Disruptors

Welcome to another episode of The Disruptors Podcast. In today's Caffeine Cast Rob brings you 10 ways to jump in on trends, get the most leverage and the biggest income, the most customers, the highest reach and how to explode and go viral. Plus 8 online resources to help you spot them. Discover why it’s important not to be the first when taking advantage of trends and how to identify the start of the exponential curve before it plato's into maturity. Rob also brings you 8 essential online resources to help you spot up and coming trends. Listen now, and find out how to leverage trends to your advantage.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Having a natural curiosity - Listening rather than speaking, asking questions and being engaged. Always ask why. The desire to solve problems - A trend can just be a solution to solving an ongoing problem, Try to always find solutions, even if they don’t yet exist. Listening and engaging with online communities - Get engaged with the people in your industry, the people in your business, your passion, and your profession. Jumping in early, but not too early - Let others go first to reduce risk. Let others jump in early so you can gauge if it’s a trend you should follow. Use various online tools - FInd out what’s trending on platforms with Facebook analytics, Google trends, Twitter trends. Search what’s trending, what’s going viral and what people are talking about. When entering a market, don’t go all in - Create a minimal viable product, something raw but ready. You’ve got to decide and act fast - You can spend time perfecting your product or service when you know there’s a viable market. You need to have a general interest - Don’t just jump on a trend because it’s hot, you need to be interested in what you’re selling. Does it suit your passion and profession? Studying history and passed trends - You will see how past trends boom or bust, learn to spot when it will burn out. It will help you with the future. Get mentors and follow the successful - Learn from those that have gone before you. BEST MOMENTS   “Don’t put all your time, money and effort into something that doesn’t work.” “You can spend time perfecting a product or service once you know the market that you’re in, but you can miss trends if you don’t act fast and get something out there for the early adopters.” “Let the early adopters do the expensive testing.” “Study the history of business in your passion or profession and it will give you an indicator of future trends.” “Constantly fixing things will create opportunities.” “Get good mentors and model the best.” “There’s always a tomorrow that can solve the future of today.” [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES www.Trendhunter.com www.Trendwatching.com www.Coolhunting.com www.Moreinspriation.com www.Coolbusinessideas.com www.Thetrendspotter.net www.Thecoolist.com www.Ted.com https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

Welcome to another episode of The Disruptors Podcast. Today Rob dives into How to Deal With the Demand on Your Time and how you too, can compartmentalise, create rules and start to leverage, manage do in order to get the most done. Discover how to effectively, efficiently and ruthless deal with the demands on your time by following Rob’s steps to success. Learn how to stop attracting the demand on your time and start to, scale-leverage and Net-time because Routine equals Results. KEY TAKEAWAYS Compartmentalise Your Diary - Merge your passion and profession, vocation and vacation and complete income generating tasks. Create a routine and you’ll get the results you want. Schedule in your time and tasks, be organised and you’ll get everything done. Have Rules for all the Incoming - Give yourself permission and outsource. If it’s personal answer it yourself but ensure you create rules and barriers to preserve your time. L,M,D  (Leverage, Manage, Do) - Instead of doing first, leverage first and get more done. Isolated Yourself - If you are interrupted you’re doing yourself a disservice. Get yourself out of the equation and turn your notifications off. Someone will do it quicker, faster better and you can then focus on the income generating tasks. Break your tasks up and begin to leverage more to become 5 or 10 times more productive. NET-timing - Use your time wisely to get more done. Focus on your income generating tasks and value the time you spend on tasks. Scale Leverage - Create leverage in all of your tasks and liberate your time. Cut up the content you create into marketing material, podcasts, social posts and more to create multiple layers of leverage. Aim to re-purpose and make it evergreen. BEST MOMENTS   People can actually do the jobs, you think only you can do. Most people start working and push away everything else. If you do this your life goes by. Compartmentalise everything in. It’s so important. If it doesn’t fit, delay it and postpone it. When your busy you get really frustrated with everyone and everything, you need to compartmentalise your time to serve your audience in the best possible way. Change your thought process to who can do this? And instead of doing first, leverage first to get more done. You can’t do everything even if you want to. Point your audience to your podcasts, articles, preserve your time and leverage your assets Scale-leverage is an asset you create with multiple leverage.   [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

