The One With Geoff Smith

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:00:32]:

Hey. Hello. Hello. Welcome back. Thank you for joining us another episode of The Keith Blakemore-Noble Radio Show. Great to have you here. Remember, if you like, if you enjoy this stuff, give us a like, give us a comment, give us a share, give us a subscribe. It all helps to to boost the, post the show and get it, get it far and wide. Tony of the show, who have we got on today? Well, let me tell you about my guest today, from the back alleys of Clubland London to the boardrooms of Hong Kong, Jeff Smith’s entrepreneurial journey has traversed the most eclectic terrains that the world has to offer. He’s an international entrepreneur with a proven track record and a multi faceted career. A Jeff story is a testament to grit, perseverance, and an indomitable spirit. So having embarked on adventures that most would only dare to watch on the big screen and often hiding behind, hiding behind their close hands, having embarked upon, those sorts of adventures, Jeff has faced perilous challenges. He’s navigated through the toughest of life life’s lessons, but In like a true visionary, he possesses the uncanny ability to find golden opportunities in the most unlikely of places. His unyielding spirit, not only saw him safely through danger, but enabled him to emerge from those challenges with groundbreaking business ideas and an unbreakable resilience. You can see why we had to have him as as a guest on here. Today, Jeff stands at the helm of a thriving group of companies span commodities, management consulting, and media services, yet this success wasn’t handed to him on a silver platter, Along the way, he’s faced set setbacks, and yes, he experienced a sting of failure on more than one occasion. But to Jeff, failure was never the end. It was simply a lesson. Each setback sharpened his business acumen teaching him invaluable business lessons that, to many of us learn far too late in our careers. That is my guest in today’s episode. Amazing, Jeff Smith. Hey, Jeff. How are you doing, sir?

Geoff Smith [00:02:44]:

Keith, good to see you, mate. Thanks for for having me on your show. Really looking forward to it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:02:49]:

Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you for thank you for joining us. Now we we’ve heard a bit about your bio. Makes you sound like a cross between a bit, Alan Sugar, Richard Branson, and James Bond, quite frankly. I’m looking forward to delving into this. But before we delve in, I have to ask. We’ve heard your bio, but who is Jeff? Who is the man behind the bio?

Geoff Smith [00:03:11]:

Well, yeah, I think the buyer, right, I did a fantastic job. I am across between all of those things, and I’ll definitely like James Run, so that’s that’s all good. I would say I am I’m a serial entrepreneur. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a a kid, you know, starting out. We are twelve years old with businesses. And getting involved in stuff. I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way. You know, some of them have been painful. Some of them have been costly. But what I’ve learned through that is, you know, resilience and how to come out the other side and how to to create and build businesses off the back of it. And part of what I look to do now and what I am actually about is helping other entrepreneurs to do that and to actually find ways over obstacles, help them crush their business goals, and help them take it to the next level by hopefully helping them avoid some of the the painful pitfalls that I’ve fallen down over the years.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:04:11]:

You

Geoff Smith [00:04:11]:

know, life is all about learning and lessons and failures are among the the biggest and the most long lasting lessons that we pick up, but part of what I try and do is pass that experience onto people and hopefully help them see that, you know, no matter how things look into them, no matter how tough it’s getting and how hard things might be, that there’s always a route through to get to where you wanna go. So, that’s what I try and do now. That’s that’s part what I what I preach, what I preach through my companies and to our clients and and all of the channels that that we’ve got available to us. That that’s what I do.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:04:51]:

Got it. Got it. Now that that that makes sense. That makes makes a lot of sense. Now before we delve into where you came from and how you you do what you do, just tell us, I mean, how many companies are you you you’re heading up at the moment? Tell us a little bit about about them.

Geoff Smith [00:05:07]:

Well, currently, I’ve got, 3 companies that I’m involved in on an active day to day basis. And then I have other companies that I have, shareholding interest in, but have stepped away from the day to day operations. So I have a total of about 5 companies operating at the moment, 3 of which I’m I’m involved with on a a day to day basis. And outside of that, I have my own mentoring and and business clinic type stuff that I also operate. So if you wanna sum them all up, I’m probably across six companies at the moment.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:05:46]:

6 companies. How’d you keep track of it? How’d you keep tracking it off?

