Fresh & Fit - How To Turn Passion Into A Business & Invest To Create Wealth!

00:00:58.000 And we are live.

00:00:59.000 What's up, guys?

00:00:59.000 We are here with Mark Tilbury, man.

00:01:02.000 We got a lot to talk about.

00:01:03.000 Let's talk about money.

00:01:03.000 Let's get into it!

00:01:04.000 Let's go!

00:01:54.000 And we are back.

00:01:54.000 What's up, guys?

00:01:55.000 I want to refresh your podcast, man.

00:01:56.000 Sorry for delay, guys.

00:01:57.000 I know we're a little bit later than usual.

00:01:59.000 I just completed a podcast interview.

00:02:01.000 Actually, both of us did.

00:02:02.000 So stay tuned.

00:02:03.000 It's going to be on probably the Strike It Big channel.

00:02:06.000 Strike It Big channel with Curtis Tilbury and the gang.

00:02:09.000 All right.

00:02:09.000 It's going to be lit, man.

00:02:10.000 So stay tuned for that.

00:02:12.000 I think it's going to drop in maybe a week or two, probably?

00:02:14.000 We'll see.

00:02:15.000 Yeah, maybe two or three, I think.

00:02:16.000 Okay, maybe two or three.

00:02:17.000 So you guys got to wait.

00:02:18.000 But make sure to go check out that channel.

00:02:20.000 I already did an interview with them before.

00:02:21.000 It did really well.

00:02:22.000 So we did a part two on there.

00:02:24.000 I go into other topics that you guys probably want to hear about.

00:02:27.000 And yeah, but anyway, guys, romo.com slash freshfit.

00:02:29.000 As you guys know, that's home base, castleclub.tv.

00:02:32.000 And also, Fresh, we have the Seal Network.

00:02:34.000 Join into that.

00:02:35.000 Brotherhood success networking all in one.

00:02:38.000 And then we have Twitter.

00:02:40.000 Yes, Unplugged Fidex, guys.

00:02:41.000 If you guys want to go ahead and see my other side that I might not be able to do in other places, check me out over there on Unplugged Fidex.

00:02:49.000 It's growing quickly, man.

00:02:50.000 We're almost at 40k followers there, man.

00:02:52.000 Let's get it to 100k.

00:02:53.000 I just made the account early in November.

00:02:55.000 So let's get it to 100k and yeah, man, if you guys want to see a different side.

00:02:58.000 And guys, we are back with the vlogs, man.

00:03:00.000 We had a funny vlog recently, time travel, to the new studio when we first got it.

00:03:04.000 Hilarious.

00:03:04.000 Me, Mo, Bills, and Myron in the car and Chris.

00:03:07.000 So go check it out.

00:03:07.000 It was hilarious, guys.

00:03:08.000 New vlog channel.

00:03:09.000 Back up.

00:03:10.000 Bam.

00:03:10.000 And we got a special guest in the house, man.

00:03:12.000 We got an OG in the space when it comes to finances.

00:03:18.000 Entrepreneur Mark Tilbury, thank you so much for coming.

00:03:20.000 I'm happy to have you.

00:03:21.000 We've wanted you on the show for a bit, but I know you guys are abroad and it was a little hard to coordinate, but you guys are here in South Florida and we're happy to have you.

00:03:28.000 Well, it's 30 years since I've been to Florida.

00:03:31.000 Not to Florida, sorry, to Miami.

00:03:32.000 Really?

00:03:33.000 Yeah, last time I was here I was flying aerobatic aircraft over Miami Bay and I actually met up with a guy just this week, first time in 30 years, and we were doing aerobatics yesterday and it was great.

00:03:33.000 30 years?

00:03:45.000 It was like...

00:03:46.000 You know when you meet your best mate, you might not have seen him for a while, and it's like you saw him last week.

00:03:50.000 I hadn't seen him for 30 years, and it was like we ended up being apart.

00:03:54.000 It was such a fantastic deal.

00:03:56.000 It was great.

00:03:57.000 So you were here in the 90s.

00:03:57.000 That's crazy.

00:03:59.000 When was the last time you were here?

00:04:00.000 I was indeed, yeah.

00:04:01.000 1993?

00:04:02.000 Miami, yeah.

00:04:03.000 Miami Vice.

00:04:04.000 Yo, what was Miami like in 93?

00:04:06.000 Well, I only really saw sawgrass area, and then we came down and did a bit of flying, but we were really based in Orlando for that particular week, so it was just a drive down for that experience.

00:04:16.000 Have you seen an enormous difference in the skyline?

00:04:20.000 Huge.

00:04:21.000 They're ripping every road up, aren't they?

00:04:21.000 Yeah.

00:04:21.000 And the roads.

00:04:23.000 And building new everywhere.

00:04:25.000 There's a lot of investment going on down here.

00:04:27.000 It's non-stop, man.

00:04:28.000 Non-stop.

00:04:28.000 People don't know that Miami, up until recently, was just kind of like a vacation destination.

00:04:32.000 No one really actually lived here.

00:04:34.000 But it's been growing significantly, especially since the pandemic.

00:04:38.000 It's becoming the center of the universe, isn't it?

00:04:41.000 Out of all the states, I think Miami's the best.

00:04:43.000 Yeah.

00:04:43.000 Florida's the best.

00:04:44.000 Honestly.

00:04:45.000 As long as you've got air conditioning, and we've got plenty of that today.

00:04:47.000 It's hot.

00:04:49.000 It is cold in here, guys.

00:04:53.000 So, we know who you are, but the audience might not.

00:04:55.000 Can you please introduce yourself to the people that might not know you?

00:04:57.000 Yeah, I'm on YouTube.

00:04:59.000 My name's Mark Tilbury.

00:05:01.000 I basically talk about finance and helping people level up, particularly youngsters.

00:05:07.000 A lot of youngsters without dads in particular.

00:05:10.000 But really, it's just basic financial knowledge.

00:05:14.000 And unfortunately, when I was young, we didn't have guys like you or myself on the internet.

00:05:19.000 There was no internet, believe it or not.

00:05:20.000 How did we ever exist in those times?

00:05:23.000 And I would have liked to have learnt the lessons all you guys are putting out now when I was younger.

00:05:29.000 So I think it's sort of partly a duty to do that from my age.

00:05:34.000 And to have life experience, unfortunately, you've got to look this sort of age.

00:05:39.000 LAUGHTER That's the only way you get it, isn't it?

00:05:42.000 So I think passing on that baton to the youngsters is a good way to go, and I really enjoy getting the comments back of how people have improved their lives, levelled up, and started to invest.

00:05:54.000 Sort of building the foundations of their kingdom.

00:05:57.000 That's what we want.

00:05:59.000 And it's a similar subject to yourself, I think.

00:06:01.000 Well, you did a good job with your son and his gang.

00:06:04.000 Very good job.

00:06:04.000 For sure.

00:06:05.000 For sure, for sure.

00:06:07.000 So a lot of people know you as a successful entrepreneur, YouTuber, many different hats.

00:06:13.000 But can you kind of take us back in time to how you became the man that you are today?

00:06:17.000 Give us your origin story.

00:06:19.000 Well, I can give you that.

00:06:21.000 I can try and break it down a little bit because it might be a bit long otherwise.

00:06:24.000 My first thing of selling was I used to fish a lot and I used to go down to my local pier.

00:06:31.000 I literally used to pull so many mackerel fish out of the sea.

00:06:35.000 Was this back in...

00:06:35.000 Where in the UK was this?

00:06:36.000 Yeah, this was in Dover in the UK, yeah.

00:06:39.000 And I used to go around my estate selling the fish, believe it or not, and we used to sell a lot of fish.

00:06:44.000 Started off 10 for a pound, but we didn't sell any, so we had to really rethink that business model.

00:06:49.000 And we found out that selling five for a pound actually worked, because 10 was just too many.

00:06:53.000 People didn't want that many fish.

00:06:55.000 What year was this, roughly?

00:06:57.000 Oh...

00:06:58.000 It's hard to remember years.

00:06:59.000 I was about 12 years old.

00:07:00.000 I actually wasn't allowed to go night fishing where you could catch the most fish.

00:07:04.000 So I used to get up early and we used to catch a four o'clock train to get down to Dover to be able to do the fishing, which was great fun.

00:07:12.000 And then really you could see that as a side hustle nowadays.

00:07:15.000 It moved on to buying and selling cars.

00:07:18.000 We used to do All sorts of different things.

00:07:20.000 Anything to earn a buck. 0.73

00:07:22.000 And obviously nowadays it's a little bit different because most people don't want to do physical things to earn their money.

00:07:28.000 So you can get online and do your digital products and things like that, which is obviously nowadays a much better way of doing things.

00:07:35.000 I mean, I've got...

00:07:36.000 I've got people that help us now, particularly with shorts and things like that, and they're earning £30,000, £40,000 a month at least, just from doing shorts editing as a side hustle.

00:07:46.000 So, you know, the money's out there for these guys to go and earn, and, you know, they can start building themselves up, can't they?

00:07:53.000 It's not that difficult.

00:07:55.000 What year did you graduate high school?

00:07:56.000 Well, I didn't actually graduate high school.

00:07:59.000 It's not the same as what it would be here.

00:08:01.000 When I was younger, you could actually leave school at 16 years old if you wanted to.

00:08:07.000 And I wouldn't say I hated school.

00:08:10.000 That's probably too strong a word.

00:08:11.000 I sort of tolerated it because you had to go.

00:08:15.000 So I decided to leave at 16.

00:08:17.000 I became a carpenter's apprentice.

00:08:20.000 I was making cabinets, staircases, that's all.

00:08:23.000 Learning to, certainly.

00:08:26.000 But I got very disillusioned with that.

00:08:28.000 I did get through with honours in my apprenticeship.

00:08:31.000 But I was given a load of really bad jobs, and most people will know my story online.

00:08:37.000 I was made to make these wooden trash bins, and I had a big discussion with the boss, and he said, no, look, we're making these for Walmart.

00:08:45.000 We're going to be making them for the next five to ten years, depending on how long the contract lasts, and that's your job.

00:08:51.000 That's what you're going to be doing.

00:08:52.000 And it comes to a point where you go, no, no more of that.

00:08:56.000 You know, there's more to me than that.

00:08:58.000 I want either the better jobs or I'm going to go and do my own thing.

00:09:02.000 Was it at that point that you said entrepreneurship is the only way?

00:09:05.000 Well, I always wanted a business.

00:09:08.000 Always.

00:09:09.000 I had a mentor when I was younger who didn't even know he was a mentor to me.

00:09:15.000 And I think that's the best type, to be honest.

00:09:17.000 He'd give me snippets of wisdom and I'd say, oh, that's great.

00:09:21.000 I'm taking that in.

00:09:22.000 And I think because he saw that I was absorbing that information, he'd give me even more.

00:09:27.000 So I always wanted to have a model shop, radio-controlled models, so aeroplanes, helicopters, radio-controlled cars, all that sort of thing.

00:09:35.000 Very into it as a youngster.

00:09:37.000 And wherever I looked, I couldn't find a complete model shop that sold everything to do with models.

00:09:43.000 That was the plan.

00:09:44.000 So I drew up a business plan.

00:09:47.000 It took me ages.

00:09:48.000 I mean, no one knows how to do that sort of thing, do they?

00:09:51.000 Especially back in the day.

00:09:52.000 What year was this?

00:09:53.000 Just so we can give the audience a perspective.

00:09:55.000 It's very hard to give years.

00:09:56.000 70s, 80s?

00:09:57.000 80s, yeah.

00:09:58.000 This is the 80s?

