Featuring James Marriott - from radio to podcasting and the many crossroads he has faced.

In this episode Elaine speaks to James Marriott, a podcast strategist with a background in radio. James shares his journey from radio to podcasting, discussing pivotal moments that shaped his career, including his move from radio management to podcasting, the impact of being made redundant, and the importance of finding your tribe in business.  He believes whole heartedly in being authentic in your approach and he offers valuable insights into running his business Sound Media. 

Find out more about James here Sound Media: Unlock the Power of Podcasting: Podcast Strategies and Solutions | Sheffield 

LinkedIn (8) James Marriott 🎧🎙️ | LinkedIn

Discover more about Elaine Rotherham and Spero Solutions Spero Solutions - Expert knowledge and administrative support

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Tales of an Entrepreneur

00:44 James Marriott: From Radio to Podcasting

03:02 The Crossroads of Career Decisions

09:05 Pivotal Moments in James' Journey

14:06 Navigating Redundancy and Finding New Paths

20:55 Building Resilience During COVID

22:53 The Importance of Community and Networking

26:05 Mindfulness and Mental Health in Entrepreneurship

30:42 Authenticity in Business

37:03 Final Piece of Advice

Transcript

Elaine (00:15)
It's Elaine and this is Tales of an Entrepreneur, where we discover not only what entrepreneurs do, but why they do it. Our stories can be our superpower. So this season, I will delve further into the talent, passion, resilience, and determination that often sits behind a successful small business. Life can throw us curveballs. Events and experiences happen which shape us and our businesses. We all face hard times and we will discover what they were, how they got through it,

and the knowledge they apply to their highly successful business. So my guest today is James Marriott from Sound Media. James is a podcast strategist offering podcast services to brands and agencies. James has 20 years experience in radio and broadcasting, having been a successful radio programmer for many commercial radio stations across Yorkshire, as well as a known voice.

at the top of the hour across some of the biggest names in radio presenting the news. In fact, he still does a bit of freelance work now for the BBC. He has had many successful podcasts hosted by himself over the years and continues to launch compelling and engaging podcasts for many of his clients. I'm really excited to find out why he made the switch from radio to podcasting and what is the driving force behind his calm and considered demeanor. So James.

Huge welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. It's very strange being on this side of the microphone, I must say. So I feel very vulnerable at the moment, but that's good feeling. And that was a lovely intro. Thank you. I need to get you to write my intros from now on. I can't take the credit for that one. was my lovely producer, Ellie, who wrote that one. Well, thank you, Ellie. So James, is there anything that we missed there? Anything you'd like to add about your journey so far?

No, I guess that's fairly accurate. it's, you know, I started out in newspaper journalism. So 18 years old, didn't really have a clue what I was doing. Yeah, found myself in a job as a trainee newspaper journalist for my local paper. My God, I learned a lot doing that. Like, you you quickly look, this is in like the old days of journalism as well. So I'm talking pre-social media and I'm aging myself really badly here.

You know, when people, you you're knocking on people's doors, people are chasing you down the street throwing bricks at you as to fly that. Like that doesn't happen in journalism anymore. But that was me at like 18, 19, 20 years old. So you learned a lot from, from doing that. But yeah, radio was what I always loved. So did my first radio show when I was 14 on a community radio station. Always had a thing about the radio and just audio generally and always loved it. Always knew it's where I wanted to end up. So.

Four years working in newspapers made the move into radio that kind of kicked into you know This this journey over the last 20 odd years, which has led to me somehow doing what I do now kind of running running a business It's just me but you know, it is a business and working with some amazing clients Excellent. And so what was the deciding factor to me from radio to podcasting? I mean, I guess there's quite a lot of similarities

There are a lot of similarities. So the obvious ones are, you know, it's about microphones and talking and, you know, there's a heck of a lot of similarities, but there are quite a few differences as well. And so for me, was a, it was a very progressive thing. So it wasn't one day I woke up and thought, right, I'm going to move into podcasting. What happened was, you know, my radio journey started as a journalist. So that is going out, reporting on the news and also doing news reading. And then it moved into presenting and then

Somewhere along the line, I found myself at this crossroads, which was, do you want to carry on doing this job of being on the radio and presenting shows, doing news bulletins, or do you move into management? So more like in the boardroom kind of thing and managing others and going about it from that side. And of course, the management side paid a bit more. So I thought, yeah, I'm going to do that.

