MBA2548 From Michael Jackson’s Bodyguard to Martial Arts Franchise Mogul with Matt Fiddes

34:16And because most of the competition, if you want to call it that, we don't really see competition as not really martial arts. It's more after school activities like soccer, football, rugby, and violin lessons. Because most of that's been wiped out. And people were scared to spend their money when they come out, thinking this is going to come around again. i went out there and i always say observe the masses do the opposite so i i knew the franchises were going to spend their money on advertising instead of holding them their grants their handouts from the government to the hold to their chest and i get that but i had to do something radical to to i saw this as big opportunity no one else is advertising on facebook everyone's too scared facebook prices gone down so i went out there bam i used my own money and i grew it from a 30, 40 million pound valuation.

35:04I want Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 coming out of that and Franchise of the Year 2022 and it got valued at 120 million because I had the guts to go out and do what others don't, which I learned very early on. First of all, we have this amazing KPI CRM system where I can type in now and I can see an overview of all my schools and I've got graphs. If they're going down, there's an issue with the retention, client service. We need to jump on that, find out what's going on. I've got a team who will go and look at that. If they're not growing, they've got an issue with the marketing. And also every eight to ten weeks, they have a colour belt system where they go for grades.

35:41If we have a high failure rate, there's a problem. Maybe if there's too much of a pass rate, we've got a problem as well. We need to go in a Zoom there. So they are checked. And we have mystery shoppers and random people. Plus, people know. There's an issue. They're right to head office. So we are high on the standards. That's why we've been around for the three decades now and leading the industry. We go out of the way to keep that there and monitor our team. We have MF University, which is internal, where it's a never-ending journey because things are changing all the time with education and safeguarding laws and so on.

36:19And I put my team all through it. Recently, they thought I was joking, but the laws change so much now where all my instructors have to go on how to treat transgenders and they all went through that and got that certification. So we're very much hot on that. And that's really my job to protect my name, my brand. We've been extremely successful at that. Occasionally it will go wrong. Someone will mess up. But you have to take that on a chin and that's business. Brush yourself off and get on with it. A lesson learned. Let's move on, you know. And so, yeah, we're high on the standards. It is difficult to do, but I don't know.

36:56Again, it comes down to the fact I don't know you're different. This is all I know who's franchising. I'm franchising so many businesses now from bird tables for birds of prey to HMOs, which is houses of multiple occupancy, people don't know. We rent the rooms out. Yoga, Pilates, just about to franchise nurseries, childcare, MF nurseries, dance schools. We've got a lot of them, MF dance schools. Same business model, different subject. So we've got this thing down. But yeah, you've got to open the front door as wide as you can to get new students in or clients in. You've got to shut the back door as tight as you can and give them the best services you possibly can.

37:38That's the key to success in business. There's only really three areas of business, which is marketing, being as loud as you can, being out there, social and mainstream media. There's still a place for mainstream media. The second part is sales. If your point of service is so good, you don't have to do that. It takes care of itself. I don't believe in all this high-ticket sales nonsense. So you don't need all that. It's around with people's minds. If you're that good, people buy. And the third area is service, what you get to do. Most people just focus on the third area, coaching, mentoring. And unless you're good at area one and two, marketing and sales, you've got no one to mentor in the first place.

38:13They don't get their head around that. So as a franchise, I take care of the first and second part for them. They just turn up and they provide the service. So with 1 ,800 franchises, with all the different businesses you're running, You obviously had to build a strong team because you're only as strong as your team. From the last 20 years, you've been trying to get your net wealth to a certain point, build your business to a certain point. You're on your way to a billion dollars. What role did recruitment have to do in your journey? And what were some of the mistakes that you wish you avoided when it comes to hiring the right people in the right places?

38:49Yeah. Well, the mistake thing, that's like a whole different podcast. I think I could spend a couple of hours with you on that one. because you know what, that's where the real lessons come from. And when I'm on stage at entrepreneur events, and I'm not talking about martial arts, I'm talking about business in general, because it's all the same principle. Most of the entrepreneur mentors don't speak about their mistakes. But behind the scenes, that's our biggest lesson. Now, I make a point of talking about my mistakes, and it's interesting, you watch the crowd move. They sit forward and they start taking notes and they start thinking, I can relate to this guy.

39:22It's not just Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and all the rest of it. He's been on antidepressants. I've been on antidepressants. He's been for a divorce. I've had a divorce. He's tried to commit suicide. I've tried to commit suicide. I've been depressed. They get it. And I think the mistakes are the biggest, biggest lessons. So for me, I had to have a couple of wake-up calls. And I love people, if any, they take nothing else from this podcast to understand from somebody who's been there, who's been broke with nothing, with a strong family unit, to someone who's considered to be very wealthy now, what really matters.

