EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL to WINNING the APPRENTICE | Joseph Valente | The 2%

Although self limiting beliefs and you know, it is very, very difficult and they're very difficult to break. You know, don't work too hard, don't do too much. I'm like, no, no, no, no, I'm fine, I need to do more, I need to work harder. I'm not doing enough, you know, you need to rest. I don't need to rest, I need to achieve more. I quit my £50,000 a year job. I took out £15,000, the Home Development loan with my salary from Tesco's. I bought a van, I branded it Impra, I bought a set of tools, I and within two weeks my business was born. It starts with belief. There's no point having finance, there's no point having a great idea, there's no point having hard work ethic. If you don't believe that it's going to go off first and foremost, you might as well pack your bag and quit now.

Hey everybody.

Welcome to another episode of the 2% where as always, we're interviewing peak performers in all walks of life to decode excellence, give you the strategies, tips and tools that you can use to close that gap between your current and best self, to break free from the 98% and join the 2% of people worldwide estimated to be operating at their full potential. And I'm super excited today to welcome to the show Joseph Valente. Joseph, a big hello to you. Welcome.

Hi, Eric. How you doing, my man?

Yeah, very good, very good. And you've done some amazing things. I mean, I'm just going to mention a few of them and I'm sure a lot more will come up in our conversation today. But you won The Apprentice in 2015.

I can relate to that. I was a guest judge on the Apprentice for, during one of the seasons. So we have. Nice, we have some common ground there.

Excellent. We'll explore that in a bit more detail.

Yeah, yeah.

And you've done a lot of entrepreneurial things. You've gone through the highs and importantly the lows as well. Because a lot of people, you know, all the things that they've achieved and a lot of people don't fully appreciate all the pain that we have to go through to get that sort of achievement. And then these days, I know you're doing, you set up the trade group which is incredible online training company trying to help people, people entrepreneurs in the construction industry scale themselves and their companies.

Right, yeah, exactly right. You know, I felt, you know, coming out of the background that I've had from going as a plumber to A CEO of a national business. In just a few years, that journey was all about leveling up, it was all about upgrading, it was all about finding new skills for education. And when I exited my last business, I decided to, you know, look at the construction industry and see how I was going to help business owners that were construction business owners to become business people, you know, by teaching traditional business skills, sales, marketing, finance, HR structure, you know, recruitment and allowing them to have the, you know, foundational knowledge that they need to scale.

Yeah, and now, I mean, now you're in this, you know, incredible position with this, you know, rapidly growing business just to bring things down a level, though, of course you didn't start that way. And so I'd love if you could just share your humbler beginnings. How did life start for you and what were the early days like?

Yeah, so, you know, as a kid growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. My mum kind of struggled. She did lots of jobs. My dad was an alcoholic, he didn't work. And so, you know, it was a very difficult upbringing for us. It was very hostile and challenging. And, you know, as a youngster, I was always one of those kids that wanted everything and I wanted it now. But. But our circumstances didn't allow us to have those things now. And even circling it, you know, and waiting and circling it in the catalog and kind of asking for it for Christmas, those days just didn't come because we couldn't afford it whether it was today or Christmas. So I decided very, very early on that if I was going to have to make money, if I was going to change my future, change my life, change my circumstances, you know, have a good life for my family and so on, that I was going to have to take action in some shape or form and that I couldn't follow the blueprint of, you know, what my dad was laying out for me. I needed to break the mold and, you know, go and find out what successful people do to become successful and kind of copy that. And I was very, very lucky to have a, have a very successful uncle. You know, my mum's brother was super successful. He was an MD of a big finance company. He'd show up in his brand new BMWs, his sharp suit, very tall guy, walked in a room with presence. And I used to look at my dad and then I'd look at him and I'd say, how did that man become like that? And how did that man become like that? And I decided that I was going to replicate this guy and I wanted to be like him. And so, you know, as. As the years went on and kind of, I entered into my early teens and my mum and dad split up and I kind of became a bit of a rogue at that point. And, you know, you know, I didn't want to listen to authority, I didn't want to be told what to do. I thought I knew best and, you know, pretty much went off the handle, really. And so at the age of 15, I was expelled from school. And I remember at that point it was kind of, you know, even though it kind of seemed like it was my ultimate failure, everybody was around me like, oh, what are you going to do now? You're screwed. Life is over, you know, you've got no future, you've messed everything up. And I remember thinking at the time, well, hang on, this is only just the beginning. This isn't, you know, my final destination. And I can remember looking at my mum when I came out the headmaster's office and she was crying and she was like, you know, you've. You've finished, son, and so on. And I remember looking back at my mom and saying, listen, don't worry, one day you will see that I'm going to be a success. And I just want to quickly fast forward to paint a picture on that story. There was a time, the time and the night that I actually won the BBC Apprentice. I came out.

