30 Years of Business Knowledge in 2hrs 26mins

I am good at only one thing business for

the last 30 years I built 19 companies

and invested in 78 startups people ask

me every day to be their mentor and to

help them and they've even offered me

£10,000 to help them just for one day in

business I don't want to charge people

for help I want to give you the

knowledge for free and today I'm going

to give you everything you need to start

a business to grow a business to

maintain a business and to sell a

business but if you can't stay on this

video for 5 minutes without clicking on

off I've got some news for you you're

probably not going to make it I'm now

going to list all the things I'm going

to go through in the next 45 minutes to

change your mindset give you the tools

you need to be successful and hopefully

create new Pathways in your brain that

give you the chance to be successful the

very thing that the education system

does not want you to be is free working

for yourself controlling your own Des So

today we're going to cover how to start

a business with no money how to win and

the secret to it all in business how to

lose important how to do a mind map

which is much better than a business

plan much more liquid how to find

purpose very important to motivate you

to get up in the morning to motivate

your team to get up in the morning and

to motivate customers to want to work

with you how to find a co-founder

something that I personally believe is

like having a relationship partnership

it can change everything if you have the

right co-founder and can give you that

accountability that we all need how to

sell everybody can sell there's no such

thing as people that are good at selling

and people that aren't good at selling

they're just people that haven't been

taught the system of selling everyone

can sell everyone must learn to sell it

is the key to unlocking Freedom how to

Market your business how to PR yourself

and your business how to get an investor

and I'll go through many different ways

around that subject you can get an

investor how to get sponsors often an

untapped secret source to making a

business grow without needing an

investor so we'll get into that how to

build a company brand because I honestly

think value comes from building a brand

not a business and we'll go into what a

brand is and how to build one how to

build personal brand which in this day

and age without doubt is vital you can't

really build a company today without

having a personal brand and I'll get

into personal brand on a public stage

and personal brand within your industry

how to hire how to grow how to build how

to go Global which is easier than it

sounds and probably very important so

you're not stuck in one market and

leaving yourself vulnerable how to get a

mentor there is a way to do it and

nearly Nobody Does it and how to avoid

big mistakes but accept luck into your

life make luck happen in your life and

finally how eity works and how to sell

your business at the end of this video

you will know everything that's taken me

35 years to know you will be changed if

you watch this video and I promise you

at the end of it it will cost you

nothing and you'll never regret it how

to start now most people tell you to

start a business when you have an idea

that's not where a business starts a

business starts with a feeling an

instinct that perhaps you need to make a

change and then applying yourself to

learning what is the best way to build

something that you love now everybody

tells me that starting a business is

filling a market Gap or finding a niche

that is not true one of my most

successful early companies was a company

called fluid this company turned into

one of the biggest agencies in Asia

which I sold a price waterhous Cooper

for more money than I ever need and when

I launched that company there was 500

other businesses doing almost exactly

the same so how did I manage to win I

didn't have an original idea like

everybody tells you you've got to have

to start a business you don't start with

an original idea you start with

what you

like

doing now I love helping businesses and

people succeed I love marketing I can

spend all day long studying and

understanding marketing every time

someone launches a new business I want

to understand how they made it

successful I'm obsessed I enjoy it it's

my hobby there is no work life balance

there is only syncing up your life with

your business and so I believe the first

step in starting a business is following

your passions now everybody tells you

that that's not the way to start a

business because often your passions

initially don't necessarily generate

Revenue but that's because you haven't

applied a business mindset to what you

love so I loved marketing and I started

a creative agency called fluid that

helped people come up with marketing

ideas to make their business successful

now there were many companies doing it

but not many of these people doing it

loved it like I did so I evolved my

marketing abilities pushed the

boundaries of what was possible used new

technologies like at the time Emil

marketing and direct marketing that no

one else was doing because I was

obsessed what is the latest thing and

for you the way you do it is youve got

to write down what you like doing and

got to write down what you don't like

doing what you love doing you've got to

get really good at and what you don't

like doing you've got to Outsource and

not do it the school system has taught

you the wrong thing that if you're not

good at something you need to spend more

time getting better at it that is a lie

you've got to spend more time getting

good at the thing you love to do get

obsessed by it and that's actually where

a business idea begins because once you

have figured out what you like doing the

next step is the

idea now again people will tell you that

you need to come up with an original

idea that's not true the second thing is

when it comes to an idea you can

actually combine forces with other

people so back to my example when I

launched fluid I loved marketing and I

met someone who could take my marketing

ideas and turn them into graphic

illustrations and Brilliant

presentations and abilities to help that

company in a visual way understand my

ideas idea so I teamed up with her and

created a 50/50 business partner I'll

come on to equity later in the video

that was literally the springboard to

one of the most successful companies in

Asia in this space so the key is not

coming up with an original idea and

trying to do it all on your own the key

is coming up with something you love

linked to what you do and perhaps if

there's a gap within your ability to

execute on what you love find a partner

so for example if you love writing then

write a book and maybe you need to find

a partner that can that book or find a

company that will publish that book or

get someone to help you like an agent

find someone that will publish that book

and that's where it really begins in the

idea phase it's got to link to your

passion and I'll come on to purpose

later but it's key you won't be able to

follow through and probably won't be

successful if you're not willing to do

the thing that you're doing more often

and all the time compared to other

people so you figured out what you love

doing and now you have an idea now the

idea itself can evolve from my point of

view when I started what I'm doing today

which is a platform to help you for free

the first thing I did was in fact a

podcast so the step after idea is step

one execution and execution involves

what is the first thing you can do to

make your business idea come to life and

for me in my example it was a

podcast but for you it might be a Blog

it might be a LinkedIn post it might be

setting up a social media handle and

starting to post up your photography

whatever the first step execution is do

not make it too hard for yourself in my

case sitting down interviewing people I

found interesting recording it and

putting it up would serve the purpose of

giving people mentorship in a podcast

for free which was my first step in my

mission in my recent business so all I

really did was get a microphone sit down

and record conversations now if you go

back and look at those very early

podcasts execution was not brilliant the

guests were good the execution was not

great I had a rubbish microphone I had a

rubbish camera and I slowly improved and

step one is come up with a simple

execution plan step

two in starting a business is consider

where the revenue is going to come from

now some people say you need this within

the idea phase and yes you can put it

within the idea phase but sometimes

Revenue doesn't actually make itself

clear to you start so an example if

you're a photographer and you think

you're going to make your money charging

by the hour for your photography skills

you're probably limiting yourself right

so you're probably better off initially

taking pictures of things you love and

putting them up online and seeing if

people would buy them seeing if people

would license the pictures experimenting

with Revenue models and seeing what

sticks sure maybe people will book you

by the hour but why would you start off

with a revenue model that limits

yourself so I think when building a

business the thing to really think about

is not necessarily Revenue but

experimenting with different ways to

make money from the thing that you are

doing so again when I launched fluid

most companies charge by the hour for

their marketing consultancy service we

didn't we charged by the outcome of what

we did so if we helped a company be

successful sell more product we took a

percentage of those sales now that was

not part of most companies business

models because most people start with an

idea and then they do a revenue model

and then they start famous quote is

everyone's got a plan till they get

punched in their face and the truth is

when you launch a business you just want

to keep yourself nimble like a boxer you

want to see what is going to be the best

punch combination for you to make your

business work and finally when starting

a business step three is you've got to

make sure your purpose is strong now

you've made sure that you enjoy what you

do and that's great because that's going

to help you get up in the morning but

actually I believe new businesses today

need to think about what they're going

to do to make a difference in the world

how are you going to make sure that

people want to work with you how are you

going to make sure that what you're

doing isn't just for profit because if

it's just for profit everybody that

works for you is going to want more

money everybody that's working with you

is going to want to pay you less but if

you have a purpose bigger than yourself

and identify that purpose and install it

in your business I promise you you won't

be managing people anymore one of the

biggest stresses of building a company

you won't have to manage people because

you only have to manage purpose now I'm

going to go into more depth how this all

works but a lot of what I've talked

about here already has cost you no money

you haven't had to spend any money now

even if your idea is to launch an app

that cost a million pounds to develop

start off with a service business start

off with a revenue based model that can

get you there so an example is Airbnb

when they launched they actually sold

serial boxes at conventions it was

enough to be similar to Airbnb because

some were the first accommodation Airbnb

ever sold what at conventions people go

to see Obama speak go and see different

politicians speak at these conventions

and they would rent out rooms on& later

but initially they sold serial boxes

Obama reels at this event

at these events to get to know their

customers connect to their customers

have a conversation with their customers

and make money and that is the money

they use to initially get the business

going so I will come on to other steps

later now in the video about raising

money and other ways to do this but if

you do these first few things your

business is up and running it's cost you

no money and I promise you because it

will have purpose because you like it

and because there's a revenue model

behind it you will do it it will happen

so how to win in business let's say

you've already got a company you're not

winning and you want to win or you want

to know the secret formula to winning

and having built nearly 19 companies I'm

on my 19th business now how to win in

business is actually very simple now I

mentioned earlier having purpose and you

personally being passionate about it

that's definitely going to give you an

edge because most people are not loving

what they're doing so if you are you're

already winning but there is a secret

formula to winning and that starts with

a couple of things number one

delayed

gratification spelled completely wrong

get what I mean though right delay

gratification is the number one reason

that businesses win you don't rush to

charge customers for example you let

them help you succeed so the first

customer I ever got in my agency fluid I

actually did the work for free now a lot

of people say don't do the work for free

I don't agree I built up a relationship

with that customer overd delivered when

it was free and that meant once they

were happy not only did they use me

forever for the 16 years that I ran that

company they also recommended me to

everybody they felt like they were part

of my early Journey getting your

customers on side is another element of

winning but realizing that if you delay

getting gratification you will make more

money and there's so many examples of

this if you look at big businesses they

spent years making no money and then

when they had the system all in place

huge databases for example then they can

monetize and people don't wait long

enough the other thing you can do is

have a very strict moral cod with in

your business a culture culture will eat

strategy for breakfast every single time

you've got to make sure that your

culture in the company is client Centric

a good example of this is Amazon I'm

just saying that they do actually focus

on their customers as a culture and I

think that a lot of people are too busy

for example thinking about how they can

get money out of their customer and not

thinking how they can bring value and if

you want to win bring value you want

loyalty bring value value you want them

to follow you promote you share you on

their stories care about you talk about

you when you're not in the room then

show them some love it sounds simple but

people don't do it because they're too

busy not waiting for the payoff and too

busy not installing a culture of

patience a culture of caring about your

customer and then the final

thing is luck now luck is not a

subjective thing luck I have discovered

is hackable and you can hack luck three

ways first be persistent and what I

mentioned earlier about purpose and

loving what you do will help you be

persistent you have to outlast other

people when I launched my company fluid

in Hong Kong I had so many competitors

but slowly but surely they all shut down

went bankrupt they didn't care like I

did and I think that whole luck thing is

about persistence that's number one

number two in hacking luck is know your

destination what what is success for you

what will make you happy what do you

want big company small company and by

the way a big company is much easier to

run than a small company aim for a big

company is my recommendation but that's

my opinion it might not work for you so

I suggest you to find success for

yourself today success for me is having

the time to take my son to school and be

able to pick him up is having time to do

the exercise I want to do that's how I

define success so I never sell hours and

we'll come to that in a little little

bit why you should never sell hours but

luck is hackable you have to be

persistent you have to know your

destination and finally you have to

learn to take risk be careful with

sayings out there trying to trick you

into options that are not true so the

worst one is the harder you work the

luckier you get that is not true that is

a lie a lie designed to make you work

hard if it was true every nurse in this

country would be a millionaire it is not

true that working hard equals success

what equals success is taking risk you

have to learn to take risk lean into

fear learn to love fear embrace it and

then you can take more risk and the more

risk you take the luckier you get learn

to build culture into your businesses

about the long term and learn to hack

luck you will win the secret to it all

is learning to accept that you could

lose everything and it doesn't matter

you've got to be willing to risk it all

take a chance and go for it do not rush

do not see this as anything but a

marathon it's not a Sprint enjoy the

journey don't rush no one can beat you

if you do it so delay gratification is

key Brands like Facebook and Instagram

although I'm not a fan necessarily of

these platforms they personify this

concept they did build massive massive

user bases but they didn't monetized

them at the beginning they waited they

just kept building value in their

platforms for the users and more people

kept signing up and they didn't actually

monetize for a very long time I think

Facebook was near 10 years before it

started making money and although I'm

not suggesting you wait 10 years and

those companies have different

investment structures which we'll talk

about a bit later it is important to

understand how important this is to

building a successful long-term business

do not think about making money straight

up build a brand not a business and

those businesses like Facebook and

Instagram they waited a decade before

they started monetizing and as soon as

as they started monetizing Facebook in

particular it started to decline as a

brand less people liked it too many ads

on the screen too many annoying buttons

that didn't have any relevance to them

because they were suddenly trying to

make their client happy The Advertiser

and no longer focused on the user in the

same way so be careful but that is how

you build massive economic modes people

like Google similar at the beginning no

Revenue YouTube at the beginning no

Revenue focus on building something that

has value for people delayed

gratification is one of the secet

weapons in building a sustainable large

and successful business that you love

next up how to lose it might sound like

a strange title but it's the number one

thing I've noticed that people don't

learn to do that doesn't allow them to

be successful this all stems back

probably to school where you were told

that success was getting an a it's not

success is actually accepting failure

learning to bounce back from failure

embracing failure having learnings from

the businesses that I have been in

involved in that have failed have

allowed me to be successful I guarantee

you if I hadn't lost a million pounds on

doming comic book business I wouldn't be

rich or successful today I needed to

learn how to fail I needed to accept

losing it's key and so how do you build

the stamina and the ability to lose the

first thing you realize number one don't

let things

own

you if you let things own you you are

controlled by the very thing that's

meant to bring you pleasure you have to

learn to lose those things and not care

about those things the second thing to

lose you need to

let your short-term

ego go now ego is actually a very

powerful motivator and there are

different types of ego the ego I'm

talking about here is driving around in

the right car to give an image to people

that don't care about you that you are

successful do not worry about this learn

to enjoy looking like you're a loser let

people underestimate you it is so

powerful to be underestimated by your

competition even by your customers

because if they think you can't deliver

and you do then brilliant do not worry

about losing learn to be a d student

love to fail that's why 80% of a

students end up working for D students

because a students are scared to lose

they don't want to lose they always want

to get an A they always want to be seen

as the smartest person in the room don't

worry about it learn to lose learn to

embrace getting a d getting a D in

business means take

your

time don't let someone else decide

whether or not your success or not do

not let anybody else tell you how to do

things and ironically power up your ego

in a different way an internal ego that

tells you you're not a loser you know

where you're going no matter what people

judge you based on the car that you're

driving or where you're living or what

you do with your day don't let them

decide that you're a loser let them

think what whatever they want learn to

love losing learn to embrace failure I

promise you if you think that the worst

is if you try something and you lose

everything it doesn't matter you can go

again you will succeed I guarantee it

next up I want to teach you something

practical how to do a mind map so many

people teach you in business to do a

business plan forget that there is

no use for a business plan what you want

to do is map out where your business

could go how it could go and understand

