Secrets For Building A Thriving Business - Daniel Priestley

1. 0:00 – 4:07

   Why Entrepreneurs Are Leaving the UK

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      But yeah, it's interesting that some people coming out of the UK have sort of disproportionate results, especially given how poor the sort of entrepreneurial spirit is in the UK.

   2. DPDaniel Priestley0:12

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:12

      So-

   4. DPDaniel Priestley0:12

      They tend to leave. Look at, there's you, Jay Shetty. There's now, well, Ali Abdaal. Um, there's now Stephen Bartlett. Uh, yeah, what's going on?

   5. CWChris Williamson0:24

      What do you make of the state of the UK at the moment?

   6. DPDaniel Priestley0:25

      (sighs) They're, they're making e- every mistake. The UK should be so fundamentally strong in terms of, it's a great time zone. It's got an incredible background, uh, amazing institutions, um, English speaking, uh, fast internet. Uh, like, like there's so many great things about the UK. Natural borders, like it's an island. Uh, great farming and farmland. You know, it's a very fertile place. And through policy decisions, every- everything is in collapse at the moment. Everything's in decline. Um, they're overtaxing people, so people are leaving. Um, only 1% of people pay 30% of the taxes, so that basically, um, if a f- if a small group of people leave-

   7. CWChris Williamson1:09

      Yeah.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley1:09

      ... it has a devastating impact on the finances. They've just done this terrible thing to farmers, and now farmers that have been farming for generations are getting out of their farm businesses. Um, yeah, I mean, it's just really sad because like, when I arrived 20 years ago in London from Australia, London was the best place in the world. Like, it was the place to be. It was the most entrepreneurial place in the world, and all the money was there, all the talent was there, all the fun was there. I mean, London is still fundamentally a great place and it's just like, yeah, they're just, uh, ruining it.

   9. CWChris Williamson1:42

      How much is this, is top-down versus bottom-up? Because the culture in the UK, uh, the approach that people have to risk, their preparedness to kind of break free from the trodden path, uh, that also seems to contribute as well.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley1:57

       The issue with the UK is that if you're super ambitious outside of London, you go to London. And if you're super ambitious, you go to the world. Like, the UK, you gotta remember, the UK took over the whole world. (laughs) So, um, some of the most ambitious people throughout the last couple of hundred years, you know, they started families in Australia, in Singapore, in, you know, parts of Africa, or in parts of, well, in the USA. So, you know, the British, the British I don't think have, have any fundamental flaws. It's just that the ambitious people tend to either go to London or leave. Um, and there is a bit of class warfare, but, you know, the Brits pump, punch above their weight so well.

   11. CWChris Williamson2:35

       Mm-hmm.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley2:35

       Um, I was just sitting next to a, um, form- uh, a, a race car driver on the plane, and he drives for McLaren, and he was talking about like, all these incredible car companies coming out of the UK that everyone wants. It's like Rolls-Royce and McLaren and Aston Martin and Ro- um, Bentley and, uh, Range Rover and all of this, and it's like, oh yeah, that's right, we do-

   13. CWChris Williamson2:55

       Mm-hmm.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley2:55

       ... we do really good stuff.

   15. CWChris Williamson2:56

       Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a weird one, dude. You know, I, I don't like always sort of crapping on the UK, seeming as if I'm some guy that got on the last lifeboat off the Titanic, and that's not the case necessarily, but I don't know. The, the future doesn't seem to be particularly bright for people that are entrepreneurially minded.

   16. DPDaniel Priestley3:15

       It's all policy driven, so it could change. You know, it's not, (clears throat) it's not like there's some fundamental thing that makes... Like, for example, China has fundamental problems. Fundamental problem with China is that it has 14 different borders, uh, on the land and sea, so if it wants to go in any direction, it's basically bum- bumping into its neighbors. Uh, it also imports 40% of its calories. So, if the world goes to custard, it doesn't have the capacity to actually feed its own people-

   17. CWChris Williamson3:42

       Mm-hmm.

   18. DPDaniel Priestley3:42

       ... without imports/exports flowing freely. Um, so that makes it a fundamentally difficult country to run. The UK doesn't have any of these fundamental geopolitical issues. It's just like literally sitting around shooting itself in the foot.

   19. CWChris Williamson3:56

       Mm. Yeah, I, I wonder what the sort of near-term future has in store and whether or not policies are going to move in one direction or another. Um,

2. 4:07 – 22:23

   Daniel’s Debate With Gary Stevenson

   1. CWChris Williamson4:07

      what were your reflections after your discussion with Gary on Steven's show? What have you sort of come to realize after that?

   2. DPDaniel Priestley4:13

      Uh, main reflection is that people are really hurting, and that's real. Um, I don't particularly get along with Gary. Uh, I don't like his solution. I don't like his way of, you know, putting his solution onto the world. Um, you know, his whole thing about just tax the rich, if, you know, I'm, I'm always extremely skeptical of simple answers to complex problems. Um, and, you know, it's already playing out. I mean, it's not even theory. It's playing out that the rich are leaving. And I, my big thing was, hey, I agree with you on the problem. Like, I really agree with you on the problem, but your solution is gonna damage the country even more. You're going to literally make the people leave who we need to stay. Um, and, but what have I taken from it? The pain is real. A lot of people at the moment are incredibly upset about the fact that you can't get a house. Uh, you, if you work a good job and you're a good person who follows the rules, you tend to get punished for it, uh, or you certainly don't get ahead. Um, it feels like the, the services that we depend upon, uh, are breaking down. It feels like, um, uh, just the basics of having a fun, enjoyable life have gone away.

