Trevor’s Story
I understand because I’ve been through it
10 Years
Industry Experience
Built
From Scratch
Leadership
Coach
20+ Team
Staff Led
Award Winning
Founder
My Story
I built a business that nearly broke me. Then I worked out how to fix it.
That's the short version. Here's what matters in it.
I built Ojo Rojo from nothing, with no hospitality background at all. Over the years it became genuinely successful. Award-winning, UK Top 50, three years running. From the outside, I'd made it.
But somewhere in those years, I became the business.
The Dark Years
Every decision routed through me. Every standard lived in my instinct. The numbers were in my head and the fires were all mine to put out. The place only really worked when I was in it.
I hadn't built a business. I'd built a job that only worked when I was there, and I couldn't see a way out that didn't cost me everything.
And it broke me for a while. The phone that never switched off. The weight I couldn't put down and couldn't tell anyone about. The quiet worry at three in the morning that I'd spent years building something that had trapped me inside it.
I won't dress that up. It was hard.
The Fight Out
I climbed out. Not by working harder, which was the thing that got me there in the first place.
By getting out of the weeds. By building structure the business could stand on without me holding every piece. By becoming the owner again, instead of the most expensive employee.
The business got better for it. Calmer, stronger, and finally running with real direction rather than on my nerves.
The Proof
In 2026 the venue closed, six weeks' notice, outside my control.
The email came in and I read it calmly. Nothing collapsed. I didn't fall apart.
The difference between how I took that email and how I'd have taken it a few years earlier, when the business and I were the same thing, is the whole point of what I do now.
What I Do Now
I help hospitality owners stop being the bottleneck, so they can run their business with real direction and build a brand that's profitable and ready to grow.
Everything I teach, I learned the hard way. The idea is that you don't have to.
I'm not someone who has it all figured out. I'm just further down the road you're on, and I know the way through the part you're in now.
Award Winning Brand
UK Top 50 Cocktail bar 3 years in a row, finalists for Best Specialist UK Bar at CLass Bar awards, Best Mezcal Cocktail in Great Britain, Best Tequila cocktail In Great Britain and many other acolades.