Aaron Knightley: How to Escape the 9-5 and Build Real Wealth (Not Just Look Rich)

This transcript is auto-generated and lightly edited for readability, it may contain errors.

[0:00] Sammie Ellard-King: Welcome back to the Money Gains Podcast. Do you want to look rich or be rich? This is a masterclass today in how to create something for yourself with a very special guest. His name is Aaron Knightley. Aaron, welcome to the show. Mate, pleased to be back. Yeah. Third time? Third time now. Mate, I’m excited to be in person. Your first episode is still number three out of all the episodes you’ve ever done. Hang on a minute. Who’s number one? Yeah, Andrew Craig. Oh, okay. All right. You know him. Yeah, yeah. We let him off. Andrew, you can have that one. But I wanted to get you back on because one, we’ve never done it properly in person. We did it online back in the day before we did video. But I think a lot’s changed since then for both of us, but also in the world as well. And we’ve grown a lot, can probably talk about a lot. But for someone that doesn’t know you, what do you do?

[0:51] Aaron Knightley: Well, I always start this off exactly the same. I’m I’m someone who’s busy and just living life by design. That’s kind of the motto that I’m using is that from a young age, I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else. I’m outspoken. I didn’t like to conform. The only escape for me was to go down the entrepreneurship route and call that whatever creator, um, visionary, innovator, you know, whatever the title people want to adopt. And I ended up going into business, modern day business, which is obviously I know we’re going to talk about today, how that’s changed. And that’s what’s brought me here today. I live a life by design. Everything about my life is tailored to the way that I wanted it. And, you know, and here we are. You’ve done extremely well. I mean, the audience growth on TikTok and Instagram now is kicked off, and YouTube alone as well. You’re really sort of hitting it from all different spectrums. But for someone that doesn’t know you, like what’s the crux of what you do, the content that you put out?

[1:48] Aaron Knightley: Well, I started in it all started with finance. So I got out of my job by building, it was a type of brokerage where I was raising a lot of money. And I just became good at raising money to get out of my job. It was like a it wasn’t a quick way to get out of a job, but it was the immediate solution to raising money to make high amounts of commission. And in my 20s, I made, you know, a lot of money. Certainly looking back now, it was. And that gave me my escape. And now it’s about bringing the reality that we don’t have to be in the rigged system, as we call it, if you know how to live life by design. So something I’m literally being uh featured in a couple of papers um in the next couple of weeks. And one of the lines is uh he shops in Primark, but can afford Louis, which is the truth. But I I’ve never been materialistic. I don’t come from a materialistic background. And my money’s always gone in the right places. And that has allowed me to then share in content creation, and because of my punchiness and no beating around the bush, I’ve become very marmite, which I love because you know where you stand with me. And it’s created push and pull, which has allowed me to grow on my socials, ultimately allowed me to make more money as a result of it, and go on to build, you know, I suppose what I’m still building today. So there’s a lot of there’s a lot of things going on, which I’m sure we’ll unpack during this. But yeah.

[3:09] Sammie Ellard-King: Big part of your content is obviously like talking about there’s that there’s more out there for someone stuck in a nine to five and on that hamster wheel. And we kind of conformed, like, get the mortgage, have the kids, get yourself into loads of debt, you know, work a job, and then in your 50s kick off, have a, you know, existential life crisis and buy a red sports car. Yeah. Like, why is that? Because we are led to believe that and it’s no one’s fault, by the way. I think the other thing is as well, we put a lot of pressure on people to realise this. But I think, you know, even giving people slack, which I probably need to do more of, is that you don’t know anything else unless you’ve gone and educated yourself. You either you’re either born into it where you’re aware of it, or you go and educate yourself, which is what I did. I was never good at any, you know, at school. I walked away with one GCSE, didn’t go to college, didn’t go to uni, but I did find self-education through Audible books. And I really took to finance. And actually, me and Andrew uh were introduced to each other through his book, through LinkedIn, and that’s how we formed our relationship, something like in 2005. And when I learned about money, coming from a family that didn’t have money, I knew that if I nurtured it, being someone who wasn’t materialistic anyway, I could probably do quite well. And I can probably get out of a place where I didn’t want to be. I didn’t like being told what to do. And one thing that always niggled me, which I talk a lot about in my content, it never sat with me asking an adult. I hated asking for holiday. It really irritated me going up to another adult and going, Can I have time off, please? I’m giving I’m giving 40 hours, but I now have to come into the office and go, please can I submit uh a form? Well, no, you can’t have time off because Deirdre wants to spend time with her cat. Right. Well, I have a family. I know, but Deirdre, you know, I I didn’t like any of that. And I was like, I’ve got to get out. So I just knew that if I was smart with money and I didn’t keep up with the Joneses, which I’ve never done even to this day, um, my money could work for me. And that’s where I’m at now. So yeah.

[5:01] Sammie Ellard-King: So that for that person listening to this right now, I’m thinking, yeah, that might well be me. You know, I’m working a job which I don’t like, and I’m not really sure where to turn. You’ve mentioned audible books, but like what else can they do? Networking, you know, self-education. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. I I would say the first thing to do is network. In in the recent article that I I did with a uh a journalist, she said, so your network basically built where you are today. And really looking back at that comment, is yes, it did. I didn’t know anything about business. I didn’t, I still haven’t got it all figured out now. But what I have come to learn is that if you build a great network, you haven’t got to have the business model because phone calls are made. If you surround yourself with the right people and you’re willing to learn and listen and ask questions, I think that’s an important thing. Ask questions and don’t be so narrow-minded to think that money and business and content and entrepreneurship is just for the the rich and the you know the Chelsea and the Kensington and all it’s it’s not. It’s really not. It’s it’s for anyone. But yeah, your your network, self-education, consistency, get in the gym. You have to stay strong in your mind. You have to, and you have to look after yourself and really look after your money. And and things then come into your ecosystem. I I don’t have a perfect answer. You just do the fundamentals and then things start unraveling.

[6:22] Sammie Ellard-King: I completely agree with you because last week or a couple of weeks ago, I went to Manchester for this uh entrepreneurs event, and it was £2,000 for the day and the evening. People might look at that and go, What on earth are you doing spending that amount of money? However, conversations meant Daniel Priestley, who I know you know very well, and plenty of other people within that room that have EAs that I would have had to have like worked an absolute arm and a leg. Now we’re on first name basis, podcast guests coming on, conversations opened up, new lines of business opened up. That £2,000 could potentially be worth millions to me now, just from that single event. And that’s not the only thing. Like, you know, last year spent about 14 grand on myself and my business tripled in size. So it just goes to show that you’re right. And it was getting in rooms, it was having conversations, and those rooms can be free, but then once you outgrow that room, you want to slowly move up and usually to get into the bigger rooms, you’ve got to pay for it.

[7:17] Aaron Knightley: Yeah. When you want to level up, there is a jump. Yeah. It really depends on what you want to do and and who you want to be around. I mean, there is a price to some things, but you can do I’m I did most of it for free. But I think you’ve got to be willing to exchange the time and energy. Totally. And the other thing that I learned very early on, and this was a blessing from having my son at just turning 20, right? He came into my orbit, you know, and then and then I became selfless. I was very selfish once upon a time, but I then became selfless because it was all about him. I just realised no one really cares what’s going on. And when you realise no one cares, it allows you to almost like channel your energy and into you and the things that you really care about. And then you start seeing things as vehicles more. Even my network, I’m like, how can I fill up someone else’s bucket? That that’s a key message for everyone is always top up other people’s bucket well before you ever ask to take from theirs, because then it’s it’s so much more um giving uh and return to you if you are really willing to help people, even if you think what can I offer them? Really try and fill up people’s buckets. And um, yeah, just everything has been about my my attitude of no one cares about me, but I have to nurture my network. And like I said, things have just happened because I’ve done the fundamentals and it’s not complicated all this, by the way. It’s really not. We overcomplicate everything.

