https://www.listennotes.com/e/04949b602db24967bd632ee63c2d678c

Hey, my name is Louis Scoopy and I'm the host of the Talk4 podcast, the founder of Anvil Tactical, Airsoft and Fightson. And here I am on the EA podcast. Looking forward to Talk EA interviews, episode.

532, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round. Seven days a week. Join Mario Ficcini for today's Expert Authority effect interview. Expert Authority World. Do I have an exciting guest for you today. We have Louis Scupian on today's episode. He has the Talk4 podcast and he has an airsoft business for Anvil Tactical. And he's doing some extreme stuff, not just in business, but in life. He's really cool. I was just talking to him before. I said we need to capture this on the show. And just having a zest for life, which I think a lot of entrepreneurs skip over. It's always, well, we'll talk about it. I want to get him up here. So right after we thank our sponsor. Let's Louis Scupian.

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Hailing from Bristol, England, Louis Scupian. Louie, how are you feeling today?

Oh, man, I'm excited. It's been a, it's been a good day. It's the evening time here in the UK and I've had a busy one, but I've been looking forward to this and it's always nice to put myself in the guest seat for once after hosting so many damn episodes.

Yeah, taking a break from the hosting side of it. Kind of nice, isn't it?

Yeah, totally, man. It's a whole different experience and it's nice to see how you do things. And like you said, we had a great chat just before we came on here and I can't wait to put it to, to a recorded podcast, dude. I think it's going to be great. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, the pleasure is mine. And I can totally relate because people go, do you like hosting or guesting more? I go, it depends. Because when you're a guest, you just show up and say, share from the heart and everything. And now I'm like, okay, what's the button? Do we have this? Is this streaming Is this recording? It's all this, you know, so same thing on stage. It's like I love speaking on stages when someone else run in the event. So let me ask you about your show. Why'd you start it? And tell me about the extreme zest you have here for life. Because. Because just seeing what you were doing, and to further elaborate, it was also the reason I was like, he's not only seems cool, but like you're doing some big stuff and have a pretty decent following. And how, I mean, you're very down to earth and everything, but how are you combining so many different. I think that was it. How are you combining large following with down to earth, with doing the exciting stuff? Because I've generally find someone. Most entrepreneurs are like, really good at this, this or this. Like we were talking about. We don't need to share everything. But there's certain entrepreneurs who are really good at certain things and they're complete pricks at other stuff, or they're very good at this and they're bad at that. You seem to have found a magical way to encapsulate all of it. So please share that with us.

You got it, man. So, yeah, I think, I mean, to dig right into what you just said there, then we'll go into, like how I started the podcast in a moment. But really what I've found looking at other entrepreneurs speaking to people on my own show and really in my own life is that we are all dealt a hand of cards when we're born. We've all got a certain unique set of skills and a certain set of weaknesses too. And you're going to find that good entrepreneurs, they fill those gaps. Those things are not so good at those things that maybe you're lacking at. I mean, for me, for example, at, you know, tennis was my thing from 4 to about 20 years old, and something like national.

National championships, right?

Yeah, man. So I was national champion, traveled the world, got to around 400, 500 ITF, which is the junior one, and did really well, won some tournaments out there and played for England, won for my country, which was obviously surreal experience, but really the whole tennis thing ripped back, you know, the rug on what you're good at and what you're not so good at. So for me, you know, I was a pretty sporadic, slightly, you know, flitty guy who would go kind of like by motivation to start with. And then I had to really learn like those. Those discipline things and that consistency side of things and like the planning, the goal setting, that was never my Thing, So that was kind of, you know, delegated to other team guys and stuff.

So I just, I mean, you started at 4, you could give yourself a break. I mean, but after five, that's unacceptable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll see that. Yeah, you gotta got out the pram and your milk teeth are out. That's when life gets real, right? No, man, it was good. So, yeah, like I said, really, you know, developed those unique kind of skills and found out what I was good at, what I wasn't good at from sport really at a young age. And, you know, it was only really quite recently that I started kind of putting this implementation method in this list thing that I've created, which is just absolutely bolstered my life in terms of getting stuff done that I need to get done and filling in those gaps. But in terms of the stuff that I'm doing, the podcast, like I said, I was a professional tennis player. Covert Hit. This is going to be the short version. Covert Hit. Lost my sponsorship, was left with a void and kind of, what am I going to do now? Because I was home educated, didn't have exams, and I was kind of thinking, what am I going to do? I'm going to be sweeping streets. So I started my own business, which is obviously a long process than just saying that in one sentence. But yeah, I started my own first business, did really well of it. And then what was the first one you did? My first one. So that was Anvil Tactical. And as we kind of mentioned, really just before we came on the show, both fans of Airsoft. Right. So I, I'd been a fan of Airsoft since a kid. I mean, it ties back to the tennis days. My mom and dad would, you know, blackmail slash bargain me to do well in talent ID camps and tournaments with the promise of a BB gun at the end of it. So I was a fan of it as a kid and I knew it was something I wanted to do stuff in, in the future and I certainly did just that.

