I'm currently out here in Miami I'm waiting for Patrick to swing by, but before we get into that, I've got something really exciting to share with you guys as a celebration for reaching 2 million subscribers. I'm launching the 2K Challenge I'm going to be mentoring you completely free of charge for 2 weeks to help you add an extra 2K to your income. There's also loads of great prizes up for grabs, including oneon-one mentoring calls with myself, dinner with me and my team, and two tickets to Dubai. So if you want to get involved, go to 2K Challenge.com or click the link in the description.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you in there I think Patrick's arrived. so let's get on with the video. So one of the most common comments I get from my audience is people wanting to start up a business with little to no money. What would you do to be able to accomplish this In the modern era? My step number one is always.

Instead of starting a business immediately, go find somebody to shadow in that industry that is a killer and work for them for 18 to 36 months. And then you'll see how how they negotiate, how they are behind closed doors, how they lose their cool, how they handle conflicts, how they get into, you know, the arguments, the negotiation, all of this stuff you and then you'll say I want to go do XYZ Within this industry, there's too many people that just want to go out there and start a business for me. Like if I want to learn how to you know, get a podcast going I would be better off working for you for six months and seeing what all the whole crew here is setting up. And it's not all about seeing what we do right either, Is it? It's all about seeing what we do wrong and taking note of that because obviously that's where an advant can come in business.

Yeah, there's no question about it, it almost everybody. I know that one at the highest level, they'll typically go to somebody. They were able to Shadow and see what that person did and that'll give you I Think an edge over everybody else. That kind of will go out there in.

you know, three years, four years, five years, they'll fail. They'll lose their money and then they'll come back. have to get a job and then they'll do it again Instead, go find a killer, work with them. you know, two to three years and then decide decide what you want to do.

Now step two is, if you've increased your value so much with the individual, go ask for equity and ask how you can get peace of the company. That person may say no, Yes, maybe so no great. Then go somewhere else. Yes great.

You got your shares. Maybe what are the parameters? I'm willing to give it to you if you do. XYZ over the next 18 to 36 months, get that written down then and you get that written down and then go execute and say here's what I did you? You told me this and I'm emailing you this. Our conversation was this: Da: Do you confirm Yes, Let me get to work.

You get to work And then you get to ask. Capitalism. You know we just had a conversation right now with somebody. We're negotiating a deal to bring them into our podcast studio And capitalism is all about you having leverage in negotiation and your argument based on the results that you get.

Because that makes it a very easy negotiation. Negotiation is hard when you don't have the moral authority to ask. But if you got the moral Authority Ask The other person doesn't want to lose you. The other person needs you.

The other person sees what kind of work you've done for them. They're like, no, we got to figure out way to keep this person. So and they're always billing your time for a lot more than they're paying you. So you you know you're worth more.

That's right, That's right. So bring the value, then make the ask. Then if they push back, deliver on what they're doing. Step three is how big you think think at this point.

Step three for me is you know at what skill do you want to go? Are you going because you see yourself as a right-hand guy? Are you a person that says support because in in every Endeavor you have the support side, you have the lead side. Okay, so the support side. You know you're the COO uh the CEO You're the chief sales officer of the CEO founder. you're the CF You're the director of marketing.

You're the CMO whatever role that is or you're their top salesperson. you're doing BISD And then that's the role that you're playing. If your Ambitions are I don't ever want to be a CEO I don't want to be a Founder I don't want the responsibilities of that. No problem, you found your home.

You know what your position is and play there to to the best of your abilities. And there's a lot of money to be made if you're looking at a company. Now the problem. The challenge with this is the following At a guy that's working for this law firm and he's a killer I Love this guy.

his name is Bobby from Lendel. he's working for this killer and the challenge with the guy he's working for is every year that guy would take cash off the table as the law firm would make money. say he made 7 million, takes 7 million, puts it in his pocket, pays the taxes done deal I asked him at Flemings at a restaurant in in California I said so what's the vision of the CEO of this Law Firm what do you mean I said what is the vision of the CEO of the law firm? There is no vision, he just wants to pocket The Profit He just wants to take the prophit I said ' then why are you there? What are you doing You're wasting your time. Do you have a vision I Do have a vision.

You can't have your vision become a reality working for somebody that doesn't have a vision. Yeah, you have to decide how big you want to go is the place you're at, allowing allowing you to go to as big as you want to go. if not, you have to reposition. So either go be the alpha or recruit a business partner to go start a business together with them.

