The British Blacktrepreneur Podcast
Welcome to 'The British Blacktrepreneur' My name is Jason Lazarus
This podcast aims to promote black businesses, in the UK, educate entrepreneurs on all things business, and inspire you on your entrepreneurial journey. Growing up, business was just foreign to me, I knew nothing about it, I was taught that being a consumer and working a job was the only way to really succeed in life. My West African would preach ‘Education, Education, Education’ which I hated at the time but have grown to appreciate how invaluable knowledge is. My goal is to curate conversations with Black Entrepreneurs in the UK to find what their ‘WHY’ is. Furthermore, I’m on a mission to get black entrepreneurs podcasting! I’ll be dropping in my expertise about podcasting whilst bringing on inspiring guests to keep you going on your entrepreneurial journey.
The British Blacktrepreneur Podcast
Merging Melodies and Meals: (Ft. Hannah Ledwidge)
What happens when a multi-instrumentalist and entrepreneur combines her passion for music and food? Welcome to the world of Hannah Ledwich, co-founder of Adlib Music, an innovative company that brings food and music together to impact well-being. In our captivating conversation, we explore Hannah's unique journey, her musical background, and the challenges she faced in the music industry.
As we unravel the intricate process of promoting a one-of-a-kind concept like Adlib Music, we discuss the significance of execution and marketing, as well as the value of family and friends' support in propelling a business forward. Hannah shares her music and business influences that have shaped her journey, offering invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs. Get inspired by the motivating story of this trailblazer in both the music and entrepreneurship realms!
Music. Yes, people. What is happening Now? as you know, i love to read out the biographies of guests that I have coming up just to give you guys a flavour as to who you're going to be hearing from today. So I'm delighted to welcome my next guest. Her name is Hannah Ledwich Now. Hannah was born in East London to a musical family. From an early age she pursued music. She studied a degree in music performance and production at the London Contemporary Centre in Music and at the notable Berkeley Music College in Boston, usa.
Speaker 1:Hannah is a talented multi-instrumentalist drums, keyboard, bass, guitar, electric guitar and acoustic guitar. Music producer, music teacher and endowed entrepreneur. She has over 10 years of experience in the music industry. She has performed at several top venues, including Wembley Stadium, the Jazz Café. She's also worked with Robert Ike, britain's best theatre director, tom Gibbons at the Almeida Theatre and this Egg Theatre Company. Her versatility has seen her play different music genres, from punk rock, jazz to hip hop. Hannah's sound is a unique blend of expertly selected, delicate strings, electronic and cinematic sound and perfectly fused drums. Hannah is a born leader and endeavours to liberate her music creativity through production and the lead innovation of the music industry. Hannah is a co-founder of Adlib Music Limited, a company that provides people with food and music positivity to impact their well-being.
Speaker 1:Alright, so, as you can hear, we've got a great guest today, hannah Ledwich, who has a company called Food and Music. She's a co-founder of that company. We had a great conversation, discussing everything from music to business food. We talked about some of the things that she has to deal with in her company, how she's managed to combine her passion of entrepreneurship and music together. This is going to be a great one, folks, so I'm delighted to welcome her. Here she is. It's Hannah Ledwich. Welcome, hannah Ledwich, to the British Black Tripeneur. How are you today?
Speaker 2:Hi, i'm good, Thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited to talk about your company, food and Music, your music backgrounds and many other things that we're going to cover in today's show. First of all, i'd love to get a bit of background about you, who is Hannah Ledwich, and I want to know a little bit about your family and some of the things that have led you to the company that you co-founded, food and Music.
