Get the Job Done: Freddy Craze on Fatherhood, Graft & Going It Alone

If you have ever sat across from someone and just known — this person is built different — then you already understand what it feels like to meet Freddy Craze. This week on The Parent Playbook, host Nyah brings one of her longest and most inspiring friends onto the purple couch, and the conversation does not disappoint.
Freddy is a lot of things. A businessman. A son. A boyfriend. A brother. But ask him who he is, and the first thing out of his mouth is Lenny's dad. And that tells you everything you need to know about this man.

At 25, with a brand new baby and a head full of ideas he had never quite got around to executing, something shifted. Because that is what becoming a parent does — it stops you waiting. Freddie stopped waiting. He borrowed £8k from his mum, set up a hand-print machine in a shed on a farm, and started knocking on doors in Camden, Oxford Street and everywhere in between, asking strangers to give him a chance. A lot of them said no. He kept going anyway.
What followed is a story of graft, failure, bailiffs at the door, overdrawn bank accounts, and slowly — painfully slowly — a business that now produces merchandise for some of the biggest concert tours in the world. Beyoncé. Drake. Sabrina Carpenter. And it all started with a shed, a dream, and a refusal to quit.
But this episode is not just about business. It is about what it costs. The 16-hour days and the guilt that comes with them. Growing up with a dad who was not quite there, and making a silent promise to do it differently for Lenny. Moving the whole family out to the Buckinghamshire countryside to give his son a different kind of childhood. And learning — eventually — that presence is the one thing money cannot buy and children never forget.

They also get into routine in the early years, raising kids in a screen-obsessed world, the cultural conversation around moving out of the city, why Freddie never wore a suit to a boardroom in his life, and what he would say to any new parent staring down the barrel of starting a business with a mouth to feed.
Plus Kizzy drops in with her question — and Freddy's answer might be the most honest and beautiful one yet.

This is The Parent Playbook. And this week, the playbook is simple. Get the job done.

If this conversation sat with you — that's the Purple Print doing its thing.

Share this episode with a parent who needs to hear it. Not the one who has it all together. The one who's in it, just like us.

Come find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube — we're @trybeuk — and if you want these conversations delivered straight to you, get on the newsletter. The link is in the show notes. No noise. Just the real stuff, when it matters.

I'm Nyah. This is The Parent Playbook by Trybe. And I'll see you next Wednesday.

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Transcript

– Welcome to The Parent Playbook

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So it's just about understanding what you want and what you think are best for your kids and then making that happen. Not everyone can do that though. But what you do is you do it by yourself. Yeah, I I'm lucky. It might have taken me a long time to get there, but I've done it.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

I've done it, but I have sacrificed everything.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

The parent playbook. The parent playbook. Hey everyone, we are back, and it is the parent playbook by Tribe. I'm your host, Naya, and today we're going to be talking everything entrepreneurship, but also with a splash of authentic parenting. I'm joined by somebody who is actually who's listen, this man inspires me on a daily and probably doesn't even know it. I'm going to let him introduce himself. If we had a live studio audience, this is where everyone would go, woo-woo-woo-woo. I'm joined by the one and only Freddie Craze.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Hi, everybody. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I think you're the first person that's asked me how I am today. I'm actually fantastic. More fantastic for seeing you today.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I'm really excited to sit down and talk about your journey. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So important.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Thanks for making the trek all the way down here. I know we're like.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I know, into the big bad city of London.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Big bad city. So, like,

– Introducing Freddy Craze

SPEAKER_00 1:18

who is Freddie Craze?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Oh, who is Freddie Craze? I think first of all, Freddie Craze is Lenny's dad. Second of all, Freddie Kraze is a businessman. And then after that, I am uh a son, a brother, a boyfriend, all rolled into one.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

All rolled into one and a fucking great friend. Can I just say that as well? Thank you very much. I remember the first day, the first day I met you. Do you remember the first day I met you?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

The first day I met you is when I came down to your office when you were at your mum's office, right? And it was you and Daniela.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

And walked in down the end of the corridor. Last door on the left, if I believe, open the door and bang this energy. Listen, I've been. A long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

It was a very long time ago. Um, so yeah, a many moon ago, I used to do t-shirt printing, vinyl printing, and um, we were at the end of our days, and I was looking for someone to take on our clients, didn't want to leave my McGuys hide and dry. And I think he was the fourth person that I'd actually gone to see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I shopped around. He was the fourth person, Simon Mr. Snappy. Yeah, he linked us up, isn't it? Link up Simon. Speak to Fred, I feel like he could be a guy. Um, and the rest is history. The rest is history. Um, I remember one of the when I came down to one of your first places, I don't know if it was your first, but the first place I came to, and I see Lenny's car.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah, in our.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