Yeah, I may or may not have had friends over in, well, one, you can ask my mom if I may have used plants as aiming targets. And there was holes all over the house in the plants. And actually one of my good friends from school who is on our team, who I appreciate. April, if you hear this, I know you were there for the party when we had people and we thought it was a good idea to shoot from the second floor down to the first. But I, being the smart person I was, was like, let's, let's not make A mess. Let's fill a Rubbermaid container with water because the water was going to break the speed, you know, it didn't. All that happened was the Airsoft pellet broke the Rubbermaid and the water ended up in of all the rooms right next to the piano, the elegant room, the piano room. So. Yeah, but shooting's fun. And live. Live ammo pellets, whatever it is just, it's. I think the appeal to me is the skill set. Like you're not going to do it randomly. You have to know what you're doing. You know what I mean? It just adds a different element than. But even, even like the video game guns and stuff like that. So. Yeah, I get it. I. Good for you for starting an airsoft company. So how did that come about?

Oh man. Well, firstly, I'm not going to leave you hanging with your own embarrassing airsoft store. I have to tell you, my own one. So when I was real young, I had this.

I'm really embarrassed, to be honest. I thought it was a good idea, like.

Yeah, me too. Well, either way, I'm gonna. I'm gonna share some embarra and stuff. You say. Yeah. Young, young lads. We'd just been away on holiday for about a week and I'd left my beloved vsr10 sniper rifle back at home and it was like my dream because it was the youtuber who I loved, he'd been using that one and I got it and anyway, I got home, couldn't wait to get my hands back on it and you know, as any young kid would do, you don't really check for all the safety stuff before you. Before you pick up the. The ass of Gundi. So I, I went and immediately, you know, checked the trigger was still working and found there was a bullet still in the. In the chamber. And then obviously the barrel was facing towards my bedroom window and planted a hole straight through the glass pane. And I'm glad. No idea. You have no idea how, how difficult it was to explain that to the parents. But. But yeah, so that's my start of Airsoft, I guess. So we're gonna ignore that bit. But anyway, the business side of things.

So you at least used a gun and it was an accident. If you want to ask my mom, I may or may not have had a little bit too much candy one Easter and they sent me to my room for breaking a window with a. Apparently some wood lying around outside. Now who would be leaving wood around? Like, probably not a full two by four, but a chunk of a two by four. And I thought playing in the yard and throwing it through the window on Easter would be a good idea. Now, that wasn't an accident, it was deliberate. Why that was a good idea, don't remember. But, you know, the dumber thing after go, they said, go to your room and take your candy with you. You're just giving me a holiday right here. Like you want me to not talk to anyone, go in my room where there's video games with a basket full of chocolate. Okay, sold. Yeah, but you, I, I will say, when you said, yeah, I didn't, you didn't realize there was something in the chamber. I'm like, oh, God, please don't let anyone have been hurt. So sorry for the window.

But no, yeah, it was, yeah, we, we, we learned from our mistakes and that was one of them. But yeah, so in terms of, hey, you started a company around it and it was. So I think this, this ties into a message I want to portray here, I think as well. So I'm just going to put it out there. I'm just going to say that, please, I think when you start something that you're passionate about and you go and monetize something that you have passion for, you do such a good job of it because you know your industry and you know your craft off by heart. So for me, that was seeing something I'd bought on a manufacturer's website do a vest like a pot, going for about 10 times the price I'd bought it for just a few weeks earlier. Now it's like a plastic grip or something. And you know, there it was with, you know, it was on my rifle. 12, 13 pounds. Yeah, probably about 16 bucks for you guys, I guess. And then I saw it on this website for about 50p, but you have to buy 10 of them. So I thought, this can't be the same thing. It's just some knockoff is some cheap quality rubbish. Exactly. But you know, young me, I didn't really realize that by then. So I bought 10 and thought, hey, you know what? Worst case, I've spent five pounds. Okay, fine. So they arrive, they are literally spitting image of the other one. Exact same thing. So I go to ebay and I put them on there and they're gone in like a day. And so then I order some more and same thing happens. Then I go to that manufacturer's website, have a better look at it and I buy some other types of it too. So then I've got, you know, I build up to about 20, 30 a day, like In a week.

