Leon Scott | How To Use Your Influence

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (wind blowing) Ladies and gentlemen,…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      (wind blowing) Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. Leon Scott has joined me.

   2. LSLeon Scott0:10

      Thank you for having me, mate. Thank you for having me.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:12

      Thank you for coming up. I- it's making me feel incredibly pale.

   4. LSLeon Scott0:15

      (laughs)

   5. CWChris Williamson0:16

      And I'm not used to ... Uh, the co-hosts to the show, Johnny and Yusuf, one's a power lifter and one's a gymnast. So I'm not used to being the not- not the leanest person-

   6. LSLeon Scott0:24

      (laughs) .

   7. CWChris Williamson0:24

      ... on the couch either, but I think we're competing with each other today, which is, which is totally fine. How are you? Are you good?

   8. LSLeon Scott0:29

      Yeah, I'm good, mate. Very good. Very good, thank you.

   9. CWChris Williamson0:31

      Brilliant. You recently moved football teams, right? You're at a new team.

   10. LSLeon Scott0:34

       I did, mate, yeah. Um, I'm at Whippy Town at the minute. Um, enjoying it. Uh, there's a few lads who I know that have played there. I've played there before, so, um, it's a returning club. Very friendly, family-run club. Um, so yeah, I'm enjoying it, mate, and, uh, it's good to be back enjoying the football.

   11. CWChris Williamson0:51

       Fantastic. So, for the viewers and the listeners that don't know you-

   12. LSLeon Scott0:57

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:57

       ... can you give us a little bit of background about what it is that you do? You got a- an interesting eclectic mix of, uh, elements of your life and I want to try and-

   14. LSLeon Scott1:05

       Yes.

   15. CWChris Williamson1:06

       ... give a nice background.

   16. LSLeon Scott1:07

       Um, a bit about my background. Well, in terms of social media wise, uh, how that sort of all kicked off was, I think it must've been about seven, eight year ago now. Um, I was quite lucky and fortunate. It was actually, funny enough as you've mentioned, I was playing for Whippy Town-

   17. CWChris Williamson1:24

       (laughs) .

   18. LSLeon Scott1:24

       ... how it all started. Um, I was playing for Whippy Town, just normal football, going about my normal thing and, uh, there was a young guy with an idea of a clothing brand back then, seven/eight, seven, eight years ago. It wasn't really a big thing back then. Well, not many people had done it. It was, uh, now you see every other person's making a clothing brand, but back then, it was more like only your Nikes, your Adidas, and so on and so on. Um, so yeah, he had an i- he had an idea. He asked me would I model his brand. Um, back then, I'd never done no modeling. I probably wasn't as confident in front of a camera, um, so I said, "Yeah, yeah, let's give it a go." Um, he was from Scarborough. Met up at Scarborough, um, and we just did a few shoots. And funny enough, the brand now is probably one of the biggest brands within the industry that I've worked in, which that being SickSilk.

   19. CWChris Williamson2:15

       Mm.

   20. LSLeon Scott2:15

       Uh-

   21. CWChris Williamson2:15

       I think they are, they were like the first mover-

   22. LSLeon Scott2:18

       They were the- Yeah, they were the-

   23. CWChris Williamson2:19

       Right?

   24. LSLeon Scott2:19

       Back then, they were the first people to do it. Um, I believe they were the first people to do it. It was a big thing to get it on a reality TV star back then.

   25. CWChris Williamson2:27

       Mm-hmm.

   26. LSLeon Scott2:28

       Um, you know, if you could get it on someone from Geordie Shore, from TOWIE, et cetera, et cetera, it was a big thing. Um, now it's just the norm. Um, so he managed to do that back then and that-

   27. CWChris Williamson2:38

       That's all they wore.

   28. LSLeon Scott2:39

       Exactly.

   29. CWChris Williamson2:39

       I remember, you know, anyone who remembers like the proper heyday.

