How a career built on calm couldn't fix her own insomnia with Hayley Dawes, Dreem Distillery

Every guest on this podcast talks about looking after yourself and your sleep when starting a business so I was keen to speak to someone who has first hand experience in losing it, how to get it back & making a business from it too. 

Hayley Dawes spent years designing beautiful, calming homes for other people. She couldn't find a moment of that calm for herself.  A mother of four and a long-time entrepreneur, Hayley battled chronic insomnia that began to affect every part of her life. The thing that finally shifted it was broad-spectrum CBD and plant actives, used properly and consistently. That personal discovery became Dreem Distillery, a science-led luxury sleep brand now known for its award-winning Night Drops Sleep Oil and, this year, a new magnesium body butter, Dreem Melt.

This is a story about building a business out of a problem you genuinely couldn't solve any other way, and what happens when your professional skill and your personal life are pulling in completely opposite directions. 

Hayley's advice:

• Protect your sleep as fiercely as you protect your business
• Working harder works... until suddenly it doesn't
• Small daily habits ("micro moments") can have a huge impact on your nervous system
• Don't underestimate the power of a daily walk, movement and natural daylight to regulate your nervous system
• Build a business around solving a genuine problem
• Work with experts when you're entering an unfamiliar industry
• Never compromise on quality – from your product to your branding and packaging
• Building a business teaches resilience
• Prioritising yourself allows you to perform better in every area of your life

FF&M enables you to own your own PR & produces podcasts.

Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.

Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on Instagram @fallowfieldmason.

MUSIC CREDIT: Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.

Transcript

Hayley Dawes: [00:00:00] I was a property developer and interior designer, and I had the pleasure of turning everyone's homes into beautiful, aesthetically pleasing homes, especially the bedrooms. But there's one thing that the wheels came off in my mind was that the fact that I couldn't sleep, yet aesthetically everything looked perfect.

the lowest point was

I was frightened to death of going up the stairs to the bedroom because to me, that was not an area of safety. 

was in a cafe in Notting Hill at my wit's end, and the guy there said, "Have you tried broad-spectrum CBD?"

Every guest on this podcast talks about looking after yourself and your sleep when starting a business, so I was really keen to speak to someone who has first-hand experience in losing her sleep, how she got it back, and why she then made a business from it too. Hayley Dawes spent years designing beautiful, calming homes for other people.

Juliet Fallowfield: But she couldn't find a moment of that calm for herself. A mother of four and a longtime entrepreneur, Hayley battled chronic insomnia that began to affect every part of her life. [00:01:00] The thing that finally shifted was broad-spectrum CBD and plant actives, and used properly and consistently really helped her get her sleep back.

This personal discovery became Dreem Distillery, a science-led luxury sleep brand now known for its award-winning Night Drop sleep oil, and this year, the new magnesium body butter, Dream Melt. 

This is an episode about building a business out of a problem you genuinely couldn't solve any other way, which seems to be a recurring theme for many of our guests.

Hayley, welcome to "How to Start Up."

Before we get into all things insomnia and why sleep is so important, and every founder will be listening to this being like, "Oh my God, tell me everything," I'd love it if you could introduce yourself and a bit about the brand that you started.

Hayley Dawes: Yes, absolutely. So I'm Hayley Dawes, founder of Dreem Distillery and we are the wellness destination for people who struggle with sleep. So hopefully I'm talking to a lot of you out there. Um, I started the brand five years [00:02:00] ago out of my complete debilitating insomnia, because before that I was a property developer and interior designer, and I had the pleasure of turning many people's homes into beautiful, aesthetically pleasing homes, especially the bedrooms.

But there's one thing that the wheels came off in my mind was that the fact that I couldn't sleep, yet aesthetically everything looked perfect. 

Juliet Fallowfield: What was it, do you think, that was causing your insomnia?

Hayley Dawes: now I can look back at it. So it was about 10 years ago, and 10 years ago nobody would mention the word sleep.that was the most boring topic alive.

And I was working hard, playing hard, meaning I was working long hours and then entertaining clients every evening, getting back at 10:59, turning the light out at 11:00 and hoping to get those sort of seven, eight hours.

And of course, that works for a long period of time, but suddenly it no longer works. now looking back at it, it was all to do with my nervous system, but I didn't know that at the time

Juliet Fallowfield: so your nervous system, this is something that [00:03:00] we're hearing more and more in the news across all health pages, general news, that we should regulate our nervous systems.

for you, were you just burning yourself out year on year?

