- HUNGRY Feast
- Posts
- How To Be Truly Original - Lessons from CARAVAN Coffee, Perfect Ted and Mrs. Doubtfire
How To Be Truly Original - Lessons from CARAVAN Coffee, Perfect Ted and Mrs. Doubtfire
Dan Pope
November 24, 2023
When the curtains closed.
Lights dimmed.
Clapping stopped.
Everything became clear.
First, let’s rewind 4 hours.
My Home-County Mother drenched in Whistles clobber, thought we were going to a Gypsy site in Staines On Thames.
Splodged on edge of Covent Garden is a gorgeous building with high white ceilings punctuated with panels of blonde wood.
Dozens of amber globes hang from the high ceilings, glowing like bonfires, oozing a warm amber honey light.
Hundreds of candles lit, flickering like a sparkling Milky Way of relaxation, peaceful shadows raucously danced along the walls.
Energy.
Energy.
Energy.
CARAVAN
At Caravan, you feel like you’ve been buckled-up, strapped-in, hold-tight squeeeezeeed into Chris, Laura and Myles’ Caravan.
Joyride flashing-flavour traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring ocean waves and raves and clunks of gastronomic Blissssssssssssssssssssss.
The Caravan hurtles jaunts and juts and ambles and grooves to Gorgeous Glittering Gastronomic Garden of YUUUUUUUUUUM.
“Well Travelled” is a value you see everywhere at CARAVAN.
On the menu.
On the walls.
On the Bogs.
As I munched through a cornucopia of intrepidly intriguing grub. I was a Fire of Doubt, “will this be any good?!”
We were going to my little cousin in Mrs. Doubtfire, the Musical.
CARAVAN + Watching Mrs. Doubtfire taught me EVERYTHING about Originality.
How to be Truly Original ?
The Framework for Originality - God, ex-squeeeeeeeeeze me, I sound like a Marketing Professor, who uses SWOT analysis to plan a Night out in Clapham.
Framework:
Inspiration = outward
Originality = inwards
Curiosity = external
Creativity = internal
Inspiration and curiosity is EASY.
External is EASY.
Originality + Creativity is HARD.
Internal is always HARD.
The Inside Job is always hard.
Most founders aren’t willing to do the internal work.
That’s why you see so many same, same, same, same, same brands and restaurants.
Every coffee shop looks the same, fake plant, moustache.
Every pizza shop does Neapolitan pizza hipster-dipster
Every burger restaurant is obsessed with smashed burgers
Every craft beer brands look the same
Every Alt Milk looks the same.
Originality works on TWO plains.
EXTERNAL: Founders must, like the CARAVAN founders, be Well Travelled - take ideas and inspiration from the external source.
(the hard bit) INTERNAL: Founders must then, sit alone, look at their own internal landscape and do the creative work.
True Originality is an Inside Job.
Part 1 (External) - Ideas, Inspiration, Curiosity
Part 2 (Internal) - Creativity, Introspection, Curation
Watching Mrs. Doubtfire taught me everything about Originality.
In the theatre, there were 350 people watching 1 show.
But, that evening, there were actually 350 different versions of that show.
Why?
350 DIFFERENT people in the audience = 350 different interpretations.
A 10 year old kid from Berkshire
A 96 year old Grandma from Nigeria
A 41 year old, going through a divorce
A pair of 18 year olds, madly in love from Colombia
An 35 Auntie watching her nephew on stage.
A 19 year old who just botched up a job interview.
All wildly different interpretations of the same thing.
Originality is taking the external and applying it internally.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quote from Toby Hoppy, co-founder, All Things Butter:
“Just because you’re in the same place doesn’t mean you have the same experience”.
SAME EXTERNAL STIMULUS: 1 Mrs. Doubtfire show.
DIFFERENT INTERNAL EXPERIENCE: 350 Mrs. Doubtfire interpretations
Inspiration is an Outside Job.
Originality is an Inside Job.
Originality is your UNIQUE sense of the world. Your childhood. Your struggles. Your suffering. Your unique sense of things. Your interest. Your happiness. Your worries. Your experience. Your dreams. Your imagination. Your fantasy.
Yep, you guessed it.
Originality is YOU.
Originality is taking your well-travelled experiences and melting the down into YOU (the hard bit)
David Bowie: “The only art I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from”
When the Rolling Stones started, they sounded like their EXTERNAL inspiration Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. Then they did the internal work. Originality birthed. Paint It Black, No Satisfaction followed.
Tame Impala’s early work sounded like John Lennon and The Beatles.Then Tame Impala did the INTERNAL work. Tame Impala found their Originality.
Good brands: External Inspiration = Shallow Introspection = Little Originality
Great brands: External Inspiration = Deep Introspection = Huge Originality
How to do the internal work?
Simple.
Write. Write. Write.
David Hieatt, is a Master at this. Check out the podcast I did with David and follow him on LinkedIn.
Writing is the gateway to the INTERNAL world.
The landscape of originality.
“To create, you must submerge” - Rick Rubin.
Writing is submerging.
imagine asking for that barnett at the barbers?!
“Every human should write down their story to access their story” - Will Smith
Writing allows you to access your brand story, to go deeper than every founder that isn’t willing to do the work.
The deeper you go internally, the more unique external unique-value you create.
Teddie and Marissa, from PERFECTED have a daily writing practice.
Why?
Yes, it’s to publish LinkedIn posts everyday. But, on a much, much deeper level.
Writing allows Teddie and Marissa to access an internal landscape, where creativity and originality bubbles like hot coffee.
