Scale Up With Nick Bradley

Philip Thomas is one of only a handful of people to have truly made a lasting impact upon the business journey of Nick himself, and in this very special episode, you’ll find out exactly why. 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 There is no more powerful marketing tool than focusing in upon your ideal customer, and making them seem as attractive as possible to all other customers. This was the belief behind FHM, which marketed to 25 year-old men, and made all other men desirous of their status. Attraction comes through focus. By pinpointing your specific archetype, you increase not only awareness, but interest. So much of business is about relationships. If you have time to spend on any pursuit, it should always be in building the bridges and foundations that can take you higher. Zeroing in on our core values is crucial, as are the behaviours we adopt. But when we define our business strategy, we should not ignore it. It should be the lens through which we see each decision.   BEST MOMENTS  ‘If you’re in a market that’s floating up, it’s always a good place to be’ ’25 looks like a hell of a lot of fun!’ ’The more focused you are, the more you please everyone’ ‘We need to encapsulate in a sentence, our purpose. What is it that we as a company do?'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Philip Thomas LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-thomas-127a541/?originalSubdomain=ukPhilip Thomas Twitter - https://twitter.com/philthomas?lang=enCannes Lion - https://www.canneslions.com/about/news/the-campaign-for-creativity   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

After start-up and then scale-up, what comes next? The level above these places is an empire; a concern that thrives and grows naturally, and which allows us to make a more meaningful impact on the world. In this week’s show, Nick talks you through the six peaks of value creation, one of the best ways of reaching this destination in your business 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 An empire allows us to make a more significant and quantifiable impact upon the world. It usually stokes feelings of negativity, but this is misplaced. Vision and initial strategy are the fundamental elements of beginning an empire. Every great empire understands this implicitly. A crucial component in every empire is the consistent flow of recurring customers providing revenue. Empires are not built upon constant states of “market-to-sell” It’s vital to have a business that is metric-driven and insight-driven all the way through. This allows us to look for constant, achievable improvement and efficiency.   BEST MOMENTS ’The reason people scale their business is that they want to create freedom’ ‘You’ve got to have a clear vision of where you want to get to’ ’The eco-system is what can drive recurring revenue’ ‘If you break it down into small parts, you can actually see the cogs in the machine'   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.global  Support the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Sebastian Bates, the founder of The Warrior Academy among others, talks to Nick about the ways in which you can face down the challenges being presented to us these days, and pivot rapidly towards a more online business 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  Sports and martial arts force us to focus our thinking and live in the moment. They allow us to channel our thoughts into a more macro approach and experience time and events more differently. The key to attracting an audience is not to apply guesswork, but to pinpoint the exact thing that people want, and then advertise that message clearly and effectively. The recent events in the world have shown all of us that multiple streams of income are essential in order to avoid pressure, and that cash really is king. Look closely at the problem you are trying to solve. Why are you doing what you’re doing? If we step back and take an outside perspective, it allows us to see where that solution fits in the world. Vital tasks are the ones that only the key person of influence in each business can perform. Functional tasks are the opposite; tasks that can be outsourced, and which keep the wheels turning.   BEST MOMENTS ‘You’ve got to really have a very strong, confident outlook with no hesitation, and make decisions very quickly’ ‘Ultimately, I committed to taking the business global’ ‘A goal is not something you work towards. It’s something you come from’ ‘We’ve got to help them think long term. They have to think “visionary”' ‘It’s fundamental that you find a way to push your personal brand'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Sebastian Bates LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-seb-bates-4b70412b?originalSubdomain=aePersonal website:http://www.sebastianbates.com/ 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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.global  Support the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Most of us never get to do the things we truly want to do in life because fear holds us back. This is especially damaging in business, where the results of this fear can be seen in many ways. But how can we turn powerful fear into power 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 Fear is our brain’s way of trying to keep us safe. It’s a perfectly natural physiological response, and in many ways can be helpful in terms of survival. But we must always recognise the places in which we must seek mastery of it. We can only ever influence the present and the future. Do not be influenced by events of the past, and concentrate on the things we can control. Seek to surround yourself with positive influence. Fear and negativity are everywhere in our society, and by osmosis, our association with it can grow our fears. We can use meta-conditioning to help us through hesitation. Count backwards from 5, and then just do whatever it is that has caused you to hesitate.   BEST MOMENTS ‘Repetition is the route to mastery’ ‘Gratitude is the antidote to fear’ ’The moment that you feel you are hesitating, it’s because fear has popped its head up’ ‘Fear does actually serve you, It’s when it becomes overwhelming that it doesn’t'   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.global  Support the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

