In this conversation, Matt interviews Francisco Gaffney, who has a diverse background in IT, e-commerce, and mergers and acquisitions. Francisco shares his journey from growing up in Argentina to moving to Ireland and eventually starting his own business as well as his interest in helping companies expand globally. Francisco highlights the importance of mindset in finding success and discusses three key attributes that have helped him in the world of business:

• The Importance of Resilience: Francisco emphasises the value of resilience in both personal and professional life. He discusses how teaching his children to be resilient has been one of his biggest successes, highlighting that the ability to bounce back from setbacks is crucial for long-term success.
• The Role of Ambition and Curiosity: Francisco's journey illustrates the power of ambition and curiosity. From living near a rainforest in Argentina to exploring various industries like IT, e-commerce, and mergers and acquisitions, his drive to learn and grow has been a constant motivator.
• Gratitude and Mindfulness: Francisco practices gratitude journaling to stay grounded and focused. This habit helps him appreciate the present moment and maintain a positive outlook, which he believes is essential for personal happiness and professional success.

Whether you're a seasoned business leader or an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is packed with wisdom and helpful tips for finding success. 

Francisco Gaffney - Push to be More

Sadaf Beynon: Hey there, and welcome back to Push To Be More, where we explore what truly fuels the journey of life. In this conversation, Matt interviews Francisco Gaffney, who shares his journey from growing up in Argentina to moving to Ireland and to eventually starting his own business. He talks about the importance of resilience, the ability to adapt to different circumstances.

And also his biggest success which he attributes to his role as a parent. You can find all the detailed show notes and a complete transcript of this conversation with Francisco over at PushToBeMore. com. And hey, while you're there, sign up for our newsletter. Each week we'll send you all the show's insights and links directly to your inbox, absolutely free.

Francisco Gaffney: Thank you very much for having me.

Yes, I'm, I'm doing very well today and, uh, yeah, I appreciate the opportunity to be in your podcast, which is quite impressive.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, it's great. It's great to have you on. And we said in your bio, when we introduced you that you've. You've been in Argentina, you've been in Ireland, and now you're in Barcelona, um, it's an interesting sort of journey around the world, are you enjoying Barcelona?

Francisco Gaffney: Pretty much, particularly now that we have 27 degrees, and uh, well, compared to Ireland, my son is still in Ireland, working there, and it's 12 degrees or something like that, and I say, yeah, I don't, I don't miss that summer. No, not at all,

Matt Edmundson: not on any kind of level. It's, um, it's 15 degrees here in Liverpool today.

Um, but yeah, going to Sub Summit. Uh, and I'm going to enjoy the, whatever it is, 25, 30 degree heat. Uh, actually

Francisco Gaffney: I had a chat with somebody yesterday in Austin and was 33 degrees. Oh, get in Austin, Texas. Yeah.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Beautiful part of the world. Yeah. A beautiful part of the world. So Francisco, let's start with, uh, my favorite question actually to ask everybody.

The only caveat being that they've had to have had a big impact on your life. Who would be a guest on your show?

Francisco Gaffney: Um, impacts in my life. That's a big one. Um, I, I, I think it's a, it's a number of people. I don't know why, where to pick because, uh, um, Actually, I don't quite remember the name of the gentleman.

Matt Edmundson: yeah,

Francisco Gaffney: now we, it's very common to talk about mindset, but at the time, I think that was like, how long, like 120 years ago, talking about mindset, how people thought things through.

Yeah. To be successful I, I think, was revolutionary. And there's a famous phrase that say is attributed to, uh, how is called this guy, um, Tony Robbins mentor, uh, Jim Ron, I think it's called. Yes, yes. Jim Ron. Jim Ron. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, he says, you, you are the average of the five people that is around you. Mostly, but, but that phrase comes from that book, from that, that encyclopedia of success.

Remember at the time was the beginning, well, mid end of the industrial revolution. So those families say, what is next? What is coming next?

Mm-Hmm. .

Francisco Gaffney: And, and, and that guy took the time to write all these things to say, okay, what is coming next? So you are very prosperous. You, you have a, your industrialists, and then we have the Carnegies and, and all these guys that came to America and in, in, yeah.

