Everyone Told Him Not To Do It. He Built a Global Empire Anyway

Sacha Lord is the founder of Parklife Festival and The Warehouse Project — two of the UK's most successful live event brands, built over 30 years from a market stall in Liverpool.

He served as Greater Manchester's Night-Time Economy Adviser, became a Sunday Times bestselling author, and helped shape Manchester's cultural landscape into what it is today. He is one of the most influential figures in UK hospitality and events. And it all started with selling leather jackets.

In this episode, Sacha sits down with Emma to talk about what really happens when you stop listening to everyone telling you to play it safe. He opens up about anxiety, self-belief, and the mindset behind building iconic brands — as well as the mistakes, the leadership lessons, and the moment he knew it was time to let go.

This is one of the most honest conversations Emma has had on the podcast. If you've ever doubted yourself, felt stuck, or wondered whether now is the right time to start something new this one's for you.

Emma and Sacha cover:

• How he went from market trader to building world-renowned events
• Why most people give up too early — and how to push through
• How to build teams you can genuinely trust
• The leadership lessons behind scaling large organisations
• How to know when it's time to exit a business
• Why passion still matters, even at the top

"If you've got a passion for something, don't listen to anybody. Just do it."

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Focus on the Fun Stuff, the podcast for business owners who want to build a business that they actually love. I'm your host, Emma Mills, seven figure fan of MyPA, the UK's leading virtual PA support agency. And since 2008, MyPA has helped thousands of business owners to buy back their time, get out of the weeds, and focus on what matters most. And every week on the podcast, I'm sharing my own journey, live as it happens, and interviewing other business owners who've been exactly where you are now. And we're sharing practical tactics and real strategies to help you build a business that works for you, not the other way around. Sasha Lord, welcome to Focus on the Fun Stuff.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Thank you for inviting me.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

I am extremely excited to have you here today. I almost feel like you need no introduction. You're the founder of Warehouse Project Part Life for the Mancunians listening, the operator and owner of Sanky Soaps for six years, which is like the legendary club in Manchester. You are a legend in our office, I have to say. Before we left, Crispin told the team, they were like, Oh, where are you going? It was like we said, and there's like no way this is. Did you Crispin's for that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The team were buzzing that you were coming on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

It's like Crispin who I've just insulted before, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Making a scouse joke. Yes. Not realising he was a scouse.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

That's him as well, yeah. Um, you're a Sunday Times bestseller as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Well, that's see, that winds me up because yes, I I am. Um I came second. Did you? In the top ten, I was number two.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Well, who were you behind?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

I was beaten by a book about a dog that died.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Now, very sad. I love dogs. I probably love dogs more than humans, but you know, d being beaten by a dog that died. This is my 30-year career. I've been shot at and all sorts of different stuff. So yeah, I was beaten by a dead dog.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

That's not on the sticker though, it's just Sunday Times best seller. Yeah. Um, yeah, I'm just so excited today to unpack your journey from literally selling leather jackets at market in the market was in Liverpool. Yeah. So you owe you owe that city something here.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

They used to steal the jackets off me.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Um to creating like it is it was well, it is the biggest festival in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So when I sold warehouse projects in March 2024, it was the biggest nightclub in the world. Um Wow. Yeah, and when I sold Park Life at the same time, it was the biggest Metropolitan Festival in the UK. Oh my goodness. I don't know if it still is, but it was when I sold them.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

It's unbelievable. Um, so I yeah, I guess to start, Sasha, and also I don't know if you remember, so um we've like known each other online for quite a while now. And my first um, I don't know if you remember where we met, but my first interaction view was like really nice. So we were both up for Entrepreneur of the Year at Paul Kilrose Talk of Manchester Awards. Do you remember them? And you had Mr. Deans get on your table. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_01 2:56

That was bloody years ago.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Yeah. So that's how I first like knew who you were and we were both in the category. And I think I tweeted you about it on there, like like I was really excited to be in a category with you and other people. And then um you messaged me, and I can't remember how it happened, but you very, very kindly gifted me four VIP tickets to see yours phone.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Serious, did I? Yes. Do you know what at the time I was single?

SPEAKER_02 3:19

So I was telling you the map to my closet showed it.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

It's a fishing exercise.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Well, I was very happy about it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Just to point out, sorry, I'm not um you know ambitious or anything like that, but I did actually win that award, didn't I?

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Yeah, you did. Yeah, yeah. No, and that was like sewing up I knew.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

No, the organiser got very upset with me because I was supposed to go up and make a speech.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

And at the time I was useless at public speaking and I hated it. So I sent Mr. Deansgate up to make the speech. I remember that. Yeah. Good night.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yeah, he was like this real known character. Anyway, I digress on Mr. Deansgate, but um but yeah, no, you gifted me four VIP tickets to yours form, which was amazing at the um venue on Store Street.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yes, Store Street. I've got that road sign, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Have you really?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, so I stood I was at Store Street from 2007 to 2019.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

And up until that point, no one had actually taxi drivers didn't know where Store Street was, it's just the back street. So we made it quite well known. Everyone now knows where Store Street is. And I stood outside that door every Friday and every Saturday looking at the sign Store Street, and I thought, I'm gonna have that sign. So you can't if you put a ladder up at four in the morning, it looks pretty dodgy, doesn't it? Because it was like 20 feet up in the air. So I got a guy to turn up, put a high viz jacket on during the daytime, and took the roadside down, and it's it's framed, it's in my office at home, but it's a proper heavy Victorian one of the original signs.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So everybody just assumed he knew what he was doing because he's got a high viz on. Yes. Manchester Council might come knocking for that sign now, maybe. I think I've got away with it. Don't worry. So, okay, let's let's just dig in a little bit. So you did literally start selling leather jackets at the in Liverpool.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

And just how what was that jump to getting into the world of promotion nightclubs? Like, how did you make that jump? And was it intentional as well?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

No, so it wasn't. So my I was selling um my first job actually was the original Flannels.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Of course, in Goose Green.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

In Goose Green, in Alti, yeah. Are you from Alte?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

No, I did live in Hale for quite a while, but I do remember when Flannels was in Goose Green. It's now on the pedestrian joy fit, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

So um, anyway, I was working there £20 a day, and I thought I need to make a little bit more money, so I started to look into things, and I started a market stall on the only day that I said that Flannels was closed, which was um Sunday over in Liverpool selling leather jackets. And what I did was I found the manufacturer that but that made all the next leather jackets. Right. And if there was a fault, like literally a button had come off or something like that, did sell them wholesale for like 30 quid. So I'd buy 10 jackets, get my mum to put the buttons on or do the zip-up or something like that, and sell them for 140 quid and on Liverpool market.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

And so I'd gone from making 20 quid a day to six, seven hundred quid on a Sunday. So I was like, alright, flannels, you can do one. But at the same time, I was obsessed with a hacienda. And I just felt I needed to be part of that scene. That's what I wanted to do. You know, how you know, I wasn't I was a pretty much a geek, you know, that came from a grammar school, Manchester Grammar. So how do I get into what the cool kids are doing? And I started to put my own parties on.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

