The conversation in this episode serves as a powerful reminder of the impact of personal experiences on professional journeys. Steven Pettigrew and Jamie Simpson, seasoned business investors, join host Matt Edmondson in a candid discussion about their paths to entrepreneurship and their work with Monopoli Capital. The episode opens with light-hearted introductions that quickly shift to the heart of the matter: what it takes to revitalize struggling businesses. Steven shares his early life growing up in an entrepreneurial environment, detailing the lessons learned from his family’s business that once thrived but ultimately faced collapse. This pivotal moment forced him to reassess his identity and approach to business, inspiring him to become a turnaround specialist.

Jamie shares insights into his individual podcast journey, “Get Rich or Cry Trying,” and how it complements his partnership with Steven. Their discussion highlights the balance between personal growth and professional development, showcasing how their different backgrounds enrich their business strategies. This episode is packed with practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, making it a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone looking to navigate the complexities of business.

Takeaways:

• The importance of clear communication and expectations in business partnerships to avoid misunderstandings.
• Social media's impact on mental health, especially among young girls, is alarming.
• Building relationships with your children's friends can create a safe and supportive environment.
• Daily wins can create momentum and confidence, pushing you toward your long-term goals.
• Taking time for self-care, such as exercise, is essential for maintaining productivity.
• Investing in personal development and learning new skills keeps entrepreneurs engaged and motivated.

Links referenced in this episode:

• monopolycapital.com
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnaroundexpert/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenpettigrewinvestor/

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Monopoli Capital
• Olympus
• Olympus Airways
• Juventus Football Club
• EasyJet

If this episode of Push to be More piqued your interest make sure to keep up to date with everything we do here on the Push to be More Podcast.

Welcome back to Push To Be More with me, your host, Matt Edmundson. You know what?

Today we're just going to dive into it because I can't help but feel this is going to be one hell of a conversation. We're sat in the studio here at my office in Liverpool and we've just recorded the episode with Andrew Hart's horn. I don't know when that's going to.

I guess that will come out first because, you know, he was in the studio first and now we're recording it with you guys. So why don't you just introduce yourself super quickly, Stephen Guy.

So my name's Steven Pettigrew, partner at Monopoly Capital, and we are business investors and turnaround specialists for small businesses all over the uk.

Fantastic, Jamie.

Try and do better than that.

I'm Jamie Simpson and I'm Stephen's business partner, I thought you were going to say.

And I'm Stephen's parole officer.

He's a translator.

So it's fair to say you're from Scotland.

Yep.

And you're from the south of England.

I am indeed.

And I'm from the middle. So I guess we've covered the whole breadth of the UK during this podcast. Welcome to the show, guys. I've been looking forward to this one.

Now, like, Andrew, we've met through a sort of an M and A network, haven't we? And we got to meet in Miami. I met you in Leeds, I don't know if you remember. Yeah, I remember we met up in Leeds, an event there, which was.

Which was fascinating to say the least. Did you speak at the Leeds event?

I did, but I don't think we actually met at Leeds.

Right. I definitely met you at Leeds and then we met in the airport at Miami because we had connected a bit before.

Yeah. We were at different passport queues.

That's right.

And then the second time we met was in Little Havana.

That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went and got some good food down there, which was. Which was great. So. But welcome to the show, chaps. It's great to have you on. So the way I.

The way this show works is I always ask people if you had your own podcast. Now you both have your own. You do you have independent podcasts?

We have independent podcasts. Mine is extremely new. I'm only three episodes in.

Wow.

And mine is online.

Yeah.

Stephen's a bit further into it than me and all of his in person, where he lives in the central belt of Scotland. Everyone's within 45 minutes for each Other.

So it's bang on.

Yeah.

So he can have his choice of fantastic guests that live within that central belt. For me to get everyone to come down to me, I thought would be quite. Quite a bit of a task. So I do mine online. So I've done three episodes.

The first person was in Wales, second person was in Portugal and the third person was in Dubai. Stephen's was. One was from Glasgow, one's from Edinburgh, one's from Full Car.

Not as glamorous.

Well the way that they work. Right. So well, let's do the quick podcast plug. So Jamie, what's your podcast?

Get Rich or Cry Trying.

I thought it was when I. Cause I listened to your last episode.

I didn't realize you started a podcast until you sent me a WhatsApp message with the one you recorded episode three with Jeremy Harbour and the Get Rich or Cry Try. And I just thought that is just. Not only is that one of the best podcast names I've heard, but I'm like that so succinctly. Is you, right?

Absolutely.

That could only come from your brain, that podcast title. So Get Rich or Cry Try. And what's yours, Steve?

It's built different.

Built different.

Yeah.

And what show's about?

It's just interviewing business owners. So I tend to get real business owners in person as Jamie mentioned to come and come and see me.

And as he mentioned, everyone's kind of 30 minutes or 45 minutes away from me, which is super handy. And Glasgow tends to be a little bit cheaper to run a podcast than maybe a London.

So that's another different rental fees.

A lot cheaper than London prices, I've got to say.

Yeah.

I thought about flying up to Glasgow to host my. It's so cheap up there.

Let's get the EasyJet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let me ask you this question then.

If you could have anybody on your podcast as a guest, past or present, the only caveat being that they've had to have had a big influence on your life, who would you get to interview and why?

Me first.

Go for it first.

So I actually put a post out about this on LinkedIn. If I was to have another podcast because this isn't going to be good for business.

Yeah.

I would have a conspiracy based podcast.

Okay.

Because I love a lot, kind of guilty pleasure of mine is to go and like look at conspiracy theories.

Okay.

Who shot jfk?

Yeah.

Are there aliens here? Did we go to the moon, etc.

Yeah.

So I'm going to give you two names and I know I'M cheating a little bit here because they're quite big in the conspiracy world. Alex Jones and David Icke.

Okay.

You can go whichever direction you want from there. It won't be good for business if I go down these little rabbit holes.

That's actually really interesting because Stephen is. He never talks about stuff like this. He's clearly, like, got a secret personality that he's trying to push out to the world.

Then say if anyone's listening, I'd love to host a podcast.

At nighttime, I put my tin foil.

Hat on just in case.

Try and listen for aliens coming in.

You know, just hope the FBI is not listening. But they're hacked into the system right now. Do you know what? When I was in Dallas two years ago with my daughter, we went to the JFK Museum, right?

And so where the. The book depository is where, you know, apparently Lee Harvey Oswald shot his rifle that killed jfk. Apparently.

Great caveat. You've got a caveat. It's heavy lifting, that one.

There's some really good conspiracy theories. What. What I remember deeply about that is you stand on the street and there's a big X on the road where Kennedy was shot.

And on the side of the road, on the pavement, or on the sidewalk, as our American cousins call it, there was a chap who, for $20, would sell you a USB stick which had all of the government secrets on, and just told you the truth about jfk because they were lying to you. And my daughter. I was talking to this guy. Cause I found him fascinating, right? The conspiracy, the depth of conspiracy in.