And I was like, nah, nah, nah. This is my this is my kind of guy. Because I remember, I think at that time I just got Kizzy a pink racing car. And it was just, I don't know, there was this synergy.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Um did you bring Kizzy down the first time?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, I've got a video of her. You let her press the button, um, and yeah, you saw me in all my glory, man. My full parenting, the full parenting role. Um, but yeah, I I feel like that was really something that stuck out to me. Like your son was a part of the business. Um, he wasn't alienated from it, he didn't care that his toys were around. No. And I just I that I felt that. Because I feel like a lot of times in business, parents want to keep their kids separate for the professionalism, and I don't think it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

It's difficult. I'm quite lucky I work for myself. Yeah. Right. So I make my own rules in that sense. But you do. Where someone that works a corporate job, you know, it has to keep a professional outlook on what they're doing and also worry about what customers are looking at them. If there's toys hanging about and all of that, it might put people off. Yeah. But also, on the other side of it, Lenny is my number one.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Forget about the business. Lenny comes number one. Lenny is my seven-year-old boy, only child at the moment, looking to have more, of course. Get in! I will say this. I was 25 when I had Lenny, and I was new to the business. I was I was a new dad, and to be honest, I didn't have a clue what I was doing. And Lenny really gave me the kick up the backside to focus, plan out, and actually execute all of these ideas that I had in my head. Yeah. Because we all can lay in bed at night and have amazing epiphanies of what's going on. It's actually taking that from inside, making it happen. That's the scary part. It's the rollout, you know, that, yeah, but that that's the fun part as well. The journey is the fun part, not the end goal.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

100 million percent. What's next? What's next, you know?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

It just it just rolls onto something else. But Lenny gave me the inspiration to be a better man, a better person in business, but most importantly, a better father.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

You know? Fun

– Becoming a father at 25

SPEAKER_01 4:55

fact, before I held Lenny, I'd never held a baby. In your life? In my life. I'd never held a baby. I was always, you know, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah, you know, to look at it.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

They look like they're gonna break as well. Typical old school man, but then I remember I've come home the night my son's mother has given birth. 3 31 we got home, and I sat up until the light came up in the in the sun, in the sky, and I held my son in my arm here. I remember he was tiny, and I told him everything that was gonna happen. But not only did I tell him what I was gonna do, what he was gonna do as well. You know, so it it was a very worrying time. Shaky bum time, all right? But amazing. Yeah, best thing that happened to me was my son.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I feel like when you don't have children, it's there's a it's a there's a version of life that you that you live and you have aspiration, and even if you're career-driven and you're doing all the things, it's like it's amazing. And then you have a child and something shifts. Yeah, and I think that that you can't explain to anybody. It's not you can't really put that into words because it either just happens or you just don't ever get to experience it.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Hit the nail on the head with that one, definitely. Parenting is different for everyone, and each child is different. Each child is different, each each needs, you know. I'm very lucky where Lenny was a great baby, got his routine done. You know, my mum always told me, get the routine down quickly. Yeah. And then you'll be alright. So I was lucky that Lenny slept all the way through the night. Sick from 7 p.m. till 7am.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

But he's 12 hours.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I used to have to wake him up.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Right? And he, you know, he drank when he needed to, he never really cried, but it was routine to the minute. If we were going out for dinner, we needed to be back by half six, have his bath, in bed, ready to go, stick to the routine. But not only the routine for the baby, the routine for the parent.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

That's really important. Now, if you've had a bit of a wild lifestyle in the younger years, like some of us have, sometimes it can be difficult to get that routine down. It might take a couple of months. Once you've got it, it becomes part of your life.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, and I I think you hit the nail in the head with the routine. I think kids want to trust what's happening, and I think without routine, they just don't know what to trust because they don't know what's coming. But if they know what's coming, then it's just an easier one.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And you can plan around it as well. And you can plan around it. But also you need to make sure that you know the grandparents have got the routine down as well. And any other thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

And they always get it wrong.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

To do their own thing. Well, my child's grandparents, they definitely do their own thing. It's very difficult. I'm like, what is she still a what she's a wheat? No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

But the thing is, that was the norm. That was the norm. You know, growing up where we grew up, in North West, it it's different to as it is now, you know. But I'm very glad that the stuff that I learnt from my mum is still relevant today. It's just done in a different way. My dad ain't got a clue, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

So would you say your dad's like a generic, like, you know, like a stereotypical, do you know what I mean? Like, because your dad's colossal, you know? Yes. Your dad is a very colossal man. Yes. But do you think he's um like a man's man? Like, you know, when I say man's man, it's very He's a man's man. You know, like mum takes care of everything.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Let me put it like this. My dad was not a daddy to me at a young age. Yeah. He then became a father as I got older. It's very, very difficult. But my mum, I was very lucky where I had the old school family sort of layout where my dad went out, worked, done all the graft, and my mum brought us up. Yeah. Right? Now, for me, that was great. My relationship with my mum is sensational. The love between a son and a mum, it's like nothing I've ever seen. And when I see maybe the relationship with my mum and the sisters, it's very, very different. Different, yeah. But then I see the relationship with my sisters and my dad. Okay, and it's very different. So, you know, it's daddy's girl and mummy's boy. Boy, yeah. So I was very lucky where I'm the only boy. Okay. So I got all the attention from my mum and I lapped that up. Okay. And the stuff that she taught me, I've used

