Discussing the New Self-Employment Support | Business Survival Livestream 004

Note: This transcription has been generated with AI and there may be errors present. 

The government have announced the self employment support. That’s what we’ve been chatting about tonight, we have been battling some bad signal and some broadcast interruptions. And I’ve been using these sort of karate chop manoeuvres to get us back online. And Jack has been pedalling hard behind the scenes. So apologies for the loss of service, we’re going to have another go. And just to sort of catch up on where we’re at, I think the flavour of the team is that the support that’s been announced by the government is about as good as it can get. And I think we’re in a great position compared to other countries. However, there are some people that are feeling a little bit sore, because it’s based on the 1819 tax return. So if you haven’t done a tax return yet, or you launched your business in April of this year, you’re not going to qualify for that support, in which case, the benefits system, if you’re strapped for cash is the place where you have to go. And we’ve been talking about how do you react when a big piece of news comes in, and you’ve got to cope with it and deal with it, especially if it knocks you sideways? And it’s a bit like grieving, isn’t it? It’s a bit like I’m feeling sad, I’m feeling angry. And we go through that whole change curve process. That’s the stuff we’ve been chatting about tonight. And, Casey, you were just saying that you’ve got a business that’s in your area that you were doing you you started off doing a bit of Corona judging, and you saw a business that was open. What what happened? Tell us what happened?

Well, I was out for my one walk. And I noticed that as a small, small florists near us, and I was walking down and notice the doors were open, and they appeared to be open. So I’m there I’m on them. I know. So I’m chuntering to myself, I shouldn’t be open what they’re doing judgin deciding that I knew everything and decided to condemn them to not being part of the, you know, the way that we’re all banding together and doing this properly. So yeah, getting angry as a walking towards them, and then noticed that they’ve actually got a big sign up that says fresh fruit and veg. So they’ve got a lovely display display of all the apples, you know, the whole thing, I don’t need to actually name all day, you know what I mean? Fresh Fruit and Veg, name all the individual know, let’s name it. Everybody know what fruit and veggies

never say.

So have changed, they’ve realised that they couldn’t open. And they’ve changed. That was just I just think that is the simplicity, the simplicity of it. And the genius of it is really inspired me today. Now, I didn’t actually buy anything, because by the time I’d stopped sort of moaning and then tried to process what I saw was gone past. But it is on our route. And he intends to buy bananas from there tomorrow. But I’m just so impressed. So they’ve also got all their probably leftover flowers, because the other plants in the back. They’re open, they’re trading, people were buying stuff from them. And it was happening. And that is what I don’t know, business strategist called a pivot. And I think it’s beautiful. I thought I was really impressed with it.

Love that. There’s been a few examples of that, pull up that pull, you’ve got an online business. But have you felt, have you felt that you needed to pivot and do things differently in the last couple of weeks? Or is it kind of business as usual for you? Where’s your head at?

Yeah, business as usual for me if I’m completely honest. And I feel very lucky, that the one thing that I have noticed. And I it’s one thing I noticed, sadly, though, and you get it all the time is that, you know, suddenly every man and their dogs jumping on the bandwagon of all this, you know, make money online stuff. You know, which is it’s been very scary, really very scary. Because a lot of these people who are doing that aren’t going to be around for very long. But yeah, it has I’ve been very lucky. I mean, it has given me the opportunity to be very productive. In regards to what I’m doing courses, books, and the usual sort of things I do. And I suppose one of the biggest things that I’ve noticed, and again, it fascinates me the amount of people I’ve seen on LinkedIn on all different platforms. Now suddenly, saying I need to get online. And it fascinates me in regards to the internet isn’t new. You know, and I’m very kind of because of anyone who’s come to any of my the pop ups that I’ve done sort of know my story of having that that office and things went wrong to then started online in 2008 with the recession. So I was fortunate to be online long enough. But what I want to say to people from a positive point of view is, I really hope people take this as the time to put the business online. What I was going to say is that, you know, a lot of people, we are creatures of habits. You know, for most people, people need that sense of, of routine. And that isn’t what we’ve got right now, we haven’t got that it’s completely different. You know, and it’s, it’s easy to stay the same rather than change. But Casey mentioned something a minute ago. Yeah, we’re business owners. We’re entrepreneurs. The reason why we go into this is because the way we think generally the way we think is different to the average employee, so it’s a great time to be creative and accept change. Yes, change takes effort, I get that. A lot of people it’s that fear of the unknown. But right now, you know, this is what we’re doing now. You know, it’s new to pop up. We’ve embraced it. And we’re getting on with it. So I would just try and encourage people to, to embrace it. To accept it, go with it. And this happens, you know, it’s the recessions come, there’s always a 1015 10 to 15 year dip between them. Maybe this is it, I don’t know. But I do just think people if they can, from a positive point of view, really try and embrace the online world as much as they can.

