Fatherhood, Freedom and Rebuilding feat Lee Smith

00:00 Most men talk about success, the real wisdom lives in the comeback. In the first Comeback Kings episode Lee Anthony Smith shares his lowest points talks about his rebuild and the focus that turned him into a deal maker who helps others find freedom. Roll theme! Welcome to The Jonnie Jensen Show, where modern dads discover how to create the true riches relationships and results they deserve. Get your High Value Man blueprint and join our community at highvaluemanproject.com Let's go! Hello men welcome to The Jonnie Jensen Show it is me Jonny Jensen yes founder and head coach of the High Value Man Project

00:46 There's been a couple of weeks, I think. Well no 10 days certainly and I apologize for that but sorry not sorry! I have been building out our new school group if you've used School, if you've heard about it, It is basically a community app with coaching sort of section classroom loads of community engagement. Basically all the things that you might associate with perhaps a Facebook group It's now off of the bloody FB in somewhere where you've got much more control, privacy and it's just great actually. So if you go to highvaluemanproject.com forward slash group that will get you in there. It's free at the moment at the base camp level, or you can get into inner circle as a founder rate in there so all this stuff that we talk about on this show is available in there. In this episode, We're going to be interviewing another guest an awesome guy called Lee

01:42 Lee Anthony Smith. I got his name wrong so many times because it's three parts to it, and it just confused me where have I put it? Where have I put it? I can't even find the show notes that I've made. What have I done with them? Have I pulled them out into a separate...I can't even find them! Now I feel really self-conscious that I'm going to get his name wrong. Anyway, we recorded it a couple of weeks ago and that's why that's basically happening. Um, I'll look it up whilst I'm rabbiting onto you. He's a dude! We met each other on LinkedIn and we got talking

02:19 He basically is a businessman. He now buys and sells businesses, Lee Anthony Smith I did get it right? It's just that his name is Lee the Anthony bit is random but apparently there's another Lee Smith. I don't know whether he was a gunman or a porn star but anyway yeah so Lee's a dude basically a dad couple of kids different mums There's a whole divorce story in there and sharing about what it, you know how he came to be in both those relationships. A bit of fun about a curious early career business that he alludes too that I think I guessed here! This happens quite a lot on podcasts

03:03 The most random thought comes into the bottom top of my head and I just say it, and then the guest goes yeah that is what happened actually. So anyway if you keep listening and you will hear the random business that i guessed which i think was pretty close actually If you lived in London in the 90s and ever used a public phone then you might have an idea what I was talking about so the Comeback King series...I had It's all about the journey and the experience of men who have come back, no surprise from some kind of adversity or challenge. We interviewed Mark Almrod if you go back in the podcast I think it was probably when it was a Team Superdad podcast but we'll go back

03:49 A bunch of episodes. I just searched Mark Ormerod in my show listings and he's a classic one, a soldier got half his flipping arm and both legs blown off in Afghanistan and it's incredible his comeback story and what is creating now in this new life kind of is a new guy, new body. He could be Lee is an example of that as well. He now, as an investor buys and sells companies

04:26 And I'm going to be talking about the new podcast series, The Man We Are Today. If you've heard anyone on another podcast or you think that might be you, it's got to be fun. It's got to be someone interesting so we can keep the energy up. I struggle when it's really flat and yeah whether that's you or whether you've got a guest uh... You've heard another podcast feel free to recommend them send them my way or just let me know and I will reach out to them

05:17 As I said, the School Group is live in a circle. It's got a founder's offer which is ridiculously discounted and the base camp is at free level of access anyway so highvaluemanproject.com forward slash group. We'll see you in there without further ado let's get on with the guest episode with Lee Anthony Smith Lee, it's great to have you here on The Jonnie Jensen Show. We obviously met on LinkedIn. For listeners who don't know you tell us a little bit about yourself? Okay so my name is Lee I'm based in South East London UK and for the last 12 years been acquiring businesses and now on a journey to help others with financial freedom

