[00:00:27] Jay: Hi, everyone. Welcome to The First Customer podcast. My name is Jay Aigner. Today. I'm lucky enough to be joined by Pete Taylor CEO and founder of The Awakened Man project Peter. Hello

[00:00:37] Peter: Jay, hello, good to be here.

[00:00:38] Jay: great to talk to you brother. let's get right into it Where'd you grow up and did that have any impact on you being an entrepreneur?

[00:00:44] Peter: do you know, I grew up just outside of London, right? did it have an impact on me being an entrepreneur? know, I, there was a hustle for me from a real early age. I, do you remember Pokemon cards?

Did you have them over in the, 

[00:00:57] Jay: my kids are back into them now,

[00:00:59] Peter: really?

Right. I've actually still got like an old school collection, but In my school days, I was selling them in the playground, early days.

It was just like, I remember selling a shiny Charizard for 20 pounds. And back then it was like the talk of

the school,

right

So that was like my first, like a little entrepreneurial endeavor.

[00:01:18] Jay: Okay, and what was the actual first business you tried to start after that?

[00:01:23] Peter: First, you know, the first business I started as an entrepreneur after that was a long time after that. Right. I was doing a little, I did little side hustles like here and there, you know, saw quick wins and making a little bit of side money, but I was in corporate for about 15 years. And the first business I set up was an architectural company. and that was, that grew into a, you know, half decent sized business. I had half a dozen people working for us. I had a big three story building. So the, my first actual endeavor grew into something quite substantial.

[00:01:55] Jay: Who was your first customer for that business?

[00:01:57] Peter: First customer for that business was my existing employer.

[00:02:02] Jay: Of course it was that's always that's almost always the case or somebody you knew or someone in your network Which is I think people get tired of me saying but 

[00:02:09] Peter: We planned, we, we planned it. 

[00:02:11] Jay: that? Yeah, I was gonna say how did you kind of make that transition?

[00:02:13] Peter: Yeah. So we're like, so I was working in corporate. I decided I was like, hang on a minute. We can do this. Right? the job that we're doing, that I'm working for someone else, I can absolutely do this. We're on site, we're managing hundreds of people, we've got all the skill sets here.

Let's go do this for ourselves. and I knew because we had so many projects that we were running for that company, I knew that they really had no option to employ us as a contractor afterwards. and it was part of my positioning. Hey, I'm going to leave. but I do have a solution for you so you're not going to be left in the lurch.

here's all the projects I can continue running for you and here's going to be our rate to do so. And so it was quite, it was like a leverage. We were in a point of leverage. So

[00:02:56] Jay: Like that

[00:02:57] Peter: architecture business, I

[00:03:00] Jay: What led you to The Awakened Man Project what is it first of all and kind of what how did you get there?

[00:03:09] Peter: grew over six years. And, from an external point of view, it was, it looked successful from the outside. I had the nice car and the nice house and the, I had, we had nearly 20 people. We had a big three story building just outside of London. but internally for me, I wasn't that happy. I was, I felt very lonely. a lot of internal struggles. I didn't really know what I truly wanted. I thought I wanted X and I got X and I didn't actually want it when I got there. and so we, like I accidentally set up The Awakened Man project, which was, I was looking for like a mastermind where I could just jam with other. Business owning men, that was what it was and I couldn't find it. So I created my own and then this project just started stemming from that when we had all these other guys wanting to join and join and our little group of 10 grew to a group of a hundred and then to a group of thousands. and now it's in the tens of thousands of people that follow us. so. The Awakened Man Project stemmed from something that I needed as a guy just to be around other high level guys and to help us all think differently, to untwist our minds.

[00:04:14] Jay: I? Like that tagline by the way, that's a great tagline. I'm talking a little bit about the that what you just mentioned is a great point is goals are Something you strive for and then you hit them and they're just like a sliver of time, right? There's no balloons that fall out of the ceiling. There's no streamers that go off.