Through the, like, through the back and across the aisle to go and sit down with Jack D and Lloyd Sugar. And I clocked my mum and she was sat over in the corner and she was crying again. That was the second time I've seen her cry. Fast forward 10 years and I kind of just walked out like an absolute boss and nodded at her. And then that moment I knew she knew that I told her that day that I was going to make her proud and. And it was a prophecy that I fulfilled.

That's beautiful. It's like one of the most special things you can do, right? It's like, to make your parents happy, right?

It's like, oh, without a doubt. And it kind of, you know, I wanted to pay, you know, when, you know, when you're young, you kind of see things in a completely different way as you did when you grow up. And, you know, you're very much focused around you and teenage years are turbulent even in good homes, let alone when you're from a bad one. So it was kind of, you know, just my moment to say, I told you I was going to do it. And, you know, it just goes to show that you can't let people paint you with, with their brush if that's the same. You can't let people put a label on you and if you own those labels, you're always going to become that person. I never let anybody label me or tell me that I can't do it. If I decide that it's done, it's done, you know, and if I'd have listened to those people in the early days, I wouldn't become the man that I am today. So, you know, that's, that's kind of a big lesson for people listening, I suppose.

Yeah. And it's a really interesting point about, you know, I've talked about this on other episodes. The idea of when you have a limiting belief, when you see that you're somehow stopping yourself from progressing in an area or you know, just not, not, not achieving what you would like. And if you really analyze well what's limiting me here, often what you'll arrive at is not even your own limiting belief, but it's like something that you've inherited perhaps from your parents or they inherited from their par and it's not even you, you know, sometimes it shows up, for example, in families where, you know, families, you know, might say things to each other like, well, don't do too much because you know, we don't do that sort of stuff, you know.

Yeah.

Family of a certain type, you know.

Yeah.

Can you relate to what I'm saying at all?

Yeah, 100% I think, you know, taking that from what my mum will say to me, oh, don't work too hard, you know, don't work too hard, don't do too much. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm fine, I need to do more. I, I need to work harder. I'm not doing enough, you know, you need to rest. No, I don't need to rest. I need to achieve more. You know, if I'm always resting, I'm not achieving anything kind of thing. But you know, those self limiting beliefs and you know, it's very, very difficult and they're very difficult to break. You know, we're constantly told, you know, be realistic, don't try and do this, don't try and do that, don't be too ambitious, you know, you know, don't work too hard, you know, don't over, don't try and overachieve. You know, you're not going to be able to do that. And you know, the people that we grow up with, the people that we surround ourselves with, the places that we live, you know, if those aren't environments where people are thriving and that they're, you know, pushing forward and growing, then you become, you know, like the five most people that you spend your time with. Right. So if you're not spending your time with high achievers saying that we can go and do this and we can go and do that and we can do whatever we want and we can put a colony on Mars, then you are going to be like the guys that you're spending your time with. So I always try and break that mold and surround myself with unbelievers.

And so how. What's another way in which people can kind of get out of this cage that they create around themselves with these limiting beliefs? You know, how do you recommend that people break free?