DESCRIPTION Welcome to another episode of the The Disruptors Podcast. In this episode Rob Moore shares a Live! Training session from his Elite Trainer Masterclass and discusses How to Deal with Change. Rob explains how everyone views change in one of two ways, daunting and scary or exciting and new. Learn how change can create exciting opportunities but also added risk. There’s no black, white or binary answer to changeit’s a balance of emotions and optimistic belief. Understand how to embrace change and shake it up, because tomorrow could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Change is the most exciting part of business and life don’t fear it, hold on to it. KEY TAKEAWAYS- Change can invoke a lot of emotions and bring about new and exciting opportunities but also create risk.- Become excited by change, create new opportunities and embrace something new. Yes it can createchaos and overwhelm but it’s never all good and never all bad.- Everyone is on their own journey, so don’t fear change or what comes about as a result of that.- Don’t make important decisions about change when you’re emotional.- Change has a polarised and equal balance of opportunities and threats, there’s upside in every downside.BEST MOMENTS- “Change is never how you perceive it to be, in the beginning we see only the upside.”- “Change is a dance and a balance.”- “Observe in your own self how we perceive change and enter into change for the long-term.”- “I feel a bit sad about change when I see that friends that have drifted off along the way.” Peter Smith [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES John Demartini - The Gratitude Effect - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gratitude-Effect-John-Demartini/dp/0978138023  https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

No one shall stop you when pursuing a career as a creative! On today’s episode, Rob meets John Challis, who’s famous for playing “Boycie” in the comedy series “Only Fools and Horses.” Listen as they talk about Only Fools and Horses, shunning away as an actor in this society, following the dream, overcoming failures, meeting the Beatles, geeking about The Goon Show and many more! KEY TAKEAWAYS John Challis’ interest in acting started at 8 years old. He watched Peter Pan on theatre and it blew him away. His facility for mimicry started appearing and honed it despite driving his parents insane. He was desperate to copy his favourite characters and he got good at it as a result. Experiencing to be in society which doesn’t embrace creative pursuit. His dad was a civil servant but John didn’t want to go with that career. Hi figured out he was good at acting and pursued it with full force. John says being in the creative industry won’t be easy but just do it! Follow your dream and don’t get crippled by fear. You don’t want it but there will be times you’ll be heckled and rejected. It’s a cruel environment and it will be tough. But you just have a go with what you want if you think you have it in you. Establish connections. Get contact lists of producers, clients, big studios, etc. Build your portfolio. His character ‘Boycie’ opened up new career opportunities for him. John says he just got lucky with his unforgettable portrayal of Boycie. He went through a lot before landing the role. He went to America but it didn’t work out. His acting from a previous audition was noticed by Michael Sullivan. He got his script in the mail. Then, it started skyrocketing from there. His character grew and evolved. Of Fools and Horses lasted for so many years. Being aware of the problem is a big part of overcoming a failure. John recalls the time he had too many personal problems and had taken a toll on his career. He knew it was happening. He knew it was wrong. He says he was lucky that he met his wife Carol who greatly helped him in his tough times. Quick Fire Questions: What’s John’s favourite storyline from A Fools and Horses? A scene where Elsie Partridge has a message for Boycie and the Heroes and Villains episode. What character does he want to play if it’s not Boycie? Marlene Boyce. What got you in acting: money or art? Earning money from doing what he loves, acting. Any advice for aspiring actors? Follow that dream. How’d you like to be remembered? Someone who gives pleasure. Someone who entertains. Worst advice? “Why don’t you give up and do something sensible?” Best advice? “Don’t give up. You have to get older to realize what’s for you. Some people are gone in an instant like a firework. Some have a long tail and you are one of those.” BEST MOMENTS “It’s not easy these days. But, if it’s in you, do it! You may fail, but someone said, ‘Try again, fail better.’ Try it. 70% don’t and regret it.” – John Challis “Those burning dreams we have for the creative… they don’t seem to go away.” – Rob Moore “It’s all about surprising… ambushing the audience.” – John “If I have money from something I really love doing, that’s a bonus for me.” – John “Follow that dream. If you’ve got that dream, it’s in you, and you want to do it, just do it.” – John “Most successful people are very impatient but has to learn patience.” - Rob ABOUT THE GUEST John Challis is an English actor best known for his character Aubrey ‘Boycie’ Boyce in the long-running British comedy series ‘Of Fools and Horses’ and its spin-off ‘The Green Green Grass.’ He’s been acting for television and theatre since the ‘60s. He’s written two autobiographies, ‘Being Boycie’ and ‘Boycie & Beyond’ telling more about his personal life and prolific career. CONTACT METHOD John Challis Twitter [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979 disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

Should you do what you love and money will follow? Or should you make money first then free your time to do what you love? Today, Rob shares with us how he got into this difficult situation of deciding whether to ditch the task of recording his audiobook Start Now Get Perfect Later because he doesn’t feel like it or just do it for the community and his business. He got caught up in this paradox but still managed to get out of it and get it done. Start listening to the latest episode to know how it can get tricky but with right motivation and willpower, you’ll be able to choose the right thing! KEY TAKEAWAYS Doing what you love and monetizing on it will not always be true. You should look into the business and commercial aspect of it. There are things that you love but could get tiresome if you do it every day. There will be a lot of stuff you don’t like doing with what you love. Outsource tasks that will burn you out. Hire someone who could help you with admin tasks, dealing with clients, etc. If it needs to be done, it should be done. If your community or customers perceive something valuable and you’re not really hyped to do it, have a word with yourself. Do it. For example, Rob feels that he could just get someone to record his audiobook since he does not want to do it. But he feels that doing it would make a big difference for the community and business, so he decides to do it. Once it’s done, it’s done anyway. Decide whether it is right for you or not. Think long term. If you’re selling your soul and your life to the business, then where are you gonna be the next five years? So, think about it. BEST MOMENTS “I’m gonna do it because it makes a difference.” “What do I love the most that are also monetizable?” “Roll up your sleeves and sometimes, do the stuff that makes you uncomfortable. Don’t just hustle for the sake of it.” “If it feels uncomfortable or scary and don’t wanna do it, smash through it and you’ll probably go to the next level” [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

On this episode, Rob shares his experience as an interviewer and podcaster. He shares with us some strategies on how he chooses his guests, how he prepares his questions, what he thinks is important for interviewees and listeners and other behind the scenes things you need to know about the Disruptors Podcast! KEY TAKEAWAYS Find a credible and interesting guest. Rob makes sure that the guest could be a big name, an unknown, a person that the community wouldn’t think of, or a person you could take a chance on to contribute on the message. Hire a good researcher to get you the possible best guests out there. You could find them through your network of colleagues, from the documentaries you’re watching, or from your favourite podcasts. Be insistent if you really want them. Rejection is better than nothing. Reach out by calling, emailing, or even sliding them a message on their social media. Have a framework for the interview. Prepare 5-7 main questions. Research on the quest beforehand. For Rob, sometimes, he intentionally does not research the guest to make it more interesting. There are times also that he lets the energy of conversation guide them. Just remember to make sure of your key questions. Personalize the questions for each guest. Try not to use rehash questions anymore. For The Disruptive Entrepreneur, what’s a sort of common question is about the commercial and the non-commercial experience in their career. The interview is not about the interviewer; it’s about the interviewee. It doesn’t matter how great the guest you’ve invited if you won’t be able to get the best out of him in the interview. Remember to let him finish his answers first before proceeding. Be professional during the interview. Always try to have a good rapport and engage him to talk. Ask good interesting questions. While interviewing, you might tend to look every time at your prepared written questions, it might be quite off-putting for the guest. A podcast is convenient, easy to access, and a personal media. It’s the closest thing that audience could listen to the author or