Episode 218 · 29 July 2025 · 52:32
The F-ckup Files: Our biggest work (and life!) failures. Summer Sessions, Episode 1
The F-ckup Files: Our biggest work (and life!) failures. Summer Sessions, Episode 1
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Summer Sessions intro and why we're sharing our biggest failures
Leanne's demotion: the setup and the warning signs
The call: three options, none of them good
The mistake every first manager makes
14 years on — does it still feel like a failure?
Al's booze delivery startup in 2002
When it went wrong — the licensing officer calls
Bankrupt for £103,000 — what happens next?
Do you still see it as a failure?
Leanne's poolside humiliation — Thailand, a wedding, and a cartwheel
Al's Tesco meat counter catastrophe
Show notes
The F-ckup Files: Our Biggest Work (and Life!) Failures — Summer Sessions, Episode 1
Summer Sessions, Episode 1 — Al Elliott and Leanne Elliott (Chartered Occupational Psychologist) are poolside with gin in hand for the first of their stripped-back summer episodes. No guests, no research papers — just the disasters we usually keep quiet. Leanne's public demotion from a dream job. Al's bankruptcy at 26 after his booze delivery startup collapsed. The wedding faceplant in Thailand. The Tesco meat counter catastrophe. And why — despite the shame, the panic attacks, and the long tail of embarrassment — they still believe in taking big swings.
🔥 What We Cover
📌 Leanne's first big management flop
The dream promotion that turned into a living panic. Hired to run a flagship employability programme, Leanne found herself managing the person who'd applied for the same job — and being told by her own MD that the role might be "a bit of a stretch." A year later, she was demoted with three options: coach, coach, or tutor. She chose a fourth: running a brand-new contract across the largest county in England, from a laptop in Gibraltar.
The lesson: Every first manager tries to do everything themselves. Boundaries aren't a sign of weakness — they're the job.
📌 Al's bankruptcy at 26
The booze delivery startup that collapsed under licensing laws. Al's business was legal — technically — but when the licensing officer got involved, the whole thing unravelled. The result: £103,000 of debt and a bankruptcy hearing in front of a judge who asked if he'd "learnt his lesson."
The lesson: Get it wrong in your 20s. Had that failure happened now, recovery would've been brutal. At 26, it was a crash course in resilience, risk, and starting again.
📌 Public fails and poolside humiliation
Leanne's wedding faceplant in Thailand — a 2-foot-wide water feature, a cartwheel, a dress that wouldn't stay down, and a crowd of 40 guests watching. Al's Tesco meat counter catastrophe — a misunderstanding about ham, a woman with a prosthetic arm, and a walk of shame he still can't shake.
The lesson: Sometimes there is no lesson. Sometimes it's just embarrassing. And that's okay.
📌 Why failure is worth sharing
They talk honestly about panic attacks, identity crises, and the long tail of shame — and why we still believe in taking big swings. Because the wins teach you less than the disasters ever will.
🧠 Why This Episode Matters
We spend so much time curating our professional lives — the promotions, the wins, the highlight reel. But the moments that actually shape us are the ones we'd rather forget. This episode is an experiment in radical honesty: what happens when two people who talk about work for a living admit they've screwed up, publicly, repeatedly, and survived?
🎧 More From Truth, Lies & Work
- Website: truthliesandwork.com
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
- Al Elliott: linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
- Leanne Elliott: linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
- Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
- Book a call: savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat
Connect With Us
Get in touch, book a call, or find Al and Leanne on LinkedIn — all in one place: truthliesandwork.com/connect
Mental health support: findahelpline.com — UK: Samaritans 116 123 · Mind 0300 123 3393 — US: 988 — Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14
Truth, Lies & Work is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.
Full transcript
Expand full transcript
Leanne ElliottHello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work Summer Sessions, Episode 1. My name is Leanne. I'm a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, but I'm also just a girl sat next to a pool asking her listeners to stick with her and listen to a business podcast while they're on holiday. It's a tough ask.
Al ElliottIt's difficult to follow that one. My name is Al. I'm a business owner and also sitting by our pool, um, in— on our terrace. You'll probably hear a little bit of wind, maybe some dogs barking in the background. Perhaps the occasional stork because we're in Bulgaria for a couple of months over summer. And fun fact for Bulgaria, a couple of things. First of all, storks, lots of storks, they nest on top of lampposts.
Leanne ElliottThey do.
Al Elliott2, storks are massive. They're like the size of a cat, probably bigger. And 3, Bulgarians, when they say no, they nod their head. So we went in and asked for something in a supermarket. I said, do you have this? And they said no, but nodded their head. Very confusing.
Leanne ElliottVery confusing.
Al ElliottAnyway, this is Truth, Lies and Work, where we simplify the science of work and basically relax over summer, I believe.
Leanne ElliottYeah, I'm not sure we're doing much simplifying the science of work over the next few weeks, but what we will be doing is bringing you into our summer holiday. The idea is it's August, or pretty much. I think this episode will go out a couple of days before August starts, and we fancy a little break too, but equally, we want to bring you with us on our summer holidays. So, we're going to talk to you about things that aren't typical Truth, Lies and Work, but are very Al and Leanne. So, particularly if you listen to our This Week in Work episodes, the vibe and conversation, it will feel familiar, but just slightly different topics, whilst keeping it loosely work-related, but fun work-related.
Al ElliottThe dirty little secret is that most businesses think they know their customers. They have the data, the records, the history, but it's scattered across 3 teams and 4 systems. And in our case, it's about 216,000 spreadsheets, which means nobody can actually use it.
Leanne ElliottWhat you should be doing is using HubSpot, because why? HubSpot connects it all. Every interaction, every support ticket, every conversation into one platform every team can work from. So when sales talks to a customer, marketing already knows the full story. And when you know more, you grow more.
Al ElliottNice. Check out hubspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses. If you've listened to our previous podcast, you might know me from podcasts such as The Sideways Life. Uh, we have a podcast called Our Sideways Life, which is all about our travels. Um, we have a whole backstory about that. Um, and, um, you'll probably recognize this is a lot more like that because we're sitting with a gin and tonic.
Leanne ElliottYes, we are.
Al ElliottThe sun is out. Um, unfortunately I left my sunglasses inside and I don't— and I daren't go in because I might lose connection. But see, and Leanne's already— she's, you know, one sip of gin and she's just getting lairy. But yeah, so, so if you're expecting professional broadcasting and expecting something incredible from these episodes, it's probably not the episode for you.
Leanne ElliottCome back in September. Now is the time to lower your expectations, friends.
