A Masterclass In Defying Stereotypes: How Jordan Brompton Built A Nine-Figure Green Energy Empire

Jordan Brompton is the Co-Founder of myenergi, one of the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy technology companies. Building a nine figure green energy company with 400 staff, it’s safe to say myenergi is turning heads in the renewable tech space. The company’s huge success started with the invention of the Zappi-charger, the world’s first solar charger for electric vehicles capable of using 100% renewable energy. It began as an idea over a bottle of wine with her business partner, and now drives tens of millions of sales each year.

However, myenergi’s journey hasn’t always been plain sailing. I wanted to sit down with Jordan to get to the bottom of what it’s really like running an energy company as a woman. We discuss how she has scaled the business herself, the obstacles she faces on a daily basis, and why it’s important to learn your weaknesses, as well as your strengths. Now myenergi’s CMO, Jordan gives a realistic view into the whirlwind of being on the front line of a startup in an often tumultuous industry. I am so excited to share this episode with you!

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Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 is Jordan Brompton my energy Jordan Brompton one of my idols and she’s ended up running a nine figure Energy company the fact that she walks into any room breaking every single stereotype she’s one of the most impressive people I have ever ever met

So in November 2016 we started my energy and it’s been a bloody Whirlwind ever since we started in our shed so now like 65,000 squ foot factory with indirectly we invented smart charging I mean this in the least offensive way possible if I met you and you were like yeah I own an

Energy company I would be like oh I’ve grown up with nothing from 13 years old I started working my dad graph I’ve grew up on a scrapyard did zomber instructing I’ve worked in bars I danced in night clubs God you’ve lived a 100 Lives especially with a name called Jordan and theyd expect a man to walk into the room you know how don’t get invited to the golf course why would a woman have a job it be ridiculous it drives me [ __ ] insane I’ve nearly been bullied out my own

Business every day is a challenge every day you’ve got impostor syndrome every day you don’t think you deserve to be there I think as women we just torture torture torture ourselves I’m winging it like my terrible eyeliner so what is the big end Goal what is up guys and welcome back to the podcast today we have Jordan Brompton who is just one of my Idols really she is an incred inredible entrepreneur I think the reason I’m so obsessed with her is the fact that she walks into any room breaking every single stereotype and she’s so

Unapologetic about it and she owns it and she’s just so impressive her story is absolutely unmatched in terms of tenacity the background she’s come from getting obsessed with the whole world of energy and renewable energy and making people self-sufficient and I mean she’s been a dancer she’s been a hairdresser

She’s worked in bars and she’s ended up running a nine figure Energy company and as always if you do enjoy the episode please make sure to rate and subscribe and follow the podcast on whatever platform you are listening or watching it on that really helps us and enables

Us to get amazing guests so thank you so much and as always have a wonderful day well I’m very excited to have you here thank you so much for having me no I feel like it’s such a long time coming I’ve seen you a few time we’ spoke we

Spoke on the phone a few years ago didn’t we yeah and you’ve got a zappy yeah I do I absolutely do um and I have been completely obsessed with you and what you’ve done and your whole kind of I was about to say energy which would

Have been such a great you know just a little bit of a name drop in there um but I think you’re absolutely amazing and I want to get straight into it um firstly I always ask guests for just a little bit of background on themselves

And their career so I just love to hear like right from the very beginning I guess I guess School type of time what were you like and where did you think you were going um so I was useless at school I was like I had I loved it for

The social aspect I’ve always been very social but academic wise I was just shocking I was very like C D I’d get a B in the Arts and like imp PE and things like that but I just wasn’t academic I tried super hard but it just wasn’t

There um so I was just knew straight away that I wasn’t going to go to university for start is that W even an option I grew up in Grimsby which was very working class and um I just had no idea what I wanted to do in my life I

Was told straight away after leaving school that I could be a hairdresser or I could go into travel and tourism or yeah such a breath yeah so I was like wow that’s like my options um my mom and dad really working class super hard working um Mom’s done like zomber

Instructing she was a fulltime mom my dad worked on in oil and gas and was a rigger on on the rig I like left school not a clue what I wanted to do but I was very wanted to be independent from my parents cuz they’re super hardw workking

I understood the value of money and I didn’t want to put any extra pressure on them because they already worked hard as it was and had my little sister so I think right from 13 years old I started working whether it was a paper round or

Whether it was on the Sunday market down down at the beach selling scooters I was just grafting to have my own money because I always wanted to travel um but then I was also a homebird which is totally so I’d want to travel but I’d

Want to come back and I’d want to get a bit of culture but I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do as I said I grew up singing and dancing but then at about 16 I just lost all my confidence stopped going on stage stopped doing

Anything that was sort of like performing arts and it was I think it was after I’d come down for an audition in London and um the girl sort of locked me in the toilet and said like who’s that who’s who’s that geek from like up north or

Whatever it was like a very clicky London crowd I come down for a dance audition and I went back home and I was like I am never again you piece of [ __ ] oh my God yeah so I was like that’s my career over and cuz I was too young and like

Vulnerable and ginger and geeky and just I don’t know so I thought right well that’s not a Vibe so I’ll just I just got stuck into work and yeah left school tried College tried law I did a like a year of law which I found interesting but I was like I’m not

Academic so it’s starting and I just don’t get it and then um what did I do after that I just did what the teachers told me I could do which was hair dressing or um travel and tourism so I picked hairdressing went and worked

In a salon for a bit but I was allergic to every product that I got like dermatitis up my arms and up my neck and I was like so this is for me either sorry that’s also such a niche thing I’m also very happy about it because you

Should have like loved it and I won’t be where I am now but I’ve just always had an interest in business even though I’ve had no one to really I guess the closest person that I’ve had to look up to in business is my granddad so I’ve grown up

In a real um male dominated family even though my mom’s super feminine like my dad had like 13 brothers and sisters they’re all very like huge minor Yorkshire men with big hands big outside jobs and he used to buy and sell cars and just a total Dell boy really and I

Used to I’ve grew up on a scrapyard watching him up north like and then my dad grafted and my dad used to say to me whatever you do kid it don’t matter about being academic you’re a great communicator you’ve got great common sense and not a lot of people in

This world have got common sense and I’ve been like a social butterfly that’s flitted into every job tried everything I followed my mom I did zomber instructing I’ve worked in bars I danced in nightclubs so then I went full opposite you’ve lived aund lives I have

Actually I traveled the world and then I came home um met the love of my life and who I’m married to now been with with him 13 years and I went and I thought what am I going to do need a little admin job um there was a little admin

Job at a a manufacturing a local manufacturing business and I thought that’ll be interesting I rocked up and it’s my now business partner Lee it was his little setup that he had and it was in like a shed and it was him and five or six other staff hand soldering these little

Devices and I thought what is he doing with these little like I could get him some customers yeah um what types of devices were they so they were like now what’s called R ready product which was a power diverter so anyone that had solar panels could essentially keep all

