FOUNDER #49: Doctor Who LOST Everything… Then Built A £100M+ Property Empire - Andrew Threadgold

0:00Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with Stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days. Every restaurant wants to be busy. Most restaurants aren't ready for it. I'm Chef Mike from Detroit 75, and Toast helps us stay ready when the lunch rush hits.

0:38We prepare for lunch like we're preparing for battle. Orders are flying, tickets are stacking, and the guests should never fill the chaos. Toast keeps our team organized so we can serve more people, stay consistent, and keep growing. Visit toasttab.com to learn more. Pay testimonial from an actual Toast customer. Cash Now More Later from Opendoor gives you cash up front for your home, plus all the profit later. That's no chaos now, no cash left behind later. Skip the showings now, pocket extra profit later. This is so simple now, this is so awesome later. Or sell fast now and pop the champagne later.

1:14Cash Now More Later, now available nationwide. Start your offer at opendoor.com slash ACAST. Profits calculated after fees and costs, eligibility and offer price may vary.

1:50to surgery came back after christmas and i got a letter from the gmc that the guy who hadn't been turning up had referred me to the gmc for inappropriately signing cremation paperwork so he crossed you up yeah exactly that at the time it was the worst thing that could ever happen to me but also the best now i look back it was the best and then i happened upon property that was the the very beginning of what then went on to be my route out of medicine and how How would you explain your journey from becoming a doctor to where you are today? We started acquiring GP practices. Hawthorne in Norwich, Halo Physiotherapy in Henleworth.

2:24We signed a partnership with Smile Clinics. So I've got a couple of very different businesses now. So if there's an opportunity anywhere in the UK, you'll ever go? If there's an opportunity for anything, my default answer is yes. How many properties do you own today? About 100 and something. Do you own 100? Yeah. You've been on a mission, haven't you? You're enjoying the game, aren't you? I love the game. I can see it. But do you know what it is? it's about being trustworthy. All this started at Little Tiny House in Darlington. What's the future for Andrew? People ask me all the time, when's enough enough?

2:59Hey guys, we've been running this podcast now for five and a half years. We've had some most amazing business guests on here. Simon Squibb, Daniel Priestley, Barry Hearn. The list just goes on and on from billionaires to people who've built brands. If you want to come on the podcast and talk about your business and sit here with me in the studio and tell your story. Go check out dodgewoodall.com forward slash guest and check out the three minute video. We've also left the link below as well. Andrew, welcome to the show, mate. Thanks for having me. Yeah, very much looking forward to this one. Let's roll all the way back.

3:29You're a doctor for 20 years. Why did you get investigated? And how did you end up becoming a multi-million pound entrepreneur? Right, straight in at the deep end. yeah 20 years 21 years as a practicing doctor nearly 30 years if you include medical school so it's all on you really yeah to answer your question directly I was most readers won't or listeners won't understand this but when somebody dies there is some paperwork that needs to be done if they're being cremated and there are two parts or there were two parts to this part one is the the form that the patient's own doctor fills in to say, nothing sinister has happened here, they're good to go and get burnt.

4:14Then it needs verifying by a second doctor that looks at part one and says, yep, nothing sinister, it's good to go. And it came about after the Shipman inquiry, you know, Harold Shipman. Harold Shipman, okay. What year was that then? Ooh. Shipman, roughly. Turn of the century. Was it? Kind of 2000-ish. Okay. So the cremation thing, it gets verified by two doctors to make sure that there's nothing dodgy going on. Anyway, I was in Middlesbrough, as it happens, in a funeral home doing the first part for one of my own patients. December 2011, 2012, one of those years, Christmas, the day before Christmas Eve, as it happens, and I was busy, I was a GP, I was on call.

4:55Middle of the day, I'd just popped out to do this for my patients so that they could have their funeral before Christmas and into the new year. And I had to get back to the surgery. he had dozens of patients waiting and the funeral director came out and said we've got another one the part two doctor hasn't turned up phone's been switched off for a week can you do it so I'm busy I'm time pressured I looked at it and it was really kind of straightforward what you'd call a typical winter death you know elderly person palliative care in a care home all this so I tried to ring the guy that was supposed to turn up and his phone was off so I tried to ring the guy he's supposed to speak to the guy's own doctor he was in the christmas party not to be disturbed so i thought right fuck it if i leave it alone then it'll get pushed into the new year and the guy said the funeral's already been delayed once so i'm thinking about the family yeah you know i know what it's like when you've lost somebody so i thought right bollocks i'll just do it so i signed the form went back to the surgery thought nothing more of it waived the fee because it was 40 quid at the time for signing that bit of the form waived the fee came back after christmas and i got a letter from the gmc that the guy who hadn't been turning up had referred me to the gmc for inappropriately signing cremation paperwork um and essentially this guy made a living out of doing cremation forms but he was doing a lot of 40 quids and um he thought i was nicking his business his business basically so he grossed you up yeah exactly that and so what happened then was I had 18 months of investigation it was like I'm not joking it was abject misery if anybody watches or listens to this that's in a professional industry that's regulated like solicitors accountants doctors vets dentists they'll understand the threat of the GMC because once they decide that you can't work anymore it's not that you can do something else in health yeah And I was, by that point, I was 20 years in.

7:01You can't do anything in health. So that's it, you're gone. And I lost three stone in weight. I got all my bank statements, investigated how many cremation forms I'd ever done, I'd pulled them all, I interviewed my patients, interviewed my colleagues. I had to do restitution, which I had to do, basically had to do lines to say why I've been a bad boy and why I won't do it again. No, no, it's absolutely. My God. Yeah, it's big brother. it's ridiculous uh and at the end so the other thing that to note here is right that i'm what i call a shit kicker from a council estate near manchester which is why i'm a man united so i grew up with nothing medicine was my way out of the environment i was brought up in and i was just lucky enough that i had half a brain and i could get into medical school so i had no financial education and I'd been a GP and general practice is a bit of a time for money business the more time you put in the more money you earn right so I was working 100 hours a week quite happily and I'd got enough money to buy a big house and I had cars on finance I had holidays on credit card I it was fur coat and no knickers right completely fur coat and no knickers I had didn't have a pot to piss in but I had lovely stuff do you know what I mean and uh at the end of this process the uh the solicitors rang me up called the MDU the Medical Defence Union they rang me up and they went uh you do know Dr Threadgill that people get struck off for things like this and I was just sat in the office of the big house that I'd just bought and I thought what happens now if I get struck off who's going to pay these bills you know my wife my kids the lifestyle what's good so I was frantic searching all the job boards can I be a labourer on a building site you know I worked out what my monthly essential expenditure was what can I do to just cover that because how else am I going to survive and now it was blind panic a few months went by because nothing happens quickly I had the threat of that looming over me for ages a few months went by and I made the realisation that no matter what happens actually medicine's not for not for the likes of me I went into it thinking it was a team sport you know you'd help your colleagues out and you know you'd all pitch in together and I was doing somebody a favor I was doing a family favor for the right thing and if this is the way that you get a threat this is not the place for me and plus I wanted something I could build on for me and my life you know what I mean so I kind of made a resolve that no matter what happened, something would change.