the different directions in which to

take your business and I'm going to go

through how to do a mind map next now I

have never seen anyone teach anybody how

to do a mind map and the reason I think

that no one teaches this is because

there's no template to sell you there's

no product to sell you around a business

plan has a million ways to make money

out of you and none of it works these

business plan things actually kill

companies I've seen people who have

massive business plans stick to it and

die a my map however will cost you

nothing to do and actually leaves you

Nimble and free to explore where the

business can go and it's so simple it

starts in the Middle with your

hobby whatever that is what you love to

do second part of a mind map is the

business I can't spell but don't judge

me for that luckily I know I'm doing a

business what is the business so what is

your hobby what do you love to do and

ideally it now links to the business now

with the business and I'm going to use

my company as an example hopefully it

translates into what maybe your idea is

but in my business which

is what we call free

Humanity the name probably gives it away

what we want to do we want people to be

free to do what they love So within free

Humanity this is what I did when I first

started the business four years ago I

looked at different ways that I can make

the business work so off here I wrote

podcast right actually as I mentioned

earlier this is one of the first things

I actually did so from a podcast what

comes off it well I build a

network right I'm now doing a mind map

of something I actually have already

done to illustrate how mind Map works

when you're building out a business of

value so one of the benefits of doing a

podcast was a network in my case I

managed to interview over 200 of the

world's most successful entrepreneurs

which are now part of my life and help

me with what I'm doing help you on help

bank.com that was one of my I and it was

on my my map Network the second thing

was

Brands I realized if I did a podcast I

could probably make revenue from Brands

now with a my map you can get bigger and

bigger and bigger with my maps there's

no there's no stopping how big a my map

can get just like your brain is infinite

in its ability to think mind map is also

infinite and when I wrote the original

mind map out for my business I thought

Brands and then I started listing them

so in my case

GoDaddy uh tide banking

Adobe these were brands that I felt were

a fit with what I wanted to do give

people the ability to start their own

business be free do what they love so I

listed out all the brands that I could

work with I also listed in my original

mind map and I didn't do it at the

beginning but it ended up becoming part

of what I did was an

app and an app that would focus on free

help for people

now at the time I didn't have the name

that I now have which is help bank.com

but I knew that I needed to build a

scalable way of giving people knowledge

now what I didn't know back then that I

know now quick bit of insight is that

app is overused as a word it's actually

not an app that you need to build at the

beginning for most platforms you need to

build a web-based platform why well if

you build an app you have to go in the

app store or in the Google Play Store

you get restricted by one of those two

locations so people that have a Samsung

phone access the Apple Store to download

your app why would you when you launch

something restrict people from getting

access to it plus if it's web based

people can just log in straight from a

web browser any web browser that aside I

realized in my early days I needed to do

an app and from that I would do free

help and from that I would be able to

connect the network that I built in the

podcast to the free help the people that

I had interviewed in the podcast the

knowledge that I was capturing in their

case I could connect now that Network

being built via the podcast to the help

on the platform this is how it's

actually played out the next thing I I

spent time thinking about was

team and on a my map I thought about who

I actually need now because I knew I was

going to do a podcast I knew that I

needed an

editor but I also know my weaknesses so

I know I need an accountant someone

that's going to take care of the admin

these are things that I don't enjoy

doing so I I know what to do but I also

realized with the network that I build

through the podcast that I could have

Partners so it's not just employees but

Partners I could link to the team again

working with the people that I'd spoken

to on the podcast I could connect them

people that were going to work on the

app I could connect them although

they're not necessarily on my payroll

they are people that perhaps are

connected to my mission want to help

people and they can become part of my

extended team now within the team

structure I can also start thinking

about things like if I have an editor

maybe that editor hires editors or I

hire editors but you can start breaking

down what you actually need within your

team right now as a mind map you start

in my opinion with what your hobbies are

what you enjoy doing you're then

building a business around it and then

you're thinking about different things

that this business is going to need now

one of the things that I uh spent a lot

of time thinking about that I haven't

yet done but will be coming soon in my

platform was what else I could do that

would scale the business give it what it

needed resource-wise without necessarily

me being involved in it and at that time

back four years ago the word was

merchandising so I wrote down

merchandising now I think it's actually

evolved now it's beyond merchandising

but um from that I wrote down of course

what everyone was doing four years ago

t-shirts and caps that sort of stuff

right stuff that you know maybe the word

free Humanity would look pretty cool on

and I thought about in those days uh

things like like sweets and products

that perhaps we could

launch and I wrote down basically any

way merchandise wise we could make money

now what's interesting is I'm about to

launch a sweet brand called bus's it's

taken four years to get to this part of

the my map but it was on there it was

always on there and ironically when I

was building team if anyone said to me

when I was interviewing them they had

some experience with sweet business I

made a know and kept them as someone

maybe could help us in the future same

with merchandising anytime I spoke to

anybody that was perhaps looking at

starting a t-shirt brand or working on

Building Product I'd see if perhaps they

want it to work be in the future because

once you know in your mindmap one of the

things that's going to come up in the

future you can look out as you're

building other things for the very thing

that's going to help make that happen so

this is a my map is is literally mapping

out all the different things and

different ways that your business can go

it's fun it's simple there's no template

you can download and pay someone for you

don't need it and the beautiful thing

about a mind map is you're not fixed you

can start adding Bubbles and adding

things as things evolve as people and

the world change you can start adding

things and adding connecting the

different dots between parts of your

business something a 20page document

will never let you do because it's too

linear so that's a mind map I hope it's

a useful practical tool for you going

forward how to find purpose now this

word purpose might sound woooo they

don't teach you it at school in my

opinion for a reason because if you

understand purpose you're very unlikely

to work for someone else purpose is a

very personal thing you can find other

people with purpose you can find your

tribe you can be free but finding

purpose is not an easy thing and it's

not something you've been given any of

the tools in which to make happen so

what is the first step in finding

purpose and it's a very obvious step

that people do not to you think about

it now the problem is if you say you're

thinking about purpose people might

laugh at you other people try to throw

silly jokes out there like 49 and

they'll throw you off or purpose will

get so complicated in your head because

you've not really thought about it

before you'll give up and go back to

your old ways you need to think about

purpose what is your purpose we used to

live in tribes of 5,000 and we used to

work on a method called give without

take not give and take we used to help

each other because it would make our

tribe better not because we'd make money

from it you ask me for help I will give

it to you for free the world will be a

better place I get better at giving you

that help for free I'd become an expert

at giving that help for free eventually

when I'm not in the room people will

talk about me and what I do because I

become so good at helping people but I

think today that doesn't fit The

Narrative of working at a call center

and piing up the phone and doing what

you're told in a factory that Henry Ford

created so when the school system was

developed the word purpose wasn't

included in any of it they asked the

wrong question of you what are you going

to do when you grow up is what schools

say that's not the right question what

you should be asked is what problem are

you going to solve so the second step in

thinking about and finding hopefully

purpose is

what

problem

matters to

you now at first nothing might spring to

mind if something has jumped into your

mind then great in a minute I'm going to

explain how you action that but if it

hasn't jumped into your mind start

thinking about what problems have

actually affected you big or small now

it can be really simple like the banks

aren't open early enough for you or the

swimming pool you wanted to go to

doesn't let you swim the time you want

it might sound silly but you start

thinking about problems that bother you

and your brain wakes up the entrepreneur

muscle in your brain that helps you

figure out how to solve that problem now

it might be that the bank's not opening

on time isn't a problem you're going to

solve but if your brain starts thinking

about that problem and how it can solve

it you might begin to understand how to

find purpose the third thing you can do

is start breaking down how to make your

life and that purpose match now

matching what you do in your day and

your actual purpose is often easier than

you think I've met hundreds and hundreds

of people who tell me what their dream

is and it turns out that their dream is

often just 3% % difference from their

existing life you know between

chimpanzees and humans only 3%

difference in the DNA and often for

example I met someone that wants to do

their own catering business they're

working in someone else's catering

business they're just missing this video

in their life to figure out how to turn

what they feel is their purpose to make

cakes for someone and make them smile

and own that business into that business

they're just missing knowledge they're

also not realizing that actually their

purpose is nearly there in fact I would

argue that the system sometimes wants

you to feel like you're getting a enough

satisfaction that you don't need to make

a change so in other words if you are

working for someone else baking cakes

even if they're not using the

ingredients you would use or they don't

care about the customer the same way

that you do at least you are baking but

you got to break free from this thinking

you've got to realize that if you're

going to do your purpose you have to

learn what I said earlier take risk but

most importantly to truly know yourself

I once interviewed a billionaire on my

podcast and I asked him how did you

build your intuition and he said to me I

used to go on asked my mom or my dad a

question when I was young and they both

used to say to me you know the answer

you know it never gave him the answers

so he had to go away and figure out the

answers for himself and that in itself

is the point I'm trying to make here you

have a purpose yes I can help you get

there but you need to ask yourself what

is that purpose how are you going to

make it happen how you going to get

there and you do it by thinking about it

asking yourself not what you're going to

do when you grow up but what problem you

want to solve and then matching your

life to that problem the final thing

I'll say you don't have to do this thing

on your own let's say you care about

climate change and I would just say we

don't need to save the planet we need to

save humans when the humans are gone the

planet will be fine but let's just say

you care about saving the planet you can

go and work with other people doing

something in this space the only thing I

would say to you is make sure you ask

for Equity wherever you work I'll come

to that a bit later how you do that and

why you should do that but that can be

still a way for you to have the life you

want you can find your purpose and then

go work with someone that's actually

doing it so in my organization behind

the camera right now there a whole group

of people talented people that care

about the same thing as me so they can

go off and help help people in their own

way like they want to or we can come

together as a team and solve the problem

together that people don't have the

knowledge they need to do what they love

what I have noticed is that once you

find your purpose and this is what you

need to be careful of is that you don't

think that it's such a big purpose like

solving the world's problems that you

don't do it you can team up with other

people to do it and I will tell you 1 +

1 equal

11 remember that once you know your

purpose you can seek out people and

communities and old days tribes to help

you go and fix this problem with other

people but if you don't know what that

purpose is you won't do this and you

will get stuck working on someone else's

purpose someone else's Destiny and I

promise you it's harder to work for

someone else than work for yourself

despite what you have been told how to

find a co-founder now if you're someone

that likes to work alone you can p skip

this bit but I would say to you before

you do make sure you understand the

power of a co-founder sometimes we get

caught in our own ignorance bubble we

think we know what we know but you don't

know what you don't know so be cautious

before you skip this section you're

absolutely sure that a co-founder cannot

bring you value I will tell you first

out why a co-founder bring you value

it's a bit like if you get a gym

membership you probably don't go to the

gym but if you have a buddy who goes to

the gym every morning you often have

accountability and you go for me that's

one of the number one reasons I love

having a co-founder now there is a

counterargument to having a co-founder

you'll hear from many people which is

well why would you give up 50% of your

company to have a co-founder I

personally would rather have 50% of a

business I enjoy that's successful than

100% of a nightmare and a failure and I

honestly think think with all my heart

that if you get a co-founder your life

is better how do you get a co-founder

and what should you look out for is

something I'm now going to cover but I

want to to say you have to think

carefully about the equity structure and

later in this video I'm going to talk

about equity and it's going to be

important it's going to connect back to

this but for now I'm just going to talk

in this bit about how to get a

co-founder now the first step is to

identify what I said earlier which is

what do you love to

do and what do you hate to do be honest

be clear hate and love right hate and

love now once you've identified what you

hate to do and what you love to do you

can identify what is the

perfect

co-founder because you want

someone that has the opposite skill to

you but and this is very important when

looking for a co-founder I'm going to

put it as number two has the

same moral

code this process of finding a

co-founder is pretty much the process of

probably finding a partner in life

you're going to spend a lot of time with

this person this person is going to

become literally your business life

partner and if you do it right it is for

life like I have in business done

businesses with people and even when

I've sold that company I've done another

business with them if you get it right

it is a lifelong partnership and so you

want to make sure you're honest and

clear about what you hate doing and what

you love doing so that the person comes

in and works of you one doesn't question

you Crossover with you lets you run your

area and gives you respect equally you

have the same with what they do you

write down exactly in

detail what this person looks

like and I would go as far as to say you

write down what how tall they are what

they look like how they speak their

background where they're from everything

you can possibly think of just as if

you're picking a partner in life what

what is it you're looking for write down

every detail the reason I say the more

detailed you are with it the more likely

you are to manifest it you aren't going

to be looking out for something unless

you make it very clear what you're

looking for I mean it's the red car

Theory right if I suddenly tell you the

words red car you're probably going to

see a lot of red cars but if I don't

mention red cars you probably haven't

seen one at all today you have to list

out what you want so you've identified

what you love doing and what you don't

love doing you've identified your own

moral code and a moral code I'm can go

into it a little bit more it's quite a

complicated thing but there is one quick

hack on this I can give you whenever I'm

trying to find out whether or not

someone's good I don't care about money

I care about reputation so I don't want

to accidentally end up working with

someone that all they really care about

is money and I have this test to check I

will say to them what if from this day

until you're 70 so let's say you're 30

now in the next 40 years you'll have the

most amazing life three houses one in

New York one in Hong Kong one in London

anywhere you go people will love you

private jets everything you need for the

next 40 years that's your life and in 40

years time however there is a catch

you'll get to 70 and then everyone will

find out that you're a financial fraud

that you tricked people to get here and

that your life generally will be very

different people will look at you

differently maybe then you'll die and

maybe it doesn't matter but that's your

life do you want to take the deal I'm

surprised how many people say yes I

would say 50/50 people say yes they take

that deal they'll have 40 Years of a

good life for a bad reputation at the

end be careful what people like like

that is what happens in my brain right

because that is the murof story that is

what murof did his son's committed

suicide his name is in the dirt no one

ever wants to hear that name again in

their life and a lot of people were hurt

so I use open questions and philosophy

to figure out whether or not it's

someone I want to work with and you

should do it too because you don't want

to be in partnership with someone that

doesn't care in the same way that you

care I'm not here to judge what is right

and what is wrong I'm here to tell you

how you can check that what's right for

you aligns in your business in your

culture of your business and more

importantly in your day-to-day personal

life so you've identified what you love

and what you don't love you've checked

the mobile code in every way you can or

the person you want you've Drawn Lines

in the sand what you're not willing to

do and you know what this person looks

like the final thing is post

it now post it is very simple you start

telling people you're looking for this

person you post it on LinkedIn you post

it everywhere you ask people you make it

clear this is what you're looking for

you look out for it in cafes when you're

out having dinner when you're at the

supermarket you look out for this person

because they're out there you just have

to have your eyes wide open of course

you can go on help bank.com and ask

people if they know someone like this

you can use the tools around you to get

what you need but ultimately you've now

set yourself up with every chance of

finding a co-founder now you're going to

have to sort out the equity structure

and get that right I'm going to come to

that in a minute but that is how you

find a co-founder and in my opinion it's

one of the most powerful things you can

do to ensure success in your business

next up how to sell now anybody can sell

it's a system it's a philosophy and

anyone can do it I don't care your

background you can be an introvert you

can still sell and understand the

systems of selling and if you are

presently selling I promise you you are

missing a few tricks I'm going to try

and help you with now first up how to

sell it's not what you have been taught

it is not here's my product this is how

much it is and this is what it does the

first thing in sales that you need to

learn and the number one thing I learned

through the hard way of doing it is sell

the sizzle not the

[Music]