The power in the home by um diverting it to a hot water tank so I just fell in love with like the industry and I’ve been dabbling with my own little businesses before that had um um the Zumba thing then I went to work for Lee

And then I let we we parted ways briefly because he had two other shareholders at the time that just didn’t want to put the money back into the business or grow it um and I just I said to Lee it’s such such a shame I didn’t meet you with the

Beginning of this because I’d would love to have partnered with you because I think there’s true potential in this brand like in in in your products and in your brain yeah so if you ever want to do something in the future like let me

Know and we parted ways for a bit and I went and set my own business up called Spitfire distribution it was a cyclin distribution business where I was buying parts from France and selling them to the UK what types of Parts like dead boring um like chain rings and ceramic

Bearings and things like that and then clothing for bikes yeah um and it was because I had a French friend who ended up being my business partner who used to cycle in France and he got these few Brands and I said I’ll sell them to the

UK because I’ve just been doing that for Le for these little gizmos I was like how hard can it be let’s set up our own business but then I realized very quickly that I hated being a distributor because I was getting squeezed from the French with the supplier and I was

Getting squeezed from the customer and I realized that it was going to have to be super high volume to like make any money whereas when I was with Lee and he was manufacturing these little devices I’d learned that you could control your destiny your margin your costs he just

Didn’t have the best business partners at the time to take it to the level that it needed to be and also the solar Market crashed which meant all the feeding tariffs were talk so his poor business he went through a right nightmare he had to close all that up

And then um in 2016 he come knocking on my door and was like that business is all boxed off now gone do you want to do something together only thing is I don’t have any brand rights any manufacturing equipment I’ll have to redesign it so there actually nothing but I’m

Here yeah but I’m here my brain here and your love for the actual industry and passion for what you wanted to do before hopefully still there and let’s let’s do something together and I was like yes that was like my moment where I was like finally because the cycling ain’t doing

It for me yeah no matter how hard I try had a pink bike off and I was like biking around the country and trying to sell these freaking chain rings and I was like no just just not alive I’ve got to sell too many of them yeah um to make

Any money so yeah that the rest is history I said look I’ll join you so we registered the business in June 2016 I said but I’m not starting until I’ve like got my wedding out the way cuz that was in September my honeymoon and then you’ve got me fresh like I’m all yours

But let me just get this period of my life let me get Spitfire sorted yeah so in November 2016 we started my energy and it’s been a bloody Whirlwind ever since it was like that you know when you’ve got that gut feel that something’s going to work yeah and

Because you I’m passionate about it I knew I could sell it and I’d fell in love with the industry and the whole concept of being off- grid like taking somebody without being a total hippie that’s living in the woods that’s like connecting some old rusty solar panel together and building whatever and fires

I thought we should be able to be off- Grid in the modern day right like use technology to be as off- grid and as energy efficient and I just love that whole so for for people who might not know anything about that I’d love to know because I don’t think when you walk

This is one of my favorite things about you I don’t think when you walk in a room someone if someone was like I’m going to guess 10 things that this person is obsessed with I do not think in that top 10 they would be like little gizmos that correct people to being off

Grid and therefore having alternative uses of energy and I want to know what you love about this because I am obsessed with the fact that this like this is really what like we always I just think it’s the fact that we always see online now like all of the most

Glamorous businesses in terms of like what to start what looks good and all of this and you’re here running this enormous Energy company having just been like loved the gizmos I did I love Tech but do you know what it boils down to I’m actually a bit of an anarchist like

You expecting no I wasn’t expecting that I’m a total I’m a total conspiracy theorist I’m a total Anarchist and I like the idea of decentralized power in any capacity like I don’t like the power of money of our energy of our food of our water supply of whatever it is I

Don’t like it being in the hands of like a few people and so explain the concept of offgrid so offgrid basically means that if you’re generating your own power um you can’t you don’t have to pull as much power from from the actual grid right the naal

Grid yeah the National Grid so you’re basically taking yourself as off grid as as possible so in the UK it’s it’s quite complicated to go completely off grid you’ve got to stay grid connected but I like this idea of being virtually off grid so you’ve got solar panels in your

Home and what my energy does is just help you consume and divert that energy wherever you want it so that you’re not sending it back to the grid you’re just essentially your own little pocket of energy yeah which is obviously great for the environment too great for the

Environment supports the grid like the grid love it because that allows then more large Renewables onto the grid it gives us energy security as a country so if all the people that can have solar panels on their roof or a little turbine or Hydro if they live next to some water

If they can get themselves as off- grid as possible we are actually energy secure as a as a country which in the current climate obviously very important I’m just like I’ve just got a fascination with it and I I fell into the industry and at the time there was

No women in it like when I joined you know I’ve worked in Sol and now for I think it’s coming up about 14 years or so and there was no women in it at that time it was very like you know I had to trapes around Europe trapes around the

UK set with my little rollup Banners at trade shows and stuff I had to know my stuff technically because I’m dealing with electricians I’m not dealing with like women and just I just it was it was hard graft at the beginning but that’s the time that I love as well like that

Building the brand that startup that hustle that not knowing if you’re going to make next month’s paycheck if not keeps you going yeah you have to aren’t you’ve got no choice I know I always think the entrepreneurs are like a special type of weird in the way that

We’re like this makes me feel alive and like you could just you could just not a few times I was like why can’t I just get a job at Tesco and be happy about it and then have my weekends and why am I doing this to myself cuz it’s freaking

Hell but no it some you know it’s paid off and the rewards have been amazing and I mean it’s stressful but yeah but worth it and so right at the beginning what was your concept for like when when you two sat down together what was your

Concept for my energy for what you were starting and what you were building so we were starting with what we knew which was the very first product that Lee had ever designed which was our ready product so we was like I am going to design it now just it’s going to be like

The seventh version of it because I know inside out I’m going to do it amazing and let’s do it for the German Market because the German Market is just about to take off and I was like yeah I’m here for that like I know how to sell it I

Know the tech inside out I’ve got customers that I can already go to I’ve got you know loyal friendships in the industry that I can go straight to and say me and Le a partnering up so give us your money we had customers that were buying them in advance before we even

Had manufacturing equipment or whatever like helping us bankroll that are now business partners in other parts of the world so I had a loyal few customers from relationships that had built um before so I was like let’s just get stuck in with the Eddie product but it

Was when Lee was driving a little Nissan Leaf at the time and I remember him saying I’ve still got export like I’m still exporting to the grid so he like the Eddie is heated My Water by midday and then I’ve got all this power and I’m

I’m exporting it to the Grid it’s not going to my electric car and I said right my God mate get cracking get in that shed and don’t come out until you out your car is running off the hot water somehow literally like I want that I want fre miles from the sunshine no

Fuel ever again I’m not paying for fuel ever again so getting that shed and that’s when zappy was sort of sort of born yeah and zappy just like oh my God took us to Next Level because it just turned out that all the Electric Vehicle drivers of that time which weren’t very

Many but there was quite a few most of them had solar panels so it was and most of them were like dying for this product which we didn’t even know it was just by accident that we saw a problem and solved it and and indirectly we then you

