S9E3 - Has Shah
In this episode of 'More Than Work,' Rabiah sits down with Has Shah, the owner of Cleaners and Coffee in London. Has shares how his background in fashion retail and passion for coffee led him to take over his father's dry cleaning business and transform it into a unique community space that offers both high-quality garment care and exceptional coffee. He discusses the influence of his upbringing, his global work experiences, and the values instilled in him by his family. They also delve into the importance of community, the meticulous work involved in dry cleaning, and his team’s dedication. Plus, Has talks about his inspirations, the challenges of running the business, and the joy he finds in engaging with his customers.
00:00 Introduction to More Than Work
00:34 Meet Has Shah: Owner of Cleaners and Coffee
01:22 The Unique Concept of Cleaners and Coffee
04:36 Has Shah's Background and Journey
06:11 Connecting with Roots and Family Legacy
09:17 Building and Growing the Business
15:58 The Coffee Passion and Business Expansion
19:41 Team Dynamics and Community Focus
22:18 Challenges and Rewards in Dry Cleaning
26:34 Fun Five Questions
30:42 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information
Note from Host:
I love my neighborhood in London. I walk by some shops and wave hello to people I know in them. I have my local pub. And as a coffee drinker, I have a few places, both chain and independent that I frequent. The most unique of these is Cleaners and Coffee. I asked Has to do the podcast a year or two ago but finally followed up this year and we made it happen. Grab a coffee (or tea, or neither) and enjoy this episode. I enjoyed making it!
Host Rabiah (London) chats with Coffee and Cleaners owner Has Shah (London).
Transcript
Rabiah (Host ): [00:00:00] This is "More Than Work", the podcast reminding you that your self worth is made up of more than your job title. Each week I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves. You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing, and who they are. I'm your host, Rabiah. I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer, and of course, podcast.
Thank you for listening. Here we go.
Welcome back to More Than Work everyone. My guest today is, Has Shah, he's the owner of Cleaners and Coffee-- somewhere I go sometimes more for coffee than for getting my clothes cleaned, but it's just because of what I buy. So thanks for being a guest on More Than Work, Has.
Has Shah: You're welcome. You're welcome.
Rabiah (Host ): And can you just tell me where you are located right now?
Where am I talking to you from?
Has Shah: Oh, I'm down road from you. I'm in london, Kings Cross to be exact. I'm [00:01:00] actually I'm recording from? one of my shops.
Rabiah (Host ): Awesome. Yeah, and I, like, probably by the time we set up all the audio today. Got a little trouble. I could have just walked over to where you
Has Shah: You could have just walked out. Exactly. Do you know what? It's so true now that I think about it. We could have just done it in person, but hey, now we know for the next time.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah, we exactly. Yeah it's just always tricky 'cause it's just easier using a platform usually. But yeah, so to me, it's a unique thing to have a dry cleaners like clothing cleaners and coffee place in one. And I think that's what brought me in. One time I remember I needed to get my jeans repaired or whatever, and then I've been a really bad customer otherwise other than stopping by
Has Shah: Yeah, we patched them up. Yeah. I remember correctly. yeah.
Rabiah (Host ): Yep. Yeah. You remember exactly. And so eventually I'll have to come back for that. Really can we just, I just wanna talk to you about what you do 'cause I, I love going to your place. I've come for coffee a few times lately and just hung out with my laptop and done some work. And typically I wouldn't go to a cleaners to, to do remote work, but it works [00:02:00] out.
And plus you have amazing coffee. How did you come up with this idea of doing
this?
Has Shah: I think it was a accumulation of the time I'd spent working working abroad in fashion retail. And also just, having a passion for coffee. And as well as that, being fortunate enough to have my father, he had an old dry cleaners in Kings Cross and he wanted semi-retire.
And I said when I moved back from abroad, I said I'd take over and see what we can do. I think I've always appreciated people, I've always appreciated community. You've been into the shop plenty of time, so you'll know the atmosphere is all about talking to people. And I've always wanted to create a little a bubble, for myself, for my people, where, anyone can come and we can have a good time. And the Cleaners and Coffee is that. It's an area where you can come to get your dry cleanings done, your tailoring, done your laundry but you can also come to have just some amazing coffee. You can work from home here.