06:03 Awesome. And you're a dad as I understand? Got two children, I've got a daughter of 24 years old and a son of 13 years old Okay good! Other than the gender difference that you're ready to go the teenage roller coaster again? I'm in...I'm in the storm! I said for the first time the other day when someone asked me oh yeah because my kids birthdays are both about to come up was like oh yeah they're basically 16 I think because around six and four was just a painful time, because it wasn't long after the breakup. It was also a magic time because we just had so much fun tissing about as ourselves and then there i was going on they're 16 and 14 and it just was really present to okay i've got two young adults in my life now yeah it's so much easier when they're a lot younger yeah exactly you've got

07:01 Family stories as well as business stories and this episode, people would have just heard me in the roll-in talking about the Comeback King series. And it's really powerful to hear men talk about their journey and what you know...the lessons they've learned. Inside The High Value Man we're big on that balance between home life family life your personal well being and then with the business success as well Your journey in terms of business, has it always been finance you've been involved with or where does your business journey start? Definitely not. So we grew up on a council estate my dad was that typical great role model big strong scaffolder in construction real man's man so he was an amazing role model and then I just had hundreds of jobs I was temping working for Ratners Jewelers famously made redundant after what

07:53 And then just floated around, had no idea what I wanted to do. It was very disruptive at school so i left pretty clueless and then just started working in jobs and I was just friendly making friends with people higher up the chain and then got invited into doing finance for a law firm and it pretty much took off from there. Started doing accountancy gave up after kind of a year and a half of studying it but through Every time I looked at my payslip, I saw P-A-Y-E and N-I. And I was like who the hell is taking all this money out of my payslip? So after I figured stuff out, I went freelance pretty quickly and then started setting up my own small businesses. Yeah the journey went on from there. Wow so how old were you when you started your first business?

08:48 It was late 1990s, so it was about 20... 26? 27. Okay and was there a big motivator there? Was there a point in life you know or is it just purely that young bloke with the desire to be in control of his own destiny? Yeah that's a good one I've only thought about this recently So there were three role models who was big, strong always took us out and kind of showed me that kind of manly side of stuff. There was a guy called Uncle Mick in our family he would turn up in a Lamborghini Lotus took us out on a kind of super yacht and we you know were coming from like council estates it's like wow who is this guy? Yeah! And then I had my uncle as an accountant which is why I got into finance because I was like he's the richest in our family

09:42 Let me get into finance. But this other guy, Uncle Mick was always in my brain thinking how the hell is he doing what he's doing? How is there and we're down here and my dad's kind of a good friend with him so these role models without thinking about it were subconsciously affecting me and I only realized that probably in the last five to ten years how much they actually affected me. And what was your, you know as a young bloke what kind of personality like? Were you pretty outgoing or something different. Yeah I was the youngest of three boys so i was very cheeky especially at school always on the back of the class being disruptive never rude or like vandalism but definitely cheeky definitely pushing boundaries didn't like homework didn't like being told what to do

10:30 Again, taking off to my father. He was a very strong figure he didn't like being told what to do and that definitely followed and yeah very proud to say that's stood me well over the years with everything that's happening in life Yeah, yeah. Coming out of school you've kind of answered this already but I take it exams weren't too much a priority and stuff for you were they? I was pretty much top of the class for quite a long time until I got in with the wrong group of guys probably when i was about 12-13 and from there is all about fun It's all about fun being mischievous and then left school my GCSEs were shocking

11:10 It's so much so that I wanted to stay on three levels and they said no, you're too disruptive. You don't know what you want to do. So thankfully, thankfully they didn't let me stay on and I just went straight into a job working at the jewelers and then quite quickly became top salesperson became assistant manager Then Made Redundant, then Aimless. Then followed my kind of uncle's footsteps into finance and then that's when entrepreneurship really started when I became self-employed. And were you in, you know this age 26 just starting your first business. Were you in a relationship at that time? What was the story behind kind of your love life and relationship side of things? No I was pretty reckless so I was working for this law firm freelance started my first two companies based out of Mayfair DJ agency and another entertainment business which I won't go into too much detail

