Success In Business: Identify & Seize Opportunity with Foundxrs Club’s Kalpesh Patel

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM NOW WE HERE!

Remember your best from from school?  What are they doing now?

Well, my best friend growing up was Kalpesh Patel, co-Founder of Asian Wealth Magazine, Foundxrs Club and Capital36.

He became a BOSS in the luxury publishing world with Asian Wealth Magazine!  This episode is a total nostalgia trip filled with laughs, PLUS we get the inside scoop on his incredible journey to success.

Here's what you WON'T WANT TO MISS:

- From council house to building a business empire - KP's story is pure INSPIRATION.
- How to THRIVE in the crazy world of media (KP's got the secrets!).
- The emotional rollercoaster of aging - we ALL go through it, and KP shares his wisdom.
- Starting a magazine, embracing the online world, and the CHALLENGES (and WINS) that come with it.
- The birth of the FOUNDXRS CLUB - a community built on REAL connections, even during a pandemic!
- Bespoke tailoring: How clothes can BOOST your confidence (and why it matters to KP).
- Building a powerful network and nurturing MEANINGFUL relationships (KP spills the tea!). ☕️

Ready to PUSH your business boundaries, GROW personally, and find BALANCE?   Then hit that PLAY button!

Connect with KP on Instagram at https://instagram.com/mrkp36
Foundxrs Club : www.foundxrsclub.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Tailoring Talk. I'm Roberto Revilla, bespoke tailor and weaver of superpowers. I prepare my clients and listeners to win. We'll meet self-starters and creators, dive into their journeys and uncover valuable lessons to help you be the very best you can be. Please help the show to grow and help more people by hitting subscribe and giving us a rating. If you're watching on YouTube, join in in the comments. I always love to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Today, I'm honored to host one of my oldest friends, a true visionary, an entrepreneur whose journey exemplifies the spirit of growth and resilience from the mean streets of Croydon to the pinnacle of luxury publishing property and other luxury stuff. Because he just what can I say? He likes it up here, not down there. Our guest has carved a path fueled by passion and determination and a love for great whiskey, with an unwavering commitment to innovation. He's not just a business owner. He's a catalyst and inspiration for change in the entrepreneurial landscape we all live in today. Join me as we explore the nuances of identifying growth, seizing opportunity and pushing the needle. Tailoring talkers, please welcome kalpesh patel, affectionately known as KP, to the show. Kp, how are you?

Speaker 2: 1:29

And just for the record, I'm not clapping at myself, I'm clapping at the hype guy, you know. So what a welcome, what a welcome. I love that. I love that I'm taking you on tour wherever I'm going. You're coming on tour with me, you know.

Speaker 1: 1:45

So from now on, at Founders Club events. Right, you'll put me out first to introduce you before you introduce whoever you're to. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:52

That's right, I'm happy man. Let's do it, let's do it. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Thanks for having me. You're welcome because you're like the third Indian I've had on the podcast man in like 170 episodes. It's crazy. So this is doing our bit for representation and then we'll get some women on next week. So you and I have known each other for a very, very, very, very long time. So I remember when I was six years old, my parents moved from Fortinheath to Norbury and I had to change schools from David Livingston to Norbury Manor infants and you became my best friend really early on, like I think. We were pretty much inseparable from the age of like six through to when we left primary school, 11. And then, unfortunately, lack of mobile phones and things I don't know what happened, but we got separated. The universe pushed us like like leaves in the wind in separate directions and then we eventually blew back together about 25, 30 years later or something. Here we are, yeah, so incredible right?

Speaker 2: 3:04

yeah, absolutely I mean, it's funny how fate works and, um, and you know, I'm definitely a big believer in sometimes. You know, the people who are supposed to be in your life will at some point always return back into your life, and those people who aren't, that's okay, you know, um. But uh, but yeah, it is, you know, I mean to be fair, and the way we came back together as well, it was, it was amazing. You would never put it together like that, right? I mean, just mentioned primary school. When we were in primary school, I remember there was three of us there was me, you and there was Imran. Do you remember, imran? So so there was three of us would hang around together and you know, um, and yeah, you're, you're right, because of the lack of, I guess, mobile communication, all that stuff, all three of us went our separate ways, you know. So, um, but it's, it's beautiful to have you back in my life, you know.

Speaker 1: 4:06

I'll never forget how it happens as well, because I was in a meeting with Porsche. So it was when I just launched my brand and Porsche were about to relaunch the Boxster as a 718, and somehow they found me. So I went for a meeting at Porsche HQ with Nick Wilson, who was the their brand and marketing manager at the time, and they wanted to put together a kind of video promoting the new Porsche and the fact that they were able to bespoke the car, and obviously a bespoke Taylor was kind of like there in their eyes, a sort of natural fit. Anyway, at the end of that meeting he said to me he said do you know a Kalpesh Patel Asianian wealth magazine? I said well, I've heard of asian wealth magazine because I kind of see it in the foyers of apartments I go into in mayfair and stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:52

But as for a kalpesh patel like there's two million kalpesh patels in the world how can you expect me to know who the hell you're talking about? I used to go to infant school and primary school with one there. He said well, anyway, listen, for some reason you remind me of each other. You need to meet this guy. So he kind of helped me to set this thing up and I think I got in touch with your people and then we were due to meet at the savoy, and so I'm there early, as I usually am waiting. You come through like recognize each other straight away, and it was like you know.

Speaker 2: 5:26

Well, zaheer is my natural given name yeah, it was like falling in love like Calpes Zaheer yeah, and then we just hugged straight away.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I think I initiated it more than you did, though, because I've just got you into the hugging thing.

Speaker 2: 5:39

You've not really been much of a hugger you've um, I was never really a hugger, but I think you've made me more so into a hugger now, you know so, yeah, yeah, there's always that love now.

Speaker 1: 5:49

So exactly, yeah, all about so anyway, that's how we kind of met everyone's bored now to like get to the point. So the point is we grew up in croydon, so that's the other thing.

Speaker 2: 6:01

First for the podcast double croydon on the episode yeah, yeah, croydon is the epicenter of the world, you know. All day, every day, you know.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Exactly. I escaped. You stayed put.

Speaker 1: 6:14

And you know, growing up was kind of tough. I had quite disciplinary parents. I you know who. Their attitude was that you're working class. You know, don't try and spread, spread your. Don't try and fly further than your wings can carry you. You know, if you're working class, that's what you are, accept it. And so I was always a dreamer and I was also running away from home all the time as well. I used to to jump out the window and fricking end up at your house. And you know your mom bless her. She was always so good to me, she always treated me like one of her own. She'd always throw herself in front of me when my dad would turn up to haul me off home again by my ear.

Speaker 1: 6:58

And, um, you know, I I think it's the the love that I maybe didn't get at the time from my parents we've reconciled since, but that I got from people like you your mum was a big part of that as well saved me from what could have happened and where I could have ended up. You also didn't have it easy, you and Sonny. You also didn't have it easy, you and Sonny, Growing up 80s Croydon. Your dad obviously wasn't there, your mum was bringing you up on her own, and there was a stigma attached to that at the time as well. I mean, obviously nowadays we know plenty of people who, unfortunately and for weird reasons, are single parents trying to bring their kids up and all the rest of it, but back then it was a big stigma. Um, yeah what?