the expert without even meeting him. The podcasting industry has been constantly growing for the last 15 years. But still hasn’t reached its peak of exponential growth. BEST MOMENTS “The bigger you make a big decision, the often it’s the worst decision you make.” “It’s good to be nervous because it makes you prepare well.” “Interview is not about the interviewer. It’s about the interviewee.” “Guest is the most important person. You’ve got to try to draw out stories on experiences, the golden nuggets, etc.” “You’re an artist. Whatever you love to do, that is your art.” [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979 John Challis (Boycie) on His Career After Only Fools & Horses | Interview with Rob Moore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4cHG2pS98Y) The Disruptive Entrepreneur Podcast by Rob Moore (https://robmoore.com/podcast/) The Money Podcast by Rob Moore (https://itunes.apple.com/in/podcast/the-money-podcast/id1358672174?mt=2) Adam Buxton Podcast (http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts) The Joe Rogan Podcast (http://podcasts.joerogan.net/)  disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

Learn how to choose the right mentor, coach, or mastermind. Understand the importance of clarity in your goals and the value of learning from others' mistakes. Explore the differences between mentors, coaches, and masterminds, and how they can help you succeed in business and personal development.

Welcome to The Disruptors podcast. In this episode Rob explains in detail all aspects of managing finance; these can be applied to both your personal and professional life.  Rob takes you through his nine ways to manage money that will leave you more enlightened and confident.  It will help you prepare, progress, and achieve your ambitions. KEY TAKEAWAYS (0.57) One of the first rules of managing cash Rob impresses on us is to look after our Capital. He discusses how we all get lumps of money i.e. sell something, salaries, and dividends, then spend it. He says money attracts money and if you erode capital then you have nothing left to draw income from. He explores all the different situations that can arise if we do not either understand or appreciate how important it is to preserve capital at all costs. (03.32) Rob moves onto his second rule of managing cash which is, Capital produces income. He reasons with us if we use capital to invest in assets that produce income, instead of using it on depreciating liabilities, or where we would get a negative return because of inflation, then the assets would allow us to use the income to buy depreciating liabilities. Rob gives us a good example of a standard Mercedes costing £300 per month on a 2/3 year lease and reminds us it might be £35,000 which would depreciate to £20,000 in around 3 years. However if we bought an HMO by using the same capital and raising the money for the rest, it would bring in £500 per month income. Then, instead of using your capital for the £300 per month you would be left with the difference between the income and your asset. (06.03) The third rule Rob passes onto to us is that we cannot be unrealistic about the returns on managing cash. Rob tells us we can get good return on investment, and we can get infinite return on investment. If we put money into property which increases in value then we extracted all our cash back that is an infinite return on investment. When it comes to actual capital we deploy lumps of money, people expect 20% 30% 100% a day, a month, it’s unrealistic and naive. We should expect 5% that is pretty normal too. Rob goes on to explain this in more detail regarding I.S.A.’s, leverage, and the rate of return. (07.18) Rule number 4 is to understand what burn rate is. Most people have no idea of what cash burn rate is. Rob describes to us it is the amount of time your capital erodes, and in business it is usually measured in months. How many months burn rate is how much capital we have, if we made no sales. It’s important to know what would be the total overheads and fixed variables, he asks us how many months worth of capital we would have if we made no sales. Rob gives us another example by telling us if our fixed variables were £50,000 and we had £150.000 in the bank our burn rate would 3 months. Rob expands on this theme further so we can appreciate how important having capital that will cover our burn rate.  (09.32) Getting to 0 days. Rob continues giving us another option of looking at getting rid of debt and going into the black. He understands it can be demoralizing trying to get to zero but a target can be a bench mark in our journey; it’s a flag you put in the ground.   Rob has people asking him what sort of a target they should set themselves he tells them start at 0 month first then 1 month, 3 months 6 months and 1 year, he says once we have targets set it is going to get us more motivated and focused.  