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The 4-Hour Work Week genuinely changed my life. I would easily put it on the most influential books I have read in my life, and it is one of few books I have gone out of my way to re-read over the years. While I am fortunate enough to live a life similar to that Tim Ferriss envisioned - last year I lived mostly in Thailand, travelled to 10 new countries, made more money than ever before, and worked an average of just 8.55 hours per week - one of the biggest lessons it taugh

I love this tool. I found it by accident a few months ago and have been telling my clients about it constantly since then. It felt time to share it with you, too. Me and my clients have been using it to create high quality short-form content quickly and easily, some of which have generated more than 1,000,000 views (and a good number of conversions!). The tool is called Opus Clip . Put short, it takes a long video clip and automatically cuts it into short clips for you. The A

This article was one of the best simple guides I have read in the last 3 months. I found it referenced within another Substack article I stumbled across while travelling to Sweden, and I immediately subscribed to the writer . The article is simple: it covers what the author did to build their email subscriber list right up to 10,000+. It outlines what worked, what didn’t work, and how long it took to reach each milestone. I have already started implementing some of the tips

Negative reviews happen in every business. However, contrary to common sense, bad reviews can actually be a good thing for your business for two key reasons: It helps you show potential customers that you’re great. Respond professionally, offer to solve the problem, and highlight some of the ways you provide value. People know things happen, show that it was a one-off issue and remove doubt. People actually trust businesses MORE if they have some bad reviews . Research indica

Ever tried to give away something but found it difficult? A lead magnet, a free discovery call, a resource, even a course?! There are often two primary reasons why you cannot even give away value: You lack credibility. People don’t trust that it will be good. Sometimes, this is because you are giving it away for free. You underestimate the hidden costs that your customers bear If a random person approached you in the street to give you a genuine gold bar for free, you probab

I truly believe that it is worse to have a bad client, than to have no client at all. The same is true for employees. I have experienced this myself in my business, and I see it all the time with clients when they first start working with me. While I say this from a position of privilege, I got to this position using the exact counterintuitive strategies I often share - including firing bad clients (so I can focus on the good ones). Looking back, the most draining, difficult,

My next point may sound crazy, but bear with me. When I stop working with a client, I often offer to find my own replacement. Free of charge. The customer paid me to solve a problem, if they cancel it is likely because they believe I failed to solve the problem for them. That means their problem still exists. The ex-customer's main frustration is usually that they hoped I would solve the problem, but now they have to put a lot of time and effort into finding somebody else to

There are hundreds of systems that can, and should, be implemented in your business. Some are more important than others, and some are unsung heroes. I’d like to highlight one of my favourite “unsung hero” systems: Offboarding. As I have mentioned before, you should fire your bad clients . The same goes for bad employees. Both cause more trouble than they are worth and they are an anchor weighing you down and preventing you from rising, from succeeding. Just because you fire

Systems are the most important thing in your business. Systems are what separates amateurs from successful entrepreneurs. I learned this the hard way running my own businesses. Systems can sound scary, but they are actually much easier to build and maintain than people realise. As with everything, we just need to take it one step at a time. Systems include: onboarding, client acquisition, invoicing, scheduling, project management, system review, customer support, training and

Have you ever tried to explain a concept to someone that you know will change their lives, but a few minutes into your explanation you see their eyes glaze over? I know I have. I am going to show you how to get your point across quickly and simply. I came across this step-by-step solution to explain complex concepts in a Russell Brunson book I read on a long flight. It quickly became a firm favourite. Step 1: Introduce What You’re Teaching. Step 2: Share How You Learned Or

Some years ago, my partner showed me a simple concept from relationship theory that helps reframe interactions and disputes. It helped us so much that I started experimenting to see if the concept applied elsewhere. It did. The same concept was incredibly useful with client interactions, and I am going to share it with you now. Many people see business as combative. Military terms brought into business in the 80s didn’t help: guerilla marketing, price war, lose ground, compet

A longer one, but worth it. Ties into the second, shorter, point. When I ran my first real business, the first brewery in the world to specialise in ancient recipes , I had a pretty good grasp of how things were meant to work. I had a degree in Management and Marketing from the #1 university for that course in Europe, a family member who was a maltster , and two self-made multi-millionaire mentors one who had made their money as a major investor in FMCG businesses and the ot

I am a fan of creating simple scorecards and minimal KPIs . It helps me benefit from the kind learning environment I created for myself and my business. What 3-5 stats can tell you exactly whether things are going well or poorly in under 60 seconds? Running a business is difficult. There is a lot of information you need to understand and take action on. If everything is visible in one place, it is hard to focus on the things that are important. Odd analogy, but a mass of info

This thing is incredible . Put simply, Sora turns text prompts into videos. At the moment the videos are short and can be janky, but this tool only got released 6 days ago (on 15th Feb). The quality is insanely good most of the time and will only get better from here. While this tool might replace the need for some video creation or editing in the future, I don’t see that happening for a while. ChatGPT has already shown us that even if a tool is extremely useful, adoption is

Last week, I had a call with a university acquaintance way back from my time running the Enterprise Society. He reached out to me on LinkedIn to help him with his awards application after seeing my LinkedIn post announcing that I had been invited to judge the UK Start Up Awards. He runs a successful, funded, start up called Gilley and found the advice to be very useful. Following that call, I realised that the advice was relevant for all freelancers and all small/medium bus

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is a book that I always recommend to clients. The book provides a strong foundation to a number of absolute fundamental skills that every entrepreneur should be aware of. You might not like marketing or sales, but you sure need to know how it works. What is the psychology behind why people are influenced and persuaded to take certain actions? Cialdini identified six key principles of persuasion: 🎁 Reciprocity: When someone does somet

No, the answer here is not a speed reading course. Though, they can help. I use a much simpler method to improve my reading speed (and enjoyment!): have both a “snack” and a “meal” book. I benefit from having two books at any given time: 🍎 A Snack Book – Entertaining, simple to understand, and easy to read. You can read this on the go, when you’re tired, or when you only have a few minutes available. Books with short chapters are particularly good for snack books. 🍽️ A Mea

Last week when I wrote about the best thing you can buy for your business , the concept of Effective Hourly Rate came up. Your effective hourly rate ( EHR ) is how much you earn on average per hour. As an employee, this is fairly easy to calculate. It is the rate your employer pays you per hour, minus your average necessary costs related to employment (your commute, for example).  As a business owner, it is a little more difficult to get an accurate figure. The easiest way t

Have you ever been mad at somebody for being good at their job? It sounds ridiculous, but you probably have. I have. It happens all the time. Enter: The Locksmith Paradox. As the locksmith improves at his craft, the customers become increasingly upset by the lower time input required to deliver the service. The results are the same, but the perception of value changed. An example of the logic of the Locksmith Paradox is: It takes you 60 min to do X and customers pay $100 for

What is your number - the amount of cash you need to feel financially secure? You might have an idea about what that number is now, but when you get there the goalposts will almost certainly move, the number will change. I have been fortunate enough to meet (and be mentored by) some extremely wealthy people - in some cases, people worth hundreds of millions of dollars - the vast majority had not reached their number. However, I have met, worked with, and helped other people r