From Premier League to Franchise Owner: Simon Cox’s Reinvention

In this episode of Your Mind Your Business, host Carina McLeod sits down with Simon Cox—former international and Premier League footballer turned franchise owner, Hyrox coach, and athlete. After a 17-year career in professional football, Simon faced the challenge of redefining himself outside the sport. Now at the helm of F45 Southend-on-Sea, he’s navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, learning the ropes of business ownership, and building a thriving fitness community.

Simon shares the raw truth about transitioning from football to business, the sleepless nights of running a franchise, and the mindset shifts required to succeed in an entirely new field. He opens up about self-doubt, resilience, and the lessons he's learned—both on the pitch and in the business world.

If you’re an entrepreneur, an athlete facing career change, or someone looking for motivation to push past fear and uncertainty, this episode is for you.

🎧 Tune in now! And don’t forget to subscribe for more real talk on business, mindset, and success.

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Transcript

So I got hit straight away of a big decision. And I was kind of like one of these people that if I didn't do it and somebody else did it and it became a super success, then I'd be sat there going, could have been me? Welcome to Your Mind Your Business, the podcast that dives into the real grit of entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Carina McLeod, entrepreneur and fitness fanatic. And we have a special guest today, Simon Cox from F45, Southend-on-Sea.

Welcome, Simon. Thank you. Excited to have you here today. And what I always love doing at the start of the podcast is allowing our guests to introduce themselves to the audience. So it'd be fantastic.

Before I'm gonna hit rewind, if you can tell our audience a bit about who you are, where you're at, and then we are gonna go right to the start of your entrepreneurial journey. Yeah. Cool. Corina, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

So I'm Simon, former international, professional football player of about seventeen years now, franchisee owner of F45 in South End and a man who is trying to make his way in the world of business. I love that. I love the fact that you've, well, that's a complete change, right? From having a football career and then all of a sudden moving over and having a franchise, and basically having to run your own business. That's a complete change.

So let's go back to that start. Right? You so you you're you've got had your football career. I guess there's a point where it's like you retire from football and then it's a question of what do you do next? Yeah.

So if we just jump back a little bit further than that as like leading up to retirement, the idea was for me to go into football coaching. So I did all my football badges, B license then into A license, whilst I was still playing because I was felt it was like it was that was a natural progression for me. I've been in football seventeen years and I wanted to continue that journey and I wanted to help young players progress, make and have the career that I had, or better it. And so that was that was the start of the journey. Then it got to a point where I ended my basically ended my career out in Australia, which was an incredible way to end, really.

Loved it. My daughter was born here, so she had to forego the Australian lifestyle and come back here, which was fine. But that coincided with COVID. So that kind of stopped everything that I needed to happen. So I needed to find another club.

I needed to find somewhere to allow me to come and do coaching. But because everybody was in their bubbles, nobody was allowing outside people in. So it became very, very difficult. And I spent then nearly a year sitting, trying to find different things to do, scouring the Internet, LinkedIn, you know, Indeed everywhere for, for jobs. But because I was an ex professional footballer who, you know, did okay at school, but spent the last seventeen years playing kicking a bag of air around.

When you've got people who go into careers from, you know, school, college, university, who are a lot further ahead than I am, I'm not at the forefront of their minds. So it became very, very difficult. And then that's where, you know, I kind of wanted to get into the fitness world and go down a different route of coaching. So you go into the coaching. What was that point where you then thought, right, I can actually run a business?

Because they're very different things. I still don't think I'm there yet. Well, the thing is, is that when I was in Australia, because F45 is an Australian brand born and bred there. And while I was there, I saw it everywhere and loved it, loved the look of it, loved the atmosphere, the community vibe of it. And then when I retired and I was like, sort of, in an hour and about what to do and I wanted something that was going to be very community focused, very much a case of from the background of football in the dressing room and helping each other achieve things.

You know, not one person wins games of football. Not one person wins leagues and titles. It's the complete team that does it. Manager all the way down to, you know, the staff and, and every player even into the into like the players who don't play, you know, the support players. So I wanted to kind of bring that of what I've known for such a long time into the business world.

