A Ceo in Crisis with Simon Leslie: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down a CEO in crisis. To drop these value bombs, I brought Simon Leslie into EO Fire Studios. Simon was born selling and he's still learning 30 years later. He is at the helm of Inc., a company he sold four times. He is living a white belt mentality daily. And today we'll talk about how everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end of the world. How to be patient and tolerant with anybody you interact with, but really strict with yourself.

0:38And oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Simon and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with. That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward.

1:21Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Simon say what's up to fire nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with morning fire nation first of all John it's an honor to be here to share my story I've listened to you for many many moons and I love the insight your guests share and I want to over deliver for you today? That's a great question. All I will say is it's a really, really, really long game and forever is a long time. I think people underestimate how long forever is. We're going to be here for plenty of years on this planet if we look after ourselves and success takes time.

2:10And then you get the problem that no one really understands what the word success and happiness is another one they're so personal and some people like me have a very high bar and others have less so and i can probably tell you why i i i became successful but uh it is it is something that people have got to be patient and there's there's it's a it's a it's a Definitely a marathon. I love that whole long-term thinking. I love that patience approach. And Fire Nation, as I mentioned in the introduction, Simon's living a white belt mentality daily, which of course kind of brought up a couple of question marks in my mind.

2:58So I want to know straight from the horse's mouth, Simon, what is white belt thinking? I think over the last two years, not just me, I think everybody has had a lot of challenges. And for me personally, it was probably the most difficult two years I've had to experience. And I've experienced 9-11, SARS, ash clouds, the Great Recession. I watched countries go bankrupt. So every day of the last 22 months has been a venture. And I would wake up and think, I've got to think like a beginner today I have to think how am I going to get through the next 12 hours because that's all I can do I can just focus on what what's in front of me and why white belt because in martial arts when you you're a beginner you get given a white belt so what I did was I started writing a book about this young boy it was this was my relief this was my opportunity to just to distract myself from everything else that was going on and it was a story of a young boy who had lost who was lost he lacked belief he did he started to adopt a victim mentality and using the language that I've always taught myself and the mantras that I've used and some that I borrowed from everybody else I tell a story about how he becomes a boxing champion it's a really beautiful fable about belief how if you have mentors and the right mentors more importantly coaches you can actually achieve anything you want out of life i like that mentality fire nation because when you have that white belt thinking and you know that you can achieve anything you want in life but there are those two key words want i mean do you actually want this or is this being impressed upon you by outside forces i mean are you taking the time the energy, the space to think about exactly the direction that you're going.

5:00And then once you are, tackle it with that tenacity. I mean, that's really important, John. The thinking time, the amount of time I spent just sitting out thinking about what I'm doing. I was even talking to a guy in my office this morning, sitting there pulling his hair out. I said, you're using the same brain to try and solve the problem. Get out of the office, go for a walk, get a coffee, and think about it with a different brain and you'll come back with a solution. He came back in and he goes, I figured it out, I know what I'm going to do. It is crazy how scared we are to just sit and do nothing, to just sit and have white space and to meditate and to breathe and to not always be busy, busy, busy, doing, doing, doing because your brain, Fire Nation, I mean, it will do amazing things when you just let it breathe.

5:47And equanimity, that is the story of the last 22 months define exactly this equanimity for our listeners today simon and its role in your life it's like shall i give up every single day i was thinking i think today's the last i can't take any more of this you know i sat outside on a bench outside my house staring staring into the sea and i thought oh my god i need inspiration from somewhere I want to take you back to the 9th of March 2020. And the 9th of March is an interesting day for me because on the 9th of March this year, I'll be married 25 years. But it was the day, you know, my wife came into my life.