It's kind of. You need an epiphany moment, I think for me, you know, I was. I started my. I've always been kind of a high achiever, I would say. After I was expelled from school, I went to college, I became a qualified plumber and then a gas kind of. By the time I was 19, I was making 40, 50,000 a year salary, which was, you know, 10, 15, 15 years ago. It was about 12 years ago. It was good money, you know, so from where I grew up, that was like, wow, you're like smashing it now. Yeah. And so, and so I read Lloyd Sugar's book when I came back from Australia when I was 22 and I'd got back into the same job, same money, same town, same lifestyle. The lifestyle I tried to escape when I went to Australia to see the world very quickly fell back into it. And my mum got me Lloyd Sugar's autobiography for Christmas that year. And I remember reading it, you know, and it was in my mindset, it was the people that create true wealth and deliver insane success are people that have come from places, not like where I've come from, that they've been given something, they've been blessed. You know, God has graced with a special power that he hasn't given to me, and so on and so forth. So I remember reading this book and thinking, hang on, this guy's built a billionaire wealth. I'm not seeing anything here because it was his autobiography. I'm not seeing anything here that I don't have or I haven't lived or I can't do. And it was literally such a ping, light bulb moment that I quit my £50,000 a year job. I took out £15,000, the Home Development loan with my salary from Tesco's. I bought a van, I branded it Impro, I bought a set of tools, I got a website, and within two weeks, my business was born and I started my company. Like, it's hard to describe for people, but, you know, it was almost. Hang on. I've been told my whole life that I can't do this. I've just read this book and he has done it. I'm going for it. I don't even care about the risk of failure or anything else. I'm 100% going all in on this, you know, and that was kind of what happened from there.

And it's, it's, it reminds me of, you know, another thought. Like I've, I've never had any inhibitions about starting a new business and sounds like, you know, you're, you're similar. And I've always had this comforting thought that all the resources, people, expertise, everything that I need to make that new business, whatever it is, successful already exists.

Yeah.

They're already in the world. So what we, you know, you and I need to do is we just need to connect our way to it.

Right?

We need to.

Yeah.

So what with that in mind, how did you go about stitching together the right relationships, knowledge and expertise to get that first business launched?

I literally just went, you know, I went kind of like a bull in a china shop. Pretty much like I do with anything, if I'm completely honest. You know, I just go for it full force with breaks and hope it works out. And kind of. I bought this van and I started and I didn't have any work. And I remember going like three days in, like, hang on. I kind of need to find some work now. And so, you know, but I've always kind of backed myself to when, when, you know, when you're back, when the writings on the wall or your backs against the wall, sorry, is the right saying that I'm going to come out fighting? I kind of always like that environment. So I bet on myself that, that I'm going to be able to go and win. So I went and found work. I, within a week, hired my first person. Within a month, my second person. Within three months I had an office, you know, within six months I had two people. And kind of by the time I hit 25, I was doing half a million a year. But I was a plumber, gas engineer running a plumbing business. I wasn't a businessman, Right. I was just view, pure ambition and drive and grit. Seven days a week, 18 hours a day. I'd built this Half a million pound company. But I was also very self aware that my skillset needed to upgrade to be able to take it to the next level. And so that's when I started to search for, you know, I need mentor here, I need some. I need cash, I need exposure. I'm not going to get there without something big. Like, something's got to change. And I'm a big believer in the law of attraction. I like to put my energy into these things. I believe, you know, results go where energy flows. And one night of January.

January 9th, at seven o' clock in 2015, I came into my house, I had a real crap day. It was terrible weather. And I can remember thinking, man, I don't know what to do next. I don't know what my next move is. I got my phone out. Lord Sugar's page came up, final call for the apprentice. 24 hours to apply. And look, I've just told you, I started my business and was so passionate because of Lloyd Sugar's book. And I used to tweet him, I used to send fake tweets. Lord Sugar, thanks for the meeting. Can't wait to chat again, you know, because the papers actually picked them up in like 2013, 2014. They were screenshot in these things saying, was there a secret meeting in the past with Joseph? No, that's just Joe being crazy. Sending out law of attraction tweets to Lloyd Sugar. And then as soon as I saw that, I knew the universe had sent me the sign. That was my moment, that need. I was in the exact place right where I was meant to be there. And kind of, you know, believe it or not, I knew from that very moment I won. I knew it, it was mine. It was already done. It was destiny. It was written in the stars for me. And so I followed the process. I applied, I got in, I went for all the auditions, and, you know, on the 23rd of December, 2015, three and a half years after starting the business through reading his book, that same billionaire gave me 250 grand and became a 50% sharehold of my business. Some pretty crazy story, right?

An absolute rocket ship. I love the grit and the determination and just the, you know, you have a real action orientation, right? So it's like, boom, the opportunity to apply for the show comes up. Don't think about it, just execute. Get it done. What on that subject of like, thinking versus doing?

Yeah.

Where, where do you think the dial should be from? An entrepreneurship thing between thinking and doing? Or does it differ depending on, you know, where you are within the company.

I'm kind of. Go on, sorry.

No, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Yeah, it's a great question. And I don't, I don't necessarily think you can be both of those people. I've got a business partner who's completely different. To me, he's the thinker, he's a logical one, he's the planner. And if it was down to him, nothing would get done. It would be well planned out but we wouldn't execute on anything. And if it's down to me, loads of shit gets done. But it's chaos. So in terms of, you know, is creating chaos. So in terms of finding, you know when you spoke earlier about finding people that are aligned to where you're going and have they got the right talent? I look for people that have different skill sets. To me, you know, two Joes does not make a good opportunity. Two Joes, two of me in a room together, it isn't going to go down well. I need to know what I'm good at and I need to hire people to complement what my weaknesses are. Yeah, because I have a lot of weaknesses, a lot of weaknesses in business and in just general skills. But I'm extremely good at a couple of things and so I'm very self aware about what I'm terrible at. And I don't spend time investing on trying to improve it if I'm completely honest because I don't like doing those things, it takes too long and I'd rather improve the few things that I am good at. So I hire.

I hire against those roles to bring people into the business to complement and create the alpha team. You know, me and Chris as a business partnership are a lot more effective than we are apart. So that kind of then makes the perfect hybrid of a partnership, which is the perfect type of an entrepreneur, I suppose. But I don't think you can be both necessarily.

I mean, what a fantastic answer, you know, thinking versus doing well, you need both respect, be aware of what you're good at and then make sure that you got the right people on the pitch, you know, on the, on the field to help you, you know, win the game.

Right, yeah.

Wonderful. Beautiful. Earlier in the chat, in our conversation you talked about your uncle and you talked about how you wanted to model his success and modeling the success of others. I mean, well, it's one of the primary ways, obviously human beings learn. But in your modeling of success, what have you, can you share some of the key insights that you've learned?

What in terms of model it just modeling success in general across the board.

So we could be specific. For example, like with your uncle, what the traits within him that you thought, okay, I need to be more like, you know, X, Y and Z.

Okay, great, great. Presence, yeah. Walking into a room with presence. When I walk into a room, I intend everybody in that room to know, you know, it's kind of, I like that I'm walking in Joseph's here now everybody look and give me your attention. That was one kind of, I suppose the way that I engage with people, you know, trying to, trying to kind of get the best out of people. You know, if, if, if my staff heard that sometimes probably they'd say different, but sometimes I can be a bit of a beast. But you know, trying to, trying to, trying to, trying to get the best out of people.

In terms of like. And that's kind of what I get from him. You know, dressing smart, looking good, feeling good, talking confidently, being the leader. You know, if a bill comes to the table, it was always, he would take care of it, I'll take care of it. It was always taken care of. I'm always the guy to take care of it. Listen, it falls to me. I'm the man, I will take care of it. So kind of those types of things. And in terms of like, you could look at Lloyd Sugar, like there isn't too many traits that I would want to take from Lord Sugar. You know, I'm not going to pretend I don't think he's the greatest character in terms of a likableness. But once again, I'm very self aware sometimes. I'm sure in a business environment, when things aren't going right, you know, I'm probably not the greatest person to be around sometimes. So, you know, I try to look at what, I try to take things like his ambition, you know, his belief, his. I say ruthlessness. I am very ruthless in some, in some circumstances I think you have to be. If you try to drive, you know, real big success, I think, you know, ruthlessness comes down to it. So I suppose it's about taking bits from a number of different people, you know, and I take, I listen to, I listen to Buddhist monks, I listen to great speakers, I listen to successful business people, I listen to all different types of people and kind of try to take each bit from them to create the best version of me.

So we get like part Buddhist monk, part Lord Sugar, part your uncle, a.

Few other things and we get this like Frankenstein.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Now what's, what's Something that you believe that maybe you find few other people believe or that they don't believe at all. What's something that you believe but that others don't?

Anything is possible.

Anything is possible. I literally believe that anything is possible. I believe that you can speak anything into fruition. I mean, you just got to look at. And I'm, in terms of, you know, my belief. You look at Elon Musk and what he's achieving right now, it's kind of, you know, unfathomable to so many people. I know that's levels, that's levels. And you know, I'm kind of nowhere, not even on, not even on that spectrum, but you know, that kind of self belief there. But anything is possible. If he can do it, then why can't I? You know, I always look at other people's journeys and go, if they can do it, then it's being done. There was the old.