12:09 Which was involving phone boxes and why possibly. All right, okay. By a very unique niche at the time there's only one of us. There was only one other person doing this so it was really fun all my friends I really wanted to be my best friend at that point. Oh wow, okay yeah! That was a wild shot... I don't know what i was doing but did you know what happens quite often when I'm doing the podcast? Almost half joke thing to say and then someone goes yes that's true how did you know that?! And then we just move on like awkwardly you know. They've forgotten their original question now

12:55 Yes, I know it's about love life and relationships. Oh yeah, love life! Just interested to hear the sort of the... Like everything with high value marriage it's always about the two sides of it, the two sides of the man you know? And hearing your story there that is very similar in entrepreneurs, in men that are happy just to take risks. That experience through school of being cheeky never really Horrifically smashing things up or breaking the law but you know in terms of exams and focus and everything probably what they call today, you know ADHD. Yeah I've come to that conclusion as well yeah I was always daydreaming looking out the window didn't like just listening to someone talk very visual like more hands-on stuff

13:38 And then the relationship side of things is really interesting as well. Hearing how men are in their youth and their attitude towards relationships I find generally shapes a lot of decisions we make, good or bad basically Yeah, it definitely wasn't a good example. Now I've got a daughter that's hopefully...I'm on the mend! Definitely better person but when I was running those first two businesses one of them little bit questionable I went to get some marketing material done so I went to a design house, can't remember the name of it and it was on a Saturday and I walked in and instantly fell in love with the woman in there So I was getting some material printed up

14:23 And this was a business in that kind of sector where it could possibly be frowned upon. Anyway, long story short fell in love with this woman walked outside the store I rang the shop number and asked if she had gone on a date with me. And thankfully she said yes, anyway so that blossomed and she was the mother of my daughter in the end but that business that was really exciting went by the wayside because it wasn't really compatible with her solid relationship let's say yeah and and that was probably the start of where i went on a journey

15:01 That's probably the hero's journey, you know. Great relationship I wasn't the perfect kind of guy. I was probably a little bit warped, a bit like my dad, a bit of a womanizer didn't really have the really good grounding of being good to women at that time and then when daughter was born whole new realization of what the world means first sense of real purpose. Yeah how old were you when your daughter was born? 28 Right so two years after he started your business Some level of whirlwind relationship, falling in love head over heels. Did you get married or swerve that bullet? Didn't swerve I yeah probably didn't do the right thing...I was you know I was in that DJ world

15:47 So I wasn't, yeah. I definitely wasn't as good as a boyfriend fiancee as I should have been. I asked her to get engaged way too long down the process ended up not working out she left me and she had every right to but then that led on to disagreement with access to our daughter which led me onto a whole another journey The magic of the Comeback King series is hearing exactly what men have gone through to reach the highs, then experience the lows. You know it's never an even curve and just... To meet a guy and have them say oh yeah it's been plain sailing from beginning to end well somethings going to go wrong sooner or later!

16:32 But the experiences we go through are generally what shape us and I'm a huge believer in, you know it's not so bold to say oh destiny like it's our destiny but certainly around energy. You know we very much get shaped by the experiences and become the person we are which if we've capitalized on those experiences probably means we get to be more for others and that's the responsibility that's the opportunity that comes from life and the lessons and You know, for many men listening in that single dad experience and working out what it means. It's been 10 years now since my breakup and still you see people on Facebook and the experience is almost identical And then I get into a conversation like with yourself and people before they were broke They had divorced ten years before or my dad and his third wife was 30 years before and you find out it's still a very similar experience