9:40And then in the end, the GMC said... What's GMC? General Medical Council. Okay. It's the body that governs medicine, basically. And they made a decision. You've got two choices. You can either take a warning, which will be on your online GMC register for five years, saying you've been a naughty boy, because we know you've been a naughty boy, because you've admitted it. That was the evidence that they had. They didn't have any other evidence. or you can go to a full tribunal in Manchester which is like a full court case and all the rest of it and you'll either get struck off or you'll get nothing and it'll go public and I just couldn't fight anymore like I said, stone and half weight loss sorry, three stone weight loss 18 months of abject misery and the thing about that is that people don't mention it's one thing it's one thing being investigated but it's another thing still having to go into work every day still seeing your 50 or 60 patients every day as if it's normal as if it's normal still hearing everybody's troubles and trying to sort them out but in the back of your mind you're thinking yeah what if they complain what if there's something else that happens what you know so all this happened because a one guy grassed you up just for one patient yes surely they would take a common sense stance on that would they not the GMC?

10:58Well you'd think so, yeah, but they don't. What? That's the trouble with the GMC. Okay. Yeah, so they do a big risk assessment and at the time there was a big... Did you not just say, listen, I just signed it off because I couldn't get hold of him who normally does it. My patient was there, I was just doing a favour, I was busy, you can have it. That's pretty much how it was. That's exactly what I said. Wow. Wow. Yeah, and they went oh no, we've got to gather the evidence and we've got to, and that's why they then So what emotions did you go through then? did you think my career's on the line just finding one piece of paper did you do any more than that or was it just that one piece on that from that I did no more no no but before that was there anything did they backdate anything no they looked they looked at the ball there's nothing to catch no no there's nothing so just one signature yeah but in that job in general practice you do quite a lot of them yeah because it's people die around you all the time believe it or not it's a sad fact but it's the truth and it's one of the things you've got to get used to is people passing away and so by that point in my life I'd probably done a few hundred if not more but it's specifically the one that they were looking at was the second part and you know there are people in hospitals that are earning 30, 40, 50, 60 grand a year doing them because it's the one person in a hospital, flu season, hundreds of people die every winter and there'll just be one doctor that does all the part twos and signing off 40 quid well it's probably more these days yeah it's probably closer to 100 quid now so even back then when I was working in hospital there was one or two people you'd know that were doing all of them but for me it was just part of the day to day what levels of financial pressure were you under when you heard this was going on you knew it was going for 18 months what levels of stress were you under what were you like around your wife and kids yeah and that's the point that I'm trying to make that it was dark at times because when you're in that job, you don't feel like you've got any other skills whatsoever.

12:57So you look inward and you skirt around for transferable skills that you don't have. You assess what you've got. I just bought a big house. I had a relatively huge mortgage. I had the biggest mortgage I could get relative to my income, the highest multiple, 30, 40 grand on each credit card. I think I was quite addicted to getting new M3s and 911s. So I had nice cars and all the payments that go with them and nowhere to pay for it. But everybody tells you it's a job for life. So secure, that job. Do you know what I mean? And that was one of the things. Well, the thing is, looking in, I've got a clue about doctor's work.

13:40You think, oh, doctor's going to be looked after by the government or doctor's going to be really well looked after. But you can actually just lose your job overnight quite quickly. Exactly that, yeah. And that was the thing. So that was the, at the time, it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. But also the best. Now I look back, it was the best. Did they actually say you've got to move on? Did they say you're sacked? They don't. It's not like that. They withdraw your license and erase you from the medical register, which means that wherever you're working, you can no longer provide medical services.

14:15So you just cut loose for free. Bloody hell. It's cutthroat, isn't it? It's frightening. Yeah. And I mean, it's a sad, but I can understand why it happens, but it's a sad state of affairs that a lot of doctors, a significant proportion of doctors, actually kill themselves whilst they're under investigation. It's really... What, a high suicide rate within doctors? As soon as they get investigated by the GMC, they start, the suicide rate spikes massively. Is it something that happens fairly often? People get investigated by the GMC? Yeah. they reckon that at least half of everybody qualifying now in 2026 will get investigated at some point at some point yeah and it's getting more common and it's the GMT are actively promoting it they've got this whistleblowing thing that they're trying to get more people what are they trying to catch?

15:03they want the new shipment and they thought they got the new shipment what did Harold Shipman get done for? what did he do? Harold Shipman so Harold Shipman if you ask his patients he was the best job doctor ever That's what I heard. But you might not last very long with his patient. They actually said that. Yeah. So Shipman eventually got caught because he started to get more brazen. And the theory is he wanted to get caught because he started then getting people to sign their wills over and their possessions over to him on the event that they died. And so somebody, he went and did a home visit.

15:41his MO was he would go into a home visit on an elderly person that was wasn't anywhere near death but he would go and visit them at home inject them with drugs leave they would be found dead and he would that was what he got off on and he did that some say hundreds and hundreds of times he's probably the biggest serial killer in ever yeah but he started to get the theory is he started to get kind of hooked on it and wanted more and more look what I can get away with so he then started getting them to come into the surgery he would print off a will last will and testament fold it up get them to sign the bottom get a patient from the waiting room to come in just sign that there and witness that yeah and then and then they'd then they'd start croaking and the relatives be like well hang on where's my house yeah do you know what i mean and so one of them then said alerted the authorities and the gmc started looking into it they pulled all the cremation forms, pulled some bodies out, found those higher amounts of morphine that they shouldn't have been, and then it all unravelled.

16:43My God. I remember that, I remember it, but I didn't know the detail of that. Yeah, frightening. Wow. Is he still with us? No, he hung himself on a bed sheet. What, in prison? Yeah, yeah, just before the trial, yeah. Wow. Because he knew, he knew he was cooked. So what was your movements then when it came to an end? How old were you and what were you thinking? Because it's a big step, you know, when you're going from a guaranteed amount of money. You've got a load of overheads, which I'm hearing, and all of a sudden that's getting taken away from you. You're going, right, I need to go and find something myself.

17:13But actually, when you look at your own skill set, you're thinking, what is my skill set to become an entrepreneur, run my own business? What was the first thing you thought of doing? Funnily enough, the first thing I thought of doing, I mean, bearing in mind, I was in a blind panic. So I didn't really know what I could be doing. And it wasn't until further down the line that I realised I did have transferable skills. but the first thing I thought because I'm quite an analytical person was I couldn't be in a hedge fund so I did some qualifications on managing hedge fund stocks and shares portfolio management I ran my own long short hedged portfolio for a little while that did all right and the plan was I was going to demonstrate my ability and then go to one of the big banks and say give me a job in your hedge fund please but it takes so long and it's just as much of a time for money exercise as medicine is like to put one trade on it can take you six months of research um so it's a very time for money exercise so i've been that off eventually and then i happened upon property because when i thought back to my growing up the only people that had money around me had property and so I ended up I borrowed some money off my father-in-law Do you remember how much?

18:30It was 50 grand I borrowed off my father-in-law What year? We that was 2018, 2019 that this the bad got to this point and I bought a run-down house in a place called Darlington in the north-east of England renovated it myself after work in my spare time I'm doing 100 hours a week in the clinic and then however long because I wanted to know how much a bag of plaster was. You know, how long it took. You need to understand everything. Yeah, of course. Because I learn by doing. So I did it up myself, apart from the electrics, really. So I bought it for 42 grand, I think. Spent 15 grand on it. So I'm all in for 57.

19:10Plus bits and pieces. Plus bits and pieces. 60. Mortgage lender came out, valued it up at 75. I got 52 grand back out. Then I've got the property and most of the money back. and the rent starts coming in, but then you set the mortgage off. And I remember sitting there thinking, I've got 250 quid out of this. How many of these am I going to need? Do you know what I mean? A lot is the answer. But that was the start. But I thought it actually does work this. Do you know what I mean? And that was the very beginning of what then went on to be my route out of medicine. And how would you explain your journey from out of becoming a doctor to where you are today?