   30. LSLeon Scott2:41

       Yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Yeah. …

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

      you know-

   2. LSLeon Scott15:00

      Yeah.

   3. CWChris Williamson15:00

      ... flying around the world, got a good-looking girlfriend and going on holidays and blah, blah, blah. But it's the same for me. Like, people say, "Ex-reality TV star, club promoter, does the Instagram thing, like, cunt." Like... (laughs) Do you know what I mean? Like, it's not-

   4. LSLeon Scott15:13

      No, you can say it and that's-

   5. CWChris Williamson15:14

      ... it's not-

   6. LSLeon Scott15:14

      ... that's just, that's just painted on us by society. But them, them things like... It, it sounds crazy because I, I still to this day don't bel-... I'm, I'm not a model and I, I, I ge-

   7. CWChris Williamson15:25

      You just model. (laughs)

   8. LSLeon Scott15:26

      Yeah. A- a- exactly. But I genuinely believe that because I've never... For... In my eyes, models are the guys that, you know, do, do big fashion shows, they're signed to agencies, they're working with the- these big billboards, the aftershave, the watches. To me, them guys are the models. We've just, me personally and potentially, like, yourself and potentially the other guys that, who do out, out there model, we've just gained a little bit of a following through social media and now we're used to model because of our following.

   9. CWChris Williamson15:55

      Mm-hmm.

   10. LSLeon Scott15:56

       Um, because these brands know that we've got an all right following that's seen by a lot of younger kids. Whereas the, the real models with the agencies who I see, they're like... They're not really used by the clothing brands.

   11. CWChris Williamson16:08

       But the, the... One of the main things as well with my experience in, especially in commercial modeling, is that the... (sighs) I'd love... If someone knows the statistics, please comment below.

   12. LSLeon Scott16:17

       (laughs)

   13. CWChris Williamson16:18

       But I think that probably 80% to 90% of what would be classed as modeling work will be e-comm.

   14. LSLeon Scott16:25

       Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson16:25

       So it'll just be some guy and a photographer and maybe a stylist, if you're lucky, on a infinity board in a studio just shooting clothing shots.

   16. LSLeon Scott16:36

       Mm-hmm.

   17. CWChris Williamson16:36

       And you're like... Because that's the highest volume. Anyone who's listening, you've gone on a JD Sports to have a look at the new top, the Nike top that's just gone up or whatever it might be. Like, that photo needs to be constructed and it looks like it's maybe, you know, a two-second job. It's actually quite an arduous process to go through. And I think that that... And, you know, that's where the real... That... I always make the joke, that's the only time that for me modeling never feels like work.

   18. LSLeon Scott16:59

       Mm-hmm.

   19. CWChris Williamson16:59

       That it doesn't really feel like work when you're on location, it doesn't feel like work when you-

   20. LSLeon Scott17:02

       No, yeah, it, it's always e-comm, yeah. Yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson17:03

       Like, that's rapped. That's-

   22. LSLeon Scott17:04

       Particularly... Yeah, that... Then, there's wha- uh... Well, not hard work. Again, I was still a- up... Whenever I turned up, I'm always grateful. But them were the days where I did turn up, say I had to get the train 6:00 in the morning to get to Manchester sh- to shoot for Footasylum, and I'd look up the rail and it'd have like about 40, 50 T-shirts on.

   23. CWChris Williamson17:21

       (laughs)

   24. LSLeon Scott17:21

       I'd have this... The T- When it's T-shirts as well, it just feels like it's not going down.

   25. CWChris Williamson17:25

       Yeah.

   26. LSLeon Scott17:25

       And you take one off and you're looking again.

   27. CWChris Williamson17:26

       It's such a... Any, any models that are listening will know the feeling when you're looking at a rail on the other side of a, a, a photographer.