39:59Now, this is the honest truth, right? So today, I'm not asking people to be sorry for me because this is where I've landed at. When you get to your destination sometimes, it's kind of shocking because everyone's after this dream. But when you actually arrive there, it's not like you think it is. So my wife has to make a tremendous effort with me because she'll find me sitting in, we've got this incredible home. I mean, it's insane. overlooking these amazing hills. And she'll find me sitting there staring outside to the scenery. She'll say, what's wrong with you? And I'll be like, I just want to be successful.

40:32Man, you've got everything. You've got six kids. You've got a wife who loves you. You've got a Lamborghini. You've got Ferraris. You can do anything you want. But the reality is once you get past a certain net worth, which I believe is$10 million, there is nothing else to do so the biggest lesson is if you want to go past 10 million you're going to incur a lot more stress you're going to kind of work out do you want to do that because there's only you could do everything on that that's like the new million by the way that's what i believe so 20 years ago 25 years ago a millionaire is something millionaire now will hit you anywhere 10 million is new million so i've got all these properties of everything the issue is is that you become quite paranoid people don't relate to you because they gotta go to work nine to five or night shifts people my age look at me as not normal you know it's not right and and when i come off this podcast i've got no plan for today i've got such a team in place that are incredible i'm only gonna get a phone call people are gonna ring me when there's a problem that's it so my day is gonna be quite negative people only call out matt for this when there's something happened a suicide in one of my properties for instance last week or a heart attack in one of students in one of classes somewhere no one's going to ring me to tell me positive things my biggest mistakes have been my biggest life-changing one so the most hard-hitting one for me is my mum although my mum and dad were very much against my martial arts pursuit that I can make money obviously they became raving facts in the end they're like so proud of my son their son you know best friends of the superstars and always in the magazines mega rich i could change their lives you know they all they could do but my my mom she self-educated she had four sons i'm the oldest she was a legal executive which is before you become a uh lawyer account a lawyer attorney or what they call it in australia over there's attorney right i think she self-educated my memories of her is study study study she wants to provide a better life for us four boys.

42:46And my dad and my mum swapped roles. My dad became the house husband. My mum could earn more money than him because there was a major recession in 1989. And that's what she had to do. It made my dad quite depressed because he wanted to be the masculine role, providing for his family, although he did a wonderful job. But mum always had this little belief where she'd whisper in my ear that there's no such word as can, Matthew. You can do anything you want as long as you believe it. Even though everyone else is telling me, you're failing your exams, this martial arts good thing, She wouldn't say it in front of them, but she'll say to me, there's no shit where this can.

43:16Just believe in yourself and you'll be okay. Because she's managed to self-educate herself. She became a solicitor at 42. So she qualifies as a lawyer at 42. And then we went to her graduation, and she calls me up. She says, Matt, I've got six months to live. I've been diagnosed with breast cancer. And I went and saw her. Now, me thinking I'm Mr. Big Shot, all these famous people. She knew Michael Jackson very well. and lost all my other famous friends. I was worth a lot of money. Don't worry, mum. We're not normal. I've not worked my butt off all my life. We're going to get the best professor out there.

43:53We're going to get you the best healthcare. We're going to beat this damn thing. Anyway, we have National Health Service over here. The next appointment for her to have a full breast removal, mastectomy, was three months away. Shocking. So I wrote out a check. Don't worry. So I wrote out a check. I'm going to get you in. I got her in two days. And she had both breasts moved, done. And she went into remission. We got her through it. No problem. And then she kind of lived her life. She travelled a lot more, realised what was real to her. Becoming a solicitor, probably she blamed getting breast cancer on the stress of becoming a lawyer.

44:32A lawyer. Who was just after that, literally, all the studying and so forth, bringing up her family. Anyway, sadly, when she was 52, she got rushed to hospital. And we had this thing in the UK, I don't know if you guys had it around the world, but called the swine flu. Her lungs basically filled up with water fast, and she had to be ambulanced in. I'm at the hospital at the end of my mum's bed in hospital, and he turns to me, my stepdad, he said, I think we both know this is not swine flu, Matthew. you know and i looked at him thinking because we got warned when the first spout of cancer that there's a good chance to think about within eight to ten years that's how it works back then it's how it worked i was looking at them before world we could be dealing with the big city again and said yeah i think so and she had tubes coming out of her lungs into buckets literally like that with fluid and they were taking the fluid away sure enough they tested had cancer cells in it and she was riddled with cancer all over her body lungs liver secondary breast cancer.

45:33So at that point, again, I still wasn't having it. As I said to one of my younger brothers, we're going to hunt out the best out there in breast cancer and we're going to tackle that. We flew to Dublin and I spent£50 ,000 on experimental drugs that weren't licensed yet to try and save her. It nearly killed her. It was just chemo was the most horrific thing ever. Yeah, she passed away. She passed away just a few years later at 56. I was 32. I was divorced. I was single at the time. My daughters were seven, five, and four. And when you're stood at the side of a grave and your mum's going into the ground at 56, and you're looking at your daughters and their nannies that you're trying to explain to them, and I've got all this mega wealth and success behind me, and I couldn't save my own mum.

