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Metro
a day ago
- Business
- Metro
I'm a millionaire — there's one food item I'll never waste money on
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Welcome back to What's Cooking, Metro's food series where we find out exactly what's going on behind the scenes in the nation's kitchens. This week we're in Richmond, rifling through Sam Budd's kitchen to find out what he's hiding in his cupboards, fridge and freezer. Sam lives in one of the 'happiest' places to live in Great Britain, along with his girlfriend Katie. Oh, and did we mention he's a millionaire? The 36-year-old is the founder and CEO of Buddy Media Group, a multi-million pound social media agency that specialises in social activations. If you've ever wondered what it's really like being a millionaire and whether they buy the same things as you from the supermarket, we've got the answers. Before we invade your kitchen, we want the inside scoop. What's it really like to be a millionaire? The millionaire thing is quite a unique statement for me. Six years ago, when I was launching the company, I got to a point where I was in about £120,000 worth of debt. It was so much that I couldn't even afford a coffee and my cards were being declined. Ultimately, I'm now in a position where I'm very lucky to have financial security, own a beautiful home and have a successful business. But I never take that for granted and I know you're also never fully safe – if the world implodes and the business goes down that's linked to my home, so you've always got to be mindful and frugal. My mum, is also so committed to reminding me about values and principles and those are what I live by. I always remind myself of them to keep my feet on the ground when I'm starting to push the limits and I'm overspending. Has having money changed the way you eat at home? I'd be lying if I said having money hadn't changed the way we eat. Money isn't everything but having it does make your life easier and means you can make decisions without financial stress. We've got a Waitrose down the road and it is particularly expensive when you're weighing it up against other supermarkets, but it's got some of the best organic food and produce, so we go in there two to three times a week and we like to buy meat from Piper's Farm, which is organic and comes from sustainable farming. We're also lucky enough to be able to try new things and try to find the best way to optimise our health and lifestyles. This involves cleaner living, focusing on non-processed foods, different supplements and ways to manage and improve our gut health. As part of this, we recently got a hydrogen water filter, which cost about £1,986. It's a really unique, new thing that is meant to help with cellular growth and is an antioxidant so, it's really good for inflammation. Tell us a secret, what's your ultimate guilty pleasure food? I can't believe I'm telling you this, but I'm known for putting an assortment of foods together to create a sweet treat bowl. I've eaten this since I was a child and it's something I'll have on a Friday or Saturday night when I want to splurge and be a bit naughty. I start with some yoghurt, I'm trying to move away from dairy to improve my gut health, so I use the stuff by the Coconut Lab and it's absolutely incredible. That then gets topped with fruit, usually some kind of berries, then I add in chocolate (Cadbury's and Tony's Chocolonely) and some chewy sweets. That all gets chucked in a bowl and I cover my sugar in more sugar, by squeezing manuka honey over it and finish it off with some hemp seeds and mix it all together. Name one storecupboard product you can't live without… You might notice my cupboards look insanely organised. I've had some help with this from the lovely ladies at Ever So Organised, which is a home organisation company. It's part of my journey to find work/life harmony as I've got limited time and I need to be able to come in and find things quickly, so having it all laid out neatly is incredible. It's something that helps me take better care of myself, manage my stress and deal with ADHD and I also do this through supplements, and you'll find plenty of those in the cupboard – it's like something out of Breaking Bad. Ultimately, though things like Magnesium Breakthrough have changed my life. It helps me with stress and winding down, as some weeks I'm working 100 hours and it's a pretty stressful environment to be in. Aside from these, there always has to be a tin of Baked Beans in the cupboard. If you don't have those at home, who are you? They're my favourite thing in the world. And something that always has to be in your fridge? Without a doubt, it's tzatziki. It's an absolute necessity in the food shop every week. If we don't get it, I'm an unhappy boy. I tend to eat it with cheese and crackers, but if I'm really honest, I can also just sit and eat it from the pot with a spoon. I love it so much. What about the freezer, what do you have to keep in there at all times? We make our own bone broth and I usually drink a cup of it each morning to start the day. I was dead against it at first, but it's got so much goodness in it and it is actually really tasty. I heat it up in a pan and then pour it into a mug. We make it in the slow cooker using chicken and beef bones, water, some salt, garlic and onions and leave it for nine hours overnight. Once it's ready, this is mostly kept in the fridge, but in the freezer we have a special versionfor our puppy, Otto. We make his broth with just the bones and water and pour it into ice cube trays. He loves it and it's a perfect