   3. CWChris Williamson5:18

      Mm-hmm.

   4. DPDaniel Priestley5:18

      A lot of people feel very lonely. Um, you know, relationship formation, having families, having kids, all of that sort of stuff, for whatever reason, the world that we've now created is disrupting all of the kind of natural things that we used to do.

   5. CWChris Williamson5:32

      Yeah, the UK, I think struggles. The weather's not fantastic for most of the year.

   6. DPDaniel Priestley5:36

      Oh, and by the way, we're now gonna make it dimmer. I don't know if you've seen this in the news. The UK government, for whatever reason, have decided to spend-

   7. CWChris Williamson5:44

      Cloud seeding?

   8. DPDaniel Priestley5:44

      ... 50 million on cloud seeding and they've decided that they need to make it darker in Britain.

   9. CWChris Williamson5:49

      That's the one, that's the one thing that the UK needs more of, rain.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley5:52

       Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson5:53

       Rain. There's not, there's insufficient.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley5:54

       Or they, they, they've just spent 20 billion on solar panels, and now they're going to put more clouds in the air, and it's like-

   13. CWChris Williamson6:01

       What's the justification for this?

   14. DPDaniel Priestley6:02

       Th- they're just, they're high. I just think they're smokiest.

   15. CWChris Williamson6:05

       (laughs)

   16. DPDaniel Priestley6:06

       (laughs)

   17. CWChris Williamson6:08

       (laughs)

   18. DPDaniel Priestley6:08

       (laughs) That's, that's-

   19. CWChris Williamson6:09

       That's the only logical explanation.

   20. DPDaniel Priestley6:11

       That's the only logic-

   21. CWChris Williamson6:11

       Marijuana.

   22. DPDaniel Priestley6:12

       Yeah, they're just-- there's something's going on.

   23. CWChris Williamson6:14

       So strange. Uh, you know, the first time I ever even knew that we could geo-engineer clouds was Dubai.

   24. DPDaniel Priestley6:20

       Mm-hmm.

   25. CWChris Williamson6:21

       When I was in Dubai, I didn't know they-

   26. DPDaniel Priestley6:21

       When they accidentally did a little too much.

   27. CWChris Williamson6:23

       Uh, well, they did it sort of gently and then, yeah, they can-- I guess you can-

   28. DPDaniel Priestley6:27

       There was that massive flood and it was like, "Oh, sorry, guys." (laughs)

   29. CWChris Williamson6:30

       Yeah, "Pushed the button, that was us."

   30. DPDaniel Priestley6:31

       "We left it on too long." (laughs)
3. 22:23 – 31:34

   Employment Vs Ownership

   1. CWChris Williamson22:23

      A lot of the time, I think people are pretty disparaging of working for anybody else. There's sort of two camps on the internet, and one of them doesn't talk at all, and that's the one that most people fall into, where they have a job, where they work for somebody. And the only one that anybody else ever talks about is, "Well, you should solopreneur your way to- Mm-hmm. ... t- your first 10K a month." And so on and so forth. Um, how do you come to think about the relative usefulness of working for versus owning?

   2. DPDaniel Priestley22:51

      Well, look, you don't wanna throw the baby out with the bath water. Um, entrepreneurship is a team sport, and it's entrepreneurial teams that make things happen. So you, we need to have a bit of nuance that it's not just the founders who start a new company that are in this new world. It's the founder and their core team, and it's a wa- it's a, also it's a way of working. So there are plenty of people who are part of a small growth company, and they can live and work from anywhere, they're getting great pay, they get bonuses, they might get stock options. Um, they might get bonuses for hitting outcomes and targets as opposed to staying and doing overtime. So, that way of working is a great way to work, and it's great to be pa- it's exciting to be part of that kind of a team. And then you've got drudgery, and, you know, drudgery is, like, uh, g- y- you know, I, uh, I clock in and I clock out. I have to wait essentially five years to get a promotion because there's another person who's in line for a promotion before me. Um, I get paid for time, and really it doesn't matter what I do, it's just time spent, you know, in the office. So, you know, we have to kind of have this nuance that, uh... Like, I'm not against at all. Like I, I mean, I have 100-plus employees, so I don't have any issue with, with the i- Like, there's nothing wrong with being part of an entrepreneurial team, but you don't wanna be doing drudgery. If it feels like you're just drudging on, if it feels like this isn't going anywhere, this thing's in decline, there's no electricity flowing through this, that's the time to reconsider. But, um, you know, you talk a lot about agency, and entrepreneurship is just a way of expressing agency. It's, it's just a way to have an effect on the world. It's a way to get your ideas out in the world in a commercially successful, you know, manner. There are many other ways that you could do that as well, but, you know, if you were high agency in Japan...... a, a couple of hundred years ago, you'd be a samurai. Um, you'd roam around with your samurai swords. If you're high agency in this modern economy, you'd probably be an entrepreneur or be part of an entrepreneurial team.

   3. CWChris Williamson24:48

      Mm. Yeah, you've taken a ton of businesses from $0 a month to a million dollars a month-

   4. DPDaniel Priestley24:53

      Mm.