Know invented smart charging as it’s known today we were the first sort of in the world to think about balancing the grid balancing the home if even if you don’t have solar panels like if you’ve got an electric shower on a kettle on and all these different things like just

Reducing the power to the car otherwise you’re going to get your main fuse pretty hot and the grid responded to it customers responded to it electricians loved it so it was just it just took off and and what was Lee’s background so Lee’s an electronics engineer he was selftaught originally

Then he went to UNI and he’s had like um jobs at Erikson and places like that he’s had multiple he had a little company where called Big Cat where he was making um electronics for cars like um little boy racer stuff he’s always been tinkering he’s like a tinkerer and

We’re both Grimsby kids and um he’s just worked his way up to being an absolute top dog that he is now call him million rounds yeah casual little just a little casual you know just a drop in the ocean really not a lot not a lot um that is

ABS I mean it is all absolutely incredible and it is such an amazing story and you talk about it in such like a matter of fact like yeah obviously that was the next step and then I’m like yeah obviously that was the next step and then I’m like wait how did you even

Know the type of like how do you sell this type of stuff to people I know obviously like I know obv viously there’s a kind of you know you absolutely can Market it in the way that you’d Market anything else but it is quite a and at the time especially as

You talking about like people didn’t have electric cars in the way they were now um and so just even thinking like where you would even start with like making a making something like that go mainstream I think of I mean probably if I had to list all of the sectors that I

Was going to start a business in starting an energy company I don’t think would be very high up the list because I would literally be like where do I like where do I even start where did you kind of get that just I guess like matter of

Fact like tenacity in terms of just getting on with things and just figuring it out yeah so I guess because so I just I looked at the market one thing that’s good when you like when you are brought up in somewhere like Grimsby not surround like hardly ever came to the

City I had no external input no analysts telling me to do this no people checking the no no one doing the market research because if they had they would have told me not to do it so my first my first um Instinct was to get online I was like

Trying not to give too much away but build the brand and build some contacts online and through Linkedin and things like that but I guess I looked and my first point of contact I thought it turned out that one of the market leaders in EV charging because there was

A few other like electric vehicle charge points that were around but they were just what we call dumb charges so they were just putting full power to the car regardless and these companies were making a mint cu the government was giving away a grand for every charger

Even though they cost about £25 to build we opened one up and we were like the electronics in them are so minimal they were like Caravan hookup points well why are there none on my road then so the government was like throwing money at this point it was called the O

Olf scheme and we didn’t have a charger at this point and I said let’s go to who’s winning in this market space at the minute and say like we can make your Tech smarter can we like can we put our zappy your product and do like a licensing thing I tried everything at

The beginning to get the brand off the ground and I just got doors slammed in my face this I remember this one company actually saying to me why why why should I help why should I help you I don’t care about the environment I don’t care

About the grid I just want to sell units and he looked at me and he went you could be a competitor one day so what and I was like no not not one day like I am going to be your competitor now you’ve just tra me like that you will

See me again yes goodbye it was honestly like what dick so I left the office like well that’s fine that’s his opinion whatever and then a year later I saw him um at one of our customers because I’d gone to I thought right I’m going to

Look at all your customers mate and I’m going to jump on the back of it when with the products so I went to all the electricians I thought I’ll start with the solar installers because they’re the ones they’re a target market so I was like contacting every solar

Installer in the country that I could find online telling them about our Tech and then I was like okay so how do I get in front of more electricians through the Electrical Wholesalers so then I started knocking down the doors of the Electrical Wholesalers and saying this

EV Market’s going to happen and take off in a big way why don’t you sell our products and um it didn’t want as easy as that got a lot of NOS got you know some people said yes and just it just started like snowballing but I guess a

Real big Catalyst and a big point was there was a there was a YouTube channel still is called fully charged and they’ve got like a million subscribers and it’s people all interested in electric vehicles and Renewables and debunking all the myths that you’ll see in the prop like loads of propaganda at

The minute about the industry yeah so you can go there for like actual studies and talks from professionals that are saying that you know about Cobalt and Min in and where the energy is coming from and all that you can get all the actual information so I knew that they

Um were going to be at an event up in Arney so I drove in Le’s Nissan Leaf which only had 55 miles range up to walkney which is a long way by the way and I I had to stop 12 times to charge drive through the and sit there as well

The thing is about an electric car is you forget that if you run out of battery it’s not like filling your petrol you just sit there like ah this this journey took 12 hours no no it didn’t it took longer than that took hours anyway but it took 12 stops like I

Had to stop 12 times I didn’t even make it to the first charger like I I ran out and I rolled in like downhill to the charg and then I got there and obviously it didn’t work this was like seven years ago before the before the

Infrastructures is what it is now um and I met Robert lelling the guy who owns the YouTube channel and I just said to him look I’ve got to show you our Tech and he just fell in love with it and he said I’m going to do you an episode I’m

Going to do an episode on it and normally don’t do episodes on like Tech and things like that but he was like but this is so Innovative and just so needed and that you know that day at a website that I built broke and um the phone began to

Ring and it just we manufacture all of our products as well by the way so we are completely yeah so we’d gone from I was hand soldering them myself like packaging them walking them to the post office then we zappy zappy up the up the hill in the

Local village where we started in our shed so now like a you know I don’t know six we’re just building a 65,000 square foot factory with all the latest Manu facturing equipment in so we can turn out millions of these things around the world yeah no more soldering for you and

So that obviously hugely started to take off what what kind of size was your team at that time oh I don’t even remember I think um there must have been about what when it really took off that was probably about 15 16 or so people by

That point right and how did that feel to suddenly be managing 15 16 people were they were they in office side or were they doing the manufacturing side it was office and Manufacturing it was very handson we was like orders were growing in momentum and everybody was

Doing a bit of everything and you know when you’re starting up you hire people you know you’ll hire anyone who’s willing to help you you don’t hiring on skill you’re hiring on help me like family and friends and just begging people to work for you and pulling in

The family and the husband and stuff on Easter bank holidays and stuff to get orders out and it was wild um but I found the hardest part going from about that size to probably about 4050 because it had gone from feeling like everyone felt like there was family to then all

Of a sudden you trying to put processes and procedures in and bring people in that are qualified and it starts I went I remember going and that was when I was pregnant I remember going through a really hard time and a really hard transition of going from like friendly

Family startup fun Vibes to all of a sudden this is getting a bit too successful and people turning and being a bit weird and then some just oh the politics yeah it was hard work but now I think once you’ve got over like the couple of hundred mark of people it’s a

Fully functioning business it’s less like personal it’s more yeah I definitely have found that that transition between being like four people in a room to being like I mean we’re only like 35 people but even at that stage when it’s like you know everything’s pretty process driven and

It has to I I remember um our our CEO once saying like if it was in one of our like all hands type things and she said the other day she was like the fact that half of you probably think we’re too corporate and half of you probably think