Wow.

It's crazy. And so, you know, but what I didn't realize was the reason why I was doing so well with it was because no one else was doing it, because it actually wasn't strictly speaking aloud on ebay. But I didn't realize that. So I started getting these action strikes and stuff, and I was wondering why. And basically, the long story short, without complaining too much, is that on ebay you're not allowed to list something that could technically be used on a real firearm too, although it's literally a toy replica. So there you go. Anyway, there's me with about 80 of these four grips at home that just arrived from overseas, and I'm thinking, what the hell am I going to do with it? So I go to Instagram, which is a platform, obviously. Yeah. So, you know, Gen Z, very familiar with Instagram, went and built an Airsoft account, got in touch with a load of people. Network, network, network. Eventually built my own website and just listed these grips on there and started making connections with people and did this thing called an ambassador program where I offer people, like, discounts stuff if they support the business in the early stages. Started doing really well. And then I started expanding the product range again, upgraded my website, which I built all myself. The Instagram following skyrocketed and then I innovated my own product and then it just went wild.

So you used Instagram and is that where you built your following too? Because I know you have a pretty substantial following on there as well as YouTube.

Yeah. So Instagram is. Instagram is a great tool. It really is. So I. I mean, Shopify, great platform to run a website through because it tells you where stuff's coming from. So you can see where these links are coming from and where these referrals are coming from. Like 70% of my sales were coming through Instagram.

Wow.

I didn't even realize it, but, you know, I was sinking a lot of money into Google Ad. And then when I actually started looking at the analytics stuff, I was making so many sales, just remaking Instagram posts and because I knew what I was doing with the account.

And to be clear with anyone listening, you're not saying Instagram ads versus Google Ads. You're saying organic Instagram just from free posting versus ad spend on Google.

Yeah. So, like, I didn't have a business lane, I didn't have a startup fund. I had like a couple of hundred pounds to make a business out of. And I had to figure out how I'm going to get top quality Results out of, you know, budget, budget spend basically. And the way I did this was through literally optimizing the organic growth. My Instagram account, another thing too, which I'll get into in just a second. So the first thing I did was just researched, research, research. How the hell can I get myself onto the top of the hashtags and how can I blow this account so that it's in front of as many people as possible when I just click post Free engagement. So that's the one thing I did to start with. Just figured out how to grow the account, how to get the posts at the top and what to do. And it's actually quite simple. It's different now. It's harder, but when I, when it was back then, you know, a couple of years ago, it was a little bit easier. The other thing I did was I spoke to a lot of people and I got these people on, like I mentioned, ambassadors. So I'd offer them 15% off personally in the store, 10% off for their followers with custom links and to be part of like the ambassador community. And they get the patches to put on their gear and everything. And the trade off was that they would repost everything I post. If I launched a product, they would post it and if I made a story, they would share it and they'll just actively promote it at the sites and the game days and everything. And you know, in the first few months, just spamming these messages out to accounts because Airsoft is a pretty tightly packed community. It's one of those really niche sports. So it just blew up. And I had about 150 of these people doing that in the team in the first few months. Wow, man, that's a lot. Skyrocketed it. So that's just so much free engagement. And then obviously that traffic turns into an email list and then sky's the limit. You do what you got to do with that list.