17:27 And that's not only about the legal framework, but the experience of being a man and losing that relationship and the contact with our kids. So I do believe it is powerful to the degree you want to share some of that. What was it like fighting for time with your kids? Also how was business going at the time? People's businesses often struggle when separations are happening Yeah, so it definitely wasn't a successful business and the older I get, I'm learning a lot more about myself. So back then I was running a very small business probably low six figures 100k kind of plus revenue which was you know 20 years ago it was kinda great as like a high paid job almost but then when

18:15 When I stopped access to my daughter, that was 100% the lowest point of my life. But the older I get, the more I realize pretty much what you said is those experiences...I don't regret now because you've realized what you're really made of it brings something out out of you that you thought you never had So I was denied access, so I was going through family courts and I was always brought up watching movies. Of course there's justice! They're gonna say of course why not have shared access? And iIwas going for 50-50 access. I wanted to be there as much as I could for my daughter it was the best thing that ever happened to me and I was denied access not only by the mother but by the court which completely blew my mind. Why would anybody do that

19:07 Which led me down a path of joining Fathers for Justice and doing all sorts of different activities to try and highlight what was going on. So even though it was the darkest period, it was a period that made me who I am today which I'm really grateful for. And funny enough my daughter she often says to me, I can see how much you've grown through the experience we've got great relationship now so although our lost precious years I feel like i gained something even more through the process. It's really hard to explain to someone going through it. No, I got goosebumps!

19:46 It's so hard to say to a dad who is not seeing their kids at the time and in the despair of the time after break up, hang in there it gets alright. And I remember someone saying that to me and I was like what the hell do you know? But he literally did know! You know? To get to a point with my journey where both my kids are thriving to be able to say confidently I make the most of my time when they're with me and I make the most of my time when they're not with me. And, you know who's to say what normal looks like? There are stories so many just like the one that you've shared other dads people have heard me share before recently a couple years ago girl walks up says it's a guy from high value man in a pub and says I think you're my dad

20:29 In that moment, the last two years have been created. This reconnection and building a relationship up there. And he was similar story prevented from seeing it wasn't that he was absent He was told he wasn't allowed to see her for no sound reason But that's wonderful and you shared with me your character, you were Iron Man weren't you? I was Iron Man. I was doing everything i could to raise publicity. I started a group on Facebook called Father's Rights which I did for a long time trying to help other people in the same situation Then I started child rights because someone said to me, why are you just focusing on dad? So I thought okay yeah let's this is actually about the kids. So i started child rights so I was really active and then something... Yeah long story short but then I met somebody new which really triggered the darkest part of my ex-partner she had moved onto somebody else left me for somebody else which she had every right to do but as soon as I met somebody that's when

21:34 And then I quite quickly had a baby boy in 2012 and it was like, oh my god. I'm a dad! I thought...I had a daughter which i thought was magical yeah one of the you know suddenly had a boy and like oh my god this is amazing Yeah But I was going through the shit still and then through searching I found just came across Tony Robbins Okay great So through this dark place I was in, I was crying out for help. It was a magazine and saw an article called Walk on Fire like fuck it let's do it! And signed up immediately, two months later and those four days I went from being this broken down man into someone that walked out and could literally walk through a brick wall

22:27 Complete, complete transformation in four days. I was no longer depressed, no longer down. I had a mission and a purpose and I was going to be successful to show my daughter what I was made of. And also a little bit of success is the best revenge that's kind of in my head as well. There was a bit of both but I'm so grateful to go on that event and walk out a different person now. And Tony Robbins for anyone who doesn't know, which there are people out there right? One of the sort of you call it a modern

23:05 Modern leaders of personal development. You can search him up and see a load of what Tony does, and dear Daphne there was I had a Tony Robbins moment in my journey sitting there watching TV stoned about two o'clock in the morning you know late his infomercial came on and I haven't been to the four day event what's it called UW? Yeah Unleash The Power Within. There ya go yeah. And he really does do that as well But the magic of, you know and I had a very transformational journey and time going through landmark educations programs. And one thing i've learned as i've matured during that process is how wide and available the subject of personal development personal growth self-awareness is. Whether that's faith based or psychology based anything else in between people need to

