The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 37 - There Is ALWAYS A Way: Holly Tucker

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

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

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. You just said that, you know, the company was completely out of money but i but i i could tell that you also didn't believe it would fail which is a bit of a yeah addiction to some degree but well because it was just money yeah and you could you could figure that out i don't know how yeah but you know 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 were onto something. And I knew that. That level of optimism, upon reflection of your career of the last you know 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 because you've employed a lot of people seeing the opposite that sense of like catastrophe you know that catastrophizing oh no we're fucked you know that kind of oh yeah oh man i've kissed a lot of those frogs um yeah wouldn't you say that that's

a common denominator you find in entrepreneurs 100 i mean even in team members someone so i've i it's so i so i can't explain it enough i one example i always come back to was um i was flying to brazil and obama was speaking at the same time as me um on the same stage as me just like 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're like no no no see if we've been asking and they just said no so i'll do it then and i i sent some emails and within 30 uh within 30 emails someone comes and grabs me goes come and meet obama yeah and i just think there's always a way there's always a way and your life and my life is

testament to this upset this like there is a way or there's a way that's you know what i mean or it's 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 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 onto that. And that 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 would say there's optimism. And now I also have

gratitude and that's powering my battery. You know, I worked out my 40th birthday, I have 29,000 days on this planet, because I'm 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 I've got 29,000 days. Oh, shit. It's not 29,000 days. It's 14,000 days because I'm 40.

Right. Okay. And so that has also led to a countdown till I die. So that also has fueled this optimism and fuck it was just, you know, firefighting and optimum was 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. That is amazing. And you're right. So you're in survival mode and now you've got choice. 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 again, I can only say that now in hindsight. But if I am here to serve, I need to also serve myself. That sense of, by the way, I completely resonate with this focus on the amount of time we have left. I wrote about it in my book at long length. And I think somewhere behind me, there's a little sand timer somewhere on there.'s usually a sand timer I 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 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 um you now feel like you're here to serve do you think that comes from understanding your own power yeah I think so I think so I 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 to stop that. And I'm like, we're never stopping that. And I think that that's what I've realized is that that is what I can muster up. You know, I listen to one of my favorite songs is Cloudbusting 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? They're founders with dreams, you know, I love that. And so that is why I've written, potentially that is now my job description for the rest of my life is to build something that I can pour 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.