Speaker 1: 7:48

what would you say? You know, because you are resilient, you and sunny are a constant inspiration to me. What would you say if you could just reach back to that time and pull one thing out? What would it be? That that you would say is is kind of the, the kind of main thing that drove you on to be who you are, the person that you are today um, yeah, that's.

Speaker 2: 8:16

It's a really interesting question and, to be fair, I I only started so, me and Sonny, my brother, so we only started really reflecting on this over the last, possibly the last decade. You know, there was always. As you grow up, you know, your personality changes, you become who you are, but whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not, there is our subconscious and our subconscious is designed and built based on what we go through. Realize that.

Speaker 2: 9:02

So a lot of people over the years have said to me you know, you're emotionless, like you've got no emotion. My wife always said to me you've got no emotions. You know you've got no uh, uh, you know you don't cry at this or you don't, you know, feel anything like this, or you know you just got no emotions. Um, and you know, it was only maybe a few years ago that I really started thinking is that, is that true? Is that like I don't really? You know, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm heartless, but I I could fully understand where she was coming from like you know, the things that affect most people don't really affect me, yeah, um, you know.

Speaker 2: 9:41

So I I've really started looking into it and I really started trying to understand why. Why am I like this? Right, like you know. So I I've really started looking into it and I really started trying to understand why. Why am I like this? Why, like you know, sonny is very, you know he's very emotional in that sense, you know, when someone passes away or something happens or something sad happened, it really affects him.

Speaker 2: 9:57

It doesn't affect me at all, you know, and I was speaking to a friend of mine who is a psychologist and she said to me what you may not remember is when your dad left, you were eight years old and your brother was four years old and pretty much overnight you became the man of the house.

Speaker 2: 10:21

So there was no opportunity to be scared or be a young kid anymore. You know so from. So her diagnosis, if you may write to this, was that you had, you know, you'd suppressed all of that so far deep down, that when something happens, you couldn't be afraid, you couldn't be scared, you couldn't be angry, you just had to press on because you're eight years old now, you were the man of the house. So, and I think that carried me through all the years, even probably to now. You know I'm less emotional to many things in life, um, that most people would be, and I do believe. I do think actually, it's probably because, at a very young age, uh, it made me and I don't like saying the strong, it made me firm, it made me, you know, uh resilient resilient?

Speaker 2: 11:25

uh, obviously certain things so that was definitely one.

Speaker 2: 11:28

You know that. Yeah, that was definitely one thing that you know in the I think in my childhood that's kind of pushed me forward. And the other thing I, you know, is not and I I wouldn't say I'm the oh well, definitely not the only one. Many are people who who come from humble beginnings. You know, sonny, and I, as you very much know, we grew up in a two-bedroom council house in Norbury, croydon.

Speaker 2: 11:58

And when you're growing up, you know you see the popular kids in school and they've got the brand-new Nicares and you know they're being dropped off in dad's Jaguar and they're being picked up in. You know in something else and you know what you do. You stand and you look and you think, and growing up, you know our human instinct is always why can't that be me? As you grow on in life, why can't that be me? Changes to that's going to be me and that's where that hunger and fire comes from.

Speaker 2: 12:42

And especially, it's not just me, it's many people of our generation, especially the migrant generation, right, our parents, who came to this country from you know, other countries. You know they lived their life and they did things out of necessity so and they provided what they had to and what they could. But seeing our parents like that, or, in mine and Sonny's case, our mum like that, it just gave us that hunger. There was a very kind of instinct and that's what carried us even today. You know, both sunny and I, we are aggressively hungry. You know, um, how do we come? How do we become better? And I'm not just talking about, you know, materialistic things or financially, or just as humans. How do we just constantly become better? How do we spend time with people who are just going to make us better, make us think better, behave better? So there's constant, that chase of being more.

Speaker 1: 13:46

Yeah, absolutely, of being more. Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, for me I just wouldn't. I just, I think, because you know my parents are knocking me around so much I was just like you know just anything I could do to defy them. So as soon as I'm being told, right, stay in your lane. I was just like, nah, yeah, that's not gonna be me, that's not the life I want.

Speaker 1: 14:07

I think that's why I probably moved to North London, because I needed to make that physical, you know, like that real physical, visceral, like literally wrench myself out of that environment and put myself somewhere else and then just be like, right, bright lights, big city, I'm gonna make it. I didn't know what the hell that was gonna be, because I didn't, you know, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I had an interest in fashion and stuff. Of course, thank god, that's what I do today. But you know, it didn't matter what it I anything I fell into. I was determined to be the best at it and just beat everybody else.

Speaker 1: 14:43

And so you know, that hunger that you talk about has always been there and has been there today, and I get where you're coming from from the kind of um, from the emotion point of view. Now, the first thing I would say is I wouldn't describe you as being completely emotionless, because you do have a tell. I'm not going to say what it is because a lot of our friends other people founders club, hopefully are going to be watching. It is because a lot of our friends other people founders club, hopefully are going to be watching listening to this at some point in the coming weeks and months. So I'm not going to give that secret away, but I will just say this and keep it. The rest of it between me and you, you're not, yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:23

I hope I'm not. I also do think that coming with age also brings emotion. I mean, you know, I was never, I've never been, a paternal person at all, right, kids in the greatest way and with the greatest of respect, never really interested me, you know. So when I got married, I said to my wife, I said, said, look, you know, if you want kids, fine, I'm cool, if you don't want kids, I'm equally cool, doesn't bother me, right? Whereas sunny, sunny he wanted, you know, uh, you know, a small football team from day one, right, uh?

Speaker 2: 15:58

so uh but when you know now, as a father of two daughters, you know I'm very emotional about them like you know, in the sense of I see something on instagram about a father and daughters and I'm blubbering like you know, you know, constantly.

Speaker 2: 16:14

You know I'll see something on tv about, you know, daughters, and you know, and my eyes will start watering up. So, in in the traditional sense of emotional, yes, you know, now, as I'm getting older, um, I feel like I'm a lot more connected with my emotion, but also, also, like I said, unquote, you know, not emotional. It's now made me actually really reflect that and actually, you know, look for that, those emotional parts, you know?

Speaker 1: 16:57

yeah, don't worry, you're fine, I'll help you find plenty of them. Um, that's why I started the hugging thing with you. Um, take me back to Asian we wealth. It's really funny because I it's so funny. Every time I picked up that magazine and I always thought to myself do you know the guys who put this to get? Whoever came up with this and is doing this is fucking smart. I'm just about I've just lost my um clean rating for this episode. Who cares? Do you know what I mean? Because I was thinking, and they're probably having a really great time as well.

Speaker 2: 17:35

Was it like that In the early days? Yes, you know, we did have great fun and for me, it was great on two levels, right? So number one, it was great in the sense of through and through. I'm a creative. I'm a creative person, so it was a fantastic creative outlet for me. It allowed me to get involved with photo shoots, it allowed me to get involved with videos, it allowed me to get involved with the design of something beautiful. So that was great for me.

Speaker 2: 18:10

And the other thing was, yes, we were positioned in a premium, luxury bracket. So the brands that we worked with were, um, equally premium and luxury. So, you know, it threw me into, through me, through us, um, you know, everyone in the team in asian, through us into that world. You know, we got to drive supercars and experience beautiful places on the planet and you know, experience lovely hotels and you know, and look, you know, like everything is right. That's the glam side of it, you know. So, was it like that? Yes, but equally, it was very difficult as well. It was really really difficult. And you know, in the early days less so, you know, because media was publishing right, it was only a few years after we launched did that funny thing called Instagram come about right, and all of a sudden actually, you know what? It wasn't all of a sudden, it was a few years right in the making. So first it was Facebook, and then Instagram came along, and then it was I'm pretty sure it was Snapchat or something like that.