00:09:58.000 Probably 88, around that sort of area.

00:10:01.000 Around that sort of area, anyway.

00:10:03.000 And you made a good point about mentors.

00:10:05.000 How did you find your mentor?

00:10:06.000 He found me.

00:10:07.000 He found me.

00:10:09.000 I think what a lot of youngsters nowadays don't do, they don't put themselves out there.

00:10:14.000 I was involved with a model flying club and obviously not many youngsters were involved with that.

00:10:21.000 It was mostly adults.

00:10:22.000 So I think if you can get involved with anything like, I don't know, just caddying at a golf club or anything like that, you get to speak to the older generation, shall we say.

00:10:33.000 And, you know, if you're there to absorb information, people want to give information and, you know, absorb it because you'll get even more, you know, and it's priceless, really, just for your confidence as much as anything.

00:10:47.000 I mean, because a lot of people struggle to talk.

00:10:50.000 Well, certainly youngsters I speak to struggle to talk to the older generation or people maybe in authority, and that comes across particularly in interviews and things like that.

00:11:00.000 It's sort of like, would you like to ask me some questions?

00:11:02.000 It's like...

00:11:04.000 Yeah.

00:11:05.000 You know, it's very difficult for them.

00:11:06.000 So I think confidence is a big thing.

00:11:08.000 It can get you a long way in life, that's for sure.

00:11:11.000 So, because that's an interesting hobby.

00:11:13.000 It's something that you don't see that much nowadays.

00:11:14.000 You know, these Gen Zers don't have, you know, constructive hobbies like that anymore. 1.00

00:11:18.000 You know, building ships or, you said, model cars and airplanes.

00:11:21.000 So that's how you found your mentor?

00:11:22.000 Did he run one of these shops?

00:11:24.000 No, he didn't run a shop.

00:11:25.000 He was basically a member of the club.

00:11:27.000 He owned his own business, which was a building firm, so construction.

00:11:32.000 And he always had a bit of money on his hip, always had a nice new car, always had the best models in the club.

00:11:40.000 And you thought, well, this guy knows what he's talking about.

00:11:43.000 He's got the gear, he's got the money, he's got the life.

00:11:47.000 Plenty of holidays and all that sort of thing.

00:11:49.000 And that was all alien to me.

00:11:51.000 I never had any of that.

00:11:52.000 I'm not saying I had a poor upbringing, because I certainly didn't.

00:11:55.000 I enjoyed my childhood, as I know you did.

00:11:58.000 I had two very strong parents.

00:12:01.000 But, you know, it wasn't a high net worth.

00:12:05.000 So he made it possible for you by seeing his lifestyle.

00:12:08.000 Kind of like the modern day Andrew Tate.

00:12:10.000 It's possible by seeing somebody do it.

00:12:12.000 Yeah.

00:12:12.000 And it's interesting because you met him because there was no social media.

00:12:15.000 There was no LinkedIn or whatever.

00:12:16.000 You met him through a hobby.

00:12:17.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:12:19.000 Because those are collectibles.

00:12:21.000 Do they still hold value nowadays as far as these model planes and cars and stuff like that from an antique standpoint?

00:12:26.000 Well, still valuing, obviously, designing, manufacturing, as I do, which we'll get onto, no doubt, and selling because my businesses are still involved in all of that sort of thing.

00:12:36.000 In fact, I'm going to an event called Miami Jets in about...

00:12:40.000 Three days time and that's radio-controlled model jets and they cost upwards of 20-30,000 pounds apiece so you know that's going on locally to here and I shall meet up I certainly know there's four maybe five people that I'll meet that I know and you know it's it's such a global thing so that's smart he joined a club or you could say a hobby that has many people that for example in that area would be successful or have money because that's a very once they're rich or affluent hobby to have yeah Yeah,

00:13:10.000 and you're around older individuals as well.

00:13:11.000 It's a good screening tool.

00:13:12.000 It's good for networking too.

00:13:13.000 Especially before social media.

00:13:16.000 Just as golf is as well.

00:13:17.000 Because most golf clubs, as a youngster, you'll get in for very, very cheap money.

00:13:23.000 Once you're a member in there.

00:13:25.000 You talk to a lot of high net worth individuals.

00:13:29.000 And that's going to levitate you, isn't it?

00:13:32.000 Because you're going to get an abundance mindset.

00:13:34.000 Once you've got an abundance mindset, you know there's no limit.

00:13:37.000 There's no cap to what you can earn if you want to do that.

00:13:41.000 So take us through how you started your first business with your mentor along your side.

00:13:47.000 Well, my first business, I mean, he showed me how to do a business plan, so we went through that.

00:13:51.000 It took me a long, long time.

00:13:53.000 Lots of thought, lots of work.

00:13:54.000 Took it to the bank.

00:13:55.000 Made an appointment to see the bank manager.

00:13:57.000 Waited, I think, something like a month and a half for this appointment.

00:14:01.000 It took a long time.

00:14:02.000 Went in there, and he turned me down flat.

00:14:05.000 Absolutely flat.

00:14:07.000 I mean, I only think he gave me 10 minutes of which he was paying attention for the first 30 seconds.

00:14:13.000 He just could not be bothered with us.

00:14:15.000 And it was more like a duty that you had to do these appointments.

00:14:18.000 Now, I came out of that branch of that bank and I was faced really with two decisions.

00:14:24.000 I actually stood there and thought, what can I do?

00:14:26.000 You know, is my dream gone?

00:14:29.000 You know, because it could have been at that point.

00:14:31.000 Or do I continue and try and find someone else?

00:14:35.000 Now, I could have turned right, could have turned left.

00:14:37.000 I decided to turn right.

00:14:38.000 I walked past the next bank, which was next door.

00:14:41.000 And I thought, you know what?

00:14:42.000 I'm going to give it a go.

00:14:43.000 So I went straight in there.

00:14:45.000 I said, I've got an appointment to see the manager at 11 o'clock.

00:14:47.000 She said, you're not on the list.

00:14:50.000 I went, well, yeah, it's 5 to 11.

00:14:52.000 I'm a bit early.

00:14:53.000 And she said, well, he is free, but you're not on the list.

00:14:55.000 I said, no, no, you've made a mistake.

00:14:57.000 Went in there, secured the loan.

00:14:59.000 Nice.

00:15:00.000 Wow.

00:15:00.000 The manager actually said to me, he said, right, I believe in youngsters, and I believe in what you're going to do, the preparation's great, and I'll be your first customer.

00:15:09.000 That's amazing.

00:15:10.000 What a difference.

00:15:11.000 Wow.

00:15:12.000 So the first person you spoke to, was he like a loan officer or something?

00:15:15.000 Yeah, he was the manager of, I won't say the branch, or the bank itself, but he was the manager of that bank, and in those days the manager had We're good to go. 1.00

00:15:41.000 Fuck it. 0.99

00:15:41.000 That's nice, man. 0.99

00:15:42.000 And it was to get a business loan.

00:15:43.000 How much did they give you?

00:15:44.000 It was 22,000 pounds.

00:15:48.000 Back in the day when we got two pounds to the dollar, it was about 44,000 pounds.

00:15:53.000 40 to 50K in today's dollars.

00:15:56.000 Okay.

00:15:56.000 And when you told them the business plan, what did you tell them specifically that you think got you the loan?

00:16:02.000 I think the confidence...

00:16:05.000 He knew I'd blagged at the meeting, and he thought that was quite good.

00:16:10.000 I think that was...

00:16:11.000 It sort of reminds me a bit...

00:16:12.000 You know Suits, the start of the programme, Suits, where he goes in and blags the meeting?

00:16:18.000 It was a bit like that, and I think he respected that, and he went, you know, this guy's going to go out and do something.

00:16:23.000 If you've got the nerve to come in and blag a meeting with me, and the plan looks good, we'll go with it.

00:16:29.000 Question for you.

00:16:29.000 Looking back...

00:16:31.000 This is 30-plus years ago now at this point, right?

00:16:34.000 Looking back, what were the differences between the first discussion, where you got declined, versus the second one where you got approval?

00:16:42.000 Obviously, we talked about the confidence factor.

00:16:44.000 Was there anything else?

00:16:45.000 I wouldn't say there was any difference from itself.

00:16:47.000 I would say there was already a predetermined answer from the first one.

00:16:51.000 And the second one, I think he had a certain amount that he had to lend out to start-up businesses.

00:16:58.000 And remember, back in the day, if you wanted to sell a product, it wasn't like it is today, where you can do it online or all that sort of stuff.

00:17:06.000 Literally, you had to have a shop.

00:17:08.000 Brick and water businesses.

00:17:09.000 You had to buy lots of stock.

00:17:12.000 You'd have to have everything to be able to start up, which was quite a big step then.

00:17:17.000 I mean, it seemed like a big deal as well at the time, but when you look back, when you're young, you can take so many risks.

00:17:23.000 And it doesn't matter.

00:17:25.000 Because, you know, at the end of the day, you might take an L on it or whatever, but really you're going to win because the lesson you've learned, even from a loss when you're 20 years old, is nothing.

00:17:36.000 Yeah.

00:17:37.000 You know.

00:17:37.000 I'm taking away never give up.

00:17:39.000 And even though you take L's like you said before, if you don't give up, you keep trying.

00:17:43.000 Yeah.

00:17:43.000 Things can happen for you.

00:17:44.000 You mentioned as well having the mentor, but also in this case, did you know back then, because you're a legit millionaire now, did you know back then you were going to be a millionaire when you were younger?

00:17:52.000 Yeah.

00:17:52.000 Well, we actually did a video just recently.

00:17:55.000 When I was at school, 14 years old, we were all put into a lecture theatre.

00:18:00.000 And we put this in the video, actually.

00:18:01.000 It's quite strange.

00:18:03.000 And they said, write down the three things you're going to have.

00:18:06.000 And I wrote down, I'm going to be a millionaire.

00:18:09.000 I'm going to have a Ferrari.

00:18:10.000 And then he said, house, I'll put mansion.

00:18:12.000 And then the next thing the teacher said was, right, this was everything.

00:18:17.000 I don't know what you've written down, but they just looked at everyone and said, look, let's be realistic.

00:18:22.000 Most of you can have none of that stuff.

00:18:24.000 Wow, yeah.

00:18:25.000 See?

00:18:25.000 None of it.

00:18:27.000 And I'm sure that is to push you down while you're in the school system.

00:18:32.000 Because they don't want you being entrepreneurial.

00:18:34.000 They want you to, you know, it doesn't matter what shape you go into school at, you might be triangle or rectangle, whatever shape it is, you've got to come out as a cog to fit in the machine.

00:18:43.000 Absolutely.

00:18:43.000 You've got to become a disposable partner.

00:18:45.000 Yeah, and the longer you're in the system, in my opinion, the more cog shape you become, and the harder it is for you to actually change that shape going forward.

00:18:56.000 I agree.

00:18:57.000 Because once you're locked into a really comfortable job, and the danger is in the word comfortable, that's it.

00:19:03.000 Yeah.

00:19:04.000 You're there.

00:19:04.000 I know you were in a very secure job.

00:19:06.000 And I'm guessing that was really hard.

00:19:06.000 Yeah.

00:19:08.000 It was very difficult to leave.

00:19:10.000 Most people never leave a comfortable government job making six figures with a pension and retirement and everything.

00:19:15.000 That's what everyone says, isn't it?

00:19:16.000 I've got friends in jobs, in government-style jobs, and I say, why'd you do it?

00:19:20.000 You know, you're more than this.

00:19:22.000 And they go, oh, the pension.

00:19:23.000 I mean, if I'm going to have to work the whole of my life until I get to 66, 68, just because it's a good pension at the end, well, that's not for me.

