Episode 262: Need to Succeed with Ibrahim Braimah
In this episode, we’re doing things slightly differently. We are listening to the interview of Adam Stott by Ibrahim Braimah on the Need to Succeed Podcast. Let’s turn the table around as Adam Stott tells the story of his success as an Entrepreneur on the other side of the interview as a guest. Listen as Adam shares what’s his definition of success, what he had to go through to achieve it, and so much more!
Ibrahim Braimah is an Entrepreneur and Property Investor based in London, United Kingdom.
Links Mentioned:
Check out Ibrahim Braimah on Instagram
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Be part of our Facebook Group Big Business Events Members Network
Connect with me on Instagram @adamstottcoach
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
Adam Stott:
Hi, everybody, welcome to Business Growth Secrets. Your host, Adam Stott, we’ve got something a bit different this week, I thought it would be really really interesting to turn things around a little bit and deliver you something really cool, really different. One of my really good friends, Ibrahim, who is a speaker, coach, consultant, property adviser, somebody that’s been building his brand in a massive way, speaking on big stages and getting himself out there, has recently started his own podcast. And he invited me over to be the one of the big first guests ever on the podcast and do an interview with him lots and lots of podcasts appearances in the past, but I actually really liked Abraham’s interview style, the questions he asked, I think there’s a lot of depth in this interview.
I think he really, really dug deep with me. And I think we shared some great gems. So the difference with this particular episode is you are going to listen to me being interviewed, you’re going to see me dive a bit deeper, give some real gems, give some real tips. And I think it’s a really, really cool interview. So go and listen to this one in full, you can learn a little bit more about the depth of my story, the bits that I’ve been through, and rather than me being the interviewer this week, you’re gonna see me getting interviewed. So I hope you really enjoy, and you take loads out of it.
Of course, if you’re getting lots and lots of value from the podcast, we’d love to hear from you. And the best way to do that is either to connect with me on Instagram @adamstottcoach, or if you can, and you could spare a spare minute of your time to go and give us a lovely review. And maybe tell us about some of the best episodes and the episodes that you’ve enjoyed the most. So hope you enjoy this upcoming episode and you get loads from it. And I look forward to connecting with you very soon.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Welcome everyone to the need to succeed in the podcast, right. And this is the podcast where we introduce guests who are absolutely successful, and who are absolute winners in the field. And really the aim of this podcast is to show people what successful people have done and what was their need to succeed.
Because oftentimes, the very thing that some people feel is holding them down is actually the very thing that has driven other people to absolute success. And that is what we’re going to be sharing with you on this podcast. And today we have got an absolute gem, we have got someone who has built a business to over 40 million pounds in sales, using social media or as someone who’s built multiple million pound businesses, someone who sits on the full council, you know, when it really comes to business, social media and having the right mindset to scale a business there is no one better.
He himself has said and interviewed some of the biggest personalities on this planet. I am honored and privileged to welcome today to the need to succeed podcast, Mr. Adam Stott. How are we Adam?
Adam Stott:
Very, very well, my friend. Very, very well. Excited. Can’t wait to talk to you and share with you and you know really help with the podcast. Can’t wait to hear it.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Yeah, honestly. Absolute pleasure. You know, having your honor. I’m really really honored as well, really honored because I’ve had to rush down here today. Because when I got in touch with yourself to say, look, here’s what we’re looking to do.
Here’s the podcast, I did the handle, I would love to have you on immediately said yes straightaway. I’m like, here’s my diary, inherited dates. When are you free to listen, actually, I’m free tomorrow. And then I’m not free again for having an uncommon doubt throughout everything.
So really, really honored and grateful to have you here with me today. Printing stuff can’t wait can be exciting, awesome stuff. Awesome. Saturday, we’ve got a tradition on the podcast. And the very, very first question really is, what does success mean to you?
Adam Stott:
And it’s a good question. It’s a really good question. I think everybody’s definition is different. I feel that success to me, is being able to do what you want. When you want where you want, wherever you want. And just being able to enjoy your life. I think Success to me is to be able to have choices, and to really be able to enjoy your choice. Live life, a different level. I think that a lot of people in this world unfortunately, don’t have those choices. And for me, success has never just been about making more money, making more money, because money for me is a way of keeping score.
Money is the numbers, the metrics that tell you whether you are successful in your endeavors in your business and your pursuits. But actually, the choices to be able to go and do what you want to go on holiday where you want to buy a car, you want to get any closer, you want to be able to take time off to go and do the school run, to be able to do whatever you want, and have those choices are now in a privileged position to be able to do what I want, you know, and look, there’s levels of that, you know, I’ve been successful and been very successful. But I’m not taking private jets everywhere just yet. And right.
So there are obviously levels of that, you know, and you continue, but that’s not necessarily on my agenda, right? I have done that in the past, but I don’t do it everywhere. Do you understand? I mean, I think that, you know, you have to, and now I’m in a nice place in my life, where I get to have and do what I want, which I think is really cool. And for me, that is a definition of success.
Ibrahim Braimah:
That’s great. So that’s a great answer as well, because I also believe that I think, you know, you can be successful in so many different things. And when people talk about success, a lot of times we just go to monetary success in about success could be in a relationship, you know, it could be you know, someone who’s just won the World Cup, for example, you know, that is massive success. And it’s not necessarily tied to how much money they’ve made. But it’s just that I’ve won.
Adam Stott:
Absolutely success in different areas of life, the relationship you’re in, you want to be happy, you want to be enjoying that you want to be and their success in that area, their success in money, their success in, your competitiveness, your growth in different areas. But I think for me, overall success is being able to have choice and freedom of what you want to do.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. So what I’d like to do now is really get to understand you a bit more. Yeah. Alright, just to understand how you know, someone like yourself, has got to where you are today. So let’s just take you back to five years ago, when you were a young boy.
Adam Stott:
Five years?
Ibrahim Braimah:
You know, when he was back in school, for example,
Adam Stott:
All right, five years ago, we got him back, unfortunately, what now? You know, 25 years ago? And I think actually, the first question that you asked links directly to this question, right? So everybody’s definition of success. No, that is different. And I think that your circumstances where you grew up, the things that you did where you’ve been, is, you’re always trying to further yourself, develop yourself and grow yourself.
So if you’re furthering yourself, developing yourself and growing yourself, let’s say somebody else, somebody that started out with money, maybe they had wealthy parents, they had someone around them, then maybe to them freedom and choices is not the most important thing, because they probably grew up with that, right. So to them, their definition of success, I think, is directly linked to where you actually come from in the beginning, right? And, for me, my background is growing up. I went through a period of being in a place where my family had everything, we went to private schools, we were wealthy, and then when I was about 10 years old, it all got taken away.
So I think I was in a place where I had when I was younger, where I lived in a lovely house, we had lovely cars, we went to private schools, we had everything right. And I had a very nice, settled upbringing, and then all of that got taken away. My family, unfortunately, at that stage, lost everything in a recession. And then all of a sudden, I didn’t have those choices anymore. And I think that that link that’s why the two questions link etc.
So when I was at school, you know, I met at 10 years old, I moved from a private school, I remember going to the first day of school, wearing a cap with a briefcase into a rough, rough school. And straightaway I realized, as a bear takes off, get rid of that briefcase, because we’re gonna have to mix it in a different way here.
I remember just being in a very, very, very different place. That was kind of where I was at, and I and I loved it to be fair, because, you know, I made lots of friends and settled into that environment. You know, I had a lovely, I can’t really moan about my upbringing or anything like that, just that I probably went from having choices to having a lack of choices. Then as I grew up, and I went through school, you know, what I think really happened to me.
