May 13, 2025 • 44 mins
What does true entrepreneurial freedom look like? Roy Coughlan embodies this answer through his remarkable journey from washing cars at age 9 to building an empire spanning 20 companies across five countries.
Roy's entrepreneurial instinct emerged early. While other kids played, he delivered newspapers, washed cars, and by 14, had purchased his own lawnmower to start a neighborhood grass-cutting service. Despite formal education in construction management, Roy found corporate employment frustrating—watching dedicated colleagues mistreated and experiencing firsthand how companies reduced incentives for top performers.
The pivotal moment came when Roy spotted property investment opportunities in Poland. Gradually transitioning from his corporate role, he eventually made the complete leap to entrepreneurship—a status he's maintained for 18 years. This freedom allowed him to spend a month by his grandmother's bedside during her cancer battle and arrange his schedule around co-parenting his son—opportunities impossible within corporate constraints.
Through building his business empire, Roy learned crucial lessons about hands-on financial and legal management. "Don't outsource your legal side or accounting," he advises. "It's your business. You're the one that's going to suffer." This philosophy guided him through over 100 court cases and countless business negotiations.
Roy's journey eventually led him to podcasting, where he's established six successful shows, four reaching the global top 0.5%. His innovative approach uses podcasting as both a business itself and as a marketing tool—interviewing potential clients rather than making cold calls. His company VA World grew from his own need for reliable virtual assistant services, now helping entrepreneurs maximize productivity while maintaining proper oversight.
For anyone dreaming of entrepreneurial freedom, Roy's story offers inspiration and practical wisdom: develop a resilient mindset, never tolerate failure, and remember that entrepreneurship isn't just about financial success—it's about controlling your time, energy, and ultimately, your life.
How to connect with Roy?
Website: https://roycoughlan.com/
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/speaking-podcast/id1443652346
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk5CEEWZ2KgUTYJOTXNL8lQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roycoughlan
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roycoughlan/
Twitter: https://x.com/poleire
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zg8fJBSvBCY0oWdoF7mkP#login
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a
show for anyone who wants to betheir own boss.
If you sit in a cubicle everyday and know you are capable of
more, then join us.
This show will help you build abusiness and grow your passive
income streams in just a fewshort hours per day.
And now your hosts, serialentrepreneurs David Shomer and
(00:22):
Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another episode of Firing the man, the
podcast dedicated to exploringthe journeys of entrepreneurs
who have successfullytransitioned from traditional
employment to business owners.
Today, we are honored to haveRoy Calling as our guest.
A seasoned entrepreneur,podcasting coach and prolific
podcast host, roy has animpressive track record, having
(00:48):
founded 20 companies across fivecountries.
His entrepreneurial venturesspan various industries,
reflecting his adaptability andinnovative spirit In the realm
of podcasting, roy hasestablished six podcasts, four
of which have reached the top0.5% globally, including the
Speaking Podcast, the AwakeningPodcast, the Meditation Podcast
(01:13):
and the Learn Polish Podcast.
His fifth podcast, the CryptoPodcast, has achieved a top 1%
ranking, and his latest endeavor, the Podfather, is rapidly
gaining recognition as adedicated podcasting coach.
Roy has guided numerous clientsin launching their own
(01:33):
successful podcasts, helpingthem break into the top 10% of
shows worldwide.
He also assists individuals insecuring guest appearances on
top-rated podcasts to promotetheir businesses or books.
In addition to podcastingpursuits, roy is the co-founder
of VA World, a company providingvirtual assistant services to
(01:55):
businesses to maximizeproductivity and profitability.
In today's conversation, we'lldelve into Roy's entrepreneurial
journey, his insights onbuilding and scaling businesses
and the transformative power ofpodcasting, and practical advice
for those looking to fire theman and embark on their own
entrepreneurial paths.
Stay tuned for engaging andinformative discussion with Roy
(02:19):
Calling Roy.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Thank you very much, David.
Looking forward to thisconversation.
Appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Absolutely so to get things started off, can you
share with our audience a littlebit about your path in the
entrepreneurial world?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I was a young entrepreneur.
So at nine I was going aroundwashing cars, doing a bit of
gardening, delivering leaflets.
At 11, I started newspapers soI was delivering newspapers in
the area around me With themoney from that.
At 14, I bought a lawnmower.
Then I was going around cuttinggrass.
Around 18, I was buying andselling motorbikes, kind of
realized, hey, you paint up amotorbike, you can sell it for a
(02:59):
few hundred bucks extra.
So it was always.
Then I studied construction,economics and management and
when I finished college Icouldn't get a job.
So then I had to go intoanother course which was
construction site supervision,taught myself AutoCAD, because
the course was like one of thesegovernment things that you're
doing foxers for the people inthere and not getting paid.
(03:19):
But the people that were theinstructors were getting paid.
It was like the usualcorruption in a government
organisation.
So there was a computer.
I asked them get me an AutoCADbook.
I think it was AutoCAD 12 or 11at the time.
Read it from page one to theend.
And then they had kind of whereyou get work experience and
(03:40):
worked with the council doingroad design.
But the money was brutal.
It was like 100 quid a week,you know Irish pounds at the
time so you know you couldn'tlive on that and I started
working for a mechanicalcontracting company and started
off as doing CAD and then justworked my way up to project
manager, contracts manager, andI was with them for like eight
(04:02):
and a half years, then withanother company for about three
and a half years as a regionalmanager, and I kind of moved to
Poland and have never worked foranybody else since, just kind
of doing my own thing for thelast 18 years.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Outstanding, outstanding.
That's a really good story.
Now, one thing I find reallyinteresting talking to
entrepreneurs is oftentimes theydo have something that started
in childhood A lot of lawnmowing businesses, lemonade
stands and I'm always curious toask did you have a role model
or somebody that you werelooking to that got you
interested in entrepreneurship,or was it something you felt
(04:38):
like you're kind of born with?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I think I was born with Someone has asked me that
recently.
It's like my dad was a chiefprojection, so he worked in the
cinema.
You know, most of the time hewas there, which had an
advantage that I could go to thecinema as often as I want, but
on the side he was doingphotography and he was doing
that since he was 20 and he wasvery good at it.
So he'd do weddings and my momwould put the album together so
(05:03):
that I saw weddings and my momwould put the album together so
that I saw that from you know, ayoung age.
But there was no deals.
My brother wasn't reallyentrepreneurial.
He's worked for somebody, he'sstill working for somebody and
you know.
So you know different.
There's just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So I think, yeah, it came from within, outstanding,
outstanding, and you hadmentioned you've been, you've
been, uh, you have not had aboss for 18 years and because
the name of the show and thetheme of the show I want to dive
into the day that you decidedI'm done working, I'm ready to
(05:34):
fire the man and here's my gameplan.
Can you walk us through that?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There was two points that when I left one company and
the other and I think it's kindof important because in other
way when you hear something andyou have a conversation so with
the first company I was doingvery well and I was kind of on a
bonus system as well.
So when I made profits what Inegotiated was 5% of above
profit.
I mean they knew me woulddemand 50%, but I thought I was
(06:02):
doing well at that.
So you know I was happy gettingabove the expected profits 5%.
But it worked out well becauseat one stage I was able to buy a
car with a bonus just outrightand the boss that I was dealing
with for about 6 years left andI saw him being treated bad at
one stage, like this is a verybig company and I used to fly up
(06:25):
to Dublin and meet the like theboard would be there and at one
stage it was the owner and thedirector I was dealing with and
he was having a conversation.
I remember he put his hand uplike that one as if to shut up.
I remember thinking don't everdo that to me.
And I could see they weren'ttreating him well yet he was
really dedicated to his job, sohe got kicked out.
(06:47):
The next guys in line weresaying oh, we'll look after you,
we'll treat you better.
And when it came to commissionand bonuses, they were like oh
no, that was an easy say 15%that we're to make.
We changed that to 20.
In other words, they startedtaking the money off the table
and I've heard of so many peoplethat that's happened, which is
strange when you're making themso much money Like I was one of
(07:08):
the top performers for makingprofit and they're basically
getting greedy and it happens toa lot of people.
So I think some people canresonate with this.
Then I went with the othercompany and that's something
similar kind of happened there.
They were kind of like you know, nitpicking with bonuses, and
what happened is I met a Polishgirl and went to visit her folks
(07:32):
in Łódź so that's the city Iended up living in and I saw an
opportunity because I had threeproperties at that stage in
Ireland and I said, oh, propertyis extremely cheap there.
It's like 500 euro per metersquared or something.
It's like really rich.
So I started buying from then Iokay, there's a, there's an
opportunity here that I canstart getting the foreign
(07:53):
investors for for the propertybecause they was at a time it
was around 2004 and I startedgoing to bni meetings, so I was
still working for the company,but I cut down to three days a
week and so I come out one weekof the month and eventually the
relationship ended and I kind ofwould have lost everything
because I released equity andmoved, but it was like it felt
(08:15):
good.
I mean, you were asking me Iknow I kind of gave you a long
answer, but it's the main thingis it's like you're never free
and when you're controllingyourself, and the best thing
that's ever happened to me andit's years later I'm very close
with my family.
You know I'm like a mommy's boy.
(08:35):
I ring my mom every day.
We're very close and even withmy grandmother I used to call up
every day when I was at home.
But even when I moved to one Iused to ring her every Sunday
and she lived to like a fewweeks short to 96, but when she
was dying, she got cancer.
I was able to go back.
I was able to spend over amonth with her and stay by the
bed if I was working forsomebody you're not able to do
that and it's like you're incontrol of your own life and
(08:58):
there's nobody actually going.
Oh, you have to be here, or youknow, like, say, a school run
or something like that.
I mean I've got equal custodyof my child and I bring him to
school and then the next day I'mcollecting him for school.
That's the way we work, on andoff.