Him, the passion they show for it is crazy.

Unbelievable. And I was so intrigued. And so I was chatting to this guy, and I said to my daughter, who was 15 at the time, I think 15, 16.

What did you think to that? She went dead. He had no shoelaces in his shoes.

That's why he wanted the $20.

And that was the only thing that she could get her head around. Because everything else he was saying, she just could not compute at all.

I've got a fantastic link from JFK to the answer to that question.

Go for it. Yeah. Yeah.

So ask the question again.

If you could have anybody on your podcast get rich or cry, try and he's had a big influence on your life from your past or the present, who would it be and why?

Mine would be Aristotle Onassis. He used to be the richest man in the world. And he was married to Jackie Kennedy. He was the widow of jfk. There you go. Yeah.

So why. Why him? I think that's a good link, by the way. A good segue. Is that actually a genuine answer?

Yeah, no, genuine. Genuine.

That's really interesting.

I asked even what he was going to say, but I'm still trying to translate it anyway. No, he's big influence for me. I like to follow successful people in history. He's former richest man in the world.

Yeah.

He wasn't the smartest. He wasn't. Probably wasn't the best with numbers. He was just a big dreamer.

Yeah.

And a big entrepreneur and. And used his skill sets, sell his vision.

Yeah.

To achieve his goals. And he did that in multiple ways by living on his yacht. So he didn't pay tax and it had a Libyan flag.

So back then that was like the Dubai of its times.

Yeah.

He would go and sail around in his yacht wherever he wanted to be. So if he wanted croissants, he'd sail the yacht to France and send the seaplane to go and get them.

He had beautiful wives and girlfriends and he owned the Olympus brand, so he had Olympus Towers. He owned the Greek airline, Olympus Airways, and fantastic entrepreneur.

I found that the entrepreneurs in the past, though, they tended to sacrifice their families a lot too. So they were awful parents and awful husbands and awful family members in general for success. And they usually had a bitter ending.

So you've got Gianni Agnelli, that falls into that category as well.

But from a business point of view, if you read the story, and he started off with a bit of money and lost it all and had to go and make it again, and he would just spend hours walking around London or Paris or Buenos Aires just thinking and strategizing and I can relate to that a lot. And there was no tech back then, there was no social media.

So he's had to do this with pure mindset, grit and dreaming and turning that dream into a reality.

So, yeah.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of his and there's a film about him which isn't the best, but there's a great book out there as well by. By Peter Evans.

Okay.

That's worth reading. But if. If I could, I'd like to make like a 6, 8, 10 part Netflix series about his life. Yeah, I think that'd be really interesting.

That would be. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Fair play. Why not have a go? I mean, I'd love to see it because I have to be honest, I don't know, I. It's interesting, isn't it?

You sort of mentioned his name and I'm thinking, yeah, actually, how much Do I know about this guy? Because he's. It's not in the usual list of entrepreneurs you sort of reel off, is he? He's not your Elon Musk. He's not Branson.

Yeah.

You know, the sort of the guys that you would expect. So I'm really intrigued. Yeah, yeah. Fascinating. Make this. Make the show, man.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

There's a.

Let's get Nathan to help you. He's behind the camera right now.

Exactly. There's a lot of work. There's an HBO documentary on gianni Agnelli, about 90 minutes long. It's fantastic. Watch.

But it's really interesting because he was into proper Italian fast cars, fast women owns at one point. There's a famous clip on YouTube with Jeremy Clarkson interviewing him because he owned Ferrari. Fiat Maserati. Yeah, he owned. Owned them all.

And at one point, I think he owned a third of all public companies listed on the Italian stock exchanges. Juventus Football Club. Wow.

So there's a fantastic documentary on him, but I'd like to see one in the same ilk for Nasus because he's probably more influential.

Yeah.

In my opinion.

Yeah. No, I'm probably right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. What's your favorite conspiracy theory?

The one that I think everyone's fascinated by is the. The bin landing. I think we did quite the moon, but a lot of people don't.

Yeah.

I don't think we did people.

You don't think we did people?

Picking that apart.

You know, I think they said that to distract the Russians, so the Russians had something to focus on for 10 years to try and beat America as a great big distraction tactic while they got a head start on the Russians on the. The spy world and the espionage side of things. I think it's one big conspiracy, if you like. I mean, I have known to be wrong once.

Yeah.

It's an interesting one, isn't it? Because, I mean, I. I just assumed that they landed on the moon because I've seen the movie with Tom Hanks.

Yeah.

I thought you would say Wallace and Grump.

Toy Story is real as well.

It's interesting because my Toy Story came out whenever, you know, my kids grew up with the Toy Story type thing, and so we're convinced the toys would talk when you watch kind of movies like that.

Yeah.

But if you think about. I mean, we grew up with Roadrunner, you know, the belief that you could run off a cliff and it'll be.

Fine just behind you.

Just a big rock falls on you. You'll be.

I put on Wacky Races for my kids the other day and I only realized. And at the time that they only ever made one series though.

Yeah.

I thought it was just a longer. I thought it was on for about 20 years.

Yeah.

Before I was born.

Yeah.

And put it on for my kids. Just realized it's one series and they just repeat. Repeat.

Okay. The other one, that's just a, A short series which surprises everybody. I don't know if you, if you remember the TV show Fawlty Towers with John.

Thirteen episodes, is it?

No, it's like six.

Oh, really?

Yeah, it's like six or seven episodes and that was it.

And we just fallen as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had. At our house, we had. She's just moved out, bless her. One of our.

We have lodges at our house, a big house and we just, we enjoy having people live in the house. In her early 20s, so in a sort of very different generation to me, Similar age to my kids. And I'm like. She'd never seen Faulty Towers.

And I'm like, oh, you have got to. And then you put it on and it's been 20 years since you've seen it.

You go, I understand why this is not on television anymore because it just wouldn't get through all the modern day sensibilities.

No.

I was watching the Office recently, first like series, and it was just like so funny watching it back. Yeah. But again, some of those jokes you couldn't get me.

No.

And that wasn't that long ago.

No, no, it's fascinating. Yeah, yeah, really, really fascinating.

Just some of the stuff they were saying, you're like, my favorite episode was Faulty Towers was the one with the Germans. Yeah, yeah, we.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean.

Just great. Absolutely. If you haven't, if you're listening to the show and have no idea what I'm talking about, just go and Google faulty town.

YouTube it. YouTube clip.

Yeah, watch the Germans. Faulty Towers.

It's just probably the one with the.

Most views, the most famous one with John Cleese. So tell me a little bit about Monopoly Capital.

That's a good segue. So we, we help business owners to grow, scale and exit their business.

And specifically, we tend to work with businesses doing between £500,000 of revenue up to £10 million. Just the other day we closed a deal for a business doing £7 million. We tend not to buy the business outright.