You can have your meetings here. We do events here. We had a really cool opening party at o ur other branch. We do more than that. We have an electric van that goes around London. You book collections on our website [00:03:00] and we'll pick up your dry cleaning for you.
We work with many clubs and restaurants and hotels to do their linen. We have some celebrities that we do work for. There's many different facets of the business. But for me personally, the part that I enjoy most and the reason why I started it all was to connect to people, to connect to the local community. And the King's cross itself-- Camden, more specifically, I've got a particular affinity too, because I used to come here as a kid. My dad had opened a dry cleaners called Crowndale Dry Cleaners! 20 years ago, and I'm 30 now, so after the age of about 10, I used to come here as a kid and just chill at the front of the shop, speaking to the people that used to walk by or come into the shop.
And and now I'm here speaking to the same people who are slightly older and have had children. So yeah it's it's a great place to be and, I think it just started from a passion for the products and the services that we offer, but also the community that we have.
Rabiah (Host ): It's funny because Camden, I've lived in Camden since I moved to London and it can be a bit crazy [00:04:00] and there's the Camden market and there's a lot of tourism here and stuff like that. But there is also this really, I. Awesome sense of community. And I like, just as a resident going around and saying hi to different people. You're one of the people I'd say hi to when I'm walking by that way towards King's Cross.
It's just like really nice when you find first locally owned places, but then also places you can just see other people that you know. And like you guys definitely, I've been in there a few times where just four or five people come in who are in work clothes, who are just down the road somewhere working and come in and get coffee and leave, and it's like a good break for them.
So first of all, just working abroad, where were you working when you were working in
fashion?
Has Shah: I've been very fortunate to be able to travel quite a lot in my younger years. So I was born in London but between the age of eight to 12, I went to military school in Pakistan. My ethnicity is Pakistani. At 12 I moved back to the UK. And then at the age of. 18 or 19
I moved to [00:05:00] Denmark for three years in Copenhagen, specifically. After Denmark. I moved to Norway for a year. Then Sweden and Finland for a few months a piece. And then I moved to Holland and Belgium for a year. All at that time I worked in fashion retail for Hugo Boss, which is quite a well-known brand.
I had a great mentor who trusted me enough to take me around to these places. It's where I learned a lot about business, commercial business which probably helps how we run the business today. I didn't go to university, I, to be honest with you did very badly in my studies.
But I thought about the experience of being abroad, learning how to interact with different cultures; sometimes in, parts of Denmark or Holland where English wasn't the best. But it taught me how to learn and interact with different cultures and I think that's why we are so good at creating the community that we have. It's that because it doesn't really matter who you are. You can come in and we'll find a way to communicate with you.
So yeah, that was my time abroad mostly with Hugo Boss, which I still hold as an experience very dear to my heart 'cause it taught me so many values. But I think also I feel very [00:06:00] fortunate because it's not often that between the age of 19 to 25/26, you will have the opportunity to go from sort of country to country and learn about your craft in different cultures.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah. So you learned that, and then I'm just thinking about too, when you went away to school in Pakistan, and what was that like? Like so I'm half Lebanese. I don't really have much connection to the culture just 'cause of how things worked out in my family life as a kid and, you know, where the people were that I would've gotten that from.
But I think the experience I've seen, and definitely I would've had a different one if things have been different for me, is that a lot of times people's culture gets erased quite a bit when they move to a country like the UK or like the United States or places like that where there's this effort to fit in into a very specific other culture.
And so do you find, like having lived in Pakistan for a little while, even in the context of school, made you understand your own background more? [00:07:00]
Has Shah: Yeah, I would say that I come from a family which is conservative, but also liberal at the same time. My mom's quite religious. My dad is not so religious, but he's also quite close to his roots. I think that for me, listen, I was there from the age of eight to 12 and only last month, I went back for the first time in 20 years. So I can't say that I'm extremely connected to my roots, but, I definitely am proud to be to be Pakistani, to be where I'm from. I think the upbringing that I had in Pakistan probably has taught me values, which are the reason why we have, successful businesses right now.
I think being in military school in Pakistan, it's extremely disciplined. Especially at a young age, you're being taught to to handle certain environments. You're being taught how to fend for yourself. It really puts things into perspective and it actually makes you quite grateful to be in an environment where you can be creative, you can flourish, you can do what you wanna do. Because I think Cleaners and Coffee probably wouldn't work [00:08:00] in a in a lot of different areas, but we're fortunate enough that it works here.
