Alan, Simon & Katie discuss what has warmed their hearts, working from home and dealing with mental health. RECORDED LIVE: 24th March 2020
Note: This transcription has been generated with AI and there may be errors present.
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Hmm, I wonder if there’s anybody there. I love it when you come. I feel like I’m left out. I’m the only one without any glasses today. This isn’t fair. I find my glasses. Look at you beautiful people. I love this. So I’m just sending a tweet whilst we was this thing takes traction. And hopefully there’s at least my mom’s gonna watch which is fabulous. We’re gonna try something a little bit different tonight with a couple of extra bits and pieces. And I think it’s very excited people are gonna tune in going oh, God, I got to sit and listen, and watch Donegan Payne spout off their nonsense again. And wait a minute. Wait a minute, who’s this extra face? Who’s this beautiful person that’s here? I gotta go. Wow, he had me go. So I’m just figuring out that, that, isn’t it funny how I can’t ever seem to link to Facebook. It always takes me into the app, which I’m having an old person, Challenger. Young person challenge I should say. So this is wonderful. So welcome to I think this is the fourth Facebook Live that we’ve done. It’s the first Facebook Live show that we’ve done with the fabulous and wonderful, fantastic. Katie Coombs, everybody, Katie comes all the way line from Manchester. There we go. Now, there’ll be some people that will be literally beside themselves with glee. Oh, no, no, no, no. They would have experienced you presenting at one of our events. And whenever I visited your events, you have this, this band of people hanging off your every word. And you’ve very graciously invited me on to come and speak and they’re like, can you get this lad off, we want to get Katie back on again. This is brilliant that you’re here. And there’s so much experience that we’ve got between the three of us and we’ve got some really cool topics that we’re going to discuss tonight. And the whole purpose of this is to help people and I know that co founder of the pop up business school, the mighty Alan Donegan is in the house to on lockdown in New Orleans, everybody. Is it better to be on lockdown in New Orleans? Do you think? Or would you have preferred to have been on lockdown in Basingstoke Allen, that’s my question for you. Before we get started
having a lot of discussions about this Katie and I, the advice from Boris last night was if you’re a national fly home now, before anything gets worse. It’s quite interesting. If we flew home now to England, we’d be locked down somewhere, we don’t actually own a home. But well, the tenants in our flat have just decided not to pay rent rent for three months, and send a message saying they’re not paying our rent for three months. So we could go and take that back and stay in the UK, but we could naturally see anyone. So I think whether you’re locked down in the UK, and America doesn’t really matter, you’re in your house, you go out for the odd walk. Life’s the same. So I actually don’t think it makes any difference which country you’re in.
Okay, well, it just sounds more glamorous, doesn’t it? I remember when you were in LA and I was in Didcot, or something like that. It just sounds more, you know, nothing. Oh, I loved it.
We loved it. Thank you.
We love in fact, in fact, there’s been a number of things that have happened in the cup, which have been fantastic for pop up. But we’re not going to talk about that. What we’re going to talk about is the whole purpose for doing these shows, was to was to help folk that are struggling now. And we’ve we’ve trained something like over over six and a half 1000 People now over the years that pop up has been running. And we’re looking at that audience and in our support group, and we’re saying, oh my goodness, these fantastic businesses that we’ve created, many of them like us have taken a massive hit. And they’re struggling. So the very first conversation that we had was, let’s put ourselves out there and let’s help people because the stuff that we’re going through, you know, we’re in a good shape in some ways, because we’ve been trading for a long time. But we’re thinking this through and reacting in real time. So the stuff that we’re doing the conversations that we’re having, it’s just playing into the whole reason that pop ups started in the first place, which was to help people. That’s the whole reason for this stuff. So we’re going to cover some topics tonight, some of the things we’re going to talk about tonight are the support for the gut that the government is giving out, both in terms of business support and supporting individuals through the benefits system. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. We’re going to talk a little bit about how do you do a cash flow projection? What questions that we’ve been asking ourselves and each other within pop up that have helped us. And we’re going to talk a lot about emotional well being as well. So we’re sort of balancing, the whole thing is about supporting people that have got a business, a small business, or they’re self employed, they’re freelancers and they’re really struggling. And but also, I bet there’s a bunch of people that are going to watch this either live or are going to watch the stream tomorrow later on in the week, that wants to start a business because they don’t want their income in someone else’s hands again, or they want to start a business because they’ve got a cool idea that kind of fits the new world that we’re currently living in, or they want to start a business because frankly, they’ve got no choice. So our stuff is to help all of those people. And please, post some comments in it’s great to see Trevor here again, brilliant Natasha, Hannah and Basten. Kim Wade, Irene, Russell Russell is Russell, I can never call you Russell. Because you you do Pat testing, electricity testing. And we’ve been calling you pat for about two years now. And I forget that your actual name is Russell, but it’s brilliant. Nora’s here.
Yet, Russell. Russell asked if I was in a shed, Russell, I’m not in a shed I am in the lounge. But there is a feature wall with some lovely, rustic wood. Just keep us entertained. I’ve turned the camera round, so you have a different view each day.
