29.739
Be here and all of this. Don't be too defensive. Yeah.
1008
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:32.510
Don't be too emotional. It's just business. And then I'm like...
1009
00:45:32.429 --> 00:45:34.610
Don't be too this and don't be too that. I
1010
00:45:34.650 --> 00:45:39.309
don't have the bandwidth. I know. Don't you? It's freaking intense.
1011
00:45:39.650 --> 00:45:43.110
It's mental torture at times. And it's just not what
1012
00:45:43.150 --> 00:45:44.989
you need on top of running a business. You don't
1013
00:45:45.010 --> 00:45:48.550
need to be going home and thinking... I mean, it's
1014
00:45:48.570 --> 00:45:50.449
a good job with strong characters because I could have
1015
00:45:50.489 --> 00:45:53.030
quit a few times. I've nearly been, I would say,
1016
00:45:53.050 --> 00:45:54.880
I've nearly been bullied out of my own business in
1017
00:45:54.900 --> 00:45:57.199
the sense that I've thought, this is just too much.
1018
00:45:57.260 --> 00:46:00.139
I'm just, I've not got this in me. Why am
1019
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:02.340
I feeling like this? And no one else is feeling
1020
00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:03.320
like it. Why am I?
1021
00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:05.619
And women are quite good at graciously walking away as well.
1022
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:08.030
Because I've also almost found myself at a point where
1023
00:46:08.070 --> 00:46:10.250
I've been like, I'm going to be like gracious in
1024
00:46:10.269 --> 00:46:11.530
this and just be like, do you know what? This
1025
00:46:11.590 --> 00:46:13.949
isn't the place for me. And it's like, no, this
1026
00:46:14.010 --> 00:46:14.889
is my place.
1027
00:46:15.650 --> 00:46:18.400
What am I doing? But that's the turmoil. And usually
1028
00:46:18.420 --> 00:46:19.739
it's when I'm in the bath and I'm doing my
1029
00:46:19.760 --> 00:46:24.159
self-care bloody Sundays. I'm like, no, I built this fricking thing.
1030
00:46:24.199 --> 00:46:26.820
I'm staying and I'm growing it. Because if it's not me,
1031
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:29.409
it's someone else. And I've built the, done the fricking legwork.
1032
00:46:29.449 --> 00:46:31.409
And then I'm going to let someone in and swoop in. No,
1033
00:46:31.769 --> 00:46:34.150
I'm not going to. So I'm like, pull yourself together,
1034
00:46:34.269 --> 00:46:37.369
get a grip, stick your little iPads on, like....
1035
00:46:39.090 --> 00:46:42.150
To de-escalate the puffiness and go again the puffy get
1036
00:46:42.190 --> 00:46:44.789
the led mask i'm like this sat with everything all my.
1037
00:46:46.449 --> 00:46:48.090
Every day is a hurdle every day is a challenge
1038
00:46:48.150 --> 00:46:49.989
every day you've got imposter syndrome every day you don't
1039
00:46:50.010 --> 00:46:51.809
think you deserve to be there every day you're thinking
1040
00:46:51.829 --> 00:46:53.050
should i be this type of leader should i be
1041
00:46:53.070 --> 00:46:56.309
that type of leader it gets easier with age like
1042
00:46:56.369 --> 00:46:58.289
i'm 34 now i know you're only a baby i
1043
00:46:58.710 --> 00:47:00.949
think when you get into your 30s you're get a
1044
00:47:01.010 --> 00:47:03.269
whole new level something switches in your 30s where you
1045
00:47:03.309 --> 00:47:05.909
care less and less and less what people think and
1046
00:47:06.090 --> 00:47:08.329
every year that goes by it's starting to become more
1047
00:47:08.349 --> 00:47:11.159
and more of a power but I still I still
1048
00:47:11.239 --> 00:47:13.139
I think I don't know whether it's hormonally I don't
1049
00:47:13.159 --> 00:47:14.900
know whether it because that plays a massive part in
1050
00:47:14.920 --> 00:47:16.619
it I don't know what you know I've started getting
1051
00:47:16.639 --> 00:47:18.219
my bloods done regularly because I want to get on
1052
00:47:18.280 --> 00:47:20.360
top of that and just get to know my body
1053
00:47:20.400 --> 00:47:22.079
on a cellular level a little bit more to find
1054
00:47:22.099 --> 00:47:24.989
stuff like that interesting but I think you know if
1055
00:47:25.130 --> 00:47:27.349
I like it does play a factor into it because
1056
00:47:27.369 --> 00:47:29.469
if I'm like due on or something before a board meeting,
1057
00:47:29.489 --> 00:47:32.889
I'm a freaking wreck, like an absolute wreck. Like board meetings,
1058
00:47:32.909 --> 00:47:34.480
I get myself so worked up but it's because I
1059
00:47:34.500 --> 00:47:35.820
want to do such a good job and I want
1060
00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:37.960
to be so equal to the blokes that are in
1061
00:47:37.980 --> 00:47:40.940
the room that are calm and collected and I want
1062
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:42.199
to know my stuff. I don't want them to ask
1063
00:47:42.219 --> 00:47:44.960
me a question and me not know. But then again,
1064
00:47:44.980 --> 00:47:46.980
I'm having epiphanies all the time. Last board meeting, I thought,
1065
00:47:47.019 --> 00:47:48.699
what does it matter if I don't know the answer?
1066
00:47:48.929 --> 00:47:50.389
And also if they asked someone else and they didn't
1067
00:47:50.409 --> 00:47:51.829
know the answer, I don't think they would doubt their
1068
00:47:51.849 --> 00:47:52.809
entire capacity.
1069
00:47:52.969 --> 00:47:55.460
No, they wouldn't. But I do. I do. It's just so,
1070
00:47:55.480 --> 00:47:58.500
I think as women, we just torture, torture, torture ourselves
1071
00:47:58.579 --> 00:48:01.539
because of, and we're going through evolving times, aren't we?
1072
00:48:01.559 --> 00:48:03.539
We're going through a totally different generation to what our
1073
00:48:03.579 --> 00:48:06.480
parents went through, to what our grandparents went through. We're
1074
00:48:06.519 --> 00:48:09.420
like carving out this whole new technological world. We've got
1075
00:48:09.539 --> 00:48:13.039
all this information online and everything. We've just got a
1076
00:48:13.159 --> 00:48:16.769
lot to deal with in general without throwing in like,
1077
00:48:17.050 --> 00:48:21.909
you know, multi-million pound businesses with 400 staff. and that
1078
00:48:21.949 --> 00:48:24.429
is all amen that's what I have to say for
1079
00:48:24.449 --> 00:48:27.969
today goodnight so I don't know the answers you come
1080
00:48:28.010 --> 00:48:31.289
into your podcast for some lovely inspiration I don't know
1081
00:48:31.309 --> 00:48:32.949
what to tell you I've got nothing to give you
1082
00:48:34.389 --> 00:48:36.079
I'm winging it like my terrible.
1083
00:48:35.900 --> 00:48:38.659
Eyeliner I know I know and I think that is
1084
00:48:38.719 --> 00:48:40.480
the truth to be honest as well because I think
1085
00:48:40.619 --> 00:48:42.920
every single person is very much winging it and there's
1086
00:48:42.960 --> 00:48:44.760
little bits of advice you can take from everyone but
1087
00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:49.050
I think realistically the true amazing entrepreneurs are the ones
1088
00:48:49.130 --> 00:48:52.420
that are winging it to the extent that obviously entrepreneurs
1089
00:48:52.559 --> 00:48:54.079
all the time if you don't have the answer you
1090
00:48:54.099 --> 00:48:56.449
still do it like and I think that's the constant
1091
00:48:56.469 --> 00:48:57.039
thing is it's like.
1092
00:48:56.969 --> 00:48:58.849
There's nowhere to hide I'll sort it out later there's
1093
00:48:58.889 --> 00:49:00.489
nowhere to hide you can't bury your head in the
1094
00:49:00.510 --> 00:49:02.610
sand for too long when you are the owner of
1095
00:49:02.650 --> 00:49:05.570
the business it is you yeah but I think one
1096
00:49:05.610 --> 00:49:08.250
thing I would say about um one thing that's helped
1097
00:49:08.309 --> 00:49:12.460
me mentally physically and again women feel so uncomfortable talking
1098
00:49:12.460 --> 00:49:15.019
about their successes and they have to tone it down
1099
00:49:15.019 --> 00:49:17.460
where everybody else can you know, go over the top
1100
00:49:17.460 --> 00:49:20.539
and show about it. Do you know what? I occasionally do.
1101
00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:22.300
You know, I've got the pink Audi. I think I'm
1102
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:24.750
going to enjoy my car. I get, I get like
1103
00:49:24.789 --> 00:49:27.550
comments thrown at me and stuff, but I think I've
1104
00:49:27.570 --> 00:49:30.730
grown up with nothing. I didn't come from a wealthy family.
1105
00:49:31.159 --> 00:49:33.280
I've not been handed nothing. I put up my own
1106
00:49:33.380 --> 00:49:35.760
savings on the line. Like I'm not taking that away
1107
00:49:35.780 --> 00:49:38.260
from anyone that has had it handed to them because
1108
00:49:38.280 --> 00:49:39.889
I think still you've got to graft. Even if you've
1109
00:49:39.909 --> 00:49:41.989
been handed a wedge of cash, even if you've been
1110
00:49:42.030 --> 00:49:44.809
handed a business, it's not a freaking given. But like
1111
00:49:44.889 --> 00:49:47.269
I can hold my head high that I did physically
1112
00:49:47.329 --> 00:49:51.719
have nothing and I've had no easy way of making it.
1113
00:49:51.949 --> 00:49:53.909
So I think I am going to enjoy the finer
1114
00:49:53.929 --> 00:49:55.449
things in life and you're not going to take it
1115
00:49:55.590 --> 00:49:56.769
away from me and you're not going to make me
1116
00:49:56.789 --> 00:49:59.369
feel like shit about it. And I also try and
1117
00:49:59.389 --> 00:50:01.289
like be a bit more, it's not like I'm showing
1118
00:50:01.349 --> 00:50:04.190
off and being flashy, extra flashy and showing things that
1119
00:50:04.210 --> 00:50:07.070
I buy, but I will go on holiday. And I'll
1120
00:50:07.090 --> 00:50:08.550
have a nice- But the one thing about me is
1121
00:50:08.610 --> 00:50:11.030
I will have a luxury holiday and I will have
1122
00:50:11.070 --> 00:50:13.610
a nice car, like soz, shoot me. I'll buy a
1123
00:50:13.650 --> 00:50:16.789
nice house. But one thing that gave me my physical
1124
00:50:16.849 --> 00:50:20.170
sanity back and I can't stress it enough to a
1125
00:50:20.210 --> 00:50:23.110
female founder or to founders is take some money off
1126
00:50:23.130 --> 00:50:24.309
the table whenever you can.
1127
00:50:24.829 --> 00:50:27.369
Yes I have been told this could you talk about
1128
00:50:27.409 --> 00:50:29.230
that a little bit because I'd love to hear more
1129
00:50:29.269 --> 00:50:30.210
of that from you.
1130
00:50:30.170 --> 00:50:32.849
When COVID hit I was living in a little house
1131
00:50:32.909 --> 00:50:36.090
I just had my daughter the pressure was building because
1132
00:50:36.139 --> 00:50:38.579
we had a full manufacturing facility with orders that we
1133
00:50:38.599 --> 00:50:42.239
couldn't keep up with and then COVID hit and I
1134
00:50:42.280 --> 00:50:43.300
thought I didn't know if we was going to have
1135
00:50:43.320 --> 00:50:45.199
to mothball the business lay people off none of us
1136
00:50:45.219 --> 00:50:47.280
knew what was going to happen and I literally I
1137
00:50:47.300 --> 00:50:49.219
thought I can't I've put my whole life saving into
1138
00:50:49.260 --> 00:50:50.840
this any money that I had and when I say
1139
00:50:50.860 --> 00:50:53.599
life saving I mean like took 20 grand that I
1140
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:56.150
had in a house out or borrowed a loan against
1141
00:50:56.210 --> 00:50:58.190
it and put it in that's all I had and
1142
00:50:58.269 --> 00:51:00.909
I was like I cannot let this cannot fail and
1143
00:51:00.929 --> 00:51:02.670
be left with nothing like me and my husband and
1144
00:51:02.690 --> 00:51:04.690
my little I can't I just I was like literally
1145
00:51:04.949 --> 00:51:07.360
terrified so I went to my original investors and I
1146
00:51:07.400 --> 00:51:10.840
said I know the business is worth something now like
1147
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:13.260
I just want to sell a bit of my shareholding
1148
00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:15.800
I've seen a house that I want it's just going
1149
00:51:15.820 --> 00:51:18.619
to give me the comfort that I need to lock
1150
00:51:18.639 --> 00:51:20.760
down with my new baby you're not pushing every day
1151
00:51:20.780 --> 00:51:24.409
yeah it's my dream house I'll be like just I'll
1152
00:51:24.429 --> 00:51:27.750
be really good yeah just give me the money and
1153
00:51:27.929 --> 00:51:29.690
um it was a bit of a it was a
1154
00:51:29.730 --> 00:51:32.489
bit of a they had me they had me really
1155
00:51:32.550 --> 00:51:34.269
because it was at COVID they were like well you
1156
00:51:34.309 --> 00:51:36.030
know the pandemic's hit and we don't know where the
1157
00:51:36.050 --> 00:51:38.719
business and there's a risk and luckily like I always
1158
00:51:38.760 --> 00:51:40.550
think like if you do feel like you're getting a
1159
00:51:40.590 --> 00:51:43.050
bad deal negotiate a claw back so that if the
1160
00:51:43.070 --> 00:51:44.530
business is worth more money you can have some of
1161
00:51:44.550 --> 00:51:46.309
your shares back or you can have some cash back
1162
00:51:46.329 --> 00:51:48.409
so I negotiated that in as well which ended up
1163
00:51:48.590 --> 00:51:50.610
being worth a lot of money and was yeah freaking
1164
00:51:50.730 --> 00:51:54.260
godsend so I negotiated and I took some money off
1165
00:51:54.280 --> 00:51:56.440
the table and I bought my dream house in an
1166
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:58.300
in the area where I've grown up where it was
1167
00:51:58.340 --> 00:52:02.980
always totally aspirational to live and it just changed mine
1168
00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:05.570
and my immediate family, my husband and my daughter's life.
1169
00:52:05.650 --> 00:52:07.409
It set Bonnie up. And I thought, do you know
1170
00:52:07.429 --> 00:52:11.769
what now? Anything that happens now really doesn't matter because
1171
00:52:12.010 --> 00:52:14.590
I've done what I, more than what I ever dreamed
1172
00:52:14.630 --> 00:52:18.159
I could do. And now I feel like the rest
1173
00:52:18.179 --> 00:52:20.179
of it's fun and I've still got my shareholding. I've
1174
00:52:20.199 --> 00:52:23.039
still got some shareholding in. That I think if I'd
1175
00:52:23.059 --> 00:52:26.639
have gone through what I've gone through in the last year, skint,
1176
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:28.619
still with no money off the table, because I think
1177
00:52:28.639 --> 00:52:30.760
people think that if you've got a successful business that's
1178
00:52:30.780 --> 00:52:33.420
turning over, the business turns over 70 million. I don't
1179
00:52:33.460 --> 00:52:35.019
take anything out of it other than a wage. I'm
1180
00:52:35.039 --> 00:52:37.170
not taking dividends. I don't take profits out of it.
1181
00:52:37.190 --> 00:52:40.110
It's all getting plowed back in. And I think people
1182
00:52:40.130 --> 00:52:42.769
have this perception that, oh, wow, they're turning over 70 million.
1183
00:52:42.789 --> 00:52:45.309
She must be loaded. It's like, no, I had to
1184
00:52:45.369 --> 00:52:47.789
sell some shares to live the lifestyle that I'm living now.
1185
00:52:47.849 --> 00:52:49.550
But if I hadn't done that, I think I'd have quit.
1186
00:52:49.570 --> 00:52:51.300
I think I'd have had a mental breakdown. Yeah. I
1187
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:54.940
think kind of ended up a nervous wreck. I don't
1188
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:56.659
think I could have gone through what I've gone through
1189
00:52:56.699 --> 00:53:00.610
if I didn't take away my financial worry I had
1190
00:53:00.630 --> 00:53:03.170
at the time. And it's not even possible for some people,
1191
00:53:03.190 --> 00:53:05.550
but if it is, if you get a slight opportunity,
1192
00:53:05.570 --> 00:53:08.170
you've got a shareholding, you've got a business that's worth
1193
00:53:08.210 --> 00:53:12.590
some value, just look into it. And I've just seen
1194
00:53:12.610 --> 00:53:15.690
things turn so fast. You just never, ever know. You
1195
00:53:15.710 --> 00:53:17.550
can be like on the up and think this is
1196
00:53:17.630 --> 00:53:20.219
it for life now. This is fine. I'll just ride
1197
00:53:20.260 --> 00:53:22.780
this wave. Yeah. You don't know what's around the corner.
1198
00:53:22.820 --> 00:53:26.239
Like there's so many macro factors that are just, I mean,
1199
00:53:26.260 --> 00:53:28.900
it might be different in your sort of business because
1200
00:53:28.920 --> 00:53:31.059
you've got such a huge name yourself and following. I
1201
00:53:31.079 --> 00:53:33.239
think you'll always be successful with your brand. I think
1202
00:53:33.260 --> 00:53:36.139
you'll always be successful. I think that's for sure. I
1203
00:53:36.159 --> 00:53:37.880
don't know. Cause you've, you've got your, you know, you've
1204
00:53:37.900 --> 00:53:40.320
got your name, you've got your social. Yeah. You could,
1205
00:53:40.679 --> 00:53:42.820
I feel like you could spin up a million businesses
1206
00:53:42.860 --> 00:53:44.710
if you want you so early in your career. I'm like,
1207
00:53:45.110 --> 00:53:47.409
it's amazing to see, but I just think if you've
1208
00:53:47.429 --> 00:53:50.710
got that one thing and, and, you know and it's
1209
00:53:51.010 --> 00:53:53.530
sort of like a trend or it's an industry that's
1210
00:53:53.909 --> 00:53:57.800
politicized or especially if it's in politicized it's um it's
1211
00:53:57.840 --> 00:53:59.420
risk it can be risky yeah no.