Right. And having that. You know, being able to have 100, two hundred people supporting each other, high fiving each other, having like an absolutely incredible workout. And then at the end of it going, that was awesome. See you again tomorrow.

Like, which is what we used to do at football all the time. That meant a lot to me, and that's why I wanted to bring that to South End and be that wanted to be my kind of mantra of bringing sort of social community and sort of hard work ethic to the sort of gym floor, I guess. And you definitely brought that. So one thing I didn't share with, the audience is that I am a member of F45 Southend-On-Sea. And I have seen that.

Right? You have created that community, that feeling of belonging where everybody does high five each other, everybody supports each other. So that's fantastic that you you've achieved that. Right? But I'm guessing there are many hurdles that you're confronted by and challenges that, I guess, from the very start, but also challenges that you continue to be confronted by.

Is there anything that's kind of stands out to you that you never force foresaw at the start when you had the idea, right, I'm gonna create a franchise, I'm gonna get a business, and then you were like, yeah, I'm gonna roll with it. And then all of a sudden, bang, something hits you. Well, I think I got hit straight away. Like, the I was meant to go in with somebody who I played football with, that we were going to go in basically 5050. He was still playing, still is playing now.

But as I was talking with him and we were about to sort of pay our bits of money into to become franchisees, he decided he wanted to pull out, because he was coming to the end of his career. He just had a baby and, you know, that kind of thing. So he had a lot going on. Whereas I was sort of had my first one, you know, I was doing nothing, so I needed to do something. So we were different sort of junctions of our lives at the time.

And I had two choices. Either do what he did and go, no, that's okay. I'll find something else or go. Yeah, okay. I'll stump up the rest of the money and become sole owner.

So I got hit straight away of like a big decision. And I was kind of like one of these people that if I didn't do it and somebody else did it and it became a super success, then I'd be sat there going, 'Could have been me?' Yeah. So I thought, well, you know, I'm going to give this a go. Nobody, like I said, I was okay at school, had more focus on football than I did academics, but no one taught me how to do a business plan. No one no one taught me how to sort of understand what profit and losses and, putting in a plan of months, six months, years time.

I didn't know half of the stuff that I found out. You know, living in South End, it just become a city. You have to pay certain things that, you know, some other places don't have to pay, and you're like, well, that was a an extra 6 or £700 that you didn't have to worry too much about. Now you do. So, yeah, I think I just kept hitting bumps upon bumps straight away from the get go.

But it was a very steep learning curve, and it continues to be. And we'll always come up against things that we need to worry about. But the one thing that allows me to get out of bed at 05:00 in the morning every day to get into the gym to, you know, to see people working hard and to, feel like they've got their work done so they can then go and attack their day is the community that that we build. That's awesome. And the fact that you almost know what your motivator is there.

Right? And as you say, what gets you out of bed in the morning? Because I'm guessing there's many things that go on in your mind that make you probably at times don't wanna get out of bed. Right? You know, those sleepless nights.

But before we go on to the sleepless nights, I'm keen to understand, like, so you're already going into the business world. You haven't been in the business world. You've been very much your career has been in football. You've got somebody beside you almost at some point, and it feels a bit safe, I'm guessing, when you know you're going in with someone. Going in on your own, how did that fit?

Like, what was going through your mind when you then were like, right, I'm gonna do it on my own? I was scared, but I was excited at the same time. I was nervous because I was sinking the entire, like, taken from every pot that I had saved up from football. I was taking from all of it. So I was I was all in.

I mean, and that's it. And. But I kind of needed felt like I still needed somebody alongside me to have those horrible conversations with the ones who you can moan to each other and be like, why is that not working? Who do we need to bring in? Why do we need to bring that person in?

What else can we be doing to make us a more of a success than we are? That kind of stuff. And then when you're in it on your own, you don't have those people. So you sit and you have those horrible thoughts every single day. You wake up and think, is this potentially gonna be the last day that we're open?

Is it gonna be, you know, am I gonna get so many members that are gonna cancel? Or are we gonna or are we gonna have an incredible day? We're gonna get so many people join us, you know? So every day is completely different. But being in it on your own, it makes you learn very, very quickly, and kinda grow up a little bit as well.