There might be some people that are watching in the same kind of boat, I’m a creative person. I’m somebody that likes innovation. Somebody that likes to take action on somebody that’s fairly impulsive at times. I’m somebody that really is keen to drive on making decisions and do things. And I think as we, as I moved into school, I didn’t fit into that environment at all right? So the school environment is waning, I think I was very quickly labeled as somebody that was thick. Because my attention span was short.
You know, I think that in the school system, we’re talking about successes, so it’s, I suppose relevant people obviously want to get to their big numbers, their big success and stuff like that. But if we’re looking at where the actual success comes from, I think in school, I was completely written off. And I think that happens to a lot of people in the school system. Because in the school system, people are typically labeled, if you are given a piece of paper, can you memorize this? Can you get the answers, right? And then you get an A, B, C, D, or D. Right? And that means you’re good, or you’re not good?
I got used to it, because that was not my way of learning. That was not my way of thinking. I was written off completely. So what did I do? You know, and this comes back to you, you know, you look at your hierarchy of needs, and things, people need to feel significant. So what I do, I played the fool, I played up, I was an idiot and it was snowing, and I just did everything I could do, to actually be free to have friends and be popular, rather than really caring about.
Ibrahim Braimah:
And it just played into that kind of stereotype I did put you into a box that you thought, you know, well, actually, people find this a little bit funny. So let me just say a bit more.
Adam Stott:
So I was the worst student you’ve ever had at school. Anybody that is watching this that knows me at school, like often people will reach out to me and stuff, especially after I did the TV program, or they reach out for us twice. And actually the million pound motors.
So after those TV programs, I had people reaching out to me at school, they’re like, Oh, my God, what happened to you? Because I was just a menace. Right? And they can believe you like girls that went to school with boys that went to school can’t believe the change?
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely. And that’s really kind of what I want to understand, like, how does someone like what you mentioned below school, actually get to where you are today? We’re just taking it back to you saying you grew up where you’re comfortable. You guys have everything private school has something happened to? What actually happened? And were you able to really comprehend what happened at the age of 10?
Adam Stott:
I don’t think I was able to comprehend exactly what happened. But there’s a few things I remember. Right? So the first thing I remember is that after we as a family lost everything, right? The houses, the cars, the money. The one thing that we had left, I was me and my two brothers. The one thing that we had left was a transport calf that my mum got given in the divorce. We had to go and live in the back of a transport calf, in a two bedroom, tiny bungalow, greasy, horrible bungalow. I remember turning up there that day. I just thought, Oh, my God, what has happened? Why do we now live here, because I’d gone from being a well off kid to being a very poor kid straightaway, and I was embarrassed.
It was just like, it was a bit of a jolt to the system. I remember that, but then I watch my mum, run a transport calf and raise me and my two brothers working every hour possible to kind of rebuild. She worked very, very, very hard. And she was very driven. My mum just literally rebuilt our lives to the point where, you know, six, seven years later, we will be comfortable again, and that was a, you know, fairly comfortable game, which was great. My dad, who had gone bankrupt, I watched my dad have to work for 15 to 20 years nearly, to rebuild himself.
So I’ve seen I’ve been in an environment, where I’ve had everything lost or and had nothing. And, you know, it’s always interesting when you talk about money. Some people like, talk about money being like, a lot of people have associations to money. So we’ll take an association to the common one, like money is the root of all evil, you know, absolutely isn’t for me money is the ability to be able to have choices. Right? You know, and that’s for me, people have to change their mindset around money.
Look, I’ve had a lot of money, you know, both personally and my family as well at times. And I’ve also had nothing, and I know which I prefer. At the end of the day, you know, it’s much nicer to have something than not have it. Yes. But I also have an association that you ain’t going to have unless you work hard. Right, obviously, because I saw my mom was very hard. So my dad worked very hard to rebuild things. And also remember that time so another thing I remember is that I had a friend when I was about 11. That was a lovely lad that I met at this new school, a great guy and actually he’s, you know, he’s done actually pretty well.
He’s in America now, and I remember going to his house on the weekends and we used to go from our grocery transport calf to my friend’s house. And his house, he had three acres, he had tennis courts out the backyard swimming pool, you had a beautiful place to live. And it was just like, a love to be in there.
Ibrahim Braimah:
So this is one of your friends. Private School.
Adam Stott:
No, no, no, not from my private school. It was actually from a new school and ended up going so and it was in a great bear to gray gray gray pattern always remembered, like, I want that. You know, that’s what I want. And I think that imprinted something on me that said, You know what, and this is the interesting thing. The reason I did reach our schoolhouse is when they said to me, Adam, the lady that you’re gonna be doing it with because she’s got children. And she’s like, you know, and you’re not swapping with children. Do you want to do that? I said, “Absolutely”. Because I think for me, if you’re going to inspire somebody, the environment is a big part of it.
Now, you can’t aim for things you’ve never seen. So if you’ve never seen it, you don’t really know it. And you might have seen it on an Instagram post. You might have seen our YouTube video, you might have seen it wherever. But if you’ve never experienced it, you don’t really know it. Right? So I said, Well, when we do to swap you know, in the video they did this, as Pourhouse is one of the little girls who never had a staircase.
So in my house she’s running up and down the stairs with the biggest smile, face mummy, we’ve got a staircase, mommy, we’ve got staircase in I think she’s now saying that she’s like, Well, why can’t we have more possible joy understanding is possible.
And I think that people need to be exposed to environments in order to raise their ambitions, which is why when you hear phrases on YouTube, or whatever it is, like you are, the sum of the five people that you spend time with, is not the same magical is going to happen to you or some piece of advice is going to change everything actually, is you being close to somebody that’s playing at a higher level than you is going to show you it’s possible to do more and represent and that for me, I think it’s a really important element of success,
Ibrahim Braimah:
You also just won’t fit in anymore, right? If they achieve a certain level and you’re playing down here, at some level, there’s there’s going to be you know, we were too busy doing the things that we need to be doing, and you just don’t fit in, right, so you can either not fit in and find a new set of friends or it’s gonna make you feel comfortable, or you’re actually gonna get dragged along and you know, played at some level to achieve the things that they were achieving, as well.
Adam Stott:
100%. And I think when you talk about friends, I’ve got friends that absolutely you know, love to this day. But actually, when I spend time with the people I spend time with now, I choose to spend time with people that are similar in thinking to me, and a lot of the time people have actually said over the years I’ve been, “Adam, you’re not hanging out with us anymore”.
But if I go into an environment, and people are talking about our life, so shit, I don’t want to be there. Because for me, life ain’t shit. Life’s great. No, I love life. I love what I do. You know?
So I want to be around people that also love life. Absolutely. And that is my choice. Yes. And I still love the people that are in the thing like that. But I spent many years trying to change their thinking, yes. And really change comes internally, and you can’t change someone they have to want to change.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Really? Did you make that connection to when you were obviously you you had this friend who you know really kind of opened your eyes to what was possible what you wanted. And at the same time you were seeing your mom just go through not difficult. We’re just working really, really hard. Were you able to make that connection? Or how were you feeling at that time seeing your mom work so hard?
Adam Stott:
Truthfully, if I’m being brutally truthful, I think care then sounds brutal, right? But I was a kid and you’re selfish as a kid here. You think about your needs now. But I look at my mom now and I respect her.
Because I think that she did work really hard. And she raised three children. I think when you become a dad, as you know, honors I am, I think that you realize actually how hard it is to bring up children, the amount of effort I think you don’t realize that as a kid you don’t actually realize what you’ve been given and and how much support you’re getting.
