Ever felt the thrill of cracking open an autobiography that reshapes your view on life? That's what we experienced with Lee Max Um's revealing tale, which stirs our conversation today alongside James O'Brien's piercing critique of British politics in "How They Broke Britain". But it's not just the pages of books that have us hooked; the podcast "Alex and Mozi" is a gold mine for business acumen paired with a dash of humor, as showcased in Alex Hormozi's quirky cooking date anecdote. We're not just sharing laughs, though; we're serving up substantial guidance on niche marketing and the potency of impactful, knowledge-rich content.
Strap in as we navigate the complexities of crafting a dynamic team, inspired by the journeys of Alex Blumberg and Steve Bartlett. From solo ventures to diverse powerhouses, we dissect the evolution of team building and the value diversity brings to the entrepreneurial table. Then, we shift gears to a crucial element for any business's success—accountability. We unpack the game-changing role of coaching and the strategic finesse required when expanding a team. Learn from our candid reflections on our beginnings as a trio and how this shaped our mindset towards team growth, including the strategic addition of a fourth member with a knack for recruitment to enrich our business.
Ever felt the thrill of cracking open an autobiography that reshapes your view on life? That's what we experienced with Lee Max Um's revealing tale, which stirs our conversation today alongside James O'Brien's piercing critique of British politics in "How They Broke Britain". But it's not just the pages of books that have us hooked; the podcast "Alex and Mozi" is a gold mine for business acumen paired with a dash of humor, as showcased in Alex Hormozi's quirky cooking date anecdote. We're not just sharing laughs, though; we're serving up substantial guidance on niche marketing and the potency of impactful, knowledge-rich content.
Strap in as we navigate the complexities of crafting a dynamic team, inspired by the journeys of Alex Blumberg and Steve Bartlett. From solo ventures to diverse powerhouses, we dissect the evolution of team building and the value diversity brings to the entrepreneurial table. Then, we shift gears to a crucial element for any business's success—accountability. We unpack the game-changing role of coaching and the strategic finesse required when expanding a team. Learn from our candid reflections on our beginnings as a trio and how this shaped our mindset towards team growth, including the strategic addition of a fourth member with a knack for recruitment to enrich our business.
Check us out and send us a message on our instagram, Tik Tok and Youtube platforms @the.needle.movers www.theneedlemovers.xyz
Speaker 1:
Um, my book of the week. Last week I read Lee max um autobiography, um, but the one I'm reading now was how they broke Britain by James O'Brien. Very good book but also very sad. Man is just hearing how we got to the point. Now it's a frustration, let's say. But those are my, yeah, the two books. I think I do a book a week this point.
Speaker 2:
Some people target that that's good. I've been behind them a book reading, I think, a lot of the podcast listening. I'm listening to a lot of Alex and Mozi, like literally stuff from episode one, he the guy's on like episode 100. Um, listening to prisoners of geography, which I think you read already and I've been recommended. You can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar. Apparently, that's a good book for closing sales.
Speaker 1:
You can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar. Yeah, interesting. I. Um, I wanted to do prisons of geography again, because there's also a different one Like these. Did two more, right, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:
So I want to do that, like it's soon anyway, but yeah, okay, I'll jump back in. Alex and Mozi, are you saying? Is it that intriguing? By the way?
Speaker 2:
Uh, it's um. It's interesting as a podcast host, right, because he started off, uh, with a podcast that was specifically for GM owners Hmm, talking about how you can up your game in the gym industry and how you stand out, what do you do? It is basically talking about like leads, uh, validating leads, product offers, offering. As I'm listening to it, obviously I'm taking a lot of lessons out in terms of, like, what's applicable to me. Let's say Um, but it then makes a pivot and he tries to open up a little bit and I think he makes another pivot and then he calls the podcast something else altogether Um, but yeah, it's educational and he does that an episode a day. So I think he started off with a 10 minutes episode daily and I think he now moved on to maybe like 40, 60 minutes weekly, uh, so it's also interesting to see, like, how that developed over time. Wow.
Speaker 1:
I wonder if you grew an audience with the 10 minutes daily gym focused and then he adapted. I tell you what right that's such like, such a niche.
Speaker 2:
Uh, he was like specifically talking to one set of people, um, and I mean, even I found it interesting, but it's so niche down and he was giving it's 10 minutes but it's dropping knowledge Like it's such relevant stuff. Uh, that really makes you think. So it definitely has something going on, okay, mr.
