#19 - Aaron Knightley’s No-BS Blueprint for Starting Your First Business
Hello. Hello. Welcome back. Or welcome for the first time if you happen to be a new listener. Perhaps you are joining today because you are sick of your job and you wanna be inspired, get a little idea, or get a little push to take your first step.
Dean:Maybe you're in the throes of starting your first business, and you're juggling that and a 9 to 5. And you're looking for ways to improve your mindset, improve how you approach your business. I assure you wherever you kind of are on that spectrum, you will get something from today's episode. I I should also apologize because we missed last week's episode. I was away in Egypt and I was sick and sometimes life be like that, you know.
Dean:So we missed last week's episode but I wanted to give it my full and undivided so I could publish it and do it right. And as for who we have on today's episode, I'm going to introduce you to Aaron now. So Aaron Knightley has his own events business. He has his own investment firm. He is a podcast host.
Dean:He is a YouTuber, and he has a cool 400,000 TikTok followers. And what should you expect in the episode is his thoughts on why you should work as little as possible if you're still in a day job. Why you should value time freedom over financial freedom. Why the grass is greener on the other side of being in a 9 to 5. And then how you can work with Aaron to actually start that journey of exiting your 9 to 5 and creating maybe your first business.
Dean:Now before I send you into this interview, you will see throughout this that Aaron has some divisive quotes. Some that might even trigger you. You might even get a little bit pissed off by that. And I should say before you go in and listen to these, that the intention when I record an episode like this, I booked the studio, I go in, I prepare for hours beforehand, I I think of ways to extract useful information from the guests, and all that prep. And my intention is not to go in and use that hour that I've paid for and prepared for to battle somebody over specific points that they make when they're trying to make a broader point.
Dean:And if you feel annoyed by some of the things that Aaron says, just remember, you don't have to agree with everything that somebody says in order to learn from them. Try and remember that this is designed to help you. So agree with him, disagree with him, whatever. You can definitely take something from him. So in a moment I'm gonna put you into the interview of Aaron and I in the studio.
Dean:I'm gonna come in at the end of the episode, recap it a little bit and tell you what I think you should take with you in your day. And I hope you enjoy. But what I'm and I have loads I want to get into, by the way. Loads of stuff I want to get into. But I want to start with what was the turning point for you whereby that became an important mission to you?
Aaron:Just having my son. That was like, you know, the wake up moment really was when I was turning 20. My son was also, you know, coming into my life at that point. So, you know, think about it. 20 years old, when you have a child, a lot of people and I even I did.
Aaron:You know, you go, oh, my god. I'm young to have a child. But, actually, I think for some people, there's two sides to that. Is it it makes you or perhaps it puts a pressure on you that you didn't want, whereas actually it was a healthy pressure for me and it was perspective. And I had that wide view angle of, god, you know, you've got got a lot of attributes, but you need to really focus and get some direction.
Aaron:And I really went on that journey of getting direction, but I had, like, my fire, and that was my son. So my son is the result of what I do today.
Dean:Wow. Yeah. I feel like it just takes some big event like that for a lot of people.
Aaron:I do. I've learned now as I'm getting older, I've realized that humans will only do things when there's consequences. Really interesting. I was with my friend Jason Greystone the other day and we were talking about health and stuff like this. And he was talking about being proactive.
Aaron:He was trying to, he was doing something with a doctor and he was being, you know, going through prevention rather than waiting for things, you know, getting checks, blood, stuff like this. Right? And that's what you should do. Prevention rather than the whole, oh, my God. Something's happened.
Aaron:Now I've got to act. And I find this weird because most humans will only change and implement something that's needed when they've been told it's nearly too late. And I find that interesting and I think, yeah, having a child for me was really like, Aaron, you've got a lot to give, you know, knuckle down and put it in the right direction. And I suppose with built in discipline, if you will, it's it's served me quite well having a son early. So, yeah,
Dean:that just made me think about, you know, the way some people a lot of people, actually, when they're in a job or, let's say, circumstances, it's, like, not quite bad enough for them to make some sort of change. Yep. And I feel like a lot of people just need something like
Dean:that.
Aaron:Oh gosh. This one. Yeah. Comfort zone. Isn't it?
Aaron:It, you know, people again, won't make a change until it gets so bad. And even at that point, you know, when you are talking about being in a rut in a job, I I think the problem is in a job where they become dependent on the income. I think it's different for your personal life and your professional life. I think it's, it's 2 different outcomes. You end up becoming dependent on the income, but you've lost confidence.
Aaron:You've been suppressed and you, your self esteem gets lowered. So you feel now not only you dependent on the job, you can't go anywhere else. And that's what I see a lot of is like, people are like, but I can't leave. I can't get another job. They convince themselves that there's, there's no other jobs out there.
Aaron:And there are there are always options. And and this is where, obviously, I have very strong opinions. There's always options and choices. So I struggle with it, but I get it.
Dean:What do you see as some of the most common reasons that people will stay tolerating
Aaron:that? They don't have money. Let's say I talk about this in my lives. Is it probably 80% of my content? People will go through depression, anxiety, midlife crisis.
Aaron:They'll be regretful. They'll argue with their partner. They worry about bills
Dean:Yeah.
Aaron:All because of money. Yeah. You don't worry. The the best way I can explain this for anyone that's suffering mentally with some form of an issue in the workplace. If I was to put a £100,000 in your bank, you'd never go into your workplace and be spoken to like an idiot.
Aaron:Because you know you have financial comfort to go, I haven't got to be here. Yeah. Why am I gonna let you talk to me like this when I've got money in the bank? That's the difference. So that was my thing, and I I try to teach everyone that I work with is that it starts with you, the person, build the confidence, understand your values and standards to what you wanna live to, and then, my god, start looking after your money.
Aaron:That's at the core of everything. If you've got money, you don't worry. Money does make you happy, really does, unless you've come from money. I haven't come from money.
Dean:The financial transition seems to be the biggest blocker that I see all the time. I chat to somebody and I'm like, hey. You know, they'll tell me they don't like their job and they hate it. I'm like, well, why don't you tip over a domino and try and, like, get something going? Oh, well, I don't have money coming in then.
Aaron:Yeah. So it does start with I get it, by the way.
Dean:When people say It's scary. Right? Because financial stress does I've said this before in a couple of episodes that there's nothing quite as daunting and scary and all encompassing as financial stress. Yeah, it's scary, right?
Aaron:Of course. Worrying about your bills, you buy into the media or the cost of living. The problem is there's two sides to this coin is that when you have bad relationships with money, it typically starts from the parents. So I always say if you you are a parent and you have children, I feel that it's a massive responsibility for you to teach your children. Like, big bold statement.
Aaron:My son is, 11. He's in year 7. He doesn't need to be at school now. It's pointless. He probably will be pulled out early.
Aaron:If he was to have trouble at school, I will just pull him out. He will never go back to school. He's great at networking. He's kind. He's very creative.
Aaron:He's entrepreneurial. He understands money. He can read and he can write. What else is school gonna teach him now? It's not.
Aaron:It's what dad's gonna teach him now. Mhmm. And he doesn't need to be at school, so I have no problem in in paying the fines and pulling him out of school or whatever. It's down to the parenting. So that the lack of money and the insecurity and the lack of education, unfortunately, it does fall on parents because the schools aren't teaching it.
Aaron:But the problem is when you don't know about money, and you watch the news, and you let and you have a very you have this inability to apply what I call self mastery. You blame everything else. Cost of living. Well, that's why I haven't got any money. It's the government.
Aaron:That's why I haven't got any money. It's the taxes. That's why I haven't got any money. It's Keir Starmer. It's Biden.
Aaron:It's Trump. It's Jeff Bezos. Those are the reasons why I haven't got any money. Mhmm. I don't need to know about money because it's very obvious it's everyone else's fault.
Aaron:No. It's not. It's your poor habits. So I understand that people don't have education. So there's a huge part on the parenting, but at the same time, we are in a blame culture where it's everyone else's fault.
Aaron:And that's where I've separated myself.