And do you mean like when you were obsessed with the hacienda, like you were going and visit and or you were thinking like I want to do something that's making money out of this kind of thing, like what um I like the music.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I thought it was it blew my mind. You know, the first time I walked into the hacienda, uh, well, actually the first time we were not back because I I I'd heard all the six formers at school saying, you know, this is the coolest place in the world to go to, and it was all over the press, so I thought, okay, well, you've got to be really well dressed to get in there. And I put my dad's suit on, my dad's shirt, my dad's tie, got to the front door and he told me to fuck off. Okay, that was it. So a week later I went back in jeans and t-shirt and um walked in and just the atmosphere, 2,000 people having it right off, was just incredible. And I didn't realise, I was there with my pal at the time, Peter Armistead. It was only six months later that we both realised we were probably the only people not on ecstasy inside the venue. Yeah, inside the venue. But it was um it was amazing, and then at the same time as being obsessed with that, a friend of mine whose mum and dad were really wealthy had his 18th birthday party at a club, it's closed now, but used to be um in Oldley Edge called yesterday's, and it was on a Monday night, pre-internet or anything like that. So he just sent a few flies out, and they were the little business cars that you get at service stations inviting people. He invited about 80 people, but word spread and he got 400 people.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

And I thought, do you know what? If I can do this, if I can find somewhere that's normally closed on a Monday or a Tuesday and get them to give me the club for free, I can get 400 people in here, the club will make on the bar, I'll charge £2.50, £3. There's something decent in that, and that's how it started.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

And did that feel like uh I'm gonna make this happen kind of thing, or did it feel a bit overwhelming, or was it it so it had to happen because um I needed money to pay bills, so it was out of necessity to be the first one, was just as a one-off really to pay off my phone bill and that that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Um but it succeeded and I thought this is quite good, let's do a few more.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

And did you think at that point like this is gonna be my thing?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

No, so I I uh suffered really badly at school.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

I went to a brilliant school, Manchester Grammar, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

But all the kids in my class went to Oxford or Cambridge or St Andrews, they knew what they wanted to do, be lawyers, and you know and at at 15, 16, 17, when you don't have a clue what you want to do, you you know, anxiety comes in to play. Yeah, and I was really stressed, I was really panicked, and that's kind of the idea why my wife, Demi, and I set up my foundation, which is due to start in a few months. It was due to start a couple of years ago. It's got childhood status, but then Demi decides to get pregnant. So it was put on the on the back burner. But the idea of that is to help kids in Greater Manchester who, like me, are suffering from anxiety, you know, back at that stage of 15, 16, 17, 18, don't know what they want to do with their lives. So I can give them, open my black book and get them into hospitality or events and you know, try and help them.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

That's that's the the idea behind it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

That's that's uh because I feel like even more so now with AI and kind of the job landscape potentially changing, like having a place where people can actually get some support, figure out what they want to do, what's the right way for it?

SPEAKER_00 10:02

It's so tough out there, you know. Oh, I couldn't do it. It's really tough. In fact, today, as we speak, there's a report, this is boring, but there's a report that's come out by um Alan Milburn, and it's advising the governments, you know, kids have never had it so bad. I would hate it now. Yeah, you know, I would have a Saturday job to earn a bit of extra income. They've gone now, don't exist, don't exist at all. It's um it's really, really tough. And potentially we're looking at a lost generation of jobs coming through.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Totally. So um so that so okay, so you do this event um with your friend for your friend's birthday in Alderley Edge. So then what like what what is that kind of trajectory of going? I'm gonna do this a bit more, I'm gonna earn some good money out of it to go in. Because it was your first full night at Paradise.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Hacienda.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Hacienda was the first.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Fourth of July 1994, at the Hacienda.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And do you know the story about that?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Um I do know that you said it about freshers and then actually other students had gone home.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Well, yeah, there is there is that, but see, I'm testing you on the book next time. I know you've testing me on the book. You've not read it, have you?

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I've read half of this book, Sasha.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Well, it's in the first half, so you've got it. So basically, what happened? Um, my friend Arnie and I decided, okay, let's put a night on at the hacienda. And they wanted, I think, 1200 quid plus VAT.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Which from Monday night, I now look back and know I got ripped off. And there was a, you know, I'm very confident they probably never paid the VAT to the VAT man either. But we thought, okay, well, we've got this, we're gonna have to. I think our break-even's like 500 or something like that. Um, and we stupidly thought Monday night, it's the hacienda, all the students are gonna come, it's gonna be great. 4th of July 94, all the students have gone, university's shut, that's our first mistake. So then we came up with a plan, and we went because you'll you'll know if you say to somebody, don't tell this person, or don't say that, or don't say the first thing you're gonna do the second you say that is turn your back and you start gossiping. Absolutely. So we went to all the shops in town and we gave them some flyers and said, Look, we're from the hacienda, that's a lie. Lie number one, we're not from the hacienda, we've just hired the hacienda. So we're from the hacienda. Uh, we want to thank you for putting all the hacienda flyers on the counter throughout the year and everything. What we're gonna do is to thank you is you as the manager plus your best mate can come on the guest list for the 4th of July this year, and all your mates and friends can come. It's seven pounds, but you can have reduced guests for five pounds. Don't tell anyone. We've got Manchester United turning up, we've got take that, we've got MP. This is all bollocks, we've got all these people turning up. Anyway, I think we've got 780 people, so we broke even, we managed to pay all the bills. The problem was none of those people were turning up. So after a couple of hours, and people had a few drinks, I started to get a tap on the shoulder to say, Well, where'd take that? Fortunately for us, we knew he owns Toast in Alchingham actually, we knew Justin Orange, who was Jason's exact twin brother. So it's like, what's she talking about? There's Jason Orange over there, and that was it, we just managed to pull it off. All promoters are blaggers.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Because you said you were a bit of a nerdy kid and you were anxious about what you wanted to do, but it feels like when you started this, you came into your own of Well no, do you know what?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

It was my art teacher, Mr. McGuinness.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

So all the kids at Manchester Grammar, and again it's a brilliant school, but they're all I look at them now, they're like penguins.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

They're all dressed, you know, even if they're not in the uniform, I can spot an MGS kid a mile off. You know, it's the haircuts, it's the way they carry themselves, and it it, you know, it's brilliant, but I just struggle to be one of them because I'd gone from in prep school being in the top three to joining MGS, and I was in the bottom three consistently. You know, I felt like a bit of a wally. And Mr. McGuinness, who follows me on Instagram now, who has said I can call him Steve, um, which I find really weird to me, he's still Sir.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

And I'll always call him Sir. He got me into, he gave me a tape firstly of a Manchester band called The Man from Del Monte. And I at the time I'd been listening to like Michael Jackson and stuff like that. So he sort of changed my musical taste. Okay. And at the time I was I had one of these stupid black box briefcases, you know, with the double um like code thing on either side. Yeah, for school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

That you put the code and it clicks up like that. So um he's like, why are you conforming like every other kid at the school? He said, ditch the briefcase. You know, I've not said this, but you'd have to wear the uniform correctly if you don't want it. And I was like, this is bloody brilliant. And at the same time, my mum and dad were going through a divorce as well. So I thought, I'm gonna rebel, this is it. And at that point, I spent, I was became obsessed with art. A, he was my teacher, B, I loved art, and C, I quickly worked out if you're in the art halls, other teachers weren't really looking at what you're doing, so you had the freedom to do what you wanted to do. Yeah, so I would say I'm going to the art hall, but actually I was spending time outside the girls' school instead. Um, in Plattefields, Manchester High. Little did I know a few decades later that would be the birthplace for part life.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

No way. And why do you think Mr. McGuinness was encouraging you to rebel so much?