46:23I'm thinking, screw this. All that matters to me is those three kids now. That's it. I couldn't even care less about finding another partner. I just want my babies to be okay. I don't need to make any more money. I'm done. I've got enough property. I couldn't even say it. I was just traumatized by the whole thing. It was like unexplainable how my success and my wealth, and my famous friends, by the way, were ringing around for me. So Michael Jackson and Yuri Geller and people were ringing. Because they were two of my calls. I was like an unknown back then. but everyone everyone would return Michael Jackson's phone call everyone would call him back for minutes so he would ring out and we couldn't save mum and I was just absolutely fascinated and that big mansion I had then as well two o 'clock in the morning pacing the corridors on my own I'm like the loneliest guy on earth I think this this is not right I've got all the supercars on the driveway I've got a multi-million pound house but and I was getting battered then Michael died Michael died and then one of my siblings tried to copy what I was doing.

47:33He was very close to me and didn't work out, but kind of split the family. Hence why I don't speak to my dad. I understand him now. I was young in my 20s. They couldn't get their head around my success. I was probably a bit cocky back then too. I mean, how can I copy? I went for our reason in my 20s and most famous friends in the world. So my biggest wake-up call was losing mum. And then a few years later, my kid's granddad, my stepdad, who's like a dad to me, he wrote a letter and he couldn't take Luke without mum anymore. And he, yeah, I mean, there's no easy way to tell you, but he hung himself on a tree in the garden.

48:05Killed himself. Yeah. So mum gone, dad gone. Biological dad is out there somewhere. I've got six kids. I got married again. I've got three with my first wife, three with Monique. We have an amazing relationship, me and my ex-wife and the first three children. But that is the ultimate school of hard knocks. That is what makes you reflect and realise. So from that point onwards, I dedicated my life to building generational wealth for those six kids so they don't have to worry about money again. Because I believe most divorces, sleeping problems, alcohol, bad relationships, they're all caused by the lack of money.

48:42And I've got this incredible knowledge from the most incredible successful people in the world, which I can pass on. And I know they'd want me to do that. I know Michael Jackson would want me to do that. And Mohamed El-Fahad would want me to do that. and everyone around me. And success is not that difficult. That bit was the easiest part of my life to work out. It's the other stuff they don't teach you at school. Like you're going to come against big challenges, health problems. You're going to lose loved ones. Your health has to come first. Number one, having all this and not having your health is pointless.

49:15I was sat next to somebody recently, even$16 billion a year. But he had a belly out here. Hopefully you won't be watching this. I don't care if he is. He might be awake according to needs. He sat next to me, big belly out here, and I said to my wife, this guy's making billions per year. It owns a massive company. And why is he like that? He should have the best personal trainer. He should be looking after his health, but all the stress that comes with it. So I've got a very stress-free business model, where it's been going a long time now. I have got this incredible team of loyal people who have been here for 20 years, who've got their own roles.

49:47They get paid very, very well for it. People are only being loyal to you. This is the thing. If you're loyal back to them, but their compensation has to match their contribution to your business if one of them goes up or down is not equal to they're going to quit on you just to try and copy you or they're not going to like you so all of mine are compensated much more than what they contribute to your organization that's what i learned early on and because of that all my companies have been flourishing ever since so they're not on cap earnings whatever they put in they can get out They all got a chance to be multimillionaires, and a lot of them have become multimillionaires.

50:24It's a painful journey, but my biggest letters come from the wake-up calls. Do you know what? It was interesting because in 2009, which is where most of this started, that's when Michael Jackson died and first got told mum was ill again, and this time it was proper terminal. Before that, I was driving my German business partner for MF Germany, our martial arts school is out there, back to the airport, and I just bought myself a brand new Ferrari 360 Spider, 140 grand. He loved the car and he goes, Matt, this can't keep going on like this. Every new touch goes to gold since you're like 17. Something's going to go wrong eventually.

51:03I said, no, no, it's called Lance. Lance, don't go wrong. I'm Wonderboy. Look at the stuff they write about me. It's just the way it is. I've worked this thing out and then you get hit with everything the same year. But challenges, yeah, what really matters? if I lost everything tomorrow I couldn't care less I did this show called Rich House Poor House you can watch it on Netflix it was massive where I went and lived in a council estate local authority place and they got to live in my mansion and I was driving their collapsed out 300 pound car, they were driving my 150 grand Bentley after 8 days of being in that council house with cameras on us, they filmed my kids separately and when I watched it it got me in tears they said the producers asked my children What did you most enjoy about this week?