Again he gives us examples of how to measure our business needs. (011.07) Cash Flow Cycle. Rob guides us through the cash flow cycle telling us it is essentially the amount of debt or credit days we are in selling our products and services his example is supposing he buys 100 zoom HI’s they sell at £100, he buys them for £50 he says he then has to spend 5 grand.  The cash flow cycle is how many days it takes to get that capital back; he is creating a debt by paying for it in advance and if it takes 60 days to sell all of them, that means a 60 day cash flow cycle, 60 days of exposure debt in the business held in stock.  Rob continues by going more into depth giving us a great deal of information that tackles the cash flow cycle. (014.41) Spreading and deploying your Capital. Rob informs us it is really important not to have our capital all in one place.  As he explains if we had all our capital in one investment and something happened to that investment i.e. regulation, crash, recession, our capital is going to erode. Rob also describes how his financial team is always getting emails and so on, trying to get money saying they are Mark or Rob, so if they had all their money in the same bank, theft could clear them out. When you have cash spread it around into savings accounts and current accounts. (016.16) Drawing vs retained earnings. Rob reveals to us both drawing and retaining earnings describing how profits and dividends can be drawn and what he thinks is best about income and profit. BEST MOMENTS Rob tells us about Dell UK how their revolutionary idea, for example building be-spoke computers meant they had the customers money up front for say 14 days. If you think of that with a million pound company the interest on the held money is extremely high. Rob uses Bill Gates of Microsoft in his burn rate example and tells us how Bill Gates liked to have 12 months burn rate, meaning they could manage without any sales for a year. Rob tells us in his managing cash rule “your capital is preserved in an asset against inflation and you spending it” [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979  disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

Welcome to another episode of the The Disruptors Podcast. In this episode Rob discusses the three things in business that are more important to people than money and how you too, can embrace these things and bring them to your staff and employees The three things that are more important to people than money are: Progression - This has to be lead by you,  and staff need to feel like they are progressing their career, help to progress their knowledge, personal development, experience and salary.  When there is no hierarchy or path, people can't see the progression, They can't see where they will be challenged and learn new skills. Progression can simply be a change, Recognition - Nearly all the issues in a company can be down to recognition, a lack of recognition can cause unhappy staff, de-motivation, gossip and sabotage. Ensure to recognise and praise everyone even those that aren't the star employees. Become a perveya of love, recognition and praise, because people need it. Autonomy - No-one wants to be micromanaged, smart people want to be given a little too much to do, and that’s to challenge them. Make sure they have the resources to do it and then the trust, faith and autonomy from you to step up to the plate and over deliver.  If you don't have people motivated by that you're surrounded by the wrong people. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you give your staff Progression, Recognition and Autonomy you can pay your staff up to 20% less, as they will be fulfilled in their roles. Money is 4th on the list of most important things for people, if you give them Progression, Recognition and Autonomy they will be happy and motivated. Give a path to everyone you influence, customers, clients, followers and fans, friends and family. Give them a route to progress, personally, professionally and financially. BEST MOMENTS “If you don't trust them, don't hire them” “Hiring smart people is an investment in your company” "What's the point in hiring someone smart, and then getting in their way, hire smart people and get out of their way" Steve Jobs “You can earn and do more in less or your own time” [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com

Interview with Aston Merrygold, former member of JLS, one of the biggest ever boy bands with 10,000,000 records sold. Aston’s since been a judge on a dance talent show and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing. He’s appeared in adverts for Coca-Cola, Samsung and Tesco. Rob’s met with Aston at his dance studio in Vauxhall to discuss success, wealth, leveraging social media, reinventing your career and dealing with the business side of celebrity. KEY TAKEAWAYS You’re now pursuing a career as a solo artist, that must be different to working with your bandmates. I bet there’s upsides and downsides, do you want to talk about that Aston? Yeah, I guess the only real difference is the social. you'd be in a room with your friends, business partners, having a heated business discussion, everyone's got their own ideas and nothing ever arrives to arguments or blows, but from an