How Small Creators Land Big Travel Sponsors

0:00I've asked my eight-year-old son, who we home educate, to join me for this episode. he's going to try and answer some questions and help some people today as well right you're never too young to learn business one plus one because 11 yes the purpose of life is a life of purpose see he already knows all my sayings so today we have four callers that have a dream and a blocker something that's stopping them from making it happen and we're going to try and figure out how to help them push it forward i need your help in addition we have someone that didn't know their dream when i met them they've now figured it out and they're going going to come on the show today and tell us their dream and we're going to see what we can do to help them.

0:36I want to thank our sponsor High Level today. We have built a special purpose built tool for you within High Level. You just go to gohighlevel.com forward slash Simon says, check it out. I promise you it will help your business. And thanks to them, this podcast is profitable and we can build tools like helpbank.com to help you for free follow your dreams. So go check out High Level. The link's down below. You get a 30-day free trial. You've got nothing to lose. And this tool could help you. You like high level, right? He doesn't know what high level is. Our first caller is Daniel Sheehan.

1:17Daniel Sheehan. Apparently he's saying no. Daniel, are you there? What's your dream and how can we help you? Hi, Simon. I'm there. Can you hear me? We can. What's your dream and how can we help you? Yes. So I was on the podcast with you just over three weeks ago. And you helped me work out my dream, which was to help other people have the same travel experience that I had for myself in the first half of 2025. I saw your YouTube video on this. It was brilliant. It got good views as well. Well done. Thank you very much. You gave me the advice to start sharing my journey online because we worked out the problem I'm trying to solve for people is that so many people don't want to take that leap to have those travel experiences they truly want.

1:54And I want to stop people having those regrets. So we came up with a name, which was I wish I did that when I was younger or on socials. I wish I did that travel. Since then, thank you for your kind words. I've taken action. I've started posting consistently on social. The support's been amazing. I've got just under 100 YouTube subscribers, 20 followers on TikTok, 130 on Instagram. That's been great so far. I'm very grateful. Amazing. Personally, what I see right now is the next step for me and my biggest obstacle as I continue building my audience, what I'd love to do is be able to get a travel brand to take a chance on me as a creator with a small audience and support my mission okay give me opportunities to sort of create content around content around real trips reach more people and sort of build credibility to inspire people to go and have those experience and to do that to address that what i've already been doing is trying to follow your advice that you've mentioned on other podcast episodes to reach out to businesses and brands who align with what i'm trying to achieve i've sort of been telling them my story and really trying to sell the fact that i just want to inspire people so they never have to look back with regret and I'm just trying to get one brand to take a chance on me, to partner with me and support my journey from the beginning as I continue to grow what I believe could be one of the biggest travel channels with a real purpose to help other people have that life-changing experience that I remember forever.

3:09You're on it. So what can I do to help you today? No problem. I was saying so far I've reached out to a list of brands. I can tell you I've been unsuccessful of all of them so far. They told me they aren't looking to partner with anybody right now, but in reality I believe it's because it's the small nature of my profile and they don't want to put that investment into somebody that won't give them that immediate ROI. So I'd love your advice as a small creator who has a big purpose on how to secure a partnership and get that brand to take a chance on me. That's really going to help me move the needle forward on that mission while still providing value to them.

3:39Because I saw your business video about sort of getting a sponsor or a partner. There's sort of the value you can provide them as a value sort of sell or an emotional sell. I've gone with the emotional sell and I really want to get a brand who can take a chance on me and really give me that opportunity. Yeah, so look, I mean, with brand partnerships it's something you just got to keep digging into never say none of them have said yes yet i think sorry never say that they have said no right what they have said is they haven't you might not have spoken to the right department first of all so sometimes the right person is as important as the right company and so if if you say you have a mission beyond just you making money that's also another element right which you have so i don't know like there's a couple of different ways to get a brand deal in this sort of situation one is an affiliate deal so you can say look if you don't want to pay me how about every time i get a booking i get a percentage of that booking and then you can make content like you did with your youtube video and then you could ask your followers to go book something through that for that affiliate link so if you can show some revenue and you can actually get commission then you don't need to get their permission you just need an affiliate link so that's a different department affiliate link sometimes but that could be another cool way to go and then another way to go about it is to kind of say right i'm going to take someone on holiday because they told me they're living with regret and i'm going to take them on holiday and get them to sponsor the holiday i mean for an airline or travel company sometimes that's a lot easier than say just giving you cash to do something so you might want to go slow and build up a case study with one company now honestly this is why I say people get your cost down and you have to apply yourself because initially it's going to be hard to get a sponsorship deal until you've got some case studies proving that that social media stuff's going to work or that your your following is going to convert into income for that brand but again they might sponsor a holiday for someone that perhaps can't afford a holiday they might support you that way initially a lot easier than they will just give you cash for sponsoring something you just want to get them on board once and then try and scale it and you have spoken to every single travel agent you have spoken to every single airline you've spoken to every single person who's running any sort of airbnb holiday related experience right no of course not right now but there's always more people to contact so i'm walking exactly exactly you you should be this all the numbers game in sales right you've got to contact 50 people now when you contact them what's your opening line uh my so i say my name is daniel this is what i do and this is my mission okay this is what i do and this is my mission I think you should start off like no one should live with regret and so many people can't go on the holiday of their dreams and do live with regret.