Geoff Smith [00:05:53]:

Well, I’ve been really fortunate that through at throughout building those businesses and one of the lessons that I learned, Leon is making sure that you’ve got the right people around you, and whether that’s people who are gonna rein you back in when you’re charging that stuff like a ball in a China shop or whether or that’s people who are gonna complement to your ideas or bring in all of the skill sets that you haven’t got. You know, I’m I’m very good big picture guy. See where I wanna go, but I also make sure that I I dovetail that with the skill sets of people who also the I’s and cross t’s. Which enables me to keep things on track and also helps me manage in my my itinerary where I’m supposed to be, what I’m supposed to be doing when whose podcast I’m supposed to turn up for, and what, what I should be doing on a day to day basis. So very much across our businesses is about making sure that I’ve got a team that can keep all of those things working and running for me and that, I then have the sort of the overall guidance on that, but I’ve just got fantastic people around me who really can support my visions, which is is what I set the tone with.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:07:05]:

Got it. Yeah. So it’s it’s about building and having that team that But as you say, support your vision and and they help, help handle all the day to day stuff. Basically, I’m guessing just say, right, Jeff, go here. Do this. You’re going there today.

Geoff Smith [00:07:19]:

Absolutely. And the best best laid plans, Keith, that’s how it’s supposed to work. Yeah. Normally, it’s like, oh, you’ve forgotten to be there, and then you said hours drive away, and you’re supposed to be in 5 minutes, you know, so that that tends to be how it does end up some of the time, but, yeah, most mostly we get through it and a lot of the people that we deal with quite gracious if that does happen. So, so we try and minimize that as much as possible. But, yeah, it’s it’s a fun and experience. And, yeah, the the main thing about my business and everything I do within it is it’s fun and it’s enjoyable. You know, I’ve had the the story about, you know, if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life, but the the truth is that actually you do more work because you love it. So, actually, you work an awful lot. So, we’ll blow that one out of the water straight away. But, you know, I I genuinely enjoy what I do and I enjoy the people that I work with and I enjoy the clients that we work with because we can see the difference that our our businesses bring to their business and to their lives to their family’s lives, which is the important thing. One of our big ethos is certainly within my management consultancy business is we decided we wanted to have a positive impact on a billion people’s lives through the services that we provide. So seeing that come into fruition when we’re delivering services and seeing how it impacts on their business and how it then impacts on their family, their friends, their suppliers, their customers, and following through that journey with them is really, really rewarding. So that that’s what we’re about.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:08:51]:

Right. Help a billion people or in impact a billion people. That’s hey. I guess if you’re if you’re gonna have an aim, you might as well aim big. Why not?

Geoff Smith [00:09:00]:

I’m so interested. I I think you can afford to have big goals, you know, and and, you know, the the the multiplier effect of when you have a good impact on one person who then spreads that onto two people who spread that, who spread that, and then that number of a billion doesn’t become quite so scary. So, and it’s on paper. It sounds like a big goal. But when you actually do that through the multiples, then, you know, that’s that’s not unachievable.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:25]:

True. I guess worst case, even if you only get halfway there, oh, you’ve only helped half a billion people. Oh, no. Right.

Geoff Smith [00:09:32]:

That that’ll be a terrible cross. I’ll have to bear Keith.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:09:38]:

Now we we as as we’re discovering your buyer, you certainly weren’t born handed all this on a silver plaque. You you you’ve worked hard for this. You you said you started, your first, steps on your entrepreneurial journey. At the age of twelve, did you say tell us a little bit about that.

Geoff Smith [00:09:52]:

Yeah. Well, my my first business was actually I had a car cleaning round with a friend from school when we used to go out sort of every Saturday out into the local area with our bikes, a bucket, and sponge, and go. We used to use sales techniques that have become really frowned upon in recent times. We used to actually knock on people’s doors and ask them if they wanted something, which over the recent years seems to be something you’re not to do anymore, but that’s what we did. And we built quite a a successful little round, which I had for a few years there, and it actually was my my first success full business exit, because I sold that business before, before I left school, and and made a a few pounds out of it So it was, that was my initiation into to working for myself.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:10:44]:

Wow. So So, yeah, you you you had the the the business volume at school, and you then sold it and actually made made some money off off the back of it.

