Scale to Sale with Nick Bradley

Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Hey, it's Amberly. Thank y' all for tuning in to True Grit and Grace. Today I have one of my favorite new friends. I mean, he's amazing. I had the opportunity to be on his podcast and instantly connected, and I was like, I gotta bring him on here. He's brilliant. His name's Nick Bradley. He's a renowned entrepreneur, investor, author, speaker. He is a business growth expert, y'. All. He is so smart. I was telling him before we started recording, I'm a little intimidated by his brains. He's amazing. He is built, bought, and sold 22 businesses, maybe more by now. And with a combined valuation over $5 billion, he empowers business leaders and investors to create valuable businesses that create global impact. He works behind the scenes with some of the biggest names out there. His podcast, y'. All. Tune into his podcast. It's called scale up your business, and it's ranked number one on iTunes and Spotify's business charts. He's amazing. I. He's also an ultra marathoner. He's got grit. So, Nick Bradley, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

What an introduction. You know what? Whenever I. If I ever get introduced, I always start getting kind of like, you know, bashful. It's like, yeah, like, some of those things. Some of those things. When I think backwards, I think, God, you know, I've had some experiences, put it that way. But it's an absolute delight to be on the show. And, you know, I am very, very flattered to be here with you today, Emily.

Well, thank you. I know it's later where you are, and it's actually Labor Day today, and I'm so grateful that you're like, yes, I'll be on and. And I've been following your journey for a while, and it really amazes me with, especially with what's going on in the world right now that you are still out there scaling businesses. And I know there's a lot of people that they kind of get in this negative mindset of it's not possible. Inflation, taxes, what's going on politically. It's like, we're doomed. And I'm like, you look at it completely different. So before we get into, like, tips on how people can scale their businesses, I would love to know, how did you get started with doing what you're doing.

It's a long, convoluted story, this one, but I'm going to give you the whistle stop tour. I started off many, many years ago as, as an entrepreneur. I started a business when I was 18. It was a personal training business. So a fitness business. And health has always been a big part of my identity and we can talk about that. But back in the sort of late 80s, early 90s, I am that old, believe it or not, personal training wasn't a thing. Right. So the only people that could aff training back then with doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, all of that. So I created quite a powerful niche business and managed to meet all these amazing people, all these very successful people. And it was at that point that I realized that you know who you know and what you learn from them. The environment that you're in. The network is one of the biggest game changers. And I started there. I ended up scaling that business up and sold it three years later. Not for a lot of money. It's a bit of a joke, actually. I say that it was enough to get me from Adelaide, South Australia, where I grew up, to Sydney. It's probably about the amount of a Starbucks coffee these days. But you know what? It was an exit. So it kind of goes on my list. And then I ended up working for Men's Health magazine in Sydney. Was in the media industry for many, many years. Got moved from Australia to the UK where I worked for the second largest media group here, still in the UK 20 years later. And I was heading up corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions for these big media groups. So I was working in the uk Then I worked for another big media group called Getty Images out of New York. I was involved in about 30 acquisitions for that company. And then I just worked in the private equity firms for over a decade, going into businesses that were either not performing to expectation and they needed to be turned around, or they needed to have a different lens, a more strategic lens of how to scale up quickly. And so I would go in there and restructure these companies. And yeah, you're right, what you said at the beginning, it's something like 117acquisitions and now 26 exits. Over the course of my career and the last few years, this is an interesting one. I decided to leave all the private equity firms for reasons we can get into and jump on what I call the other side of the table. And now I work exclusively with founders, business leaders, teaching them what I call the playbook of private Equity, because it is the most precise way to scale a business, helping them achieve freedom, wealth, and impact and get the value from the businesses that they create. Because entrepreneurs traditionally haven't always been great at navigating the. One of the most important parts of that whole entrepreneurial journey, which is the exit.

Oh, yeah. And. And first of all, I remember, you know, thinking about, well, what is an entrepreneur? And I listened to one of your interviews, and you're like, what is an entrepreneur? You know, it's kind of the hip thing to say that you are nowadays. It's all you could even say it's kind of sexy. You know, that's what you were saying. I'm like, yeah, but it's so most the time not sexy. But you see me, I mean, I've got a baseball cap on, still have my workout clothes on. But I, like you, was, you know, started in the personal training business, and I had incredible, incredible clients that were highly, highly successful. And I soaked in their wisdom like a sponge. I was invited to all their, you know, well, to do, like, functions, high tea, Christmas parties, passovers. And I brought my daughter along with me, too, and we both were just like sponges and just soaked in.

It's amazing, isn't it?

Yes. Any information, and I actually, believe it or not, so I left my personal training business about 12 years ago, and I still have a handful of clients that I've had for, like, 20 years. People are like, you still have clients? And it's because I love it, but also I learn from them. You know, I feel like it's. It's.

It's does become a part of your identity. And one of the things that I've said on my podcast countless of times is you can only scale a business to the level of your identity. Right. And. And for me, health fitness defines how I show up. And that has a positive translation back into any of the business or investment things that I do. And you never lose that. Right. Particularly if it's something that grounds into you when you're younger. Hence, you know, all the stuff I did with Ultra Running, which we'll talk about as well, but absolutely. Is it like that?

