0:00

Welcome to the Eventful Lives Podcast. I'm

0:02

your host, Dodge, and I'm the founder of

0:04

Bournemouth Sevens, the world's largest sport and music

0:06

festival. On this podcast I speak to proper

0:09

characters of all lived Eventful Lives. Do us

0:11

a favour and hit that follow button and

0:13

be sure to check us out on YouTube,

0:15

Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at DodgeWoody. We've now

0:17

had over 100 million views. How

0:21

are you, Dodge? Very good, gents. Good to see you.

0:23

Good to see you too, mate. Good to see you

0:26

too. Dodge is the host of the Eventful Lives Podcast

0:28

and I mean that's where we start, right? Where did

0:30

Eventful Lives come from? Eventful

0:32

Lives Podcast. Wow, okay. It

0:35

started three years ago and it

0:37

was actually called Eventful Entrepreneur Podcast.

0:41

And we started in lockdown when Boris spoke

0:43

on March 23rd, 2020. I

0:49

had to postpone our festival. We got

0:51

born the Sevens Festival, 30,000 people. We had

0:53

to postpone it to the August. And

0:55

I was like, right, I need to think of to do something here.

0:57

So started the podcast. Didn't know what podcasts

0:59

were. Didn't have a clue. Someone

1:01

said, why didn't you tell your story? And I was

1:03

like, no, I'm all right. I might tell my story.

1:05

I've sort of always been behind the

1:08

business. Anyway, told the

1:10

story. People loved that on the podcast. And then I've

1:12

just had lots of friends and friends of friends come

1:14

on the podcast over the last three

1:16

years. So that's where it's kind of gone

1:19

from. The first two

1:21

years of Eventful

1:23

Entrepreneur was purely audio. So we

1:25

had Spotify and Apple. We

1:28

did no video with it whatsoever. We

1:30

then changed the name after

1:32

two years, January this year when

1:35

Josh came on board, our producer. And

1:39

then we've gone full on visual

1:41

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram,

1:45

all the stuff that the clever people

1:47

behind me are cutting up and doing. So yeah,

1:49

that's the kind of the journey over the last

1:51

three years. Who do you have to thank

1:53

for that? Who was it that said that you need to tell

1:55

your story? Good

1:59

question. their kind. The

2:03

staff really, the

2:05

staff of the Bournemouth Sevens because they know that when

2:08

you lose a festival, you know,

2:10

I didn't realise at the time, you lose a million quid, you

2:13

know, you sold 30,000 tickets for people to come to

2:15

your festival and then have to move your festival and

2:17

then Boris to tell you in August that there's no

2:19

festival happening, you have to cancel your festival and you

2:21

have to move for the following year, then postpone it

2:23

again from May to the following August. There's a lot

2:25

of pressure on. I loved it.

2:29

I loved that pressure to be fair. I know it's a bit

2:31

weird, but I did like that pressure. It

2:33

made me come alive. It made

2:36

me be the entrepreneur. I've been an entrepreneur my

2:38

life, never had a job, building

2:40

brands, building businesses and then that period then

2:42

when 2020 came about, it

2:44

really excited me because I know

2:46

what happened in 2008 with the recession then,

2:48

the financial crisis and that's when I launched

2:50

the festival and now 16 years

2:52

on, back in 2020,

2:54

within 13, 14 years on, it

2:56

allowed me to go right and start creating again. So we

2:58

create a couple of businesses. But

3:01

going back to your question, I think it was Big

3:04

Dan in the office and a few others in the office

3:06

that bought my seven things. You've got to tell your story

3:08

to us. People want to know. People want to know what

3:10

you've done in the events world and festival world and party world

3:12

and how you've created brands from nothing. And

3:15

I told it and people really liked it. So

3:17

we kind of gave us that momentum to go,

3:19

why don't we start interviewing people and 180 odd

3:22

episodes later, I

3:25

think I've told about seven or eight of

3:27

stories within that from the different businesses that

3:29

we've created in some of the crazy stories

3:31

I've got up to and it's

3:33

really sort of that whole pandemic

3:35

which I really enjoyed not for everything that was

3:37

going on but what I enjoyed about the pandemic

3:39

was it allowed me to start creating

3:42

it and also allowed me to stop. It

3:44

made me stop for the first time in my

3:46

life. Stop and look back

3:48

and reflect where you've come and what you've achieved

3:52

because as a personality like

3:54

myself, you're conscious. What's the next thing? Where we

3:56

going? What we doing? How improving? Look

3:59

after your team. Build brand new. brands, build this, what's

4:01

going on with social media, you're constant. I

4:03

don't switch off. So it was a

4:05

lovely time to stop and reflect and

4:07

thank lots of people who have been on the journey

4:10

with me and helped me on the journey to throw

4:12

in 1,500 club nights across the UK

4:18

in 40 different venues over a 10-year period.

4:22

And we had 12 nightclubs every week in different

4:24

cities for that 10-year period or student nights. We

4:27

were the pioneers of student nights and

4:29

then moved into the festival

4:31

world. And within that, we created a sportswear

4:34

brand as well which we built and sold. Yeah,

4:36

so we've done a lot and it was the

4:38

first time that you could stop and look back

4:40

and go, people might want to

4:43

hear these stories. So we've told all these stories and

4:45

people have really liked them. So

4:47

that's really the journey wrapped

4:49

up really. Going back

4:51

to when you said the members of the

4:53

team said, you should start a podcast. Did

4:56

you say you weren't listening to a podcast at all and didn't really

4:58

know what they were? No, no, I

5:00

didn't. I listened to one thing called a

5:02

fellow called Stephen Bartlett who

5:04

I listened to like half an hour of him.

5:07

Someone said, listen to this thing. He was half an hour,

5:09

he was turning pages over and he was just speaking his

5:11

mind. And I was like, I

5:14

quite like this. This fellow, I don't have

5:16

a clue who he was, young lad, speaking his

5:18

mind, working on a Sunday

5:20

night, he said he was in his room and talking

5:22

about what happened in the week before and what's going

5:24

on. And that's gone on to become

5:27

a huge podcast called the Diary of a CEO.

5:31

That kind of one I heard that I was like, I

5:33

can tell that. So that's the only

5:35

snippet. I made 20 minutes, half an hour. It's the

5:37

only snippet I knew. But I didn't understand what podcasts were.

5:41

In the UK, the podcasts really have come

5:43

alive in the last year really, I think.

5:46

We're lucky we've jumped on it earlier than most. And

5:49

this last year, I've really seen podcasts really

5:52

boom and it's allowed the

5:54

normal bod who doesn't know

5:56

about podcasts this last year, people are going,

5:59

are you listening podcast, use the podcast, how am I going

6:01

to use the podcast? So this medium

6:03

of podcasting I believe is

6:06

going to be massive and is growing in a

6:08

very fast rate as well. I'm glad

6:10

we got in their early doors. Do

6:13

you think that it was actually

6:15

helpful that you hadn't listened to podcasts? Because we

6:18

see a lot of people looking to start podcasts, so I'll say, I want to

6:20

be like them, I want to be like them, I'm going to copy this, I

6:22

want to copy that. Do you think

6:24

the fact that you didn't have all of

6:26

these different podcasters that you knew about and

6:28

listened to just helped you be authentic and

6:30

just tell you a story without the pressures

6:33

or the idea of let me copy this person?

6:35

Yeah, 100%. I've never copied anyone

6:37

and whatever we've done, we've always been pioneers,

6:39

sitting up businesses wherever. I think it's powerful.

6:41

I think naivety in businesses is a gift

6:43

that is overlooked. And if you're

6:46

naive in business, I think it's such a

6:48

beautiful, beautiful gift. Because

6:51

you're not comparing yourself, you know, they've talked about these

6:53

days, comparing is the thief

6:55

of joy. And listen, if

6:57

I knew what I knew now, there

6:59

might be and you are listening to podcasts, you might

7:01

like some styles that people are talking about, you might

7:03

like the style of that host. You

7:05

might like, despite I had no style, I had no, it was just

7:08

me, well, look, let's go, let's chat,

7:10

you know, and you do improve over time. Because

7:13

you come better at it. You

7:15

learn, you learn to listen. You

7:18

know, a lot of podcast hosts are

7:21

a bit hard to listen. And I

7:23

think that's a gift as well. Because

7:26

sometimes with as a host, if you're

7:28

speaking too much, the listener doesn't

7:31

want to listen to you speak, they want to

7:33

listen to your guest, you just

7:35

guide it. But

7:38

yeah, I'm really glad I didn't have a clue

7:40

what I was doing. Like most businesses, like most

7:42

days, just work it all out as you go

7:44

along. Again, that's another gift.

7:46

But there's too much pressure on people these days

7:48

wanting to work it out and be perfect. So

7:51

start if you got an idea, just

7:53

frickin start like go for it. Start

7:56

start talking, build your confidence of

7:58

chatting to people and going the to

8:00

ask them questions and be curious. The

8:03

more curious you are, the better forecast

8:05

hosts you'll be. And in my opinion, would

8:07

you say you're a perfectionist? I sweat

8:10

over the small stuff and attention

8:13

to detail is really important to me. I

8:16

said, really good question. Have

8:19

you asked that before? I'm not perfectionist.

8:23

I like things to be presented in

8:25

the right way. If

8:28

they're presented in the right way, if you're promoting

8:31

on LinkedIn, if you're promoting

8:34

on Instagram, if you're promoting on Facebook, I like them

8:36

to be presented in the right way. But

8:38

I will speak from the heart and I'll speak from the gut straight

8:41

away if I'm right and saying, that sounds

8:44

good. Yeah, bang, I'm out if I'm talking

8:46

about that. But

8:49

perfectionism can really kill people.

8:53

So in one way, I guess I am

8:55

a bit of a perfectionist. In another way, I'm not because

8:57

I have to get up and start and try and do

8:59

it and whatever see what happens. But

9:02

I think a lot of people get the imposter

9:06

syndrome where they get scared to go

9:09

and start because they say they're

9:11

a perfectionist or actually they're just

9:13

scared to get

9:15

me where I'm coming from. So my advice on

9:17

an outlet, if you are saying that you're

9:19

perfectionist, you don't want to start, just start. No one

9:22

really gives a shit, just start. Because

9:24

once you start, you get the ball rolling, then people

9:26

will start enjoying you as

9:29

a host or as a talker or

9:31

whatever. We need to clip that. So

9:33

this is a new thing

9:35

I've started asking because we run

9:37

training events and stuff and we'll teach people to

9:39

do what we've done. But the

9:42

amount of people that have got this excuse, that

9:45

excuse, it's like, oh, well, the artwork isn't perfect.

9:47

Like, can you just move this logo six pixels

9:49

this way or what? And all

9:51

these minute details, it's like, please, just fucking

9:53

stop. Just crack on. Yeah. You

9:56

can get to a level. You just if you're starting, just get to a

9:58

level. You will see what. people are

10:00

doing. If you can get, like I was saying

10:02

business, no one's created business. Everyone just got ideas

10:04

and robbing ideas from everyone else. That's business. That's

10:07

life. If you accept that, so if

10:10

you get ideas of people and build up your bigger picture

10:12

and just start. Like

10:14

you're saying, moving pixels on that, come on. You

10:17

know? So I said the other day,

10:19

there's got to be loads of people out there who spend

10:21

10 years trying to find a way to get rich quick.

10:23

All these little ideas and trying to get through up with

10:25

the perfect plan. If you've just done

10:27

something and failed in fashion, failed in

10:29

fashion, maybe the fourth year, break

10:31

even. Fifth year successful. I don't know the word

10:34

to fail. No, no,

10:36

I don't. I personally don't. I know there's not

10:38

everywhere at the moment. You must fail to succeed.

10:40

You must fail. I'm not sure you have to

10:42

fail to succeed. The

10:45

way I guess I put a

10:47

cross is that I'm constantly tweaking. It's not failing,

10:49

it's tweaking. Tweak, tweak, tweak. That

10:51

didn't work. Tweak that. Let's go again. Go

10:53

off that. And if

10:56

you look at people online,

10:59

they go, oh, the perfect business goes

11:01

smooth like that. That's a load of

11:03

bollocks. Like literally, as an entrepreneur, you

11:05

are working out every minute of every

11:07

day until you do a thousand days.

11:09

And when you do a thousand days, you break the back

11:11

of that business because you've worked it all out. And as

11:13

an entrepreneur, you live and breathe it. There's no weekends, there's

11:15

no nights. Like people, I make

11:17

phone calls on a Saturday 4 o'clock in the afternoon

11:19

to people, the lawyers, they're like, oh, time is just

11:22

another day for me. Because if

11:24

you enjoy what you do, it's just another day. It's not like,

11:26

oh, I'm really looking forward to a Friday and I can't wait

11:29

to get smashed on Friday night because I'm not enjoying my work.

11:31

It's just another day.

