A lot of people watch these videos and ask themselves for the first time in their life, what is their dream? And they actually wake up for a second and say, here's a lady that works at Bubba Gump. Bubba Gump train is a household name that's now going for her dream. Why am I not going for mine? What is my dream? Why am I not following? I know what they're saying. Yeah. My dream is to meet someone. Give Me a lot of money. So, what we're trying to do in a lot of the content, if you
watch it carefully, is teach people how to get started with no money. So, I think a lot of people aren't aware of this because school doesn't teach people this stuff. So, here's the crazy thing is you didn't answer my question. How much would you sell the company for? I could be a politician, couldn't I? No. I thought you were going to ask, how do we justify spending $50,000? I would never Ask that. That's a good question. If you were good at podcast, you would ask it. I'm trying to help all those entrepreneurs who are like,
"This is never going to work." That's what they're thinking. This will never work. I've got $100 million is going to burn a hole right through my account. I'm trying to get there. Then there's a better way to explain to me. Okay, please. So, some of you may wonder, do you believe in destiny? Do you believe in luck? I'm in Dubai at the 1 billion follower summit. I see a crowd of people around this gentleman and I can't figure out who it is yet, but I know everybody there is important and is an influencer and somebody
of note. And so, here we are on a different day. I'm riding down the escalator. And on the opposite side of the hallway, out walks Simon. He goes, "Chris." and we start having this Conversation and he goes maybe this was meant to happen. You need to get my new book which is what's your dream and we said we should make some content together and fast forward here we are in Los Angeles in your place while you're here in Los Angeles and I think it's really cool what you're doing and I have so many questions from
our audience about what it is that you're doing and how you got here. So uh first of all for people who don't know who you are Simon Can you please introduce yourself? Sure. Well, at that event, by the way, I won a million US dollars. Oh, you gave it. No, just was I'm not supposed to. I know. I was going to get into it, but that's cool. All right. But, but just because that event also was quite an amazing experience for me because I'd never been given a million dollars before and no catch. No tax,
no catch. Cash sent to my bank. Weird and amazing. But we can talk about it a bit more later. Uh, but Okay, Wait. Stop. Now I have to talk about it and then we'll get into your introduction. Okay. So, Simon tells me he's up for the million-dollar prize in this casual encounter. Very serendipitously, we're talking. And then I really kind of recall the videos that you make when you approach people on the street and you ask them what's what's their dream. But you take it a step two or three further. You help to promote their
business. You give them guidance And mentorship and you give them the most important thing. They you give them money to start their business. What's shocking to me is how many people actually turn you down. And sometimes I think those videos get more views than the ones that take your money. But that's a whole another thing. So I say to you, well, if there's a person who's going to win this prize, it needs to be you. And you said to me, there's lots of other good people up for winning the Prize. Is that what you said?
It was true. I can't remember to be honest. Since winning that money, my brain's just been in a good place. What did I say? What did I say? Okay. This is how much of an impact I made on Simon because I remember the entire encounter. No, I remember it very well. He said, "You know, if I win it, I'm just going to give it all away anyway." So, I said, "Well, even more so than you need to win it." So, let's fast forward. I'm in Singapore and this is the day after and they announced the
winner and I see a little clips here and there on social media and there's this man and he's in tears accepting this prize of a million dollars. Man, that was me. Let's talk about that. What was going through your mind, through your heart as they announce this? Because it could have been anybody at that point. I mean, of course, they make it all high level suspense. You you don't know if you're Going to win it. Of course, they want you to react in that moment. So, we're all sitting in a How many of us are?
There was six people that were Yeah, one of six. And I think at that point there'd been over uh 19 million votes for the people that were there. And then so this was the kind of final final thing. And I think um Elon Mus was there in the room and like so you got all the kind of I think it was 2,000 people in this room and there's really High-profile people there. all sorts of different levels of, you know, from famous actresses and influencers to business people to financeers. It was just a really big there
was some Yeah, of course. I mean, the I'm going to get the name wrong of who actually gave me the money, but it was someone very very high up in the the royal echelon of things. The point I'm getting to is that I think what happened was um I didn't expect to win it. I partly told myself Not to expect to win it. I don't actually need the money. This is the irony. I don't I don't need the money. But I think once I'd won it, what was really special was just the validation of what
we were doing, me and my team, to help people. And people always say, "Oh, um, free has no value, right?" So, what we're doing is helping people for free. Has no value. So many people say that. And I think in that moment, free suddenly had value. Uh, million dollars Worth of value in in that one moment. So it was kind of and everybody in the room was cheering for our mission because everyone then knew what we were doing anyway because we'd been at the event. We' done a presentation at the event. Everyone was voting at
the event. So they all knew who we are as an organization and what we were doing. I just felt this overwhelming love actually. It wasn't the money. People like why are you crying cuz you got a Million dollars. You should be laughing or happy. And but it was I think it was the emotion of like 5 years of work to build this thing up. I felt that that whole room got it and were like patting us on the back saying, "Well done, well done. There you go." It wasn't really about the money. I just felt
a incredible sense of like appreciation for the moment and energy towards what we were doing. And instead of people judging me and saying I'm doing it to Get views, I'm doing it this was this you're doing something good and here's a whole community behind you saying we're we're with you, you know. Yes. I have a whole theory about why people cry and I think you may support one of those theories right now. So you had said you just felt an overwhelming sense of love and appreciation maybe acknowledgement and I I think when you break down
love is understand me and appreciate me and you felt it all in that moment and it Just came out of your eyes. Mhm. So my theory about why people cry is because there there's some hurt in there somewhere. Oh yeah. Of course. And if you are a fully loving like you feel self- loveve and love all the time maybe when you feel it it's like okay that's just normal life but there's some sense of like something broken gets appreciated and healed in a little bit. So can we take it there a little bit? Am I
poking into No, no. I I tried to think About it. I think um I I uh I would have studied psychology if I'd stayed at school. I think I find I find the whole like human intention, human design kind of fascinating like how who are we? Is it nurture and nature? You know, is it is it are we the sum of our experiences or is it really just doesn't matter. You are who you are. The way you're born is the way you're born. I I really think that um nurture is more powerful than nature. And
and I know a lot of people Don't agree with me, but I just think that your experiences do craft you. And I I've had quite a few moments where I felt I physically changed. And I think um one of them was actually when I met my wife and she just made me want to be a better person in every way. And I think if I'd met the wrong person, maybe it would have made me go the other way. Um but I felt like, you know, she made me want to be a better person. And I
think as I developed my personal life And my career, I tried to be a good person in part because I wanted to impress her. I wanted to also have what's the word? Her respect. And so, um, I think if I analyze that moment, why am I crying? I'm crying because I've been working 5 years on something that everyone was doubting was good. And in that moment, it was being validated. So, that's part of it. I think another part of it is, you know, I'm being loved in a way that perhaps I want to be loved.
My Mom kicked me out of home when I was 15 years old. You know, when my father just died and my mother kicked me out of home, you know, there's a sense of not being loved when that happens to you. you know, you lo the love of your father cuz he died and then you lose the love of your mom because she's kicked you out. And so in that moment, I also lost connection to my three brothers. So I've got love for my brother's gone, love my mom gone, love my father gone, all in The
space of like 2 months. So that's bound to affect you, isn't it? And I think as I've grown up, I've started off thinking, well, I don't need love. I've just I'll be fine without it. And then I meet someone who I love and loves me, and that opens me up a bit. Um, and um, I watched Billy Elliot with my wife. Um, and and I cried my eyes out. She said it was the first time she'd ever seen me cry. This like 20 years ago. And I think, you know, it's a good movie. Yeah, it's
a good movie. But I think sometimes you can shut that off. That's like that that fight or flight model you get into where it's just like survival, no emotion, just got to survive. And I think as I've got older, I've come more and more out of fight or flight and more into my emotional self. M and certainly when you have overwhelming love, it's quite hard to process it and and then you cry. Okay. You you opened a door and had to walk through it because you could Have said a lot of things, but you said
Billy Elliott. What part of that Billy Elliott made you quiet like that? I have a theory, you know. Okay. I think it's been a while since I've watched it, but from basic memory, it's the idea that someone has a dream and that but they're born into a town where that is not a normal dream. And so there's something beautiful about watching someone persevere even though they're not in the environment to make That dream flourish. So people listening maybe if they're a designer and they're they're living in a family of doctors and they're like well you
know you should be a doctor like us and you know this is the route we know survival bias. So there you are wanting to be a designer but you're you're born into a family that wants you to be a doctor and there's something really beautiful about people that can push through that and and keep their own identity and become Who they want to be. And I think Billy Elliot represents that as a as a program as a as a movie. Yeah. I think he wanted to be a ballet dancer but ballerina and he was a
straight boy I think at that point in time like gender norm or roles he was being judged and he has to sneak out and do it. I think his mom supports him if I recall, but his dad was dead set against it. But well, also the whole community a little bit judge judgy um a little bit. So there was a little bit of support here. What's wrong with your son? Yeah. And there's a lot of judgment going on. And I think you you will never go broke telling a story of an outsider being overlooked, the
underdog. Because even if you have all the privilege in your life, we always feel like internally there's a child who needs help who and that's us by the way that we we feel like the odds are stacked against us. no matter how much privilege you have. So When you tell that story, the child who's hurting, who's broken, who who wants just like a warm embrace, they connect to that moment and then the tears start to flow because they feel hurt in that moment and feel seen. What part of that movie is it the end somewhere
that you start to cry at the end? I think cuz he broke through and he he did become stage on stage. He's a famous ballerina and I I think if I you know was to analyze it just my own life. I grew up in a small town in England where you are really you know going towards like if you want to fit in the community you're going to work in a factory and earn £500 a week which is a lot of money for people in that town and and I broke free of all that but
I I was kind of you're a little bit ostracized when you try to break free of all of that. It is part but you first of all you lose connections with your people you grow up with right and so there's an Element of like well that love goes but you know you you're becoming something else that that town perhaps wouldn't have let you become and I think that what then Billy Elliot there's that model he grows up in a coal mining town so his job really is like his father to go down the coal mines
and do a hard day's work cuz that's the way it is you know right and so he's not going to go down the coal mine he's going to go on stage as a ballerina in you know in in In in some fancy uh opera house and So, it's so different to what his family culture is and his town. And that I relate to that. I think I didn't I didn't cry at that time of thinking all of that. I'm thinking about it now. But I think I think it's just seeing someone push through and and
and follow their purpose, their dream that that it's not predetermined, but it's there instinctively in you. And despite all the pressures not to do it from his Father, from the village, from from life in general where you're not going to make money being a ballerina, are you? forget that you're in now the coal mine with me. That's how you're gonna make money, right? You know, and so I think I think there's something really really resonated with me in that story. And and I think a lot of people really need to see that they're capable of
doing anything. And I think when people do it, it's beautiful, but it's so hard Like trying to grow a beautiful um flower in a bed of Mars dirt, you know? If you can somehow extract water for the flower and it somehow grow it's it can make you cry. Now, you're probably thinking, "These two guys don't even know what they're talking about in terms of this movie. What's the point of any of this?" Well, I think I I I guarantee you when you see the arc of our conversation, you're going to understand the foundations that we're
laying right Now. I like to get into like the early parts of people's lives because they leave clues as to who we're going to become. You you briefly mentioned three brothers. Are these three older brothers? One older, two younger. Why are you the one that gets thrown out? So, my older brother was also thrown out. Okay. So, two of you. But earlier on in his life, before my father died, he was thrown out. Same same same age. The reason different reason. Uh I mean For no reason to be honest, just because of an argument and
and that's it. My mom's very headstrong. Okay. Um so your older brother's out. Older brothers out. I'm kicked out and then I've got two younger brothers and they stay at home for the next few years and then the one below me gets kicked out. Oh, there's a pattern here. Oh yeah, of course. Gets kicked out in the household. Exactly. Eventually. Yeah. Okay. And by the way, I mean, just for the record, I think That um there's two sides to every story, but I think getting kicked out was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Now, my my mom didn't do do it to help me, but it did actually help me because it's kind of like I think sometimes in life, there's a lot of people perhaps listening where life gets comfortable. You can stay in your mom's spare room or dad's spare room or you can, you know, you can get by with a crap job. It doesn't matter. Life's all Right. There's something about having like no support that's quite freeing cuz you don't have any choice anymore and choice can cause problems in the brain. It makes you not make decisions.
Well, there's also autonomy, agency. Totally. Because I remember when I was younger, the thing I wanted to do was leave home because I want to do things my way. And we all were pretty headstrong. And if we just look back a couple hundred years ago, leaving home as a 13-year-old or 12-year-old boy is pretty normal. It's only in modern times that we hold on to our children much longer than we do. I don't think it's healthy to actually I believe you have the tools to survive and clearly you did. Just really quickly, do you keep
in touch with any of your siblings? Yeah, I speak to my brothers. Okay. Um I I' I've fallen in and out of like being in contact for various reasons. I I moved to Hong Kong when I was young and I lived in Different places in the world. I got busy, you know, other things going on. But I I generally try to chat to them. I I still weirdly with family, I don't know if people listening can relate to this, but just because you're born into a family doesn't mean you have to actually like each other.
Mhm. Or get on. So I get on with my younger brother. Um I don't really get on with my brothers now, just for various reasons. I've changed and and they've changed, But we we're not necessarily people that, you know, I'd want to hang out with my brothers. I don't really like my older brother, for example. I just don't like him. Okay? And I feel bad saying it. It's not his fault. It's not my fault. It's just a personality thing. Sure. Because we're born into the same family doesn't mean we necessarily need to keep annoying each
other, you know. Yeah. You get to choose your friends. You can't choose your family. Yeah. Well, you can choose your family, it turns out. Well, you can decide not to speak to them anymore. It's another option. Well, that's one way of describing that choice. Yeah. Okay, Simon. So, you don't know me, but I used to make commercials and music videos for a living, and I'm I do know you, by the way. I'm a film geek, right? So, I'm trying to imagine this moment, which I've not seen in any kind of real way. You're on stage.
