I quit. The final episode?

0:04Okay, here we are. After some amazing guests and 401 episodes, I've decided to take a break. When we started this show, I was a scrappy entrepreneur, selfishly using it as an opportunity to learn and network with those ahead of me. Now many of these guests have become friends of mine and friends of the show. In fact, so many of the guests we've had on the show have been listeners, and then they've asked to come on, and then they become friends that way. Basically, what I'm trying going to say is building a podcast is an awesome job. It's great work if you can get it, so go get it. Now, many of you listening have hopefully also used this podcast as an opportunity to learn and grow both personally and professionally.

0:49A quote that I keep coming back to in my life right now is from Naval. He said, do what feels like play to you and work to others. Honestly, I've spent some time thinking about this pretty deeply and the podcast, the conversations, it started to feel like work, not play. So where does that leave me? Where does it leave the show? And most importantly, where does it leave you, our amazing loyal listeners who've been on this journey for so long? Well, I'm not sure. And I'm not really in a place where I want to make any immediate decisions. So the only sensible approach is to take a big break and figure that out.

1:29Most importantly, I'm about to become a dad again. And in my ongoing quest to be a truly authentic role model for what I think great leadership really looks like, I want to prioritise time with my wife and the magic of having another daughter over time in a studio and the commitment that comes from having a weekly show. When I started this show years ago, my number one priority was becoming an amazing entrepreneur, you know, mostly by learning from other amazing entrepreneurs that I was getting on the show. But now my number one priority is being an amazing dad. Leadership is about making tough decisions.

2:01and although this isn't necessarily bye forever, it's goodbye for now and I'll see you soon. So if you want to follow my journey, please follow me on social at DanMurrayS. With over 400 episodes on audio and, you know, a whole bunch, 45 on YouTube, there's plenty to get stuck into in our back catalogue. To see us out, Chris and I have decided to spend some time chatting away at our favourite moments over the last season and to wrap this stuff up in a lovely bow together. So let's get to it. Hello everyone, welcome back to Secret Leaders. I'm Dan. I'm Chris. And we've got a different kind of episode today, don't we Chris?

2:38We do. It's very sad. Very, very sad. I've said it on the show loads of times before, but probably the first podcast I ever listened to was Secret Leaders. And my favourite podcast for about seven years has been Secret Leaders. And I've had the privilege of being on Secret Leaders for the last two seasons and interviewed some incredible people have had such an unbelievable laugh but yeah good things come to an end good things come to those who wait is actually is that the yeah exactly but you know this one came to an end yeah I really have that energy of like don't be sad that it's over be happy it happened type thing because as I've said on loads of episodes like it was dream come true becoming a co-host of the show okay so let's rewind a little bit let's have a little reflection maybe just focus on this last season we've just done together who's your standout guest who was your favorite the other day my mom told me that she watched the meaden episode she like it my mom doesn't watch podcasts like she's that's you know so far from her world um and my mom said to me that she thought that the episode was brilliant she was like it was so nice to see such a human side of deborah but also that she clearly really liked you and dan um and it's nice that my mom says that because actually for me that episode was definitely my favorite um I think because I think I I grew up watching Dragon's Den and I think like a lot of people in the UK love it or hate it it defined entrepreneurship in my head you know like the way I think about investment is you go into a room and you pitch and people go yes or no and that's obviously not how it happens in real life but for for so many of us it's kind of defined by that and so I don't even know if I knew how impactful she was for me until I actually met her.

4:27I've re-watched that episode loads of times. Yeah, it's nice. And so that episode, 100%, was just absolutely incredible. And it performed so well that I think that all came together. So yeah, that one definitely for me. Although I would say Matthew Paulson. Yeah. That episode, and obviously we're sort of becoming friends now. Yeah, we've now played Paddle with him. Yeah, in real life, outside the pod. that episode I felt like I had goosebumps in the episode when he talked about how he died effectively so yeah I think it's been it's been a real experience I've loved it it's been so funny as well I think that's what I think maybe you wouldn't always see it off camera but I feel like we have spent a year just laughing yeah giggling away yeah yeah for sure I think my favourite episode was Matthews yeah so great call and I think my surprising hit was maybe Lionel Barber because don't really interview, I haven't had that much experience interviewing non-entrepreneurs say he's a journalist and so there's a very different type of interview for me and my experience over across hundreds and his story is not just about Master Sun but also Putin and you know they blew up on social as well so that's like similar to your Deborah Meaden thing, it's like it's gratifying to see it, it's like you're enjoying it and it smashes it up.

