Simon Squibb Generates BILLIONS Of Views By Investing In Strangers!

In short

Podcast Summary: Simon Squibb Generates BILLIONS Of Views By Investing In Strangers!

Episode Overview In this episode of Secret Leaders, hosts Dan Murray-Serter and Chris Donnelly interview entrepreneur Simon Squibb. Simon shares his unique approach to business, focusing on investing in strangers to help them achieve their dreams, resulting in billions of views on social media. The conversation dives into Simon's philosophy, the importance of education, and insights on entrepreneurship, generosity, and community.

Key Themes and Discussions

Simon's Background and Philosophy

Early Struggles: Simon shares that at age 15, he was homeless and had to fend for himself, which instilled in him a drive for success.
Philosophy of Belief: The primary barrier for many people pursuing their dreams is a lack of self-belief, often reinforced by societal and educational limitations.
Education System Critique: Simon criticizes the current education system for failing to teach essential business skills and financial literacy.

The Concept of Helping Others

Investing in Strangers: Simon discusses his practice of giving money to strangers as a way to help them pursue their dreams, arguing that it unlocks creativity and shifts their mindset from survival to possibility.
Unlocking Potential: He emphasizes that financial support symbolizes belief in a person's potential, often resulting in immediate change in their outlook and motivation.

The Role of Mindset in Success

Need vs. Want: Simon stresses that the difference between merely wanting success and needing it is crucial for achieving it. He quotes Viking history about "burning boats" to emphasize commitment.
Self-Sabotage and Fear: A significant barrier to success is fear and self-doubt, often instilled by societal norms and the education system.

The Challenge of Fame

Fame's Downsides: Simon shares his experiences with fame, noting that while it can provide significant opportunities, it also comes with challenges, such as lack of privacy and personal safety concerns.
Authenticity in Fame: He believes that true fame should come from helping others and making a positive impact rather than seeking attention for its own sake.

Building a Purpose-Driven Business

Zero Model Business: Simon proposes a new business model he calls the "zero model," which merges for-profit and purpose-driven practices, advocating for businesses that do good while being financially sustainable.
Charity vs. Profit: He discusses the misconception that one must choose between charity and profit, arguing that a successful business can and should operate with a social purpose.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Start with Knowledge: Simon urges young entrepreneurs to educate themselves about business fundamentals and find mentors or communities to support them.
Build a Personal Brand: He emphasizes the importance of establishing a personal brand, using social media as a platform to share knowledge and connect with others.
Focus on Equity: Simon advises aspiring entrepreneurs to seek equity in the companies they work for rather than settling for salaries, highlighting the long-term benefits of ownership.

Key Takeaways

Self-Belief: Cultivating self-belief is essential for pursuing dreams.
Education is Key: A comprehensive understanding of business fundamentals can build confidence and facilitate success.
Giving Back: Helping others can create a ripple effect, motivating not only the recipient but also the larger community.
Purpose: Combining profit with purpose can transform traditional business models and lead to greater societal impact.

Conclusion Simon Squibb's insights provide a refreshing perspective on entrepreneurship, emphasizing the power of generosity, education, and a purpose-driven approach in building successful and fulfilling lives. The episode serves as a motivational guide for anyone looking to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others through entrepreneurial endeavors.

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Transcript

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0:00In a world where entrepreneurship is often glamorized, where hustle culture reigns supreme, and where overnight success stories dominate headlines. There's one voice that cuts through the noise with brutal honesty and refreshing authenticity. That voice belongs to Simon Squibb. Simon's journey is far from conventional. At 15, he found himself without a home, without support and with no choice but to make it on his own. Fast forward to today, Simon is a serial entrepreneur, an investor and mentor who's built and sold multiple businesses, including a multi-million dollar agency. But what sets Simon apart isn't just his success, it's his mission.

0:39While many successful entrepreneurs retreat into their wealth, Simon has chosen a different path. He's the man you might have seen on social media, walking the streets, asking strangers about their dreams and handing out money to help make those dreams a reality. Is it a gimmick, a publicity stunt, or is there something deeper at play? In today's episode, we'll explore the philosophy behind Simon's unconventional approach to helping aspiring entrepreneurs. We'll discuss why he believes the education system is fundamentally broken when it comes to teaching business skills. And we'll unpack his controversial views on fame, purpose, and what it really takes to succeed in business.

1:15Ladies and gentlemen, Simon Scribb. What is the thing that stops people pursuing their dreams? I think most people haven't been given a proper education. The truth is the only way you get rich is to need it, not just want it. That's why I'm successful, because at 15 years old, I had no parent that would look after me. I had no way of getting a job. I had no choice but to make a business work. No choice. Stop being in fear mode. Stop being in I can't pay my bills mode and move into, wow, I could do anything with my life mode. And all it took was 100 quid where I promised to be their first customer.

1:45Every person listening to this podcast should just question everything. Don't ever accept what I say, what you guys say, what anyone says as truth. What I do to figure out if anything is true, most of the time I just follow money. Money will tell you where most things are true.

2:02Simon, everyone knows you nowadays as the guy that goes around asking what is your dream. We know you as the man that hands out money on the street. But what is the thing that stops people pursuing their dreams? Belief in themselves most of the time. People just don't believe enough in themselves for whatever reason. They've let self-sabotage creep in and they haven't realized they're capable of anything. They've been told maybe by someone they're not capable of certain things. The school system has trained them to think that there's certain things they're not good at and to focus on the things they're not good at has probably brought them down even further.

2:39And most of the time they just think the system's too hard to break and so they don't even try. How do you give people more belief? Because actually I think you know there is one thing really agree with you on especially, which is people need confidence. And that isn't so obvious how to teach confidence. It's kind of like a life experience thing, but people do need opportunity. How do you actually teach that? If you could do a masterclass on anything, I think that could be a really interesting one. Yeah, I think a lot of the time knowledge helps you have more confidence. Once you understand how things work, like financial literacy, once you understand how money works, you can have more confidence to make certain decisions.

3:16I think most people haven't been given a proper education. That's simply it. Once you understand how the basics work, you have more confidence. I know I do. Once I understood how money works, once I understood how sales work, once I understood how marketing worked, then I am more confident to go and execute on it. So it's all really down to education, knowledge. Yeah, but if more knowledge was the answer, everyone would be a billionaire with six-packs. Like, frankly, you can get everything you need on YouTube. Podcasts are free. there's so much free stuff you can't like i want to learn about money as well a couple of years ago and i literally listened to podcasts and watch some youtube stuff on personal finance it's all available for free i didn't pay for anything and i learned tons use it's a step-by-step process the first you asked me what is the first step to having more confidence is i see it as steps that's why i bought a staircase in twickenham everything steps right the first step is knowledge of course the truth is lots of people want it everybody listening to this podcast wants a six pack wants to be rich but the truth is the only way you get rich is to need it not just want it so the truth is most people need to take that second step after they've got the knowledge and get away from just wanting it and needing to need it and that's like the vikings used to call it like burning the boats used to get somewhere and then they'd burn the boats that got them there they've got no choice but to make it work that's why i'm successful because at 15 years old i had no parent that would look after me i had no way of getting a job i had no choice but to make a business work no choice otherwise i would starve and i think that's the key you've got to make your your want to be successful and turn it into a need to be successful it's all framework in your brain it's all mindset but a lot of people don't do that so then it kind of sounds like what you need to teach is hunger you need to teach controlling your mind really i mean hunger is part of it should get darren brown in next then there are some people that um make it who aren't hungry but they've perhaps got a purpose bigger than themselves for example it's the same reason that nurses haven't gone on strike for 150 years until recently they don't go to work someone dies they don't go to work someone's in pain it's certainly not for the pay right it's because that that that want to go to work is it's more need to go to work if they go to work someone has a better life they're more comfortable they don't die so people need to go and move from wanting to be successful to needing to be successful.

5:39I am one of your biggest fans. I love the message. And I think that needing to be successful is a very interesting reframe. But how does it tie with the idea of giving people money? As in, I think that sometimes I look at it, I think this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. But then I sometimes think, is giving someone money gonna, to some extent, remove a bit of their hunger in learning how to make that first five. Yeah, like how hard was it for you to make your first five grand, for example? It was a hell of a lot harder than making first five grand nowadays, yeah. So yeah, and I feel like maybe the struggle and the strife of that taught me a lot.