Dean:It's easier to blame someone else. Right.
Aaron:Of course it is. We are in a world of victim mentality. I think it's always easier because then you haven't got to take responsibility for it. But I feel that really does leave to lead to misery.
Dean:There's something so empowering about taking responsibility. Right. Because I don't know if you you've probably seen Jocko Wielink on a couple of podcasts. Right? And he talks about extreme ownership.
Dean:Like, what and he talked about it in the lens of he was on the battlefield Yeah. And something went wrong with his team. And he went to speak to his executives, and they asked what went wrong in the battlefield. And now, obviously, he could have pointed to a, b, and c soldier
Dean:Yeah.
Dean:But he didn't. He said it was my fault. Yeah. I didn't brief them. And I just think that if you if if we all talk a little bit of that, it's very empowering.
Dean:Because all of a sudden, it's your it's in your power to change it. Right?
Aaron:Yeah. It is. And I think also you need to limit what you're exposed to. So I think people are too open to what's going on around them, but not actually what they're doing. I feel that people are more reactive.
Aaron:General people who worry about life and consume a lot. I feel that they're very reactive, not proactive. It irritates me when people say, oh, I've got some bad news for you. Well, it's just news. I've decided whether it's bad or not.
Aaron:And because of the person that I am, I'm gonna have to solve it anyway. So it's just news. But we instantly think it's bad news. Tell me, it's just news. Because either way, I can do one of 2 things.
Aaron:I can complain about it or I have to solve the problem. And I think that's what we learn is every day. I'm just solving problems. That's really what a business owner or an entrepreneur is, is just solving problems and, and how thick your skin is and how resilient you can be to overcome some really hard problems. And, yeah, your life becomes really good where you just own all of it.
Aaron:And also it gives you clout. Like, I get good views and I trigger people and I get what's called push and pull content because I just say it. Because I've lived and breathed every moment of it. So no one can take it away from me.
Dean:You do. You walk the walk in fairness to you. Like, you have you you know, because a lot of people talk online, and you can kinda see through it. You can kinda tell, I don't know. I don't fancy that person.
Dean:Yeah. But I see your stories. I see your content and they know you are getting up to 5. You are going to the gym. You are doing it all.
Aaron:Yeah. I try look. I put myself through everything. I'm incredibly disciplined. No one tells me what to do.
Aaron:I do exactly what I want. Even if people have said to me, oh, I don't think you should do it. I'll do it anyway because what will happen is I'll have a little, I'll have a little niggle. And then I'll think you stopped me from doing that. And that's where, and this is a midlife crisis is where people get to a point and they're like, I should have done it or I should have taken that risk or I shouldn't have listened to that person.
Aaron:I don't suffer with any mental health issues. I've never had a panic attack. I think it's so overrated. I don't have ADHD. I'm not looking for a title.
Aaron:Oh, it's true. And it's just because I've done everything that I've wanted to do. I've not worried about what other people think.
Dean:Have you ever?
Aaron:Not really. What's the point?
Dean:You've never dealt with that?
Aaron:No. I'm not doing anything illegal. I've not done anything that's morally wrong. I don't really give a monkeys, to be honest with you. And that's what's resulted in 290,000,000 views in the last 24 months.
Aaron:So or over 300 if you combine. But I just, I just focus on me and I just, yeah, if you take a 100% responsibility, your life is just really cool. In my opinion.
Dean:So you had your kids, your son. That was when you were 20, and then you kind of went on this path and then kick you into gear, and then you find yourself here now before me on a similar mission to me. Well, not similar. I would say the exact same. We're trying to help people to realize that, hey, look.
Dean:It doesn't have to be this way. You actually can turn the tides and do something else. Do you know I saw you mentioned Gallup studies before as well. Yeah. Do you know what the figure is for employee disengagement globally?
Aaron:I have seen I've gone through a lot of them, so I know more specifics. But I know. The latest update in terms of the UK survey. So, which is now it's gone from 85% to a 90%. So it's around, it went from about 43,000,000 UK working adults that do not wanna be in their job.
Aaron:It's around about 48,000,000 now. Again, it's money. It it's money.
Dean:It's crazy, man.
Aaron:It all comes everything comes down to money.
Dean:It's very sad because you talked about regret Yeah. When you're older, having not made the change. Like, how many of those 48,000,000 will get to the end and be like, I kinda just stuck around tolerating that. George, do you know a
Aaron:funny little test, right, for anyone listening to really understand how time is so important. Talk to any old person and start to ask for advice. I bet any money, however you navigate that conversation, it will always come back to one thing. And it will be, if I could go back in time or I had more time. And this is the thing.
Aaron:I I'm hyper aware. I had a great conversation on our last online event with Carrie Green, who's a self made, female millionaire. She started the female sons, Entrepreneur Association. And she was just like me. She was talking about, I take myself to the worst case scenario.
Aaron:So for example, again, humans won't change their lives, in my opinion, unless it's too late or they've been told that they're gonna suffer severely. Before there, before that ever happens, I take myself to the worst case scenario. Aaron, do you have enough money to leave the country and feed your family if the UK goes to pot? Not far off. So I've got to play that scenario.
Aaron:So then I reverse engineer. Okay. What have I got to do now as young as possible? Aaron Cole, you must have been so boring in your twenties. That's ironic because you're still working, like, 60 hours a week.
Aaron:I just kind of piddle about, to be honest with you, doing what I want. And I've automated most of my stuff at 32 years old. I've gone to the worst case scenario. Aaron, why'd you save so much? Well, when I was out hiking with my son and I saw these lumps on his neck, and I thought they were tumors.
Aaron:I just panicked. I can get him into the priory or the straight away. What do you pay for private medical care? Yes. Because I'm not prepared to be told I've got to wait 6 weeks for my son or anyone in my family to develop lumps.
Aaron:Prevention. So you go to the world. Aaron, why did you train twice a day like an absolute beast? Why did you eat clean? Because you're so boring.
Aaron:You track your macros. I'm fasting as we speak because my my abs are pretty ripped right now. But, you know, but it's the truth. Because I want to be able to do a tough mudder with my son when I'm 50 years old. Sure.
Aaron:I'm preventing problems. Well, Aaron, you get hit by a bus tomorrow. Well, it's unlikely because I'm an adult and look both ways. But if I do, I'm not gonna know about it.
Dean:And this is kinda like I I had this chat with my friends recently about Alex Hormozi and how he is like and he's David Goggins. You might put David Goggins in the same breath of, like, super extreme. Right? And it's the the key thing is, for me at least, is it's not for everyone. You don't have to just be military strict.
Dean:Maybe you could just be a bit stricter in your diet. Maybe you could just save a little bit more. You don't have to be this person that you follow online. But the principles, there's a lot to be said for them. Right?
Aaron:Yeah. I just this is why I struggle with excuses. Cause when someone's I've said this on a lot of podcasts, but it's, it's like the hook. It's like the clickbait, right?
Dean:Click it.
Aaron:Yeah. Is the, the cost of living crisis does not exist. Now people get all fired up and they get pumped by it. But really, when I sit down with people and I go, okay, cool. Right?
Aaron:You you complain to eat your gas and lekky's gone up, whatever. Right? You can't afford to get your your white lightning or whatever. Right? But the point is, if you go over the last 100 years and look on a Google chart of of financial charts, you've seen that it's done this.
Aaron:Like, we all have access to Google. So why haven't you looked? Oh, I didn't know to look. That's not my problem. But but the point I'm making is it still stands.
Aaron:You knew that there were dips over the last 100 years. You can go back over the last 200 years. You know that there's there's, there's rocky parts. There's corrections. There's lows.
Aaron:There's highs. It's the way the market goes. It's never gonna change. So why haven't you saved? Well, it's because we're in a cost of no, we're not in a cost of living crisis.
Aaron:You've just been really bad with money. And, like, a lot of the answers are there. You know, oh, I've I've got skin cancer. Right? Well, boo hoo.
Aaron:I'm sorry to hear it, but you should've put sun cream on. I just I just don't care. Like, I'm just honestly, when people moan, I just don't Mhmm. I don't surround myself with people who, who complain. I can't get out my job.