Hayley Dawes: I was, but I, and I didn't realize that 'cause of course you're living on adrenaline. When you're really loving work you don't think twice about your nervous system. You're just living life to the full. So10 years ago when I went to see the doctor about my sleep, the first thing they just give you a sleeping tablet.

And that was the quick fix for a few months. But of course, it's always a recipe for disaster. And then, yeah, tried so many different things to help me sleep, and then landed on broad-spectrum CBD, and that's when Dreem was born.

Juliet Fallowfield: before we get into Dreem

for you, what was the lowest point for you and that made you really finally push for a different solution?

Hayley Dawes: I think The bedroom should be somewhere that, is aesthetically pleasing, but also it's where you switch off and have a good night's sleep. That's first and foremost. I was so scared to even go to the bedroom. I would do anything. I'd put another load in the [00:04:00] dishwasher, do the washing.

I was frightened to death of going up the stairs to the bedroom because to me, that was not an area of safety. I'd had so many panic attacks trying to get myself to sleep or going up the stairs that I just wanted to steer myself away from that area. So I think that was the lowest. And of course, when you're taking that many sleeping tablets night after night, you get that sort of five hours of just deadness, but they're just not good for you.

And, you do feel a bit depressed the next day, but you have to carry on. So that was the turning point.

Juliet Fallowfield: it's that numbing, isn't it? Where you've been in bed, but you don't feel rested and you're waking up tired.

And I'm sure every founder, because we're all guilty of this, of burning the candle at both ends in the sense that I'll just work until 10:00 'cause then tomorrow it'll be an easier day, but then you don't wind down until 2:00 AM.

 the later you finish, the longer it takes you to wind down to then sleep. And so many people have said to me, and you'd think I'd have listened after six years, if you don't look after yourself, you can't look after your [00:05:00] business. And it's actually Russell Foster who said, "You're running a red light on your business if you don't look after yourself."

And I "Oh God." And it's, hard. But for you, how did you discover the broad-spectrum CBD and like the plant actives? Because they've become more commonly talked about, but how did you

find out them? 

Hayley Dawes: it has. And I tried a lot of things, so I tried CBT, which is cognitive behavior therapy for sleep. I tried so many different ways. I did everything wrong. So for example, I decided to go up the stairs at 8:30 PM, not tired at all, but to start the evening wind down with plenty of time, when actually you should go up the stairs when you're feeling tired.

You don't need all that wind down time. So nowthe advice is go up when you're tired and not hover around in the bedroom for three hours before you actually go to bed. So I was doing everything wrong. But, yeah, where the broad-spectrum CBD came from, I was in a cafe in Notting Hill at my wit's end, and the guy there that worked there knew [00:06:00] all about my sleep because of course it was a regular conversation, someone that would listen, and he said, "Have you tried broad-spectrum CBD?"

I slightly rolled my eyeballs because I didn't really know too much about CBD. I didn't know what it did, and of course straight away I just thought THC, psychoactive element, I definitely don't want to touch that. Not realizing that CBD is actually the hemp plant, all the different parts of the hemp plant and no THC.

 He had a little bottle, on the counter, just in a brown plain bottle with a hemp leaf on. "Please take this, report back in one week's time." And so night number one, night number two, by night number three, I started noticing a difference, and I thought, "Oh my goodness." Night number four, five, six, it just got better and better.

everything feels different when you've had a good night's

Juliet Fallowfield: Oh my God, you could take on the world. You could do anything. You could land on the moon. It's insane.

Hayley Dawes: it, it is insane. So I knew then that I wasn't [00:07:00] planning on starting a new business. I was very happy in the interior and the property development world. But I just knew then there was something about the way that this transformed my sleep that I could potentially help others

Juliet Fallowfield: Incredible. Because we've seen the rise of Trip, the drinks habit, and actually I've replaced my Coke Zero habit with Trip now because I just feel so much better for it, and it's how much can there really be in it? But yeah, a friend of mine's replaced her glass of wine at six o'clock after a day of work with Trip, like having a CBD intake somewhere.

So what does it do to us? Why is it good for our nervous system?

Hayley Dawes: So actually there's three different types of CBD. There's isolate, which is the pure crystallized CBD, all, again, from the hemp plant. that's good, but it's just pure isolated CBD. We use broad-spectrum, which of course is more expensive, but the reason we use it is because it contains all of the plant, so all the different cannabinoids, but not the psychoactive elements.