So I might ask you some questions in a bit pool, because I know that you’ve anyone that’s been to one of your pop ups will know that you’ve written a couple of books, haven’t you? I think you might have mentioned that once or twice. Someone someone’s tipped me the wing that you might have mentioned it, but I know that you’ve got some some skills around self publishing. And you’ve explored that, that mechanics. And I know that, that John cart if he’s not watching your watch back tomorrow is going to give us some advice about the writing bit. But I know that you’ve got some knowledge about the mechanics of turning a book into either an e book or a physical book through through self publishing options. But I want to come to Alan, because something you mentioned, Paul was about, you know, some, I think you were sort of indicating every man and his dog and every woman in their cat, or dog or indeed other animals are going online and potentially creating courses and selling things to people that are perhaps less than value add. But it’s okay, though, because we can trust the banks, can’t we? Alan, the banks have been offering some help out to people and they’ve ramped up their advertising. I know that this is your favourite subject to tell me what’s happened to you with with your local friendly bank?

Are you trying to wind me up Simon? Because I will take them? I have? I think so Paul’s actually right at this time, there are some unscrupulous companies that are going to take advantage of the situation. And they’re going to be selling stuff that maybe they shouldn’t, they’re going to be taking advantage of people’s desperation. There is a lot of unscrupulous behaviours that’s going to come and we’ve got to be careful. My bank actually text me. And their marketing budget, they spent on sending me a text message saying, oh, we’ll give you one month of free overdraft. So they I can use my overdraft until April, whatever it is. And then what do they expect me to do? So they, they’re going to tempt me to borrow money, and then expect me to pay it back from the new job I’ve got and the extra money I’ve earned in the next month. I just think they’re trying to put us in debt at times. And you look at some of these loan schemes. Katie got a message from her business bank today, offering her use of the government loan schemes, the small businesses, and they’re offering you money, which is very tempting when you’re desperate. And like they it’s difficult to even know what interest rates they charge. There’s been reports that one of the banks that government approved is going to charge 22% interest on these loans. Why? I am shocked at how businesses and some of the banks are taking advantage of this situation. And my message is, that is a last resource that is a last resort. Do anything you can other than go into debt. Let’s club together share food, let’s work together. Let’s tell more. Let’s spend less let’s rely on benefits. Let’s use the government schemes anything but debt. And I think I want to call for everyone in our community to be vigilant of the companies and the unscrupulous authors that are going forwards and with Alan on That one I am

I think when twice ignite Katie.

Feeling to when I’m with Alan, I agree with everything I want to say is my invoice is due to be paid

I without, without and about now the poor looks like, Who do you look like you look like a boy with that bloat with the beard, Russell Brand. Anyway, I’m sorry, Russell Brand,

