The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 032: Steve Sims – How To Create World Class Experiences | Why Elon Musk Is A Great Learning Leader

Starting point is 00:00:00 And we get a magazine, we flick through the magazine, and every advert is so perfect the sunsets going down, and there's a private jet in the back, and this guy's gorgeous, and this woman's gorgeous, and that perfectly manicured. And they just freaking woke up, and they look perfect. And we got desensitized to it, and we look at it, and we go, we know that's not real. But then when you do see something that's real, that's when it gets you. It's like when you see a car accident on TV, and then you see a car accident. on the movies. The one on the movie where the car flips three times and then burst into a ball of flames, you go, ooh, that was lovely special effects. Yet just horrifically when you see two cars sideswipes themselves on an intersection, it sounds and it moves different. And we react to a

Starting point is 00:00:48 different because it's real. It's authentic. It's ugly. And that's what I try to drive home. Get ugly. Get comfortable with your imperfections because they are what is. giving you that patina. They are the aged leather look that makes you real and authentic and I want people to do that and I want people to step away from the photoshopping, texting

Starting point is 00:01:11 modern way that is killing the way we communicate with each other. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host Ryan Hawk believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful

Starting point is 00:01:28 leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. And welcome to The Learning Leader Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Tonight's guest was so great. One of my favorites, it's Steve Sims. Steve is the founder and CEO of Bluefish concierge, which creates amazing, one-of-a-kind experiences for his clients, such as going to Hollywood award shows, racing Formula One cars or even going to the International Space Station. Incredible stuff. Steve and I had a really deep, great conversation.

Starting point is 00:02:18 A couple of the things we got into. Describing why he is like the real-life Wizard of Oz. Really interesting part. Also, what's the common characteristic that all successful people have in common? Steve's network has some of the most successful people on the planet like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and others. we talk about those guys specifically. And also why Steve explains that your imperfections are actually your perfections. We dive deep there.

Starting point is 00:02:46 It's a really, really good part. I know you're going to enjoy it. Also, a huge thank you to John Corcoran for introducing me to Steve. I really, really appreciate it. This is a fantastic episode. You guys are going to love it. Without further ado, it's Steve Sims. Hey, Steve, so you are surrounded by a lot of,

Starting point is 00:03:17 of successful people. And I know some of them you won't talk about, but I've seen pictures of you with people like Richard Branson and really, really famous, wealthy people. And so my question is not necessarily about you and them, but it's about what's the one thing that the successful people, the ultra-successful people you've met have in common? What is the one characteristic,

Starting point is 00:03:41 or maybe it's more than one that these people have in common? I tell you, first off, why, no one's ever, ever asked me that question. So that's great. I would say that it's the inquisitive nature. Everyone that I surround myself wants to know what that button does, wants to know what's inside that box, and whether it be the startup entrepreneur, whether it be the most successful entrepreneur, they still have that inquisitive two-year-old mentality.

Starting point is 00:04:14 I love that answer. If you go to my, I'm not, I didn't mean to plug this, but I just, it kind of came to my mind. My website I have on learningleadershow.com, if you go to what the very top part of it says, are you massively curious? Because I think the most successful people in the world have that natural curiosity to where they are always, like you said, they're always thinking like, what's the best possible way to get this done or what does that specific thing do? how could we do it better? Or they ask why repeatedly over and over. Why? Why?

Starting point is 00:04:49 Why? I think those people seem to have this, I don't know, this innate curiosity which helps create their success. Yeah, as I said to you before, I class myself as a 48 year old, two year old. I'm constantly the guy kind of like walking into bars that I shouldn't be in, walking into clubs, walking into, just going in so many different places just out of being inquisitive. and every time I meet people, I tend to feel that they have the same inquisitive nature. Well, how do I do this?

Starting point is 00:05:20 And what would happen if I do this? And if I go to somewhere, what could happen? And that nature is shared between all of the successful entrepreneurs that I know. Very cool. I love that accent, by the way. It's awesome. So where exactly are you from? I'm a British boy.

Starting point is 00:05:37 I'm just outside of London. Okay. And now you've migrated over to the States. I am. And so you are the founder and CEO of Bluefish concierge. Explain to us what exactly you guys do. Well, we're the real-life Wizard of Oz. We're the people you come to for amazing travel and that kind of stuff.

Starting point is 00:06:01 But what's really made us stand apart is we're your ability to get your bucket list reduced. So we do the amazing stuff. We've had clients go down to the Titanic, wanted to get married in the Vatican, had a private concert in Florence with Boccelli, singing to them over dinner, got on stage with our favorite rock band, in this case it was Journey,

Starting point is 00:06:23 got a guitar lesson by Zizi Top, drove a Formula One car being taught by a Formula One driver in the pits at Formula One race in Monaco. Anything you can think of. In fact, now we're doing one weird because of the big hype over the Pachiao and Mayweather fight, fight fiasco, however you want to put it, we've actually got a training camp set up now

Starting point is 00:06:48 where we're actually going to put you in the ring with Mike Tyson. So, yeah, so we just love to do things that are wild and just crazy and what can be done. So it doesn't matter whether you're not, whether you're an artificiado. If you are, we're closed a gallery. So you've got the entire museum to yourself. If you're a boxing fan, just explain that one. Whatever your fantasy and bucket list item is,

Starting point is 00:07:15 and as long as there's a checkbook to match it, we're going to make it happen. So obviously the natural next question is, how do you do this? And the obvious answer is no freaking idea. Yeah, no, I'm being completely blunt with you. I'd love to sit here and tell you that, you know, I'm hugely intelligent, and I've mapped out this future. No, it was a cluster from day one. one and that's been kind of the spirit of it.