Juliet Fallowfield: canaganoid? That is amaz- [00:08:00] amazing word

Hayley Dawes: It's a, yeah, one of the many plant compounds. And the more goodness from the plant itself, the better it is. But I guess the magic happens, so for example, here are our Night Drops, actually my number one favorite, and our sort of cult, ardent cult following with this one.

But these particular ones are the broad-spectrum CBD, but we then add these additional plant compounds, so plant terpenes. And when you add more plant compounds, not from the hemp plant, from other different plants, they synergistically work together and enhance the benefits. So it's a real sort of cocktail of ingredients in here, and that's, this is where the magic happens.

Juliet Fallowfield: And you, obviously you had a business already, you knew self-employment entailed, and it can bring a lot of stress and anxiety. it's a job, but it's got extra weight What, w- for you as a founder, made you want to pivot? And do you still do both, or is it you full-time on Dreem

now? 

Hayley Dawes: I was really trying to do both 'cause of course I loved it, [00:09:00] but A, I hadn't been ever in the beauty wellness industry, and I did not know quite how many hours and how much energy it takes. So I've come out of interiors, and I thought I could always fall back at that, at any time. But I no longer do interiors, and I'm 100%, feel like 200% Dreem.

So yeah, that's where I'm at right now.

Juliet Fallowfield: And is there a moment, 'cause I think a lot of founders say this, that you start with a kind of quite a deluded ignorance as to what the job is gonna entail a job description that's not been written before. For you to leave one business behind, that is quite a big moment because put so much of your energy and your heart into that.

And I've hit six years recently and I thought, "God, I can't make myself redundant from this role. I can't take a sabbatical from this role." It's one I've made up for myself, but it's the one very happily I'm very anchored to at the moment. But to walk away from it, that would've been a really big decision.

 how did you

tackle that? 

Hayley Dawes: It was, I was on the board of another beauty company and I think the penny dropped when, [00:10:00] this was probably-- So we've launched five years ago, so I'd say eight years ago. I was looking at all the various brands in the room. They were doing some social media content and they all-- looked very similar.

It was when all the beauty brands looked very modern and just paired back, visually. So there wasn't any color. They were all whites, blacks and grays. Everything looked the same. And I was just sitting there thinking, "Oh, that awful hemp bottle, which is brown with a green leaf. Could we get any worse?

we need to be doing something with this in order for it to have prime status on your bedside table." Again, es-aesthetically pleasing because of my interior design world.

So that's where the sort of penny dropped for that. but yeah, leaving the interiors d-design business, it was hard, but sometimes you just need to change things up andI could do it with my eyes shut, whereas entering the wellness world, I'd never really done social media before.

There's so many elements I've never thought about, an [00:11:00] NPD, minimum order quantity, all of that, that I am learning every single day.

Juliet Fallowfield: given it's a whole new sector, category, market, what did you have to learn the fastest?

Hayley Dawes: all I wanted to do was help people who struggle with sleep. So the fastest, I think, was all about the formulation. And the night drops, which are our number one, which is what helped me through my deepest, darkest days, I wanted those to be the best in the market. And of course, I wasn't from the wellness world or a botanical scientist, so I went out there to find a brilliant botanical scientist who could explain a lot more about botanicals to me as well, because it wasn't something that I'd studied at school.

but when you work with these people that are really on their A-game, you just, you become absorbed and want to know so much more about every single ingredient and why they work together and how they work together. So it's something that I very much enjoyed

Juliet Fallowfield: [00:12:00] Incredible. And sleep and CBD are categories full of 

it, unsubstantiated claims. It's a tricky space to go into, and we talked about, with the sustainability world's greenwashing and greenhushing, but with something that's quite linked to health and wellness, how did you approach the formulation and the evidence to make sure that Dreem just wasn't another wellness fad?

Hayley Dawes: You're right. CBD at the time was at its height, and I was not going into this market because I wanted to tick a box on the CBD. I'd almost do anything not to be in CBD because there are so many rules and regulations, which I like, which I really do like.With all our formulations, we have a certificate of analysis, which is basically all these laboratory tests, so we make sure whatever we say is on that bottle is actually legitimately in that bottle.

