Andrew McGee

Bio

I'm a full-time property investor with a diverse background in business, fitness, and media. My property portfolio is currently valued at over $2.3 million, generating around $20,000 per month in passive income. I take a boots-on-the-ground approach every day to secure and grow the right deals.

I specialize in Buy-To-Let, BRRR, Flips, Serviced Accommodation, and portfolio building, and I also work across media, education, consultancy, and mentorship to help others achieve success in property. Outside of real estate, I’ve built, operated, and sold several businesses in the leisure and education sectors.

My discipline comes from a background in competitive bodybuilding, where I competed at the British national level and proudly represented my country. In my younger years, I also spent four years as a competitive amateur boxer and later trained for three years at a high-level acting studio, focusing on practical aesthetics for both stage and film. I was also the subject of a documentary on elite-level training and nutrition, which explored extreme principles for high-performance athletes.

When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, staying active, day trading, investing, and always learning—whether through personal development or researching new opportunities in property and business.

Summary

Andrew McGee's journey from the challenging streets of Glasgow to becoming a multi-millionaire property mogul epitomizes the transformative power of discipline and structure. At the tender age of 13, he consciously chose a path of rigor, engaging in competitive boxing and later bodybuilding, which instilled in him a profound sense of discipline. This decision not only shielded him from the chaos surrounding him but also equipped him with the mental fortitude necessary for entrepreneurial success. Through meticulous planning and a systematic approach to business, Andrew has successfully transitioned from a heating engineer to a formidable player in the property market, demonstrating that one's background can indeed be leveraged as a powerful asset in the business realm. In this discourse, we explore the principles that underpin his success and the mindset that allows him to flourish despite adversity.

Notes

Andrew McGee's journey from the gritty streets of Glasgow to becoming a multimillionaire property mogul is both inspiring and instructive. At a young age, Andrew chose to cultivate discipline and structure in his life, a decision that would serve as the cornerstone of his future success. Engaging in competitive boxing and bodybuilding from the ages of 13 to 17, he forged a mental framework characterized by resilience and commitment to excellence. This discipline translated seamlessly into his business ventures, where he learned to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship with the same tenacity he demonstrated in sports.

As Andrew reflects on his upbringing amidst poverty and crime, he reveals how these challenging circumstances did not define him; rather, they became a source of strength. He developed a street-smart acumen that has proven invaluable in business negotiations, allowing him to leverage his unique background to his advantage. The conversation delves into the critical mindset shifts that differentiate Andrew's approach from a mere rags-to-riches narrative; it is about embracing one's past to fuel future success rather than escaping it. Andrew's story exemplifies the idea that with the right mindset and relentless execution, anyone can transform adversity into a powerful business advantage.

The episode culminates in Andrew's insights about the importance of structured days, which have become a hallmark of his success. By adhering to a disciplined schedule, he maximizes productivity and minimizes decision fatigue, ensuring that every day is focused on moving his business forward. Listeners are left with a profound understanding of how to approach personal and professional challenges, reinforcing the notion that success is not merely a destination but an ongoing journey of self-improvement and resilience.

Takeaways

• Andrew McGee emphasizes the importance of structure in both sports and business, demonstrating how discipline from competitive boxing and bodybuilding has facilitated his entrepreneurial journey.
• Growing up in a challenging environment, Andrew leveraged his experiences of poverty and crime to develop street smarts, which have proven advantageous in his business negotiations and strategies.
• Andrew's transition from a stable job as a heating engineer to entrepreneurship was driven by a desire for autonomy and a passion for business, despite lacking formal qualifications.
• He highlights a pivotal moment when he learned to price his services appropriately, realizing that being the cheapest often compromises quality and long-term success.
• Andrew illustrates the concept of an infinite scoreboard in business, advocating for self-improvement over competition with others, which fosters resilience and continuous growth.
• His systematic approach to daily tasks, assigning specific days for planning, training, and reviewing, exemplifies how structure can eliminate decision fatigue and enhance productivity.

Hello.

Please meet Today's guest, Andrew McGee.

I was almost designed for this life from a very early age. From the age of 13 to 17 years old, I was competitively boxing.

I was exercising three times a week at the boxing club, running twice a week, eating at certain times, going to sleep at certain times. When I was bodybuilding and competing exact same, I was training at certain times.

So there's always been an element of structure to my days, whether it be for sport or whether it be for business. And it's been such an easy transition to move into.

