Scale Up With Nick Bradley

This week, Nick revisits his Alma Mater, INSEAD, the world-renowned business school, in the company Dr Sameer Hasija, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD, who joins the podcast to discuss his latest research, based upon the question of what happens to business models in the wake of new technologies, as well as the way in which the world itself is changing. At the heart of this discussion is an astounding new book, co-authored by Dr Hasija, entitled ‘The Phoenix Encounter Method’, a work dedicated to exploring the methods of leadership now required in the wake of global disruption. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  The phoenix principle is based upon the realisation that disruption happens, and we must seek to reinvent and resurrect when this occurs. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and robotics, are often used by firms in search of reinvention, giving them the edge of companies whose legacies are relatively siloed, or built upon processes that are not capable of leveraging these technologies. COVID threw up many sudden challenges, most notably in supply-and-demand. The ones who were able to conquer and thrive were the ones who had a nimble technology stack that allowed them to instantly partner with suppliers and logistics specialists. The core foundation of any scale-up ambitions are built upon effective processes. Robust structure is an essential component. But it is also crucial to recognise that once scale-up has been achieved, these frameworks can serve to stifle further growth. BEST MOMENTS  ’You have to imagine burning your business to the ground - throwing yourself into a firestorm of change’ ’Operations and technology are the core, the centre of execution’ ’COVID led to a huge shock in demand-and-supply’ ’Once you’ve scaled up, structure is going to be like shackles on you’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks   Dr Sameer Hasija Twitter - www.twitter.com/sameerhasija LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sameer-hasija-47936b5/ The Phoenix Encounter Method - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phoenix-Encounter-Method-Lead-Business/dp/1264257635 ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In this high-energy episode, Nick talks about the massive amount of overwhelm he’s seeing out there. We all experience that feeling of losing control, of impending failure, which generally drives us to work harder and worry more. But as Nick explains, by using a simple technique, you can easily take back the control and dominate rather than suffocate. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Overwhelm is often created from fear. We feel we have too many things to do, each of them important, and that if we miss any kind of goal, we will have failed. This isn’t true. Take a step back and focus on three things. The brain has an uncanny ability to focus upon three things well. Step beyond three and we begin to lose clarity. For every ninety-day cadence, focus on the three results that matter most - the three results you’ll work on to attain. You must focus on the results and outcomes, not just tasks BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing less’ ’The base of success is this focus on three’ ‘It’s about what you say no to that’ll get you the best results’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In a new mini-series of more intimate discussions, Nick settles in for a “fireside chat” with Carey Ransom, the founder of OC4 Venture Studio, dedicated to investing in, and helping to develop, high-growth software companies. Nick and Carey discuss the importance of collaboration and involvement, how including everyone can supercharge your scale-up plans, how to start and build high-growth companies, and why venture capital is becoming more popular as an investment model. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Growth levers have traditionally been financial. However, as the landscape changes, the levers are turning more towards system improvements, or process-based. Investors are far more drawn to people than they are products. If we can offer better people as part of the vision, then it has the potential to create far greater early outcomes. Just because you have the ignition to launch a company or idea, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best person to take it forward. The great entrepreneurs are the ones who recognise the value in allowing a team to take an idea to the next level. Larger groups that sit upon vast resources and capital will have the wealth, but this monolithic bearing stifles innovation. Smaller groups retain more autonomy and can be much more agile. BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s about finding that need, that problem that a significant number of people have’ ‘Building great companies is a team sport’ ‘A person who is brilliant at starting a business is not necessarily the person who can take it to the next level’ ‘You can’t just sit in the middle any more. You’ve got to make a choice’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks Carey Ransom LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyransom/ Carey Ransom Twitter - https://twitter.com/ransomthoughts?lang=en Operate Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/operate-podcast/id1478775780 ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