Geoff Smith [00:10:51]:

Yeah. Well, you know, the the the sales story is not quite so salubrious as it sounds, but, I sold it to, a chap called Trevor in the sick form for an amount of £400 and some artistic magazines. And he he took the round over for us and and carried on. So that was when I was, just coming up to a GCSE age.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:11:18]:

Yeah. Alright. Gotcha. Yeah. I think that’s a fairly decent price, quite frankly.

Geoff Smith [00:11:22]:

I’d say it’s an exit. An exits are very difficult, so I’m keeping it.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:11:26]:

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, let let’s face it. I guess quite a few people are listening will will probably have had some sort of business that they set up while while they were at school, and they then just let it die off when they when they left, but you no. As you say, you exited your business. You you sold it on.

Geoff Smith [00:11:44]:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Creating that legacy, Keith. I’m I’m all about legacy businesses.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:11:51]:

All about the legacy. Yeah. So From there, what what where how did you what what happened next? I mean, obviously, you didn’t go from that to running 6 businesses. What what kind of the the the steps that got you to where you are today?

Geoff Smith [00:12:04]:

A bit of a mixture from there, Keith. So I I I I went off from there and, I had a business in security. So I’d I worked all through college. I’d I was heavily involved in the gym weight training boxing martial arts and that that stood me in in good stead for being one of those handsome chaps that stands outside of nightclubs. Deciding who gets in and who doesn’t. So I’ve I’ve I’ve worked along in in the security industry as I was going through and doing my my a levels. And I did that as sort of alongside my studies. So that was something I had in the background all of the time. And then I went off training in, finance So my my proper job background, if you like, was in financial services. I started off in insurance sales I used to be the man at the Pearl. He used to come around and do the door to door selling at

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:12:57]:

the home insurance.

Geoff Smith [00:12:59]:

So that’s where I sort of cut my teeth on my my selling skills if you like and that progressed then into financial management into corporate financial management and pension schemes I used to do a lot of, seminar selling of pensions, and then I went off into the banking industry. So then I was working Internationally in the in the banking industry, expensive time in Dubai, Across the Middle East, there was a manager in in Jordan, looking after Lebanon Palestine and, Jerusalem. As well as Jordan, for one of the large banking groups. And, obviously, I spent a bit of time out in in Hong Kong and and traveled around and and done various deals for some financial companies out there as well. So a fairly eclectic mix of stuff from from, from running a gym to to working in a a boardroom in in Hong Kong talking about, you know, 100 of 1,000,000 worth of trade deals. So it’s been a fair fair mix of of stock that I’ve done.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:14:04]:

Yeah. It collected, as you’re saying, it’s it’s take taking around the world. That’s

Geoff Smith [00:14:08]:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:14:09]:

What what what was your what’s, what’s your favorite the favorite place that you’ve been in the favorite business that you’ve done so far? Cause, obviously, she’ll have plenty more to go.

Geoff Smith [00:14:17]:

Yeah. Well, yeah, I think my my favorite business is that I’ve been involved with, you know, albeit they’re they’re safer than some of the ones I used to be involved with are the ones I’m actually doing now because with, you know, I’m I’m seeing real benefit for for our customers, you know, and I’ve I’ve my my whole outlook has sort of changed over the years when I was much younger, I was very much, you know, it was all about the money, the status, and how much I could have, and what I could get out of it, and it was all fairly mercenary and fairly cutthroat. So the biggest paycheck I could get was the driver. Over recent years and certainly since I started experiencing the ups and downs of of what entrepreneurial life can look like it’s actually become more about what I can give to other people, rather than what I can take myself and I found that actually I’ve benefited an awful lot more from that. So I would say my favorite businesses, are certainly the ones that I’m in now I would say that the most interesting one, albeit for probably a lot of the wrong reasons was was security business, which I I was in for a number of years and took me to some very interesting places and introduced me to some very interesting people. But certainly the the being notable for all the right reasons is what I’m what I’m doing now.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:15:39]:

Yeah. Got it. Yeah. I I love what you’re saying about in the security business, you’re meeting interesting people and and getting involved in an interesting situation. I’ve spoken to, not loads, but a small number of people and various levels in in security. And, finally, if all of them describe it as interesting, Okay.

