Online business gurus-who-veet-their-gooch tell you to improve 1% everyday?

Improve 1% everyday.
Overtime, you compound to 2087%?

Sounds great, right?
Yup. I’ve Veeted my gooch for the last 15 years. It’s good craic like our kiddaa

But, there’s a hidden curse for founders.

hidden curse

As you get more successful, you stop doing the thing that made you successful.
As you get more successful, you start thinking you need to things differently.
As you get more successful, you start focusing externally vs internally.

Don’t get me wrong brah

1% evolution is great.

BUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTT…

Too much evolution = forget the thing that made you great = totally lost and confused brand.

Last Summer, I chatted to Rick Stein’s son, Jack Stein.

We talked about: The Hidden Curse of 1% Improvement

Rick had a Vanilla Sea bass dish on the menu.

Over time, more new chefs tinkered and tinkered and tinkered with the dish.

Chef Nick, added his 1% improvement.
Chef Philippa, added her 1% improvement.
Chef Gandalf, added her 1% improvement
Chef Wendy, added her 1% improvement

18 months later

Rick returned to Padstow to his famous Sea Food Restaurant.

The Vanilla Sea Bass dish was NOTHING LIKE THE ORIGINAL VANILLA SEA BASS DISH

Rick went BALLISITIC.

Why?

The 1% Improvement Rule went TOO FAR.

The Hidden Curse of 1% Improvement?

You improve so slowly that you can’t actually see that you’re losing track of the thing that made you great.

Fuck knows if this is actually the dish, just googled it.

The Hidden Curse of 1% Improvement is like Botox for Brands

So many founders constantly look for improvements even if it’s working just fine

BlitzingYaFuckinFaceOffWithaBotoxShotgun

Keep filling your lips.

Sorting your wonky nose.

Sorting your eye lashes

1%
1%
1%

slowly slowly

1%
1%

you can’t notice it

1%
1%
1%

BAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM

One day you wake up and realise you’ve “improved” so much that you’ve ACTUALLY created something COMPLETELY different.

A la Ernest Hemingway.

Gradually, Then Suddenly

How does this play out with Challenger Food and Drink Founders?

When you’re small, it’s just you, your vision, your tiny team.

You spend a lot of time internally.

As you get bigger and swim along the adoption curve.

You spend a lot of time externally.

Now, you have a bigger team, more competitors to focus on, a bigger board, more demanding retailers.

externally:

People tell you to improve this, improve that, launch that NPD, change your brand strap line, hire a field sales team, outsource to factory, bring production in house.

All this EXTERNAL advice in the pursuit of 1% improvement is great.

But too many inputs leave founders confused.

Too often, we confuse evolving and improving with forgetting the thing that made you great.

Common mistake ONE:

Brands get bigger and hire a BlueChip-OnTheirShoulder-Bozza who comes in and starts trying to change everything.

“We’re a grown up business.”

Common Mistake TWO:

Brands go on a land grab NPD fuck fest.

We think as we get bigger we need, more NPD launches into more categories.

You start to change things and forget the very thing that made you great.

It takes nerves of fucking steel to keep doing the thing that made you great.

What’s the solution?

My podcast with Jack Rubin garnered a cult like following. Never received SO many messages about a poddy. Loads saying it’s the best one they’ve listened too.

Jack built Purdy & Figg into a £40 million D2C brand in 3 years.

Jack is the KING OF FOCUS

Focus and unfair advantage is an INSIDE JOB.

We are so often told to change and evolve EXTERNALLY

Let’s start asking some INTERNAL QUESTIONS

• What made you great?

• What got you here?

• Why don’t you do more of that?

• What’s working right now? Let’s double down on that?

• What are the easy doors to push on that others find hard?

• What would this look like if it were easy?

• What’s the unique thing internally that made you great, that competitors find impossible to copy

Jack said something that really struck a chord: you need to STAY focused WAY longer than you think.

Am I saying never evolve and reinvent?
Absaaa-faking-lutely not.

Evolution is vital for brand building.

But, don’t let it muddy your thinking.

Don’t let it stop you from doing the very thing that made you great.

HUNGRY: THE BIG BANGING BRISTOL BASH

Why does all the fun happen in London? 


There’s SO SO SO many banging brands and founders South West

In the bastardised words of prophet, man like, Ali G

(South) West Sideeeeeee is The Best

We’re hosting live poddy + panel at legendary restaurant Sonny Stores

Owner, Pegs, is a total G.

Ex-River Cafe smashing out prodigious plates of Italian bliss.

On the Panel is two of my ABSOLUTE fave people 


🥤Ben Vear, Living Things Soda

Ben knows FMCG like ABC.

Ex BEAR Snacks (Urban Fresh Foods Ltd) Minor Figures and killing it with Living Things

🍰Cathy Moseley, Boundless Snacks

Unfiltered, unapologetically wonderful human who’s SMASHING it with Boundless

If you’re a food & drink founder in South West

DON’T MISS THIS MATE 

25 tickets. 



Once they’re gone.
They’re gone.
They’re gunna go quick. 


⬇️⬇️⬇️ Please pre-register here

TICKETS GO LIVE 7TH MARCH 9AM

Have a top weekend,

Dan

Still Hungry? Course you 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