Accidental Millionaires book launch special episode 

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Where are you today on your business journey? You might be right at the start line full of enthusiasm and bursting with ideas. Maybe you’ve been going a year or two and are starting to feel a little disillusioned at the challenges you’re facing, or perhaps you think over 10 years ago, and a stuck at about making little progress. In this episode, I am very excited to be joined by Malcolm Palmer vanishing partner here, April G to delve deep into his newly released book, accidental mini as the secret mindset, successful business ownership, 40 legends. We also very excitingly have guest speakers, Steve Beckley, and watch a black joining us to share the insight they gave alongside the production of this book. I’m Charlotte. And you’re listening to, let’s get down to business, a podcast by eight 4g chartered accountants. We’re an accountancy practice based in Kent with over 25 years of consistent growth. In this series, we will take you through each stage in your journey to growing your business and how to overcome the hurdles along the way so that you could achieve a healthy growing business that is less dependent on you. So let’s get started. Speaker 0 00:01:08 Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of let’s get down to business before I introduce our guest today, I just want to remind you to check out our breakthrough growth program, a program designed to take you through every step of growing your successful business, if you haven’t already done so. And you want to find out more information and get an expert by your side for your journey, sign up or book a free discovery call to discuss how we can tailor this program to your business, to do this head over to www.a4ghyphenllp.co.uk forward slash business dash breakthrough forward slash growth, or email us on inquiries that a 4g hyphen, llp.co.uk to find out if you qualify for our strategic growth coaching due to the bespoke nature of our services, we have limited availability. So if you are interested in becoming one of our exclusive clients, please register your details. Speaker 0 00:01:57 As soon as possible with me today is Malcolm Palmer managing part of a 4g, and he is joined by Steve Bakley at lodger black. If you’ve been following us for a while, mark on has successfully run a 4g counselors or advisors for growth. If you were wondering what it stood for for an uninterrupted 26 years of growth, Steve Bakley, ope and Roger Black MBA, maybe retired athletes after competing for many years on the British team, collecting a plethora of medals within big championships, like the Commonwealth games and the Olympics. However, they have taken all their knowledge they acquired during this season of their life and applied it to their now very successful businesses. I cannot wait to speak to our guests further. So let’s begin. Hello, Malcolm Steven. Roger, how are you? Oh, well, well just to kick us off and before we dive into what we’re here to talk about today, it would just be great. If you could each give us a very brief background of who you are for the benefit of any of our listeners who new to joining us today, or maybe just need a bit of history recap. So I dunno if Malcolm, you want to want to start with that one? Speaker 3 00:03:06 Uh, yeah, it’s a good place to start. I’m the one that no, one’s heard of. I’m a qualified accountant by profession. Um, built up a four G um, over 26 years and I just love helping people grow their businesses really. Um, and as of this week, I’m now an author as well, which is a long-held ambition, Speaker 0 00:03:26 Steve. Speaker 4 00:03:27 Yeah. So, uh, I I’ve known Malcolm probably just around the time I was retiring from athletics. I was a javelin thrower, went to four Olympic games and hung my javelin spikes up 2004, which is a size when I met Malcolm and set out from my, on my sort of working life and retire early as a sportsman. And, uh, and they teamed up with Roger or as well. And yeah, I haven’t looked back. Speaker 5 00:03:51 Yeah. So similar for me really. I’ve I’ve Steve and I competed for great Britain. Uh, at the same time, uh, we both went to multiple Olympic games, were multiple medals that world’s Olympics. I ran the 400 meters and the four by 400 meter relay. And, uh, in retirement, we got together prior to the 2012 Olympic games to set up our own business, uh, Bakley black, which helps businesses and individuals, um, improve their, their performance in the workplace. Um, really we do it by translating the lessons we learned from our career as, as athletes and not, not the running and the throwing, by the way, the, all the, the behavior piece, the mindset piece, uh, very important, obviously if you’re trying to take a beating of the Olympic games and, uh, yeah, so we, we felt that up over the last 15 years or so together, and that’s how I know Malcolm Malcolm through Steve. Speaker 0 00:04:41 Brilliant. So obviously we are here to talk today about your newly released book. And I mentioned this into our, in, in our introduction, it is called accidental millionaires, the secret mindset, successful business