51:47So this TV show got my daddy, got our daddy back. He's not been on his phone. He's been present with us. They have access to iPads, Playstations. He's got plastic toys. No 500-pound trips to adventure parks. That's all they really want, it's your time. And that's all you really get. Money is a tool. It's not a thing. It's not a person. People say money is the root of all evil. It's not. It's not a thing. You can use money, if you're like a hammer, you can use it to construct something, or you use it to kill some. So with me, I donate to great causes. I help local hospitals out, take kids out of my supercars.

52:21Can do all that when you're broke. People think I must have no problems. I do have problems, but you have big money problems. You have bigger problems. There's so many things here that ring true. You know, you got to know your priorities, prioritize your health. Without your health, you can't do anything. You can't build a business, can't grow your wealth. You know, you're in the, you talked about you pick up the phone and you get calls with problems. And as entrepreneurs, we're in the problem solving business. That's that's our value is to solve problems. So that's a huge takeaway. And of course, this concept of understanding that, yes, money is a great tool.

52:57And then one of the reasons why I started the hundred dollar MBA is because I didn't come from money. My parents were immigrants from Egypt. They came to the US. I grew up there. We were, you know, I was just wealthy enough to be the poorest kid in my public school. So that was my my upbringing. And I it's not that money is everything, but in a lot of ways, it's very hard to fulfill your potential. It's very hard to fulfill your potential if you don't have it, because like you said, you can't do all the things that you want to do and learn and grow. One of the things I want to mention is you mentioned earlier, Michael, and your relationship with Michael and how much you learn from him.

53:35I'm unashamed, unashamedly that one of the biggest Michael Jackson fans, I actually got this connection of getting to know you over the years, Matt, through a friend of mine who knew your team member and he knew that I was a big Michael Jackson fan. And, you know, today I read a lot of books. I read about 30 to 40 books a year. But the book that actually got me into reading, my mom wanted to get me into reading. I was 11 years old and she knew I loved Michael Jackson and I loved his music. Like to me, when I was growing up, I grew up in the 80s and in the 90s. I was born in 1980. So basically music was Michael Jackson.

54:11The book that got me into reading is actually his biography that I have right here. This is the book that I read. I was 11 years old and it gave me a chance to feel like I knew Michael Jackson somehow because it was in his words and all that kind of stuff. And I actually learned a ton from him. One of the things I learned about from him in this book was how much, like you said, he studied the greats and wanted to become greater, how competitive he was. he really didn't have competition because he was the best. So he was owns his own competition. Probably his biggest demon was Thriller. I know we were talked about that earlier, but from you are a close friend of his and you know, know him more than anybody that is ever going to listen to this podcast.

54:48Probably. What was the one thing about his character that you really admired the most? He was so loving. And this is why the controversy around him exists because he was so nice and i come to someone's mum katherine if he would like i i remember we would he doesn't like to watch the news because he he's very tunnel visioned on his own he lives and breathes i'm still talking like he's still here right but like a present sense but he lives and breathed being michael jackson so if he would catch the news and see starving kids in africa he would have tears rolling down his face and they'd be like we need to do something about this and then he'll put a concert on with Nelson Mandela which he did in 99 to raise millions the guy would um there wouldn't be a place we wouldn't visit where that we would not he would turn up unannounced at a hospice adults hospice and children I know the media just want to say children's hospices to fit some narrative but we go to adults hospitals and I recently it's quite interesting because I I recently did an interview and the podcaster knew a kid.

55:59Now, Michael believed in this. He really did believe in the power of the mind so much. So in 2002, I had a phone call from a children's hospice in Fremington in Devon. And there was a girl there that was dying. And one of her dying wishes was to meet Michael Jackson. Just so happened I had an opportunity to make it happen. Michael was going to be in England. And it goes without saying, as long as I get Michael on the phone, he would find a way of making that happen, even though the guy was tremendously busy. We didn't have the internet back then. So if he had a meeting, he had to fly to a meeting, you know.

56:33So I call Michael and I say, this girl's dying, Mike. Can I bring her to you? She hasn't got long left to live. And he said, of course. I said, how was your day looking? So just bring her, Matt. Consider it done. Just bring her. Come along. and he's staying at a hotel in Devon, actually. So I bought, she was like 13, something like that. This girl was crying with him. They hugged. He had a picture of her, did an autograph. I filmed it. And this was the interesting thing. I filmed it. And every now and then, I've got over 100 hours of footage because camcorders back then. We filmed everything because people used to throw themselves under his cars to sue him for money.

57:13Anyway, I was on his podcast just a few weeks ago. The guy said to me, I've had someone reach out. and they want to thank you for what you did for them when they were 13. You introduced her to Michael Jackson. I said, how long did she make it for? Because just the other day, I was going through the footage to archive it, and I found the footage of this girl hugging Michael, and Michael was saying positive words to her, and you can beat this thing, you know. No, Matt, she's alive. She's got kids, and she wants to thank you for making it happen. I said, God, you wouldn't believe it. I got footage of it.

