 All right, cool. And you can hear me okay? Yes, I can hear you. You? Yeah, I got you. Cool. All right, cool. All right, what's up Leo? Thank you for joining the podcast. Welcome to the show. And I wanna dig in here and unpack your story cause I know you have a really interesting story to tell. And first thing I wanna do is kind of go back and tell me when initially did you start coaching kids? Hi Ben, just wanted to say thank you for having me on. I think I'm your first British coach, right? Yeah, British and Argentinian. And some Italian as well, so. But let's not touch that cause we'll be here all day. So I started coaching when I was about 18, 19. So I finished playing youth football around 16, 17. Just because I got fed up with it. It was fun when we used to play smaller side. Right. But then when we moved into 11 aside, it got to a point where I was on a team. I was probably on the wrong team. That was the problem. So I was on a team and literally every week there would be a fight on the team. Terrible. It was a repetition, games would get postponed. So it was a bit of a crap experience that I had. And at that point I said, right, I don't wanna get involved in youth football anymore playing. Right, right. I left it at the age of about 17 and then two years later, I decided I wanted to get into coaching. And so I done my basic coaching license, which is here they call it the FA level one. And as soon as I finished doing that, then I went to my local club and I said, I would like to volunteer. Cool. So I started off as a volunteer coach, just assisting the head coach. The head coach, it was an under 11 boys team at the time. So I just helped out picking up cones, moving cones around. He would ask me questions. I'll give him my opinion on it, traveling to games. Something very different to the US is that here on game day, we don't have the luxury of free referees. Two men in a one coach. I didn't know that. So what we do is there's always one referee and then the assistant coaches have to be the linesman. I didn't know that. That's hilarious. Yeah, so I had to, on game day as well as sort of assisting him, I had to become the linesman as well, which was interesting because you'd get abuse from parents. I did that. I've done that a few times when I was younger, actually when I was in college. And there were so many parents that hated me. And that was uncomfortable, man. I'll never forget that. Yeah, so that's really how I started. And then after a couple of years with him, I decided that I wanted to move on and become a head coach myself. So there was another local club starting up, which is one I'm actually partnered with now. Cool. And they were putting teams together. And there was a U-9 team, which was starting. And I put my hat in. I said, I'd like to be the head coach. I'd like the responsibility of managing and doing everything. And I was only, I think, 21 at the time. So I was still young. I didn't really have any sort of support from anyone. But I said, you know what? I want to give it a go. So I gave it a go. And I stayed with that team for a good maybe two or three years until I finished university. And I got a coaching job out in the US. That's it. Where was that? The coaching job in the US. So I started off my first year in New Jersey. I started, I done the summer and the fall season with the New Jersey people. Was that a club? That was a club team out there? So that was a coaching company. Oh, okay. They obviously work with several clubs. So I got involved with that. I was coaching a local club. I had an E team. An E team? Is that like the fifth level? A, B, C? Fifth level. Yeah. Was it boys or girls? It was a boys team. Gotcha. It was a, and at the same time, I had a really good, I think it was a U10 girls team. Gotcha. The difference was just ridiculous. And I remember, so when I got the job to go and coach out in New Jersey, I had exams that summer. So I had to go towards the end of the summer. And as soon as I arrived in New Jersey, it was the first time I touched, like I'd been in the US. So I had no idea why I was coming. I thought I was leaving the UK and just, I don't know, just arriving to another bigger UK. Everyone says youth soccer is growing, this and that, so I thought I can't be that different. So anyway, I landed on the sun, no, I landed on the Friday night and the manager of the company says to me, right, you've got a tournament tomorrow morning. Yeah, I arrived around 8.30 in New Jersey and I had to be up at seven in the morning because our first game was at eight. So I woke up, looked out the window and the first thing I saw was all these big houses. Welcome to the US. Yeah, that was in, so what city in New Jersey? This was... What part of town? So the biggest known place was a place called Montclair. Cool. Yeah, so it's about... It's actually a coach that I'm helping right now that's in Montclair. Yeah. Gotcha. So you went, you got to the US, like 12 hours later, you had to go to a tournament. All right, yeah. So, and you can speak as blunt as you want about this because most people who listen to this podcast are coaches that want to do their own thing or they already do their own thing. They want to go to the next level of their business but tell me the most difficult part about working for that company and just tell me your experience with it. Well, I'll carry on from where I left off. So I get up in the morning and I'm obviously jet lagged. I've got no, like, I'm five hours in front. Instead of waking up around six, which I had to, I was already up by three because I'm three US times. So anyway, I get to the field and I had no idea what team I was given because I was just told I had a boys and girls team. So I get to the field and a parent comes up to me and says, are you coach Leo? One, I've never been called coach Leo because in the UK they just call you by your first name. Right. So it was quite weird to hear coach Leo but anyway, I said, yeah, yeah, I am. So the parent introduced herself and she goes, I'm the GM. And then another thing I said, what the hell is a GM? New language. Exactly, yeah. So she introduced herself, said I'm the GM of the team and the boys will be arriving soon. So I said, okay, I started talking to her or whatever. And then it was a U8E team. They started arriving, started arriving. I started introducing myself and the game was about 25 minutes until kickoff. So I'll start a warm up. I put them in a circle to start a passing warm up and they had no idea how to pass the board. They couldn't pass the ball straight. They couldn't control the ball. Some of them had literally just started walking. It felt like. Right. And I looked to the floor and I said, I left the UK for this. Had to be shocking. Yeah. So I left my family, I left the UK for this. Anyway, so we get to the game. The game starts. I have no idea who the boys' names are. Do they have name tags or what? No, no name tags. I'm just saying, hey, you get back. And it was a good, it finished off a good Saturday because we had four games and we won all four. That means those other teams were terrible. So obviously parents were buzzing. They're like, wow, this is amazing. Jose Maria. Yeah, instant success. So that was the Saturday. It was, I don't know, I still didn't know what was going on because I just landed. This was all very new. I was looking around seeing kids in like four Adidas kits. The facilities were amazing. I'm thinking, wow, this is like our equivalent to professional academy. Right. Some of the facilities, but