Al ElliottWe're back in September. We'll be back with all the normal stuff, which is that we're also back in our studio in Mostar. So we'll have all the equipment there.
Leanne ElliottYes. And we should also say as well, our Thursday episodes will remain largely the same guest interviews, but topics are a bit more relevant. So for example, on Thursday, we have Dr. Elaine coming up who's talking all about the best ways to switch off during your holiday and actually enjoy it. But today, we are talking about, I think the official episode title is The F-ckup Files. We had some ideas with the assistance of an AI platform to help us generate some ideas to what to talk about. And we put it to our lovely followers on LinkedIn. And this was by far the most voted episode. People want to learn how we've completely messed up our lives, and we are here.
Al ElliottAbsolutely. So what we've decided to do is split this into, into 3, um, sort of like major fuckups. Uh, I'm not sure if we're gonna— whether we can say that.
Leanne ElliottMight need to beep it.
Al ElliottMight have to beep it. Uh, it's the Disaster Files, we'll call it. You know what we mean. So the first one is business disasters. Um, second one is career disasters. Um, and the third one is just general disasters, really.
Leanne ElliottLife disasters.
Al ElliottLife disasters, just roughly speaking. Um, so prepare to cringe. So, Leigh, do you want to kick off with your first? Now, in yours, it's actually, I believe it's, you've got 2 career and 1 personal, and I've got 1 business.
Leanne ElliottThat much of a mess up. I've got 1 business. 1 career disaster, I've got 2.
Al ElliottTo be fair, I've got 2 business and 1 personal because my career is nothing really. I haven't had a job since 2002, so I can't really talk about that. So Leigh, do you want to start off with your first career disaster?
Leanne ElliottOh yes, the time I got demoted. How could I forget?
Al ElliottThat was a tough day. So, set the scene. So, before you tell us what happened, set the scene. What, what was your job? What was your position? How well was it going?
Leanne ElliottSo, I'm going to take you back to early 2012, January, in fact, right at the start of 2012, the year that Al and I were due to get married, um, which was a stressful—
Al ElliottYou say due to get married, we did actually get married.
Leanne ElliottNo, we did, but I mean, in January, we were due to get married in, in September. So, a fairly high-stress year, all in all. Um, I got promoted into a management role, my first management role in the company I was with, but also probably my proper management role. I'd been in a management role before that, but I only had one member of staff. And it was to set up a brand new welfare-to-work contract called the Family Support Programme, which was co-funded by the DWP and the ESF Support Fund.
Al ElliottVery exciting.
Leanne ElliottThere was me, There was one coach on board. Basically, the programme was to help people who were from multi-generation worklessness families. So—
Al ElliottWorklessness, you said?
Leanne ElliottWorklessness, yeah. So, they were unemployed, their parents were unemployed, more likely their grandparents had been unemployed for a significant part of their working life. I should have known it wasn't going well when on my first day, we sat down in a meeting with the MD, the director of the contract, fun fact. The MD and the director of contract were married. No pressure there. And the one coach who was also starting to work one-to-one with the customers, um, who had been a peer of mine for a number of years and had also applied for the management job that I had subsequently got.
Al ElliottSo, you got this person's job?
Leanne ElliottWe applied for the same job. I got it.
Al ElliottThey didn't?
Leanne ElliottThey didn't.
Al ElliottOof. That's not a great start.
Leanne ElliottNo, it's not a great start. Um, so we were sat in this meeting talking about what the programme looked like, all the things we needed to do to set it up, which is basically everything. And after that first morning session, the MD came up to me and said, Leanne, can I have a word? She sat me down on the stairs and said, you don't have to do this.
Al ElliottOh, that's harsh.
Leanne ElliottI was like, what do you mean? She's like, well, you know, if this is a bit of a stretch for you, I understand your— maybe your main motivation was to move back to Manchester. I'd been put on a contract over in Yorkshire previous and had a very long commute. She said, I understand, there's no pressure. You're more than welcome to be a coach on this contract. We'll find somebody else to manage it. I don't want you to feel that there's any pressure. We're not a job for you here. And being the naive 27-year-old that I was, I was like, I'll be fine. I've got this. I'll be absolutely fine.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne ElliottSo, we went through the initial setup of the contract in the Northwest, which was Manchester and Cheshire East. It went okay. Started to get some people onto programme. It was voluntary, which made it difficult. So, typically welfare-to-work contracts are mandated by job centres. This was voluntary and delivered also in partnership with the local authority. So, it was slow getting people onto programme, but we were starting to get there. They also had this contract over in Yorkshire and hadn't filled that position for a manager in Yorkshire. So, maybe about a month in, we're starting to make some waves in the Northwest.
Al ElliottOkay.
Leanne ElliottAnd I was asked to pick up the contract in Yorkshire as well. So, I thought, cool.
Al ElliottSo, things are going well.
Leanne ElliottThings are getting better. And I got the call from the same MD that told me I didn't need to do this. So, I thought, that's a nice phone call, a bit of faith, a bit of trust here. So, I also then took on Yorkshire. And it was probably over the next 3 months that the wheels really started to fall off. If you're not from the UK, Manchester and Yorkshire aren't that close, and we had all of Yorkshire. So we're talking Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Yorkshire.
Al ElliottLargest county, I think, in England.
Leanne ElliottSo based pretty much coast to coast of the north of England, a big area. Just me, no fixed premises, all community-based. Had to bring in all the coaches, built a team from ground up. And that's probably the only thing that I can still say confidently that I did right, because of all the members of staff that I hired in those initial 4 to 5 months, every single one of them except one remained on the contract for its entirety, which is 3 and a half years.
Al ElliottNice.
Leanne ElliottSo, that I did well. Um, but understandably, massive area, complete startup, 2 contracts, very complex, brand new. I was out of my depth. If I'm being honest, I wasn't provided the support I probably should have been by the organisation at this point. Um, to the point where we were meant to deliver courses, they weren't being developed in head office as I was promised they would, and I had to pick up that as well and develop the courses myself. Equally did them well because those courses also stayed in place for the entirety of the contract. So, where my strengths were— recruitment, pathway development, training and development, all that type of thing— smashed it. But in terms of building a contract from startup, all the logistics, office structure we needed, systems, processes— I struggled. And it was just, it was just me. So, we get to about July, August. I know it's not going well, and I'm starting to feel that I'm losing control of where things are up to, but I feel like it's ticking by. We then go on holiday to get married. We got married in Gibraltar, so we had 3 weeks annual leave, um, our wedding and then our honeymoon. And I came back after 3 weeks and the entire contract was broken. Oh my God. Because I hadn't set up enough systems and processes that it could function without me being there. And a new rule had come in anyway, blah, blah, blah, from the prime contractor, which meant we didn't have the right paperwork in place. Anyway, don't wanna make any excuses. I was out of my depth. And I went into a meeting maybe on my 3rd day back with said MD and my director and was told that I wasn't doing enough, good enough job.