Yeah. Definitely. And you talk about those kind of thoughts in your head, right, of going round and round. How do you shut those or turn them off? Or maybe not turn them off, but kind of turn the volume down.

I think every day is different, and I think that's the good thing is because every if every day was the same, it would, you know, it would really get people down or, you know and even when I look at football, I never got too high with the highs and never got too low with the lows. I found that a lot harder in business because in football, I was being paid to do a job. This is my life now, and it's completely different. So this is my business, and if this doesn't succeed, it's my fault. Whereas if I didn't score a goal, okay, yeah, that was my fault.

But it was a collective thing that we didn't win the game for one reason or another. So for right now, it's very, very hard to turn those negative thoughts off. And even if you have positive thoughts for 90% of the day and 10% all of a sudden become negative, they're the things I only think about. So I have to try and switch them off somehow. And I've got two small kids, so try and, like, look at those a little bit.

And when I spend time with those and take my son swimming and things like that, that really sort of keeps me present, which is nice, but it's so difficult. It's very, very difficult. I can imagine, right, because you've come from, as you say, a team sport where you're lifting each other up. Right? Like, you know, I'm guessing that some days when you have an off day, you've got someone else that brings you up.

You can't do that when you're a business owner because you are the business owner. Right? You're on your own. Yeah. And I've and I've always been the type of person who's like the happy go lucky kind of guy, like the, you know, every day I used to walk into trading exactly the same every day.

Like, so, so excited, so happy to be there. Loved it. Really enjoyed exactly what I did. And rightly so. I was being paid to kick a ball of air around, which 90% of people in the world would love to do.

So I can't wake up in the morning and be unhappy, surely, because there's a million other people that would take my place in a heartbeat. So you've got to be accepted of that. But then in business, it's completely different. Like, I have to wake up in the morning. I have to be in the gym every morning.

Not every morning, but majority of mornings. I'm in there in the morning and. I have to be the happy go lucky kind of person. If I'm having a bad day, can't really have them, unfortunately. Like, you know, if you and when it was always said to me in football, if I had a bad day, it was so noticeable, Like compared to someone who was very, like, sort of vanilla kind of thing and then had a really good day, you'd be like, what's wrong with you?

Like, why are you having a really good day? Whereas I was having a really good day all the time and then had a bad day, it was more noticeable. So I guess that's the same the same here. I when I'm if I have a bad day or I feel like I'm not in a great space, you kind of have to switch it on. Like you have to try and make that switch to because I'm there to provide a service for people who pay.

And I can't be seen to be the miserable, grumpy gym owner who, you know, is there to do the job, but ultimately is there to provide the service that the people are paying for. Well, I like that what you say what you said earlier though about the you've got that balance of or had that balance, I guess, what you said about when you're in your football career. As in you didn't get too high with highs, and you didn't get too lows with the lows, which is great. But it's com as you said, it's completely different now. And I guess, as you said, you take things more personally as well.

Yeah. I mean, I think because now I put the money into this, it's my money. If this fails, it's my money gone down the drain. It becomes personal. You know, if people join, I'm really excited about them because I want to see their journey.

I want I want to be part of their journey. I want to help them on their journey. I want to see them be a success. And that comes from, you know, taking the leap of faith to join what we do for us to put in the, you know, the work and the service for them to be successful. And then when people leave, I always look at that as a bit of a slight on myself and the team that we have.

And because it's mine, it's like it's a bit of a kick in the face. And I look at that and go, that's personal to me. And I don't like that. And even if somebody turns around to me and gone, I'm moving to Australia. I'm like, why?

Why are you moving to Australia? I don't need you to move. You don't need to move to Australia. What we can do for you here is so much better than what Australia can do for you kind of thing. So I do take it personally, and I think there's a lot to be said by trying to separate the personal and the business.

But I think when it's your own, it's very hard to do, especially when you're on your own as well. I was gonna say because surely when you would in your career previous career, there's moments where you could take things personally because you've got more you're under the spotlight far more or would have been far more in your football career than you are today. Yeah. But I think it's it was it was it's interesting because as I was coming through football, that's when social media started to come in. Sort of about 2010, '20 maybe earlier, '29, '2 '29 02/2009.