Speaker 2:Wow, so that's a loaded question. Great, so I like it. I like it. So who am I? I think my deepest, some of my deepest identity would be found in my faith, my Christian faith being. I see myself as like a creation from the creator, and so that's one of my deepest identity being like a child of God and coming to them from that. And then also, yeah, i feel like I'm a leader, but I'm also someone that is caring and loving and someone that just loves depth, loves to seek no love the deeper things in life, but also loves the simple things, which I think actually are the deeper things anyway a lot of the time. And also someone that loves nature, someone that loves to get in touch with nature and natural things, and someone that loves to connect deeply with people. And someone that is creative on different levels as well, and I like to have fun. I can be a bit silly sometimes, like just in terms of human stuff, so that's side of me as well. But yeah, that's me as a person in terms of my background, in terms of, like, business background, music and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:To be honest, i started doing music when I left second name school. I was playing in a steel pan steel pan and I was playing the drums And that was like my first gig being a musician and, you know, coming to be paid basically for my talent. And that was really cool because we used to travel up and down wedding events, stuff like that. And I play a part of this steel pan and I'll be playing the drums And it was just like my first little gig. And from then I kind of just I always wanted to be like I wanted to be many things but I always wanted to kind of be a drummer, musician and stuff. But I started to get opportunities to do that And people started to call me to do different things from that point. And then, kind of long story short, i decided to actually go into education to educate myself in my craft, in my musical craft, and so I took a degree at the London Contemporary School of Music it's probably called something different now, but yeah. And so I took a degree there And from there I started doing auditions, i started playing. I went to America, that Berkeley music college to do, to study there, to do some music there. That was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:Came back to England, came back and then just from there just started estimating just different opportunities, different things In terms of the business. So I've always been kind of self employed in terms of in the music world and the performing world. In terms of business wise, i always wanted to create something bigger than myself And so for me, i would go, i would turn up to gigs with my laptop and be doing, you know, different work in the rehearsal time or doing different in the waiting time, because there's always a lot of waiting time in gigs And people. You know other musicians be like Hannah, you're always like on your laptop doing this, that. But you know, i always had this kind of like vision of just creating and building things that are bigger than myself, you know, so people can come on board with as well. So, yeah, so then I thought of then I kind of launched Adlib music.
Speaker 2:Then it was called something else, but it turned them to added music And then from added music we've kind of launched from added music is food and music, which is now a it's basically a food and music delivery service and it's vegan food. So every time basically you order a vegan plant based meal, you get a playlist of undiscovered music artists And yeah, that's the idea behind it, and so you get like a little card and you get a link, the playlist, and in the playlist is undiscovered music artists, and then you also get your vegan meal and plant based meal. So that's what we're working on the moment. That's really new, it's very fresh. But I mean, prior to that we were doing loads of different things like events, developing music artists and composers.
Speaker 2:I traveled around the world to do to play. So I was in a theater show working with directors, production companies actually went to Australia last year just before the COVID for the Adelaide Festival And we did. I was a part of that festival performing as a headline, a part of the headline show there. So yeah, i've just kind of just been doing many things that I feel like has been a lot to do for my craft as a musician or producer or composer In that project. I also wrote the music for the show as well, co-produced the music for the show as well. So it was like a lot of different things that happened. I also played in it. I'll start it in it as well. So it was quite cool. But yeah, that's kind of like my progress, i'd say, from a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk to us through the building blocks. What were some of the steps that you had to take in order to build your business food and music? Obviously, you've got the musical side. told us about how you got into music. How did you kind of build the brand? Did you work with someone? What were the steps to getting this business off the ground?
Speaker 2:So I mean this particular service is, i mean, it's still very new, it's quite a fresh service And so basically it kind of it was like flipped from, like the COVID COVID era of that whole craziness of just being locked down and then you shutting down and all these different things. So originally what we would do, we would have events right and we would get local, undiscovered artists performing and then we would have vegan, plant based food on the side being served. So it was that idea was already kind of there, if that makes sense. So it was just in an event form. So. But we didn't even know that. Obviously no one knew about COVID, so we didn't know how it was going to pan out to now.
