He Had No Home. Now His Business Turns Over £1.5 Million a Year | Anton Hilton

What does it take to rebuild your life when you've lost everything?

In this episode, we sit down with Anton Hilton. After experiencing homelessness and sleeping rough, Anton refused to let his circumstances define his future. Today, he's the founder of Reffle, one of the UK's largest raffle platforms that builds, hosts, and manages online raffle and prize competition websites for entrepreneurs.

Anton opens up about the reality of life at rock bottom, the mindset that helped him keep moving forward and the lessons he learned while building a thriving business from the ground up. We also explore the story behind Reffle and the charity RaffleAid, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and why resilience is often the greatest asset in business.

This episode is a powerful reminder that your circumstances don't have to determine your future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Would it be fine to say it's kind of in the way of what you want to say?

SPEAKER_05 0:25

I think we'll disconnect. So I want to find a way to disconnect everybody.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Anton, I want you to start right from the beginning of your journey. Now, obviously, a big sort of headline of your journey is you own a homeless charity now and you are actually homeless once upon a time. Being homeless, going from that to owning a company that turns over 1.5 million, how did it all begin? Where did it all start?

SPEAKER_05 0:58

There's so many stories, and obviously we ain't got time to go through them all, but I'll try and summarise. Um, so I had I had um I was born in Russia, um, lived there till I was about five. My mum had a bad relationship with my dad. Um, they split up. She was playing piano, um, teaching piano. Uh, she played at a hotel one time and she met my stepdad there, who was building car factories in different countries, and he had to stay in Russia for like a year, and then they met because he was staying at the hotel, she was playing piano, and they they met that way. Uh, then he was in love, moved to UK. Um, then I yeah, primary school, and I was like, to my mum's like, I don't want to speak Russian, I don't want to learn English. Fast forward to about secondary school, um we I started having um conflicts with my mum to a point where I um was uh really unhappy, and I uh got had got involved with social services who then put me in a another family for two years from and I was um I forgot what age to to 16. So there was in Burton on Trent, that's where I was. You could go to a place called YMC from 16 to 18-year-olds who have like uh nowhere to stay. But I wasn't I wasn't 16 yet, so I had to stay with this family who owned a church. Um they eventually halfway through they didn't even want me uh in the in the well the the the wife of that I think didn't didn't want me in the family because I think I was too I think I was too wanting the family. I think I was treating them as in like my mum and dad and the brothers, and I think I was too in too feeling like part of the family, maybe. Um but then it was okay, I kind of stepped back and then they were okay with that. Um then I was 16 and um went into the YMCA, lived there for a couple of years. Um and um and then when I was 18, they stuck, they don't get the funding anymore, so there's like right, you're out, and I was like, oh gosh, what what? Um so then I had to emerge find a job, um, managed to find a job really quickly, managed to get flat, sorted out. Um then unfortunately, after the when you're 18 and get kicked out, then other my other friends had the same, and I let one of my friends stay with me. Um, he got me involved in a lot of drugs, um and uh to a point where it was just having parties like all the time.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

So when this all began, you were around the age of 40. Just explain to me, as a young boy coming to a different country for starters and then leaving your home with your mum, yeah, being immersed into a new family, yeah. That must have been pretty tough for you.

SPEAKER_05 3:44

Yeah, yeah. I I I've had so many like things that life through throws at me. I almost find it um I look at it as like challenges to like level yourself up. But at the time it was, yeah, I just felt really unloved, unwanted. I felt I was just on my own, nobody wanted me, this family didn't want me. Um I would get bullied for you know being different, like from Russia, and I was a bit weird as well. Um, so yeah, I struggled to. I think I was always trying to cling on to some sort of relate relationships. I would fall in love really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

And um do you think you just wanted that attention?

SPEAKER_05 4:23

Yeah, that connection, I think. Um so uh yeah, and then I yeah, I I'm getting I'm guessing yeah, I never really thought about it too much, but yeah, I think yeah, we all want that kind of connection with people, and without connection, it's like it's difficult to live, I suppose, in this world.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

It's interesting to hear you talk about that time just because obviously we've worked quite closely together. I've worked for Raffaelaid and know how passionate you are about Raffle Aid and and worked with Raffle and um and so do you think your ambition and your drive for Raffleade has come from that period of time?