1212
00:53:59.400 --> 00:54:01.860
I can completely completely imagine I just want to talk
1213
00:54:01.940 --> 00:54:03.780
briefly about again this is one of the things I
1214
00:54:03.820 --> 00:54:05.360
hate talking to women about I want to talk to
1215
00:54:05.389 --> 00:54:08.050
you about having a baby yeah no it's fine talk
1216
00:54:08.090 --> 00:54:12.050
to me about bonbon what was your kind of decision
1217
00:54:12.110 --> 00:54:15.110
and timeline and thoughts at that time in terms of
1218
00:54:15.170 --> 00:54:17.039
like I want to start a family.
1219
00:54:17.059 --> 00:54:17.659
Yeah.
1220
00:54:17.880 --> 00:54:20.639
I've, I've been, so me and my husband are just
1221
00:54:20.739 --> 00:54:23.010
so like, we were so content and so happy with
1222
00:54:23.090 --> 00:54:26.070
our lives that it was like, we just made the
1223
00:54:26.110 --> 00:54:29.969
decision that we were going to try. Even though I
1224
00:54:29.989 --> 00:54:31.190
was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this,
1225
00:54:31.289 --> 00:54:33.639
but we'll figure it out. And it's that naivety, I
1226
00:54:33.659 --> 00:54:36.809
think at the beginning. And, we were happy either way
1227
00:54:36.849 --> 00:54:39.429
for starters we've been together for ages and never actually
1228
00:54:39.550 --> 00:54:40.929
had a scare or anything so it was like we
1229
00:54:40.949 --> 00:54:43.449
didn't know if we could or not right but we'd
1230
00:54:43.489 --> 00:54:46.409
never actively tried and we just said if we fall
1231
00:54:46.550 --> 00:54:48.429
then it's meant to be but if not our life's
1232
00:54:48.670 --> 00:54:52.139
ace we're so happy regardless so you know if it's
1233
00:54:52.179 --> 00:54:53.460
not meant to be it's not meant to be so
1234
00:54:53.480 --> 00:54:55.460
we didn't put any pressure on it turns out i
1235
00:54:55.460 --> 00:54:59.619
fell pretty quick um like like straight away so i
1236
00:54:59.639 --> 00:55:03.030
was like oh okay, we're doing this then. Shit myself.
1237
00:55:04.289 --> 00:55:07.659
And then the business was really every single year, the businesses,
1238
00:55:07.780 --> 00:55:09.179
it moves at such a rate or not. So I
1239
00:55:09.219 --> 00:55:11.760
think like three months in my energy terms is like
1240
00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:14.659
a year. That's how quick things happen. It's like dog years.
1241
00:55:15.360 --> 00:55:18.090
And it was so fricking busy at this time. And
1242
00:55:18.130 --> 00:55:20.610
I just released this little book that I did about
1243
00:55:20.889 --> 00:55:25.219
for children, teaching them about renewable energy and and all
1244
00:55:25.239 --> 00:55:27.090
renewable planet so what I think getting it into the
1245
00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:29.710
kids psyche yeah very younger not terrifying them to death
1246
00:55:30.250 --> 00:55:32.230
is important so I just finished this book and I
1247
00:55:32.230 --> 00:55:34.630
was about to go down and do the the launch
1248
00:55:34.670 --> 00:55:36.349
of it in fully charged and I was loading the
1249
00:55:36.389 --> 00:55:39.230
van and I was 32 weeks pregnant at the time
1250
00:55:39.829 --> 00:55:42.789
and I thought I said to my friend Darcy I
1251
00:55:42.809 --> 00:55:45.309
said I think the baby I'm moved much today and
1252
00:55:45.349 --> 00:55:48.130
it moves quite a lot and she went no it's
1253
00:55:48.150 --> 00:55:51.570
fine it's just because you're getting bigger and you're you know,
1254
00:55:51.730 --> 00:55:53.090
it's just got less room to move. And I had
1255
00:55:53.110 --> 00:55:54.750
little cut off shorts on. I was at that cute
1256
00:55:54.849 --> 00:55:58.130
pregnancy stage. I was like, hmm, wrong with my husband.
1257
00:55:58.170 --> 00:56:00.030
I said, I don't think I felt the baby move today.
1258
00:56:00.050 --> 00:56:02.789
And I burst into tears. And Mike said, let's just
1259
00:56:02.829 --> 00:56:07.210
go get you checked. Well, two hours later, I'm in
1260
00:56:07.230 --> 00:56:11.309
emergency C-section and she's here. So I was like, wow.
1261
00:56:11.329 --> 00:56:14.789
So she was eight weeks early and I was not prepared,
1262
00:56:14.809 --> 00:56:18.280
didn't have everything sorted. I was doing a deal at
1263
00:56:18.300 --> 00:56:20.079
the time. So I was then doing a deal from,
1264
00:56:20.519 --> 00:56:23.780
intensive care because we both needed transfusions and it was
1265
00:56:23.969 --> 00:56:29.449
fucking heavy um so my start was just utter madness
1266
00:56:29.690 --> 00:56:31.730
I it was one of them flippant decisions that if
1267
00:56:31.769 --> 00:56:34.230
we fall we fall if we don't we don't and
1268
00:56:34.269 --> 00:56:37.639
I did and then it was chaos but now she's
1269
00:56:37.679 --> 00:56:41.420
totally fine she's here and one of the um best
1270
00:56:41.460 --> 00:56:43.639
things that I have done as well from taking some
1271
00:56:43.659 --> 00:56:47.559
money off the table is retired my husband So Mikey
1272
00:56:47.599 --> 00:56:49.840
no longer works. So that has taken all the guilt
1273
00:56:49.900 --> 00:56:53.360
and pressure off me because I tried to manage it
1274
00:56:53.460 --> 00:56:55.219
all and I thought it was going to break down. Yeah.
1275
00:56:55.579 --> 00:56:58.400
Cause I, he had a job and it was like,
1276
00:56:58.420 --> 00:56:59.760
he'd get up at seven in the morning and he
1277
00:56:59.800 --> 00:57:02.300
won't be back till midnight. He was an overhead linesman.
1278
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:06.039
And it was like that job ruled over mine because
1279
00:57:06.059 --> 00:57:07.900
there was no leeway. There was no flexibility.
1280
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:08.139
Yeah.
1281
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:11.510
It's a shift. So I'd be driving across town, like
1282
00:57:12.010 --> 00:57:13.969
with the baby, I was like breastfeeding stuff at time
1283
00:57:13.989 --> 00:57:16.599
pumping and, trying to run the business, get to meetings,
1284
00:57:16.639 --> 00:57:19.280
do board meetings, break my back, trying to get back
1285
00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:20.980
for the little, I said, I can't, I don't know,
1286
00:57:21.219 --> 00:57:22.500
I don't know how women do it. I don't think
1287
00:57:22.539 --> 00:57:24.909
I can do it. It was such a, so something's
1288
00:57:24.929 --> 00:57:29.110
got to give. And I said, we've made, we've made
1289
00:57:29.150 --> 00:57:31.030
a bit of money. Like, why do you have to work?
1290
00:57:31.670 --> 00:57:33.710
And it was just like, it's going to make me
1291
00:57:33.750 --> 00:57:35.760
feel so less guilty. It's going to put less pressure
1292
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:38.570
on my family. And again, I feel like I have
1293
00:57:38.590 --> 00:57:40.710
to always caveat this with it's such a privilege and
1294
00:57:40.730 --> 00:57:42.360
not everybody can do that. And they can't. And I
1295
00:57:42.389 --> 00:57:44.679
appreciate that. And I'm so lucky. But that is because
1296
00:57:44.719 --> 00:57:46.739
I took the initiative at the time, grew the business,
1297
00:57:46.840 --> 00:57:48.679
took the initiative to take some money off the table
1298
00:57:49.099 --> 00:57:50.780
and make my life. I just try and make my
1299
00:57:50.820 --> 00:57:54.760
life as stress-free as I can outside of the things that,
1300
00:57:54.780 --> 00:57:56.679
you know, anything that I can control, try and take
1301
00:57:56.699 --> 00:57:58.820
the stress away. Anything that I can't control, then I'm
1302
00:57:58.860 --> 00:58:01.750
at least able to handle it that little bit better.
1303
00:58:01.929 --> 00:58:06.570
So my husband's a full-time dad. He's a freaking amazing dad. Amazing.
1304
00:58:07.789 --> 00:58:09.949
And I also have decided not to put her in school.
1305
00:58:10.329 --> 00:58:13.590
So she's not in school. She's homeschooled. She's got a tutor.
1306
00:58:13.659 --> 00:58:15.920
She's just turned four and she's got a tutor two
1307
00:58:15.960 --> 00:58:18.860
days a week. So she's got one-on-one time with a
1308
00:58:18.880 --> 00:58:21.360
tutor doing all of her primary school work. And then
1309
00:58:21.400 --> 00:58:24.000
they can literally, because we've got offices all around the world,
1310
00:58:24.019 --> 00:58:26.110
I'm down in London a lot more, they can come
1311
00:58:26.130 --> 00:58:28.170
with me. Amazing. So it's just like, I've just made
1312
00:58:28.230 --> 00:58:29.670
life work for me.
1313
00:58:29.690 --> 00:58:33.269
Yeah. And how was that conversation in terms of like,
1314
00:58:33.570 --> 00:58:36.469
had you already kind of, had that type of idea
1315
00:58:36.530 --> 00:58:37.150
in terms.
1316
00:58:37.030 --> 00:58:39.469
Of no it's just I literally live day by day
1317
00:58:39.730 --> 00:58:42.070
yeah I have no like I have I'm mad at
1318
00:58:42.110 --> 00:58:44.849
manifesting I'm actually like really good at it like I'll
1319
00:58:44.989 --> 00:58:47.320
and it's it's not like before manifesting was a thing
1320
00:58:47.360 --> 00:58:49.280
and cool like before you know when the secret came
1321
00:58:49.360 --> 00:58:51.579
out that yeah yeah freaked me out because I actually
1322
00:58:51.619 --> 00:58:55.199
read it like I invented this guys I did I
1323
00:58:55.239 --> 00:58:57.960
read the secret I read the secret and it threw
1324
00:58:58.000 --> 00:58:59.579
me off my game for a bit yeah because it
1325
00:58:59.619 --> 00:59:02.599
made me consciously think about it whereas I've been naturally
1326
00:59:02.599 --> 00:59:05.570
good at living like that being positive projecting and then
1327
00:59:05.570 --> 00:59:07.659
I read the bloody secret and it threw me off
1328
00:59:07.659 --> 00:59:09.690
I was like now I'm consciously trying to do it.
1329
00:59:09.699 --> 00:59:11.019
Yeah, and now everyone else is doing it too. And
1330
00:59:11.059 --> 00:59:13.440
now I've got to share with everyone else's manifesting.
1331
00:59:13.460 --> 00:59:14.380
Share the abundance.
1332
00:59:14.420 --> 00:59:14.840
Yeah.
1333
00:59:14.860 --> 00:59:15.980
It's so rude.
1334
00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:17.969
My abundance mindset is for me.
1335
00:59:18.389 --> 00:59:21.150
Yeah. So no, he was like, God, he was fricking
1336
00:59:21.170 --> 00:59:23.440
well up for it. Cause he was working up poles
1337
00:59:23.480 --> 00:59:26.460
in the freezing cold. He's like the most, he's got
1338
00:59:26.500 --> 00:59:31.000
like no ego is the most supportive guy in the world.
1339
00:59:31.079 --> 00:59:35.139
Most amazing man. And he's just, he's just so supportive
1340
00:59:35.179 --> 00:59:37.440
of me. He sees what I go through to get
1341
00:59:37.480 --> 00:59:41.139
this business where it is more than anybody. So he's just,
1342
00:59:41.179 --> 00:59:44.119
I couldn't do it without his support. It truly is
1343
00:59:44.179 --> 00:59:46.929
like a team effort. So he was just like, if
1344
00:59:46.969 --> 00:59:48.570
we can afford to do it, you think we can
1345
00:59:48.610 --> 00:59:49.429
afford to do it then.
1346
00:59:49.809 --> 00:59:49.929
Yeah.
1347
00:59:49.949 --> 00:59:53.389
And I was like, the money that you're making the
1348
00:59:53.449 --> 00:59:55.630
time that we will save is just far more like
1349
00:59:55.750 --> 00:59:57.980
valuable and the the pressure that it will take off
1350
00:59:58.000 --> 01:00:00.099
us as a couple and yeah it's just so much
1351
01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:02.920
better than like things I'd rather instead of buy another
1352
01:00:03.000 --> 01:00:05.179
car or buy another house or whatever it is I'd
1353
01:00:05.199 --> 01:00:08.570
rather invest it in us and our you know peace
1354
01:00:08.590 --> 01:00:09.989
of mind and yeah.
1355
01:00:10.030 --> 01:00:13.230
And how has your mindset changed since having a baby
1356
01:00:13.250 --> 01:00:16.869
obviously still running like a multi-million pound company it.
1357
01:00:16.849 --> 01:00:19.829
Does change like your whole perspective on life and everything
1358
01:00:19.889 --> 01:00:24.289
just changes. It just naturally does something cellular in you
1359
01:00:24.860 --> 01:00:28.420
changes to the point where you're doing everything for them.
1360
01:00:28.699 --> 01:00:31.639
Now you are, you're literally thinking about their future, thinking
1361
01:00:31.659 --> 01:00:33.719
about how to think about making it as comfortable as possible,
1362
01:00:33.800 --> 01:00:35.940
try and give her the best experience at every age
1363
01:00:35.960 --> 01:00:38.619
she's at. And you just see the world through their
1364
01:00:38.860 --> 01:00:41.139
eyes and, want to leave a bit of a legacy
1365
01:00:41.179 --> 01:00:44.500
for her, want to leave her options, want to leave
1366
01:00:44.519 --> 01:00:47.079
her a planet. Yeah, that'd be nice. Yeah, if the
1367
01:00:47.099 --> 01:00:49.559
planet was in, I want to leave her a nice country.
1368
01:00:50.119 --> 01:00:52.360
I care about our country. I care about our planet.
1369
01:00:52.380 --> 01:00:55.420
I care about big things. And that's a bloody weight
1370
01:00:55.739 --> 01:00:57.880
of its own. I try and fix it all, but
1371
01:00:57.900 --> 01:01:00.550
it's just, it just drives you more than ever. You
1372
01:01:00.570 --> 01:01:05.739
just become really like tunnel visioned and less... You can
1373
01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:08.159
be selfish when you don't have a kid. Yeah, I'm
1374
01:01:08.199 --> 01:01:08.800
my own baby.
1375
01:01:08.820 --> 01:01:10.980
All the things you were saying about your child there,
1376
01:01:11.019 --> 01:01:12.559
I was thinking that's what I do for myself.
1377
01:01:12.719 --> 01:01:14.949
Yeah, but that's good. You're good. Do that while you can.
1378
01:01:14.969 --> 01:01:17.170
Try and make a stress-free existence.
1379
01:01:17.289 --> 01:01:17.670
Yeah.
1380
01:01:18.010 --> 01:01:18.849
No, but it's so true.
1381
01:01:18.929 --> 01:01:20.670
And I always think about that in terms of like,
1382
01:01:20.690 --> 01:01:22.869
this is why, you know, wanting to talk to you
1383
01:01:22.909 --> 01:01:25.110
about like that kind of decision and all of that,
1384
01:01:25.150 --> 01:01:27.710
because it fucking scares the shit out of me. Because
1385
01:01:27.730 --> 01:01:29.769
I think as a founder, you have to be able
1386
01:01:29.809 --> 01:01:33.230
to operate from an almost entirely selfish mindset, not in
1387
01:01:33.269 --> 01:01:37.409
terms of like, Founders are selfish people. But you work
1388
01:01:38.150 --> 01:01:42.409
in a quite maniacal way. I definitely do. And I
1389
01:01:42.469 --> 01:01:45.010
can do that because I have an incredibly supportive partner
1390
01:01:45.190 --> 01:01:49.539
and I don't have any dependents. And worst comes to worst,
1391
01:01:49.579 --> 01:01:50.800
I can get some doggy daycare.
1392
01:01:50.940 --> 01:01:53.480
But you're a boss. You'll make it work. You'll blow
1393
01:01:53.519 --> 01:01:55.719
your own mind. You'll make it work. And it's not
1394
01:01:55.780 --> 01:01:59.440
as scary as you think. It just adds a whole
1395
01:01:59.559 --> 01:02:02.019
element of magic to your life that you didn't even...
1396
01:02:02.380 --> 01:02:04.199
realize you was ready for yeah and it adds a
1397
01:02:04.239 --> 01:02:06.619
level of maturity that just something goes in your brain
1398
01:02:06.659 --> 01:02:09.940
that's just but society is bonkers because you you find
1399
01:02:09.980 --> 01:02:11.960
the part you find a nice partner it's when you
1400
01:02:11.980 --> 01:02:14.519
get married you get married you then when you're having
1401
01:02:14.539 --> 01:02:17.099
a kid you have a kid then it's when you're
1402
01:02:17.119 --> 01:02:19.400
having a second when you what you've got to give
1403
01:02:19.420 --> 01:02:23.539
them a sibling it's like you give them a fucking
1404
01:02:23.579 --> 01:02:25.579
sibling can i just have a freaking break if i'm
1405
01:02:25.599 --> 01:02:27.719
honest now i'm going through the pressure of do i
1406
01:02:27.920 --> 01:02:31.670
i'm like 35 in april And I'm like, God's sake,
1407
01:02:31.730 --> 01:02:32.929
if I am going to have another one, I'm going
1408
01:02:32.949 --> 01:02:34.329
to have to have it soon. But then I'm like,
1409
01:02:34.369 --> 01:02:36.010
but I've got so much on and I don't even
1410
01:02:36.030 --> 01:02:37.050
know if I want to. I've just signed a 30
1411
01:02:37.050 --> 01:02:40.070
million pound round. Literally, I can't. I've got to spend
1412
01:02:40.070 --> 01:02:43.650
30 million pounds and make it into 90 million. Clocks
1413
01:02:43.690 --> 01:02:46.500
going like this. And I'm like, no, I just, then
1414
01:02:46.519 --> 01:02:50.719
I'm like, but society puts a pressure on it. You
1415
01:02:50.760 --> 01:02:53.340
can't just have an only child. And I'm thinking, but
1416
01:02:53.460 --> 01:02:56.119
of course you can. Yeah, of course you can. So
1417
01:02:56.179 --> 01:03:01.329
what is the big end goal? uh well I didn't
1418
01:03:01.349 --> 01:03:03.750
think I'd have achieved as much as I've achieved if
1419
01:03:03.769 --> 01:03:07.889
I'm honest I think um I think I'd love there's
1420
01:03:07.909 --> 01:03:11.590
a part of me that's itching to try and crack
1421
01:03:11.630 --> 01:03:14.550
America so I think if we could take my energy
1422
01:03:14.570 --> 01:03:18.250
over to America that'd be fun I just want to
1423
01:03:18.329 --> 01:03:22.829
decarbonize as many homes as physically possible and My next
1424
01:03:22.869 --> 01:03:25.489
immediate goal is I want a million connected customers in
1425
01:03:25.530 --> 01:03:28.309
the UK because that would mean we've got seven gigawatts
1426
01:03:28.369 --> 01:03:31.650
of flexible power. And Drax is our biggest power station
1427
01:03:31.670 --> 01:03:33.550
at four gigawatts. So I think that that would be
1428
01:03:33.969 --> 01:03:36.530
pretty cool. It's like a nice little target to have.
