Visionary vs. Reptile Mindset - People operate in one of three modes: visionary, autopilot, or reptile. - Visionaries constantly seek new possibilities and opportunities, like Elon Musk pursuing space travel and brain-computer interfaces. - Autopilot mode involves repeating past behaviors, even if they’re not optimal. - Reptile mode is destructive, involving lashing out and self-sabotage. - The mode you operate in influences your perception and actions. Transcript: Speaker 2 And they become more and more visionary, like Elon Musk is at the very top. Now he’s like space ships to Mars. He’s like chips in your brain that monkeys can control computers with. That’s someone at the very top of that visionary cycle. And at the bottom of the reptile cycle is someone who at work, the CEO says, does anyone want to stand up and share their ideas? And they just slouch back in the chair because they’ve had their confidence negatively reinforced. Maybe last time they tried, it didn’t go bad. Maybe their father or their mother gave them bad feedback one day. And they’re in this downward spiral where when they do show up, they show up with low confidence. They put in a bad performance. It goes bad. Speaker 1 I would actually call that autopilot mode, which is I’ve never done this before, so I won’t do it next time. Reptile mode is very destructive. You’re actively breaking your world. So it’s where you do the worst possible thing. So you are throwing tantrums and you’re lashing out against the people who you should. You’re actually lashing out against the people who are trying to help you probably. So that’s where you’re really at the bottom of reptile mode, very destructive. Autopilot in your situation where you said about the person who is given an opportunity to speak and they say, oh, it’s not what I do is the autopilot response. The visionary is like, oh, this is a chance to mobilize resources. I’ve got an opportunity here to expand my sphere of influence and become a key person of influence in this room.

Key Attributes of a Perfect Pitch - Ensure clarity to avoid confusing the audience. - Establish authority by highlighting relevant background, experience, data, or mentorship. - Define a problem that the customer faces or a problem in the world that needs a solution, and offer an insight or solution. - Communicate why you are passionate and invested in the problem, so people believe in your ability to address it. - Define the broader opportunity and its potential impact. Transcript: Speaker 1 You’ve seen some great pitches on the den. Not a bad ones too. Yeah. So here’s what I look for. Clarity is the base level. You just don’t want to confuse people. Authority is the ability to communicate that you are worth listening to, that there’s something about your background or what you’ve done or the data that you’re possessing or the Mentor that you’ve got that gives you some sort of authority to be talking about this. So clarity and authority. Defining some sort of a problem that the customer has or some sort of problem that exists in the world that needs solving and that you’ve identified an insight or a solution for that problem. Then the why, which I would say is about communicating why you care enough about this, that people would buy into you as the person to drive this forward.

The Art of Pitching - Craft compelling pitches using the CAPSTONE framework (Clarity, Authority, Problem, Solution, The Why, Opportunity, Next steps, Essence). - End your pitch with the essence or emotion you want to evoke. Transcript: Speaker 2 With this. If the pitch is the keys to everything you want to be, because if we were saying that it’s really conversations that stand in the way of where you want to go, and it’s the pitch that is essentially The key to wherever you want to go, what are the attributes of a perfect pitch? What are the fundamentals of being an exceptional salesperson pitcher? Speaker 1 Well, you’ve seen some great pitches on the den. Not a bad ones too. Yeah. So here’s what I look for. Clarity is the base level. You just don’t want to confuse people. Authority is the ability to communicate that you are worth listening to, that there’s something about your background or what you’ve done or the data that you’re possessing or the Mentor that you’ve got that gives you some sort of authority to be talking about this. So clarity and authority. Defining some sort of a problem that the customer has or some sort of problem that exists in the world that needs solving and that you’ve identified an insight or a solution for that problem. Then the why, which I would say is about communicating why you care enough about this, that people would buy into you as the person to drive this forward. You then want to define the opportunity. What is the bigger opportunity for anyone who gets involved? The next steps, what should someone do next? And then the emotion or the essence that you want to leave people with so that they remember you based on that essence or that emotion that you made them feel. So that’s the great arc of an inspiring pitch. What was the last one there? Was it the emotion? So clarity, authority, problem solution, the why, opportunity, next steps and the essence and it spells out capstone. Capstone. So that’s how I remember a great pitch. I had to come up with a way of remembering this because I was pitching so often I had to be able to come back to, okay, how do I pitch this? So the essence, that’s the one I wanted to some more definition. People remember you based on how you made them feel. So you want to think, how do I want to leave people feeling? What’s the emotion that I want people to remember? When I’m pitching. Yeah.

“With or Without You” Energy - When making requests, project “with or without you” energy. - Show confidence that your venture will succeed regardless of their involvement. Transcript: Speaker 2 I have to say, a lot of people send me messages. I get many thousands of messages a week across my inbox is LinkedIn, Instagram, the podcast, etc. And because I’m exposed to so many thousands of messages, as I’m sure you are, you get to see the variants in a good ask versus a bad ask. Now I want to drill down on that. What are the core components of a great ask? Speaker 1 I think the best ask has wither without you energy. Wither without you energy is the energy that you have when this is going to happen with or without you. So essentially, when you say we’re going to be doing this filming, and do you want to send some cameras and we’ll put your logo at the bottom, it’s happening with it without you, you can Be the company that gets the logo or not. But it is happening with it without you. The worst asks are I desperately need this to happen. And if you don’t say yes, no one will ever say yes. And and therefore I’ll give up. So if I think about the best asks that come through, something is going to happen. And it’s going to happen whether I’m involved or not. And I get to choose whether I want to jump onto that or not.

Elements of a Compelling Pitch - To deliver a compelling pitch, start with clarity and establish your authority. - Define a problem and your solution, explain your motivation, and outline the opportunity for others. - Clearly state the next steps and conclude by evoking a memorable emotion or essence. Transcript: Speaker 1 You’ve seen some great pitches on the den. Not a bad ones too. Yeah. So here’s what I look for. Clarity is the base level. You just don’t want to confuse people. Authority is the ability to communicate that you are worth listening to, that there’s something about your background or what you’ve done or the data that you’re possessing or the Mentor that you’ve got that gives you some sort of authority to be talking about this. So clarity and authority. Defining some sort of a problem that the customer has or some sort of problem that exists in the world that needs solving and that you’ve identified an insight or a solution for that problem. Then the why, which I would say is about communicating why you care enough about this, that people would buy into you as the person to drive this forward. You then want to define the opportunity. What is the bigger opportunity for anyone who gets involved? The next steps, what should someone do next? And then the emotion or the essence that you want to leave people with so that they remember you based on that essence or that emotion that you made them feel. So that’s the great arc of an inspiring pitch. What was the last one there? Was it the emotion? So clarity, authority, problem solution, the why, opportunity, next steps and the essence and it spells out capstone. Capstone. So that’s how I remember a great pitch. I had to come up with a way of remembering this because I was pitching so often I had to be able to come back to, okay, how do I pitch this? So the essence, that’s

Elements of a Compelling Pitch - To deliver a captivating pitch, focus on clarity, authority, problem/solution, your ‘why’, the opportunity, next steps, and the essence or emotion you want to convey. - Remember the acronym CAPSTONE (Clarity, Authority, Problem, Solution, The Why, Opportunity, Next steps, and Essence). - Conclude your pitch by emphasizing the essence or emotion, reminding the audience of the core message and leaving a lasting impression. Transcript: Speaker 1 So that’s the great arc of an inspiring pitch. What was the last one there? Was it the emotion? So clarity, authority, problem solution, the why, opportunity, next steps and the essence and it spells out capstone. Capstone. So that’s how I remember a great pitch. I had to come up with a way of remembering this because I was pitching so often I had to be able to come back to, okay, how do I pitch this? So the essence, that’s the one I wanted to some more definition. People remember you based on how you made them feel. So you want to think, how do I want to leave people feeling? What’s the emotion that I want people to remember? When I’m pitching. Yeah. So you want to finish the pitch on an emotion, you want to finish the pitch by expressing what it is that you essentially, what is the emotion or the feeling that you want this business Speaker 2 To be about? And what’s the opposite of that then? The emotional piece. So what’s a pitch that is lacking? Well, a lot of pitches finish on next steps and it’s very logistical. Speaker 1 So I’ve seen a lot of pitches that are going great and then they go, and then here’s what we need to do next, blah, blah, and then it becomes a little to do list. And everyone goes, oh, that kind of landed flat. And if you finish on the essence, then you actually just bring people back to this is what it’s really about. So that we even though we’ve talked about opportunities and next steps and the finances and all that sort of stuff, you want to finish on this is what we’re really about. This is what we’re up to in the world. Speaker 2 I’ve been thinking a lot about, you know, some adjacent subjects to what we’re talking about here, but this idea that if you just asked five times more than you’re currently asking, Your life would change. The secondary example I was going to give after my coffee machine example from when I was 16 was when I was 18 and I was completely broken. That’s when I was shoplifting those Chicago town

Steven Bartlett’s Camera Equipment Story - When Steven Bartlett was 18 and broke, he needed camera equipment for his startup, Wall Park. - He emailed 20 camera companies, offering to display their logos on his videos in exchange for borrowed equipment. - Within 72 hours, Samsung sent him £10,000 worth of returned cameras. - This taught him the power of simply asking, especially when you have nothing to lose. Transcript: Speaker 2 World. I’ve been thinking a lot about, you know, some adjacent subjects to what we’re talking about here, but this idea that if you just asked five times more than you’re currently asking, Your life would change. The secondary example I was going to give after my coffee machine example from when I was 16 was when I was 18 and I was completely broken. That’s when I was shoplifting those Chicago town pizza to feed myself. And I was starting this business called Wall Park and I needed camera equipment. I sent 20 emails to camera companies saying, hey, I’ve got a, this website I’m going to launch, we’re going to record videos on campus. I need some cameras. If you lend us the cameras, we’ll put your logo on all the videos we make on campus. Within 72 hours, Samsung had sent 10,000 pounds worth of camera equipment to my front door and my side. I got an email the day after the cameras arrived and it said, these are returns, send them back when you don’t need them anymore. And I’d solved someone’s problem for him because he had returned cameras in a warehouse that you don’t know what to do with. He sent me 10,000 pounds with a camera equipment for free within 72 hours. And just asked, and I go, Oh my God, like, when you’re at the bottom and you have nothing to lose and you have an internet connection and a Gmail account, why aren’t you sending out 20, 30, 50 emails a day? Yeah, asking.

Securing Camera Equipment - At 18, Steven Bartlett obtained £10,000 worth of camera equipment by emailing Samsung. - He offered to display their logo, solving their problem of returned cameras. Transcript: Speaker 2 World. I’ve been thinking a lot about, you know, some adjacent subjects to what we’re talking about here, but this idea that if you just asked five times more than you’re currently asking, Your life would change. The secondary example I was going to give after my coffee machine example from when I was 16 was when I was 18 and I was completely broken. That’s when I was shoplifting those Chicago town pizza to feed myself. And I was starting this business called Wall Park and I needed camera equipment. I sent 20 emails to camera companies saying, hey, I’ve got a, this website I’m going to launch, we’re going to record videos on campus. I need some cameras. If you lend us the cameras, we’ll put your logo on all the videos we make on campus. Within 72 hours, Samsung had sent 10,000 pounds worth of camera equipment to my front door and my side. I got an email the day after the cameras arrived and it said, these are returns, send them back when you don’t need them anymore. And I’d solved someone’s problem for him because he had returned cameras in a warehouse that you don’t know what to do with. He sent me 10,000 pounds with a camera equipment for free within 72 hours. And just asked, and I go, Oh my God, like, when you’re at the bottom and you have nothing to lose and you have an internet connection and a Gmail account, why aren’t you sending out 20, 30, 50 emails a day?