There's no it's just a moment in time whether that's A yearly revenue goal, or some sort of, you know, other arbitrary goal you set up. Talk to me a little bit about your experience in that, in dealing with that. Like you said, it was, it, sometimes it can feel hollow, and what did you do to kind of work, work through that?

[00:04:52] Peter: Yeah, absolutely. I like, I, I had all these like hedonistic goals. I wanted the cars and I wanted to, like, I remember when I, we hit our first seven figures and I didn't really, I didn't even know I hid it. we were just like, oh, right. We've done that. Well, that wasn't the big shebang that I thought it was going to be. damn, I still got all the staff to pay, right?

[00:05:12] Jay: Right, yep.

[00:05:14] Peter: we still got all the customers to deal with and I'll quick, just straight back to it. so I soon learned very quickly that actually like the. the money thing and like the getting the like the nice materialistic things i still like that i'm and i'm still well in the earning more money and i'm not afraid to admit that like i still have way more levels to get to that i want to complete and it's a big like driver of mine. What I was really fortunate to find, and this did take me some time to find, was that when I accidentally created The Awakened Man project, that gave me, it gave me purpose. Because it, I was able to use all of the work that I've done on myself to heal myself, to then help other guys heal themselves and to do better.

And I, so I accidentally found this like internal fulfillment from helping others and that's what's been, a driver for me now is yeah, I love the business side and I love growing the business and I love creating things, I love building things. But that internal fulfillment of being able to help others is the next thing for me.

[00:06:21] Jay: What would you to people, or advice you'd give them around making those goals more Meaningful when you hit them, is there some way to celebrate them? Or, when you're creating them, making them more meaningful? Because I mean, I did the same thing, right? You hit a million or whatever. You hit two million, you go, oh, that's cool.

And then you're just like, kind of back to it. But it's something you drive at really hard for a long time. And it's just this kind of carrot you dangle in front of yourself. Is there something there to celebrate more? Is the goal incorrectly Kind of calibrated to begin with what is it? Do you think that is off there?

That's not matching your thoughts the whole time you're driving towards this thing and you get there and you go Oh, so is it in you know, kind of enjoying the journey more which is kind of a cliche phrase Obviously or what is the way to make those goals more meaningful?

[00:07:11] Peter: Yeah, it is cliche to say, enjoy the journey, it's true. what's now working for me is rather than me aiming towards, and I still have goals, I still have like milestones that I'm looking to achieve, but now the, what's more meaningful to me and that helps me strive day to day is living by standards. So it's like, this is the standard of life that I want to live. This is the standard of man that I want to be. I'm not that man yet, I can see him. Right, like that's like the 10. 0 version of Pete. and he has these values he has these rules that he's he lives by and he has these standards of life And that's what i'm striving towards and as long as that like the way that I lay down at night And I go to sleep is that I validate myself not on the amount of money that I've earned that day, but I validate myself on me consistently taking the actions towards living that standard of living. Does that make sense?

[00:08:12] Jay: Yeah, no, I like that a lot that's a it's a concrete way to continue to kind of get better, which I like, how do you stick with those goals though? How do you know, if you have a 5 million a year revenue goal, how do you stick with that on a day to day basis?

[00:08:29] Peter: I have a blueprint. I know that I know that if I stick to that blueprint, it's just, it's a protocol. And as, and like I pride myself in being disciplined with that protocol. So it's like structural discipline.

So there's like th. 

[00:08:43] Jay: from your goals? Do you kind of set those goals and kind of, I mean, it sounds like a very disciplined way to do it. I'm, this is more for myself than anybody else. I'm curious, like how are you working backwards from those goals?