   28. LSLeon Scott17:32

       (laughs)

   29. CWChris Williamson17:32

       And you're just like, "We've been going..." And then what you start to do is you look at how much time you've been in there for-

   30. LSLeon Scott17:37

       Yeah. (laughs)
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Well, you either... There's…

   1. LSLeon Scott30:00

      why that was happening and that... But now I'm less like, "So."

   2. CWChris Williamson30:03

      Well, you either... There's only two ways to... Uh, based on the Shinzen Young book that I'm reading at the moment, there's two things that happen. You either identify with them or you suppress them.

   3. LSLeon Scott30:10

      Mm-hmm.

   4. CWChris Williamson30:10

      So it's an attachment or it's a suppression.

   5. LSLeon Scott30:12

      Yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson30:13

      And you're like, "Right, okay, I don't want to do either of those things." Because if you try and suppress thoughts, that's still not dealing with it.

   7. LSLeon Scott30:18

      No.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:18

      That's putting a, uh, uh, cloth over the top of the tail of the bird.

   9. LSLeon Scott30:21

      Spiding over it, innit? Yeah.

   10. CWChris Williamson30:22

       Yeah, exactly. It's not working, you're not actually dealing with it. And the, the same thing is when you begin to identify with them, you're like, "Right, okay, well now I'm like... I've jumped into it."

   11. LSLeon Scott30:29

       Yeah.

   12. CWChris Williamson30:29

       Like I don't need to do that either.

   13. LSLeon Scott30:30

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson30:30

       I just need to accept it for what it is and let it go.

   15. LSLeon Scott30:32

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson30:32

       So-But something else that I really, (coughs) I really wanted to talk about was your training.

   17. LSLeon Scott30:38

       Mm-hmm.

   18. CWChris Williamson30:38

       I think that, you know, a lot of people know you online from the fact that you do online courses a- and you are in, in good condition, and stuff like that.

   19. LSLeon Scott30:46

       Mm-hmm.

   20. CWChris Williamson30:46

       How do you think that marrying the, the mindfulness and, and the training stuff, and your sport as well, has, has working on your mind helped you with regards to your performance-

   21. LSLeon Scott30:56

       Oh, massively.

   22. CWChris Williamson30:56

       ... in the gym and your performance at football?

   23. LSLeon Scott30:57

       Massively. Um, in terms of football, I used to be a r- a, still sort of am because it's sort of my game, um, a really aggressive player. Um, I'm a center mid, the aggressive, the ball tackler, the break it up, pass it on-

   24. CWChris Williamson31:10

       Mm-hmm.

   25. LSLeon Scott31:10

       ... move it on, the not so talented one. Um-

   26. CWChris Williamson31:13

       Modern-day Vinnie Jones?

   27. LSLeon Scott31:14

       Exactly. Um, so yeah, so but it's allowed me, as I've got older, the mindfulness is to control these. You know, I, I've got a lot of sending offs back in my day, but now I'm a bit more, a bit more clever about the way I go about things. Because like I said, the mindfulness has helped me with that to deal with like, you will always get the odd player winding each other up or ... I always feel like I can win that mental battle when we're winding each other up now, you know? So, so the, the mindfulness has definitely helped me on the football pitch. Um, and also like learning to control situations in the heat of the moment. Um, 'cause everything that arises for me, not just in a football but in life, in the gym, my first thought is practice. It's training. It's training. You know, so if I become, if a, if a difficult challenge comes ahead, perfect opportunity for my mind to get trained now.

   28. CWChris Williamson32:01

       Mm-hmm.

