Liam interviews Gary Das, a successful entrepreneur who has grown a seven-figure business while working just one day per week! Gary shares his journey from starting as a mortgage broker to building a successful business through various challenges and transformations. He discusses the importance of fitness in his life, the strategies he used to generate leads and create content, and the significance of mentorship in his success.
Gary also talks about his current challenges, plans for the future, and offers valuable advice for small business owners looking to scale their businesses.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Gary has achieved a seven-figure business while working just one day per week, showcasing the importance of creating a work-life balance.
- Despite facing challenges and setbacks in his entrepreneurial journey, Gary’s never give up attitude and resilience have been key factors in his success.
- Gary emphasises the importance of fitness in maintaining discipline and consistency, which has translated into his success as a business owner.
- Gary’s success in generating leads and growing his business through content marketing highlights the effectiveness of creating valuable content for the right audience.
- Gary stresses the significance of mentorship, training, and surrounding oneself with successful individuals to accelerate personal and business growth.
BEST MOMENTS
“I think equally, probably now thinking about it, seeing what my parents went through, My dad had invested nearly quarter of a million quid into bringing his brother’s company over to the UK.”
“I think it’s really important with how you do content marketing is you first got to get clarity. Who are we talking to? What are we talking about? What are the problems that they’re facing?”
“You know, mentorship, training, surrounding yourself with the winners, you know, that’s really an approach that I’ve adopted for the last eight years.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT
In today’s episode, I’ve got a really special guest who has grown a seven figure a year business, working now just one day per week, this is going to be a great episode, where we’re gonna take you behind the scenes, and really show you some tips and tricks on how you can make more money become more successful. And I am joined in the studio with my good friend, Gary Das. How are you Gary?
Very well, mate. Thanks for having me. Great to have you in the studio. Now, look, I’ve known you for many, many, many years.
You’re a great guy. You’ve done some incredible things. Could you just take us back to when you started your life as a business owner and entrepreneur? Was it something that happened at school was it happened after a job? When did you decide that business on entrepreneurship was really for you? So my dad’s always been self employed always been a business owner who’s ran a 10 15 million pound a year business I’ve grown up in that environment. He went through hard times from roundabout six till 16. There were boot boot fairs and markets every weekend. I basically had loads of temporary jobs leaving college, and then in 2003, after those temporary jobs, and in 5060 grand a year, I didn’t know what to do. That’s a gun worked for a bank because they’ll always be around. I’d always done sales. Long story short, 2003 qualified as a mortgage broker. By 2006. I’d worked in London various different brokerages. But my last employed job was working for somebody else, where there was me and a girl called Emma on the day one. And Emma became admin manager, I became sales and compliance manager and Pete was in the cinema every day, managing the leads and the relationships. But Emma and I grew that business to 100,000 pound a month in 11 months specializing in bankrupt, bad credit mortgages. So I just said to my dad, right, I know how to get leads names and numbers now, which was always the biggest challenge. I need two and a half grand Can I go self employed? So I started out in I went self employed in the December, I just moved into my first flat in the November and just went gung ho in 2006.
Wow. So you, you used employment with somebody else to like learn the system? Yep, build your confidence, and then just bit the bullet. Now, there’s lots of people that would tune into this that are currently in a job, and they really want to go and set up their own business. Can you just take us back to the day that you picked up the keys? You moved into that company? What what did it feel like and what were you saying about yourself? And what were other people saying about you at that time? Yeah, I think what as an employee, when you set up your own when I was self employed, yeah, most people called me mad, right? That’s always glass half full. My mum was always glass half empty. So she thought I was crazy. new mortgage, new bills, then go in self employed with no guaranteed income. But I’m a believer, probably as you are, burn your boats and just go all in. Great. So yeah, Dad was always I’ve always still do it now draw a line down a piece of paper, advantages, disadvantages, whichever one’s bigger. That’s what you got to go great. Great. You know, you can only be 51% on a decision. Yeah and ultimately, a bit like the training that we do now. You know, you invest in yourself, you can back yourself, you’re fully in control of the outcome. Great. So that was kind of my focus, right? So so just talk us through that process from starting that business. What did year one look like? What did you two look like? And what were some of the things that you did as an entrepreneur to grow that business in those first two or three years? So my first 10 years were full of what not to do is what I basically call it. So 2006 I was a mortgage broker on the dining room table, living the lifestyle, but I was doing face to face appointments, so we could buy leads based on postcode, so I’d always buy around Watford and sort of inside them 25 Because property values were higher. But then within about four months, I realised I was kept because I was spending two hours driving to and from what food to pick up documents. So I moved to phone and email.
