How To Quit Your Job (And Do What You Love)

Ali Abdal just walked me through the

eight-step blueprint he followed to

escape his 9-to-five job and build a

multi-million dollar business. Now, I

know many of you watching feel stuck

either in a job you hate or a school

system you know isn't preparing you for

the real world. Ali is living proof that

anyone can build their dream life and

escape the 9 to5. Imagine going from

dreading your day job to creating a side

hustle that consistently makes you

thousands of dollars a month. By the end

of this video, you'll have the only

blueprint you'll ever need to build a

profitable business and live a life of

freedom, no matter where you're starting

from. Alli, what are we going to learn

today? So, step one, set the goal. Step

two is going to be choose your

adventure. Step three is just get

started. Step four is master your time.

Step five is take consistent action.

Step six is get clarity on who you

serve. Seven is monetize. And step eight

is scale. This video is sponsored by

Shopify. And the money from this video

goes to fund people's dreams. So how do

we set the goals? Okay. Well, I can tell

you what what what worked for me. So

when I was in medical school, uh I

thought I wanted to be a doctor and I

thought, you know, this is this is great

going to med school, etc., etc. But then

I started meeting doctors in the

hospitals and stuff. And I was always

interested in asking doctors who were a

few years ahead of me. I was always

interested in getting a sense of do they

actually enjoy being doctors? Do they

enjoy their jobs? Cuz this was the thing

I'd worked so hard to get into. And so I

would ask them a simple question around

like, hey, if you won the lottery, would

you still continue doing medicine? And

about half the people would say that

they would leave immediately. One guy

even said he'd leave in the middle of

the operation. Uh, and the other half of

the people would say that like, you

know, they would still do medicine, but

they would go part-time, maybe like 3

days a week. And I would ask them, okay

what's stopping you from going

part-time? And the answer was always

about money. It's like they didn't have

enough money. You know, medicine in the

UK and the NHS doesn't pay that much.

They had mortgages, etc., etc. And so

they had to work six days a week as

doctors because they didn't have enough

money to be able to cut down to three

days a week. And so pretty much from the

age of 18 after I started asking this

question and read a book called the

4-hour work week, which is really good

I realized that I wanted to set myself a

goal of about £3,000 a month in passive

income, I thought, man, if I could make

3K a month from a side hustle or

whatever, it gives me the option to go

part-time in my day job as a doctor. Um

and so that was the goal in that sense.

And the reason wasn't for the 3K a month

in particular. like I didn't really care

about the money. I cared about the

freedom that the money would provide me.

And since having this realization and

working towards it and now getting, you

know, way beyond the point where I was

now able to quit the job and kind of do

what I love, now that other

entrepreneurs and sort of people with

jobs come to me for advice, I always say

that step one is to set the goal because

the goal is the thing that sort of pulls

you towards it. As you know, the journey

of entrepreneurship is not easy. It's a

lot of sort of ups and downs along the

way, but having a clear compelling goal

to sort of pull you through that really

helps sustain the motivation and the

discipline to actually do the stuff

along the way. And for me, the thing

that I was trying to avoid was, you

know, being in my 40s working in

medicine and being miserable, which was

unfortunately what I saw of a lot of the

doctors that I met in my in my

day-to-day jobs in that way get trapped

later on selling time. Yeah. Scalable.

Exactly. And so I was like, "Okay, cool.

That's going to be my goal. My goal is

to try and, you know, I I wasn't like

trying to be a millionaire or anything.

I was just like, you know what? If I

could work three days a week, I've got

another two days to like do what I love

and I can have a healthy and balanced

life. So, okay, £3,000 a month was your

goal. I actually, but by the way, you

know, I was 15 years old. I was

homeless. So, I had to make money to

survive. I couldn't get a job. So, at

the same point, I had to make enough

money to get someone to live and have

food. So, it's quite a good motivator to

have the financial goal. But, but was

there any other element to you at that

point? Was it was it simply money or was

there was a was there a hobby? Was there

something you like doing that helps you

define how you're going to make that

money? At the time it was pretty much

just money. I was like, you know what

if I if I had to sell t-shirts to make

that 3,000, you know, I would I would

sell t-shirts. Like I didn't really care

about the specific vehicle that would

get me there. I just knew that that was

the spec that that was the clear goal.

along the way I kind of realized that um

and sort of in in my experience now like

you know how how do how do we get from

how do we get from A to B let's say

someone is at the point where they've

got a 9 toive job uh kind of don't enjoy

it that

much and the point of B usually for a

lot of people is this idea of freedom I

want to have financial freedom I want to

have time freedom and I want to have

location freedom I want to have the

freedom to do what I love to to do what

I want with the people that I want.

Normally, like the people I speak to

they're not really seeking the sort of

Dubai boy millionaire yacht lifestyle.

Normally, they're just seeking security

uh, a sense of, you know, I want the

freedom to not have to stress or worry

about the bills. So, that was kind of

what I was aiming for with this sort of

3K a month. I mean, 3K a month doesn't

get you to full financial freedom or

time freedom or location freedom, but

it's a good start and around some

somewhere between 3 and 5K depending on

circumstances, depending on currency

etc. Usually that's around the point

where in my experience you can consider

quitting the job because that then

covers a lot of people's bills.

Obviously your mileage may vary if you

live in San Francisco in massive house

and you have kids like this number might

be a bit higher but along the way

usually people realize that there's

actually two other two other goals here

and those are the other two Fs which is

fun and fulfillment. Back in the day

people used to work purely for a

paycheck. And if you'd asked you know

our granddads you know do you love your

job? They would have been like like you

know what the hell you talking about?

ask myself that question. Yeah, it's not

a thing that even crosses the mind.

Whereas nowadays, what we want from work

is not simply a paycheck. What we want

is some combination of fun, fulfillment

and freedom. This is why companies can't

fulfill this. They weren't designed to

give you this fun and fulfillment piece.

They stick a table tennis table in there

and try and make it happen, but they

weren't designed that way. Yeah. It's

rare to have fun and fulfillment in a

job. It's not impossible. And you No, I

know a lot of people that do, but it's

rare. It is rare. Yeah. And I I really

like the warning you have at the start

of your book which is that like hey look

if you're happy in your life and happy

in your job don't read this book. Yeah.

Don't get more knowledge. It might upset

you. Yeah. That kind of thing. Um so in

terms of yeah frameworks for setting

goals. It's like yes it's good to have

like a freedom number and this is where

the financial the financial goal comes

in. But increasingly I've realized that

it's also important to you know I think

of these ones as journey

goals and this one more like a

destination goal. M and that freedom is

the destination that everyone is aiming

for. But along the way, you kind of

realize that either even though freedom

is the goal, freedom is not the point.

Freedom by itself is actually not worth

anything. Just like money by itself is

completely worthless. Money and freedom

are only useful when they are being

cashed in for something else that you

care about. You could have all the money

in the world, but if you're on a desert

island with like no one to give that

money to to buy stuff, it it's

completely pointless. It's not worth the

paper it's printed on. You could have

all the freedom in the world, but unless

you have something to do with that

freedom, you're going to end up

depressed. Yeah. Because you know I had

freedom. I didn't work for two years.