5:49Yeah, it's actually it's it's a tough thing about content and podcasts and so forth interviews yeah if it resonates with the audience it's just amazing the feeling and it's not it's not that neither you or i are like obsessed with views or traffic or whatever but when something bangs it feels awesome because like i feel like they have got a chance to see how great the the moment was yeah um yeah they share and your enjoyment of it. Yeah. I mean, all that Putin stuff was crazy as well. What did he do? He talked to him in German and that got Putin to like him. Yeah, smart. Yeah. Random, but smart.

6:28He was smart, wasn't he? Very smart. Yeah. So you just walked in after a great episode with Frank Smith. So the CEO of Matchroom Boxing, which is one of the biggest names in boxing. But we obviously were standing out there and we were talking about his life journey and his story and his story goes from being like 14 year old selling tickets to Eddie Hearn to being T-boy to joining the company to working at the company the company becoming one of the biggest promotion companies in the world owning the darts and now he's CEO yeah and he said crazy story but you know they're one of the biggest names in boxing full stop yeah and darts is by far their biggest business they own 100 % of darts full stop I mean it's insane it's such a crazy story and their second biggest sport watched in the UK after football after Premier League can you believe that?

7:20well I mean I to be honest I when Tom off camera you can't see Tom told me that earlier and I was like what the fuck I know I was like I've never been to darts I mean I do love going for drinks and so I can see myself going for drinks with friends at the darts and sort of similar to somewhat of the horse racing and Formula 1 like you are you care about the result you're not watching everything yeah you're drinking and chatting yeah so i can see it so you know that that episode is a really good example we you know we recorded two today there's that one with frank smith and i also recorded which was absolutely wicked actually the founder of waif um so the ai company biggest raise ever in britain a billion dollars plus from bill gates master son master son who by the way and you will have also appreciated this he's like oh yeah we hung out dozens of times it matters just flies around the world and they just hang out all the time you know lion barber i guess a couple of meetings and this guy like dozens what um what's that's they raised a billion dollars a billion dollars a billion pounds sorry they raised over a billion pounds to do autonomous driving um globally so they are the ai for autonomous driving so to integrate into all the cars that basically aren't tesla it's crazy it's really interesting lovely guy to integrate with all the cars that aren't tesla so basically tesla has autonomous driving waymo which google owns is autonomous driving outside of that like everyone else is kind of locked in but locked out but everyone else is a is an automation company like a car making company so other than if you're tesla and you are a tech company you don't really know how to get into ai so they are the ai company and bill gates they've investment from uber microsoft softbank like a whole nvidia like directly jesus and so that they can just go and integrate into all like bmw volvo have crazy crazy it's a really interesting story so what stage of the company is that syria that was a series c c guest really fascinated yeah great it's crazy but yeah to everyone that's watched thank you so much for watching it's been honestly I think it's been so fun like we've met some crazy people we've had some amazing conversations I think we've made unbelievable content and I know that the nice thing about long-form content because my first experience with long-form content is that people are really affected by it you know the numbers you know the numbers don't have to be huge but for some people you like change their life or their outlook or whatever and people can connect with you much deeper.

9:50And so it's just been incredible. So yeah, it's been awesome. Thanks, man. So look, thanks a lot to Chris. Thanks to everyone. Thanks to the amazing team here at Leaders. It's been an amazing team that's come together to put all of this on. And obviously, thanks to you, the listeners. Like I said, not sure what's coming next, but all I can say is there's going to be a break, a pause, time to reflect. So stay curious, take care and lead with love. I'll see you soon.