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
Chronicles of Resilience and Revival Post Redundancy (Ft. Samuel Iremiren)
When life threw a curveball at Samuel Iriman, it wasn't just any ordinary pitch. Sitting down with Samuel, we navigate the choppy waters of job loss, a reality he faced shortly after the joyous arrival of his son. The heart of our conversation beats with the raw, unfiltered emotional journey Samuel endured—from the moment he received that life-altering phone call to his emergence as a beacon of hope for others through his podcast "I Just Got Fired". His story unfolds against a backdrop of legal battles and the loss of his property company, yet brims with the resilience and determination that define the entrepreneurial spirit.
The foundation of change, as Samuel aptly puts it, lies in the connections we forge in our darkest hours. His candid revelations about the transition from a stable job to the uncertainty of unemployment, and eventually to the genesis of a platform that offers solace and solidarity to those in similar straits, are nothing short of inspiring. His podcast has become a vessel for shared experiences, a lighthouse for navigating redundancy, and a launchpad for discussions on improving employment policies and support for those blindsided by job loss. Samuel not only lifts the lid on his personal struggles but also shines a spotlight on the importance of transparency with employers and the strategic steps necessary for growth and recovery.
Our final chapter with Samuel examines the silver lining in the storm clouds of adversity. It's a testament to the power of poignant conversations, such as the one with a dear friend that reshaped his perspective on redundancy, stripping away its stigma. Samuel's tale is punctuated by the steadfast support of his family, a pivotal force in his comeback from a significant business debacle. As we close our session, Samuel's message is clear: embrace your unique talents and never underestimate the potential they hold. His journey from the depths of despair to inspiring change serves as a powerful reminder that, within the chaos, lie seeds of greatness waiting to be nurtured.
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five weeks into my son being born I got a phone call from my manager. He was like hey, sam, can we catch up? And I was just like, yeah, sure, of course we're on a level where he can phone me, he can message me at any time. But I noticed the meeting invite had HR invited. Now, of course I didn't see the red flag straight away. What I thought it was was oh, I guess HR are interested in how I'm doing as well. They're gonna ask me how am I, how's my son, how's my wife? And unfortunately I got ropes into a conversation where it was just like we apologize, but unfortunately we are gonna have to let you go.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the British Black entrepreneur. This podcast exists to promote black businesses in the UK, to educate black entrepreneurs on all things business and to inspire you on your entrepreneurial journey. Here is your host, Jason Lezins.
Speaker 3:Alright, folks, you're listening to Samuel Irriman of a podcast called I Just Got Fired. Last week, samuel and I had a well about to have a phenomenal conversation. He is a podcast host recently made redundant and he shares his story and his insights into what he went through when he went from being made redundant to not having a job, and we explore his story. We had a great conversation. Hope you enjoy it. I had a real blast with him. He even shared some tips with each other both podcast hosts about how I could support him, how he could support me, and we just really dived right in. So hope you enjoy this one.
Speaker 3:I loved talking to Samuel. He was authentic, it was real and we had a really great conversation. So maybe you've been made redundant, maybe you know someone D who has been made redundant and Samuel is now a podcast, has a podcast called I Just Got Fired last week who explores redundancy and what you can do, and he's really trying to get into this space to help people and he's really got some interesting things that he actually is doing in regards to actually trying to help people, including lobbying governments, working with organizations. I mean some terrific, outstanding stuff. So here he is, without the redo. It's Samuel Iriman. Samuel Iriman, welcome to the British Black Trip and Hawaii today.
Speaker 1:Great doing absolutely amazing. It's a good day, super, super excited to be doing this with you. I think this conversation is going to be life changing. So yeah, thank you honestly.
Speaker 3:Thank you fantastic. I mean, I first discovered you on Instagram and I was just looking through guests that I wanted to ensure due to my audience, and I came across your podcast, came across your Instagram and I was really intrigued to find out and hear about your story. So I want to just kick off really, and just ask you, firstly, in regards to how did you experience of being made redundant shaped your life and perspective on all things career?
Speaker 1:Great question, I think the first thing that I need to do, just a caveat, is I am actually hugely indebted to my previous employers and I scrubbed my LinkedIn completely just because I didn't want anybody listening to the podcast to be like see, they're terrible. They're actually not. They're great people and I do understand how this industry works. But what happened with me is, five weeks into my son being born, I got a phone call from my manager. He was like hey, sam, can we catch up? And I was just like yeah, sure, of course we're on a level where he can phone me, he can message me at any time. But I noticed the meeting invite had HR invited. Now, of course, I didn't see the red flag straight away. What I thought it was was oh, I guess HR are interested in how I'm doing as well. They're going to ask me how am I, how's my son, how's my wife, and all this. And unfortunately I got ropes into a conversation where it was just like we apologize, but unfortunately we are going to have to let you go.