So I got to ask you because you're just just very nonchalantly talking about what I've heard people talk about for years. And in some cases I can think of specific people who have heard it for over 10 years and they're still trying to figure it out. And you're like, well, I just used common sense. There was a need here and this and that. And I just did what everyone does on social and this and that. But that Ambassador, it's very impressive because a lot of people don't realize the power with ambassadors, partners, affiliate, joint venture, whatever you want to call it. And for us being A publisher. Book launches. I have it in my book. It's chapter six. No, chapter five. End of chapter five. Build a launch team. Most people never talk about the launch, and then. Or they do, they talk about the launch the day before, and they never rally anyone around it. And even if you only have 100 people, and we were talking about this, the size of someone. Audience. I've had people on the show with a million people. I've had people on the show with a thousand. But you have to remember, even listeners of the show, if you were to put a thousand people in a room, that's a huge room of people to talk to. So even if you got 10% of that, so good, good on you. Because 150ambassadors, some people only have 2, 3, 4, 500 people. And to get that percentage of them actually promoting it, because again, I know people with 10,000 people on their list and they're like, only only got 23 people to help. Well, 23 is better than none, number one. And number two, you have their audience. You don't need 10,000ambassadors. I would take 10 with the right people that want to support the mission, that want to help. They're doing it for the right reasons and have enough of an audience. I don't even want to give any metrics to it because same thing with podcasts like we both have about the sponsorships. They're like, oh, you don't have 10,000 listeners or whatever. Most people don't statistically. But 200 people like an airsoft podcast on Airsoft stuff. Running Airsoft ads, 200 people is going to be a game changer versus 20,000 of just lukewarm whatever. Would you agree with that?

Yeah. Think about it like this. So what you said was spot on. But when you take these people, what you do and when you bring them on board into a team thing is you're giving them an experience rather than just to go to the website. They order something, they get something and they're happy and you're bringing them onto your team. And what does that mean? Okay, so you may think, okay, it's great, you just got another. Another number to the metric. No, no, no, no. You've got a returning customer, so that's one thing. The second thing you've got is someone who is going to repeatedly repost your stuff. So let's say that person's got 500 followers or whatever, but they're making good content. Okay, so they're making good photos. They're taking good photos, even if they're like A slightly smaller account, couple of thousand followers, even a few hundred, they're making good content. You know that there's a few good benefits that are going to come from that one. They're going to grow that following over time so you can invest in them a little bit to start with. So, hey, you've got 500 followers now, but you're making some great stuff. Give it a year. If we can get you on board now, give it a year and some support and stuff, then you're going to have a much bigger following and it's going to be better for us too. The other thing as well is that their photos, you can use them too. So you just need to tag them with credit. It benefits them because they get, you know, tapped into your following and they get followers out of it. But you got a myriad of content coming in from 150 people. Where do you look like? Which account do you want to post today? So you've got so much content coming in which just feeds into that algorithm, that daily post, keeping consistent and just constantly repeating that site. So you're getting content from them, you're getting more repeat customers. And honestly, it's so easy. I can go my phone like right now and I would send 10 of these pretty much copy and paste messages to 10 accounts that I think that looks good. He's making good content or she's making good content. And I'll get.

So you're just doing cold outreach for. You're saying out of 10 and you'll get four?

Yeah, I mean probably if I, if I sent 10 out in the next half an hour or something, there would be three or four of them who would be. Yeah, absolutely. For it and within.

And it's basically just cold outreach, organic outreach. Hey, saw what you're doing. I like it. Would love to talk more. Something like that.

Well, it's, it's so, you know, I'd cold approach and I'd say, and this is not a lie, by the way, I know it's a largely copy and paste template message, but the morals remain the same. I see an account that makes, that makes good content. They're doing good stuff. They've got nice kit, they've got room for a patch. I see that. And I send them this message and hey, look, I've just seen your account. I love what I see. You're making great content. I have a feeling your page is going to go big and I'd like to get on board with you right here. If you'd like to join the team sort of thing. We have this amount off for your own personal sales and anything you want. And we'll send you some free kits and patches and everything and 10 off of this code and discount link and everything like that too over there. And you know, more often than not they, they're at least very interested or they come back straight away and you know, within a day typically they would have placed an order or something and then it just feeds into it. So they get a piece of equipment, you get photos from them, you post it.

Okay.

And then you can go.

Do you say anything about being a partner, cross promote initially?

You have to be, you have to be a little bit careful. So at the beginning I, we never, I never say anything about sponsor. I'm not sponsored. And I think that's important to note because when you're a sponsor of someone, you're expecting them to pay you somehow or something monetary. This is more of a, this is more of a collaboration more than anything. And someone who's almost like an affiliate. Yeah. So they are then actively promoting your stuff. They're getting some free bits and bobs.

But do you say, I wanted to offer you an invite to join our affiliate program. You'll get 10, 15 off this and that.

Okay, that's it. Yeah, straight, right off the bat. Just tell, tell them what you're offering and then you just filter through people who are going to be kind of flagging basically or anyone who wants to actually get something done properly. And truth be told, nowadays with Instagram, I use this every day for my personal Instagram stuff of the podcast. But I use it also now with the, the business, with the Airsoft business, Instagram's got collaborator posts. Guys like you can collaborate with other people's accounts. So when you have that guy or that gal in the Airsoft community who's post who's got a great photo, they sent you some content and they've got 2, 500 followers and their kit looks really good. You can then share that post with them, collaborate with them and tag your products on the thing so that any one of their followers who clicks or sees that or that post or your followers, they then see all the products that they're wearing or using in that post and they will see you.