6:20I think survival bias is partly what you're talking about there. What worked for you might not work for someone else, right? For sure. And there are people out there right now that are literally in fight or flight mode. They can't even pay their electricity bill tonight. that there's no oh I would like to make five grand they've got to feed their two kids they're working two jobs they can't keep the electricity on tonight they don't have five grand to make you know they don't have their brain is literally in survival mode and when people are in that sort of state they don't think logically so if someone tells me their dream and I tell them it's possible their brain will not let them even think it's possible so when I give them money and become their first customer and by the way the maximum I've ever given someone is 25 000 other than Dan I know people have invested in businesses.

7:01That's a much larger amount. But personally giving someone, the maximum I'm given is£25 ,000. But I've also given most people£100,£200. And I've been their first customer. Because what that does is it unlocks fight or flight in people's brains and takes it to the creative part of your brain that makes you realise it's possible. So that money is symbolism. £200 isn't going to change someone's life, you could argue, from an income point of view. But it does make people think, oh, I want to be a designer. And someone's just hired me to be their designer. And now I've got a client. Look how quickly we did that.

7:35In the 30 seconds from the time I meet them on the street to reality. And that wakes up people's brains. I've seen it in their eyes. I've seen their eyes come alive. People literally like, stop being in fear mode. Stop being in I can't pay my bills mode. And move into, wow, I could do anything with my life mode. And all it took was 100 quid while I promised to be their first customer. Do you think there's more that the World Society school needs to do to build that belief part earlier? Well I think the whole school system needs to be completely renovated. It's totally wrong at the moment. Then it starts off at the very beginning, my five-year-old who went to school, the first thing they ask in his first day at school is, what do you want to be when you grow up?

8:15It's the wrong question. It's actually a very dangerous question that traps people's minds into thinking about getting a job. The question that should be asked in school, and this is where it all starts is what problem would you like to solve in the world that's the question i asked my son he wants to stop the next big extinction so he's obsessed at six years old he's six now with dade admira and how the world is overheating he's interested in that subject because he wants to save the planet and he could have six or seven different careers doing that he could do lots of different things jobs to achieve that goal but kids aren't asked the right question in my opinion because 100 years ago the school system was designed by Henry Ford and Carnegie to get people to go on two holidays a year, buy a car, but go back to the factory that meant that they had security because people believe working for someone else is safer than working for themselves, which it isn't.

9:04So the school system needs a complete revamp. And we all know it's broken. Everybody knows. And we all seem to just carry on, keep either doing private school. If we know the basic school system is broken, we put our kids into private school. We just carry on. It's perfectly normal that people come out of school with huge amounts of debt without any purpose, without any direction, without any passion for what they do. It's fucking wrong. And something needs to change. Well, also entrepreneurship is fundamentally the exact opposite of what it is in school. Like, it's just about failing, failing, failing, learning that loop.

9:36And failing in school is a big deal. Like, the stress you feel. They make you think you're stupid. Yeah. Yeah, and we were talking earlier, like we were both really poor students and made to feel stupid amongst lots of smart people. But in reality, done really well in entrepreneurship because actually you accept who you are and those skills apply really well to entrepreneurship, which is, oh, well, it didn't work. What did I learn from it? How do I find that resilience to go again? That's kind of the thing. but then this does kind of tie into you know it's a mindset as well right so entrepreneurship that attitude is a mindset and if you know one of my favorite quotes is the illiterate of the 21st century won't be those who can't read and write they'll be those who can't learn on learn relearn and unlearn right so it's like you've got to go through this process of learning stuff forgetting what you learned and then relearning new stuff consistently and especially true in the modern age right if kids are taught all this stuff how on earth can we unlearn help them unlearn what they've learned in school so they can relearn how to be an entrepreneur and build value in society like how do you think that's possible i think the basic is question everything you should every person listening to this podcast should just question everything don't ever accept what i say what you guys say, what anyone says as truth.

11:00You know, history is written by the victors. You know, there's obviously things written that are not necessarily true. They're someone's version of truth. So I think it starts with that, right? Just don't accept what you're told. Now, that doesn't mean to say you can't build your own value system. You can't believe certain things. And I think that's healthy too, to have moral code and anchors that you believe in. But I believe people should question everything. But that also verges into mass hysteria, conspiracy theory, paranoia, flat earthers, all that kind of stuff, right? There needs to be guardrails on such things like question everything.

11:31I mean, I don't buy into conspiracy theories. I avoid them, although I question everything and I suggest everyone questions everything. What I do to figure out if anything is true, most of the time I just follow the money. Who benefited? Did they have an influence over making the outcome beneficial to them? Money will tell you where most things are true. So it's a bit like science. You want to follow science to find out if things are factually true around scientific things, like the earth is not flat, we have proof but when it comes to whether or not certain things and i almost mentioned something controversial as an example but you just follow the money you know and you'll see the truth who benefited from that particular thing at that particular time did they have an agenda to push that particular thing did they push that particular thing it's not a conspiracy theory it's just money what was the controversial thing i won't say probably i suppose following the money you know you're obviously giving out money, but you're obviously a business person and have run multiple businesses.

12:28And anyone who looks into you will know that you're proven you've done this multiple times before. Where does the money come from for what you're doing? And do handouts work? Are you taking money from a certain set of people and giving it to someone else? And why are you doing that? Yeah. So the question of like, there's lots of questions there. Yeah. What's the business model at Health Bank? Yeah so okay the business model at Health Bank I actually think I wish everyone would understand this because I think it's the future of business and so traditionally business is taught as kind of there's two models there's the for-profit business model where you're a limited company for example and you make money maybe that goes to shareholders maybe that goes later to dividends whatever this profit-based business and then you have charities which tend to want to act on a like they don't make any money model the money all goes back into supporting the people that they're trying to support within the charity i think there's a new way and i call it the zero model and the idea is that your for-profit business that does a lot of good with the money it makes and you have a very clear reason to exist around making that money so it's not just making money for the sake of making money i actually think it's how you can unseat big companies like Google, you can unseat big players like Amazon.

13:43If I'm on Google and I use Google, Google make money. Right now, the product is free to me, but they make money serving me up ads. Right. They'd actually selling your data. Well, selling data is a bit more detailed than selling data because they're not selling someone's email address to someone, for example. Right. They're selling insights. Yeah. So the selling data thing I spent a long time looking at. But the point I'm trying to make is that I reckon I would use a different search engine if I knew that that money was going to help the homeless, for example. I think sometimes a purpose-driven business that's for profit, I look at things like Microsoft that made huge amounts of money.

14:21What did Bill Gates go and do? He went away and set a foundation up, took all that profit, avoided tax, took all that profit, and then put it into a foundation to get rid of malaria. Now, whether you like him or not, it doesn't matter. What I'm saying is I think in the future the two will come together. So you have a very profitable business that does good with that profit and that's my model. So I'm absolutely a for-profit platform. We make money. The only thing that's different maybe from me and other businesses is two things. One, I will never charge people for help. I don't need to charge people for help.

14:50I will not charge people for help. I will help people in every way I can personally for free but i make money many ways and one of them for example is brand sponsors so i take money from big companies that can afford it and i use that money to hire the 14 people that work on the product that help people for free and pay people on my platform i pay people to help people for free right so that's one revenue source is is brand sponsors in the future of course data insights on my platform I know all the problems entrepreneurs have so that's an insight I'm not giving away anyone's information I'm not giving away someone's email address or their personal details but I can sell insights I can sell data around the problems people are facing and what companies can do to solve those problems for people and that's another revenue source and again the thing I feel is that it's important to have a business model that's profitable because I'm paying my engineers a huge amount of money and Google paid one engineer 16 million pounds last year if google was a charity they wouldn't exist because people were like you can't pay one engineer 16 million that's coming out of the charity that's not right but google's a very very effective product multiple products as well these days and they're very profitable that's what i want my platform to be too right i want it to be a useful product that that helps people for free but the money that comes in from that platform will use to fund people's dreams and build out tools to help people for free that is technically social enterprise right Well not technically, again people want to box it into...

16:20Is that a problem by the way? Well no it's just sometimes social enterprises become hard for example for people to invest in. And people don't like to invest in social enterprises because they don't want to take the money out. So I'm very careful with not trying to pigeonhole it into one particular thing. It's a business that makes money that does good with that money. It helps people. So someone can invest in you and get a return? Exactly. Is there a return in the good that's done? Both. They'll make money. They'll get a financial return. Yes. I think it's the holy grail of business going forward.

16:52How can you take us through the cycle? Okay, first of all, people, okay, let's start from the user base, right? So a client can go on my platform, helpbank.com or SimonSquib channels and get knowledge for free. Let's take YouTube. I've got the most popular business video on YouTube today. The most popular business video. You go business, search on YouTube today. I've got the number one organic video on there. 4.7 million views in a month, right? That video has made hundreds of thousands of pounds. So that video, all the knowledge on there is free. Everything I've ever learned about business in 35 years of doing business is in that video.