[00:08:52] Peter: Yeah, so I actually look at this in three forms of discipline. So I will, I do have a big vision, which I then reverse engineered, broken that down and okay, well, that's the bigger vision over the next five to 10 years and now let's actually look at it from a shorter term perspective and here's the year, break it down into the quarter, break it down into the month, break it down into the week, into the day. Which is what I've done, so it's very, so that's very, like, structured. Okay, so there's a structure there, and my discipline is to stick to that structure and stick to those actions. But the next two types of discipline that I would adhere to is reactive discipline. So this is now, like, in the moment. So, and I like this because it means I get to be really aware. So, from, between stimulus and response, there is a gap, right? Every single, between every single freaking moment, there is a gap. and I get to choose how I react within that gap. Like my attitude within that gap. So, do I get freaking angry when someone says something to me? Do I react, or am I responsive in a way that is aligned with my values and my standards as a man? All right, so that's the reactive discipline, and then the other discipline is expansive, which is the hardest, and I'm, admittedly I find this the hardest, is moment to moment, thinking bigger, so moment to moment being able to expand on what I want to achieve, and like moment to moment making like the power move rather than the safe move. Right, which is, it's the hardest discipline to master, but it's the one that will, that we consistently practice that will really elevate.

[00:10:34] Jay: I love that. I love the. Stimulus and reaction gap. I do The waking up app Sam Harris talked about that a lot. I mean, he's also kind of Almost cliche to do meditation and to listen to that, but there is that gap Once you realize your disconnect, there's a disconnect there between the thing that happens and the response It's a powerful moment 

[00:11:01] Peter: Yeah. 

[00:11:02] Jay: Oh, I can actually choose to respond.

So they say, you know, the feeling, You're going to have those feelings rise up. Like you said, that stimulus, the anger, the whatever, those are going to happen and that's okay. And that's kind of just part of being a normal human. It is the reaction to that stimulus that's really important. So I love that and it's something I, with five kids, obviously have to work on every second of every day.

[00:11:25] Peter: Yeah. It's like, it's like that when that, when those feelings and emotions of anger come, it's how far do you let them go? do they keep coming, and then it turns into aggression, which is then, you know, that's not a good place to be. But, cause, like, anger is a great emotion.

You know, you've got healthy anger, it's a fantastic emotion, it's just that when it crosses the border into The aggression side is that when it can get violent and a little bit dangerous and that's potential and it's potentially bad

So it's being able to like, ah, right I'm in the moment now and am I gonna choose to keep this anger going and take it across the line or am I gonna stay in it and be healthy in it?

[00:12:02] Jay: Yeah, no, that's, those are all great points. And do you actually have, First of all, what tool do you use to keep track of your goals? if you're backing all the way down from a five to ten year vision to a yearly to quarterly to monthly to weekly to daily, what are you using to keep track of that?

[00:12:19] Peter: I use two things Mega simple. Number one, old

school. 

[00:12:25] Jay: you were going to hold up a notebook. 

[00:12:26] Peter: It's old school. It's just so like, I've tried the, like I tried all the apps and all the online dashboards and I love a dashboard. I've got dashboard to track all my metrics and my business. And I just couldn't, it was just the old school way of just having that. With me all the time and I can write in it and I can quickly have a look at it and see what's going on the other thing that I do use, which is digital is that I do have an app. I have an app with, our awakened man, right? So, which we use of all our clients and I use it with my clients to help them build discipline in like personal development and like, and self development.

So there's certain protocols that we'll have them go through, but I will. Put my own protocols in there. So every, I'd say it's just literally, I could just touch it and it ticks it off. so, and because there's many things that I will do day to day, which are repetitive, it's very easy for me just to go, right, well, I know I'm going to do those things pretty much every day for the next month. put them in my app and then I just tick them off, , 

as well as my diary. So yeah, a

bit of both, a bit

That's a good, that's a good plug for your app. So tell me, guys that, they're

[00:13:30] Jay: who is kind of a good fit for The Awakened Man project?

[00:13:40] Peter: they're not broken men. They don't need fixing. These are guys that, that actively want growth and are willing to step into growth. They're men that probably feel That they're playing a level three or level four on their potential scale. They got level 10 in the bag They know they've got it there.

