Moment 37 - There Is ALWAYS A Way: Holly Tucker

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Holly Tucker MBE has over twenty years experience building businesses. After working in advertising, media, and for a start-up, Holly gave it all up to start Not On The High Street, an online start-up with an inspiring mission: to give a wider platform for small businesses to compete with high street chains. I don’t think anything truly encapsulates the power of optimism in a better way as this moment episode with Holly. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve gone through or where you decide to go, there is always a way to achieve what truly matters most to you. Episode 92 - https://g2ul0.app.link/VBEo4l8wcmb Holly: https://www.instagram.com/hollytucker/ https://holly.co/ Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Steven Bartlett?

  You just said there that the company was completely out of money, but I could tell that you also didn't believe it would fail, which is a bit of a contradiction to some degree.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Well, because it was just money.

• 0:14Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, and you could figure that out.

• 0:16Speaker 01

  I don't know how. But you know, money is just this, you know, okay, so if we got the money, and the hard bit really is doing the doing, isn't it? It's building it. So I always just knew somehow this will work out. I mean, of course, you have your terrible dark days, but I knew it was going to work out. How could it not? We're on to something, and I knew that.

• 0:42Steven Bartlett?

  That level of optimism, upon reflection of your career of the last couple of decades, how important has that optimism been? That just like unexplainable, unjustifiable, I don't know why, but it'll just, it will all work out optimism. Because you've also, because you've employed a lot of people seeing the opposite. That sense of like catastrophizing, oh no, we're fucked, you know, that kind of...

• 1:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Oh, I've kissed a lot of those frogs.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, wouldn't you say that that's a common denominator you find in entrepreneurs?

• 1:14Steven Bartlett?

  100%.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  I mean...

• 1:15Steven Bartlett?

  Even in team members, someone, so I've, it's so, I can't explain it enough. One example I always come back to was I was flying to Brazil and Obama was speaking at the same time as me, on the same stage as me, just like he was speaking just after me. And I thought, well, Obama's here, I'm a speaker, he's a speaker, can't I meet him? And someone that was working for me at the time went, oh no, I asked somebody and they said no. Sick as a fuck if they said no. Ask someone else and just keep asking. And then they were like, no, no, no, Steve, we've been asking a lot and they just said no. So I was, I'll do it then. And I sent some emails and within 30 emails, someone comes and grabs me and goes, come and meet Obama.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:57Steven Bartlett?

  And I just think there's always a way, there's always a way, and your life and my life is testament to this, this like, there is a way or there's a way. That's, you know what I mean? There's a way or I have to work harder. You know what I mean? And I don't, I don't allow for this other outcome, which is that, oh, no, we can't.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  I've never allowed for the other outcome, ever. And it's actually, my entire battery is powered by that. And I am told I radiate it. So when you're around me, you get hooked on to that. And that's can be a really good thing because it drives people in those dark days when actually the entire world is telling you no. And I'm saying yes. And so it's an amazing thing. And I think that optimism. And actually now, as I said, getting older, it's actually, I, I would say there's optimism. And now I also have gratitude and that's powering my battery. You know, I worked out my fortieth birthday, I have twenty nine thousand days on this planet.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Cause I'm, as, as another golden thread, I'm sure you recognize is efficiency. I'm frigging addicted to it. So I needed to know. So, you know, this life, I just need to schedule this a bit. So, you know. So I've got twenty nine thousand days. Oh shit, it's not twenty nine thousand days, it's fourteen thousand days, because I'm forty. Right, okay. And so that has also led to a countdown till I die. So that also has fueled this optimism and fuck it mentality. Because if today I am going to change the world, which I can. It's even fueled even i- i- in a, in a better way, actually. I didn't have that at Not in the High Street.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Because that was just, you know, firefighting and optimum was that, that, that, that fuel. But now I think I have gratitude powering that even more. And that's been in a beautiful, beautiful stage of my life.

• 3:57Steven Bartlett?

  That is amazing. And you're right. So you were, you're in survival mode. And now you're, now you've got choice.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  Now I've got choice and a bit of, you know, the battle scars are there. And I have an appreciation that, you know, I can give everything and all. But I need to make sure that my time on the planet is also for me too. Because I do believe I'm here to serve. And I've, again, I can only say that now in hindsight. But if I am here to serve, I need to also serve myself.

• 4:30Steven Bartlett?

  That sense of, by the way, I completely resonate with that. This this focus on the amount of time we have left, I wrote about it in my book at very at long length. And you I think somewhere behind me, there's a little sand timer somewhere on there. There's usually a sand timer. Don't know, it seems to walk around. But because I wrote about it in my book at such length, people started buying sand timers and uploading them online. And the whole point of the sand timer is it's one of the things that really allows me to it reminds me of time. It's like one of the ways we can see time happening, just by turning it, you see your life moving away. And it's that important reminder to like get on with it and focus on what matters. You mentioned, you now feel like you're here to serve.

• 5:13Steven Bartlett?

  Do you think that comes from understanding your own power?

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. I think so. I would have found that really difficult to tell you 20 years ago. But now I have been through it and done it. And I also know that my optimism helps people. And I can see the effects. And I can see, you know, what we brought up in Not in the High Street was full of it. You know, I used to have people come in to the office from other businesses that we would hire. They literally could feel it in the air. They were uncomfortable with it. It was optimistic. It was creative. It was emotional. And they were like, this place is so emotional. And I'm like, yeah. And they're like, we need

• 6:03Speaker 01

  to stop that. And I'm like, we're never stopping that. And I think that that's what I've realised is that that is what I can muster up. You know, I listened to one of my favourite songs is Cloud Busting by Kate Bush. And when I listen to that song, I feel like I'm whipping up a storm. And that is my power. But what I try and whip up is very positive and good for the soul. Good for small businesses, good for and what are small businesses, the founders with dreams, you know, I love that. And so that is why I've read potentially that is now my job description for the rest of my life is to build something that I can pour

• 6:48Speaker 01

  that in and be efficient. And so amplify it so not build an empire, but be really smart and amplify that feeling out to other people and help them.