Speaker 2:So what we did, obviously, when COVID hit and all the places were locked down and we had to cancel our events and all that Jazz, we was like, okay, we went through this whole period of time just like, how are we going to do this? How are we going to keep the events going? How are we going to basically pick the business back up? Because we were doing workshops as well. We were doing music workshops, music tuition workshops with big groups of children and young people, and so obviously that cut down, that stopped sorry, completely, and so we just had to really just like, think of this, something you know, quick and different to do. So, yeah, that's where it kind of came from the idea of food and music. And because I eat a lot of vegan, plant based food I mean, i don't follow the philosophy per se, but I would say I'm a plant-based eater. Majority of my food is plant-based or vegan. So I'm quite interested in healthy food and eating naturally as possible. And because we were already incorporating that into the event side, we thought, you know, how can we bring what we do in the event to people's homes? Because you know, people at home, people are working from home, people can't come, no venues are open, how can we bring that to people? And so we thought, well, let's just, let's bring, let's make a food delivery company where people are experiencing the food but they're also experiencing the music. And that's literally and I'm being honest, that's literally how it came to come to where it's right now.
Speaker 2:And in terms of the steps, i mean because I've, i've, we've been me and myself, so my brother, he's my business partner we've like, we've started so many different ideas and so many different things, that it's almost like you kind of we started to just know what the steps would be you know, creating a business plan, creating your marketing plan, to creating knowing your target audience, all those things We kind of just thought, you know. Yeah, we just kind of had those kind of steps always there because we've been doing it so many times So to create food and music. It was kind of like, okay, let's just go for those very steps. But initially I did about a year, two years ago now, i did like a little CP CPD qualification that's just basically for business development and marketing, and there I learned some skills about sales, about, you know, having your marketing message, your no target orders, all those things that help you basically build a credible business on idea basically.
Speaker 1:I kind of want to get into a few things now in regards to the plant-based eating is. obviously that's an extension of who you are as a person And you've now put it into your business In terms of marketing it to people that are plant-based. was that one of the factors that you felt there's more? is there a resurgence of plant-based eating And therefore this is a business that could really do well and meet the needs of those who want to eat plant-based foods.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So like we I mean, we initially just thought you know what it worked really well. In our events People really liked the food. We would get good comments back saying, wow, this is, you know, from the music, from the performers, would get the food as well. So people that are working with us photographers they would be eating and they'd be like this is nice, you know.
Speaker 2:So we thought this is something that could work, and also our idea is not necessarily for people that only that eat plant-based, but it's for people that want to eat, want to choose healthy options, but they don't really know where, excuse me, and how, and so we want to provide them with a quick option and something that can be convenient, something that can be delivered to them And they know that they're eating healthy, they're eating well, it's not just vegan, but it's also like healthy food and it's food that is wholesome, and so, yeah, that's the plan. Really, our target is for people that actually for anyone, but obviously the lots of people that do eat plant-based and vegan will enjoy it. But we hope people that are just meat eaters will be like, wow, this tastes amazing, do you?
Speaker 1:know what I mean. What are some of the challenges around creating a business like this? I know obviously we've got COVID and we're still in the pandemic stage. What are some of the things where you feel like you know, you and your business partner, your brother, some of the things you've got to try and really work through and think about in terms of to kind of get this business to the next level and really kind of up the ante, so to speak?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. I think that's an amazing question And I think this is something that I've learned over the years of you know, my little years of being in the business and self-employed. I think there's two things. I think there's the unique to food and music are business. I think the fact that it's very new and it's one of those things that, as far as we know, no one's doing it, especially in the UK is something that's new and it's very like oh wow, this is cool, but it's very new. And sometimes when things are so new, there is always this opposition. You know this uphill kind of climb to getting us off the map. So if you came with something that was just happening all the time or something that was there before, it'd be easier because people would recognise it. But when something is completely fresh and it's like this is new, i think that's the biggest thing for us is coming up, just bringing something to people that is new, even though I mean, vegan, plant-based food is not new, but the concept of food and music together is, yeah, it's quite fresh in terms of that way as a product. So I think that's one of our biggest challenges In general as running a business.
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest challenges is that most people have good ideas, right. That is never really the big issue. I think most of us can dream, most of us, we've been given this innate ability to create and to have imagination and to dream. So, in terms of ideas, coming up with ideas is mostly not the issue. What is the issue is the execution of those ideas And also the marketing and promotion, and I cannot stress about this.