   29. LSLeon Scott32:02

       Um, instead of, "Oh, shit. I can't deal with this," for me, it's like, "Oh, brilliant. This, this problem's come up, so this is a perfect opportunity for my mind to, to tackle this problem and overcome this problem. And without this problem, my mind wouldn't get stronger." Um, so things like that on the pitch in my mi- like the mindfulness has definitely helped me. Within the gym, it's made things a lot more clear and a lot more, um, acceptable for me. You know, like, like I said, back in the day where I got really big and it wasn't acceptable for modeling, and then I'd have to trim down for football, you know? So there was a bit of a like, a b- I was always battling with things. So now I feel like I've found that like, that, you know, that, that fight club, lean type look that everyone types like, you know? I'm, I wouldn't say everyone, but majority of people do like that lean look. Um, all each to their own. I know some have got to do competitions, et cetera, et cetera, so. But yeah, I think overall, the, the mindfulness I think has massively helped me in, in, in all, everything I do, in my work, my football, my gym. Um, which is why I, like I said, which is why put it into practice. Like anyone watching, give it a go and put it into practice, and you will see. It's not, it's not just me saying it because I want you to do it or, you know, I'm saying-

   30. CWChris Williamson33:15

       We're not on a commission scheme here for meditation-
4. 45:00 – 55:32

   Yeah. …

   1. CWChris Williamson45:00

      bark or something like that."

   2. LSLeon Scott45:01

      Yeah.

   3. CWChris Williamson45:01

      "And I think the point that is... the dual edged sword of this is that you still need to play the game."

   4. LSLeon Scott45:10

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson45:10

      "We have to play the game."

   6. LSLeon Scott45:11

      Uh-huh.

   7. CWChris Williamson45:11

      "And y- as you've said, these particular rules-"

   8. LSLeon Scott45:14

      It's, it's, it's that play the role that you're given type thing, in that you know, you, you need to... You can't just jump from one thing to another when people aren't ready type of thing.

   9. CWChris Williamson45:24

      Well, the... Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you need to capitalize on the effective strategies within the particular platform that you're trying to do.

   10. LSLeon Scott45:32

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson45:32

       Like it's, it's all well and good you being a fantastic footballer, but if you turn up to practice-

   12. LSLeon Scott45:37

       (laughs)

   13. CWChris Williamson45:37

       ... with a tennis racquet, it doesn't matter. You're not p- you're no longer playing the game.

   14. LSLeon Scott45:40

       Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson45:40

       And Instagram has, uh, the social media platform in general, it has a, a set of rules. But I, I think that one thing that is very positive is the fact that you're able to try and put across an image which is still within that, but on the other side a message which is maybe trying to progress people's minds a little bit more.

   16. LSLeon Scott46:00

       Mm-hmm. Yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson46:00

       You know, in, in 10 years time if you go full Jim Carrey and you've got a beard-

   18. LSLeon Scott46:03

       (laughs)

   19. CWChris Williamson46:03

       ... and you've got the string vest on.

   20. LSLeon Scott46:05

       So you know, then you know why.

   21. CWChris Williamson46:06

       Exactly. There you go.

   22. LSLeon Scott46:06

       I- it's been a journey. It hasn't just-

   23. CWChris Williamson46:08

       It's just a fucking long game.

   24. LSLeon Scott46:08

       Yeah, yeah. (laughs) I just needed to bring you with me. (laughs) Yeah, exactly. It hasn't just been like, boom. You know, it, it... It's like a progression thing where you can see maybe, yeah, he's getting, he's getting more crazy and crazier. (laughs)

   25. CWChris Williamson46:18

       Yeah, he's getting more and more-

   26. LSLeon Scott46:19

       Yeah. (laughs)

   27. CWChris Williamson46:19

       ... and more ridiculous. Yeah, but I'll go with him.

   28. LSLeon Scott46:20

       You know, and that, and that-

   29. CWChris Williamson46:20

       I'll see what he does. Yeah, yeah.

   30. LSLeon Scott46:21

       And that is why I'm... No, it's, uh, perfect what you were saying, you've got to play the game until, you know... You've, you've gotta slowly give the, give people what I'm learning, which obviously the people who I'm learning off, that's what I'm feeling off them. 'Cause if I just turned up with a Buddhist monk one day, my mate, it'd be like, "Are you taking the piss?"

Episode duration: 55:32