Aaron:Right. How much do you earn a year? $27. I'll find you a job. Give me an hour.
Aaron:I'll find you a job. It comes down to whether you like the title or not.
Dean:It's just often a little bit easier to point externally and say it's because of that and it's not because of me. And, oh, man, I'm sure you've done it before. I've done it before. I mean, I still notice that in my behavior sometimes. It's like a this little weed sometimes that I have to root out, the blame the blame reflex or blame muscle.
Dean:Yeah. You know? I would have done it but that. It's it's so subtle. I wonder where that comes from.
Aaron:I think maybe Ease. Ease. Yeah. Ease. Not, denial.
Aaron:You don't really want to admit it. I mean, you know, you say, have I been there? Of course, I've been there maybe on smaller things. But, you know, even I'm thinking of certain moments when I played high level football. There was an incident in the locker room once, and I remember when the, like, the big director came in, and he said, who did that?
Aaron:I just put I you know, I was about 11. Mhmm. 11 or 12. I put my hand up, said I did it. Not thinking about the repercussions, I just I just put my hand up.
Aaron:Yeah. I did it. And I was just willing to that's why I've been brought up. My mom and dad were very like that. So I think that's helped me.
Aaron:And my mom and dad were very ruthless in terms of own it. Like, if you've, you know, if you've done it, don't shy away from it. And I think I've adopted that. But, yeah, going into education more, I definitely have seen society as a whole, especially with doing more content, especially with the comments that come in daily, I have seen and been exposed that, yeah, everyone's looking for a a, you know, an escape. They don't wanna take it.
Aaron:But that's why there are 2 types of people, successful and distracted people, who wanna blame. Like, there there is no in between. I figured that out. There are those who can do it, and there are those who can't.
Dean:I think I think, obviously, we're all born equal, and we all can in like, I believe and I saw Simon Skibb say this as well. Like, I do believe that every single person can own their own business.
Dean:Yeah.
Dean:And I've seen you also talk about how you don't need to be Elon Musk. You can just have a business that pays you the same as your job did. Right? That's that's a good life. Yeah.
Dean:But I do believe everyone can do that. And I think you mentioned there about people on this side where they're blaming and the people on this side who are successful. It must just start at an early age, like a behavior trait that they develop and that to use my sentence a moment ago, the blame muscle. Like, oh, it's because of this. Going back I wanna go back to you when you actually had a job, by the way.
Dean:I just wanna circle back there.
Aaron:Yeah.
Dean:Because I think about when I was in the 9 to 5, and I've I kinda looked around the room and I used to just think, is everyone because it was a great job. Yeah. It's like on the surface, I was getting paid good money, free snacks in the in the office, free beers on the Friday, like, you know, all that shit. But the whole time I was like, this work, the thing I do for 8 hours, I dislike
Dean:it
Dean:Yeah. A lot. And I'd look at other people in the room be like, are you guys, like, pretending? Are we all pretending to like this? Yeah.
Dean:And I saw you said in your video as well, you always wanted to leave. And I was like, yeah, I did too. Like, what was that like for you when you were working in that environment and you were surrounded by those people who are also there.
Aaron:Yeah. I knew when I was in employment, I was never gonna be working for someone else. I just knew in my bones. And because I liked making money and it money was an escape for me. You know, when you grow up and you don't have just disposable income from your parents or, you know, your parents haven't been in business.
Aaron:So I just knew that I liked making money because it allowed me to do what I've always wanted. Again, I was just saying, I like doing what I wanna do when I wanna do it with who I wanna do it with. And I don't like being told you can't do it. I was never comfortable, and I quote this a lot. I've never been comfortable asking another adult for a day off.
Aaron:It actually baffles me that you have to go, excuse me, can I have a day off?
Dean:Is there any chance? What?
Aaron:Like, what? That's always kind of, like, bugs me. You know, or having a phone call while you're on the toilet. Are you coming back to your desk? Yes.
Aaron:Once it's departed. Like, I'll be back when I'm done. I I don't want to how am I having to justify myself to when I anyway. Right? And there's a chili con carne story.
Aaron:I won't go into it. But no. About my canteen break. But yeah, I just knew. So I did.
Aaron:I applied self mastery again. I teach a lot of my sort of members who work within my circles now. It's called self mastery. I didn't, no one needed to tell me. I, I was just hyper aware when I was in a job and I was looking around and I was doing these 10 hours.
Aaron:I was very productive. Always had an, I always had like an air pod in or was doing like my work when I could and on the phone. And I was just making strides as and when I could. I just never told anyone. I don't know why some people would need to be told, by the way, you're going to go on this journey of building a business.
Aaron:It's incredibly hard. Get prepared to work for the next 2 years, 3 years in the weekends and bank holidays. You will not have a life. There's going to be no balance because, people say, is there balance? No.
Aaron:There's no balance. Put 2 people on a seesaw. Do you ever see it dead still? There's never. Right?
Aaron:So I just never told anyone. I just went in. I always saved heavily. The money that I was earning, that I started to earn, I just I was cash stacking because my job was paying my bills, so I was floating financially. And then I would get into a point where I was like, I'm getting quite a lot of money in account right now that's sitting there.
Aaron:I don't need to put up with anything. And then I became a pain.
Dean:And then
Dean:I How much did you have saved?
Aaron:By 24, I'd done more than 6 figures by 24.
Dean:So
Aaron:and I don't spend money on clothes. I didn't finance a car. I was driving a little, crappy Ford Fiesta at the time. Then I drove a little Ford KA as well. So I was turning up to work when I could have afforded a nice car, but I wasn't.
Aaron:So no one was none the wiser. No one was really clued up, and I didn't trust my coworkers. And people go, oh, god. You must have insecurity issues. No.
Aaron:I've got it. No. Like, I'm level headed. Mhmm. And and it annoys me when people turn around and go, but you spend more time with them in your family.
Aaron:Yes. I I'm not comfy. And I'm not happy with that, by the way. You're saying that like that's normal. I'm not okay with the fact that, yes, I have to see your mug more than I do my family.
Aaron:I'm trying to get out. I was not normalizing that. I was never prepared to normalize that. So I just had self mastery in my last job, but I was just grinding and grinding and grinding and working every hour until I was able to replace my income.
Dean:Like, how many of those people in that job, if given the chance, if you said to them, hey, look, tomorrow I'm gonna give you the same amount of money, and it's gonna be coming from a business that you own Yeah. Would you still do the job?
Aaron:None of them. No. They'll be gone. They'll be gone.
Dean:Never.
Aaron:They'd all be gone. No one wants to be a sheep.
Dean:You also said I'm gonna read one of your quotes here. You have some divisive quotes. I can see, yeah, you might get a little bit a bit of a ruffle from people, but I'm gonna read this one. This one's a bit soft. Okay?
Dean:So you are an expense on an expense sheet, and at the end of the year, they'll decide whether to keep you or not depending on the company's profit and loss.
Aaron:Everyone's a number. Last one in, first one out. You are just a number. You can have 4 or 5 promotions. You'll be replaced.
Aaron:You can serve 10, 15 years. You pee someone off. New manager comes in that's above you. They don't like you. You're out the door.
Aaron:You'll be managed. You'll be put on a PIP, and it's the beginning of the end. You know, shock, horror, and bad news for anyone. As soon as you go on a performance review, you're gonna be out, whether it's whether it's within a month or 6 months. If you are put on a performance review, they are not bothered about you getting better.
Aaron:That is a legal way for them to start the process of you
Dean:legal there's a hierarchical system at play here, and the person at the top needs certain things to happen, and you've been brought in to do that thing. Yeah. They'd like so, yeah, they will make it seem like they care about you, and they will try and almost distract you, you know, with the nice office. And here's a little bit of time. Take it.
Dean:Take your mental health day, you know, all that. But, like, oh, they're only doing that. So you come back in on Monday.
