This behind-the-scenes YouTube video documents James Blackwell’s elite Recruitment Mastermind in Dubai. It combines event logistics (yacht networking, dinner by the Burj Khalifa) with short talks and attendee excerpts on entrepreneurship themes — truthfulness in business, task-orientation, upgrading peer groups — and highlights guest speaker Daniel Priestley and his influence on Blackwell’s career.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, James Blackwell here. So today is the first day of our elite mastermind in Dubai. I'm really excited. I think we've got some amazing attendees flying in from all around the world.
In business, in life, in relationships, on sales calls. Very often we don't want to tell the absolute truth. And life's an adventure if you do. Because if you're trying to tell a version of your truth or, you know, a manipulation of the truth, let's just say if I asked one of you how much you made last month, okay, let's just say one of you, you made 24K and you say, I made 25K. Tell me if this resonates. Does a part of you feel like it's kind of 25k but you know it wasn't and a part of you feels like you've been punched in the stomach? Does anyone, does that resonate with anyone or is it just me? When you say something that's kind of true and you say it and the second you say it, you feel like you've been jabbed in the summer, I believe that that's because what you're doing is you're fracturing who you are.
Oh, just absolutely, don't hesitate, don't be cynical, don't look for the possible, you know, negatives. It's just brilliant. It's everyone you meet, the help that you get, the guidance, it's just all there for you to do. You just gotta, gotta take action and you'll get the result.
By September, my daughter in law was going out on maternity and I was like, tag, you're it. And she was just like, what? I'm like, yeah, we're, we're just going to need you to be a recruiter now. And she's like, I don't know if I'm ready. And I'm like, well, that's not really for you to decide. I think you're ready. So like, do it. And she's going to build over 200 grand this year. Took her a while though. Like, you know, it took her four months to probably get a placement, but she, she's at 194. 5. As I came into this.
I've got a big yacht later on this afternoon for all of the attendees. A lot of entrepreneur friends from around Dubai are going to be coming and it's going to be a super action packed networking entrepreneur event on the yacht as well. So day two of the Mastermind is about to begin. And day two, very exciting. We've got Daniel Priestley. As our guest speaker. So I'm super pumped to have him. So we've got some great talks and then we're going to be heading off to dinner overlooking the Burj Khalifa and the fountains which is going to be an awesome experience for those people that are just visiting Dubai. So stay tuned and we'll catch you soon. So I'm, I'm really excited about it. So yeah, I'm going to go back to 11 years ago. So when I was working in a recruitment agency I actually went on holiday with my ex fiance at the time and one of the books I took away with me was Keith ESN of Influence and it was by this man here, Daniel Priestley and this was the inspiration that got me going back on holiday, handing in my notice and actually starting my own ages. Daniel really influenced me to be an entrepreneur and startup. I did have the business in the past, the coffee shop and phone saw cars etc but then I went back into employment and I was like what am I doing? When really I could be that cplent and actually grow my own brand and recruitment agency. So it's funny how life takes full circle. Actually only met Bunjil last week, one of my good friend Tyler Newman's masterminds and Daniel was speaking so I actually messaged Tyler. I was like wow, I'd love to meet Daniel. She said come down. So we came down, exchanged numbers and it's just such a small circle in Dubai. I was talking to you yesterday about you are the average of the five people you hang about with most and how you keep neatly to upgrade your peer group and the more value you can bring to the world and more knowledge you've got, the more people want to be around you. So yeah, so I'm just super pumped and excited to have Daniel here. So Daniel's going to do a great talk around how he's scaled. He's got over nine companies, he's got over four books that are Amazon bestsellers and actually my book Automatic Recouping Agents as it got to Amazon Bestseller was by Daniel's publishing company with Jones. So it comes full circle. I actually went to his event key business of influence in London probably nine, 10 years ago and you would know that I'm standing here now with Daniel with my best selling book at my mastermind Feathers.
The thing you're looking for, you're looking for a very task orientated person. So task orientated person, they come in, they walk up to the meeting, they've got their notepad, you talk about the business and they just go, okay. And they go. Then they come back to you and they go, oh, so you need to.
Do this, this, this, this, and this.
Yeah, okay, cool. When do we need that all done by? Okay, so if I did that in that, in month one and that month they just turn. They turn big talk into tasks and timing. Their whole energy is tasks and timing. For most of you, an executive assistant could run your business. A McDonald's manager could run your business. A Starbucks manager could run your business. A pub manager could run your business. But you do not want the XCO of Microsoft coming in.
Okay, so did everyone find that inspiring? And I think one of them biggest takeaway the, the Starbucks manager thing is I think it's gold. Like, I think that's probably one of the biggest things. Maybe Greg's. We can try it as well.
Yeah.
All right. So that was a great afternoon with Daniel. He actually gave us more time than I thought and the group loved it. So, yeah, like I said, it was an inspiring journey from 10 years ago following Daniel and reading his bookkeeperson of influence to actually having him speak at my mastermind. Yeah, you just can't predict in the universe what life has in store for you.
If you're starting your staffing agency, if you need help, if you need help, like doing more placements, getting a system in place and especially automations and like a good tech stack, like, I would totally recommend it.