So I can’t lie and say, oh, I was like I thought our mom worked hard didn’t I wasn’t mature enough to actually realize that she was working that hard and bringing up three children. But now I realize it and my respect for my mum increased…
Ibrahim Braimah:
Within periods where you know, maybe she was working or you had some things that you had to do at school, for example, and maybe she couldn’t attend those things, or does she always make sure she was there for everything, irrespective of how hard she was working or not.
Adam Stott:
So she you know, you have to she had to make choices, because and that’s the problem. And that’s what I said again, she had to make choices where she couldn’t do certain things or couldn’t buy certain things or we couldn’t have certain things or you know, go certain places or whatever, but that she did try no doubt but obviously you go through when you have a lack of money, you have a lack of choices.
When you have a lack of money, you have a lack of freedom, you know, and I think that for me later on I think that’s a big driver you talk about. What is it about wanting to succeed? Why is it you want to grow? Why is it that you want to do things? And why do I want to push further? It’s because I don’t want to have a lack of money. I don’t want to have a lack of choices. I don’t want to have a lack of freedom. You know, and I think that’s important.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely. And that’s really kind of what I was trying to get with, with that kind of situation. Because, you know, when I grew up I was very, very poor myself as well. And it was just things were, you know, for example, just trainers, yeah, right. You see, your friends that come into school, they got these lovely, nice trainers.
And, you know, it gets to a point where you don’t even ask, because you kind of understand, we’re not in that situation, right? If I ask, you know, either gonna get shouted out just because not because they’re angry at me, but because they’re also frustrated that they can’t give me those things, right.
So you realize these things, as a kid, let you know that there is a difference, in a kind of imprint something in you. Now, it can go two ways, you know, because I’ve also got friends who, you know, they’ve been in that situation, they just decided to sort of give up on life. You know, both successful people have a different kind of viewpoint. And what were you thinking?
Adam Stott:
Are you crazy independence eventually. And I think that, again, something, that’s it, my background, is I moved out when I was 15. All right, very, very young. And that created that independence for me, you know, and I knew that I needed to, and actually, when I moved out at 15, initially, when I moved out 15. It’s because I didn’t get along with my mom, because we were battling exactly the way you’ve just said. And then when I spent time, my dad, I didn’t get along with my dad and his family he was with.
So my dad had this flat, and he’s like, Adam just got to live there. Like, you got to live there. You know, you can pay some rent, you’ll have to do some work. So I went out. And then I lived there until about 16, six and a half, then I went to move them for free. So like, I was literally from the age of 15. Well, independent. Which is funny now because this is it’s funny now because some people often because I delegate a lot, which is what happens is you get to the point where you can do more is people presume that I can’t do certain things, right? It’s funny.
So I’ve had girlfriends in the past say to me, Oh, you don’t know how to cook what you want. Oh, you want about 15? And he’s watching me? I just prefer not to use somebody else to do that. Right. Average? Well, Wangka literally, you know, leverage. Yeah, exactly. Leverage, whatever. But anyhow, I moved out very young. got jobs. And then that’s when I had a serious lack.
So before I was poor living at home, now I’m really poor. Because now I can’t eat the food I want to eat. You know, if that’s where I actually realized that was more where I realized, actually, if you want to do things, you’re gonna have to work harder, you’re gonna have to make more money, you’re gonna have to work longer, because now you’re in the real world. I think I got into the real world very young, so you haven’t to pay rent or six? Then pay for electricity and gas and everything else like that. And, you know, it was just from a very, very young age.
Ibrahim Braimah:
I think, generally, if we got the traditional route, you probably won’t get to that stage until you’re 21. Once you’ve gone to uni, you’ve left uni and do when you start realizing actually there’s this reality to rent and bills and all that sort of thing. So at 16 you kind of had to go through this already.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, I went through that. And then I rented out rooms to have friends who live with me. So all my little Rogue One friends that were also not getting on whatever people around me were like candy with Adam, you’ve got an overrun there, we’ll pay some rent now. And I just sort of scrambled together and, you know, got different jobs and tried to work my way up to being in a place where I could do more.
I was lucky, fortunate. But whatever you want to call it, to find something at that stage that I was good at. And I’ve never been good at anything before. You know, when I was seven, saying, 17/18 can’t remember the exact thing. I was fortunate to get an opportunity in a sales role. And the sales role. At the time, I’d been working dead end jobs, building jobs, and even had a stint at KFC. Getting laid bare on Ibrahim’s record. I’ve done some crappy jobs.
Ibrahim Braimah:
And I worked at McDonald’s as well.
Adam Stott:
Did you really? Just thinking right, and I think it’s good to tell people that because what I think now is I do think if somebody hasn’t got a job, don’t get a job. It doesn’t matter where you work, right? Just make sure you’re in a job. Make sure you’re earning money. Make sure you’re pushing forward where you are now; he’s not where you need to be forever.
Ibrahim Braimah:
100. Because even whatever you’re earning, you know, especially if you’re still at home or you still got some comfort blanket, whatever you’re earning from that job that you want. don’t want to do, you can put that aside and then use that, to leverage yourself and get started. Instead of actually going to have to ask someone for money or ask for a little bit of help. You can create that platform for yourself by working as long as you’ve got a plan and you’re good to go, right.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, and communication skills, and dealing with teams, and also having fun, you start working in a team, you start having fun, you enjoy your life more, you’re building your self esteem up, you’re building your belief up. And I think anyone young watching this, I often tell my nephew, you know, just go and work in a trainer shop, go work somewhere under the sun, not do anything. And actually, to be fair to the boy, it’d be fair to deal.
He’s very driven. And he’s now working, he’s doing landscaping and stuff like that. And he has always worked. But I do believe that the quicker somebody gets into work, or communication skills are better, their beliefs improve, and their self-esteem goes up. And people generally don’t have to be there forever. Anyway, so I do this, I get this opportunity. I went to this sales job for the first time. And I don’t know if it’s a sales job. I just know that this is in a warm place. So no longer am I working outside.
No longer am I working frying chicken doing crap like that. I’m like, Oh, I’m going to work in a place. That looks nice. I’m in a showroom. Right. And the showroom was called powerhouse. It was selling TVs, washing machines, toasters, everything else like that power house. I don’t think they do now. Right. And what happened was, I remember the first day, first day, and the reason I took the job wanting the job so bad is because I had a coffee machine, right? I thought you would get free coffee. Have you worked? And what’s the result? This is how low my expectations were in life at this stage. Right?
And anyway, I remember going in. And I remember talking to a lady there, a lovely lady called Diane, and the assistants work so well. You go up and you talk to people, and you help them and then they buy things. So for a while I avoid doing any of that. And when they buy things you get and I can’t remember is two or 3%. You get 3% of what they buy us. And what do you mean, when every time they buy something, you get 3% of what they purchase? And you get that like, Yeah, but you already knew you’re like, Yeah, but you get that extra? Is that what so I go and talk to me when I get paid?
She’s like, Yeah, and that was it. I was like the Tasmanian devil. I was just running around running around running around talking to people getting my favorite scenes getting my favorite movies. Like, I love this. And I had found something for the first time ever,
Ibrahim Braimah:
But not that I could do, not everyone’s got that mentality, though, because some people actually know what I’m getting paid. I’m happy to run a campaign because actually, for the first time, I’m getting my free coffees, I’m in a warm place. I’m getting paid. I don’t need to run around and speak to anyone else. Now, what was it that made you want to do that?