So I moved, started moving into management jobs. First of all, it was a bit of both still doing some on air stuff. And then ultimately found myself in a, in a management job, no longer on the radio and in lots of meetings, lots and lots and lots of meetings. Some of them were good. Some of them were rubbish. So I found myself sat in meetings talking about stuff like what brand of toilet roll the radio station should order. And it's stuff that's like, I'm not saying it's not important, but I'm saying I didn't get into radio to sit in meetings talking about this.

So in a lot of ways, I found that move a little bit frustrating. There was a kind of a creative edge in me that just wasn't satisfied. And around the same time was when kind of podcasting was just starting to take off relatively new in the UK. It was probably a little bit further along its journey in the US, but pretty new in the UK. Actually through the football team that I support, someone reached out to me on social media and said, you know, would you be interested in becoming a panelist on this podcast?

And I thought, podcasting, all right, I'll give that a go. Didn't think much about it, just thought it's possibly a way of sort of scratching that itch of frustration that I had at no longer really being sat behind a microphone just talking to people, which is what I always love doing. So I did it and became a panelist on this podcast and slowly kind of like, probably wasn't particularly aware of it at the time, but slowly started to fall in love with that format a little bit. One thing led to another. Eventually I launched my own.

podcast and actually launched another one after that. I was doing, you know, I was running a couple of my own podcasts alongside the day job in radio, but a few things kind of happened. Firstly, I could kind of see what was coming in terms of the direction the radio industry was going in. So this is still when kind of local regional stations, there were quite a few of them. Jobs, I wouldn't say were plentiful, but you know, there were opportunities, but I could see on the horizon that things were going to change, that I was in an industry that was on a downward curve rather than an upward curve.

Whereas podcasting was the opposite of that podcasting was still quite small, but I genuinely believed, you know what, this is something that can really go somewhere. So that was a factor. But also I found I was, you know, I was finding podcasting more rewarding because no one ever listens to a podcast on something they're not interested in. So you have this amazing engagement with podcasting that you don't get on the radio. You know, it used to blow my mind that people would ring the radio station to complain about something.

And I'm like, you get this thing for free and you're ringing to complain about stuff. people would people would whinge a lot about, don't like the music that you play. don't like the things that you talk about. Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? Why are you doing the other? So you're on this, it's like a permanent attempt to annoy as fewer people as possible on the radio. You are trying to please a very wide audience who all want something different. insight.

Yeah. And podcast is the opposite of that. know, podcasting over a hundred percent engagement, because why on earth would someone listen to something if they're not interested in it? And so that really appealed to me as well. it took a little bit of time for me to kind of figure that out. I was given an opportunity to go and do a job working for a podcast tech startup, which was a really interesting experience. I went, I went, worked there for a year, learned a lot from working for a

startup. was madness to be honest. was crazy, but you know, I learned so much from that. Ultimately it did work out. And I, know, I was again back at a crossroads and that's when I kind of decided, right, I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to start my own thing and you know, ultimately started my own business. So that's sort of like the journey. didn't, you know, it was very natural at the time. It was just slowly like podcasting creeped into the equation. definitely one of those light bulb moments, isn't it? When you have that realization.

Yeah, it is. And there's been a few of those over the years. And I talk a lot about like crossroads moments where you find yourself at a crossroads. And you maybe at the time you don't entirely realize it is a massive crossroads moment. When I was offered a job to go work in podcasting, I just thought, all right, it's more money, it's closer to home. I'll really enjoy doing that. And I didn't realize this is a huge crossroads. I'm about to leave radio probably never to go back to it. didn't feel like as big a deal.

as it actually ended up doing. it kickstarted this whole, you know, there's no way that I would be running my own business now if I hadn't have gone to work at a startup for a year and learned the things that I learned doing that. those, I just find those crossroads moments really interesting when you look back because they're so significant. And at the time it would be so easy to do something different. It'd be so easy to go in a different direction because you just, you're not sure, are you? You just think, yeah, I'm going to do this. And that ends up being a massive decision that changes.

the direction of your entire life. Absolutely. And those crossroads moments as well is something I'm super interested in why I created this podcast about the twists and turns that life gives us and those pivotal moments and the choices that you made that then change your complete direction. So can you give us a little bit more detail about some of these crossroad moments or a pivotal moment in your journey so far that kind of drastically changed the direction that you went in?