1429
01:03:37.869 --> 01:03:40.469
So that would mean that you had more power than
1430
01:03:40.670 --> 01:03:42.530
the national grid.
1431
01:03:45.659 --> 01:03:50.579
All the power. Yeah, perfect. yeah that just so that
1432
01:03:50.619 --> 01:03:53.019
we can do it and balance the grid and I
1433
01:03:53.079 --> 01:03:56.219
always said that we'd throw a Drax party and that's
1434
01:03:56.280 --> 01:03:58.199
sort of like a mini goal I want there's more
1435
01:03:58.239 --> 01:04:00.360
products that we want to release there's new markets that
1436
01:04:00.389 --> 01:04:04.190
I want to enter um Spain France Italy so no
1437
01:04:04.230 --> 01:04:06.409
time for any time off then no oh god no
1438
01:04:06.710 --> 01:04:09.730
no no I'll just make it work yeah I wouldn't
1439
01:04:09.750 --> 01:04:11.949
want time off though to be fair Yeah, it doesn't
1440
01:04:11.969 --> 01:04:13.329
sound like you operate that way. No.
1441
01:04:14.849 --> 01:04:17.809
Well, what a good place to end. Thank you so,
1442
01:04:17.889 --> 01:04:21.010
so much for coming on. You are absolutely incredible. I
1443
01:04:21.050 --> 01:04:23.070
can't say anything more than that. I clearly just lost
1444
01:04:23.090 --> 01:04:23.469
for words.
1445
01:04:23.650 --> 01:04:25.650
I'm so impressed. I think you're the best as well.
1446
01:04:25.750 --> 01:04:28.510
So I can't wait to just watch your life and
1447
01:04:28.590 --> 01:04:31.380
career just keep going. I think you're amazing. Thank you.
1448
01:04:31.719 --> 01:04:32.400
And now we're in love.
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01:04:46.280 --> 01:04:49.199
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This is David and John from the David McWilliams podcast,
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brought to you by Monzo, Ireland's newest bank.
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This is David and John from the David McWilliams podcast,
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brought to you by Monzo, Ireland's newest bank.
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Now, we've mentioned more than once about the need for
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your Monzo accounts on one app. Monzo have also been
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kind enough and clever enough to sponsor Kilkenomics in November,
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ACAST recommends.
19
00:00:49.619 --> 00:00:50.539
Hi, I'm Ryan Tuberty.
20
00:00:50.619 --> 00:00:53.060
And for those who don't know, I love books and
21
00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:55.659
I love a great story. And on my podcast, The
22
00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.500
Bookshelf with Ryan Tuberty, I sit down with fascinating people
23
00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:00.439
And we talk about the books that have shaped their
24
00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:03.079
lives and the stories behind them. We talk about the
25
00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:05.239
book they loved as a child, the book that brings
26
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.739
them joy, and the book that changed their life.
27
00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:09.420
Over the seasons, I've chatted to.
28
00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:12.780
World leaders, cultural icons, sports stars, and some of my
29
00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:15.819
favorite authors. Well, season five is now available. So if
30
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you love books, if you love stories, and you love
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great conversation, come and join me on the bookshelf every Tuesday.
32
00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.099
Watch on YouTube or indeed listen wherever you get your podcasts.
33
00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:28.540
Acast is home to the world's best podcasts, including Red Room,
34
00:01:29.170 --> 00:01:31.859
Catch up with Louise McSharry and the one you're listening
35
00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:41.010
to right now. Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 is Jordan Brompton,
36
00:01:41.129 --> 00:01:42.030
My Energy.
37
00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.219
Jordan Brompton, one of my idols, and she's ended up
38
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:48.780
running a nine-figure energy company. The fact that she walks
39
00:01:48.819 --> 00:01:52.120
into any room, breaking every single stereotype, she's one of
40
00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:54.439
the most impressive people I have ever, ever met.
41
00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:57.099
So in November 2016, we started My Energy, and it's
42
00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.769
been a bloody whirlwind ever since. We started in our
43
00:01:59.810 --> 00:02:04.150
shed to now like a 65,000 square foot factory. Indirectly,
44
00:02:04.329 --> 00:02:05.909
we invented smart charging.
45
00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:07.930
I mean this in the least offensive way possible. If
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00:02:08.009 --> 00:02:09.830
I met you and you were like, yeah, I own
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00:02:09.849 --> 00:02:11.750
an energy company, I would be like, oh, I've.
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00:02:11.650 --> 00:02:15.069
Grown up with nothing. From 13 years old I started working.
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00:02:15.090 --> 00:02:17.409
My dad graphed. I grew up on a scrapyard. I
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00:02:17.449 --> 00:02:20.740
did Zumba instructing. I've worked in bars. I danced in nightclubs. God,
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00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:22.819
you've lived a hundred lives. Especially with a name called
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00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:25.039
Jordan and they'd expect a man to walk into the rooms.
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00:02:25.099 --> 00:02:26.599
You know, I don't get invited to the golf course.
54
00:02:26.620 --> 00:02:28.780
Why would a woman have a job? It'd be ridiculous.
55
00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:32.039
It drives me fucking insane. I've nearly been bullied out
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00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:34.060
of my own business. Every day's a challenge. Every day
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00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:35.930
you've got imposter syndrome. Every day you don't think you
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00:02:35.949 --> 00:02:38.750
deserve to be there. I think as women we just torture, torture,
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00:02:38.830 --> 00:02:41.770
torture ourselves. I'm winging it like my terrible eyeliner.
60
00:02:41.930 --> 00:02:54.560
So what is the big end goal? What is up
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00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:56.819
guys and welcome back to the podcast. Today we have
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Jordan Brompton who is just one of my idols. She
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00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:04.379
is an incredible entrepreneur and I think the reason I'm
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so obsessed with her is the breaking every single stereotype.
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And she's so unapologetic about it and she owns it.
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And she's just so impressive. She owns an enormous, an
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IPO level energy company. I almost feel offensive sounding like
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so surprised, but I think we're so ingrained into expecting
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women to do certain things. And those women who do
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those certain things to look a certain way and to
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act a certain way and all of this, And Jordan
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00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:37.849
just comes in and she just like debunks all of this.
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She's so incredibly impressive. Her story is absolutely unmatched in
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terms of tenacity, the background she's come from, getting obsessed
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with the whole world of energy and renewable energy and
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making people self-sufficient. And I mean, she's been a dancer.
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She's been a hairdresser. She's worked in bars and she's
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ended up running a multi-million business. nine-figure energy company. And
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I hate to sound surprised. I really, really, really do.
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But I think that's exactly what stereotypes do to us. Anyway,
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I just need you to hear Jordan's story, what she's done,
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how she's got to where she is now, and just
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her unapologetic attitude. We were talking before the episode and
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I was.
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Like, yeah, I always feel like I need to act
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like this or whatever.
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It might be like this for people to take me
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seriously or not dress like this, et cetera, et cetera.
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She's like, I just play into it. Like, I literally
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do everything that I think is going to make them
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take me less seriously. And she still just wins. And
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I think it's so impressive. And I think she's my
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new idol. So anyway, I hope you really enjoyed this episode.
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I think you really, really, really well. She's one of
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the most impressive people I have.
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Ever, ever, ever, ever met.
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And as always, if you do enjoy the episode, please
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make sure to rate and subscribe and follow the podcast
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on whatever platform you are listening or watching it on.
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That really helps us and enables us to get amazing guests.
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So thank you so much. And as always, have a
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wonderful day.
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Jordan Brompton is the co-founder of My Energy, one of
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the world's fastest growing renewable energy companies. With a turnover
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00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:11.269
of over 70 million pounds and 400 staff, it's safe
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00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:13.430
to say My Energy is turning heads in the renewable
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00:05:13.470 --> 00:05:16.389
tech space. The company's huge success started with the invention
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00:05:16.420 --> 00:05:19.129
of the Zappi charger. the world's first solar charger for
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electric vehicles capable of using 100% renewable energy. It began
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as an idea over a bottle of wine with her
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business partner and now drives tens of millions of sales
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each year. However, my energy's journey hasn't always been plain sailing.
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I wanted to sit down with Jordan to get to
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the bottom of what it's really like running an energy
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company as a woman. We discuss how she's scaled the business,
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the obstacles she faces on a daily basis, and why
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00:05:39.629 --> 00:05:42.100
it's important to learn your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
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00:05:42.620 --> 00:05:45.360
Now My Energy's CMO, Jordan gives a realistic view into
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00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:46.839
the whirlwind of being on the front line of a
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startup in an often tumultuous industry. I am so excited
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to share this episode with you. I'm very excited to
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have you here.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I want to get straight into it. Firstly, I always
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ask guests for just a little bit of background on
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themselves and their career. So I'd just love to hear
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like right from the very beginning, I guess school type
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of time, what were you like and where did you
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think you were going?
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So I was pretty useless at school. I was like,
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I loved the social aspects of it, but I was
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just never very academic. I was always into the arts, singing, dancing.
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But growing up in Grimsby, there was not very many options.
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00:06:20.610 --> 00:06:23.709
I was very lot sort of like C's, D grades students.
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um going to university was just not an option it
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00:06:26.949 --> 00:06:29.360
was not something that you grew up aspiring to do
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00:06:29.379 --> 00:06:32.920
in my sort of hometown um so I like left
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00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:35.759
school not a clue what I wanted to do but
139
00:06:35.779 --> 00:06:37.519
I wanted to be independent from my parents because they're
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super hard working I understood the value of money and
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I didn't want to put any extra pressure on them
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because they already worked hard as it was and had
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my little sister so I think like from 13 years
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00:06:47.709 --> 00:06:49.470
old I started working I was whether it was a
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00:06:49.490 --> 00:06:52.189
paper round or whether it was on the Sunday market
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00:06:52.209 --> 00:06:55.540
down town at the beach selling scooters I was just
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00:06:55.579 --> 00:06:58.180
grafting to have my own money because I always wanted
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00:06:58.220 --> 00:07:01.199
to travel um but then I was also a homebird
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00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:03.240
which is totally weird so I'd want to travel but
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00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:04.610
I'd want to come back and I'd want to get
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a bit of culture but I had absolutely no idea
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what I wanted to do as I said I grew
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up singing and dancing and But then at about 16,
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00:07:12.310 --> 00:07:15.550
I just lost all my confidence, stopped going on stage,
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00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:18.290
stopped doing anything that was sort of like performing arts.
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00:07:18.790 --> 00:07:20.170
And it was, I think it was after I'd come
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down for an audition in London and the girls sort
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00:07:23.250 --> 00:07:28.139
of locked me in the toilet and said, like, who's
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00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:30.300
that geek from like up north or whatever? It was
160
00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:32.420
like a very clicky London crowd. And I come down
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for a dance audition and I went back home and
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I was like, I am never... oh my god yeah
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00:07:40.949 --> 00:07:43.009
so I was like that's my career over and because
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I was too young and like vulnerable and ginger and
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00:07:45.769 --> 00:07:48.610
geeky and just I don't know so I thought right
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00:07:48.629 --> 00:07:50.329
well that's not a vibe so I just I just
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got stuck into work and yeah left school tried college
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00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:59.019
tried law I did like a year of law which
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00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:01.120
I found interesting but I was like I'm not academic
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00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:03.019
so it's starting to get hard and I just don't
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00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:06.189
get it I just did what the teachers told me
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00:08:06.230 --> 00:08:09.449
I could do, which was hairdressing or travel and tourism.
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00:08:10.149 --> 00:08:12.389
So I picked hairdressing, went and worked in a salon
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00:08:12.410 --> 00:08:14.750
for a bit, but I was allergic to every product
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00:08:14.790 --> 00:08:17.149
that I got, like dermatitis up my arms and up
176
00:08:17.170 --> 00:08:18.790
my neck. And I was like, so this isn't for
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00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:19.329
me either.
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00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:20.389
I'm so sorry.
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00:08:20.410 --> 00:08:22.649
That's also such a niche thing. But I'm also very
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00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:25.069
happy about it because if I'd have loved it and
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00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:27.709
I wouldn't be where I am now, but... I've just
182
00:08:27.829 --> 00:08:30.110
always had an interest in business, even though I've had
183
00:08:30.189 --> 00:08:32.889
no one to really, I guess the closest person that
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00:08:32.909 --> 00:08:35.779
I've had to look up to in business is my granddad.
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00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:38.919
So I've grown up in a real male dominated family,
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00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:41.419
even though my mum's super feminine. Like my dad had
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00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:45.110
like 13 brothers and sisters. They're all very like. huge
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minor Yorkshire men with big hands big outside jobs and
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he used to buy and sell cars and just a
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total dell boy really and I used to I've grew
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up on a scrapyard watching him up north like hustle
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and then my dad graphed and my dad used to
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say to me whatever you do kid don't matter about
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being academic you're a great communicator you've got great common
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sense and not a lot of people in this world
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have got common sense so lean into that He said,
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whatever you do, you'll be fine as long as it's
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something that you enjoy because I hate what I do.
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My dad used to say to me, I hate getting
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up at five in the morning, driving to a job
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that I physically hate, surrounded by idiots that I hate,
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still working with them so sus. We should have him on.
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I know. He's very inspiring. I'm really liking this speech.
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So he said to me, just do whatever you enjoy,
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do whatever you want. And they've always just been so
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supportive of whatever I've wanted to do. And I've been
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like a social butterfly that's flitted into every job, tried everything.
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I followed my mum. I did Zumba instructing. I've worked
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in bars. I danced in nightclubs. So then I went
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full opposite. You've lived a hundred lives. I have actually.
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I traveled the world. And then I came home, met
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the love of my life and who I'm married to now.
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I've been with him 13 years. And I went and
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I thought, what am I going to do? Need a
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little admin job. and I rocked up and it's my
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now business partner Lee it was his little bit set
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up that he had and it was in like a
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shed and it was him and five or six other
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staff hand soldering these little devices there were like now
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what's called our ready product which was a power diverter
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so anyone that had solar panels could essentially keep all
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the power in the home by diverting it to a
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hot water tank. We parted ways briefly because he had
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two other shareholders at the time that just didn't want
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to put the money back into the business or grow it.
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And I just, I said to Lee, it's such a
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shame I didn't meet you at the beginning of this
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because I'd have loved to have partnered with you because
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I think there's true potential in this brand, like in
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your products and in your brain. So if you ever
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want to do something in the future, like let me know.
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And we parted ways for a bit and I went
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and set my own business up called Spitfire Distribution. It
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was a cycling distribution business where I was buying parts
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from France and selling them to the UK. What types
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of parts? Like chain rings and ceramic bearings and things
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like that. And then clothing for bikes. Yeah. And it
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was because I had a French friend who ended up
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being my business partner who used to cycle in France.
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And he got these few brands and I said, I'll
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sell them to the UK because I've just been doing
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that for Leib for these little gizmos. I was like,
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how hard can it be? Let's set up our own business.
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But then I realized very quickly that I hated being
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a distributor because I was getting squeezed from the French
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with the supplier and I was getting squeezed from the customer.
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And I realized that it was going to have to
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be super high volume to make any money. Whereas when
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I was with Lee and he was manufacturing these little devices,
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I'd learned that you could control your destiny, your margin,
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your costs. He just didn't have the best business partners
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at the time to take it to the level that
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it needed to be. And also the solar market crashed,
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which meant all the feeding tariffs were took. So his
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poor business, he went through a right nightmare. He had
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to close all that up. And then in 2016, he
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come knocking on my door and was like, that business
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is all boxed off now, gone. Do you want to
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do something together? Only thing is I don't have any
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brand rights, any manufacturing equipment. I'll have to redesign it.
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It's actually nothing, but I'm here. Yeah, but I'm here.
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My brain's here. And your love for the actual industry
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and passion for what you wanted to do before is
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hopefully still there. And let's do something together. And I
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was like, yes. That was like my moment where I
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was like, finally. because the cycling ain't doing it for me.
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No matter how hard I try, I had a pink bike, obviously.
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And I was like biking around the country and trying
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to sell these fricking chain rings. And I was like, oh,
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just not a vibe. I've got to sell too many
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of them. So yeah, the rest is history. I said, look,
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I'll join you. So we registered the business in June, 2016.
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I said, but I'm not starting until I've like got
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my wedding out of the way because that was in September,
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my honeymoon. And then you've got me fresh, like I'm
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all yours. But let me just get this period of
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my life. Let me get Spitfire sorted. yeah so in
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November 2016 we started My Energy and it's been a
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bloody whirlwind ever since it was like that you know
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when you've got that gut feel that something's gonna work
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yeah and because you I'm passionate about it I knew
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I could sell it and I fell in love with
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the industry and the whole concept of being off-grid like
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taking somebody without being a total hippie that's living in
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the woods that's like connecting some old rusty solar panel
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together and building whatever and fires I thought we should
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be able to be off grid in the modern day
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right like use technology to be as off grid and
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as energy efficient and I just love.
