The 'Brand U' Podcast

Jack Wicks & Chris Taylor

It’s Time To Cut Through The Personal Branding BS! Hello and welcome to the Brand U Podcast. In the first ever episode Chris & Jack talk about their backgrounds and the reason why they believed The Brand U podcast needed to happen. In a world where Social Media, and online networking dominates a large majority of people’s lives, Jack & Chris break down how you can take advantage and use different methods to take your business to the next level. In this episode Chris & Jack dive into their personal experiences of business so far and how they have leveraged both online and offline branding to help their businesses move forward.  They also share the reasons why they have decided to start the Brand U podcast, going into detail about how anyone can do the exact same thing. read less
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Episodes

29: Dan Flint - From Finding Fans On MySpace To Becoming Today's No.1 Album Band
Feb 26 2021
29: Dan Flint - From Finding Fans On MySpace To Becoming Today's No.1 Album Band
Today, we have an awesome guest, someone who whose been working very closely with us on the podcast since we launched.  He is the lead drummer of the UK’s No.1 album band right now, You Me at Six, Dan Flint.  Dan explains how we first began playing the drums after hearing his neighbour play them, so he started playing in his Mum’s kitchen!! He went on to college and met the rest of the guys in the band.  They began gaining fans from myspace when social media was just starting and asking small time promoters to let them play at any show in the country. They would play to anyone, anywhere just to get themselves out there.  It allowed them to gain a 3 album deal with EMI, but Dan realises none of that would have been possible without the fans from the very start.  KEY TAKEAWAYS “Even after 15 years in, with the successes we’ve had, there’s still no guarantees for us here. You’re making music you like, but who knows if anyone else is going to like it.”  “It’s adapting to that social media lifestyle, which we’ve had to do, to promote this record.” “People are streaming music more, people are far more active on social media. It’s just about us trying to put together enough pieces of content.” (Social media) “Now you see the reaction of the fans and you get to talk to them and it’s actually been a hell of a lot of fun. It gives people something to look forward to.” “10 million streams only equated to 1,500 sales. That correlation doesn’t work so much if you’re trying to get into the charts. So that’s where the vinyls, CD’s and cassettes that we did, we’re trying to create a product that people want to buy into.” BEST MOMENTS “It’s about creating something that’s an extension of your art.” “Streaming services are amazing for getting you out there and getting on these playlists really promote you worldwide, but the problem is it doesn’t pay you enough to actually live and sustain a business.” “Gone are the days where you sold CD’s and musicians were all millionaires.” “It’s good that the publics eyes have been opened a little bit to what revenue it brings in and how unsustainable it will be if it carries on that way.” ABOUT THE GUEST Dan Flint is the lead singer of the UK’s No.1 album band right now, You Me at Six. He has been with the band since 2007 and the band have toured with the likes of Paramore, Parkway Drive and We the Kings.  Links Twitter: @DanMEATSIX Instagram: @welcometoflinttown ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
28: Clubhouse
Jan 26 2021
28: Clubhouse
In this episode Chris and Jack discuss their opinions on a new up and coming app:  Clubhouse.  “Clubhouse is essentially a live podcast. If people enjoy the content, they can then subscribe to the podcast and listen to them as and when they want.” KEY TAKEAWAYS “It’s ultimately understanding what you want to get out of it. If you have a product or service to sell, it’s a great place to impart your knowledge to people for completely free and give 1-1 questions. It’s great for the listener to get advice from.” “You go into a room, put your hand up and speak. If not, you sit there and listen. You don’t get bombarded with people. You don’t get sold to by people.” “It’s really powerful if you’ve got a product or service that’s readily available to buy. The organic traffic in which you can grow is insane.” “When you have created, none of the content is saved so you’re literally talking into a black hole.” “Yes, there is highly valuable information on there, but listening to one hundred different people who do things differently, you can end up listening to loads of peoples opinions and not making a conscious decision on something.”  BEST MOMENTS “It’s got massive potential as a platform.” “Try and treat it as an opportunity to create, not consume.” “If you’re on there to consume information, then listen away because it’s a free education platform then. But at least take notes if you can’t record it.” Links @jackwicksuk  @christraylor.ig ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers.  Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
27: Getting Your Content Right
Dec 24 2020
27: Getting Your Content Right