Speaker 2:This is like for me, i think that's the biggest thing. You can have an amazing idea, but if no one knows about it, if no one cares about it, there's no point, and I think that can be one of the biggest. It can be one of the biggest opposition. It's like someone can be so talented, but if no one sees their talent, they can just be so talented in their room And that's fine if that's what they want to do. But if you're trying to get your business up to a certain point, then you need to have a strategy and you need to know, you need to have systems and strategies to make this great idea to be, to execute that and to be something that's actually, yeah, valuable.
Speaker 1:I want to kind of shift gears a little bit now and talk about some of the influences, or influences that maybe people, or maybe people online that have really helped you in your business. Are there people that you look up to or that you kind of resonate with you In regards to? hey, this is somebody that you know I really kind of want to model my business after, or somebody's doing really good things in this space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, influences Yeah, that's quite interesting one. Do you mean influences in terms of business or music? I think they're quite. I think they'll be very, quite different. Are you talking about in business or?
Speaker 1:I would say a bit of both actually. I mean because I do feel that, because you're a musician and it was really interesting listening to you earlier talking about creativity and this innate ability to create, and that was kind of when my second follow up question was going to be if you feel that you being a musician, enables you to create or enables that kind of, does it trigger a bit of an entrepreneurial side to you? But maybe a bit of both? Are there anyone music or business that you feel they're really good at what they do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, i mean music with loads. I mean I have some I'm a drama, that's my main. I do play up instrument but drumming is like my baby. So I think I have some, you know, dramas that I feel like have influenced me and helped me to pursue and just get better, and so a few of them would be William Kennedy, with a major drama that I totally respect, and Joshua McKenzie he's actually UK drama. You probably heard of him, you know him And there's a few other dramas that I feel like Lano, lano Lewis he's another drama that I feel like I adore his drumming and his, his, his whole, his whole mindset to drumming and his vibe and stuff, and so there's lots of drummers that I feel like have inspired me over the years and musicians Also, like my brother Matt, he's inspired me a lot more personally in terms of my music, the musical ability, and he's always told me to you know, hannah, just because you're female, don't let that be something that stops you. If anything, let that be something that propels you and know that you could be just as good, if not better, you know. So he's always been like that, on that vibe to me.
Speaker 2:And business side, there's a few people. There's a guy called Junior of the year me I think I've said his name right. He's really inspired me at one point, me and my business partner. We had a bit of coaching with him business coaching with him And he runs an academy. He's got a few businesses set up around UK And he's just a. He's just a really cool guy, but he's just so like motivational inspiration or man as a business partner, as a business sorry, as a business person. There's this lady that I follow. She's American, my name is Dr Faith What kind of? she is another business entrepreneur and just someone that has got multiple work. She's really helped me in terms of understand your target audience and stuff like that. Yeah, i mean I listen to podcasts as well. That helped me to just hear different people's stories. So, yeah, i mean those are the few.
Speaker 1:I think it's important that there are people that you look to Who could really help and inspire you, and you did mention their coaching and going on courses and having an education. I mean the kind of strap line, if you like, or philosophy of this show is to educate, inspire and promote, and you Have said that you went out and you found some people that could help you with marketing and advertising and research. Why was it important that you went out and did courses or got some information about that? Was that something that you really felt you needed that kind of real help with in order for your business to grow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, i feel like I think you all yours good as what you know at the time, and I think I think to be successful, you always need to have someone around you. I'm in your influence and all your sphere of life. That is basically five, ten years ahead of you in the game of whatever you want to do. That's what I think. I strongly believe that. So for me, that could be a mentor, that could be a coach going to someone, because that could just be going to University or doing a course online, you know whatever it is. Or that just could be having a friend or a father, brother, you know, mother, whatever You know a family member. That could be something. Or a leader, pastor, whatever it could be.
