Brad Burton - Redefining Networking and Inspiring Entrepreneurial Journeys

Full transcript: Brad Burton on London Real

7:40 Brian Rose: This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. We are sponsored today by the folks at Bulletproof Coffee, which we are both drinking. If you’re not familiar with this coffee, it’s coffee that’s free of molds and toxins. You mix it up with grass-fed butter of all things And then some MCT oil, which is a lot like coconut oil.

7:55 And you mix it up in this frothy brew. I just gave Brad some. I have it for breakfast in the morning. And if you’re eating a bunch of nonsense in the morning, like bacon rolls and sugary cereals, no comment by Brad. I highly recommend that you pick up some Bulletproof.

8:11 It’s a great way to get some caffeine, stay away from gluten, and sugar. Two very bad things. So check those guys out. They also biohack everything. And I’ll be doing some videos about sleep hacking coming up soon. I don’t know if you get a lot of sleep but I’ve been monitoring my sleep now at night with my iPhone and everything so more of that coming up thanks to the guys at Bulletproof for sponsoring the show. My guest today is Mr. Brad Burton who is the founder of For Networking which is the UK’s largest joined-up business network. He’s also the author of the highest rated business book on Amazon.

8:44 Brad Burton: Books. Books on Amazon.

8:46 Brian Rose: The one I was referring to was his first one which is titled get off your ass or as in this in the UK they would say ours that’s great and he is latest book which is life business just got easier hmm and I checked and it’s the real deal you have like a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Amazon and we’ve all been on Amazon and we go and we buy that light bulb and we all know there’s the guys that give you one stars and two stars that are always complaining so you don’t have a lot of those

9:12 Brad Burton: you know what it was one of those the first few reviews of my friends and family facts right That’s the reality.

9:18 Brian Rose: A lot of guys don’t even get those on their books.

9:20 Brad Burton: Serious. When I’m up through, I don’t know, 400 five-star reviews across my three books, and the publishers never seen anything like that, ever. The numbers are serious,

9:28 Brian Rose: and he’s got real love there and real buy-in from people that read these books. It’s fresh, it’s new, it’s different.

9:33 I mean, it’s real these days when it comes to, I guess that’s a bit of social media when it comes to people giving real peer reviews, but that talks these days, right? More than, say, an advertisement or a commercial.

9:42 Brad Burton: No question. And somebody says to me, I’ve just read your book, I’ve just picked it up, I get engaging, start talking to these people, and then see what they thought of the book. And that’s the difference, I think, is because the olden ways, the old style of doing things, it was domicile, somebody would read a book, that would be the end of it.

9:56 But now with social media, people will contact you and say, yeah, I loved it, this changed my life, this changed my world. Interesting, with that book alone, in the last three weeks I’ve had two people leave the job, one person leave the wife, it’s a little bit like that, it’s a bit like catching the rifle, people’s thinking and the way they do business and stuff. So that’s a lot of responsibility for a fat bloke from Manchester to be taken. Yeah, it is.

10:17 Brian Rose: It is. But it’s also good, and like you said, people actually have this discussion on Amazon. And I don’t know about you, but I mean, I really look to those reviews when it comes to buying anything.

10:25 Brad Burton: Yeah, seriously. Listen, it’s one of those ones, but we all do that.

10:28 And I think, for me, looking at the reviews, if something’s what I’ve got, and I’ve written about it in chapter 10, it was originally called, the chapter was called Seven Knobbeds, right? The publishers, it was the one change that they wanted. They said, look, we can’t run with that. And I said, why not? He said, WH Smith will not run a book with a chapter called Seven Knobheads.

10:48 So we changed that chapter to, it’s only an ambush if you don’t know it’s there. And I’m talking about haters. Because anyone who’s making any sort of noise that are doing things, you’ll get it with a show. Yeah, oh yeah. You know, anything, fuck you, what have you achieved?

11:01 And yeah, and that’s the thing with this book is I’ve got, within a classic, within probably two days of the book’s release, had one-star review and this person trying to run me down. Now, what was interesting about that was this person, let’s say they call themselves Jeff, okay? And this book’s crap. Then he was then supported by someone called Linda, let’s say. And then there was another one-star review, okay?

11:26 And the one-star review was by somebody called, let’s say, Jane, and what happened? When they put a one-star review on there, their name changed from the original comment. So it’s the same person fucking trying to create-

11:35 Brian Rose: Just some hate out there, right? Ah, it’s Potter. I wanna get into more of that.

11:38 Let me just finish your intro out. You are also, in addition to writing books, the UK’s number one motivational business speaker, which I know a lot of people are gonna say, oh no, here we go. But we’re gonna get to that. And one of the Dragon’s Den guys said that when he first met you, he thought you were a builder, but he now reckons you’re the Northern Tony Robbins.

11:58 Brad Burton: I reckon.

11:58 Well, there you go.

11:59 Brian Rose: Brad, welcome to London Real.

12:00 Brad Burton: Also, thank you, buh-bup.

12:01 Brian Rose: Dude, thanks for being here. You know, I wanna address this issue right away.

12:04 We got people listening from all around the world, and they might’ve been to England once or twice, But unless you live here, you don’t know the difference between a Northerner and a Southerner. Now, if you saw the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you remember Lenny McLean was like the Southerner, and he had hired the Northern guys to break in. And so they were like, you know, these Northern monkeys. Those Northern monkeys don’t put me in the same barrel as those old guys.

12:27 Brad Burton: They were scouts, as I’m from Manchester. So it was a different blog.

12:30 Brian Rose: OK, well, can you break it down, this north-south divide? Of course. Or at least the stereotypes.

12:33 Brad Burton: I think so. OK, the stereotype is this. Northerners are out there and they eat chips and gravy. Chips and gravy, you know, gravy. Southerners don’t, I think that’s a simple and the most succinct way of describing it.

12:47 But in essence, listen, I travel the UK to about a thousand miles a week in essence, going up and down the UK. And you know what, same people, genuinely. You know, call it bullshit, it’s the same people. What I can say is actually the gyms I go in, the northerners are a whole lot bigger than the southerners. No, I’m serious.

13:02 Brian Rose: I mean, maybe because you’ve got to protect yourself on the streets over there, but seriously, I’ve just, I tweeted about that before. Yeah, well it’s probably, it’s considered a little bit rougher up there.

13:09 Brad Burton: I think so. Maybe, and maybe the south is. Right, and let me tell you something interesting about that.

13:13 I’m from Salford, Manchester, right? One of the roughest places in the UK, I would say. No question. And when I was a young man, I was quite street smart. Going up there now, boom, lock the door, head down, keep going.

13:25 Serious, things change, things change, and it’s, and I think that’s something about me. I’ve changed, I’ve changed a massive layer. You know, when I was a young man, I was involved in all sorts of stuff, and maybe we get to that, maybe we don’t. But I’ve changed massively, and I think people change, and I think the person that you was 10 years ago isn’t the person that you are now, and I think that people need to just recognize that things change, and you might not be the person that you are now in 10 years’ time.

13:49 And that’s quite important that you develop, you come across people that don’t develop, and they’re the ones who, as life goes on, are miserable and so forth.

13:57 Brian Rose: Yeah, as a caveat to that, your friends change too. And sometimes trying to hold on those same friends you had 10 years ago is just not the right thing,

14:04 Brad Burton: No, it’s not listen, you know, I’m a hoarder of people. I’m a hoarder of people.

14:08 Brian Rose: Oh, yeah There should be a show on TV like people hoarders

14:11 Brad Burton: I’m a hoarder of people, you know, but the thing is you can’t keep everyone you can’t retain everyone You can’t save everyone. That’s the other thing that I’ve learned people would burn themselves out trying to help everyone trying to fix everyone One of the things I was about I used to um, you know, I’d give I’ve done four years on the door. So I’ve been skinned but I would give the homeless person my last pound And actually one of the things that I’ve stressed out and one of the things that was in my first book was when you go on a plane and you fly back to San Diego and it says, in the event of an emergency, place your own oxygen mask on before you help other people.

14:43 Brian Rose: Yeah, they do say that. Even for kids, even with your kids.

14:46 Brad Burton: Absolutely, and this is how I was guilty of putting my oxygen to everyone. I was guilty of giving everything to everyone. And the problem is you’ve got nothing left for yourself then.

14:54 And now my focus was on this, which the more clout that I’ve got, the stronger, more powerful that I am in terms of my network and everything that I’m trying to achieve, the more people that can help. And it’s a fundamental, different vibe, and a different way of looking at things.

15:08 Brian Rose: Right, to help yourself first. And also, I think it subconsciously tells you that you’re important to yourself.

15:13 Brad Burton: Oh, no question, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:15 Listen, I think my motivation right now is to make a positive difference. Everything that I do is about making a positive difference. What you don’t know about me is I don’t have a qualification to my name, not fucking one. No qualifications to my name. Brought up in a council of states in Manchester.

15:27 My dad was a heroin addict. I got a Jimmy Savile badge when I was eight. That’s not true that people might get that joke, but-

15:33 Brian Rose: What is the Jimmy Savile badge?

15:35 Brad Burton: Oh, Jimmy Savile, the U-tree, the DJ.

15:36 Brian Rose: Oh yeah, okay.

15:37 Yeah, yeah, the one who died, and yeah, yeah. That’s Jimmy Savile. Okay.

15:40 Brad Burton: That was a joke, but nevermind. It’s not very good.

15:42 Boom. And probably it goes that well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But in essence, you know, hardy ideal conditions for a life, and my hardy ideal conditions for a business. But I changed, and this is a thing fundamentally, It’s about change and you need to be willing to change.

15:58 And I resisted it for so long. And up until, my teacher said to me, I’d never amount to anything. And up until about nine years ago, he was right. But I changed, I changed.

16:09 Brian Rose: All right, I wanna talk more about that.

16:12 Let’s talk a little bit about business here. Small businesses make up about 99% of the companies in the private sector. That they make up about 60% of the employment, 50% of the turnover. We’ve all been involved in a small business in our life, or there’s a lemonade stand. Hell, London Real is a small business.