Yeah, I mean, I can go all the way back to being an 18 year old, which was the first time that I found myself at one of these kind of crossroads. In fact, it could probably go back younger than that. So at the age of 14, my dad said, you're interested in radio, aren't you? There's this new community radio station that started in Barnsley. Do you want us to go there and see whether or not they'll let you like, you know, have a go at doing some radio? I don't remember very much about being 14, but I remember being kind of a little bit torn. Like, do I want to do that? Do I not want to do it? Yeah, let's give it a go.

And I don't know if my journey would have been quite the same if I hadn't have done that. So that was interesting. But yeah, 18 years old, I went to sixth form, I did A levels at sixth form and I was a bit of a lazy bugger, if I'm honest. And I never really particularly enjoyed education. It wasn't really for me. And so some people will relate to this. Some people will not understand it, but this was in the days where A levels were all done on a point system.

So you would get a grade and you'd get a number of points applied to it. So you applied for university and university courses had points from like two points, which is getting one E in your A levels through to 30 points, which you'd be getting three A's. And I was predicted to get eight points. That's what I was predicted to get when I did my mock exams. I spent more time in the pub than I did in lessons when I was at...

at six, four minute. I can look back now and be quite honest about that. when it kind of came around towards final exams, and I kind of thought, maybe you should really kind of start making a bit of effort at this point, James. And what happened in the meantime, I'd applied to a few different universities and the kind of courses that I was looking at, obviously, can imagine kind of like eight points, not the greatest. And so I provisionally accepted a place on a six point course at

the University of Greenwich it might've been. It was a university in London anyway. And I kind of thought I'm going to go to London and you know, it'll be, I'll live the London life. Doesn't matter if the course is not great. At the time, the University of Nottingham did the best broadcast journalism course in the country. think that was a 26 point course. So I wasn't, know, I couldn't even entertain going for that. Anyway, long story short, when it came around to the actual finals and I thought you better make some effort here. So I actually came out with 24 points. So.

found myself on results day like brilliant. I've done way better than I thought I was going to do. I've got a place on a six point course in London. I don't think that I want to do that anymore. So I rang the University of Nottingham and said, I think it was Nottingham Trent University and said, I want to come in your broadcast journalism course. And they said, well, everyone's got the results that they were predicted. So we've got nothing in clearing, but on 24 points, we will guarantee you a place for next year. So take a year out and then come to university next year with us. And I said, brilliant. I'll do that.

I never told the University of Greenwich that I'm not going. I just never turned up. So I still think there's someone in office somewhere going, any minute now, he's going to arrive. He's going to show up. I never told them. I told the student loans company so I didn't get charged anything, but never got around to telling the university. But I think they've probably figured it out by now. Anyway, so yeah, my plan was to take a year out. I got job in a bar, worked in a bar for a couple of weeks. And that's when I saw this job for a trainee reporter at my local newspaper.

thought quite like writing, got an A star in English at GCSE, he's got an A in English at A level. Maybe I could do that. So applied for it. And again, one of those massive crossroads moments, because I got that job and started doing that. I actually thought, I quite like this working. I thought I would hate working because I hate it being a sixth form. I quite like working. find this, I'm quite passionate about this. And so I contacted Nottingham Trent and said, do you mind if I put this on hold?

for the year after because I'm doing this job and I'm finding it really useful. And I think I'm learning a lot from it. And they were like, okay, then we'll push it back another year. No surprise that I never went to university. It never happened. I did that job for four years and just felt like I learned so much from it. that is all the way back to 18. What a kind of a crossroads moment that was in terms of like, I could have taken a different place at university. And I think I have no idea.

what direction my life would have gone in if I had have gone to university. It's like sliding doors moments, it? Where you just think what a different life it would have been. And it's kind of fascinating. There's absolutely no way of figuring it out and working it out. And I've got no regrets at all about that. But yeah, that was the first really, really big one.