6:34She came in like a ray of sunshine and she has been through, her and my boys have been through my bank like a bolt of lightning. But so that day is really, for many reasons it's a it's a really pivotal day that was the day that i got the phone call and someone said sorry when we're taking all your magazines off the planes we're not we're not we can't carry on we don't even know what we're gonna do something that had never ever happened to us before planes were grounded airports were shut all our advertisers started shutting down their business and I'm like what the hell do I do now I've been through all these challenges but nothing like this you know even through the greatest recessions the planes kept taking people on their holidays all of a sudden I've got a whole new experience and I didn't know what to do and equanimity means remaining calm under pressure and that's what I had to be and that's what I started to think and say right I can't there's very little I can do commercially I can't do anything here other than let me focus on the people who work for us let me see what I can do so I started calling around some of my friends some of the people I've known some of these high profile people on Instagram and I said look would you come in and just do give a talk to my team just give them an hour of your time and just inspire them with some message to give them some hope because we don't know how long this is going to go on for and we certainly didn't think we'd be here in 2022 still talking about it in this way um and one by one they said yeah i didn't pay anyone anything i had no money at that point you know this was six months after my first book came out which was called no f in sales so you really have to be careful what you what title you call your book because six months later, the sales have gone.

8:33I've gone from a hundred million, John, to zero, not even zero, minus zero because people are wanting their money back. Right. Wow. I mean, this is the thing. And this is, I think, where it's a good segue to this specific topic I wanted to move into next is that we all have doubts. We all have fears. We all these little gremlins telling us that we're not good enough, that something bad's going to happen, that we're going to lose it all tomorrow or the next minute or the next hour. Tell me about your imposter syndrome. Let's go back to 19. So 19 was our best year ever. Records never made as much money.

9:07We'd never performed as well. And I would wander around going, do you think they'll figure out that I don't know what I'm doing? Do you think they'll know that I've just been lucky or something? And it really used to bother me because the outward evidence was, I've got a good business, I've got a nice family, everything looks good. drive a nice car. But me, I was like, this could collapse at any moment. And then the funny thing happened during this pandemic, pulling everyone together, getting these speakers in, getting people in, building and collaborating with some of the greatest speakers of our time.

9:48All of a sudden, I started to realize, you know what, you're bloody capable. You're really good at this you know this this is the first time ever my complex disappeared i came into 2022 and i went this is this is this is how i'm gonna play and i think i don't know where i picked this up but i heard this and it suddenly dawned on me what what i realized was the business is like a game of poker now you go into the bellagio and you sit down you've got the one two table and then you've got this sort of 10-25 table. The game is still the same. Whichever table you sit at, just the results are going to be better if you win on the bigger table.

10:31And I realised that I'm coming into this year, no more imposters, no more playing small or taking small risks. I want to take some big risks. I want to play at much higher stakes. And I want to make sure that I'm giving everybody that works with us, for us, an opportunity to play the big game. And it is, Fire Nation, a big game when you want it to be your big game. And we have so much from me talking about mastering sales, miracles and angels, and a lot of other cool stuff to talk about when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business.

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13:03What's also important to me is that Quicksilver has clean formulations, All of their supplements are non-GMO, have no unnecessary fillers, and are allergen-tested. Quicksilver Scientific makes advanced liposomal supplements, so you can actually feel the difference. Energy, focus, calm, recovery. Get 10 % off plus free shipping at tryqs.com slash fire. That's tryqs.com slash fire. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Simon, we're back. And a lot of people might look at you and be like, that person, that dude, that guy has mastered sales.

13:47Would you agree? Nope.

13:51I actually went to think about this the other day. And I worked out I'm into my 300 ,000th hour. 300 ,000 hours of learning about sales. and I am a podcast freak, a book freak. I read and listen. I watch every TED talk that I can. So I'm always scratching the surface to know new stuff. I'm still a white belt as far as I'm concerned in sales because every day I'm learning new stuff and I'm making sure I'm constantly getting better. I think the history of sales, if you go back to the 1920s when the first books were written, that everybody was, you know, Napoleon Hill and all that crew and Zig Ziglar.

14:34You know, it was all, you know, I feel, felt, found. Those formulas still work perfectly today in many industries. Now, I'm a nerd, I think. I'm a sales nerd. You know, you hear these tech nerds. I'm a sales nerd. So I want to know every different format of selling. I've studied them all. I studied hypnosis. I studied NLP. And the thing that I really love is behavioral science. It's understanding why people behave in a certain way when you say a certain word and why if you say this, this will enact that sort of behavior. And so I'm learning how to incorporate that science with the classics and bring them all together.