19:50If you're from the start, from doing that first deal then, what did it lead to deal two, deal three? Did you diversify away from property at any point or did you keep going the property route? Yeah, so alongside it, I tried my hand at entrepreneurialism, shall we say, for want of a better word. We started acquiring GP practices and put them into a group and then I set up a business doing occupational health. So going around workplaces, making sure they're safe at height and all that. So I tried to start a business within healthcare that way. Alongside the property, I learned a lot of creative ways of buying stuff.

20:31So after that first house, it was very rare I'd use a mortgage or a deposit. It was always something a bit more creative. And by doing that and then using other people's money, external non-equity investment, you could do two at a time and then four at a time and then all the rest of it and so it grew like that moved away from buy to lets to a point how many buy to lets did you have at one point at the start I had one then I got a lot of service accommodation properties so in Teesside there's a lot of work they all need somewhere to stay temporarily so where was all this, based up in Middlesbrough was it?

21:07well the north east and it was that fundamentally the income from the airbnbs if you like that replaced my income from medicine and at the same time i'm building this group of practices where i learned some skills about how to acquire things and build some business um and then i have this this thing that i've had since back at the gc uh the gmc days where every christmas i sit down and i think to myself what what will make me feel uncomfortable this year so one year it was public speaking so then I went and did a load of public speaking next year the next year it was buying a business because people like you have no right to be buying a business all right I'm gonna have a go so I'm traveling the country speaking to business owners been in their business 30 years I've known nothing about trucking or security or whatever but I'm going in there feeling really uncomfortable trying to talk to these people and and be a credible person that can buy their business um and eventually we had uh we had a few businesses lined up to buy so i'd got to towards the end of my time in medicine i'd the right was on the wall that i was leaving so what year did you leave at the end 2024 oh you left at 24 did you yeah yeah it took that length of time for me to build everything so it took you a good five years to build up to replace your current salary yeah what was your what was your salary at peak at being a doctor 240 grand is that what you're on yeah i was doing a lot of time it's a time for money i did not know that yeah i did not in the northeast as well where everything's 25 pence yeah i did not know doctors were owning that sort of wedge most of them aren't but it depends how much yeah what did what an average doctor earn a doctor who's just enjoying life but being a doctor and having time at the end of their training yeah so you do a lot of training yeah and then you qualify in whatever your specialty is how long is the training for how many years is that so you first to get out of medical school first of all is between five and seven years and then you need to do your training in a specific specialty yeah and that is another usually five to seven years depending on what it is so you're 14 years minimum really before you start earning proper money before you start earning proper money but once you get to that point you don't really earn a great deal after it you earn the earning accelerates till you get to that point yeah and then you kind of stuck okay and then it's more how much overtime or what can you get paid by the nhs yeah okay so if you're a hospital doctor it's the nhs if you're a gp so most people don't understand that a general practice surgery is essentially its own small business okay it's owned by the partners and its customer is the nhs so you get money from the nhs with that money you pay all your overheads and staff and all the rest of it and whatever's left at the end of the year is your profit that you share between you i did not know that so it works so your local gp is employed that he can have his own company with three or four in there exactly and he'll just build the nhs yeah and it just pay him that yeah can does he can can he put money on top what he's charging the customer no there's nothing like that you know you get additional targets so the government will say if you do you know x amount of flu vaccines we'll give you x amount cheeky bonus right okay uh or there might be you know if you get if you do 95 of your patients over 50 if you get their blood pressures recorded we'll give you a few extra quid okay so the angley carrots everywhere dangly everywhere okay yeah and what is it like when you look in and you see on the news that someone checks in they've got a problem they go i can't see a doctor for 12 weeks 16 weeks have you seen that change over the period of time that you've become a doctor yes i've seen it change an awful lot actually you could get very political about it I don't, you know, I'm not a political person but when I started in medicine it wasn't so bad and then there was something called Darsey centres got opened up everywhere and it was a Labour government at the time and Lord Darsey and the theory was, I think it might have been Tony Blair the theory was anybody should be able to see a doctor any time of the day 24-7, 365 so we'll pop these clinics up where you can just walk in.

25:22But they didn't fund it particularly. They tried to spread the current amount of doctors out as thinly as possible across them and there were waiting rooms full in these Darcy centres. The next government came in, had to shave loads of money off the budget, closed all the Darcy centres and those doctors then went back to where they came from in their own clinics. But the amount of appointments didn't really change. It was the same. It was just spread out or it came back to normal. Then there was this, after the shipment inquiry, in the actual fallout documents from the shipment inquiry, NHS England said, we don't want the partnership model of general practice.

26:02So we don't want them being small businesses. They were actively trying to get rid of it. So there was then this narrative in the newspapers, you know, your doctors are lazy, your doctors are playing golf, your doctors are earning fortunes, your doctors are doing this. And it turned, And there was a big public kind of narrative that spun. And all the patients were like, yeah, my doctor's lazy. They're on too much and all the rest of it. And it changed people's perceptions. Then the doctors started getting really pissed off that they're there working 100 hours a week. Helping you. Helping you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

26:32And then they're getting slagged off. And they're getting slagged off. Okay, yeah, okay. And so then they start going to Australia where you get paid twice as much for half as many hours or Canada or wherever. And so then the workforce disappears. Nobody can then get to see the doctors. it starts to get worse. The government is still piling the pressure on. You can now earn as much in Costa as you can as a junior doctor with 100 grand of debt. So why would you do that? Do you know what I mean? And the cycle is just getting worse and worse. And throughout my time, as it got towards the end, it became much more like you were trying to sell somebody Virgin Media Broadband than you were trying to advise them on their health, you know, and they would treat you as such.

27:10What do you mean by that? Like they would ring up. no, I want my diazepam, please. No, you can't have your diazepam. I've lost my prescription again. Oh, the fifth time this month. Yeah. What do you mean that you're not giving it me? You're fucking this and that. Oh, okay. Like almost every other conversation was an abusive conversation that you would have because either they couldn't get to see you because you were doing 50 phone calls and 50 patients face-to-face, but they thought because the waiting room was empty because you were on the phone that you're not busy. Yeah. So you get abuse for that.

27:41you get abuse because you don't give them what they want. And it just became a thankless task. And it reminded me of the abuse that the guys out in the shopping malls get. When you're asking, say, can you stop my Sky and up for Sky or something. Yeah, exactly that. Yeah. You became a service provision rather than... I just want to get in my head. This is really fascinating, by the way, to hear this because I don't know anything about this. Over the years then, how did it change? So you started in the early 2000s. You've gone to, well, 2005 or 2003 or 2004, or whatever and you've gone to 2024 where are we now where are we now this last six or seven years how do you explain because all i overhear is you can't get a doctor's appointment why is that my personal opinion any doctors watching this will say well he's been retired two years now so he can't probably comment because that's the typical medical thing but i was in the thick of it for a long long time i think i've done my time um they are trying desperately to increase the number of students coming through because they need more doctors.

28:41But at the back end, they're not retaining them because the doctors that are here and are qualified are going elsewhere. Because no matter what they say and how they spin it, there hasn't been the level of pay that has kept kept pace with inflation. So in 2004, the average GP in 2004 was earning probably 140, 150 grand. Okay. Which is great wage back then. Great wage back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That same doctor, now 65 to 75.