Speaker 1:Now, I guess, just to preface a lot of this, what I'd originally done is, knowing that I was going on paternity leave, I trained up the offshore team. So, as you can imagine, I worked in a large global bank and, like happens in many global organizations, they've got tech teams in places like Pune or Hyderabad, india, manila, just those sorts of places. So I trained up the team and I was told, sort of point blank, that they are three times cheaper than you. You're actually very, very expensive to keep on and we're getting ready to cut 3% of our global workforce. Somebody had to go. It had to be you.
Speaker 1:That was heartbreaking, as I'm sure you can imagine, because it was just like well, I've spent three and a half years, I spent the pandemic, with these people and what you end up doing is you walk almost through the cycle of shame. Firstly, it's embarrassing because it's I got made redundant. How am I going to feed my family? How am I going to do this? How do I go home and tell, look my wife in the face and just be like yeah, you see the money thing, you don't have it anymore. So that was tough Telling friends, telling family, et cetera. To top that off, four weeks after that I had a six-figure property company. I was doing rent-to-rent and I was giving out properties to social housing providers. Four weeks after that, I find out that someone within the company has been doing dubious things and then, unfortunately, that crashes as well.
Speaker 1:So imagine I'm in this world where I've lost my job for redundancy, I've lost this six-figure company and now I'm kind of in this place of lamenting where I'm just like, oh my gosh, what do I do? I'm sad, but I'm happy. Not happy is unhappy, but happy in terms of just like a massive mix of emotions. Oh my gosh, my son's here, great, but I've lost my job. Oh no, now there's fear, there's anxiety, there's oh my gosh. All of these things happened.
Speaker 1:That eventually started me having real conversations with real people, and it was just like oh, you got my redundant, so did I? Oh, no way, yeah, yeah, me too. Oh, I've got a friend who you should meet. They got me redundant too. And it's just like hold on a second. I'm starting to see a pattern here, and I had two choices. Choice one was lament and be sad and tell everybody this company's the worst in the world and write an online review or start a podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm a verbal processor. I speak a lot, which I'm sure you'll probably realize. I speak a lot, so it was like what about if I was to speak about my feelings, help validate other people's feelings, but at the same time, now start to provide value resources that will help people also going through redundancy. We don't necessarily have language. Tell them hey, I've been there too and I probably made a bunch of mistakes. Here's the things I did wrong, here's some of the things that I did right, and here are some of the things that you can do to avoid some of the pitfalls that I've fallen into.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's incredible man, Incredible story. Obviously you went through quite a lot emotionally, psychologically, also financially I suppose as well, and so I remember hearing this is something called the Ken Coleman Show. It's in America and he talks about when someone goes through redundancy. It's almost like the same emotion as if somebody had been lost, in regards to death or deceitism, or if you don't find something valuable or someone valuable anymore. And so I wanted to ask you really, following on from that obviously you had your six-figure rental property company as well In terms of the emotions and the finances how did you kind of get over that mentally? You did obviously just talk about there, how you made a decision to start your podcast, and I'm supposed that was one way in which you could have your outlet. But what did you do to kind of move forward and think I've got to make this happen. I've got something else I need to do.
Speaker 1:So it's actually really interesting that you likened it to losing a person. I agree, because I think that I had to walk through the five stages of grief. You know, there was deniability I didn't necessarily believe it. There was anger and frustration. Yes, I eventually got to a place of acceptance, but it was this almost volatile journey and I think because of that, one of the things that I now tell people is don't be afraid of your process and don't shy away from it. I spent three weeks lamenting Like if for those who know me usually quite a jovial person, usually quite a positive person I was in a dark place. I was extremely sad. I didn't know how to tell people I didn't.
Speaker 1:I think what's happened for many of us and this is the reason why I'm super passionate about this is that we are validated by work. You're part of a family. They love that word. You're part of a family and it means that if a person like, imagine us being a part of family, imagine someone saying us that you're no longer a part of this family. So what do you mean? I've given you time, I've given you my effort, I've given you my expertise. We ate together, we sat together, we I've shared things with you. You've shared things with me.
Speaker 1:I thought this was more. What we forget is the fact that to be in that room, you've signed contracts. This is not a mutual love relationship, this is a contractual one, and it kind of almost puts you into this temporary delusion. This doesn't work. This is fun. We're not really working with. It's all fun and games. You know, we're having a great time and fixing world problems with our colleagues. We're not. Our jobs are us trading our time, our effort and our expertise for something that we require, which is a salary, and we use that money to do other things in our life that are important.
Speaker 1:It took me a second to just level out. It was like oh my gosh, I can't believe they did this to me. I'm really sad, I'm really upset, I'm anxious, I don't know what to do. It just took me a second to kind of be like okay, hold on, stop, it's okay, it's okay. This is not personal to you. You know this is 100% how this industry works. It's.
Speaker 1:There was a problem that they wanted you to fix. You came in and you fixed it. They gave you a salary. Either that problem no longer exists or the expense of that problem. Call it a 50,000 pound problem. We're paying you 60,000 pounds, which means we're paying you more than the problem, which means one of those two things has to go. You were the problem. So like I really really had to sit down and get you know, I studied economics, so I understand it just from an economic perspective, that this is not personal, this is the minus supply. But that did not stop me from being extremely sad, extremely embarrassed.