Yeah, I mean, I think that it goes how you do one thing is how you do everything. And when I see someone, like, when I saw you, the first thing I said when we popped on, if you're looking at him on YouTube, you're like, yeah, he does look like the picture of health. The first thing I said to you was like, wow, you look great. Like, you are just Glowing. You look like a picture of, of health. So I want to know, how did you get into ultra marathons?

Well, let me first say this. Let me first say this. If you saw me five years ago when I was closing a. It was, it was a deal just over $2 billion. One of the last private equity deals that I did. If you saw me then, I would have been 15 to 20 pounds heavier.

Really?

I would have had bags under my eyes. I would have looked probably 10, 15 years older. The reason I look different now is that I changed everything to be more intentional about my health. How I show up leaning into purpose and mission, which I know we connect with. And, and honestly, I just look like a different person.

Yeah. Well, how does someone do that? How? Some. Because there's something that you share that I think is really important for entrepreneurs because we do work. Like, there's no set hours. Like, you could just. I've had to get really clear with boundaries of when I'm in my office, that's at my house, and when I'm not. And so you say, let's, you know, let's talk about working in your business versus working on your business. Can you explain what you mean by that?

Yeah. So what happens a lot and, and I've mentioned the entrepreneurial journey is that you have to go through certain stages of business growth. And it's almost like you have to have this rite of passage to be able to move through the stage gates. And one of the, one of the things that holds people back, business leaders, entrepreneurs, is that they get sucked into the idea that because they created the business, they need to do everything, touch every part of the business. But the pure definition of scale is the ability to lead through people in process. So you have to be able to build teams and you have to be able to lead those teams, which means you can't be working in the business, you can't be working in the operation. If you want to scale the business to a certain level and beyond, you have to work on the business. And sometimes I say above the business, which we can talk about. But what that effectively means is you need to be working on the strategy, you need to be working on the partnerships, the networks, the things are going to enable more of a. An exponential level of growth. Not the stuff that's mechanical, it's important, but you can bring someone in to do that for you, and you can lead them to deliver that outcome. And that change gates a mindset shift as much as it is an emotional understanding, because you've got to Let go. But the more that you can understand that's the only way you're going to get your business to a certain level. The quicker you will get there.

It's hard to let go for some, you know, it's. Well, I say that it was easy for me and then when, you know, I'm working on being the better, a better leader, trying to always grow and learn and evolve. But sometimes when you let go and you've thought that, okay, I've let go, this person's got it, I've told them exactly, you know, how it's supposed to go and big mistakes are made, which sometimes cost you a lot of money. But even worse than costing you a lot of money, it can also hurt your brand or reputation that you've worked so hard to build. So how do you find someone and trust them and learn to let go? And part one of that question, part two, how do you become a better leader?

These are big questions.

I'm sorry, but I'm like, I want,

you are well versed to pick my brain over the course of this conversation and hopefully it helps lots of your listeners too. Getting the right people in your business and having the right structure so they can thrive and therefore your business thrives is by far and away the hardest game when it comes to scale up. And as much as I've had years and years of experience doing it, I've worked with, you know, I've had big teams and I've led big teams and I've helped other people do the same. You know, to this day, I don't get it. Right. It's not an exact science. Right. You know, over time you see patterns that can help. But what you have to think about is have some principles that I that will help you effectively be able to be successful. And one of the principles I have is I hire what is called a players, people who are culturally and personally, in terms of their personal leadership, going to have certain traits and standards which regardless of what they have to do in your business, you know that they're going to show up and they're going to give you 100%, right? Because that's their standard in their life. Right? So I big believer in the fact that, you know, you can teach people lots of things, right? Certainly, certainly when they're coming into your business at the early stages. But you can't really teach mindset, you can't teach heart, you can't teach discipline.

Right.

They're traits that people have to feel and have. And I found that, you know, the More that you hire to type to that type of personality profile and teach them or give them the opportunity to learn what the role needs to be. That sort of principle makes you more successful in the long term. Doesn't mean you always get it right. But you are hiring for that type of. Because you know what? If someone's not great in the beginning, they're going to have the mindset to become great because that's how they show up.

I think that, you know, it's not about absolutely getting it perfect every time, but you're right. I think that there is the. When you have the same sort of values, heart set, just the way someone speaks when they're speaking, you know, as you, as your company, I want somebody who's really kind and compassionate and. And that's somebody I need to choose, is somebody who's gonna be kind when they're speaking and also a little humble, yet confident. But also, do you think that. I think it's a great idea to hire athletes? Because it seems to me that athletes have this mindset and they're usually type A, they're disciplined, they've gone. They know how to, like, push through some hard times. So I have come to believe that maybe I just need to really hire athletes.

Your ultramarathon. Well, yeah, there is a bit about that. That's definitely about grit 100%. And we. And I will come back to your question before. But in terms of leadership, how do you become a better leader? Well, one of the things I found to be true, and this is not necessarily what I call popular opinion, is hire people that align and share the same values as you. Because what you just talked about then was actually your values. You started to talk about your value values. And I find that if you bring people into an organization where there's a misalignment of values, that's where you start to have issues. So, you know, and. And when I say values, I'm not talking about like, just some crappy words on a wall that someone says you should put there. I'm talking about values that can then be measured in behaviors, you know, and again, it's the behaviors that drive the company forward, particularly at scale. Because if you have a company that has 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 people, you can't be there all the way, all the time, watching what people are doing. So the only thing that's the thread that's going to drive performance is the values that people show up and deliver. So that's how you become a better leader. You identify personal Leadership first. And then you can demonstrate that as you grow and scale your business.