What do you do when you grow up in one of Glasgow's roughest neighborhoods.

Surrounded by poverty and knife crime, but you refuse to let that define your future? Today's guest, Andrew McGee made a decision at 13 years old that would change everything.

He chose structure over chaos, discipline over drift, and competition over complacency.

From boxing rings to bodybuilding stages to construction sites, Andrew built the mental framework that would eventually help him transform from a heating engineer with £800 in his pocket into a multi millionaire property mogul managing a portfolio worth millions. Here's what makes his story different. He didn't just escape his circumstances, he weaponized them.

That street smart edge from the east end of Glasgow, it became his secret weapon in boardroom negotiations.

The discipline from years of competitive sports, it became the systematic approach that lets him evaluate million pound property deals while most people are still figuring out their morning coffee. This isn't just another rags to riches story.

This is about how the right mindset applied with relentless consistency can turn any background into your greatest business advantage. Hello and welcome to you, Andrew, thanks for joining.

Jothy, good to speak to you. Thank you very much for having me on.

Yeah. So why don't you tell us as.

A starting point, where are you originally.

From and where do you live now?

Yeah, so actually I'm just back from the USA last week, so it's good to hear this kind of accent again as well. I'm just back from Florida there. Yeah, so originally I'm from Glasgow.

So a lot nicer place now than what I was kind of born and raised in. But yeah, pretty much not, not far away from an American standpoint for sure.

Yeah, we move around a lot. I mean, you Know, it's crazy. I was, I was raised in Detroit, which is in the middle of the country.

Then I, then I spent 10 years in the Southeast in North Carolina, 10 years in California and Silicon Valley and all the way snapped back to Boston where I've been for 30 years.

Yeah, far bigger landmass over there. I found out last week we were actually over for a week on business. We were at Kissing Me in Florida. So there was a conference at the Gaylord Palms.

We were at Patrick Bet David was carrying out a kind of week long business conference. So we were over there. Martha Stewart was a guest, Tony Robbins was a guest and things like that. So it was a real good event, a real worthwhile week.

That's great.

What was it like growing up in the East End of Glasgow and how did those experiences kind of shape you?

Yeah, so I mean at the time you don't think it, but looking back on it, there was a high level of kind of surrounding poverty that when you go back nowadays you can kind of see that my mother and my father gave me the best possible life growing up. Didn't have a huge amount of money. But again, you don't really know this at the time until you look back.

We, for instance, we had a place around the corner called the Blueville hall and they would give out like free food, free stew and things like that to more deprived areas. We were, we were eligible for that. So we would get all of that kind of stuff.

From a food standpoint, there was obviously a lot of crime and Scotland, especially in kind of the East End of Glasgow, there's a lot of knife crime, violence, gangs, things of that nature. So you kind of grow up around it and amongst it.

And if I'm being honest, it probably makes you a bit kind of street smart, which is something that you can't really learn in college or university or things like that and probably actually gives you a bit more clout when you're in the boardroom and when you're, you're negotiating with people. These are all skills that you pick up along the way. Just growing up in places like this.

You told me before that you had a, a stable job. You were a heating engineer if I remember correctly.

Yep, that's right.

But, but it was still you pretty young when you decided to leave that and, and then do your own thing. Why don't you tell us what, what prompted that shift away from stability and, and starting a, a new thing?

Yeah, totally.

So yeah, I mean I was always interested in business and entrepreneurship and things like that and I think as a, as a typical male growing up in kind of like the 90s, you've seen like your Arnold Schwarzeneggers and people like that who you idolized from the film end and then you realized that they were actually very astute businessmen moving forward. I was a big fan of the WWE, loved Vince McMahon. Turns out he was a great businessman. There was all of these kind of things.

As I was growing up, I was thinking, do you know something? I would, I would love to be in business, I would love to be my own boss, kind of create my own destiny.

And then when I left high school, I didn't have any like major qualifications or anything like that. I really enjoyed school, but I wasn't hugely academic at the time.

I just had a good laugh and enjoyed my time, but didn't really leave with aspirations of university or anything like that. So I went into a couple of kind of manual jobs because I was always quite a fit and active guy, was always quite a big strong guy.

Had exercised for years and weight trained and boxed and things like that. So moved into being a truck mechanic for about a year and a half, then moved into becoming a heating and ventilation engineer.