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Um, he was just a really nice guy, and I think he knew, we never spoke about it, but I think he knew I was going through a pretty traumatic period with my mum and dad divorcing. Um so yeah, I found solace in the art halls.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

No way. So Sankey Soaps.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Um like the trajectory to get did you actually hire the building and operate and rent the building and operate inside it?

SPEAKER_03 15:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Okay. And so, like the trajectory to go from promotion and club nights to Sankey's, like, did that feel like a massive step or a natural progression?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Um, not massively, because so I'd been running for quite a few years student nights.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

But also I put some bigger events on as well. On New Year's Eve, so I hired uh Granada Studios, which capacity of 5,000.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Um yeah, so I was I was starting to dip my toe into the bigger events. Um, but my rival was a guy, a Cockney guy, East End guy called Dave Vincent, who's actually just reopened Sankey's here in Manchester, yeah. Um, in the old Holy City Zoo. But he phoned me up and and we had a couple of meetings about you know, we were being real dicks against each other, and uh things because he was running new I was running News Eve at Granada Studios, he was running News Eve at Manchester Arena, 9x in those days.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So um I do things to wind him up, like you know, I would he had an office in Beehive Mill where Sankey's was, and um I'd phone up and I put a weird accent on, nor behold him there, go, uh I've just seen your posters. That'd say. Um oh yeah, where have you seen? I've seen them in Chester. Is it true it's cancelled? It's like, and I was sat in my car on the mobile outside his office, like down like that there she couldn't see. And um, what do you mean, cancelled? He said, Well, yeah, all your posters got cancel stickers all over them around the whole of Chester. Literally five minutes later, I'd see him and his two guys you work with jump in the car and like waste a day trying to jest and stuff. So we'd each waste each other's time, and he's like, Why don't we just combine our efforts and do something together? And Sankis had been open 94 to 98, it had to close because well it went bankrupt actually, but it was about to lose his licence with you know drugs and guns and all sorts of things. And yeah, we reopened it um October 2000.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

And at this point, so from a business perspective, it's you and Dave, and like the team around you, who or what was that like you know, a first hire or to like liberate your time? What what did the team look like at this point? Did you have a team?

SPEAKER_00 18:01

First hire, actually. I hadn't heard of him. It was a guy that lived near me, um, who years later was one of the people who we started Wales Bodgie with, and that was Sam Candel. No way, um, yeah. So uh he was he'd go around town putting up posters and handing out flies on the streets and things like that. Um then we built it, you know, we built quite a small team, there was like probably three or four of us to begin with. Because back in those days, you know, we we hired everything because we didn't know whether it was going to last three months or years. The reason being it was it was pretty tough Manchester in those days. You know, the the night before the opening night we were petrol bombed and the gangsters wanted the door, and it was I mean it was it was horrible. You know, it was if you had read the book, which you haven't, you'd know all these stories. Um but yeah, do read it. If you don't like reading, you could do the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

You'll see where the page is turned where I've got halfway through.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

That's not hard, it's not even a third. No, no, it is. It is. No, it's not halfway. Um so yeah, that's how it started, and it did actually last six years. And I I towards the end I got really bored of Sankey's because it was the same four walls, week in, week out. We were starting to book the same DJs, and it turned into a job.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

It wasn't something I loved, but in two that so that was 2005, I started to get those feelings. In 2003, I had got the first licence since John Major had closed down all the legal raves in the UK. Manchester Council gave me the licence to put a the first warehouse party on since then, and I really enjoyed that. We had 12,000 people. Do you know what? I've just been looking at it. I was in traffic on the way here, and Pollard Street now is all flats. Yeah, that's where the warehouse was. Um, and it was owned by a lady called Caroline Sco, who's sadly no longer with us, who was one of the owners of a Paradise Factory back in the day in Manto in the village. And um, it was great, 12,000 people, no one had a clue what they were doing. Um, you know, we we brought the sound systems in on the back of trucks. It was the whole thing was just wild, wild. And the one thing I'll never forget is um I had like 84 licence conditions on my licence. The world was looking at they thought I was going to break the licence, and there's no way you could carry this off, it's impossible. And I think some officers at the council wanted me to trip up, so they came down inspecting every half an hour while the event was happening. While the event was happening. You got 86 actually, so you've done well on that. But where are your sniffer dogs? You're supposed to have drug sniffer dogs on the door. I was like, Yeah, you're right. I've no idea, let me phone security. So the guy I was hiring all the door lads off, bearing in mind it was early 2000s, it's not as professional as it was now, it's a guy called Tony Ratcliffe, his nickname was Ratty from Wigan. Chorley, actually, and um I was like, Ratty, where are these uh where are the drug sniffer dogs? He was like, leave it with me, love. They'll be there in half an hour. It's like, alright, fine. This guy was about six foot six, peroxide blonde hair, must have gone on the sunbed twice a day. Like, the amount of steroids he must have taken back in like like it was it was a wall, a walking wall. Half an hour past, ratty, where are they they're on the way, they're on the way. Then he stopped time to send his phone, so I had the number of his right hand guy, Dave Paul, and I was like, Dave, where are these dogs? Anyway, these dogs turned up. I had a I had a call on the radio to the dogs at the front door. I looked at Dave and like, these aren't sniffer dogs, are they?

SPEAKER_02 21:58

No, what were they?