frozen treat to cool off with when it's hot. Is there an item you're always willing to splurge on at the supermarket? If I'm coming home for the weekend, or having a barbecue, I love a really nice bottle of wine, like a Miraval rosé. It's not extortionate, but it's definitely not your Chicken Wine. I'd spend around £20 to £25 on a bottle like that at the shop and maybe £30 to £50 if I were buying a really decent bottle of red wine. Alternatively, which kitchen staple isn't worth splashing the cash on? There are two things I always buy the supermarket own-brand version of when I shop: yoghurts and cheese. The own-brand yoghurts are often just as delicious and just as rich as more expensive, branded ones, so you don't need to waste the money. And while I do love a good bit of cheese, if we do a cheeseboard, you'll always find some own-brand cheddar on there with everything else. I think the flavour is so nostalgic, it reminds me of the kind of cheese I loved as a kid in Lunchables and I'm still just a kid at heart. Finally… what's been cooking in your kitchen lately? More Trending Katie does a lot of the cooking when I'm working, but recently we've been growing herbs and spices in our garden and I've gotten really into making my own chimichurri. You just chop all the herbs and spices up finely and add some garlic and extra virgin olive oil to bind it all together. I add it to a sizzling steak or sometimes just eat it with cheese and crackers. View More » Want to take part in What's Cooking and let Metro raid your kitchen at home? Email Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: Discontinued 'best crisps to ever exist' are finally back on the shelves after 20 years MORE: It's time to ditch Aperol — this is the ultimate summer spritz MORE: I helped create M&S picky bits — here's my hack for the ultimate dinner Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This millennial CEO grew up with a heroin addict dad. Now he's running a multimillion-dollar agency
This millennial founder got his start working alongside Diary of a CEO's Steven Bartlett, before launching a rival multimillion-pound marketing agency of his own. But before his rise in the agency world, Sam Budd was grappling with the trauma of his brother's death, battling school expulsions, and visiting his homeless father under motorway bridges. Now he tells Gen Z they can emulate his success by making the most of every single person they meet. Money makes money. Research estimates that just 12% of CEOs come from a working-class background. And the startup world is no different: Entrepreneurs without wealth or connections face an uphill battle for funding—without the capital, connections, or safety nets their privileged peers often take for granted. Sam Budd is an outlier. He had a rough start to life—expelled from school multiple times, with a father battling heroin addiction and an alcoholic stepdad. 'My dad was a heroin addict, and my half-brother was in foster care. It was very heartbreaking to be a part of that,' he recalls to Fortune. 'As I was growing up, I had to deal with my dad being under bridges, homeless.' While Budd was silently struggling with the chaos, his brother ended up in prison for five years after a cash machine robbery turned violent. 'The day he came out, he overdosed on heroin with my dad and died in my dad's arms. Three years later, my dad got stabbed and beaten up based on a drug deal issue—he ended up dying in a gutter of pneumonia.' Then things started turning sour at home, after his mother remarried and uprooted the family to Cornwall, England. As his own anger bubbled away, Budd recalls getting increasingly out of control and even being arrested for fighting. 'If I'm honest, I felt really isolated, I felt worthless, I hated myself,' Budd explains. 'I got kicked out. I fell out with my stepdad. He ended up drinking himself to death and dying of liver failure.' 'I was systematically imploding. I couldn't deal with it.' Against all odds, the 36-year-old Budd is the high-flying CEO of his own £3.8 million-a-year ($5.1 million) marketing agency, Buddy Media Group. Founded in 2020, it's gaining some serious steam. While the top independent agencies in Britain have a 36% growth rate, Buddy Media is achieving nearly 100% year-on-year growth and attracting the attention of major clients with Apple, Spotify, and Procter & Gamble among its 26 accounts. As the adage goes: It's not what you know, it's who you know. It's why, for those from marginalised backgrounds with zero corporate connections, it can feel like they're locked out of the working world. But you don't have to be at a networking event or scrolling LinkedIn to start making connections. Budd's big break came thanks to connecting with people in the most unlikely of places: on the beach. At 18, he was working as a lifeguard in Cornwall, Britain's coastal hotspot. Although it wasn't his dream job or industry, he made it his mission to talk to as many people as possible and ask for their email address. 'But I would actually follow up with an email and say I would love to come and do five days' work experience with you,' he adds. In the end, it only takes one connection to open the right door—and that's exactly what happened to Budd. One person he connected with was hiring for Beach Break Live, a musical festival on the beach for students. And of course, given his local knowledge of the area, Budd was the perfect fit. 