57:42I thought she passed away years ago. I was scared to even ask the hospitalist. so we're arranging now to get the footage to her but she survived now he believed in that that somehow for the power of the mind we only use 10 of our brain and there's some connection that we'll never understand that positive words affirmations and so on will change someone forever and i i learned that from him so i go a great way i went to melbourne for a business meeting filling up my car petrol station and then behind me a car pulls up and he says matt matt i can't believe it's you i'll look over it's my bank manager some kind of thing there and if you look at my life too there's some kind of definite law of attraction and i'm not a religious man as such but i do believe there's a higher power of something because you can't explain my life and and michael used to say that i used to say people say i'm talented matt but they said see the three four hours of dancing i do a day and singing all day all night to the point of annoying me every morning he would apologize because I'd have a room off his room at Hotel Suites and he'll be up all night singing Lionel Richie and Diana Ross and his own creating music and next morning he'll say I'm so sorry for keeping you awake I'm so sorry Matt they'll do it again the following night and I'll tell him he mackered he can't help himself yeah yeah and he used to sleep in the day you know oh wow the hard work that goes in behind the scenes so the guy yeah it's just unbelievable and so my mum she used to live in a a little bungalow in the Midlands he would sneak in there let's do the same thing keep it going I don't believe mum would have made 56 if I went for Michael he used to be so positive that's incredible yeah incredible donating what doesn't get publicised about him too he's the biggest donating to charity they all want to say abused little boys they're stupid I mean what's wrong with that I just don't understand it you're conditioned by Motown Records that he mustn't ever show he's married that's the thinking about that could you cut off your fan base he loved women why would I associate myself to flipping I've got one of the biggest children organisations in the world why share a room with a guy I know his girlfriend it's what happened through his death why would I associate myself to someone like that and it annoys me it's sad that his image got tainted but they all go for money they all go for money people don't see through that you've got kids I imagine right no you don't have kids well I'll tell you something right if you've got kids or nieces or nephews if someone comes to you and they say to you they've been abused you're not going to go and sue them for money you want them shot in jail gone for good yeah i've heard your opinion on this on so many interviews and you know he's he's been through the ringer you know twice through the law i mean if there was anything that obviously um you know that that would that would come up but uh i think what hurts the most as his friend is after his death where he can't defend himself you know this stuff comes up and that's that's got to hurt you mentioned you know when you're growing your team and having the family and the friends around you you have a team of loyal people i heard a story of when michael you know tested your loyalty can you share that story with us i don't know i fell for that one i tell you so i was uh when the tabloids were a big big thing there was one over here called the news of the world come out on a Sunday and they would offer massive money for stories that era has gone a long time ago and Michael Jackson was the biggest seller he would sell newspapers basically anything with wacko jacko on which he hated would sell newspapers so they'd always try and pin stories on him now what irritated the media is that Michael went to great lengths to protect the identity of his children for two reasons number one he wanted them to decide when they wanted to be famous.

1:01:31They're not chased by paparazzi. And the second reason is so they can have a normal life with a nanny and go to the parks and no one would recognize them. And they did. And also, you've got to imagine, they were high ransom risks. So they could be kidnapped and blackmailed Michael and he would have paid whatever it took because those three children were his life. The tabloids were irritated. Every time the kids would come through the airport or walking around London or New York, they had these masks on that Michael made them wear. Right. Cover their face. Cover their face. So anyway, I was driving back from somewhere and I had one of my franchisees in the car with me.

1:02:10It was on loudspeaker withheld number. And it was this newspaper and they said, Matt, we understand you're going to be seeing Wacko Jacko next week, Michael Jackson. And I said, I'm not going to confirm or deny if I am. Well, we know he's due in London and no doubt you're going to see him. So we want to put a deal to you. We'll give you a million pounds if you get us one picture of any of his kids unmasked. And I said, ah, you guys never leave it alone, do you? You just never leave it alone. You're going to kill this guy. I said those words to them. You're just constantly at it. He's my friend.

1:02:44And I saw them, put the phone down, gone. End of story. That was that. And I made a mental note of myself, next time I see Michael, to mention it. Actually, I thought about dialing them up there and then. but I had my franchisee in the car and I didn't he might have said some confidential stuff I didn't want them to over here I left it and I forgot about it a couple weeks later I was with Michael we were in the back of the car we were travelling to a meeting and Michael says to me how's things? I said great and he goes anything interesting happening lately? nah oh Michael I forgot to mention be careful with the kids because there's a million pound ransom on your kids at the minute from the media They're offering people up.