Starting point is 00:07:41 It's like when you throw a bunch of stuff in a casserole dish, it comes out, it's brilliant. You know, can you repeat it? Again, do you really want to know what the secret source was? We've built up a lot of things that we've done. So every time someone comes to us and says, hey, you know, I saw you put this client on stage with Sting or I saw you a walk in the red carpet in the Hollywood. That's great, but I want to do this, which is totally different. to what they've seen us doing,

Starting point is 00:08:11 we have the credibility of going to that new person going, hey, you've never heard of us before. And I appreciate the first answer I'm going to get is no. But if you bear with me for just 10 seconds, this is what I did last week. This is what I did last month. This is what I did the last six months. Is there any way possible that you can be the next boasting point?

Starting point is 00:08:32 How can I make you the next thing I start a phone call with? Wow. So I got to answer. Yeah, go ahead. And so I just, I have that credibility. And if it's, if it's a hard one, that I just think, like the Vatican, I had no access to the Vatican, but I knew powerful people in Florence from an event I'd done in London from people I'd met in Palm Beach. So you utilize those connections.

Starting point is 00:08:55 And before you phone up, get one of them to phone up so that when you do phone up, you've come from a credible source. And so I have, I have two things. I keep my word and I have credibility. And we're obviously on Skype now, so you can't see that I've got a stunning good look. So you know that one's a lie off the bat. So I've only got those two things. Haven't got brilliant education, haven't got marketing 101 from some of the gods out there like Dean Jackson, Joe Polish.

Starting point is 00:09:26 I've just got, I keep my word, I get it done. And when I get it done, that gives me more credibility to do more. So how did this get started? because obviously the toughest part I got to believe is there wasn't really any credibility at the time of the start. So, I mean, that's got to be, I mean, because people are probably listening and saying, wow, what a cool job. But how did you get started doing it? Yeah, well, it's not a job anymore. It's just a passion.

Starting point is 00:09:51 I don't think I've worked for like 12 years now. It's just I get up in the morning, just like I did today, look to the email, try to find out, you know, what was the next cool, crazy request we were going to get that was going to excite me for the day. and a bad day is when I don't get those emails. So it's a really cool drug of choice. When I started this, I was actually a dormant. And I was working on a club and I was a big fella, came from a construction family, and I actually wanted to be the cool dude in a sharp suit,

Starting point is 00:10:24 traveling the world. So I was not happy with where I was within my social class in London. And so what I tried doing was, was I tried to throw parties. And I thought, and this was my delusion, I wanted to be a stockbroker. We'd all seen Wall Street in the 80s. I wanted to be that dude, okay?

Starting point is 00:10:45 Fine restaurant. You know, lunches, you know, the amazing lunches and handcrafted suits and stuff. And I wanted that. And my delusion, my ignorance, was that if I got to know rich people, banks would want to know me. So I started throwing parts.

Starting point is 00:11:02 And instead of charging $20 to get to a party, I charge $1,000 and I'll take over a yacht or take over a penthouse. And I would charge money for these events and only, here's the key, only invite cool people. And I have a parameter on that. We can go into that if you wish. But I only wanted to invite cool people. And I had this illusion that I could then go to a bank and the bank would want to know me because I had this amazing motordecks. And I got to know these people and people are like, oh, great party, Steve. Hey, I'm going to Monaco in two weeks time. Do you know anyone in Monaco?

Starting point is 00:11:37 And of course, as an Irish lad from England, I'd be like, course I do. What do you want? And then I'll go home and go, crap, you know, what do I do I do? I don't know anyone in Monaco. I don't even know where Monaco is. So I would then have to go out and try and find it. And of course, the Internet's made it a lot easier.

Starting point is 00:11:53 And it's the usual thing. You do it twice. You do it twice. You do it twice. You do it three times. It's a habit. It's easy. So once this. started happening, this cycle of

Starting point is 00:12:03 what do you need? Where are you going? Yeah, yeah, I know someone. And then I kind of like knew, well, I managed to achieve this and I thought that was impossible. So that can't be too hard. So the ignorance in me pushed it out there and out there. And then eventually we realized that no banks

Starting point is 00:12:19 wanted me. You know, I'm I have got the perfect face for this Skype. You know, I'm 240 pound of ugly with earrings, eyebrow rings, tattoos. I'm not a guy. If you walk down the street and saw me that you would give me your black amex and social security. I'm the guy that you would walk on to the other side of the path to avoid.

Starting point is 00:12:43 Yet I am the guy that gets those amexes and those social security numbers. So it was just the constant ignorance of not believing I could fail. And therefore, I would just make this phone call and go, hey, I need a lion Sunday. How can I get it? you must have a network that is broad, diverse, and powerful. I mean, how have you developed that network? Well, the network is insane. It still startles me now when I go through my Rolodex and I will, you know, we've got it

Starting point is 00:13:14 all on computers and stuff now. So you're typing the first three letters of someone's name because you're trying to find them. Some of the other names that pops up are presidents, royalty, you know, top agents, magnets. It's just insane the people that I can reach out to and text. It really is incredible. And it still sends shivers down my spine that I'm this kind of kid that's got these people that will answer the call.

