The Exchanges

Q Okay, all that sounds amazing and fun. Why the hell take time away to go write a book?

A Because entrepreneurs love to screw things up when things are going well, and so when I got offered the opportunity to write a book, not on, and I've always been offered this, not on the world of luxury and these A-list clients, but more on, how do you perceive relationships? How do you do this? How do you get to someone? How do you brand? How do you market? These were questions that I thought, hmm, I do it in a way that's me. Maybe it will help someone else. And so I was challenged. And when entrepreneurs get challenged, we just go, yeah, that sounds cool. So then, um, I did it. And I also found it interesting because part of my job is to get into rooms that I, that I would not normally be in. So this was now a situation where Steve Sims was going to be an author. Bearing in mind, my producers, my publishers are Simon Schuster. So I'm now, like all of my life, In one of the top rooms in the planet, I'm now an author with Simon Schuster. This is now a chance for me to walk in other people's shoes and be nosy, and it was funny. I would ask five authors how they did it, and I would get 10 different answers. So I was very interested to go, okay, can I simsitize this?

AI assessment note: “Because entrepreneurs love to screw things up when things are going well”

Q How did you get the connection? This doesn't just happen. How did you just pick up the phone and call journey?

A Oh, I never pick up the phone and speak direct to the first person. All what I do is after 20 years, I've done pretty much everything in every kind of genre and every kind of industry. So, I don't know everyone that I've got a contact, but I always know someone that's close to another person that's closer to eventually to that person. So I go through my credibility chain. So if I want to get, I don't know, to you, and I know Ben knows you, I won't phone you up direct. I'll go, Ben, call this boy. Tell him I'm, I may be like off the rail and I've got a funny language, but I'm all right. And so when you finally pick up the phone to me, I've already passed through the credibility check. So in this situation, I knew people in other musical camps and industries and management. I got them to reach out a journey to do the exact same as what I've just said to you. So by the time I got through the journey, they were like, yeah, I hear you've done some stuff. And I've sent people to Titanic up in the space. So I've got a lovely kind of puff chesty credibility curve on me. They're there. They'll listen to me for two seconds. But once the doors cracked open slightly, it's my job to kick the shit down and just, just get through. So I got into him, spoke about the guy. They were for it. We ended up putting him on stage and he's now termed as the shortest Lead singer of Journey in the band's …

AI assessment note: “I knew people in other musical camps and industries and management. I got them to reach”

Q Well, this stuff obviously gets you going, and you do it because you enjoy it, but I want to understand the economics of this kind of power chain and influence chain you've built. So what does a guy like Dan pay you to set up that kind of experience?

A Pays me a lot. Um, I remember the first budget was 10 grand, and it went considerably way over that, because when someone's passionate about something, they'll sell their child. Um, if they don't have one, they'll sell yours. Um, so, you know, you want to find out what the passion is behind it, and that'll dictate what the budget is. Funny enough, I never really get into it into the money. I get into into the psychological aspect. When I used to get into business based on money, I used to make bad decisions, because I was being focused On a box that had been captured between, well, this is the budget. So now I just go, well, what can I do? And then I go back and go, I know you wanted this, but I can do this. Is that of interest? And is that passionate behind it? And nine times out of 10, you're only going to do this stuff once. They go, yes, you know, Johnny, you're up for sale. And then they go and do it.

AI assessment note: “Pays me a lot. Um, I remember the first budget was 10 grand”

Q and you watch speakers for two days. The lunch is like soggy tuna sandwiches. It's disgusting. They're boring. Uh, I want to do it like a show, like a production. Grammy award winning artists, people competing on stage, shit flying through the air. And I told you this, and you immediately started to like, kind of asking questions. I mean, what was some of the stuff that you asked me?

A Well, I wanted to know what you hate about other conferences so that we can make sure that we didn't replicate that. I want like straight away. You've got stuff on there, like production, music, entertainment. You want to go along to this event. And what I got out of you was these people wanted to be, uh, they wanted to be, um, engaged and entertained. And the byproduct of both of those would, they would go home with emotional content and educated. Uh, they didn't want to go along and just be there and, As a, as a brick on the wall and just sit there and wait for this shit to be thrown out and not hoping just because they paid the, you know, whatever the price was, the sum of it's going to resonate and they're actually going to benefit from them. They've got to be engaged. They've got to be involved. They've got to move around seats. They've got to be mobile. They've got to be active and engaged at some point. Oh, they've got to feel uncomfortable. They, what is it, agitated oysters make pearls? These people have got to be absolutely shit fuck scared that they entered a room of iconic, uh, shakers, movers, people that actually did stuff, and they stood, they stood the chance of getting trampled if they didn't get involved and actually get moving forward, or they would just get passed by the side as fodder.

AI assessment note: “I wanted to know what you hate about other conferences”

Q So fast. Take me to fashion though. Give me more details on that. Like, so I don't think my listeners will understand when you say you got a contract, I don't think they're going to understand it. So like, who's paying you and what are they paying you? What does that contract look like?

A All right. So in, uh, in 96, 97, I was working with Ferrari in Monaco. So I was meeting a lot of very powerful people, but also a benefit that I didn't realize at the time was I couldn't Google them because we didn't have Google in 97. So I was just meeting people that I got on with that then over the years I've suddenly found out own things like England. Um, so I found that I was knocking around with really powerful people. A friend of mine at the time, um, was, um, Uh, Teddy Forceman, who owned Gulfstream aircraft, and I had known him through, uh, through the Monaco days, and then I found out, you know, one, that they actually bought IMG, which owned seventh on sixth, which owned the New York Fashion Week, and they said, we need people to help start coordinating the hotels, the access, the position, the security. Do you want to do it? Now, up until then, we'd never, ever been referred to as a concierge. So when we said, yes, we'll do it, we came, and it was very small money.

AI assessment note: “they actually bought IMG, which owned seventh on sixth, which owned the New York Fashion Week”

Q So talk, okay, the experience thing speaks for itself. Unbelievable experiences. Talk money to me, though. How do you build a business around this?

A Do you know, that was the tough thing, but I was never, I was never embarrassed to ask for money. Um, I was ignorant to the fact that why shouldn't you, you know, as an East London bricklayer, it just came natural. You want something from me? I'm going to charge you a hundred bucks. I want something from you. I'm going to give you a hundred bucks. It was a very easy thing for me to ask for money. As I started doing this and getting people into clubs when I was a doorman, when I started sending people into parties that they shouldn't have gone into, it was very easy transition. What became tough was when you actually try to legitimize it, and you actually try to make it a real business, and that's where you kind of screw up and fuck up like all entrepreneurs do. The second you try to make it official and proper and real, that's when you start really diluting the passion and the growth in it, but I really just thought my core source was Was I only wanted people in my circle that I liked and I could relate to. So me turning up to a motorcycle to see you for the tickets. If I'd have seen you and you to come across the prick and I didn't like you, I'd have literally turned around and gone, do you know, I left the tickets at home. I'm sorry, pal. I'll see you around. And I'd have gone. I want to make sure that the people that are in my world, luckily you're not cause you're cool, but…

AI assessment note: “I was never embarrassed to ask for money. Um, I was ignorant to the fact”