Going back to how frequently I've been there, I just came back for the first time in 20 years and I went to the military school that I went to, and they were very nice. They gave me a tour of the whole school. And just to be there to be in a class where I was as an 8-year-old, I, to be honest, I never thought I'd return there.
But when you're there, it's that feeling of being close to your roots is, I can't explain it. I actually went to the village where my grandparents were, my ancestry line from, and I saw my great grandfather's tomb. They're almost gone now, but you've got the graves in the tombs of my great-great-grandfather.
So definitely it feels like I am connected to my roots. I will never forget them. And I hope to go back more. I've probably been in a position where having had to travel so frequently a few years ago, I didn't get the opportunity to, but I'm grateful now that I can. So yeah, I feel very much connected to my [00:09:00] roots, but at the same time, I was born in London.
I'm now in London permanently, and so part of my roots are also here.
Rabiah (Host ): That is really cool though. And just being in the places where your family had been and all that, it just, it does give you like some other perspective and a feeling and that's awesome that you were able to do that. So you said your dad had founded a cleaners back when you were younger, 20 years ago or something.
Has Shah: Yeah, so when I moved to Pakistan my father stayed here. I have five sisters no brothers, and they all moved along with me as well. So my dad stayed in the UK, probably to be able to provide for us going to school in Pakistan. And I moved back at the age of 12 and he had started this dry cleaners which he had wanted to do for a while. He actually, I quite admire this, but he started working part-time at a dry cleaners further down the road just to gain some experience. 'cause it's an industry in an area where he didn't have any experience whatsoever.
And he gained a bit of experience. And when he opened the one the one that I'm sitting in right now and he, he'd been running that for,\ I would say about 18 to [00:10:00] 20 years which is when I took over. But what's crazy is that right now we have a team of above 10 people, but at the time, for 20 years, he worked himself with one other dry cleaner.
So he'd wake up at seven o'clock or six o'clock, whatever it may be, finish work at six or seven o'clock, six days a week. No sick days. No holidays. That's for 20 years straight because I was abroad so I couldn't be here to help. And uh, running a drycleaning business is not easy. You're dealing with delicate garments, tailoring as well. You're dealing with, some really delicate pieces. And hats off to him. And I think part of the reason why I consider myself quite hardworking is because of seeing how he's applied himself to his business.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah, and that's, that's really cool too. And my parents, I mean, we have a lot of similarities. My Dad is a mechanic, and my parents had an auto repair shop, and that they ran for years. And similar work schedule, like there was no sick pay, there was no time off that if you [00:11:00] took time off, that was time you weren't working.
That's you, your business wasn't open or you had to have coverage. But small team. So first of all, it's amazing that you've grown your team to the point that you have, but also I can see, admiring your dad for that.
So. What made him want to go into dry cleaning, into that industry if he didn't have
experience prior to that?
Has Shah: I think at the time he had he had been working for about 10 to 15 years in for a company called Carlton, which used to produce suitcases. To be honest with you, this sounds quite bad now, but I can't quite remember exactly what he did. He used to do hardware repairs, but he was made redundant and he had to find, he had to find a way to to provide for the family.
And, having me having five, five girls as well, it's a big family. And this just seemed to be the way for him to be able to do that. I think my dad also has always been someone who has been able to create a great impression on people. He's very honest; sometimes a bit too honest, but I think people appreciate that.
And so I think when he opened the business he [00:12:00] definitely created his own little community and that's exactly why I'm here now.
Rabiah (Host ): And then when did you get involved as far as you learning? Because I, I guess I'm making an assumption that you've learned every part of the business. Is that true? Like, can you
do any task in your place or are you more kind of the creative and like the owner but not.
Has Shah: I like to get my hands dirty. I was actually training a new team member today, and I said to her I run the business on one ethos, which is "I am because we are." We would never ask anyone to do anything that we wouldn't do ourselves.
So it's quite funny, actually. I was showing her how we do the cleaning at the end of the day and we had to do the Hoover and Mop and I. I bought the Hoover out and the mop, and she was like, you've gotta let me do it. You've gotta let me train. I said no. I enjoy this task. I enjoy this task. And and so I feel like I've always been someone that wants to get my hands dirty.