You know, but you have a decision to be making there and it's quite hard, isn't it? Cuz it's a really hard decision to leave somewhere that's comfortable. But um, it's very rare that you hear of someone actually downgrading. When they move, they're generally going for a better wage, a better position. Very rare that it's the other way, right? Should aspar in entrepreneurs follow their passion or follow the money I think again, it's sequencing and here's what I mean by it.

For example. for me: Passion: I Love baseball cards. Love baseball cards. You've done quite well on a hockey card I Believe in your past Yes I Love baseball cards I bought a wing Gretzky card for 540 two cards and I sold it at 18 months L for 2.2 million and I probably own I own millions of dollars of cards today and I'm just I'm in love with it and I love movies I'm today I'm talking to Robert dowy Jr he facetimes me in the middle of the podcast weird Guy to FaceTime you in the middle of the podcast when you're talking to Chris KOMO and I'm telling him I'm like do you know what movie we watch every Christmas he says what I said the judge him and Robert Deval I don't know if you've ever seen it, not seen that.

if you've not seen it, you and your son have to watch it together. It's very emotional. You and your son, you guys got to watch it together. That's that magical you'll see when you watch this.

you'll message me and say Pat thank you for this. It's that incredible. So I told him it's my favorite movie to watch. Now there's a few other movies about him.

but I love movies I watched Napoleon the other day I was so disgusted, so annoyed. How dare you waste a year of walking Phoenix To make that shitty of a movie of a character that complicated were not a single time in 3 hours you made me want to cry. How do you make 3 Hour 2 hours and 45 minute movie where I don't want to cry a single time I'm only angry because you're annoying me because you made a bad movie. It's like a documentary.

It's nothing like a gladiator. anyways. I Love movies I Love entertainment I love Hollywood but when I went and sat down with the acting coach of a Will Smith and JLo in La his name was Aaron spiser My wife got this hour thing with him for a gift for me. it's like 17 years ago and I said look man I'm thinking about I'm doing insurance I making a lot of money and I'm not going to say this publicly but I want to be an actor okay and he's like, let me get to straight, you're an insurance executive I said I'm doing very well but I'm willing to quit Insurance because I want to be a full-time actor and he says uh, how do you do with idle time I said I don't do good Yeah, it's very difficult isn't it? I think most people in business find idle time really hard.

I mean I nip out and do things that my son criticizes me for. um like I'll sit on the mower and go around, do a bit more and go and Tinker in the garage or whatever it happens to be I've got to be doing something see because we're artists Yeah and when I was on set I did a lot of work for a film called black Haw down uh which is really Scot film Yeah yeah I flew the model helicopters on it and um the idol time is so frustrating it's it's actually unbearable. You have to go and find something to do. Didn't Ridley Scot do Napoleon how he may done I don't know did Ridley Scott can somebody see if Ridley Scott either rley Scott did Ridley I know he did Gladiator just before we did let me see if he did.

Did he do napole? he did Napoleon there you go, he did Napoleon he didn't do a good enough job for you was horrible I got to tell you and he's known as being great No but you know So he tells me he says how do you do with Idol time I said not very well he said well the problem about being an actors you're not working seven eight months out of the year and he says I don't know if I recommend it for you and I'm sitting there and I'll never forget my wife is sitting next to me says you could be a very good movie producer. You could fund the movies you can make, make the movies. you can build a production house but as an actor, your personality or wiring I don't know if I recommend it for you. So that's the case of if you followed your passion you couldn't make any money.

Go Yes! So right there I said here's what I want to do: Do you like gambling or no, um occasionally do Do you like horse races like what kind of? G not really. If I gamble it' be a bit of blackjack or a bit of roulette. So I lost everything I had one night on Blackjack and I went to my credit card and I pulled out $5,000 of the cash I had on my MBNA and all my credit cards and I lost it that night I was $449,000 in that that's the last time I played I'm like I'm done but I like gambling with money I am very comfortable losing so they ask Walt Disney they criticize him him and Enzo got the same criticism. they said Walt you only make movies because you want to make money they told Enzo you only race cars because you want to make money both of them their answer was I make money so I can make movies and Enzo said I make money so I can race cars right? I'm making money right now so I can fund my passion and my passion is going to be entertainment for the next 40 years.

The only person that's going to fire me is going to be God that's it. So the reason why I chose this route is because if you go passion first then you have to be a professional beggar. I don't like begging. you have to beg people for money cuz sometimes passion is like you know, whatever and I don't mean money.

you know. go chase money and all this other stuff. No I mean go find an industry that you can use your talents. I'm a numbers guy I Love people I Love communication I love talking to people.