Then kind of progressively ended up getting to a point of earning six figures personally in 2017 but then we know we had the credit crunch. So I was doing bad credit mortgages. There was no mortgages on January 2009. So I had to diversify and do life insurance, critical illness and income protection for what was seven years up until 2015.
It was just I let my best mate buy in, bought him back out, we recruited too quick to sack everybody and start again in 2011 ended up building a almost seven figure insurance brokerage. But it was the first in last out I thought working more was what success would lead to. But 2015, I was spending 20,000 pound a month on low quality life insurance leads and fundamentally hated my business, you know, I drive home and just almost have to sit in a lay by to reset myself before going back into the household where at that point, I now had two kids. So so much. So through those years where you were starting and stopping any loss of the business recruiting, letting people go through all of that pain and those ups and downs. What was it that kept you in the game, because a lot of people at that point would give up, they’d go to what they’ve always known, they’d go get a job, and then they’d probably have to work until they die. But you didn’t allow that to get in the way. So what was it in you that allowed you to carry on?
So bloody good question. I think I’ve got a never give up attitude. Like, you get knocked down, you just get back up. I’ve always been into sport. So I use sports analogies quite a lot in in what I talk about. But I think equally, probably now thinking about it, seeing what my parents went through, you know, my dad had invested nearly a quarter of a million quid into bringing my brother, his brother’s company over to the UK. And essentially, my brother uncle sold that company and left my dad high and dry with not enough product to start the business. But that’s why we ended up doing markets and movies. So I think probably seeing that resilience, you know, mum writing on a typewriter to get some product into being Q for like three years, which they then ended up doing, and becoming a major partner to those guys.
So I think probably seeing the resilience around me. As well as just having the mindset from sport of just you got to train harder, you got to keep going you got to keep pushing, which each is equally became my nemesis by 2018. I think that’s a great attitude to have like the never give up attitude. And you’re just one decision, one product, one relationship, one mentor, one decision away from having an absolute breakthrough and actually, if you when you go and speak to most successful entrepreneurs, business owners, most of us have had more failures than we have had successes. And and like you it’s just about staying in the game. Believing in yourself also training your mind and training your body. Now you’re into fitness, and you’ve been into fitness for a long time. How do you see fitness helps you as a business owner? Yeah. So I look at mental, physical and financial. And I think if you can find one area of your life where you’re able to commit absolutely everything and you’re able to push yourself, you’re able to be consistent, you’re able to dedicate, you know, time, and it’s never an excuse, then that becomes transmittable into other areas. So for me, I’ve always been into sport, I probably should have gone into a career somewhere in fitness. But you know, I never had that kind of career guidance, shall we say?
But yeah, even through losing my mum, my baby turning up early, all of the struggles, the tribulations it was always was 5am workouts, then we had our second child move to 6am workout. So it’s just like, it’s always been my foundation is like a non negotiable task. Yeah, yeah, very similar to me and I do find a lot of the successful business owners that I hang out with, we all pretty much enjoy fitness and I think it shows a level of discipline and it’s a commitment because I will go to the gym, even if I don’t want to go to the gym. It’s just like, it’s just part and parcel of what I do every single day. I will always look to maintain a very healthy lifestyle, regardless of what’s going on and I believe that then pushes me through. Because if I can be disciplined in the gym, if I can be disciplined with my food, I can be disciplined with my business. Yeah. And and make sure that every single day there is that commitment. So when did you say so you now it’s 2015 or 2017? Yeah, we’re now in 2024 and now these last six or seven years have been really incredible for you and you went through a lot of changes.