00:19:31.000 Yeah.

00:19:32.000 I can make that pension myself.

00:19:34.000 That freedom figure can come a lot sooner if I'm doing it than way back then.

00:19:40.000 But there's a common trend here I see with millionaires.

00:19:42.000 They believe in themselves from the very beginning.

00:19:45.000 There's a level of like, okay, you know what?

00:19:47.000 I know who I am, what I'm about, and even though I'm not getting the answer today, eventually I'll get there.

00:19:52.000 So the belief is very important.

00:19:53.000 So your first business, what kind of business was it, the first one that you started, that you were able to secure this?

00:20:00.000 It was a radio-controlled model shop.

00:20:01.000 Okay.

00:20:02.000 Literally, I took out a lease on a shop.

00:20:05.000 I didn't tell you a full story there.

00:20:08.000 Basically, when I first came up with the idea, I did actually share it with a friend of mine.

00:20:11.000 Okay.

00:20:12.000 Because I was working part-time in a model shop at the time.

00:20:16.000 So I said, look, I'm going to do this and this and this and this.

00:20:18.000 And lo and behold, he stole my plans.

00:20:21.000 He actually opened up the shop, called it the same name as I was going to call it, Model World.

00:20:26.000 Which came from a BBC television series at the time because I watched that as a kid and it was imprinted in me.

00:20:32.000 That's what I'm going to do.

00:20:33.000 The world of models.

00:20:35.000 It's all model world.

00:20:36.000 And he got bored of it six months later.

00:20:39.000 Couldn't make a profit.

00:20:42.000 Just doing lots of things wrong.

00:20:43.000 And he said, I've had enough.

00:20:45.000 So at that point, that's when I physically stepped in because I'd secured the funding and went, right, I'll have it.

00:20:45.000 I'm going to sell it.

00:20:51.000 So I took the business over and...

00:20:54.000 Was there animosity there when you went up to him with that check and said, hey, I'm taking this thing now?

00:20:58.000 Well, not really.

00:20:59.000 Actually, when he stole the plans or the idea, I continued to work for him because I realized straight away that I wasn't ready at the time.

00:21:09.000 So he'd gone ahead and done it.

00:21:09.000 Okay.

00:21:11.000 I wasn't ready.

00:21:12.000 But within that six months, this is what we used to call it, I built up a little black book.

00:21:18.000 All the contacts, all the information I needed, all the people that I needed to trade with, lots of customers.

00:21:18.000 Mm-hmm.

00:21:25.000 I mean, I had so many customers.

00:21:27.000 I mean, at the time, I was actually selling, I always say this, I was selling all of my time.

00:21:33.000 So, you know, I was, what was I doing?

00:21:35.000 I was working full-time, I was working every bit of overtime I could to build up my pot.

00:21:41.000 I was buying and selling cars still.

00:21:43.000 I was teaching people to fly radio-controlled models on a weekend.

00:21:47.000 I was working Saturdays in the model shop.

00:21:50.000 So there comes a point where you can't earn any more money.

00:21:53.000 Your time is sold, isn't it?

00:21:55.000 So we just made the jump there and bought the business and improved it and made it very good.

00:22:02.000 What allowed him to...

00:22:04.000 Because you said he was more far ahead of you.

00:22:06.000 What allowed him to be far ahead of you?

00:22:07.000 Did he have more capital?

00:22:08.000 Was he older?

00:22:09.000 Did he just have more experience in that niche?

00:22:11.000 Like, what was it that...

00:22:12.000 Well, he already had a store, obviously, that I was working in.

00:22:15.000 And I think he felt...

00:22:19.000 That he couldn't fail because his income was increasing within that shop.

00:22:25.000 Now one of the reasons I think his income was increasing so much within that shop, and it might sound arrogant to say this, but a lot of it was me.

00:22:35.000 Yeah, because what I'd done is I'd mastered the skill of flying radio-controlled helicopters back at that time in the 1990s.

00:22:42.000 They were a really big thing with Airwolf on the telly and Blue Thunder and various other helicopter-based dramas that everyone wanted a radio-controlled helicopter and they were one of the hardest things to fly.

00:22:53.000 Now, once you've mastered how to fly it, you could then teach...

00:22:56.000 Which was great.

00:22:57.000 Not only could you teach, you could say to your customers, oh, look, you know, that model, if you upgraded that and put a better head on it or better tail rotor gearbox, it'll fly so much better.

00:23:06.000 It'll be so much easier for you.

00:23:08.000 They say, oh, well, can you take it away and do it?

00:23:09.000 So you take it away, you...

00:23:12.000 Charge for the spares, charge for the labor, and you're guaranteed they're going to turn up the following week for a lesson because they want their model anyway.

00:23:19.000 So it was a really good thing, and you were gathering at the time all those customers so that when you got the shop, you could take them away.

00:23:27.000 Okay, this is really interesting, and I guess I'm going into a very detailed question here.

00:23:32.000 Because you said that he didn't turn a profit before, but he was making money.

00:23:36.000 Was the store something else?

00:23:38.000 And then he switched it to the model stuff?

00:23:40.000 No, the store was, he had one store that was successful, and then he copied my idea to open the second store.

00:23:47.000 What was the first store?

00:23:48.000 It's still a model shop.

00:23:49.000 Still a model shop, okay.

00:23:49.000 Yeah, that's where I was working, part-time.

00:23:52.000 And then he opened another one.

00:23:53.000 But he opened it up with the view that it was a satellite branch.

00:23:56.000 Rather than looking at it and going, well, actually, it's one branch, it's two branches, three branches, whatever.

00:24:02.000 He just went, oh, it's bound to make money, and we can just put a bit of stock in there.

00:24:05.000 He wasn't servicing it properly and the manager was very, very bad.

00:24:05.000 Gotcha.

00:24:09.000 Okay.

00:24:10.000 I mean, I turned up there once and he was asleep.

00:24:12.000 And he was the only member of staff there.

00:24:15.000 You know, that's not good.

00:24:15.000 Gotcha.

00:24:16.000 So yeah, so he opened up a satellite location but didn't take it as seriously as the main one.

00:24:21.000 Yeah.

00:24:21.000 And you were working at the main one.

00:24:23.000 Were you going to the satellite one too?

00:24:25.000 Yeah, from time to time I worked in it, yeah, when the manager couldn't be there.

00:24:29.000 So I knew what I could do with it, that was for sure.

00:24:31.000 When you bought it, did you buy both, or did you just buy the satellite one?

00:24:34.000 No, I just bought one.

00:24:35.000 You bought one?

00:24:36.000 Yeah.

00:24:37.000 Guess what happened to the other one?

00:24:38.000 It closed down?

00:24:40.000 Yeah, of course it did.

00:24:41.000 So you ran the other one, and it started, I'm assuming, probably doing way better than the original.

00:24:46.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:24:46.000 Oh shit. 0.99

00:24:47.000 And then he just gave, did he give you the whole, like, did you just buy the rest to buy them out? 0.99

00:24:50.000 No, actually I didn't want the other one because I knew it never had the potential of where we were.

00:24:55.000 And within six months we doubled the size of the store anyway because one of the problems with the store, it was too small for the area.

00:25:04.000 You couldn't stock the amount of gear that you needed and eventually the other shop failed.

00:25:10.000 And was it like in a high traffic?

00:25:11.000 Was this in London?

00:25:12.000 Was it in Dover?

00:25:13.000 No, it was just outside.

00:25:15.000 It was in a town called Maidstone.

00:25:17.000 And this was a new move as well.

00:25:21.000 And he realized it was a good move because I said to him where I was going to open it.

00:25:25.000 It was in a garden center complex.

00:25:26.000 So, you know, when you've got, I suppose, Home Depot and that sort of place, what you could do back then is you could bolt in another store within the store.

00:25:37.000 So that's what I did.

00:25:37.000 Oh!

00:25:39.000 And actually, I ended up doing three different shops in similar locations.

00:25:44.000 And it just worked really well because you had instant footfall and it was something different.

00:25:49.000 The centres liked it because people were coming for the models and then going, oh, we want to come for this as well.

00:25:54.000 Yeah.

00:25:55.000 So it was good for both.

00:25:56.000 It spun really well.

00:25:57.000 Very good business.

00:25:58.000 Wow.

00:25:59.000 All pre-internet.

00:25:59.000 Interesting.

00:26:00.000 Yeah, I was going to say, this is all guerrilla marketing.

00:26:03.000 How are you marketing your store at this point?

00:26:06.000 Believe it or not, my biggest advertising expense was probably 10% of my profits, which would go to Yellow Pages.

00:26:13.000 Oh, Yellow Pages, wow!

00:26:15.000 How about that?

00:26:16.000 And we had, where we were, it was split by four different directories, literally split all over the place.

00:26:24.000 And then you thought, well, if I'm in those four, I need to be in these and these and these.

00:26:27.000 And, you know, before you know it, you're in 13 different directories and they were charging an absolute fortune.

00:26:33.000 But it definitely was the ticket to get people into the store.

00:26:37.000 I also bolted onto that flying all around the world.

00:26:42.000 So when I was here 30 years ago, I was competing in a competition called the Tangerine Model Flying, which actually is still taking place during the month of December and early January up in the Orlando area.

00:26:56.000 And that's what I came over here for.

00:26:57.000 And when you start competing...

00:27:00.000 Not just around the UK, but worldwide.

00:27:03.000 Obviously, you get a name and a reputation for what you do, which was competing at a very high level with radar control helicopters.

00:27:10.000 Can you explain to me how these competitions work?

00:27:12.000 Is it like, who has the best plane, fastest, races, most tricked out one?

00:27:18.000 How does it work?

00:27:20.000 Well, I always describe what I used to do with model helicopters a bit like figure skating.

00:27:25.000 Now, it might sound a bit of a tangent, but with figure skating, they actually cut a line in the eyes, and you have to do set figures around them, which is what we have to do.

00:27:35.000 And then you have a freestyle element, don't you?

00:27:37.000 So we also then had freestyle aerobatic manoeuvres.

00:27:41.000 And that's sort of what it's like, and it's judged in front of a bank of five judges.

00:27:44.000 You lose the highest and the lowest score, and that's your score.

00:27:48.000 Wow.

00:27:48.000 We used to compete all over the world.

00:27:51.000 My best positioning is bronze medal at Worlds and bronze medal at European Championships.

00:27:55.000 Wow.

00:27:56.000 There's like a whole league for this.

00:27:57.000 Yeah, I didn't quite get on the top step, but I was fully sponsored.

00:28:01.000 I used to come to the States and compete in your national championships, which was up in Muncie, Indiana, I think.

00:28:07.000 Okay.

00:28:08.000 So that was every year as well, because the sponsors want you to compete in the U.S. market.

00:28:24.000 You clearly have a passion for it and a skill for it.

00:28:27.000 Do you think that passion and drive and skill for it is what drove you to beat out the person that originally stole your idea and why you were able to last longer and do better than him in general?

00:28:37.000 I think any sporting background of any sort, and I would include what I did as a sport, although people might say it's not.

00:28:45.000 I believe it is.

00:28:46.000 I think if you've got an athletic sort of mentality to compete and do well, that transfers into the business world without a doubt.

00:28:56.000 Without a doubt.

00:28:56.000 Yeah.

00:28:57.000 Yeah.

00:28:57.000 No, absolutely.

00:28:58.000 Can you give us the top two mistakes you think he made in business that made him fail?

00:29:04.000 Ignoring his clientele and their needs and ignoring the talent that he had within his staffing.

00:29:13.000 But let me add to that before I criticize the guy too much because I'm still friends with the guy now.