it's, you know, it's grassroots. Right. I'm thinking, wow. Okay, anyway, so then we get to the Sunday and on the Sunday, I lose all four games. Were the other teams better or was the kids just didn't play good or what? The kids just didn't play good with it. It was a better opposition. And I don't know, it was just the complete opposite to the Saturday. Right. On the Sunday, when we lost the two games with the younger boys, I already started getting complaints of parents saying. Were they emailing you or were they saying it face to face? Face to face, they're like, well, it wasn't, you know, it was like a slight complain as they liked to do over there. Right. Yeah, I don't think the boys are connecting. I don't think they're playing well. And I'm there thinking, I just landed yesterday. Right. What are you supposed to do about that? Impossible. I've got no idea what their names are. Right. I've got no idea where I am on the map yet. Right. But anyway, so that was that. I really enjoyed the girls. The girls were really good, good standard. But also I'd never coached girls. So this was a massive, massive difference from the UK to the US because here we have girls teams, but girls football's not, it's not big. Right. Yeah, it's so popular here in the US. It's way more popular than boys are. All the girls, most of the kids I train, 90% of them are girls in my program. Yeah, so just looking around and seeing girls competing, parents going crazy. And the other thing that stood out to me is the amount of parents sitting down. Right. Like parents actually bring their chairs, sit down. Clant down for the whole day. And just watch the game. And that was something that just, because here all you really get is you get your dad's, come to watch. Right. You don't really get mums. Sometimes you get mums, but maybe at the younger age groups, but it's more a dad thing. But over there, you've got the soccer mums. Yeah, you get the whole family. You have like grandparents, cousins. Exactly. It's like a family day out. Right. That's exactly what it is. It's a family day out. So it was just very, very different. But yeah, and then after that, it was a case of just getting into the schedule of coaching and that, yeah. Your day to day, going clinics and just basically coaching the teams in the evening, doing clinics during the day. So that was my first company. And that didn't last long because I didn't enjoy New Jersey. Right. How long did that take for you to leave? So I only lasted the fall. Gotcha. So after my visa ran out in the fall, I left that company, came back to the UK and my heart was always sit on going back to the US because I thought like it was such a short spell. I want to live it the whole year round. Right. Honestly, the whole experience. So I was invited back with that company, but I didn't want to go back. Right. It was more a case of just New Jersey. I didn't like those people. It's probably, I know here in Texas, I've been up to New York and Jersey. There's nothing wrong with them. It's just people are so much more aggressive. And I don't know, here it's just what I'm used to. It's everyone's laid back, everyone's chilling. There's not a high sense of urgency, especially when you're driving and stuff. But yeah, I totally get it. So when you went back home, you wanted to come back here, then what happened? So when I was back home, I applied for a couple of other coaching companies because I wanted to do something similar, but I was hoping with better teams. Yeah. And I came across another company which I recently left, who gave me an opportunity to come back. So I went back with them in the spring of, I think it was 2014. Yeah, 2014, I think it was. So I went back with them and the company was far bigger. So they weren't just based in one state. They had, they're based, I think, yeah, they're based in Texas. They're based in Maryland, in Seattle. So they're far bigger. Right. And they moved me down to Maryland. Gotcha. So when I was told I was going to Maryland, I had no idea where that was on the map. Right. Here we have Maryland cookies. In my head, I was thinking, right, this must be where these cookies come from, Maryland. So I had no idea where Maryland was on the map. And when I had a look, I noticed that it was right next to DC. So I thought, all right, cool, DC. And then Baltimore. I always heard some bad things about Baltimore. So I thought, okay. Yeah. Have you seen that show called The Wire? The Wire, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's my favorite show, man. That's all I know about Baltimore, is that show. Exactly. So that's, in my head, I thought Baltimore, you know, gangs, violence. Right. So anyway, I get there in the spring. We have our staff orientation. The coaches, well, the staff, the management put on staff orientation, which I thought was awesome. The type of sessions they were doing were of, shall we say, a high quality. It's a session where you think, right, I'm gonna be training with kids of a good standard. And then when I get to Maryland and I get introduced with my regional manager and I get given my schedule, I have Monday to Friday, just petite toddlers. So two to five year olds, Monday to Friday. How was that? And so I looked at it and first I thought, right, something's gonna happen here. They've got to give me a team at least. And in the spring, that was literally my schedule. Monday to Friday, three to four hours of that every single day. And another thing, I've never coached that age group. So I'm from, right, two year olds. If they've signed up to a soccer program, it must be able to walk at least. Right. Not all of them. I get to my first coaching session and there's parents bringing their kids in their arms. And they're thinking, oh my God. What is this? So how long did you have to, so with those toddlers and some of the first kids I ever trained, I've never talked about this in the podcast, but it was a family, they had three boys and I would go to their house and I would train their three brothers in the backyard. And one was seven, one was five and the other one was three. And they all like ganged up on each other and then they started ganging up on me. Because I was like too nice, I wasn't firm. But dude, I remember those were some of the first clients that I worked with and I would come home so exhausted, like just mentally, because it was like, man, how can I engage these kids? Because it's that type of coaching is so different. It's just, it's a completely different animal. It is, it is. So how long, how long did they have you coach those kids, the toddlers? So the classes were broke down into two age groups. You had the two to three, which were called, the classes were called mummy and me. And then you had three to five year olds, which was a cool petite. The mummy and me was very hard. Mind you, we weren't trained or anything. We were literally, here's your schedule, go and deal with it. How do they expect you to do that? Man, I've got no idea how I got through that first class. That's unbelievable. Cause you're like having to figure it out without any plan or any knowledge on how to do that. How did you, how did you do that? Exactly, yeah. And the only sort of support they gave us was on a piece of paper. They said, here's the themes, go and do it. And mummy and me, this is what, this is the most funniest bit of it. The mummy and me classes, the two and three year olds, were an hour long. So, where did you learn? So they expected you to like drag out an hour with two and three