It's worst time of my life. Yeah. I

literally lost I didn't know what to do

for two years. I I've I've got various

friends including you have sold

companies suddenly made tens to hundreds

of millions of dollars and boom suddenly

it's like you kind of need something to

do. So freedom and money are I think are

only useful in so far as you're cashing

them in for fun and fulfillment. Fun I

think when it comes to work or business

generally comes from work I love with

people I love. Mhm.

And fulfillment generally in my

experience comes from

growth and

contribution. And so this is sort of

getting a little bit ahead of ourselves.

Like I think most people when starting

out in the context of a day job like

when I had my goal of getting to 3K a

month, I wasn't thinking and along the

way I also want to do work I love with

people I love and I want growth and I

want contribution. I was fixated on the

goal of financial freedom which actually

is a much healthier way to do it because

all of this stuff can come over time.

Yes. Exactly. So once what I found is if

you don't have 3,000 a month, which

we're going to help people try and

figure out how to do today, if they

don't have that, they're in fight or

flight. Fight or flight is literally I

haven't got time to think about anything

but pay the bills. Yes. Exactly. And so

they don't have time to think about fun

or fulfillment or growth or contribution

because their mind literally is in fight

or flight mode. Before we move on to

choose your adventure, one thing I just

say about this, I want to know if you

think this is true. Part of this is also

getting your cost down. So goals can be

one is get the money 3,000 a month. The

other is actually get your cost down.

Yeah. Because your freedom comes from

only needing three grand a month. Yes.

Like I could live on three grand a month

now easily, but because of my my needs

what I've got used to my life uh

inflation, I couldn't live on three

grand now. So I've made that happen

myself. Yeah. So getting back down.

Yeah. 100%. Like the the lower this

freedom number is, the easier it is to

get to. It's a lot easier to get to

three grand a month than it is to get to

30 grand a month. If you have the

requirement that you get to 30 grand a

month while you have a day job, good

luck. I don't I don't know many people

who are making 30K a month in the

context of also having a day job. I know

plenty of people who are making like

somewhere between 1 and 5K a month as a

side hustle while having a day job. I I

don't know how people do part-time three

grand a month even to be honest. I I

know people are doing it but I couldn't

do it. I think you know I wouldn't I

wouldn't I need good sleep. I need a bit

of time relaxing, you know, like that.

That will take intensity. But we're

going to show people how. But I do think

people need to get their cost down

because if you get your cost down to

only two grand a month, the good news is

you can probably get there quicker and

that means you'll have freedom

ironically quicker. Yeah, exactly. Um

so yeah, don't let the things own you

and stop you having freedom, right? Next

up, choose your adventure.

Okay, now we set the goal of like we

want to get to three grand a month or

whatever the financial goal is. I have

two frameworks. Should we Yeah, [ __ ] it.

Let's Let's go into the frameworks. Um

we can bleep that word out. It's all

good.

We were having a discussion off camera

whether or not you guys want one route

or the other. So, we're going to go both

routes and try and teach you others. I'm

I'm even going to zoom a little bit

further up. So, so this is where I don't

know this is where you are right now

maybe. Um these are three streams that

all can get you to freedom. You have

firstly the career stream. You have next

the side hustle stream and you have

thirdly the entrepreneur stream. Now the

way I think of this is that when you're

choosing your adventure, you are like on

this little ship and most people are

starting off in the career stream

depending I mean um yeah um or like

you're you're at college or university

training for some some the system wants

you to do. Yeah. This is the sort of go

to university get a job. Yeah. That kind

of thing. The default career stream. Now

can you get to freedom within the

context of the default career stream?

You can but it's hard and it takes a

long time. Uh this would be well Tim

Cook's done it but in we talked about

this over there so I'm stealing your

line. Tim Cook has has this but the

reality is you don't control your

destiny. This one so this is where you

know some people might have come across

the fire movement which stands for

financial independence retire early. The

theory behind this being like let's say

you're in a career as a software

developer and you earn 400k a year.

Let's say your costs are only 50k a

year. you can now save 350K a year and

if you do that for 10 years, 12 years

you'll have 4 million in the bank with a

4% withdrawal rate. 4 million in the

bank gets you a salary of 160k that you

can take off um you know from the

market. Career Stream, of course, the

only problem with this is that 400,000

people just won't think they can get

that sort of money in a job for quite a

while. Um and yeah, the satisfaction

side of it. Yeah, I mean it could be it

could be a lot less than that. But it's

like the the thing with the career

stream is that if you want to become

financially free in the career stream

it's pretty unlikely unless you have a

massive salary, really low expenses, and

you're willing to wait like a couple of

decades to let the money compound in

like an index fund or the markets or

whatever. Having said that, for some

people, you know what? They're like, you

know what, that's totally cool. I don't

want to start a side hustle. I don't

want to be an entrepreneur. I just want

balance in my life. I don't want to have

to work extra hard, etc., etc. And for

them, the career stream is absolutely

perfect. Yeah. By, by the way, for a lot

of people misunderstand me because I I I

promote entrepreneurship. I'm not

actually promoting entrepreneurship. I'm

promoting freedom of choice. So, if you

choose to do a career, you've got all

the information of all the other things

you could be doing, but you choose this.

I'm all for it. Great. I just don't want

people to feel trapped into doing that.

Yes. Nice. Yeah. That's why I include it

in here because it is a viable path.

It's just it's, you know, it's stable

but it is slower. Mhm. And if you're in

a job that you really like and you have

the balance that you want and it's, you

know, giving you the freedom that you

want, the fun and the fulfillment that

you want, amazing. You do you don't

bother trying to trying to be an

entrepreneur unless you really feel

called to do it. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. So

side hustle, how does that work? So

then at a certain point, if I may, you

generally jump from the career stream

and you're like, ah, you know, it's not

quite all of the things that I wanted it

to be. So, you know what? Let me try and

build a side hustle. Let me try and

build some sort of side income so that I

can get to my goal of freedom faster.

Now, this is faster. Um, but it is, you

know, it's I I sort of think of it like

you're on this like river and you got

your ship, your like little career

stream, which is like nice, gentle, slow

and stable waters. Obviously, some some

careers are higher risk than others, but

in general, a career stream helps you

along the way. Then you're like, "All

right, cool. On the side, I want to

build a whole extra ship. I want to

build my boat and wade it into the into

the sort of side hustle stream." And

then if you really want to go full-time

on that, now you're like in the

entrepreneur stream where there's like

rapid rapids everywhere and you're like

having to work a lot harder because most

people think entrepreneurs work less

hard than people in a career but like

how many entrepreneurs do we know who

ended up you know you trade your 9 to5

for a 24/7 like kind of thing. So in the

entrepreneur stream which is stream

number three you're really kind of high

risk higher reward. It is much quicker

to get to freedom through a side hustle

and then even more quicker to get

through full-time entrepreneurship, but

it's like increased risk but increased

reward. And that's the thing with

entrepreneurship is that it is risky.

There is all those stats about how the

vast majority of businesses quote fail.

Um, if your goals are fairly modest

then you're also less likely to fail.