I haven't done a lot with it, but I have seen it and it is pretty cool that the platform is making it easier to do collaborative stuff because I think they know the same thing. You do that this, this is the.

Way it works best collaborators are massive. So something I'M just going to. I'm just going to say quickly that I've done recently, you know, a little industry secret. Yeah, it's great podcast you got going. So I got to share the good stuff. So I did. I did a podcast with a guy called. His name is Raz Samuel Raz Larson. He's the F22 demo pilot in the United States.

Oh, my gosh. Laz.

Yeah.

Did you know, was he the one that was teaching at mit? I think he said he actually flies, but also does training and diagnostics. I remember the name. I watched this video of him. I want to pull it up. That is so cool that the Raptors are.

It's good stuff. Yeah, Raz, he. He's. He's a great guy. He's. He's the current demo pilot of the demo season. And yeah, me, I'm a bit of an aviation nut, but so I had this podcast with him and then I made these short clips and I was thinking, I'm going to collaborate with him. But what I did was I reached out to theme pages. So I reached out to a ton of people and theme pages who repost the aviation stuff. So, okay, you know, these guys who have, you know, two of them have 1.6 million followers, a couple of them have 290,000, few of them have 500,000. And I just reached out to them saying, look, I did this podcast with this guy who they post videos of regularly, and I'm making short clips out of it, going to collaborate with him. Would you like to be a collaborator on this post too? Because it's going to be super relevant to your audience. I've gone to the theme pages. Then I've got like 5 collaborators per post of about 3.5 million accounts reach on these little things, which then just boost the podcast. But you can do that with anything. So for. Yeah, I've started doing this recently. You can tag up to five collaborators per post. Dude. If you can get a few theme pages or other pages that have hundreds of thousands of followers on there, then you just. You just piggybacking of other people's following. It's so easy.

Yeah, even 100,000 a piece at 5, that's still half a million reach.

Yeah, it's. It's great. So, yeah, I've been doing that recently, and some of the people who I've. I've spoken to from these theme pages who run them, great people, and they want to do some more. So I post some aviation clips now and now and then, too, and it just it just feeds into the view, it feeds the metrics, and it just boosts the page. So collaboration ambassadors all ties back into it. I think when you can touch into people, not even on like the large scale, you didn't have to have, like you said, you have to have a thousand, two thousand ambassadors. If you have 150 quality ones, you push your, your product and your, your offer or your service to a lot of people and they actively make great content for you to post. You can share and benefit from and put on the website and stuff, which just adds to the, the visual aspect of it. You got a team of good, good people on there. So, yeah, that's something that I think. I wish people did more. They, you know, people are very fixated on affiliate stuff now, but I think people should be a little bit more old school too with just getting people onto a team of people and making them feel like they're in a team rather than just a monetary thing like an affiliate program.

I agree and I'm glad you're talking on this because there's something about the business. I, I heard this recently and I've been taking it to heart. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a team and just like jets. I think it's why we both like them because they're fast and fun and oh my gosh, you had an F20. Okay, I have this obsession with F22s and the stealth bombers and all kinds of stuff. But focus, we're having a good show here. I really, really want to go off on a tangent for like four hours with you though. You have to remember it's a business and it's like you can, I know people that have like steamrolled over. They go, oh, I did X amount of dollars this month in business because it's always a metric, it's a revenue, whatever. But then it's like they just shot themselves in the, no pun intended, shot themselves in the foot for like the next three to five years, unless they change town because they steamrolled over people or screwed them over to get there. And it's like if you just help people along the way. I've been doing this for a little bit and I remember sitting there crying when I started the business going, how the hell am I going to pull this off? And it was, here's some things I'm not budging on. And it's just common sense, moral, do the right stuff, you know, like, I'm always going to put the client first. I'm always going to go above and beyond. Like, you know, I, I can't compete with this $10 million company. Now. I probably had $11 to my name, but I'm like, I can still outdo them. I can give the person a better experience. I can do this. I made this list of what I could do that until I got to that point. And the reality is it doesn't matter how much you have if you just do the right thing and over deliver and like you're saying, build the team and actually give them something worthwhile. Oh, be an affiliate. You'll get $2 off this $5,000. I've seen people do that. I'm like, think about what's in it for them. You know, it's like, if you're trying to ask them for help, like, don't, don't be, be generous with what you're offering them. There's people who are going to want to do it anyway. But I think it goes to show more about the person or the entrepreneur. Like, hey, I actually do want to partner with you. Well, when you read the affiliate agreement or you read the partnership agreement or whatever, it will show who's in favor. And you know, I tell our authors the same thing when we tell them to go, what is the bonus resources with the book to buy yours. Make it something juicy that's worthwhile. Don't just have. You'll get a free bookmark. Like, who cares now you should still have one. But not the only thing. I remember being at an event and the person on stage was like, I'm a millionaire. I do all these things that, you know, I'm here to serve you and I'm giving back to you by investing in you. And the investment was literally a bookmark. Paper wasn't leather. And I'm like, and everyone at the table was like, does she think like she's being Mother Teresa or like everyone was just murmuring about like, is this for real or is this like, it was just weird? So.