16:28 I mean, so, and this is your business, right? I mean, this is what you talk about. This is what you teach people about in your seminars. What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong with small businesses?

16:37 And why should we listen to you about it?

16:39 Brad Burton: I’ll tell you a reason why. Is what happens is people are so preoccupied with big business. So people in business, I’ve had it all day long, and people go to me and say, you know what, I need bigger businesses. I always say to people that say, I need bigger businesses.

16:50 Are you a bigger business? And when they say, no, say, do me a favor, piss off, I need bigger businesses. You can’t have it both ways. Where people go wrong in life and in business is they try to put pound notes over people’s heads and actually look for, you know, I’ve had people say to me, oh, I’m after high net worth individuals. And you know what I’m after?

17:06 I’m after nude pictures of Anna Konikova. You know, you’ve got to stop putting pound notes over people’s heads, stop overestimating anyone, stop underestimating anyone, treat everyone the same with respect. That’s what I’m about. Treat everyone the same with respect because it’s not just the person you’re talking to, it’s all the people they know. And this is a lesson that I completely eulogise and I’ve been doing for the last 10 years about it.

17:26 And this is why my network for networking is just growing because we’ve got that culture and that ethos right at the heart. So you’ve got this working northern monk here who doesn’t have a qualification to his name, not fucking one, not a single qualification to my name. And I’ve made it, well, I say I’ve made it. I’ve took a business from 25 grand in personal debt to a multi-million pound international one with no qualifications. So this is what I think I’m doing.

17:49 I’m giving people hump. I’m saying, look, if I can do it, and I had the ideal conditions, ladder, heroin addicts, council states and so forth. What’s your excuse?

17:56 Brian Rose: And you tell people like basically the customer’s important is what you’re saying. Don’t just look after that high worth net individual.

18:02 You’re saying just look at them all, is that a value?

18:04 Brad Burton: Absolutely, by looking after everyone, what happens is ultimately they start looking after you. But if all you’re doing is looking for high net worth individuals, what you’re missing is calling the carpet cleaner, his brother is a high net worth individual. So you’re never gonna get linked up through that because you’ve dismissed that person or you don’t need a web designer because we’ve already got a website, thank you very much.

18:21 People overlook and dismiss people all day long, and the thing is, they’re closing opportunity down, completely closing opportunity down. And this is the thing, I value everyone the same. It doesn’t make no difference. If I met Alan Sugar now, all right, boom, gone. Or Colin the Carpet cleaner.

18:35 I treat everyone the same, genuinely. Not many people do that.

18:38 Brian Rose: Okay, now you’re giving a talk tomorrow and you’ll speak in front of a bunch of people. I’m sure afterwards you’ll talk to them. What is the most common problem you see people having with their business?

18:48 Say they’re getting started, say they’ve got some turnover, they have a product, But like, what’s the one thing you see more than more often, at least lately in this economy?

18:56 Brad Burton: You know, what they’ll be saying is they’ve got problems with sales, they can’t find their work. Basically, that just means they’re not being inventive enough. Ultimately, it boils down to belief, right? It boils down to belief.

19:06 If you have got 100% belief in everything that you do, you know, you wouldn’t say you’re gonna be unstoppable because you’re not, but what you’ll be is a whole lot more driven and a whole lot more chance of it happening. This is what I’ve got. I’ve got unwavering self belief and it’s almost fucking misguided because people, what I didn’t realize, I’ll tell you something now, What I didn’t realise, two years ago, somebody said to me, what a complete nutjob I come across as, and I went, ha ha.

19:28 Brian Rose: On Twitter or in person?

19:29 Brad Burton: I’m person. But I didn’t realise.

19:30 Brian Rose: This is okay in person.

19:31 Brad Burton: Listen, I’ve not started yet, trust me, right?

19:33 But I’m just saying, the coffee’s kicking in. But the point I’m trying to make is this, I did not, I was so self unaware. I was so self unaware, it was scarier. You know, I mean, I said to you before, this is holding me back, normally it’d be away. But somebody said to me, you know, you don’t realise what I, what do you mean?

19:49 He said, you are a different sort of gear to the most normal people in terms of the way you think and the way you move and the decisions you make and the speed of decisions you make. And I think that’s been quite crucial for me to understand that I am a bit of a nut job, but that nuttiness and that unwavering self belief, which is sometimes misguided, I served my, we were talking before about UFC and fighters. Gee whiz, think about it. You know, a fighter’s all they’ve got.

20:13 Yes, they’ve done the training, but ultimately it’s belief. And when you start getting whacked in the face, you need something more than your training to have a reason to get up. One of the things-

20:22 Brian Rose: Yeah, that’s what I said. You see it in the cage all the time.

20:25 Brad Burton: Serious!

20:25 Brian Rose: Brock Lesnar!

20:26 Brad Burton: Brock Lesnar, the biggest, toughest, meanest guy ever. Wow, boy, look at him, he’s a powerhouse. And actually, you know, you could be scared to death of the fight that you’ve got no chance versus him. Then all of a sudden he gets a punch in the mouth.

20:37 The next thing, he’s on his toes, he doesn’t want to know. Mike Tyson, an interesting lesson here, interesting lesson, I’ll share this one. You look at Mike Tyson years ago, he used to come in there, he used to just dominate people through fear. you’d open those doors and all the guys would be there with the towels and walking with entourage 20 people and he’d be like, fuck. And Van der Holyfield would come in, he was 10 years old and nobody’d give him a chance and he’d come in there with his cut man with a hat on and stuff and he’d walk in there.

21:01 And actually you look on paper, you’re thinking, he’s got no chance. And imagine in between rounds, this corner man said, fucking hell, you’re gonna get filled in, look at how dangerous they are. But he didn’t, he said, you know what, you’ve trained too hard for this shit. Don’t worry about his entourage, they’re not coming in here, you have trained too hard, you’ve got the experience, blah, blah, blah, blah, And that’s why I’m under one belief.

21:18 Brian Rose: So you’re saying it’s that heart, it’s that innate belief.

21:20 Brad Burton: And your reason why, because without a reason why, forget it, for me, my reason why, if you’d have asked me 10 years ago what I started my own business off, I would have said, you know why? Because I want a fucking 10 bedroom mansion, I want an Olympic sized swimming pool, I want an Apache gun shoot with hellfire rockets. You know, just shit. Now, the reason that I want to do it is for my children. And I’ll tell you a story right now.

21:44 This is what people need to find. audience needs to know right now why they’re doing it what’s that reason because if your only motivation is money it’s not enough it’s not enough because when it gets tough when you get a punch in the mouth metaphorically speaking right you need a reason to get open if it’s only because you want granite kitchen surface or 18 inch wheels it’s not enough for me I promised my dad he’s gone now my dad when I was eight he robbed a bank people think of joking about I’m sort of half joking by the way and he took he took me to Disney Land and he promised me he said to me that when you’re older and you’ll take your children to Disney World.

22:18 Brian Rose: In America?

22:19 Brad Burton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I remember the first time that I took my kids and I remember getting five grand on a credit card and my wife said to me, we can’t afford it. And I went, we can’t afford not to. You know, the children are not gonna turn around and go, you know what? Dad, do you remember when I was about 11, I think it was June, June 13, when you paid the council tax?

22:38 Right, but what they will do is remember the first time that you bought a Mickey Mouse, it is a $40, that you wore once for a photo opportunity with the embroidered name, and that’s what it’s about.

22:47 Brian Rose: Okay, so having a reason, you know, because your business advice sounds like life coach advice. Is it the same thing?

22:53 Brad Burton: Of course it is, life business just got easier, that’s what it’s about, the whole thing merges. There’s been this myth that there’s a work-life balance that, you know, look at what you’re about.

23:02 You know, with this studio, this is your job, this is your life, you do it, not to make a load of money, do it because you’re passionate about it, because you really genuinely, truth be known, you do this and make no fucking money. That’s the reality of it.

23:14 Brian Rose: You figured that all out? You just met me.

23:16 Brad Burton: Serious.

23:16 Brian Rose: It’s probably true.

23:17 Brad Burton: No, but I’m serious. You know, yes, don’t get me wrong. The nice things are nice, but ultimately, you know these people over there right now, probably working for a recruitment company. Yeah, across the way.

23:26 Yeah, yeah, yes. Sat there now at seven o’clock at night. You know, and then they’ll get home at 11 o’clock and they’ll be up at six to go and earn some money to do what? To then go and spend it in a pub or to go and buy a granny kitchen services. Fuck that shit.

23:38 You know, I’ve retired right now. As of now, I’ve retired. I mean, seriously, what I’ve done, Is My day is is I do what I want when I want that’s complete work-life balance So if I want to go and play modern warfare 3 Right at 3 o’clock in the afternoon it will do and our people on my Twitter feed going well That’s not very professional. My business is 20 times bigger than yours your fucking clown So what’s that about? You know, I mean, let me be the judge of what professional is I invokes to get paid I’m on fire now seriously.

24:05 Brian Rose: No, I love it. I love it man. It’s in coffee too. No, you’re right I mean this started as like fun for me and it’s become a passion project and now it’s equivalent to my identity Get it. And yeah, it’s fun. I mean, I’m obviously having fun I get to meet people like you and have crazy talks like this So so you but you still are running this business and you’re still writing these books and you but your advice board is more on Getting people to figure out why they’re doing these things because you know What money is just so far down the pecking order

24:32 Brad Burton: you get to the end of your life and go fuck me I wish you’d have spent more time on that proposal. Come on What’s your legacy? And actually if your legacy is going to be sitting over in that recruitment consultant until 8 o’clock every night, we’re in a three bedroom house, you know, 45 minute train away. Come on.

24:48 Brian Rose: It’s such a weird thing because people come into this studio and across the building from us, we’ve got like a company with like 70 people that got some computers. It kind of looks like a typical corporate life. It actually, it’s a pretty like decently posh venue. It’s kind of, they got some standing desks, but you’re definitely working for the man over there. And you might not know why you’re working for me.

25:08 Brad Burton: Let me tell you a story. I want to tell you a story. It’s in the book. It’s in the book. I want your audience to answer these questions.