It’s a duo of growth experts this week, as Nick talks to entrepreneur, speaker and business growth expert, Jay Allen, in a show dedicated to growing and scaling your business successfully! 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   All businesses can be categorised in five ways: The 1% - Those who disrupt and cause others to ride on their coattails The 4% - Those who are doing very well, but who haven’t quite systemised their way to the 1% The 15% - Those on a more standard, incremental growth trajectory The 60% - Those who plateau, stall and struggle The 20% - Those who fail, go bust and expire If you do not have the systems and processes first, as the foundations on which your business is built, then we are building on “wet sand”. We must have robust support beneath our feet from the outset. Too many businesses employ a “survive to fight” mindset, instead of a “fight to survive”. We must give full consideration to the impact on the bigger battle ahead, and focus on thriving, not just surviving. Focusing on our “why” is crucial, as our businesses should be seen as a resource. We must constantly reflect upon the effectiveness of what we do in business, compared to what we want from A good business plan is one that can be picked up by anyone, inside or outside of the business, and when read, cause that person to understand it and be inspired by it.   BEST MOMENTS   ‘Eighty percent of business owners clearly get it all wrong’ ‘It’s so much more important to step out of the business and reflect on “Am I still on course?”' ‘Fight to survive is “what do I need to do right here in order to guarantee my survival?”' ’Simplicity has to be the key to any good business plan’   VALUABLE RESOURCES Jay Allen - https://jayallen.uk Jay Allen LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayallen-mytruenorth/?originalSubdomain=uk Jay's AddAZero Audit- https://www.mytruenorth.biz/addazero_audit/   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

This week, Nick looks at Verne Harnish’s book, ’Mastering The Rockefeller Habits’, a guide to increasing the value of your business by following steps that have proved successful for some of the world’s largest companies over the past hundred years. 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  Goals are essential, but without action they are insubstantial. A clear vision and the discipline to put routines into action, are the pathways to success. We need to have alignment at the highest levels in our business. Frequent meetings, active participation and constructive debate are the keystones to aligned management. Accountability is crucial. A Function Accountability Chart can help you to assign tasks, and to ensure that the right people are taking care of them at the right time.  Treat your reporting of customer data as importantly as you do your financial data. Frequent accurate analysis will give you greater insight into your direction.   BEST MOMENTS ’The core principles of success don’t really change’ ‘Goals without routines are wishes, and routines without goals are aimless’ ‘You can never communicate enough!’ ‘Core values need to become behaviours'   VALUABLE RESOURCES Mastering The Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Lisa Cumes is a freelance copywriter and StoryBrand Certified Guide, dedicated to helping business owners develop their own unique brand story, one of the most powerful tools in developing a narrative around the work you do. 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 One of the smartest things we can do as business owners right now is to invest in marketing and product development. Those who have done so, have seen remarkable gains, even through the COVID lockdown. A growth mindset allows us to see the opportunities that may be in front of us at all times. A closed mindset is almost like turning our back on them. People often don’t follow the financial aspirations behind something. They follow the narrative. They follow the heart and soul of a project. They want to be part of the story. StoryBrand removes the noise, the confusion, and the overwhelm of copywriting, in terms of presenting a business to a customer. It is about concentrating the point and assuring your customer that you can solve their problem. The best idea isn’t always the clearest choice. The idea that can communicate itself in the simplest, most resonant way, will often be the winner. BEST MOMENTS ‘He got out of his head. He invested. And he’s got the result!’ ‘If one person voices it, then others are out there who need it!’ ‘Any component of success, going forward, requires a team’ ‘People need to be sold on the fact that you understand the problem that they are facing' VALUABLE RESOURCES Lisa Cumes LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacumes/ Simple Story Solutions - https://simplestorysolutions.com Lisa Cumes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lisacumes/   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Paul Akers is an expert in the concept of Kaizen - the art of continuous improvement - and has since authored several works on the benefits of Lean Living, building a multi-million dollar business along the way. Paul joins Nick today to talk about how continuous improvement can strengthen and improve your life and business, how to nurture and develop culture, productivity, efficiency and much more! 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  Paul describes himself as a carpenter, as the concept of taking something raw and unrecognisable, and then transforming it into to something useful and beautiful, is one that can be applied to any pursuit; personal or business. Success isn’t always about money or growth. Sometimes it’s about achieving the thing you set out to do in the first place, and then honing that success into a purer form of quality. The formula for increasing efficiency is to recognise the many ways in which we can reduce waste and making incremental changes, using the teams at hand, so as to tighten and make lean, our systems and processes. Life as we live it each day, is really just a series of processes. All that Lean seeks to do is, is to look at any given process and refining away the waste. Consistent refining leads to a Lean life.   BEST MOMENTS ‘I’m just a curious carpenter - how do I fix this and how do I make it better?’ ‘I want a quality life. I want a quality company. And I want quality people’ ‘I figured out the formula, and then I started experiencing the benefit' ‘Lean believes that the greatest asset is people'   VALUABLE RESOURCES To learn about Paul’s incredible ‘2 Second Lean Play’ app go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxB-oAsNpFI&feature=youtu.be2 Second Lean Play iOS - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/2-second-lean-play/id15036949932 Second Lean Play Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leanplayPaul Akers LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulakers/Paul Akers - https://paulakers.netPaul Akers YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA694NgEo6Oh09gnNrZ02eg   ABOUT THE GUEST  Paul Akers is the founder and president of FastCap, a product development company specializing in woodworking tools and hardware for the professional builder. Paul’s intense curiosity on how things could be improved paved the way for him to become a prolific innovator and today he holds many US and International patents. FastCap launches approximately 20-30 innovative products per year and has won business of the year in 1999 and 2010. 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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.global  Support the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