Starting point is 00:13:42 The way to make sure that these don't just become great pieces of paper is to nurture and invest in your relationships. So constantly, whether or not you've worked with our people, and we're going to shake this a little bit. Don't focus on this just being a business idea. That rollerdex of relationships you've got is either worth something or it's not. And if it's not, it should not be in your roller decks.

Starting point is 00:14:09 I don't care if it's an old friend. I don't care if it's an old vendor. People ignore those. I don't care if it's a new relationship you're trying to have. And these new relationships can be new girlfriend on the front, new boyfriend. could be someone you read about in a newspaper that just got a job. Reach out to them, all of them, vendors, relationship, clients, relationships, all these people, and just say, hey, congratulations on the job.

Starting point is 00:14:35 Hey, we haven't spoken for a while. You have books, you know, we all go to these events and they give away free books, don't they? So get these books, send them off to 10 people. Go, hey, I was at an event. I was at a mastermind event on, you know, marketing or on real estate investing. and I've got this book, and it really interested me. I just wanted to share it with you.

Starting point is 00:14:55 I've got a copy. Enjoy it. If you like it, read it. Pass it on to someone else. If it's not your kind of thing, pass it on to someone else regardless. Just let them benefit from this free book. Just want to let you know I was thinking about you. Just something that is a lot more tangible and thoughtful and attention

Starting point is 00:15:15 than just sending someone a text or an SMS or a twat or a tweet or whatever. any of these modern-day ways of killing communication. I love that because it's, basically you're focusing on quality, you know, huge depth relationships and by thinking of them at all times because I think people who are looking to just a take

Starting point is 00:15:40 or only contact those people in their network when they need something, that's how you build a really flimsy network that isn't going to, that isn't going to be very good and you're not going to be, if people envision or view you as being just a taker, that's not, that's certainly not a way to build the network. Oh, you're right.

Starting point is 00:15:58 You know, I really think people are a little bit delusional there. They'll send a birthday card to their clients because the clients are paying them. They won't send a birthday card to their vendors. Now, here's a funny thing. You know, these vendors, when you need something printed and, you know, you've got to tell them six weeks in advance because they're very busy at the moment, you'll be surprised if you've, on their birthday, sent them a bunch of flowers or the occasional card or just something that all of a sudden you get put to the front of the line and you can have it in 10 days.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Wow. So it's very important to actually value the relationship. And if it's of no value to you, as I say, get rid of it. Weed it out. Just because it's in there, you know, it always makes me laugh. These people go, yeah, I've got 50,000 friends on Facebook. That number does not make you any. wealthier. You cannot take a screenshot of that and send it to your mortgage to pay your mortgage.

Starting point is 00:16:53 You know, it's got to be of value. And if there's no value in it, don't do it. So are there, you mentioned something earlier in our conversation that you only invite cool people. And I'm curious we could dig into that a little bit. When you talk about what is your definition of a cool person? it's very primitive. If I'm walking down the street and I see someone that I work with, I want to be able to drag that person into a bar, get a whiskey on that table, and start telling jokes and having a laugh.

Starting point is 00:17:28 Okay? If I can't, then I have no relationship with that person. So it's literally, do I want to see them? If you've got a client in mind, there's being a pain in the ass, and we've all got them,

Starting point is 00:17:42 you know, and any of my clients that listen to this, Some of you know you are pain in the ass, okay? But we get it done. There's a magic. There's a source there that still says, we need to have a drink. You know, we need to chat. You know, we need to just hang out.

Starting point is 00:17:58 And if you don't want to hang out with those people, then again, that's another barometer that maybe you don't actually have a relationship with them. Maybe that's just a customer, and that's fine. But if you're kidding yourself that these customers you have a relationship with, just think if you were walking down the street would you want to go and have a coffee with them would they want to go and have a coffee with you would they even know your last name

Starting point is 00:18:22 or you just marshal it and phones up maybe two weeks to get them a newer subscription So what about the details of how your business works How many people do you have as part of your team Do you know I'm going to go back And just finish off answering that first question By telling you a little story of how the word bluefish came up Perfect

Starting point is 00:18:42 So I used to throw these parties, but again, being a big ugly lad, I used to have a bit of a self-esteem issue. And I never thought anyone would do anything for me. So while I would organize the parties by fax and phone call, I would never actually see anybody at the party. I was actually on the door. So I would phone up people afterwards and go, oh, you know, I saw you at the party, but I didn't get a chance to hang with you. We're doing a couple of, and I never actually met anybody. I would always be the doorman. Okay.

Starting point is 00:19:13 So what I used to do was I used to send a fax out, telling you the location of the party, telling you what time it started, and then underneath that, and here's the genius in its stupidity, there was a phrase that they had to learn or know the answer to to be able to get into the party. And it was things like,

Starting point is 00:19:33 name the lion off of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. Name two of the telitubbies. And then one of them was finish this sentence, one fish, two fish, redfish. And so what would happen was, I'd be on the door with my buddy. There's a yacht, and then we went Hong Kong. There was a yacht behind us, and the yacht's going crazy. Everyone's having a good time. DJ's going nuts.