You're more likely to achieve the goals

if the goals are modest, which speaks to

your earlier point about keeping your

costs low. If your freedom number is

quote only three grand a month rather

than 30 grand a month, you are much more

likely to succeed with building some

sort of business. If you're not trying

to build a billion dollar company

you're much more likely to succeed as an

entrepreneur. I think one of the issues

with the entrepreneur thing is that in

people's minds, entrepreneurship is

like, oh my god, it's terrible. Like I

don't want to be Elon Musk. It's like

there's like a zillion stages of

entrepreneurship before you get to Elon

Musk levels or like Steve Jobs levels or

anything like that. And it's worth

appreciating that there are quite a lot

of kind of like what some people call

lifestyle businesses where you know

you're making a few hundred grand

you're able to do what you love, you've

got a few clients, you're like not

working too hard, you've got a very

small team of people that you like

hanging out with, which is the majority

of entrepreneurs by the way. That's

that's success for majority of

entrepreneurs. They they have the

freedom to work on what they want to

work on. It's I think Elon Musk because

I love I love Elon Musk but in a way

that image has ruined entrepreneurship

for a lot of people. They've

misunderstood it. Yeah. Because people

think it's like being an entrep like I

was speaking to a couple of friends as

well who are like you know they are

entrepreneurs uh they you know they've

got like their own um you know one of my

friends has like her own like operations

consulting business for businesses but

doesn't think of herself as an

entrepreneur because she thinks an

entrepreneur is someone who goes on

dragons a den to get investment or an

entrepreneur is someone who's trying to

like get us to Mars. This is I've been

I've been trying to come up with a new

word by the way for entrepreneurship to

describe like I I know someone who's an

artist and she doesn't think she's an

entrepreneur but she definitely is cuz

she sells her paintings. Yeah. So she

she does what she wants with her time

building something she believes in. She

controls her time and she sells stuff

and makes money, but she thinks she's an

artist, not an entrepreneur. So it's all

I see entrepreneurship is a business

framework around what you work on as

opposed to like it being a particular

thing like an Elon Musk or Steve Jobs

type. Yeah. Um, one one other way of

thinking about this is are you a crew on

someone else's

ship or are you

building captaining

owning your own ship? And to me, this is

entrepreneurship. So your friend who's

an artist might not consider herself an

entrepreneur, but she is captaining her

own ship. Yep. She is responsible for

this ship making money. She's

responsible for putting work out, for

working as much as she wants, all that

kind of stuff. If you are a lawyer, if

you're a doctor, if you're an

accountant, generally, unless it's your

own business, you're working as a crew

member on someone else's ship. It's

totally fine being a crew member on

someone else's ship, like we talked

about, if you enjoy it and you're, you

know, you you've got informed consent

about what the alternative path is like

but side hustle is when you're trying to

build both of these at the same time.

You're trying to maintain being a crew

member on someone else's ship to help

them get rich so that you can earn a

salary. Yeah. While trying to build your

own dream, and then at a certain point

you realize that actually the career is

maybe holding you back. Maybe you want

to go full-time on your own dream. And

now you're happening your own ship. And

so to me, this is the definition of like

a business owner or an entrepreneur.

Yeah, I I personally had that journey. I

I at 15 years old, I started a gardening

company. Uh eventually it worked and

then eventually it failed. But I made

money before it failed. Failure doesn't

mean you don't make money. So I made

money, but then it failed. And then I

actually got a job in a hotel for a

little while, right? And but in that

hotel during that time, I'd already got

the bug of entrepreneurship. So I did a

side hustle of an accommodation booking

service. So yeah, I I had my own ship

and then I got on someone else's ship

and then I built a side hustle of this

other business that then worked and I

jumped ship into my own ship. Yeah. So

kind of going back to our sort of career

side hustle. I think the the other

reason I liked growing this out is

because it's not static, you know, to

your point exactly. You know, you might

start off in a career, you might build a

side hustle, maybe, you know, you spend

some time in there, you go full-time

with it, you do it for a while. Maybe

you realize it's actually not for you

and you go back into a career, and then

but along the way, you've picked up so

many skills which actually help you in

that career. You probably get a better

job. Yeah, you probably get a better

job. And then maybe at some point

you're like, you know what, actually, I

don't want the pain of full-time

entrepreneurship, but I quite like

having my own little gardening side

hustle. While I'm in my career of

whatever, I'm also doing my my side

hustle. you know, a bunch of people who

work with me, you know, people in my

team, uh, a lot of them have started

their own businesses, realized that

actually entrepreneurship is full-time

entrepreneurship is not for them. So now

they're just doing it as a side hustle

while working for me full-time. And by

the way, again, like I I always think

the one of the holy grails for this is

own equity where you work. So you can

actually work in a job. You'll be

surprised how you could get equity.

Everyone on my team has equity in the

business. So I think that you can you

can work in a business if you you can

still therefore own a part of the ship

to follow through on the analogy. So it

might not be your ship. You might not

have even created it, but you believe in

the ship and its mission and where it's

going and you can ask for equity in it.

So, there's a mixture of this. Um, I

would say one other thing you mentioned

earlier, risk entrepreneur is risky. I

actually think there's a slight

misunderstanding about this. I don't

think entrepreneurship is as risky as

people say it is, especially if you're

an artist. So, you're doing what you

love. It doesn't feel painful. You make

money out of it. Of course, the risk is

you don't make money out of it, but

hopefully you will. If you're working

for someone else, there's a much they

could just get rid of you at any point.

People don't actually see the risk, but

you could work for 10 years at Facebook

help build that brand, and then Mark

Zuckerberg let you go and you don't own

anything. That's it. And you have to go

get another job and start earning money

somewhere else. You don't own equity in

something is the problem. That's what I

think people need to think about a

little bit more. When choosing their

adventure, I would say try to own equity

on that adventure. Yeah, I agree. Hey

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your business journey today. Just get

started. I think that leads quite well

into just get started, which I will try

to write. just

get started because a lot of this and a

lot of people that listen to our stuff

on YouTube, they they they have all this

information we've just given them. They

know their journey, they're not doing

it. Yeah. So, what what do we need to

give people to help them do it? Yeah. I

mean, I think the key thing is to

recognize

that you're never going to have all of

the information that you want. I think

one of the issues with the schooling

system is that it creates the illusion

of certainty. You know that if you do if

you get a certain mark in a certain exam

that you're going to get an A star or an

A or eight or a seven or like whatever

it's called these days. You know what

the entry requirements are to

universities. You kind of have a sense

of when you're applying to a mainstream

job. You know they they say how many

UKcast points they need or like what the

requirements are. You know that if you

work your way up the ladder there's like

oh 5 years later I'll get a promotion.

In medicine for example, you know

exactly what the path looks like. It

gives you this profound sense of

certainty and people love the certainty.

People would rather be unhappy than

uncertain. Um, unfortunately in the

world of entrepreneurship, you have to

you have to recognize that there is no

certainty. Yeah, sure there are things

that you can just stack the deck in your

favor by, you know, watching all all the

videos you've made about this. Um, but

there's no certainty. And I think people

are waiting for like, oh, once I have

that right idea, people people have this

this thing of like, you know, when the

right idea strikes me, I will just know.

