IPA On... Side Hustles

With 63% of UK adults pursuing, or interested in pursuing, secondary sources of income, Designate Founder Adam Hill joins the IPA On... podcast to discuss how his various side hustles have shaped his life and career, why he encourages agency employees to explore their passion projects and the benefits it can bring back to their 'day job'.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to IPA on Talent Matters, the IPA podcast covering all things people, culture, and talent. I'm your host, Antonia Stern from the IPA. Hello and welcome to IPA on side hustles. Are side hustles a passing trend? So, let's talk about them. Two out of five people in the UK have a side hustle, and according to research from Foresight Factory, side hustles are more popular than traditional self-employment. 11% of UK work for themselves, and 63% of the UK are pursuing or are interested in pursuing secondary sources of income. There are several common reasons for acquiring a side hustle: financial pressures, the ability to be more creative, and the need to separate oneself from everyday work. We will be talking with Adam Hill today, creative and strategic entrepreneur, business owner, radio presenter on what's the channel?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

1BTN.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

OneBTN. Founder of UK Top 100 Advertising Agency Designate in 1993. Director at Humankind, Yoga and Pilates Studios, and previously involved in an art gallery, owned an award-winning restaurant in Wales and a bridal boutique in Brighton. So perfect to talk about side hustles. I've just got a few songs that are just sort of going around. You know, the every damn hustling song.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yeah, there's got to be a lot of hip-hop songs in the hustle, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 1:32

There's a few that keep popping to mind, but we'll get straight into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

I should have bought some along. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I hadn't thought of that level. But that's a great intro, actually.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

An intro, but I think we'd have to pay for the IP for the song. Which is maybe I'll sing it later. So getting into it. How have your side hustles shaped your life and career?

SPEAKER_02 1:53

I think my side hustles have shaped my life enormously. And thank you for having me on on the uh on this podcast, by the way. It's very exciting to be here. Um Massively so. I was thinking on the train on the way up that I was never aware that I wasn't brought up in an entrepreneurial environment. I was brought up in a in an environment where my dad worked nine to five, and so did my mother, and he was a in the electricity board, and it was all very simple. So I wasn't brought up in a world that introduced me to side hustles, but I realize now that when I was in college, because I was a college person and I did a B Tech, if they still exist, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

They do. Do they?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Uh in business studies. Maybe that was the start of it. But there's a reason why I chose it, maybe. Uh and my first side hustle was there when I noticed there was an empty storeroom and I went to the s college and said, Can I open up a stationery cupboard and sell it? Sell things and sell sweets and that and that and they went and sweets and biscuits and all sorts. And they said, Yeah, that's a great idea. You're allowed to open it in the mornings between eleven and twelve, I think, or whatever the break time was, and then in the afternoons from three till four, and that was my first intro to side hustling, and it worked actually, to be honest with you. It did work. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So because you know people at school they sometimes would have the suites in their coat pockets and they'd open them up and sell them. But you went a step further and opened a store. So how old were you? Sixteen?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

I think whatever, yeah. What's that? Uh first A level. Yes, 16, 17. So we called it Scribes, which is a terrible name. Uh but I suppose at the time it was for buying pens and things. I mean, I don't like the name at all now, now I think about it. But that would have been the start. And then we moved into a few other things in the college which were a bit of fun. But and other people I think we encouraged other people to do the same thing. So suddenly there was birthday gram people who'd go around your house and sing songs to you. It wasn't worse than that, but it was bad. Uh, and other people selling Gordon the Gophers, which were little puppets that were on a Noel Edmonds TV show, but you're far too young to know about it.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

So we did encourage others to do it, and I and you know, what fun that was, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, a thriving business in college.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

It made money, yeah. It made got me through enough to drink more beer, I suppose. But that's all you need at that age.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Oh, that's great. So from there, college, what was in between when you found a designate and what came before that, and why did you decide to found an advertising agency?