[8:40] Sammie Ellard-King: Mate, 100%. But like when you say no one cares, we did this video the other day about this and as well. And I love this concept because you know, people over-leverage the finance payments on cars, etc., to drive the you know, fancy brand new 24 plate M3, you know, £575 a month, rinsing themselves on that to look cool. And then they fight suddenly find that like when that car drives past, you go, Oh, nice car. You don’t look at the guy driving the car and go, he’s so cool, I want to be that guy. Like, I never even do that when someone like a Lambo drives past me. I’m like, oh nice, you know, and that’s it. Never be a fanboy. Nah. The flex is time, yeah, yeah. And you learn that as you get older. And I’ve become more introverted as I’ve gotten older. And again, key message for people listening is be in your own bubble. Don’t worry about what other people are doing because that leads to distraction, that leads to procrastination, that leads to frustration, that leads to doom scrolling, and then you waste time. I’ve never been bothered. I’ve got a prime example of someone who, again, has been sucked into the materialistic life and overspending. I was leaving my old gym, young guy noticed me off TikTok, started talking to me, left at the same time. I’m speeding the story up. We spoke. I headed over to my little pot pot car, right? I’ve got a little pot-pot car that I can nip about in. He didn’t see my other cars, but I had my little pot-pop car. And I walked off and we said goodbye, and he sort of hung around and he said, Oh, is that your car? I said, Yeah. He said, Oh, I thought you’d have had something nicer. I said, Well, I do, but here’s the funny thing. And I shouted back to him and I was like, Where are you going? He said, I’ve got to go to work. I said, I don’t. And I literally got him a car and drove off like that, you know, moving on. And that’s the reality. I don’t spend money on materialistic things. Like I talk about the cost of living. There is no cost of living crisis. Has bread gone up? Has petrol gone up? I don’t know. You tell me. I have no idea. But the other side of that, you’ll you’ll have the people that are willing to blame, willing to pull out their out-of-tune, battered violin, and blame external things because again, they’ve been in consumer spending, you know, and I’ve just never sucked into any of that.

[10:50] Sammie Ellard-King: Never. Why do you feel like in the UK we have this sort of victim mentality? Because I go to the US and I do not see that at all. Like they’re so positive over there about things. I just think we’ll I just think as a culture it’s easier to blame. Like financially, this country’s not great. From government to, you know, middle class to the the lower class. We’re just not good with money. It it really only changes when you educate yourself. So I I don’t think it there’s any particular reason. I just think as a culture and a society, we are very bad in England. It doesn’t happen, you know, there’s no teaching in school. Parents are a huge part uh to blame, really, for what happens for future generations. I’ve taken it upon myself to teach my son everything about finance. I mean, there’s a quote which has just been put in the draft of the paper. You know, my son knowing more about finance than a teacher. It’s true. I mean, that’s shocking. You know, he’s turning 12, he knows more. He does. Because I’ve taken responsibility. So I find it really hard to accept the excuse of, well, we don’t have money because we weren’t taught it, and it’s the government and my employer’s fault. No, it’s your fault, which could lead us on to a conversation of accountability, but we are just very quick to blame. It’s everyone else’s fault other than your own. You don’t go anywhere in life when you blame everyone. Things happen when you just we just own all of it. And I’ve I’ve owned my entire life, my the good, the bad, and the effing ugly from a young age. So yeah, that’s the difference.

[12:22] Sammie Ellard-King: I agree with you, because I went through this, so I’ve been on the keeping up of the Joneses side, you know, ultra-finance cars, 600 pound jackets, you name it. I’ve been there, done the debt, woke up, went through the transformation, and then come out the other side. And it’s so much clearer over here once you get to this point, and you’re not peacocking. You don’t have this like innate thing to be showing up and showing, you just show up as yourself. Yeah. And people actually gravitate to you more when you do that, rather than you turning up in the Louis, you know. Wealth whispers. And I think the other thing is as well, being comfortable in yourself. I think we’re in a world right now, and that’s why at the beginning of this podcast, like, who are you? Well, I’m just Aaron Knightley. I’m no one else other than that. That literally is my intro. Who are you, Aaron Knightley? Are you not a bit forget about all that? I’m Aaron. You know, that that’s the way that I look at it. Because the problem with titles and and attaching ourselves to things, you know, I’ve got ADHD, I’ve got anxiety, I’ve got depression, I’ve had a panic attack. You know, everyone’s everyone has something to blame. Are you allowed to swear on this or do you not want to be swearing? But uh I won’t because it will help your YouTube algorithm. But you know, if someone’s being a not I’m trying to be swearing on my YouTube now, I don’t swear, but I swear, you know, sometimes I swear a little bit. If someone’s being a pleb, one of them. Yeah. You can’t blame it on your ADHD. You just are a pleb. Yeah. You just are, and and that’s who you are, and and be comfortable with that, right? But we we blame things. Oh, well, I was only being like that because I’m a bit of a narcissist. Oh, right, okay. So you’re not just like that. No, no, that’s my title. Same in the workplace, same with, you know, oh, I drive this and I have this, and you know, I’m wearing Louis and I’ve got the Rolex, you know, and you and you’re lifting your arm up a lot. It’s it’s all this bravado of look at me. And I think when you come away from that and you know what you want, what makes you happy, then you can start to focus on right, what do I actually need to keep doing to make me happy? And what do I actually want from life? You know, I ask people all the time, I do it with my live streams. We’ll get 100 people on there. And I go, right, everyone in the comments, how much money would you love to make a month that would make you happy? And what do you think you get? Five, 10, 15. Every time I do it all the time. 20, 25. No one has a clue what number they want. No one said, right, well, I’m earning, I’m earning 2,200. We are overspending, we have got some debt, we’ve got a mortgage. But if we didn’t have any of that, actually, we’d probably only need about 1,800. So actually, to make me happy, I only need about £2,272 and we’d probably live a good life. No one knows their numbers. I I all of our bills, max £2000. Max. They’ve never changed pretty much over the last two uh uh sorry, 10 years. A decade, our bills have not changed. My income’s gone significantly up, but nothing else has really changed. Why? Because I don’t spend money on things to impress other people. I don’t care. I literally don’t care. I don’t care what you’re wearing, I don’t care what you think what I’m wearing. I can give them monkeys. And that’s the reason I’ve not got any anxiety, I’ve never had a panic attack, and I’ve never suffered with depression because I just don’t care. And I think more people need to be like that is the lesson.

[15:37] Sammie Ellard-King: How do you though? Because like for someone that goes out there and they’re just worried about all of these different things, and you got social media and the feeds and like you know, the look at him, he’s over there, he’s on his fifth holiday a year. You need something bigger than you, right? Go have a child, that’ll change you. If you’re a good parent, honestly, I I if if I had a phone call now to say my son’s aware, I’m gone. You won’t see me. I won’t I won’t care about the podcast. I’ll be on. Yeah. I have something bigger than me. When when you know, we’re talking about it on the way up, but there’s a great saying about your health, you know, for perspective, is that you know, when you’re healthy, there’s that saying you have a thousand problems. When you’re unhealthy and the doctor said you might have cancer, you don’t care about anything. You have one problem now to deal with. Am I gonna live or am I gonna die? How can I improve it? People want to change it when it’s too late. Yeah. You know, people will go to the doctor and the doctor’s like, your javyanas are screaming at you because you’ve crushed them because you’re so heavy. Your your ankles are screaming, you’ve got crusty heels, your ankles are like bloodshot, you you’ve got a beetroot face, you’re you know, your cholesterol’s high. Do you have children? Yeah, I do. Well, forget about seeing them get married because you’re on your way out. Um, and then they’re like, Oh, and you’re gonna need to change your life, otherwise you’ve only got three months. And then they want to go and do something about it. I live in a state of prevention whilst also not worrying about what other people think. Because what does it matter? No one’s gonna come knocking on my door. Oh, Aaron, I didn’t like what piece of content you did. Bore off. I don’t uh, you know, I I I don’t know. I’m very, very bullish, as you can probably tell. No, but it’s good, it’s refreshing. Yeah, I just I just live my life in consistent.

