What Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Needs to Hear with Daniel Priestley
Once you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. Today’s world is rife with opportunity — technology has opened the gateway for every aspiring entrepreneur to make an impact on the planet, no matter how small their start is. Not every successful enterprise starts with a million-dollar loan. Sometimes, it's just a college student sleeping in a garage.
In this episode, Daniel Priestley takes us through the three proudest moments of his ...
- What Every Aspiring Entrepreneur Needs to Hear with Daniel Priestley
Once you’ve hit rock bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up. Today’s world is rife with opportunity — technology has opened the gateway for every aspiring entrepreneur to make an impact on the planet, no matter how small their start is. Not every successful enterprise starts with a million-dollar loan. Sometimes, it's just a college student sleeping in a garage.
In this episode, Daniel Priestley takes us through the three proudest moments of his entrepreneurial journey. Daniel’s journey started when he was 15, working in McDonald's — a job he takes pride in — to being flat broke at 18, and where he is now: running multiple 7-figure companies at 42. We dive deep into his secret to running multiple successful businesses (hint: low expectations), his secret to consistent success, and what it takes to build a dream team.
There's never been a better time than now to start a business. If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, this episode is definitely for you.
Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:
- Learn from Daniel’s proudest moments as a successful entrepreneur, best-selling author, and international speaker making an impact.
- Find out how Daniel’s secret to success applies to every aspect of life, not just business.
- Discover the kind of impact that a small business can make in today’s world.
Resources
- Find out more about the Paseda360 Coach Training Academy and Angela’s latest plans for the academy.
- ScoreApp
- Dent Accelerators
- Rethink Press
- August Awards
- Jammy Digital
- Book Magic to launch this January 2024
- Grab a copy of Daniel Priestley’s books:
- Key Person of Influence
- Scorecard Marketing
- What’s Your Business Worth?
- How to Raise Entrepreneurial Kids
- Oversubscribed
- Read The E-Myth, the book that pushed Daniel to be an entrepreneur.
- Connect with Daniel Priestley on his website
- Coaching with Angela Cox
- Listen to The Mindset Mentor Meets
Episode Highlights
[03:04] Daniel’s First Proudest Moment: His First Success
- Daniel vividly remembers his first proudest moment — putting together a nightclub party for teenagers–and as a teenager himself!
- At 18, Daniel was, in a nutshell, broke. He was sleeping in a garage, working until almost dawn, and doing everything he could to make ends meet.
- He had a marketing assignment at university to identify a market need: a party for teens. As he thought about it, he realised he could turn the assignment into reality.
- Daniel had no confidence in his plans but was determined to put one foot in front of the other. He managed to pull off everything from partnering with a venue and getting sponsors to successfully marketing the event.
- Daniel filled the event with over 1,000 teens. He made ten thousand dollars in a single night — a life-changing amount of money for him.
[09:38] Creating ScoreApp
- Daniel wrote a book titled The Key Person of Influence, which included a scorecard that readers could fill out to determine if they were a key person of influence.
- Readers loved the interactivity of the scorecard coupled with reading the book. Lots of business owners liked to fill out the scorecard even without reading the book.
- Daniel turned the scorecard into an opportunity. He found out that people who filled out the scorecard were diagnosing themselves with a problem. Being self-aware of this problem led people to sign up for coaching packages. They ended up making over 15 million pounds after pivoting into this model.
- Daniel was later able to fill another market niche — the need for people to have their own proprietary quizzes and scorecards, leading to the development of ScoreApp.
[13:52] Daniel’s Second Proudest Moment: Speaking with Impact
- After releasing his book and the online scorecard, Daniel held a whole-day event in the NIDA theatre in Sydney.
- The event had several influential guest speakers and volunteers and earned over half a million dollars in sales.
- Daniel’s proudest moment wasn’t in how much money the event made. It was in the applause he received as he went on stage — before he had even said a word.
- He realised in that instant just how powerful an impact he had made on thousands of people from the book and the online scorecard.
[17:17] The Beginning of Daniel’s Dreams
- Daniel was in the Boy Scouts and loved its philosophies of serving others and improving yourself.
- He knew from his early teens that he wanted to be an entrepreneur, especially after reading a book titled the E-Myth.
- While working at McDonald’s as a teen, Daniel wrote to the McDonald’s CEO about how he wanted to run a branch of his own. The CEO sent Daniel a franchise pack.