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Yeah, that's such a wonderful question. So uh I worked in media. So I well no, actually that's a lie. Actually, I worked in an ad agency in Cardiff, that's where I'm from. I was born in Murph, but from Cardiff. I worked in an ad agency there, but I went into media buying. But that's a bit glamorous. I was actually ripping the ads out of newspapers in a corridor for the first two years of my media or advertising life. And then I went to become a media buyer, and there again, that's a hustle, isn't it? You're hustling for rates, you're hustling money, you're sort of trying to get better deals. And I think that really intrigued me, and that side of doing a good deal became good fun for me. That was an enjoyable part, but that was my day job. And then I went up to work in London for Maxwell Business Communications.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

That was selling media, and again, sales, I loved it. Yeah, and I think that's all connected as well. Uh but the the one thing that I loved is I noticed that perhaps the way I approached things wasn't standard and things were changing. I think budgets were changing. It says '93. Life was good fun. There was quite a lot of partying going on. And I wanted to create something that I enjoyed and I had a a a feeling that if we brought similarly challenging or interesting people along that I could create something in Brighton that would be very strategic and very creative and about building brands and building exciting things, but bringing along what what I would have called slightly risky people at the time.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Off C V, shall we say?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Ah, I see. So how did you meet these uh interesting people?

SPEAKER_02 6:05

In Brighton. I mean, Brighton at the time was very very uh it was a crumbling city with someone said it looked like it was helping the police with inquiries. That's what Brighton looked like. It still is a bit like that. But um it was that really, and we'd we'd meet people and we'd bring them and we'd advertise at the time. But the business grew quickly, it doubled its turnover year on year. We won a British Airways contract, which put a big name in and we developed the business from there. Um but I will put the point that I think in our industry we have a lot of look, there's two things, isn't it? We we permanently work, strive hard to make other people's products more saleable, more commercial, to make more money, to sell more. That must trigger something in our own minds, mustn't it, that makes us think, gosh, if I'm in that industry and I can do that for others, can I do it for myself? Yeah. And I think that leads you into this sort of side hustle period or space in your life. But there's that, and I also think to me, a lot of us, not everybody, and it's not a requirement, but I think there's a lot of entrepreneurial people in in the advertising industry. And I think that by nature will then also lead you down the what else is out there inquiring minds that we have.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

No, definitely, and I guess with a side hustle, you are selling not yourself, but something for yourself. You're almost creating your own brand, then in a way.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

And this is something I've discovered. It's it's uh we have Jem who works at Designate, is um she has two side hustles. One is drag and the other is um illustration. And and she said exactly that. It allows them to sort of push themselves and and to to build their own brand outside of the day-to-day. Uh I mean her warning is don't go so mad that you get burnout. But I mean, she has been so successful, and we've supported her by uh allowing uh them sort of to practice in the basement of our offices and to build these things, and she's gone on to win Brighton's next best next drag monarch and Brighton's big drag pageant. She won them both this year. Oh wow. Yeah, amazing. And that for us is brilliant as well. Yeah, you know, yes, it's it's it's exciting to see that, and that's creativity into another level.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

In a way, isn't it? But it's confidence, it's it's everything. And then Aaron uh is another one of our creatives who is a very good photographer and he uses that. So he's turned, he's kind of taken his passion, he's developing his passion whilst also perhaps earning some extra money through doing that. But he said it's just again, it's he's meeting new people, he's meeting interesting people, and he feels like he's building something for himself, which we fully support. And I I will also say with a side hustle, if it if it became so big that it became a main hustle. Then yeah, we would support anybody from our organization that would want to come and talk a bit more about that and say, How do I turn this? Is it okay? Can I go part-time at Designate? Can I change? So I would always fully support this. I don't want to be anyone who's who blocks anyone in in their lives about following the pattern that they want to do.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

And I guess it's interesting having people at work. How do you I guess you're supporting them, you're encouraging them to have their own side hassles. Do you think that was born from you being open about everything that you were doing on the side? Or how did you kind of encourage them and then they felt able to do this?