What was it that set you off on a different path where you had your let’s just call it your first major big break over the last six or seven years? What happened? Yeah, so April 2015, I’d had my most profitable year ever, but because I’ve only withdrawn salary and dividends that we need to live on. My wife and I wanted to move into a new house with a new baby on the way starting school with our eldest. And I went to the bank and they said no, you can’t move because of how you earn your income. So I’d always wanted to get back to mortgages, so in three days around 180 lenders, and then found basically a niche and self employed.
We had it, we found the house in July, we moved in, in the October, I said to my team of 15, you’ve all got three months to find new jobs because I’ve got my route back to mortgages without relying on estate agents or buying leads. So January 2016, I started again, for what the third or fourth time and kept my PA and just went gung ho on social media content marketing, all the free and organic methods that occurred, networking as much as I could, you know, the average mortgage advisor in one year does somewhere between 60 and 100,000, if they’re good, me and Lauren bank 324, in 12 months, working with ideal clients, and then it became a case of, I did nine to nine, six day weeks again, we’ve just doubled our mortgage doubled our expenditure. So you’re back in there back in.
You know, I hit all my targets by the November and celebrated with the TTRS. I remember getting it Yeah, yeah and then it then became a journey of 2017 was like, right, how can we work smarter? How can I not make the same mistakes that I’ve done before, we need to put better systems in, you know, I need to step back a little bit and find more of these ideal clients and it just went on a progressive journey of sort of improving the business, getting to a stage of generating enough leads that in 2019, I was able to bring on my first salesperson. But at the same time, because of writing my book, The Self Employed mortgage guide, because of all the content marketing, my industry started asking me for help. So I then kind of launched a bit of a side project, it was a 99 pound a month membership, because I was getting so many questions that I just said, right, I’m gonna do a Facebook group, I’ll do one live training every week, who wants to come? And you know, that by the end of 2019, was around about 60 people paying 100 quid a month, and it was a nice little bow, kind of kickstart to what was a training business doing great. So I just want to take you back to that that first year again, you know, nine till 967 days a week. I think you made some and you had children, you got your wife? I know, you know, families are real important value for you.
Yeah.
So you were willing to do then what a lot of people aren’t willing to do and that is make those sacrifices and the reality is to make it to the top of the mountain as a business owner, entrepreneur, and everything that you do, we got to hustle. And we got to put in the time and we got to make those sacrifices. What what did you do? Because there’s a lot of people that I meet that have resistance with their wives, or resistance with their husbands? What did you do to not have that resistance in that first one or two years? Did you have a conversation? How did you get your wife to buy into what you were doing? Yeah, so I’m an old school family values person. So you know, my wife and I got married, she very much wanted to be a mother, my father was always the provider. So I wanted that flexibility. You know, my wife still work. She’s self employed hairdresser. But it was just a case of, as you said, sitting down having a conversation, like, this is what we’ve got to do. I know we’ve doubled our mortgage, but I can go all in on this new direction of mortgages again, and I feel there’s a nation and opportunity to capitalize on and just being open and transparent. And you know, our Sundays as it was, was always the won’t work, we’ll have family time, and I’ll realign with our diaries for the week as to where I’m going to be what I’m going to be doing. And occasionally there might be an opportunity to sink out. But it’s like, it’s almost that thing of if I don’t do this, we’re screwed. If I do do this short term pain, long term gain, honesty and communication is really key, right?