Adam Stott:
Because I was not happy? And it’s a good question. So I wasn’t happy with where I was at this stage. And we’re going back a long time. You know, I was young, my teen at this point. But I wasn’t happy with where I was. And I knew no one was going to come and try and do it for me. And I think that what people do is they accept not being happy with who they were. But for me, I was never going to accept that. And I think that’s my advice to anyone watching. If you’re not happy with where you are. If he’s meant to be, it’s up to me, right? It’s down to you, you’ve got to change it.
Now you can find the right mentors, you can find the right coaches, you can find the right advisors, you can get people to point you in the right direction, but the bottom line is going to do it. Right. You’ve got to make the change. For me, I was like, Okay, well, that makes me change. And then all of a sudden is like, Oh, if you sell 20 days, you get a free TV. I’m like, All right, well consider it done, you know, and then I thought, okay, well, I need to get better at this. Because I wanted to be because I wanted more.
So I started studying and I started learning and started getting into personal development, and I was really good at it and then all of a sudden I got some significance. I’ve never been told I was good at anything. The building jobs I did. Everyone told me that the KFC job all I ever got was a man that when I was at school where we were caught was bound. when I went home or wherever I got a man that you know now somebody turns around and says, you know, you’re really good at that.
Ibrahim Braimah:
What’s the difference?
Adam Stott:
What do you mean?
Ibrahim Braimah:
So, you have been told it is such a beauty, enjoy yourself to this one. But why would they tell you that you were good at this, what’s the difference?
Adam Stott:
I think, and this is what I really talk to people about and try to help them with is for them to understand that if you find something you enjoy, it’s going to be so much easier and so much more natural for you. And that’s why you gotta try a few things. You got to test things out. People are afraid to make a mistake. And that’s the opposite.
You have to make mistakes, especially when you’re young you will go out and try a few things. You got to work things out. I actually remember going back to my nephew. Remember his mom texted me guy and he’s got And from job to job, I said, Good. That’s good. Because he’s got to find what he likes and actually ask family likes now and he’s pushing on everything. Yeah. Now, it’s not a struggle for him to get up in the morning.
Now, it’s not a problem because he loves what he’s doing. I think that for me, I found something that I enjoyed. As soon as I found something that I enjoyed, and people told me, I was good at it, I fought and something linked up in your brain says, Well, I want to get better, I want to be even better. Then it was about developing and becoming better and learning more and, and really pushing on.
If you look at all the things that I have done, and some people will know me to watch, and some people won’t know me, but you know, then going later speaking to 3000 people in South Africa and business’s success speaking to 2000 people in Florida, Orlando, you know, doing interviews and you know, some mega stars and, you know, building a business that was very 1000 businesses for three years running all these things, if you go backwards.
That’s where they started, they started in me finding certain that’s where they started, right. And I won a competition in powerhouse for commission per hour, nationally, and I thought, You know what, I’m really, I’m really good at a hole. So I’m really good at it. All of a sudden, I had something that I could be proud of, something that I was good at, which I’d never had before. By having that thing that I was good at, that rose me a stain.
I think that that’s a problem for a lot of people if they hadn’t found something they enjoy doing, even if they found saying they’re good at their self esteem stays low. But when you get saying you’re good at your build up, you know, I’m good at this, this is great, you know, and that starts off a pattern of being able to push forward. And that’s exactly what happened to me.
Ibrahim Braimah:
That’s an incredible man that actually made me. I don’t know what just happened to my bullet. And you just really kind of saying that you found something that you were good at. And then your self esteem raised? No, but you only found that because you were taking risks. You know, this job, I don’t like that job. I don’t like that job.
Then you found one. Then you gave it everything I said you went to personal development to actually really get good at it. And then once you got really good at it, you started getting acknowledgment from it. And that made you realize, actually, I am really this is the thing, this is the thing.
Adam Stott:
This is who I am, this is what I’m good at. And I then they said and it’s actually funny, I then said right? How do I become the very, very, very best at this. So I became obsessed. So I’ll tell you what happened next, and this is the problem. Sometimes when you get really good at something, I’ve had many moments like this in my life, and now I’m much more of a measured person. Sometimes you get good saying your ego gets out of control seriously, and that happens to a lot of people.
His ego goes out of control. At that stage when I was a young man, my ego went out of control. I was like, Yeah, I’m brilliant. And I’ve got a bit like that. Whenever you get like that, you know you’re heading for troubled waters, really because you got to stay measured. You know, for me, keep the ego aside in everything you do as much as you possibly can. I was talking just this morning to one of my clients.
Funnily enough is Randi Zuckerberg, I interviewed Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg sister. The question I asked her is what’s the best bit of advice your brother’s ever given you? She said, Mark always said, don’t let the press, the media, the love, go to your head. Don’t let the critics go to your heart. And I was saying to this client this morning, don’t let the low times get you too low. Don’t let the higher times get you to stay measured.
You know, and I think that’s really, really important. So that’s something I didn’t do, obviously back then. And I learned that lesson, right? But I ended up sort of doing really well at this job. And then getting a bit big from about, I don’t want to do this anymore, and kind of and then I went over to and I met somebody who was working in car sales, and I decided that I was going to go into car sales. And that was a good move for me.
But when I arrived in car sales at this, this new environment, completely new environment. I went in with an ego that I was going to be absolutely brilliant. Because if I was going to be brilliant, there’ll be number one like yeah, of course it was a straightaway number one, but no, I wasn’t. And when actually arrived in this environment, I found a much higher level of discipline. I found a much more intense working style.
I found a much more disciplined, disciplinarian type environment. At the time, I was working with people that were 10/15 years older than me. And the first time I went into the Ford dealership, I had 15 salespeople in a row lined up like this. And I was stuck. There you go to your desks in the middle and you’re the youngest and you’re gonna have to compete against all these people. And it was intimidating. And the reason being is these people are clients that existing clients, they know about the cars, they’re good at what they do. I started from the bottom again, how old were you at this point?
So I was 19. At the time, I was 19. I got the job there. They said to me, I went for an interview process with 75 people at the interview, I was the youngest person out of 75. And I said to me, how old are you? And I said, Well, I’m 19. So we’ll, you know, you won’t get you on the insurance. So it was like, what I had to talk him into to give me this opportunity, and I did. They give me the opportunity.
Ibrahim Braimah:
That was enough to boost your ego, right?
Adam Stott:
Yeah, again. Anyway, I went in, and I found it really tough. You know, the first is really ironic. So I haven’t shaved today. But I remember turning up to one in my first week, and I remember going into the morning meeting, not shaved. And the manager literally stood up, looked me dead in the eye, and told me to get the hell out. In probably less polite words, go on. And I’ll just drive an hour to beat it. I was like, Well, the doctor I’m there for you haven’t shaved, you do not come into my showroom not shaving, you get out of it. Well, and literally, that was it. And then anytime I don’t save, it’ll be straight on. If I turned up one minute late for driving an hour, it would be straight on.
So it was like literally a disciplined city. And I learned discipline in that role. And eventually, after a period of time, I became really successful there. I did really, really well there, I excelled. I became really, really good. Right up there at the top with people that were 10/15 years old and may have been doing it for years and years and years.
I studied, I developed myself, I worked hard, I listened to their roles, I abided by their roles, I took 10 ton of likes, my ex shit, basically, you know, off people. You know, like, even in this role I did when I first arrived there, that this is how I was welcomed by the team. I said, You’re not what’s your name? He said, Adam, it’s not your name. I said what do you mean? I said your name is new boy. And you will be called a new boy when another new boy replaces you. And that’s when you will own your name.. Literally never lie. That’s the ship, and that was like having that for about seven months.