So good, so good. I love that. And how many, how many like you do so much you and you help so many other people. How many businesses do you have right now? Or is it mainly what I said?

Oh, God, I've got lots. I have seven businesses that I own outright and I have a further eight investments where I have a minority stake in those businesses. In other words, I'm a board advisor with an equity position in those businesses. So in total right now it's 15.

Oh my goodness. You have all these businesses, they're thriving, you're successful. Why do you think it is that there are businesses out there right now that are failing?

And to be clear, not all of them have been successful. I'm quite honest about that. So as we went through, you know, Covid and all that sort of thing, there was a couple there that we had to transition, right. So, you know, but I like to think that the majority of the time I know what I'm doing to identify those issues, right. And that's probably been one of the, one of the secrets, I think, you know, when it comes to business, we can make things more difficult than they need to be. And if you think about success in any field and we connect on sports, right, you know, how many times have you had an endeavor that you want to go and achieve and you've, you've hired someone to help you with that, a coach. You've put yourself into an environment to learn, you've made a few mistakes, but you haven't given up, et cetera, et cetera. I think for me it's if you haven't got the skill set, but you need to learn it, go, go and find someone who's going to get you there quicker, right? Find someone who's done it. And I was lucky because in the world of private equity, the level of focus that you have on growing a high value business, the precision, it's kind of like militant style activity. So, so I had the training to know exactly how to do that. Almost like a Navy SEAL type of expertise, because all we do is grow high value businesses and exit them for millions, if not billions. But that's one part of it, right? You can learn that. You just have to be in the right environment with the right mentors. The second part of it is up here, right? It's the mindset. And I'll give you a small example, right? Everyone in the world right now is talking about energy prices and there's massive Issues economically, socially, we're seeing it everywhere, and it's, it's really hard to watch if you kind of let yourself get consumed by it. But that in itself is a choice, right? That in itself is a choice. So you can see what's going on in the world and you can let yourself get really pulled into it. So it pulls you into it as well, maybe pulls you down. Or you can look at it objectively and try not to be emotionally led by it. So fuel prices. I know people out there right now who have got stunning businesses, really good businesses, but they're worried about, you know, how they're going to turn the lights on and off in their house just objectively for a second. That time spent worrying about that and working out how they're going to save a couple of thousand dollars could be much better invested on how they could, you know, 10x their business by focusing on a few more customers or strategic partnerships or acquisitions, they could be made. That's a mindset thing, right?

So that's, that's part of being resilient, too, is being able to think differently, think outside the box. Think of, okay, there, what's the solution? That's one thing that I miss.

It's also a habit, though, isn't it? I mean, you must have this. It's a practice because, you know, I could easily let myself get pulled into those worlds. But I, I, I, I do things that, if I ever feel like that, I'm not saying I'm immune to it, right, to be super clear, but if I'm ever feeling like things are becoming a little bit overwhelming, I've, I have some things that I know how to do which will pull me out of it and get me in the right state of mind to be focused and therefore successful.

What are some of those things?

So one of them we talked about before we press record is I get myself in different rooms. Now, that was a challenge, physically get myself in different rooms. And I'll explain exactly what I mean by different rooms. But that was a challenge over Covid, because everything was locked down, right? We had to connect like this, you know, zoom, which is fine, but there's nothing like putting yourself into the environment, into an environment where there are people there that are bigger than you in terms of what they've achieved. That's the perception you have going in. And you feel a bit, you know, vulnerable, and you feel like a bit intimidated, and you go, wow. But that feeling stretches me, right, that, that's a feeling of growth. It's not supposed to feel great. It's supposed to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I know I'm growing. And if I'm ever feeling like I'm playing small or I'm getting sucked into emotional states that aren't serving me, I get myself in a different room, which scares me. And that fear drives. And I'm saying, for me, it doesn't work for everyone, but that drives me to step up and realize what I can achieve. And I do it every quarter religiously.

I mean, I think I can't. That. That's amazing. And I mean, we were talking about this earlier how I was just in Utah and talk about being a little uncomfortable and vulnerable. You know, I was surrounded by people who have achieved luminous success that I really look up to, respect and admire. Was just mentioning how I got to see Randy Garn, who has always. Nick. From the very beginning, when I met him, I was speaking. I shared the stage with him maybe four years ago. It was the first time I'd ever been on a stage and I had no social media. Nobody knew who I was. And it was on a stage. Brendan Brashard, Mel Robbins, Ed Mylet, Randy. All these big names. And then there was me. And Randy was so nice to me, and he's always been so kind to me. But being in that room, and you said something so important earlier, having a mentor, like, yes. Being in those rooms and being around other people, and it shows you what's possible. Possible. But having a mentor. And I just saw a study that. That less than 5% of people actually invest in themselves to further their careers. And so it may seem like a lot of money to hire a coach. I mean, it is a lot of money. I just hired a business strategist this year, and it's been worth it. And he keeps me. There was one day I called him and I was kind of getting into that negative, like, oh, God, my. My gosh, you won't believe what happened. You know, I was telling him that something that really crazy that happened and it was going to cost me a lot of money. And he's like, okay, well, do you want to talk about the solution now that you've got that off your chest? And I'm like, yes, I'm sorry. Okay, enough about the negative. Let's talk about solution. So it helps to have those people kind of knock some sense into you, like, hello, focus on.