29:21Cash Now, More Later from Opendoor gives you cash up front for your home plus all the profit later. That's No Chaos Now, No cash left behind later. Skip the showings now. Pocket extra profit later. This is so simple now. This is so awesome later. Or sell fast now and pop the champagne later. Cash now more later. Now available nationwide. Start your offer at opendoor.com slash ACAST. Profits calculated after fees and costs, eligibility and offer price may vary. When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless.

29:57Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to ShipStation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.

30:24What, grand a year? Yeah. So it's dropped? Massively. Wow. Okay. Why? Because inflation has disappeared, but also it's really quite complicated. But they give you an amount of money to provide your service, and then they'll stick caveats on it. A good example is there's something called the Allied Health Roles now. So another complaint you may hear is that you can't see a doctor, but you can see a physician associate or a nurse practitioner. Now, I'm not dissing anybody here. I'm just explaining how it works. You will also hear lots of doctors and GPs, especially at the moment, say they can't get a job.

31:10There are unemployed GPs, fully qualified, that cannot get jobs in this country at this moment in time. but we're crying out for them. There are practices that need them, and the government have given them, these practices, a lump of money to employ staff. But they've said, you can't employ GPs. You can only employ this particular type of health professional that's cheaper to train, can't do the job as well, slightly cheaper to employ, and it's our government scheme that we're pushing these health professionals to revolutionise the NHS. so they've got the money there but they can't spend it unless they bring these people in they're then bringing these people in I'll use physician associates as an example this is not against physician associates what is a physician associate?

32:02typically it is somebody with no medical training that does two years on the job training and then tries to take the workload of a GP just to save money? to save money but they put them on 50 grand a year to start with so it's more than all the nurses that have been doing it all the life it's more than the paramedics but what's happening is and this is the truth is that they're being employed and the doctors that are supervised they've got to be supervised at all times as well so the gps are supervising them seeing that they're dangerous because they've not got the knowledge or the training and it's not their fault they've just applied for a 50 grand a year job and they've got a 50 grand a year job and they've been pushed into this thing they're probably thinking happy days yeah but then people are dying yeah genuinely mistakes are being made and the responsibility is falling on the gp that's supervising them and these gps are then ended up in front of the gmc and getting struck off getting struck off for supervising someone that's made a mistake that they didn't want to employ in the first place so these surgeries are then saying sod that for gamer soldiers we don't want these yeah and then they've got no staff because they've got the money but they can't bring a gp in who would actually do the pro do the job and they can only bring these people in.

33:11So if this was run as a business, this is failing. Massively, yeah. Hugely failing. Yes. It's been getting worse and worse and all these little initiatives are not helping. This is extraordinary to hear this from someone who's been in the game for 21 years. You probably wouldn't get this from the mainstream media. No, of course you wouldn't. But my point is, going back to that, we're short of doctors. You've got GP sitting there who you're saying the government don't want to employ. they want to employ these 50 granders who are coming in who haven't got a clue what they're doing and the GP overseeing them can get nicked by the GMC if they've done a bad job.

33:48And then you're saying the rate of suicide for doctors is a lot higher than anyone would ever expect. Maybe from the knock-on effect of the GMC being on their case for stuff like this. Absolutely from the knock-on effect of the GMC. There was an anaesthetist where I live, up north. And he's the guy who can inject someone... and knock them to sleep before they get operated on. He got investigated by the GMC, and we all knew, it was widely known, I think he got investigated for an alleged sexual assault. Yes. Okay? It was widely known that it wasn't the case. Yeah. We all knew. And he ended up throwing himself in the River Tees and killing himself because of the threat of the GMC investigation.

34:34And everybody knew that he was innocent. it's it's very very common yeah do you feel like everyone who's a doctor who listening to this would understand this yes very much but no doctor's ever spoken about it yeah they're too scared man i don't need to be bothered anymore yeah you're you're successful and everything you're doing which will come on to a bit but this is fascinating yeah what was the what what what is the overarching view of a doctor today when the doctors are working crazy hours the government and people are complaining that you can never get to see a doctor if you could wave a magic wand what would you do today to change this if I could wave a magic wand I would restore pay in line with inflation number one so for example if you're saying those people are on 65 70 grand what should they be on whatever inflation would equate 120 grand to be on today from 2004 so you're saying they should be on a ton 20 and the rest and the rest and the rest probably probably quarter of a million these days okay because they're not only looking after you know they're not only seeing 40 patients face to face a day they're looking after well here's a question for you i do agree with you because i think they're worth their weight in gold i'm just i'm intrigued to see from 65 to 10, 20 to 250.

35:58I think 250 all day long, if you think what they're looking after, people's health. Yeah, let me put it another way though. If you were in a bank or an institution and you had a budget to look after and your budget was four or five million quid and you were responsible for how that got spent, you would expect to be on 150, 200 grand a year, right? That is just one tiny, tiny part of what a GP's responsibilities is because they have that budget on their prescribing that they get assessed on. So their prescribing costs get scrutinised, and in a typical practice it will be anything from two to ten million quid that they have to look after, and they're responsible for that on top of everything else that they do.

36:42But that's for free, that. You do that for free. Do you know what I mean? So there's so much more to it, and the responsibility is enormous, and people are motivated by money. you know so you would get more people staying because they'll get 250 grand yeah for doing 37 and a half hours a week in australia yeah in the sun in the sun yeah i know a doctor's moved to australia in fact yeah he's got his whole family out there of course yeah i've got several colleagues that have been in fact one of my i used to be what's called a trainer so i would train the junior doctors to come up and poison them with my cynicism um but my experiences which they wouldn't get from anyone else i'll tell you but um he messaged me the other day and said he's off to Canada and he's only been qualified what four years now but he's had enough of it over here it seems crazy it seems crazy the amount of investment you've got sorry the amount of money you get after doing your seven years of medicine then you're training on top I think you're talking 12-14 years and then you're on a number which is nowhere near for the investment you've put into it for that period of time which might have been 70, 80, 90, 100 grand to get these qualifications and taking all that time for then to jump into that price there Yeah, that price bracket there.

37:54It doesn't make sense. No, the left-leaning types will say that, well, the government has also invested in you along that time because your student loans and tuition fees don't cover the total cost. When I was at medical school, I think they said it was half a mil to three-quarters of a mil to train each doctor over the period of time. So you get subsidised to a certain extent. And there are quite a lot of doctors who are very socialist-leaning, who would do it for free if they could. But it's that kind of profession that it brings those people in. And in my partnerships, when I've been as a partner in practices, you tend to get, say there's 10 of you, there'll be eight that don't want to know what's happening in the business side of things.

38:40All they will want to know is, can I go and see my patients and can I pay my mortgage? And then there's one or two like me that are more interested in the business side of things. And that's always been the case. and because of that because of the type of person it attracts they're a very meek and mild bunch but they'll stab you in the back if you do a cremation pull Do you know what's interesting I wonder if it's the same in schools I know school teachers stabbing each other in the back sending emails behind backs is that the same do you think that's anything to do with government funded I think you might be right I think there's definitely a cultural thing um segwaying off um so i've got a couple of very different businesses now so what the businesses i bought uh one of which is a security firm yeah cctv and when did you buy that december 24 okay what made you what made you excited to buy that well funnily enough so one of the things um we're going all over the place so one of the things that i do in property yeah is I do luxury holiday lets for people with disabilities.