   5. CWChris Williamson24:53

      ... or ... Where do you start with that? Is it always the same process?

   6. DPDaniel Priestley24:57

      Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, f- for anyone who hasn't ... not familiar with my background, I've had seven startups that went zero to a million in their first 12 months, and I've had three that have gone 10 million plus. I've run an entrepreneur accelerator for five-and-a-half thousand companies, where we've gone through a growth journey. I've written six books on entrepreneurship. So basically, I'm saying that not to try and impress anyone, but to say (laughs) I spend a lot of time thinking about entrepreneurship.

   7. CWChris Williamson25:20

      Mm-hmm.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley25:21

      Um ... Uh, yeah, there's, there's a very predictable set of steps. So entrepreneurship is a lot like getting a plane off the runway. You need to follow a set of processes and a set of steps, and it's extremely dangerous to fly a plane, except if you follow a set of steps, and then it's extremely safe.

   9. CWChris Williamson25:39

      Mm.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley25:40

       So there's a narrow straight path for getting a plane off the runway. There's aerodynamic principles, and there's, like, pre-flight checklists. So it's the same with entrepreneurship. Um, d- should I go through it, or ...

   11. CWChris Williamson25:51

       Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley25:53

       Like ... Yeah. Well, the first, the first one, the first step is to work for an entrepreneur. So, like, being, being a number two for an entrepreneur is, is a really great first step. So I never recommend people just, like, quit their job and go start a business. I would always say, quit your job in a large, faceless company, and go work for a company that has less than 12 people on the team, so that you can just see what it's like and just have an experience. Um, do two years working for an inspiring entrepreneurial little team. Um, and really, it doesn't matter if it is totally aligned. Like, if you don't necessarily love the product or the service, but just be there for the team. Be there to see how it works. Um, you know, when you work for Goldman Sachs, they shove you in a corner, and they tell you, "Go do these spreadsheets." You have no idea why. You just do it. Um, and you don't know who the client is or how much they're paying or any of that sort of stuff. When you work for a small business, you know everything.

   13. CWChris Williamson26:49

       Mm.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley26:49

       You know the revenues and the profits and the growth and what's working, what's not working. So you wanna ... Like, step one is just go work for an entrepreneur, uh, for two years. Uh, step two is, um, do some side hustles. So 90-day open-and-shut side hustles. So just, like, see if you can come up with something, just to kind of test your, test your strength. Um, how old were you when you did nightclub parties?

   15. CWChris Williamson27:14

       I started at 18. The first ever, uh, seminar that I sat in at uni, I sat next to what would be my future business partner for a decade and a half. It was very serendipitous. It was really weird.

   16. DPDaniel Priestley27:24

       A- So, like, I was 18 doing nightclub parties, and those were, those were side hustles. Um, so y- y- you know, you and I can totally relate to what it's like. You- you book a venue, and, you know, it's 90 days out, and then you have this job to try and fill it and make it cool and get everyone to turn up all at once and make sure it's a really great party, and then there's that moment where you collect all the cash at the door and put it in the, the belt around your tummy and, and take it home and count it.

   17. CWChris Williamson27:52

       Mm-hmm.

   18. DPDaniel Priestley27:52

       And it's, like, super exciting, and, uh, and it's open-and-shut. It basically ... Uh, at the end of that night, at the end of that party, you can stop.

   19. CWChris Williamson27:59

       Mm-hmm.

   20. DPDaniel Priestley28:00

       Um, but man, I learnt a lot from nightclub parties. I don't know about you, but-

   21. CWChris Williamson28:03

       Dude, I mean, it was the baptism of fire. But, uh, I ... My flag we- I'm, I'm aware that I have a lot of motivated reasoning here, not least that my ... one of my best friends and ex-business partners still runs his in Newcastle. But if you're an 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kid going off to university in the UK or the US or something, go work for a club promo company.

   22. DPDaniel Priestley28:22

       (laughs) Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson28:22

       You will see everything that you need to. You will see B2B. You'll see B2C. You'll see hiring, firing, accounts, marketing, advertising, social media, tech. You'll learn how to organize logistics, operations, supply chain stuff. You'll have to deal with different vendors. You'll have to be able to negotiate-

   24. DPDaniel Priestley28:39

       Saw an urgency in dashboards-

   25. CWChris Williamson28:41

       Yeah, everything is on a very, very, very tight timeline.

   26. DPDaniel Priestley28:43

       Mm-hmm.

   27. CWChris Williamson28:43

       Everything. Because the event's happening on Thursday. There is no, "Oh, well, we'll do the event on Friday because it's not ready."

   28. DPDaniel Priestley28:48

       No, no. Happen on Thursday.

   29. CWChris Williamson28:48

       It's ha- it's fucking happening on Thursday-

   30. DPDaniel Priestley28:49

       Yeah.
4. 31:34 – 38:11

   Going From Idea to Business

   1. CWChris Williamson31:34

      come to think about the way people go from an idea to a business launch? That process? A lot of people have got lots of ideas, very few people launch businesses.