The old thing about the four minute mile. Yeah. There was a guy and I can't think of his name, I always forget it. But there was, you know, nobody, everybody thought the four minute mile was impossible until a guy ran the four minute mile. Then within a month another person ran a four minute mile. Then it was 390, then it was 380, then it was so on and so on and kind of it's almost impossible. It's always impossible until somebody does it. Yeah, but what's impossible to me is to flick a light switch and a light comes on. What's impossible is to see some, you know, a chunk of metal in the sky flying people to kind of another country and it landing and everybody just gets out and they're like, oh look, we're on the other side of the planet. You know, that's impossible to me. But kind of being, being whoever I want to be isn't impossible. And if somebody could do that and people, you know, a lot of people get into a plane like it's nothing. Oh well, I'm just in a plane and I'm going on a journey and I'm landing. But they don't think, hang on, how's this plane flying? Because I've got no idea how a plane stays in the sky. No idea whatsoever. Right. I have a rough idea, but not a detailed idea. So if that's happening and you're flying in the sky at, you know, 500, a thousand mile an hour and you can land across the world, then you're telling me that you can't go win that promotion. You're telling me that you can't go and start a business. You're telling me that you can't become a millionaire or, you know, whatever it is, or buy that house or go to that place or get that girl or get that guy, you know, so look around you for inspiration of what crazy stuff has been done and then kind of relate that to your own life and go, you know what? I can do whatever I want to do.

Love it, love it, love it. Leap and the net will appear. That's a quote that I live by and it seems like we share that kind of mentality.

If you could only mentor one person in the world in your way of.

Thinking, yeah, it can't be a family.

Member or a friend. You can't do one of those cop outs like my wife.

Right?

Not that that's not a great answer.

But you can only mentor only one person in the world in your way of thinking, can't be a friend or a family member. Who would it be and why?

Okay, good question. And I'm just going to say because I have to. I'm having my first child in eight weeks and it's a boy. So if I could have answered it, it would have been him. He is going to be the perfect version of me or a better version of me. Who would I mentor and why?

Who would benefit from this?

Bold, I suppose another. Another version of me. Another. Another teenager that's dad's gone, is, you know, mum's moved on. He's kind of there and he's, you know, stuck and he doesn't know what to do and he's getting in with the wrong crowd and he doesn't know where to turn and he's kind of, you know, doesn't want to be a bad person, but is being a bad person because he's angry. So just maybe that guy, you know, just one person, that guy. And just show him that, you know what, Believe in yourself. Change the stars. Become a man. Don't worry about what's happened. Do what you got to do. I suppose so. Another teenager that's not got a father that is about to go down the wrong path in life. And then I'll grab him and then I'll pull him back and stop him.

Great answer.

Love it.

Do you feel that you've reached your full potential?

You know, I don't, I don't, I don't try to be cheesy, but I feel like I'm only just getting started, you know, just getting started.

What's left to focus on for you? What's what's the future?

It's so difficult because, you know, by the age of 30, I'd won the Apprentice. I'd been informed I had a bestseller. I did a number one podcast in the world on itunes on built a national largest boiler installation company in the uk. And it was kind of at one point in my life, everything I said I was going to do it, everything I touched turned to gold. It was literally, that's what it felt like. And so now I look at my life and I go, right, what is it that I actually want to do? Where do I want to end up? Who do I want to become? What do I want to be? And I feel like the answer isn't fully there yet. You know, I want to achieve 100 million.

100 million valuation of my business by 35. So I've got about three and a half years to do that. I want to reach billionaire status by 40, so I've got 9.5 years to do that. I want my own TV show. And not being a star on the show, I want to be the star of the show, like an Apprentice style TV show. I want to create an international business that operates on every continent in the world. I want to leave a legacy that's going to last a thousand years. And, and so, you know, people look back and go, wow, man, that guy actually left something when he kind of left the planet, you know, he made an impact. He helped people believe that anything was possible through what he achieved. Kind of like what Lord Sugar did for me, I suppose. But just make it more known so people can buy into that journey. So only a small list.

Yeah, it's a, it's a very, very.

Ambitious list and I think that's great because part of what I like to do on this show is make sure.

That people realize that the people I'm.

Interviewing are just people at the end of the day.

So with that in mind, I'd like.

You to picture in your head that.

You fail at all of that. You don't achieve anything that you just told me that you want to achieve. None of it.