11:33

It's one of the funniest things, isn't it? It's like,

11:35

I want to leave my corporate job so I can

11:38

be my own boss and set my own hours. Like,

11:40

yeah, you don't have a Christmas, you don't have weekends,

11:42

you don't have fine holidays. And your new boss is

11:44

the biggest arsehole in the world. It's you. Because

11:47

you're never going to give yourself a break. Because you're

11:49

constantly pushing boundaries. You constantly

11:51

want to improve, improve, tweak, tweak, tweak, tweak,

11:53

tweak. And those little tweaks, going back to

11:56

your word of perfectionism, like

11:58

one little tweak of perfectionism. something

12:00

that may not be a big thing to

12:02

someone else could be big to you could

12:04

major huge difference to your business. Huge

12:09

What small tweaks have you made? Wording The

12:12

title Yeah, you know

12:14

both myself if you were talking about if we're

12:17

talking about podcast here not other businesses then

12:19

from eventful entrepreneur podcast great

12:24

but actually going to eventful lives has opened

12:26

me up to everyone you

12:28

know so I know that I can get a guest on now

12:30

who's lived in eventful life they feel

12:32

comfortable coming on because it's eventful lives

12:35

if it was eventful entrepreneur and

12:37

that person's living a really eventful life

12:40

they might get a bit scared off going well

12:42

I'm not an entrepreneur you know it's kind of kind

12:44

of that so it's open up a it's

12:47

open up a huge array of opportunities

12:49

for us. Also no one can spell entrepreneur

12:51

No one can spell entrepreneur it's funny to

12:53

say that if you're going back to it

12:55

that's really good good really good point Kane

12:57

when we first started again didn't know what

12:59

we're doing we bought eventful entrepreneur

13:02

podcast we bought eventful entrepreneur.com thinking

13:04

apparently you're meant to put it

13:06

through a.com and we can

13:08

put all our all our episodes up

13:12

and people can't spell it. Honestly

13:15

That's very true I'm just worried about five

13:17

times a day and each time I'm like

13:19

you've done a reg is it R E

13:21

N E U R yeah agree agree so

13:23

yeah it's yeah.

13:26

Was there any element of you that felt like you

13:28

had to and right to be a bit more

13:30

bored so you went from eventual entrepreneur to

13:33

eventful lives was it a case of starting nation boarding

13:35

out or was it just you didn't want

13:37

to put people off? Well I didn't know what podcasts were

13:39

so I didn't know what it was going to do to

13:41

what it's done like one podcasting has done to me for

13:43

the last thousand days has been crazy but

13:45

when I was doing it eventful entrepreneur I didn't know what

13:47

we were doing we were just going to put it on

13:50

audio see what happens and people started to listen it takes

13:52

time for people to listen you can't go

13:54

and do a podcast and expect Five

13:56

thousand people tomorrow to listen to a podcast.

14:00

The even pick. Three years ago. You.

14:02

Know you got and and one thing that I

14:04

did do the made a mess of planting look

14:06

any stats. The. Two years

14:08

until we went on. She could shoot. I

14:11

didn't care, I. Just knew

14:13

that I was can see back from people

14:15

have a lot you focus on reliable cause

14:17

by people can't when you're doing an audio

14:19

podcast why learn was people can't really leave

14:21

comments. He thought, leave a

14:23

comment on Apple and spotify, You can

14:25

leave a review on Apple. But.

14:28

For someone to leave a review that really go

14:30

unlike your content. The summers go out that

14:32

way and leave a proper review and that of the

14:34

dev an old stuff that goes with it. And.

14:36

Spot for you com. As anyone

14:38

becomes a huge you. That. You're like.

14:41

I'm applaud People Absolutely loving this

14:43

podcast because people couldn't leave hundreds

14:45

of comments under these every single

14:48

episode. Then. Gives you know

14:50

spring you steps ago Michael burnt some incapable

14:52

of enjoying. The. Genres would do in

14:54

people enjoying. The guess people enjoy

14:56

in that Netflix trailer movies sixty second trial

14:59

movies we do before we pull costs. People

15:01

rushing join us. a host, Were.

15:03

Actually you think is all about the guess which?

15:06

he isn't you It and speaker does. It's. Best.

15:09

You can host in a certain way. People

15:11

will actually respect you for hosting the certain

15:13

way. And. Then of a sudden people

15:15

whine comments about the hosts was they enjoy. So.

15:18

It some. It's. Been a vested interest

15:20

in. Interest in three years

15:23

really as. And is probably

15:25

the most. Put. The best decision

15:27

of ever made in my. Business.

15:29

Life. As a big

15:31

statement, Via was up. Because.

15:35

His oath and so many doors. Bible.

15:38

A risk. Lots. Of

15:41

at seventy doors open because you're

15:43

pocus host one. Adding

15:45

go out there for any souls.

15:48

Status. President of a

15:50

club you just in a poker poker since

15:52

though after hey in thousand days and be

15:54

get to a point where you are just.

15:57

People. Again to watch. A lot like you might have.

15:59

A. million views on YouTube. We've

16:02

had in the past year since we've been on there,

16:04

we've had like 17 and a half million views of

16:06

long form content. It's

16:08

real. The

16:11

opportunities have arisen. People

16:13

want to do business with you. People want to open

16:15

up and ask you questions. People want

16:17

to present to you certain stuff because

16:19

they know you're not just a podcast. They know you're

16:22

a businessman behind the podcast as well. So

16:25

it's been

16:27

truly amazing. I guess one of the things

16:30

that opened up was I got invited onto

16:32

a YouTube channel called

16:35

... What are

16:37

those letters called? Sidemen. Sidemen,

16:39

that's it. For you, 100J. Yeah.

16:42

Yeah. So I got invited onto this thing called Sidemen. So

16:45

they got in contact and were like, oh, we, Dutch

16:47

would like you to be one of

16:49

the dragons then on

16:51

our channel Sidemen. And I ignored

16:54

it. Like

16:56

thinking, I think I put it past one of the,

16:58

someone on the Sidemen going contact and I got busy

17:00

doing something else. And then they

17:03

followed up again, Dodge, it's tomorrow.

17:05

We really want you to be one

17:08

of the dragons then, acting

17:10

dragons then to come on there and one on our

17:12

show. So I put it out onto the

17:14

WhatsApp group to the team here at Bournemouth Sevens. I

17:16

went, guys, they were like, are you

17:18

joking? Go. There's like hundreds of millions

17:20

of views and everything they do. I was

17:22

like, oh my God, yeah. Oh yeah. So

17:25

I was in. So yeah. So

17:27

went up there and did a Sidemen show

17:29

with them all afternoon, which was quite

17:31

an experience. I've got to say. What was

17:33

it like? So I know they're very, they set it

17:35

up to be serious and then kind of have the foolish eye to it.

17:38

I didn't have a clue. I was letting myself in for

17:40

if I was on there. I turned up there. They obviously

17:42

paid for you to go up there and they did all

17:44

the bits and you're waiting outside and you go into a

17:46

room and there's loads of cameras and

17:48

the woman before you go to the room says, do

17:51

you know what Sidemen is? I said, no, not really. If

17:53

I'm honest, but my stuffs to just go and do it.

17:55

My team down the boards are just going to do it.

17:57

So I mean, if you ask me questions, I'll Tell

17:59

you my thoughts. the desert. And. It

18:01

was so surreal. Sodomy Laws if is like a

18:04

comedy stated that live there Serious by this achieved.

18:06

A. Comedy skits behind it. Kind.

18:08

of his other way to explain the yeah i've as

18:10

actor I think are seen him do as a journalist

18:13

and staffing before be as I've got pissed I guess

18:15

I'm scared was a baby's like a piss it was

18:17

episode they present in the side men take them. Main

18:19

characters were present in. And

18:22

one of those really threw me. As useless as your

18:24

system alone or on your life. Yeah. Well.

18:26

We think and selling drugs are now I this

18:29

festival and I was fully from back for like.

18:31

Mccain. Stay stuck. There was a sudden on thing

18:34

you know booth with is so drugs or the

18:36

cessna we bought. Hundred pills for that

18:38

price him so that was but they will. They

18:40

were legal way your case arrested. I was like.

18:43

Oh. My god I'm I actually games they sell for

18:45

said among say on Gainful L and so we

18:47

went along with it. Was really funny that was

18:49

what the first I did. they preach the dragon

18:52

second idea was. Taking. Load the

18:54

kids. Under ten years old, taken them

18:56

on a plane away from the person from in

18:58

Cambodia and after work for free quit an hour

19:00

as. It was all just reads

19:02

and reads. funny stuff I guess they that's

19:05

why I guess some reviews and sports only

19:07

subscribers say probably the biggest issue town entire

19:09

buy and sell his of and Europe was

19:11

that and probably yeah let me know Rubber

19:14

sill are messy they were when of right

19:16

last. But. He didn't come out for like.

19:19

A month. And brother I'm was

19:21

laying there have been like and of haven't been

19:23

staged. A half hour because I went

19:25

along with it. But the the drug thing that Abbey

19:28

Road admission into every song for that michigan give that

19:30

that that f on now. It is

19:32

it of my hims other to it was

19:34

all just go away and seventy oh yes

19:36

oh yeah that was it that was them.

19:39

That was an amazing opportunity that came about

19:41

because the podcast. And. A real

19:43

nice lads. was the production or com

19:45

a massive yeah their production and yeah.

19:48

Yeah. Lhasa cameras.the Tv crews most

19:50

like of bodyguards might as a

19:52

turnip they have. Bodyguards. Of

19:55

them are these? let them less often.

19:57

Not your age yeah balladur belda mid

19:59

twenties the only time. I put a

20:01

lot. Let. Remedies? whatever both I'll as

20:03

is why in the when we get mugged

20:05

everywhere we go on what each okay may

20:07

and but none of get most. Sunny.

20:10

Weather A Cutlass. I follow me on Instagram and

20:12

are full of them, but there's like. I

20:14

got like copious amounts of millions individually

20:16

in our as well. How member last?

20:18

Seven million? Eight million? Non? And. Up

20:20

then I saw didn't the homeowner come home

20:23

on the Muslim. right? There the

20:25

real dick to their armor. Miss this?

20:27

Yeah I was immediately lawyer David: Yes

20:29

Oh that's a good experience. And

20:31

then when it came out it was funny because own, oh

20:33

my. Mates was f I'm It's like

20:36

to point them or submit because their kids have

20:38

seen me on the show. Their kids the same

20:40

in the solar. Cells. A

20:42

good experience I guess another Big

20:45

Spears the time about let's was.

20:48

After. Episode Eight: Of

20:51

mile of our first event

20:53

for entrepreneur. Pecans, The

20:55

Golf phone call on a Sunday night from.

20:57

The. Producer of I'm a Celebrity,

21:00

Get Me Out here. Are.

21:02

And dollars A does that Dodgers I yeah as

21:05

they say when that as as the on the

21:07

the the bad is it to produce of on

21:09

slippery get mail via. An. Orion for

21:11

as my best my quests online. Cause.

21:13

He that you may to in pay

21:16

a lot of was that it wasn't

21:18

Anyway, If they can become see tomorrow.

21:20

Sounds like. Yeah down here in

21:22

bomb of more them oakland pub come down explain

21:24

a bit more of a came down here and

21:26

said. Will. Have his style. Either.

21:29

I got to eight weeks. Would you like to co

21:31

host a new show? As. I am

21:33

what? So we talking you and is the

21:36

Harry Redknapp show crossed with Harry. Have

21:38

to have. Yes! Mate World was

21:40

signed. Off on on

21:42

how they were. say a massive was them

21:44

fantasy and harrys a legend please had been

21:47

and legend across football in the whole Uk.

21:49

Where. The team support he knows a them

21:51

absolute gem of a bloke. A

21:53

way so signed. I signed a contract.

21:56

Series. One. first

21:58

person out me, Harry, Rod

22:01

Stewart. That's alright.

22:04

Second one I think it was me, Harry, Piers

22:07

Morgan. Next one

22:09

was Jamie Redknapp, Frank

22:12

Nampard, Romesh Ranganathan.

22:16

The list just went on and on and on, you

22:18

know, and Harry didn't have a clue what he's doing.

22:21

I was only eight episodes in, but we made it

22:23

work, you know. Winged. I

22:25

massively winged it, but that's my point of going back

22:27

to this perfectionism thing. If someone gives you an opportunity,

22:29

just say yes. Work

22:32

it all out when you're there. So yeah, that

22:34

was another big opportunity that

22:36

landed on the plate. But

22:40

there's been loads. Because

22:42

at the same time we launched

22:44

the Eventful Entrepreneur podcast in

22:46

2020, that was the same

22:50

time everyone was saying get yourself and become

22:52

public on Instagram and

22:54

get yourself public on Facebook and get yourself public.

22:56

I was like no way. What?

22:58

No. No, not for me.

23:00

Anyway, we did it. And

23:04

I was told, oh, you've got to create a – back

23:06

then it's very different now, but back then my

23:08

team in the office were like, yeah, but you've got to tell

23:11

your story and we want like quotes and

23:13

you standing there thinking and saying this is

23:15

what – I was like this feels really,

23:17

really uncomfortable. I'm not enjoying this. But

23:20

they were right. They were right and you

23:22

have to – the

23:24

personal brand thing three years ago, everyone was raving

23:27

about it. Everyone was talking about it

23:29

and you've got to do a personal brand. Whoever

23:31

I was talking about is right because

23:34

as soon as you do a personal brand and

23:36

you become the person in

23:38

front of your company and the spearhead,

23:41

the figurehead of your company, things

23:44

change overnight. They literally

23:46

do. I would have argued to the days – I

23:49

would have argued for hours about nine,

23:51

nine, nine, I don't want to –

23:53

actually anyone listening out there, put

23:55

your name to the front of the company. I

23:57

guarantee you your business will go like that.

24:00

Has Bournemouth Sevens grown and your other business has

24:02

grown since you've been more public? Yeah. Does

24:04

it become easier to promote those sort of events?

24:07

Yeah. It gives you two channels, doesn't it? So

24:09

Bournemouth Sevens Festival, Instagram,

24:11

like 55, 60,000, TikTok, Facebook. People

24:17

want to know who's the person behind the

24:19

festival? Who's the person we're giving

24:22

our money to? Who's the person who we

24:24

can get in contact with if there's

24:26

a problem? Who's the person we

24:28

can thank? People want

24:31

faces behind brands. You've

24:33

only got to look at the massive brands out there and

24:35

the actual entrepreneur behind it is a

24:37

lot bigger than the actual brand numbers, whether

24:40

it's Richard or whether it's Stephen

24:42

or whether it's

24:44

Elon. There is all those, all

24:46

the everyone who's done that as

24:48

they've got bigger and stronger

24:51

personal brands than they have for their company

24:53

because people want a face behind it. It's

24:55

real. Yeah. Now anything Elon

24:57

touches becomes the billion dollar company. Yeah. Just

24:59

because he's involved. Yeah. It's massive

25:01

with podcasting too. So many people come to us with the

25:03

idea of like, I want to do this podcast by my

25:05

company. It's going to be the same name as the company

25:07

name, not known people, by people. You've

25:10

got to get your personal message across. It's way more

25:12

authentic. No one wants to hear from the company. They

25:14

want to hear from you. By all means, upsell what

25:16

your company offers. Yeah. If our podcast was called the

25:18

progressive media podcast, I don't think it would be good.