So I was able to use my talent but is Insurance my passion? No, that allowed me now to do what I'm doing where I get to kind of play and be that 14year old kid with dreams because it's very rare that um if you do a V diagram that the passion is going to meet the money, you know it's just not going to be in that that that sweet spot and for myself I followed my passions. Fortunately, I did reasonably well, but really the money came from the investing side of what I did not from my passion. So um I think passion what you do uh, radio control models hence flying the models in the films. So I think um, sometimes people can be swayed by their passions too much.

I I Totally agree. I Totally agree. You know it's the the same thing goes with marriage. You know? uh uh, some people just get married because the sex is really good.

You know if you do that, there's a lot more to marriage than just the the sex you know. Sometimes there's a lot more to winning in life than just putting time into your passions. You may be broke just pursuing your passions. What some Universal skills youngsters can focus on before starting a business.

The main one for me is going to be People skills Yesterday we're having this conversation with the 12 of my guys of who to lock on to. Like You know, like let's just say you have 10 sales guys who do you work with right? I Brought a guy named Billy Bean you ever seen a movie Moneyball with Brad Pit phenomenal movie. He's the only guy the real life guy I Brought him three times to speak and he's the only guy that doesn't let me to have to let me have the camera on I Interviewed him three times. no camera but I love what he talks about so he says you know Based on data like who should you work with when you recruit baseball players I'm asking them, Is it the talent? Is it the how healthy they are? Is it their upbringing? Is it what the coach will say about them? Is it their work ethic? What is it that you're looking at right? locking on to someone that gives you the highest chances of winning? Your attitude is the number one thing that's going to forgive you.

If you have a great attitude, you're going to be okay in life because you're going to be forgiven. Okay, if you got a great attitude people will be will willing to work with you because your attitude solid. Yeah Two is somebody that uh, knows how to deal with people, human nature, conversation, having tough conversations, you know, challenging somebody, but doing it in a subtle way like you know, just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down type of a thing where you know how to do that character. If you say you're going to do something, go ahead and do it.

You know that's something that's very important. and we added a couple other things to it. But for me, if you, if you learn human Nature and you put a lot of time into studying conflict resolution, you know there's a lot of people that avoid conflict. There's a lot of people that fight it.

There's a lot of people that the whole concept of fight flight freeze. A lot of people are part of the flight. Camp They run away from conflict. But if you all of us, the only reason somebody's afraid of conflict is because they don't know how to handle it.

You know, when somebody doesn't know how to handle conflict, they just fight. They raise their voice. Yeah, it's because you don't have a mechanism. So what if you had a seven-step process.

First you do this. Then you do this. Then you do this. Then you do this.

Then you do this. Then you do this. Oh I never thought about that. Why don't you start the conversation based on this? Hey Johnny I Don't know why I Feel like you're upset.

What did we do to upset you? Can you please tell me I'm not upset? Well that leads me on to the fact that you you're better off to listen all the time, aren't you you? I I Always say you got two of these and one of these. So listen twice, Speak once and obviously if you can absorb that information, you can come to a resolution and make the sale more often than not. That's a form of being great with people, right? That's people skills, you know? Like today, we're negotiating with five guys at the table with two lawyers and one of my guys starts going on a 10-minute rant just talking about something that makes no sense. Yeah I Text him in the middle of the lunch.

No one knows this I Said be interested. stop being so interesting m let them talk learn about her. Why does she care to know about you? You're not the product she is. Be interested.

And then he started asking questions and then she spoke 80% of the time. If you're speaking 80% of the time in the sales process, you ain't making a sale. How much importance do you place on a personal brand on social media nowadays and is your personal brand your biggest current asset? I Think today. it's very important.

You know, back in the 80s, uh when Steve Jobs wanted wanted to make an announcement about Apple he would call Playboy Magazine's editorinchief and he knew his audience were people that were thinking different and Rebels and Rule Breakers and all this stuff and He would say I want you to interview me We're about to make a massive launch I Want you to talk to me about it? Boom they would come. He would do the interview. it's some Playboy Boom Steve Jobs The founder of Apple just said this. Da D d da right? So Brandon's been around for a very long time.

Today it's the great equalizer. What does that mean a smaller brand can compete with anybody today. a Mr Beast is used social media. How many subscribers does he have today? 350 million I don't know what the number is, it's it's just insane.