Yeah, I think, you know, two things I want to put forward to what you said. There is that I think nowadays, especially in the culture of social media and the way people are going and how easy it is to build businesses now, I think it's very easy to get caught in that little trap of thinking that you've got to have a million followers, you've got to have a hundred thousand in reach for your business. You got to have all these metrics and this and that. And I think people have just forgot that you can actually be super successful just being the, the small town, like business guy. Like you can actually make a really good business out of just focusing in a small community. I think that's what Airsoft was for me too. And I think that's why I managed to do so well with it. Like for example, the very first person who I brought on as an ambassador, I wrote him a handwritten note with one of those grips that I was telling you about. And he to this day. Yeah, three years later or something, he posts everything every time. We're great friends. And that just goes to show, you know, you build connections with people, even if it's on the small scale. You can just like you said, if you can build a great team of people, even if it's small in a niche, little kind of closed off community that's a little bit abstract, but you can do it really well and provide a great product, a great service and you care, you care about those people that you're serving rather than just, okay, we're gonna throw 500 at this ad budget for this month and they're gonna, you know, send a couple of products to these guys for however much to do a video on and everything. And I mean, not saying it doesn't work, you know, you can throw money at the fire all you want and you know, sometimes you're going to do something good with it and that's what a lot of companies do. But.

Or pin it against the wall and shoot it up.

Yeah, that's true. But you know, my point is that you can do a great job. You can do a great, great job of a business nowadays, still in a small, small niche little business, if you have the right ethics workforce and you can build a good team of people around it and it doesn't have to be based on millions of followers and all the social media metrics and stuff. Most of it's fake anyway. Right.

But I was gonna say having tons of followers because you were saying it, you know, a lot of people want strive for this. Millions and thousands of followers and all this. There's a big difference between followers and buyers. And I've had tons of people on the show, but I think all of them come back to. And you said it and it's impressive because I'm running the math here. And you, you haven't had your business 10 or 20 years. You' a couple. So good for you for having the meth, the methods and orals, the ethics and morals, the methods starting, starting early on because I can relate to that. But There was. I might be date myself a little bit here. I'm trying to think of what social was around at the time. When I started Facebook was. I think a lot of them were like, starting off, but there was none of the stuff you see now. And it's impressive because I've had people just starting off in their young to mid-20s going, yeah, I did this, this, and this. But you've been around it for 15 years. You went click, click. You know, you knew the order of how it works and you used it in your favor. My used in my favor was I went to the businesses in person and put FaceTime in with them instead of just calling them on the phone. And I don't think the str. The strategy matters as much as what we're talking about. Doing the right thing and what's in their best interest and just keeping that first and foremost. Sure, it's easier on. And I was actually going to ask you, because you're talking about sending messages and in the images and text, how much video do you use with all this? Do you ever send personal videos behind the scenes to just say, hey, wanted to connect and offer this, or is it always text?