– How fatherhood changed Freddy’s mindset

SPEAKER_01 9:20

every aspect of my life. And then there's things that I've learned from my dad, which maybe I haven't then taken into my life. Yeah. So you kind of take the good and the bad and you pick what works for you. But we have to remember, they're coming from the 80s and 90s. We're now in 2026. A lot has changed.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

You know, like information is readily available now. Where before you'd have to go off what your parents did almost.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, no, it's true. Or you're just doing what you've been taught. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Mum, what do you think about this rush? What you did.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

No, they're on Chat GPT. What? No, I'm not. Mum, you go wrong because Chat GPT said I wouldn't say that to my mum.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

My mum's right, no matter what. She's right. She's right. But I was very lucky where I had that old school way of upbringing, and you know, good and bad, don't get me wrong, there's pluses and minuses, but my childhood was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

And how would you think that is like what would be the main thing that you take from your childhood that you make sure that you put into Lenny's childhood?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Oh, I was a wild child, right? Very much so. And I think after a while of being a bit too wild, I think my parents kind of let me crack on with certain things. They'd let the brains go.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Go on then.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

At quite a young age. Okay. Right? But thinking back now, right, I maybe would do things differently with my son if I was in that situation where I wouldn't let that tight grip go just yet. Because when you hit 12, 13, 14, you become very impressionable.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yes, 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And you have to be careful about what you're doing. And you know, just guilty by association. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

So maybe like the boundaries just.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

But I, you know, I've moved out to a little village far out in Buckinghamshire, where, you know, your biggest worry is your neighbour, you know, leaving his bike outside your house. Okay. That's the biggest worry. So it's a complete difference of where my son grew up and where I grew up. But I'm so happy I did I did that. Any big city now, you know, there are day-to-day fears and worries, right? When you move out into the city, move out of the city into the country, a lot of those fears naturally go away. Okay. But then there's other fears as well. So it's just about understanding what you want and what you think are best for your kids, and then making that happen. Not everyone can do that though.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah, and also I think like uh like the moving out, like I I know quite a few people that have moved out, and I think that it definitely depends on the dynamic and the type of your family. Because for me to move somewhere rural like that, it could have a positive effect, but then culturally wise, for my daughter, because she's black, would be it could be different. So I think you have to really navigate what works best for you.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Well, I will, do you know what I agree with you? The further you move out, the less cultural. Yes. Yes. You know, and people sadly, even today, people have preconceived ideas.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

When I turn up, right, I'm covering toes, and all my me and all my pals all turned up, we've got the music blaring, you can hear us speaking, you know, and I could see that my local neighbourhood watch was a bit like older.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Oh gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Then when they get to know you, it's cool, you know. As you get older, I think you appreciate that slower pace of life and the more safe. But you have to, when you're young, you have to put down the foundations for that to make sure that you're not cutting off your nose by moving out of the area because I'm very lucky where I run my business from my phone.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

So I can be anywhere in the world. And it's happening. Everything's still going on.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Talk to us about the business, Freddie. So we haven't really got into the business. Do you know what I mean? We haven't got into the into the business. What is it that you actually do? What is the service that you supply that you just said you can do from anywhere in the world on your phone?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Cut long story short, I print t-shirts. Right? So the main bulk of my business is concert t-shirts. So anytime you go and see someone like Beyoncé, Drake, Sabrina Carpenter at a big concert and you see the merchandise, so we produce all of that. Yeah. Mainly it's garments, t-shirts, hoodies, caps, uh, beanies, tote bags, we produce all of the garments in the UK, all of the keyrings and all the other accessories, they're made Far East Asia and they're brought in because it's cheaper. But because of how quick the industry moves, we need boots on the ground in the UK, especially in the South. So what we do is we usually buy a plain t-shirt from a supplier, whether that's a Gildan, a fruit of the loom, whatever that might be, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Or a blanks factory.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Whatever the blanks factory, AS colour, you know, there's load, right? It all depends on what the customer wants. We then will go ahead and put a print or an embroidery on, or a DTF, or any sort of decoration, package it up ready for the merchandisers to take. It sounds fantastic, but in a nutshell, we are a print shop. Yeah. And we do embroidery. That's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

In a nutshell, but at the same time, like the services that you offer, like the fulfilment service is like is a huge thing that I think a lot of people don't, they're not even really aware of what fulfilment is.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