17:28You can sit down and watch the whole thing for free, but the video made money. So I can take that money and I can build helpbank.com, which helps people for free. And I can take some of that money. I can pay people on helpbank to help people for free, right? So it's kind of like from a user point of view, they've lost nothing. They get access to the knowledge for free. I haven't put it behind a paywall. And I earn money from that, which I can then spend on making the products better to help people for free. But the platform itself, of course, hopefully will be worth billions of pounds. And in itself, that means that people want to invest in it.

17:59If they invest in it, I can build more tools to help people for free. The holy grail on it is I can never charge people for help. That's the line I won't cross. So many people want, you know, we've got a massive user base, 152 ,000 members on Help Bank now. we could charge them a fee but that's breaking out our promise to help people for free so that that's the line I won't cross but brands paying us to get their products in front of communities that are interested in their products great so is it like brands pay you for content deals awareness affiliate all of the above yeah all of those things right every brand has a different need I've been working with brands for 35 years and I built an agency on the back of understanding brands needs but brands want to get new customers they want to to have customers know their tools and often, and this is very important to me, these brands also wanna help people start businesses.

18:48I mean, GoDaddy, one of my sponsors, and one of yours I believe, they want to help people start businesses. If people start a business, they get a website, they get some hosting, right? So a lot of these brands that I work with have the same agenda. They also wanna help people start businesses and they also want those people to have successful businesses because if they've got successful businesses, they'll spend more money on hosting and all these other things that people need, right? So it's aligning yourself with the right brands that bring value, good quality product, but also want those people to succeed as much as I do.

19:15Can you just help me understand the distinction between a zero model and social enterprise? And I'm asking on the context then of, do you know a company called Beam? Yes, of course. Right. So I'm an investor in Beam. Yes. And they're a social enterprise. Right. They literally help homeless people off the street in a very controlled way. They get them employed, they track their progress, they see them all the way through because the data and statistics show that just giving homeless people money and just helping them up the street for a bed or two a night doesn't help doesn't solve the problem at all they're back on three days later or four days later you have to stay with the person and give them confidence give them opportunity and see them through the process so people crowdfund that pretty similar model in its own way right people crowdfund terry to get a job as an electrician or whatever the things or training as an electrician and become an electrician and get a vocation but they also have venture funding right they just raised you know 15 million quid or something because they're doing an incredible job they're taking in all these amazing government contracts however as a social enterprise they're a massive hit piece and people go after them for being like how can you help them and that really upsets me i've seen that yeah it's horrific it's horrific especially if you know what they do yeah the world's upside down like this yeah so that's my question is my question you would be a social enterprise but the reason you're not is because exactly what happened to them is what could happen to you.

20:33Whereas if you just say, we're a for-profit company, actually, we just help people, everyone's like, all right, exactly. That's crazy. Well, I can't believe that's the distinction because that I understand. There is also legal structural differences. Like I don't need government grants. I don't need to enter into government competitions. There's a lot of sections or departments within companies that will only help CICs or social enterprise structured businesses. I don't need any of those things. I'm a business person. I'll build a business. And so what I had noticed, even just helping people for free, I've helped someone every single day, at least one person every single day, for the last five and a half years for free.

21:15And I still get a lot of hate online when people say, well, this is a scam. He's just trying to sell something. And the world's a bit upside down. I mean you talk about Beam, I had a good friend of mine who used to work at a bank, he was earning two and a half million pounds a year at a bank right, and he decided to quit that bank and go start and enter a business helping the homeless in Hong Kong and he decided because he's got three kids he has to actually make it a for-profit business, he pays himself a salary about a hundred thousand pounds a year to pay for his life but he's helping at least 300 homeless people a month now get off the streets, get off drugs, get help and he gets so much hate because people are like oh he's using the homeless to make money yeah i'm like no no he's gone and left a banking job that was probably doing a lot of bad and doing good with his superpower and the world's a little bit upside down like this like and i've been pushing through this myself people don't seem to quite understand that a lot of rich people i know for example won't even help anybody because they don't want to get that well you could have done more but i interviewed john caldwell on my podcast a little while ago i mean guy's a billionaire he actually has a charity the thing is everyone's like why Why don't you give more?

22:21You're a billionaire. It doesn't matter. He gives us a hundred million a year. It doesn't matter. Give more, give more. What do you think is the solution? Because I think I watch your videos. I watch everything that you do. I think it's amazing. But when you released your book, which I literally can't wait for, there was a lot of like, why the hell are you charging for this? There was a lot of negativity around it. And successful people generally get slated in the UK. You know, there's a lot of negativities for successful people and people who make a lot of money but how do we change that perception like surely becoming successful is a good thing and if if that perception was changed i think more people would want to help a bit i think that well me up so much that i literally spent about a few hours jumping in yes you did thank you for fighting for me oh just off it's ridiculous do you know that a book costs money to make well this is a physical product he would have sold the book as in like you know, the publisher is the one selling the book.

23:19It takes quite a lot to wind me up and I was so wound up for you that I just was like, I'm responding to these. But it's an interesting nuance because, okay, so first of all, on my book, all the proceeds I make from that book, I'm giving away to fund people's dreams. So intent, right? It's about intent. But the intent is important. I was going to say, but when it comes to hating - But the ear is making us feel bad about it. You'll do yours. He'll do it just for profit. Right, right. He's feeling terrible. But there's stages as well in life as well. There's different stages. I think that you know I my history is I started a gardening company and I charged people to look after their gardens I wasn't doing it for free I know awful right and then and then later I started a service business an agency business and I would charge companies and people to help start their businesses right how did you sleep at night no but by money he's telling me I made I made I made a lot of people rich right I helped a lot of people businesses do well and I think that's absolutely fine I think what I noticed and what you know going back to my personal story is like at 15 years old no one helped me and the only only way i could get help was courses that i couldn't afford so i'm really helping that 15 year old me there was no way i had no money for a course i didn't have anywhere to sleep i might pay for someone's course i so i'm just servicing that pain i felt when i was 15 years old that's it i actually have nothing against people selling courses especially ones that have value i think what my issue is and i and i think this is where the nuance comes into play i have a real issue with people who for example let's take the property industry these people that say they're making a shitload of money in property they're making so much money property yay they're making so much money next thing you know they're advertising a course where they're charging some kid 18 grand and I actually had one of people on my platform recently tell me they paid 18 grand for a property course they borrowed from their grand got the grand into debt they got 18 grand course all the course base that you said was you buy a house get someone else's money to do it and then rent it out and paint it there you go you know I'm like these people are making so much money in the property business then surely they should just say let me give something back and help the next generation do well as well but they I don't like it when it's when it's framed that way and personally as an entrepreneur like as a successful entrepreneur for me charging a course fee it's like if I want to make money I'll start a business I've launched a sweet brand I'll make money there I've launched an agency I'll make money there I don't need to charge some kid 50 quid I don't and I won't because I if I want to make money I'll start a business a proper business.

25:34Now if your business is selling courses and I look at people I like a lot like Ali you know who sells courses I respect it because he's bringing value to those people and it has cost to deliver it and I think that's where the book piece comes in. For me like the publisher and the book shops it costs them money to keep the lights on at the bookshops, it costs them money to have staff in the bookshops and if I want global distribution I need those bookshops right so I need to make sure those bookshops get paid and my book won't get out and help people unless those bookshops put it out so I will reach a certain amount of people and by the way I've already sold enough books to be a Times bestseller book already pre-order already does will be a Times bestseller if I at least released it today it will be a Times bestseller but I want it in the bookshop so that people can pick it up and learn what I know and I can give them the knowledge they need to have a better life and that book needs to pay a lot of people the editors the typesetters the printer the bookshop the bookshop people the person who wrote your book for you yeah yeah me actually I did get some help to write a book because I'm dyslexic yeah so I did get some help to write the book but it's my I mean that's a dirty secret in writing books in general I know because I've spoken to Penguin multiple times like everyone has a ghostwriter everyone has someone who helps them they don't talk about it don't know why I don't know why it's actually people's profession they should but everyone has one well I've never I mean I've done social media every day for five years so I'm quite good at social media now but writing a book I've never done it yeah so I needed some help with structure and so you know it just makes sense it's just hiring like a speech coach or any of these other things it's just someone What do you say to the young entrepreneur who has made no money yet, they're 18, 19, 20, but they're starting out, maybe it's a gardening business, maybe it's something else, and they're doing nothing for anyone else other than themselves.