Russell Brand everywhere. The courses have been saying,

I can’t concentrate a word you say I was thinking clearly Oh, you look around. That’s right. I’m talking about the banks. To me the the, the loans. And I was reading today about the loans from the bank, from the from the government. And that’s the one once it’s government back, because there’s so much information coming to us at the moment. And we’re all I am trying to understand it. And then the loan stuff goes through that’s backed by the government is that seal of approval is like all they’re trying to do the right thing. This is something maybe I should consider. And I think no don’t, because in the end, it’s exactly what Alan saying I’m agreeing, again, is that there’s personal guarantees there. So if you do take and don’t, but if you did, you is a personal guarantee that the government aren’t guaranteeing for you, they stand behind you, they stand behind you, you stand there with your personal guarantee. So they’ll want your house as a personal guarantee before you take any of this and you’re taking a loan in such a difficult time. So don’t do it. And in terms of the benefits and the help that we get, we can rely on that maybe to to prop us up. But it’s up to us. As small business people, it’s up to us as entrepreneurs to go forward, it may just help us through and keep us from sinking. But it’s not gonna allow us to thrive, we have to thrive. So that was my piece that was really about agree with Alan. And I really want to add into that about the personal guarantee bit. This is actually what screwed up my parents is finance was a guarantee, they took on a loan that my dad forced my mum to sign. And that’s why we lost the family home. And I can see a whole new generation of people being put in this exactly the same situation. And you do have to sign a personal guarantee for most of the banks, there are a couple of ethical banks out there that are actually trying to help. But most of them want a personal guarantee. And if you look at who’s actually liable, the government have said they will protect 80% of the money for the bank. But here’s how it goes, you borrow the money. If you don’t pay it back, the bank first goes for your assets, absolutely bought shares, house, Cat Car, whatever, they will take it. And if they don’t get enough back, they can go to the government to cover 80% of it. So actually, the people who stand to lose are the people who borrow, then the British public, and only afterwards, the banks. So they’ve de risked lending money for the bank, they’re gonna be out there lending as much as they can, because they’ve got no real risk. And I am Shocked. Shocked by this. The banks are in the best position. Absolutely. The best position is no problems for them at all. And they’re their marketing and they can be very persuasive. You know, they’re good at marketing. They’ve got, you know, the whole teams of people who spend every day looking at ways to messages in different ways to get, you know, to make the decisions to tick Yes, and to fill the form and take the money at this time as well, where we are looking for help for leadership for guidance. It’s a confusing time. It’s the worst time ever, people are going to make some awful decisions. And if there’s what I always say this when I’m doing pop up, there’s one person who watches the stream who does not take a loan today, I think we’ve done a good job if we change one person’s mind, because it really is not the thing we should be doing.

Chris, you Alan has talked about. They’ve seen encouragement to help clients apply for loans to make a great new revenue stream and it’s it’s making him pretty sad. And I think we should stay away from them. Bruce is apologise for being late. That’s okay. Brucey you missed the stilted performance due to the connection. And Kate has mentioned Kate in in Bridgend has mentioned, Alan, that your your blog post was taken down by Facebook. Do you think when you were talking about this issue earlier on today? Is that what’s happened Tell me Tell me well?

Yeah, so Facebook removed my post about bad debt and unscrupulous companies. They took my post down. They marked it as spam and said that I was spamming people and trying to sell them stuff.

The irony,

so I felt quite strongly about that. And I’m actually desperate to get this message out there that avoid debt at all cost you in this time, it’s the last option and we need to take other options first. And I would rather you lost your pride and took benefits debt. And that’s the same advice I need to hear as well. We need to wear first. Yeah, so Facebook took down my post. There’s no reason why there’s no way to argue it. No button to say appeal. Yeah, someone Yeah, someone’s made a decision or computer programme has an annoyed

Can I think sorry for Facebook right now. What do you think there’s a bit of love for the Russell Brand look coming from Wales, Paul, but let’s get by that I’m sure you’ve got some value too.

Can I just I just want to add something in there as well. So again, you know, just briefly I so I started in business in 2006. And that will close and lost and everything else. When I started again in in 2008. I went on benefits for the first time in my life. Again, there was a little bit of male pride. I didn’t I didn’t want to my dad, you know, bless him said to me Stop being stupid, you paid your National Insurance go and do it. So I just want to say that, you know, I think Alan said that there’s no forget your pride, there’s nothing wrong in doing it. Okay. At the time, when I got help, I think it was 62 pound 50 a week, something like that. I also received and had the opportunity I was receiving housing benefit as well to eventually help help pay. And I was on that for I think, is 18 months or two years, maybe even a bit more. So again, I’m just sort of saying, you know, and I start business throughout that. So I’m just sort of saying, you know, that Simon said to start with, we’ve all made mistakes. That’s why we do what we do. And you know, we’ve learned from them. But if I hadn’t have done that I don’t I really don’t know where I would have been I probably would have ended up getting a job or going back to something I don’t know. But I just want to say that again. Please, if you aren’t, if you’re sat there think I shouldn’t go on benefits. Please don’t. It’s a fantastic opportunity. And we’re very lucky to have it. Please make the most of what is on offer.