At the time though, I was still competing in bodybuilding. So I was amateur bodybuilder for, for many years and had a real passion for health and fitness.

So when I was working on the construction site as a heating engineer, I decided to put myself through a clinical nutrition degree.

So I would fly up and down from Scotland to England, carry out my studies whilst working the job and ultimately knew that I didn't want to be working until I was 60 years old, 70 years old, doing a job that I hated because there was many people on that construction site who were 60 years old and 70 years old doing a job that they hated. And I just couldn't see that being me. So I decided to set up my own gym.

Looking back on it now, had zero business experience, realistically, just kind of moved forward with passion and thought, you know what, I'm going to start up a business and I have a passion for getting people fit and healthy.

Did you do some research about where you decide where you would locate this so that it would be not like right on top of another gym? Was there clearly a lack of, of enough gyms that you saw the opportunity?

I would love to say it was as calculated as that. It was more along the lines of Richard Branson's approach, which is screw it, let's do it. And I just dec. Decided, you know what?

I Want to open up a gym. I don't care about competition, I don't care about the market.

I'm just going to plow ahead and do this and I will make it work with sheer tenacity, durability, and we'll learn along the way.

And a lot, that's kind of been the theme of a lot of the business that I've kind of started in my life is I figure it out and then continue to figure it out along the way. We just opened on a, on a whim, basically.

How did you get the word out about the gym? Was it just strictly word of mouth? So through your friends that were also kind of gym rats like you were?

So it was before like your Instagrams and way before like your tech talks and all that kind of thing. We genuine word of mouth, leaflet drops, flyers, guerilla style marketing with just like signage in places that we shouldn't have had.

I spoke to absolutely everyone I knew, had them give video testimonials of experiences that I had with me on nutrition and health and fitness and just really started to push that.

And then obviously along the way you learn things like Facebook advertising, Google, ppc, like all of these digital strategies that then ultimately become a business.

But at the time we were very bootstrapped because I mean I had like 800 pounds of my own money and then I think I had a Tesco credit card with like thousand pounds on it. So we don't have a big budget to like spend on market and or anything like that.

So we really had to be innovative and creative with how we got the world out.

You say we here, who was helping you?

My mother, my stepfather and anyone else that was coming along the journey. I did, I did have a business partner at the time that both of us set that gym up.

And then within the space of like, I want to say two weeks, he had a conversation with me and said, I can't do this. I can't handle the stress, can't handle the pressure. I've got a stable job just now.

I'm just kind of too scared to make the jump and just wasn't really built for entrepreneurship.

And to be honest with you, it was actually a very good thing because he was kind of dragging things down as a bit of an anchor and just had a lot of negativity around him as well.

And at the time I kind of knew that and I realized that and when we had the conversation two weeks after opening, I just said, look, no problem at all, I'll buy you out, I'll pay you back any money that you've put into the gym and yeah, see, see you later, have a good life.

Basically that sort of ended your friendship.

There was never any betterness or anything like that. I actually had to look over some messages recently just with this and there was never any bitterness whatsoever.

I was currently at the time in preparation for another bodybuilding show. So this would have been in the April. My competition would have been like the June or July.

So I was so, I was so head down focused that it didn't really matter what was going on externally. I was going to make things work regardless. So you, you were either in or you were in the way at that point.

What did you name the gym?

It was called Smoking Guns Fitness SGF Gym.

By the time it was Smoking Guns Fitness and we had just like a real shady logo with like a bicep and like almost Guns N Roses font around was probably a terrible name, but it just worked at the time.

Then did you eventually sell it?

Yeah. So that business I ran for 12 years, 11 years. I set up another site, another gym business as well and another location.

We also opened up another unit. So we had really expanded and, and kind of growing within that gym. We had to then close down the wish off site and then I subsequently in this year.

So that would have been May of this year. I sold the Rutherglen site. So I exited the, the fitness business overall, the kind of gym business overall.

In that timeframe obviously I'd set up another few businesses within education, training, logistics, automotive, sports, supplementation, property. So I kinda, I kinda had an inclination that your first business isn't gonna be your only business.

And your first business a lot of the time isn't gonna be gonna be your most successful business financially.

So I took a lot of the skills and attributes that were learned within that first business and then implemented them into other businesses which I thought were a better opportunity vehicle in the sense of scalability and revenue as well.

And the one that's really taken off for you the most is the property business, right?