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That whole yeah so for for people who might not
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know anything about that I'd love to know because I
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don't think when you walk this is one of my
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favorite things about you I don't think when you walk
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in a room so if someone was like I'm gonna
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guess 10 things that this person is obsessed with I
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do not think in that top 10, they would be
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like little gizmos.
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That connect people to being off grid and therefore having
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alternative uses of energy.
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And I want to know what you love about this
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because I am obsessed with the fact that we always
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see online now, like all of the most glamorous businesses
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in terms of like what to start, what looks good
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and all of this.
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And you're here.
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Running this enormous energy company, having just been like, loved
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the gizmos.
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I did. I love tech, but you know what it
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boils down to? I'm actually a bit of an anarchist.
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You weren't expecting.
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It, were you?
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No, I wasn't expecting that. Please don't. I'm a total
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conspiracy theorist. I'm a total anarchist. And I like the
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idea of decentralized power in any capacity. I don't like
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the power of money. of our energy, of our food,
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of our water supply, of whatever it is. I don't
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like it being in the hands of like a few people.
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Right.
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And so explain the concept of off-grid. So off-grid basically
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means that if you're generating your own power, you don't
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have to pull as much power from the actual grid. Right,
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the national grid. Yeah, the national grid. So you're basically
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taking yourself as off-grid as possible. So in the UK,
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it's quite complicated to go completely off-grid. You've got to
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stay grid-connected. But I like this idea of being virtually off-grid.
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So you've got solar panels in your home, and what
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My Energy does is just help you consume and divert
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that energy wherever you want it so that you're not
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sending it back to the grid. You're just essentially your
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own little... Pocket of energy. Yeah. Which is obviously great
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for the environment too. Great for the environment, supports the grid,
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like the grid love it, because that allows then more
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large renewables onto the grid. it gives us energy security
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as a country. So if all the people that can
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have solar panels on their roof or a little turbine
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or hydro, if they live next to some water, if
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they can get themselves as off grid as possible, we
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are actually energy secure as a country, which is in
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the current climate, obviously very important. So I'm just like,
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I've just got a fascination with it and I fell
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into the industry. And at the time there was no
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women in it. Like when I joined, you know, I've
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worked in solar now for, I think it's coming up
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about 14 years or so. And there was no women
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in it at that time. It was very like, you know,
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I had to traipse around Europe, traipse around the UK
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with my little roll-up banners at trade shows and stuff.
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I had to know my stuff technically because I'm dealing
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with electricians. I'm not dealing with like women and just,
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I just, it was, it was hard graft at the beginning.
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But that's the time that I love as well. Like
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that building the brand, that start up, that hustle, that
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not knowing if you're going to make next month's paycheck.
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Keeps you going. Yeah. You have to, aren't you? You've
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got no choice. I know.
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I always think that entrepreneurs are like a special type
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of weird. In the way that we're like, this makes
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me feel alive.
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And it's like, you could just, you could just not.
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A few times I was like, why can't I just
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get a job at Tesco and be happy about it?
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And then I have my weekends and why am I
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doing this to myself? Because it's freaking hell. But no,
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it's paid off and the rewards have been amazing. And
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I mean, it's stressful, but... Yeah, but worth it.
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And so right at the beginning, when you two sat
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down together, what was your concept for My Energy, for
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what you were starting and what you were building?
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So we were starting with what we knew, which was
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the very first product that we had ever designed, which
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was our ready product. So we was like, I am
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going to design it now. Just it's going to be
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like the seventh version of it because I know inside
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out I'm going to do it amazing. And let's do
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it for the German market because the German market is
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just about to take off. And I was like, yeah.
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I'm here for that. Like I know how to sell it.
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I know the tech inside out. I've got customers that
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I can already go to. I've got, you know, loyal
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friendships in the industry that I can go straight to
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and say me and Leah partnering up. So give us
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your money. We had customers that were buying them in
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advance before we even had manufacturing equipment or whatever, like
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helping us bankroll and our business partners in other parts
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of the world. So I had a loyal few customers
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from relationships that I'd built before. So I was like,
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let's just get stuck in with the Eddie product. But
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it was when Lee was driving a little Nissan Leaf
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at the time. And I remember him saying, I've still
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got export, like I'm still exporting to the grid. So
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he's like, the Eddie is heated my water by midday.
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And then I've got all this power and I'm exporting
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it to the grid. It's not going to my electric car.
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And I said, my God, mate, get cracking. Get cracking.
395
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Get in that shed and don't come out until you
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figure something out.
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Until your car is running off the hot water somehow.
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Literally, like I want that. I want free miles from
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the sunshine. No fuel ever again. I'm not paying for
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fuel ever again. So get in that shed. And that's
401
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when Zappy was sort of born. And Zappy just like,
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oh my God, took us to next level because it
403
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just turned out that all the electric vehicle drivers of
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that time, which weren't very many, but there was quite
405
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a few, Most of them had solar panels. Of course.
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And most of them were like dying for this product,
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which we didn't even know. It was just by accident
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that we saw a problem and solved it. And indirectly,
409
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we then invented smart charging, as it's known today. We
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were the first sort of in the world to think
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about balancing the grid, balancing the home, even if you
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don't have solar panels. Like if you've got an electric
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shower on, a kettle on, and all these different things,
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like just reducing the power to the car. because otherwise
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you're going to get your main fuse pretty hot. And
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the grid responded to it. Customers responded to it. Electricians
417
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loved it. So it was just, it just took off.
418
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And what was Lee's background? So Lee's an electronics engineer.
419
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He was self-taught originally. Then he went to uni and
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he's had like jobs at Ericsson and places like that.
421
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He's had multiple, he had a little company called Big
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Cat where he was making electronics for cars, like little
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boy racer stuff. He's always been tinkering. He's like a tinkerer.
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And we're both Grimsby kids, like he's just worked his
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way up to being an absolute top dog that he
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is now. To signing 30 million pound rounds. Yeah. Casual little.
427
00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.240
Just a little casual, you know, just a drop in
428
00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:16.039
the ocean really.
429
00:19:16.220 --> 00:19:16.500
Yeah.
430
00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:17.619
Not a lot, not a lot.
431
00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:20.519
Where did you kind of get that matter of fact,
432
00:19:20.619 --> 00:19:24.609
like tenacity in terms of just getting on with things
433
00:19:24.789 --> 00:19:25.950
and just figuring it out?
434
00:19:26.380 --> 00:19:28.660
One thing that's good, when you are brought up in
435
00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:32.059
somewhere like Grimsby, I hardly ever came to the city.
436
00:19:32.140 --> 00:19:35.480
I had no external import, no analysts telling me to
437
00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:38.480
do this, no people checking the data, no one doing
438
00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:41.130
the market research. Because if they had, they would have
439
00:19:41.130 --> 00:19:43.740
told me not to do it. Yeah, it's too hard.
440
00:19:43.740 --> 00:19:47.049
So my first instinct was to get online. I was like,
441
00:19:47.089 --> 00:19:48.970
trying not to give too much away, but build the
442
00:19:49.009 --> 00:19:52.289
brand and build some contacts online and through LinkedIn and
443
00:19:52.309 --> 00:19:54.569
things like that. But I guess I looked and my
444
00:19:54.670 --> 00:19:57.730
first point of contact, I thought, it turned out that
445
00:19:57.950 --> 00:20:00.369
one of the market leaders in EV charging, because there
446
00:20:00.410 --> 00:20:02.980
was a few other like electric vehicle charge points that
447
00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.180
were around, but they were just what we call dumb chargers.
448
00:20:05.579 --> 00:20:08.359
So they were just putting full power to the car regardless.
449
00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:10.819
And these companies were making a mint because the government
450
00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.019
was giving away a grand for every charger, even though
451
00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.609
they cost about £ 25 to build. We opened one up
452
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:18.150
and we were like, the electronics in them are so minimal.
453
00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:20.470
They were like caravan hookup points. Why are there none
454
00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:24.150
on my road then? So the government was like throwing
455
00:20:24.190 --> 00:20:26.349
money at this point. It was called the OLEV scheme
456
00:20:26.369 --> 00:20:28.329
and we didn't have a charger at this point. And
457
00:20:28.380 --> 00:20:31.180
I said, let's go to who's winning in this market
458
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:33.279
space at the minute and say, like, we can make
459
00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:36.019
your tech smarter here. can we put our zappy in
460
00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.759
your product and do like a licensing thing I tried
461
00:20:38.819 --> 00:20:41.299
everything at the beginning to get the brand off the
462
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.240
ground and I just got doors slammed in my face
463
00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:46.440
this one I remember this one company actually saying to
464
00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:49.769
me why why why should I help why should I
465
00:20:49.789 --> 00:20:52.609
help you I don't care about the environment I don't
466
00:20:52.710 --> 00:20:55.329
care about the grid I just want to sell units
467
00:20:55.589 --> 00:20:57.170
and he looked at me and he went you could
468
00:20:57.190 --> 00:20:59.339
be a competitor one day so what and I was
469
00:20:59.380 --> 00:21:02.220
like no not not one day like I am going
470
00:21:02.269 --> 00:21:04.130
to be your competitor now you've just tricked me like
471
00:21:04.150 --> 00:21:07.849
that yeah you will see me again yes goodbye it
472
00:21:07.890 --> 00:21:10.990
was honestly like that is what yeah so I left
473
00:21:11.049 --> 00:21:13.190
the office like well that's fine that's his opinion whatever
474
00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:16.309
and then a year later I saw him um at
475
00:21:16.410 --> 00:21:18.569
one of our customers because I'd gone to what I
476
00:21:18.589 --> 00:21:20.150
thought right I'm gonna look at all your customers mate
477
00:21:20.250 --> 00:21:21.869
and I'm gonna jump on the back of it and
478
00:21:21.890 --> 00:21:26.019
then with the product so I went to all the electricians.
479
00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.859
I thought I'll start with the solar installers because they're
480
00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:31.029
the ones, they're a target market. So I was like
481
00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:33.829
contacting every solar installer in the country that I could
482
00:21:33.849 --> 00:21:37.309
find online, telling them about our tech. And then I
483
00:21:37.329 --> 00:21:39.349
was like, okay, so how do I get in front
484
00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:41.950
of more electricians through the electrical wholesalers? So then I
485
00:21:41.970 --> 00:21:44.910
started knocking down the doors of the electrical wholesalers and
486
00:21:44.950 --> 00:21:47.549
saying the CV market's going to happen and take off
487
00:21:47.589 --> 00:21:50.930
in a big way. Why don't you sell our products? And, um,
488
00:21:51.690 --> 00:21:53.150
it didn't want as easy as that got a lot
489
00:21:53.170 --> 00:21:55.289
of no's got you know some people said yes and
490
00:21:55.390 --> 00:21:58.230
just it just started like snowballing but i guess a
491
00:21:58.269 --> 00:22:01.180
real big catalyst and a big point was there was
492
00:22:01.259 --> 00:22:03.920
a there was a youtube channel still is called fully
493
00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:06.700
charged and they've got like a million subscribers and it's
494
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:10.039
people all interested in electric vehicles and renewables and debunking
495
00:22:10.059 --> 00:22:11.829
all the myths that you'll see in the prop like
496
00:22:11.849 --> 00:22:14.230
loads of propaganda at the minute about the industry yeah
497
00:22:14.250 --> 00:22:16.549
so you can go there for like actual studies and
498
00:22:16.849 --> 00:22:20.680
talks from professionals that are saying that you know about
499
00:22:20.740 --> 00:22:23.700
cobalt and mining and where the energy is coming from
500
00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:25.599
and all that. You can get all the actual information.
501
00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:29.890
So I knew that they were going to be at
502
00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:32.910
an event up in Orkney. So I drove in Lee's
503
00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:36.170
Nissan Leaf, which only had 55 miles range up to Orkney,
504
00:22:36.230 --> 00:22:39.710
which is a long way, by the way. And I
505
00:22:40.089 --> 00:22:42.170
had to stop 12 times to charge. I didn't even
506
00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.880
make it to the first charge. I ran out and
507
00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:47.589
I rolled in like downhill. to the charge and then
508
00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:49.269
I got there and obviously it didn't work because this
509
00:22:49.289 --> 00:22:52.740
was like seven years ago right before the infrastructures is
510
00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:55.119
what it is now and I met Robert Llewellyn the
511
00:22:55.140 --> 00:22:57.099
guy who owns the YouTube channel and I just said
512
00:22:57.140 --> 00:22:58.700
to him look I've got to show you our tech
513
00:22:58.759 --> 00:22:59.880
and he just fell in love with it and he
514
00:22:59.900 --> 00:23:01.339
said I'm going to do you an episode I'm going
515
00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:03.019
to do an episode on it and normally don't do
516
00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:06.829
episodes on like tech and things like that yeah But
517
00:23:06.849 --> 00:23:09.089
he was like, but this is so innovative and just
518
00:23:09.130 --> 00:23:12.880
so needed. And that, you know, that day our website
519
00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:16.779
that I built broke and the phone began to ring.
520
00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.319
And it just, we manufacture all of our products as well,
521
00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:23.140
by the way. So we are completely vertically integrated. So
522
00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:26.440
we'd gone from, I was hand soldering them myself, like
523
00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:31.220
packaging them up, walking them to the post office. You
524
00:23:31.259 --> 00:23:35.289
with your zappies. Carrying my zappie up there. up the
525
00:23:35.309 --> 00:23:38.349
hills in the local village where we started in our shed.
526
00:23:38.849 --> 00:23:41.509
So now like, you know, I don't know, we're just
527
00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:44.890
building a 65,000 square foot factory with all the latest
528
00:23:45.130 --> 00:23:47.660
manufacturing equipment in so we can churn out millions of
529
00:23:47.700 --> 00:23:50.640
these things around the world. Yeah, no more soldering for you. No.
530
00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:53.680
And so that obviously hugely started to take off. What
531
00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:55.799
kind of size was your team at that time?
532
00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:59.710
It was probably about 15, 16 or so. people by
533
00:23:59.750 --> 00:24:00.450
that point.
534
00:24:00.450 --> 00:24:02.910
Right and how did that feel to suddenly be managing
535
00:24:02.910 --> 00:24:06.710
15 16 people were they were they in office side
536
00:24:06.730 --> 00:24:08.460
or were they doing the manufacturing yeah it.
537
00:24:08.430 --> 00:24:11.380
Was office and manufacturing it was all very hands-on yeah
538
00:24:11.460 --> 00:24:14.579
it was like orders were growing in momentum and right
539
00:24:14.779 --> 00:24:16.599
everybody was doing a bit of everything and you know
540
00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:19.319
when you're starting up you hire people you know you'll
541
00:24:19.339 --> 00:24:21.640
hire anyone who's willing to help you right you don't
542
00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:25.839
hiring on skill you're hiring on help me like family
543
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.980
and friends and just begging people to work for you
544
00:24:29.589 --> 00:24:31.950
and pulling in the family and the husband and stuff
545
00:24:32.009 --> 00:24:35.170
on Easter, buying holidays and stuff to get orders out.
546
00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:38.940
And it was wild. But I found the hardest part
547
00:24:38.980 --> 00:24:42.539
going from about that size to probably about 40, 50,
548
00:24:42.539 --> 00:24:44.819
because it had gone from feeling like everyone felt like
549
00:24:44.859 --> 00:24:47.079
there was family. So then all of a sudden you're
550
00:24:47.099 --> 00:24:50.700
trying to put processes and procedures in and bring people
551
00:24:50.769 --> 00:24:53.819
in that are qualified. And it starts, I went for,
552
00:24:53.869 --> 00:24:55.369
I remember going, and that was when I was pregnant.
553
00:24:55.450 --> 00:24:58.130
I remember going through a really hard time and a
554
00:24:58.269 --> 00:25:01.930
really hard transition of going from like friendly family startup
555
00:25:01.970 --> 00:25:03.569
fun vibes to all of a sudden this is getting
556
00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:05.759
a bit too successful and people turn in and being
557
00:25:05.779 --> 00:25:10.200
a bit weird. And then somebody just, oh, the politics.
558
00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:13.029
It was hard work. But now I think once you've
559
00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:16.150
got over like the couple of hundred mark of people
560
00:25:16.430 --> 00:25:19.930
it's a fully functioning business it's less like personal it's
561
00:25:20.009 --> 00:25:21.230
more yeah.
562
00:25:21.069 --> 00:25:24.569
I definitely have found that that transition between being like
563
00:25:24.809 --> 00:25:27.130
four people in a room to being like I mean
564
00:25:27.150 --> 00:25:30.880
we're only like 35 people I'm finding this stage so
565
00:25:30.950 --> 00:25:33.240
hard in terms of people and team and actually being
566
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:36.400
able to like work out exactly the types of people
567
00:25:36.420 --> 00:25:38.599
we need exactly like the types of processes we need
568
00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:41.440
what's too much what's too little how do you incentivize
569
00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:45.799
like innovation within the team whilst also putting things in
570
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.059
place to mean things that don't go wrong. It is just,
571
00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:51.650
I mean, I think I'm finding it the hardest I've
572
00:25:51.670 --> 00:25:53.150
ever found it in terms of people at the moment
573
00:25:53.210 --> 00:25:54.309
for exactly that reason.
574
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:56.710
It's normal and it's the hardest stage. I think once
575
00:25:56.730 --> 00:25:57.819
you get through that growing.
576
00:25:58.180 --> 00:25:59.759
Yeah, except you said it's fine when you get to
577
00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:02.859
a few hundred. And I'm quite far away from that.
578
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:04.660
And I'm having a tough time, Jordan.
579
00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:07.720
Do you, I think good management, good management is key.
580
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.180
Like you need your core, like a team. Cause that's
581
00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:12.349
what I found. I call them my a team. Um,
582
00:26:12.470 --> 00:26:15.150
and that's like getting that right is a blessing enough.
583
00:26:15.349 --> 00:26:17.170
You know, it's like anything in relationships, you kiss a
584
00:26:17.190 --> 00:26:19.829
few frogs, you go, You get it wrong a few times.