We tend to partner up with a business owner and help them fix some of the pain points they may have, whether it's cash flow, lack of profit, Lack of a marketing system. Or maybe they want to sell the business and they don't know how.

Yeah.

So we. Because we've got a different skill set, myself, Jamie and. And Monopoly itself, we can put that to work and, and fix those pain points.

And is it going well?

Yeah, absolutely, if We've got around 13, 14 companies in the portfolio.

Yeah.

That we have equity in and we help them achieve whatever goals they want. So they all vary. So, yeah, we got a cleaning company up in Edinburgh already quite profitable, really profitable, actually.

But they just wanted support in putting in systems and putting in a team, putting in marketing, diversifying their client base. So that's the challenge that we will work with them to solve and have done really successfully.

Then you've got other companies that have cash flow issues, perhaps want to restructure some debt. Yeah, maybe once refinance some debt. Or they lack professional contacts.

And instead of spending another year trying to find the right people, by partnering with us, we can plug in our contacts, our systems, skill sets, take things to the next level. And it's great for us because no day is ever the same.

You've got different owners, different businesses, different industries with different problems. So it keeps us on our toes as business people and gives us a more varied outlook on. On the world of small business across the uk.

So how did your. You guys all meet? Because there's three of you, right, in Monopoly Capital. Yeah, yeah. How did you guys all get together?

So Jamie will tell everyone that I slid into his DMs one day, which is partly true, to be fair to him, but we were all independent business acquirers in our own right before we got together, we'd all bought businesses, sold businesses in our own Right. But I think probably our realization from everyone was that it's more fun to do it with others. We can do more together. Yeah, we can offer.

We've got different skill sets. So it means that. An interesting thing as well. If one of us is on holiday, it doesn't mean the whole thing stops. We've got each other to back up.

So, yeah, as you started the conversation, Matt, we were all part of an investor network that we. That's how we got to know each other originally. And yeah, we got to understand each other's skill sets, our backgrounds, our values.

And we've been building that Monopoly brand for the last two years now. And yeah, it's been going really, really well.

What's been the biggest challenge you guys have faced as a partnership? Because I think partnerships are quite unique when they work.

Having Had a few failed business partnerships in the past and actually one really good successful business partnership. I'm kind of curious, how do you guys deal with the challenges of being in partnership?

Can I flip that back to you and say, what's the difference between your successful ones and unsuccessful? And if there's anything we can learn from that.

Sure, you just take the podcast. No, no. It's an interesting one, isn't it? If I look back over my life and people say, have you got any regrets? I don't really do regrets. Right.

I think you have to move on.

But there are definitely things that I would change, one of which was a business partnership that I had with my then best friend and we had a business and we'd been working together for a long time and there came a point where I had an opportunity to get involved in an E commerce business and take a step back slightly from the business that we're in. And actually if I knew back then what I know now about company acquisitions and stuff like that, I think I would have had a different conversation.

I wanted to stay involved in the business, but just be a bit more distant. And my business partner didn't want that. He wanted the whole business. So at that point it's like, well then there has to be a price.

You know, how do, how do we agree what the price here is for this? And we did. We'd agreed a price for the business, at least what I. And we were both happy with that price. Turns out he wasn't that happy.

And it all went very wrong like a few years down the line and imploded. And so I lost my more than the money. I lost my best friend and my kids, played with his kids and we went on holiday together.

And it was, it was, it was horrific in many ways. And I think it's because we were friends. We didn't talk about what the end would look like.

Does that mean you're assuming that everything's going to work itself out because you're best friends, because you're always.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think when I. One of the most successful business partnerships I've had in the.

In that, funny enough, in that ecom business, in the, in the beauty business, we had very clear, you do this, I'm going to do that aspects of it. And this is what an exit looks like. And so we were really clear from the start what our expectations were.

And I think every business partnership I've had since then, it's very clear of what could make this go wrong and how do we deal with that while we're still talking to each other and sort of preempt that in many ways.

And so I don't know if that answers your question, but I think it was naivety on my part that just assumed everything would be okay because we were mates.

So start with the end in mind.

Yeah. I think just have the real complicated conversations, like ones. If we fall out. What happens?

If you want to take this into a direction with your conspiracy theories and I don't want to go that way, Jim. I mean, it's those. What. What are the questions that could derail this?

The thing is entrepreneurs, we're all. Most of us are wired in such a way that we want to. Everything is going to be positive. And you don't.

We don't take a minute to actually think of the outcome at the end because sometimes shit happens, doesn't it?

Yeah.

You know, and things don't work out the way they're supposed to. But if you have that in writing and beginning, it mitigates that, doesn't it?

It does, it does. Like I know now, if I'd have had in place what you. You and I would affectionately call the WIBO deal, if you know, the.

The document which says, right, These are the 5, 6, 7 or 8 clauses that we would put into place to make sure that this is going to work. If I'd have had a contract at the start with clauses in like that, it would have been much simpler.

And we use those clauses as well. And the reason why those clauses are so effective is because those clauses are there to protect the best interest of the business, not an individual.

So it's checks and balances to make sure that one person can't take advantage of another one and to always protect the business.

And we use those same clauses ourselves and works really well with owners because it gives them comfort that we're not going to do anything that they wouldn't be happy with as well.

Yeah.

It's an unbiased document, isn't it, to protect all shareholders of the business.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know we didn't have that, so hence the reason. I'm curious how you guys manage the challenges of the running a business partnership.

Yeah, it's. It's different because Stephen's up in Scotland, I'm in Kent. Other business partners in the middle of the uk.

So, yeah, we've all got different skill sets and we're probably. It's like a marriage, isn't it?

Yeah, you.

You stay married, but you have to evolve because you grow as people, your skill sets grow, your. Your interests change. You have little grenades, they're called children thrown into the marriage. And that can happen with business owners as well.

One person might want to do a deal, one person might not.

So, yeah, it's just about, I think, taking the emotion out of it and having sensible conversations and say, well, what are we actually trying to achieve here? Are we trying to earn cash flow? Are we trying to get exits? Are we trying to help other people achieve their goals?

Are we doing this for the right reasons? And I think once you put it under that, that microscope, you can assess from other people's answers what the goal is.

Yeah.

And at the moment, we're currently aligned.

To take that stage further, though some of the businesses we've done deals with, we have made mistakes.

Yeah.

You know, we're not going to pretend every day was worked. We've had some deals that haven't worked.

And the reason for that is they've got through that filtering process initially where we thought they were going to be a certain type of person.

We got catfished.

Yeah, exactly. That's basically what happened.

Yeah.

And some of these scenarios, the business owner is in a very vulnerable position. One I'm thinking of was in a lot of debt. We had a solution that could resolve that.

And then that person puts a certain face on to, you know, show themselves in a certain light.

Yeah.