owners share with sporting legends. So before we dive into that, you know, Malcolm, can you just maybe fill us in on the events, which led to this idea coming to life and then how Steve and Roger got involved? Speaker 3 00:05:06 Yeah. Um, well sorta, I think it’s three things really. I mean, one of them is just a long standing, um, term that I’d always use, you know, I’d often refer to accidental millionaires or, um, is it a term for some of our clients who were just, you know, just people that just started off in a, doing a particular job for somebody not even necessarily something they’d ever thought about doing just, you know, work when it worked for a friend of their dad or, um, just, just landed in it really, and then sort of became quite good at it, decided to go out on their own to commodity, to staff, and then just bit by bit just built and built and built and built until all of a sudden they suddenly thought, you know, blimey. I actually, I’m actually quite wealthy here. I’ve got quite a successful business and, you know, almost success to them by surprise a little bit. Speaker 3 00:05:53 So that’s, you know, that’s something that I talked about for a while and then the pandemic, and it felt for that month, you know, March, 2020, um, it was, it was almost like everything I’d ever learnt, um, had prepared me for that month to help all the clients, um, with just, you know, the sort of crisis they had really. And, um, Steven, Roger had, then they will then put in together the mindsetting program about these 20 key skills. And I, you know, I, I, I looked through that and thought, you know, these are the same key skills that my accidental millionaires possess, even if they don’t know that they possess them. Um, so that’s where the book was born from. Really? Speaker 0 00:06:40 Yeah. And I mean, Steven Rochester, I understand from the book, you know, that the pandemic took your careers in a very sharp new direction. Obviously you’ve already been through that with obviously retiring from athletics. Um, you know, but how did you cope with this, this sort of second big shift in your working careers? Speaker 5 00:06:57 Um, well, I’ll take this, see if you want me to start. Yeah, well, look, I think as athletes we lived in, in a, in a, in a, in a world of uncertainty, you, you, you knew you were one injury away from missing the next Olympics. You knew that, uh, there were, you know, you’re competing against the best athletes in the world. Uh, you know, someone can come along who could spoil your party. And Steve and I certainly experienced that with Michael Johnson and in our events, but, but you, you, you learn to deal with that uncertainty and you learn to go through it. And that’s the interesting thing. I mean, I, I think you’re Malcolm has said earlier, the, some of the lessons that we learned in sport translate absolutely to entrepreneurship and, and people are busy putting their business. The difference is we can show the racism, show that it’s, it’s, it’s much easier to, to discuss it from a, from a sporting perspective. Speaker 5 00:07:46 People can engage with that much easier and that’s all Steve and I really do, but in fact, we are entrepreneurs. So we also apply these things, right. Our careers, and yes, to answer your question, the pandemic for us was, was incredibly challenging as it was for many people because we, the majority of our business is standing in front of people in conference rooms and hotel rooms, and that disappeared for nearly two years. Um, and I love the phrase during the pandemic. Um, we’re all in the same storm, but, but, but we’re actually all in different boats. So for some people, um, nothing really changed in fact business became better. They can work from home. I think accountants, I would add into that category. Um, but for us it was, it was, it’s been a real challenge. We’ve had to really dig deep, to adapt, to change, to evolve with a very uncertain future. Uh, but I guess as athletes, we were well equipped at that because we’ve been there before in our sporting careers. Speaker 0 00:08:40 Yeah. So, you know, Malcolm, how, how did a 4g and you cope with one, you know, one of the most difficult events, you know, and I think the thing is about the pandemic, which is what you’ve said is that it affected people, not just locally, but all over the world. And they said, how did, how did they 4g cope with that too? Speaker 3 00:08:56 Yeah. I mean, you know, for us, it just went completely the other way, you know, and that, um, the, you know, the amount of work that we haven’t, we were doing to help people and just solve whatever problems they have. You know, I think, um, a lot of our clients think of us is that if we don’t have the answer, we’ll always know someone who does. And a lot of people needed a lot of answers in that period. And, you know, I, I, I sat in my office at home and I just sort of lived on a little bit of abandon. I can look down the road from where my desk is, and there was a two or three weeks. And if you remember, the sun was shining and, um, it just felt like everybody else, everybody was out walking and running and did all that. Speaker 3 00:09:34 And I was sort of stuck