Speaker 1:All of the women we're not supposed to lose our jobs. We're supposed to provide and protect. We're supposed to be the priests of our home. We're supposed to put. And it was almost like oh babe, have you found another job yet? No, not yet. But you know tomorrow, and oh no tomorrow, oh no tomorrow. So imagine if what self validates you now disappears. Now you start to look for validation and other things, and job is, or jobs are the ones, which is at least socially accepted. So it was tough and it just took me a second to kind of recenter and be like actually no, sam, who's your identity? Who are you? Where are you from? What are the things that you've done? What does history say about you? What does your CV say about you? What are your family say, the people who love you, your friends. What do they say about you? That's who you are, okay, great, now let's go back out into the market and find a job.
Speaker 3:Wow, powerful, really good, Nice, so we're enjoying this. Thank you for being open and real, talking about your story, and so I want to kind of follow on now that and talk about your podcast, which you have called. I Got Fired last week and I really want to talk a bit about kind of what made you do it. I kind of understand why, but, in terms of the process and the theme of the show, what made you say? You know what? I want to go into podcasting instead of YouTube or starting out of the business, why was it that medium that you used to share your story with people?
Speaker 1:Sure, I think eventually in everybody's life they get to a stage where they have to ask themselves what impact am I making to the world around me? Now it's, to a degree, quite oxymoronic that it was the time that I was off work and I just had a lot of time to think that I actually said to myself oh okay, let me look at the things which I'm good at. I love helping people, I'm a natural talk, I'm a presenter, I like to teach, I like to share information, I like to mentor Great, what else am I good at? I mean, I did get made redundant, so that's almost like right there in the core. The next thing after that was well, what's a platform that will allow me to be able to talk to an audience that I don't necessarily know? And it's funny, that's what's so exciting about it. I remember I was at a party one day and someone came up to me. Bless her heart. She came up to me oh my gosh, I know you, you're the guy that got fired. I said I hate the fact that that's what you know me for, but I'm super grateful that it's having impact. So it was literally spur of the moment.
Speaker 1:Podcasts are a great way to get a message out. You don't necessarily know who you're speaking to, and that's really exciting for me because it means that I can just put some words out to the world and my tribe will find me. I'm a natural introvert, so as much as I was thinking to myself, maybe I should do YouTube I just to keep someone's attention on YouTube for half an hour is really tough. You know like it's edits and angles and all that sort of stuff. I'm not super tech savvy like that, but I am a talker. So I said to myself let me talk, let people be walking and listening to me and digesting information, let me bring value to as many people as possible, but also let me introduce people to a platform which they might not necessarily be introduced to. You'd be surprised how well I mean. You wouldn't be surprised because this is a podcast but, as I'm sure you know, very few people listen to podcasts relative. You know, if we're talking about YouTube videos, if we're talking about things like Spotify, listening to music, if you're talking about people who subscribe and listen regularly to a podcast, the numbers are significantly lower. I believe I read a stat and it said it's about 3%.
Speaker 1:So I looked at that and I was just like well, I've got an audience of people who want to find me, but I also have friends who I think would get a lot of value from this.
Speaker 1:So I sort of created something that I would have wanted, and I think that that's any and every entrepreneur's real goal is they end up creating their product or their service is literally what they would have wanted somebody else to do, so they're the person who goes out and solves that problem. When I got made redundant, I didn't have any resources. I didn't know where to turn to. I didn't have anyone who looked like me or who sounded like me, who was actively talking openly about hey, I'm really, really embarrassed and I don't know what to do. So I created it so other people can now be validated through this conversation and it's sort of spread from there. So I didn't know it was going to be a podcast, but a podcast seemed like the best way to be able to give information to people, but also in a way that felt very real to who I was.
Speaker 3:That's phenomenal and what I'd love to hear. I would love to hear, maybe, an update on where you're at with your business, your podcast. Are you working? That's the kind of feeling I'm sharing. Where are you at now in your journey, whether that be entrepreneurial or in employment, and how are you mixing that all together with being a podcast host as well?
Speaker 1:Great question. So when I got made redundant, I had 90 days of expenses and I was very open. If you listen to my episode one, I said hey, everyone, I've got 90 days. I don't know what I'm going to do Because after those 90 days, I've got a mortgage to pay and it may be a very, very messy conversation.