585
00:26:19.890 --> 00:26:22.150
I've had the imposter syndrome where I've let people come
586
00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:24.170
in and be really corporate. And I think, well, I
587
00:26:24.430 --> 00:26:26.329
trust everything they say because they're better than me. And
588
00:26:26.349 --> 00:26:29.710
then it's gone horribly wrong for the culture. And we've
589
00:26:29.730 --> 00:26:31.470
had a bit of, we've just done a culture session
590
00:26:31.529 --> 00:26:34.069
because I feel like we've got a culture war where
591
00:26:34.109 --> 00:26:37.230
it's old world versus new. And it's like, I'm wanting
592
00:26:37.269 --> 00:26:40.359
to run it really like liberal and relaxed and trusting.
593
00:26:40.390 --> 00:26:42.619
And then there's some that I want no processes, procedures.
594
00:26:42.630 --> 00:26:44.819
It's black, it's white. There's no gray area. And I'm like, no.
595
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:45.480
Yeah.
596
00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:47.619
And also what I find tough is that it's so,
597
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:51.000
management style is so specific to who you're managing and
598
00:26:51.019 --> 00:26:53.880
the types of people you're managing. But in a bigger organisation,
599
00:26:53.940 --> 00:26:56.509
you can't run things based on the person. Because I've
600
00:26:56.569 --> 00:26:59.269
always managed people differently, whether I know, like, whether it's
601
00:26:59.289 --> 00:27:01.490
like a, you know, I always think it's best when
602
00:27:01.529 --> 00:27:03.250
it's on like a trust relationship and it's on the
603
00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:05.230
type of thing where you can really easily just be like,
604
00:27:05.890 --> 00:27:09.099
you're essentially... I like people to be able to act
605
00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:12.160
self-employed within an organisation because if they feel trusted, I'm
606
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:14.880
not micromanaging, it's better for me, it's better.
607
00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:15.539
For them, all of that.
608
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.609
But then there are also, you can't hire fast enough
609
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:21.430
and therefore not everyone you hire is going to be
610
00:27:21.470 --> 00:27:23.930
like that and not everyone thrives in that situation. So
611
00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:26.470
as much as you can say in the interview process, like,
612
00:27:26.650 --> 00:27:28.329
you know, how good are you at like this type
613
00:27:28.369 --> 00:27:29.329
of thing and whatever it might be.
614
00:27:29.750 --> 00:27:32.430
And then also... it's not always good to have all
615
00:27:32.450 --> 00:27:33.910
the same types of people too.
616
00:27:34.329 --> 00:27:37.660
And so it's, I found it so hard to adapt
617
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:42.119
my leadership and management style, both to manage people correctly,
618
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:44.660
but also to be like, we've all got to have
619
00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:46.839
some sort of homogeneity in terms of like the way
620
00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:47.460
we do things.
621
00:27:47.579 --> 00:27:51.700
Otherwise it's just, it's chaos. It's chaos. It's hard work.
622
00:27:51.859 --> 00:27:54.829
And I don't think there's any like right or wrong
623
00:27:55.410 --> 00:27:56.630
way of doing it. I wanted you to say, I
624
00:27:56.650 --> 00:27:58.109
wanted you to give me tips and then all my
625
00:27:58.130 --> 00:28:01.170
problems will be gone. We can offline, I'll chat and
626
00:28:01.190 --> 00:28:04.390
see what the real problems are. Yeah, so fair enough.
627
00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:08.259
And in terms of that, I guess, going from, I mean,
628
00:28:09.579 --> 00:28:11.880
how many people are you now? I don't actually know.
629
00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:16.539
I think it's about 400 at the moment. We've had
630
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.299
a bit of a wobble this year because the energy
631
00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.059
crisis and the cost of living. We were growing at
632
00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:25.299
like 200% year on year. And then we just hit
633
00:28:25.339 --> 00:28:28.160
this massive slowdown because of the cost of living crisis.
634
00:28:28.460 --> 00:28:31.019
And because all the subsidies were cut for EVs and
635
00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.319
it's all being politicized now, the whole world signed up
636
00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:36.720
to this, like the whole world's doing it. And now by,
637
00:28:36.839 --> 00:28:40.049
by us reversing it, we're just, we are just literally
638
00:28:40.109 --> 00:28:43.670
destroying this country in any economic advantage that we could
639
00:28:43.750 --> 00:28:46.309
have had. And we was doing so well, like we're
640
00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:49.470
leaps and bounds ahead of like the US even in
641
00:28:49.529 --> 00:28:52.930
terms of like tech around the home and EVs and
642
00:28:52.970 --> 00:28:56.440
EV charging. And, It's just, we could have really grabbed
643
00:28:56.480 --> 00:28:59.480
hold of it and been a leader as our little island,
644
00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:02.980
as off-grid as possible. And it's just, who cares anyway?
645
00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:05.539
We'll just keep doing it. I think the cars have
646
00:29:05.599 --> 00:29:09.279
made the switch. We'll carry on. Consumers have made their
647
00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:12.240
minds up, most of them, even though the media is
648
00:29:12.259 --> 00:29:14.619
not helping so much at the minute with the fear
649
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:19.009
mongering and the propaganda. But I just think, how can
650
00:29:19.049 --> 00:29:23.750
it be wrong? Literally, you know what it's like. You
651
00:29:23.769 --> 00:29:26.869
live in the city. Just not having the fuel pumping
652
00:29:26.890 --> 00:29:30.420
out the back into the atmosphere. And it's so energy
653
00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:33.460
intensive to produce fuel, to drill it out the ground,
654
00:29:33.480 --> 00:29:35.220
to then turn it into something that we can use,
655
00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:39.250
to then burn it into the atmosphere. Yes, making a
656
00:29:39.269 --> 00:29:42.519
battery isn't the... isn't completely emission free but once it's
657
00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:45.480
with you yeah and it's no more emissions after it
658
00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:47.519
and you can recycle it after it's.
659
00:29:47.400 --> 00:29:49.769
Not even like we were super close to the deadline
660
00:29:49.789 --> 00:29:51.049
and then they were being like we're going to add
661
00:29:51.069 --> 00:29:53.470
a two year grace period so that you can do
662
00:29:53.650 --> 00:29:55.509
x y and z it's not even that like it's
663
00:29:55.569 --> 00:29:59.049
literally just like a flat switch where you're so right
664
00:29:59.109 --> 00:30:01.430
we could have been leaps and bounds ahead and we
665
00:30:01.490 --> 00:30:04.829
as a country we are getting political but like we
666
00:30:04.890 --> 00:30:08.450
as a country very much need some sort of angle
667
00:30:08.549 --> 00:30:10.390
where we can be like actually no.
668
00:30:10.170 --> 00:30:13.089
We do you know we're leading in this we're.
669
00:30:12.930 --> 00:30:15.440
Leading in this and actually that's because we've set targets
670
00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:17.299
which mean that we have to lead in this and
671
00:30:17.339 --> 00:30:19.640
now look where we are this is amazing like we
672
00:30:20.099 --> 00:30:22.339
you know are way ahead in this specific area as
673
00:30:22.380 --> 00:30:24.400
you said ahead of the US that's amazing like it's
674
00:30:24.420 --> 00:30:27.940
specifically that like With the cost of living crisis and
675
00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:30.650
with this many crises over the past few years, we've
676
00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:34.809
never had this intense amount of, whether it's recessions, COVID, crisis,
677
00:30:35.329 --> 00:30:36.529
over and over and over again.
678
00:30:36.549 --> 00:30:37.670
What a time to start a business.
679
00:30:37.710 --> 00:30:38.170
Yeah, I know.
680
00:30:38.269 --> 00:30:39.029
Brilliant.
681
00:30:39.109 --> 00:30:42.480
I know what I should do. Make myself more insecure.
682
00:30:43.259 --> 00:30:45.400
But yeah, it's exactly that type of thing. And it's like,
683
00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:48.259
it just doesn't, I mean, it just doesn't make any
684
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:50.400
sense at all. You as a business, when you get
685
00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:53.710
that type of news... that obviously you've planned to change,
686
00:30:53.950 --> 00:30:57.269
to ramp up production, to account for the increase in demand.
687
00:30:57.730 --> 00:30:59.630
I can imagine that's a lot of your business plan
688
00:30:59.670 --> 00:31:03.140
over the next few years. How have you adapted to
689
00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:05.339
like when big news like that comes in, how do
690
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:06.200
you even deal with that?
691
00:31:06.420 --> 00:31:09.279
It was so hard. So the slowdown has been awful
692
00:31:09.619 --> 00:31:13.180
because it meant that we were too top heavy with,
693
00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:15.410
and you can't just turn off your suppliers. So if
694
00:31:15.430 --> 00:31:19.390
you've got like hundreds of thousands of components on order
695
00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:23.130
to manufacture your products based on, The market growth rate
696
00:31:23.269 --> 00:31:26.009
that was happening last year and the year before and
697
00:31:26.029 --> 00:31:27.759
what everybody's predicted and then all of a sudden it
698
00:31:27.779 --> 00:31:31.660
slows right down. You've got to recuperate those costs somehow.
699
00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:35.480
Up until that point, we were a self-funded business. We'd
700
00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:37.480
got some investment, 1.8 back in 2019, we raised 1.8 million.
701
00:31:40.410 --> 00:31:43.589
from angel investors. And we'd been growing off our own
702
00:31:43.630 --> 00:31:46.390
profits ever since. We've been completely profitable. Which is unbelievable.
703
00:31:46.490 --> 00:31:49.609
And then this took a massive dent in our cashflow.
704
00:31:50.190 --> 00:31:52.259
We had to let some staff go. It was honestly
705
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:57.859
the worst, most brutal time, experience I've ever gone through
706
00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:00.660
as a business owner. Cause it's all, I'm stressed even
707
00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:03.420
when it's going good. Like I find it high pressured
708
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.630
and stressful and it's not like I just, I'm living
709
00:32:05.670 --> 00:32:08.690
my best life. I'm always under pressure and stressed. But
710
00:32:08.710 --> 00:32:11.000
when it's like going, the wrong direction all of a
711
00:32:11.019 --> 00:32:13.779
sudden and you're having to like lay people off or
712
00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.079
let it was just savage but we seem to be
713
00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:21.220
over the hump of that and we have just closed
714
00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:23.960
out on a round which I mentioned here we've raised
715
00:32:23.960 --> 00:32:27.519
30 million which is nice which is unbelievable yeah like
716
00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:37.230
trademark wait launch date wait open bank account wait invoice
717
00:32:37.730 --> 00:32:39.569
wait payday.
718
00:32:40.950 --> 00:32:43.670
We spend enough time waiting in business, but when it
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741
00:34:02.549 --> 00:34:05.390
Also, I'd like for context for anyone who's not in
742
00:34:05.410 --> 00:34:09.730
the fundraising sphere. This year has been absolutely savage in
743
00:34:09.769 --> 00:34:12.869
terms of fundraising. like there's been almost no deal flow
744
00:34:12.929 --> 00:34:15.530
in like any direction at all like no one's really
745
00:34:15.550 --> 00:34:18.590
been getting checks um and for you to just like
746
00:34:18.889 --> 00:34:20.530
work out you need money a bit ago and come
747
00:34:20.570 --> 00:34:23.730
into like essentially at this point and and get it
748
00:34:23.750 --> 00:34:25.909
yeah is amazing.
749
00:34:25.530 --> 00:34:28.619
We also got super um supportive bank like we had
750
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:30.679
some help from the bank as well and give us
751
00:34:30.699 --> 00:34:32.880
a revolving credit line of 30 million so we've got
752
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:36.179
that you know we've now we're now well capitalized and
753
00:34:36.219 --> 00:34:39.210
ready to to grow because we're looking at other markets
754
00:34:39.250 --> 00:34:40.869
as well and we've got a list as long as
755
00:34:40.929 --> 00:34:42.590
our arm of other products that we want to bring
756
00:34:42.699 --> 00:34:44.860
out but all of that's like you know we've had
757
00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:46.860
a bit of a hold obviously on recruitment for a
758
00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:49.719
long time and the team are all stretched and so
759
00:34:49.739 --> 00:34:51.840
we're ready to just take that pressure off everybody and
760
00:34:52.179 --> 00:34:53.960
yeah take a breath and go again because it's been
761
00:34:53.980 --> 00:34:57.590
a really intense six seven eight months.
762
00:34:57.210 --> 00:34:59.829
Yeah no I can imagine I want to talk a
763
00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:04.610
little bit about being a female business owner mm-hmm Having
764
00:35:04.670 --> 00:35:07.570
raised funding as a woman, obviously we've discussed you have
765
00:35:07.610 --> 00:35:09.710
a male co-founder, so the stats are slightly different.
766
00:35:09.789 --> 00:35:11.449
However, they're still not great.
767
00:35:11.989 --> 00:35:15.480
How have you found the process of, I guess, we'll
768
00:35:15.500 --> 00:35:18.139
talk about raising funding first. Did you feel like there
769
00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:20.960
was anything you were up against in terms of walking
770
00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:23.739
into a room as a very feminine woman being like,
771
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.260
I run an energy company? I mean, I guess you
772
00:35:26.280 --> 00:35:28.329
have the numbers that speak for themselves now.
773
00:35:28.349 --> 00:35:32.809
Yeah, I didn't really. So we were going to IPO.
774
00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:33.840
Really?
775
00:35:33.880 --> 00:35:37.389
Before the war happened, we was going to IPO and
776
00:35:37.409 --> 00:35:40.690
we had everything in motion to go. And we'd been
777
00:35:40.730 --> 00:35:44.070
on the glory parade. We'd been around meeting investors. We've
778
00:35:44.090 --> 00:35:46.590
got the pitch nailed. We were on this mad trajectory
779
00:35:46.610 --> 00:35:48.699
where we were growing 200% year on year. And if
780
00:35:48.739 --> 00:35:50.679
we'd have got that over the line. It'd have been
781
00:35:50.719 --> 00:35:53.199
great personally, but it would have fell off a cliff
782
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:55.969
not long after and share prices. And then who knows
783
00:35:56.030 --> 00:35:58.030
what would have happened. So I'm so glad we didn't
784
00:35:58.110 --> 00:36:00.289
IPO when we did, but we knew that we were
785
00:36:00.309 --> 00:36:03.849
going to need cash and not our own like organic growth,
786
00:36:03.929 --> 00:36:05.949
even though organic growth has been impressive. It was like,
787
00:36:05.989 --> 00:36:07.889
we need some extra help if we want to do
788
00:36:07.929 --> 00:36:09.429
all the things we're going to do. So let's switch
789
00:36:09.449 --> 00:36:14.530
to private equity. And then it's been, they won't mind
790
00:36:14.550 --> 00:36:16.590
me saying it, it's been hell. It's been a really
791
00:36:16.670 --> 00:36:21.639
difficult time. And I've learned so much through this process.
792
00:36:21.929 --> 00:36:26.829
And in terms of being a woman who kind of
793
00:36:26.989 --> 00:36:29.989
owns this company and from the original, I guess you
794
00:36:30.010 --> 00:36:33.280
were originally starting to be a leader. Mm-hmm. how have
795
00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:36.269
you found that being a woman has impacted people's I
796
00:36:36.289 --> 00:36:38.489
guess perception of you as a leader.
797
00:36:38.469 --> 00:36:41.489
Yeah it blows people's minds I think especially because it's
798
00:36:41.690 --> 00:36:44.150
in this industry like you say it seems to like
799
00:36:44.250 --> 00:36:46.929
it's a conversation starter and it's interesting it's like me
800
00:36:46.949 --> 00:36:48.929
and my husband have just been away and we've been
801
00:36:49.010 --> 00:36:51.039
in um in Dubai and people always say to me
802
00:36:51.059 --> 00:36:52.860
more like what do you do like they ask the
803
00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:55.300
right yeah it's natural to go to the man why
804
00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:57.960
would a woman have a job yeah I mean ridiculous
805
00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:00.500
and it's all people lead with it don't they're like
806
00:37:00.519 --> 00:37:02.949
what do you do and blah blah but Being a woman,
807
00:37:02.969 --> 00:37:05.610
I don't know. I actually just hate that we have
808
00:37:05.630 --> 00:37:08.769
to still talk in 2023 about being a woman in business.
809
00:37:08.789 --> 00:37:11.550
We said, just also for context before we started recording,
810
00:37:12.030 --> 00:37:14.010
this is literally exactly what I said. I always feel
811
00:37:14.130 --> 00:37:16.889
so almost like horrible that every time I have like
812
00:37:16.929 --> 00:37:20.250
a really impressive woman here, I'm like, but being a woman.
813
00:37:20.710 --> 00:37:23.380
And it's like, you do get treat differently. And I
814
00:37:23.429 --> 00:37:25.400
noticed it in sales and things like that. You know,
815
00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:27.639
I don't get invited to the golf course, you know?
816
00:37:29.030 --> 00:37:32.690
where's my invite because that would be weird and might
817
00:37:32.750 --> 00:37:35.469
cause problems like at home you know I don't know
818
00:37:35.610 --> 00:37:38.369
I don't know yeah it's just not the same when
819
00:37:38.409 --> 00:37:40.889
you're a female leader you don't get it's still a
820
00:37:40.929 --> 00:37:44.250
little bit of a boys club yeah but I've never
821
00:37:44.309 --> 00:37:47.409
felt any of the guys treat me with any disrespect
822
00:37:47.449 --> 00:37:49.340
really even in the banking world and when I've been
823
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:52.300
raising cash and when I've got amazing investors I've got
824
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.420
amazing like males around I've always had a lot of
825
00:37:55.699 --> 00:37:58.829
men around me and I guess growing up By a
826
00:37:58.869 --> 00:38:01.250
very male-dominated family, I've learned how to, my dad's always
827
00:38:01.269 --> 00:38:04.650
taught me how to handle myself. And I really recommend
828
00:38:04.690 --> 00:38:06.739
getting into bar work when you're young because then you
829
00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:09.300
just meet every type of walk of life, don't you?
830
00:38:09.820 --> 00:38:12.059
And being a dancer, I'm very street smart and learned
831
00:38:12.099 --> 00:38:14.539
how to read a room and read body language. And
832
00:38:14.579 --> 00:38:16.980
don't get me wrong, like people, especially with a name
833
00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:19.679
called Jordan as well, because back in the day, someone
834
00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:21.769
would email me and they'd be speaking to me and
835
00:38:21.789 --> 00:38:23.630
they'd expect a man to walk into the room. So
836
00:38:23.650 --> 00:38:27.469
when a blonde with a pink blazer walks in. Walks in.
