Unlocking Our True Potential: Entrepreneurship, Relationships, and the Power of Habit with David CM Carter

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for joining us. Our goal is to help you connect to real people who found success turning their side hustle into a main hustle, and we hope you can too. I'm Adam Kaler. I'm joined by Kyle Stevey, my co-host. Let's get started, all right. Welcome back everybody to the Side Hustle City podcast. Once again back to back days. Kyle Stevey, here at my right, I have a disappointment tomorrow. Well, that's all right. We got three in a row. We got to do, but today, from across the pond, david CM Carter, very close to Oxford, england, joining us today. David, welcome to the show.

Speaker 4: 0:55

Thank you very much for inviting me.

Speaker 2: 0:57

Oh yeah, this is going to be great. So how's the weather right now? It's nine o'clock at night. You're joining us a little late for you, but what's it looking like right now? We're late fall, going into the winter here.

Speaker 4: 1:09

I haven't got a clue because it's pitch dark outside.

Speaker 2: 1:14

So you live in the country.

Speaker 4: 1:16

I live in the middle of nowhere. Oh well, that's even better. In fact, nowhere is 10 miles up the road.

Speaker 2: 1:23

Interesting, interesting. Well, that's great.

Speaker 3: 1:26

I don't know if I'm here, because if you go 10 miles down the road from where we're at, you're kind of in the farmland in the middle of nowhere. If you go 10 miles north of here, it's a bunch of yuppies and rich suburbanites, yeah that's very good.

Speaker 4: 1:40

I live in the most beautiful part of England called the Cotswolds and I'm very blessed to live here, but it is so rural and agricultural and quiet and peaceful. You can see I've got a log fire going in the background and I'm very blessed to live here and I have to go into London once a week or twice a week sometimes. But after two hours of driving out of London I hit a particular road to head towards the last 10 miles to get home. I made it home.

Speaker 3: 2:16

Oh wow, david definitely loved Kentucky.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Yeah, you would a lot of people that come from England and come to Kentucky really love Kentucky. Rolling Hills. You know a lot of trees, just open pasture. There's horse farms. It's a really, really nice part of the country.

Speaker 4: 2:37

I've been a few times. It's beautiful.

Speaker 2: 2:39

Yeah, oh it's it. Yeah, it depends on when you come to and you want to go down when there's horse racing going on. Have you been to the Derby then? If you've been here, oh yeah, have you been to the Derby?

Speaker 4: 2:49

I haven't, I haven't, but actually we've got a big horse race coming up 10 miles down the road to Cheltenham Gold Cup in the next few weeks, oh, wow.

Speaker 3: 3:00

Yeah, I guess the same. Well, it's a little bit past Keeneland, but I'm sure there are weather's different than ours.

Speaker 2: 3:04

Yeah, probably a little bit different, yeah, so. So, david, you have a career. You invest in banking, some private equity stuff, obviously from across the pond, how do you see? And you spent years and years and years working with businesses, for over 40 years. It sounds like you. You do a lot of stuff that people say it's impossible hey, it's impossible to do this, impossible to grow the business, but you've been able to be successful. And it sounds like you're the type of person that when somebody tells you can't do something, you go ahead and do it anyway.

Speaker 4: 3:38

You know I've been at work 46 years now. I've been in first 10 years in investment banking, the last 36 years as an entrepreneur. I've always had this wouldn't it be a great idea if we could do this or that or the other? And 99% of the population said, well, that's just not possible, because the system set up against you as I will screw the system. Yeah, give it a shot, that's right. And I haven't been successful with all of them, but I've been successful with a few of them and they've been the greatest joy of my life, which is not proving other people wrong, but it was just like no, come on, let's give it a go. Let's, let's give it a shot and see what happens. Because if, if you shoot for the stars but you end up on the moon, that's sort of pretty amazing outcome. But if you don't shoot for anywhere, you end up nowhere. So the farther I practice, the luckier I get, that's right.

Speaker 3: 4:36

So the CEO mentorship program how did you start that Was it? Was that, that was my side hustle.

Speaker 2: 4:45

And what is that? How do you pronounce it? Entelike, entelike. There you go, okay.