All the JP Morgans and all these guys that we know today as the big, big names of the early 1900s. Um, and I, and I think that this guy would be interesting to interview what triggered him to do these kinds of things.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: Because, uh, um, I, I like to go to the, to the root as, as far as I can of the, the knowledge.

And, uh, for example, when, when I was into Tony Robbins, I say, who, who teach this guy? Because this is not, this is coming from somewhere. And then I found Jim Rohn. And when I found Jim Rohn, I found his mentor, which is, uh, Lee Hoff or G Hoff or something, somebody like that. And, and then I found this other book.

I mean, the integrity of the knowledge at one point. The marketing start to fail because actually they don't have the values that triggered that, that knowledge. They, they just repeat and rehearse, not rehearse, remarket or repackage the same knowledge in different ways. Um, anyway, so that, that's the person that we bring to, to I think that'd be really

Matt Edmundson: interesting.

The guy I'm thinking of, I don't know if it's the same guys. Um, cause I, I, I know what you mean and I, I think I've I can picture Dale Carnegie's book, you know, um, the how to make friends and influence people and the other books that came out of that time, like Think and Grow Rich with Napoleon Hill.

Francisco Gaffney: Napoleon Hill, yes.

Matt Edmundson: Um, people like that, sort of old school, the original sort of self help guys, weren't they? Yeah. They're sort of the old school guys, all books which have had, like I would say, probably one of the most profound books that I've read is How to Make Friends and Influence People. Yeah. You know, it's, it's an incredible book.

But I think, I think you're right. Some of these sort of old school, original pioneers in, you know, this sort of, you know, Movement would be really, really interesting people to talk to. Um, you know, just like Elon Musk, who would be a modern day equivalent would, is, would be a really interesting chap to talk to.

I think Dale Carnegie, you know, would be. What would be extraordinary, Andrew Carnegie, you know, um, who was attributed as saying he wanted his epitaph to read, Here lies a man who knew how to hire people smarter than himself. Uh, you know, which is great. Um, so yeah, totally with you on that. Totally with you on that.

so, you know, uh, Francisco, we, we read in your bio that, you know, you've been involved in it, you've been involved in eCommerce and Amazon and selling all over the world. You're now involved in, uh, mergers and acquisitions and, and, and, you know, building a gross requisition, things like that. What's the this What's a key challenge in all of that that you have faced?

I'm you know, because it sounds as though it's a wonderful resume to read, but I'm assuming it's not all been that straightforward or linear.

Francisco Gaffney: By far it is not.

Poof! There's so many things in there. I think, how can I put this?

But actually now you're making me think because I never think in what happened 10 years ago, 15 years ago and that kind of stuff. Um, I think that. It is ambitious ambition, but it not, not in the, in the bad way, like, uh, I want everything for me is, is, uh, is like nature. So, um, I, something that is not coming across in my, my resume ever is I lived for four years between the, the frontier between Argentina and Brazil in the rainforest.

If you know, if you don't know the path or the marks that they leave, you, you get lost forever. So literally the rainforest suck you in and you don't know where to get to exit. Uh, the amazing thing about that is that the city council of our little town, Uh, used to have this big bulldozers with the, with chains, like were big, like a torso of a man and they plow, not plow, they, they will go with this bulldozer around the town to avoid the rain forest to go over the town because it grows so fast that actually you can physically see in a week time how fast it's growing.

Wow.

So that for me was like a, so if that is done by nature by itself, how much we can do when we can manipulate things, manipulating in a good sense, like I said, for example, business or an education or human relationships and that kind of stuff. Um, so that, I think that this is the nature of my ambition. I say, when I, when I started with IT in 96, 98, I did to, I went to school, I started to programming and the kind of stuff, uh, and I thought, I said, Oh, this is amazing.

com, that kind of things. And I wanted to do a, um, a travel portal. Because I say, Oh, we are going to, uh, decentralized or democratize, whatever you want to call it, the, the travel agencies that they capture their audience and they are the guys that have the knowledge and that in some way pushed me to, in some way or how that obviously didn't work out, but, um, But did, did grab the attention of people in, in Sabre, which is a, the GDS from American Airlines.