Starting point is 00:19:58 The lights are going crazy. This boat is just bobbing, okay? People would walk up to us, and they would say, bluefish. And we would say, you have a good night, in you get. If you were humble enough to just have a laugh and have that, tongue-in-cheek kind of way of getting in. That was all cool. But we would have these pricks turn up and they would go, I'm

Starting point is 00:20:18 here for the party. And as I say, this whole thing's going nuts behind us. And me and my mate, we'd look at each other and we'd be like, there's no party here, man. I don't know what you're talking about. And it's just kicking off. And they'd be like, I'm here for that part. No, do you know the part? No, I think there's one down the road. And we would just blank them. And they would get all right and then people would all

Starting point is 00:20:38 come to say, Aslan. We'd say, in you go, buddy. I'll go. it was just a simple filter of knowing that if you were, if you were confident enough to have this, this little bit of fun to get in, then that was the first hurdle to get over the, you know, you were the kind of people that we could relate to.

Starting point is 00:20:56 If your head was too far up your ass, you know what day of the week it was, I know I'm not going to connect with you ever. And I'm not getting any prettier. I'm not getting any younger. And I'm certainly not going to waste time with people that I can't have a little bit of fun with. So then that's how the name is created.

Starting point is 00:21:13 You decide that that's going to be the name of your company? Yeah. When we suddenly realized that we were actually doing quite well with these events, we actually thought we needed to come up with a name. So we came up with this name of a company called Tri-Anon. And we'd put a lot of thought of whiskyans coming up with that name. And then people used to contact us going, hey, you're that bluefish company? Because it had been used as one of the passwords.

Starting point is 00:21:36 So I think it took about six months. And then we just killed the name and changed the name. the bluefish. So the crowd, the crowd demanded the name bluefish and that's where it came from. So how many clients would you say that you currently have on your roster? We have probably about between 25, between 2,500 and just under 4,000. I know that's a massive spread because there's customers that, you know, call us once a year and we do a fantastic event for them in Monaco. At the moment we've got clients that were doing a lot for in. Can and Monaco.

Starting point is 00:22:11 And quite simply, we won't hear from them until next year. And they're like our corporate clients. And then we've got our regular clients and need us on a much more frequent basis, which is probably around about 2,500. Wow, that's incredible. And that's international. Okay, so you're all over the world doing events. Oh, we're all over the place now.

Starting point is 00:22:28 We've got about representatives and agents and pretty much every country and city out there now. And if we haven't, we'll move them down. We've got no one in Monaco. Sorry, not I'm Monica. We've got no one in Cannes because Cannes gets exciting once a year. And so what happens is we have a crew from Paris and Switzerland go down during the Cannes Film Festival. So we have people that will go there if there's a certain event that requires it.

Starting point is 00:22:54 Okay, I got you. So over time, you've obviously built up this success over, because you keep your word and you have credibility. And I'm curious about the specific other aspects, in addition. to you keeping your word and the credibility that you've built up that separates you because I got to believe there are other companies, other people trying to do this type of work. What are the specific qualities in you and your company that separates you from the other ones who are trying to do the same thing you are? Me.

Starting point is 00:23:34 That's the big difference. there's no one that is Ryan. There are other people that want to be Ryan, but there's no one that's Ryan, and there's no one that's Steve Sims. So we've done very well to make sure that we are who we are.

Starting point is 00:23:54 And you're either going to resonate with that or you're not. And so we've tried to maintain, don't let me glory it, we've made some disastrous mind number. in mistakes over our 18 year of life. And we've always reverted back to what works.

Starting point is 00:24:14 And you try something and it screws up. Luckily, we've been able to revert again. But there's been times where we've gone, well, we've got to get more clients and maybe if we should start wearing suits and maybe if I take the earrings out and maybe if I try to put on a huge grant kind of accent, maybe that it won't. No, no, no, that kills the source. it's the raw depth of what we are

Starting point is 00:24:38 the guess as to where we are so I'm telling any of you out there in business people do business with you because they like you and the biggest statement in the planet there should be struck from the vocabulary is when they go it's not personal

Starting point is 00:24:57 it's business that does not exist now you're not Sun Tsu business is personal and the biggest brands out there that you relate to want to get involved in are virgin airlines because you think branson's cool and he is and apple because of steve jobs you're at tesler because elon's making a new way of doing things you resonate with personality brands martha stewart so you are that personality so there are a lot of of other people out there to try to do what we do.

Starting point is 00:25:36 And the trouble is they don't have the credibility that we do. Angingly, there's no one out there that does what we do because we're constantly adding on to doing the remarkable. It was only a week ago that we started to do the Mike Tyson and everyone's like, bloody hell, you know, it's constant that we're doing stuff. We're now doing stuff, planning stuff

Starting point is 00:25:58 for backstage at the Victoria's Secret show. so we're constantly adding things that people go how they're bloody how they do it how we do it is because we don't rest on our laurels we work off of the the credibility and the flow that we've already gained and most importantly there's no filter there's no filter there's no shield this is who we are this is what we do this is how we charge for it and there's no plummy distraction in the middle There's no vast 400-pained website. It's just a simple fact that we get done. And if you want it done, you come to someone that can get it done.