Speaker 2:Any one of those things that That you look to that person, you think, oh, wow, like I want to be where they are And in five, ten years time. And I think for me, even now, like I'm just I'm looking for someone like that right now, but I think there's always I don't know anything, so there's always more that I could, i could know, and I love, i love learning, like for me, i'm just like I love learning new things and My ability and my knowledge is limited, but I love, just like when someone can sit down and say to her Take me, you know, i know if you tried this or what. If you do this For me, that gets me excited.
Speaker 1:So what are your goals for food and music, let's say, in the next five years? where do you want your company to be?
Speaker 2:So I mean, like initially, food and music is like It's a service, that a business service that is from added music. So, overall, when we feel the music in itself, just just freedom music, we would love to be able to have, and just to have to set up a few more Locations, to widen our radius of where we're delivering and to be to have to just widen our menu as well, so to have different seasonal menus, so maybe you know something for some hours and for the winter, i'm for the autumn and to be able to, we would love to be able to just get people Understanding about recipes and understanding about different oils that you can use and you know different spices and stuff like that. So we want to, we want to educate people as well. We don't just want to be like, yeah, you know Business, we want to, you know have, we want to build something that can facilitate other people's skills and abilities as well. So the freedom music, that that's something, things that we want to do, but I did music in general for that.
Speaker 2:So for added, which is the bigger company, i think we there's so much stuff we want to do. I mean is that we want to go back, because we used to go to churches and we used to get the young people and do workshops In them and get tutors in, and just know we do doing that all over London. So in south and east and north London We want to go, you know, obviously for COVID We can't do it now, but when, hopefully when things calm down, we want to go back into the churches and go back into the, to the youth groups and the youth centers and the youth, you know, these places and get some music sessions and workshops back up and running again and get tutors and get people in. So some of those things that we want to do and that, i don't know, they're just kind of Developing, but they're just they've been there anyway. We're just kind of waiting, you know, so we can actually do this thing.
Speaker 1:I kind of want to go back a little bit to something you mentioned earlier in regards to what people get in the service with food And music. They get to listen to unknown artists or artists that are kind of coming up in whatever genre of music. What was the thinking behind doing that? Why did you offer that as something for your customers to have?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question, I think, because I Well, not just me, but we, we, like I said, we were doing that in our event. So we were having grassroot artists, undiscovered local artists, come and perform on stage, and we wanted to. You know, we wanted to create a platform where people can display their skills and like local artists and people not just local But just undiscovered and people can discover new voices, new sounds, new artists, new creativity, music creativity, and I think That was something that was working really well before. So We literally just took that same idea and thought we want people to be able to still experience this, but in the comfort of their home. So I mean, the idea is that we want people to be able to That joy and excitement and that art, that expectation or There's surprise of just like discovering a new artist or discovering a new sound. Yeah, that was our thinking behind that.
Speaker 1:I wanted to actually ask about your marketing because I've noticed on your social media You do a lot of really good videos and cool videos, different colors and textures and it is a real good advertising tool. Have you found that you've had some followers and messages? Has it really helped your business? your social media side of things?
Speaker 2:Yes, so she made.