at my desk from about 5:00 AM in the morning until about 9:00 PM in the evening. Just, just dealing with one with one crisis after another. Um, and I, you know, our team and Charlotte will you’ll know this, you know, we’ve got some quite young staff and some of them hadn’t even really, um, started that, um, and been with us that long. And, and they were amazing, you know, they just all stepped up and did whatever, whatever got thrown at us in that time. Really. So, um, it was very challenging. It was quite, you know, in some ways it was excited and never ever want to do that again. Cause it was, um, really stressful for, for all of us. Speaker 0 00:10:14 Yeah. And I think lots of good and bad things sort of came out of it. Like you say, different boats and for different people. Um, and, and you actually covered it in the book, but it was probably one of the, I don’t know, the upsides maybe if you like for business owners, is that they possibly got an enforced break, um, to sit back review, stop, um, and think about, you know, where they want to take, um, take their business. So obviously myself and hopefully a few listeners have already read the book. Cover-to-cover however, for those who are still waiting for their copy, you know, maybe you could just give us a bit of a breakdown of what the book is actually about. And now I know it’s split into five sections. Maybe we could just run briefly over each section and what the reader might gain from each of these. Speaker 3 00:11:00 Yeah. Um, we might be different, um, you know, Y way of looking at it because obviously it sort of runs in parallel. There’s two elements of it running parallel. There’s, there’s sort of my bit, which is the journey of the accidental millionaire and the Stephen Rogers bear, which is, um, the mind set stuff that the 20 key skills. Um, so, so from, from my point of view, you know, it’s just about that journey really. And we, we talk about the, uh, the strategic planning process. And that was one of the interesting things that I learned from Steve when, um, when, when I first met him, you know, this whole thing about process driven outcomes and, um, that the, that these five key questions that you need to ask, you know, which is where do you want to be in? You know, it might be a year’s time, five years time, whatever it is. Speaker 3 00:11:51 Um, where are you now? And, um, you know, clearly, clearly not where the place where you want to be, um, what performance numbers, um, do you need to reach in order to get from where you are now to where you want to be? Um, what are the things that you need to do to get from where you are now to where you want to be and what stopping it? So that sort of strategic planning processes is a regular theme throughout each of the, um, the sections of the book. And I just sort of mapped that, uh, business owner’s journey alongside those, um, the mindset and program, which is, which is split into those five sections. And, um, so, you know, my five sections are the same five sections of the mindset in program really. So it’s probably Steven, Steve, or Roger would probably the best people to, to talk about those five stages. Speaker 0 00:12:47 Yes, definitely. I mean, can Stephen, what do you tell us a bit more about the Bakley back mindsetting program and the five stages? Speaker 4 00:12:53 Yeah. Maybe I’ll come, I’ll come in there and just explain where it came from it as well, because, you know, this was, this was something that, you know, Roger and I, you know, we hadn’t planned to do it was very much thrust upon us. Um, you know, when, you know, the pandemic hit and, you know, we were in events. So we, you know, our worlds came to a halt, you know, we were in that category, we were in that world that way. But so, so we, we had to think on our feet where to adapt, um, you know, be agile move quickly and, and come up with, uh, a way of getting out content across to a wider audience, because we weren’t able to do the events that we ordinarily do. So we came up with a program we put in the last, probably 30 years of, of our own individual journeys, how we learned, uh, sports people for 15 years, but then applied the translations that Roger mentioned, you know, performance in the workplace we have been doing, but then try to put it into a format that was pallets of birds, you know, across the internet, by videos, you know, a way of sharing it on a, you know, fit. Speaker 4 00:13:57 We filmed, we filmed at home, we filmed on our mobile devices. You know, it wasn’t high tech, it was not our production, but what we did is we, we, we took the best bits. So the five stages take us, you know, the foundations for performance and then right through to how to deliver and maximize and optimize your own, your own personal self. So it’s a, you know, it’s about development. It’s about, you know, finding your passion, being creative resilience, you know, making sure you’ve got the motivation and drive. Self-confidence all those kinds of soft skills that we know are important, but rarely have a chance to practice. And maybe, you know, like the Adrian lockdown, this is, we’re all reflecting as has been said. It was a challenge to do just