Al ElliottHmm.
Leanne ElliottI was being demoted and I had 3 options. I could either become a coach on the contract in Manchester, so basically become a peer of the people I had been, I'd recruited into the business and had been managing up to that point.
Al ElliottThat's rough.
Leanne ElliottI could go back to the contract I used to work on in Yorkshire as a coach.
Al ElliottLong commute.
Leanne ElliottLong commute, demotion, back to the role I was in previously. Or a 3rd option was I could be a tutor, so I could actually deliver the courses that I'd developed to the customers. So, I went home, I spoke to Al, obviously, um, and a couple of trusted colleagues and decided that I'd be a tutor because the other 2 options seemed like stepping back. This at least felt like a bit of a sidestep and something new.
Al ElliottCan I ask you at this point then, how much of this was ego-led, as in you didn't want to look like you've been taking a step back?
Leanne ElliottIt was a bit of ego, but to be honest, it was more from a view of career development, because at this point you and I had started talking about moving to Spain.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne ElliottAnd I kind of thought, well, I'm not, I'm not going to find a job coach role in Gibraltar because unemployment doesn't exist in Gibraltar, but I might find a training and development role in Gibraltar. So it was more that, that aspect of it. And to be fair, when I had been a coach, running the training sessions had been my favourite part of it. Um, so I went back in the next day, it said, I wanna be a tutor. That's what I'll do. And the MD was not expecting that. She didn't like that. She thought I was gonna go back to being a coach. Um, so we took a break and my director called John, who was also the MD's husband, said to me, I think you can do this. I just think it was too much for you to take on the entire North region. I think if you just have Manchester and Cheshire, With the team you've got in place, the premises you've put in place, I think in 3 months you'll smash it. So, he really campaigned for me to the MD to give me this opportunity. She was not keen, and it was made very clear to me that if I didn't completely turn around the contract by Christmas, and this would've been late September, then I was basically out of a job.
Al ElliottWow.
Leanne ElliottSo again, challenge accepted. At this point, Al and I had already made the decision that we were going to move to Spain in the spring. So it's kind of like, well, make the most of it, deal with what happens. Um, and at that point as well, John became much more of a hands-on mentor and over time coach. And I got myself together in terms of being more organized, understanding exactly where All of our customers were at, where our coaches were at, much more hands-on, to the point of probably micromanagement within that first 6 weeks to understand exactly what was going on. And just found our groove, found the joy in what we were doing. Um, we had a lovely wave of, of inflow of customers coming on, which also made everything easy to hit our targets. And by Christmas, we were smashing it. And the MD came to Manchester to visit me and asked me to stay on as manager.
Al ElliottFabulous. Is that the same contract that you ended up running from Spain?
Leanne ElliottYes. Yes. So, this would've been at Christmas. Al and I'd already made the decision and had planned to move to Spain in May. So, I handed in my notice in April. Um, contract was still doing really well, explained to John we were moving abroad. Um, he was very sweet, gave me a hug, wished me well. And then the next morning I got a phone call. He'd said to me when we left that initial meeting, he's like, don't talk to anyone yet. Obviously, I want to talk it through with Katrina and understand how we handle this transition. The next morning, I got a phone call from John, and he was like, just so I understand, are you leaving your job because you have another job to go to in Gibraltar, or are you leaving your job because you think you can't do it from while being abroad? I was like, the second one. And he was like, well, I'm not so sure about that. He said, I think you can probably do the majority of this job remotely. So, go and have a think about how much of a job you think you could do, what system structure, potentially other members of staff you need to put in place on the ground in Manchester, um, and talk to Al about it and see if it's even something he'd want you to consider, because we would expect you to come back a week a month to the UK. We had those conversations and it worked out really well. We flew to Spain in May, and for the next 2 years, I worked as a remote manager going back to the UK a week a month. In fact, it went kind of better than that because after a year I got promoted into the national manager role where I had Manchester. I regained Yorkshire, which is what I got demoted from, and also picked up Cornwall.
Al ElliottSo, let's just say that someone's listening to this and they go, oh God, yeah, that, I feel like that's happened to me, or I'm at the situation where things aren't great at work, maybe not been demoted, but they just haven't got the promotion that they wanted. Is there any advice you'd give them?
Leanne ElliottI made the mistake that every first manager, or the vast majority of first managers, make. I felt I needed to do it all on my own. I felt I needed to have all the answers, and I felt that asking for help would be a sign of weakness and signal to my incompetence. And the exact opposite is true. The minute I asked for help, went to my team, asked for their help, went to my manager, asked for his help, different colleagues across the business, is when it all turned around. I was stuck in this complete frozen threat state of overwhelm that I didn't, I didn't do anything effectively. So, I think if you're feeling that, or if you've just been demoted, or you can feel it coming, think about who around you you can ask for support and ask for help. And then, if, if it's possible, To reduce your focus areas down to the absolute must-be-done, have-to-be-done.
Al ElliottSo, Le, when you look back on this, what, 13 years ago, 14 years ago, do you still see it as a career disaster?
Leanne ElliottYes, I probably do. I probably do. And because I can't sugarcoat it too much, it was, it was such a hard, hard experience. And that was also the year that I started to have really bad panic attacks. So, my mental health took a real toll as well. And it took me a long time to rebuild my credibility with the rest of the organisation. My team, not so much. My direct managers, not so much. My MD, not so much. But gossip in organisations happens. So, it took me a good, probably 12 months to rebuild any form of credibility. If I'm being honest, there were some leaders and managers in that organisation that never truly saw me as competent, no matter how successful ESF was. And it was by far one of the most successful contracts the organisation had ever seen. I think we finished with, from startup, we finished with maybe more than 3,000 customers who'd gone through the programme, 40+ members of staff. And we, yeah, we were always one of the top performing, but that one That one slip stayed with me and with my reputation with certain people throughout the business. It was one of the hardest things I've ever been through in my career. It was really, really hard because there's an element of, you have to internalise that failure to an extent that you can learn from it and grow from it. And that's a process we have to go through. But that little sting of failure is still there and always will be. I also think that's where maybe I, I've since developed a lot of empathy for people who find themselves as accidental managers or new managers without the training, where I can connect with them in ways that perhaps other practitioners and trainers and coaches can't. So, it's definitely given me a unique perspective. But if I was being honest and I could go back and have it not happen, I don't know, that'd be a hard choice.
