Building a Life on Your Own Terms with Alexander Seery

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Welcome to the Pet Grooming Business Podcast with me, Bill Betts, where we give practical business advice to help you grow your pet grooming business. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay, the low rate payment app that gives you more. So, without further ado, let's get going.

Right, welcome, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of our podcast. I am joined by friend and mentor, Alex Siri. Welcome, Alex. Thanks, Bill. Good to see you. How are you? I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, thank you. Adjusting to being a dad. But yeah, this. The sleepless nights are over now, thank goodness. Onwards and upwards. It can only get better. Yeah. So you've joined me today following a question that I asked you. You obviously, or maybe introduce yourself first to people that don't know you. That would be a good place to start, wouldn't it?

Sure, yeah. So my name's Alex. I think start off my journey, you know. I joined Nottinghamshire Police in 2012 versus a special and then I moved into custody as a detention officer. Always wanted to be kind of a regular growing up and that was the kind of transition, the stepping stone from special to do to regular. But to be honest, when I was surrounded by cops on a more regular basis, I started to realize that potentially accruing the job wasn't the best outcome for my life. And the reason for that is just because I could see many of my colleagues at the time that, you know, they're not happy, they were miserable, they weren't seeing their families enough, they were complaining about their wages, the pension changes.

And I just thought if I go down this route, I'm probably going to end up like, like them. So instead I decided to go into business. At 24, 25 years old, went into business with no experience, financially broke at the time, had never started anything like that. E and decides going to property.

So I joined a property mentorship program is like £18,000 plus VAT. Signed up to that and within long story short, 18 months on, I was able to accumulate over a million pounds in property assets and multi six figure income business from that. So that was enough for me to resign from the job. And then in 2018 we launched Shifts to Success, which is a business training company that helped excellent serving police officers and nurses and fire as well to actually start and scale successful businesses. And the reason for that is because a lot of people in the public sector feel trapped, institutionalized.

They know there's a better life out there, but they don't know the steps in order to take to get there. So we launched that in 2018 and the results have been phenomenal. We've helped clients build multi six figure businesses, reduce their medication due to the mental health implications they've gone through. People have relocated near their dream house near the sea. People have come, industry niche leaders won awards, but ultimately living healthier and happier lives. So we've been doing that for, you know, since 2018 and recently, well, for the last two years we've been trading the financial markets and we launched Trade to success in August 2004, sorry, 2024.

And that's been going amazingly well and I'm loving, loving doing that in a minute as well. So we're busy and obviously being a father for the first time, definitely busy. And yeah, that's a bit of a background who I am and what the. The question I asked you, we were chatting, weren't we, and, and I sort of said like you got, you've built this wealth, you've built wealth within your, within your family. And I love the saying that, you know, you grew up in poverty but you, you decided to stop that now and your, your kids and family aren't going to grow up in property.

That's, that sort of resonates with me quite a lot. Yeah, I, I can, there's a, there's a, there's a quote out there I can't remember. It might be Robert Kiyosaki who says poverty is hereditary, right? And what he means by that, and I can see it, even having conversations with certain people, is that typically we are passed on knowledge, or lack of knowledge in this case from parents and teachers who we typically listen to because we've either got a connection with them or they love us, they care for us, right?

So we take mum and dad's advice, we take teachers advice because they're the people we typically look up to. But I've always kind of questioned that, right? So if I want to be wealthy and financially independent, why would I take advice from someone who's not got that, right? So what happens is typically, you know, mum and dad or grandparents are poor and not wealthy and they will give advice onto their kids, which in our case would be our parents, which would like get a safe, secure job, you know, go to university, you know, go into the, the pension, right, the, the, the job pension and then that advice they get from their parents gets passed on to us, right?

And all it is, is a, it's a advice that's passed on through the generations, but as time goes on, the world changes. So that advice then becomes redundant, right? Because New technologies come out, et cetera. But the principle stands alone is that why would we take advice from someone who hasn't got the result that we want to achieve? So instead of me listening to school teachers, and I was a bit of a nightmare in school lesson school teachers or, you know, my parents, instead I listen to wealthy millionaires, right?

So I listened to, I invested in the property program, as I discussed. I joined business programs, I've joined trading programs because I'm willing to speed up my process to learn from people who have got the result that I want. And I want to make sure that now I've had a son that I am that stoppage to say this ends with me and now I can pass on my knowledge, which. Richness and wealth also becomes hereditary as well. So it's not passed on through assets either. So I'm not trying to say, you know, I'm going to give my son millions of pounds as I get old and die, although that could be an option.

The key thing is knowledge. The passing the knowledge is passed on through education, not assets. Okay, so he knows now how to build wealth via index funds, or if he wants to go into property investment or if he wants to trade the markets, at least he has that passed down from someone who's actually got those results. Yeah, that's really interesting. And on that, Josh. I was on holiday last week and Josh, My youngest, who's 12, I'm part of training. Success, success. And I was looking at a potential setup.