that with a specific focus on, um, on, on these, you know, all important characteristics performance. Speaker 5 00:14:45 Yeah. And I think it doesn’t think it locked down, challenged us to actually apply the stuff that we talk about. You know, there’s one thing talking about it, there’s another thing doing it. And, um, it’s through that, that those challenges that you, you really, you really find out, you know, actually is this, does this stuff really stand up because what Steve and I know is that our content stands up. If we’re talking to anybody in the world of sport, if we’re talking to a young athlete preparing for an Olympic games or whatever, we can pretty much with authoritarians say, you know, these things matter, you know, this, this mindset matters. These are the, we can advise from a coaching point of, you know, strategy, and we can ask the right questions because we’ve been there, we’ve done it. But when it comes to business, you know, not all businesses are the same. Speaker 5 00:15:33 Um, but, but there are some, some fundamental truths. And what we believe is that, is that the fundamental truths of high-performance are the same, whether it’s in sport, whether it’s in business, um, or whatever it may be. And ultimately, you know, there are three aspects of performance. You have to have a degree of knowledge. You have to have a degree of skill and you have to have a mindset behavior, whatever it is. Now, what we recognize is that around those fundamentals, there are lots of nuances depending on what your business is, of course, but the five core principles that we sort of introduce post our sporting careers, you know, finding your passion, creating your power and beliefs, beliefs surrounding yourself with talent, having empowering goals and, and delivering your maximum. I think they stand the test of time in, in any performance environment. Speaker 0 00:16:24 Yeah. And I love that. And I, let me, when I read it, I felt like you can read it all in one, go and take you through that journey of understanding. But also I think if you read it again, then you go into the bits that do, you know, you need to work on and you can use it almost within your journey. Um, so now, if, if you could just give one of our, you know, give our listeners just one key takeaway from the book, what would that one be? Speaker 5 00:16:50 Well, I think, I think, I think you make a really good point there because I think different people get different things from, from the content. I mean, one of the other things is that you can watch, uh, you can read a book one day, you can put it down and come back a few weeks later and you read the same passage in the book. Yeah. It has a more profound effect on you. The words haven’t changed, what’s changed is what you’re dealing with at that moment in your life. And so, you know, I will answer this question based on what I’m dealing with at the moment. And one of the things that I think really stands the test of time is, is the concept of, of it’s about people. Ultimately performance is about working with other people. We can obviously in sport, we’ll call that teamwork, but, but the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people in business, I think is crucial because just because someone may have the right skills, but if it’s someone you can’t communicate with, I think that’s a real challenge. Speaker 5 00:17:41 So I think the concept of synergy, the concept of, if you want to run fast, go on your own, if you want to run far, go together and investing in people and recognizing the importance of people and a variety of people, I think in business and in sport is, is a very powerful thing. And I experienced that in sport with my relationship with a fellow athlete called Chris Sacca Boosie, who just the two of us were able to achieve things together that we wouldn’t have achieved individually. And I think I can safely say, I think it’s been the same with my relationship with Steve. So a lot of our content and a little of this book is about self-awareness, it’s understanding yourself. Um, you know, entrepreneurship is a journey of self-awareness. I think any performance journey is, is, is a journey of self-awareness. And I think this book will create self-awareness in different ways to different people. Speaker 4 00:18:32 I, I I’d maybe add to that by elaborating on something that Malcolm touched on right at the top with a model that, um, you know, Malcolm’s improved, developed an extended, uh, goal setting model, the simple three-step approach of having an outcome performance, a process goal that we touch on in the book and we talk about, um, but I think it’s, it’s easily stolen, perfectly people. Um, it’s quite common that people make the mistake of not doing this effectively. So, you know, being, I’ve got a goal, I’ve got a goal, but it might just be an outcome goal. It might just be a part of it, you know, a, an aspiration, but it’s not truly engaging. And I think when certainly athletes get this right, and, and entrepreneurs get this right, when they’re engaged with their heart, their head and their actions, when there’s outcome performance process, the why, the what and the how, um, it’s, it’s