year olds who, I remember the first class, they were done after 15 minutes. Right, the attention span. Keynote. The attention span was gone. They were, they started running off to the playground because there was a playground next to the field. It's in one place. So I'm there by myself in the middle of the field and you've got parents running off trying to chase their kid, bringing them back in. And no, it was awful. Would you get mad, like, would you get mad at them? Or like, how did you handle that? Or were you just like, whatever, like, I can't? No, I was, I'm quite a calm guy. I don't really get mad. Right. You do. But I was just thinking, I just kept looking at the clock. I said, oh my God. Let's get this going. It's only 20 minutes gone. I've still got a try and stick it out 40 minutes, 40 minutes. So it was very difficult in that sense. And that was the whole spring. That was my whole schedule. Holy. So I want you to go back to that moment, like after your first full week of doing that, when you had like Saturday and Sunday off, like what were you thinking when you had like time away from like after your first full week of that, like what was going through your head? Well, saying that it wasn't Monday to Friday, it was actually Monday to Sunday. All right, so. The only difference with it was that Saturdays and Sundays were less hours. So you'd have maybe one or two hours in the morning and that was it. So it felt like a weekend off, really. Right. What was going through my head? I don't know. It was the only thing that got me through it were my housemates. So they were doing it too? They were, yeah. Because it was the company rented out a house and they brought in all these coaches to stay there. So we all worked and lived together. Gotcha. So my housemates, we were all in the same situation. We all sort of ate it here. And, but it was a case of when it got to the weekend, we went out and we partied hard to get to it. I bet. I would be too. I'd be crushing it. To get over the week. Right. But I don't know, it was, I left the other company because I wanted to work with better players. And then I arrived to Maryland and I was found with that. Carly. It was a case of, yes, it was a better company, but then the standard of coaching was not what I wanted. Right. But then after doing it for so long, then I started getting good at it. Right, yeah. One, I didn't have a choice because I had to. But then too, when you do it for so long, you become, well, you get good at it. And then, I don't know, it was, so the first few weeks, no, not even that, the first few months, I used to get really annoyed with myself because kids weren't engaging in the session. So they used to run off, run to the park, and I was like, oh, how am I gonna try and bring these kids back in? Right. It must be me, like it must be a horrendous coach. But then I thought to myself, this is, you're not coaching adults, you're not coaching young footballers, you're coaching kids. And I said to myself, right, I'm gonna try and make an effort to make this a bit more fun and just have fun with them. Roll around, do stupid things. Right, I bet they love that. Glorified clown. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty much what it was. And it was quite amazing because when you had kids that arrived the first week, because they were six weeks long. So the first couple of weeks, they were shy of you. So they'd hide behind their parents. Come and play, come and play. And then by the fourth, fifth and sixth week, like they were giving you high fives, they were hugging you, you couldn't get rid of them. So it was nice in that sense. And then they started kicking the ball around, they started engaging. And honestly, I've had some of my best ever sessions with that age group. Isn't that crazy to think about, man? You got here, and you absolutely hated it. And then I know what most people would do is they'd be like, oh, I'm just going to quit because I don't like it. But you figured out how to make it fun, how to make it engaging, how the kids can actually get something out of it. And I can guarantee you the parents could also see that too. And they could see that you provide an experience that was probably much different than what the other coaches were doing. Because I know how it is when you don't like doing something, you either have two options. It's either like stop and quit. And I know we'll get to that later, but you made the most out of it, which really improved those kids' experience. And a lot of those kids too, even if they're just starting out, if they have a bad experience at the beginning when they play soccer, they're not going to continue. But if they like it and it's fun, and at that age, it has to be fun. You have to be willing to look like an idiot. And that's really what the kids need at that age. And it's hard because it's, I'm sure it was out of your comfort zone. Like you probably were like too, I look like the biggest idiot right now. But you know that that's what they needed. And you did it. And so I know you did it, the rest of that spring, did it change after the spring? Like did you have a different team or did you continue doing that? So the company I was working with in the spring, they started working with a lot of four only clubs. Gotcha. So it was a case of, yeah, you had a bit more team training. So you started getting in contact with teams and started actually doing some proper coaching. Right. But then the other thing is, working with four only clubs, sometimes the commitment of parents and kids isn't of an all year round soccer player. Yeah, they're just doing it for four months. Yeah, because it's still Rick. Right. So, but it was a bit better than the spring. The spring was horrendous. I wanted to go home. When, so in New Jersey, I didn't want to work with this standard of players. And then in this company, I didn't want to be a clown. My experience of youth soccer in the US was a fun one. But then, now, what changed for me was my mindset, as you just said, because I said to myself, I've got two choices. I can just be miserable until I go home in November or I can make the most out of it. And I just started making the most out of it, just taking it for what it is and just changing my way of coaching. Did others that were around you, other coaches, did they start changing too or were they just kind of like checked out at that point? No, they were still a bit negative. Right. So, explain to me this, because I feel like if you hung out with me for a whole day or a whole week, I constantly just surround myself with only people who are positive. Explain how difficult that was when you were trying to be positive about it and not trying to dig at your friends and your roommates, but how hard that is to remain positive, try to make a change, and then others who are around you are not having that same mindset. Explain how hard that can be. I'm very similar to you. I'm quite a positive person. And yeah, I'll be honest, yeah, it was quite difficult, but what I said to myself is I'm not gonna let that negativity affect me because I'm here for a very long time. Yeah. So, if I'm gonna join the bandwagon, as you say, then I'm not gonna get anything out of this experience. Yeah. So, sometimes it got to the point where I had to just hang out in my room by myself to get away from it. Some would see it as being unsocial, but for me, it was a case of not joining in with that negativity. Yeah, and it's funny too, because I look at some of the kids that I train