how I survived the week from hell on earth

Last week, was a sublime Cathedral of a fookin’ Shit House week.

My Semi-Skimmed Stress melted into Full Metal Racket of mind. Thundering death metal thoughts.

You (think your business is going under. The hot licks of fear burns cold.

3am - in bed - wide awake - mind pickled in violent fear - having a board meeting with myself - playing horror movies of the future - oh! the joys of owning your own business.

what went wrong?

• had a HUGE guest (categorically THE BIGGEST guest of all time) bail last minute. Without a reschedule date. Nada. I put + 40 hours research into the interview. Spent over £700 at his restaurants in research.
  

• Fridge broke (….just fucking annoying init our kidda… Manz needz iz McVitties Dark Chocolate Digestives fridge cold)
  

• Had a panoply of niggly issues with the team (but managed to get it resolved)
  

• Had a slew of fucking awful feedback on several podcasts. Usually this doesn’t affect me. This week it really got to me.

As I type this, I realise how enormously superfluous these “issues” are.

But founders are emotional fuckers. Our sensitivity is our greatest strength and deepest vulnerability.

Our strongest skill is weaponising worry, turning ambient thoughts into miserable missiles of doubt.

We all have deliciously frightening weeks.

If you’re having deliciously frightening week, one ladies and laddies, hope this helps xx

1. Luxury Stresses

If you’re a founder of a food and drink brand. Any “problem” you’re actually facing is a “luxury” to others.

You’re complaining about CoOp availability, Cost of living, tube strikes, buyers reducing ranges, NI increases.

I’m complaining about a guest not coming on my silly little podcast.

• Do you know how many people would literally KILL to live in this country

• Do you know how many people have dreams of owning their own business

• Do you know how lucky you are to actually find your calling? 99.99% of humans on planet earth never will.
  
  

  Reframing your “stresses” as “luxuries” really helps when you’re in a picke.

You don’t HAVE to do this. You GET to do this.

2. 10ft vs. 10,000 ft: Will I worry about this in a year’s time?

When we look at problems from 10ft they feel HUGE and SCARY.

ZOOOOOOOM out, brah.

See your problems from 10,000 ft. Suddenly, your problems feel small and innocuous.

Ask yourself: Will I worry about this in a year’s time?

That question is a great way to parachute yourself from 10ft to 10,000 ft.

At 10,000 ft, with altitude, everything is lighter and softer.

3. Winning Not Fighting

Henry Dimbleby, founder of LEON taught me a salient lesson called “Winning Not Fighting”

Henry said: ”When things go wrong we have the choice WINNING or FIGHTING”

Fighting:

Blaming colleagues
Trying to win arguments vs. solving problems
Bitching over colleagues on lunch break
Rolling your eyes in crisis meetings
Blaming customers for your mistakes in partnership
Trying to anxiously control everything

Winning a la Charlie Sheen “why am I WINNING!!!”

Accepting people are human and make mistakes
Taking massive action + solution minded
Taking a breather and a moment of solitude on your lunch break
Being encouraging in meetings
taking extreme ownership of the situation
Accepting so much is totally out your control

if you’ve had a bad week, hope you have a banging weekend legends xx

popey

p.s.

In way happier news… just planned our November Supper Club

HUNGRY Bonfire Banquet

CATEGORICALLY the best speaker line up we’ve EVER had.

A private banquet, EXCLUSIVELY for FMCG fucking dons.

We’re even serving HUNGRONIS (yup, HUNGRY Negronis).

Opening up a limited number of tickets in a couple of week

If you wanna be the first to know, reply to this email with “HUNGRY”

xx

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