They announce you As the winner. Here's what happens in the cinemat cinematic version I direct of your of your life. Okay. The camera pushes in. It's a very long lens, shallow depth of field, and your eyes are starting to well up. And in that moment that you realize you've won, we flash back, cut all these dramatic moments in your life where everybody who tells you you don't deserve to win or to be here and that all comes crashing into the singular moment and then your eye Twitches a little almost making me cry now. And tears
come down. It's starting to make me feel emotional now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is that is that how we would film that sequence? Yeah, maybe. I I think it it might be you only need to go back 5 years to where I started it and get all the hate in my social media. You probably go that far back or be I don't know if you know back to my childhood. You could just go back to like maybe 5 years ago when people are Like, "Oh, this guy just 5 years. You don't need to go back
30." I think Okay, let me re-edit the thing. Yeah. Pushing tight in your very slow movement. Your eyes are trying to Okay. The depth of field and it just cuts to a black screen. says 5 years earlier. Yeah. 5 years began. I did a post and someone says you selfish wanker. Something like that. Based on what? I think people, you know, we're living in a really weird time. I think in general, I think that With social media, which I think is really powerful. It can do a lot of good. But I think there's also an
element of like if you are running a charity today and you're making the world a better place with that charity, um that's great. But then if people find out that the person who's running the charity is paying themselves really well, suddenly they're vilified. Okay. And and so but my mind is like if someone's running a Charity and they care about that charity, I'd like to pay them well. Why is it that it's okay to pay people that do good things as little as possible and the people that do bad things pay them as much as
they like? We the bankers that set up mortgages and this is true the people that actually did the subprime mortgage crisis the the top 10 people are sitting on 150 million profit each each. in England there's a guy called Gary Stevenson who made millions On the economy having a problem you know and to me I know you're talking about that and and to me it's like why is it okay to kind of say great you made money out of people's misery and and no that's cool you made loads of money house oh nice car great
I I think we should flip it and so partly when I started what I'm doing now I wanted to do a forprofit for good business but I wasn't a charity and I think charity model's broken because We can't pay people properly and they Can't get the best talent. If Google's a charity, they wouldn't make any money. They'd be your talent has to be capped on the amount you pay them and you can't build an incredible business if you had that mentality. My point being that I think the world needs to flip upside down. I think
people that do good should be paid well and people that do bad should be paid less. So, I think I started out doing good, but I'm making money from doing good. So, for example, I'm asking someone on the street what their dream is. I'm helping them and then I'm giving them some money and then people like he's only doing that because he's making money out of it. He's just doing it for himself to get views and likes and like no no I I've got enough money. Um I never need to worry about money again in
my life actually. I just sold my company. I'm just trying to help this person you know but people are so negative and and there is a part of it Is like it's global is it? It's a global problem. You have a lot of people from LA saying you're a wanker. LA. Well, I don't think they use that terminology, but they say [ __ ] Um, but no, I I don't know about LA specifically. I think LA is quite a special place just from a cultural point of view. It's a big mix of people here. People
come here to for their dream, right? To make their acting dream happen, for example. I think this is a particularly unique Space, but definitely people in America have I've had hate from America. I've had hate from Australia. It's got less over the last few years because I've proven that I'm what I'm doing actually has value and I'm and I don't need to do it for the money. But I think yeah, I think there's an element of like if you went back 5 years ago and looked at some of the comments. It it's it's it's painful
to when you first start making content anyway, people were very judgy. They were and people and I think you you have to like this is my theory on it. Tell me what you think of this. Okay. We used to live in tribes of 5,000, right? So what happened is in our DNA to what got us here won't get us there is my point. 5,000 people living in the tribe. Now if someone in that tribe doesn't like you that's actually a problem. Even if you don't know them that well that causes poison within the tribe and
eventually the people that are near Close to you will hear that and that will cause pain in your tribe. So it's actually in our DNA to generally want everyone to like us as a general rule. But now we're not living in tribes anymore. So our new tribes are you know communities online. social gatherings. But if someone online comes and gives me hate, my natural DNA is to try and deal with that. Because if I let it get worse, the whole tribe's going to hate me and they're going to kick me out of The tribe. I'm
going to be all on my own. So my instinct when I see a negative comment is, "Oh my god, how can I how can I stop that from happening?" And so it really affects you. And and and and I realize now in a non-tribal world, that person has a fake profile. They've probably got a miserable life of their own. They've just done it because they can. Um but actually it doesn't matter because they're not part of my 5,000 tribe. That part of my DNA that Makes me feel that way doesn't need to feel that way
anymore cuz it doesn't we don't live in those sorts of ecosystems anymore. Yeah. Um but equally enough people I've noticed on YouTube when you put a video up on YouTube, the first few comments determine the rest of the comments. So if someone says something negative like this video has no value, I wasted my time watching it. then other people will either agree or comment something Similar to agree with that comment. Whereas if you have something positive at the beginning, most of the comments end up being positive. So tribalism is the theory. Yes. Right here. I
I don't know if I agree with that. All right. Tell me what what's the truth then? Why are people hating on me for no reason? Okay, let me be careful how I say this or be intentional. They see a straight white man do really well in his life and They're already going to hate you for that. And then you're trying to do something good in the world. And we're very suspicious of people trying to do good in the world because we have long examples of people pretending to be somebody that they're not only to steal
from other people. And so our guards up and especially in this hyper media world that we live in, everyone starts with the knives out first before they open their hand and say, "Welcome, welcome to The my home. Welcome to my room. Welcome to my life." And so they naturally have that disposition. So then over time it's upon you and not upon them to show up consistently to reveal your character as if someone knocked on your door right now saying hey I have brought me like you know go away cuz we're used to that now cuz
there are too many charlatans out there doing things for nefarious goals or ends that then we become hyper aware of. So when you come out there and You're trying to do good in the world with a business model that goes against tradition and I'm all there with you. I do not understand why we think if you do good in the world, you must do it for the goodness of doing it versus like you being able to run a business. Whereas, if you do anything else for profit, no one even bats an eyelashes to how much
money you make. And I don't want to get into the Gary thing. That's probably another episode, but there's a whole Thing for us to unpack there. We have opened up so many doors and my brain cannot contain all the doors that are open. So, before we go any further, Simon, for people who don't know who you are, can you introduce yourself? Sure. Um, okay. So, I guess today I would be described as a social media influencer. I have 15 million followers. I get over half a billion views a month on my content. I try to
help people figure out how to make their dream happen. They Tell me their dream and then me and my team and my system help you make that dream happen. Prior to that, I've invested in over 80 startups. I invest in people's businesses and I take equity for capital and then I help those businesses. And I personally started 18 companies. I'm now on my 90th business today. Um, so I built businesses from the age of 15 and I just I just love creating things that are in my head and making them real and I love helping
Other people do that and follow their purpose. Now, if you're following along with this story, first of all, your name is Simon Squib. You My name is Simon Squib. Yeah. I'm hoping you can put a little thing like and a nice type face. Always nice. Plus, if they probably kicked on the thumbnail, it probably has my name on it somewhere. Somewhere. Yes. Okay. So you get kicked out when you're 15. I think you're on the street for a little bit And then you make your way to Hong Kong. Like why Hong Kong of all the
places? So it was a big gap between that and Hong Kong. Okay. Um I was on the street for 8 weeks. Yeah. And uh and then I spent quite a few years in England building up businesses and then I I moved to Hong Kong when I was 23. Um 1997 I moved to Hong Kong cuz I have to double check the maths of my own age. Um, I I uh I moved to Hong Kong because I had a friend that lived there and they said, "Come and Stay on the sofa." And I just sold a
company and if I moved out of England for that period of time, I wouldn't have to pay tax on that that company I just sold. So, um, it was a very small amount of money looking back on it now, but it was enough for me to have maybe a 6 months traveling. And so, I went to Hong Kong. But when I got to Hong Kong, I my mind was blown. Okay. Before we get to the mind-blowing Hong Kong thing, how does a homeless person with no real Family support without a formal education? I assume, y
even start a business and then just sell the business. I don't even understand that. This is why I think everyone can start a business. This is why there's a controversy around this idea. Anyone can start a business because I'm dyslexic. So, I actually can't read and write properly and I can't um Yeah. I can't I I feel I can't even begin to explain how how average I Am. I'm very average. And I had no money when I started out. No experience in business. No one had ever taught me sales ever in school. Any of this
stuff was or none of this was was You're saying a very impressive resume at this point. Yeah. I have nothing special about me, which is why I know. Did you smell bad, too? I I don't think so. You have that going. Are you trying to tell me something? No, not right now. Um but smell like a million bucks. Thanks. Thanks, man. Um but I I think okay so what happened to me I I I I always describe it as the moment everyone should have which is I didn't want to make it I needed to make
it so I tried to get a job I couldn't get a job at 15 years old no one would give me a job and then I uh tried begging for some reason no one gave me anything so that didn't seem to work I don't know why I don't I was doing wrong give me your pitch how how are you Asking for money um hey man Sorry, I've got nowhere to live. If you got any money, spare money, you can go. You're a young, healthy man. Go get a job. I didn't look like a healthy man
at that point. Anyway, no. Sitting on sitting on a curb like go get a job. Yeah. Well, go get a job. I mean, that's that's the thing. At that particular time, I couldn't get a job because legally you need a national insurance number. Um, but that's the Thing about homelessness, and we could get into that's a whole subject we can get into. Homelessness does have a miscatategorization because a lot of those people if you imagine you're on the street even for 8 weeks like I was you smell. You actually do smell. That's and and like
the idea of going to work you can't even get an interview. You won't you haven't got any way of sending your resume in to get an interview. You have an address. So even if you walk up To a I don't know I did do this. I walked into a a wine shop and said please give me some work. Even then they look you up and down. They're like uh well you don't have anything at the moment. And then if someone walked in looking pristine looking at a young Simon squid, they said that. They did say
that. You remember their name? To be actually to be fair, I did get a part-time job as a in a wine shop eventually. But I had to lie in the Application about my age cuz you have to be 18 to sell alcohol in England. And I I actually lied. But do me a favor. Look right into the camera. Just stare with your big blue eyes. How could you not hire this young man? Exactly. Well, here's someone. You You look like I have this theory about reading people's faces and people have ill intentions. It's on their
face. People who worry a lot, it's on their face. And people who are joyful inside and out, it's on their Face. And I look at you and maybe you've changed a lot. And maybe because you said you've changed a lot. You look like a person who has a joyful heart. Thank you. With generous spirit. I I feel that is true. I will take Look at the camera. Let's judge him right here. Leave in the comments if you think he has a trustworthy, joyful heart or not. Or do you think he's a scoundrel trying to scam
people out of money? Yeah, let us know in the comments. Well, we know what You think of my face, but does focus on Do we know what people say about your face? What does your community say? They're like, "Never trust a guy with a cap." Oh, that's what they say. Keep That's why you keep wearing it to prove them wrong. Stereotypes are dangerous in general, aren't they? I mean, I think Yeah. I mean, they say serial killers look like friendly people. You want to know, you know? So, are you trying to warn me? No, I'm
just Saying. I'm just saying. I I actually had this conversation with my wife yesterday cuz we were talking about like I reckon if I lived in America and I was a detective, I could spot all the serial killers quite quickly. They're obvious to me. I can literally I think I've walked past a few since being here, you know, like I think you give them some of them money. Probably by accident. You ask them what's your dream to kill people. They don't need money to do That. So, uh I wouldn't need to I would need to
finance that. They need gloves. They need tarps. You know, you need rope. I have not had anyone say that one yet. That would be You seem to know a lot about wearing a cap. That's obviously you know what's needed. I didn't know what you needed tarp to be a serial killer. Okay. Let's get back to the story. Okay. Some people want success. you needed to be successful because you got no it's like that when You burn the road behind you and the bird was that road was burned for you so you had nowhere to go
to you tried begging obviously you suck at it you you smelled okay enough to get a job in a wine place but just the the condensed cliffnotes version of this like how do we go from there to like making money cuz there's more interesting stories I want to unpack I mean in a simple version of it I I just couldn't figure out how to make money I went and tried To get social benefit okay and they told me what the hell are you doing here just go home, right? It's like so I couldn't really explain
I couldn't go home. So that seemed like a simple answer. They're not going to give me any benefit. So I tried to get a job, couldn't get a job. I tried begging, couldn't beg. I tried to do social service support, couldn't get any, couldn't get that. So the only left option for me was to start a business. And I described sold drugs. Well, I would have done by the way that is kind of a business. Yeah. Um not that I would endorse that type of business, but it is a business. I think the the entrepreneur
muscle in my brain woke up. And maybe that's the drug dealer model. It it woke up in my brain. A literal muscle in my brain woke up. I I almost felt it suddenly. It's like the um the need to use that muscle became urgent. And so I walked past this massive house and the Garden was so messy. And my brain said it spoke to me. This entrepreneurial muscle, which we all have, everybody has it. Introvert, extrovert, doesn't matter. you've got it. It's just not turned on in school for a reason in my opinion. It came
on and I thought they will pay me to clean up that garden because they've got a big fancy house and their garden's messy which means instantly my brain said they've got no time and I can sell my time to do that Garden and they will pay me. So with confidence this entrepreneur muscle had given me, I walked up to the front door of this big house, knocked on the door, this guy answered it and I said, "My name's Simon Script. I could take care of your garden for you if you pay me. I could have
said my name is Simon Squ. What is your name? Your garden. I wasn't that advanced. Sorry. I've got a much better model now. Just so clear in my head. No, no, no. Your garden cleaned And threw me out. I should have said, "Is your dream to have your garden sorted out by me?" By young um by a young by a young person, young cheap labor. And but they said yes. Um, and they and then I I just But you you have tools? No. So, slight problem. Don't have the tools to do the garden. But again,
necessity, no choice. So, I literally I did two things actually. One is I said to that person, "Is it okay if I use your equipment?" They're like, "Sure, they're not using it. It's all sitting in the garage. So, like, use you can use my equipment." See, I'm the house owner. I'm starting to get some funny I think they probably knew they were doing me a favor, you know, and I think I wasn't I wasn't dishonest. So, I did kind of say, "Look, I can I use your equipment?" And in fact, that made it cheaper in
my mind. I'm like, "If I have get my equipment, I'm going to have to be more expensive cuz I have to go rent The equipment." But you've got the equipment, so I'll just use it. But actually, I also went uh and knocked on a lot of other doors that day cuz that person said yes. But I wasn't doing the garden then and there. I said I'd come back. But I went and knocked on a lot of other doors and lots of people said no. I was very lucky. The first person I ever knocked on the
door said yes. Okay. So, there's a bit of luck in life. There's a lot of luck in life. If they'd Said no to me that first time, I would my entrepreneur muscle would want, "Oh, you don't know what you're doing. This isn't possible." But they said yes. But then after that, and that's why I become people's first customer quite a lot on my content because I I remember that first customer feeling where you you almost have validation because one person said yes. That spurs you to get 10 nos because you know at one point someone
said yes and surely someone else Will too. So you have that survival vibe. So I knocked on doors after that day and said, "Oh, you got a messy garden. Can I take care of it?" A lot of people said yes, but 12 people in total said yes and let me become their gardener. And then I went back the next day and asked them for a deposit, right? And I took that deposit and that allowed me to buy some of the fertilizer and some of the other bits and pieces I needed. But one house I saw
had a whole Like ride on mower, all the equipment. A lot of it was brand new looking. So they bought it but never used it cuz they're too busy. So I just asked them, I said, "You've got this equipment here. can I can I use it? And they're like, sure, go ahead. Doesn't matter to me. It's just sitting in my garage. People buy this fancy stuff and don't use it. Why not? So, I managed to get all the equipment for free. And then through the deposits I got from all the people that said yes, Buy
the basic bits and pieces that I needed. The big problem came when I tried to do the gardens and I was I'm so bad at gardening. So then that's also a good good thing cuz then I had to bring some other people in to do the gardening. I think I can turn this to a 17-hour podcast and I'm trying not to do that because you keep opening more doors. Sorry. It's like this infinite web kind of like in Loki, you know, the sacred timeline. It's got too many Branches and we need to prune some down.