Yes, because we’ve all been paying into that system. We’ve been paying National Insurance for some of us for decades. Yeah. Money for this purpose. Yeah. Great. So I agree with Alan.

That’s for more you get hamper. I listen, and we’ve got Bruce, he’s kind of saying that the average Joe Bloggs is going to end up in trouble during this period if they make those kinds of decisions to take loans and I think the message is coming through loud and clear. As an absolute last resort, avoid this stuff as much as you can, especially those companies that are paying out 22% If that’s true, I’m going to find that company and we’ll do a little blog post about that. But luckily there are some ethical banks out there doing the right thing and we’re going to we’re going to find them to Jolene from the Kent mafia is watching hey Jolene, part of the pop up team. Tom Tiffin has said that he’s watching this he’s had a bit of a rubbish day. And I think there’s a real mix of stuff that’s coming through at the moment and we’re all on this roller coaster ride. You know, we had a tough call tonight and I was feeling a little bit tonight. Last Monday for half the day I was a mess. What do you do if you had a tough day? What’s the strategy? How do you you know we were talking about the change curve and coming to terms with the grief of and the shock of what’s going on at the moment. What do you do if you’ve had a tough day

go out for a walk my personal recommendation were allowed to go out at least once now go out for a walk clear your head step away from everything but also reach out to your network whether it’s friends family you know my parents are in their 70s and one thing I mean we’re very close but one thing that we are doing is FaceTiming initially it just started off as a call every other day just to see if there was okay it’s now FaceTime in so they can see we can see each other so you know we’re doing that a lot so actually feels there is that that connection is not just a text or a phone call. Alan touched on it earlier you know I’m very big just even if it’s doing 789 10 minutes of exercise again if you know if you run up and down the stairs go in the garden and this would be my

Alan, what’s your strategy Have you had a bad day?

What’s my strategy when I’ve had a bad day? It depends how bad it is, as to how long the period I give myself and feel it. I actually think it’s really important to allow yourself to feel these feelings. Because negative emotions aren’t bad. They’re there for a reason. Feel it, accept it, think about it, we just don’t want to linger there. And I think my biggest piece of advice right now, is avoid using the language I am. Because if you say, I am sad, I am depressed, you’re attaching it to your identity, and it will linger a lot longer. What I want you to try and do instead is use I am experiencing sadness, I’m experiencing a bit of depression, I’m experiencing some upset, go through it come back up the other side. And I think it’s really important not to associate these powerful emotions that we’re going through right now, with our identity. Because their emotions, they pass, they come that go. And the tools Paul have said will help get you back out the other side. And just by saying I’m experiencing it, so I have over the last few days experience some sadness. And that’s okay. I’ve written that down. Alan, and I agree with Russell, I agree with both of you. Got nothing to say? No, no, seriously. I do agree with both of you. Because but I’ve got to tell you that what I’ve been doing. So I’ve been doing the exercise, I’ve been doing the walks have I’ve doing that I’ve been doing the anchoring. I’ve been doing all the stuff I’m supposed to do. And, and I’ve been watching American Idol. And it’s really good fun. I’m gonna be honest, I’ve really enjoyed it. I can’t stop watching it. It goes on for ages, even the kids give up. It’s like an hour and a half an episode. And it’s one after the other. And I just love it and it’s really fun. And I’m just enjoying it American Idol. Starring Katy Perry and Lionel Richie. Lionel Richie. Now how good does he look? Anyone?

Yeah, now you tell me. It’s quality.

i It makes me laugh. And it makes me happy. And it makes me cry as well. So yeah, American Idol. There’s my tip.