Yeah. And, um, so one thing, I think that this is the kind of things that. Drives you to different areas in in life. They say, okay, I have a push to go somewhere. Uh, and then the people start to notice that drive, which is not, uh, is quite selfishly. So I, I don't have an intent to say, take advantage of anything or anybody

And, um, later, probably we're going to mention all them, my new ventures, which is a corporate advisory boards. Um, one thing that I'm, I'm helpful. Been somebody is to expand globally. Mm-Hmm, . But they, they are looking, they were looking for funds, like heavily looking for funds and they couldn't manage to get the, the fundraising.

And uh, but I say, well, hold on a second. I say there are companies that are looking to service these kind of things. Why we don't look for this company. They already have the infrastructure to resell your products. And we don't have to raise funds. We pretty much have to sign a contract.

Yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: And that can put, can initially start to get the ball rolling until the whole thing is, um, uh, proven enough for an investor to say, Oh, I like what you're doing.

This is what I have to do. I have my team to help me out. But then you say, what I do with all the other things that I can do that today are not used. And, so that's what, sorry, I'm diverting a lot in different angles, but, This is, Perhaps one of the things that started to motivate me to go through different things throughout the years.

I'm

Francisco Gaffney: Oh, sure. That was 1974, I think. My father, my father was, um, uh, he left, uh, he was a pilot in the Air Force, Argentine Air Force. He left the force and he decided to be a farmer.

So, and he was very, very keen into renewable, uh, farming

and

Francisco Gaffney: the timber, the timber industry was one of the most impacted in that, in that kind of things. So he bought a plot of land. Well, a plot of land, somebody might say in the UK, like a, like a patch, but there in the middle of the forest was a, sorry, I was about course, it was a massive place.

Matt Edmundson: back in the seventies.

Francisco Gaffney: Yeah, back in the seventies. Uh, and the reason why is because the, the, the soil is so rich that they can plant the pine.

They have a cycle until before you can cut it for, for the timber industry, because they need to certain thickness, certain humidity, certain length. Autologies and there is a particular pine that grows very fast and very good in that area. So he decided to go there and move the whole family from, from 14th floor apartment in the middle of city center to the middle of nowhere.

Wow. That's

And I liked your Tetris thinking analogy, you know, your, your, your, your, the ability to join dots and, and sort of put stuff together. What's been your biggest success as a result, do you think?

Francisco Gaffney: Probably not in the corporate world, uh, but mostly with my son and my daughter. Um, I, I think I'm an awful parent.

Um, nobody teaches you how to be a parent. It's

Matt Edmundson: very true. Yeah.

Um, but at the same time, very both very rebel, if you may. So they wanted to experiment things on early ages and doing things actually I, in our, at least in my interpretation of a parenting or education, I say, why are you going to do that? No way. And, uh, But I learned also, I learned quite particularly in, in, in teenagers, uh, when they were teenagers, the thing that I learned, um, particularly with my, my, my, I have a son and a daughter, um, uh, particularly with my son, I learned actually, it's not about restricting them.

and

Francisco Gaffney: I'm saying yes.

Why I'm saying yes. And this is why I'm saying yes for to something or why I decide not to get involved in anything at all.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: And um. And I think that that was my biggest success because, uh, uh, both my, my son and my daughter, they are quite independent, uh, happily now financially and, uh, in, in the, my son only called me once and again, he's 28 years old, uh, he's still living in Ireland.

He has his own job. He's, he's developing his career in 3D design for, for video gaming. Um, and, uh, he, he never rings. The mother is not happy.

But I say, okay, what's going on with this guy? And I have to ring him and say, what's going on? I'm fine, what do you want?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And say, okay, stay in touch, but no

And I say, okay, now he, he already explored what, what it means being employed. And we're happy now that he's exploring and say how I develop my own business.

Um,

Francisco Gaffney: so, uh, well, my daughter is finishing master's now with also in art, well, digital arts, which is 2D, um, design or movies, cartoon, that kind of stuff.

And, um, and he's connected, he, well, she learned from the mistake from the other guy and she's going very fast into connecting with people very quickly. Right. Um, the, I'm, well, she's still living with us. And, uh, you know, 24 years old. So I know her, she's alive when she wakes up around 11 in the evening.