837
00:38:27.789 --> 00:38:30.130
Walks in. It's like it puts them on the back
838
00:38:30.210 --> 00:38:32.630
foot because there was expecting a bloke until, you know,
839
00:38:32.769 --> 00:38:35.429
now we've got pictures everywhere and people sort of know now.
840
00:38:35.449 --> 00:38:36.969
But in the early days when I was starting off,
841
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:39.760
I used to see people physically like disarm when I
842
00:38:39.800 --> 00:38:40.420
walked into a room.
843
00:38:40.440 --> 00:38:40.980
Like, oh, what?
844
00:38:41.139 --> 00:38:45.800
What? Yeah. So there is like this. There's a bias
845
00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:48.550
and there's. You get tread different and you might get judged,
846
00:38:48.610 --> 00:38:51.119
but I don't just find it from the blokes. I
847
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:52.760
find it quite a lot from the women as well.
848
00:38:52.780 --> 00:38:53.619
I think it is.
849
00:38:54.179 --> 00:38:57.210
I really think that is very true. And I always say,
850
00:38:57.230 --> 00:39:02.670
I think we all have. underlying preconceptions and biases that
851
00:39:02.789 --> 00:39:05.409
I even find like I even find like in myself
852
00:39:05.469 --> 00:39:06.929
you know when you're talking to someone you're like oh
853
00:39:07.230 --> 00:39:09.929
yeah like like I mean this in the least offensive
854
00:39:09.969 --> 00:39:12.130
way possible if I met you and you were like
855
00:39:12.170 --> 00:39:14.369
yeah I own an energy company I would like as
856
00:39:14.429 --> 00:39:17.610
in it's so it's terrible that that's even in it
857
00:39:17.639 --> 00:39:18.150
but I would be like.
858
00:39:18.260 --> 00:39:21.420
Oh yeah amazing that's really amazing but.
859
00:39:21.300 --> 00:39:24.920
It's so in our heads yeah we are so especially
860
00:39:24.980 --> 00:39:27.800
like we've talked about the fact that you like you've
861
00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:30.199
deliberately lent into the fact that you're a.
862
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:34.780
Very feminine yeah like yeah exactly I've not toned it
863
00:39:34.820 --> 00:39:36.539
down people have tried to make me tone it down
864
00:39:36.559 --> 00:39:40.139
I can remember yeah yeah I've been through that I've
865
00:39:40.179 --> 00:39:42.599
had one guy that I'd never say his name but
866
00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:45.110
I'll say it to him I pointed him, he was
867
00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:47.280
one of our first big hires. And I remember him
868
00:39:47.300 --> 00:39:48.920
saying to me, I think you should change your profile
869
00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:51.110
picture because I don't think it's very appropriate. Is that
870
00:39:51.130 --> 00:39:53.730
what we want to portray? And I was like, how?
871
00:39:54.300 --> 00:39:57.130
I've just literally employed you.
872
00:39:58.170 --> 00:40:01.769
And it was like, would he ever say that to
873
00:40:01.809 --> 00:40:02.889
his male boss?
874
00:40:03.090 --> 00:40:07.090
Exactly. Like people do say things when you're a female
875
00:40:07.130 --> 00:40:08.409
or when you're a little bit more, cause I am
876
00:40:08.449 --> 00:40:12.489
very open there for everybody. Super like warm, engaging, like
877
00:40:12.550 --> 00:40:15.449
welcome people. And I do, people take chunks out of
878
00:40:15.469 --> 00:40:17.590
me and people take chunks out of me because of
879
00:40:17.639 --> 00:40:19.780
my kind nature as well. And I find like I'm
880
00:40:19.800 --> 00:40:22.000
a bit of a punching bag and I am probably
881
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:25.800
the most judged of the C-suite and, I'm judged internally
882
00:40:25.820 --> 00:40:28.420
I'm judged externally but then when you get into the
883
00:40:28.679 --> 00:40:31.079
nuts and bolts of it like I'm also I am
884
00:40:31.340 --> 00:40:34.139
also really respected I'm just unconventional I think people don't
885
00:40:34.159 --> 00:40:37.210
know what to what to do with it and they're
886
00:40:37.230 --> 00:40:40.610
battling their own social conditioning and but I get through
887
00:40:40.630 --> 00:40:42.730
I get by I get my knockbacks I get chunks
888
00:40:42.769 --> 00:40:44.389
taken out of me I build myself up I mean
889
00:40:44.409 --> 00:40:46.670
you can ask my my EA she's the closest to
890
00:40:46.690 --> 00:40:48.909
me Lindsay she sees it on and my husband they
891
00:40:49.010 --> 00:40:51.610
probably family and that they see me roaring behind the
892
00:40:51.630 --> 00:40:53.570
closed doors when I've I've had a day of it
893
00:40:53.650 --> 00:40:56.869
but I always just like managed to pull it together
894
00:40:56.889 --> 00:40:58.849
and I'm like an elephant. I don't forget. So if
895
00:40:58.869 --> 00:41:01.050
someone's like took a chunk out of me or made
896
00:41:01.090 --> 00:41:04.030
my energy feel not nice, I remember that. And I'll
897
00:41:04.170 --> 00:41:07.150
always sort of not get my own back because I'm
898
00:41:07.190 --> 00:41:09.050
not like malicious, but I won't let it go. I'll
899
00:41:09.070 --> 00:41:10.929
make sure that it's nipped in the bud and I'll
900
00:41:10.949 --> 00:41:12.809
make sure that it's been made clear that you've made
901
00:41:12.829 --> 00:41:15.369
me feel like that. And then we'll, and I don't
902
00:41:15.389 --> 00:41:16.190
hold grudges.
903
00:41:16.250 --> 00:41:16.570
Yeah.
904
00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:18.650
And how have you managed to, I guess, build that
905
00:41:18.690 --> 00:41:20.889
muscle of like a thick skin and being able to
906
00:41:21.309 --> 00:41:24.989
take that type of behavior whilst also remaining authentic to
907
00:41:25.030 --> 00:41:26.800
the fact that you want to be yourself.
908
00:41:26.519 --> 00:41:29.219
I don't think I'll ever have thick skin I don't
909
00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:31.179
think I'll ever be used to it I think I'll
910
00:41:31.219 --> 00:41:33.940
always struggle and that's why I fear quite you know
911
00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:36.389
I fear doing stuff like this because I think people
912
00:41:36.489 --> 00:41:39.530
come at you so easily these days especially online I
913
00:41:39.570 --> 00:41:42.809
don't understand I'm ready yeah you know like they come
914
00:41:42.829 --> 00:41:44.610
for you and I just think I do sort of
915
00:41:44.659 --> 00:41:47.159
hide and But I've had a moment where I was like,
916
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:49.949
it was literally an epiphany recently. I was laid in
917
00:41:49.969 --> 00:41:51.889
the bath and I sent a TikTok video and it
918
00:41:51.929 --> 00:41:53.650
just summed it up where I thought, oh my God,
919
00:41:53.690 --> 00:41:56.090
that is so true. Don't let anybody shrink you because
920
00:41:56.130 --> 00:42:00.010
they're uncomfortable with your energy and your way of like leading.
921
00:42:00.130 --> 00:42:03.030
And it was just such a pivotal moment that this
922
00:42:03.070 --> 00:42:05.329
film like popped in, this little clip popped into my life.
923
00:42:05.349 --> 00:42:06.309
And I was like, do you know what? I'm not
924
00:42:06.349 --> 00:42:09.650
shrinking myself anymore. I'm always unapologetically me, but I'm going
925
00:42:09.670 --> 00:42:12.409
to be a little bit more unapologetically me because I
926
00:42:12.449 --> 00:42:15.070
guess I have shrunk myself to suit society and to
927
00:42:15.130 --> 00:42:18.130
suit everybody internally and everybody externally and I know I'm
928
00:42:18.170 --> 00:42:20.440
not a crazy person I know I don't run around
929
00:42:20.460 --> 00:42:22.940
I'm not like you not a bad person why do
930
00:42:22.980 --> 00:42:26.079
people feel that they can be this way with me
931
00:42:26.099 --> 00:42:28.019
but they wouldn't dream of saying something like that to
932
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:30.130
Lee and I've just woke up from it I'm like
933
00:42:30.150 --> 00:42:32.650
I'm not standing for it anymore and it's been a
934
00:42:32.690 --> 00:42:35.269
recent thing so I have to it's a constant battle that.
935
00:42:35.150 --> 00:42:37.349
I've And it will slip as well, too, because I
936
00:42:37.389 --> 00:42:39.429
feel like I've had that realisation a few times where
937
00:42:39.469 --> 00:42:42.420
I've been like, like, stormed out the bath and I've
938
00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:45.519
been like, yeah, do you know what? I never say
939
00:42:45.579 --> 00:42:47.179
something like that. So if I do say something, I
940
00:42:47.239 --> 00:42:49.929
really mean it. And no one should take advantage of like,
941
00:42:50.449 --> 00:42:52.210
you know, because I start putting this wall up around
942
00:42:52.250 --> 00:42:54.630
myself where I'm like. actually, for everyone new that starts,
943
00:42:54.670 --> 00:42:57.969
I'm gonna be really clear that I'm really stern and
944
00:42:57.989 --> 00:42:59.869
like all of this. And I'm like, it's just so
945
00:42:59.889 --> 00:43:02.590
far from who I am. And it doesn't do me,
946
00:43:02.889 --> 00:43:05.409
like I then go into the office feeling like I'm
947
00:43:05.449 --> 00:43:07.900
putting on this act so that I will be taken seriously.
948
00:43:07.940 --> 00:43:09.840
And it's like, no, I can be kind and it
949
00:43:09.880 --> 00:43:12.590
is your duty To receive it in the right way
950
00:43:12.690 --> 00:43:14.780
and do your job. And then if that doesn't happen,
951
00:43:14.820 --> 00:43:17.219
that's fine. It's not the right thing for either of us.
952
00:43:17.460 --> 00:43:20.260
But I'm not going to change my entire personality.
953
00:43:20.280 --> 00:43:21.219
To suit your needs.
954
00:43:21.320 --> 00:43:21.739
Yeah.
955
00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:23.820
As a person, I'm running a business. But it's also.
956
00:43:23.719 --> 00:43:28.610
Society's needs as a whole. Like, we really need women to... Like,
957
00:43:28.630 --> 00:43:31.170
I've talked about this before, how the fact that we
958
00:43:31.210 --> 00:43:33.809
need women in order to be liked, we need them, A,
959
00:43:33.869 --> 00:43:34.630
not to be successful.
960
00:43:34.969 --> 00:43:35.389
But fine.
961
00:43:35.690 --> 00:43:37.510
If we can remove that, if we want to like
962
00:43:37.530 --> 00:43:40.110
a successful woman... We need them to be like violently
963
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:42.960
humble and self-deprecating. Like we really need them to be like,
964
00:43:43.380 --> 00:43:46.780
to basically qualify their success in a way where we're like, no,
965
00:43:46.840 --> 00:43:48.699
you wouldn't actually want it because these are all the
966
00:43:48.760 --> 00:43:50.780
like bad things about it. Like we like to make
967
00:43:50.940 --> 00:43:53.500
other people comfortable with our success by saying it's not
968
00:43:53.559 --> 00:43:56.199
as good as it actually is. And like, that's a
969
00:43:56.260 --> 00:43:59.570
big thing that we need. But then from leaders and
970
00:43:59.610 --> 00:44:01.409
we also need women to be vulnerable. We need them
971
00:44:01.449 --> 00:44:03.510
to share all the shit things they've been through. Like
972
00:44:03.809 --> 00:44:08.090
We require that of women to predicate their success, for
973
00:44:08.110 --> 00:44:10.010
their success to be like worthy. We need to have
974
00:44:10.050 --> 00:44:12.050
known they've gone through all of this. I always say
975
00:44:12.110 --> 00:44:15.289
that like, I know the background to every single female
976
00:44:15.349 --> 00:44:18.309
founder within like, every single female founder in the UK.
977
00:44:18.329 --> 00:44:20.289
If I know about them, I know their background. I
978
00:44:20.329 --> 00:44:21.690
know what type of education they've been through.
979
00:44:21.730 --> 00:44:23.389
I know all of this. Because we need to, to
980
00:44:23.429 --> 00:44:25.210
be able to somehow be like, oh yeah, do you
981
00:44:25.230 --> 00:44:26.150
know what? They do deserve it.
982
00:44:26.510 --> 00:44:28.349
Or whatever it might be. Or to be like, oh yeah,
983
00:44:28.489 --> 00:44:30.820
but they came from this background or whatever it might be.
984
00:44:31.110 --> 00:44:34.429
Whereas every single man... that is an entrepreneur, I don't
985
00:44:34.449 --> 00:44:36.099
know anything about their background. If I do, it's probably
986
00:44:36.119 --> 00:44:38.739
because they're so famous and so successful that we're like, yeah, cool.
987
00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:41.380
But we never concentrate on their background. We never concentrate
988
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:43.059
on where they came from. Like as in, we don't
989
00:44:43.159 --> 00:44:46.440
need to in the same way. But then, I'll stop
990
00:44:46.460 --> 00:44:50.800
my rant soon, maybe. Then for leaders, we ask them
991
00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:53.599
to be the opposite. We ask them to be strong
992
00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:56.340
and not show their vulnerabilities in the same way. We
993
00:44:56.440 --> 00:44:58.039
ask for them to be able to like ring fence
994
00:44:58.139 --> 00:44:59.820
and put on like this persona and all of this.
995
00:45:00.139 --> 00:45:03.159
So then we're saying, well, to be a woman, you
996
00:45:03.179 --> 00:45:04.730
need to do all of these things. And to be
997
00:45:04.750 --> 00:45:07.190
a good leader, you need to do all of these things.
998
00:45:07.710 --> 00:45:12.039
And unfortunately, they're mutually exclusive. So unfortunately, we can't have
999
00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:16.159
any likable women leaders. Like it derives me fucking insane.
1000
00:45:16.380 --> 00:45:18.280
Because when you think about it, you're like, Okay, but
1001
00:45:18.300 --> 00:45:20.039
you're asking for the two completely different things. So I've
1002
00:45:20.059 --> 00:45:21.179
got to go into a room and I've got to
1003
00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:23.179
be vulnerable, but I've also got to be strong and
1004
00:45:23.219 --> 00:45:24.719
show none of my weaknesses. But then I've got to
1005
00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:26.300
be really humble, but then I've got to be sure
1006
00:45:26.340 --> 00:45:28.000
of myself because I've got to show that I deserve to.
1007
00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:29.739
Be here and all of this. Don't be too defensive. Yeah.
1008
00:45:29.760 --> 00:45:32.510
Don't be too emotional. It's just business. And then I'm like...
1009
00:45:32.429 --> 00:45:34.610
Don't be too this and don't be too that. I
1010
00:45:34.650 --> 00:45:39.309
don't have the bandwidth. I know. Don't you? It's freaking intense.
1011
00:45:39.650 --> 00:45:43.110
It's mental torture at times. And it's just not what
1012
00:45:43.150 --> 00:45:44.989
you need on top of running a business. You don't
1013
00:45:45.010 --> 00:45:48.550
need to be going home and thinking... I mean, it's
1014
00:45:48.570 --> 00:45:50.449
a good job with strong characters because I could have
1015
00:45:50.489 --> 00:45:53.030
quit a few times. I've nearly been, I would say,
1016
00:45:53.050 --> 00:45:54.880
I've nearly been bullied out of my own business in
1017
00:45:54.900 --> 00:45:57.199
the sense that I've thought, this is just too much.
1018
00:45:57.260 --> 00:46:00.139
I'm just, I've not got this in me. Why am
1019
00:46:00.159 --> 00:46:02.340
I feeling like this? And no one else is feeling
1020
00:46:02.360 --> 00:46:03.320
like it. Why am I?
1021
00:46:03.360 --> 00:46:05.619
And women are quite good at graciously walking away as well.
1022
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:08.030
Because I've also almost found myself at a point where
1023
00:46:08.070 --> 00:46:10.250
I've been like, I'm going to be like gracious in
1024
00:46:10.269 --> 00:46:11.530
this and just be like, do you know what? This
1025
00:46:11.590 --> 00:46:13.949
isn't the place for me. And it's like, no, this
1026
00:46:14.010 --> 00:46:14.889
is my place.
1027
00:46:15.650 --> 00:46:18.400
What am I doing? But that's the turmoil. And usually
1028
00:46:18.420 --> 00:46:19.739
it's when I'm in the bath and I'm doing my
1029
00:46:19.760 --> 00:46:24.159
self-care bloody Sundays. I'm like, no, I built this fricking thing.
1030
00:46:24.199 --> 00:46:26.820
I'm staying and I'm growing it. Because if it's not me,
1031
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:29.409
it's someone else. And I've built the, done the fricking legwork.
1032
00:46:29.449 --> 00:46:31.409
And then I'm going to let someone in and swoop in. No,
1033
00:46:31.769 --> 00:46:34.150
I'm not going to. So I'm like, pull yourself together,
1034
00:46:34.269 --> 00:46:37.369
get a grip, stick your little iPads on, like....
1035
00:46:39.090 --> 00:46:42.150
To de-escalate the puffiness and go again the puffy get
1036
00:46:42.190 --> 00:46:44.789
the led mask i'm like this sat with everything all my.