Yeah. It's funny because it was actually, it was great timing.

Maybe 20 minutes before I've just come on here, I'm negotiating a 2.3 million pound portfolio as well. And that's something that if I, if I spoke about that 10 years ago, it would have been so foreign to me.

And I've just continued to keep buying and keep buying and, and reinvest every year. I think I've reinvested probably most of my money into property overall.

This transaction you just talked about, I did, I must have missed whether are you buying or selling?

Buying, yeah. So this will be buying, yeah. So I got the portfolio sent through to me.

It was 12 units, 2 bedroom flats, so be known as apartments in the US but the property valuation of it's about 2.3 million. I'm sure it is 2.39 million, just under 2.4. So it would pretty much double my current portfolio in terms of value.

I've got about two, I've got two, two going through legals just now. So I'd probably get about 2.4, 2.5 million worth of property myself.

So this would almost double my value and take me up to about 5 million pounds, which is maybe about $6 million, I think.

So do you do all of this, the property business, by yourself or do you have some, some sort of a team?

Yes, I've got a big team. So I've got a full property management company that deals with everything from getting the tenants and getting the rent paid.

I've got a full team of tradesmen who do all the repairs, the ongoing maintenance. But also when I buy properties, they will come in and they'll do the full renovation.

So a lot of the times the two properties that are going through legals just now to buy, they're what's known as buy, refurbish, refinance and then rent. So I'll buy a lowish kind of value. I'll carry out a refurbishment on the property. The value will now be here.

I'll then refinance it at the new value, pull out pretty much all my money and then rent out that property and then you can use that pot of money to go again and buy the next one. So all of my trades guys, they go in and they do that as well.

And yes, for me it's pretty, it's pretty hands off in the sense of the only things I ever do is I find the deal, I purchase the deal, get the refurb done and then hand it off to the management company and just forget about it and my mind's then on the next deal.

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Now back to the podcast. So you're just basically at that point the property management company puts the money into your.

Your portion of it into your bank account and yeah, that's it.

I essentially see just a statement coming in. Well, every other day is really though with the rent being paid in and that's it.

You know, there's no other kind of thought that I have about that property. I've got properties that I've bought that I've never been in in my life and I've also bought them without seeing inside them.

And so I might have bought them like tenanted and things like that. And realistically for me it's just kind of numbers on a spreadsheet at this point.

So it's the total valuation of the portfolio, the total amount of rents coming in and my what's known as loan to value. So the amount of equity that I have overall, that's only three things I really care about.

But there. Have you had any people issues, issues with tenants? Is that still. Is that something that even then you don't have to get involved?

Yeah, I mean it's very rare to be honest. I've only really had two issues and 12 years, you know, and they were kind of promptly dealt with.

One of them was during COVID which there was a lot of restrictions and things like that during COVID that you couldn't really do to tenants in comparison to what you can do now. But that one, I think the guy owed me about £17,000 in rent, so maybe about $20,000. I went through the courts, I won. So I was granted the $20,000.

And then a week later I got an email through that the guy had went bankrupt and I just couldn't get any of the money. But my thought process is, my wife at the time, she was like, how can you just be so stoic and so fine about like losing 20k?

And my thought process as well, when you're scaling and when you're growing a business and the more properties you have the board income you have. Every so often you're just going to have a bump. So you can't really let that deter you or dictate your growth moving forward.

You just have to take it in the chin and find the next deal.

Well, that's, it's really a segue into what other problems have you had going back all the way to the gym and everything? What have been your. What's your biggest problem? And I'm.

I'm also interested in, you know, you talking about any mistakes you think you might have made.

Yeah. So when you think about realistically with the gym business.

So probably the biggest mistake that was made at the time was charging too little for a service that we could have probably 10x what we were charging for at the time.

When you set up your first business and if you've never been in business before, like I hadn't, you're very apprehensive about asking people for money for a service you're carrying out because you think a lot of the time that being the cheapest is being the best. Where actually I look at it now that being the cheapest there must be a problem.

Or being the cheapest, you probably aren't the best because you can't deliver the service that's required.

So definitely a lesson learned that I made when we opened up the new gym sites was we started to charge a lot more for the service, which allowed us to scale quicker, which allowed us to hire more staff, provide a better service, provide more customer care and ultimately have a better product because we had more money. You can't be the cheapest and be the best. You have to pick one of the two.

