HUNGRY.

Against all odds, Sherpa Tenzing was one of the first men to climb Everest. 

Entrepreneurship and Everest are parallels.

The climb
Camaraderie
Anguish
Pain
Joy
Triumph 

It’s what makes the pursuit of the summit so palpably addictive. 

I was pumped to interview Huib Van Bockel the other week.

Our conversation adventured and explored "How Food and Drink founders can summit their own Everest”. 

Tenzing is icy air, fresh snow, hot sun in a can - it Zings through your body, immediately feeling Ten/Ten. 

Our conversation like slurping up a Tenzing. I came away charged and excited to keep "chipping away" on my own Everest.

ON TODAY’S MENU: 

1. What Sherpa Tenzing can teach us about winning listings at Supermarkets

2. How Tenzing creates a team that moves mountains a) Remove hierarchy b) Create Coach/ New starter relationships c) Create commitments that install autonomy/accountability. 

3. How F&B brands can create BRAND love on a budget: GIVE more than you TAKE. 

4. The Reverse Gratitude list: How Huib gets things done whilst filling with gratitude. 

5. The best marketing is the strategy you’re BORED OF. 

6. Tenzing's Chipping Away Philosophy = Relentless Focus + Repetition.

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Slumped on the sofa, scrolling-drooling, eyes bright white like fog lights. 

My inner glutton screams “FEED ME PAPPI, FEED ME PAPPI”

Dish after dish - stupendously delish.

A river of scrumptiousness flowing from the screen.

Blonde-white creamy carbonaras, zingy-bountiful technicolor salads, down-and-dirty kebabs. 

J’ADOREEE Mob Kitchen, their content is 50 Shades of Banging.

When Ben agreed to the podcast, the goal was to lift the bonnet of the MOB Machine and see how they’ve built a juggernaut that’s stampeded on to the food scene. 

ON TODAY’S MENU:

1. How to push through moments of utter despair and breakdown. Use what you’ve got around you. 

2. How to hire the right people and build a great company culture. Be very open with wins and losses with the team. 

3. How to build a following of 1.2 million die hard fans. Use your mates/network. 

4. Why fear is your friend and propels you forward. It’s actually only 15 seconds of discomfort. 

5. Why every idea is a good idea, fall in love with tinkering and failure until you land on gold.

6. Why rough and ready is a strength. Screw perfection. 

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Why lie to ourselves? 

Food and Drink is completely dominated by males. 

When Lucy Wright agreed to the pod to explore female leadership in challenger Food and Drink I was filled with gratitude.

Lucy is the co-founder of NICE, the UK’s first canned wine brand. Along with her co-founder Jeremy, NICE stampeded on a stale-crusty category and Made Wine Fun Again. 

ON TODAY’S MENU:

1. Top advice for female founders who may feel vulnerable in an industry dominated by males. LEAN IN.

2. Why founders must acknowledge when something’s not working and STOP. Stopping isn’t a failure. Stopping = pivoting till your offering is perfect.

3. *THE* sales pitch template to win 2000 distribution points at Sainsbury’s. Profits< RoS

4. How to create a successful and productive co-founder partnership. The Power of Direct Feedback.

5. How to become a “Master of Your Channel” with no previous experience. Always Be Kind + Insatiable Curiosity + Network like Crazy = Mastery. 

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“What's the SINGLE best lesson you’ve learned from putting on 100’s of Bread & Jam events, seminars and workshops?” 

When Jason Gibb agreed to the HUNGRY. podcast this question incessantly percolated my mind.

Why? 

Jason’s had a colossal and irreversibly positive impact on our industry.

-The Food Hub, a community of over 10,000 f&b founders, catalysed the conversation between founders, sharing triumph and strife.

-Bread & Jam, the first food and drink founders festival, took strident leaps bringing suppliers and buyers to the table to break Bread (& Jam - Wahey, here till Friday!)

+ founder of the Olive oil brand Nudo, which he sold and currently Head of Brand at UNRULY.

ON TODAY’S MENU: 

1. Why founders must SEPARATE self-worth from business-worth.

2. Why “Passion” and “Working Hard” is actually bad advice for founders.

3. The best Bread & Jam lessons: Take care of yourself. Follow your gut. Vulnerability is a superpower. 

4. Key lessons from being a TV producer in LA: Storytelling. Relationships. Learn fast.

5. How to tell amazing stories to unlock amazing relationships.

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Gaz-Booth,  co-founder of Holy Moly is the latest guest on HUNGRY. 

He's avocado royalty and the infamous Avoca-Don.

Gaz is a hero who oozes Yorkshire charm and work ethic, in equal measure.

Our conversation resembles a green, ripe and creamy avocado. Wholesome, fun, good for the soul. 

ON TODAY’S MENU 

1. Why naivety is your greatest strength when starting out. Always ask naive questions.

2. How to create a successful NPD Strategy that *ACTUALLY WORKS* and doesn’t leave you scrambling around like a madman = The Holy Moly Commandments.

3. Why the Corporate vs. Entrepreneur debate is a vacantly redundant and what to do about it (BIG EYE OPENER FOR ME HERE) 

4. Why most Food and Drink businesses fail to scale. Slow down and build the foundations. Foundations are EVERYTHING. 

 5. Gaz’s Gerald Ratner moment: Diary vs Dairy – How to turn a cataclysmic clanger into a gracious moment of joy for your customers.

 6.  Why you’ve got to STEP OUT the businesses and give yourself THINKING time. Cut everything that doesn’t move the needle. 