SPEAKER_00 21:59

Like, what do you mean? One of them was a fucking Pomeranian, right? Like, you can't have a Pomeranian as a sniffing dog. Right, I know that. I said, like, where have these dogs come from? It's like, John, we'll be honest with him, like, yeah, just tell me where these dogs have come from. He said, Well, Ratty made us drive around choring, we've just taken them out of people's gardens. I'm like, you are joking. So we had like six Nick dogs, and I to this date I don't know what happened to those dogs.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

No.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Yeah, but it's like we can't have the dogs on the door.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Do you know what the karma is that that dog beat you in the Sunday Times bestseller list? That is the karma. Is that the dead dog? That is the dead. Well, it's a dead dog for that.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

But it's lasted 23 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

I don't think it's his own dog. No. So did you have just a little collection of six random, completely different dogs that were like, why am I at this rate?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

You wouldn't even look at customers, and every time a door lad brought a sandwich out, all little wagging tails locking out, it was pathetic.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

Oh, it's quite quite cute, but sure quite stressful at the time.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Very stressful. When he got 12,000 people off their head in the rave and his Pomeranians running around, it's not great.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

And having someone like inspect it every two hours, I mean, gosh.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

It was tough. And I think to be fair to the council, they had eyes on them as well.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Because they granted me this licence, but other authorities were like, why have you granted that? That's going to set precedent, which it did.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Highly unusual. Right. And so why did you just think this is going to work, this is what people want, it's completely different to what I was doing. Like, what was the behind it?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Everything was so boring at the time. Right. And that's kind of why we started Warehouse Projects. Warehouse Project was supposed to be a one-year project. That was it. But actually, in those three months, because it runs October through to New Year's Eve, we sold a hundred thousand tickets. And it was like, wow, this has got to carry on. And the first year was in Boddington's Boddington's brewery.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Of course, right, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

Which was a nightmare for me. It was the toughest gig. So it was fully licensed, everything was above board. But what myself, the production company, the licensing officers, fire, police sorry, anyone listen to this, I have got a chest infection. So we forgot it's ranting still through Strange War's prison. So on the opening night, my phone starts ringing. And I thought, this is so we had public enemy. It was a Thursday night actually. And he kept ringing withheld and thought, I'm not going to answer this, it's source after guest list. Anyway, it was still ringing at one in the morning, so I answered it and I was like, hello. And um, it was the governor from Strangeware's prison. He's like, What time do you close tonight? I was like, two o'clock. He was like, okay, fine, well, we can live with that. I said, but tomorrow night we're on till four, and Saturday we're on till five. He said, What do you mean? Is this not a one-off? I'm like, no, we're open for three months. He went on record to say that the warehouse project caused a spike in drugs in uh Strange Ways. And we were getting letters on Strange Ways Letterhead sent to the office to say, Oh, I've been on the internet, I listened to the set on Saturday night. Great set by Annie Mack. Um, I don't suppose you recorded it, can you? Can you send us a tape? This is mental. So environmental health made us move it.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

So why what how how and why did it move the spike? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

So every Friday and Saturday, the prisoners in Strangeways Prison were raving.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Crazy. And the spiking drugs that he was talking about, how is that connected to you?

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Because we were pumping house music into strange ways, so obviously the prisoners wanted drugs. Sorry. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Not great. No, what a crazy situation to deal with in your business.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yeah. So what not not ideal at all.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

And so what d is that the only season that it was there?

unknown 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

In that venue. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

So we moved it there and we thought, well, we're going to carry on. But we're not going through all that palaver again with prisons and stuff. So um I went on the internet and found the biggest air raid shelter in the centre of Manchester for World War II. Where the walls were like 12 foot thick, and that was Store Street.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

So you've been in Store Street, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Obviously, Yoris Forn. That was the biggest air raid shelter. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Mike, and then like the the start, just I find it like the things that you have to overcome, like you you find that, and then then what is the next step? You go to Manchester Council and go, can we do this? Can I like this? I've got this idea. Is that just literally how it starts? Yes, it is. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah. No, I do know what that will always for me be my favourite home for warehouse budget. Really? Store streets. I felt like it came became too big, it was manageable. Um, it was quite intimate. It was intense, even though there were two and a half thousand people in there, it was and it was a nice environment. Um, but yeah, that's just me.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

What was like what was that like as a business havoc? Because was where at that time warehouse project was the main product that you had ultimately. Yes. So your business was very, it was kind of everything built up to the last three months of the year.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Like, how was that operationally? Is is that at like actually a dream because you've got nine months to plan this thing that's going to execute amazingly and essentially.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

I mean it's hard to ramp up the workforce because obviously you can't sustain a full squad for nine months of the year when you you're not operating. So we used to use a lot of freelancers. Yeah. Which is great, which is kind of why I was so passionate when we went into lockdown. The freelancers didn't get any furlough or anything like that. I don't know whether you did as a director, but you know, they were completely forgotten about. And a lot of those were were my mates. Yeah. So that's why I was very passionate and speaking up from during that that period.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Because just touching on that, during that period, that's when you started. Is it United We Stream?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

That was like an every weekend event that happened. It was meant to be a one-off, was it, to start with?

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Well, yeah, so basically what happened was um Burnham phoned me up and said, Sounds weird calling him Burnham. I feel in environments like this, if I call him Andy, feel it I I feel like I should call him Burnham. So um, so Andy phoned me up and was like, Look, because I don't know if you remember when we went into lockdown, there were two massive illegal raves, and one kid actually died. I think it was a rave in Oldham, and there's one in you see the Partington or Carrington. One had 6,000 people, one had 2,000 people. So Andy was really worried about that. Illegal raves, there are no paramedics, there are no police, there's no security, you know, it's really, really dangerous. So um there was that, and also he was very concerned about people suffering from chronic loneliness. And actually, a lot of the staff at Warehouse Project lived by themselves in flats in town, didn't have balconies, so I kind of I really got it. Um, because they were cooped up for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. So I think going into lockdown, Demi thought, we've got family time, and then I threw myself into this United Wee's dream. Um, and over a 10-week period, it went it went from an idea to the most viral thing that happened during lockdown, and we had 10.4 million viewers, and the idea was you could watch it free of charge, but if you could donate £1, £2, £3, or whatever, um, you know, it would go to help the homeless, it would go to help the freelancers, it would go to help charities, and we raised 612,000 during that time. Yeah, wow, and actually, that's probably you know, everyone remembers me for Warehouse Project Part Life or Nighttime Economy Advisor, but that's that was my proudest thing I ever did. Really?

SPEAKER_02 29:46

How long did that go on for then? Ten weeks.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Ten weeks, wow, it was nuts. We had the biggest superstars playing, we had the biggest bands, it was crazy. Jason Statham was posting videos of him in Hollywood saying, I'm looking at United We Stream in Manchester, go for it, and it's like, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

And where were the artists playing in their own location?