6:41And I'm trying to change that. Right. That type of vibe and say, I'm just starting out, but I've got the backing of Simon Squibb, who is going to promote my channel and support me. I need to use that angle. But yeah. Great. right but i also think you could go and start looking at how you could take one family on holiday for example who can't afford it and maybe initially get them to sponsor something like that so initially you reach out and say please sponsor my channel they'll probably say no you haven't got the numbers and you go back and say how about you give me an affiliate link so i can send bookings your way and if i do that share some of the revenue and you could also say so look will you sponsor one family i'll take them on holiday we'll make content around it and you'll be making a difference to someone's life because that might come of a different department to their marketing department yeah that makes that makes sense um yeah i've been using different different platforms to try and target people from different departments and trying to reach through to the right person um would you with sales can i just say can i just say to you that you know i have a sponsor called high level right i'm they're my sponsor so i have an agenda to promote them but they're such a good product are you using that system to follow up on all your leads and keep an eye on all the different people you're speaking to because you basically need something to say to them every single week are you using that tool no i'm not why not use it it's a 30-day free trial anyway just use it you need a system for sales basically the i i built one of the largest agencies in asia and basically i got the top 50 brands in the world to work with me and i did it by every single week reaching out to those companies with something new to say so at first you can just be an intro they may or may not get back to you and next one is like a bit of industry news shows them where it's all going in the travel industry for example and then it could be like an insight as to how another company's doing it really well marketing wise travel marketing and it could be a story about someone who can't go on holiday that you want to help like i just described a minute ago as an option you know but you need something regularly going to these people and you need to be keeping a very close eye on when was the last time you spoke to them because your mind will play tricks on you you'll think i reached out to two weeks ago and they said no so i won't reach out to them for another month no reach out to them again just don't sell hard when you reach out to them again maybe you can update them and say hey my video's just gone live with simon squibb and hey look i'm now doing this show them that you you're serious you see what i mean yeah absolutely is there any possible connections in your in your network such as travel brands who you think may be willing to take a chance with me and test a collaboration of this sort no okay no problem at all i i say no look i don't want to become the guy that has to go out there and get your your deals for you i that would not i worry that won't teach people how to do it it will just mean they need to get hold of me to do it that makes sense i mean absolutely and so you can use my name you can leverage luck you can leverage the luck that you've got everyone needs to leverage their luck right i just had an interview uh with phoebe gates bill gates his daughter right she's leveraging her luck good luck to her why not i i think it's smart to do that you can leverage your luck right but i i will not be a good education channel if i do it for you okay you need to do it and you and don't worry you will do it there's no you don't need a white knight like me to come and do it for you you can do it and once you can do it by leveraging luck and pushing all the buttons of following a system and leveraging tools at high level i promise you it will happen and you'll be so grateful i didn't do it for you right no 100 trust trust me it sounds a bit hard when i just say no and i feel guilty but but i know if you learn to do it i'll be giving you a fishing rod not a fish most definitely i want to put in the work i don't want handouts and i want to achieve for myself um if if i may um i just want to mention obviously i saw your i saw your new workbook yesterday sort of the announcement sort of teaching kids business and it really resonated with me because you know your mission of trying to fix the system and help it set people up to follow their dreams and solve a problem in the world is something i really believe in and sort of applies to what i'm trying to do in a way um i'd love any opportunity to contribute something that could add value to any launch you're doing sort of like if you have any upcoming events we might be putting something on if i could have an opportunity to speak to any young people sort of share my story maybe talk about how the advice from your book or the lesson you gave me has to me to take action or hope any host any sort of workshops for these i'd be very grateful for any opportunities that may arise your passion for helping other people really resonates with me it's one of the reasons i want to see you succeed thank you for that offer and i'm very proud of the kids book that i've released so i'm very very grateful but please do me the biggest favor you could possibly do and just focus in on your dream right now let's get you working let's get this working right dig in and then you can help other people later because you'll be strong and financially successful let's make this work all right dig in okay great thank you very much all right but thank you thank you for being a kind human being trying to help others appreciate you i believe i believe that it comes around it comes around to you if you're trying to help others so if there's any anything i can do that's true but but but just make your idea work it's a really good idea we won't no one will live a regret if your idea works that's what i want sure well like this baby you can do as much as i'd love help to sell my book i'm really grateful for that i'd be even happier if your idea works so that you enjoy what you do and you help other people have the experience you first described to me when we first met, everyone deserves that experience.

12:26So let's just make your idea work, okay? And then we'll come back to how you can help others. Most definitely. Okay, I'm going to keep working on it. Appreciate you, man. You're a superstar. I'm really proud of what you've already done. Really, really good work. Well done. See you soon. Thumbs up for Maiden. Cheers. Did you hear any of that? Can you hear what you're saying? Oh, you were so good. You didn't hear any of it. and you were just sitting there you're such a good boy all right guys my little one has just left to go and play he was listening to that whole episode without even hearing in the headphones what the dream was what a patient little boy he is i feel so proud of him remember kids don't do what you say they do what you do so i'm trying to show him helping people is the way to live our next caller is sev sev are you there do you want to share your dream and how can we help you yeah hey simon thanks for having me it means a lot so my name's sav and currently i'm in dental school in the UK and I'm building something that I believe solves a problem most people don't even realize they have until it's too late so my dream is is kind of simple um it's it's basically I want to take make I want to make taking care of your teeth as normal and engaging as going to the gym or using a Fitbit so right now people avoid the dentist it's expensive it's unclear and I just saw on the BBC, I think, a few days ago, how there was a massive waiting list for an NHS dental clinic in Bristol.

13:53I'm not sure if you saw it. Main reason is because it was due to COVID, right? So COVID caused a massive backlog in the system. Dentists are unable to treat the patients due to this massive wait list. So you either have to wait three years, two to three years for an NHS dentist or you go private. For some people, going private means that it's too expensive and they can't go to NHS unless they have any family. So I want to kind of build that middle ground where people are able to connect to that private dentist, but on an accessible level. The way I'm doing this is through a platform called SmileShield.