I don't know. I feel like I'm here when you say that. 02/2009, somewhere around there. I think sort of Twitter came around or X's today. So but it was it was fun back then, you know, like you could you can use it and say things and, you know, use it a bit as a bit of fun.

Obviously, as we've progressed through things, you can't say a lot of things. There's loads of stuff out there and people use it as a way of being negative towards other people. Especially in the football world, every fan has a voice now, which, you know, is now targeted at one specific individual. So if I missed a chance now and I was playing today, don't have a look on social media, you wouldn't want to. So it was in in those moments in my career, it was a lot easier to be like low or high, if you wanted to be.

But the problem is it will very quickly slap you in the face in sport. Like you can be really, really good one minute and then all of a sudden something happens and you can be really low the next minute. I think in life, you need to try and find that balance. And if you can find that balance, then things seem to be okay. But you've also got to enjoy the highs and you've also got to learn from the not like the lows.

And if you can't, then I don't really know why we do it. A %. I love that is that, yeah, those highs are great, but you need those lows. Right? You need those lows to learn from.

So talking of lows, like Please, let's talk about lows. Let's talk about lows. Sleepless nights. Because, you know, people could be sitting here going You can tell. Yeah.

You know, people can sit here and go, great. So you had your football career, and people from the exterior can say, great. You've created this community, F 45, South Tennessee, doing really well. There's this real buzz. But the bit that isn't people don't see are those sleepless nights.

Right? And when you're questioning yourself, I'm guessing you have sleepless nights. Or I kind of know because of Because the bags are demise. Because you've told me. Because not the bags.

But yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, take last night, for example. I finished up at the at the gym. We had a session in the evening at 07:15.

We finished off, about 08:00 just after and I'd set the studio up for the next morning, took me around to about half past nine. I got home, had some dinner. So we're talking, you know, 10:00 ish. And then I was doing some work, sending some, like, replies to emails, reply to messages. We had a few things that happened throughout the day, some cancellations, some people were coming back to us, which was great.

So I had to sort all those out. By the time I got into bed and even thought about shutting my eyes, we're talking about 11:11 thirty. And then it's because you've only just finished, your mind's going. So you're talking at, you know, you could be awake until sort of midnight, half past, and then knowing that your alarm's going off at five because you've got to go back, and do the early morning ones, which is, you know, again, fine. Five, six hours sleep, not too bad.

But your mind will never, ever stop because you'll always you're always thinking of what could I have done better? What can we do better? How can we improve? What is it that what are people thinking? Why, you know, if somebody is thinking about leaving, how can we stop them from doing that?

And then how can we bring more people in and what is it that they're looking for? And so you're always, always thinking. So those sleepless nights are just they're nights now. They're just they're just normal nights, I think, in my world. And so you talked earlier about how you sort of that negative versus positive thoughts, and, you know, spending time with your kids helps you kind of just bring things into a different perspective.

How do you shut down or, you know, you say you're sleepless nights. You're wired, probably is a good term. How do you stop that or at least settle it? I would say you need a hobby, but then I don't have time to have a hobby. But I do in terms of, like, like my racing, like, we've done a few races together.

And I love that. And I think that takes me away from the absolute scrambled ness of my mind on a daily basis. And I just then I have one focus. I have one, and that is just from getting to the start line and the finish line. And nothing in that hour, hour and twenty minutes, hour and a half, whatever it takes, can take me away from that.

I'm in that moment and that's it. And that's what I try and do when I'm with my kids. I know it's very difficult. I'm terrible. I'm always on my phone, I think, because of being the owner and people ask me questions all the time, WhatsApp communities, everything else going on, like and if you get the it goes straight to you.

And it's like, okay, so I'll reply to those and I try and stay away from it as much as I can with when I'm with my kids. But that was very difficult. But definitely having a hobby, I try and I try and switch off, like, I'll get to you know, when we've done races before, you get there, like, about an hour or so before, and you then sort of switch into to mode. Very similar to what I used to do with football. Soon as you're in, phone goes away.

Now you're focusing on what's about to come. So I try and I try and do that. It's just that's the difficult part, I guess. Yeah. Do you find that after though, when you've had that moment of it's almost that moment of freedom from your mind of that it changes your perspective of what was going on prerace?