Speaker 4: 4:51

Let me explain that word a little bit too. First of all, so Entelike is a phrase coined by Aristotle oh Two and a half thousand years ago. So the Entelike of an acorn is an oak tree, the Entelike of a caterpillar is a butterfly. The Entelike of Adam is the ultimate version of Adam, with all of his potential fully actualized. That's a good one. Let me tell you a little story about my side hustle that turned into the rest of my life. I was an investment banking for 10 years, loved it. I worked for a year in the Far East, the Middle East, year and a half in the Middle East, year in Switzerland, year in Germany, year in New York, year in California, loved it, learned such. And I had an amazing boss, an amazing mentor, who called me into his office in March, I think it was 88. And said well, young man, record, bonus, record, performance, record everything. Record share options. I think it's time you moved on. And I said oh, why is that? So? He said, well, you're on the wrong side of the table Stock consulting and financing entrepreneurs. Go and be one. And so that was in June of 88. And so the next 10 years I did two startups in the UK, both involving golf and country clubs, and the first one I built up and sold. The second one I built up and floated on the stock exchange. And I had a major tectonic plate shift in my life. I ended up as a single parent to a seven year old and a three year old, and I obviously wanted to prioritize looking after them. And I didn't know what I wanted to do next. And so for about two years, all these people kept coming to me saying, oh, I'm thinking of raising money and going on the stock exchange, I'm thinking of expanding overseas, I'm thinking of changing my board or whatever it was. And actually in the previous 20 years I'd done all of that and had all that experience. And I thought, ok, well, I'll help you out whilst I'm busy figuring out what I want to do next. And I looked at all sorts of weird, wonderful things. And about two years later, I took my kids over to my mom and dad's for Sunday lunch and my mom said, oh, it's just going so well for you, isn't it, darling? I said, well, it is going well, mom, but I've just got no time to think about what I want to do next. And she said oh, I thought this was what you were doing next. And I remember in the drive home with the two kids in the back of the car, fast asleep, thinking this reminds me of a conversation I had 20 years ago with an amazing mentor and I was looking for some careers advice and he told me you've got to tick four boxes. There's no more complicated than that. Find something that you're absolutely brilliant at, you love doing, that pays the bills and makes a difference. And if you can tick all four boxes, you've got it made. And I remember driving home thinking I'm actually really good at this, I love doing it, it pays the bills and it makes a difference. So maybe my mom's right. This is why I am doing next. So what was our side hustle for two years? Thinking about what I was going to do next and exploring lots of things. That's why I ended up doing. 15 years later, I'd built up what became the world's leading CEO mentoring company, with officers and clients around the world. I became known as the world's leading CEO mentor, which I always humbly laugh at. That's a nice title, yeah. But I also remember a great joke from Richard Branson when he was asked about Virgin Atlantic and I sort of borrowed from that phrase and I said well, I don't know if I am the world's leading CEO mentor, but I'm definitely in the top one.

Speaker 3: 9:21

So I guess I have questions as a CEO mentor. What exactly was your business doing?

Speaker 4: 9:31

So 25 years I've worked with CEOs, and when I started off, it was with small and medium-sized businesses and they got bigger and bigger, and I ended up mentoring CEOs of some of the world's biggest companies, and it was ultimately how to help them become the best version of themselves as a leader, and it was all about developing their character qualities, which is what my company, intelliq, is now all about. I did that for 25 years, did very well out of it, became good at it, well known, but I was always frustrated that we were working with a small number of expensive CEO clients and I wanted to democratize what we were doing and cascade it down into the whole organization, and that's what IntelliQ Academy does now. Oh wow, young people have had eviscerated out of their education things like drama, sport, music and all of the debating and all the things that helped us develop teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and these are the skills that employers want to need their employees to have, that they just have never learned how to develop. And so what IntelliQ Academy is all about is helping people to learn the skills of being organized, responsible, disciplined, reliable, efficient, collaborative, analytical, creative, which are critical, mission critical skills that everybody needs to survive and thrive in the modern world, that they just weren't taught at college or at school. And it's really interesting when we show our proposition and the 54 character qualities to employers they're like where have you guys been the last 15 years? These are exactly the skills that we want our employees to have, or applicants have that they don't have. But also young people in the company is like why weren't we taught this at college or at university or at school? Because they all make such sense. The beautiful thing about these 54 character qualities is they're all innate in everybody, but they were parented out of a school, out of a church, out of a workplace, out of a media, out of us. But anybody can learn to become more kind, anybody can learn to become more disciplined. And if I could tell you a quick story about six months ago seven months ago six, seven months ago, doesn't matter we hired a new, very senior sales exec and he had a sort of industry wide reputation as a deal killer, deal winner. And anyway, every Monday at 10 o'clock we have a whole team coaching session and he was a bit skeptical, thinking you know, I'm nearly 60. I'm not sure if I can learn all these new things. Anyway, he chose for his personal character qualities to be more kind. He just had his first grandchild, he'd been married for 30 years and he chose for his professional one to be more disciplined. And he the reason he chose disciplined is because he knew he was constantly distracted by his mobile phone and Slack messages, whatsapp messages, going on all the time, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, and he knew he had to hit the phone, send emails to make sales calls and book demos and things. So one of his colleagues said well, why don't you do what I do, which is in a what gets schedule gets done? Put nine o'clock till 10, 15 sales calls in your diary, 10, 15 till 10, 30 coffee break, 10, 30 to 11, 45 sales calls, 11, 45 to 12 o'clock, coffee break, and what gets scheduled gets done. He's like oh, I can do that, that's a good idea. And another colleague said yes, and, by the way, leave your mobile phone in the kitchen next to the coffee machine so it's not on your desk pinging during that hour and a quarter you've dedicated sales calls. He's like oh, okay, I can do that, I'll try both of those things. I'll report back to you next week. And then one of the girls on the team said to him so how long have you been married? 30 years, and you want to be more kind? Yes, why is that what? We had our first grandchild. I love my wife want to show how much I appreciate her and I think I could dial up being more kind. And so she, the his colleague, said well, what are some of the things that your wife would like notice and appreciate? And he said oh, it's not a long list. For example, nine o'clock at night, without being nagged, I could take the dog for a walk around the block for toilet before bedtime. What else? Tuesday nights I could take all the bins out for the garbage man to collect the next morning without being nagged or asked anything else. Yes, on the parcel shelf next to the front door my wife and I leave our car keys and house keys and she leaves so dry cleaning tickets, and so when I go to the gym in the morning at six o'clock, her dry cleaners is next to the gym. I can pick them up at seven o'clock. December. Just those three things, I think, make big difference. Okay, so the call only lasts for 30 minutes and then a week later he comes to the call and the girls were like how did it go? How did it go so well? He said, you know, typical week I make 40 calls and book in 10 demos. And last week, because I did that technique I'm not being distracted and being disciplined I booked 16 demos, record week, you know, and in fact carried on every week, you know. That's a 60% improvement in my productivity. Yeah, and so, and he was very pleased to say that two of the extra demos he booked, you know, and resulted in a contract. And so he was like just by being more disciplined I can make more money, more commission. And then the girl said to him so how did it go with being more kind? He said well, I love this story. I'm laughing at the box, my own story.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Yeah, it's good then.