SPEAKER_00 30:09

And then so somewhere at the own locations, but um the Met Theatre in Bury, Vicar name was Game of the Keys, and we set up a studio there. Obviously, socially distanced, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's where we set it up.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

How brilliant it was. So um I'm just really interested from an operational business perspective. Like when you did your say your first night at warehouse project, like the the volume of visitors, all the things you had to comply with on all of the conditions on the licence, like pulling that team together, Sasha. How do you know that to actually execute it and operate on it? Like, was that did that already feel quite natural to pull all of that together? Like, it feels like putting that kind of event on feels like wow, there's so much detail.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

And in fact, even when I sold it March 24, it wasn't perfect. There were still learnings to make from it, and that's kind of how we moved around different venues. Store Street in the end, when we moved from there in 2019, at the end of every season, we'd sit together as a team. Right, how do we improve service on the bar, speed to get to the toilets, people moving around the venue, all sorts of different things, you know, how do we make it better? And we'd taken Store Street to the most perfect way to rave. You could we couldn't improve it anymore. And we could have stayed there, and the following season would have sold out, but then it would have started to peter off. So that's why we had to tear up the rule books and we moved it to Mayfield Depot.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Um, and we moved it from two and a half thousand to ten thousand, and that had to really ramp the operation up.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

And in terms of like pulling that team together, and say even like pre-warehouse project where you when you were at Sankey's or like that kind of was it just um a matter of finding the right people testing and oh you're not good enough, you are like that kind of pulling together the crew who are able to execute on that.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

I've always had a knack of spotting good people.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Really?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah, and I think the way you treat people is so very, very important. So in my industry, people move around a lot, it's quite fickle. Yeah, but um when I sold the business and I looked at the you know the staff that still remain, they've been with me for years. Like Kim, who's the GM, um was with us at the start, was with us at 2006. She worked for me at the warehouse on Pollard Street 2003, and when I sold it, she was GM of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Oh really?

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Which is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yeah. And as and as a leader of that business, like how would would I have a mentor who's one of his main uh mantras is like you get what you tolerate, and I'm just interested in terms of mentioned his name now. He's called Nigel.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Okay. Botrell.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

He's called Nigel Botrell. Botrel? Yeah, it's quite an unusual surname. He has um Do you think Poshes? Nigel Botrell. Yeah. He's from Leeds. He has um a business called Entrepreneur's Circle that helps and coaches other business owners, but he's very, very fixed when you get what you tolerate. And I just interested like your leadership style, because you've ultimately got all of these people that have to execute to make warehouse project this amazing.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

Yeah, something I've always been very against, I hate it, is any thought of a hierarchy.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Really?

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Yeah, my office was always an open office, always. And I think that's good because even subconsciously, you might not be trying to listen to a conversation, but it's it's coming in so you understand exactly what's going on. Yeah, um, you know, I've never ever liked the idea of VIP at events. Sometimes at Warehouse Budget, I've walked into the VIP and I was like, what are you doing? This it's absolutely rammed, people are shoulder to shoulder, yeah, and they just want to be seen as a VIP VIP, and then people want to go backstage and it's like Yeah, I think the quicker entry is nice.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

That's for me a bonus for VIP.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

That's a bonus rather than keeping it. That's the tick in the box. But yeah, even you know, we used to we used to say um you get a bigger toilet facility. Well, yeah, you did, but it was a disabled toilet we stuck in there, that was it. So it was just it was just a bigger toilet. But um, no, I've never liked the idea of backstage or VIP or anything like you know, I'm quite old-fashioned when it comes to events, and I think the dance floor is where it's at. The other thing as well that I I absolutely despise is phones on dance floors. Yeah, I hate it. You know, I've been banging on about this for years, it's killing the dance floors, it's killing them. You know, I remember I think about events like at his absolute peak, David Getter, when he'd come on at Store Street, you know, and you knew he was coming at 12 o'clock. So I would know the customers would start shifting. It's about 20 to 12, the bars would be around, toilets would be very, very busy, you'd have to throw all your staff on them, and then at 5 to 12 before Geta came on, the dance floor was heaving. Really? Yeah, and the energy that was building up, you could feel the I'd love to stand next to the dance floor, you could feel the energy. Then he would come on and people would lose their shit. Now, you look at the crowd, did it all stood like that there, but like filming it. You know, I I saw in the last season, my last season at Warehouse Project, it was a I'm not gonna say his name actually, because he's a lovely guy uh but a guy was headlining it, and kids came into the event, sat at the back of the room, sitting around and stuff, weren't really dancing, headliner came on at 12, all got up, started filming it, and then started to leave half an hour after. So they'd got the image. No way, really. Next day on Instagram, all I was in the warehouse budget last night, and is that? Yeah, and I was like, that's not cool at all. No, and there's all these little things that started started to irritate me, and I thought, again, like I did with Sankey's at the end, this is becoming a bit of a job.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

And is that part of because you did exit um warehouse in 2024, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Yeah, so I did the deal in March 21. I was like, okay, I'm ready. This is it, you know. I started to have dreams of because I'm I'm very, very hands-on, were hands-on at the events.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Really?

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Yeah, so you know, I'd never, I've not once had a drink at one of my events. So on the door, running around, checking everything.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

And would you be at most events?

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Every single one.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yeah. Um, and then I started to think, am I gonna be on a Zimmer frame stood on this door? And then I also thought to myself, do you know what? I've married Demi now. Um I just want to enjoy myself for a little bit. And then we started to talk about, you know, having a kid, um, which is why I've got this chest infection we were talking about before, because he keeps bringing germs back from nursery. And I thought, yeah, I'm ready to I'm ready to do this now. So I did the deal in 21. I had to stay on for three years and I exited um March 24. Don't regret it one iota.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

You don't?

SPEAKER_00 37:25

No, I do not regret it.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

That was gonna be my next question because I feel like a lot of people talk about like, you know, the business is the baby, their identity is the business.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Like how so when I look back now, I get very irritated when I see things that are happening that I wouldn't have done. Um I'm not necessarily right, but I look at stuff and I'm like, really? Um but then I've had the most incredible two years. Um Demi became pregnant. Uh how many dads can spend the first 19 months with their son?

SPEAKER_03 37:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

So I did that, you know, we've watched Loan Grow Up, we've been on endless holidays. Um I am ready to go again though.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Okay, so you you were just like you were ready for a chill, I guess like you. Just wanted a chill. Yes, because you spent a lot of your years and weekends out till early hours making sure everything's going smoothly.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

But now I'm ready to um I've had a few meetings over the last few months and I've got itchy feet.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Nice. I wanted to ask you about, because it's really popular um in business, but like the word personal brand.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

And I w um so you have two co-founders of Warehouse Projects and Part Life, is that right? But I feel like most people don't know that or don't realise or don't know who they are, and so but people know Sasha Lord. Yeah. And like in terms of personal brand, because especially now because it's so easy to generate content, it's people are saying it's more important than ever to be, have your thing that you stand for, who you are, what you're about. Like that's how a good, you know, it's it's a part of growing your business. Yeah. Did you ever was it just something that kind of happened naturally that you came to the front of the business? Did you actually go consciously, I am, you know, I need to be kind of forefront for warehouse project?