Al ElliottOkay, we're going to take a very short break. After this, I believe Leanne's got a question for me.
Leanne ElliottDid you know that the UK's number one management podcast— that's us, by the way— and the UK's number one marketing podcast are both on the same podcast network?
Al ElliottWe actually have a lot in common. We both use behavioural science to help people do better at work.
Leanne ElliottAnd we both had to wrangle Rory Sutherland on an episode, and 2 out of 3 of us are devilishly good-looking.
Al ElliottAnd you're not gonna say which. Phil, host of Nudge, UK's number one marketing podcast. It's brought to you— we need to do this in 3s—
Leanne Elliottthe HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.
Al ElliottSeamless, seamless. Tell us about your latest episode, Phil. We've just done an episode on fake fandom and how New York indie bands are paying agencies to create fake TikTok videos about how much they like their work, and we talk about the behavioural science behind fandom and how that encourages people to enjoy the music and all of that good stuff, and do some big things about how this affects the world of politics, business, and brands as well.
Leanne ElliottIt is. It's such. It's such a good show. Of course, you'll hear all the stuff you want to hear about how to grow your business by using behavioural science in your marketing, but there's also just some really. Really interesting episodes. It'll be right up your street. Personally, I enjoyed Can Balsamic Vinegar Make Beer Taste Better?
Al ElliottIt can.
Leanne ElliottAnd Are We All Just Status-Seeking Monkeys?
Al ElliottI am. Go and listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts.
Leanne ElliottBut come back.
Al ElliottYeah, come back. Definitely come back because Nudge isn't as good as this, so come back. I'll cut that out. Keep that in.
Leanne ElliottBut enough about me and my career disasters. There's another one coming, don't worry. Al, which one of your mess-ups do you want to start with first?
Al ElliottUh, let's start with a big one. So, um, it was 2002. Um, I'd been working for about, well, basically I've started work in a pub. Then I moved up to manager. Then I had my own pub. Then I got fired from my own pub because someone was stealing and I couldn't tell them who. So they were like, okay, well, you're stealing. So, and I wasn't, by the way. Uh, but they, um, So I got fired from that. So I had a couple of really weird jobs, sales jobs, telesales jobs, that kind of thing. And then had enough of working in the office and said, right, I'm gonna start my own business. 2002, it was basically, if you've heard of Uber Eats or anything similar, it was basically that in 2002. So you'd ring me up at 2 o'clock in the morning and I would bring you some beer and that was it. And it was aimed at students. A couple of issues with starting that business. First of all, the peak times, as in like just when the pubs shut back then, you couldn't buy alcohol 24 hours. I know for all those kids who are Oh my God, if you're born in 2002, how old would you be now? You'd be 23, wouldn't you?
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottSo yeah, those kids. So anyone who's over the age of 40 will know, in the UK will know, you never used to be able to buy alcohol. So this solved the problem. Basically, I'd sell it over the phone. So people would ring up and I'd get the drivers out. But there was lots of peak demand around about 11 till 1, and then around about sort of 2:30 till 4 in the morning. But I paid the drivers Rather than paying per delivery, I paid them an hourly rate, which meant that I didn't, it didn't make a lot of money. Um, and the second issue was I didn't really look forward, as in, look, I wasn't really careful about what was going to happen in future. I heard that the licensing law was going to change, didn't think it was going to affect me. And of course it did. It decimated that at a high where it was like, I think we had sort of 20 staff and, uh, we were doing 20, 30 grand a week, which back into, you know, 2002, 2003 was. Yeah. You know, decent. But no, that didn't work at all. So essentially what happened was I was every week I was trying to make payroll, and I'd ring up the bank and they'd have to give me a temporary overdraft for three days, and then I'd pull I withdraw the money to pay all the staff, and then the revenue from those three days, or at least I think it was actually when the credit cards went through, and when that money hit the account, it allowed me then to get back into the back into the black. Is it? See, this is why. This is why I don't know. That's why I went bankrupt, because I don't know the difference between red and black. When I get back into the black, and it was a really tough time, I ended up moving out the house I lived in. I lived in the warehouse. I built a little room in the back, and I did everything to try and keep that business alive, but it was not to be. So when the licensing law came in, went from 20 grand a week to about 2 grand a week. Had to fire 99% of my staff. And To be fair, at £2,000 a week, we're kind of almost profitable. But by that stage, I got £103,000 worth of debt, mainly to HSBC Bank. So sorry if you worked there and you were around in 2003, 2004. And so eventually I was like, right, well, I'm gonna have to declare bankruptcy. So I did. So I went bankrupt in 2005 for £103,000.
Leanne ElliottOof.
Al ElliottOof indeed.
Leanne ElliottBefore we dwell on the, um, bankruptcy, I, I want to ask you, because about the— because this is so like we say, Al is a business owner. Al is, is— and I know you hate this word— you are an entrepreneur in ways that there aren't many entrepreneurs. Because not only did you have this idea that you saw, yes, it's the early noughties, every student wants to keep drinking after 11 o'clock. And they don't necessarily wanna go out clubbing. But then you also had to find very creative ways of working around the existing laws around selling alcohol. So, tell us a little bit about that.