Okay. Okay. But I love the stories. I would like to talk to you multiple multiple occasions here. The reason why I'm minging left and right is because the plot thickens every time you tell me a story. Because then it's very clear who you become, why you choose to do what it is that you do today. And when we get to that, it'll make a lot of sense to all of you who are listening or watching this right now. Okay, there's a Couple things I want to point out. Number one is um you're I just want
to say this, but I don't want to dwell on this. You're a white guy knocking on doors, doors open. you're a guy asking for work and don't have equipment and don't have skills and they say yes. I just want to put that out there because people are going to say that. Easy for him to say. But here's where it's not easy because a lot of us wouldn't knock on those doors. I Put myself in that category. And what you call the entrepreneurial muscle, this need I think is another word for it. It's just called you're
hungry. Like literally hungry, right? Cuz you don't have a choice. If you don't make this and you don't figure this thing out, what are you going to eat? Where are you going to live? And so you have to do this. So many of us live in this place where we don't have that kind of backed into the corner feeling. So we just wait And wait and wait. And some of us just wait too long until it's just too late for us to do something about it. So there's something to be admired. I respect anybody who
has the guts to go up to the door, talk to a bunch of strangers, and give a pretty okay pitch, not knowing if they can even do it. And then being lifted by the confidence of your first sale, have the the guts to say, "Let me do that 99 more times and not just quit with the first one." So, You get it together and you're able to do this and you hire people because you don't know what you're doing. And I assume this is the beginning of a business for you. Yep. That you turn into
a business and other businesses and then you sell all these things and leave. Yep. Okay. Pretty much. Yep. Okay. So, how much money is in your pocket when you go to Hong Kong? Um, I had about £80,000. That's a lot. It's a lot. And you were 20 23 23. We mapped this from UK to Hong Kong. You're 23 years old. If anyone has lived in Hong Kong, they'll tell you that doesn't last very long. The most expensive city in the world, Japan's number one, Hong Kong's number two. Really? Like London's number 12, I think. LA
is number Singapore's got to get there, right? Singapore's number five, I think. Okay. Um, but I I literally went to the most one of the most expensive places in the world. So, Um, and when I got there, I realized this is what people spend in a weekend in Hong Kong. Um, but yeah, as as a as a young person, that's a huge amount of money. And coming from nothing, of course, um, it was a huge amount of money for me. If you have $8,000 in your pocket, what do you need to stay on somebody's sofa
for? Because I didn't want to burn it. And actually, by the time I learned how to be frugal and build things, the last thing I want to Waste money on is a mortgage or rent. Okay. And if I can avoid those two things and build uh, use that money for experiences and building something, Yeah. the better. So, there's a lesson there, too. Some people when they get a little money in their pocket, it burns a hole and they start to spend it right away on allies material things. Exactly. Or they think it's an infinite supply
and then they're wrong. So you're good. You're saving your money. You're staying On couches living very humbly. I want to get to the part of the story now where you founded a design and marketing agency and you built a certain point where it's being sought after and you sell it to PWC. Tell me a little bit about that moment. What did you sell it for? Those kinds of things. Yeah. So, I built a company up called Fluid, which became one of the largest and most successful creative agencies based out of Hong Kong. And in a
nutshell, it was An agency that would help brands come up with marketing strategies. And we wouldn't just come up with the strategy, we'd also execute on the design. So, we come up with ideas and and and the execution. And I I loved it. I built it for 10 years. It was just literally walking into the room with brands, new companies and old and they tell us their uh problems and then we come up with solutions. Um, and I started it all with Helen Griffith who's now my wife. She's A designer and I guess I'm a
marketing person. Um, I'm a saleserson as a gardener, but in the end I'm a marketing person later as I rebrand myself a bit. And I um yeah, I just with this company it turned into quite a big business. Um I think in the end we had a couple hundred people uh working with us both freelance on contract and full-time. And one day um PWC start partnering with us to pitch to clients together. So they've got you know the top 500 companies in The world working with them one of the biggest audit firms in the world.
and we start doing some partnership projects together and then quite quickly it it seems that it would be a very good move for PWC to buy fluid and integrate us into what they offer their clients and so um yeah I sold the business it took about a year from them saying they wanted to buy it to the deal being done and the money being in the bank but that that's how it transpired weirdly when I Sold it and a lot of people listening might relate to this everyone's dream is to sell a company everyone has
a part of their bucket list. Um, I was really happy when I sold it and then I had a bit of time where I was a bit sad because I lost my identity. Um, everything was I fluid my company I built up that was my image, my personal image. But like with your future if it was gone like well you change the number plate on your car, you know, like what Are you going to do, right? It's suddenly it's a big part of who you are and um and so I I I was a bit
lost for a while after I sold it but maybe I'm talking too much now. I don't know. Okay. So you're 33 when you sell it? Uh I'm 40. 40. Yeah. So, there's a couple of mysterious years in there somewhere. Well, no, not really. Um, I I ran it for 10 years personally and then I brought someone in to run it for three or four years for me. Okay. Um, so I I learned to bring someone else in to run it. That's one of the reasons it sold, by the way. Okay. Because if the founder still
running the business, this is another business lesson I've learned which I put in my book. If you end up being the only person that can run it, it's very hard to sell it. Yeah. So I brought in very clever people and and teams to to run the business. Um and that allowed me to step away and while I was while fluid was running without me, I was still kind of chairman was my title. Um I started an investment company called Nest and we'd invest in startups. Okay. Um I see. So yeah, that's kind of how
the timeline worked. I see. Okay. So when you sold it, you're free and clear. You don't have to stay on cuz you already put a management team in place. Exactly. Were some of them required to stay on? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Naturally. Yeah. All right. So, you're saying when you sold fluid, Your identity vaporized? It didn't vaporize. Was a physics joke. Oh, I see. Fluid Oh, I get it. Turns into evaporated. Yeah, I get it. All right. Sorry, I missed the joke. I thought you thought it was a serious selfucated podcast question. It was time. It
didn't evaporate. Yeah. I think it's just when you build a business, you must relate to this. If if you suddenly couldn't use future anymore, that was someone else's brand name. It it is part of who you are, right? No. Oh, it was for me. Maybe I made a rookie mistake. Um I didn't know it, by the way, until I sold it. So, I felt like the the other thing was a bit like losing my family again. Like the company and the people were people like my family. I know you're not allowed to say that. I
know it's politically incorrect. Let's call it a football team if you like. But my football team was gone. Yeah. I mean, it was a business and I Sold it. Yeah. But in reality, I probably interacted with everyone in that company at some point in a month and suddenly technically not really allowed to interact with anyone. You know, this they want me out of it now, right? So, so it was like losing the family again as well. Some repeat of my earlier experience. I have this thing kind of personal philosophy about practicing some kind of form
of passionate detachment. I want to be Passionate when I'm doing things, but when I'm no longer doing it, I'm totally detached from it. So I can see things objectively. I wish I'd had you tell me that before I sold I wish we met each other earlier in life so I could borrow money from you. Yeah. Equally I wouldn't have been so emotionally upset for so long after I sold the company if I met you. Maybe I I need this. This is important actually. I think it's a good lesson for people. I Think you should be
attached to what you're doing but not Did you see Vanilla Sky? I think we can just pull references. Tom Cruz movie. Tom Cruz. Yeah. Tell me how the relation to that is what's it's coming. It's coming. So, spoiler alert, if you haven't seen it, I'm sorry. He gets into a horrific car accident and he's mutilated in that and they have to create some kind of strange alternate reality for him to process it. And That's the big spoiler. Like, he's all he's all messed up. Oh, yeah. So, when people lose a limb, they're disfigured. They lose
a sense of identity because he was the publisher playboy who got to do everything he wanted, sleep with whoever he wanted, then he he got really messed up in that process. And so everybody that goes through that I think has to start to question what is who am I? What is my identity? So if you lost a finger tomorrow, are you like 98% Less Simon Squib? No, of course not. Right. And a finger is much more serious than a company. But you're still you. Yeah. So as long as you're conscious and you have a soul
and a spirit or whatever you want to believe and you're still able to do what it is that you want to do, I think you're still you. Mhm. And that's why it's like this emotional attachment is the thing that was partly loss of identity. Yeah. I counter argue that I I I think that it helped me make It work in a way because I I don't believe in work life balance. I don't believe there is a separation. I think that there's just work and there's and there's well I think there's just life, you know, there's
no work life. So, you know, my business partner became my wife. And and I and I think I had a good relationship because my wife was there in the business with me. Yeah. I like working. Yeah. Me, too. And and if I'm Working till 10:00 at night on a Friday, if my wife wasn't working with me, I wouldn't be seeing my wife. We'd probably get a divorce. Yeah. So, I I just really like integrating things. And I think even with the team, I have it now, by the way. I I really care about my team
now. And they're all sitting. I want I want to talk to you about that too because when I walked in here the first time it there was a different model I was seeing a little bit scary Also very exciting. Okay. Yeah. But I I just I just think it's I don't want to work with people that I don't I wouldn't want to be friends with. I think Mark Zuckerberg said it and I'm not a fan of Mark Zuckerberg so I'm not endorsing what he has to say but he did say something I liked which he
talked about how if that person you hire isn't someone you would work for don't hire them. Yeah. And there's and I feel that way like I feel like I'm we got this House here in LA. I'm staying with everybody here. I trust everybody here. I like everybody here. Otherwise, I wouldn't I wouldn't want to be living with them right now while I'm in LA. You know, like I know it sounds for a lot of people maybe it's like we should There's the one person you told me that you couldn't stand but Oh, there's only one
and he's over there. So, I don't want to insult him. We won't let him. Poor Arthur. So, I love you, man. I'm joking. But the point I'm I'm getting to is like Yeah. I I I just think that's oversold to people too and it's kind of the counterbalance. I I kind of just to you know be careful with it because I I think that there is definitely detachment. When I sold the company I should have just probably started something else instantly. Partly me thinks that but that's a rebound thing maybe. But it's a bit but
but it's also like it's like saying don't be too Much in love because when you you know break up you might cry. There's a part of me like oh [ __ ] it. I'm just going to do the allin love thing. Right. And in business I I kind of like it. I I do take it personally. People say don't take business personally too. I do and I do fall in love with what I'm working on and I think that allows me to like really love it and really like be all in. That's why I've been
married for 23 years. I'm all in when I do something. You are mixing so many metaphors in here. Am I getting confusing? Are you guys following this or isn't No, I mean if you take it at face value, but if you're like literally unpacking, I'm like, wait, this doesn't make sense because you were madly in love and now as soon as that love is over, you're ready to bang the other business. No. If my wife divorced me, I'd probably bang another business. That's what I'm saying. You have to go through a period Of grieving and
saying, you know, what is my life? Do you not always if you were in love with it? Yes. Well, I did have two years off. In fairness, I had two years off before I started wandering now. So, I did I went through a grieving process. Um, we're just messing around. But it was pretty hardcore. I did actually I feel I had a sense a little bit of depression after I sold the company just because again like my whole thing was I I needed it and I didn't Just want it. And I think I carried this
needing it right until I had all the money in the bank from this company. Oh, that's fascinating. You said some words. And and now suddenly needing wasn't I didn't need anymore. Even like if I told my wife, I'm I'm going off now to have a meeting. She like, what's the meaning about? Oh, maybe I'll make some We don't need money. So why are you going? I don't know. I don't know where I'm going. I won't go. And you suddenly have All that that's the secret of staying married. I've not learned that. Just do what you're
told. Oh my god. Yes. Yeah. I think that is the secret. Um honey, I'm sorry. I haven't learned a lesson. You haven't learned the lesson. I'm an Asian man. That's the problem. How long have you been married? Almost 30 years. Right. See, you know, what's the secret? It's not Well, we'll get into that later. Did your chance to ask that question was on your podcast. All right. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. So, you went from living in the streets, needing a way to make money, and you found that. But when you started to make money,
and you made a lot of money at some point, that need moved into, I would say, a want. Well, I didn't even want it anymore. I I I I think both something. Well, I I wanted purpose in the form of work. I I think I wanted to be useful and I wanted to be seen. That's what I came to the conclusion Once. Are we back to 15 again? No, we're back to like Well, maybe at 15. Yes. But back then it was like, well, I I might want to be useful and I might want to
be seen, but the real reality is like a lot of people in this world, I've got to pay bills. I've got to eat. So, you know, the over a lot of people living in fight or flight, right? Yeah. So they might they might want to be successful, but right now they just need to pay the bills. Okay. But but I I had no choice. I needed it back then when I was younger. I think what changed when I got to 40 and had money is I didn't I didn't need the money anymore. So there's no
need anymore. And I didn't really want anything in particular. So I actually fell into like neither want nor need, which is even more dangerous. Where are you then now? If you're not want or need, you're just versus Nothing. I think basically you're lost. You're a lost soul. Okay. Because if you want Stuff that can motivate you, but if you need it, it'll make you do it. There's a difference. Yeah. Right. So, I I want to be fit, but then I I might go a little bit here and there and I'll eat healthy some days. And
then someone tells me I'm going to die unless I uh I'm going to get diabetes unless I go to the gym tomorrow every day for the next two years. Now, now it's a need, right? And I think I moved back into like Well, I move I didn't move back. I think I moved To like world what do I want? And I didn't even have that answer anymore cuz when you need money, at least that's a want, right? So, um, it took me about 2 years to figure out the next step after that, which is I
would create purpose. Create a purpose that creates the need. You want to write that? Sure, I can write that. I've written this word a lot. Um, but it's such a woowoo word that a lot of people don't understand. Doesn't get taught in schools, but if You have a purpose, it can create a need. You don't need to go homeless and almost starve like I did to have this superpower hit you. I think you can find it with purpose. Okay, I like that. And you can have purpose. There's a way to find purpose if you don't
know it as well. Yeah, it's not easy, but it's worth finding. Yeah, it powers you up to make it a need. So, here's the crazy thing is you didn't answer my question. How much would you sell the company for? I could be a politician, couldn't I? You could, but if I'm reporter, you're not going to get away. I divert. I divert. So, interestingly, people don't know this. when you sell a company um they have things called NDAs where you're not allowed to actually disclose how much you sold it for between what and what between what
I always say the way the best way to describe is I never need to worry about money again. I I I basically made more money than I ever need. That's How I phrase it up and if you can work out I could probably live to 100 and I spent £20,000 a month living, you can probably work out how much it is. But I I I I genuinely don't think um the amount matters. Sometimes I like now not talking about it because it's about building something you love that you enjoy and you make money from equity.
