From “U” Grades to £100M in Sales – Turning Pain Into Purpose (Toms Talks)
In this special episode, Adam turns the tables and shares his own story — recorded as a guest on the Tom Talks podcast, hosted by Tom, who lost his brother Liam to suicide in 2015 and built his show around stories of overcoming adversity.
It’s one of the most personal and in-depth interviews Adam has done. He opens up about the moments that shaped him: going from an affluent childhood and private school to living in the back of a transport café after his dad lost everything; leaving school with a single GCSE and a “U” in everything else; and how being written off academically lit a fire that drove him to build businesses generating over £100 million in sales and earn three consecutive London Stock Exchange recognitions.
Along the way, Adam gets practical — breaking down the four stages of business (startup, growth, scale, exit), why people fail by applying “scale strategies” too early, and how relationship capital and simply having more conversations changed everything. He also reflects candidly on the £1 million it cost him to close a business at 31, the relief that came with closure, and why self-belief — and sometimes the right words from the right person — matter most when you’re at rock bottom.
A raw, honest conversation about resilience, mindset, and the belief that life happens for you, not to you.
In this episode:
- Why early adversity became the source of Adam’s drive
- Finding your strengths when school says you’re “no good”
- The four stages of business and the strategy mistakes that stall growth
- Relationship capital: why business is “mathematical, not magical”
- What it really feels like to lose £1M — and bounce back
- Advice for anyone facing exams, setbacks, or starting over
If you get value from this episode, please leave a five-star review and share it — it’s the best way to help us reach and support more business owners.
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Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Hey, Business Growth Secrets listeners. Adam Stott here. Um, welcome back to the podcast if you’re returning, and welcome if you are a first-time listener. I’ve got something very special for you today. Now, if you have been following for the podcast for a long time, you’ll know that we’ve had some of the world’s biggest stars on this podcast.
[00:00:20] We’ve had A-list celebrities, we’ve had dragons, we’ve had billionaires and, and some awesome, awesome interviews, and you can go back and, and see those incredible interviews. Today I’ve got something that is a little bit different, which I think you’re going to absolutely love. And based on the feedback from the last episode where I played an interview I did with James Martin, a lot of people really enjoyed that.
[00:00:46] And I think today is gonna be a super special episode for you because this week I recently went on a podcast called Tom Talks And Tom, um, is a great interviewer. I’ve got to [00:01:00] say, I’ve, I’ve been interviewing thousands of people, and I’ve done it for a long, long time, and I really felt that Tom conducted an amazing interview of me.
[00:01:09] He asked very deep questions, and actually pulled out one of the best interviews I think I’ve actually done. So I wanted to bring it to this podcast, ’cause I want you to hear it. In this particular episode, I really talk about business owner resilience. I’ve talked about some of my moments where I’ve had tough times, where I’ve had difficulties.
[00:01:29] I talk about the things that have inspired me along the way, things that have energized me, things that have drained my energy. I think absolutely everything is here, and I feel that if you are a business owner navigating building a business, you’re gonna get a tremendous amount of value out of today’s episode.
[00:01:46] So jump on in, listen. This is not me conducting the interview, it’s me being interviewed, so you’re gonna hear a bit more about my story. I hope you really enjoy it. And remember, if you haven’t already, the way that this podcast grows is [00:02:00] by you going and sharing an interview. That’s the way the algorithm loves it with podcasts.
[00:02:06] So if you have got a spare moment after you’ve listened to this episode, go ahead, leave us a review, um, five stars ideally, so we can start to, to drive more business owners and help more business owners out there. Enjoy today’s episode, and I look forward to seeing you in person soon. You’ve sold over 100 million online, and you’ve been recognized by the London Stock Exchange for the top thousand companies to inspire Britain, which is three times running-
[00:02:33] which is absolutely incredible and inspiring. But for me, I, I wanna understand where that drive and, and that determination came from. Could you take us back to the beginning? Yeah, a- absolutely. Uh, depends on where you wanna go back to in the beginning, but I think if it’s the actual drive part of it, I think that a lot of my drive really has come from, in terms of building businesses and wanting to be successful, is that when I was [00:03:00] younger, and this is right back to the beginning, um, we…
[00:03:03] Uh, my family’s quite affluent, went to a private school. We’re in a good, you know, nice place, had a very stable, great life, and, and my dad actually ran into some challenges with his businesses, and he ended up losing, um, his business and going through a really, really difficult time. And during that period, we went from living in a beautiful, uh, five-bedroom detached house, kind of having the dream life, to, to being in a place where my mum and dad split up, everything got taken away.
[00:03:29] And, and before I knew it, me, my two brothers, my mum, um, were living in a, the back of a transport caf, um, which was the last asset that my c- my family had. Like, my dad had an underpinning business. He had two cafes as well. And, you know, when they, when they split up, it kind of all fell apart. And I, and I always remember-
[00:03:55] When you talk about drive, I’ve, I’ve had some time now to kind of reflect on t- on this. And I always remember that because I’d, I’d been in a private school, I’d been in this sort of lifestyle, I remember I had other friends, and I’d be [00:04:00] going round their houses, and we’d be going and, you know, they’d have tennis courts, swimming pools, be very, very wealthy, and I was going back to where I w- I was, and we had nothing.
[00:04:06] And I think that always left me
[00:04:10] in a place where I felt like I’d seen it, I’d tasted it, I’d had the vision of what great looked like, but at the moment I didn’t have great, and I think that that really created a, a burning desire for me to, to wanna be able to achieve things. And, you know, that… when you look at it like that, that’s kind of where my drive goes back to.
[00:04:30] And I think that’s influenced a lot for me. Um, and I think now, now I know what I know, and, and I look at… And obviously we train, you know, thousands of, of, of people and business owners. One of the things I think people struggle with is if you haven’t seen it, if you haven’t seen where you wanna go, or you haven’t had a vision of where you wanna go and what you wanna achieve and what you wanna accomplish, h- then you end up quite contented often with where you are.
[00:04:56] But if you’ve seen something great and then you go [00:05:00] backwards, it really does give you a drive to go forwards. And I think that really gave me a drive, and I think that’s been quite a big influence, um, on my life. And actually, a good thing. I think out of adversity- You know, often, uh, obviously bad things happen to, to lots of people a lot of the time and, you know, everybody has things that they go through in their life.
[00:05:20] And, and it’s just can you use that difficult thing for good and for purpose? And I don’t think I had any conscious knowing that that’s what I was doing. I actually just think it created a drive in me where I wanted more, and that was kinda like the beginning. And I remember at that stage growing up feeling like I wanted to achieve more, I wanted to do more, but this is where frustration kinda creeps in a lot.
[00:05:46] Um, the… I had lots of drive, but I didn’t know how to put that drive into action. I didn’t have the skillsets, I didn’t have the knowledge, and then I also had kinda, like, poor aptitude as well, so, you know, I was [00:06:00] terrible in school. Um, I often felt I would sit in a, in a classroom, everything would be going straight over my head, everything was overwhelming.
[00:06:08] I don’t think I could concentrate, uh, very well in, in school environments and learn very well, uh, which led to a lot of people kind of putting you down and, you know, your status if you’re a thicko in school. Do you know what I mean? Or, or if you’re deemed to be a thicko in school, you’re kind of… I use that language, but if you’re deemed to be that, it’s, it’s not very good for your self-esteem I don’t think actually.
[00:06:29] And, and I remember thinking, “Well, I wanna do all these things. I wanna achieve all these things, but I can’t do that because I can’t even pass a maths exam,” or, “I can’t do these different thing,” or, “I can’t even, can’t even spell very well in English, and I’m the worst in the class, so who am I to be thinking that I can go and achieve something good?”
[00:06:46] Do you understand what I mean? And, and I think that actually created a lot of frustration and a lot of friction for me to be like, “Well, how am I gonna, gonna actually do these kinda things?” And it kinda started my, my, my journey of wanting to be successful I think [00:07:00] originates from doing really poor at school, having a little bit of a, a, a, of a change of lifestyle when I was younger, and seeing lots of people having great things in their lives and really feeling like I didn’t have that.
[00:07:12] Mm. I can see where the drive’s come from just from listening to you. That’s, uh… Yeah, I, I, I 100% agree with you. You know, in the face of adversity, that’s what makes you who you are. And, and, uh, we were speaking off-camera about what is the podcast about, and it is essentially, it’s that. You know, I’m a big believer that we turn, we turn pain into purpose, and I always say within the speaking that I do, life happens for you and not to you.
[00:07:36] And if you can see it that way, then you can do incredible things. So the pod- Oh, I love that. I love that, that phrase. I think that’s really cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, I… For, for me, I lost my brother, um, to suicide in 2015, and, um, I sadly was the one that found him and, you know, that put me in a very dark place.
[00:07:52] And I say to people, you know, that happened and it was awful, and it was horrendous, and I would not wish that on anybody, but me and you wouldn’t be having this conversation right [00:08:00] now if that didn’t happen over 10 years ago. And that’s why I always say it to my audience, you know, when you see life happening for you instead of to you- Yeah
[00:08:06] that’s when your life starts to change. Oh, I’m, I’m sorry that’s, uh, that’s happened to you, and I think what you have done here in trying to make an impact and help other people is incredible, right? So- I appreciate that, brother. Yeah. I just wanted to take a little break from this episode and say thank you to every single listener and viewer that we’ve had so far on the podcast.
[00:08:24] I am extremely grateful. The motivation behind starting the podcast was simple. Tom’s Talks was a story of overcoming adversity from losing my brother, Liam, to suicide in 2015. But I know that there is millions of other people out there that also have a story to tell of either overcoming adversity, providing value, or educating to make the world a better place.
[00:08:48] But 94% of you have not yet subscribed to this podcast. It would mean the absolute world to me if you could hit the subscribe button so I can [00:09:00] reach out to bigger, better guests, provide more value, and make a bigger impact in the world. Back to the episode. Thank you. And I, I love this and you know, I, I’m very interested in business.
[00:09:10] I’ve been re- really excited to speak t- with you today, but you know, and that, that’s what life’s about, you know. I get to do something that I genuinely love every single day, you know, speaking to people like yourself that have achieved great things in the world. Uh, but ultimately getting down to the deep understanding of why, like what makes you tick, what’s the mindset, um, and how have you got to where you are today.
[00:09:31] That’s, that’s what I love the most about doing this. So, um, again, you know, thank you for, for- Yeah … for giving me the, the opportunity, man. So what happened then from, you know, y- you, you explained about you had this life and then your dad lost it and you went back to, to- Mm … going back, you sort of went backwards.
[00:09:49] But where did the, the entrepreneurial side really start to kick in? Was it as soon as you left school? Did you go to college and then leave? I think my dad, my dad’s been, [00:10:00] uh, an amazing, um, influence, uh, on me without any shadow of a doubt. And when we were younger, we’d be driving around looking at houses, looking at properties.
[00:10:10] I don’t know if, uh, sometimes I talk to other people and their dads did the same, but sometimes people look at me like I’m mad. Mm. But it’s quite funny, like when I’ve got my other entrepreneurial friends- Yeah … that say like, “Yeah, we used to drive around looking at houses.” Yeah. “We used to drive around looking at…”
[00:10:22] And, and I think that, I don’t know if that- Yeah … that sets in- Resonates … with you a little bit. It’s weird. Well, maybe and, and somebody that’s listening to this, um, you probably don’t realize what kind of impact that maybe is having on your children. Do you know what I mean? But for, for me that- I- I think that my dad set that kind of thing in my…
[00:10:39] My dad is an entrepreneur. A different entrepreneur than me for, for sure, um, because he’s much more safety driven. He’s 100% very safety driven. But he, he eventually bounced back, um, worked very hard for a long period of time, and has actually been really successful in, in his later life after losing everything.
[00:10:58] So that’s kind of what happened with my dad. [00:11:00] But I think where- what that set out for me was like, “Okay, I wanna do something with my life. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t know what I wanna do, but I know I, I don’t wanna just have an ordinary life.” That’s kind of… I, I don’t know what, what good looks like, I don’t know what great looks like, but I don’t wanna have just an ordinary life.
[00:11:21] But it started out that way. So anyway, I finished, um, I finished school because I just didn’t, I, I didn’t… I wasn’t good in the environment. I finished with one GCSE. I got a U in everything else, so I got all Us, which basically confirmed my, my, like, you, you, you know, “You’re rubbish at all this stuff” status.
[00:11:39] I got all Us. Which by the way, I know they’ve changed it now. They have grades like 7s and 8s I think, right? But Us is not unbelievable, it’s ungraded. So it was literally so bad- … that I wasn’t graded. Um,
[00:11:50] apart from drama. And do you know what it was? Like, I loved drama. I actually enjoyed it, and I don’t know why, but it… I thrived in, in that environment. I enjoyed [00:12:00] it. For whatever reason, I really, really liked to sort of be in drama, and that was good. And then, and then I went off and I left school and I started working with my dad.
[00:12:08] And, and when I started working with my dad, I very quickly formed almost a hatred for work, which is very… also quite important because what you believe and what you experience, sometimes you can hold on. Like, I love work, and I’m like, I work very, very hard. Always have, and I enjoy it, and I love what I do.
[00:12:30] But what I hated, because my dad’s in building and construction and that type of area, is I couldn’t think of anything worse than just, like, moving things and carrying things and sweeping and… Oh, it’s just like, I am terrible with my hands in, not all areas, right? But in, in all building areas, I’m terrible with my hands, right?
[00:12:51] So absolutely terrible. So it was just like the worst thing ever, which I think even give me even more of, “You’re useless at this.” Do you know what I mean? It’s like, it’s like you can’t do anything. And [00:13:00] I, and I do see that sometimes in young people- Is they’re told they’re thick, they’re written off, they’re looked at like you can’t do anything or you’re no good, and people roll their eyes.
[00:13:13] In fact, I had to… It was a, a, a mastermind I run, and very recently at this mastermind we had a, a guy, uh, that, who’s got a really good podcast actually as well. It’s called ADH- um, D Works. And he said about ADHD, which I think, I’m not saying I’ve got ADHD, I’m not getting into that side of it, but I probably have got some of it.
[00:13:30] And he said that young people, um, often, uh, with that kind of thing, where they’ve got on a, some type of attention deficit, have their eyes rolled at them- Mm … 28,000 times more than the normal person. And I feel like I had the eyes rolled at me in every single way, shape, and form you can imagine because I was just different in my approach.
[00:13:51] Anyway So what happened was, I then decided to, you know, stop working with my dad, go and try and find my own [00:14:00] way. I worked loads of menial jobs, and I was… I just sucked at, like, stuff. And eventually, like the first job where, this is so weird, that I actually got a little bit of, “Oh, I’m actually quite good at this.”
[00:14:14] And I think that that’s something that young people or people should try- find something that you’re good at, so at least you can build your confidence and build your self-esteem, and actually be able to look at yourself with a bit of pride. And randomly, mine was at KFC, and it was like, you had to bread all the chicken.
[00:14:32] It was a horrible, u- a horrible environment, but for whatever reason, I liked it. And that was a… You know, and I did that. And eventually I left there, and I got a job selling, and that’s when the light bulb went on for me. The light bulb, like, was like, “Okay.” So when I went to this environment, so, I know it depends on how deep you wanna go, but I found the thing that I am really great, and I found my superpower.
[00:14:54] And my advice for anybody that is, um, looking to achieve more with their life, that feels a bit [00:15:00] held back, is you gotta find what your superpower is, ’cause everybody’s got one. Everybody’s got something that they’re really good at, and everybody’s different. You know, for some people, they’ve got great empathy.
[00:15:10] So you seem like you’ve got really good empathy. You know, for example, I only met you i- in a short period of time, but e- you’ve got things that you’re really good at, and that you definitely can have an advantage over other people by having that thing. And the thing that I had was sales. Like, the first time I went in and did sales, I worked for a company called Powerhouse, and I went in there, and the only reason I got a job there was because literally it was indoors.
[00:15:33] I barely had any jobs apart from KFC that was indoors. Other than that, carrying bricks and stuff like that. And they had a free coffee machine. I was like, “Oh my God- … I think this is the jackpot. It’s indoors. They’ve got a free coffee machine. I can get these drinks- … and stuff like that.” So I go in and I do this, uh…
[00:15:48] do this job, and I had a salary. So I’d never had a salary before. I’d only been paid by the hour, but this job was like a salary. So I felt like, wow, this is like I’m important. I remember getting there, and I was speaking to a lady, a woman [00:16:00] called Diane, and we were speaking by the coffee machine, which I was hanging by to get my free coffee.
[00:16:05] And she goes to me, “Yeah, see, what you do is you, you go up to the people, and you try and sell them a washing machine, or a cooker, or a TV, and you do these different things.” That was basically the thing. And I was like, “No, no, no. No.” And she’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what you do.” I’m like, “No, no.” “Because, ’cause you, you get paid when you sell.”
[00:16:23] I was like, “No, no, I’ve got a salary.” And, and she goes, “Yeah, but you get extra.” I said, “What? So if I go and talk to people, I get extra money?” She’s like, “Yeah, you… If you go and talk to people, speak to a lot of people, you can earn a lot of money.” And I was like bang. So, like all of a sudden my life I was like the Tasmanian Devil of the Powerhouse showroom, and I’m just spinning round talking to everyone, I’m going and talking to everyone.
[00:16:47] And then before I knew it, I got really good at it, and I learned very quickly. And all of a sudden people are like, “Oh, that boy’s good. He’s good at this.” Like, and it, you know… And it was almost like- [00:17:00] It was almost just like a nat- a natural fit of that’s what I should be doing, and it kind of just, it really built my confidence.
[00:17:08] Mm. It really built my self-esteem because I finally was in my lane. I’d found my thing, and before I knew it, I was earning good money, and then I started winning. I got, I got my first promotion there, which built up my confidence. And- So how old were you at this point then? I was only, like, um… When I first started working there, I was 17.
[00:17:26] Yeah. So I worked there from 17 to 19, and it was just… It cha- it changed my life. But the thing is, I mean, for every person that’s listening, they go through different things, but if you’re working in a job you hate, it’s probably not because you’re useless. Mm. It’s probably ’cause you’re w- in the wrong environment for you.
[00:17:42] Mm. You know, you gotta try a few things, right, in order to find out what’s right for you, and I see this, um, now in, in younger people, like, like my nephew. Um, I’ve seen, he’s w- he’s done some work for me, and he, he hated doing some of the work he did for us. But he went to Australia, and he started doing nightclub [00:18:00] promoting, and he came out of himself, and he loved it.
[00:18:02] Mm. You know, so everybody’s got their thing. I found that my thing was sales, and then, you know, I took that, took that baton, and I started to run with it. I went and got a job at Ford. I was really successful there. I won major competitions, and then I went on to BMW, and then I’ll, I’ll… With challenges along the way, right?
[00:18:20] It’s just lots of challenges. I started to be really successful at BMW, and by the time I was 25, I was on, you know, for me, wildly succ- more successful than I thought I was gonna be, uh, where, where I had a six-figure salary. I was driving a £100,000 car. I had my own house, and, and I’d kinda got myself into a good position.
[00:18:41] So of course, then I decided that, “Well, I’m gonna screw it up, and I’m gonna start my own business.” So I, I kind of hit a glass ceiling, and I actually just felt I couldn’t grow anymore, and I, and I went and started my first business. And, and I experienced a lot of challenges in, in the first year in my [00:19:00] business, where it really…
[00:19:02] I had to relook at everything, really. Uh- What was the business? So the first business I ever started was a finance business, and it was called Big Financial, and basically it was… I had worked in cars, right? So I’d worked at BMW. I’d worked at Ford and worked in these different companies, and the idea was that most of the money that the car dealerships were making were in the finance.
[00:19:25] So when you go and buy a £50,000 car, you’re gonna earn commission for the finance, et cetera. So I was like, “Well, you know what? There’s in- there were independent companies that I could lend their money out, and I could get paid commission”, so it was like a finance brokerage. And I started it in 2008. I quit my job.
[00:19:41] And- Good year to start. I, I know. So- If, if … Should you start a finance company in 2008? There’s a big question mark on that, right? It’s, like, literally the credit crunch. And that, when we talk about resilience- Yeah … I was three to four months in- I’d gone, [00:20:00] been, from being… ‘Cause this is the other thing, I’ve been on lots of personal development.
[00:20:04] You talked about personal development. I’ve been on different trainings. I’d got myself in a state of mind where I’m gonna be a millionaire, I’m gonna win. I was totally revved up for it. I had it in my head, is this is what I’m gonna do, this is what I’m gonna create. Nothing’s gonna stop me. And then three to four months later, after being in my mum’s spare bedroom ’cause I’d sold my house to fund the business- Wow
[00:20:24] uh, getting up every single day, not getting the clients I wanted, not getting the leads I wanted, um, watching my money that I had from my house sale drain away, um, feeling like a failure, saying to myself, like, “What’s going wrong? What did I get wrong?” And, and just not seeing a way out of it. I quickly started to lose a lot of confidence in my ability to, to turn it around.
[00:20:51] I… All of the confidence that I’d had, which had been building and building and building and building, it was just like tss, and I didn’t know what to [00:21:00] do. And I pretty much felt like, well, you know, I, I, you know, just got to the point where I felt like I’m not gonna make it and I’m not gonna build a business and I’m not as good as what I thought I was.
[00:21:12] And this is where your, your self-doubt and your, your beliefs… And I was in a very isolated environment, actually. I didn’t have anyone around me. I didn’t have any friends in business. I was trying to figure out everything on my own. I didn’t really know anyone. I didn’t really have any relationships. I’d gone very far from…
[00:21:32] I’d sort of drifted out of where I’ve, my path of where I was meant to be, and I really struggled. And, and the first year especially was in- incredibly difficult. Now, on top of that, that belief, that struggle that I was experiencing in that early year of the business being so difficult- Then I s- the newspapers started coming out and, and it was, it was almost like I had it in my [00:22:00] head, “Maybe I’m not good enough.”
[00:22:01] I had it in my head, “Maybe this isn’t gonna work.” I had it in my head, “Maybe I’ve made a mistake.” I had all these things in my head, and then the newspapers with Northern Rock queues out the front, you know, people trying to get their money out, a banking crisis, all of these things were, were like the confirmation, “Yeah, you messed up.
[00:22:22] You got it wrong. You made a mistake.” And then basically when I started my business I had 50 grand that I sold from my house, I put it in the bank. The 50 had essentially turned into nothing, so I was out of money, I was out of confidence, so I was … And I felt like my, my journey, uh, my determination to go and be a millionaire was, was impl- it had imploded essentially at that stage.
[00:22:47] And that’s, that’s kind of, that was my first year in business. I’ve now trained, you know, many … We’ve had over 100,000 people in the last eight years that have been to our events. We’ve trained a lot of businesses, and the reality is I [00:23:00] think a lot of people Often experience or jump into a business not actually knowing all of what it takes, and actually without understanding that resilience.
[00:23:11] Mm. Often I’m asked… This is what I was quite keen to do. I’ve do a lot of podcasts, quite keen to do this one specifically, because of understanding your story and your journey actually first of all, but then looking at the lens of resilience. Because I don’t think that people often realize how important resilience is in, in success and, and actually how important- Mm
[00:23:34] other people can be as well- Yeah … um, you know, for, for, for that reason. So that’s kind of where… That was my first year, you know? Yeah. I think it’s, um, especially at the moment, the, the resilience piece for, for everybody, but especially for the younger generation. Um, and again, this is why I was really- Yeah
[00:23:51] keen to get you on to talk about resilience in business, and I’m really glad you explained, you know, your journey, especially the, the 2008 period. [00:24:00] Because, uh, I do a lot of work in schools- Mm … and there is zero resilience at the minute. And a lot of, uh, questions that I get asked is, “Oh, Tom’s Talks is doing really well, you know, how’d you do it?”
[00:24:10] And I was like s- I mean, this… I mean, s- I’m seven years into this journey. Mm. You know? And, and I think, like you’ve just said, you know, everybody wants it to happen like that. Yeah, man. Everybody wants it to happen overnight. Yeah. And they think it happens overnight because on social media it makes it look like it happened overnight.
[00:24:24] Yeah. When in reality, as you’ve just very well explained, it doesn’t happen overnight. It can take t- weeks, months, years, and- Mm … and everything else. And, and, and in those weeks, months, and years, there can be times where you wanna quit, as you’ve just said. No, yeah, definitely. It can be times where you, you probably did give up for a short period- Mm
[00:24:40] of time. Days where you don’t wanna get out of bed. But because of social media and because of, I think, just the way the world is, everyone thinks that that, that’s not the reality. So when they do actually try, and as you’ve said- Yeah … with the people you’ve spoken to, you know, they think that, “Yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be a millionaire in the first year.”
[00:24:58] And, and then when it doesn’t happen, you’re like, “Well, [00:25:00] what’s the point?” But like we’ve just said, it takes a lot of grit- Yeah … determination, overcoming a lot of challenges, a lot of adversity, and it takes time. Yeah Well, I’m, I’m, I’m just 100% with you on that, and I think, I think this is when your first question about drive, and you were talking about the first…
[00:25:18] The question is if you are so connected to, to that drive- Mm … that it’s gonna pull you through these different kinds of moments, and it’s gonna get, you know, start to get inventive and, and start to get resourceful. But it’s so tough to be able to change the, the questions you’re asking yourself and the patterns in your head because the problem is, let’s say I’m in that situation, which I w- which I was back in 2008, and I’ve, I’ve done that.
[00:25:47] Um, I, if I could be asking… I’ve got two sets of questions. One set of question is, “How long can I last? How long will my money last me? How long can I not get clients for? How long can I wait till I get another five [00:26:00] clients?” And I’m saying these k- kind of questions. That kind of question is preloaded and pre-framed with inevitable doom.
[00:26:08] Basically, it’s like, “Well, okay, so doom is coming. How long can I put it off?” And, and I think that with a lot of businesses, this survival mode is that’s how they live their business life. Now, you imagine you’re doing that. I did that for, did that for a year, you know, from 2008 to 2009. But I have literally met business owners that’ve been doing that for 10 years, you know, where, where they’re asking themselves those questions.
[00:26:32] Now, if you flip the questions and it’s like, “Well, how can I go and find 10 extra clients this month to get myself in a better position?” It’s a better question. You ask a better question, you get a better result, right? “How can I go and build the relationships with people that’ll tell me what to do?” Mm-hmm.
[00:26:47] You know, “How can I find some entrepreneurs that are crushing it right now that can share that with me?” And you flip the question, you start to flip the result because you flip the intention. I do definitely think… I, I mean, there’s two parts to, to what you just [00:27:00] said. Is also the part that you just said about young people, and I do think with young people- There at the moment, um, that Instagram envy is, is just, is so fake, um, drives them wild.
[00:27:15] And when you look at someone that’s doing well, you look at them as a snapshot in a moment, and that snapshot, let’s say they’re with whatever, with a Ferrari, whatever you wanna call it, yeah? That snapshot of a moment is where they are right now, and you go, “Well, why am I not there?” But what you haven’t seen is the 10-year journey that it took to get there.
[00:27:36] Do you understand what I mean? And I think a lot of people miss that. And when you look at other people, you can’t look at other people with envy. When you look at other people, you’ve just gotta say, “Well, that person’s there, and I might be five years behind, and I’m gonna keep moving on my journey.” No one’s better at you.
[00:27:52] Not- this is the way I see it. No one is better than you. They’re just at a different stage of their journey. So if you can get out of that [00:28:00] comparison and then start to focus… Easier said than done. I’ve been there myself. I understand what that’s like. Then you can start to create better results. And what changed it for me, so this is some practical stuff, from being in that situation to starting to grow, was relationship capital A friend of mine at the time, Chris, um, who’s, who’s a great guy, I reached out to him.
[00:28:21] He started talking to me and helping me, and explaining to me where I should be putting my efforts and my time, and where I was making mis- mistakes. I think this is super important right now. I tell you what, building businesses right now, everyone’s got in their mind, “Well, look, if I just do some ads and I just do a funnel, and I just get on with it, then I’ll make a million, and then I’ll be really happy, and then I’ll get this, and then I’ll get that, and then I’ll be crushing it and everyone will see how good I am.”
[00:28:45] Well, the reality is it don’t look like that at all. And, and this is… ‘Cause th- the people st- they’re, like, waiting for a magic wand that transforms their business, where the reality is if they went and got around 10 entrepreneurs, or they went to a networking event tomorrow night at the beginning, there, [00:29:00] there’d be around 10 entrepreneurs to have 10 new conversations.
[00:29:02] Business growth invariably at the beginning… So this is where I get a bit businessy. Yeah, go for it, man. But hopefully gonna- No, no, go for it … hopefully I can help people. Right. I love it. I love it. I love it. So, yeah, so- This episode of the Tom’s Talks podcast is proudly sponsored by Unthin, the hair growth company that’s helping people feel more confident in their own skin.
[00:29:20] From supplements to topical product, Unthin is deeply rooted in the science behind helping people with a healthy hair and scalp. You can use the code Tom20, that’s T-O-M 2-0, for 20% off at the checkout. Thank you to Unthin to supporting honest conversations around mental health. There’s three stages. Well, really, there’s four stages of a business, right?
[00:29:44] And this is, this is the… And we’ll, we’ll talk about all four stages. So let’s say there’s four stages of a business. We’ve got the startup phase, which is when you’re starting. You’ve got the growth phase, which is essentially when you’re building, you’re going through growth, you’re building the team. Then you’ve got the scale phase, which is [00:30:00] when you’re scaling that.
[00:30:01] This is… And then I’ll give you some numbers in a minute. And then you’ve got the exit, exit phase when you’re selling, right? So the startup phase is basically your zero to 100 grand in sales. Your growth phase is your 100 grand to a million. Your scale phase is your million to 10. And then your exit phase is when you choose to cash your chips in, right?
[00:30:18] So you’ve got those four different stages. What you have to do at the beginning is radically different from what you have to do at scale and what you have to do at exit. It’s just completely different. And the problem is, is a lot of people try to use strategies to… that are scale strategies at startup So for example, building a funnel, um, getting your ads out to market, getting your automation in place, you know, doing all of these different things, using…
[00:30:43] Like I’m gonna use AI to be hands-off. It’s not a startup strategy, it’s a scale-up strategy. It’s like you’re gonna do that or grow to scale strategy. When you’re at the start, really, you, you’ve g- you need a, you need basic planning and understanding, you know, who, who is your target market, what [00:31:00] is your offer, where are you gonna find them, how are you gonna influence them, which sales process should we use, and how many do we need to actually speak to to get the numbers that we want?
[00:31:07] Like six, six parts of that. Very simple, right? And the next part of that is, all right, the how many. How many people have we spoke to today? How many offers have we made? You speak to one person today about your business and you make one offer, you got one opportunity that you might do business, you might not do business.
[00:31:26] If you want a guarantee that you’re gonna make money today, speak to 10 people, make 10 offers, then someone’s gonna say yes, even if you suck at sales and you’re speaking to the wrong people. Right? So then the strategy helps you speak to the right people and get better at sales, et cetera. Mm-hmm. So it’s all quite logical that in the beginning…
[00:31:41] But I didn’t know any of this when I started out. But my pal Chris, he’s like, “Adam, you’re on your own, you’re an island. You don’t know anyone. You’re not around anyone. You’re sitting in a bedroom. You’re reactive. You’re waiting for it to happen to you. It ain’t coming. You gotta get out into the big, wide world.
[00:31:59] [00:32:00] Business is a numbers game. It’s not magical, it’s mathematical.” Mm. “How are we gonna speak to the people we need to speak to to get the results?” Straight up. I was like, “All right.” So this is the wake-up call that I need. He’s northern by the way, as well. You- I know you’re not, right? Every… Northern have got a good way of cutting through the noise, right- Yeah, yeah
[00:32:16] I find, yeah. Yeah. So, um, so I did that, and I got out of my mum’s spare bedroom. I went and got myself a tiny little office. I started speaking to people. I started making offers. I joined a, a networking group that was… It was more of a, more than a networking group. It was like a mastermind group, uh, which was, uh, about 18 grand a year, which was a lot of money for me ’cause I didn’t really have any money at that point.
[00:32:40] Mm. But it was one of the best decisions that I made. It was called The Business Lounge. Doesn’t exist now, but we used to go out, and we’d go to The Shard, and we’d go to The Gherkin, and we went to all these nice places in London, and I met a lot of key people. And then I started doing their finance, and then I started doing their cars.
[00:32:57] And all of a sudden, you know, [00:33:00] I started to not be looking at what the newspapers said, and I started to look at the fact that I was making sales, and I was building relationships. And I started to realize that I was in control of what I was creating rather than the economy. Mm. I started to realize that actually if I w- So simple, right?
[00:33:16] ‘Cause basically go back to powerhouse, what do I do? I went and spoke to loads of people. Did I know a lot about washing machines? Not really. Did I know a lot about cookers? No. Yeah? But I went and did it anyway. So this is what I did. I just go and speak to all the people, and that was the start. And I started building that up.
[00:33:30] Now, that was me getting through the start phase. Relationship capital, more important than financial capital. Mm. I didn’t have any money, but I did have relationships. I leveraged the relationships. That helped me to get through the growth. And then I started building. And then I got obsessed with, with learning, personal development- And I started to invest in lots of different areas, and I started to build teams, and when I f- I mean, talk about the problems of it.
[00:33:56] I had, like, so many problems. I was the worst manager on the planet. I, [00:34:00] I employed people. I was terrible. I was impatient. I didn’t train them. I blamed them for everything. It’s like every single mistake you can make in the begi- The first business I was just… A lot of the start was just a disaster, frankly.
[00:34:13] It was learning by trial and error and, and that is the biggest mistake that you can make. If you do everything and you’ve got no experience, but you’re trying to do it anyway, you’re just gonna make so many catastrophic mistakes that you’re just constantly paying. You know, Keith Cunningham calls it the dumb tax, ’cause you didn’t know it and you get taxed for being dumb-
[00:34:31] ’cause you didn’t know it, right? So I j- I paid a lot of dumb taxes, and I wa- and it was again and again and again and again. But I was a good student of the dumb tax, and when I made a mistake, I tried not to make it again. You know, but I had so many, so many ups and downs, so many failures and, and in building…
[00:34:49] But I stuck with it, and that, that’s this resilience piece because I was just like, “I’m just not gonna let…” I d- I didn’t… I, I cut off all- And I [00:35:00] think sometimes a good business owner, some of the people… I know some really… And I’ve got some very successful friends and some people, I mean, that are super successful, and they are borderline delusional, right-
[00:35:10] in terms of how they think- Mm … and what they’re gonna create. Like, delusional. It’s just, you hear ’em talk and you just think, “What are you talking about?” But that delusion randomly sometimes serves you. Mm. And I think in my first business I was delusional. I was like, “I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do…” And what’s crazy is ’cause I believed it so intently, I did end up creating it.
[00:35:31] You know, that first business went from a million to 2.9 million, and then I started… I was figuring out management and teams. I got to 4.3 million very profitably. I got to 6.8 million, and then this is where the Thousand Businesses Inspire three years running. I went from 6.8 million to 13.9. I went from 13.9 to 24.8, and from 24.8 to 33.6 million in, like, three years.
[00:35:54] Wow. So it just… Uh, and, and I, I grew from having about, uh, you know, [00:36:00] 15 people to 120. I grew from one site to five sites. I made a lot of mistakes. I, I learned a lot of skills. Mm-hmm. I overcome a lot of adversity. Um- So in those three years that you scaled- Yeah … so quickly- Mm … uh, so significantly, if you don’t mind me asking, and this is my curiosity- Yeah
[00:36:19] as a business owner, how much did the, the net and the gross, like, differentiate- Yeah, it’s a really good question … when you scaled- Yeah … that quickly? It’s a really good question. So in the years when my business was, was smaller, you’re often m- much more profitable- Sure … in the beginning, right? Yeah. And then when you get to, you get basically to a tipping point.
[00:36:38] I had a, I had a friend of mine actually over for dinner the other night, really good guy, um, who does very well, big YouTube following, stuff like that, and he was saying, he was saying to me, he’s like, “It’s just this scale pinch point of, you know, your profits just being deteriorated through te- team building.”
[00:36:53] But I’ll be, you know, I’ll be straight with you, I, I was so outrageously delusional [00:37:00] that I didn’t care about the profits. And, and I think that that, that’s… I was just at that point, I was like, “I don’t care”- Mm … you know, because I had so much. Can you imagine… By the way, when you look at these years, I’d gone from 25 to by the time I’m 30 we were, we were on the verge of, like, we’re doing like nearly £14 million a year.
[00:37:17] 30, just becoming 30. Um, I got… You know, I’d just bought a £2 million house, pretty much outright. I bought a Ferrari. Like, you know, got everything else, and I, you know, you’ve got, like, over 1 to £1.5 million a month running through your bank account, you know, you don’t really- care that much. So, s- and I’ll tell you w- what, this is why you don’t, this is why I didn’t care.
[00:37:42] By the way, this is not my advice. I, I’m gonna then circle back round to what should you do, right? But I didn’t care then. And the reason I didn’t care is because I’d so believed in myself that I believed that I could nav- at that, that stage, and this was the delusional part, is I [00:38:00] believed that I could navigate any challenge, and I believed that I actually…
[00:38:05] My confidence was so strong bec- And, and the… I see this a lot actually with some of our clients that have a lot of success really quickly that have not had it before. You don’t even know you’re doing it, but sometimes you can buy into your own hype. Mm. If you imagine you’ve gone from being an absolute nobody, nothing, and now all of a sudden, like you said, Thousand business inspire Britain three years running, Amazon Entrepreneur of the Year, you know, I’ve been to 2016 finalist, European Entrepreneur of the Year.