Speaker 2: 19:27

Yeah, I then it was I'm pretty sure it was that Snapchat or something like that. Uh, I think it was, but before Snapchat and um. So Twitter was always there as well. But what had happened is, once Instagram came along, all of a sudden people's dynamics changed. You know, uh, when we had the spare five minutes, as opposed to doing this, people were doing this, right? People were scrolling. This right, people were scrolling.

Speaker 2: 19:49

And I always say to people think about 10, 15 years ago, jumping on a tube, jumping on a train, jumping on a train in the morning, you would probably have 90 odd percent of people who had a Metro newspaper in their hands. You jump on a train these days and you'll find maybe one person reading a traditional book. That's it. Otherwise, everyone is on their phones, on their laptops, on their tablets. You know it's become part of the world, so you know it was. It got hard as the years grew on, harder and harder and harder and harder, um to the point where, obviously then, in 2018, 2019, we decided to shut the print publication, move everything online.

Speaker 2: 20:35

I think it might have actually been 2018 that we shut the print edition and we moved everything online. But when you take away a certain DNA or something, sometimes the magic is gone, and that's where I really struggled. I really really struggled because for a long time, all I knew was print publication, print publishing. That's all I knew, and all of a sudden, that had been taken away from me. So I'd lost my roadmap, and I think a lot of people will find this familiar, because in life, you can never stay. You know, you can never become stagnant. You constantly have to keep moving and when you do something, it changes and sometimes in life, many times in life.

Speaker 2: 21:24

Maybe you know we lose our roadmap. You know, all of a sudden the playing field changes and you're like where do I go? What do I do? You know this is all I know. That's why also, sometimes you find people who are in the working world you know, they're stuck in jobs for 10, 20, 30 years because they convince themselves that this is all I know, this is all I can do. This is you know. So I lost my roadmap and then I was saying to Sonny.

Speaker 2: 21:56

I said to him look, we need to really explore how to pivot the business, because the media industry I don't know where. And, to be fair, even now, if you ask me in five years time what the media landscape is going to look like, I don't have an answer for you. I have a rough idea. But you know, it still surprises me when I walk past WH Sniffs and I still see publication, print publications. You know who's paying for that? I don't know, because you know intelligent companies are not paying for print advertising. So how are these? You know, how are these publications? You know, to be fair, I know that most publications are loss-making, but what it is is a conduit to something else. You know it opens the doors to a lot of us. So now we're as companies used. Publishing houses used to have publications as revenue generators. It's now become marketing tools.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Yeah, you know it's opened doors to different things, but that's yeah, I mean you know, going back to Asian Wealth. I mean that was you know, back to asian worth. I mean that was you know. It was great, we had fantastic time, but it didn't come with without um hard days, hard weeks, hard, hard months, as as many of our businesses do yeah, yeah, um, when this is really hard to ask you questions because I know all the answers, yeah, you can end the thing with the podcast, right?

Speaker 1: 23:28

the majority of people guess that I have.

Speaker 2: 23:31

I've never met them before right, okay, so when we get on the record, so we so it's fresh to you, right? So?

Speaker 1: 23:37

it's fresh to me so. So what happens is so I get a lot of people applying to be on the show now right, yes, yes so that's it.

Speaker 1: 23:49

So we get all these applications and I have to say no to some people. You know they, you know that it doesn't fit the content we're producing at the moment. I get to say stupid wanky shit like that now, and and and. So when we get on the recording, we have a five minute icebreaker and then we get into it, but I've not met them, so I don't know what's going to come. I don't know how it's going to go with you. It's so difficult.

Speaker 1: 24:10

I'm trying to craft something here, um, so it's a new skill set I'm learning. But then we get to founders club. So actually let me do it this way around um, so you and I reconnect and you're coming, probably about that point, to the what's gonna be and you might have not known it at the time what was going to become the end of asian wealth as it was known, which was being that premium publication, something physical, tangible, you put in your hands. You very kindly invited me to to some events I remember I think one of the ones was the ba one, where we were all crashing planes in a flight simulator. Yeah, some hotel in mayfair or wherever it was uh, st james's, that was it.

Speaker 1: 24:55

Yeah, and um, then asian wealth kind of starts to wind down, it goes digital. It's not the same thing anymore. Now I know from yours and sunny side of it that the magic is gone. So it's like, right, okay, what are we going to do next? I then see, start to see on instagram kind of these little stories and whatever pop up on your feed of a load of other asians having a really fucking great time and I'm thinking and then this founders thing right, founders, founders, but the last e is an x, not an e.

Speaker 1: 25:33

And I'm thinking what are they?

Speaker 2: 25:35

up to what are they up to? What is this?

Speaker 1: 25:39

and then gradually it turns into I feel like I'm on the other side of a screen door and I'm looking through and and all these people are at a party that I've not been invited to. I was like, how can I get on this guest list? And I think in the end I reached out to you, I dm'd you and I said how can I get in on this right and underestimating the value of our connection? It was easy. It was like okay, I'll hook you up um. Founders club.

Speaker 1: 26:09

Um has been one of the big reasons and I've talked about it on this podcast a a lot. It's been one of the reasons for the shift in not just my business but me as a person over the last three years or so. My wife noticed it, um, when I said to her we, we, we, you know we had our best year ever and that was the year we came out of the pandemic, I said so I've just beaten it. And with three months to go, I said so I don't understand what is happening, what, where's the shift? And she said I'll tell you where the shift is. Since you joined founders club, since you changed your network and the people you surround yourself with, that's where the needle started to move yeah and that, oh, that was a really bad segue into needle moving, but that's going to come later.

Speaker 1: 26:59

We'll talk about that later. Where, where did you, you and sunny, where did that come from? Where did you suddenly like in the ruins? Uh, this is my hyperactive imagination, by the way. I'm sure it wasn't like that. Where did you and Sonny, where did that come from? Where did you suddenly like in the ruins? This is my hyperactive imagination, by the way. I'm sure it wasn't like that. In the ruins of Asian Wealth magazine, with pieces of paper falling around you and things on fire and all the rest of it. Did you look at each other and go? How can we leverage what we've actually built and create something else that's going to be even fucking better?

Speaker 2: 27:24

Yeah, yeah, that's going to be even fucking better. Yeah, yeah, it's so. The talk of before we close, the asian wealth or before the um, the slow demise of of asian wealth, should I say. One of the things that sani and I kept having conversations about was the power of connection, the power of people. You know a human to human interaction. You know, um that, you know, pre-covid, as we all know, there's lots and lots of events, right, so we'd go to loads of events and actually, when you're in the company of good people, there was something there, um, and funnily enough and I don't think I've actually even told you this before COVID, one of our very good friends, a very successful business person, and he said look, would you guys ever consider opening up a club, a physical club? And he said I'll finance it, I'll fund it, I'll open the club, I'll get the building and so forth. You guys just run it as a membership club, you know. And at that time we said, look, you know thanks, but no thanks, because that's not our model, that's not what we you know, we're a publishing company but the talk of a club had already started. You know, the talk of okay well, started. You know the talk of. Okay, well, and also because and you know, just like, a lot of good businesses are built from us going somewhere and realizing something is not good and actually how can we make it better? You know, um, a lot of business ideas come from that.