27:12What do you say to them? Stages. Fill your own bucket first. I think it's nothing wrong with making money. I would only say you'll probably make more money if you think about building a business that helps others, not just yourself. That's all. It's a business thinking thing. I reckon most companies today can be disrupted by people building exactly the same business but with a purpose instead of just to make money. I'll give you an example. I was suggesting to someone the other day that they open up a property agency. There's thousands of property agencies in the UK. Knight, Frank, Seville, there's thousands of them.

27:41I hate these people, by the way, as a business model. It's quite soulless. I haven't personally bought a house and sold a house not so long ago. These people are just about the money, right? They're soulless a lot of the time. What if you built a property agency where when you sell the property all the profit from selling it after you pay people well looked after everybody who needs to be looked after the profit goes to homeless charities people like beam all that income coming in from property would suddenly have a purpose not just to fill the pockets of very rich people at night frank right personally I'd give that my property to them to list and all it is in the end is about listing I need the listing the house I bought recently I didn't give a shit who was selling it I couldn't care are less.

28:20I care about the property that I like. So if you've got the listing, you'll get the sale and you'll take out all the other property companies tomorrow by simply having a property agency that cared about helping the homeless instead of just making loads of money for shareholders. Everyone will want to give you their property to sell. As long as you sell it, you'll get the business. And do you think that that entrepreneur, let's say that is the 21-year-old entrepreneur who starts the state agency business that gives away a lot of its profit, do you think they have the same chances being more successful or less successful with that model as in personally well because i think a lot of their dreams when you're young might be might be much more selfishly focused you know at 18 19 20 you might be like i want to buy a house because that's what i want that's my my goal that's my outcome nothing wrong with those things is i want people to be able to buy themselves what they need but i also don't want things to own people i think a lot of the time i know people that are middle class stuck in their house they don't love what they do they thought the house was going to make them happy they're waiting to retire to be happy they're not living now so i think sometimes people buy stuff to make themselves happy and i mean i've had this too i bought a porsche that fucking thing owned me after about a month i'm like oh it's got a dent in it oh what am i gonna do i've got to take it back to the garage i'm spending hours on this bloody thing yeah yeah and it doesn't it brought me joy for the first week that i had it and i want everyone to have that feeling it was an amazing feeling after that these things are just a burden.

29:37Yeah, I actually agree with you. But I want people to, you know, have those experiences. And I think people, nothing wrong with being selfish. I mean, one of the reasons I'm doing what I'm doing today is because I retired. I was bored. I had to do something with my life. I just went a bit crazy after selling my company. I did nothing. And it sent me a bit mad. So what I'm doing today is a selfish endeavor. I want to be useful and I want to be seen. There's nothing wrong with being selfish. I think it's then how you apply yourself thereafter. after like I can be selfish and help other people that will help me be happy anyway so selfishly it makes me happy there's a great quote which is everyone's walking around with a sign on them saying pay me attention right make me feel important right we want to be useful right totally right and tribal it's a tribal thing I want to talk to you a little bit about fame um because like you just said you came over here now people on the street shouting at you hopefully nice things they probably just like you're in the comments you are like you're up in I mean, right.

30:34Objectively famous. No, I would argue objectively famous. I am. Yeah. I annoyed someone in LinkedIn the other day because they were like, I don't know who you think you are. You know, with all this knowledge, I'm like, I can't help it that I'm famous. You're not famous. I said this definition of fame, more people know me than I know them. That is a fact. But I do actually find it fascinating. Is that the definition of fame? To me. No, that's not. What is the definition of fame? How do you, I think I'm famous, but I don't know that people listening, they'll be like, Well, what does he think he's famous?

31:03Yeah. Yeah. I mean, certainly well known and definitely, because I think fame is an interesting thing. Like there's an argument of like notoriety on a national basis, right? And for that, you probably need TV. Go on for the definition. The state of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements. I mean, yeah, absolutely. So I think I meet the definition. We can agree that you're famous. And I think that's right. most people that deal with fame have to deal with the downside of fame yes and i've got lots of friends we're talking about this earlier lots of friends who are famous in different categories and it's put me right off it being famous is shit right talk to us about that why is being famous do not ever want to be famous anybody listening do not make that your ambition it is an awful awful thing can i just challenge that you you you you must have you're too old and experienced and smart to not have known i met you a few years ago right and you were not famous then right i was in hong kong by the way i just wasn't in the uk who fucking cares yeah

32:15so you're famous in hong kong now you're famous here too yeah but the question is like you must to being smart enough, old enough, wise enough to know if I spend millions of pounds of my own money, building a team, building audience, building notoriety, giving people money in the street, building awareness, all this stuff, I will get famous. So were you not consciously, literally, purposely diving straight into the belly of the beast that you knew is also, by the way, a one-way door? Right. It's very hard to close that door. So you do not do all that stuff consciously.

32:50long pauses on podcasts people switch off today so you didn't get famous accidentally no but okay let me let me put it this way and i'm gonna i'm gonna go back in my mind to like when i first started this and this is this is the absolute truth right this is genuinely what happened i was going mental doing nothing yeah right and i thought that and i wrote down the things i like to do and the things i don't like to do and i and i wrote down like what problems i'd like to solve in the world and the pain of what happened to me when I was 15 years old and having no help and being desperate, being alone, building something, but also the joy I had at that time of realising if you have something in your head, you can make it real.

33:28Whatever it is, what we're sitting on now is all in someone's head one day, once, you know, like that realisation, that part is true. Anybody listening to this, they've got an idea in their head that can make it real alongside the pain I had. All I wanted to do was I've got knowledge and I want to give it to people. That's what happened. all i do is give knowledge and so i just started doing that i did a podcast i went on social media here's what i know and i didn't think about the fame bit i wasn't what i looked at the time was oh only 20 people have viewed this that's a shame i want more people to know this knowledge right and at one point i kidded myself that it's okay that only 20 people watch it and then after talking to dan and other people that i admire they're like you know what simon if you're going to do this do it properly go all in and that's when I started investing heavily in building up the platform but the thing I love the most about my platform is actually it promotes other people I think that's what's a little bit different about my social media maybe to most platforms is that I'm not on there quoting about how brilliant I am I'm not putting inspirational quotes that once just put a quote up on my social media what I'm doing is I'm saying here's someone with a dream let's help them this is their dream here's some tips on how they can make it happen you 6 million people or the last video got 53 million views on TikTok right you 53 million people maybe you could all help them be a customer introduce them to a customer share their story in your social media you know and that's the thing I love the most it's not about promoting me but I have by accident become famous and it is not a good thing like that I literally recently had someone stalk me I had someone knocking on the door of my family home and people send me private shouldn't have put a doorbell on it though well no door bother but but honestly like my wife as well she's very very conservative and very we've got similar we've got similar partnerships that way yeah and she doesn't you know she hates her and i and i love my wife i don't want to get a divorce but she finds this stuff very very challenging and most people that get very famous get a divorce gary v just got a divorce right like most people who get this famous get a divorce i don't want that right so i think I've had to do a lot of things to hide where I live and be a little bit more careful on social media.

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35:35Everyone knows you live in Newcastle. Everyone knows I live in Newcastle, yeah. Thanks for coming down. I joke that I live next door to Ricky Gervais to kind of really throw people off. He lives in Newcastle. He lives in Newcastle, yeah. But the point I'm trying to make is that, you know, fame is, okay, there is an upside to fame and I don't want to belittle it. you can make an impact. Like since I've got very popular on YouTube, like everybody wants to meet me. Like there isn't a single person I can't DM in my Instagram now that won't meet me. Everybody. And that access is pretty interesting, especially if I want to fix the education system, right?

36:07So now I have access. Because I have a platform, I have access to the people that can help me do it. And so that is something quite special. But I think there's two types of fame and maybe people listening should think about this. The first type of fame, the fame I absolutely love. the fame that I personally think everyone should go for is what I call business to business fame this is fame within your ecosystem of business exactly what we were talking about that's the fame that I got by going to a co-working space everyone's heard the podcast they all know me etc and I walk out on the street no one knows me that fame in Hong Kong I could ring anybody up in Hong Kong before this social media stuff took off I could ring up anybody in Hong Kong after 20 years of doing the right thing there by delivering by doing what I said I was going to do there's no one I couldn't ring up there and say hey can you help me with this or get involved in that.