So what we’ve also been doing so we’ve got several WhatsApp groups with different groups of friends. And we’ve been using them to send so much humour throughout the days, whether it’s videos, different pictures, it has been absolutely hysterical. It’s been really, really good. So normally, I’m not a massive fan of WhatsApp groups, because all the pinyon and everything else drives me mad. But this has been great. It really has, you know, it’s like I say both ruined i a self employed so we were experiencing this, but having that little funny videos, images. It’s been great. So you know, try and laugh as much as you can find humour. If it means going onto YouTube and find him funny videos. Do so. I think Alan mentioned last night about you know, it’s keeping that smile on our face and laughing as much as we possibly can.

Amen to that, yeah, tic TOCs. My new weapon of choice. The kids have introduced me to tic tock oh, god that there is just some phenomenal creativity on there. That keeps me going. Yeah, Russell, aka Pap test from Ken has suggested naked yoga. And we all know that suggestion came from Ireland.

Naked yoga every day. I’ve been saving washing and doing my bit for the environment. And I’ve actually been time lapsing it if anyone’s interested inbox me, I’ll send you.

Rarely, and I’ve been speechless in the last 10 days. No, wait a minute. I’m speechless several times a day. Nevermind that. So I guess Bruce Bruce is in the same arena as you he’s been hunting for his his toy duck over the last 10 minutes, which is perhaps the most interesting way of watching a live stream for anyway, there’s a couple of comments on here about people making videos. And Matt esli, who’s a friend of pop up is going to be helping us out with that over the next couple of weeks. What do you need to think about when you’re making videos and posting them online? How does the YouTube algorithm work? How can you get paid for affiliate links through the videos that you post? He’s got the good, the bad and the ugly of that stuff. And there’s a few comments on here. And I’ve actually experienced this myself of making videos and posting them on social media has actually been a hell of a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Now that I’ve actually committed to it properly. So I think you know, three or four years ago I’d be going Oh no, I have to do a video. I’m not looking forward to this, let’s just get it done. But now we’ve sort of stepped into a new world of make video posts video, and I think Kate’s been doing them. And there was someone else. I think it was Rachel Flack. Rachel said that she’s been making videos, and she’s enjoyed them. I have a lot more. Maybe it was Joanne actually as well, I think Joanne Yeah, both Joanne and Rachel was saying, make the videos, stick them online. And I think, you know, once you’ve had a shot, and you’re dealing with it, and now you’ve got yourself in a good headspace, and it’s gonna be a roller coaster, and let’s just accept it. When the energy levels are up, that’s when you’re going to be ready to create something and come up with a new idea. And Paul, you’ve had some experience of self publishing and going through that mechanism? What are your top tips of not so much the writing, because we’re going to come on to that in a future episode. But once you’ve written something down, and you think I could turn this into an e book, or turn it into a, you know, a physical book, What have your experiences been? And what tips could you give people on that?

So the first thing I’d say is that, I see a lot of people as always over complicating things and overthinking things, you know, on, when we do social media day on pop up, we say You know, one of the bits we talked about is saying that content is king, there is so much content out there in the world. Now, you do not even have to create your own content. So I posted something in our pop up team the other day, his picture that I see on Instagram, and it was an image, talking about the companies that set up in the last recession in 2008. It’s like Uber, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and all of that sort of thing. And so instantly, when I see that, I was like, There’s a fantastic piece of content there. So I’m in obviously, like the business development, arena, industry niche, whatever we want to call it. So when I see that I thought, that’s a great bit of content, we’re suddenly in a situation where people self employed that we spoke about are panicking or worrying. But it was like, how could we turn it into a good bit of content that’s positive? So I looked at that, and I kind of thought, okay, what can I do here, there’s a headline that says, say, you know, successful businesses that set up in 2008, the headlines there already, then you could then come up with things like, you know, the four traits of a successful business that started in a recession, you know, the six reasons why you can overcome the recession by starting a new business.

You know, go to, sorry, Paul, just interrupt you when you go, once you’ve captured that stuff. And you think I’ve got, I’ve got a few 1000 words here. I’d like to mark it in an ebook and stick it on a Kindle. And other such technology, how does that system work? What’s the process that you went through?

