Interview with former student and owner of 'The Public Spirit' Olly Walker
Tell us a bit about your time at The Grange...
I joined the Grange when I was five years old and stayed up until university (2014) so it definitely played a big part in my childhood. Some of my best friends now are mates from school and quite a few from day one when we were five so I’ll always look back very fondly on The Grange because of that.
My best memories come from playing sport, in particular football. We had a seriously good team during our time and I was captain for a large part – winning the school’s first and only ISFA cup trophy which was a great memory. It’s probably a bit cliché but if you hadn’t had a great day or week, playing football with your mates definitely helped you focus on something else!
Geography was always one of my favourite subjects – partly because I did enjoy learning about it but I also really liked the teachers – and throughout my time had a mixture of Mr. Pearson & Mrs. Eaton, and both were fantastic. Mrs. Eaton was lovely and a brilliant teacher, and Mr. Pearson felt like a genuine friend – always keen to know how things were going, a really good guy.
What did you go on to do after leaving the Grange?
After sixth form, I went straight to Newcastle University to study Marketing & Management. It wasn’t actually my first choice but I’m incredibly happy things panned out the way they did, the city and university were absolutely perfect for me. Without being too philosophical, I guess things happen for a reason.
I absolutely loved University, from Freshers week and joining the football team, to the day I left – I can’t think of any bad days, it was just an amazing three years. Incredibly sad it’s over while I write this but it’s probably wise you only go for three years, I’ll leave it there.
Once I got my degree I went travelling for a few months to Australia, NZ, and Japan – which was an unbelievable experience – and one I’d massively recommend. Fortunately, I’d already secured my first job to come back to which was great albeit a serious crash back down to earth on those first few weeks on the 9-5. I worked in sponsorship and partnerships for a financial company, there were elements I really enjoyed but ultimately I’d always dreamed of running my own business.
Along came the pandemic though and along with a huge number of my colleagues – I was made redundant, which wasn’t in the script, and I was in need of something new to do.
Tell us about The Public Spirit.
I’ve always had a passion and been fascinated by spirits and just really enjoy great drinks – so it was a dream to set up something in this industry - being made redundant provided an opportunity to go for it.
I’ve set it up alongside my partner Naomi and during the first lockdown we were thinking of how we make our brand stand out – and why we would be unique. As we couldn’t see our friends and family – we wanted to make the brand really social and all about bringing people together again.
We were also inspired by the power of community when times were tough, everyone pulled together to help each other out and there was a great community spirit. But we thought why is that the case just when times are tough, why don’t we bottle it up and have that all year round? A measure of good spirit really does go a long way…
And that’s what makes us so unique, it’s that we also support people at the same time through donating a quarter of all profits to great causes. That, to us, is The Public Spirit – we bring people together to enjoy great drinks and help others too.
What are your short/long term goals for the business?
We launched just over 5 months ago now so we are still a really young business but things are going very well. Ultimately, to make it a successful and sustainable source of income for me is a key initial goal.
Then once that is the case it’s to continue to grow, to make us more profitable and to support more causes and communities. We are very ambitious and have seriously big plans for the brand – we are already launching some new products this month (ready-to-drink cans), we want to make more spirits, and we want to have a bricks-and-mortar element to the business too.
So lots of plans and goals but one step at a time!
What inspires/motivates you at work?
Being able to wake up every day to work on my own business, with my own ideas is a motivating factor for sure as I’m determined to make sure that continues to be the case.
Specifically, new projects excite me and give me a new wave of motivation. I’m someone that likes the big picture and I’m always looking ahead so I like a vision & getting my teeth stuck into something new – which is a good thing because Naomi likes to focus on detail in the here and now, so we complement each other pretty well.
What has been your greatest achievement to date?
Bringing everything together to actually launch during a pandemic and Brexit was a pretty big achievement as there’s so much which needs to be done to launch a business, especially in this industry with the regulations – and there were so many other external influences making it very difficult.
Other than that, our hugely successful Crowdfunder before our launch was a great achievement and featuring in the Sunday Times was also pretty cool.
Is there anything you believe The Grange instilled in you when you were at school, which has helped you since leaving?
I’m sure there are probably lots of things I developed throughout my time which have held me in good stead but maybe also things that would be hard to put your finger on.
One thing may be independent learning and placing responsibility on you to maximise your own potential. There are lots of resources at your disposal but ultimately it’s up to you to make the most of them. I’m probably still getting better at recognising that, I’m certainly not there yet…
Any words of wisdom you could give to current students and/or younger alumni who would like to start their own business or who have had set backs at work or personally?
I’ve been hugely lucky so far in my life but had quite a few setbacks as well and sometimes those setbacks provide the greatest opportunities. So stick with it, don’t get too down when you have them and look ahead as soon as possible to the next thing because something better for you will come around sooner than you think.
And do something you love. Cheesy.
You can find out more about Olly and Naomi's business The Public Spirit at: www.thepublicspirit.co.uk
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