SPEAKER_02 9:18

It's an interesting one, isn't it? I wondered whether I'm looking for people in initial stages who have that uh eye for it's not a roving eye, is it? It's a it's a bigger it's inquisitive, isn't it? It's it's being inquisitive. There could be that. But I think people know we've always We've been free spirited at Designate from day one. Um we we have this saying about work your day, which really means get your work done. But if you're a windsurfer and we live by the sea and it's a windy day, go and windsurf. Don't sit there wishing you were windsurfing, as long as it's not affecting other people. Yeah, we've always had that approach. I mean, I know it's hard. We all know how many hours we have to put in in this industry. Uh it's another podcast entirely, isn't it? About that and what value is. But we do try and encourage that. So I would I would want somebody to say, be honest and say, look, I I've got a side hustle and I'm going out today to do it because the lighting's perfect for my photography, or the well, there's a show that Jem wants to do, or something like that. We would encourage that massively.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

It's actually I think that's actually quite rare though, potentially, in kind of corporate culture, to say that freedom to be like, actually, no, go off and do this for yourself. I think that's that's very rare. So it's pretty amazing to have that within within a company. And I guess, but do you find then that your employees are kind of they're more productive, more inspired by being allowed to have these things on the side?

SPEAKER_02 10:48

I think I hope definitely. I mean I that not how do I we don't measure it, we don't stop and say how you know what are the results, but we would hope that um there is a definite effect. In fact, saying that, I asked my good friend Saraya this morning about the effect. It's a broad question for someone like Saraya, because she studied the brain, right? She's a brain expert. But I asked her, and I will have to read it out, but I asked her, Do you think a side hustle would have what effect does it have on the brain? And there's two sections to the answer, but I think I'll go for the second part, because the first part's quite involved. And thank you, Saraya, for this. Saraya does a podcast called Brainy Podcast, if you want to listen to it, which I'm also on talking about AI like everyone else's, but I'm looking at it from a different angle.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Yes. Um So she says about side hustles in the brain. When you do something you enjoy, your mind goes into flow state. So your default mode network gets to switch on over-the-task-focused cortex. It's quite complicated, this isn't it? So you're so you make more connections. Your brain reduces the noise in your head and you become more innovative. You're also more relaxed, so very good for brain health, which not many people think about as everyone's focused on mental health, but its mental well-being should be our aim to offset mental ill health. Does that make sense? So she's saying that allowing our brains to flow would would help. And focus maybe on allowing good brain health would help would help. So she's saying yes. I think the answer is basically it also increases your dopamine reward system. So her view is everyone will be more effective if we're allowed to do side hustles.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

It's something that I guess also with that, I guess it's a side hustle that we love, rather than something you feel like you have to do for money. I think then it would be different. But something that you can just pursue a passion. Yes. And that is a side ends up as a side hustle, is I guess I think we have to manage that as well a bit, Antonio.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Because it's I I recently was a mentor for Creative Mentor Network, and the person that arrived, she was brilliant, right? But she had five different things plate spinning and five different things on the go, one job and four other things, and but she was trying to commercialise everything. And I think that then becomes a stress and that ruins your side hustle, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

I mean it's of course it's good to make some extra income, but I wouldn't start without focus.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Have that in mind.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

I think um to start so I try to help her to see that let's not and she she almost turned every hobby she had into a a business potential. And again, you know, there's a difference between a hobby and a side hustle. I think Martin at our place he restores furniture and he'd say that's a hobby, but he makes a few quid if he sticks it on eBay. You know, and uh I think it's important not to overstress yourself.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

But there's so many options now, aren't there? There's like vintage and well in that case everyone has side hustles if with vintage.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah. I mean it depends how good your wardrobe is to see how much money you make.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

It depends how much you've wasted on too many clothes, isn't it? I mean I think there's a lot of that, isn't it? Removing guilt. But it is a side hustle. But you can turn that into something more, can't you? You could change the clothes, you could adapt clothing, you can't.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

No, there's lots of and I think with just the rise of social media and how accessible having a platform is, the potential is there if you know how to market yourself.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