Aaron:So front. All a front. I spoke about it most recently on my TikTok and, you know, I frequently talk about it, but you go into a job interview and you're meant to be a dumb dumb. You can't talk about how creative you are and entrepreneurial, and that you've got a lot of out outside the box sort of ideas, and that you're here to be inspired and motivate and influence other people and to operate at a higher level so that you climb as quick as you can, and you'd love to get to direct level, you can't say that in a job interview. They don't want that.
Aaron:That's not what they want to hear. And typically, you won't get the job. So isn't it weird how most people subconsciously are aware, whether they address it in their head or not, they just know, go in and say what the job is, and that I can do it very well. And they'll decide, are you robotic enough? And you're not outspoken.
Aaron:Yeah. And then whether you'll get the job or not. And which is why they found it really hard to get rid of me. I could tell as soon as they found out. So I had, it was about 3 weeks before I left.
Aaron:I actually had a friend come down to me who I'm still friends with today. He's very much same level headed as me. And he says, just let you know, mate, I've just come through the office. They're all on your website and your YouTube. I was like, interesting.
Aaron:Because on my Apple Watch, I just had a geocode notification to say that my website had gone on by a new user. So I get, like, a little notification.
Dean:I said, interesting. They said he said, yes. So just be aware
Aaron:that they're looking at your YouTube. Oh, and interesting. They he said, yes. So just be aware that they're looking at your YouTube. And I had
Dean:just a few videos at that point, and my
Dean:website had just been
Aaron:sort of but it was comes back to this whole, you know, now they're like, let's stop all investment into Aaron.
Dean:Mhmm.
Aaron:He hasn't progressed for the last, like, 6 years. He's not interested, and he's always the guy in the meeting room to say I'm not doing it.
Dean:He's a liability. We want him out because he's not doing what we need him to do.
Aaron:Yeah. And he's not willing to bend over and he's not willing to play this game. And I was a pain.
Dean:You know, I had, and the the thing is, like, I did look the only thing that actually kept me sane and all that was the individuals I worked with. Yeah. Like, the the bosses I had, the managers. I actually really liked everyone I worked with. It was just the system itself, the work I was doing.
Dean:I just it repelled me. And I was like, I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna have to be fucking scroll my mouse at half 9 and just make I'm online. Fuck that. You know?
Dean:I'm happy to do work. I'm I want to put apply myself to something. But having to say certain things and be a certain way, it just to me, that bothered me because I'm
Aaron:The yes. No. Just I just wanted to say that I think the thing is when you're exposed to entrepreneurship, it's very hard to continue in a workplace. This is the diagram I wish, you know, imagine this, you've got, you've got the bottleneck of an upside down pyramid and then normal shape pyramid. Right.
Aaron:And it goes into a point. What you have is you have like a pyramid, which is the work place, and then reverse a pyramid, flip it upside down, and that's entrepreneurship. So you start very acute, but then you go wide and limitless and opportunity and collaboration, and you expand and it goes wider and wider. It never really stops. And it can just become everything that you want it to be.
Aaron:Whereas you you, you fall into a bottleneck. Everything becomes very tight. And I, when I closed up my laptop on the last day of work, I called down the biggest boss and I said, I need a chat. I'm leaving. And she was like, you know, given to the whole oh, you what?
Aaron:You didn't give a shit. You know, like, let's cut the crap. Right? And I said, I think you know that I do some stuff outside of work. And she was like, yeah.
Aaron:I said, I'm now at a point where I can't face any of you anymore who were talking to each other disrespectfully. The politics is awful. I enjoyed the job. That's the thing. I was there a while.
Aaron:Everyone left me alone. I was not bothered. But I said, I can't continue listening to people get micromanaged. You're weeding people out. And the fact that it's so hyper competitive, and you're all backstabbing, and you turn on each other in a moment.
Aaron:I said all this to her. And I said, yeah, I'm working with people who are now becoming dear friends of mine, who are doing a 100, 2, 300,000,000. And they are so embracing of of ability, and change, and, positivity, and support, and ambition. And I said, I can't keep coming in here. And I said, and I don't normally throw numbers out there.
Aaron:I said, and I earn more than you. And you're the highest person I've I said, you had no idea. You have no idea the money that I'm bringing in because I'm so humble about it. You know, so up up a lip at that point, you know, you throw money into it. Yes.
Aaron:Because you'll talk down to someone because you're on you're on 90 k a year. Me, I get on with freaking everyone. You have gone you haven't got a clue about my finances. Anyway, they will watch me on TikTok now and they will watch from afar, ironically. But, yeah, do you, you know that, that description of wide and limitless?
Dean:I love that. I love that. Yeah.
Aaron:The high you go up, there is a point. So it does end at some point and then it's, it's like dangerously competitive and it's situational as well. Who wants to do that? I was at the, I just stayed at the wide base at the bottom and they didn't like it.
Dean:You know who I feel sorry for the most is management. Somebody who's been sort of sold this carrot, this dangled carrot at the end being like, well, you can work up to manager and you can get an extra 10 k a year. And then you're in further. And then at that point, you might be in your late thirties. And at that point, guess what?
Dean:You have your 2nd kid on the way. Yeah. And then you've got the bill and the bills are hired out. And it's just at that I feel sorry for the people in management because they've been sold this lie so much and then it's it's so hard. How can you turn around
Dean:Yeah.
Dean:Around then? I mean, they can, like we said, you know, you've got people who make excuses and people who, you know, have have results. Yeah. But the managers man.
Aaron:It is. I think some people are shafted and then I think some people actually enjoy the whole ego boost of it all. I've I use the know, I've done many pieces of content, which is done millions of views around the whole barbecue scenario, but I have where the barbecue scenario of telling people what you do that came from actual, you know, a time where I was at a barbecue and I just knew this one guy just dying to tell everyone what he did. It's like, dude, you're preaching to the wrong crowd. Like I don't care that you're a general manager and you're like £42,000 a year.
Aaron:Like, you know, should I Twain don't impress me much. Right. And this is the problem. They get so attached to a title. They become so over invested Their time and life passes, and they're just going up in increments of 5 grand, 6 grand, 2 grand bonus at the end of the year.
Aaron:And they're so sort of in this
Dean:And that's great. Right? That's, like, apparently great.
Aaron:Yeah. Apparently. And and some people are very happy with that. But ultimately, I don't feel they're pushing themselves. And I this is where I feel that we're leaving so much on the table, which is what bothers me as a human being is that imagine getting to an age where you're not physically able to push yourself.
Aaron:You're not able to run that race. You're not able to do that tough mudder. You can't climb snowed in. You're never gonna earn a $100 now because time's getting on. And you left so much on the table, which is why when people say to me, you know, Aaron, how many reps you do at the gym?
Aaron:I don't. I just I do it till I it really hurts. I just I keep going. And like Muhammad Ali said it about sit ups. You know, he was asked, like, how many steps do you do?
Aaron:He was like, I only stopped when it like, it's killing me. And I feel it's the same in the workplace. They get so people are so sucked in with $46 a year. They're chuffed.
Dean:One of the things you said there that stood out was like, I I feel almost guilty bringing this subject up sometimes because a lot of people actually are very happy in that. And when I think about, like, the message I'm sharing and, again, it's the same as yours, I'm very conscious not to make people who are enjoying themselves and who do feel settled and happy feel bad because they're not, like, necessarily less than for doing that. Because I think, ultimately, what you what all of us really want in life is to be a part of a tribe, be loved and accepted, feel a sense of security, and go to sleep at night not wondering if I'm gonna be killed. You know, the basic kind of fundamental stuff. And and I feel I'm very conscious of walking that line of when I speak to somebody about what I do.
Dean:But I really man, I believe most people really do feel that way. I believe most people are wondering most days that this is bollocks.
Aaron:Yeah. See, this is where probably my content I don't give a monkeys if upset people. I don't give a flying hoot. Do you know why I'm I'm quite happy to address it? And I don't care if people are like, oh, you're making me I don't give a monkeys if you feel bad.
Aaron:Man up. Like, get a grip.
Dean:What if they love it though? What if they love it though?