And then probably the most recent one was mentioned that you're going to work at this podcast tech startup. And ultimately I was made redundant. So a year in their products work quite doing as well as they wanted to do. They've got some big new product launches coming up and ultimately I was the last through the door. So they had to let me go and that's.

That's a real crossroads moment where you kind of, you know, I was, was in the early stages. In fact, on the day that they told me they were making me redundant, was due to go into my solicitors and sign some paperwork for buying an apartment. You know, I kind of mapped out the next few years of my, of my life and all that just gets thrown into complete chaos in one day. But then you find yourself at a crossroads and you go, right, what are you actually going to do next? Cause it'd have been dead easy just to panic and go out and just take any job. I could have gone back to radio. There'd have been opportunities.

And so, you know, finding yourself thrust to a crossroads and it's really pivotal. Like what do you do here? I took, I actually took two months out. So I was due to go on holiday anyway during my notice period in the job. I went and did two and a half weeks traveling through Scandinavia. A lot of thinking came back and after my last day, took a month off just to really think about what it was that I wanted to do.

And that's another one of those just massive crossroads moments where I don't think you're ever certain, are you, about the decisions that you make in those moments? You almost apply a score to the different options that you've got. And ultimately, there's one that you think, okay, this is probably gonna be the best direction to go in. Let's go, yeah. I think that was a very wise move to take that time out, because I've been reading quite a lot lately about the power in our pause, that moment where you just stop and you go.

And you think before you, because I think as humans, we need a solution, don't we? We have to act quite quickly. So yeah, taking that time out to think in such a beautiful place, Scandinavia, of all places, can imagine it was pretty, pretty cool place to visit. So the last place that I went to on that trip was Oslo. I would highly recommend anyone goes to Oslo. It's a beautiful city. Really surprised me as to how nice it was.

But they have a really good public transport system there, including these kind of like water buses. as part of your bit like London, you buy like a travel pass for the day, but it also includes these water buses that go between these like Norwegian fjord islands. And you can get on and off and stuff like that. And some of them were absolutely beautiful. There was a point where it was sunset, the sun was coming down. I was sat on, I was the only person sat on this boat that I'd paid about £1.24 for the day or something ridiculous.

like sailing between the Norwegian fjords, looking out over like beautiful, really calm water. The sun was setting. was like the beautiful reflection of the sun was perfectly in line with me. And you just sat there kind of contemplating, what do you really want? Like, how do you want your life to unfold from this moment onwards? And that really felt like a pivotal moment as well. Kind of just sat there really contemplating.

What's this all about? Like where are you going? What's the purpose of this? That really stands out. But yeah, highly recommend Oslo for anyone that's never been before. Absolutely. I think I'm gonna put it on the list after that testimony. Yeah, I do. And so you dove into the world of entrepreneurial spirit and you created sound media. Is that what happened from there? Yeah, it was all...

In a lot of ways, it was all a little bit accidental, really. me at that moment, being made redundant, honestly, I'm still really good friends with the guys that I worked with at that startup for a year, but it was a job that I probably never fully kind of clicked with. so when I did leave, when I was made redundant, it was a shame because obviously I was going to buy an apartment and stuff, but there was part of me that was a little bit relieved.

and a little bit like this is an opportunity to actually do something now that I'm really going to enjoy. But I was also quite battered and bruised. I'd spent a long time working in radio being, and I say this in a very non-arrogant way, being pretty good at what I was doing. I never had a really bad period where everything was going wrong. I'd always done pretty well in the jobs that I'd done in radio to that point. So was the first time I'd done a job and actually thought, just don't feel like I'm very good at this. I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job.