So initially, again, just very simply writing it, write it on a on a Word documents, get it out, just create a header, write it out, when you autumn, when you go to save that document, that gives you the opportunity to save it as a PDF. And when you save it as a PDF, that then becomes an ebook. It’s a digital product. You can then go on to different sites like fiverr.com, Upwork, those sorts of things, you can publish it on there. One of the biggest things that I done, I know we talked about the dream 100. But I look at a dream 100 and a different way. In regards to when I started the business, I set up a dream 100 as in a dream 100 partners, I knew who my clientele was, so I looked for people who had my clientele. So when I create a product, I reach out to them and build I build up that build up the relationships, I reach out to them and say I’ve got a product that I think will solve a problem for your audience. I’m going to send you a copy, feel free to send it out. So that that’s how that is as simple as I do it. Just write a Word document, save it as a PDF. You can obviously within there you can put your website URL in there and hand it out to people for them to share with your audience.

Okay, nice. Alan, you experience monetizing the blog. I remember one of your early blog posts was about figuring out the the money side of doing a post and you know, what did you learn from that and what would you do differently now that you’ve you’ve been doing it a while?

Well, I think that first blog post was very excitingly titled, I made 27 Pence online somewhere. What have I learned? Actually, there’s many different ways to monetize a blog. And not all of them are right. You can just Google top ways to make money out of a blog, there’s affiliates, there’s a sponsorship of the blog, there is actively selling something on your blog, like Paul said, with a selling an e book selling, you can’t sell events anymore. That’s basically what we did online for a long time. These not for a couple might be able to pre sell the tickets for your event that’s coming up in December, who knows, but that’s a risky strategy currently. But it’s about making those sales. Actually a surprise income for me recently, and it’s not huge couple 100 pounds, has been audible. And if someone chooses a book through your website that you’ve recommended, and then goes and signs up for an audible free account, you get five pounds a time. And that’s been a surprise of the income, which is paid for a few breakfast burritos and different things and kept me in some money recently. But I think it’s about at the root of it thinking how do you help the people that are reading? And if you can help them, whether that’s with a product or service, an idea? That’s the root of all this, the more you help, the more that comes back? Yeah.

Have you ever been tempted Katie, because you’ve got this wealth of knowledge and experience from your business life, and the events company that you ran it ever been tempted to work it all in a book, and and sell it, or you’re going to steer away from that?

I’ve never even considered it to be honest. The whole idea of going online and doing this type of stuff was a frog. Something that I’d avoid. On the few occasions that pop up asked me to do a Facebook Live, I’d sort of go Yeah, yeah. Okay. And then inside of me going, No, no, I don’t want to do this. And now I’m like, can’t wait. I’ve talked about all day in between watching American Idol. And reading the Chancellor’s press release, is the fact that I’m going I’ve told everybody, I’ve been FaceTime on my friends today. Tell everyone, no one’s interested, tell everybody that I’m online. And I’ve got this new career. I just thought to myself, myself on the screen, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. And so it’s this this opportunity is a real opportunity for me. I like to talk about myself. So maybe, maybe I would no look into doing a book. I’ll do anything after this. So yeah, I could Yeah, I could. I could talk about a lot of things that we did in that business. That was a lot of crying, a lot of crying. So I don’t know what the question was, but the answer is American Idol.

Do you agree without AC? So okay, so look, I’ve had a couple of messages from people tonight going, you know, today’s been tough. I had an accountant, a friend of mine and accountant sent me a message saying, I’ve had so many calls and emails from my clients, and they’re in tears. I feel like crying. But actually, I think what’s going through my mind is that there’s anger or frustration in that grieving process of what’s happening at the moment. Actually, you know, just summarise some of the stuff we’ve been saying about the government support, it’s a hell of a lot better than most other countries. And I think there is some stuff there for most of us. And if we can get ourselves into a good place, it’s time to create something, isn’t it and make use of this time, pivot at that. And you know, Clive’s business, the food business is doing ready meals at home, and he’s got this delivery thing going and so on. You know, that’s not what he set out to do. It’s completely different from his first business model, that he’s on the front foot, creating and coming up with, with new ideas. I guess that’s where my head is. And I think that’s what’s kept me sane over the last couple of weeks is that, you know, coming up with new ideas and solving problems and figuring out how to how to help people and so on. That’s what’s that’s the stuff that’s kept me kept me kind of focused and in a good place. And I just wonder if you had any closing thoughts? I’m going to come to to Alan first closing thoughts, Alan, what’s on your mind about the stuff that’s happened today, both in terms of the wider world and what you’ve experienced in our business today? What’s on your mind?

