Opportunity Awaits podcast Episode Transcript
Aaron Henriques (00:03):
Hi everyone. And welcome to the, Just Doing It Podcast. My name's Aaron Henriques. And as you can tell, I nearly forgot the name of the podcast. I've literally just renamed it from Get Growing Online. Some of you who may be listening may be from the British Pilot Podcast. Basically what I've decided to do is bring the two together and just make it about generally about my life and what I do. Just because I do too much stuff, I do way too much varied and wonderful, crazy stuff. And people seem really interested in lots of different things and to be honest with you, I haven't got the time or the will or the energy to be creating multiple podcasts for lots of different things that I might talk about. So this is more like a personal journal, really. Hopefully some of you out there will you know, use your brains and be able to sort of read the title to sort of see if it's relevant to you or not for that topic, or even if it's not relevant to you.
Aaron Henriques (01:01):
So if you're a pilot, for example, and that's all you're interested in is the pilot stuff. You know, you, you, you may get some other inspiration from some of the business stuff we'll talk about as well, because a lot of it is just generally about life and how we approach it. And a lot of things about, you know, what holds us back from really achieving what we want to do in life. So this one is quite clearly, as it says on the tin it's really about people saying to themselves that they need more skills and training before they start their next business idea. And it might not even be a business idea. Somebody thinks, you know, it could be anything, it could be about some hobby that you want to take up. Some adventure that you want to go on that is, you know, people were convinced themselves about needing all these extra skills and ideas.
Aaron Henriques (01:51):
And this really came about because I was speaking to my friend yesterday in Australia and, you know, he's recently moved from one side to the other and he's had an idea for a business that I've been hearing about for a long time and you know, over a year now. And it's a great idea. I think it's a fantastic idea. He's, you know, he's, well-experienced in, in the field and it's something that would be really good for. I'm not going to tell you what it is, then I'll tell you the actual business stuff because it can be a bit of a sensitive nature. And so we'll leave it at that, but I'm just going to speak about our generic business in, in this sense. And basically one of the things he said to me yesterday, we were discussing this idea and I said to him, why have you not got it?
Aaron Henriques (02:36):
Why have you not started then? And so pause for a bit. And then he started talking on about some other job. He got offered some in in Singapore somewhere. And, hold on. You were just talking to me about this business. You want to start, and now you're telling me about some job you're going to take in Singapore. What, why are you doing this job in Singapore? So then he's like to me, well, do you know what this is going to be really good because the experience he's going to get on this course or not on this course on, at this job for this particular company that he'd be working for it would look really good on the CV before he starts the business. Okay. And I was just sat down. I was thinking, bullshit, that's not the reason. That is not the reason.
Aaron Henriques (03:24):
And so I challenged him on it. Right. And I'm glad I did because the year before that he had the same idea, like I said, and at that time he was telling me about this course, this training course he was going on because that would be the thing that would help him stand out in this, in this business, so he did the training course, then the next thing he told me, oh, do you know what, there's this other job that you took, which is one he's recently left that would give him all the extra skills and contacts and stuff, him to start this business and guess what? He's left that business. And he's moved across the country. And then bang, there is a, another thing that he has to do before he can start his business. And I had to call him out on it because it reminded me of my best mate here in the UK, in London.
Aaron Henriques (04:22):
And I don't want him to end up in a way how, my best, how my best mate has he's in this cycle, which I don't know how he's going to get out of it, you know, I need to give him a right kick up the ass, to, to get him out of it. But you know, my, one of my, you know, my very best friend, I've known him forever. Charlie, we've known each other since we were three years old, we born two days apart in the same hospital. We've always done everything sort of together, but we're very different in some ways. And one of the things that Charlie does, I mean, he's, he's in a trade. So he's, you know, I don't know what you want to call him by maintenance company, a builder you know, a painter and decorator, a plasterer, a carpenter, a every other skill under the sun.
Aaron Henriques (05:11):
Now I'm going to teach you how that, how that happened, because for over a decade now, Charlie, hasn't like, he's always, he's always run his own business up until the start of COVID. So when I say run his business, he was, you know, he's getting along fine. He made enough money to keep, you know, you know, bread on the table for him and his wife and his kid. And, you know, just have a, have a good life. He's not, you've never been short of money in that sense, but he's never sort of taken that step that he's always had this vision of being able to have multiple jobs on the go you know, lots of staff you know, working on these jobs and all this stuff. We've been talking about it for years, the same thing again and again and again, and again for years over a decade, for sure.
Aaron Henriques (05:58):
And every single time it comes to the point where he's thinking about, yeah, let me go and do this. There's another skill he has to go and get another course he has to go on because this will be really good. You know, it'd be really good to have this so that I can add this as one of the services. And this has been happening for a decade guys, you know, he's, he's had this same thing happening over and over and over again for a decade, which has stopped him from taking that next step, into getting staff, expanding his business and actually growing it as a business rather than a job, which it currently works, which it was for him now COVID sort of, you know, took play. And actually he, he went, he's now working for an employer, but he gained the reason I did that was to gain some new skills and stuff.