25:20

Listen, no one would have clicked. I'm not saying for

25:22

you guys, but I'm saying if you had it as

25:24

that, people are interested in clicking on it. No. You

25:26

know, gone are the days when the.com boom where people

25:28

would do a podcast and there'd be a picture of

25:31

a Mercedes on the front of it and there'd be a

25:33

fake office in the background and people having cups of tea

25:35

and a smile. That was 10, 15

25:38

years ago. It's the same with the whole personal

25:40

branding thing and the same with the other

25:42

podcasting. You know, you've got to relate to

25:45

your target audience. And I

25:48

was really fortunate that

25:51

I guess I've got a

25:53

lot of contacts. So it's opened

25:55

me up to be interview

25:58

SAS people. or criminal

26:01

underworld or entrepreneurs

26:03

or sporting celebrities or

26:05

comedians or whatever. So

26:08

it's been a godsend that has because

26:10

it's just one phone call away of saying guys

26:12

tried to come in on, you

26:14

know, and that's been a bit of a

26:16

blessing. Is that what kind of helped your podcast take

26:19

off in the first place, do you think, as your

26:21

contacts or guests? Because a lot of people need to

26:23

script to find guests, get rejected a million times. But if

26:25

you already know those people when you're starting, did you feel

26:27

like that gave you a good advantage? Looking back now, 100%,

26:29

I think, there

26:33

was someone, we went in and had a meeting with

26:35

someone, they said they were in podcasting in

26:37

2020. They'd been in podcasting for maybe

26:39

three, four years before and they were like, ah, the

26:41

biggest ball-laker podcasting is getting guests. The

26:44

easiest thing for me personally is getting

26:47

guests. Like I haven't sent one

26:49

email, I don't do email. It's all on WhatsApp.

26:52

It's all open the door, here's a WhatsApp,

26:54

here's the studio, bam, let's go. And

26:57

that's been an absolute godsend. And to do

26:59

180 episodes with

27:03

amazing guests on, like

27:05

truly amazing stories. And I haven't gone down,

27:08

listen, I've interviewed many celebrities and stuff, but

27:10

I haven't gone down the celebrity route. I

27:13

don't want to be, you know, a celebrity story

27:15

has been told many times. A celebrity story is

27:17

people just go, oh, this is another celebrity story.

27:19

Great and good luck. And that may come round

27:21

again and we may end up doing that, but

27:23

we've gone in for real people with

27:26

real stories who have lived

27:28

eventful lives. You know, you've

27:31

only got to go through our

27:34

list on Apple and Spotify and read all the

27:36

titles. If you're listening out there, just go and

27:38

have a read those titles and there'll

27:40

be so many you'd want to click on. And

27:42

it's a lot harder to grow in that way as well, which is where

27:44

credit goes to you as a host. Because

27:47

when you've got a big name, you can leverage that name. They might

27:49

share it. There's thousands of followers you're getting in front of. And it's

27:51

not someone anyone's heard of. You're relying on good

27:53

SEO with your titles, your show notes, and

27:55

then also just really good content. So

27:58

it's a credit to be able to grow in that way. you have

28:00

without going to celebrities. Yeah, thank you.

28:02

I appreciate that. And it's

28:05

important that we

28:07

went down this route because I've quite easily could

28:09

have got a

28:12

lot higher number of celebs on our podcast

28:14

but we made a point of saying no. Because

28:17

there's a number of people out there doing that and

28:19

the number of people out there losing lots of

28:21

money by doing that because they're having to pay.

28:25

And there's also a massive

28:27

player doing it out there who's taking that

28:29

market. You know, that's Steven

28:31

and he's got a wonderful podcast. He's growing

28:33

massively but he's got huge budgets that

28:35

he's spending 60 grand a month

28:39

advertising on Facebook, on Instagram.

28:41

We haven't spent a penny. We

28:43

have not spent a penny. We've not

28:45

spent a penny on paid

28:48

promo. It's all word

28:51

of mouth. You

28:53

know, so that's, I also know

28:55

in business, you know, I've been in business 25, 30

28:57

years. Also,

28:59

no businesses take a thousand days and

29:01

I was prepared to invest into this company

29:03

for a thousand days. But

29:07

the big turning point really was when we went on

29:09

to YouTube. That was

29:11

a huge turning point because people

29:14

are visually watching stories and clips and

29:19

shorts which we've now all found

29:21

out that they're massive in the past sort of

29:23

12 months. You know, with

29:25

Reels fighting against Facebook, sorry, Reels

29:28

fighting against TikTok and shorts winning

29:30

a piece of the action on YouTube.

29:33

But the long form content for

29:35

us has been really powerful to have

29:38

someone sit down and watch you or

29:40

one episode for an hour and a half or

29:43

watch once

29:45

a week or twice a week watching for

29:48

long form content is really powerful. Short

29:50

form content when people are flicking when they go for a

29:52

dog walk or they're having a

29:55

bite to eat or having a coffee, people don't

29:57

take that on board. Long

29:59

form. content, they can take you as a host on board and they

30:01

can take the guest on the board and they can see the mannerisms

30:03

as well. Get to know you.

30:06

But they get to know the host. I

30:09

don't speak too much in the podcast.

30:13

But when I've got something to say,

30:15

it's important that I say that when I

30:17

speak, people seem to listen but it's

30:19

not about me, it's about the host. So

30:21

it's not about me, it's about the guest. And

30:24

anyone listening out there, if you can make it about the

30:26

guest, I think people will really want you. There's

30:29

a time and a place as a host you can

30:31

talk whether you do your own

30:33

behind the scenes thing where you're talking and people

30:35

are asking you questions or you go

30:37

on other people's podcasts. I haven't

30:40

even gone on people's podcasts. I've

30:43

done a few

30:45

in lockdown. I haven't really

30:47

put myself out there. But there

30:49

will be a time when I will put myself out there. But

30:52

the longer I believe, the longer myself and

30:54

Josh are a producer and

30:57

a message set after Josh by the way because he's unbelievable.

31:00

He lived and breathed this for 12 months,

31:03

coming up to 12 months now. And to

31:05

have someone so dedicated like myself

31:07

and him as a combo and

31:10

keep an old team tight, people

31:12

think we've probably got 10, 15 people. The amount of content

31:14

we put out there, 10, 15 people working, this is not,

31:16

it's just two of us. And

31:20

we've got a new lad, Dylan, who's just come on board

31:22

to cut up more videos and stuff. But

31:25

yeah, there's a time and a place as a host to

31:27

speak. Well there's a perfect example

31:29

of that. And I think the

31:32

reason people quite like you as a host

31:34

is you will challenge people. There's

31:36

the viral clip that I have to ask you

31:39

about with Rob about paying guests

31:41

actually. So it's kind of on topic. That

31:44

was a bit tense. I

31:47

wasn't tense at all. I think... I

31:49

don't know. Three edits in then. No, no, there

31:51

wasn't there. Oh I see, it might be tense for you.

31:54

It wasn't tense for me. It

31:56

was tense for Rob. Yeah. I've talked

31:58

the whole point, right? Yeah. again because

32:00

I freestyle everything, I don't have any notes. Maybe

32:03

I said we're good points as well because there's

32:06

no, I'm not sitting there with

32:08

pre-empty questions in my head. When

32:10

Rob come down, I knew he was

32:12

a podcast host, I know he doesn't have a property and that's all

32:14

I need to know. The

32:17

rest was going in and we're having a conversation and as

32:19

soon as I pressed him on the whole in-pane

32:22

guessing stuff, he didn't like it. But I pressed

32:24

him a bit harder. It was a bit funnier.

32:26

It's the importance of active listening. You said it

32:28

earlier. Yeah. And I've done this

32:30

when I first started podcasting is to be thinking

32:32

about your next question. But if you can get

32:35

there and just forget about the questions and that should be a part of the

32:37

conversation. Just have a combo. Like I said,

32:39

people come on my podcast. Two

32:41

fellows in the pub, haven't caught up for 20, 30

32:43

years until they take you on your journey. I

32:46

don't know where it's going. I don't know much about you apart

32:48

from I know that

32:50

you have done something as your main

32:52

thing but I don't know anything else about you.

32:54

I'm not sitting there all night writing scribbling notes

32:56

and coming in thinking half-cloth about ask this question

32:58

for number seven and number eight and I've got

33:00

a laptop in front of me and I've got

33:02

any paper. None of that. It's

33:04

quite a ballsy way of doing it because you don't know

33:06

where it's going to go. But

33:09

it seems to work because I haven't had just

33:12

two fellows or myself and a girl

33:14

just having a brilliant conversation. And if

33:17

it goes down a route where they might get a

33:19

bit of like Rob did. Press

33:21

harder. Yeah. Press

33:23

harder. Yeah. Push him older.

33:25

When we had him on our show, he then

33:28

actually spoke about it quite openly. Did he? Yeah.

33:31

Did he put it out? Yeah, it's out. Is

33:33

it? Yeah, yeah. So he

33:35

mentioned Bartlett as well. That's one of

33:38

my most viewed clips from pretty well.

33:40

Yeah. What do you

33:42

say about Stephen Bartlett? It put in one

33:44

blast about paying for guests

33:46

but lying about it. Right. And

33:48

then Rob said, yeah, with certain people, he's paid for it. Yeah.

33:51

But he made the point of this a business decision. So

33:53

for like a hearing to be

33:55

in take, he made a lot of money for us. It was worth it

33:57

to buy. It was worth it. in

34:00

his class, I'm not sure you don't know, but then

34:02

he talks about the commercial element of it and he

34:04

said, that's fine, it's fine to pay guests and it's

34:06

fine that Stephen will pay way more than he will,

34:08

but it's then the idea of lying about it, which

34:10

is what annoys him. Well,

34:13

how Stephen lied about it, surely he would

34:15

have said, oh, I've paid for guests. Why?

34:18

Not that he was silly. And he wasn't.

34:21

But we only found out when Rob

34:23

had agreed to people to

34:26

come on the show and they go, yeah, yeah, no

34:28

worries. And then a few weeks later they go, oh

34:30

Bartlett's paying me X, now you pay me otherwise I'm

34:32

not coming on. Right. And when that

34:34

happens, you know, half a dozen times. Yeah,

34:36

okay. But that's the problem. I think

34:38

that's the bit of podcasting that

34:42

is a dangerous game to play, a really dangerous game

34:44

to play. And that's why we stayed away from it.

34:47

You know, Rob was like, oh, you, what'd he say to me?

34:49

Conor McGregor wasn't he? He said, Conor McGregor, if he turned up tomorrow,

34:51

you'd pay him 20, 20 Gs. I

34:53

was like, no, I wouldn't. Why would

34:56

I pay him 20 grand for me to have a conversation?

34:58

Why not feel fake that I've just

35:00

given you 20 Gs and my heart earned

35:02

money, give you 20 grand to have a

35:04

conversation with you for an hour? I've

35:07

got better things than I know. Listen, I'd love to

35:09

have a conversation, but paying 20 grand, I just

35:12

couldn't, I couldn't sleep at night. It's strange,

35:14

isn't it? How, I

35:16

mean, clearly you've made your money through

35:18

other businesses, so the podcast isn't a direct moneymaker

35:20

for you, although, and we'll talk about it, it's

35:22

clearly done well. Because with

35:25

most businesses, business decisions, it's money in

35:27

versus money out, you know, pay

35:29

a certain amount of ads for Bournemouth Southerns, get a certain

35:31

amount of people attend your events, make X profit, and it

35:33

makes sense. But for you, it seems different

35:35

with the podcast. Yeah, it's massively different. That

35:38

comes back to what you said there, that you said for

35:40

the first two years, you didn't look at the numbers, which

35:42

to me is crazy. But what it shows is that you

35:44

fell in love with the process, not the result. And

35:47

that's why you wouldn't pay a guess because you're not doing it

35:49

for the result, you're doing it for the process, you're doing it

35:51

for the conversation. And if you're paying someone, the conversation's different. 100%,

35:53

well said. The

35:57

four of you boys coming in now again, I've just paid you five

35:59

grand. I need to have this conversation so I'd go. It

36:02

would be the same conversation. You

36:04

know, it would be a straight as this

36:07

now, you know. I

36:11

would be out here trying to catch you out. I would be out

36:13

here trying to catch you out. We're

36:15

the raw producer along the way. So

36:18

I had to put the clip straight

36:20

away. Yeah, so I've done it for

36:22

the reasons that I love people.

36:25

All I've done all my life is bring people together and

36:27

put smiles on faces by friends. We've

36:29

sold over a million tickets to our own parties, festivals,

36:32

nightclubs. I just love

36:35

people. I love every

36:37

type of person with old,

36:39

your young, middle age, whether you've been really naughty,

36:41

whether you've been banged up, whether you've done something

36:43

really amazing for

36:47

charity. Everyone's got a great story.

36:50

And this has just given me the opportunity

36:53

to bring people back together again in a

36:55

time that was really hard in a pandemic

36:57

where people were losing their minds. People

37:00

were worried about the fear of not

37:02

being here or losing their mum and dad. I

37:05

know that at that time I

37:07

was putting good

37:09

conversations into people's ears at the time to

37:12

make them feel good about themselves. Came

37:14

at the perfect time. Came at the perfect

37:16

time. And business is all about timing, you

37:19

know, and coming back to paying.