36:52I love that. I think business to business fame is totally underrated and never explained to people. Your reputation matters. Don't screw people over. It's not trying to get ahead like the bullshit business you hear. Treat people with respect. Do what you say you're going to do. That business to business reputation is so valuable. B2B fame is basically just reputation on steroids. Basically yeah. But the next type of fame this kind of public fame definitely has its drawbacks as i've just described but it has incredible upsides too and so i say to anybody that wants to be famous and you guys are famous in your own way too it's like you have to do it for a purpose not to just be famous like have a reason to be famous and then it's worth it like if i can genuinely fix the education system if i can genuinely give people more choices than university and some people can start a business and get out of financial difficulty, then it's worth it.

37:44It's worth just hiding my address and being a bit more cautious. And I was out with my son the other day in Newcastle, people coming up to us taking pictures at one point. I was like, I just want to be with my son by the river, but I've told him my job is to help people. So when people come up to me and say hello, we have to help them. That's the promise I've made. That's the sacrifice I made. Just wear a cap. Leave me alone. No, just a cap makes all the difference. First of all, I have tried that and it doesn't work. Second, they give me a headache. Really? Yeah, I don't know why. Well, yeah, I mean, celebrities capture...

38:13I could wear a beard as well, I guess. I could wear glasses. The other side of it, and I'm being a bit negative about fame, there's something really lovely about it, though. When people come up to you, and I'm on the right side of history, I think, because I'm just trying to help people believe in themselves. Whereas Piers Morgan, for example, I'm not sure I'd want to be his sort of famous because it's quite controversial sometimes. He's softened it lately, but people come out like, you like that guy, you believe in that war should exist. I don't want to be in a division type fame. I think a lot of people do that.

38:43They use division fame, right? They basically have a stance on a particular thing that is division-based. Like, I love a football team. And so everyone else, they hate you, right? Because you love that football team. I don't want to be a division-based kind of influencer. I like the idea that my thing is about, like, anyone can do anything. And if you put your mind to it, make your want and need, apply yourself, you can do anything. Humans are fucking incredible. I like that sort of fame and I think that people when they come up to me generally are like, thanks for inspiring me. Thanks for helping me.

39:13I started something. I did this. I watched a video. I realized I was making excuses. I've started something like I actually really enjoy that interaction with people. And so far, other than the odd crazy moment, it's been pretty good. And those are the extremes, right? Because very occasionally I actually do messages, you know, being like just motivational messages and texts and stuff because I observe you getting lots of negative comments and stuff. and I do wonder, sympathetically for you as my friend, if you're alright. I have struggled at points. It is a mental health rollercoaster, I think, putting yourself out there, which is why a lot of people don't do it.

39:51It's why a lot of famous artists just stop singing because at some point there is a pressure, isn't there? I find that I have a system for helping people, but I get DMs every day. I probably get 200 DMs every day with someone who's in desperate trouble. It's the stand thing right? Eminem stand. Yeah exactly. You haven't written back to me, you haven't responded to me, you told me you want to help everyone. I see it in your comments. So I'm just like Christ, I'd hate to be in your situation. I'd hate that. But it's better, I'd rather be in the arena than not there at all. And of course I can't help everybody.

40:22Well I think the more good people in the arena the better. Just another part of my mission is to bring other people into what I'm doing and like okay I'm not the only one that can help people. right successful people that put their content behind a paywall because I'm like well like let's say Richard Branson for example who was one of my heroes growing up but then I see that he's put his knowledge on masterclass behind a paywall it doesn't matter how much it is part of me thinks well you're a billionaire that's made lots of money out of lots of people in England you could just make all that knowledge freely available to help other people be the next Richard Branson I can't believe someone who doesn't want to pay taxes here and put stuff behind a paywall Well, there you go.

40:57Weird, isn't it? And sometimes, you know, I find myself, I find it a struggle because I don't, I like Richard Branson to a certain extent. Certainly when I was younger, he was one of my business heroes, but it kind of disappoints me. Like he should be fixing the education system. He should be. He has the power to do it and the influence. And we know the education system isn't teaching people financial literacy. Why the fuck not? Right. And he could fix it. His argument might be back that he does a lot for charity. and how much more do you want from him? But a lot of people say that. People say, I do all my kindness behind closed doors.

41:29Why the fuck do you do that? Inspire people, show us. It's because they don't want the fame. This bullshit, he's already famous. Of course he wants the fame. I don't know if Richard Branson went behind that statement. To the point about most people say it's the right. You're not famous because you do want charity giveaway. People should be showing they're doing good. This is my personal opinion. I do think charity is an explosive issue. So if someone who's wealthy gives money to charity, they aren't often met with congratulations for giving 5 million. They're met with why the fuck didn't you give 50 million?

41:59You just said it yourself. In Branson's defence he's giving a lot to charity that otherwise wouldn't I would rather Richard Branson gave his knowledge away and he can still give money to charity but honestly him giving 5 million to cancer research, which I don't know if he's done that, but that would be amazing. I wouldn't be one of those voices saying give more. I'd say well done Richard Branson. But the one thing he's got that most people in England don't have is a lot of knowledge about business. Give it to the people. For fuck's sake. Do you really need that money for masterclass? Really? Come on.

42:31Put it out there on YouTube like I've done. Make it free. What harm will it do? Why not do that? It took me one day to film that video. One day. Right? What's the big deal? The flip side of that is that you are a professional communicator now, right? You've been doing it for five years. So is Richard Branson? It's all right. Yeah, to an extent, for sure. He can do a masterclass, he can do a quick video. He goes on a podcast and he says, his whole entire shtick is just delegate. He very quickly realizes he's a poor CEO, he got out of the way and stuff. It comes back to that whole thing of like, if more information was the answer, everyone would be a billionaire.

43:07Six packs on Nacker Island. I think comparing to Richard Branson is like a poor equation. There are thousands of entrepreneurs out there who are not good communicators. And so they can't do what you do. Sure, well, if they're not good at communicating, that's fine. But if they're good at communicating and they're making shit loads of money as a business person then don't fall into the selling the course for the sake of it. Most people I know that selling courses actually they start off selling courses like without speaking about people you know their private businesses but like it it's not an easy business either selling courses it's it's a bit of a reputational risk for a lot of people.

43:44I've seen it happen good people do sell courses and get a bad reputation because people go into those if you pay money people have an expectation right that's the other thing like my reputation's intact because i gave my knowledge for free people can watch my youtube video it's free oh they don't have to watch it it's fine what would you say to the people who say that to take something fully seriously you have to it's just it's just another see the the argument is that the way you're explaining this argument is and i've heard it many times is if people pay to pay attention right that's the argument well i think it's also the awareness you're talking about and i'm sorry to be pedantic because about five million people watch the video i don't think anyone would dispute that stuff that that kind of value is free but it's the difference between that and five thousand people who pay for it more like turn it into action because they're like jesus christ that's what's your reference point no no i don't know i'm saying that would be the more logical point no one's i don't think anyone's arguing about the awareness yeah right watching something So I've run this experiment.

44:41So I've run it. I've run the experiment. You charge for courses. So no, I've charged for stuff in the past. Let's be clear. My other businesses in both fluid... Clip that up. Right. Can't believe he's done that. No, no. I never said that. I never charge people for stuff. Of course I've charged people for stuff. But I'm saying that I think that we need to be a bit careful with, I guess, self-enforced belief systems that aren't true. So if someone pays to go to the gym, doesn't mean they go. right what makes most people go to the gym is one of two things health scare they have to go they're gonna die back to my taking your want and making it a need that's what makes people go to the gym or they're single suddenly need to look good right they got now they need to do it otherwise they will be single for the rest of their life right vanity or finally there's an element of like peer pressure community so if I'm meeting you every day at seven o 'clock to go to the gym you will turn up because we agreed to go right it's like what's why have people have personal training this morning I was I was there waiting for you the personal trainer thing works for a lot of people because I've made an appointment I paid for it yes okay but most people but I know I have personal trainers the amount of money isn't that much pain for them so it's about pain not paying it's about pain not paying now what's interesting is if people pay that's one level of pain you can create but it's not the most important pain I know many people that pay for things and don't do them right it's just one way to try and cause pain but it's not the motivation for for people to follow through.

46:07It's a good way you could argue of filtering through those that are serious about trying to do it. But most people don't give a shit. Gym owners don't give a shit if no one turns up at the gym. In fact, their whole business model is, if it was true that people paid, they went, they'd be fucked. Because the gyms would be filled up with people that turned up. They'd be like, oh my fucking God. Gyms don't want you to go to the gym. That's the irony. Their business model is anti that. They literally don't want you to go. So they're not motivated to help you get fit. The only gym that would ever be motivated to make you get fit would be one, and this is the model I'd do.