23:59 to consider there's more to how our brain works and how we see ourselves than we're brought up with. Yeah, 100% and Tony was the start of everything it definitely ignited that flame and from then I went on to learn study NLP because obviously Tony is a master at NLP And wow, if anyone hasn't studied NLP even like a two day basic course for me. If that was taught at schools the world would be a much richer happier place I think. Massively so, massively so neuro linguistic programming people! So here you are now how old were you when Tony Robbins weekend? That was 2012... so I was 39

24:47 Okay, so you're 39. You've got a young baby boy and teenage girl. You're still dealing with the ex. How are your finances at this time? Hmm... They were okay! They were okay. I was running an IT company at this point Which again was doing about 100K revenue. There was two of us, I started it brought somebody in and again after Tony, um...I signed up to Tony's business mastery course to try and accelerate what i was already doing in my business And at that time I just thought it was all about grow grow grow What I've learned now is I wasn't the right person to grow that business. I'd started several companies but I was actually crap at running a business

25:32 And it took me a long, long time to realize that. So through all of my NLP and visualizing I came across mergers and acquisitions in 2013 and that was the trigger point that took me from small business owner to finally the person who always had an idea that I could become but I had no idea how. I'd no idea if that stepping stone, the route to financial freedom. Yeah And that's the magic about life there, is that as men and I daresay it happens to women as well right but there's an expectation and an impatience that we should have arrived somewhere sooner than where we had done already. Yet in that story you've just shared its almost like not a surprise that you'd be like...and then I was 39 and old enough to realise this

26:26 This area, this opportunity. This way of doing business. This skill set. This awareness as a man. This is now my time to go out and make money so I like to talk about that having faith in the journey putting the work into ourselves and having the faith it's going to work out Was there anything that you were doing for yourself around that time? Obviously, you mentioned Tony Robbins there but is there role models or people you're putting around yourself at that time that was part of this catalyst. So virtual mentors I would say. So like I say Tony lit that flame and then from Tony, I thought right what does Tony know? Who does Tony learn from so Tony was mentored by someone called Jim Rohn. So went out downloaded all of Jim Rohn's material everywhere I would drive or listen to Jim Rohn digest and literally consume his entire philosophy for myself

27:23 So I learned off of Tony about modeling, so i'd model all of the people who I thought I wanted to be. I was doing lots of visualization processing you know vision boards all of these kind of things almost incantations of where I wanted to be where I wanted to get too and throughout that constant process I believe is how I come across mergers and acquisitions, which was the solution to all of my incantations and visualizations. And that would be different for everybody but I wasn't a good operator. I was entrepreneurial or liked business so M&A just fitted perfectly for the person I was. Yeah okay great! So then your relationship then you got the kid did everything plain sailing from that point?

28:10 Oh no, it was a different kind of nightmare to the original one. My partner was Latin American I'm not generalizing but as soon as she became pregnant it was very volatile relationship and I was obviously going through Tanny Robbins, I was trying to be the best person I could and had the most insanely volatile home relationship ever for whatever reason volatile and maybe it was some of that was probably highlighting the volatility I had in myself, so i just didn't stop. I just started practicing meditation so just another tool set, tool in my artillery. I just kept learning different things keep progressing forward. My home life was insane so I'd learn meditation to get it out of my head and be able to deal with anything

29:09 Stressful, home life was stressful so I just kept learning tools that would arm me for everything that was around me. And yeah it's probably only in the last 12 months that home life has actually got really good and there are loads of factors to that I imagine. And you know for me when I see men who've got stress at work and stress at home You know, it's then a case for me to say okay well you're in danger of burning out here there whether it's mentally physically emotionally or all three of them there's gonna be a crash here. You've said meditation was part of how you kept yourself going? Oh my god! Was there... looking back was there some layers of responsibility that you could have taken that would maybe preserved you at that time or in retrospect could have helped as well? Yeah