We make it so easy for our customers. Yeah. They never have to see a t-shirt. They never have to see a t-shirt. But for that to happen, we have to have

– Growing up, parenting & family dynamics

SPEAKER_01 14:42

a very close relationship because at any one time there could be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds out on the table that we haven't been paid for. So the relationship has to be very tight. Yeah. We have to know the gifts and that's plus, don't get me wrong, the systems that we've built up over the years that we've had to trial and fail at. Exactly. Yeah, and we've now got it to a point now where we know everything in the system down to the T where it is at any one time. All works off a barcode.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah. The infrastructure's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

What the c when the customer receives their package on the f on the on the floor, they don't realise what's going into it. But when you buy a packet of crisps out of Tesco's, do you know what's happening? Exactly. It's the same sort of concept, you know. But I want to say, all that was all me and all me, it wasn't. I've got a shout out my granddad first, who started the business 52 years ago. Wow. And was doing that before anyone else was. And I'll tell you a funny story, how it actually started was there used to be a brand called Lecoq Sportif. I remember. Back in the day. And they used to bring it in from the States. My grandfather and his brother, my great uncle, and they were bringing it in from the States in the late seven uh early 70s, and they couldn't get it quick enough to what they were selling it at. Okay. So the demand outweighed the supply. So I then was thinking, hmm, how are we going to get around this? We're going to make it ourselves. And that's how they did it. So they started bootlegging first, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

You know what? When you're saying that I was thinking of sounds really bootlegging.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Bootlegging first, right? But this is before licenses were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So it was bootleg, but it wasn't. It wasn't fine to both. It wasn't copyright infringement legally, right? Bending the rules. So then they started doing that, and they got my dad and my uncle in a print shop in Wilsden, Villiers Road, downstairs in the basement, printing t-shirts. Then a little light bulb went off. How are we gonna make these machines? After we've done this, and as we know, fashion at circles, right? So this is popular, then it's the next thing. What are we gonna do? We bought all these machines, so I thought, right, let's go out and speak to people, deliver. And my dad went to a concert when he was 16 and he ended up meeting his biggest customer. And from that day, they've always worked together. And his first big job was live aid. Really? Remember the concert, and it was 400,000 t-shirts. Oh my god. Now this is back in the 80s, right? This was not 400,000 t-shirts, never heard of. Got the job, printed the job, got paid for the job. Oh my god. Right? That's enough to do that.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

I've got to say that, yeah. No, you can't make sure you get paid.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

That's that's the hard part. Got the money, and then reinvested back into a big print shop. And then from then he went on to do a band called Simple Minds, which was like quite a popular like pop group back in the day, and it just blew up from there. And then it just it just snowballed. But then I I left school when I was 15 and didn't know what I wanted to do because I never wanted to get into t-shirt printed. Even though I grew up in a t-shirt factory, I was.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

You always want to do something opposite to your parents.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

I didn't want to, I went to go into the army and see the world, right? And I think my mum was a bit pushy on that. Go and see the world, you can always come back. But my daddy kind of just said, look, do what you want, da da da. Then I turned, I went down maybe roads I shouldn't have gone down and tried things that I shouldn't have done. The learning curve. It's all learning, right? It's all learning. And then at 18, I said to my dad, I need a job.

unknown 18:33

Help me.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

My tail's between my legs. I need a I need a job. And he said, Right, I'm gonna put you on the end of the dryer, taking t-shirts off the dryer into a bundle of 10. And I said, he said, I want you to get that bundle of 10 perfect. Then once you've done that, you can go on to the next job. So I went from the dryer, 182 pounds a week was my first pay slip, right? Which 15 years ago decent was not bad, right? So I went from the dryer, then I got to clean the squeegeees with the white spirit. So I I got a promotion off of that. Then I learned how to actually write, like use the machine. But by then, I was certain that I didn't want to work in a factory, right? So I decided at 21 that I wanted to do my own thing. Yeah. Right. And I approached my mum and I said, Mum, I need a loan. Right? I haven't got any money. Can you help me out? My mum said, Whatever you need, boy, I'm gonna sort that through. As long as you pay it back. Right? It's very important. My my I come from a family of you can we can give you whatever you want. But you've got to pay your dues, mate. You can't just have it, right? Because when you get given things in life, you don't appreciate it. 100% and you don't make it work for you. You work against it. So my mum let me eight grand and I bought a hand print machine. Now I'd never printed by hand before. Hand print? Hand print, hand screen. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, yeah. So machines, similar sort of concept, but it's all done. Never hand printed before. Didn't have a clue, right? But this is when YouTube was kind of like starting to come through, right? Got onto YouTube and I learned. And I learned how to just do one colour prints.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