Speaker 2: 29:04

So I've been a member of different clubs over the years. Sonny had been a member of different clubs over the years. There was always something which I felt was missing. I was a member of another club which had 600, 700 members, but unless you walked into a room of 100 people, you're never going to know who those members were. And I was like, how do I? I'm never going to be able to. Members were and I was like how do I? I'm never going to be able to speak to 100 people here. So how do I connect with those people outside of here? There was no way. Um, there was other clubs which I was members, a member of which was very, very industry specific. You know, um, you know, so you're in a room with 100 people from a specific industry sector. How do you change that?

Speaker 2: 29:54

There was a lot of eventually walking and you get slapped with a name tag and a cheap glass of wine and I thought to myself it's got to be better than this. Come on, guys, it's got to be better than this. Come on, guys, you know it's got to be better than this. So there was always, you know, one conversation led to another, another conversation led to another and actually, 2020 January, sonny and I were in the Maldives and one of the afternoons, we left the family, we went to the bar and just on the back of an envelope, we were talking okay, well, look, let's talk about this club.

Speaker 2: 30:32

If there was a club, number one, what problem are we trying to fix? What does this club look like? What is it called? You know, why would someone join this club as opposed to another club? You know, who are our members going to be? You know, and are our members going to be? You know? And so we decided and the funny thing was actually, on the way back from the Maldives, there was a lot of people, a lot of Chinese people, with face masks on, and we didn't think anything much of it because we thought, actually, you know, that's it in. You know Asian culture, you know you walk around with face masks.

Speaker 1: 31:14

They've been wearing face masks since avian bird flu, whenever that was 20 years ago.

Speaker 2: 31:19

So we didn't even think of it, and there was a lot of Chinese people.

Speaker 2: 31:22

You know, on our flight back to London, again, we didn't think of it because it was around the time of Chinese New Year. So we thought, okay, maybe they're all coming to London. You know, it was only two days after we landed on the news. They know, something called COVID-19 and there was six cases in the UK. That was it and that's where it began. All of of a sudden, as we all know, the world shifted upside down. But in hindsight that was probably the best thing, because it really gave us a chance to put our heads down and say actually, asian Wealth, let's park that.

Speaker 1: 32:01

We didn't close it down, Even today.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Asian Wealth is not closed.

Speaker 2: 32:04

Yeah, yeah, you can still go to the website and sign up for everything we parked it and they said, right, we had a brief conversation in the Maldives about it, let's put it together now. What does it look like? And so in actually July 2020, we launched. And actually what we did. A lot of people asked me, actually, would you guys have launched this if you didn't have the magazine? And I said the magazine has got nothing to do with it. I don't know if we would have launched Founders Club if we hadn't created a wonderful black book over the last 10, 12 years of people.

Speaker 2: 32:41

So we knew that actually, what we're trying to create we're not just trying to something glamorous and luxury, and you know that wasn't what we were trying to create. We were trying to create something which helped people. Yeah, and not just help business people become better business people. It was we're trying to create something which allowed humans to become better humans. You know people who are lonely in business, to surround them with people who would be their pillars and their strength, you know. So we weren't just trying to create something oh, let's, let's go to a lovely place and lovely bars and lovely restaurants. That's not what we were. That wasn't the the um, the crux of of the club. Uh. So we opened the black book and we said, right, can we pick a bunch of people where actually we feel not only will they be able to add value to the club, but we will be able to add value to their business, them and their lives. So we spoke to about 30 people. So, like probably about 50 people, 30 people said, yes, I'm in, count me in. And, to be fair, majority of those 30 people you know were sold off the back of who we were, Because at this stage, we're just selling a dream. We launched in July 2020 when nothing was open. We're in lockdown, right. So right now, I'm selling you a dream. This is what we're about to do.

Speaker 2: 34:05

There was some people and I I vividly remember so one of our members who still are, you know, a very loyal member, and he was our member 001. So first member um, you know a dentist called alok shukla. Him and his wife, alok and lucy, were our first members, so they've now gone into, you know, lucy's into wellness and alok's in in ai. Um, they were our first members, so they've now gone into, you know, lucy's into wellness and Alok's in AI. They were our first members and I still to this day, I remember Alok's words were listen, guys, I don't fully get it.

Speaker 2: 34:41

I don't know what it is, but count me in. Wherever you guys are going, I'm in. You know, and that was actually you know, actually what a lot of people said, because when you're launching a membership club in the middle of a pandemic where you can't even leave your house, some people I'm sure some people off camera are probably saying I don't know what these nutters are on, but you know what they're. Good guys, I'm in with them, I'm going along for the ride, you know. So we did that and we had about 30 members join.

Speaker 2: 35:17

And then, I think, come September, what we did, and so we realized that actually, yes, okay, this is going to work because people are happy to join. At that point, people were that actually, yes, okay, this is going to work because people are happy to join. Um, at that point, people were joining because of me or for sunny, or both of us. You know, they were joining us, they were wanting to support us. We realized, okay, well, that can't stay forever, um, but also we had to have good infrastructure. So we paused everything I think it was in september and then we, we relaunched you. You know, we got our infrastructure correct and then done a relaunch in January 2021. And that is when it's probably the real birth of Founders Club, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:59

And to this day. You know, as all members of the club, some people will leave, some people you know will stay on. You know we've still probably got out of those. I think out of those initial 30, I think we probably still got maybe about 20 25 of those members still with us. Yeah, the first 50 that we had. I think some of those, obviously the came in the earlier days, are no longer with us, but the initial 30, I think the majority of those people are still with us. So there's always love and loyalty for those and I always have a certain not just love but also respect, respect for those people who supported us in the early days. So that was actually the birth of, of of fans club.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Yeah, but you see, it's so funny because I was nodding my head frantically there, um, not because I know the story, um, but but but because there were so many things you talked about there in terms of human connection, building relationships.

Speaker 1: 37:04

I mean, asian wealth comes to an end, but again, you've got this goodwill that you've built up over years. You've got a black book of contacts, different industries related, associated with luxury. You know, porsche, rolls royce, whatever, michelin, star restaurants, you lot were hanging out in all the time, uh, luxury travel, etc. Etc. And you put that to good use at the end of the day, and it was time to start spending all the brownie points that you built up with people. So, you know, if I, if I may to to give you a parallel when I decided to start on my own, it was basically, you know, I worked for a big tailoring company for seven years. I built my clientele up. Then I went two years with, uh, some of my friend stroke colleagues, because we were like, we're gonna go do this better. This was at the start of the financial crisis, 2008, 2009, whenever that was and, uh, because we can be leaner, meaner, we can undercut them and do a better job. And we started off and we did that, but then after a year I was the typical Indian out of the five where I was out working everybody else, out selling everybody else. I was bringing in most of the revenue, but I wasn't getting compensated for what I was bringing to the table and the other guys were playing golf all the time and I was like, do you know what? I want to build something? I want to build something, I want to build a business. I do this because I love serving my customers. So either you guys buck up or, with love and respect and all the rest of it, I'm going to go. I'm probably going to take my clients with me because they're going to want to stay with you.

Speaker 1: 38:46

Most of them followed me from the other firm that I was at for seven years. Yeah, and I'm going to go do my own thing. And they were like, okay, fine. They weren't happy about it, naturally, because me walking out the door, 80% of the business goes Sure and that changes things significantly for them. But I had to go do what I had to do. I could not stand it anymore, kp, I had to get out of there.