Al ElliottOkay. So, without boring you about the legal regulations back then, but essentially there was something called off-sales and on-sales. On-sales were on-premises sales. So, that was in bars, in clubs. Off-premises sales was you bought, you sold alcohol to basically drink at home or drink off the premises. So, that's basically what it was. So we definitely came under the off-license rules, which meant that you were only allowed to sell alcohol during what they call permitted hours, which is 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. It sounds archaic now, and the kids these days, you know, be like, what do you mean you can't go in at 3 o'clock in the morning and buy a bottle of White Claw or whatever it's called? But no, you couldn't. After 10:00 PM, you weren't allowed to buy any alcohol unless you went to a pub, and then even then at 11 o'clock it would shut. So this was the, this was the hole that I thought we could fill. Now, the, now just, just to be fair, there was a company out there called, I can't remember what they're called now, um, Thirst Emergency or something. And they were trading, but they were doing it wholesale. Um, because weirdly in the UK, again, this sounds boring, but weirdly in the UK, you were able to sell wholesale without a, without a license, which basically wholesale is 24 cans of lager. So what they were doing was students are ringing up going, can I have 4 cans of lager? They're going, no.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottYou have to buy 24. And they're like, I don't wanna buy 24. Go, well, that's the only way we can sell it to you. So there was that. We found a slightly weird way around this. I found a law that basically said that if you're allowed to set aside orders for customers during permitted hours and you're allowed to give it to them after permitted hours, As long as you then take the money during permitted hours. Now that's just, bear with me. What that basically means, if Leanne, if I, if Leanne said to me, I want 4 cans of lager tonight at 2:00 AM, then I'm allowed to, in permitted hours, go into my shop, take 4 cans of lager, put a sticky note on there saying, for Leanne, and then at 2:00 AM go and take her those, take her that lager. I'm not allowed to take any money from her at that point. But then if I went and knocked on her door at 10:01 the next morning and said, can you pay me for those lagers? That's perfectly okay.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottSo I was like, well, obviously that's not a good, great business plan. But you know, when you, when you go into a hotel and they take a swipe of your card, well, I did that about the same time, which hotel took swipe of card away. I was like, tell me how this works. Oh, it's called a pre— I've, you know, I've forgotten the term, but it's called like a reserve kind of thing. Um, pre-something it's called. And what they would do is essentially reserve the money on your card and then they would complete that purchase, that transaction when you left. I was like, oh. So that means I can go and basically take a swipe of Leanne's card when I deliver the alcohol at 2:00 AM, and then at 10:00 AM I could then complete that sale knowing the money's reserved for me for 24 hours. And I could do it. And I did that for like 2 years. One of my best friends and a business partner in a current business, um, he was, his job was to come in and essentially we had one of those old-fashioned machines where you, with numbers on it, where you type the credit card number in.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottThen you type the expiry date in, then you type the amount, you press enter, and he just, he just basically went through and did completions for all of the transactions the night before. There'd be hundreds. It'd take him 4 or 5 hours to do that. But that's the way we got around it. So we're like, wow, we found a way. This is cool. But then we got a visit from the licensing officer, first one. And the licensing officer said, can you just show me where this person ordered this alcohol? So go back to Leanne's example. What I was doing was taking Leanne 4 cans of lager at 2:00 AM. Taking a swipe of her card to reserve the £10, whatever I was taking off her. And then the next morning at 10:01, I was typing her card in again and completing that transaction. The problem was the licensing officer was clever, and he was basically the police, the person who's in charge with licensing, and said, when did you— when did Leanne actually order that? That stumped me a little bit, I'll be honest. Because Leanne hadn't ordered that. She rung me up at 2:00 AM and says, can you bring it to me? So I was like, hmm. So then I wrote a bit of software back in, if you remember Lotus Notes? No, I can't remember what the database one was in Lotus, but I wrote a bit of software that essentially generated every possible combination of order for every possible customer we had a record of. And we had like maybe 100 files, and each one of those had an order. Like they had basically everything anyone could order. From every customer. So if Leanne ordered 4 cans of lager and a bottle of Bacardi, she would have an independent order for 4 cans of lager and an independent order for a bottle of Bacardi that'd been auto-generated during permitted hours that I could then prove she's pre-ordered it. Of course, we'd never show them the files, but that's— we could do it. That satisfied the licensing officer for a little while, but then about 6 months later, it all went wrong.
Leanne ElliottSo what happened when it went wrong?
Al ElliottThe licensing officer— I went to my solicitor. By this stage, I was working with my solicitor.
Leanne ElliottYour solicitor must have loved you.
Al ElliottHe really did.
Leanne ElliottThis must have been one of the funnest gigs that you had.
Al ElliottHe really did. I think he did wills and stuff like that, boring stuff. And then this was, this was a really bit of fun. Um, fun fact, he was also in the Commonwealth Games as a, as a speed walking, like, finalist. He got bronze or something. Um, but anyway, he, um, he eventually wrote, uh, rung me up. He went, look, he's— we need to go to court. They, they want to see us again. So went in front of the magistrates and he walked into me in the magistrate's court and he went, Bob, who was the licensing officer, Bob is furious with you. He said, I think it's the end of the, end of the road. So I, and it was, I got in front of the mags and they basically said, look, no, I'm rescinding your license, taking it away from you. You're not, you're operating otherwise in accordance with the license. So I got taken away. So I was like, oh, what do I do now? Well, I did find out, remember this, the wholesale thing where as long as you sell, as long as you sell 24 cans of lager or beer or whatever, as long as you sell 24 cans of lager, you don't need a license.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottWell, I looked at that and that, and the licensing law said it could include lager, beer, and perry. Now, perry is a pear wine. And if anyone's in the UK remembers Lambrini, Lambrini was the cheapest, petrollest, horriblest stuff you could possibly buy.
Leanne ElliottLambrini girls just want to have fun.
Al ElliottOh, it was horrible. But you could buy a litre for genuinely about 80p back then.
Leanne ElliottAnd that would class as wholesale?
Al ElliottWell, if you bought You could, if you bought a 6-pack for about £5, that'll be 6 liters. And that meant then your minimum order just became something like 8 cans of lager or 4 cans of lager. I can't remember exactly how we worked it out, but it basically became 4 cans of lager. So we still sold individually as if it was an off-license, but every single customer had to buy this Lambrini to make it up to wholesale so that we weren't breaking the law.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottAnd then we also said, but don't worry if you buy it, as long as you keep it intact and give it back to us when you order again, we'll give you a refund against it. But of course, when they ordered again, they got another case of Lambrini. So, and most people, students, they drank it anyway.
Leanne ElliottOf course they did.
Al ElliottBut then we did sell that literally at cost, possibly even less than, even below cost. So, but yeah, that lasted until the license law changed and then that was it. I went bankrupt.
Leanne ElliottSo a fun ride.
Al ElliottI'm not gonna lie, it was a lot of fun, but it was also very, very stressful. Um, and, um, I'm now very gray, and I think a lot of that came from those like 5 years of running that. And also, obviously, I lost my house. I got that repossessed, and I also bought an investment house in Manchester that got repossessed as well. Um, and I couldn't get a bank account, couldn't get a mortgage for 7 years, you know, so.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottBut still, like you say, it was a lot of fun.
Leanne ElliottSo take me back. You are at this point, what, 27, 28?
Al ElliottYeah, that's right.
Leanne ElliottBankrupt for £103,000.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne ElliottAnd you do what? What, what happens next? You look for a job? Do you move back with your mum and dad? What happened?