25:16 When was the day that it all changed for you? Right? Don’t answer that, but I want your audience to think, when was the day that it all changed for you? Then I want your audience to think of the worst day of their life. Forget that now.

25:26 I want you to think about the best day of your life. These two bookends on your life and I’ll steer you down a path, you know, walk. Think about our best day, worst day. Just to say my worst day, 1993, I got two bullets put through my window over in Manchester. Made no sense dark dark days, right and everything that was so important the day before smoking pot playing me Mega Drive my sky television My house fucking finished overnight gone handed the keys back to the estate agent and left Manchester Scared to death. Okay That made no sense For many many years you fast forward now 20 years the reason I’m sat here now The reason I’ve written three books the reason I run this business They did it there is as a direct result of moving from Manchester to Somerset if that had not happened and who knows where it would be.

26:09 So, when was the day that it all changed for you? I want your audience to think about that right now. It’s not necessarily the worst day of your life, it’s just the day it all changed for you. Not both days, think about it. The worst day, the best day.

26:18 These two bookends on your life, and I’ll stay in you down the path, you know, I walk. Think about it logically. So, the worst day, two bullets in my window, the best day, start my business off. Stay in me down the path and I walk. Gonna share with you a story about the day it all changed for a friend of mine, a guy called Darren.

26:35 Aaron had worked at Tesco’s on their management program. Been there about 12 years, on £65,000 a year. And the guy who trained him was a guy called Roger. Roger had been there years, and it was Roger’s last day. And one of the directors from Tesco’s was coming down to give him a send-off in front of the 100 staff and 500 customers on a busy Friday afternoon.

26:52 And the phone goes about three o’clock in the afternoon on this day that Roger’s gonna leave. Hello, how is that Roger? Yes, it is. Hello, Roger, how are you doing? It’s Steve, one of the directors over at Tesco’s.

27:01 How are you today? Good, good, good. How’s your wife, Margaret? Right, divorce, sorry to hear that. Yeah, I’ve not seen you for about five years.

27:08 Roger, what it is, and you always know when somebody says your name followed by what it is. What it is that actually followed is generally called shit, right? Roger, what it is, I can’t actually make it down today. Sort of run out a day, not enough hours in a day. Coof, it’s a bit embarrassing, really.

27:22 So I suppose all these to say is on behalf of myself, indeed, all the staff at Sesco’s and the directors. Thank you for all your hard work and all the best, all the best, four went down. Roger was taken back by this And he went to see Darren, the guy who trained for about 12 years, and just to put his in perspective, Roger was on £105,000 a year. Right, one of this, boom. OK.

27:40 £105,000 a year. Good morning. And it’s all Darren. Darren was furious. Fucking fuming.

27:45 I’m not having this. And we’ve all had those days and times in our life when we’re not having this, when actually things are changing, when you go, you know what, I’m not having this. You know, almost you rob at a Bruce moment to just go, you know what? Because people say, keep your head, you know, keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, boom, and just, you know, keep your job. He went, fuck this.

28:00 Brian Rose: So Darren was getting sacked?

28:01 Brad Burton: No, Darren was furious because Roger was last day and the directors couldn’t come down. So Darren, who’d been trained by Roger, he was like a sunswim, he was furious, he walked onto that shop floor on a busy Friday afternoon and he realised that actually what he was about to do was go against every bit of Tesco’s management training. This was significant, this, and he thought, am I going to do this? Yeah, they am. He walked straight to the centre of that store, a busy Tesco superstore, on a Friday afternoon, took a big deep breath in realising severity about what he was about to do. He used Robert the Bruce moment, he went yeah I’m gonna do this. Took a big deep breath and you know what he did? I have no idea what he did. He stole a cake, that’s right. He stole a cake, caterpillar cake he records, reduced from six pounds to four and then he went to the staff room and him and Roger they cut into the cake and they ate the cake and then Roger walked home after 52 years of service at Tesco’s. He walked home after 52 fucking years of service at Tesco’s.

28:55 No goal watch, no director couldn’t be asked coming down in three hours, no whip round, No card, no fuck all, 52 years of service at Tesco’s. What’s the moral of the story? Well, what was he doing it for? I don’t know. A thank you at the end, would that have made him happy?

29:09 I’ve no idea, no. But this is the point, this is the point that actually he’s worked his bollocks off for 52 years for Tesco’s and he gets nothing, nothing. He thought he was heading for greatness. He got no legacy and there had been times when he would have been growing up and his two daughters that he’s got, they would have said to him, dad, dad, dad, On Saturday, can we go to Alton Towers? Mum’s got the two-for-one vouchers.

29:33 I need to go and have a count, love. Why is that, why is that, dad? Well, Saturday’s our busiest day, and as you know, every little helps. Dad, on Sunday, can we go to the duck pond? I can’t, love, we’ve got to do an end-of-year tax return, so I can’t really make it.

29:46 I knew he would have started seeing less and less of his wife, and he would have turned back and come to see his wife, and she’d have been upset, and she’d been spending more time with a tennis coach, and then-

29:54 Brian Rose: Okay, so where are you going? Where’s the moral of the story?

29:57 Brad Burton: The moral of the-

29:58 Brian Rose: I’m trying to understand.

29:59 Brad Burton: do something you love, or don’t spend your whole life. Fucking don’t spend your whole lives out over there, for what’s the purpose.

30:04 Now, if you’ve got a plan, if you’ve got a plan i.e., you know, what you wanna do is work for five years because you wanna afford this and whatever, great. But this guy sold his family down the river, and he ended up getting divorced as a result of doing that. And I’m gonna share with you a story right now.

30:20 Brian Rose: Another story?

30:20 Brad Burton: Yeah, yeah.

30:21 I’m gonna hit me. Listen, 18 months ago I had a nervous breakdown, right? Okay. I’m all right now, but.

30:26 Brian Rose: There’s a man that’s published many books, You’ve got a huge business, okay?

30:29 Brad Burton: Let me tell you, this is the thing. Let me tell you about this, because what you find-

30:33 Brian Rose: No one ever has it made, do they?

30:34 Brad Burton: Correct. And everyone always thinks they have it made. Correct.

30:37 Even Alan Sugar right now is probably doesn’t know what the fuck he’s gonna do. Correct, yeah, bomb, exactly. And this is the situation. So 18 months ago, I had a load of personal shit going on, right? And what I want your audience to think about is do not confuse bad luck with bad decisions.

30:52 We’re all guilty of that. Oh, it was bad luck that I got caught in a bank with a handgun and somebody grasped on me. No, no, what was stupidity on your part? And you’ve been speaking to too many people. So what happened with me is I made some personal bad decisions, right?

31:09 I’m not prepared to go into them, right? But I made some bad decisions, me personally. But I also had, and maybe, just maybe, the reason that I made those bad decisions was as a result of some of the shit that was going on in my business that I had a load of pressure. I had a load of pressure. And this is what happens in life, that when you have pressure, you start masking the shit that’s going on in your life.

31:28 Start smoking more, start drinking more, start doing drugs, start doing whatever to mask it. Because people want to block out the life and what shit they’ve got going on in their life. This is what happened with me. And my life was like a game of Jenga. You seen it wooden blocks Jenga?

31:43 Right, so you take a piece out, boom. This is what happened to me. I’ve taken a piece out and had this big tower of business success, double page spreads in the times, people like front covers magazines, all this shit, and going, Brad, look what you’ve achieved. You’ve done it for me, no qualifications, 25 grand in the deal that we’ve achieved. You’ve got this national organisation that runs over 5,000 events a year.

31:59 Badger your genius, thank you very much, thank you very much. And I was one brick away from all going to shit. And this is what happened. I would have my children handed off to me at weekends. Now, bear in mind, what I talked about before, as to why I started this thing off, was to take my children to Disney World, was to provide the nice things for my family.

32:17 And somewhere along the way, you start forgetting about that and start spending more and more time working, more and more time for the man over there, less and less time about your children, because it’s all about getting that report done, it’s all about the, and that’s the thing, I was fucking frazzled, fucking lost it completely. And I remember my coach, and I’ve got a coach, I was walking the dog and I was under this immense pressure and he could feel the layers coming off mentally and it’s, you know, I’m a strong guy, and it, you know, I was weak, I was weakest, but yeah, I’m fronting it off, I’m speaking in front of all these people, hundreds of people that he shows, and in turn, they’re fucked. And my coach said to me, and it’s a great question that you’ve always got to ask yourself when you’re making bad decisions, right?

32:57 Are you willing to risk it all? Are you willing to risk it all? And if the answer’s no, why the fuck are you doing what you’re doing? Not to me give me complete clarity about the situation and I went some way to start fixing my life up.

33:11 Brian Rose: So you used to be willing to risk it all every day?

33:14 Brad Burton: No fucking way. No, listen, these ways it means, what you need to understand is this. was it a was it a price worth paying me potentially getting divorced and losing my family to have business success because just think for a second right that you are a captain of a ship you know why because you are the captain of your ship and over here you have a island with health and relationships and over here you have an island with wealth which one are you full speed ahead towards because you can’t go to both this is why people start unraveling what happens is maybe just maybe you know you can get to wealth and then you can start coming back but you know you’re here now at seven eight o’clock in the evening and so forth and actually you’ve got to put the hours in in order for it to then to be in a situation where you don’t have to put the hours in and i’m very fortunate in that i’ve managed to recover my situation right me and the wife didn’t get divorced she’s funny enough she’s pregnant right with a third kid i’ve had sex once in the last 12 months so congratulations they’re cool but you know Now, I think that the part I’m trying to make here with the Caterpillar cake and the Tesco story is what’s your legacy going to be? Because actually, if you sum up your life up and say, you’re going to work your bollocks off for 52 years at Tesco’s and you’re going to get – the director can’t be bothered and you’re going to get divorced. Is that what you want

34:26 In your life? You go, no. So what do you want? Because we end up walking, ambling like these guys will. They’ll finish at eight o’clock today, get home at half nine, drink a bottle of red wine, wake up at six, do the same.