SPEAKER_05 5:00

I think I think 100%. I think like you could look at it as something negative, but let's say we we it we we don't really know how the world's like crazy. Some people think there's a god, some people think it's all a different way, or however it is, it's like it's as if the universe has um put me through these challenges to make me the person I am today. Um so I think without that I I'll probably have different interests.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

So you were saying you were 18, yeah, your friend came to live with you, the funding had been cut from YMCA.

SPEAKER_05 5:36

Yeah, so yeah, I was all had to l live on my own and everything. So I managed to get like a somehow really great flat and everything. Um and then yeah, we I live with my friend, and then we we we were just for a year, I was just addicted to like drugs and um it was really really strange time. Um and then by the end of it, I was like, right, I need to like stop. So I just stopped, but it was really addictive, so it was really hard. But I just I'm one of these people that if I just stop, I'm just I'm just gonna stop. So you came off all yeah, but I I came off that, but I lost my flat because I was in arrears with it, because I spent a lot of money on drugs and just just just wasn't really like focused on managing managing my life at that time. And um then I'm and moved back with my mum for a bit, then we fell out again. We we sh we struggled to be together for too long. Um we always kind of like have conflicts.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

What was the main issue as to why you had conflicts?

SPEAKER_05 6:35

I don't know. I think it's just her I I I question it now, like why people are some people think you know, certain people are narcissistic or a certain way and it conflicts with another person's like way of thinking. Maybe she had some sort of like conflicts with her parents, you know, generationally toxic behaviour um like goes on, and um, but I suppose yeah, it's my my my point of view. And then it's just just I think somebody that may I think she wanted more control of me, um like how I did things and things like that. Maybe maybe I wanted can my own control of things. I don't I don't I don't I don't really know um but yeah we just ended up falling out um a lot I had to I had nowhere to go actually she thought I did because there was a there was actually a couple that would help me while I was on the YMCA, an older couple, and they were like uh like my grandparents almost that would give me money and buy me like uh PlayStation games and stuff like that and give me food. Um and she she didn't like them. She fell out with them because I stayed at their house on my birthday and she came around, she had a round, uh police got involved and they took me back, and she thought I was gonna go with them, and I I I wasn't because I didn't want to burden people. I don't, I don't, I don't want to be a burden to people, so I don't want to be like, can you help me? I always thought I would rather die than ask for help. I would always like to give help, but I never like to get help from anyone. I never ask anyone for help. Even now, I really, really struggle asking anyone for help. Um, so I ended up sleeping outside. I ended up having sleep on a park bench, then I had um a storage container which I rented, all the stuff from the flat. Then I ended up staying there. There was like a chair there, then I think the security guard locked it the next day. And um, and and then I and there was like a bus stop outside a police station. I thought I'd just stay there. It was freezing when I remember I had this ski coat, but then sudden, and then I was just I was almost like praying, or just like, you know, when you're in trouble, you just kind of like pray to the to the whatever, and um, and uh, and then a friend just like messed start messaged me out the blue on on Facebook Messenger, said, How are you? And he got it out of me that I had nowhere to go, and then he let me stay with him.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Was that quite a hard thing for you to disclose?

SPEAKER_05 8:58

Yeah, I was always saying, No, I'm fine, I'm fine. And then he was he just kept like asking and figured and just said like no, come come stay with me.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

He didn't give up on you, no, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:10

Um, and then I I went there, then managed to get a job again. Then um, yeah, so so that's that that was kind of my homelessness, kind of like literal on the street homeless. But I felt I was always like sometimes surface surfing or just making rent, and then and then I have always had this cycle when my mum were friends and not friends, that I suppose. Um yeah, fast forward, um lived in um uh moved from Chesterfield to then Sheffield to then Manchester, and and now I'm uh and I um I actually a story, I in when in Derby, I lived in Derby and I shared a room with a friend. He was into like business stuff. I was into like I wanted to start business. Um, and I I used to do door-to-door sales, so I did door-to door sale for like 18 months, like 100% commission. Did really well actually on that. Um, and and he he did like uh websites and fixing phones like, why don't we start a business, Anton? You could like sell, you could do sales and stuff, and I'll do that. So we started doing that. Um, then it didn't quite work out with us. I think, I think uh I got frustrated. I think it was in that time where he was still partying and going out and stuff like that, and I was just trying to like just just work, and I think I had some conflict there. So I just said, like, why don't we just like separate?