And I I cut my teeth on the industry in selling I love London t-shirts, right? Taurus t-shirts, right? Such a small margin.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Because everyone was doing it. But I learned how to deal with people and how to negotiate. And also what I learned was how to keep a promise. That's so important.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

If you put your name on something, get it done over the line, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Even if you lose money, even if you kill yourself inside, if you say to someone I'm gonna do it, and you don't do it, you'll never get a chance to prove them right again. You know, so it's really important. So I used to go to Camden Town, I used to go to uh what's that thing about Hyde Park, Queensway, it all the to the strand, all the tourist areas, I used to knock on doors, right? Because this is before social media was really popping. I used to go and knock on doors and say, Hi, I'm Freddie. This is what I do, give me a chance. A lot of people didn't

– Why routines matter for children

SPEAKER_01 21:15

want to give me a chance. And then I started working with the people that had all the little kios on Oxford Street, and I was making a loss, but it was a foot in the door, and then I built relationships, and then slowly after about six months, I actually started to make some money, right? And I reinvested that money back into the business. But I started my business in a shed on a farm, right? And it was near my mum's house, and I was paying £250 a month rent with £20 help for the electric, right? And it was a nightmare trying to make that money, it really was. And I drive to go and see all my customers, I'd go and drive because I wanted to put a face to the name, yeah. Hi, I'm Freddie. You know, build that relationship. And it worked. And it worked. Then when I was 24, an opportunity came up to get a bigger place. And I thought, do you know what? Let's do it. Then I was middlemanning embroidery work. So originally I was a printer. Now I do embroidery, really. Started middlemanning embroidery. Somebody let me down and it made me look really bad. And I thought, do you know what? How am I going to stop this? I've never embroidered both before, but I understood the concept. So I thought, do you know what? Get my own machine. But I can't run the machine. So I've got to find someone. So now I'm going from a one-man ban to now having staff. That was, if someone was to say to me, what was the biggest jump throughout your whole business to where you are now, what was that biggest crucial part? And it was going from a one-man ban to then having a member of staff. Yeah. Because it makes things so much easier with time. But also you've got the responsibility of that staff.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yeah, and you've got to trust them.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

I can remember I that first year that I had the embroidery, I made such a loss because I had to pay for the staff. But the story I was going to was someone kept letting me down. So I had to do it myself. So the analogy in life is if you're not getting it from somewhere or something isn't working, change it and do it yourself. Figure it out. Don't always wait for other people to come and give you the opportunities. Create the opportunities. But I understand that maybe not everyone's got that confidence.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, I think so. I and also I don't think it's the confidence, I think it's the fear. I think a lot of people have fear of- But I'm with you, but the majority of people, or some people, they have the fear of the no and the rejection. And I think when you are when you've grown up in a space where like it's just normal, like you are gonna get rejected, people are gonna say no. If you can get over that hurdle, then you're gonna get the yes and things will start to work out. But that initial fear sometimes puts people in a space of not trying.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, it puts their back up against the wall. Yeah. But if you stay there all your life, you're never gonna get anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

And yeah, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

And I see it, I'm gonna be honest, I see people that had great opportunities, and because they maybe thought they weren't good enough or they thought they weren't gonna succeed, they didn't do it. Do you want to know the secret? I've failed so many times.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yeah, and yeah, I'm with you.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

I have failed, or I've been in situations where I thought there's no way of getting out of this. Like really when the shit hits the floor, you know, but it's about making a plan, and you know, it sounds corny, but each day at a time, yeah, and just working towards and just you're just chipping away, and then all of a sudden what happens is the whole wall falls down, which is a good thing, you know, and then you've broken that wall between the next thing you want to do, but you've got to have something not right in your head to do this.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yes, yes, do you know what hundred percent? The thing is, in the beginning of the conversation, I said you're very inspiring. I find you extremely inspiring. Like, what when I watch you work and I watch you talk about what you love doing, there is there is an element of delusion.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

But there is this overwhelming confidence of I'm doing this and I'm gonna see it all the way to the end until the wheels fall off. And I think in life, we don't meet many people that are really, really honestly willing to see it till the till the wheels fall off. They're willing to see it a part of the way, but most people want to jump out of the car as soon as they see it about to crash. Very few stay in the wreckage and get out and say, right, we're going again. And you're one of those people. Um, and I've seen you grow from strength to strength and do amazing things, and you do have the luxury of having um a really great story about your granddad and your dad and everything that they do, but what you do is you do it by yourself.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, I'm lucky. I took what I learned from there and then I implemented it. My dad's got a big print shop, right? And what I should have done was just kept my mouth shut, right? Yes, no, no problem, three bags, full suck, all of that. I can't do that. I can't. It's not your way. That is not, that's not how I was brought up, yeah. Right? So I went, I went the right reverse wrong way. And it took me a massive way, but then, you know, I started my my first business in 2015, right? So, you know, 11 years later, now I'm at the point now where I can say, Do you know what? It might have taken me a long time to get there, but I've done it. Yep. I've done it, but I have sacrificed everything to get there.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