steak so what does that mean well let's

pick one of the best products ever sold

Apple products Steve Jobs used to always

set up events where he'd invite 3,500

people into a room all the right Tech

reporters all the right people and he

would then present to them the sizzle he

would not say here's a phone with an

Intel processor that has this and has

that he would talk about how this

product was for the game changers for

those that wanted to do things

differently for the creative types he

was very specific about what the sizzle

is he didn't sell the steak now in that

process of selling there's a couple of

other lessons that Steve Job teaches us

of course he doesn't sell to Millions

through social media he picks a

community 3,500 people in a room he

sells to them he connects to them he

talks to them and they go and talk to

the rest of the world getting someone on

your side selling for you is one of the

most powerful ways to sell the number

one salesperson in my last company was

my accountant why cuz I gave her the

tools to sell I told her what we did and

how we did it I showed her the sizzle

through the numbers we helped clients be

more successful we helped businesses

starve off Bank bankruptcy we made sure

companies did well and she was proud of

that she would sell the sizzle she'd sit

with her other CFO friends at lunch and

she'd say we saved a company from going

bankrupt we made one company an extra

million pounds a month they didn't

expect she would tell people the outcome

she wouldn't say oh I work for fluid and

we have marketing ideas that's not

exciting she talked about the results

she talked about the philosophy the

sizzle the second element of learning to

sell is understand the process of

selling so many people don't so many

people start on what I call the third

step and you need to do two steps first

before you ever start implementing the

third step in sales so the first step in

any sales is understand your customer

now it sounds so obvious and I'm shocked

how many people don't do it I often get

emails that say dear John or they say

dear Simon I really love what you're

doing X and they haven't actually

research what I'm really doing however

when someone sends me something and

understands what I'm doing it's clear on

how they can bring value to me I sit up

and I listen and that is the number one

thing that people don't do in the first

step of sales enough research they do

not spend enough time understanding if

the person they're talking to actually

needs them they spend way too much time

selling to people that don't actually

need what they got to sell don't waste

your time with people that don't need

what you've got focus on the people that

do need what you've got

first step is do

they

need you get to know them the second

step in this three-step process to get

any sales done is understand the person

you're working with in the context of do

you like

them this element of sales is so

powerful if you can have a a real

connection with a person you're selling

to a genuine connection not a fake

connection it is something that will

help you get through all sorts of

difficult times in that relationship you

need to like each other you need to

genuinely like each other and if you

meet someone who needs what you need but

they don't like you and you don't like

them one the sale probably won't go

ahead but even worse the sale might go

ahead then you'll be working with

someone that doesn't like you and you

don't like them if they're rude they're

abrupt you go out for dinner they're

rude to the waiter if it doesn't appeal

to you drop them do not work with these

people it might be hard you might want

the revenue but I promise you you will

not build a business that will last if

you sell to the wrong people so first

step do they need you do you need them

Second Step do they like you do you like

them if you do these two things well the

final step and let's call it the

deal it will happen because are they

like you and they need you they will

work with you to make a deal happen I

have done enormous deals every single

time in my career I've done the first

two steps right it's no problem in fact

I have said how much I would like for

say example a contract and that client's

come back to me and given me even more

told me the budget giv me insight into

how to make sure we get the work so it's

so important not just go in there cold

with what you've got to sell but go in

there understanding the person and

making sure it lasts if you follow these

three steps I promise you you'll get

every single sale done now there's one

more final thing I want to tell tell you

about sales you've got to think long

term there was a study done by Harvard

they analyzed the best sales people in

the world and the top 50 salese in the

world would on average approach someone

to get a deal done five times they would

send them an email for example and then

a few weeks later they'd send them a

follow-up email and then maybe they'd

send them a brocher or contact them

through social media they would

basically contact maximum of five times

before they would actually consider that

lead dead and that was their mistake and

we're talking about the leading sales

people but the top 1% of sales people

which it turns out I am one of these

people I didn't know it at the time I

now know it looking at the research the

top 1% of salespeople do something very

different when I started fluid I wrote

down all 50 companies I wanted to work

with in the building of this business

and there were big names on there and

from day one I built a system to reach

out to them by hooker by Crook in some

way every single month for example at

Christmas I would wish them a merry

Christmas send them a card Chinese New

Year I'd send them something when I

learned something about their industry

that I thought could be useful to them

bit of research I would send it to them

I would always make sure every single

month I made contact with them in some

way not to sell necessarily but to build

a relationship to get to know what their

needs were in some cases I got those

clients quite quick but in the majority

of the businesses it took me for example

9 years to get some of those companies

on board every single month for n years

I would approach those companies and

that's the secret to it it's a long game

you have to apply yourself build a

system in sales that lasts it cannot be

one email they don't reply or they one

email and they say no you've got to keep

staying in contact with them building

things like email lists are still very

powerful it know it's not as cool these

days as being popular on Tik Tok but I

promise you having an email list where

you can contact that person regularly

keep an update of what you're doing keep

up todate what they're doing will ensure

a sale at some point in the future as

long as you're politely persistent I

promise you you follow these rules in

sales your life will change I will add

in sales people don't bring their

personality into the mix enough you've

got to be yourself be honest be

authentic in sales it's not about

selling someone a car that doesn't work

that is that is how people are

projecting what sales looks like sales

is about selling someone a car they

actually need I have seen in my own life

when I've gone to buy a car the best Sal

salespeople tell me you don't want this

car you want that car in another

showroom where they don't get the

commission I've actually had that happen

and when I saw that happen I hired that

person because that person is thinking

longterm they're not trying to sell me a

car to make the commission they're

building a relationship with me and that

is what you need to do to be successful

in sales next up how to Market this is a

deep subject but I'm going to try and

give you all the knowledge I've gained

in decades of building some of the most

complicated marketing structures there

is now marketing is one of the most

important pieces in making a business

work and I when I think about this

subject it's so complicated I honestly

think because I know everything about

this subject it's like rocket science I

will start off perhaps by teaching you

that in marketing 50% of what you spend

will probably be be wasted so if you've

got a million views but the wrong views

it's wasted so marketing is about really

experimenting now I mentioned earlier

when I'm talking about sales sell the

sizzle not the steak of course that

applies in marketing too but marketing

is actually about connecting with people

over time the biggest example is

branding if you get The Branding right

people will resonate you're probably a

victim of this you would rather buy an

Apple than an of a brand right you've

become a victim of good marketing and

when for example the iPod launched

product people all thought the product

did the selling it was such a good

product that's why it did so well no

when they launched the iPod they spent

more money marketing that product than

any company had ever spent on marketing

a product ever marketing is not one

thing marketing is a complex structure

combining PR brand messaging

product Market fit if you don't know

product Market fit I can cover this

later but basically you've got to make

sure that the people you're talking to

will resonate to the product that you're

selling or the service that you're

selling Marketing in my opinion is

actually number one

thing it's understanding who your

customer

is now often in business build you'll

see businesses focus on niches to start

with now it doesn't have to stay in that

Niche but it's a great place to start so

Facebook for example it started off in

universities and by connecting people in

universities of course now it became

connected everybody all over the world

but they understood their customer they

knew what that customer was looking for

and in the early days of Facebook they

put a feature on there called

single or or available I can't remember

the exact terminology but they they

basically created a feature that let you

know if that person was in a

relationship or not and that was

designed to help the University students

understand the Dynamics between their

fellow University students and so they

knew their Market audience and they then

marketed that feature people would then

go around saying did you see Sarah she's

suddenly single and that would be the

marketing for their product they built a

tool in the platform that became what

people spoke about that created the

marketing for you and in my opinion

that's the Holy Grail of marketing and

this brings me on to point two I call

this the staircase

philosophy so the best way to me the

best way for me to teach you this is to

tell you what I have recently done so

weirdly a few months ago a staircase

came up for sale in London it's the

first time a staircase had ever been for

sale in London it's ridiculous and I

heard it on the news that this staircase

was for sale and I told my brain in

instantly we going to buy it now I

didn't have an exact plan of what I was

going to do with the staircase but what

I knew was that staircase symbolized

something for my business which was step

by step you can get anywhere you want

but also I knew I could news Jack that

staircase was a sensation people didn't

know why someone was selling a staircase

and 2 days after hearing it on the news

I owned it I spent £26,000 buying it at

auction and then we did a couple of

clever things that hopefully symbolize

how marketing works first up as soon as

we bought the staircase the news

channels that had reported it was for

sale jumped on us I knew they would and

they wanted to know why we had bought a

staircase and that gave us an

opportunity to get on the front page of

the New York Times on the front page of

the BBC in every single newspaper around

the world millions of us worth of

coverage for our platform because we

bought a staircase it doesn't seem

relevant but doing these Wild Things

these crazy things can actually make a

huge difference one of the things that I

always loved in marketing was when flash

mobs were a thing and what happened was

suddenly You' get a whole shopping mall

people would start dancing and everyone

would wonder what it was right that is

brilliant marketing now it might not

sell your product exactly in that exact

moment but over time it allows you to

have a reach and expansion and

uniqueness to you that will help you

stand out because that's what it's about

it's about standing out so by buying the

staircase we then evolved it we got all

this PR millions of dollars worth of

free PR for a staircase then we put a

doorbell at the bottom of that staircase

and we said if you've got a dream press

a button we'll then upload your dream to

our 4 million following and get you free

exposure well that was what the Press

needed to do a follow-up story on it

once you bought the staircase what did

you do with it that they wrote All about

that but also we built a whole new way

of helping people on the back of

staircase that was for sale I knew it

symbolized helping people step by step

and then the final step in marketing we

all need Partners marketing isn't about

promoting something on your own we don't

want to get a partner like ring doorbell

or Amazon who own ring doorbell on board

to sponsor the doorbell to sponsor the

staircase to help us reach even more

people and then suddenly they pay for

our marketing and so marketing isn't a

standalone thing marketing isn't a a

non-living organ GC product you have to

see it as living you have to see it as

evolving and you have to see it as

something that you do that pushes the

envelope now marketing is connected to

sales if you have a sales team in a way

when they ring someone up how they speak

to someone how they treat someone that

is also marketing that's brand marketing

however that person receives your phone

call receives your your in interaction

with them will affect your brand and

that is marketing Nike for example how

do they do marketing well they endorse

the very best athletes in the world of

course in some cases they make shoes

with those very successful athletes

they're aligning themselves up with

these people that are incredibly

successful what does Apple do Apple

links to creative people so therefore

everybody wants to have some sort of

creativity in their life Beauty in their

life so they buy a product they think is

for the creative people right IBM

notebook was a better product but people

didn't want that I didn't symbolize

something cool and sexy and creativity

so I think marketing is about again some

like similar to sales selling the sizzle

but it's also about understanding who

your customer is how to reach that Niche

and then how to work with that Niche to

expand into the wider world if you want

to scale it's the staircase method

what's your staircase what's going to

make you stand out how can you evolve

that thing that makes you stand out and

go even further number three is

systems when you're doing marketing it

is such an overwhelming thing there's so

many different ways you can do it you

can do email

marketing you can do social

media you can do PR you can do

branding you can do

events I mean the list never ends so how

do you decide which one to do well first

of all whatever you do you've got to

build a system to do it so if it is

email marketing then you have a good

data collection system you have a good

data management system and then you have

a good way of pushing out the the

content to that database and whatever

one of these things you do if you do all

of them or you do one of them do them

well do not do all of them and Order of

them badly I see so many people with on

their website Twitter and Facebook and

Instagram links and then you li click

through to them and they're dead you're

better off doing one well now I think

marketing is something where you should

spread your bet you want to do many

different ways what I call entrances

into your business you want to do many

of them as many of them as you can but

do not over stretch yourself it's better

to do one platform on social media

really well than try and spread yourself

th but if you set up a system for doing

your social media there is a chance you

could do all of them well with the same

amount of resources doing one of them

well so for example on my social media I

have one core video and then we edit it

inapp for each of the channels so we

don't have to record separate videos for

each of the channels but we do inapp

edit them so they're actually tailored

to that particular platform's nuances be

it their font or their image so you can

actually set up a system to do all of

these marketing things but the key of

course is not only just systems but

making sure you pick what works for you

now when it comes to marketing one of

the big mistakes I see people get taught

is marketing is about having the

staircase only it's not about having the

staircase only it is about applying what

you like to do as a founder or maybe

what your team likes to do into your

marketing strategy as an example if you

don't like talking on camera that's not

your thing as long as you're not hiding

away from learning something new and you

genuinely don't like to do it but for

example you love to write then doing an

email marketing strategy is probably

right for you posting on LinkedIn is

probably the correct platform for you

sure you'll hear people talking about

how good Tik Tok is and how Ben much

benefit they' got from it but it doesn't

work for you it's not sustainable for

you it's not something you're going to

enjoy and marketing is something fun

this is something I want you to take

away no one talks about it but marketing

is meant to be fun I took my son to buy

that staircase we had a laugh once we

got the staircase we had a laugh

cleaning it up we had a laugh putting a

blimp on top of it we had a laugh

putting a doorbell on the front of it we

enjoyed the whole bloody thing and if

you don't enjoy it what's the point

marketing is about enjoying it that's

why I see brands do well I give you an

example face uh Starbucks Marketing in

the early days was two things first they

would take good Lo locations sometimes

quite close to each other so instead of

getting a billboard advertising

Starbucks they'd open up another

