The Growth Show with Matt Lenzie

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

Mark Potter is the founder of Ernest Hardy Ltd which is a property development company. Mark left school at 14 and has built up a number of businesses over the years, including a gun shop, sold some tanks and other military vehicles and built up his own property portfolio.

Marks "can do" attitude sets him apart from other entrepreneurs, and this is demonstrated best by his approach when a business that he had worked extremely hard on went into administration, instead of licking his wounds he moved into property and had 14 properties within 12 months!

Mark has subsequently evolved his property investment strategy moving on from single units to larger development projects.

Hiplok co-founders, John Abrahams and his colleague Ben Smith are product designers by trade and cyclists by heart. With over 25 years combined design and cycle industry experience, they set out to change security for cyclists. They wanted to protect what they love by bringing their design expertise and rider experience to deliver innovative, quality, bicycle locks which not only protect your bike but protect the joy of riding.

The result was the world’s first wearable bike lock. But that was only the beginning. Since the launch of the Hiplok ORIGINAL in 2011, the pair have continued to lead on innovation, designing and building quality security products which riders around the world trust in. And when they aren’t at the drawing board or on the testing table at Hiplok’s UK Design Headquarters, you’ll find them riding bikes.

Neil Fillary is an ex-investment banker and is currently an investor into cryptocurrencies both on a personal basis as well as running a portfolio of investments and companies in the space. Neil also runs a multi-family office platform, which provides a real insight into what ultra High Net Worth investors are thinking about digital currencies.

Neil previously worked for Royal Bank of Scotland in their capital markets business, then spent a number of years at Deutschebank, then moved to JP Morgan Chase where he sold hedge funds into family offices. Neil is currently the founder and Director of Dax which is a digital asset custody service and is the founder of Shuttle Holdings, which is a private investment office focusing on emerging digital technologies.

Neil has a portfolio of his own investments along with a significant upside return which has been generated for the investors into Shuttle Holdings.

Neil's LinkedIn.
Shuttle Holdings.
 

Billy Schwer is a former lightweight IBO Super Light Weight champion boxer, who has subsequently forged a carer as a performance coach and trainer. Billy is the author of the book “Man Up”, which provides his steps, using a boxing analogy, of how to overcome challenges in life.

Billy has overcome significant difficulties in his own life, following his retirement from boxing where he has had to adapt from being in his words, “Billy the boxer”, to find another sense of purpose in life, overcoming depression, bankruptcy and the breakdown of relationships.

Billy is a dynamic and energetic individual who frequently publishes a programme of motivational videos via his LinkedIn profile, which I would recommend following.

The takeaways from this episode of the Growth Show are:

• “Billy don’t be a hero and don’t be a fool with your life”
• We can make decisions about who we are as a child, which we can overcompensate for what we perceive as shortcomings
• You don’t “play boxing”
• Peel back the layers of your ego, to discover your true self
• Billy’s life mission is the transformation of the middle-aged-man
• Billy’s programme creates a safe space for men to share their experience and vulnerabilities
• Billy has transformed from being very focused on himself as all professional athletes have to be, to helping other people
• What are you willing to do to achieve your objectives? How far are you willing to push yourself?
• Whats driving your performance, your behaviour?
• Dogged determination is required.
• “Win or lose, you choose”

Billy is accessible via the following channels:
https://billyschwer.com/
https://www.instagram.com/billyschwer/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-schwer/

Caroline Syson is a serial entrepreneur and founder of PocketPA, which is a piece of software which Caroline has developed from scratch, initially to help her daughters beauty business and is now in the process of rolling out to other micro businesses.

Caroline explains the challenges that she has faced building this business, even having to sell her beloved car to fund it! Caroline is now seeking investment into her company to enable it to scale up.

Pocket PA is the one-stop small business app that helps you save time and money, every single day, simple, easy & stress free. The platform manages bookings, clients and your accounts.

Key takeaways:

• Just because someone says they can’t do something, this doesn’t mean that no-one can, it just means that they haven’t done it before.
• Keep on going, even when things are incredibly tough, maintain focus on the end goal. 
• Forming strategic partnerships can be a great way to accelerate the growth of your business.
• PocketPA gives you the ability if you are laughing a new business for the first time to manage the business admin, the money and all of the practical aspects of their business.
• Caroline’s ambition is for PocketPA to become the go-to tool for all micro businesses.

https://www.pocketpa.com/

https://www.instagram.com/pocketpamobile/

Natalie Allport joins Matt Lenzie for the latest epsiode of the Growth Show, here Natalie and Matt discuss lots of different breathing techniques, including Wim Hof, Buteyko breathing, plus training in the snow, cross-fit, snowboarding and more.