I like that I feel like I’ve under delivered by having the same view as last time. I think that’s a false wall out. And I think behind there, you’ve got a tiger. You’ve got a small chair and a violin quartet. So anyway, enough of this. I guess the question. Ah, that’s a bit odd. That’s what that was. I wonder what that was? So before we dive into the questions, actually, there’s two things that we’re going to do tonight. What we’d love to do is to find out from everybody watching and I’m going to ask Alan and Katie this as well. What’s the thing that since last, perhaps last Monday over the last week or so? What’s the one thing that’s made you go? Oh, I really love that. What’s what’s warmed your cockles? What’s made your heart go? Oh, that’s a wonderful what, you know, humanity’s really delivered here, I’m going to ask them that question. And I want everybody that’s watching to share your examples of things that that have made you go oh, that’s a I love that. I love that whether it’s something that’s made you laugh or whatever. And then the second thing I’m going to ask you a little bit later on is what the chuffing chuff is going on, I want you to share your most random observation or experience over the last week or so. Because after I got a tweet from Duncan from Blue today, I realised that that was something like the sixth or seventh weird thing that’s happened in just the last 24 hours. So I’d love to find out your experiences as well. And but let’s dive into let’s dive into the questions because I know that Katie and Alan have got some stuff that they want to share. And I’ve talked far too much already. So look, we are where we are. But help is coming, isn’t it? And I think Alan, you had some views about the support that the government are offering small businesses and also individuals. And let’s talk a bit about that. But also the support that hasn’t arrived yet, for self employed people. And let’s have a little conversation about that as well. And Katie, feel free to chip in. Because it’s something that we’ve been thinking about and what’s on your mind with a support that’s on offer at the moment.
So I think the first thing that I wanted to say to everyone listening, and this actually comes from when I was a lot younger, was that I was too proud and reticent to take government benefits. And it didn’t feel right to do it. But actually having worked closely with the Department of Work and Pensions. Recently, on some of the projects we do, there’s a lovely lady called Caroline, who said to me, you pay national insurance every month. And if you’re running a business, if you’re self employed, if you’re employed, you pay national insurance, and that national insurance is designed to protect you in times of emergency, or if you lose your job, or whatever it is, it’s there to protect you. Take care, and I just wanted to say to everyone Don’t be a bully like I was and be proud. Now is the time to take the support that is putting put on offer. If you have employees, there’s a whole scheme for doing what’s called furloughing, which we can cover later. If interested, there is the whole benefit system, if your money dries up, we’ll pick up what’s going on. There’s a whole host of support. And Simon, I have been looking into this right now because our businesses, income has vanished overnight. And I just wanted to say, don’t be proud. We need to help each other through this. And that was the message I really wanted to start with. Cool. I think that with Alan saying that I agree completely. I think when we think about benefits, and the government helping us the government really is the collective us, if you like, is the Accountable countable bit of all of us. At the moment, we’ve got what I would call very big government there in every bit of our lives. I mean, I was hanging on Boris’s every word last night, I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. And they’re affecting all parts of our lives. And we’re looking for leadership and guidance. And they’re sort of in our lives in a bigger way than they’ve ever been. But that’s what they need to be at this time. It’s unprecedented. It’s complete change, and we need it. I think, eventually, it will go back to a version of what it used to be what I agree with on Absolutely, if those benefits are there, they’re never a reason to get us through this doesn’t mean you’re always going to be on benefits, and it doesn’t mean you’ll get trapped.
Okay, so we’ve got the so individuals are covered, I had a conversation, a very brief conversation with this with someone this evening, who works for DWP, and 50% down on staff, and almost a 500% increase in people claiming benefits, which in some ways is great, because you people are taking up the support and the offer. In other ways you go, wow, those are big numbers. And you just have to feel for the people that are coping with all of that stuff at the moment. But individuals are covered businesses have got some help. That you know, through the furloughing scheme, and one of the other things, few things that the government are offering, but self employed, what about self employed people that hasn’t happened yet? What can what can self employed people do right now? Because there doesn’t seem to be anything that’s coming and government have said that there is something coming, but it’s quite complex to figure out. And there’s been a few rumours about it. But there’s nothing concrete yet. I don’t think what can self employed people do now to grip this by the Haskin? And, you know, and have a go at protecting themselves and so on? What do you think?
I have two thoughts. Do you want to go first, Katie or me? You go first. Why thank you. I’m still thinking are based on time. The first thought is, at the very worst, if you’re self employed, such as yoga teacher, and all of your business has vanished. You can sign on for benefits and say you’ve become unemployed. So there is always that option as a backup. Not ideal. Yeah, but that is a backup. The second is the focusing on what you can bring in and how you can do that as quickly as possible. The challenge with that is nearly everyone out there has gone, okay? We can’t see each other, let’s take my business online. And that competition is insane. And you’re going to have to be prepared to either a fight it and get involved and do that. Or find a different way to do it. And Simon I’ve been thinking about different ways to do it. And my final thought is, the government has bought out a loan scheme to help people. I actually hate that. And I’m quite angry. And you know, the ethos of pop up Business School is you do not need money to make money never go into debt. And now they’re trying to put people into debt at their most vulnerable points. I’m angry. And I feel as though but I would say avoid at all costs. Because you’re taking on that debt, which will incur interest at some stage, even if it’s not for 12 months, you’re going to have to pay that back. So I would rather take benefits and the grants and anything else I could avoid debt at all costs. And in a way those benefits in grants are putting the whole country into debt because we’re all in it together and it’s going to have to be paid back by the whole population anyway. But as a small business owner as a self employed person, you should not be forced to take on debt because of this. That should be an absolute last resort do anything you can other than that. Yeah, and with you obviously, Alan about the debt, I’m annoyed about the debt as well because people are desperate and depends on your sort of personal