that initially they start off, they're on the bench, they aren't getting a lot of playing time, and I always tell the kids the same thing. Whoever's on the bench, never ever talk to them, because the only thing that's gonna happen is they're gonna be complaining about their coach, they're gonna be constantly negative about why they're not getting playing time, and then it's so easy to get sucked into that mindset. And then once you have that mindset, it's very difficult, especially as a kid, to break out of that. And it's funny, I went, this was last year, this is like, hopefully this person's parent isn't listening, it's because some of the parents of the kids I train listen to this podcast, but this kid didn't start in the game, and you know how like they have like a bench, like most girls have like a bench, all the kids sit on it, and like the whole time this player was just like, off by themselves, like getting warmed up, like getting warmed up for like 30 minutes, even though like she wasn't even called to go into the game yet. And it was so funny though, because I was watching her teammates, and they were all just like sitting there, and you can just see it from across the field, like the kids were talking to each other, being negative, and none of those kids got subbed in, and then the kid that I train, like cause she was warmed up the whole time, she went in, played the rest of the game and did well. It's funny cause we talked about it after, and I was like, why were you warming up the whole time? And she was like, she was like, I hate the way that my teammates talk, like they're so negative. And I was like, you need to keep doing that. And it, but it's like that with adults too, man, it's, it's, I spent the first four years of my business hanging out with old buddies, people who used to go to high school with, and like they just, I always felt, there was so much negativity, especially towards me and what I wanted to do with my life. And, you know, I went to the extreme. I got a new phone number, like, blocked a lot of people out of my life, changed a lot of relationships. That was the best thing I've ever done though, personally. And it sounded like you kind of had to, it sounded like you had to block everyone's number, like when you're living in their house, but like, I think spending time alone, doing stuff like that is actually mentally tough because it's like, you know that you're not, you don't need to surround yourself around negative. And so when that happened, I'm just curious, when you started to change your mindset about this whole thing, how do you feel like that's impacted you now, like present day? Because you had to make change that mindset back then. But how do you feel like now, I mean, several years later, how has that helped you mentally? I mean, I don't regret it. I've sort of always been that type of person that when I don't like something, I don't waste time on it. I sort of block you and just move on. And it's helped me a lot because what I'm doing now with my academy, I do exactly the same when I'm speaking to a parent and a parent is just sort of giving me too many excuses and that I sort of agree with them and I'll move on to the next parent. Right. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't know, but there's so many parents, the mentality I've got is there's so many people out there and if you're just stressing yourself over one person, then you're not seeing the bigger picture. Because I don't know, it's just there's so many more people that you can help that actually truly want your help and that can push you in a more positive way. That is no reason to waste your time. Right. The reason why I stayed, so I was with that company for a good four to five years, which considering that's a long time, but in my head I was doing it because I always wanted to set up my own thing. Yeah. So my plan for it was if I stayed, then hopefully I would get into a management position and then learn how the company works from a different aspect. Yep. Because the first couple of years was very, here's your schedule, here's the field, do your stuff, go home. You never got to see how a company works, how the company markets, how to, I don't know, create a program, et cetera. Yep. But what happened with the company was it got so big and then one year we had a lot of visa issues because everyone at the company was British, so they were bringing over British coaches. So one year they had a lot of visa issues and as a result the company lost a lot of business. They grew in some regions, some regions they grew in other regions they shrunk. In my region they shrunk a lot. So we lost, the majority of the clubs we worked with, we lost and a lot of parents that have done our programs before just went on to do other things because the relationships I built with parents when I left wasn't maintained during the winter when I wasn't there. Right. So there was one year where I became the director of coaching at a local club, I'll give you an example. And I put my heart and soul into that job to make the effort to talk to coaches on weekends when I was supposed to be free, I'd be out going to watch the teams, giving the coaches advice, doing extra training sessions. And when it got to November, when it was my time to come home, I was still with the illusion that yeah, do you know what, I'm excited to go back because I'm gonna be doing that when I get back. Right. And then whenever I got back to the US, the company had lost the work that I'd been working so hard during my time there and it was just a case of always starting from zero. Yeah, starting, it's like you're starting over again. Over again and again. And it got to the point where I said, no, I'm like, I'm fed up with this because you put so much effort into it, building these relationships for the company because at the end of the day, it's the company's image, the company gets the benefit of those parents. Right. So I'd done, I worked really hard doing that and it was just very like unmotivating that every time I came back, I lost the teams that I got. I lost the club that I was working in. So it was a case of going all the time going back to Petit because that was something that never went away for some reason. Right. And so what was going through your head? I guess when you came back and it was that you didn't have those teams where you just like, dude, I have to figure something else out or you like, I, you know, I want to continue trying to code for someone else. Like what really happened there? Two years ago, I, well, over two years ago, I always had it in my head that I wanted to start my own academy. Right. But I'd never had someone like yourself support me or tell me how to do it. It was always a case of, it was a great idea, but I don't want to do it. Like I've got no one to say to me, listen Leo, you've got to do it now. Right. Stop wasting time, just do it. Throw yourself out. If it works, it works. If not, it doesn't matter. Right. So two years, two years ago, I was, I had that in my head, but the reason I didn't start it was because I was scared of starting from zero in terms of money. Yep. And it was a safer option just to go back to a job. Something that's going to give you income. Right. And something that you, you know that every, every end of the month, you're going to get, you're going to have money that you can then spend. So the last two years, I'll be honest with myself that I went, I shouldn't have gone back, but I went back because of that. I didn't, I