39:52So if you go on Airbnb, and it came to me doing home visits, right? So I'd go and see these people. And when you think of disability, you think wheelchair, don't you? But disability doesn't mean that. It can be elderly parents that are getting off their legs a bit and they now need a Zimmer frame or they can't get up the stairs as well. And I would go and see those people and the social services would have gone in and they'd be really proud of their house. and then they'd have these big plastic grab bars stuck against the wall and it just ruins it. And, you know, they were so house proud. And I would go in and I'd say, where do you go on holiday now?

40:24I can't go anywhere, do you know? And so I thought, well, what if there was somewhere you could go? So I started doing my research. If you look on Airbnb, because that's the biggest one, truly accessible holiday lets. There's about 12 in the country. So you saw a gap in the market. Yeah. So I started doing disabled holiday lets, right? So I got one in a place called Redcar. it's one of the most wholesome things I've ever done. People we've had there, like we've had families with, you know, kids that have never left home, never been able to go on holiday. They can come on their first holiday ever in 25 years.

40:59We've got grandparents bringing their grandchildren with their newborn babies so they can spend time together. It's fantastic. It's really heartwarming. So we thought, right, we'll build the next one. We bought a place, disabled, detached bungalow on about half an acre of land in the middle of the countryside, spent a fortune doing it up, tickled it right up to the nines. Six weeks before it was finished, it got firebombed, arson. And I was like, why is that? The police came and said, because of the site that it's on, it's likely to be gypsies because they want the site. And they'd rather burn it down than pay a full whack for it.

41:38We didn't have any site security. so that made me start thinking ah security okay um and so we were actually actively looking at security firms that could we could we could do something with i by the by this point we'd bought my physiotherapy company with my business partner philip he's very involved in all this um and so we bought halo our physio business and the solicitor that we'd used on halo came to us and said, there's a business that's just got sold, but it was about to get sold, but it fell over in Norwich. The buyer pulled out right at the last minute and I've told the seller that you guys transact.

42:20Do you want to know any more? So yeah, fine. Learned all about it, met the owner, blah, blah, blah. And it was fate. We ended up buying that one. All because we transact and we do what we say and all the rest of it. So that's why security. And when you say security phone, what does that mean? We install CCTV, key fob, entry, fire alarms, access control, barriers, you know, everything. What did you buy that company for? In terms of money? So it was a deposit with a deferred consideration. Brilliant. So how long had that company been running for before you bought it? 20 something years. And they were tired?

42:57They were tired of it? There's time to move on? Yeah. So it's, I mean, there's lessons in this. Yeah, of course. Incredible. And yeah, basically the guy had got to the end of his tether with it, really. He'd left it well alone and let the MD kind of run it for five years. And then he was desperately, he just wanted out to retire, basically. So when we took it on, we started going through the books and the MD had basically had the keys to the safe all the time and there were holidays to the Caribbean. There were pets. There was jewellery. There was all going through the business. And the old boy didn't know.

43:40And the old boy didn't know. Well, if he did, he'd turned a blind eye to it. Yeah, okay. And that business itself. So the thing about, you'll know this, being a business person yourself, but when you buy a business that's 20 years old, especially one where the owner's checked out, it's plateaued typically. And everybody's really comfy. you don't buy a business to leave it plateaued you want to grow it so i really want this business to be biggest in east anglia and national we've actually got some really exciting stuff we've just partnered with a national dentistry firm to look after thousands of sites right so we're really trying to grow what's the company called my company it's called hawthorn hawthorn yeah um so but to do that you go into somewhere you're like right come on crack the whip let's let's grow let's do something do you take them do you take their staff on two p yeah yeah how many staff there was 20 something at the time that's going to be emotional for certain people well it was when 18 of them got sacked yeah okay how long how long did it take you to get the chop give them the chop uh the first two major ones went um within three months okay well they you know when not a lot of people like change you've gone in and bought it you're meeting everyone and you can see people digging their heels in you like you just bought it straight away so they've got to go No.

44:59Did you give one a good chance? Yeah, I tried it. I desperately wanted everybody. Because you buy the business because of what it's doing. So the people are what makes the business. So I really want everybody to win. Like genuinely. If you, people say to me quite often, you know, how much will you pay me? That's not the question. How much can I earn is the question. You know, you can earn what you want. You know, that's the mentality that I have. And so I tried to bring them along with us. The MD, once she realized just how deep we were going into the accounts, because there's only a certain amount of DD you can do, due diligence you can do before you get in there.

45:43Once she realized, her notice went in. So I didn't sack her, she volunteered. And then we had another guy who was the main kind of conduit from where all the work came from. So our clients are quite big blue chip clients, right? We're only really commercial. We don't really do residential and compete with Bob the Builder. We just do big stuff. He went off on the sick for a while, and we needed to get into his emails for something. We looked, and there was about 150 grand's worth of work. And they replied to? They had not even replied to or even acknowledged from our existing customers. And so when that got highlighted...

46:22See you later. Yeah. So there was a lot of that that was going on. And they would talk the talk. yeah we're right with you but I live in the north east and this is in East Anglia and I'm not there every day so you've got to what did you take it down to then so you took it down from 20 staff down to what at the lowest point probably 8 or 9 ok that's a nice number what's it today it's about 11 or 12 now I like anything under 10 11 or 12 around there is good it's manageable lifestyle business you can tweak things quite easily you can build the team together everyone's on the same page this is it yeah and you know getting the right people in has been absolutely vital has it been hard being based where you are trying to have this company or have you got someone a right hand person who's there day to day down here who you trust so so my business partner Philip owns bars and nightclubs in Cheltenham okay he's based in Cheltenham okay so Halo the physio business is in Warwickshire which is about you've got business all over the place yeah I've got a hotel in the North East as well.

47:28Quality. This is great. Great. Why not? Why not? Yeah. Do you enjoy being an entrepreneur? Yes. Yeah. It's, do you know, the other thing I get asked quite, because I'm quite active on social media. The other thing I get asked quite often is, when's enough enough? Because, you know, we do about 20 or 30 properties a year still. What, flipping them? Doing them up, flipping them? Or do you keep hold of them? Keep hold of them. How many properties do you own today? About 100 and something. Do you own an entrepreneur? Yeah. Oh, you've been on a mission, haven't you? Yeah. Most of it, the vast majority happened from 2024 when I could go full time to now.

48:07We've just completed on a 20 block of flats in Wales, actually, in South Wales. So if there's an opportunity anywhere in the UK, you'll have a go? Yeah, man. If the price is right and the sums work? Yeah. Okay. If there's an opportunity, not just for property, if there's an opportunity. For anything? For anything. I, my default answer is yes, tell me more. Yeah. And then. Well, backwards from there. Yeah. And it's a process of keep giving me as much information to either, yes, it'll work or no, it won't, you know, but I never, a lot of people will turn stuff down instantly, but absolutely not.

48:38So if you were to explain Andrew today from being a doctor for 21 years to what you've gone through there, fascinating to hear that, by the way, it really was fascinating to hear being a doctor and what you go through and the challenges and what people actually other doctors are thinking that they can't say right now because they're getting employed by the government and you can say exactly how it is to where you are now, what do you own today? what businesses do you own and run today? so we have the Norton Hotel in a place called Seton Carew what's that? have you heard of Hartlepool? yes, West Hartlepool yeah, Hartlepool, West Rugby Club yeah, yeah, yeah Have you heard, do you know why Hartlepoolians are called monkey hangers?