There's a playbook. There's a playbook to success. Right. You know, and. And it's not that difficult, but, you know, finding someone who's been there and done it. Right. Is important so that you don't have to go and create the path yourself. Now, some entrepreneurs that I work with don't agree with that because they like this idea of trailblazing and that's important. But more often than not, anything that's been created has been done in some way, shape or form beforehand, right. It may not be exactly the same, but it's been done in a certain way. And for me, I like efficiency and I like precision. So if I want to get from A to B quickly, I don't want to muck around, right. I want to find the quickest way of doing it. So that's the first piece. The second piece is accountability, right. You know, the idea that I have a certain standard of, of playing up to a high bar, right? And if I let myself down, I let other people down and I let my family down. If I'm not a role model, that's something that affects me, right? And so if I commit to something and I commit publicly or to a mentor or coach, then I'm damn well going to get it done. There's nothing that's going to stop me doing it. Now sometimes if I just say it to myself like, oh, you know, I could just kind of let that slip a little bit, I don't like that feeling. But it's a much different conversation and journey when you have someone else external to you holding you to that standard, right. And then success becomes inevitable, right?

So for sure, that accountability, I need that I need rules. And I think it's so important to have somebody that can time collapse your journey. I want to know, like, give me the, the scoop on how to get from point A to point B faster. Because for a long time I did it. I was trailblazing. I did not know what I was doing and most of the time I still don't. But I just get these big ideas and I'm like, I'm going for it, you know, but having a mentor is, is so important. Or hiring a coach. But like you said, I think it's really important to find someone who, you know, they have, they are a few steps ahead of you or several steps ahead of you. That's why I chose someone who had been. Do you know who bedroom is?

Yeah, I haven't met him, but no, I know, I know of him for sure.

Yeah, yeah, that's who I'm working with. And he is actually I'm doing an in person mastermind. He's like, I'll come speak at Your event. I was, I couldn't speak when he said that. He said, I'll come speak at your event. I was like, I, I didn't even know what to say. I was like, are you serious? Thank you. Like, thank you, thank you, thank you. And now, you know, I'm like trying to figure out a nice gift to give him for coming to Dallas. And I'm like, I don't know. But speaking of that, when you have a team that they've got the same values and how do you keep them striving to do well, to seeing your businesses thrive? Do you give them gifts? Do you give them raises? Like, how do you keep them making sure they're happy? Because I think when you're happy, you do better, you do more everything, you know, and so I always want my people to be happy. I'm like, are you happy? Are you having fun?

Well, the fact you're asking that question is part of it, right? Because. And the other thing here with, with this particular question is you've got different generations that value different things, right? So it's not just about money all the time. A lot of it's about clarity of vision and communicating that, you know, so that people know that they're, they're joining something that is above and beyond just a job. So I had scenarios when I went into private equity invested businesses where I used to do this, actually. I used to see how many people would leave when the official business day ended. I used to stand there and watch. And you could tell that if the culture wasn't joined up, if the communication wasn't joined up, if there were cracks within the way that the leadership was doing things, you would have more people leaving on the crack of that, the stroke of the, the hour than, than would be staying in the business. It's quite an interesting thing. It's a very simple thing. But if people believe in the mission, they're well looked after, their needs are met, which could be multiple different things, not just money. They feel like they have a voice. They feel like they have accountability to do a great job. They're getting development, you know, coaching within the business. They feel that there's enough stretch for them to grow. And you've hired a players, back to my point beforehand, because their standards are already gonna be high and they're gonna be asking that of themselves. You don't usually get into major issues. Where you do get into major issues is where you, you decide for whatever reason that you're not going to follow those principles that made you successful. And you start bringing people in who don't align with those values. And you see, you see all these big businesses like Uber and we work and all of that, which have massive valuations. They. They stop doing the things that were successful, particularly around people culture. And then all of a sudden the businesses collapse and become much less valuable because those basic principles I went through aren't followed.

I love the idea of really creating this company culture. I've had so many people ask me, even when I worked with a speaking agent for a while, she's like, how did you book all these gigs? Like, how are you getting all these speaking engagements? I'm like, it's word of mouth. It's, you know, I show up and I don't leave when the event's over. I don't just go on stage and speak and then leave like I am there. I'm a part of the event. I go early to see how I can help. I stay late and help them break down if they need that. You know what I mean? And so I think when, when you, they know, oh, I can count on Amberly. She's not just going to come speak. She's actually going to help promote my event. She's going to help me set it up and tear it down, you know, And I think that sometimes people don't understand the importance of that, of showing up, and that's hard. I think it's grit. Do you think that people can learn how to be more gritty?