Perfect Ted are doing things like no one else. Marissa and Teddy, place a daily writing practice down to that.
EXTERNAL: All founders should have a note taking app (Evernote, Notion, Pintrest, Apple Notes). Capture the weird and wonderful ideas you see in the world. Become well travelled.
INTERNAL:
I believe all founders should have a daily writing practice (internal work) - 25 minutes x 3 days a week.
The internal work will set you apart from other brands. Give your brand has more depth, texture and is multi-dimensional.
Stuart Forsyth - Minor Figures - was a writer.
You may be thinking, “But I’m not creative, I’m an accountant… creativity isn’t my strength?”
Did you play lego as a kid?
Did you dress up an halloween as a kid?
Did you get excited as a kid on Christmas Day?
Did you play with a Barbie or Action man as a kid?
Yep.
You’re creative.
It just got kicked out of you.
Right.
Now I’m going totally off the fucking piste… but Caravan and Perfected Ted taught me something else, that we must address.
“A great restaurant is energy” - Laura Harper Hinton
As you enter CARAVAN an irrepressible billowing, warming energy welcomes you.
Laura Harper Hinton taught me: “A great restaurant is energy”
Energy is EVERYTHING.
Energy is storytelling.
Energy is transference of feeling.
As I walked into the Perfect Ted office on a cold winter evening, an irrepressible billowing, warming energy welcomes.
“A great brand is energy, too.”
Stephen Bartlett passed this wisdom on to Teddie from Perfect Ted.
“When you meet someone, you meet everyone they know:
My interpretation:
Great Energy transfers Great energy to people, then, they transfer that Great Energy to other people they know.
Energy is a force.
Energy is contagious
One common challenger belief that does my ABSOLUTE NUT IN.
Let’s outsource our sampling
Seeing sampling as a “trial and awareness” activity, a tick the box exercise.
“Yaahhhh Beccs, I’ve got a, like, a family friend, we like share, a chalet in Verbier with, he does Politics, Philosophy, Pot and Economics at the University of Leeds…like,super, like, super personable guy AND he smokes rollies… which is, yaaaaaaah, like, totally, ON BRAND”
What the ACTUAL fuck?!
That’s like Alex Ferguson outsourcing his goal keeping to some bloke from Salford.
That’s like Gordon Ramsay, Michelin Star outsourcing their front of house to someone in a TESCO carpark.
Samplings are not just “a thing you do, to drive trial”
No.
No.
No.
Samplings are THE MOMENT.
The moment for ENERGY. Story telling. Originality. Energy. Transference of Feeling.
When you meet someone, you meet everyone they know.
More energy + More story telling = more people spreading your story and energy.
Seeing sampling as a this boring THING we HAVE to do drive trial and awareness.
The reframe:
Samplings are a TRULY RARE moment, an FMCG brand has the opportunity to think and act and be like a World Class Hotel or Restaurant.
Sales Directors and Marketing Managers: sampling sessions are your
opportunity to lead from the front, show you’re willing to do the grunt work, teach the team story telling.
**of course, you’ve got to do your JBPs and manage your accounts at a top level, so can’t do them all the time.
Giles Brook, BEAR and VITA COCO “ we spent the 46 week a year on weekend sampling sessions”
Jim Cregan, Jimmy’s Iced Coffee: “I sampled 12 hours a day at Selfridges for 2 months”
Samplings are NOT a trial and awareness exercise.
Samplings are THE moment.
How to do great sampling sessions?
You need a HOOK.
At Islands - “our chocolate is adored and used religiously by Michelin Star chefs like Ottolenghi, Gordon Ramsay, Tom Kerridge - be kind to yourself and try some?”
Other HOOKS
“Nigella Lawson’s favourite condiment… what you having for dinner tonight?… bet it tastes better with this?”
“Life changing Honey... wanna try?”
“The Ferrari of Coffee…dare you to try some?”
“Happiness in a can… why wouldn’t you try?”
Founders must train the team in story telling and energy.
What 3 things do we need to land with the story?
What’s the Lucky Saint story in 1 minute?
What questions do we want to ask?
Train your team in making someones day.
Samplings are the most underrated weapon in your arsenal.
Your moment for energy, story telling and true authenticity.
THANK YOUUUU SO SO MUCH FOR READING
HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND YA FILTHY ANIMALS
POPEY x
the advert bit… Introducing our WONDERFUL partner Unleashed (Espressos)
1. What on earth is Unleashed, I hear you asking?
Unleashed is Inventory management software that talks to your financial and eComm software. We use it daily at Islands. It's BANGING!!
2. Why Unleashed will change your life as a foodie founder?
Cut admin time in half. Save money. Lots of money. Get lucid clarity on margins. Be all over cash flow, after all cash is king. Manage stock and cash flow.
3. The biggest brands in FMCG love love Unleashed?
Your fave brands like Candy Kittens, Tiny Rebel, TRIP, Tarquins Gin, Three Spirit, Minor Figures, The Turmeric Co., Volcano Coffee
4. Do yourself a favour
Feel free to reach out to the utter legends Josh and Bryony at Unleashed, book in a 20 min chat with this magical link. Even if nothing comes of it, it's worth having a chat. Click this magical link.
If you enjoy reading my waffle, please do forward to a colleague or friend. I’d be deeply grateful. Jah Bless.
Still Hungry? Course you are…
Please feel free to gorge on the most downloaded podcast episodes of all time (these are CERTY: BANGERS)
Or read our most read articles of all time