The Best Ask - Craft your ask with “wither without you” energy. - Convey that your project will succeed regardless of their involvement, making their participation a bonus rather than a necessity. - Avoid desperation in your ask; instead, present a compelling opportunity that they can choose to join. - Confidently state your plans, and offer them a chance to be part of something exciting. Transcript: Speaker 1 I think the best ask has wither without you energy. Wither without you energy is the energy that you have when this is going to happen with or without you. So essentially, when you say we’re going to be doing this filming, and do you want to send some cameras and we’ll put your logo at the bottom, it’s happening with it without you, you can Be the company that gets the logo or not. But it is happening with it without you. The worst asks are I desperately need this to happen. And if you don’t say yes, no one will ever say yes. And and therefore I’ll give up. So if I think about the best asks that come through, something is going to happen. And it’s going to happen whether I’m involved or not. And I get to choose whether I want to jump onto that or not. And those are the most compelling, most exciting opportunities that get pitched. So I’ll give you an example.

Waiting List Hack - Change ‘Become a Member Now’ button to ‘Join the Waiting List’. - This significantly increased inquiries and conversions for a company Steven Bartlett invested in. - People value things more when there’s a perceived scarcity or exclusivity. - By creating a waiting list, you increase the perceived value of your product or service. - This can also help to filter out less serious inquiries, as people on a waiting list are more likely to be genuinely interested. Transcript: Speaker 2 And in one of my first meetings with them, I looked at their website and they had this button on there that said, become a member now. And I said, we should try changing that to join the waiting list. And when I had my first board meeting with this company, they said, Stephen, of all the things you’ve done for us, the most valuable thing you did was getting us to change that button from Become member now to join the waiting list. And I said, why? They said two things happened. The first is the amount of inquiries we got, the amount of people clicking that number rose by 500%. The second thing is conversion went up by about 300%. Because previously, just by changing a couple of words on that button, people would click the button. They would then get scheduled an appointment to have a tour of this facility. They would then not even show up for their tour because they didn’t value it. The minute we changed it to join

The Waiting List Hack - Create a waiting list for your product or service to increase customer interest and conversion. - This lowers the barrier to entry, requiring less certainty from potential customers compared to an immediate purchase. - The uncertainty of getting off the waiting list generates excitement and increases perceived value. - Use the waiting period to warm up potential customers with updates and build anticipation. - Example: Glastonbury uses a waiting list, sharing the number of registered people and available tickets to build excitement. Transcript: Speaker 1 Shift in just a couple words. Well, it’s not a tiny shift, because if you look at how human psychology works, in order for someone to want to buy something, they have to be about 100% certain. In order to join a waiting list, you only have to be 5%, 10% certain that you want to do something. And people like to warm up to things a little bit slowly. So join the waiting list means that, hey, you only have to be slightly sure that you want to do this. Then the uncertainty of, do I get through or not? I’ve joined the waiting list. I’ve made a micro commitment. Now there’s an uncertainty gap. And it’s like, oh, I need the certainty. I need to know whether I’m off the waiting list or I’m through to the next phase. So now we enter a different, like, oh, will I or won’t I get through? But it also gives the business a great opportunity to warm people up. So you talked about doing a tour of the club. Let me give you some other examples. Glastonbury Music Festival, they tell people that they can book a ticket. They can only register for a ticket that they’re interested in a ticket. So registration of interest, but not a ticket sale. So what they do is they get 700,000 people to register interest. And then they tell you slowly who are some of the bands and they warm you up to will you get it or not. And they tell you 500,000 people are now registered, 600,000 are registered, 700,000 are registered. And they say, but there’s only 140,000 tickets. So then they say, we’re going to make the tickets available at 5 a.m. So only the true believers are going to be there, only the true music fans who are willing to get up early. And then there’s this whole like suspense and excitement of like, will I get a ticket or not? People set their alarm in the morning. They know that 700,000 have registered 140,000 will get through. So they just fight for those tickets.

Launch Discussion Groups Before Products/Services - Launch a discussion group before launching a product or service. - Instead of directly promoting a gym in Wandsworth, promote a WhatsApp group called ‘Weight Loss Wandsworth’. - Build a community around the topic first. - If the group gains traction (e.g., 4,000 members), launching a related business becomes much easier. - This approach allows for collecting data, understanding customer needs, and refining product-market fit. Transcript: Speaker 1 I use one of the other strategies for building a business is waiting list, but also discussion groups. So one of the things we do when we launch a business is we don’t launch the product or service, we launch the discussion group. So the first thing is, let’s say I was going to launch a gym in Wandsworth, I might say we’re going to do weight loss Wandsworth, an online discussion group on WhatsApp. And we’d just promote the hell out of that group. And if we had 4,000 people in that group, we could then launch a gym pretty easily off the back of the discussion group. So I’m a big believer, like in weightless discussion groups, anything like that that is super fast, low risk, low cost, these are the best ways to start businesses that you, you know, And you’re collecting data, you’re

Launch a Waiting List or Discussion Group, Not a Product - When launching a business, focus on building anticipation and community before releasing the actual product. - Instead of directly launching a product/service, create a waiting list and gather valuable customer data through qualifying questions. - Another approach is to start a discussion group, e.g., a WhatsApp group for weight loss enthusiasts, to gauge interest and foster a sense of community around the core problem/solution. Transcript: Speaker 1 So you can’t just join the waiting list, name, email, answer five questions to get on the waiting list. How much are you willing to pay? What are you trying to achieve? What’s your biggest fear of that could go wrong? What would you try if this didn’t exist? So you ask a few of these questions and then people get on the waiting list, you’ve got all that data. Speaker 2 When people hear that, they’ll think that putting someone through a set of sort of rigorous questions to give them access to the product on the other side would deter most people. But it reminds me of a psychology study that I read about then wrote about in my last book, where they got two groups of people and they had a boring community forum online as the sort of The product. They let one group of people straight into the boring community forum and then they asked them how much they appreciated and found value in the boring community forum. That group of people said it was boring. Then they had this other group of people in this study and they didn’t let them into the boring community forum. They made them go through a rigorous selection process. And the people that got into the boring, the same boring community forum, when asked in surveys after how much do you value the boring community forum, they said it’s great. And it’s the psychological bias because you’ve had to flint for something. Speaker 1 What you’re describing is Harvard. It’s Harvard University. Exactly. It’s the same university subjects that everyone teaches, but it’s hard to get in. I use one of the other strategies for building a business is waiting list, but also discussion groups. So one of the things we do when we launch a business is we don’t launch the product or service, we launch the discussion group.

Validate demand before building supply - Before investing heavily in production, validate market demand. - Use waiting lists, surveys, and online groups to gauge interest. - Create interactive experiences like quizzes or polls to engage potential customers. - This approach minimizes upfront costs and allows you to test product viability before committing significant resources. Transcript: Speaker 1 Now what do I do with all that stuff? So in the chilly and ice cream example, what should they have done? Join the waiting list. We’re launching chilly and basil ice cream. If you’d like to try it and taste it, join the waiting list. Speaker 2 People don’t know what they want, though, because in the ice cream example, it’s a taste thing, right? So it sounds good, but in reality, it could be like. So I mean, this is a crazy idea. It’s a terrible idea that we’re but anyway, let’s go with it. Speaker 1 So you create a waiting list where we’re doing really wild flavored ice creams and it’s crazy flavors like chili and basil ice cream and salt and pepper ice cream and blah, blah, blah. If you’re interested in really different exciting new flavors of ice cream, join the waiting list and we will invite you to a taste tester when it’s ready. You’ll get to come to an exclusive event where you get to try and test our latest recipes in central London. So now you promote the waiting list and you see, can I get lots of people? And some of the questions might be which flavor are you most looking forward to? Are you looking for octopus ice cream? Are you looking forward to which one? So you go through and they answer all the questions and then they join the waiting list. Then you say, join the ice cream discovery discussion group. So now they’re in there talking about their favorite ice creams and what crazy flavors they like and you can actually have a daily poll and you’re doing that all in WhatsApp. And then you say, now come to the event that we’ve got the taste testing event, you could launch the ice cream assessment. All right, what kind of what which type are you? Are you the savory ice cream person or the sweet ice cream? Are you the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you could have full ice cream personalities and they take the test and find out which ice cream personality they have. So you can do all of this stuff for free or almost for free without making a scoop of ice cream. None of this stuff involves actually any commercial kitchens. None of it involves packaging or branding

Validate your Business Idea Before Investing - Before investing heavily in a business idea, validate it with a waiting list or similar low-cost methods. - Create free content, polls, and discussion groups around the core concept to gauge interest. - Use WhatsApp and other accessible tools to connect with potential customers. - This approach minimizes financial risk and allows testing demand without significant investment in production or marketing. Transcript: Speaker 1 People, they take qualifications, they get certifications, they might raise money, they might set up a venue, they might book an office, they might buy laptop computers, all of this Stuff. And they might spend three to six months doing that. And then finally, after all of that, they then experience, oh, no one’s interested in this. Now what do I do with all that stuff? So in the chilly and ice cream example, what should they have done? Join the waiting list. We’re launching chilly and basil ice cream. If you’d like to try it and taste it, join the waiting list. Speaker 2 People don’t know what they want, though, because in the ice cream example, it’s a taste thing, right? So it sounds good, but in reality, it could be like. So I mean, this is a crazy idea. It’s a terrible idea that we’re but anyway, let’s go with it. Speaker 1 So you create a waiting list where we’re doing really wild flavored ice creams and it’s crazy flavors like chili and basil ice cream and salt and pepper ice cream and blah, blah, blah. If you’re interested in really different exciting new flavors of ice cream, join the waiting list and we will invite you to a taste tester when it’s ready. You’ll get to come to an exclusive event where you get to try and test our latest recipes in central London. So now you promote the waiting list and you see, can I get lots of people? And some of the questions might be which flavor are you most looking forward to? Are you looking for octopus ice cream? Are you looking forward to which one? So you go through and they answer all the questions and then they join the waiting list. Then you say, join the ice cream discovery discussion group. So now they’re in there talking about their favorite ice creams and what crazy flavors they like and you can actually have a daily poll and you’re doing that all in WhatsApp. And then you say, now come to the event that we’ve got the taste testing event, you could launch the ice cream assessment. All right, what kind of what which type are you? Are you the savory ice cream person or the sweet ice cream? Are you the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you could have full ice cream personalities and they take the test and find out which ice cream personality they have. So you can do all of this stuff for free or almost for free without making a scoop of ice cream. None of this stuff involves actually any commercial kitchens. None of it involves packaging or branding or any of the expensive stuff. You’re just doing the things that’s testing whether people are actually interested in this. And if it’s crickets, if you put a lot of effort into trying to get people interested in this and you’ve got 12 people in your little group and they’re all, you know, sadly looking at each Other, go, where’s the buzz the ice cream? Speaker 2 You know, this is never going to fly if it, you know, I was thinking there, some people might come to the discussion group, you know, your friends, whatever your mom comes down. Because yeah, your ice cream is great, Daniel. Well, you want to do cold outreach, cold outreach. Speaker 1 I don’t know how long we’re going to talk about ice creams, but cold outreach is where you essentially make a list of all the communities and groups that exist online, all the accounts That already have followers. And you just cold outreach 1000 people and get them involved. Speaker 2 But Daniel, what if someone steals my idea? Speaker 1 Well, my experience tells me until

No One Steals Ideas From People With No Followers - People tend to steal ideas from those who have already demonstrated success. - If you are just starting out and have few followers or outward signs of success, no one will steal your idea. - When starting from zero, you have the advantage of not having your ideas stolen. - Ideas are not inherently valuable; execution and proven success are what make them worth stealing. Transcript: Speaker 1 Steals my idea? Well, my experience tells me until you’ve got a Ferrari, no one steals your idea. Yeah, people steal ideas from people who have Ferraris, right? So it’s that bias towards if you’ve been successful in the past, and then your ideas are worth stealing. The beauty of having nothing is no one’s going to steal your ideas ever. They’re going to look at your account on Instagram and go, oh, you got no followers. And you know, you haven’t got a Ferrari, so I’m not going to steal your idea. So you’ve got this great advantage when you’re starting from zero that no one, no one will steal the idea.