Starting point is 00:26:41 Because as we all know, it will take two hours and, you know, a hundred bucks over O'Dask to have the most amazing looking website. But that's just a pretty little fun. It doesn't give you substance by having a beautiful website. Your clients, I imagine occasionally there is tension and I'm curious about times, have you had to fire clients because they have not acted in the manner that you feel they should? I wonder where that question was going, actually. What do you mean? I thought, you know, there's tension with, I was thinking, oh, why? Why would there be? So the answer is yes.

Starting point is 00:27:27 but it's also in process. I'm not here to plug the website, but I am here to plug the process because anyone out there in business can adapt this process. We have a website and it has no phone number and no address on it.

Starting point is 00:27:43 So you're thinking, what that's an idiot for marketing. The only way to get hold of us is to either apply for membership or come to us through someone that already has those details, a current member. And so when people,

Starting point is 00:27:57 apply, regardless of whichever way they came, we made them fill out this application for. Then what we do is we interview them up to three times with a different host within the company. Wow. And then we will talk about them. Hey, you spoke to Ryan last week. What vibe did you get? Well, you said he liked going to Paris a lot.

Starting point is 00:28:19 What experience? And then what Jeff will go, oh, yeah, I spoke to him about Paris. He really loves Paris. So we'll get an idea of that person. and then quite simply, we work out whether or not we're going to accept you as a client. So you try to fix that potential issue before it ever becomes an issue? Yes, yes, we do. We really try to, as much as we can, get to know you speed date in three times.

Starting point is 00:28:45 We've got the paperwork. We can research you if we need to. We've already got this kind of, you know, we know who you came from. We'll often fund them up and go, hey, you know this. So we're going to put some work into the groundwork here to work out whether or not. You'll be surprised sometimes people will contact us. We'll phone up the existing client and go, hey, Jerry came over and just and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm sorry about that.

Starting point is 00:29:10 I don't know. Well, what happened? Yeah, you know, okay, fine. A red flag. Okay, so we're very, very cautious to that. Then you get, so the initial work on how you take on a client, respect your time, respect you, respect your business, and understand to let them in is a privilege. And if you can handle that arrogance, while still being humble, you'll actually save a lot of

Starting point is 00:29:34 mistakes. And then we've had clients come in that have kind of grown a little bit arrogant during the process. You know, they'll say, I don't know if you can do this, but could you? We get it done. And then it would be a case of, yeah, you did that. I'm sure you can do that. I'm sure we can do it as well, but you've got to respect what we're doing.

Starting point is 00:29:55 And so we maintain, this goes back to the vendors. If our vendors don't want to open the doors to other people can't open, then we're screwed. So we value a client, we value a vendor more. And there's been a couple of situations where we've got a little bit of a port and we've had to go to a client and go, hey, that wasn't cool. you kind of, it could have been a problem. I don't want you to do this. I don't want you to do it. Okay, great.

Starting point is 00:30:24 Now why we're fine. And it's been corrected. Because again, we're addressing the situation. There have been a couple of times where we've just going to, I don't know what happened, but you did slip through the net. We're going to end our relationship now. And we wish you well, but we are not the right fit for you. And we've actually had to, we've actually had to let clients go. The most important thing is keeping your word.

Starting point is 00:30:48 if you say you want to do something, and we've asked you a couple of times because we know what people are like, they get caught up in the spur in a moment. I've got a client's phone me up and leave a message at 11 o'clock a night, and they've obviously had a few sherrys in them, and they're like, I want to do that, I saw it.

Starting point is 00:31:03 You know my credit card, Steve, get it done. And you wake up in the morning, you go, okay, then when that was 120 grand, so I'm going to phone him just to make sure that, you know, and sometimes they'll be like, oh, shit, did I? But then there'll be other times where they'd be like, yeah, no, I'm in. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in.

Starting point is 00:31:19 And you go, okay, fine. I'll send you over an email just to confirm everything. And there's been a couple of times where they've been like, well, when I said I was in and we're like, no, hang. You know, I asked you, I phoned you, I emailed you, we've got all that correspondence on file. What happened? And it could be something like a business deal went south and they don't have the money now

Starting point is 00:31:41 or something you have. If people are up front with us, we can handle everything. shit happens. But if they try and cloud us, if they try to, can I smoke and mirror us, that's when the distrust comes in and that's when the problem. So it hasn't happened too often because nine times out of ten. And this may sound absurd to people saying, oh my God, you speak to the clients like that. You're damn right. If a client's hesitating, there's an issue. If something's going on, then you just want to go, hey, Ryan, we've worked with each other for eight months. I'm smelling something here. You know what's, do you want to talk to me? Do you want to tell me what's going on?

Starting point is 00:32:16 and maybe I can fix it before it becomes an issue. Yeah, I've got a problem with my business partner and my wife. A deal didn't exactly go well. I stepped a bit too fast. And then, you know, I didn't realize that. All right, fine. Let's see what damage control we can do on it. And as long as people speak to us, we can get stuff done.

Starting point is 00:32:35 It's all about taking care of the customers too, but making sure that your network stays strong by occasionally, I'm guessing, having to eliminate people from it if they're not. not, if they're not upholding the value of the rest of the network. Yeah, there's been, and it's only happened a couple of times. And usually it's along the lines of, I know I needed to do that, Steve, but I can't afford to do it now or something's gone wrong. And in a situation like that, we've had to pay the vendor.

