The Company of One: Build a Profitable Business Without the Burnout

I honestly think that kids born today will find it really odd that people only did one thing for their career, for their entire life. I think it's exciting that we get to see multiple careers. This technology is accessible for the majority of people that do have a phone or a laptop, and they're actually guided in the right way.

It can be seen as something that actually creates opportunity. Within AI, generally, there's a lot of grandstanding. There's a lot of posturing. Fundamentally, how has it changed your life or how is it improved the lives of others? That's what I'm lot more interested in.

Naples Talks is a podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. There's too much bullshit out there, especially when it comes to business. This podcast aims to highlight what's true and what's not in the world of entrepreneurship, bringing you honest and raw conversations about the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship.

Each week, my guest will be a high performing entrepreneur, sharing the ups and downs of their journey and helping you prepare for the road ahead while providing you with actionable insights and absolute gems of knowledge. Stay tuned as I introduce this week's guest.

Harry Davies is the UK Head of Growth at improving an AI copilot for students, used by around 100,000 pupils across the world. He's also a non-executive director at the University of Bristol. He started out as a lawyer before leaving to build a portfolio career of his own, and now runs building a company of One workshops, helping other professionals do the same.

I present to you this week's guest, Harry Davies.

Welcome, Harry, to a no bullshit talks.

Sabrina, lovely to be here. Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming. You've come all the way from Cardiff, I believe.

I have Hannah and I while speaking part of Cardiff. Definitely. So very happy to make the journey over and speak to you today.

That's quite some dedication. I'm actually really honored with how far people have traveled for this podcast. It means a lot actually. I've had people from all over the world I've come in and not just for the podcast, but, you know, like, as in they have traveled or they've made the effort to come into to do it, but you've come all the way.

Today for the podcast. So totally honest.

Well, yeah. I mean, the surroundings and the chance to meet you, of course. And, uh, yeah, I think the main thing is, in this era of opportunity, why not bring people together that I think have a really good idea of where the world is heading and the opportunities that exist for people if they do the right strategy.

I think it's an exciting time.

And that's exactly obviously, that's why you're here, because we both resonate with that, that same ethos. But the fact that you've traveled all the way to London to have that conversation also shows how on the same page we are, because we could have done this remotely. And the amount of people that said to me, oh, can't we just do it on zoom and totally forgets the whole point of what I'm trying to do and bring people together and also just show that the conversations are better in person and way more impactful.

And you've just spent 25 minutes watching me set up all this equipment and we've been having a chat. Great chat during that. So technically warmed up. Got to know each other more and had really interesting conversation. You can't do that on zoom.

Couldn't agree more. I mean, the M4 corridor runs between working in Bristol, London and all the schools that I've worked with across the country. Always very happy to to do some travel and ultimately there is a premium on any real life experiences. You know, I think we know that that's the edge that we've got over the technology, which I'm sure we'll be talking about in some detail during the course of the conversation.

But really, what are we if we can't build relationships, if we can't share ideas in a room and persuade and influence people, that actually this is a time of optimism, that actually there is plenty for us to look forward to. And why not try and work against the narrative? Sometimes in the UK, which is doom and gloom, low prospects apply for the jobs don't get anywhere.

You and I know that there are ways in which people can be successful. I can achieve what they want to if they prefer to just come together and collaborate. It's not a zero sum game. So, um, I think that's why we're here and excited to, uh, take the conversation forward.

Uh, I feel like you should, uh, do my speech for why people should join OBS as well. I feel like that was basically it, like it's the same sort of thing. So again, it's fine. Do people have that same attitude? And on that note, I feel like you should introduce yourself so people know exactly what you do, why you feel this way.

And and here you are.

Absolutely. So really, I haven't applied for a job since 2011. I think what I've sought to do is find founders that want to solve problems. We have a lot of problems in the world, um, many of which can be addressed with the right skill set and the right approach. And what I've done is just approach them, learn more about what it is they're trying to achieve, and pitched essentially how I can support them with that objective.

So started conventionally before I started knocking on doors, as it were, and I was in corporate law, fantastic firm, which I trained. And for those that want to be in that world and absolutely brilliant place to forge a career for me, what I saw in Bristol was where I trained. I saw that actually there was a lot of inequality, a lot of very talented people that didn't know how to enter the legal profession.

They didn't have the network. The economic capital didn't have the cultural capital. Knowing what wine to drink, what order to use cutlery at a formal setting, or what they might offer a different time to the year. But for ski enthusiasts and what they did was approach me. Once I got my training contract and asked, how did you do it?

How do I get in? And so my problem that was seemed to address really, was how do we bring down barriers for kids that have been on free school meals? They want to go and get the dogs at some of these law firms in London, they were the top paying graduate schemes in in the country. And so that's something that really grabbed me as a mission.

My job within that organization to help address that lack of inequality, was to bring big sponsors on board to fund our education programs. So I could talk a bit more about later. But ultimately, what I'm about is enabling people that want to carve their own path to do it in the form of a company of one, to be able to build a micro company that allows them to actually become profitable very quickly, to be very focused on the clients they want to work with and the problems they want to solve and to be total, have total autonomy over how and where they work and how they do it.

All the things we talk about wanting, and I think it's a brilliant model in this AI era to to take forward alongside that particular venture. I work as a fractional head of growth for edtech, so I believe helping school kids to improve outcomes. I'm a board member with the alumni association University of Bristol.

It was a passion of mine and ultimately they believe in the Welsh language, and that's why I moved to Cardiff and try and be involved in things with all in that city too. So yeah, that's why I think you told me we're having a chat here today.

Yeah, I love it. And because through and through everything you just said, it's about education and the importance of education. And like you said, our government are not painting the best light on education, which is kind of ridiculous because I think that should be the backbone of any country and how we do things.