So I was battered and bruised. My confidence was pretty low. Didn't know it yet, but there was actually a pandemic around the corner as well. So there was something else that was going to come along and really throw huge confusions into this. This is kind of late 2019. so I actually did two things. And this is where the story gets a little bit messy and hopefully this makes sense. But I thought, firstly, I need to get my confidence back and I need to do something that I know that I'm good at where the feedback is going to be good.

So I thought, right, okay, I've got a lot of friends who still working in radio. I'm going to kind of reach back out to some people and go and do some freelance work. So I went back into radio freelancing whilst at the same time, kind of like the early stages of setting up my business, which was just kind of registering as being self-employed at the time. didn't quite realize like it's sort of going to be a business, whether I like it or not. It was just about, I just want to do stuff that I enjoy doing. I was really lucky with the radio freelancing that, you know, there were

people that I knew who were in really good positions working at some of the biggest radio groups. And so, you know, I got the opportunity first of all, to go to Bauer who were, you know, really big radio group at the time, do some freelance work there. Then to Global to work on Capital and Heart and Smooth. Great brands. Loved that. Absolutely loved that. And that really kind of got my confidence back. And then on to working for the BBC, working for my local BBC station. So, you know, that kind of doing something that I knew that I was

experienced and good at doing. And again, you know, I'll provide that by saying there's no arrogance in me me saying that, but it got my confidence back. I found myself again through doing that. And that was so important, really was so important. At the same time, of, you know, coming up with this master plan for my business and what I was going to do and how it was all going to unfold. And then along comes this thing called COVID, which says, no mate, those plans, forget them. They're not happening. They're not happening.

Because of the situation that I was in, I'd left a full-time job. I was doing some freelancing stuff. When they talked about people that fall through the cracks in terms of support, I didn't qualify for anything, didn't qualify for the self-employment grants, I'd not done any tax returns, couldn't be furloughed because I wasn't on staff anywhere. And so I was one of those people that was just like, this is worst possible scenario. And then something amazing happened where you think it's worth possible scenario.

So there's not lot point worrying about it, is there James? Just get on with it now. Just get on with finding a way of making this work. So the resilience that I think you kind of, learn, maybe don't realize it at the time, but the resilience that you learn from just having to find a new way of making your business work. You're just going have to find clients because otherwise you are on the streets. So I just did, you you just go out there, you do online stuff, you do whatever you need to do. And I can't really remember how I made it work. I just found a way of making it work, finding some clients.

And there was a point where I kind thought, it's actually going to be all right this, it's going to be okay. And then a lot of people did that, they, COVID, kind of setting up their business, kind of doing the thing they always dreamt of doing. And then somewhere in there, things started to calm down. And that's the point where I kind of thought, how do I actually want this now to run? And almost kind of like rebuild the business, how I want it to kind of run in normal times. You know, that was interesting as well.

And so you mentioned about the different Crossroad moments and was there anybody that stood out for you in those times that kind of offered you support or like you were helping hand or, you know, said a passing comment that stayed with you forever. Is there, there anyone that you can tell us about? So I was really new into the sort of the business world at that, at that point, you know, 2019, 2020. What I did do was I went to a few kind of

business breakfast networking things and stuff. And that was weird because I started to think, I don't think I fit into this world. There were a lot of people like, you know, kind of middle-aged guys standing around in suits, talking about stuff that I didn't understand and me kind of rocking up in a hoodie and jeans and trainers, which I'd decided that's me now. That's what, that's who I'm gonna be. And just looking like a sore thumb and thinking, I just don't know if I fit into this world.

And was really odd. then obviously lockdown came along and things moved online. And I found a couple of online communities that were meeting on a semi-regular basis. A lot of people I'm still really good friends with now, they were really pivotal. So at that point, having that support, that backup from people, not just in terms of like business and referrals and stuff, but just like, I'm really struggling today. This is really hard. This is really difficult. That was absolutely pivotal. So I'm not...