46:34They pair you up. You can only sign up if someone else joins up with you at the same time and you're committed to going together. Otherwise, you can't join up with my gym. That's the gym I'd run. People will turn up and you could only sell probably exactly the amount of membership that could have people in that gym. In other words, if you only have 100 people in there, you can only sell 100 memberships, which financially would be hard for people. But then the gym would work. Then give away the profit. Well, I like that model. I think there's nothing wrong with thinking about what to do with the profit.

46:59It isn't just give rich people even more money. I think that's a disruptor. Purpose, right? It's a disruptor to all business models. If you have purpose, genuine purpose, because I've been involved in companies like that fake it. They're like, we care about people. Do you? Do you really? Like, what do you do to actually help people? Well, we give them a job. Now, you need those people to do that work. Otherwise, your company doesn't have a business, does it? Oh, yeah. But we give them Fridays off. Well, you do that so they stay there and don't quit, don't you? Like, where's the motivation to do something without an expectation of something back?

47:29One thing that, as you were talking, made me think. So what you're asking other people in society to do, what you're asking other entrepreneurs to do, and this would be a fair criticism, right? Because this is exactly what happens all the time with everyone. You want other entrepreneurs to take this inspiration and do the model you're doing now after you already did the last model, which is you made yourself a success. You took all the profits and with your business partners or whatever the thing and your investors, of course, the normal model, right? and you became a millionaire, you became wealthy, and then you went on the very classic entrepreneur journey, sat here opposite, you know, how they all, everyone does it.

48:05She's like, Christ, oh, I know everyone told me, but turns out there was more to just making money. What the hell am I going to do in my life? Bugger, I've got no purpose, I'm lost. I hear it hundreds of times. You've gone through exactly the typical entrepreneur career path, the one that goes well, which is awesome. I wish someone had told me this at 18, though. That's actually what I'm trying to get across. I totally get it, but like you said earlier, and most people need to live that pain, you know, luxurious pain. They need to learn that lesson for themselves. No, they don't. Hopefully not.

48:34He also did say, which I think is the good caveat, is you should fill your cup first, which I feel like, you know, but you did make yourself wealthy and made loads of money. Yeah, but everybody who's working with me will also become wealthy. Yeah, now. Now. People working with me now will become wealthy as well. Now. And so what I'm saying is... I'm not saying don't become wealthy. Yeah. I'm saying, in fact, I'm saying if I went back to that 15 year old me and started that gardening company, I would build purpose into that gardening company. I kind of gave up on the gardening company because it didn't have a purpose.

49:03That's what happens to a lot of people that start a business. I mean, your business is helping people too, right? If you actually look at businesses that succeed, actually the entrepreneurs that stick at it, often because it did some good in society, right? Wherever you want to argue about, even businesses like Google or Amazon, they've done something to make society better in their own way. I mean Google made all information free. Yeah, Google, I mean Rolex is a charity, right? People don't realize Rolex, the business is a charity. So there's nothing wrong with selling gaudy watches that I think are pointless and making lots of money out of it because that money goes into a charity system.

49:34Like people don't realize actually some of the most successful businesses actually have this mindset. Most founders when they leave companies that they take away their philosophy, the business can collapse. Yeah. I mean people like the Yahoo founder, he left, he actually had whole plan to make Yahoo support society right and when he left out all got became just about venture capitalists making money and how can we squeeze money out of this data and they forgot that there was a purposeful business to begin with and then these businesses become who knows Yahoo most of your listeners won't even know what Yahoo is anymore because they lost their purpose they lost their way they lost their founder.

50:09What advice we can give youngsters so if you are 18 19 you're thinking about starting a business. What are the step by step in your mind to doing that? Where should they be focusing their time? Well, I guess it depends on the individuals. First of all, try to know yourself a bit. What do you like doing? What you don't like doing? What you don't like doing? Don't do it. And what you do like doing, get really fucking good at it. Like just double down on it. I love marketing when I was younger. It was called sales back then. It wasn't as fancy as marketing today. But I liked meeting people and then selling something.

50:44I loved that whole transactional nature initially. And that as a skill was like an amazing thing. It's a learnable skill. It's a learnable. So my number one salesperson in my last company was my accountant. She was my number one salesperson. So she was an introvert and she was shy and she was my number one salesperson. So she would go for lunch with her other CFO friends and she'd be talking about what we were doing. oh I'm working with Fluid and we're turning this company around it's amazing and we did this and she was just proud talking to other shy quiet CFOs and then those quiet shy CFOs would go back to their CEOs and say I was just having lunch and I found out about Fluid if you know do you know about and I'd get a phone call and I'd be brought in there to help those companies so I think everyone can learn sales it's just knowing your personality and applying yourself and I think once you know sales you can do anything you're free because it's just a question of selling what you've got right so I think everyone should learn sales everybody that would be my personal suggestion into people i think also just maybe like we said earlier get rid of any limiting belief systems that you've got right just but for one second just think how amazing your brain is it's like this supercomputer and maybe it's not activated fully maybe it needs a bit of reprogramming but like work on your mind you know like that's why i invested in heights right i love products that help people work on their minds you know like fix your brain wire it so you believe in yourself first step second step is like just do something it doesn't have to be when you're that young it have to be purposeful my first business was a shitty gardening company it doesn't have to be revolutionary it doesn't have to be totally unique you don't have to be elon musk you know just like clean windows clean cars you know i've got there's two kids at the moment i'm helping and they're just cleaning parts of london that no one else wants to clean yeah so they're just cleaning up this that no one else wants to clean they're recording it and they're making loads of money on social media and now they're getting booked for cleaning jobs there you go you know like i just think that people are too precious and overthink it spend a year traveling if you can like just live cheap keep your costs down that's what i say to young people don't get into debt if you can help it how do you square off living your purpose and cleaning just for the sake of making money well purpose comes in different forms of different people those two twins uh the kids i'm talking about they're living in one small room with their three brothers and their mum and they just they need to provide for their family and they want to build something that helps their family so So purpose can start there, can't it?

53:02Why can't it just be you want a better life for you and your family and you're willing to do anything to make that happen? I think that's not a bad start. I think as they succeed, I'm 100 % sure later they'll help other families in similar situations. Maybe they'll set up a charity. Maybe they'll just work to build a business that funds people to get out of poverty. They were homeless themselves as well at one point as a family. And the twins haven't seen their dad in 17 years because of the immigration problems in this country. They can't get their father into the country because they think their father's going to come here and suck off society or something.

53:32Don't cut that up. You know what I mean. I don't know. The point I'm making is... Don't worry that their dad's going to suck off society. It's an excellent clip. That's going viral. The point is, you want a viral clip and I've given it to you, so go suck yourselves off. Thank you for the title, finally.

53:54So really good advice, I think, is when you're young, go work for an inspiring, brilliant entrepreneur. Be close. You sound like Dan Priestley. That's exactly what he says. Yeah, he does believe that. And I think that's great advice. Yes and no. I would say half of that advice is right. Yes, go work with someone. I would say to people, try to think about what purpose looks like, right? Because when you see purpose in people, like when people work with me, they're like oh wow i know what it looks like i know what purpose looks like now because sometimes you work in companies you work for people that don't have purpose you won't know what this is right so go work with someone who's got purpose not just go work for someone go work with someone who's got purpose because it's infectious and you'll learn you either fall in love with that person's purpose and be a part of that company or you'll learn what it looks like the second thing i'd say that's different to dan and dan's a good friend of mine so i can say this hopefully about insulting him is that ask for equity where you work you've got nothing to lose go there be cheeky ask for equity they'll say no they might even laugh at you but i'm a boss of a company and people ask me for equity i smile i'm like they get it equity is the only way you can scale don't sell time now maybe at first you have to sell time but don't make that your end goal don't get stuck selling time ask for equity at the beginning of the interview if you ask for me for equity in an interview i smile i'm more likely to give you the job people might not like it as a who's giving this tip to people to young people bosses aren't giving it to the young people because they don't want them asking them for equity and people that are bosses are busy complaining how hard it is to be an entrepreneur like but won't for one second go work for someone else

55:21i mean on the equity piece obviously what daniel pc would say if he was here is yeah why don't we bring him up and ask him yeah i can't go into fucking tesco and say can i have that sandwich it's a bit of my equity yeah yeah so what but it's a long-term play so yeah i mean sure you can just take a salary and you can buy your food at tesco's but most people want to go to waitrose these days anyway and if you want to go to waitrose you need to own equity sponsored by waitress but you know it doesn't matter you know yes definitely pay people yeah but when you're young i think the thing that made me rich i think is that when i was young and i could afford to live low cost i lived low cost and owned equity and eventually i sold equity for huge amounts of money yeah so you get rich from equity you don't get rich from a salary it's just impossible everyone knows it but in school they don't teach you this you don't sell time it's not scalable right so sure at the beginning get a salary to cover your cost of living But don't forget to ask for equity.