I feel guilty almost watching people do something when I'm not doing anything myself. So I'm pretty hands-on. I would say I'm not very good at tailoring. I can do fittings, I can do measurings. I think having [00:13:00] worked in fashion retail, I've got a great experience in how to make people look good-- how to make things look good. But the actual tailoring, no. We have great tailors who are still part of our team that take care of that.
But I think what's been the reason why I benefit or why I have great experience is, when I moved back to the UK, even when I was going school, I'd come to my dad's shop.
On the week, the weekdays, I would be going to school doing work that I needed to do. And then on the weekends I'd be here. When it was half term or it was summer break, myy dad wouldn't really let me rest or go out anywhere. He'd bring me to the shop, make sure I was grafting or no, no payroll, free payroll.
And then when I turned 15 15 or 16, I got a job at Domino's Pizza. So what I would do is I would finish school at three o'clock. I'd take the bus to Domino's Pizza on Tottenham High Road. I'd start work at about five and um, I'd work probably till about 11 o'clock or so, and then my dad will pick me up, drive home. I'd go to sleep, wake up for school the next morning, and then on the weekends if I wasn't working, I'd go and help my dad. [00:14:00] And so that's how I was raised. And that's probably why I feel that I'm quite hands-on because a lot of a lot of the roles that I've had have been roles where you've either had to do something to yourself or you had to lead by example.
And for me I don't feel great knowing that someone's out there doing something, which I might not have knowledge of, because how can you coach your people to be the best if you're not the best in the area that you're in? Of course, there's some specialist roles that you might not always be an expert in, such as tailoring or being a specialist dry cleaner.
But that's where you've got people that have been with us for ages. We've got tailors that have been with us for over 15 years. With our dry cleaner, Malik, he's been with us since I was a little kid. So we've had great retention in the people that we have, which is why we're, we're quite strong as a unit.
Definitely can always learn more. I'm a very curious human being in nature, so I'll always want to learn more. But if there's anything I'm particularly good at, I would say I'm probably very good at engaging with anyone that walks through. I'd say my passion is making the coffees.
I was saying to someone the other day, I said, we've probably made thousands of flat whites, but I'll never stop [00:15:00] enjoying making a flat wire. It's just the most therapeutic task for me. And I'm also very passionate about outreach. So I'm passionate about working with new companies. I'm passionate about bringing people together.
So I think in the line of business that we're in, where we get so many different types of clientele if I can find a way to bring people together, I will.
Rabiah (Host ): So as far as the coffee, I love coffee too, but I don't have an expertise in it for sure. So what made you put coffee in the cleaners, and then also just like, how did you source it, pick what you were gonna serve, all that stuff? Because I'll just say I appreciate that I can go there and get the alternative milks that I need. And you guys have very unique flavors and I'm usually just a person who will just get a plain latte or an Americano and be done with it. But there I actually do go, okay, fine. I'll add a little bit of calories 'cause it's worth it. It's worth it for the flavor. So just, what's the coffee story?
Has Shah: To answer the first part of your [00:16:00] question, my coffee is I've always been interested in in coffee. I've always had an espresso from the age of 16. I'd always have an espresso to to keep me going. And um, over time, you just learn, what a good espresso tastes like and what a bad espresso tastes like.
It was actually during Covid where everyone was buying the home coffee machines, 'cause you couldn't go to the coffee shop, you had to make coffee at home, I started to realize that actually I'm pretty good at making coffee at home. And I didn't have any professional machinery. I didn't have a big coffee machine.
So then I was like if I can make it this well at home, why don't I show everyone else what I can do? And then that's when I thought to myself why don't I just open a coffee shop? And at the time I knew my dad wanted to step that step back a little bit. I still wanted to do something with clothing because, I'd spent almost 10 years working in in that area.
So that was still in an area I was very interested in. And it was, I was actually driving. I picked up my best friend from from Heathrow Airport. He lives in New York. And and we were just spit balling ideas and [00:17:00] I said, what about go out clean cleans and coffee?
Clean and coffee, and then it just stuck. It just stuck-- Cleaners and Coffee; it rolls off the tongue so nicely. There are things I'm very good at, I know a lot about, and and so that's how Cleaners and Coffee started. At the time we, me and my dad, we we couldn't afford to hire builders or construction workers to help with the, to the revamp.