Oh, absolutely. It also scares me though because about what I'm about to walk into after. And that and that's the, I guess, the good bits and the bad bits. Right? It's whatever's happening or happened before, you get an hour to an hour and a half or so where nothing can stop you in that in that moment.

And then you deal with it after you've done really well or something's gone wrong or whatever happens, you generally then have to deal with the fallout of whatever the previous thing was. So it's, it is just so it is difficult. Finding that balance is hard. You know, I've listened to numerous podcasts, listened to a lot more successful people than myself talk about balance, you know, work life balance, work family balance, and nobody ever gets it right. You don't get it right first time, you don't get it right second time.

Inevitably, people don't get it right. And unfortunately, sometimes the people that we love are the people that suffer from it. And also the people will get the brunt of all the arguments and the negativity. You go back home and you, you know, shout at people, but you have like a heated discussion about your work. It's got absolutely nothing to do with them.

But they're the vent of the frustration because they're the people that you love and they're the people that want to lend an ear to you. And unfortunately they take it. And that's I guess that's why, you know, people love, you know, love you for that. Is that, you know, you're open, you're honest with them. And also because they're not in it, they can give you an honest answer.

Yeah. Sometimes in business, people don't give you an honest answer. They just tell you what you want to hear. And I think for me, having people who and I include you in this, if I talk to you, you give me an honest answer. If I like you, I don't.

You give me an honest answer. And I'd and the thing is, I'd rather that, you know, I say that football, I'm big enough and ugly enough to take it on the chin. You know, I might not agree with it, but if it's the correct decision, then I then I understand it. If you tell me that I'm really, really good and you think I'm rubbish, I'll know you're lying and we'll find out that you're lying. And that's and that's what I find in business as well as what I found out in this in this world so far is that bit to your face, some people are a little bit they'll tell you what you want.

But then in the background, they'll do other things. Well, this is kind of and a reason why I wanted to start up this podcast, right, is because there is this facade. Right? There's this facade of success stories.

There's this facade of people sort of, almost wanting to be by your side when they see the great things that you're doing. And I guess this is not just in the business world. This will come down to when you were in, your football career. But how do you just make sure that you don't get distracted by all of that? Because there is lots out there on social, and I guess there's people out there in social going, look at my gym, look at what I'm doing, or post football career, look at what I'm doing.

How do you make sure that you stay on your path and don't get distracted by what's going on around you? I think facade is a great word. I think it's such it's a lot of hot air. And I listened to a previous guest on here, Alex, and he said about turning social media off.

I think that's a little bit difficult for me with F45 because we're very much on social media with the way that we are. We obviously promote the success stories that we have and, and what we do so that people can see it. Because I think there's a little bit of a stigma attached to a 45. It is too difficult. You have to be super fit and healthy to do it.

It's generally not the case. It's for absolutely everybody. But in terms of football as well, it's look at the wash bag I've got. Look at the look at the cars I've got. Look at the house I live in.

Look at the watches and the clothes and the jewellery and everything else that I've got. What people, I guess, don't realize is that also makes you a target for when things are going badly, is that you end up with, like, you've got this x amount of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of clothes and cars and jewellery and houses and everything else like that. But you're rubbish on the football pitch. You know, you shouldn't be paid this amount of money and all of that. So the facade, as you say, of being on social media or portraying a lifestyle that isn't necessarily the case, then we can all do that.

We can all take a fancy photo in front of a, you know, super successful, like, brand with, you know, some jewellery or, you know, we can all go and try stuff on in Rolex and take a photo and go, oh, look at this new watch I've got and then walk out the door in a minute and not have it. I'll see you later. Yeah. Just run around the corner as we walked in. You know, we can all do it, stand in front of a brand new car thinking it's our own when we walk down and get in a rusty old banger.

Do you know what I mean? Like we can all do it. And there's numerous of it out there. So I guess it's kind of like what you see on social media isn't necessarily portraying life. And people got real life problems and all that kind of stuff going on in the background, no matter what their social media looks like.