didn't want to start from zero. Right. In terms of, yeah, my, my work and that. So last year, it was, I got back to the US last year in, in March, got back to the US and the company had like completely changed in terms of like the culture. As a coach, I could say I, the last two or three years I didn't develop to how I felt that I had in the first two years. Right. It wasn't that personal development anymore. And when I got back in March, I said to myself, right, this is going to be my last year and I'm going to, I'm going to do this last year. I'm going to learn as much as I can. I think I probably had learned everything I had anyway, but I'm going to say anything that I haven't learned, I'm going to put that, I'm going to learn it, grab all the knowledge that I can from coaches, how the business works. And then in April, I came across you. How did you, how did you, how did you find me though? On Google. Do you remember when you were 18? I typed in how to build a soccer academy or a football academy and your face popped up. You're like, who is that ugly guy? So I said, so I started watching a couple of your videos on YouTube and you touched upon a lot of the things that I was thinking about. A lot of how, how like small group training is more, it creates more of a personal experience for players. Stuff like that, which I really, I agreed on. So then I went on your website and I brought your book. And I had a read of the book and I was going through it and honestly, something just clicked. And I said, why am I not doing this now? Right. Like, why am I not doing this now? And why am I here, unhappy, pissed off every day because of what I was doing, my day to day. So I started doing some more research on what you were doing and then that's when we had our first phone call, I think in April. Yep, I remember that. Yeah, and literally after that phone call, you just put me into place and from there I said, I still had that mentality that I was gonna see the year out but you taught me that to slowly while I was in the US to grow, to put together my website, to start planning what I was gonna do and that's what I was doing out in the US. And it was funny because the moment that I got off the phone to the first time, the following day, which is something that I do every day now, I'd wake up 4.30 in the morning every single day. That's awesome, man. Love it. So before I started my normal job, from 4.30 to around 7 in the morning, I was planning my academy, planning the dream, as I say. Freakin' love that, man. Putting it together and just having that vision, what I wanted to do when I got back to the UK and the moment I decided to just, right, I've got to do this now, was in the summer when I was doing summer camps. Yep. Just because summer camp, it got to a point where I was just pissed off of summer camps. It's like so, that can be so nonstop where you're just, it's like you're a zombie, especially when you do it for someone else because it's like, you have to be there for a set period of time. How many, I guess, how many hours were you out there per day? Do you remember? There were some weeks, it was nine to five. Gahali. Exactly. That's awful. But the thing is, it wouldn't be a bad thing if you were working with players that actually wanted them to be there. Right, right. It was literally just, it was a childcare service. Parents would register, leave their child. Last week they were doing lacrosse. This week they wanted to do stocker. But in these kids, some of the kids were just so misbehaved. Right. That every day I'd look at my dream and I'd say, oh my God, I just wanna do this now. So at the end of the, well, during the middle of the summer, that's when I said, right, I'm going, once the summer's finished, I'm gone. I'm going back to the UK and I'm starting this from zero and I'm just going to pursue it. And everything that I've learned over the four or five years, I wouldn't say was a waste of time because you can always take positives out of it. It's time to move on now. Like, and yeah, so during the mid halfway during the summer, it's when I got in contact with my manager and I sit to him, don't count on me for the fall. And so when you, I wanna break this down because I would say nine out of 10 people want to do that. They want to quit and go full-time. They have the idea. They, on the weekend, they always think about what life could be like if they were doing their own thing. But nine out of 10 people don't do it because they're afraid of the constant paycheck. They're afraid of living uncomfortable for a little bit. But when you told him that, like right before you told him that, what was going through your mind? Well, every year I said the same thing that I was leaving. This was my last year coming back every single year. And anyone, any coach that I lived with and watching this, they'd laugh because they knew that was true. But then that moment that I made it official, I don't know, my body was shaking. My body was shaking because I said, like I've made it official, now I can't go back on this. And my idea wasn't just to leave the US, get back to the UK and go work at a local supermarket, just forget everything that I wanted to do. Like the idea was quit that, come back here and build something that I want to do in the future. Right. No, I want to do full time. So the moment I told him that, as I said, my body was shaking, he said to me, but Leo, you say this every year. How do you counter that? I said to him, but this year I'm 110%. It's a yes, like I'm going in September. Right. What was his reaction to that? I think his reaction was like, oh, he's just saying it. Right. Like he's not gonna follow through, he'll be back here. We'll see him, we'll see him for the next five years, type of thing. Yeah. And then when he got to closer to September and he asked me again, are you still leaving? I said, absolutely. My flight's booked, I'm gone. So yeah, that was that. And I'm gonna be honest, I was absolutely gutted about leaving the US. Right. I spent a good six years there. And I absolutely love the country. So I was more upset leaving the US than leaving a paycheck. Yep. But in my head, I said, right, I'm gonna go full-time on this. And who knows, maybe in the future, I come back with my own academy. Yep. To the US and who knows. Yep. That's awesome, man. So first off, congrats for making that decision. And it's been really cool over the last year to get to know you and talk to you and help and mentor you. And I know making that decision is so freaking hard to have something that you can do that you are getting paid to do every month. And then you have this other thing that you wanna do that, I mean, you have no idea how it's gonna go. You really wanna do it though. You know you should do it. But you're being pulled back by this thing and saying, no, you have this safe check coming in every month. And that's where a lot of people get held back. So if anyone's watching us right now that is in that position, what is like one piece of advice you can give them to just make that decision to stop what is driving them crazy and do the thing that they are ultimately designed to do? First thing I would, first piece of advice I'd give is find, get a mentor. Right. That is the number one thing. And like before I'd met you, you'd always hear like these successful people say, oh, you've got to find a mentor. You've got to find a mentor. But you just never really believe in it. Yeah. It's like, oh, that's BS. That's everybody says that. And everyone