And Josh was like, oh, are you trading now? And I was like, yeah, we're in a trade now, Josh. He's like, how much are you winning? And I'm like, well, we don't know yet. And he said, oh, if you win out, if you win £3,000, would you give me like a half of it? And I said, actually, Josh, if I win £3,000 or $3,000 on this, I'd be better. Like you said, I'd be better off teaching you how to trade than actually just giving you fifteen hundred dollars from that.

Because what's the saying, if you give someone a loaf of bread, they can eat for a day, but if you teach them how to make bread, they can eat forever? Or. Yeah, yeah, you give a man a fish, she'll eat, for example. Yeah, each man. Yeah, that's exactly true. So true. And you know, the way I look at this, you're. You're a father of two boys.

I, I truly believe, although he's my son's my son, I'm also teaching him to be someone's husband one day. And I'm also teaching him to be someone's father one day. Right. So he's going to grow up and have his own family one day. And I come from the belief that a father should protect and provide for their family. And I think by teaching your son the, the skills of training or business, because you're successful in business as well, is that's far more valuable than just giving them money which they may not value because they've not earned the skill to actually create that value for themselves in terms of.

Terms of money. So I'm completely in alignment with you there. Completely. That's another really interesting point because I was reading the other day in a book and it's about earning your right to wealth and it's about. And the author sort of said a lot of people that win the lottery struggle with millions of pounds and they often get rid of it really, really quickly because they haven't earned the right to be wealthy. They haven't gone through the process, they haven't done the learning, the mindset work to become wealthy.

Yep, very true. The stats out there say that people who win the lottery typically, whether it's five to 10 years, will, won't have anywhere near that money by the time that time passes. Same with athletes as well. So NBA star players or NFL players, they're typically poor with money because it's like a cash. They come from poverty a lot of the time, cash injection, they have this lifestyle of spending on the yachts, the watches, the, the cars, etc, because they don't understand the concept of, you know, assets versus liabilities.

But also it's a bit different with kind of athletes because they've worked for it to get there. But with millionaires, especially from lottery winners, they, they. It's just luck, right? It's just they just landed to have luck and unfortunately they don't value that money as much, whereas when you work for it, it typically lasts a lot longer. I think actually when you look back at maybe reality stars like the T, the TV reality stars that grew up on council states and they've grown up from nothing and they've become a big.

You see a lot of them going through the press, through bankruptcy and losing large amounts of money or forgetting to pay their VAT bills, stuff like that, and that's probably the same situation, isn't it? They've found themselves in a situation where they've been given a lot of wealth through what they've done on tv, but then actually earned the Right. To have that or know how to manage that. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Low pay is half the price of sum up and Zettle. So you keep more of the money that you earn.

Rates start at 0.79%. Yeah, that's one concept. I also believe that in that social circle that you, you will typically have a standard to look at. Yeah. Successful look like you're doing well. So you know, in that kind of social circle they'll have the nice cars, the big house, etc, maybe the big, the big ring, the, you know, the, the, the, the luxuries of life. Right. Because they're in that social circle. But you know, there's a comment who said this, but true wealth can't be seen. Right.

So you know, for me, like I, I, I, I could afford a Rolex watch, but I don't value anymore. Right. I could afford a, you know, a nicer car. I've got a nice car now, but I, you couldn't, you know, I could get a better one, but I just simply don't value that. Why? Value is freedom. So what people don't see is the, you know, the considerable amount of money that I've put into clearing off my mortgage. Right. And what they don't see is the, you know, a considerable amount I've put into investments to make sure I continue my freedom and make sure I'm building my wealth.

So people always spend on what they value and if people value status in terms of their social circle, then they'll put their money there. Watches, Lamborghinis, etc, whereas people value freedom, they'll do the actions that follow the freedom, like investing, clearing off debt and ultimately, you know, living a, you don't have to be a frugal life. I think, you know, that can be a negative. But living a life, you know, not, not spending more than you earn, let's put it say it that way. Do you have a definition of wealth?

Do you have like a defined. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think my definition of wealth is ultimately comes down to freedom when it comes to a financial number, I think. So when I look at someone's expenditure, so let's say they're, you know, they're spending two grand a month on expenditure. If they've got assets that give them more than 2k a month, that paying them typically passively as well because you're not working for this active income and there's a passive income, their passive income is exceeding their expenditure, then they're free.

Right? They're free in that regard. I also Think context is important. So the average earner in the UK, I think is around £36,000, maybe a bit more. Now if we look at the 36,000 and compare that to the rest of the world, people would be looking at us thinking we're very, very wealthy at 36 grand. But in the UK, it's average. Right. So there's also context that goes into it. All right. When it comes to social circles as well, I think that could be a big impact.