Vitality over Functionality in the Age of AI - In the age of AI, the value has shifted from functionality (reliable task performance) to vitality (irreplaceable life force energy). - Those who bring life force energy to projects are more comfortable with failure. - Traditional education focuses on functionality which is becoming less valuable in the post-AI world. - Embrace failure and focus on breathing life into projects to succeed in the age of AI. Transcript: Speaker 1 What we’re doing now is different. So we’re, especially now, we’re entering the entry in the age of AI. So in a post-AI world, most of the things that we think of as valuable that the school system could possibly teach us are not going to be very valuable very long. So functionality versus vitality, when something is functional, it performs a task reliably. When something is vital, it’s irreplaceable life force energy. So what we have to do is recognize that the value has swung from something that is reliably able to perform a task to something that breathes life force energy into a project.

Vitality over Functionality - In the age of AI, value has shifted from functionality (performing tasks reliably) to vitality (irreplaceable life force energy). - People who bring life force energy to projects embrace failure as part of the process. - They view setbacks as experiments and keep iterating until they find what works. - Shifting from valuing reliable functionality to valuing the ability to breathe life into something allows for embracing failure and growth. Transcript: Speaker 1 So functionality versus vitality, when something is functional, it performs a task reliably. When something is vital, it’s irreplaceable life force energy. So what we have to do is recognize that the value has swung from something that is reliably able to perform a task to something that breathes life force energy into a project. So I know this is kind of woo-woo, but essentially, this is the difference when you are breathing life force energy into something, you’re okay with failure. We’re just conducting experiments. We’re finding the way that works. And we just found 900 ways that don’t work. And now we’re going to find the next one. And you’re bringing something into existence. So it’s like being a parent. When you see the child fall down, you get the child back up and you get them onto the next thing. And when we learn riding a bike, we have to go through falling off the bike. So there’s all of these experiences that you know what it’s like to bring life force energy to something. And that involves a process of failure. And then functionality, if we’re really putting our value around the idea that something has to be functional or that I have to be functional, that my value is in my functionality, then Failure is such a bad thing. So this is a big difference in how the pendulum is now swinging. We have to remove the idea that you are valuable because you’re reliably functional. We have to swing it back to this idea that you’re valuable because you breathe life force energy into something. Speaker 2 For someone that doesn’t know the definition of life force energy, how would you define that?

Vitality over Functionality - In a post-AI world, functionality (reliable task performance) is less valuable than vitality (irreplaceable life force energy). - Vitality involves breathing life force energy into a project, embracing failure as part of the process, and viewing it as experimentation. - Functionality, on the other hand, equates self-worth with reliable task performance, making failure a negative outcome. - The shift towards vitality requires recognizing the value of bringing life force energy to endeavors and accepting failure as a necessary step in creation and innovation. Transcript: Speaker 1 So functionality versus vitality, when something is functional, it performs a task reliably. When something is vital, it’s irreplaceable life force energy. So what we have to do is recognize that the value has swung from something that is reliably able to perform a task to something that breathes life force energy into a project. So I know this is kind of woo-woo, but essentially, this is the difference when you are breathing life force energy into something, you’re okay with failure. We’re just conducting experiments. We’re finding the way that works. And we just found 900 ways that don’t work. And now we’re going to find the next one. And you’re bringing something into existence. So it’s like being a parent. When you see the child fall down, you get the child back up and you get them onto the next thing. And when we learn riding a bike, we have to go through falling off the bike. So there’s all of these experiences that you know what it’s like to bring life force energy to something. And that involves a process of failure. And then functionality, if we’re really putting our value around the idea that something has to be functional or that I have to be functional, that my value is in my functionality, then Failure is such a bad thing. So this is a big difference in how the pendulum is now swinging. We have to remove the idea that you are valuable because you’re reliably functional. We have to swing it back to this idea that you’re valuable because you breathe life force energy into something. Speaker 2 For someone that doesn’t know the definition of life force energy, how would you define that? Speaker 1 So this word vitality has two definitions, irreplaceable and life force. So if something is vital, it’s irreplaceable and it’s life force. So you need to find something that you are the irreplaceable life force. You pitch it into existence, you create it, you innovate it, you take ownership of it, you enroll others into it. Speaker 2 That’s the alignment kind of thing you’re talking about. You’re aligned to that thing. Yeah, you

Vitality over Functionality - In the age of AI, value has shifted from functionality (performing tasks reliably) to vitality (irreplaceable life force energy). - Vitality means breathing life force energy into a project, embracing failure as part of the process. - It’s about bringing something new into existence, like a parent nurturing a child or learning to ride a bike. - We should move away from valuing reliable functionality and embrace the energy and innovation of bringing life force to our work. - Children naturally express this life force energy, disrupting seriousness with their enthusiasm and discoveries. Transcript: Speaker 1 So functionality versus vitality, when something is functional, it performs a task reliably. When something is vital, it’s irreplaceable life force energy. So what we have to do is recognize that the value has swung from something that is reliably able to perform a task to something that breathes life force energy into a project. So I know this is kind of woo-woo, but essentially, this is the difference when you are breathing life force energy into something, you’re okay with failure. We’re just conducting experiments. We’re finding the way that works. And we just found 900 ways that don’t work. And now we’re going to find the next one. And you’re bringing something into existence. So it’s like being a parent. When you see the child fall down, you get the child back up and you get them onto the next thing. And when we learn riding a bike, we have to go through falling off the bike. So there’s all of these experiences that you know what it’s like to bring life force energy to something. And that involves a process of failure. And then functionality, if we’re really putting our value around the idea that something has to be functional or that I have to be functional, that my value is in my functionality, then Failure is such a bad thing. So this is a big difference in how the pendulum is now swinging. We have to remove the idea that you are valuable because you’re reliably functional. We have to swing it back to this idea that you’re valuable because you breathe life force energy into something. Speaker 2 For someone that doesn’t know the definition of life force energy, how would you define that? Speaker 1 So this word vitality has two definitions, irreplaceable and life force. So if something is vital, it’s irreplaceable and it’s life force. So you need to find something that you are the irreplaceable life force. You pitch it into existence, you create it, you innovate it, you take ownership of it, you enroll others into it. Speaker 2 That’s the alignment kind of thing you’re talking about. You’re aligned to that thing. Speaker 1 Yeah, you fully expressed your life. You’re enjoying this because it’s your life journey. And we’re so tuned out from the idea of this that essentially we have to relearn what held us this even mean, this definition. Life force energy is what kids do. Think about, you know, everyone’s talking and everyone’s serious. And then a five year old bounces into the room. Look what I’ve found, right? And it’s like, look, this mud and there’s this and there’s, you know, it’s like, well, and suddenly everyone’s disrupted and they bring energy into the house, they bring energy into A room. So they just know what it’s like to fully express themselves and breathe life force energy into something. Let me give you another example. There

Testing Business Ideas - Test your business ideas in the market, not just in your mind. - Create a waiting list landing page to gauge interest before fully launching. - If many people join, it’s a good sign. - If no one joins after promoting it, the idea might not be viable. - Balance your passion with market demand. Transcript: Speaker 1 The thing is we need to sharpen our ideas in the market, not in our minds. So what we have to do is go make contact with other people and see what they say and see what they think. So we have to conduct tests where we fail fast and fail cheap if we fail at all. So here’s an example of what I like to do when someone has an idea. I say set up a very simple waiting list landing page. And essentially let people know I’m thinking of starting something in this particular space or we’re launching something in this space later in the year. If you’re interested, join the waiting list. Now that waiting list concept, essentially, if people will join the waiting list, and if you get hundreds of people joining a waiting list, it’s pretty good indication that it is a good, Good idea. If you launch a waiting list and you message 3,000 people and say, I’m launching, I’m launching this thing, do you want to join the waiting list? And no one joins. Then it’s a good indication. That’s not the idea, right? Because we have to have a good marriage between what we’re passionate about, what

Validate Business Ideas with Waiting Lists - To validate a business idea quickly and cheaply, create a waiting list landing page. - Share the landing page and gauge interest. High interest validates the idea; low interest suggests pivoting. - This approach helps avoid large upfront investments and potential losses, mitigating the fear of failure. - Even established entrepreneurs like Elon Musk use this strategy to validate product demand before significant investment, like the Cybertruck. - Gathering pre-orders or deposits through a waiting list strengthens the case for funding from investors. Transcript: Speaker 1 You can always have plenty more ideas. So you’ve got to test the faster you can get on with conducting a fast and cheap test, the better you’re going to go with your entrepreneurial idea. Speaker 2 Because that’s one of the big sort of mental barriers that people have, is they see that committing to any of these ideas is going to cost them three years, their reputation, and potentially Hundreds of thousands of their money or an investor’s money. So that again creates paralysis because the discomfort associated with being wrong when you think there’s so much on the line will hold you in place. But your idea there of just throwing up a landing page immediately kills the paralysis and also just a landing page of a waiting list. Speaker 1 So you’re not even saying that this thing’s a dead certain. You’re just saying we’re going to be launching something if we get enough interest and here’s the waiting list. And by the way, this is what really smart entrepreneurs do. Like Elon Musk launched a waiting list for the Model 3. He launched a waiting list for the Cybertruck. I think he launched a waiting list for a flamethrower. I joined all the waiting lists. Yeah. And he’s, you know, he’s essentially what he’s doing is a very smart process of validating the idea. One of the best mindsets that we have as an early stage entrepreneur is the mindset of a scientist conducting a little experiment. And what we’re trying to do is not be emotionally attached to what happens one way or another. What we what we want to do is we want to say, you know what, if people don’t like this, okay, I’ll have another idea. If people do like this, I’ll go to the next step. So a scientist is just kind of like conducting an experiment and the best experiments are cheap and fast. A waiting list is probably the most powerful early stage experiment you could you could go with Elon Musk when he launched the waiting list for Cybertruck.