My daughter has a friend who's studying to become a lawyer. She's got thirty thousand followers as a beauty, and I'll use the word influencer because I find it a funny, strange world sometimes, but she gets 1,500 quid from beauty products, and it takes her 15 minutes to to do the thing. Fifteen hundred quid a time.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Every day she's doing it. You know, her her style is slightly different. I believe she came from a place that quite a wealthy family, so she's been able to she's got enough of the clothes that would look like an influence. But that doesn't have to stop you. You can still do the sim I mean there are people doing similar things, aren't there? Yeah. Which leads me on to another story which I do love. I have warned you a little bit about this, but I didn't tell you what it is. I talked to my kids about side hustles, and she said her mate is a cat is a flight attendant, and she is selling her worn tights.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Okay, so this we're going into more of the kind of what's it's like the used bathwater vibe, but not exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

I didn't know about used bathwater. That's that's a new one on me. So and she uh obviously the more air miles in the tights, the more money she's getting for them.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Oh wow. I mean that's in I guess ingenious in a way.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

I think it's clever. Long long haul return flights get about uh tight. Long haul return flight tights get about 50 quid.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Did she market as flight tights?

SPEAKER_02 15:32

She was on eBay and with coded messaging point, but she's been banned from eBay now. So I think well there's only fans, isn't there? I think maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

I was gonna say that's uh yeah, it's starting to sound like an OnlyFans titree.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

But 50 quid uh for something that would have been put in the bin, I thought it was quite clever.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

And on a point you made earlier about kind of having a stressful side hustle, I wanted to ask when you opened your restaurant, what what else were you doing at the time and how was the restaurant?

SPEAKER_02 16:04

So I've thought a lot about me opening a restaurant, and I will tell you now that I don't think I opened it, I think my ego did.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Okay. When I look back, it was probably I mean it it was it was ego. It's an ego thing. Uh designate was flying. I had bought a house. Look, we worked in we work a lot in travel and tourism. It's an interesting market. It was it's been very SEO driven for years. People have forgotten about the importance of brand again. That's not I won't get into it in detail now, but what we were seeing was different shifts, and West Wales is there's a place called St. David's that I love.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

I love it. Do you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Near the Blue Lagoon. Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? Insane.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Right, there you are. Right. So that take we we're in that space now, aren't we? With that fuzzy feeling. We're there. It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

We're on that beach.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Please go. And um I bought a house down there, which it's not wasn't a holiday home, but kind of was. But I started with that and thought I'll turn that into an Airbnb, because of course Airbnb, although it's not the most popular if we talk to anyone in Majorca right now or Spain, it had a it has a place and it has a purpose. So I bought a house and I was thinking this that tourism is gonna be massive in West Wales compared compared with everyone filling up Cornwall. Uh so I converted this place to make it a holiday home, and then for others to rent, which is a side hustle in itself, and then had a little back space that I converted for me, and then did the stupid thing of saying there's no decent restaurants here. I wonder what are we gonna do about that? Yeah, what are we gonna do about that? I know. I've got a friend who is a restaurant specialist and was uh uh AA guy, editor, and all sorts of and he talks a lot on radio, Wales, he's a Welsh guy. I rang him up and said, I need to set up a decent restaurant. And it's probably the most stupid thing. A, it was 300 miles away from Designate. And B, when your ad agency closes, your restaurant opens. So think about time sometimes in your life if you're gonna side hustle.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah, I think this is the the burnout coming.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Practicality does come into it somewhat. Yeah. Um but I went at it mad, hammer and tongs, and it became an award-winning fact, BBC uh not BBC, the Good Food Guide best restaurant in Wales. So Wow. But I'm a big fan of BBC Good Food. Yeah. I'm very happy to admit it probably lost me a lot of money. But you learn not all side hustles win.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

No.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Uh it was fun. I learned quite a lot about that trade because I compare the restaurant trade a lot with our industry. We have front of house, don't we? We have account handling people, and we have we have cooks and chefs who are the creatives, and we have clients who walk in and want something, and the chef might say, I can't do that for you. So it's very similar, but service is very important. And this is another important thing for me for side hustles. If you side hustle, you see a wider perspective on life, which you bring back into your day job, you'll know about the importance of good service. You know about making sure something's packaged well or something that you're communicating with your clients or how to welcome people.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