15:15And I learn, you know, we have new people starting every week. They're teaching me stuff. They're coming from different companies with fresh ideas. I don't have this closed mindset where I say, nah, I don't care what you've got to say. This is the way we're going to do it. I want to learn every day. And I think the best teachers are my boys. You know, the tactics that they use to get what they want, it's genius. And how old are they? They range from 14 through to 22. Got four of them. Amazing. Now, miracles and angels, Simon. That's an interesting topic these days. Do you believe in them? I wholeheartedly believe in them.

15:52so when I wrote the first book I wrote about us receiving a payment of 57 pounds 57 000 pounds which is about a hundred thousand dollars on a you know it literally came in as we were about to run out of money it came from a German bank and let me tell you something German banks don't make mistakes German banks certainly don't wait two and a half years to ask for their money back So when this money came in, it helped us save the business, kept us going, and we actually sold the business two and a half years later. On the day that we sold the business, I still get goosebumps. I mean, literally, I'm getting goosebumps as I'm telling you this story.

16:30It's surreal. On the day we sold the business, I get a letter from this German bank going, can we have our money back, please? Somebody was looking down on me. Somebody has been watching me ever since. You know, that was in 2003. I believe that I have the miracle mentality. My friend, Tim Story, talks about the miracle mentality. He said to me, you're oozing everything I write about. And I go, good. And I believe that everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, it's not the end. That's what my grandma told me anyway. Your grandmother was a wise, wise woman. And I feel like, Fire Nation, we need to take some more time, as we were sharing earlier, to give ourselves space and space just to think and to reflect and to pause.

17:19But we also need to sit down and talk with our elder loved ones. Like, this is kind of, you know, something that's kind of close to my heart right now, because I actually just lost my last grandparent. My grandmother just passed about a week ago. And, you know, what happens when that goes through your head is you think about the times you sat down and you really spoke with them. You know, you didn't just say like, oh, how's the weather been? Oh, how you feeling? Oh, this or that. But be like, tell me about your life. Like, what was your life like? What is some wisdom you've learned? What are some mistakes you made?

17:54What are some things that you can share with me? And those conversations are the ones that I remember and that I regret, honestly, not having more of. And you say, Simon, that you get to live with your younger self every single day. What do you mean by that? Can I just touch on that point? Oh, please. I think that's so, so beautiful. I keep saying to my father, sit down with your grandkids, tell him where you come from, tell them about your history. I said, you know, it's all well and good you send them 50 bucks on their birthday. I said, but what's really important is that they need to understand where our history, you know, what happened during the war, what, you know, what was going on in your life and how you battle through all your demons.

18:37And I think it's beautiful. And I will say that every time someone passes, I believe there's a year, if not longer, of goodness that appears in your life. So I send you that goodness anyway. Thank you, Simon. One of the questions I got asked a lot was, if you had to go back and ask your younger self, you know, what advice would you give it? And I went, do you know what? I've just realized something. I get to do this every single day. My son is now 22. He worked for me three years straight out of school. So he came from school and he learned everything. He didn't get preferential treatment because he was the boss's son.

19:17He got to do all the horrible jobs, work on the toughest projects. And he really learned his view of sales. He then came to me during the pandemic. because the biggest challenge I had during the pandemic was my guys couldn't make any money. So they're all looking, what can we do? You know, where can we go? He said, look, Dad, I want to start my own business. I said, go for it. This was always my dream for you, for you to have your own business. And so in January 21, he started a small little influencer agency out of his bedroom. I'm going to paint a picture for you now in his underpants and socks, sitting at his computer with one client.

19:57today he's probably one of the fastest growing agencies in the uk he's got 80 different talents um they're doing hundreds of deals for brands and the beautiful thing for me and it and this is a wonderful wonderful blessing is seeing him follow my playbook so this is this gives me two two moments of happiness one seeing him develop and bloom and grow but also the fact that my playbook which was the blueprint of my business, he's using that to run his business. So I very much encourage incentives and awards and travel. He took his whole team to the Maldives for Christmas. Last night, he's posting on social media.