I guarantee it's a little bit of a, people are kind of like using it as a sort of, a screen to distance himself from what real life looks like. And portray that success with when actually it's very much not. Definitely. And interesting, like, you mentioned about, like, from your football career.

And there's something actually that I wanna jump into. When you said that, it made me think. Right? That's quite a dramatic change of when you are in that football career. Like you say, it's all about the fancy watches.

It's all about the latest car or cars. To then all of a sudden be a business owner where all of a sudden you're looking at the profit and loss. Because you're not just gonna eat. Doesn't matter how much money, you've still gotta look at the balance sheet and understand that. Like, that's a huge change.

Yeah. Because you're not just looking after yourself now. You're looking after something else. So as a business owner yourself, right, you employ people. So what your P and L looks like matters not just for you, matters for the people that you employ.

So you need to worry about it. You know, whether you have a sleepless night over it or not is depends on, guess, how much success you're having. But if you're not necessarily in profit or you're, you know, you're super successful, that's a worry for a lot of people. So when you when you go from being paid as a footballer and not having a business to then having a business and for two years we've been open and not been paid, but you're paying everybody else, It's it becomes a worry because you're sat there going, okay, so how do we then make it to the next stage and how do we get better every single day to make sure that we're not a like, overnight success for a year or two years, and then we're a failure for the rest of the time. And we're not we're not around for the next year.

You know, that that's they're the sort of things that I look at and think they're the worries for me and for all the people that we're helping. You know, it's not this isn't about Simon Cox, the footballer, owning a franchise and helping loads of people. This is about Simon Cox, the business owner, setting his stall out in the health and wellness and fitness industry, helping so many people achieve some really, really great things, things that they wouldn't have been able to do on their own. Because you speak to a lot of people in the gym and I do as well. They love what we do because it's the community vibe, the community feel.

I hate using vibe. The vibe tends to be a little bit strange. I like a bit vibe. But the community feel that we create and the people that push each other on a regular basis, you know, you partner people up with each other, who are either of very similar levels or one might be a little bit more athletic or more stronger than somebody else. And that will only push the person next to them to lift that little bit heavier, to go that little bit further.

And that doesn't happen in the traditional places because you're not, you know, if you're if you're bending down, looking at down at a dumbbell and you're going, I know I can lift a 10 kilo dumbbell, but the person next to me has just picked up a 15. I'm going to I'm going to try and pick up a 15 because they've done it. So I'm gonna you know, you're not in competition with anybody else, but you are actually subconsciously in competition with everybody. Yeah. And that's kind of what we what we create.

Whereas in the in the traditional gym, you'll just pick down you pick up that 10 kilo and you and you not necessarily won't go anywhere, but you'll just be really good at lifting a 10 kilo dumbbell. Yeah. So I think for what we create and how we how we're helping people, it's definitely it's from what I want it to be and the success I want it to be is a case of we're helping so many people on their journey every single day. And the people that that see the true benefit of that are the people that come in on a consistent basis. And that's your fire, isn't it?

That's what fuels you. That's why my alarm goes off at 5AM every day and my body clock is up and at it. You know, I'm not a snoozer on the, on the alarm. I literally jump out of bed straight in the shower in the car and go, and I take, you know, as many of the classes as I possibly can. One, because I think it's important.

You know, I don't think if you're if you're a business owner and you're not seen, obviously the higher you go, you're very rarely seen. But, definitely for what we do, it's very important that I'm seen. Yeah. And I do the classes, you know, get involved with people as well. And I try and partner up with different people every time.

Some don't like it that I'm there in terms of like working out with them means that they can't Slack. But, you know, again, that pushes them, which is great. But yeah, I, I love it. I really do. I generally really enjoy it.

The bags under my house might sound me differently, but I love it every single day that I go in and I love seeing people working hard. Oh, that's, that's fantastic. I'm really pleased, right? Because you can kind of get pulled in by those dark moments. Right?

But the fact that you know where your passion lies and what gets you up in the morning, if you always if you always focus and know it's that's the reason, it gets you through those tough times because you've been on a complete different shift in journey from your previous career to this career. But it's not just that. It's not just football to business owner. It's about being in a world where all of a sudden now you're having to check, oh, hang on. I've got to pay these people.