   2. DPDaniel Priestley31:41

      So, the first step is ideation, which is to come up with not one but ten ideas. You must look at ten different ideas because when you come up with one idea, you become fixated on it and you become obsessed with it. And when you say, "I'm gonna come up with ten ideas and then I'm gonna talk about it with a few people and see which are the best three that we think could go, go far." And so you start with ten ideas and there's a few ways to approach an idea. Uh, number one is noticing a problem, so it's like I've figured out something that's wrong in the world. There's an unmet need, there's, there's a problem that's not solved, there's something that's not as good as it could be, um, so that's the problem window. You can come through that.

   3. CWChris Williamson32:19

      Mm.

   4. DPDaniel Priestley32:20

      Uh, the next one is passion, so you could say, "I just love this," right? "I'm massively into snowboarding so I wanna do something snowboarding-related." Um, and then the third one is payment which is th- uh, "I've noticed a bunch of money floating around X." So ultimately the business needs all three of those things. You need to solve a problem, you need to stay passionate about it, and you need to get paid. But you tend to start by noticing from one of those three angles. So you're gonna sort of, like, m- kind of evaluate those ten ideas based on how passionate, h- how big a problem is this, how much money could this make?

   5. CWChris Williamson32:54

      Mm-hmm.

   6. DPDaniel Priestley32:54

      Right, so you kind of go through those, those ones. Then what you do is you pick your favorite three and you launch a, one of two or three campaigns. So campaign number one, which is my favorite, is a waiting list campaign. So this is where you set up a, a landing page and you just say, "We're going to be doing X, Y, and Z. If you want the information, join the waiting list." And essentially, um, so, like, like, all I need... Let's say I wanna come in and compete with your brand here.

   7. CWChris Williamson33:21

      Yup.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley33:23

      I just need a graphic designer or ChatGBT to mock up what this might look like-

   9. CWChris Williamson33:27

      Mm-hmm.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley33:28

       ... and create a few basic designs. I put that on a landing page and say, "We're launching a new drink, um, that, that is all about focus and mental clarity and blah, blah, blah. Um, if you're interested to know more, please join the waiting list. Answer five questions, uh, to join the waiting list. And, and, and go in the running to win $500 worth of product or something like that."

   11. CWChris Williamson33:51

       Mm.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley33:51

       And you wanna ask, you know, obviously their name and email address. You wanna ask, you know, uh, about what they currently do in that particular space, what they're looking to achieve, what their biggest barriers are, what their budget might be, so you ask a few questions and then they join the waiting list. My rule is if you can't get 150 people on a waiting list, then it's game over. That idea's dead.

   13. CWChris Williamson34:11

       Mm-hmm.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley34:12

       So 150 is the minimum that has to be on the waiting list, and it shouldn't be, like, every waking hour to get those people. It should just be I can DM some people, I can drop this into a group on Facebook, um, I can circulate it f- uh, among some friends, I can do a post on LinkedIn or, or Twitter or whatever.

   15. CWChris Williamson34:29

       Mm-hmm.

   16. DPDaniel Priestley34:30

       So it's like, yeah, pretty easy. I've got my first 150 people on a waiting list. This is, this idea can progress. Another way you could do this is a WhatsApp group. So you just launch a WhatsApp group and you say, um, "Hey, I'm, I'm gonna be launching a new fitness challenge. Um, all the information will go into this WhatsApp group. If you're interested in fitness, join the WhatsApp group." Once again, you're trying to get 150 people into a WhatsApp group. Um, or the third one is is a, um, an assessment, uh, take the assessment, an online assessment. F- basically it's just free to take an assessment. So if I said, "I'm launching a new fitness business, um, and I've created a fitness assessment," um, start with that. Take the assessment to see if you need this fitness business.

   17. CWChris Williamson35:12

       Mm-hmm.

   18. DPDaniel Priestley35:12

       Um, so launching a quiz or an assessment, launching a WhatsApp group, launching a waiting list, these are the three first tests and we're conducting 150, can we get 150 people on?

   19. CWChris Williamson35:22

       Mm-hmm.

   20. DPDaniel Priestley35:23

       Yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson35:23

       What's the principle that's underlying that beyond, "I just need to test whether or not there's 150 people that are interested in this"? What's the dynamic that is sort of pulling people in and makes this an interesting, uh, structure?

   22. DPDaniel Priestley35:35

       Well, uh, essentially if this business has a place in the world, it shouldn't be too hard to get 150 people to do something that's free. Just to, just to s- say, "I'm interested more and I'll give you my details." Um, if this business is just of no interest to people, they, you know, y- I mean, if you can't get 150 people to fill in a little form, you're not gonna get 150 people to buy anything. You know, y- it's game over. Um, you know, like, this is a very low bar to clear. So you just need... The reason I want 150 is because I want to, next step, be able to talk to 30, and normally out of 150 you can get on a phone call or you can have a conversation or a text conversation with 30.

   23. CWChris Williamson36:16

       Mm.

   24. DPDaniel Priestley36:17

       Um, and, you know, so there's this concept called statistical significance which is basically when they do things like drug trials or when they do, uh, testing of products, um, you need to test enough people to get real feedback. So there's 30 people is a statistically significant number, and 150 is a statistically significant number. So I'm just constantly... If it's an easy, low bar, it's gotta be 150. If it involves talking to people, it's gotta be 30.

   25. CWChris Williamson36:44

       Mm-hmm.

   26. DPDaniel Priestley36:45

       So these are my first steps.