Speaker 1:
Homozi. The way he, um, let's say, courted his wife was different to me. Like it was interesting Did you know that? Hear that story Sit again. The way he courted his wife, the way he, um, he was like, hey, we should go out to dinner. Uh, come to my place and I'll cook for you. She comes over and he's like I can't cook, I don't have anything. And then he just kept them like going oh, that's great, you're really great at this, you're really good at cooking. That's amazing what you're doing right now. And she was like so she's cooking for them as a date thing. And I was just like, wow, this man, really, she's like he's got great sales skills. I'm like, oh, you married him. But that's just funny to hear. Like, oh, wow, you can cut letters. That's a chopping board. You're a genius at this. If I try that, I get slapped in the face.
Speaker 2:
Interesting topic for today. Right Teams, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Teams. Is Alex amazing solo then? Well, he must have a team, but he's the face of the brand.
Speaker 2:
Him and his now wife are definitely like in it together, but he's got a team now.
Speaker 1:
It's funny because there's different types of teams. There's the code team, where your partner's so the ones where there's a group of people, and then there's the teams that you eventually end up having to have as you expand, grow, whatever Right. And so when you think of startup and Alex Bloomberg I think he was, but he had to have his business partner and then he expands, of course he has the rest of the team. And then when I think of Steve Bartlett, you assume it's just him, but you know he has a team under him. I think that's the team Did a difference under and beside.
Speaker 2:
That guy. So I was shocked. He basically has a as a data analyst that deep dives into what people listen to, how much they listen for it, what devices they listen for. He basically like, analyzes every single one of his episodes and has a numerical analysis of it.
Speaker 1:
I feel like that makes sense for him, based on his background, you know, in social media. So he had to know numerical data and say it's his style to be like oh well, if I'm going to get into anything, I need to know all the metrics. By that's why he's a dragon. I guess on dragon has done a difference. I think as well. But speaking of our team, we're a team, though, even if you don't like to admit it. We've been a team for a while, and the original team was slightly bigger. They're still friends.
Speaker 2:
But they're still friends.
Speaker 1:
But yeah, but no, no, 100% still friends, which is rare, I guess. I keep hearing one thing I hear we go to their weddings, yeah, yeah, yeah, we have stacks of friends 100%. But the original, ok, the original team for Charles Young was three of us and it was myself, val. And do you think they would mind if we say their?
Speaker 2:
name. Maybe let's not say there was a third person.
Speaker 1:
There was a third person and this was what kicked it off. There was always three of us making decisions. Whenever we made mistakes, there was three of us. So you can blame that person, who shall not be named, for us leaning into it. But we really, I guess, gel together. We all studied together and we all let's say even further bonded over the fact of this project, this company that we could raise. So when we would go and say what's the name, we'd always do it through consensus. It wasn't even though it was like Val's idea. We always agreed harmoniously Even if there was contention, we'd agree it between the three of us what would be the next steps. So when we discussed we were doing too much on a business plan, we weren't going places. There was three of us that were doing these things and at one point after another, should we go down the road to when it changed from three?
Speaker 2:
No, actually, actually, and I know we're sitting with three, right. So there's also that said, it's not about quantities, about quality, and it's not about the price. It just drops that idea. My question is was it really three of us or was it one of us? And what I mean with that is, right, our background, our study, our interests were so similar that, in terms of what we offered, there was sort of like no complementary platform because of the similarities. So there was quantity, we could spread the work, we could share what we were doing. But was it really three people in terms of quality, because we didn't bring different elements to the table? Okay, maybe we did bring some different elements to the table. Well, I hear you, there was so much similarity between the three of us that it really begs the question was it really three of us or was it just really one entity because of so many similarities? And I bring that up because I think that's really important, because when you go into business with someone, typically you go into business with someone where there is a point of interest. Maybe that's not the point, maybe that is because you've been friends for a number of years, maybe it's because you click and you gel. But it is important to reflect on that because, yes, you might have an additional number, but what's the complementary element of the Bintree table?