a little more complex. Speaker 4 00:19:22 It’s still a very simple model, but it’s one that we need to keep revisiting and make sure we wake up every morning with clarity. And that’s that, you know, we always say this when we’re athletes that your gift, if it’s beautiful, it’s such a wonderfully inspiring thing because you wake up every day with a clear goal. You’re either aspiring to compete at the Olympic games, the world champs, the Commonwealth games, the European championships, or this coming up this season, the Commonwealth games with Birmingham, you know, that all the athletes will be focusing and it’s just clear. The real world is less clear. It’s why the onus is on us. And something I would encourage anyone to do is, you know, there’s loads of great stuff in the book, but that’s my particular favorite because when we have priority, we sleep better, we’re more inspired. Um, and, and, and we’re more driven. It’s, uh, you know, it’s a, it’s a smoother ride when we, when we have that type of clarity. Speaker 3 00:20:18 Yeah. I think I thought what I got to that, you know, the great thing about, um, about being able to work with Steve and Roger is that in life, you know, there, there, there were three different, um, there’s three different relationships with learning. Whether, you know, there’s, there’s the people in life that don’t learn from their own mistakes. There’s the people in life that do learn from their own mistakes. And there’s the people in life that learn from other people’s mistakes. And, you know, if you’re in, um, you know, you, you, over many, many, you can build up quite a successful business by learning from your own mistakes, as long as they’re not, you know, you don’t make mistakes that are fatal. Um, and, and a lot of those accidental millionaires would have made some mistakes that, you know, potentially put them back two or three years, um, with whatever their ambitions were. Speaker 3 00:21:07 Um, but wouldn’t, it have been great for them if they hadn’t made those particular mistakes and could have achieved what they wanted to achieve that much quicker. And of course, you know, in, in the sporting world, you don’t have time to make mistakes that put you back two or three years, you know, your career is, you know, is virtually over by your, your early thirties. So you have to learn from other people’s mistakes. You have to learn quickly. And, you know, I think that’s why the Steve and Roger and some of the other athletes are so well-educated on, on this stuff because they haven’t got time to, um, just keep getting things wrong before they put them right again. So, um, you know, it, it’s been a fascinating journey, um, understanding their world and how that applies to business. And I think, you know, what we want the book to do is, is to help people get, get through that journey quicker, you know, they might get there in their own time, but you know, what, if you need to get to where you want to be 10 years earlier than, um, in otherwise. And, and that’s one of the biggest things you should get from reading this book. Speaker 4 00:22:16 I think th the other thing on that Malcolm and it’s where any performance journey starts is of course awareness. Um, you know, cause that time element you mentioned, I completely agree. And, and it’s, it’s, you know, essentially make good decisions in sport as, as an easy business, being an entrepreneur because you want to minimize the cost of error, right. But you shouldn’t be, we should never be scared of error because we can learn from it as you, as you write say, but it reminds me of the, you know, it’s not the strongest of the species that survive. It’s the ones who embrace change. And, and, and, and I think that always starts with an awareness of our strengths, our weaknesses, the ability to reflect effectively and then plan accordingly. So I think that’s where, you know, anyone reading the book, if there’s a mirror hanging up to say, okay, where am I on? You know, in this topic that I’m now learning a bit about or reflecting a little bit more accurately, if it’s, if it’s just to improve awareness, that’s a fantastic place to start a new performer or an improved performance. Speaker 5 00:23:15 And I think, I think with awareness, just to add on that, and I think I’ll just speak on behalf of the other two, if we’re have a tight, you know, we’ve probably read, read a lot of books around performance and personal development, and I’m sure many people listening to this podcast have as well. They wouldn’t listen to this podcast. So we recognize that ultimately that the fundamentals of performance haven’t really changed for years and probably never will change, but it’s, it’s whether you actually, where do you actually have the, by reading something or seeing something or listening to something and make sure actually ponder on it, recognize it, and then do something with it, whether it’s good or bad. And so all this book book is, is, is sharing our content. And if one person, if, if, when you’re reading this book, you read something that makes you think, or you read something that makes you uncomfortable. It’s having the awareness to recognize that moment