34:37 Brian Rose: I know and we’re all doing it because we’re told that that’s a proper job and and there’s respectful in the common deck So tell me more about this book.

34:45 Brad Burton: Let me let me just write the third book. Well, let me just read this Let me just read this right literally. I’m not gonna I’m not gonna bore you to tears with this right? But this is this is interesting here most Summery you right, you know, what’s now now I was a seven-year-old boy playing space Lego in front of my room in my Terrace house in Salford Manchester when my stepdad watching the snooker final suddenly the match went off BBC Newsflash There was a hostage situation in the SES, in the MSA, right?

35:10 I remember watching it, right? As a kid, that’s when my life first changed for me. I realised that the world I’d been ushered through, the reality I lived in, wasn’t in fact real. Up until that point, it was about Beno Comics and Father Christmas, and most parents are masterful at creating a fake environment to allow the kids to hang onto the childhood for as long as possible. This makes children feel safe and secure while they’re learning about the real world.

35:31 I’m about to bombshell you. The grown-up world in which you currently exist It’s most likely, also the one you’ve been led to believe is by government, society, and magazines.

35:39 Brian Rose: Don’t keep reading, don’t keep reading, you can’t keep reading. Give it to me in summary form.

35:44 Brad Burton: You know what, a job for life?

35:45 Yeah. It’s not a job for life. A trusty pension, you know, a pension you work hard, you get a pension and you can retire when you’re 65, fuck that, you know, a trusty bank manager, no beef, burgers, no horse burgers.

35:57 Brian Rose: Do you think everyone should be an entrepreneur?

36:00 Brad Burton: No way.

36:00 Okay. No way, no way, no way, but.

36:01 Brian Rose: Do you see people in the audience where you’re like, maybe this isn’t for you. Do you find that people wanna be rockstar entrepreneurs? We see a lot of that on Silicon Reel, is that they see all this stuff and they’re like, I’m gonna be a tech rockstar and then they don’t realize it’s really hard work.

36:14 You’ve got sacrifices, like you said. You know, for every time I go and sit in front of an audience or 100, 500 people, whatever it be, you know, nobody mentions the nervous breakdowns and this is the point that I’m gonna say, if you had a slide in the scale that says success, success, success, addicted to drugs, alcoholic, diabetes, and so forth is over here. Is it a price worth paying? And that’s what people need to understand. Is it a price worth paying?

36:37 Because actually, if you used to look down the litany of shit that’s gone my way as a result of running a business, is it a price worth paying? And actually, you need to understand what is the price. You need to almost be aware of what is the price that you’re willing to pay and play with that rather than saying, you know, just playing indefinitely.

36:54 Brian Rose: Right, and this is a line you think you’re gonna have to constantly walk the rest of your life somewhere between family commitments and personal success, you know, between ego and between giving back to the rest of the world?

37:05 Brad Burton: 100%, and I’ve learned that so much, you know. I thought I could be Mr. Fucking Cool all day long, all right. And my mum said to me, and I said, great bit of advice. She says to me, she went, Brad, you’re not fucking Jay-Z.

37:18 You’re not Jay-Z, right? And it was like, she’s so right, because I thought in my mind’s eye, what my life was gonna be about was jacuzzis and two big models with big tits. Okay, once you made it in business. But the problem is you end up creating yourself more problems because that’s not what you need because otherwise the thing that keeps you stable as a business owner, the thing that keeps you stable as a business owner is your base, whatever your base is, your family and so forth.

37:44 Without that, it’s not worth it. You look at people who’ve made a load of money like Mike Tyson, great example, I don’t know, 300 million quid, all got dollars, all gone, all gone, 300 million dollars, are you real? Yeah. It’s a lot of money to go and burn on fucking tigers.

37:58 Brian Rose: Yeah, I just saw his one-man show recently, I didn’t realize it was those kind of amounts that he was…

38:03 Brad Burton: Strange amount. He was juggling around.

38:05 Brian Rose: So, what else is in this book? You said you talk about haters a little bit in there, you know, I mean, what is your general thing that you tell business? Like, what is kind of, is it kind of what you told me as in do something you’re gonna be passionate about and don’t do something just to make the numbers?

38:17 Brad Burton: Yeah, I think the problem is in business is look at what you’re about here, right? You know, clearly passionate about it, there’ll be someone who’s doing it because what they’ve done, they’ve got the calculator out and gone, fucking hell, if we get that many views and it’s not, I’m a spreadsheet millionaire and it’s easy making this money on spreadsheets, I’ve done it loads of times. A lot of businesses are based on it. Oh fucking hell, it’s dot com boom, lunacy again, but the problem is this, is that actually someone who has got passion like yourself will always beat someone without passion and it’s a bit like the UFC or a boxer or a fighter, it’s beating people to the punch every single time. See these people right now trying to do this motivation shit that I do, right? You know, jeans, t-shirt and so forth. Listen, this is what I’m about.

38:58 I’m not fainting this. This is me. I’m that enough to have tattoos. You know, something you know, I’ve got shaved head from Manchester tattoos where jeans, trainers, you know, I’m not a drug dealer.

39:07 Brian Rose: You’re saying this isn’t the best, the usual look for a motivational speaker.

39:11 Brad Burton: Correct. Right, right, right. But what I’m saying, there’s a valuable business lesson here. There’s a valuable life lesson here. Spend 100% of your time being 100% of you. And if people don’t like you for being you, you know what? That’s okay. But these fuckers over there, they’re all They might be very nice people, we don’t know.

39:25 But look, they’ve got double wins or nots.

39:27 Brian Rose: Double wins or nots. Double what?

39:29 Brad Burton: Fucking stupid ties all the time.

39:31 Brian Rose: So what’d you say you said to be 100% yourself, 100% of the time?

39:35 Spend 100% of the time being 100% you and if people don’t like you for being you, next.

39:39 Brian Rose: I like that, I like that. All right, talk to me about motivational speaking. Now we all seen that movie Little Miss Sunshine where a great canier is like the father and he’s the motivational speaker and his life’s a mess on the side.

39:51 Brad Burton: It was, that’s what I’m saying.

39:53 It was, right? It was just like anyone else who’s passionate and creative. But the difference is, instead of these guys here sitting in an office, and I keep reverting to these guys, but instead of these guys sitting in an office all day for eight hours a day, I go and speak in front of 500,000 people. So they’ve got the same challenges as me, the same challenges. The difference is, I think the reason I’m where I am right now is because I’m real.

40:20 You know no qualifications did it there? I’m not I’m not trying to be something I’m not you know when you’ve written a book that got to number two in the chance beaten only by Alex Ferguson’s auto-biographer There’ll be just a picture in WH my book is next to me. Yeah, I know you good. I’m passionate about what I do exactly, but you think is it’s you know You’ve got authors there and or it is speakers that probably you can speak better than me, but they ain’t doing the numbers So what’s that? What’s and this is what I said about somebody saying you’re not very professional My business is 20 times bigger than yours.

40:51 What’s your barometer to success? And don’t let anyone tell you what your barometer of success is. If you want to sit in there all day with your double winds and that makes you feel comfortable and that’s your life and you’re happy with that, that’s fine. But don’t get to the end of your life. Don’t get a fucking whip around and get on a tube home and think, you know what, my life’s been for nothing.

41:07 That’s the problem. That’s the problem. I’ll tell you the thing I would say is.

41:11 Brian Rose: I’m wondering if they’re talking over there and looking and saying, look at that northern monkey and that’s something.

41:16 Brad Burton: Yeah, that’s it, yeah, yeah.

41:17 Talking about, all right, go ahead.

41:19 Brian Rose: But have your own barometer for success, you were about to say.

41:22 Brad Burton: Completely. There’s a guy that I know, right, who ended up working like that over there, and he ended up putting into a pension, putting into a pension, and he’s gonna retire when he’s 65, right? There’s a fucking perverse irony here.

41:35 He died three days before, and he lost half his pension, did the half went to his wife. That’s how it works. It’s a bit like the croupier, the house always wins, right? So this guy’s put in for 45 years, Let’s say, for the sake of argument, £200,000. When he dies, instantly, half of that value is taken.

41:53 So he’s down to £100,000 that his wife gets, and he never got to see that. But his intent, what he’s gonna do, he’s gonna retire and do that. Fucking hell, wouldn’t he be better rather than doing that and putting £200,000 in, having the £100,000 and spending it on stuff that he wanted.

42:06 Brian Rose: All right, you’ve convinced me. Long-term employment is a bad idea, and pensions are a bad idea.

42:10 Brad Burton: Serious.

42:10 Brian Rose: All right, talk to me about motivational speaking. Do you get people that show up to your seminars skeptical? I’m sure when you tell people what they do, they’re like, oh my gosh, plus the Brits are worse than the Yanks. I’m sure when people are like, oh Brian, you’re having a moment with people, they’re first of all like, I’m not interested.

42:26 Is it like that or not?

42:27 Brad Burton: No, what I get, right, and I get this, disproportionate amount of times, is people coming along to see me fail. They come along.

42:35 Brian Rose: At least they’re coming, right?

42:37 Brad Burton: Listen, but that’s fine.

42:38 And what happens is at the end, people come up to me and go, you know what? I got you all wrong. I wanted to see you fail. I thought he was in the mouth in all the monkey. and I thought this and the other, but you’re so real and it’s relevant to me.

42:48 And my life story and the stuff that I talk about is relevant to every single person. And I think that’s why it almost gives people permission to be themselves. It almost gives people permission to be fallible, right? It almost gives people permission to go and say, you know what, fuck it, walk out of a job. Because that’s what I did.

43:04 The day it all changed for me is I walked out of a job on December the 16th, 2004, told my employer to shove his job up his ass. And I tell you something, it was a wonderfully liberating experience for those three I was whilst I drove home and married. My wife was furious with that decision. And when I quit that job 10 years ago, and I was working on the A13 in London, right? When I quit that job, the wife wanted me to go and get a proper job because you know where you stand with a proper job.

43:28 Tell that to the 1800 people at Barclays that just got let go. Tell that to Lehman Brothers. Tell that to Comet. Tell that to Jessups. The list goes fucking on, right?