Starbucks and even if it was loss making

as long as it wasn't more expensive in

its loss than a billboard they were

better off having a store then people

could have the experience they never did

any Billboards it's changed now and I

would argue it's not as good a brand

anymore but they opened up locations

that was one of their marketing

strategies the second thing that they

did that was really clever is they

looked after their staff which sounds

really obvious doesn't it but they did

they talk about their staff as partners

the Baristas are Partners in some

respects the internal training manual

talked about their Baristas as the

customer and and and it worked in the

early days of Starbucks to say what you

like about them today but in the early

days of Starbucks when I used to walk in

there a barista would know my name

they'd know what drink I wanted and they

were just working for Starbucks but they

cared because they were looked after

they were given medical care for example

they were given full-time Medical Care

even if they need even if they were

part-time staff they were given

insurance and looked after and they were

given days off if they didn't feel very

well they were looked after and I and

and I think that this is also part of

marketing it might not sound it but if

your people don't represent you then

good luck making everything else

represent you because those people will

create all the things that represent you

so do include fun into your business do

look at the nuances of your business and

figure out what is going to be your

staircase and ultimately apply your

marketing love

to something that's sustainable that's

going to be enjoyable that's going to be

able to actually deliver the very thing

that you want to deliver which I think

should always be the promise of a better

future for your customers next up how to

PR your business now some of these

things are interconnected and sales and

marketing all connect to how to get PR

but I'm going to give you some hacks and

some insights in how PR works and it is

quite a complicated subject but but it's

something if you get right can be a game

changer for your business now first up

I'll say getting PR has to be very

targeted I know plenty of people that

have got PR for the money they've raised

in their company and it will go out to

platforms like Tech crunch it will make

them feel good but it had no impact on

their business other than to make them

feel good which is fine I guess but I do

think PR should be more strategic I'd

rather spend time reaching the press and

actually getting a tangible result and

not just playing to Eco so recently for

example I was featured on the BBC news

they talked about what we were doing at

the doorbell where people could pitch

their dreams and this led to hundreds of

people finding out about it going to our

staircase pitching their dream and

helping them make their dream happen now

that in my opinion is targeted marketing

equally I have done recently an article

in a Business Journal that got zero

reaction now I was proud to be in the

Business Journal and I don't want to say

which one it is so I don't insult them

but ultimately it actually led to no

value as far as what I want to do which

is help people do what they love and

make sure people know there's a service

out there for free to help them do what

they love so PR is very important to be

targeted and so I'll write that down

first now targeting can also be

subjective because a bit like marketing

itself and sales of course sometimes you

do need to cast The Net wide and get as

much coverage as you can but if you do

start to Target your actual needs it's

much easier to get PR I give you example

if for example you want to let people

know that you are now selling cherries

on the side of the street the best thing

to do is get some PR in the local area

that you live now as much as it might be

nice to so You' started a Cherry Farm

selling cherries on the side of the

street to make that farm work probably

could get you in a mainstream News

Channel it won't necessarily lead to

sales in the location in which you sell

those cherries so targeting and

understanding exactly who you're trying

to reach is actually the key and it's

more likely that if you are selling

cherries in East Sussex the East Sussex

times will cover you it's more relevant

more chances of actually getting the pr

than say for example the BBC covering it

because it's not necessarily going to be

that interesting you could tend spend a

lot of time and money reaching those

people and then not cover you the second

thing I'll teach you about PR is

journalists are lazy so if you

understand this and understand if you

provide everything for

them then

they don't need to do any work more

likely to get the Press coverage so what

I always do is I actually write the

press release like it's the actual story

you want written with a good headline

that makes them happy that they're not

selling you that's journalists don't

want to write and sell you they want to

write something that's interesting for

the reader so making a good subject line

that's good for the reader making the

story good for the reader I do all the

work for the journalist and then things

like photos I take high resolution

photos and I send them with a press clip

to make sure they've got everything they

need all they have to do is say yes to

the story and then put their own touch

on it job done they're human beings they

want to go out for lunch if they can so

if you can make it possible for them to

go out for lunch and do their job then

you will win in PR too many people are

lazy they send press releases that are

generic and they don't tailor it to the

journalist they're writing to so the

other thing you need to do is research

that journalist back to the targeting

you need to understand what that

journalist writes about what that

journalist is interested in and almost

write in their style if you want that

particular journalist right about you

the third thing on PR I'll tell you is

there is a lot of companies out there

that will tell you they can get you PR

please be careful now as much as it

might be nice to just pay someone to do

this I have discovered doing the pr

yourself especially if you're a small

business can pay huge dividends why

because you can make a relationship

direct with a journalist and how do you

find these journalistic contacts that's

what the pr companies tell you they've

got you can go for a newspaper and find

them you can Google them you'll find

them quite quick one big hack I'll give

you is Twitter in particular is really

good to get hold of journalists if you

start following the journalists that you

want to write about you and you start

engaging on their posts I would say

that's one of the best ways to start

building up a relationship with a

journalist most people will reply to

comment or read a comment that you've

made on one of their posts and weirdly

enough often journalists don't have big

followings and they don't actually have

a lot of comments so you can start

making a relationship start commenting

on something if they post something

about global warming and you you've got

a product that's helping reduce global

warming then you will get noticed if you

start commenting on a story they've done

about it start being part of their

thinking when it comes to I need someone

to help me write this story I need

someone to give me a quote to make the

story better start becoming part of that

journalist life and it starts with just

following them on Twitter or replying to

one of their comments engaging on one of

the stories they've already written even

online things like Daily Mail the

journalist will read the comment on

their own story so engage engage is the

number one thing I can tell you when it

comes to getting PR from journalists and

finally I have been involved in many

conversations where I know brands have

not worked with someone because they saw

on someone's social media that they

posted something obscene or rude or

stupid remember that you as a business

owner will always be the number one PR

engine whatever you post up be conscious

be careful think about your brand think

about the image that you're projecting

and I I can't tell you enough how

important this is because if you do the

first few things I've just mentioned you

connect with the Press you know who

you're targeting and you're not lazy you

help them do it if a journalist sees

that you are out of control or

inappropriate they will not risk their

job to write about you so learn to be

disciplined learn to be the brand PR

starts with one person having respect

for you so make sure you're dis

disciplined don't be lazy yourself next

up one of my favorite subjects one of

the questions I get asked the most how

to get an investor learning how to get

an investor can dramatically change the

trajectory of your business equally

though just before I go into how to get

an investor I want you to think

carefully about whether or not you need

an investor now I have invested in 78

companies you can go on my website

simon.com and look at some of the

companies I've invested in I have seen

it all and sometimes if you get the

wrong investor or get an investor for

the wrong reasons you you will have a

new boss and your life will become a

nightmare it will be easy at the

beginning when you get the money and

will get harder over time if you do it

wrong I will try to teach you how to not

get it wrong but equally please ask

yourself is there another way to make

the business work and I'm going to touch

on other ways that you could make it

work even if you don't get an investor

within this how to get an investor chat

now there are quite a few different ways

to get an investor depending on the

stage of your business and how much

you're trying to raise if you're trying

to raise money in the early days of a

business I would say to you the more

traction you have in your business the

easier it is to get an investor now that

does not mean to say if you just have an

idea you can't get an investor you

definitely can there's just less people

that will fund it so just like the sales

stuff I taught you earlier it's probably

better to make sure that you actually

know who you're targeting when you're

getting an investor what is the profile

of the person you want so if you're

going after someone that perhaps will

fund a business that has no traction

it's just an idea then remember those

people's profile they they probably want

quite a lot of equity they probably want

some involvement in the business to make

sure it works they probably want some

sector relevance industry relevance to

your business so they can add value

because no investor I don't care who

they are just want to feel like money

everybody wants to feel like they're

bringing some sort of value in fact I

would argue you shouldn't invest in a

business unless you can bring value

you've got to make the value the thing

that gives you the edge to make that

investment work otherwise you might just

invest in the stock market if you can't

bring value you might as well invest in

the stock market and I don't think you

make money from the stock market Market

middle class people make moneyy from the

stock market you make money like waren

Buffett makes money you own a piece of a

company you can influence you can help

make sure it's successful so do your

research but these are the types of

profiles that are often the best family

and friends now I know family and

friends can be difficult for a lot of

people a lot of people don't have family

and friends with money and I totally

understand that and I'll come to other

methods but I just want to touch on this

first because family and friends the

reason it's such a good thing to do is

because they know you you don't have to

convince someone of your personality

your profile your dedication they will

know all of that they'll know the true

you most of the time that could be

really powerful and speeding up the

process of getting the money you need

now of course we all know it can get

messy if you take money off family and

friends and you don't pay them back so

tell them the truth they could lose all

their money that's all you need to do

you tell them they could lose all their

money in the wish to get investment we

sometimes go down the road of

overselling it it and that's totally

normal but please be careful with this

especially with family and friends if

you tell them you invest in my business

it could all go wrong you can lose

everything then after that it's up to

them but you make it clear don't

oversell it that it's a guaranteed win

it cannot be a guarantee where nothing

ever is unless you've watched all of

this video of course there's a high

chance but you know what I mean please

please be careful but I have seen it

work and often family and friends can

also help you which in the early days of

any business if that's the stage you're

at then getting help is probably more

valuable than money but I've seen it

work so do give it serious consideration

and of course friend of a friend can

also be the way to raise money if you

don't have someone in your family that's

rich maybe you've got a friend who has a

family that's rich learn to leverage the

network because your friend recommending

you to someone who's rich will be

powerful and doesn't mean it'll also

save you time in the VC World which I'll

talk about in a minute getting a

recommendation is the only way to get

investment they don't take applications

online despite what their websites say

I've seen it they don't they take it

from recommendation so start really

networking the second thing I'll say and

I've never seen anyone else talk about

this when it comes to getting an

investor and that is consider the people

you want to work with you in your

company as potential investors so

sometimes when you're profiling the

people you want in your business you

will look at it and say right well I

can't afford the best so I'll get this

person

right which is fine I understand that

but the smart people think differently

the smart people think who are the best

and let's say I'm building right now a

competitor to LinkedIn help bank.com so

I think who's number two at LinkedIn I

want them to come and join me they're

never going to be number one at LinkedIn

not for a long time but maybe they want

the chance to build their own LinkedIn

and come and join me now the great thing

about the number two at LinkedIn

definitely got some money in the bank

right some money to invest in the

business so I can and I've done this

many times so this isn't just a theory

but look at your

team look at your team members as

potential investors in the platform I'm

running today help.com the people that

are involved in this business have

invested in this business Callum who's

buying the camera right now has put his

own money into this business and he's

got Equity because of it and he's taken

a lower salary initially so there's all

sorts of benefits to actually doing it

this way you can get your cost down you

can get the best inclass involved in the

business and you can bring money in to

help make the company work and it's much

better to have money from people that

are actually working in the business

Than People externally who are asking

you for a report of when they're going

to get their money back the third thing

you can do and of course this is more

traditional but it is very complex so I

try to explain how to go about getting

this type of person in your business but

it's an angel investor now you might

have heard the term many times you

probably watched rubbish shows like

Dragon's Den and thought that getting an

investor is the dragon or the angel sits

there with all the money and you are

desperately trying to get that money off

them by making them see your vision that

is the wrong way to get an angel

investor the best way to get an angel

investor on board once you've identified

them and done the research to find out

who they are you've been very clear

about what you're going to give them if

they invest all of that is common sense

right I don't need to teach you that

right now of course you need to know how

much you're going to give them and why

and I'll get into equity in a little bit

later in the video so you could try to

work that bit out but once you've

established who you want as an investor

and what you're willing to give them the

way to get an investor is completely the

opposite to what you think you think

getting an investor is hi I've got a

business this is this business would you

like to invest no the best way to get an

angel investor is not ask for money the

best way to get an angel investor is ask

for help because you've identified the

right investor they want to feel value

if they can't bring value they don't

want to invest and often if you do it

right it's not like Dragon's Den I've

invested in 78 businesses I always feel

honored and unlucky when I get to invest

in a successful business they do not

treat me like a dragon they do not treat

me with awe they treat me with respect

but they also identify why they've

approached me how I can bring value and

make me feel special and ultimately I

then feel lucky to be involved in that

business if they do that right if you

ask me for advice you're more likely to

get money out of me than you straight up

ask him ask me for money now I'm not

saying don't build ask into the process

of course when you do a picture angel

investor you should definitely put in

there you're looking for money but the

best way to put it is we're looking for

money from the right people make it a

little harder for people to get involved

in your business that's how you get an

angel investor you create fomo right

fomo you probably heard it but in case

you haven't it's probably one of the

most powerful things fear of missing out

you make people understand and you do it

sincerely that if they don't invest

they're missing out that is the key to

getting an angel investor now of course

treat an angel investor with respect

if you can prepare a correct and

appropriate amount of equity they're

going to get make it clear why explain

your long-term investment plans how

they're going to dilute because Angel

Investors often get diluted so if you're