They're just not quite there yet. I haven't figured out why They're typically highly skilled men very highly skilled and they know other guys That have the same or similar skill set to them yet are achieving way more And typically when I see that, there's normally some internal resistance. There's internal beliefs or something or internal fears. Something's going on internally. That's just holding them back subconsciously. there are guys. Cause I put them in, I put them in an arena where there are other guys that are playing on a high level and we talk around like men's psychology and you see other guys playing the same game you are and they're achieving more, it unlocks a lot more for you.

[00:14:46] Jay: What's the, and this may be giving away a little bit of the secret sauce, but what is the biggest hang up you see from, and I always tell people, I don't think it's hard to make a seven figure business, a low seven figure business. One or two million dollars I think is pretty attainable, and you see that a lot.

What's the biggest hang up you see from guys that can do that, taking it to the high sevens to the eights? what's the biggest hang up there that's preventing that?

[00:15:14] Peter: typically it's team I find from taking a business from like low sevens up to the eight is team is getting great team members around you and like a lot. It depends how big the company you want to grow the company as well. but I find like a lot of those guys who have got to like maybe like low seven figures.

A lot of them. It's just like hustle and they like they're good guys. they've got a half decent product, they deliver, so they've got a great service, and they've just hustleduh, and then they've got there, but then when they've got there, they're like, fuck, I don't know what, I don't know what to do now, this is crazy, like, how do I hire people, like, hire people, I don't know how to hire, I don't know how to interview, I'd like, I don't know what the system's involved, I don't know what to do there, so, and like, we, like, Typically, there's two things that are going on.

The founder is the bottleneck, normally. And they just haven't got the right team members in place. And then you get the right, you get the right team, get some A players in there, and then relieve the founder from being such a bottleneck and just get him to focus on what he's really great at. And the business can accelerate pretty quickly.

[00:16:22] Jay: Alright, mystery question time. Non business related, I'm curious for the guy who's very goal driven and probably could do anything he wants to do. if there was anything you could do, on the entire planet, and you knew you couldn't fail, what would it be?

[00:16:37] Peter: it would absolutely be to influence 10 million men. Do you know what, fuck it, 100 million men.

[00:16:46] Jay: Yeah, you can't fail. You could just 

[00:16:48] Peter: Can't fail. Can't fail. 

[00:16:49] Jay: earth.

[00:16:50] Peter: Yeah. Yeah. Can't fail a hundred million men to positively impact a hundred million men to get them living up to their potential.

[00:16:58] Jay: And is that, you mentioned it earlier, but I mean, Is that your form of giving back?

[00:17:06] Peter: Yeah. Hands down I can never I know it is just like I get messages from guys all the time on my social media and just like they're watching my they're watching my content and they're using my content and they're following what i'm doing and they get results and their lives are changing and it feels freaking awesome So I know that is my form of giving back.

[00:17:28] Jay: I'm glad you've embraced it. There's kind of like a, there can, people get, I think people hold back because they, there's this, you know, thought that you shouldn't. Enjoy giving back, right? you shouldn't, that shouldn't be, you shouldn't enjoy it too much. Right? You shouldn't be like this.

But that is, that's, I think you hit a certain point. You go, this is what's exciting to me.

[00:17:46] Peter: It

is exciting 

[00:17:47] Jay: is what I like to do. This charges me up. So, if you want to find you, Pete, if they want to find The Awakened Man project or anything else you got going on, where do they find you?

[00:17:57] Peter: underscore taylor And the Awakened Man profile is pinned there. It's it's the best place to find me.

[00:18:03] Jay: Alright. Well, you're fantastic. I think I get charged up after this. Maybe I'm an Awakened Man after this call, so. alright Pete, it's great talking to you, and I appreciate you being on, I'll talk to you again soon, alright brother?

[00:18:13] Peter: Cheers Jay.

[00:18:14] Jay: Thanks Pete, see ya. 

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