43:36 You know, when you run your own business, you know exactly where you stand, skint. That’s how it is. That’s how it is. But you show me one person, Can you show me one self-employed person that starved to death? Show me one.

43:46 Brian Rose: The starved to death?

43:47 Brad Burton: Yes. It doesn’t happen. You find a way. You find a way.

43:51 And you know what an entrepreneur is? Someone who is willing to use that bit of resource that most normal people want to say for the rainy day. Fuck that. I’m retiring today. I’ve got nothing for a pension.

43:59 You know why? Because I’m either going to die or I’m going to make a load of money. Either way, I’m cool.

44:04 Brian Rose: I don’t see you retiring ever.

44:06 Brad Burton: Never.

44:06 Exactly. I’m a grafter, you know?

44:08 Brian Rose: Okay. So you’re saying with the seminars, people come maybe to see you fail, but they see you. faking you, you’re obviously the real deal in person, you are, I can attest to that, and your book is obviously, I mean you’re speaking to people with these lessons, I mean they wouldn’t buy it and they wouldn’t rate you unless you were.

44:24 In some respects, I’m sort of waiting somebody to tap me on the shoulder and say you’ve been filmed out, Brad, right, because I’m still the same daft bastard who used to smoke pot at 20-year-old and wear fucking timberland boots and think he was a rapper with his Raiders cap backwards, you know, it’s crazy, and this is what I’m trying to say, is that you can still be yourself, and you can make your positive difference, and you can be a success. I’ve not changed. The only difference is I’ve applied myself, and actually maybe, just maybe, I was about two or three percent off, and maybe your audience is just two or three percent off, and all you need to do is just realign yourself.

44:57 You know, what you find, a lot of people come to my seminars who are involved in stuff that they perhaps shouldn’t be, right?

45:03 Brian Rose: Okay, and these are business seminars, but you think a lot of them come in for personal reasons.

45:08 Brad Burton: I know so, I know so, right? because people tell me, people come up to me and tell you, I’ll give you an example. I spoke at a seminar and a guy came up to me and said, listen, I got shot out by these guys, these guys are after me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

45:21 And I said, you know, I said, let me ask you a straight question. So do you have a firearm? He said, yes. I said, do me a favor, get rid of it. I said, no good can come from it.

45:29 You tell me one possible good outcome of you having a firearm that can come, tell me one, tell me one. I can protect myself when you also do life. I said, seriously, boom, you got rid of it and everything’s fine.

45:41 Brian Rose: But listen, but having come from the mean streets of Manchester, you know, I know it is good advice, but what happens is, like we were talking about before, we worked till 11, then do you think you end up doing stuff just because you’ve always done it?

45:55 Brad Burton: And it’s, you need to almost, and you mask it, so you’d be smoking weed to mask the pressure you’re under and then you’re not thinking straight and da-da-da-da-da. And this is what people need to do is get rid of all the stuff that’s going on in the life, all the masking agents, right? And start looking at the world and say, is this the world you want to live? By all means go on, I’m not an old saint, far from it. But what I’m trying to say is that you’ve got to look at the world fresh and you’ve got to feel the pain.

46:20 The pain that you go through.

46:21 Brian Rose: Explain that, what does that mean, feel the pain?

46:24 Brad Burton: If you’ve got bad relationship problems, right? Okay, for the next example. Don’t just sit there with a bottle every night doing a bottle of scotch in, okay?

46:31 Because actually, invariably, it’s going to end up wrong. You’re going to end up throttling someone or whatever it be. stop drinking for two or three weeks, understand the pain and say, do I want to do this? What’s the solution? Because when you’re masking, you ain’t thinking about a genuine solution.

46:43 This is what I’m about to do. I’ve had to get rid of my shields. My shields have been down. I’ve had to see that I actually, I’ve been fronting off two years ago when I was fucking unstable, effectively. And what, for the sake of your audience here, which is what a nervous breakdown is in layman’s terms, it means you’ve become fucking mad.

47:02 That’s the reality of it. So you’re seeing the world all dark and it’s a bit like Jacob’s fucking ladder. Everything’s dark, man. And it required a complete deconstruction for me to get there to go, guess what, I’ve been living wrong.

47:13 Brian Rose: Yeah, that has to happen sometimes.

47:15 Who are your favorite motivational speakers? Do you like Tony Robbins? Or do you find most of the motivational speakers aren’t the real deal?

47:21 Brad Burton: Tony Robbins is a pioneer. At the end of the day, he’s a pioneer, but-

47:23 Brian Rose: Yeah, it’s 20 years ago he was a pioneer.

47:25 Stop knowing what he was doing.

47:27 Brad Burton: Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think, not my business either. When people say that to me, my biggest business, there’s two people who have influenced me massively. Tony Blair, all right, and I’ll tell you the reason why Tony Blair influenced me.

47:39 I’ve done four years in the dole signing on, all right? Two year, 18 months, and six months. And I was unemployed long term for two years and Tony Blair got in and I got a job within three days. All right, complete coincidence, right? But I don’t know, but what that said to me was the power of belief, things can only get better.

48:02 And I was all fucking euphoric I’m watching in my portfolio and all the other politicians, so Tony’s getting stuffed. And the other thing that Tony Blair did, right, and this is what I’m about, right, is he made the establishment look old and fuddy today. So all he did was be better. And the differences between Tony Blair and the previous politicians is he opened his shirt, top button off, took his tie off.

48:21 Brian Rose: And you knew later too, it was a good language.

48:23 Brad Burton: Correct, exactly the fucking same.

48:25 Brian Rose: But you just rebranded.

48:26 Brad Burton: And this is what I’ve done. I’ve made the competition and certainly that networking stuff. I’ve made the old school look fucking old fashioned and funny by doing this, by being myself. And people said to me it’d never work. People said to me my business would never work. And actually, if I’d have believed them, they’d have been right. But remind me about something in a second about a plane, I’ll come back to that second, right? The other idol for me, Dana White.

48:49 Brian Rose: Dana White. Yeah, we talked about him earlier. Why Dana? He’s a big idol of mine as well.

48:54 Brad Burton: That’s one of why. A lot of why. And actually no one can discredit him and also he took a risk. When he did took UFC from a minus three million pound loss, a million dollar sorry, company, you know, people laughed at him. And they once again, and this is what people do. And this is chapter 10 in that book, you know, seven knobheads. You’re going to get seven people at least in your life who will run you down no matter what you win and what these guys will do. You know, these, these haters will, will shout your failures and they’ll whisper your successes.

49:22 Brian Rose: Why seven? You’re just saying expect seven.

49:24 Brad Burton: You’ll have seven people right now. Seven people.

49:26 Brian Rose: Oh, right now I can find that we’re just top rubbish.

49:28 Brad Burton: No, you will have seven people that you know by name. Okay. Right, whether they’re online names or whatever, that you can say definitively, you could write down seven who are, no matter what you do, no matter what you do, you’re the biggest kunt going. Doesn’t matter what, you can’t win. But this is the problem is you burn yourself up, trying to convert these people to fans, forget it.

49:47 But if you look at, if you follow the chain of events with haters, generally what’s going on here is they are pissed off at their own life. Reason I get haters, the reason I get haters, There’s one guy who’s in particular, he’s an academic, and he believes, an academic business person, he believes that he’s elevated above me and this, that, and the other, and you’ve got this northern monkey running rings around him. So he will go out of his way.

50:08 Brian Rose: Did I start the whole northern monkey thing?

50:10 Brad Burton: Completely, I’ve never said that prior to this.

50:12 Brian Rose: Jesus, I feel so bad.

50:13 Brad Burton: But it’s good, it’s good to bring to it.

50:15 Brian Rose: All right, so he doesn’t like the fact that you’re doing what you’re doing.

50:18 Brad Burton: Exactly.

50:18 Brad Burton: He comes at it from an academic perspective. Boom, there’s another one, I’ve got all manner and nut cases, but in essence, you can be the best person ever. In fact, you know, you’re being Mahatma Gandhi and someone ought to put a bullet in your head for your views on world peace. You know, you can’t win.

50:31 Brian Rose: Yeah, you know, I tell people we get hate here and it’s like, wait, you give free content on the web.

50:35 How can you get hate? But we do. So, yeah.

50:37 Brad Burton: But you can burn yourselves up. You can burn yourself up thinking about, you know, how do I change these people?

50:44 Forget it. Concentrate on the hundreds, tens of thousands of people who are interested in content, not the seven, because it’s interesting. We are all guilty of that, of focusing on it. Gee whiz, as soon as a one-star review comes in there, the olden days have been crestfallen, now that I’ve fucked up your knobhead.

51:00 Brian Rose: Yeah, and also, on a side note to that, you can actually learn a little bit from your haters as well.

51:05 Brad Burton: You know, a little bit you can. Come on. But it doesn’t mean it was even if you adapt what they’ve asked, but the problem is.

51:10 Brian Rose: It’s just good to hear it sometimes.

51:11 Brad Burton: I don’t think it is.

51:12 Brian Rose: Really?

51:12 Brad Burton: No, once again, what?

51:14 Brian Rose: I guess if you hear the same hate 100 times in a row, then it’s like, okay, I see where that’s coming from, but that’s it.

51:20 Brad Burton: But your product is your product, And you know it works, so you can try to adapt it, but then all of a sudden, the magic that made your product what it is, has now dissipated, because you’ve tried to adapt it to a piece, seven, eight dickheads, you are just that?

51:33 Brian Rose: Okay, fair enough.

51:34 Can you give me a quick couple minute description of four networking? I mean, what is this? I believe it’s a group of small businesses that actually know each other very well and exchange services with each other.

51:44 Brad Burton: Okay, so in essence, here’s how-

51:46 Brian Rose: This is what you created years ago from being in debt, from nothing, basically.

51:50 Brad Burton: So it’s a situation.

51:51 Prior to me coming along before networking, which has completely revolutionized the whole networking space, right? You were hired in political terms, you had the loony left of networking. Hello, young man, and what do you do? That’s very interesting, here’s my card, get me any leads, I’ll give you 50 pounds. And what do you do, young lady?