I will just be so certain that I'll be

able to start my business. But like, you

know, you've started loads of businesses

over the years. How many of them have

you had like have you felt man this is

the perfect idea I have so much

certainty that it's going to work zero

really I mean no certainty but

desperation when I'm younger that's for

sure and then as you get older maybe you

know yourself so you're going to enjoy

it bit like your book talks about you

got to get that feeling of enjoying it

that's probably where I but but I

already started so I'm not this person

because I had no choice but to start but

a lot of people unfortunately they've

got choices to your point they know

certainty through a job get go to

university I'll get a job by the way

that's not certain anymore more. If you

actually look at the stats, universities

promise jobs, but they aren't getting

the jobs. There's so many people coming

out with degrees. But how do we get

people to to just start? What's what do

you think the framework is for that?

Yeah. Um I think okay, so if we say for

example the content route um actually

you know there's a thing that Alexi

talks about which is the rule of 100

which is um before you're ready just do

the thing 100 times. Yes. You know like

if you're starting a service business do

100 called reachouts. If you're creating

content, do 100 pieces of content

whatever the thing is. I think this is a

little bit like overwhelming for most

people. I call it the rule of seven.

Okay. Just do seven things. So in the

world of content, for example, six

minute apps or the fiveminute apps, this

is much better. Only seven pieces. Only

seven. Yeah. 100%. So if you're going

down the content, you know, I teach a

course, parttime YouTuber academy

people pay, back when we were running it

as a live cohort, people were paying

$2,000 to sign up to my course. And like

in the final cohort, for example, we had

we had a,000 people sign up. So, I made

a lot of money because they were paying

paying like 2,000 $2,000 to sign up. But

of those thousand, this was a this was

like a six week course. And each week we

were just 1 2 3 4. Yeah. We were just

asking we were just asking people to

submit one just create one video. It can

be as janky as you want filmed on your

phone. We gave them all the resources

and we we're going to give you feedback.

You've paid for this. You're in a

community. You've got people, you know

cheering you every step of the way.

The number of people who submitted the

homework for week one was 50%. Half of

the people who paid

$2,000 to sign up to my course

literally half of them did not even take

action on the first week. Why didn't

they do it? They've paid the money and

they've just not That by the way also

validates it's not always paying.

There's something else, isn't it?

Accountability partly or is it? What is

Why do people do it? I don't know. So I

I spent ages trying to figure this out

cuz we've been running this course for a

few years and it like it amazes me how

people will pay for the thing and then

not actually take action. Well, gym

people pay for gym memberships and don't

go. Yeah. No, exactly. And then doesn't

actually equal. So So I realized that I

I also have this like there was a friend

of mine who's super into marketing and

he he said something interesting. He

said that around 50% of people who who

buy a Pelaton bike never even take it

out of the box because when we buy

something we we generally buy to f to

fulfill some kind of emotional need.

I've bought loads of courses on music

theory, guitar, finger style picking

like you know, how to play by ear on the

piano. And I buy the course because I'm

like rahrh, motivation in the moment

thinking like, oh man, I could, you

know, that's a really cool riff that

John Mayer played. Let me just find a

course that how to play play this. And

once I've bought the thing, I have this

thing of like, ah, I've taken the first

step. I've won. And then I forget about

the thing. I even forget I even bought

access to the course because now I have

to put in the work. And so buying the

thing fulfills an emotional need. But

when you realize that it actually takes

work, half the people will immediately

drop off. By the time we get to week six

on the course, it's down to 15%. The

last time we ran this, 15% of people

actually completed the thing. That's

actually That's a high number. It's a

high number. Normally for courses, it's

like 2%. And so we we work really

freaking hard. We reach out to people

we like hop on phone calls with them, we

message them, we email them, and we get

this number from 2 to 15%. But what it

goes to show is that I think it's kind

of reassuring if someone is at this

point in the video, you know, most

people would have dropped off this video

looking at our retention curves in the

first 30 seconds. By the time we've got

to this part in the video, the majority

of people will no longer be watching.

So, if someone is still here at this

point in the video, chances are they

have more of an ability to actually

follow through and take action on. So

telling them just getting started, you

are starting. They're actually doing it.

Because I I say that in I I didn't say

at the intro of this, but I normally say

if you can't sit and watch this video

you're probably not going to make it.

Yeah, cuz here is free knowledge from

people that have done it are going to

help you if you can't even listen to

this

like but but I wonder though. Okay

so is there a framework we can give

people assuming that people got this far

in the video that helps them keep going?

Is there something that you've noticed

about this 15% that keeps them going? I

I want to guess and say uh some sort of

commitment or uh accountability, but

yeah.

Um, okay. So, I spent ages trying to

think figure this out like of the people

that stay consistent with something, you

know? So, first, so, so firstly, there's

just getting started, just doing the

thing seven times, just making your

first seven videos, putting doing your

first colab. Yeah. I think you're trying

to build habit here, weren't you?

Exactly. And then sort of the next thing

is how do you stay consistent? And the

reason we had that as step four is cuz

step four is master your time.

Uh, this is something I liked in your

book. You had like the step ladder of

excuses. And the thing right at the

bottom is classic excuse. I don't have

time. That is always the first excuse.

The the reason this is a very penicious

and like evil thing is because it is

true. None of us has time. You don't

have time to fly to Hong Kong and like

do this podcast. You've got a zillion

things on your plate. I did not have

time when I was working as a doctor and

even now to make YouTube videos because

there's always better things I could be

doing. You know, I wish I were more

consistent at the gym. I could tell back

in the day I used to tell myself I don't

have time. I've realized over time that

you know I'm not allowed to say that

phrase anymore. Anytime I say to myself

I don't have time I reframe it as I am

actively choosing not to make the time

because we all have time. No one is

being held at gunpoint and being forced

to do things. Yes, I get it. You know in

a world like I don't have kids yet. I've

got a kid on the way. I've heard that

when you have kids suddenly you realize

how much time you squandered when you

don't have kids and you're like holy. I

feel that. Yeah. I had so much spare

time I didn't realize it. You don't

realize it you don't have kids. You have

you have time more time than you ever

imagined. I I find myself saying this

you know, when when I started actually

working a job, you realize how much time

you had at university. Holy freak. And

like at school, I'm like, bloody hell. I

thought med school was busy, but going

into the hospital was optional. Now

what? You know, I'm working full-time.

It's it's not optional anymore. I have

to work 60 hours a week, otherwise I'm

going to get fired and I'm going to lose

my license. And like what? I had so much

I so much time I was just squandering

it. So now any kind of I don't have time

I reframe as I'm actively choosing not

to make the time. This is usually the

thing that holds people back at least on

the surface. People will say, "Oh, the

reason I'm not consistent on YouTube is

because I just don't have the time or

life got in the way." But the thing is

life will always get in the way and but

but the reason I said I I said this as

number four, master your time rather

than be consistent. Everyone knows they

should be consistent is that actually

time management is a skill and time

management is a skill that can be

learned and that is I I've got hundreds

of videos about this over the years. um

someone who's looking at my channel and

see like there are a small number of

very tangible things someone can do to

actually make the most out of their time

because if you take two different

people, they're both trying to start a

business. This is person one, person

number two. Person number one is good at

time management. Person number two is

bad at time management. They've never

read a book about it, never implemented

any of the strategies, never watched a

video about it, or they've watched the

content, but then then they're not

actually taking action. We all have

fundamentally the same 168 hours in the

week, the same 24 hours in the day.