SPEAKER_02 10:30

You've been there and done that already over the years, but you're in a sort of different mindset now.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

Yeah, I was just like, I need to sort my life out mindset. I then decided we we built a website with um some client that I found from my work where I used to sell at email marketing, and the client was like, Have you got a website? Oh, we build websites. I built the whole website and I said to Joe, like, look, I've done all the I got the client, I did all the work and everything, so you know, I think maybe I should I should keep this client because you know I've done all of that. Um, and then we agreed like, yeah, that's fine. And then I registered Hilton Web Design, uh Limited on that day, and yeah, I remember it's like uh October 26th, and I registered as a limited company that day, and then I was in and out of work, um, obviously trying to trying to get more clients. Um, and then uh uh fast forward to um 2020. Um, I got a phone call from um a friend that I met at a modelling show actually. My mom made me go to this modelling show. Mum was always trying to get it gets me into stuff. Um, so you know, she she she is a good mum in that sense. She tries to push me to do stuff, um, but we just don't always meet eye to eye. Um and she wanted me to do this modelling thing, and I thought I'll do it. And we I met this, I was Mr. Darby at the time. You can like Google this on Mr. Darby.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Um had this is the first time I'm hearing this.

SPEAKER_05 11:54

Uh yeah, I've got it on Facebook uh pictures. I've got long hair to hear as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 11:58

Yeah. Um and he and there was this guy who was Mr. Scotland, and we met and we were like, oh, what'd you do? Blah blah blah. And then we, you know, we just stay Facebook friends and don't really meet. It's on the other on the end of the country. And then he calls me up uh a couple of years later, he's like, uh Anton, I remember you still do web design. I was like, yeah, still do that. He's like, could you build me this site? It's like a competition site. It shows me this site called uh like Elite Competitions, which was one of the first one of these like prize websites that went on Dragon's Den. I was like, yeah, I've never seen this, but I think it could work. So um they didn't have much money, so I decided to like I'm always like a problem solver. They had a few hundred quid. I was like, let me let's just create a prototype, um, see if you make sales. Um so we did that, they made sales and they upgraded to like more custom site, and then um that client um ended up being like one of the biggest kind of clients in the country for these kind of raffle websites that were called bounded competitions. Um, and uh and then yeah, because of that, I got had more clients, and then yeah, here we are as uh as Raffle uh five years later.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

So for anyone who doesn't know what REFL does, if you just want to explain roughly what you guys do.

SPEAKER_05 13:09

So um you would have probably seen there was uh sites which you can like win cars, cash, um houses, but I can hear the reel. I can hear the reels. We've done so many ads about this. You've done it.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

I can see you at the table with your glass of water walking.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Yeah, we actually filmed this so many times. Um yeah, like uh you would have you would have seen it online. Like um houses, you can win for a couple like a few quid. Um, so loads of people thought, wow, this is a cool business, it looks easy, and then yeah, we build the websites for for those clients. So they'll call us up saying, want this website, so pay some money, build on the site, and then you know, off they go. Yeah, some do obviously really well, some not so well. Um, and then yeah, we're we're now just as Refle matured, uh, we've got a team of 10, about 10 people, and then we we had so 20 at one time and 10 and 20, but like 10 core people. Um, and uh yeah, we really um value morals in the business. I value um the staff enjoyment of coming to work, so I feel like I'm the nice, fun, good boss. I don't even like that word, but I I just think some people get people in in in businesses and they just want them to work, like you know, grind every single thing. And then I was always like, no, I just want them to enjoy themselves or have a good time, and um I I feel like they they will return that. Um, so that we have a really great environment. All of our staff will, I think, will say that.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Can definitely vouch for that as somebody who is an outsider that comes into the office frequently. Yeah, you can tell everybody's really happy there.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