Validate Business Ideas with Waiting Lists - To validate a business idea quickly and cheaply, create a waiting list landing page. - Tell people you’re considering launching something in a specific area and invite them to join the waiting list. Transcript: Speaker 2 But your idea there of just throwing up a landing page immediately kills the paralysis and also just a landing page of a waiting list. Speaker 1 So you’re not even saying that this thing’s a dead certain. You’re just saying we’re going to be launching something if we get enough interest and here’s the waiting list. And by the way, this is what really smart entrepreneurs do. Like Elon Musk launched a waiting list for the Model 3. He launched a waiting list for the Cybertruck. I think he launched a waiting list for a flamethrower. I joined all the waiting lists. Yeah. And he’s, you know, he’s essentially what he’s doing is a very smart process of validating the idea. One of the best mindsets that we have as an early stage entrepreneur is the mindset of a scientist conducting a little experiment. And what we’re trying to do is not be emotionally attached to what happens one way or another. What we what we want to do is we want to say, you know what, if people don’t like this, okay, I’ll have another idea. If people do like this, I’ll go to the next step. So a scientist is just kind of like conducting an experiment and the best experiments are cheap and fast. A waiting list is probably the most powerful early stage experiment you could you could go with Elon Musk when he launched the waiting list for Cybertruck. I don’t think there would have been an investment bank on the planet that would have backed a factory for something that looked like Cybertruck. But when he walked in and said, I’ve got a million people who have put down a hundred dollar deposit. If only 5% of them go ahead, they can crunch the numbers on that and say, yeah, okay, we’ll fund that. Fair enough. Let’s build it. So it’s very powerful. I did this recently. I had my team come up to me and say, hey, we

Waiting List Validates Book Writing AI Startup Idea - Daniel Priestley’s team suggested a startup idea around an AI book writing tool. - Unsure of market demand, Priestley launched a waiting list, which garnered 750 sign-ups (exceeding expectations of 150) after a single LinkedIn post. - The waiting list served as a data collection tool, gathering insights into pricing, usage expectations, and alternative solutions. - Based on the data, they finalized the product specs and secured £300,000 in angel investment at a £3 million valuation, all before writing any code. Transcript: Speaker 1 Let’s build it. So it’s very powerful. I did this recently. I had my team come up to me and say, hey, we could do a startup around an AI that helps people write a book. And I said, well, I’m not sure if anyone would like that, but let’s launch a waiting list. So I launched a waiting list, put one post on LinkedIn, 750 people joined the waiting list. I was expecting 150. And in the waiting list, we actually asked questions like, how much would you pay for it per month? And how many months do you think it would take you and what would success look like and what would failure look like? And what else would you try instead of this? If this didn’t exist, what would you use? So we asked all these questions. We collected a ton of data. And then off the back of that, we specked out the product. I also went to angel investors and said, do you guys want to co-invest in this one? We raised 300,000 pounds on the SCIS scheme at a three million pound valuation for an idea, no lines of code, nothing built, nothing designed. And essentially we got ourselves ready to launch in a couple of months, just simply off the back of that waiting list and all the data that we collected. Speaker 2 So interesting.

The Role of Passion in Entrepreneurship - Passion fuels perseverance during challenging times in business. - True passion stems from aligning your origin story, mission, and vision. Transcript: Speaker 2 So interesting. The other point you said within there was about, you said there’s kind of two things, what you’re passionate about and what the market wants. Now, on the point of passion, it’s so cliche, people say, follow your passions, do things you’re passionate about, et cetera. How important do you think the role of passion is in actually succeeding at any of these ideas? So if I’ve got four ideas, cupcake business, flouristry business, soccer business, and I don’t know, AI business, what role does my own intrinsic passion of any of these areas matter In the chances of success? Speaker 1 Passion matters a lot because business is hard and you have to stick with it through the downs. So the reason passion is valuable is because you are going to go through valleys and they’re going to be painful and they’re going to be, the gratification is going to be very much delayed In any business journey. So passion is the thing that gets you through. It’s not the thing that you ride high on, it’s the thing that you get through the hard times with. I have a very weird definition of passion. I kind of like tried to strip it back to its bones and I look for an alignment between origin, mission, and vision. So I essentially say, what is your origin story? What’s your background? I want to see that you’re doing something that aligns to what you’ve always been doing. I want to see that this goes back to age 10. For me, when I ask people about why you’re doing this thing, I want them to start the story a long time ago and I want them to tell me about little wins that they’ve had along the way that have Led to this moment, which is why they’re starting this business to me. That’s great. Because anything that we keep coming back to as a recurring theme is what we’re meant to be doing. So for me, I’ve going right back to age 10, I have experiences throughout my teenage years and going back to age 10 that were about business as a force for good. And it goes right back to a garage sale that I did when I was 10 years old. We had a house fire. It was a horrible experience, but it turned into a positive experience because I set up this garage sale and made some money and something bad happened and I turned it into something Good through business. And for me, there’s this recurring theme that all of my little wins line up to these, these themes. So the origin story is really powerful. The vision for the future is what do I want to see happen in the future? If all of this goes well and other people are doing it too, what would this look like in the future? What would 10 years from now, 20 years from now be if we are celebrating, what would we love to be celebrating? And then the mission is what is the most high value thing that I could possibly do that’s in alignment with that vision? So essentially, if there is a strong alignment between origin, mission and vision, something happens where you carry yourself in a different way. You sit differently, you speak differently, you’re in this alignment. Other people pick up on it. They want to quit their job and go home and work on your team. They hear about the vision. They hear about your origin story. They hear about the mission and they go, Oh, I’m going to leave what I’m doing and come and join that. And that’s the magic of entrepreneurship. So for me, that’s passion. It’s not about like superficially, I like snowboarding or I’ve always enjoyed baking a cake.

Validate Business Ideas with Waiting Lists - Use waiting lists as a powerful tool to validate business ideas. - Collect data and refine your product based on feedback from those on the waiting list. - Waiting lists are powerful fundraising tools: they show existing demand that investors value. They can help raise pre-seed funding without a finished product, based just on the idea. Transcript: Speaker 1 Pounds on the SCIS scheme at a three million pound valuation for an idea, no lines of code, nothing built, nothing designed. And essentially we got ourselves ready to launch in a couple of months, just simply off the back of that waiting list and all the data that we collected. Speaker 2 So interesting. The other point you said within there was about, you said there’s kind of two things, what you’re passionate about and what the market wants. Now, on the point of passion, it’s so cliche, people say, follow your passions, do things you’re passionate about, et cetera. How important do you think the role of passion is in actually succeeding at any of these ideas? So if I’ve got four ideas, cupcake business, flouristry business, soccer business, and I don’t know, AI business, what role does my own intrinsic passion of any of these areas matter In the chances of success? Speaker 1 Passion matters a lot because business is hard and you have to stick with it through the downs. So the reason passion is valuable is because you are going to go through valleys and they’re going to be painful and they’re going to be, the gratification is going to be very much delayed In any business journey. So passion is the thing that gets you through. It’s not the thing that you ride high on, it’s the thing that you get through the hard times with. I have a very weird definition of passion. I kind of like tried to strip it back to its bones and I look for an alignment between origin, mission, and vision. So I essentially say, what is your origin story? What’s your background? I want to see that you’re doing something that aligns to what you’ve always been doing. I want to see that this goes back to age 10. For me, when I ask people about why you’re doing this thing, I want them to start the story a long time ago and I want them to tell me about little

Garage Sale Origin Story - As a child, Daniel Priestley had a house fire, which he turned into a positive experience. - He organized a garage sale and made some money from it. - This became a recurring theme: using business to turn bad situations into positive outcomes. - This early experience significantly shaped his perspective on business as a force for good. - He uses this example to illustrate the importance of connecting one’s origin story with their current business pursuits. Transcript: Speaker 1 That’s great. Because anything that we keep coming back to as a recurring theme is what we’re meant to be doing. So for me, I’ve going right back to age 10, I have experiences throughout my teenage years and going back to age 10 that were about business as a force for good. And it goes right back to a garage sale that I did when I was 10 years old. We had a house

Visionary Mindset - A visionary mindset views resources as readily available through connection and collaboration. - They believe that any resource is just a few conversations away, focusing on exchanging value to access what they need. - This mindset fosters resourcefulness and facilitates tasks like fundraising by viewing potential investors as partners eager to support a compelling vision. Transcript: Speaker 1 Well, the visionary has a different view of life. And the first thing is that if a resource exists on the planet anywhere, that resource is really just a couple of conversations away. So essentially a visionary would say, well, someone’s got $40, I just have a talk with them and see what they need and I’ll help them with whatever they need. They can help me with the $40 that I need. Maybe I need to wash their car. Maybe I need to, you know, help them with their video editing or something.

Reptilian vs Visionary Mindset - Daniel Priestley describes two contrasting mindsets: reptilian and visionary. - The reptilian mindset is characterized by reactive emotions like fight, flight, freeze, and tantrums, often blaming external factors. - Conversely, the visionary mindset is expansive, focused on long-term possibilities (10-20 years), and perceives the world as interconnected. Transcript: Speaker 1 I have a simple view around mindset, which is you’re either being a reptile an autopilot or a visionary. Speaker 2 What’s that reptile thing you mentioned? What’s the definition of that? Speaker 1 Oh, well, reptile mode is fight, flight, freeze, freak out, throw tantrums, be angry at the people you should not be angry at. Feels unfair that the world’s against you. All of that. And the visionary is the definition of that.

Mindset: Reptile vs. Visionary - Daniel Priestley describes two mindsets: reptile and visionary. - Reptile mode involves reacting instinctively with fight, flight, freeze, or freak-out responses, often misdirecting anger. - Visionary mode, conversely, is characterized by a feeling of expansive possibility and a sense that anything is achievable. Transcript: Speaker 1 I always enjoyed all of this, by the way. So my mindset was that I was always quite excited that being lost, I felt was probably going to be part of the process. I have a simple view around mindset, which is you’re either being a reptile an autopilot or a visionary. Speaker 2 What’s that reptile thing you mentioned? What’s the definition of that? Oh, well, reptile

Visionary Mindset - Daniel Priestley describes a simple mindset model with two states: reptile and visionary. - Reptile mode is reactive, characterized by fight, flight, freeze responses, and negative emotions. - Visionary mode is expansive, optimistic, and focused on long-term possibilities. - Visionaries see the world as interconnected and full of opportunities, fostering influence and compassion. Transcript: Speaker 1 I have a simple view around mindset, which is you’re either being a reptile an autopilot or a visionary. Speaker 2 What’s that reptile thing you mentioned? What’s the definition of that? Speaker 1 Oh, well, reptile mode is fight, flight, freeze, freak out, throw tantrums, be angry at the people you should not be angry at. Feels unfair that the world’s against you. All of that. And the visionary is the definition of that. So the visionary, I don’t know if you’ve had these moments where you feel anything is possible and you feel very expansive. You think in long timeframes, so you think in maybe 10, 20 years out, you also might see the world as one small place. So you might mentally, your mental model might be that the world is just one little ball that flies around the sun and there’s markets everywhere and that there are opportunities everywhere And that there are people trying to get stuff done. And I could have a business that’s anywhere and you feel a sense of love and compassion and optimism and you typically become more influential in your circles. The other strange thing about the visionary mindset is that they did some research with Indian farmers and they found that these particular people, they got paid their yearly salary In one lump sum and then they had to make that last for the whole year. And as they were getting close to the end of that cycle, they had an IQ test, which