30:10 But the clash was, I'd met this woman. Lovely woman mother of my son but we got involved too quickly. We very quickly had a child. Yeah my process now in hindsight spend six months with somebody before you have a child 100%. Do you know my story? My story goes from first kiss to proposal was six weeks. Wow! I mean, regret is a strong word right but certainly at the time it was exciting and and i was all in. I would definitely be advising my son

30:57 From six months to first child, to conception. I'm gonna stretch that out a little bit more! I'm probably going 12 and subject to age as well... subject to how old they are blimey but that's another whole kettle of fish totally is getting married a good idea? But yeah, so you said certainly now looking back you'd say right at least six months would have been better. Definitely I think it was just got my bachelor pad to myself and thought right great and then within a month of meeting this person pregnant and here we are child on the way completely volatile wasn't ready for it. I was still not the right person to be in a long-term relationship So I still had commitment issues. It's definitely been one

31:48 Long drawn-out journeys but definitely worthwhile. I've got a lot to explain to my child now that no one had ever explained to me, probably was the reason why. Yeah and that's powerful there Lee, to realise rather than being a distinct failure on your part there was a bank of knowledge that you were missing And, you know for all of us there rarely is a manual that we get given of how to be a great dad. How to be a great businessman? Like this is generally trial and error unless we've had the benefit as some really great role models around us at the perfect time and that's rare really. Yeah I mean my dad like I say was a great role model but in hindsight our wish someone who taught me don't get credit card, don't build up debt simple stuff when you meet somebody wait six months couple

32:38 Mind you, I've got no regrets. So again... And that's for me is you wouldn't be the man you are today without those choices, without those bizarre choices and like I was speaking from myself there absolutely! Interesting though that many men will be reluctant to go out on a limb, stick in their comfort zone. You sound like someone who's quite willing to take those risks who's quite willing The energy, the adrenaline of the moment. What can you say to men who are more risk averse? Sorry what can you say about your version? Especially in the world we live in right now We live in a highly volatile world which I think is going to be extremely difficult In the next five years for a number of reasons

33:29 If you're risk averse and you're waiting for something to come along and save you, I think you need...I think you need to wake up and actually take some action because it's not just cost of living crisis or these kind of headlines and narratives they come out with. It's going to escalate inflation is going to escalate Housing is being chomped up by big corporations. If you don't act now, I think in five years time you're going to be really regretting not taking action It's highly important for everybody to kind of step up and find something that they like doing or move to some location where there may be more choices in the future. I think the UK is definitely on the wrong trajectory like a lot people know

34:15 So without risk, there isn't reward. Yeah exactly and you're as I understand it you're exploring different places to possibly live in due course is that still the case? 100% finally managed to get my wife to agree to my chosen location. And it's only chosen for a certain reason and it's only chosen for certain timeframe as well, but with the trajectory of where the UK is going our plan is to move to UAE for two years until my son finishes school. He doesn't like school in the UK I don't think the school system is very good but the schools in UAE are very good It's very safe

35:00 Taxes are obviously beneficial and I just think it's a good place for the family to go for two years and then travel around Asia for a bit. Yeah, magic! And I love the fact that you know... You just shared there that it wasn't perhaps an easy conversation rather than digging into your personal life in that respect managing those challenges in relationships do you found yourself to be a better partner these days? Are able to navigate those ups-and-downs together with your Definitely, definitely. I have a lot more patience hopefully and i'd like to think i've got a lot more wisdom. I'm a lot calmer so yeah I can kind of reason with a level head and explain the reasons why the choices are the choices and it's only for a certain period