I'm one of the rare people thatactually get on very well with
his mother and but I block outtime.
(09:19):
I'm with him, I'm present him,I'm present and I do think.
But I know that if I wasworking for a corporation I
wouldn't be able to do that.
They wouldn't accept that.
Okay, one minute, you're comingin at, say, 10 o'clock and you
can work later the next day.
Most of them don't want that.
I think that's the mostimportant thing is you have
total freedom with your life.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Absolutely.
I could not agree with thatmore, and it's been fun as I've
gone through this podcast andheard from our listeners that,
hey, I'm firing the man, I'mdoing it.
I love getting those emailsbecause I know what gift they're
about to receive, and it's thefeeling of freedom, it's the
feeling to spend time with yourkids when you want and to
(10:00):
prioritize things that arereally important to you, and so
that's an outstanding,outstanding story.
I'm glad you shared it.
So, as I was prepping for thisinterview and doing my research,
one of the things that stoodout to me was you've built 20
companies across multiplecountries and multiple
industries, and I would imaginethat you've learned some key
lessons about scaling businessesefficiently.
(10:22):
And so what are some of thoselessons and how do you apply
those to your current ventures?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
One of the things that I learned early on was I
had a Polish company and I hadan Irish company and a lot of
Polish companies, but with theproperty I was doing a lot of
property and I built 30apartments at commercials and I
was renovating over a hundredproperties and at one stage the
accountants in Ireland whichwere auditors as well they gave
me a bill and said, oh, you havethis tax liability.
(10:55):
And I went away and I bought abook called Tax Magic.
It was written by a guy fromthe revenue and I went through
it, like my AutoCAD book, frompage one to the very end, and I
got my little stickers and myhighlighter and I said, can I do
this?
I've learned, even in Poland.
I've learned that most of theaccountants are just processing
(11:17):
the numbers for you.
They don't care if you save anextra thousand a month or 10
grand or whatever.
You have to look after thefigures.
I learned that from an earlyage.
Don't just outsource it andthink he's got it, because a lot
of people they just put it intoa shoebox and the shoebox you
look after my account.
Don't do that like watcheverything you know.
(11:37):
Look at the VAT, if you're VATapplicable and, just like you
know, do the VAT revamp, watchevery single thing, because it's
your money and, like I hear somany people going oh, it's tax
deductible and that's why I'mbuying it, because it's tax
deductible.
No, it's like I tried to buy,like I was able to put my son
(12:00):
through the company because Igot the back and it became an
because I don't know.
I just checked with the gun.
Can I do this?
So, like when you do thingslike that, it's brilliant.
Or if you can do trips andstuff like that, it's great
because you're getting money.
Or if you're buying stuff likea laptop and phone which you
won't use anyway and you can,even with your house, you can
put a percentage away andsometimes people don't realize
(12:22):
you can do the same with thebills and everything.
And it's just learning thesedifferent things and talk to
other entrepreneurs hey, whatcan I do?
And you can even go a stepfurther and just be putting the
company.
Like what I would say forsomeone starting I think it's
Delaware and the States, but,like for me, it's like look at
what country is the best for you, because most of the time
(12:43):
people set up a business, wecross their fingers and then if
it takes off, then it's too lateto be, and then they're trying
to change it and move itStraight away.
Look at what's the best taxoptimization that you can do and
once you do that, then if it'sworking out, you're not paying a
fortune and capital gains orcorporation tax and stuff like
(13:04):
that.
You're keeping as much money inyour pocket as you can.
So that's one of the things Iwould say.
The next one will be a count inthe solicitors.
I've had over a hundred courtcases.
So I mentioned about all myproperties.
I got caught with the crash.
It took a bit later.
I was doing well, but everybodyelse fell down and I was trying
to juggle the balls thinkingI'd be OK and they'd come right,
but it didn't.
So I ended up losing the wholelot.
(13:25):
So true that I had over 100court cases.
And what I've learned as well isa lot of they're only billable
hours.
They don't really, they don'thave your back, they don't
really care.
I mean, there's the exception,there's a few, but what you do
is you're paying attention,You're going there, you're
putting all your paperworktogether, you're preparing for
every case that you've got,because when you're not I mean
(13:46):
especially if you get intoconstruction.
It's just part of the game.
You're going to be in court,unfortunately, so don't let it
faze you.
You know, because the first fewtimes you just panic and it's a
horrible feeling and you don'tknow the zone that you're going
into.
But what you do is startlearning about it, maybe read a
few books on it, talk to a fewpeople, but when you're in there
(14:08):
, don't just sit back and lethim do all the talking, or do
all the talking.
Make notes.
Each time I've won and I've hadsome big cases each time I've
won were when I passed a pieceof paper and said they've just
said this, they were wrong andwe'd catch them out on a lie.
And it flipped it because therewas times where I thought this
is going south and by payingattention and a lot of the times
(14:31):
people don't do that.
So I encourage any entrepreneurdon't ever outsource your legal
side as well.
It's your business.
You're the one that's going tosuffer, so pay full attention to
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I really like that perspective and you know, one of
the things I want point I wantto drive home is is and I
believe you're not an accountantor an attorney However, you're
learning about that topic tobenefit yourself, and I think
that's something as businessowners.
There are certain topics, inparticular, legal and tax, that
(15:04):
are not the most exciting toread.
I've read textbooks before Notexciting, important.
They're important and you'redoing the hard work to make sure
that you come out on top andposition yourself right, so I
love that.
Now to switch topics a littlebit, one of the things that I
think both you and I have incommon is a love of podcasts
(15:29):
just the media form and I'd loveto hear tell me about your love
story with podcasts.
When did you first hear one?
How did you know that this wassomething that you really wanted
to go deep on?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I'm actually not sure .
Maybe it was Joe Rogan.
I'm not sure what was the firstpodcast that I kind of heard,
but it was through my journey ofkind of losing stuff.
Everything was about I need toexpose this, because I went to
an event and it was what's yourQuest.
And my quest was basically Ineed to expose because I saw so
many people turning the totalmarriage breakups and everything
because of kind of thecorruption that happened, and I
(16:07):
went.
At the same event there wasreally good speakers and I hated
public speaking.
I mean, that's another thingnow that I think is kind of
important for the entrepreneur Iwas when I was younger.
I wouldn't go into the shop,even though I could go into a
house and ask them do you wantyour, do you want the paper, do
you want your grass cut?
That was never a problem.
So it's kind of selectiveshyness, I suppose.
(16:28):
And like even at 18, going tothe bar, I would give my friend
the money when it was my roundinstead of just going on.
It was just kind of, and when Iwas running these big jobs in
Ireland, the one part I hate itwas public speaking.
So at this event I said I needto become a good speaker.
So I came back, joinedToastmasters, joined another
Toastmasters.
Then I formed my own club andentrepreneur Toastmasters,
(16:49):
became a coach, entered everycompetition, got into the final
of five countries, done it.
I'm a coach.
Entered every competition, gotinto the final of five countries
, done it.
Done it up in my TEDx, doneopen comedy and went to an event
where they were.
There was a guy teaching how tobe a podcaster and I was like,
oh, I like this.
This is good for me to get mymessage out.
But I said I think I'd beattacked with my awakening one.
Let's start off with thespeaking, because I've got so
(17:11):
many people that I've metthrough the speaking stage and
that was the first one.
That was 28, seven years ago.
The speaking podcast and kindof from there, just kind of yeah
, just meditation next and, asthe ones you've mentioned, at
the very start, just kind ofkept going and that's six now.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's outstanding.
That's outstanding Now, whenbusiness owners, I think,
oftentimes overlook the power ofpodcasting, and so my question
is how can entrepreneurs andbusiness owners leverage
podcasts to build authority,attract customers and grow their
brand?
There's two ways.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
There's one is you do a tour, and I mean like I've
got some people on ways.
There's one is you do a tour,and I mean like I've got some
people on, say, 250 shows.
So you can do a lot if you want.
What some people do is if theywant to start their show,
they'll do the tour.
They might do 50, 100.
And they're because I mean youhave a different style to
everybody else.
I like your style, the way thatyou do it, and I like the name
(18:11):
of the show.
It's unique and what willhappen is you're picking up
something from each one.
So you can do that way, go on afew different shows and then
have a conversation, becauseit's just that, hey, what kind
of mic are you using, whatsoftware, what platform are you
on, and people will tell you noproblem, and then you go okay
and they'll tell you the prosand cons.
So you can, if you're doing ityourself, what I said to some
(18:33):
people like some they'll do itkind of for branding and they'll
get out, but there's othersthey might think I'm sure who'd
be listening to my show, andwhat I say is you can have a
specific kind of niche that yourbusiness is and interview the
people that are your bestpotential clients and instead of
(18:59):
a cold call where you're tryingto actually get in contact with
them, can say hey, I've gotthis podcast I'd love to
interview.
And then you've got a verywarmly and you can have your
like, I've got my form.
My form is saying hey, are youinterested in doing a podcast
tour?
Do you want a virtualassistance?
Do you want this?
Do you want that?
So many people say yes, I'mnever selling, I never have to
do paid marketing.
People are coming in andthey're actually doing it, so
you can do that as well and thatway it doesn't matter how many
is listening, because you couldactually have got a client that
(19:20):
could be 100K to you.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That's an outstanding perspective and, honestly, I
had an aha moment as you weretalking about that.
There is a huge difference, inmy opinion, between a sales call
and a podcast.
With a podcast, you leave itkind of feeling like you just
had a cup of coffee withsomebody and you talked for an
hour and you're friends, andafter a sales call, it's very
(19:46):
transactional and it's usingthat using a podcast as a sales
strategy to interview peoplethat could be great clients I
think is outstanding and,honestly, something that I've
never thought about and so, okay, okay, that's awesome.
So let's talk about monetizingpodcasts and content creation.
