i just turned down £110k... is this the worst decision of my life?

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fucking, Fuck.

12.02am. I felt phenomenally sick when my wet, panicked fingers ferociously smacked the “Undo Button” on my Mac keyboard.

I’d sent the email. That was it. Done. Dusted. Finito. No going back, bro.

My mind:: a sparkling labyrinth of screaming distorted dystopian mirrors :: random zings of utopia and hope ::::: flashing.

Nightmarishly garish fuck-me-that-was-stupid thoughts flooded the ol’ synapses. Fear, titillating in the rushing tides of tremendously terrifying thoughts.

What have I done?
Why did I do that?
That was stupid?

I’ve just said no to over £110k worth of sponsorship revenue for 2026.

Am quaking in my boots and shivering in my bones. That sorta money keeps the business alive. That sorta dollar keeps the team from squalor.

This feels TOTALLY CRAZY.

But, to quote Britain’s most famous restaurateurs, Jeremy King:

“To remain the same, everything must change”

The Subtle Art of Saying No… and why I turned down wonga?

2 months ago, Amelia Christie Miller, introduced me to Uncommon Chief Strategy Officer, Tobey Duncan.

Uncommon are THE marketing agency right now.

The BBH or Ogilvy of our times.

That viral British Airways campaign?

Yup, that’s Uncommon’s genius

I asked Tobey why Uncommon are so successful. Tobey said…

Uncommon are successful because they say NO to literally EVERYTHING.

Tobey and I are working on HUNGRY’s strategy for the next 5 years. Fucking exciting where we’re taking this bad boi.

Tobey said, for HUNGRY to become a global brand and keep it’s integrity, you’ll have to say NO to literally EVERYTHING.

This feels deeply strange, something I am not used to AT ALL.

When I quit my wonderful job at ManiLife and went ALL IN ON MUTHA FUKIN HUNGRY.

I said YES to LITERALLY everything (I had to).

Yes to every fancy a coffee
Yes to every can I pick your brains
Yes to every free speaking opportunity
Yes to every sponsorship deal (to fund the growth)
Yes to every networking event
Yes to every in-bound guest
Yes to every part time consultancy gig
Yes to every feasible way to make dough to fund growth

Deffo worked and got us to where we are now.

However, things are VERY different now is the time to say NO.

No to every coffee
No to every lunch
No to every Can I Pick Your brains?
No to 90% of opportunities
No to every sponsorship deal that doesn’t TRULY align with brand
No to every can I show you my project
No to short term cash for long term brand protection

So…. why did we say no to £110k worth of sponsorship?

1. Complete Creative Control

Several sponsors wanted too much creative control of the content.

Selecting what guests come on.

Telling me to edit each podcast.

Telling me how to run the show.

Telling me what questions to ask.

Errr, thanks, but, no thanks.

I’d rather die in a ditch than give away creative control.

We’re still working with some amazing sponsors who align with the brand and give me total creative control.

2. 2 steps back, 10 steps forward

At the end of 2025, I wrote a list of every single activity or project I did that year. Next, I stuck these under two buckets:

1. Energy Giving

2. Energy Taking

Energy Giving projects:

Where is my energy flowing?

What makes me soul light up and sparkle and fizz and shine like a galaxy of Cotswold Christmas Trees? Where does my excitement take me?

Where do I feel like child-like curious?

Where do the tools feel light? What feels like play?

Energy Taking projects:

What feels like pushing water up hill?
What feels heavy and lethargic?
What doesn’t feel quite right when I go to sleep at night?

In 2026, I am only slaying projects in projects that

1. Directly help our audience build their brand, bigger, better, faster

2. GIVE ME ENERGY.

My goal is to build a much closer, deeper, more direct and genuine relationship with the HUNGRY’s audience of INSANE challenger brand founders.

hungry to know what HUNGRY’s doing in be in 2026 ?

CLUB HUNGRY

HUNGRY’s Exclusive Members Club for a very select group of FMCG founders. Top secret for now. But this will change the game for founders and brands.

HUNGRY HOOT-A-ROONIE

Our Mutha Fucking Flagship event in June.

SUPER SUPER SUPER exclusive.

THE Most exclusive speaker line up on planet earth.

Imagine MAD Fest (with out Middle Manager Nause bags) x ibiza DJ’s x Michelin star grub x Hungronis x No fakin icebreakers x magical touch pints x fucking sick venue x lovely time x lots of learnings x Dr. Fun x dancing x laughing x learning

HUNGRY SUPPER CLUBS

We’re going BIG on Supper Clubs. We’ve got 5 locked in for 2026.

HUNGRY LIVE: CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS

Imagine stepping into your phone, through your Spotify App, down into HUNGRY underworld.

We’re bringing the podcast LIVE, from your headphones to real-life.

Listening to Artic Monkey’s on Spotify is banging, but seeing them at the 02 Arena, was different gravy.

I’ve chinwagged with the best challenger founders and marketeers in the world:

innocent, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Bold Bean Co, BrewDog, Seth Godin, Rory Sutherland, Sir John Hegarty.

Me and my broski, James Hickson have created 3 amazing creativity workshops

• 10x and Unleash Your Inner Creative Being

• The Best Storyteller Wins: Banging Copywriting BOOT OFF CAMP

• New Biz Donnie’s: Using Creativity Close big business

We’ve ran these for Vita Coco and Cawston Press and run one for Naked Wines.

You’ll see, this ain’t some fucking boring workshop… this is HUNGRY live…

You’ll feel like a guest at the HUNGRY House of Creativity

Interested DM me on LinkedIn or Insta or simply reply to this email xxx

Popey D xx

p.s. check out our HUNGRY Creativity Note Pads every guest receives at our creativitu workshops

Still Hungry? Course ya are…

Please feel free to gorge on the most downloaded podcast episodes of all time (these are CERTY: BANGERS)

1. Rory Sutherland: Why Challenger Brands Must Never Follow Logic to Truly Disrupt Categories 

2. Waitrose CEO: How Challenger Food & Drink Brands Can Win and Build Profitable Partnerships with Waitrose - James Baile

3. Spencer Matthews: How Spencer Matthews Built Unshakeable Resilience and Raised + £10m to Launch Clean Co. in Sainsbury's, Tesco and the U.S.A. 

4. How Grenade Exited to Mondelez for £200 Million and Lessons in Unapologetic Authenticity- Juliett Baratt

5. Tyrells Tycoon: How William Chase built and sold Tyrells for £50 million and sold Chase Distillery to DIAGEO 

Or read our most read articles of all time

1. Quick quick - we must escape the Middle

2. You moron you let the disease infect your mind

3. do you like bad sex?

4. raving in Ibiza taught me six brand building lessons