00:29:19.000 I had coffee with him probably about four months ago.

00:29:23.000 So I am still friends with him.

00:29:25.000 I always feel in business you don't burn your bridges.

00:29:29.000 Yeah, I agree.

00:29:30.000 You never know.

00:29:32.000 When that person's going to be able to help you out.

00:29:36.000 You know, like I would help him, he would help me now.

00:29:39.000 You know, it's just one of those things with business, isn't it?

00:29:42.000 Yeah.

00:29:43.000 Wow.

00:29:44.000 So, obviously the internet is here, right?

00:29:47.000 Yeah.

00:29:48.000 Big change.

00:29:48.000 Yeah.

00:29:49.000 Social media too as well.

00:29:50.000 Social media.

00:29:51.000 Brick and border businesses, I don't know in the UK, but the United States have kind of taken a little bit of a hit.

00:29:56.000 How have you been able to adapt and overcome with a more digitalized world?

00:30:02.000 Well, if I could have foreseen exactly what was going to happen...

00:30:09.000 The best bet for me would have been just to shut all the shops, just shut them overnight, pack everything up, start again from absolute ground zero, but with some money.

00:30:21.000 That would be the best way.

00:30:23.000 And the reason being is because I think the transition from traditional business to internet business is actually really difficult.

00:30:31.000 Mm-hmm.

00:30:32.000 But to start as an internet business is really quite straightforward.

00:30:36.000 Yes, I agree.

00:30:38.000 It sort of counterdicts itself in a way because you think, well, you've already got all the gear, you've already got all the contacts, you've already got this and that and so on.

00:30:44.000 It's got to be easy, isn't it?

00:30:46.000 But it's so different.

00:30:48.000 And while you've got one taking all of your attention, you can't really concentrate on the other properly, even with the right teams in place.

00:30:56.000 And that's why you see a lot of these companies going down, and you think, well, they should have gone online.

00:31:00.000 Well, they tried, but they couldn't.

00:31:03.000 They couldn't adapt fast enough.

00:31:05.000 And that's quite a challenge.

00:31:07.000 But now we operate...

00:31:09.000 On every platform we can, to be honest.

00:31:11.000 We have retail sales.

00:31:14.000 We have, obviously, all the internet sales, be it on all the different platforms, our own websites, multiple websites.

00:31:21.000 We also have a manufacturing side to our business and a B2B distribution as well.

00:31:26.000 So we try and cover every aspect of that side of our business.

00:31:30.000 So it's quite a change.

00:31:32.000 Okay.

00:31:32.000 You know, we're still, some people say, oh, you're still in the model game.

00:31:35.000 You say, well, I'm still in the same industry, but the industry has completely changed.

00:31:41.000 So, do you still have brick-and-mortar stores to this day?

00:31:44.000 Yes, we do, yeah.

00:31:45.000 You have one?

00:31:47.000 We actually have two.

00:31:51.000 Because of our geographical position, it's actually quite a good idea to have two.

00:31:59.000 Because the UK is a fair bit smaller than the US, People do tend to still want to visit stores to a certain degree, but they certainly want to phone a shop that they can go to should something go wrong with their internet purchase.

00:32:14.000 So for us, it makes sense to have a couple of stores.

00:32:19.000 Are they all located in the UK? Yeah, they are.

00:32:22.000 I have had a branch in Hamburg, but it didn't really work very well.

00:32:29.000 So I decided to get out.

00:32:31.000 It didn't cost me anything.

00:32:32.000 I learned a lesson, and that was a good thing.

00:32:36.000 But obviously we're not part of Europe now, so it wouldn't have worked very well ongoing.

00:32:41.000 Gotcha.

00:32:41.000 Is the original satellite one still open?

00:32:45.000 That you took from...

00:32:47.000 Well, technically it is, but it's not in the same area.

00:32:49.000 Okay.

00:32:50.000 Literally, we moved that particular set-up, yeah.

00:32:53.000 Okay.

00:32:53.000 Where in the UK, specifically?

00:32:55.000 What town's...

00:32:56.000 You wouldn't have heard of it.

00:32:57.000 It's called Sittingbourne.

00:32:58.000 Sittingbourne.

00:32:58.000 That's where we're based, yeah.

00:33:00.000 For one of them.

00:33:00.000 Yeah, and we're also over the water in Southend, which is in a county called Essex, which you might have heard of.

00:33:06.000 Oh, yes, yes.

00:33:07.000 Yeah, everyone's heard of Essex.

00:33:08.000 For a podcast, right?

00:33:10.000 Yeah, actually, yeah, that's when we did grilling.

00:33:12.000 Drilling, yeah.

00:33:12.000 Yeah, okay, all right.

00:33:14.000 Everyone's heard of Essex.

00:33:15.000 Yeah, I was out in the middle of nowhere, actually, now that I think about it.

00:33:17.000 It took us a while to get out there from London.

00:33:18.000 It was like an hour or something like that.

00:33:20.000 Yeah, it was a while.

00:33:20.000 Yeah.

00:33:21.000 The one is back for part two, by the way.

00:33:23.000 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we might go back.

00:33:24.000 Some chats real quick?

00:33:25.000 Yeah, I could read some of these chats, and then, let me get my glass here, because I am blind.

00:33:29.000 Shout out to you guys, man.

00:33:30.000 Do me a favor.

00:33:31.000 Like the video, bro.

00:33:32.000 You guys are getting some sauce right now when it comes to business, man.

00:33:35.000 Let's see here.

00:33:36.000 We got Jerome.

00:33:37.000 We need an episode on Ian Gary, 26-year-old UFC fighter that married a 40-year-old with a kid already.

00:33:42.000 He then allowed the ex-husband to move in with them and took the ex-husband's last name.

00:33:47.000 Oh, yeah.

00:33:47.000 I heard about that.

00:33:48.000 Shit's crazy. 1.00

00:33:48.000 I'd love to hear your guys break down on it. 1.00

00:33:49.000 Alright, well, we'll probably cover that at some point.

00:33:51.000 That's tough.

00:33:52.000 If you woke up as a homeless person with only your acquired knowledge over the years, how would you regain your current position considering the loss of all your connections and possessions?

00:33:59.000 Love the show, by the way.

00:34:00.000 That's a good question.

00:34:01.000 Let's have Mark do it first.

00:34:02.000 If you woke up literally homeless with your knowledge over the years, how would you regain your current position in business?

00:34:11.000 Well, I certainly wouldn't be swiping on TikTok.

00:34:15.000 I'd be using my mobile phone as a tool for business, and I think that's the advantage you've got now.

00:34:23.000 If you stop walking around like a zombie...

00:34:27.000 You know, just, you know, like this all the time and decide to use what you've got in the palm of your hand, which is a computer that's far, far, far greater than what got Apollo to the moon.

00:34:38.000 You know, use it for what it's, you know, really usable for.

00:34:41.000 And with the knowledge, I think you could...

00:34:44.000 Make the money twice as quick.

00:34:46.000 What are the top three businesses you would say a young person should get into from the internet?

00:34:51.000 I think the beauty on the internet is digital products, without a doubt.

00:34:56.000 In whatever form, I can list three different forms, but literally a digital product.

00:35:01.000 That's what you really want to get into.

00:35:03.000 Because the problems I have or had is you've got to carry stock.

00:35:09.000 Then you run out of stock.

00:35:11.000 You get a hot item.

00:35:12.000 Then you can't get it anymore.

00:35:14.000 You can't sell anymore.

00:35:15.000 So you're always restricted.

00:35:18.000 A digital product, you not only are never out of stock of it, you can sell it all over the world at a click of a button.

00:35:25.000 And you can make it relatively low cost as well.

00:35:29.000 So once people start buying it, if it starts slowing up, you can reduce the price.

00:35:33.000 You can do specials.

00:35:35.000 You're in touch with everyone nowadays.

00:35:37.000 It is fantastic.

00:35:39.000 So without doubt, if I started again, I don't know what digital product I would necessarily choose, but definitely that's the way I would go.

00:35:46.000 Well said.

00:35:47.000 Speaking of digital product, guys, DMs on demand is out, man.

00:35:49.000 Black, fresh...

00:35:51.000 Cyber?

00:35:51.000 Something like that is the code, man?

00:35:52.000 Blackfresh is the code?

00:35:53.000 Yeah, guys.

00:35:54.000 Cyber Monday.

00:35:55.000 Yeah, for Cyber Monday, I think it was Blackfresh. 0.99

00:35:57.000 All right.

00:35:58.000 Blackfresh.

00:35:58.000 Blackfresh something.

00:36:00.000 Mo will put it in the chat.

00:36:01.000 Cyber Blackfresh. 0.93

00:36:02.000 So go ahead and check that out, guys, if you guys want.

00:36:04.000 DMs on the man back out.

00:36:06.000 Wow.

00:36:07.000 Okay.

00:36:07.000 What's the next one here?

00:36:08.000 That was good.

00:36:10.000 I'm with Zucca.

00:36:11.000 What's the next one?

00:36:12.000 Oh, okay.

00:36:12.000 What's up, Fresh Fit?

00:36:13.000 Y'all are doing God's work.

00:36:14.000 This is probably off topic for this pod, but I'm 23, building 14 chicks and never finished in bed, including my first time.

00:36:18.000 Do y'all have any advice? 0.53

00:36:19.000 Stop watching porn. 1.00

00:36:22.000 You're probably watching too much goddamn porn, bro. 1.00

00:36:24.000 You got some issues. 1.00

00:36:25.000 You might have some ED issues, too.

00:36:26.000 ED, erectile dysfunction, or something like that.

00:36:28.000 Anything else?

00:36:29.000 That's it for now.

00:36:29.000 That's it for now?

00:36:30.000 Cool.

00:36:31.000 Mark, real quick.

00:36:33.000 You spent years in business.

00:36:35.000 Obviously, you have a lot of knowledge here.

00:36:37.000 What do you say is things you've learned, like two things you've learned that most people don't know in business?

00:36:43.000 Well, what I always say we've always done is to provide value to our customers.

00:36:50.000 Honest, good value.

00:36:52.000 Now, some people think that just means the best price.

00:36:56.000 And I've never, ever subscribed to this idea of being, you know, keep dropping price in all the time.

00:37:04.000 What I mean by supplying good value is, you know, you've got your experience, you've got the actual, the niceness of the environment that someone's coming into, but if you always provide good value, regardless of what you're doing,

00:37:20.000 you deserve to make a profit, and you will make a profit.

00:37:24.000 You shouldn't expect sometimes to make lots of money, and in fact sometimes when you provide something for free, Whatever it happens to be, the karma does bring it back to you.

00:37:37.000 If you put it out there, good information, good value to people, the rewards come.

00:37:43.000 Do you agree with the sentiment that there's three traits, either low price, quality, speed, pick two?

00:37:51.000 Low price, quality...

00:37:52.000 Quality and speed.

00:37:53.000 And you can only pick two.

00:37:55.000 So in other words, if you have quality and speed, it's going to probably cost you.

00:37:58.000 But if you have low price and quality, it's probably going to be slow.

00:38:02.000 Yeah.

00:38:02.000 I think there's always a cost, and I think, again, with the internet, you see it all the time, particularly with dropshipping.

00:38:08.000 You order something, you go, oh, yeah, I like that red cup, particularly with the white liner on it.

00:38:12.000 I want a bunch of those.

00:38:14.000 I'll order it.

00:38:14.000 Oh, that's the best price.

00:38:15.000 You order it.

00:38:16.000 And it takes a month to come because it's come from a dropshipper. 1.00

00:38:18.000 And you think, oh, it's missed my party.