1037
00:46:46.449 --> 00:46:48.090
Every day is a hurdle every day is a challenge
1038
00:46:48.150 --> 00:46:49.989
every day you've got imposter syndrome every day you don't
1039
00:46:50.010 --> 00:46:51.809
think you deserve to be there every day you're thinking
1040
00:46:51.829 --> 00:46:53.050
should i be this type of leader should i be
1041
00:46:53.070 --> 00:46:56.309
that type of leader it gets easier with age like
1042
00:46:56.369 --> 00:46:58.289
i'm 34 now i know you're only a baby i
1043
00:46:58.710 --> 00:47:00.949
think when you get into your 30s you're get a
1044
00:47:01.010 --> 00:47:03.269
whole new level something switches in your 30s where you
1045
00:47:03.309 --> 00:47:05.909
care less and less and less what people think and
1046
00:47:06.090 --> 00:47:08.329
every year that goes by it's starting to become more
1047
00:47:08.349 --> 00:47:11.159
and more of a power but I still I still
1048
00:47:11.239 --> 00:47:13.139
I think I don't know whether it's hormonally I don't
1049
00:47:13.159 --> 00:47:14.900
know whether it because that plays a massive part in
1050
00:47:14.920 --> 00:47:16.619
it I don't know what you know I've started getting
1051
00:47:16.639 --> 00:47:18.219
my bloods done regularly because I want to get on
1052
00:47:18.280 --> 00:47:20.360
top of that and just get to know my body
1053
00:47:20.400 --> 00:47:22.079
on a cellular level a little bit more to find
1054
00:47:22.099 --> 00:47:24.989
stuff like that interesting but I think you know if
1055
00:47:25.130 --> 00:47:27.349
I like it does play a factor into it because
1056
00:47:27.369 --> 00:47:29.469
if I'm like due on or something before a board meeting,
1057
00:47:29.489 --> 00:47:32.889
I'm a freaking wreck, like an absolute wreck. Like board meetings,
1058
00:47:32.909 --> 00:47:34.480
I get myself so worked up but it's because I
1059
00:47:34.500 --> 00:47:35.820
want to do such a good job and I want
1060
00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:37.960
to be so equal to the blokes that are in
1061
00:47:37.980 --> 00:47:40.940
the room that are calm and collected and I want
1062
00:47:40.960 --> 00:47:42.199
to know my stuff. I don't want them to ask
1063
00:47:42.219 --> 00:47:44.960
me a question and me not know. But then again,
1064
00:47:44.980 --> 00:47:46.980
I'm having epiphanies all the time. Last board meeting, I thought,
1065
00:47:47.019 --> 00:47:48.699
what does it matter if I don't know the answer?
1066
00:47:48.929 --> 00:47:50.389
And also if they asked someone else and they didn't
1067
00:47:50.409 --> 00:47:51.829
know the answer, I don't think they would doubt their
1068
00:47:51.849 --> 00:47:52.809
entire capacity.
1069
00:47:52.969 --> 00:47:55.460
No, they wouldn't. But I do. I do. It's just so,
1070
00:47:55.480 --> 00:47:58.500
I think as women, we just torture, torture, torture ourselves
1071
00:47:58.579 --> 00:48:01.539
because of, and we're going through evolving times, aren't we?
1072
00:48:01.559 --> 00:48:03.539
We're going through a totally different generation to what our
1073
00:48:03.579 --> 00:48:06.480
parents went through, to what our grandparents went through. We're
1074
00:48:06.519 --> 00:48:09.420
like carving out this whole new technological world. We've got
1075
00:48:09.539 --> 00:48:13.039
all this information online and everything. We've just got a
1076
00:48:13.159 --> 00:48:16.769
lot to deal with in general without throwing in like,
1077
00:48:17.050 --> 00:48:21.909
you know, multi-million pound businesses with 400 staff. and that
1078
00:48:21.949 --> 00:48:24.429
is all amen that's what I have to say for
1079
00:48:24.449 --> 00:48:27.969
today goodnight so I don't know the answers you come
1080
00:48:28.010 --> 00:48:31.289
into your podcast for some lovely inspiration I don't know
1081
00:48:31.309 --> 00:48:32.949
what to tell you I've got nothing to give you
1082
00:48:34.389 --> 00:48:36.079
I'm winging it like my terrible.
1083
00:48:35.900 --> 00:48:38.659
Eyeliner I know I know and I think that is
1084
00:48:38.719 --> 00:48:40.480
the truth to be honest as well because I think
1085
00:48:40.619 --> 00:48:42.920
every single person is very much winging it and there's
1086
00:48:42.960 --> 00:48:44.760
little bits of advice you can take from everyone but
1087
00:48:44.800 --> 00:48:49.050
I think realistically the true amazing entrepreneurs are the ones
1088
00:48:49.130 --> 00:48:52.420
that are winging it to the extent that obviously entrepreneurs
1089
00:48:52.559 --> 00:48:54.079
all the time if you don't have the answer you
1090
00:48:54.099 --> 00:48:56.449
still do it like and I think that's the constant
1091
00:48:56.469 --> 00:48:57.039
thing is it's like.
1092
00:48:56.969 --> 00:48:58.849
There's nowhere to hide I'll sort it out later there's
1093
00:48:58.889 --> 00:49:00.489
nowhere to hide you can't bury your head in the
1094
00:49:00.510 --> 00:49:02.610
sand for too long when you are the owner of
1095
00:49:02.650 --> 00:49:05.570
the business it is you yeah but I think one
1096
00:49:05.610 --> 00:49:08.250
thing I would say about um one thing that's helped
1097
00:49:08.309 --> 00:49:12.460
me mentally physically and again women feel so uncomfortable talking
1098
00:49:12.460 --> 00:49:15.019
about their successes and they have to tone it down
1099
00:49:15.019 --> 00:49:17.460
where everybody else can you know, go over the top
1100
00:49:17.460 --> 00:49:20.539
and show about it. Do you know what? I occasionally do.
1101
00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:22.300
You know, I've got the pink Audi. I think I'm
1102
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:24.750
going to enjoy my car. I get, I get like
1103
00:49:24.789 --> 00:49:27.550
comments thrown at me and stuff, but I think I've
1104
00:49:27.570 --> 00:49:30.730
grown up with nothing. I didn't come from a wealthy family.
1105
00:49:31.159 --> 00:49:33.280
I've not been handed nothing. I put up my own
1106
00:49:33.380 --> 00:49:35.760
savings on the line. Like I'm not taking that away
1107
00:49:35.780 --> 00:49:38.260
from anyone that has had it handed to them because
1108
00:49:38.280 --> 00:49:39.889
I think still you've got to graft. Even if you've
1109
00:49:39.909 --> 00:49:41.989
been handed a wedge of cash, even if you've been
1110
00:49:42.030 --> 00:49:44.809
handed a business, it's not a freaking given. But like
1111
00:49:44.889 --> 00:49:47.269
I can hold my head high that I did physically
1112
00:49:47.329 --> 00:49:51.719
have nothing and I've had no easy way of making it.
1113
00:49:51.949 --> 00:49:53.909
So I think I am going to enjoy the finer
1114
00:49:53.929 --> 00:49:55.449
things in life and you're not going to take it
1115
00:49:55.590 --> 00:49:56.769
away from me and you're not going to make me
1116
00:49:56.789 --> 00:49:59.369
feel like shit about it. And I also try and
1117
00:49:59.389 --> 00:50:01.289
like be a bit more, it's not like I'm showing
1118
00:50:01.349 --> 00:50:04.190
off and being flashy, extra flashy and showing things that
1119
00:50:04.210 --> 00:50:07.070
I buy, but I will go on holiday. And I'll
1120
00:50:07.090 --> 00:50:08.550
have a nice- But the one thing about me is
1121
00:50:08.610 --> 00:50:11.030
I will have a luxury holiday and I will have
1122
00:50:11.070 --> 00:50:13.610
a nice car, like soz, shoot me. I'll buy a
1123
00:50:13.650 --> 00:50:16.789
nice house. But one thing that gave me my physical
1124
00:50:16.849 --> 00:50:20.170
sanity back and I can't stress it enough to a
1125
00:50:20.210 --> 00:50:23.110
female founder or to founders is take some money off
1126
00:50:23.130 --> 00:50:24.309
the table whenever you can.
1127
00:50:24.829 --> 00:50:27.369
Yes I have been told this could you talk about
1128
00:50:27.409 --> 00:50:29.230
that a little bit because I'd love to hear more
1129
00:50:29.269 --> 00:50:30.210
of that from you.
1130
00:50:30.170 --> 00:50:32.849
When COVID hit I was living in a little house
1131
00:50:32.909 --> 00:50:36.090
I just had my daughter the pressure was building because
1132
00:50:36.139 --> 00:50:38.579
we had a full manufacturing facility with orders that we
1133
00:50:38.599 --> 00:50:42.239
couldn't keep up with and then COVID hit and I
1134
00:50:42.280 --> 00:50:43.300
thought I didn't know if we was going to have
1135
00:50:43.320 --> 00:50:45.199
to mothball the business lay people off none of us
1136
00:50:45.219 --> 00:50:47.280
knew what was going to happen and I literally I
1137
00:50:47.300 --> 00:50:49.219
thought I can't I've put my whole life saving into
1138
00:50:49.260 --> 00:50:50.840
this any money that I had and when I say
1139
00:50:50.860 --> 00:50:53.599
life saving I mean like took 20 grand that I
1140
00:50:53.639 --> 00:50:56.150
had in a house out or borrowed a loan against
1141
00:50:56.210 --> 00:50:58.190
it and put it in that's all I had and
1142
00:50:58.269 --> 00:51:00.909
I was like I cannot let this cannot fail and
1143
00:51:00.929 --> 00:51:02.670
be left with nothing like me and my husband and
1144
00:51:02.690 --> 00:51:04.690
my little I can't I just I was like literally
1145
00:51:04.949 --> 00:51:07.360
terrified so I went to my original investors and I
1146
00:51:07.400 --> 00:51:10.840
said I know the business is worth something now like
1147
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:13.260
I just want to sell a bit of my shareholding
1148
00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:15.800
I've seen a house that I want it's just going
1149
00:51:15.820 --> 00:51:18.619
to give me the comfort that I need to lock
1150
00:51:18.639 --> 00:51:20.760
down with my new baby you're not pushing every day
1151
00:51:20.780 --> 00:51:24.409
yeah it's my dream house I'll be like just I'll
1152
00:51:24.429 --> 00:51:27.750
be really good yeah just give me the money and
1153
00:51:27.929 --> 00:51:29.690
um it was a bit of a it was a
1154
00:51:29.730 --> 00:51:32.489
bit of a they had me they had me really
1155
00:51:32.550 --> 00:51:34.269
because it was at COVID they were like well you
1156
00:51:34.309 --> 00:51:36.030
know the pandemic's hit and we don't know where the
1157
00:51:36.050 --> 00:51:38.719
business and there's a risk and luckily like I always
1158
00:51:38.760 --> 00:51:40.550
think like if you do feel like you're getting a
1159
00:51:40.590 --> 00:51:43.050
bad deal negotiate a claw back so that if the
1160
00:51:43.070 --> 00:51:44.530
business is worth more money you can have some of
1161
00:51:44.550 --> 00:51:46.309
your shares back or you can have some cash back
1162
00:51:46.329 --> 00:51:48.409
so I negotiated that in as well which ended up
1163
00:51:48.590 --> 00:51:50.610
being worth a lot of money and was yeah freaking
1164
00:51:50.730 --> 00:51:54.260
godsend so I negotiated and I took some money off
1165
00:51:54.280 --> 00:51:56.440
the table and I bought my dream house in an
1166
00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:58.300
in the area where I've grown up where it was
1167
00:51:58.340 --> 00:52:02.980
always totally aspirational to live and it just changed mine
1168
00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:05.570
and my immediate family, my husband and my daughter's life.
1169
00:52:05.650 --> 00:52:07.409
It set Bonnie up. And I thought, do you know
1170
00:52:07.429 --> 00:52:11.769
what now? Anything that happens now really doesn't matter because
1171
00:52:12.010 --> 00:52:14.590
I've done what I, more than what I ever dreamed
1172
00:52:14.630 --> 00:52:18.159
I could do. And now I feel like the rest
1173
00:52:18.179 --> 00:52:20.179
of it's fun and I've still got my shareholding. I've
1174
00:52:20.199 --> 00:52:23.039
still got some shareholding in. That I think if I'd
1175
00:52:23.059 --> 00:52:26.639
have gone through what I've gone through in the last year, skint,
1176
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:28.619
still with no money off the table, because I think
1177
00:52:28.639 --> 00:52:30.760
people think that if you've got a successful business that's
1178
00:52:30.780 --> 00:52:33.420
turning over, the business turns over 70 million. I don't
1179
00:52:33.460 --> 00:52:35.019
take anything out of it other than a wage. I'm
1180
00:52:35.039 --> 00:52:37.170
not taking dividends. I don't take profits out of it.
1181
00:52:37.190 --> 00:52:40.110
It's all getting plowed back in. And I think people
1182
00:52:40.130 --> 00:52:42.769
have this perception that, oh, wow, they're turning over 70 million.
1183
00:52:42.789 --> 00:52:45.309
She must be loaded. It's like, no, I had to
1184
00:52:45.369 --> 00:52:47.789
sell some shares to live the lifestyle that I'm living now.
1185
00:52:47.849 --> 00:52:49.550
But if I hadn't done that, I think I'd have quit.
1186
00:52:49.570 --> 00:52:51.300
I think I'd have had a mental breakdown. Yeah. I
1187
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:54.940
think kind of ended up a nervous wreck. I don't
1188
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:56.659
think I could have gone through what I've gone through
1189
00:52:56.699 --> 00:53:00.610
if I didn't take away my financial worry I had
1190
00:53:00.630 --> 00:53:03.170
at the time. And it's not even possible for some people,
1191
00:53:03.190 --> 00:53:05.550
but if it is, if you get a slight opportunity,
1192
00:53:05.570 --> 00:53:08.170
you've got a shareholding, you've got a business that's worth
1193
00:53:08.210 --> 00:53:12.590
some value, just look into it. And I've just seen
1194
00:53:12.610 --> 00:53:15.690
things turn so fast. You just never, ever know. You
1195
00:53:15.710 --> 00:53:17.550
can be like on the up and think this is
1196
00:53:17.630 --> 00:53:20.219
it for life now. This is fine. I'll just ride
1197
00:53:20.260 --> 00:53:22.780
this wave. Yeah. You don't know what's around the corner.
1198
00:53:22.820 --> 00:53:26.239
Like there's so many macro factors that are just, I mean,
1199
00:53:26.260 --> 00:53:28.900
it might be different in your sort of business because
1200
00:53:28.920 --> 00:53:31.059
you've got such a huge name yourself and following. I
1201
00:53:31.079 --> 00:53:33.239
think you'll always be successful with your brand. I think
1202
00:53:33.260 --> 00:53:36.139
you'll always be successful. I think that's for sure. I
1203
00:53:36.159 --> 00:53:37.880
don't know. Cause you've, you've got your, you know, you've
1204
00:53:37.900 --> 00:53:40.320
got your name, you've got your social. Yeah. You could,
1205
00:53:40.679 --> 00:53:42.820
I feel like you could spin up a million businesses
1206
00:53:42.860 --> 00:53:44.710
if you want you so early in your career. I'm like,
1207
00:53:45.110 --> 00:53:47.409
it's amazing to see, but I just think if you've
1208
00:53:47.429 --> 00:53:50.710
got that one thing and, and, you know and it's
1209
00:53:51.010 --> 00:53:53.530
sort of like a trend or it's an industry that's
1210
00:53:53.909 --> 00:53:57.800
politicized or especially if it's in politicized it's um it's
1211
00:53:57.840 --> 00:53:59.420
risk it can be risky yeah no.
1212
00:53:59.400 --> 00:54:01.860
I can completely completely imagine I just want to talk
1213
00:54:01.940 --> 00:54:03.780
briefly about again this is one of the things I
1214
00:54:03.820 --> 00:54:05.360
hate talking to women about I want to talk to
1215
00:54:05.389 --> 00:54:08.050
you about having a baby yeah no it's fine talk
1216
00:54:08.090 --> 00:54:12.050
to me about bonbon what was your kind of decision
1217
00:54:12.110 --> 00:54:15.110
and timeline and thoughts at that time in terms of
1218
00:54:15.170 --> 00:54:17.039
like I want to start a family.
1219
00:54:17.059 --> 00:54:17.659
Yeah.
1220
00:54:17.880 --> 00:54:20.639
I've, I've been, so me and my husband are just
1221
00:54:20.739 --> 00:54:23.010
so like, we were so content and so happy with
1222
00:54:23.090 --> 00:54:26.070
our lives that it was like, we just made the
1223
00:54:26.110 --> 00:54:29.969
decision that we were going to try. Even though I
1224
00:54:29.989 --> 00:54:31.190
was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this,
1225
00:54:31.289 --> 00:54:33.639
but we'll figure it out. And it's that naivety, I
1226
00:54:33.659 --> 00:54:36.809
think at the beginning. And, we were happy either way
1227
00:54:36.849 --> 00:54:39.429
for starters we've been together for ages and never actually
1228
00:54:39.550 --> 00:54:40.929
had a scare or anything so it was like we
1229
00:54:40.949 --> 00:54:43.449
didn't know if we could or not right but we'd
1230
00:54:43.489 --> 00:54:46.409
never actively tried and we just said if we fall
1231
00:54:46.550 --> 00:54:48.429
then it's meant to be but if not our life's
1232
00:54:48.670 --> 00:54:52.139
ace we're so happy regardless so you know if it's
1233
00:54:52.179 --> 00:54:53.460
not meant to be it's not meant to be so
1234
00:54:53.480 --> 00:54:55.460
we didn't put any pressure on it turns out i
1235
00:54:55.460 --> 00:54:59.619
fell pretty quick um like like straight away so i
1236
00:54:59.639 --> 00:55:03.030
was like oh okay, we're doing this then. Shit myself.
1237
00:55:04.289 --> 00:55:07.659
And then the business was really every single year, the businesses,
1238
00:55:07.780 --> 00:55:09.179
it moves at such a rate or not. So I
1239
00:55:09.219 --> 00:55:11.760
think like three months in my energy terms is like
1240
00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:14.659
a year. That's how quick things happen. It's like dog years.
1241
00:55:15.360 --> 00:55:18.090
And it was so fricking busy at this time. And
1242
00:55:18.130 --> 00:55:20.610
I just released this little book that I did about
1243
00:55:20.889 --> 00:55:25.219
for children, teaching them about renewable energy and and all
1244
00:55:25.239 --> 00:55:27.090
renewable planet so what I think getting it into the
1245
00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:29.710
kids psyche yeah very younger not terrifying them to death
1246
00:55:30.250 --> 00:55:32.230
is important so I just finished this book and I
1247
00:55:32.230 --> 00:55:34.630
was about to go down and do the the launch
1248
00:55:34.670 --> 00:55:36.349
of it in fully charged and I was loading the
1249
00:55:36.389 --> 00:55:39.230
van and I was 32 weeks pregnant at the time
1250
00:55:39.829 --> 00:55:42.789
and I thought I said to my friend Darcy I
1251
00:55:42.809 --> 00:55:45.309
said I think the baby I'm moved much today and
1252
00:55:45.349 --> 00:55:48.130
it moves quite a lot and she went no it's
1253
00:55:48.150 --> 00:55:51.570
fine it's just because you're getting bigger and you're you know,
1254
00:55:51.730 --> 00:55:53.090
it's just got less room to move. And I had
1255
00:55:53.110 --> 00:55:54.750
little cut off shorts on. I was at that cute
1256
00:55:54.849 --> 00:55:58.130
pregnancy stage. I was like, hmm, wrong with my husband.