If that were to become the truth, if that were to become reality, what would be the number one reason driving that failure? Why might that happen? If that were to happen, what would be the reason?

I mean, look, it's very, very difficult for me to comprehend that outcome if it were to happen, because it will never happen. But if it, if it were to happen, I'd have to be dead, right?

It's the only way. Or completely incapacapacitated. I mean, as far, there is no other way that it cannot happen. I'm so set on it happening and based on my track record and I've said everything I said I'm going to do comes true. I can only now just believe that it will all happen unless I'm not on this planet anymore or something happens to me.

Beautiful.

Love it. That's definitely confident.

You could share just one final tip. Super practical tool.

Yep.

Which would help a listener kind of break free from that 98%. Join the 2% of people estimated to operate at their full potential. What would you recommend that they do, you know, on a daily basis? Or what's that one powerful tip that you can recommend?

Be better than you were yesterday in some shape or form. I know it's very, very basic and very, very simple, but you know, I'm always pushing people that tomorrow you come in and if you're not 0.1% better than you were yesterday, then that's better than you were yesterday. If you are 10% better than you were yesterday, it's better than you were yesterday. If you're always focused about being better than you were yesterday, that is constant improvement. It's constant improvement. So just own those words. Be better than you were yesterday. And I know that's quite broad, so I can give you that as an answer as kind of, as a set of, as a quote to kind of live by. But I think that's practical in itself. I know people might think that's a cop out or it's too vague, but I think that's quite practical or I love it.

I personally think that that is one of the most important things for people to live by is forget about competing with those around you, compete with yourself. Be better than who you were the day before. Right.

100%. So I can drop you that one and I'll drop a practical one. And that is write down your goals and review them day and night. I think one of the biggest things that's made me that, you know, and everybody says, oh, goal setting, goal setting, goal setting. And people that say they set goals, they don't really set goals. And if they do, they don't really review them. But you know, in terms of setting goals and look at them day and night, day and night, day and night. And I am going to hold my hands up and say, I do not review my goals day and night. There are days that I miss it, but I always try and get it in the morning. If I miss it in the night, I try and get it the next morning. If I miss it in the morning, I try and get it at night. But I have one of these things here called Remarkable. Right. It's a. Like a. Right. I don't know, is this a video podcast or not?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, good. So if you go here, I've got goals for 21 May. I don't know if you can see that, but these are my headers and I've got pages on each one. So I set goals like this. I set sales goals, health goals, wealth goals, educational goals, relationship goals, brand goals, networking goals, destination goals, business goals, and not for profit goals. And then I've got a page against each one of those goals outlining what it is that I intend to achieve within that month against those set of goals. And I don't always get all of them, but some of them. I find that I get the surprising ones that when I wrote the goals I didn't think I was going to get, and the easier ones I don't get. Like, it's quite a strange thing. There was one that I wrote down the other day, and I live in a city here, and I was like, speak to this politician. Yeah, I've become obsessed with wanting to speak to politicians at the moment. Right. So I was like, speak to this politician here. And then lo and behold, something happened and he got promoted to head. The head councillor here, head of the city council. And we ended up speaking, we ended up connecting on it. And it was kind of very strange that I look back and I'm like, man, I wrote that guy's name down a week ago and then he's got promoted and now we're chatting about it because I knew him anyway, kind of. It was kind of a strange one. But it's weird ones like that that come true and probably the easier ones don't come true sometimes.

I could totally relate to that. There's been just the other day, I was looking back at a list of goals that I had written, and similar to you, I'll write them down. They get written. I don't refer to them daily. I have the aspiration to. It's, you know, it's more of hit and miss than that.

Yeah.

The act of having conceived them at some point, having written them down, is so powerful because even if they're not like front and center in your mind, I look back, you know, the other.

Day I was looking at the goals.

I was like, huh? Oh, yeah, I achieved those two.

Yeah. So crazy, right? Yeah, it's so crazy. And it's kind of. It's kind of crazy, but it's not crazy. You know, it's so crazy that it's not crazy. And we. And when people. I'm a big believer in the law of attraction. I don't know if you are. Sounds kind of like you are.

Yeah.