- Working at McDonald’s taught Daniel a lot about the systems the business used to succeed. Everything in a McDonald’s branch has an SOP — even for sneezing.
- Although working at McDonald's has a negative reputation today, Daniel views it as a formative time and takes pride in the job.
[21:11] Daniel’s Third Proudest Moment: A Romantic Proposal
- Daniel's third proudest moment was when he proposed to his now-wife after taking her on a short adventure.
- Daniel’s wife wanted to go to Lake Como — so he organised a trip elsewhere while orchestrating ‘mishaps’ that would lead to staying in a hotel near Lake Como.
- Daniel proposed to his wife on a balcony under a full moon: a classic, proper romantic moment. They're now happily married with three children and a cat.
- Daniel's running several companies and businesses, and his first two proudest moments are about work. But there's more to a person than their career–just like this romantic proposal he pulled off.
[27:23] One Hundred Good People
- Angela called Daniel a one-person miracle, but the truth is that there are around a hundred people on his team who make his miracles happen.
- There are several ways to get good people on your team. Daniel began by working with anyone he could find who had the motivation to work hard and learn how the ropes work. But later, he moved on to going through recruiters.
- Sometimes, the best people to work with aren't the fans of the company who already know the ins and outs of the brand. It’s better to work with skilled individuals who can give a fresh perspective on how they can grow the company.
- There’s value in hiring people with lots of positivity who like your company, but Daniel needed to balance that against hiring for skills and experience.
[29:29] Daniel’s Views on Business
- Daniel aims to reach £100 million in valuation for ScoreApp and then sell it.
- Daniel views a business as either built for his desired lifestyle or for pure performance.
- Business as a lifestyle focuses on being free, having fun, and being flexible. The end goal is not to sell later on but to build and grow the business to suit your desired lifestyle.
- Conversely, performance businesses take on debt from investors to grow the bottom line exponentially. The end goal is to sell the business as the exit plan.
- You’ll benefit from having a partner who can take your business after you exit and take it to greater heights.
- Although he's looking to exit ScoreApp, Daniel doesn't plan to retire yet. He might be 42, but he feels he's only in the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.
[32:21] Daniel’s Secret to Success
- Daniel believes the secret to success is setting low expectations.
- Having high expectations will make you feel unsuccessful if you fall short, regardless of your actual performance.
- Daniel knows how it feels to start from the bottom — and the only way is up from there.
- Success is subjective; ultimately, the final basis of success is asking if you feel successful or not.
- This secret applies to all aspects of life, not just business.
[38:06] The Age of the Aspiring Entrepreneur
- Daniel wants to emphasise that this is the greatest time in history to be an entrepreneur.
- Historically, businesses were limited by their physical location. Being in business for yourself meant affecting, at most, your local community.
- We now live in a time when a small business can serve almost anyone on the planet if it can leverage technology and media.
5 Powerful Quotes
[16:23] “I realised that it was only me that was experiencing them as a crowd — they were experiencing me as a one-to-one. They're sitting in their chairs, looking at someone on the stage, and I'm having a one-to-one interaction with them.”
[27:44] “If you ever see a tortoise on top of a fence post, you can be guaranteed that it didn’t get there on its own. It had some help. I’m that tortoise. Think about it like this: if you’ve got a hundred people on a team, you’ve got eight hundred hours a day, so there’s eight hundred hours a day going into the business. You can accomplish a lot with a hundred people.”
[30:39] “You need to find a partner that you would exit to who can take it bigger and brighter than ever before so that they're well equipped to go to that next level.”
[32:24] “If you want the feeling of what success feels then have low expectations. Because if you have high expectations, you're never going to experience the feeling of success.”
[39:07] “I don't think there's ever been a better time where you could just simply build the business of your dreams in record time and make a huge impact doing it.”
About Daniel
Daniel Priestley is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and renowned international speaker. Starting with nothing, he is now the founder of multiple successful businesses, including Dent Global and ScoreApp. As an entrepreneur and author, his mission is to help other business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs solve meaningful problems in remarkable ways through technology, innovation, and influence.
Learn more about Daniel and his work by visiting his website.
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Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Daniel Priestly shares his secret to success — and several other insights about how he got to where he is today. If you enjoyed today's episode of The Mindset Mentor Meets, hit subscribe and share it with your friends!
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To meeting inspiration,
Angela