So this can go two ways. It can go, right? I'm gonna try and look successful to fit in this social circle, or the other one is actually my social circle. That's making me feel uncomfortable. So it's actually going to accelerate me in doing the actions that are actually going to help me to become more wealthy. So in summary, I think it all comes down to freedom. Living a wealthy life for me is doing what you want when you want as much as you want. You know, the ability to say to my fiance, you don't, you don't have to work, right?

So when she had our baby, you don't have to work. Like you can be a stay at home mom. That's to me, if I want to spend 2 o' clock in the afternoon or whenever with some time with my son, I can do so because that's wealth to me, that's freedom. Or if I want to go and play golf randomly, I can do that. So I think freedom of choice is a big thing. And I don't know if you've read this book though, but there's a book called the Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel I believe, and he says there's a, there's a study in, I think the 1800s, or correct me if I'm wrong, it might be the 1900s, but the common denominator of happiness in all of our lives through this study was the freedom of choice.

When people have, don't have freedom of choice and people are forced to do things they don't want to do, that's when unhappiness and problems start to arise. So, yeah, for me it could, you know, freedom of choice and tie into that health as well. I think health's very important. It's really interesting, isn't it? And I was very much, you know, 18 years in the police, I was very much the company man, get a pension and obviously I met you in 2020 and just completely sort of shifted my whole perspective in life looking at wealth generation and wealth building and it's frustrating, isn't it?

Why this isn't taught at school, you know, why isn't this a few lessons? Just touch on it now. We're going down a rabbit hole. I'll take you down that rabbit hole. I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, right? So me, me and my fiance Sophie, we are more than open minded to homeschooling our boy and future children, hopefully the school system. And there's a great famous quote by John D. Rockefeller that said, we want a nation not of thinkers, but a nation of workers, right? So I believe the school system is created to design worker bees or workers, right?

So it's no coincidence that school is Monday to Friday. Raise your hand to speak if you want to go to the toilet, ask, right? Don't work together, don't cheat on this test, but live a successful life, free life.

You shouldn't be doing any of those things. You know, we think outside the box as entrepreneurs and business owners. We work in cooperation with people, we model success, right? We do all these things that school says not to do. And I also think there's an authoritative state of it as well where schools, teachers will maybe tell kids off and create an authority around it. And I get that from a disability if they're doing really naughty things and of course, but when it's things like doing research on the Internet for their school test, et cetera, and they're getting told off for that, well, you're teaching kids skills they're probably going to be using in the real world anyway.

And the issue that I find is that we're getting taught these skills a way to think to then get us prepared to take on debt. In me, 18 years old, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was immature, I was silly, I was doing things that I wouldn't even dream of doing now, right? So you're telling an 18 year old, right? Pick a career, take out debt. Oh, and by the way, we're going to be interest on that debt. So then when you come to get a job, in fact, if you get a job, if you get a job for this degree, okay, then you're going to become essentially a wage slave so you can pay back this degree and the interest.

And we don't care about your mental health or how you're affecting that life. Now don't forget, we are still developing through our 20s, our 30s, right? We're growing all the time. So given an 18 year old that horrible responsibility of saying, right, what do you want to do? And the pressure, the social pressure of saying you're Going to go to university to then get a good job, I think is ridiculous. I have no degrees to my name. I dropped out of sixth form college. I was, you know, so a cheeky class clown in school and I've done very well for myself.

Degrees, get you a job if there's jobs available, because there's a lot of technology coming out that's going to make those jobs redundant, whereas skills, high, valuable skills, change your life and give you freedom. So I truly believe that the school system is designed to create worker bees rather than actually free thinkers to create their own wealth. Right. And I think that comes down from the government in August and you know. Even going back to year nine, which is sort of 12, 13 years old, you asked to do your choices for which Jesus is to do and stuff.

What, so at 18, you're a bit like a bit of a rogue and directionist. What was there, is there a. For me, I'd say my turning point was joining shift success and meeting you, you know, that's, that's transformed my life for the last five years. Is there a moment in your life when you're younger where you just go, that was it. And that's what mine happened at 21. So when I unfortunately. So my dad left at. When I was 10 years old. Not a bad person, but a bad dad.

Yes. He didn't just turn up, but as I've got older, comes to realize that actually my mum was a not a nice person. And then as I've grown old as a man, I kind of understand where my dad's coming from. Right. It was very hard, you know, that she would use me and my brother against him. You know, she changed our surnames, you know, she would, you know, my dad worked two jobs, you know, it was very much like that. Okay. So unfortunately my relationship with my mother wasn't great as I grew up.