Al ElliottYeah. So at that point, um, I got a job selling off-plan stuff. Now, off-plan properties, I thought it was legit. Turns out it wasn't. In fact, funnily enough, the, um, The person behind that has now been, uh, uh, the Serious Fraud Office have just finished an investigation and I believe that guy's looking at somewhere between 8 to 10 years in the big house in the, in prison. Um, so, uh, yeah, interesting, interesting times. But yes, I went and did that. And then, um, um, and then because I'd had my house repossessed, I was like, I know all about repossession. I'd looked into it. So, um, the, you know, the kid, remember he was 17 who was doing all my, all my, uh, credit card processing. He'd been to university at that point.
Leanne ElliottYeah.
Al ElliottUm, and I said, do you fancy starting a business where we go and buy repossessed houses? And he was like, yeah. So we did. So we started a company. We bought, um, quite a number of houses. Um, so around about 40 houses in about, um, 18 months of people getting repossessed. And, um, that built our wealth. So we built, and basically that's the wealth that I suppose to, to this day we have. So it all, it, it all worked out all right in the end.
Leanne ElliottIt did work out all right in the end. I wanna ask you though about the immediate aftermath of being bankrupt, because that is, it's something that there shouldn't, there shouldn't be shame attached to it, but there is definitely a stigma attached to it, certainly in the UK, not in the entrepreneurial community, 'cause I hear people say like, you're not a real entrepreneur unless you've been bankrupt at least once.
Al ElliottMm-hmm.
Leanne ElliottBut certainly amongst the general kind of population, bankruptcy is a bit of a, is it? Yeah, it's, it's got a stigma. How did you, how was your mental health in that immediate aftermath?
Al ElliottWell, I think, I suppose immediately, like if we're talking literally immediately, I went to court and I, I don't, I'd never been to court before. Well, I had, I had been to court. I've been in court for the, um, magistrates licensing laws. But, um, I assumed this would be a different court. I assumed it'd be like The Bill, you know, where there'd be like someone in a wig and I'd be stood in a box and basically like it wasn't magistrates that I'd, and so they'd have a big gavel and they'd be like, I declare you bankrupt. Now take him down kind of thing. And actually, I sat in a room, I filled out some forms, and then an hour later she came back and went, there you go, you're bankrupt. And it was such an anticlimax that I went to a local pub and I think I just spent the afternoon in there with the little money I had, just having a few beers and feeling very sorry for myself. But truth was, this was what, 2007? So 2005, so I'd be 28. And something special about being in your 20s because you are so resilient. And so I was like, rather than going, well, mate, you know, my My life's over. I was like, okay, what can we do now? What's next? And so I went and got that, got that job selling dodgy stuff, which I didn't know at the time, um, and then started the business about a year later, maybe 18 months later.
Leanne ElliottSo same question you asked me. With that in mind, do you still see it as a business failure?
Al ElliottNo, 100% not. Um, had I not had that failure early on, if I had it now, that would be difficult to recover from both financially and Mentally, that would be a tough one to cut to. It's because imagine if you'd spent like 30 years building something or 20 years building something and then it went pop. So no, that's a tough one to come back from.
Leanne ElliottIs that also why you're a big fan of the Gen Z, younger millennial generation who are out there with their side hustles and trying to build something for themselves?
Al ElliottYeah, exactly. I think if you're going to get it wrong, get it wrong in your 20s. Because in fact, you should be getting it wrong in your 20s. I think there's an old Yiddish expression that's something like, if you're not making mistakes, you're not making enough decisions. And I would say in your 20s, if you're not on the brink of bankruptcy at least once every year, or if you're not doing something you really, really regret, you've not done something you really regret, then you've not made enough decisions. So I think you should go out there, try everything. It's like childbirth and Morris dancing.
Leanne ElliottAnd I've done neither. Advice taken. I can't believe the time that's gone by, Al. Clearly talking about trauma suits us well. I, I know we had another one each. I wonder if maybe we talk about this another, another time. I guess a teaser for you, headline would be, I quit my job with nothing else to go to on the 1st of February, 2020.
Al ElliottAnd my teaser is that I once got, in the same year, I once got an investigation from the Inland Revenue And also the VAT squad. This is the, um, this is when there were 2 separate things. The VAT squad turned up with 8 people in a black van at my warehouse and ripped everything apart. So that's gonna come up in a future episode. But let's just talk, let's just finish things off with a bit of a fun one, although it's not fun for Leanne, I don't think. We're gonna talk about our personal fuck-ups.
Leanne ElliottHmm.
Al ElliottWe're gonna talk about the time That, you know, that moment, 3:00 AM, or even, no, probably more like 11:00 AM, 11:00 PM, you were just lying in bed, you're about to go to sleep, and your brain just prods you and goes, do you remember that time that you did this? And you go, oh God, no. Oh, I hate it. Lee, what does your brain say at 11:00 PM and it's prodding you, telling you you did something silly?
Leanne ElliottDo you remember that time you fell in the pool in Thailand at your best mate's wedding?
Al ElliottI was there.
Leanne ElliottI cannot believe that you are making me share this. I didn't tell anyone for so long.
Al ElliottI just wanted to tell everyone because it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. But at the time—
Leanne ElliottEven now, my stomach is going. I'm so—
Al ElliottCome on, get it over and done with like a plaster. So set the scene, tell us what happened, and tell us why it was even more mortifying than it actually sounds.
Leanne ElliottMy best friend, Alec, was getting married to the love of his life, Kenny, in Thailand, Koh Samui. We got invited to the wedding. We were actually the only friends invited, which was a huge honour.
Al ElliottBecause there was family.
Leanne ElliottIt was, yeah, there was family. No, it wasn't. They didn't elope. No, there was, there was family there, um, and family friends, but there was no like personal friends. So we were the, the only 2 invited, which was a huge honour. Al and I being, because at that point we were living in Spain, We're like, still fit, let's make a month of it. And we travelled around Thailand first and then met up in Koh Samui with Alec and Kenny and the fam for the wedding. Um, beautiful, beautiful day. It rained, but I mean, in terms of like the ceremony, beautiful day. They had Thai monks chanting in the ceremony, and actually the rain added to it. And in Thai Buddhist culture, uh, water is very lucky. So actually they were very excited that it was raining that day. And And it was a, yeah, beautiful, beautiful ceremony, beautiful meal, an incredible privilege to share that very intimate moment with such a small group of people. The evening comes, the rain clouds parted, and the, um, the party started in the pool area. Beautiful pool. It's a complex called Tango Luxe on Koh Samui. Google it. It's stunning. Go there on your next holiday. Incredible. In fact, Alec, if you're listening, he's there now. Say hi to the gang. Um, so we're on the, we're on the pool area. This must have been about— I know exactly what time it was. It was about quarter to midnight. And we were, we were chatting and a few drinks had been consumed. But anyone who knows me knows I'm, I'm, I'm from the Northwest. My parents are Scousers and my bloodline is Irish. I'm a girl that can handle her drink.