And then once you fix all that and everything's rosy again, they go back to type.

Yeah.

And. And that's something that we're trying to get better at. We can't make it perfect. But. Yeah, you've taken that stage further.

Some of the partnerships we have, even though it's in writing, what's supposed to happen for both parties, sometimes the other person can still decide to do something totally different.

Yeah.

You know, contracts, as we all know, our contracts, you know, worth the. What the two people saying that are going to put into it, you know.

Yeah, yeah. The only person that ever wins when you. When a contract fails is a lawyer. Right. No one wins when it starts to go very wrong.

It's one of my observations in life.

But I think that's on us, you know, because we need to develop the skill set of creating those filters so people don't slip through the net as much. But we are optimists, we do believe that people are naturally good.

Yeah.

We don't want to go in saying, oh, they could mess us about here, so let's put in this clause and stop some doing that. We like to take people on Face value. But yeah, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But it's down to us to improve that. You never.

You're not born with a gut feeling and gut feelings made through your experiences in life. So you take those experiences, use it to enhance your gut feeling and take that into the next opportunity.

But nine out of 10, or I'd even say 99 out of 100 have been really, really good. You do get the odd one. But life's just a numbers game, isn't it?

It can be like a lot like that. And actually the. The beauty of it is just to go, let's just call this what it is, and. And let's just go our separate ways.

Yep.

Right.

Take the emotion out of it.

Take the emotion out, everyone just moves on. And actually, I think that's quite a unique trait to do with. I think entrepreneurs have a really unique way of dealing with failure.

Do you mean when things don't work out?

Yeah.

And actually just data, isn't it? Yeah, it's just data that didn't work. So let's zag instead of zig next time.

Yeah. What can we learn from that?

Yes, let's move forward next and don't.

Dwell on that as well. To like a big strength of successful entrepreneurs as they have failures and just move on quickly.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what's. If I think about your. If you think about your personal life, what's some of the big challenges you've had to deal with personally? Stephen?

So back in the day, my mum and dad had a pretty big business and that's like going through the whole story, except a separate podcast on its own. It was quite successful, 35 million pounds a year for a long time per year.

But eventually it collapsed and when it was collapsing, I kind of had to go through a bit of an identity shift as I. Because I was coming through that business as the heir to that business.

Yeah.

You know, that was my life from 14, so I was going to be taking over that business and stuff, and then when it collapsed, you're like, I need to recalibrate here and decide what I'm going to do. So I was a bit of an identity shift and having to that point pivot and learn new skills and. Which eventually has got.

Got me to where I'm today, working with Jamie and the guys. So, yeah, that was probably the biggest thing, going through a bit of an identity shift in my early 20s, which. Which again, I don't agree at all.

I would go back and it was painful.

Yeah.

Very painful. But it shapes you as a person.

It's funny how that works, right?

Yeah.

You know, you. All these things that we try and avoid, actually, when you go through them, it's amazing how much better you come out the other side.

Yeah.

Because you can learn from it and.

You can deal with so much more. Like the ability to deal with stress. I think it's one of my good traits. I can take on a lot of stuff and not feel the pressure.

Yeah.

So, yeah, that's me, Jamie.

I tried doing a big M and A deal in my mid-20s.

Yeah.

11 million transaction, raised 8 million of debt. Just needed to find the equity piece, which ultimately I failed to do. But surrounding myself with good. They are good people, to be fair.

Yeah.

But perhaps the wrong people for the. That transaction and took some advice that turned out not be the best advice. Cost me my life savings, which back then was a lot of money.

It's probably about 40, 50 grand I spent on professional fees, solicitors and accountants for due diligence. But I think the biggest part of that was in hindsight I did allow. But I was being guided by people more experienced than me.

But looking back, I allowed that deal to. To go into possibly four years. So talk about deal here, where you get obsessed with one deal.

Yeah.

That went on four years.

Wow.

So I don't regret it. It was an amazing experience and again, it shaped me and it was. I'd 100% do it again.

I wouldn't skip that part in my life, but I would shorten it so that four year experience could turn into a six month experience because it did slow me down and that was very frustrating. So I still had to earn a living, still had to pay the bills.

Yeah.

Buying houses, getting married, having first babies. All through that, that period of uncertainty which created uncertainty not in my relationship, but for my wife. So when you're.

When you're a young woman and you're looking to settle down with handsome stallion like myself. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Disagreements are not good.

No, no. I'd say get it. Yeah.

I didn't. Can't see me shaking my head.

No.

But there's not much. They want stability.

Yeah.

They want stability of finance. They want stability emotionally. They want stability of. What's the word I'm looking for? Position in the world, if you like.

And I was trying to do a huge transaction that was very unstable. Probably made me more emotional in business than what I should have been, which made me more stable now.

Yeah.

So really difficult period. But again, I don't Regret it. The only thing I'd like to do is, as I'm sure we would with every single aspect of.

Of experiences like that in life, if we could learn the lesson quicker and move on quicker.

Yeah.

We'd all be in a better position than we are now. Yeah, that's what I took away from it.

Yeah. It's, again, interesting, isn't it, these. These difficult experiences that you go through. And, I mean, I. I had a beauty business and in 20.

One supplier, right, and that supplier wrote me a letter that I got in January the following year saying we're changing our pricing policy. The more you buy, the more you pay, in essence was what they said. So I lost my business almost overnight because I had to put my price up by 30%.

And the more you buy, the more you pay.

So you're not getting rewarded for bulk buying?

No, no. You're getting penalized for it.

Makes sense.

At the time. It didn't. Looking back, I can understand why they did it because they moved from a model of going selling to me and I sold direct to consumer.

They went direct to consumer.

Cutting you out, in effect.

Yeah. In essence.

Sorry. The paradox with that is that you have this customer who's, you know, get done a lot of sales worth. You feel safe doing that.

But in actual fact, that's where the risk was.

Yeah, a massive amount of risk. And so when they did that, I calculated over the years how much revenue we lost. 38 million. 38 million. That. That one letter cost me 38 million quid.

Right. That's a lot of money. People may say, well, did you go take them to court? Did you sue them? Was it legal?

I'm like, the only person that was ever going to win was a lawyer. Right. Whilst I don't want to go through that again because I don't want to lose that much money again, what I can do is I.

I can categorically say that I wouldn't be here had I have not gone through that. Right. And I actually really enjoy where I'm at right now.

Yeah.

So I'm not thankful for it, but I'm thankful that I came through it.

Other lessons it gave you.

Yeah, yeah. It's a really. It's an interesting one, isn't it? You know, the sort of the Things that you go through in life like that you've both got young kids.

How. Your kids are three and two. And how old are your kids?

Five and three.

So, yeah, super young. My kids are just like ancient now.

You don't look any older than 30, mate.

I appreciate that. If only that was true. That's another conspiracy theory.

Good moisturizer.

I sold beauty products.