And, you know, we were talking off air or something. I'd constantly say, like, I love how readily information is available now. Like, we are never in a better time to learn anything, right? You can switch on anywhere, use any AI search engine, YouTube, whatever, and you can be filled with knowledge. It's fantastic.

But at the same time, I believe in formal education and I also believe in education in general. I think that people are using these tools in the wrong way as well. I think that's part of education. And that's also, again, why we kind of restructured Nobbs and rebuilding it. And relaunch became focused around education, because when we first launched it, it was about community, getting the right people together.

All the things were saying, you know, in a company one, it can be quite lonely. So like, you know, we want to be around other founders having that great thing. But then it became it attracted the people who wanted the social aspect. They came to the fun dinners, they came to the stuff and they wanted to have a drink.

They met people, which is nice, but then they just wanted to come to events, take a picture with the influencer that was doing the event or whatever, and then put it on Instagram, and that was their achievement for the day. And I wanted it to be about growth, personal and professional growth. And so I reframed it as a lifelong MBA.

And it's like immediately it filters out the wrong audience, because there's a lot of people out there who would just see there's no point in doing an MBA because again, I've heard the narrative around running an MBA and that is like, it's so expensive, it's so expensive. So don't get me wrong. Obviously it's so expensive, but it's also like pointless because it's the teaching old fashioned stuff that isn't applicable in today's world.

So obviously my mindset was that it's an affordable version of MBA. You're teaching the things that are genuinely going to be impact for your business, but the main part of it is the network. Absolutely. You are surrounded by other people are willing to spend 200 grand if you're concerned for them, for the MBA who care that much about their education and their development in the future in life and, you know, want to study the right things, you want to be successful in life, want to do well, but also, like all these people are going to potentially go on to build incredible things.

Don't you want to be surrounded by people like that? And I think people miss that. Like we said, the network, the people, they are the real underlying thing. And I think so many people are missing that. And with education, for me, that's the same thing, is like going on that journey together, learning things and like going to university and meeting those people that you hopefully have friends for life or you've learned.

Things for them. And even if you don't keep friends in university. You've learned the people you don't want to be around. There's also those things as well, right? And so I would I just think like it's fascinating what you do. And obviously that's why it resonated with me that you're doing what you're doing.

But I would love to hear what it is like with young people now. And I genuinely because like you said, all the doom and gloom, that's what media is there for, to depress us to clickbait and all that sort of stuff. But really like, you know, and again, graduates not getting any jobs, all this sorts of AI is taking every other job.

What is it really like out there? How is the current workforce? What is that attitude? What are the what are they struggling with? How can we help? Like what is it like at that?

Yeah, I agree with everything you said about our network. I think I would not have been able to approach those founders and achieved their mission without blinking and working with the people that I met throughout the course of my career. At that point, I'll give you an example. When I was at Aspire Solicitors, which was a talent platform for addressing inequality in the legal profession in the UK.

Our goal was to get young people from free school meal backgrounds all the way to the top 1% of earners by the age of 25, by virtue of some of the more firms we were working with.

I approached, as it was then, Facebook. No matter about what would you like to work with us on a mentoring upskilling program that will genuinely achieve that objective? And that was via someone that I'd worked with at my first law firm where I trained. She was captivated by the idea, put me in touch with the right decision maker within the business, and then we established it.

And then throughout the course of my career, whenever anyone has wanted an end in or an understanding because, you know, like I do with the horrendous LinkedIn, easy apply a totally ruined the market both for employers and employees, because employers find it impossible to determine whose quality employees find are a sea of CVS and cannot stand out.

So what do people do? They revert to old networks. They revert to existing, uh, nepotism? In some ways, yeah, in one form. So how I've tried to counter that is to try and base it on merit. And people that I know that want to apply, that have the ability and introduce them in a way that I know we'll have a good conversation and help.

There's no unfair advantage. It's really just speak it somewhere within an organization to better understand it, to better strategize about how to get in, to ask you a question about what it's like out there at the moment. Well, I always say is Covid has had a very damaging long term impact on the education system in the UK.

Um, my partner is is a doctor in the NHS. And so we both had interesting debates about the, uh, the outcomes that resulted from the policy of the UK government. And I think what's most clear to me in education is that absenteeism is on the rise. The ability to persuade a child to focus and build for the future is much harder, because parents understandably feel like their children have gone through very, very difficult time during lockdown.

And so teachers find it more difficult to have parents onside, to help persuade children to study, to focus and to put the work in. So I think it's been a bit of a perfect stall. That said, there are plenty of young people that are doing very interesting things that are taking on their own opportunities. They are able to basically work within their school system with the technology to actually launch things of their own, because, you know, like I do, the barriers have never been lower.

To be able to ship something is more techie. People than me would call it. Uh, and so the building communities are doing things that interest them and their friends, but they want output for it, and it's something that they can demonstrate to a university or potential employer and say, this is something that I've done.

I know record numbers of 18 year olds are opting to take a year out to assess options. We know that 60,000 as a graduate tax is something that's a massive decision for a lot of young people. I know a lot of young people that have gone and got experience, decided that university is the right route often for what we talked about, which is network being exposed to an incredible array of people from different backgrounds, which you obviously can choose to go to.

And so I think there is a lot of ability to be methodical in how we're doing this. Um, it's just a matter of giving children that, uh, ability to think broadly beyond not being put in an academic box and going. And the lawyer, consultant, banker, route or doctor and the practical route would be attrition plumber or Armstrong farm worker.

Uh, and rather, thinking about what are the skills that they have or want to develop. Where are their interests? So why not be any sports journalist? Why not be a robotics engineer? Why not be an AI ethicist? All of these things that are emerging market opportunities, it's really just about reframing it as being something to be excited about rather than to fear.