And you've done all the moving parts. Yeah. And I feel like sometimes people want the end bit without. Because you understand it all.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Got to go bottom and learn every single process. So when someone asks you how does that work, you know the display. And it's easy. And also, what you'll find is people that are in management, right,

– Moving from London to Buckinghamshire

SPEAKER_01 27:08

if they haven't come from the bottom, they don't know how to get around things when it goes wrong. 100%. And if you know as soon as something happens how to get you're laughing. You're good to go. That is most of it is just learning how to get around issues. You can't stop issues, especially when you work with other people.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah, and you're service-based.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

There's always gonna be different moving parts.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

It's something there's something that you said on the phone one time, and I remember you said, I think we were doing something for someone, I can't remember who it was, and you said, Did the did was everything all right? Did you hear anything back? And I said, Oh no, I didn't hear, and you said, Yeah, no news, good news. In the printing world. When you're doing t-shirts or anything like that, as soon as the phone rings, it's that you patch it.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

That's it, you worry.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

You can do a hundred good jobs, and there's one that is your name. And that is your name gone tarnish. Good to go, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

It's and there's other people in this industry. Yeah, don't get me wrong, it's not hard to go and find a print shop, it's hard to find a reliable print shop, you know, and that is why we've got such a good name and we've built this business to where it is now, you know. But uh going from you know, the young green horn boy in the shed on the farm to where I am now, when I think back at all the processes that I had to learn, it was quite a steep learning curve. And I still learn today. Still learn today. Yeah, and there's still things that pop up, but the main thing is learning how to communicate. Okay. That is number one. I haven't got any GCSEs, I haven't got any A levels, I didn't go to university, I didn't do any of that stuff, but I got in early and I grafted.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

You grafted.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

There is no special recipe to succeed except get in, be the first one in, work your nuts off and be the last one out. It's the hundred percent, it's the truth. But it it takes, it's the saying, it takes 20 years to become an overnight success.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Yeah, no, it does. There's no such thing. Like this overnight success thing is it's a myth. Um, and I think, especially now with the digital age and the social media, it looks like things can just pop in 24 hours and no one sees the you know, the sleepless nights and the tears, and the, as you said, the empty bank account and the all the things overdrawn bank accounts. Overdrawn the closed bank account, like you log in and hey, with my account gone, like there's so many things that happen.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Predators banging on the door, bailiffs banging on the door.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Yeah, it is it's it's an extreme sport. It's an extreme sport. It makes it fun. It does make it fun. It does, and it makes it exhilarating.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Do you know what it is, right? It's such a buzz. Yeah, there is nothing better in this world than fighting through something that you think you're gonna die at. And come at the other end. Yeah, you know. No, it's true. It's so true. Now, some people might do that for the wrong reasons, though. You know, like, oh, I need to prove this person wrong. Don't ever do anything to prove anything from apart from yourself. Yeah, don't do it to oh, I gotta prove this person. That's no good. Do it for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

You have to do it for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Do it for your family and your kids. It's so true. But also, I want to go back to my son, right? I want my son to look at me and understand that you know, you don't have to be academic. Yeah, you don't have to worry about if the traditional route, yeah. The A students work for the B students, and the C students own the buildings.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Right? People don't understand analogy.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

It's crazy, but it's the it's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

If you want to be a lawyer or doctor or an accountant, yeah, you need your university, you need your degrees, that's really important, right? If you want to be your own boss, you have to have life skills. Yeah, you do. That is the most important thing is learning about life, learning how to communicate and getting your point across. It's so important. That is true.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

That is so true. Well, Kizzy, as you know, is the boss of my house, and she knows I'm doing the podcast. She's got a question that she wants me to ask all the parents. Um, and her question is what is your most favourite thing to do with your child? All children, but it's child for you. What's your favourite thing?

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Nothing. Now that you're that is what it is, right? I can take my son anywhere I want. We can go and do whatever he likes, whatever that may be. But my favourite thing, and I think his favourite thing, is not having a plan and winging it. Now that might look like we're playing Fortnite for eight hours and having pizza, right? And that's amazing, you know? When you can go and do anything that you want, sometimes that's not the fun thing to do. Something just walking up the park. Right? So to Kizzy, the answer to your question is nothing. Sometimes that can be the best.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Just being there. I didn't really spend a lot of time with my dad like that when I was a kid. Going back, if I could change that, I probably would. But that might have not been my fault. You know, there's there's two people involved in that, right? But I'm making sure that my little boy can say, Yeah, we've spent loads of time. You know? That's it.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

And I think ultimately that's what kids want. And I think like we can spend a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

I wanted as a as a little kid was time.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah, and I and I feel like they just want you to be looking at them and engaged with what they want to do. Not the other way around. Of course. Um, which sometimes as with me especially, I'm definitely a drag Kizzy along to what I'm doing, and she's definitely no no no no no when you do.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

She's learning though.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Yeah, she does.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

She's learning, and I love Kizzy. She is she is going to be a superstar. And I said that from day one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She is she's very outspoken, she knows what she wants, but with a mum like you, what do you expect?