cash position. If you’ve got something in reserve, to, you know, to carry you through, but some people haven’t. They’re living from paycheck to paycheck or they’re in the sort of gig economy, and it’s drying up. There are jobs though, there are jobs, I mean, in the CO operative supermarket may not be something you want to do. This is a personal decision, but there are service jobs available. So if the walks at the door, it’s a difference between getting a loan or going out and earning, I know what I’d be doing, I’d go and get a job at the co op. And I’d go and earn rather than take a loan because you’ve got to pay it back. And it won’t make you feel better in the long run. You’re the point that you made about the yoga teacher. And the digital space, if you like, or whatever you want to call it is, is busy. Yes, it is. But people are cutting through. I’ve just done my yoga class, just before this, this call tonight. Now, I haven’t been slightly over class for 18 months, I got the email to say he was he was doing online, I was like, oh, oh, I’ve got all this time. Now I’ve got no excuses. So I’m just an hour and a half. And I paid him. And I pay for all the next the next four year of classes in advance. And there were 30 people on that call. It’s just a local yoga class. Normally, there’s about 12 in his class. And he’s also opened up a new meditation, a new class and meditation class, they informed us tonight, he had 50 people signed up and paid nobody’s about four or five years meditation classes. So people are looking for stuff. Now this is yoga. And that’s the kind of space that we’re in, people look for calm. And I’ve got the time in their homes, so it fits perfectly. But I suppose it’s ways in which your business can fit online. I think if it can, it’s worth giving it a go. Just because it’s busy. Doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. And also, if you’ve got relationships with people, you know, we talk about know like and trust. If you’ve got those know, you know that know, like and trust in your community already. Then your streets ahead of people. So yeah, give it a go if you can get online and also, if you need to cash, get a job. Get a job. It’s hard. It’s tough. It’s tough love, but it’s about not alone. And
yeah, for sure. I love that. Alan, do you remember we met a guy down in? I think it was Ramsgate or Margate or somewhere else that has the gate. And I think it was Trevor. I heard Ramsgate Yeah, Trevor experimented with affiliate links by sharing an affiliate link to a camera. That was for sale on Amazon. Because Trevor was thinking, Well, look, people are looking for deals because it was the run up to Christmas, I’m going to do a little bit of research, find the best camera based on all the reviews that’s under 500 quid, and then I’m going to share that link with my Facebook friends. And he made a sale. And it you know, it didn’t mean that he had loads of money. I think he made something like it was probably like 4050 quid commission out of the sale. But it reminds me of what Katie just said about just because you’re putting your business online, that doesn’t mean to say that you have to go out and try and reach the whole planet with your business idea. Actually, you’re you’re engaged customers that you’ve got already, your friends and family, ask them for help. Maybe there’s enough of an audience that you have locally that already know you that already like you, they already trust you and what you’re doing. And actually this this extra piece of goodwill. So whilst there’s a whole bunch of people that, you know, we’re all carefully watching our pennies at the moment, if there’s someone that we care about in our network, and they’re trying to do something, the online offer gives us an opportunity to get engaged people locally. And I think that that sometimes is we sort of we kind of stick ourselves online, launch our business and try and reach everybody but right in front of our noses are some people that we could start having conversations with right now and potentially adding value to their lives. Do you do you think that’s a strategy that could work? Do you think does that resonate with you guys?
It does with me. I think there’s an example. I’ve got an example I’ve got is, if anyone’s been to my course I talk about it as if I was a nail tech machine. Because that could be an alternative career. But we have it was a good local Senator Lindsey, my wife’s nails. And that’s Claire, and she obviously can’t visit people’s house at home. She can’t come round and is over. She’s got no money. She lives from paycheck to paycheck. She’s got a good business. She’s only a young young girl. She’s phoned all the clients and booked everybody in for the future from really from October from August, even though we don’t know if August is going to be okay. She’s done something. She’s phoned everybody. And then because she’s had these conversations, and I know that Lindsay has done this already, she’s paid in advance. And a few of her loyal clients are paid her in advance to help her through this time because they’ve got you know, human connections we care about her. So even if you can’t act Do your service, can you connect with your customers in some way and book them in for a later time, and just by having that connection, and also phoning people up seeing how they are, you never know what why it happened. And you can also ask as well. And when we talk about asking, you can maybe ask for the advance sale, if you explain the situation you’re in.
I love that. And I was absolutely gutted to see that our local cafe, Danny’s place, Carter’s has had to close, obviously with the, with the announcement. And in a he was one of those that reacted very quickly doing takeaways and so on, but has had to close, I would love the chance to pay it forward and buy lunch for my family for Danny’s place as soon as this stuff happens. And I think that’s that’s a great point. Alan, what’s on your mind with this stuff? What do you think about reaching the audiences and, you know, taking the job versus, you know, going all out to make sales? What’s going through your mind?
I think the first thing that goes through my mind is what’s your cash flow? How long can you survive for? And I would urge every person that’s listening right now to look at how much cash how much money? How many assets do you have lying around? What are you worth? And how much do you spend each month? And then how long that will last? That’s the first son Simon and I did for pop up business school was given the cash reserves, how long can we live? How long commutes afford to pay simple salaries? How long will it last? And I look at that for myself. If I’ve never have money coming in again, how can I lost. And I think that’s either going to shock you and scare you. Because you don’t have much in reserves, or it’s going to make you feel comfortable. And either is good. Because you can’t change things until you see them how they are. And I think the number one most important thing is taking stock of where you are right now, before we can come up with a true plan of what to do next. So have a look in your bank accounts, have a look down the back of the sofa, count the cash, see what you’ve got, work out how long it’ll last you. And then we’re either going to have to react very quickly and take action. Or it buys us a bit more time to go. Okay, I’ve got three months, I’ve got four months. Let me just think about this a bit more before I go. And that’s exactly the conversation the pop up team have been having over the last week.