14:30So I've bought the domain, I've created a website. I haven't trademarked it yet. I haven't got the funds for that, but that will be coming up soon um but basically what it is it's an app and i'm going to be partnering with private dentists a private private dentist in the uk and the way i'm going to do this is if i get enough people onto my wait list i'm going to go um to each clinic in the areas so in major cities like london uh manchester birmingham and i've got um two clinics that are happy to do it as as long as I've got the patients but I need about 20 patients on my SmileShield um app and then I'll be able to take then I'll be able to do a um a one private dental checkup one hygiene 10 % off any private dental treatment up to 50 pounds because that's the maximum that I can allow uh with the amount that I'm getting and I'm going to be doing this brushing and flossing tracking system so like a habit habit tracker in the app so i've actually spent weeks using lovable and cursor all of these to try and make a prototype and i've pretty much got the design prototype all the apps ready but there's just a few bugs that i'm unable to get past and i've got about 31 people on my wait list and basically i feel like so this whole thing will work for 67p a day,£19.99 per month.

16:00And I can give you this whole package where I've got this whole system called SmilePoints. Someone brushes in the app, they click brush, there's an interactive two-minute timer, they wait for it to go down, they're brushing for two minutes, they get 10 points. There's a flossing, interactive timer, one minute, they get five points. So you get 15 points in the morning, 15 points in the evening. And then using these points, you can then get rewards so things like tp brushes to maintain your oral hygiene every single month you get got it you get electric tooth got it yeah gamified you got it you've gamified brushing your teeth exactly get it what do you need what am i here to do what can i help you okay i know you hear pictures all the time and i won't ask you to just like write a check on the spot but if this sparks something in you i think there are three ways that you can help make me help make this happen so I think number one you can mentor me or help shape the go-to market I think I feel like you know how to build audience and make noise number two I mean this is unrealistic but I would want you to co-founder it with me if the vision aligned help this turn this into a possible MVP and to a mass scale and three back it financially or if through helping me raise it or connect with angels who want to support preventative health.

17:17I don't just need money. I need leverage, clarity, and someone who wants to support preventative health and sees the big play. It's not just a dental app. It's like a behavioral health platform, starting with the mouth. And I think we could, I think we could build something huge. Okay. So first of all, thank you so much for thinking of me as a co-founder, as an investor. It's a real honor and a privilege when people want to do that with you so you know i'm not a dragon on dragon's den sitting here with the money like oh my god you know pitch to me it's an honor when someone asks you to get involved in their business so i i see your quest for me to become a co-founder and investor in this as an honor okay so thank you thank you for giving me that sort of respect the other but the thing i'm going to say to you is going to be a little bit like i'm definitely not going to be your co-founder and i don't have time to mentor you and i'm probably not going to fund it okay so all three requests i'm going to deny but i'm going to give you an important lesson here that i hope will help you go on to be very successful with this right first of all i genuinely think it's a good idea okay i think i think you're on to something the cost of dentists and all that is a big problem and the gamification of generally brushing your teeth is pretty pretty interesting so i i think i think you really got something interesting here and i sense the passion in your voice okay right what you want to do i think is find people that are equally passionate about this as you the reason i've said no to all of it is because my mission is what what is my mission to help people's dreams come true and fix the education and fix the education system yeah so so so so by fixing the education system people will be able to make their dreams come true because we'll give them all the knowledge they need right so and so this does not directly align with that and so if you're pitching to an investor you want to try and align it to their mission and what they do typically what their investment thesis is right i'm not a big fan of p i'm not a big fan of peter teal okay but his whole thing is he will invest in monopolies he would invest he would invest in monopolies he'll invest in businesses that control markets right that's his whole investment thesis and so when you're when you're pitching to an investor pretty important to just think about what they want to do what they're spending their time on and then align your business with it or not if it doesn't have any correlation now you know you could have pitched me and you could have said simon um i want to help people uh fix their teeth and smile and we'll use the profits to fund people's dreams then i'd be a little bit more interested right because now we're talking about aligning a business idea to a mission that matters to me you see what i mean yeah all right now let me just finish off by saying to you something really important just before you interrupt me okay let me just say this to you you don't need a mentor you don't need money both these things have been planted in your brain as a reason to not move forward okay you don't need money because you're using lovable okay and then what you're doing right now as an mvp is you're getting customers all you need to do is convert it into some sort of revenue okay because once you've got revenue revenue solves all problems and this is probably the wrong idea because i don't fully know your your business model but let's say if people gamify looking after their teeth and they get a certain amount of points you could do a club model so i right now i know the problem i'm paying privately to go to the dentist my kid is going privately to the dentist and every time we go it's 250 quid exactly so if you said look if you said look pay 15 quid a month almost like a mini insurance company and if you do all these things on the app to brush your teeth and blah blah blah it will be 10 pounds a month right so you reduce the cost you could probably get it sponsored by colgate or one of these like lion king toothbrushes that everyone's selling you know like it's like think about it that way think about like a reoccurring revenue stream and so i think then that money could go into a pot and then each month there'll be one person needs to go to the dentist and the other five people are fine they don't need to go so you've managed to pay the private dental care through this kind of this kind of gamified monthly model right yeah now i think i think the rest businesses actually make 20 quid a month profit and then it's much easier also to get an investor they'll come chasing you by the way you'd get colgate who have loads of money i'm not a big fan of colgate either but i don't i don't use colgate myself personally but conceptually these brands spend so much money on TV advertising and they're really struggling to connect to customers through TV advertising now, right?