So we actually did or made absolutely everything in the shops ourselves. So, the shop you walked into, our newer branch next to Camden Road Overground Station, it's only ever been been made by me and my father. And I mean down to relentless of details; the tables, the counters, the shutters, the tiles, the menu boards. Everything is down to me and my dad.
With the newer branch, we obviously had more team members who helped with more input about the design and and treatment of certain areas. But we've made everything by hand. Going to your a second question where we sort our source our coffee from, I've got a great friend Giancarlo, who has a roastery in Tunbridge Wells, kent. And the reason why I work with [00:18:00] Giancarlo is 'cause e even though he's quite successful in what he does, he's recently been named one of the top 10 roasters in the UK, it's a family business.The roastersy is s called Penelope Coffee, named after his daughter.
It's his wife, him and his his daughters that, that roast the beans. And these are values that I hold quite dear to myself. And for that reason I work with him. He roasts in small batches and he only sources beans, which are traceable and of great quality. And that's why our coffee's so good.
And you go to the flavors and the specials that we do, we have amazing specials. I actually, to be honest with you, I only drink an espresso, but even I feel that the pistachio latte, I'm looking at the menu board right now, the pistachio latte, the the sea salt date latte. They're our bestselling drinks.
And, we use pretty organic ingredients. We'll use pure pistachio paste, we'll use a hundred percent date syrup, which are really expensive to source. So we don't actually have great margins on them. But, for me, I've always felt that if you're walking into our shop, you should feel, you should have an experience.
[00:19:00] Experience is everything. And if that experience is through you talking to me, you talking to the team members, you trying out a drink, which you may not have tried the day before or the week before, then that is good enough for me. And whether you come once or whether you come 10 times or a hundred times as long as you left with a good experience, that's what counts.
So it starts with the coffee and then it goes on to the people, and then once you hear about our story, it becomes even longer.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah. And that's really cool, just that you have the connection to the roaster you use and take the time and the care to like source everything in that way because it does make a big difference. It's super important. As far as like the people working for you or with you, you have the guy you mentioned that's been there for 15 years and then you have just quite a big team. Is any of your other family members involved, or is it all people that you have hired outside of them?
Has Shah: No. [00:20:00] So it's just me and my father. My dad has a free reign, so he'll come whenever he want and he'll go whenever he wants. He could be in the shop sometimes in a week for one or two days. Sometimes he'll be in the shop for the whole week. He's someone who's still quite hardworking, so he always wants to be active.
So we have the dry cleaner at the back, Malik, who's absolutely fantastic. We have Maria who irons the shirts. She's been there for for over 10 years. We have specialist tailors who we've been using for over 10 years. But then we also have newer team members and I really like having newer team members who have been with us for maybe a few years or a few months working alongside people that have been with us for over a decade because you have fresh ideas, fresh creativity coming in to help transform your business, to bring great new ideas. Then we're also rubbing off of the great soft skills that these people have been with over 10 years will have.
These guys are grafters. They will show you how to do something properly and they will they'll the best in their class and how to do it. So I really love having that mix.
Right now we've probably [00:21:00] got a team of, I think we've got a team of five or six baristas. We've got a store manager for Camden Road Overground, Elena, who's absolutely fantastic. She drives me, she drives the team. If anything she does she does more engagement than I do now. So I'm very blessed to have a team that is very united in what we do. Everyone understands the ethos. Everyone understands that we're a community hotspot, and they all working towards that same goal. And don't get me wrong there's some tough days. It's a busy business. There's queues. Everyone does work hard and it can be tiring. But, I feel like when you are working in a small business and you are contributing towards something so directly in front of you it's a very rewarding feeling.
And I think that's why people enjoy it. We also I feel very passionately about progressing people. I thought about as a business, we'll continue to expand, we'll continue to grow. But I also want to bring my people along with me. And Elena, for example, she started with us as a as a part-time barista. She was studying history at UCL. She was doing her masters and once she graduated, she joined us [00:22:00] full-time. She's been promoted quite a few times and we hope to do that with whoever else is on board.
Rabiah (Host ): That's great, just and making it a place that people really love working will make it a place like good for the customers too, because that drives so much of it, right, when you're engaging with the public. So I wanna get the inside scoop on dry cleaning. Like what is the most difficult type of material to clean?