37:25

I think it's dangerous because the only way you can claw that

37:27

money back is by YouTube. Really.

37:30

Okay, everyone talks about how you get sponsored, but how you

37:32

get paid money. There's 300 different ways to get paid. No,

37:35

let's get to the main one here

37:38

is YouTube. Now, I know

37:40

that certain people will be brought out for 5G

37:42

or 7 grand to come on

37:44

to the podcast. You also know when

37:46

you look at their YouTube numbers that they've lost money by

37:48

that, you know? But you've got

37:50

to be in the game to understand that. And I think

37:52

from the outside people just will look at it and go,

37:55

oh, my God, they've got hundreds of millions of views on

37:57

shorts. They're going to be... And in a full tune. Shorts

37:59

don't pay. No, she was a village She

38:02

also like point naught Peter that you

38:04

can't run a business running a

38:07

podcast via shorts You need

38:09

long-form content tick tock you guys

38:11

monetizing tick tock that's a pound a thousand at the moment.

38:13

Um Humbering

38:16

bootless. I don't actually know Josh

38:18

are we monetizing tick tock? Kindly

38:22

we don't we don't tend to

38:24

do a lot of one-minute clips Yeah,

38:26

we a suggestion we should monetize

38:28

tick tock. Well, I mean It depends how

38:30

desperate you are. I don't know Listen

38:35

well, no, there's a fine balance to it So first

38:37

of all, we found that really should

38:39

be a minute five. Yeah, it's tick tock a

38:42

cheeky fuck Yeah, and oh the end of your clip

38:44

gets cut off you shame if you got four million

38:46

views on this 15 hour video Yeah,

38:48

really a real shame But

38:51

it's a fine balance. I think if the clip can be over a

38:53

minute I wouldn't force it because at the end of the day

38:55

you want it to be good content first You don't want to

38:57

into growth But you know people

38:59

are posting one to three times a day on tick

39:01

tock if you know You do five

39:03

six clips a week. They're over a minute, you

39:06

know We get funny of us fighting with each

39:08

other tick tock by since yes, it's very for

39:10

the creators great for the creator I think we

39:12

we met on clubhouse way back when that went

39:14

from zero to hero and died because it didn't

39:16

look after it's created Yeah, I

39:19

wish I wish another clubhouse camera All right

39:21

for business clubhouse was good. Yeah, I missed at

39:23

a time where you're like nothing else to do

39:25

Yeah, I mean lockdown. I was really good. It's

39:27

funny. You're going back to like how business models

39:30

work I look at some people who are investing

39:33

really highly in their in

39:36

their content with guests with

39:38

studio with trailer

39:41

videos with making

39:43

the podcast Really

39:45

good on YouTube Then you look

39:47

at their numbers and because I know the numbers

39:50

of figures. I'm thinking oh man I

39:52

feel really sorry for them cuz they're hoping that they're gonna

39:54

make this into a business It's

39:56

not gonna happen It's not

39:58

gonna happen. You can only turn this into a business if

40:01

you get YouTube right,

40:03

you start building subscribers to a

40:05

really good number, you start getting

40:08

long form content right and

40:10

then you're getting paid each month via that and

40:12

then the only other way I believe and the

40:14

route we want to go down is just having

40:16

brand partners. I

40:19

don't want to sell my soul to like

40:22

Squarespace. A month

40:24

ago, a year five or a thousand. But just

40:26

stuff like that where on

40:29

audio, there's nothing worse than using a podcast

40:31

and the first two minutes is advertising. Everyone

40:33

is fast forward, fast forward, fast forward, then rewind,

40:36

rewind, fast, trying to get to the start. I

40:38

think that's really detrimental to your brand and

40:40

that's why we've stayed away from all

40:42

advertising on our audio and

40:45

that's why we just want to work with brand partners

40:48

and that's why we've turned down three or four

40:50

brand partners leading up to us doing a deal

40:52

with a wonderful British clothing

40:54

brand called ThruDark. So

40:57

we've got stuff here, how did you go? Yeah, it's an amazing brand.

40:59

Anyone listening out there, go and check

41:02

out ThruDark, T-H-R-U, dark.com. It's literally an

41:04

amazing brand. We'll tell you something about

41:06

that. Yeah, like

41:08

it's a brand that I can talk about. It's

41:10

a brand that I can identify with. You know,

41:13

it's two special forces, SBS guys who set up

41:15

the brand. They've turned it into an

41:17

absolute beast of a brand right now, shipping

41:19

everywhere around the world. The

41:22

clothing is second to none and it's British.

41:25

You know, so that I can speak about and feel,

41:27

get excited about it as a brand. And that

41:29

resonates with your audience because of the type of

41:31

content you normally put out there. Yeah,

41:34

it's a perfect win-win situation for both of us.

41:36

I've had certain brands contact us enough for some

41:38

really big money and I've just said

41:41

north of, north of, for

41:47

yearly contracts like a grand a week. It's

41:51

a lot of money. And we said no. And

41:54

that's not saying no because it's a grand a week. No,

41:56

I can't talk about that. I

41:58

personally can't talk about that because Because I

42:00

know my listeners have trust and

42:02

faith in me. If I'm talking about certain

42:07

things that I don't really resonate with, they'll

42:09

know I'm doing it for the money. I'm

42:11

not selling my soul for that. I've

42:14

built my reputation over the last 30 years to

42:16

have a good reputation in business and whatever. I'm

42:18

not selling it now for a paycheck. But

42:21

if a brand comes in and they're paying and it's

42:23

a brand and they're really believing, then we've got a

42:26

win-win situation and then we'll wait till the race is

42:28

and I can really get behind it. Talk to us

42:30

about the grenade pitch. I was very impressed with this

42:32

by the way. I was listening to an episode on

42:34

the way up. Yeah. The grenade,

42:36

Al Barrett came down. It's a funny story. Al

42:40

Barrett came down. Al Barrett's an investor. Al

42:42

Barrett is the owner of grenades. You know

42:44

the protein bars. He

42:48

flew down in his private jet because he flies.

42:51

Fair play to him. He just sold out for

42:53

200 mil so he probably ain't got a problem spending one and a

42:55

half mil on a jet. And

42:57

his jet has actually got a parachute on it. If

43:01

anything happens when he's flying, he can press a

43:03

button and the parachute will bring the jet down

43:05

and then as he gets to the floor, a

43:07

big inflatable goes on the floor and just lands

43:10

nice and gently for him. Why is this

43:12

the place I've ever heard of? The place

43:14

Ryan Air could never. Yeah, 300 passengers on

43:17

there. The

43:19

first time we invited him down, he came down, flew down,

43:21

he was really excited. We were excited to have him on.

43:24

He then went and he invested in Threwdock

43:26

as well. The clothing brands. We went to

43:29

see them. Those boys weren't there. They

43:31

were meant to be there. They weren't there. So then

43:33

after that, he came to us and this

43:36

was in August this year. 40

43:38

minutes in, the camera's

43:40

overheated and we had to stop.

43:43

We're like, whoa, hold on a minute. And

43:45

Josh was like, mate, let me just

43:47

check. Camera's overheated. Hasn't worked.

43:50

We've got to redo the first 40 minutes. Me

43:52

and Al looked at you and said, there's no way

43:54

we could go and do emotion because we

43:57

mostly went into it. Really? Yeah,

43:59

we'll deal. We can't do that. Anyway,

44:01

we had a proper laugh about it. We chatted

44:03

for a couple of hours afterwards and I'm going to laugh.

44:05

He then flew back up to the Midlands and

44:08

we were rearranged. He came down last

44:10

week and had a brilliant episode with

44:12

him. But what we did, what

44:14

Josh did, great idea, was

44:17

he created this briefcase,

44:20

plastic briefcase. And in that briefcase, he

44:23

then ordered online a massive tank.

44:26

The other tank then, how the grenade had got,

44:28

they take everywhere for promo marketing. Huge team.

44:30

He built in competition so it wasn't like

44:32

head-to-head. Yes, that's right. And he drove it

44:35

through London to get gyms back alive when

44:37

gyms weren't allowed to open, etc. So

44:40

this massive tank, orange one. So

44:42

Josh very cleverly got this tank, painted it

44:44

orange, put all grenade branding on it. Then

44:47

got a grenade, an actual

44:49

grenade with a lid on it. Put

44:52

all our podcast stats in

44:55

there, cut them all up, put them in the top of the grenade

44:57

lid. So he opened it and saw all the stats of 80

45:00

million views over our six months and subscribers

45:02

we got and all this stuff that we've

45:04

had on. And then he

45:07

lifted up the next bit and there was a see-through

45:09

box on there of our partnership deal

45:11

we want to do with him. But there was

45:14

a key hidden in

45:17

the actual tank that

45:19

opened the next box underneath. So

45:22

he opened the key and read the partnership

45:24

deal and he was like, this is

45:26

genius. Did he sign it? Hopefully he's going

45:29

to sign it. How much commission do

45:31

you say, George? But again, we invested

45:34

two, three hundred quid into that. But

45:42

Josh, it took Josh a good ten

45:44

days to paint the whole thing, put

45:46

the branding on, put the grenade, G,

45:48

R. Everything he did

45:50

was at such a high level and the box on

45:52

the front had a grenade on it and

45:55

myself and Al got a photo of him holding

45:57

up like the Chancellor. So these are the touches.

46:00

that people and brands will remember. If

46:02

you want to work with a brand that I've worked with many,

46:05

many brands over the years

46:07

for the festival, whether it's

46:09

Nintendo, Adidas, Gatorade, Kohl's

46:12

Burger, the list goes on non. Probably

46:14

maybe 70 or 80 brands. You've

46:17

got to make a difference. You've got

46:19

to wow them to go, God, they've put in a

46:21

shitload of effort into that number one. Two,

46:24

they've really thought about it. And then three,

46:26

the person receiving this can't go, no, not

46:28

interested. They've got to go, you know

46:30

what? We could work with these guys. I

46:33

like their creativity. So

46:36

any listeners out there, if you want to chat to someone, 100% make an

46:38

effort. Don't expect a

46:40

LinkedIn direct message will do the trick to open a door

46:42

sink. I'll take you for coffee. It doesn't work. You've got to

46:44

write a letter. You've got to put something in the post

46:46

or you've got to do something where you look at them in

46:48

the eye, where you've got in front of them. Something

46:51

different, right? So many people approach sponsorship in

46:53

the podcast space wrong. And that's both from

46:55

a point of view of the hosts and

46:57

the brands. It's their idea

47:00

of just our numbers is all that matters. So

47:02

there was a time, especially like Instagram influencers, where you'd

47:04

pay so much you'd get in front of this many

47:07

thousands of people. But then brands

47:10

are expecting ridiculously

47:12

small amounts of money to get in front of really

47:14

vulnerable, small audiences. And then those audiences

47:17

have so much value to offer, but they're

47:20

looking for obviously much better partners. And the brands

47:22

have got the wrong kind of concepts of what

47:24

they're looking for. It's just people treating podcasting like

47:26

social media when it comes to partnerships where like

47:28

I said, you need to find a brand that

47:31

you actually relate to. A brand that makes sense

47:33

for your audience. And that brand's got to genuinely

47:35

run in your audience as well. Right? You

47:37

can have small audiences making ridiculous money if the

47:39

connection between the brand and your audience is

47:42

wrong. Yeah. There's this

47:44

whole thing like influencers, influencers, influencers.

47:47

I think it's brand partners. It's

47:50

about brand partners. It's about

47:52

those micro people who have

47:54

reach. It's not that you've got a

47:57

million people following you or 500 million. I

47:59

prefer the one. you got 20,000, 40,000, 100%, 70,000, 60,000 because people will

48:01

listen. People are enjoying you

48:07

and people are enjoying you watching your journey and

48:09

you'll have more weight with those people and you will

48:11

do some unprecedented button with a million followers expect the

48:13

people to go and buy whatever they

48:15

want. Well, one

48:17

of my friends did an international

48:20

campaign for a clothing company with

48:22

Messi. They paid him

48:25

a lot of money and they

48:27

lost money on the campaign. Sure, nobody expects

48:29

Messi to be wearing... I won't name the

48:31

brand because they'll proper throw him under the

48:33

mask. But nobody expects him to wear this

48:35

brand, let's put it that way. But then

48:37

they can spend a tenth of the money

48:39

across 30 micro-influences

48:41

that have got 20,000, 30,000

48:44

of their ideal buyers. And now

48:46

5X, every penny they put in it.

48:48

Yeah, agree. Hopefully over the next month,

48:51

over the next years, brands will start to appreciate

48:53

those small audiences more and there'll be way more

48:55

money invested in the sponsorship of podcasters that have

48:58

a small niche but really valuable audiences

49:00

because that will help so many of

49:02

these podcasters keep going, it will help them monetize to pay

49:04

for production and take it to the next level when brands

49:06

start appreciating how good their audience is because all they've got

49:09

to do is kind of try and go all in on

49:11

like, instead of let's get in front of millions of random

49:13

people, let's get in front of 20,000 of

49:15

the right people. And then they start seeing the

49:17

results and then it's going to compound, compound. So

49:19

hopefully... I don't like the word sponsorship. Partnerships,

49:22

a better word. Partnerships, yeah, partnerships, you're partnering with

49:25

them. Sponsorship means I'm giving you money. Hopefully you're

49:27

going to sell me loads of stuff. Actually, partner

49:29

is a long term here. I don't

49:32

sign trials for less than a year. People

49:34

are now coming to us going, oh, can you do a

49:37

four week one? We're going to pay you this. Or can

49:39

you do it three months? No. We're sticking by our

49:41

guns. It's a year. I want year partners.