Speaker 4: 16:39

But he said well, every Friday night, ever since we've got married, my wife and I've had a romantic dinner for two at home. And she comes into my office excuse me at 6.30, puts a gin and tonic on my table and says right, you got half an hour, switch a computer off, put your files away. Dinners at 7 o'clock. And this particular Friday she came in and sat down and plunked his gin and tonic on the table, sat in the chair next to him and had a gin and tonic herself, which was very unusual. And she said right, I'm just going to come straight out with it. Are you having an affair? And he's like no, of course I'm not. Why on earth would you think that? Well, you've taken the dump for a walk every night without being asked to pick my drag leading up. You've taken the garbage out and choose it. What is going on? And he said oh, I'm working on being more kind towards you. That's my new thing at IntelliQy. And she said whatever drugs they're giving you, please keep taking them, because I really like them, appreciate them. And so you know, even someone who's you know like nearly 60, recognize that just choosing two of these character qualities out of the 54, he could dial them up within a week and have a transformative impact on his day to day life.

Speaker 2: 17:57

Well, I mean just two. I mean that's easy to focus on. You know, if you overwhelm people with too many at one time, they may not even do them because they just feel like there's too much. But finding success with those two could persuade him to continue with the other ones, to keep the momentum going.

Speaker 4: 18:15

So the way our product works is that everybody does a 180 and a 360 on this fit and the algorithm bases okay, we're based on all the input. Here's the two we think you should work on, to start off with.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Yeah, well, that's really smart, yeah, that's a good way.

Speaker 4: 18:33

And then they get wins at that and success at that, and then always there another one I could work on. So they actually want to go on to the next one because it's worked.

Speaker 2: 18:41

Well, eventually those things become habits. So he just takes out the dog, he just, you know, it's hard at first, but then, after you do it so much, then it's just like going to the gym. You know, you go to the gym. It's really hard to get to the gym three, four days a week and then it just becomes a thing. You just wake up in the morning, you go and it's not even it's. You know, it's like turning on the TV after a while. So that's really smart. I mean you've got a great background in finance in general and risk assessment. You know this was years, you know, a while ago, that was a long time ago, yeah. But you don't lose that stuff. I mean that's, that's all stuff did? I mean it stands the test of time.

Speaker 4: 19:21

So you know, Okay, but going back to your topic of side hustles, I was having a think about this this afternoon before coming on air with you guys today, when I was 11, I won't tell you the whole story, but basically my parents were struggling with money and everything else as well, and and there was a school ski trip announced and, and and it was 114 pounds, so I'd saved up on my own 100 and one pounds, so I had 13 pounds to go. And to cut it long story short, for all sorts of reasons, which you know was respected and understood, my parents said no, and so, but I wanted to earn the money myself so I could go into school on the 9th of January after the Christmas holidays and say I've got the money, I'll do it myself. And I wasn't old enough legally to caddy, and my birthday is January the 12th, and I had to wait till January the 12th to be legally older. And so I went out every day over the Christmas holidays and walked the golf course, you know, and got the yardages and everything else as well, and looked at the greens and but as I was out, I was collecting hundreds of golf balls that people had shot into the woods or the weeds or whatever. I had a big rucksack and I used to stuff this rucksack every day for a couple and I ended up with like a huge garbage. I decided to go and stand in the car park over Christmas and sell these golf balls back to the people who'd lost them. And I can't remember how. This is a long, long time ago, but let's say, a golf ball in those days cost 50 cents, a brand new one, and these were all brand new golf balls and I'd sell them for 25 cents and literally I was making tens and tens and tens of dollars. So by the time it got round to January the sixth and I had to go back to school, I'd made all the money myself for this ski trip and the last day before going back to school the caddy master called me in to see him and he said you know you're waiting until you're 12 to start cadding on. And I said if I were you, I'd stop doing your little side hustle because the pro shop are pissed off with you because you're stealing all that roll. They're money from selling you golf balls. So I said, okay, well, I'll sell them to the the pro shop and I think I had to take a discount from like 25 cents to I can't remember 15 cents or something, but they were selling them for a dollar and they were making a huge margin, and so I was literally going out onto the golf course finding all these lost golf balls and I love it. I really don't remember this and I'm probably going to exaggerate the story, but if the average wage in the UK at the time was, let's say, $1,000 a month, I was making $1,000 a month as a 12 year old.

Speaker 2: 23:12

Wow, wow did you, but did you go on the ski trip? Yes, they let you go on the ski trip. Where was the ski trip at?

Speaker 4: 23:24

Oh, in Europe somewhere, I mean.