Obviously, there are some people whose

time is being used up by taking care of

kids or by cooking or by cleaning or

whatever, you know, taking care of a

loved one or health issues. All all of

that stuff aside, all else being equal

someone who's better at managing their

time will squeeze way more value and

output out of it than someone who's not.

And I think people in general, what I

find is that the people who are more

likely to stay consistent generally it

comes down to two things. Number one is

that they know how to manage their time

and number two, they have found a way to

enjoy the process. And so the time

management stuff is the stuff I've been

talking about on YouTube for ages. The

enjoying the process stuff, if my if I

may plug my book temporarily, is like

you know, it's called feel good

productivity. It's about how to do more

of what matters to you. And basically

the thesis is that if we look at the

science around this, if you can find a

way to enjoy the process of doing

something rather than simply being

fixated on the outcome, you're way more

likely to stay motivated, consistent.

It's so true. And and I I think your

book describes this process so so well.

People won't even notice the time if

they're enjoying it. Yeah, it's kind of

like time becomes an insignificant thing

like I want to do this podcast. I want

to be here. I want to get this knowledge

from you to give to people for free. I I

I will find the time because you found

the time. I find the time and I think

that Yeah. How but when people are

listening to this, what how do you know

if you're managing your time well or

not? Yeah. So my barometer for this is

it's basically to So okay, so to me good

time management is simply doing what you

intended to do. That's all there is. And

so that has two bits. Number one is

intention and number two is

action. So right now we have blocked in

our calendar that we're doing this

podcast together. We have created the

intention by literally just sticking in

the calendar and we're taking action.

We're here doing this podcast, right? So

this is good time management. Like we

have mastered our time here cuz we're

acting in line with our intention. I

think the first step is the really easy

one which most people don't do which is

just set the intention in the first

place. I've lost count of the number of

people I have in my course who ask me a

question like, "Oh, you know, I'm really

struggling to be consistent on YouTube."

And I'm like "Okay, show me your

calendar. Where is the time blocked in

your calendar to be consistent to to

work on your YouTube channel?" And

they're like "Oh, well, I don't really

use my calendar." I'm like, "Wait, but

you know, you've got a job. Like, surely

you use a calendar for meetings."

They're like "Oh, yeah. I use my

calendar for work, but I don't use my

calendar for my side hustle." I'm like

"Broo, there's a reason every single

professional uses a calendar for their

work because it's a way to manage your

time, a way to at least set the

intentions of what you intend to do with

your time." I think if we approach the

time outside of the 9 to5 with more

intention just like we approach the 9

to5 you know building a business is not

something that happens easily it's not

something that happens on its own you

have to make the intention by putting

the blocks in your calendar and then the

next question becomes okay once I've put

the block on the calendar am I actually

doing the thing so for example one of my

one of my team members 1010en he has a

side hustle he's got a YouTube channel

but every Monday and every Tuesday

evening from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. he's

just blocked it out. That's the time

where he works on his YouTube channel.

So, every single week he guarantees that

he's at least got 8 hours cordoned off.

Sometimes stuff comes up. Sometimes a

friend will say, "Hey, do you want to

hang out?" And what's he going to say?

He's going to say, "Nope, I'm sorry. I

can't do Mondays and Tuesdays." He

probably won't tell them cuz that's what

I'm growing my YouTube channel. But like

he knows that that, you know, obviously

family if a family emergency comes up

that is something different. But I'm

amazed as to like 95% of people who ask

me about time management or they're

struggling with consistency with

whatever the thing is, they just don't

have it blocked in their calendar. And

I'm like, bro, that's such an easy first

step. You know, by the way, I I think

this might sound a bit elitist. I don't

mean it to sound, but one of the best

things I've ever did in the past was I

hired a PA. And I didn't want PA. And I

recently hired a PA. Again, I didn't

want a PA, but I I because I have to

show them exactly what I'm doing when

I'm doing it. And the interesting thing

is I've just got a new PA. I have to

block out when I'm going to the gym

block out when I'm having time with my

family. Like, am I doing Sunday? Am I

doing Saturday? Am I when am I available

to do the work that she's planning for

me? So, it really helps you if you use

your diary properly to literally use it

for your life, not for work. Forget

forget about work. Put what you're going

to do in the diary and then set the

alarms on your phone so that you

basically know this is the time you're

letting yourself down if you don't do

the action. Yeah. Take consistent

action. So, so for me, I defined

consistency on YouTube as being one

video a week. To this day, I think I

still think it works. Long form shorts

you you need to post pretty much daily

but for long form videos, like landscape

videos, uh, one a week is a pretty good

cadence. I realized that actually making

one video a week is really hard. But if

I happen to be on night shifts at work

and then I would have two days off, in

those two days I could film five

different videos and then I can just

spend the evenings editing them. And so

that helped me be consistent.

The thing with consistency as well is

that I think there's a couple of other

things that really help. The first one

is accountability.

The reason why most people don't

struggle with consistency in their job

is because they have accountability.

They have someone they have a manager

who is looking out for them and looking

to make sure they're doing the thing.

Like you wouldn't dream of not showing

up to work because you know there are

consequences. But just I've just done

this. A colleague of mine said to me the

other day, I want to be more famous on

LinkedIn. I want people to know who I

am. I'm like, "Okay, you post every day

on LinkedIn. Every day you don't post

you have to give me £100." They haven't

stopped there. Post every single day

since Adam Smith every single day since

that moment. It's not really the money.

It's also the pride, right? It's also

like an end of like, yeah, this is so

powerful. Yeah. And I think putting

money on the line is a a super easy hack

for this. There's so many people I know

who have stayed accountable for doing

something by literally just putting

money on the line in your case. Um, I

think another thing is community, which

sort of relates to to accountability.

Yeah. Um, if you have people around you

who are also taking consistent action

you're just more likely to do the thing.

I would be way in way better shape if I

had people around me who were in good

shape because they they'd be going to

the gym. If you can find a way to build

a community around you, either in real

life or even online

um, a community of people doing the

thing, it makes it a lot easier to stay

consistent with the thing. Um I think

for example a key one for this is like

um podcasts podcasts um videos

etc. You know there's that whole thing

of like you are the average of the five

people you spend the most time with. I

think it's sort of it it's it is also

true that you kind of become the average

of the five voices you hear most often.

So if someone for example has been

watching all of your stuff and listening

to all of your YouTube videos that you

you've ever put out and they buy your

book or listen to your audio book or

whatever the thing might be, you are

going to be one of the key voices in

their life and therefore the thought of

starting that business or staying

consistent with it. Now all of a sudden

it's like it's not that it's not that

hard because like they've seen that

other people are doing it. In my days of

trying to stay consistent on YouTube

every single day while driving to work

and back, I was listening to podcasts

from other YouTubers talking. Um, there

was the video creators podcast, I think

media podcast, later Colin and Samir

started doing interviews and then John

started doing interviews and I was just

absorbing every piece of advice I could

possibly around other people doing

YouTube and they were all talking about

how consistency was really difficult for

them and how and how they managed to

make it work. And so all of those things

were I felt like I had this online

community of people. They had no idea

who I was cuz I was nobody at the time.