52:05 And that was it, you walk into an empty room and you don’t know anyone, right? That was like the loony left of networking. Then you’ve got the hardcore right of networking, very American orientated, if I’m honest. Where’s your leads, where’s your referrals, you’ve got to attend, you’ve got to bring visitors, you’ve got to do that, here’s your targets and so forth, nonsense.

52:20 Brian Rose: So one extreme too much, one extreme not ever.

52:22 Brad Burton: Correct. So what I’ve done is I’ve created the mainstream of networking, okay? And I looked at, talked about it before, Tony Blair, New Labour 1997, I looked at their model, what did they do? They were soundbite, fresh, approachable, you know, my competitors, they’re scared to death, they’re tweeting, so what happens is, you know, they go through the legal tweet from three days ago. You have a blend, you know, I’m talking about fucking tweeting pictures of cats with coat angers around the neck, you know, and this is the thing, it’s people taking business too serious. Business is nothing to do with business, it’s to do with people. If I don’t like you and you don’t like me, it’s going nowhere. Now, prior to what was coming along, I started my own business off and the old way of doing it would be, I’d ring you up for an appointment to try and sell you my products and services and eventually get a hold you after eight weeks of trying. You’d say, yeah, let’s have a meeting. I’ll drive for an hour for the meeting. And then we’d sit down. You make me a cup of coffee. And then two minutes in of the hour meeting, we’d recognize something that you can’t stand me and I can’t stand you. But don’t worry, we’ve got 58 minutes of bullshit to go. Bump, done.

53:29 That is the old school way of doing business, right? That’s it. Standard all day long. What we’ve done before networking is we have a, we started with one group and in essence, it’s every single business needs appointments. Okay? This is what we consider a real appointment.

53:42 But the way that you get to a real appointment is by having a sit down with someone for 10 minutes. So what happens is before networking we have 5,000 odd meetings a year so anywhere in around the UK we probably have like within here probably 20 within 30 mile radius and you go along in the morning we’ve got mornings, lunches and evenings and it’s a place to work for small businesses so it’s between eight and ten you have a little bit of open networking how are you doing bubble and one cup of coffee and then you sit down have breakfast everyone stands up for 40 seconds and tells people what they do. Well, 40 seconds is long enough just to get attention.

54:13 Brian Rose: And then what happened? And you’ve designed this format. Because you know it works and it’s real.

54:17 Brad Burton: Correct, and the reason I know it works is because it worked for my business. I never did this to set a network or make money.

54:23 I did it because of what it leads from a marketing business. And then what happens is everyone stands up and you think, oh, I wouldn’t mind speaking to Brian. So then we break for a cup of coffee, at which point you go up to Brian. Brian, could you have a one-time? Sure, which number?

54:34 One, two, or three. I’ve written one on my card. You’ve written one on your card. We swap a number one. as you turn somebody grabs you and you get rid of three cards, then you reconvene and have 10 minutes.

54:43 So, Brian, tell me about your business. Boom, that’s it, that’s the simplicity of it. But every single business in the UK needs appointments. Every single business. And that’s why it makes it so, so unique.

54:53 The other ones, the other networks don’t have this appointment system. They just have a lot of people being hoity-toity about how important and how significant and how. And then nothing gets done and people don’t meet the right people and they all come to an event and they walk away with two business cards and they’re the right people. Oh, they walk away with fucking 400 business cards and do nothing with him and say, hey, Brian, sorry you didn’t have a chance to meet.

55:12 Here’s my stuff. And you go, great, yeah, I’ll bear you in mind. No interaction.

55:17 Brian Rose: So what this is, it’s like speed dating for companies.

55:20 Brad Burton: Speed dating for, not I think that’s a fair assessment, but I think the other thing, what it is, is it’s like Google with people.

55:28 So anything that you wanna find, you come via me. Brad, can you go and get someone who’s, yes, of course I can. And that’s what it’s saying. But everyone’s Google. So it’s like an internet with people.

55:37 Brian Rose: It’s very smart, honestly. It’s a real,

55:40 Brad Burton: I might finish this tomorrow. We’ve got 67 people there, 67 people.

55:44 Brian Rose: And they’ll all be meeting each other in this format that you’ve kind of created.

55:49 Brad Burton: 37, 37 first time visitors tomorrow, 37.

55:52 That’s a one site, we’re running 40 tomorrow.

55:54 Brian Rose: All right, let me ask you this question. Now I go to these dinners and these drinks things and I get invited to this and that. We’ve all been there and like there’s, I’m American. Well, I’m British too, so I got a good side to me.

56:05 But you know, I used to go in, And the American mentality is shotgun effect, let’s carpet bomb the motherfucker. And so you give out cards to everyone and you have no connection with them. And like you said, you mail them the next day and they’re like, don’t know who you are, or you rub me the wrong way so much because you were aggressively trying to get me. And then that’s one extreme. I’ve been told that when you go to a networking event, you should just pick three people or just have three real conversations.

56:31 What is the way to do it besides your event?

56:33 Brad Burton: Of course, exactly. The way to do it is to not load anything up. So, you know, most people would say, oh, Richard Branson over there, I’m gonna go and see him. Richard, hi, I’ve read all your books.

56:43 It’s awesome to me. Oh, fuck off.

56:44 Brian Rose: How many times does it get approached? Because you’re not genuine, you’re saying.

56:47 Brad Burton: Correct.

56:47 So forget it. Okay. Right, take it easy. You know, what you need to do is dance around the handbag a little bit. I never met my wife and said, listen, how do you fancy coming home in a nightclub?

56:57 Do you fancy coming back to my place? We’ll have sex in the morning. We’ll get married, and in nine months, you’ll have a baby. years you’ll fucking hate me. Didn’t do that. We had to dance around the handbag a bit.

57:05 That’s what you’ve got to do. Men don’t understand that. Yeah, exactly. No, sometimes it works. But I think the point I’m trying to make is this.

57:12 Stop loading it up. It’s not that important. Your business survives without you going to network events, right?

57:17 Brian Rose: It does, yeah.

57:18 Brad Burton: Of course. But what I’m trying to say is you need to understand that networking events on top of doing what you’re doing on a day-to-day basis works. So you’re not going there with the Express incentive saying, hey, fuck me. I’ve come here with an empty wheelbarrow.

57:30 I’m going to go away with 100 grand worth of business. It’s a fallacy. And that’s a fallacy because some of these networks, what they do, they campaign on that basis. I can give you stories of somebody coming along and getting a 20 grand job day one, but it’s a myth, right? It’s not the real world.

57:42 I can also give you stories of one of our members that sold 10 million pounds worth of cars to a bread company. All these sorts of stuff, but the reality for the vast majority of people, what it is, is you maintain a contact and then you build it. Now, this is something that’s in the book, which is this. Would you, genuine question, would you pass a lead, a referral, a job, a contact to someone you don’t like, someone you don’t know, someone you don’t trust.

58:03 Of course not, right? On that basis, the reason that people pass you leads, you referrals, you jobs, you contacts, people like you, they know you, they trust you. Don’t expect others to forgo the same checks that you are doing. And that’s what goes on. Everyone goes to these networking events and they think that I’m not gonna buy anything, but you’re trying to sell to everyone.

58:21 Another one for your audience is ask this question. Do you like being sold to? No one likes being fucking sold to, but everyone likes buying. And this is what you’ve got to do in networking. Listen to this, because it’s so fucking important.

58:30 Create the conditions where people buy instead of you selling. When I went into the Apple iPhone store, right? Apple store, I never said, hello, young man, can you tell me the benefits and the features of the Apple iPhone 5? I went, hello, mate, has he got half an inch extra? Do this, this, and this, and play Angry Birds with 69 pence.

58:43 Yeah, I’ll take it, 514 quid. That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to create the conditions where people buy, rather than super sharp salespeople selling people.

58:50 Brian Rose: How do you create the conditions where people buy? How did Apple do it?

58:53 Brad Burton: They built a wonderful brand. Correct, exactly, and it’s taking time, And that’s the point, it takes time, but most people don’t wanna do that. What they do, they see dragons then, think you’ve got 10 minutes with fucking Theo, next thing you’ve got quite a million quid there, you’re gonna get a Range Rover Sport with the fucking website address on the side. No, that’s not a real world, it’s a myth. And you know what the thing is, to get to see, that coffee’s good.

59:13 Brian Rose: Yeah, it’s good. Coffee’s good.

59:14 Brad Burton: All right, to get to see. A different man on this coffee. Selling, yeah.

59:17 To get to see, right, to get to see, which is, you know, where most people wanna be, you’ve gotta go via A and B. People don’t wanna do A and B. They wanna go to Durlacher and go and get investment now and the next thing they hear is bollocks you have to work really hard i’ll tell you a story two years ago maybe three i was over at newbury service station put some fuel in number company card hello mate number five and he said it’s been declined sorry it’s been declined do you have an alternate method of payment no i don’t that was my company right this was the one that i’m fucking got hundreds of groups around the uk and i’m being authorization declined had to ring the wife up the the wife is telling me to go and get a proper job, right?

59:54 And they can imagine how fun that conversation was. The point I’m trying to make is this, when you’re starting up a business, starting up a fucking business, I’ve been doing business for 10 years, I must have been six years in, so it’s hardly a start-up, but when you’re starting up a business, insufficient funds is okay, insufficient desire isn’t, because that’s the thing that’s kept me going, desire. That’s the reason why I get a whack and I get back up, desire.

1:00:16 That’s the difference between a great fighter and an amazing fighter.

1:00:19 Brian Rose: Okay, well said there. Now, there’s another small story here that’s just underneath the surface, because you do the motivational speaking, you got the business. But let’s be honest here, you publish books. And we have a lot of people that watch this show and that have been on this show that try to publish that first book and they get frustrated and they self-publish or maybe they get a publisher and they don’t sell enough books.

1:00:37 And what’s the secret? You must have people ask you about their books.