Didn't have a dad, a role model to look up to, or I did have a role, but it's my uncle. My uncle basically kept me on the straight and narrow. But when it came to 21 years old, I was in a bad area of my life. 19 to 21 was. It was a terrible area. So at this point, unfortunately, this was pre police, by the way. So I was unfortunately going out getting the fights a lot. Right. I would get up to trouble, right. Not criminal activity, but I'd get into the odd scuffle, fights, didn't really have care in the world, didn't have any ambition.

And then there was a low point where unfortunately me and my mom had a big argument and unfortunately I was kicked out. So I was essentially homeless. Now at this point I was dating a girl who I stayed with for 10, 10 years in fact. And I lived with her for, for a little bit and her mom. But the shame, the embarrassment, the, you know, the anger and victim mindset that came into my mind then from I've been born into this situation, I wasn't asked to be born and my mum has no love for us.

And I, you know, I see all these loving mums out there who are doing an amazing job. So I've got not, I've not got a mum. My dad is not on the scene and thankfully my uncle was there, but he's still not my dad, right, he's my uncle. Even though, you know, I look at him as a dad and his, you know, been a hero to me.

So at this point I was a very low point. And this at this point as well, I decided enough was enough and I wanted to be so far removed, the complete opposite of my mom. And I googled how to become rich. This is a true story, how to become rich. Because at that point I was like, right, if I can get, get out of this situation, then it would change my life. And I knew money because I was broke at this time would change my situation. So googled how to become rich by a book called Napoleon Hill.

Came up Think and Grow Rich. And I read that book and that's when I first realized, why has no one taught me this way of thinking? And then that led into the Secret, which is a bit fluffy, but I get what he's trying to say. And then it read into other books like the success principles like from Jack Canfield and the Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins. And all of a sudden I was on this personal development journey, so thinking very different. And then I started to realize my peer group wasn't good for me, right?

My thinking on being a victim wasn't good for me. My thinking and jealousy to other people who had success and I hadn't. All these things started to fit into place. And then what was doing. Now in hindsight, I can say this, it was building up this confidence in me to take risk. And when I took that risk on the property program, that was my out. That was my, you know, that was my go for it. So for me it was probably the, the realization of thinking grow think and grow rich.

That was my big introduction to the world of personal development. And it's changed my mind so much. You know, it really, really Has, Yeah. And it. One thing I noticed when I joined Shift Success was books. And one thing. Obviously you quote a lot of authors and you're seeing something on Instagram or something a while ago and I messaged you because you'd put a picture of reading a book and it was like 8 o' clock in the evening. And I messaged you, went, yeah. You don't watch tv, do you read?

And this is really alien to me. So every night me and Emma sort of sit down and watch Netflix or watch tv and it's like our family norm. But I was thinking, hold on, Alex, do you have a tv? Do you watch tv? And you're like, no, I read books. I'm like, oh my God.

You know, do adults do this? So something I say to my clients when I'm coaching them is like, what do entrepreneurs and people that we look up to do differently to what we do? And something that always sticks out for me is how you read.

You read all the time, don't you? You're always reading and you can tell from, you know, everything that's coming out. Yeah, I think it's very important because it's the catalyst that helped change my life. If we want to change our thinking, you've got to bear in mind we've come from school, you know, secondary school. We've had conversations from people who typically aren't successful up until this point. So to rewire our brain, the low hanging fruit is books. They're not expensive and also they're written typically by people who've done something amazing with their lives.

Right. So it was a low hanging fruit for me is what I had access to. I continue that reading, even if I take one thing from it. I think it's beneficial sometimes. Why people don't like reading is because the world now, unfortunately, is filled with instant gratification. You know, we have TikTok, we have Instagram, we have, you know, tv. And by the way, I do watch TV sometimes. I'm not like a complete isolate. But yeah, I read that out YouTube. So I would, you know, I can remember one instance, Jim Rohn, who is an amazing speaker and he was the mentor of Tony Robbins and there's another speaker called Les Brown.

And I would listen to them over and over again and I just, it was just sinking into my subconscious and, you know, my thought process was changing. So yeah, there's reading books, conversations you have with people. So, you know, I, I don't gossip. So like there's sometimes there's, there's gossips that happen in social circles. So I like to keep my circle very small. I can count the amount of close friends I have on one hand. So I don't do that. I, I don't, you know, I don't.

Here's a big one. Especially in the uk, we typically have this tall poppy syndrome where someone's doing well in life, you know, we want to cut them down and make sure everyone's the same length or safe, same kind of height. In America, it's completely different. It's very entrepreneurial, very like go for it kind of thing. But I've noticed in the UK that sometimes in, especially coming from the police force, so if you start doing well, actually get some crabby comments. Whereas my thinking is if I see someone who's successful, I love it.

I absolutely love it. And I always think, what can I learn from this person? Instead of hating on them, instead of getting jealous, what can I learn from this individual? What have they done that I've, I've not done? What are they doing that I could do better? And I think if people came from that mindset, that be a lot further along as well.