Speaker 1:
I hear what you're saying. There wasn't as much breadth, there wasn't as much diversity beyond the genders or the backgrounds. Because of the lack of diversity, when you go into business with someone, you want the complementary addition. Now we added up to taking the same workload and splitting it rather than adding on different pieces of the pie. I wouldn't say that it would have been impossible to do so, but it is very true that we were basically I like the way you say it it's like there's one of us who's now able to split into three sections, doing three of the same exact topic, three of the same tunnel. So then there isn't that. That does actually lead into why we did need to go outside right, because it took a while to realize where it's missing. I don't think we realized it to the point that you're saying now, which is the depth of. Even though we had quantity, there were three of us we were all still just fulfilling the same piece. It's like three different fingers holding one jigsaw piece to put it in place. You wouldn't hire for that. You don't want one. That same job could be done by one person if they're acting efficiently, effectively.
Speaker 2:
Which is interesting, right, I think there's definitely power of hindsight, because knowing what we know now about the industry diversity, equity and inclusion activities that have taken place in the corporate world over the last two to three years it's become really big then we understand now that when we go higher in a corporate environment we want different people that bring something else to the table. And, as a matter of fact, we are being trained as bias busters in such a way that you don't end up hiring someone that is similar to you, has got similar interests to you, because then what you end up in a room with is a photocopy of you. They're not bringing anything else to the table. They may be able to do more quantity of work, but do they bring the quality? And it's quite similar now that if you've got a small business starting up, I think the businesses that we've seen which are really successful are the ones that have got diversity in them, because they've got a different approach coming to the table, as opposed to the three mechanical engineers that graduated from our university. They all like fitness and engineering.
Speaker 1:
Oh hey, don't shoot us down. Y'all did aerospace, I did mechanical. We had diversity and then we stopped. We really did take it into one, that is true. So that's one key aspect of the team. There is the fact that you know workload is about to be reduced and so you can get really excited or feel like you're doing something moving there, and so for us, I think that was the case. We knew we had an idea that could not be achieved potentially at that time in our minds anyway, with one person. You needed help additions, say, if it was going to be an app, oh, I'd need a developer or something, or I'd need to put energy into that. So by having two additional people or one additional person splitting the load, there was definitely a load split. That is not saying it's a detriment or something that did take place, but in terms of, like, fulfilling the load, that's where it didn't really. We didn't even I didn't even address or think of that, like when you say, I'm like that's true, we didn't really consider For a long while what else do we need? Because we just figured it's all in hand. You take free different people, even if they have a lot of similarities and backgrounds, as though you expect. Okay, those three people will therefore equal the full sum of what's required, and I can't dispute that. Maybe it could be. But another thing we didn't do was then apportion it Like say, you are the SME, the specific subject matter expert for this area, and then you offer that and that, and even if it's an area of discomfort for any of us, it still means that we get to grow in a different like, in different directions. Instead, it was like holistic we just kept being jack of all trades, master of none, which left us in a bind because we're just all working on the same Like, and I wouldn't say we stepped on each other's toes, but I'm sure we did. It was just like what's the point? You could really have figured out marketing. One of us could focus on niche and take that as their baby and you know what I mean and that would have helped way more. So I wouldn't even say it's a matter of all. Three different people might have been three more benefits. Of course it would have been the more diversity the better. But even with the same people, there was a lot of, let's say, stuff left on the table that we didn't manage to utilize or create.
Speaker 2:
Yet I'd say, for lack of a better word, and I like what you just mentioned, right, because what came to mind to me as you were saying, that is, we all had the same blind spots. You know there is three level of knowledge, right? You know what you know, you know what you don't know, and then you don't know what you don't know. And I think in this case, right, we knew that we didn't have the marketing expertise, but we knew that we could Google some stuff and figure stuff out. But then when it came to niching, when it came to understanding an avatar and putting together that kind of person that we want to, that imaginary person that we want to market to, we didn't have that knowledge at the time. But because we didn't have that knowledge and we didn't know that we had to look for it, it was a complete miss. And that's when having three very similar people, perhaps two very similar people, can be detrimental, because you're kind of working in it's not silent award, but you're kind of working along the same mindset and it doesn't allow you to move beyond that knowledge gap that you may have in the team.