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Last week, I sat down the utter legend is Perry Hayden Taylor

Perry is the founder of bigfish a marketing and design agency who's built a bevy of juggernaut brands. 

Gu Puds 

Charlie Bighams 

SipSmith 

Freddies Flowers

Our conversation is a smorgasbord of tidbits, each containing scrumptious gems of knowledge to propel your business forward. 

ON TODAY’S MENU 

1. Charlie Bigham's success story and crucial lessons for challenger brands 

2.  How to build a company culture where everybody LOVES to work (ambition wheels) 

3. The 5 Step Brand strategy framework that bigfish have used for over 20 years to build household brands

4. Why the best marketing is the marketing we don’t notice. 

5. THINK BIG. DIVE DEEP. SWIM FAST. 

6. Launching a start-up is like having a baby. Be there for tantrums and laughs. 

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This week’s episode of HUNGRY.  is with the Food and Drink Marketing Master, Mark Palmer. 

Mark has a glittering and illustrious career: 

Ex-Marketing Director: Green & Blacks, Pret A Manger. 
Co-founder: Cawston Press, L.A. Kombucha.  
Chairman: UNION Hand-Roasted Coffee. 
Marketing Manager: Burger King and United Biscuits.  

His experience provides a deep well of knowledge. I took as many buckets (and lessons) as possible.  

ON THE MENU: 

1. How Green & Blacks Scaled From a £4m “Niche Organic” Brand to a £40m “Everyday Premium Brand". 

2. Why Challenger F&B Brands Actually Don’t Need Huge Distribution to Build a Huge Brand.

3. How Pret A Manger took on Starbucks, Costa and EAT by Doing The "Brilliant Basics”.

4. The 3 Biggest Mistakes Food and Drink Brands Make That Stunts Their Growth.

5. How Brands Can Stand Out in Crowded Categories: The Do’s and Don’ts from Green & Blacks

6. Why Mark Believes "Worrying About Everything” Great Food and Drink Marketing?

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"Covid changed consumer habits. Speciality is BOOMING. How do we enter the market?"

“My brand isn’t a B-Corp yet, but how can we do better as a brand today?”

“How do we make our brand REALLY work in speciality?”

Asking yourself these questions?

I’ve just THE podcast episode for you. 

Feast your ears on this week's Ep of ManiLife Conversations (soon to be called something else) with Paul Hargreaves, founder of Cotswold Fayre. 

Paul has over 20 years experience in speciality and is one of the early adopters of the B-Corp movement in the UK. 

ON THE MENU:

1. Why brands/distributors MUST have a higher purpose (other than selling just food and drink) for a more invigorated and creative team. 

2. You don’t HAVE to be a B-Corp to do GOOD. You can start TODAY. Always Progress. Never Perfection. 

3. The BIG MISTAKES brands make when they launch into the speciality sector (and how to avoid them) 

4. Paul’s new venture Flourish, “a farm shop that isn’t a farm shop" - this is super interesting

5. Why we need more compassion, empathy and humility in leadership

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“But I don’t have a big marketing budget to drive a listing?” 

“How can I compete with the big corporate brands” 

“How are we ever going to hit RoS targets”  

Having this conversation with yourself or team, right now? 

Keep reading.  

Last week, got very saucy on the podcast, with my broski Liam White co-founder of Dr. Wills 

In Lockdown 1, Dr Wills, like so many brands, were ransacked by Covid with food service and hospitality forced shut.  

2020 was trudging through treacle.  

BUT fast forward a year - they’ve won listings at Tesco and Waitrose, become a certified B-Corp and a gorgeous rebrand. 

THE KEY LEARNING?  

YOU DON’T NEED A BRASH BOARD ROOM BUDGET TO DRIVE A MULT LISTING.  

ON THE MENU: 

1.  Why Liam believes stopping work, is work. Working from Home is draining, you’ve got to preserve your energy.  

2.  How to “hack” the system and get customer data if you don’t have the budget for Kantar etc. 

3.  Why the 1% makes all the difference when you’re a brand with 2 facings vs. a big incumbent brand with 40 facings.  

4.  How Liam's perception of what makes a great challenger brand has changed from 2018 to 2021 

5.  How to narrow down the laundry list of key messages/USPs to one. clear. point of difference.   

6.  Unpolished Emotional Content Through Friends and Family - will drive 10,000 jar sales

7. What Liam would do differently he were to start again tomorrow - the common pitfalls brands make.  

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Before Christmas, I interviewed Chris Dee ex- CEO of Booths and Director of Food at Harrods.

At Harrods, Chris launched The Perrier Jouet Champagne Terrace, Harrods Brasserie, Tiffany Blue Box Cafe.

But recently he's crossed the chasm to follow his passion: Whisky and is co-founder of MALTDAQ, a secondary buyers/seller’s market for Whisky. 

This episode was so much fun, I learnt a SHED load - 

1. Your Ego stops you leaving your safe job. Be comfortable moving from Secure Master to Insecure Novice. 

2. Embrace fierce competition. It stops you from becoming stale. 

3. Staying calm amidst chaos. There’s no silver bullet to problem solving at large scale. It’s 1000 lead bullets every day... The trick? Ruthless prioritisation. 

4. The Tea Spoon list. Look for the 1% edge, every day. This 1% compounds = increase brand love = increase sales. 

5. The biggest mistake Food and Drink founder’s make is falling in love with their idea. Without Product-Market-Fit, you have don’t have a great business. 

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