I think what you just talked about there is how you show up. So I think that's in you. Right. And I was gonna say I'm not surprised why you get booked. Your story's amazing. You're very articulate and you have really high values and standards. Right. I think the thing that comes to mind when you ask that question is a lot of people think too short term in life, in business, and they're looking for a transactional relationship. Right. And they're not realizing that it's the small things that you do on a continuous basis that multiply exponentially to a greater outcome. Right. And that's the same in lots of things. You know, it's the same in sports, certainly in business. I can give countless examples. But I think, you know, back to how you show up and the reason you get gigs is it's not, it's not that you just showed up once and did that, it's that you've done it consistently and that has compounded over time. And you know, to bring that back to the question You've got to find people who have that mindset, that belief system, not always easy to find, and you'll make mistakes, but if you can build your whole company around that, you know, you asked me beforehand, how can I have 15 different investments? Because I have people like that in my businesses. I don't need to turn up. Why do I need to turn up? I can look at the numbers. Numbers are good. I can have a call with my sort of second in charge, you know, once a week, and then that's it.

So that's amazing. Yeah. And I mean, we were just saying you just got back from a family

trip or where you were traveling a month away. It's lovely.

I mean, that's amazing that you, you are traveling. It just seems like you really have put your health and happiness and, you know, is a priority and that shows in all your businesses. How do you. If someone's out there and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm kind of freaking out about my business, how do I make it receive recession proof? How do you do that?

Yeah, there are some. Recession proof's an interesting one because there are some businesses, if you like, where their business models get disrupted. And, you know, that's happened a lot

over the past couple.

There's the obvious examples, isn't there? There's the obvious examples of the blockbusters and all that sort of thing that people know about, but they're the obvious ones. Sometimes it's the smaller businesses that get distributed, disrupted because they were focusing too much in their business and not looking at the external factors that could drive change. Like, you know, there were. There were businesses through Covid which were, you know, restaurants, let's say, which were reliant on people coming in. But there were. There were restaurants in, you know, during COVID that turned on delivery services, worked out ways to be resourceful, to provide the same thing that they were providing, but in a different way. And so the first thing that I always say is you've got to get to 30,000ft and you've got to look at what's around you. You've got to get yourself outside the business just to have a perspective. So that's the first thing.

Right.

And that's going to give you greater clarity because even when the whole, like, you know, when you zig, you zag sort of stuff, when something's bad, there's always going to be something positive that you can do. If you know there is something where you do all that and you can't find the angle, then you still have the opportunity to pivot and do something else or to slow down for a period of time, so you have those, those opportunities. But one thing I said through the beginning of 2019, 2020, was you've got to have a cash Runway in your business. So if you want to have the right mindset to be able to go through a recession or go through a transition that happens, you've got to make sure that you don't set yourself up to fail from the beginning. And I think a lot of people didn't quite understand that. And the ones that ended up not doing very well or closing down through Covid were the ones that weren't really great businesses because they didn't have the fundamentals in place. So the minimum I say, and I'm a bit more kind of cautious about it, is have six months at least of cash reserves in your business so that if things do change, you've got that Runway to be able to give yourself the space to come up with a new strategy or a new plan. And they're the businesses that tend to have more longevity than the ones that don't do that.

That's so smart. Yeah. And, you know, there, there's a lot of people that ask me like, wow, you know, how did you. How did you start making money as a coach or. Or speaking? And they don't. I've. I've. I'm very honest and say, look, in the beginning, I didn't make much money. Like, I really. I had other businesses, like my fitness business that I relied on, that was my bread and butter until I could build up my speaking business and my mastermind and all of those things. I think that a lot of times people just expect that they're just going to make. Walk into something and just start making tons of money. And it's, it's all easy. And it's like. It's not always that easy. Like, it's putting the work in every single day, you know, building your business and building your brand. And you talk a lot about branding and how important it is. And I love. And there was one. I think it was one post you did a while back where it's like Your branding is 70% who you are, 20% what you're becoming, and 10% what your audience. Audience expects you to be.

That's right, yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I do remember writing that. God, you were paying attention.

Oh, gosh, I'm telling you, Nick, I. You are brilliant. I hang on your every word. And I think it's also. And I'm sure the audience, the listeners agree that just your voice is very soothing and your accent is so nice and proper that I'm just like, I could listen to you all day. But, yes, I do pay attention to everything that you share in your podcast is amazing. I mean, I feel so blessed. I got to be on your podcast.

Our conversation was awesome. Anyone who hasn't listened to that, I'm not quite sure which episode it is, but. Oh, my God, it was good. But, yeah, that's. That's your story, right? But again, you know, I'm going to keep. I'm going to keep coming back to it. It's how you show up, right? And. And in this world that we're in, and. And I'll. I'll give you a thought on branding as well. In this world that we're in, where it does matter to stand for and against things, right. You have to have a position. But this is the critical piece, my personal view. You have to have a position that's authentic and real. Right? There's lots of people who might see you and I speak on stage or do the podcast or post on social media, and they might have certain views of who we are and how we show up, but I. I pride myself in being me all the time. And if people like that, great. If they don't like it, that's fine as well. And I'm not going to get attached to any of those different outcomes. The point around that comment I made around 70, 2010 is there's a point where we're growing ourselves, right? Who I am right now and who I am in 5 years time is going to be a different person because I'm investing a lot into the networks I'm around, the people I'm learning daily. The. The podcast that I do, I learn from you coming on the show.

Right.