   27. CWChris Williamson36:46

       You are probably not eating enough fruit and vegetables and you know it, and this is going to help. Good news for those of you thinking about using AG1 or those already using it. They've just released their next-gen formula...... which is a more advanced, clinically backed version of the product that I've been drinking every single day for years. The same one-scoop ritual, now with an even more comprehensive formulation and four clinical trials behind it. AG1 Nextgen has been shown to help fill common nutrient gaps and support gut health, even in people who already eat well. In one study, it boosted healthy bacteria in the gut by 10 times. They've added more bioavailable nutrients, enhanced probiotics, and invested in real science, which is very rare in the supplement world. AG1 Nextgen is also NSF certified for sport, which means it's tested for over 280 banned substances and trusted by elite performers who can't afford to guess. Clinically backed with an advanced formula, this is the perfect time to try AG1's Nextgen if you haven't already. Plus, if you're still unsure, they've got a 90-day money back guarantee. So you can buy it and try it every single day for three months. If you don't like it, they will give your money back for the entire lot. And right now, you can get a year's free supply of vitamin D3K2, and five free AG1 travel packs, plus that 90-day money back guarantee by going to the link in the description below or heading to drinkag1.com/modernwisdom. That's drinkag1.com/modernwisdom. Just

5. 38:11 – 41:28

   Best & Worst Businesses to Start

   1. CWChris Williamson38:11

      lingering on the idea point for a little bit longer, what are the reliably best and worst areas that you see people focus on? I imagine lots of people get seduced by the same dead ends and-

   2. DPDaniel Priestley38:25

      Yeah. ... what, what, what are those? Yeah. Uh, well, anything high volume, low value is the biggest dead end for most people. Look, you're, you're different because you've got millions of followers, so you can do a drink. Um, but anyone who doesn't have millions of followers, this is a business that relies upon-

   3. CWChris Williamson38:43

      Scale.

   4. DPDaniel Priestley38:43

      ... thousands and thousands and thousands of sales every day.

   5. CWChris Williamson38:46

      Yeah.

   6. DPDaniel Priestley38:47

      Um, you know, lots and lots and lots of people. This has to get into stores, and those stores have to... Like, a lot has to happen.

   7. CWChris Williamson38:53

      Mm-hmm.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley38:54

      But it's one of these seductive businesses, because someone who looks at this and goes, "Oh, like, it would be really cool to have a, a drinks company." Um, anything that involves food or drink, nightmare.

   9. CWChris Williamson39:04

      Mm-hmm.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley39:04

       You know, people who wanna do cupcakes, coffee, restaurants, burger vans-

   11. CWChris Williamson39:10

       Mm-hmm.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley39:11

       ... all terrible businesses. It-

   13. CWChris Williamson39:12

       Supply chain, perishable, tethered, can't s- ship worldwide.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley39:16

       Yeah. And it doesn't have scalability. So if you wanna sell more burgers, you need to open more burger restaurants. Uh, so whereas software, if I wanna sell more software, I just give more people usernames and passwords. Um, I don't... I can build software once, and then I can just onboard new customers, um, at scale.

   15. CWChris Williamson39:32

       Mm-hmm.

   16. DPDaniel Priestley39:32

       Whereas... So anyway, high volume, low value businesses are notoriously hard, because most people just don't have access to volume. They just... You know, if you're an influencer and you've got a million followers, by all means, go for it. Um, uh, the next one that is, uh, notoriously good is B2B services. So business-to-business services. So for example, if you say, "Hey, I can help companies, uh, introduce their first chatbot. Um, we charge three and a half thousand dollars. We come in and do a deep dive into your, you know, your business. Um, we find out what are the most common customer success questions that need answering, customer service questions, and we're gonna help you set up an AI chatbot to answer 70% of your customer service inquiries. And you know, the package starts at three and a half grand, or if you're a bigger business, it might be as much as 15 grand." And you can... You know, in that kind of business, you only need, you know, four, five, six sales a month, and you're in the tens of thousands o- of dollars already. Um, so B2B services is just notoriously great. Anything where you can make a sale and then the lights come on, uh, is a really good business, as opposed to where you need setup costs and then you can make a sale.

   17. CWChris Williamson40:44

       Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

   18. DPDaniel Priestley40:45

       So like, you know, y- you know, we're in a, a building that has like, I don't know, dozens of businesses here. If you could literally just walk around and say, "Hey guys, we're doing a cybersecurity, uh, thing for people in this area. If you're interested in making sure you don't get hacked, we can help you with that." And then you just make all the sales and you say, "Okay, cool. We- we're gonna be a- we're gonna be available next month to start this." So you sell first and then build-

   19. CWChris Williamson41:07

       Mm-hmm.

   20. DPDaniel Priestley41:08

       ... or sell first, then deliver.

   21. CWChris Williamson41:09

       Mm-hmm.

   22. DPDaniel Priestley41:09

       Great businesses. Sell first then build is, is a great principle.

   23. CWChris Williamson41:13

       Right. Yeah, because you don't put any liability down before you actually have guarantees that people are gonna want this thing.

   24. DPDaniel Priestley41:19

       Exactly. Yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson41:20

       So it's a waiting list with financial, uh-

   26. DPDaniel Priestley41:24

       Yeah. You're getting certainty.

   27. CWChris Williamson41:25

       ... commitment.