You're working out how much you're working. I already know the math is 240k and you Are 50 years old. So live this is you multiply that by 50. 50 * 24. You knowing you can figure this out. So I saw a great meme the other day like Trump's getting into a war uh with Asia over meths with we are screwed everybody. We're so screwed. Yes. Okay, let's let's get back into it. So, you you you've earned out more money than you could spend. So, here's where I really think it's important to highlight this part of
your Story because I want more successful entrepreneurs to consider the possibility of doing something that you're doing. Here's how most entrepreneurs work. They make money and they just want to make more money. They can't even spend the money they have, but they just want to make more money. And it's why there's this great disparity between the the bottom 99 and the top one because as you have resources as you know money makes money For you and you don't even have to do a lot. I don't have a lot of love for people who use money
to make money cuz they don't really generate anything in the world. I don't also have a lot of love for people who move around money as a means to make money because they've yet to do anything. I like what you're doing, son. and I have great respect for you and what you're doing and the people that know me and like me also like you and just are saying this guy is a real Genuine person. Here's what I think. There's a gentleman, his name is Eric Silva. I think that's his name. He gave a TED talk.
You might have seen it. He goes on stage and he says in the 21st century the new billionaires aren't the ones who have a billion dollars in the bank account. It's the ones who can make a positive impact on people's lives. Every life is is one of the one billion. And I think the world would be much better place for everyone who's got more Than what they need or possibly what they would want for them to turn around and do something good to help the world and make a healthy profit. But do good now. Don't
wait until you're like 98 to give away your money. That's how most rich people do. Like they find God and then they find religion and then they want to give it away. But you can do a lot of good right now in the moment and still build a really good business and a life for yourself. Totally right. So, What I have to do is now unpack why this crazy guy wants to take this money he's made and then put a lot of at risk to trying to help other people. And I also want to understand
the business model of helping other people achieve their dreams. So, give us your best pitch as to why if you're at a place where you don't need or want that money anymore, why you would want to try and help other people achieve something some version of their own Definition of success. I think when you're figuring out what the purpose of life is, which is that kind of crazy question, what is the purpose of life? I discovered it after I made money. So, it's very easy to say this once you make money, you can have purpose.
There's some truth to it. I think you got to fill your own bucket up. You've got to be able to pay your own bills. But I think that I actually Made a shocking discovery in the last 6 years. is I didn't fully understand this. Once I had enough money that I didn't need to do things for money. So I didn't need to help someone for money. I could just help someone. I was doing that when I was retired. Um I would help people and I didn't expect anything back. I didn't want anything back. And there
was something really special about that dynamic. And I think I realized that in the last 100 years since the Banking system really took over our lives with things like mortgages, everything's become a transaction. So for a tax man to make money out of you and me, we need to have a transaction so they can tax it. But if I just help you because I like you and I want to, uh, the tax man gets nothing. So they don't like it. Equally, you just help me, it's not good for the tax man gets nothing. So there
needs to be money back and forth. And that why that's why the Saying give and take have kind of become part of our normal culture. It sounds fair, right? I'll help you if you help me. But actually that's not our natural state. A natural state is you tell me what you need and if I can help you, I will. I will do it. Now, I need to pay my bills. So, there's always that element, but I don't necessarily need to make me money of you to pay my bills. I can help you without like Dragons
Den annoys me or Chart Pack annoys me Because they're only going to help you if you give them 40% of the company. Well, actually, I can just introduce you to the person at Walmart who can help sell your product. I know them. Doesn't it's one email for me. I can just do it. I don't need to take 40% off you. But we become so transactional. And this was the first time in my life that I didn't have to be transactional. And it kind of shocked me the oxytocin I got, the natural happiness I got from
just Helping someone without anything back. And then I realized that everybody can do it. We just don't think we can do it. So everybody I want everybody to know what I've discovered and listening. The problem is I'm rich now. So people like, well, he's got money. He can do that. You you have to frame it. The way I think about this is if you've ever been given a present, right? Or you've given a present or been given a present. If you've given someone a present, there's Actually a lot more joy. I go find the present.
I wrap it up. I can't wait to give it to that person. I give it to them. I see their happy face. That's actually more fun most of the time than getting a present. So, we we basically naturally in our DNA want to make other people happy. And sometimes the cost of the transaction stops that from happening. And then even on a micro level, I saw someone the other day open a door for someone and someone walked Through it and that person didn't say thank you. They got all annoyed like, "Well, don't say thank you
then. I just opened the door for you." So they literally made themselves angry from doing a nice thing, having expectation attached to it, give and take. They had a they didn't have detachment. They should have just opened the door and let the person walk through, but they didn't. They made themselves annoyed and upset and angry because they helped Someone and that person didn't reciprocate with something back. And that's not what life's about. I have been the happiest I've ever been. Not when I had a lot of money, but when I was helping someone without an
agenda. It's a selfish thing. So people when they hear what I'm doing, and you're very kind the way you put it, I'm, you know, being I'm helping people. I'm so philanthropic. Actually, it's also selfish. I I genuinely feel like I'm doing something that is selfish that happens to be helping people. You know, I get a lot of satisfaction when someone tells me their dream and then I can put them on my platform and promote them, give them a little bit of money, which is just energy transfer anyway, and they can make it happen and have
a better life. That's amazing. Like I'm it's selfish. And and yes, hopefully that knock on effect means that person has a better life. They can go on to help People. We can start removing this transactional nature that's being conditioned in us. It's not natural. We've been taught to make everything transactional, but it's actually not our natural state. Again, you can push back on this if you like, but my analogy is there's 5,000 people living in a tribe. Someone puts their hand up and says, "My tent's fallen down." And and someone says, "I can help you
with that." And they go and help them put their tent Back up. We don't have anybody homeless after that. Tent's back up. The tribe's happier. the ecosystem continues where we all help each other to get through the day and that person has somewhere to sleep tonight. That's how it used to be. That person nowadays says, "Hi, my tent's falling down." Someone says, "Okay, here's a quote. I'm not fixing your tent." [ __ ] you. You can be homeless unless you pay this. And that's why we have hundreds of Thousands of homeless people. And then that's
kind of the basic problem. Here's where I'll push back. But before I push back, I need to say something. I said the wrong person's name. There's a gentleman, his name is Jason Silva. He's given this TED talk. Maybe you've seen it. Okay, we added that back. Fix that part. Okay, here's the push back on this is I think there's social capital and it's how through thousands of years we can form societies and villages or the Tribe because there's a there's a bargain that's made. It's not transactional in cash and in money, but it's like, hey,
I have to go and hunt today. Can you look after the kids and when I come back and we will share the bounty of what it is I do. There's still a trade there. That's a more that's a community trade. Yes. I don't think now it's become so uh literally fin has become the mechanism in which we Do that. That's right. Whereas before we had a sense of community. Yes. Which I don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't have uh a support mechanism, right? Which is I think that's what you're talking about. That
that's not the same as what I'm describing. You're talking about community support, right? Well, you're talking well the word you use is village. So somebody's tent falls down and you raise your hand, you help and Then one day you're like I don't have clean water and no one comes to your aid. Eventually you're like this is not my community. I have to leave. This is not my village and that person's a taker. So eventually it it it needs to correct itself. I think Calin writes about this in terms of reciprocity. It doesn't have to be
quit proquo like this exact amount for that exact amount. But it's through our need to support each other that we can grow strong. For Example, if an invading tribe came and they all split and left it there, that's not much of a tribe or community either, isn't it? But I think we're maybe mixing up the examples because of course today we're not living in tribes. The the tribe the tribe it's a virtual tribe. But yeah, I mean well I mean not everyone's online. Everyone's has a online tribe. I I think now the the the difference
is like this street in LA where we are now. Um I'm pretty sure no One knows anyone on this street. So there's no there's no there's no support mechanism in the communities anymore. We own a house. The bank lends us the money. It's my house. I close the door. I protect my family. So the tribes have really shrunk. Okay? And and the problem now is that if for example someone needs help, the hardest thing is actually to ask for help. So if you don't have a tribal system where you can ask for help, it the
only way you can get help Is if you pay for it. And most people can't afford to pay for it. So people have mental health issues cuz they can't get help. They can't afford it. um people can't get people to come and help them fix problems with their cars. They can't get to work cuz they can't afford it. And I think that we have forgotten the tribalism and I'd like to bring it back. Okay. In a in a sense of like and and I'm trying to do this on Help Bank, by the way. It's first
time I've never Had a problem with a trademark. We got the word help and bank together. No problem. Cuz no one's put a bank and help together. Well, maybe this is a good time for us to transition into something because maybe I'll understand it better once you explain the business model behind this because you go on the street and and maybe this is divine intervention, but the day that we record our podcast, you have recently met a Young woman whose dream is to go to UCLA to study graphic design, something that I know something about.
And I'm just struck like you go up to random people, ask them what is it that you want and then not only do you support them emotionally, spiritually, philosophically, but you also then support them with money, cold hard cash. There's a couple things that bothered me about this video, but uh I guess it was like she was very nonchalant about it All, which is like kind of threw me off. And I was thinking, how do you know she's a good person? How do you know she's a good designer? And then you just happen to need
a logo. And then you told me, I don't need a logo. I just want to give her a job. So when we understand that when you were looking for work or when you were in your most desperate vulnerable moment, someone looked at you like, "Yeah, you don't deserve it. I'm going just give it to you anyways." And That changed your life. And so you're just trying to repay or pay that forward so that someone else has that same opportunity. This is a therapy session can be sometimes. I feel like I'm in therapy. I agree with
you. I I see the connection. Yes. Yes. I told you I was going to thread it. It was pretty obvious. Okay. So you say yes. And that's why also off camera you were talking about sometimes we need just to get that win to be at the top so we can Get going so there's some wind to our sales. So you just need one person to believe in you don't one person. And I guess for a lot of people you're going to be that one person. So you see this man coming down the street be ready.