I learned from your story. It gives me a different perspectives and perspective, and that allows me to think differently. So that 70% of who you are now is absolutely authentic. The 20% of who you're becoming is the exposure you have to the environment that you set and the 10% of who your audience expects. For me, that's about. I have to help people scale their businesses beyond what they currently think is possible in many cases. So I'm not going to show up as this weak, timid, you know, guy who's just whatever else. They expect me to pull them through challenging situations, and the only thing I can like it to is when Tony Robbins said that, you know, when he shows up in front of 20,000 people, and he's having a bad day, and he's had situations where he's been sick, but he still gets up. He has to show up in a way that people expect him to, because that's how he's going to get the transformation. That's how he's going to serve them. And I think of it in a very similar way.

Oh, I love that. You know, Tony Robbins was just out here a few months ago. I got to see him for the first time in person. So I. It wasn't some big advertised event. My friend heard about it and said, do you want to go? I'm like, heck, yeah. So I bought us tickets and I got like. We weren't like platinum, like, in the very front. We got the VIP right behind that. They were the best seats for some reason. Tony Robbins stood right there in front of me, I swear, the whole time. I mean, seriously, his spit, like, he's talking in his spit, massive.

No one, no one, no one can really appreciate how big this guy is. I mean, honestly, his hands are like the size of, like, double the size of my head.

Yes. He comes out clapping, and you know what? This going back to your 70, 20, and 10. So his 10%. The. Like I said, this wasn't a big advertised event. It was. And it was, you know, still covet kind of going on, and it was kind of an empty arena. I don't know what happened, but there was not that many people there. He came out and he delivered and poured into us for three hours straight, like he was talking to a Stadium of 30,000, and there were probably, I don't know, maybe 200 people there.

Yeah. So you're very lucky to be in that intimate. I mean, I've. I've been to so many of his things live. But I'll share this with you because I think it's important for people, because, you know, sometimes if I come on a show like this and we're having a conversation and people will get a perception that, you know, I've done these. These big business things and all of that, but it hasn't always been easy.

Right.

And because this is about true grit and grace, I'll share this story. So when I was doing this last private equity deal, lots of things were going on. I mentioned beforehand I would have looked very different had we been having a conversation. I had a lot of emotional things going on. My father was passing away of cancer. I had a lot of internal struggles in the private equity world, because what people don't Appreciate sometimes, sometimes is that world's a very, very alpha male. Very, very ruthless, relentless, toxic. Everything's about the money. And sometimes you're pushed into a corner to make decisions almost a little bit like bullying. And one night I went, I went home, went to bed and I woke up at three in the morning and I broke all the. The teeth in the right side of my jaw.

Are you serious?

Crack the two molars here.

Oh, my gosh. You were just grinding that hard.

It was stress because of a lot of things. A lot of things. But it was, it was the deal, it was my dad. The other thing also is I was not showing up how I wanted to show up for my family and I was causing lots of pressure, drinking too much, you know, and in fact, the ultra running, a lot of that was when I had my most successful periods of ultra running was when I had the hardest stuff going on like that in work.

Work.

So for me, it was an escapism to clear my head.

That's what running used to be for me.

Yeah.

And when I couldn't do it, that's when I got into drinking.

Yeah. And it's funny, like, you know how they say hindsight's a great teacher. So let me share this with your listeners. So what happened is I completed that deal, I completed this, this last exit, and it's really the last major thing I did in private equity.

Because, wait, how long ago was this?

This was 2018.

2018.

So it's not very long. Four years. And after I had the teeth incident, I went to. I first went to the doctor and then the dentist and then they said, listen, this is what's happened. They've seen it before, very high stress situations. I called up a friend of mine who was very successful early on from university, and I said, listen. And he's retired now, just lives an amazing life. Looks great. And I said, listen, I need some help. I said, I need to make a big change. What should I do? And he said to me, said, he said, get computer out. He said, I want you to type this in and I want you to find out when the next event's happening. And I typed in Tony Robbins and his next event was a thing called Unleash the Power within in Chicago, which was about three weeks later, after I did the teeth, I literally booked tickets and then booked my flights because I was living in the UK at the time, went to that event. First time I properly invested in myself in that way. Everything else was paid for by private equity firms. I'd never actually Gone and spent a couple of grand on a ticket. What's that about? I spent four days crying my eyes out by myself in that auditorium. Right. Because he was saying stuff that I'd never heard before, or maybe I'd been told before but never connected with. And I made a decision in that event to quit my, my previous life, if you want to call it that, of private equity and change my whole belief system. I'm not, I'm not joking. Some of the things I believe now and I've and, and define who I am came from that first experience.

Wow.

Came from that experience.

I have goosebumps right now. You're kidding. So that inspired you to do your podcast as well?

My life, everything. Well, I made the decision, but I didn't act 100% on it straight away. There's this whole burning the boats thing that he talks about where, yeah, you know, I, I was earning a lot of money in private equity, Big house, cars, kids in school. I couldn't just, you know, jump into this new world and go, oh, that's a no plan B. Look at this. I'm just gonna work it out. But what I did do was this. I made a decision not to work with the private equity firms, but I continued working as I reconstructed or constructed my new life.

I think that's so smart to say that.

Yeah, it's an important, I called it at the time being strategic. Because sometimes we can get romantic around this idea of burning the boats. The concept for people who listening, the idea that you, you get rid of everything and you kind of just go down this one, one pathway. But if you've got the realities of mortgages and the things I mentioned beforehand, I didn't want my family to suffer.

Right.