Yeah, yeah. I even mentioned that, you know, if we work from home, would you would you even like what would that be like? Because obviously this we get all sorts of clients and clients that can make uh our staff unhappy. Um, so but it's good to have a little banter in the office or this or that, and we're kind of together, yeah, and I like that community, that community feel. Um, and I've always um and I I to be honest, I started this business because I wanted to start a charity. I wanted to like I wanted to help the world, I wanted to save save the world somehow. I thought, look, if I I was quite suicidal um when I was younger, um not actually committing suicide, but it was very like feeling the the what why am I even here? Uh I feel worthless, I feel like, well, why there's so many people, why why do I matter? Um, and I thought, okay, well, instead of like checking off planet Earth, uh, why don't I try, you know, I've got my arms, I've got a brain, um, why don't I try and do something for this world while I'm here? So I just I just spent so because of the fact that I was like quiet, you know, suicidal in a sense, I it let me take an immense amount of risk where I was like, look, I wanted to kill myself. So why don't I try, succeed in what I'm doing? Because what's the worst that can happen? I can't pay my bills, I can't feed myself, I die. Well, I was gonna do that anyway. So I might as well give it a go and see what happens. So, so that that like I think a lot of people don't start things because they're scared. They're like, what if this, what if that? And then I think because I was so low, I was like, Do you know what? I'm just gonna go go for it. Um, and I was quite spiritual, I was quite like, I don't know, maybe uh speaking to like God or something or universe or um, and I would pray every single night before I go to bed. I wish for world peace. Uh please help me achieve like world peace. Um, and yeah, now I'm like trying to remember that because obviously when you make money, life can take you different sides, it can it can change you as a person. And I'm like, what why did I start this? It was to try and help people. And I wanted, um, I knew to help the world I needed money. And the way you can get money for a charity, you can either go around with a bucket asking for two pounds change, and uh, or you can lie in front of lorries and shout at the government, or what you could actually try and make money by selling a product or a service, use that money to then fund whatever uh help projects you want to do. Um, and that was always my goal, actually, to start the business. It was always, it wasn't I never wanted anything apart from stability, apart from that, I never actually Which I think you're well within your right to want after how things happened when you were younger. Even now I'm like, I don't have rent because I just I don't know where I'm gonna live. But the the fact of like, and I and I I think I have like commitment issues, definitely in relationships and where I'm staying and that, because um it's that it's that element of like, yeah, I don't know. I think a psychologist might be able to explain this better. But when you're like always moving, not knowing where you are, every single person has stabbed you in the back or like hurt you, then you you lose trust.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Well, I was just about to say, I guess you wanted to always move, probably is because that's what it sounds like you were used to when you were younger, always being on the move, and when you got somewhere and felt comfortable, you had to move again. Yeah, so it makes sense why you would why you'd feel like that now. But I hope and it sounds like you've been in Manchester for the longest period of time now out of everywhere you've been.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

Yeah, 80 to 80. I think when I get to 18 months, I have these urges to move again. And I really had this urge to move to like somewhere else. I don't know, I was gonna move to London, and then I'm like, why am I moving? Is this a reaction? Like, I've I've made quite a lot of great friends here, set up the uh I've got office here, got staff members here. What am I just gonna relocate everything now and start again? Why? So now I'm I'm always trying to like self-analyse my reactionary things.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

How important do you think being self-aware is, especially when if you've had a childhood that was maybe quite volatile at times, do you think it's important to have that self-awareness to be able to understand? Like you're saying, is this just a reaction? Is this something I was used to in childhood? And that's why I'm behaving like this now.

SPEAKER_05 19:10

Yeah, 100%. Um, I I always think I like I self-analyse everything. Um, like Anthony would say, I'm very self-aware. Even if I'm like reacting in a way I shouldn't really, I'm I I I call it out. I like and and yeah, so I always I always try and analyse why am I doing this? Why am I feeling this? Is this the right way to speak to that person? If somebody's doing you something bad, do you have to even the score? Or are you as bad as them, you know? Or do you have your morals and your way of life and that's what you stand to? And if other people want to react in a different way to you, then that's that's their stuff. So you're constantly trying to not be too reactional. Um, and just and just I always question still, what is life? What is the purpose of life? Literally every day, every night, I kind of I go, what what what am I doing here? What's the purpose of this?

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Do you think you know what the purpose of your life is now?