I love that. I’m going to ask you a question about once you know what the cash flow is, what tips and tricks you might have up your sleeve to reduce the monthly spend and dial back on the spending so that we can increase the runway because I think, you know we’ve got this we can have this calculation, you look at the money and you go well, based on my current outgoings This is how much cash I’ve got left. Therefore I’ve got you know, three weeks, six weeks, nine weeks, or whatever that is. But if we could take a look at those those spend points and go, if I go down the list of every single one, I wonder what tips you’ve got to dial back on that so that we can last longer. But before we go there, I think I might have interrupted a beautiful comment that Katie was about to go because she went like this. And then I talked over you Do you remember what it was?
And it was? Well, I do now. Now you said that it wasn’t a beautiful comment. It was kind of a little bit flippant. But we we’ve gone through in our family, our family lines on the budget, we call it so we have a spreadsheet where we go through what we spend every month. Sometimes it’s sometimes we look at it, we kind of look away because we kind of don’t want to look and actually face yeah, that we’ve been. And now with the X on our phones, we can see what we’re spending because I have Monzo so I see everything. And we discovered that how much we’re spending and as this is this makes me ashamed, but I’m going to say it at McDonald’s. So another Donald’s shot, this should be done as sort of our own shirt and now we’re like, gonna save a fortune. So we’ve also worked out there my gyms short and I also work because obviously I have to go to the gym because I go to McDonald’s all the time. So the gym shuts off, save money on the gym. I’ve saved money from the gym, the fact that I’m not paying for McDonald’s anymore. We’re also not paying for petrol because I’m not going anywhere. And we’ve gone through it and realise that monthly outgoings have been reduced massively. And I think the whole thing the situation have been locked in has given us a real big pause, and we’ve noticed how much food we throw away. So rather than just saying the things now eat your tea or eat your dinner, we actually mean it. So there isn’t anything else because we are you know, we don’t know what we can do at the supermarket. So it’s made us really focused and pull right in and it’s forced us to rather than got sort of going there. I’m not looking, we don’t really spend that much. Actually we do. Let’s not do that. Because we don’t know because Linda and I are both freelance and we don’t know when we’ll be working again. So I think it’s an I heard something else as well, which I kind of liked. And I wanted to say is this whole thing is a bit like we’ve been sent to our room to think about our behaviour. The whole world is in this room thinking about how it’s behaving. And I wish I’d made that on myself, but I haven’t. But actually, it’s for me, it’s really true, because it’s made me really notice some of the things and and allow me last few days just to live a bit more intentionally. And think about what I’m doing. Rather than let sort of you know, you’re just on this hamster wheel. Sometimes it’s all going on, you’re spending and using your card. And now it’s like, the SEC. was playing that for we don’t need that. So yeah, we’ve actually spent less money and eating less food, and actually been more exercise in the last few days than any gym membership could ever give us. Strange effects, but very positive, very positive effects on it. Really.
I love that. I’m going to get Alan to share some of his money saving tips, because I know he’s got a whole bunch of ideas that might help people dial back on the spending and, and lengthen the runway. One thing to say just to talk to the foodstuff. For the first time in my life, I had the exact amount of pasta in the pan. That was a collaborative effort in my house. There was no wasted pastor. What was it fuzzily? It was it was the exact amount there was no Pastor left on anyone’s plate. Usually I kick my body weight in pastor and then throw it away. So that’s all good. Allen, how do we save money? How do we make that runway longer?
I think you’ve got two options. One is increase the income coming in two is reduce the outgoings increasing the income we spent a lot of time talking about, can you get online? What can you do? How does it work? The reducing the income? Number one, I will be looking through every direct debit that you have assigned to your bank. And going do we need this? Do you have magazine subscriptions? Do you have this? Do you have that? It’s I always find it incredible that people have Hulu, Netflix, Disney plus and 12 other services all at once. And then still think they need sky plus to how much TV? Can you watch? And I know actually right now, people are thinking, Well, I’m in I need TV, I would be saying turn those subscriptions off and do yoga classes on YouTube, do meditation, read focus on the future, and consume less. And Katie and I have been trying to watch less TV shows and learn more. So if you’re going to reduce number one, what subscriptions have you got? What direct debits you’ve got what can be cut down? Number two is if your income has completely disappeared, there is government advice about taking pauses on making payments on your mortgage, and making payments on your rent and how to do that. I would look up the government advice on that and read it and study it. It’s happened to me on the negative side. But if you if you need some runway, that’s what you’ve got to do. And then number three, is actually the panic buying that has happened has been mostly for dried goods, catering, I’ve actually noticed there is actually no shortage of fresh food. So broccoli, cabbage, all those amazing vegetables that are actually good for you are available and they’re right now. So Katie and I have been living so healthfully on vegetables, and having roast vegetables, cooked vegetables, beans is actually quite cheap, very tasty. And I’ve lost a good stone in the last couple of weeks by being healthy on this stuff. So I think there’s some real benefits to this pause.