I My son watches documentary on Sunday and it's amazing to see what he's done. Branding, storytelling, you know? uh um, making sure the audience knows who you are. There are so many creative ways to build a brand today and all it does that it accelerates. When we first started the insurance company in the insurance industry, they joined the company because of my name.

okay and eventually later on they joined the insurance company because the insurance company was already big. people knew boom they're they're joining this. But at a point if your company is small but your brand is growing, you gain credibility of people wanting to do business with you and then whatever you do with the next is obviously on you. Yeah, I think mine was I I Went out and did my sport worldwide and got my name from that.

So for my business, that really Drew people in that wanted to work with me and also customers wanted to come to buy from me which was which was great of course. So I think you've done a similar Thing by building your personal uh, you know, social media presence Do you think it's your number one asset? I Do now? Yes, Okay, yeah, but I wouldn't have looked at it as that probably four or five years ago. But I think the way the world has gone I think if you haven't got a personal brand, you you're lagging behind and it's something you can do for a relatively small amount of money as well, particularly if you're looking to go into business business in the future. You should really be starting now and also watching what you're putting online as well.

forever. I Agree I Agree cuz it is there forever. Whether it's deleted or not, someone's going to find it I Agree I Totally agree. How can aspiring entrepreneurs effectively Network when really they've not got a lot to offer because it's a value exchange at the end of the day is networking right? You know to to me when I was 22 years old I met this man named Eli I have nothing to offer this guy zero Eli was a very successful hair stylist for Tina Turner Michael Jackson This type of very flamboyant guy and girls loved him and beautiful nails and perfect hair and Ponyta just visualize a guy that would walk into a room and light the place up.

So I'm like man I want to figure out a way to work with this guy and you know, do business with this guy I Got nothing to give him literally have nothing to give him So I started learning about him I realized one of his sons has been in jail for for seven years because he either killed somebody or almost killed somebody and he was a black belt. He threw somebody off the forth I don't know what it was he almost like it was a bad situation for this guy and no one wanted to go visit his son because they feared that his son was a killer murderer right? and he was devastated big fallen out in the family. nothing I said uh that keeps you up at night he says yes I said Eli what if I go visit him he says you want to go go visit him I said what if I go visit him you wouldn't go visit him I'd go visit him The background check takes 30 days, no problem. The next day I called the jail US Men's colony in in uh Mora Bay and they put me on the background check 30 days later I'm approved I go to the jail I walk through they open the gates I go in I see him We sat down and we spend five six hours together.

Two months ago he text me he says by the way do you have that picture by any chance I texted him the picture to show him the fact that when we were in jail together because I've told the story before Eli then turns around El's a multimillionaire Eli turns around opens his Rolodex he says how can I help you I said I just started as an insurance agent He says here's 600 numbers of people I know call them and use my name Boom Amazing! One of the phone calls made me at this point $40 $50 million one of the calls that I made after the 600. So I gave my time to the family to kids to whatever way I can serve you to high identity people and then eventually good things came back. How if people want to Black their way or fake it till they make it. what do you feel about that this Listen, you can get away with it no problem.

you know, fake it to your make it a model I don't like that term. To be honest they can do that all they want. but eventually you're going to know you'll be exposed. especially in today's market.

Today's market is brutal. Be as fake as you want. Guess what? The Market's going to expose you. Eventually you're going to have to prove yourself.

like for example, the concept of Future Truth I Love the concept of Future Truth So what is a future truth? It's a current lie, but it's a future truth. What does that mean? One day, I'm going to be a millionaire. You're lying today because no one knows whether you're going to be a millionaire. But one day you are.

So it's a future truth, right? You're not a millionaire. Today one day, we're going to build a100 Million Doll Company. One day, we're going to build a billion Doll Company. You know, I'm going to be one of the best advisers at Morgan Stanley Deanwood or Maril Lynch or JP Morgan Chase You don't know that.

Okay, if you declared that when you're smaller so people take you seriously, guess what, you better make progress towards that. You better make progress towards that. If you don't boom, you're for example. I used to go to clients and I would say this, hey uh Bob Mary I'm planning on being in this business for 20 years so we're probably going to have a relationship together for 20 years and the relationship I want to have with my clients are the following way: Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom I Want it to be This Does that match your expectation of what you would want from me? Yes cor based on that, here's what I would recommend us doing next.