Speaker 1:What I ended up doing, which I think is really exciting, is I ended up exploring loads and loads of different ways to make money, whether it was Amazon deliveries, whether it was digital marketing, tutorials, tutoring online all of these great ways, and I like to share those with people. But I must admit I did go back into paid employment. The reason why I went back into paid employment, which is just me being perfectly honest, and this was me my wife is still on maternity leave and, of course, that means that she's not making a salary. I'm not making a salary. We have a young son who will be starting nursery soon. I needed something stable and I just want to be super, super honest with everybody. The entrepreneurial journey is not an easy one. It is not an easy one at all. There are going to be some nights where it's 18-hour days and you don't know how you're going to feed your family, but you have an idea and you have a dream. So I'm currently working as a project manager. I always tell people, the moment you decide you want to do something entrepreneurial, have a subset of skills behind you that will allow you to fall back on just in case something happens. So I'm currently working as a project manager. I've been very honest with them that I probably won't be there up to 12 months. It's so funny. I've never actually been so honest. I went to HR and I was just like this is what's happened to me. I genuinely don't have the time to mess you around. Because I don't have time to mess around. This is my situation. This is what I want. Can you offer it to me? And they were like let's review it in 12 months and see where you are. The podcast has done great. People have been listening to it. I'm super, super excited.
Speaker 1:What I'm currently working on at the moment is free things. Firstly, it's sponsorships, which is working directly with sponsors. I'm being super, super specific with my sponsors. I don't want it to be like I got fired last week and then suddenly you hear do you need a new cushion in your home? I'm not that kind of person. So I'm trying to work with companies like Google, udemy, edx, linkedin, learning. In other words, if you've been made redundant, what's probably one of the things that you're going to want? You're going to want courses, you're going to want CVs, interview question prep, et cetera. So I want to work with a very, very specific subset of providers who will be able to actually give value to my audience. That's the first thing that I'm doing.
Speaker 1:The second thing I'm doing is I'm trying to lobby the government for redundancy. I believe that the laws around it are not strict enough. A person, after working at an organization for two years, a person is entitled to one week of redundancy for every year that they've worked there. So you can imagine this person is 45 years old, they've worked at an organization for 10 years. They get 10 weeks of salary, no offense. How am I feeling? My wife and my three children on 10 weeks of salary, especially if you knew that you were trying to get rid of me for six months.
Speaker 1:So we're trying to lobby the government to say no, we would like strict policies which says that if you're going to make a person redundant, then you should pay for what we call out placement services. Out placement services are basically we are making you redundant but we will hand you over to a company and that company will spend call it six weeks with you to help you write your CV, to help you do LinkedIn, to help you do interview prep, to help you find out what it is that you want to do, are you in the right industry, et cetera. That's company funded. That shouldn't not be on the individual to go out and do that, because 45 year olds and this is not biased towards them, but a 45 year old being made redundant, it's now going out into an industry and they're going to be matched up against the 22 year olds. Who is Freshroom University learned six different coding languages in their computer science degree. They just can't compete. So that's number two. We're lobbying government.
Speaker 1:And number three is I'm working with organizations on what I call ethical employment policies, which is so, for example, that out placement. I would like it written directly into contracts so you can lobby the government to make it law. But you can also speak to organizations directly and say, hey, are you interested in this thing that we're offering? It won't cost you anything until you make someone redundant, right? If you write it into someone's contract. It's only when you decide that they're no longer good for your organization that now that kicks in and you're able to offer them. Okay, you're not good for us, but we're going to help you get back out into the industry, and we're going to help you go and get a job, even if it's not here, because redundancy isn't saying you're not good, it's saying you're not good for me. So I believe the ethical employment policies are you saying, though, you're not good for us. What about if we were to help you go out there and be competitive in that market?
Speaker 1:The job market at the moment is extremely difficult. I know friends who have been out of work for six months, out of work for nine months, and these are people with degrees, these are people with well. I mean, I specifically know the project management space, so people with professional qualifications, whoever it be, prints to you, or agile. I know chartered accountants who have got ACCA and CEMA who are now taking on tech roles, because accountancy is just really hard, you know, trying to get into that space. So I look at that and I say what more can be done? I can help individuals through the podcast and through sponsorships. I can help organizations by ensuring that they have things written in their contract to help people. But we can also go all the way to the top and we can lobby the government to see if they are able to change laws or at least talk about it. Let's get petition signed. If we have enough people speaking about it, then we can go in there and make some real change.
Speaker 3:Phenomenal, I think, really good that you're actually taking action and steps towards helping those that are in your situation or who could potentially be in your situation, samuel. So now, kudos to you, shaq to you. That's so good. Just want to say congrats on your content and what you've been bringing out. I know that you have been able to bring up reels and stories and film your podcast. In terms of creating reels, I'm going to let you gain 250,000 views for one of your reels. How do you go about the process of creating organic content and what's that been like for you?
Speaker 1:Sure, one of the things which I can say is almost bittersweet the double-sided sword, literally is the fact that I'm trying to optimize to ensure that I can put out things, but I'm also trying to optimize in a way that it doesn't compete or clash with some of the other responsibilities that I have in my life. On day one, when I started the podcast, I said I believe in outsourcing, I believe in working with other people. Who can I loop in? For example, the studio that I record at. They do my original editing of the podcast, because I said to myself it's going to be really, really difficult for me to write podcast episodes. Jason, I'm sure you can appreciate this. People don't know that we actually write episodes. We don't turn on the podcast and I can just be like so everyone, we're here again. No, we actually write out what we want to say and how we want to say it. What's our cadence, what's our tone, what do we want the message to be? So I was writing it. Then I had to go and record it. Then I didn't want to edit it and then put that out on YouTube and then it just became a full-time job. So the studio that I was working with and they record it and they edit it at cost. But I tried to be super, super productive. So every time I go, I book a two-hour slot and I'm able to get three episodes done. That works for me. It works with the way that I speak and Also with brain fog after two hours, it just gets really, really tough to remain engaged.