Sorry, we were talking about this last night, me and Emma. So a staff member's father in law comes and uses our dog groomers. Yeah. And he's an entrepreneur, business owner himself. Yeah. Quibbles on the price. And Emma's like, he just doesn't see that the money that he's paying is providing a job to his daughter in law. You know, he can't just say, yeah, thank you for, for doing the haircut. You know, you're worth every penny. Yeah. It's always like quibbling, always like, oh, it's a bit expensive, isn't it?

Oh yeah. You're just not seeing the bigger picture here. Your money is helping to pay for your daughter in law's. Yeah. Job. Yeah. People look at the pain that this, the, you know, this is what I'm paying now, not what's ultimately going to happen. They, it's like chess. Right. People can't think typically three steps forward. And the bigger picture, because they see me handing over this money is causing me a bit of frustration and they. The double down on that rather than thinking of the, the outcome.

Yeah. So we're in a telly, which is good. But I was thinking actually reading and watching YouTube is you're not actually exposed to that mainstream media and the mainstream advertising, you know, the cars that are pushed down your throat, the credit card adverts, the, you know, take on more debt, take on more debt, take on more debt sort of stuff. Yeah. You're not exposed to that. So again, that stops you from having that mindset of keeping up with the neighbors and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Literally, that's, that's one thing I've never.

So in my, in my peer group, when I was in my 20s, I'd probably have more of that as a, as a status thing. But now I really don't have that issue. I don't have that issue with, you know, getting things for the sake of looking successful. Right. I, I don't, I don't want to focus on me and my family and actually investing into things that true to my, to my value. Another thing is news. Sometimes people come to me and say, oh, have you heard about so and so?

I'm like, nope, don't even know. I don't even know because I know there's nothing I can do about what's happening in the news. And all it's going to make me feel is something sad. It's going to feel me resentment, negativity. And I don't think that's healthy for me to run businesses, trade, you know, be a father, etc. I want to create an environment of positivity and then the world is full of beautiful people and there's more good than bad. And although there's bad things that happen, ultimately the good way out, the good.

The good way out, the bad. So there's things like that I don't do. I don't care about, you know, Rolex watches or anything like that. And with that being said, you know, if that changes, then I'll buy one. But right now, at 35 years old, I'm focused on being a dad. I'm focusing on building wealth. You know, these are the best years to, to build my wealth. And yeah, that's where my head's at. The minute that's where my head's at. Yeah. So when, when did you start to find your purpose?

Because the question I asked you a while ago was like, so you're making this, you're, you're making this money semi passively. I wouldn't say property passive, definitely not passive. I know you're busy with like tenants and running properties and deals. Trading, you know, is a skill and is, I suppose, semi passive again. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's classed as active income, but it's because you literally clicking buttons, but it's very leveraged is. So my question was right, why do you still work? Why do you still run businesses.

Why, why do it? You know, you can make money now when you sleep with your investments and stuff like that. But. And you're like, it's all about the purpose. Yeah. So there's, there's two ways of looking this. And, you know, some people might get this, especially as a, you know, an educator or a coach, you know, people might come through, right? If someone's making great money, why would they coach or mentor, etc. And I always like to, you know, put this back to them is, if Gordon Ramsay is such a phenomenal chef, why does he sell cookbooks?

Or why do driving instructors sell driving lessons? Right. What is Tiger woods arguably one of the best golfers in the world? He is the best golfer in the bloody world. Who I was. Why, why did he. Why does he sell merchandise? Right. Why does he help other younger kids with golf? It's because it comes down to purpose. There's profit, which is very important, that pays for the bills, that gives us the ability to feed our children and go on nice memories, etc. But it also comes down to purp.

Now, sometimes when people haven't got financial success, they'll look at these very successful people and go, they're greedy. Tax them more, right? They shouldn't have that amount of money. But I actually look at it is the, the mo. The people who have the most money in terms of, you know, business and entrepreneurship is that they've added the most value into the world. When I look at Jeff Bezos, he's a billionaire. Whether you love him or hate him, he has touched billions of people's lives around the world through Amazon.

Mark Zuckerberg, whether you love him or hate him, he's touched billions of people's lives around the world. Now, profit is one thing to give us the life we want and to feed our kids, utilities, let the house running. But purpose gives us a feeling that profit can't have, can't give us, should I say, but it's very hard to use. You can't make a bigger impact if you're not making profit from your business. And sometimes people forget that actually the money you're making from your business, a percentage of that goes into marketing.

And that marketing reaches more people. And because it reaches more people, the more impact you're ultimately going to make, right? So I've. I got involved in property, right? Property. I think it's a zero sum game, a bit like trading, right. So I'm making money from myself and my family. It's a zero sum game, right. But when it comes to shift success, when I started that we had our first cohort, I can very vividly, we had our award ceremony and I'm not really an emotional person. And James White, who, you know, he's a 6 foot 3 giant and I'm only 5 foot 9.