1:03:27Really? I said, yeah, how do you know this? Well, I got a phone call. They knew I was going to be with you, and they offered me a million pounds for a picture of Prince Paris or Blanket without the mascot. Oh, thanks for telling me, Matt. Great. And he started crying. And I said, what's up? He goes, that was me, Matt. I was just checking because someone said, maybe I can't trust you. And every now and then, I said, why? Of course you trust me. I got a bit offended. And then I realized I put myself in this position. it i understood it and um it was him yeah he did he was a credible actor you gotta watch the the movie the moonwalk car and and he also also whenever we used to ring him he couldn't just answer the phone his real voice he'd have like a robotic device and he would switch it once he knows it's you then he'll put because people used to pretend to be a con or pretend to be r kelly or somebody who tends to be the president of the united states to ring him up yeah i don't think anybody who's not from our generation really understands how famous Michael Jackson was.

1:04:27I don't even think it's even possibly be that famous again. He was humongous. I mean, people are feigning at his mere sight at his at his at his concerts. I mean, he was just a mega mega star. Yeah, I'm sure that that was pretty flattering. But when I look back at his life and and your relationship with him and you being such a incredible friend and protector of him, You know, the thing that comes to mind to me the most is just this idea of like ride or die friendship. Like I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to take care of you because of just the gratitude of just the advice you've given me, helping me with my franchises, helping me just being my friend.

1:05:07And I'm sure it was reciprocal. Would you be here today with all your successes without your network? Honestly, no, I would not be anywhere near not even close. How could I open? When you're Michael Jackson's friend, everybody wants to be your friend. I can't explain it because you've got to experience it. If you're on TV going to an awards show with the most famous man on the planet, and you're known to be his best mate or one of his best mates, and got that access to him, and he's ringing you up when you're shopping around the supermarket and stuff like that, or on loudspeaker, everybody is fascinated by that.

1:05:43To the point of disbelief, it can't be real. I remember checking out hotels when we were walking down hotel corridors, and other people were checking out their room, and they bumped into us, and they're like, it can't be. And he said, well, I have to be somewhere. I'm a human. I've got to be somewhere on the planet. It's definitely me. It's the biggest challenge we used to have. I mean, it sounds comical to a lot of people, but if he wanted to go use the bathroom and run the motorway or the highway, that would be an issue. I mean, you can't just stop off at a service station, can you? Nip in, nip out.

1:06:11So I have to go in, and I have to find a manager, say listen and you can't tell them who it is because they don't believe you they're like yeah I'm average Presley so you have to say I've got someone in the back of this car who's very famous so famous that it would be unsafe to bring them into this service to use the bathroom I need you to do me a favour and shut off the bathroom to put the cleaning signs up and have security around just for five minutes and they're like we don't do that I said please can you do it sometimes we'd have to bribe them or pay them and then Michael would be bursting for a wee in the back of the car, right?

1:06:47What is this going on? They're begging us. And in the end, they kind of hoping it's going to be, they kind of assume it's going to be royalty, like Prince William or something like that, you know? And then we walk in with him and their jaws just used to drop. They just couldn't believe it. And he'd have the face mask on and they'd be like, hi, thank you so much. And they'd be so polite, shake their hands. They're like, I can't believe it. Jesus, that Michael Jackson's just gone in there. So yeah, it is. I'm glad you shared that story because that's an everyday blessing that most people experience and they don't even know it.

1:07:21They can go out in the world. They can use the restroom when they need to go to use the restroom. They can go shopping. They can go to amusement parks. They can go and travel and get on a plane and no one's even going to recognize or bat an eye. Maybe there's especially now with social media where fame is now becoming so ubiquitous, you know. so i'm so glad you you mentioned that because you mentioned a couple things i want to kind of close out on is this concept of like if you were going to give advice to 20 year old matt or to somebody who's young and up and coming and trying to build a life for themselves you mentioned you know after 10 million really your life doesn't change financially too much i remember i read this book called um uh it's called how to get rich by felix dennis from felix publishing in the uk and his number was 30 million.

1:08:12He said 30 million, you could basically live off that for the rest of your life, off the interest, blah, blah, blah. You also mentioned, you know, this idea of like being significant enough so that you can also have significant friends, people that can really help you network and learn and grow and also just be connected to other people. If there's some young kid in downtown London or New York or Sydney or whatever, who's just like, hey, I'm just trying to figure this all out. I'm trying to, you know, make a few bucks so that I can not be late on my rent. What advice would you give this person to be like, okay, how do I build this wealth?

1:08:45How do I build my network? How do I build this life that Matt did? Okay. It's quite a loaded question. I'll do my best to condense it. I know this is going to be important to a lot of listeners. So, so I, essentially I do this every day. I take people who've got no money and I build, I teach them to earn a big income and build wealth. Earning a big income is different to building wealth. Wealth is something that grows in time. That's like real estate, capital growth, et cetera. Passive income. Income is quite easy to generate. So you need to be earning six to seven figures profit, not gross. Gross is ego, is vanity.