[17:16] Sammie Ellard-King: Whether people agree with you or not, you haven’t you it’s this is how I think and this is how I’m going to display myself. But I’m also comfortable knowing I’m not fluffing anything. Yeah. You know, we are in a bad financial situation as an economy. If you don’t have any money, well, what have you done with it? I can’t stand it, and I’m not anything against single women here, but uh, you know, when when women in my comments go, Oh, but you know, I’m single mum and I’ve got three kids and it’s really hard. Okay, but how did you have three children, right? You you made babies with someone who’s either left you or you’ve left them. You had money at one point, you didn’t have to have three babies. No one forced you to do the nookie-nookie. So own it. Oh, I haven’t got any money. Oh boo-hoo. No one’s coming to save you, and no one cares. Get on with it. Some people uh but but but that’s like vinegar on a wound, and some people go, You can’t say that. Why? Because it hurt. Okay. I don’t care. I don’t because it’s the truth.

[18:16] Sammie Ellard-King: But sometimes they do need the tough love to make the change. Yeah. Yeah. But they don’t like it. You know when some people are going, I don’t say that out loud because that’s my situation. But then on the other side, you’ve got the action takers who are like, I needed that. I’ve been living in f cuckoo land for ages. Yes. And I really needed that. But also it’s it’s so that’s me being authentic because when people turn around and say, Well, you know, um, uh, you know, I come from a family that didn’t have any money. Okay, my story, next one. Oh, you know, you know, well, uh I’ve lived on a council estate. Okay, my story, next one. You know, what can what can you fall back on now not to change your life, educate yourself, put yourself in a better situation? Caveat, it’s also not about the amount of money that you make. Because again, what’s the average salary in the UK? Anywhere between 1500 to 2.5k, right? Yeah, it’s in between there. Is that impossible to replace and get out of a sticky situation? No, if you’re in 30 grand worth of debt, can you get out of 30 grand’s worth of debt? Yes, because there are so many ways to make um very healthy, sustainable cash flow if you get on and do the thing that needs to be done. Yeah, but and I’m going off on one here, but the the one thing I can’t stand is when people go, but how? What do you mean, but how? What would you what was the what do you mean by that?

[19:34] Sammie Ellard-King: My next question. I’m joking. But how? Learn. Yeah, yeah, but how? No, no, no, no, no. No one came to save me. Go and learn or pay for it for a fast track. You can learn anything, you can do anything, you can change any situation, you can get perspective whenever you want, however, you need to do that. Uh things can get really good, but I think looping background, accountability. Yeah, no, I agreed. Like when I wanted to, I didn’t know how to build websites when I wanted to start Up The Gains and start building things. I run marketing teams, I had people that did that stuff for me. But when I wanted to do it for myself, what did I do? Well, I went and dived into, you know, 10 hours worth of YouTube videos, 50 audibles, podcasts, you name it, and I built a website. And guess what? It won an award. So then, like, you can I didn’t have that skill. So, you know, you can go and do those things and teach yourself how to do this thing. It’s about the exploration of what you feel like is going to be good for you at that point in time. And it may lead into other things because it has led into video creation, podcasting, all of these other things that uh we now do for the brand, which wasn’t the initial idea. The idea was to create like a really cool website and blog and have it run on SEO, etc. And then it was the expansion of that has gone to this because I’ve now like realised that this is what actually I want to do. So it wouldn’t have got to that if I hadn’t taken that first step and just gone, I have no idea what I’m doing. But guess what? I’m gonna find out.

[21:04] Aaron Knightley: Right, the dist is so simple. The distance achieving success, right? However you define it, from point A to point B, application, just doing the thing, figuring it out. And I’ve learned you never figure it out. Like you never really have perfection because you learn that doesn’t exist. But just starting, you look at my first YouTube video, and I’m so glad I’ve documented everything from a young age to my eBay business, to the wedding catering business, to uh property, to the finance, to the first office, to my little cubby hole at home, to working at the uh dining room desk, to then building the cabin in the garden, to then you know, and then going into Mayfair, the the Bromley office, everything like that. I’m so glad I’ve documented everything, but because what it does is it shows action and not for anyone else, but to show my son. This is where we started when you were a baby.

[21:58] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. And to show Everything. You know, everything, just literally from my high-level sports. I’ve documented everything. And it’s so good to have that because you can look back and you think, made loads of mistakes, didn’t get it right, wasn’t perfect. My God, were there tears and what was their stress and was there pressures? But you can see we just took action all the time. Never figured, never had it figured out, but just took action. Even my network, you can see who I started with to who I know now. I mean, you know, God knows how much my phone’s worth in terms of contacts. But, you know, like just the action. And then also realising that it becomes so much about the more people you help along the way. You you help people along the way. My God, life of equilibrium is real. I never used to believe in too much of that. You know, give me a podcast crystal next to me or something like that. You know, get some crystals in here. Because all of that kind of, you know, like it does things do come back around. 100%. You know, they really do. Action, help people, uh, be authentic, and things will happen eventually. Definitely.

[23:03] Sammie Ellard-King: We we give away everything. We can with every little bit of knowledge we’ve we give it away. What you pay for is it to be laid out in a way which is is step by step, and this is what you need to follow. Yeah. But other than that, we’ve said it all. We’ve said it all a thousand times, but you just need the help of being able to put it into practice. But I agree with you. The more people I help, the more people want to work with us because it becomes like, we’ll have to learn from him. Yeah. Because the trust is there. It’s just access. Yeah. At that point, it’s just access. Totally. You hit the nail on the head. You know, we both sell versions of programs and faster learning, fast track learning to avoid the bumps and the hurdles. But here’s the thing, right? For anyone listening, this is the step-by-step process in 30 seconds on how to leave your job. So to escape the nine to five in 30 seconds, go to bed later, wake up earlier, don’t ever go out at the weekend, cancel all your holidays, get rid of your mortgage, get rid of your finance car, save, save, save, invest, invest, learn how to cash flow, consistency, discipline, get in the gym, get around people, forget about the business model. That’s the thing. Everyone goes, oh, is it e-commerce? Do I start a tech company? Or, you know, everyone’s like trying to figure out the perfect business, influenced by marketing adverts, I might add. No one knows what they actually want to do. Do the fundamentals, change you as the entire human being, get your together, rewire, and become a beast, and do that for three to four years without ever expecting any money in return, with no guarantees, you will eventually leave your job. And I haven’t even mentioned the business, or 5,000 or 10,000 pounds a month. Change you as the person and everyone else around you, and you will eventually leave a situation you don’t want to be. It doesn’t even have to be your job, but that is that is what needs to be done. But people that will go in one that some people who will watch this that will go in one and out the other, and they won’t have a clue what I’ve gone on about.

[25:45] Sammie Ellard-King: I I agree with you to some degree, just to sort of throw a caveat to that. Like I was in the job and then I went and built the business, and actually my health took the hit. And so I was like, You saw me a couple of years ago, I was a big boy, and so and then I’ve now got that into gear because the business allowed me to put that time back in. I actually went harder on creating something. Do you feel like there’s an element of that as well? Well, I’ll caveat you. Okay. I was talking fast. Yeah. But did you hear me say the gym? Yeah. Work out. Yeah. So that is your balance. Okay. The more you work on yourself in the gym, you can you can deal with more pressure. Oh, and when I would 100% agree with you on that. And when you’re when you’re in the gym, you’re around the right environment, eating clean, drinking clean, I can deal with more pressure. So I would say if you’re going to try and do all of that and you’re not working out, I would never endorse that. So as I as I said within that um real quick uh blast off there, the gym is a huge part of that. It has to be. I actually don’t know how people are in business and they don’t go to the gym. And there’s many of them. I wouldn’t cope. Yeah. I can only cope because twice a day I’m able to go and just that’s like multiple reasons, if you think about it.

[26:59] Sammie Ellard-King: Like for me, I didn’t start the video podcast because I wasn’t happier with myself, you know. Like I wasn’t willing to go and sit on the camera because it’s had a double chin. And so, like, I would you know, I was making videos, but I’d make them from up there so you couldn’t see the double chin and stuff like that. So, like, you know, there’s there was all of these things that I did in place, but actually, once I put health back into the game, I’ve gone like that. And so it does make you’re totally right. I completely agree. Confidence, the way you show up, the ability to deal with the stress, just the the way I handle myself, the way I walk, the way I talk. Tells a story 100%, you know, and also you know, getting back into the clothes that I liked and all of those things. It’s just like a big tick, you know. I put my three-piece suit back on the other day, you know, it’s been I got done from Savile Row like eight years ago. It’s like one thing I always had bucket lists I was like, I want a Savile Row suit, and like just one of them things, you know, tick it off. Get me in the network. I know, yeah. Keeping up with the Joneses and all that. Yeah, no, it wasn’t. It’s not, it’s very understated, it’s a lovely suit. But like, I was like, Oh, I can’t throw it out. The missus said to me multiple times, like, charity shop, come on. I’m like, nah, one day. And then I got back in it, and then it’s like, right, okay, we’re away now. And so I completely agree with you, you’ve got to be on it for yourself. And actually, it’s probably the best place to start because then it all roads will stem from there. It’s that growth mindset.