20:39He's taking all his clients to the best restaurants in London out for dinner, drinking Dom Perignon. And I'm thinking, my God, my playbook works. It works not just for my business. It works for his business. Therefore, I've now got the formula. I just need to articulate it so other people can follow it. Fire Nation, I love how he's going through this process and talking about real, painting that real picture. This is the kind of things that when you're communicating, when you're listening, you can tell you're drawn closer because of the way certain people talk and certain people tell stories. Which kind of leads me to be pretty excited about the next thing I wanted to mention, which is your poetry book.

21:21Can you tell us more about that? This is a weird one because most people who know me, I'm a chest-beating alpha male. And then as I was sitting there on the bench, I started to write these four-line poems. I wrote one, I wrote two, and I thought, well, I'll share it on Instagram and see what happens. And then all of a sudden, all these people started sharing my poems and thinking, okay, I'm getting good feedback for this. I'll do a few more. So I did one every single day last year. then I took every single poem and I put them into a into a book and really right now I'm not selling the book I use it as my my you know they say if you have a gift the eye the art of life is to give your gift away so I wrote this book it's 400 pages of poems and I everywhere I go if I go in an Uber and the driver's positive and upbeat I say here's my gift to you and the amounts of hugs and you know smiles I get I've been sending them out all over the world as far as Australia Canada all asking for copies and it's been the most satisfying thing and actually just yesterday one of the quite a famous artist wants to do a collab as my son called tells me this of where he's gonna he's gonna graffiti one of my poems and we're gonna sell it for charity Oh, cool.

22:43So it's a weird thing. You know, you come into this as a sort of hard-nosed businessman and you come out of it as this slightly more softer-edged businessman with a better business, with a brighter, bigger outlook on life. And, you know, some would say it was a curse and others would say it's a blessing. For me, I'm blessed. Simon, I love your outlook on life. You are truly blessed. and the fact that you recognize that now and not when it's too late is so critical, so important. And I'd love for you to take us home. What is the one key takeaway that you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from everything we've talked about here today?

23:25I mean, I know you've got a lot of cool things. You've got three books that are going to be published, your poetry book, Equanimity, and White Belt Thinking. So any way that Fire Nation can connect with you and learn more about you and obviously consume your great content, And then we'll say goodbye. LinkedIn and Instagram are great places to follow me and talk to me. I respond to everybody. People are still writing to me every day, nearly, of, you know, asking me questions about my book. And some of them are saying, can you give me a five-minute Zoom? And I'll go, no problem. My time is, you know, I manage my time well, and I want to help as many people as I can.

24:06Simon underscore Leslie 21 is my Instagram. or you can follow the motivational poet and see his poems. And my company is called inc-global.com. My final message to you all would be, please be patient. Please be patient and tolerant with anybody you interact with and really strict on yourself. I love that last part, being really strict with yourself. I mean, that's something that is really something to think about in your spare time, Fire Nation. And Simon, keep going. Live with faith. Eliminate the fear. And my buzzword of this year is courage. There's too many people who are not courageous enough, who are not prepared to take the risks, take the steps, and they're going to get left behind.

25:02So if you can't find the courage, if you can't find the belief, you can't find the faith, find somebody else who's going to give it to you until you can find your own. And if that's me, reach out, say hello. I'll give you as much love and attention as I can. Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with SL and JLD today. So keep up the heat. Head over to eofire.com, type Simon in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with everything we've talked about here today. Links to his books, to his Instagram, to LinkedIn. We'll have it there for you on that show notes page.

25:41And when somebody as generous as Simon says, he's willing to jump on a three, four, five minute Zoom call, I hope some of you listening right now feel connected enough with him to do just that. It'll be the best five minutes of your day. Simon, thank you for sharing your truth, brother, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Simon. And Fire Nation, are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Check out our free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free.

26:19Freepodcastcourse.com. Freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, success isn't a solo journey. It's about who you surround yourself with. That's why I built the Freedom Circle, a powerful community of entrepreneurs ready to support, inspire, and share the ideas that move you forward.

27:03Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more.