and to do something with it and listen to, to, to, to our guts because of course change can happen in a heartbeat. So the point of any book like this is, is just to, to provide content that will hopefully be the catalyst for somebody to make a change and therefore improve. Speaker 0 00:24:26 Yeah. I think that’s what I love about love about all these, um, you know, books out there that are aimed to helping people. Like you say, some of the fundamentals are fairly similar, but it’s the way that it’s the way it’s portrayed, how it comes across. People will read it and see it differently. And I think, like you say, you know, you could read this book in six months time and get something completely different and say, I don’t even, that wasn’t even aware of that sort of thing. And in terms of like, um, you know, reducing the amount of time it takes for people to become successful and learning from people’s mistakes, what was the biggest lesson? If there was one that you could pinpoint that you have each learn on your journeys in business today, Speaker 4 00:25:14 I’ll jump in there. I think, I think a big one for me early on in retirement, you know, cause that that shift and both are all athletes or sports, people would have to, you know, go through this, you retire fairly young and you go from, uh, you know, the very simplistic and relatively focused and sort of world of being a sportsman. And you have to start again, you know, probably mid thirties. So, you know, relatively young, but having turned our backs on, you know, business careers, um, you know, our, our colleagues, our schoolmates who have gone on and built their own professions, whatever. So, so the, the big, the big learning for me was, was around taking action. I think it actually ties into what you were just saying, the amount around, you know, errors and making mistakes, you know, taking action. I think so many people get stifled and getting busy, just creating activity in and around your chosen field, um, is just a great way of initiating that wonderful momentum. We use the word a lot, of course, in sport and in know successful entrepreneurship, but creating momentum by taking action, you know, developing lots of activity, you know, attending networking events and just getting busy, talking to everyone, being like a sponge, um, that, that I think is the, that’s the star of any, you know, because we have to learn and we have start somewhere. And that was a big part of me in, in the, in the very beginning. I think we wrote. Speaker 5 00:26:48 Yeah. I mean, there were so many things, of course there are. So you sort of, you know, think, you know, what is the one thing at the moment? Um, I like the saying you get what you focus on and having the awareness to choose where you focus, because of course you can get very busy in business. You can get very busy as an athlete. You could go to the gym all day. You can, you can decide to, to eat what you want, drink, what you want. We all have choices. And I think your business it’s, it’s having that clarity and, and choosing where you focus your attention as it is in sport. I think the other thing, and I think it does tie into what Steve is saying is that in entrepreneurship, everyone’s got an opinion. Everyone has got an opinion and it’s good to listen to people’s opinion, but in the end you have to come down and ultimately this may sound a bit challenging, but it can be quite frustrating. Speaker 5 00:27:41 Everyone has an opinion, but, but words aren’t worth much if it’s, it’s what you do. And I, you know, I don’t know if people listening could relate to this, but you know, it’s very easy to have an opinion, but it’s very hard to actually do it. And I tend to now in business, tend to look at what people are doing rather than what they, they talk about. Um, you know, anyone could talk a good race, you know, but can you actually go out there and deliver it? Anyone could talk to the business that them has got, uh, you know, we all think we know that the formula, but actually if you’re a business owner, I think you have to ultimately like an athlete, you have to take full accountability and recognize that ultimately you, you have to build a team, but you do have to take full accountability. And I, I, it took me a while as an athlete to do that, if I’m really honest, it took me 10 years to really, really take full accountability for my career as an athlete. And I think it’s the same in business. Um, I think taking accountability is, is a very important step. Speaker 3 00:28:42 I’m an art deco, the things that Steven Rogers said. And, um, and then what I would add to that, probably the biggest lesson is that, um, w we, we sort of mentioned in the book about the, um, the Stephen Covey book, seven habits of highly effective people and the reference to the win-win mindset. And, um, I think long before I’d ever read that book, I had to have a lunch with somebody who was, um, you know, pretty done really well in their life and mid sixties and still involved in business. And, you know, he didn’t need to work. And I asked him why he still did. He said, I love it. He said, I love meeting new people. I love meeting people that I’ve met