49:43

And it's

49:46

very difficult when you're starting off because people

49:48

are investing a lot of time and energy

49:50

is creating their own podcast. But it takes

49:52

a lot of time and a lot of

49:54

energy podcasting. Now this has started as

49:57

a hobby. This is now a business. And

50:00

if you can afford to get past that

50:02

a thousand days, you're

50:05

away. So I've got two-part question.

50:07

So what have you learned in

50:10

your first thousand days? What's

50:12

the difference or the biggest thing you've learned about

50:14

growing your show? Also, what thing

50:16

do you still do wrong? So

50:18

this is gonna be one question. Let's go.

50:21

You should have started. You only wanted one question. You

50:23

should have started. Ask me the one afterwards. Go on,

50:25

sir. Go on, sir. What's the

50:27

biggest thing you've learned in your first thousand days? Patience.

50:32

How so? Patience because I know

50:35

what it takes to build brands. And

50:39

I know that this was gonna, we were gonna be

50:41

onto something. I didn't realize it was gonna grow into

50:43

what he's grown today. But patience,

50:46

people want things really quickly these days. You

50:48

can't get it. You can get instant gratification

50:50

on something going viral. Well,

50:52

happy days. Absolutely. A million people might see that, but they don't

50:54

care about your brand. You've got to be going viral all the

50:56

time from care about your brand. But

50:59

patience has been the, I

51:02

call it being aggressively patient.

51:05

And if you can be aggressively patient in

51:08

any business, you will

51:10

definitely succeed as

51:12

long as you've got a good idea. Yeah. Yeah.

51:15

How can you actually get a good idea? Because you get feedback. You

51:19

get feedback from people. You know I get

51:21

feedback from your mum and dad and your best mate because I tell

51:23

you what I want to hear. And

51:26

there was people around you might want

51:28

to tell you stuff that

51:31

you may not like. You can only

51:33

go on people who actually are

51:36

away from you but are writing

51:38

comments and reading the

51:40

comments. That's

51:43

where you get your feedback from. And

51:45

that's where you can ask people. And that's where people will

51:47

leave reviews. And for someone to leave a review is like

51:50

a hundred times more powerful than a

51:52

comment that you're telling me. Because

51:55

we've got on our Apple one

51:58

like 600. 150

52:00

plus Written reviews these

52:02

aren't people these aren't people just pressing that

52:04

five star like button If

52:06

you go and flick through you'll be flicking through for

52:08

ages These are people who don't know when wrote written

52:11

reviews That was the biggest

52:13

turning point for us like wow listen everything again get

52:16

your mates and your mum dad your uncle and your

52:18

brother To do the first ten hmm once

52:20

you get past ten if I'm seeing like past

52:22

ten you're seeing real reviews You're knowing that people

52:25

are really enjoying the podcast whether it's your podcast

52:27

Leave us a podcast anyone's podcast out there That's

52:31

a real powerful way. That's the way I Know

52:34

whether a podcast is doing Is

52:36

on the right lines or not you know the sort of podcast? I

52:39

don't have that sort of number of reviews is

52:41

the ones that interview celebrities. Yeah, I'm all shallow

52:43

content Yes, I mean it's crazy the content when

52:45

you get those sort of numbers and the other

52:47

thing is One app and podcast

52:49

Spotify there is no download number. There's no subscribers

52:51

number the only indication of how Successful

52:54

a show is reviews. Yeah, I'm not

52:56

the production quality or quality So for

52:58

a new listen to the discovery of show and see you have that

53:00

many new refugees And

53:05

this people I've seen people buy them as well oh Really?

53:08

Yeah, I've seen someone buy a thousand reviews, and

53:10

there's only like ten written ones, but there's a

53:12

thousand what I've just got there People

53:15

can read read past this you know people

53:17

can read past the Yeah,

53:20

the only way I can tell if a podcast is

53:22

doing well enough for me personally if I'm looking Which

53:25

are very rarely do but we we chat about in

53:27

the HQ here is to go look at written reviews

53:29

in Apple And go look at the YouTube

53:31

channel look at subscribers and the company

53:34

views they get in on their individual Videos

53:39

videos you know that's that's tough right so

53:41

we wrote with quite a few shows and

53:43

with yours right you Go

53:45

audio only for two years and go all right bring in video

53:48

which most people do it in that way and

53:51

Then it's somebody who can have a really good audio

53:53

numbers And then they get embarrassed when they first launch

53:55

the YouTube channel It's not growing as quickly as one

53:58

and then they go buy subscribers and they go,

54:00

I can kill you and it kills the account.

54:02

And it's so hard to see that, well,

54:05

I guess a lot of people that are creator

54:07

have an ego and that's why they do it

54:09

or it is a contributing factor. But

54:12

yeah, I need to put that out there. People need to stop

54:14

doing that. So I've just sit in, listen, if

54:16

you're not getting amazing views, then make some tweaks but also be

54:19

aggressively patient. Aggressively patient. Anyone listening out there

54:21

is doing a podcast and you are serious.

54:23

Make sure you are serious. Don't

54:25

do 10 episodes and then flake away because

54:27

you lost a couple of grand by doing

54:29

that. Podcasting

54:32

costs money. It

54:34

costs money to do a podcast.

54:37

Don't be fooled. That is, it's

54:39

only your time. It's a lot of your

54:41

time. And if you're editing it as

54:43

well, that's even more of your time. And then you'll

54:45

take your focus off your day job or whatever

54:48

business you're running to do this podcasting because

54:50

everyone sees this as the sexy thing, being

54:52

a podcast host. And when you break

54:54

the back of it, it does become a

54:58

really nice thing to

55:00

do. But this isn't a full-time

55:02

business for people. Don't expect

55:04

to go and do a podcast. Expect to do this

55:06

full-time. Full-time if you want to

55:08

work maybe on 10 grand, 15 grand,

55:11

20, it takes time. But if you want to go

55:13

full-time in this, you can go to your 100 grand,

55:15

you can go to your quarter of millions, you can

55:17

go to your push up to your four, 500,000. But

55:20

that's going to take time because it's only when you're

55:22

building all this wonderful content that bigger brands want to come

55:24

on board and want to sign up with you. How

55:27

much do you reckon you've spent on the show

55:31

in total? Have

55:34

you ever dared to look? I haven't even bothered looking. Like

55:36

if I was to guess one

55:39

member of staff for

55:42

three, maybe 75

55:44

grand. This is

55:47

a lovely studio. I said lovely

55:49

studio. Yeah, 75 bags maybe, 80

55:52

grand. Some

55:55

of that value. I'm having this as impressive.

55:57

Yeah. I'm

56:00

in a fortunate position to be able

56:03

to do that. But I

56:05

also know I've been holding off sponsors and holding off sponsors

56:07

as you call it. I'm

56:10

waiting for those brand partners. Waiting

56:12

for the brand partners for a long time now. Because

56:15

this is, one minute for the long time,

56:18

the only business I do I'm in for 10 years. If

56:21

you can focus on 10 years, only I think 5%

56:23

of businesses get past 10

56:25

years. People don't

56:28

know that. 70% of businesses fail. Probably

56:30

higher than that right now the world are in. You

56:33

know? I'm in this

56:35

for the long term because I've just found

56:37

this wonderful passion. I've learned to have wicked

56:39

conversations with people over

56:42

an hour and a half. And then

56:44

you build this unbelievable relationship post. Because

56:46

someone's just giving you their life story.

56:49

They got full trust in you. You

56:51

know? And you end up having this

56:53

really nice relationship moving forward with every person

56:55

I've had on staying in contact. How you doing? It's

56:58

great. That's why it opens a lot

57:00

of the doors on an ongoing basis. Yeah, I

57:02

follow up, become friends with, come on again if

57:04

it did well. Yeah, definitely. And people need to

57:06

do more of that. When

57:08

you recorded your first episode, did

57:11

you have a new head then that I'm going to be doing this for 10 years? No.

57:15

Well, did you see this as? At that point.

57:20

I saw it as I launched

57:22

with four. I

57:26

told my story on episode

57:28

one. And episode two I

57:30

got a good friend of mine, Barry Hahn, who's the

57:33

top man of matchroom sport. He's

57:35

somebody here and the biggest

57:38

independent sports promoter in the world.

57:40

Lovely fella. And then I

57:42

really got a good relationship. I think the third one

57:44

was James Haskell. At that time he was just

57:46

retiring from England and rugby and becoming a melee fighter. So

57:49

we launched with like three or four, I mean the other one

57:51

was. We

57:53

launched with them just to see what happened. But

57:55

again, you don't know because people can't leave comments.

57:59

There were no comments. People leave, people don't leave reviews

58:01

but you need to take time for people to build

58:03

up your listenership for people to come back and leave

58:06

reviews but actually we're getting reviews really early on. Really?

58:08

Yeah, really early on. We're like, this is nice. We

58:11

wake up in the morning, there's another review. Another

58:13

review. For those things that keeps you going, if there's a

58:15

day you can't be bothered but seeing someone said, I actually

58:17

really like this. If someone's going out of their way to

58:19

write a review, I think that's a huge respect. I've

58:22

left a review on your one, seeing that when

58:25

you've seen the review. Yeah, my pleasure. I've gone

58:27

out of my way there because I've got respect.

58:30

Respect for the podcast is podcast. Respect for

58:32

what you two are doing, respect for how

58:34

you're bringing more people into podcast world. It's

58:37

fabulous what you're doing and you have good fun

58:39

conversations for 20 minutes each week. Yeah,

58:42

it's not very serious, is it? No, it's not.

58:45

It's because you look at it and it's like, oh, it's produced by

58:47

progressive media. It looks like it might be a bit corporaty

58:49

and then it starts. No, but it's good

58:51

that you're being you in there because if

58:53

you're this podcast, people are bored off, delete,

58:56

fast forward, get offers, whatever, you bring your

58:58

personality into it. Do you know what? It

59:01

was when we first started. It

59:04

wasn't so much like that, I think maybe because obviously

59:06

it's two guys in like 20s, you're

59:08

thinking, oh, we need to be seen as experts. We need to be

59:10

very professional. And then we made that switch. I don't

59:12

know if it was subconscious or what, but

59:14

we started thinking before that was probably the

59:17

points at lunch, starting on my side to do it. But

59:19

that switch of being more authentic in ourselves and joking around

59:22

instantly, we started getting more

59:24

reviews, we started getting more downloads, we started getting

59:26

more leads as well into our business, which is

59:28

essentially what the podcast is a driver for. That's

59:31

how we monetize. And we thought, oh,

59:33

well, actually you'd think it'd have the opposite effect.

59:35

Being more lighthearted might mean people take you less

59:37

seriously, but not for us. People wanted to work

59:40

with us more. Just be you.

59:42

Exactly. Why is no one, why people

59:44

trying to be something else? And I see I'm

59:46

on LinkedIn, people are writing like stuff, just be

59:48

you. You're the same person writing something really corporate

59:50

on there, which I get when I don't get

59:52

it. But on the weekend, I'm seeing

59:54

you in a festival field getting twisted when

59:57

multicolored and off your nuts. It draws

59:59

on a different. Yeah, it's George's over there.

1:00:01

Exactly. So it's kind of... I've

1:00:04

just found it easy over the years. If

1:00:06

my cards on the table, I'm just being me. If I'm writing

1:00:08

something on LinkedIn, it's just... it's a me view. I

1:00:11

think people just relate to it because you're just... You're

1:00:14

not trying to pretend to be something you're not. It's

1:00:16

hard to push that. It's like your biggest growth hack, isn't

1:00:18

it? It's like, don't go on a

1:00:20

facade. Everyone does it. If you

1:00:23

didn't, you would just grow quicker. People who put

1:00:25

on a front are normally employed by someone so

1:00:27

they can't say what they want to say. Mm-hmm.

1:00:30

That's interesting. That's normally the

1:00:32

case. If you like, you can tell an

1:00:34

entrepreneur that within a couple of minutes of talking to them. So,

1:00:37

yeah, mate. Do you feel like you can tell if someone's an

1:00:39

entrepreneur... I can. Straight away.

1:00:41

Oh, a thousand percent, yeah. Because

1:00:43

they can fly from the Midlands to Bournemouth. Yeah.

1:00:46

It was shaking your hand with a bit of a

1:00:48

siren run as well. It was funny when you flew

1:00:51

home, when our barret flew home, when we overheated that

1:00:53

time, it's like, oh, what a day

1:00:55

that was. It cost you five grand in petrol. I

1:00:58

first played. It's a good bloke,

1:01:00

by the way. Who would you

1:01:02

say is the best episode

1:01:04

you've done or the most eventful line? Man, I

1:01:07

get asked this all the time. I can't put my finger

1:01:09

on it. Not episode four, because you can't remember who it

1:01:11

is. Episode

1:01:14

four is actually my episode for

1:01:17

launching Bournemouth Sevens Festival. No, it wouldn't work.

1:01:19

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

1:01:22

I didn't want to say that earlier. But there's

1:01:24

so many. There's so many. Like, I cannot put

1:01:26

my finger on it. People escaped

1:01:28

from Venezuelan prisons. There's people who have

1:01:32

killed 80 people as

1:01:34

a sniper in war. There's people who have built

1:01:37

and sold businesses for 200 million

1:01:39

quid. There's people who have been. West

1:01:45

Ham Spurs

1:01:47

manager, ledger.

1:01:49

There's people who have. Man,

1:01:52

there's honestly so many. These people

1:01:54

have been in prison for 40 years, from

1:01:57

the age of 26 to 70. come

1:02:00

out, have come on the

1:02:02

show and told this stuff. There are so many

1:02:04

different types of real

1:02:06

stories. Michael Jackson's

1:02:08

bodyguard to... This

1:02:13

can go on. The best thing to do is actually

1:02:15

just flick through and to look at the titles because

1:02:17

anyone who does will get hooked. Yeah,

1:02:19

they're pretty wild. Yeah, they are wild. I was...