Aaron:If they love it. See? So I don't give a monkeys in saying it. If they love it, they should be secure secure enough in themselves that it doesn't bother them. Like, I'd go I get you.
Dean:I get you.
Aaron:I'd listen to someone and go, fair enough. Don't bother me. You can think what you want. I love my job. I won't give a you know, he's got a point, but he don't bother me because I'm secure.
Aaron:And if it didn't really bother him, it wouldn't affect him. You someone is only emotionally triggered
Dean:That's true.
Aaron:When there's a niggle.
Dean:You're right.
Aaron:If someone came up to me and went, dude, guess what? I've just made a 1,000,000 quid in a month. I won't be bothered. Because I know my number. Like, I know what I need every month to be happy.
Aaron:And at the end of the day, if someone's earning a 1,000,000 quid and they came up to me, I I wouldn't I wouldn't feel insecure about it. Because a 1,000,000 quid to what I earn now, all that means is that I could probably spend more in a day than what I can now, but I've still got the same life. I could still travel to London, still mope about and do whatever. But I'm I'm totally content because of, again, why am I content though? Well, the sequence of that is I've always done what I wanted, and I've always done it with my values and standards.
Aaron:So if someone wants to say, just on a 1,000,000 quid or, you know, I met some city boy and he was lying. I just turned over. I don't care. But but I'm happy for you, but you don't bother me.
Dean:I've noticed that about people who are doing something. It's never people who are actually doing something that will say something negative or who are making money themselves, let's say. Like, for example, when you said that to me there, immediately my mental reaction was to the guy who told me he's just made a million. I'll be like, fuck, yeah. Don't play to you.
Aaron:That's sick. Yeah. I love it. And I'm I love I do love it when people turn around to me and they're like, oh, man. Just had one of the best months.
Aaron:You know, Jason sent me not too long ago. He was like, dude, just had one of the best months. And he did, like, 196,000 in a month.
Dean:That's
Aaron:sick. And Jason's done very well financially, but I have other friends that, you know, one of my one of my close friends called Michael Howard, like his company does, like, over 300,000,000 a year. And, like, when he's turning over, I see him in London very soon. I was gonna try and go to him today, but I can't just because of time. But you see his office, cafe, like in his office, barista walking about 200 people on the office floor near the Shard.
Aaron:I'm loving it. I'm like, dude, I just want you to make 100 upon 100 upon 100 of 100 of 1000000 because I know my standards. I know my values, and I know what makes me happy. And my flex is time. Like, I'm not I like to have money to the point where if I wanted to go and get something I could
Dean:Mhmm.
Aaron:But I just like I like to be able to do what I want. My life is home, gym, London. Was it? I'm pleased as punch, mate. I'm happy.
Dean:You know what? As well, just to go back to what you said about that guy guy who's earning 1,000,000 and, like, has this little cafe set up and everything. You know what I've noticed about people who are, like, super wealthy. Yeah. Soundest people you've ever meet.
Dean:Yeah. Dead sound.
Aaron:Oh, this is something else I try to correct for people. You say to someone you've made a lot of money. They think you're miserable and you're like Scrooge.
Dean:Yeah.
Aaron:You must are you oh, are you divorced? No. I'm not. Yeah. But you must be unhappy.
Aaron:No. I'm oh, no. I'm not incredibly happy.
Dean:Yeah. Really?
Aaron:Well, there must be a flaw in your life because, rich people oh, you've stolen. That's what it is. You've stolen
Dean:your money. Say something.
Aaron:Ah. Ah, Robin Hood hasn't caught up with you. No. All legit. Made all of it.
Aaron:Oh, fuck. Anyway, I can't talk. I'll go back to my job.
Dean:You know what?
Dean:I just start there. It's because, you know, in that moment, they're immediately insecure. Yes. And they're like, shit. Well, it must be something else.
Dean:It must be something negative.
Aaron:There must be something negative to it. You have money. And like I say, on a lot of my content, if you've come from no money, money makes you happy. I don't argue at home. I don't I don't watch the news or anything like that, but when I'm filling up my car, I'm not like you know, you know, oh, bollocks.
Aaron:Yeah. Oh, jeez. I've gone over by 2 p. I literally just go in.
Dean:Fuck. Fuck
Aaron:me. This is taking forever.
Dean:Yeah. Yeah.
Aaron:Alright. There we go. Off I go to the gym again.
Dean:And you just won't get that in a in a in a in working in employment. It's just there is such a ceiling. Yes. I love that analogy of the pyramid, by the way. But I wanna tell you something funny.
Dean:Right? So and this only happened yesterday, and I was like, I'm gonna bring this up to Erin. So my girlfriend, her friend was in a job or is in a job. Right? She's on a meeting.
Dean:She gets on the meeting and she says, oh, the traffic was crazy today. Right? Regular. Regular. Enough sentence there.
Dean:Nothing striking. Right? Manager pulls her aside. I was like, hey. Sorry.
Dean:Can you just, not really say sentences like that that would affect the mentally ill? And I was like, we're getting pulled up for saying the word crazy.
Aaron:Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, this is oh, gosh. We could go another way with this, but this is the other problem. You have to fit within what's acceptable.
Aaron:And and obviously, where there's where there's certain rules and regulations now and what you can and politically can't say, you know, you have to you have to fit in again. That puts extra mental stress on people that just wanna be themselves. I think the other thing is as well is it's nice not to be a character. Again, I think if someone said to me, why do you talk with such passion or you're not bothered about what people say? I'm not tending to be anyone.
Aaron:Like I am, you know, probably what you've seen in my content. I am what I am here. Like I, I don't pretend to be anyone and it's quite nice. Cause I can get home at the end of the day and I haven't pretended to be someone I'm not. I'm just, I've just me the whole way through and I'm fully aware and I'm okay that people will be insecure.
Aaron:People will be judgmental, but my skin is now thick enough to accept it, which is why I can accept other things. Like I said, if someone said something to me which would affect someone else, I'm not bothered. Also, I think there's something to be said for creating a very strong productivity bubble, or they call it like box life. But I I say productivity bubble because I've got really only got 3 things in there. But, you know, they call it box life.
Aaron:Like, Jay Cutler said, you know, why was I the best mister Olympia? Why did I have the best shoulders? Because my life was literally in a box, you know, gym, food. I never missed a meal and my training and, and building out my brand. I never left my box.
Aaron:So I became an expert, something that I love doing, and no one distracted me. I love that. I love the fact that I don't really I don't really go out much. I love it. I love it.
Aaron:No one interferes. I don't listen to people about their next tumor that they've got or the uncle that's just died. I'm not bothered. I don't wanna hear it. I just like doing me, and it keeps me at peace.
Aaron:Yeah. I just, I live in such a bubble. I love it.
Dean:And sometimes you you probably just need to step away from whatever sort of conveyor belt you're on in order to, let's face it, achieve any sort of moderate success at all. Yeah. And just going back to this, obviously, the theme and the the the things we keep bouncing back to here is, like, the monotony of a of a 9 to 5, the having to be a certain way, and how widespread it is. How, like, most people will probably ascribe to that. I want to varying degrees.
Dean:And I saw a quote that I thought you'd be very I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on. It says, the education system is not broken. It's working exactly as it was designed to.
Aaron:Yeah. Well, yeah, it's very true, isn't it?
Dean:It's good,
Dean:isn't it?
Aaron:I suppose. Yeah. Well, it is, isn't it? It's doing the job. It's churning them out.
Aaron:Right. Which, you know
Dean:And, you know, you might say, Jesus, Dean, take off your tinfoil hat, but fuck me. That gave me pause when I thought about that.
Aaron:Yeah. It is. And the thing is, you can't do anything about it. I think this is the other thing I've learned to accept, which is why I don't let anything come into my sort of my bubble is because I'm fully aware I can talk about it as much as, you know, till the cows come home. We can both talk about it.
Aaron:Sure. Nothing's gonna change. You know, we can all street interview people. We can all go to universities and ask them, and we can all go into the houses of parliament and things can be brought up and you can campaign. It's never gonna change.