We’re too Scrappy and messy probably means we’re in the exact right place that like a startup that scaling needs to be in and I was like that is so so true but also it genuinely does mean that usually half the people there think you’re an absolute [ __ ] show that’s got

Nothing in place and like they’re running around being like I need more process and half the people there are like you’ve added too many layers and like it’s too complicated and you like that’s how I feel constantly at the moment I feel like we I’m finding this

Stage so hard in terms of people and team and actually being able to like work out exactly the types of people we need exactly like the types of processes we need what’s too much what’s too little how do you incentivize like Innovation within the team whilst also

Putting things in place to mean things that don’t go wrong it is just I mean I I think I’m finding it the hardest I’ve ever found it in terms of people at the moment for exactly that reasonal it’s normal and it’s the hardest stage I think once you get through that growing

Except you said it’s fine when you get to a few hundred and I’m quite far away from that and I’m having a tough time Jordan do I think good management good management is key like you need your core like a team because that’s what I

Found I call them my a team um and that’s like getting that right is a blessing and I’ve you know it’s like anything in relationships you kiss a few frogs you go you get it wrong a few times I’ve had the impostor syndrome where I’ve let people come in and be

Really corporate and I think well I trust everything they say because they’re better than me and then it’s gone horribly wrong for the culture and we’ve had a bit of we’ve just done a culture session because I I feel like we’ve got a culture War where it’s Old

World versus new and it’s like I’m wanting to run it really like liberal and relaxed and trus in and then there’s some that want no processes procedures it’s black it’s white there’s no gray area and I’m like yeah and also what I find tough is that it’s so management

Style is so specific to who you’re managing and the types of people you’re managing but in a bigger organization you can’t run things based on the person CU I’ve always managed people differently whether I know know like whether it’s like a you know I always think it’s best when it’s on like a

Trust relationship and it’s on the type of thing where you can really easily just be like you’re that you’re essentially I like people to be able to act self-employed within an organization because if they feel trusted I’m not micromanaging it’s better for me it’s better for them all of that but then

There’re also you can’t hire fast enough and therefore not everyone you hire is going to be like that and not everyone thrives in that situation so as much as you can say in the interview process like you know how good are you like type of thing whatever it might be and then

Also it’s not always good to have all the same types of people too and so it’s I found it so hard to adapt my leadership and management style both to manage people correctly but also to be like we’ve all got to have some sort of homogeneity in terms of like the way we

Do things otherwise it’s just hard it’s chaos it’s chaos it’s hard work and I don’t think there’s any like right or wrong way of doing that’s what I wanted you to say I wanted you to give me tips and then my my problems will be gone we

Can offline I’ll I’ll see what the real problems are yes so fair enough um and in terms of that I guess going from I mean you’ve how many people are you now I don’t actually know it’s um I think it’s about 400 at the moment we had a

Bit of a we’ve had a bit of a wobble this year because the energy crisis and the cost of living we were growing at like 200% year on year and then we just hit this massive slowdown because of the cost of living crisis and because all the subsidies were cut

For EVS and it’s all being politicized now and we ramped our production I cannot believe the sorry such a segue I cannot believe they’ve moved that EV Target total [ __ ] like I don’t it doesn’t even make sense it’s one of those classic things you’ve seen I’ve

Seen a few things coming out in the Press at the moment that are so blatantly just them trying to get up on points like it’s them suddenly being really transformed it’s them suddenly moving the EV thing and all of this none of them actually make sense it’s not

Like anyone it’s just getting like the thing is all the car manufacturers now have switched their production like you’re not going to do if what was it 2025 uh 2035 they’ve switched it to it was 2030 now it’s 2030 they’ve pushed it back to that being seven years to turn

Whole businesses around in terms of not producing petrol and diesel vehicles obviously everyone’s already going to be on that road they have to like it’s a massive Mammoth task to like switch your whole mechanical manufacturing to electronic and it’s not just like the whole world signed up to this like the

Whole world’s doing it and now by by us reversing it we’re just we are just literally destroying this country in any economic advantage that we could have had we was doing so well like we’re Leaps and Bounds ahead of like the US even in terms of like Tech around the

Home and and EVs and EV charging and it’s just we could have really grabbed of it and been a leader of as our little island as off grid as possible and it’s just just who who cares anyway we’ll just keep doing it I think like the cars

Have made the switch we’ll carry on consumers have made their minds up most most of them even though the media is not helping so much at the minute with the fear mongering and the propaganda and but you know I just think how can it how can it be wrong you know yeah

Literally you know what it’s like you live in the city um just just not having the fuel like pumping out the back into the atmosphere you know and it’s so energy intensive to produce fuel like to drill it out the ground to then turn it into something that we can use to then

Burn it into the atmosphere yes making a battery isn’t the isn’t completely emission free but once it’s with you yeah no more emissions after it and you can recycle it after it’s not even like we were super close to the deadline and then they were being like we’re going to

Add a 2-year grace period so that you can do x y and Zed it’s not even that like it’s literally just like a flat switch where you’re so right we could have been Leaps and Bounds ahead and we as a country we are getting political but

Like we as a country very much need some sort of angle where we can be like actually no you know we’re leading in this we’re leading in this and actually that’s because we’ve set targets which mean that we have to lead in this and now look where we are this is amazing

Like we you know are way ahead in this specific area as you said ahead of the US that’s amazing like it’s specifically that with all the with the cost of living crisis and with this many crises over the past few years like we’ve never had this intense amount of whether it’s like

Recessions coid Crisis over and over and over again what time to start a business yeah I know brilliant I know what I should do make myself more insecure um but yeah it’s exactly that type of thing and it’s like it just doesn’t I mean it just doesn’t make any sense at all you

As a business when you get that type of news that obviously you’ve planned to change to ramp up production to account for the increas in demand I can imagine that’s a lot of your bus plan over the next few years how have you adapted to like when big news like that comes in

How do you even deal with that it was so hard so the Slowdown has been awful because it meant that we were too topheavy with and you can’t just turn off your suppliers so if you’ve got like um hundreds of thousands of components on order to manufacture your products

Based on the market growth rate that was happening last year and year before and what everybody’s predicted and then all of a sudden it slows right down you’ve got to recuperate those costs somehow up until that point we were a self-funded business we we’d got some investment 1.8

Back in 2019 we raised 1.8 million from Angel Investors right and then we we’ve been growing off our own profits ever since we’ve been completely profitable unbelievable and then this took a massive D in our cash flow um we had to let some staff go it was honestly the worst most brutal

Time experience I’ve ever gone through as a business owner because it’s all I’m stressed even when it’s going good you know like I find it high pressured and stressful and it’s not like I just I’m living my best life I’m always under pressure and stressed but when it’s like

Going the wrong direction all of a sudden and you’re having to like lay people off or let it was just Savage but we seem to be over the hump of that and um we have just closed out on a round which I mentioned to you raised 30 million which is nice which is

Unbelievable like incredible also i’ like for context for anyone who’s not in the fundraising sphere this year has been absolutely Savage in terms of fundraising or like there’s been almost no deal flow in like any direction at all like no one’s really being getting checks um and for you to just like work