Speaker 2:It is a is a Is a key part to marketing This, because you've got What is it like? two million people on Facebook, i mean crazy, like that and then you've got, you know, a considerable amount of people on Instagram as well, depending on your target audience, so, and depending on what your product is as well, and you can choose which social media platform you want to focus on. But you, yeah, social media is a key part. It's not the only part, but it's a key part, and I would recommend anyone that's starting a business to get yourself on at least one of the social media platforms. So it doesn't have to be Instagram, it doesn't have to be Facebook, it just can be any of those. It kind of doesn't really matter, as long as you know what your marketing strategy is, as long as you know what you are doing and how you're pushing forward to do things you're doing in terms of the message that you're trying to put forward and the call to action you're trying to gain through people. So, yeah, i hope that answers your question.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, That was terrific. And just kind of before we wrap up, actually, i kind of want to know a little bit about what it's kind of taken in terms of the funding of the business, the sacrifices you've had to make to get it to where it is today. What does that entail in terms of what, the time you've got to give up on, the energy that you've got to put towards it for it to keep running and for it to continue to grow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. We're still kind of in that, but I think that's probably, i just think, the first thing I would say running a business self-employed, all that stuff is not for the faint-hearted. It takes a level, a set of skills that your Ivar is going to have before you start or that you're definitely going to develop along the way. So that's one thing. I think, financially, it's taken a lot of my own personal money. It's taken a lot of my own savings and funding and people putting money in, whether it's family, friends or people supporting certain things. So I think you have to. Nowadays, i mean, you can build a business online and have like a really small amount of capital, depending on what your product is, especially if it's like solely an online product and you're not really like. Ours is online but it's also tangible and it's like physical, so you get it. So there's all other stuff with packaging and stuff. But if you don't have a project like that, then if it's a lot of it's digital, then it does bring down the cost and the capital a lot for what you're trying to do. But I think there's always going to be a cost for everything. I don't think there's any business that you can start with no zero costs. But I think it's just the sacrifice.
Speaker 2:Financially There's always a sacrifice And little things like, for example, i mean being self-employed for like nearly 10 years now. Little things like certain things being able to just take a holiday, just like that, whereas some of my other peers or my friends that are not self-employed or in different industries or whatever, probably would have been able to do that. Or little things where you're just like no, but I'm saving towards this or I'm not going to spend this amount of money because I'm putting it towards this. So the financial commitment is it can be weighty. I mean, there's I've heard loads of stories of like entrepreneurs, business people literally spending their last dollar or pound or set or whatever P hence to fund their business. So, yeah, that does take a lot of financial commitment. But I think, yeah, you have to kind of believe in what you're doing, because there's no point really And you have to have a kind of a plan of how you feel like this business is going to make money to help you come back. And then there's also things that investors and you know people that you can actually go to, people that are professional investors that can invest in your business as well, or it could be family or friends or whatever. So there's that In terms of time and energy.
Speaker 2:Man, like, time and energy is hard work, it's work, it's work And anything good, anything that's building, is work, not just business. If you you know relationship and it's you want it to work in its quality, you have to put the work in and put the time in. So there's levels of commitment where you know there's things like what is that today? Today I was, we had, we've got flyers and we're handing out flyers and I'm doing it, you know, and someone that's the business owner, i'm going out and doing that, you know. I mean just stuff like that. Like you've got to just you have to be a self-star, you have to wake up and just be like no, I'm going to do this and have that motivation and sacrifice certain things that you might not want, you want to do, but maybe I'm going to put that towards the business and all that jazz. So, yeah, that's what I can say about that.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. A great way to end. I want to thank you for your time today And, before I let you go, where can people find out more about food and music? Do you have your website, your social media handles?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great. So the website is foodandmusicuk. So basically, what we're doing, we're doing this kind of like pre-order system where you can basically pre-order order anytime of the week or day And we will deliver on Wednesdays and Thursdays lunchtime. So we're doing this lunchtime kind of rush where a lot of people are still working from home, so hopefully what we've been able to do is to deliver people's lunches to them with their music playlist. So that's what we're doing at the moment. So, yeah, so you can order foodandmusicuk. On Instagram, we are foodandmusic1. On Facebook, it's foodandmusic And we also got an app. If you've got an Android phone, we've got an app as well that you can download and order as well. You can just download it on your Android phone, so that's also food and music on your Android phone as well. So, yeah, that's it. And we're on some local listings as well vegan food, plant-based food listings as well. So yeah.
Speaker 1:That's incredible, hannah. I'll make sure that in the show notes that I put all of the details in regards to your website and your social media plugs and a bit of a description about what you're doing currently. Hannah Lederwig, it's been great having you on the British Black Trippin'.
Speaker 2:Earth. Thanks for having me. I really like stuff like this, so thank you so much for having me and asking me questions. It really helps me to get just get a bigger perspective of everything that I'm doing and what I've done so far. So, yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Anytime Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to the British Black Trippin' Earth. If you like this podcast, then please rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast.