Alex Howard | Why This Therapist Turned Down the BBC to Build His Own Platform

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I was sort of persuaded to per quite a large chunk,
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I mean about forty thousand dollars I think it was
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into bitcoin in twenty twelve, and of course the market
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crashes on me. The literally the day I go in
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is the day that Mount Cox goes down, and the
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whole thing kind of crashes on me. So I've then
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lost like twenty five grand within a few hours of
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the worst I've ever done. And then, long story cut short,
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over about six months, I kept trying to trade my position,
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and every time I traded up, I was on the
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wrong side of the trade and I lost money. But anyway,
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in the end I managed to get my money out
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with a sort of modest whatever it was like fifteen
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twenty perent profit or something. At the time, it felt
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like the most reckless, stupid decision of my life. If
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I had just held that original bitcoin I had, I'd
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be on about twelve million dollars now of crypto.
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Alex Howard was a prodigy of clinical therapy, treating patients
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across fifty countries by his twenties, but he quickly hit
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the classic entrepreneurial trap, spending all of his time managing
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a business instead of doing a healing work he loved.
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He even walked away from a major television deal with
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the BBC just to protect his autonomy, eventually pivoting to
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build online conferences that have reached over a million people worldwide.
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In this conversation, we get into the messy reality of
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scaling a heart centered business, navigating cash flow pressures, and
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what it truly takes to grow your platform without compromising
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on your ethical standards. My name is doctor Fleetball, your
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co host for this session, and I'm really thrilled to
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be here with friend and colleague Alex Howard. Welcome Alex.
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All Right, fleet thanks for having me.
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Oh drill, they have another conversation. We get to have
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a lot of these conversations between your super conferences, and
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I'm particularly excited to talk to you about entrepreneurship and
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entrepreneurial mastery today. I'd love to start a little bit
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with your backgrounds. Now, we've done interviews more focused on
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your health and well being work and the Optimum Health
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Clinic and so forth, and your Trauma super Conference and
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other conferences like the Anxiety super Conference and others. But
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today we're focusing on the entrepreneurship aspect. Of it. So
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I feel free to share a little bit of your
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story because I know your work came out of your
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own healing process, that your need to heal yourself from
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a really debilitating form of chronic fatigue or me. But
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still that begs the question of how you moved or
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why you moved into becoming an entrepreneur and not only
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wanting to get your healing work out to others, but
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really building a business around it, a thriving business around it,
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and these very large conferences that you do and all
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the rest that you do. So I wonder if you
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could share something about a little bit about your backstory
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in the context of how it inspired you to move
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into becoming a health and well being entrepreneur if you will, yeah, sure.
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Well, as you mentioned, I suffered from a me chronic
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fatigue of capabilitating chronic illness in my teenage years and
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that was a very obviously very painful, but also very
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isolating and difficult experience, particularly because going back to the
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mid nineties, there was really very little available in terms
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of solutions, inspirational stories, effective frameworks for treating chronic fatigue
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and fatigue glating conditions. And I went on this very
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intense and proactive healing journey. I was ill for two
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years basically waiting for someone else to find the answers,
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and then spent five years on this very intense and proactive,
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committed healing journey. And on the other side, I really
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felt this compulsion to set up the organization that I
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felt had been missing in the years that I had
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been ill. And you know, it was also you know,
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I'd graduated a degree in psychology, I'd done various training
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in NLP, hypnotherapy, coaching, psychotherapeutic approaches, and I'd figured out
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some pieces of the jigsaw to recovering from chronic illness.
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I started working with a colleague and friend at the
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time who was a nutritional therapist, and we kind of
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realized that this integrated approach of the psychology work that
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I was doing and a functional medicine nutritional therapy approach
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that she was doing was quite a big part of
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that jigsaw. And so I set up the Optimum Health Clinic.
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And you know, I was ambitious, and I had, you know,
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a couple of things that probably worth pointing out. I
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had overcome an illness that I was told it wasn't
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possible to overcome. So I had a strong sense of
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personal belief that I could do challenging and hard things.
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And I'd grown up with my mom being a single
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mom for the first seven years of my life, working
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three jobs. I was often the kid that didn't go
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on school trips, you know, because we couldn't afford it,
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you know. My clothes were always sort of secondhand, hand
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me down clothes from other kids. And I remember having
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one particularly big tantrum because I couldn't have a pair
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of designer trainers, and then eventually getting a pair of
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designer trainers that were Nikes, but I couldn't have the
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Nike airs, so I wrote air underneath the Nike to
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try and upgrade to my trainers. Anyone knows the anagram
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and any type three, you know. So I had this
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big mission of something that I was very passionate about.
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I had a sense of self belief, and I had
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this sort of tough indifferent ways childhood where I was like,
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I just don't want to I don't want to live
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in poverty, like I don't want to be I know
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what it is to not have enough. And of course
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then the reality is one starts their entrepreneurial career and
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they live in even more poverty than they expected. And
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I remember many times in that first year of like
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going to the supermarket to get to the checkout and
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they'd got to pay for the food and my card
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would get declined, and then I'd be a game of
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how many things had to come out of the basket
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until I could get the card to go through. And
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that was also before self checkout, so there's like with
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someone there in front of you, like could you run
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the card again please to see if it goes through.
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So it was super tough. It was super super tough.
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I was twenty. I'd literally come straight out of university.
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I'd had a summer job working fifteen hours a week
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in a health food store, so that was the only
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kind of paid in you know, I'd had a paper
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around other things, but I mean like an actual job
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where I had like a sort of contract and so on.
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And I think it's fair to say that I have
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pretty much made every single well trodden mistake that entrepreneurs
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make along the way, and I still make some of
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them today, But twenty years later, I've definitely learned a
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few things. And I sort of consider myself a therapist
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or a sort of content creator, whatever you want to
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call it, very much first and an entrepreneur second. But
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I quickly came to realize that if I wanted to
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bring my ideas into the world, and I wanted to
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do it my way, on my terms, then I was
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going to have to build the platforms to do that.
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And I, you know, relatively early in my career, I
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was sort of a budding TV fronting TV shows using
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psychology but also so presenting, and I did a big
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budget pilot that I was offered a series by the BBC,
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and I quickly realized that not having control meant that
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I would have to compromise, and I couldn't do then
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things that perhaps to the ethical moral standard that I
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wanted to do them, but I also didn't have the
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autonomy that I wanted. And so right through my career
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a sort of definding thing has been wanting to build
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the systems and build the organizations that then give me
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the freedom to do things the way that I want
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to do them.
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So you sacrifice becoming the British doctor Phil to preserve
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your automy.
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I don't think I'd never been as good as a
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doctor Phil. That's a very kind perspective of how you might.
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Look at it, so well, yours is a really classic
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entrepreneurial origin story. Clearly both the desire to not remain
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in poverty and not you know, carry that board into
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your next generation and for your own children and so forth,
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as well as you know, having that belief in yourself
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and the sense of possibility. So really a classic entrepreneurial
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origin story. Were there any points along the way in
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your earlier years of beginning your entrepreneurial journey where you
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mentioned making all the classics and entrepreneurs make and many
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of us do learn moscile us learned by those mistakes.
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One of the reasons for this summit is that so
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everybody had to repeat all the same mistakes, we could
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work from each other and shorten the journey a little bit.
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But I'm wondering if there are any of those that
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led to you know, really put in your business in
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an existential threat in the early days. Were there any
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moments where it almost fell a part, or you almost gave.
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Up, or I have never considered giving up because the
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alternative is so much the idea of going to work
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for someone. I'm sure there'll be true of you as well, Fley,
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at this point, I am so utterly unemployable, it is
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I wouldy know where to start. But I've had some
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incredibly tough chapters in my entrepreneurial career, is no question
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about that. And you know there's been times where I
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just you know, I backed something with a lot of
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energy and I just totally got it wrong. You know,
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those times have been tough. You know, many times over
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the years, having ambition and ideas ahead of my ability
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to execute, and then the neveritable cash flow pressures that
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come from that, or being overly stretched and trying to
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do too many things at once. So many people stories
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of putting the wrong people in the wrong roles, and
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you know the challenges that come from that. You know,
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if I think back to the early years, you know,
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the early and I think a lot of entrepreneurs, a
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lot of health entrepreneurs, let's say, or people that are
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specialists subject matters, people, I think often have this experience
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where you can get through those first stages of growth
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by being just really good at what you do and
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really passionate about what you do. And in the early
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years of the Optimum Health Clinic, there were three of us.
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There was myself. There was NICKI Gratricks, who was the
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original director of nutrition, and then there was Anna Tashinsky,
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who was the original director of psychology, who now twenty
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years later still runs our therapeutic coaching practitioner training. And
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we were all, you know, looking back, we were all
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in our I mean, Anna and I were in our
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twenties and Iki was in our early thirties. We were
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exceptional practitioners. I mean we were sort of you know,
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it sounds about arrogant, but I think it's just an
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objective true who were outstandingly good practitioners, and particularly Anna
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and I for two people so young, we just really
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had a lot of talent for what we were doing.
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But then you try and scale that to more people,
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right like you go through that transition in a business
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where you can't do everything yourself, particularly if your business
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is selling effectively selling people as a resource. How you
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find those people, how you train those people, how you
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retain those people, how you protect the standard of those people.
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And for me, as someone that really loved and still
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loves over twenty years later, doing one on one therapeutic
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work with people, sort of finding this point, you know,
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three or four years in where I'm spending nearly all
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of my time managing other people to do the thing
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that I love to do, not getting to do it myself,
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and I'm making less money and they're being ungracious of
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me about it, and the patients are unhappy, they're not
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seeing me. It's like, so that was definitely for a
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quiet of.
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Your head bombents in the entrepreneurial journey for what am
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I doing?
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But everyone's unhappy? Right, I'm unhappy. Practitioners seem to be unhappy,
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clients seem to be unhappy. And then it's that thing
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of like, do we go back to just being a
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couple of two or three practitioners that are just you know,
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you just keep putting the prices up more and more
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and that's how you control the sort of supply demand challenge.
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Or do you grow through that phase and then effectively
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what you've got to do is you've got to build
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a finance department and marketing department and operations department, you know,
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training department and all the pieces that it needs. And
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a clinic business where you're scaling practitioners, in my opinion,
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only really works one two, three people or twenty to
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thirty people plus and anywhere in between that and it's
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a disaster.
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So we were talking before we got started here about,
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you know, some of the challenges we're all facing now
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in a health and well being space. Although we always
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here it's a growing market and huge interest, but at
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least in the world worrying around healing and healing trauma,
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health and well being like optimization and so forth, and
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in the world of online summits and conferences and courses
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and all that, we do begin to get the impression
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we're all kind of circulating the same customer base, and
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especially when we're both have businesses where you know, we're
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reaching a lot of customers. It's a large scale B
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two C business, and I think both of us would
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like to add some more kind of high ticket offers
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and kind of sustained revenue into our business picture. But
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we built our businesses in the B two C world, so,
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you know, getting the customer acquisition costs are getting much
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higher in many ways, both through affiliate marketing and through
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paid advertising on matter, Google or other YouTube and so forth,
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And so given these pressures on our business, I'm wondering
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what you think some of the important strategies are and
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how we can leverage strategies to really create a loyal
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customer base and one where we're thriving and feel good
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about our businesses, our customers feel good about us, rather
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than just having a transaction actional approach to growth. Right,
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But we're really building something and building a loyal customer
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base and community. And what do you think some of
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the keys to that are?
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Yeah, that's a good question. I think hard of it
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comes down to lots of pieces to this jigsaw. I mean,
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part of it is just, you know, paid advertising used
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to be cheap and now it's expensive. Hopefully it's going
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to come down in coming years, it probably won't, and
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that just makes it more difficult. I think also the
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market is much more saturated, Like there's a lot more
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people Like when my Reset program came out six years ago,
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I guess it is now it were. I think Irene
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Lyon probably was the first person to do an online
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program around nervous system regulation. I'm not saying I was
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the second, but I was certainly the second major one,
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and I think Reset's probably the globally best selling program
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in that market. There was a lot of demand and
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were we pumped that demand by educating people about that
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need and there wasn't a lot of supply in terms
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of options, and that has got much more challenging is
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more products are flood in the market. What I will say, though,
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in answer to your question how I'm trying to see
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it at this chapter is it's almost going back to
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real business fundamentals, right, How good is the actual product.
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There's lots of people doing online summits now, most of
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those on I mean, I'm sure you get the same
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as I get, which is almost every day now I
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get an invite to speak at an online summit and
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I speak on maybe I don't know, twenty a year
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or something. So you know, we're turning down you know,
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probably ninety five percent of the request that we get.
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And most of these events are sort of copycat type events.
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They don't have good sets of speakers, they're not well
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put together. The interviewers. One of the for me, one
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of the big red flags is interviewers who are really
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just constantly trying to insert themselves and trying to build
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their own profile on the back of the guests. Like
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you know, one of the reasons I love talking to you,
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you know, you're a very skilled interview I hope, I'm
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a good interview and so really coming back to making
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the product as good as it can be. Like you
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and I were talking about, for we started recording around
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memberships and around how you genuinely make that membership a
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valuable experience for the people that are in the membership.
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I think it is also, you know, one of the
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things I think we've all had to sort of figure
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out in recent years. We had a gold Rush in
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twenty twenty. I did my first online summit in twenty nineteen,
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which was the Fatigue super Conference. As we mentioned earlier,
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part of my background specializing in fatigue graty conditions. We
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had forty two thousand, five hundred people sign up for
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that conference, and I thought that was incredible, And we
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then decided to do an event on trauma, which was
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in end of June early July twenty twenty, which, of
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course was whatever that was three four months into the
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first COVID lockdown. I basically thought, well, I don't know,
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if trauma's as big a subject as fatigue, hopefully we'll
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do really well if we end up with the same
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as we had on fatigue. We ended up with one
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hundred and eighty five thousand people on that event. I
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made turned over more. I mean, obviously you have some
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cost in event like that, but I turned over more
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money in that event that I think I'd probably turned
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over ever in a year before.
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We don't.
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We did nearly it, just undred million dollars on the event,
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and we did about another half million on the back
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end of the event. So it's easy. You know, the
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optimists amongst us go, well, that's just how it's going
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to be for the next half million years. So there's
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a kind of like, right, we're going to do We're
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going to do go from one event a year to
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two events to four to eight to twelve to you know,
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and we're going to spend or even more money on
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paid advertising, and we're going to find another one hundred
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amazing affiliate partners, you know all that, And then of
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course there's a reality that one's optimism, one's you know,
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as I know you are, I'm phenomenally hard working, so
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I don't have any problem with putting in the hours,
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you know, managing the complexities, the details and all of
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that kind of kind of stuff. But one's optimism and
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one's hard work doesn't override the realities in the market right,
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and so it's also being a grown up, which is
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often hard for those of us that have that more
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childlike that's just got to fake stuff happen and really
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try to see the trends and where is the industry going.
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I was just having a conversation with one of my
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oldest friends last week, what.
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If transformation isn't just about thinking differently but feeling differently.
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Science shows us that true change happens when we align
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not just our minds, but also the neural networks in
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our hearts and guts. This heart mind connection is the
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key to deeper healing, resilience, and expanded awareness. That's why
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I created the Heart Mind All Access, membership and community,
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a space designed to help you rewire your nervous system,
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cultivate heart intelligence, and live with greater clarity and purpose.
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With over one thousand hours of transformational teachings specifically curated
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to meet your needs, You'll learn from world renowned meditation teachers, neuroscientists,
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00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:56.480
and experts in neuroplasticity, all sharing powerful tools to help
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you shift your mindset and heartset, regulate your emotions, and
355
00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:05.880
unlock your full potential. You'll also gain unlimited access to
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00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.319
every summit and course we've ever produced a Treasure Trouble
357
00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:13.000
Wisdom worth over ten thousand dollars in growing, plus live
358
00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:17.119
gatherings and an inspiring global community to support your journey.
359
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If you're ready to step into a more heart centered,
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00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:22.839
connected and conscious life, I invite you to join us.
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Clip the link to learn more and start your journey.
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Today we were at university together. We are very close
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friends at university, and you know, she has become a
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very successful occupational psychologist. She has an MBA as well.
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She also happens to be a black woman. And you know,
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she's had this massive wave of DEI work over the
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last four or five years. Her business has grown, you know, exponentially.
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She's published a successful book on the on the subject.
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And we were just having the conversation last week as
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fast and as high as that wave road. And of
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course when George Floyd was murdered, that was the sort
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of a big tipping point in that world, whichnically was
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around the same time that we had the same wave
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in terms of conferences. She's now facing a reality where
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DEI programs are effectively becoming almost as I understand it,
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almost illegal in the US. Which is where some of
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her work is. So, you know, one can feel the victim.
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One can feel it's not fair. One can feel, you know.
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But the reality is, there are trends, there are things
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that blow up, there are things that crash down, and
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one has to be really careful where they position themselves
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against those moving trends. And I certainly my experience is
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one typically gets this right in hindsight, but it's trying
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to not over leverage and take so much risk, but
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at the same time one wants to ride the waves
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when they're coming along.
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Well, I think you brought out a really important point there,
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kind of how we can integrate that child somewhat childlike
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in the positive sense, enthusiasm, sense of possibility of the
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entrepreneurial mindset with being a grown up and not changes
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in the marketplace throw us into a victim mindset, but
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realizing this is the nature of markets.
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They're constantly changing and we have to figure that out
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and we have to be adaptable and nimble. Absolutely. Yeah.
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My litmus test to that is my wife's eyes SOS.
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I come home from work and I'm like, oh my god,
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I got this amazing idea. And when I get the
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eye roll, I sort of know that I'm potentially not
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quite landed, but ever so often I get the eyes
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light up, and that's often the clue. But I just
401
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because I think it builds on this point a little
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bit more so. I remember twenty twelve, it must have been,
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and I was about to go on a meditation retreat
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with a couple of very close friends of mine, and
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they were buzzing about bitcoin, and they were like, oh
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my god, like it said, the new currency. It's this,
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it's that, And you know, they both got in like
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really early and had already made quite a bit of
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money with it, and I was sort of persuaded to
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put quite a large chunk, I mean about forty thousand
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dollars I think it was into bitcoin in twenty twelve,
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and of course the market crashes on me. The literally
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the day I go in is the day that Mount
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Cox goes down, and the whole thing kind of crashes
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on me. So I've then lost like twenty five grand
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within a few hours of the worst thing I've ever done.
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And then, long story cut short, over about six months,
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I kept trying to trade my position, and every time
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I traded it, I was on the wrong side of
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the trade and I lost money. But anyway, in the
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end I managed to get my money out with a
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sort of modest whatever it was like fifteen twenty percent
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profit or something. At the time, it felt like the
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most reckless, stupid decision of my life. If I had
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just held that original bitcoin I had, I'd be on
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about twelve million dollars now of crypto I then in
427
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twenty seventeen, I think it was It's just really the
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only entrepreneurial endeavor that I've ever done which was completely
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outside of the health well being self development space, which
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was that we tried to launch a cryptocurrency to bring
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more transparency to charitable giving. And actually, though I don't
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get too technical here because I'm not technical, I was
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the sales guy in the hustler that was making it happen.
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But if you think about how blockchain is used, blockchain
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can be used to brain transparency. Most of the cryptocurrencies
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that get created there's no real use case for the cryptocurrency,
437
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but actually charitable giving is a really robust use case
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because people often don't give money. I've been given this
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pitch in years I've been trying to raise but my
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pitch was basically, people don't give money to charity because
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they're not confident where that money's going to get spent.
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And if you could have total confidence that you give
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money to a charity, and you could see where the
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money's spent, you could even vote that you were satisfied
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that would then release the funds. That's a genuine use
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case of blockchain. So I ended up raising about a
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million dollars to launch this cryptocurrency. We had this amazing
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board of advisors, including one of the guys behind the
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ice Bucket challenge. We got delayed in coming to market,
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and one of our competitors, our main competitor, went to
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market a couple of months before us. On their initial
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coin offering. They raised twenty million dollars, where like, this
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is going to be amazing the whole market. This is
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my luck with crypto. The whole market crashes. By the
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time we come out, we struggle to even raise our minimum.
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The point of the story that I'm making is that
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you can have a great idea, you can be deeply
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passionate about something. I spent a year traveling around the
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world raising money for this project, But you can have
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the wrong timing. You know, and that is the you know,
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for all the positive stuff that people hear at you
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know time, it's like this, you know, at marketing conferences
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and sort of business influencers, there is a tough side,
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which is sometimes you're just on the wrong side or something.
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And that's hard. And it took me personally about six
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months to rebuild emotionally from that whole experience of a
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year of working hard I've ever worked in my life.
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I put a lot of my own money into it,
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and actually the going just to complete the cycle on
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the story, the first conference that I mentioned a little
471
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bit earlier, the Fatigue Superconference, was basically me just wanting
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to catch my breath and do something that was easy, right.
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And so, you know, an entrepreneur journey has a lot
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of twists and turns, and sometimes the things that we
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think are the worst turns are actually turning us towards
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the next opportunity and the next exciting ride.
477
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Absolutely, and I'm glad we spend time with that because
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I think it's so foundational to the entrepreneurial mindset and
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entrepreneurial success. There's really that pathway into becoming fully adult
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and be willing to embrace what I call radical responsibility
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for all the circumstances we face data in day out,
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and there'll be something that we can see, we play,
483
00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:30.799
we had a hand in creating, right, but other things
484
00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.079
just change on us, and we just have to be
485
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:35.799
willing to flow with it and be nimble and be agile
486
00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:39.599
and so forth. So as tough as things get, there
487
00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:41.880
can be And you know, even if one is really
488
00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:45.599
focused on delivering a quality product or a quality services
489
00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:47.839
in the world, and one is really passionate about that
490
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.000
as a high level of ethics and just passionate about
491
00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:55.039
really adding value when it comes to being successful in
492
00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:58.559
business terms, one can be tempted to just go with
493
00:24:58.640 --> 00:25:00.759
any kind of marketing that would work right, because it
494
00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:03.519
just seems so tough. And yet I know you have
495
00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:07.599
remained committed to authenticity and marketing. I know you and
496
00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.240
I are part of a small and formal mastermind where
497
00:25:10.279 --> 00:25:13.039
we have a wonderful group of characters, kind of a
498
00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:17.039
rogues gallery of marketers in a positive sense. And one
499
00:25:17.079 --> 00:25:20.319
of them, Toe Hargrave, right, who has marketing for hippies,
500
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:23.359
is the name, and he's got long air himself. But
501
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.880
I think another way to translate his approach He's really
502
00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:29.599
focused on authentic marketing and authenticity and marketing. So I
503
00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:31.960
wonder if you could talk about the importance of that
504
00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:36.279
in terms of long term success and sustainable success. Yeah.
505
00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:41.160
Yeah, I think the question is are you trying to
506
00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:44.640
is one trying to make a quick buck or is
507
00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:48.200
someone trying to build a long term brand? And for me,
508
00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:53.160
particularly in twenty twenty five, like one's personal brand is everything.
509
00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:56.279
And so there's tons of things that I've turned down
510
00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:58.960
or opportunities to be involved in things, or I've been like,
511
00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:01.680
you know, even there's money on the table, being like
512
00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:03.480
but that I don't think this is going to play
513
00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:05.960
out well in the next you know, five, ten, twenty
514
00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:10.400
years time. It's also been interesting as an Englishman, the
515
00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:13.720
tone of marketing, which is palatable this side of the
516
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:16.000
pond from what is in the US is really different
517
00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:19.119
as well. And so a lot of the marketing books
518
00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:21.440
that I've read over the years, and webinars I've watched,
519
00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:23.400
and sort of you know, informal trainings that I've sort
520
00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:26.200
of followed, I've had to both in terms of the
521
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.759
English or the European audience. Though although over half our
522
00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:31.920
customers are in the US, but also the sectors that
523
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:35.920
were in right, it's like working with complex chronic illnesses.
524
00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:39.640
In the UK, there's what's called the Advertising Standards Association,
525
00:26:39.799 --> 00:26:42.200
and there's a whole load of things you just can't say,
526
00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:45.079
like you can't legally say that you're going to cure
527
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:48.759
someone of cancer, and rightly so, like unless you've got
528
00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:52.599
totally robust like randomized control trials, you shouldn't be able
529
00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:55.400
to come out and say those things. And so there's
530
00:26:55.440 --> 00:26:57.759
the sort of moral ethical side of it. There's also
531
00:26:57.799 --> 00:27:00.000
the legal side of it. I would say as well.
532
00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:03.960
It struck me in recent years as well that most
533
00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:07.039
of my friends and a number of my family are
534
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:09.920
also on my mailing list. It's because they've signed up
535
00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:12.000
for something that we've done at some point over the years.
536
00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:15.160
So kind of my litmus test is, am I okay
537
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:16.599
with everyone not in? Because you know, we do a
538
00:27:16.640 --> 00:27:19.200
lot of affiliate marketing like you do, Like, am I
539
00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:22.039
okay with everyone that I know reading this email? Am
540
00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.240
I okay with? And the most when I approve every
541
00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:28.559
email that goes out from our list, and it happens
542
00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:30.359
less now because the team are well trained on this,
543
00:27:30.519 --> 00:27:33.680
but nearly always the things that I change are toning
544
00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:37.400
down claims, right, So affiliates send us the proposed copy
545
00:27:37.799 --> 00:27:39.920
and you know, the team will basically rewrite it to
546
00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:42.279
make it more moderate and to make it more realistic.
547
00:27:42.799 --> 00:27:47.079
But what I've also found is beyond just like doing
548
00:27:47.079 --> 00:27:51.039
what's morally and ethically correct, there is huge power in
549
00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:56.279
authenticity as well. And because in our industry, almost more
550
00:27:56.279 --> 00:28:00.559
than any other industry, people are buying people. And if
551
00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.400
they feel that you're inauthentic, or they feel that you're
552
00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.359
full of bullshit, or they feel that you sort of
553
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:09.759
one minute you're endorsing this thing, in the next minute
554
00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:13.359
you're endorsing the completely opposite to that, then people don't
555
00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:16.519
trust you, you know. And to me, I would rather
556
00:28:16.839 --> 00:28:19.839
make a lot less money and have an audience that
557
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:22.599
actually trusts me, that wants to be around my work
558
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.319
for the coming decades and you know, just telling people
559
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.720
what they want to hear to make that short term money.
560
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:33.359
I remember back in my mid twenties and a little
561
00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:36.000
bit delicate how I tell this story, but my mentor
562
00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:39.400
who I did Knox some of my original therapeutic training with,
563
00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:43.799
developed a methodology for working that was applied in addition
564
00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:46.680
to other areas to working with amy chronic fatigue and
565
00:28:46.839 --> 00:28:49.680
made a lot of very inflated claims. What you do
566
00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:51.759
is you'd run a three day workshop, get people at
567
00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:53.680
a sort of peak moment at the end of three days,
568
00:28:53.920 --> 00:28:57.160
and then film the testimonials, and then all the testimonials
569
00:28:57.160 --> 00:28:59.680
are basically people on a post workshop high, and then
570
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:02.720
they were almost consistently have crashes afterwards, and then come
571
00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:05.039
to our clinic saying I felt great for three days
572
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:07.680
and now I feel worse than ever. And I really
573
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:10.960
saw this whole thing rise up. He made quite I
574
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:14.680
mean not, I wouldn't say huge amounts of insignificant money
575
00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:16.240
in the short term while I was running this sort
576
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.720
of struggling clinic. Picking up the after effect of this
577
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:22.400
but before being canceled, was a thing he basically got canceled,
578
00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:26.400
to the point that in the government guidelines around healthcare
579
00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:30.720
in this country, the methodology he created is explicitly stated
580
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:33.640
as something to avoid. And so it was a big
581
00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:36.039
thing for me in my twenties seeing my mental go
582
00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:38.759
down a path. I was like, I don't feel this
583
00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:42.160
is right. I feel that this is effectively lying to
584
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:44.759
people to get them to invest in something, and it's
585
00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:48.319
having real physical harm in their lives. I towed this
586
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:51.440
very moderate, measured, sort of middle of the road path.
587
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.640
But you know, not that it's it's a competition, but
588
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:56.720
my career is in a very different point at this
589
00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.200
to his because of that more authentic and more measured approb.
590
00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:04.960
Wonderful and very very luminating story. So I know one
591
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.279
of the things that really expanded your business was that
592
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:10.200
first Trauma super conference that you did before that you
593
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:13.400
did want on Fatigue, similar timing to our businesses, our
594
00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:15.960
first summit that really took off for heartmind. I'd been
595
00:30:15.960 --> 00:30:17.440
involved in a lot of the summits in the past
596
00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:20.880
with other people, but was also going into the pandemic
597
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:23.920
lockdowns in twenty twenty and our first summ at the
598
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:27.000
Global Resilience was successful. It wasn't as successful as your
599
00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:29.480
Trauma super conference, but it got us out of debt
600
00:30:29.480 --> 00:30:32.720
and got us rolling right. Our big summer came later
601
00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:36.680
in let's see twenty four, twenty three, twenty two, we
602
00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:38.839
had our first psychedelicas.
603
00:30:38.359 --> 00:30:40.200
Is going to site of psychideticcy, wasn't it yet?
604
00:30:40.279 --> 00:30:43.880
That was our first million dollar plus launch, right, and
605
00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:46.359
by then I was seasoned enough to not to expect
606
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:48.279
that I was just going to be repeating that, making
607
00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:49.960
it bigger and bigger every year. I knew it was
608
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.599
a timing thing and it wasn't likely to be as
609
00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:54.960
big the next year, which it wasn't. But when you
610
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:58.000
have those initial successes, you can really get stars in
611
00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:01.160
your eyes, right, But any rate, but these the Summits
612
00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:03.799
have been great business builders for us, and so I
613
00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:06.759
wondered if and again it's you know, there's a certain
614
00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:09.799
level of saturation now and I get approached constantly, and
615
00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:12.359
there's all kinds of people try to kind of duplicate
616
00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:15.039
what we're doing, and you know, which a natural no
617
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:18.319
resentment around that, and you know the cream will always
618
00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:20.880
rise to the top. But nonetheless I wanted if you
619
00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:25.200
could just talk about doing these large scale online conferences
620
00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:30.559
as a business building, list building, brand building vehicle. Yeah.
621
00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:34.559
Yeah, there's nothing really like it, I would say to
622
00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:38.240
really because the thing is all I think works so
623
00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:40.960
well about that model. If you've built the affiliate network
624
00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:43.960
to do this is you've got whatever it is, fifty
625
00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.440
speakers that all have their own mailing list, that are
626
00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:49.880
all promoting an event because they're speaking as part of
627
00:31:49.880 --> 00:31:52.480
the event, and there's nothing quite like that in terms
628
00:31:52.480 --> 00:31:54.400
of the buying of their audience that they want to
629
00:31:54.440 --> 00:31:56.400
see the person that they follow. But there's all these
630
00:31:56.400 --> 00:31:58.960
other great people speaking on that event. And if you
631
00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:02.200
have good interviews in good guests, and you make good content,
632
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:05.359
they are genuinely valuable places to learn.
633
00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:08.119
But then what you've got, you.
634
00:32:08.039 --> 00:32:10.079
Know, that first event we had, or second event, the
635
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:11.720
first trauma event, we had one hundred and eighty five
636
00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:14.359
thousand people on a mailing list, and then marketed my
637
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:16.799
twelve week online coaching program on the back of that,
638
00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:20.039
and you know, we've got hundreds and hundreds of people
639
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:23.480
then signing up into that program. And then our practitioner
640
00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:27.720
training program in therapeutic coaching, which had been around fifteen
641
00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:31.880
students a year for fifteen years, suddenly goes to sixty
642
00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:34.119
students a year to one hundred students a year to
643
00:32:34.279 --> 00:32:36.759
you know, and just kind of built from that point.
644
00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:39.400
What I will say, though, as a bit of a
645
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:41.599
note of caution, and something that's been part of my
646
00:32:41.720 --> 00:32:45.000
own sort of business reflections in very recent time, is
647
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:50.680
for us, the success of conferences has also bred a
648
00:32:50.759 --> 00:32:53.079
sort of laziness. Is not the wrong way, because we're
649
00:32:53.119 --> 00:32:57.279
anything but lazy, but maybe a complacency around other forms
650
00:32:57.400 --> 00:32:59.680
of lead generation into the business. So I was just
651
00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:02.759
doing an assis last week, and about sixty five to
652
00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:06.240
seventy percent of people that come into our practitioner training program,
653
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:10.079
their origin with our business is via a conference. So
654
00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:12.720
if you don't follow, if you don't sign up for
655
00:33:12.720 --> 00:33:15.240
online conferences, there's lots of people that are interested in
656
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:17.720
the stuff that just don't sign up for online conferences,
657
00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:22.400
you likely don't even really know that program exists. So
658
00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:24.000
one of the things that we've been trying to do
659
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:27.640
much more recently is go okay. Conferences are a really
660
00:33:27.680 --> 00:33:30.880
good acquisition channel for us, and particularly for us like you.
661
00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:35.240
We've built an infrastructure. You know, We've got video editors, transcribers,
662
00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:38.440
we've got the tech platform. So for us to make
663
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:40.759
each new content is a fraction of the work that
664
00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:43.359
it would be for someone that's doing that from scratch.
665
00:33:43.720 --> 00:33:46.440
But rather than seeing that as our business and going
666
00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:48.599
we're just a conference company that do some stuff on
667
00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:51.319
the back end, like the reset program and therapeutic coaching
668
00:33:51.319 --> 00:33:54.799
and so on, to see each of those businesses as
669
00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:58.599
their own business, where conferences are one of the ways
670
00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:01.720
that we generate clients, but we have hopefully four or
671
00:34:01.759 --> 00:34:05.200
five other ways of generating customers into those businesses to
672
00:34:05.359 --> 00:34:08.079
then de risk that dependence upon conferences.
673
00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:11.000
I think that's a very important point, and just overall,
674
00:34:11.039 --> 00:34:16.199
diversification of lead acquisition, customer acquisition, revenant and so fort's
675
00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:18.480
are really important in a business. And it's really easy
676
00:34:18.480 --> 00:34:20.679
to get stuck on one thing and think this is
677
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:23.159
going to keep working forever, right, But it never turns
678
00:34:23.199 --> 00:34:26.039
out that way, you know, unless you're I don't know
679
00:34:26.280 --> 00:34:29.599
McDonald's and you perfect that particularly deliverous system, and people
680
00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:32.280
seem to have an unending appetite for hamburgers and fries.
681
00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:34.320
But for most of us, we need to diversify.
682
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:37.079
I would also say, without I was sort of picking
683
00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:41.039
your metaphor, that business model works because McDonald's, Okay, they've
684
00:34:41.079 --> 00:34:42.559
got all the other stuff, you know, they've got the
685
00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:45.000
recipes and they've got the training and everything, but they're
686
00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:46.960
picking the right locations. As long as they get in
687
00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:50.400
the right locations and the brand stays relevant. Our problem
688
00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:54.400
is how we How you and I get customers is
689
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:58.480
primarily for affiliate marketing and through paid advertising. Affiliate marketing
690
00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:01.159
is a capped markets, a ceiling on the market because
691
00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:03.760
there's only probably I mean there's probably one hundred and
692
00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:05.880
two hundred filits we've worked with. There's probably only twenty
693
00:35:05.920 --> 00:35:09.280
or thirty that really drive meaningful traffic. And then you've
694
00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:11.280
got and we obviously, like you do work with all
695
00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.239
of those, and I know our partner barnship that just
696
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:14.840
talk to each other and like could you put us
697
00:35:14.840 --> 00:35:16.280
in touch with so and so, We'll put you in
698
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:20.239
touch with so and so. And then we're dependent upon
699
00:35:20.639 --> 00:35:24.880
the whims of Mark Zuckerberg and various other people about
700
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:27.400
what's happening with you know, and also the iOS update
701
00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:29.519
four or so years ago, which had a big impact
702
00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:35.199
as well. So we are vulnerable to to variables that
703
00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:37.559
we actually can't de risk. Well, we can't de risk
704
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:40.719
them directly. We de risk them by having multiple pathways.
705
00:35:41.119 --> 00:35:44.800
And that's challenging because when something's working. My mistake over
706
00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:46.480
the years has been once it's working, it's going to
707
00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:47.320
keep working forever.
708
00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:50.840
Just just day. With the large online conperence, is there
709
00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:53.840
any really online comperenses even smaller ones for a moment.
710
00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.800
So when you started yours, you had several decades of
711
00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:01.239
deep clinical experience behind you, and so you were a
712
00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:04.880
content expert and you were recruiting other content experts to
713
00:36:04.920 --> 00:36:08.280
have dialogues and create those conferences. Similar to you, I'm
714
00:36:08.320 --> 00:36:11.639
a generation ahead of you. I had five decades of
715
00:36:11.800 --> 00:36:15.880
experience in this field, and so when I started doing
716
00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:18.960
the same, I was a content expert having conversations with
717
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:21.920
other content experts. And actually I found this beakers really
718
00:36:21.960 --> 00:36:25.880
appreciate being interviewed by someone that knows what they're talking
719
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:28.880
about and is really able to be very conversational with
720
00:36:28.920 --> 00:36:31.760
the person's work and really the roots and the research
721
00:36:31.800 --> 00:36:35.079
behind someone's work and so forth. So, you know, more
722
00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:37.000
power to it if a young person can get out
723
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:39.119
there and start a summit and start interviewing people and
724
00:36:39.119 --> 00:36:41.320
build their credibility, as you said, kind of on the
725
00:36:41.360 --> 00:36:43.920
backs of their on their speakers, if they can figure
726
00:36:43.960 --> 00:36:45.920
out how to do that. But I think it really
727
00:36:45.960 --> 00:36:48.239
is if one wants to do this in a genuine way.
728
00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:52.039
I think it really is important to try to figure
729
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:55.679
out some alignment between who one is and what one's
730
00:36:55.760 --> 00:36:58.599
learning in one's experience and kind of working your way
731
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:02.840
into that. The things we're thinking of doing in business
732
00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:05.519
terms is I've always had the idea that where we've
733
00:37:05.559 --> 00:37:08.000
gotten pretty good about putting on these summits, we should
734
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:10.400
trade other people to do so. I had a reluctance
735
00:37:10.440 --> 00:37:12.599
because the last thing we need is more competitors. Right.
736
00:37:12.679 --> 00:37:15.159
It's kind to what it is it is, but I
737
00:37:15.199 --> 00:37:18.199
think there could be a good business strategy for people
738
00:37:18.199 --> 00:37:19.679
that you know, a lot of times in the world
739
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:22.719
of marketing, you really encourage the niche down, really niche down,
740
00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:26.920
because the narrow your niches, the less competition there is,
741
00:37:26.960 --> 00:37:29.599
and the easier it is to dominate that niche. You know,
742
00:37:29.639 --> 00:37:32.000
I did a lot of training with Jeff Walker, as
743
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:34.039
many people did. It was one of the authorities in
744
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:37.400
this field, and he really emphasizes that, and he has
745
00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:40.079
examples of people students of his in market who have
746
00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:44.920
niches that are just so obscure that you're surprised. But
747
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:47.840
you know, it's a global market and even in its
748
00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:50.920
obscure little I remember one example was I think this
749
00:37:51.119 --> 00:37:54.599
was from the UK, someone who was teaching women to
750
00:37:54.679 --> 00:37:59.280
sew and make sort of Victorian clothing, right, and so
751
00:37:59.360 --> 00:38:01.320
you think that it's a pretty narrow niche, but it
752
00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:03.719
turns out there's at least several million people in the
753
00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:07.639
world interested in it, and this woman had a seven
754
00:38:07.679 --> 00:38:11.440
figure business doing that right by really niching down. So
755
00:38:11.840 --> 00:38:15.239
I'm thinking about possibly, you know, developing a program to
756
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:18.199
train people that use online some mus but in a
757
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:22.079
very narrow niche down way to build their market and
758
00:38:22.079 --> 00:38:25.119
build their credibility and so forth. So anyway, I think
759
00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:26.920
there are a lot of possibilities to go with the
760
00:38:26.960 --> 00:38:29.360
model that you and I have kind of built our
761
00:38:29.440 --> 00:38:32.800
businesses on. But of course we need to expand, as
762
00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:36.360
you said, and I'm wondering we've kind of been talking
763
00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:39.119
about this already a little bit, but you know, you
764
00:38:39.119 --> 00:38:42.159
you've been building Optimum Health Clinic for decades. You've been
765
00:38:42.199 --> 00:38:45.079
training other clinicians to build out that business, so it
766
00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:48.519
wasn't just you and your probably partner doing it. Then
767
00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:51.239
your business kind of really accelerated with the first big
768
00:38:51.360 --> 00:38:54.920
Trauma superconference, and you've now had to deal with all
769
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:57.960
the issues of scaling a business and building teams and
770
00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:00.440
getting as you said, getting the right people in their seats,
771
00:39:00.440 --> 00:39:02.079
are finding out you have the wrong people in the
772
00:39:02.119 --> 00:39:04.920
wrong seats. So what are some of the struggles that
773
00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:07.239
you've dealt with in scaling? And you know, it's like
774
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:12.639
what will allow us to be a really successful startup entrepreneur,
775
00:39:13.239 --> 00:39:16.079
to get some passionate idea out into the world and
776
00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:19.599
start having success. Doing so is not the same thing
777
00:39:19.639 --> 00:39:22.199
that will help us scale a business to the next level.
778
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:25.119
In fact, sometimes we're not even the right person to
779
00:39:25.199 --> 00:39:27.440
do that. I mean, most of us have to keep
780
00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:30.199
transforming ourselves to keep going for a while till we
781
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:32.039
get to that point where if we want to hire
782
00:39:32.079 --> 00:39:34.519
a CEO, we could do that. But for most of us,
783
00:39:34.519 --> 00:39:37.000
we have to take a journey and keep reinventing ourselves
784
00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:39.920
to be able to effectively manage our business at the
785
00:39:39.960 --> 00:39:41.679
next level of scale. So I wonder if you could
786
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:44.079
talk about that journey a little bit for yourself, how
787
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:44.760
it's been for you.
788
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:50.239
Yeah, really hot, I'm quite pakful. I think the challenge
789
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:53.960
is that, so I tried business partnerships for a long time,
790
00:39:54.239 --> 00:39:58.000
and I only had bad experiences in the round. You know,
791
00:39:58.119 --> 00:40:00.639
I had good moments and I had, you know, people
792
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:03.519
that I really enjoyed working with in business partners but
793
00:40:04.039 --> 00:40:07.360
in the end, I always found that I worked harder
794
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:11.719
and I took more responsibility. Therefore disproportionate amounts of work
795
00:40:11.840 --> 00:40:14.000
ended up on my plate. And in the end, although
796
00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:16.519
I'm a pretty easy going guy, I would get resentful
797
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:20.480
and frustrated with it. And so about on the back
798
00:40:20.519 --> 00:40:23.159
of the first Trauma conference, actually, and you know that,
799
00:40:23.239 --> 00:40:25.199
you know, put me in a cash rich position for
800
00:40:25.199 --> 00:40:27.800
the first time in really in my life. For that scale,
801
00:40:28.280 --> 00:40:30.679
I had a bunch of investors in one of the businesses.
802
00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:33.559
I bought all those investors out. I had gifted the
803
00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:36.039
clinic to a registered charity and it sat under that
804
00:40:36.159 --> 00:40:38.800
charity for about it was about seven years, and it
805
00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:42.400
really floundered under the charity. It needed cash injection, it
806
00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:45.480
needed leadership. So having gifted it for nothing, I bought
807
00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:47.559
it back for a six figure sum so I could
808
00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:49.559
bring it back and make it what I believed it
809
00:40:49.599 --> 00:40:54.679
could become. And these days I have one hundred percent ownership.
810
00:40:54.960 --> 00:40:56.480
Well my wife is a very sign of partner, but
811
00:40:56.519 --> 00:40:59.400
effectively have one hundred percent ownership and control of my
812
00:40:59.559 --> 00:41:02.360
entire business group. And that's what works for me. And
813
00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:05.400
I have three of the most senior leaders in the
814
00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:07.800
business have all worked with me for over fifteen years.
815
00:41:08.119 --> 00:41:11.800
So these are long standing friendships and you know, partnerships,
816
00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:15.599
and they're well paid, well looked after, but I own
817
00:41:15.639 --> 00:41:20.239
the businesses, and they all have seen the level of pressure, stress,
818
00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:23.440
risk that I've took over the years, and have never
819
00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:25.519
in the end resented the fact that they didn't want
820
00:41:25.559 --> 00:41:27.719
that bit. What they wanted was to do what they
821
00:41:27.760 --> 00:41:30.920
loved and have the predictability and the guarantee of a
822
00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:33.639
well paid salary regardless of what was happening in the
823
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:36.440
overall picture. So that's how I've ended up doing it.
824
00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:40.079
In terms of partnerships, in terms of bringing in people.
825
00:41:40.760 --> 00:41:44.320
I know this sounds terrible. I no longer really trust
826
00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:47.079
my own judgment in terms of hiring the most senior
827
00:41:47.159 --> 00:41:50.280
roles in the business. So these days, whereas I used
828
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:53.039
to rather arrogantly go I know what I'm doing and
829
00:41:53.159 --> 00:41:55.559
made a number of poor choices over the years, these
830
00:41:55.639 --> 00:41:58.679
days I really have a trusted, robust process of bringing
831
00:41:58.719 --> 00:42:03.519
in sometimes external advisors, using internal advisors. And you know
832
00:42:03.559 --> 00:42:07.239
that very cliches saying of higher slowly and fire quickly
833
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:10.039
is something that I really live by these days, because
834
00:42:10.039 --> 00:42:14.320
when you get the wrong person in a senior role
835
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:17.519
in your business when it's a relatively small business, you know,
836
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:20.239
if you've got to hundreds of millions of turnover business,
837
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:22.440
you can maneuver those people around and you can afford
838
00:42:22.519 --> 00:42:24.719
to carry the dead weight. But when you're in a
839
00:42:24.760 --> 00:42:28.360
sort of you know, sort of millions of revenue, or
840
00:42:28.360 --> 00:42:31.159
maybe if you're in the tens of millions, so much
841
00:42:31.199 --> 00:42:32.360
destruction can be done.
842
00:42:32.440 --> 00:42:32.519
Now.
843
00:42:32.559 --> 00:42:34.840
I'm not saying sorry, they're bad people or dishonest people,
844
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.440
just the wrong person in the wrong role. And that
845
00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:41.119
has been these days. I am incredibly careful about who
846
00:42:41.159 --> 00:42:43.719
I place in the at least, you know, more junior roles.
847
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:47.840
Obviously the impact is reduced, but finding those people is
848
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:49.920
really hard, really hard.
849
00:42:50.199 --> 00:42:51.920
Well, we're kind of here at the end of our
850
00:42:51.960 --> 00:42:54.079
time and this has been incredibly illuminating that so many
851
00:42:54.119 --> 00:42:56.800
other questions I'd like to ask you and to continue on.
852
00:42:57.159 --> 00:42:59.000
So our audience is going to find out more about
853
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:00.800
you and about your work. And I know you have
854
00:43:00.840 --> 00:43:03.199
a marketing program that you do once a year and
855
00:43:03.360 --> 00:43:05.199
you have a pre gift offer, So tell us about
856
00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:07.599
where they can find out more about your work and
857
00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:08.599
about that offer.
858
00:43:09.079 --> 00:43:13.039
Yeah, thankfully. The best place to go is Alexhoward dot com.
859
00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:18.599
Forward Slash Heartmind created a download page for people attending
860
00:43:18.599 --> 00:43:21.280
this event, where you can sign up for a free
861
00:43:21.519 --> 00:43:25.480
one hour webinar with me where I walk you through
862
00:43:26.119 --> 00:43:30.360
my key business lessons, particularly in the context of authentic marketing.
863
00:43:30.440 --> 00:43:34.039
So if you're looking how to communicate yourself and your
864
00:43:34.119 --> 00:43:38.039
voice in the world to scale your lead generation, but
865
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:40.000
do it in a way that feels authentic to you,
866
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:42.000
then if you sign up for this webinar, then you'll
867
00:43:42.039 --> 00:43:44.320
get the best of my experience around that. So it's
868
00:43:44.360 --> 00:43:47.719
just Alex Howard dot com forward slash heartmind wonderful.
869
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:49.840
And also at Alex Howard dot com they can find
870
00:43:49.840 --> 00:43:52.119
out about all your other work and the conferences and
871
00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:55.760
everything else. Yeah, wonderful, Well, thank you so much. Alex Howard.
872
00:43:56.280 --> 00:43:58.679
Is always a joy to have these conversations with you,
873
00:43:58.719 --> 00:44:03.360
and I really appreciate our interrelated business endeavors and so forth.
874
00:44:03.400 --> 00:44:05.800
It's it's a joy to be in the entrepreneurial space
875
00:44:05.840 --> 00:44:06.079
with you.
876
00:44:06.599 --> 00:44:07.199
Oh bless you.
877
00:44:07.199 --> 00:44:07.440
Flee.
878
00:44:07.480 --> 00:44:10.559
I often says if people would be amazed how good
879
00:44:10.559 --> 00:44:13.280
of friends you can be with and how collaborative you
880
00:44:13.320 --> 00:44:16.599
can be with your direct competitors. But I very much
881
00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:19.880
enjoy our friendship and our collaborations and the way that
882
00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:22.519
we've managed to make the pond bigger rather than fighting
883
00:44:22.559 --> 00:44:25.280
over things. Then Yeah, I very much enjoy and appreciate
884
00:44:25.320 --> 00:44:25.920
our friendship.
885
00:44:26.360 --> 00:44:30.000
Really be well. Taking radical responsibility for our lives means
886
00:44:30.039 --> 00:44:32.920
taking action, and today you can start by helping us
887
00:44:32.960 --> 00:44:36.760
grow this community. If these insights into healing and transformation
888
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:40.800
have served you, please subscribe on YouTube and follow us
889
00:44:40.800 --> 00:44:45.159
on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. While you're there, leave us
890
00:44:45.159 --> 00:44:48.519
a review. It takes thirty seconds, but it's the most
891
00:44:48.519 --> 00:44:51.800
powerful way to help our message reach someone else seeking
892
00:44:51.920 --> 00:44:55.039
deeper self awareness. Thank you for being part of the
893
00:44:55.119 --> 00:44:59.239
journey towards lasting change. Thank you for joining me on
894
00:44:59.320 --> 00:45:03.440
the radicalsk Responsibility podcasts. Remember, real change happens when we
895
00:45:03.480 --> 00:45:06.480
commit to our growth, face our challenges with compassion, and
896
00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:09.880
stay open to transformation. If you found this episode helpful,
897
00:45:10.119 --> 00:45:12.559
I encourage you to subscribe and help us spread the
898
00:45:12.599 --> 00:45:16.599
message of healing and personal empowerment. Stay grounded, stay present,
899
00:45:16.760 --> 00:45:18.559
and stay true to you. Take care,