But, but here's the thing I did. I, I spent a lot of time thinking about a 20 year vision and what can I create in 20 years that's going to be a fundamental change that aligns with personal values and a sense of fulfillment as well as achievement. And what I've been doing since a few years in now is I've just been executing to that vision. And I'll tell you now the stuff that's happened. We mentioned Randy Garn, we mentioned there's other, other people I've been in, you know, meeting with the stuff. I'm about to go on this big trip and be on some big stages and events. All of that came from those four days at that Tony Robbins event. That was the catalyst.

Wow. You know, it's just, it's fun. I just posted on LinkedIn today about a post about how transformation can literally happen in a spark, in a moment. All it takes is one conversation, one podcast, maybe that you listen to, one phone call, one book, one walk out in nature where something changes and it changes everything for you. And that's why it's so important to. To get in those rooms. I mean, to get in the rooms, go to the events, invest, and people like, oh, I don't want to buy a ticket to that event, or. And, you know, speaking of, you know, you're gonna. I'm so bummed I'll be missing you in San Diego. Speaking of, you know, I was like, you know, my friend Steve sent me a link saying, hey, you should come to the shop party. Randy Garn's gonna be there, blah, blah, blah. And I just click, bought it. And he goes, wow, you're an action taker. And I'm like, well, no, I know how life changing it can be to get in the rooms or get on that yacht with Nick.

So that person, that person's Steve Harwood, isn't it?

Yes.

So I was in Cabo at War Room Mastermind on a yacht with Steve about six weeks ago. He's a good friend of mine.

Oh, my goodness. It's funny how he just sent me the link about that mastermind. So, yeah, it's a small world, isn't it? And then I was looking, I saw on your social media that you were hanging out with Nick Pigeon, who I really admire. She was just on the podcast last week, and I was like, wow, we have so many friends in common. But I'm. I didn't know that you were going to be at the yacht in San Diego until we started talking today. And I was like, if there was anything I could do to make that trip. But it's the day, literally the day that we're moving out of our house. And I think my husband would just, you know, you kind of pick and choose your battles. And he was just like, you are not going on that yacht. We are moving. The movers are going to be here that day.

Well, there's one. There's one thing I'll say. It's not the last time, right? It's not the last time. The second thing is, do you know what? When you start to, I think, put yourself out there and start to ask for what you want, but be clear on the direction that you want to be going in. And that direction is not just about you. It's about also how you can help others. You start to Just, it's almost like a magnet. You start to enter these. These environments with people who have a very shared perspective. I think that's what's happening. That's what's happening because, like, you know, I pinch myself a little bit. Not because I didn't think I had the capability to be able to go out there and share a message. I, you know, I didn't have any speaking training or anything like that. I was just a guy that was in private equity firms. But when I started podcasting, I really loved it.

Right.

And if you're good at something, I find you can, you can develop a level of competence. But where this came full circle for me recently is I had Dean Graciosi on the show, who's.

Oh, I love that episode.

Oh, I love the conversation.

Oh, you were so good. Such a great interview. You guys have to check out the. That. That was one of the most powerful interviews. Seriously, you and Dean, were you the. Your connection, the way you talk, the questions you asked. You're such a good. And I told.

Very present. We. We were very present, I think. And you know, sometimes when you get into that, it's almost like you're in the same room. Obviously we're not with 10,000 miles away, but.

Yeah, so good. So good. But you know what, It's. You are such a good interviewer. You ask such good questions, and you also really research your guest, and so it makes for an incredible interview. I loved that. So I'm sorry to interrupt.

That's okay. Thank you.

I just had to say good. It was.

I'm getting ready tonight.

It was so good.

You know what it comes down to actually being genuine, genuinely curious, right. And, and I, I prepare, but I don't over prepare. This is important, right. I like to listen. And similar to this conversation, right. You know, we're just chatting, right? And there's different things that are coming up which hopefully provide a lot of value to people listening just because of the experiences we've had. But what was interesting in that conversation with Dean is at the end, he was like, wow, that was great. And I said, thank you. And I told him a little bit of the story I shared a few minutes ago. And he goes, you know what? If you write a letter to Tony, I'll make sure he'll get it. I'm like, this is like full circle. This is taking me back to the, the upw. Now here's the thing. I haven't written it yet. I'm written it yet. And it's. And it's Partly because I'm gonna do it. Like, it's not, like, not gonna happen, but I'm like, I just still can't

believe that, you know, you gotta write that to tonight before you go to bed. Write that letter. You. You said it in such a beautiful way when you shared that with me. I got goosebumps. I told you. I got. I got goosebumps. Write that letter and share exactly what you just said here on that. On this podcast. And, oh, my gosh, it's going to be. I can see Nick, you on the stage with Tony Robbins.

Well, that was the goal that I set at upw.

I can see it.

I said, one day, I'll share. I want to share the stage with you and not for anything to do with me. Right. Honestly, it's, like, not about my brand. It was about being able to offer my help in the way he helped me. And. Yeah, it's just funny how the universe has started to bring that closer together, and if anything, that the pace of that, in terms of that happening, has quickened and quickens and quickens over the last few months.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Watch this space.

Yeah, it's amazing. Well, you better let me know. I will go to that event, and I'll be in the front row, and I will start the standing ovation. Okay. I'll be the first one. I'll be the loudest one there, but. Yeah, no, that's.

I love you, Emily. You are. You are awesome. Thank you. And I can feel your heart when you say that, so. So I appreciate it.