(20:12):
It's probably one of thebiggest questions that I get is
do you make money with yourpodcast?
And so I'm interested forpeople that do have shows.
What would be some of the firststeps that they would need to
take to start monetizing?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Well before the monetization.
What I say to people is don'tjust come into this and expect
money to start rolling in thedoor, because it takes a little
time to start buildingeverything up.
And I kind of set the stage putaside.
You're doing this for a year,no matter what, and the people
that I work with they end upkeep going.
They're still going and it'slovely to see but so many people
.
They come in, they expect, theylook at the big boys and they
(20:56):
expect big checks to startrolling in.
They do three shows, they'regone.
They do 10 shows, that's it andthey're thrown in the towel,
which is a shame to see.
So there's affiliates.
Affiliates can work very well.
I mean, I've had a fewaffiliates that paid monthly
checks come in and you can bevery lucky.
But the thing as well is andI'm going to kind of show both
sides there's sometimes people.
It's great when you've got aunique code that people can use
(21:19):
and then it's tracked and youknow the check comes in.
So there's some that I've donethat and it works very good.
You know straight away.
There's been but there's beenothers that I'm fairly positive.
They got sales and I was like Igot nothing and I was like
what's going on?
And they reach out and they'reoh, I mischecked that.
And then they go yeah, we'reteam is looking at it, and then
they just go.
So it's just so you have to becareful as well.
(21:42):
And the other thing is like Imean, sometimes you can have a
guest on and if your audience isafter building, just have it
just for that.
So talking to the person, andit's very interesting and you
know where to market it.
You can have just the affiliatejust for that and you can
actually do very well becausesome, some affiliates can pay
like 500 bucks, a couple ofpennies.
You know it depends on whatthey're doing.
(22:03):
So it's not just small little10 buck care and 50 quid error.
So you can actually do verywell.
The other thing is sponsorship.
You can, you know, like whenyou've got numbers on your
website page, people can come inand they can start sponsoring
your show.
So there's a lot of differentways to do it.
You kind of have to see whatyour niche is, how you're going
(22:23):
to make some money, but Ihonestly think the best way is
your own business.
If you're a coach or whateveryou're doing, your own business
is the best way and make sureyou're actually letting people,
because what happens is peopleget to like you.
They go I like your style andI've just left my job because of
you, and then you're offering aservice and they kind of feel
(22:44):
like I can trust this guy andthat's the way it works.
So I think that's the best wayof making money.
There's so many different waysof doing it, but I think that's
the best way is to make a fewgood.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I like it, I really like it.
One of the things that youmentioned was you know it's not
going to happen right away andyou need to build up an audience
, you need to get listeners.
That's the asset that you wouldbe taking to, say, a potential
sponsor, sponsor.
(23:17):
And so at what point, or atwhat number of downloads, or
what number of listeners orYouTube subscribers, or whatever
that may be, should somebodystart looking at monetization,
at reaching out to thosesponsors to get that initial
sponsorship?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
With this YouTube you need something like a thousand
subscribers and 4,000 hours.
But it ain't that Like.
I got two of my channels now,like the Polish one it's got
like 1.433 million views and myown one's 144,000.
And say, after half a millionyou could get less than 500
(23:52):
bucks.
So people think I get half amillion, I get 100,000.
Yeah, if you want to advertiseon them numbers, you'll be
paying probably half a million,but they're not giving you that,
they're giving you time.
I worked out it seems like it'slike 0.05.
You know it's really small.
There's an increase but there'slikes to rumble.
(24:12):
And there's also ones like, say, spotify and different ones.
When you're in America, a lotof them they work.
So it works per click.
So you can get kind of 10 to 40bucks for inserts.
So inserting at the start, midand at the end and you can make
money like that as well.
So that's that adds up to giveyou some some funding.
But it's kind of.
(24:33):
I think it's more aboutunderstanding what would be good
for a company Like.
I just released one on myPodfather one and the guy from
LinkedIn was helping, you know,discussing the different things,
and he said, oh, for the Polishone.
The Polish airline is ideal forthem and I was like I like
(24:55):
great.
So that's the plan.
I'm going to actually start toreach out to them and go, hey,
we can do an episode of Happy asthe Link, so I'll be doing that
.
So when you realise, okay,we've got a niche, like for you,
you know there's differentniches that you can go and go,
all right.
So there's people that actuallyhelp the transition of that as
well, from going from anemployee to self-employed and
(25:20):
just see who it works with, andthey mightn't really look at the
numbers.
They could say, all right, lookat every person that signs up,
you're getting X amount, andjust kind of think, and
sometimes we get complacent withwith the business or the back,
just can't see step backs, can't.
Like I keep learning.
I'll do a different course,I'll get that one.
Not so long ago on monetization, I probably know all of this
(25:41):
there was just one thing in itof about 15, but it's just keep
track the whole time and look atthe different things and like
rumble and you know you can makemoney for putting it up.
So, like you have yourinterview and most people, they
think of YouTube, they don'tthink of the Rumble.
Rumble pays as well and thatcould cover your Zoom costs or
your Palindly costs or somethinglike that and get them things
(26:03):
covered first.
And also you can ask for adonation.
I mean the Polish one.
The Polish one, I mean I askfor donations.
Sometimes you get a hundredbucks coming in from somebody,
but the best one is Blind Boy.
He's an Irish podcaster.
He does audio only and whenhe's on stage he actually does
tours.
He wears a plastic bag over hishead because he said he wants
to go to the shop with nobodyknowing who he is and every
(26:24):
episode he says you can adonation.
It's a model based on soundnessso you don't have to pay.
The people that can afford topay cover the people that don't.
It's always going to be freefor everyone and he does that
and he's got something like 5.
Last time I looked a few yearsago he had like 5,000 monthly
people paying to his thing.
But you have to keep asking.
(26:44):
I found that I don't do that.
I Kind of just kind of doing myown thing now and I have to VA
and everything.
But I found that when you askif you're consistent with it,
people kind of accept.
And it's not to be ashamed,because I mean, you know the
amount of work that goes into it.
It's not a case you just wingit, have a conversation.
That's it Like you're preparingbefore the conversation, you're
having the interview and thenyou're doing the editing and
(27:07):
then the marketing is a lot fromit.
You say, hey, if you could buyme a coffee or something like
that once a month, if you met me, would you buy me a coffee or a
beer or something like that?
And people, they think nothingis sending five bucks.
But if every single listenersent you five bucks, you'd be
like, okay, this is goodabsolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I really like that and it's an interesting media
form because you know you thinkof like a movie.
Uh, that's transactional.
You put out a movie, people buytickets, they go the theater
and that's your revenue source.
Podcasting is natively a freemedia form.
It's something that anybody canaccess generally for free, and
so the monetization piece of it.
(27:44):
You do need to get creative andyou have a lot of great tips in
there for getting that ballrolling.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So one of the things, and there's another one.
Actually, just sorry tointerject.
It's like what I started doing,because I had such a demand,
especially for the Spakey, is Istarted charging.
I said, look, it's a six-monthwait, but you can pay me if you
want to jump the queue and ifyou want shorts, because, like I
do shorts with the virtualassistants, if you want shorts
you pay this amount.
And there's a lot of people whotake that up, because when you
(28:14):
get to a certain level, there'speople like there's some
platforms and it's kind of it'sokay, you can check all their
details, but there's others.
There's people reaching out toyou, there's agents reaching out
to you.
I get hundreds of pitches andthere's a high percentage won't.
But you just send them the heybecause of this and tell them
what you're doing, don't justsay, hey, it's whatever the cost
(28:37):
you want.
Even if you start off at 30bucks or 50 bucks, you can say,
look, because of this, I justwant to help towards my cost
because of the marketing,because of this, and most people
will say, yeah, fair enoughenough.
Because you see some people, one, one guy, so he's charging 10
bucks.
I've seen some for 50.
There's others charged like,like john dumas, the
entrepreneurs on fire, he'scharging three and a half grand
(28:57):
for people to come in.
And there's others like becauseI help people go on and we look
at this and it's like, is itworth it?
Because some are like sevengrand, ten grand, so you can get
really high level.
And if you're reinvesting, youknow like mr beast would be a
perfect example of reinvestingin the business you're
reinvesting.
You know, like Mr Beast wouldbe a perfect example of
reinvesting in the business.
He keeps reinvesting and itkeeps feeding him.
So if you're making money, youdon't just say, oh, I'm going to
(29:19):
go ahead and go on a lot toholders and everything.
If you put it into the marketand your numbers will go up,
which in turn allows you toincrease your price.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
I like it.
I like it and yeah, those aresome really good examples, and I
never thought about chargingfor shorts or charging for, like
, a come on the show sooner andso no, those are.
I've been in the game for six orseven years and I'm learning
stuff right now which isoutstanding.
(29:47):
So one of the things that youhad mentioned when you were
talking about business ownersusing podcasting as a media form
for advertising was going on apodcast tour, and this is
something that I you know.
Certainly, getting on showslike, if you ask enough people,
(30:08):
they're going to some people aregoing to say yes, and, and so I
think the opportunity to get onshows is it's somewhat easy,
Right, and however, once you'reon those shows, and getting the
maximum return on investment issomething that I think a lot of
business owners should bethinking about is is you know at
(30:30):
the end of the podcast, itwould be helpful for the
listeners to know who you are,what you're, why you're credible
and and what your services thatyou're selling, and and so for
people, what advice would yougive for people that are going
on a podcast tour to maximizetheir return on invested time?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
One of the things I tell is you can have like a
virtual assistant that startsdoing for you know somebody like
me that's actually helping yougo on the different shows.
But what I don't do is I won'tfill out the form.
And a lot of people get agents.
He's to fill out the form andwhat I tell them, even when I
say please don't fill out theform, let the guests that I say
that is one that you asked me tocome on the show to fill out
(31:18):
the form, and the reason beingis they're going doing a podcast
tour and they get somebody thatfills out the exact same thing,
cut and paste, cut and paste,cut and paste.