In order to make sure your marketing strategies are effective, you need to focus on who your ideal customer is.  Many entrepreneurs form their businesses around a product or idea, and then try to find the customer to fit. But as Nick explains in this week’s '15 Minutes To Action', it might be time to flip that thinking...   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 business founded upon a product-centric approach instantly fails to take into account the most important stakeholder: the customer. What are their needs?  If a brand an understand the archetypes of its ideal customer, and can align with their values, it can engender a sense of trust, whether consciously or unconsciously. Aim for an 80/20 split when it comes to marketing. 80% of your revenue should be coming from your core audience or archetype. The other 20% should come from another. We should appeal to our customer’s sense of risk, and attempt to solve problems that are high-stake. Identify the need that’s keeping your customer up at night.   BEST MOMENTS ‘We tend to align with things that align with us’ ‘Archetypes are the heartbeat of a brand’ ‘You need to understand that person or persona intimately, so that you understand their problems’ ’The more generalist you are, the more you don’t stand out'      VALUABLE RESOURCES Brand Archetypes at Medium - https://medium.com/ebaqdesign/brand-archetypes-the-ultimate-guide-with-48-examples-44b39eb41c8f   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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/

Mike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco’s mission is to find out what you’re made of. It’s a mission he’s working towards each day by using the art of "people building", and by establishing himself as one of the great business leaders out there.  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 challenges we face in our formative years can give us the armour we need to battle through adversity in business, and in life. All obstacles are lessons. Conceptualise challenge as rocket fuel, a driving burst of energy to drive you upwards and forwards, instead of a detrimental occurrence. Change your perception and you change for the better. Sales are a form of leadership. We are using methodologies of leadership in order to “lead” our customers towards decisions.  Be as consistent as you can be. Even if you feel as though something isn’t working immediately, trust the process and see it through. It requires discipline and belief. Build your team out with people who you can help and develop, so that they can become the best version of themselves. Sometimes enthusiasm and willingness are far more important than experience.   BEST MOMENTS  ’People need to be built' ‘When you start being aware of that concept, it changes everything!’ ‘It’s your duty to be successful. Not just to pay your bills, but to help other people’ ‘I will help you grow - you just have to be willing’ ‘You’ve got to get out of obscurity'     VALUABLE RESOURCESMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco YouTubeMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco InstagramMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco LinkedInMike “C-Roc” Ciorrocco 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 METHOD Nick’s Facebook page: https://scaleup.vip/FB  Nick’s LinkedIn: https://scaleup.vip/LI  Nick's Instagram: https://scaleup.vip/IG  Scale Up Your Business, coaching/consulting: https://suyb.globalSupport the show: https://highvalueexit.com/