Speaker 1: 39:11

And also, it was almost like it was. I was the same age at that point when my dad was, when he started his business, and I think there's always been this thing deep down inside of me that I gotta do better than he did. Right, okay, started from a place of wanting to teach him a lesson, if ever we reconciled and he saw what I was doing. Yeah, now, it's not about that. It's probably easy to say, though, because you know, done it. Um, and so when I went to my customers and I said listen, I know, I know I left the company I was at before and you stayed with me and I'm really grateful for that, but I'm about to leave here and start my own thing because I can't stand it anymore, and I totally understand you're happy with what we're doing. I can pass you on to one of the other guys.

Speaker 1: 40:00

So many of my customers went, so I was going to order one seat from you today, or I was going to order two seats from you today, but are you telling me you're going on your own? Double the order? You've got my credit card details. Put it through whenever you're set up. Yeah, so I went home to Carolina I think it was the weekend, we were having a barbecue or something. And she wondered where I was. Everyone's out in the garden having a good time. I'm on the sofa on my iPad at the time and she goes what the fuck are you doing? I'm here serving everybody. She said I'm literally so they don't notice. You've gone. I've doubled everyone's shots in the margaritas and stuff. What are you doing? And I held up the iPad proudly and I said and I showed her the certificate of incorporation or whatever it is you get from the company's house website I said I just set a company up.

Speaker 1: 40:52

And then I had my best friend at the time, james, because he was a bit good with WordPress and all that, and I said here's the website and the logo. I just started a business Because I knew I was going into it with the goodwill of all my customers. I had an order book like 50, 60, 70 grand, so I knew I was going to put 10 in Within a week. I'd pay myself back. Business is often running from day one. That's why we see from standing start to quick success. You know, but the point is right. You've got those little principles that are exactly the same. You build up goodwill in business. You build your relationships, human connection. People will get on that train with you.

Speaker 2: 41:36

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. You know it's so. Even now, bobby, when we talk about the club internally, we always I always push to make the team feel like the club should be like a hotel, it should be like a five star hotel, because any of any luxury hotel, any five star hotel, any boutique, you know, premium boutique hotel, it's not the stuff that you have in there, it's the way you feel when you walk through the doors. You know, if you go to most of the you know five-star hotels, they pump a certain fragrance into the lobbies, right, and you'll smell that. It's because it's evoking emotion, it's making you feel a certain way.

Speaker 2: 42:33

You know, from day day one, the concept was how do we, how do we create that in a club like ours? How do we make you, how do we make you feel not just part of a community, how do we make you feel like the coin that you, you um, or the term that you coined right, my tribe right. And you know how do you create that? There's a certain magic there really is, you know, and with that magic comes, you know, loyalty, comes commitment, comes relationship. You know, and and you know there's a lot, there's a lot of business that happens within the club.

Speaker 2: 43:09

As you know right, there's a lot of business that happens in the club. Why? Because we're a good club. No, it's because we've got good people and actually people connect with good people. People build relationships with good people and eventually at some point, if it's right, people will do business with good people. You know you're more inclined and more you know you're more bound to do business with people that you enjoy the company or trust, importantly than those you don't really. You know, yeah, so I think it doesn't surprise me in the slightest, knowing you and what you do and how good you are, you know, for those people who joined you once you left your firm and knowing two things Look, this guy is a good guy, actually, I trust him. And secondly, what he does, he's very talented Actually, his product is great, so it becomes a very, very easy decision. So, no, I completely get that and um, and respect that as well because, it's not an easy thing, especially when you're working in a team like that.

Speaker 2: 44:21

It takes, you know, it takes a lot to then push you out to say, actually I can't do this, I've got to do something else, you know yeah, I commend you for it.

Speaker 1: 44:29

I think you've done a really good job as well of um, cultivating that sort of core set of almost original or mostly original members, or people who weren't original members. But get it, um, because as the club grows, that's the next challenge, I'm guessing, for you, which is how you keep that, because there was something you said to me very early on no egos. That was the phrase. That was the phrase that we associate with you, no egos, and that's still true to this day. But it requires hard work from a lot of the core members to make sure that when we're seeing people that are new to the club, that are coming in, that we're relating what makes us special.

Speaker 1: 45:16

Yeah, I'm saying us right, I'm a member, but that in itself shows how special it is yeah, what you've created is, you know, and saying to people this is not a bni, this is not some you know, one of these other freaking business networking clubs where you're just promoting yourself all the time and ramming what you do down people's foot. I don't actually like talking about what I do with people. I get embarrassed like what do you do?

Speaker 2: 45:39

you just show them what you do when you walk into a room and I think this is pointing at you I do that you think, do you think he looks 10 out of 10?

Speaker 1: 45:48

great that's me um and um, you know, explaining to them the attitude that you need to come with. And it's not just Founders Club. So everyone who's still with us listening, congratulations. But herein lies the lesson, right. It's about building, creating, cultivating relationships with people. Get to know people. And so you know, we're all on this journey. We're at different stages of it. Some of our members have sold businesses time and again. You know they've they've exited, built, exited built, exited built. Other people are just starting out. Other people are somewhere in the middle. Some people are finding their way. They're not sure exactly what the end game is. Some people are very clear on what their end game is and where they want to go. It's one of the reasons why they're part of this network. But whatever that is, get to know people, cultivate your relationships. At some point you'll be part of someone else's black book of contacts when they need, or someone else needs, what you do. That's the attitude to go in with. Put the money last, put the human connection first.

Speaker 2: 47:02

Yeah, there's always, you know, you're absolutely right. And, um, and probably you know the, the reason, one of the reasons why I guess we became, or we started thinking like this. Right, it is because, during the Asian World Days, I was very blessed and had the privilege of sitting down with people who obviously are cover stars, very, very successful entrepreneurs, you know, who own cornerstones to countries, right? So, you know, and I sat down with them and the thing that we never, ever talked about was money. Ever, it was things that they'd learned, you know. So, by default, there were so many things that over the last 10, 12 odd years that I've learned from these people and the one key thing that kept coming up again and again and again was things like reputation, respect, you know, human connection. You know all these things. So it was never the materialistic style, for you know, and actually that is the core to what the club is is, it's it's human to human connection, right? Um? But you are right, you know.

Speaker 2: 48:11

Going back to what you mentioned about, you know, as the club grows, how do we keep that? You are right, it gets harder and harder. When we had 50 members, it was easy, you know, um. Now, at 350 members, it's a lot harder. It's a lot harder because we still want to my my job and I say to you and I said many a time to other members as well my one core job in the club is to remember people's names. I always have this thing about actually I want to know every single member's name. You know, I don't need to know the P&L, but I need to know what their name is, what their company is and what industry they're in. That's it, they're in, that's it. And for me that's a sign of respect, because I again, one of our rules in the club was you know, we don't want you to just be a number, we don't just want you to be a face in the crowd. Um, because there are clubs out there, if you, if that's where you want to be, you know, um, there are clubs out there who have 10,000, 20,000 members. We don't want that to be us.

Speaker 2: 49:20

The plan was never to be that, because when you are at that, then you are, you're just a number. Your voice is not heard. When you're member 9,852, guess what? You're just a number. So part of that was remembering your name. You know, and, and how do we make? How do we make a member who joined us three years ago. How do we make them number one, as valued today as they were three years ago? Number two, how do we make sure that there's still value to that member? So what is that member looking for? What was the reason why Bobby Rivera joined the club, and is that still the same today? If Bobby stays on as a member for three years, great, how do we make him stay on for six years, seven years? What do we need to do? Um, you know so, constantly we are having discussions internally to how do we perfect this? How do we get better? How do we? You know, um, how do we move the needle? You know how do we move the needle in terms of doing these things.