SPEAKER_05 20:08

I question it all the time. We are like we are gonna all die. And I think the more people that realize that, I think the more I think we all try and hide from the fact that we're all gonna die, but we are, and then I think when you know that you start to realize, okay, if today was my last day, what would I have wanted to do? When when that happens, it's like you know you know if you know if I did croak today, like what was important, and then every single time, um every time I go, Oh, I want that nice thing, or I want money for this thing or that thing, I always go, do you know what? That is not what I want. I would rather go and I've spent like I feel I've got this gift of like maybe uh problem solving or energy or something, or like that. I I feel I can do quite a lot of good in the world. So I'd rather leave this world in a better place. Like I want to try and my ultimate goal is try and like peace in the world, love in the world, community. I want to create that, and that's why we started this raffolade. Um, I managed to start that a year ago. Uh, I've always wanted to start that, but I never had the resources or time. I still didn't have the resources at the time when I started that, but I just thought I just need to start this. And we didn't, we shouldn't have actually we did financially, it was it's not a great decision because we ended up spending about 160 grand in the first month. And the business literally I've been reinvesting every single penny. So even though let's say the turnover is 1.5 million, like 1.4 million of that is like expensive. So we I even ended up having to get a loan. That's that took me a whole year to pay off. Um, but we, you know, I just like there was people homeless, and I was like, why are these people homeless? And I was starting buying sleeping bags, tents. Um, we wanted, I had this dream of um opening like some sort of like warehouse where they could be and they could get there's computers and they could pick up clothes and food. Uh 24, it was 24-7 showers, 24-7. Um, but every landlord said no to me. Even we could pay the bill, they said no to me just because of like what we wanted to do. So we ended up getting a van um where we go out in the two locations, Bolton and St. Peter's Square, and give these things out from the van. And obviously, and we we covered it nicely with nice design and we uh do quite a lot of social media.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Um and so you started Rafflaid a year ago?

unknown 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:45

Just over a year ago. Yeah, it was December last year.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

So December 2024.

SPEAKER_05 22:50

Yeah, 2024, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

In that short space of time, how many people have you helped?

SPEAKER_05 22:56

Uh we start we started uh because I like processes, so we've been registering people on our like system to know they all have a little card now, don't they? They used to, but we stopped doing that because it was taking too long to print out.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

And for anyone who doesn't know what raffle aid is, it's a homeless charity, a Manchester-based homeless charity.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

It's not a it's not I found out. Uh do you did you know, like when you say charity, you think of like just uh an organisation that helps people? That's what I thought it was. But it actually, charity is a legal word that you can only use if you're registered with the charity commission. And because we're not registered with a charity commission, we had to change to saying we're a non-profit. Okay, so all these things we have to learn.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, so talk me through, talk me through all of that. So the point where Raffle was doing enough that you felt like not quite enough that you've explained, but enough that you felt like I can take the show.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

I had other staff members that could like instead of spending full time, I could maybe do three days a week. Uh Anthony coming in was a massive help, massive help. Firstly, he was in line with my mission of trying to help homeless. And also he ran a business, sold it who so he's well like good at managing majority of the tasks.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Anthony, a general manager?

SPEAKER_05 24:04

Uh yeah, call him uh COO is his title. Yeah, operations, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Yeah. So you got people in that allowed you to be able to then pursue Raffle Aid.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

Yeah, yeah. So that so then I could start Raffle Aid, and then that took like literally my whole year out. Um mentally, it was just it was just uh all about Raffle Aid. Uh we we helped uh I think 800 people on our system now. Um, and we were given out so much to start with. We were given out uh like hiking bags, uh uh clothes, um, jackets, hats, tents.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Um I remember the office, it was absolutely fun.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