Out you need money a bit ago and come into like essentially at this point and and get it yeah is amazing we also got super um supportive Bank like we had some help from the Bank as well um give us a revolving credit line of 30 million

So we’ve got that you know we’ now we’re now well capitalized and ready to to grow because we’re looking at other markets as well and we’ve got a list as long as our arm of other products that we want to bring out but all that like

You know we we’ve had a bit of a hold obviously on recruitment for a long time and the team were all stretched and so we’re ready to just take that pressure off everybody and yeah take a breath and go again because it’s been a really intense six seven eight months it’s been

Yeah no I can imagine and so I want to talk a little bit Mo I guess linked to the funding conversation I want to talk a little bit about being a female business owner having raised funding as a woman um obviously we discussed you have a male co-founder so the slats

Stats slightly different however they’re still not great um how have you found the process of I guess we’ll talk about raising funding first did you feel like there was anything you were up against in terms of like walking into a room as a very feminine woman being like I run

An energy company I mean I guess you have the numbers that speak for themselves now I yeah I didn’t really like we so we were going to IPO before before the war happened we was going to IPO and we was had everything in motion to go and we’d been on the glory parade

We’d been around meeting investors we’d got the pitch nailed we were on this mad tra trajectory where we were growing 200% year on year and if we’ have got that over the line it’ have been great personally but it would have fell off a cliff not long after and share prices

And then who knows what would have happened so I’m so glad we didn’t IPO when we did but we knew that we were going to need cash and not our own like organic growth even though organic growth has been impressive it was like we need some extra help if we want to do

All the things we’re going to do so let’s switch to private equity and then it’s been they won’t mind me saying it’s been a hell it’s been a really difficult journey and I I I’ve learned so much through this process so the difference between and we have I mean it’s we’ve

Obviously done a much smaller round but the difference between Angel yeah and raising institutional money is and the for people who might not know yeah the a angel is obviously High net worth individuals and they’re operating on their own and institutional is institution so it’ll be funds in some

Way so whether it’s it’s like VC or private Equity it is very and they want the inside leg measurements and they want to know what you’re going to and and like the term sheets and the goes into the due diligence and the amount of teams and the lawyers and I’m

Like I just remember thinking the last fund raise I remember when going through the due diligence and stuff I remember being like if we get through this due diligence I have nothing to worry about ever because the amount of due diligence on every single side of the business

That is done I mean they leave no like no stone unturned there is definitely no stone unturned and it is just so expensive whilst you also are running the business I think that’s one of the biggest things about fundraising is you I think it hurts the business no I

Completely agree and that’s why um investors often have the upper hand because obviously they know that you want to do it like an internal round of some form or like whatever it might be because the it is so hard to come away from the business spend that time

Pitching doing the due diligence and generally fundraising whilst also attempting to run the business as you usually would in probably a position that’s not that easy anyway and then you also need to have a life yes no why would you do that and raise a child oh

Sure yeah that’s small yeah like well I like that’s also like a whole other thing and in terms of being a I guess a woman who’s a who kind of owns this company and from the original I guess you originally starting to be leader how have you found that being a

Woman has impacted people’s I guess perception of you as a leader yeah it blows people’s minds I think especially because it’s in this industry like you say seems to like it’s a conversation stter and it’s interesting it’s like me and my husband have just been away and

We’ve been in um in Dubai and people always say to me all like what do you do like they ask the it’s natural to go to the man why would a woman have a job would be ridiculous and it’s all people lead with it don’t they’re like what do

You do BL that but being a woman I don’t I don’t know like I actually just hate that we have to still talk in 2023 about being a woman in business we said just also for context before we started recording this is literally exactly what I said I always

Feel so almost like horrible that every time I have like a really impressive woman here I’m like but being a woman and it’s like but it is you do get Tre like you do get Tre differently and in I notic it in sales and things like that

You know how don’t get invited to the golf course you know where’s my invite where’s my invite because that would be weird and M might cause problems like at home you know I don’t know I don’t know yeah um it’s just not the same when you’re a female

Leader still a little bit of a boys club yeah but I’ve I’ve never felt any of the guys treat me with any disrespect really even in the banking world and when I’ve been raising cash and when I’ve got amazing investors I’ve got amazing like males around I’ve always had a lot of

Men around me and I guess growing up by a very male dominated family I’ve learned how my dad’s always taught me how to handle myself and I I really recommend getting into bar work when you’re young because then you just meet every type of Walk of Life don’t you and

Being a dancer I’ve just learned how to like I’m very street smart and learned how to read a room and read body language and don’t get me wrong like people especially with a name called Jordan as well because back in the day someone would email me and they’d be

Speaking to me and they’d expect a man to walk into the room so when a blonde with a pink Blazer walks in walks in it’s like it puts them on the back foot because it was expecting a bloke until you know now we’ve got pictures of and people sort of

Know now but in the early days when I was starting off I used to see people physically like disarm when I walked into like oh yeah um so there is like there’s there’s a bias and there’s you get Tre different and you might get judged but I

Don’t just find it from the blos I find it quite a lot from the women as well I think it is I really think that is very true and I always say I think we all have underlying preconceptions and biases that I even find like I even find

Like in myself you know when you’re talking to someone you’re like oh yeah like like I mean this in the least offensive way possible if I met you and you were like yeah I own an energy company I I would like as in it’s so it’s terrible that that’s even in but I

Would be like oh yeah amazing that’s really amazing but it’s so in our heads we are so especially like we talked about the fact that you like you’ve deliberately lent into the fact that you’re a very feminine a certain way exactly I’ve not toned it down people

Have tried to make me tone it down I can remember one yeah yeah I’ve been through that I’ve had one guy that I I’d never say his name but I I’ll say it to him I pointed him he was one of our first big hires and he I remember him saying to me

I think you should change your profile picture because I don’t think it’s very appropriate is that like the that what we want to portray and I was like how dare you just literally so nice yeah and it was like what you never say would he ever say that to his

Male boss that he just exactly like people do say things when you’re a female or when you’re a little bit more cuz I am very open there for everybody super like warm engaging like welcome people in and and I do people take chunks out of me and people take chunks

Out of me because of my kind nature and that as well and I find like I’m a bit of a punching bag and I am probably the most judged of the sea suite and I’m judged inter Ally I’m judged externally but then when you get into the nuts and

Bolts of it like I’m also I am also really respected I’m just unconventional I think people don’t know what to what to do with it and they’re battling their own yeah their own biases and social conditioning and I don’t know but I I get through I get by it I get my

Knockbacks I get chunks taken out of me I build myself up I mean you can ask my my EA she’s the closest to me Wednesday she sees it on and my husband they probably family and that they see me roaring behind the closed doors when

I’ve I’ve had a day of it but I always just like managed to pull it together and I’m like an elephant I don’t forget so if someone’s like took a chunk out of me or made my energy feel not nice I remember that and I’ll always sort of