1:00:41 Brad Burton: Let me tell you, the secret is once again, it’s a bit like the networking, right? Which is this, stop loading it up, stop loading the success up. Because if you think, Mike, getting a book, number two in W.H. Smiths that you’re going to be wiping me ass with £50 notes, it’s a fallacy, it’s a myth, right, it’s a myth. Now what that purpose of that book was, so I had a picture of me holding a book, why? To give me credibility, why? Credibility as a speaker, credibility as a businessman, that’s why I wrote a book, not to be making load of money, and this is the thing, I’m so honest about that.

1:01:12 Brian Rose: Yeah, that’s very well said, that’s very well, I mean I’ve met a lot of people that said the book is almost the new business card, you know? The book gives someone credibility that like, I should listen to this guy.

1:01:22 Brad Burton: Correct. And you shouldn’t treat it as anything but that. It’s not going to be a profit center.

1:01:26 Brian Rose: Absolutely. Nice. Yeah. And I’ve had guys on here that will actually, they’ll, they’ll send someone a book in the post if they email them or ask for a copy. So this is, this is a marketing campaign.

1:01:36 Brad Burton: Correct. And also what happens is people pay you to market your business. So I will have TV researchers or radio researchers that contact me. They will get a copy of the book and the next thing you know it stays there domicile and then but what happened with me is the first book get off your ass I’ve written three books get off your ass get off your ass two t o double o the publishers I sell publish the first two but I had the distribution model because I for networking most people don’t have that so I had all these groups selling for selling the book get off your ass to and get your ass one and but I was told by the publishers you can’t call a book get off your ass they said why not well you just can’t people will tell you that after well-meaning people you can’t do something

1:02:12 Brian Rose: what you should do with this program you need to edit it people won’t watch an hour.

1:02:16 Brad Burton: Listen. You’re quoting me from earlier

1:02:18 Brian Rose: I know I know. Right right. And I guess every great business was

1:02:21 Probably told the same thing right?

1:02:23 Brad Burton: Correct and what I would say to any single person out there on business is this I’m individual how are you fundamentally different because if you’re not fundamentally different to the nearest competitor it’s gonna come down to price or personality this is the thing you what you do here is people told you it’s crazy people told me you can’t call a book get off your ass. Why not? Just because it’s never been done. Might as well fucking work over there.

1:02:46 Those guys are getting it hard tonight.

1:02:48 Brian Rose: It is. All right, a couple more questions. What’s next for you, Brad? I mean, like, when you think about this, do you want, you know, for example, four networking to be global and, you know, do you want more books? Do you want bigger and better? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that.

1:03:01 Brad Burton: Do you want the truth?

1:03:02 Brian Rose: The truth? This is powerful stuff. I like the truth.

1:03:05 Brad Burton: I am we’ve got full network in Australia already okay so we’ve got 15 16 groups in Australia and we are gonna be taking it to to America but that’s not gonna be me driving that I don’t believe right I’ve come quite far with this thing I’ve been doing this for eight years and I wouldn’t say my legs are tired because they’re not right but it comes a point when I’ve got to be brave enough and I’ve never shared this right when I’ve got to be brave enough so go you know what maybe just maybe it’s time for someone else to push this organisation forward I’ve never said this on camera true this is a news scoop it’s true right that time’s not now we’re eight year old next next next month in the February 16th but I’ve achieved more than you know my CV you know people say to me who if you wasn’t doing this what would you be doing I’d be robbing fucking banks right and I know you know I never expected any of this I never expected any of this and my goals and I say to people set yourself outrageous goals the likes of which people laugh at you and then my outrageous goal was to have 250 groups across the UK we did that and it’s like shit now what it’s a bit like a somebody walking you know somebody saying hey guess what I’ve risked you know I’m gonna scare you and they’ve trained for eight years get a climatised to get to the top of that mountain and they look at the vista and go it’s just a

1:04:23 Fucking mountain and I am in some respects this is why people like Mike Tyson go off the rails and this is why I went off the rails two years ago because I was goalless and that’s a really dark place for someone to be and it sounds odd.

1:04:35 Brian Rose: Well you reach the goal and you realize you’re not happy.

1:04:37 Brad Burton: No, reach the goal and then what? Then what? Right.

1:04:40 Because I never anticipated any of this and that’s the thing because you always think my life’s gonna be a reaffirm when I get that car when I get this when I get the house when I get that and when you get there just a fucking car I’ll tell you I don’t know you know so what’s next for me this is something where I’m trying to work out right now so yes I can go like four five six books But then what what is the purpose and I think ultimately what I’d like to do is is go big in terms of you know stage shows and stuff like I don’t know but Everything that I’ve ever said it I’m gonna do I’ve done everything and this is the thing right now I’m not saying I’m doing anything to be honest in this it goes against my old everything that I say Which is you need to you know, you need to have a goal because I’ve reached my goals my what my working-class vision I’ve surpassed it and I’ve got to work out what that is and maybe just maybe you know It’s it’s about one of the things that I want to do is work with long-term unemployed work with people that are involved in gang culture I actually talked to them and I’ll give you a story I want to I’ve invited to speak at a place and they the kids who are into gangs and stuff and They had put two songs on they put like a CD on they said hey guess what guys like well The sort of cool in social worker type people you’ve got two songs and you must get back here Otherwise, you’ll get house points moved and all that.

1:05:53 Three songs later, they don’t give a fuck, right? They just saunter back in there, and I’m there speaking, and I’m not spoke. The first thing I said to them, they all came in, sautering about, and they’ve got all these lefties here, they’re all looking after them. I just stared at them, each of them like that. I went, do you think I’m a fucking knobhead?

1:06:12 I went, do you think I’m a fucking knobhead? And all of them just went, boom. I said, seriously, do you think I’m a fucking knobhead? And I put it on him big time, and he was like, fucking hell, let me tell you something about me. And I told him about my life and so forth, and it was just like, whoa, these guys sat up for the first time, they’d been dicking about with all these social worker type people, and all of a sudden, I talked real to them, and I said, no qualifications to me then, I’ve smoked more pot than you’ve ever done, I’ve done more drugs in me time, I’ve done this, that, and they’ve no…

1:06:36 And I said, so don’t tell me, don’t tell me that you can’t do it, it’s all about that, and if you wanna switch it on today, then we can do that, if you don’t wanna switch it on today, fuck off, I’ve no smoked some more fags, and everyone stayed, and I realised that, actually, I actually realised that, you know, maybe just maybe that’s my vocation in life, because I’m a role model, But my role models when I was a kid were all drug dealers and people driving XR3Is and Ford Escorts. And actually, that’s the wrong role model because maybe if I had a brand in my life, things might have changed a bit sooner. So maybe, just maybe, that’s where I’m headed.

1:07:07 Brian Rose: That sounds like getting older and get a little more perspective, I mean, it happens to the best of us. But another thing I see on this other show, like Silicon Reels, a lot of the passionate people with the visions, Steve Jobs was an exception, but they create the company. But when the company gets going, they’re not the guy to operate the company or even to take it from a medium-sized to a large company and they can’t be true to themselves by doing it because you want to go do something else or you’ve evolved so much as a person where you’re like, you know, I want to start giving back a bit more, you know, maybe to these kids.

1:07:35 Brad Burton: Yeah. Well, this is the thing. You know, for network, it’s always going to be my family, right? It’s what we’ve got, you know, thousands of members around the UK and I’m never going to desert it. But I just need to be realistic that if I do love this organization the way that I do, then maybe just maybe there’s a time, not right now, anytime soon, but I’ve got I’d be realistic about this and say, you know what?

1:07:54 Maybe, just maybe, you built this and it’s time to let someone take it to the next level.

1:07:58 Brian Rose: Let me ask you a question. You’re a very intense guy, so am I. And I gravitate people that are pretty intense throughout my whole life. And I found that a lot of these people are also the people that are one step away from having a nervous breakdown, from having a drug addiction, from just going off the rocker.

1:08:14 And is that something you think is a standard trait? When you see all of the moguls of business, Do you think those people are one step away from being the down and out case?

1:08:24 Brad Burton: Yeah, you know, this is the thing. What my coach said to me, are you willing to risk it all? And it’s a great question.

1:08:31 When you’re going through immense pressure, immense pressure and you’re doing things, whatever, whatever pressure, ask that question. Are you willing to risk it all?

1:08:38 Brian Rose: To risk it all. What does that mean?

1:08:39 Brad Burton: Whisk it all for what you love, for what you do.

1:08:41 Listen, I asked the question to my coach who said I was walking the dog. I said, what do you mean by that? She went, just answer the fucking question. Right, are you willing to risk it all? And that could mean whatever you want it to mean, but just give me a moment of clarity that actually, no, I’m not willing to risk it all.

1:08:56 I need to go and fix up, and that was the situation. And I would say to anyone who’s going through pressure, and guess what, we’re all going through pressure, but all of us, are you willing to risk it all, is the best bit of advice or the best question that you could ask, and it’s the most simple one. And if the answer’s yes, then correct, great, you’re on the right track. But I’ll tell you something about life and stuff and making decisions. that a mistake is only a mistake after the event.

1:09:20 No one wakes up and says, I’m going to go make a mistake today. No, I’m not going to go fuck up today. But guess what? We all wake up and we fuck up. But I said, mistakes are only a mistake after the event.

1:09:28 Up until that point, it’s the correct decision. You know, so nobody wakes up and says, I’m going to go fuck up today. Often we do. And the reason we fuck up is because we make decisions. But we must make decisions.

1:09:38 I see people like the guy on the Caterpillar cake. You know, he didn’t make a decision because, oh, it’s safe here and so forth, well, great. But it’s also ultimately, it’s not where people wanna be. So you’ve gotta be brave enough to ask yourself, are you willing to risk at all? If not, what are you willing to risk?

1:09:56 And then play with that, that’s the way I’d say.

1:09:59 Brian Rose: All right, good thoughts. Now I always ask everyone here, as a question at the very end, we’ve covered a few of these things, but I’m gonna ask you anyways, if you could pick up the phone right now and make a phone call to the 20-year-old Brad Burton and give that young man a bit of advice, What would you tell him?

1:10:18 Brad Burton: Wow, fucking hell.