1:09:28Profit is sanity. You've got to be careful who you listen to. So make sure whoever you take advice from, this may seem narrow good this is the way it is make sure you only take advice from people who earn more than you and see evidence of that because in this online world we have now there are so and i could name and shame them but i won't they're big names by the way um people out now who are broke and i recently know someone who's just gone to australia toured australia spoke to 10 000 people in stadiums and i know they're facing personal bankruptcy at any time and they're selling follow this get rich program join my online mastermind for ten thousand dollars i think it should be regulated and there should be and i think that was coming that's going to happen so make sure you ask do you do you do diligence check it's okay to ask a mentor for their five years profit and loss accounts how much property they have if they claim they've got it what's their leverage on that, their mortgage versus equity?

1:10:30What is their true net worth? Now, from an accountant, your accountant, not theirs. That is a bit of advice I give you. Now, next thing, what is it you love to do? If you don't love to do it, you're not going to get up and put the hours in and deal with the stresses and the demons that come over with owning and being an entrepreneur. So turn your passion into your profession, your hobby into your career. That's all you simply do. What do you love to do? Turn the information you've got into your head, into an online course. And then all you focus on is six figures profit or seven figures profit.

1:11:01And then from that point, invest that money into what I believe is the greatest investment class, in my opinion, I'm not a financial advisor, but I'm pretty well qualified to say this, which is real estate. People are always going to need a roof over their head. People are having babies quicker than they're building property. That's always going to be a challenge. So work that one out. Now, I don't recommend people do gold, crypto, and all the rest of it. There's no get-rich-quick scheme. There are get-rich-slow methods and strategies. And build wealth is a slow way. It's just not going to happen overnight.

1:11:39So you turn your passion into promotion, six figures, and invest it into wealth, building this thing. And then you just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Now, you're going to get distracted by shiny objects. I think we are bombarded. Jay Abraham, I think, once said, unknowingly, probably even more now, we're bombarded by about 40 ,000 different marketing messages every day. Walking around, you've seen Billboard, you've seen Apple, you've got to notice it on your phone, Facebook. So don't get distracted by the next shiny object. If you notice what I've done, three decades almost, I have ignored all the latest trends that have come and gone, like step aerobics, side in this that way, aerobic thing, and all the other franchises.

1:12:17there's been loads, half an hour workout franchises. I've just focused on doing the same thing over and over again. And many times I got bored of it. I wanted to pack it in and do something else. You've got to do the same thing over and over again. Repetition is the mother of skill. Read at least three to four nonfiction books by proven authors with a proven record. I recommend you start with Tony Robbins' books and then get on to, which I think is still current to today, Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad series read all of his stuff and keep studying now you've got audio books I mean me and you have to do it the old fashioned way but you put them on you can wish for it a lot quicker and educate yourself next thing your network is your network the five people you're going to hang around with who you're going to become I don't have many mates I don't have many friends so they and that's not through choice a lot of that comes through success it's a true statement because people don't relate to what I do nor do I want to pick up their character traits.

1:13:17I make an effort of that too. So the people I hang around with are billionaires, a millionaires, because we've got similar goals. And we know what we're... Most of the time, we're talking about longevity, health, and being better at that. It's not about the money. Money is the byproduct of success. That's another lesson they need to learn. Focus on the best service or products you can provide are not the money. The money will come in naturally. That's the byproduct. If people focus on the money, don't get rich. You're going to get that. And it's a process. Tony Robbins says something really good.

1:13:50People overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in a decade. And that's so damn true. So most of my wealth, my mega wealth has come from my property portfolio. You can't do that overnight. You get deals where you grab flipping properties and so forth. So get around the right people, read the right books, listen to the right audio books, Well, turn your passion into profession or your hobby into your career. Information into a package or online course or whatever it may be. Shut yourself out. Now, study the greats. This information has been out there for years.

1:14:25Study the greats. Stand on the shoulders of a giant. If you would have been there, it's what Michael Jackson did. He studied James Brown, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, and incorporated into his dance moves and so on. Study the greats and make yourself better than them. You don't need any more new ideas. The amount of time I go to an entrepreneur event, I come off stage. I've got this idea, Matt. We found this idea. You don't need it. Unless you're Elon Musk and you want to go to Mars and stuff, everything's pretty much been done. If you're just looking at being wealthy and getting out of being able to pay your bills, just find somebody who's already done it.

1:14:56It's okay. Copy them. Put your original stamp on it. Make it better. And get it done. This is why franchises are such a great concept. I work all this out for my franchisees. They copy what Matt done. They listen to my mistakes. They just get on with it. and make it happen. And then you scale your business out. What you've done at once, you've got a proven pilot. Then you've done it for two or three years. You're making good money. Then, for my opinion, don't have employees because they're a nightmare. Just franchise the thing out over and over and over and over. There you go. There's 80s out of making millions there in 10 minutes.