Al ElliottShe can.
Leanne ElliottSo I'd had a few drinks, of course, but I was by no means drunk and certainly not drunk enough for this event to happen. happen that was coming without being absolutely mortified. The pool area was stunning. It's one of those infinity pools, you know, the one where it kind of like, it has no edge. Only with this one, it did have an edge, and it was like a little 2-foot-wide gutter that, that kind of went around the area of the pool, and then there was the decking of the, the pool area. So, we had been told, like, oh, be careful of the, the edge of the pool, be careful of the edge of the pool. So, I'd been stood chatting to Alex's mum and his niece and just chatting about various things. And Alex's mum was very cool and very fun and very bubbly. And then we hear an announcement that the fireworks are about to start at midnight. How wonderful if everyone can make their way to the beach. I'm in then just chattering, chattering with Alex's mum and, um, niece. I turn around and the worst thing is I said something like, Linda, you're so cool. At this point, my mum would probably tell me to stop drinking. And then the next thing I remember is being in the pool gutter.
Al ElliottNot even the pool?
Leanne ElliottNot even the pool. If it was the pool, I would've been able to style it out. I'd have been like, hey, come on everybody. In the pool gutter. I don't even know how I got in it.
Al ElliottI don't know because you, that like the, the ob— you could bang your head easily. It's 2 foot wide. You could have banged your head, taken your teeth out.
Leanne ElliottI must have cartwheeled into it. There was no other explanation for it because to the point where When I, I went full under, like my head was under as well. It wasn't like just like my, my legs fell in. My entire head went under the water. I pop up and I'm then facing with my back to the bar area where I'd just fallen from, looking over the full pool to the hotel and have to— so I'm sideways, right? So that the pool is like, I'm looking at it. So I have to turn in the gutter to be able to then fish myself out. But because my hips are fairly, fairly wide, as any, you know, good-looking, shapely woman's is, I couldn't actually turn the full way. I didn't know this. So I couldn't actually like fit my hips because it was only like, it was, it was honestly, it must have been like a foot and a half, like 30, 40 centimeters. It wasn't much. So I couldn't actually like turn all the way. So I had to like lift myself up out enough.
Al ElliottHad to get your bum on up.
Leanne ElliottSo my hips are out the water to turn around and then lower myself back down to then see the entire fricking wedding party looking at me going, are you all right? And at this point, bless Alex, Alex's niece is like fishing my handbag out of the pool and, and somebody's saying, grab a towel. Um, and, and somebody fishes me out. I can't even remember who it was. And I'm trying to like go, ho ho ho, how funny. Oh, how silly of me. Ho ho ho. Because I'm not drunk enough for this to be a thing or funny.
Al ElliottNo, you hadn't.
Leanne ElliottLike, oh gosh, yeah. And then at that point it was like 1 minute to the fireworks. I was like, oh my God, come on everyone, let's go to the beach. Distraction. Thank God, a distraction. Let's go, let's go. With this towel around me going, oh. Um, and then 1 firework goes off and then they fail.
Al ElliottAll the fireworks fail.
Leanne ElliottAll the fireworks fail. So I had 1 rocket and that was it. And then of course everyone turns back to me and goes, what happened? So I was like, and then, and then Steph, Alec's sister, who I actually used to work with, um, at Pinnacle, the company we've just been talking about with Alec, um, came up to me. And bless her, she's, she's, she's a lovely, lovely girl, but she was laughing just like, what the fuck, Leanne? How did you do that? Oh my God, how is it even possible? And I was like, I don't know. She's like, why is your hair wet? I was like, I don't know. Um, so I was like, I'm gonna take this opportunity to go in back to the the hotel room and change because I'm still dripping head to toe.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottSo I went back to our beautiful little villa, and it has like this little courtyard, and I was sat— I think I got out of my dress, and I was sat in a dressing gown just on the— on in the lounge area, just thinking, I can't go back out there. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
Al ElliottCan I just— just so at this point, I wasn't there. I didn't see Leanne do it. I was at the bar. And Leanne was walking towards the fireworks, and I was just finishing my beer at the bar, and someone said, oh, someone's fallen in the pool. And I went, oh my God, that's embarrassing, isn't it? Hadn't realised it was my wife. So just in case you thought that I was doing nothing, I was— wasn't there when you fell in, and you went back on your own, I believe, because you didn't want me to come with you.
Leanne ElliottNo, I insisted on that. I insisted on that. So I'm sat there, probably at this point about 20 past midnight, At my best friend's wedding thinking, I want to leave immediately. Can I book a flight out of here? And at that point, Alec comes to the door. The groom, my best friend, comes to the door and he's like, he just sits down to me. He's like, are you okay, hun? I'm like, no, Alec, I'm not okay. I'm not okay. That is the worst thing that could have happened. And you can see him kind of halfway between like genuine concern, empathy, and just laughing.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottYou can see the pain and struggle in his face, but he keeps it together. He's like, Leanne, in situations like this, in this situation, you've got 2 options. Either you go to bed embarrassed and ruin my wedding day.
Al ElliottNo pressure.
Leanne ElliottOr you put on another dress, you dry your hair, you get out there, and you have a great night. I was like, well, that's not much of a choice, Al, is it? He was like, no, so go and get dressed.
Al ElliottAnd you did.
Leanne ElliottI did and went back out. And it's that point, you know, everyone's very kind at that point because they realize, I think, that I'm mortified. It's not as funny as they thought it was. So I was like, are you okay? Is everything all right? Did you hurt yourself? And at that point, I sit down next to Kenny's mum, Denise, the other, the other groom. And she is from Preston and the most wonderful northern salt-of-the-earth woman you'll ever meet. And I sat down and she goes, you all right, love? I went, yeah, yeah. Saw you, um, fell in the pool. Yeah, did, Denise. Yeah, embarrassing, that, love. Yeah, it is. And then she leant over and just took my hand. She went, are you okay? And I was like, yeah. She's like, do you want a drink? I was like, yeah. Um, and then the rest was history until the next morning when I bumped into Alec's cousin, who, who'd gone to bed already because she had a small child with her, and said, you all right? I heard you fell in the pool last night. At that point, I was like, I was like, I can't, I can't talk about it. Like, completely triggered. And she's like, oh my God, I didn't realize it was a— um, so yeah, so I didn't tell anyone for a while. I believe that Alec and Kenny did pull up the CCTV in their subsequent honeymoon at the same resort and laughed very hard at, at me falling into it. I think the resort team were very pleased that I didn't launch any kind of health and safety violation, given the ease of which I could fall into the pool gutter. And I didn't talk about it again.