So they end up getting similarinterviews, just with different
podcasters, and if you'recreating shorts, you don't have
much new content, whereas whenI've got my form, sometimes
they'll say something and I pickup on that and I just go on a
(31:41):
tangent and I get a brilliantinterview.
Or I'll ask them what's yourbest video that I should be
watching?
You know, if they have a book, Iask them to send me the book I
used to buy the book, that.
And if they have a book, I askthem to send me the book.
I used to buy the book.
That's another little tip foryou.
I was like what am I buying abook when they're coming on my
show?
I said I don't like digital.
You send me the book, because Iread a hundred books a year.
I was like give me the book,and so that helps as well.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
And yeah, Absolutely, I love it.
I love it.
One topic I wanted todefinitely touch on is virtual
assistants, and you've mentionedthem a couple of times today,
and you also are the co-founderof VA World, which is helping
businesses connect with virtualassistants, and so, for people
(32:24):
that don't have a virtualassistant, what would be some of
the first steps that they wouldneed to take to get one, and
why do entrepreneurs need them?
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I suppose what I'll do is tell you my kind of
journey, what I kind of wentthrough, why I kind of formed,
when I was in Ireland doing thiskind of halfway across, I set
up a recruitment because therewas a lot of Polish coming
across, so I had a recruitmentlicense and I was positioning a
lot of people in theconstruction world.
I set up a recruitment becausethere was a lot of Polish coming
across, so I had a recruitmentlicense and I was positioning a
lot of people in theconstruction world.
So I kind of realized, hey,this is a nice business model.
When I was doing the podcastingI eventually kind of said, well
(32:59):
, I need a bit of help here andI go to Fiverr, fiverrcom and
you get somebody trying toexplain things, or they'd start
off the first month.
And then there was Upwork andUpwork seemed better because,
like you were gettingscreenshots.
I was like, okay, this is good,I can see what they're doing.
And then I was looking and Iwas like it just looks like
they're on Facebook on, say, thebullish one.
(33:20):
It's like most of thescreenshots look the same.
I think they're on anothercomputer and they're just making
it look.
Every time I do that myself.
I was saying, okay, I'm doingit better.
So I then said, okay, let's dothis in a way, and it's usually
like packages.
So a lot of times people think,when they're getting a virtual
assistant, that you need to paysomebody X amount per hour and a
(33:41):
full time, and isn't that, likeyou can get somebody, like for
you know, a couple of hours aweek, and what you should do is
do the stuff that sucks the timeout of you and you don't like?
So, for example, I've done theshorts, I'm posting the shorts
and they do very well because,like, you set up the expectation
Like don't just assumesomebody's getting into your
head when you're planning it.
And we do like packages from,like, say, 99 bucks or say, 300
(34:05):
bucks.
We're doing a lot of stuff forthat, because that way you know
exactly what you're getting,instead of being spending hours
tracking and watching are theydoing what they're supposed to?
Because you know we've alreadyagreed, this is what we're doing
and you know, okay, grand, andso that way I kind of I set it
up in a way that I feel I wouldlike it.
And the other thing is passwords.
So we've got the office and mypartner has the passwords for
(34:30):
all the different things, butthe team don't.
They're just working on thecomputers that are doing it,
because we've never beencompromised and I know that a
lot of people they want to lookafter because some you can have
editor access and things likethat and others you need a bit
more to do it properly.
But it's like we're just makingsure that your information is
(34:52):
safe and someone's not going tostart deleting stuff, because
that can happen.
You can fall out with somebodythat's working on Fiverr or any
of these different places, andthey can.
Just because they've got thehump and you fell out, they just
delete stuff.
So you don't want that.
So you just make sure that yourstuff is protected and that's
the way we do it.
And usually it's actuallyclients that work with me.
(35:13):
I can help them to make theirlife easier.
That's okay.
How can we do it?
So even I don't even upload thestuff and send it to them.
I.
I put on my video, I edit everyall my.
I've done over 1500.
I edit myself.
And the reason I do it myself isbecause I understand the
conversation and I know what's agood point for a short and
(35:33):
stuff like that.
So I'm listening and, plus, Ienjoy listening again as well,
because when you're having theconversation you're fully
present.
But then when you listen like Ilisten now, when this goes out
as well, like anytime I'm aguest I listen and I go it's
different, it's a differentexperience.
And I make the notes, notes, Iput the timestamps and as I
upload it, then they just use,click, grab, take it and it's
(35:56):
just.
They just post all thedifferent shots and I tell them
exactly, and then I just doweekly calls, exactly, okay,
check this, this, this and thisand same for the different
clients.
So what I would say is startdoing the things that you you
hate, because if is start doingthe things that you hate,
because if you can outsourcestuff that doesn't cost you that
much but you can spend yourtime, whether you're coaching or
whatever your business is, andmake more money, and look at it
(36:18):
like that, and you know, youdon't have, like most people say
, I can't afford to havesomebody to hire to bring in.
Well, that's why your VA isbrilliant for you, because you
can do it with a small amount ofmoney and if it starts
benefiting and increasing yournumbers, you go OK, now I can
get the next level, which inturn brings in more customers.
You get more clients, you'remaking way more money and it's a
win-win situation for everybody.
(36:39):
So it's kind of the way we'vedone it no-transcript.
So, like you know, there'sclients that come in and they're
actually recommending, and weeven do a commission as well for
(37:00):
the people that come in.
If you recommend somebody, wegive you a bonus and stuff like
that, because if you're tellingpeople we're not making nothing,
but we know how long they lastfor, and by doing that then it's
kind of keeps the wheels oiled.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I love that.
I love that.
One of the things that I thinkI know I've run into when
managing VAs is the expectationthat they know what I want, and
I think that just thecommunication piece is so
critical, and so for people thatare getting, say, their first
(37:40):
VA, what would you say is themost effective way to
communicate what you want and toensure a good finished product
on whatever that task may be?
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I think you have to, because usually people say I
want to be it and then they justkind of get it going.
You need to just step back andwrite down exactly what they're
going to be doing and how, andyou might even need to sit with
you as you're doing the first.
So, for example, if someone'sdoing the editing of it, you
show them how to do it the firsttime because you have a system,
you have a way of doing things.
(38:14):
Everybody has their own way ofdoing things, even if they're
specializing in editing, and youcan just say, look, this is the
way I do it, this is the way Iwant this, and then you know if
you're getting it exactly as youwant.
And the best thing is, like wefound, like I'm even contactable
.
So sometimes there is thingsthat can go wrong.
I mean, that's normal, but thetrick is to have open
communication and, like we havelike managers overseeing it as
(38:37):
well.
So even for the post, you don'twant to post with a typo or
something.
So we're watching everything.
Yeah, this stuff can slipthrough the cracks and you know
if they're going.
Hey, I thought I was expectingthis.
So we're contactable by phoneand WhatsApp and sending
messages and yeah, if there'sanything, we address it
immediately.
It's not a case of, you know,you're waiting a week or a month
and then you have a monthlyconversation.
It's like, no, if there'ssomething that is coming up, you
(38:59):
do.
But what I would say for thosethinking of hiring a virtual
assistant just spend the time toactually what you really want
them to do, instead of justwinging it and just kind of go,
yeah, just do this, do that, youreally take the time, and then
you can kind of add to it.
Go, can you do this as well?
Can you schedule, can youorganize?
You know my holidays and theycan do anything you want.
(39:22):
Bookkeeping, the whole lot,everything is doable.
Website, the whole changes,adding courses to it, content to
content creation no problem atall.
But just take the time to planhow you're going to do it and
then you have the conversation.
You will find out exactly whatyou need and then it's created
and you just make sure thatyou're happy and if there's any
issues, just communicate it andwe make sure that it's addressed
(39:43):
immediately.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Very good, Very good.
There's a lot of lessons there.
Now, before we get to the fireround.
If people have enjoyed thispodcast and are interested in
checking out more of what you do, what is the best way?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
It's my name roycullencom.
If they're watching, there's aQR code and it's roycullencom
and the virtual assistant isdaworld.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Outstanding, outstanding.
Now, roy, we've got a sectionof the show.
It's called the Fire Round.
It's four questions.
We ask every guest at the endof the show Are you ready?
Absolutely Outstanding.
What is your favorite book?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I've read, as I mentioned, a hundred books.
I just constantly read books,so it's hard to say, oh, such a
book is very good, but one thatI made the most notes for was
how to Win Friends and InfluencePeople.
Because if you're anentrepreneur, read it, read it,
read it.
And what I found is I said Ihave to read it again, I have to
read it again.
I was finding I didn't havetime.
I got the audio and it was justas good because I was able to
(40:45):
listen to it.
But then I got my youngestchild is 11.
My youngest child is 11.
And I said you need to listento this and he actually enjoyed
it.
So get the whole familyinvolved, because when you're an
entrepreneur, don't thinkyou're on your own.
If you've got children, hey,can you do a bit of marketing
for me?
Get help.
And I think that book it shouldbe on everyone's list.
I love it, I love it.
(41:08):
What are your hobbies?
I'm always doing something likeI like to go to the gym now but
say I bought my son.
We used to go playing pool, sowe bought a pool table.
So, playing pool, we like toplay pool.
I like going to the I mean thecinema because of my dad.
There's like a 4D kind ofcinema here where the chairs
shake, there's water, anotherkind of.
(41:31):
We make sure we try to do thatonce, once a week, and I suppose
, traveling as well.
So for anybody that's anentrepreneur, what happens is
you tend to be working andputting off.
Reward yourself, make sure thatyou go.
Okay, I'm putting X 10% awaytowards my holiday fund.
So me and my son, we love themeparks and we just we tried to
go on a holiday with that as atheme park and go to theme parks
.