But I mean, where's this fear coming from? Because I feel like obviously the media, social media is definitely pumping it. But what is like, what is this, the foundation for this fear? Because like a lot of it I see is just bullshit. Like, you know, it really is. And it's like, and these people are the future of our entire, like, world.

And they are terrified to take risks. They are terrified. And they're getting criticized left, right and center by by the old, the older generations. So they've got no resilience. They've got. And it's all like, you know, this negativity. And that doesn't help if they're constantly reading this stuff because they're the ones are always online.

They're going to feel like they can't do anything, and their resilience is going to be even lower than before if they're consistently reading all this negative stuff. So how can we help? Because like you said, there's so many opportunities out there. The barriers to entry has never been lower. Like what is stopping them or where is this fear coming from?

Misunderstanding. I think people similar to where in the internet and there's I think we're both just about old enough to remember at a time before, uh, you know, wireless internet dialects and not being able to use the phone, uh, when someone was on internet and things like that. At that time, a lot of people felt that there was going to be mass unemployment as a result of the emergence of this new technology that people didn't really understand.

As you and I know, a huge tens of thousands of new opportunities and new avenues emerged from the internet. The same will happen with AI. People just find it very difficult to visualize it because they don't know what happens. Within OpenAI and anthropic, these companies have only a few hundred people that are almost dictating the direction of the world as we move forward, including things like deep secret in China.

And so I think there's this feeling around the haves and have nots that those with the deep pockets will be the ones that benefit from this advancement, because they have access to this technology, they have assets that they will be the ones that will emerge from this, and it will be the lowest kind of classes that that will that will struggle.

But you and I know that actually this technology is accessible for the majority of people that do have an iPhone or a laptop, and they'll actually guide it in the right way. It can be seen as something that actually creates opportunity. You know, that's the whole premise for the billion company of one idea that I'm running an accelerator and all this summer is for recent graduates, mid-career professionals, and for seasoned entrepreneurs.

We're small cohort. That will start with a problem, how we're easily placed to fix it. So individual companies have one for each of the members of the cohort. Test it. Use it in a way that we can see. What is the demand for this? What's the product market fit? So it's really obsessing about problem and then thinking about the solution, seeing what our distribution channels are, who the networks can tap into to get a sense of what demand is and what people are willing to pay to have this type of solution, and then ultimately to ship it and begin to generate revenue or easy to become even better at their day job, where we know there's a 62% premium on AI skill sets, uh, within the workforce, I think that building something around is the best possible demonstration of showing AI skill fluency.

And so for young people that we're talking about, I believe that once they can get that initial experience that helps them shape their vision for a company of one that allows them to be very autonomous, uh, very independent, and actually to have a lot of financial freedom and profitability, which I think is a realistic thing that will emerge in the next few years.

I'm definitely going to talk about the company of one thing, because obviously we both resonate with that. And that's something that is, you know, something that I really believe in too. But before that, I want to again, just ask one last question on the young people in the workforce, because this is obviously a big debate.

And, you know, the narrative is all these graduates out there can't get jobs like, you know, there's a whole generation of kids who are really talented and can't get jobs. But at the same time, from my perspective in my circles, as an entrepreneur who's hiring is consistently like, there's no talent out there.

And it's like, how are both really strong narratives true at the same time when they're completely opposite? And we are seeing from an employer's perspective, we are seeing that we can't find talent because they are either, you know, not willing to work, they are generally quite lazy or they're entitled.

They're expecting a 60 K starting salary with no experience. But then on the other hand, there are jobs out there which are expecting three years of work experience for 25 K and you've got the you've got both ends of the spectrum. And it's just kind of a bit of a mess out there,

let's say, because my audience are generally entrepreneurs and they're generally companies of one or either small businesses or like, you know, they are looking to employ and start, but they're not looking to employ 100 K salary, senior creative designer or whatever their team, they're looking to, to employ the young people because they're savvy, they're good with AI, they're good with social media, they're good with the tech.

They understand the environment and they have growth potential and all that sort of stuff. We'd love to employ them, but there was definitely this disconnect. And I think when I hear it, it's like people go, oh, don't understand young people. And at the same time, they'd love to have them on the team. So how do we attract young people to our companies to get the right people on board?

How do we, you know, interview them, attract them in the first place? And how do we speak to the young people to to show that we appreciate them, we understand them and accommodate for them because I think it's a win win, but we need to do it right?

I agree. I think within the UK we have to move past this into generational conflict, which is around the haves and the have nots. Boomers compared to Gen Xers and Millennials as Gen Z and now Gen Alpha. That's why I worked for the University of Bristol to deliver an initiative that was about, why don't we bring everyone in a room to share what they think about the future of work?

What are some of the challenges they're expressing in the way that you've talked about? I was brilliant was that it didn't matter that the mayor of Bristol was there, or that people with with honors, leaders of industry compared to brand new, fresh faced 20 something graduates were in the room. There were no egos.

Everyone's on a level footing. And you saw this brilliant, multi-generational collaboration, which is not something that you see too often. Yeah. When I asked the average person, let's say they're working in a law firm, how many people outside that law firm do you know professionally that are a couple of generations old or new?

And people often say, I don't know anyway? You know, they don't know people that are in different generations. Therefore they can't leverage that and be useful to them and get the benefits that accrue from that type of approach. So to answer your question, one strategy I think works well for young people.

Uh, one individual is a privacy, uh, professional. He built two companies. VI code is completely with Claude Cote, one primarily based on companies that partner with selling. We should start because the problems that are being experienced, which is ideas for what to wear, basically scan everything in my wardrobe and get AI to recommend to me what I wear.