It’s 15 Minutes To Action time again, and this time the focus is on markets. Many businesses stall in terms of growth and scale because they haven’t been specific enough about the market they choose to play in. With this thought in mind, Nick asks the question, where do you play? Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS If your message is failing to land, if your story is not getting out there, then the strategy that will help you get there is “niching” - getting super-specific about the market you want to play in. You have to understand how promiscuous the market is. How close knit are the potential buyers in your chosen market? Will partnerships and referrals spur on your growth? If so, then the path to success is clear. Identify the problem you’re trying to solve and take a broader look at the market in which it exists. If your idea only has a limited lifespan, then consider if you’ll be able to make it worthwhile in the time you have. People don’t make big decisions when they’re not in any pain. If something can be put off, then people generally will. Ask yourself if what you’re selling is crucial to your customer in solving their problem and if it will save them that pain. BEST MOMENTS ‘You need to understand the dynamics of the market that you want to serve’ ’The more promiscuous the market is, the more it feels like a tribe, then the more success you’re going to have’ ‘You’ve got to look more broadly. I call it the 50,000ft view’ ‘If you’re not getting growth or traction, it’s more likely because you haven’t been intentional enough with your decision making' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks David Jenyns - https://www.davidjenyns.com Systemology - https://www.systemology.com/about/ David Jenyns LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-jenyns/?originalSubdomain=au ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

 In this week’s show, Nick talks to fellow Aussie, and author of ’Systemology’, David Jenyns, about the importance of processes and systems in order to achieve scale and success. Through his incredible insights and experience, David has developed a system that helps you create time, reduce errors, and scale your profits with proven business systems, and he’s here this week to share the systems and processes with you. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  Systems and processes are the key to freedom for anyone. By embracing the concept fully, we install the processes that allow us to express creativity and embrace the freedom to pursue other opportunities. Many talk about fear-related reason for not doing something or elevating in some way, but by simply committing, we force ourselves to achieve. We often find ourselves hitting roadblocks and wondering how to go around it in order to progress. We must instead learn to surmount it, conquer it, thereby increasing our resilience for further challenges. A system gives you a way to deliver something to a consistent standard and do so in the quickest and most efficient format. But we should always make allowances for the people we hire, who, ideally, will always be looking for ways to improve the systems. BEST MOMENTS  ‘If you want to create freedom, then it’s systems and process that are going to enable that’ ‘I fell in love with the result of what systems can give’ ’I just want to give the podcast episodes to someone and for them to turn it into something magical’ ‘I like to think of systems more as a guide, or a set of rules, or a structure' ‘Now is the best time in history to implement changes and systems’  VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks David Jenyns - https://www.davidjenyns.com Systemology - https://www.systemology.com/about/ David Jenyns LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-jenyns/?originalSubdomain=au ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Scaling and growing in business is not just about the practical things we do to develop our business. It’s also about the ways in which we develop ourselves. With this in mind, Nick offers a different episode today, a personal edition, and one that centres around loss, and the positives that we can take from the darker moments of life. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Loss is painful, but it also crystallises our focus. It amplifies the need for course correction and allows us the strength of will to follow that course. You can’t stop an event. It is what it is. But you can decide the way in which you react to these events. The quality of our lives are dictated by the quality of these decisions. People obsessed with their businesses often do not achieve the correct balance between that and their personal lives. There are times when this is permissible, but they must always be short periods. Look again at the values that started us. If you’ve been at the bottom, and you’ve hauled yourself out of it, then you know deep inside that already have the tools to do it again. BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s about who you are and who you become through that journey’ ‘I had to live a life much more aligned with my intentions, my values and my standards’ ’Are you settling for something mediocre? And if so, why are you doing that?’ ‘If you’re grateful for what you have then it’s the most amazing power you can have' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In this very special show, Nick talks all things money with guest, Catherine Morgan, the host of the In Her Financial Shoes podcast, and multi-award winning financial coach and trainer. Nick and Catherine discuss the best ways in which we can juggle the delicate balance of money in our lives, where our relationships with money begin and how they are shape our financial aspirations, and how developing a healthy emotional relationship with money can in turn lead to more positive outcomes in not just business but life itself. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS The focus in the financial services industry needs to recognise that it is about people, not products. We must empower people to recognise their worth, and to not be afraid to value themselves correctly. Entrepreneurs who begin businesses must take into account, from the beginning, the prospect of one day exiting through sale, or the prospect of how scale can be achieved. Exit strategies need to be inbuilt from the start. We form our relationships with money in childhood. It generally relates to some pivotal situation in which money has played a crucial role. The effects of this relationship last through life.  Our relationship with money uses our emotional side, rather than our logical side. Some see it as a form of comfort when life hits the rocks. Others find themselves influenced by the ways in which money was presented during youth. Many entrepreneurs are driven by a dearth of money in their youth. This has been the driving factor in much of their success, as they battle to build the wealth they never knew. BEST MOMENTS  ’The limit of where you can go is kind of untapped' ‘Often when we start businesses, we don’t think about selling it’ ’I was actually self-sabotaging my own financial success’ ’What impact did that have, and therefore what meaning did you attach to money?' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks The Money Panel - www.themoneypanel.co.uk In Her Financial Shoes - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-her-financial-shoes-podcast/id1449065629 Catherine Morgan LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catherine-morgan?trk=people-guest_people_search-card ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