So you have to consider where you're going and what kind of service is that you're trying to offer.

I'm just curious, what is the monthly fee like right before you sold it, what was the highest, you know, monthly fee for. For one person, not a family, to use the to.

Yeah. So when I first started the business, we were £20amonth and when I exited the business, we were about 150 pound a month.

So we kind of seven nearly axed our monthly revenue over the course of that kind of time period. So there was definitely some big shifts in terms of what we were charging and also what people were paying as well.

So 1:30 is probably. Oh, it's probably around $170 maybe.

Yeah, we were $150. Sorry, we were £150amonth at the end. So we're maybe like, I don't know, $190 a month or something. Maybe 185. 190.

That's really interesting. My gym is a, is considered a very high end gym. I pay $210 a month.

Yeah.

I only use one thing there, which is the pool.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's a. And it's a nice pool, but. And then I have to pay. And then I have to pay extra for.

We have a thing called Masters, which is, you know, swim training with a coach.

Yeah.

For older people. And that's another $46 a week.

Yeah.

So.

So that's like nearly $400, maybe like nearly $370 or something.

So I was there and I left because it was like, oh, this seems so expensive. And I went to a much cheaper pool.

Yeah.

And then, but it was crowded and you had to reserve a spot and if you forgot to reserve your spot and then the morning of your, your swim, you were screwed.

That's what I mean.

So I finally said, wait a minute. Investing that money in my health is a good investment, so screw the price and just go back.

Absolutely.

And that is the key thing is that you do realize that the old, the old adage is you get what you pay for, you know, and even in the industry of property, like if you buy properties that are like very low value, like really bad area, see if you buy it for £40,000 today, in 10 years time, it's going to be still worth £40,000. And the caliber of tenant that you get in to rent it is probably not going to be great.

Whereas I've always focused on properties that are in good areas that are all houses that are well looked after, well refurbished, and in 10 years time that property is worth double what I bought it for. And it's a good, solid, working professional tenant that's in there.

So when you hear people having problems with not getting rent paid, things like that, I always ask a couple of questions. Where is the property? How much did you pay for it? Which kind of property type is it? And where did you find the tenant?

And a lot of the time people will say like, oh, it's in this shitty area. Oh, and I got it for a steal. I only paid it for such and such. I've not spent any money on it. It's a shithole inside.

And oh, by the way, I found the tenant on Facebook. And you're like, come on, you know, like if you don't have a professional setup, you're not going to get a professional tenant.

Yeah, you could give a class.

Sounds like I've been, I've been round the block about with it.

Yeah, but then you'd help all your potential competitors, so maybe you don't do that.

That's, that's very true. That is very true.

But I think with, with property, the reason why I'm so passionate about it is I just don't see it as, I don't really see any downsides to it. So I, I was heavily invested in the S&P 500 for many, many years.

But I then looked at a 30 year difference over the S and P and property. And because with property you can leverage the bank that is leveraged the lender, it just was always higher.

You know, with property you're getting paid three different ways. You're getting a monthly rental income, you're getting equity built up and you're also paying down the loan.

Whereas with the S and P, yes, you are compounding on your current contributions. But when you add in the leverage of property, it's just, it's, it's a no brainer.

So Andrew, you told me a few minutes ago that you liked school but you didn't study very hard. And here it is here, you know all this math.

Yeah. To be fair, numbers were always, I really always enjoyed numbers in school.

I will say that I always had an element of just, just natural good mathematics, you know, and that was always something that's, that's kind of pushed me into obviously my, my current rules, but I mean like I got pretty much an F on accounting and finance, which is hilarious nowadays because 90% of my day is looking at spreadsheets and numbers and working out if a deal works or not, you know. So yeah, it's quite a kind of, it's quite a difference from when I was growing up.

So you've told me one of the things that really helps you as you're moving through this business is, is having your own maintenance team or, or it's essentially, it sounds like it's, it's a company that's your own maintenance company. You've got your own property management people.

What other kind of systems or principles have enabled you to go way beyond what most people would do, which is probably, probably buy a couple properties and you've, you've got what, 30 plus more than 30 properties.

What else is, you know, maybe you're going to have to give away some secrets here, but what are your, what are your systems and processes to, you know, keep it growing like that? When most people would say, oh, this.

Is enough, Yeah, I mean I've got about 22, 23 just now. If this portfolio goes through, it would be like 35.