offering them 5% it might sound like a

lot but if you get another investor and

another investor as the things go as

things go down the line that person

could end up with 1% of the company or

half a percent of the company and

remember most Angel Investors will be

involved in the business so make sure

you actually need them to help you don't

just pretend that they need you you need

them because once you get them on board

as an investor you also it will go pair

shaped so it's not just about convincing

the person to get on board it's also

convincing yourself that the right

person to have with you on this journey

in the long term make sure you do that

now the fourth way of getting an

investor more

traditional VC's Venture capitalists now

these types of profiles often a little

bit further down the line in your

business model than just a startup or an

idea most of the time nearly all VCS

although things have changed a little

bit when there was a lot of money in the

market but most VCS will genuinely want

a business that's proven that needs

Capital to scale so the way to get a VC

on board a couple of ways first you

identify have they got

money now what happens with a lot of VCS

is they're raising funds and they're

deploying funds and then they're raising

funds again and they won't necessarily

tell you they'll take a meeting with you

they might meet you and understand your

business but they won't necessarily have

the funds and they'll tell you what we

joke in the VC world is you're too too

tall for radio so you go for a job

interview radio station they reject you

in that job and the interview rejection

reason is you were too short for radio

in other words it's they don't

tell you why but you can find out if

they're raising you can Google them to

find this out don't waste time

approaching VCS are raising money they

won't deploy the capital they will waste

your time the other thing you can do and

I think it's very important is see who

they've invested in before

and there's a good chance if they've

invested in a similar business to yours

it's one of two things that it's either

bad news or good news for you if it's

good uh then they will invest in many

different companies so for example there

was an investment company that invested

in all the uh Uber type businesses as a

they invested in Uber they invested in

lift they invested in all of them they

hedged their bet that one of them was

going to win they want to be a part of

all of them to make sure that they

didn't lose other VCS will only invest

in one company in that categ category so

just make sure you understand that but

if it's bad news and they only invest in

one company in that category then you

can go to the competitor of that VC and

create a rivalry between the VC firms

I've seen it play out many times you

make them feel like well they've

invested in Uber but I'm Lyft and I

think we're going to beat Uber would you

like to invest in us and it's Primal but

it works so think about again have they

got money don't waste time selling to

people that don't have that see the

investor come companies they've invested

in before understand that and then three

try to get connected to a previous

company that that VC has invested in

it's much more powerful for you to get

introduced by one of the other portfolio

companies of that VC then you personally

approaching that VC so try to make

connections and it's also good due

diligence by the way if you speak to the

company that got investment from that VC

you can find out whether that VC was

decent or not because some of these VCS

are awful so you can do your due

diligence at the same time hopefully

make a relationship with a Founder that

can introduce you to the VC when the

time is right now the fifth way again

I've never seen this way explained to

people before and it's not traditional

but I have done it many many times and

that is work with your brand partner or

client to fund your growth so I had an

office in Hong Kong and a client wanted

us to open up in the Middle East and I

was a bit reluctant which is why I think

I found out about this hack cuz I

originally said we don't want to open up

there I think they just wanted us open

up there and then service them and they

didn't want to spend any money doing it

but because we said no and they really

wanted to work with us there they

offered to pay us to open up there so

this is a hack I learn and I will use it

many many many more times after this

that sometimes your client who wants

your service or the brand that's

sponsoring you will pay for your

expansion sometimes it's easier for them

to do that than go out and build it

sales for example or work with a new

partner that doesn't understand their

philosophy so your existing clients can

be your investor and it can be really

powerful if you do it right too because

that client then feels invested in your

success they're not going to make you go

for a tender every year they're not

going to chop and change you as a client

or partner or or supplier because they

want you to succeed because they own

equity in you now of course you have to

do this carefully so for example if one

of your clients is a bank and they

invest in you it can get very messy

suddenly on the legal side equally if

you are working with a particular

provider let's say in my case I work

with lots of different online service

providers but I partner with GoDaddy but

if GoDaddy invested in my business it

means all the other online suppliers

probably wouldn't work with me which

would not help the people I'm trying to

help which is people starting businesses

so I think it's quite important to make

sure you get the right client or the

right brand to invest in you but it can

be huge money and brands do have

investment divisions Google Ventures

Google it ironic they invest in

businesses they invested in a coffee

shop called Blue Bottle a coffee shop so

it's possible to get Google to invest in

your business but you have to understand

again the motives go back to my sales

point I made in the video earlier in the

video if you want to understand how to

sell to these brands use that sales

system again but ultimately it's a way

to raise money now there's one final way

I want to quickly flush out with you to

raise money to make your business work

now it kind of touched on what I said at

the beginning of this part of the video

and that is make sure you need an

investor sometimes when people are

asking me for money I will ask them what

they're using the money for and most of

the time not always but quite often it's

to get more sales to grow the product to

make sure more people can buy the

product and so on but when I dig in it's

not money from me that they need they

just need a better sales system so often

when it comes to raising money you'll

find that if you can actually go look at

your business and you might say to

yourself well I need the money to buy

the product well you can do crowdfunding

for example you can find me methods of

selling your product ahead of time

through platforms like Indiegogo and and

platforms that will pre-sell your

product to get you the revenue you need

in advance and you're not giving away

any Equity when you do that you can

pre-sell your product on certain

crowdfunding sites before it's made and

then you can go and use the money you

got from that pre-order to go and make

it and that is often a much better way

than raising money from an investor of

course crowdfunding is quite big across

the board now you can can raise money

crowdfunding you can do equity

crowdfunding and there's plenty of sites

that do that I'll put some links Down

Below in the video if you want to check

out who they are but ultimately you want

to figure out whether or not you really

need the money from a customer pre-

buying it or from an investor who's

going to help bring value or from a

community that's going to support you in

the future you can do crowdfunding where

you sell your product you can do

crowdfunding where you sell Equity you

can do crowdfunding where ultimately

it's just a loan you can do crowdfunding

where people will just support you like

Gund me crowdfunding is definitely one

of the ways I think today you should

leverage before going to the more

traditional routs of say a VC or an

angel of course family and friends so

crowdfunding is powerful and don't

overlook it I'm going to put the links

to all the different types of

crowdfunding sites down below go check

them out and let me know if you have any

questions in this subject because it is

a complicated one I will do a video in

the future about how to launch a proper

crowdfunding site but that's not now how

to get a sponsor this is something I get

asked all the time I'm going to give you

the code I'm going to give you the cheat

code I guess on how to do it and I want

to first of all say if any sponsors are

listening to this um I have applied this

technique on you so forgive me the first

is understanding why sponsorship deals

happen we can get into what sponsorship

deals structures are and that's quite

complex in itself but I want to give you

the tool today to get a sponsor on board

and the way to understand a sponsor

there's two things that makes a sponsor

come on board one is value

return right what they invest in

sponsoring you they get back in some

form right be that in views or be that

in sales they get value back ideally

trackable value so billboard companies

which I think are a joke um really in

what they value-wise give back to a

brand sell because they show how many

people walk past that billboard how many

people are looking at that billboard

each day and Brands love that stuff so

proper Roi on their investment the

second way and this one's a bit more

tricky but very powerful if you get it

right is the emotional sale right so you

see this quite a lot in like local

football clubs in England big Brands

sometimes are sponsoring small local

football clubs why because the CEO plays

football there or the CEO grew up there

playing football basically the emotional

sale now I have used both of these to

get deals and both of them can actually

work together they're not mutually

exclusive frankly sometimes the

emotional sale with the value return is

probably the Holy Grail if you can make

it personal for the brand and the people

running the brand don't overlook them if

you're going to make it emotional for

the person who runs the brand alongside

bring proper value most of the time you

can get a brand deal now where people

fall over is not structuring value for a

sponsor or and this is probably the

third thing I highlight that's important

to get a sponsorship deal you've not

understood the brand now I have made

this mistake many times I launched a

business called coaster ads and it was

brilliant marketing you I took all the

bars in Hong Kong and I put ads on

coasters I took out the carlsburg

coasters and the hiney coasters and I

put in coasters with ads on them and it

was brilliant because you put your drink

down on that coaster you up and down

look at it for an hour at least as

you're putting the drink on it and

picking up it was brilliant retention

brilliant engagement people saw the ads

every time they're brilliant but I tried

to sell that service that coaster ad

service to a jewelry business and of

course they laughed at me in fact I lost

them as a client on the agency side

because they thought I didn't understand

their brand I was so sure that that

jewelry brand would get traction which

they would have done but I didn't

remember what their brand philosophy was

and they're high-end they're fashionable

they don't want a beer sat on top of

them I made a mistake I didn't

understand the brand and this is where

you need to get really really clear what

is the

brand

value and so in that case in the jewelry

case they want to sponsor you know 007

movies with James Bond's girlfriend

wearing the jewelry and looking sexy you

know they want to be involved in things

that are not linked to beer that are not

linked to somebody drunk putting their

beer down on their brand now now I did

eventually sell coaster ads out to

airlines that wanted to promote going

from Hong Kong to Singapore and so on

and so forth so I eventually did really

well with that brand but initially I

learned an important lesson understand

the brand understand what their values

are understand how they traditionally

advertise so visa for example Visa

advertise at the Olympics they not only

sponsor the Olympics then they spend a

lot of money promoting the fact that

they're at the Olympics too many people

go to visa and ask for sponsorship

without understanding the probably the

biggest activation that Visa ever do is

the Olympics so you're better off going

and selling some value linked to the

Olympics as opposed to saying please

sponsor my event because they're saying

we sponsored the Olympics we sponsored

the biggest event in the world now you

want us to sponsor your event brand

values and understanding what that brand

wants is key but I mentioned it briefly

a second ago but I want to highlight it

is important don't forget the people in

these brands

research who they are understand what

their motives are some of the brands

that sponsor me today GoDaddy and Tai

banking the people that run those Brands

care as much about entrepreneurs as the

brands themselves so when they see that

me and my team are helping people

genuinely helping people have a better

life not only do the people buy in to

becoming a sponsor for us the brand

alignment is there and it happens right

now this does TY into the emotional cell

somewhat because for example one of the

people I work with GoDaddy had a small

business she knew how hard it was to

make that business work so when she sees

what we're doing alongside what GoDaddy

does this isn't a sponsored video by the

way but I'm just highlighting the

example so you learn ultimately these

people make a difference in that brand

that brand is made up of people so as

long as those people don't get fired for

sponsoring something that has no

relevance to their brand you can

actually end up having Champions inside

these companies for you to help you get

the sponsorship and I've had that many

many times now the fifth way to get a

brand to sponsor you that no one talks

about I don't know why maybe it's some

sort of Industry dirty secret but it's a

very very powerful way of getting a

brand sponsor on board is work with

someone that's already working with one

of these Brands an agent is often one

way to describe it but there are two

types of typical agents that Brands work

with there is a media buying company

this is a company that will go out and

buy all the ad space for that brand

they're paid by the brand to go and get

the best deals possible and buy up ad

space you can talk to these media buyers

and often it can be better to talk to

them than go direct to the brand because

the brand is too busy with its

day-to-day to deal with you as a media

owner they would prefer to deal with the

media buyer one contact and then that

Med media buy will deal with everybody

that wants to sell media so recently

someone came to me and said they've got

a fleet of Vans and they want to get

Brands to advertise on their Vans and

they tried going direct to Brands and

brand said no gave them a contact on a

media buyer the media buyer said great

and they bought all the event it's much

quicker the media buyer has a

relationship with the brands and often

they hold the money the brands already

allocated the money to the media buyer

so stop trying to sell to the brand sell

to the media buyer the other way to do

it is via the agencies so I used to own

an agency is one of the reasons I know

this subject so so well but a brand will

have a company that will come up with a

campaign idea for them now often when

you're coming up with a campaign for a

brand you're also looking at how the

campaign will be applied in the real

world so it might go on taxis it might

go on a bus it might go on a coaster so

you can actually tap into these agencies

examples without showing any preference

there's people like MC sari Ogie Leo

berett these agencies already have the

relationship with the company and if you

get in there with your idea or your

product they can often insert it or even

come up with a campaign to sell it into

the brand for you now uh I personally

prefer to deal with Brands direct many

times but do not neglect media buyers

are your friends and agencies can be

your friends and it can be a much

quicker sale to get them on board as a

sponsor one of the best hacks to get a

brand as a sponsor is to be per

personally really vested in that brand

so for example we recently as you know I

mentioned it earlier put a doorbell on

the bottom of our staircase that people

could press that doorbell pitch their

dream and we would help them we decided

the best product for us to do that the

most economical product that worked on

the internet was Ring doorbell owned by

Amazon now we didn't ask ring to sponsor

us we didn't ask Amazon to sponsor us it

was just the best product we believed in

the product and suited what we were

trying to do so we in sold it and we

marketed it and of course guess who's

seen it ring and Amazon so now who are

we now working with Amazon now of course

what I'm talking about here is just

using the brand in your life and

therefore it being a natural fit for the

brand to work with you when I wear whoop

out on the street it's natural I'm

wearing it because I like the product

and then whoop will see me with millions

of views on my videos wearing a whoop

and they will contact me so I think that

just leaning in to a brand relationship

and not initially thinking about the

money back to some of the points I was

making some of the other areas earlier

delayed gratification in sponsorship can

also be very powerful just work with

brands that you love will always be

easier than forcing a brand into your

ecosystem but also just doing stuff with

that brand as part of your day-to-day

business life can lead to sponsorship

how to build a brand now this subject is

complex and exciting if you get it right

A lot of the things I've talked about

earlier like sales and marketing will

happen naturally but it is complex now

there's lots of videos out there about