Visionary vs. Reptile Mindset - Daniel Priestley describes two mindsets: ‘visionary’ and ‘reptile’. - The reptile mindset is characterized by fight-or-flight responses, negativity, and short-term thinking. - The visionary mindset is characterized by long-term thinking, optimism, and a sense of abundance. - Research on Indian farmers showed that their IQ scores were higher when they felt financially secure, demonstrating the impact of mindset on cognitive function. - Financial stress can put individuals in a reptile mindset, hindering their ability to think clearly and make sound decisions. Transcript: Speaker 1 So the visionary, I don’t know if you’ve had these moments where you feel anything is possible and you feel very expansive. You think in long timeframes, so you think in maybe 10, 20 years out, you also might see the world as one small place. So you might mentally, your mental model might be that the world is just one little ball that flies around the sun and there’s markets everywhere and that there are opportunities everywhere And that there are people trying to get stuff done. And I could have a business that’s anywhere and you feel a sense of love and compassion and optimism and you typically become more influential in your circles. The other strange thing about the visionary mindset is that they did some research with Indian farmers and they found that these particular people, they got paid their yearly salary In one lump sum and then they had to make that last for the whole year. And as they were getting close to the end of that cycle, they had an IQ test, which showed that they were 15 points of IQ lower than when they had just been paid the lump sum. So the lump sum allowed them to think long term, it allowed them to feel affluent and abundant and their IQ, the scores on the IQ test went up as a result of feeling good and feeling amazing And feeling affluent. And then by the time the money had run out and they’re not sure whether they’re even going to make it to the next one, their emotional intelligence, their actual IQ intelligence had dropped Significantly. So one of the things that is a real challenge, if you’re doing it tough, is that you’re essentially regularly putting yourself into these situations where your IQ is right down, your Emotional

Top Gun and the Navy - The producers of Top Gun initially used models to plan the movie’s action sequences. - Someone suggested asking the Navy if they could use real equipment. - The Navy agreed, wanting to boost enrollment through the film’s exposure. - This demonstrates that resources are often accessible through conversations and mutually beneficial arrangements. Transcript: Speaker 1 How we’re going to put it to use. There’s a great story that I love, which is I think it was the producers of Top Gun were creating these little models of airplanes and boats and they were trying to figure out how they would Do like a Star Wars style Top Gun movie. And someone said, have we actually called the Navy in us whether we can use their planes and their boats? And everyone’s like, no. And so they’ve got planes and boats. Let’s see if they want to do it. So they ring up the Navy as you do. And they speak to the general and the general says, oh, yeah, we want to enroll more people in the Navy. So we would love for you to make a Hollywood blockbuster film. What do you need? And they basically say, well, here have the jets, have the boats, have the aircraft carriers, whatever you want to do. So it’s kind of weird to think that someone woke up this morning with the resource that you want. And if you have a conversation about how that resource gets used, right, essentially you are now as good as you having the resource. Someone woke up with an aircraft carrier. If you’ve got a good use for that aircraft carrier, why not have a conversation about how that aircraft carrier gets used today? Speaker 2 It’s shocking because it’s so simple. But it’s so resonant with me. There’s two examples I’ll give the first I’ve talked about many times was when I was 16, 17, in six form, saw Carly Stokes and friend of me, who was a girl in my school. I think she was head girl, but she was picking the vending machines we were going to get in the school. And in my brain, I thought, we have 2000 paying

Vending Machine Venture - Steven Bartlett secured vending machines for his school at 16. - He simply emailed companies, demonstrating a resourceful mindset. Transcript: Speaker 2 It’s shocking because it’s so simple. But it’s so resonant with me. There’s two examples I’ll give the first I’ve talked about many times was when I was 16, 17, in six form, saw Carly Stokes and friend of me, who was a girl in my school. I think she was head girl, but she was picking the vending machines we were going to get in the school. And in my brain, I thought, we have 2000 paying customers here. Surely there’s a vending machine company that would love to put these machines for free and give us a cut, went to the computer room, sent five emails based on Google search rankings. By the same day, and Mr. Sprinkle, who was our head of key stage five, has confirmed this on live TV, someone showed up with a tape measure to fit the machines because one of my emails had gone to a former student Who was now the CEO of a vending machine company, and he had been looking to give back to

1min Snip Transcript: Speaker 1 Like, did you feel, because you must have felt reptile versus visionary in your life, you’ve had reptile moments where you’re like, 100%. I hate everyone. I want to kill everyone. And then you’ve had moments where it’s like, oh, you know what? We can bend the world. Yeah, we can bend reality. Exactly. We have a conversation about how reality works, and we’ll just, you know, bend it. Yeah. Speaker 2 And so my question has always been like, where does that come from? Because I view our beliefs, all of our beliefs, as a stack of evidence we either have or don’t really have. And for me, the youngster for siblings, I had so much space compared to my siblings when I was young that I got to, like we said earlier, like fuck around and find out, I got to conduct experiments. And that led me to believe that the world is bendable. I used to say when I was 14 that if someone said to me that we need to go to the moon next week, I believe there’s a way because I think there’s probably a rocket rocket going. And all I need to do is contact the person and make a compelling pitch. Speaker 1 That’s how I get to the moon next week. You thought that at 14? Yes. Speaker 2 I used to say this all the time. Like, my difference between myself and my peers, they were academically better. But in my head, there was the only thing that stood in the way of where I am now and where I want to be is a bunch of people. Bunch of conversations. Speaker 1 Yeah. Pitching. Essentially, pitching is enrolling people into new ideas. So what entrepreneurs do to advance their ideas is we pitch them into existence. We start with an idea and we pitch it and we pitch it and we pitch it. We sharpen our pitch by talking to people. But what we’re doing that’s different is we’re not just explaining the idea to people, we’re trying to enroll them into that vision.

Management Buyouts - Management buyouts of “boring” businesses offer significant opportunities. - Acquire declining businesses from retiring Baby Boomers and revitalize them. Transcript: Speaker 1 So the first thing I’d say is that there’s value to be made at every level. If you’re watching this and you know you’re not a founder and you’re sitting there going, all the people who make the money are the people who start from scratch and get something off The ground and look at Daniel and look at Stephen, those guys are the zero to one guys. Wouldn’t it be great if I was one of those, but I’m not. Well, actually that’s not true. The truth is that there’s incredible wealth to be created if you can take something from two to 20 million. There’s amazing wealth if you can take something from 20 to 200 million. Do you know this is worth mentioning one of the biggest opportunities in the world right now, biggest, there’s two major opportunities in the world, but one of the biggest opportunities In the world at the moment is baby boomers who want to retire. And a typical scenario is you get someone who’s late 60s, early 70s, the business had a high watermark of a couple of million. And now it’s dropped down to maybe a million or six high six figures because the person’s semi retiring. And because the business has been on decline, it’s almost unsalable. The person wants to retire and they just want to hand over the keys and they just want that business to go to someone who’s fresh. And what they’re willing to do is to do a vendor sale exit. Cody Sanchez, who she talks about this, I’ve done deals like this. And actually Jeremy with 100 foot yacht. That’s how he that’s how he does it. So you essentially, you buy a business that the person wants to retire and you take over that business with fresh energy and you bring it back to its high watermark. So there are so many people who what they would be suited for is not starting with a blank sheet of paper like me, but they would actually go and find Bill and Sarah who want to retire. And they want to do a deal where they get paid out over five years to hand over the keys to the business. Speaker 2 Let’s zoom in on this because a lot of people don’t understand the concept of like a management buyout. So I see Bill and Sarah, they’re running a laundry mat. Yeah. Speaker 1 Well, here’s a real life example. A real life example from a friend of mine is called Kit King. And basically he approached someone who had that business, they built it up to I think a few million. And then he was the guy was ready to retire. When when he walked in, the orders would get printed out and put onto a spike. And spike number one was like, this is an order. And then when it was fulfilled, it goes onto the fulfilled spike, a piece of paper. And then, you know, he this young guy comes in and he digitizes the business and he gets all the automated order thing flowing cost about 25 grand to get in the specialist who could do all Of that. And then he basically reengaged the team. The team were totally on and I think there’s about a dozen people. And they’d not had a team meeting in ages. They’d not there was no vision for the business. They’d not gone and spoken to customers in forever. And then he comes in, goes and talks to customers, starts hosting some online events, starts sending out messages, starts digitizing, builds a bit of the brand. And that business has I think gone like 500% in like two years. It’s massively successful. But he started with something that had been going for 30 years. Speaker 2 In that example, you don’t necessarily need any money. Speaker 1 No, no, no, this was no money down. So you can create a multi million pound business theoretically starting with zero money. Remember that? Remember that money is just a database. So it’s a database of the value. So what you do is like, if I want to buy a house, I go to the bank and they lend me the money to buy the house. If I want to buy a business, the person who already owns the business is probably the most likely person to see the value in funding the business. A bank probably won’t. But the person who is selling it, let’s say I, let’s say I go to Bill and Sarah, I say, look, there’s no question your business is worth 1.2 million. I don’t have 1.2 million. I have a little bit of money that I’m going to invest into the business to grow it. Can I pay you the 1.2 million over six years, seven years? And what we will do is this is my business plan. You will be the board members, chairperson of the board and the business will be the security for that loan. So if we screw up and we can’t make our payments, you take the whole business back with everything that we’ve thrown at it, everything that we’ve done at it, you’ll be able to take it back And sell it to somebody else if we skip our payments. So you’re securing the purchase of the business with the business itself. You’re doing a business plan where it makes sense that the business could make the payments. Now, think about it from Bill and Sarah’s point of view. They’ve got this thing that’s driving them crazy. They want to retire. They want to go south of France. They want to go spend time with the grandkids. And now someone’s coming along and saying, yeah, we’re going to pay you 120 grand a year for the next seven years. And if we don’t, then you get your business back. And if we don’t, you get the business back. Speaker 2 And if they believe you, which is the key part, if they believe in your ability to execute because. And if there’s, and if there’s no one else offering anything else, they believe you and there’s no other options, it’s a great deal. Speaker 1 Now, here’s a crazy thing. 65% of the value of all business equity in the economy is owned by Baby Boomers right now. So if you were to take, if you were to throw a dartboard at all the valuation of every company in the UK or the USA, there’s a 65% chance that you hit a Baby Boomer. Right. So it’s, it’s, it’s incredible. Now all of those businesses have to be passed on somewhere. Now all of these young people, they all want to have the latest psychedelic startup, although, you know, something like that. And they’re like, Oh, I don’t want the elevator repair business that does eight million a year. You know, it’s like go get in, get involved in that. Right. So that’s a huge opportunity. Speaker 2 The opportunity here is boring businesses. Speaker 1 Boring businesses that you can, you can bring something to it. You can digitize it. You can make it interesting. You can create a culture that’s exciting. The thing about a boring business, boring, boomer business, boring, boomer business, right? The business. I said that first. Right. Get my next book. So I said that first. Trademark. Because you guys got the wrong way to say. So the boring, booboo business, the Bbbs, what, you know, a business can be exciting. It can do a boring thing, but still be an exciting business. You could, the way you run the team and the culture, the, the, the money that it spits out can be exciting. You can use that business to sponsor a charity. You know, I’ve got a friend and a client called Sebastian Bates. He’s got an amazing martial arts school that’s in the UK and the bike called Warrior Academy. And he’s used all of his, he’s very profitable. He’s now set up martial arts schools in Kenya, Nepal, all of these different areas that are struggling areas now have a martial arts academy. He set up his own charity and he’s basically doing martial arts schools for kids who have never had anyone look out for them. They’re often street kids and homeless kids. They come into martial arts and they get taught life skills and martial arts and confidence character. The point is, you can take a boring business and the way that you run it, you can do, you can launch a charity associated with it. You could hire young people who are coming out of prison and give them a second chance to get started. And that could be part of the excitement of the business. There are so many ways to make a boring business and exciting business. Most of the times Bill and Sarah have given up on…

Find Your Tribe - If you’re feeling stuck and lacking life force energy, change your environment, even if just for a few hours a week. - Find environments that lift you up and surround yourself with people who share your aspirations. - For aspiring entrepreneurs, this means joining entrepreneur meetups, groups, finding a mentor, or attending online events. Transcript: Speaker 1 Degree. Change it will change environments for at least an hour or two a week. And what I mean by that is, I’ll give you an example. When I was 21, I was going out to pubs drinking with friends all the time, we’re getting drunk and that was the normal night. And there was this one night where these people turned up who did la bop Latin drive dancing. And I looked across the room and I saw them drive dancing and I went, oh, that’s incredible. And I get talking to the guy and I say, how did you, how do you do this? And there’s like six beautiful girls and these one or two guys who they’re all waiting for a spin. And I’m like, how do you, how are you doing this? He goes, come to dance classes. I’m like, go to dance classes. That’s, I would never go to dance classes. I rock up a dance class. And then when I was there, I was in this environment where it was completely normal to dance. That was just the normal thing. In that environment, you grab a partner and the music comes on and they show you the moves and you do the moves. When they demoed the moves, and I can vividly remember this from 20 years ago, when they demoed the moves, I thought to myself, there is no way I’ll learn that in three months. And then by the end of that first two hour session, I’m doing the whole routine and I’m comfortable with it. And I’m like, wow, I can do this. So being in the, you can’t do it outside of the environment, you can only do it in the environment. So entrepreneurship is an environment thing. You do it inside an environment and you, it’s very hard to do that outside of the environment.