So as a low left, I don't have to think about it. And uh, their young family, there are a couple of children and I want to find strong childcare support that I can trust so that I can we can have weekends away. We can do that sort of thing. I'll have the evening off. And that is what he used to pitch for an AI role within a large bank in, uh, in Cardiff.

And they said, yeah, based on your competency there, we showed you showed us that actually, you know what you're talking about and you're using all the products that's central to this role. So he made a big transition from it. This is the type of model that a young person can do as well. If they can show that they created something, had an audience for it.

It doesn't have to be massive money, so it doesn't have to be about 10-K or or anything like that.

It can be something that actually has solved a problem that people have seen demand for. The people have been paid, for example, something as low lift as create a waiting list. If you are willing to give you their email address, it shows that you create something valuable. So just doing that, having a portfolio of things you're interested in, that you've taken action on, I think is going to be a lot more compelling than a CV going forward.

So if you have something that potential employer could click on it, get a sense of what you've created and get an output, then automatically go ahead or probably not excel at people when it comes to using technology. So that can all be done for for pennies as well. If you want 18 pounds a month Claw Pro account.

That's that's totally, totally viewable. So that's something I would advise.

I love that advice because from an as an employer, I'm looking at someone who's done that, and I don't see someone who's never had a corporate job because that's one way of looking at it or they don't have any corporate experience. I see someone who's dedicated a lot of time gone through rounds of iterations if anyone's ever used clawed or clawed.

Do you know how much work has to go in to get an actual functioning product? Like, who's got creative input, who's learning new tech, who's dedicated time, come up with ideas and actually put it to market and actually has that bravery to get rejection because that's what it is. When you put something out there and you're getting rejected.

And to stick with something despite like, you know, not having the funding and everything. Those are a lot of skills that you can't get elsewhere. And I think for someone to possess all that, that's huge. And so I think, you know, like I said, demonstrating that has never been easier in that sense and actually just doing what you love doing.

Like I said, coding something, you know, from and like I said, barriers of entry are so low. Whereas, you know, someone who's just had only corporate experience and I've hired unfortunately bad people in this world over the last few years. Like I had someone comes with a glowing CV with all this corporate experience big, all the big.

They were like Accenture, NY. They were all there. Probably one of the worst employees I've ever hired because they just and they wanted to transition to corporate, took to creative. And you know, they were highly recommended as well. Had all the references. Their bosses were loving them. But again, it's a it was a corporate boss and they did not like anything that was remotely startup or creative, even though they wanted that, they liked the idea of it and they considered themselves creative.

They couldn't adapt and they found it so

Unstructured and and it was totally different. And so for me, I realized that the CV was not the right thing in this, you know, modern day and age and, and, you know, every time we pitched new ideas, they were like, oh, I'm still working on the old one. And they couldn't they couldn't understand the pivot or the speed of things.

And that's what this technology's day and age is like. Like, you know, you're working on a project and suddenly, like a month later, like I said, anthropic and OpenAI, they're fighting against each other for they can never be like, actually, that's old tech. Now I can do this. And so someone who's willing to pivot and do all that for me is huge.

I feel like there's great advice for young people.

The issue, I think, is that when we think about what we want to do as teenagers, we don't really have a framework in which to make really good decisions for ourselves. I really like by Linda Grant and Andrew Scott, I thought categorized as quite well. They spoke about your productive assets, what skills you have that make you in-demand, the labor market, your tangible assets, which is your money, your property, etc. you had your vitality assets, which is your health and fitness, your ability to go and hike and do the things that you love doing.

And then your transformative assets. Now that I think is the most interesting part from that book, which is how good is your net worth in terms of opening new opportunities and new doors for you? How strong is your desire to continue to learn and to upskill yourself? Because this means not only can you try and do new things, you actually enjoy your working life a lot more.

I honestly think that kids born today will find a really odd that people only did one thing for their career, for their entire life. I think that would be a totally foreign strange concept. I think it's exciting that we get to multiple careers, that we get to do transitions. Now the skill and execute transition is actually, I think, something that's very, very challenging to do well because society tells you you should be on a path where you've got status.

You're senior. If you're building a company, it should be about how quickly you're growing your revenue, your headcount, uh, that you should be lining up the big mortgage, that you should be having so many holidays a year. And all of this should be achievable, particularly for people trying to raise families particularly, I think mothers is very difficult to tell, and you should be achieving all of these things and being an amazing present mother.

If we started from those four things that that the author spoke about in your life, which was how do we keep them balanced, the ability to get really good at something we actually like doing, to have the time, the energy, to enjoy the things we want to do, that we might actually end up in a situation where we're a lot happier with what we've chosen to do and why, why we're doing it.

It also makes me think of Diaries Zero by Bill Perkins, which is all about those people that are succeeding in life obsess about accumulating assets, having massive saving, massive pensions, and then unfortunately, by the time they get to retirement, um, the boat is left in the driveway. The idea being that they never got to do that sailing trip or do the things that they always dreamed doing and working towards towards the end.

So I found his approach very refreshing. And the reason those ideas are connected is that that ability to enjoy things at different stages in your life is totally contingent on having a job that is, um, sustainable, whilst also giving you the time, the headspace to do the things you love doing. I know you wear an incredible number of hats in all everything that you juggle.

I imagine it's a dilemma for you and your partner often, which is how we allocate our time to all these things we love doing, and actually finding time to go and do lovely trips in places like Montenegro, where we actually get to switch off and not be on emails and enjoy all those things. And if we started from the basis of this is the type of life I want to live, right then this is the sort of status and the signals I want to send to people.

I'm doing well. I think we'll be making a lot more progress.

I think you can hit the nail on the head about the.

Status thing as well. And like.