Speaker 1:When it comes to my clips, I work with an editor in Sweden. Here's my rationale on this, and I'm hoping that people can take something away from this. So my name is Samuel. I can be a podcast star, made redundant, project manager, father all of these things. I have a finite number of hours in the day. If I was to spend the 100 hours trying to learn Premiere Pro and All of these others Software's to try to edit this 60-second clip, sure I could do it. Or I can pay someone call it 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds and I can get an expert who has been doing this for years. This is his bread and butter. He can probably get this done in 11 minutes. Which one of those in the trade-off is more value for money? Does it make sense for me to spend the hundred hours learning the software or for me to work with someone else, you can actually create and put that stuff out. Clearly the ROI is on that. So I work with guy from Sweden.
Speaker 1:I met him on fiverr. Funnily enough, it's so interesting where you, where you, can like create these relationships. I met him, I gave him a chance. He like the first videos they created. I said then he created some more. I said yeah, they create some more, said okay, this is it. And then we sort of built up a relationship that way. So he makes the clips the ones that I don't buy have got so much input in them. I'm talking he might as well be my video editor. I can message him in the middle of the night and say go to 1627 I.
Speaker 1:I think that point was amazing. I think if we merged that with this and merged that with this then. But it's always going in with the mentality of how do I add the maximum amount of value to people? That is the point. Virality without value is pointless in my eyes. I've never wanted you to be an Instagram person or a tiktok person. That's never the intention. It's always I want to help people who have been made redundant and then if I can put out something in a way that it's virality allows More eyes on it, amazing, amazing. So, yes, I did.
Speaker 1:I put out a video, I mean a short reel on on uber. It wasn't uber, it was Amazon. Sorry, uber was the one before. Yeah, I put our short one on Amazon and I was speaking about. I've got a friend who was speaking about the kind of cars that he sees when he goes and does Amazon Prime. He told me that there are people who are making thousands of pounds. It's not something to snub your nose up at. It's literally if you've been made redundant and you need to make short-term income, at least until you go back into a full-time job, then it's got the flexibility and the income to help you in that situation.
Speaker 1:And Thank God, I've got some really tough skin, because people really come at you in comments that there's no way that you can have 250,000 views and not have people. You're a liar. Well, if that's the case, then how come you're not doing it? People are so used to you trying to sell them this affiliate marketing course that they just can't believe that you're actually gonna put content out that's gonna help people. They expect oh, dm me the word freedom. I'm not gonna do any of that I genuinely just want to help you and If it's not for you, fine, but if it is for you, then great.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of the resilience that I was getting from it was directly outweighed by the number of people who were DMing me saying Thank you. So much of those 250,000 views. Realizing that you've got a thousand, five hundred people who have saved your real 650 people who have shared it all that sort of stuff is just like oh my gosh, wow, this is actually insane. This has been watched. Like what did I even say I Love everything that comes with it. So I would definitely say to people because you're not sure what is going to go viral or what virality looks like, keep on putting out high quality things and Eventually the right message will get to the right people. I don't know who shared it, I don't know what platform it was placed on, but somebody decided to share it and it just exploded.
Speaker 1:Also, again, working with people to increase ROI to me is so important. I'm not self-made, I've worked with other people. I believe in collaboration. I believe in In yes, it may be my story, but there are other people who are contributing to getting that story out. So, if you can, where possible, even what we're doing now. You know this is your platform, but the fact that you wanted to collaborate with me and share my story means that we're just going to be able to reach some people that they would have never listened to my podcast, but they'll listen to this and they'll be like, oh my gosh, wow, I've got a friend and they can share that. That's the intention, as the plans.
Speaker 3:That's powerful. Thank you for sharing that, samuel. Yeah, no, really, really, really good. Now For those people that are going through or gone through a similar experience to yourself be very redundant and trying to overcome that challenge. What advice would you give to those people that are in that state of redundancy, not knowing what to do? You said and spoke about how you spent a few weeks really thinking about what you to do, what to do, lamenting, feeling lost. What could they do in order to Find a sense of direction and purpose or know what the next step they need to take?
Speaker 1:I mean, first thing I would say is, of course, listen to the podcast, but I'll I'll give you three main ones. The first thing to do is, I would say, lean into your emotions. If you are genuinely upset, it's okay to be upset. If you're sad, if you're embarrassed, if you're angry, whatever it is, lean into it, because unfortunately, what happens to many people is they just bounce back and go into another job and If we imagine that it's like grief, if we imagine that it's like a relationship, we know that nothing good comes from just bouncing back and not necessarily dealing with how you feel. You gave your heart and your soul, you gave Eight hours, ten hours a day to this thing. It is okay to be upset. There was no shame in that. Don't be embarrassed by it. Lean into it. The second thing that I would say is probably a bit more practical, which is about okay. When you are ready to have those conversations and to actually deal with it, I'd say it's time to take stock.