49:19Go on. Do you know this story? No, no, no, no. So in the Napoleonic War, the rumour has it, there was a ship got wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool, right? And it washed ashore and everybody was dead except somebody that was very hairy and they'd put a lieutenant's uniform on them and they thought it was a Frenchman because it was a French ship and they hung it and it was a monkey. Is that a true story? That's a true story, yeah. which is why Hartlepool United are called the Monkey Hangers. Oh, okay. And why their mascot is Angus the Monkey. Oh. Yeah. I see him, in fact, aside the picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

49:56Okay. So, yeah. So, just south of Hartlepool, there was an ITV show called The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe about a guy called John Darwin who faked his own death and went into the sea on a canoe and everybody thought he'd died. I saw that in the press. Yes. Yeah, yeah. They thought he'd died, but didn't he take his wife's money? Yes. Something went on, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. Didn't he do a will Got his wife's will Yep Got the money in the bank And then he faked his own death Yep Went to Panama Is that weird? To buy some property in Panama Somebody The estate agent Took a picture of him With his wife in Panama His kids thought he was dead Called John Darwin My God His kids thought he was dead Put the picture on social media Someone spotted him Alive And then he walked into a police station In East London And said I don't know where I've been For five years Oh my God So he then Put his hands up did he Yeah yeah My God And then he got jail time for it.

50:48We have one of, like, he lived on a place called The Cliff in Seton Carew. And then it got called Seton Canoe. Yeah. Yeah. And so our hotel is in Seton Carew. And we've got a house on the same row that John Darwin lived in. Yeah. Called The Canoeists. What did he get? What did he get? He didn't get much, really. I think he might have got five years. He was out. So he'd done two and a half. Yeah, something like that. And then he's got a load of dough in the bank still, probably. Or did they seize? I think they probably seized it. They seized, okay. And do you know what? He'd lost a load in Panama trying to buy land or wasteland in Panama.

51:21Okay. And he lost a lot of it anyway, so. Yeah. But his kids didn't even know he was dead. Do you know what? I'd love to, is he alive today? I'd love to get him on the podcast. Do you know him? I don't know him. No. No, but he still gets spotted in Seaton Carew. Imagine that, knowing you've faked your own death and even your kids didn't know. Yeah. He'd be great to get on the podcast. He'd be brilliant, wouldn't he? I wonder if he's ever spoken up or wonder if he's just like, do you know what? I'm going on the lowdown now. Yeah. No one needs to know who I am. I've not seen anything like of him being in the public eye.

51:45Mate, if he's watching, what's his name? John Darwin. John Darwin. Anyone know John Darwin? Please drop me a message or just say, I'd love to get hold of you and get him on here. I'd love to know what his attitude's like. Is he like, yeah, I did that fake, this is what I did. And he told like a fun story. Or he's actually like, oh, no, I'm actually really embarrassed by this. I shouldn't have done it. I don't know what I was thinking. That'd be intriguing. Yeah. So go on, carry on. So you've got your, how many properties do you own? About a hundred. About 100. And then you've got the hotel, security business.

52:12Hawthorne in Norwich. And then we've got Halo, which is healthcare, Halo Physiotherapy in Kenilworth, which is in Warwickshire. And what's that, just one practice or? At the minute, yeah. It started off just doing physiotherapy. Now it does podiatry and other health related stuff. And we're currently looking at expanding into Cheltenham to have Halo Cheltenham that does other bits and pieces. And how many staff in total have you got across all your businesses, would you say, full time on the books?

53:06needs and your budget. If eligible, you'll get a treatment plan personalized to you and unlimited dosage changes as needed. It's weight loss designed to work with your life. Ready to reach your goals? Visit ForHers.com slash eligible to get personalized affordable care that gets you. That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S dot com slash eligible. ForHers.com slash eligible. Weight loss by HERS is not available in all 50 states. Wegovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get Get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovi clinical study information, and restrictions. Visit ForHers.com.

53:43Business is booming. Is your fulfillment ready for peak season? Switch to ShipStation now and handle more volume with confidence when it counts. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more integrations with one platform that does it all. You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Right now, qualified shippers get a real dedicated person to get you set up and switched over for free. So when peak season hits, you're ready to go. Switch today at ShipStation.com, code audio.

54:17Probably 60 or 70 in total. The hotel, actually, as we speak, last Friday night, we won Best Hospitality Business at the Hartley Pool Business Awards. Oh, lovely. So that was really important for me. It's recognition for those that actually put all the effort in. Which one excites you most? Oh. All your managing directors are watching this. That's a hospital pass, that, isn't it? Which one excites me? Right, so two things. Hawthorne has the potential to be a monster. And that's the security business. Yes. How much did you pay for that? the total consideration yeah is 700 something like that 700, 800 grand and what was it turning over when you bought that 750 to 800 grand okay and when you reckon because I look into business now and think what where are the baby boomers where are the 60, 70, 80 year olds who have run businesses when it was all cash they were all great and now things have changed and they're wanting out tired business they've got no marketing they haven't got a brand they're not up to date I think they're the ones that snap up was that the same here yes right okay yeah and what made you go right okay buy that for$750 ,000 all in.

55:27You did a different deal, you split the deal. But$750 ,000, what can you get that turnover up to, do you think? We're expecting to have it$15 ,000 to$20 ,000 ,000 in four or five years. Wow. What's it today? Well, it's hard to say. We're on track for, so we, so again, when you buy something, there was a lot of turnover that wasn't profitable. That's right. Too many overheads. Too many overheads. too many former owners, friends, as customers, that he was doing favours for that were done at cost. So a lot of it was false, in a sense. So we dragged it down to, back to half a mil when we got rid of some of the people.

56:10And we're now on track for 1.6. Brilliant. By, I think it's March or April. And on a 1.6, what sort of EBITDA are we looking at? About 350 grand. Is that right? Yeah. Net profit? EBITDA yeah lovely so because it's quite small lovely margins are alright but there's two things with security companies that's a lovely that's a nice number that is yeah but yeah 1.6 1.6 turnover and 350 grand net well net net net it's probably been more like you know 250 but EBITDA depends on your accountant and all the rest of it yeah but we're going somewhere else with this place you know so for example we've just signed I can say it now I've just had confirmation we've signed a partnership with Smile Clinics all the dentists yeah so nationwide massive yeah owned by two dentists who met each other at dental school in London a rival dental school to Bart's where I went they rang us one day to say we're going with somebody else and the MD that we've got now Leanne said well we've changed ownership um you know don't you know dr andrew our new owner oh you've got a doctor from a healthcare background so we went and met them yeah it was great um did they tell you what the deal was the other person they're going with no they say this is the deal what it looks like now we're going to go with them or do they say put your best best hand no they said we are just letting you know we're we are looking at alternatives was the actual word yeah so they it doesn't i don't know whether they had or they hadn't but we went and met them and said you know what can we do and And they were like, well, we want everybody to win.