So I think that's a really interesting point.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Well, you also experience the excitement. Should we talk about your side hustle?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

A recent side hustle. Yeah. So I became a yoga instructor in December. Good. And I'm just, thank you. I love it. But now I've got into a studio in London, which is really exciting, and I'm now just starting to juggle the work, my everyday with teaching yoga, but I'm actually finding the balance because I do a class after work anyway. So what's the difference with going, teaching a class, earning some money, but also doing something I love. So I'm actually finding it's making me feel like more relaxed every day. I'm in a better mood because I'm also doing something for myself.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah, good. And confidence, probably.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

I mean definitely.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

If you're I mean, standing up and teaching a class of yoga, that's a good presentation skills alone, isn't it? And it's nerve-wracking. Yeah, and you've got to do all the prep. People forget about prep, they forget about the time that's involved. So it's all those learning skills that you're you're getting to bring into the workplace, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

And also, dare I say it, value, you know. I mean, I know how long much time people put into a yoga class for what you get, what you earn back, you know. Yeah. It teaches you so many things. And that's where I think it's brilliant that you know that the IPA allowing you to bring it into the office is great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, I've got the colleagues um tomorrow. I'm gonna do a session, getting my dances flow ready for them.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Brilliant. I think it's great.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

No, but it is, and I think that point coming back to like your company allowing you and letting you actually flourish within this. What would you say to companies? And how important is flexibility in staff happiness, staff retention?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

I have always said flexibility is really important. I would love the concept of somebody clearing their diary and saying, I'm going on holiday for two weeks. Can I go a week early or come back a week later if I can do my work remotely? And it and I or yeah, I've always often thought about allowing people to come back slower so that they get over the jet lag. So you don't arrive from New York a weekend in New York if you're lucky enough to do that sort of thing on a Monday. Absolutely knackered, you know. Flexibility is important. I think a lot of it depends on where the office is. I I like having people who live near enough so that we can have a sense of community after work as well, if we can. But I would support entire flexibility. I don't think clocking in and clocking out is the right thing for our environment. And let's be honest, there's another thing I wanted to bring out. In the in our industry, we use our brains twenty four when we're awake non stop, I think, you know, creatively, or whether it's client handling or creative. I think there's a massive potential for burnout, and I know a lot of people have burnt out.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

So yeah, it's a big topic.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

I think we have to. Look after that. So I don't think we work nine to five. I think that's lucky, and I would hope that people don't feel like they have to in our organisation, and I would urge others, although empty offices are horrible places. So try and get the pattern right.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah, to still keep the culture.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

I think that's absolutely right, and I don't think you can be as creative staring at screens, I'll be honest, it doesn't work. Um get together, create a safe space where you you know that you can talk about everything, which is also important, isn't it? Which is another good thing about side hustles, because it broadens your what is it, the way you look at life, isn't it? You get a wider I've said a wider perspective already, but you to experience losing a sale on something that you were excited about gaining, if you like, is is part of the side hustle if you're selling things, isn't it? Or you're close to selling something you've made and then they turn you down or they What's the thing now? People go silent on you, don't they? You get the silent treatment while you're trying to sell something. That's so many learnings there.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

I think it's such also like a character building thing because again, you're putting yourself out there in a way that you're not doing as much when you come into I don't know, when you come to work, you are putting yourself out there, obviously. But it's different if it's just you. And it's just, you know, you can get turned down for trials, you can get turned down for this, you can get bad feedback, and it feels it's very on you, but then also the reward is so much greater because when it's good, enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