Speaker 2: 23:26

Switzerland or somewhere. Austria, Austria, oh, Austria is beautiful. Why was it so expensive? $120, I mean, if you're, people are making a thousand bucks back then and this ski trip's $128,. I mean, that's how that's how.

Speaker 4: 23:39

Hey, listen, I'm 64 and this is when I was 11. So I probably got the numbers wrong. Oh, but still I mean, yeah, if it was a hundred dollars, if it was a hundred pounds back then, I do know that on my 12th birthday, between which is the 12th of January, from the 12th of December to the 12th of January, I had made a lot more than the average adult made as a working wage. Oh, I'm sure, yeah that's wild In a side hustle.

Speaker 2: 24:05

So that was your side hustle and you I mean, that was a side hustle before anybody really knew about side hustles, but you knew you had a goal. You knew there was something you wanted to do. You were passionate about it and you were willing to work a little extra harder to hit that goal. You didn't just say, well, my parents aren't gonna pay for it, I'm gonna just not do anything. No, you went out and you found what was around you and you created an opportunity for yourself, which is, I think, at the core of most of these side hustles. I mean, there are places you could do now. You could drive a rideshare, you could rent your car on platforms, you could rent your apartment. I would consider those kind of side hustles separate ways to make money, but I mean you literally invented your own side hustle. So is it like?

Speaker 3: 24:51

because there's a guy around here named Oakley Ferris Do you know you know Oakley, so there are a bunch of Ferris facilities. He and his wife she passed away a couple of years ago, he's about 90 something. They have six or seven community centers, baseball fields or whatever. And he started his entrepreneurial career by selling chocolate bars to factory workers here in Covington.

Speaker 2: 25:14

Oh, no way.

Speaker 3: 25:15

So he was in first grade. Walking around, he found a way to get chocolate bars for cheap. He was buying a bulk before a bulk was even thought of by Sam Walton.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:26

And he was. You know, he would go in, he would just sell it to them and he would sell the kids at school and that's how he made a bunch of money.

Speaker 2: 25:30

Oh, that's a smart story. How many CEOs did you mentor that had side hustles when they were starting out? I mean, were they always career like? Were they always company men, company women, or were they? Did they hustle a little bit? Were they entrepreneurs at one point?

Speaker 4: 26:21

Um, there's, there's not a quick, simple answer there. When I started off, I was working with a lot of entrepreneurs and they had all been a bit like me. They'd had a paper round, They'd had this, They'd you know, they'd all been hustlers like me. But as as my career as a mentor took off, I ended up working with a big, a number of CEOs and major multinationals and they had, you know, been to the right school, been to the right university, got into the right job, and so they were a different breed. Um, but even at the top of those careers, you know, their website hustles all. I've joined this board as a non-exec and earn a bit of extra money and get some share options, and I'll be on this advisory board. So I think entrepreneurial people I mean until the day I die, whether I've got enough money in my bank account today to last me for the rest of my life, and some. I need to be validated by earning money. Hmm. Yes, oh, I guess. If no one wants to pay me for my time, my best, then I feel I'm invalidated.

Speaker 2: 27:42

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 27:44

And so I'm always going to have to do something to earn some money, even if I don't need to. Yeah, you can't.

Speaker 3: 27:49

Is it the money or is it the accomplishment that brings the money? The actual having watching, watching your idea come to fruition, through all these people, seeing how they interpret your 54 points, character characteristics or character points that you've laid out.

Speaker 4: 28:07

Character qualities. Yeah, I think it's two things. That's a good question. I think it's two things. I think, first of all, I'm an inventor and I love seeing problems. Everyone else is, oh, that's too hard to solve and I'm not sure if it is. It's not going to be easy to solve, but we can do it this way and I want to be paid for that idea, that advice, making it happen Otherwise to me. If I'm not paid for it, no one really values it. And I also think probably it comes from a very humble background where you know if you're multi-trillionaire or billionaire, you can do things philanthropically and I do lots and lots of work for in a pro bono sense. But there's also people I think you know I'm giving you a great idea, I'm showing you how to make money, I'm showing you how to do something that you didn't think was possible. I'd like to be paid for that advice and that support to validate me, and for every super expensive fee-paying mentoring client that I had over 25 years. I had a pro bono client who was running a charity and not the profit social enterprise, a prison, all sorts of different things that I didn't charge a penny for. But I think maybe it's working class, background or ethics, but it's like you know, if you don't pay me, it means you're not valuing me, and I need someone to pay me to make me feel I'm valued.

Speaker 3: 30:02

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 30:05

Which is probably a whole conversation with a therapist.

Speaker 3: 30:08

sometimes so I don't know if this is like an American thing or not, because we haven't had that many guests from the UK, but we talk a lot about imposter syndrome. We've had a lot of people that we've founders that were not sure that they deserved the opportunity that they had.

Speaker 2: 30:27

Basically, made for themselves Baseball GM lady. We just talked to her about it.

Speaker 3: 30:30

Yeah, like it's crazy. You made this opportunity through your hard work, through your intelligence, through your dedication, but you don't believe that you deserve it. You, on the other hand, need to be teaching a class on that, because you are basically like no, I'm providing you with excellent information. I'm guiding you in a way to make money. Damn it. Pay me, Show me the money Well you understand me.