Find Your Entrepreneurial Environment - To succeed as an entrepreneur, immerse yourself in the right environment. - Find entrepreneur meetups, groups, mentors, or online events. - Changing environments, even briefly, can significantly impact your progress, just like learning a new skill. - Stepping into a new world can lead to ‘social shedding,’ where you outgrow old social circles that resist your change. - This resistance often stems from others not wanting you to evolve, as it reflects on their own choices. Transcript: Speaker 1 And then by the end of that first two hour session, I’m doing the whole routine and I’m comfortable with it. And I’m like, wow, I can do this. So being in the, you can’t do it outside of the environment, you can only do it in the environment. So entrepreneurship is an environment thing. You do it inside an environment and you, it’s very hard to do that outside of the environment. So you basically have to find entrepreneur meetups, entrepreneur groups. You find a mentor. You, you know, in every city around the world right now, there are entrepreneur meetups every night of the week online. There are entrepreneurial events every day of the week. Speaker 2 So you just get in, you just get in the environment. There’s this thing called social shedding, which I’ve never actually shared with anybody before, but it’s this idea that when you take that first step into dance class and you get to See behind the curtain of another world, you slowly no longer resonate with your other friendship group. And what, and there’s often a friction there where they say, oh, Dan, you’ve, Dan’s dark, they start cracking the jokes. Oh, Dan’s a ballet dancer now, lads. Oh, and what they’re doing there is it’s somewhat linked to this phrase, misery loves company. They don’t want you to leave. No one wants you to change your Dan priestly. We know you as this do not change your identity. If you try to change your identity, we will mock you. We will disguise as a friendly roast and we will try and hold you back because if you change, what does that say about us? That’s that’s holding a mirror up to me. It means that I’m less than you in some way.

Find Your Tribe - To become an entrepreneur, immerse yourself in entrepreneurial environments. - Find meetups, groups, mentors, or online events to connect with like-minded individuals. - This makes entrepreneurial behavior feel normal and attainable. - Changing your environment can lead to social shedding, where you may no longer resonate with your old friendship group. - They may discourage your change, but embrace it as a sign of growth. Transcript: Speaker 1 That was just the normal thing. In that environment, you grab a partner and the music comes on and they show you the moves and you do the moves. When they demoed the moves, and I can vividly remember this from 20 years ago, when they demoed the moves, I thought to myself, there is no way I’ll learn that in three months. And then by the end of that first two hour session, I’m doing the whole routine and I’m comfortable with it. And I’m like, wow, I can do this. So being in the, you can’t do it outside of the environment, you can only do it in the environment. So entrepreneurship is an environment thing. You do it inside an environment and you, it’s very hard to do that outside of the environment. So you basically have to find entrepreneur meetups, entrepreneur groups. You find a mentor. You, you know, in every city around the world right now, there are entrepreneur meetups every night of the week online. There are entrepreneurial events every day of the week. Speaker 2 So you just get in, you just get in the environment. There’s this thing called social shedding, which I’ve never actually shared with anybody before, but it’s this idea that when you take that first step into dance class and you get to See behind the curtain of another world, you slowly no longer resonate with your other friendship group. And what, and there’s often a friction there where they say, oh, Dan, you’ve, Dan’s dark, they start cracking the jokes. Oh, Dan’s a ballet dancer now, lads. Oh, and what they’re doing there is it’s somewhat linked to this phrase, misery loves company. They don’t want you to leave. No one wants you to change your Dan priestly. We know you as this do not change your identity. If you try to change your identity, we will mock you. We will disguise as a friendly roast and we will try and hold you back because if you change, what does that say about us?

Team Building - Start with small teams (two co-founders or a founder and an assistant). - Use the British military’s team-building approach (2, 4, 8, 30). - Two-person scout team for new ideas, four-person team once proven, eight-person team when up and running, and a 30-person team when it becomes a business with its own standard learning value. Transcript: Speaker 1 So I’m a believer that two person co-founders or a founder plus an assistant is a great place to start. Four person campaign teams, eight person core teams, 30 person performance teams. So I love the British military’s approach to team building. So in the British military, they have two person scout team, four person fire team, eight person section, 30 person platoon. So they go to four, eight, 30. And I’ve used that myself in my own scale up approach, where if there’s a new idea, we put two people on it. Once it’s proven, four people are on it. Once it’s up and running, eight people are on it. Once it becomes a business that has its own standard learn value, 30 people are on it. So it’s two, four, eight, 30. And that’s been a British military learning that I kind of went, well, if they’ve done 400 years

Building a Balanced Team - Business is a team sport, and solopreneurship is unsustainable. - Build balanced teams with diverse skills (visionary, implementer, connector, financier). Transcript: Speaker 2 Available. People, I’ve come to learn, especially over the last couple of years, about the importance of people. You talked about people at the very beginning of this conversation, hiring people, finding the right people to join you in your mission. How central to being successful in both business, but just more broadly in life, is assembling the right group of people. Speaker 1 So business is a team sport. There’s no getting around it. I don’t believe in solo prenorship. I don’t believe that you can be a one person entrepreneur. I think entrepreneurs are team players and that they assemble teams. They put together teams of amazing people. Sometimes they put together teams of ordinary people at the beginning and then they become amazing people. So I’m a believer that two person co-founders or a founder plus an assistant is a great place to start. Four person campaign teams, eight person core teams, 30 person performance teams. So I love the British military’s approach to team building. So in the British military, they have two person scout team, four person fire team, eight person section, 30 person platoon. So they go to four, eight, 30. And I’ve used that myself in my own scale up approach, where if there’s a new idea, we put two people on it. Once it’s proven, four people are on it. Once it’s up and running, eight people are on it. Once it becomes a business that has its own standard learn value, 30 people are on it. So it’s two, four, eight, 30. And that’s been a British military learning that I kind of went, well, if they’ve done 400 years of HR experiments, why wouldn’t I just learn from how they organize their teams? Speaker 2 Is there anything you’ve found that is consistent across all of the best people you’ve hired worked with, co-founded a company with a partner with? Is there any consistent thing? Speaker 1 I’m always looking for complementary energies. So here’s what I’m looking for. In the deck of cards, there’s four suits. So you’ve got clouds. So head in the clouds, spades doing the work, hearts connecting with people, diamonds, money, finance data. So I always look for a balanced team of someone who’s visionary with someone who’s a spades person doing the work, implementer, someone who’s a heart connector with someone who’s money Or data. So I’m looking to try and perfectly balance my team with the four suits. And I’ve seen visionary people who get nothing done because they don’t have an implementer around. I’ve seen amazing connectors who don’t have anyone balancing them out. So they never retain any of the money that’s flowing around them, because they’re an amazing networker. People are doing deals around them, but they’re not involved in any of it. So for me, it’s the connection between those four energies.

Focus on Acquiring Assets - Focus on earning more, as people often settle for less than their potential. - The key principle is that income follows assets. - Accumulating assets like houses, shares, or a personal brand leads to easier and more effortless income generation. - Consider which assets you can accumulate and formalize, especially digital assets in the new economy, such as brand positioning, databases, and company culture. - Instead of small monthly investments, prioritize investing in your own skills and development, especially if starting with limited resources. Transcript: Speaker 1 First thing is you just want to earn more. People massively settle for how much they could earn. So the first place to I think to invest is in yourself. But here’s the first principle. The first principle is income follows assets. Income follows assets means that the more assets you have, the more income you’ll earn. If I want rental income first, I need a house. If I want dividend income on each shares, if I want to be paid as a brand ambassador first, I need a brand. So essentially, the more we can accumulate assets, the more easy and effortless the money flows. So we have to figure out, well, what assets could you accumulate and what assets could you formalize and own? I wrote a book called 24 Assets and I listed out all the different digital assets that are new economy assets that people could have, things like brand and positioning, things like databases, Things like company culture is an asset now. So I talk about how do you formalize those things? If someone’s just starting out and they’ve got 100 a month to be perfectly honest, trying to invest 100 a month or any of that,

Invest in Relationships - If you don’t have much money to invest, invest in your skills and relationships. - Look for ways to build relationships with people who have a flow of money. - Host dinner parties or find creative ways to network with influential people. - Even small investments in relationships can yield significant returns. Transcript: Speaker 1 Now, it cost me 600 pounds to open an account with that private bank, but they immediately invited me to dinners and they invited me to networking and all these sorts of things in the private Bank. One of the things that I’ve recommended a lot of people do is host dining dinner parties and reach out to people who you don’t know. Here’s a silly story. I was just into buy and I know someone who has a 100 foot yacht. So I said, Jeremy, can I borrow your yacht for the evening? I’m going to be putting 15 really influential people for a dinner party. We’re going to have burgers on the boat. And he said, Oh, great. Can I come? And I said, of course, you can come and it’s your boat. Right. And he said, great, that’ll be exciting. So he basically said, you can host this party on my 100 foot boat. So I reached out to all the people who I didn’t know. And I said, hey, we’re putting together burgers on the boat. Would you like to come along and have some burgers with interesting people? And then they came along and I made the investment into relationship. Now, the funny thing is, a lot of people say, Oh, but you know, some with 100 foot yacht. Funny thing is, I think plenty of people who have a boat, especially in Dubai, it sits empty most of the time, you could reach out to 30 people and say, we’re going to do it on someone’s boat. Would you like it to be your boat with or without your energy? So making investments into relationships is a really powerful thing for $100 a month. Personally, what would I do with $100 a month? Take people out to dinner. That would be my number one investment. I’d probably be taking people out to dinner.