Matt Edmundson: yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: So, um, I say, Oh, She said, good morning. I said, good night.

Matt Edmundson: It's really, I love that. How, when I asked you what's been your biggest success, you immediately go to your family.

Um, I can't begin to tell you them. I mean, the amount of podcasts I've been on and people, you know, talk about success, what is success for you? And I, I always maintain that I want to succeed at home first. And I think if I can, if I can do that, Well, that's a really interesting, really, I, I count life to be successful, you know, I have three kids, um, my middle child, my youngest son, at the moment he's on a beach in Jersey lifeguarding, which is a brilliant summer job, you know, he's, he's getting paid to do, sit on the beach, rescue people and, and do workouts basically, it's his, his ideal life.

Um, and I think it's super, super important, you know, the, the ability to network, to be, to hustle, to make a pound. Um, you know, we never actually paid our kids pocket money when they were growing up.

Francisco Gaffney: It was quite impressive.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Well, we didn't do it. What we said to the kids was, listen, if you come up with a business idea and I like the business idea, I'll invest in it.

And, um, we'll see what happens. So my eldest son, when he was, I think maybe eight, nine years old, he decided he was going to set up his first business, which was a chicken business. And so we built a chicken coop in the garden. We went and bought some chickens. I invested in the business. And he looked after the chickens.

Francisco Gaffney: Yeah. Well, thank you. But I like that. I think that is a key word there with this resilience, uh, because it is, is many, many things that happen in the middle between the idea to saying, I've done it, I'm making it.

Yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: And it doesn't always means cash in the bank. Sometimes means, uh, that the idea has been accepted or then how you fund it or how, uh, for example, the Amazon business.

Uh, we started, when I started to do, um, uh, white labeling at the end, it end up being three brands, but at, at the very beginning, I started to, the first thing that, the first thing that I've done was to source the, the material from other people in importing into, into the uk. I was living in Ireland at the time.

Um, my wife helped a lot there because she was saying, I don't like this one. So we went to Tesco's and bought a lot of T towers, which is the best one. So which one we went to sell. So in thinking. So it was a small step until we finally went to China. Well, we went first to Pakistan, uh, but then we find out in China was a better value in terms of quantity, prices, et cetera, and the quality was good.

Why are you doing this? There's no point to doing these kind of things. But I think that is a joy also to what people call the journey. I don't think it's really a journey. Personally, I think that it's something that you have to do and, and how you treat it is, is a, perhaps a journey, the journey. And actually I have an analogy.

Sorry, I'm diverting a lot about it, but, um, uh, I have an analogy that somebody showed me once and I think that that's quite interesting. So there's two, it's a family going to Disney World. From home to Disney World is kind of a trip of like a couple of hours. So you have two children in the back of the car and one guy is saying, Are we there yet?

Oh, I love this. Oh, look at cow. Oh, no, I see a horse or whatever. So enjoying the stuff. Um, so is any difference in the time lapse and in the purpose, in the destination, there's no difference. One guy has a very, very stressful way to see things. I want it to be there right now.

Yeah.

Francisco Gaffney: And the other guy was like a.

Trust in the process, as they call it, too. I trust the process. Sometimes it's very hard to trust the process. So then you stress out with the destination or the objective or the goal. What happened in the middle, the car breaks down. So it's a massive delay. So the guy that is, are we there yet? Get massively frustrated.

Wallet, I don't quite, I cannot pronounce that name. Back to the conversation at the beginning of

Matt Edmundson: the

Francisco Gaffney: podcast, it's a guy that wrote a booklet that is called The Science of Getting Rich. It's only, uh, I think 80 pages. You can read it in one sitting. It's an amazing book. It's a very little booklet, but it's quite impressive.

You have an audio book in YouTube, if you, if you don't want to read.

Matt Edmundson: I'll check it out.

The living, the achievement and whatever is going on with you in the circumstances, daily circumstances, it doesn't really matter. And you shouldn't be worried at all with what's going on. So setbacks, frustrations, or this is not working. So we have a technical issues at the beginning. That's fine. We're going to sort it out.

We cannot sort it out now. No worries. We can schedule another time. But people get very frustrated. Yeah, they do.