In this episode Chris and Jack discuss how to get the content right that you are producing in order to grow your business on social media.  KEY TAKEAWAYS “You’ve got to understand what you’re posting.” “Tell people what they need to do next. For example, Link in my bio if you want to find out more, or link in my bio if you want free training. Whatever it is, tell them what to do because people need to be told things.” “If someone goes on your profile, there is no misunderstanding about what you do and how you can help them.” “Everything I do is about people getting to my email list. It’s where they get the most, free in-depth training. That’s where I’ll also have the stronger call to actions to join my email list. All my social media is there for is to drive people to my email list.” “You need to be talking from a place of experience, not making stuff up.” BEST MOMENTS “Don’t be afraid to piss people off. People are scared of putting their own personality out there.” “Get the right combination of content. Educate the audience, but the people who are doing the best online are the people who provide opinion.” “Providing your opinion and then providing value at the same time, that’s the formula to a viral post.” “The content I’m sharing now, I really believe in the information that’s in there. It’s giving huge amounts of value, but it’s also giving my opinion on that subject.” “If you’re not seeing any progress with your content and you’re feeling disheartened, quite simply, it’s probably because your content is boring. It needs to be spiced up a bit. “ Links @jackwicksuk  @christraylor.ig ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
27: How To Grow Your Business Using TikTok
Dec 15 2020
27: How To Grow Your Business Using TikTok
In this episode the boys discuss how you can actually grow your business through TikTok; how to speak to the younger audience out there and how to grab their attention.  KEY TAKEAWAYS “You have to commit to it. Once you get the momentum, it really ramps up. You have to do everything within the platform. 2-3 days posts per day, a live per day. It’s blatantly obviously now how important it is in terms of business and bringing actual money in.” “Comparing a video put on Instagram Reels to a video put on TikTok that goes viral, the views are so different. You can reach 10,000 views on a TikTok video, where it reaches just 1,500 on Instagram Reels.” How did you get your first 1,000 followers on TikTok? “Just consistency. Just respond to comments with a video. You’re interacting with your audience, they’re seeing that you actually read their comments and you’re taking time to do a video on it, specifically what they want to hear.” “Just a video, no hash tags, record it and post it. Make sure the content you put out there is relevant to your business.” “TikTok is probably going to be the next biggest online paid advertising platform. It’s too big an opportunity to miss.” “The growth that you’ll get from TikTok is ten-fold compared to any other platform right now.”  BEST MOMENTS “The people who say this isn’t for me and not using it, my advice would be to remove that barrier and try it because it doesn’t matter what platform you use as long as you’re getting attention on your brand and actually trying to build relationships up with people.” “Word of mouth has become online word of mouth.” “It’s around to stay. TikTok is way easier to use than Instagram.” “It’s just leveraging the time in creating content and putting it in places where you’re going to get the best result.”  Links @jackwicksuk  @christraylor.ig ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
26: How To Live The Laptop Lifestyle
Nov 20 2020
26: How To Live The Laptop Lifestyle
What is the laptop lifestyle and how do you get there? This week we join Chris and Jack at their villa in Tenerife as they discuss the benefits and gains of the ‘laptop lifestyle’. This podcast finds the boys giving their views on what this lifestyle means to them, what it entails and how they have got there within their businesses.  KEY TAKEAWAYS What is the Laptop Lifestyle? “Whatever your business is and looking at it and how can I step away and be able to work remotely anywhere.” “Doesn’t matter what stage you’re at, it won’t have any value, it won’t enable you to have the freedom you’re looking for unless you start doing these things from the beginning.” “You can only sell a company, and there is so much value, it will genuinely add actual monetary value to your company if it’s systemised, processed, has bookkeeping from day one and it’s clean and tidy. That company will be worth way more because they’re buying into that lifestyle you’ve created.” “Whatever business, you’ve got 4 key elements. Finance, operations, sales and marketing. Behind those elements you need to have systems and processes that lie beneath them.” “Whatever gets you paid should be your sole focus and get rid of everything else.” “If you can get yourself to the position where you can walk away and work just 1-2 hours reviewing what your company’s doing, you’re building a business of true value.” BEST MOMENTS “You can’t have this lifestyle unless you’ve got the day to day operations covered.” “Set your business up so you can be free from it.” “A company that is reliant on you is worthless.” “It doesn’t matter what position you’re in, at some point, depending on why you’re starting your business, you’re going to want to go on holiday for 2 weeks and forget about your job, otherwise you just become more trapped than what you were if you had the 9-5, having 25 days worth of annual leave.” “With the laptop lifestyle and the freedom that we’ve got right now, social media is a massive point, but don’t go wasting hours and hours and hours creating content that is completely not talking about the business that you’re building.”  Links @jackwicksuk  @christraylor.ig
25: Josh Richie - Talks Social Media, Business & How He's Making A Fortune From Only Fans!
