Louie Syred is the co-founder of Peak, a mood enhancing drinks brand disrupting the beverage industry. Made with nootropics, natural brain boosting substances, Peak are functional drinks for your mind. They’re incredibly delicious, in fact we both crack open a can of rise (in their raspberry and lime flavour) mid way through the recording, they’re beautifully packaged and they’re non alcoholic for very good reason.
49% of Gen-Z suffer from poor mental health every day. As a neuro-divergent person, Louie has struggled with self-medicating his ADHD, and his co-founder, Ben, was no stranger to the social pressure surrounding drinking. So after an eclectic mix of combined career experiences, the two former school friends found themselves asking the question: why do we seek to dull our minds every day with coffee and alcohol, instead of uplifting our minds to unlock our best potential?
With this in mind, Louie and Ben set out on a mission to reimagine the functional drinks market. After the pair spent a year researching and developing a product to alleviate our cultural addictions, Peak was born.
Since its launch, Peak has garnered national press and gained nationwide distribution and listings with key retailers; including an exclusive partnership with Gorillas and supplying all Planet Organic stores. With no previous industry experience, Louie and Ben have built their network of private investors and advisors and recently closed their pre-seed funding round of £250k, valuing Peak at £2.2m. Peak's first two moods offer Mental Clarity and Mindful Calm. The ambitious startup plans to expand the category further over the coming years by serving additional need states.
Hear from Louie about how Peak are going to take over the planet with their groundbreaking creative ideology but also take the opportunity to hear a story we’re not often told.
This is a story about realising giving 100% of yourself to anything all the time isn’t going to get you where you want to go.
Listen here on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Find Louie's life and career advice below.
Louie's life advice
01. Give 90%
We’ve all come to understand that giving more than 100% isn’t sustainable but what if someone told you that even 100% effort is too much? Would you believe them? Louie has been trialing channeling 90% energy into what he’s doing and he says it’s revolutionised his outputs. This doesn’t mean not trying his best when he has a task at hand but it means not working on ‘tasks’ 100% of the time
For us to be able to use our brains how they like to be used, we can’t be ‘on’ all of the time. We need time where we focus on things other than our output, meaning we expand our minds with other forms of creativity and learning. We need time where we rest, meaning we allow our brains to process our thoughts without distraction. We also need time to fully switch off, meaning we disconnect and sleep or meditate so we can let our brain muscles have a break!
100% dedication to what you’re wanting to achieve needs to incorporate that essential time to focus on other things, to rest and to fully switch off, otherwise you’ll burn out and that is a guarantee
02. Focus on what you do after you f*** up
Mistakes are inevitable. You’ll make mistakes for the rest of your life, that’s not something to fear because it’s a given. Instead of worrying about what could go wrong, try to evaluate what lead to previous situations that weren’t what you had expected. There is the potential for every f***k up to become an incredible story, one where you learn more about yourself and the world around us. Seize that opportunity to grow from things that happen and be kind to yourself too. Humans aren’t perfect and life would be so boring if we were. Instead, we’re bizarre and unpredictable creatures who can do some pretty incredible things when we put our minds to it
Next time you feel a mistake was made, grab a can of Peak, create a moment of calm for yourself and note down however works best for you:
What were you expecting to happen?
What actually happened?
Why did that happen?
How do you feel?
What can you do about the situation to feel more positively about it?
What have you learnt from this?
Who can benefit from the learnings you’ve had?
Not only will you be able to understand more about yourself through giving yourself time and space to process but you could also impact those around you in a way you couldn’t foresee by your newfound knowledge, too
03. Non negotiables
There are things in life that ground us and make us feel our most refreshed selves. They’ll be different person to person but they will likely feature a certain way of eating, sleeping and spending time doing things we love. Louie has worked out what these are and calls these ‘non negotiables’. He aims to protect them in his routine as he knows how beneficial upholding them will be to his future plans, near and far. Not only will he show up as his best self the next day if he’s been able to honour his non negotiables for the previous 24 hours but he also gets that if he is to keep up long term habits that make him feel good then he’ll continue to feel that way for month and years to come
Our future selves thank us for what we do in the present tense and whilst that’s not always going to be the driving force behind our actions, it should be something we remind ourselves of, especially when lacking in motivation to do slightly harder things
Louie's career advice
01. Lap up free learning
Louie is an advocate for learning through free resources and highly rated YouTube for personal development resources like business, design and mental wellbeing
1. The Futur
02. Be authentic self to avoid fear of competition
Louie overcame fear of being overtaken by his competition by developing a solid belief that if he is authentically himself then no one and nothing can possibly do a better job of that. It’s such a simple yet truly unfaltering sentiment
You are the only you and always will be. You are unique. You are a combination of your personality, your experience and your interests - because of this, you will be able to offer something that no body else in this world can
03. Don’t be afraid to think big
Thinking big does not require more effort than thinking small. To be open to life’s incredible possibilities and know that even if you face , you will still benefit from having tried Staying within your comfort zone means staying in a place where you aren’t willing to push yourself forward. That isn’t about having more or doing more necessarily. It’s about doing something that you love that is meaningful The day ahead might seem completely ordinary to you but a mindset shift could make it an extraordinary one Don’t be afraid to think deeply and find your dreams
If you believe, you can
Sounding good?
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Check out Peak over on Insta: @peakmoods and place an order here! Follow Louie's personal journey here, too
Big love, thank you for your support
#FavouritePositions team
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