Speaker 1:Where am I? Okay, I've just been made redundant from this job. Do I have redundancy, yes or no? Did they make me sign an agreement, yes or no? Like really get your facts straight. How much money do I have in my account this much, my outgoings are this much, which means I've got two months worth or three months worth of expenses. Sure, I have a qualification in project management, I have a Qualification in marketing, I have a. But I'm talking get a blank piece of paper and just write down what are all of the things which I need to be conscious of Savings, yes or no, expenses yes or no. Qualifications, yes or no, experience, yes or no, and just be really. I think one page is more than enough. Of course, you can explore some of those things later, but firstly, just to get it out of your head and onto paper, almost yeah, it just allows you to realize. Realize where you are.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, what happens sometimes is because we're ambiguous with who we are and where we are, we end up in this situation with oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? I'm stuck, not always. We're not always stuck. Sometimes it's actually no, I've got 20,000 pounds in the bank. I'm super, super skilled, I've got great experience, I've got a great CV, I've got a great cover letter. Yes, things are bad today, but actually they're not as bad as I thought they were when I initially had the conversation. So that's number two. Number two is just take stock, get a single blank piece of paper and just start to write, write down everything good, everything bad, and look at it, face it.
Speaker 1:The third thing that I would say is, once you've done that, and once you now start to think of what's the way forward, what should I do? Have conversations with friends, the current role which I'm in right now. I ended up getting to a conversation, like I said, I was very open and upfront about hey, everyone I've got made redundant. One of my wife's friends was just like, oh, funnily enough, my company's actually hiring. I was like, oh okay, sure Didn't take it too seriously. Sent in my CV.
Speaker 1:Through a series of conversations, I ended up landing that job you would be surprised to have in your network. You're not the only person going through it. As much as you want to believe that. You're also not the only person who has experienced it. As much as you want to believe that You're also not the only person who has to have the solution or the answer to that problem. There are people around you who may be able to help. People around you who may be able to assist I'm talking even if they can make a recommendation of a website. Oh, you know what's funny? I was actually speaking to a recruiter. They had these jobs. I don't think any of them are for me, but I think you should probably speak to them. Before you know it, your network ends up opening doors and creating opportunities for you to step into.
Speaker 1:I always say when you have less resources, you become more resourceful. You would be surprised. Simple conversations with people who trust. I'm not saying go and broadcast it. Hey, everyone, I've got made. To be honest, I say that. But if you're audacious enough to go onto your Instagram and say, hey, everyone just got made redundant. Does anyone know who's hiring? You would be surprised who DMs you.
Speaker 1:It required a degree of audacity, jason. It was embarrassing to go and put my big face on people's screens and be like hey, everyone, I got made redundant. But the conversations that came out of that ended up leading to the job that I'm in today. What if that audacity, what if that embarrassment was literally the launching pad for my next level? And I would say that to anybody else. What if? What if, on the other side of your fear and of the other side of the embarrassment and on the other side of the anxiety, it's an opportunity that you couldn't even create. It didn't make sense how these cards fell in these places. Don't be afraid to step out and do something that you've never done. That helps me, so hopefully that advice helps you. Ever listening.
Speaker 3:Perfect man. So good, so good, so good, thank you, thank you. I would just ask about being a podcast host, and have you found that to be a therapeutic outlet for yourself and maybe how is sharing your story and experiences affected your own personal growth?
Speaker 1:It helped me massively. It helped me massively. One of the last guests which I had on these names Tolu. The way that I met him was, of course, I'm doing this podcast now and I put it on my social media. Hey everyone, episode one of this podcast is out.
Speaker 1:People have listened to it and it's kind of created this conversation and people are like I can't believe they did that to you. Is that even legal? Et cetera. One of my friends listened to it and said you need to speak to one of my friends. I spoke with him and I probably had the most life-changing conversation I've ever had, because I was expecting him to be in lament and he was basically like you would be like this is amazing, this is great. I got made redundant. Here's all the great things I can do now. And I remember just leaving that conversation thinking what in the world? And then he ended up breaking it down into were you happy? Were you doing the things like? Were you able to make impact in that role? Were there certain things that you were scared to do because you were super, super conscious? Is there a skill set and an experience level that you have now that you didn't have, like just this massive breakdown.
Speaker 1:So, being a podcast host, it's just opened me up to some great conversations with some great people. It's also allowed me, like I said, I'm a natural talker. I'm not shy at all, which is weird because people will be like well, how can you be an introvert and a natural talker? It just depends who I'm speaking to. But I feel comfortable in this situation, heds. I can just talk and talk, but it's allowed me to talk, it's allowed me to share, it's allowed me to be really, really vulnerable with people. I'm talking tears sometimes, like I can finish episodes and just be like, oh my gosh, I really put my whole heart out there, like this is crazy. But then again I'll have conversations again where people will just be like that line that you said that way, that you felt that thing, that you did. That was me.