Nov 7 2020
25: Josh Richie - Talks Social Media, Business & How He's Making A Fortune From Only Fans!
This week we speak to Love Island star, Josh Ritchie.  Since his appearance on the show Josh has gained nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and joined the world of property investment. In a no holds barred conversation we hear about the high and lows of being in the limelight, how getting rich quick isn't all it's cracked up to be, his plans for the future and of course what personal brands means to him. KEY TAKEAWAYS “Everyone takes a loss in their lives. Especially as an entrepreneur. You don’t just take one, you take thousands before you even get one win.” “Don’t think it’s going to last forever because I, one time I thought it was going to last forever and it just doesn’t. Someone new, someone fresher, someone younger than you is coming up and it’s not you unfortunately.” “If I didn’t do TV, I would have always done property because I’m a joiner by trade, I’m a window fitter, I do conservatories, I can do more or less everything.” “Personal brand in property it would mean everything because I want to be that guy when I’m 50/60 years old that young lads look up to me and they’re like wow, look at him, he’s got 250 properties underneath his finger, let’s go and speak to him and see how he started off as a young kid. I’d love to do that. But for social media, it means fuck all.”  BEST MOMENTS “As much as we banter about me having close to a million followers, if all that went, I wouldn’t be bothered. I’ve got other stuff going on.” “In the industry I’m in, most people are fake. They don’t want to see you do well, they won’t give you the contacts to better yourself.” “I wouldn’t say go and get on television, you go and get a job or be an entrepreneur and make a business, save up money, invest it in something. I wouldn’t say go on television and make easy money quick.” “I think people in the public eye should stop posting all the positives and actually start posting the negatives.”  ABOUT THE GUEST Before being approached by Love Island, Josh trained and qualified as a joiner in his home town of Bolton whilst being registered with a modelling agency  Following on from Love Island, he has also appeared in a number of other celebrity shows including Ex on the Beach, Celebs go Dating and Celebrity Coach Trip.  Josh's forward- thinking plan is to continue to invest in properties and build a large property portfolio.   Links Instagram: @joshuaritchie1 Twitter: @ritchie_joshua ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
24: Scaling To Seven Figures and Beyond with Paul Avins
Oct 31 2020
24: Scaling To Seven Figures and Beyond with Paul Avins
This week we speak to serial business coach and entrepreneur, Paul Avins.  Paul’s main aim is to help driven, passionate entrepreneurs to scale up their business to seven figures and beyond. Ultimately, Paul’s unique knowledge allows his clients to build a grown-up business that can scale consistently without them, giving the clients the freedom, flexibility and financial returns that they had when they first started out.  Paul became an entrepreneur at the age of 19, developing a number of businesses, losing it all by the age of 31, resorting to living back with his parents and starting all over again. This is information that he openly divulges, drawing on his past experiences to help guide and encourage clients. He has now spent the last 17 years helping entrepreneurs scale their businesses as well as growing 3 companies of his own.   KEY TAKEAWAYS “If you’re going to play the game called entrepreneurship, you better get used to the fact not everything you start is going to go great.” “3 things entrepreneurs need to do if they want to scale and succeed:  1-       You have to harness the digital platforms that are out there right now. You have to learn and master those platforms. 2-       You need to learn how to attract top talent and build a high performing team. Because none of us succeed on our own. 3-       Make sure you don’t run out of cash.”  “Market selection is everything.” “Personal branding is critical. You’ve got to build your personal brand, product brand and company brand.” “This is about how many people can we help, how many people can we serve, how big a difference can we make?” Personal brand- “It’s about integrity and authenticity. It’s about doing what you said you were going to do when no-one was looking. It’s being absolutely authentic with who you are regardless of whether people like it or not, that you’re happy with who you see in the mirror.”  BEST MOMENTS “You’re not an entrepreneur if you haven’t lost money.”  “The single biggest currency in the world right now is trust.” “The universe will not give people money if they do not have a plan of what they’re going to do with it.” “Success is about the opportunity to show up and be in the game for another day.”  “I want to be the best version of me by the end of this ride.”  ABOUT THE GUEST Paul Avins is known as one of the most popular business growth coaches and mastermind mentor in the world today. During his 17- year career he has become best known for creating Dynamic Business Growth Programs that increase his client’s sales, profits and success.  Paul is the author of 5 business books. These include Business SOS and Secrets of the Wealth Accelerators. His latest book is entitled 67 Fast Acting Business Growth Tips. He is also a highly in demand keynote speaker.  He is the CEO of Team Dynamics Global, working with over 4,500 high performing leaders and teams.  Links Free resources available at paulavins.com Linked In – Paul Avins  ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
23: Rob Lipsett - How To Grow An Explosive Brand Using Social Media?