Um, they had no idea who I was, but I

got so much inspiration and motivation

out of hearing their voices in my

headphones and in my car while driving

to work and back of like it's so much

easier to take action when you have

voices around you. Obviously, real life

is great, but like online. This is how

you can hack mentorship. By the way, you

just pick who you want your mentors to

be and consume their content. You don't

need them to sit with you necessarily.

You just absorb their energy. Yeah. No

absolutely. But how did you have any

accountability? Like if you didn't

upload, you wouldn't make money, right?

So, the freedom was also not going to

happen. That's part of Yeah. So for me

I found that like just committing myself

to one video a week and just sort of

essentially making it as a rule for

myself or like, okay, I have to upload a

video every single week. There were some

weeks when I was in the middle of like

my finals for medical school where I was

like, am I really going to upload a

video this week? My mom saw me filming a

video cuz I went home for the weekend

just, you know, as a break before finals

and she was like, "What the hell are you

doing? Like you're filming a video when

you've got your final medical school

exams like on the Monday? What the hell

is wrong with you?" And I couldn't

really explain. I was I was like "No

she knows now." Yeah, she knows now.

Yeah, it it worked out. But not breaking

the chain no matter what. I I found that

actually the a thing that really helps

with consistency is lower the bar

right? So that's one a week. That's all.

Don't break that. Yeah. One a week also

but also it doesn't have to be good. It

just has to it just has to exist, right?

So there were a few videos that I posted

in that time that were really crap. For

example, going to the gym. Some, you

know, people who are more consistent

with with with the gym say that if you

don't feel like it, you just go, you do

a jumping jack or like one stretch or

you just look at yourself in the mirror

and you walk back out again. The point

is, you haven't broken the streak.

You've just lowered the bar of what

counts as a win. Oh my god, I've got

some great news, guys. Thanks to you and

your support of this channel and what we

do. This book just became the number one

book on the Sunday Times bestseller

list. Number one, because you bought it

and you supported our mission to fund

people's dreams and help people do what

they love. You can now go review it on

Amazon. If you enjoyed the book, go

review it. The link's down below. It

will make a hell of a difference. Thank

you so much for supporting what we're

doing. Let's get back to the video. Next

one is get clarity on who you serve.

Like this one. This subject I've always

found interesting on YouTube as well

trying to figure out who's actually

watching your content and so on. But

yeah, when you're, you know, big like

you, then it's like really hard to

figure out. Yeah. Like me. Thank you.

You're bigger than me. In the in the

early days of my channel when I had like

63 subscribers, it was very it was

fairly easy to figure out who who I

served in that I was serving other

people trying to get into med school

right? Did you know that those 63

subscribers could just be, you know, 63

people in in India that accidentally got

the video, you know, or slept overnight

and video kept playing. I mean, yeah, it

could be, but like it was a video about

how to get into med school. It's like

it's unlikely that someone who's not in

that audience. But did you label it out

that way? Did you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I

mean, I wasn't trying to title it like

this video will change your life or

anything cuz trying to title things like

that makes gets it very broad and you

don't quite know. I was just like super

focused on like, okay, what's the point

of me making YouTube videos? Well, the

point is to get people to buy my course.

So, the thumbnail said how to get into

medical school. The title said how to

get to med school, right? And the

thumbnail said BMAT section one or

whatever the thing like it was. I was

just like super super targeting on

YouTube for that person who would need

that to watch that. That feels quite

hard to make sure that person you put it

in the group. You posted a video in the

group. No, I don't even like but the the

YouTube algorithm that's the whole point

of the YouTube algorithm. It serves the

right video to the right person at the

right time. So, there's some interesting

insight. It's niche, but like you know

someone's trying to get into an MBA

program, they are guaranteed they're

going to be searching on YouTube for a

GMAT exam, right? Leverage search. Yeah.

Leverage search search right at the

start. These days now it's more like

you know, we try and go broad, try and

get on the homepage, right? But getting

on the homepage versus search is like

two very different strategies for

YouTube. But the reason I mentioned

because, you know, coming back to our

whole thing, it's like the goal is to is

to understand the whole 3K a month

thing. Generally, my model for this

which I I now teach to my students in

YouTuber Academy, in the content stream

you want to try and sell something for

$300 and sell 10 of those a month and

now you're making 3K a month. That works

in the service space too because you can

get if you're a social media manager for

helping someone post up social media and

you say, I manage your posts for you

300, £300 a month, 10 people, that's it.

Same exactly same. I mean, to be honest

like so I I had a good I had a good chat

with a mutual friend Dan Priestley about

this and he was saying for services he

doesn't go any less than 2,000. He tries

to get I don't know 1.5 a month. Like if

you can get three clients every two

months paying you two grand then you're

making you're making he's more famous

than a lot of our listeners mind you.

But yeah I think I think he is he is but

like you can the thing with two grand is

that two grand is not very much for a

business. It's a lot for an individual.

So to I you know doing B2B services um

yeah two two grand is generally much

more affordable whereas for a normal

person a consumer $300 is more

affordable in terms of like buying a

course or whatever the thing is.

Absolutely true. I I actually sold to

CNN a million pound service and and and

originally I priced it at £450,000 and

they said it was too cheap. In fact they

were worried I couldn't do the work. Oh

wow. So so it's it's absolutely true.

Sometimes it is. We I I'm actually going

to retract what I just said there. I

think people should think bigger than

they think they think should. Yeah. And

I think the reason people don't is

because everyone watching this is that

you are a consumer, right? Like I'm a

consumer. Like we buy stuff. Yeah. So

that's expensive as a consumer. Yeah.

Exactly. Businesses is a tax write off.

Yeah. Exactly. When you start thinking

like a business, it's like one of my

team members realized this the the other

day. Um, I I hired a graphic designer to

do a rebrand of our stuff. And I thought

I was going to pay him £500 quid. And a

few months later, like 2 months later

he sends the invoice. And turns out, you

know, he he was charging like5 £5,000

instead of £500. And I looked at the

invoice. I was like, and I looked at the

original message and I realized I'd

misread what he said. And so Tinton, one

of my team members, was in the room and

I was like, "No, 5 grand, whatever."

Right. And Tinten said his mind was

blown in that moment because he realized

that to me as a business owner, there is

no difference between £500 and £5,000.