So I think I’ve got two closing thoughts. One is based on what you’ve just said, I read a blog post which was stop consuming, start creating, and I know Katie will be against this American Idol but if You can switch off Netflix, switch off some of the TVs switch off some of this other stuff, and put your energy into building your future. I think you’ll come out of this stronger than you went into it. And my second thought is, watch out for the sharks, because there are some sharks circling right now to take advantage of this situation. Be careful of who offers you debt. And the people out there have some lovely code words for debt like funding, overdraft loan, it’s all debt. And they think you in it, and have you paying it back for a long time. So watch out for the sharks and get creating.

Katie, do you agree with Alan?

I agree with Alan, but he’s wrong about Netflix. I mean, I have them all. An American I was quite good. So I’m going to be sensible, which is a census is important, isn’t it? try my best. I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing. And and I’ve written it down just in case I forget. So that’s why I’m turning over here is that I’m asking myself, this is something I do with my thoughts. So when I have thoughts, which aren’t, if they’re negative, and maybe spiralling, or I’m watching too much news, I say I asked myself, Is this helping me? So? And if the answer is no, I try and let it go or stop doing it. So I’ve been watching too much social media or too much American Idol ACO, is this helping me? Currently today? It certainly helped me I’ve really enjoyed it. But some of the things aren’t helping. So is this helping your business? Is this helping your mental health? Is this helping my community? Is it helping my family? The actions that you’re doing? Is it helping? Who’s it helping? And if you can try and help as many people including yourself, as you can? Through this thing, I think that it will, it can only lead to good. So yeah, I’m asking myself, am I helping? Is this helping? An American Idol has helped. So thank you.

Let’s, let’s write them an email tonight. Paul, what’s your top tip?

Yeah, I think what I would just say to people is even if the business that you’ve set up, isn’t going to plan because of what’s happening, I just want everyone to realise and understand that you are all experts in something. And what I mean by that is, the knowledge that we have in here is unbelievable. Whether that’s through mistakes we’ve made or whatever. And I promise you that go into business, we are problem solvers. That’s what we are good at, we solve problems, your experiences, your mistakes over the years consult problems. So you might have started a dog walking business. And right now you might be limited. But I promise you, there’s ways that you could look at that and spin it in regards to, you know, why someone needs a dog walker, or whatever it is, use your knowledge and expertise to create content to put it out there. Like I said, we’re problem solvers. And we’re here to help people. One of the most popular quotes that I’ve always tried to remember from Zig Ziglar, you will get all you want in life. If you help enough other people get what they want. And like Alan said, you have to stop going out there and purchasing. The first mentor that I ever got in 2010 said that to me, stop being a purchaser or buy buyer and start being a creator. But remember, we’re here to help and all of you have got what it takes to solve problems and help people give without expecting anything back guys.

Thank you very much, everybody. I look, here’s the thing. Please can you share with your friends and family that have got a business or they’re self employed freelancers, because we’re just at the beginning of a content creation journey, we’ve created a business survival guide, which is on our website, and I’m sure Jack will post in the group if he hasn’t already that on pop up business school at CODIT. UK forward slash survival hyphen guide, we have got all of the content that we’re creating and that we have already created things on here like looking after your mental health in isolation. What can you build whilst you’re quarantined brilliant posts by Alan. We’ve got How should small businesses react to Coronavirus, Coronavirus, and we’ve got all sorts of other content plan how to make videos, how to get your book published, how to write a book for those people that are thinking, I’ve got a book in me and I’ve got some extra time I wasn’t expecting. Now’s the time to create once we’ve got ourselves in a good headspace. So thank you, everybody for watching, and for listening if you’re listening, and God bless you, Katie Coombs in Manchester. So Alan Donegan who’s not a sir He is now in New Orleans and Russell Brand aka Paul. Wait. Thank you very much everybody for joining us. And please continue the conversation in the thread because we want to hear from you to have a great evening everybody. We’ll be back online live stream next Tuesday. Have

a great yoga Goodbye.

Oh no, not okay.