outside perspective it can be quite awkward. It looks like we're going at each other, but that's just the passion. Now on my own, it's my way or the highway. I prefer it that way, 100%! I'm so thankful to the rest of the guys and my team, but now being on my own I can finally be myself and express myself fully, not contribute 25% to a four-piece. How do you want to be known and remembered, Aston? Well, I want to be remembered as one of the greats, and I think if you don't want that, then you're in the wrong industry. If I could have an eighth, a third or a slice of something someone like Michael Jackson had or Justin Timberlake, more recently. If I could get a slice of their success, I'd be more than happy! Music or dance specifically, or the fusion of both, Aston? Do you know what? I think it's just entertainment. People ask me what I do for a living, and I tell them entertainment. It's everything, music, from a writing perspective, from a performance perspective, dance-wise, acting, everything. I love everything to do with this industry. Working with business partners, sometimes that passion can overflow, sometimes you can fall out, how did you and your band learn to deal with and overcome that? To be honest, I don't know why, we just did! There was no learning process. As individuals we just wanted to fight the good fight. We would put it to each other like, "If we do this we could be here, if we do that we could be there..." It was all about where we needed to be. What was best for us as a collective. I was the youngest of the four so I tended not to take things as seriously, when it came to the business aspect I was more than happy to give my opinion and not back down, but ultimately I thought that was why we outsourced, hiring business managers, administrators and consultants, to make those decisions on our behalf. How much of it was agents and labels telling you what to do and how much of it was you saying, "Wait a minute, we want to do this." Well, I'd say about 50\50. We were trusted with our opinions which was great. There were times when we trusted the label, sometimes great, sometimes not so great. Just the way of the industry. Sometimes our hits which we didn't think would succeed were massive and other times the releases we thought would be huge just didn't hit the mark. Luck of the draw, half the time. We would have to trust our lives to these people and we had a great run, I think I can speak on behalf of myself and the boys when I say it was the best thing we'd ever done. So, from your position, why do you guys feel like you moved on? I think it was the perfect turn, I'm still in JLS, I'm always going to be in JLS, but we were young when we entered the industry, then we got our break. We're all now in our mid 20's, we've already had a fantastic career, we have time to pursue other dreams! Five albums take a lot of time, there's been a lot of tours and it was the thought of signing the deal for another five albums and being contracted all over again. Now we're all starting families, it seemed to us that we were at the top of our game, didn't want to overstay our welcome and then if we're welcome back then we're welcome back! We're more than happy with where JLS left.Was it scary, leaving the industry to try other things? Hell yeah! It was so scary, because I'd been cocooned. For the last 7/8 years I'd lived by the diary, having cars pick me up at certain times to take me to meetings and events at certain times. From life being handled by every aspect to getting the reigns back to my own life was definitely scary, but I was free. I got to start again with all the knowledge and wisdom of the industry which I didn't have before, it was a rush! You seem totally laid back about transitioning career and going from being massive to starting from scratch, Aston. What would you say to people who aren't as laid back as you and they're scared? Well, you can look at fear one or two ways; it can over could you and make you introverted, or you can take it upon yourself and admit it's scary. There's a difference jumping out of a plane with a parachute and without one. Regardless of whether you have one or not, it's scary. Jumping without one, it'll only ever end one way, with one you still have a safety net which may not work but at least you confront it and take it head on.  