Speaker 4: 30:59

I think it's a combination. It's like if you're the CEO of the world's biggest platinum mining company, with 98,000 employees and grillions of dollars of turnover, it's like you can afford to pay me If you're running a local social enterprise or a charity and you can't afford to pay me. By the way, I get the same amount of joy out of helping both of them, but I think I it is probably my. I wanted to go back to something you were talking about at the beginning of the introduction, which I don't think I answered properly, but I think that the world is in a pretty crazy messed up situation at the moment. Oh yeah, and we've got worlds going on everywhere. We've got economic turmoil going on. I mean, let's face it. I mean your country my country, by the way, as well politically is bankrupt, and you know we've all looked to the US for many, many years for leadership and there is none at the moment. It's really terrifying.

Speaker 3: 32:22

You're not happy with Joseph Biden.

Speaker 2: 32:27

Don't worry, you're preaching to the choir right now.

Speaker 3: 32:30

You're in welcome company here. Yeah, that was the reason you made the podcast.

Speaker 4: 32:37

So he and his family are so corrupt, oh God, and his administration is so corrupt. But whether Biden stays in or Trump stays in, you know Einstein's three favorite quotes. You know you can't solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created the problem. If you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to keep getting what you've always had. And if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to get a different result, that's the definition of insanity. And you know, by the way, everything I'm saying about the US supplies to the UK. I mean it's insanity. What's going on? Yeah, and we've all been lied to for so long. I mean, whether it's COVID or climate change or whatever, we've all been lied to for so long. And people need to wake up. And the way to wake people up is to raise their consciousness. And the only way to raise people's consciousness is through developing their character. And I think that you know Entelike is my legacy project and I want to help people benefit from all the work I've done over many, many years and these magical 54 character qualities. By understanding, I can be more curious, I can be more open minded, I can be more analytical, collaborative, disciplined, organized, efficient, reliable, wise, purposeful, whatever they are, and in the same way, I told you the story about my colleague earlier on, everyone can do that, and the only way we're going to solve these problems is for people to wake up and get more conscious. And you know, I'm not able to vote in an American election because I'm not American. But we and, by the way, we have the exact same problem in this country. Oh yeah, you guys have a duopoly, the Republicans versus the Democrats, and they're both as bad as each other, and, at the end of the day, the policies between them are as thin as a cigarette paper. There's no real difference, and we've got exactly the same stupidity in the UK. And so my greatest wish, my greatest desire for America, is that Robert F Kennedy Jr is voted in.

Speaker 3: 35:23

That's exactly what I was going to say, because I was like. Great option there's one option right now that's probably outside of Rand Paul. He's been the best third party option we've had my lifetime.

Speaker 2: 35:34

Well, and this is coming from somebody who trains leaders, yeah, I mean, you see it.

Speaker 3: 35:39

You see, the week you say, in my opinion it's not worth the shit, because I know, I know Mentor, I don't know if either of you.

Speaker 4: 35:45

I don't know if either of you saw it, and it was probably two or three months ago, um, but he was invited onto the Joe Rogan podcast. Oh yeah, that was great. And three hours 12 minutes, and the first of 10 minutes Joe Rogan was giving him the toughest time. You know, I've never liked you, I've never trusted you. You're dada. And at the end of three hours he was Joe Rogan was literally eating out of Robert's hand and he was transformed. In that moment. It's like you're a good guy, you're an honest guy, you're a decent guy, you're telling the truth. And, um, I was listening on the radio today, um, and I'm sure I'll misquote it, probably, but apparently Winston Churchill said um, democracy is the worst form of government there, is it just so happens. It's better than all the alternatives.

Speaker 2: 36:47

I know, yeah, I heard that that's great.

Speaker 4: 36:49

And you know we've got a duopoly in this country yeah and um, there is no. And of course, all of the governments and the politicians all around the world are puppets of these, you know international organizations who are really controlling the show, who are unaccountable, unelected People need to wake up, mm. Hmm, I was about to say that we can sit and have, we can sit and have a nice cozy conversation about side hustles when I was 11 or later, but you know, people are going to need. I mean, I remember in 1978, a long time ago um, I got married very young, we moved into our first department together and I had a job with a bank in London, barclays Bank $9.5 a Monday to Friday, but every Thursday, friday and Saturday my wife and I worked in the local pub pulling pints and serving the food and all that. And on Sunday she worked in a burger bar and I worked in as a like an ambulance driver for a local hospice. We had three jobs and in order to pay the bills and pay the rent and, you know, make, save up some money to buy some furniture and all those, we needed three jobs and we did that for years in what was called the winter of discontent. I remember in 1989, going home to my wife and saying I've got some bad news and some really bad news. And she's like, oh, what's the bad news? I said, well, today the Bank of England put the base rate up to 17.1%, which means that our mortgage, or whatever it was our mortgage was 17.1%. It's consuming 80% of my salary. She said, oh well, let's just sell the house and pay off the mortgage and be done with it. And I said, well, and that takes me onto the really bad news, which is that the house is now worth less than the mortgage. And that was I remember that conversation was just before Christmas and fortunately in the March I had a bonus in my time in investment banking and I could pay off the mortgage and we moved. But we've had this ridiculous situation that has never been happened in history, where for 10, 15 years interest rates have been next to nothing, and it's because all the money printing which is causing inflation. And this country, my country, printed half a trillion pounds worth of paper debt over the pandemic, I think our surprise we now got 15% inflation and, yeah, during a time when goods were at a premium because the things that were shipping from China got stopped. You remember that.