Oct 22 2020
23: Rob Lipsett - How To Grow An Explosive Brand Using Social Media?
This week we speak to You Tube star Rob Lipsett, who had just cycled across London in the pouring rain to chat to us! He is a content creator, fitness coach and all-round serial entrepreneur.  His Lipsett Fitness brand, an online personal training platform, has been hugely successful through his YouTube and Instagram stardom. He has over 500,000 Instagram followers and 460,000 YouTube subscribers.  He created his YouTube channel in 2014 posting workout videos, with his first video gaining over 40,000 views!!!! After receiving a huge number of requests for personal training, he created his Lipsett Fitness brand. The service provides personalised training programmes, as well as nutritional advice.  He now executes his services via an app that is customised to the client and their needs.  KEY TAKEAWAYS “Everyone starts from zero subscribers. Pick up the camera, speak into the camera and send content out regularly.” “In person events are still so important. Nothing can really beat that one on one connection.”  “Meeting people in person is huge.” “I would look up to these guys and they were just really rude and arrogant and they’d never ask you a question and they didn’t want to talk to you and I was like I never want to be like that. No matter how big my audience gets, I would hate to leave someone with the experience that I have been left with before.”  “Obviously do the work, put in the grind, but again don’t piss away your youth, because that’s one thing money can’t buy is time.” BEST MOMENTS “The trend is long form communication about a topic that you know the back end of.” “Everyone should just double down on their strengths because that’s what they’re good at.” “I don’t care if no one watches my videos, I don’t care if no one tunes in anymore. I just love fitness. So that’s what you should be doing.”  “I’ve worked jobs I’ve hated and I just don’t want to go back to that, to be perfectly blunt.” ABOUT THE GUEST Rob is from Dublin, Ireland. He is one of Ireland’s leading lifestyle and fitness bloggers with just under one million followers across his social media platforms.  He is the owner of his online personal training business Lipsett Fitness, founder of The Creator Agency and co-owner of Dublin’s Raw Gym chain.   Links @RobLipsett  YouTube.com/RobLipsett ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
22: GUEST ROUNDUP
Oct 14 2020
22: GUEST ROUNDUP
This week Jack and Chris review of the first 9 guests of Brand U podcast. They discuss the core highlights from each individual with the stand-alone value of each and everyone.  Guests: ·         Paul Mork ·         Alex Crockford ·         Jordan Platten ·         Kieran Nicholls ·         Ted Singh ·         Matt Haycox ·         Ryan Pinnick ·         Aaron Branch ·         Lauren Tickner TAKE AWAYS “Be you always. Unapologetically. Whatever your thing is, do more of it, whatever puts a smile on your face, whatever makes you happy, you will bring in more people that you enjoy and want to hang around with and will actually add to your life and not take away.”   “If you’re not building your list right now and you’re not being you, then they’re the two things you really need to focus on to be able to take your brand to the next level.” LINKS Don’t forget to join our Facebook group – BrandU Community Handles - @christaylor.ig @jackwicksuk ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
21: Stop Hustling
Oct 8 2020
21: Stop Hustling
Throughout this series of shorter episodes, our hosts will be sharing insights, hints and tips using the knowledge and experience they have gained and mistakes they have made, through developing their own personal brands. In today’s episode, Jack and Chris draw on their own experiences of how they came to realise you don’t have to hustle 24/7 to build a successful, profitable business.  They discuss how many people believe they have to work weekends and late into an evening to establish themselves as hardworking and successful, whereas Jack and Chris believe the opposite and that you should be doing what you want to do.  TAKE AWAYS “Identifying what you want. If you are an out and out empire builder and you hustle 24/7, that’s fine. But don’t try and convince everybody that is the only way of doing things.” “Ultimately it’s understanding what it is that you want.” “Work hard with patience and a plan. Without a plan, you’re just a hardworking fool.” “Enjoy the personal branding. Be yourself, be honest, transparent and open.” LINKS Don’t forget to join our Facebook group – BrandU Community Handles - @christaylor.ig @jackwicksuk ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
20: Mastering Tik Tok with Matt Stait (230k followers)
Sep 30 2020
20: Mastering Tik Tok with Matt Stait (230k followers)