[28:16] Aaron Knightley: It everything is downstream. I mean, we can talk about money, we can talk about business, but really, if we actually take it to the core, discipline, no one has it. If you’re overweight, stop putting the pizza in your mouth. No one’s forcing you. If you don’t have any money, stop buying. I always sat, I’m very good with my finances, always have been, you know, when I started this whole journey. Anyone who says they don’t don’t have money, I would just love to look at their finances and their bank statements over the last uh 12 months and just go through it. Because there’s always money. Yeah. There’s always money, and it it’s just discipline. Oh, massively. There’s nothing else really to talk about other than all of this stems from discipline. And and then under that discipline, just make your centre of your life fitness. If you’re having a bad day, go to the gym, get rid of it, rethink, clarity. You know, if something’s going on in your life that’s awful and you’re you’re stressed out, go to the gym and and and deal with it there. And and everything’s just downstream from the gym.

[29:11] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, I completely agree, completely agree. And that could just be running, doesn’t have to be the gym, you know, like whatever your vice is physical activity, exactly, completely. And also, like, you know, I’ve started doing paddle with mates and things like that, and like join a sports team or whatever that might well be. And it’s great for networking, it’s unbelievable for networking. I’m playing golf tomorrow with some friends, one of them’s a business guy. We now do a load of business together. Um, so like these are little opportunities that you can take as well, and I think it’s massively important. Pub or fitness. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And and that’s what I’ve switched. I don’t do the Tuesday night at Shoreditch House at 2 a.m., you know, doing whatever. Used to. I wish something in me still got the party animal. I’ve suppressed it. Suppressed it. Andrew. Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. He’s more the country pub type guy. But you said something to me when we chatted the other day, and it stuck with me. And it’s you said if you’re not selling something online by now, then you’re seriously missing out. What do you mean by that?

[30:11] Aaron Knightley: Well, there’s a huge shift that people aren’t willing to accept. A big portion of old school, outdated, and uneducated people who think that if you move online and you sell something, it’s a bad thing, and it’s you’re you’re scamming people and you are you’re gonna end up on Reddit or something like that. But those people who aren’t in the mindset of I need to sell online, which is what we’re talking about, right? And making that move, they’re gonna get left behind. Shops are closing, redundancy. The new Indian deal, you know, with the UK won’t go into it, but we will we all know what that’s gonna bring, you know, lower, uh, lower costing for workforce, more Indian workers, uh, more AI integration, more tech, stuff like that, more uh redundancies and layoffs or whatever it is, right? There is a shift. So if you aren’t learning how to sell something, there is a major concern that I see that people will struggle. Millionaires are leaving by, you know, but by literally the thousands a month, which will then suppress the economy even more and make it tougher, and taxes will become trickier and higher. And if you’re not learning how to sell something of value online, where you’re earning with a very lean model and you’re keeping your expenses low, if you’re not doing that or aiming towards selling something, you’re really going to struggle. You can’t rely on a job, you can’t rely on the traditional ways of what was the industrial age, you know, the physical labor, the physical shops. I went and bought um a couple of crystals the other day where a lady had shut up her shop in the city centre. She was like, I can’t afford to pay my employees and I couldn’t afford to pay the star, uh, the the rent. So I’ve moved it into my home. And she’s like, but now I can outcompete all of the crystal shops. And I love that because she’s moved on, she’s got her online presence, she’s got a great Instagram. Now she’s able to sell online. So she’s now in a great position. She works from home. Logistically, she’s not moving about. So it can be something physical. It could be something physical, but you have to have that online distribution at least with a lean setup.

[32:15] Aaron Knightley: Yeah. You know, we don’t need employees. We don’t need contracts anymore. I’m sure you don’t have anyone here on a contract. And therefore, you avoid problems. So you don’t have any lawsuits going on. You know, you avoid certain insurances, again, keeping it lean, but you make maximum profit in some form of a product or a service that you can sell online at scalability and you’re not geographically tied.

[33:47] Sammie Ellard-King: Completely agree. If you’re not doing that, you’re missing a trick and you’re burying your head in the sand, whereas you should be grabbing a surfboard because a big old wave is coming. And I I feel over the next five years this is going to be more of a thing. Content creators are business owners. The entire setup that you have here, to someone living in the dinosaur age, they’ll think you’re wasting your time, what you’re doing here, you’re sitting in front of a camera, spieling your whatever. No, this is an entire setup. This is a production, there’s strategy, there’s there’s thought, there’s money, there’s investment, there’s a return on investment coming in. This is a business. Um, this is a modern-day uh age that we live in. And if you’re not doing it, you are going to struggle. What I think is one of the biggest opportunities of our entire time is through social media. It’s free. Like, and I can turn this on now. And we knew you could do a little video that could go ultra viral and it could reach 10 million views. And if I’ve got a link in my bio and I’ve got something for sale, I could make in between hundreds or even thousands and thousands of pounds. And that blows people’s minds when you say that to them. But that effort it took me was 30 seconds, and it can potentially be distributed to the entire world if it’s you know of value, which is just insane. Back before we had social media, you know, you had to take out expensive ads on television, newspapers, you know, there wasn’t that type of distribution. So you have that opportunity in front of you. So if you are at home and you’re like, like, uh don’t know what to do, like, you know, things are tough, whatever, you’ve got some extra time. Learning that is probably one of the most highest leverage skills on the planet right now. And I will back that every day of the week.

[35:32] Aaron Knightley: It is. And I feel there’s two types of people at the moment. The the ones who refuse to believe the transition, and it’s easier to label people scammers and convince themselves that this is not happening. Yeah, we get that. And that they still go in, yeah, they’ll still go in to do a job and they just hope things don’t change, but they are. Then there’s the other type of person. They know it’s happening deep down, but they’re too scared to try, and they’re scared to believe that it actually might be real. And it’s hard to tell what’s real because there is so much fluff out there. There are so many, there are scammers, but there are scammers everywhere. In physical shops, there are people trying to pull the wall over people’s eyes. But the reality is, if you don’t start, you won’t know. You you need to really feel it. You need to, yeah, you need to really feel it. Like my my TikTok, um uh 28 and a half months, I’ve done over 170 grand. Gross. It’s weird to say that. I don’t do anything with the money, by the way. You can’t see me wearing it. I went and got some new on-clouds. You know, um I don’t have any debt. I don’t do anything with the money, really. There’s so much money to be made you just you just need to start and then and then actually feel it because it is real. You just need to know who who to listen to, but you can tell the ones who are being authentic. You you know, you you can see it. You you’re I think people’s BS uh sensor is becoming more um what’s the word? You know, that it they’re they’re learning who is who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Yeah, but give it a go because selling something and anything, you know, this this could be monetised. Anything could be monetised, anything can be monetised if you add value and you solve a problem and you ask the market questions, but it’s going to take time and you’ve got to stick with it. But it will it you will make it eventually if you do the right things.

[37:24] Sammie Ellard-King: 100%. You know, one of the ladies within our community, she makes candles and then she makes content about the candles. She sells out every single one that she does, just by uh from a few reels, and that then pays for she puts that money one into her own investment, two to her kids’ Junior ISA, and then she utilizes her daily income from her nine to five. I think she’s a property surveyor, and then that just covers life and daily bills. She does that in the evening, makes a few TikToks and a few Instagram reels, and it’s buzzing, and it’s a couple of grand a month business, which she’s got rocking and rolling, just from sandals and them like wax things that you burn. It’s wicked. And I’m like, and she’s like, and I don’t really ever want to like that’s I’m just sweet with that. And I just like that’s the level you can use it for. And I think people think about it and they see this five grand to ten grand a month thing, and they think that that’s what they have to get to with it. But there’s actually not if you can start with a hundred pounds a month, it’s very quickly and easily at that point, once you’ve got a viable business model for it to scale upwards at that point, it just becomes about repetition.