'I didn't just apply with a CV. I told a story, and then I highlighted what value I believed I could bring.' The role meant he had to uproot to London, but from there he saw his career take off. He impressed the co-founder, Celia Foreshew, so much that she brought him on as a founding member of her next venture Seed Marketing which was eventually acquired by another agency, Amplify, 'for several millions'. That's when he crossed paths with Diary of a CEO's Steven Bartlett. 'I couldn't afford to live in London. I took the job because I knew they would put me on a platform that would get me here,' Budd explains the snowball effect Beach Break Live had on his career. 'What did that turn into? Seed marketing agency, which sold several million and I was one of the founders. And where did that take me to? (Bartlett's marketing agency) Social Change. And where did that take me to? Launching Buddy Media. So it's like, you've just got to find a way in.' Budd's not the only person to use their first job to land a big fish. Many Gen Z grads today are successfully trying their luck with strangers to get a foot in the door of employment. Gen Z grad, Basant Shenouda, landed an internship at LinkedIn—where she still works years later—by using the networking platform to see which conferences recruiters were posting about. She then waitressed at those events, armed with a stack of résumés to hand to hiring managers. Likewise, 25-year-old, Ayala Ossowski used the 20 hours a week she was working at a pizza shop in suburban Washington to try to get poached by DC's elite. She wore a baseball cap emblazoned with her university logo on the front to every shift and launched into an elevator pitch any time a customer asked about it. After a month of pitching herself while serving pizza, Ossowski landed her first corporate job. But you don't have to hold off your networking journey until after you've landed an internship or weekend job—where you can cosy up to bosses, like-minded peers or in Budd's case, beachgoers. The world really is your oyster. Without even really realising it, Budd had already created a springboard for his career as a teenager by impressing his friends' parents. 'Maybe it's my ADHD. I feel so much, and I care so much about everything, but what it has done is I've been so desperate for a dad-like father, I went out and saw other people's parents as role models,' he says. 'Weirdly, it is the most critical part of how I achieve success.' He got close to a couple of his friends' dads, and is still in their family WhatsApp group chat today. But one in particular, Jeremy Martell, took Budd under his wing when his life was crumbling—both figuratively and literally. Budd lived with Martell for 6 months, gained work experience as his assistant and credits him for shaping his entrepreneurial mindset. It's why, he says Gen Zers struggling to launch their careers can emulate his success if they make the most of every connection they make—even if that's just a best friend's dad. 'You have all of it at your fingertips if you approach it with the right way: You seek to add value of some way, and most importantly, you ask for help,' he advises. 'How many people really have the courage to say, 'Can you help me? I would love your support. I really respect what you do and I would love to change my stars.'' Today, Martell is on Buddy Media's board. 'And he introduced me to our other board member, who's the ex-financial director of Procter and Gamble,' he explains. 'All of a sudden it all starts coming together. Now I've got people that I can call up, because I've invested time over the two decades, building relationships. Because really, life is about building relationships.' Are you a successful executive who, like Budd, had an unusual start to their career? Or maybe you're a Gen Zer who thought out of the box to land that first interview. Fortune wants to hear from you! Email: This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This millennial CEO grew up with a heroin addict dad. Now he's running a multimillion-dollar agency
This millennial founder got his start working alongside Diary of a CEO's Steven Bartlett, before launching a rival multimillion-pound marketing agency of his own. But before his rise in the agency world, Sam Budd was grappling with the trauma of his brother's death, battling school expulsions, and visiting his homeless father under motorway bridges. Now he tells Gen Z they can emulate his success by making the most of every single person they meet. Money makes money. Research estimates that just 12% of CEOs come from a working-class background. And the startup world is no different: Entrepreneurs without wealth or connections face an uphill battle for funding—without the capital, connections, or safety nets their privileged peers often take for granted. Sam Budd is an outlier. He had a rough start to life—expelled from school multiple times, with a father battling heroin addiction and an alcoholic stepdad. 'My dad was a heroin addict, and my half-brother was in foster care. It was very heartbreaking to be a part of that,' he recalls to Fortune. 'As I was growing up, I had to deal with my dad being under bridges, homeless.' While Budd was silently struggling with the chaos, his brother ended up in prison for five years after a cash machine robbery turned violent. 'The day he came out, he overdosed on heroin with my dad and died in my dad's arms. Three years later, my dad got stabbed and beaten up based on a drug deal issue—he ended up dying in a gutter of pneumonia.' Then things started turning sour at home, after his mother remarried and uprooted the family to Cornwall, England. As his own anger bubbled away, Budd recalls getting increasingly out of control and even being arrested for fighting. 'If I'm honest, I felt really isolated, I felt worthless, I hated myself,' Budd explains. 