Gotta make sure this is working and that is so different. Like, your whole mindset has to completely change. Yeah. And I was not necessarily prepared for it, but I was definitely willing to learn it. Sometimes you learn it by doing apprenticeships and then sort of building from within.

I just went straight in deep end, you know, and sometimes it's sink or swim. And again, I was I was okay with that. You know, I was taking that risk and, you know, high risk, high reward kind of like mindset, really. But I was very much a case of like, if I'm going to learn how to do business and I'd always like my dad started a business when he was when he was younger.

And he's gone on to be super successful and, you know, a big driver for me to be similar to that. And I think that you don't do it unless you put in the time, the hours, the effort, you know, the sleepless nights, the lonely nights. You know, he owns a, exhibition company. We owned it, sold it. I did very rarely saw him as a kid.

You know, he was always on the road. He was doing loads of shows up and down the country, all over the world. And it was only really until I sort of got out of school and stuff like that. Then we started to have a bit of a relationship and stuff like that. And but I understood why he was doing it.

He understood. So me and my brother and my mom, and we could have our holidays in the summer and, you know, all those sort of stuff. Like you get why parents or any entrepreneurs do what they do because they want to provide for their families and their loved ones so they can have a nice life. Not necessarily ones you didn't have, but a nice a nice life, like a comfortable life. And, and it's the reason why I do it, you know.

I get up in the morning so that I, whether it's F45 or anything else, can be a success, so that my kids can have a nice life and, you know, a really nice upbringing, and they can go to school, and they can go on their holidays, and they can, you know, they can do all this sort of stuff. And that's always going to be the driver. You know, you said it to me about when we were on our way up here, that money's not the motivator. Generally, you need it. But as long as your family's Okay and as long as like they are provided for and they have clothes on their back and heating and, you know, food on the table, what really else matters?

Completely. And you, you mentioned a few times the word success, which I wanted to delve into a little bit because we've spoken briefly on this and, you know, I've mentioned to you about people previous guests coming on and we've talked about using the word entrepreneur and not everyone feels comfortable. Sometimes it's kind of almost a little bit of a dirty word, I guess. It's almost seen as there's arrogance in that.

But there's almost and we briefly touch on it that success almost links with the word entrepreneur. I'm keen to understand from you what success looks like because you say your dad had a successful business and the words come up a bit. What does that look like for you? Well, I think I have a very strange look at the word entrepreneur.

Like in my head, it's somebody who builds a company. Somebody who starts it from the ground up. Has those sleepless nights all of a sudden does really, really well, potentially sells it, starts up another one and does it, you know, multiple, multiple times yourself being included. Right.

My dad done it. I, I just look at myself as a business owner. I'm like the kind of gatekeeper of the franchise that I own. Right. So I wouldn't necessarily call myself an entrepreneur.

And I don't think I would ever do that unless I, in my definition of that word, did what I just said it was going to be like, start from the ground up and build it. And then all of a sudden, whether you sell it or, you know, it finishes amicably and then and then you sort of live with the profits and, you know, you've had a good ride with it. So I think my definition of it is a little bit different to other people. You know, I listen to Alex's, podcast with you and he had side hustles, but still whilst doing his day job, which is great because he had one stable income with his job. But he also had the printing business, which is great, that he was able to put time and effort in on the side that he made a success.

And still, you know, he gets a big kick out of it when he sees people walking down the street, which is great. And I think from my perspective as a as a what you deem to be an entrepreneur, it's very much a case of how do I make myself into my definition of an entrepreneur? And that is by creating something, building it, and enjoying the process while we do it as opposed to being the gatekeeper of somebody else's entrepreneur. It's fascinating, isn't it? Because there is a different perspective on how everyone sees it.

And I guess there's that part then that almost when you'll accept oh, actually, I've hit I've hit entrepreneur status. Like What does that mean though? Like, what does that mean? Does that mean is that a monetary thing? Is that, is that a circle of friends that you must have?

Like, how does how does that work? How do you how would you define yourself as being that entrepreneur? Or is it is it just everybody's complete definition of it? It seems to be everybody's complete definition of it. It seems to be I think there seems to be the word the word success comes a lot against it and attaches to it.