57:54We look after, in total, there's 2 ,500 sites. Is that what they've got in the UK? Yeah, it's part of their whole group. What deal could that look like for you? You've got the deal for 2 ,500. How much will they spend on each one? Well, again, so... Or will it vary? So this is what I'm saying. There's two things in security. So you've got recurring revenue, and everybody loves recurring revenue in business. So for us to get recurring revenue, it's a maintenance contract so we'll service your bits and pieces for you um and that's quite cheap really so we we look after a massive food manufacturing plant in norwich we've got like 190 cameras on their site and just the servicing cost per year i think it's less than 20 grand and they get two visits yeah cheap cheap like the budgie yeah um but if something needs fixing that's where the money is but you need the maintenance to get the fixing and that's what we're doing with Smile basically we're taking over all their maintenance so an average clinic might spend if there's nothing to upgrade they might spend between one and three grand a year times two and a half thousand if they need a full job on it might be anything from fifteen to fifty grand per site times two and a half thousand and that's just one sector were really well placed for food manufacturing facilities, car dealerships, warehousing.

59:25Is there a replica to Smile in another industry? We go, okay, well, I know we've got 2 ,500 or 2 ,000 shops and whatever it may be around the UK. Is there someone you've identified? That's our next step. I would love, well, I've got targets, of course I have. But it's about whether you can get to the decision maker. Okay. So you'll know about Dreamlist marketing. you come up with your dream list of prospects and you try and get their attention. So, you know, International Hotels Group, whoever looks after International Hotels Group, we've got a contact into the Ritz at the minute, but, you know, in London, they've got quite a lot of assets around London.

1:00:01You know, Screwfix, I'd like to do all the Screwfixes in the UK. How many of them are there? You know, Primarchs, WH Smiths. Yeah, it's endless, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Who's your competitor? There's loads. So you'll find what we hear from our customers in security is that you end up getting into, you get sold by one of the big players like Chubb or ADT, you know, the national brands. Because for us, each customer we acquire typically costs us about three and a half grand to acquire them through advertising or whatever it is. Chubb or ADT will say, we'll stick your fire alarm in for 200 quid. We can't compete with that.

1:00:43But once they've got you, you can't get away from them. They tie you into a long, long contract. Nobody ever answers their phone. You want to get someone to come and service your fire alarm. You're the one doing the chasing, and you're lucky if they turn up. So because they're so big, the customer service disappears, and it is well known throughout the industry. Whereas we have a named contact. Are you priding yourself on customer service? Yeah, man. We have a named contact per site. so if you want your CCTV camera in the chicken factory looking at your ring actually we're on it okay yeah and you know him you've got his number and he looks after you so there's none of that kind of nebulous yeah you turn into the admin for the security company there's none of that with us you get so your security firm is the one that you can scale big time okay yeah your properties how are you feeling the way the government is at the moment owning 100 properties by to let for you you know who is it that um is it warren buffett says uh be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful so i see now yeah everybody shitting themselves yeah and i think it's the biggest buying opportunity 100 for many many years so we are actively raising money from private people to commit to buy more properties with okay we're looking to go again fill our boots as many as we can in this next 12 or 18 months.

1:02:10So where have you raised your money from? You've raised your money from the banks to where you are today for everything? Or have you got private money in? We use a combination. We don't, typically, we've never given equity away. It's been private individuals. Equity in what? In the individual businesses, you mean? Or have you got an umbrella company that sits on top of everything? I've got several different companies. So because I do quite a lot, that's quite a complex thing. In property, I've got multiple different property companies that they don't need an umbrella, basically, in general. And all that properties you've got are under a limited company, are they?

1:02:50Yes, absolutely. And we buy, one of the other things we do, we buy portfolios from other people that have got limited companies and we buy the company. So, you know, we've just bought a company called Beyond 7, for example, which has properties in it. So because of that, you'll see if anybody looks me up, I've got probably 15 or 16 companies and a lot of them are property companies. In the business side of things, we are strategically doing two roll ups. We're doing we're growing organically and through acquisition. That's the plan. And so we've got Coalescence Health and Coalescence Facilities.

1:03:29Coalescence Facilities is the security company. and as we grow and as we start expanding nationally, which we're going to have to quite soon, we'll be acquiring more to go into that. That's got an umbrella company above it so that if we ever wanted to, we could exit that, which we don't want to. But if you design it so you can exit, you'll end up with a much better business than if you're just winging it. Same thing with health. Coalescence Health has Halo in it. Halo, hopefully we might soon have Halo Cheltenham and then Halo elsewhere. and that you're enjoying the game aren't you I love the game I can see it but do you know what it is it's about being trustworthy yep that's all we got all of this all this started at a little tiny house in Darlington and I borrowed some money off my father-in-law for it but the hotel 30 to 60 of the houses that we've bought the businesses to a certain extent have come through doing the right thing and being trustworthy and when you go into when you leave medicine and you go into property, you think it's got quite a lot of snakes and charlatans in it.

1:04:36You go into business and it's a different level. And what we've noticed, particularly in security, and I don't want to disparage any other security companies, but it's a bit like the Wild West. It's run by people. It might be a generalisation, there will be exceptions, but it feels like it's run by people that would do anything to get one over. And that's how you grow. whereas we've actively targeted that market to say we are going to run this using the same ethics that I was governed by in health because that's how I live my life I live my life if I say something it happens my business partner Philip in the bar and the nightclub world you'd think it was a kind of a shady world but he is the only person I've ever met that shares my ethics in in terms of do something, even if it's the detriment of yourself, you go through with it.

1:05:27And because of that, people learn slowly to trust you as a stand-up person and opportunities arise. And as long as you do what you say, and if you can't do something you say you can't, don't lead anyone down the guard. And you pay everyone on time. Pay everybody on time. You're a man of your word. Absolutely. Trust and respect. I get all that. So if there's anyone listening out there now who's got a security company, is it worth them getting in contact with you to have a look and say, you know, we'd like to acquire you? Absolutely. Yeah, okay. Yeah, absolutely. Boys, whoever's watching this or girls, fill your boots here, get in contact with Andrew because there's different angles there that you might want to get out of your business, go, I've had enough, and you do a deal.

1:06:03Yeah. And then it might be structured in a way that you get paid over two, three years or whatever it may be, or you might get a lump up front. Yeah, it all depends on the business, how the business is doing, how profitable it is, what your wants and needs are as a seller. You know, some sellers just want like a pension. You know, I'm quite happy to have my money over a long period of time as a pension, whatever it is. we're open to literally anything and the least the least that would come out of a conversation is that we'd share ideas and you can teach me something about security that's right because I don't know or one day well I'll do a deal now but one day a deal might happen yeah exactly that what's it like is your business partner 50-50 with you on everything yeah so everything that moves you're 50-50 pretty much since 2024 yeah okay and are you on the phone to him every day yeah okay so Philip is what sort of personality is the same as you or is he different No, he's very different.

1:06:52When I first got to know him, I used to call him Disney Phil. He worked at the Ritz and he was manager of Hard Rock in America, in Florida, I think. And he's from Cheltenham. He's ADHD. And very much so. And I think that's his superpower, really. Because he thinks of things completely differently and thinks in ways completely differently to me. And I'll tell you what, I went to his wedding a couple of years ago. and this is what I mean by relationships and why it's so important to have the right type of people and the right sort of values and I went to his wedding and we've all been to lots of weddings and you go normally and there's half of the guests are for one party and half of the guests are for the other but every single person at his wedding all they could talk about was what a good man Philip was from both sides and I just thought have they been paid to be here because it was really freaky but that's how he lives his life Well, he's earned that.