56:12That's the only difference I would say with what Dan says and what I'm saying. It's like, make sure you at least try to get something that's scalable. How come you don't go around the street giving people shares then? Might you just do that instead of giving them five grand? Because I'm helping them start their business. They don't necessarily have to work in my business. But anyone working in my business has equity. Out of the 14 people, there's only one that doesn't have equity and he's over there. But everyone else has equity. A hater. Yeah. A splitter. People in front of Judea. So, okay, but coming back to then actually just giving money to people to start businesses, what have you found is the difference between the ones who actually take that opportunity and turn it into a success and the ones who just take the money and they want to do it, but something gets in their way and they don't?

56:57I've written a whole book about this, which is, you can pre-order right now, a bit of a plug. I've already done that, as you know. Okay, good. But you don't need to buy the book if I tell you it now. The basic principle of the book is about this. It's like if you want to get rich, if you want to be successful, the irony is you need to help someone else do it first. That's the framework people need to live by if they want to be successful.

57:23Yeah, I don't know if that answers the question. Not at all, actually. That was an awful answer. I did a politician answer. I did a politician answer. I basically answered the question I wanted to answer. Plug my book. No, it's fantastic. Thank you for answering the question. We'll buy your book. If you could just answer the actual questions. You know I have. I sent you a screenshot. I was straight up there. Have you put the book? No, yeah. What a prick. He's sponsoring my platform. You know, I'm straight up on their screenshot. Yeah, cool. Little comments. Anyway, answer the bloody question. Go on, go on.

57:49What's the difference between someone who you give five grand to and actually does the thing successfully, right? Makes, and I'm also like successfully like exit. I'm talking about really gives it a good go. And I'm sure there've been plenty of people who take the five gram and they want to. There are no bad intentions. I'm not trying to suggest that. they just don't do it. What's the difference? Yeah, so very loaded question by the way, because an element of like, if I, like your first business failed, right? So people gave you money, you tried it and it didn't work. Yeah, no I'm not saying successful outcome, I'm saying, but I still did it, right?

58:23I still went into the arena, I still did it. Yeah, but you failed. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so most of the people that I'm giving money to in the street failed. Of course. So, but, and this is the interesting thing, there's two things that happen. one is that person wakes up right they're aware now that it's possible even if they go and try and start their business their photography business their whatever business that they say their dream is and it doesn't work at least they're not living with regret they try to do it most people try to do it the second second part of it is the people watching the content by the way is the people that i'm helping the most the 50 odd million people that watched the last video tens of thousands of them have gone i'm making excuses too i know this because they say in the DMs.

59:01I've started a business because I've been making excuses and now I've started. So it's actually often the person who watches the video, not the person in the video, that we've had the most success with. One interesting thing, I do two forms of content, right? One is I go into the street and ask people what their dream is and they tell me. And now we have a second way of making content, I guess, where people can go pitch their dream to our doorbell. Really interesting, nearly everybody that pitches to the doorbell starts and everybody I bump into in the street. So the street stuff - I can see that because - Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

59:30It's a correlation. But they've already begun. There's a bit of effort. You've gone up to someone in the street and been like, here's money. They didn't have to go anywhere doing anything. But there's an important thing I don't want people to know. No, no, but still, you have to at least go to Twickenham yourself. Even that, you were talking to me earlier, like I hate traveling, I can't even bother to, et cetera. People are getting patterns. It's effort. And no one gets anywhere in business or in life, especially business, without a shitload of effort. Right. So making it a bit hard is a good thing.

59:55The street content within within our model, we describe it as fun education. Yeah. And the street content stuff. I love I love meeting people. The truth is it takes time for people to unplug from their existing trap. Yeah. Some people are in desperate trouble. I meet them in the street. They can't they're not paying their bills. They their brain will not allow them even though they've had that lucky moment. You could argue and I've I've promoted their dream and they've got millions of people. but we promoted someone the other day. They got 36 ,000 followers in 24 hours on their Instagram. It took me a year and a half to get 10 ,000 followers.

1:00:29I love it when I can transfer my following to other people's following. But even then, they're scared to do it. They're scared to do it because they're trapped. It's like my favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption. And the guy's been in prison 50 years. And when he gets out, he just wants to go back to prison. You mean Red? Oh, no, the other guy who carves his name. Yeah, yeah. But that whole point is like, sometimes people get institutionalized. So I've noticed it depends on the age of people. if they're young more likely they're going to do it as they get older they start making more and more excuses and they get trapped in middle class life if you've got a mortgage and kids it's much harder than you've got no mortgage you've got no kids it's just fact and and and now instinct to look after our family is so strong it overrides our instinct to have a happy life so a lot of people get trapped by their middle class life and so there's nuance to it even the street content that i feel like i've been on like a human data insight human behavior insight thing for the last five years because I see people literally come alive when they talk about their dream but they don't do it so why don't they do it and often it's circumstances it's their upbringing it's their personal situation financially I know some people for example who are in so much debt they can't do their dream they just literally can't operate they've got so much debt their brain won't let them yeah they're just scared all the time and so the part of the brain that allows you to be creative start something you love just isn't even on it's died it's yeah yeah okay if we were starting today and we hadn't got a platform and we didn't know what to do what would you give us what is your advice that how would we go and be successful in the world according to simon squibb you're a free teacher because we're not paying for this i mean number one number one um go watch the simon's good video on youtube it will give you all the foundational knowledge you need done that and then join communities like helpbank.com and others that can give you support and knowledge and guidance and become your first customer.

1:02:21All of this stuff is free. And I honestly think that if you're not building a personal brand today, you're making a big mistake. Because even if you're an introvert, you should build a personal brand. Maybe pick a platform that suits your personality, but build a personal brand. Unpack that a bit. What does that mean? What does personal brand mean? As in like building a personal brand as an introvert? Well, I mean, it could be, for example, that you like to write. So get on LinkedIn and write every day. Share your process, your knowledge, your frustrations, your hopes, your dreams. Just be yourself, but be present.

1:02:54Be raising your profile. I have a friend of mine who was fired as a CEO, quite high profile guy. Can't get a job now because he's got no social media presence and no company wants to hire a CEO that can't bring that to the table. It's amazing that shift, isn't it? So I think, and I get job offers every day to run quite big businesses because I've got a social media presence. and I think it's I'm waiting to hear that from you I will get back to you very soon would you want me to run heights? or just assist him to the junior marketing manager would be nice as a role, if you're looking I will give it some consideration just think about it can I have more equity?

1:03:33I think the same thing can be said to young people in jobs if they build their personal brand they kind of get a perfect blend of you get carrot and stick in your organization. Totally, yeah. And in any hiring decision moving forward. And then you give yourself optionality to become an entrepreneur or do a side hustle. I think anybody who's in a company right now should think about a side hustle being their personal brand build within that company. If you're an intern, then document the story and what you're learning for future interns to look at. And for the boss will definitely read it. And that will help you stand out.

1:04:06Thing is, it's difficult. All of this stuff is true. And I agree with you wholeheartedly. on a personal level. I only started doing this stuff about a year ago, maybe 18 months ago, because I felt like I needed at least a decade of value experience, et cetera, to have the credibility to be writing. You've been doing podcasts for eight years. Yeah, podcasts, but no social media. Of course. That's B2B business brand. So maybe people, again, go back to what we were saying earlier. When you're building a personal brand, it doesn't have to be a business profile. So you've been building a business profile for a long time.

1:04:41So I think people should start that straight away. You don't want to be famous for the sake of being famous. I'm not saying go and become a big influencer. I think it's a pain, unless you've got a purpose. But do build your personal brands. But certainly if you're, I don't know, for example, even going to medical school, you should document the process because you build yourself up and give yourself another revenue stream for potential. I think optionality is the thing that whenever anyone asks me, I'm like, why wouldn't you, especially if it's low touch for just writing like why wouldn't you and then your optionality the moment that you want to do anything else is so much more vast you've got endless opportunity once you've got and i always say to people people on my channel has always asked like how many followers do you need or how big and it doesn't really matter to an extent if you have a decent size audience who you know are interested in what you have to say that's the beginning of the build You know, that's the beginning of when you started, you had a small audience.

1:05:36Zero. I had zero. I started with zero on all channels. Yeah, well, as everyone does, yeah. But I suppose it's just the beginning is the part where it's actually quite hard to get going. So if you're doing it in a light touch way anyway, why not? Don't buy followers. I mean, it's probably some principle things. Like I know a very successful entrepreneur who's bought a lot of followers. Did you? No, not you guys. And their engagement is zero. So they do a post, they got a million followers, but they got no engagement. And so we know, because you can see it as someone in the industry, but people have got a million followers.