Nowadays on Social Media you can be absolutely killed. One wrong remark or faux-pas and that could be your career done within a matter of hours, regardless of what's happened. It's as cut-throat as that. Once you realise and know that, life won't be so stressful! You might as well just be like, "Alright, well I'll try again." Is that faith? Is that belief in yourself? Is that confidence? Is that accepting of your industry and career and how it can be or is it all of those, Aston? It's all of them, it has to be. Sometimes I can see the bad sides of all those things within the industry and think you can be too confident. You might as well be naked on stage and say, "There you go, judge away." Has the industry changed you? Yeah, definitely. I used to go out with my mates from uni, early twenties, same as everyone else. The only difference was that I was I had money so we could really enjoy ourselves and the media perceived me to be showing off. What else would you be doing on a weekend with your friends from uni at that age, going out every night obviously! Do I have work tomorrow? Yeah of course, but I'm fine! So you've talked about these glass ceilings to smash through, what's your glass ceiling and how're you going to smash through it? The next glass ceiling is just getting music out there. Letting people know that I'm a solo artist now. Not many people know it. Music's based mainly online now, it's ever-changing and you can so quickly and easily get lost. It's me having the courage to step back and take a harder look at it and evaluating how I want to approach it. At first I was like, "Yeah I want to chuck anything out and do whatever." Whereas now I'm like, "Now I have to chuck it out in the right way."  Do you think some of the purists struggle with how fast music and content are changing? Yes! I had a meeting the other day with a great friend of mine who works for a label and he got pissed off with me for talking on my phone. He said, "Stop talking, I've heard your stuff, let people hear it and decide!"  Get your content out there. Whether 10 people here it or 10,000,000 people hear it, you'll effect change. People think they should wait for the perfect time but there is not perfect time. It's ever-changing, so fast paced!  People are now starting to put their own truth out to the world. Podcasts, YouTube, Social Media, etc. People want honesty, but you're damned if you do and damned if you don't if when for example your niche is writing sad songs and you decide to write a happy one, some of your followers may disapprove but at least you're being authentic. Too often we aim to please everybody and don't want to be judged too harshly. A lot of people are really intrigued about the business side of your career, did you show an interest in that or did you just want to go and do entertainment? At first, I was definitely happy-go-lucky, thinking business was cool but then I'd get invited to an accounting meeting and I'd think, "Perfect..." Then the taxes came and I wanted to know who was taking my money!  As it went on I wondered why hadn't they taught me about this at school? All these avenues and options, I don't know why it took me to reach a certain age for it to click. In the early stages money was coming in thick and fast, unreal! First I was partying, then I wanted to buy a house, then the business aspect start to get more real. Then I started to analyse why the volume of gigs in the first part of the year was more than the third part of the year, etc. I started to realise there was a business cycle behind it all. A preparation period, a release period, etc. A template every artist follows. People are launching from yesterday. "I'm gonna be in the studio tomorrow, everyone out there, check out this song that I posted last night." The rule book's been thrown out the window! Slade wrote a Christmas number one 40 years ago and they're still milking £500,000 per year from it! Cristiano Ronaldo gets €300,000 per tweet if he does a brand endorsement.  There's some downsides to Social Media but if you want to set up a business or be an artist or creative, surely it's gotta be the best time in history?! You get a small tripod for £5, set your camera up, start singing or dancing or whatever and start selling products! Have you embraced all the Social Media, are you quite active? Instagram and visual things I love, things like Twitter, not so much. For me, Twitter's maybe 90% negative and 10% positive. You get a lot of opinions when people post music but aren't ready to perform in front of large crowds of people. You want to be true to your art and your work and you could spend 30 years crafting your work, never be perfect, get still always be judged by purist critics. Social Media today, you can dictate the terms. If you like the comments, get involved. If you hate it, turn it off, if you're an introvert you can do a podcast because nobody can see your face! There's ways around it now, there's lanes, avenues, ways people can really express themselves. Building multiple streams of income and making hay while the sun shines. I've seen a lot a lot of people who've become very successful and then relaxed. You never know when there could be another recession. In your world Aston, you can be the best and then you can be gone. Do you think about building income streams, having multiple business interest endorsements? What are your thoughts on streams of income and making hay while the sun shines? I'm 110% up for building these streams of income. As an artist I choose when I get paid. If I don't want to get paid, I don't go out and work. It doesn't work for me. You're never too successful! There's always bills to pay and people to provide for. We're sitting in one of my avenues now. There's always a bigger picture. I'd like ten of these, dotted around the country, dotted around the world.  