What's helped me kind of, to be honest with you, it's probably the same thing that's helped me in every aspect of business. I have very structured days. I know where I am, what I'm doing and who I'm with on a daily basis. I also have specific days for specific things.

Thursday as a day of meetings, hence why you'll see today as Thursday that you and I are having a meeting. Wednesday is a day of going out and having reviewings. Tuesday is a day with the training academy. Monday is planning and Friday is reviewing.

And that's always been the case because it moves the needle forward.

You have to look at the things that are in the business that move the needle forward that only you can do and then you have to ascertain which things can be trained and delegated to somebody else.

And I'm a big fan of hiring, I'm a big fan of training people, I'm a big fan of allowing them to go out and help you grow that business as well as we get into 20, 25. I also am a big fan of things like AI. I use certain CRM systems, I use high level, which I've used for many years.

I'm also a big fan of digital advertising. So I spend a hell of a lot of money on my ads, have done for eight or nine years now. And for me, again, it all really comes back to the numbers.

I want every aspect of my business to be able to feed into a spreadsheet to see where we're going, to see what expenses are, what our income is, what ROI is on certain types of systems and investments. And then is that moving towards the 3 years, 5 years and 10 year plans.

I'm only 35 years old just now, so when it comes to continuing to scale and grow businesses, there's no reason why I couldn't have a billion pound business valuation come the age of 50 years old. And the thing I really like about it is business is one big infinite scoreboard. There is no, that's it, there Is. No, we finished.

That is all very individualistic. Whereas for me, there is an infinite scoreboard out there.

And when you look at some of the biggest hitters, it would be impossible for me not to be inspired daily to continue to grow and scale the businesses I have.

So you said £1 billion or dollars. Billion pounds, yeah. By the time you're 50, which is 15 years.

Yeah.

And then you'll retire?

No.

So when you describe all your structured days. Two. Two. Two questions about it. So, one, you stopped at Friday. So was Saturday your daughter's day and.

Sunday's your wife's day?

Pretty much, yeah. Kind of meshed together, to be fair. Saturday and Sunday are my wife and daughter's day, to be honest. And the reason is, is because, like, when I.

When I speak about money and when I speak about valuations and things like that, the money, after a certain level, it doesn't really matter. So at 35 years old today, I could retire and have all of my bills and expenses paid from my passive investments, and I could just do nothing.

So it's not about the money, it's about the journey, which is very cliche, but it's about the journey and it's about progressing and moving forward day to day.

But on the flip side, I also understand that nobody on their deathbed spoke about how good their spreadsheet was or how good a quarter they had or how much money they made that year. On your deathbed, you talk about the times that you spent with your friends, your family, and you're surrounded by them. So I have a very.

I have a very strong understanding and I have done for many years of how quickly life goes and how quickly you go from being in your 20s to your 30s, 40s, 50s and onwards. And I understand the value of spending as much time as I possibly can with my mother, with my kids, with my wife, with my friends, with my family.

Unfortunately, my dad passed away in June of this year. So I do have a lot more of an idea of what it's like, and that's why I really do prioritize time with my family and my friends also.

So the structure that you, that you, you've talked a lot about, that sounds kind of natural for somebody who is a bodybuilder and is, you know, working out from an early age, way before any of this stuff started.

Yeah, that, that. Realistically, I think you hit the nail on the head with that because looking back on it, I was almost designed for this life from a very early age.

So from the age of 13 to 17 years old I was competitively boxing, so I was fighting in chores and things like that. And I was exercising three times a week at the boxing club, running twice a week, eating at certain times, going to sleep at certain times.

When I was bodybuilding and competing exact same, I was training at certain times. So there's always been an element of structure to my days, whether it be for sport or whether it be for business.

And it's been such an easy transition to move into that people would maybe look at my day and see my calendar and my appointments and the things I have to do and go, my God, like that's that, that's chaos. Like, how could you live like that with having to stop working at this time and move on to something else at that time?

Whereas it gives me a very good sense of comfort and it actually makes me feel good and accomplished to her dog through all of those things day to day.

Okay, so last question. You've pretty much danced around it, but we haven't used the word that I always use when I talk to entrepreneurs, which is the word grit.

And you have it in like, you know, probably as much as the heaviest barbells you've ever lifted.

And you've sort of talked about how all of the discipline that you had to have for the exercise and has, has fueled everything you've done since then. But there's sort of this open question still, where did all of that come from? Where?