Speaker 2: 39:58

Like all these goods that we have, they get shipped from overseas. They had those ships in America. At least they were off the coast of California. They couldn't come in. So you had more money, more cash, going after the dollar, and I think that's the reason why we're so excited about this. You had more money, more cash, going after less goods.

Speaker 3: 40:21

On top of that, everything costs more because our government but Buttigieg is the worst cabinet member in history and that's amazing considering that Kamala Harris is in the same cabinet but he didn't do anything to speak with the longshoremen. That's what the problem was, where the unions and the state regulation wouldn't allow them to stack containers over a certain height. Is that why they were out there? That was a big part of it, and then another part of it was there were these things that's called the carbon mission. It's basically like this carbon neutral bullshit. And so trucks may pre 2008, I think aren't allowed into the port. They're not even allowed in running in California. So you have all. You have less trucks getting less containers, while getting all these extra containers that can't be stacked because of the law. So they just sit out there and idle in the ocean with all the carbon emissions.

Speaker 2: 41:17

And stuff goes bad and then you have losses, right, so then they have to raise the prices and then at the same time you have labor costs going up.

Speaker 3: 41:26

Hiles had on his podcast, the Digital Dollar. He had two back to back episodes. They had a guy that said interest rates weren't going to do anything because it would destroy the economy and they wouldn't let it happen. And another guy says it's going to be the 1970s all over again. And thus far the guy who said it's going to be the 1970s all over again is the one who's winning. When you bought your house or when you're doing your three jobs in the late 70s, was stagflation bad in UK like it was in the US?

Speaker 4: 41:56

Yes, and if I'm really honest, it was high teens, low 20s, but you know, and some things were like 50%. I mean we've got a situation in the UK now where, like the price of timber to build or repair or renovate a house has gone up by 300% in two years we had that same issue, but it washed itself out last two years ago because I do the real estate investing and we had the same exact issue.

Speaker 3: 42:31

So it made its way over to Great Britain now.

Speaker 4: 42:35

Yeah, but I mean, there's lots and lots of things. But going back to side hustles sorry to bring this back on topic but going back to that advice of you know, do something you're brilliant at, do something you love doing, do some of the pays, the bills and makes a difference. You know, I really think over the next two or three years that, in order to you know, we have this ridiculous I mean, this is 2023, for God's sake. We've had this ridiculous paradigm in the UK where people are talking about I've got to decide whether I'm going to heat or eat. It's like and I'm sorry I'm going to have a little ramp, but you know we are. I watch a show every Thursday from 7pm to 9pm, religiously, and it's a show that comes out of Texas and I've been a fan of the show for four years and it's called the High Wire with Del Big Tree and if you never watched it, watch one episode of go to the website highwirecom. He has predicted for the last three or four years literally everything that's come through and all of his show is all about the COVID and the fake vaccines and the COVID forward. But over the last few years I've been studying this and thinking the exact same playbook is going on in Big Ag, is going on in financial services, is going on in climate change, is going on everywhere, and so we're all going to need a side hassle. A side hassle because, over the next two or three years, as they bring in surveillance and control and central bank, digital currencies and all the things that China vacation of the West which, by the way, has been 10, 20 years in the planning it is literally so well advanced and so it's going to happen. And the only way that we can stop this is to wake up and understand what's going on, which the vast majority of people won't do until it's too late, but the only way in which they can then overturn it and overcome it is to be more conscious. I think that in the future, so many of the concepts that we've been indoctrinated with career for life or gee, you graduated from Harvard with a good degree in economics, your futures assured all of that is just blown out the window the last few years. That's right. Find something you love doings, find something you're passionate about and good at doing. The pays the bills and makes it and makes the difference is the last one, and it's the most important one, because the world is going to need people who can make a difference more than ever before.

Speaker 3: 45:45

What kind of traction are you having? Because your, your, your, your, your company's, basically like the antithesis of the DEI world that a lot of the corporate America's in at least I don't know about that, I'm assuming the DEI or diversity equity inclusion. Yeah, like the black rocks pushing with most of the companies is invested. How have you guys combated that to get to get the leadership of different companies to understand, because I mean it's pretty cut and dry from what I see. Every company that that really like goes in whole hog, get themselves in trouble. Yes, these are stock price good as shit. I mean, look at Disney, for Christ's sake. Disney's like the Disney, but Disney and who owns Anheuser-Busch? Now? I mean Bud Light's shares went through.

Speaker 2: 46:38

Somebody just had to fire their DEI. Had a DEI because she was stealing money from the company.

Speaker 3: 46:43

But even beyond that, even if they're not a crook, the whole concept sucks, yeah. So, like you've got like this canary in the coal mine kind of project happening, how are you guys faring? How are you competing?

Speaker 2: 46:58

Well, here you go. He's got something on the screen right now. Show us.

Speaker 4: 47:01

I'll just share this. So these are the 54 character qualities. So let's be playful for a few minutes. Choose two or three of these character qualities that you know. If you dial them up, it would have a big impact on your kids or your spouse or your friends or your family or your colleagues. Go on, just it's a. Both of you choose one.

Speaker 2: 47:28

One I would say purposeful because I can. Harmonious is probably purposeful.

Speaker 3: 47:32

I could get the other two I think would fit, would fold into purposeful yeah moving, purposeful and harmonious.