1:15:30The discipline, the consistency is so key. A lot of people ask me, Omar, how does this podcast make second figures? How do you have, you know, 3 million listeners every month is like, I've been doing it for 10 years. If I haven't gotten it right, there's something wrong with me. I'd be ashamed if I wasn't this successful by now. So you're totally correct. And the thing that I love about what you just said is you got to be careful about where you learn anything. You got to look at the person that's teaching. What do they do? How do they actually apply what they're teaching in their real life and their real businesses.

1:16:05And it's, it's going to be a little bit of a homework assignment because it's, you know, there's a lot of good salesmen out there and a lot of people that promising, you know, these incredible lifestyles and, you know, live anywhere, a laptop on the beach kind of BS, but you are a hundred percent correct. It's going to be hard. It's going to be challenging. You're going to have problems, but that is why nobody, you know, not that many people do it. You know, not that many people do it because it's not easy. If you're an entrepreneur and you don't have days where you're like, I totally get why people get jobs.

1:16:39I get that. I used to do some math. When I'm on stage, I tell these stories, and people think, really? When I had that car, which just got back, the first Ferrari, when I was 19, I used to drive, I used to go into town. I don't know if you had it in Australia. We had Blockbuster videos, a big thing over here. So on a Friday, Saturday night, me and the wife, we'd get a video, VHS, and I used to go out, get an excuse to take the Ferrari out, and you know what the most exciting thing was wasn't getting the the vhs tape because i used to drive around and look inside the nightclubs and think i wonder what that's like i wonder what it's like just to be have a normal job and get drunk drowning your sorrows yeah at the end of the week and just working for the weekend work at mcdonald's to sign off at five o 'clock and never have to think about anything you need it how does that work my whole network of friends and and even family has changed people i communicate with in the last 20 years of me becoming an entrepreneur because you can't relate anymore.

1:17:36You can't relate. They don't understand. What are you doing this for? What do you like? It's not all about money, Omar. What's going on? And it's just like, it's actually not about money. It's actually who I'm becoming in the process. It's an incredible journey. I'm a personal believer that entrepreneurship is the best personal development program in the world, because in order for you to create something great, it's not going to happen by accident. You have to become great. You have to become the person that can pull that off. Right. And throughout your life, throughout your journey, meeting all these people, networking, growing these businesses, I think that's the best gift you got is like who you became in the process.

1:18:11You know, of course, you've had some crazy heartache, you know, the stories you shared today, but like anybody's life, nobody's immune to the winters of life. We're all going to have these winters. Matt, thank you so much for your time, man. I'm so glad that we connected. I'm so glad that we had this chat. I'm so glad we finally made it happen. been, we've been working on this interview for like over a year and a half. And then when we finally got in touch, you know, it was a bit of a, a bit of a struggle, but we made it happen. Matt, you know, my number, you know, anytime you need anything, you, you can reach out to me.

1:18:43And every time you're in Australia, let's have a coffee and have a dinner. Thank you so much for your time. This has been an incredible conversation. I can't wait to share with the audience. I can't wait to share it with my closest friends in my network. And so they can learn from you as well. Thank you so much, man. And we'll keep in touch, of course. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me on. It's been awesome. I absolutely loved this conversation with Matt Fidesz. He shared some incredible gems. One of the things I'll never forget from this conversation is how Matt shared so many difficult times in his life.

1:19:17From the start of his career, no one believing in him, living in basically a hostel so he can be able to go and have a bed to sleep on. and out in Devon. And then once he got on his feet, no one wanted to believe him and think that the studio idea was ridiculous and not even worth his time or money. But he persevered. And then he grew. And then he met the most incredible people in the world. And then he expanded and became a multi multi millionaire. He's close to being a billionaire soon. And through all of this, he recognizes that there are other winters down the line, just like he experienced with his mother, with his father, with the death of his close friend, Michael Jackson.

1:19:57So we're going to have winters. You know, it's not all summers. It's not all beautiful springs, right? You're going to have winters in life and you got to be ready for them. And you got to understand that we have to have winter so that we can have the springs, so we can have the summers, so that we can find those opportunities. Thank you, Matt Fidesz, for your time and for sharing your knowledge with our audience today. And thank you for listening and tuning in. If you want more great stories, more inspiration, more lessons on how to grow your business, go ahead to our website over at 100mba.net.

1:20:29We have over 1500 business lessons, extended interviews, book reviews, resources, worksheets, templates, a ton. Okay. You're going to love it. It's all free and it's just my way to give back. So go ahead and check it out over at 100mba.net. Until we see each other again on the next episode. Keep moving forward. Keep working on yourself, on your business. Keep investing in what you know so you can grow. I'll see you next time. Take care.