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Yeah, well, it's true, and with an environment like what she has, because she's around all my peers and she learns a little bit of something from absolutely everybody. The day we took the kids to I think it was Hobbledown or something like that, and I said, get your purse out, go and buy a Lenny of marshmallow. She looks at me, said, With my money, go buy Lenny Marshmallow, learn to spend your money.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Over the fire thing. Yeah, even yeah, it's not a bad thing, but I've got to say, you're a great mum. Oh, I appreciate that very much. You're a great mum, and that rubs off on your kids. I appreciate it. It really, really does. And Kizzy just asks so many questions, yeah, and it's very knowledgeable as well because she wants to learn.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Yeah, she does.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

That's important as well. Some kids they're very disconnected, yeah. They're all on the screens.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

I see it with my son sometimes, he just wants to play the game, but even with her as well, and this this is a um a common thing that parents are talking about at the moment is that how do you control the amount of device time that your children have? And Kizzy got a 3D printer for Christmas, and there's a there's a software called Tinkercad that you use to let it teach you how to design. And um, but when she was we're both learning in it, I'm struggling to learn

– Building a print business from scratch

SPEAKER_00 33:44

this software. And I see a but it looks like a cross between Minecraft and Roblox, the way that it's teaching you, because it's like you're getting under the image and above. She's a so it's like to eliminate her from using the Roblox and the da da da, it's like it kind of can have a negative effect. Yeah, so it's like the norm now.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

It's the norm now. And it's gonna be the norm.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

But I will say this you see, us as adults, do we make a conscious effort to uh keep an eye on our screen time?

SPEAKER_00 34:15

It I I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Do you want to know what my screen time is on my phone a day? Between 13 and 14 hours a day, I'm on my phone. It's crazy. Constant.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

I know, and it's true. And if you if uh there's not a there's not an um episode of Real Housewives that I have not seen. So you're right, it's the it's the it is the truth. It is the truth. For me, I just feel like there's like the devices are not the problem. It's how much time they don't have outside of the devices. So it's like, yeah, you can have your device, but we are doing shit in the real world as well. Do you know what I mean? And then there is a time where I'm like, do you know what? Bog off because I need you need that. I need a minute. It's a great tool.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

But I will say this moving out into the suburbs, there's more things to do outside of the screens. Yeah. You know, we've got like where we we've got a ski slope, an indoor ski slope, we've got rock climbers, skate parks, all of this. And you'll find like an empty field. And you'll say, Go and dinosaur hunt. Yeah, you usually dinosaur hunters. Yeah, no, it's true. We used to go to abandoned buildings, right? You know, and mad stuff, in it, like, and find things to do. You know? And I can remember getting my first black and white phone when I was like 10, playing snakes. Yeah. We thought we were the bees now. Cutting edge, you know? But sadly, I want to say that I feel that kind of innocence has left society now where we used to knock on people's doors. You don't need to knock on anyone's doors, no, you can send a text. Yeah, it kind of takes the fun out of it. Oh, is he gonna be there? Is he not? I'll go and check, did it, you know? But I guess our kids, when they get to our age, they'll say the same thing. 100 million people. But our parents said the same thing. No, it's true. My mum, I grew up with no shoes on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

That is true. My mum would agree.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Oh, no, no, you know. Well, we used to go to the dance and the disco and all that, and we used to go raving. Yeah, it's true. It's true.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

It's just it's just a you know, it's just a little bit different. Okay, so what is like what is the your one piece of advice you'd give to somebody that is a newly found father, they want to start their own business, and they're not sure of if they're gonna survive, you know, because they've got a mouth to feed. Like, what is the advice?

SPEAKER_01 36:28

There's a few variables you just put in there, right? New business, new father, right? Prioritize your time to what is gonna get you to the next level. Now, that's not just in business, that's also relationships. I went the wrong way. I was working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, and in the back of my head, I was doing that for the right reason. Yeah, and I will never said that I I would never say that I did the wrong thing, but I maybe went the wrong way around it. I didn't give my son and you know that scenario as much as I could have, but on the flip side I had the pressure of paying bills, you know, trying to sort out, trying to pay for everything. So my advice would be prioritise your time where let's say Monday to Friday, 8 till 6, you know that is business. Yeah, right, and other things can come into that, don't get me wrong, but that is business. And then when you get home, turn the phone off.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Turn the phone off. Learn to disconnect. I can never disconnect. Yeah, it consumes me.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