   28. DPDaniel Priestley41:25

       Yeah. You're getting some commitment there. Yeah.

   29. CWChris Williamson41:27

       Okay.

6. 41:28 – 46:12

   Go From 0 to 10K a Month

   1. CWChris Williamson41:28

      What gets you from 0 to 10K a month?

   2. DPDaniel Priestley41:31

      CHAOS.

   3. CWChris Williamson41:32

      Ah, yeah. Yeah, I remember that.

   4. DPDaniel Priestley41:34

      Uh, (laughs) CHAOS is concept, audience, offer, sales. Uh, so, uh, so you gotta have a good concept. So it's, it's, it's a concept that has a nice hook. People understand it. It's like, um... So for example, a drink that helps you to focus. That's a great concept. Um, it's like, okay, this is, you know, this is gonna do X, Y, and Z for you. It's all on the side of the can. It's great, right? So, um, or, uh, AI chatbots for financial planners, customer success agents for financial planners. Oh, okay, cool. That's a cool concept. Okay. Why would they need one? Oh, because of this, and it has to be regulated, and it has to be there. Okay, cool. And you know how to do that? Yup. So we need a good concept. Audience is getting in front of people, so literally face-to-face, or on the phone, or on Zoom, or you know, getting their attention in some way, so audience or attention. Uh, offer is constructing a gold, silver, bronze offer, so uh, a, a bottom tier, mid-tier, high-tier offer, um, and giving people the choice of being able to do one of those three. Being able to make that offer visual, so it's on a brochure, or it's a landing page, or it's a slide deck. Um, and then sales process, the ability to get into a little rhythm of generating leads, booking appointments, presenting your value, and making a sale.

   5. CWChris Williamson42:51

      Mm-hmm.

   6. DPDaniel Priestley42:52

      Um, so we call that LAPS, so CHAOS LAPS. So when we're getting our first 10 grand, it's CHAOS LAPS. Concept, audience, offer, sales. How good are those things? How do we improve those four things? And LAPS, leads, appointments, presentation, sales.... uh, are we, are we able to smash out, you know, um, activity?

   7. CWChris Williamson43:09

      Mm-hmm.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley43:09

      Uh, now, I've never seen a business where they're focused on those four things and they're doing their weekly laps that doesn't rapidly hit 10 grand a month. Like, like just, just those, just those simple focuses and y- you very rapidly either kill the idea or go to 10 grand a month.

   9. CWChris Williamson43:25

      Could you do this on your own?

   10. DPDaniel Priestley43:27

       I believe that entrepreneurship is a team sport. Um, I'm a big believer that it's, it's teams that do really well, and it doesn't mean that you need a co-founder, but I feel like you need someone who's helping and supporting. I don't know, when you started this, did you have anyone helping?

   11. CWChris Williamson43:44

       No.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley43:44

       Just all on your own?

   13. CWChris Williamson43:45

       Just me.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley43:45

       Aren't you a, aren't you a machine? You're savage.

   15. CWChris Williamson43:47

       Uh, yeah, just a, a British desire for suffering, I think. Uh, no, look, I got ... Within 19 episodes, I think it's episode 17 or episode 19, Dean came and shot, my video guy, came and shot an episode 'cause he was like, "Oh, I see you doing this podcast. That's kinda cool. Have you ever thought about shooting it in a little bit higher quality?"

   16. DPDaniel Priestley44:06

       Mm-hmm.

   17. CWChris Williamson44:06

       "And maybe me and my friends have got, you know, fancy cameras and we understand how lighting works and framing, maybe we could come film one?" Oh, okay, well, (sighs) if we're gonna do this, I better come up with a, a big episode to do it. So I did What It's Really Like To Live on Love Island!, um, which was the first episode we ever did that hit 10K and it got us over 1,000 subs-

   18. DPDaniel Priestley44:24

       Interesting.

   19. CWChris Williamson44:24

       ... and we did all the rest of the stuff. And then I said, "Okay, well, let's, we, let's work t- yeah, let's do this." It was-

   20. DPDaniel Priestley44:30

       See, that, I mean, that's the real story. The real story is doing it on your own didn't work.

   21. CWChris Williamson44:33

       Mm.

   22. DPDaniel Priestley44:34

       And then as soon as some team members show up-

   23. CWChris Williamson44:36

       Mm-hmm.

   24. DPDaniel Priestley44:37

       ... you, you achieve more-

   25. CWChris Williamson44:38

       A, a team member.

   26. DPDaniel Priestley44:38

       Yeah, a- a person.

   27. CWChris Williamson44:40

       But yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.

   28. DPDaniel Priestley44:40

       Uh, as soon as that happens, then you achieve more in a week than you previously had in months.

   29. CWChris Williamson44:44

       Correct. Yeah. I think the, the interesting point there, and this is something I'm increasingly thinking about now, is you may be able to grit your teeth and use the chip on your shoulder or the people that doubted you or the desire to prove that you should be validated by the world or whatever, uh, but it's way easier to just have some boys with you that are kind of cool to work with.

   30. DPDaniel Priestley45:08

       Yeah.
7. 46:12 – 57:09

   Developing a Team of Staff

   1. DPDaniel Priestley46:12

   2. CWChris Williamson46:12

      Who's the first person that you should hire?