Not get my own back because I’m not like malicious but I won’t let it go I’ll make sure that it’s nipped in the board and I’ll make sure that it’s been made clear that you’ve made me feel like that and then we’ll we’ll and I don’t hold

Grudges and then I move yeah and how have you built that I guess that like kind of thick skin um whilst also remaining authentic to the fact that like cuz I always find this I always find like I pride myself in being generally quite a nice person

Like I would I I know that I have really high standards I know that I expect a lot from people but I also know that I will treat everyone with respect I will be very nice to everyone and I’m definitely not like a traditional I guess boss in lots of ways where I’ll

Kind of like sweep in I’ll Never Shout at someone for fun I’ll never like as in I know that like you know the bar is low but like as in genuinely but also then there’s been so many times where I’ve considered myself like or I’ve had conversations where I’m like you would

Never say that to me if I was a man even if I was the same age if you would never ever ever and then I’m kind of like I changed myself for a bit and then I always think I don’t want to be I don’t want to change Parts about myself purely

Because it doesn’t make me taken us seriously and it makes someone else comfortable and it makes someone like I don’t want to turn into a horrible person just so you know know that you can’t talk to me like that or whatever it might be how have you managed to I

Guess build that muscle of like a thick skin and being able to um take that type of behavior whilst also remaining authentic to the fact that you want to be yourself I don’t think I’ll ever have thick skin I don’t think I’ll ever be used to it I think I’ll always struggle

And that’s why I fear quite you know I fear doing stuff like this because I think people come at you so easily these days especially online I don’t understand how yeah you know like they come for you and I just think I I I do

Sort of hide and but I’ve had a moment where I was like it was literally an epiphany recently I was laid in the bath and I sent a Tik Tok video and it just summed it up where I thought oh my God that is so true don’t let anybody shrink

You because they’re uncomfortable with your energy and your way of like leading and I and and it was just such a pivotal moment that this film like popped this little clip popped into my life and I was like you know what I’m not shrinking myself anymore I’m going to I’m always

Unapologetically me but I’m going to be a little bit more Unapologetic Bally me because I guess I have shrunk myself to suit society and to suit everybody internally and suit everybody externally and I know I’m not a crazy person I know I don’t run around I’m not like you not a bad person

I why do people feel that they can be this way with me but they wouldn’t dream of saying something like that to Lee like I’ve talked about this before how the fact that we we need women in order to be liked we need them a not to be

Successful but fine if we can remove that if we want to like a successful woman we need them to be like violently humble and self-deprecating like we really need them to be like to basically qualify their success in a way where we’re like no you wouldn’t actually want

It because these are all the like bad things about it like we like to make other people comfortable with our success by saying it’s not as good as it actually is and like that’s a big thing that we need but then from leaders and and we also need women to be vulnerable

We need them to share all the [ __ ] things they’ve been through like we require that of women for to predicate their success for their success to be like worthy we need to have known know they’ve gone through all of this I always say that like I know the background to every single female

Founder within like every single female founder in the UK If I know about them I know the their background I know what type of education they’ve been through I know all of this because we need to to be able to somehow be like oh yeah do

You know what they do deserve it or whatever it might be or to be like oh yeah but they came from this background or whatever it might be whereas every single man that is an entrepreneur I don’t know anything about their background if I do it’s probably because

They’re so famous and so successful that we’re like yeah cool but we never concentrate on their background we never concentrate on where they came from like as in we don’t need to in the same way but then I’ll stop my rant soon maybe I then for leaders we ask them to be the

Opposite we ask them to be strong and not show their vulnerabilities in the same way we ask for them to be able to like ring fence and put on like this Persona and all of this so then we’re saying well to be a woman you need to do

All of these things and to be a good leader you need to do all of these things and unfortunately they’re mutually exclusive so unfortunately we can’t have any likable women leaders like it drives me [ __ ] insane cuz when you think about it you’re like okay but you’re asking for two completely

Different things so I’ve got to go into a room and I’ve got to be vulnerable but I’ve also got to be strong and show none of my weaknesses but then I’ve got to be really humble but then I’ve got to be sure of myself because I’ve got to show

That I deserve to be here all this too defensive don’t be too emotional emotional it’s just business don’t be too this and don’t be too that I don’t have the bandwidth I know it’s it’s freaking intense it’s it’s mental torture at times and it’s just not what

You need on top of running a business you don’t need to be going home and thinking if I mean it’s a good job with strong characters because I could I could have quit a few times I’ve nearly been I I would say I’ve nearly been bullied out my own business in the sense

That I’ve thought this is just too much I’m just this I’ve not got this in me why am I feeling like this and no one else is feeling like it why am I I and women are quite good at graciously walking away as well cuz I’ve also

Almost found myself at a point where I’ve been like I’m going to be like Gra in this and just be like you know what this isn’t the place for me and it’s like no this is my place what am I been doing yeah but that’s the turmoil and

Usually it’s when I’m in the bath and I’m doing my self-care bloody Sundays I’m like yeah no I built this freaking thing I’m staying I’m and I’m growing it because if it’s not me it’s someone else and I’ve built the done the faking leg work and then I’m going to let someone

In and swoop in no I’m not going to so I’m like pull yourself together get a grip stick your little iPads on like deescalate puffiness and go again the puffy Get the Led mask I’m like this sat with everything all my I don’t know mate honestly I don’t

Know what the answers are it’s just I think because every as well every size that the business gets every new every day is a hurdle every day is a challenge every day you’ve got imposter syndrome every day you don’t think you deserve to be there every day you’re thinking

Should I be this type of leader should I be that type of leader it gets easier with age like I’m 34 now I know you’re only a baby I think when you get into your 30s you get a whole new level Something switches in your is where you

Care less and less and less what people think and every year that goes by it’s starting to become more and more of a power but I still I still I think I don’t know whether it’s hormonally I don’t know whether it because that plays a massive part in it I don’t know what

You know I’ve started getting my Bloods done regularly because I want to get on top of that and just get to know my body on a cellular level a little bit more because I find stuff like that interesting but I think you know if I

Like it does play a factor into it CU if I’m like Jan or something before a board meeting I’m a freaking wreck like an absolute wreck like board meetings I get myself so worked up but it’s because I want to do such a good job and I want to

Be so equal to the Bloks that are in the room that are calm and I want to know I want to know my stuff I don’t want them to ask me a question and me not know but then again I’m having epiphanies all the time last Bo me and I thought what does

It matter if I don’t know the answer and also if they are someone else and they didn’t know the answer I don’t think they would doubt their entire capacity no they wouldn’t but I I do it’s just so I think as women we just torture torture torture ourselves because of and we’re

Going through evolving times aren’t we we’re going through totally different different generation to what our parents went through to what our grandparents went through we’re like carving out this whole new technological World we’ve got all this information online and everything we’ve just got a lot to deal

With in general without throwing in like you know multi-million pound businesses with 400 staff that is amen I have to say to say good night so I don’t know the answers you come into your podcast for some lovely inspiration I don’t know what to I got