Speaker 1: 50:33

You know, it's hugely, hugely important yeah, so nice segue, better than the way I tried to do it about 10 minutes ago. Um, the so moving the needles, needle movers, something that we has come up in conversation with you me sunny met, we were at dinner recently and it came up there and it's something that I'm so highly conscious now and I think for me it came from something that I heard Sonny say once, because you know you and Sonny.

Speaker 2: 51:03

So again, for people who are listening that haven't been paying attention, Sonny is KP's younger brother and KP's kind of Acts, like my older brother.

Speaker 1: 51:12

Yeah, acts like his older brother is the more largely responsible one as well, but Sonny is, I guess how do you say he's kind of more the straight guy in the duo.

Speaker 2: 51:23

He is yeah.

Speaker 1: 51:26

You're the dreamer, you're the one that if someone doesn't put a fricking Reigns on you, you will literally be. You'll have 2,000 ideas and you'll be wanting to try this and that. And sunny's like the guy. He's like whoa, slow down a second. And something he said was it was something light and you'll be able to paraphrase him better than me because you know obvious reasons but he said this thing that we're looking at is is it going to make money? No, not doing it. So simple, right, but it's like get rid of all the fluff. Sonny's just like is this going to make money? No, not fucking doing it. Yeah, simple as that it is.

Speaker 2: 52:10

You'll be surprised. You're absolutely right. Sonny is the strategic, he's the analytical one. You'll be surprised. You're absolutely right, sonny is the strategic, he's the analytical one.

Speaker 1: 52:18

So in the business, he's the non-emotional one In the business, I'm the emotional one. That's what I was going to say earlier, that in fact in your personal lives he's the you know, like freaking Mr Emo, all the rest of it, you know. I mean he's, I love him so much and one of my regrets in life is again us getting separated but also just not having had the benefit of his friendship and his company for so many years. And you know, you're the straight guy, no emotions, but as soon as you go business, it's completely role reversal.

Speaker 2: 52:51

Yeah, completely. You know I become him and he becomes me. You know, um, but even look behind closed doors, he's still that guy, right, even in business, and we still have the same conversations. Right, um is he will always say, okay, well, look, the way that we work is kind of be a few million pound business, you know how do we make it into a 2010, 20, 30, 40 million pound business? You know what do we need to do in order for that to happen, you know? So there's always that conversation internally. You know how do you constantly grow.

Speaker 2: 53:28

Because ultimately, look, we're also a business, right? So the business is going to grow. How do we do that? Yeah, and, and everyone brings their own, everyone brings their own source to the table. You know, I have my thoughts. Ruchi has hers and and sunny has his, you know so. But you're right, you know it's, it's one of those things where you need to have all three people. You know, creating that. And again, you know, going back to moving that needle, or needle movers, shall we say, you know, people have previously asked what the hell is that? What does that mean?

Speaker 1: 54:10

Well, the thing is because we're using an analog analogy from when we were kids and we used to look at, you know, like hi-fi systems, right when you'd have, you know you'd have the cassette deck, and then you'd have the amplifier, and then you'd have the one that had, like, the tuner, and then you would have the one that was like the needle would move depending on what the sound was doing. Right, I didn't understand how it worked.

Speaker 2: 54:40

But sometimes, when there was like a big bass drop or something, the needle would shift like yeah, exactly yeah, it would move. And it's funny, right, because the way that it was explained to me and sonny, funny enough years ago was that, um, generally as a business, if you, if it's not steered correctly, then we all become operational, right, and by operational it means we spend our days just responding to emails, or we'll you know? Um?

Speaker 2: 55:04

just just doing like busy work that actually isn't really getting you anywhere absolutely, you know you're doing essential work. It needs to be done, right, so is it, but you're not moving forward. That's what it is. So this was, you know, the term that, when it was given to us, was actually, what are you doing every day, every week, to actually, you know, moves the business forward, actually moving forward, the needle being pushed right? So, moving the needle right, um, you know what is it.

Speaker 2: 55:36

You know, and, and that is when, when you realize, actually, you could spend 30 days, you spend, you know, a whole month responding to emails and doing basic stuff, right, um, and then, only when you get to the end of the month, you realize, actually, what have we done to, what are our big goals, what are the big things we need to do, and actually, what do we do to actually even try and attack those things? And that's that's. This is where I, you know I can't remember the exact analogy, but they say it's 20%. 20% of what we do do makes 80% of the difference, right?

Speaker 1: 56:11

Yeah, yeah, pareto's principle 80, 20. Yeah, makes 80% of the difference right, yeah, pareto's principle 80-20.

Speaker 2: 56:15

Yeah, you know, so it's. And that's what needle moving is.

Speaker 1: 56:19

Yeah. And you take it a stage further because when you look at, there's a book I read it might've actually been the same one the 80-20 principle or the 80-20 rule. Yeah, he goes further, so he talks about 80-20. Then he says to you right, once you've worked out what the 20% is that produces the 80%, what's the 80% of that? 20%? Yeah. And once you've mastered that, what's the 80% of that? 20%? Yeah. And you just kind of keep going until you get to a stage where you're just creating thunderclaps all day long.

Speaker 1: 56:53

Yeah, the other one, which was the domino effect, which was, um, in the early 80s there was a, a dude called lawn whitehead and, uh, he wrote in the journal of physics he'd worked out basically that a single domino is capable of bringing down a domino next to it that's 50 bigger. And so he then calculated that if you started with a domino that's like about six centimeters or two inches, and you increase it 50 with each one domino, number 23 would end up being the size of the eiffel tower. Wow, the 31st domino. So only 9. This is my Croydon coming out. Only 9 dominoes, more 8 dominoes, more number 31. Sorry, definitely, my Croydon coming out then is bigger than Mount Everest. So it's like 3000 feet tall. Number 56, 57 somewhere around there would bridge the distance between the Earth and the moon. Wow, so by one domino 57, you hit that one domino, they all go bang, bang, bang, bang bang. Number 57 knocks the moon out of orbit.

Speaker 2: 58:10

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 58:12

Theoretically.

Speaker 2: 58:13

Yeah, it's amazing. You know when you think about, you know what we can do as humans if we, if we focus and dedicate, and you know and it's not easy.

Speaker 2: 58:25

It's very easy for me to sit part is doing is implementing is, you know, that's the hard part, you know. So there's a lot of psychological stuff that goes into it. Even me, like, on a daily basis, I have two lists. I have big tasks, small tasks, right, yeah, and my big task is always needle moving stuff. Yeah, and I have actually to be fair, um, you know, the last couple of months, uh, that you know, the thing that I've set myself a challenge is I've got to try and do at least one big needle moving task a day. I've got loads, I've got loads of them, right, but I need to do one a day. Yeah, you know. Yeah, it's important.

Speaker 1: 59:22

Anyone who's listening, that's at the start of a journey or is sitting in a big fancy house, like I am right now, that I built through a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a lot of hassle and legal bills and stuff. But anyway, we're here and it is kp. You been to the girls. You've got to come up at some point. We'll have you around once we've finished all this external nonsense that's going on.