Yeah, we were each person that would come to the van, the cost per person was about 150 pounds. And I don't think anyone realized that. They just see clothes and this, and they think, oh, I think they thought it was some big organization when actually it was money just coming out of like my pocket, basically. And uh and and not even loose change. It's not like a multi-million pound company and some loose change, it's like money we shouldn't really be spending, it should really stay in the business. Uh, but then we started to learn more and more. We started to learn the kind of people that come up, and we we found out you know, lots of stuff does get sold on uh for like drugs. Um uh, but some people it we do really help. So we managed to reduce the items to like more sleep, just just we found sleeping bags people need tents people really need. So I decided to just um strip it back to a minimum spend of let's say, you know, I said, look, I don't want to be, I don't want to spend any more than five grand a month at the moment on on this. Um, and then the rest is we're gonna try and get donations. So raffle aid, uh you can buy a ticket to enter a raffle. Um, and uh so every two pound donation gives you a free uh entry. And we want to scale that up. So at the moment, we're giving away a thousand pounds in cash, but we want to scale that up to we're giving away 10,000, a million pounds, um, because if we're giving away a million pounds, a million pounds is going into the charity. So we're just we're just doing what we can to keep going, but we want to um scale it up and there's so much I want to do, but I'm now having to put my time back into the business to kind of fix the stuff that I should have been doing last year. Um so I so because it's the bit the business is fun in the charity uh or nonprofit, yeah. Yeah, uh I uh um I have to put the time back into the to the business because now we're we're already in process with the charity. We know what days we're going out, we know we're giving out, so I'm just leaving it at that until the money comes back and then I'll switch more focus back on the on the charity. But everything is for the charity, the business is for the charity, the charity is for the charity, and um I don't, if it wasn't for the charity, I wouldn't have any need to build a business. I don't want anything. Um I just know getting a bigger, nicer car is not really gonna drive me. Getting a big house doesn't really drive me. And but I realize why don't I fix the city I'm in? Why like so in Manchester? Why don't I stay with Manchester and go that there's five about 500 people homeless on the streets? Let's find out wireless, let's bring people together. And also with Rafflaid, it's not just about homelessness, it's about inspiring other people that there's good in the world. And I think we're all so disconnected and we're all so connected. So I want to find a way to connect everybody. We're we're all it's like we're all competing with each other. It's like we're it's like nobody wants to, it's like no one really trusts anyone unless they're like their closest friend. But I I think there used to be a time when people used to feel more safe, like on the streets, you you'd talk more in public with somebody else. Like, I just I just want to try and inspire people to build um a city where we're all in sport of each other, we're all helping each other, as in where I don't know if you've heard sometimes people might say we're all actually the same person, like you or me, we are all one thing, we all come from the same cloth, yeah, regardless of where we're born or what religion we are.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Um what's fascinating is embarking on Raffle Aid, I hope you don't mind me disclosing this as well. You found that in the charity world it's not as forthcoming as you would expect for organizations that you would think will do anything to help people because it might be their mission statements. Or from conversations we've had in the past, there's actually in and around Manchester a lot of charities that would it be fair to say have kind of stood in the way of what you want to do?

SPEAKER_05 28:44

Yeah, we we we try to learn, so we went to different. So my first goal was like, look, I don't know anything, why don't go to as um work with charities, work with other organizations, and we found out, yeah, like a few really want to help us out and support us, but others were like, I I never like to speak like anything bad about anyone like that. I kind of go, oh, that's a bit strange, they act that way. But yeah, just like I I started a charity because I don't actually trust any charities, I don't know where the money's going, I don't know how the money's being used, I don't know if somebody's taking the money uh for their payments. Like we wanted to start Rafflaid and go, we're not taking a penny. Like we've got a business that pays us, we're not taking any salaries. And everybody and people do question like like, oh, is it really a non-profit or is the money all going to you? And and fair to say it's good, it's it's good people ask that. Um, but yeah, there's there's the the the the council uh is one of the biggest um fighters of all the people that help people on the streets. Um and um why is that? I I don't know. I think I think I want to learn more, but I I never want to speak like holistically badly of like, yeah, fully, you know, the council is not in support, but there's definitely certain people in the council that might not see homelessness as the most important thing. I think there's I think they want to have a clean city, they don't want homelessness being shown, they don't want it shown that this is a problem.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

So we've we've spoken about this in the past, haven't we? How there's a a little bit of an idea of if you help these people, if you give them tents, it's quite obvious when you walk around Manchester now, all I see is the raffle tents. I see red tents everywhere, and it's it's amazing because I I know where it's come from and I know the person behind it.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

But for the council, is it is it fair to say their point of view is more you're keeping people in the city and it's making it seem untidy and unsafe? Is that that the view?