There's something in there, isn't there? Maybe our side hustle conversation is if it's the side hustle bec it can does take away that emphasis on work, doesn't it? If you've got that to look forward to or you integrate it into your day.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Yeah. But I think if you have the opportunity to do something else alongside it, it takes that pressure of like, is this it? When it's just allowing yourself to have that kind of um otherness that isn't just, okay, this is what I do.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah, it's a good it's just giving me a really good idea. Maybe we should encourage side hustle training or do a side hustle training course, you know, that we could send people on. I'd love I'd love to send people on and say, look, if you're thinking about side hustles, let's create a training course. We'd love to have people who we can send out to schools and colleges from our organization to talk about the side hustles. Yes, we do offer training. We use the IPA a lot, but I don't I'm not aware of any specific.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Side hustle training, maybe that there's a gap there.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

There could be. Well, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

I wanted to ask um this is a separate thing, but I was just intrigued just to hear about because you mentioned you worked in a bridal boutique. I just want to know how that was.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So these are linked to other side hustle opportunities. For somehow in my life, I've ended up living in a house, two houses in my life that have had commercial space under them. Been staring at it, wondering what to do. Uh, and the first of those side hustles in an empty space was to set up an art gallery. Now, the reason an art gallery is good is A, it links to my my love of creativity. But also you can create an art gallery because you don't have to buy the artwork. You can represent artists and then they tell you they pay you a commission when the piece sells. So it's if you've got an empty space, you can create an art gallery. Obviously you've got to pay rates and stuff like that. But it became quite an exciting thing to do and and encouraged my own interest in art and meeting artists because they're we know that you can meet many a type of person.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Was it many Brighton Bayes that?

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Well that that was in a little village when I moved out to the country for a little bit to try it, and then discovered that I found it monocultural and didn't like it. Yeah. But I did my country bit, and that was the old butcher's shop that they'd moved the butchers. I didn't close down the butcher's shop before I get accused of anything like that. But people wanting their sausages and road, but I did hear people go, Oh, they've changed the butcher's shop to an art gallery. Bloody people coming in, but it wasn't true. But um it made me laugh a lot. But we did get it licensed and we could have nice wines and look at art. So again, is it an excuse to drink? Yeah. I don't know. But um that didn't really it it washed its face, as we say, and it was very interesting. Uh it became very entertaining, but of course, you need to be there quite a lot, and there's probably not enough margin in it to put someone in full time. So then my wife said she she's a she is also a yoga teacher, as we've discussed. That's what humankind is, it's her business, hot yoga studio as well. But um she we were discussing fashion, and then we thought about another type of business which became a bridal boutique, which again is connected. I really wouldn't recommend anyone goes into that.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

I don't know, it just sounds very stressful. Brides coming.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Do you know the weirder thing about it is you get phone calls going, we're on a Hendu. Can we come and have a look at your wedding dresses and have a drink? And you're like not if you're not gonna buy them, no. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Also, Hendus, they would be drunk.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

They were, but uh that that's another good thing about side hustles. It does teach commerciality, doesn't it? Time, money, value. I've said it a few times now, commerciality. And you're not gonna invite why do people think you'll come in for two hours and look at wedding dressing provide them with champagne. And then go.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Weird. So it it was a again that developed into a business called Lucky Bride, which I loved the concept of because I then discovered that if you buy you have to buy a sample wedding dress, but they cost up to three, four, five thousand quid. But you so you end up with 70 dresses and you spent a lot of money. Those sample wedding dresses then exist around the country. So Lucky Bride became an online offering an opportunity to buy a sample wedding dress for 20%, 30% of the price of the original. That's the idea. Yeah, it was. And I thought it was clever. My wife came on one day and said, I've had enough of brides.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

I mean, that's so fair. I mean, anyone, anyone, what is it, made of honours can tell you you'll have enough of brides.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

And I went, Oh great. So is that the end of the business then? She goes, I can't do it anymore. And I said, Well, I'm not doing it. So that's that's it. That's where it ended. Uh as I say, not every hustle will work.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

No.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

If it all worked, we'd all be doing too many of them, wouldn't we?

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah. Go in. Too successful.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Go in eyes wide open, take advice when you need it, or don't. Just go and enjoy it and play.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, thank you very much for coming onto the IPA on Talent Matters podcast and discussing your varied side hustles and your employees' side hustles, which has been great.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

I've enjoyed it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Thank you.