Speaker 2: 59:44

Um, but it is freaking awesome, like it is like yeah, you know what just to look on your, on your face, you know, is the pride you know, and that actually means everything. That's joy, you know. Just by you saying it, just a smile on your face I mean, it portrays, you know, pride, you know, and I love that.

Speaker 1: 1:00:07

Yeah, I come down in the morning and I look out we've got this big oak tree at the bottom of the garden where our house backs out onto open fields we're like gateway to Hertfordshire all that bullshit and and the sun rises behind this oak tree and we've got these floor to ceiling picture windows. It's stunning like the design Carolina did such an amazing job and uh, with my approval, obviously and um, but I just I look and I make my coffee at my bean to cup coffee machine, all that sort of thing. And then I think back to where I came from, where we came from, and I think to myself you know, when people say to me you're so lucky, I'm like it ain't luck. Yeah, sure, I maybe had some bits of luck along the way. Sure, yeah, but I worked to the bone and created my luck and I think that's what it is for a lot of people that come from our kind of background and get to some level of success. Success is, you know, it's defined differently for a lot of different people, but um, but yeah, you know, for me this is my 57. No, this is not. This is my 57. No, this is not. This is my 26 domino, because I'm not at my 57 yet, but as we get older and we get more mature in business and we start learning from where we've come from and we start identifying those moments.

Speaker 1: 1:01:26

Where was the moment? So you know, like recent example, say to Carolina what was it? What was the change that suddenly led to us having massive growth in a short space of time and having back-to-back two best years, and I can see and feel the change in the way that we're working, the way the business is moving, et cetera. What was it? And she'll be like that domino was the day you joined Founders Club or the day that you DM'd KP and said how can I get in on this? And you changed the people around you.

Speaker 1: 1:01:59

The next one is whatever. The next one is going to be, you know, maybe the second domino was when I left home and I moved to North London and I just got away from everything down there. But it's looking back and being able to just look and identify where you're now. I'm going to just stick on the domino analogy. Where were those dominoes? Where did you place them in such a way that, when you knock them over, got you to where you are today, and where do you need to now place the next ones yeah, yeah, it's it, you know it's.

Speaker 2: 1:02:39

It's a fantastic way to look at it. Um, you know, bobby, and and the other. The other part of it is, I guess sometimes you don't know where to put the dominoes, but you know that you have to push that domino right. It's, you know. Sometimes you may not know, actually I need to move home, but I don't know when it's going to happen, but actually that is the goal. I need to do it. I need you know, and I need to do this or do that and put this in place and put that in place in order for me to do it. You know, so that's, I think you know it's core, it.

Speaker 1: 1:03:16

You know, um, so that's, I think you know it's, it is core, you know, and you should be very proud. You should be very proud. No, thank you, but so should you, because look at everything that you've done founders club, because it's not only about the business that you and sunny decided to pivot, to build, etc. And you you're on the way to making it such a huge success and I'm sure you guys are going to hit all of the goals that you've set for yourselves with it, but it's also the opportunity, the impact and just the lives that you've changed that you might not even be fully aware of through what you both created. And the other wonderful thing is you didn't actually create in the first place with a view to let's just go out, make a ton of money off of the, you know, leverage the network that we've got and just make a shitload of money off it. It was how can we help people, how can we create community and help people?

Speaker 2: 1:04:12

yeah, and that's what you're doing, you know, you're right, and I think it's you also. It's really important to understand you know where your strengths are and what you're able to do. There's many things that actually I hate doing and I'm rubbish at doing. You know, I'm just blessed to have a very good team who is able to do that, but, equally, it's not just me and sunny, as you know, right, it's ruchi. Ruchi is literally our anchor. She is the one who brings it now all together, right, she is, yeah, and she brings something to the table which, again, is very different to what I bring, you know, very different to what sunny brings um. And knowing where and this is here is something really important. Right Is knowing, knowing where your limit is right and this may sound unconventional to you know the conversation that we have about shooting for the stars and so forth, but it's really really important. And those limits I'm not talking about what you're able to do, it's the limit that you put on yourself to say, actually, you know what I'm able to get it to here, you know, and that's okay, I'm happy with that, right, I'm not going to be able to get it to here, right?

Speaker 2: 1:05:33

So before I had Asian Wealth. We had an oil and gas magazine right, as you know. I sold it. I sold it to actually he's still one of my very good friends, greg, and I sold it because you know, asian Wealth was sexy and glamorous and oil and gas wasn't as sexy and glamorous. I'd lost interest and I'd lost love for it. So I knew actually I could only get it to a certain point. When I sold it to Greg, greg's probably quadrupled what it was because he's still got the love for that. I had one of mine and Sonny's mentors. He exited his business at a quarter of a billion 250 million and he openly said that's where I was going to take it to.

Speaker 2: 1:06:25

He retained a small share in the business. The business is now worth over a billion. He still retained a share in the business, but he was never. He knows he said I was never going to be able to get into a billion. He still retained a share in the business, right, but he was never. He knows he said I was never going to be able to get into a billion pound company never. You know so. Knowing and this also is when you know your limits you make decisions about exiting, exit plans and you know, um, and understanding where you need to position yourself. So all these things, you know it's, uh, it's so so important about having those.

Speaker 1: 1:06:58

You know um having those things in place basically.

Speaker 2: 1:07:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:07:05

Wow, um, I'm gonna end it there on that note, cause I can't think of a better way to do it. But also, the fact is, if we keep going on, we ain't going to get off this call like till sometime tonight, and I'm sure you've got better things to do so thank you so much for giving me just so much of yourself, as well as your time as well. Um, you look amazing, by the way, I have to say.

Speaker 2: 1:07:30

I look amazing, it's because I've got uh Bobby Rivera jacket on and it's um yeah that's, that's the reason why I look amazing you, because I've got Bobby Rivera jacket on and it's. Yeah, that's, that's, that's the reason why I look amazing. You know it's, it's all thanks to you, All thanks to you. You may not be able to see it because it's black and black, but but, yeah, it's, it's, and and I'm not just saying this, I'm not just saying this because you're a very good friend of mine, you're a brother of mine and you're a member of the club.

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

I'm saying it because actually, and even before we met, I've got a number of bespoke jackets and, working with you I'll tell you what it's done it's made me find me in that sense of play. It's made me find me because I've had jackets made from lots of different places and there's always a balance between what I like and what is advised to me. I've got a couple of check jackets which were actually now looking back on it. It was actually pushed onto me.

Speaker 2: 1:08:41

I've never liked check jackets. I didn't know it until it was designed and created for me, and I'm wearing it.

Speaker 1: 1:08:50

Actually.

Speaker 2: 1:08:50

no, I still wear them, Don't get me wrong, I wear them, but it was only like the tailor who made it for me. And then actually I'll tell you Don't get me wrong, I wear them, but it was only like the tailor who made it for me. And then actually I'll tell you what happened is, when I then go on to his Instagram, I realized that he's wearing a check jacket in every one of the different check jackets, but every one of his posts, right, lots of his clients are wearing check jackets and I'm like you, obviously that he's got his style and that's you know. He's portrayed that obviously onto me and I know, and and I've got, obviously, a check jacket.