00:38:20.000 What's the point of that?

00:38:21.000 I'll never use them again.

00:38:22.000 And you will never use them again.

00:38:24.000 Yep.

00:38:25.000 That's it.

00:38:25.000 End of story.

00:38:26.000 Yeah.

00:38:27.000 And I think you generally get three chances with people when you sell to them, I think.

00:38:32.000 If you give them good service three times, they're there for life.

00:38:35.000 If you give them good service, then bad, then good, then they're not sure.

00:38:40.000 So always try to hit them with good service.

00:38:43.000 And also be consistent with your service.

00:38:48.000 I always think of the hairdresser analogy.

00:38:51.000 So you go into your hairdressers, first time you've ever visited there, and they give you a really good cut.

00:38:57.000 You think, oh, you know, that's good.

00:38:59.000 Coffee, sir?

00:38:59.000 Oh, don't mind if I do.

00:39:00.000 That's really nice.

00:39:01.000 You know, how was your weekend?

00:39:02.000 You had a good time?

00:39:03.000 You know, how's your life?

00:39:05.000 I like coming here.

00:39:06.000 The next time, you don't get the coffee.

00:39:08.000 Everything else is the same.

00:39:09.000 You know, it's good coffee.

00:39:10.000 You didn't make me a coffee.

00:39:11.000 The next time you go, you don't really want to know because he's a bit busy.

00:39:15.000 You aren't going back.

00:39:16.000 You're just not going back, are you?

00:39:18.000 So, I think good service is always the thing.

00:39:22.000 Quality is always the thing.

00:39:24.000 Wow.

00:39:25.000 You know, there is something, I don't know, I will say it, but you can't polish a turd, can you?

00:39:31.000 You just can't do it.

00:39:32.000 No matter how hard you try, you can't do it.

00:39:35.000 But if you've got a quality item, it doesn't matter.

00:39:38.000 You know, that's good quality.

00:39:40.000 I want to sell you that.

00:39:41.000 It's worth £100.

00:39:43.000 You know, if no one buys it, you can reduce the price.

00:39:45.000 And it will eventually sell because it's got quality.

00:39:48.000 If it's got no quality, it don't matter if you put a $10 note on it.

00:39:52.000 They'll go, I still don't really want it.

00:39:54.000 You know, it's true.

00:39:56.000 Quality sells.

00:39:57.000 Yeah.

00:39:57.000 And I mean, you know, because that's the thing that will last everything, right?

00:40:00.000 Because if the quality is good, but it's slow, people might wait for it if it's good enough, you know?

00:40:04.000 Or if it's expensive, well, they're going to pay for it because they're paying for the quality, right?

00:40:08.000 So, let me...

00:40:09.000 Go ahead, did you have something else?

00:40:10.000 Do you have any business stories that went bad or that went good?

00:40:15.000 To be honest, I always say I have a bit of an issue with things that go bad because I take the L on it and I learn from it and I move on and I sort of forget about it after that because I don't like to dwell on things that go wrong.

00:40:31.000 It is actually a problem because when I play golf, if I take a bad shot, I forget about it.

00:40:38.000 Now, that's great for the rest of the hole because you're not letting it get into your head.

00:40:42.000 But you get to the end of the hole, you're like, that's a five.

00:40:44.000 It was a six.

00:40:44.000 I go, no, it wasn't, Mark.

00:40:45.000 Oh, yeah, of course, that rubbish one.

00:40:48.000 And I literally, meaningly, not necessarily on a golf course, meaningly forget about it, but I do put it out of my mind.

00:40:54.000 So I haven't had too many...

00:40:56.000 I'd almost say I haven't had any issues in business where I haven't learned a big enough lesson to outweigh the loss.

00:41:06.000 And I think when you do things and you learn from the action and from the doing, you never forget about it.

00:41:14.000 You know, someone can tell you that you're doing the wrong thing, but you'll forget that.

00:41:17.000 But you do it and you learn from the L, you never forget it. 0.97

00:41:22.000 What's that?

00:41:23.000 I was watching one of your videos, and you talked about the importance of making sure that you take care of your employees and payroll is always going to be there, even at your detriment to some times where you had to take cuts.

00:41:35.000 Can you describe the importance of sacrificing as a leader for the betterment of the team?

00:41:41.000 I think your team relies on their job so much.

00:41:48.000 As an employer, you are looking at obviously an exit at some point from your business, so you'll get paid even if you don't pay yourself for a period of time.

00:41:59.000 And obviously during COVID and various other times, during various crashes that I've been through, several recessions, you're right, I have taken years of not being paid.

00:42:10.000 But the thing is, if you've always invested all the way through your adult life, you know, you've always got a safety net.

00:42:18.000 And some people say...

00:42:20.000 I don't want a safety net.

00:42:21.000 I don't want a plan B. I disagree with that entirely.

00:42:25.000 My safety net will maybe never ever get used.

00:42:28.000 And I mean, it's huge.

00:42:30.000 There's no denying it.

00:42:31.000 It's massive.

00:42:32.000 But it may never get used because it's only a safety net.

00:42:35.000 And people say, when we say to them, the price of a good quality coffee a day invested in a low-cost index fund will get you...

00:42:45.000 A million dollars by the time you're retired.

00:42:48.000 I don't want it when I'm retired.

00:42:50.000 You don't have to just do that.

00:42:53.000 There's lots of other things you can do, as you know, with real estate and that sort of thing.

00:42:59.000 So you can get ahead, but it's just having that safety net in the background.

00:43:03.000 And it builds so nicely, so easily, and if you run a 10% or 15% rule on your wages, it's away every single month.

00:43:12.000 You don't even see it.

00:43:13.000 You get used to it, and you don't even have to check on it, do you?

00:43:15.000 It's a beautiful thing in the background.

00:43:17.000 And that helps me segue into the next thing.

00:43:21.000 I originally found you because I was looking for information on index funds.

00:43:25.000 It was something that I was like, you know what?

00:43:26.000 I want to diversify.

00:43:27.000 I'm in real estate.

00:43:28.000 I got some crypto.

00:43:29.000 But I need to get something that's way more tried and true.

00:43:33.000 And we know that index funds, especially the ones that track the S&P 500, pretty much had 10% return since forever, right?

00:43:40.000 And I learned a lot about my index funds from you, which I want to thank you for that.

00:43:43.000 And it's great.

00:43:44.000 It's surreal to have you here now and be talking about it.

00:43:47.000 Can you talk to the people about what index funds are, the importance of them, and how people can get started?

00:43:53.000 Well, the main thing to remember is that it's a lot of different companies that you're actually investing in.

00:44:00.000 Whenever we speak about stocks, be it stocks or be it index funds, we always get in the comments, I don't know which stocks to pick, I don't know what to do, blah, blah, blah, and I've got to check them every day.

00:44:09.000 I say, no, look, all you've got to remember...

00:44:13.000 If you buy an index fund, it's a basket of lots of different companies.

00:44:17.000 All the major companies in the USA are in the S&P 500.

00:44:22.000 So you're investing in Apple, you're investing in Amazon, Google, all the main people, plus others.

00:44:29.000 And if there's a loss of one of those companies, you don't feel the hit.

00:44:34.000 That's the beautiful thing.

00:44:36.000 You don't have to keep checking it every day.

00:44:38.000 In fact, the worst thing you can do is be checking it every day.

00:44:41.000 I mean, we had a call today, a live call on our systems.

00:44:46.000 And it was about, well, I want to do day trading.

00:44:48.000 I'm doing this and I'm doing that, but I've lost money.

00:44:50.000 You know, what do you think I should do?

00:44:52.000 Well, day trading takes up a hell of a lot of your time.

00:44:55.000 A hell of a lot of your time.

00:44:56.000 Yeah.

00:44:56.000 Index funds investing, how much time does it take you to do your index funds?

00:45:01.000 I have it on automatic now.

00:45:02.000 Easy, isn't it?

00:45:03.000 Every month it just takes a certain amount of money from my account and invest it into, I got one that tracks the S&P 500 and one that tracks the total market.

00:45:10.000 Exactly.

00:45:11.000 So, total market's very good, but also emerging markets, I think, is very good as well, and that's the one I'm actually extending my investments on at the moment, because, you know, you've only got to look at China, India, all those sort of places which are the emerging markets.

00:45:27.000 I want a piece of that action, you know.

00:45:29.000 Can you give us a few that you don't mind revealing?

00:45:31.000 I know it's a secret a lot of times, but can you give us a few for the likes?

00:45:33.000 Well, it's not really a secret.

00:45:34.000 I mean, if you go on Vanguard and just pick an emerging markets fund, I mean, it's literally as easy as that.

00:45:40.000 Oh, so would it be fair to say this emerging market fund, it's like maybe the equivalent to an S&P 500?

00:45:47.000 It's all the emerging markets all in one basket? 1.00

00:45:49.000 Yeah, exactly the same.

00:45:51.000 So it's very, very simple to do.

00:45:53.000 But again, you're doing the right thing because you're also investing in real estate as well.

00:45:58.000 You're diversifying and it's all about diversifying.

00:46:01.000 Not relying on just one thing.

00:46:02.000 You've got your businesses.

00:46:05.000 It's all pieces of a puzzle, isn't it?

00:46:07.000 It's all about those income streams coming in.

00:46:10.000 So it's the right thing to do.

00:46:12.000 But get your safety net sorted out because it's so simple.

00:46:15.000 So for you, as far as your index funds go, you can choose to collect the dividends or you can choose to reinvest those dividends.

00:46:23.000 Automatic reinvestment.

00:46:24.000 Automatic reinvestment?

00:46:25.000 Yeah.

00:46:26.000 Okay.

00:46:27.000 And if you don't mind me asking, so during those times where you had to get the payroll, you might have not paid yourself, you got to take care of your in-place first, and luckily you had your investments in place to pay yourself, how were you paying yourself?

00:46:39.000 Was it coming from real estate?

00:46:40.000 Was it coming from...

00:46:41.000 Crypto, what was it?

00:46:42.000 Well, some from real estate, because obviously you can use those funds however you wish.

00:46:49.000 And that keeps also the investments going as well, because the last thing I wanted to do was not continue to invest.

00:46:56.000 And we also dabbled in crypto. 0.98

00:46:59.000 I mean, I've been very lucky with crypto, because I haven't really bought any of the shit coins, shall we say. 0.89

00:47:05.000 We bought Doge for a while, because obviously we saw it going up, we thought we were going to do that, and we sold it, I think, what was it, an hour before the show? 0.98

00:47:14.000 Saturday Night Live.

00:47:15.000 Yeah, an hour before the Saturday Night Live thing came on, because everyone's going, it's going to go to a dollar, it's going to go, of course it's not.

00:47:21.000 You know, if it gets to 90 cents or 95, everyone's going to sell, aren't they?

00:47:24.000 So we bailed an hour before and it was the right thing to do.

00:47:28.000 But on Bitcoin and on Ethereum, we've done very well.

00:47:33.000 That's what I got too.

00:47:34.000 Bitcoin, we bought most, I say we because I bought it with my son, we bought pre-21 quite big, which was nice.

00:47:44.000 We sold quite a lot at the top, took lots of profit.

00:47:47.000 Yeah, we're getting at what, $3,000 probably?

00:47:49.000 Just a A bit more than that, but it was still pretty good.

00:47:52.000 I think we sold first at 64, something like that.

00:47:56.000 And then we bought back in on that first dip, rode it again, sold again, and then we bought some more at the bottom as well.

00:48:02.000 So, you know, we hold Bitcoin that owes us nothing.

00:48:05.000 Well, less than nothing.

00:48:08.000 There's lucky as well.