does say that. Yeah. Yeah. That's what my mentality was. But then when I came across you that was doing something that I wanted to do, it was a case of right, it's true. Yeah, you should, you need to find someone that's doing something that you want to do and just gain so much knowledge from them. Right. There could be so much insight because the way you started is the way I've started as well. Right. Just because you're in the US and I'm in the UK it doesn't mean like what you're doing doesn't work here. Right. Right. I think it's just a case of it depends on you as well. Yep. Absolutely. We'll desire to go out there, do it, be consistent every single day, show up. And then the second piece of advice just don't think about it, just do it. Right. And that's where I know, well, first I'll backshot with a mentor. I've had personally, I've had several people in the past who have just been like unbelievably great mentors. And like the first one I ever had, remember those three boys I was talking about at the beginning, their dad, he was a private tennis coach and he had probably the biggest academy in my city. And when I would get done training their kids, his kids, he'd call me back into his office and he would just wanna talk. Like he was so excited about like me starting my own thing. He was more excited than I was. And he had all this confidence and this guy lived in a really nice house and he had this sick office. I remember I'd go in there, I would be so nervous and shy and he would just talk the whole time. And he had all these ideas and he was like, dude, you need a website, you need all these systems, you need, and I'm like, dude, slow down. Like I'm just starting. But having that guy at the beginning completely changed. Like it rewired the way I thought about myself. And if I did not meet him at that point in my life, I would not be here talking to you, guaranteed. Like I would have caved in and stuck with the little internship job I had. I would be zero. And that completely changed my life, man. And I know having someone who can show you the ropes, show you how to get started, give you that push, that to me is so important. And since then, like there's a lady that she's my business coach. I meet with her once a month and she, again, like with that, it keeps me so accountable. Because it's so easy to talk about things and say, hey, I wanna do this and I'm gonna do this. But when you have someone you're accountable to, it makes you do the work, like no matter what. And that's why I love the coach that I have is like, she doesn't give a crap about me. All she cares about is my business. And so there's no like emotional connection at all. It's do this, do this, do this. And I'm like, yes, man, and I go do it. Right? And so it forces me though, to reach my goals 10 times faster than I ever would if I try to do it by myself or if I try to learn by myself. And that's the quickest and best way to get started is find someone who's done the thing that you wanna do. Yeah. And then the second thing you said, which is like, just do it. It's like, it sounds so easy to just do it and like not think about anything, but it's the natural thing is, no, I need to think through it. I need to ask my parents. I need to ask my buddies. Everyone's gonna tell you not to do it. Like- Just go do it. Yeah. Cause there's only people who are gonna tell you to do it or people who've actually done it before. Yeah. And that's why, again, with that, I had another podcast about this a couple of months ago where it's like, when you get advice in business, you never get advice from people who have not done something before. Like it should only be from the source who's achieved the thing that you wanna do. Otherwise, the opinion is irrelevant. Funny thing you say that because when I was in the US, the thing I always heard every single day by other coaches was like, ah, there's no money in the UK in coaching. There's no opportunities. You can't, how are you gonna build some, like how do people build a business in the UK through football? And funny enough, I met a guy a couple of weeks ago who's a millionaire from youth football. Yeah, there you go. It's all, it's limited mindset. Like people who say that, well, that's ultimately how they think about themselves. They're like, well, I could never do that. And then so when they think about that themselves, they're like, well, you can never do it either. Yeah. And dude, I've had so many people, even in the US, so many people back in the day would tell me like, you're never gonna be able to provide for a family. You're never gonna be able to take care of yourself. You need to get a freaking job. And looking back at it, it's all people who had limited mindsets that had normal jobs that would never take the risk that like don't have the ambition or desire to like go out and do something. They just want the safe route. And I can guarantee you when people told you that, it pissed you off and it probably made you wanna do it even more, right? Eh, yes. Or did it scare you at all? Not really because at that point, I was, one, I was convinced about what I wanted to do. Right, you already knew. Two, I was looking at them and thinking, what have you ever done? Yeah. And then three, like nothing was gonna change. Nothing was gonna change my mentality because I was already, like I said, convinced what I wanted to do. I was set on it. And I knew already there was people that had done it. But what these people that haven't done it, their mentality is they want a quick success. They think it's gonna be built in a week. Right. And this guy that I met two weeks ago, it took him over 20 years to get where he is now. It's a journey. It's a journey and like he started off with coaching. I think he was telling me he started off with 10 players. And now he has 500 players on his books. Yeah. Yep, it takes time, man. And I can guarantee you when that guy started, you could probably ask him next time you see him, how many people told him not to do it? Yeah. Every single person out there that has something, like there's always gonna be those who are like, dude, don't do that. Like go get a normal job or that'll never work. And it's funny, man. Every single person who's in my life that has told me that, I have not seen or spoken to in the last eight years. Yeah. Like I'm just not gonna do it. And so I can guarantee you too, when you met with that guy, there was a light bulb that went off in your head and you're like, all right. Like I know that I know what I want to do, but here's this guy who has achieved success at a really, really high level. And it took him 20 years. And it's worth 20 years to get to that level because it would be like physically impossible to make it to that level financially if you were working for an organization unless you are the CEO, right? And this is a question I ask everyone and it might be difficult to answer, but how do you feel like your life has changed since you've made that decision of like, effort, I'm gonna do this versus how it was when you were working for someone else. Like what are some of the habits that have changed? Like how is your life different now? And I follow you on Instagram. So like, and it's funny, people who I follow on Instagram, I mute everybody except for you because like I get pumped up when I see your crap. Like it's, it makes me like be like dude, let's get honed in, let's work harder because you're one of those people who always shows discipline, hard work, focus. And but tell me how your life