21:58So they need to spend their money elsewhere. Why not spend it with you? Fine, yeah. They can, yeah. But my reason, my also, a quest that I also want to do is I feel like a lot of people in our generation, they don't understand the importance of oral health. They don't really care. They'd much rather spend... get it man listen and rather than i get it that's a good mission listen i get it i don't have time to talk about it now yeah i get it i get it i agree with you instead of spending 7.99 a month on netflix i should be spending 7.99 a month on their teeth 100 but the two are not exclusive so do you need to make them the enemy or just make brushing your teeth an easy thing fun thing gamified thing to do yeah right exactly you're on to something you're really on to something but please don't worry about needing an investor and needing a mentor just go ask the one question of the people that you think have the answer because if you ask for a mentor everybody good is going to say no unless they're charging in which case most of the time they're not good right yeah so like just just believe in yourself just a little bit more and realize that you can make an income stream without needing to go get investor money because you get investor money you're using lovable it costs next to nothing to make an app now right if you go get investor money you've got a new boss yeah so that's last resort last resort and you don't need it you're still studying your costs are probably all covered by your student loan debt yeah right so like leverage that time don't get an investor unless you really need one dragons 10s taught us all to get an investor it's a mistake you don't get an investor unless you really need one okay is there one thing i could ask you one last thing um so one more thing you mean just one yeah so um to make this happen even without like i'm not thinking in the mind of funding because that's sort of like a trap i just need people to join the wait list if i have enough people if it concerns them then i can make this happen i was wondering if you would be able to shout me out or just give me some push in the market direction because that's what i believe you're really good at have you pitched to the doorbell of dreams not yet because i'm not near that area but i'm in i'm in like where are you i'm in plymouth which is like four hours away from london you never and you never go to london no i do go to london but i'm in uni right now so it's yeah so scheduled to go to the doorbell of dreams which is exactly i've set up something to try and help you promote yourself okay you have to get there and do it it's a four-hour trip why don't you like get a sponsored bike ride brush your teeth why don't you make a bike into a toothbrush and ride from Plymouth to London and get it sponsored as a charity thing and start your marketing why don't you see these problems in life as an opportunity fine get a toothbrush bike and ride from Plymouth to London and broadcast it and get it sponsored okay yeah sounds good all right good luck let me know when you're doing that I'll definitely come and see you and I will put this clip out about you as well don't worry I'm I'm being hard on you for because I'm trying to help you you understand Yeah, that's fine.

25:10We all default to the lazy option. Just promote me, please. Instead of the systems that are there to help you already, people don't use them. You see what I mean? Like, oh, I'm in Plymouth, I can't make it. Creativity. If I say no to you, then you have to get creative. Create a toothbrush bike and ride all the way to London to pitch your dream, right? Yeah. You'll probably get on the news if you do that as well. Yeah. Like, come on. You know, like me saying no to you is a good thing. It makes you fight. Exactly, yeah. You feel it? Yeah. yeah fight man fight creativity wake up that creative brain fight okay yeah this has to happen your idea has to happen otherwise people's teeth are going to fall out come on yeah okay thank you all right mate yeah good luck thank you see you soon stay in touch okay our next caller is william matthews william are you there whoa okay we have a new thing you are here on the screen with me what's going on william how are we doing uh i am good i'm the co-founder of oyster holiday cottages uh letting agency in north wales uh we look after 100 cottages and our dream is to grow the business to a thousand cottages um our biggest challenge apart from growing to a thousand cottages is how do we remain personal to our owners to our customers and the local communities that we have a presence in.

26:37A lot of the owners that are currently joining us are sick of the big boys who lose these kind of important factors and we don't want to turn into one of them if we can avoid it. I think it's the wrong question you're asking. Do you think? I think it's not so much not being like our competition, but instead like what makes you unique and then staying true to that. So for example, on what I do for the last five years. I've never charged anyone for help. You know, I've released a video that I could have made tens of millions of dollars at US dollars out of it, right? But I've always stuck to this principle that I'm going to help people rich or poor.

27:16I mean, you're not poor, clearly. I'm still helping you, right? I'm not charging you for this help. I think you've got to figure out what is your USP and just make sure it's core to your product. I wouldn't talk about competition. I wouldn't make anything negative about that. You don't need to. Whatever they do is whatever they do. you know you don't need to be negative about them i want to know what's special about you and then i want it to be core to you and then how can you scale that core value yeah no that makes sense um and thinking about a few of our usps at the moment i think we again using that word competitive but we try and be competitive with kind of a low commission that we charge to a lot of our owners uh but i think the most important thing for us is being kind of hyper local um visiting all our houses every year to make sure that the standard is good for all our customers staying in them and make sure we have good communication with all our customers as well.

28:11So keeping those beliefs as we grow are probably quite important. So I remember now I met you in Borough Market, right, and asked you to come on the show. You did. Okay. And I think the opportunity for you isn't anything you just said. I think the opportunity is like helping the homeless. so some of your profit used to help the homeless because you know a property business to me it's a little bit of an interesting one because of course people make money out of their property and that's perfectly fine by the way but there's so many people that can't afford somewhere nice to stay i love the idea that you take some of your profit and you help the homeless i would use your service if you did that i've never used your service but i would i would go out of my way to use your service if I knew that this business did more than just save money for property owners and made more money yeah and since you said that one thought that's been going through my head a bit is um well two actually one we're sick sick of paying google loads of money for our ads so that led me on to why not go and meet people in cities in the northwest that come on holiday to north wales uh and try and sell them holidays and then every let's say 100 holiday 100th holiday we sell it's free and it potentially goes towards a homeless person or somebody that can change a life um for which which could be quite a nice way to go about doing it um but yeah again you can work with a homeless charity like shelter you know you can you can do so much around this i if i were i i avoid the accommodation business just as a complete like sector because i just think it's It's just a really dangerous place that it's in right now.