Just be ready if you see him with the I'm being replaced by a doorbell. By the way, we now have a doorbell system. You can press that. Yeah. So I'm getting replaced. But so my thing is you just approach random people and how do you Know she's not a good person? And does it matter? Yeah. Again, judgment. I I really try to remove judgment. It's not about whether they're a good person or not. It's really about hope, you know. So, I'm not here to judge people and whether they're a good person or not. What does
that even mean? Everyone's The definition of that would be different. I think I hear someone say they have a dream and I sense that they don't feel like it's possible or it's something in The future they may or may not be able to do. and I h if I have the resources to help them give it a go, I will do it. Okay? And in reality, the money I give, I mean, the maximum amount of money I've ever given is $20,000 to one person. Um, and most of the time, like in that lady's case, I
think I'm giving her $1,000 deposit and $10,000 if she delivers. Right? So, in reality, it's $10,000. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's a small amount of money, But I will probably make that money back from the video of her talking about her dream. So then that's money comes back to me and I can give it to someone else. It's self-fulfilling system. It's the Mr. Beast of model, right? It's like you make content on someone, you help them, you do something good, you promote them, which actually is the most important thing. The money
is actually just psychological. The real the real thing Is that you give them a platform of their own. After that, you give them hopefully a client, which has happened in that case. She's got inquiries for people to use her services. Okay. And I think I think that um that whole thing isn't about whether or not they're a good person or not. That whole thing is about the world is [ __ ] tough. The world is tough and people aren't living their best life because money's become so prevalent. Electricity is so expensive. This brilliant invention that's
supposed to help the human race is expensive. Accommodations become a business. It's expensive. basic human needs like accommodation, food, water, power. Literally, most people I think 75% of people in America literally have less than $100 in savings. So they they literally if they washing machine or way you look at me son I felt like I need to check down 100 bucks. Should we do that? Should we check? But by the way, this is a good clip. Who's got the most cash in the bank? Who's the biggest idiot financial literacy person? Um, but but the point
I'm trying to say is that, you know, like a lot of people, they just need one little lucky moment. You know, life life doesn't give you enough lucky moment. So, we're just trying to add one more lucky moment to people's lives. But the most important thing as well is people watching the video. A lot of People watch these videos and ask themselves for the first time in their life, what is their dream? And they actually wake up for a second and say, here's a lady that works at Bubba Gump that's now going for her dream.
Why am I not going for mine? What is my dream? Why am I not following it? I know what they're saying. Yeah. How dream is to meet Simon Square? You give me a lot of money to support and market it. I think I think you're a lot that of course is One way. It's a freaking good. It's a bit like the lottery, I guess, is one way to go about it. But I think a lot more predictable. But one of the things, look at this man's face. Remember this face, you find him on the street.
But one of the things that we try to do in our video is what we call fun education. So a lot of the time fun fu n education. Okay. So, what we're trying to do in a lot of the content, if you watch it carefully, is teach people how to get Started with no money because a lot of the time, okay, I've hired her in that video, but then people once they're aware of her are hiring her. So, actually, you don't need money. A service business is probably one of the best companies to start if
you've got no money because you can literally charge a client 50% deposit, which can be your cost to execute the service, do the work, deliver the product, i.e. the design, and get the final 50% payment. It's one of the best cash flow businesses with no money to start. If you can do someone's social media management for them, for example, your actual physical cost outlay to start that is very low. Maybe you need a laptop or you haven't already got one, probably unusual in this day and age. You've probably got the infrastructure to help someone start
doing their social media posting. You can charge them for that service and make profit and have no Money and start doing things like that. So, I think a lot of people aren't aware of this because school doesn't teach people this stuff. So, a lot of people get a job because they think that's the only thing to do. They don't understand that they could be a freelance social media poster, travel the world, getting a few clients that and they're free to at least think what their purpose might be and not have to be stuck in a
particular location doing a particular Job. And that's part of why we do this content is to educate people that if you have a dream, yes, one way Simon gives you some money, but most of the time, most of the videos, there's no money involved. It's just knowledge. It's knowledge that we say in the Tai Lopez voice. Knowledge. It's knowledge that you're missing. We have to work on that. All right. Knowledge. Knowledge. Knowledge. You got to say a little bit more. Knowledge. Yeah. Go. Okay. Well, I don't know where to go with that, but okay. I'm
sorry to kill it. No, it's good. It's good. Okay. You know why I needed to do that? Cuz I've done the math in my head while you're talking. Go on then. Here's what we're talking about. So, we know that 5 * 20 is 100. So, 5 * 4 is 20. So that's 120, right? And we had those two zeros. Then we had the three zeros there. So that's the number we're talking about. 12 Million. That's really sounds low to me. Simon, I'm not giving you I'm not giving you any clipping on this. Blink once. If
it's low, it's got to be low. This feels too low to me. Blinked once. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I think I think uh I actually think this whole like how much it fascinates people, but I don't think it matters. Is that Is that what it is? Is that what it is? It probably is. Yeah. Yeah. I I think I think it's the process of building something you love And then being able to monetize it because you own equities, the less I'd like people to stick with. Yeah. How but net worth as well doesn't mean anything.
Right. What's your net worth? What is my net worth? You say that if people actually understand how net worth works, I would say it's not too high. North of 20. Yeah. No, I would say it's higher. A lot higher. The the reason is brand has value. It's ironic if you say that. mostly like what the bank would Consider. No, no, but the bank [ __ ] the banks. They don't know what they're doing. The banks do not know what they're doing. They are They've lost every sponsor. Are there is a bank a sponsor? No. No.
But you're like, "Fuck, f this. F that." We're going to be a sponsor. These people are sponsor. This This video will die on Instagram. I don't know why. I don't know why Instagram. It's just crazy. Odd, right? Odd. But let's do this. Let's just Quickly recap on a couple different things. Some 50* 240. Is that Is that 12? Is it? Yeah. Okay. 120. Yeah, something like that. Okay, I can live a lot longer. Anyways, thank God we talk about purpose and purpose is a funny word because it means a lot of different things, but when
you were talking what I got from that is once you have enough money, you have to ask yourself this and it's an existential question like beyond money why you exist and makes you look For something deeper cuz you have no more wants or needs and so you have to find something and I'm I'm loving that you you want to try to make a dent in the universe. You you want to try to leave this place better than the way you found it. And you want to repeat the the opportunities that you found or created or
was given were given to you so that other people can have something like this. So totally in 18 years somebody's going to be like, "Well, Simon did this For me." And you're planting a lot of seeds. You're like the British Johnny Apple Seed just planting little entrepreneurial seeds all about the world, right? And then one day there's going to be an orchard of entrepreneurs all over the place and they're going to be able to pull fruit and say to their great great great grandchildren like we're here because there's this British guy with blue eyes and
looked in the camera who looked kind and generous and He said you can do it and I did it. I didn't even need money. I need knowledge to gain that fruit. Number two, can I just add something to what you said there? I was going to go on a thing but please no I know I don't I was only going to your planting trees analogy. I'd probably take it a step further. What I'm what I'm most proud of is that people watch this content and plant their own seeds. The whole world is asking what is
Their dream, which I think a lot of people were not asking before. I feel like if I was to die today, at least I've got people thinking what is their dream and and waking themselves you planted. But I I didn't plant those seeds. I think people watched the content of someone else going for it and felt inspired and therefore they're asking themselves why am I not doing that? and and school doesn't teach people to be aspirational in this way. So I thought that that's that the analogy is yes those I'm helping those people plant a
seed but actually people watching the content are planting their own seeds. A lot of people send us DMs like from a year ago or two I watched your video now I started a business of my own and now it's working. It had nothing to do with me. I didn't I didn't help them. How about you till the soil? How do you want to go on this? Yeah. Okay. I'll move on. It's very British if You don't have to take any credit but okay. All right. Is that a British thing in America? They all take the
credit, isn't it? We take credit for things we have nothing to do with. Fair pastor. I am actually the guy behind the scenes helping Simon before any of this happens to you guys. Yeah. Yeah. It's you. It's you. It's all thanks to you. Your branding expertise. I wouldn't be here today without Chris. Please. That's a clip. All right. So, beyond money, why You exist? And then you said something. It's like our natural state is to want to give. And I believe in that 100%. There's this episode I listen to on a different podcast, a sciencebased
podcast. They say, "Well, money can it buy happiness?" And it turns out money can buy happiness, but not the way you think. If you receive money, as they say, and then you you spend it on yourself, it's diminishing levels of happiness. But if you get money and You're charged with giving that money to other people, your hap your happiness actually goes up. So, if each person who receives the money continues to give it to people, the levels of happiness go up. Therefore, some of those viral pieces of uh content like $100 or a,000 to give
away, they're like a,000 to give away. and then 100, you know, they just keep elevating stakes until somebody's like, "Selfish, I want it." And we we're watching that. So, we're kind of living That feeling there. Uh your your whole thing is give without expectations because a gift is a gift. You give or you don't give, but you can't give and expect people to do things. There's a word for that. It's called manipulation. We don't want that. Like, if you get good grades, then I'll give you something. If you do this, if you basically do everything
I tell you to do, then I will reward you with love, with appreciation, with acknowledgement, Or with a roof over your head. There's a lot of manipulation, by the way. Political system is one big manipulation. And you're saying that we live in a society, unfortunately, where we no longer have the ability to ask for help because one, maybe there's a stigma against asking for help, but two, we don't know where to ask help from if it's not from a bank or government official. We just don't know where to go. And I think you're trying to
change That. So that leads us to unconditional giving, which is what you're doing. And and what you're doing is the Mr. Beast model less vapid. You're actually trying to help people change their lives and it's not just for shock or entertainment value. Can I say that? Yes. And you've built a business model, infinite giving. So, let's let's unpack this because you can afford to because of the business model you built be able to give this young woman an opportunity and you stay Out of the whole like I don't care what you do. I don't care
if you're a bad person. I don't care if you drown kittens as you're saying. Those are your words, right? I probably drown kittens. I You're not here to judge. Whatever you do, I'm talking about I love kittens. I love being I don't know how I just put it right on that. Give people money. What they do, who they become, that's on them. You're going to move on because the business Model supports that. If enough people watch the video, you'll make money on AdSense or something else or sponsor deals or new opportunities so the bank account
can keep filling itself up. So, can we get into the business of giving? Yeah, I think the business of giving is a good way of putting it. I think we should have a business that helps people for profit, for good. You want to race? Should we? Yes. All right. Okay. That's a a special art to us and you do it so Well. All right. Okay. The business of gang. So I want to know and I want you now not to speak to the philanthropic but the miserly the the entrepreneurs are like a little tight on
their money. Mhm. How they can build an amazing sustainable business helping others while making even more money. So can you break it down for us? So, the first thing probably and I I don't know if I'm going to go in the right order on this, but I think I think the number one thing In a business of giving is to actually act like you've got no money. That's easy for a lot of our audience cuz you literally have no money. I I think if I if I if I could go back to the 20-year-old me
and start a business again, I think having no money is a competitive advantage. I have invested in so many companies and what I've noticed the probably the most extreme example let's say let's say we work right weiworks raised billions and they Spent the money without thinking about how to make it work as a business right so sometimes having too much money can cause a problem and you're not inventive you don't so for example um I invested in a business where um the people took the money and they hired a marketing firm and they come up
with this brilliant marketing strategy. There was another company that I didn't invest in that didn't raise any money and the founder came up with their own marketing System and was talking direct customers and didn't hire anybody. And so what I found interesting about that was the people that had the money lost because they hired external party and they didn't take control of the marketing themselves whereas the company had no money to hire the market firm did it themselves and won. Okay. Because I think basically money makes you weak. And so in the business of giving,
probably the first thing to be careful Of is not say, "I've got billions of dollars and I'm going to give it away." Yeah. Because then you're going to give it all away. It's going to sound good, but then it's never coming back to you and that's the end of it. Your your money's gone. That system's gone. This is my problem with charity models. If if you build a business that isn't worried about how to make money, it's too easy to spend it. And when people have charity models and say please give me Money and then
they spend it one day you can't please give me money and there's no money in there for whatever reason the COVID comes along or the the organizations were funding you before stop and they have a change of policy you you you have to actually I think act like you got no money and if you act like you know got no money you build an income model. Now in the business of Giving, you need to have something to give. So the first thing I think is act like you got no money. Don't think you need money
to start this. Like I could start a business of giving that would be incredibly profitable with no money. Actually, I did do this. I told my whole team when we started this whole thing, I'm not using my fortune to build this business. I did use my money to start it, but I'm acting like I've got no money. It's important because otherwise We won't be inventive. We'll just throw money at things. We won't think about the economic model to make it sustainable. If I'm not here anymore, it dies. So, or if you run out of money,
it dies. Run out of money, it dies. Then you have to have an income model. Now, I think you know in the business of giving, you have to have a core philosophy. We'll call it a core belief maybe a bit about it. And so in my case the core belief is That the education system is broken and it it uh it doesn't really give people um financial literacy uh core requirements I think in life how money works how the world works and it doesn't give people as many choices as they actually have. So most people
think, you know, go go go to school, go to university, um get a job, uh get a promotion, buy a house, but and I think that that system is so baked in and it needs to change. We need to say to People, actually, what do you like to do? Not you're really bad at this, you get a D. You got to do more of it. I think the system needs to say, actually, you're really bad at biology, you're getting a D. So let's just forget that. What do you like doing that you get an A
in? Let's just do more of that. And so I had this core belief that at 15 years old when I left school, school taught me nothing. I've been in school 13 years. It taught me nothing about how To live in the real world, nothing about how money worked, nothing how sales worked, nothing about how to hire people, nothing about human behavior or management, psychology, nothing. Nothing. I could use a calculator to replace everything I'd learned at school pretty much. Right? So I think a company to doing the business of giving needs to have a core
belief and mine is we need to fix the education system. Now people listening they might have a different Core belief. That's fine. You need to have a core belief because then you're going to build an army. And to build an army the mistake people make when they build a company is they build a business model. Um let's say the design agency. We help clients um get more clients and then they hire people around that to help them do that business. But then if you're not careful, there's many companies that will be offering to do the