Speaker 1:
I think of it like our heart moments. Like if you have an issue or problem or you talk to a mentor or someone else and you're you're discussing something and you the heart moment is when they say something you might not have thought of. I feel like we didn't get to experience as much of those because we all thought of the same thing, which kind of left us in a bind where we're thinking, well, we're acting or talking or going around the same topic with similar mindsets. That's not a bad thing, it's not too bad a thing, but it also, having such a reduced amount of our heart moments, kind of limits the avenues we get to take. So then it kind of keeps us reduced and I think now, going forward, that's something I look out for, like even when I'm getting mentoring and they're like hey, would you like me to go over said topics? I'm like, choose your topics, because I never. I learned something new this week which is something I'd heard parts of before, but it was something that was like new to me in other avenues. I'm like that's good, that's something I like to know, like I recognize when I'm learning new lessons and so once say, you took someone on your team of marketing. You might be like oh, this is, I know a lot about it, I've been researching, said, and I don't need them to necessarily bring new things to me, but their approach to it I expect to. You know, this needs to be a differentiation, otherwise you're staying in the same point, like if you, for instance, take exercise I know we love to relate to exercise, but still, everyone knows that you just have to move, everyone knows you just have to eat less, exactly, pump, whatever. Then you get a PT and they're just like oh, do this. And you're just, they're just doing the set things and it makes that difference. You're like what's the difference? The difference is that they're not there with you discussing hey, you just have to do the same things, you just have to eat the food. They're actually. The differentiation is as simple as the, the what's that word? What is the people who not even advocates? But the accountability? I can't. Yes, exactly, that was the word I was looking for. Then the accountability is a different level, one you're paying for it to. They are paid to make sure that happens. So then you think of it applied to business, where it's like the accountability on, say, we chose I keep using marketing as an example, but still branding, whatever the accountability is pure branding. That's all you do. Just make sure the branding is on point and it grows. That will then elevate in a different scale to hey. I think this is what we do for Browning. Yeah, that's a great idea. It's just talk pieces.
Speaker 2:
It's a lot of theoretical planning that doesn't really get anything done and I like that you brought up the coaching element and that would almost move it to also mentoring. Right, coaching and mentoring it's something that we all hear of. We all been told that it's great to get a coach, a great mentor, but especially when you are a solo person or when you have a team of two, three people, they all have the same background. That is the differentiation that can really make a difference, right, if you're serious about building the business, yes, coaching can cost money, but a coach is what will point out a blind spot to you, to make you aware of it, so that you don't make the same mistake for four months straight. You can actually get that much, much quicker. So, yes, you may spend 200 pounds on coaching, but, quite similarly, because you spend that money, you can get to the point where you generate the revenue much more quickly than that for a month and have a return on investment much, much faster. The first thing that you look at when you start a business is having money to spend on a coach or having money to spend on a website, but it can make a huge difference, especially if you are looking for that business to become that sort of like main source revenue, that blind spot pointing out it's almost priceless in a way, if you've got the right coach.
Speaker 1:
It's like therapists as well. You get a lot of our harm moments if you ever had one or the other. So you're like, oh, this is something. I didn't know With the way you explained it, with coaching and the gaps that they were able to point out, and say, hey, make sure you're focused on this. It brought me back to consulting because we had brown papers. The whole thing we do with companies is just draw what you have existing, then say so, where are you checking this? On a weekly, on a daily, on annually, on a buy, annually or whatever? What's the frequency? You need to check these things. Then you just get to really hone in on the fact that there's big spaces, big gaps in certain area that they need to focus on. Now. It's not like they've not been running companies for years and years and years. It's not like they've not been turning profits already, but it's just they didn't see what was in front of their faces because they never had to spread out like that. The reason we get to do that is because our focus is not to go in and just run the company with them. Our focus is to look for these things, which is where you get the attention swayed in a direction that helps improve them. I think the same thing can be done with whichever partnership or whatever you need. For instance, say we had the exact same three peoples. We could say one of us is to look at the overarching image. That way, another one of us gets to focus on said thing and the other one gets to do a different piece. Then there, that way, even say, you're still stuck in somewhat tunnel vision in each avenue and maybe you rotate. Who cares? You're still able to. You're always spotting gaps, you see. You always see them where it links. You've always got someone focused on that path. I think that what you said earlier about the quantity versus quality it's funny but very true and very easy to miss. You get a number of people. Maybe you have 20 people in your team. Who cares? You're like now we have the manpower to do what we have the resources. For what purpose Do you even need that many? Are you stepping over each other's toes? Maybe you could do this with just one person for now and then get your ducks in a row and then expand slowly, gradually, because you don't need the team yet. I think of famous YouTubers, famous celebrities, whatever, who started with the one, because they needed to build and gradually grow before they get the full support. Because what is the point in having someone just waiting, just the dead end, and then you're giving them the same scope and, like I say, stepping on other people's toes. It is an interesting to reflect on.