29:50There's 250 ,000 homeless people. It's a really difficult one. I know there's money to be made in it, and I have no problem with people making money in it. I just think that we should also think about what damage it's doing as an industry and how can we, you, you're part of the industry, help those that are suffering because property – a nurse right now can't afford to rent. A nurse right now can't afford to buy. We can't afford to pay a nurse more money. if you gave a holiday cottage to a nurse for example with some of your profit even that is begins to give like a little bit of relief maybe the homelessness side is is is hardcore and i do think there's an opportunity to do good in that space but like just and and you come across as someone that really does care about people you know i'm getting good energy from you it's like why not push the business to do good when it when it has that edge like if you gave a nurse a holiday I'd also go out my way to book a holiday with you.

30:44You know, like I'd go out my way to spend money with you above all other people because I know that you're trying to help people with your business. You see what I mean? Yeah, no, absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. And I think, you know, people would buy into us a lot more as well, kind of across the board, which, you know, by doing it, everybody wins in many ways, I think, which is also a good thing. i also think more people will list with you more people want to be associated with you because i think sometimes businesses that just make profit fine that's you know 97 percent of businesses just make profit and and keep it for themselves but i'd love to see businesses that are doing good you talk about community quite a few times in your opening about what you do like let's invest in the community and that means helping those in that community that can't afford a holiday that can't afford to have a place to sleep you know like it just makes a lot of sense to take some of your success and you will make more money if you do this as well and i don't think there's anything wrong with that at all i actually think charities should be a little bit more we need to make money yeah you can make money you can solve problems yeah and i think i can see i can see you growing quite quickly if you take a mission on board like yeah again i promise i'll use your service if you do that and if i use your service i'll go there i'll go on my social media I'll post about the fact that I've gone there and then 17 million people will see that.

32:11Do you think you'll get a customer if that happens? Yeah, I generally think we will. Do you know any good companies that we can have a look at that have done this well?

32:25Again, I don't want to. No, no, don't worry. I mean, how many people do you know doing social media for social good and fixing the education system? not many people uh yeah so i didn't i didn't have to have a benchmark of someone else yeah i think about like yvonne chunard or whatever his name is just patagonian he started one percent back for the planet as as an example but things like then when he sold the company he gives all the money back that's legacy right there right we're not talking about zara are we you know i mean like we're talking about this is incredible and this is this is the opportunity you have as a business owner and i get really excited about it because i can sense you're really thinking about it now i don't want to be um you know i i think it's a good question to ask who else is doing it well i think that's a fair question but i would say to you do it your own way what i think you need personally is a content strategy that's all it really is you know you what you need is you need a way of justifying it as a business model yeah right so if you if you do this which i sense you want to you need to have a way of doing it that's not going to hurt your brand that's going to actually follow through what you promise but probably market it so that you can bring money back in to justify the investment in doing it right if i just told you to give up 50 of your profit right now you'd be like oh my god no but if i say giving up 20 of your profit now can lead you to being a hundred thousand times more profitable five years from now yeah a bit of exaggeration they say they say 10 000 times more profitable now right i definitely think you can go from 90 cottages to 900 in two years if you follow this strategy i'm 100 sure really right wow 100 sure of it but you kind of have to have chicken egg right you have to i think these days to get people behind you you need to have a purpose for people to want to work for you young people aren't lazy they just want to work with people that have purpose that's what i've seen the young people that work for me are not lazy at all they just want to work for something that has a meaning bigger than just making money money is important young people want to make money but it's also important to have a mission that solves some of the world's biggest problems and you have an opportunity to do that yeah absolutely so if you want help just to figure out content strategy i'm very happy to have my team help you on that that's actually what i think you need i think the model is a little bit up to you i would say 25 goes back to either a homeless charity yeah and you work with the homeless charity to help the homeless because it's a complicated issue or you help you know a nurse a week have a holiday paid for by your company and and they make content around that experience and some something along those lines yeah you decide ideally it's something that matters to you i mean i don't know you know what a personal issue could even be supporting the cancer foundation if you wanted to go off left field and away from my idea but like yeah you know i think i think it's something that you feel you can promote there's nothing wrong with promoting you're doing good i think this is where a lot of people go wrong they think somehow it's wrong to promote doing something good i think the opposite if you promote doing something good it encourages other people to do it and it lets me know where my money's going beyond just putting it in your pocket so you can buy yourself another car yeah no it makes total sense i would love to speak to speak to your content team and um you you never know it could be we could could end up doing both things um but yeah having that content strategy in place i guess is um that's the key isn't it to make if you if you can if you commit to putting purpose in your business in this way i'm happy to commit some of my team's time to help you with content strategy okay that's a deal all right what are you going to do next what's your plan next uh my plan next with the business we are i mean the big plan for us is well create a purpose but no um apart from creating a purpose we are constantly we're we're only a year just over a year old so our our big thing next is um looking at every element of the business and making sure it's working correctly uh so we can grow to the next you know 100 houses uh and not worry about spinning plates too much i guess that's are you profitable next step uh just about we're not paying ourselves properly yet so hopefully uh you know in the next six months we'd like to think that we'll be we'll be in a good position i didn't know that when i said when you say 90 cottages i just assumed you're profitable we need to get to you to comfortable profitability all right that that's a but ironically having a mission might help you get there so let's do a follow-up let's do a follow-up please message message me after this and i'll get some time with my team to help you with a content strategy and i'm excited because i think that your business linked to a purpose could could help a lot of people have a better i think i really think we could yeah yes i see it all right good thank you for taking the time to come and share and thanks for being open to to business model change no definitely and uh thanks for being ambassador to banga football club as well which is five minutes away from here oh you bet oh i didn't know that oh that's yeah that's uh yeah i'm i'm uh i would never thought i'd be an ambassador for a football club but yeah i'm proud to be i was in banger high street recently and uh was impressed with what everyone's trying to do there to turn that town around so oh great awesome yeah good excuse i'll come and visit at some point likewise see you soon bye wow do you know what business has a role to play in fixing the world's problems and that's why you know i get really upset when i see but brands like starbucks not paying their tax um yes you can get through all the loopholes they're not doing anything illegal but like do the right thing you know give back to society businesses for good are the future you want to have young people work for you and be motivated have a purpose that matters right wake up this is how you do business now if you're just taking i promise you long term you're going to get disrupted by people that care our next caller is declan natras declan are you there and what's your dream and what's your problem hello simon how are you i'm good how are you i'm good thank you so tell us what's your dream what's your problem so basically i have a business idea and it's basically sunglasses with like snapping replaceable parts like maybe the use of magnets because there's nothing else if you drop them and the lenses pop out as i've experienced recently when you pay like 200 pound plus and you when you drop them on the floor and then the lenses pop out so instead of buying a new pair when they break you can just swap out the parts such as like the frames the arms the lenses it will make it like obviously more affordable for people sustainable it could help save the environment as if people could like send the broken parts back to be recycling the new parts i love it i love it so if if i normally say no one's going to copy your idea and then I hear an idea that someone could copy.