It is.

That people are more bothered about sending those status signals to other people than actually thinking about what it's like. And I often say this to people all the time was like, how much of what you do in your life would you still do if no one knew about it? Because like a lot of the time, people doing things because they think they should be doing or that it impressed someone else, or like, you know, getting that designer handbag or that fancy car and like, going on a holiday and showing off to everyone.

Like when I went on my honeymoon, I took like five photos. Like, it was really bad. Naturally, when we got married, we were trying to find all these photos of each other, and we hardly have taken any photos throughout our entire time because we're just too busy enjoying spending the time together. And I much prefer that than having this record, although I was trying to force us to do it.

So we do have a record it's nice to look back on, but it's also just like it kind of makes me sad that people are just like content, content, content. And I am in an industry where content is a big deal. I'm sitting here creating podcasts, for God's sake, so I get the content. Content is is important, but it shouldn't get in the way of living life and the bigger, more important things and actually spending time with loved ones and that whole like boats in the driveway thing really resonates to me.

When you lose someone else well, earlier than you should do. I think it takes something so devastating like that to happen to a lot of people before they realize that they're doing things wrong. And I think that the difference is with a lot of people who are, you know, the younger generation, Gen Z are the most criticized generation, I think, you know, at the moment.

And they I think with the Gen Z out there at the moment, they're spending all their time showing off on social media about this beautiful life that they have. They might not necessarily have had a massive loss and understood that they might not necessarily have, like, realized what they actually genuinely want in their life.

They haven't actually sat down and thought, actually, do I want all this? And I think that's the problem. They don't know what they want.

You have to be methodical, I think, and it's it's difficult because you're very influenced by your parents. Both my parents, extremely hard workers, had their own business, um, founded by my grandfather in 1947. He, uh, he was a farmer. Uh, it was, uh, he lost his father. He was six years old, very, very young.

And, um, one day they got a tractor for the farm that wasn't fit for purpose. So he said, oh, let's flog it. And he made a nice profit. And he said, oh, right. Something in this just started selling tractors and all from a tiny house and sort of building up as a bit of a side hustle, I suppose, back in the 1940s, as they called it back then.

Um, but it took off. He had an excellent charisma and, uh, was a very well known man about town who walked the village, you know, phone box to make a phone call to all the tractors. That's how it worked back then. And, and so, you know, that is a business that the crew, um, you know, across, uh, west and South Wales and, and became something that, you know, was addressing a problem, which was at that time agriculture was and still is a massive part in, in Wales.

Um, and I think what I wanted to talk about that you spoke about earlier, about being on holiday as well, was um, you've obviously cracked, uh, what I remember as being one of the most memorable after dinner speeches I heard while I was working with withered orphans and helping young people get into law.

Uh, he was blind. He developed blindness as an 18 year old, and he spoke in essentially about his desires because he continues to deliver for life. So he defied his peers wishes. Gone on to Canada to study even though he couldn't no longer see. He had an amazing experience. And his point to the room was about the fact that he was told he couldn't join a outdoor adventure trip because it says, where we can't accommodate you because of your you're not able to see.

So he went and set up his own company and actually supported people that couldn't see to come along with a sighted person that would be able to accompany them skydiving, skiing, or all sorts of fantastic things. And what he said was, people ask him, were you blind? What can you get from travel? And he said, what I hear, what I smell, these spirit is the people I talk to.

That's what travel is really about. So leave the iPhone. Don't be bullying people as they are curious just to get a photo, not absorbing it and rushing off to the next place to check on Instagram, but to be someone that goes and enjoys the experience fully for what it is. And I'll never forget him saying that.

Incidentally, my partner is a chance editor, so I've got to be careful what I say about Gen Z over the next few sentences. But she said that yeah, works the NHS. That's true. Covid has very much been at the sharp end of all of things when it comes to work and palliative care. You know, be one of the areas in which she trained.

And I think the one thing that came up often from, often from, from, from men in the 50 or 60 or sadly were going to die was their sadness that they hadn't lived the life that they want at their own terms, that they hadn't kept in touch with friends. Um, and really, they spent too much time at the office, you know, things we've all heard before.

And until we confront those and say, how are we actively ensuring that we do pursue those things that really mean what what what what's important to us. Then how can we feel like we're confident in our decisions? And it's very hard to shut out the noise. You know, social media doesn't help, but actually it's that ability to be very short yourself and say, this is what I'm about, and this is what I'm going to pursue.

And I can know that whenever the time comes that I've given it a shot and giving it my best and been as authentic as I can be to to who I want to be in the contribution I want to make. And when I was at a Bristol graduation ceremony in my role as, as the committee, a board member, you know, the speech from, um, from the vice chancellor was about, you know, you as an audience here today have the obligation to make a difference.

You have the ability to do it. It was very rousing. It was very optimistic, contrary to the narrative we spoke about earlier. And I think that's what, you know, I want anyone watching this podcast to think about is that there's always opportunity. Anything that happens to your life, if you view it as an opportunity, then you can't Rheingau rot because you then end up being in control.

For like, you can adapt and take advantage of what's available. And I think that's something that obviously you've lived and breathed and everything you've done up to this point.

I think you've made some.

You've put up some really beautiful stories there. Like, I really it's funny when you talk about, oh, there were two speeches that kind of influenced you as well. Like, it just shows you they picked the right speeches. Obviously, they're better with you. So obviously I feel like lots of keynotes aren't done really well, but they obviously work so smoothly at the time and both of them are so moving.

But then your family business and everything and it just goes to show. I've always said this, that the best companies come from people who saw a problem in the market and solve that problem, and it's not. They're trying to jump on a trend, they're trying to do something and they're trying to listen to other people say no.