I think. I think so. Me. Like I said, this is one of those things that ties back to what we said, where people have like a strength and a weakness, or they have a load of strengths, a load of weaknesses and their repertoire when we're plopped onto this earth. But for me, doing the video stuff, it was never really my thing. Like, it took me 37 episodes to get a video feed up on my podcast. Like, the last guy I had on before I did that was Jefferson Rogers. And I asked him at the end of the podcast, hey, man, so what do you think of the show? Anything you'd improve? And he was like, yeah, man, you did a great job. But you're the first podcast I've been on that didn't have video video feed up. I was like, oh, boy. Okay, gonna have to come out, Michelle, and gonna have to get this video feed going. But yeah, I was never a video feed kind of person, but recently I've kind of discovered the. The, you know, the beauty of just little voice notes and, you know, it's easy to do. It doesn't take you long. I think some people find them annoying and I think some people really like them and they prefer to use them. But I think there's nothing wrong with sending like a little 10, 15 second long right voice note. Just saying, hey, you know, because it's personal. Like, it goes back.

It is. And you can hear the tone, the inflection, intention and everything. And I kind of despise text. Like, I don't really text a ton, whether it's actual text or text through Facebook. Like, I'm for sure audio note, video note. If it's like, hey, I can't talk right now, or I know you're going into something and it's like, I don't want to say the movie, you shouldn't be checking your phone during the movie. But if someone's like, I can't send audio or listen right now, you know, like a business meeting. Texting is useful, but I know people that just like text up a storm. It's like, you could have called me and told me this in 45 seconds. Now we're having a half hour conversation about like, you know, you, you reply. Five minutes later, I reply, it's just like, this just took like way too long. So. But that's the beauty of it is everyone has their own thing. I'm very much pro video. My first book was video is video marketing for business owners. It's what my background is and all this. I was just curious because I know people that are hardcore advertisers. Like we're putting money into it and they'll split test thousands of dollars a month on a video ad vs photo ad ver text. And it's just interesting to see. I love business because there's no silver bullet. I, I have successful people like you saying, here's what I do. And I have other people saying the exact opposite and they're just as successful. And it's like, there's really no wrong way. You have to do what's right for you is what I'm hearing.

Yeah. I mean, in terms of two things I say in terms of video feed. Video feeds, massive for me now, like, it's absolutely crucial because you know, from the video feed, that's how I then make. Because think about it. So Instagram visual, it's not text like X now or, you know, Twitter formally. It's. It's visual, it's photos and it's video. So how do you promote a podcast without video feed? Well, you got to do some fancy graphic designs, but ultimately it's never as effective as a good reel or a photo. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing as well is that through having these, these, these reels and these clipped up clips from the podcast and stuff that ties back into what I said. You're that you've then got guests coming on the show of millions of followers and you've got great clips coming out of the podcast which you then collaborate with them on and they want to collaborate with you because it's their content then speaking good sense. And then that's how you promote the show and you kind of shamelessly poach a bit into their following. So that's huge. That's absolutely huge. To have video feed, especially in something like a talk show or a podcast, I think. Absolutely, man.

So yeah, yeah, as much as I like the kinetic typography, you can do it with any audio and text, but people still like seeing people. It's always going to win. So I appreciate you sharing some of the strategies. I know we're running low on time here, but I would love to ask you as a publisher, what books have helped your business the most?

Oh, good question, my man. Good question. I have to think about that. So. Helped in what way? Because, because, you know, books is a generalized thing, isn't it? There's books that have helped me like understand me better. There's books that help me in business. Would you like a couple of. One from everything?

Because yeah, as much as I'm pretty hardcore business entrepreneur, I, I still firm believer in family love, having a good life and all that and being. Having that balance too. So I, I'm opening it up past business books.

Sounds good. Okay, so let's kick it off with business then. So the very first one that really, really benefited me, it's a little bit debatedly outdated now, but the principles are so relevant. And that was.com Secrets by Russell Brunson. Great, great book. The other one I think that I really, really liked. You know, everyone one says it, but I mean it's true. It's a great book. I think it was a four hour work week. Was it? Seven hour work week. I've lost track of it.

Four Tim Ferriss, the Four Hour.

That's it. So those, those are two really good business books that I've read. You know, I've read a myriad more of them, but you know, those two really stuck with me. Also Crush it by Gary V. I enjoyed that one a lot too. In terms of like the personal stuff that I really enjoyed. I'm reading man down by Mark Allmrod right now, who's a former guest in the podcast. A Royal Marines commando knelt down on an IED and lost both his arms. Sorry, sorry. Both legs, but one, one arm. So he lost three limbs in this ID strike and has, you know, you know, beat death basically and has come back and is like an Olympian now. He did the Invictus Games, won a load of gold medals, and he's just the most down to earth guy. But it's funny because he's got all the stories and none of the egos. He's a. He's a role model. And his book is great. I'm enjoying that load and other than that too. Really enjoyed the Art of War. I think there's a load of good stuff in there as well. Like, it's one of those books that you can cherry pick a bit. You don't have to listen to the whole thing. Some of it doesn't make sense, or maybe there's some smarter people than me. But, you know, there's a load of stuff in that book that I thought, you know, that's given me a bit of a. Yeah.