So you're having the holidayand the teen park.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
So they're kind of my I class them as my hobbies.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Very nice, what is one thing you do not miss about
working for the man Asking for aholiday.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Oh, I fully agree with that one too.
I fully agree with that oneBecause for those that don't
really know.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Sometimes people have to give a month's notice and
sometimes you just decidesomeone will say, hey, let's go
away next week and most peoplewhen you're working for a
corporation, they're going.
Oh, you're needed, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
I definitely agree with that one and our final
question what do you think setsapart successful entrepreneurs
from those who give up, fail ornever get started?
Mindset, your belief systemjust don't tolerate failure.
(42:40):
Just like, don't get complacent.
Like.
I'm constantly reading books,I'm constantly looking at things
, have your circle of friends,so it's all the mindset.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Outstanding answer.
I love that, Roy.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the Firing man podcast.
We are looking forward tostaying in touch.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
I really enjoyed it.
Thank you very much, David.
Welcome everyone to the Firing the man podcast, a
show for anyone who wants to betheir own boss.
If you sit in a cubicle everyday and know you are capable of
more, then join us.
This show will help you build abusiness and grow your passive
income streams in just a fewshort hours per day.
And now your hosts, serialentrepreneurs David Shomer and
(00:22):
Ken Wilson.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another episode of Firing the man, the
podcast dedicated to exploringthe journeys of entrepreneurs
who have successfullytransitioned from traditional
employment to business owners.
Today, we are honored to haveRoy Calling as our guest.
A seasoned entrepreneur,podcasting coach and prolific
podcast host, roy has animpressive track record, having
(00:48):
founded 20 companies across fivecountries.
His entrepreneurial venturesspan various industries,
reflecting his adaptability andinnovative spirit In the realm
of podcasting, roy hasestablished six podcasts, four
of which have reached the top0.5% globally, including the
Speaking Podcast, the AwakeningPodcast, the Meditation Podcast
(01:13):
and the Learn Polish Podcast.
His fifth podcast, the CryptoPodcast, has achieved a top 1%
ranking, and his latest endeavor, the Podfather, is rapidly
gaining recognition as adedicated podcasting coach.
Roy has guided numerous clientsin launching their own
(01:33):
successful podcasts, helpingthem break into the top 10% of
shows worldwide.
He also assists individuals insecuring guest appearances on
top-rated podcasts to promotetheir businesses or books.
In addition to podcastingpursuits, roy is the co-founder
of VA World, a company providingvirtual assistant services to
(01:55):
businesses to maximizeproductivity and profitability.
In today's conversation, we'lldelve into Roy's entrepreneurial
journey, his insights onbuilding and scaling businesses
and the transformative power ofpodcasting, and practical advice
for those looking to fire theman and embark on their own
entrepreneurial paths.
Stay tuned for engaging andinformative discussion with Roy
(02:19):
Calling Roy.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Thank you very much, David.
Looking forward to thisconversation.
Appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Absolutely so to get things started off, can you
share with our audience a littlebit about your path in the
entrepreneurial world?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I was a young entrepreneur.
So at nine I was going aroundwashing cars, doing a bit of
gardening, delivering leaflets.
At 11, I started newspapers soI was delivering newspapers in
the area around me With themoney from that.
At 14, I bought a lawnmower.
Then I was going around cuttinggrass.
Around 18, I was buying andselling motorbikes, kind of
realized, hey, you paint up amotorbike, you can sell it for a
(02:59):
few hundred bucks extra.
So it was always.
Then I studied construction,economics and management and
when I finished college Icouldn't get a job.
So then I had to go intoanother course which was
construction site supervision,taught myself AutoCAD, because
the course was like one of thesegovernment things that you're
doing foxers for the people inthere and not getting paid.
(03:19):
But the people that were theinstructors were getting paid.
It was like the usualcorruption in a government
organisation.
So there was a computer.
I asked them get me an AutoCADbook.
I think it was AutoCAD 12 or 11at the time.
Read it from page one to theend.
And then they had kind of whereyou get work experience and
(03:40):
worked with the council doingroad design.
But the money was brutal.
It was like 100 quid a week,you know Irish pounds at the
time so you know you couldn'tlive on that and I started
working for a mechanicalcontracting company and started
off as doing CAD and then justworked my way up to project
manager, contracts manager, andI was with them for like eight
(04:02):
and a half years, then withanother company for about three
and a half years as a regionalmanager, and I kind of moved to
Poland and have never worked foranybody else since, just kind
of doing my own thing for thelast 18 years.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Outstanding, outstanding.
That's a really good story.
Now, one thing I find reallyinteresting talking to
entrepreneurs is oftentimes theydo have something that started
in childhood A lot of lawnmowing businesses, lemonade
stands and I'm always curious toask did you have a role model
or somebody that you werelooking to that got you
interested in entrepreneurship,or was it something you felt
(04:38):
like you're kind of born with?
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I think I was born with Someone has asked me that
recently.
It's like my dad was a chiefprojection, so he worked in the
cinema.
You know, most of the time hewas there, which had an
advantage that I could go to thecinema as often as I want, but
on the side he was doingphotography and he was doing
that since he was 20 and he wasvery good at it.
So he'd do weddings and my momwould put the album together so
(05:03):
that I saw weddings and my momwould put the album together so
that I saw that from you know, ayoung age.
But there was no deals.
My brother wasn't reallyentrepreneurial.
He's worked for somebody, he'sstill working for somebody and
you know.
So you know different.
There's just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So I think, yeah, it came from within, outstanding,
outstanding, and you hadmentioned you've been, you've
been, uh, you have not had aboss for 18 years and because
the name of the show and thetheme of the show I want to dive
into the day that you decidedI'm done working, I'm ready to
(05:34):
fire the man and here's my gameplan.
Can you walk us through that?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There was two points that when I left one company and
the other and I think it's kindof important because in other
way when you hear something andyou have a conversation so with
the first company I was doingvery well and I was kind of on a
bonus system as well.
So when I made profits what Inegotiated was 5% of above
profit.
I mean they knew me woulddemand 50%, but I thought I was
(06:02):
doing well at that.
So you know I was happy gettingabove the expected profits 5%.
But it worked out well becauseat one stage I was able to buy a
car with a bonus just outrightand the boss that I was dealing
with for about 6 years left andI saw him being treated bad at
one stage, like this is a verybig company and I used to fly up
(06:25):
to Dublin and meet the like theboard would be there and at one
stage it was the owner and thedirector I was dealing with and
he was having a conversation.
I remember he put his hand uplike that one as if to shut up.
I remember thinking don't everdo that to me.
And I could see they weren'ttreating him well yet he was
really dedicated to his job, sohe got kicked out.
(06:47):
The next guys in line weresaying oh, we'll look after you,
we'll treat you better.
And when it came to commissionand bonuses, they were like oh
no, that was an easy say 15%that we're to make.
We changed that to 20.
In other words, they startedtaking the money off the table
and I've heard of so many peoplethat that's happened, which is
strange when you're making themso much money Like I was one of
(07:08):
the top performers for makingprofit and they're basically
getting greedy and it happens toa lot of people.
So I think some people canresonate with this.
Then I went with the othercompany and that's something
similar kind of happened there.
They were kind of like you know, nitpicking with bonuses, and
what happened is I met a Polishgirl and went to visit her folks
(07:32):
in Łódź so that's the city Iended up living in and I saw an
opportunity because I had threeproperties at that stage in
Ireland and I said, oh, propertyis extremely cheap there.
It's like 500 euro per metersquared or something.
It's like really rich.
So I started buying from then Iokay, there's a, there's an
opportunity here that I canstart getting the foreign
(07:53):
investors for for the propertybecause they was at a time it
was around 2004 and I startedgoing to bni meetings, so I was
still working for the company,but I cut down to three days a
week and so I come out one weekof the month and eventually the
relationship ended and I kind ofwould have lost everything
because I released equity andmoved, but it was like it felt
(08:15):
good.
I mean, you were asking me Iknow I kind of gave you a long
answer, but it's the main thingis it's like you're never free
and when you're controllingyourself, and the best thing
that's ever happened to me andit's years later I'm very close
with my family.
You know I'm like a mommy's boy.
(08:35):
I ring my mom every day.
We're very close and even withmy grandmother I used to call up
every day when I was at home.
But even when I moved to one Iused to ring her every Sunday
and she lived to like a fewweeks short to 96, but when she
was dying, she got cancer.
I was able to go back.
I was able to spend over amonth with her and stay by the
bed if I was working forsomebody you're not able to do
that and it's like you're incontrol of your own life and
(08:58):
there's nobody actually going.
Oh, you have to be here, or youknow, like, say, a school run
or something like that.
I mean I've got equal custodyof my child and I bring him to
school and then the next day I'mcollecting him for school.
That's the way we work, on andoff.
I'm one of the rare people thatactually get on very well with
his mother and but I block outtime.
(09:19):
I'm with him, I'm present him,I'm present and I do think.
But I know that if I wasworking for a corporation I
wouldn't be able to do that.
They wouldn't accept that.
Okay, one minute, you're comingin at, say, 10 o'clock and you
can work later the next day.
Most of them don't want that.
I think that's the mostimportant thing is you have
total freedom with your life.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Absolutely.
I could not agree with thatmore, and it's been fun as I've
gone through this podcast andheard from our listeners that,
hey, I'm firing the man, I'mdoing it.
I love getting those emailsbecause I know what gift they're
about to receive, and it's thefeeling of freedom, it's the
feeling to spend time with yourkids when you want and to
(10:00):
prioritize things that arereally important to you, and so
that's an outstanding,outstanding story.
I'm glad you shared it.
So, as I was prepping for thisinterview and doing my research,
one of the things that stoodout to me was you've built 20
companies across multiplecountries and multiple
industries, and I would imaginethat you've learned some key
lessons about scaling businessesefficiently.