Can I say, you must take good vitamins.

Yeah, funny. I owned a supplement company which made me skin.

Volagen.

Yeah, Volagen.

Very good.

Yeah, Good product. Plug. Well done. So you both got young kids. It is an extraordinary time to be growing up, I think. What are your biggest fears for your kids?

One of mines right now in the UK is safety.

Yeah.

A lot of turmoil just now. A lot of questionable things going on with people coming over on boats and stuff that, yeah, I'm not quite comfortable with, if I'm honest.

Locally, to us, there's a lot of people who are unvetted to stay in hotels and stuff. And, yeah, it's a strange time and again, SMP government not to get to political. Right. But conspiracies. Not genuine. Genuine, this one.

I mean, they were. They were going to allow kids to pick their gender, like, without their parents permission.

Yeah.

And it's like, come on. So for me, I think it's the uncertainty of all this stuff, the kind of woke agenda and stuff, which is a real thing. It's not a conspiracy. Yeah.

Safety and general kind of feeling around the uk.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's interesting, isn't it, with the whole gender debate going on at the moment, you know, and.

And again, this is maybe not the show for it, but I understand that you can think one way about whether kids could choose their gender and then when you have young kids, your opinion changes radically, quickly.

Yeah.

Because actually now this is your kids and it's very, very different. Yeah, yeah. And I get that. Jamie, what about you?

I've got a different outlook, actually. I'm not that concerned about much. I'm more concerned with what I'm teaching them and what's in my control. And I'm not this really calm, stoic person.

I'm definitely the most emotional and reactive and volatile out of Stephen and myself by a country mile. But when it comes to my kids, I don't know, I'm just enjoying them. And I don't stress too much about it.

I just make sure that they facetime their great grandparents every day.

We try and get them in a good school so they learn a curriculum that's more beneficial to them and they have a better ratio of pupils to teachers so they, they get a better education. And I'm quite lucky that I get to spend quite a lot of time with my kids having. Yeah, that's the one reward of having your own business.

Yeah.

You get to pick your hours and work around your kids. And Steven and I quite often say, oh, do you mind taking that call? I want to take my kids Ty Condo or I want to pick my kid up from nursery.

So yeah, we look after each other like that and I don't think you can put a price on that. So I'm not really concerned when it comes to my kids. I'm more concerned in with how I'm bringing them up.

Yeah.

And how I can spend my time with them and what I'm teaching them and as I say, call their great grandparents every day. And.

Yeah, the influence you've gotten was more important than any outside influence.

Yeah. And for example, I'm away for a couple of nights coming up here, so I dropped my, my kids off to nursery this morning because I wouldn't see them.

And I said, you've got one job while I'm away to my son who's only three. And he went, I know. I went, go on, what is it? He went, because you're at work, I've got to look after the girls.

And it's just things like that just I can control and try and pass on. But Stephen's kids are a couple years older than me, so that may change. But that's my, my current situation. I'm loving it.

I absolutely love being around my kids and I love teaching them new stuff. And as I say, I put on wacky races for them instead of. Which is great because all this stuff now is programmed to get their, their attention.

Yeah.

And just spike dopamine with little six minute episodes. So I try giving, giving them stuff that, that I enjoyed when I was a kid that I think they could benefit from. Yeah.

I just enjoy spending time with my family. So it's probably my safe place for my family. I stress a lot more Stephen at work.

Yeah.

But then my safe place is to go home to my family and not worry about st. Yeah.

But I completely understand why Steven's of the, the outlook that he is, but maybe I've just not come across that if, if my circumstances were the same as Stevens, I'd possibly have the same outlook as him.

Yeah.

I think that, I mean, again, not to get political, but the SMP was in a very different place, I think, to the UK government, certainly the Conservative Party at the time on some of that.

Yeah, I'm quite ignorant to that, so I've not had to experience my life.

Through that lens, as Sally. I mean, you know, obviously the kids tend to be similar to the parents, obviously, don't they tend to pick up most of your traits.

But when they've got outside influences like that infiltrating them, there's only so much you can do unless you change the environment, which is another thing we're looking at, to be honest. But how about you, Matt? What's your kind of major concerns?

It's an interesting one, isn't it? Because my kids are very different ages, so my eldest is 23, my youngest is 17. So my two boys have left home, they're both at uni.

Zoe is in a final year, A levels. And when they were growing up, I think the thing that I was aware of more than anything was I.

I'm going to have an influence on their life when they're really young.

I'm going to be their hero for a little while and then they're going to start to get friends and at some point those friendships are going to matter more than their relationship with me and what their opinion of their friends is will matter more than my opinion. And so my whole strategy was to make sure that I got on with their friends, if that makes sense.

And so we did this thing when they were growing up, we were like, I wanted to create an environment at the house where if Josh, my eldest, was saying to his mate, so, let's get together, and they were like, where should we go? I wanted his mates to go, let's go to your house, Josh. Right. Because they would feel safe there, they would have some fun.

And that's what we, you know, more by my wife's brilliance rather than mine. Our kids, I just adore them, you know, they're really good people, love hanging out.

I just went and hung out with my son for the day last week, you know, just drove down to Exeter, we hung out, which was great. And I love the fact every stage is mean.

It was great when there were two, great when there were three, but it was brilliant when they were five and it was even better when they were 10. And when they were teenagers, we didn't go through that standard teenage drama that people go through. We just all got on really well.

And I remember doing this thing called fridge rights. So when their friends came, right, did.

You look at me when you said the word fridge?

Because you're a Chicago's best friend.

But, yeah, we did this thing where when they would come around our house, if they'd come around, like, a couple of times, I would say to them, you, I want you to know, we do this little ceremony. You now have fridge rights in my house. What that basically meant was they never had to ask me if they could have a drink.

Yeah.

Or take anything from the fridge if it was in the fridge. Unless it was alcohol.

Yeah.

They couldn't. They could take it. Right. And I remember one. One of Josh's friends, it was like, oh, I've got fridge rights. Do you?

I mean, and the kids come around to the house, and I remember the first time he opened the fridge, didn't ask me, and he went over to the fridge and he stopped, and I'm watching him, and he looked around and he went, I've got fridge fries. I said, got fridge fries. And he was just like, great. Stole all the food out the fridge.

But ironically, all his mates actually bought more food than they took out, if that makes sense, because they started bringing around pizzas and leaving stuff lying around. I mean, it's not the kind of food I would have chosen to buy. I'd just be totally clear. But the intent was there, and so we've done that.

You know, where we created this space where actually it was sort of safe place.

Respect, rules. Yeah.

So now when their friends are back, if Josh isn't around, they'll still come around the house. How you doing? They'll take me out for a beer. Let's like, one of bizarre.

The two years ago, the Open was on in the world, which is on the other side of the water here, the golf Open. I'm not a golf man, but I was given two tickets by a client to go to the Open, and I just put on Facebook, anybody interested in going to the Open.