So potency-wise, there's no mold, there's no toxins, everything is very heavily documented. And I assumed that's what you do with all wellness goods and all [00:13:00] beauty goods, but little did I know. So I was always looking at it from an outside world, I guess slightly nai- naivety, but assuming that's what I would be wanting as a customer to see legitimately that product is the same product on the paperwork in that bottle

Juliet Fallowfield: presumably now you've got through all the red tape with CBD, could launch any other beauty brand out there and it'd be 

Hayley Dawes: Oh,

I don't think a doddle, but I definitely know, I know a lot more. And, it's great actually because CBD has definitely moved along. They have got rid of quite a few cowboys, and it's good that, there's a few remaining legitimate brands that, can really help people

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, fantastic. that brings me to the point of why is sleep so important? And second to that, what is good sleep? 

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Hayley Dawes: I think until you don't sleep, you don't really realise what sleep is even all about. I know that sort of 10, 15 years ago when I had the bad insomnia, I just thought sleep was an off button and you just lie there actually for seven or eight hours. I had no idea as to what it was doing to my body and mind.

And now, yeah, sleep is literally our superpower. There's nothing like a good night's sleep, and it's the foundation of good health, resilience, relationships, decision-making, performance. the list goes on, and there's so many, elite athletes that just swear by a good night's sleep,as do just, normal human beings.

And what's quite interesting is, we've got a system in our body called the glymphatic system. It's in our brain, and that [00:15:00] literally gets rid of all the toxins. It's like a dishwasher every single night when we sleep. So that,helps us stay away from disease. But you don't realise all these other systems are ticking along nicely whilst you've got your eyes closed, hopefully

Juliet Fallowfield: Not at all. And that's the thing, if you don't sleep, what happens then?

Hayley Dawes: that's when the mood starts, isn't it really? everybody-- There's, I think, a third of adults within the adult population will have insom-insomnia at one point in their life, which is a huge statistic. And probably most people listening to this right now will know they just don't feel themselves the following day.

you're cranky, you make the wrong decision, No 

Juliet Fallowfield: just clouded, aren't you? You're 

just a bit sort in a funky like, ugh, and where you could have gone the virtuous circle, you might take the vicious 

Hayley Dawes: Yes. You eat the wrong thing. if you have a five-hour sleep 'cause you've been out, you just binge on absolute junk to just get yourself feeling good again. And you don't feel good at all, but that's the first thing that you [00:16:00] crave

Juliet Fallowfield: Absolutely. your Night Drops have become your signature product, and you've launched the Dreem Melt, magnesium body butter designed, I think, to be used, before the tension builds up rather than

that's a sort of preemptive strike

Hayley Dawes: it is similar. I've actually got the face mask here, but similar to this one. And this is a great product, just a few months into the market. It's a lovely magnesium 9,000 milligrams alone in the jar itself, and it's just got a really faint lavender smell, not a synthetic sm- smell.

Most people put it on the soles of their feet. I sometimes, soles of my feet and just pat it here as well. Andmagnesium itself does not help you sleep, however, it calms your nervous system. So it's all about calming your nervous system in order to have a good night's sleep

Juliet Fallowfield: I'm renovating at the moment and I've learned a lot about electrics and 

and circuit breakers, 

Hayley Dawes: All my favorite things. 

Juliet Fallowfield: why can't I have a circuit breaker in my own nervous [00:17:00] system that I could just switch it off and be like, "Just chill out." Because it feels with self-employment, everyone who isn't self-employed is "Oh, you've got so much freedom and autonomy and unlimited annual leave."

I'm like, I've basically not white-knuckled it for six years, but it's a big weight of responsibility that living with on a daily basis, not Monday to Friday, seven days a

Is there any other things you should do to help your nervous system? I'm asking for a friend,

Hayley Dawes: Yeah Yeah You know what? I think because I've learnt a lot, the main answer to that is you really need to take micro moments throughout the day, and micro could be 30 to 60 seconds. it's really short, sharp bursts. So you could be at your computer for two hours like, recording a podcast and then you'll be doing some emails.

Go outside, listen to birdsong for one minute. It sounds a bit of a joke, but it's not.

Juliet Fallowfield: It's not much to ask

It's not much to ask. A little walk around the block. 100%, my favorite thing to do in the morning within half an hour of waking is to obviously see natural sunlight. [00:18:00] So I do that from the bathroom window at the same time as standing on one leg brushing my teeth.