Especially if the service is good. Yeah

exactly. The service was good. For

Tinten, £500 is £5,000 is like an entire

2 years worth of savings. That's how

much different it is between £55 grand

for a consumer, but it's like a

meaningless tax write off for a

business. That's so true. And when

people realize this, you realize, holy

[ __ ] if I sell if I'm trying to sell

gardening services to a homeowner, I

probably can't sell sell sell that for

two grand unless it's sort of like in

Hamstead. Even then, probably not. If

I'm trying to sell tutoring for kids

trying to get into med school, that's

price anchored because they're

consumers. But if I'm trying to sell

social media content marketing services

to a private practice sort of doctor

surgery that I know is doing millions in

revenue, two grand is absolutely

nothing. Totally. You know, if I'm

trying to sell content creation as a

service to a startup where I can look up

their records and I can see that they've

raised 50 million in funding, two grand

is an absolute drop in the ocean. It's

almost too cheap. And so shifting from

thinking in terms of selling to

consumers to selling to businesses, that

seems to be the hack for most people I

know who do service based businesses. My

favorite story is the lady that designed

the night logo, right? She charged $300

to charge the night logo really. And

then later, I might have got the number

wrong. It might be but around a very

small amount of money and then of course

Knight blew up and it did really well

and the Knight founders went back and

gave her shares stock in the company

worth millions. Yeah. So it's it's kind

of interesting because as a company as a

startup company actually this was their

budget but because the company became so

valuable they feel like that they

undercharged. She'd been underpaid and

they went back and compensated her

properly even though they didn't have

to. So that £5,000 example also there's

an element of like well if he delivered

it doesn't matter even if it was

personal if they actually delivered what

you needed and it created the value of

£5,000 then it doesn't matter anymore.

So next is monetize. But the thing the

thing with monetization is that the

mistake people make is that they they

think it's like okay build the product

or whatever the thing is and then step

number two sell the product. Uh this is

actually the wrong order to do it in.

You want to first sell the product and

then build it. So um the easy thing here

is a weight list. This is what our

friend Dan Priestley also talks about

before building anything. You know, you

want to validate that the demand for the

thing actually exists. So you get people

to sign up for a wait list. Let's say I

was writing a new book and I was like

I'm not really sure. I I don't want to

spend all the time writing a book

because it takes ages before knowing

that people actually want this or

building a new course or a new piece of

software. By the way, so why have you

not done this? Um I have enough con I

have a large enough audience and put a

link down below. Why don't we do it the

link a link wait list for your book too

down below. Let's do it. I am okay the

the the more pertinent is that I am

building software and for for software I

have a lot less conviction because I'm

kind of new to the software thing. Okay.

So step one is to build software by the

way just to to share with um we are

building a product called life compass

which is going to help you figure out

what to do with your life and take

consistent action towards your dreams.

for for that, Izzy, my wife, is in the

process of creating a sales page, which

is going to have some text on it, and

it's going to have an email sign up

which is like, "Hey, if you're

interested, join the wait list." Mhm.

Now, this costs us basically nothing to

put together. It is just one page that

says, "Okay, we're building this app

that will do X, Y, and Z. If that sounds

interesting, join the wait list." And

then we're going to mention this to our

audience in my newsletter and Instagram

Izzy's Instagram, whatever the thing is.

And we'll see, we'll be able to measure

how many people actually clicked clicked

on this. And then how many people signed

up? So this would be like the conversion

rate. And based on this, we can get a

sense of okay, did three people sign up?

Did like 100 people hit the weight list

page, but three of them signed up?

That's a terrible conversion rate for a

free free weight list. If 100 people hit

the weight list page and like 90 of them

signed up, we're like, damn, okay

there's something here. If we email it

out to our audience and 10,000 people

join the weight list, that's a very

different result than if three people

join the weight list. And it's super

easy to create a weight list. So you so

you create the weight list first. It's

also, by the way, if you wanted to raise

money for your business and you can go

we did this with Helbank, by the way. We

put a weight list up and 11,500 people

signed up wanting the product. Nice. So

that's how you find out. You can go to

investors and say, "We know people want

this product. Look, these people have

said they want it." Exactly. Um, step

number two from the wait list is the

pre-sale. So, I'm going to use the

example of my wife Izzy was going to

create a course on how to learn Mandarin

because people kept asking her for about

it, asking her about it. She built a

wait list by saying, "Hey, I'm working

on some resources for learning Mandarin

you know, enter email to sign up." She

got about 5,000 people to sign up. Then

what she did was that she, you know

after after a while, after lots of sort

of being talked into it and, you know

struggling to kind of get over the fear

of selling. Uh, eventually she created a

page which was a checkout page that was

like saying, "Hey, look, this is going

to be 50% off. Um, and it's only going

to be for the f I think for the first uh

like 30 people or something like that.

And there was a buy button and she

emailed the weight list saying, "Hey

would you like to be a beta tester for

the course? I'm going to give it to you

for 50% off." And, you know, along the

way, I just love your feedback. And she

got about $10,000 worth of sales from

purely the pre-sale. She had not

actually made the course at that point

but the pre-sale was enough to validate

that, hey, $10,000 worth of people. So

like, what was that? or whatever that

is. She was selling for $300, whatever.

$10,000 worth of people are willing to

actually put money on the line. Cuz if

you go and ask people, hey, would you be

interested in this product? People might

say yes. But if you ask them to get out

the credit card and pay for it, all of a

sudden you're getting a sense of what's

what's the real demand on this thing. So

$10,000 was enough to validate the idea.

And then she spent like 6 months

actually making the course build and now

she and now it's on sale for her

audience. Um, but if she hadn't done

these first two

steps, you know, this is the mistake so

many people make. It's like they spend

months and months and months building

the product and then realize that

actually there's no demand for it.

Whereas you can make a wait list in like

half an hour. You can build a checkout

page in like a day and now you've saved

months and months and months of effort

just to validate the idea in the first

place. Scale. A lot of people are scared

to

scale. My experience has been a bigger

business is easier to manage than a

small business. Oh, really? Yeah. A lot

easier. 15 people. Well, no. There's a

gray area, isn't there? We both We're

talking about this off camera for you

guys to know. But I think there is a

gray area which is like small companies

really lifestyle fun. Of course there

are businesses anomalies like Telegram

that will have maybe 20 people and

somehow they're a billion dollar company

but most companies not going to be

massive revenue. The small team but you

can have a good life. Middle ground.

Small team gets a bit bigger. 15 20 30

people. Wow that's a lot of work to

manage that team. You can't afford

middle management and you're having to

be there to make it work and it gets

quite scary. But I got to 60 70 people

full-time. It was actually quite good. I

could afford middle management.

Eventually, I brought someone else in to

run the company. Yeah. And that that for

me was like, wow, I should have scaled

it earlier. It took me about 10 years to

realize that. Oh, nice. Yeah. I'm on

about 20 people at the moment and I'm

and I'm like in the process of sort of

scaling back a little bit because we've

got a few team members who are leaving

and we probably won't replace them cuz

I'm feeling the pain of like around the

15 to 20 people thing where we do have

middle management, but fundamentally I'm

still like the I guess running business

which is like there's a listen in there.

I think it's also you've done what you

like and you've brought a lot of value

but you're the face of the company

which is when people are listening. I

think personal brand is has its

downside. It's it's not really easy to

flip it into letting someone else do the

content, for example. Right. So, it's

you carrying potentially that as the

face of the company, all the content.