same thing. And so what if companies make more money? Do you make more money if those companies make more money? Well, everything will end up being about I need to earn more money. Your your team won't be there. You'll be managing a team. And I tell people not to manage a team. Manage a purpose. Hire people on that purpose and they manage themselves. Because if my team, which they do, believe that the education system is broken and not helping humanity, then I Don't need to manage them. They will self-manage because if they go off and
do nothing, then this problem doesn't get fixed. So, I hire based on I hire this army based on do they believe in what we're doing. Now, the income model I think should be linked to what the giving is. So I'll give another example except for my own I'm going to explain my own business in a minute how we make money and what we do and how this all works tying back to my own business but Just general general example most people listening would have heard of um property agencies. So companies that help you sell your
property or help you buy a property. So those businesses generally they they they they first of all they confuse people. Who's the client? The person walking in buying a property or the person selling the property? They pretend that they're both their client but only one is actually their client. The actual client is the Person selling the property. Okay? So, they're all about making the person who sells the property happy, get them best price because then they'll get more houses to sell in the future. Yes, they want people to buy houses, but they're not really their
client. They're just a byproduct of having the listing. Most people buy the house, not the agency who's selling it. So, um so under this model, um you don't need any money to be a property agent. And my income model is To uh help people sell their houses and and make commission. My core belief in this idea, forget my fixed education, is that homelessness is out of control and we need to fix the homelessness crisis. So that's my core belief. And then I build an army around this. We're going to fix the homelessness. And then the
income model becomes every time you sell a house, all the profit doesn't go to shareholders, it goes to homeless Charities. Now, if you built this income model around that, everybody who wins in the property business will win because they get the listing. Getting the listing is the most important thing because I'm not buying from an agent because I like them. I'm buying because I like that house and that agent happens to be listing it. So, you can win because I will get all the listings if I built a property agency this way because it's you
as the lister. Now, America is slightly different, but in England, if you give me the house to sell, I I sell it. You don't lose anything, but now you're helping the homeless as well. You're going to pay me anyway. Now, I'm just going to sell your house for you. That's important. I have to sell your house for you. But that profit is now going to solve a problem, help the homeless. So you give me the listing, as long as I sell it, you'll give it to me over my competitors. So Actually the business of giving
gives you a competitive advantage if you apply it correctly. Now I'll give you that example. So it's not all just about my model. In my model, I think fixing the education system also involves an element of what we call freeing humanity, right? Which is helping people do what they love, which is what the education system is meant to do. It's meant to give you the groundwork to live a really good life in The real world on once you enter it. Right? So we want to free humanity. So in my particular case, the business of giving
act like you've got no money. So how can we help someone? Well, we can video them. They can tell us their dream. We can upload it and that will help them. Now even if we got 10 people viewing their dream, that's maybe one person that could be their customer. Yes, today we have millions of followers and millions of Views, but that didn't start off that way. Just putting a video up alone helped people a lot of the time, even with low views. And then we have an income model where that video makes money as I
mentioned earlier. And that allows us to give people the money to start their dream and free humanity from the trap of the job they don't love, for example. But also we are and we have thousands of hours of content at this point where we are not fixing the Education system but we have made content with people like you. You've been on our podcast where we're giving people the knowledge for free that the education system isn't providing. Now we're putting that knowledge up on YouTube. So you watch that free education video for you. It's free, but
we make money from that free education video. And then again, from that free education video, we can give the money away to free humanity so they can start Focusing on what they love. So we give them free education. We give them free money. So we have an army that cares about fixing the education system. We have a core belief the education system is broken and humanity deserves to be free. We have an income model. There's much more levels to the income model than just the videos, but we have videos that educate for free, but we
make money from them thanks to YouTube. And we have videos that share people's dreams on Tik Tok and so on that make us money that generates revenue for us to then give away to people to ironically make more videos. It's a flywheel model. Now, I think social media for social good is an element of this. People are all complaining about social media, but they don't understand that today I can make a video with no followers and get a 100 million views on that video because the algorithms today in the last 18 months are all about
is The video good or not. It almost doesn't matter how many followers you got. It slightly does, but it doesn't really. That is an incredible opportunity on the business side. That's a whole separate thing. But for us, we're now able to fund people, promote people, and be profitable. Couple of challenges. Ready? Number one, you're like not a fan of charities because they are always having their hands out. Yep. And also they can't pay People properly. There's two elements for it. And there's a lot of other problems, but those are just some. But your first business
model is to give money to a charity. The example real estate one for homeless shelter. Yes. Homeless shelters. Yes. The reason I pick a charity to give the money to in that case study, that's not a real business. I'm just making that idea up now. But I say that because homelessness is actually a very Complicated, very specialized thing. And I have tried to do this, by the way. If I give money direct to someone homeless, I'm no expert in addiction, for example, and I have given money to someone who's homeless and they've spent it on
their addiction. So, I'm now cautious when I talk about that type of thing. Better to work with an intermediary. In our case, in England, we work with a charity called Shelter. they have experience in how to dish that Money out to the relevant uh homeless folks in a way that's not going to hurt them. So I use an intermediary in that particular case. In this particular example, I cut out anybody in the middle. I get the money direct to the people. Okay? Because I'm not worried about, you know, uh those sorts of problems. Um whereas
homelessness is a completely different model. So homelessness is a very complicated thing. It's not about opportunities or Finance because there's mental health, there's addiction, lots of infrastructure. How do you even find people? There's very complicated. So, let's get your model though. Could you say that young woman was also a charity cuz she doesn't know how to do things for no money either? That's what I have to ask you now. Say that again. Say it again. I'm a trap. I'm just letting you know. Go, go, say again. Say, say the question again. I'm playing three Dimensional
chess here. Yeah, I'm keeping up. I think I'm keeping up. Are you okay? So we said the homeless shelter thing is not the perfect model. So we switched over to the people. Aren't those people charities of one for themselves cuz they haven't been able to figure out how to act with no money and they're not building a self-sustaining model. Yeah. But they they're product of the broken education system. And this is like third generation broken education System. So their parents or their grandparents were taught to work in factories. And that's what the education system was
designed to do. Sit down, shut up, turn up at this time, go home at that time. Don't have an idea of your own. Read this book. This is the truth. That's the end of it. Shut up. And so we have to break the cycle a little bit. So I call this pattern interrupting people. And so when I walk up to her, she's young person. I don't think I'd describe Her as a charity, but she's a product of a third generation broken system. So her parents are probably telling her, "Go to UCLA." And and and and
education's being this revered thing that's going to somehow guarantee you a better future. But we know that's not true. They know it's not true. Well, they know it's not true, but again, back to that like weeds in, you know, are growing in the Mars dirt. I think a lot of the time people that the role models will tell, by the Way, it's a it might not be true. The psychology of like what you're capable of doing is often by your own limitations. A lot of extreme athletes have proven this. You know, you can do ultramarathons
back to back. Even though your body's telling you you're about to die, somehow people can do it. A lot of it is your subconscious. So for her, in her case, her subconscious and society has told her that she's 19 years old and she can't be a graphic designer yet. Well, most people were dead by 20 like 500 years ago. So like so so she's she's she can do it, but the system is telling her she has to wait until she's got this certificate before she does it. So I I don't see her as a charity,
but I do see it as perhaps an obligation. If I'm in if my mission is to fix the education system, one is get into the education and try and fix it, which is incredibly difficult. I have tried to do that. They don't want to let you in. It's not Broken for the people that designed it otherwise they'd change it. So the old ways build an alternative, which we are doing and have done where you can go and get knowledge for free that school isn't teaching you. Okay. And then the final stage I think is like
literally intervention. Like someone's a drug addict to the system. You have to get a job. I'm going to go to UCLA. I'm going to have debt. I'm going to get I'm going to get a job because I can't afford to Start my own business cuz I've got debt. I'm going to get I'm going to get a mortgage and I'm going to get a car and I'm going to get a credit card debt and then I'm going to have $150,000 $200,000 worth of debt. There's no way you're starting your business at that point. Better go to
that 19-year-old to interrupt them now. You're 19 years old. used to be you'd be be dead for a year from now. You can do it. Why can't you be a graphic designer now? Yes, it will Take time to get good. I'm not saying it doesn't take time to get good. And maybe you're not good. But now is the chance to try cuz you're young. You can take some risk. Okay. I want to say this. I'm a big fan of what you're doing. Yeah. Thanks. But there's there's a component here that I need to pick apart
a little. Go ahead. So, we're going to call one a C and one an E. Okay. and you're giving money to indiscriminately seasones. So you as a Young man who somebody gave the opportunity to to say go ahead and mow my lawn, use my equipment, whatever. You weren't a charity cuz you knew how to run a business. That very first day you went to go and find 99 more customers. So when you meet a C charity, it's like I don't know what I'm going to do. Just give me money. And more likely than not, maybe
you have the data to support it one way or the other. They're Going to just blow the money. not any different than an addict. They're just going to blow the money because they're going to support the same habits that got them in this position in the first place. I think it's less of an addiction because we're using a lot of metaphors here from homelessness addiction. I think it's just more like everybody's been brainwashed to believe you follow the rules, you play by the rules, and things will work out. And the truth is It hasn't worked
out in a long time. This is not new news. This is not, you know, um Wolf Blitzer saying breaking news here. Okay. So my thing with you is if you're against the charities, why don't we find more E and but there has to be a process other than you just walking up to people and saying what's your dream and just give me the money because when you find the E, they multiply what you do or this is going to be the end of the story or these these Ones explode. Like for example, those two young
um black guys uh that you found that their dream what was the craziest dream was to clean people's homes or something. It was something like that. I'm like what kind of dream is that? and they're doing really well, right? Yeah. Really well. And that's the kind of thing it's like how do you discern or I know you don't care, but that's where I just following your own philosophy here. You don't want to give To charities cuz all charities know how to do is ask for more money. You want to give to entrepreneurs who just need
someone to believe in them and a little bit of startup capital so they can get on with their lives and break the system in a very good way. What are your thoughts on that, Simon? I think there's different elements to what I'm doing. Mhm. Um, I think the content side, I do quite like fate. And yes, there'll be some people I Give the money to that have just blown it and not done anything with it. And there's other people that have taken advantage of it. There's another lesson in this, which is I think my theory
is having interviewed lots of people who've done really well in life. There's eight times you're lucky in life. And so me giving someone money in the street is one of those times. And if they don't take advantage of it, it's up to them. I don't see that as charity. I see that as A lesson. I will make the money back from the video so I can go again. So it's not going to kill me if they don't do it. And equally even in that and I had a video got 139 million views where I asked
someone to sing cuz they said their dream was to sing and then she didn't sing. I didn't give her any money. I didn't have to give her any money. But in that moment later she does sing later. She comes back and says, "Oh my god, now everyone knows my name and Everyone's asking me to sing and I want to come and sing." We did another video with her singing. And so I think not every part of what I do involves giving people money. So it's not like I'm going up to someone and saying, "Here's a
load of money." And then they blow it and it's charity. I think a lot of it is like helping people believe in themselves. And and a video is a good way of also helping other people believe in themselves because a lot of people in That video said, "Oh, I I I've done that. It's self-sabotage. Someone gave me a chance to sing and I didn't do it. I remember that. I'm never going to do that again. Or they watch it. Like, why didn't you take the luck when it came your way? So, it's almost like education.
Even if in the clip it's not, it's seen as charity. If you give someone money, it's charity. But, but I don't think it is. I think it's education. All of those Videos are still education. Even if even if that person who takes the money blows it, I don't I get the money back so I can do it again, but I also get to educate people at scale for free. Yeah. Charity is just an act of kindness. I don't think it has to necessarily be tied to money. Well, like it's charitable of you to help that
old lady across the street. It's charitable that you let me stay here tonight. Yeah. It's just an act of kindness. I sponsored a Charity once. It's still charity. And a charity said to me, the difference between charity and marketing is whether or not you want us to tell people you sponsored us. So like if we give you if I give you the money and that's it, they consider that charity. If I give you the money and then say, "Would you please tell the world that I gave you this money? It's marketing." Always what you're doing,
charity or marketing. What what what I'm Doing I'm fixing the education system. So what I'm so Are you running for office? No. It seems like you answer your own question. But I don't think it's binary choice. You just said, "No, I'm doing I'm doing a business for good. It's a new definition. You do well in politics." Thank you. But but I am actually genuinely trying to answer the question. I I don't think it is either. But you're saying the difference between charity and marketing is marketing wants To get credit. So just ask you is what
you're doing. No, I'm saying that's what that charity said. That doesn't mean to say that I think they're right. Yeah. But by the way, but neither neither are wrong. The charity said to me at the time, neither is wrong. Like do you want people to know you did this? No. Nothing's wrong. And there's nothing wrong with that. We don't mind. The charity doesn't mind it. But do you want to keep it to yourself? And that's That's pure charity, right? That's just so I I think for me like I a lot of people tell me a
lot of people criticize me and they say you shouldn't be filming acts of kindness, right? Yes. And and the philosophy behind it is very ancient and very stupid. It's kind of like, well, if you're doing something good, you should do it behind closed doors. But I think the real value on what we do is we've learned to take social media and make it useful to help those people. The real value isn't the money I give people. It's the exposure I give their dream, the chance I give it to live in the world. If you come
to me today and say, "Simon, please promote my podcast." I charge $150,000 to do a promotion on my social media, right? So, I with a brand that can afford it cuz that's one of our revenue models. We have brand income that also helps us fund people's dreams and pay for all this. But I think for a Dreamer, I can promote them and and give them that exposure. And so, I think a lot of it is not about the money. The money is just a byproduct. Sometimes there's some people that need $10,000 and there's some people
that need nothing. They literally a singer just needs exposure for her songs. Yeah. Right. If I gave her a load of money and no exposure, that would be awful. I don't think that would be a good use of the platform. Yeah. So, and and Ironically, and I think you mentioned this earlier, we have given people in a video $10,000 US just last week, and that video got less views than someone we gave $100 to, but some advice, right? And so, I think that Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I have answered your question properly.