Matt Edmundson: Is that why you do, um, is that why you do gratitude journaling? Sorry? Is that why you do gratitude journaling? Yeah. You write down what you're thankful for, but it just brings you back to the present.

You're like, you're like the kid in the back of the car enjoying the journey, being grateful for what is actually going on in the moment rather than being constantly frustrated that you're not where you think you should be.

So, and I do that first thing in the morning. I wake up around six every day, not every day, but mostly that's my usual time because I like early, early, compared to my youth, I now prefer early mornings.

Matt Edmundson: I've found the same thing as I've got older I get up earlier. I don't know what that's all about.

Francisco Gaffney: And, um, Yeah, with a nice coffee early morning, uh, the window of my office, my home office is facing the, I live in a little village outside Barcelona.

So it's, I can see the, the square,

so it's

So, uh, one of them is, this is a, one of, one of the things I'm, I don't quite remember exactly the wording, but actually I, but it is, one is I have to respond to people during the day,

so

Francisco Gaffney: it doesn't matter what message is coming through. I have to commit to respond to people during the day. And the other one is this is an average, this is the average day in my, sorry, this is, um, this is my life in an average day of my ideal life.

Yeah. So just having this back to the journey. So if this is a day, uh, in an average day in my ideal life right now, right here, like having this conversation with you, Um, that's perfect because then, then I'm already leaving my destination.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, exactly. So

Um, and then I have another few things actually I, I, I can't say. Sorry, not for the podcast, because I'm quite private, more related to my goals and my aspirations, etc. But these two things can be shared, because coming back to people is very important. I think it's respectful, because if you're delaying things to say, Oh, I come back because I'm too busy.

So somebody bothered to message you in any way, like WhatsApp or email or LinkedIn or whatever. So at least have the, you know, I don't know, the finance is the word.

Matt Edmundson: Courtesy.

Francisco Gaffney: Yeah. I say, listen, too busy right now. I come back to you tomorrow in two hours, whatever. Um, no, I, I don't mean right away answer, but two hours later, it doesn't really matter.

But I say, yeah, receive. Sometimes I put these messages. I receive your message. Uh, bear with me. I come back to you.

I think in Barcelona would be quite nice. Um, if people want to find out more about you, I know you're into mergers and acquisitions and you're getting involved in that whole side of things. Um, what's the best way for people to do that?

Francisco Gaffney: I'll say LinkedIn is the first, uh, protocol, if you may. Uh, I have LinkedIn on my phone.

I have LinkedIn on my PC. So in the laptop, wherever I go, I, if I see a message in LinkedIn, a connection or something, I answer, uh, in a day, I am LinkedIn three or four times a day. So that's the first protocol, if you may. And then we take the conversation from there. It depends what, what it is. Um, and lately I'm, I'm having like a three lines of communications.

I love it. Particularly for my nature of. Been a house called, um, I, I love the UK because when they say no, it's no, when they say yes or it's yes and there's no mago in the middle. Uh, but, uh, living, I'm, I'm from Argentina. Um, I live in Ireland, 18 years, and, and Irish people is famous for this thing. I say, leave it with me and you.

There's no end for that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. So

Francisco Gaffney: when I come back to you, when I answer this. Which is lovely, but sometimes in business, it's very frustrating to say, live it with you. What's next?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. What does that mean? Yeah. Yeah. I need to know right now. Please. Yeah. Yeah. No, brilliant. Listen, Francisco, it's been a genuine joy chatting to you, man.

Great guy. Great, great guy. Great guy. But Francisco. Thank you. Thanks for coming on the show, man. It's been a genuine treat and I've genuinely loved it.

Francisco Gaffney: Thank you, Matt. I really appreciate the invitation because I probably say things that I would normally not do or say, which is the family. I keep it quite private, but I feel very, very comfortable in your show and I appreciate that.

Matt Edmundson: Ah, super kind of you, man. Welcome.

Sadaf Beynon: Well, that's a wrap on another brilliant conversation. A huge thanks to Francisco for joining Matt on the show and for being willing to share so openly about his inspiring journey. A huge thanks to today's sponsor PodJunction for all you change makers out there contemplating podcasting as your new tool for networking and growing your business.