SPEAKER_05 30:50

Yeah, I think um, like I um I I work with some of these what we call soup kitchens that go out every night and feed. There's so many great uh chat, like two brows uh go out all uh all the time in the city centre. Overstand UK in Bolton with Billard. They're amazing. Um yeah, we've got vlogs on that with Raffaelaid. Um, so they've been helping like me like point me in the right directions, and they they have the same views like about the the council. Um I think the yeah, I I even tried to message the council, say, hey, I want to do this outreach program, I want to do it in like St. Pete's Square. I I just want to know, do I need any permission or something like that? Firstly, they gave me like a price list of sheet of like what a charity cost would be and a business cost would be, and something like a thousand pounds a day or something like what. And I was like, um, but yeah, what about all these soup kitchens that do it? Um they say, well, that that's nothing to do with us, like, yeah, we're not in support of this. Um they said, I'm not a charity as well, so they can't even do anything because I'm not even a registered charity. Um, and they said, like, yeah, we're we we not in support of this. Like, we think they think it's encouraging homelessness. They think it's like if you're sub if you're um helping people feel more comfortable on the streets, uh providing them with like better, like maybe tents or sleepness, or if you're not.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

They'll want to stay there.

SPEAKER_05 32:17

Yeah, they'll that they'll want to stay there. That that they think it will encourage encourage homelessness.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

And I'm guessing you don't believe in that.

SPEAKER_05 32:24

No, yeah, 100%. No, like um I I I just want to, even though I might not be able to solve the, you know, as you get into a problem, you you know, it gets you get more and more problems, it gets harder and harder and harder because it looks easy. I've always been like, I always say, oh, it's easy, but I know it's harder than I've said it is, but I think if you think it's too hard, you don't even start. So I like that. Oh, it's fine, we we can do this, but understand that it's probably gonna take five, ten times longer. Um, I just like to at least, you know, reduce suffering for now. If I can help somebody be a bit warmer, a bit drier, if I can um have a chat with somebody, make them feel a little bit better, if I can bring people together like volunteers, I even say, like, look, if we're if everyone's doing all the packing and stuff, like just go speak to people, just just ask them how their day is. Like, I just want a time when and I have music uh going, people, you know, people, I just want to have like uh a little community, and I think with the homelessness, like even people that do have a place to stay will go there because it's that community feel, they feel like there's other people even talk to.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Um yeah, and we had a chat uh quite a while back, and you said something that amazed me. And if I remember correctly, please for um correct me if I'm wrong. Um but I asked you how much it would cost, do you think, to solve homelessness in Manchester, in Greater Manchester? And that figure was one million pounds.

SPEAKER_05 33:59

A while ago, a friend invited me to like um Andy Burnham was there. It was like um they to show how much homelessness work the charity did, and they were selling off like art. I think I think it's one of these uh income generating like charity events, and they would say we've we've reduced homelessness by this much, by that much, and they were give they were selling art for like stupid like money. And um it just felt weird to me. I just felt like I don't know, like even asked like how much money do you need to solve homelessness? And and like they didn't know, they didn't know the figures really, which I found strange straight away. But then you know they did a calculation, like a bed and night scheme they had. Um, and and it was something like, yeah, the number on the calculator came out like a million pounds or something like that. And I just thought that's not that's that's chop change for like a council, like they get a many, many, many millions. Um, and then I just I just had this idea like look, if there's 500 people, why don't we just just build like a little village or something? Why don't we just buy land and then just put like find like mini mini homes, like container-sized homes, um, and and just everybody can stay there, and like a million for the land, maybe another two, three million for like some sort of like mini kind of homes, um, and uh another million or something for all the plumbing and electricity. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

And something I feel like you come up against quite a lot is people saying, Well, it's all well and good having that, but that doesn't fix the people necessarily that are in these situations to begin with. Obviously, if you've ended up on the streets, people have come from all sorts of different backgrounds that have has maybe led them to that. And I've heard people ask you as well, like, you know, how do you propose to fix that? Because you might be able to take this person off the streets, but for someone who's had no responsibility, no bills, no nothing to deal with in life, you put them in a situation where they have all that, and understandably, yeah, they could quite easily feel totally overwhelmed and and it's not necessarily gonna fix them.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

So what is your like, what is your idea behind like bringing all of that, bringing all of that together?