Income Follows Assets - Increase income by accumulating assets, not just saving. - Invest in skill development, especially negotiation and sales, early on. Transcript: Speaker 2 About it. We’re in a cost of living crisis in the UK and many countries around the world are either in or on the brink of recession. So one of the most popular questions we’ve had at the Diaries CEO in the last three to six months is about money. People’s concern about their own money, spending finance and saving. If I’m someone out there now that has, I don’t know, $100 or £100 worth of disposable income every month or if I have a thousand or £10,000, what should I be thinking about as it relates To creating more money and making myself financially free? Speaker 1 The first thing is you just want to earn more. People massively settle for how much they could earn. So the first place to I think to invest is in yourself. But here’s the first principle. The first principle is income follows assets. Income follows assets means that the more assets you have, the more income you’ll earn. If I want rental income first, I need a house. If I want dividend income on each shares, if I want to be paid as a brand ambassador first, I need a brand. So essentially, the more we can accumulate assets, the more easy and effortless the money flows. So we have to figure out, well, what assets could you accumulate and what assets could you formalize and own? I wrote a book called 24 Assets and I listed out all the different digital assets that are new economy assets that people could have, things like brand and positioning, things like databases, Things like company culture is an asset now. So I talk about how do you formalize those things? If someone’s just starting out and they’ve got 100 a month to be perfectly honest, trying to invest 100 a month or any of that, it’s not going to do anything. It’s not going to change your life. But if you put that into your own skills and your own development, let’s say you don’t have negotiation skills. Well, there are courses that you can take for $100 that give you negotiation skills.

Connecting With Value - Someone reached out to Daniel Priestley after noticing a Fender Stratocaster in the background of one of his photos. - The person offered a guitar lesson, providing value to Priestley. - Priestley appreciated the gesture, viewing it as a genuine connection and a demonstration of research and effort. - He also checked the person’s profile and saw that they were actively doing things, further solidifying the positive impression. - Priestley plans to have a chat with them while learning some guitar. Transcript: Speaker 1 Say this. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it happened today, actually. Someone said, Daniel, I noticed in the background of one of your photos that you have an amazing Fender Strata caster. I teach people how to play guitar. I would love the opportunity to do a guitar lesson with you and help you to shred on that guitar. And it was really nice. He had watched my podcasts in the past. He had noticed the guitar. He reached out with something that was valuable for me. And he said, I’d love to have a chat with you and teach you how to play some guitar. And obviously, I’ll have a chat with him while we do that. But that was a very sense… It felt like a good connection. I also had a look at his

Wither Without You Energy - Have ‘wither without you energy’ when reaching out to VIPs. - Don’t get hung up on one person not responding. - Expect low response rates and keep trying; it’s a numbers game. Transcript: Speaker 1 Gone with it. And they’re like millions of followers and they’re one of our clients now. So we have wither without you energy, which is when my team do this, we pick 30 or 40 people who’d make amazing connections and contacts in our VIP outreach team. And then we reach out to them and we expect maybe two or three of them to get back to us. So it’s that idea of… If someone messages you and you don’t message back, it’s not the end of the world. There are other people you can message and there’s a… And look what happens. There you go. It comes around again. It always comes around again. If it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen. Speaker 2 So what about people? So many members of my teams speak to me and ask me about investing. They might have tens of thousands to invest or whatever, but I’m curious about your personal investment thesis with a capital that you have, what do you do with it to create more money? Speaker 1 So… Which will portfolio look like? It’s extremely boring. I just stick any available capital into S&P 500. Well, the S&P 500 for anyone that doesn’t have. Yeah, the top 500 stocks in the US. So essentially, any government that inflates its currency anywhere in the world, that money will hit the economy and it will eventually make its way back to the top 500 companies in The US through spending. Or that capital will end up being put into the S&P 500, which inflates. So one way or another, it’s going back to the top 500 companies in the US. So it’s almost impossible to beat the S&P 500.

Scaling to Six Figures and Beyond - To reach six figures, focus on concept, audience building, creating offers, and sales. - Build a core team of eight, with a key person of influence focused on expanding audience reach and a general manager ensuring smooth operations. - Digitize all valuable aspects of the business, including CRM, intellectual property, brand, and company culture. - Aim to increase revenue per person by adding digital assets. - Once revenue per person rises, strategically add more people to further scale the business. Transcript: Speaker 1 Once you hit about eight people, you now have to digitize absolutely everything of value in that business. So now you go through the whole process of digitization of the value. Speaker 2 So you’re getting ready to scale, which means, for example, moving physical relationships to a CRM, some kind of data database or building a CRM, formalizing your intellectual property, Speaker 1 Building a brand, a company brand, formalizing your organizational culture, getting into really good investor relationship and documentation governance. So all of these are developing systems, developing assets of the business, having online marketing and sales systems, having an online way of generating a lot of leads reliably, having An online way of making customers mostly happy most of the time. So you’re basically trying to build as many assets as possible. What you’re trying to do at about eight to 10 people is raise revenue per person. So let’s say you’ve got 10 people with 100,000 per person. So you’ve got a million of revenue, 10 people times 100,000 million of revenue. If you can add assets and get it to go to 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 million, now you’ve got 130,000 per person. So what you’re trying to do is add as many digital assets as possible to get the revenue per employee or the revenue per person up. Once you see that the revenue per person is going up, now you can add people because the more digital assets there are, times by the number of people, now you’re going

Stages of Business Growth - Grow businesses through key stages: Chaos (Concept, Audience, Offer, Sales), Team Building, Digitization, and Scaling. - Focus on increasing revenue per person by developing digital assets. Transcript: Speaker 2 Talk about that journey then. That journey from got an idea, want to start that ice cream business, that Chilean Baselai ice cream business, whatever. Except for tens of millions. Except for tens of millions. I get off the ground. People love my Chilean Baselai cream. What is the journey that an entrepreneur goes on from zero up until they exit? Speaker 1 So there’s a key stages. The first four stages where everyone gets caught is called chaos. Concept audience offer sales. So you have to develop your concept. So it’s a good concept. You’ve validated it. You’ve conducted some experiments. You’re aligned to it. Other people are excited about it. Audience is that you engage in audience waiting lists, dinner parties, scorecards, acquizzers, discussion groups. All of those are great audience builders. Offer is that you construct a packaged up offering so that people can buy something and that that audience can now act on something and buy. And then sales, which is the ability to talk and discuss with your interested parties to close deals, to actually get sales across the line and to do that predictably and reliably. So for sales, we establish something called a rhythm of laps, leads appointments, presentations and sales. And we measure our pipeline every week. How many leads? How many presentations? How many sales? So those are the first four things. Concept audience offer sales. And that should get you into the six figures of revenue just by doing that. The next thing is about team building. You’ve got to establish a key person of influence who’s got a personal brand who’s the leader of the company who’s going to embody the brand and you’ve got to build a team of eight people Around them. A general manager, marketing and sales, finance admin, IT media and operations, those kind of roles. And essentially, you now build this core team of eight. And the key person of influence job is to engage bigger and bigger audiences. And so they get out there and tell the story of the business. They get on stages. They pitch. They publish content. They raise their profile. They do joint ventures and partnerships. So they’re leading from the front while the general manager or ops director is making sure things don’t fall apart behind. Once you hit about eight people, you now have to digitize absolutely everything of value in that business. So now you go through the whole process of digitization of the value. Speaker 2 So you’re getting ready to scale, which means, for example, moving physical relationships to a CRM, some kind of data database or building a CRM, formalizing your intellectual property, Speaker 1 Building a brand, a company brand, formalizing your organizational culture, getting into really good investor relationship and documentation governance. So all of these are developing systems, developing assets of the business, having online marketing and sales systems, having an online way of generating a lot of leads reliably, having An online way of making customers mostly happy most of the time. So you’re basically trying to build as many assets as possible. What you’re trying to do at about eight to 10 people is raise revenue per person. So let’s say you’ve got 10 people with 100,000 per person. So you’ve got a million of revenue, 10 people times 100,000 million of revenue. If you can add assets and get it to go to 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 million, now you’ve got 130,000 per person. So what you’re trying to do is add as many digital assets as possible to get the revenue per employee or the revenue per person up. Once you see that the revenue per person is going up, now you can add people because the more digital assets there are, times by the number of people, now you’re going to be successful. Now, the really hard jump is from 12 to 30. From 12 people to 30, you’re too big to be small, too small to be big, very difficult time in any business’s life. And what you have to do is go through a transformation of a small team of rebels and misfits to a professional team that’s manufacturing value. A lot of people have to go. Unfortunately, some of the earlier people who were there because they could breathe and add a pulse and all of that sort of stuff, they unfortunately have to go find a new startup. You now have to go and bring on team members who come through recruiters with a proper process and who they go through an entire process of how they join the team. They’re onboarded correctly, and now you transform into a more valuable professional organization. Once you hit 30, you’ve got a five person executive team plus a non-executive director and an advisor, and then you’ve got some teams of teams, and now you’re doing 10 million of revenue, Three million of profit, and

Winning vs. Being Right - Prioritize winning over being right and hire “overlings” (people better than you). - Great leaders, like conductors, assemble talented individuals, not underlings. Transcript: Speaker 2 Because everyone can relate. Like I don’t mean to share this without asking him, but I’m sure like he’s in control of the edit so he can take it out if he doesn’t like it. Did you think I was going to do it? Jack turned around to our team the other day and I’ve actually spoken to so many people about this moment since he said it. Jack said, you know what? He jacks from this podcast from zero. So zero subscribers to where it is now. It’s five million subscribers. Jack turned around at five million subscribers and was like, I’m not the best in the world at doing lighting. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone out and I found someone who’s the best at lighting and they’re going to teach me. They’re going to redesign my set. Five million subscribers. He’s getting someone else to redesign a set so that the lighting is amazing. It takes a certain kind of person to put winning over ego. Speaker 1 I love that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Speaker 2 I think about this so many. Jack probably didn’t know the profoundness of that moment to me, but someone who is applauded from everyone, you’ve got the best, whatever for him to go, do you know what? There’s so much I don’t know. He role model humility and he role modeled the idea of winning is better than being right. Speaker 1 Right. Yeah. And overlings not underlings that a great company is great because you bring in overlings not underlings. So an underling is someone who’s not as good as you are and an overling is someone who’s way better than you are. So it’s that confidence to bring in the overlings. All of my businesses have been great because overlings run them. Everyone who is in my organization is way better than me at the thing they’re doing. And I feel like the conductor in the orchestra can’t play all the instruments and probably maybe it’s okay at one instrument, but actually their ability to bring in the best in the world At that instrument is what makes them a great conductor, the ability to enroll people.