Speaker 4: 47:39

So let's assume, every day through to the end of January, you spend five minutes a day working on being more of that character quality. Yeah, what are you going to do differently? What are you going to try? What are you going to experiment with? Come on, both of you, you always go first.

Speaker 2: 48:02

Well, I'd probably spend more time with the wife. I'd have more work-life balance. You know everything's work, work, work, politics.

Speaker 4: 48:11

you know that kind of stuff I would probably try to balance those and, assuming that you did that and it was successful, what would the benefit to you be?

Speaker 2: 48:20

I think I would probably realize that it's not all about work.

Speaker 4: 48:26

I'd probably realize that. What would the benefit of that be?

Speaker 2: 48:29

I'd be re-energized, actually I'd probably. I like the.

Speaker 3: 48:32

Socratic Method going on here. It reminds me of law school. This is nice. Yeah, this is law school.

Speaker 2: 48:37

No, I'd probably realize that. Hey, you know, by having a more balanced life, I'm actually more productive when I'm working.

Speaker 4: 48:45

Okay, if you don't mind me saying, all of your answers are in your head. I want some answers from your heart.

Speaker 2: 48:54

Oh man.

Speaker 3: 48:54

This is the part of the trusting part.

Speaker 2: 48:57

I know you're asking the most uncompassionate person to think so. Would your wife love you more? Definitely, definitely. Would you love your wife more. Oh, yeah, yeah, we'd get to know each other better, I think.

Speaker 4: 49:14

What would the benefit of that be?

Speaker 2: 49:16

A stronger relationship, less arguments. What would the benefit of that be? Less stress.

Speaker 3: 49:24

What would the benefit of that be? Probably take it out to your other relationships with other people.

Speaker 2: 49:28

It would be. Yeah, yeah, you're right, yeah, it would be. Yeah, it would go into other things. I would learn from it and probably have better relationships with other people.

Speaker 3: 49:37

That would limit your time arguing with the nuts. Yeah, I would. What would the benefit of that?

Speaker 2: 49:41

be. I'd have less crazy people around me. I would cut out the crazy people for sure. And the benefit of that Less stress on me and less stress on my relationship and the benefit of that Better life overall.

Speaker 4: 50:01

Okay, well, let's stop there. What about you?

Speaker 3: 50:06

Me Purposeful, I think, would entail me being more present at home. I don't really care so much about work, I'm very focused when it comes to that. I would be much more of a productive father and husband. The benefit of that, well, besides, my whole lineage from me on down hopefully copying that and having a family full of people that are respectful and that appreciate other people, I'd have a much stronger marriage and I believe that my corner of the world would be a better place, because I'm assuming that if my relationship is better with everybody, I'm going to be happier and it's going to kind of espouse itself out with my neighbors and other people.

Speaker 4: 50:56

The benefit of having a stronger marriage.

Speaker 3: 50:59

The benefit of having a stronger marriage. Well, the benefit of having a stronger marriage is you actually get to, in my opinion, you get to appreciate what the whole purpose of life is and that's come together and to pass on your, your like, not just your physical DNA but your spiritual DNA and your, you know, make the world a better place than you found it, I guess. And it's easier to do that when you have two people working together as one.

Speaker 4: 51:36

Okay, so I offer you both a challenge, and my challenge is that, between now and the 31st of January, every single day, you spend no more than five minutes being conscious to be more of the character quality you've just described. Yeah, no more than five minutes. Challenge accepted and I want you to both do me a favor. Yeah, that after the 31st of January. It doesn't need to be a podcast, we have a video call, and I want you to tell me the impact of that choice that you made and the benefits that you've accrued, because I promise you that you'll achieve everything you just both said, and 10 things each that you had no idea what possible to achieve by being so conscious and focusing on one character quality. Do you accept my challenge? Yeah of course let's do it. It doesn't need to be a podcast, but we can have a 10 minute Zoom call like this early in February. But you have to commit. I commit that every day between now and the 31st of January I am committed to being more purposeful, Armonious For no more than five minutes a day and I promise to tell you the outcome of that in six weeks time.

Speaker 3: 53:02

Yeah, I've accepted way worse challenges than this before. I think I would be able to keep on my hair for this week.

Speaker 2: 53:08

Yeah yeah, kyle's had some issues in college maybe.

Speaker 3: 53:14

Testosterone's a hell of a drug, something.

Speaker 4: 53:18

But you understand the point, don't you? That it's like these 54 character qualities underpinning. Aristotle also said that. You know, character determines destiny. What he meant by that was we all end up in life, wherever we end up, as a direct function of our character. So if you end up with a better marriage, better relationship with your kids, better relationship with your colleagues through doing something five minutes a day for 30 days, 40 days please own the promise you've just both made to me. Yeah, and we're off the record, calling early week of February and you can tell me I did it. I really did do it, dave, in five minutes a day. And here's what happened. And I promise you you will get 10 times more value and benefit than either of you thought was possible.

Speaker 2: 54:08

Well, in the wild thing is is when you put these up on the screen, it makes you think about them, like when he said hey, pick one of these, I'm going through them. Yeah, I'm going through them and I'm like, yeah yeah, I think I could do.

Speaker 3: 54:21

I should be better at this. Definitely be better at this, Well you don't think about them, unless you see them? Oh yeah, and it's got the artwork with it.