It's because they've personally had everything. You every example you've given me today about the The Clothes app and like, you know, the childcare, it's because they're sitting there suffering And most of the time, what we're going to realize is that we are not alone, even though you're a company of one, which we're going to talk about, we're not alone.

So if we're suffering with a problem, the chances are other people are suffering that same problem too. And like you said, if you just have a couple of emails, you've validated your idea. Yes, it might not be a big global thing, but it could be if more people hear about it and you keep iterating it. But the best solutions for me are from those people who have genuinely had a problem themselves, and they work hard to find that solution, and they care about that solution.

That's what it is. And so that's also the reason why I started my company. I've been running my own business for 15 years, and during that time I've been networking, going to different. I was going like 3 or 4 networking events a week. And when you're in your 20s, that's probably okay, because you've got the tolerance to drink every night and go out and go back to work the next day.

When you're in your 30s, that energy slows down and your priorities shift, too. And you also want to meet other people. Like, I was out there meeting people and they were just giving me the business card. It was so transactional. And I was like, this is not how you do business. And I was like. And very occasionally I'd meet the one person who I sat down with.

Her real conversation went, oh my God, that was amazing. And I'm like, that was worth coming out tonight to me. That one person. And I started to think, imagine it. Every event I went to, I just had that a person that did that, that really transformed me. And so that's basically why I tried to create an environment where it was like that every single event, you were guaranteed to meet people like that who are transformative.

And that's how I ended up doing what I'm doing now. And I feel like that's why I resonate with what you're doing, because you're helping other people see that you don't like. You mention all these things which are so filled in my content, I was like, you don't need to chase growth. You don't chase scale. You know, the chase is like VC funding and stuff.

You can just be you and be the most profitable version of that. And that's why this company of one thing for me, when you've been talking about it and you've been doing workshops on it. It just resonates with me because I read that book a couple of years ago, maybe probably less than actually, I feel like it was quite recently.

It was when I was kind of going through a time when I'm sitting there going, why am I running this agency? Like, what am I doing? Or having so many problems with start trying to find good people. The profitability margins, like, you know, deadlines would come in. Staff don't respect deadlines. They eat into all your profit margins.

And I'm like, if I just did this by myself, I would have all the money. Why am I giving it away to these people? And it's sounds really cynical and like mercenary, but but logically, why are you doing that? If you spoke to an investor, they'd be like, well, why are you doing that? And so reading the book kind of made me think about it.

And so you're actually teaching this to people. So I'd love to hear more about that, because my issue we spoke about is that I think that companies of one are not seen as successful. They're not sexy because everyone wants to talk about big VC funds. Like I said, scale, growth, speed. They're the big buzzwords.

Like if you're going big and like, you know, I talk about this all the time and I'm like saying people, people talk about numbers. I said of the day I was on my applications for our membership and and I made a poster deliberately, my whole pot of bullshit series of the week. And, and I was like, I've had 2700 applicants for, for knobs recently and like, you know, and I said, these numbers aren't real.

I was like, everything else about the post was real. But those and people go, you deserve those numbers. I was like, but why? Why does it mean that that's more successful? I was like, actually, doesn't that mean that I've differentiated my company badly so that there's too many people who are applying or aren't right for the and it's but it's interesting.

But people are going, oh, that means you more successful because you had more people. There was so much stuff around growth, scale and speed. And that's the that's the definition of success, because that is a narrative. That's what people put in PR that's what you see in the magazines that all these companies raising big funds, they're the big ones to watch.

But actually a lot of these ones are the ones that run companies badly and lose all the investors money. But no one's talking about that. And actually the ones who are running company are the ones are the ones who are having a beautiful life with their kids. Loads of spare time, a lot less stress, a lot more money in the bank.

But why are people talking about that? And I'm glad that you are. So I want to hear from you about what you do.

Yeah. Thank you. I really, really important question. Yeah. Paul Jarvis, who won back in 2019, I think he presented a vision that perhaps we as a society not not ready for. We're a very tribe based species. We're very concerned about being included and being in demand and being part of the populace and part of a bigger working machine, as it were.

So that's why, for whatever reason, we ascribe value to someone who has a digital thing on our phone that says a number like 1 million, even if that person is engagement might just be a few hundred people on a given post. Yeah. People just like big numbers, and they think it's some sort of signal of demand and value.

What we can do by defining what company one is to help the audience get a sense of what it's about is essentially that historically, in order to create an effective venture that was generate enough income to provide you with the lifestyle you wanted, you typically needed a lot of capital, typically a product, obviously a more service based than ours and historically been the case.

But citing, again, like my grandfather's example, to be a successful tractor dealership, you needed premises. You needed the capital to buy expensive machinery. You needed the ability to be able to service and support farmers that were having issues with it, with it, their parts and their their their machinery.

That is still true for that type of business today. But with the emergence of technology, with the knowledge based economy, we moved to a model that said, actually, we need a marketing person. We are an octopus. We a finance team. We need all of these things. We get started to deliver a service to a person or a company that enables us to flourish and be profitable.

Now, of course, you and I realize that actually, if you've got a very good skill and a strong client base and net worth of people that you can solve problems for, there actually is something you can do very well and very profitably from, from the off. You know, building the company of one is, as you said, as an accelerator, is a a platform that enables people to get to that place.

I become profitable immediately. Something that I've launched the last few weeks is something that that can happen very quickly. To give you another example. I was at law school. You assume that you'd have to join a big firm in order to be a great, successful commercial lawyer. A friend of mine called Glenn, who is now traveling the world living and radically is still a lawyer but part strategist.

So he's created this wonderful role where he advises startups that can't afford the five, 600, 700,000 pounds an hour fees that the big law firms are charging to have the best advice. He can be extremely cost effective at solving specific problems. For example, things like doppelganger instances where companies have tried to imitate others things around share issuance challenges.