This week we speak to Matt Stait, a TikTok fanatic who has acquired more than 230,000 followers on the platform.  As well as being a long- term martial arts expert, Matt has written numerous books, articles and provides online courses for people.  He is the founder of Authentikly Ltd, where he helps people grow their social media followings within the TikTok platform.  As a TikTok expert, speaker, author and social selling strategist, he helps companies connect, grow and evolve their presence on this exciting platform to create sustainable pipelines and help achieve targets and profitability. KEY TAKEAWAYS “Basically, just giving value in whatever space you’re in.” “Putting out a consistent message, staying within your lane.” “Try and keep a similar look throughout all of the things that you do.” “Have a look at other people, do a little bit of hashtag research.” “It’s all about watch time; shorter is better.” BEST MOMENTS “More and more people are disengaging themselves from traditional platforms.” “If you want to be in a space that’s vibrant, exciting, fresh, trendy, with a very real possibility of great adventure, then it’s a no-brainer.” “You will grow a bigger audience, a better audience, because most of the people that you’ll be talking to will have similar ideas on the world.” “I’m just having a huge amount of fun with it, that’s the main thing, is just continuation of that journey.” ABOUT THE GUEST As founder of Authentikly Ltd, Matt works with clients delivering in-house consultancy, training, strategy mapping and profile management. His strategies and training on TikTok help to generate leads and show clients how to present what they do in an authentic way that builds trust and credibility. He speaks on many stages and has successfully coached and taught many businesses and professionals, as well as written a number of best- selling books. On top of all that, Matt is also a martial arts world champion gold, silver and bronze medalist!  ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of
18: Matt Haycox -  Networking, Relationships, Collaborations and Partnerships
Sep 4 2020
18: Matt Haycox - Networking, Relationships, Collaborations and Partnerships
This week speak again with Mr Matt Haycox, aka Mr. Entrepreneur, aka Mr. Collaborator. Matt is an entrepreneur, investor, funding expert and mentor who has been building and growing businesses for both himself and clients for over 20 years.  He uses his experience to help entrepreneurs and their businesses get where they want to be, quicker than they imagined. His fundamental principles are suitable for all industries and businesses of all stages and size. His goal is to help clients achieve their financial success. KEY TAKEAWAYS “Two common networking mistakes people make are one, networking in the wrong environments and secondly, networking with the same people time and time and time again.” “I would identify individual people that I want to make a relationship with and then outreach to them to start making that relationship.” “Very important to focus on the people you want to meet, then very important to invest in those relationships.” “There is no quicker way to grow than the right collaborations and the right partnerships.” “I need to offer them something.” “You need to have the ability to do business, to be able to help each other, to make money and grow, otherwise it’s not about relationships, it’s about purely having fun.”  BEST MOMENTS “I love networking because it’s a pleasure, I get to talk to the people I want to do business with, to achieve business, to make money and have fun.” “It gives me a chance to get together with people I am doing business with, people I want to do business with, investors, prospective investors.” “Every success I’ve had has come from a relationship in some way, shape or form, whether it’s bringing on a new investor, or whether that’s creating a new partnership.” ABOUT THE GUEST Matt has financed and invested in a large portfolio of businesses including property, retail, fast food, pubs and high- end brands. He has worked with start up businesses, successful businesses looking to grow as well as businesses that are struggling and need restructuring. He is passionate about sharing his experiences and advice and working with other great leaders. His ‘At Home with Matt’ series has inspired thousands of people and features interviews with Katie Price, Caprice, Levi Roots and many more! Links @thematthaycox ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
17: Rob Moore, The Disruptive Entrepreneur Explains How To Become A Content Generation Machine
Aug 27 2020
17: Rob Moore, The Disruptive Entrepreneur Explains How To Become A Content Generation Machine
This week we speak with the ‘Disruptive Entrepreneur’ himself, Mr Rob Moore. Rob’s personal mission is to help as many people as possible gain a better financial education and start to scale their businesses. In 2006 Rob bought his first property and within a few years he became financially free and was able to retire before he reached 30! But he soon came out of retirement and leveraged his brand to grow his multiple businesses. In 2008 Rob wrote his first book which was particularly well received and decided to go on to deliver a training course and so Progressive Property was born! Robs desire to share regular and useful content and be a valuable person to society allowed his personal brand to grow through publishing his first non-property related book and launching his podcast. Along with his team Rob now produces and posts 7-9 pieces of content a day! KEY TAKEAWAYS “It’s better to put a lot of content out there and it not all be perfect than not put enough out there because you get better by interacting with your audience.” “If the content is good then people will listen.” 