And so, you know, for me, it's kind of, you know, that whole affirmations and sending out your desires to the universe and asking to them to the return and you know, when you first heard hear about that stuff, it sounds like pseudoscience magic, you know, bs, most people think. And I remember when I first found out about it at the age of 24, I typed it into YouTube. Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey. Jim Carrey, you know, Bob Proctor, like all of these guys and they're all talking about it. And then I remember it was like I'd found gold somewhere. And I'm kind of telling everybody around me, you know, mum, guess what? Friends down the pub, guess what? I've got this thing where you, you know, you, you vision stuff and you believe it and it comes true. And they're like, what a load of bollocks. Right? What a load of bs. And then I remember thinking from that day, well, hang on. You know, it's kind of like the dad and the uncle thing again. You're there, these guys are there. Who am I going to listen to? So then I chose. You know, we spoke earlier about replicating success.

Yeah.

Do the things that the people are already doing. Follow what successful people do. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. This stuff has been done before. Okay, so follow it. Watch as many podcasts as possible, read as many books, listen to as many podcasts, watch YouTube videos and see what these people are saying. And take the good bits that you want to take and get rid of the bits that are not about you. And then that will give you a very quick roadmap to the shortcut to success. And there is no shortcut to success, but there kind of is a shortcut to success as well at the same time.

Yeah.

No, I love it.

And I like what you just said there about look at what people are doing and take the bits. Take the pieces that you like. Right. Because there is no, like I say.

There'S no, you know, there's not.

Like, this is the way. And this is. I might have a way. You have a way. And you have to just kind of look at it all, soak it in and determine, well, what's your way going.

To be and you only learn that.

By trying stuff out. Like you're suggesting, experimenting, seeing what works, discarding what doesn't. And it's that constant evolution, right? Getting better and better, stronger and stronger.

And, and it's, it's funny because like, if you look at the, like they look at Google, for example, kind of how they run their offices and it's such a casual environment and people come and go and everything else. And then you kind of look at, I suppose even for my own style, I wouldn't be able to run an office like that would. It would send me crazy to just kind of have people coming in and out and like relax and kind of doing what they want and all of that type of stuff. And so, yeah, but obviously they're super, super successful. And then you've got other businesses that are a bit more traditional, office show up, do your thing, you get behind the desk, you do your work, you're focused and stuff. And that works. So it is quite surprising, but there are common traits in kind of all of those businesses. Have you got a client? Are you providing value? You know, are you going above and beyond for customers and kind of do you bring the right people that fit your business and so on and so forth. So different strokes for different folks. But you know, in each one of those success stories there will be common traits, even if on face value they look like completely different people or completely different organizations.

And there's, and there's also, you know.

There'S common traits in business, like you're saying. And then there's also a lot of.

Common traits that have come up in our discussion, right, Such as, you know.

If you want to reach your full.

Potential, you need to, you need to.

Believe that it's possible 100%. And that's the, and that's the biggest, you know, that's the. For me, that's the biggest. It starts with belief. There's no point having finance, there's no point having a great idea. There's no point having hard work ethic if you don't believe that it's going to go off first and foremost. And when you might as well pack your bag and quit now, you know, you may as well not even bother getting started. You know, you either believe it 100% or don't bother because it is not going to work. And at some point it will catch you up and it will fail. So, you know, and I've seen the things that I've done in the past that have failed and it was when I really wasn't that, you know, passionate and interested in it, but also I didn't really believe it's kind of, you know, well, this could work. So I'll go in. It kind of could work. And they're the ones that have failed. The ones that have succeeded for me are the ones where I've just gone in 100% is, you know, all in, all in. All in. All in. All in.

Yeah, there's. I'm not going to embarrass myself by misattributing the quote, but there is a quote. I think I know who it is, but you can.

Either you can.

You can believe you can, or you can believe you can. Either way, you're right.

Yeah. Love that. I can't think of who that is either, but I found it a few times and it's a very, very good quote.

Awesome. Joseph, really enjoyed the chat, really enjoyed the conversation. You got lots of energy.

I think you're only at the tip.

Of the iceberg for what you're going to achieve, clearly, with the ambitions that.

You'Ve kind of outlined.

Thanks for all the advice and the stories that you shared. Again, really appreciate that.

No problem.

If people listening want to get in touch, reach out to you in the same way that you've reached out to people, how do they do that?

So hit me up on social media at MrJoseph. Valente is most of the tags insta, Twitter, LinkedIn, stranded. I'll be there in some shape or form.

Awesome. All right, thanks a lot, Joseph.

Take care, guys. Thank you very much.

It.