1257
00:55:58.170 --> 00:56:00.030
I said, I don't think I felt the baby move today.
1258
00:56:00.050 --> 00:56:02.789
And I burst into tears. And Mike said, let's just
1259
00:56:02.829 --> 00:56:07.210
go get you checked. Well, two hours later, I'm in
1260
00:56:07.230 --> 00:56:11.309
emergency C-section and she's here. So I was like, wow.
1261
00:56:11.329 --> 00:56:14.789
So she was eight weeks early and I was not prepared,
1262
00:56:14.809 --> 00:56:18.280
didn't have everything sorted. I was doing a deal at
1263
00:56:18.300 --> 00:56:20.079
the time. So I was then doing a deal from,
1264
00:56:20.519 --> 00:56:23.780
intensive care because we both needed transfusions and it was
1265
00:56:23.969 --> 00:56:29.449
fucking heavy um so my start was just utter madness
1266
00:56:29.690 --> 00:56:31.730
I it was one of them flippant decisions that if
1267
00:56:31.769 --> 00:56:34.230
we fall we fall if we don't we don't and
1268
00:56:34.269 --> 00:56:37.639
I did and then it was chaos but now she's
1269
00:56:37.679 --> 00:56:41.420
totally fine she's here and one of the um best
1270
00:56:41.460 --> 00:56:43.639
things that I have done as well from taking some
1271
00:56:43.659 --> 00:56:47.559
money off the table is retired my husband So Mikey
1272
00:56:47.599 --> 00:56:49.840
no longer works. So that has taken all the guilt
1273
00:56:49.900 --> 00:56:53.360
and pressure off me because I tried to manage it
1274
00:56:53.460 --> 00:56:55.219
all and I thought it was going to break down. Yeah.
1275
00:56:55.579 --> 00:56:58.400
Cause I, he had a job and it was like,
1276
00:56:58.420 --> 00:56:59.760
he'd get up at seven in the morning and he
1277
00:56:59.800 --> 00:57:02.300
won't be back till midnight. He was an overhead linesman.
1278
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:06.039
And it was like that job ruled over mine because
1279
00:57:06.059 --> 00:57:07.900
there was no leeway. There was no flexibility.
1280
00:57:07.920 --> 00:57:08.139
Yeah.
1281
00:57:08.159 --> 00:57:11.510
It's a shift. So I'd be driving across town, like
1282
00:57:12.010 --> 00:57:13.969
with the baby, I was like breastfeeding stuff at time
1283
00:57:13.989 --> 00:57:16.599
pumping and, trying to run the business, get to meetings,
1284
00:57:16.639 --> 00:57:19.280
do board meetings, break my back, trying to get back
1285
00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:20.980
for the little, I said, I can't, I don't know,
1286
00:57:21.219 --> 00:57:22.500
I don't know how women do it. I don't think
1287
00:57:22.539 --> 00:57:24.909
I can do it. It was such a, so something's
1288
00:57:24.929 --> 00:57:29.110
got to give. And I said, we've made, we've made
1289
00:57:29.150 --> 00:57:31.030
a bit of money. Like, why do you have to work?
1290
00:57:31.670 --> 00:57:33.710
And it was just like, it's going to make me
1291
00:57:33.750 --> 00:57:35.760
feel so less guilty. It's going to put less pressure
1292
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:38.570
on my family. And again, I feel like I have
1293
00:57:38.590 --> 00:57:40.710
to always caveat this with it's such a privilege and
1294
00:57:40.730 --> 00:57:42.360
not everybody can do that. And they can't. And I
1295
00:57:42.389 --> 00:57:44.679
appreciate that. And I'm so lucky. But that is because
1296
00:57:44.719 --> 00:57:46.739
I took the initiative at the time, grew the business,
1297
00:57:46.840 --> 00:57:48.679
took the initiative to take some money off the table
1298
00:57:49.099 --> 00:57:50.780
and make my life. I just try and make my
1299
00:57:50.820 --> 00:57:54.760
life as stress-free as I can outside of the things that,
1300
00:57:54.780 --> 00:57:56.679
you know, anything that I can control, try and take
1301
00:57:56.699 --> 00:57:58.820
the stress away. Anything that I can't control, then I'm
1302
00:57:58.860 --> 00:58:01.750
at least able to handle it that little bit better.
1303
00:58:01.929 --> 00:58:06.570
So my husband's a full-time dad. He's a freaking amazing dad. Amazing.
1304
00:58:07.789 --> 00:58:09.949
And I also have decided not to put her in school.
1305
00:58:10.329 --> 00:58:13.590
So she's not in school. She's homeschooled. She's got a tutor.
1306
00:58:13.659 --> 00:58:15.920
She's just turned four and she's got a tutor two
1307
00:58:15.960 --> 00:58:18.860
days a week. So she's got one-on-one time with a
1308
00:58:18.880 --> 00:58:21.360
tutor doing all of her primary school work. And then
1309
00:58:21.400 --> 00:58:24.000
they can literally, because we've got offices all around the world,
1310
00:58:24.019 --> 00:58:26.110
I'm down in London a lot more, they can come
1311
00:58:26.130 --> 00:58:28.170
with me. Amazing. So it's just like, I've just made
1312
00:58:28.230 --> 00:58:29.670
life work for me.
1313
00:58:29.690 --> 00:58:33.269
Yeah. And how was that conversation in terms of like,
1314
00:58:33.570 --> 00:58:36.469
had you already kind of, had that type of idea
1315
00:58:36.530 --> 00:58:37.150
in terms.
1316
00:58:37.030 --> 00:58:39.469
Of no it's just I literally live day by day
1317
00:58:39.730 --> 00:58:42.070
yeah I have no like I have I'm mad at
1318
00:58:42.110 --> 00:58:44.849
manifesting I'm actually like really good at it like I'll
1319
00:58:44.989 --> 00:58:47.320
and it's it's not like before manifesting was a thing
1320
00:58:47.360 --> 00:58:49.280
and cool like before you know when the secret came
1321
00:58:49.360 --> 00:58:51.579
out that yeah yeah freaked me out because I actually
1322
00:58:51.619 --> 00:58:55.199
read it like I invented this guys I did I
1323
00:58:55.239 --> 00:58:57.960
read the secret I read the secret and it threw
1324
00:58:58.000 --> 00:58:59.579
me off my game for a bit yeah because it
1325
00:58:59.619 --> 00:59:02.599
made me consciously think about it whereas I've been naturally
1326
00:59:02.599 --> 00:59:05.570
good at living like that being positive projecting and then
1327
00:59:05.570 --> 00:59:07.659
I read the bloody secret and it threw me off
1328
00:59:07.659 --> 00:59:09.690
I was like now I'm consciously trying to do it.
1329
00:59:09.699 --> 00:59:11.019
Yeah, and now everyone else is doing it too. And
1330
00:59:11.059 --> 00:59:13.440
now I've got to share with everyone else's manifesting.
1331
00:59:13.460 --> 00:59:14.380
Share the abundance.
1332
00:59:14.420 --> 00:59:14.840
Yeah.
1333
00:59:14.860 --> 00:59:15.980
It's so rude.
1334
00:59:16.079 --> 00:59:17.969
My abundance mindset is for me.
1335
00:59:18.389 --> 00:59:21.150
Yeah. So no, he was like, God, he was fricking
1336
00:59:21.170 --> 00:59:23.440
well up for it. Cause he was working up poles
1337
00:59:23.480 --> 00:59:26.460
in the freezing cold. He's like the most, he's got
1338
00:59:26.500 --> 00:59:31.000
like no ego is the most supportive guy in the world.
1339
00:59:31.079 --> 00:59:35.139
Most amazing man. And he's just, he's just so supportive
1340
00:59:35.179 --> 00:59:37.440
of me. He sees what I go through to get
1341
00:59:37.480 --> 00:59:41.139
this business where it is more than anybody. So he's just,
1342
00:59:41.179 --> 00:59:44.119
I couldn't do it without his support. It truly is
1343
00:59:44.179 --> 00:59:46.929
like a team effort. So he was just like, if
1344
00:59:46.969 --> 00:59:48.570
we can afford to do it, you think we can
1345
00:59:48.610 --> 00:59:49.429
afford to do it then.
1346
00:59:49.809 --> 00:59:49.929
Yeah.
1347
00:59:49.949 --> 00:59:53.389
And I was like, the money that you're making the
1348
00:59:53.449 --> 00:59:55.630
time that we will save is just far more like
1349
00:59:55.750 --> 00:59:57.980
valuable and the the pressure that it will take off
1350
00:59:58.000 --> 01:00:00.099
us as a couple and yeah it's just so much
1351
01:00:00.159 --> 01:00:02.920
better than like things I'd rather instead of buy another
1352
01:00:03.000 --> 01:00:05.179
car or buy another house or whatever it is I'd
1353
01:00:05.199 --> 01:00:08.570
rather invest it in us and our you know peace
1354
01:00:08.590 --> 01:00:09.989
of mind and yeah.
1355
01:00:10.030 --> 01:00:13.230
And how has your mindset changed since having a baby
1356
01:00:13.250 --> 01:00:16.869
obviously still running like a multi-million pound company it.
1357
01:00:16.849 --> 01:00:19.829
Does change like your whole perspective on life and everything
1358
01:00:19.889 --> 01:00:24.289
just changes. It just naturally does something cellular in you
1359
01:00:24.860 --> 01:00:28.420
changes to the point where you're doing everything for them.
1360
01:00:28.699 --> 01:00:31.639
Now you are, you're literally thinking about their future, thinking
1361
01:00:31.659 --> 01:00:33.719
about how to think about making it as comfortable as possible,
1362
01:00:33.800 --> 01:00:35.940
try and give her the best experience at every age
1363
01:00:35.960 --> 01:00:38.619
she's at. And you just see the world through their
1364
01:00:38.860 --> 01:00:41.139
eyes and, want to leave a bit of a legacy
1365
01:00:41.179 --> 01:00:44.500
for her, want to leave her options, want to leave
1366
01:00:44.519 --> 01:00:47.079
her a planet. Yeah, that'd be nice. Yeah, if the
1367
01:00:47.099 --> 01:00:49.559
planet was in, I want to leave her a nice country.
1368
01:00:50.119 --> 01:00:52.360
I care about our country. I care about our planet.
1369
01:00:52.380 --> 01:00:55.420
I care about big things. And that's a bloody weight
1370
01:00:55.739 --> 01:00:57.880
of its own. I try and fix it all, but
1371
01:00:57.900 --> 01:01:00.550
it's just, it just drives you more than ever. You
1372
01:01:00.570 --> 01:01:05.739
just become really like tunnel visioned and less... You can
1373
01:01:05.760 --> 01:01:08.159
be selfish when you don't have a kid. Yeah, I'm
1374
01:01:08.199 --> 01:01:08.800
my own baby.
1375
01:01:08.820 --> 01:01:10.980
All the things you were saying about your child there,
1376
01:01:11.019 --> 01:01:12.559
I was thinking that's what I do for myself.
1377
01:01:12.719 --> 01:01:14.949
Yeah, but that's good. You're good. Do that while you can.
1378
01:01:14.969 --> 01:01:17.170
Try and make a stress-free existence.
1379
01:01:17.289 --> 01:01:17.670
Yeah.
1380
01:01:18.010 --> 01:01:18.849
No, but it's so true.
1381
01:01:18.929 --> 01:01:20.670
And I always think about that in terms of like,
1382
01:01:20.690 --> 01:01:22.869
this is why, you know, wanting to talk to you
1383
01:01:22.909 --> 01:01:25.110
about like that kind of decision and all of that,
1384
01:01:25.150 --> 01:01:27.710
because it fucking scares the shit out of me. Because
1385
01:01:27.730 --> 01:01:29.769
I think as a founder, you have to be able
1386
01:01:29.809 --> 01:01:33.230
to operate from an almost entirely selfish mindset, not in
1387
01:01:33.269 --> 01:01:37.409
terms of like, Founders are selfish people. But you work
1388
01:01:38.150 --> 01:01:42.409
in a quite maniacal way. I definitely do. And I
1389
01:01:42.469 --> 01:01:45.010
can do that because I have an incredibly supportive partner
1390
01:01:45.190 --> 01:01:49.539
and I don't have any dependents. And worst comes to worst,
1391
01:01:49.579 --> 01:01:50.800
I can get some doggy daycare.
1392
01:01:50.940 --> 01:01:53.480
But you're a boss. You'll make it work. You'll blow
1393
01:01:53.519 --> 01:01:55.719
your own mind. You'll make it work. And it's not
1394
01:01:55.780 --> 01:01:59.440
as scary as you think. It just adds a whole
1395
01:01:59.559 --> 01:02:02.019
element of magic to your life that you didn't even...
1396
01:02:02.380 --> 01:02:04.199
realize you was ready for yeah and it adds a
1397
01:02:04.239 --> 01:02:06.619
level of maturity that just something goes in your brain
1398
01:02:06.659 --> 01:02:09.940
that's just but society is bonkers because you you find
1399
01:02:09.980 --> 01:02:11.960
the part you find a nice partner it's when you
1400
01:02:11.980 --> 01:02:14.519
get married you get married you then when you're having
1401
01:02:14.539 --> 01:02:17.099
a kid you have a kid then it's when you're
1402
01:02:17.119 --> 01:02:19.400
having a second when you what you've got to give
1403
01:02:19.420 --> 01:02:23.539
them a sibling it's like you give them a fucking
1404
01:02:23.579 --> 01:02:25.579
sibling can i just have a freaking break if i'm
1405
01:02:25.599 --> 01:02:27.719
honest now i'm going through the pressure of do i
1406
01:02:27.920 --> 01:02:31.670
i'm like 35 in april And I'm like, God's sake,
1407
01:02:31.730 --> 01:02:32.929
if I am going to have another one, I'm going
1408
01:02:32.949 --> 01:02:34.329
to have to have it soon. But then I'm like,
1409
01:02:34.369 --> 01:02:36.010
but I've got so much on and I don't even
1410
01:02:36.030 --> 01:02:37.050
know if I want to. I've just signed a 30
1411
01:02:37.050 --> 01:02:40.070
million pound round. Literally, I can't. I've got to spend
1412
01:02:40.070 --> 01:02:43.650
30 million pounds and make it into 90 million. Clocks
1413
01:02:43.690 --> 01:02:46.500
going like this. And I'm like, no, I just, then
1414
01:02:46.519 --> 01:02:50.719
I'm like, but society puts a pressure on it. You
1415
01:02:50.760 --> 01:02:53.340
can't just have an only child. And I'm thinking, but
1416
01:02:53.460 --> 01:02:56.119
of course you can. Yeah, of course you can. So
1417
01:02:56.179 --> 01:03:01.329
what is the big end goal? uh well I didn't
1418
01:03:01.349 --> 01:03:03.750
think I'd have achieved as much as I've achieved if
1419
01:03:03.769 --> 01:03:07.889
I'm honest I think um I think I'd love there's
1420
01:03:07.909 --> 01:03:11.590
a part of me that's itching to try and crack
1421
01:03:11.630 --> 01:03:14.550
America so I think if we could take my energy
1422
01:03:14.570 --> 01:03:18.250
over to America that'd be fun I just want to
1423
01:03:18.329 --> 01:03:22.829
decarbonize as many homes as physically possible and My next
1424
01:03:22.869 --> 01:03:25.489
immediate goal is I want a million connected customers in
1425
01:03:25.530 --> 01:03:28.309
the UK because that would mean we've got seven gigawatts
1426
01:03:28.369 --> 01:03:31.650
of flexible power. And Drax is our biggest power station
1427
01:03:31.670 --> 01:03:33.550
at four gigawatts. So I think that that would be
1428
01:03:33.969 --> 01:03:36.530
pretty cool. It's like a nice little target to have.
1429
01:03:37.869 --> 01:03:40.469
So that would mean that you had more power than
1430
01:03:40.670 --> 01:03:42.530
the national grid.
1431
01:03:45.659 --> 01:03:50.579
All the power. Yeah, perfect. yeah that just so that
1432
01:03:50.619 --> 01:03:53.019
we can do it and balance the grid and I
1433
01:03:53.079 --> 01:03:56.219
always said that we'd throw a Drax party and that's
1434
01:03:56.280 --> 01:03:58.199
sort of like a mini goal I want there's more
1435
01:03:58.239 --> 01:04:00.360
products that we want to release there's new markets that
1436
01:04:00.389 --> 01:04:04.190
I want to enter um Spain France Italy so no
1437
01:04:04.230 --> 01:04:06.409
time for any time off then no oh god no
1438
01:04:06.710 --> 01:04:09.730
no no I'll just make it work yeah I wouldn't
1439
01:04:09.750 --> 01:04:11.949
want time off though to be fair Yeah, it doesn't
1440
01:04:11.969 --> 01:04:13.329
sound like you operate that way. No.
1441
01:04:14.849 --> 01:04:17.809
Well, what a good place to end. Thank you so,
1442
01:04:17.889 --> 01:04:21.010
so much for coming on. You are absolutely incredible. I
1443
01:04:21.050 --> 01:04:23.070
can't say anything more than that. I clearly just lost
1444
01:04:23.090 --> 01:04:23.469
for words.
1445
01:04:23.650 --> 01:04:25.650
I'm so impressed. I think you're the best as well.
1446
01:04:25.750 --> 01:04:28.510
So I can't wait to just watch your life and
1447
01:04:28.590 --> 01:04:31.380
career just keep going. I think you're amazing. Thank you.
1448
01:04:31.719 --> 01:04:32.400
And now we're in love.
1449
01:04:46.280 --> 01:04:49.199
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1465
01:05:40.179 --> 01:05:42.739
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01:05:42.960 --> 01:05:45.489
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01:05:51.730 --> 01:05:54.150
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