39:17I hope Ray-Ban's not listening. So tell us, what do you need? What's stopping it? So the main blocker will probably be what most people struggle with is probably have any capital to start, like, to get any startup costs. So what could I do that would help acquire the funds to start a business? And another one would be, like, the lack of knowledge with, like, legal admin hurdles such as permits and registrations to, like, get the ball rolling and just roll and start the business. what do you do right now to make money uh i am in the army right now but i leave in three more months wow so big big change is coming yeah big change in the army and the army what did you do yeah basically just a driver really that's all not much mate don't put yourself down man driver in the army that's that's a big deal yeah and uh you you've you've serviced to help people that's why you got into the army yeah yeah i'm looking why did you get into the army um just there was nothing really going on at home i was went worked a few factories worked at kfc once and i just thought might as well go and travel the world for a few years see how it is all right nice how old are you i'm 26 do you have kids and no no okay so why this idea it's a good idea by the way but why this idea why if you could do anything you know you can go do anything in 26 you've got the whole world joyster why this I was just obviously out I was out on holiday I had some sunglasses on my head they fell off my head fell on the floor and then as your lens popped out and there's like most sunglasses now are about what £200 plus for a decent pair and I thought what could what could I do to make it cheap more cheap more affordable for people instead of buying a whole new pair of sunglasses you literally just buy other part and then just click in with like magnets or something like that yeah yeah i'm trying i'm trying i'm trying to like just get my head inside your mind for a minute this is a good idea it is a complicated idea and um you know i don't want it's so tricky this is so tricky what i want for you initially step one is like a stable income so what are you this let's assume let's call snapping for a second let's say snapping is going to happen but what's your plan when you get back home like when you stop being in the army what what is your plan just put this to one side for a second what was your plan uh so me stepdad works offshore so i'm trying to get into the fiber optics offshore i could try and do a course and then obviously do that really go from there fiber optics offshore what what are you talking about yeah what is that so it's like obviously like do all the bt stuff like obviously what the wi-fi and the wi-fi so you'll basically go offshore and install wi-fi and like the all rigs like wind turbine platforms why that job of all the jobs i don't know it's obviously my stepdad's been in the offshore business for the past 10-15 years and i thought he makes good money and it's enjoys it and it's not much different it's not much different what i'm doing now we still travel in the world and seeing places yeah all right okay it's so true we are always going to be um a reflection of the five people we hang out with right so this is a good example right you you know someone that's doing a thing and now well first of all do you want his life do you want his life not really i'd rather have my own my own life okay and that and i i get that's even hard to say because he might be listening so no disrespect to him right but like you've got you've got to think that way you've to think this way right you're 26 years old you can do anything right now or anything and and and that route you're going down there sounds like a very hardcore thing to me have you got any savings uh no not anymore no not anymore i put all my savings into a car when i got back from work and obviously the car broke and now i'm obviously i'm going to try and get try and get the money back oh god i just want possessions that end up owning people how much was the car there was 8000 oh jesus that's your um three three to eight months um yeah money i think think about what next yeah i went away for six months you get that money back um i'm trying i'm trying to i'm trying to go to court get it back but you see i'm trying to blame me for the problem so it's a bit complicated well that's hurting my head just thinking about that all right we've got to get that money back for you because that's a bit of breathing room right there otherwise you've got to come back get straight into a job right and i'm a bit worried that you're going to dive into something and then you'll be stuck because this snapping idea has legs but you need a bit of breathing room right because i think the truth is for an idea like that there's a there is an mvp way to do it like a simple way to do it get a pair of sunglasses and do a prototype but you just need time so what i always think about like is what can you do to make money while you get this thing going and so i don't know why i don't haven't met you but like security firm but you can you don't have to travel too much you're not like offshore rigging sounds mental to me like yeah how much money do you need to live what's going to be your monthly costs for i probably live on a thousand probably got no I wouldn't have got my phone built up here for really and then how long have you been in the army six years six years in the army you've got no savings don't they kind of I can't this is madness to me even you had eight grand you spent on a car yeah but like other than that no savings six years working in the army no Jesus what did what did you spend your money on I don't know honestly couldn't tell So, yeah, just day-to-day life, really.