Has Shah: I think we'll always have delicate garments. I. Sometimes we'll get pieces, which are one of ones. For example last year we had to clean a leather blanket, which was worth I think about 15,000 pounds. So you can imagine the nerves as we're cleaning that. We'll get suits, which are mohair blends, silk blends. We'll have, tops and dresses, which have been passed on through generations and families. So while we do get delicate materials, I think sometimes the sentimentality of the item, the preciousness of the [00:23:00] item, that probably makes it a little bit harder to treat because we take everything we do very seriously.
In the time that I've been here, we've almost never had a mishap. And that only comes from experience. I feel that probably I'd get more nervous treating an item, which I've known has been in a family for over 50 years tha n a mohair sweater because I know how to a mohair sweater. When I'm holding someone's blouse, which is 50 years old, I'm like, wow, all that history.
So I would say, yeah, we get a lots of, we get lots of interesting pieces. We, especially 'cause we do tailoring, we get lots of odd requests, which I find absolutely amazing. But every day surprises me. No day's the same In this business. We'll always get a piece, which is which is completely surprising to us. That's part of the game. You keep learning, you keep growing. If it was the same every day, probably wouldn't be a very exciting place to be.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah, exactly. And then just like as far as stains go, like people have all kinds of things that will stain something. [00:24:00] First of all, is there something, if it's not a thing that needs to be dry cleaned, but it's something that could be washed, but they just need stain removal, do you wish people would know to do something with the clothes like before they bring them in? Either they should have soaked it, they should have put soap on it, they should have left it alone. And then the other thing is do you have a memory of just a task that seemed impossible that you were able to do, where you're like, this is a mess. I don't know how we're gonna do this, but you pulled it off.
Has Shah: I think I'm very fortunate that my dad has the experience that he does, and Malik has the experience that they do because you can imagine over 15 years they've seen a lot. So, in terms of cleaning, we've never really come across something which has been extremely challenging for us.
We're also pretty honest. If someone comes in with an item that we think they could actually treat at home, we'll tell them ways that they can treat it at home because we don't believe in charging you for something which we think you can do for yourself. So you'll always get complete honesty for us.
I think we've always had challenging scenarios where we've had to deliver on [00:25:00] projects, which which are in tight timeframes but. I would also say that my experience being in fashion retail has helped with that. So for example, we we work with this amazing company called Reline which creates high-end bespoke uniforms for hotels, restaurants, clubs.
And last year we had to deliver on, I think four or 500 pieces to be tailored in the space of a few weeks, which we deli delivered on time. Actually we delivered earlier. So we definitely get some challenging some challenging tasks such or or projects. But I think the experience helps pull us through.
And to be honest with you, we believe in under promising and overdelivery. So you can never let anyone down.
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah. Good.
So it's more operational challenges than like actual physical ones, like stains and stuff like
that. That's cool.
One thing I like to ask every guest when they're on is just do you have any advice or mantra that you'd like to share? Something that you follow, that you like to just pass on
to people listening.
Has Shah: I [00:26:00] always say, you, have to be curious and persevere. I feel like I I've always been a very curious human being. I've. I've been deeply interested in anything that's in front of me, and I always try to find out more about something because I'm curious about it. And I feel like that's a good way to to learn more about your passions or to just be better at what you are.
And then to persevere. I feel like we're it's easy to give up these days and start something new. There's so much out there, right? But perseverance really helps hone down skills and and teach you good character.
Rabiah (Host ): So now we have the fun five. These are five questions I've asked every single guest. Some partly just for my own entertainment, but just to get you thinking about other things. So like the first one, and this might be interesting with you 'cause you might not even be a T-shirt person that much, but what is the oldest t-shirt you have and still wear?
Has Shah: So it is this funny actually I have 15 or 16 of the same t-shirt. So my wardrobe is pretty [00:27:00] consistent. You'll see me like during the winter, I'll wear like oversized black trousers and I'll wear a black sweater. That's it. Today I'm wearing a different sweater for the reason of a podcast.
And in the summer I'll wear like a white t-shirt with my chinos and a shirt over the top and it's always the same t-shirt. It's a 3-pack Hugo Boss t-shirt. And I've been wearing them since I was like. I think 18. 18 or 19. And I'm I'm 30 now so every every year I'll buy the same multi-pack t-shirt and I'll just, rinse through.