what is a brand so I'm not going to bore

you with that it's obvious it's

ultimately a statement about what you

are doing you want people to look at it

and know I love the images I've seen

many you can take away the logo you can

take away everything and you still know

it's that brand it's not about the

actual logo the design branding is about

the purpose of the business the essence

of what you're doing Nike is about

supporting athletes apple is about

supporting creativity ultimately when

you're coming to figure out your own

brand I would start with your personal

brand because it's a really good way of

figuring out how to build a brand why

you know you right if you're honest

about yourself you can make a brand

Persona and you start with writing down

your

values what do you care about

what are your non-negotiables what would

you say no to what would you say yes

to understanding your

personality understanding what it is you

want to do that's what your brand is

about that's who you are now you will

already have a personal brand and anyone

that doesn't want a personal brand I'm

sorry you're going to have one no matter

what people will talk about you when

you're not in the room you need to

embrace personal branding and by

understanding how others perceive you it

can literally change the trajectory of

your life now I have some real gripes

with personal brand and it's not very

scalable only in certain exceptions

around people like Kardashians and so on

can you actually scale a personal brand

as someone that's built a personal brand

as someone that's got 4 million

followers that spent four years building

a personal brand here in the UK I can

tell you it is sometimes a pain in the

ass I am responsible now no matter what

to do videos like this and post up stuff

even when I'm tired like now I'm

actually tired and I still have to do

this video because if I don't do it it

probably won't take it seriously I could

give this knowledge to my colleague and

give it to you and you probably wouldn't

listen so you need to hear it from

someone that's been there and done it

like me and I understand that and I

actually do love doing these videos and

helping you but I'm just trying to

highlight the personal brand side is

dangerous if that's all you build you

have to take personal brand seriously

you have to identify what your personal

brand is and by the way I know people

that have made their personal brand not

being on social media their personal

brand is they don't get back to you in

email that's actually sometimes what

makes them unique that's their personal

brand I don't reply to DMs I want to

make videos like this that bring you

value I want to do lives that means I

interact in a real world with real

people I have my rules I have my values

I'm dyslexic so I don't like reading DMS

but having those rules and having that

discipline will ultimately help you

define what people say about you instead

of people saying it without you having

defined it but brand values of your own

can teach you how you need to do exactly

the same for your company name so let's

take my brand help bank right help bank

has a lot of the traits that I

personally value honesty openness

authenticity value these are all words

in my personal brand Persona that have

translated into my company Persona

however help bank's long-term future

also involves helping people with

Finance Finance is not a word I use on

my personal brand and also supporting

people to get the funding they need is

something I have personally done many

many times but as an organization as a

platform it's going to be a much more

serious thing for help bank so when The

Branding was designed we said it has to

look a little bit more serious than the

Simon squid brand because ultimately

we'll be funding people people's dreams

at scale and people need to trust if we

tell them we're going to fund their

dreams it's actually going to happen so

the help Bank branding is a combination

of the Simon squid branding and our

competitors potentially in the future we

want to make it look serious it has some

element of fun but ultimately it has its

own brand Persona and all you need to do

initially to get the brand right is

write down all the different brand

values now I want to teach you about how

companies apply brand at scale and

there's a few different ways it

generally plays out so let's take a

brand like Canon and Canon run a brand

method which we call reference right and

reference is when they leverage someone

else's brand to make their brand look

good so Canon for example work with a

photographer called Peter McKinnon who

is a brilliant photographer I'm a big

fan of his and by by sponsoring him by

supporting him they don't need

that person as a CEO and their company

like like apple have done they have it

external Nike also do this I mentioned

earlier Nike will sponsor top performing

athletes with nice personalities that

have values and that therefore becomes

part of the night brand so they use this

reference model to make their own brand

look good now apple as I mentioned

earlier they use a different method I

call this the leadership method and the

leadership method is basically

where you have a person in the company

that represents the brand values now in

help bank I am that person probably in

your business you are if you're a small

business owner the person that is the

leadership value brand ambassador for

your company you're probably the one

that ask to go on stage and talk about

your business you're the one in sales

meetings whatever your business model is

you're probably the one representing the

brand of course your staff will

represent the brand your office

environment will represent the brand

like I said earlier the days when you go

out have a party and post on your social

media will represent your brand but when

it comes to making your brand values

clear you do it by these two methods you

either have a reference model which

means you sponsor certain people that

represent your brand value or you have a

Leadership Model which is you personally

in the company leading the charge to

make sure people understand your brand

and I think when it comes to Brand

building there are are some risks in

both of these models now in the

reference model if a celebrity that's

supporting your brand does something bad

that can affect your brand now this

happens a lot and they often get fired

quick I think one of the most famous

cases Kanye West who of course got

dropped by Adidas and and then lawsuits

Galore but what I'm saying is though

what's good about the reference model is

you don't have to spend four years

building up social media presence like

me I've spent every single day four

years doing a post building up a

community you can just leverage all of

that hard work and your brand can have

the halo effect of working with me but

the downside is what if I do something

bad then your brand is at risk so you

need to have mechanisms in place to make

sure you're protected as a brand but

that's how you scale brand and of course

the Leadership Model also has its

weaknesses we all saw this a little bit

with Steve Jobs when Steve Jobs left

apple apple had a real problem for a

long time they put so much of their

brand value in the Steve Jobs brand that

when he left the magic left was often

what people said right so you have to

make sure that you as a leader it's

sustainable for you to be that leader

and Lead that brand effort and or

there's a good transition model in place

and again when Steve Jobs went back to

Apple he did have a strong transition

model with Tim Cook now Tim Cook's an

interesting one because he's not Steve

Jobs of course but he is Mr Data he's

someone you trust with your data right

they've picked him in part because he

looks trustworthy he talks in a very

trustworthy and transparent way and in

Apple's process of building a brand

today that is more important to them

than a Maverick leader telling you about

a brilliant product in fact the Apple

iPhone hasn't changed much since Steve

Job died but the point I'm trying to

make here is if you want a brand to be

successful you've got to pick one of

these two strategies now you can do both

of course but you probably double the

risk of having some problem in your

business and whichever path you choose

make sure you think it through right to

the end have the ability to cut that

influencer out of your business if

anything goes wrong and equally if

you're running the Leadership Model make

sure that that leader has a transition

plan because at some point we're all

going to die now hopefully we're all

going to live forever with Elon must

help I'm sure that's true but I will

tell you now the final thing really

important in brand learn to say

no if you don't say no to the wrong

relationships the wrong brand

Partnerships the wrong clients your

brand will get damaged

I have had this experience myself I

spent 10 years building up a brand it

had a fantastic reputation and then I

got a bad client that didn't understand

how the world worked and made my brand

with their big mouth and their lies

and this can be hugely damaging we all

have probably heard the saying you can

spend 30 years building a reputation it

only takes 5 seconds for it to go to

I tell you from experience that

saying no to things is powerful if you

have an inkling spider senses that

someone isn't good or a brand isn't good

don't match with your malls do not take

their money say no your brand is the

most valuable asset you will ever ever

build my company got sold for a lot of

money in the end because I had a good

brand image I had a good brand value

they told me they bought the brand not

the business build a brand not a

business and I promise you that brand

will live forever next up how to hire

how to grow and how to build these three

things are interl and if you get this

formula right your business business can

take off and forever give you the income

you need be a brand you love and

ultimately not be a management nightmare

that a lot of people have when they

build a business so first of all how to

hire I always tell people if your

business has a

purpose and the people you hire believe

in that purpose you will never have to

manage anybody you will be managing

purpose not people one of the big things

people complain to me about is managing

people and often when I look at their

business to see why because they have

not installed a purpose in their

business that resonates with the people

that they have hired Sometimes some

businesses later install a purpose but

then that purpose just becomes a slogan

on the wall because the people they

hired in the early days weren't hired

around purpose you have to have this at

the center of ill and when you hire

someone always check that they genuinely

care about that purpose some people will

play you lip service to get the job so

there is a few hacks that you can do to

make sure that person really cares first

of all go check out their social media

go see what that person really cares

about you will see it if they care about

the planet if you see them driving

around in some gas-guzzling car they

probably don't care about the

environment so actually doing your

research on your hires being careful

about the people you bring into your

purpose matters check their history

check for references I don't know why

people don't do this people don't ask

for references anymore I don't know why

now I know in England it's illegal to

give someone a bad reference

but if you ask right I don't want people

to have a bad employee in their life if

I had that bad employee in mine it's

important that we share these things to

help that employee get better if they

had a bad reference they'd act better

they'd do a better job now

ultimately I think when hiring people

the key is give them Equity now I'm

going to talk more about Equity a little

bit later in the video it always comes

up but if you give your team equity

they are aligned with your

success now any owner of any business

knows that the real value in a company

is not its turnover it's in its brand

and if over 10 years an employee helps

make that brand grow but are only taking

an income they're never getting their

true value you have to own equity in the

business that you are working in now

there's many different ways to do it so

if you're working for someone today of

course you can go ask for equity in that

company you've got nothing to lose

they'll probably laugh they might say no

I promise you respect you more

especially if they're a Founder the

second thing is you can build a business

where you work with that company but you

own equity in it so you can start your

own company but have equity in that

company and then work for that person

now the point I'm telling you here is

that give your employees respect if you

want to keep people and you want them to

be motivated have this conversation

openly talk about this subject you

should be saying they should have Equity

now it might not be possible to give

people Equity straight away it might not

be something you feel comfortable with

doing straight away but I promise you

your turnover will be less your stress

will be less your company will be

stronger if that person in your company

has equity and most people don't have

the guts to do it and they W then spend

years stressing they can't find anyone

or that they can't find anyone that

actually cares it's because they don't

own what you own give them a piece of

the business and you'll have loyalty of

course it comes with its risks but in my

opinion High turnover High management

high stress is a bigger risk than any

Equity problem you could have if someone

leaves for example and ironically most

of the time why would people leave if

they have equity in fact I had a case

recently someone who worked with me for

four years I gave them equity in the

business and then they left but because

I treated them with respect and because

I treated them well and we had a good

relationship when they left they let me

buy that Equity back at a very low rate

they were very reasonable they did not

hold me blackmail now of course if

you've hired the right person under

purpose and you've given them Equity

most good people will not hold you over

it to get that Equity back you can be

reasonable but if you've done the right

thing in the beginning by giving people

Equity it's so easy now the third thing

I'll tell you and this really links to

how you grow your business you can't

grow a business without people I would

say that today with AI and all this

technology you'll be able to grow a

business with less people but you won't

be able to grow a business with no

people so you need to grow a business

through growing its culture you need to

make sure that this business has values

I had a business called

fluid this business went on to become

one of the most successful creative

agencies in Asia that I sold to price

water house Cooper for more money than

I'll ever need and one of the things I

did in the early days of that business

which was a big mistake is I built a

business to make money now that might

not sound like a mistake but what

happened first year I hired people there

were knew it was exciting second year

people started to leave why did they

leave because the values of the the

business were wrong I changed the values

in that business we went from a business

that was designed to make money to a

business that would protect the staff

from Bad clients I had a creative agency

often designers were treated badly do

this by tomorrow at 12 I need it instead

of understanding that creativity is a

process so we switched our whole model

instead of working for clients we worked

for the creative people and help them

manage clients that transformed our

business and helped help us grow by

thinking about things differently

instead of traditionally you will grow

your business and by looking after your

people it's cheesy I know you can grow

much easier now when you grow assuming

you follow my advice and you grow your

business this is the important thing you

need to identify what is your

destination what are you actually

growing for now I have a lot of people

recently approached me and say please

invest in my business arm and I want to

grow it my first question is why what is

it you're trying to do by growing your

business what's the real reason you're

growing your business is it ego do you

really want to work more or is it want

to make the business bigger so you can

bring in management so you can not have

to work so hard so you're working hard

now to grow it that's fine I think you

need a reason to grow it now I want to

grow the biggest platform in the world

that helps people for free learn

business so I want it to be big I know

my destination I want to help 10 million

people for free start a business they

love and never feel alone doing it so I

know my destination and therefore I'm

growing both from a higher point of view

from a culture point of view in that

direction but I have had points in my

life and the early days of fluid where

actually I wanted to work three days a

week doing cool stuff with Brands and

two days a week going to the beach with

my girlfriend having fun and so I didn't

grow the business too much at the

beginning I actually had a different

ambition and there's nothing wrong with

that and if you want to grow your

business brilliant follow this formula

have purpose bring people in that have

value and own value in the business and

you will grow if you look after them and

your customer base the final thing I'll

talk about when it comes to really

building a business and making a

business successful first of all take

risk make sure that you build MVPs

minimum viable products try things out

if you really want to build a company

you can't stay stagnant no company today

is around when they stay stagnant think

about Blockbusters or any of these

businesses that just sat on their

technology like Kodak and didn't do

anything with it you can't sit still

Kodak invented the digital camera you

can't sit still you have to put these

things into the market Kodak didn't want

to put their film uh cam digital camera

into the market because it would have

meant film was gone and film was their

Core Business you've got to disrupt