1:02:21

So my Mrs. Lewis and Brighton's has quite treckled

1:02:23

me and I was listening to the

1:02:26

guy got arrested in Paris, the

1:02:28

free runner. Oh, yeah. That was

1:02:30

a wild story. Yeah, amazing story, that one.

1:02:33

He was a free runner to

1:02:35

a drug runner. Yeah. Yeah. All

1:02:39

right, what's your least favorite? That was my next

1:02:41

question. We're on it, lads. We're on it now.

1:02:45

Oh, yeah. See, I was actually going to preface

1:02:47

it. I was going to say what's your least

1:02:50

favorite. You can't say this one. Yeah.

1:02:54

Least favorite. Least

1:02:57

favorite. There isn't one because we want to put it

1:02:59

out. Have you not

1:03:01

put content out? Yes. How

1:03:03

many times? Three

1:03:09

times. What's the most well-known

1:03:11

name you haven't really... High

1:03:14

following. It was

1:03:17

a high profile person

1:03:19

who is called Sir Someone. Was

1:03:24

he a Sir or an OBE or an MB

1:03:27

or something? Yeah, some letters after something. Yeah, a

1:03:29

lot of letters before his name. Three letters before,

1:03:31

three letters after. But... Oh, nice. Yeah, we didn't

1:03:33

put him out. Why?

1:03:35

Was he just bad content? Piss boring.

1:03:38

Yeah. Sorry. Yeah.

1:03:40

I'm not going to say his name, but it

1:03:42

just wasn't what we're about. He

1:03:49

was quite defensive. Quite

1:03:53

defensive. He

1:03:56

didn't feel comfortable. I

1:03:58

didn't put that out. one we put out,

1:04:01

we haven't put out, it

1:04:04

was just too dark. Oh really?

1:04:08

Yeah. Yeah. And

1:04:11

I can't remember. That's saying something for your show by the way.

1:04:14

Yeah, but as dark as in his

1:04:17

story as a child. Yeah.

1:04:20

And I just felt really uncomfortable and we could have edited it

1:04:23

all out, don't get me wrong. It was

1:04:25

just, I really felt

1:04:27

for him. Because only people we get on remember are

1:04:29

people who feel reformed. So

1:04:31

if you've been naughty in your time and

1:04:33

you're reformed, you've either found God or

1:04:35

you found love or you've found you've

1:04:38

gone full circle and you're helping kids and

1:04:40

helping people on the street or whatever you're

1:04:42

doing, you've reformed yourself as a character. They're

1:04:45

the ones who get on, but they're the ones who have been

1:04:47

really naughty in their time but now I've just gone full circle. I

1:04:50

felt this one hadn't gone full circle and

1:04:52

wasn't reformed and wasn't clean.

1:04:55

So it didn't feel right. The energy didn't feel right. What did

1:04:57

you say to him? Just

1:05:00

stop punching his phone calls. No. Which

1:05:05

some put out. Did you

1:05:07

say anything to him or have you just not

1:05:09

messaged him to say? No, it's just that there's

1:05:12

been no messages. Yeah. I

1:05:15

think that's better. I actually was

1:05:17

debating this with another podcaster recently.

1:05:21

Now they feel bad because they want the relationships with

1:05:24

the guests. Whereas I want to maintain

1:05:26

the relationship with the audience. That's why I wanted to

1:05:28

pay the bills. Exactly that. Keep us doing what we

1:05:30

want to do. I think if the

1:05:32

content's crap, you don't upload it. Yeah. I

1:05:36

think Steve Bartlett mentioned the other day there's

1:05:38

four or five years and put out for the

1:05:40

same reason. Yeah. And he's banging out

1:05:42

one every single week. We're banging it all. He's been two

1:05:44

now a week. We're one a week. We

1:05:46

might be upping ourselves to two a week. We're

1:05:49

trialing different things. We're trialing behind the scenes. The

1:05:51

behind the scenes stuff. That's what we really enjoy

1:05:53

but we have got so much going

1:05:55

on. Just to see a point there,

1:05:57

we've got 30. recorded

1:06:00

episodes in the bank. Yeah. That

1:06:03

is mad. It's just coming out in 2026. Yeah,

1:06:05

yeah. I mean, for a bit. No, but

1:06:07

it's 30. So someone, you know,

1:06:09

obviously things get moved up the list, you

1:06:11

know, if it's as we all do,

1:06:13

you know. But that's 30 in

1:06:16

the bank and there's conversations at the moment

1:06:18

of another 30 that we're bouncing back and

1:06:20

forward for dates in March,

1:06:23

April, May, June, next year. It's

1:06:27

mental, right? I didn't know any different. It's

1:06:29

only when Kane, when I speak to

1:06:31

you on the phone, when I phone us, we use thoughts on this,

1:06:33

mate, because I'm just doing it while running

1:06:35

other businesses. Winging it and freestyling it.

1:06:38

And Kane's like, mate, this unheard

1:06:40

of. To have that amount

1:06:42

of guests prerecorded and that amount of guests in the pipeline

1:06:44

already. Do you worry that the content when it does go

1:06:46

out won't be as good as it would have been if

1:06:48

you released it for a week or after? No.

1:06:51

No. I was like, what could it help?

1:06:54

We are so strict. We are so strict. Going

1:06:56

back to that perfection thing again, we're so strict in our

1:06:58

content. Because I want the guests to go, wow,

1:07:00

I love this show. It

1:07:02

gets to the point, you ask questions that people don't

1:07:05

ask. You're not afraid to ask the

1:07:07

questions, but I just let them speak. And

1:07:09

I pick up on one word and I'll take them down

1:07:11

that path. Pick

1:07:13

up another word after they take on another path or

1:07:16

a golden one. About 15 minutes ago,

1:07:18

you mentioned, say, can we just go back to that a minute? Because

1:07:21

I'm curious. Do you ever

1:07:23

talk about time and events then? Christmas, Easter,

1:07:25

and election. Yeah, I make sure

1:07:27

I don't throw that in there. I

1:07:29

make sure I don't throw that in there. Oh, it's in the podcast. Yeah,

1:07:31

you don't want to go, oh, by the way, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's dead.

1:07:34

Yeah, no. I don't know the other day just to wind

1:07:37

you up and it really got to you. I'm so happy

1:07:39

about it. You don't mention it. No,

1:07:41

exactly. But by and

1:07:44

joy, after our new lease

1:07:46

of life this past year when you're

1:07:48

visually seeing stuff now, you're

1:07:50

visually seeing, uploading. We get super

1:07:52

excited and uploading onto YouTube every

1:07:55

Wednesday, 6pm. Super

1:07:57

excited on comments and people loving

1:07:59

it. and people see the numbers roll up.

1:08:01

That really, really excites us. Your

1:08:03

trailers are shit hot as well. Thank you. I

1:08:05

thought you were supposed to say shit, man. You're

1:08:07

a drink. Oh, shit. We can

1:08:09

cut that. I wouldn't have been wanting to joke. They are

1:08:11

really good. Yeah. Do you watch everything

1:08:14

before it goes out? No. Not much

1:08:16

anything. I watch the trailer. That's faith.

1:08:19

I've got a really good team around me. I'm

1:08:22

good at what I do, but

1:08:25

the rest of the podcast, I haven't got a clue. You

1:08:27

see, some, I get messages coming from, because I

1:08:29

try to apply to everyone all the time. Try

1:08:31

to get back, but as you're growing, there's more

1:08:33

and more messages coming through. You can't get through

1:08:35

the Instagram. You can't get through all the messages coming through everywhere,

1:08:37

but you try to do as much as you can. Now,

1:08:40

people ask, you know, what mics you use? I ain't got a

1:08:42

clue. I'll have to, like,

1:08:44

whatever they are. No, sure. What do you

1:08:46

do? Do I have to cut out? I don't know.

1:08:48

All I do is get the guests in, have a

1:08:50

wicked conversations, pass it over to Josh

1:08:53

and away you go. The thing is,

1:08:56

though, that is every single podcaster, every

1:08:58

really successful show find they might know

1:09:01

what lenses are like these, they've paid

1:09:03

the bill for it, but really,

1:09:05

they won't know how to do most of that. They've always

1:09:07

got a phenomenal team behind them. I

1:09:09

don't think you can do it without it. No, you

1:09:11

can't. So you're not going to have one driver changing

1:09:13

the tire. No. It just

1:09:15

doesn't work. I know somebody does it all himself,

1:09:18

and he is 24-7. Me

1:09:20

as you are. 24-7, you can't do it

1:09:22

all yourself. You're gonna have to buy the

1:09:24

bullet and employ someone either full-time or outsource

1:09:27

it somewhere. Outsourcing it for

1:09:29

me doesn't work because I

1:09:31

like instant hits and instant seeing visually

1:09:34

stuff and bouncing ideas on what's happened.

1:09:36

I enjoy all that. It

1:09:39

makes you come alive. So that difference

1:09:41

between treating it as a hobby and a business,

1:09:43

right? You can't treat it as a business unless

1:09:45

you're investing money or a north tire. Yeah. So

1:09:48

if you haven't got money and you haven't got time, then there's no

1:09:50

point in putting it. I would warn people away from it because that's

1:09:52

why so many of you stop off 10, 11, 12 episodes because

1:09:56

they realize it's costing them money. It's costing them loads of

1:09:58

time. And then they're probably looking at it. the stats

1:10:00

on the figures and numbers. Do yourself a favour,

1:10:02

don't look at any stats on figures and numbers.

1:10:04

Don't look. I didn't look for two

1:10:06

years. It's only now I'm

1:10:09

on YouTube. I quite enjoy the stats and figures and

1:10:11

numbers because you're seeing it on YouTube on the table.

1:10:13

Oh right. And YouTube, out of

1:10:15

everything that we've done, YouTube is the hardest one

1:10:17

to break the back of. It's

1:10:20

the toughest one to break the back of. You

1:10:22

can like, we've got, I don't know what

1:10:24

numbers on TikTok and 70,000 on

1:10:28

TikTok, but I see that as a

1:10:30

little fun thing. If you see 80, 90,

1:10:35

100,000 subscribers on YouTube,

1:10:38

you know they're the real deal. You know they've

1:10:40

worked their nuts off to get to where they

1:10:42

are today. That's kind of like

1:10:46

a measuring board for me.

1:10:48

I feel like every week I see you

1:10:50

put an Instagram post like another 10,000 subscribers

1:10:52

on YouTube. It's growing really quickly. Yeah, it

1:10:54

is. YouTube for sure has a

1:10:57

compounding nature to it. I see a lot

1:10:59

of people who are like, first year, one

1:11:01

to 10,000 subscribers, second year, 50,000, next year, 200,000

1:11:04

and it really starts

1:11:07

to snowball. Yeah. But it is tough to

1:11:09

crack to start with. Really tough to crack.

1:11:11

And people can get upset by it. You

1:11:14

know, people can say, oh I've got 1

1:11:17

million views on a reel, but

1:11:20

then you go and have a look at their YouTube. They might

1:11:22

have like 100 views. Having

1:11:25

a good reel doesn't mean someone's going to go, oh I'm

1:11:27

going to go and look at their YouTube channel. It just

1:11:29

doesn't operate that way. It helps. It

1:11:31

all helps if you've got your brand on it,

1:11:33

Eventful Life's podcast. It all helps. Sure,

1:11:35

if we went along for content, there are a whole

1:11:37

different... Folds of video. I've been talking

1:11:40

to a social media agency who are looking to work

1:11:42

with us to help them do their podcast. Now that's...

1:11:44

People would think, oh well, as social media, you must

1:11:46

already know, but their words to me

1:11:48

was, it's a whole different ball game. The

1:11:50

approach of podcast listeners is very who over

1:11:52

how many. And then when it goes

1:11:54

to short from content, it's all about how many, it doesn't

1:11:56

matter. And it's that completely different approach

1:11:59

which I said... So that experience is needed

1:12:01

to take into consideration, or partners need to take

1:12:03

into consideration, but also, so if you do, if

1:12:05

you have a few hundred listeners on your show, if

1:12:07

that's a few hundred people that are giving up an hour a week to listen

1:12:09

to what you're talking about, imagine speaking to a room full of a few hundred

1:12:11

people every week. That's what we say, Josh and

1:12:13

I say we go, ah that video got

1:12:15

60,000 views

1:12:17

on YouTube, well I'm thinking, well that's West

1:12:19

Ham Stadium, that's London Stadium, I

1:12:21

don't want to go, I've got 90,000, I'm thinking,

1:12:24

well that's Wembley. Imagine you're on stage now

1:12:26

and Wembley are all watching you

1:12:28

on a big screen, shit yourself. Yeah, exactly, that's

1:12:30

how I portray it in my head. It's

1:12:35

the best way to do it. Yeah, because it

1:12:37

makes it real, like, you know, we've got one

1:12:39

where we have 1.6 million views, how many Wembley's

1:12:41

is that? You know, 16, 17 Wembley's are what's

1:12:43

your thing? So

1:12:47

don't be upset when you see 11,000 views

1:12:49

on a video, be proud. You

1:12:54

know, that's Bournemouth Football Club. Do

1:12:57

you get me? I always live with a thousand people, so we're

1:12:59

constantly doing it in football clubs. That's how we make

1:13:02

our minds at ease and happy. What

1:13:05

do you do wrong or what's one thing that

1:13:07

you're struggling with at the moment? So

1:13:14

much content, like,

1:13:17

you would need another two

1:13:20

video editors full time if we want to

1:13:22

get through all of the content, cut

1:13:25

it all up, repurpose it all, create a

1:13:27

trailer video. Our trailer videos,

1:13:29

by the way, take two whole

1:13:31

days. One trailer video,

1:13:33

it's 60 seconds, like a Netflix movie

1:13:36

before, that takes two whole days.