Hayley Dawes: I try to incorporate everything at the speed of light. But all those little micro things that you can do, there's no point in just going to the day sitting at your desk straight away, lights on, and just sitting there all day long. Movement is key. you know, the more steps you do and the movement in the day, even if that's first thing, really helps your sleep in the evening

Juliet Fallowfield: That's so interesting. I had a friend come and stay for a couple of nights, and she does a daily walk. She said it's just the best thing, I love it, about my day. She's called Hannah Spicer, and she's an email marketing wizard, and we met through work. her. Oh, you know her?

Yeah, she's helped me do my email marketing.

an absolute legend, and she's like, "My walk is for me.

I just do it sometimes without listening to anything." And we went for a walk after work the other day when she came to work out here. And today she messaged saying, "You gonna go for a walk again?" I was like, "Oh, I hadn't thought about it 'cause you're not here to go with." But actually, I took myself out for a 20-minute walk, and [00:19:00] even you're not technically at your desk, you're still working.

So I always have-- I think it's just a work attachment style that I need to really work on. if you're at your laptop, you feel like you're being productive. But actually, go for a walk. You're thinking things through, you're problem-solving. You might have a phone call with somebody. your eye's up and out rather than buried in.

 But it's so interesting that, that breath of fresh air that you

It is. It is. And even in winter, you can get not lazy in the winter, but just wanna stay indoors. And I try to take myself for a walk most days. But again, like you, just 20 minutes, and it's not always listening to a podcast. I be literally speaking to nobody. But looking up, just looking around, looking at the bird, at the leaves, somebody 

Hayley Dawes: on the street. 

And sometimes I would then play a podcast in the car, but it's just me time again, without having a full conversation with somebody else. It's just another way, 'cause I do find podcasts... And y- I'm always wanting to learn, and I'm sure you interviewing all of

us. 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yes, [00:20:00] exactly. I'm always wanting to learn and get the best information that would suit me. So there are different ways, but the key thing, as we said before, is just micro moments in the day. And also, there's no point in going from the kitchen to the bedroom. Have a lovely, relaxing bath or shower. Make that part of your day for you.

Hayley Dawes: Some self-care in the evening

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. It's so important and as, as I said earlier, the looking after yourself to look after your business if your business is your priority, but you ultimately should be your priority. And actually that was a chat Hannah and I had is like we've both hit a similar level of revenue that we're really proud of over the last six years.

feel like we've got a measure of it 

now, but it was like,

but now what? Like we can't whinge about bad dates. We like, we can't like we went on holiday together, so we tick that box. It's n- now what do we do? And it's oh, we just relax I think our generation as well have been brought up in sort of luxury brands in London where you have to try even harder no matter how hard you've already tried.

That, that work-life balance element, there's coming with sort of an element of guilt to it. 

Hayley Dawes: [00:21:00] You're... 

Juliet Fallowfield: you boundary your work?

Yeah, it's interesting 'cause obviously this has been going five years. I'd say two to three years in, the summer holiday with my four kids and partner, I would just stay in the hotel room and for the whole morning and work just I think because I felt I had to. and actually last year I thought, "I'm still gonna have the emails on, but I'm not going to 

Hayley Dawes: have three to four hours of my holiday every single day on that computer. And actually, it didn't have any effect on the business at all, me doing that, which was quite interesting. But it just go- And I have felt though by just taking that step back and having that proper holiday, I was then even more on it when I came back.

i'm sure everybody notices this. 

I think,you do need that rest in order to have the energy to move forwards. It's very difficult, for me, I find I take a couple of the children every night to either football or tennis, but I just love that whole experience of watching them play football or tennis.

[00:22:00] Sometimes it's with a laptop on my knee, but again, that's just another area that I feel like it's work-life balance, but I still enjoy it

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. And I think it's working out how you tick as well of what you need out of your day for yourself. You're so right because I had a really good night's sleep on Tuesday for the first time in a while, and I, woke up on Wednesday, I and I was firing on all cylinders.

oh my God, I've missed feeling like this. I used to feel like this every day, and it was a real stark moment of, I should feel like this most days. And it's so indicative of how much movement I'd done, how much water I'd drunk, how much sleep I'd had. But then there's also, you could be asleep, but you might not have good sleep.

So can you define good sleep?

Hayley Dawes: You know when you've had good sleep. Of course, maybe some people have got trackables, but for me, I don't track anything

But for me, what I've noticed with Dreem Distillery before I had the insomnia, I was always a very light sleeper, but I did sleep.