[00:38:33] And, and all of a sudden, you know, bought my dream house, got my dream car in a great… Like, l- everything going well. You don’t… People don’t really think that that’s gonna stop. I just thought it was gonna keep getting better. And then because I’m a millionaire, I thought, “Well, I’m gonna be a billionaire now.”
[00:38:50] That’s just the next thing. So when you… And this was the naivety that I, I had. I had a lot of naivety in, in that first business. I, I [00:39:00] really did, and I just kept going. What was the first business, sorry, the one that you did? And so, yeah, so this was the finance business that turned into a car business because I just evolved it- Right
[00:39:09] from finance to cars, and that’s why we started growing the revenue. I then had a body shop. I had a servicing center. I had five sites. So I’d s- you know, and everything, everything was like, it was like everything I did just went right. Yeah. And, and- And there are reasons that I grew the business that quickly.
[00:39:23] I studied marketing. I got a lot of coaching. I was in the right masterminds. I was learning. I was dedicated. I gave my life to it. I did literally give my life to it. I gave everything to it. You know, I gave every weekend to it. I gave all the hours to it. I worked my socks off, and I just did everything I could.
[00:39:39] And then to… Which is where your, your question comes in. So when I was doing about 6.8 million a year and we, we had this kind of breakout year, um, we were really cash constrained, and it got to the point where we couldn’t grow And I brought this incredible guy in to work alongside me. His name’s [00:40:00] Richard, and Richard helped me to raise the money that I needed to grow the business, so we were able to go out and raise stocking money.
[00:40:08] See, I was 30. No one wanted to give me millions in funding, like no one wanted to, and pre-Richard I had about, probably about 1.5 in funding. You know, when Richard joined, about 8.5 million in funding. Wow. So I had so much, like- So how did Richard help them? … I had so much available. So he… Well, he used his experience and my energy.
[00:40:25] Right. He was 65, he’s a finance director, and he’d b- had a great experience, good reputation in the industry, and he’s paired up with a young h- young hotshot. So it’s like, “We’re gonna go and take on the world”, you know? That was kind of the, the mentality, and that all, all went really well, and then we raised that money.
[00:40:41] So we, we were less profitable, um, from 6.8 to 13.9. 24.8, we actually had a huge year of profit, you know, millions in profit, which was, you know, in EBITDA really, really successful, and we were, we were doing well. And I kind of… This is where, where [00:41:00] essentially things started to, to unravel for me a little bit, is I kind of took my eye off the ball.
[00:41:06] And from the year that we were… Did 24.8 to 33.9, um, I worked really hard, but then I started getting invited to… Because of all these awards and these different things that I’d won, I started to get invited to go speak. I was invited to speak in South Africa. I got invited to speak in America. I started to do these, um, appearances where I would appear on stage with celebrities, people like 50 Cent, um, Floyd Mayweather, John Travolta, Al Pacino, and I’ve got car dealerships in Essex.
[00:41:35] I’m like, “Do I wanna go and be on a… Um, do I wanna go and sell a Ford Fiesta in Essex, or do I wanna go and do an interview with 50 Cent in LA?” Yeah. And it was just like, “Why not?” And I basically got my head turned and, and really what I should’ve done… So this was a big mistake. I should’ve sold… I had a lot of interest in it.
[00:41:54] I should’ve sold the business at that point, because basically I’d fallen out of love with that business completely. [00:42:00] And I hadn’t fallen out of love, but I almost just got to the point where I- What would the business have been of value at that point, do you think? Yeah, so we were looking… We were trying…
[00:42:07] We were really in a lot of d- different discussions. We had a lot of different people. We had an auction house, um, looking at buying us, so they basically… They were an auction house, and we were… We, we were l- really being valued about 5.5 times our EBITDA, so it could’ve been anywhere from, you know, seven and a half to 10 million type, type money- Nice
[00:42:26] which would’ve been, would’ve been a nice exit. Absolutely. Um- And were you the sole shareholder of the business? Yeah, 100%. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, so it would’ve been at that stage a really, really good exit for me. Mm-hmm. And as that was happening- And yeah, and I, and I was… But then I, uh, we looked at it. So I had a, a, a sc-, a, I won’t say the actual name ’cause it’s probably not right to do that.
[00:42:46] We had a, an auction house that was looking at us. We had a finance company that was looking at us because all of our finance was… So we were in negotiations with an auction house, we were in negotiations with a finance company, and we were in no- negotiations with a private individual as [00:43:00] well that scouted businesses.
[00:43:00] So we had three or four different buyers. And in the end, I, I sort of said to Richard, “Well, I think we can grow it even more. I think…” And then So just, like, the delusion. Anyway, so I went, went off. Well, I could’ve grow- grown it more. So I went off, I’m doing all the speaking, and then things started to unravel, and we then, we made some mistakes, then we lost a funder.
[00:43:19] Losing one funder led… turned into losing two funders. And then all of a sudden, we’d gone from, like, having nearly £8.5 million funding to about £5 million. And then I suddenly realized that I’m gonna have to stop my adventure ’cause a year earlier I’d started my, uh, one of the businesses I have now. So I have a business now called Big Business Entrepreneurs, and it helps entrepreneurs scale.
[00:43:37] I’ve had that business now since 2016, so I’ve had it for 10 years. Uh, that business itself is a, you know, £15 million a year coaching business, a significant business that’s helped a lot of people. We’ve had 100,000 people through the doors. And I actually started that in 2016, so I was running that two years before in parallel with this other business.
[00:43:55] And I got to the point with the car business where I was like, “Right, I need to go back in. I [00:44:00] need to sort this out ’cause actually I’m off doing what I wanna do, which is my passion project. I’ve neglected this,” and it was starting to unravel. Anyway, I had an incredibly hard year. Probably the… I actually just put all the speaking stuff on pause.
[00:44:13] What year was this, sorry? So this is around, um, so 2000… end of 2017. Okay. So around 2017. I just had, like, the worst year. Like, honestly, it was the worst year, um, because I’d basically spent 10 years, oh, just under 10, so from 2008 to 2017, nine years giving my everything. I took my eye off the ball for a year.
[00:44:37] I lost focus. I had the whole thing unravel, and it was just like, “Oh my God.” And I was just… And I felt like- I, I had fires all around me everywhere I turned, and every time I put one fire out, I had another fire. And, and I was just… You know, I, I was difficult at home. I just had a little boy. Um, my little boy at the time was about three years old.
[00:44:58] I also had a personal [00:45:00] challenge at that point. I was told, um, when my, my little boy was about two and a half, three years old, that he was autistic, and I didn’t know what that was, and that… Never had any experience at all. And, you know, when you, you have a, a child and you just love them dearly and, you know- above a lot, yeah
[00:45:16] Yeah, yeah. Well, and I was just like, “What do you mean?” Like, “That ain’t right.” I, I just didn’t get it. Mm. I didn’t get it at all, and it just hit me like a, a ton of bricks. It really did hit me like a ton of bricks. And that… I f- I felt like in a haze ’cause I didn’t understand it, and all of a sudden, you know, my world was changing.
[00:45:33] I was suffering a tremendous amount of stress, um, in, in my workplace, and I started having to make some difficult decisions, and the decisions that I had to make were things like, “Well, I’ve got five car dealerships. I’ve got a body shop. I’ve got service centers.” And, and the minute… They’re… This w- I had seven of them making no money.
[00:45:51] Three of them were making a lot of money. So I made the decision to close one of them thinking that, “All right. Well, look, we’ll cut off the arm rather than losing the body”, and that was hard- Mm … [00:46:00] because that first one that we shut, gotta let the staff go, gotta let the people go. Um, which the problem is, is, you know, this is often the weight and stuff that some people don’t realize, uh, for an entrepreneur, that an entrepreneur has to go through these kind of heavy moments, especially as you get big.
[00:46:18] It’s really, it’s really quite difficult, because a lot of these people really look up to you, and they work for you. And when they work for you, yeah, they could work anywhere, but the good ones, they work for you. They’re really working for you. Doesn’t mean that you have to directly manage them, but they work for you because you have inspired them or they believe in your project as well.
[00:46:37] Uh, ’cause they could go and work somewhere else, and they might be able to get a pay rise. Not… Most people I’ve found in building businesses are not actually mercenaries. They’re actually not. You do get mercenaries, don’t get me wrong. You know the people that if they could get another 10 grand they’d be off- Mm
[00:46:51] or whatever it might be, or if they feel like the opportunity’s better, they’d go. Most people are actually not like that. Um, most people buy into the vision of the leader, [00:47:00] and especially in a small business. Not in Sainsbury’s. Do you know what I mean? Or, or something like that where you’ve got hundreds of thousands of employees, but in a small business.
[00:47:07] So when you have to go, “Well, thank you for buying into my vision. Um, thank you for-” Yeah “… giving your blood, sweat, and tears, but goodbye”, it’s, it’s difficult, and you feel, as a business owner making those decisions, often pulled, pulled apart, because logically you know that you’re making the right decision- But emotionally, you’re trying to see the best in that person, and then you’re trying to keep ’em.
[00:47:35] And then a lot of people don’t understand the sacrifices that you make along those different ways and different things. So I closed the… You know, w- we could talk more about that like, you know, it’s the kind of thing. So I closed that first one, and I thought, “Well, that’s fine because we were, we were making a loss in that.
[00:47:51] That’s gonna stop the bleeding.” Was it a significant loss that you were making on it? Uh, yeah, I think in that particular one we were probably losing [00:48:00] 400K a year. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, so it was- Fair enough … it was stealing the profits from, from the other one big time. Mm. And it was just the management cost of, of this one.