1:13:39

Now, if we didn't have that trailer video at the

1:13:41

start, people

1:13:44

made to see you as another podcaster on YouTube.

1:13:47

They wouldn't because our content's really good, but

1:13:49

that makes you, another USP makes you

1:13:52

stand out again. Yes, we'll

1:13:54

never lower our standards because

1:13:57

once you keep your standards high, you want to

1:13:59

respect it. level from your listeners

1:14:01

and watchers and

1:14:03

then that makes you stand out. Are

1:14:07

you looking to recruit? Do

1:14:09

you plan on growing this in terms of

1:14:11

the team? Yeah,

1:14:14

but I'm equestriably patient.

1:14:18

What's the plan for next year then? We

1:14:21

won't mention dates. It's 100% coming in in 2024. It's

1:14:28

going to be early for us anyway. 2024

1:14:32

is just repeating what

1:14:34

we're doing because the main thing

1:14:36

is our little team here absolutely

1:14:39

love it. I

1:14:41

Josh and Dylan choose

1:14:45

to come in and

1:14:47

edit, choose to open doors,

1:14:49

choose to create. I

1:14:51

choose to come in, I choose to speak

1:14:53

to guests and get them over the line. Like

1:14:56

it's the best thing that I've ever done

1:15:00

and I've done some cool and I've still

1:15:02

got some cool businesses and brands but I just love

1:15:04

this. I feel like I was born to do it

1:15:06

because even as a kid everyone was like, hey Dutch

1:15:08

is always the one asking me questions as a kid

1:15:10

in the classroom. I was the one putting

1:15:12

my hand at asking me questions. Everyone was thinking it but

1:15:14

be scared to ask the question. You

1:15:17

know and even now my mates know that I'm

1:15:19

really curious and love conversations with other people. I'm

1:15:22

getting paid to do it. I think that is

1:15:24

right. We were saying on the way down

1:15:26

here about Josh if you're a

1:15:28

creative person and you're a video editor

1:15:31

being a full on part of a

1:15:33

project because obviously there's loads of freelance video editors

1:15:35

out there or people working on multiple projects, you're

1:15:38

a bit involved with all of them but being

1:15:40

fully in on a project and responsible for the

1:15:42

growth and so many elements of it must be

1:15:44

such a rewarding job when you're passionate about video

1:15:47

editing because it's your baby

1:15:49

essentially. I know

1:15:51

you're not creating the content but it's your

1:15:53

baby when you're making it work. And

1:15:56

you'll see in numbers and comments

1:15:58

you'll go like. The

1:16:00

effort the lads put in, see the shorts and

1:16:03

the shorts might get someone on

1:16:05

TikTok a million or the shorts on YouTube might

1:16:07

hit a 200,000 or a million on Facebook or

1:16:09

a 7 million on Facebook. Sure. They're

1:16:12

like, we did that. We're all in it

1:16:14

together. We just run the business on WhatsApp. No

1:16:17

emails. None of us do emails.

1:16:19

Just all on WhatsApp. Bang, bang, bang. Great. Sign

1:16:22

off. Great. Let's go. So

1:16:25

it's real easy working. What's the best gift in business

1:16:27

in my eyes is to be able

1:16:29

to be easy to work with. Unlucky.

1:16:34

But it's true though. If

1:16:37

you're easy to work with, what a wonderful gift. For sure.

1:16:40

I think it helps that you have

1:16:42

clearly lived an extraordinary life

1:16:45

and you know a lot about a

1:16:47

lot of different things. You can probably hold

1:16:49

a conversation with anybody. And

1:16:52

that goes a long way. I think if you're really,

1:16:54

really introverted, then podcasting probably isn't the medium for

1:16:56

you to write a book. But

1:16:59

I genuinely think you could probably speak to anybody for an

1:17:01

hour. Which is a powerful

1:17:03

tool. Another

1:17:06

thing is so many of

1:17:08

these famous people who start podcasting

1:17:10

will have... They'll probably have a

1:17:12

really good podcast where there's a couple of them discussing. There's like

1:17:14

a few of the football ones I like with the TV presenters.

1:17:17

I like their podcast ones, them discussing. They get a guest

1:17:19

on to interview. Thing falls apart. Because

1:17:22

they don't know how to interview. They're interrupting each other. The

1:17:24

questions are asking the surface level. It's stuff that everyone's heard

1:17:26

before. And you can then,

1:17:28

that's when you really see who's an actual podcast

1:17:30

host. Because these guys are great at having the

1:17:32

conversations between themselves. But as soon as it comes

1:17:34

to something like this, they struggle. They struggle massively.

1:17:37

But you look at how much money Spotify lost

1:17:39

this year. Obama and

1:17:41

his wife. Oh yeah,

1:17:43

the big podcast hasn't done well. I've failed.

1:17:46

Prince Arian is Mrs. Meghan Markle. Again,

1:17:48

another one. There's so many. And

1:17:52

some people might not like the

1:17:54

host because they're not curious. Or

1:17:56

they don't have to have a nice open conversation and lead

1:17:59

someone. throw something, spark

1:18:02

it up and off they go. Well,

1:18:04

Megan wasn't even there. No, I know. Let's

1:18:06

not do this again. You've got so much abuse in those comments.

1:18:08

I'm both in the video, is there? I'm talking about like the

1:18:10

falling apart of Spotify, because they're relying on these like

1:18:17

celebrities that don't have a real

1:18:19

personality, don't live in the real

1:18:21

world. I think podcasting taken seriously

1:18:24

is a 25 grand a

1:18:26

year business investment. I

1:18:28

would say so. Do

1:18:31

you think it's worth doing if you're not going to invest money?

1:18:33

Definitely not. 100% not. Who

1:18:37

do you really want to interview? There's

1:18:39

a few. Ray

1:18:42

Winston. I'd

1:18:45

love to interview David Beckham. I

1:18:48

think he's such a gentleman and a

1:18:50

national treasure. Conor

1:18:54

McGregor. Funny Gs. Yeah, there's

1:18:56

quite a few. I'd love to... Yeah, there's

1:18:58

a few. The thing

1:19:01

is, I don't sit there going,

1:19:03

I really want him on my show. It

1:19:09

just all kind of happens. I haven't

1:19:11

targeted anyone. I need to

1:19:13

reach out to him because I really want him on my show. I'll

1:19:16

know someone who knows someone, because

1:19:18

he's my bond. I'm out on the way we go. Network

1:19:20

to network for him? Who

1:19:24

have you interviewed? David Attersborough. The

1:19:26

number one. Did Rob tell you about his

1:19:28

many rejections? No. Go on.

1:19:30

So, it's funny you mentioned letters earlier.

1:19:32

So a way we've got guests for

1:19:35

Rob shows handwritten letters. Find

1:19:37

the address. Because nobody throws away a handwritten

1:19:39

letter. And he's tried

1:19:41

it with Attenborough a couple of times and every

1:19:43

time he writes back. This lovely

1:19:45

calligraphy. I'm saying, do one. I'm pretty

1:19:48

sure he's got a frame somewhere. At

1:19:51

this point, surely it would have cost him

1:19:53

less time to come on the broadcast. He

1:19:55

probably needed a reply from his letters. Yeah,

1:19:58

so Rob and I turn up the Enbridge. But I

1:20:00

don't mind being rejected by Dave and us. You did right

1:20:02

there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair play. Yeah,

1:20:05

I'm good. Which of the guests have

1:20:07

you had where you felt nervous about it, Fanny? Have you ever

1:20:09

had anywhere you sat there nervous either because of like who

1:20:12

they are or you look up to them or

1:20:14

you don't know what direction to take their conversation?

1:20:16

Have you ever felt nervous? No. Not

1:20:18

at all. No, never. Never.

1:20:21

Do you think there is anyone out there that would make you feel nervous to interview?

1:20:26

No, I don't think there is. I

1:20:28

guess because I was thrown in the deep end, eight

1:20:30

episodes in, not a podcast

1:20:32

though, going co-host of

1:20:34

The Air Readnip Show interviewing the biggest

1:20:36

interviewer in the world, Piers Morgan. Yeah.

1:20:40

Like, I know I'm interviewing him. So it's all easy now. So,

1:20:43

no, but my, and listen, we've

1:20:45

had many naughty characters in

1:20:47

here who were reformed

1:20:51

and we've had many SAS who have

1:20:53

done naughty stuff and on

1:20:55

tours in Afghan and Kosovo and Iraq

1:20:57

and we're talking about their PTSD and

1:21:00

the levels they've gone to of wanting

1:21:04

to take their own life. That, that, their moments

1:21:06

where I have goosebumps all

1:21:08

over me, their moments where they're

1:21:10

talking about they live day to day

1:21:12

because of the horrors of what's going on

1:21:15

in their mind after leaving the army

1:21:17

of special forces. They, those

1:21:19

ones, the moments when you're in there, you're

1:21:21

like, this is chilling. This

1:21:25

is really chilling. There's one,

1:21:27

there's one just come out yesterday.

1:21:30

His name's Craig Harrison. Have

1:21:33

a listen to that. It's an hour and a half. It's

1:21:36

a sniper, isn't it? He's a sniper. And

1:21:38

he talks about his PTSD and

1:21:40

his PTSD and his PTSD, his PTSD on a scale

1:21:42

of one to 10. There's one, his PTSD at 10.

1:21:47

Yeah. Have a listen. It's, it's,

1:21:50

it's really powerful. Do you ever have to stop

1:21:52

during an episode? Does

1:21:54

it ever get really heavy? Yeah.

1:21:56

We stopped last week with

1:21:59

a. I'm not going to say his name is coming out.

1:22:03

He was talking, he's a

1:22:13

criminal underworld and

1:22:16

this is the first time he's ever spoken up and

1:22:18

he talks about his childhood being

1:22:21

sent to being

1:22:24

in care and

1:22:27

normally anyone who's

1:22:29

been really naughty in their time has always

1:22:31

had trauma as a kid whether

1:22:34

you're extremely aggressive or whether you're a

1:22:36

bank robber or whether you have gone

1:22:38

into special forces or

1:22:40

there's always some trauma somewhere but his trauma

1:22:42

was really deep. He's never spoken

1:22:44

about it. He's just written a book about

1:22:46

it. The book's not out yet. It's the

1:22:49

first time he's ever spoken. He's best

1:22:51

mates with Colton Leech who was on the podcast

1:22:56

a year ago or so but he

1:22:58

started speaking and just had to stop. Tears

1:23:01

and just looking a big

1:23:04

man, tears, didn't know what to

1:23:06

do, where to stop and start and that

1:23:08

was a moment. Do

1:23:10

those sort of interviews change your perspective on it?

1:23:12

No, no because everyone's

1:23:15

gone through trauma and

1:23:17

I've got sympathy and empathy with people not for

1:23:19

what they have made put themselves through or other

1:23:21

people through later on in their life but

1:23:24

when they're reformed and gone full circle again to hear

1:23:26

these stories that people have been holding on to for

1:23:28

20, 30, 40, 50 years and

1:23:31

never spoken out because there's

1:23:34

no such thing as podcasts and

1:23:37

they're not used to social media and

1:23:39

why would you speak up about what happened to you

1:23:41

when you were younger on social media but

1:23:43

podcasts is the form that you can get

1:23:45

up and speak now and let your voice

1:23:47

and let your voice be heard. Honestly,

1:23:50

so powerful. We've had so many

1:23:52

powerful episodes that

1:23:54

in some episodes I've had to go for a walk afterwards,

1:23:57

go for like an hour and a half walk, go and hug a

1:23:59

tree and take your shoes and socks

1:24:01

off and just walk on the grass. Honestly, I

1:24:03

mean like it's because you're talking some

1:24:07

really big eventful life some people have

1:24:09

lived, you know, and

1:24:11

they've got a safe platform here and

1:24:13

they've got a safe host. They're not out

1:24:15

to stitch anyone up or out to do anything. We're just

1:24:17

telling your story and getting out there in

1:24:20

a really nice way. I

1:24:22

think that'd be really hard. What's

1:24:24

that? Well, we're not very serious at

1:24:27

all. Somebody was to pour their heart out like

1:24:29

that to us. I don't know how would we

1:24:31

do that. We make eye contact in Google. You

1:24:36

have to be a certain kind of person to get

1:24:38

into that space anyway and into your process. Right. This

1:24:41

is serious stuff. You're talking about someone's life, you know,

1:24:43

and then you do switch on. It's like because you're

1:24:45

home dealing with headphones and there's a zone. You're

1:24:48

like, wow, you can feel the energy. Like

1:24:51

in a separate room when you've got headphones on as

1:24:53

well. That's probably why people feel so safe to speak.

1:24:55

If you're out on the street with a microphone, there's

1:24:57

everything else going on. But

1:24:59

they know people who come on our show. They know

1:25:02

they're in safe hands. They're

1:25:04

in real safe hands here, which is a delight

1:25:06

as well. And then I'm not talking about that,

1:25:08

but then you've got people who are comedians who

1:25:10

are funny as, and you've got

1:25:13

sports stars who are funny as, and you've got all

1:25:15

these big, amazing stories of entrepreneurship. But go and make

1:25:17

sure you question, is there any moments

1:25:19

where it's just like, I

1:25:21

was close to welling up on a few of them. There's been

1:25:23

about three or four arms there with just full on tears in

1:25:26

my eyes. Didn't drop, but you're just holding

1:25:28

on tire. Don't drop. Don't

1:25:30

drop. If you see you drop one,

1:25:32

he's going to drop one. He's got tears in his eyes, but Craig

1:25:34

Harrison, anyone listening out

1:25:36

there, go and listen to Craig Harrison's one. Or

1:25:39

Dave Redband, or

1:25:42

go and listen to Phil Campion, SAS. He

1:25:45

tells it in a way he had trauma as a kid.