Aaron Henriques (06:46):
So he could improve his business for the future when he, when he steps out of it. And the problem here, if you haven't identified it already, is that people, these are just two of my friends, right? People always come out with excuses like this to stop moving forward, to actually start their business or whatever it is that they want to do. It always happens. I see it so much, you know, I used to do it. It's like, I don't think it's procrastination. I don't think it's laziness at all at all. In fact, I think these people really want it. You know, I speak to some people where they really, really want it, but they feel like, you know, there's always some training course in general. What it is, it, all it is, is an excuse. It's just another excuse. It's that fear that fear of getting started, the fear of the unknown that you don't yet know.
Aaron Henriques (07:44):
You think it's scary, starting a business. I think it's scary hiring staff. It can be, you know, particularly staff because they are a pain in the ass, humans. They're unpredictable. They may not do as you expect them to do and cost you a lot of money. But it's, it's something guys that, you know, unless you actually do genuinely need particular skills to get your jobs to, to, to get started in your field. And I'll give you an example, Charlie's field, you know, he started off way back when, as a carpenter and a painter and decorator, and you know, there's more than enough business in that field that could fill him and 50 members of staff. If he wanted to, there was absolutely no reason whatsoever, no need on this planet for him to then go off and do another, you know, 10 or so different courses, but learning how to drive some random forklift thing.
Aaron Henriques (08:44):
I mean, I don't know how that would help him in the type of jobs he does, but it's, it's things like that where you convince yourself that this is something that I have to do because doing this, then it's going to help me magic up my business, you know, further down the line. And it's not all you're doing is you're delaying, ever getting started. Now, the problem with that is if you let it go on too long, like Charlie has, I don't see him currently as he is, unless someone was getting into business with him and was literally dragging him over hot coals to actually get started in a certain way. I don't see him doing that on his own. Now he's been doing this cycle for too long. And that's what I started seeing my friend in Australia doing. And I had a right, you know, sort of talk to him.
Aaron Henriques (09:33):
So look, this is something that you just need to go and get started with. Okay. Because if you don't get started, you'll just never, ever, ever, ever going to achieve your goals. You know, it's not as scary as you might think. Most people are smart enough to be able to deal with whatever hurdles come up their way, if something goes in your way, deal with it. Okay. But you're never going to achieve something by just constantly coming up with some bullshit excuses about why you should never get started about, you know, Oh, you just need to do this. Oh, you just need to do that. And I was saying to him as well, it's not even just that sort of stuff. You know, people have an idea about what they think of business should be in their head. So they'll get, you know, they'll do just whole thing or they'll go and get their you know, their printed tops and they'll go and get their, you know, stupid stationary pens that they've, you know, their promotional material.
Aaron Henriques (10:29):
They'll go and get the business cards. They'll go and get you know, the, the printed letterheads the, that are ridiculous, expensive. And that's what they think is what makes the business. And it's, you know, it's just not, I mean, I've been there, right? I've done this more than once and look back now. And I feel like, wow, like what were you doing? You know, you feel like, Oh, you need to have, you need to be on the Facebook ads and stuff like that. You don't, you really don't. And it's, it's something that people get into their head that this is what a business looks like. So this is what I need to replicate. And then suddenly sit there and it will come and it's not going to come. Right. So really that, yeah. I just wanted to discuss that. I wanted to put that out there because I bet you, you might even be one of them.
Aaron Henriques (11:19):
If you're, if you've, if you've decided to listen to a podcast like this with this exact title, it's likely that you probably have a business idea. And it's probably likely that, you know, perhaps you're one of them that may have thought of that in the first place, you may be thinking that, Oh, know, I need to just do this training course when actually you probably don't when you think about it, you know, if you're going to become a doctor, yes, you need to learn how to become a doctor, but guess what? To become a doctor, you don't need to know how to become a brain surgeon at the same time. You don't need to go on a specialist course on I don't know, becoming a knee specialist. You don't need to become an ear, throat and nose specialist or ear, nose, and throat, whatever they're called specialists.
Aaron Henriques (12:06):
You don't need to do all those things just to become a doctor in the first place. That's something that you do later down the line once you've already got started. Right? Okay. Just like lawyers, you know, they don't, they don't, you know, they have a general law course and they will specialise in one thing and they will go and do that one thing, but they don't need to go out there and become specialists in every single subject to then just start off doing that one thing that they'll be doing anyway, it doesn't make sense to do that. So you need to think about why, if that's you right now, sat there with this rubbish excuse in your head that you need to go on this next training course. You need to go and spend a few thousand pounds on this course, or, you know, you need to go spend the next two years on some college course.
