James Hurman founded innovation consultancy business Previously Unavailable in 2014, with a very clear vision for what he wanted.
He wanted to create a workplace culture in tune with a period he remembers fondly from his earlier working life as a former advertising strategist when “everyone was on the same page, loving the work we were doing, and it was work utopia basically”.
“When it comes to artistic creativity, there’s a huge legacy of a distinct lack of wellbeing in producing some of the best output,” Hurman says.
“When it comes to commercial creativity, you’re being paid to make creative stuff on behalf of businesses. It’s a little bit different, but I don’t think being deeply unwell helps with that process.”
“I grew up on Kurt Cobain, who was not very well at all, and produced amazing art.”
Hurman sees his role as an employer as taking away distractions such as stress, unnecessary conflict, “and working on things that they don’t feel their values align with”.
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What hours do you work each day?
Usually I’m working from around 8.30am until 6.30pm. But there are often things to do in the evenings or early mornings with international clients.
My wife would say I’m guilty of often sneaking work in at the weekends. I love what I do and so it inevitably consumes a lot of my time. I think I’m a “work/life blend” person as opposed to “work/life balance”.
Do you have an exercise routine?
I am terrible at motivating myself to exercise. Part of the reason is that I have learned that I don’t need much exercise to stay (reasonably) trim, or to look after my mental health. So the occasional bike to work or dog walk keeps me [fit].
Do you use supplements?
Yes, quite a few – zinc, vitamin B and D, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and I am getting into the BePure range of supplements, which are high-quality and effective.
Whose advice/influence do you genuinely value and listen to when it comes to wellbeing and taking care of yourself?
My wife is a microbiologist and is studying epidemiology and population health, so she is a fount of knowledge that I trust. It is a complementary little thing we have going on where she is really good at that stuff. I don’t have the right brain for it.
It is super useful to have someone in the household who has a strong grasp of the human body and medicines, and the things that can go wrong.
How do you manage stress?
I have lots of tools. Meditation, going for a walk, eating healthy, getting good sleep, pulling back on alcohol and quality time with friends. A date night with my wife is often a quick cure.
And a tool that is unique to me is what I call a “minimum viable day”. It is when I can feel I am not at my best and could spend eight hours doing something that would take me 20 minutes the next day. There is no point expending unnecessary energy to create rubbish output when I could do it tomorrow. When you are in a good headspace nothing is impossible.
How do you deal with the stress of failure?
I learned a long time ago that failure was really important. Being a person who is involved in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurialism, failure is a critical part of the process.
I can trace all my successes back to past failures. So they don’t really stress me out at all any more. I don’t fear failure, which is generally quite easy to recover from. I fear inaction, which leads to atrophy.
And how do you deal with stressed employees, colleagues?
Thankfully, I very rarely have to. And this is where I’ve done most of my thinking and doing around wellbeing.
As our company has grown, I have put more focus on how we create an environment where there is as little unnecessary stress as possible. Our studio is like an oasis of calm. It’s beautiful, it’s filled with plants selected for the toxins they remove from the air.
We have tech that diffuses a special scent throughout the studio. We have a massage therapist who comes fortnightly, and everyone gets a free massage. We always have abundant healthy food and drinks available. And we are very conscious about who we take on as clients, and stay away from projects that we know won’t contribute to our wellbeing.
That is just the extrinsics though. I believe it starts with hiring people who will really like each other, then constantly encouraging them to look after one another.
The two things I look for in people is that they are kind and wise. That is a really good place to start. We move really quickly if anyone is having a hard time or feeling overwhelmed – the culture is to all pitch in and prioritise that person, and get them what they need, and look after them.
Then, above all, it is about treating people like adults, which means putting themselves ahead of the business’ needs occasionally, and that’s fine.
What do you do for fun?
Read. Cook. Travel. Experiment with psychedelics. Make things. Hang out with people I like.
Favourite free stress-buster?
Pausing to breathe properly and be present for a few moments.
I started meditating in about 2017. I had put it off forever. I was kind of sceptical of it, but after about two or three months I was like, this is actually really transformative.
I now have much greater bandwidth is how I would describe it. A bit like how I would feel after doing yoga. I felt like I had more room for stuff, which was really interesting. And so I kept doing it.
I really like meditating. And when you have good meditation practice, it is easy to take a few moments to centre yourself, wherever you are.
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