I love that. I need to take that laid out and I need some social distancing from my fridge at the moment. Is it strategically placed near the near the laptop, which is a bad place for it? You’re absolutely right. I’ve noticed the same so I think I just going to summarise that little section and I want to bring jack in because there’s been lots of lots of cool comments where people have been sharing some of their own experiences. And just just to talk very quickly on the increasing the sales thing I know that that Kate over in Wales has. She sent me a message yesterday saying that she’d sold 36 craft boxes, which you know, her business was all about running art and crafts sessions Kate woods in the group. And Kate. I remember when we first met Kate was doing she was doing some fantastic stuff just figuring out how to turn it into a consistent income, and then spent the last year getting there. And then of course, all this stuff is really undermined our business. So I hopefully Kate, you’re going to share your video with you sneaking off into the woods with your phone to make videos that the kids didn’t see you. And you sent me a message saying that you thought you might have lost the plot. It was a brilliant video, keep doing them. I know that was a frog. But we all got to eat those frogs and get this stuff done. So, you know, take the benefits, take the support that’s available. Take the job if you have to reduce the outgoings sell more if you can. So little summary and I think what we’ll do in a second is we’ll move into the kind of mental health area of you know, how do we have clarity what stuff do we need to focus on? How do we think about the future when we’ve got all of this craziness going on around us? And specifically some of the challenges from working from home and and I know you’ve been working from home for a long time you have as well Katie, Katie, you got kids at home as well. I’d be interested to know what your strategies are. Have you got any yet have you locked yourself in the airing cupboard? And all that good stuff. But before we dive into that, I just want to bring jack in Jack you’re going to share some of the comments hopefully Jack’s here he is like a genie you’re on mute no you’re not there we go. There you go. If you rub the laptop Jack appears he’s like the pop up business school Genie.
That’s it. Yeah. been monitoring the comments in the background and and everyone. The comments have been coming in thick and fast. There’s some great discussion going on. It’s especially hard to keep up with it. So Simon asked the question in the beginning of the stream, and we’ve had the comment pin of like what warmed your heart this week. And I’ve collected a few of the responses but a lot of it just seems to be a lot of community this kind of this these strange times of centre bought a lot of people together. Kim as a community spirit locally and online, both in personal and business life. Teresa says, cheesy, but having the cause of you guys has been great. So nice knowing that we are all here to encourage and support each other. So thank you very much for that Teresa. David says people were way ahead of the authorities in responding organising using social media. I think everyone is suddenly realising the power of social media now that we’ve been locked down essentially have again, seen all the posts on social media people offering online support. Lucy saying how many zoom calls has been warming for me. So thank you very much. Angela, the amount of people willing to help with webinars advice support an ear to shoulder is made me feel more positive has given me a lift. Jennifer’s neighbours are helping us set up a community pantry, which is awesome. And Kim said her friend is helping set up a WhatsApp group for his village. And it’s got 30 to 40 people already in it. Just for anyone who wants to chat and may need a bit of help. It’s lovely to see the community spirits. Yeah, I’ll keep an eye on the comments coming in. But keep them coming and what’s warmed your heart seems to be like online and seemingly in person. We’re all coming together. Because what else is there to do?
That’s all we’ve got left. It didn’t work out. They did work. Right. So okay, so the the second question that I wanted to ask you is, is this theme of the random things that have been happening over the last week, which is my thing for this evening is what the chuffing chuff is going on. And my example for that was Duncan from Blue texting me. Sorry, not texting. We haven’t got that close yet. I was getting ahead of my skis, tweeting me earlier on. That was a bit of a random moment for me. But there’s lots of strange stuff happening. What’s the most bizarre and crazy things other than the absence of loo roll that’s happened to you or that you’ve observed over the last week? We’d love to hear your experiences of that. And before we get into this mental health arena, Alan, what random stuff has happened to you? What stuff have you seen and heard and observed and been part of since the craziness began?
I think I had one warming moment in the supermarket. We were down to our last three toilet rolls and wondering whether we should buy Imodium rather than toilet rolls. But when we got the market, there was a few still available. And we were down to the last seven on the shelf. And there was someone hoovering them all up and they saw us come over and they said, Oh, how many live in your house? Do you need a couple? And we they had four people, we had two people we negotiated, they gave us a couple. Then a guy rolled up in his wheelchair. And we can’t he said, Can I have one and we all smiled and handed him a couple. And I think just that warming community of coming together felt very random. I’ve never had a conversation about divvying up supermarket, toilet roll with anyone, but it was great. The second thing I wanted to say actually, that I truly believe, was walking down the street last night, late at night to get some exercise. And someone had chalk in bright yellow chalk on the pavement, you have magic inside you. And I stopped. And I paused. And I thought, there right there, right. And if there’s one thing I wanted everyone here to realise you have magic inside you, you just need to let it out and share it. And that was one of the most random things I came across. But I think it’s a really important message. Nice nice than I like that.
I’m a bit speechless on that one. I don’t know like that one has gone through your head, what random stuff has happened in Manchester?
Well, I haven’t got anything that’s really affected me that I really like that. And ours was, obviously weather has been really good. And now that in itself, where I live in Manchester, for those who know is kind of a weird thing. The weather is lovely, the sky is blue. And we’re not allowed out. But we’ve been for our one, we can go for our family walk, exercise outdoors. So we all go out and got forest near us. And we go to this was called the ease. I don’t know why it’s called the east, I think I don’t know, that’s a real name of it. But that’s what we call it. These. And we go there all the time with a dog and we we’ve been going and we went today, and we’ve been doing the social distancing thing. So we’ve just gone as a family. So there’s four of us and the dog. And then when we see people coming towards us, we that that we’ve moved to the side. And at first, it’s a little bit awkward. And then we’ll continue to sign it to the side. Don’t stroke their dog don’t stroke their dog. So we don’t come and do you notice and what we noticed was that we started to everybody just smiled. So we said hello to everybody that we saw, it was quite busy. Because everyone’s got the same idea goes to the forest where it’s nice and and they just smiling at loads of people saying hello to loads of people so and that walk around normally we wouldn’t say low or smile. We’d walk past them probably closer, physically closer, but we’re moving away acknowledging each other, and smiling. And it was a lovely experience, just to do something as simple, simple as that. So I love that. Just connecting on that level. A smile is like it’s the universal language kind of kindness. And it’s acknowledging other people. You know, we’re all in this together a little bit. I did feel that today. So it was it was lovely.