Natalie is a former Canadian National Team Athlete, and has subsequently turned her attentions to cross-fit, cross-country and skiing as well as running her highly successful digital agency 93 Agency, where Natalie works with athletes to assist them with growing their respective brands.

Takeaways:

• Read Breath by James Nestor
• Read the Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown
• Techniques to help deal with stress
• Techniques to help improve breathing

Natalie is on Instagram, her social media agency is: 93agency.com

Jeremy Harbour is the founder of Unity Group Holdings a Singapore based private equity group, and The Harbour Club, which is a business acquisitions (M&A) training programme.

Jeremy has acquired 100+ companies in what he calls agglomerations, which are consolidations of complimentary businesses which he then seeks to list on the stock market. He recently set up MBH Corporation Plc which has an approx market cap of £21.90m.

Matt and Jeremy discuss how Jeremy got into business acquisitions, how he has built his portfolio and touching on some of the exits that he has generated.

Key takeaways:

• Important to understand and quantify what the real risks are.
• Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but won’t get you anywhere!
• Remove the risks from the transactions - asymmetric approach - protect the downside, leave the upside intact.
• A tidal wave of opportunity is available right now
• The baby boomers have seen this movie before and have seen how it ends!
• After every drug binge there has got to be a hangover - in the context of the economy being propped up, the analogy is that it is on drugs!
• Go do deals!
• Don’t use business brokers.
• Start before you are ready.

Godo.deals
https://www.harbourclubevents.com/
Jeremy Harbour LinkedIn

Matt Baker is a former music teacher and he has subsequently gone on to build his own property investment business, specialising in HMO's (homes of multiple occupancy), and has set up a HMO training platform, The HMO Platform and is also Co-Founder of co:home.

Matt discusses his journey from setting up his music tuition business and the realisation that the music was not going to provide him with the level of income he was looking for, then realising that property could be the asset class which provided the wealth acceleration that Matt was looking for.

Matt then discusses how he bought his first properties, then set up the HMO Platform, where he trains other investors to set up what he calls "next level HMO's".

Matt also talks about his latest project co:home, which is a specialist co-living managing agent which has recently been launched.

Key takeaways:
- how to manage multiple businesses
- how to get started
- how to establish a training business
- health and fitness

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearlymattbaker/
Matt Baker Instagram
The HMO Platform
co:home

Shack Baker is a serial entrepreneur who has had a variety of different careers, including being a highly successful musician, setting up and running a clothing brand an most recently a property investor. Shack has been investing in property for the past 3 and half years, and has built up a £2.5m portfolio in that period of time.

Shack grew up in South London and he was the eldest of 6 children and he explains on the podcast how he felt a big responsibility to provide for his family. His objective when he got into property was to buy his council flat that he lived in. That then evolved into moving into learning about property investment.

Take away points:

-       Shack was in a collective, not a boy band!

-       His music was on heavy rotation on Radio 1, Kiss and MTV.

-       “No doesn’t mean no never, it just means no now!”

-       Miracle Mornings for Millionaires is a great book!

-       Meditation, affirmations – keep you focused, visualisation

The Property Shack
Shack's instagram

Stephen Page is a successful entrepreneur who has built and exited his own business, he has subsequently turned his hand to launching a fund, with Startup Funding Club, now called SFC Capital, which is a multi-award winning FCA regulated fund manager specialising in investing into early stage companies through the SEIS and EIS. Startup Funding Club is one of the most active early stage investors in the UK, with a portfolio of 200+ companies invested into to date.

Stephen discusses his philosophy in terms of investment, what he looks for in a company, and offers some handy hints and tips for founders and potential entrepreneurs for the characteristics that he looks for when making investments into companies and provides some history to his career and some of the things that he has done to form his investment philosophy.

A great episode with some really interesting stories which we hope you will enjoy!

Take away tips:
- Find people who can be your mentors
- Own the product not the licence, if you want to list on the markets
- Make sure that you have very strong agreements in place - particularly if you are distributing someone else's product
- When an exit comes around, take it - you never know what may be around the corner
- COVID is a big opportunity for people
- Investors have capital to invest, looking to use that
- Startups can be a great source of return
- If you have any idea of being an entrepreneur, now is the opportunity to do it
- Team up with other successful entrepreneurs, single founders are potentially a barrier to accessing funding, SFC prefer to invest in teams, 2 or 3 people that start a company together
- What SFC is looking for, is all about the people
- You have to get outside!

If you are looking for funding for your early stage business, or considering investing into early stage companies get in touch with SFC Capital today.