That was the culture and everyone was like no boys ever survived. Yeah, no boys ever survived. No boys never get through. And that made me more motivated. Like, Well, I understand. Oh boy forever, I’m fucking gonna survive. So, you know, that drive? Was there? And then I did. And then I went on and you know, did really well. I didn’t know what, though, as new boys came in, I was a lot better to them than they were to make. You feel it? Yeah. Boys got the worst car. As you know, as a company hired a company car at 19. And they gave me you know, 19 thinking I’m coming to collect my company car. All my mates.
If they drive anything, they drive 200 pound fiestas. I’m thinking I’m getting a brand new car and this is awesome. And I go in off and I’m going to get this car, etcetera, etcetera. And they gave me an oyster gray. Which basically is brown lung describes the brown, but it’s not a very nice brown jaw shift for fusion, which is like an endless fusion.. Like, drive that I was still happy because I had a brand new girl. You know, and anyway, I did. Well, there I built up there. And, you know, again, that carved me with discipline.
Ibrahim Braimah:
There’s a few things that yeah, you’ve repeated it now. Even at powerhouse, you said, you know, I want to get personal development. You know, now you just said I started to develop muscle. Why was that so important?
Adam Stott:
Because I am competitive. I’m competitive by nature. I don’t like losing. It’s just the way I am. You know, if you play me at Monopoly, you’ll find out. You know, he’s like, I don’t like losing and I was losing. I was I never went in and shredded that went straight to number one. And I think that’s what a lot of people get wrong.
They think that when they get the opportunity, they should know that they feel like they’ve got a right to be top or a right to be good or a right to a better car. Now everything you have to earn. And for me, the support often wasn’t there, the training often wasn’t there. So I took that into my own hands and I was like, so I remember being at Ford specifically, really struggling, having everybody else around me finding it easier.
And I remember I tell you what I felt like my memory was really against me. I thought I still had at this stage, you’re very forgetful, an SME unorganized in May, I was good with the clients, but was unorganized. But I was forgetful. I had lots of problems with remembering things. I had bad time management, I had bad discipline, I had lots of things, it was just and the boss, I used to say, Adam, you’re a diamond, but you’re a very rough one, you’re still in the ground, we will pull you out, we got a polish you up. And it’s going to take a long time. And it’s true that our was and for me, it was that I wasn’t getting success fast enough.
So I started reading and for me, I became obsessed with sales. I read every single sales book. There I started going on courses and seminars and listening to people and spending time with good people, because they wanted to get better. And, you know, week by week, month by month, year by year, I did. And eventually I was at the top, but it took a build up to get there.
Ibrahim Braimah:
100%. That’s nothing easy. No, I think in this whole 21st century, especially with Instagram, social media, you know, a lot of people tend to show their successes. And if you’re just watching from afar, it seems like you know, yesterday, they were hand today, now they’re all the way up there. But it’s never really that way. Like there’s a journey. And only really people who take the time to develop themselves are going to get there, right? It’s easy.
Adam Stott:
And again, we’re talking about sales here. And that was the beginning for me. But as when I started a business, then you need to learn marketing, you need to learn branding, you need to learn business strategy, you need to learn finance. And there’s other areas that you need to sharpen. But I would say the basic basic skill is like nobody succeeds in business, unless you can sell. It’s not debatable. I’ve trained 1000s of people.
And the 1000s of people that I’ve trained if you even take them aside, and you look at business owners or uber successful people I’ve had on my podcast, people I’ve interviewed. I’ve spent time with, they’ve all got that in common they can all sell.
You’re always going to be selling and be selling your products, you can be selling your services, you can be selling your ideas, you can be selling your vision, you can be selling the path to your staff that you’re going on, you can be selling all the time, you could be selling to investors, you can be selling to fundraisers, you can be selling your idea to partners, suppliers, you are always selling and those basic skills I learned in the early stages of my career, were a grounding for me to be able to go on to achieve more later on. And I think sales is incredibly important.
Ibrahim Braimah:
100%. I couldn’t agree more. You know, sales isn’t something I enjoy doing myself. And you say every single conversation you’re having potentially is so you know, I’ve got to do , I mean he or she doesn’t speak bad. But I understand even now, I have to sell even though she doesn’t understand what I’m saying, right to try and get her to do something. And that’s just how it is in relationships. If you’re negotiating and your team wherever it is it goes seller my day, even as a leader, you go sell an idea to the organization. So everyone actually buys into the ethics division, you know, what is the mission you’re trying to achieve? So yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I couldn’t agree more. So yeah. You started getting really good. You are no longer than you boy. So what happened from there?
Adam Stott:
So when I got really good, I did the same thing, again that I did a pass, I decided to leave. You know, I think it was just a challenge for me to get to the top. When I did, I just wanted to go and take the next challenge. That’s exactly what I did. And I got an opportunity to go and work for a company, which was an insurance company, leasing private jets, and I went there. I spent a bit of time there.
I worked there for a little while when I didn’t enjoy it. It seemed very low blood sugar or just not. Because of him. I mean, I barely had anything to do with him. I met him probably two or three times while I was at the company once or twice. So, I was working for Daniel, his son. And it was great. There were no complaints about them. But I was too far removed from the cut and thrust that I’d loved and become used to.
I was seeing seven to 10 customers a day at Ford and I loved it. I was enjoying dealing with the customers enjoying the cut and thrust of being in that environment being around other people when I went into a room, and there were three other people and you were cold calling prospecting. And I just didn’t like it as much. So I decided to move on from there and I got a job at BMW. I went on a whole new journey there.
You know, and really without going deep, deep into that journey, you know what I learned there was about customer relationships. How do you build really good relationships at Ford? It was how do you sell products and maybe get him out the door of BMW is how do you build relationships? And really now from the skills that I’ve got from these different roles. I now had discipline, I now was organized, I was good at my time. Keep different things like that. I was really driven. And now I grew customer relationships and I did very well at BMW. I’ve got to the point where I’m still a young guy.
When I was 20/23/24 years old earning 100,000 pounds a year, I had my choice of whatever company car one it is they’re very different from the rules. There I was ordering myself a 100,000 pound car, there’ll be a new one every three months, you know, and it was like a different world. And I loved it, and I enjoyed it. And I was earning a lot of money. I was having mumps I’d one month were over 20,000 pounds in a month when I was 24. Yeah, 24. They held up my pay slip in the morning meaning Adams just did 20 grand, you know, and it was like, Yeah, and it was a big buzz.
Then I started to enjoy my life with nicer holidays, nicer clothes, more success, nicer cars and nice flat eventually. What I didn’t mention is when I was at Ford, and I was very young, I bought my first house at nine saying, so actually was able to go and buy a house at 19, I started renting the rooms out to my friends, they’ll pay the mortgage. So by the time I was 24, you know, at my house, I had money. I was proverbial successful. But I wanted the new challenge, which was going and building a business. And that was something that just appealed to me. I was just drawn to it.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Well, I’ll tell you this was a 24. Yeah, so you would just do a BMW, you haven’t a success 20 grand a month, and then you just sort of decided to work.
Adam Stott:
That was one month, I was earning about 100,000 pounds a year, but 120 grand.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Yeah, I was wondering, why did you want to leave that?
Adam Stott:
I don’t know. Because if you look at the habitually what I’ve told you, it’s just about challenges. I just wanted the new challenge. And I think, for me, I’ll just get to the point where I wasn’t feeling challenged anymore. I’ll tell you actually, why I left if I really looked back and just came to me, then what happened is they changed the pay structure, I wanted to go and earn, I was thinking well, if I can. Next year, and then that, for me would have been the challenge of growth. But they changed the pay structure.