I don't know what I'm doing, but, you know, if you want to go hang out for the day, I'm quite happy to walk around the golf course. And my son's best friend said, oh, I'll go. You know, one of his best mates. So I said, all right.

So he and I went, hung out for the day, and he was over 18.

I ended up buying the beers because, you know, he was a student, didn't have any money, and he was telling me all about golf, and we just had a great time. The same time I'm doing that, my son Josh is in London, and so he hooks up with my best mate down in London who was Best man at my wedding.

They went out for a meal, had a great time, chatting away, and it was just really bizarre with that sort of phase of life, really. And so, yeah, I don't know if I have any. Like Jamie, I don't know if I have any fears as such.

I just knew that when they were growing up, I wanted to make sure I was involved in who their friends were because I thought that would be the biggest thing. Influence on that.

She must have walked as well.

Yeah, yeah. I'm super. I mean, I. We didn't get many things right. That's true. Actually. I think we were really good parents and this was one of the reasons why.

I think. I think it was a really interesting time. But we, like, I say we get on super well now, the whole family, a lot.

That's very business strategy though, isn't it? Oh, okay. They're gonna trust their friends when they trust me. Let's get the friends on site.

It's a bit like I was listening to a podcast the other day of a guy that owns the most successful private equity firm in the world. Not the biggest, most successful with no losses and the best returns. And he said he likes to look after. And he meant it genuinely.

It was a manipulative. Likes to look after the families of his staff. And by the way, none of his staff that are, I think second tier up or above ever left the company.

Yeah.

Called Shaw Capital. Yeah. And he said he likes to get the family on side because everyone's going to go home and have a bad day.

Yeah.

And when they say, I've had a bad day today and Jamie's done this, Jamie's done that. If the wife can say, yeah, but he's good people.

Yeah.

Looks after us. We go to barbecues around their house. Our kids get a cookie in the post every birthday. If you could win that pillow talk.

It gets people to come around a lot quicker and stops that slow bleed of the relationship. I think that's really important. And you've just done that with. With your children and their network instead of employees. So I really like that, mate.

That's great feedback.

Yeah, no, it's been good. I've. I've really enjoyed it. And I think they. I look at the kids now and the one thing that I can say is I'm.

I'm proud of all of them and I think they're all going to be good contributors to humanity, which I'm really grateful for. Jimmy, know that's your job to get.

Them up to that. Stages that You've done your job.

Yeah. That mentally they're all got good mental health, which is I think is a big deal. Now what do you think to this?

I appreciate this is slightly off topic. I'm just enjoying this conversation. This is what it's like when we got, we talk about other stuff. We just got microphone.

What do you think to this whole ruling of the Australian government recently banning social media if you're 16.

16.

Yeah.

I've not seen this.

Yeah. Yeah.

16 year olds are going to. Under 16, they're going to ban it. Is that right?

Yeah. So if you're 16. Yeah. Under 16 in Australia you won't be legally, you're not allowed to access any form of social media.

I think it's a good idea and the reason I say that is it forces them to make real, real connections with human beings.

Yeah.

Rather than just interfacing this phone in their hand which as we've already discussed is like try to grab their attention all the time. Six second clips, three second clips, mostly created by Jamie. Yeah, he's made a few today already. Yeah. I think it's a good thing.

It's my only thing.

I suppose the only caveat to that is when they get to that age, do they know how, they know how to navigate it because the world is going that direction. Can they monetize it? Because they're going to need to monetize it.

Some other people who've learned how it works and monetized it will be several steps ahead of them the time they get engaged with it. Like other, other nationalities.

Yeah.

Other people are kids from different countries. So it's a difficult one, isn't it? But I think it's a good thing.

Yeah. Any thoughts on it immediately?

I got an image in my head when I was in Australia with my now wife, three kids.

Yeah.

We're on Magnetic Island. Beautiful little island. Tiny island. Sounded a bit Donald Trump then tonight. Beautiful, tiny island. Great guy. Great guy.

And there was a school trip and they were going like fishing for crabs and walking on the beach and I said to my Lucy, my now wife, that's what I want for our kids. The school trips, there's no gadgets or anything. They're enjoying each other's company, they're socializing, they're outdoors. It's fresh air.

Yeah.

And the link to Australia in your comment took me straight to that place.

So if you can create more moments like I witnessed and I just got a flashback to there by eliminating that, I think it's only going to be for the greater good.

Yeah.

However, there are benefits. Social media, if you use it as a tool that people don't, they use it to consume.

Yeah.

It's like there's only two gladiators in the arena, but there's 60,000 people watching.

Yeah.

If you could be a gladiator by using the tool to benefit you, by enhancing your skill sets, fantastic. But unfortunately, 99% of people are consumers and followers and leaders, so.

Yeah, and that's going to get worse, isn't it, with AI consumer more and more and more.

And I first have heard of this, so I don't know much about it, but when governments make a decision, I'm never fully on board with it, but I'd like to see the research and the data behind their thinking.

Yeah.

Don't know much about the Australian government's comment, but if our government decided that, I'd think, well, what's in it for them?

Yeah.

But, yeah, subject to what the data is and the thought process behind it. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense. And I'd be in favor of it for my kids.

And if it wasn't illegal, I probably wouldn't enforce it in my home, simply out of, dare I say it, the battles. Yeah, yeah. The lazy parenting. In all honesty, if everyone else in the world's doing it, it's very hard to keep your kids off it. Whereas if it's.

If it's illegal, it makes my life a lot easier to enforce it.

Yeah.

It's an interesting thing, isn't it? Because, like, go back to the phone. They're getting so much influence from, you know, rubbish.

Total charlatans, you know, and people with bad morals and, yeah. Bad ways of thinking and it's infiltrating their brains and how can they not be influenced by that?

And you're trying to teach them a certain thing in the house. That's a really interesting topic, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. It is. I was. I was. I have to be honest with you, I. There's not many things. I look at the Australian government and think, that was a good job. I.

And I'm not familiar with Australian politics, so I'm not commenting either way. But I. When I saw that, I thought that was really good. I have to.

If you want to know my personal opinion, not that you asked for it, but I'm gonna tell. It's my podcast. I can say what I like. But I thought.

I thought, genuinely, it's really good because if you look at the source of a lot of mental Health issues that kids go through, you can trace it back to social media, you know, and. And how they're interacting with it.

The bullying part, like how many. Like when I was a kid, people were bullying people on msn.

Yeah.

Remember that took the little nudges.

Yeah. But now it's, like, relentless. There's so many ways they can.

But when you turn off msn, the bullying stops. But you don't turn off the phone, do.

No. And the other thing is, when I. When I was in the beauty industry, one of the things that.

One of the stats that came out was, and this was really important to me because Zoe was younger at the time, so she would have been like, 8, 9, 10, I think, when I sort of learned this. And, you know, have you got. Both got daughters?