[00:48:09] It just wasn’t working. That one was one I’d opened in Surrey, and we thought it would work, and it just didn’t work. Like, it, it- What do you put that down to why it didn’t work? I, I, yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. I, I think where it didn’t… I think that I went too fast- Yeah … and what I know now, ’cause I’m a, I’m a thousand times better business owner than I was then, um, is that I probably shouldn’t have opened in the first place, and I wasn’t ready to open in the first place.
[00:48:39] And my, um, my ambition was bigger than my skill set. Truthfully, I didn’t have the skill set to be able to manage at different, uh, uh, a distance and monitor at a distance and inspire from a distance, and I just didn’t have that. I didn’t have the management team to be able to do that, but my ambition had [00:49:00] got the better of me.
[00:49:00] I thought I’d seen a good deal. Let’s go for it. It’d work out. So I kind of… That naivety had hurt me with that one. And what happened then, and I was thinking that was gonna have a good impact, but actually the press thought… It was really, it was this weird situation, right? ‘Cause this is where the media and the press can, can go both ways, right?
[00:49:21] Is when they love you, they love you, and it’s amazing. But when they don’t love you, they don’t love you, and it ain’t amazing. And it’s difficult. Um, it’s very, very difficult actually with, with, with media and press. I mean, that’s, you know, it’s, it’s… Again, it’s interesting. Some of this stuff I’ve never really talked about.
[00:49:38] Um, but I think it’s inter- ’cause, ’cause this is what your, yours is all about, right? Is understanding the, the pressures, right? As well. And what happened is I started to have some media, uh, pick up on the fact that, well, we’ve, we’ve supposedly got the fastest growing, we did have fastest growing automotive business in the UK, and have just closed this site.
[00:49:58] And they started to… [00:50:00] It was almost like, “Well, maybe they’re not so good.” And all the ti- undertone was- Mm … “Oh, well, they’ve failed here, and is this, is this emerging contender under pressure?” And I’m reading this, it’s like… And I’m like, obviously my first thing, instinct is, you know, like- Mm. That, that naturally, yeah
[00:50:18] but, but what happens is you don’t realize it’s who’s reading this, right? So the people… You, you forget who’s reading this stuff, right? So it was the correct business d- decision to close that, but the media impact was then my, some of my employees read that. People lost confidence. Some of my partners read that.
[00:50:36] They lost confidence. Some of my suppliers read that. They lost confidence. And more importantly, one of my finance companies read that, and they lost confidence. So we had a particular funder that we had a two and a half million pound line with at the time that froze my funding. So I lost two and a half mill- Purely because of that
[00:50:54] because I closed that business, yeah. Wow. So they froze 2.5 million pounds worth of funding, and it put [00:51:00] serious pressure. I actually remember the phone call, ’cause I’d sat there and made the measured decision with the right team. I think I’m doing the best for the business, and yep, we’re on track, and we’re gonna go in the right direction because we’ve made the right decision, um, and that kind of mentality.
[00:51:14] And I remember getting a phone call- And it, and it’s weird because it’s the same people, you know, they wanna give you two and a- someone wants to give you two and a half million quid. They, they respect you, they back you, they like you, they have a relationship with you, and they believe in you. And then that same person, fast-forward two years later, is calling you up saying, “Well, I’m taking that out.”
[00:51:36] And, and I’m like, “Well, if you do that, that’s gonna have a serious impact. Like, I need your support right now.” Mm. Uh, and I remember being like… W- I remember that hitting me hard. That phone call hit me hard, and I was just like . And this is where you’re- you really find out the, the mettle of a, an entrepreneur when [00:52:00] you have these types of moments and stuff like that, and I, and I found it really tough.
[00:52:04] Now, at the same time, I’d had a lot of other things happening to me within this particular business. It’s almost just like sharing all the challenges today. But a lot of the other things that happened is that I had people that were my friends, that were my colleagues, that were taking my database, starting rival businesses.
[00:52:20] I had, like, little offshoot little legal battles and things like that happening where we’d taken people to court that were stealing from us, and it was just all this sort of, like, little noise and little things that were happening. The stuff that you don’t wanna deal with. Oh, and, and, and do you know what?
[00:52:34] You don’t realize, um… You know, my finance director, Richard, sort of said to me, “It’s death by a thousand cuts,” was his word, which is, like, basically a thousand paper cuts and bleeding out, and it felt like that. It was bloody horrible. And we lost a £2.5 million lend then. I remember the ca- the phone call specifically as I was driving, um, you know, and I was just
[00:52:59] That was difficult. [00:53:00] Now I go back and we start to strategize that. Well, what we’re gonna do if we lost two and a half million quid? Well, we don’t need four dealerships if we lost two and a half… If we’re two and a half million quid light, and they ain’t gonna give it to us, we can’t stock the dealership, so we close the next one.
[00:53:11] Mm. Right. So then what happened? Well, after I closed the next one, then one of my other funders comes in, and they’re like, “Look, you know, we’re concerned. You’ve just closed two of your dealerships. You were growing rapidly, and we’re gonna… We, we wanna withdraw a million pound of funding.” And I’m like . Like…
[00:53:29] And it was just like . It all happens at once. Yeah. You know, like… And, and all of a sudden, just, like, it felt like the, the walls are closing in on me. And for the first time, I had to… I had the realizations and the thoughts, like, “Is this, is this gonna fail?” Like, it’s the first time I really thought that. And then I started, like, thinking about my employees, thinking about the people, pressure of that, um, which was difficult.
[00:53:56] And then I, I started thinking about myself as well. Well, I’ve [00:54:00] got, like, £8 million worth of personal guarantees in this business. Like, then you realize you’re under pressure. Mm. And you’re like, “Whoa- Maybe I, maybe I’m not, not as good as what I thought. Do you know what I mean? And, and then on top of that, I’m al- I’m training a ton of businesses, right?
[00:54:16] ‘Cause I’ve got this other business- Mm … now the other business is doing well. Yeah. You know, and I’m like It’s the saying of, uh, everybody wants what you’ve got, but nobody wants to do what it took to get there. Well, yeah, and it’s, um… I could talk about the, the journey of the way up, and the marketing- Yeah
[00:54:34] and the sales, and the building of the sales teams, and the 52 sales people, and the record weeks, and, you know, the half a million pound day, or something like that- Yeah … that there’s the glory side of it. But I, I think, I don’t know how beneficial it is for people to understand, but what I’m trying to get on, across on this is, like, what do you do when you’re in those moments?
[00:54:52] And- So what did you do? What did I do? Um, [00:55:00] I, I had, um, at that time, uh, Richard was really good. He was really, really helpful for me, um, at the time, and I, and I had some other sort of coaches around me, and I just thought the first thing I had to do… So I had a good coach at the time called, a guy called Marco, and, and, another one, actually, a guy called Daniel I was working with as well, and basically they were like…
[00:55:22] This Marco, he’s like, “Well, Adam, what do you actually want?” Like, “What do you actually want?” And I think sometimes when you’re building a business, you can get carried away by the business, and the business moves, and the ambitions, and sometimes the ambitions of other people working in the other bus- in the business as well, and, and that kinda drives you in different directions.
[00:55:47] I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted. Hadn’t really thought about what I wanted. So I started to think, “Well, what do I want?” I was like, “Do you know what I actually love is I, I love the other business. I love speaking. I love coaching. I [00:56:00] love helping other people. I’m really great at marketing, really great at sales.
[00:56:04] I know how to help people do this. You know, I’ve made a lot of money, like, you know, in, in this.” I was like, “Do you know what?” It wasn’t so much that I knew what I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want. And do you know what I didn’t want at that point? Is I didn’t want the pressure, and it, and it just… I was, I was just like, “I don’t know that I want this pressure.”
[00:56:24] And it, it turned to the point where I was like, “You know what?” I, I, I think I want out. I wanna sell this business, right? So I went on this journey to, to sell it, but more at this point, it’s more as a distressed sale than as a, as a great… If I sold it a year earlier, it was a, it was a great business. You know, it was amazing.
[00:56:45] Um, and at this point now, I’m gonna be selling it as a distressed asset. So I went out and I started talking to buyers. I went back to the people, the auction house and the finance company. All of a sudden I come back to the bargaining table, and [00:57:00] the deals they offered me, I got offered a lot of different deals to, to sell this business, but they all came with a lock-in, and it was like, “Look, you can’t have any other limited companies, and you have to work for this business, and really you need to be doing it at least three years.”
[00:57:12] And I was like, do you know what? I was worn out. I was worn down. That’s a long time. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It’s normally, isn’t it, if you- Yeah, 12 months usually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They wanted a longer lock-in because really they were like, I understood the market. Now, one of the reasons this business is, is, you know, talk about the positives.
[00:57:28] Uh, the business at the time had the largest following in the world on social media. Wow. So I’d built this incredible following, uh, sorry, in that sector, in automotive. Sure. Yeah, yeah. And I’d built this following, so there was a lot of value in that, but they didn’t understand how it worked, and I did understand how it worked, and that had been what had been driving the growth, um, ’cause I’d studied it, and that was kind of like part of the secret sauce of that business.
[00:57:49] So they really wanted me involved in that. And then I just looked at it and I just said… It, it came to it, Richard really wanted me to… So I had a few options. Either sell it and I [00:58:00] get a lock-in, I close it and reopen it, which was, again, I could’ve done that very, very easily. I could’ve just closed it, reopened it, written off a load of stuff and gone again.
[00:58:10] But I just, I didn’t want that, so… Or I could do an asset sale. So what I did is I did an asset sale. I started to sell the vehicles, pay down the PGs, pay down the debts, and get out of it where I wasn’t, you know, I, I, like I literally wasn’t annihilated personally. Mm. You know, I still walked away without having any debts, any personal…
[00:58:32] I, I did have personal guarantees. I had £1 million of personal guarantees. So when I closed it, it cost me a million quid to close it, and I paid £1 million to pay off those personal guarantees. I did that in 24 months. Wow. So I had to pay £1 million. I did nine years, grinded out the effort in that business, and it ended up costing me a million quid.