Luckily, the virus COVID-19 isn’t something you can catch from a smile. So you can smile at people not safe in the knowledge that you’re all going to be okay.
Among this you are Yeah, Peter Cole. Is it Peter crouch way apart, you know, seven foot apart or whatever it is, you know, Peter Crouch is still you know, Peter Crouch is now up to crouches. I’m actually from the 90s. So I know that kind of aged football reference, I love it.
Allen’s from the 90s You’re not. I mean, you were there.
I was that I hit my I was 18 in 96, or something. I kind of came of age in the 90s.
Good. Me too. Ish. So let’s talk about let’s go into the into the well being sort of area. So the world’s crashing around us, our businesses are in a pickle. There’s all sorts of mischief happening outside. And I think in the first few days, I think many of us are still in shock. And I haven’t quite got our heads around how to behave and how to be and what the routine is, and all that kind of stuff. And, and I’m sure many of the many of us would will acknowledge that a routine is really going to help. But what would be your tips for staying in a good place, especially as we get past week one, week two, week three, week four, because one thing I’ve discovered I think I’m I’m fortunate I’ve been working on this for a long time for a good sort of three or four years. And I’m I’m very aware of mental health because, you know, I found myself in a pickle a few years ago. So I’m pretty aware of it and luckily had been in a good place. But even that, you know, I’ve experienced a bit of a roller coaster and there’s good days and bad days and good moments and bad moments. I think last Monday I stared at the wall for about two hours trying to figure out what Earth was going on. But what would be your top tips, you know, what’s the process that you go through in order to stay mentally in good shape when all of this stuff is happening around us? What’s on your mind?
Can we go alternate tips Casey? Okay. No Can I go first? Yes, you go first? Well, the first, the first thing I’ve done is, is try and accept. Now, for me, it’s, I don’t know if that resonates with anybody else, but for me is accepting we’re in this position, rather than fight it and not believe it’s happening, it is happening. I am getting the answers, it’s changing daily. But if I accept it, and then notice how I’m feeling. So if I want to change how I’m feeling, that’s a separate thing. But first of all have to accept how I’m feeling. And notice how I’m feeling. So that’s, that’s my start really, Island. I love that I will build on that. My first little thought case, Hawkins said in the comments that she was born in the year I turned 18. So I think first of all, don’t read any comments from her, it will not help your happiness. The actually, what I wanted to say is about presence focus. So building on what Casey said about acknowledging it’s about presence focus. So when I’m sat here in the house, we’ve got my laptop, and a cup of coffee. Like in that moment, what is wrong? Nothing. I have everything I need, I can write, I can think I can create, I’m having a wonderful time and all of that different stuff. And it’s about present moment focus. So if you’re going for a walk around the neighbourhood, in the sunshine and the blue skies, in that moment, life is magical. And actually, what I would recommend for all of us, is for the next few weeks, we need to become more presence more in the moments more right here right now. So starting to be thinking about the future. But in the present moment, like if you’re in that present moment with a pad of paper, and you’re writing, if you’re talking to people, I think that’s an incredible tool to keep you feeling happy. I like that. Something that’s been happening to me a little bit and which I have to draw myself back from so I mentioned being aware and acknowledging how I feel is, is I keep forgetting. So a couple of days I woke off, and I don’t know if you’ve had this. And it’s, if you’ve ever experienced this after somebody died. So it’s kind of a Greek thing, I think that is you wake up and for the first few moments you’ve forgotten, and then you remember, and it kind of hits you. So you wake up, please, oh, oh, God, got the world’s gone mad is never gonna be the same again, and all kinds of accelerates for me. So I have to pull myself back. And so there’s a thing that I’ve learned quite a bit is this anchoring. And that’s something I’ve got from pop up Business School, which is there, I focus on some details and lovely details of my life. And that can be as you said, like a cup of coffee, or one of the kids or something real at that moment, just to bring me back to reality and the here and now and the fantastic things in my life, doesn’t mean I’m not going to face or deal with the stuff that’s going to happen to me or not kind of aware that I’ve got lots of pressures about cash and what’s going to happen, and health mood of things. I’m aware of those not pretending they’re not there. But I am going to focus on the good stuff. Because that again, it anchors me and centres me because I keep forgetting as well. They both get used to it.