I have. Sorry.

So you've got two sons. So the relation. Have you got a son and a daughter?

So the relationship you have with your son is different to the relationship you have with your daughter, I think. And I have two older sons and my youngest is a girl.

And I think the way I treat her is different, rightly or wrongly, to the way I treat my absolute boys. Right. And I become way more protective.

And so I heard this statistic in the beauty industry that my daughter, at the age of 13, would see 3,000 images a day of other women, all of which would have been airbrushed or photoshopped in some way. So she would have seen 3,000 images telling her what beauty was, but none of it was natural. Right. I had dinner.

I remember at the same time, I was having lunch with a friend of mine who's. Who's one of the top three breasts surgeons in the UK when it comes to breast cancer.

I mean, he's a really, you know, he's really high up in the system. He said to me that women now, when. If they have. If they have a mastectomy and they're having breast replacements, which is where he got involved.

He didn't do the private work, but it's like when you ask them, what's your ideal breast shape? Replace. You know, you get, in effect, choose, what. What's your ideal breast shape? The answer was, was it a name.

Rather than a size?

No, it wasn't so much that. It was more that the. The ideal shape was unnatural. You could not achieve that shape unless you actually had surgery. Do you see what I mean?

So the only. So the perceived standard was something that was fake.

Yeah.

Something that had to have surgery. It wasn't a natural look, it was a. I suppose an unnatural look. And I remember listening to this kind of thing and thinking, goodness me.

Social media, I think then in the hands of a 13 year old girl, she is bombarded by these things. So I was in a sauna the other day in Liverpool. They've just opened a new sauna. Shout out to wild sauna. Brilliant, clever idea.

Down at the docks, down there with my wife on the opening weekend. We're in the sauna, enjoying it, right? Two girls walk in. I, if they're over 20, I don't, I would not. I don't believe them.

Jamie, one of them had, definitely had surgery, cosmetic surgery, both breast augmentation and on the lips. Right. Sat in the sauna on her phone, right?

Yeah.

Both of them were on their phone taking selfies, posting stuff on Instagram and I thought, dear Lord.

Can't have a conversation with someone, probably can't hold eye contact with somebody. And it's just, this is a, I'm not an expert in this. Embodied dysphormia or something they call it.

And this like they pump the lips up, it's not enough to put more in. Yeah, Constant.

Yeah. Body dysmorphia. It's a big deal. And so I'm.

If this was a society in culture that my daughter was growing up in, it meant my job as a father and certainly that protective nature and I, I've got to, I've got to find an antidote towards this.

And so I think making it to, you know, just cutting out social media until they're 16 because I think those years are quite formative and I think you're right, Jamie, I think you have to make it illegal because you don't want the bells.

No. If everyone else has got it and your kid hasn't then they start to resent you.

Yeah. Because they're the weird ones, right? Yeah, yeah. And that's the, that's problematic. So yeah, fascinating.

What does, what do you guys do to fill your tank, recharge your batteries?

Nothing special for me. I, I go to the gym semi consistently. Not as much as Jamie. I walk the dog every day. I always get steps in.

Always, no matter what's happening, my day always have like two hours during because there's not a lot of sunshine in Scotland, especially this time of year. So I make sure like the couple of hours round about lunchtime are protected. Don't have many things going on.

Yeah.

Walk the dog, get steps in and yeah, that's pretty much it for me. I don't, I'm not one of these Guys, that needs a lot to recharge from. Honest.

Right.

As I say, because I don't get a lot. I don't take on a lot of stress. I don't deal with it badly. So I don't. I don't know. I've never really needed to have a recharge button.

Steven's really chilled. So if there's a situation where I would call an 8 out of 10 emergency, Stephen. It's probably 3 or 4 out of 10.

Yeah.

He's got a lot of reps in of dealing with stress from an early age in business, haven't you? So you're quite. You're quite older, you're quite immune to it. Whereas I'm quite more reactive and want to go. That's my personality as well.

I like to get on the front foot with things.

Yeah.

Like to be aggressive with things rather than sitting back and.

Yeah.

And waiting for other people. I like to get on the attack with stuff. But I'm pretty much the same. So. Like to go for a walk every day, get my steps in.

I love a holiday, but where most people say all inclusive for a week. I like three nights. Go and see a different city. Go and do a food tour. Go and find a coffee shop that locals go to.

Yeah.

Not just a local. Costa or whatever it is. I won't drink that stuff, by the way. Let's leave it.

That was quite handy to say. It's in the train station.

Stephen offered me a coffee from Costa rally and I politely declined.

Is that what you call it? Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to share what. What the decline was, but I definitely understood the answer was no. Yes.

There's a few more sweetie ones in there.

But I like going to see new cities. Florence, Seville.

Yeah.

Amalfi, Valencia. Steven and I actually took both our families at the same time to Valencia in April for a week.

Oh, nice, man.

And just see the kids playing together and in the park and families having a meal together. Then we go and do our own thing. Meet up and play on the beach. That's my happy place, really. And it doesn't have to be week long or inclusive.

I like different cultures and I like trying to blend into different cultures. So not going there and saying, where can I get my fried breakfast and wear my football shirt.

Yeah. Just on that. I've got mates who go to the same place in Benidorm every year and it's like, that is my worst nightmare.

Wearing their ranger shirt, eating their fried big bellies.

Phil.

Scottish.

Would you never do the holiday home thing. Would you never buy the second holiday home?

Oh, yeah, yeah, I would. I mean, Jamie's talking about small mini breaks. I love them as well, I think if. If and when the time allows.

Definitely getting a holiday home or moving abroad is something I would do for sure. Because I, I. Although I'm Scottish, I love the sunshine. I've been working the sunshine, getting out the sunshine.

Yeah.

It's important, though. We're not saying, let's go and live in Spain so we can sit by a pool and do nothing. We'd do exactly what we do now.

We would just do it in a nice cafe or.

Yeah.

Or in a nice terrace.

Yeah.

And. And that's my vision and that's what I'm working on. So what does growth look like personally or professionally?

Both go first.

Yeah. Similar to you. And we're going to say roughly the same thing.

I like to learn new skills quite often if I feel like, for example, just now, sales is something. Working on improving, proven that skill. If. If things are too semi. I get a little bit almost anxiety.

Yeah.

I want to do something else. So, yeah, doing that. Terms of.

Personally, I don't push myself, if I'm honest, too much in terms of sports and stuff, but I do like it when I do different sports that I've not done for you. Well, so that's growth for me. Doing different things that interest me, keep me engaged. Doing the same thing.

Yeah.

All the time is my idea of hell. I think you're going to be a similar answer.

Yeah, I'm very similar. I just like to win the day.

Yeah.

That's it.

I mean, you talk about growth and these huge goals and I've got big goals and showing Stephen my vision board downstairs earlier while you're filming the other podcast. But my goal, my. My aim to get to those goals is by winning every day, because then I can control it and it's maintainable.