1:06:08And then you're like, well, you just did a post and got four likes. It's about building authentic engagement. It's better to have 100 followers with 50 people engaging in your content than a million with five. It's just people need to learn basics of how it works. But if you're a personal brand, I think it's also like going to the gym. It trains your brain. totally so i've been doing content for five years when i first started doing it i was so awkward i mean i i consider myself an extrovert i'm a pretty good salesperson i like marketing but it was awkward and i've got good at it and i think that's the thing it also gives you another skill set if you do it every day we post on linkedin every day it gives you another skill set it also teaches you discipline and it shows you compound over time yeah you know my instagram for example I've just got 450 ,000 new followers in the last four weeks.

1:06:56It's taken me five years to get to where I was four weeks ago. Yeah. Right. Compound. When you're talking of compounding, on your deathbed, got your family around you, what are your regrets? What do you think you might have missed out on? Well, I'm trying to make sure I don't have any regrets because I know that is one of the things a lot of people later in life, they regretted what they didn't do, not what they did do. Right. What you did do is a story. What you didn't do is something you missed and you'll never know. So I don't want to live with regrets. I sometimes say, because people ask me what my regrets are, and I try to dig deep and be very authentic about it.

1:07:28I regret the fact I don't have a relationship with my mother. I find that nothing I can do about it. She's still alive today. We just don't get on and we have fundamental different moral code. I'm not saying she's right and I'm wrong. We're just saying we are very different people. And I'm kind of sad about that because my son doesn't see his gran. I think because I've traveled all over the world, it's been the most amazing experience. I've seen what China looks like, I've seen for real, not what the media tells us. I've seen the world and I love it, but I've also found it hard to maintain friendships.

1:07:57So I have in my life maybe three deep friendships and I've let a lot of friendships go because I've experienced the world. So sometimes I not regret that, but I reflect on that. Can you go back? To the old friendships? To the old friendships, to your mum? To my mum, no, for lots of reasons. Primarily because my son has a lot of food allergies and she doesn't believe they're real and she keeps trying to feed him stuff that will kill him. That's right. I have food allergies so I feel you. Right. Yeah. So my mum's like, none of you kids had a problem. Here's some nuts. I've got an EpiPen in my hand.

1:08:29Please don't do it. But I mean, at that side, I think - To the friends then. No, I think friendship wise, I've made friends again with some of the people that I used to worked with when I was in England before, before I left. And it's actually been nice, but we're very different. Like when I hang out with them, I can't really talk about Hong Kong because I'd be like Hong Kong's amazing, it's so much better than England. I'm like, well, why don't you just fuck off back there? You know? So it's like, there's a part of me that like has changed and I have to mentalize it when I sit with certain people.

1:09:02And I mean that with respect, they might listen to this. It's like, I have to be respectful to their life and I can't be boasting about how I went to Asia and made hundreds of millions and they're stuck in their shitty town. It's difficult to relate, but I have enjoyed trying to rekindle because you've got childhood memories and things you did when you worked together, the fun things you did when you were younger that are hard to recreate new friendships. I think it's really important, actually, as a message. I did 11 years at my first company and I worked every minute that there was to make it succeed, and I pretty much lost every friend that I had.

1:09:37And then there was a moment with COVID when COVID happened and suddenly I couldn't work as hard as I previously were. I couldn't travel as much as I previously worked. I was just stuck in my flat in London. And I remember it being like a knee jerk. And I was like, oh my God, where are all of my friends? Like, where are all the people I grew up with? Like, I don't have any mates. And suddenly I was like, shit, I really need to put the time in. And so I actually try and say to entrepreneurs, like, try not to silo too much because when you put your head up for air and you're suddenly like, okay, I am really wealthy.

1:10:07I have succeeded. I have hit all of my dreams, but I literally have no one around me to celebrate. It was cliche, isn't it? It's cliche like the biggest cliche ever. Like you sell your company, you buy the expense. Like I bought and it's an embarrassment, but I bought a Richard Mill watch when I sold verb, which is obviously an expensive watch. And it's the thing people want to buy and so forth. It is like the most embarrassing thing I ever did. Like you don't, you don't care about it the second you succeed. The thing I cared about was I hadn't connected with any friends and about five years and then I went on a mission to try and get my friends back.

1:10:41If you'd have bought them all a Richard Mill watch they'd have been your friend again. Immediately. I'm not sure I made enough money to do that. I've got a couple of friendships and one good example a friend of mine hopefully won't mind me mentioning his name his name's Dirk and I met him 25 years ago and one of the things I love about him he's German and that's not what I love about him but what he said was the only good thing about the English is you're not French and from that moment onwards we became good friends just laughing about culture and he uh but one thing is um when he got married that weekend he got married i had the biggest event i'd ever done with credit swiss out of hong kong worth millions to me and probably one of the most biggest one of the most important projects to my company at the time and it was the hardest thing in the world i said to him i cannot go to your wedding i've got this work thing right the amazing thing the reason we're such good friends today is he knows me he understands he's like simon i know what you're doing is important to you and you're building a life and the reason he's still my friend today is because he said i understand as that's friendship without judgment that's what i mean yeah i think i think so sometimes it can also be an interesting filter which is a hard expectation to put on ordinary people well yeah to be so savvy but maybe also it's if i was taking your advice which i think is very sound i'd probably add something to it i'd probably say you know not only don't lose your friendship but also work on having the right people around you you know like i i have worked on that i've worked on surrounding myself and making the effort with people that I know have the same alignment as me.

1:12:06I like working. I don't want to be embarrassed about working. So I tend to have friends that like working. And I know this is really bad and a lot of people don't agree with this, but this is my opinion. I also like, I become friends with the people I work with in my company too. Like if I don't like working with someone, they won't be in my company. That's it. And in fact, that's why I have them as equity owners too. So we're in it together. I don't want to be the boss. And I enjoy, I might one of my sad things when I sold fluid was I actually accidentally sold my family yeah in a weird twist right when I sold it of course everyone listening is like it's an amazing experience to sell your company and that money drop in the bank account don't get me wrong it's like it's a magical experience but after about six months I'm like the people I work with there was like how you doing guys you're right yeah like why is no one messaging yeah well you're missing me you know like remember when we used to go for hikes together and you know like and And so there's a part of me that was like, I don't really, I don't really, I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but that's why I probably won't sell a company again.

1:13:00I like building up something with people and then they're my friends. And I know that a lot of people say, don't say your colleagues or your friends. It's a football team. You can't say anything like friendship, but I really like working with certain people. And I like people that like working, especially around purpose. And I lean into that as friendships now. I thought it was, I thought I was clever when I sold my last company, because what I did is I brought someone else in to run it. And when I sold the company, they didn't need me. I didn't do an earn out. Like everybody who sold a company normally has to do an earn out.

1:13:28I was clever, accident genius, and I didn't have to do an earn out. Which means the day the money dropped in my account, I no longer had anything to do with the company. Unless I wanted to, which I didn't think I did. But that also, like, it's going cold turkey. It's like a relationship breakup. I had a very similar experience. Yeah, and I don't mind telling people listening. I cried. I was sad. I had, like, highs and lows, just like grief. You know, and I did message a few of the people there quite a few times. Are you guys okay? Are they treating you well? You know, like, it's a new number. Who does?

1:13:55Yeah, who does? Why is the old boss managing message? Yeah, yeah. But I do, I do like, I do make friends with the people I work with. And I know it's perhaps not best business advice, but I personally enjoy it. I don't want to work with people. I don't like working with people. That does depend on the business, but I don't like working with people that I don't like and I wouldn't be friends with. And I want to waste time with people I don't like. So everybody in my company has to be my friend if they like it or not. Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, they've got no choice. The chains that you brought all your prisoners in today are lovely.

1:14:27They're really comfortable. They love it. Very quiet. I pay them and they have equity. Except one person. They have to love me.

From the publisher

Discover how entrepreneur Simon Squibb is taking the world by storm with his unique approach to business. With billions of views on TikTok and over a million YouTube subscribers, Simon is breaking all the rules by investing in total strangers, helping them achieve their dreams.
In this episode, we dive into Simon’s inspiring mission, his strategy for generating viral content, and why he believes this is the future of entrepreneurship.
If you’re curious about how to create viral videos, invest in people, and build a purpose-driven business, this is the episode for you. Don’t miss Simon’s incredible insights on the power of generosity, creativity, and community.
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