He's someone that can address them as a person of one, and if he needs extra support here and there, he can, on a consultancy basis, get someone on a temporary contract, support him as an where to work demands it that he's totally in control of his overheads to control the way he works strong. You can do legal work from anywhere.

It's a really brilliant model in an industry where people assume things are very fixed and very hierarchical and actually only operate a certain way, so that's a major change that's happening within that profession. Another example, incidentally, on nomad living is something called Nomad the Nomad list.

This was an individual that was living nomadic in Chiangmai. Realized actually, how do I know where's a good place to live? Uh, as someone who's a digital nomad, good internet, good health service or community resisting people so I can actually build a life and not have a miserable nomadic existence, which can be the case for a lot of people.

So we crowdsource information from all the nomad community about these particular metrics. Where is a good place to live? It took off passively, then converted to a website, created a paid community, and was making over $1 million in revenue within within a couple of years. So something very, very simple that he knew a lot about, that he had distribution and that he would solve a problem for all people who wanted to live that life, was able to create it.

So essentially all the ingredients you need are something you're very good at, problem that you're looking to solve with using that scale and the ability to wise a is is client range mounted, you know, to overcome society's perception of having a very set path and either going and building a massive company or being the top person in a respected industry, actually kind of middle path to see what happens.

Building a company of one. I love the fact that I've got recent graduates, mid-career professionals, and seasoned entrepreneurs all saying, I believe this is something that can produce something really life changing for me, or at least build a skill that didn't have before that might improve my my applicant.

So that's what I want to take forward. In schools and universities, you know. Why can't this be a model for for anyone to essentially what they're doing in that accelerator is we're really dumbing down on what is the problem you're trying to solve, what is your perception of that problem versus what the perception is for those people that are experiencing it?

That is an important thing that people often overlook. They become obsessed with the solution and the service they want to provide, not. What are the pain points for that specific individual or that group of people that you're trying to serve, which better allows you to have product market fit, which is the huge aspect of this.

It then becomes about why you uniquely place to solve it, a story you can tell. What means are your influential? You convince them whether you're absolutely the right person to solve this problem for them. How would you choose the pain that you're willing to pay to solve it? And then it becomes a question of how much you want to scale it.

It's not about becoming global necessarily. You can have a very profitable business with a nice small client base that you serve very attentively and very well, and actually have replenishing ecosystems of clients over time, which leads to amazing outcomes. My view on poor Jarvis probably is that he's in a position where he's got a very successful business, he's very happy with the balance.

He's got his life. If he doesn't want to be on the road pushing the book, pushing the theory now that AI makes that stuff a lot more achievable compared to 2019 when it came out, that's probably his choice, but it would be great if that idea was more mainstream. So it would solve a lot of people's worries and, um, concerns about am I doing the right thing on this earth by just improving shareholder value?

What's the mean buzz around now isn't it? So people are always worrying about how is this meaningful, how am I doing things that I really want to be doing, and I honestly think it's an option for anyone who's spent around 3 or 5 years minimum within an industry, learn skills and can just try it in the beauty there so you can try out the days that you're doing as you quit the day job.

You don't need to go all in on it. You don't need loads of money. You do need those things that I spoke about and the ability to just go for it. Build in public if you can, because that is what really gives you a sense of is there a type? This is a demand and that's a journey. I'm going on myself with my cohort. So let's see how we all say by the end of the year.

Yeah.

Wow.

I mean I feel like it's it's a lot more achievable as well when you hear it, because I feel like when you hear success stories in entrepreneurship, like you're hearing, I don't know, Sam Altman story or whatever, you're hearing all these big guys and, and and you can't really relate to it because they're just so big scale.

Either they've already been in that big corporate and they've taken all the contacts I've had. And if you don't have that big corporate environment or experience, then you're missing out on that already. Or they've come from money, they've come from a certain background, they've got all the skills in.

So it's really overwhelming. But when you talk about this one, you said that anyone is just a company of one with a passion and some skills in a certain area, then you should be okay. I guess I'd love to know what does hold people back. So you've obviously got these cohorts. You've seen these people go through this.

What are the biggest struggles of people who want to do a company of one? Are they still affected by society? And, you know, thinking that actually they're still small fry? Because I, because I always find that, you know, when again, going back to networking, I do find it quite interesting that one of the biggest questions that I get asked and most common questions is how big is your team?

Like that's one of the first questions. Like it's a judgment on success. And

people are just say, oh, it's only me. And most of the time I guess it's the way they answer because they go, oh, it's just me at the moment. Like it's a bad thing. And instead of being like, it's just me. 100% profits, money making six figures a year pretty happy. And like usually because the response would be if someone was only me and we'd go, oh that's okay.

You know, you'll get there someday. Like it's a failure. So does that come into play? What are the biggest barriers to it?

So of the individuals that called me to inquire more about the the process and more involved, I would say of the younger biz graduates who said, let me know about the next curve. What, because I'm keen. They often said, I don't think my idea is strong enough yet. I don't know about how my employer would feel about me doing this.

So there's this perception that's very alarming, really. Um, the best operators I know in my network are the people, like the, um, the forex trader analyst in Singapore who's also launched a medtech app and is also a beta. But how she finds it, I love it, but her foyer recognizes if I want the best people, I have to accept that they're going to have other things on the side, and actually having those things makes them better at what they do.

So, um, when I have a close friend of mine, uh, worked at, uh, the Diageo, the big drinks company, they had a distill venture as a subsidiary that was finding new companies, whiskey brands, in his particular case. His job was to find that whiskey brand that they could invest in, look to sell it further down the line and make the return.