   3. DPDaniel Priestley46:15

      So, the, l- like ... Teams develop two, four, eight, 30, right? So a two per- and this is military, this is how the military do it as well. So the two-person team is a scout team, and a scout team is really looking at two questions. Can we, can we sell it and can we build it? Can we get a customer, can we look after a customer? So on the scout team, you're just trying to have one person who's really focused on, can we sell this? And one person who's really focused on, can we create a happy customer? And so the first team is those two people answering that question. Now, it could be that you're, it's your business and you're really, re- let's say you're, um, technically skilled at something, let's say you're, uh, an IT services company and you're, you've got amazing IT skills. You wanna bring on a salesperson who's, who says, "Can we sell this?" Uh, or you might be really extroverted and really good at selling, but you're not quite, you know, sure if you can actually technically build the thing, you wanna bring on a technical person who's, "Can we actually look after customers if we get customers?" So you, you're essentially looking for your complementary opposite. Are you gonna be the salesperson running around figuring out whether we can sell this, or, uh, or are you gonna be the, uh, delivery person figuring out whether we can make customers happy? So those are the first two. Once you've figured those two questions out, you jump to a four-person, what we call fire start team. So a fire starting team is, is, uh, four people and you're gonna have someone who we call a key person of influence, you're gonna have a, um, salesperson, and a delivery person, and a, what we call a Swiss Army knife. Uh, Swiss Army knives can do 25 things, but badly. And that's-

   4. CWChris Williamson47:56

      (laughs)

   5. DPDaniel Priestley47:56

      ... that's, that's what you want. You want that, a high, a high agency generalist.

   6. CWChris Williamson47:59

      Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

   7. DPDaniel Priestley48:00

      Let's call them that. A high agency generalist.

   8. CWChris Williamson48:02

      Yep, yep, yep.

   9. DPDaniel Priestley48:02

      And a Swiss Army knife is a, a high agency general tool.

   10. CWChris Williamson48:05

       Mm-hmm.

   11. DPDaniel Priestley48:06

       So, um, so you go to this four-person little team and this is about l- launch campaign, getting your first sales, getting your first customers through the door, um, you know, holding everything together with sticky tape and, you know, like, just doing gr-

   12. CWChris Williamson48:22

       Agreements.

   13. DPDaniel Priestley48:22

       Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then, you're then jumping up to eight-person team, and this is what I'd call a stable core team. Um, at this point you've got a lifestyle boutique. If you run this well, you can do, uh, one to three million pretty easily. Um, you can be highly profitable, have your weekly team meetings, everything runs really smoothly, you got eight people on the team, and you can actually just stay there for years making a ton of money. Everyone's having a great time. Um, provided you don't go over 13 ... Provided you never have the thirteenth person on the team. Um, so eight, you can go 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, but never 13.

   14. CWChris Williamson48:59

       Unlucky 13.

   15. DPDaniel Priestley49:00

       Unlucky 13.

   16. CWChris Williamson49:01

       Why?

   17. DPDaniel Priestley49:01

       Disaster.

   18. CWChris Williamson49:02

       What happens at 13?

   19. DPDaniel Priestley49:03

       The thirteenth person splits the team. So, uh, 12, 12 people is up, up to 12 people is one team.... the thirteenth person divides the team into two or three. So as soon as you hire the thirteenth, you now have a sales team, an ops team, a finance team-

   20. CWChris Williamson49:18

       Mm-hmm.

   21. DPDaniel Priestley49:18

       ... right? And now they don't talk. The thirteenth person introduces just this, "We're too big to be small, we're not too, we're not big enough to be big." Um, like it's just a world of awkwardness once you've got the thirteenth person.

   22. CWChris Williamson49:31

       Mm. Okay. And then 30?

   23. DPDaniel Priestley49:34

       And then yeah, y- y- if you go to 13, you might as well go to 30.

   24. CWChris Williamson49:39

       (laughs)

   25. DPDaniel Priestley49:40

       (laughs) Yeah. So at 30 it gets good again. So from 13 to 30, it's too big to be small and too small to be big. The business is not gonna work on either s- it's gonna work as a six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve-person team. It's gonna work as a 30 to 150-person team. It's not gonna work from 12 to 30 people, uh, or 13 to 30 people. So too big to be small, too small to be big. You're not, you, you have this old original crew who are the family who got roped in and they-

   26. CWChris Williamson50:08

       Mm-hmm.

   27. DPDaniel Priestley50:09

       ... they were the ones who used to be there, you know, 11:00 at night, 5:00 in the morning. "We used to, we used to be friends, man."

   28. CWChris Williamson50:14

       Yep. Yep.

   29. DPDaniel Priestley50:15

       Um, 16, 17, 18 people, two of them start sleeping together. So you get e- these relationships, and it gets awkward and weird.

   30. CWChris Williamson50:24

       Mm-hmm.
8. 57:09 – 1:11:21

   The Difference Between 10K/Month & 100K/Month

   1. CWChris Williamson57:09

      What about 10K to 100K a month? What's the difference there?