SPEAKER_00 39:10

I realised, I laughed when you said personal brand, by the way, because my friend Ash, you know, used to work at Social Chain. Oh yeah. He is banging, if every time we've gone LinkedIn now, Ash is talking about personal brand the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Well it's yeah, it's the thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Um I had to come to the forefront because in September 2013, very, very sadly at Victoria Warehouse, a guy called Nick Bonnie took far, far, far too many drugs. Right. And we managed to get into hospital, but he didn't make it. And um I was advised by my BR company to say nothing, put a very bland corporate statement out, and I thought about it for 48 hours and I was like, that's not me, actually. A kid died at you know, from parting at warehouse projects, and you know, he got his drugs in, and I've always said if you can't stop drugs getting into a category A prison like Strange Ways, what are you supposed to do with a nightclub or a field? You know, it's impossible. So I've always felt you need to the answer the worn drugs is lost. The answer is educate, educate, educate. And I thought, no, I'm going to grab the ball by the horn actually here and called a press conference because I thought maybe we can educate kids on the back of the sad news with Nick Bonnie. And um my PR company was absolutely right, actually. They I was vilified in the press for it. Really? Yeah, vilified. My mum was walking through Alti, and there was a sandwich board outside a shop, and the um Manchavin News Um had written on it, super club death boss speaks out. And it's like it was do you know it was horrible. But I'd go through it again because I started to get that conversation going, and and people do talk more freely about it now. And you know, I was the one that did the first on-site drugs testing, and I've always been adamant that that has to happen at large-scale events. So ultimately, it saved lives, but that pushed me to the front, and I realised that at that moment that actually I have a voice here because not many people in our industry, you know, in nightclubs and festivals, did have a voice. Yeah. So I kind of took the mantlas at that point.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

So it was more for a social responsibility kind of perspective. And then I get that that has grown, hasn't it, over recent years?

SPEAKER_00 41:28

So you were the it has, but you know, I'm I'm quite opinionated, you know. If I believe in something, I'm not always right, but if I believe in something, then I will talk about it. And even if a million people are disagreeing with me, and I still think I'm right, I you know, I won't change tact. That's that's the way I am.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Yeah. Well that that's like more well morphed, but like then transitioned into the you were the greater Manchester nighttime economy advisor. And is that like is that a role that you, you know, as I guess with warehouse projects, as you were like, this is now not the kind of thing I want to do anymore. Is that where you've seen?

SPEAKER_00 42:05

So yeah, do you know I've really I've watched Andy operate very closely for seven years.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Well, how and when did you first meet Andy? Because I feel like you have a close friendship and you know each other well.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Yeah, so um on the back of the arena attack actually.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

So obviously the attack was 22nd of May 2017, and there was the One Love concert with Arena Grande and things like ten days later, which was amazing. But I thought, you know, it's a really little Hollywood concert. This you've got all the big mega, mega, mega stars, and then we had Park Life the week later. Arena Grande was 50,000 people, partlife was 80,000 people, and I thought, let's do a tribute, but for Manchester people, people who were there that night, people who ran into fear rather than running away from fear. So the paramedics, the doctors, the nurses, the police, the firemen, the local counsellors, taxi drivers that gave people free lifts that were stranded, hoteliers that gave people free hotels that were stranded. Let's get them all on stage and let's get Andy to come and say a few words. I've never seen anything like that before. You know, 80,000 nutters in part life that are normally running around.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Um, you could hear a pin drop when he spoke, absolute pin drop. And it's not like these politicians that I come across where they've got teleprompters in front of them telling them what to say. He stood there for 10 minutes and made the most impassioned speech I've ever seen in my life. And literally one year later, he made me his nighttime economy advisor. And the you know, he listens to people, and you know, he is the same person in front of the camera than he is off the camera. Most politicians aren't like that.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Really?

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

Not what you see is what you get, but you do without it.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I he is one of us, he's just a normal person. And uh Demi hates politics, she can't stand politics, and she hates It's me putting my head above the parapet because of all the shitty trolls that come out. Do you know what I'm I'm used to it now? Um But I showed her his campaign video a couple of weeks ago before it was launched. I'm like, you know, this is what's gonna go live tonight. And she actually came back into the room and said to me, Do you know what? That's giving me goosebumps. And I was like, why is that giving you goosebumps? She said, Well, he's just one of us, isn't he? You know, he's just one of us. You know, we could we could have someone, I don't, you know, he'd have to, and he'd have to speak for himself, but we could have someone running the country that is one of us. I've never seen that in my lifetime before. You know, no, tell me another PM that's that approachable. Sunak, no, May, no, Boris, forget it. Major, no, Thatcher, do it. No, there's no one, but he is one of us.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

And so are you a are you a part of the his campaign with the because he's currently as we record this, he's um for Ashton in Makerfield. By election. By election, yeah, running for MP there. So you were part of that campaign. Is that like, do you think that's part of your next phase of life in politics?

SPEAKER_00 45:07

And so um who knows?

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Okay. Maybe, maybe not.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Yeah, so I I did have um I was mulling things over a few months ago. Um, then we put a firm stop to it. Really? Yeah, but it's it's not off the table just yet. Just the time's not right. I've got things to do. Uh the there's still things that I need to achieve.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Yeah, no, I get that. Um, we haven't touched on part life, and I would like to. So just just chat me through. So you're doing warehouse projects, you start that in 2006, part life starts in 2010. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Like Platfields. Plattfields was the first. Um so what what was the was it again just like a I think this would be really cool. Had you been to some somewhere else?

SPEAKER_00 45:51

So there was an event that's had run two years before us, um, called Mad Ferret. Yeah, which I didn't realise at the time, it was a play on the mankhrase, mad for it. Not very funny. Um but they lost a fortune. And the guys were actually trying to do something really clever, but they didn't. I think they'll admit it themselves, they didn't quite pull it off. So um I was thinking, do you know what we're really missing in Manchester? This the whole idea of a prom, people started to talk about an end-of-year prom, an American thing, and in 2009-10, people just started to bound this around. I thought, there's not really any big end-of-year student party. It's like bang, platfields in the middle of student village, 20,000 people, let's go for it, and it sold out within weeks. Incredible. Uh Calvin Harris actually headlined the first one, but he just built and built and built and built, and you know, when I sold in 24, it was 80,000.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Oh my goodness, wow, incredible. And as a business, like operationally, how does that compare to warehouse projects? Like the the execution of it, that are they are they completely different beasts?

SPEAKER_00 47:04

So, warehouse projects is manageable, so if something happened, I could be where that thing happened within five minutes the most. Part life, no, I would spend the whole weekend in event control, literally rocking like that. You've got so you've got event control and all these desks there, you've got a wall of TVs, so the CT TV all over the place, and you've got ambulance service, NHS, fire, police, Banch City Council, everybody sat in this one room, then you've got this big table in the middle with a huge map where you meet every hour or so and you start looking at things that are happening.