And we, we was there and we cried our eyes out of these officers or ex officers now sharing their, their story on how their lives are changed through business. And that first instance was I knew like, this is purpose. I, I wouldn't get emotional if that wasn't purpose speaking back to me. And that's why I've been doing it for so long, nearly eight years now. The impact we make through people's lives in business gives me a feeling that money just can't give me. It just can't give me that.

Because once you have money, right, you're still left with boredom, you're still left with, you know, you know, doing things that you don't like to do potentially, you're still left with yourself. So the purpose side of things fills that gap. It fills that, that meaningful impact that I think most people actually want to leave on people. And this is why we talk about the good over the bad. And I also believe as well that, you know, people say, oh, why charge for it Psychologically? People pay when they pay attention, right?

So I've given advice, I've got free advice to friends and family, investing advice, property advice, business advice, trading advice. 0They listen. Did I? 0They have not listened. They have done nothing, right? Nothing. But those people, clients, hundreds of clients who have invested in themselves end up getting the result. Why is because they've paid for the value. They value the thing they've paid for, which means they're more likely to lean into doing the actions that's going to get them result. So purpose is a massive thing. It's, it's, you know, it's like, it's like trading side of things, right?

Trading's a zero sum game. I'm making money for myself. But when you're coaching people to trade and people are, you know, making money and people are, you know, passing their challenges, that lights me up again. Because once you've got the money, the purpose is something completely different than that profit cannot give me. So a bit like, a bit like school, when people, people go to school and learn, people set up businesses but they don't necessarily learn about setting up a business. Yeah. And I think, you know, branding for me is like one of the cornerstones for, for setting up a business.

But Also mindset wise, I wonder if there's a lot of people that go into business because they just think, well, I like that, but actually don't have a real idea of their purpose or an understanding of their, their purpose. And that probably causes some dissatisfaction or. Yeah. Being a bit lost. Yeah. And then that's, and that happens. And I've been there as well and I'm a true believer. It's very hard to find your purpose. Right. So here's, here's what I did and I can only say this in hindsight now.

I could, I could, if I couldn't even see this in front of me when I first actually started. Okay. So when you start looking for a purpose, I think it's very difficult to find. And sometimes people can do a bit of soul searching which causes inertia. They're not moving forward because they're overthinking and that causes anxiety and then the anxiety causes them not to act, right. So there's this, there's this like negative loop, right. Because you're thinking so much. I come from the belief of actually trying different things and let your intuition, your gut, your heart, whatever you want to call it, guide you to your purpose.

So when I, when I had money in the property business, it's true story as well. I was live with my ex partner at the time and I resigned from the job. And then the next morning I woke up, I was like, Jesus, I've not got a job, right. I'm in business full time and I got a bit emotional and it's not, it wasn't happiness either. It was almost like I've hit this goal, I've got no other goal backed up. I didn't even think about another goal because I was so focused on leaving the police, right.

So what I started to do, I really wanted to start something else, right. I wanted to use one business to then go into another business and so forth. So I started to write down an ideas book I called was a blue book with gold pages and I wrote down all these ideas that interest me, right? And there were terrible ideas. They were, I look back over that book and think, Jesus. Like that was, that was definitely a non goer. But I was writing all these things down, these different ideas and then when I actually launch Shift Success, think about the year one or year two, I opened back that book up and all the, all the ideas in that book contained what I was actually doing in Shift Success.

It was helping people, coaching, mentoring, entrepreneurship, business, right? But they were unique individual ideas, but they all contained things. I was actually doing shift success. Now, that was spooky because something was speaking to me or something was encouraging me to write things down. But by just taking action on your gut led me to what I was ultimately doing with shift success. So if you're stuck, maybe start writing down all the ideas, even if they're crap, even if they're rubbish, and then look over that and then look for the commonality amongst those ideas.

Yeah. And I think something that people talk about is creating your own prison. So you leave employment that you really dislike and go into business, but without figuring out all the whys and the purpose and your values. And like you said, it's tough, it's hard to understand these. But this is where your reading comes in and learning, isn't it? You can create your own prison. Where I see a lot of dog groomers that, you know, they start their business and all of a sudden they're working sort of six days a week, and then they're being hammered by their customers demands.

They turn around a few years later going, I'm knackered, I'm worn out. And they've kind of lost their way. They've lost their purpose. Their purpose was to care about animals and look after animals, but they've created this prison where they haven't followed their purpose. In a way. Yeah. And I think in that case, I think that there's two options. There is. Either you systemize the business so you're working on it and you focus on things you actually enjoy. So if, in that example you shared, if people, if people are hounding customers, bad customers, you know, you're constantly getting burnout from doing the dog grooming yourself.