(10:22):
And so what are some of thoselessons and how do you apply
those to your current ventures?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
One of the things that I learned early on was I
had a Polish company and I hadan Irish company and a lot of
Polish companies, but with theproperty I was doing a lot of
property and I built 30apartments at commercials and I
was renovating over a hundredproperties and at one stage the
accountants in Ireland whichwere auditors as well they gave
me a bill and said, oh, you havethis tax liability.
(10:55):
And I went away and I bought abook called Tax Magic.
It was written by a guy fromthe revenue and I went through
it, like my AutoCAD book, frompage one to the very end, and I
got my little stickers and myhighlighter and I said, can I do
this?
I've learned, even in Poland.
I've learned that most of theaccountants are just processing
(11:17):
the numbers for you.
They don't care if you save anextra thousand a month or 10
grand or whatever.
You have to look after thefigures.
I learned that from an earlyage.
Don't just outsource it andthink he's got it, because a lot
of people they just put it intoa shoebox and the shoebox you
look after my account.
Don't do that like watcheverything you know.
(11:37):
Look at the VAT, if you're VATapplicable and, just like you
know, do the VAT revamp, watchevery single thing, because it's
your money and, like I hear somany people going oh, it's tax
deductible and that's why I'mbuying it, because it's tax
deductible.
No, it's like I tried to buy,like I was able to put my son
(12:00):
through the company because Igot the back and it became an
because I don't know.
I just checked with the gun.
Can I do this?
So, like when you do thingslike that, it's brilliant.
Or if you can do trips andstuff like that, it's great
because you're getting money.
Or if you're buying stuff likea laptop and phone which you
won't use anyway and you can,even with your house, you can
put a percentage away andsometimes people don't realize
(12:22):
you can do the same with thebills and everything.
And it's just learning thesedifferent things and talk to
other entrepreneurs hey, whatcan I do?
And you can even go a stepfurther and just be putting the
company.
Like what I would say forsomeone starting I think it's
Delaware and the States, but,like for me, it's like look at
what country is the best for you, because most of the time
(12:43):
people set up a business, wecross their fingers and then if
it takes off, then it's too lateto be, and then they're trying
to change it and move itStraight away.
Look at what's the best taxoptimization that you can do and
once you do that, then if it'sworking out, you're not paying a
fortune and capital gains orcorporation tax and stuff like
(13:04):
that.
You're keeping as much money inyour pocket as you can.
So that's one of the things Iwould say.
The next one will be a count inthe solicitors.
I've had over a hundred courtcases.
So I mentioned about all myproperties.
I got caught with the crash.
It took a bit later.
I was doing well, but everybodyelse fell down and I was trying
to juggle the balls thinkingI'd be OK and they'd come right,
but it didn't.
So I ended up losing the wholelot.
(13:25):
So true that I had over 100court cases.
And what I've learned as well isa lot of they're only billable
hours.
They don't really, they don'thave your back, they don't
really care.
I mean, there's the exception,there's a few, but what you do
is you're paying attention,You're going there, you're
putting all your paperworktogether, you're preparing for
every case that you've got,because when you're not I mean
(13:46):
especially if you get intoconstruction.
It's just part of the game.
You're going to be in court,unfortunately, so don't let it
faze you.
You know, because the first fewtimes you just panic and it's a
horrible feeling and you don'tknow the zone that you're going
into.
But what you do is startlearning about it, maybe read a
few books on it, talk to a fewpeople, but when you're in there
(14:08):
, don't just sit back and lethim do all the talking, or do
all the talking.
Make notes.
Each time I've won and I've hadsome big cases each time I've
won were when I passed a pieceof paper and said they've just
said this, they were wrong andwe'd catch them out on a lie.
And it flipped it because therewas times where I thought this
is going south and by payingattention and a lot of the times
(14:31):
people don't do that.
So I encourage any entrepreneurdon't ever outsource your legal
side as well.
It's your business.
You're the one that's going tosuffer, so pay full attention to
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I really like that perspective and you know, one of
the things I want point I wantto drive home is is and I
believe you're not an accountantor an attorney However, you're
learning about that topic tobenefit yourself, and I think
that's something as businessowners.
There are certain topics, inparticular, legal and tax, that
(15:04):
are not the most exciting toread.
I've read textbooks before Notexciting, important.
They're important and you'redoing the hard work to make sure
that you come out on top andposition yourself right, so I
love that.
Now to switch topics a littlebit, one of the things that I
think both you and I have incommon is a love of podcasts
(15:29):
just the media form and I'd loveto hear tell me about your love
story with podcasts.
When did you first hear one?
How did you know that this wassomething that you really wanted
to go deep on?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
I'm actually not sure .
Maybe it was Joe Rogan.
I'm not sure what was the firstpodcast that I kind of heard,
but it was through my journey ofkind of losing stuff.
Everything was about I need toexpose this, because I went to
an event and it was what's yourQuest.
And my quest was basically Ineed to expose because I saw so
many people turning the totalmarriage breakups and everything
because of kind of thecorruption that happened, and I
(16:07):
went.
At the same event there wasreally good speakers and I hated
public speaking.
I mean, that's another thingnow that I think is kind of
important for the entrepreneur Iwas when I was younger.
I wouldn't go into the shop,even though I could go into a
house and ask them do you wantyour, do you want the paper, do
you want your grass cut?
That was never a problem.
So it's kind of selectiveshyness, I suppose.
(16:28):
And like even at 18, going tothe bar, I would give my friend
the money when it was my roundinstead of just going on.
It was just kind of, and when Iwas running these big jobs in
Ireland, the one part I hate itwas public speaking.
So at this event I said I needto become a good speaker.
So I came back, joinedToastmasters, joined another
Toastmasters.
Then I formed my own club andentrepreneur Toastmasters,
(16:49):
became a coach, entered everycompetition, got into the final
of five countries, done it.
I'm a coach.
Entered every competition, gotinto the final of five countries
, done it.
Done it up in my TEDx, doneopen comedy and went to an event
where they were.
There was a guy teaching how tobe a podcaster and I was like,
oh, I like this.
This is good for me to get mymessage out.
But I said I think I'd beattacked with my awakening one.
Let's start off with thespeaking, because I've got so
(17:11):
many people that I've metthrough the speaking stage and
that was the first one.
That was 28, seven years ago.
The speaking podcast and kindof from there, just kind of yeah
, just meditation next and, asthe ones you've mentioned, at
the very start, just kind ofkept going and that's six now.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's outstanding.
That's outstanding Now, whenbusiness owners, I think,
oftentimes overlook the power ofpodcasting, and so my question
is how can entrepreneurs andbusiness owners leverage
podcasts to build authority,attract customers and grow their
brand?
There's two ways.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
There's one is you do a tour, and I mean like I've
got some people on ways.
There's one is you do a tour,and I mean like I've got some
people on, say, 250 shows.
So you can do a lot if you want.
What some people do is if theywant to start their show,
they'll do the tour.
They might do 50, 100.
And they're because I mean youhave a different style to
everybody else.
I like your style, the way thatyou do it, and I like the name
(18:11):
of the show.
It's unique and what willhappen is you're picking up
something from each one.
So you can do that way, go on afew different shows and then
have a conversation, becauseit's just that, hey, what kind
of mic are you using, whatsoftware, what platform are you
on, and people will tell you noproblem, and then you go okay
and they'll tell you the prosand cons.
So you can, if you're doing ityourself, what I said to some
(18:33):
people like some they'll do itkind of for branding and they'll
get out, but there's othersthey might think I'm sure who'd
be listening to my show, andwhat I say is you can have a
specific kind of niche that yourbusiness is and interview the
people that are your bestpotential clients and instead of
(18:59):
a cold call where you're tryingto actually get in contact with
them, can say hey, I've gotthis podcast I'd love to
interview.
And then you've got a verywarmly and you can have your
like, I've got my form.
My form is saying hey, are youinterested in doing a podcast
tour?
Do you want a virtualassistance?
Do you want this?
Do you want that?
So many people say yes, I'mnever selling, I never have to
do paid marketing.
People are coming in andthey're actually doing it, so
you can do that as well and thatway it doesn't matter how many
is listening, because you couldactually have got a client that
(19:20):
could be 100K to you.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That's an outstanding perspective and, honestly, I
had an aha moment as you weretalking about that.
There is a huge difference, inmy opinion, between a sales call
and a podcast.
With a podcast, you leave itkind of feeling like you just
had a cup of coffee withsomebody and you talked for an
hour and you're friends, andafter a sales call, it's very
(19:46):
transactional and it's usingthat using a podcast as a sales
strategy to interview peoplethat could be great clients I
think is outstanding and,honestly, something that I've
never thought about and so, okay, okay, that's awesome.
So let's talk about monetizingpodcasts and content creation.
(20:12):
It's probably one of thebiggest questions that I get is
do you make money with yourpodcast?
And so I'm interested forpeople that do have shows.
What would be some of the firststeps that they would need to
take to start monetizing?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Well before the monetization.
What I say to people is don'tjust come into this and expect
money to start rolling in thedoor, because it takes a little
time to start buildingeverything up.
And I kind of set the stage putaside.
You're doing this for a year,no matter what, and the people
that I work with they end upkeep going.
They're still going and it'slovely to see but so many people
.
They come in, they expect, theylook at the big boys and they
(20:56):
expect big checks to startrolling in.
They do three shows, they'regone.
They do 10 shows, that's it andthey're thrown in the towel,
which is a shame to see.
So there's affiliates.
Affiliates can work very well.
I mean, I've had a fewaffiliates that paid monthly
checks come in and you can bevery lucky.
But the thing as well is andI'm going to kind of show both
sides there's sometimes people.
It's great when you've got aunique code that people can use
(21:19):
and then it's tracked and youknow the check comes in.
So there's some that I've donethat and it works very good.