00:48:09.000 Let's be fair.

00:48:10.000 We don't know when this is happening.

00:48:12.000 So I got to ask you this because you mentioned real estate.

00:48:15.000 Me and Fresh are both in real estate.

00:48:17.000 Huge into real estate.

00:48:18.000 And I know we had a discussion about this last time I was on your guys' podcast and we had a discussion on real estate that the whole real estate process is a bit different in the United Kingdom than it is to the United States.

00:48:28.000 And I get a million questions from people.

00:48:30.000 Hey, talk about real estate in the UK. Talk about real estate in the UK. You have some real estate there.

00:48:35.000 Can you tell the people about maybe some fundamental differences that might be between the United States and the United Kingdom?

00:48:40.000 Well, I'm not a real estate expert.

00:48:42.000 I mean, at the end of the day, I buy real estate.

00:48:44.000 I buy both residential and commercial.

00:48:48.000 Being in business, commercial property is actually a very, very good tax What? 0.99

00:49:03.000 What the fuck? 0.99

00:49:15.000 I can't do, bro! 1.00

00:49:16.000 But hold on.

00:49:17.000 There's got to be a downside to that, though.

00:49:18.000 No?

00:49:19.000 Not really, no.

00:49:21.000 Do you guys get 30-year fixed loans, or no?

00:49:22.000 No, we don't get that.

00:49:24.000 You do get that in the States, which is quite nice.

00:49:26.000 But do you want 30 years fixed at 8-plus percent?

00:49:28.000 No, no, no.

00:49:29.000 But you can refinance.

00:49:30.000 I was going to say, you're going to be refinancing very quickly.

00:49:33.000 But we can get, I'll say, probably five years at that at the moment.

00:49:38.000 Oh, is it like an adjustable rate mortgage?

00:49:39.000 Yeah.

00:49:41.000 How much down do you need, though?

00:49:42.000 How much down?

00:49:43.000 Normally, first-time buyers, what are we talking, Curtis, just because you're more in that market?

00:49:50.000 10?

00:49:52.000 20%.

00:49:52.000 20%, yeah.

00:49:53.000 But you can get help to buy as well.

00:49:56.000 There's a help to buy scheme also available.

00:49:59.000 So even if you're going to live in it, you've got to put 20% down?

00:50:00.000 Yeah.

00:50:01.000 Oh, there you go.

00:50:02.000 There's a barrier to entry.

00:50:03.000 See?

00:50:03.000 I knew it.

00:50:03.000 Because in America, you could do 3.5% down if it's going to be where you primary FSA loan, yeah.

00:50:08.000 And you've got to live in it for a year, and then you put three and a half to five, and then you can leave.

00:50:12.000 So I guess the barrier to get in is a little bit harder, but you can get and enjoy some better rates.

00:50:17.000 But does that 5% interest rate last for like five years, ten years, or do you sign different terms?

00:50:22.000 Generally, you can go about five years.

00:50:23.000 You won't generally get a lot more than that on a low interest rate.

00:50:27.000 Obviously, if you wanted to sign for 6%, for example, you'd probably get a ten-year.

00:50:31.000 But to be honest, the interest rates aren't that high generally for that amount of time.

00:50:36.000 Do they ever go that high where an adjustable rate would mess you up?

00:50:39.000 The worst interest rate I've ever seen is 15%.

00:50:43.000 It didn't last very long.

00:50:45.000 It's when the UK dropped out the money control system of Europe and it went through the roof for a bit and it wasn't very long.

00:50:53.000 But is it consistently under 6% it seems like?

00:50:57.000 I think the tops I'm paying on mortgages, probably about 3.5% at the moment on my fixed.

00:51:05.000 Oh, wow.

00:51:06.000 Okay.

00:51:06.000 How many properties do you have?

00:51:07.000 I never disclose that.

00:51:10.000 I understand.

00:51:12.000 I do disclose what I earn.

00:51:16.000 That's public knowledge on my YouTube videos.

00:51:19.000 But I did say, when we started the YouTube and the interviews and things like that, my wife asked me, she said, don't disclose those sort of things.

00:51:28.000 She likes that to be private.

00:51:30.000 So, you know, I think that's fair enough.

00:51:32.000 I can agree on that.

00:51:33.000 Yeah.

00:51:33.000 I like it private.

00:51:34.000 Yeah.

00:51:35.000 I'm transparent about it, but no, I can definitely see where that would make sense. 0.86

00:51:41.000 And then in the United States, we have open laws with searching shit, so I don't know, depending on how you incorporate your business, whatever it may be. 0.93

00:51:49.000 So you said commercial and residential. 0.97

00:51:51.000 In the U.K., in the U.S., we go from one to four is residential.

00:51:55.000 Is that the same in the U.K.? I don't think so.

00:51:58.000 I mean, one of the things you have got in the States, which I think is quite nice, is the buying of duplexes.

00:52:05.000 Yes.

00:52:06.000 Multifamily.

00:52:07.000 You can buy, like, up to four.

00:52:09.000 And it's residential.

00:52:10.000 But it's classed as one...

00:52:12.000 Yeah, so you could buy a single-family home, a duplex, or a triplex, or a fourplex, and that all counts as residential.

00:52:18.000 But anything above four units is considered commercial.

00:52:21.000 Yeah, well, I think in the UK, if you buy a house, literally another house is another house, even if it's joined up.

00:52:29.000 So you can't do quite the same sort of thing.

00:52:33.000 So even if it's the same structure, you're taking two mortgages on each unit.

00:52:38.000 Yeah.

00:52:39.000 I mean, you could buy a street.

00:52:40.000 I mean, we have, in some of the towns that we, well, Sittingbourne, where we're based as a business, there's quite a lot of what are called terraced houses, and that would be like 20 houses all in a row.

00:52:51.000 Really, it's one building, all divided up, but each one you would buy as an individual house.

00:52:56.000 You can't do the same sort of thing, unfortunately.

00:52:58.000 Yeah, my brother's in the UK, and my property over there, I checked it out, bro.

00:53:01.000 It's hard, bro.

00:53:02.000 Okay.

00:53:03.000 See, there's checks and balances.

00:53:06.000 They have more favorable rates, but you have a higher barrier to enter to be able to acquire the property because you've got to put 20% down.

00:53:13.000 But it seems to me once you actually have it, because 20% is quite a bit of equity, you're probably going to cash flow very nicely.

00:53:18.000 Yeah.

00:53:18.000 I mean, the same rules sort of apply.

00:53:20.000 I mean, you're looking for 1% a month from your purchase price as a rental, if you can.

00:53:24.000 I mean, at the moment, you're probably looking at about just a little less than that, probably about 10%.

00:53:28.000 You can pretty much get that on a year.

00:53:32.000 So that's quite good.

00:53:34.000 But obviously, after...

00:53:35.000 Three, four, five years, then obviously the rent increase gives you substantially more than that.

00:53:42.000 And I think a lot of people look at what they can rent it for right now.

00:53:46.000 Versus the long term.

00:53:47.000 Versus the long term.

00:53:49.000 And I think a lot of people struggle with long term nowadays.

00:53:52.000 Well, long term, well, that's 90 seconds of TikTok rather than 30 seconds, isn't it?

00:53:59.000 Wow.

00:54:17.000 I was going to ask you that next.

00:54:19.000 Is rent very expensive in the UK, depending on where it is?

00:54:23.000 I know London isn't cheap.

00:54:26.000 And are you able, because it seems to me like you said you can raise the rents every two to three years, which I mean is pretty good.

00:54:31.000 But is the market to enter very expensive?

00:54:34.000 Like to get a single family home is like a million dollars?

00:54:36.000 No, it's not as much as that, no.

00:54:38.000 I mean, I think the average UK home is about three, and I'm guessing a little bit of this at the moment, probably about £370, so probably about $450.

00:54:49.000 That would be for a three-bedroom, what we call a semi-detached, so what you might call a two-duplex, but obviously you're only on one side of that.

00:54:59.000 Do you have any other investments other than real estate and index funds?

00:55:02.000 Any other investments?

00:55:03.000 Well, obviously the crypto.

00:55:06.000 I do dabble a little bit in stock still because, you know, it's fun, isn't it?

00:55:10.000 You know, and I do like checking up on them from time to time, you know, so I do dabble.

00:55:16.000 Although I don't like to push that side of it, I do dabble a little bit, yeah.

00:55:20.000 And I have a couple of little bits of money in.

00:55:23.000 I suppose it'd be called angel investing as well, but it's not really that yet, but I think it's going to become that.

00:55:29.000 Can you tell us what stocks you're into?

00:55:31.000 I know it's a secret, but hey!

00:55:33.000 If you're going to share one with the audience, that'd be great.

00:55:36.000 If you can, it's cool.

00:55:37.000 Everyone's got Tesla, haven't they?

00:55:39.000 Okay.

00:55:40.000 I've got Tesla.

00:55:41.000 Okay.

00:55:42.000 That's not a bad...

00:55:42.000 And a few others.

00:55:43.000 Yeah.

00:55:43.000 Because Tesla, if I'm not mistaken, isn't there a push in the US government to go fully electric?

00:55:48.000 Energy green, yeah.

00:55:49.000 And in the UK as well.

00:55:51.000 I didn't know that in the UK they're doing that too.

00:55:54.000 So I have a friend, Kevin Tobias, he sold his Tesla stock and made millions, but I think holding onto it might be even better because they're going full electric.

00:56:03.000 Wow.

00:56:04.000 Okay.

00:56:04.000 So individual stocks, index funds, you said you have emerging funds, market index, and then I'm assuming also you probably have an S&P 500 one and a total market index.

00:56:17.000 Anything else that you do?

00:56:18.000 No, that's pretty much the set, to be perfectly honest with you.

00:56:21.000 It's a safe sort of...

00:56:22.000 What's the emerging funds one, man?

00:56:24.000 I'm about to go in there.

00:56:24.000 Do you remember the code for Vanguard?

00:56:26.000 I won't remember the code, but we'll look it up as we finish.

00:56:28.000 Cool, yeah.

00:56:29.000 I'm going to start putting money in there.

00:56:30.000 So let's say...

00:56:32.000 It's all about the percentage that you put in there.

00:56:33.000 Sorry to cut you off.

00:56:34.000 I mean, at the moment, we're about...

00:56:37.000 Oh, I say we.

00:56:38.000 I mean, this doesn't involve my son, my index funds.

00:56:41.000 But it's probably about...

00:56:43.000 10% of my index funds goes into emerging markets at the moment.

00:56:48.000 And the other 90 is split between S&P and total market?

00:56:51.000 Yes.

00:56:51.000 Okay.

00:56:52.000 So 40-40 and then 10 for that?

00:56:55.000 Probably more 60-30.

00:56:58.000 Okay.

00:56:58.000 Around that sort of area.

00:56:59.000 S&P 500?

00:57:00.000 Yeah.

00:57:00.000 Okay.

00:57:01.000 How important is budget...

00:57:03.000 When it comes to being an entrepreneur.

00:57:05.000 Budgeting?

00:57:05.000 Yeah, budgeting.

00:57:06.000 Oh, extremely important.

00:57:07.000 If you don't budget, how do you know, one, what's coming in?

00:57:11.000 Secondly, what's going out?

00:57:13.000 I mean, you've got no idea.

00:57:14.000 How can you have control over something you've got no idea of?

00:57:18.000 You can't.

00:57:19.000 So it's fundamental to making any sort of money or any sort of future.

00:57:24.000 It's like having a plan and having a budget have got to be...

00:57:29.000 Right up there.

00:57:30.000 Could you put on your formula for budgeting for someone that's starting up?