But that I feel like that's just your creative genius. Sorry, I'm not gonna take that as a negative. I think that's your creative genius, and I think the way around that is you just do the opposite. You just plug in the time for your bird, and you plug in a time for your kid. Because Brady, we're very, very similar. And at the end of the day, you cannot escape the fact that you love what you do, okay? And because you love what you do, that means it's gonna pour into your household, it's gonna pour into your son, it's gonna pour into everyone that's around you because we're gonna get the best of you when you're at your happiest. You know, and that is just the end of it.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

I tell people I don't work, this is my lifestyle. A hundred percent. Right. And I'm really lucky that I enjoy what I do. So going back to your question, right? Prioritise what's important to you to get you to the next stages in your relationships and your business. Yeah. Now, for some people, the business might come first, right? Let's be honest, without money, you can't do a lot, right? But without love, you're never gonna enjoy the money. So it's getting it to that point, right? You're never gonna get the balance 100%, right? Or 50-50. But what you can do is with a bad day, you can outweigh this, you can outweigh this side, and a good day, you can outweigh this side. So just enjoy it, embrace it, but learn how to prioritize. Prioritize. That's so important.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

I think that's a great tip, and that is something that is uh is really difficult to do, but if you can master it, it's gonna make life better.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Second to that, anything that you do, you put a thousand percent in. Yeah. You have to go in, you've got to be a little bit uh deluded. Any new business deal that I'm doing, I am willing to do my bollocks to prove the point to get the job. I'm willing to lose everything. Now that can be risky, but when you believe in yourself and you believe in your abilities, you're gonna get that, you're gonna get that over the line every time. Very true. It's learning, you know, and as you as you as you as different experiences, you're gonna take little parts on those experiences and say, right, I can change that to make sure that doesn't happen again. So it's also analysing as well. That's another big thing, is going back to situations and being like, okay, that maybe wasn't a good idea. And tweaking it and learning what's going on. I've said terrible things in business meetings that I probably shouldn't have said, you know. So but it resonates with certain people. Like I've been in boardrooms, I don't wear a suit, okay? I'm very relaxed, I've got tattoos, I say bad things, and I go into these rooms with these corporate giants, and we leave that meeting with them trusting me because they see that I'm normal.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

I'm not trying to please them, I'm on I'm trying to please myself, right? But naturally, you become very

– Learning business through failure

SPEAKER_01 40:30

easy to deal with when you believe in your own abilities, yeah. And you don't have to, oh, I just need to go and check that. Oh, I just need to no, I've got the answer straight away.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

I know you have a line that you say, and I don't know if you know the line that you say, but you say, you say, you say, listen, get the job done. That's it. Yeah, if you say it all the time, it's like listen, we just just get the job done. That's it. And I think you're not gonna mess about, and I think when you talk with that level of confidence, they know you're gonna get the job done.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Procrastination, mate, you're never gonna get anything done.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Yeah, it's not true.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

You know, if you you you've got to just go straight down the line, you know. But not everyone's like that, you know? But I was a shy kid, right? And you know, bullies and all of that, but you learn to grow.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yeah, but I think those are the things that put you instead to become who you're meant to become. Because without it.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Of course, you know, of course, and you know, I I'm lucky that my family, especially my mum, my mum is uh uh just something else, you know, and as I get older, I appreciate my mum even more. And my Nan, I'm still lucky I've got my 87-year-old Nan. She drives me up the wall, but she's amazing. I'm lucky I've got a great girlfriend, Hannah. She is 10 out of 10. You know, I've got my son, I got it's it's going well. But I've I've had to go through hard times and a lot of problems to get to where I am now, you know. But I'm lucky that work was almost my remedy for my bad days. Yeah. Where I just get my head stuck into it and I have a new idea. This is this is how I've always run my business. I'll lay in bed, right, and I'll have an idea. Guess what happens? That idea now becomes reality. Wake up the next day and I go, right, how are we gonna do it? So it's envisioning things and seeing them finished, whether that's uh what's the word?

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Manifestation.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

But it is just get it done. It is have the idea and execute and don't stop.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

Well, Freddie, listen, we're talking to you today has been amazing. Um I could talk to you all day. I will definitely have you back at some time in the future to see how you're getting on and how you've raised the bar. Um, but yeah, you're absolutely amazing and you're very, very inspiring. Never ever forget that.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Thank you. Thank you, Princess.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Sheez, first big pump of the day. Oh, yo. Listen, that was the Playbook by Tribe, hosted by Naya. And I'm telling you, if you didn't get some gems from that, you're listening to the wrong podcast. I'm gonna put all the print information in the, you know, in all the link below and all that stuff. So if you are someone that is interested in getting prints done, it has to be of a high volume. Sorry, Fred, then please reach out to Freddie, he is the guy. Um, but yeah, thank you guys for watching and God bless. Thanks, guys.