yourself if you really want to build a

business that's going to last if you

really want to build a successful

company I'm going to use a dirty word a

word that I personally hate but has

saved me you need to build systems you

need to move from what is often in the

early days of a business what I call a

generalist mindset where everybody can

do everything to a specialist mindset

you need you need to allow people to be

specialists in certain areas now when I

was younger I'm a generalist I can do

kind of everything I can clean the

toilets in the company toilets when

they're dirty I can help people get

their car loaded up and get to the site

to do the pitch I can do the pitch I

could do everything but I became a

specialist in marketing and I think as

you grow a business you have to take

away the generalist people and build out

specialist people people that do a

particular thing well to help the

business grow and that involves Building

Systems that allow people to do that in

your hiring process in your growing

process and in your mindset even you as

a Founder potentially you have to make

sure that you learn a skill set

otherwise you become redundant which by

the way is fine I have often got myself

replaced in a company that I have built

I think that's actually pretty smart

unless you can become a specialist it's

probably the best thing for the company

too there's likely to be a CEO out there

that's better than you when you're at

scale I found that to be the case many

times I replace myself at fluid 11 years

in by someone who is a better CEO than

me so hopefully if you know your purpose

and you give purpose to the people you

hire you have Equity both for your team

and for the wider growth of the business

you know your values and you apply them

you know your destination and you apply

this very important point of systems

and removing

generalism you will have a business that

is easy to hire people that will scale

and will build into something that lives

without you now let's talk about how to

fire someone now I have fired hundreds

of people in my career and I'm going to

teach you how to fire someone and also

when you're likely to be getting fired

so one of the things I hate to do is

fire someone it's a very necessary skill

if you want to survive in business I've

often built up large companies that

needed to get small again quick for

various reasons you have to learn to

fire people it is not nice but one of

the most difficult things about firing

people is understanding when to do it

now I think when it comes to actually

firing people structurally like for

example doing it legally sending the

appropriate warnings doing the proper

paperwork all of this stuff you can get

off a lawyer I'm not going to waste your

time telling you the law in your country

wherever you are it will be different

anyway I'm going to talk more about the

actual Act and also what's involved in

making the decision as to whether or not

someone should be fired I learned long

ago A system that I call the seven and

eight rule it's very simple and obvious

when I first start explaining it now if

someone's in your company and they are

really good like you love them they love

you they're obviously a nine and 10 you

want to keep them and you want them to

stay and they want to stay most of the

time those people are 9 and 10 T because

they're enjoying it now of course like I

said earlier make sure you give these

people Equity make sure you look after

these people over time but you know you

want to keep them and they want to stay

it's a Nob brainet it's cool then you

have what I call the ones and twos these

are people who are at their job

they know their at their job you

know their at their job and most of

the time they either quit or you fire

them it's a no-brainer everyone feels it

they don't turn up on time they don't

care about the purpose of the company

whatever it is it's obvious that

relationship comes to an end naturally

the really difficult thing for any

employer and for that matter any

employee is if you are a 7 and8 which

means you're almost good enough you're

almost able to do the job and sometimes

as an employer you're desperately hoping

they become good enough you're waiting

for them to become a nine and 10 and

some days they are but then they SLI

back to a six some days they're a seven

and there's various reasons why people

are seven and eight and often it's not

because they're crap at their job it's

because they're in the wrong job with

the wrong team doing the wrong thing I

have often seen a seven and eight and

actually move them to a different

department or a different role and they

become nines and tens but that's not

always the case and sometimes the

hardest people to fire are the seven and

eights so how do you do it well I think

first of all you put proper structure in

place to identify what is success for

that employee you want to understand how

they work what's going on in their lives

instead of walking into the room and

saying you haven't performed you walk

into the room and you say how can I help

you perform there's things that you can

do as a leader to check whether or not

that person can get better at their job

and if there's anything you can do to

support them but in the

end learn the seven and eight rule and I

have seen this I have kept seven and

eights in my companies in the past and

the nines and tens leave if someone can

surf get away with it and not do their

job and no repercussions then why would

a 9 and 10 stay why would a 9 and 10

stay a 9 and 10 if they can get lazy and

not work as hard or cut corners and not

get fired then you're going to have a

problem nine and 10 will not stay in

your business and you'll have a company

full of seven and eights and seven and

eights are hard to manage take up nearly

all of the conversation any HR

conversation you have to learn to grow a

pair of balls and fire these people and

you know what when you do this has

happened to me many times they're

grateful because those seven and eights

if you fire them can often go on to find

a job they like where they are a nine

and 10 and are appreciated it's your

responsibility to fire seven and eights

so how can you identify if someone is a

seven and8 well the rule I have is how

many times a day are you talking about

them if they come up too much in any

conversation amongst your team members

event your customers more than once or

twice in a week you probably got a

problem second thing is you often are

running a system in your brain where you

are

fearful of not finding a replacement so

you don't want to fire them because

they're better than nobody and I've done

this myself many times a seven and eight

is at least a pair of hands helping you

when you're building a business

sometimes that's a relief and the idea

of having to find someone new is painful

so you need to get strong you need to

realize and maybe even line up your next

hire before you fire now I promise you

that employee and I would be the same is

also looking for another job so maybe

what you can do is help them find that

other job I have done this many times

I've gone to someone who's a seven and

eight and said you're not happy I don't

think you're not completely doing the

job the way you should I've helped you

get an interview at this other company

it has actually built relationships with

people that weren't happy in the company

but are now my friends outside of work

you can help that person even though it

might be frustrating that there person's

in your company and not performing the

best thing you can do is work out a

solution for them and for you and you

can build a great relationship with that

person even though that it's perhaps not

a great relationship in the company

right now by helping them move on so

following the rule identify seven and

eights be honest with yourself do not

have fear that you cannot replace them

and find a N9 and 10 you will help that

seven and eight find a new job and

always be honest with seven and eight

how you're feeling it will be better for

you and for them and there is a chance

and it's happened a few times in my

career or that person becomes a nine and

10 and it can often be when you give

them Equity let's talk about how to go

Global now why is going global one of my

main points it's because a lot of people

don't realize that they can go Global a

lot of people don't realize that they'll

probably remove a lot of the risk in

their business if they do Go Global why

well if you're in more than one market

and the market you're in is in trouble

you spread your risk I've had this

happen to me many times in my early

career with fluid we were just in Hong

Kong and it was risky Hong Kong had a

lot of ups and downs and when we had the

downs I was subject completely to that

down I had no counterbalance with a

business potentially in another market

doing well and going global it turns out

is not difficult anymore often people

don't realize there are a few steps to

allow your business to go Global when

you didn't think it was even possible so

what are those steps first identify

whether there's an opportunity for your

product or your service in another

market so

research and even if you don't want to

open up that second office or or sell

that product in that market once you

understand what markets where this could

work are there's a couple of

opportunities for you now I could

reverse back to raising money if you're

able to say to someone that you can open

up your product in other markets with

their investment it can make an investor

happy that's just one example it can

make an investor actually go ahead and

invest in you equally like I mentioned

earlier as well well if a brand wants to

sponsor you to open up another office

this can be a way for you to grow your

business and you reduce your risk under

the dime of a brand partnership research

is key at this stage find out where your

product could be sold even if you don't

want to do the work to do it second you

can basically set up models like

franchising so if you don't want to set

up that business in another Market you

can set up a brand franchising

Arrangement so someone else will open it

up and someone else will do the work but

you can make money by doing nothing I

hate passive income I don't think that

exists but this is the closest thing to

it in my opinion someone else running

your brand in another Market under a

license so I think that franchising is a

real opportunity and it's a it's a bit

of a misunderstood word franchising

because a lot of people kind of think of

like Subway or um McDonald's but

franchising can apply to a service

business and many many companies are

built on Partnerships under a franchise

structure the other thing that's really

important about going global is making

sure your business can stand the test of

time and if you have a business that is

thinking globally ironically you're more

likely to survive in the long term

you'll learn an important lesson which

is it's easier to run a big company than

a small company far too many

entrepreneurs and me included at points

in my career have made my business too

small that I am the only one that can

run it I can't afford Senior Management

I can't afford to get help I can't

afford to actually stop working for a

week I'm telling you now by thinking

Global you give yourself a chance to

grow a big business and it's easier than

having a small business despite what

you've been told by other people get a

big business if you can now it does link

back to what your mission in life is

maybe you don't want a big business but

do not decide to not have a big business

because you think it's easier to have a

small business it's not small is not

easier I have run big businesses and I

have run small businesses and I had an

easier life once I've made the business

big so do not trap your yourself in any

Market do not subject yourself to any

Market that could disrupt your business

and make sure you always give yourself

the chance to be free of your very own

business not trapping you how to get a

mentor this is the single biggest

question I ever get asked and it's so

simple to answer no one seems to listen

to me but I'm going to try anyway if you

want a mentor in your business I totally

understand why that sounds cool but the

reality is people have built businesses

around this concept that you need a

mentor and they've sold you it as the

solution it isn't what you actually need

is not a mentor what you need in reality

is someone who can answer the questions

that you have and perhaps even give you

the answers to questions you didn't know

to ask and this can all be done without

a mentor in fact I would argue if you

got me as your Mentor it would be pretty

annoying cuz Mentor will tell you their

experience but it might not be relevant

to your life this video today in a way

is all the knowledge I have anyway so of

course you can still have me as your

Mentor but what you're really saying if

you're honest about it is you're looking

for a coach you're looking for someone

to keep you accountable and you can

actually break down what that means into

what you really need if you want someone

to work with you in your business and

keep you accountable get a co-founder if

you want someone to help you with sales

hire a salesperson if you know the

question you want to ask then ask it now

I say all that I still want to deliver

on a promise to help you get a mentor

and this is how you get a mentor number

one you

research what

matters what matters

to that

person someone reached out to me

yesterday asking me be to be their

Mentor for a property development

business they want to run do you not

know who I am I hate the property

industry and everything it stands for I

think property should be a basic human

right and the present balet system has

screwed the world up I don't want to

help someone do that now they were very

nice and very polite I won't name who

they are but I'm telling you right now

do your research before you ask someone

for help of course I'm not going to

reply to that fact I did reply saying no

but I'm saying that most people won't

reply you don't want to ask someone to

be your mentor and have not done the

research on them the second thing is

don't just say please be my mentor now

there are plenty of people that don't

take my view that you don't need a

mentor and do want a mentor and they

will Mentor you some will charge and

some won't I'll get on to that in a

minute but when you ask someone to

Mentor you remember it's a bit like

saying would you like to get married you

need to Define what it means so

Define what you

mean when you say will you be my mentor

tell people what that means for you I

would like 10 minutes of your time once

a week and perhaps consider if you do

start defining what it is what sort of

questions you're going to ask and often

if you ask a question you will get a

mentor if you ask for a mentor you'll

get no reply at all because no one can

commit to an open-ended question

especially from a stranger asking for

mentorship you need to Define it in an

Ideal World I suggest you ask a question

first that's actually why I built help

bank.com so you can go and write a

question to 100 5,000 potential mentors

now if after all this you're still set

on getting a mentor another way to get a

mentor is change the word mentor to

advisor and when you're looking to build

a company for example and maybe you want

to mentor to help you build a company

look for someone that has specific

knowledge that you're after and ask them

to join your Advisory Board now advisory

boards a little bit more glamorous for

most people a mentor isn't something you

see on many people's LinkedIn profile

but advisor to this company and advisor

to that company often is so reframe it

as advisory now if you've got a business

with purpose and you followed the other

things I've said in this long video

today you'll know how important things

like process and systems and structure

and goal will lead you to decide what

type of advisor you need and it's much

easier to get an advisor than it is a

mentor and much easier to structure what

the relationship is like if they're for

example one of your border advisers

they'd probably have equity in your

business so you're no longer asking

someone to hang out with you and give

you a bit of advice and motivate you

you're asking someone to give you

specific knowledge around something they

love and believe in and it's much much

easier the next thing you can do to help

yourself get a mentor is connect to the

people that they are connected to so

referrals are the best way to get help

many times someone I know for a long

time that's helped me out has asked me

to Mentor someone to help them out and I

have done it without question and so

that

referral a bit like in sales and the

other things I've mentioned today

referrals are so powerful try to get

someone to refer you to the mentor that

you want it's also much easier for

someone to say yes when they've got some

reference point of someone that knows

you now be careful don't go become

friends with someone just to get them to

refer you it'll be transparent and

actually hurt you so do it genuinely but

if you can get a referral for the mentor

that you need it's very powerful now the

final way to get a mentor if that's what

you want the best way is to give value

to the person you want as a mentor some

of the people I've helped in my past

have helped me first I didn't ask them

to so for example someone redesigned a

website for me and made my website

better of course after someone's gone

and made all that effort to support me

and help me I'm going to give them time

and I think that time in the early days

allows us to work together to define the

questions they're asking and Define the

things that that person actually needs

and so go and give value to the person

that you want as your Mentor don't just

ask them for something try to bring them

something and it will make a huge

difference and I think that that's one

of the things that people never do they

just want to extract value and this goes

back to my personal philosophy in life

it's not give and take it's give without

take if you follow give without take

when trying to get a mentor if you

follow give without take when trying to