1:07:47He has earned that. How old is he? He's 43 now. Sorry if I'm wrong, Philip. And what are you, 50? I'm 40, cheeky. I'm 49 next week. 49. Yeah. Aging me already. So what's the future for you? Before we wrap up here, what's the future for Andrew and Philip? Are you just game to get more and build more and grow more? Yeah. So people ask me all the time, when's enough enough? it stopped being about money when i got out of medicine and i owe philip actually a massive thank you for that yeah because it was philip supporting us both to get these businesses over the line that was the trigger for me to finally cut the umbilical cord with medicine so he takes some responsibility for that um when i left medicine my needs were met in terms of my income and I'd like apart from my watch maybe what I'm wearing might be 50 quid today you know I don't spend money like I don't live a luxurious lifestyle particularly I've learned that you know I have I drive around in a 15 year old car like all that it's gone all that fur coat on knickers thing is gone um I'm now asset yeah focused so it's not about are you asset rich and cash rich or asset rich and cash poor uh depends on what day of the month it is okay yeah it depends on what month of the year is have you got access have you got access to go and drop 200 grand somewhere if you needed to in your bank yeah yeah okay yeah today yeah in a month's time that might get eaten up because it's tied up in something exactly and then we've got to find it again do you prefer being asset rich or cash rich uh it doesn't matter okay as long as i've got cash flow yeah okay that's what matters um i've got more assets now than i've ever thought i would ever do you find it easier to raise money knowing that you've got all those assets it does help yeah okay so there's a couple of things we're raising money so although you've asked us where the money's come from although when we've raised money it's come from normal people who get a fixed return yeah and we've got what return do you give them what percent between eight and ten percent typically so they're taking a bit of a risk as well, but we're going to give you eight and ten where the bank might give you, well, give you a lot less.

1:10:13Yes. Okay. Exactly that. And it's unsecured except it's personally underwritten by myself. Okay. So no one's got any PGs on you? No. Well, I'm personally guaranteeing it. You're personally going to it. Okay. But to private people. Okay. But I've got, you know, enormous cash flow and substantial asset base that are more than dwarfs. Can you package, you can't package it all up under one, can you? I was going to say, if one day you wanted to get out you'd have to package up package up certain areas of the business and package it up to sell it on you couldn't wrap it all under one Andrew possibly the whole package of everything that people want to take all of those businesses on you'd have to find the right person for that yeah you'd have to find the right person I'll tell you a bit of a good person for that who's that James Sinclair oh I know Jim Jimbo Sinclair yeah yeah I'm sure he would definitely take a look at that yeah I don't want to sell though no I know you don't he's trying to get me to sell Jim, mate, mate, I'm going to get you.

1:11:10No, but it's nice. What I'm saying, it's nice to know. Coming on the podcast, it's nice to know that your options are open. Yeah. Like someone might be watching and go, what a fancy bet there. Can I invest in that? Or can you buy mine there? Or one day would you like to do that? Yeah. It's keeping all the doors open. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's nice to know that if we ever need to, you know, that's the final option is that we could liquidate something if we needed to. but the idea is that those things are going to be an asset base for the rest of our lives that will how exciting yeah man it's right it's nice to it's nice to have a a full-on entrepreneur on here in terms of you had that entrepreneurial spirit while you were a gp because of the graft and this and that but you're quite restricted all of a sudden it feels like someone's cut a load of bungee cords off and you're free to i'll bring i've wasted not wasted time i don't mean it like that but i like free me up because I want to take a load of different business on.

1:12:02Okay, what it looks like, I just want to be involved and know that the sums work at the end of the day and everyone's winning. Yeah, and I should have realised actually quite early doors in my medicine. So after a couple of years, I ended up subcontracting to Live Nation. Yeah, Live Nation, of course, yeah. And I was, you know, I was at Wembley and Wembley Arena with Madonna for three years in total. Quality. In Hyde Park with Aerosmith. all over the place doing private doctor for the... So I had that little thing going then on the side. And it just kind of... Then I had some private ambulance company.

1:12:39I had a few different... You were on it, weren't you? Yeah, I was trying. But I didn't... I was kind of... I didn't know what I was doing. Do you know what I mean? And now I've got... Top of vision. But yeah, and a bit more structure behind... A bit more experience. Yeah. So it helps. This has been brilliant, Andrew. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you. Really enjoyed it. I can see where you're going. I can see the buzz in your eyes of like, yeah, come on, bring it on. I don't care for what's going on in the world right now. I'll keep buying property. I'll keep doing this and I want to expand that and expand that.

1:13:09Listen, every business we all touch, if you own eight business, they're all not going to be pinging like amazing, amazing, amazing. It might be some months lower down there when you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and moving money around and stuff. Yeah. And people don't realise just how difficult it can be at times. Well, you know, entrepreneurship is an extreme sport. That's very true. I've been at this since the age of 10. Have you? Yeah, mate. I've never had a job. I've never been employed. I've never had a salary. I've been at it since the age of 10. Yeah. Wow. 10, 20s, 30s. How old are you now?

1:13:43You've asked me, haven't you? Yeah.

1:13:47I'm doing all right. Oh, yeah. Okay. 38. Yeah, keep 37 for life. 37 for life. But what is your, before we finish up here, Is there anything you want to achieve in the next five years that will just put the cherry on top? Yeah, I want to take, in particular, I want to take Hawthorne National. Yeah, okay, I can see that. That's what I really want to achieve. That's what I want to achieve. And not for financial reasons particularly, just because that is the opportunity. It makes me feel uncomfortable to take something from a small regional business into something nationwide. And to do that, all this stuff and all the steps of how you scale, subcontracting, creating networks, and all that is going to make me feel so uncomfortable.

1:14:42And that's where the growth is. And that's where connections are made. And that's where more opportunity comes from. And the one thing I say to everybody till I'm blue in the face is activity creates opportunity. And that's it. Absolutely. Well, the more curious you are, the more doors open. Yeah, true. So that happens, you know, curiosity is a superpower that people don't use enough. The more curious you are asking who, when, why, what, all of a sudden doors will open there for you. You'll open doors for someone else. It's a no brainer. Yeah. Andrew, I love this, mate. Thank you. Really enjoyed it.

1:15:11Yeah, same. Where can people find you if they want to reach out to you, if they want to sell their company or they want to talk to you about an opportunity? where can people just send you a message Instagram is my jam so Andrew underscore Threadgold on Instagram I'm a bit more reserved on LinkedIn ok you're a good man thank you so much I wish you all the best thank you good man enjoyed that thanks for having me hi guys I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did can you do us a favour and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show cheers guys

1:15:45cash now more later from Opendoor gives you cash up front for your home, plus all the profit later. That's no chaos now, no cash left behind later. Skip the showings now, pocket extra profit later. This is so simple now. This is so awesome later. Or sell fast now and pop the champagne later. Cash now more later. Now available nationwide. Start your offer at opendoor.com slash ACAST. Profits calculated after fees and costs, eligibility, and offer price may vary. Some travelers want the charm of an independent hotel. Others want the confidence of a trusted global brand. With Series by Marriott, you get both.

1:16:23Each property is uniquely connected to its destination, delivering local experiences and memorable stays while being backed by the quality, reliability, and Marriott Bonvoy benefits travelers know and trust. Experience the destination without the compromise. Series by Marriott is part of Marriott Bonvoy. Book direct at Marriott.com or on the Marriott Bonvoy app. When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces with one platform that does it all.

1:17:01You can manage orders, sync inventory, track returns, all automatically. Everything your operation needs, all in one place. Upgrade your shipping operations to stress-proof your biggest sales days and capture every bit of potential revenue. Go to ShipStation.com and use code AUDIO and get 30 days free.