1:25:47

And then he's a 20 star SAS man, spoke

1:25:50

up about being in the care

1:25:52

homes, again, trauma as a kid, but

1:25:54

he's turned everything into a joke. So

1:25:57

he's turned everything to lighthearted, funny, talks

1:25:59

about the. horrible situation, but he may turn

1:26:01

it into a funny story. That's the way he's

1:26:03

dealing with that and coping with that. But

1:26:06

no one leaves the army without

1:26:10

mind health

1:26:12

problems because there's no support.

1:26:15

When you leave, you're out on your own.

1:26:17

There's no support. That's what I've learned over

1:26:19

the last three years. It's the same

1:26:21

when people leave the prison system.

1:26:23

There is no support. As an

1:26:25

entrepreneur, there is no support. It's

1:26:28

you. You're the one. You're leading the

1:26:30

front. You're bringing a team, building a team around

1:26:32

you, leading from the front. You're the first one

1:26:35

that people want to knock down. They're very

1:26:37

linked. The criminal underworld,

1:26:42

the SAS world and entrepreneurs, very

1:26:45

linked. How did I leave? Black

1:26:47

sheep. No, I just think, yeah, I

1:26:49

just think, Bill, there's so many easy ways

1:26:51

you could have gone. You've

1:26:54

got something about you as an entrepreneur. You know how to read

1:26:56

a room. You know how to cut a deal. You know how

1:26:58

to be with people. You know how to socialise. You know how

1:27:00

to clock things up that people aren't clocking. It's

1:27:02

the same as the criminal underworld. It's the same as the military

1:27:05

SAS world as well. It's just what route you

1:27:07

go down at the age of 18, 19, 20. You

1:27:10

either go to the left route, the straight route

1:27:12

or the right route. You take a left carry

1:27:14

on walking straight or back or right.

1:27:16

There are real fine lines. You

1:27:19

being an entrepreneur, then do you feel like that's helped you

1:27:21

connect with these people when you've interviewed them? 100%.

1:27:23

I grew up in London living above pubs as

1:27:26

a kid. You know, you see things you shouldn't see as

1:27:28

a kid. You know, we had doorman

1:27:30

and bouncers on our doors. We had

1:27:32

a two bed flat above it. We had a nightclub next door. You

1:27:35

know, I was hanging around with the doorman and bouncers

1:27:37

from the age of five,

1:27:39

six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. I was going

1:27:41

in clubs at 10, 11, 12,

1:27:44

13 till two, three in the morning with the bouncers being protected and

1:27:46

looked after them and then been brought back as my mum and dad

1:27:49

at the pub. You know, you

1:27:52

see things and you have police raids in your

1:27:54

pub and you

1:27:58

help the... Yeah. There's all

1:28:00

sorts of things go on in the public. You

1:28:03

have happy times, you have toxic environments, you have

1:28:05

violence, you have funny people, you have wheeler dealers.

1:28:07

Imagine everyone coming into your front room at home,

1:28:09

that's what it's like. And

1:28:12

you're the landlord's son. There's

1:28:14

instant respect there. My dad was a bodybuilder

1:28:18

back in the day and he was well respected. And

1:28:22

he was a very fair and tough man. And

1:28:26

back before then, he had to throw people out. And

1:28:29

you see your old man having tear-ups and fights,

1:28:31

that was quite surreal really. And you go around

1:28:33

to people's friend's houses on the weekend and everyone's

1:28:35

having dinner together and watching TV together and go

1:28:38

back to the pub, which I love, the environment,

1:28:40

the pub, the front machines, the people, the connections.

1:28:43

And then you see your old man throwing people out and having

1:28:45

a punk shop outside. So

1:28:49

I guess that has all helped me to be

1:28:51

who I am today. My

1:28:53

whole life has been about sport and

1:28:55

business. And now it's sport,

1:28:58

business and entrepreneurship. I

1:29:00

lived above a pub for the first few

1:29:03

years in Italy, not in London. But

1:29:05

I remember my parents were very quick to say, we want

1:29:07

to get you out of that kind of environment. So

1:29:09

I never really experienced it from a memorable age.

1:29:12

But the first few years, my life were

1:29:14

above a pub, which was opposite a nightclub at my

1:29:17

moment. And so from the stories I've been

1:29:19

told, not my memory, I relate to some of them. But

1:29:22

it's not the extent of London. It wasn't in London. I

1:29:24

wouldn't change it for the world. I absolutely loved that. I

1:29:26

buzzed off here because I grew up with adults. Everywhere I

1:29:28

was, it was adults. Adults, adults, adults.

1:29:30

I speak to everyone. I love chatting

1:29:33

to cleaners and dinner ladies,

1:29:35

to CEOs, to either meet

1:29:38

with a couple of billionaires. It

1:29:40

doesn't matter. Normally, the

1:29:42

billionaires are normally not happy. Normally,

1:29:45

dinner ladies are really happy. Normally, cleaners are happy.

1:29:48

You get to chat to everyone. And

1:29:50

as long as people take their ego out of the

1:29:52

way and they're humble, I'll chat to everyone. I

1:29:55

love people. Talk to us

1:29:57

about the live shows. That's something I'm excited

1:29:59

about. about? Yeah, yeah, good conversations

1:30:01

happen at the moment about taking

1:30:04

eventful lives podcast on tour, bringing

1:30:07

some of the guests with me, myself

1:30:10

hosting, they might mix a

1:30:13

top SAS or

1:30:15

special forces with a international

1:30:17

drugs smuggler who tells

1:30:19

his story or a Harry

1:30:22

Redknapp and he tells his story, we mix

1:30:24

everyone in or Barry Hearn or anyone

1:30:27

who's become on account and go right,

1:30:29

let's go, let's try

1:30:31

all this, you know, because I'm not

1:30:33

doing this to be under pressure of, oh, we

1:30:35

need to sell this amount of tickets to break

1:30:37

in. I'd rather it just be,

1:30:40

let's ask the questions, do would

1:30:42

you come if we put this on? Would you

1:30:44

come to put this on? So we're kind of

1:30:46

selling it out before actually confirming it. Yeah,

1:30:49

because it's not about earning

1:30:51

money from this. This is about

1:30:53

can we invest money back into our ex

1:30:56

into our soldiers and veterans are on the

1:30:58

streets, homeless. How can we get those people

1:31:00

off the streets? How can we raise awareness?

1:31:02

How can we put money into them? They

1:31:04

got a nice sleeping bag or a home

1:31:06

or night to bite to eat and a

1:31:08

roof over the head. You know,

1:31:11

it's about making the awareness

1:31:13

as well. So look, we're

1:31:15

doing it for the right reasons. It'll

1:31:18

be awesome as well if you had like say,

1:31:20

just say you're three guests and they're just completely

1:31:22

different world. That's what I want. And then you'll

1:31:24

obviously lead the conversation, but there might be times

1:31:27

that Harry Redknapp starts asking the guy

1:31:29

and yes, yes, and then that

1:31:31

kind of crossover that you would never expect to see

1:31:33

someone who's lived that kind

1:31:35

of life speaking to someone from the

1:31:38

whole other kind of upbringing etc. And

1:31:40

then hopefully it wouldn't just be you asking questions and

1:31:43

they would put like a whole conversation. A big conversation

1:31:45

on stage and the people watching will be like, wow,

1:31:47

and then we'll have a pint afterwards of everyone and

1:31:49

then we can people can sign stuff and we just

1:31:51

want to make it easy, want to make it different,

1:31:53

you know, but these things do cost money, you

1:31:56

know, after 25 years of putting

1:31:58

on events. I know that. that there's

1:32:00

going to be a rent up front. I know there's going

1:32:02

to be costs. I know there's going to be hotel

1:32:04

rooms. I know what is it to break even. How many

1:32:06

is it to break even, you know? Do you

1:32:09

have an estimate? It all depends how big

1:32:11

the theatre is. I thought it was selling out West Ham

1:32:13

Stadium. How

1:32:15

many is it? 60,000. Where's that? London

1:32:18

Stadium. That would be

1:32:20

a dream. Yeah. Who knows? 2025. Who knows? Who

1:32:22

knows what's going on? I'm just, the thing is,

1:32:24

lads, is we haven't got any major

1:32:26

plans. We're just doing what we're doing and really

1:32:28

enjoying what we're doing. There's about to

1:32:30

be enough in the process, right? I love it in the

1:32:32

process and found this new world of obviously throwing

1:32:35

events and throwing festivals and

1:32:37

nightclubs and building

1:32:39

sportswear brands and now

1:32:42

the podcasting world and

1:32:44

it just feels right. Alright,

1:32:48

final question from me. Who

1:32:51

do you know that we should interview next? For

1:32:55

your podcast? No, a lot

1:32:58

of people. Who's the creator then, Spire?

1:33:02

Josh. I would as well. I think

1:33:05

that'd be a very good

1:33:07

episode. Yeah. Remember, behind the camera,

1:33:09

we've got... Josh, our producer here,

1:33:12

has got the best mindset I've ever met.

1:33:15

He's only early 20s.

1:33:17

He's humble and he just gets

1:33:19

it and he's

1:33:22

Gen Z and

1:33:24

he's got that wonderfully creative mind and

1:33:29

he's a joy to work with. You could learn the

1:33:31

thing or two. Yeah, alright. But

1:33:33

my point is there, people think Gen

1:33:35

Z's are lazy. I

1:33:38

don't know where people get that one. If you

1:33:40

love what you do, you can't be lazy. And

1:33:45

yeah, Josh Haines for your award. You

1:33:49

coming on? Yeah, alright. No question there.

1:33:51

I'm not going on. No,

1:33:53

I appreciate that. How much money for your phone

1:33:55

book? Mate, this mobile here, right? I

1:34:01

got this mobile in 1995, not the actual mobile,

1:34:03

because I bought big ones as far as the

1:34:05

little ones that I've not missed

1:34:07

a contact. What

1:34:10

do you mean every number in there safe? Every number

1:34:12

in there is the number of numbers I've

1:34:14

built up since 1994. How many contacts do you

1:34:17

have? People individually people maybe 5000, 5000, 5000

1:34:19

to an individual people. So

1:34:24

back in the day when you had a mobile phone,

1:34:26

if you wanted to change your mobile phone, you

1:34:29

had to write down all the numbers. So

1:34:31

I had a black book, I wrote them all down. Every

1:34:34

time I changed my mobile, I made sure every single one

1:34:36

was uploaded. It would take me like a week. Really? Yeah,

1:34:38

I would make sure of it. My mum always taught me

1:34:40

as a kid, everyone who meets a contact and

1:34:43

has stuck with me for life. Anyone I

1:34:45

meet now, even if you're

1:34:47

checking, how you doing mate? I'll give you a number and

1:34:49

I'll put in there Dave,

1:34:53

Liverpool, Fan. Just

1:34:56

some information. Everyone in my mobile has

1:34:58

got the bracket, some of the minds.

1:35:01

Just to relate the mind. You

1:35:04

know, this has been a real good tool since

1:35:06

we're doing the podcast, it's actually to open doors.

1:35:08

I feel like I'm one phone call away from

1:35:11

anyone. If I can't find that person, give

1:35:13

me two phone calls and I'll be able to get over them somehow.

1:35:16

This is wild by the way. I don't know if you know

1:35:18

this, it only calls people to get them on the show. What

1:35:21

do you mean? I mean, I think this is definitely an age

1:35:23

thing. I

1:35:25

think that one thing about Gen Z is

1:35:27

we don't call anyone. Ever. What's

1:35:30

that? Yeah. I

1:35:32

run all my business, even I don't do

1:35:34

email. Yeah. How do you run all your

1:35:36

business without email? I just don't do email. Phone,

1:35:39

pick up the phone, kind of deal, WhatsApp,

1:35:41

open doors. It's more personal, more effective.

1:35:44

I think so. It's working,

1:35:46

it's working, it has worked and it's working.

1:35:49

I just find it easier that way. You can see when they've

1:35:51

read it, double tick. People on

1:35:53

hiding behind emails, oh, I saw it was in my junk. People

1:35:56

make stuff up or they play mind games, they leave it four

1:35:58

or five days to get back important. No,

1:36:01

what's that? We're seeing you read it. You get back to

1:36:03

me, I'll get back to you straight away. We've

1:36:05

done a deal. We're happy to agree on that

1:36:07

or I'll see you there at 7 o'clock tomorrow or whatever

1:36:09

it may be. Quick, I reckon

1:36:12

the business must have sped up by about five.

1:36:14

Our business is probably about five years by being

1:36:17

so active on that. I think so. A

1:36:19

WhatsApp is one of the only notifications on

1:36:21

my phone that's turned on. Emails,

1:36:23

social media, everything else turned off. Yeah, 100%.

1:36:26

I don't like it. That's where I get forwarded all

1:36:29

your emails. Yeah. Yeah, he

1:36:31

needs them. Yeah. Sort

1:36:33

of email. Really shallow question to finish. Who's the most

1:36:35

famous person in that 5,000 people content

1:36:37

book? The same. I'm

1:36:42

not going to say. You two. Yeah. You

1:36:44

two. All right. Actually,

1:36:46

most money then. Perfect.

1:36:49

I've had an awesome time. I appreciate it. I've

1:36:51

really enjoyed it, lads. And you were right. It's

1:36:53

more so like being on the other end.

1:36:55

Different, isn't it? Very different. It

1:36:58

feels very different being on the other end. It's quite nice

1:37:01

as well because you two are good hosts. You

1:37:03

ask the right questions, you listen,

1:37:05

and I can see your brains working what the next one will be. I've

1:37:08

thoroughly enjoyed it, gents.