'I got kicked out. I fell out with my stepdad. He ended up drinking himself to death and dying of liver failure.' 'I was systematically imploding. I couldn't deal with it.' Against all odds, the 36-year-old Budd is the high-flying CEO of his own £3.8 million-a-year ($5.1 million) marketing agency, Buddy Media Group. Founded in 2020, it's gaining some serious steam. While the top independent agencies in Britain have a 36% growth rate, Buddy Media is achieving nearly 100% year-on-year growth and attracting the attention of major clients with Apple, Spotify, and Procter & Gamble among its 26 accounts. As the adage goes: It's not what you know, it's who you know. It's why, for those from marginalised backgrounds with zero corporate connections, it can feel like they're locked out of the working world. But you don't have to be at a networking event or scrolling LinkedIn to start making connections. Budd's big break came thanks to connecting with people in the most unlikely of places: on the beach. At 18, he was working as a lifeguard in Cornwall, Britain's coastal hotspot. Although it wasn't his dream job or industry, he made it his mission to talk to as many people as possible and ask for their email address. 'But I would actually follow up with an email and say I would love to come and do five days' work experience with you,' he adds. In the end, it only takes one connection to open the right door—and that's exactly what happened to Budd. One person he connected with was hiring for Beach Break Live, a musical festival on the beach for students. And of course, given his local knowledge of the area, Budd was the perfect fit. 'I didn't just apply with a CV. I told a story, and then I highlighted what value I believed I could bring.' The role meant he had to uproot to London, but from there he saw his career take off. He impressed the co-founder, Celia Foreshew, so much that she brought him on as a founding member of her next venture Seed Marketing which was eventually acquired by another agency, Amplify, 'for several millions'. That's when he crossed paths with Diary of a CEO's Steven Bartlett. 'I couldn't afford to live in London. I took the job because I knew they would put me on a platform that would get me here,' Budd explains the snowball effect Beach Break Live had on his career. 'What did that turn into? Seed marketing agency, which sold several million and I was one of the founders. And where did that take me to? (Bartlett's marketing agency) Social Change. And where did that take me to? Launching Buddy Media. So it's like, you've just got to find a way in.' Budd's not the only person to use their first job to land a big fish. Many Gen Z grads today are successfully trying their luck with strangers to get a foot in the door of employment. Gen Z grad, Basant Shenouda, landed an internship at LinkedIn—where she still works years later—by using the networking platform to see which conferences recruiters were posting about. She then waitressed at those events, armed with a stack of résumés to hand to hiring managers. Likewise, 25-year-old, Ayala Ossowski used the 20 hours a week she was working at a pizza shop in suburban Washington to try to get poached by DC's elite. She wore a baseball cap emblazoned with her university logo on the front to every shift and launched into an elevator pitch any time a customer asked about it. After a month of pitching herself while serving pizza, Ossowski landed her first corporate job. But you don't have to hold off your networking journey until after you've landed an internship or weekend job—where you can cosy up to bosses, like-minded peers or in Budd's case, beachgoers. The world really is your oyster. Without even really realising it, Budd had already created a springboard for his career as a teenager by impressing his friends' parents. 'Maybe it's my ADHD. I feel so much, and I care so much about everything, but what it has done is I've been so desperate for a dad-like father, I went out and saw other people's parents as role models,' he says. 'Weirdly, it is the most critical part of how I achieve success.' He got close to a couple of his friends' dads, and is still in their family WhatsApp group chat today. But one in particular, Jeremy Martell, took Budd under his wing when his life was crumbling—both figuratively and literally. Budd lived with Martell for 6 months, gained work experience as his assistant and credits him for shaping his entrepreneurial mindset. It's why, he says Gen Zers struggling to launch their careers can emulate his success if they make the most of every connection they make—even if that's just a best friend's dad. 'You have all of it at your fingertips if you approach it with the right way: You seek to add value of some way, and most importantly, you ask for help,' he advises. 'How many people really have the courage to say, 'Can you help me? I would love your support. I really respect what you do and I would love to change my stars.'' Today, Martell is on Buddy Media's board. 'And he introduced me to our other board member, who's the ex-financial director of Procter and Gamble,' he explains. 'All of a sudden it all starts coming together. Now I've got people that I can call up, because I've invested time over the two decades, building relationships. Because really, life is about building relationships.' Are you a successful executive who, like Budd, had an unusual start to their career? Or maybe you're a Gen Zer who thought out of the box to land that first interview. Fortune wants to hear from you! Email: This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