5 stages of being a content machine:  0 – not on any social media  1 – get them well populated, put a few weeks of content on there  2 – get regular content on a channel  3 – repurpose your content across all platforms  4 – unique content per platform “Visibility is credibility” “If your goal is to grow a business, focus on your business brand. But if your goal is to build extra income streams then use yourself and the central crux of your brand.” “What is balance?” BEST MOMENTS “I like to leverage the media of the moment that will help me reach as many people as possible” “I like learning via audio. I think that’s why I like delivering via audio” “The reason why people find a book credible is because it’s actually fucking hard! It’s perceived credibility.” “What I like about a personal brand is that you’ve got freedom of expression. What I also like about personal brand is that you can pivot anywhere.” “Don’t lose sight of who you are whilst building your empire.” “Using your authentic voice to make a difference to other people.” ABOUT THE GUEST Rob lives and loves entrepreneurship and property investing, he runs several businesses and is the host of two successful podcasts. He lives up to his brand and disrupts as an entrepreneur, with interests ranging from property development to public speaking and digital media. He is on a mission to change the way people think about business and aims to support people around the globe through the Rob Moore Foundation. Rob co-founded Progressive Property – the UK's leading property training company – and Unlimited Success with his business partner, before becoming the host of the wildly successful podcast “The Disruptive Entrepreneur” and now “The Money Podcast”, listened to in 192 countries worldwide. This has grown into a complete digital agency: Progressive Media. Links @RobMoore on socials The Disruptive Entrepreneur Podcast ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers.  Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
15: Olivia Conlon - 7 Figure Entrepreneur Uncovers Personal Branding Secrets at 21 Years Old!
Aug 20 2020
15: Olivia Conlon - 7 Figure Entrepreneur Uncovers Personal Branding Secrets at 21 Years Old!
This week we hear all about how a young Olivia Conlon left school at 16 years old to launch a business in an embryonic industry and hit the £1 million milestone in just 3 years. Liv’s young entrepreneurial spirit and her commitment, enthusiasm and strategy to raise her personal brand completely paid off. She joins us from her home Marbella in where she now lives and has embarked on a new venture where she encourages and supports others to scale their businesses to also become industry leaders through her Personal Brand Accelerator platform. Key Takeaways “For me, one of the first things about building a business, is to build your business offline first whilst your building that online reputation.”  “Once you start to share your story, you can start to see the traction.” “People are really programmed to check the person, the story and the brand” “As soon as you can start documenting your journey, begin posting about everything that you’re doing.” Best Moments “It was an uphill struggle, in an industry that was completely in it’s infancy. Really it was just getting out there and speaking to people about what you are doing in that very first step to see if there’s an interest and if there’s a market for it.” “The thing about the press is that they are always looking for a story, it’s actually not that hard to get featured in the press. So once the right people know about your story, it really happens from there. One of the biggest articles for me was I was featured on BBC News and then it got picked up by all the other national press…Not only do you have millions of eyes on your brand but it’s who it gets you connected with in certain spaces.” “The strategy for me was definitely being seen in the right places. I became quite well known in the industry mainly being at events and then posting on social media and building up that following and really nurturing that audience.” “Those in person face to face relationships are some of the most important ones.” “You can have the best product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one is going to buy it.” “You need to have traffic to your brand.” About the Guest Liv Conlon, The UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year, is a speaker, entrepreneur, a leader in the Home Staging Industry & in leveraging that expertise to build & monetise a personal brand. She’s the founder of ‘Personal Brand Accelerator’, a platform that supports entrepreneurs going from unknown to Industry Leaders. She grew her company from scratch to the 7 figure business it is today and she teaches others how to do the same. Tenacious and entrepreneurial to her core she left school aged 16 & first business ThePropertyStagers. At 19 she built a £1m brand in an industry that hardly existed- so Liv knows a thing or two about building a scalable internationally recognizable business & personal brand. She beat the odds & turned her vision into a profitable reality. Links Thought Leader Chat Podcast @oliviaconlon About the Hosts Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
16: TikTok Influencer (200k followers) Poku Banks Reveals How He’s Juggling Business and University!