Yeah, but that's okay. You know, I I just I just think that the the charity model isn't right and it's not sustainable. We're not going to fix the education system for good. Yeah. And I think making profit, a lot of it is healthy. Yeah. Cuz there's more you can do with a more profit. Profit solves all problems. You're speaking to another capitalist here, so I got no problems with that. I'm a capitalist socialist these days cuz I also don't think we should make everything about money. But yeah. Yes. What I'm trying to do is to
push against this because that's what's going to Happen in the comments and then it'll be too late. Yeah. No, good. I like it. I want to surface this so that they can either get on one side of the fence or the other and that's up to them. We don't really care. There's not game here. So, I'm just trying to understand this. So, everything you say, I'm like, what is our audience going to say or some random person bumping into the channel? So, I want to get into the business part of this a little bit. We're
going to run out of time here, but I want to get into the business part. So, you said YouTube pays you money. Mhm. And you said Tik Tok pays you money. Yep. You didn't mention Instagram. Well, Instagram pay you, Jack. They don't pay you anything. Oh, no. There's a slight change. You have subscription now. Yeah, but it's a little bit different. People pay a month. These are passive. I have hundreds of people paying a monthly Subscription fee on Instagram. Let's get into that. Okay. So, I'll write IG. Let's just look at It's not big yet,
but there's potential there. What are you pulling in annually on YouTube on AdSense? I actually don't know. We were doing $20 per thousand views. Uh, last time I looked at the last video, your CPM is 20K. Roughly last year, I can we have a whole video on all of our income right now. Uh, roughly if it's roughly roughly 24. Okay, I can tell you cuz I just looked at it. January, I can tell you our income stream. In total, we made 1.8 million from YouTube. No. Mixture of all these different Okay. Can we break it
down? I'd have to go get it broken down. I didn't know you want. I don't mind doing it. I just got to make sure I do precisely. How many give me some numbers? YouTube. 43K. Okay. 43K. That's dollars. Pounds. Pounds. Okay. 43K in The last 28 days, right? Y. Congratulations, by the way. Yeah. And Tik Tok. Last 28 days. Last 28 days on Tik Tok is $4,897. Okay. Big difference there. Tik Tok. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. And Instagram. Instagram subscriptions. We only get subscriptions. So, fix that. Brand deals are all part of this. Yeah. Just
to be fair. So, we just broke down a little bit about how you're able to make money doing good in the world so that you can Do more good. Would you say a good portion of that is through through brand deals? Because at $150,000 a pop, that's a lot relative to this. Yeah. So, uh 10 of those deals, that's $1 half million dollars. Yeah. I think I think the revenue side is pretty pretty interesting. You can read this. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll keep it there as a reference. Um so, there's kind of like steps in
this process to um make it financially Viable. So, this Tik Tok revenue here is the last 28 days. Mhm. Doesn't actually sound right to me cuz I think it's one video we worked out for uh Emma Wills, for example, that alone was $7,000 just on that one video. Yeah, it kind of focus on the top, right? Yeah. So, so what we found is this might be slightly um uh an error here and in in how the system calculates the money. Mhm. But let's say this 43,000 in the last 28 days is actually from one video
pretty Much. It's not from the channel. It's from the channel, but it's coming from one one nuclear hit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that that's that's kind of how that works. Now we have other videos that are now feeding off the back of this other video. Yeah. So So that lift. Yeah. So and I think on Tik Tok we we we helped someone called Emma Wills. Emma and and that video last time I looked that video just on TikTok made $7,000. Now, we have actually we Actually have g we gave her $500 in the video. Mhm.
And then since that we've done a part two, which we haven't paid out yet, and in in that video, we gave her uh a sewing machine and some courses. We spent another $3,000 helping her with her dream. So in that one case study the cost to us apart from editing right and all those things which is part of our fixed cost fixed cost is a different issue right but just fixed cost that's really bad I don't know what I've written there to be honest I can barely read anything you write but keep going oh fair
enough yeah I appreciate that you're trying cost fixed cost aside um you know in theory we may we cost 3,500 to help her with a dream and the income is $7,000 So that's the general way we we look at how we build out the content. Now not every video goes viral. Every so often we make a video that also loses money, but in the end it seems to work out for Whatever reason. Now that is from putting the video on Tik Tok, putting on YouTube shorts, putting on Snapchat, putting it on Instagram. Instagram in particular,
the subscription revenue is now coming in, but it's really more about brand awareness of what we're doing for brand deals. Now, brand deals is phase one. Sorry. Stage one is the videos themselves making money, right? Stage two, I've written I'm really doing this badly. I'm now getting judged by You. Normally, people let you stage stage. Okay. Cuz you said stage and phase and stage one is the videos made. Thank you. Yep. Adsense passive. Exactly. Stage two. Perfect. Brand deals, right? And right now, Mhm. brands really are supporting us. Yeah. And we have about 12 brand
deals, right? Mhm. Now, brand deals are getting more complicated because brand deals aren't just a fee. So, let's say Um let me think of a good example of this. You know, by the way, while you're thinking, people who love you are going to hate me if they are not like, "Let him talk. We ain't give him a hard time. Suck it." No. Give me a hard time. I don't care. I don't mind it. I like I'm going to do it, but I'm just By the way, I think what I really like about this type of
interview is that you're thinking what the audience are going to ask and I want those questions answered. So, I don't mind at all. Just to say, I think it's good. Um, I'm trying to think of a brand deal. Adobe, do we actually get a sign up bonus for each one side? I can't remember. Oh, like affiliate, you get a Exactly. Okay. Let's just take Adobe. Yeah. Right. So, Adobe will sponsor us a flat fee. Y let's say 150k, right, to do a series of videos. And then we have an affiliate. We have an affiliate. So,
you know, it's very common. It's not no [ __ ] affiliate. You Guys know what I mean. Um, we'll just do AF affiliate deals. So, every time someone signs up, Yep. we get a percentage, right? And so, and again, people don't mind signing up and supporting us because we're using that money to fund people's dreams and build infrastructure to help people for free and pay people. So, this is actually quite scalable income. It can be quite it's not easy to get affiliate income and I never Actually recommend people just go with affiliate income only cuz
it's a bit baseless in the fixed cost you can have to run a platform blah blah blah. But, um, you know, this can be powerful. Now, stage three in our kind of income model is our own products. Right. So we um have help bank which based on last money in the last money in a few people invested in that business with me and that business Is now worth $50 million US. It's a year and a half old. So stage two, stage three of this is our own products. We're now launching our own coffee brand. I
won't plug it on your podcast, but we called Dream Brew. Um and we are uh launching our own clothing line which is called purposeful clothing and dream brew is like B rew. It's not like the South African brew. Exactly. And we are now you know in talks about doing uh well we are doing our own TV shows um And partnering uh on on that as well not just creating ourselves. So, we have all these things in the pipeline which allow us to sell our clothing and the profit from that clothing does exactly the same as
the videos do. And so, when building a business, I I could have skipped this stage. I've got enough money. I could have skipped this stage and dealt with no brands. Right? A lot of people don't like dealing with brands and it can be a pain. I could have skipped this. Alex Hoszi said to me, he's grateful he doesn't have to deal with brands. Right? The reason I first of all I like it and it's and it's important part of what we're doing is because Adobe can help people start businesses. If they give this product to
someone for a month, they can do a lot of their creations and get their business going. So I want them to offer my community it free for a month and then you pay for every month after that. Right? I want these services Such as banking. Everybody needs a bank account whether we like it or not. You need a bank account. So I have a bank partner. Everybody needs software often to start their business. I like working with these partners. These brand deals are brand deals not because they generate us revenue to help fund people's dreams,
but also because these products can help people who are starting businesses. So, we only work with people who are actually products That help people with their businesses. I'm not working with a, you know, a cleaning company that cleans sinks, you know, unless you want to sponsor us, let me know. But point I'm making the point I'm making is like point I'm making is I need an affiliate commission off that deal. Yeah. Okay. Well, sure. Link down below. Um, but yeah, so, so, you know, there are further stages depending on how things go and things like
blockchain. There's some opportunities There. But right now, you know, these are the stages of the business. We start off by making content that makes money. It's a bit erratic because some months it's a lot of money and other months it's not so much. And then stage two, we, you know, have brand deals, which are a lot easier when you've got a big following, but you can get them when you've got a small following. You can, people have to believe, but you can. Brands will support you if they see some Merit in what you're doing. A
lot of the brands supported us. My first sponsor was GoDaddy when I had I think I was about 15,000 followers. Now I'm 15 million, but GoDaddy supported me when I had a small amount of followers because they believed in what we were trying to do. You're saying GoDaddy was your sugar daddy back then? Yeah, sugar daddy. Go Daddy. But now they're not my sponsor at all. So, uh, you got too old. Go Daddy. Um, and then I own products and then I Left home. I found a new love and I don't have a new deal.
No, I Well, I'm still talking to GoDaddy. we still we keep dating but um yeah but just you know I think that's the business model we we um we now rolling out our own products and then we promote them we sell them the community buy them to support us that money goes back into helping people and funding dreams okay if we were to take these things away is your fixed cost given the Passive income enough to keep this dream going the short answer is yes what we keep adding team members and growing the business if
I cut the team down and got rid of half these guys here. Uh, but you love all of them except for one. Yeah, except for one. Poor Arthur. Uh, but but if I if right now I could I could run this with the income from the videos with a team of three making the videos, recording the videos, editing the videos, putting the Videos up, and we'd be able to fund people's dreams. Mr. Beast model, we we are doing that now. That's working. We're able to fund people's dreams with the video revenue. It's a little bit
erratic. like some months we have more coming in and some months we have less. So that's always like if I had no money that's cash flow would be slightly scary but but generally um yeah we can okay taken five years to get to that point though right is there a person in this Room who knows your numbers no they know the numbers they've got access to all the business numbers like what your your uh overhead expenses are because it's just rent the house having the crew here six people traveling with you yeah this cost $50,000
to bring everybody here okay let's do that then we erase some of this oh I know this is quite interesting go on yeah go on I I think I know where you're going, but I Okay, so it cost $50,000 To come my whole crew to come to LA. For how long? Oh, why am I doing this? You're using up a lot of space. It's almost like Okay, it's like we can get rid of stage one. It's like this is all the real estate I've been given, guys. You want to challenge me? I didn't want to
race the whole thing. I didn't know you were going to challenge me, but I like it. I like this. The maths. It's got to add up. I like this. 50k come to LA. My team of 10. I've got a team of 29 by the way, but 10 of them have come here. So, yeah. What's the question? Okay, let's just get the team here. For how long? Two weeks. How many weeks? Two weeks. Is this just the flight? What is this? 50K. Uh flight, accommodation, food. Okay. 10 people. Okay. In a villa. So, there's 10 people
here in for 2 weeks. Yeah. So, what does it cost you to run the media part of this monthly? the cost to Run the media, overhead, insurance, all that kind of stuff. I feel like I need my account here to give this. That's why I asked you if there somebody here knew what they're talking about. So, well, now, um, just to be clear, we have different businesses, right? I'm going to make this too complicated for you, but I can probably do it by business. I know the numbers, but I don't know. It's such a patronizing
way. I'm the guy who understands your business here. Yeah. No, no. I'm not sure what Do you know what I thought you were going to ask your head here? No, I thought you were going to ask. How do we justify spending 50,000? I would never ask that. That's a good question. If you were good at podcast, we would ask you, but I'm not. That's not You're not. People want to know how they can go on a 50 holiday and justify. You know why I don't want to ask that question? Why? Small-minded question. Small minded question.
Because it doesn't matter how much you spend. It matters how much money you make or take. Yes and no. You can if you bring in $5 million 50k is like a dumb small amount. Yeah. I mean we we we will make a calculated guess that it's a charity people don't understand the 50k. But I'm a business guy. Yeah. But remember I also came here To be on a TV show. So part of that as well like that's a new income stream coming right to justify it. No I'm I'm I was beginning to explain how we
we do justify because by the way I I I'm going to ask the question but go ahead. But but remember I said earlier I don't want to be a hypocrite. I said you got to act like you got no money. So people listening to that, well, how can they afford to spend 50 grand going on a trip, right? But we can literally break Down assignment. How can you justify spending 50K? No, you I've helped you be a good podcaster. I'm not actually going to answer that question. Right. So what's the next question? I'm doing that
for the edit. Next question is what? So you can answer it. So it doesn't look like you're talking to yourself the whole time. You're not going to make it look like I'm talking to myself the whole time. No, he won't. Don't worry. He doesn't edit. Want to wear a holiday To LA? Let me know in the comments. Um, no. Okay. But you're asking I was asking you how do you justify spending 50k? No, that's not what you're asking. You're asking how much each of the businesses cost and how much we make. No, I'm not asking
that question. I'm asking you what do you spend a month to have a media team so I could look at if you could do this against the passive income. I'm trying to help all those Entrepreneurs who are like, "This is never going to work." That's what they're thinking. This will never work. I've got $100 million is going to burn a hole right through my account. I'm trying to get there. Then there's a better way to explain to me. Okay. I think. Okay. Does he always do this? Do what? Go around in circles. Yeah. Am I
coming around in circles? You don't wor. No. Thanks, Callum. Thank you. Um, you creative folks all stick Together, don't you? Um, we see each other. Yeah, you do. I do. I can tell. You know when they say we feel seen. I know. I know that words. Hey, brother. So, listen. For people listening that want to know how to do what I have done, you have to start with no money. And that's what I did. So the first thing I ever did and then maybe we can do this in stages because I'm going to talk about
where we are now. It's very unrelatable To where I started. If I don't explain where I started, people won't understand how to get where I'm if I just descri I've got 30 people today full time, right? And and I split it in a very clever way amongst different businesses that we're doing. help bank, the clothing line, the drinks dream Brew, the Simon Squib brand media team, right? These these costs of these 30 people are split between these businesses because they're all different businesses doing Different things, but it's cross-pollination between them. So, the Simon Squid Media
business will of course also promote the help bank platform that that helps people. Simon's good media business will also promote the Dream Brew products and the clothing line, right? Eventually, all of these products will stand on their own with their own marketing teams and put money into the middle to help people with their dreams, right? But what I'm Getting to is I think you have to go back to the very beginning. Okay? And I had a lot of money in the bank account, at least 12 million, a lot more than that. And what I did
was is at Christmas my wife gave me a microphone that cost 100 bucks and she said, "You clearly want to do something. Why don't you just start off by That's kind of a cheap Christmas gift for a guy." Totally. Totally. But like always, it's the thought that Counts. But it was the right thing to give you. It was the right thing to give me. And what she gave me on top of the $100, Mike, was why don't you just start interviewing people that have knowledge and share it with people? That's what I did. My first
three podcasts are the worst pieces of [ __ ] you've ever seen. They are so bad. But I had a cheap mic and I learned how to edit a podcast and realized I couldn't do that. Hire someone else mic, right? One mic in the Middle. One crappy mic with a little switch on it that's supposed to help the audio going. None of this beautiful material we have around us now that no one can actually see. But you know, one mic and I actually did a hundred podcasts and they were called the Good Luck Club podcast.