So yeah, I've got in my wardrobe, I've got these two sections where like one of them is just a slot for all my black Boss T-shirts and there's just loads there. It's crazy. And then I've got one with for the white ones as well. So yeah, but it gives me like an gives me peace to know that I've got lots of the same thing,
Rabiah (Host ): Yeah, that's cool. That's, and you're so dedicated, which is nice. alright, so this one, if every day was Groundhog's Day and there's the film with Bill Murray, right where he wakes up and every day is [00:28:00] the same. And part of the reason this question is here is because I started the podcast during lockdown. So it was really Groundhog Day a lot, right for everyone. What song would you have your alarm set to play every morning?
Has Shah: So my favorite song is Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra. And I, the context is very romantic, but I feel like it's just a very positive song. It gets me in my mood and I could listen to it every day. I probably listen to it every day already when I'm driving into work in the mornings, and it just puts me in a good mood.
So Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra. It's a classic. It's a
Rabiah (Host ): Oh, nice. Definitely a classic. And I don't think anyone said that one before. So
that's awesome. Okay. This one I don't even know if I need to ask you, but coffee or tea or
neither
Has Shah: Coffee. I hate tea. I hate tea. You'll
Rabiah (Host ): You do.
Has Shah: I hate tea.
Rabiah (Host ): That's awesome. [00:29:00] All right. And I know it's espresso is your thing.
Alright, so can you think of a time when you like laughed so hard, you cried or something that always cracks you up?
Has Shah: I think my people crack me up. I don't laugh at things. I dunno if that makes sense. I won't laugh when I'm watching tv, like a comedy or anything. Like I'll smile, but I dunno why I just never laugh. But Elena the lady who runs our Camden Road store, she's just, she's one of the finest people I've ever met. And so just my people around me, they know how to make me laugh.
And recently I've been going to comedy clubs more and more, so I go to the same comedy club every month. And I'm really getting into. Being at the front row deliberately so they pick me to to take the piss out of.
And that's my new favorite thing. So we'll go to the same comedy club every month, me and my friends. And they know that when they come in with me, we're gonna be sitting at the front because I want the I want my standup comedian to just absolutely tear us to shreds.
Rabiah (Host ): Okay. And then the last one is, who inspires you right now?
Has Shah: I think amidst all the conversation that we've had I've not mentioned someone who who's [00:30:00] probably been the most influential person in my whole life. And that's my friend Kieran. He's I used to work for him for a very long time. I worked for him when I worked at Hugo Boss before I worked at Hugo Boss, I worked for him at Selfridges. And right now he's he's an, a very senior figure in fashion. He lives in Manhattan right now.
And he just taught me absolutely everything I need to know about business. He gives me life advice on a daily and he's taught me a lot about community. And he's still inspires me to this day. He's like my second father. He's like family. He's my best friend. And whenever I need advice be it personal professional who? I'll go to him still. So yeah, Kieran, you know who you are. He inspires me daily.
Rabiah (Host ): Oh, that's cool. That's really great.
So Has, if people want to look up Cleaners and Coffee or even come by for coffee or cleaning, where should they find you?
Has Shah: You can find us on Instagram at Cleaners and Coffee (@CleanersAndCoffee). You can pop into any of our stores. So we've got one store, which is close to St. Pancras Station; that's on 2 Crowndale Road. [00:31:00] That's our flagship that's been there for over 15 years. And then we've recently opened a new branch next to Camden Road Overground Station.
I'm usually flinging across between the two but I mean the teams were absolutely amazing and if anything, they know how to create more of a vibe than I do.
Rabiah (Host ): All right, well thanks so much for being on more Than Work. I really appreciate it.
Has Shah: I appreciate your time and thanks for asking questions. That made me reflect a lot on my own life.
Rabiah (Host ): Thanks for listening. You can learn more about the guest and what was talked about in the show notes. Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to. You can find him on Spotify at Joe M-A-F-F-I-A. Rob Metke does all the design for which I'm so grateful. You can find him online by searching Rob, M-E-T-K-E.
Please leave a review if you like the show and get in touch if you have feedback or guest ideas. The pod is on all the social channels at at More Than Work Pod (@MoreThanWorkPod) or at Rabiah Comedy (@RabiahComedy) on TikTok. While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself. [00:32:00]