Starting point is 00:33:04 Because even though something happened, I don't want to ruin the relationship with my vendor. And if I turn around and go, well, I know it was five grand or I know it was 15 grand, you know, he doesn't want to do it now. but it's already been planned. The next time you phone up, don't be shocked if they go, well, you know, you can't let me down for 15 grand last time, Steve. So in that situation, it's a case of it didn't happen, but we're honoring it, you know,

Starting point is 00:33:30 and we'll find a member or we'll find one of our team and we'll go, you go and do it. And we'll pay for it just so that the next time we phone up, there's never been an issue within our relationship between us and the vendor. When we say we want something, we're buying it. And if you get it, if you make it happen, I'm buying it. I've had situations where there's been a world premiere going on in London or New York or L.A. And I've had a client going, hey, I need six tickets. And I've gone out to different vendors to get those six tickets.

Starting point is 00:33:59 And two of the vendors have come forward and gone, I've got the six tickets period. All of a sudden, now I've got 12 tickets. So I'm like, all right, great. I'm not going to say no. So I'll buy those tickets. And either me and five friends are going to the Premier or we'll con. time to our clients go, hey, situations come up, we've got another six tickets. Are those of interest here? And because of the stuff that we're dealing with, it's usually pretty

Starting point is 00:34:23 exciting. So, you know, we get other people involved and maybe hadn't thought of it at first. That's really cool. So in addition to this, you're also taking on more speaking events. We're going out and talking about this. So how did you get into that? And what's your specific message when you have a speaking event? Well, it was very, very strange. I was actually opening a party when we opened up our London office. And I'll tell you the full story, if you've got two seconds. We wind up our staff. So when we've got a new member coming to the company, we'll usually kind of phone them up or email them under a pseudonym and just wind them up saying, you know, we need a bunch of dancing girls in an hour with a pink elephant, you know, just something,

Starting point is 00:35:03 just to see how they respond. It's usually so ironic. It's pretty obvious, really fast. And I was in London. I get this phone call and this lady said to me, you know, we want you to speak at Harvard. And I was thinking, Harvard, me? Yeah, right. And then she turned around and this was a funny thing. The speech was to be on the second of April. So if we could turn up on the first for dinner and I'm thinking, hang on, Harvard, first of April, this isn't even funny now, you know? So I told the lady to go away, thinking it was one of my girls and then my PA called me and she said, did you just have a phone call from Harvard? And I said, yeah, which one of the team was that? Because it wasn't funny.

Starting point is 00:35:42 You know, he put a first Harvard. And she turned around and she said, I've actually got the faculty head on line two. And I'm just thinking, I've actually just unpolitely told the other girl to, you know, fudge off kind of thing. And then suddenly realized it was actually Harvard. I'd just told to do that. So long story short, I did speak at Harvard. And it was on about existing in an environment by not meeting the perceptions of that business.

Starting point is 00:36:10 I've never seen a title so long in my life. And the funny thing was, they were talking to me about how I actually did my business by not conforming. They told me what time it was. They told me what auditorium I was. Then they told me what the dress code was. So I said to him, hang on, you're telling me you want me to speak by not conform him, but you're now telling me you want me to conform to a dress code. And I only meant it as a little joke, as a little quip.

Starting point is 00:36:33 And she turned around and she went, don't be silly, you know, we know you're casual. Now, if you ever see any time of me, I'm a T-shirt and jeans guy. So I turned up a Harvard t-shirt and jeans. Even the ladies were wearing jackets. There's a difference between my casual and Harvard casual. So I did my speech on how to exist in a luxury market and how to stand out in that marketplace. I was apparently a hit because I was written up about in women's wear daily

Starting point is 00:37:02 who happened to be there doing it because it was a luxury convention. And they invite me back a second year. So I actually spoke twice at Harvard, two years running. And then I ended up being content. And I really thought, wow, that was funny. I don't know how that happened. But since then, I've been contacted by a number of organizations, corporations, on how to actually relate to the affluent clientele.

Starting point is 00:37:27 And the way that I do it is in what I call ugly marketing, by doing handwritten notes and by doing video messaging and doing different ways of communicating and a connection. getting with your current and perspective clients and customers. And I'm very proud to have spoken everywhere from the military of Full Hood to Fortune 500 companies in Tokyo. So it's become very strange how I've actually been doing this now. I opened up a website a few years ago, Ugly Sims.com. And we literally just send out emails and I call them my rant.

Starting point is 00:38:04 if something I think is really clever marketing. And let's be serious, if you stop and look at something, that's because marketing was involved. Now, it can be walking into a restaurant and seeing a hot girl or guy. They've prepared themselves to be there to look good. That's presentation. So it's all marketing and placement. And I will talk about ones that I've seen.

Starting point is 00:38:30 I will talk about ones that have failed. I will talk about new things I'm trying. I'll talk about the success rate. I'll talk about how I screwed up on that and wasted a lot of money. So I will talk about the different ways that I market to communicate to the people that I want to communicate. And this is like sending a handwritten note to the Vatican just to say thank you for arranging a marriage or sending a book signed by the author to someone I'm trying to work with. Or even sending them a Starbucks gift card and saying, look, I want you to read this letter.