Aaron:Never gonna change. So again, I think it's a case of it's a great talking topic. Mhmm. But I think also just being aware that less talking about it's not gonna do anything, which is why, again, I really stress that people just take action and actually focus on themselves. Be aware of all of this.
Aaron:But, again, just don't get sucked up in it all. Like, the education system, it does it's never gonna change. I'm not gonna change it, which is why also I'd be prepared to pull my son out literally today.
Dean:And that fact would probably leave a lot of people being like, Jesus. That's crazy that he pulled his son out. But, I mean, we
Aaron:Well, listen to this. Let me just say this. My son the other day didn't wanna go to school. He didn't go. No problem.
Aaron:Came to the gym with me.
Dean:That's an 11 year old's dream.
Aaron:Yeah. I I mean, you know, he he didn't he didn't have to convince me that, he didn't have to say, oh, my stomach's hurting. He's just like, I really don't wanna go today. Fair enough.
Dean:I wonder what it would look like if we just had Richard Branson at the head of the education system. How would it look?
Dean:Well
Dean:That'd be cool.
Aaron:It'd be cool. I'd quite you know, Simon Squibb was saying about going into parliament. I'd vote for him. I'd I'd I'd help him campaign.
Dean:I say I can talk about that.
Aaron:I'd get my followers behind him. Yeah. I'd love that. It's never gonna happen, though. Mhmm.
Dean:Yeah. He said he didn't wanna play the political game, didn't he?
Aaron:It yeah. It will never happen. It's so deeply corrupt in this country. You you can want all you want. You can want all you want, but it's never gonna happen.
Dean:Yeah. And, like, the system is the system. It is what it is. People are, you know, subject to it, but I think what we've touched on here is that you do have the agency to sort of step away, you know, and you can complain about it and say it's shit, but you can actually do something about it. Yeah.
Dean:And one of the things I've noticed is that people are, you know, there's obviously the financial transition which scares a lot of people. Right? But I think people are just lacking in belief that they can do that. Yeah. And I I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, he got asked this question before.
Aaron:Said Jay Shetty. Yeah.
Dean:What's your favorite piece of advice you've been given? He says, believe in yourself. Yeah. I was like, fuck. That is if Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying that Yeah.
Dean:How powerful his belief.
Aaron:Yeah. It is. I mean, that's something I've been very good at. I've never had a plan b either. I've never had a plan b.
Aaron:In anything I've ever done, I've gone all in, and I've never had a plan b. And I've been asked by my family before, what if it doesn't work out? I don't know, though. I haven't got a clue. I'm not gonna not even gonna think about that right now because I'm going all in.
Aaron:And it's worked. You know? When I failed, I failed pretty fast, so I've got back up. I think rebound time is really good. But, yeah, belief.
Aaron:But then how do you get self belief? Very common question. All the time on my live stream, which is why we did our recent event the other day called debt to dream is because yes, people lack the belief. I think people know now that there's this accessibility to learn and all the resources. I think people are aware, like, if I wanted to, I do know that I have it.
Aaron:But is it right for me? Do I believe? Could it be possible? Could I be a millionaire? People doubt it.
Aaron:That all comes, and that can change in a moment for the people that you're around. Instantly, the people that you're around. Instantly, you can believe in absolutely anything. I come into London quite a lot. Every time I get into London Bridge or Victoria, I'm just like, there's money.
Dean:Few bath.
Aaron:Oh, there's money. Well, I can't have a piece of the pie. Not after all of it, but I can have it. I just gotta do what's necessary. And it's the belief that's the hardest part, to change the person.
Aaron:But then it's then the doing. That's that's where it's separate. That's where the selection phase, as they call it, comes in. It's the doing. That's the kitty.
Aaron:But you've got to love the doing as well. Like, you know when people say, oh, do you ever get burnt out? I think it was so easy just it was so easy just to go. Yeah. I suppose I do get burned.
Aaron:I've never get burned out. Never. I literally work every hour of every day. You know, when you love it, it's only when I get home, you know, and my partner or my son is like, can you, are you gonna shut your lap? Laptop?
Aaron:You know, and I have boundaries like certain days. I don't do anything. But honestly, if I was just on my own somewhere in a in a in the woods, I just work all the time. I just would never stop. Yeah.
Aaron:Because also there's this whole thing that annoys me. Right? When people say, oh, but you need 8 to 10 hours sleep. It irritates the living crap out of me when people say you need more sleep. It's just nonsense when people go, oh, you'll get Alzheimer's.
Aaron:Yeah. I'm not when I say sleep less and graft and graft and graft, right, because I was sleeping, like, 4 hours a night when I was working a full time job. And yeah. And like what I sent you when I was in my little cubby hole at home, I'd worked my 10 hours, and I got back, like, past midnight. And then I, like, stick in another 2 and a half hours, 3 hours of work.
Aaron:And then I go to sleep for, like, 3, 4 hours, hours, then I'm up at the gym again.
Dean:Fair play.
Aaron:I was fine. But my dad can sleep for 15 minutes, and he'll do, like, another 18 hours. And he will he'll have his neck, like, tilted over. People go, but you but you'll suffer you'll suffer with your health. Yes.
Aaron:If I was doing that for 18 years, but put it in for 2 to 3. No. I don't do that.
Dean:I think that's what I've been trying to preach because like you said, somebody might listen to that, what you just said there about you work every single day, you'd work every single hour if you could, and they might be terrified about that. They might be turned off by that. And what I'm trying to at least say to people who I speak to is, okay. Look, you know, you can be as all in as somebody like Hormozi or somebody like Aaron. But, yeah, you're gonna have to sacrifice that upfront.
Dean:Let's be real here. The first one, 2, 3 years, you do kinda have to go all in because you're probably gonna have a job and, you know, to work alongside and have a nice financial segue, you will have to do that. But you don't have to be a 247, 365 kind of guy or girl. No. You know?
Aaron:The other thing is as well, we need to remind people about starting a business. Doesn't mean limited company. It doesn't mean a warehouse. It doesn't mean an office. It doesn't mean tax advisor.
Aaron:It doesn't mean employees. I mean, a bank loan, laptop, and a phone and wifi. That is a business. Like, again, I try to remind people we'd stop listening to baby boomers. We're not in the eighties nineties.
Aaron:We're in 2024. Like, it's just time. You just need to put in time. Commit time. But, again, people are, like, working weekends.
Dean:But people don't know where to start, Arun. People are, like, stuck at that phase. They know like, well, a lot of people know that they wanna leave. A lot of people know that if they stayed doing this for their whole life, they would absolutely hate it and they would regret it. But they don't know what the first, second, and third steps are.
Dean:Mhmm. And they're kinda stuck in this purgatory phase, like I said earlier, about tolerating it. And it's, like, just about manageable, but they don't know what to do.
Aaron:Yeah. So the first things are the first few things that I would do is just for evaluations. All of my members go through it is your self evaluation. We've kind of covered that off. That's really identifying.
Aaron:I know you're saying you want this. I want to win the lottery. I don't do the lottery, but I want to win the lottery. Right. I want it.
Aaron:But the self evaluation is kind of like, have you asked yourself all the necessary questions to say, yes. I'm in. I'm all in. Okay? That's done.
Aaron:Then there's the financial evaluation. Strip back all your finances because what you wanna do to get to a point of starting a business and replacing your income, it's not the income now. It's getting to the net number. So people might be earning 1600 or 2,000 a month. They become become accustomed to that, but they probably don't need the full 2,000.
Aaron:They probably could live on 1600, for example. Get to the net on that, then it's your time evaluation. What do you do Monday to Monday? Cut out all the unnecessary. Again, people will do that or they won't.
Aaron:And then it's your social evaluation. Am I hanging around with bombs? Let me open up my WhatsApp. Who's motivating me? Who's on a similar journey?
Aaron:Or am I just sending memes of, you know, cats jumping off of buildings and all this kind of stuff and, you know, just just stuff that is just dopamine stuff. Right? Am I around winners? Once that once that's done, I would then just start backwards, turn off social media, and benchmark what makes money and what is lean. And when I say lean, what makes you the most amount of money that you could do remotely from home that you can operate and scale for the 1st 1 to 2 years on your own acting as everyone and anyone in the business, and reverse engineer.