Oh, well, you're just doing amazing things. I know. We'll get to hang out together in person another time. I just know it at that time is. Is coming soon. I feel it. We're gonna make that happen.

I know. It's. It's. There's too many. There's too many serendipitous points, I think now of connections, so.

I know, I know. And, you know, and. And if you're in Dallas for longer than a couple of hours, next time, let me know. We'll. We'll make sure we take you out to a nice dinner here. They've got a lot of good Tex Mex.

Oh, I'm good with. I'm good with the steak.

Yeah. Do you like steak?

I love steak. I'm trying not to eat as much of it, to be honest, but I am a bit of a. Us Australians like a barbecue, so, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're amazing. I could talk to you for hours. I know our time's up. But I just love everything that you share. Y' all check him out. Most definitely. Check out his podcast, the links to where you can find him. Go ahead and tell people where they can find you. And it'll be in the show notes too.

Yeah, absolutely. So I've made a couple of changes recently, so I'll share that here with your audience. So we changed the podcast will scale up your business. We changed it. We changed it to Scale up with Nick Bradley.

Okay. That's what I have written down. Scale up with Nick Bradley.

Yeah, so we changed it to that. And that's partly because I've got a different range of guests coming on now. So it used to be more of a business podcast, but I've got people like yourself coming on. We talk about business and, and more than business. So. So, yeah, check that out. Scale up with Nick Bradley. And then my personal site is scaleupwithnickbradley.com and then our business site, if people are interested in the whole scale up thing, is S U Y B global, which stands for scale up your business. But yeah, listen, honestly, I'm on all the social media platforms. I get back to everyone. I always love it when someone reaches out and says, you know, thanks so much for that episode or the, that perspective or that insight, because it really, I suppose, defines why I do what I do. So.

Okay. And then before we go, if there's somebody that they're, they're like, well, gosh, I need to really, like, take a look at my business. I would love to learn how to scale it and make plans. How do they go about working with you?

Yeah, if they come to my website, there's a, there's a button. They can connect on that or if they want to reach out to me personally, just, just connect on LinkedIn. But I, I work with business owners in different ways and genuinely, if I, if I'm not the right fit, I also recommend people in my network as well. I'm a big believer in that because, because I, what I, what I've done over those many, many years in private equity is a very precise, precise, quite advanced set of things. And, and it's for people who have got businesses that are usually doing sort of seven or eight figures and they want to create, create a transformational exit for themselves. That's, that's where I really thrive. And so I teach them how to, to build that plan so that they can create wealth for themselves. Freedom. And most of my clients go off and they, they, they make a bigger impact in the world. And for me, once someone has that point where the time and money freedom box is ticked and they. They have more expansive thinking to be out and go and be more philanthropic, nothing gives me greater pleasure than helping someone do that.

That's, to me, that is success. Yeah. When you can have the freedom, you need that just to be able to open. Like, for me, I need. I need a little bit of freedom so I can go outside into nature and have time to, you know, spark some creativity. I think it's important. And one other thing that I really liked that I saw on your website, somebody gave you a testimonial about. They, like, they bought businesses and didn't use any of their money to do it.

I'm like, we haven't got into that.

I know we didn't get into that.

That's a secret trick. That's a trick. The reality of it, you know, if you've got a business that's of a certain scale and you're not looking to scale that business via acquisitions, then you're missing a big opportunity. So in private equity, all we do is buy other businesses and bolt them all together. The clever bit is what we call leverage buyout, which effectively is you leverage other people's money. So it's not a no money down thing. You actually are using asset finance and all these other financial, what I call creative financing to do deals. But what I say to a lot of people is this, that most people think that they can't buy a business because they need to have millions of dollars or whatever it is, but actually you don't. You know, you just need to know how to do it. So I like to teach that as well, because I think it's another way of people creating freedom from what is called acquisition entrepreneurship as opposed to startup. And some people are better at buying an existing business and doing something with it versus starting something from scratch. And entrepreneurship takes all, you know, different shapes and forms.

Oh, it sure does. Like. Oh, it sure does.

Well.

Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom. It is always just such a pleasure when I get to talk with you. So thank you for coming on. You guys take a screenshot, whatever platform you're listening to, or if you're seeing this on YouTube, take a screenshot and tag us. I hang out mostly on Instagram. Amberly Lago Motivation. Or you can tag True Grit and Grace, and then you can tag Nick at the Real Nick Bradley. Right? That's your.

That's correct. At the Runic Bradley. Yep. That's in me on Instagram.

Yeah. Yeah. The real. The legendary. No, but it's the real, not the

fake one, because there's a few. There's a few that sometimes, you know, come and, you know, take your. Take your profiles. But no, Bradley is me.

Okay. Yeah. Somebody did that to me, and let me tell you, theirs looked better than me. I was like, golly, who did their graphics? I need to hire them.

It's painful. Is it? When you. Someone else's social media. So the. The scammer's social media is better than yours?

Yeah. I was like, wow, whoever created this fake Instagram account did a really good job. I was like, but that's not me. I had people going, hey, you got a new account. It looks great. I'm like, no, not me. But, yeah, anyway, y' all take a screenshot, reach out to him, give him some love. And, hey, thank you again, and thank y' all for tuning in to the show, and we'll see you next week.

Thank you very much. Emily. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Sa.