Al ElliottYeah.
Leanne ElliottUntil Al's 40th, which probably would've been a year later, when your sister came up to me and was like, I've just been talking to Alec and he said you fell in the pool at his wedding. I was like, what? So it gets, it gets rolled out as a story amongst the friendship group from time to time. But I think actually before I told my closest girlfriends, it was probably a good 3 years later. Yeah. Couldn't, couldn't. Yeah. Mortified. So thank you for letting me relive that. I'll spend the next 18 months trying to push that back down.
Al ElliottYeah. Yeah. Well, absolutely. No problem. Like, I'm looking at Leanne now and she's like wiping her eyes and I know there's like halfway between sweating Or just laughing or perhaps crying or perhaps a combination of all 3.
Leanne ElliottBoth. So that is the most embarrassing moment of my life, an absolute fail. There is no lessons to be learned from it, Al. There are no shiny takeaways of resilience to take from it. It was the worst embarrassing moment of my life and I will never get over it. On my deathbed, I'm sure the last thing I will think about is, do you remember the time you fell in the pool?
Al ElliottAnd if I outlive you, then I will tell it.
Leanne ElliottI know you will. I know you will. Yeah, I will.
Al ElliottOkay, so just really quickly because we've only got a couple of minutes left, But I will tell you my story, and my story is so, so, so simple. Do you remember it, Lee?
Leanne ElliottTesco?
Al ElliottYes, in the supermarket. So there's a supermarket chain in the UK called Tesco's. Um, basically think Walmart. That's essentially the same thing, although I'm not sure that Tesco's would be, or Tessa Cohen, the original woman who started it, would be pleased with that comparison. So I walk into Tesco's, I go up to the meat counter, and I'm like, okay, Leanne's told me to go and get some ham, so I went to get some ham. So I went across to the meat counter and I saw there was like some In the UK, they have this processed ham that's horrible. Some of it looks like a teddy bear. They literally process it to make it look like a teddy bear's face. It's like, ugh. So that's like the worst ham. And then there's medium ham, which is just supposed to look like fake ham.
Leanne ElliottBit sweaty ham.
Al ElliottSweaty ham, which, which is processed, but they put little bits of white in it to make it look like it's proper ham, but it's not. That's the wafer-thin ham. And then they have the good ham.
Leanne ElliottThe, like, like the pepper—
Al ElliottYes.
Leanne ElliottWhat's it called? Like—
Al ElliottPepper-crusted.
Leanne ElliottCrusted.
Al ElliottAnd it's just, it's a proper piece of pig leg slice.
Leanne ElliottThe proper ham.
Al ElliottIt's really, really nice. So I was— so I said, can I have some ham? She said, she pointed to the, um, to the, the snide ham, the wafer-thin ham. I said, no, no, not that one. Um, can I have the good ham at the front? And it just so happened that this cabinet was quite kind of wide. So when I pointed at the front, it was the bit that was nearest me standing face to the cabinet, but furthest for this woman to actually Reach across and get. So she's trying to reach across, and she can barely reach to get this with her tongue. She can barely reach to get this ham. And she picked up the first bit; it fell off, and we both chuckled. Then picked up a second bit, and she only pulled a little bit off. And I was like, "Oh my God! Is your arm not long enough to reach that ham?" And she just stopped, looked me directly in the eye, and just stared at me. I'm like, "Why the hell is she? What's wrong with her? What have I said?" It's not like. And I looked across, and her other arm was kind of— I don't know whether it was cut off at the elbow.
Leanne ElliottAmputated at the elbow.
Al ElliottAmputated at the elbow. That's her other arm. And I'm like, oh my God, that's why she's staring at me. And I just thought, there is nothing you can do to make this situation worse. And then my brain went, hold my beer, because without thinking about it, I just pointed at her, Stumpy arm. And I went, I didn't mean that one. And she— oh, she was mortified. I was mortified.
Leanne ElliottI'm mortified.
Al ElliottLike, Leanne's still— she's heard this 5 times now, and she's still speechless. She walked away. I walked away. Suffice to say, there was no ham sandwich that night. We had tuna instead. And that's the moment— not the moment of like, is your arm not long enough? Because that's bad enough. But just me, Just saying, I didn't mean that one, and pointing at this poor woman's amputated arm.
Leanne ElliottThat's the worst thing. If you— I mean, you guys know Al by now. You know he's a, he's a kind, intelligent, gentle soul who tries to do everything he can to make people's lives better. Um, he's also a complete doofus.
Al ElliottI am, 100%.
Leanne ElliottAnd I just— it breaks my heart because I know that haunted you. It still haunts you. Um, and it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's just one of those situations where it, it was a complete unintended accident that you tried to make better.
Al ElliottAnd failed.
Leanne ElliottAnd ultimately made worse. So, we didn't shop in that Tesco again.
Al ElliottNo, we didn't. And you know what? There's, like you say, you need to forgive yourself, I think sometimes. And this is the, this is the Jerry Springer's Jerry's Final Thought. You forgive yourself sometimes. And so often when I do think about that, and I cringe so hard that sometimes I literally, like, sort of, like, curl up like a prawn, then I just go, come on, Al. It's not that bad. At least you didn't fall in a pool. So, on that bombshell, we shall leave it for today.
Leanne ElliottBrutal.
Al ElliottThank you for joining us. Thank you if you've come this far. We will have another episode like this at some point. And then I'm gonna go, and Leanne's gonna come and have a little conversation with me, I imagine.
Leanne ElliottI'm gonna go cry in the bathroom. If you wanna share my story, humiliation, come over to LinkedIn, say hi, connect, say, do you know what, Leanne, I heard your pool story and I'm equally embarrassed for you. If you have an embarrassing story to share, a career fail or a business fail that maybe you learned something from, or maybe it was just fricking awful, share. Sharing is caring. And I think the overall message is we all mess up. It's how we respond to it and how we move forward. And we, we moved forward in the best ways we could. And look at us now, we're sat next to a pool in in Bulgaria retelling our worst moments to people on the internet who we've never met.
Al ElliottThere is a worse moment than all of that, and that is that my gin's finished. Your gin is warm. I need to go and replenish that. So we will see you guys next week. Bye-bye.