1:10:19 That’s a question. It is. Pow. You know what? Even, right, it’s a really good one, right?

1:10:27 I wouldn’t change a single thing about my life, even the bit about the bullets going through my window, right? I suppose what I would say to, the only thing I could say to him is, look, it makes no sense right now, put it will. That’s probably, because actually it made no sense for many years, probably seven, eight, nine years, but actually it makes complete sense now and things only make sense when they’re in your rearview mirror, that’s what I’d say to myself.

1:10:52 Brad, right now, the shit that you’re going through, the fear that you’re feeling, you know what, it’s gonna work out okay, I’ve seen your future. That’s what I’d say.

1:11:05 Brian Rose: Okay, that’s good advice. On that same note, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

1:11:12 Brad Burton: Where to condom.

1:11:13 Brian Rose: You know that, hey listen, you know what, I wish that numerous times I would’ve, you know, certainly in my early days but I would have said that advice. That’s the first time I’ve heard that.

1:11:23 Brad Burton: Well, you know what, it’s the soundest bit of advice that all men ignore.

1:11:26 Brian Rose: That’s good advice, I guess.

1:11:28 Brad Burton: Listen, you know, that’s a 20-year-old, you know, I’ve got a boy who’s 18, just turned, and what happened is the girlfriend I was with at the time, it was all wrong, and I knew it was all wrong, but he was sexy, it was bummed, he was intense, right?

1:11:40 I knew it was all wrong. She got pregnant on purpose, and then I couldn’t see my boy, so I’d end up going through the family courts for her to have access to my son. I got parental responsibility, contact orders, I’d drive 500 mile round trip for one hour visit with a guy looking over his half moon glasses because she told her it was a threat, which I wasn’t. And I’d turn up there and then she’d say, yo, you can’t see him because he’s ill. That happened three times in a row.

1:12:06 So for 13 years, I had no contact with my boy. That weighed heavy on me, because every single Christmas I used to cry because Christmas day particularly, I used to cry about, you know, that wasn’t there for him. And then when I had my new crop of children, I didn’t used to feel guilty because I wasn’t crying. So, but that’s it, yeah, you know. Be responsible.

1:12:28 Well, no, listen, when you’re growing up, you’re not responsible or not, should you be, to be honest, but there’s, you know, you can go and do some crazy things, but creating another life for effectively 10 minutes of sex with someone that’s not really gonna be there, that makes no sense. So seriously, fellas, ladies, you don’t have babies with people that you don’t, unless you’re attending to a thing, because you’ve now got an 18 year old boy that’s had no contact with his father for 13 years and we’ve got a loose relationship. So there’s a price to pay for that decision.

1:13:00 Brian Rose: Okay, good answer. That first time I’ve heard that, very good. Last part of that question, Brad, to the 20 year old that’s listening to us, that could be in China, that could be in Australia, in America, what advice do you give them? They wanna maybe grow up one day and have their own business. Maybe they’re in a bad situation, like you were, and they don’t even see how they could turn their life around.

1:13:19 What do you tell them?

1:13:20 Brad Burton: Two things. A journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step. And actually, to get to sea, you’re going to have to go via A and B. And A and B is tough.

1:13:29 A and B is the bit where you want to, I said before, about remind me about the plane, OK? I want you to think for a second about an airfield. And on the airfield, it’s a plane, fighter plane. Fighter pilot gets into the plane, takes off to 10,000 feet, puts the afterburners on because he wants to go faster 12,000 feet and all of a sudden on the cockpit a warning light comes on, warning, warning, engine malfunction, eject eject eject, the fighter pilot 11,000 feet, 10,000 feet, you know what I’ve got 43 seconds of impact as a lifetime, I’ve done every single simulator and so forth on this thing, don’t panic 7,000 feet, 5,000 feet, you know what I’ve done simulators but this is real, 3,000, 2,000 not only at the last possible moment would de-eject, welcome to self-employment, welcome to your life because there’s going to be times when you think you’ve fucked up here and there’s times when it’s spiraling down, and you think, what you’ve got to do is this.

1:14:15 People say to me, why didn’t I pull the ejection handle? Because I’ve waited to quit, just so you know, in the last 10 years, zero not quitting, 10 quitting, I’ve been 9.8, 9.9, 10 times, 10 times, really, I’ve been at that close. 10 times to quitting, close to quitting. Yeah, as close as anyone could possibly be, okay? And the reason that I didn’t quit, I pulled the ejection handle all those times, when often I’ve had well-meaning people telling me to go pull the ejection handle and go and get a proper job.

1:14:39 The reason I didn’t quit all those times, I didn’t pull the ejection handle, is I didn’t have a fucking ejection handle. And this is the point I’ll make. If you’ve got a plan B, it’s because you do not believe in your plan A. And if you don’t believe in your plan A, don’t get upset when other people don’t believe in your plan A either. How the fuck can you expect me to have 100% belief in something that you don’t have 100% belief in?

1:14:59 So if you’ve got a plan B, it’s because you don’t believe in your plan A. So scrap the plan B.

1:15:03 Brian Rose: Well, listen, you know- You just gave me a bookmarker with that same message on it.

1:15:07 Brad Burton: But by all means swap your plan B for your plan A, but at least give it a good run because if you’ve got one eye on the ejection handle all day long, you’ve always got a way out. You know, if you’re going to have to do a tightrope walk here, if you had a safety net, right, you, yeah, fuck it, no safety net, you’re going to make damn certain you do your best and that’s what you need to do, you need to get rid of the safety net and sometimes.

1:15:26 Brian Rose: Cheer, but why would I be walking over to that workplace?

1:15:29 Brad Burton: You would not, believe me, trust me, you’ve got a lovely studio here, no way.

1:15:34 Brian Rose: Brad, thank you so much for being here. You are quite a character on Twitter. How many times do you tweet a day?

1:15:40 Brad Burton: 187 on average.

1:15:41 Brian Rose: 187, okay. You are, where, what are you, at Brad Burton? Okay, at Brad Burton. You know Brad, I didn’t, you’re so many things, so it’s really hard to get your head around who you are, which I like that.

1:15:52 And I’ve had people on here like this before, because you’ve written books, you motivational speak, and then you created this business network, and you did this, you know, something from nothing story. It’s nuts in there. So it’s nuts. I think, honestly, I think you needed infographic for your website to explain who you are. because it’s so hard to figure out but maybe that’s a good thing

1:16:11 Brad Burton: but you know the thing is this is it I’m so disparate and people are confused I’m I’m eclectic I’m conflicted I know myself because when I said before what would it be doing it’ll be a you know getting bank robber I’m sort of half joking but I could have gone on that life I could have gone on that life and that’s what’s amazing about any life that actually you just look you’re a product of your environment and what I’d say to your people is look at the five people that you associate with look at the five people your circle of influence those five people are they good influence or they’re bad influence maybe it’s time to start changing your circle of influence

1:16:42 Brian Rose: and you think that’s true you think people should get rid of people in their life and find other people to add in their life

1:16:48 Brad Burton: you’ve got an option it’s a bit like Twitter followers you don’t just keep following someone just because you’ve once followed them that’s why there’s a beauty with continually add value yeah oh if you stop adding value or you fall out with them whenever the people say

1:17:01 To me, why have you unfollowed me? Because you’re fucking boring now. That’s why, sorry.

1:17:06 Brian Rose: You know, in the same way that you, well, I don’t unfollow anyone.

1:17:09 Brad Burton: Fucking welcome to 1996, the internet.

1:17:11 You know, things have changed, things have moved on. You need to be brave enough to let go of things that are not working for you.

1:17:17 Brian Rose: Okay, good advice. How do people get a hold of you, right? Twitter, websites.

1:17:20 Brad Burton: Yeah, bradburton.biz, fornetworking.biz. Go and check me out on Amazon. Do a Google search of motivational speakers. I think I’m number one on number two actually, but bradburton.biz, fornetworking.biz, Check me out on Instagram and all the usual platforms and do check my books out as well.

1:17:35 Brian Rose: Right, I’m so glad I got you to sit down here and talk to us.

1:17:38 You know, you had some videos on YouTube, but honestly, they’re rubbish. But here, when you’re actually talking to someone, I get your energy, you know? And I can see why you’re good in person, too.

1:17:47 Brad Burton: I’ll tell you something. If you notice, when we first started, we took a bit to get moving, didn’t we?

1:17:51 Brian Rose: Yeah, a little bit.

1:17:52 Brad Burton: Of course. But those videos, you’re like a fucking three-year-old.

1:17:54 Brian Rose: Right, I know. And then you’re on stage, so it’s hard as well.

1:17:56 Brad Burton: Exactly, exactly. But they are shit videos, and they’re three years old, and they need some current stuff, because my thinking three years ago, it’s changed massively. So maybe we can talk about.

1:18:04 Brian Rose: Well, now you’re on London Real, so you basically made it.

1:18:07 Brad Burton: Exactly, living the dream.

1:18:08 Brian Rose: Yeah, you don’t have to do anything else.

1:18:09 Brad Burton: Correct, so they just stay there. This is like, you know, nothing compared to I made it.

1:18:12 Brian Rose: You made it. And you’re gonna have beautiful videos now from now.

1:18:14 Brad Burton: Exactly.

1:18:14 Brian Rose: So, no, I can see why you have such a fan base in person because you are the real deal. And that obviously translates to your book, because let’s be honest, there’s a million God damn books out there. Correct. And to get somebody actually to read a book these days is hard, let alone comment on it.

1:18:28 Brad Burton: You know what I say about people that’s written for people that don’t like better mind I thought the qualifications I’ve got an English degree. I don’t know. It’s just so all is it people say when they read that It’s like me talking. It’s like me having a friend talking to you. That’s what it’s all just realness, right?

1:18:42 Brian Rose: So if you enjoyed listening to Brad by the book and if you hated this show, don’t buy it Okay, so I want to give a shout out to one of our interns. His name is Dubem. He set this up He met you at one of the seminars. He’s like you got it got to meet Brad and I was like What are you talking about? So thanks so much for being here as we say on London Real. It’s about the journey I wish you all on yours and thanks for coming by