Now, I take the night drops, it's the depth of sleep that I get. The depth of sleep is phenomenal, [00:23:00] and it's that sleep where you've actually properly sunken into the mattress and you feel as if you've really slept. There's nothing quite like it. And I believe that the CBD itself, because it works with the GABA in your brain, so the calming neurotransmitter, and it just simply tops that.

So if you're not calm, you become calm by taking the CBD. And by doing that, when your nervous system then relaxes, you then relax, and that's when the good night's sleep starts to happen

Juliet Fallowfield: So it's getting all the things in place that it just relax into it and feel confident it can let go. Which obviously self-employment 

Hayley Dawes: know. I know. What about feeling really safe in the environment

Juliet Fallowfield: I think you're probably one of the very few founders in the UK or in the world that has managed to be self-employed and a founder, but also protect your sleep, because so 

Hayley Dawes: Oh, yeah. No, to- you're actually, you're completely right. I protect my sleep like no other. There's probably five days of the year that [00:24:00] I don't protect it. most people should protect it, but still have a bit of a good life as well. I think you do have to, party occasionally or go out with friends and have a couple too many wines. Life still needs to be lived.

Juliet Fallowfield: I completely agree, and I think that's it. It's like I, I think I was an idiot 'cause it took me about five years to realize there were only 24 hours in the day, and I was trying to do 48 hours worth of stuff in 24. and of course the first thing to slip is your sleep.you'll creep into the seven, eight hours chunk that you designate.

'Cause that's a fairly significant chunk of the 24 in a day. And it was a real moment where I went into self-employment thinking that the P&L was the most important thing, and the revenue, and the cash flow, and actually I was like, "No, money will flow. It will come and it will go." The finite thing is time, and I only have 24 hours, and the whole expression, everyone has the same 24 hours a day.

It's yes, but it's how you use

how you use it. Exactly

a waste of time if you're tired and knackered and you don't have any oomph to use the ones that you're awake for.

Hayley Dawes: Y- [00:25:00] you're right. And with a good night's sleep, you maximize every single minute of the day.

So I maximize, and then I put the brakes on when it's my wind-down bath situation. Yes.

Juliet Fallowfield: I love this. I built a bath in the garden and taken up gardening, and something that all Sunday I'd have the house to myself, I'd spend the whole day gardening, and then I'd have a bath in the garden and just look at the fruits of my labor.

And If I had a stressful Zoom call, I could step outside and look at the garden. It just, it washed it all off me, whole being in nature thing that I was like, "Eh, whatever." But I was like, "Oh yeah, no, that's definitely a thing."

Hayley Dawes: it really is a thing. I live in Notting Hill, but I came from the countryside. I've been brought up in the countryside, and I literally used to think, "Ugh, the countryside, there's nothing to do." But now I go to Hyde Park actually for my greenery. But without Hyde Park, I'd really crave it because I know how much my nervous system is regulated by just walking around it

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. I think I need to, rather than restructure my working day, I need to restructure the hours around it to support [00:26:00] because 

pre-COVID, pre-self-employment, I was expected in an office five days a week. I had structure and it was forced on me, but I fitted in the things I needed to.

Whereas now, when you're your own boss, it's very gray. Everything can creep. 

Hayley Dawes: it is. And there's so much work to be done, but sometimes at the wrong time of day as yes.

Juliet Fallowfield: And phones are not our friends, I'm convinced.

Hayley Dawes: They're not. 

Oh God, take me back to, Yeah. Take me about too.

Juliet Fallowfield: So something we ask guests is a now, next, and never. So for now, what is the one thing you're focused on for the business right now?

Hayley Dawes: Now it's very much about growing awareness, and also getting Dreem into people's hands who struggle with sleep. So I want to see it on lots of bedside tables

Juliet Fallowfield: Absolutely. I can definitely send you a list of people.

And then next, what is next for the business or yourself?

Hayley Dawes: Yeah. Next for the business, we've got a few more products coming actually, and we're still sort ofbuilding the brand as, 

I really would love it to be the leading destination brand for people who struggle with sleep. And I say that with [00:27:00] confidence 'cause I feel we're getting there, but we've still got more work to do.

So 

with that, I just really want Dreem to be at the tip of everyone's tongue when, a friend's not sleeping. "Oh, you know what? Try Dreem Distillery" So that will be the moment when I know it's been successful.