45:12Right, okay. Probably not having much to spend on. I understand. The good news is your£1 ,000 a month costs is really, really, really good. That's a healthy, low level of cost. So what we want to do, I think, when you first land back in the real world, is we want to get you an income stream of£1 ,000 a month, right? I have to think. Do you know I need you to come back on this show? I need a bit of time to think about this one. I don't think I can give you an instant answer. I kind of need to dig in a little bit to who you are a bit more. I want – what's the most creative thing you've ever done?

45:49The most creative thing? I haven't really done any of the creative at all, I think. Not that I can think of. Okay. All right. I kind of want you to tap into your creative side a bit because the glasses snap-on thing is giving me, like, creative vibes. It's a creative idea. I think you've got a creative muscle in your brain that needs a bit of exercise. and so what i want you to do come i want you to come but you've got three you've got three months till you leave the army right yeah you're my new project before you leave the army we're going to come up with a business idea that makes you a thousand pounds a month profit yeah okay so that after that you can spend time figuring out this snapping idea yeah okay so what we need to do is come up with a way where a thousand pounds a month initially you might have to work quite hard to build that out but then it's going to become like something that's just uh almost like a business simple business that makes you money for example this isn't the right idea but it's example you could run a i post up for people their social media posts and you could probably make a thousand pounds a month profit very quickly because people haven't got time to put up their videos and stuff you do it and you make a thousand pound a month profit and that'll probably be like one or two days a week of your time max and then you can and then you then you have a three or four days a week you own that time and you haven't got someone sending you off to oil rigs every month right so you see what i mean like i just want you to get you some basic i would have hoped six years in the army they were giving you a thousand pounds a month pension you know i'm kind of like shocked um yeah anyway uh that that aside um you know that that that for the next three months so in 30 days time come back to me with some ideas how you can make a thousand pounds a month but maybe think about a service business okay think about a business that is going to be like something you can do this is probably the wrong idea but you i haven't met you but maybe you'd be a good bodyguard maybe you'd be good at protecting people they teach you in the army how to fight right yeah a little bit yeah you know like a thousand pounds a month being a bodyguard would be like on a saturday night four four times a month that'll give you your grand to cover your costs and then you've got time to work on this idea because this idea is good but it needs a bit more work if i tell you to go raise money like a dragon's den thing you won't even know what to do with the money right now you haven't been given the skill set yet but we can teach you it i think yes how does that sound should we work on this as a next three month project you have to dig in though right come up with some ideas how you can make a thousand pounds a month without having to work every single day of the week and don't worry about making big money like your friend that can come when you own your time only your time is the most valuable asset you can have right and then doing something you enjoy doing is important so in three months time worst thing is you get this oil rig wi-fi job but i think i think you can do better yeah thank you all right so come back to me in 30 days time with some ideas we'll have you back on the show we'll see how you're progressing we'll try and figure it out before you leave the army all right all thank you good man appreciate your service thank you so much for protecting us all right mate see you all right so guys uh very exciting we have uh this week's spotify poll response this week huge numbers got involved in our poll right this is going to blow you away this week eight people responded to our poll i've got 17 million followers something's wrong in it but we're going to keep trying because i'd love to hear what you guys think so this week's spotify poll how long would you dm a clarkson level influencer could have said me but no how many times would you dm before you give up and think they're just not going to respond what do you think um our eight voters said was the uh the top answer okay you got once one to three weeks 30 days until they respond.

49:48What do you think is the number one? Now here's the crazy results. Are you ready? Here are the results from the eight people that voted. That's crazy. Exactly two people voted for every single answer. So we learn nothing about how people think, which is why I need more of you to get on Spotify and fill in our polls so we can figure out what you guys know and don't know. Let's do some myth busting. Figure out what the limiting belief systems you have or the incorrect belief systems you have. So get on Spotify and vote. We can do better than Nate, right? We can do better than Nate. Okay, next up, we have our next caller coming up in a second.

50:32Just before we do, I just want to say a big thank you to our sponsor, High Level. It's a product I actually use. I really believe in this product, otherwise I wouldn't have it on the podcast and promote it. It is, and we've created something new around this. So I'm going to read it so I get it right. Because otherwise I'm going to get told off for not saying it right. Okay, so we've created a special system in High Level for helping people keep track of your outbound and follow up with automated emails and texts. Doesn't that sound exciting? Right, and the link's down below. You can have a 30-day free trial.

51:02And it's thanks to High Level that this podcast is profitable, which means we can produce this content for free, help people for free, and we can fund people's dreams. And invest in platforms like helpbank.com. I can't even say my own company name right now. Let's have a title again. Helpbank.com. We are also able to build platforms like helpbank.com to help you with your dreams and help you have funding, community, and knowledge for free to do what you love. But I use High Level. It's an all-in-one CRM system. If you want to get a business to work, learn sales. And tools like High Level help you structure out your sales to ensure a successful business.

51:41Knowing sales and using tools for sales will guarantee a successful business. And it must be true because I'm waving my pencil, right? So go down below, click the link, gohighlevel.com forward slash Simon Scrib. Nope, got that wrong. gohighlevel.com forward slash Simon says to check out the system that we built for you to help you follow your dreams. Okay, caller number five.

52:12Lily, age 14. What's your dream and how can we help you? Hi, Simon. Hi, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm okay, you? I'm good, cheers. Tell us your dream. Yeah, okay. So without going into too much detail, my dream is to become the youngest sports, specifically football, broadcaster in the Premier League in BBC, ITV, whatever. OK, what was the what was the previous record? The previous I don't know. I'm not sure. But whatever it is, I'm going to make it happen. I like that. You've got to do your research a little bit. If you're going to be the youngest ever, you need to know who was existing already the youngest.