has changed since you've made that decision of like, I'm doing this and just go for it. So I think when I was an employee working for a major company, my mentality of competition was always a negative one. So when for example, our company was in an area where there was several other companies, my mentality was that there was a shortage of success. But now, when I'm starting my own thing, I think to myself, if that guy is in that area doing what I wanna do and he's become a success doing it, I sort of don't see him as a competition. I see him now as like an inspiration to say, like, if he can do it, then that means it can be done. Yeah, it's not impossible. It's not impossible, exactly. So whereas other people might see that as, ah, do you know what, you shouldn't do it. You know, there's competition there, what about, you're competing with him. And that's really changed my mind in the way I view competition in how I have to differentiate myself from others and people in that, you know, and touching back on the social media, I've never been a guy that has been active on social media. Like I'm quite a shy, camera guy, shy guy. Me too. But since I started in September, every single day trying to get, trying to record myself talking or trying to inspire people, sometimes it's not even through football, just things in life, our day to day. I've had so many people say to me, like, I watch you every day. Right. And, Isn't that crazy? As, it's crazy, yeah, it is. Because another mentality is, I've learned that social media is so powerful. Yeah. And that in order to grow, you have to be active on it. Right. When I was surrounded by these negative people, they were all sort of with the mentality of that, oh, look at this guy, he's recording himself talking, he's trying to pretend to be an expert. Right. So I don't know, I think it's, as a person, I've definitely become a bit more positive, definitely more driven. Right. Do you feel like, since you started doing more videos, has that raised your confidence level? Sorry. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And that funny how that works, cause most people are terrified of doing videos, or they will judge others for doing videos. And then when they start it, they realize how hard it can be. But once you stick with it, you become infinitely more self-confident. Cause what you're doing is you're, you're saying your message over and over and over again. So it builds more self-belief in what you're doing with your business. And I remember dude, for me, you can go on YouTube and look at it. Think if you type in neighbors soccer academy. I have a YouTube channel for my business. It was just like a long time ago. But the first couple of videos I did, were so terrible. But I remember during that time I had a mentor who was doing videos at a very high level. And I used to think, well, I don't know if I want to do videos. Is it gonna help me? But then I hung around someone who was crushing it, doing videos. And I was like, well, that shifted my mindset again. It was like, well, I need to start doing that. Cause he's doing it, it's possible. Like there's a way to obviously make money doing it too. But the more I did that, my confidence level, I was like so introverted, so shy. And it's not like I'm the most extroverted dude. I'm not, I'm a very quiet guy. Might not look like that cause I have so many videos. But that raised my confidence level so high. Just about me personally. Cause I knew if I can have something that can give value to one person per day, I win. And that's what you're doing, like on Instagram. Cause I get that out of you every day. And it's cool that you're doing that, man. Cause over a period of time, that confidence is just gonna grow and grow and grow. And ultimately what happens is like, the more you do that, the more others become attracted to what you are doing. And then those people begin to change their life. And that would never happen unless you were doing that. And so that's really cool that you do that. And everyone who's watching this should go follow you. What's your Instagram? El Caparelli. Siphon, TFDA. Cool, I'm gonna link that on YouTube podcast. So. Absolutely. So I know we've covered a lot of different things. I want you to kind of walk me through, cause a lot of people who see this, they're gonna be really inspired. They're gonna be like, all right, this English dude quit. He went back home, started his own thing. But there's a difference between being inspired and be like, oh, I wanna do that. And then like actually doing it and being in the weeds of doing it day to day grind. Tell me what your like daily schedule looks like. Like what's like a normal day for you? So people have like a good sense of what is required to succeed. So normal day for me, I mean, it sort of, it varies. I'm not gonna tell you that I'm some robot. But I always try to get up early. So I like to beat the sun up. This is what a lot of these successful gurus always talk about. But it's so true that when you're up before everyone else and I don't know, you can be more productive with your time. Right, you have like a mental edge when that happens because you know you're awake. That's what I look at. Anyone who ever wants to compete with me, if they're not waking up at the same time I do, I'm going to destroy them because I'm getting a head start on my day. And I also know too, if I'm going to bed earlier than they are, I'm having higher quality sleep. So I'm gonna be able to like perform better throughout the day than anyone. But yeah, cool, carry on. And also, so my day usually starts off at around 5 a.m. What I like to do is I like to wake up and listen to a podcast. So sometimes I listen to you while also listen to my favorite guy, Grant Cardone. Yeah, GC. Yeah, GC, Mr GC. Try and get some sort of like motivation for the start of the day. So after I do that, I usually start, I usually read a bit, read a bit, have breakfast and I start the day at around 7, 7 a.m. I'll start, I'll check my emails and a lot of my time is spent doing social media videos, writing newsletters or blogs for my, for our website and our newsletter. And then when it comes to three o'clock when the kids get out of school, what I like to do is I like to go for a walk and I take all my academy marketing material with me because if I come across a parent on my way, I like to stop them and talk about what we're doing. Right, all right, so Frieze there. Do you know how many people are unwilling to do what you just said? Like take a walk and go speak to someone about how you can help their kid and also tell me the first time that you did that, did it feel uncomfortable? Oh, it always feels uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, and it was probably awkward. You felt like you were selling something. Yeah, but do you know what? The key to it is once you do it once, the next parent's so easy. Right, right. And if you think about it, this is the way I've thought about things recently. Again, I had a mentor tell me this. He was talking about how, because I wanna reach a lot of, obviously I wanna reach kids and I wanna reach a lot of coaches now, but we were talking about my training program and he was like, do you know how many kids go to bed at night crying because they are not getting your help? Yeah. And that really hit me because I was like, dang, I think I'm marketing hard, but I'm not marketing nearly as hard as I could be. And it made me feel bad when he said that because I was like, yeah, there's so many