You've got a business partner in this venture. How important is having that business partner, what benefit have you got? It's nice to always have the other perspective, coming from a band it's nice to bounce ideas. At the same time, when I'm touring, I need someone to hold down the fort. If something comes up within the business which I can't handle straight away, he can handle that. It's nice having a business partner that's totally on your wavelength. Gold dust! People say you shouldn't go into business with friends. I say life's too short to go into business with people purely for commercial benefit and not enjoy your time together, especially if you succeed. Surely, you'd want to succeed with your friends and people you care about?! If they're true friends, you'll never run into any worries. They'll all eventually show their true colours.  The best advice you've ever received, if you can remember it? From Seal, actually. One of the greats. He told me, "Enjoy it." Regardless of whether you're performing in front of 50 people at a local concert or 50,000 in an arena, enjoy it. We're all rushing everything we ever do, so slow down, soak it up. Worst advice? Honestly, I've never had bad advice. If I've ever had advice which didn't go according to plan, I'd learn from it, which would be invaluable anyway. Going against my gut always bites me.  A myth about the industry or a celebrity or someone in the media which most people don't know about? When you get £1,000,000 you don't actually get £1,000,000! Why didn't they teach you in school that if you're an employee, when you get paid, you lose 40% to tax?! Management, agents, staff, whomever it may be, they all get a slice too. So once all of the overheads are cleared you're left with around £200,000/£300,000... Don't ever believe the newspapers! If I did six or seven of those gigs, then I'd be looking at earning that kind of money. Anything you strongly believe in the world that you'd like to change and put your stamp on? The Social Media is such a curse and such a blessing at the same time. People use it for so much good but at the same time you have to filter through so much rubbish and negativity to find any scrap of it. I'd like to put more filters and choice for people.  The theme that's emerged in this interview is that there's two sides to this reality. Social media is a bit negative, but we can put our products and content out to the world in five minutes. Celebrity's all good or celebrity's all bad... There's a choice. You can always choose how you look at things and approach them.  What does the word disruptive mean to you? Now? A four-and-a-half-month old baby screaming at 2am! Personally, for me being disruptive is probably more of a good thing. Music is always disrupting the airways and people's vision and hears. Music that disrupts popular, conventional music creates its own undefined genre. I enjoy proving that there aren't any rules! BEST MOMENTS The best thing about building a dance studio underneath a railway bridge is that there’s no sound restrictions, so if clients want to have their music playing at top volume, they can. It's good that clients hear music going on when they arrive, if it was silent then it'd feel like something was wrong. The smell adds to it too! I never felt the need to push buttons. If someone was feeling a bit tender over a business decision or something similar, I'd tend to back off and give them some time and space.  There's no ceiling. Every ceiling you see is made of glass and if you don't smash through it then you're going to get stuck.  I'm going to invest in myself instead of waiting for years for the knock on the door from the big label. Everybody's putting their stuff out through their own means.  That one bad review out of the 1,000 decent ones really doesn't matter! Don't fixate on it. If I sit out home all day, doing nothing, it's not long before the phone stops ringing. I have to go out, make myself known, do shows, take appointments, etc. because if I don't do it now then my family will be in trouble. Focus yourself on what you've got, not what you've not got. I realised Social Media was a daily thing. Instagram, Twitter, people wanted to see all of you, not just the music. Sometimes I would grow my hair for campaigns, sometimes you'd see a yearly cycle within a day! As you said, happiness is a choice. Now it feels like, well that's just common sense, why would I not want to be happy? It's quite alluring and tempting, the gossip, the bad news, it's an attractive thing for some people.  When my little boy came along, I thought he needs everything I didn't have when I was growing up, regardless of whether I can buy it right now or not. [Business, mindset, entrepreneur, disruptors] VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks  rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “Disruptors” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979disruptive, disruptors, entreprenuer, business, social media, marketing, money, growth, scale, scale up, risk, property: http://www.robmoore.com