You know straight away.
There's been but there's beenothers that I'm fairly positive.
They got sales and I was like Igot nothing and I was like
what's going on?
And they reach out and they'reoh, I mischecked that.
And then they go yeah, we'reteam is looking at it, and then
they just go.
So it's just so you have to becareful as well.
(21:42):
And the other thing is like Imean, sometimes you can have a
guest on and if your audience isafter building, just have it
just for that.
So talking to the person, andit's very interesting and you
know where to market it.
You can have just the affiliatejust for that and you can
actually do very well becausesome, some affiliates can pay
like 500 bucks, a couple ofpennies.
You know it depends on whatthey're doing.
(22:03):
So it's not just small little10 buck care and 50 quid error.
So you can actually do verywell.
The other thing is sponsorship.
You can, you know, like whenyou've got numbers on your
website page, people can come inand they can start sponsoring
your show.
So there's a lot of differentways to do it.
You kind of have to see whatyour niche is, how you're going
(22:23):
to make some money, but Ihonestly think the best way is
your own business.
If you're a coach or whateveryou're doing, your own business
is the best way and make sureyou're actually letting people,
because what happens is peopleget to like you.
They go I like your style andI've just left my job because of
you, and then you're offering aservice and they kind of feel
(22:44):
like I can trust this guy andthat's the way it works.
So I think that's the best wayof making money.
There's so many different waysof doing it, but I think that's
the best way is to make a fewgood.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I like it, I really like it.
One of the things that youmentioned was you know it's not
going to happen right away andyou need to build up an audience
, you need to get listeners.
That's the asset that you wouldbe taking to, say, a potential
sponsor, sponsor.
(23:17):
And so at what point, or atwhat number of downloads, or
what number of listeners orYouTube subscribers, or whatever
that may be, should somebodystart looking at monetization,
at reaching out to thosesponsors to get that initial
sponsorship?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
With this YouTube you need something like a thousand
subscribers and 4,000 hours.
But it ain't that Like.
I got two of my channels now,like the Polish one it's got
like 1.433 million views and myown one's 144,000.
And say, after half a millionyou could get less than 500
(23:52):
bucks.
So people think I get half amillion, I get 100,000.
Yeah, if you want to advertiseon them numbers, you'll be
paying probably half a million,but they're not giving you that,
they're giving you time.
I worked out it seems like it'slike 0.05.
You know it's really small.
There's an increase but there'slikes to rumble.
(24:12):
And there's also ones like, say, spotify and different ones.
When you're in America, a lotof them they work.
So it works per click.
So you can get kind of 10 to 40bucks for inserts.
So inserting at the start, midand at the end and you can make
money like that as well.
So that's that adds up to giveyou some some funding.
But it's kind of.
(24:33):
I think it's more aboutunderstanding what would be good
for a company Like.
I just released one on myPodfather one and the guy from
LinkedIn was helping, you know,discussing the different things,
and he said, oh, for the Polishone.
The Polish airline is ideal forthem and I was like I like
(24:55):
great.
So that's the plan.
I'm going to actually start toreach out to them and go, hey,
we can do an episode of Happy asthe Link, so I'll be doing that
.
So when you realise, okay,we've got a niche, like for you,
you know there's differentniches that you can go and go,
all right.
So there's people that actuallyhelp the transition of that as
well, from going from anemployee to self-employed and
(25:20):
just see who it works with, andthey mightn't really look at the
numbers.
They could say, all right, lookat every person that signs up,
you're getting X amount, andjust kind of think, and
sometimes we get complacent withwith the business or the back,
just can't see step backs, can't.
Like I keep learning.
I'll do a different course,I'll get that one.
Not so long ago on monetization, I probably know all of this
(25:41):
there was just one thing in itof about 15, but it's just keep
track the whole time and look atthe different things and like
rumble and you know you can makemoney for putting it up.
So, like you have yourinterview and most people, they
think of YouTube, they don'tthink of the Rumble.
Rumble pays as well and thatcould cover your Zoom costs or
your Palindly costs or somethinglike that and get them things
(26:03):
covered first.
And also you can ask for adonation.
I mean the Polish one.
The Polish one, I mean I askfor donations.
Sometimes you get a hundredbucks coming in from somebody,
but the best one is Blind Boy.
He's an Irish podcaster.
He does audio only and whenhe's on stage he actually does
tours.
He wears a plastic bag over hishead because he said he wants
to go to the shop with nobodyknowing who he is and every
(26:24):
episode he says you can adonation.
It's a model based on soundnessso you don't have to pay.
The people that can afford topay cover the people that don't.
It's always going to be freefor everyone and he does that
and he's got something like 5.
Last time I looked a few yearsago he had like 5,000 monthly
people paying to his thing.
But you have to keep asking.
(26:44):
I found that I don't do that.
I Kind of just kind of doing myown thing now and I have to VA
and everything.
But I found that when you askif you're consistent with it,
people kind of accept.
And it's not to be ashamed,because I mean, you know the
amount of work that goes into it.
It's not a case you just wingit, have a conversation.
That's it Like you're preparingbefore the conversation, you're
having the interview and thenyou're doing the editing and
(27:07):
then the marketing is a lot fromit.
You say, hey, if you could buyme a coffee or something like
that once a month, if you met me, would you buy me a coffee or a
beer or something like that?
And people, they think nothingis sending five bucks.
But if every single listenersent you five bucks, you'd be
like, okay, this is goodabsolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
I really like that and it's an interesting media
form because you know you thinkof like a movie.
Uh, that's transactional.
You put out a movie, people buytickets, they go the theater
and that's your revenue source.
Podcasting is natively a freemedia form.
It's something that anybody canaccess generally for free, and
so the monetization piece of it.
(27:44):
You do need to get creative andyou have a lot of great tips in
there for getting that ballrolling.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So one of the things, and there's another one.
Actually, just sorry tointerject.
It's like what I started doing,because I had such a demand,
especially for the Spakey, is Istarted charging.
I said, look, it's a six-monthwait, but you can pay me if you
want to jump the queue and ifyou want shorts, because, like I
do shorts with the virtualassistants, if you want shorts
you pay this amount.
And there's a lot of people whotake that up, because when you
(28:14):
get to a certain level, there'speople like there's some
platforms and it's kind of it'sokay, you can check all their
details, but there's others.
There's people reaching out toyou, there's agents reaching out
to you.
I get hundreds of pitches andthere's a high percentage won't.
But you just send them the heybecause of this and tell them
what you're doing, don't justsay, hey, it's whatever the cost
(28:37):
you want.
Even if you start off at 30bucks or 50 bucks, you can say,
look, because of this, I justwant to help towards my cost
because of the marketing,because of this, and most people
will say, yeah, fair enoughenough.
Because you see some people, one, one guy, so he's charging 10
bucks.
I've seen some for 50.
There's others charged like,like john dumas, the
entrepreneurs on fire, he'scharging three and a half grand
(28:57):
for people to come in.
And there's others like becauseI help people go on and we look
at this and it's like, is itworth it?
Because some are like sevengrand, ten grand, so you can get
really high level.
And if you're reinvesting, youknow like mr beast would be a
perfect example of reinvestingin the business you're
reinvesting.
You know, like Mr Beast wouldbe a perfect example of
reinvesting in the business.
He keeps reinvesting and itkeeps feeding him.
So if you're making money, youdon't just say, oh, I'm going to
(29:19):
go ahead and go on a lot toholders and everything.
If you put it into the marketand your numbers will go up,
which in turn allows you toincrease your price.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
I like it.
I like it and yeah, those aresome really good examples, and I
never thought about chargingfor shorts or charging for, like
, a come on the show sooner andso no, those are.
I've been in the game for six orseven years and I'm learning
stuff right now which isoutstanding.
(29:47):
So one of the things that youhad mentioned when you were
talking about business ownersusing podcasting as a media form
for advertising was going on apodcast tour, and this is
something that I you know.
Certainly, getting on showslike, if you ask enough people,
(30:08):
they're going to some people aregoing to say yes, and, and so I
think the opportunity to get onshows is it's somewhat easy,
Right, and however, once you'reon those shows, and getting the
maximum return on investment issomething that I think a lot of
business owners should bethinking about is is you know at
(30:30):
the end of the podcast, itwould be helpful for the
listeners to know who you are,what you're, why you're credible
and and what your services thatyou're selling, and and so for
people, what advice would yougive for people that are going
on a podcast tour to maximizetheir return on invested time?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
One of the things I tell is you can have like a
virtual assistant that startsdoing for you know somebody like
me that's actually helping yougo on the different shows.
But what I don't do is I won'tfill out the form.
And a lot of people get agents.
He's to fill out the form andwhat I tell them, even when I
say please don't fill out theform, let the guests that I say
that is one that you asked me tocome on the show to fill out
(31:18):
the form, and the reason beingis they're going doing a podcast
tour and they get somebody thatfills out the exact same thing,
cut and paste, cut and paste,cut and paste.
So they end up getting similarinterviews, just with different
podcasters, and if you'recreating shorts, you don't have
much new content, whereas whenI've got my form, sometimes
they'll say something and I pickup on that and I just go on a
(31:41):
tangent and I get a brilliantinterview.
Or I'll ask them what's yourbest video that I should be
watching?
You know, if they have a book, Iask them to send me the book I
used to buy the book, that.
And if they have a book, I askthem to send me the book.
I used to buy the book.
That's another little tip foryou.
I was like what am I buying abook when they're coming on my
show?
I said I don't like digital.
You send me the book, because Iread a hundred books a year.
I was like give me the book,and so that helps as well.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
And yeah, Absolutely, I love it.
I love it.
One topic I wanted todefinitely touch on is virtual
assistants, and you've mentionedthem a couple of times today,
and you also are the co-founderof VA World, which is helping
businesses connect with virtualassistants, and so, for people
(32:24):
that don't have a virtualassistant, what would be some of
the first steps that they wouldneed to take to get one, and
why do entrepreneurs need them?