Aaron:And then try to find, as you reverse engineering, some model that you like. Agency, video agency, editing, paid membership, full time content creator, whatever it is, and then pick that thing and go all in for 24 months. And you'll be surprised. Did I think I was gonna earn as much money as I did on TikTok? No.
Aaron:I've earned more money than I know what to do with on TikTok, and I'll continue to earn more money. But what was the difference? Was I driven by the money? No. Because I didn't know it was gonna come in the waves that it did, but I was committed.
Aaron:And even today, haven't missed a day of live streaming, haven't missed a day of multiple
Dean:carrots, the delay you know, delayed gratification, that old adage that is thrown around a lot, but, like, when you actually understand this and you can live by it, things are good. Right? So for example with me, the stuff that I did 2 years ago for my business, it's coming good for me now. Like those relationships I formed, those calls I had that seemed like they were going nowhere.
Aaron:Yeah.
Dean:They're now good for me. Yeah. And it's hard to see it at the time, man. You know this. Right?
Dean:It's hard.
Aaron:Oh, yes. Patience. That's the thing. We we don't have it anymore. I've had so many people come into my lives.
Aaron:I'm thinking of a few of them now where I remember meeting them, and I had, like, this big vision and big plan, and I thought, oh, let's I really want this to pull off, and I hope that I hope that they serve a purpose. And I suppose I had some form of an agenda, and maybe that was naivety and lacking the experience. And then you go away, you feel quite flat. But then 6 months later or a year later, or even a couple of years later, they come back in and then it made sense. And you were like, that's why I put in the effort front loaded work with no pay upfront and no expectation.
Aaron:That was patience, and then it pays off. And do you know what? I'll tell you what pays. Being nice. Being nice and not having a chip on your shoulder has served me very well.
Aaron:You know, I can talk to the I was on a Zoom call the other day with the Amstrad boys. You know, we had such a laugh. These these are guys that are well connected, Lord Sugar, own company. I was, you know, I was with his, was with his grandson, Joe Baron. They came down to our VIP event.
Aaron:You know? And he looks just like Lord Sugar. I'm just being myself, and we really get on. Yeah. It's just because I'm being me.
Aaron:I'm just being nice, and I'm making sure that there's fair exchange as well. It's not there's not a subconscious I'm getting mine under the table here.
Dean:Yeah. Yeah. Simon Squid talked about that a lot. Give whatever take.
Aaron:Yeah. Fair exchange. That's worked really well. But but, again, people want instant results. It's ironic, isn't it?
Aaron:People that do the lottery, it's because that week, they wanna win big. And it's funny because then when they win 50 quid, they're chuffed. You've got that instant win. I won 50 quid. Maybe you spent 470 quid over the year.
Aaron:You have one you've lost. It's mad.
Dean:I can relate to this though, because I remember when I started, I was Doing the lottery? No, with my business and I bought the course, right, I got sold the course. With Rob Moore, who I saw you had on your podcast. Right, yeah. Yeah.
Dean:Went through the Progressive Academy, right, and you know, look, let's say they're very good at selling courses. You know, he'll he'll tell you that himself, I'm sure. But from going through that funnel, my expectations were a little bit misaligned. I thought I was gonna earn 10 k in 6 months, you know.
Aaron:Yeah.
Dean:And, people do, I'm sure, and there's, like, you know, unicorns that go through it.
Aaron:Yeah.
Dean:But I had to really realign my expectations going through that. And I wanted to quit, man. I really, really did on many, many occasions. I was, like, pulling my hair out. I was at 40 k down in the hole.
Dean:I was fucking I'd, like, lost a few bob. It was scary. Right?
Dean:Yeah.
Dean:And what I've learned through sticking with this I had a mentor. Right? His name was Scottie. Shout out, Scottie, if you're listening. He I remember one day when I was, like, lowest of the low.
Dean:I was on the phone with Scottie and I was like, man, I just wanna quit. I wanna just pack everything in. Nothing has worked for me. I'm 8, 9 months in, and I'm in the red bad hair. And he was like, mate, just stay in the fucking game.
Dean:Just stay in the game. Yeah. And I did, and it came good for me. And that put and, like, if I had known that at the start that, hey. Look.
Dean:I'm not gonna come
Dean:good for a year or
Dean:2, I would have behaved
Aaron:very differently. Yeah. I so I can relate in terms of I've never sort of lost money like that. But one thing that works for me is not overthinking and that helps from not being distracted, but not overthinking and just doing so I'm. I'm not a notion guy.
Aaron:I'm not an over planner. I'm not, too much of a forward thinker. I just, in the moment, make a plan. You might have seen it on my social the other day, but I the night before, I just write everything out. I'm just very paper, pen, rip it off new day.
Aaron:Pen, paper, rip it off new day. And what that allows me to do is not overthink about what you might have done or what's coming or what's around the corner. Mhmm. But just to attack the the moment stuff Yeah. And the moment stuff builds and the moment stuff moves you forward.
Aaron:And the moment stuff doesn't make you think about what you've done or what's to come. It's it's the stuff that needs doing, and then the doing gets the results. And then as long as the results are good, the revenue comes in eventually, you know? Mhmm. And then doing that repeatedly without overthinking it.
Aaron:Again, when people you would have heard it as well, I'm not getting any views, right? You've because you're focusing on the views. Yeah. Focus on the thing that you've just done. What would you mean?
Aaron:How much value did you just give in the thing that you did? How much commitment were you in, within the video? Did you believe what you were talking about when you were making the sales call? Is is all this in the moment?
Dean:Again, not thinking about what
Aaron:has been or or or also what's going on around you, just in the moment stuff and doing. That's the winner, is the doing.
Dean:Gary v, who is the GOAT. Right? He, you know, you ever see his videos where he's, like, talking to somebody and they're like, Gary, I can't do this or whatever. Yeah. He was like, somebody said, I'm posting videos and I've been doing it for, like, 11 months now and I'm still getting, like, 40 views.
Dean:Yeah.
Dean:And Gary was like, yeah, because your content's shit.
Aaron:Yeah. Yeah. As as I'll say, you're boring.
Dean:It's not valuable. You're not giving someone something to watch.
Aaron:There's a formula which I teach all of my members who are in my TikTok growth program. It's attention, solution, validation, conversion. Nice. You grab the attention. You instantly provide a solution, which will validate you and eventually will lead to a conversion.
Aaron:And you just follow that. And then you you are self critical. Did you serve someone? Did you attack a pain point? Did you then provide a solution to the pain point?
Aaron:Or are you just a vanity creator that it's nothing? It's it's kind of meh, as I call it. It's I don't really know how I feel about it. You can never have someone sitting on a fence. You have to make people make a decision, whether it's an agreement or a disagreement.
Aaron:And I've just learned this is that that is the formula to getting attention around you, whether whether you're making sales, whether you just wanna grow, whatever it is, it's again, I think, again, going back to being authentic in your message and just being you, people I think people now, they can smell bullshit. We are in a world where I think there's so much nonsense out there. Whether you've got experience or not, you're kind of something a radar goes, oh, no. Not not a 100% sure on that. Not sure what their motive is.
Aaron:Whereas if you just give, give, give, give, give, even in person networking online, you know. And you can hear it in someone's voice as well. So I think also we're becoming very hyper aware of what's real and what's not. It's a crazy world, social media.
Dean:Wild. Hey. Hope you're enjoying the interview so far with Aaron. As I forewarned you at the beginning of the episode, a lot of the points and takes on certain subjects can be probably triggering or annoying or perhaps put you off certain opinions. And that's fair enough.
Dean:And if it is, totally understand. But I do hope that underneath certain things that you may have not agreed with, that you've learned some things from listening to Aaron. There's only about 5 minutes left in the episode. And in that 5 minute window, Aaron actually explains exactly how he helps people like you to create the first business. But what I want you to take from this episode broadly and what I understood from speaking to Aaron was to really take responsibility for what our actions are irregardless of what's going on in the world what's going on around us we still have the responsibility to do what's best for us to take the right actions and to go in the direction that we feel we should.