Maybe take a bit of a leadership role within the business and take a step back and all focus on the things you only like doing. So hire for the things you don't like doing, or simply focus on something else that gives you a bit of a relief. Right. So, you know, I've been working with offices for a long time. I love, you know, a lot of our clients. Fortunately, in any type of organization, there's people who just don't do the work. Right. There's people who, you know, they sign up and expect success to come to them, and that's just not how it works.

You know, the property program I signed up for is 18 and a half grand, and there's still people in there who did nothing. I'm like, jesus Christ, that's a lot of money to do nothing. You were physically sick, weren't you? When you transferred the money. That's a true story. I didn't know. Yeah, I didn't know you knew that story. Yeah, yeah, I, I and it's a three day accelerator. So their business model is you attend a one day, you then sign up to a three day and then on the three day you then sign up to their, their year long accelerator thing.

And on the third day of signing away I had about 10 or 11 grands right to take out some debt for it as well. And I signed up and I went to the toilet and gray and just threw up. I was like Jesus. And, and it was fear but it was also excitement. Yeah, it's like this became very real. So yeah that's a, that's true. So Simon Z. The my mentor at the time was, he tells that story all the time.

But yeah, you know, you can work on your business you know, high for that role. That's to get away from it or focus on something else to give you a refreshing relief. So I've worked with cops for a long time. Sometimes people, you know, don't lean in as much as you want and that's a frustration. As a coach yourself, I'm sure you get that most coach like pts get it when people not, you know, eating naughty things or not going to the gym.

And to take yourself from a different environment I think is important for your own health. So you could focus on building a different skill that's going to give you relief away from the mundane day to day or potentially running a business. So and that's helped me. I've done both and that's, that's really been beneficial for me and also just like maybe taking up a hobby. I'm a bad golfer. That helps. Right? Even like Manya, she'll say to me, you need a round of golf. She'll know I'm stressing out.

She's like when are you booking in golf next? Right. Or Sophie will say that. So I think that can help as well. Yeah. So I've, I've signed up to the, the training success so that's kind of not a distraction. But like you said, you know another thing to another stream to my buyer and something to learn outside the world of business. So I have a very busy brain. So sometimes it's nice to have a bit of a rust away from all the ideas and everything. Yep, exactly the same.

I always try and get my customers to sort of my clients to think about that purpose because when they're having really stressful days or really bad time that's what we need to dig into, isn't it, to help us with our resilience. Why are we doing this? You've got to have a very clear purpose and a clear why. Yeah, I think, I think it'll change over time as well. So for me, when I first started my first business, it was very much like probably coming from a place of anger.

In all honesty, looking back, I was very angry young man and is like, right, I want to prove people wrong, mainly my, my mum. And then as once you get a certain level of success now it's about maybe, you know, make an impact in other people's lives, like shift success. It's actually a passion you develop and not being known for actually helping other people. And then, you know, becoming a father for the first time is flipped again, right? So now it's like, Jesus, I'm responsible of this, this, this baby.

And now I actually just want to be the best father possible. And, and that involves me protecting and providing and that means me taking on certain levels of stress and making sure, you know, I'm committing to being healthy and making sure that I'm developing skills and being the best possible role model I can for them. So I, I think it's changed for me and I think it will change for other people. I think as we grow and develop, I think, and new things come into our lives, I think purpose will change.

And sometimes when you hold on to something, I think actually can do more damage than letting go. And I think people need to recognize that as well. But I will say don't let a temporary blip, right, in business create a disastrous long term decision, right? So we all have bad crap days in business, right? All of us, right, People have crap days in jobs, businesses, even trading, right? So we all have bad dates, we don't want to throw in the towel because we've had such a minor blip in the grand scheme of things, right?

So let's say one of your dog groomers has a complaint from one of their customers, right? They could be mortified, it could be stressed, et cetera, et cetera. I think it'd be very short sighted to throw in the towel of that business because one customer's complained, forgetting about all the good they've done and all the reviews and customer feedback they've got. And you know, sometimes I remind that of myself. So sometimes I get the odd troll from, you know, people out there with, you know, police officers because they're skeptical mind.

It just doesn't phase me as much because I have well, I've made all this good. I'm not going to let one idiot or you know, make me make a permanent decision on my career. Right. So, yeah, some of the things just mindful of love that. And to finish off then, what would be your top sort of three things to. If someone's struggling with purpose or their why or they find themselves like just in a job or they're in their business that they're just not really enjoying, what sort of the three steps you'd recommend to start.

Start tomorrow? Yeah. First of all, I'd always ask the question, and this is very common personal development, development advice, but, you know, if you could do something for free, what would you do?

That's always a good sign.