I love it. This is such a lovely piece of the conversation. And I think you know many of us know this stuff, but we’re in the busyness and the craziness. We forget it that way. And I think hearing people’s different approaches to this. I think we’ll certainly done it for me. It’s just made me go. Yes, that the presence thing. That’s the thing that I need to do more or for, you know, there’s some things here that we’ve probably forgotten that actually if we did a little bit more of it, it could make a huge difference on our well being day to day. What’s on your mind, Alan, you’ve got more to share. As always, I’d love it
have a lot more on that subject. I think number four is actually your and the people who’ve been on the courses I’ve run well know this, your daily diet that you’re feeding your brain. And I think people diet has massively shifted over the last week or so. And they’re filling their brains with all sorts of media that they never would read all sorts of shock videos online stuff. They’re home all the time and they’re filling their brain with a whole different diet. Of course, you’re going to get different results. If you eat cheeseburgers everyday you’re going to get fat. If you go to McDonald’s everyday like Casey does, you’re going to get fat. So you’ve got to you’ve got to check in your diet, it will massively impact how you feel. I know, a couple of households that we’re friends with that all they do is read lesson watch about the virus. And there becomes a certain extent, well, that’s unhealthy. If you maybe set yourself a timer, I’m going to spend 15 minutes a day reading from trusted sources, or watch, or look at the who the World Health Organisation, and my local council, those are my two sources, pick whatever you want, but narrow it down to 15 minutes, and then spend the rest of the day filling your head with positive messages, learning, reading, focusing on other things. And I think if you’re one who’s feeling some of the anxiety and some of the stress, I will be looking about what you’ve done with your daily diet.
I love that you just reminded me, Alan, you know, out of all of the people that we’ve met, you know, the three of us over the years of running the pop up business school. So some six and a half 1000 People have been through our courses in one way or another over those years. And if you take the people that we’ve met, that are in the biggest pickle, that the moment that they join us, and you know, for whatever reason, it just reminds me that every single one of those that are in a pickle, are in a pickle, because they’re focusing on things that they can’t control. And there’s a whole bunch of stuff happening at the moment that we can’t control. And I think one of the things that’s, that’s helped me stay in a really good place, since all of this stuff has been going on. You know, most of the time, I’m pumped, excited, you know, looking forward to what we’re about to do next, and so on. It’s because I’ve been focusing on the things that I can control. And the way that I’ve done that is I’ve asked questions, and the questions I’ve been asking myself are things like, how can we help people the most? What does pop up need to do next to help as many people as we can? Where could I really put my energy that will make the biggest difference? What do I need to do to lead myself and my family next, those sort of questions in my mind all the time. And I think the the currency of today is ideas. And if we can, if we can be kind to ourselves, as both of you have said, you know, reduce the stuff that doesn’t add value, be kind to ourselves, that then frees up the headspace to be creative. Ideas are the currency of today. And we’re dealing in ideas all the time. That’s the thing that we need in all of us, every single one of us, a natural born idea generators, we’ve just got to be kind enough to ourselves, you know, to let them out. And it reminds me of that stuff about sense of purpose. Alan, you remember the sense of purpose conversations and about when we hook people up with a purpose. You know, what’s your take on what is the impact on people if you’ve got a different sense of purpose, if you’re you got to focus on what your sense of purpose is all about.
I’ve, every time I run pop up, and actually more often than not, I keep repeating, if you have a big enough why, anyhow as possible. So if you’re hooked up with your purpose, why you’re doing this, what you’re driving through? Are you doing this for your family? Are you doing it for your partner? Are you doing it to help the world? Are you doing it because people are at home and they need to get fit and you want to send them videos? If you’re hooked up to the why and you’re motivated, is incredible. The energy you get to do things. And one last piece that actually this my wife Katie, Katie Donegan likes to hit me quite often with what I teach people in the courses. Because I forget it as well. Simon, I’m sure has experienced this when you get told your own content. It’s a lovely moment. And she looks at me and goes, because I’ve been struggling to get on with doing a certain piece of work. And then I just did it today. And I felt motivated and I felt good. And she looked at me and said, Alan, you tell everyone, you don’t sit in the couch. You don’t get motivated to do something. You get motivated by doing something. And I got that reminder loud and clear today. Because when I did something, I felt motivated and Katie very kindly pointed out the lesson within it for me. And hey, she stuff. Everyone. Yes.
How do you stay optimistic Katie Coombs games.
Oh, oh, well. How do I start by focusing on the opportunities? Not really. That wasn’t quite right and so on to focus on the opportunity doesn’t mean anything does it, focusing on the here and now the good stuff, I really say optimistic by the small things. And the things that have been taking for granted this this time over the last. I mean, you know what, it’s only been a couple of days, but it’s really changed me. And I think that I’ve become, I can feel myself doing things that I’ve never done before. So this this kind of thing I hadn’t done before doing the live streaming I didn’t do so I felt really good. I’ve done more exercise, I’ve spent more quality time with the kids, I’ve been out on my bike, I’ve done lots of really good things. And I’m obviously a little bit worried and keeping an eye on the on the news. And if I watch it too much news on a loop, then I go a bit crazy. So I’m purposely switching it off. But I think for me, it’s a small things. In a way, I’m enjoying the pause, as well. And I’m having some good conversation. So I’m speaking to a lot of people who have got businesses, friends who’ve got businesses, and some people just seem to be so on board, there’s nothing I can do and resigning themselves to the situation and just hoping to, to get by on either the benefit or some help from the government. And I think that that help that’s going to be there is maybe just to keep us afloat. It’s a safety net. But if we want to move forward, we can’t just take that and sit back and think everything’s gonna be alright, we have to take action items. And Simon taught me and we have to do things. So I’m enjoying the pause on one level. And I wanted to say this because I had a conversation with a business well, this is I had a conversation with a business owner, they’re a friend of ours. And she has constantly been on the treadmill of making our overhead paying a stash got five staff do really well. She’s a single mom. And she just got to the point where she’s working all the hours, but she’s doing well. And following this situation, she’s had to shut down her retail premises. And staff is going to put on that furlough situation and lay them off. And then she had a moment of clarity during this conversation. And she just said, I don’t want to do this anymore. Having this business is not making me happy. And I kind of started on my own. I’ve grown and grown and grown. So what it’s quite clear is this is not what I want to do. This is not how I want to live my life. And I thought that was absolutely amazing. Sometimes you need to get out to be able to see you need to kind of helicopter out to have a look. At that point. You had a look at her life and was like, I don’t see my boyfriend, I don’t see the kids. I’m at work all the time. And I’m trying to make this money all the time. So I’m going to stop. And I thought, well, it’s just that pause that we’re forced to have could actually change people’s lives for the better. I’d love to add to that. I learned a new term today, running a piece of a webcast, which was actually called a zero velocity moment. And there’s not very many zero velocity moments in your life. And you sometimes get them like after you finish school or college, and you’ve got a blank summer, that’s a zero velocity moment, you get fired. That’s a zero velocity moment. And we’ve just all had one forced on us. And this is the moment to go. What’s the life I want to build in the future? Where am I going? Where do I want to be? What do I actually want? Because if your business has died right now, you get the chance to reinvent yourself. And seeing this as an opportunity to create the next chapter in your life, I think is wise wise words. Katie Koons wise wise.