Starting point is 00:39:01 I bought you a coffee in advance, get comfortable, read and let me know. So I put all these little things into my mentoring, my coaching, but also my speaking gigs. And it's on there as well for emails on ugly sims.com. When you say your imperfections are your perfections, what do you mean by that? God, the planet today is so artificial. We see a beautiful woman, a hot 12 out of 10 girl. I'm sorry to all, you know, I'm not being sorry for the ladies, but you know, bear with me for a second. And then these pricks go and Photoshop this girl because this isn't right.

Starting point is 00:39:39 And she's too short. Let's lengthen her out by a foot and a half. And that waist, we can nip her, nip an inch off at her side. And they create this artificial avatar of what this woman in their eyes perfection is. And you look away from me and she's got a slight scar from her kid when she had a little pushbike accident on her right cheek. and they Photoshop off it. Those things are the character. You go and find an old vintage motorcycle, an old vintage car,

Starting point is 00:40:08 and the patina in it is where the paints just kind of like, you know, just changed or leather jacket, this distressed or a pair of your favorite jeans that have got wear marks on it. It's those imperfections that make it perfect. Cindy Crawford with a war, Picasso, two eyes on one side of the nose. all of those elements capture our eyes and we get a magazine, we flick through the magazine and every advert is so perfect

Starting point is 00:40:36 the sun sets going down and there's a private jet in the back and this guy's gorgeous and this woman's gorgeous and that perfectly manicured and they just freaking woke up and they look perfect and we've got desensitized to it and we look at it and we go, we know that's not real. But then when you do see something that's real,

Starting point is 00:40:55 that's when it gets you. It's like when you see a car accident, on TV and then you see a car accident on the movies. The one on the movie where the car flips three times and then burst into a ball of flames, you go, ooh, that was lovely special effects. Yet just horrifically when you see two cars sideswiped themselves on an intersection, it sounds and it moves different and we react to a different because it's real, it's authentic. It's ugly and that's what I try to drive home.

Starting point is 00:41:25 Get ugly. get comfortable with your imperfections because they are what is giving you that patina. They are the aged leather look that makes you real and authentic. And I want people to do that. And I want people to step away from the photoshopping, texting, modern way that is killing the way we communicate with each other. Wow. I'm sorry, I've got my soapbox there, but it does bloody aggravate me. I love it, man.

Starting point is 00:41:53 No, this is great stuff. and I really appreciate it. And I just have a couple more questions, although I could probably talk to you for another hour. So I really, if you would, I really, really, really appreciate it. But is there one dream event or dream type of moment memory you want to create for a client or even potentially yourself that you would want to be part of? Look, I'm the wealthiest man in the world.

Starting point is 00:42:24 I've got three beautiful children. I've got an amazing wife that I met when she, was 16 and I was 17, they've got a safe roof over their head. There's food and drink here. And I've got gas in the tank and a fresh bottle of whiskey. So I couldn't be any wealthier. So I actually, over the years, don't have any need to get out there and do these things. I do now, quite honestly, live vicariously through my clients.

Starting point is 00:42:49 Last year, I was in Italy doing an event. And that's the beautiful thing about my position. I get a cherry pick the exciting things that I step into. So I did this wonderful event in Rome, and I got contacted by a client that was taking his girlfriend into Florence and wanted to do something that was amazing. And he wanted an exclusive restaurant. And quite simply, they don't have exclusive restaurants in Florence. That's the beauty of Florence. It's very family style.

Starting point is 00:43:17 It's just Tuscany. And if you want a table for two, it doesn't be surprised if you get in there, and it's a table of 28, and you just got two seats on it. So that's the beauty of Florence, one of my favorite. places. But what we did was we actually took over the academia, which is the gallery that houses Michelangelo's David. And we put a table of six at the feet of Michelangelo's David and served dinner at the feet of David. Wow. And that was incredible. But while that was being done, I'm thinking, this is good. This is really good. And bear in mind, this was done over three days. I'd have the request I was already in Rome.

Starting point is 00:43:55 I just jumped into it. And I had this weird and wacky idea. How can, and again, here's a two-year-old. How can you make it better? How can you make it flash a? How can you make it sound better? And then it suddenly came to me. Andrea Bacheli lives in Tuscany.

Starting point is 00:44:11 So I reached out to Bacheli and said to him, is there any chance you could sing at my client's dinner party? We're actually having a private dinner at the feet of Michael Lanzos, David. and took a little bit of convincing, but it happened. Wow. And the client was at an event that we'd already planned. I'm sitting in the academia. Now this has gone on at such high speed.

Starting point is 00:44:38 And Andrebe Tully walks in, starts setting up the piano, starts humming, getting the reverb, move the piano five feet because it sounded better. You know, he's just a, he's just a unbelievable man. and then all of a sudden, the waiters and everything for the table, they're all outside now having a cigarette. The piano's already been tuned, so they've all gone off to relax. The client's en route. I'm sat there with Mr. and Mrs. Buccelli.

Starting point is 00:45:07 And it suddenly hit me like a train where I was at the feet of David with the maestro of classical, of classical, of classical, singing. And I'm sat there and I've been working the project so much I hadn't realized what I was accomplishing. And I then said to him, I yell, but I said, you're not going to be, I've got cold sweats. I just, it's now just hit me where I am, who I'm sat next to him. So that excitement is, is again, it's a little tree rolled against the Christmas president. He couldn't believe and he doesn't know where to scream or cry. That was that moment. And I was, and I was, It was just an incredible feeling to be part of that event.