They're still up today. You can go listen to them. Good Luck Club. Good Luck Club podcast. And during that process, I realized that I needed to I started getting brand in Inquiring what I would like to sponsor your podcast. I can see how to make money. And then I thought I can't do it like this. I've got to get a proper editor in. You were editing yourself? I was I was doing a little bit of Fiverr, a little bit myself. I had someone helping me a little bit here and there, but it really wasn't I
wasn't spending money on it. It felt like it was just a little bit here and there to figure out how it worked. And then I brought in a Proper editor and put them on payroll. And I brought in a PA to help me uh organize the guests. Now, at this point, this is a money losing proposition, isn't it? Money losing proposition, but not a huge amount. Not a huge amount because to upload a podcast cost nothing, right? The microphone there 100 bucks. It's nothing. So my fixed cost each month is actually next to nothing. The
hardest bit was me learning to be a good podcast Host. I can teach you everything I know in a different day. But like that I did the reps on the work, right? The interviewing people bit and and actually initially I was like I don't think anyone would come on my podcast. I was surprised how many people would. I thought that was going to be my biggest problem getting people on the podcast. And then they came on. Eventually, I realized, okay, hold on. I'm competing with people that are doing other Podcasts. I need to get a
proper editor and I need to get a PA to help me organize it. So, my cost started kicking in. And let's say at this point, my costs were, let's say, I think about €4,000 a month, right? But one brand deal from GoDaddy. There they are. Cover the cost, right? So, I'm I'm I'm a very rich person starting a business for nothing just like everybody who's listening to this channel can. How many episodes in are you getting GoDaddy? Um, I think I think GoDaddy, I'd have to go look back to be sure cuz you know sometimes
people are sleuths. They go check your episodes and I'll be I think it was about 40 episodes. Okay. I think I was about 40. 40 episodes you're eating dirt pretty much and just doing it. I enjoyed the conversations as well. You know, again, a bit selfish. I enjoyed and then I was putting it out there and two people were saying, "Wow, I just I got so much from that." Like, Great. This is a win. I'm having something to do that I like. I'm talking to great people. Two people found it useful. Win, right? But then
my brain starts to say, "You could do this better, right? And you need to compete." So I get an editor and a PA in. For the next 6 months, I run this model and then I realize the editor is [ __ ] I don't have a good I didn't know what good editing was and what bad editing was. This editor just wanted to Make everything look like Casey Neistat had done the video. So I'm like, "Look, it's not working." So then this guy uh sent me a message. He said, "I've got a podcast. Would you
come on it?" I check him out like, "Okay." His name's Callum. I'm like, "All right. Yeah, okay. I'll come on your shitty podcast because I had a shitty podcast once, so I remember what that was like. So, I go on his podcast. Anyway, turns out he's an editor that's starting a podcast. And I Said to him, I said to him, you know, what's your dream? And he said, I'd like to travel. I'm like, go do that, man. You should go and travel. He's like, but I'd also like to be rich and really build a really
successful business and blah blah blah and help people. I'm like, all right, if you want to do that, you can come and join me. And I said to him, come and join me. And he did. He dropped his shitty podcast. It was actually pretty good. Ben uh and he Joined me and then I got serious. I started when when Callum joined I thought right okay let's do it properly in part because when I first brought Callum on board who's sitting here now with me this is 3 years ago I said to Callum you can have
50% of the YouTube revenue but I'm going to pay you next to nothing. I'm going to give you the GoDaddy revenue but I'm not going to pay you anything other than what GoDaddy are paying us but I want you to do a lot More and I want you to not be someone I've just paid to do it. I want you to care. Yes. So, I'm going to give you 50% of the YouTube. Was it 50%. It was just 50% to begin with. Yeah. Jack came and bought that. 50% of the So, so suddenly again, because
I'm being inventive 3 years ago. Okay. So, I'm being inventive. I'm acting like I've got no money. I've now brought someone in that cares about this channel as much as me. He actually aligned with my purpose. By The way, his podcast was is was well, it doesn't exist anymore, but it's still there if you want to listen to Happy Days if you want to listen to it. The point is the podcast was about helping people. His podcast was about helping people discover themselves. So, we had alignment already around the mission. So, we just joined forces.
And then Callum said to me, "We got to bring in this guy in called Jack who's sitting outside at the back there now." And he Said, "He's going to help us get more commercial deals." I'm like, "Uh," I remember saying to K, "I don't really need him. I don't commercial deals. Nah, not really bothered. We're okay. We got GoDaddy. We'll make money on YouTube. We don't need it." He's like, "No, no, he's really good." And I met him and he was really good. I'm like, "All right." So then now I've got someone that's generating revenue,
Jack and Callum who's part owner in the whole platform. We go to the next level. It all starts taking off. All the videos start going big. We come up with a formula on social media, watch your dream, right? Where people just love it. The videos start taking off. All the things I've now just shown you about all the revenue things started being consistent and started to work. And in reality, Jack and Callum were on a profit share. So, it wasn't even that I had to pay them a lot to make that happen. And I think
a lot of People who don't realize this, that there's a lot of people that would rather have equity in something than a big salary up front. If you can give them upside that's clearly potentially there, then they will join you without a massive salary. They want a massive salary if there's no upside, right, in the equity ownership. So, so from that point, um, then it just over the last 2 years skyrocketed to what it is today. Okay? And every time I've grown the Business, I've directly linked the revenue to the team. So my favorite people
to bring on are always people that can bring in revenue, right? And the editor can bring in revenue because if they get the video right, it gets more views, it generates revenue, right? So I think it's quite important to share that quickly with people. This is how I built the business because I don't just want to tell people how to do it. I wanted to show people how to do it Because anybody can say it's easy to build a business. I'm a millionaire. Of course, I can build a business. I did it like everybody else
who listens to this channel has got no money. Maybe wants to start a business. I wanted to do it this way to prove there is a way to do it. If you've got no money, but you have a purpose and you have a mission, you will follow free. So, that's how we did it. Great. Did I answer your question? Really? I'm not sure I did, but I think You answered your question. Yeah, I answered my question. Yeah, I did answer my question. Well, it sounds like you found two E's, not two C's. Yeah. Going back
to the whole C's and E. Yeah. No, of course. I mean, inside your business, you got to be careful you don't have people that are charity. This was a C. He was a C. Yeah. What about the PA? She was care how you say it. E is entrepreneur. Are you talking about? Yeah. Okay. So, so uh this person I cried when she left. She was with me 4 years. She's a really good E. She wasn't an E though. No. No. I would describe this sort of person. This every business I've ever built that's been successful.
I brought someone in as my number two initially who doesn't want to be the front person. They don't want to be an entrepreneur, but they work brilliantly with entrepreneurs. Now, I would actually class them as entrepreneur, but They actually like a salary and they like things to be very structured and they're a bit, you know, in in the movie The Matrix when Neo gets unplugged, they say sometimes per people of a certain age, we don't unplug them cuz they're so entrenched in the system. There are some people that are really really good and and and
I'm scared to say her name in case I insult her, but my PA, she's really really good. But as soon as we got to this stage where we were getting Really entrepreneurial, like really scaling, we're building a $15 million tech company and she got a little bit scared because she's like, "Well, I didn't sign up for this. I signed up to do a podcast and too much change and the growth too quick and like, well, this is what we planned for, you know." Um, and so she wasn't I don't know what the classification of this
type of person is. They're very very important people in your company, but they're not Necessarily going to go off and do their own business, but they will support you, but equally they don't like huge change. And we were building something much big. If I just stayed here, by the way, if I just stayed at this level here, I could work one day a week, help two people a day, and have a really easy life. So now going to what we're doing now, building a tech platform to help people, building out a TV show, building out
clothing line, building out drinks company. This Isn't for the weak or the lazy, right? This is to change the system, fix the education system. I could stop here and have the easiest life imaginable. You could have stopped at the 12 million. I could have stopped there. That's true. As an easy life, we didn't have to get into this mess. You could draw and paint all day long if that's what you wanted and have a pool in the background. But I think the purpose of life is life with Purpose. I wouldn't want to do it. I
wouldn't want to not do it. I think if I had the capability to fix the world, I should. And I kind of think that's why I admire someone like Elon. I know he's not liked at the moment, but like I kind of admire people that could sit back but don't. We need people like that in the world. Otherwise, we're just going to live with broken things. Yeah. There are days though when I think I should just take it easy. But Here's what I'd love to do because I think when you have a relationship, a marriage
that is aligned with what you want to do so that you have the capacity and the support and and a shared vision, you can do lots of things. But that's another 4hour episode. And that's true. So let's do this. And here's a quick call to action. If you're watching this on YouTube or listening to this on a podcast, find me somewhere and make a comment. Say, "Chris, please make that Episode." and reference that. We want to hear what the home life is, the the work life integration, how you raise your child and how you're able
to travel the world together cuz you do some pretty wild crazy things. And I I want to say this as a fan of yours, as a person who's gotten to see behind the curtain, so to speak, seeing this team, this is a dream for me. Currently, full disclosure, my wife and I, we do not share this dream. So, it creates a lot Of friction for us because she's like, "Enough. Enough. we're supposed to be whining into our chill life and you're winding up into the crazy frantic life and she just looks at my calendar and
gets stressed out just by looking at the calendar. I'm like, imagine living it. You just look at it and that's too much for you, right? So, I'd love to talk to you about that to unpack some of those things. But I want to just say this. I think you have a brilliant business Model where you can do a lot of good in the world. Put some money in your pocket and to support and lift up the dreams of the people in this room, the people who see the content and the people that are secondary and
tertiary ripple effects from those people who changed their lives. So, the way I'd like to book end this episode is to say this. when your mom kicked you out of home at 15, not anybody would choose that option, but you had said it's probably the best Thing that's ever happened to me because you basically were free of all attachment. And I think the second point of clarity in your life is when you're bought out by PWC and you have that same kind of I got nothing. No one expects nothing. I can do anything. So what
is it that I want to be? Who do I want to become? And I think the 1 billion follower summit chose exactly the right person. Thank you for that organization, the people. So, I I I know you're not Getting tired of this, but you are loved and people do love you and it's great that you do this and I just want to see you keep doing it. Thank you. Thanks, Evan. Appreciate you, Scott. And thanks for dealing with my unprofessionalism and my lack to ask. You're awesome. I really appreciate. Also, I haven't given away the
million dollars yet, so I'm working on that. Oh, tell us talk to me. But that that that we can do that in the next episode. People want to hear about That as well. Next episode. Next episode. Here's what we're going to do. Uh, can I have your book? $20 suit. Here's what we're going to do. Um, my guest has been Simon Squib. I don't think he even introduced himself, but he's got a book. It's called What's Your Dream? It encapsulates this big idea that he's he's got and it's already sold over 120,000 copies. There's got
to be something in this book that is worth it. And we both believe in this that Knowledge is power. knowledge is a lot of knowledge out there. Simon, I'm sure you get asked this all the time, but what is your dream? My dream is for people to realize how amazing they are, that anything is possible, and to perhaps not listen to the doom and gloom view of the world and see just how amazing it is, how amazing that brain of yours is. And ultimately to probably uh fix the education system would be ideal, but I've
got a feeling it's going to Have to be offer an alternative to it and give people a chance to have more choices in life than just get into debt, live a basic life. They can live the life they want to live, the live live the dream. That would be my dream that people can live their dream. And you can obviously see the reason why I'm so connected to Simon and what he's trying to do is because those of you that are fans of the channel know that our mission is to teach a billion people how
To make a living doing what they love. And we believe that there must be a better alternative to the system that exists today. We're both building it. So we have shared dreams. I believe in just merge. Should we just merge things? Yeah. But you want to launch a clothing line with me or something? Maybe. Actually, you'd be pretty good at that. Maybe to be fair. Yes. Now you answer the question the wrong way. You're supposed to say, "My dream is to give You all this money so you can buy a building to help you." Oh,
yeah. My dream is to give you all the money so that you can buy a building. I I'm very anti- property learning space. I know you told me. But not for what you're trying to do. That's different. You're trying to have a building for a purpose. I hate people doing property just to make money. No. [ __ ] business. That's not a good business for now anyways. For a lot of people, it still Is the business. The kids think it's a good business. You know, everyone wants to own a house and rent it out and
that's what they think is a business. But that that's again, that's [ __ ] It's not real business. A script in one line, one sentence. I knew you guys for the editor on this. So, okay. Okay. Yeah. No, that's too commercial. People won't watch. Okay. I'm Simon Squib and you're listening to The future. That was perfect. Done. Now go listen to the future cuz you are the future.