Speaker 2:
So, having done that reflection, so we started off three people that are practically the same. We spoke about the possibility of potentially getting a coach. What we thought at the time was well, we can't really spam on you on a coach because we are on an engineer's minimum salary as a graduate. How else can we get that extra knowledge or that way of fulfilling blind spots? And another really good way of doing it, which is what we have done, was to get another person on board with a skill level that you think is right to move the company forward. So we decided to onboard a fourth friend.
Speaker 1:
Just another friend. Now, I think the way we onboarded this fourth person was firstly, as let's say, a consultant. We just wanted to hear their thoughts, right, we wanted to understand the way they'd go about it and, because they were knowledgeable in the area we were going to, they were knowledgeable in recruitment right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, very much in recruitment.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly. And so it started with hey, let's just have a meeting with them, get an understanding, showcase them what we're planning and stuff and bring them into here. And I think from that meeting, it was like now we need them, we need that guy. I think that was the aha moment, right, we were like oh, there's more. No, no, no, you can't leave. You want me to part of the team now?
Speaker 2:
Talk about golden handcuffs, exactly.
Speaker 1:
Like, oh, you thought this was a conversation, this is a life now, but it was. Yeah, we went there for advisement and came out saying, no, we need this in, let's bring a breath of fresh air. And also we can. And I think that was a pivot at that point. We'll talk more about pittots later on when we go into the details on it, but just by having that insight, by having that, it added more quality. Of course it made us shift. Like a lot of things changed within that moment, like by bringing that fourth person on board, but it didn't mean that we did still have three, one persons and then one fourth person, if you think about it.
Speaker 2:
And it's interesting because retrospectively, I think we were doing the right thing bringing on the fourth person. But now, with hindsight, it's probably fair to say that we still had a gap in areas where we could have brought in probably like a fifth or a sixth person that would have given us the extra skill. But I think within us, within other group of four people that we had, we still couldn't see that the most essential element about everything that we were trying to do was the marketing and selling, and none of us had that skill, and so we still fell flat on our face in terms of being able to deliver something. They had great potential but wasn't being sold.
Speaker 1:
So one thing I want to add to that is the fact of because we're discussing teams and we said we brought in a fourth person, and I think you heard the way in our previous episodes of how you, we started, even with free, hey, go and idea, that's great, let's work on it. At no point do you hear us talking about the capacities in which we want to work, the backgrounds, the barriers, the Our paths or where we want to go with it, even like personal goals, exactly because you all these are all things that are needed, required and pressing in your life. Right, and it's for an energy. If you're gonna bring on any team, imagine you're like oh, I want to hire this coach of this PT, and they're like I'm only available five minutes a week. Why am I trying to choose you then? But we don't have those conversations. You just have expectations and big ambitions, and so I think, um, this is where it's key, and I think something that, with hindsight, would have been done differently is to say like, of course it's. Hey, do you want to get involved? That's fine, but then in what capacity? Yeah, and I think that that will be something we'll dive into at some point in the future, maybe in our next episode, but I think it's a big part to say there's one thing about the people in the team, what they bring to the team, but also making sure just as touch on it like is there alignment and Whatever aspects of people. When you engage them, say you want the expert advice, the PT, the coaching, whatever you need to know what you need from them. So us discussing that we need, like we didn't see the marketing. If we look at the team again, if we just looked at what all the things were and said who's the expert like I said before, sme at least things it would have made that bit of a difference. Right, it would have made that, that, that much of a change. And, like I said before, it's not that, yes, we were all kind of typecast One, all friends of Mark. That's already a detriment, but Still, I think just even if we just tried to get someone out of their zone, so they'd be a bad version of marketing, then they would have seen the gaps. But we didn't even do that. If they were just a bad version of like Relations or, you know, the touch point or the PSE, then we could have noticed that hey, that's probably something we need more strength in, but we didn't even do that, and I think that's something that we could we've learned from.
Speaker 2:
So, in a nutshell, quantity doesn't even quality. That's not from the perspective of the people not being good enough, but more from the perspective of the group not being holistic enough to highlight the blind spot and Filling the gaps in knowledge which are not easily visible by the team. But I think it's fair to say we'll catch up with you next week in terms of the next stage, which is all about goal alignment.
Speaker 1:
It has been Mark Jason's as course, joined by my co-host Valerio Tomasso, and, as always, till next time.