Speaker 1:I'll share this last story. I've got a friend who I didn't know listened and he told me hey, sam, I just listened to your podcast. I said, okay, great, how did you find it? He said I got made redundant in 2018 and I still haven't been able to recover from it. I said, huh, he was like, literally and I'm talking about someone who was a first class student. I stole his work back in uni, but I could feel the pain in his voice of this thing happened to me, but there was so much shame behind it, so I don't know. I've almost come the spokesman for redundancy, which is great because again, it's a thing we don't speak about enough, but it happens to so many people.
Speaker 1:Go on, speak to five people. Two of them has been made redundant at some stage in their life. I'm bringing someone on a podcast who's been made redundant five times. You're 30 years old. How have you been made redundant five times? But again, we're breaking through it. We're removing all of the shame from it. We're having real conversations about it. So, yeah, I've loved it. I've loved everything about it.
Speaker 3:So good, that's so good. I don't wanna ask you about family. Your family might like myself, and how do you involve your family in your entrepreneurial journey and, kind of, what role do they play in supporting your endeavors?
Speaker 1:Sure, I mean, I love my wife because my wife is not biased at all, like she doesn't drink the cool later. So maybe I think this is a great idea. I don't know, I don't know. She's like what? Can't you see the vision Like? Can't you see what?
Speaker 1:I love, how brutally honest she is, and that's really really useful for me, because and I'm actually really really glad that you didn't ask me this question, because I didn't know how I was going to answer it when people ask the question okay, sam, tell me about yourself I can't, because I'm kind of an enigma. I do loads and loads of different things. I've got an idea every two weeks Maybe I should do this, maybe I should do this, maybe I should do this, maybe I should do this. And that's very much the entrepreneurial mind. You're always trying to solve a problem. You're always trying to answer a question, even if it's a question that no one's asked you. So I love the fact that my family are almost my leveler. If I'm unable to explain it to them in a way that, in basic English, here's what I want to do. Here's the reason why I think it's good. They might be like sounds good, but what about? What about? What about? What about? It forces me to redefine. It forces me to refine and think about my process, just to ensure that I'm not every day coming up with a new idea. Also, that I'm not giving up on my current ideas. That's so super important to have somebody who believes in what it is that you're trying to build and says that, okay, you have 90 days of expenses, I'm okay with you talking into a microphone rather than traditionally going out and getting a full-time job.
Speaker 1:It definitely takes. It takes a super, super strong person to be able to be married or to be a son of or a father of whoever it is an entrepreneur. It is extremely difficult. Like I wouldn't. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. It's extremely difficult when you win. You win big, but you can lose big. You know, imagine me having to go and tell my family hey, remember that six, six figure company that we have? Yeah, it's with the police. Now we cease trading. It's just like yeah, but what do you mean? Like we put two years into that we did, but it doesn't exist anymore. And then I'm forced to move on quickly. So I would definitely say that family is everything. Family is, of course, the reason why we do it, but family are also a great leveler. Just making sure that they cut through any of the ideas which you think are amazing and they're just like ah no, that's helped me a lot.
Speaker 3:That's good. That's good, just kind of circling back, actually, to the six-figure property business that you had. You talked about rent-to-rent. Familiar with that a little bit? Yes, because I've interviewed someone who has that as their business. What made you get into that and how did you do that alongside working at the time if you were working whilst doing it?
Speaker 1:Great question. So you're now about to hear about Sam who again wants to ensure that he gets perfect ROI on his time and innovation and all that good stuff. So I was doing rent-to-rent social housing. Now people typically know HMO and shared accommodation. Hmo is houses of multiple occupancy. When you take a house, maybe it's got three bedrooms, you split the house into three or technically, and everybody shares I mean, everyone has that on bedroom and maybe, like you share the kitchen in the bathroom. So that's a house of multiple occupancy. Then you've got what we call SA or shared accommodation and what you essentially do. There is Airbnb, which is I might have a house, I might furnish it, it looks really, really good. You can come and rent my house for seven days or 18 days or 100 days.
Speaker 1:I did social housing, which was I took a property. It was rent-to-rent, so I was renting that property off a landlord and then I would give that property to the council or I would give it to a social housing provider or a charity. They would put people in the house and then they would pay me for the property. Now I know that someone who's probably going to be like well, why wouldn't they just pay the landlord? Why are they going to pay? Okay, so before you start on me, hear me out. Charities are not housing experts. Houses need to be at a certain level.
Speaker 1:There were restrictions, there were laws in place. Whether it's washers on the windows, whether it's carbon dioxide monoxide, whether it's the amount of square feet in a room, whether it's the correct drainage, the correct roofing, whatever it is, my company was skilled in making sure that we can get your property up to scratch. So we would take a property, we would do a refurb in it, so this is at no cost to the landlords. We would refurbish the property, and then we would go to the social housing provider and say here is a property, it is up to spec, we've read the laws, we know and we understand them. We've read it, it's up to spec, you can put people in there from today. They would then sign a five-year contract with us, so they get that property for five years and they get to put people in their property, families and all that good stuff. And then we would, of course, pay the landlord.