[00:58:49] So it was a journey and a half. Sounds like it. It was really, really difficult. But like you said, in, in challenge comes opportunity, and at [00:59:00] that particular time, funnily enough, I’ve got a, a good friend, someone that I, I helped through, had a very similar situation. It was almost like- It’s almost like a y- you know, redemption type moment where you’re…
[00:59:15] What you went through, maybe you went through that to help somebody else with the same situation. Mm. Do you understand? Yeah. So you could kind of play it back. That happened to me twice. I worked with a guy that had built an automotive business, he got it to 9.3 million a year. He’s a good friend of mine.
[00:59:32] He had incredible challenges with the business, some very, very similar challenges, and I coached him through the whole process, and I got, I got him to sell the business and I made him… I stopped him from being annihilated in that business. I also had a guy, a good friend of mine, um, who was a client that had a very big challenge.
[00:59:49] He’s an apprentice winner, really successful, one of the most successful ones, great guy, and I helped him to sell a business and navigate out of that business through challenge as well. Mm. And I’ve now done that many times because of that [01:00:00] experience. And that’s the thing for me, that’s the key part, is I say, uh…
[01:00:03] I do a lot of work around mindset, and I deliver mindset workshops in, uh, businesses and in schools, and I say, “You either win or learn.” Learn. “You never lose.” I def- I definitely learn. Do you know what? Yeah. Sometimes it feels like a loss, but the only loss is the final loss. Yeah. If you ain’t dead, you keep going.
[01:00:21] That’s it. And, and that’s the real- Yeah … that’s the reality. But the lessons from that, you- Yeah … like you said, in challenge, in pressure, comes, you know- Yeah … and you helped so many people off the back of that. Oh, it made me a thousand times better. Yeah. And how fulfilling is that? Yeah. It made me a thousand times better.
[01:00:35] How fulfilling is that? You know? And, and since then, uh, the business that we’ve, we’ve, we’ve now built, I’ve had multiple other businesses. Have been… gone on to, you know, generate many, many tens of millions of pounds, but also to do it in a steady- Yeah … secure, stable, very profitable way. Mm. And, and also do it where…
[01:00:56] without the stress, you know? And, and that’s what I teach now, is [01:01:00] to… how do you actually build a business model that doesn’t require you being the hero, without a hero dependence? How do you remove yourself from that, and how do you build a business that creates you a commercial profit and return without making…
[01:01:15] and so you can avoid some of the mistakes that I’ve made along the way. And now I’ve gone on to build multiple successful businesses, exit businesses as well- Mm … and, you know, gone through that journey. But that first one- Mm … you know, don’t get me wrong, I still have chan- I still have challenges, and you still have pressures, and all of this…
[01:01:29] The, the funny thing is- I’ve got a great, um, um, a great mentor that I’ve worked with now for the past four, four and a half years, Sarah Winningham, and one of the things she pointed out to me when I started working for her is, “Look, you’ve got a bit of a hangover. You know, you, you’ve got a little bit of a hangover.
[01:01:44] Some of these things trigger you ’cause it feels like the past, and you need to understand how to navigate those triggers.” And she explained to me how those triggers are actually a very good thing for you because they remind you of potential danger spots, and you’ve gotta understand that [01:02:00] when you get those triggers, to be able to assess the danger in the right way.
[01:02:02] And I think be- being more in tune with my instincts and actually understanding when those things are happening and actually how to navigate them in a different way, how to be calmer- Mm … how to be steady, more professional. And now that’s what I train business owners to do. And, and I really train them on the different stages of, you know, first of all, how do you build a strategic plan to go to market?
[01:02:22] How do you build a brand that gets you to stand out in the market and beat your competition? How do you build a top of funnel, which is how do you create the right inquiry flow? How do you convert those inquiries into sales and then manage that operation? So they’re like the segments of, of what we do, and, uh, yeah.
[01:02:37] That’s it. So it’s been, it’s been, been a wild ride. I- Mm. The story I’ve just told, I wrote a book called Millionaire Success Secrets, and in that book I, I detail that just in excruciating detail. So if, if you really do wanna read a, a business story that is very transparent, very honest, talks about the ups and downs and the pressures, you [01:03:00] know, even though it’s my own, I highly recommend it.
[01:03:02] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I’d love to read it, man. I love, uh- I’ll get you a coffee. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I would absolutely- Yeah, yeah … 100% love to. Yeah. As, as, as I said to you before we started filming, you know, I do, uh, I do the motivational speaking because it’s something that I love, and I love helping people, but business is equally something I’m so passionate about.
[01:03:17] Mm. Um, and there’s a million and one questions I’d wanna ask you, and I’d wanna pick your brains about, uh, that I won’t for the sake of the podcast, but I probably will do after. Yeah, yeah. No, it’s- Uh, because at the minute I, I, um… So the, the furniture business that I spoke about- Mm … my dad started that, uh, in ’93, and he retired in 2021, so I took over as, as the MD, uh, but equal shareholders with my brother and my sister, Gemma and Alex.
[01:03:41] And we are now in the fifth financial year, um, and we’ve done really well. You know, it’s… We’ve had an incredible journey. We’ll, we’ll have doubled the revenue, um, in the last five years, which we’re chuffed about. That was the, that was the plan. Um, but Tom’s Talks is- is going exceptionally well. [01:04:00] Um, and it’s now that we’ve got the…
[01:04:02] Well, I’ve got the speaking- Yeah … I’ve got the social platforms- Yeah … I’ve got the podcast. Yeah. But the one thing I… The point I’m getting to, uh, is it’s the, the key man risk. Yeah. You know, you said something very- Yeah … crucial there. Like, you gotta be able to take yourself out of the business. Yeah. And that’s one…
[01:04:16] That’s where I’m at with my business now. Yeah. Is, like you said, you went off and did the speaking- Yeah … ’cause that’s something that you loved. Yeah. Well, now I’m, I’m- It’s very interesting, isn’t it? Yeah. I’m in a hiring process at the minute- Yeah … but I’m trying to make sure I hire the right people in the right seats.
[01:04:28] Yeah. And, um, now it’s, uh, at a point where I think, you know, I’m seven years into the journey, but in all honesty, it was only really at the beginning of last year or maybe midway through 2024, I’m like, “You know what? I can, I can make something significant out of this.” Yeah. When I started doing it, I was literally just doing it for free for schools- Yeah
[01:04:46] ’cause I just wanted to help. Yeah. And now seven years later, I’m at a point where I’m like, like I genuinely believe this is… I could take this, like- Yeah … as a global brand. Uh, but the one point I’m at now is, is, is the hiring the right people in the [01:05:00] right seats, um, which is what we’re doing at the moment.
[01:05:03] So, um, I don’t wanna put your brains about that, but after- Yeah … yeah … it’s absolutely fine. Yeah, yeah. Who are you… So you’ve got yourself on the team and your brother and sister. Yeah. So, so with the furniture business- Yeah … it’s me, my brother, and my sister. Yeah. And I, I am the MD and, and heavily still involved in the sales, but I’m in the process now of taking myself out of the sales- Okay
[01:05:20] and just really, uh, just working purely on the business- Yeah … to help scale that. Um, and then the speaking business is just me and my wife at the minute. Yeah. Uh, but as I said, my wife’s going on maternity leave. Yeah. Um, so we’re looking at bringing two people in. Um, but we’ve got other external help as well, so it’s, uh, it’s a very, very exciting time and honestly, mate, listening to you on this, in this episode has just…
[01:05:41] It motivated me even more and- Yeah … sort of lit an extra, uh, fire in my belly. Uh, but, uh, you know, for you, and I’m sure you’ll, you’ll agree with me on this, it’s all about the people that you surround yourself with- 100% … isn’t it? 100%. And, and I think that you will know the skills of your brother and your sister and [01:06:00] yourself and what you add to the business.
[01:06:02] Um, I think the decisions that you’ve gotta make when you build that team is- Again, every situation’s different. If your brother and sister are there, and they’re present, and they’re owners, do you need three owners there present as owners or do you not? Mm. Because it’s very possible for you to be able to no doubt step out.
[01:06:20] Um, has one of them got the capability to step up? Can you start coaching and training them? Because it’s the transference of knowledge that you’ve got, ’cause you’ve got a lot of things in your head that they haven’t got in their head. If you’re the m- MD, you’re the leader, you’re that for a reason, um, so you need to really be picking a successor and actually giving them your skillsets and laying those skillsets out.
[01:06:42] I think one mistake that you can make with hiring, which is a very common mistake, is people think that they can hire somebody to come in and do a job, and that because they made the right hire, that person’s gonna do the job as good as them- Mm … better than them, or add value. [01:07:00] Um, I mean, in my current business I’ve got 50, you know, around 50 employees.
[01:07:05] You know, over the years, over the… Since I’ve been, 2008 to now, 2026, nearly 20 years in business, I’ve hired hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, and I can count on one hand the amount of time out of pr- I don’t know how many, maybe 500, 600 people, I can count on one hand the amount of times I have had somebody come in and move the needle in the business, and actually be able to come in and drive that business better than I’ve been able to do it.
[01:07:34] And that’s not because I’ve hired wrong, it’s just because- Your ownership, your 24/7 thinking, the way you are about the business. Therefore, what you have to do is find really good quality people, and you have to coach them, and you have to align them on your way of thinking, and you have to spend tremendous amounts of time with them to get them to understand how to be, to, to be able to cover your presence.