And actually, I had a meeting with a guy who would later work for me, one of my managers at the time, he later on came to work for me. And that happened a lot of people I used to work for ended up being employed by me. But this guy, I remember him sitting down, he said, Look, yeah, we change the pay structure, you can even mount and kick off about it, you know, but we want you to get on with it, we want you to work so you want me to work harder this year, did last year to earn more money.
And as I looked at him, this is the bottom line, I remember it. Sure you remember if he ever watches, he said, this is the bottom line, you got two choices, right? You can either leave, we can realize you got it good. Because if you leave, all we will do is take the 100 Grand we’re paying you and we’ll split into four, we get four salesmen at 25 grand and they’ll be able to do the same as what you can do. Anyway, we’ve won sets us up to you.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Which is the reality of the corporate world, and you know, at least it was very, very honest to actually tell you that, you know, the reality is, as long as you’re working for someone else, then you know, they’re really gonna control and if you go, someone else can actually come in and replace you.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, right. Yeah, no brutality with me. And I was like, okay, but for me, that’s not the attitude I have now within my business, because the person earning the money is the person the other people were aspiring to follow. Exactly.
So cutting that guy off at the knees and making them unhappy. That’s no good for your organization. Right? So I’m gonna be good to everyone. But that was what happened to me. And I want to start my business. And that was the start of that journey. That’s incredible.
Ibrahim Braimah:
You make such a good point. Like, there are companies where they’ve got employees, and the employees are working in that business, as if it’s their business, because the environment has been created by the person who taught, if you make people feel welcome, make them feel loved, make them feel like there is continual growth.
Yeah, where do you want to get to Okay? And here’s how we actually get there. They, you know, there’s an opportunity for you there. And, you know, that’s the beauty of your book, you’ve gone through the experience, obviously, you know what not to do.
Adam Stott:
At the end of the day, you’re either growing or you’re dying. And at that point, there was no further growth, really, and that was the opportunity. So I started my own business. It was a disaster to start with, I was totally out of my depth, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea really, that I trained business owners and I trained them on to succeed. And one of the things that I trained them on is that there’s five areas: five skill sets that you need to be successful. You need to be able to market and you need to have a marketing system for your business that brings you new leads and new opportunities.
Without that you’ve got no fuel in the engine, the business doesn’t grow. From there. You need to be in a place after you’ve marketed your business that you can convert the sales and there’s too many. He bought a good marker that can’t be sold and doesn’t convert anything, so it doesn’t work. So you need to be a good marketer, you need to set up the right sales process for your business, you need to have the right business strategy, to be able to sell your products or services profitably, you need to understand the numbers, and understand finance and numbers within the business and you need a brand that builds and draws people towards you. They’re the five things you need.
At this point, I don’t have any right including the market, the only thing I could do was sell. And that was it. So I was lost at the beginning. And I spent, and it was the biggest challenge ever. Because when you’re working for someone else, you’ve got a challenge. You try to achieve the challenge you grow, you do your thing. And eventually you get there with business. The challenge is never ending, right?
You got problems here, you got problems there, you have all these different problems. So for me, I actually enjoyed it. The first two years were disastrous, you know, I work very, very hard for not a lot of money. I struggled by realizing I was a terrible manager, I was terrible at building people up, I was terrible. I had so many weaknesses, when I started, it was just ridiculous.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Good business. But until you’re really good at this,
Adam Stott:
Right, and at the end of the day, this is the thing. You can only learn in my mind from people to walk the path, and actually have made the mistakes, you know, and I made a lot of mistakes early on. And when I made those mistakes early on, they took me away from my success, but the only thing I did is every time I realized that I was not good at something, rather than caring from it. Rather than deciding that I was going to avoid it rather than sweeping under the carpet. I said I know what to do here. I need to get better at it.
So if I was a terrible Manager, which I was, I went out and I read 20 books on management, I went out and I studied and I took courses on management, right? That’s what I decided to do. I realized that I wasn’t great with people. I looked at how to motivate people, I read books on how to motivate people. And I started to learn that area and I realized that I wasn’t good at marking. And I got obsessed with marking. I took every course in the world, I traveled all over the world to Maastricht. And it was critical. You know, when I wasn’t good at numbers, I employed the best finance people around me. And I learned from them to pick their brain, I got to know exactly what they were doing. And it’s resourceful.
That when you start in business, you’re not going to be good at everything. But you have a choice, right? You either decide that you’re gonna get good at it and you learn it, or you ignore it and you suffer because of it. So it took me a long time. Certainly the first couple of years were hard.
Ibrahim Braimah:
I think you’ve been quite humble there. Yeah, I love it. We’ll go with this. But I’ve got some because I’ve been doing some research, or watching some interviews of yourself and all of that sort of stuff from a few years ago. I think I just said to you this morning, like you literally haven’t changed your face to lose the same as it was five, six years ago.
Adam Stott:
But losing a little bit. I’m hanging in there.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Can you share with us because I think it’s really, really crucial. How did you start this business? What did you have to do to the business? We’re in here or this car business you were talking about?
Adam Stott:
Okay, so the car business I started, I started it. I didn’t start a car business, I started a finance business. That was called a finance business. So the first business I started and what happened with that business morphed into the car business because of the changing market. And the changing market was when I started the business 2008 All the finance companies pulled out a market so it’s no longer finance brokers.
So instead of being a finance broker, I needed a new product. So what I did is I took some of the money that I had sold or bought and sold my house for I use that money to invest in a few little cars. And I built up from there.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Yeah, can we just go back? That’s why I wanted to touch them. You’ve just kind of skimmed over it. You sold your house.
Adam Stott:
Yeah. I sold my house prior to starting the business.
Ibrahim Braimah:
This is what I heard you say before, like, how do you have that confidence and the belief to almost give up everything that you’ve worked for the age of 90 You’re actually able to go into level but you Why did you believe in yourself so much to be able to sell your house and say you know what, I’m gonna make it I think that conclusion.
Adam Stott:
I think I had been successful several times in what I was doing and I did believe in myself. And I did believe that it will come back
Ibrahim Braimah:
It’s interesting. How do you push through that fear because fear is something that tends to hold a lot of people back and our mind is, you know, conditioned to feel the fear and then not not do it. So how do you push or did you not feel any fear at all?
Adam Stott:
It’s terrible. sob story, the reality I was afraid of. Okay, well, it wasn’t right. It’s all about conditioning yourself. I had conditioned myself, when I was afraid to do it anyway. And I think through the development I’ve done like, you know, I remember one of the things I was afraid of, I had a fear of flying when I was younger. I had a really bad flight, not young, young, but probably was about 22, or something like that. I remember, feel, feel the reading, feel the fear and do it. Anyway, I read that book, I read loads of books about fear. But I just felt that this was the path that I was on.
Now, this is interesting, this is the interesting thing, because where we were going, is what actually happened is the first year or two, all the money, I invested everything that I invested everything I put into it, I ended it ended up disappearing. So I had no money. I had no house anymore, I had nothing left, or gambled it all on this business. I felt fear, then and I didn’t feel fear when I was always like shares. You know, they’re my actual fear.
The real fear was not around the money I’d lost because money is just money is just something that’s been invented to stop us killing each other over food. Money is managed as a currency of exchange, it’s choice. So we can exchange things. I’m not bothered about money. I’m not worried about money. And it’s easy. Some say you don’t worry about that I was then yeah, you know, but I was at a point where it disappeared.
But my real fear wasn’t, will I get this money back. And I think that’s a big problem. When people pay for so precious a lot of money, when they see the depletion of money, they seize up a plan that gets worried and they panic. They’re too interested in protecting what they have, rather than seeing what they can grow. And I was never like that. I was never like that.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Just take that in, like scared of where you’re at now, instead of actually seeing the potential of where you could be that is so powerful.