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I suppose what I'll do is tell you my kind of
journey, what I kind of wentthrough, why I kind of formed,
when I was in Ireland doing thiskind of halfway across, I set
up a recruitment because therewas a lot of Polish coming
across, so I had a recruitmentlicense and I was positioning a
lot of people in theconstruction world.
I set up a recruitment becausethere was a lot of Polish coming
across, so I had a recruitmentlicense and I was positioning a
lot of people in theconstruction world.
So I kind of realized, hey,this is a nice business model.
When I was doing the podcastingI eventually kind of said, well
(32:59):
, I need a bit of help here andI go to Fiverr, fiverrcom and
you get somebody trying toexplain things, or they'd start
off the first month.
And then there was Upwork andUpwork seemed better because,
like you were gettingscreenshots.
I was like, okay, this is good,I can see what they're doing.
And then I was looking and Iwas like it just looks like
they're on Facebook on, say, thebullish one.
(33:20):
It's like most of thescreenshots look the same.
I think they're on anothercomputer and they're just making
it look.
Every time I do that myself.
I was saying, okay, I'm doingit better.
So I then said, okay, let's dothis in a way, and it's usually
like packages.
So a lot of times people think,when they're getting a virtual
assistant, that you need to paysomebody X amount per hour and a
(33:41):
full time, and isn't that, likeyou can get somebody, like for
you know, a couple of hours aweek, and what you should do is
do the stuff that sucks the timeout of you and you don't like?
So, for example, I've done theshorts, I'm posting the shorts
and they do very well because,like, you set up the expectation
Like don't just assumesomebody's getting into your
head when you're planning it.
And we do like packages from,like, say, 99 bucks or say, 300
(34:05):
bucks.
We're doing a lot of stuff forthat, because that way you know
exactly what you're getting,instead of being spending hours
tracking and watching are theydoing what they're supposed to?
Because you know we've alreadyagreed, this is what we're doing
and you know, okay, grand, andso that way I kind of I set it
up in a way that I feel I wouldlike it.
And the other thing is passwords.
So we've got the office and mypartner has the passwords for
(34:30):
all the different things, butthe team don't.
They're just working on thecomputers that are doing it,
because we've never beencompromised and I know that a
lot of people they want to lookafter because some you can have
editor access and things likethat and others you need a bit
more to do it properly.
But it's like we're just makingsure that your information is
(34:52):
safe and someone's not going tostart deleting stuff, because
that can happen.
You can fall out with somebodythat's working on Fiverr or any
of these different places, andthey can.
Just because they've got thehump and you fell out, they just
delete stuff.
So you don't want that.
So you just make sure that yourstuff is protected and that's
the way we do it.
And usually it's actuallyclients that work with me.
(35:13):
I can help them to make theirlife easier.
That's okay.
How can we do it?
So even I don't even upload thestuff and send it to them.
I.
I put on my video, I edit everyall my.
I've done over 1500.
I edit myself.
And the reason I do it myself isbecause I understand the
conversation and I know what's agood point for a short and
(35:33):
stuff like that.
So I'm listening and, plus, Ienjoy listening again as well,
because when you're having theconversation you're fully
present.
But then when you listen like Ilisten now, when this goes out
as well, like anytime I'm aguest I listen and I go it's
different, it's a differentexperience.
And I make the notes, notes, Iput the timestamps and as I
upload it, then they just use,click, grab, take it and it's
(35:56):
just.
They just post all thedifferent shots and I tell them
exactly, and then I just doweekly calls, exactly, okay,
check this, this, this and thisand same for the different
clients.
So what I would say is startdoing the things that you you
hate, because if is start doingthe things that you hate,
because if you can outsourcestuff that doesn't cost you that
much but you can spend yourtime, whether you're coaching or
whatever your business is, andmake more money, and look at it
(36:18):
like that, and you know, youdon't have, like most people say
, I can't afford to havesomebody to hire to bring in.
Well, that's why your VA isbrilliant for you, because you
can do it with a small amount ofmoney and if it starts
benefiting and increasing yournumbers, you go OK, now I can
get the next level, which inturn brings in more customers.
You get more clients, you'remaking way more money and it's a
win-win situation for everybody.
(36:39):
So it's kind of the way we'vedone it no-transcript.
So, like you know, there'sclients that come in and they're
actually recommending, and weeven do a commission as well for
(37:00):
the people that come in.
If you recommend somebody, wegive you a bonus and stuff like
that, because if you're tellingpeople we're not making nothing,
but we know how long they lastfor, and by doing that then it's
kind of keeps the wheels oiled.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I love that.
I love that.
One of the things that I thinkI know I've run into when
managing VAs is the expectationthat they know what I want, and
I think that just thecommunication piece is so
critical, and so for people thatare getting, say, their first
(37:40):
VA, what would you say is themost effective way to
communicate what you want and toensure a good finished product
on whatever that task may be?
Speaker 3 (37:54):
I think you have to, because usually people say I
want to be it and then they justkind of get it going.
You need to just step back andwrite down exactly what they're
going to be doing and how, andyou might even need to sit with
you as you're doing the first.
So, for example, if someone'sdoing the editing of it, you
show them how to do it the firsttime because you have a system,
you have a way of doing things.
(38:14):
Everybody has their own way ofdoing things, even if they're
specializing in editing, and youcan just say, look, this is the
way I do it, this is the way Iwant this, and then you know if
you're getting it exactly as youwant.
And the best thing is, like wefound, like I'm even contactable
.
So sometimes there is thingsthat can go wrong.
I mean, that's normal, but thetrick is to have open
communication and, like we havelike managers overseeing it as
(38:37):
well.
So even for the post, you don'twant to post with a typo or
something.
So we're watching everything.
Yeah, this stuff can slipthrough the cracks and you know
if they're going.
Hey, I thought I was expectingthis.
So we're contactable by phoneand WhatsApp and sending
messages and yeah, if there'sanything, we address it
immediately.
It's not a case of, you know,you're waiting a week or a month
and then you have a monthlyconversation.
It's like, no, if there'ssomething that is coming up, you
(38:59):
do.
But what I would say for thosethinking of hiring a virtual
assistant just spend the time toactually what you really want
them to do, instead of justwinging it and just kind of go,
yeah, just do this, do that, youreally take the time, and then
you can kind of add to it.
Go, can you do this as well?
Can you schedule, can youorganize?
You know my holidays and theycan do anything you want.
(39:22):
Bookkeeping, the whole lot,everything is doable.
Website, the whole changes,adding courses to it, content to
content creation no problem atall.
But just take the time to planhow you're going to do it and
then you have the conversation.
You will find out exactly whatyou need and then it's created
and you just make sure thatyou're happy and if there's any
issues, just communicate it andwe make sure that it's addressed
(39:43):
immediately.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Very good, Very good.
There's a lot of lessons there.
Now, before we get to the fireround.
If people have enjoyed thispodcast and are interested in
checking out more of what you do, what is the best way?
Speaker 3 (39:59):
It's my name roycullencom.
If they're watching, there's aQR code and it's roycullencom
and the virtual assistant isdaworld.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Outstanding, outstanding.
Now, roy, we've got a sectionof the show.
It's called the Fire Round.
It's four questions.
We ask every guest at the endof the show Are you ready?
Absolutely Outstanding.
What is your favorite book?
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I've read, as I mentioned, a hundred books.
I just constantly read books,so it's hard to say, oh, such a
book is very good, but one thatI made the most notes for was
how to Win Friends and InfluencePeople.
Because if you're anentrepreneur, read it, read it,
read it.
And what I found is I said Ihave to read it again, I have to
read it again.
I was finding I didn't havetime.
I got the audio and it was justas good because I was able to
(40:45):
listen to it.
But then I got my youngestchild is 11.
My youngest child is 11.
And I said you need to listento this and he actually enjoyed
it.
So get the whole familyinvolved, because when you're an
entrepreneur, don't thinkyou're on your own.
If you've got children, hey,can you do a bit of marketing
for me?
Get help.
And I think that book it shouldbe on everyone's list.
I love it, I love it.
(41:08):
What are your hobbies?
I'm always doing something likeI like to go to the gym now but
say I bought my son.
We used to go playing pool, sowe bought a pool table.
So, playing pool, we like toplay pool.
I like going to the I mean thecinema because of my dad.
There's like a 4D kind ofcinema here where the chairs
shake, there's water, anotherkind of.
(41:31):
We make sure we try to do thatonce, once a week, and I suppose
, traveling as well.
So for anybody that's anentrepreneur, what happens is
you tend to be working andputting off.
Reward yourself, make sure thatyou go.
Okay, I'm putting X 10% awaytowards my holiday fund.
So me and my son, we love themeparks and we just we tried to
go on a holiday with that as atheme park and go to theme parks
.
So you're having the holidayand the teen park.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
So they're kind of my I class them as my hobbies.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Very nice, what is one thing you do not miss about
working for the man Asking for aholiday.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Oh, I fully agree with that one too.
I fully agree with that oneBecause for those that don't
really know.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Sometimes people have to give a month's notice and
sometimes you just decidesomeone will say, hey, let's go
away next week and most peoplewhen you're working for a
corporation, they're going.
Oh, you're needed, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
I definitely agree with that one and our final
question what do you think setsapart successful entrepreneurs
from those who give up, fail ornever get started?
Mindset, your belief systemjust don't tolerate failure.
(42:40):
Just like, don't get complacent.
Like.
I'm constantly reading books,I'm constantly looking at things
, have your circle of friends,so it's all the mindset.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Outstanding answer.
I love that, Roy.
Thank you so much for being aguest on the Firing man podcast.
We are looking forward tostaying in touch.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
I really enjoyed it.
Thank you very much, David.
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