Speaker 2: 54:30

I know. Well, that was impressive. I was like, wow, I'm a graphic designer and I'm looking at each one of these. I'm like wow, he actually found a piece of art that worked for each one of these personality features, I think the detached ones, my favorite, yeah, no, that one's really smart. That one's really smart. Yeah, this is pretty amazing. Well, david, this is great. I love that you put this stuff together and you've actually, like you, made it a system. Well, how does everybody else? So we're going to do this, we're going to challenge ourselves, we're going to get this done, but how do other people find you? How do they reach out to you? How do they find your program?

Speaker 4: 55:10

If anybody would like to reach out to me personally, the best way to do that is through LinkedIn, david CM Carter. There's only one of them. And then Telakie Academy also has a LinkedIn presence with white papers, research and lots of other things in the 54 karat qualities that we just shared on screen. So they're probably the best two ways. If someone wants to fight about the work, we do go to the Telakie Academy LinkedIn, but if anyone's interested in having an exploratory chat with me, then contact me via LinkedIn please.

Speaker 2: 55:45

Yeah, well, look at that. You got married early, man, but look at this picture on LinkedIn. You were. Were you beating them off with a stick back in the 70s, weren't you? Look at this, still looking good. Look at that handsome man. Well, david, this has been a picture on LinkedIn. Yeah, look at that picture on LinkedIn. Look at you.

Speaker 4: 56:02

That was two years ago, yeah. Oh, 70s. No, that's what I'm saying. No, that's what.

Speaker 2: 56:07

I'm saying, I'm saying like it's still looking good. Man, I mean, back in the 70s, boy you were, you get to beating them off with a stick, weren't you?

Speaker 4: 56:18

Back in the 70s I was married young and didn't notice anyone.

Speaker 2: 56:21

You didn't know, you didn't know. Yeah Well, david, we really appreciate you being on the show. This has been great. You know we accepted your challenge and definitely people checking out on LinkedIn Again.

Speaker 4: 56:33

David, I'd like you to record to video that you have accepted my challenge and that after the 31st of January, you guys, the two of you, will book in a 15, 20 minute zoom call with me and tell me what you did between now and 31st of January to work on your two character weldies. And I want you to tell me what that experience was like for you and the benefits, because I promise you both it will blow your mind. I believe it.

Speaker 2: 57:01

Well, you're picking a good time. It's going to be cold here and there's not much else to do. I'm going to do a diary of it.

Speaker 3: 57:07

So, oh, that's cool, because my memory sucks. So I will. I already put it in my phone. Well, I'm not worried, I'm saying every day I'm going to record exactly what I did, even just that. Oh, that's smart, oh, that's real smart.

Speaker 2: 57:17

I should do that too, that's what I am, man. I know I got genius over here. You mentioned Einstein and I kind of put him to shame right now.

Speaker 3: 57:24

I sound like a hillbilly and stupid, but I got some good thoughts. I just can't express them in a quick manner. There you go. There you go If you fast forward the podcast, I sound normal speed and you're like, oh, he is kind of sharp.

Speaker 2: 57:35

There you go, well, david. Once again, sir, thank you very much. I know it's late where you're at and you want to get that. Sit in front of that fire, maybe smoke a cigar, drink some brandy and chill out.

Speaker 4: 57:48

Every night I have a log fire and I, before I go to bed which will be in a few minutes time I have a single whiskey and I admit I do have a cigarette and just chill out for 15 minutes for going to bed.

Speaker 3: 58:02

Like a Scotch malt whiskey or what? Do you have? A single malt from Scotland? Yes, I do bourbon here. I tried to drink Scotch a couple of times. My best friend loves it. For me it's like drinking a campfire. It's just so peaty. I just can't. I need the sugary taste of the bourbon. You drank the wrong ones.

Speaker 2: 58:21

Well, you bring some Scotch when you come to Kentucky, you bring some Scotch and then then he'll take you to get all the bourbon. We'll take you on the bourbon trail. You'll hit five or six distilleries. Well, I don't like bourbon because it's too sweet for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty sweet.

Speaker 3: 58:35

It does finish pretty sugary tasting.

Speaker 2: 58:38

Yeah Well, David. Once again, sir, thank you very much, and we will follow up again in a little more than a month and have our results for you, sir.

Speaker 4: 58:49

Well, I'm going to judge you by your agreement to contact me in early February, not by the outcome. Okay, okay, what is on, it is recorded with the either commit to doing this and giving it a shot and seeing what happens and telling me what the results are, or don't.

Speaker 3: 59:09

Oh we will do it. Oh, we're on it. We're on it. You challenged us.

Speaker 4: 59:12

As Yoda said, do or do not, there is no trying.

Speaker 2: 59:17

That's true. That's why I'm running for my council my committee race right now.

Speaker 3: 59:23

So Abraham, love to chat to you both.

Speaker 4: 59:25

Thank you very much for inviting me on to the show. Really enjoyed meeting you both and I wish you both a very lovely, peaceful, happy holiday season with your family and friends.

Speaker 2: 59:37

Oh, you as well. You as well. See you in February, buddy. Yeah, see you in February. Enjoy your night. Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of Side Hustle City. Well, you've heard from our guests. Now let's hear from you. Join our community on Facebook, side Hustle City. It's a group where people share ideas, share their inspirational stories and motivate each other to be successful and turn their side hustle into their main hustle. We'll see you there and we'll see you next week on the show. Thank you.