Yeah, I did a similar thing with my wife. You know, eight years ago, as I started assets for life, I said, Hey, look, I’m going to travel the country, I’m gonna be getting home late. I’m going to be making sacrifices. But what’s your vision? Where do you see us going and, and really made sure that we was aligned on a week by week basis, even if that was just a Sunday afternoon for a meal. And I think that’s really important never to allow someone you love, or your partner or a friend or family to ever get in the way of what you want to do. Yeah, but ultimately, you’ve got to show them respect, because you’re going to do it anyway. You know, we’re mad entrepreneurs, right? There’s just no reason why we’re not going to do it. So that’s some really good insights there and what people can do so if you’re, if you’re listening to this now, and you know, you’ve got some issues with your loved ones, you know, gonna have that conversation. But also, you know, make sure you put some time in the diary to spend some time. So you talked about becoming a content creator, generating leads, smashing out the park for that first one year, nine to 967 days a week. What do you mean content creator? What do you mean, generate leads? There’s a lot of people now that are going to listen to this that need leads. They need to create content, but they’re afraid of social media. They’re doing it the old way, the slow way. Could you just share with some insights into some great tips on how people can create content? What does that mean? How can they get leads, how they can convert those leads? Because I know this is something that’s really helped you and your clients.
Yeah. So my second book is called The Lead Generation guide because it was it was kind of the challenge that I came up against. And in there, we’ve got a five step method and a five step formula. So to bring it into context, as you mentioned the old way 29 2009, I pay 15 pound for a name and a number, and I’d probably end up speaking to 70 or 80% of them. But with the online world and social media and marketing agencies that became a new business model. So the conversion as well as the number of people you’d speak to changed. Yeah, also, social media made everything free and more accessible. So I think it’s really important with how you do content marketing is you first got to get clarity. Who are we talking to? Great, what are we talking about? What are the problems that they’re facing, because people are more inclined to move away from pain, and they are towards pleasure. And really nail that ideal avatar, as we call it in marketing, their age, their demographic, their sex, their stage of life, you know, the magazines, they listen to the cars, they drive, all of that kind of stuff. And then when you go into the second step, which is creating content, focus on what type of content do they want, you know, if we want good accountants, they’re probably not going to watch videos, you know, whereas if you want a younger demographic, they’re probably going to be on TikTok. So it’s like, are we doing short form? Are we doing long form, you know, we’re here today, doing a YouTube video, no doubt that will be repurposed into audio podcast, you could transcribe that now with the wonders of AI and create a blog and offer the back of 120 30 minute piece of content, you could literally create a month’s worth of content. So then the third step is about now we’ve got this asset and this content creation. How do we then repurpose that across multiple different channels? And how do we put that on the right channels at the right time on social media? So it’s clarity, content, socials. But the difficulty is, we all know, Zuckerberg is like Thanos, out of the Avengers, he clicks his fingers and all our channels are gone. You know, someone can say something about a an injection, or something like that and our Facebook group can be shot in an instant. So it’s really important within marketing techniques, which is the fourth one, how do we take that free and organic audience that’s built know, like and trust with us and convert them into, you know, someone who’s got a deeper connection, it starts with the name, number and email, you know, the average lifespan.