35:50 So yeah, the family's taken my son is very excited. My wife was very apprehensive because she had certain perceptions because there are lots of perceptions in the media about how it is in UAE and its just not the case and I think from her research she now sees that's not the case so she's quite excited about it And have you managed to maintain a balanced approach there? Because I get a sense, no we're going to do this or you need to realise. But actually for different people and if we're talking in particular about the dynamics between men and women there's a different decision-making process which if we've got patience can often end up at the same end point if we're prepared to give it the space it needs and be the right person ourselves

36:34 Yeah, this has been a long conversation. I've been wanting to move outside of the UK probably for 15 years again my dad was a good inspiration for this he retired 20 years ago to Spain great lifestyle he would never move back here and I love it over there so Spain was probably the top choice until we looked at taxes and yeah taxes probably So yeah, UAE is the short-term choice and then longer term maybe Spain, maybe South America, maybe Asia. We don't know yet but the world is forever changing right now and it's speeding up. Yeah absolutely AI has changed everything what the world's going to be like for our kids is you know it's unbelievably different. Yeah that's definitely a big thought process for me at the moment. Yeah me too my kids... And just on that in respect of being a dad

37:26 What kind of a dad are you? And again, it's not about picking holes in you but I find it... You talked before about how finally had a vision for where I wanted to go in my life. What does the vision for you as dad look like and how do you live up to that? That's tough on that! My vision is quite simple. I try and follow At the early stages of my daughter and when my son was younger, I tried to take them out on weekends have as much fun as possible. Have it as adventurous possible but now my son's 13 there is a definite clash

38:09 Because, as you may appreciate because you speak to lots of people he's 13. He spends way too much time on a computer on a headset having conversations with people in the virtual world even though they are actual friends of his they're not just random people that is highly highly highly frustrating and I do struggle with that luckily i've got an IT background so I restrict time I restrict websites I monitor but My dad was always taking us out in nature. I love nature, i want to be climbing mountains with him! I want to be like canoeing across rivers with him like doing real father-son stuff but at the moment it's just not going to happen because he's very much against it very much in the tech world another reason for wanting to move to UAE so we can go and travel the region more do more fun things

39:10 Yeah, where we are right now. It's pretty tough. Yeah and how do you talk to him about that? Do you share that vision or...? Yes yeah we do! We clash heads I explained to him there has to be some kind of balance if you're gonna spend because it's the summer holidays if you're gonna spend four five hours on your computer playing a game you've got to balance that out with gym time exercise reading a book and up until 18 months he was you know reading lots religiously and in 18 months suddenly clicked, doesn't want to read boring completely in tech zone jumping from PC to TV. And it's highly frustrating for me but I do have a plan and that plan is to move to a physical different location get him more active in school different school activities in a different region and then start exploring the brand new region and try make more adventure yeah

40:06 Which seems very difficult where we are. Yeah, I can understand. Do you have the patience to see it? You know to let him work out himself? That's a good question! I'm not very good at patience but yeah iIm being extremely patient this summer holiday and doing things that would grind me down but I'm just going with the flow as much as I can Awesome So, you know just kind of rapidly leading into the final set of questions really. It's brilliant that you've created this business for yourself over the last 12 or so years what does it look like for you in terms of being that leader and evolving your business now? What's where do you get your motivation and knowledge from now?

40:55 My knowledge, so I've now learnt off of four mergers and acquisitions specialists over the years. So I've been buying businesses for 12 years so I bought 27 companies in the last twelve years through this merger and acquisition journey. I now own four companies they all have operational people running those companies so I spend roughly one to two hours on each of those businesses a week my day job is going out hunting for more business deals And what drives me now, what motivates me is helping those operational people and my business partners to become financially free. Because like I said before it's essential. I can see what's happening. I can see the trajectory of not just the UK across Europe across the Western world if you're not financially free in the next few years i think it's going to be a pretty miserable place

