Uzzi Raffi - Product Developer and Founder of GeoSmart Pro

David is a marketing expert with a successful agency which has scaled significantly since COVID. He was born and grew up in Nigeria before moving to Canada.

David established a painting and decorating business in Canada whilst he was at University, scaled this up to $1m of turnover.

David now generates leads for clients at scale. He is currently considering how AI can be implemented into companies in a successful way.

David uses software to create leverage in business, starting with LinkedIn's Sales Navigator, followed by Dux Soup or ULinc to connect with people, and then using GoHighLevel to move clients through the pipeline.

David also talks about how AI can be used to create leverage, such as AI generated videos, and how it can be used to save time and create arbitrage.

David uses email marketing, researching via Appollo.io, then uses sendpotion.com to send personalised messages to target clients.

LinkedIn has recently introduced restrictions on the number of connections which you can make, so David then sends out requests to people to connect on LinkedIn by email.

David's strategy for launching a business includes a 90-day sprint that includes:

• 30 days of research: micro and macro research, Google Trends, competitor research, organic, SEO research etc. The micro sense of the research is going into the Reddit threads where talking are talking about the problem, then secures his first client for free or low cost.
• Second 30 days: implementation and identifying and creating demand: free training guide on how you can use this product or service. This then creates a relationship with people who are effectively admitting that they are struggling with the problem that the business solves, therefore you at that point have product market fit.
• Then implements the things which he has learned during the previous 60 days, and uses Facebook ads and TikTok’s ads to bring some scale into the business.

David covers his views on how AI will impact the human race, and how he believes that it is important to learn how to instruct these AI tools.

Recommended books:

Almanack of Naval Ravikant

48 Laws of Power - Robert Green - Law no 1, “Do not outshine the master!”

The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris - Work less and get more done.

The Lean Startup - Eric Rice

You can find David at:

instagram.com/davidowasi

linkedin.com/davidowasi

aceyourbusinessacademy.com

Donnie is the founder of Six Berries and and he is a technology focussed founder, start-up advisor, NED and strategy consultant. Matt and Donnie have a weekly private mastermind, and we thought it would be fun to have a year end summary on the Growth Show.

Topics:

- Losers in 2022
- Winners in 2022
- Chat GPT - https://chat.openai.com/
- AI
- Crypto

Plus much more!

 Anthony Villis is a serial entrepreneur and founder of the multi-award winning wealth management company First Wealth LLP, which recently won the coveted Chartered Financial Planning firm of the Year Award, 2021/2022 and has recently secured Certified B Corp Status. 

 Anthony has recently launched several new businesses the first being Open Advice (https://openadvice.co.uk/), which is a Fintech company which has built software which been designed to close the “advice gap” and enables financial services companies to onboard clients more easily. 

Second Anthony and his team have launched Thrive Money (https://www.thrivemoneyhq.co.uk/), which in their words solves the following problem: “This lack of financial literacy can have a significant impact on individuals' confidence, autonomy and overall wellbeing. Robert Caplan, Director of First Wealth and his client created Thrive Money as a way to combat this issue, by breaking down barriers to accessible, practical and evidence based financial education.” 

Anthony is a highly motivated business leader and his approach to his businesses is dynamic and exciting. 

Key takeaways: 

• The current financial situation we find ourselves in is the hangover from the financial crisis
• Post RDR the financial services sector the profession went from being too exam focused in Anthony’s opinion and now it has come back to a better balance of financial astuteness, but also engaging clients with additional services such as coaching and mentoring.
• Financial planners are turning clients away due to the costs associated with transactions, and are actively encouraging clients to go and invest with execution only platforms such as Hargreaves Lansdown which is probably not in their best interests in the longer term. Open Advice has been designed to provide a hybrid advice service which can enable clients to get the advice that they need to help them, through what they call “hybrid advice”.
• Find the limits - what are you capable of?
• Be clear about what you are trying to achieve and the reasons behind why you are trying to achieve this.

Visit First Wealth for further details or visit Anthony's LinkedIn profile at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyvillis-financialplanning/.

Dr Steve Day is a former GP who built a property investment portfolio and then decided to explore how he could extrapolate himself from the business and built a series of systems and processes whilst working from Sweden where he now lives. Steve bought his first investment property when he was in his early 20’s, and made some “bad” business decisions but managed to keep hold of his property portfolio and then decided to retrain as a doctor in his late 20’s, with 7 years training required to achieve this goal. 

Steve ended up creating a series of sideline businesses whilst he was a GP, but realised that he felt “restricted” working as a GP, and so then decided to return to the business world full time where he continued to build his property portfolio and then ultimately then built his current business Systems and Outsourcing. 

Steve is extremely passionate about optimising processes both for his own and other people’s businesses and has create a business around this which in his words: “We help micro-business owners and entrepreneurs free their time using systems and outsourcing. We will show you how to hire, train, manage and grow a reliable, dedicated team of remote workers. We will provide you with step by step guidance on systemising your business processes and creating your operations manual to remove yourself entirely from the day-to-day operations of your business, enabling you to focus on what's most important to you in life.” 