52:58um i'm sure someone on the internet will let us know but um but i i love your ambition and so um what are you doing to make it happen okay so um at the moment obviously i'm in school i live in southwest london um so at the moment i write for my school newspaper so because i actually play football for the school team i often write reports afterwards so that's all at the moment but I am I love my writing I've been writing for a very long time I actually for my Duke of Edinburgh I did as my skill I wrote on Premier League games so I watched them I chose one to watch every week regardless I watched them anyway and I would write on them and I really enjoyed doing that and I haven't done it in a couple months I'll be honest but I really do I'm very ambitious about it and I'd still love to why have you not done it in the last couple of months what's what's happening well i guess obviously i was on holiday school's been really busy i've just started year 10 but no i'm definitely still very ambitious about it okay i'm going to be honest with you school is going to distract you from following your dream right because school is all about memorization exams go to university get a job okay yeah your path is different if you're serious about this and i'm sensing it's very easy for you to be a bit flaky about it right it's like i want it but these are the things i get told are more important no you have to tell everybody your school your parents your friends this is what you want you know what it must take to become a pro footballer right dedication yes the diet sleeping exercise focus right so why would it be any different to be a sports broadcaster it wouldn't be any different right it's not is it no you need to be really disciplined you need to get a good night's sleep you need to exercise you need to make sure you're eating well and then you know what you need to do you need to make content every day until you are so good that sky and bbc one are in a bidding war to get you on yes so and by the way i don't know what the youngest ever sports presenter is just looking at jay to do the research he's just staring at me but we'll find out we'll find out but i'm pretty sure you haven't got much time right so you're in a race and so you have to get disciplined and again honestly you want to tell your your school your teachers this is what i'm going to do and so you know you want me to do homework i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do the homework that's what you want to say and it's going to be really hard because the peer pressure is going to be oh well if this doesn't work out your dream then what are you gonna do don't worry about it ai is taking most jobs anyway so you might as well just follow your dream right by the time you get into university and come out the other end whatever job anyone else tells you to get probably won't exist so tell them no i want to be a broadcaster we only regret in life what we don't do all right i don't want you to get to 23 and say i didn't follow through because school told me I had to memorize something about biology.

56:15Right. Right. So you tell the teachers and the school, sorry, no, I'm becoming a sports broadcaster. And so I don't have time to do your pointless homework. And even your parents, get them on side, right? They need to back you on this, right? Because you're going to be making... I know they are. They wouldn't let you on this call otherwise. I know that. But what I'm saying is, you know, like, you have to back you. and you have to start saying no to things aren't related to this okay now uh zidan from pakistan became the youngest sports commentator in the world at nine years old in 2019 so your goal should change a little bit right i think you should become the most popular sports broadcaster ever and you're going to be on tv by the time you're 18 doing it okay all right manifest it so exactly You've got four years to do nothing but practice the craft of being a sports broadcaster.

57:13All right? Yes. I'm going to promote you so you can start getting some followers. Do a post every day on social media. TikTok, Instagram, either a written commentary or an actual to camera commentary or a voiceover commentary. Yes. Right. You can play a football clip and do a voiceover commentary if you don't want to be on camera yourself. Okay? Every day. Every day for the next four years. If you do it every day for the next four years, I 100 % guarantee you'll be a paid sports broadcaster. 100 % guarantee it. If you miss one day, your chances will drop by 0.05%. Yeah. You understand what I mean?

57:59Yes, understood. So you can go on holiday. You should go on holiday. But you can still make a broadcast. You can still do a post. you can go sit on the beach and still do a post right you can batch record on a monday so you can take tuesday wednesday off but you're still posting tuesday wednesday do you understand yes no excuses you you you have an incredible opportunity because you're young you know what you want you just need to focus you up for it yes i'm very up for it i'm excited for you so i'm really really excited it's going to be brilliant all right what's your social handle call do people want to follow you you need to come up with a like a sports broadcaster name a made-up name like gary lineker so good isn't it so so you need you need your one well at the moment do you want me to tell you go on then do it so at the moment my handle is just lily underscore 07 15 11 all right why that number is a relevance that's my birthday all right well you want to change that before someone breaks into your future bank account but uh i think just Lily Gallagher.

59:02It's actually quite sports broadcaster. Perfect. Just get the handle Lily Gallagher and if it's gone, just do SB sports broadcaster at the end. And manifest it. It's going to happen. Yeah. Alright. Hold on. What is the coach that people keep saying I look like? What's his name? Oh, Eddie Howe. Apparently, I look a bit like Eddie Howe. So, if you ever need Eddie Howe to help you with any of your broadcasting and join you as a co-host in the future, feel free to give me a call, alright? I will. Well, fair enough. I do see it. I do see it. I know. Apparently I've got to... I can't talk at the Howie Talks, but go Newcastle.

59:47Oh, there we go. There we go. Alright. Awesome. I'm excited for you. Can you let us... I'm going to follow you and let us know how you get on. Come back on the show in 60 days' time. Come back on the show and let us know how you're getting on. Let us know how many teachers or how many people told you no all right i want to take account it's going to be a little scorecard how many people say it's not possible i'm telling you right now it's 100 possible if you focus right thank you so much see you soon see you bye all right that's it that's today's show what a great dream to end it on um she's definitely going to do it can't you see it I can see it.

1:00:25Let's follow her. This is a community show, guys. So go and follow her. Go watch her journey. Go support her journey. No one can do it on their own. We all need a little bit of help. And don't forget, like I always say at the end of the shows, right? Simon says, touch your nose. Simon says, touch your chin. Simon says, follow your dream. And Simon says, subscribe anywhere you see this show and support us. Thank you and goodbye.