Speaker 1:Because they were five-year contracts, I didn't need to necessarily worry about the maintenance on a day-to-day. So your question of how was I able to do it alongside. Well, I would front-load a lot of the work, which was to take the property to do it up. But the moment that you give it to the social housing provider, the moment you give it to the council, the moment you are technically hands-off and you're a conduit between the social housing provider and the landlord, so it's just like, hey, sam, the boil is broken. Hey, guys, the boil is broken. Okay, we'll come on Tuesday, we'll come in on Tuesday. You know, like you, sort of work in between. So that's pretty much how we were able to do it.
Speaker 1:We have 13 properties, which was really really good. I enjoyed it. It was challenging work, it was good work, it was sales, it was marketing, it was all of that sort of stuff, unfortunately. So she once in a while just got selling this off to some accountants in this building.
Speaker 1:On the social housing side. One of the employees there went rogue, which was super, super annoying. Went rogue started signing things they weren't supposed to, started draining accounts, that. So that got picked up by the police and I just got a phone call to be like hey, here's this thing that's going on, like I said, super, super disappointing.
Speaker 1:What's super, super funny, though, is again sad. Three weeks, everything world crashing down, came out the other side of it and was just like but you know what? I know how to start a six-figure company, and what that tells me is I can probably do that again, because I know what I did this time. So, rather than it taking me two years to get there, I think I could probably do that in about six to eight months. So that's what we're doing. We're right back in, right back in now, doing more property stuff. These times the contracts are a bit more airtight. You're not getting through this one, but you take the stuff on the chin. A loss is a loss, but it was massive learning, super grateful for the opportunity. I've had a support system around me who were able to just keep me up. And yeah, though I should probably be super sad about it, I'm just not, to be honest, I was super sad about it, but then I learned very, very quickly that you know what I'm alive, my wife's alive, my son's alive. Let's go, let's go.
Speaker 3:No, that's good, that's excellent. That's excellent, Just kind of before we wrap up. Thank you for sharing that and just giving my audience an insight into your life, your world. Would you mind leaving my audience with something that they could take away with them? It could be a source of inspiration, it could be something that you want to expand upon or reiterate what you said previously or in today's podcast that they could take away with and use in the next day, week, months, even years. If you don't mind, Samuel, that'd be great Sure.
Speaker 1:Of course, I don't know who you are, don't know where you're from, I don't know what your situation is, and I am sure that, wherever you sit, that you're trying your best. I'm sure that you're going above and beyond in whichever way that you can. I just want to encourage you that people like me you can come and see people like me and be like, wow, sam was able to do that, sam was able to do that, sam was able to do that, and it can look like my life is scripted out. It can look like I knew my end from my beginning. I didn't.
Speaker 1:One of the things which I have managed to do is I've managed to wake up every single morning and say that I want these next 24 hours to be better than the ones that I had before. Be like me and I'm not saying that in any other regard other than if you can almost live in that delusion it can change your life. Why do I call it a delusion? Some people call it positively optimistic. Some people say, of course you're gonna say that. No, I'm gonna choose to live like that because I don't want to allow limitation into my space. I'm a normal person who gets to do super normal things. So are you? You're so unique You've got a skill set that nobody else has. Maybe you can draw, maybe you can knit, maybe you're an amazing speaker, maybe you can dance. There is a subset of skills that you can do to your ratio that nobody else can Lean into those. That is your greatness. That is your greatness.
Speaker 1:I thought that my identity was in my job, so redundancy felt like I didn't know who I was. I had to be reminded that I am more than that. So I want to remind you that you're more than that. You are all of your experiences. You are every day that you've woken up and just got through the day. Haven't been to the gym this year. That's perfectly fine. Just the fact that you're alive and your breathing is good. So, honestly, please don't give up. I know that these online gurus can tell you that, yeah, you got to wake up in the morning at 5 am and do affirmations, and sure, but just the fact that you're going to a regular job and you're serving someone coffee, but then you make sure it's hot and you make sure that there's the little heart in the middle and you're adding values to someone's day. So, whatever skills that you have, lean into those and keep on being valuable, keep on making people's lives different.
Speaker 3:Thank you, samuel, from the podcast I just got fired last week. Thank you for your time today on the British Black Trip and Hell podcast. Thank you Appreciate it, Jason. Okay, folks, we'll hope you enjoyed that interview today with Samuel Irriman of I Just Got Fired last week. Hope you're getting tremendous value out of these shows. I really hope you enjoyed what you had to say. So yeah, just like I said, do reach out. It'd be great if you could just subscribe to the show. If you're really enjoying it. Give it some five stars, recommend it, share it with somebody. That would be phenomenal. I'm really enjoying these episodes every single week that you are too. So hope you enjoyed that one and until next time I'll see you again. Folks on the British Black Trip and Hell podcast.