Adam Stott:
Yeah, that’s what people like, they’re like, oh, I’ve got I made sure that this money is okay. And I’ve got this money. That’s all I’ve got. And it’s a scarcity mindset, it’s a scarcity mindset. I think that you have to, you have to look at what you’re going to have in the future, as well.
Ibrahim Braimah:
How did you, you know, the house is gone? Yeah, this is everything you’ve got now, like you said, you had the confidence to believe, but now, it’s all gone down. Are you feeling fear? Would you do next? Like how do you push through that?
Adam Stott:
So what I did is, I worked harder. Like literally, I know, it’s really funny, I remember. So after I moved out, and my first little office, I got this little office in Chelmsford. A few years after I’d done well, there was a, there was a girl that used to walk past my office, and I was Laura. She used to walk past the office, and I will be there every night until 11 o’clock. And I’m not saying that that’s the best strategy. But that’s the truth.
That’s why I was there every night late. And this girl used to walk past. I remember a few years later, when I’d done really well. Someone said to this girl, Adam was lucky. And the person that said that, I know him very well. And I went, do you know what I walked past because she was doing shift work. Adam was there every night at 11 o’clock.
And I remember that for years. She said he was in that office, he was there on his own, he was working, saying we weren’t lucky. He actually worked really hard. And I did work hard. I worked like a maniac, I was obsessed, I sacrificed everything.
You know, going out my friends, football, anything like that everything sacrifices to make sure that this works. So what I was all in. And that’s the mentality you got to have is like when you decide on your business goal in it?
Ibrahim Braimah:
Well, so it was really actually more of a strategy in terms of the money being depleted. But perhaps it sounds to me, maybe I could be wrong, that it was the strategy that wasn’t actually quite right. But when you fix the strategy and obviously put effort into it, then things start to change.
Adam Stott:
I would not allow fate to consume me, I was just not interested in fate. I wasn’t going to let that happen. But honestly, that was well, that was my mindset, I will not be defeated. I will not fail. And that can take you so far. Yeah, because later on, I did fail in some ways, right? But a small business, when you’re really small, you have control over it. When you’ve got 150 staff and you’ve got millions of pounds going out every week, then it’s different. You can’t control everything. You need a different strategy. When you’re small, you can control it and there’s a small business owner watching this, right?
Like, if I was having a week where it’s like, right, we’re gonna get to the end of the month and I’m not gonna be out to pay the wages. And I knew that that was going to happen. I had two choices, hide from that, or make 400 phone calls to sell enough to make sure we did well. And I always chose the 400 phone calls well, and that was what I did. And in a small business, you can grind your way through any problems. In a large business, you can’t grind your way through any problem.
But you can in a small way small, you’ve got control, you can grind, you can work hard, you can influence you can make things happen, you can go back to your client, you can go back to referrals, you go back to repeat business, you can grind out.
Ibrahim Braimah:
The flexibility you got as a small, small business.
Adam Stott:
I went all in on the business again, and I grew it again. Then I grew it again, and I grew it again, I just kept pushing. And then eventually, you know, the evolving way to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, but you, me as an individual, have to grow with it. So I have to be better at the numbers, I have to be better at the branding, I have to be better at the finances, I have to be better at the business strategy.
I have to be better with the clients, I have to be better with the people. And I was growing myself whilst growing the business. You know, and really, that’s what you need to do. Because if you as an individual don’t grow, your business won’t grow. In fact, your business grows in direct proportion to the amount you grow as an individual.
And I believe that and I continue now to grow. Like now I still am growing all the time, I’m learning all the time, I’m open minded, I want to learn new things. I don’t presume that I know, it all wants to, you know, still we still want to learn from people, I still have coaches myself, which I think is really important.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Because a lot of people in what I do at the moment I work and consult for an education company, we teach people how to get into property, you know, and build wealth for property. Right?
And when some people are starting off, what have you done this week, right? I mentioned that capacity as well, what have you done this week? Oh, I’m still just setting this up. Then and to set that up. And then I just want to make sure I’ve got all my ducks in a row. Then when I’ve done all of that, then I’ll stop.
Adam Stott:
And the problem is this. The problem is, if you’ve got no sales experience or background at all, there’s only three things that grow a business, right? That’s marketing, sales and branding, right, three activities that grow businesses, in my experience.
And the problem is the people that you’re referring to, if they’re not out there marketing, sales, if they’re not selling, and they’re not building their brand, where it’s amazing, they’re not going to grow, they can spend the next 10 years if they want making sure everything’s perfect. They’re not going to get anywhere unless you market sell, right.
Ibrahim Braimah:
But is it ever going to be perfect?
Adam Stott:
No. Of course, it’s never going to be perfect. So it never will look, you know, I had somebody else’s conversation. I was running an event, we do lots of events the other day, and you know, a woman was saying to me, I think you have to work on the products and service and make it absolutely perfect. And I said, well, if that was entirely true, I said, “What phone have you got in your hand?” So an iPhone six and iPhone one? You should know. So what one is it? She has an iPhone 13. So well, it was perfect the first time around? Well, there she goes. Now I can’t get your point. Right? Because you’ve always got to be improving. You know, and I think that the mentality is this market sells brands. Why?
So people are afraid to launch a product and then improve it. Because every product that you’ve got now is only a version versus a version in time, right? You know, is the app, you know, say Uber is an app, it’s been updated every three months and being approached? Right is what we’re on, like 200. But if it was good enough at version one, we’d still be on version one, right? So you have to continue improving. You have to market and sell on brand. That’s the thing you got to do.
Ibrahim Braimah:
A mentor of mine said to me, Listen, you might as well just do it anyway. Because your first one’s gonna be worse. Yeah, so muscle crackers and because it was when you weigh is still going to be the worst one you’re ever gonna do. 100%. Absolutely. Okay, cool. So how did you go ? This is what says you’re good at business, too.
Adam Stott:
The business grew very rapidly. As soon as I’ve got the model, right. We did a million in that first year when I got the model right. Really, because I started the business in 2008. In 2009. We went to the limits for 2009-2010 and made a million in that year. Then we were at 2.9 million. Then it went to 4.3. We didn’t have a bad year and went to 4.4. But I worked harder and didn’t grow and that’s when I knew I needed to change your strategy. Then it went to 6.8 million. And then we really grew. We went up to like 13.6 million.
I think the number was 24.8 to 33.9 to 40 billion pounds a year. We went on this ascension you know with that particular business and all the time, the teams grow to people so I went from being me on my own in a shed. So having 120 staff, having five sites, and, you know, running a large business dealing with partners and dealing with finance companies and, you know, a complete transformation in my life at that stage from where I was to where I wanted to be. And really that transformation took place over that period of time, because I continued developing myself.
I continued working hard, I started to get the right people around me. I continued working on the marketing, the sales, the branding, the business strategy, and the finance and everything over a period of time. And look, wasn’t all perfect, made a few mistakes along the way, you know, lots of and lots of mistakes, because you do. It was the first business I’ve ever had.
Ibrahim Braimah:
First business to $40 million.
Adam Stott:
It was great. And, you know, it was a good journey.
Ibrahim Braimah:
How long do I know we’re talking? Because you know, a lot of businesses, I mean, not even first businesses, but just a lot of businesses in general in the first five years, I think it’s over 80%.