41:50 So that's driving me. It's not just about myself, I'm bringing a team of people along with me and now also masterminding helping people Find the same journey as well, become owners of assets and diversifying their wealth not just across UK across different jurisdictions. Beautiful! Is that something that people need skill in at this time or it's something that anybody can learn and adapt to? I'm seeing lots of people come into the space there's property investors moving into the space there's employees so I brought...I met two employees who are working And I brought them along the journey, made them equal partners in business acquisitions. Instant seven figures one of them I exited last year left him with an eight figure business he was an employee before he didn't have business skill set and so no my mission is to bring people along that are just ambitious and know there's more to life than what they're currently doing and want to have freedom of choice, freedom of time, freedom of location it's just trying

42:56 Yeah, exactly. And that's something you see missing in too many people and with too many men today? I'm encouraged yeah younger generation definitely but they've got a different type of business mindset my son wants to be an eSports gamer And, you know that worries me. He sits on a computer all day but when I see what it looks like surrounded by stadiums just like footballers is the modern kind of football heroes the e-gamers so there's definitely enough people out there quite a few people approach me on social media and say that they want someone to help them on their journey So yeah its quit encouraging because we all need some kind of legacy We all need to build something otherwise whats the point?

43:44 Yeah, having that sense of why is a point I come back to so much in my coaching work with men. You know with a strong sense of why you can really overcome any adversity. Absolutely purpose, purpose is the big driver yeah indeed and Just finally, a point I hadn't really touched on. Your own well-being? How do you look after yourself? You mentioned the meditation stuff but what about the other aspects of your life that I put a lot of stock in health and fitness your social life having a sense of adventure and enjoying what's out there What do you do for yourself in that area? Oh gym! I love my gym so this morning routine was

44:29 which has changed over the years as I get older. So an hour at the gym and then an hour in the spa, so sauna, jacuzzi like ice fountain cold showers absolutely love it! And while i'm in a Jacuzzi I would do box breathing exercise to clear my mind and calm down normally do Jodah Spenza meditations yeah in the mornings if I miss that like I did this morning I'll do box breathing Which completely clears me for the day. So yeah, I've got a whole network of tools and so probably after this i'll do another meditation for my kind of second half of the day because I've got lots of tasks on but...so yeah! I'm surrounded by different tools depending on where I am and in terms of adventure I love traveling. So I've traveled quite a lot this year um we've got a trek in Peru coming up in two weeks which I literally cannot wait

45:17 It's my second time in Machu Picchu, so I'm looking forward to that. I don't socialise a lot because I love business and what i do so I tend to socialise with people who do the same as me like other mergers and acquisitions specialists. I am building a mastermind so again have more of tribe around me of like-minded people that want to build something So that is kind of my social aspect. I'm not very good at small talk when talking about football but I want to talk about stuff thats more meaningful And finally, as a dad. As a man who has had those trials and tribulations the ups and downs the fighting for your kids to starting businesses closing businesses and reinventing yourself what does being a comeback king mean to you? What does it mean

46:09 It means everything. Never give in, doesn't matter what happens to you there's a book for every situation that you face in life There is a book. There are books on discipline resilience never giving up how to be wealthy how to market how to reinvent yourself whatever situation you are in there are literally no excuses there's audios there's books Podcasts like yourself, you're doing a fantastic job of doing what you're doing. Never give in! If you've got a drive, a dream desire somewhere you want to be just find someone that can help you get there that's it pure and simple

46:53 Brilliant. How does someone connect with you, Lee? If they want to get involved and find out more about the Mastermind or simply connect with you where's the best way to do that? You can even find me on LinkedIn, you can Google Lee Smith Investor I'm on all of the social media channels now if had to force myself Well i'll get all those links and put them in the show notes as well so anybody listening can definitely get in touch and connect with you easily. Lee it has been a pleasure to have you on The Jonnie Jensen Show today I look forward to catching up again soon. Thank you, Jonnie.