So if I just write down five things on a bit of paper today.

Yeah.

Achieve those.

Yeah.

Cross them off. I go to bed tonight knowing I'm on track.

Yeah.

And it's not a case of, am I closer? Am I not? Will I ever get there? I've had a bad day. Maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I need to set smaller goals. Maybe I'm being unrealistic. It's just.

Did you win the day?

Yeah.

Simple. And then you're in control.

And if you win the day and you win more days than you lose, you win the week, you win more weeks than you lose, you win the month, you win lots of months, you win the year. By that point, you identify in your own brain, which is the most important conversation in the world, as a winner.

If you identify as a winner, you start to achieve even more because you don't say, I can't do that. You say, how can I achieve that? What's my priorities? Do I have capacity for that or do I need to say yes or no to that?

Or does it need to replace something else? I'm working on, like, chunk things down. It makes me. Gives me lots of doses of dopamine during the day, but bigger doses of dopamine.

I'm on track to achieve my goals and everything I put on that vision board and in my vision book, I achieve. Do I achieve it as quickly as I want? Absolutely not.

Yeah.

But I think confidence is when you shut your eyes and you visualize your dream life in the future, you actually believe you can achieve it. And I believe that because I prove it to myself every day.

Yeah. Most people, even some entrepreneurs, most people don't have an idea of where they're going.

They stumble from day to day, mistake to mistake, not knowing if I'm making any progress. It's a bizarre way to love.

Yeah.

It is my opinion now.

I'm the same way. And I, I. Going back to your podcast with Jeremy, you asked him what books. I think you know what some of the books he read.

And one of the books he mentioned was the one thing which is a great book, and it's very much a case of, I think that helps you with these kind of things. Simon Sinek. Start with why I understand the, you know, all these things. So powerful. Yeah.

Simple, simple. People over complicate it so they can market it. But if you chunk it down to, to his essence, what. Where are you going? Why are you going there?

Why is it important to you? How can you chunk down those steps?

Yeah.

How can you chunk them down into daily goals today and then win today? Yeah, simple, simple. Don't need to over complicate it. And then if you win the day, you go to bed feeling good.

But the beautiful thing is, so I know that if I hit my calories, drink my water and do my exercise, I'm gonna wake up in the morning as well as going to bed at night saying, yeah, I won the day, first thing I'm gonna think of in my brain is, oh, I won yesterday. I'm on a roll.

Yeah.

So you start with momentum, and that's before you've even done anything. Because you've got momentum.

Yeah.

And that's the benefit of winning.

Momentum's a big deal, right?

Huge.

I think it's a massive deal in both ways. Yeah.

Positive and negative.

Yeah, it is. Yeah.

Get yourself in a slump. Momentum could be. Be the devil you can. But it can also be a fantastic tool to help you achieve your goals.

Yeah, no, it can. And I think, like you say, it's such a great answer. Winning every day builds that momentum.

Confidence.

Yeah. You're not trying to hit 100 miles an hour straight away. It's like I'm building, I'm building, I'm building and now I'm flying. It's. It's a big deal.

Tortoise and the hare, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. Very good, gents. What's your question for me? This is where I ask you for a question.

And I'm going to take this video snippet, I'm going to put it on social media, and I'm going to answer it. So if you want to know my answer to Stephen and Jamie's question, come follow me on social media, LinkedIn and Instagram @. Edmondson. Sorry, carry on.

What is your favorite conspiracy theory?

I'm gonna find out at dinner tonight. That's it.

Yeah. I don't know if you want to see this one. You go first.

My question is there's one film I watched that made me want to be a businessman.

Okay.

And motivated me. Sorry, not motivated, but inspired me to be a businessman. And that film was the Thomas Crown Affair.

Okay. Brilliant film. Yeah.

The Pierce Brosnan.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Classic.

Yeah.

Great music.

Yeah.

Everything. Everything was M and a film Billionaire.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Yeah.

What film has inspired you the most in any aspect of your life?

Okay, great question. Are you sticking with a conspiracy theory one?

No. I'll give you a real one. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Very good. Okay. I know the answers to both these questions. Like I say, if you know, I haven't got answer and come follow me on social media. Edmondson.

But that's enough about me, gents.

If people want to reach out to you, if they want to connect with you, Monopoly Capital, or even you guys individually, what's the best way to do that?

Got a new website that's launching and I'll be honest, I don't know the full website address to you.

MonopolyCapital.com if it's going to be that.

One, that's the one to go to. Brand new website, brand new redesign. It's looking beautiful. Really, really fantastic work. The guys have done for the website.

Me personally, best place is LinkedIn. Handle is even PettigrewInvestor. And that's where I'm most active.

Fantastic.

Jamie Simpson. LinkedIn. Jamie Simpson Monopoli. YouTube, Jamie Simpson Monopoli. Instagram, Jamie Simpson Monopoli. Find me on all platforms.

But Steve and I are super active on LinkedIn.

We're more serious in business than we've let. When I think in this podcast. So, yeah, we do actually get some stuff done.

We have fun when we do it.

Oh, yeah. It's good to have personality.

There's a lot of business people and it is all about making money and numbers and things. We cover that. But I think you could have fun with it.

Yeah.

Which is probably our usp, actually.

Yeah.

Because there's a lot of boring people out there that have got a lot of money and they sit on it and they don't know what to do with it.

Yeah.

And they're not very enjoyable to be around. Whereas I think we can make business fun. Got proven track record of growing, fixing and selling companies independent of Monopoly.

We've done it ourselves.

Yeah.

And we form Monopoly to do that again.

Yeah.

But business could be fun. You can have a laugh.

Yeah, absolutely. As we've proven today. As we've proven today. And I'm assuming you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to be, you know.

No, no. Showing the application for.

Brilliant gents. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been phenomenal.

Thanks for having us, mate. Appreciate it.

It's been great. It's great. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for listening to the podcast or watching it, wherever you get it from. It's been great.

Make sure you, like, subscribe and do all of that good stuff because we've got some more great conversations lined up. Although I don't think anything is going to match the conversation we've just had.

We've got more great conversations coming up and I, of course, don't want you to miss any of them. And in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first. You are awesome. Yes. You are created awesome. It's just a burden you've got to bear.

These two beautiful gentlemen in front of me have got to bear it. I have to bear it. You've got to bear it as well. Push to Be More is produced by the phenomenal Podjunction.

If you want to know more about how to use podcast to grow your own business, go check out podjunction.com connect with Sadaf and come follow us on that podcast. It's brilliant, actually. It's really great fun. So do go check that out.

Anything you want to know about this podcast, go to pushtobemore.com it's all there. You won't miss anything. But that's it from me, that's it from Stephen, that's it from Jamie. Thank you so much for joining us.

Have a phenomenal week wherever you are in the world. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.

Sa.