Juliet Fallowfield: Okay, excellent. when I hear someone tell me about it, I will WhatsApp

know. There's nothing like it, that word of mouth, it's just the biggest compliment you ever know Yeah

And what is, something you'd never do for your business?

Hayley Dawes: I think I would definitely never compromise on quality. So with the night drops, for example, they're pretty potent, and I chose that potency 'cause it worked for me. So we only have one potency for the night drops. And all the quality in all the products, it is, it's high-end ingredients, but we've put the right percentage in order to make a difference. And we want our customers coming back. We don't want them just to buy once and never come back. So yeah, the whole point is k- try and retain our customers as long as we can[00:28:00] 

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah, fantastic. And our question from a previous guest was Laura Butler-Madden, who's also an interior designer and to Grove England, a beautiful fragrance brand. She has snowdrop and anemone, so she fragrances for flowers that don't have smells. her question is, what do you feel the business has taught you about yourself that you weren't expecting or you didn't know before?

It's a big one.

Hayley Dawes: It is a big one, but you know what? Hands down, the word resilience in, in capital letters I think that is what it has taught me. Every single founder I'm sure will probably have that word, in their top five. But me, it really has been, and I feel it's been even more because of the CBD.

there's so many different, as you said before, gray areas, and I'm very black and white. So it's been quite hard to navigate. But with it, I've just got an abundance of resilience

Juliet Fallowfield: You're right, every founder talks about that, and they also talk about being okay with the rollercoaster, the level of responsibility, and the resilience that you'll find.

Hayley Dawes: dig deep and you'll find it. 

Juliet Fallowfield: [00:29:00] Yeah, but it does show you, you're like: Oh, wow, I've got through that.

 But the rollercoaster as well, it's real

Hayley Dawes: I think we probably quite enjoy it at the same time.

Juliet Fallowfield: It is the adrenaline, and then when you get through one hurdle, you just think, "Oh, that was quite an accomplishment. On get tested and you're like, I can do that. What else can I It is that mindset And if anyone's listening that's thinking, that's not for me," then don't do it because it, you need that mentality of go, go, go

and test, test, test, yeah

what would your question be for our next guest?

Hayley Dawes: Thank you. So I think my question for the next guest would be: If you could turn back the clock on your business, what is the one thing you would do differently?

Juliet Fallowfield: Oh, what would the answer be for you?

Hayley Dawes: I think I'm somebody that doesn't think about things too much, and I just go, go, go. So I had-- the idea. I'm not thinking about what-ifs all the time. I'm just going. So in hindsight, I probably would've thought about CBD and payment gateways, which is where the [00:30:00] websites take money on the back end.

Juliet Fallowfield: Oh, yeah

Hayley Dawes: So that's been quite a- an issue for some retailers. Not all. Selfridges we're brilliant with. But there are some retailers that don't have that payment gateway set up because of CBD, and I I would never have known obstacles like that. But saying that, it's the CBD, the broad-spectrum CBD that has helped my sleep enormously

Juliet Fallowfield: Thank you so much. It has been so wonderful chatting to you, Hayley,

andI'm sort of almost excited now that I can get back to a point where I enjoy sleep again and know I can feel rested. 

Hayley Dawes: prioritize it as well

Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. Yeah, it's doable. So I think that's it. When you're starting a business or scaling a business as you are,it can have ebbs and flows and ups and downs, but knowing that you can get back on top and feel like you're on the front foot with that 

Hayley Dawes: Absolutely. 

Juliet Fallowfield: it's 

Hayley Dawes: Yes. 

Juliet Fallowfield: So thank you so

Hayley Dawes: My pleasure. And Juliet, thank you so much for having me. Thank you 

Juliet Fallowfield: If you'd like to contact Hayley, you can find all of her details in the show notes, along with a recap of the advice that she has so [00:31:00] kindly shared. And tune in next week to hear the answer to her question about turning back the clock

One of our most downloaded episodes was Professor Russell Foster, the head of neuroscience at Oxford University, talking about sleep a couple of years ago. So tune back into season three to hear Russell Foster as part of our health and wellness season

And please, please subscribe, rate and review, interact with the podcast somehow through your listening app because it really does make a difference to me, the host, to know that you're there and enjoying it.

Or DM us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com to suggest future guests or questions that you might like answered in your own entrepreneurial journey. Thank you for listening, and I'll speak to you soon.