I don't think there's any kind of one individual or anything that I'm going to sort of pick on, but you know, just my first introduction to that really supportive side of other people, often of other kinds of solopreneurs, people who were sort of doing their own thing that had all got each other's back and that realization, the business world is multi-layered. There's a lot going on and you will find your own tribe. And when you do,

you'll really like, that will accelerate things massively. And that's what happened for me at the start of lockdown. Absolutely. And I think the business network in Yorkshire is quite special. think it's very unique. So many different networks, isn't it? And is kind of what I love about it. So I did a networking meeting this morning, which is an online every fortnight. And we actually meet up once a month in Sheffield. That's kind of slightly separate group.

most people, it would probably be their worst nightmare because we talk about stuff like, you know, grounding, watching the sunrise, hugging trees, like it's a, it's a very different, it's a business support group, but it's very, very different. And as I most people would be horrified and just think it's their worst nightmare. you guys are all absolutely nuts. But you know that I really value that because I've been on a bit of a journey in terms of like mindfulness and mindset and other things.

meditation, I'm very open to kind of new things that once upon a time I'd have really scoffed at. That's business networking, but so much different to the community that we're in together. know, we go to a fortnightly networking meeting together called the growth community, which is very supportive. And then, you know, there's other things, I don't need to mention them by name, but you people will be aware of other kinds of business networking communities as well. And they're all different and finding stuff that works for you is really rewarding. And I think you

When you start out and you go to networking and you just think this is networking and you don't realize like there's other forms of networking. There's other forms of communities. There's other tribes out there that when you find the ones that you like, really I've found my home now I belong here. That's, that's really amazing. So, and I hope that's the same everywhere else. Like, you know, I can only talk about like Sheffield, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Leeds, which is where I do the vast majority of my networking, but you know,

does feel like you can find the right thing for you. And I hope that's the same kind of up and down the country. Yeah, that's an interesting question. I wonder if it is. And so you mentioned meditation and mindset there. And what I do know from my view of the world is that most entrepreneurs at some point in their journey have to start working on their mindset. That self-belief has to be unbreakable. Everything, know, all the emotion and all the...

the crap the world throws at you, you have to just be able to pick yourself up and keep on going. Is that one of the reasons why you started getting into mindfulness and meditation? Or is it, you you don't have to share with us for a different reason? This all kind of started when when I was in that last job that I did for a year, I started finding myself getting anxiety and having like fairly minor but at the time they didn't feel that minor like panic attacks and things like that. And there's a few different factors that were contributing to that. But it was the first

that I'd ever really found myself just thinking, I'm a bit of a mess and I couldn't really understand why. And someone introduced me to meditation then, which just helped me calm things down, control myself and feel like I'm back on top of things. That was my first very small introduction into that. But then this all then links into ultimately into lockdown and lockdown comes along. I don't know if it was a conscious thing, but there's a point where I just thought.

I'm just going to do some new stuff. I want to try things. We can all sit around and complain about how terrible this is and I want to do this and I want to do that. Well, we can't do that. So I'm going to do some other stuff that we can do. you know, got into doing like yoga online and doing Tai Chi online and stuff that, as I said earlier, once upon a time, I had to turn my nose up at stuff like that once upon a time, but just thought I've got to try something different and why not now? Why not open your mind to a few different things? So, you know, yoga would always end with a little meditation.

session, you do a little relaxation thing at the end. And I found myself really quite sort of appreciating that and, and liking that. I'd say I was sort of on the cusp of that. was like, you know, I would do it and think, okay, that's all right. But didn't really kind of delve any further into it. And then I kind of. I sort of familiarize myself with the concept of reframing things. And this links actually to having, I had a little bit of an online troll who

would have something negative to say about absolutely everything that I posted. Used to love telling me how wrong I was about things. And it bothered me a little bit. And there was a point where suddenly this thing just clicked in my head and I thought, I'm going to stop being upset by what this person's got to say. And what I realized is I now know the kind of business owner that I never want to be.

So whatever direction I end up going in, I now know who I don't want to be. This bitter, twisted person that gets their kicks from slagging off what other people are doing. So I will never say anything negative about what someone else is doing. If I see something that I think I don't agree with it, just scroll on. Just don't ever be negative. Don't engage in negativity. And this thing inside me was like, this feels amazing. Suddenly this really negative situation. And now I feel like I've learned one of the best lessons about who I...

want to be by learning who I don't want to be. And that's my first instruction to this idea of reframing situations. And this led me on to learning more about mindfulness, practicing joy, practicing gratitude every morning. So getting up in the morning, we're hardwired to be quite negative, we? And getting up in the morning thinking, I've got all these things that I've got to do. And then I go, right, okay, stop. What have I got that's bringing me joy today? What's bringing me joy into my life?