SPEAKER_03 47:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

It's actually to do something like that is a science. I'm sure you can't just sell 80,000 tickets and hope, excuse me, hope for the best. You've got to try and work out how you're gonna get them there, how you're gonna get them back. Yeah, you're responsible for these young, I can call them kids, I'm 54, these young kids, mainly 18 to 24 year olds. You are responsible for them when you're in the site. And I get really annoyed when I see promoters who you know are backstage drinking champagne and oh look at me and look at what I've achieved and everything with that. It's your job, you've got to show some responsibility for people inside your venue. So, um, yeah, it is absolute. There's an army that works there. When I was there, just over the park life weekend, four and a half thousand people be working there behind the scenes, a thousand security and a thousand bar tape uh bar people straight away. It was nuts.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

I can't even, that just feels like such a mammoth thing to have the playbooks, the this is how we do things. Like the because part life's got uh I have never been to a park life, but like I see sorry from the marketing. You've not read my book, not been to part life, I have had free tickets off you. You gagged in for free tickets and you brilliantly. But I see like the from the illustrations of part life, like the marketing of it, the energy of it, there is a part like it's got a feel to it, the part life way. Do you like that that way that you do things? How did you make sure that kind of flowed through in everything that you do?

SPEAKER_00 49:16

Is that kind of is there one key person in your team that makes sure it was actually um a designer called uh Ariel Moss, I think her name was. Um, she did the cover for the disclosure album, the first one. Oh wow. Do you remember like the face with the two eyes? Yeah, she did that, so she's always done it.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

And so, and but but that also that ethos of like being at part life, because again, I've never been, but as I've always understood it, like warehouse project, like it's a good energy, it's a good atmosphere, and I feel like that comes also from the execution of it and the organization and your team as well, like how they operate on site. Like, is that difficult to this is how we do things, guys, or is that just kind of is there somebody else in your team that's responsible for that?

SPEAKER_00 50:02

Um, there was a production company that would bring in, but again, I was extremely hands-on. I think you have to be. Totally, I can imagine. You know, even down to Portaloo's, you know, Dr. Lou, he wasn't a real doctor, by the way, but I'd go make sure that Phil He's in my phone as Phil Bogboy for some reason. You know, I'd make sure he was fine and just um I always it's hard with part life because there's four and a half thousand people, but certainly with warehouse budget, I would know every single person's name. Everyone.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

Really?

SPEAKER_00 50:36

And yeah, and always I'd always use their first name and check on them. It doesn't matter who it was from cleaners, security, bar staff, you know, they're there to to make the operation flow. So it was my job to to make them happy.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

And in terms of um, obviously these events have been incredibly successful, but kind of in early days or in first iterations of them, selling tickets and making sure you sold tickets. I don't I guess like if these business owners are in hospitality or running events or just what what was that like for you? I guess when you set tickets live, you've got an element of are they gonna sell?

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Yeah. When you put an event on, you know within the first two minutes is it a good event or is it really? Yeah.

unknown 51:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

And actually, if the event's screwed, there's nothing you can do about it. In the old days, you could, you could go out and put loads of posters and flies out, and it would make a difference. The public have changed now, and I think the public can smell when an event is not selling. You know, if you ever see an event advertising 50% of tickets now sold out, that's a lie, it's fucked. You've probably done 20%, that's it. You know, it's just the public see that straight away.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Yeah. So what do you think was the key to having the ticket selling straight away, or was the act, or all, or do you think also there's just an element of people trust that warehouse project is going to be a good night?

SPEAKER_00 52:05

I think there was there was a trust in in the brand, actually.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

That was it.

SPEAKER_02 52:10

Yeah. And I mean, in 2026, I know that you've talked about this so much in the press, like on your socials, just it is, I mean, it's difficult to run a business full stock, but I feel like it's kind of intensify intensified, hasn't it? In in my own business, like towards the end of last year, you could just tell people were spending a bit slower, making decisions a bit slower. Yeah, it feels a bit like people were uncertain. And I I I don't know, yeah. I think 2026 is still similar. Obviously, you've exited a business. Just for if you were back now, like running a business, starting a business, how I don't know, is there any like kind of advice or how you would if these people listen to this who are in hospitality? And I know you speak to so many of them, like you're properly in the industry now, still, aren't you? Like, understanding how how it is.

SPEAKER_00 52:56

Like what I'm chair of the Nighttime Industry Association. So that's more UK focused, not just Manchester.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Understand. So what what uh yeah, what what would your advice be to business ownership?

SPEAKER_00 53:07

You know, there's so much doom and gloom out there at the moment, and I I get it, I could rattle off a load of stats for you. Like the profit on a pint at the moment's 13p. That's it. Once you paid for the product, your VAT, alcohol duty, utility bills, staff serving, 13. You know, it's it's ridiculous, but there's a big butt that comes with that. I would say to anybody, especially people who are young and maybe haven't got married or don't have a mortgage, if you want to start a business up and you're passionate about something, I promise you, everybody around you will tell you not to do it. Probably your mums and dads, probably your best friends, uh don't even listen to them. Just go and do it. Really? Absolutely, yeah. Just do it. Because you know, going back to that little anxious geek at Manchester Grammar, if you'd said to that 16-year-old with his little boxy briefcase, look, yes, all your mates are going to Oxbridge, right? That's a done deal. But you're going to create the biggest nightclub in the world, the biggest metropolitan investor in the UK, be the first nighttime economy advisor, have a Sunday Times bestseller, considering you've got a U, it's English lit. I'd say you're on drugs. But I didn't listen to any of those people around me that were telling me not to do it, to go and get a proper job. You know, it's not great saying to like my grandma, she didn't get ahead, she couldn't understand it at all. My granddad would say, Would you serve food at your events? I'm like, I've not got my heart to tell him most people are off the tits. Um, you know, they didn't understand what I was doing, and they were all really wanting me to get a proper job, you know, proper nine to five job. Didn't just don't, if you've got a passion for something, do not listen to anybody, just do it.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

So regardless of what the regardless, even what's going on in the outside world.

SPEAKER_00 55:01

Just do it. You know, there are loads of very successful hospitality businesses out there at the moment. Here in Manchester, they really are you know, they are finding it tough as well. They are having to look at areas where they can save. But believe me, they're making good money.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

So do you think just part of it is about continually being creative, inventive, that's it, evolving the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

If you looked at our at our line-ups for Warehouse Project in 2006, they wouldn't sell a sausage now. You know, they would not sell one ticket.

SPEAKER_02 55:33

What do you mean? Because everything evolves so quickly.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

Um so yeah, just it's just moving with the times constantly.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

And you know, in hospitality, you look at things like Jamie's, TGI, you know, they all closed, they never moved. No, I was not shocked at all. TGIs went bust. Now I used to drive past that one in sale. And it it looked like a crematorium in the end. It was horrible. And it was obviously going to die. They never changed the menu. When that first opened, the big thing was uh Jack Daniel's steak. Guess what? When it closed, I still didn't Jack Daniel's steak. It's like now you've got to move and evolve the times.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

So true. And you've used the word passion there a couple of times. Do you think it's really key that you are passionate about your business, that you're enjoying what you're doing? Like, how do have you always felt like that?

SPEAKER_00 56:27

Yeah, you have to really enjoy what you're doing, you've got to get a kick out of it. Um, because the second you lose that passion, do you think it's it's just time to get out?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Do you reckon?