Starting point is 00:45:55 So I don't know what the next event is, what the next challenge is that's going to give me those goosebumps. But I am confident. I probably couldn't live without it. I do live vicariously. It is my oxygen. It is my bloodline. I love it when someone says, I want to surprise my wife for something in Vegas. so I just want to get away for a weekend.

Starting point is 00:46:20 It doesn't have to be a million dollar weekend. Just something that they come back. I'll give you another quick example. Great friend and client of mine came into Los Angeles and he wanted to give his beautiful wife a Hollywood experience. Okay. So, you know, we put him up in a beautiful hotel. We've gone in restaurants and, you know, everyone can do that themselves.

Starting point is 00:46:43 But, you know, we pay attention to the little details. We got him a cooking course at the new hall. restaurant but then one of the little details we thought was cool was the movie had just been released burlesques you remember that with um yeah i forget her name now the girl that was is doing the voice i forget her name i apologize it's going to come to me after this so in the movie burlesk there's a scene where she drives down sunset boulevard in this silver 356 vintage sportsster, a Porsche, sorry, Porsche Speedster, not a sports star. And so what we did was this client needed a car to get from the restaurant and a couple of

Starting point is 00:47:24 other places that we'd set him up with. We contacted the studio and we got that car from the movie Belesque to beat his car for driving a car. It costs no more than if he was going to rent an SUV, but now he had an iconic car from a Hollywood movie that his wife loved that was now his daily ride. while he was there in Hollywood. Wow. So no detail too small, always looking to get better to improve the experience for your client,

Starting point is 00:47:54 always thinking of them first. And Steve, that leads me to my final question. And before I ask that, I want to just obviously thank you. And also say the energy that you bring to this, the passion you have for life, you need to be commended as much as humanly possible. was I really, really appreciate getting to know you. This has been really, really fun. But the whole purpose of my podcast of my show is to focus on constant improvement and being

Starting point is 00:48:26 intentional about one thing, leadership, as well as the learnings that it takes to continue to strive and be a better leader, to help others, to do great things, to inspire people. And so that's why the show is called The Learning Leader Show, because I'm all about those two topics, and great leaders are fantastic learners, and they're constantly doing it, I mean, 24-7. So when you hear the phrase learning leader, what pops up in your head? What comes to mind when you're thinking of people who are learning leaders, whether you name specific people that you know or just the traits that a learning leader have?

Starting point is 00:49:09 That's a deep question. I think there's a post of challenge. for it. Actually, I think there's a picture when you look it up in the dictionary of a learning leader. I think it probably has to be Elon Musk. There's a lot of people out there that are great in business. They found their niche. They've exploited it. They've worked it. They utilized it. They've made something great. But let's be blunt. Steve Jobs was not the nicest leader in the planet. Okay. Sorry all you Apple fans. I love Apple, but it's a known fact. It's a known fact. Elon is a gentleman, which is, you know, should be paused on.

Starting point is 00:49:49 He is a gentleman that will address the situation as a two-year-old and just going, well, just because it's done like that in the past, why does it need to be done like that now? And if you are ever fortunate enough to be anywhere near the guy, ever fortunate to go through his Tesla factory, I set up a tour a little while ago through the Tesla plant in San Francisco with Jason going out and a bunch of amazing entrepreneurs, whenever you get to see anything that he's got his fingers on, it resonates Elon from opening the door to the finished product. And he is such a master at just reconsidering everything. And he's learning from it.

Starting point is 00:50:38 And that's the thing. And so he himself is not walking into a room going, well, hey, I'm huge, I'm massive, I'm successful, I'm richer than a small planet, and this is how it's going to happen. He literally addresses it as a learning curve. And then everyone else, and this is where the leadership comes into it, everyone else gets on board and just goes, yes. But what if we did this? And because of his ability to learn,

Starting point is 00:51:08 he will adapt it if someone says why don't we look at doing this great idealists let's bring it on board and that's why the greats of larry page and elyan musk really are great learning leaders man steve that's awesome and it's so funny you said elan musk because i was recently asked on this podcast you know who are the the one or two dream guest people that probably aren't realistic but you would love to talk to him in the first name out of my own mouth was Elon Musk now realizing that that's probably close to impossible. However, that doesn't mean I'm not going to strive to somehow do it someday. And so it's interesting that you bring him up because I, and that you said he's the face of what a learning leader is and I couldn't agree more. And I love it.

Starting point is 00:51:56 It's pretty cool that you've been able to experience that firsthand. Yeah, I am by far better for it. I'm sure. Well, again, Steve, this is definitely flown by. And, I think we, the listeners here are going to want to want to have you come back on again at some point in the future. So we might have to schedule some time here in the future to do it again. But I really, really sincerely appreciate you sharing all of this great knowledge, your story, everything you're about. And I absolutely loved it, man. So thank you. It's been an honor.

Starting point is 00:52:30 It's been fun and that sort of matters. So thank you. Absolutely. All right, man. We'll talk soon, Steve. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Starting point is 00:52:38 episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 032: Steve Sims – How To Create World Class Experiences | Why Elon Musk Is A Great Learning Leader

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