EP 120: We Fired 30 People and Nothing Changed
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This week, I'm joined by Hector Hughes, co-founder of Unplugged. They basically get you to lock your phone in a box and you spend three days entirely offline in a cabin. But this week isn't just about digital detoxing. Hector reckons his career has been a string of failures in roughly the right direction. He ran growth at a tech startup and says he could have done none of it and nothing would have changed. Busy fools, as we often say on this show. So grab a brew, leave your phone in the other room if you can. And if you're brave enough, enjoy my chat with Hector Hughes. Enjoy.
Hector Hughes, welcome to the show.
Chris, a joy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Well, yeah, slightly delayed. So we won't go into that marketing mistake, but we're here now. So for people who've not come across Unplugged before, do you want to give me the elevator pitch like in 30 seconds? What is it? Who's it for? And what does it cost to be a guest basically?
For sure, for sure. So really our whole goal with Unplugged is can we actually get you to spend three days offline in nature? And we do this with digital detoxes at cabins in the countryside. So we have cabins all across the UK. People go for three nights, lock their phone in a box. We give them a map, a Nokia and a Polaroid camera and leave them to it. And who's it for? I mean, really anyone who wants a break from their phone and is maybe feeling a little overwhelmed. It's about 80% couples that go and 20% individuals. Age range can be anything from 20 to 40 is probably do get some people older than that. But I would say that the core is probably 25 to late 30s.
Yeah, you told me something the first time we spoke, which made me laugh a little bit, is that, I mean, this is a statistic. It's like it really tests your relationship, you said, because obviously we are all distracted, and when you haven't got your phone or anything to distract you, you've got to actually talk to each other, right, which is a unique experience. I don't think anyone's probably been fully unplugged for years, have they?
100%. Yeah, because what we don't realize is that even having a phone switched off, reduces empathy between two people. So just having a phone switched off on the table. And you can imagine how much that's increased if you're sat scrolling next to each other through through TikTok. So I think phones, as well as lots of other things in our society, really, we use them to numb us, we use them to not face what we're feeling. And quite often, that can be with relationships as well. So Often, there can be fundamental questions to face in a relationship, and we can spend months or even years ignoring them, scrolling on our phones, continuing to numb ourselves in any way possible. And there's something very confronting about going and spending three days offline together, because once you take the phone away, you take the distraction away, and you've got to face up to whatever the truth could be.
So it's
What is Unplugged and how does a three-day digital detox work?
largely incredibly bonding for couples, but we've seen on a number of occasions that actually it's been the catalyst to get a couple to realize that perhaps they're not right for each other. And that's great as well. And I think these things are important to happen. But yeah, I told you the story of a friend of mine who's just had his first child with his partner and his previous relationship ended in an unplugged cabin when they just realized that they fundamentally did not want to be together.
So the new strapline is unplugged, testing your relationship or something. 100%. Amazing. The other part of your story that fascinates me, I mean, there's loads of different layers to this, is that you set this business up with another guy called Ben, right? Yeah. And the story is that you, how long have you been working together?
So we'd worked together for two years at a tech startup beforehand. And then we'd now be working together for six years since.
Okay. But is it true that you've never met each other?
Where did you see that? I don't know.
I thought, I thought you'd never met each other.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:00
2
What is Unplugged and how does a three-day digital detox work?
3:00–6:30
3
Who are Unplugged retreats for and what relationship effects do they reveal?
6:30–29:30
4
How did Hector’s silent Himalayan retreat inspire the Unplugged business?
29:30–40:06
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Embracing Marketing Mistakes
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EP 125: The PR Launch That Cleared The Building
EP 124: He Built His Own AI Company Then Shut It Down