before, finding out how they’re doing and, you know, and every answer that he gave was to do with the people. Speaker 3 00:29:29 Um, and, and, you know, the reality of that is that the people that you want to work with, other people that have a win-win mindset, um, it’s cause in sport, you know, sports is a zero sum game, you know, for you to win, someone has got to lose, um, you know, in, in business, it’s, it’s the other way around, you know, you, if you can find win-win relationships with people, that’s what I’m doing businesses, but of course not everybody has a win, win mindset. And some of them, you know, just their entire focus is, um, is win, lose, you know, and you need to, you need to identify those people, um, and, and get them out of your life for it as early as possible, because we waste a lot of time and energy and money as well, trying to, um, you know, when you’re trying to be win-win and actually they’re trying to be win, lose, and your, you know, you’ve been more successful and you will enjoy your daily work, whatever it is that you do, if you surround yourself with other people that have got that same win-win mindset, Speaker 0 00:30:35 I completely agree. And I, and I, you know, this thing about mindset, we actually started this, um, series, our growth series of this podcast. And our first subject was mindset because obviously our listeners will, you know, a bit like your book is going to take them on a journey, um, through, uh, you know, how they need to grow their business and what they need to focus on. But, um, obviously you talk about this anyway, in your book, but the mindset is absolutely key, not only for the business owner, but also for the people they’re working with. Um, they’ve got to be in a position to grow. Like you’ve already said, they need to be honest with themselves about what is and isn’t working or what they need to work on, and actually sort of stripping down to like the bare minimum and really getting deep into what the issues are. Speaker 0 00:31:19 And if that issue, you know, if the issues for your business holding back is yourself, um, to, to, to be honest with that and, and work on addressing that, because it’s only going to benefit your business. You know, obviously we don’t actually know what journey any of our listeners are on with their business. You know, they might be at the very start, very full of enthusiasm and eager to, to learn, or they might just be stuck in a row out of the back of the band pandemic, or just generally, you know, however, this might be a bit general then, but maybe if you’ve got any last pieces of advice for our listeners on, you know, growing their successful businesses. Speaker 5 00:31:53 Yeah. If I, if I can, yeah. You make a really good point. And if I, I think for me, one of the challenges as an athlete, and I think it’s the same in business is that, and Steve used the phrase earlier, you become a busy fall when you’re young, you’re fit, you’re healthy and you’re just training every day. You’re racing, you’re, you’re, you’re doing well. Or even when you’re injured, you’re, you’re focusing on your injury, your injury and injury. What I learned as an athlete was you talk about mindset. You’ve got to make the time for the mindset. It’s not just a case of thinking. You’ve actually got to allocate the time value mindset more than we usually do, because it’s usually the last thing we think about because there’s stuff that we have to get on with the business stuff, the stuff of business as an athlete, it was allocating that time to visualize, allocating that time to, to train your brain as much, not as much, but, you know, it’s easy to allocate time to train your body, but actually actually allocating the time to think about your mindset is such a crucial thing in sport and in business. Speaker 5 00:32:58 So for me, that’s a massive takeaway. And if this book can just ignite with people and awareness, but also say that I’m going to make time to think about this thing and to find somebody to talk this through with someone who has a similar challenge or somebody who who’s also interested in this. I mean, Steve and I are just interested in this stuff. So we talk about this stuff and it’s really valuable, but often people just don’t make the time for it. They talk it, but they don’t actually make the time for mindset because there’s so much other stuff that has to be dealt with. So I think, you know, allocate that time, find that time to think, to think, and to, to, to reconnect with your, your, why, your goals, your dreams, your processes. I think it’s a really valuable use of time. Speaker 3 00:33:40 So Roger, here’s the great irony from my point of view that I’d build on that, which is, um, for me. So I, you know, you, you know, you guys, um, uh, a great athlete, I’m a, you know, I’m a 28 minute part run Clauder and, um, but actually, um, most of my best ideas and most of the time when I get to refocus on the business and when I go out for a run, um, ironically, you know, as athletes, you had to get away from athletics in order to have a better perspective for me, it’s actually, when I’m out for a run let’s, um, you know, just, um, just get that