And it's not super long or in depth. It's in depth, but it's not like a novel or anything. I've read it a couple of times and then on one of my recent trips, I actually. The audiobook was on. On the flight, I'm like, cool. Yeah. It's just so, like, every sentence is good. Some books, it's like you read a couple pages and then there's the nugget. This was like. It's very concentrated, I think is the word I'm looking for.

Everything about had a little think, like had a bit of time to just really think recently. And something that I spent a lot of time thinking about over the last few days, even like not even too long ago kind of went into it was just that being healthy and being successful is incredibly simple. And the truth is that we all know how to do it. Be healthy. You go exercise, you go to the gym, you get fresh air, you get sunlight, you eat the right foods, you don't drink, you don't smoke, blah, blah, blah. We all know this already. Like, we all know this stuff. And most of the business principles that I've probably mentioned on here and a lot of people would mention on podcasts and stuff you've probably heard before. I feel like we've got a little bit into this kind of a culture now. And something I've been thinking about recently is just that you don't necessarily need another book, you don't necessarily need another podcast, you don't necessarily need another inspirational quote on Instagram. You probably know, like, what you need to do and stuff, and you just need to go and actually start doing it. Like, pick a podcast, pick a guy, pick a gal, someone that inspires you and just lock in on just the message, like, the principles of what they're saying. So someone says, hey, you should get up early in the morning. You should go to the gym. Then you should do this amount of time on work, and you should eat this, and you should.

You gotta actually do it at some point.

It's simple. Like, I feel like people think that just reading the book and listening to the podcast is enough, but it's not. And they keep looking for the next one. They look for the next guy.

You know, if you want to go on the hike, here's where you should go. But until you actually take that first step, it's just theory.

Like, they're. They're looking for the nugget. They're looking for the unique piece of advice. They're looking for, I dare say, even, like, a little way around doing what they know they need to do. And I know that's a bold statement, but the truth is that it's all very simple. It's just very hard to do. Like, there's nothing easy about getting up early in the morning. I struggle with it. I'm not an early bird.

But no, because it takes you looking at yourself instead of going, oh, here's the secret. If. If I do this or that, it's on someone else. Once you shift it onto you, it's like, oh, I'm responsible for it. I don't know if I want all of that. Let's go to another event. Let's go to another thing. But the power comes from. In my experience, once you do take on the responsibility and actually fix it, it's like, oh, it's like. It feels like you keep unlocking unlimited power to keep going. And it gets easier and easier because I was the same way. It was just like, I don't want to do this, so I'm not going to do it. But it's like, that's the thing that's going to get you what you want.

It's simpler than you think. And that's the truth. It's just hard.

I like that. That's a good quote. It's simpler than you think.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna. Yeah, I'm gonna quote that as well. I think it's simpler than you think. It's just hard, but it's true. I think if there's one thing I could really just portray to people here, that's, you know, something that's a byproduct of a load of time walking the plains of Somerset and Having to think at night and everything to kind of pondering over things. I think that's healthy too. You need to ponder things. But for me, that is just like don't, don't seek out the next best book, then seek out the next best podcast. Don't seek out always finding the new thing. Sometimes it's right in front of you. And actually the principles that are going to get you successful, get you healthy or get you happy, you already know them. You just, you just want to find a little trimming around that and you just gotta pick something, someone or a principle or just a set of rules and you just need to lock in on that. Like I said, I think it's simpler than people think to get successful. And we're looking for complex solutions to simple problems. They're just hard.

I like that. Well, thank you for sharing everything you had. And you're phenomenal. I'm so glad you were able to come on and everything. And I can't wait to see what you do in the future.

Thanks, man. Absolute pleasure. No, like I said, it's great to great to be the guest. You know, as a host, you spend a lot of time listening and developing. I think the nice thing about being the host as well is that you have a lot of time to think and you have, you see a lot of people, you get a lot of opinions, you hear a lot of advice and you get to build your own, you know, your own like, mind frame towards things, life, business. And every now and then it's really nice to be able to spew a bit of that out into the world and see what people think of it. So I appreciate you letting me do that today.

Yeah, by all means. All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day and God bless. You're already the expert, but have you.

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