Like, you all most sort of said, well, I'll feel like I'm an entrepreneur when I get to x. And x is usually the success. Now that could be monetary. As you say, that could be social surroundings. And it's interesting how the two almost go along long, sort of coexist, I guess, of what success is actually how people perceive success varies.

Yeah. I guess, you know, if you're doing really well, you get, you know, you get seen or you get invited to things and then all of a sudden that becomes part of social circles. But you only get to those if you're doing really well, right? No. No one becomes an entrepreneur's, you know, business fails all the time.

Like, that doesn't work. So I don't know. I just think from my perspective with where I'm at right now, I am just the holder of a franchise and trying to make that work as best I can. And then if we're able to do anything else or something else on the side that would allow me to be even thought of as an entrepreneur, then we'll start to build that, and that would then make me an entrepreneur, I guess. Yeah.

It's fascinating how it all is. And, you know, you've gone through a journey of, like, the whole shift as we could you know, as we've spoken about from the football to being a business owner. Is there anything that has hit you harder? Like, let's say one key thing that, like, that no one would really realize or you never thought before entering it that has really been a huge challenge for you. I don't think anyone would expect it to be as hard as it was, especially a franchise.

I think my perspective of a franchise was the kind of easy way into business, you know, like, Business for Dummies, you know, like those books are now out there, right? It was it was that kind of thing. Somebody who didn't know all of the bits that we've spoken about in in this today. I expected all the help. I expected, you know, to put the money in, to have the, you know, the support network around it for people to do not necessarily all the work, but very much a case of like, okay, so how much like to ask the questions?

How much do you know? What do you know? What do we need to help you with? And how are we going to make this a success? Bearing in mind, it's their business as much as it's my business.

And I me personally. Where we are in conjunction to London and Essex is the biggest county in England. I was expecting probably a little bit more help on my side with everything that I've had to do. So I've only realized that two years in or eighteen months in when I had to go and find myself really a business manager, somebody who's been really, really helpful for me. But I don't think anybody I never expected it to be that hard.

I expected, especially as a franchise, I thought you'd get the help. And then when you were able to fly on your own, they would let you go. And then you would be a success because they've given you the groundwork and they've given you the product and they've given you all the support that you need and you understand it and you learn it and you, you know, recycle all of those every single month, six months, twelve months. Never really felt like I got that. So the learning was probably the, the biggest slap in the face, I think.

Well, it's a huge, steep learning curve that you've been faced with, right? Yeah. And I think it's taught me well. Of course it has. You have to learn.

And like I said, you never you yes, you yes, you lose, but you never lose. But you learn, right? Is the sort of big say in always. But you learn more times, I think, especially as an entrepreneur, then you win. The successes are great when you get them, sometimes few and far between.

But the learning or the losses tend to happen quite regularly. And it's how you deal with those, I think, separates the really, really good ones to the ones who sort of are a little bit on the fence or the mediocre ones. 100%. I love that. And, before we wrap up, you've sort of touched on it briefly there, but if you were to give advice to your younger self, not saying that you're over anything, what would it be?

Definitely go into anything with your eyes open. Probably ask more questions than I did. I don't think, you know, there's I don't think there's ever a dumb question. So I would definitely say to ask more questions. I never regret.

I think that's something that that I'll never do. You do things at the right time with the information that you have at the at that time, so never regret. And I would always jump in two footed all the time because I think it's the best way to learn. But definitely ask the questions along the way. Yeah.

Definitely. Eyes wide open. Try. When you're, when you're sleeping bags underneath of you. Awesome.

Thank you, Simon, so much for coming in today, for sharing your story. I've learned a bit more about you. About football. About football, which we've never really spoken that much about. So I appreciate you being open.

I love the fact of your passion for growing a community. I think, you know, when we talk about success, I see that as success in that you have created that positive community just being a member of F45 Southend-On-Sea. I've definitely seen that. So I think that's something to definitely celebrate, about as well and wish you all the success moving forward. So thank you.

Thank you very much. And thank you everyone for listening today. Love this episode? Don't miss out. Hit subscribe on our YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Instagram as we continue to keep it real.