Yeah. In many ways, like I often think

like I don't really have a business. I I

just have a a very high paying job

because if I stop doing stuff, the

business doesn't grow. M and then if you

know if I suddenly stopped making

YouTube videos you know it would last

for a little bit with the revenue from

the old back catalog and like core sales

trickling in but it would fall off a

cliff pretty quickly. I think I think

people should actually understand this

concept of running a bigger business is

easier than running a small business. So

when they go into the business they

should actually have a framework. Do

they want to have pain for a few years

to grow a business big so they can have

time off or do they want a lifestyle

business? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm very

keen on the lifestyle business approach

where, you know, keeping it smallish

keeping it very profitable, um, and

focusing on the business serving me

rather than me serving the business. And

I know that, you know, I I I I've heard

a lot of other entrepreneur friends kind

of say this that like at a certain like

beyond about 40 people, 50 people, when

you've got the proper professional

structures in place, it becomes super

chill and you can just be an owner

rather than the operator. Personally

for me, at this stage in life, I don't

think I want to go through that pain. Um

cuz the end destination of also like the

business is bu built around my personal

brand. can't imagine a unless I try to

go down the Tony Robbins route which

seems seems like a lot of work to me the

reason I started this was to buy my

freedom and now I have the freedom and

it's like one thing I've been thinking

about a lot is that at the start of the

journey freedom comes from making money

because you make enough money to buy an

appropriate you know a sufficient amount

of freedom quit the job quit the job for

for example but beyond a certain point

freedom actually comes

from leaving money on the table

right now. You know, we'll do a couple

million in profit USD this year

probably like 1.8, 1.9, something like 2

million. Who knows? Depending on how the

last couple of months go. Um, if I if

I'd made twice as many videos and done

twice as many sponsorships, I could have

made an extra million

quid. But do I want to be tied into that

lifestyle? Not really. I'm happy to

leave that million quid on the table for

the sake of my freedom. M I could always

launch new products and new courses

every month and all this kind of stuff

but the price of freedom at a certain

point is leaving money on the table. And

so I think this is the thing with

lifestyle businesses is that lifestyle

businesses give you freedom where you

have a small team and you're very

profitable. In your case, having a team

of 60 and hiring someone to run the

business also gives you freedom. But on

the other side, I don't want that again.

By the way, there's a lot of pain that

you're going through. I now have a team

of 18, but they're all owners or in

control of the business themselves. So

but yeah, I don't have pain at 18, which

is I've just realized that I I have a

team of 18, but I don't have that much

pain. But the freedom point interesting

though because in a way using you as a

case study like you are still you're not

as free as you could be. Yeah. Right.

So, you kind of it's both you have to

accept the lack of freedom in some

respects making $2 million a year

profit. You're the head of it. Yeah.

That that's not total freedom. It's not

total freedom, but it's freedom you've

accepted as balance. Yeah. If I was

content to make 200 grand, I would be a

lot more free. But I don't want to drop

from 2 million to 200 grand. And so I'm

willing to pay the price of pay the

price of doing a certain number of

videos every month and like showing up

for my courses and communities and like

doing doing the stuff. Conveniently, I

also happen to mostly enjoy the process.

There are times where I don't where I'm

like it's kind of annoying. But I think

every job has bits of it that are kind

of annoying and you just sort of I I I

sometimes think would I choose to go

back to medicine? Absolutely not. Would

I choose to go work for someone else?

Absolutely not. So I broadly I love what

I'm doing, but there are days where I'm

like, do I really feel like filming this

video? Not really. But we got to do it

anyway. But it kind of goes back to the

point you were uh mentioning earlier

you know, are you learning? Are you

growing? I that I think this is why

purpose is so important because if like

I I don't need to work. I I had total

freedom and it made me miserable. But

now I'm building something and I do want

to build a big big company that helps a

lot of people. But my freedom is

definitely getting taken away from me.

But what I'm doing is I'm giving up

equity. I'm giving I'm leaving money on

the table. You could argue it's another

form of leaving money on the table. I'm

giving up equity, however, to empower

other people for them to do it, not just

me. Nice. Yeah. And and I think that

that that putting money on the table.

There's different forms of it, but in a

way you're you're saying I'm willing to

do less content and have a better life

still making profit. That's fine. The

way I'm doing it is I'm giving up the

profit that we are making because we're

doing more to other people to do the

work. Yes. Exactly. And like an

accountant might say to you, Simon, what

are you doing? You've got a big

audience. You you don't need to

incentivize these people with equity.

Why would you bother? And you're like

well, I'm leaving the money on the table

because I want more freedom, cuz I want

them to feel more empowered to feel

ownership. They're going to do a better

job. They're going to take more

responsibility on. They're going to land

Richard Branson of the guns or whatever.

totally without me having to be the one

driving the whole thing and you're

making that decision. This is also a

moral code thing for me at this stage is

like I want to make everybody rich. Not

not I I I made myself rich. How you

actually make people rich. How you make

yourself rich is you figure out a way of

how to make everybody else rich. That's

it. So if I can make my whole team rich

well that's more people helping more

people with their dreams, isn't it? Cuz

they can afford to do that. If I can

give everyone financial freedom, then

they're free to go and help people for

free, right? But I I think it's really

hard. Like I know a lot of entrepreneurs

that won't give up equity and they want

scale and they give up a lot of freedom

for it and and they don't understand

this concept that leaving money on the

table isn't just the amount of money you

could make. It's also ownership in the

business. Yes. Yeah. I think another

thing interesting thing about leaving

money on the table is like let's say I

was still working in medicine 5 days a

week. These days you can actually go

down to 4 days a week or three days a

week. You just make less money, right?

And so if you're comfortable leaving

that money on the table or you're

physically able to leave that money on

the table, you've actually just bought

your freedom without having to start a

side hustle by just being comfortable

with less. And so like yeah, at a

certain point the cost of freedom is the

money you leave on the table. I think

there's also stages in life like I think

to our young audience when I was

younger, I didn't mind not having

freedom. I wanted financial security.

Yeah. So I will sacrifice freedom to get

to that £3,000 a month. But once I got

to the £3,000 a month, the hardest thing

is actually being happy with that. back

to keeping your cost down. I don't need

to own a boat. I've got a friend who

owns a boat. So, but would I like to own

a boat and you know, show off my boat?

There's something about me would, but

I'm not willing to give up my freedom

for that possession. So, I think a lot

of people, it's very discipline at this

stage is quite important for people

right? Yeah, I think so. I think also

for young people, like when I was young

I was willing to trade off a lot of

freedom. knowing that I could buy

freedom later, knowing that like at this

season of life, when when when I'm in my

20s and, you know, it's co and I have

nothing to do, I may as well just grind

super hard on the business to try and

get that to, you know, a few million in

revenue, a few million in profit

whatever the thing is. Knowing that once

CO lifts, once I get, you know

hopefully end up in a relationship, get

married, have a kid. At that point, I

will value the freedom, the time freedom

much more than the freedom to play more

video games when I was in my 20s. And so

I sort of predicted that which is why I

was willing to sort of have a more of a

season of grind when I was in my 20s.

Whereas now that I'm 30 and I've got a

kid on the way, I'm like I still I like

the kid hasn't popped out yet. So I'm

still like all right. But you're

enjoying the process of being pregnant

and you're enjoying you know being

pregnant but we are being pregnant.

Sure. My wife my wife and I still always

say that we we are pregnant as I'm

clearly not pregnant. Um look this

knowledge is so valuable. Thanks for

sharing it. I hope you guys got a lot of

value for it. We're off to have some

chicken now. See you later. Bye. I keep

meeting people who feel stuck. They're

tired, not because they're lazy, but

because nothing feels meaningful. They

overthink everything and still don't

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one will finally feel right. And deep

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