Well, I know I've got a lovely hour set aside to have a chat with Elaine today where we just talk about nice things. And I'm like, I can take joy from that. What am I grateful for today? You know, I've got lovely people around me, whatever it looks like every day, just resetting myself. And I'm a big fan of going for a walk when the sun's rising during the winter months and just thinking about, know, reflecting on what's bringing me joy, what's bringing me gratitude today. And that's been a game changer for me. And it really has. And, know, I've got into other kinds of mindfulness things along the way, but just that, you know, that

concept of reframing situations. If something bad happens, okay, let it in, panic about it for a little bit. Could be five minutes, could be an hour, could be a day if it's something big that I need to. And then I draw a line under it, put the brakes on, right, how do we reframe this then? How are we going to make this better? You know, that idea of you can always reframe a situation that's bad into something that you go away thinking, okay, yeah, cool. I've got direction from that now.

And I guess linking back to those crossroad moments in hindsight, you think, okay, that was done for a reason and it turned out really well. Yeah, there is. I've never really thought about the connection between those, but you're right. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So you talked quite a lot about who you didn't want to be as a business owner and kind of what you've learned along the way. But from all your experience and all those pivotal moments in your life, how has that affected the way that you run your business and how that looks on a day to day?

Number one is it's really helped me get confidence in being me. loosely touched on this thing earlier about like, you know, I'm a hoodies, jeans, trainers. I always wear a cap wherever I go and just, you know, really the confidence to just be me and say, some people are really going to hate me. There'll be people that like me. think this guy is an idiot. What an absolute just utter tit. That's fine. Cause they were never going to like me anyway.

And then those people that go, I really connect with James, I really like James. So I think that real confidence to just be me and to not kind of want to sort of pander to, I feel like the business world tries to quite naturally push you in a certain direction in terms of how business is supposed to be and how you're supposed to grow your business. It's all about, know, first employee, second employee, first office, second office, all that kind of stuff. None of that motivates me, that's not what I'm about.

And I think learning or getting the confidence to be able to say, this is me, this is my journey, this is where I'm going and I'm really happy with it. And if you don't like that, that's fine. Yeah, I just feel like a lot of it is ultimately, it's about confidence, it's about finding that tribe that we touched on earlier, kind of having the people around you that are really valuable, that you can really offer something to, that will offer something to you in return.

Just finding yourself in a place where you really feel like you are your authentic self and you don't have to hide that. I absolutely love that, James. It takes a lot of... It took me a long time to get to that point. So I'm so pleased to hear that you're already there. It's a new level of power and freedom and just feeling very comfortable in your own skin. And I don't know if I've really ever had that in my life before, to be honest.

I don't know if I'm fully there now, but you're right, kind of like feeling that you are genuinely you. It just sounds so daft when you say it, doesn't it? Like, of course you are, but yeah, that ability to just really be yourself. And you think how many people in their life actually get to do that? And I put this also down to like just doing something that you enjoy doing, getting up in the morning with a smile on your face, excited about the day ahead. Some days are harder than others, but ultimately like,

just really enjoying what you do. All my friends moan about, know, can't wait for Friday to come around and work is a chore and it's something that they have to do to enjoy the weekends and to enjoy the holidays and stuff. You know, just knowing how lucky I am to do something day in, day out that I enjoy. you know, along the way I've met some wonderful people who for some reason are interested in me and interested in what I do. Like that's just, that's brilliant. I It is. It really is.

And so you talked a lot about what you've gained in terms of, you know, your own self belief and your confidence and being your authentic self. But has it affected how you run your business in terms of like, are you an 80 hour a week kind of guy working away beyond your computer or do you give yourself that time to breathe and rest during the week? There's definitely been periods where I have been that 80 hours a week guy and I...