Jack from Zero to Five Million - Jack, who grew a podcast from zero to five million subscribers, admitted he wasn’t the best at lighting. - He hired someone better to teach him and redesign his set. - This demonstrates humility and prioritizing winning over ego, even after achieving significant success. - This resonated deeply with Steven Bartlett and highlighted the importance of recognizing one’s limitations for the sake of improvement. - The story emphasizes continuous learning and seeking expertise even at high levels of accomplishment. Transcript: Speaker 2 Did you think I was going to do it? Jack turned around to our team the other day and I’ve actually spoken to so many people about this moment since he said it. Jack said, you know what? He jacks from this podcast from zero. So zero subscribers to where it is now. It’s five million subscribers. Jack turned around at five million subscribers and was like, I’m not the best in the world at doing lighting. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone out and I found someone who’s the best at lighting and they’re going to teach me. They’re going to redesign my set. Five million subscribers. He’s getting someone else to redesign a set so that the lighting is amazing. It takes a certain kind of person to put winning over ego. Speaker 1 I love that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Overlings, Not Underlings - Build a great company by bringing in overlings, people who are way better than you at what they do. - Don’t be afraid to hire people who are more skilled or experienced than you are. - Focus on your role as a conductor, bringing in the best musicians to create a harmonious symphony. - Your ability to enroll talented individuals is more valuable than your individual skill at any one instrument. - Recognize the value of specialized expertise and leverage it to create a high-performing team. Transcript: Speaker 1 So an underling is someone who’s not as good as you are and an overling is someone who’s way better than you are. So it’s that confidence to bring in the overlings. All of my businesses have been great because overlings run them. Everyone who is in my organization is way better than me at the

Kit King’s Business Success - Kit King significantly grew a laundry mat business by modernizing its operations. - He digitized the order process (previously paper-based) and re-engaged the team. - By hosting online events, contacting customers directly, and enhancing the brand, the business grew 500% in two years. - This demonstrates how revitalizing existing businesses can be a lucrative path to entrepreneurship. - The example is used to illustrate how to acquire a business with no money down using a vendor sale. Transcript: Speaker 1 Well, here’s a real life example. A real life example from a friend of mine is called Kit King. And basically he approached someone who had that business, they built it up to I think a few million. And then he was the guy was ready to retire. When when he walked in, the orders would get printed out and put onto a spike. And spike number one was like, this is an order. And then when it was fulfilled, it goes onto the fulfilled spike, a piece of paper. And then, you know, he this young guy comes in and he digitizes the business and he gets all the automated order thing flowing cost about 25 grand to get in the specialist who could do all Of that. And then he basically reengaged the team. The team were totally on and I think there’s about a dozen people. And they’d not had a team meeting in ages. They’d not there was no vision for the business. They’d not gone and spoken to customers in forever. And then he comes in, goes and talks to customers, starts hosting some online events, starts sending out messages, starts digitizing, builds a bit of the brand. And that business has I think gone like 500% in like two years. It’s massively successful. But he started with something that had been going for 30 years. Speaker 2 In that example, you don’t necessarily need any money. Speaker 1 No, no, no, this was no money down. So you can create a multi million pound business theoretically starting with zero money. Remember that? Remember that money is just a database. So it’s a database of the value. So what you do is like, if I want to buy a house, I go to the bank and they lend me the money to

Crucial Skills for Wealth Creation - Two crucial skills for wealth creation are sales (demand creation) and deal structuring. - Leverage AI tools like ChatGPT for drafting and refining deal structures. Transcript: Speaker 2 Point. Two key skills here. The first skill is sales. We’ve talked about that. You have to be persuasive. And the second key skill is even understanding the structuring of that deal. And those are two very different things, but they’re imperative. What I’ve come to learn over the last five years is the people in my life that are the best wealth creators have those two skills. They understand how to structure a deal and they understand how to sell the deal. Yes. Yeah. Speaker 1 Sales is sales that demand creation, doing the deal and structuring phenomenal skills. And everything that you want is on the other side of a structure that exists. So with score app, 2022, AI comes out and I go, oh my God, AI changes the fundamental nature of this business. We need to be on AI. I thought the first thing I want to do is bring someone onto the team who is an AI expert. So I approach Professor Andy Pardo, who’s the head of AI for Warwick University. And I say, we’re setting up an AI advisory board. Would you like to be on our AI advisory board? Here’s how much we pay per year. And would you like to join the board? And he’s like, yeah, I’ll join the advisory board. So he comes and joins our advisory board. He starts making some recommendations about how we adapt to the AI challenge. We didn’t need anyone else. That was absolutely perfect. He brought with him a team of researchers who came in and worked on the back end of our system as well. But what was interesting is that that happened in two weeks. So from two weeks, we went from no AI integration to having Professor Andy Pardo, who’s a PhD of AI, who’s got 25 year background of AI as our advisor, because we set up an advisory board. So I just knew what structure the structure it is. You know, so how do I say, can you help me? I need to figure this out. Yeah, you went up. How do you get someone that’s the very start of their journey? They don’t understand all these structures. Yeah. I mean, it’s hard because in theory, you go talk to a CFO and you basically talk to an experienced CFO who’s done a lot of M&A. And you just say, well, actually, do you know it’s even wild? Today, you don’t even need a CFO. You go and have to be here. Act as a CFO. Explain to me what structures I would use to do this. How would I structure a deal with this? Explain to me, I would like to buy a business, an existing 20 year old business. I would like to buy it so that I don’t have to pay anything upfront and that the owners of the business finance, my new ownership of the business, act as a CFO and advise me on how to do that Transaction. And what’s amazing is Chat DVD will do a good job of that or it’s a good starting point. Draft the heads of terms. You can ask Chat DVD today. Yeah. Draft the heads of terms for that deal. Review the draft of heads of terms to see if there’s any emissions or mistakes. Now that you’ve seen that, would you do anything differently? Yeah, I would change this. It’s on the email. Draft an email to the finance director of this company proposing that we acquire the business with no money down.

The AI Revolution - AI is transforming business, and we haven’t fully grasped its potential. - AI will divide society into creators who leverage it and consumers who are used by it. Transcript: Speaker 2 I’m asking for a meeting here. Isn’t it crazy that we live in this new era where the possibilities in terms of communication, storytelling, persuasion and the cost of a sale have completely, completely changed Speaker 1 Dynamics of shifted ideas changing everything? Speaker 2 We haven’t realized yet, have we? Speaker 1 If you think about how we’re behaving, we haven’t quite realized the potential of the technology we have. We are like on the movie, The Titanic, when they hit the iceberg and they’re all just like dancing on the thing and someone says, oh, it’s an unsinkable ship and the guy with a white face Says it’s made of steel. It will go down. It’ll sink. When I first saw AI, do what AI does, I had that moment of like, oh, no, this changes everything. We’ve just hit a nice bird. This is a fundamental general purpose technology that is going to change everything. It’s going to change every industry top to bottom. Everything’s going to have to reorganize itself around an AI landscape, but we’re all pretending like it doesn’t exist. We’re all pretending like this thing isn’t doing what it’s doing. Speaker 2 But yeah, there’s one thing that AI disagrees with you on when I say AI means Sam Altman from chat GPT. You said earlier, business is a team sport. Now he has a WhatsApp group, Sam Altman, the founder of chat GPT. And in that WhatsApp group, he’s got a bet with some friends that there’ll be the first ever one person billion dollar company soon. And they’re guessing on the date of the first ever one person billion dollar company because with AI, the team sport becomes you and a large language model like a chat GPT. Speaker 1 I think that it’s directionally correct, what he’s saying. The one person AI business will be beaten by the 10 person AI business. And that like, yes, it probably will happen. Assuming that of course it will happen, there will be a person who creates something using AI, and it will be a standout thing. But to replicate that again and again, having what we will see a lot of is five person teams with a CEO CTO, COO, CMOCFO, who work together as five people doing the work of 500 people using AI, that’ll happen definitely. And that’ll be you know, that’ll reproduce. But to a degree, business is always going to be a team sport that essentially five or six people will always be one because they’re talking to each other and they’re covering different Angles and whatever AI strengths, AI is very good at content, but not context. And having five people who share a context and create a context together, then the content can happen using AI. AI without that context, it doesn’t know what to do. So it doesn’t have any purpose right now. Yeah, to a degree, it can start to, it still needs a first mover on what is the context? Why are we doing this in the first place right now? So well, that’s the one person. Yeah, I agree with you that there is like, we are at a time in history where we can’t see around the corner. We don’t know what society will look like. But here’s a few things I do know about. I do know that as it stands right now, humans are great at context and AI is good at content. And if you can provide AI with an amazing context of to what it’s meant to be doing, it will fill in all the blanks, but it needs the context first. I know that vitality versus functionality, AI is great at functionality, but it needs someone to breathe life force into it. It’s the human life force that we breathe that we breathe into things. So it still needs vitality, even though AI does a lot of functionality. And the warning that I have for people is that AI is very good at turning you into a creator or a consumer. So it essentially figures you out, and it says, Oh, TikTok, huh? How about we get you to spend 16 hours on TikTok and hypnotize you into spending way longer than you thought on this thing? And the AI is really good at saying, we’ll drive you down to the edges of how much someone can consume. But it will also drive you to the edges of how much someone can create. And one thing that is going to happen in the next few years is everyone is going to have to make a conscious decision. Do I want to be a creator or a consumer when in relationship to AI? Because if if you allow AI to use you, it’ll just turn you into a consumer, you’ll listen to more stuff, watch more stuff, spend more money, because AI is good at that.

Work-Life Balance and Asset Creation - Work-life balance is often touted by those who achieved success through intense work. - Sustainable work involves creating assets and income simultaneously. Transcript: Speaker 1 Work life balance. Is it a thing? Speaker 2 Is there is it possible to be wildly successful and not work exceptionally hard? The people who talk about work life balance as a as an important thing. Speaker 1 They normally worked their arses off to the extent that they almost burnt themselves out. Then they had to come to Jesus moment. And then they now spouse work life balance in hindsight after having a massive breakthrough from the massive amounts of work that they did. And that is typically the pathway towards the work life balance guru. So here’s the unfortunate thing. You’ve got to look at what you got to look at the statistics. People who earn over 100 grand typically work 55 hours, but per week, but there’s work and there’s work. So you and I work enormous amounts of hours, but we’re not digging up roads. We’re not laying cables. We’re not doing boring, repetitive stuff. In most cases, our work is creativity. It’s publishing things. It’s pitching deals. It’s sitting there in dragons den, analyzing what’s going on. It’s doing interviews. So there’s a new style of work. So when people get angry about work life balance and they say, damn it, work life balance has to be a thing. It’s normally because their association to work is that work is such a negative thing and work is something you have to do in order to make money. And when people say, oh, I do 55 hours a week and I love it, they go, well, something’s deeply wrong with you. It’s like a toxic. Yeah, you’re toxic. Well, actually, I’m enjoying. I’m doing something that’s deeply fulfilling and passionate and I can do it from home. And I do it online and it’s digital. And I see my kids all the time while I’m doing it. And I actually don’t feel like I even work that hard. I’m just enjoying it, but I am doing that stuff. Keep in mind this, if you’re doing a lot of hard work that doesn’t develop an asset simultaneously, it’s probably going to end up toxic. You may burn out. If you do a lot of hard work that simultaneously develops an asset, the asset value eventually takes over and then you’re working completely by choice. Speaker 2 So simplify that as if I was a 10 year old. Speaker 1 If you create podcasts and those podcasts go on to YouTube and that people can watch them a year later, two years, three years later, you’ve developed something that has a life of its Own and it’s going to continue to create value without you having to physically be there. So if your work is creating a byproduct of an asset, if you own the company that you started and you own the shares in that company, and that company becomes more and more successful and The equity value becomes more more valuable, your work is creating a valuable asset. If like my wife, you renovate horrible properties into amazing properties, her work creates income and an asset simultaneously. What’s the opposite of that? Speaker 2 Where you’re working, but you’re not creating any assets? Well, an Uber driver. I used to work in McDonald’s for two days. Speaker 1 I worked in McDonald’s as well. I loved working at McDonald’s. The asset that I created was a deep appreciation for systems. But the problem with being an Uber driver is that you can actually do 16 hour days. However, at the end of 16 hour days, that’s it. You’ve earned that amount of money and you’ve not developed any additional asset. You’ve just performed a role. So you’re not building simultaneously an asset. The people who love their work and don’t burn out are the people whose work creates income

Work-Life Balance Gurus - People who emphasize work-life balance often worked extremely hard until burnout. - They had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment and now preach balance in retrospect. - This realization typically comes after achieving a breakthrough through intense work. - This is the common path to becoming a work-life balance guru. Transcript: Speaker 1 They normally worked their arses off to the extent that they almost burnt themselves out. Then they had to come to Jesus moment.