[01:07:58] So I, I think it’s a [01:08:00] hybrid of find the great person but also coach the person- Mm … and guide the person, and you’ve always got to be training. You know, one of the things that Sarah’s always said to me, “If somebody can do it 80% as good as you, they should be doing it,” right? Yeah. So if it’s sales, for example, that you’re trying to step out of, you need to be spending…
[01:08:17] You, you consciously, you bring the people in, you spend a tremendous amount of time training them, uh, you buy training from… Training is an underutilized resource. You wanna put training into that business, develop the people as much as you possibly can. Keep developing them, keep them on a continuum, and you’ll find eventually they’ll sell better without you.
[01:08:35] But you have to put that tremendous amount of effort to cover that segment and, you know, there’s just a couple of little sort of tips there. Yeah. No, I love it. Thank you, man. Thank you. Pleasure. No, I appreciate it very much. It’s, uh, it’s an exciting time. What… One thing again that, um, that you spoke a lot about, which is something that I’ve done for the last 10, well, yeah, 10 years, is sales.
[01:08:54] Yeah. And I think I say to people that sales is one skill that if you [01:09:00] can get good at, you’ll do exceptionally well in life. Yeah, 100%. Do you think that you’re either good at it or not? Do you… Are you born with it and you can get better, or can anybody be good at sales? If they’re taught the right way Um, yeah, it’s a really good, it’s a really good question.
[01:09:14] I don’t know if it’s quite as black and white as- Sure … can you learn it or can you not? I think most people could get good at it, honestly. I reckon 70% of people could get good at it. Mm. I think there are 30… If you’ve got somebody that is… Let’s take a, take an individual, describe an individual, and that person is an incredibly anxious, socially awkward person that doesn’t want to be around people, that doesn’t like talking to people, um, that is prefers to be in a screen or be out of the way.
[01:09:44] You know, taking that person and trying to optimize them as a salesperson is gonna be suboptimal. Mm. You’re not gonna get the best result. So could they do it if they gave their life and soul to it? You know, maybe they could do it. It’s like, “Adam, could you be a ballerina?” Do you know what I mean? It’s like, “Well, if I just [01:10:00] dumped everything forever, maybe, but I’d never be a great one.”
[01:10:02] Do you know what I mean? Because I’m not built for it. Yeah. So I think that you do have to have personality characteristics, but I do also believe that if there are raw elements in terms of attitude, um, which is very important, you know, focus, which is very important, um, you know, like personality, likability, relationship building.
[01:10:24] If you’ve got those elements, you can take anyone that doesn’t know how to sell, and you can train them the sales skills. Mm. Um, drive is very important as well. It’s like, you know, that person… Usually when you get a good salesperson… The funny thing is people don’t realize the value of it, but a good salesperson, you can have one person outsell a team of five- Mm
[01:10:42] if you’ve got the right one, who’s an animal, that is totally focused, totally dedicated, totally driven, that is looking at every number, every KPI, that’s driven, that lives and breathes it. You know, when you get the good people, you get a sales champion that really are great, right? You know, and I think that those people can just [01:11:00] be incredibly valuable to a business.
[01:11:01] So I don’t think it’s a game of, I wouldn’t wanna make that person that’s, uh, you know, the, like, is a- an archetype, like maybe an accountant that hates be- like, doesn’t like communicating around people. Why would you wanna turn them into a salesperson? I’d rather them do a great job with the accounts. Do something else.
[01:11:17] And I’d rather put the right people in the right box. Absolutely. So I believe that you can train anyone, but with- Mm … with, with elements, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, it was interesting what you said right at the beginning about, uh, being at school and, and, and, and in that environment. Um, you know, year 11s are currently sitting their GCSEs, and you’ve obviously done exceptionally well in life based on only getting one GCSE.
[01:11:39] Mm. What would you say to somebody going into the exams right now that’s not very confident, or somebody that comes out of their exams and doesn’t do very well, or only leaves with one GCSE? Yeah. I, I would say to them that everybody’s an individual. No two people are the same. Um, if… You know, do the best that you can, and that’s good enough, [01:12:00] and if for any reason you don’t get the results that you were looking to get, there’s something special inside you that you haven’t found yet- And you don’t need a grade for it.
[01:12:08] Mm. So let’s, let’s focus on what do you love? What are you good at? I think confidence is incredibly important. Why did I really suck at school? ‘Cause I had no confidence around it, you know, I really didn’t… Everything seemed to go over my head. But if you, if you can really dial into what is it you’re natural at, what do you like doing, you know, what do you get a lot of, a lot of energy from?
[01:12:29] Mana- energy management’s important. Things either drain you or energize you, right? So if, if you’re someone’s listening to this and, like, they’ve got to go into a science exam or something like that- Mm … and it just drains the life out of them, you’re probably not meant to be a scientist. I failed sci- Like, you- I failed science.
[01:12:46] I did, you’re right. I, I don’t know, just picked that as one. It’s probably not your path, right? Mm. So who cares? Yeah, yeah. But then if something else… Like, look, I got a B in drama, and there’s probably a clue somewhere. I now spend most of my time on stages. [01:13:00] Mm. Yeah, like, that’s what I do. Yeah. And, and why?
[01:13:03] ‘Cause eventually I found that that’s what I enjoy. You know? So i- it’s a bit of a clue there sometimes. So I would say, look, no one expects you to have it all figured out at 15 or 16 years old. No one expects you to have it all figured out. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, you know. Enjoy your life.
[01:13:19] Find what you’re good at, and your time will come. Every dog has its day. Love that, man. I love that. Uh, how old were you in the business that you spoke about that you then ended up having to pay a million to, to close the business? What were you… At what age were you at that point? So I was, I was about… So that was…
[01:13:35] I was about 31 at that point. And how old are you now? 40- Do you mind my asking … 42. 42. So that was- Mm … yeah. This episode is sponsored by OSI. If your office isn’t helping your team perform, or your school space isn’t supporting the students in the way that it should, that’s a problem worth fixing. OSI design and deliver high-performance environments for both workplaces and schools.
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[01:14:20] To win £50 off your first order, then click the link in the description. Now back to the show. So if you could go back to 31-year-old Adam, and you’ve just paid a million pounds to shut that business down- Mm … what would you say to him? You fucking idiot. No, um, uh, what would I say? But do you know what the weirdest thing is?
[01:14:46] ‘Cause I haven’t spoke about this, uh, I’ve s- I’ve spoke about this kind of thing on podcast before and, and stuff like… Probably not in this depth, actually. But, do you know what the weirdest thing is? It’s a bit of a relief. It was a- almost like s- sometimes you’re [01:15:00] closing… I was closing off that passage, you know?
[01:15:05] And that’s okay. Do you understand what I mean? Mm. And, and, and my s- my state of mind was worse prior to having to pay the million quid. When I paid the million pound out to go, then it was just like, “Okay, I’m, I’m done with that. I’ve closed that door. Now I’m moving on.” Mm. So that wasn’t the worst bit. The worst bit, and I think this is always the same with anything, was the worry and the fear of what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna happen.
[01:15:31] When you have clarity of what’s gonna happen, you can move on from it. It’s when you don’t have clarity. So I think in that place, I wasn’t actually in the worst spot- Mm … at that point. I was actually quite relieved. It was actually quite a good moment. That sounds really weird, doesn’t it? Mm. It was like, “Right, I’m clear.
[01:15:45] I’m clean.” Yeah. “I’m gonna go again.” I think that the… I don’t think, and I, I don’t… I, obviously you talked openly about… It’s a, it’s a really good question, but I don’t think you’re [01:16:00] able to get through to someone anyway in those moments. You know, what you talked about earlier, I don’t… You know, you say, “What would you say to yourself?”
[01:16:07] But I don’t think you’d be able to get through to yourself. Do you understand what I mean by that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like, even if you went and had a conversation with yourself, you’re just- Mm … you’re not listening. Yeah. You’re just… Your, your mind is wild, and you’re hazy, and you’re, and you’re just battling on.
[01:16:21] Yeah. You’re don- not really listening to anyone. Mm. There’s a couple of things. There’s one thing one guy said to me, actually, good guy, who’s very successful, and I think this is when somebody that’s really successful, that you really respect, says something to you that can make a difference. Some of those moments make a difference.
[01:16:37] And, and a guy I know, funnily enough, that I bought my house off, a guy called Kevin, when I did it, and I’d explained the whole sit- situation, and I asked him for advice, and do you know what he said? He said, he said, “Adam, I know talent when I see it. You’ll bounce back in no time.” And I was like- I, I actually, you know, I remember him saying that.
[01:16:57] It kinda stuck with me ’cause it was like, well, that’s, [01:17:00] that’s, that was a nice thing to say, first of all. And sometimes you need someone to say a nice thing to you, you know, to rebuild, rebuild your confidence at that moment. So I think that that re- but that reassurance, I don’t know if it could come from myself, but come from someone else, is actually quite, quite helpful at that kind of moment.
[01:17:14] And I do remember that. Yeah. It’s the, uh, it’s the reassurance that, you know, you got to… You’ve done it before, you can do it again. Yeah, 100%. And, uh, it’s internal self-belief, isn’t it? Yeah. Um, and sometimes when nobody believes in you, you’ve gotta believe in yourself. But when somebody does believe in you, it just gives you that extra little- Yeah
[01:17:32] bit of motivation, doesn’t it? It definitely does. Hey, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Think it was a really awesome one, and I hope you thought that too. Now, we’re on a mission to help as many business owners start, grow, and scale their companies without stress. And you can help me on that mission, and it will only take you a few seconds.
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