Dean:Alongside this as well, if you are starting or if you are about to start or if you have just started, I want you to think about this journey that you're embarking on and think about it in terms of 24 months. Apply yourself to this thing for 24 months. And I promise you, it will come good. 3rd thing, stop planning and just do. I like the way Aaron spoke about how he doesn't really over complicate the planning side.
Dean:He leans more towards doing something that I think I actually could do a lot more of. I kinda plan things out and I say I'm gonna do here and I make a nice calendar and yes, there's a time and a place, but sometimes it can be at the expense of the doing. So don't forget to just do. So take responsibility for what you're doing. Think about this project in terms of it in 24 months and what you can do in that period.
Dean:Focus less on planning and just do. That's certainly some of the standout things that I took from speaking to Aaron. Let me know what stood out to you. Drop me a d m. Let me know what you took from it.
Dean:I really want to know by the way if you took something from any episode at any time It's really helpful when you message me and let me know what you've liked and why it was something that stuck out to you. So please do. If there was indeed anything at all. Enjoy the rest of the episode. I will catch you on the next one.
Dean:Is. K. So we've obviously highlighted that job equals shit. Entrepreneurship equals good. Yeah.
Dean:Is. K. So we've obviously highlighted that job equals shit. Entrepreneurship equals good. Yeah.
Dean:And whether you've pissed people off, whether you've inspired the person listening, we all know that there's a lot of people who are suffering silently, let's say, and they don't wanna be there. They don't wanna do what they're doing. Right? How could they come to you and how could you help them? Let's talk about your breakout program and what that can offer somebody who has never ever touched a business or hasn't got got the slightest clue as to what to do.
Aaron:The breakout program, I believe, although it's been incredibly successful within a year now, I believe I will be one of the most legit, authentic I reckon I'll hit. I'm personally already hitting headlines. I've got a new another paper article out next week. I reckon my breakout program will also be so impactful because it's so real. It's so affordable.
Aaron:No one gets in. It's not a commodity. It's not an open commodity, like an open market commodity. But it it literally is the transition of everything from your your person, the navigation, the thought process, the self mastery, the benchmark, the self assessments, the business models, the testing, the the financials. It is it is everything.
Aaron:Like, I'm so proud of it because I spent so much money on actually building this out, and it's had such good success stories. Like one of my, you know, shout him out. Chris Bergin is like, so I have, I have like great success stories, but he's one that really stands out. Cause he's just followed the book. He started with me in a job.
Aaron:I can't remember what his job was, but now he's full
Dean:time in his media marketing agency. His his, reoccurring revenue, which
Aaron:has been consistent now. Agency. His his, reoccurring revenue, which has been consistent now is between, it's fluctuation between 5.4 to about 5.6 a month fully in his business.
Dean:Easy.
Aaron:He's full because he, but he followed the blueprint and he made no excuses. He just went all in, and he's such a great, success story. And I sorry. He had an invite down to the VIP night, and he got, like, a t shirt at the breakout when he left his job and all this kind of stuff. And it's it's just following what I say because I've done it.
Aaron:There is no BS about anything that I've done in terms of my whole navigation out, into the employed world. And I showcase everything that I do. So it's it's about as real as you can get, but not everyone can get in. And it's not an open, it's not an open door to get any.
Dean:I like that. You've got that sort of rigor where it's not just like, Hey, I'm just trying to get any old Tom, Dick, or Harry to
Dean:come in.
Aaron:I could have made, I could have made an absolute fortune if I let everyone in, I could have made quarter of a million. Yeah. I've had I've had probably over 1300 applicants to come in. Mhmm. Right.
Aaron:And and it's very low price, by the way. It is going to high ticket, beginning in November, by the way. It's been a year now. I've kept it very low. It was less than the washing machine, but now it's going high ticket in November.
Aaron:I could have made quarter of a million. But you know the problem with that? Because there'll be some way. Well, if you could make quarter of a million, you would have. No, because I'm not financially driven.
Aaron:Again, I don't need I don't need my program income to live my life, but I win on success stories because I know eventually in 2, 3 years, I'll earn a fortune because I know that it's proven and I know that it's doing the job.
Dean:So can somebody go through that and come out the other side, having a multitude of different businesses? Or is it like, hey, you'll come out and you'll have this type of business?
Aaron:Yeah. Because I'll change you as the person. Like, I'm very bullish as we probably tell now.
Dean:Yeah. That's what I wanted you to say.
Aaron:Yeah. I don't. And also, I'll never have someone come on board. Like there are subconscious questions that they get in like a testing phase that they have to go through, like on a discovery call, which I, to today before I saw you, I decide whether people work with me or not, because it's my name. Yeah.
Aaron:I cannot have my name. Like And imagine this. So, Aaron, why didn't you make quarter of a million gross? Well, imagine imagine me launching a program. And by the way, Jeff Bezos, the rich get richer because the poor think every opportunity is a scam.
Aaron:Now he's got a program. Never call it a course. Yeah. It's it's a legitimate, in-depth, successful program. But imagine if you turn around to me and said, you ring me up.
Aaron:Hey, Aaron. How's 450 members getting on in your first intake? No idea. Too many. Can't help them all.
Aaron:4 and 4 have been successful. 4 against 450 in a load of our applicants, whereas you get the bigger educational companies that do a 100,000,000, but then they've got Google reviews. They've got property Yeah. Tribe complaints. They've got Trustpilot complaints.
Aaron:Yeah. Trustpilot, complaints. I don't want that. I just want slow drip fed successes. Because then when I've got 50, 60 of those, and then that's put in an awesome advert and a marketing campaign, and they're only good, and they're legit success stories, the next intake, the next intake, the next intake's always full.
Aaron:The pipeline never drips, You know? Mhmm. It's always drip drip feeding in.
Dean:So I love that. I love that. And, again, it kind of ties into the fact that you and I have a very shared mission, and I really I kind of look up to you in the way that you've got this. You know, we both kind of preach the same message yet, and
Aaron:you have this extra sort of springboard
Dean:for someone to then be like, right. Sort of springboard for someone to then be like, right.
Dean:I really wanna make a
Dean:change here. And you've kind of set that up for people, which I think is really cool. Yeah. I'm gonna finish by saying one
Aaron:of the quotes
Dean:that I
Dean:saw from one of your videos that I thought was really, really cool. The goal isn't money. It's to spend every day as I wish.
Aaron:Yeah. Time freedom is my biggest flex. Not having a Rolex, not materialistic things, not bothered about any of that. Again, because I just I'm doing me. I'm not bothered about showcasing.
Aaron:Imagine buying a Rolex. Right? I use this example. And I go and buy a nice Submariner. And I go I book the Ivy restaurant, Ivy Asia, and I call over the waiter and I'm, I'm really showing that Rolex.
Aaron:I mean, you can't wear a Rolex in London anyway, but in the Ivy, I'm really showing it. I'm only wearing it for other people. This is just a watch. Just tells the time I'm doing it for other people because I'm looking for for other people to look at me wearing a Rolex so that they can perceive me, that I am someone. I'm not bothered by any of that.
Aaron:So I like the fact that, yeah, I can just I have enough money consistently and sustainably to just get up, no worries, go to the gym, talk with who I wanna talk with, do my thing, and then go to sleep content. And also, I think my health long term without stresses will benefit me and my family because I'm not stressed. So, yeah, to be able to do what I want every single day and I think people are waking up to this, by the way.
Dean:That's sick, man. And I think if everybody led with that approach, we'd have a lot less people suffering, I think, and doing what they want, and I think that's sick. I'm gonna leave your breakout program in the show notes for anyone who wants to explore that idea and see if they can pass the rigorous test to get in and actually make a big change in their life. Yeah, man. It's been sick having you on.
Dean:Love this shot.
Aaron:Dude, pleasure. Thanks so much.
Dean:Love you. Nice. Amazing. Dude, that's sick. I love that.