[38:25] Aaron Knightley: It also becomes incredibly easier when you ignore social media and you just start creating. Don’t consume, start creating, and stop looking at the five, ten thousand pounds a month. Because again, for you to live a life doing the things that you love, you might only need to make a little side business that makes £3,000 a month. And then you can live your entire life doing what you want. Yeah. That’s all you need. If if £3,000 is what will give you time to work at home, spend more time with your children, go out for a nice meal, a couple of holidays a year, and you haven’t got to answer to anyone, £3,000 is your goal. That is really achievable in, I mean, you can I don’t want to say, you know, a short of a period of time, but if you commit 18 months. That’s how long it took me. Oh, yeah, 18 months as a as a as a baseline, 18 months, your entire life could change. But also be prepared for so many more new opportunities. And then around that, your little subsidiaries, keep building the network, keep working on your health, keep eating clean, drinking clean, managing your money. You know, work on the core thing, ignore the haters, ignore judgment, focus on you, and don’t get distracted and just create, create, create the value, value, value, value. And eventually something will pop, and then you’re there’ll light bulb, and you’ll go, I see, it’s real.

[39:44] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, one of the ladies uh as well in our community, she did it for a whole year. She was getting 200 views, 200 views, a few hundred views, but she was relentless, she just stuck at it, stuck at it, stuck at it, and then one of the videos, 2.5 million, and that’s it now. It’s gone. But overnight, her business completely changed. She’s now left, she’s actually a personal trainer. Um, I know we’ve got a personal trainer in the room. She um left the gym and is now doing it all online simply because she couldn’t actually fend off any more inquiries from that point on. So it is possible, but you’re totally right, you have to go on that journey and be willing to commit. You said three to four years. I think with social media, at least two years of just like it may not work, and that, but it could potentially work on month one. That’s the thing, if you knock it out of the park.

[40:30] Aaron Knightley: It could. That that’s the thing. You don’t know the timeline, but you have to go into the timeline of of aiming for something greater without any expectation, but doing the right things, not not hoping and and you know, doing it every now and again. You you can’t go into the algorithm and then come back a week later. You can’t disappear for too long. You you really have to stick at it daily, every single day. And then it comes down to how bad do you want it? I’ve been on YouTube for five and a half years. I’m only growing now. You know, last night I went over 30,000. You know, I’m growing like a hundred to two hundred subs a day. Now it’s paying off. And I and I know you also just something here. You’ve got to believe. You’ve got to have Delulu. You have to have that nut nut.

[41:17] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, oh yeah. You have I’ve had, I’m sure you have. I have so many people, not so much. I’m the biggest optimist. I’m like, yeah, this is gonna be the 100 million pound business, and that’s what’s looked into my head. You have to tell yourself that. I’m like, yeah, but I’m like, no, I know it. I know, I’m just know it. Even though I could be well off the mark, if I hit four million, happy dates. But you went for it. That’s the other thing. You avoid regret. But it is it is so possible. My my last few words on that is there’s so much money to be made, but again, bringing it, bringing that sort of humble look on it. It’s not about the money, it’s about living a life by design. What do you want? 100%. You don’t need a big limited company to churning out hundreds of millions. You you don’t. You could be a little soul trader doing 50,000 consistently every year. Oh, yeah. But that gives you your comfortable life, and you did everything you wanted.

[42:10] Sammie Ellard-King: I I completely agree. There’s two there’s two different sides to that coin. Well, there’s many sides to that coin, you know. I’m obsessed, absolute carte blanche obsessed, obsessed. So I want to go for the big pie. I just want to. Like, I also because when I do do it, I feel like I’m playing Xbox all day. That’s literally how I feel. Like building businesses are just like me sitting on a computer playing strategy games. It’s just exactly how I feel about it. So, you know, I’m happy to put every waking minute that other people might not be. And you know, it’s exactly the same with the you know the lady that sells candles. That’s absolutely wicked. And I’m like, I back that every day of the week if that’s all you want from it. But looking at that and pushing yourself, because that’s what she really loves doing. She doesn’t love surveying properties, she loves going home, fiddling around with the wax candles, trying different flavours, putting them out to audience, getting feedback on it. That’s what lights are up. Yeah. So, you know, there is two sides to that coin.

[43:06] Aaron Knightley: Yeah, that’s what it comes down to. Do you love what you do Monday to Monday? And if you don’t, there’s a big problem. And I wouldn’t I wouldn’t wait. I’d I’d act upon it. Yeah. Yeah. People I think the other thing, just quickly on that right, I think people are also scared of judgment and failure. So just quickly, is that people don’t want to step outside their comfort zone just in case they get judged because they’ve been so that they’ve been so in the comments, they’ve been so on social media that they are so fearful of what virtual people all around the world will say that it it actually puts them off ever doing it because they see what happens when you get the little slugs out there who who love it on someone’s downfall. And that I find a real shame because that puts people off ever starting, people who have got the qualities, people who have got the talent, but they don’t because they have been so immersed into the digital world. Again, going back to they do care, or they or they believe they care, and they see the horrific uh onslaught that haters will give on someone’s downfall. My TikTok comments.

[44:20] Sammie Ellard-King: I don’t look. Do you know? I don’t know. No, I don’t anymore. At the beginning, it was like, yeah. I I I’ve I’ve seen it, right? I’ve you know my TikTok’s done something like 360 million views now, or just slightly more. And I’ve seen every type of comment. I’m just I’m just not bothered because when you detach yourself and you just drive forward and you keep going, you realise they’re always gonna be there. These little, you know, little gremlins are always gonna be out there. And I love the quote of a man will never reach his destination, or a woman, or or or you know, a wolf, or you know, whatever you are. A man will never reach his destination if he stops to argue with every barking dog. I’ve had some yappy little chihuahuas along my way, and I’m gonna have plenty more. I don’t I don’t entertain it. I entertain the ones that get in value, and I I love the ones that really are inspired, the other ones who just get triggered, neither here or there.

[45:19] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, you you’re totally right. And you you got you got to go through it to develop that thick skin in a way as well, because the first time it happened to me, I was like, oh my god, like he’s literally rinsed me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do. And you’re like, oh well, you know, how do I get over that? And then eventually just go, and then the next one comes in, and then the next one comes in, and then eventually you just go, Oh, lol, like whatever. You know, I’m just like, I don’t even care now. It doesn’t it doesn’t matter. I mean, again, if you are going to put yourself out. There, you kind of have to accept there’s going to be two sides of the coin. Not everyone’s going to agree with you, and you shouldn’t want everybody to agree with you as well. And I but like I feel like if you want to be an agreeable person, don’t be on social media. I think it’s a hard one as well. Just on the whole building a brand or a business, it’s really hard if anyone’s listening to this and thinking, well, do I go faceless? Can I avoid all of this? Just quickly on that, I don’t think that you can. I think for you to survive and compete, you do need to get out there and just embrace all of this and just accept it. Because my take is that the thing that you want to do or the thing that you think you’re going to love doing, if you’re not willing to put yourself out there, believe me, there is someone who wants to do exactly the same thing who will put themselves out there and will steal the thing that you want to do. That’s that’s the tough part that we’re going through right now.