And that was his job. He went to his boss. I want to do this for myself. Do you mind if I build my own whiskey or my own drinks brand on the side? And he said, yeah, because you'll get better at your day job. If you do that, you'll understand the few challenges the founders have, how they try to navigate the market.

There are things you've built this, um, Indian aperitif. Uh, it's called actually featured on Alan Titchmarsh to show you there's a lot of Round Table round, great producers coming throughout the UK. And and he sold it uh, and he now actually is the CEO of James Gin James May of Top Gear. And they're kindly sponsoring the cohort and accelerator that are involved with such a fantastic.

Correct as well for sure for Bob.

Yeah.

But um, but yeah. So, so so really what he did was to show to an employer, actually, I can do this. Well, get better on my day job doing it. And it was something that's fantastic all round really. And I think that's what employees is on board with, is if you want the best creative, driven, commercial, entrepreneurial people, you have to accept that they're going to have other things on the side and trust them.

That can make them better. Their day jobs, if we were more comfortable, would be built taking risk and have a failure, then more people would be keen to do this sort of thing. And I think the other thing is people will be prepared and if soon they have to be like really proactive and incessantly online promoting a thing.

It doesn't have to be that way. You can work on relationships very well through spending the time getting in the right order. Becoming a person of influence. People sometimes are comfortable with being on stage and being part of the panel, but perhaps less comfortable with being someone that self creates content because of fear of many things.

We spoke about earlier that the hate or fear hate that people can perceive online because as unfortunately, this system permits people to be very aggressive and very unpleasant. Um, in that space. I think that's another concern that people have. But ultimately, if you ask many people, will they want more autonomy, whether they want to work with clients they want to work with, or they want to work with some of the really good at have complete control about how they do it.

Most people for it say yes, and, you know, it's something that they can achieve and again be laughs while you make your work on top of their day job because you're just working all the time. And so you'd be amazed how refreshing it is, people to be able to have this as their baby wherever it goes. Well, it becomes massive when it becomes something that is just a nice expression of their personality and In creativity.

It generally allows you to develop something and not be permission to go ahead and do it. And the brilliant thing about the cohort is everyone's very supportive, but also asks why and challenges some of the assumptions that each of us is making in a bid to further that particular objective and ambition that person has got.

So yeah, we all want more community connection in real life experience. And and building this type of thing can be done in a way that actually advances for everybody. So because people will say, oh, isn't it just doubling down on the American dream and all being one individualism and being about one person?

I said, well, no, because actually being someone working with a company of one often makes you feel like you're heard. You're not talking to an AI that's taking your course about your service. And equally, it's something even at the least, the customer could talk about the parties as well. So often it's cabin motivation for people that want to start side hustles and things.

So yeah, with all that in mind, I think it's really for me to prove that this cohort and we can create something that does generate value, and then we can see where we take it from there.

So I think what I got from that is that companies are missing out on the best talent because they are often seeing them as a threat, and they are seeing them as like, you know, they're distracted from their job. But actually, if you think about it, it's them working on their own side hustle is like free training.

Like they are actually training themselves in the skills that they need to be great in their job, but actually free on the side instead of your training budget. So it's a no brainer really. But, um, yeah.

I couldn't agree more. I mean, some of the more progressive companies I've heard about, uh, wordsmith AI, uh, a very friend of mine, Ben, who trained in me and my first law firm works there, and they actively told him, like, the fact that you have written your own book, that you have had businesses on the side of being a privacy lawyer, we actually think is a massive benefit to your organization to have this network and this, group of people I got to see.

Oh, wow. Wordsmith straight into. Yeah. For for me to join. So yeah, that is the type of thing that more strategic companies of realizing it's a really good thing. We should push it more, not the old more love or you only present your professional stuff online. You stick to the this party line. And this is the way in which we want things to be presented.

It's important our personality and your companies can only benefit from that.

Yeah, I think so. And so I want to just ask you one last question, which is why I ask every single one of my guests. And that is what would you consider is the biggest piece of bullshit in your industry at the moment. Mhm.

Bullshit. To me it is definition would be.

Within AI generally, if you meet people in a professional context they tend to lead with. Look at what I've done with it. Look how much time I'd say. Look, there's a lot of grandstanding. There's a lot of posturing when actually. Fundamentally. How has it changed your life or how is it improved the lives of others?

That's what a lot more interested in. If you can tell me, and positively, there are lots of companies and individuals that are doing this in a meaningful way that I think is turning the dial and is making a meaningful difference, then great. And really, that's what I wanted to target with Billion Company of one, which is if you've got the ingredients first, an AI can amplify it or be really effective by leveraging it.

Great. But don't do the other way around. You know, the bullshit is I'm so great AI style with the tools. Having ten, 15, 20 different tech bro recommended um, tools were ultimately Claude can do 90% and there might be other things. I used to gamble quite a bit, which is really good for slide decks. But Claude has got to a level that's so good now that you can whip it out pretty really easily, really quickly.

So I think what the bulshit I like to see less of is this is what about an AI to help me in this way rather than awesome AI? And this is what I've achieved and this is what I've done. So that's probably what comes to mind to me.

Yeah, amazing. I love that because I feel like I feel the same. It's like so much stuff. Everyone just says, oh, it saves me all this time. But really how everything is about how you make it a better life. That is that is my whole ethos too. It's like, stop thinking about everyone else. How are you making a better life?

So thank you so much, Harry, because I feel like you've had some great stories here, a lot of great inspiration. I hope any young people have watched this as well who have feel inspired and don't feel doom and gloom like out there, and also entrepreneurs who feel like they can tackle more things, feel like they don't have to go for this big company.

And actually it's fine with the company of one and can hire somebody for the day. So thank you so much.

Thank you Sabrina.