Nothing give you I’m winging it like my terrible I know I know and I think that is the truth to be honest as well because I think every single person is very much winging it and there’s little bits of advice you can take from everyone but I think realistically the

True amazing entrepreneurs are the ones that are winging it to the extent that they obviously entrepreneurs all the time if you don’t have the answer you still do it like and I think that’s the constant thing is it’s like I’ll sort it out later there’s no where to hide you

Can’t bury a head in the sand for too long when you are the owner of the business it is you yeah but I think one thing I would say about um one thing that’s helped me mentally physically and again women feel so uncomfortable talking about the successes and they

Have to tone it down where everybody else can you know go over the top yeah do you know what I occasionally do you know I’ve got the pink Audi I think I’m going to enjoy my car I get I get like comments thrown at me and stuff but I

Think I’ve grown up with nothing I didn’t come from a wealthy family I’ve not been handed nothing I’ve put up my own savings on the line like I’m not taking that away from anyone that you know has had it handed to them because I think still you’ve got to graft even if

You’ve been handed a wedge of cash even if you’ve been handed a business it’s not a freaking given but like I can hold my head high that I did physically have nothing and it’s I’ve had no easy way of making it so I think I am going to enjoy

The fin of things life and you’re not going to take it away from me and you’re not going to make me feel like [ __ ] about it and I also try and like be a bit more it’s not like I’m showing off and being flashy extra flashy and

Showing things that I buy but I will go on holiday yeah and I’ll have one thing about me I will have a luxury holiday and I will have a nice car sa shoot me I’ll buy a nice house but one thing that gave me my physical sanity back and I

Can’t stress it enough to a female founder or to Founders is take some money off the table whenever you can so I am in 20 when Co hit I was living in a little house I just had my daughter the pressure was building because we had a full manufacturing facility with orders

That we couldn’t keep up with and then Co hit and I thought I didn’t know if we was going to have to mothball the business lay people off none of us knew what was going to happen and I literally I thought I can’t have put my whole life

Saving into this any money that I had and when I say life saving I mean like I took 20 grand that I had in a house out or borrowed a loan against it and put it in that’s all I had and I was like I cannot let this cannot fail and be left

With nothing like me and my husband and my little I can’t I just I was was like literally terrified so I went to my original investors and I said I know the business is worth something now like I just want to sell a bit of my shareholding I’ve seen a house that I

Want it’s just going to give me the comfort that I need through lock down with my new baby you’re not pushing every day for yeah it’s my dream house I’ll be like just I’ll be really good yeah I’ll be good just give me the money

And um it was a bit of a it was a bit of a they had me they add me really because it was at Co they were like well oh you know the pandemic’s hit and we don’t know where the business and there’s a risk and luckily like I always think

Like if you do feel like you’re getting a bad deal negotiate a claw back so that if the business is worth more money you can have some of your shares back or you can have some cash back so I negotiated that in as well which ended up being

Worth a lot of money and was freaking God send um so I I negotiated and I took some money off the table and I bought my dream house in an in the area where I’ve grown up where it was always totally aspirational to live and it just changed

M my immediate family my husband and my daughter’s life it’s set Bonny up and I thought do you know what now anything that happens now really doesn’t matter because I’ve done what I more than what I ever dreamed I could do and now I feel

Like I can the rest of it’s fun and I’ve still got my sharehold I’ve still got some share holding and that um I think if I’d have gone through what I’m what I’ve gone through in the last year skint still with no money off the table because I think people think that if

You’ve got a successful business that’s turning the business turns over 70 million I don’t take anything out of it other than a wage I’m not taking dividends I don’t take profits out of it it’s all getting plowed back in and um I think people have this perception that

Oh wow they’re turning over 70 million she must be loaded it’s like no I had to sell some shares to live the lifestyle that I’m living now but if I hadn’t have done that I think I’d have quit I think I’d have had a mental breakdown I think

I’d have ended up a nervous wreck I I don’t think I could have gone through what I’ve gone through if I didn’t take away my financial worry that I had at the time and it’s not even possible for some people people but if it is if you

Get a slight opportunity you’ve got a shareholding you’ve got a business that’s worth some value just look into it yeah take I call it sleep money yeah no and it is exactly that and I love what you talked about in terms of being able to um claw some of

That money back as well and having being able to put growth shares in there and all of those various different things because that is obviously incredibly important but it is one of those things like I I do think there’s a huge misconception that people who are you

Know cuz if you I mean your business business OB obviously just been valued because you’ve obviously um had the 30 million put in I’ve known Founders who have obviously had like insane net worths and genuinely never taken a penny out more because they haven’t been able to it’s also a big misconception that

You can just take out money when you obviously if you’re like insanely profitable you could probably take out more but actually usually it’s an equity situation it’s usually therefore it only happens at an equity event AKA then like around but even like if I only own tala

I don’t take a penny I mean no I take a salary that is I take a salary froma but if I only Hada is undoubtedly out of what I do the most impressive andth the most money like it’s worth a ridiculous you know like if you look at it it’s worth a ridiculous

Amount of money but if I only had that I’m completely the money I earn is entirely through other Ventures like because you cannot grow a business whilst also doing that like it’s just it’s not a way you can grow feasibly and it’s not you can’t just like take money

Out in that way and I find it’s such a common conception aged when people will see a recent valuation or they’ll see something like that and don’t get me wrong people who have obviously had like a huge exit like laughing yeah but yeah it’s one of those things where it’s like

The majority of Founders go through this years and years and years of stress and actually not Money Motivated because actually I found one of the most disheartening things is when you’re having a really really really stressful year for example or a really hard six months and you’re pushing and you’re

Pushing and you’re pushing the biggest difference about entrepreneurship is you genuinely actually see no difference in the money like you you’re not taking home anymore to be pushing that much more no you genuinely working harder and you don’t know if that’s ever going to exist as well it’s all just an imaginary

Number until it does exist and even businesses that are worth tens of millions hundreds of millions sometimes ever sell yeah and I and I’ve just seen things turn so fast you just never ever know you can be like on on the op and think this is it for for life now this

Is fine I’ll just ride this wave yeah you don’t know what’s around the corner like there’s so many macro factors that just I mean might be different in in your sort of business because you’ve got such a huge name yourself and following I think you’ll always be successful with

Your Brands always be successful I think that’s for sure I don’t know because you you’ve got your you know you’ve got your name you got your Social yeah you could I feel like you could spin up a million of businesses if you want you’re so early in your career I’m like it’s

Amazing to see but I just think if you’ve got that one thing and you know and it’s sort of like a trend or it’s an industry that’s politicized or especially if it’s in politicized it’s um it’s risk it can be risky yeah no I can completely completely imagine I just

Want to talk briefly about again this is one of the things I hate talking to women about I want to talk to about having a baby so me and my husband are just so like we were so content and so happy with our lives that it was like we

Just made the decision that we were going to try um even though I was like I don’t know how I’m going to do this but we’ll figure it out and it’s that naivity I think at the beginning and but it was um we were happy either way for