I love this. I’m gonna bring Jackie and very shortly because we’ve had some really interesting stuff that have been shared in the comments. I think Teresa’s idea of choosing a theme song that when you get yourself into a crap moment, that song that you always play that triggers you into good stuff that anchors into a fun moment. Mind Mine’s probably a Rage Against the Machine track which is a strange one because I’m not sure that that’s supposed to invoke good feelings, but it gets me going for sure. I’m sure Jack has got some better stuff to share. Let’s let’s get the pop up. Magic Lamp out Alan. Can you give it a rub and see if Jack appears again? We need to get ourselves out isn’t it? It actually works. Can we get a lamp for the next one please and not your random water bottle.
Want a thumbs up? They say Airbnb has the most random artwork I’ve ever seen in my life. Someone said in the comments. They missed the horse lady behind me. I will bring that back
I promise to make the background much more exciting for the next one. I’ve only got one picture. It is a brilliant piece of art. For anyone that’s interested in tattoo arts. Yes, I am here, go to Instagram and look at Custom propaganda, which is a tattoo artist in Southampton and the quality of his art and he’s also he’s also got real interest in birds as well. But Duncan is Duncan Whitfield drew that picture, painted it, whatever the things artists do, and kindly gifted that to us. But the quality of his tattoos is unbelievable. And I’d be really interested I want to get Duncan on at some point because how he’s adapting I think it’d be really interesting. And so Jack, share some of the stuff that’s in the comments that caught your eye.
Yeah, we’ll do it again. Still full of positivity. My favourite response to your and I quote what the chuffing chef is going on. Kate working. Kate wood saw a man taken his dog for a walk fully kitted out in a wetsuit. So we’re in the dark times people. But back to the to the positive and what warmed your heart this week. Chatter said calling friends and family to see if they need anything and how they’re doing is always uplifting. He did that lien. Dad actually did that to me. He reached out and said Are you okay? Can I help? Like that? He made me feel happy. He spread happiness. He is actually doing that. And I’m so impressed. I think that’s a genius idea. I love that. Jolene has said that having so many people offering free P sessions yoga, meditation, wonderful talks and free courses. SIMON I know you’re loving Joe wicks his pee sessions every morning.
I can’t sit on the loop because of what happened yesterday morning. In that PE session. I literally I’m in so much pain to like I can’t even pick anything up. So I don’t need toilet paper. I can’t sit on the loo my buns ate too much. Just thought I’d share that with everybody.
That is reference to Joe wicks. Morning PE sessions. Everyone get your minds at the gutters. God has said the little tiny free libraries in neighbourhoods been converted into tiny free food cabinets. Local corner shops are handing out single loo rolls from his last two packs for free. Corinne, a card has said a kid’s football coach has set up an online coaching for his local team this week. And so far 34,000 people have signed up. Wow, that’s amazing. The online reach you can never know.
Who knows that coach is going to have trouble selecting the team for when we’re back playing again now.
And then my final comment, which is I’ve seen a lot of love. I’ve seen the comments is a quote from Fran, who in reference your story earlier Simon she said I was the person Simon’s talking about in a pickle. You guys changed my way of thinking. And I’m so glad to be on this journey with all of you and the pop up classroom. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Jack. Thank you for that, like so. Look, it’s 10 o’clock, everybody. And it’s gone really quick tonight. And I don’t know about you. But that’s been a phenomenal conversation. And I feel I feel massively inspired and uplifted after some of the stuff that you’ve shared. And I’ve actually, I can see a clearer way forward. And the whole thing about this, these live streams. And what we’re about to do next that pop up is trying to figure out what’s the help that people need to hear. And I think we take we’ve heard some really practical things from from everyone tonight. So please keep these comments going. I know we’ll dive into the thread and start replying to some of them. Thank you everybody for contributing to the conversation. And we’re going to work on the next live stream there will be another one this week. We just need to work out timings and who’s available and when and all that kind of stuff. We had a working idea of 9pm on Thursday, but we’ll put something out in the group and on the page and so on. Thank you. Thank you, Katie Coombs, and Dunnigan Jack hailing all of the random artefacts that are behind you Alan in particular that have played their part this evening. We’ve all learned something about each other tonight, I think as well. Thank you very much everybody. Please share this and tag people that you think would benefit from some uplift and some help with their business ideas. And and the pickle that we all find ourselves in right now. And we’ll figure it all out together. Have a great evening, everybody. We’ll see you again soon. Thank you.
I’m off to do naked yoga. Goodbye. Oh no.