I don’t know about for you, but in our business ranges from about 14 to 17 months, from when someone joins our email list to becoming a client in one of our businesses. You know, you can do that through discovery days, or through boot camps, or through webinars or through, you know, just online nurture sales calls. And if you do that correctly, those four steps, then the fifth step is about sales, you actually don’t have to sell to people, because you become the logical choice. Yeah. So it’s really understanding, you know, there’s an awareness phase, there’s people who are slightly interested, there’s ones with a real desire now to solve their problem, because you know, they’ve been had enough of their job or their mortgage is coming to an end, or, you know, they’ve not seen their business progress in the last three or four years. And then that’s when they’re ready to take action. So the key is getting them to step one and nurturing them through that. I think that’s an incredible process that you’ve just shared. And it definitely definitely does work. It’s worked for me, it’s worked for you, you took your business to seven figures a year, you’ve got a lifestyle business, now you get to do what you want, when you want and actually, you don’t have to spend hours and hours creating content right now, you just got to be consistent with your message. I remember when I first created content, I made a promise, I was going to do a Facebook Live every single day for 365 days. It’s like, what, three minutes, five minutes, seven minute live, it’s really not that hard to do, you just got to make the promise. And through that, the social media platforms love me, I was able to get my message out there, start generating the right type of leads. And you really picked up on something which I think is so important. Who is your right type of Avatar, people spend a lot of time chasing the wrong person, put your time, energy and effort into the right person, and people that you actually want to do business with, because there’s a lot of knobs out there. And there’s a lot of people that will give you money. But you know, I like to work with people that I know, like and trust and work with the right type of client. So a lot has happened over these last few years. You’re now training people, you’re now creating great content, and you’ve really grown a business, a seven figure a year business, how many days a week do you work in the business now? So in the business, typically one and that’s mostly a Monday. That’s disgusting.
I’m happy for you. But I’m also jealous.
But it’s wonderful, because it’s a decision that you made. Yeah, it’s like it’s a non negotiable. And I admire that. And I think wow, I wish I could be as disciplined as you because I do find myself going off on tangents. And I love business. I love entrepreneurship, but I’m not as disciplined with you with my time. So that’s, that’s a great thing for me to learn as well. So yeah, how does that look for you now and how have you How have you been able to get to that place? Yeah, it’s, it’s been a journey of originally in 2009. When I took off my it took on my first kind of advisor. It was a case of right. They’re going to come in and they’re going an hour in the business and income so as a salesperson, where they take three months for a mortgage to complete periodically as her income went up, I reduced my target somewhat, then I did the get same again, she actually brought on an admin in the August and then Andrew joined in the October. And the time that I created, I reinvested into marketing building brand generating new inquiries. So in February of 20, I took on five advisors at once. And obviously, we got smashed by locked down a month later. So it made training very, very hard. But as my as their income began to began to go up, I could have stayed stellar selling, I could have stayed generating an income. But I just slowly but surely reduced my time in doing that side of the business. I put more time into the training, and transparently, you know, I’m in the office, probably one day a week, sometimes two, I do work from home. But like yesterday, we were watching a movie as a family. And I’m sitting there creating a new slide deck on Canva. You know, I don’t really classify that as work, I work the hours that I need to but equally when I want to, if Hunter says, let’s go and kick a football in the garden, you know, just down laptop, two minutes, give me five minutes down laptop and go and do it. Yeah. Well, you’ve got the flexibility, you created a business that fits around you and your family. Yeah. And I think that’s very admirable, and something everyone can take a sort of pillar or your book to be fair. So seven figures a year. Yeah. What would you say is one of your biggest challenges right now? And how are you going to overcome it? recruitment of team. So we’ve gone through a real phase of I’ve got 12 People who work all externally and then the rest of based in my head office, because of COVID, because of lock downs, and all that kind of jazz. Next week is the first time we’re going to have everybody together the knot on a zoom, because we’ve got people in Scotland as well as in, you know, in Wales, and you’re confirming them. So it’s now a case of, I’ve come to realize that if we go to a next level, without me sacrificing time, I need someone operationally who can control the team control the verticals, and allow me more of that creative on the business time to go to the next level. Yeah. So it’s finding