00:57:33.000 For example, 20% to retirement, maybe like 50% for business, paying yourself 20%?

00:57:39.000 Well, everyone's different, aren't they?

00:57:41.000 I mean, I always say 50% for your bills and your groceries, 30% for your investments, and 20% because you've got to have a little bit of fun, go out on the weekends and things like that.

00:57:50.000 And then, obviously, the replies to that are, well, I don't earn enough to be able to put 50, you know, to do those ratios.

00:57:59.000 Well, you've just answered your own question.

00:58:01.000 Exactly.

00:58:02.000 Make more. 0.55

00:58:03.000 And people say, well, I can't make more because I'm tired, I'm this, I'm that.

00:58:06.000 I say, well, could you not earn $10 more in a day?

00:58:10.000 You know, are you not worth $20 more in a day doing something?

00:58:13.000 Of course you are.

00:58:14.000 So you can earn more.

00:58:16.000 The thing you can't do, if you...

00:58:18.000 I mean, I'm a bit like Myron here.

00:58:20.000 I like the simple math.

00:58:22.000 So say you earn $1,000 a month.

00:58:24.000 Sorry, a week.

00:58:26.000 And you want to save as much as you can.

00:58:29.000 Well, let's say you save all of it.

00:58:32.000 It's $1,000.

00:58:33.000 That's it.

00:58:34.000 It's limited, isn't it?

00:58:35.000 That's all you can possibly save.

00:58:37.000 And you can't save that much because you've got to spend some.

00:58:39.000 But let's just say you manage to save all of it.

00:58:42.000 Congratulations, right?

00:58:43.000 That's your limit.

00:58:45.000 Well, there's no limit to how much you can earn.

00:58:47.000 No limit.

00:58:49.000 So you go out and earn 5,000 a week, 10,000 a week, whatever it is.

00:58:52.000 That's where you should be aiming to go, not aiming to save absolutely loads.

00:58:57.000 So I know I use the coffee analogy for your index fund investing because that's a good analogy to say how...

00:59:03.000 How cheap it is to invest in a good index fund, but literally just go out and earn a bit more.

00:59:09.000 That's the way to do it.

00:59:11.000 It really is.

00:59:13.000 We are talking to guys here, but same effects to the ladies watching as well.

00:59:19.000 You can earn more money than you are.

00:59:22.000 I always think that if you're in a job and you're getting paid For argument's sake, $50 an hour.

00:59:29.000 Your company is charging your time at $150 an hour.

00:59:36.000 So you know you're worth more.

00:59:39.000 Go out and earn that more.

00:59:41.000 You can do it.

00:59:42.000 Yeah, you'll never save yourself to wealth.

00:59:44.000 And I think a lot of people, especially people that like...

00:59:47.000 And I had to learn this being an employee for a while with the government, is you just need to make more money a lot of the times.

00:59:55.000 You're never going to save yourself to being rich.

00:59:57.000 And if you try to do that, it's going to take you decades.

00:59:59.000 You're better off just making more money than trying to save yourself to some kind of wealth.

01:00:04.000 Right.

01:00:04.000 And the other thing I'd add to that as well, if you've got a good woman behind you, and I know this is going a bit more...

01:00:09.000 You're fine, go on, man.

01:00:10.000 You're good, you're good.

01:00:11.000 Women can definitely be assets, I agree. 1.00

01:00:13.000 If you've got a good woman behind you that looks after you, makes your dinner, looks after your youngster, makes everything else around you happen...

01:00:22.000 That is more helpful than you can believe.

01:00:25.000 Agreed.

01:00:25.000 If you get the right woman.

01:00:26.000 I'm lucky I got the right woman.

01:00:29.000 How long have you been married for?

01:00:30.000 Quite a while.

01:00:31.000 20 years married, but really together 30-something years.

01:00:35.000 So, Mark, how did you know that she was the one for you?

01:00:40.000 I don't know.

01:00:41.000 It's always a difficult thing to say, really.

01:00:43.000 I think if you can sit down with a young lady after your first date and talk about the future and your futures align, I think that's quite good.

01:00:56.000 I mean, one of the first things I said to my wife when we met was I said, look, One of the things I have a problem with is I'm very selfish with my time.

01:01:06.000 It's very important to me.

01:01:07.000 My career is important to me.

01:01:09.000 The business is important.

01:01:11.000 All the different things I do is important.

01:01:12.000 But when I spend time with you, I'm going to give you 100% of my attention.

01:01:18.000 100%.

01:01:19.000 That's my promise to you, but I'm selfish with the rest of my time.

01:01:24.000 She says, fine.

01:01:25.000 If we're building towards the future and the future that I want and the future I can see, I'm absolutely 100% with you on that.

01:01:32.000 And she helps me build it.

01:01:34.000 Or helped me build it, I should say.

01:01:35.000 Real value, man.

01:01:36.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:01:37.000 But it's all honesty, isn't it?

01:01:39.000 At the end of the day, if you can be honest, then that's great.

01:01:41.000 What year did you guys meet?

01:01:42.000 You said 30 years ago.

01:01:44.000 So this is probably...

01:01:44.000 Yeah, 30-odd years ago.

01:01:45.000 Yeah, like 90s, 80s?

01:01:47.000 Yeah, it's got to be 98, something like that, I suppose.

01:01:51.000 No, less than that, 95.

01:01:52.000 95?

01:01:53.000 Yeah, around that sort of area.

01:01:56.000 You said it's...

01:01:57.000 Well, back then anyway.

01:01:59.000 It's all about honesty, right?

01:02:01.000 Yeah, I think it's very important because if you want to work together, then that's what it's all about, isn't it?

01:02:07.000 He's very honest.

01:02:09.000 He's almost too honest.

01:02:10.000 Oh, what?

01:02:11.000 Well, my girl?

01:02:11.000 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:02:12.000 Well, women do give up. 1.00

01:02:16.000 Yeah.

01:02:42.000 So, that's because she's helped build your career and your business.

01:02:46.000 And she worked within my business as well.

01:02:48.000 And she still does to this day.

01:02:49.000 She does payroll on some of the businesses.

01:02:52.000 And I think that's really important.

01:02:55.000 And it's a teamwork.

01:02:56.000 I agree.

01:02:56.000 I think if you're an entrepreneur, you need to involve your woman to some degree with the business.

01:03:01.000 I think for women.

01:03:02.000 And it's really important for them to feel like they're helping contribute and help something.

01:03:05.000 And then like, yeah, she's becoming an asset, you know, versus a lot of guys, you know, some guys don't want to do it.

01:03:10.000 They're like, I don't want to.

01:03:11.000 I want to keep my girl away from her, whatever. 0.90

01:03:12.000 But then she'll be bored because she'll be sitting at home all day if she doesn't have a job. 1.00

01:03:15.000 So, Mark, I'll consider you a model dad.

01:03:17.000 Someone to follow and learn from.

01:03:20.000 What did he teach your son?

01:03:22.000 I guess the most important thing you taught him.

01:03:24.000 The most important thing you could think of.

01:03:27.000 We'll probably go back to his magic, I think.

01:03:31.000 What?

01:03:32.000 Curtis went through a stage of really enjoying doing magic, card tricks and all that sort of thing.

01:03:38.000 And I would say one of the most important lessons I taught him was when he was doing that.

01:03:43.000 He showed...

01:03:43.000 I quite like magic.

01:03:45.000 I know how the tricks work that he was showing me.

01:03:48.000 So I'm quite harsh.

01:03:50.000 And he'd show me the trick.

01:03:51.000 And he'd say, I'm really good at this, Dad.

01:03:53.000 Look.

01:03:53.000 Do-do-do-do.

01:03:54.000 I'd say, right, yeah, it was good.

01:03:56.000 But I could see how you did it.

01:03:58.000 So it's not good enough.

01:03:59.000 And he wanted to be able to go to kids' parties to perform.

01:04:03.000 I said, look, if I can't see it, how you're doing it, then it's great.

01:04:07.000 And I will tell you it's great because I can't see it and I know how you've done it.

01:04:11.000 You're that good.

01:04:12.000 Then when you go to parties or whatever, no one will be able to tell.

01:04:15.000 Then you're good enough.

01:04:16.000 And I think that was probably a harsh lesson.

01:04:19.000 I'm looking at him now.

01:04:21.000 Or quite hard to take as a youngster and probably look like a critical dad.

01:04:26.000 I think that builds a certain amount of excellence in what you're doing.

01:04:31.000 And if you can build that excellence, then that's good.

01:04:35.000 He was very good at swimming as well.

01:04:37.000 He rarely mentions it.

01:04:39.000 Just every other podcast, pretty much.

01:04:41.000 But he was very good.

01:04:43.000 And he'd say, oh, I won today.

01:04:45.000 I said, okay, that's good, but, you know, would you win against the region?

01:04:49.000 He'd go, well, no, because they're faster than me.

01:04:51.000 He'd say, well, okay, well, now you're second or third or fourth to the region.

01:04:55.000 And then he'd say, I've won in the region.

01:04:57.000 I'd say, well, that's really good, but would you win in the county?

01:05:00.000 Well, no, because they're really fast.

01:05:02.000 So it's all about those targets, isn't it?

01:05:04.000 You can be great for a minute.

01:05:06.000 I think the worst thing a parent can do is when their kid brings home a painting from school and it... 0.99

01:05:12.000 And it sucks. 1.00

01:05:13.000 Well, it's a shit show, isn't it? 1.00

01:05:16.000 I love it! 1.00

01:05:17.000 I'll put that on the fridge for a day.

01:05:23.000 It's the wrong thing.

01:05:24.000 I think, okay, you can be overcritical, and sometimes maybe I was.

01:05:29.000 But I think you've got to nurture that spirit.

01:05:33.000 And he wanted to make money.

01:05:34.000 He left school at 18.

01:05:36.000 He didn't go to college-stroke university.

01:05:39.000 Through his own choice.

01:05:41.000 And I think that's because he had confidence.

01:05:43.000 He knew what he wanted to do.

01:05:45.000 And when all of your peer group, I mean, everyone in his year went to university.

01:05:51.000 How strong a move is it to say, I'm not going.

01:05:55.000 I'm going to start a business.

01:05:57.000 And he did.

01:05:58.000 And that's great.

01:05:59.000 And I'm very proud of that.

01:06:01.000 Yeah, that's great.

01:06:02.000 I mean, yeah, and I think that's the difference between the masculine and the feminine.

01:06:05.000 Like, your mom's gonna be like, you know, because moms, I would say, have the...

01:06:09.000 The unconditional love that they have typically is to their children, right?

01:06:12.000 You could bring a shitty painting, you cannot do so well in the game, score the least points, you lose.

01:06:17.000 I still love you, you did great! 0.96

01:06:19.000 You know, because to her, you're her baby no matter what, right?

01:06:21.000 But the dad kind of comes in like, son... 0.99

01:06:24.000 I love you, but that was fucking terrible. 0.99

01:06:25.000 You gotta do better. 0.99

01:06:26.000 And that's the father's job, is to kind of hold you accountable, let you know that there are winners and losers in life, not like, I love you no matter what.

01:06:33.000 I mean, of course you let them know that you love them, but it's like, no, bro, you can do better. 0.99

01:06:36.000 You were trash. 1.00

01:06:37.000 You sucked it up just now. 1.00

01:06:38.000 And they're like, damn, okay, I need to go practice. 0.99

01:06:40.000 That might be the driving force for them to go at 6 o'clock in the morning and shoot some more hoops or work on their magic tricks or whatever. 0.98

01:06:45.000 And I think also something that's really important that you reinforced in your son is having a hobby, man. 0.99

01:06:51.000 Kids nowadays don't have fucking hobbies. 0.96

01:06:54.000 You ask them, what do you do in your free time? 1.00

01:06:55.000 We don't know what the fuck they're doing. 0.99

01:06:57.000 And it's just like, what the hell's going on? 0.98

01:06:59.000 And I think magic is fucking awesome because it's a social thing. 0.86

01:07:02.000 You can show it to people. 0.95

01:07:03.000 It's a skill base.