Why did a 13 year old, up to 17 year old already have this kind of discipline which resilience, et cetera, grit. Where did it come from?

I think I've always wanted to be somebody.

Never actually thought about this, but I think I've always wanted to be somebody and have my name mean something and just have a sense of purpose, you know. As I say, I had a brilliant upbringing with my mother and my father. As I said, my childhood was great from a family standpoint, but hard in an area.

But I've all. I've always just liked to beat the previous me. So my two biggest attributes that I possibly have is resilience and durability.

And I've always known that. So when things get really tough, like I've been in court cases through the business, I've had to shut down businesses for over a year due to Covid.

I've been through a multitude of different things and I always go back to my understanding and my confidence that, oh well, you're extremely durable and resilient anyway, so like it's going to be no problem to you, you know, and that is that element of kind of grit, you know, it's not necessarily trying to compete against somebody else. It's trying to be better than I was the previous day.

But I also, as a side note to that, as a slight caveat, I also do have a maniacal side that says if this person can sit on the bridge for 20 hours, I can sell it for 21. And it's always been that way as well.

So super competitor.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's. Yeah, my wife goes on about it all the time. She says, like, everything's a competition.

Does that mean you compete with her, too?

Yeah, I compete with everybody. It's a real problem. Yeah, I don't see it as a problem. I actually really enjoy it because I always. I always want to win. I hate losing.

I really hate losing. I always need to win, and I have a good time doing it.

Which of these traits that you have do you think you're passing on to your daughter?

They're always wanting to win. I see that just now. Like, she just doesn't give up. If she wants something, she's. She's gonna get it. And I see that sitting.

I look at her, and it is, like, looking at, like, a little me. And when I see what she does and how she acts, I'm like, that's her dad.

Our mother says it's stubbornness, which I've got, apparently, but I got that from my father as well, because he was extremely stubborn and just wouldn't take no for an answer.

You're a pretty big guy. Is she gonna be pretty big, too?

She's one of the tallest in her class and things like that in nursery. So she's always been, like, one of the taller kids. I'm six' two and a half, so just under six' three. She's probably.

Our mother's like, five, five, ten. So she's probably going to be quite a tall girl.

And ideally, I want to get her into sports as quickly as I can to have her taught the same principles that I was taught back at an early age.

Oh, this has been great, Andrew. This has been fun to get to know you.

Absolutely.

I appreciate your time and your generosity and everything you've said. People who are startup founders are the people who watch this on YouTube or listen to it on Apple, Spotify. You'll be.

I think you'll be very inspiring to them.

Amazing. I really like, as I say, I'm just back from Florida. I really do like the American culture.

I really, really like the push on entrepreneurship and also people's ability to look at things and think, okay, how far can we push this and how big can we go?

So yeah, the culture and the mantra out there for business is fantastic and hopefully somebody can get at least one or two nuggets from this today as well.

I think they will.

Thank you very much.

Now here's your startup founder toolkit. Number one, the Structure Advantage. Andrew's success isn't random, it's systematic. Monday is planning. Tuesday is training. Wednesday is viewings.

Thursday is meetings. Friday is reviewing. Structure isn't constraint, it's freedom.

When you know exactly what you're doing each day, you eliminate decision fatigue and maximize forward momentum. Create your own weekly rhythm and stick to it religiously. It's the difference between hoping for success and engineering it.

Number two, the pricing Revolution Andrew's biggest mistake? Starting his gym at 20 pounds per month and thinking cheap equals best.

By the time he sold it, he was charging 150 pounds per month, a 7x increase that actually improved his service quality. Stop competing on price and start competing on value. You can't be the cheapest and the best. Pick one.

Premium pricing forces you to deliver premium results, which creates a virtuous cycle of growth. And number three, the infinite scoreboard. Mindset business isn't a game you finish.

It's an infinite scoreboard where you compete against yesterday's version of yourself. Andrew's goal isn't just wealth, it's becoming the best version of himself daily. This mindset shift changes everything.

Setbacks become learning opportunities, competitors become inspiration, and every day becomes a chance to level up. The moment you start competing with your previous self instead of others, you unlock exponential growth potential. That is our show with Andrew.

The show notes contain useful resources and links. Please follow and rate us@podchaser.com designing successful startups. Also please share and like us on your social media channels.

This is Jothy Rosenberg saying TTFN Ta TA for now.