Operations Director, that right person, and I’ll probably kiss three frogs already that sadly have gone. Yeah. That that is one of the biggest challenges that we face as intrapreneurs, even in general, because no one will say no one, not many people will treat it like it’s their own business. They will to a certain degree. Everyone’s in it for their own gain, which is fair enough. And then finding people that are loyal. So how many of you’ve got in the team right now? 22? You got 22? So it’s a good number. Yeah. But it is sometimes like managing a youth club. From the moment you wake up, you got 20 problems, right? Yeah. You know, we got we got 45 At the moment, and we got like HR and things like that. And luckily, I’ve got an operations director. So you will find that person, you just keep putting it out there to the universe, that person will appear who’s on so the podcast is called the dealmaker podcast. In your own words, what does being a dealmaker mean to you? Yeah, immediately because of you, I think a property. But I think in any circumstance, if you’re doing a deal with somebody, you’re negotiating, you’re in a sales orientated environment, you’re making something happen. You’re converting somebody from a no into a potential. Yes. So I think if you’re doing a deal, no matter what type of deal it is, it could even be buying, you know, your next car or your next property. I think it’s just being someone who’s able to communicate, able to get people on site, able to build relationships, and fundamentally with an outcome that there’s some kind of commercial gain at the end of it perfect love that. I love that explanation really, really, really, really good. Anyone tuning in now that’s looking to start or scale their business, maybe they’re going through a hard time. Maybe they’ve lost some confidence. Perhaps they’re in a position where their business is doing really well, but they’re working in the business, not on the business. Do you want to just share some sort of final word some tips and tricks, some words or motivation or inspiration? That’d be great. Yeah, the the cheesy thing is your network is your net worth. Okay, great. Oh, 2016 2015, I had one mentor, which was my dad. But even in a 10 million pound business, he was still the first in last out and had his finger on every pulse and you know.
That is basically what I modeled for 10 years. And the big game changer for me was getting around like minded individuals getting around people who are playing a bigger game, who have been there and done it. You know, if you look at someone who’s in fitness, they will have a nutrition coach, they’ll have a strength and conditioning coach, they’ll have a mindset coach, they’ll have a physio. But in business, we don’t adopt the same mindset. So if you want to take yourself to the next level, go and hire the person who’s better than you. I did that in small you know, I played some professional football, play county athletics, because I played with people older, bigger, faster.
Find those people in business, maybe it’s assets for life. Maybe it’s Liam, you know, maybe it’s me, if you’re a small business owner, just find someone who’s where you want to be and follow that time and path because it will save you not only time and trying to figure it all out on your own, but it will save you a hell of a lot of cash in avoiding the mistakes that we’ve probably made on their behalf. Yeah, so true. You know, mentorship training, surrounding yourself with the winners. You know, that’s really an approach that I have adopted for the last eight years. Yeah. And it has changed my life dramatically. As you know, I invest massively into my own training, I run the UK leading property business world training company, you do great training. And it’s just wonderful that you’re out there doing what you’re doing, and you’re helping small business owners. So where can people hook you up? Gary? Where can people come and find you? Instagram, YouTube, what do you want to share? Yes, I’m at Gary das on all social media channels. That’s one hack for you is make sure that your ad name is the same across all channels. So people are easy to find. I’ve got my Gary das website, and then I’ve got my own podcast and YouTube channel and all that kind of jazz. Fantastic, great. Well, look, it’s been wonderful having you in, let’s do another catch up in maybe six or 12 months. What is next for Gary over the next 12 months. So we’re going to find our operations director or operations head of operations person, we’re going to be scaling up our training business but then simultaneously, creating more of it where we’ve got 10 advisors in the brokerage, we’re going to be franchising that model out because I know how to generate leads. I’m going to basically scale that but have more advisors as active advisors as many franchisees that we’re going to provide that to so the goal is basically to double everything double think without sacrificing work hard work half a day or you know what, Gary, man honestly, man, it’s been so good having to catch up. It was a few years ago that we went had lunch together at a canteen. Yeah. And it’s just so great to set up daily Facebook Live.
Well, there we go Gary does make sure you go hook him up and incredible individual, a real entrepreneur, lovely family, man. I really hope that you’ve took some golden nuggets from this episode, because if we can do it, you can do it and we’ll see you on the next episode.
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