   2. DPDaniel Priestley57:12

      Okay, so 10K to 100 gr- grand a month is where you go from one-to-one selling to group selling. Um, so in whatever form that looks like. So, to get to 10 grand a month, you just talk to customers one at a time, and you just go out. You literally go out and talk to people, so you might bang on doors, you might drop emails, you might have Zoom calls, you might have, uh, phone calls. Um, but you're essentially just selling. You're just doing ... Like, you're doing one-to-one sales. Um, to go to 100 grand a month, you need to somehow be selling to groups. Um, so you might be doing videos on YouTube, you might be doing, um, live events or webinars or workshops. Uh, you might, um, be doing marketing campaigns where you're sending out marketing materials or you're running ads. So, you're now, like, hitting groups, uh, at a time. In order for that to work, you need to establish one person who is the face of the business, and that's gonna be your front man. That's gonna be the front person of the band, um, and we call that person the key person of influence. They're the talker. Um, they are-

   3. CWChris Williamson58:13

      Always the founder?

   4. DPDaniel Priestley58:15

      I- i- it tends to be the t- it tends to be the founder. It's either the founder or one of the top salespeople, but it tends to work best as the founder.

   5. CWChris Williamson58:21

      Better story, more heritage, great buy-in.

   6. DPDaniel Priestley58:25

      Yep. Exactly. People ... And, and it ... Well, there's another reason too, which is a bit selfish. Anyone who gets good at it leaves and starts their own company. So, even if you could put someone else in that role, it's only a matter of six to 12 months before they go, "Wait a second, I'm bringing in all the business."

   7. CWChris Williamson58:40

      Yeah.

   8. DPDaniel Priestley58:41

      Um, you won't-

   9. CWChris Williamson58:41

      Gonna take this platform and they'll use it for myself, NightLifer.

   10. DPDaniel Priestley58:44

       Yeah, you work for me, not, like ...

   11. CWChris Williamson58:46

       Yeah.

   12. DPDaniel Priestley58:46

       Like, I'm, I'm feeding you, you're not feeding me.

   13. CWChris Williamson58:48

       Yeah.

   14. DPDaniel Priestley58:48

       So, um, it flips pretty quickly.

   15. CWChris Williamson58:50

       Mm-hmm. Just to interject there, we saw this problem with- within Nightlife, that if you, as the owner of an events company, made any of the event managers too independent when it came to managing looking after the front door, uh, cashing the till, dealing with the manager-

   16. DPDaniel Priestley59:09

       Mm-hmm.

   17. CWChris Williamson59:09

       ... of the venue, the venue, the GM. Um, if you ever did that for too long, and it ... Again, this is ... I'm not ... I always felt weird. It's so funny. I ... We, we had this, uh, really sort of unique set of principles and algorithms that we went through when it came to Nightlife, and I was always so hesitant about ever talking about them on the podcast because I felt like that was the playbook that my old business partner, Darren, was still using. I actually think he's become more sophisticated now, so this is, like, archaic, dusty shit that Indiana Jones would have to go and get. But one of the, th- one of the main rules was you never let anybody except for you cash the till.

   18. DPDaniel Priestley59:41

       Mm-hmm.

   19. CWChris Williamson59:41

       Because if someone else starts cashing the till, they're in the office with the, the GM at 2:00 in the morning, 2:30 in the morning.

   20. DPDaniel Priestley59:46

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson59:46

       It's like, "Oh, where's Darren? Where's Chris?" It's like, "Oh, they're at home." "Well, what do you mean?" "They're at home." "Oh, okay." "Well, who looks after most of the stuff?" They're, "Well, you know, I'm the point- point of contact." Say, "Who pays the DJs?" "Oh, well, you know, like, it's usually me or one of the boys-"

   22. DPDaniel Priestley59:57

       Mm-hmm.

   23. CWChris Williamson59:57

       "... that do that." And after a while, the GM goes, "Hey, we can fucking cut Voodoo Events out."

   24. DPDaniel Priestley1:00:01

       Mm-hmm.

   25. CWChris Williamson1:00:01

       Like, they're, th- th- they're on an 80/20, or they're on a one grand, a one grand flat fee. I reckon we can do a dry hire, a little bit more expensive, give it to this new kid. He seems to know everyone in any case, and that guy's like, "Well, I'm cashing the till. I'm the one that's up until 2:30 in the morning."

   26. DPDaniel Priestley1:00:13

       Mm-hmm.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:00:13

       "I deserve this." And you're like, "Dude, you're fucking 21 years old, and the only reason that this gig exists is because of what we did." But certainly, that level of ... not compartmentalization, but, but in- to- to a degree-

   28. DPDaniel Priestley1:00:26

       Yeah, totally.

   29. CWChris Williamson1:00:27

       ... that, uh, sense of, "Look, people have your best interests at heart-"

   30. DPDaniel Priestley1:00:31

       Mm-hmm.
9. 1:11:21 – 1:13:23

   What Aspects of a Business Should AI Do?

   1. CWChris Williamson1:11:21

      W- what aspects of business should we be outsourcing to AI right now?

   2. DPDaniel Priestley1:11:25

      Um, so anything that you would outsource to the Philippines can now be outsourced to an AI agent. There's some big breakthroughs in AI. Um, so there's something called Agents, uh, which is essentially, uh, an AI that can grab your credit card details. So I was with Steven Bartlett the other day, and all he did was told an AI agent to get us three bottles of water. And it looked online, found a local DoorDash facility, ordered three bottles of water, got his credit card details, punched in the credit card details, ordered the three bottles of water to come to this address, and then in walks a dude with the bottles of water.

Episode duration: 2:04:25