The key to building and scaling successfully is to structure your business around systems, processes and predictability, and one of the most valuable ones you can build is sales. How can you make sure you’re converting strangers to clients every time? In this week’s ’15 Minutes To Action’, Nick talks you through the importance of having a sales process, and how you can build one from scratch. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS A sales process are the steps you need in your business whereby you take a stranger and turn them into a customer. The more that you can iterate and improve it, the more revenue you’ll make. It has to be customer-centric. This isn’t about you. It’s about your target audience. What are their needs, and how best can you solve them? Being likeable and competent, and displaying your capacity for empathy, are the cornerstones of building trust and faith between you and your client.  Elegant closing is an art form. If you’ve done the work, put in the time, and built the rapport, as well as demonstrated how you can solve your customer’s problem, then closing becomes merely an invitation instead of a hard sell. BEST MOMENTS ‘One of the definitions of scale-up is how you build teams and bring processes into your business’ ‘It’s not about the people you have - it’s about the process’ ‘Lots of business gets done between people who like each other - it’s as simple as that’ ‘Closing is really about asking for the yes' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Take the Six Peaks of Value Creation Scorecard, to measure your current business performance and show you where to focus to get to where you want to be: https://scaleup.vip/sixpeaks ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In this episode, Nick talks to Ryan Tansom, the president of Arkona, who help business owners and entrepreneurs increase the value of their business with the end in mind.  Ryan’s is a story of value creation, having turned around his family business, resulting in a sale that netted an eight-figure sum. Since then, Ryan has taken the lessons learned, and has helped other entrepreneurs to focus on long term value creation. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  When it comes to sale, many businesses are hampered by not knowing how to articulate their requirements from the sale itself.  90%+ of entrepreneurs are solving for annual income. Truly understanding the value of a business allows you to shift your mind-set and see the potential value. The number one problem in the merger and acquisition marketplace, is financial education. Those who have grown a company have no idea how to best maximise when it comes to sale, or even of the metrics required. The five intentional growth principles are: Your drivers - What is important to you? Your financial targets - Annual income, outside net-worth, and net value of your company. Your exit options - Internal transfers, search funds, ESOPs, private equity, and strategic buyers. Grow value by creating a sustainable, predictable cash-flow machine. Hire the right team of advisers. BEST MOMENTS ‘You’re playing around with scarcity and certainty' ‘Corporate Finance isn’t even a word that most entrepreneurs know’ ‘It was like a lot of people building a puzzle, with all the pieces upside down’ ‘It’s not us teaching owners what to do - it’s teaching them how the game works' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Generate 20 New Leads in 20 Days - download your free 5-step guide to put in place my top-performing customer creation strategies:  scaleup.vip/20leads   Ryan Tansom Twitter  Arkona - https://arkona.io/ryan-tansom Ryan Tansom LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-tansom-4a440710/ Intentional Growth Podcast - https://arkona.io/podcasts ABOUT THE HOSTNick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In this week’s ’15 Minutes To Action’, Nick talks you through five proven ways in which you can add value by growing your revenue and accelerating your profits by focusing on pricing and leveraging. Find out now if you’re building a high-value, exitable business (even if you have no immediate plans to sell it). You’ll get an instant PDF report with powerful insights specifically tailored to your business in just 4 minutes. https://highvalueexit.scoreapp.com/ KEY TAKEAWAYS  Growing your business and scaling it successfully is just as much about your mind-set as it is about your skill-set. It is about who you become as a leader. We often find ourselves suffering from impostor syndrome when it comes to clients, but a great way to grow is to play on a bigger pitch. Don’t be afraid to increase your price. If you’re pitching and getting a yes too quickly, then it’s likely that you’re far too cheap. Never undervalue yourself. It’s far easier to retain a client that’s happy, than it is find a new client. Look at the ways in which you can increase your client’s happiness, and make yourself invaluable. BEST MOMENTS ‘A lot of business growth is about who you become as the leader’ ’Sometimes we play too small’ ‘It’s the identity of who we are and how we show up that can really define how successful we are’ ‘You’ve got to get yourself into those rooms is you want to evolve and become the best that you can be' VALUABLE RESOURCES Scale Up Your Business – scaleup.vip/podcast Join the free Scale Up Your Business community: scaleup.vip/community Generate 20 New Leads in 20 Days - download your free 5-step guide to put in place my top-performing customer creation strategies:  scaleup.vip/20leads   ABOUT THE HOST Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert. His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally. Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact. CONTACT METHODWork with Nick: https://highvalueexit.comNick’s Facebook page: https://highvalueexit.com/fbNick’s LinkedIn: https://highvalueexit.com/liNick’s Instagram: https://highvalueexit.com/igSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/