Headspace to be able to do that. And yeah, so that’s, you know, that’s my time to that, you know, and everybody’s just got to find their own thing, you know, it might be, you know, going fishing or it might be just going to talking to someone, um, um, you know, sometimes you can answer your own question. I’ve had clients answer their own question, um, but they could have stewed on it for weeks and months, you know, and th they, they talked to me about it and like, what kind of worked it out without any words from me occasionally, but yeah, just, just get away from the business, you get a better perspective on whatever the problems are when you do that. Speaker 4 00:34:50 I think that’s good advice now come. And, um, you know, it’s, it’s a natural thing as an athlete. You’re always asking yourself the question, finding the space and the environment where you’re most effective answer, and then take your actions sounds simplistic. But I think a big part of me and Charlotte too, to answer your question is that just as a final thought, is, is something that fascinates me is, is how, um, in sport and in successful, um, you know, being a successful entrepreneur, I think there’s an element of being comfortable in being uncomfortable. Um, and, you know, by that, I mean, you know, we all strive for more comfort, you know, more money, more time, or, you know, less pressure when, and, and the irony of that is of course that to get there, we need to step into, um, you know, discomfortable, uncomfortable environment, you know, Roger and I both think property, and there’s nothing more uncomfortable than, you know, buying a ramshackle cold house, getting the quotes. Speaker 4 00:35:47 The field is uncomfortable negotiating then refinancing, dealing with solicitors, dealing with lenders. And the whole process of that is uncomfortable. But th th the end product of it is to be more comfortable. So my final thought is stepping out of comfort zones is what growth is all about doing things a little bit differently. Um, you know, having the awareness that we talked about, it’s the most, the most important, important thing of all this is of course, doing something about it is no point, you know, we’re aware of something and we’ll just leave it, then it will always be there. And then of course, if you always do, we always get, we always got that element of change in awareness is, is a full circle. Speaker 0 00:36:30 Brilliant, thank you so much. And I mean, you know, the reason why we’re doing these podcasts and these books going out is, you know, sometimes actually being a business owner can be a bit lonely, but it’s knowing that there isn’t, it doesn’t have to be, there is places out there that you can go and get advice and, and, you know, chat about it with people if you need to. So to finish up my burning question, which we all want the answer to really is where can we get our hands on a copy of this book? And how can I reach out to any of you, if they want to know more about anything that’s been discussed today or within the book? Speaker 3 00:37:02 Um, well, you can find it on Amazon now. Um, We’ve got, um, so copies, uh, eight 4g, and I think that will be advertised that you can buy that direct from us, or you just go on Amazon. Um, if you type my name in reliably informed, there are books, other books by somebody called Malcolm Palmer about birdwatching, but they’re not mine. So, um, yeah, just, just type my name in, on the book section of Amazon and up, it will come. Speaker 4 00:37:31 Cool. And, yeah, well, if you’re interested in, you know, more of the content from Roger and I back you, black.com is our website. Well, of course, through a 4g, you know, get, get Malcolm and the team a call, and we’d love to talk about your challenges. We also design and deliver workshops. Uh, now that we’re allowed back in the room too, to actually bring this stuff to life without, you know, firsthand, um, you know, inputs would be, would be great as well. We, you know, we do love doing that, so Speaker 0 00:38:03 Brilliant. Well, thank you so, so much for your time today, guys. And, um, I look forward to speaking to you again soon. Hopefully Speaker 7 00:38:11 Thank you. Speaker 0 00:38:13 I think for the key thing to take away from today, I want to actually use a quote from the book, which I just loved, if not you then who, if not now, that when I will let you all ponder on that lump for now, but next week we are joined by Josh Curtis who will continue on our growth series journey. As we step into the next level of how will you actually grow your he’ll be kicking us off with discussing what strategies for growth you could use and what facts do you need to consider when deciding on this path. Thank you for listening today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. We are a 4g and you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn at eight 4g chartered accountants, alternatively, check out our website, www dot eight 40 Hartford, llp.co.uk, which is full of free tools, guidance, and plenty of food for thought to help support you with running your successful business. I’ve been your host today, Charlotte, and this is let’s get down to business.