Key Takeaways: 

• The only way that businesses scale and don’t fail is by implementing systems and processes 
• Steve has a logical approach to business and enjoys dissecting them
• What am I doing right now that I shouldn’t actually be doing?
• Record me doing that process, then get someone else to do it, explaining how you do the task as you are doing it
• Capture the “how” of that task
• Then a virtual assistant turns that task into a recorded process which is documented
• Every 10 minute task that you do daily, is costing you a week per year
• If you have a system for offloading your work, then you can start thinking about how to make improvements on the day-to-day activities that you work on
• If you can remove yourself from your “admin” tasks, then your earning capacity immediately increases.
• If you can pay someone less than doing your low value work then you can increase your high value work
• If you want to have more freedom in your life, you have to figure out how to free up some time from your business
• Learning to “trust the system” versus “trusting the person” is a key step in the evolution of making sure that your systems are working effectively
• Business gets harder as the business gets bigger
• The only way that a business can scale and not fail is by implementing robust systems and processes

Steve is extremely structured with his time and has freed up both a Monday and a Friday which means that he can go and do the things which he wants to.
 
Recommended books:

• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/michael-e-gerber/e-myth/9780887304729?msclkid=d27ff1b162251c15539892e6f645dc94
• Traction by Gino Wickman - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
• Clockwork by Michael Michalowicz - https://clockworkbymikemichalowicz.com/
• Content Machine by Dan Morris - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/dan-norris/content-machine/9780995404427?msclkid=f6d99b7da4551af467fbf82a3aa39f80
• Work The System - Sam Carpenter
• Life Leverage by Rob Moore - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Leverage-Outsource-Everything-Lifestyle/dp/190984666X
• The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris - https://fourhourworkweek.com/

 
Steve’s website is https://systemsandoutsourcing.com/ and he is available via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-steve-day/ and 

Andi Cooke co-founder of Whitebox Property Solutions joins Matt Lenzie for the latest episode of the Growth Show.

By way of background Andi is a former tradesman, who built his own house, which gave him a taste of the potential of property development, he subsequently team up with Lloyd Girardi, and I think its probably fair to say that neither of them have subsequently looked back, with a portfolio gross development value of £30m.

Andi has always been a grafter, and he built his own businesses from the ground up. Andi provides a huge amount of value during the podcast and shares some of the things which have help him achieve his goals.

Matt and Andi discuss a wide range of different topics including Andi's journey, how he motivates himself, how he has overcome some of the challenges he has faced and much more. Some takeaways:

• Activity creates opportunity
• Consistency is key
• Attempting to remove the peaks and the troughs
• How to create a compelling proposition to motivate yourself
• Read or listen to David Goggins - Can’t Hurt Me - If this doesn’t motivate you then you potentially don’t have emotions! ;-)
• How Andi’s why has evolved
• Challenging yourself frequently is important both from a business and a personal perspective
• To achieve the extraordinary you have to do extraordinary things

Andi is on instagram
Whitebox's website is: https://www.whiteboxps.com/

Matt Belcher is a serial entrepreneur who has built a number of successful businesses over his career. Matt moved to the USA around 10 years ago, and has subsequently launched a new business called CalTier, which is a prop tech company which is seeking to change the way that people around the world invest into Real Estate and other asset classes.

CalTier is an SEC regulated investment platform providing access for private investors to get exposure to a variety of investment opportunities with an initial focus on the “multi-family” blocks, or what we would call in the UK blocks of apartments. Their proposition is to acquire the assets, renovate the properties, then re-gear the leases, increasing the revenues that the assets generate. The team have successfully acquired a number of these assets and have successfully exited one project at the date of writing, ahead of schedule. 

Matt has a vision that CalTier realty will go on to become a diversified investment platform for retail investors and they are rapidly securing increasing numbers of private investors through a variety of different marketing methods and approaches. 

CalTier Realty has recently completed an equity raise, raising $1.1m of capital to enable them to continue their expansion and acquisition of further investors, and continue the development of the platform. 

Visit https://www.caltierinc.com/ for further details. 

****Legal notice**** Please note that nothing in this podcast can be construed as investment advice, if you are seeking to make any investment it recommended that you consult an independent financial adviser or investment professional. Matt Lenzie has no liability if you choose to make an investment based on information discussed on this channel, information is provided purely for entertainment purposes and cannot be relied up. If you choose to make any investment you may lose all of the assets or property which you invest. 

AN OFFERING STATEMENT REGARDING THIS OFFERING HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE SEC. THE SEC HAS QUALIFIED THAT OFFERING STATEMENT, WHICH ONLY MEANS THAT THE COMPANY MAY MAKE SALES OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED BY THE OFFERING STATEMENT. IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE SEC HAS APPROVED, PASSED UPON THE MERITS OR PASSED UPON THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION IN THE OFFERING STATEMENT. YOU MAY OBTAIN A COPY OF THE OFFERING CIRCULAR THAT IS PART OF THAT OFFERING STATEMENT FROM: 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1771232/000110465920128011/tm2036596d1_253g2.htm 

YOU SHOULD READ THE OFFERING CIRCULAR BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT. 