Aaron Henriques (12:56):
Well, why do you really think about that? Why do you, and what's stopping you from just getting started now, but literally what is it? Because from what I see, there's very, very few barriers stopping people from just getting their businesses started. Okay. Oh, I need a website. No, you don't need a website. Why do you need a website? Are you selling stuff online? You know, are you selling, I don't know, is your whole business model selling? What, what could you sell online? I don't know, pillow cases just cause I'm looking at one, you know, do you need to sell your pillow cases online? You know, if you've got, if you've got an e-commerce business, fine. Yes. You do go to Shopify. It doesn't cost you anything really, you know, 20 quid a month. You're good. Right. But you don't need to go and spend 5,000 pounds.
Aaron Henriques (13:43):
And then she spoke to someone the other day, they spent 5,000 pounds. It's not even a functional website. It's just a brochure website. I'm like, wow. You know, you you've got no traffic. You've got no customers. You just spent 5,000 pounds on that. But I don't, but I don't begrudge them because I've been there. You know, I spent thousands on websites and stuff like that before I spent thousands on marketing, I spent thousands on, you know, bullshit stationary that literally when I sold my house, I just dumped it all because what am I going to do with it? And never use it. Never use any bloody letterheads, thousands of the things, you know, I had thousands of the things, all these business cards, I've never used, like, why do you need a business card? But who uses business cards anyway, these days? Like, it's just so ridiculous.
Aaron Henriques (14:26):
And so think about what's your excuse, why to get started and, you know, put it, put it on the wall and see if you can see if you can knock it out. And if you don't, if you think you've genuinely got a valid excuse as to why you're not getting started, message me, tell me what your excuse is. I'll chat to you. I will chat to you and I will get to the bottom of it with you because so many people convince themselves and stop themselves getting started and it's not right. You know, go and just do it. You know, Nike has been given out this slogan, which has sort of been the reason why I've said just doing it rather than just do it, but just doing it. That's me just doing it. I get on with stuff. I get ideas. I run with it and I'll just do it.
Aaron Henriques (15:13):
And sometimes it doesn't work out. Right. But if it's something I'm really passionate about, I work, I work away. I work it out, you know? But it is something I've learned over time, but that's what you should be doing. You know, you should be really out there looking and thinking about who's been there before me who could stop me from wasting a lot of time and money, because while you're spending time on these courses, you could be spending time on starting your business and growing your business, growing your reputation, getting some money in. Okay. So anyway, I want to leave it at that because I just wanted to talk about it because I just feel like there's a lot of people that just sit there and just make these excuses up all the time. And it just stops them from getting started. And really all it is is fear.
Aaron Henriques (16:06):
You know, you're a bit fearful of the unknown. Okay. It's not that scary once you've done it. Believe me. It's not that scary once you've done it. You know, I'll knock out Mo I could knock out a business in over a weekend, have it up running, make some money very quickly like that now. And it's something that if it's something that you want to do that you really want to do, if you're passionate about doing it, please just go and get started. Let me know how it goes. You know, just pop me a message. And yeah, and we can, we can have a chat about it because I'm more than happy to have a, you know, a few, a few message exchanges on about, you know, if it's going to help you get, get started, I'm more than happy to do that. Okay. So anyway, hit me up.
Aaron Henriques (16:59):
Where can you find me today. You can find me on Instagram is @AaronHenray. That's AaronHenray. Go and Thursday me there. And if you like the podcast, if you'd like to hear more stuff like this, or if you've got an interest in aviation, particularly, it's not just those two topics, I'm going to talk about business and aviation, but they're some of the things there's going to be other things talking about, like law. I'll tell you more about that in the future. Why law? Also lots of marketing stuff, just general life stuff. You know, life happens to a lot of people investing as well. That's something I've been getting into you know, wherever it stocks shares and also gold as well. That's something that I've been looking at and property as well. So there's lots of stuff coming up over the time, just subscribe.
Aaron Henriques (17:52):
If you don't like the topic, when it comes up, you know, I don't post on a regular schedule. I post, when I want to post, when I've got something to say, then I'll post it. Okay. You're not going to hear any fancy jingles from me. You're not going to you know, get every Monday at 6:00 AM, a post comes out and every first day at 9:00 AM, a post comes up, not happening guys. You know, if it, if I don't have anything to say for six weeks, I won't post anything. Okay. But equally, if I have lots to say, I might bombard you every day. Right. But just read, read the title. If it's something that you think is going to interest you, then, you know, come and have a listen. All right. So subscribe, follow me, @AaronHenray on Instagram or Twitter, I don't really use Twitter, but I've got like a measly 24 followers. So just give me a hello, but yeah. Anyway, until next time, just go and get started.