Da da da da. So not what if I said I'm going to be in business for 20 years but I quit six months L because Insurance got hard and I went to real estate but then now you're lying to the client. So next time you go to the client and you're like well I'm selling real estate now they're like you just told us last time you're planning on being in this thing for 20 years. The market is very very brutal when you make commitments you don't keep.

So what I take from that is if you're going to fake it till you make it, you better have a plan of how you're going to make it. There's no question about it. You can talk dirty to a girl as much as you want, but you better deliver. Do you believe in having an Exit Plan the day you start the business no not the day you start the business I Like to hear that not the day you start the business because for me like when I first started doing you know Financial Services I was like I love this I love doing this very hard.

It's not easy. it's very very hard to sell insurance, find clients all this other stuff you got to do. but I fell in love with it. and then there's the saying that says sometimes on a way to a dream you get lost and find a bigger one right? So as I'm going through this my thought is I'm broke.

My parents got a divorce, my dad's working at a discount store 99 Cent Store I Just want to make money to retire. My dad travel with them. Get the magical wordss for my mom and my dad. I'm proud of you I'm proud of you.

That's what I want it happened then I'm like wait a minute what's going on here. It can't just be about money. it's easy I'm in America We believe in capitalism. Okay I want something more I want a vision I want a mission.

So then I bring my five advisers in that I Respected These are all grown men at the time I'm 28 years old, they're all in their 60s and 50s and I said I want to identify my cause I want to figure out something big I want to do with my life That's going to energize me in a ways that money is not because money is boring. You'll eventually Stow down for money. So I had this meeting with them and they gave me Insight I I was thinking about being a pastor at the time for me because I'm spending time with I went from being an atheist 25 years to all of said my life flipped and I'm like is this and my pastor said no, that's not for you because you're going. You can do a lot L of good with being a businessman.

No problem. This person gave me different feedback. That person gave me different feedback then I said okay now we're starting an insurance company our own and here's what the vision is. We're going to have a half a million licensed agents and we're going to do XYZ Then couple years later I said I'm going to go 20 years in the insurance industry I Got started in the financial industry day before 911, 2001 so 910 2001 I sold the company in on June 30th of 2022.

So exactly 20 years and 9 months later, we grew our insurance agency from 66 agents in one office to 45,000 agents and we just sold it for a few hundred million dollar. A year ago, we were 83% owners. Most of it was cash, so there was something you look forward to, but not not on day one. What do you think about starting a business with a partner? Because obviously sometimes that can be absolutely fantastic and other times it can sync the ship.

Yeah, it's very tough because are you a fan of prenuptial agreements? Uh, we can't have those in the in the UK Yeah, it's not a thing. I could be married in UK then that that's the cas. Well this is what a lot of people in America say it's It's quite a tricky situation. but I think the thing with Partners is I I always because I've always been in business on my on my own.

What happens in UK If You get a divorce though? Does she get half your stuff? Just say bye? But so You But does your wife get half your money? Course, you see, that's probably more with the lawyers involved. That's risky though. So Me I am all about putting a Nbal agreement up front because it eliminates future arguments. Both sides know where we stand and what we're doing.

So when you're doing a business partnership with somebody you you know the fight is going to come up and you're not going to know if the other person's going to slow down anytime soon. How do you know that you don't know that you have no idea how it's going to slow? What if that guy goes through a divorce? What if that guy picks up a drinking habit? What if that guy becomes an alcoholic? What if that guy becomes a drug addict? What if that guy goes through a depression for 2 years years and now you doing all the work? What? All of that needs to be written out? Ideally I Am not a fan of it, just so you know. ideally one person needs to be the shot caller in the group. and if if you have that, it's going to be a lot smoother than three.

Partners 33 33 33 Yeah, someone. someone's always got to be on 50 point something because you need a final s within within my businesses. Now that's how we're doing it. That's how you do it.

Yeah, now you got a book there as well. Tell the guys about that. Patrick Yes so I got a book coming out December 5th called Choose Your Enemies Wisely Bus title Business Planning for the audacious few, there's 12 building blocks I Talk about in this book for Business Planning I think too many times over the last 20-some years I've done business plans with a lot of different people and I've had people that are great at writing a logical plan but there's zero emotion to it. and I have people that write a very emotional plan, but there's no logic to it.

You need both. There's 12 building blocks, six logic, 6 emotion, and I explained to you exactly how to write it properly. But yes, you got to choose your enemies wisely. That's fantastic.

Thank you very much, Thank you.