Adam Stott:
That business was about nine years, I would say 9 or 10 years, about a decade. Wow, by the time I’d got halfway through, I would have become a millionaire personally, right. So halfway through the journey, I’ve been able to build a net worth in excess of a million. Later on, I had not just a net worth in excess of a million cash in the bank, right, you know, able to build up to that level. I started to enjoy my life, enjoy what I was doing and everything. It was great. across that period, though, honestly, no idea. And just so you know, in order to build that network I use profits from the business I reinvested to keep growing reinvested to keep growing, but then I started to invest from the very beginning. I have my own pension.
From the very, very beginning that I set out when I went self-employed, and I invested in that pension, the full 10 years are still invested in to this day, right for the whole term for another 10 years later, I still invest in that pension. But I also invest in property so I bought properties along the way, started off may personally get my own houses, doing them up selling them. The next one doing APA said like the first one I got along the same journey is the first property I bought. I think it was 150,000 sold for 200,000.
So I had some money there. Then, I bought what I bought on flight 250. I sold that for free, seven fireside good when the next one I bought was 875. I sold it for 1.3 million. Next one I bought for 2.1 million. Right? And I’d be good. Yeah, just getting up and running. And then I bought other houses and a decent property portfolio stuff where I bought some properties and other locations. I also bought properties and showrooms commercial properties, as well that I bought. And I did that alongside growing that business.
Ibrahim Braimah:
I’m massively trying to prove to myself that why did you choose property as an asset class to go into?
Adam Stott:
Well, I did invest in shares as well. And I invested in a pension, because I’d pension into my shares property and I was already invested in business. So I didn’t really say that there were too many more to consider. To be honest, I was just covering audio. Yeah, exactly. Well, that was it. Right? You know, so I realized that investing, and then what I did was start to separate business and personal, because a lot of people don’t do that.
I had the right advisors like Adam, you have to look after yourself personally, you have to create wealth for yourself personally, as well as well for the business. I started to do that and I say, What do you mean by that?
A lot of people that run businesses, their wealth is intrinsically linked to that business. But if he is linked to that business, if anything happens with that business or anything goes wrong with that business, you lose all your wealth. So you go from being wealthy to having nothing because you had everything in your business. So you have to create personal wealth, and you have to create business wealth.
Ibrahim Braimah:
So does that mean then that you have to be willing to pull up more money, even if they’re going to pay?
Adam Stott:
Even if you’re in a job, right? So let’s say I was running that company. So at times, I was earning what, quarter of a million a year, half a million a year, whatever. Now, when I take that money in that dividends and what I’m paid for being the owner of that business, I can leave that in the bank, I can not take it, I’ve got the option to leave in the bank have an option to not take it or I’ve got an option to invest it. So I took my salary and invested it. That’s what I did. And that bills my personal wealth.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Brilliant. Well, fantastic. So you feel instantly because what a lot of people do is just leave it in your business so that you don’t have to pay the income tax to pull the money out. Yeah, actually you’re saying take that money, pay your tax and then actually start to use your personal watch. Why was it such a great grinder and then What was it that you didn’t know?
Adam Stott:
So after the period of that business, when it was massive in size, I’d started speaking about a lot of media opportunities, people wanting to interview me, people wanting to be on podcasts, people who would miss speaking events. I got involved in actually teaching, coaching, mentoring, and personal development.
I went down that route, eventually, I decided to close that business, because of different market changes and things that were happening within that business. And, you know, it was a bit messy, it was not ideal. But I moved into the new business that I moved into, which was coaching, mentoring. And I built that business. And we built that into the millions as well, you know, it was a much easier journey second time around, right?
Well, in addition to that, now, I have other businesses that I’m a part of, very recently, I had a business that is in the communications industry, that we just signed a very large contract, I’m involved in that I have other businesses and things that I do have a property things as well as the training business and, and mentoring and coaching, which I love.
Ibrahim Braimah:
That’s absolutely incredible. I mean, that’s actually how we met because I came to one of your events. And you post the picture, I remember just sitting in the back of the room, I was actually in the back of the room with a colleague of mine, I took a picture of the whole room like that. And I was just like, this is insane, right?
Because someone who’s run a business turning over 40 million a year in the room, and actually breaking down the systems, you know, talking about the sales, marketing numbers, or everything I did, and things I was like, this is going to transform my business. It was absolutely incredible.
Adam Stott:
Yeah. And that’s the thing, I think that’s where what makes what we do unique is I’ve been there at the highest point. So I’ve had ups, I’ve had downs. You know, I’ve created marketing systems that work not just now for my businesses, but for 1000s of other businesses. We have a system that grows businesses.
If somebody’s listening, and they’re a business owner, they want to grow their business, regardless of what industry and we know the systems are put in place to help you grow and help you grow profitably. To help you to avoid the problems and cope with the mental pressures and get everything right in order to get the result you want.
That’s what I do. I do and I love it. And I enjoy it. And it’s, you know, now I have the choices to in that nice place, as I said, so we’ve got the success that I wanted to get, I’ve been able to win multiple awards, European Entrepreneur of the Year as Amazon, furnish the year, and lots of different things, lots of cool things all the slab in fusion.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely incredible. I’ve really, really enjoyed this. And I think anyone listening is just understanding. There was something that just kept going through the whole thing for me, you just kept talking about developing myself, you know, I read books, and I developed study there was just always about personal growth. Because when you grow, you know, whatever endeavors you actually want to get into that’s also going to grow as well. Right? Yeah, absolutely. It’s like you said, it’s a business that is growing, you will also grow personally as well. So just keep developing yourself.
Adam Stott:
100%. And, you know, for anyone watching, it’s like, just remember,, it’s a journey,, enjoy the journey. And it’s certainly what I’ve done.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely. So just one final question, which is the tradition for the podcast, you’ve literally started from the bottom right, you were 15 years old, living by yourself. That’s crazy.
Adam Stott:
Jim Collins is a friend of mine. And then when she came into one of my shows one day, and she just put that song on Sky from the blog, and she saw me as well.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Yeah, incredible, which is just absolutely mind blowing. So you’ve done all that you’ve run your businesses, you’re still running a business, you know, you’re just crazy busy. Hence why when you said you were free to them, like I’m coming down today, and I’m running down, like, so the podcast is called the need to succeed. So today, which is the fifth of August 2022. Yeah, what is your need to succeed now?
Adam Stott:
I think that I personally enjoy the challenges, the challenges of growth. I like the variety. It depends on what context you mean. Because I think success has to have context. Like for me, as a dad, I want to be the best dad I can be. You know, and that’s, you know, success in that area.
From a financial point of view, you know, obviously in a good position financially, and being able to build businesses that give me financial freedom and choices and things which is great, but for me now, it’s about helping more people, helping more people grow, seeing them grow, giving them that knowledge and helping them on the journey, which is what I like to do now and I love what I do.
Ibrahim Braimah:
Absolutely amazing. Listen, it’s been an absolute pleasure. You know, I for one I’m really really grateful for because of what I learned, you know, in this room, that is literally the reason why I’m doing this podcast getting the messages out there. Well, I’m eternally grateful. And Adam, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you very much.
Adam Stott:
Hi, everybody, Adam here. And I hope you love today’s episode. I hope you thought it was fabulous. And if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course, I’ll be super grateful if that is a five star review for putting our all into this podcast for you, delivering you the content, giving you the secrets, and if you’ve enjoyed it, please go and give us a review and talk about what your favorite episode is.
Perhaps every single month, I select someone from that review list to come to one of my exclusive Academy days and have lunch with me on the day meeting hundreds of my clients so you want that to be you. Then you’re going to be in with a shout out if you go and give us a review on iTunes. Please of course do remember to subscribe so you can get all the up to date episodes. Peace and love and I’ll see you very very soon. Thank you.