Geoff Smith [00:16:00]:

Yeah. We’ll commit to on camera key first one. You never know who’s gonna see these things. What are these people are still alive?

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:12]:

Yeah. Very true. Very true. And don’t worry. I’m not gonna press on things like that because I, as you say, you never know who’s who’s who’s watching. Absolutely. So, yeah, so you’re you’ve from from doing that from car washing business to to where you are now. It’s taking you through lots of different types of businesses. Some more interesting than others. It’s taking you to many, many parts of the world. You’ve had a great many successes, which is fantastic. You’ve also had, as as was alluded to in your bio, you’ve also also had your share of of of failures

Geoff Smith [00:16:44]:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:16:46]:

Talk talk us through a little bit about that, bit about some of the failures. And and perhaps more importantly, What enables you to go? Well, that didn’t work. Right. Let’s pick ourselves up and and carry on.

Geoff Smith [00:16:58]:

Yeah. That’s that’s a great question, Keith. I mean, I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve had several failures. It would be fair to say that I have ridden the roller coaster. I have had to put companies into liquidation. Doesn’t always sit comfortably, particularly when you’ve got, people around you that you’ve made commitments to and things that you want to keep, but, you know, circumstances are taken out of your control for one reason or another, and where where things have gone down. And when when you lose a business like that, particularly what if it’s something that you’ve put, you know, blood sweat and tears in in to building. It it it’s soul destroying. Absolutely soul destroying. You know, the sleepless nights, the stress, the pressure on your friends, your family, it costs you relationships, can cost you yourself respect, because you haven’t been able to deliver, on your word in in some cases, and that’s that’s one of the things that still weighs quite heavily on me now. And with some of those businesses, I’m still making amends with people now because they’re they’re things that I don’t let go. So, once once you get into that, but once you’re once you find yourself in a position where you’re stripped right back down to basics, you know, you get to the position where you’ve gone from having, you know, pretty much everything that you ever wanted all the money that you wanted being able to do what you like to, you know, go in to buy a cup coffee from McDonald’s is suddenly an unspeakable luxury that you just can’t do. You find something in yourself. You really start to under span what makes you tick and what’s important to you. And when you’re when you’re on the floor and you’re broken and everything is gone, you only have 2 choices. You either stay there or you get up and you go again. And you take those lessons, you you, you know, you take the hit on in, you learn what’s going on, you learn from the mistakes, you resolve never to make those mistakes again, and you have another go. That’s what you do.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:18:59]:

Yeah. Alright. Key thing there is you resolve never to make those mistakes again. Reminds me that clip from one of the Jurassic Park films Jeff Goldblum saying to, Richard Attenborough, no, you’re right. You’re not making the same mistakes. You’re making whole new ones

Geoff Smith [00:19:14]:

Exactly. Exactly. But the mistakes, yeah, mistakes are the building blocks of success. You can’t, you know, everybody who has has become outrageously. It’s successful. If you dig back through their catalog far enough, you will find some failure that is built on awesome mistakes that they have made you know, and if you make a mistake, you’re learning, you know, you’re not expected to know everything straight away. And this is one of the things we’re talking about in in in my mentoring in the clinics and certainly in the management consultancies. When when you leave school, nobody trains you how to be the CEO of a company. You know, you you you learn everything else. You learn how to to get up and walk. You learn how to drive a car. Somebody teaches you when you start a business and it suddenly starts to grow a life of its own and all of a sudden you’ve got 10 staff working and you don’t really quite know how that’s happened. You know, you can find yourself sat on quite a lonely seat when you’re you’re the head of the business because, you know, you don’t know all the answers, but everyone who works for you and with you, expects you to have all the answers. And you can find yourself then very isolated, you know, it’s a struggle to talk to your friends. It’s struggle to talk to your family because they don’t quite get it because the entrepreneurial mindset is very different one to someone who’s gonna go and take a job for somebody. You can’t come in and tell all of your staff how concerned you are about how things are going and whether or not you might make a mistake you just aim your aim your car and and hope it stays on the road. And you make your small adjustments along

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:20:49]:

the way.