[46:39] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. And someone way less smarter than you is making 10 times more income because they’re simply correct, just consistent and going for it. Yeah. So you can be super, super smart and have this amazing idea, and this little young kid is absolutely killing you just because they’re just like, yeah, whatever. That’s the reality. The biggest asset is attention. Oh, massively. And I think it’s only going to get bigger with the rise of AI as well. Like having that interaction and that trust with somebody online is going to be way more valuable because people won’t know where to trust simply because of the massive influx of AI video that you’ll see. You know the other thing, just quickly on content, right? When I talk to people about creating content and getting themselves out there and sharing their message and again trying to come from a place of value, I don’t know what to post. And really that comes down to, well, maybe you don’t know the problem that you want to solve, but also they don’t want to be authentic to their message. I I did a talk at a summit and it had like 400 people, and I said, right, and I was I was the loudest speaker on the stage, right? I was just saying my mind, and you could tell the other speakers were kind of saying what people wanted to hear. And I said to everyone, right, who thinks that they could create five pieces of content right now if they went out and left the room for 20 minutes, who could create five pieces of content right now? There’s like eight people in a room of 400 that put their hand up. And I think the answer is is because one, they’re scared to, they haven’t had enough practice, and maybe it’s just a confidence thing. But the main reason is they don’t, they don’t want to talk about it because they’re maybe they’re not going to talk about something that they believe, maybe that they’ve been through. And that’s the thing. Everyone’s looking for the perfect piece of content that they think is going to relate. I will post a piece of content knowing it won’t do well, but I know it will hit the certain people that I want it to, because I’m really coming from a place of this is an important message, it’s my message, I’ve been through it, I’ve experienced it, and I know it’s gonna be right for someone because it’s not about views. You know, you can have a my YouTube video, my tutorial, disclosing this, I suppose, but my first tutorial, like I said, has generated over 10k on back end. But it’s not my biggest video, but it was for the right people. Yeah. And that’s the way you need to look at it is like, how many people can I actually help? And then if there’s an upsell from it, great. But but that’s never get caught up in views. I think that’s where a lot of problems stem from.

[48:58] Sammie Ellard-King: Well, we do this with everybody that comes through our program on this, and we say to them, speak to one individual and just absolutely nail that, like you’re speaking to him in the pub, and that’s who you’re speaking to. By speaking to him, you’re going to attract all of the other people that are just like him, but you were just having a conversation with one. If you go out there trying to get the 10 million views or X, Y, and Z, you are never going to get it. You will never ever get it. You’ll be stuck at 200 views for the rest of your career. And it’s just fact. And the moment they make that switch, they never get it, and then they get it on like the some of them get it after 20 videos, some of them get it after 50 videos, and the moment they get it and they start talking to that one individual, that’s where it goes. Everyone’s trying to go for the the golden ticket. They’re trying to be viral.

[49:44] Sammie Ellard-King: Everyone’s wants to be viral. Everyone’s trying to be viral. Let me share something with you just very quickly. Two days straight now, this every morning, I have seen, I saw a lady yesterday morning come out of a corner shop, I saw her come by the uh little letterbox scratching away at a scratch card. She obviously had three of them or whatever it was. What a scratch card, three to five quid per scratch card. She had three of them and she’s she’s scratching away. I’m sitting there looking at her like you daft, whatever, right? Walks up to the bin. 15 quid. Gone. How many times are you doing that a week? Let me guess. You haven’t got any money. Ironic. I bet she says she hasn’t got any money. And then today I saw a guy doing it in the van. I was coming back from the gym. Come on. You know, like that. And I thought, why are you why are you betting? You’re you’re the three W’s. I bet you wish and you want and you wait. That’s why I call them the three W’s. Anyone who does a scratch, why don’t you bet on yourself? Why don’t you go and do some work? Why don’t you compound that into a stocks and shares, ISA? Oh, well, it’s not a lot of money, isn’t it? Well, how much are you saving at the moment? Well, nothing. Right, we’ll do a fiver a week. It’s not a lot, though, is it? More than what you’re doing now, because you’re out spending it on scratch cards. I mean, that just doesn’t that just sum it up? That’s where we are. Scratch cards. I’ve come to accept.

[51:12] Sammie Ellard-King: I think it’s gone into lots of other things. Crypto. All of it. And you know, playing, trying to play these get rich quit schemes, day traders, etc. I have people all the time on my TikTok live stream. I got 20k, what should I do with it? Have you got um uh a year’s worth of emergency fund? No. 20k, there you go, there’s your emergency fund. Oh, but yeah, but that’s boring. Yeah. I don’t know what to say. Start from there. Yeah, start again. Yeah, yeah. Madness. No, I agree. Like yeah, we we I have a friend the other day, I was trying to coach him out of it. He’s got £70,000 in a in a current account, and it blew my mind. And I was like, what why? Like, what are you doing? And he was like, I was like, just put it in a savings account, at least, because you’re getting zero percent interest on that. So people need to educate themselves around what actually matters with money and how you can actually move it to actually make a difference in your life.

[52:06] Aaron Knightley: And don’t listen to anyone about money on the conversation of money. Don’t listen to-money podcasting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t don’t listen to anyone when it comes to what you should do with your money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t take advice off of anyone about money. Well, who would you take advice off then? Only if they’ve made a a hell of a lot more than me. Right, exactly. I might listen to what they’re doing with their money, yeah, but I know what lifestyle I want to live. I have a very good friend that does 350 million a year on his company’s house. He’s a very wealthy man. I’m still not going to be able to do what he does, so I can listen to him talked about, but but I’m not there. And I don’t want that life. I’m not bothered about a Rolls Royce, I’m not bothered about 200 staff. I like my little bubble. I know what my money needs to do. And I I also know my retirement. I think just on the thing with money, I know what number I need to retire. I I know what I need to exit at. So when it comes to money, I don’t think you should take advice or listen or let anyone else in the world. Anyone who hasn’t done anything who hasn’t done it, but also listening to someone tell you how much you should put into a stocks and shares, I said, well, is that beneficial for you? Is that actually going towards yours and your family’s plan? You uh the individual can decide that.

[53:24] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, 100%. You know, like what when we say we say like personal violence is personal based on your situation, like you can’t, we can’t, there’s no one size fits all. It doesn’t work like that. Yeah. Even with investing, but you you probably should be investing just in some capacity. The amount is going to vary enormously for every single person in this room. Yeah. And that’s totally fine. There’s no wrong or right answer to that. No, but even doing the fundamentals first, like everyone’s so quick to do a trading, you know, trading 212 or open up a new eToro because people like the colours, they like the idea of buying a share and they like the idea because it is kind of cool, isn’t it? You know, people go, oh, I’ve got some stocks and you know, stuff like that. I mean, to be honest with you, it’s a conversation topic. It bores the living hell out of me in terms of stuff that that that isn’t um like aggressive and punchy. Like I like to get involved in things, but I have been investing now for a long time, but it I wouldn’t say it excites me. And actually, you know, the other thing is as well, because I know my financial. It doesn’t have to excite you. No. But but again, just quickly, right? You know, when people say don’t leave savings, I I like being liquid. I’ve got a lot of, I mean, I’ve got about 35 bank accounts now. You know, I was featured um in a lot of UK papers about my entire financial setup, and I do leave cash in. I don’t give a monkeys if I’m losing interest. Yeah. I just don’t think about it.

[54:42] Sammie Ellard-King: I just you have the other things. He had nothing, yeah. You know, nothing else. Yeah. Just sitting there. Yeah. Like that, there’s a big difference. Yeah. You’ve got multiple cash flow engines, you’ve got savings accounts, you’ve got investments, you’ve got property. Like you have then this full suite. If you don’t have any of them, yeah, that you need to diversify something. But that’s the thing. Even in the beginning, I just think the first thing everyone should do, build your emergency fund. Yeah, no, I agree. And and and just literally cash stack that one pot. Yeah. And if someone said to me now, okay, cool, what should I get to? Well, I don’t know the figure. No, no one knows anyone else’s figure, but I would always say just a solid year. You know, people do say, we’ll try and get minimum three months, six months. That that is good. And if you can do that, but I still would really just grind through getting a full year because uh a year is actually a long time. And if you ever needed to fall back on a year’s worth of cash, that’s a such a good, strong position to be in, especially for thinking time and comfort and kind of re-gathering yourself. Whereas if you’ve only got three months, isn’t three months can go very quick if you’re under pressure. So I would always say forget about everything else and just go for the year, years worth of full expenses in in an account.

[55:56] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. I think if you’re in a job, yeah, three to six months is a good place to start. If you’re a business owner, 12 months, 100%. Because you don’t know what’s going to happen. Eve even in a job, I’d say the 12 months. Eventually. Yeah, I think so. But I do think you the amount of times it will take time it will take for you to get the year in place, you could get to the three to six months and then can’t continually top that up as well. So you do eventually get to the year, but at that point, you do need to put some money to work in other places. Yeah. I think personally. I think again it’s it’s circumstances, isn’t it? Oh, agreed. Yeah, yeah. It’s so so different to everyone’s circumstance. But yeah.