Charlotte goes by the Instagram handle of Accidental Female Developer, and has a background in PR.

Charlotte faced massive adversity at the start of her property journey she took the very brave decision to take on the development projects which were underway and has taken these through to completion.

Charlotte has turned this situation around despite the challenges thrown up by Covid, a lack of development experience and over £1m of debt.

Charlotte has gone on to turn a farmers field into 25 houses which is a testament to her strength and resilience.

During this process she has learned to leverage other professionals experience and knowledge as opposed to doing everything herself.

I strongly recommend following Charlotte on Instagram where she shares her story.

Charlotte is on Instagram @accidentalfemaledeveloper.

Craig Boddington is a highly successful entrepreneur who has bought and sold lots of companies during his career.

He sold some businesses and retired and then decided to move to Florida where he has set up Blackhouse Private Equity, which is a private equity group investing into global mergers and acquisitions.

Craig is a 5th generation entrepreneur and he took over his fathers construction business, which had to be closed down after a few years. Craig also joined the army and then started to get involved in IT project management and training, moving into change and transformation management.

Craig talks about how he has evolved his business acquisition strategy, first buying a HVAC (air conditioning business). Craig is now focusing on specific sectors seeking to buy portfolios of companies that are complimentary.

Craig dissects how he built up a portfolio of companies and some of the challenges which he has faced during that journey.

- Deeply understanding the founders motivations and story can enable a more sympathetic approach which meets their criteria.
- Deal pie - understanding the needs, worried about personal guarantees for example, or personal debt hanging over their shoulders, bringing forward solutions to their issues can help the business owner to achieve their objectives.
- You will need to find access to capital.
- Create capital events throughout the process, this ensures that you are getting paid on the way through.
- Be congruent in your approach to business acquisitions.
- Only work with people that you mutually like, respect, trust and admire.
- Go to the broker network - these will provide you with live leads. Own marketing is a lot more difficult.
- Ask the broker the following questions: How long have you been a broker? How many deals have you completed in the past 24 months? What structures have you implemented for the acquisitions that you have brokered?
- Don’t get deal heat - there will always be another opportunity.
- Trust your guy feeling.

To contact Craig email: craig.boddington@blackhousepe.com
https://blackhousepe.com/

Uzzi is a seasoned entrepreneur who has previously worked with LG Electronics as a project manager, then moved to Smarter which is a connected home company.

Uzzi launched GeoSmart Pro which is a company which manufactures smart home products.

Uzzi has a young child during the summer and was trying to keep the room temperature consistent, he therefore designed a fan which was smart connected to enable this. Uzzi launched the UKs first smart fan in 2009, and won a kite mark award for being one of the quietest fans in the market and has been featured in Metro and the Evening Standard.

Uzzi approaches a new idea with the following questions:
- What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
- Product development is never easy.

His advice is:
- Don’t hesitate just do it.
- There’s no harm in learning from your mistakes.

The development process:
- What are the features of the product?
- Do market research.
- What features could the product have?
- Always keep the product simple and stupid.
- Idea, drawing board, moulding.
- First prototype is probably not going to be the end product, it will evolve.
- As you launch the first model you learn from it. Get customer feedback at this point.

Uzzi Contact details are:
https://www.geosmartpro.com/

Dave Hartnett joined the latest edition of "The Growth Show", Dave is a property developer has amassed a £50m GDV portfolio of property during the Covid lockdowns, spending many hours identifying properties and securing JV's with landowners. 

Dave specialises in approaching landowners off-market and entering into joint ventures with landowners to add value through planning and development. The approach of using JV’s reduces the capital requirement for the development deals which he is doing, as there is “money in the deal already”.

Dave offers the landowner the “land value” plus an uplift based upon the additional value which is created through development.

Dave believes this is potentially the biggest time for property opportunities in our lifetimes, therefore he is hugely optimistic about the value and volume of opportunities which are out there due to recent changes in planning rules with class MA and class ZA.

Dave has done a huge amount of personal development and is an advocate getting a mentor at the right time and he strongly feels that this has helped him on his journey.

- Don’t be put off by lack of experience, you can borrow this from other partners

- The money is out there if the deal stacks, don’t not get started because you don’t have enough cash

- Go for 5-10 units rather than 1-2 units, these sites have economies of scale

- Create a win-win-win scenario with the landowner the council and for the developer

- Build up your list of contacts and your investor pool

- Identify a good area, make sure it is profitable, high £ per square foot

- Download the Jim Rohn Audible book The Ultimate Jim Rohn Library - trust me I've done this, it is worth the time!

Dave is contactable through:

https://www.mountbattenestates.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/davehartnet