kids in my area that don't know me yet that need to know me so I can't help them. And if I can't help them, that's my fault. Like, it's no one else's fault other than mine. If I can't reach them. And what you just said about taking a walk, going to speak to parents, I'm guessing that's turned out to gain some clients, right? Yeah, it has, it has. I think the... So it's been worth your time then, right? It has been worth my time, not to the point where I thought maybe it'd be more effective, but I don't just do it to sell the academy. I think I'd do it as well for myself, for a self-confidence thing. Because the more you speak to people every single day, the more confident you become. And if you put yourself in a situation where a parent says, oh, we're not interested, then that's okay because the next person will be interested. Yeah, yeah. And what it does is it sharpens your mind to know that like not everyone's gonna be the right fit. And it helps you present it better the next time. And that's a rule I have with the mastermind, with that I have the coaches. Everyone has to be talking to at least three parents a day. If they do that over the course of a month, just if they do it Monday through Friday, that's 60 new contacts. And if someone is absolutely terrible at selling, they're still gonna get clients. If they talk to 60 parents every single month, over the course of a year, that compounds. And obviously if you follow up with people, if you are willing just to show people that you want to help, that to me is a game changer. But a lot of us, they wanna hide behind a computer and have a cool website and wait till people knock on our door. When you're starting, that just doesn't happen. And so I feel like you're a really good example because you wake up early and I know you are doing this, but like you write out exactly what you're doing the night before. Like, so when you wake up in the morning, you know what the heck you're doing. You're not just like, oh, I'm gonna wake up at 4.30 and then I'm gonna figure it out once I wake up. Like no one who is successful just floats throughout their day. And then, you know, or is like on their phone texting their buddies. Like, and so you have a plan every day that you execute. And by being consistent with that over a period of time, that's where you can reach massive success. But that to me is the ingredient. It's the thing that no one really wants to do, which is be disciplined, stick to the plan, shut out the distractions and just be honed in on the mission. And I know for you especially, because I've talked to a lot of coaches from the UK. We've had phone calls, a lot of coaches have told me, Ben, I just don't think something like this would work over here. Oh my, yeah, I hear that all the time. And it's funny, I've helped many coaches in the UK already, felt coaches in Ireland. Is Ireland probably UK? And is it Northern or South? I think it's Northern, somewhere in Ireland. I mean, coaches all over that I've been able to help, but those are coaches that they don't carry that mindset where it's like, well, you know, it's only gonna work in America. There's nothing that just works over here. It's gonna work anywhere. But I think the thing that's very underrated, which is just the mindset and knowing that, you know, this is what I wanna do with my life and you just do it with blocking out the distractions. That to me is, it's very difficult to do, especially if you have negative people in your life. But when you can separate yourself from that, and you start surrounding yourself with other people who are winners that do the thing that you wanna do and they've done it at a high level, then you can really understand what's possible. And then you can just go do that. So, first off, man. One more thing, so. Yeah. Know the saying if you don't ask, you don't get. Yeah. It's so simple, but it's so effective. Yeah. It's the same when you're selling your academy. Right. If you don't ask parents, then you're never gonna get parents. Right. That's why you have to be relentlessly selling. Yeah. And it's funny, because we're taught, if you don't ask, you don't get. We're taught that when we're like three years old. Yeah. But as adults, we forget and we're like, oh, well, things are just gonna happen to us because we're adults now. And yeah, man, it's so simple and so true. So, first off, man, I want to thank you for hopping on here. We're gonna do this. I have five questions, rapid fire Q&A. So you can only, when I ask you the question, just give me a one word answer. Okay. All right. So my favorite podcast that I listen to when they interview people, that's what they do. But five questions. So first one, best soccer player of all time. Messi. Well, favorite club team. Arsenal. Team that you hate the most. Tottenham. Why do you hate Tottenham the most? I'm curious. Because they're Arsenal's rivals. Gotcha. See, I don't even know that. What does success mean to you? One word. Freedom. What does failure mean to you? To avoid. I like it. Awesome, man. Well, dude, I'm gonna put this up on YouTube. It's gonna be on our podcast. If anyone's listening and watching, go follow Leo on Instagram. I'm gonna post that in the description on YouTube. So thanks again, man. I really appreciate your time. I know we were on here for a while. But what I'd like to do, too, is in probably like six to nine months from now, I'm gonna have you on the show again. And we're gonna see kind of where you're at, what has developed within your business. And I look forward to that. And I know the listeners are gonna wanna hear more about how things are going at that time. Yeah, just one more thing. If any British coaches are watching as well, and I know we talked about how some coaches say, what works in the US doesn't work in the UK, I think that's a terrible way of looking at it because in Europe, soccer is the number one sport. So I think what you teach is probably harder to do in the US, I would imagine. Because it's like you have a smaller audience of people that play it. And with a smaller audience comes more competition. Whereas here, it's the number one sport. So you've got a lot of kids or everyone playing it. So there's no reason why it can't happen. The only difference I think is obviously, instead of thinking, I think what coaches here always probably, instead of saying it won't work, I think what they're trying to say is that you can't charge the prices that you guys charge. Yeah. I think that's what they want to say. And the reality is though, is you can, and the most successful personal trainer on the planet, that charges the most, lives in the UK. There you go. And most people don't know that. But if people do their research, he charges more per month than any person on the planet. And I met that dude a couple of years ago, and I asked him, I said like, how were you able to do that? And he looked at me and he was like, results. Didn't have to say anything else. And he knows people will pay for results. And he charges way more than any American guru for personal training does. And so yeah, so that's something that most people probably don't know. But I mean, it's so possible. You just gotta have the right mindset. Just everything that you talked about today is gold, man. So I really appreciate you coming on here, man. And like I said, in a couple of months from now, we'll have you on here again. Awesome. Thank you very much for having me as well. All right, you got it, bud. All right, see you soon, Ben. All right, see you, bud.