[56:41] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. As someone who you know, you you massively bit bang on this financial independence and on our business drum, which is wicked, like for you, what’s exciting you for the next few years? Like what you’re thinking is the next biggest opportunity you’re you’re focusing in on. I think really understanding and for also for the listeners to make sure they understand what I’m saying is is evergreen. Do things that are evergreen. So try to create things that will forever pay you. So for example, when you clock in at a job, you’re there for eight to twelve hours, when you leave, pay stops. Try to create things that are evergreen. So think outside the box: memberships, communities, coaching, e-learning, systems, some form of software, applications. What can I create that I can sell from my lounge that then can eventually be reoccurring or at least have a development of a reoccurring model onto the thing that I really want to do? And and that just I did a video on YouTube which went out yesterday, which is create content to escape the nine to five. But the message within that video is creating content will allow you to figure out the business that you should start. And and you want to aim for doing something where it will just be in an ecosystem constantly circulating, and you want to aim for something that earns more and more money, and then just learn how to market and drive traffic so that thing becomes bigger. So that’s what I’m really focusing on now is how can I create evergreen content? How can I make my brand evergreen where it gets to the point where it it pays me? That’s what I’m aiming for. So, yeah, for anyone listening, really figure out how could you turn your passion and your hobbies into a reoccurring model. And that’s what I’m focusing on right now is how can I churn out cash by doing the things that I love? And it does have to be online, really does.

[58:38] Sammie Ellard-King: So that’s what you’re focusing in on. I mean, I can’t tell you like the first time I made money online, like when someone paid me, I think it was like $1.99 for an ebook. Yeah. And I was like, what is going on? It’s a buzz. Yeah. It’s the most odd strangest feeling that like a stranger would do that for you. But once you start going with it, it’s nuts how quickly it starts to snowball around. And again, accessibility to all of us, all this, all this stuff that we’re talking about, this isn’t for a certain type of cloth. Everything we’ve spoken about today is is accessible for everyone. So again, everyone listening to this, you know, at the end of it, it’s for all of you anyway. I would say one of the other things, you know, is is having an exit plan for Peak. So that is also something that we’re we’re aiming on. But also, you know, an events company is in person, right? But we have an online market as well. But now we’re going to franchising. Because again, we can distribute that. We’re not geographically tied, because you we could sell to any country an online version of the model, but also it could be in-person. So, how are we making that evergreen? VSOPs, processes, systems, automation, showing how you can hire virtual people. That’s the other thing, just quickly on this whole thing. When people are thinking about, oh god, that sounds a lot, and let’s just debunk business. Okay, so it doesn’t need to be a limited company, you don’t need loads of staff, you don’t need startup capital, it doesn’t need to be daunting. It is literally starting, figuring out um some form of a plan, asking the market, getting validation and getting on with it, and starting on your own, and uh, but but just trying to make sure that whatever it is you’re doing, you have an online presence, your brand leads the way, you know, you’re you’re trying to develop trust with people, you’re building a community. I think that’s uh really important off the back of this. You need a community to eventually buy the thing that you’re doing.

[60:32] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. Um, and that can be a social media audience, can’t it? It doesn’t have to be in a community. No, yeah, social media, yeah, that’s what I mean. Your social media, you know, audience, viewership, stuff followers. Put in profile, it can be the email, YouTube, Instagram, whatever it might be. Just add loads of value and then learn how to lean things up. So minimal expenses. What do you need? Zoom pro, maybe MailChimp. You need a CRM system. You know, to make great money, you need very little. That’s the other thing that people don’t realise yet. You don’t need a lot. No. The mad thing about this is uh I know some entrepreneurs running on 97%, you know, which blows my mind. Gross, of course. So, you know, but yeah, I’m I’m about 85 to 90% profit. It’s mad, isn’t it? Yeah, I barely have any output.

[61:17] Sammie Ellard-King: I think he has like a social media channels and an email list, and I think a like a very small Shopify mobile store. That’s it. And it blows my mind. And you know, where I run my hospitality business is we’d be lucky to come away with three to four percent a year net profit. Yeah, which is just all of that effort that went into those businesses was just nuts. Whereas on online now we’re at your levels that really, but you know, we have costs, etc. You have to pay people, and you want to grow, you have to pay people, or you have to pay freelancers, or you bring a team in to do roles, etc. And uh those are your options, but you could just this trend of solo panel, the introduction of ChatGPT, AI, you could do everything yourself from home.

[62:03] Aaron Knightley: You you can, and so at home, so this is the other thing your your time management. I don’t now do a lot of podcasts. The reason is is because appreciate you, man. Yeah, but but but uh you know, my my PR lady will send to all the PR, um, all the podcast offers and and and loads of different offers. And and I’m really picky now because I look at it like this. I could get off my ass and could train ticket and go up there and you know, it cost me the day. And or I can just sit here and create another YouTube video and it it’s another lead generator, and I earn X amount off of it on both ends, front end and back end. Yeah, and it’s gonna forever pay me. I can do everything from home and then I can go out with my family, do whatever, go for lunch, and just spend the rest of the day in the sun and I can potter about. I love love pottering about. Um, so I really weigh up time now. It has to it really has to make sense for me. And I I think we give time away too much.

[62:57] Sammie Ellard-King: A hundred percent. The power of saying no, it’s real, mate. I don’t talk to anyone, I don’t talk to people in the gym. I’m becoming more introverted. I I’m honestly because my very good friend Jason, but also my mentor, he is very much the same. I spend so much time with Jason, and what I’ve really learned from him, and I was already going that way, but he sped up the process for me, is I love the bubble that he lives in, and I really admire what he’s done, and and and he’s very much where I want to be. So I I’ve I don’t deviate listening to anyone else. I think that’s the other thing, by the way. Uh, anyone listening, don’t listen to billionaires. Like I don’t watch podcasts of billionaires and multimillionaires. I don’t because it’s too far away from me at the moment. I like to listen to people who are maybe four or five steps ahead of me because it’s actionable for me. Totally. And and I don’t find it too blasé, it’s it’s not too up in the cloud. So I like to move in a methodical way, right? Yeah, 100%. And with Jason, what I’ve been able to do is I’ve been able to see my path. I’m on a very similar path, but he’s he’s very introverted, and I love that because there’s no time being wasted. And um, you know, his motto always free, and mine’s a life by design. It’s it’s very, very aligned, and um so I I really value time. I don’t meet people for coffees, I I I don’t I don’t chat to people, I don’t talk to people in the gym unless they come up to me. As well, like it. No drama. I’m clear in my thoughts and I’m actionable to the things that I do because I don’t involve myself in anyone else’s lives.

[64:24] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah, completely agree. Because like I I now, you know, probably get, I would say, bordering on four or five event invites a week. I did a post about it the other day, and it was weird how many people responded to it. Like I did it was one of those ones where you know You didn’t come to our VIP one, did you? Yeah. I was actually away. Yeah, no, I was actually away. I was pretty annoyed about that, but I will be at the next one, 100%. Um but the power of saying no, if I went to all of those, I can’t tell you the hits that the business would take, the training to London, the cost, etc. The also like the you know temptation of like, oh, let’s have a beer, yeah. All right, then you know, suddenly then you’re not in the gym the next morning, and the the the ramifications of that down the road. And so I think it is really important, especially even more so at the beginning, because when I went and first did Up The Gains, I did it sort of semi-in silence for a you know a little while and worked away at it. But when I went real serious, which is when I went full time on it, I literally turned round to the boys, and these are my best friends that I you know will back till the day I die. I literally went, lads, love you, but I’ll see you in six months. Sorry, I’m out. Like, and they were like, What? Archive the WhatsApp chats, and I just did it because I was like, This I’ve got to be so locked in and focused that I can’t have the distractions around me because they are everywhere, yeah. And so, and that was the only way I could compete at that point.

