16: TikTok Influencer (200k followers) Pokubanks Reveals How He’s Juggling Business and University!
08/13/20 • 41 min
Previous Episode
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 focuse...
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 focuse...
Next Episode
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”.
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”.
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