Aug 13 2020
16: TikTok Influencer (200k followers) Poku Banks Reveals How He’s Juggling Business and University!
This week we speak with our youngest guest yet, 19-year-old Tik Tok and YouTube sensation and serial entrepreneur, it’s Poku Banks baby! Since he began using TikTok in January 2020, Poku has 208k followers and his content has been liked over 5.5 million times! He also uses TikTok to push his audience to other platforms including YouTube where he has over 8,500 subscribers. Poku is currently a student at the University of Nottingham. Through his content he has documented his journey through personal finance, launching his rent-to-rent serviced accommodation business just before the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown was enforced and his aim to empower youth, teaching this audience what school doesn’t teach them. Key Takeaways “Documentation is like watching a movie unfold right before your eyes” “You can only get so far by saying stuff, I got to a point on TikTok where people were asking what I actually did. So, I thought maybe people simply want to see what I do. So I uploaded a few videos about me and people were interested, it helped build a bigger connection with my audience as they can now see there is someone real behind the account.” “Personal brand is an online CV that has a lot of leverage” Best Moments “I feel that showing the truth, what happens behind the scenes, is very important, especially in an age where there’s lots of fake gurus, selling a fake lifestyle. I want to steer away from that and show people reality.” “This generation has grown up on social media, it’s going to be really interesting to see in years to come how diverse they are compared to people who have gone through the traditional school route.” “Back in the day when you wanted to get to know someone, you’d go out for a coffee and introduce yourself. With my TikTok and YouTube someone can binge watch all my content, message me and meet up with me and they’ll act as if they know me, I wouldn’t have to explain myself, my content speaks for itself.” Links @PokuBanks ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.
15: Joseph Valente - From boardroom to £10m. The Apprentice winner tells us all!!
Aug 6 2020
15: Joseph Valente - From boardroom to £10m. The Apprentice winner tells us all!!
He won The Apprentice back in 2015 and since then Joseph Valente has not stopped! He built his multi-million pound plumbing business, ImpraGas, to become the country’s largest boiler installation business, he secured a place in Forbes 30 under 30 and has more recently launched his new venture, The Trade Mastermind & Coaching Academy, to help and support sole traders within the construction sector to scale their business. We talk to Joseph about how being on TV helped and hindered the development of his personal brand, his thoughts on personal brand vs. business brand, how he felt about taking a break from social media and of course what it’s really like inside that boardroom!  Key Takeaways “It’s so easy to make money, our whole lives we’ve been forced into the system. People think that employment is the only way to do it and actually there is so much more opportunity.” “People don’t want to learn the traditional ways anymore.” “I wanted more, I’d hit my ceiling, I knew I needed a business coach, I knew I needed advice, I knew I needed support, I knew I needed investment and I knew I needed exposure.” “Whatever you do in life don’t ever enter into anything thinking that you’re going to 80% commit or you might not pull it off, you have to go in 100% convinced before it can happen. If you don’t believe in yourself, then how will you ever convince anyone else to believe in you.” “You can run together for a couple of years, get what you want from it and then split.” “My three steps success strategy: create, maintain, continue to grow. You should be focused on what’s next. Your continued growth is always your next creation”  “At the beginning of 2019, I made a very tough decision to take personal brand out, I went off the radar. I wanted to get my business national by the end of the year. I put so much energy into the business, I blew up the ImpraGas’ brand.” ”One thing I’ve learnt about business, is that you’ve got 24 hours in a day, every business requires the same amount of effort, whatever the size.” “You’ve got to be in it to win it, first and foremost. Look at the opportunities.”  “I want to help 100 million people; I want to give back and support people and make them believe in themselves.” Best Moments “I always knew I needed exposure in the very early days and then after 3 years of running my business, I knew that if I was ever going to fulfil my dream of running a national company then I needed to do something big, I needed exposure, I needed to be seen, I needed that world stage.” “I am a big believer in the law of attraction. I read that book and I knew that somehow the dots were going to connect.” “I wasn’t afraid to make those big statements, you have to make bold statements if you want attention, you can’t be average and boring else you’d never get selected. You must understand the game that you’re playing.” “When I won The Apprentice, that was my world cup win and then quickly after, once it was achieved, I wanted more, I wrote a book, I had a No.1 podcast, I was in Forbes. There wasn’t a strategy for a period of time.” “I was very conscious after The Apprentice of who I was on camera and how I spoke and the things that I wrote, I was toned down so much. I became almost not myself anymore, it was strange and I didn’t really like it because I had to try and portray a much calmer image for running the company. Now I look back I don’t think you should ever try and hide that. When you run more of a lifestyle business you can be more of yourself.” “I’ve had huge success, but I’ve also had very very difficult times. I understand what to do when a business isn’t going right, when things aren’t working and how to exit in the right way.” “If you get taught the right strategies, surround yourself with the right winner, you can really go on to achieve some incredible things.” About the Guest Starting his first business at the age of 22 as a sole trader he is the former CEO of the UK’s largest independent Boiler Installation business Impra Gas, spanning across the nation with over 150 staff and a multi-million pound turn over. This growth was achieved in just 7 short years and Joseph has now sold this organisation at the age of 30.

Joseph rose to fame at the age of 25 after winning the BBC’s Apprentice the UK’s largest cash prize TV show and also gaining billionaire Lord Sugar as a business partner. His other achievements include being a number one best-selling author with his book ‘Expelled from The Classroom to Billionaire Boardroom’, having a hit podcast rated number 1 in the world on iTunes, recognised In IOD director of the year, and probably his biggest achievement to date being recognised in the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 in Europe.

He has now set his sights on the international stage and aims to build one of the worlds biggest training and development business's, Power2Succeed University focused on working with Business owners and entrepreneurs to achieve success in sales.

Alongside this Joseph has launched the first ever training in construction The Trade Mastermind & Coaching Academy which was set up to support one man bands, sole traders and SME's in construction.

Joseph believes very strongly in the Laws of attraction and champions the tag line - ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve’. His aim is to give back and make every one of the 8 billion people on this planet believe in themselves because if they don’t no one will.  Links @mrjosephvalente - Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube About the Hosts Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”. Links @jackwicksuk @christraylor.ig
14: Facebook Groups, Your Shortcut to Authority and Audience
Jul 23 2020
14: Facebook Groups, Your Shortcut to Authority and Audience
Join Chris and Jack for the first of many lunchtime chats.  Throughout this series of shorter episodes, our hosts will be sharing insights, hints and tips using the knowledge and experience they have gained and mistakes they have made, through developing their own personal brands. In this episode we discover how Jack and Chris have used Facebook groups to firstly discover their own personal brands and then build on them. They break down their simple four-step process that has been proven to make a huge difference to they way that people use Facebook groups: Identify Content Connect Control TAKE AWAYS “Documentation is probably the one thing that people have a lot of confusion around. People don’t want to hear you talking about it, they want to see you doing it. These social media platforms give you the ability to create your own reality TV show and this is the best way to use them.” “I would never have thought I could have built a personal brand so quickly and it was all originally through a Facebook group.” LINKS Don’t forget to join our Facebook group – BrandU Community Facebook engagement tool – Multiple Facebook Tool (chrome extension) Handles - @christaylor.ig @jackwicksuk ABOUT THE HOSTS Chris Taylor is a Social Media Expert, Trainer & Consultant with a history of building 2 x multi six figures businesses in just 18 months before he turned 24. Chris has over 33k followers on Instagram and has been able to leverage the platform to help generate over 1.3m leads & £850k in sales for himself and his customers. Jack Wicks is a Property Entrepreneur who has made a name for himself for being open and honest. He openly documents the good, the bad and the ugly of his entrepreneurial journey so far and understood really quickly the importance of getting his face out there to the world. Jack now runs multiple businesses in a number of different industries and leverages his personal brand to drive hundreds of leads a month into his businesses. “Be Visible, Being Consistent & Most Importantly Being YOU”.