[65:54] Aaron Knightley: I did that at 16 years old when left school. Yeah, that’s what’s and then I had the blessing of having a child at 20, which then was that clarity, and I I think everyone has their different moments. And it happens to you in you’re 16, 25, or 40, 35, let it happen. But some something changes, and you realise I I don’t entertain. I’ve become very, I wouldn’t say rude, but I’m very blunt. There was a guy the other day telling we were at the sauna, so I do a sauna uh with with the boys every week. We go for a spa day, right? A mandate, right? We all get oil. I love that for you. Oh, yeah, every week, right? I have um well, my business partner laughed because I don’t really do a lot now. I’ve got to be honest. I literally potter about my house, I go to the gym twice a day. I don’t really do a lot, I do a couple of pieces of content and you know, and that’s it. I don’t really do much. And I love it. But here’s the thing I’ve got to the point, I’m not rude, but when people try to talk to me, or there was a guy telling us at the sauna he had a stroke, I just left. And not because I didn’t feel bad he had a stroke, I just didn’t want to hear about it. Like I just don’t, I don’t watch the news, I don’t listen to news because I just I’m in a good mood and I don’t want to hear some guy who looked like the caretaker out of Harry Potter tell me about how he’s had another stroke. I just didn’t, I didn’t want to listen to it because I don’t let things come into my ecosystem that are draining. I, you know, I used to say to my mum, Oh, have you heard about this when I was younger? And she used to go, I don’t want to know, blah, blah, blah. And I really get it now, like protecting your peace. And I said to my mum not too long ago, I was like, I’m there. You know, and I’ve been there for a little while, where I will just walk away from someone talking and I won’t feel bad and I don’t consider it rude because I I value myself too much and my time. Prime example, although I’ve got a clock on my uh back of my hand, I’m right twice the day. But imagine Justin Timberlake’s film, you know, In Time. Imagine if you had an actual digital clock, which we all have, you just can’t see it. Like we all have a Clock, right? A sand timer is ticking. We can’t see it though, but imagine if you actually could see it. I don’t even know if I’d sit here, dude. I’ve got to be honest, if I could see my clock, I probably wouldn’t be here.

[68:03] Sammie Ellard-King: No, yeah. Because it it’s too, it’s too scary to be like, Sammie, I like you, but I’ve got 36,000 hours, eight minutes and 37 seconds, 36, 35 seconds. So I’ve got a maxim. Yeah, I’m just gonna go home with my family. Yeah, yeah. I’m not gonna. So until you get that perspective of time is ticking, why would I go sit down and talk with Sandra or Bob about, you know, he’s got uh another bunion. I don’t care if you’ve got another bunion, Bob. I don’t want to hear about it, even if you are paying for the coffees. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I’ll pretend to have my headphones. So in the gym, sometimes I don’t even play music because I just like to train. But you know, if but if I can see something, the gym session as well. Yeah.

[68:48] Sammie Ellard-King: Jesus, man. That’s mate, I’m a beast. But that’s too much for me, mate. I’ve put some form tunes on or something. No, no, no. I actually like to just sometimes train because you actually focus a lot more. I was finding when I was listening to music, you delay your sets and stuff. Um, but people have come up to me, especially with TikTok. There’s a few more people that are starting to recognise me now, and there’s a couple of people who come up in the gym, and I see them at the corner of my eye, and I’ll be like, and I’ll just like pretend I’m not listening to a thing, and they’ll be like, and then they kind of divert off or stuff. But even if they come up to me, I’m very swift to say, I don’t hope you don’t mind, I’ve got to get on. Yeah, fair enough. Protecting your inner peace. That’s the way I like it. Yeah, no. Are we done yet? Right, I’ve got no you’re you’re right.

[69:34] Sammie Ellard-King: Look, the the Mrs. has a go to me all the time about this because she’s like, You she’s like, you don’t want to do anything. I’m like, yeah, but I’m I’m actually really alright here. I’m actually really enjoying myself. She’s like, Well, I can’t get my head around that. Like, why don’t you want to go out and do it? I was like, so I don’t want to go out and sit in a field because I’ve got nothing on. Yeah, yeah, you’ve been in my house. Uh the um, I don’t want to go out and like sit in a field and then pop into the pub and have a quick one. And it’s it’s like I just find that a waste of time now. And so I’m like, no, I want to do these things, and also I’m like, I want to do these things now, so I can also buy myself even more time to do it absolutely fuck all because I want to go to Australia and watch the cricket for five days because I can, you know, and but I can’t yet, but I will be able to soon. So I that’s why I’m gonna do those things, so I’m gonna buy myself some time later on.

[70:30] Aaron Knightley: This is why I don’t spend money on expensive things because the money would diminish. And when you get into that trap of earning more money, like I have had some months where I’m like, oh, I could go spending, you know, and and I am sometimes I’m enticed, like, I could really do this, or I really want to go and do this, or but then I think I but I might have shortened my time of just being able to sit here. I’ve got a lovely garden, it’s a big garden, and I’ve got two parts to it. And I just like to, you know, potter about, play football, go down to the cabin, sit by the bonfire, come up, go on the deck in, do a live, just mope about. If I was to spend my money, might have to go get a job one day, and then and then go back to a place I never wanted to. And and that’s the thing is is getting attached, you know, to to a to a salary because you’ve been spending it rather than going, actually, I like the simple things of just being able to wake up, do my thing. I’ve got to be self-driven and I’ve got to push myself and I’ve got to stay on top of my game. But I like doing the simple things. Also, just finally on off the off of the time, it is totally true that you don’t have to work as many hours. Yes, in the beginning, you work all the hours. I mean, in my 20s, I’m so glad all this started in my 20s. You know, I’m 32 now, but I started this at 20, even earlier, really, in terms of thinking about entrepreneurship. But I did so many hours and I worked so hard on myself that now I am slightly on the other side where I don’t have to graft long, long hours. You know, I can be hyper-effective because I have barely any outgoings, margins are high, I have a great team, so I can do less hours.

[72:12] Sammie Ellard-King: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I wanted. Exactly. Yeah. I’m I’m getting to that point now as well. It’s great. You know, I’ve got systems in place. I know I can turn up, I lock in hard for uh four to six hours, and then I go to the gym, or I go and play golf with a couple of friends, or I pop out, you know, and into town because I’ll you know, I want to go and check out something, whatever that might well be. And then just having that freedom and flexibility is awesome. And you know, that’s life by design. Right there. It’s my next book, Life by Design. Yeah, I think it’s a great great title. Um, Aaron, I’ve loved this, mate. It’s been awesome. Um, where can people find you, dude? Just Aaron Knightley, just yeah, literally, that’s the search handle, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. Your TikTok’s spicy, it’s good fun, man.

[72:58] Aaron Knightley: TikTok is spicy, TikTok’s juicy, and I would say to anyone listening, you know, that is a platform you want to be on because that is the one that’s really going to take you from maybe someone who doesn’t know, you know, they don’t know you to really propelling you. And honestly, that platform, weirdly, with the weird name that it’s got, has 180 my entire life over the last 28 months. And the money has been insane. Yeah. And and that’s what’s exciting, is I think that’s what I’ve done over 28 months. A lot of times you like just talking in the car and stuff, isn’t it? As well. Like in just I’m just literally talking about my workplace experiences. You know, I’ve done over 300 and like so 370 million views. I’ve never paid for an ad. I’ve earned a hell of a lot of money. I’ve been offered a huge brand deal with Bolt, uh, I think it’s called Bolt on. Mark Tilbury’s just done an advert for them. Um I went from charging £75 for a 60-second video. I can now negotiate anywhere from three to five and a half grand for one 60-second video, which literally I’ll do in my lounge, wearing no pants. Do the video, send it off to an editor, pay them 70 quid. My last brand, my Tide Banking brand deal, that’s paid for Tenerife. My entire uh five-star uh family holiday to Tenerife in two weeks.

[74:18] Sammie Ellard-King: It was tied. Yeah. I just uh it blows my mind to this day. It took me all in, probably with the team three hours, and we’ve earned you know a few thousand from there are scouts all the time on live stream. Yeah. All the time. Think about it. There are marketing managers all the time looking for that’s why I do educational lives with whiteboards and because that they see me and they go, they stick around. Educational, huge engagement. People are locked in with him. If we give him 10 grand or whatever, he’ll get conversions rather than looking at someone who’s just getting the views. That’s what they’re that’s what they’re after. And that is commercialising. Yeah, 100%. And dude, thank you, mate. You’ve been you’re an absolute legend. And uh yeah, I can’t wait to do round four soon.

[75:06] Aaron Knightley: Mate, for sure. All right, bud. Cheers. Cheers, dude.