SPEAKER_00 56:37

Yeah, you've got to feel the energy in the business the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Yeah, no, I totally get that. Um, and just a question I wanted to ask you like, do so so many of our clients come to us because they get stuck in the weeds because business owners are can't like you know, there's always a million things to do. You have overwhelm, like they need to prioritize that that everything often comes back to them because they are the font of all knowledge. Yep. I just my because you've got clearly done the most amazing job of having ideas, making them happen, but it can't only happen because you're in it, you've got all of these teams. Yeah, I don't like have you got a secret source to that of either not being overwhelmed, of making sure you're focusing on the most important things that only Sasha can do.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

You have to really trust people that they're going to take things off you to do themselves. Like, I knew I would not have to look at the bars because Kim the GM had those nailed.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Um, you know, there were certain areas that I knew I didn't have to deal with because that the right people were looking after those. And I think you have to be prepared. So certainly when you grow it, not to begin with, but when you grow it so that you can't be here there and everywhere, you've got to be prepared to let go of things. I struggled with that for a couple of years, and then I realized, you know, that is the right way forward to grow the business.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Yeah. And when you say like you struggled, like, was that then just about you needed to up? Because again, like so many of the businesses that we deal with, you go through this evolution of like people that get you here won't get you there, and clearly you've been through like stratospheric growth. Was that also about constantly up-leveling the team around you?

SPEAKER_00 58:15

It was, yeah.

unknown 58:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

Really? No, I found it even when we'd had licence inspections during an event, that was always me that did it. And then, you know, Kim or Johnny that worked for me, they'd they'd go and do it. And I had the confidence that they'd be saying all the right things.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

Yeah, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

So you've just got to you've got to let things go.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

Yeah, no, I totally get that. And um I'm very passionate that business owners can get their business to a place where they can focus on what they enjoy doing the most in the business.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:44

I know that you've in a different phase of life now and what you enjoy doing, but like when you were back in the thick of it, just what was that thing that is like the secret sauce that only Sasha should be doing or Sasha can do best? Like, that's where you should be putting your energy. What would you say that was?

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Mine was always dealing with the authorities. That was it. Really? Yeah. You know, if if there was a a problem, then I'd be the one that had to go and deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Believe me, you know, loads of people think because of my connection with Andy Burnham, loads of people think the council turned a blind eye to my operations. Trust me. It's the complete opposite, I'm sure. So, firstly, people don't understand the setup. Andy's the combined authority. The council are completely separate, completely separate. So he works with all ten boroughs. Manchester Council's, you know, one of those boroughs. And believe me, I was dragged into that town hall more times than I can remember. Really? Yeah. Oh yeah. Um, and given a bollocing as well.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

Um, and the exit, I know like we're not going to go into like loads of detail about it, but I just want to ask, was that because I think a lot of business owners, you know, they they do what they do, and maybe some business owners think, well, I'd I wouldn't know how to exit, can I exit? Was did that become like part of your plan? Or were you approached? Was that like did you bake that into a No?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

I always knew. So um in 2016, we were approached by an American company called Live Nation who owned Ticketmasters. Okay. And they made a proposal to buy half the business, which we couldn't refuse. It was, you know, it was a good offer. So we sold half a warehouse and part life at that point. And then I knew I knew at that point that they'd be buying the other half. It's just a matter of time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

And when they bought half, were they was that difficult from a oh, I've now got these people involved, it's still my baby.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

No, it was it was very difficult to begin with because you know, I am not an Excel spreadsheet person. No, I despise them. Um, you know, everything for me is written down on a piece of paper, and the accountants were all over us, like all over us, questioning everything. And in the end, I had to get on a train and go down to the to see Dennis, who's the person that we did the deal with, and say, This isn't me, this, you know, I can't have these accountants all over me. And he picked up the phone, he spoke to them and told them to back off, and that was the last we heard, really. Oh really? Yeah, and he just said get on with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:14

Wow. Cause they because they knew you they were better with you making it. We're making money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

So uh they told us to cre you know, just go.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

So they bought half of it, and then how many years later did they buy the whole thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:25

Twenty-four.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

And how was so that so then that period in between, did you were you just left to get on with it, do good stuff?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:32

Get on, build it, build it, build it. How amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

Do you like look back now and go like, God, I can't believe what I've created?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:41

Um, I think I might do in another 10 years. Really? Yeah. I'm still because I'm on that journey of right, I now know the next thing I'm going to do. So and I probably know the thing I'm going to do after that as well. So I need to achieve those. And then, you know, when I've got my my pipe and slippers on, I'll look back. Um I I'm one thing I'm I'm a I'm not a hoarder, but I've kept everything over the years.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

Have you really?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

Yeah, kept all the flies and things. And the first thing I did with that book was I got them all out, you know, the press cuttings and and artwork and things. So I like looking at those.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

Yeah. I know I I'm I also do the same of like as I've gone through the years of like little things in the paper or plans that I've had or notes that I've written of things I want to achieve. It's so yeah, it's very cool. I think it's and not enough people kind of record the journey as they go, and you can't almost kind of um ascertain like where you've come from. You know, like on a day where you're like, gosh, this is difficult, but actually looking back and going, oh, this is been cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

Well, you know, I still use the philefax. Do you really? I do, yeah. And I must have the last 20 years of philofaxes. So you could say to me, you know, what were you doing on Monday? That's brilliant. Like 2008, and I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

Really? Yeah. Oh, I think that's a good uh yeah, okay, Filefax is a good thing to bring back. It is. Yeah. Um, Sasha, we're coming towards the end of our time together. I know it's boiling hot in here. Do you know it's bloody roasting, is it these lights? I think it's the lights, I think it's the air con um and I think it's a very hot day in Manchester, which we're not prepared for. Um, thank you so much for today. Thank you for inviting me. It's been um it's been a real masterclass. I think I feel like in just having big ideas and just making them happen, no matter what you need to do to make them happen. Yeah, which is what most business owners are all about.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

Well, everyone watching this will know that you get a kicking, you know, you don't get everything right the whole time. I still make mistakes now, but the people that succeed are the ones that learn from those mistakes and don't make them again. Yeah, so true. So, you know, if you've got a business and you've gone bust, then restart again tomorrow. And, you know, just learn from the mistakes you made.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

It's such a brilliant piece of advice. I think especially especially in the UK, we can be quite self-deprecating, can't we?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

On people sit there and beat themselves up.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

Yeah, and definitely on entrepreneurs as well. Obviously, like with everything, the kind of political situation at the moment, entrepreneurs are kind of being considered the worst thing in the country and they need to be taxed higher. Talking about Rachel Reeves, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:11

She's useless. Yeah, she's horrible, isn't she?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

It's uh it's pretty fantastical, I feel like what they've implemented and how that's been considered the right route. Um, yeah, no, it's crazy. Um, but yeah, no, I think that's just a really amazing piece of advice to end on. Like, you just need to make stuff happen and everything's possible, isn't it? It is, absolutely. Yeah. But no, thank you for having me. Thank you, Sasha. It's been a real pleasure.