01:07:05.000 It's something that not a lot of people can do anymore.

01:07:07.000 Yeah.

01:07:07.000 And, you know, we need to cultivate, you know, people just having hobbies again.

01:07:11.000 Like, people don't have it.

01:07:13.000 And people are very boring nowadays.

01:07:14.000 It's like, what do you do for fun?

01:07:15.000 When asked, like, Gen Zers.

01:07:17.000 I hang out with my friends. 1.00

01:07:18.000 What the fuck? 1.00

01:07:19.000 Like, okay. 1.00

01:07:20.000 Do you have, like, any interests or hobbies?

01:07:22.000 TV. What?

01:07:23.000 And also, I think it's a mistake as a father to force them to do the hobby you like.

01:07:27.000 Yeah, for sure.

01:07:28.000 So, for example, if you're a fisherman on the side and you take your...

01:07:31.000 Okay, take your son.

01:07:32.000 But if he doesn't enjoy it, he doesn't enjoy it.

01:07:33.000 Yeah.

01:07:34.000 They've got to find their own enjoyment from the hobby that they enjoy.

01:07:38.000 And obviously I love flying model airplanes.

01:07:40.000 I still do out full size as well.

01:07:42.000 I just love everything to do with aviation.

01:07:44.000 But my son's not interested.

01:07:46.000 So you could force him when he was young.

01:07:49.000 You say, no, you are coming.

01:07:50.000 You will enjoy it.

01:07:51.000 And I've seen it happen a lot of times.

01:07:53.000 But I said straight away when my son was born, I'm not going to go down that route.

01:07:58.000 It's not right to force someone to enjoy something.

01:08:02.000 That's amazing.

01:08:02.000 That's great.

01:08:03.000 Okay, I read some of these chats, and then we'll close out because I want to keep Mark by the past his bedtime.

01:08:12.000 What up, FNF and Mark?

01:08:17.000 Love all the value you guys give to us.

01:08:19.000 Question, though, I got a 752 credit score, but around 30K in debt student loans.

01:08:24.000 Should I pay off the debt first before acquiring a business credit to splurge on assets, real estate, stocks, business, etc.?

01:08:29.000 I'll let you take that one.

01:08:30.000 What do you think?

01:08:30.000 It's always very difficult with student loans because people say it's free money.

01:08:35.000 I always think free money holds you back and sometimes getting rid of a debt is like getting rid of a chain around your back.

01:08:42.000 I know in the UK people say, well, it'll be gone by the time I'm 30, it'll be erased or whatever.

01:08:47.000 I don't see that happening.

01:08:49.000 Oh, the UK forgives loans?

01:08:51.000 I think they're saying they're going to, and whether they do or not in the future, we'll see.

01:08:55.000 But they can change that policy, can't they?

01:08:58.000 Anytime they want.

01:09:00.000 I think it's like, literally, it's having an anchor, you're throwing it over your back, it's stuck in the ground, you're trying to get through, and if you can get rid of it, get rid of it.

01:09:09.000 That's what I would do, but then...

01:09:11.000 I'm back in the dice.

01:09:13.000 College American loans, that's the one type of loan you can't get rid of.

01:09:18.000 Even if you declare bankruptcy, they're still going to keep your college loans on you.

01:09:21.000 But you made a good point.

01:09:23.000 My mentor always told me, having debt is like a cloud over you, a dark cloud.

01:09:27.000 And even though you're not thinking about it every single day, it is still there.

01:09:30.000 So when you go to buy a house or go buy a property, it's still there on your status.

01:09:35.000 So it's kind of like, Get rid of it.

01:09:36.000 Get out of there.

01:09:37.000 Clear mind.

01:09:38.000 Focus on investing in yourself.

01:09:39.000 What amazes me as well is people go and buy a property, and they're all at the point about to sign for it, and then they go and buy a new car because they go, oh, I can get a car.

01:09:46.000 What will be other credit?

01:09:47.000 And then they go to buy the house, and they go, oh, mortgage has been turned down.

01:09:50.000 You go, oh, come on, guys.

01:09:52.000 Everything's based on credit score nowadays.

01:09:55.000 That's the golden rule. 0.99

01:09:55.000 That's the dumbest thing you can ever do. 0.99

01:09:57.000 I'm really glad that you mentioned that. 0.99

01:09:58.000 Guys, if you're going to buy a house, do not apply for a credit card while you're in contract.

01:10:02.000 Don't buy furniture either.

01:10:03.000 Yeah, when you're under contract, do not make any big purchases.

01:10:06.000 Do not apply for a new credit card.

01:10:07.000 Do not rent or lease or anything. 1.00

01:10:09.000 Don't do shit. 0.99

01:10:10.000 Close a deal, then you can go ahead and open up these new credit lines. 1.00

01:10:13.000 Because you know what's funny?

01:10:14.000 People go and get a credit card, run up the furniture, buy a sofa, a bed, For the new house, yeah.

01:10:20.000 Sorry, sir.

01:10:21.000 Declined.

01:10:22.000 Yeah.

01:10:22.000 I had a second-hand sofa.

01:10:24.000 I had a second-hand counter with a black and white television on it.

01:10:28.000 My mum and dad bought me a microwave and the people that sold me the apartment left the bed.

01:10:33.000 Wow.

01:10:33.000 And there was no way I was doing a line of credit for anything.

01:10:36.000 I saved up the money to buy my furniture.

01:10:38.000 That was it.

01:10:39.000 There's no way.

01:10:40.000 No way.

01:10:40.000 You've got to build a business.

01:10:42.000 You don't want that.

01:10:43.000 Yeah.

01:10:44.000 100%.

01:10:44.000 So yeah, my friend.

01:10:45.000 And the only credit I could say that doesn't keep me...

01:10:48.000 Sorry, the only debt that I have that doesn't keep me up at night is the real estate debt because all those houses cash flow, which means my debt service is done, I don't got to worry about shit, and I'm able to make money at the end of it, even with vacancy, guys.

01:11:01.000 So real estate is the only debt that I would say that's...

01:11:05.000 Acceptable.

01:11:06.000 And inflation-proof.

01:11:07.000 And inflation-proof, absolutely.

01:11:08.000 What's your goal now for real estate income, monthly?

01:11:12.000 100k a month net profit is what I'm shooting towards right now.

01:11:15.000 What's your current real estate income?

01:11:18.000 I'm not allowed to tell you that, unfortunately.

01:11:20.000 You told me you kept up your number!

01:11:22.000 How about units, man?

01:11:23.000 Are you guys asking me if I'm not worth it?

01:11:25.000 How much I make?

01:11:25.000 This isn't fair!

01:11:27.000 Goddammit! 0.99

01:11:28.000 Strike it big! 0.62

01:11:29.000 What I always say, it's not rude to ask, but it's rude to expect an answer.

01:11:34.000 Fair enough.

01:11:35.000 Okay, that's fair enough.

01:11:36.000 He's good, he's good.

01:11:37.000 Yeah, he's good, he's good.

01:11:38.000 He's witty.

01:11:39.000 Pending.

01:11:39.000 I'm a mortgage broker and need to network primarily with female realtors.

01:11:43.000 What are your opinions on the best way to platonically network with and maintain relationships in this regard?

01:11:48.000 Ah...

01:11:49.000 Well, do you know what?

01:11:50.000 We don't have realtors in the UK. We have estate agents, and it's a completely different thing.

01:11:57.000 Oh, okay.

01:11:57.000 So, unfortunately, I can't answer that question any better than...

01:12:01.000 Well, Myron can certainly answer that question, I think.

01:12:03.000 Yeah, pull it back up.

01:12:04.000 Let me look here real fast.

01:12:06.000 Mortgage broker, what are your...

01:12:09.000 Okay.

01:12:09.000 Dude.

01:12:10.000 This is simple, man.

01:12:12.000 Watch the episode that we did with Roger about this because he talks about real estate and networking and stuff like that.

01:12:18.000 But dude, just keep it simple.

01:12:19.000 Be respectful.

01:12:20.000 You know what? 0.95

01:12:21.000 Every time you see her, envision her being a really hairy dude. 0.98

01:12:26.000 Done. 0.85

01:12:26.000 But also, there's a common trend here. 0.85

01:12:29.000 Right?

01:12:30.000 That's easy. 0.98

01:12:31.000 Just envision her being a really hairy dude. 0.98

01:12:33.000 You know what? 0.96

01:12:34.000 Envision her being Mark.

01:12:35.000 You know?

01:12:36.000 No offense.

01:12:37.000 Or your grandma.

01:12:38.000 And you'll be professional.

01:12:39.000 But no, this is easy because, okay, I understand what they actually want as female realtors. 1.00

01:12:44.000 They want clients.

01:12:45.000 If you can bring them clients, you build that partnership with them, they trust you, they believe in you, and they want to do business with you.

01:12:51.000 It's pretty simple.

01:12:51.000 But again, having your grandma look so you don't get turned on by them, I guess.

01:12:56.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:12:58.000 Anything else?

01:12:58.000 That's it.

01:12:59.000 That's it?

01:12:59.000 Cool.

01:13:00.000 Cool, man.

01:13:01.000 Yeah.

01:13:01.000 Mark, thank you so much for coming, man.

01:13:03.000 Seriously.

01:13:03.000 Very educational.

01:13:04.000 Learned a lot.

01:13:05.000 Yeah, man.

01:13:05.000 Thank you very much.

01:13:06.000 A lot of gems in there.

01:13:07.000 A lot of gems in that conversation.

01:13:09.000 Where can people find you?

01:13:10.000 Where can they find you?

01:13:11.000 They can find me on Mark Tilbury, be that in YouTube, be it anywhere really, TikTok.

01:13:16.000 I have been known to be on there a little bit.

01:13:18.000 So just look us up, marktilbury.com as well.

01:13:21.000 We're also just launching the 2K Challenge, which is a very big deal for us.

01:13:26.000 Where we're going to be offering mentoring sessions with individuals.

01:13:30.000 Also, a meal for 50 winners.

01:13:33.000 So, not just one winner, 50 winners.

01:13:36.000 They're all going to be invited to one night out with us.

01:13:38.000 And also, there's two lucky tickets to go to Dubai as well.

01:13:42.000 Nice! 0.94

01:13:43.000 Get on the 2K Challenge.

01:13:44.000 It's all in the Discord.

01:13:46.000 Get on board.

01:13:46.000 And hopefully, you can strike it big.

01:13:48.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:13:51.000 Guys, here's Mark Tilbury.

01:13:53.000 Please check him out, guys.

01:13:55.000 Verified, I've watched his stuff.

01:13:56.000 I learned index funds from him, so check him out, guys.

01:14:00.000 We'll catch you guys back here for Fresher Fit After Hours with some lovely ladies. 1.00

01:14:05.000 Love y'all.

01:14:05.000 Be back in a bit.

01:14:06.000 Chris, call it what time?

01:14:07.000 10.30.

01:14:08.000 10.30, ninjas.

01:14:09.000 We'll see you here in about 50 minutes.

01:14:11.000 Peace.

01:14:20.000 We're good to go.

Fresh & Fit - November 27, 2023

How To Turn Passion Into A Business & Invest To Create Wealth!

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