I'm someone that's very comfortable with my work life, my business life and my personal life are just interwoven. Like they are one and the same ultimately. And I know other people really don't like that and they like to separate things and that's fine. I don't think there's a right and a wrong, but for me, I'm like, you know, if a client messages me, what's up to me in the evening, I'll reply. I don't go like, sorry, I'm off duty now. Like for me, it all does into wine.

One of the things that I wanted to do when I first did this and went self-employed was chasing this dream of being a bit of a digital nomad. Lockdown meant that could never happen anyway. And since then, I've gone in a slightly different direction.

But the idea of like when I'm on holiday, doing some work on the train on the way somewhere, or, you know, getting up in the morning, doing a couple of hours before then, like enjoying, you know, going out for the day stuff like that. So I still do, still do that. So I'm, my boundaries are a lot more fluid than maybe what a lot of people's boundaries are. But I don't have children, you know, it's not like, think if there was other things in the equation, it might be different and it might kind of suit me to kind of separate that out. But I've also learned that, you know, burnout's a really horrible place to...

to be. I've been at that point a couple of times where getting up in the morning, feeling good about what I do, but struggling and realizing like, this is not sustainable in this way. you know, there's been points where I've changed things so that, you know, I'm not still working late into the evening and I am more of a morning person anyway, but working late into the evening, you know, working every weekend to the flight that I've been.

you know, a bit strict with myself in terms of making sure that I've got a bit of downtime and you touched on earlier, the, still, doing some work for the BBC. So I do one or two weekends a month working for my local BBC station, which means it doesn't interfere with my client work. But, you know, I will always make sure if there's a, if I'm working for a week, a weekend, and it means basically a Monday through right the way through to the following Friday without a break, I will force myself to take at least half a day off during, during that.

And ideally a full day off, go and spend it with my mom or whatever I do, or just sit and watch like garbage trash films or something like just have a day of just being switched off. I feel like I'm still learning a bit on that and I'll probably over time, like I'll get better with it. But that's where I'm at in terms of, you know, I would like to think that I work probably normalish hours and that's probably 50 hours a week is probably normalish isn't it? In this kind of crazy world of solopreneurialism. I've learned to avoid that.

complete sort of burnout thing where you've, it's a long way back from that if you let it get to that point. It really is. I think knowing those warning signs is a massive achievement because most people, you just keep pushing, don't you? Push, push, be productive, be productive. And next thing, yeah, you're flawed. And like you said, it's a long way back. And so James, the pivotal question, here it is.

From everything that you've learned, all your experience and your journey so far, what is the one piece of advice that you would give?

I genuinely think that it's, it would be, it's a variation on the, on the, on the statement of be yourself. But I think there's a proviso there in terms of you've got to really get to know yourself. So get to know yourself and be yourself. Don't play the game. Don't be someone else to try and fit in and make it work. Like you have to believe if you want to succeed in business that people are going to have to like you, but you can't force that to happen. Right. You know,

just be yourself, allow people to get to know you and trust in the process that some of them will come away thinking, I quite like him, I quite like her. And the magic happens from that point. So get back in touch with yourself, whatever that looks like. And I'm trying to not make this sound too kind of woo woo in the way that I am, in the way that I say it, but get to know yourself and be confident in being yourself. Well, I love a bit of woo woo.

That is fantastic, fantastic advice. Thank you, James. Okay, well, thank you so much for sharing your story, James, honestly. It's been an absolute honor listening to it. I really, really do appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for listening to Tales of an Entrepreneur. I hope you're enjoying the stories from my guests. If you are enjoying this show, I would be so grateful if you could leave a review or give it a rating. Five stars would be lovely.

You can do this on Apple podcasts and Spotify. Have you been listening and thought, I have a great story to tell? Excellent, I would love to hear it too. Drop me a message through my social channels and we can arrange it. Like I say, we all face tough times in business. And I hope by creating the podcast and hearing the stories of real people we work alongside, pass by on the street or see them comment on LinkedIn.

There is so much more to them and their success than meets the eye. I truly believe everyone has an interesting story to tell, but I really want to know how that lesson transcribes into giving them a superpower to run their successful businesses. Until next time, bye for now.