Geoff Smith [00:20:50]:

But, you know, you will make mistakes. And I think that that’s one of the things that a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of people struggle to accept is that at actually, you will make mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable. It’s how you handle the mistakes and what you do with what you learn is what separates you from success to not so successful.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:21:12]:

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You’re right. We will if somebody has never made a mistake, then, obviously, they’ve just never tried to do anything. You’ll always make mistakes in in everything that we do.

Geoff Smith [00:21:23]:

Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s here. I think if if you haven’t made a mistake, it tells you you’re not trying hard enough.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:21:29]:

Yeah. Yeah. Now you you mentioned it. It gets very lonely and, obviously, you can’t talk to your staff. Oh, cool. I don’t know if this business is gonna work for obvious reason that you can’t talk to friends. You can’t Can you talk to? How how do you how do you get through that that incredibly lonely side of things?

Geoff Smith [00:21:46]:

Well, I I I think in business, it’s really important put good people around you. And and one of the things that that I advocate and one of the things that I advocate, because I also provide that for people is a mentor who can get you through those things because they’ve seen it before. What you’re for you’ll be buying in that experience and somebody also crazy idea. And you need somebody to tell you whether it is a crazy idea. And so if you’ve got a mentor, you know, a don’t, somebody around you who can actually give you a stare and bring that experience to you, it makes life so much easier because It is a lonely job running a business and and being expected to have all of the answers and you’re not quite sure which way you should be going. So sometimes just a friendly conversation with somebody who can say, okay, right. Let’s have a look. Let’s evaluate the options. And not only that, once you’ve made a decision, let’s see it through and let’s have some accountability. Let’s take your account for that and let let me help you a little on those. The the best way. So if you can bring in somebody like that and if you look a lot of the the major businesses around the world, you know, major people like Tony Robbins who would, you know, owns over a 100 companies of his own also works with mentors of his own. So some of the best coaches and the best best people in the world have also got coaches and mentors that works for them. You know, if you’re a a premier ship footballer, you don’t just go in there knowing everything. There’s a coach and a strategist and a manager that helps you put it all together. And I think that’s the thing is when you’re out there as an entrepreneur, having someone who can give you I don’t know where I where we’re at. Let’s see. They’re a prohibitive cost for for people who are just starting out. But I also would say, you know, pick where you’re gonna spend your money because, you know, a bit of money spent with a mentor or a coach who can guide you will save you a lot of expensive mistakes. So it’s my team team is expensive now with a lot lot Blakemore expensive if you make the mistakes and you lose your business as a result.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:22]:

Yeah. So if you think you think hiring a mentor is expensive, trying not hiring one.

Geoff Smith [00:24:27]:

Exactly.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:24:28]:

Yeah. Yeah. No. You’re right. I mean, I remember reading, thing by Richard Branson. He says he always has at least or 3 mentors on the go at any one time Absolutely. Depending on what what he’s doing with his businesses.

Geoff Smith [00:24:39]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s it’s money well spent for anybody is is if you’re particularly, if you’re setting out as an entrepreneur, a first time entrepreneur, you can’t be expected to know every single thing that you need even sometimes just having that extra pair of eyes and ears who can see what’s going on and has got that experience will save you an awful lot of sleepless nights.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:00]:

Absolutely. And, I was gonna ask you what what will be your biggest tip for for people starting in entrepreneurship. I think you’ve just you’ve just given it there.

Geoff Smith [00:25:08]:

Yeah. Absolutely. I think, you know, it it is for for me, it is all about making sure you align yourself with the right people and keeping your eyes on the horizon and seeing what’s happening. Very easy when you get into a business to lose track of what’s going on around you. You can lose focus. And if you lose focus on what’s happening in your industry, what your competition’s doing, what new technologies and stuff are coming through. You can very quickly find yourself lacking making, you know, any other type of mistakes. So just being aware of what’s going on in your marketplace tips that I would give people.

Keith Blakemore-Noble [00:25:48]:

Yeah. No. That’s that’s there’s a lot to be said for that here. Right? So much for taking some time out of your incredibly busy day to to to share with us. It’s there’s been a lot of useful stuff in there, and I love your tips I love that we can learn from your experience. And of course, anyone wants to find out more www.realdiamondgeezer.com. Thank you, and thank Can you give us a if you enjoyed this, give us a like, comment, share, and subscribe, and we’ll catch you in another episode very soon. Bye for now.