Starters we’ve been together for ages and never actually had a scare or anything so he like we didn’t know if we could or not but we’d never actively tried and we just said if we fall then it’s meant to be but if not our life’s Ace was so happy regardless so you know

If it’s not meant to be it’s not meant to be so we didn’t put any pressure on it turns out I fell pretty quick um like like straight away so I was like oh okay we’re doing this then sure um and then the business was really every single

Year the business is it moves at such a rate and not so I think like three months in my energy terms is like a year that’s how quick things happen it’s like dog years and um it was so freaking busy at this time and I just released this

Little book that I did about for for children um teaching them about Ren renewable energy and um an all renewable planets so what I think getting it into the kids psyche and younger not terrifying them to death is important so I just finished this book and I was

About to go down and do the the launch of it in fully charged and I was loading the van and I was 32 weeks pregnant at the time and um I thought I said to my friend Darcy I said I think uh the baby AR mov much today and it moves quite a

Lot and she went no it’s fine it’s just cuz you’re getting bigger and um you’re you know it’s just got less room to move and I had little cut off shorts on I was like that cute pregnancy stage I was like hm wrong with my husband I said I

Don’t think I felt the baby move today and I burst tears and Mike said let’s just go get you um let’s go get you checked well two hours later I’m in emergency c section and she’s she’s here so I was like wow so she was eight weeks

Early and I was not prepared didn’t have everything sorted I was doing a deal at the time so I was then doing a deal from intensive care because we both needed transfusions and it was [ __ ] heavy um so my start was just utter Madness I it was one of them flippant decisions that

If we fall we fall if we don’t we don’t and I did and then it was chaos but now she’s totally fine she’s here and one of the um best things that I have done as well from taking some money off the table is retired my husband so Mikey no

Longer works so that has taken all the guilt and pressure off me because I tried to manage it all and I thought it was going to have a breakdown yeah cuz I he had a job and it was like he’d get up at 7:00 in the morning he want me back

Till midnight he was an overhead linesman and it was like that job ruled over mine because there was no leeway there was no flexibility course yeah it’s a shift so I’d be driving across town like with the baby I was like breastfeeding stuff at the time pumping

Trying to run the business get to meetings do board meetings break my back trying to get back for the little while I said I can’t I don’t know I don’t know how women do it I don’t think I can do it it was such a there something’s got

To give and I said um we we’ve made we’ve made a bit of money like why you have to work and it was just like it’s going to make me feel so so less guilty it’s going to put less pressure on my family and again I feel like I have to

Always cave at this with it’s such a privilege and not everybody can do that and they can and I appreciate that and I’m so lucky but that is because I took the initiative at the time grew the business took the initiative to take some money off the table and make my

Life I just try and make my life as stressfree as I can outside of the things that you know anything that I can control try and take the stress away anything that I can’t control then I’m at least able to handle it that little bit better so my husband’s a full-time

Dad he’s a freaking amazing dad and they come and I also I’ve decided not to put her in school so she’s not um she’s not in school she’s homeschooled she’s got a tutor she’s just turned four and she’s got a cheor two days a week um so she’s

Got oneon-one time with the Cheo doing all of her primary school work and then they can literally because we’ve got offices all around the world yeah I’m down in London a lot more that can come with meing so it’s just like I’ve just made life work and how has your mindset

Changed since having a baby obviously still running like a multi-million pound company um it’s um it it everything’s now it does change like your whole perspective on life and everything just changes it just naturally does something Cellular in you changes to the point where you’re doing everything for them now you are you’re

Literally thinking about their future thinking about how think about making it as comfortable as possible try and give her the best experience that every age she’s at and you just see the world through their eyes and want to leave a bit of a legacy for her want to leave

Her options um want to leave her a planet yeah that would be nice that the planet was in I want to leave a nice country I care I care about our country I care about our planet I care about big things and that’s a bloody weight of its

Own I try and fix it all but it’s just it just drives you more than ever you just become really like tunnel tunnel visioned and less when you you can be selfish when you don’t have a kid you can just yeah own baby all the things

You were saying about your child there I was thinking that’s what I do for myself yeah but that’s good you good do that make have a stressfree existence yeah no but it’s so true and I always think about that in terms of like this is why

You know wanting to talk to you about like that kind of decision and all of that because it [ __ ] scares the [ __ ] out of me because I think as a Founder you have to be you have to be able to operate from a almost entirely selfish mindset not in terms of like Founders

Are selfish people but like you work in a quite maniacal way like I definitely do and I can do that because I have an incredibly supportive partner and I don’t have any dependence and like worst comes to worst I can get some Doggy Daycare but you’re you’ll make it work

You’ll blow your own mind you’ll make it work and it’s not as scary as you think it’s just it just adds a whole element of magic to your life that you didn’t even realize you was ready for and it adds a level of maturity that just something goes in your brain that’s just

But societ is Bonkers because you you you find the part you find a nice partner it’s when you get married you get married you then when you having a kid you have a kid then it’s when you having a second when you what you’ve got to give him a sibling it’s

Like you give them a [ __ ] sibling can I just freaking break if I’m honest now I’m going through the pressure of do I I’m like 35 in April and I’m like God’s sake if I am going to have another one I’m going to have to have it soon but

Then I’m like but I’ve got so much on on I don’t even I’ve just signed a 30 million round literally I can’t I’ve got to spend 30 million and make it into 0 million clocks going like this and I’m like no I just then I’m like but Society

Puts the pressure on it a you can’t just have a only child and and I’m thinking of course you can that’s all yeah of course you can ridiculous you can also freeze your eggs you can she doesn’t want to freeze her eggs scared camera reads will not freeze eggs I’ve seen the

Extraction proc the the hormones and then the total wimp cartney Kardash go through that and it gives me the courney my best mate my M I’ve learned a lot from her going through that and I would not like it yeah no I agree I completely agree so

What is the big end goal uh well I didn’t think I’d have achieve as much as I’ve achieved if I’m honest I think um I think I’d love there’s a part of me that’s itch in to try and crack America so I think if we could take my energy

Over to America that would be fun yeah and it’s a nice big goal so I don’t know I honestly I just want to decarbonize as many homes as physically possible my next immediate goal is I want a million connected customers in the UK because that would mean we’ve got s GW of

Flexible power and what and Drax is our biggest power station at 4 GW so I think that that would be pretty cool it’s like a nice little Target to have um so that would mean that you had more power than the national either grid no all the

Power yeah perfect um yeah that just so that we can do it and balance the grid and I always said that we’d throw a draxx party and that’s sort of like a mini goal what there’s more products that we want to release there’s new markets that I want to enter um Spain

France Italy well what a good place to end um thank you so so much for coming on you are absolutely incredible um I think yeah I I think you’re just amazing I can’t say anything more than that clearly just lost for words I’m so impressed I think you’re the best as

Well so I can’t wait to just watch your life and career just keep going I think you’re amazing thank You