get Mentor I'm pretty sure you'll get

that Mentor but don't expect anything

don't expect that person to become your

Mentor give them value give them respect

clearly you respect them you want them

to be your Mentor make the effort and

over time it will come back to you even

if it isn't in that person becoming your

Mentor how Equity works this is such an

important subject if you don't get the

equity structure right in your business

you will fail I have been involved in

many many businesses that didn't do this

right and collapsed not because they

they weren't good businesses but because

they didn't know how the structure of

equity works now just before I get into

the detail of how to structure your

Equity structure in the future correctly

I will make sure that you understand one

important Point most people don't want

to drop below 50% equity in the company

because they think it means they lose

control that's not

true you are able to control your

company under the operational agreement

now in each country us Britain different

Market Market you have different

terminology for this but you control

your company by the shareholder

agreement you don't control your company

by the amount of equity that you hold so

if for example you have a 50/50 Equity

split with someone you are actually

potentially in joint control as far as

Equity is concerned but you can still

allocate one person to make all the

decisions and have actual control so do

make sure that you understand that

Equity ownership does not equal control

right it does not equal control keep an

eye on this mindset because you often

make big mistakes around Equity

ownership thinking it means you lose

control if you drop below 50% and that

is not true the second thing to keep in

mind with Equity is understanding where

you're going with the business

everything I've already discussed in

this video is interl but if you don't

know where you're going you don't know

how much Equity you need to get there

too many people sell a large chunk of

equity at the early stages of their

business only to realize later in their

business they don't have enough equity

to get to the Finish Line if your model

is like tech company model and you

intend to raise a lot of money you have

to be very cautious with the equity in

the early days now there are all sorts

of graphs and information on the

internet that will explain to you this

point but I'm highlighting it to you so

you can go and research it it's a very

deep subject but do not sell too much

Equity at the beginning having said that

the best thing you can ever do is sell

no equity at all I know it's cool to

raise money I know it but it's cooler to

run a business where you don't raise

money a bootstrap business in my opinion

is healthier you can retain 100% control

and 100% own Equity it's always probably

going to be better now there's a lot of

exceptions to that suggestion and one of

them I would say is make sure you don't

make this one big mistake I see a lot of

people make I have seen people start

businesses and when they start

businesses with a partner they do 52%

48% and often for no other reason then

the person who came up with the idea

believes that they deserve 2% more this

has happened time and time again it's a

huge mistake I've seen arguments ensue

two years later between those two people

because they didn't just do it 50/50 do

not assume again control 52% means

anything if anything it's detrimental so

if you have a co-founder

my instant recommendation my instant

recommendation is you do 50/50 do not

belittle the other partner by giving

them less they will instantly

psychologically think they will do 48%

of the work you will do 52% of the work

it does not bode well in the long term

now there is a danger with 50/50 that

danger is decision lock if you're making

one decision and your partner's making

the other and you haven't put a

shareholder agreement in place to decide

who has the deciding vote you have a

problem so the way around this is often

to have a third party help you make big

decisions someone you both trust ideally

but you create a 50/50 ownership

structure with a board of advisers for

example and this allows you to make

decisions especially difficult decisions

without mjor argument and avoid conflict

with your partner now the best way to

avoid conflict and avoid even needing to

turn to your board of advisor is to be

very clear about where you're both going

and I'm using at the moment in this

Equity example a 50/50 partnership it

could equally be a 1/3 13d 1/3 or 1/4

1/4 1/4 I'm just using this as an

example that you all know where you're

going I have seen problems in the

business for example where someone is

building the business the money's coming

in one person wants to take the money

out and put it in their pocket as profit

the other person wants to put it back

into the business to help it grow one

person wants to stay in one market the

UK another person wants to expand to the

US you need to try and work out all of

this stuff ideally before you even start

the company within your mind map that I

taught you earlier you figure out where

you're going and why and therefore you

avoid conflict when it comes to Major

decision making later again I have seen

companies fall apart because one person

wanted to take the money out and one

person didn't and literally the business

collapses because the two don't agree

don't get along the business fails

Equity ownership under this system I'm

now teaching you is not about control as

I've mentioned but it is about

understanding what the equity is there

to do now depending on your structure if

you're a charity this won't matter so

much but if you're a limited company

that's looking to raise money please

make sure your cap table has the right

people on it I have seen many people not

get investment because they gave 2% to

the wrong person that the other

investors don't want associated with

Equity ownership will tarnish your rep

ation understand how Equity is

structured it's showing who is involved

in the company so you need to make sure

that you align your brand I talked about

branding earlier to the equity ownership

and whoever owns that company whoever

owns a part of your company will affect

the brand image so make sure that you're

aligning your brand values with your

Equity

ownership now there is a lot of talk by

me and anyone that actually knows what

they're doing in business about giving

Equity to your staff I really believe in

this now there's a couple of ways to do

it I honestly think if you want to build

a business that scales you have to give

Equity to your people but there's two

types of equity structure there's what

we call share options which technically

isn't actually Equity it's a percentage

in the future of the company but it can

often be in what are framed as earn outs

or there straight up Equity now there is

a hybrid in this model and I don't want

to get too technical now because I'm

actually not a lawyer but I want you to

understand the difference most of the

time people are buying stocks and shares

in the stock market they have share

options which means that yes they'll get

given shares but those shares have no

class level so they have no decision

making power so you can own shares in

the company in the stock market but have

no influence over that business or no

control but that is one way to

incentivize people you give them share

options my preferred method and everyone

on my team had this actual physical

equity in the company not share options

via the stock market listing but real

life equity in the company so the

company was sold today they would get

paid out whereas often with share

options it's some link to the stock

market listing or in some cases if it's

already listed to you sing the shares on

the stock market but if the company

decided to take the company off the

stock market wherever that price was

you'd have to sell out again there's

some legal obligations around this it

has to be more than 70% of the

shareholders agree but the point is I

have owned shares in the stock market of

a company that I believed in and then

the owners of that company actual Equity

owners of that company decided to take

the company off the stock market I had

no choice but to sell my shares that

company Dlisted became worth a billion

dollars and I could have owned it but I

wasn't allowed because I only owned the

share option side the stock market side

not actual physical equity in the actual

company and I think it's important if

you're even thinking investing in a

company to understand the difference of

course if you're going to work in a

company understand the difference and if

you're building a company and you don't

understand the difference you're going

to have a major problem in the future

now this subject of share

ownership understanding the different

classes please spend

time understanding the different classes

go Google how it works go Google share

options go Google stock market shares go

Google Equity ownership this stuff is

complex it's going to be too I'm not

legal IO to go through all with you now

but this structure of share ownership

can literally make or break a company I

would also finally say to you depending

on what your end goal is is how you

should reverse engineer your share

Equity ownership if you are looking to

IPO your business then you want to make

sure that the IPO process is fully

understood of course but your stock is

reversed backwards so when you start the

business and you're looking to list it

one day you need to know that when

you're starting the business ideally

because if you don't structure it early

on to eventually get listed it probably

won't now I learned this the hard way

with a few businesses that I was

involved in the share structure was so

complicated we couldn't get all the

shareholders to agree to even do an IPO

some shareholders wanted to keep it

private other shareholders wanted to do

an IPO and it gets so messy because they

didn't know where they were going in the

early days so learn to structure what I

call reverse engineering know what your

end goal is and reverse the share Equity

structure from day one under that

premise now there's one final thing I'll

teach you about Equity sometimes it's

hard to determine the value of your

company to sell Equity so one thing you

should look into and perhaps use is

products like a safe now platforms like

y combinator one of famous accelerators

out there that help businesses grow use

a safe to help determine a business and

its long-term potential for value

there's many different ways to structure

a safe but the beautiful thing about

that model and go and Google it is you

don't need to determine the value of

your business now someone can invest in

your business on a discount of the value

in the future now again there's many

different ways to structure that concept

but the concept of safe I have found to

be very useful especially in the early

days of building a business to take away

the conversation about what is your

business worth and move towards invest

in this business and this is what we're

going to do it's much much easier to get

an investor for example frankly it's

much easier to incentivize your

employees with it you're not determining

a value on the stock share now so it

doesn't cause tax implications as well I

really think it's useful and not many

people know about it so I hope this

overview in equity gives you a good

understanding of how it works I am going

to do a whole video on this much more

detailed I'm going to get some lawyers

involved too to show you the different

agreements and how it works but if you

go do a little bit of Googling you'll

get most of the information you need

that I haven't provided here and if you

have any questions without Equity feel

free to drop them in the comments how to

sell your business how to exit a company

I have done it a few times in my life

there's loads of different ways to do it

I'm going to share with you how to exit

your business ultimately selling a

company is often a dream of a lot of

entrepreneurs I have done it a few times

I've done it a few different ways and

I've got some interesting insights to

share with you and one of the things

I'll start off by saying if you really

want to sell your company the best way

to sell your company is not want to sell

it at all the most amount of money I

ever got for a company was because I

didn't want to sell it that's the

strongest place to negotiate from so the

number one thing I want to tell you in

an ironic twist when coming to sell your

company the best thing you can do is

build a business you

love and selling

it will accident and selling it will

accidentally happen this has happened

over and over again history always

repeats itself mark ber was offered a

billion dollars by Yahoo to sell his

company and he said no so now it's worth

a trillion and I think there's something

really powerful in this process it's

kind of sales like I was teaching you

earlier it's kind of sales you don't

want to sell it means you can get the

most for it it's a very hard thing to

actually be truly not interested in

selling it if is actually your goal but

it will ensure you get the maximum value

out of a business if you do it this way

the other way to think about selling

your business and the way I've sold my

last company is I partnered up with a

company that could buy my business so

fluid partnered up with price Waterhouse

Cooper and we worked on a project

together and in that process of working

on a project together PWC realized that

they should just buy us now at the time

when it was first mentioned I didn't

want to sell great negotiating First

Step but in the end I did sell it and

I'll tell you all about that process in

a minute but I I'm trying to highlight

that another way to sell your business

is partnership work with the

company that is likely to want to buy

your business build the relationship up

and you'll be surprised how that can

lead to an exit again don't lean into it

wanting an exit lean into it wanting to

build a partnership that works for both

parties but it can be a great way to

sell your business the Third Way is to

work with agents that actually sell

businesses

and there are a few I'm not going to

recommend any because this isn't a

sponsored video by them but you can

Google them there are many companies

that do it sometimes it can be quite

useful to get one of these companies to

do it because of course if you're busy

trying to sell your business you're not

busy growing your business but I

honestly feel like that these days these

agents there's a lot of them and they

all have their own different agendas so

just make sure you do your due diligence

ask the previous company that they work

with what they were like make sure that

the legal structure is very clear

because you don't want to get cons by

these companies when you come to the

exit actual fee the fourth way to sell

your business is more a merger so your

competitor is a way to exit and it might

seem odd you probably spent 10 years

hating your competitor I spent most of

my early career making friends with my

competitor I originally thought I was

going to sell fluid to Ogie I made a lot

of friends at ogave I used to sit next

to them at the awards dinner on purpose

to connect to them I did projects with

them I thought they were going to be the

exit but they weren't and so I think

merges however are very common and two

businesses coming together is the

easiest that do the same thing is often

the easiest way to sell a business and I

will however caveat it with most of the

time you don't get the most value so I

sold my company fluid to PWC PWC are an

accounts business they're not a creative

agency so they saw more value in US than

if I'd merged with ogy that think they

can do what we do

so sometimes selling to a non-competitor

is more valuable but if you want an easy

sell merges often the way it works and

it's not always true that you don't get

the true total value I've just from

experience learned that sometimes

selling outside the industry like I did

with fluid to PWC can lead to more money

than selling to someone in the industry

like olgy but that doesn't mean it's

always true and finally if you want to

sell your business one of the things

that you can also think about is

allowing the management in your company

to buy it so I have also done this I let

the leadership team at Nest buy that

business and there's many different ways

to structure a buyout over time

percentage of profit but in the end it

can be a really good way allowing you to

sell your business without that business

getting hurt and by also giving the

people that worked in the company a

chance to really step up and own what

they've been building with you I

personally really was happy to sell Nest

to my team and I think it's a really

powerful way of building an exit

strategy for yourself while at the same

time giving the people that run it the

love and success that they deserve so

they're the main ways now I will add

that when it comes to selling a business

the the key thing like anything at the

beginning when you're building the

business never ever pitch to an investor

or yourself that you're building a

company to sell it and in fact I would

argue if you're building a company to

sell it and I've seen this many times be

careful you might end up getting stuck

with a business you don't love do not

build a business to sell it do not Pitch

to investors that you're going to sell

it build a business you love investors

want to invest in that build a business

you never want to sell people want to

buy a business like that that's the key

to being successful in business in my

opinion do not build something you don't

love do not build something that doesn't

have purpose if you got value from this

video i' really appreciate it by you

asking a comment down below or even

telling me what I've missed out in this

video that you want in the future so I

can make it for you and don't forget

we're following people's dreams every

single week on this channel if you want

to hear what happens to the people we

help hit that alarm button so you get

the latest update as soon as the upload

button is hit good luck everybody

goodbye I'm going to eat chicken now see

you