Number two is to write down all of your ideas, which I've already mentioned, every single idea that comes into your mind, even if you think they're absolutely terrible, just write them down because inside that there's going to be a seed of positive reflection, that your intuition or subconscious is telling you that actually these are in alignment with your purpose. And the other thing is, I suppose, not to beat yourself up if you've not found it yet. Okay, sometimes this is why social media is bad. But everyone's like, I found my purpose, I'm doing well.

And all that is, guys, is the hind, the, the highlight reel of people's success, right? Is the highlight, repeat reel of I've made this amount of money, I'm doing this, you know, X, Y, Z. And that can make us feel deflated.

If you're a type of person who gets deflated easier. If you're a type of person who says, and I look at that and go, right, what can I learn from them? Then that might be a good track to actually, you know, put you on the right track of, of finding your purpose. But don't definitely, don't beat yourself up. I think it takes time, I think it takes a level of self awareness. And another thing, if you're not consciously, you know, trying to educate yourself on what the best direction is for your life, you're not reading books, you're not reaching out to mentors and coaches, if you're not watching YouTube videos that are going to help you on a different level of thinking, then don't complain about the results you haven't got with the work you aren't doing on yourself, right?

It's like people like to complain, I'm overweight, I'm fat. Well, when was the last time you went to the gym? When's the last time you picked up away. When's the last time you said no to that chocolate bar? Right. So I think you need to consciously work on yourself as well. But just don't expect it to go, oh my God, it's fell on my lap. It takes time and I think you'll only discover it when you connect the dots looking backwards, like hindsight, right? Reflection. Yeah, reflection is so important.

Like, it's not like this is it, right. It's very rare people like that eureka moment. It's actually when you look back and go, oh yeah, that's why I went through this. And that's the important thing about pain. We've. People go through horrible things in life, but I also think that pain can also push us to do amazing things. Right. Would I be the man I am right now if I. Let's say I had a loving family, right? A mum and dad together, no arguments, no financial struggles, you know, everyone was great.

Would I be the man I am today? I don't know. Maybe not. Would it have pushed me to actually get outside my comfort zone and take risk? Maybe not. Right. And be a 9 to 5 worker? Be. Yeah, exactly. Right. Because that comfort blanket I had a home was probably, I'm gonna be okay if I, if, if I don't do this. I'm still got mom and dad, I've still got a home to go to. Whereas if Even now at 35 years old and even all throughout my 20s, if I, I have no one to go to, right, it's not like I can move in elsewhere.

I'm not running back to mum and dad, so it's all on me. And that's something I need to be mindful of my son, right, because he's going to be raised in a different environment, completely different environment than I was raised. Now I still want to be very successful and independent, but I also want to make sure that he's always going to be loved and he always got somewhere to come home to. But I don't want that to ruin his chances of success either. Right. And that's why I think hard work, understanding money, education comes into play.

So I think take away from that. One of the best sentences or questions to ask is when you reflect on stuff is like, what can I learn from that? Yeah, what can I learn from that? Sometimes people, I don't know why this is, but sometimes people look at these like 17, 18 year olds who are making great money and they'll go, I'm not learning from them. They're 17, 18, but they're still got a skill set over you. So I don't care if they're old, they're young. It's like, I want to learn.

I want, well, what can I learn from this individual? Like, what can I take away from this individual that I'm interested in gaining for myself? Right. So you can't let your ego come in play. I think if you have a genuine curiosity about how to get to a certain result, I think you're going to do very, very well.

I think, yeah, invest in yourself. That's very important. It's going to speed up the process. And sometimes people get skeptical about that. You know, we're both educators. People go, yo, you're going to say that. But I've done it. I, I've done it. I, I wasn't in property once upon a time. I wasn't in business. The reason I'm here now is because I need to gain the skills and I invested in myself. Right. So you can do that or go on YouTube. There's lots of free content on YouTube or like I said, there's books.

Right. But you need to learn from people. What you don't know is ultimately going to cost you a fortune. Right. And when I sometimes say to people, right, they've got a goal of 100k, they haven't got the 100k yet, and they'll think they'll look at a course book, could be anything, right? They'll go, that's 5k, that's 4k too expensive. But that's not the biggest cost. The biggest cost is the 100k you don't have because of the knowledge. You don't have to. And I think that's an important mindset to come from as well.

Right. And that's why I'll continue to make sure I'm always leveling up in areas that genuinely interest me. Well, another fantastic conversation with you. Thank you, thank you for your honesty. Thank you for your insights. Thank you, thank you. Going into your past as well, I think we'll have to have another, another podcast just talking about the trading aspect of the business because all day about stuff but wealth creation and mindse just really interesting. So thank you for sharing your insights. No problem. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Take care. See you soon. See you soon, Bill. Cheers. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. Please make sure you give us a like or a review to help people find it. The podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Head over to www.lowpay.com to find out more about their payment solution.

Sam.