Speaker 2: 1:09:25

One of the things I've I've always loved is double-breasted. But so many places that I went to saying that oh no, no, double breast, that no, double breast, that's an old school thing, that's you know, that's really you don't want to go old school. When I said to you, bobby, double breasted, you said let's do it. So there was, you know. So that's why I say that actually you allowed me through the jackets, you allowed me to become me. Do you see what I mean? In terms of the material, in terms of like? You know the amount of times where I've spoken to other tailors and say actually I don't want to say I'm, I'm bashing other tailors, right it's, I'm giving you my experience yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:10:09

I mean don't worry about doing that, because God knows what I did.

Speaker 2: 1:10:14

I'm giving my experience because it was only now probably about seven or eight different tailors I've had. So I can speak comfortably and say, actually, this is the experience. If I've only had you and maybe one other, then I've only got two people to compare it right, but I've had six or seven tailors, right. So I can say comfortably that actually the experience was the material is, you know, sometimes pushed onto you. You know, the design is sometimes pushed onto you. You know, of course it's a bespoke tailor's job to advise you, but it's equally now, I know it's a tailor's job to read between the lines, to say, listen, you know, actually this is what this guy says, this is what he wants, this is what he loves. Now, what's in between the lines, you see, what can I? You know, and, and, and. That's where it is. And actually, that's why, when you know, the first one, uh, the green one that you made for me was like, you know, one of my favourites Still is. But after that I was like right.

Speaker 1: 1:11:21

I need another form. Along with an uh-oh, yeah, yeah absolutely, you know absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:11:29

So that's the reason why I look so good because I'm wearing a Bobby Revealer jacket.

Speaker 1: 1:11:36

So there's a film called the outfit with uh mark rylance he's one of my favorite actors.

Speaker 1: 1:11:42

he's such a chameleon I don't know if you've seen it, if you haven't check it out, um, but he basically plays a tailor bespoke tailor in america and, uh, he, his tailoring shop is basically used as a money laundering thing for the mafia Right. Um, but the film starts with an amazing monologue. So he, it's him getting to his shop early in the morning and going about his routine and the voiceover Um, you know he, basically, you know he, you know. He says you cannot make something good until you know who you're making it for. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:12:24

Amen to that.

Speaker 1: 1:12:25

You need to understand the individual in front of you. This is now not him the way he says. It is much better than me, but that's what I try to do. I've worked for other people right that sell customers into things that are not them, and for me, you know, growing up clothes were very important because I made that connection between. I mean, you went to school with me. Sometimes I'd turn up in freaking flares and get the shit kicked out of me because mom and dad, I've always been tall again, as you know, I was always the tallest kid in class and you know mum and dad couldn't afford to keep buying me new school uniform all the time.

Speaker 1: 1:13:01

Or if we've got holes in the legs because tripped over playing kiss chase or whatever. Um, or football rather sorry, when the kiss chase come from, we were doing that too and um, and so she used to give me dad stuff. Like you, you wear that to school. I used to get beaten up. Even the teachers used to cuss me. I remember once at Norbury Manor the head teacher made me walk out of assembly and go, put my shorts and t-shirt on and go like I had to go through school in those little shorts and my vest the whole fricking day. Like how embarrassing is that yeah, no, it's uh.

Speaker 2: 1:13:38

Um. You won't be able to get away with that these days.

Speaker 1: 1:13:40

You wouldn't and so that was where, you know, when I started cutting up my flares and you know badly, sewing them back together to try and taper them, and then people, people wouldn't beat me up as much and I started to make the connection between how it made me feel and and also the impact it had on other people and how they saw me.

Speaker 1: 1:13:57

Yeah, less compelled to beat the shit out of me um, and you know, cut fast forward to today, and that's how I try to work with people. Is that? You know, when I sit down with my customers and I'm like we're not looking at cloth, right now I want to talk about you.

Speaker 1: 1:14:15

You've got to know the people Exactly and once you get the measure of the man or woman, then you can start to make recommendations and so on. But with you. You said double-breasted with such conviction and in that moment I visualized you in double-breasted. I'm thinking do you know what? He's a powerfully built guy already. You can't hide that, so we're going to lean into it. Yeah, this is the OG.

Speaker 2: 1:14:41

So let's make him look like that when he walks into a room. I don't think, I don't think. Alright, okay, okay, we'll wrap this up in a minute. Okay, alright, okay, sorry'll wrap this up in a minute. Okay, all right, okay, sorry, yeah, gary, yeah, do you want to come in? It's fine, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't be scared, gary. What does Gary do? So Gary is a gas engineer, is that right? Leak detection engineer.

Speaker 1: 1:15:17

I prefer that, yeah, you're a home safety, stopping your whole family from dying. Consultant. There, you go there, you go.

Speaker 2: 1:15:24

I'll tell you you know, look, you've had your house just built right, and we all have to. The reality is, there's always something that goes wrong. You know and you know'm I'm having boiler issues and things like that at the moment. Yeah so gary's here to save the day, basically, you know. So, um, but yeah, that's yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:15:42

So that, sorry for the interruption, but no, no, that's okay so so yeah, so basically, you know, you came to me double-breasted. Two things. Number one I was like he's a big, powerful, built guy. We've got to lean into it because we can't hide it. I'm a, I'm a magician, not a sorcerer, um, and you're comfortable with it. Anyway, it's what we all know and love you for, um. And then, second thing he's wanted, because I've known you for a long time, right, when you want something, you really he. This is something he's wanted. And he's asked other people and they've said no.

Speaker 2: 1:16:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:16:17

And the reason they've said no, because they don't want to take that challenge on. Yeah, double breast is difficult. Yeah, it's lining up the buttons, all of that shit. If you don't know what you're doing, if you can't measure, for shit, yeah, fine, put the poor guy in a two-button, single-breasted jacket, don't, yeah. But you, you're absolutely right not to put him in double-breasted because you're going to do a really, really bad job. But you know me, it's like, this is what we do that's what.

Speaker 2: 1:16:45

That's what separates, that's what separates the good from the great.

Speaker 2: 1:16:51

All right, um, yeah, and that again I said good from great, not, you know, bad to good, but good from great, because the other guys are good. But that's what the difference is between good and great. It's actually making those making those decisions when they're hard, you know, um, you know, and again, making people feel a certain way. You know that is the magic. Whether it is a membership club, whether it is taylor's, it's, it's making people feel good. You know that. That is the magic of it.

Speaker 1: 1:17:22

Yeah and that's it. If you can try and do that, whatever business you're in, you'll go a long way. Kp, thank you so much. I'm gonna let you go deal with g and Gas Leaks and God knows what else you got going on over there. Have you had fun today?

Speaker 2: 1:17:39

I absolutely loved it. I mean you, you know. Firstly, thank you very, very much for having me on um, on your podcast number two. We could have probably spoken for another couple of hours, just you know um about life and love to be fair, so I absolutely enjoyed it. Thank you very much, oh no, thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:17:58

Thank you all so much for joining kp and I. I'm probably going to split this episode up into several parts just to eek it out, because we're just going to spend two weeks with with kp. He is wonderful. Um, you can check out founders club on instagram, just, uh, I'll put the links in the show notes. And also you can follow us on Instagram, tailoring Talk Podcast, for latest episode updates, highlights and news. The podcast is on YouTube at Reverso Revilla, london, and you can email me at tailoringtalkpodcast at gmailcom. I always love hearing from you and love your feedback. Hit, subscribe, give the show a rating and review and click the share button in your player to send this episode to someone you know who needs to hear what KP taught and shared with us today. And if you love tailoring talk and you want to support the show, hit the support the show link in the show notes. Have a great week, be good to each other and I'll catch you on the next one.