SPEAKER_05 36:18

So I had this idea of like creating this um kind of village, and uh like yeah, I do think it's gonna cost like maybe I think more than five million to do it, maybe like I I think I'd need probably at least five to ten million maybe to do that, and it probably maybe even cost more. And um I've been speaking to somebody, uh Sid from Embassy Village, uh, who's just created, just opened up um a project he's been working on for a few years to provide 40 um uh dwellings uh for people that are homeless, and he helps them through these kind of situations to try to try and go from homelessness to there to then get more ready for for the out for the the rest of the world. So he doesn't deal with people that are on drugs or alcohol, um, because that's another level of like understanding someone um what they need. Um but I am speaking to uh other organizations that deal with like people that uh have alcohol problems. So I think when when at the moment I'm I'm gonna do because I think because I've run a business for a while, I kind of understand like how what process to take at what time, and I understand we need to get the basics right, we need to get the foundation right. So for now, I'm gonna continue with the van, I'm gonna continue with learning, I'm gonna continue finding out why there's people homeless, why the council has a certain stance on things, um, until we get a certain amount of money, until Raphaelade gets at least a million pounds to five million pounds, then I will look for land, then I would look for what houses we can put on there. And um and I would then decide what people I we're gonna start with. And it may be, and I'm the reason I'm speaking with Sid almost every week, I'm like learning as well, because I want to learn how somebody else is doing it. I'm not just going in like, oh, well, it's just easy. I'd rather learn from people that have already spent years doing it. Um, and we might start with people that don't have the alcohol addictions, don't have the drug addictions, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

And yeah, I think a lot of people feel like they need to, that goes for life as well, figure things out by themselves. And for you being somebody, interestingly, you mentioned before that you don't like asking for help necessarily, but you're quite, it seems like in the business world as well, you're you're quite willing to say, listen, I don't know what I'm doing here. And I'm gonna go to someone who has done similar and can help me along that way. And I think a lot of people in life feel like they have to figure things out for themselves when actually the reality is, someone said this to me a few weeks ago, like the reality is none of us are special. There is, if you've got an idea that you want to do, nine times out of ten, someone out there is already doing it. And so if you can learn from learn from somebody else who is doing it, has got that experience, why would you not?

SPEAKER_05 39:18

Yeah. I I like um I like the business that we have, not just because um obviously it's a business that generates income, but I love changing somebody else's life. They're coming to me with like they're at one stage of their life, and then I've seen people like so much X, the amount of revenue that they're making, and it's completely changed their life. Also because they're changing other people's lives. So they're giving away all these like amazing prizes. Some are life-changing amounts of like cash, for example. They're also some of them donating to charity, and then the new people that come and contact us, I like because the the way we help people grow that business is we help people open up themselves. So if we help people be authentic, we help people take the step, take the next step, like at the camera, like what like your success is the level of uh development you have in yourself. So that so the the you the business can't develop without you developing. If you're not ready, and and this is why sometimes when companies grow too fast and the person running the company's not ready, they can crumble everything. So sometimes fast success can be also really bad. So like you've got you've kind of got to be like mentally ready. So you you focusing on yourself, how do I better myself will I believe automatically better your life.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Right. Because if you're if you're feeling like you know, in a good position, you want to take risks, you want to put yourself out there more, you're feeling confident in that aspect. Obviously, sometimes there's no risk without reward. Yeah, that can benefit your business. Is that what you're saying there?

SPEAKER_05 41:00

Yeah, I think it's all a mental state. Like I was very into um, you hear the law of attraction, mindset, every, and I thought I'd give it a go, and it worked. So I every night I would um imagine having a certain amount of money in my bank account, and the the the key to that recipe is you have to believe you can do it, you have to believe you've already got it, you believe you can do it like you've already got it. So I would almost meditate like 10 minutes before, like just me opening up my banking app and seeing a certain amount of money. That money came.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Like what was that figure?

SPEAKER_05 41:40

I started off with something like a thousand pounds, then I went up to like two thousand, then I went up to like five thousand, then at like ten thousand, and I kept going up and I kept hitting these numbers, and I don't and like you can say something sort of like um hocus pocus, I don't know, but that there is something to this, and I truly believe if you're doing all the right things, but you don't believe you are worthy enough of having that thing, or you don't believe you can achieve that thing, you won't achieve that thing. I could give you all the right mentoring, I could give you all the money in the world, I could give you everything. If you don't believe you can do it, you will self-sabotage everything you've just got. But if you believe you can do it, I believe your subconscious mind, which scientifically proves is way more powerful than your conscious mind. Like it's way faster, it's way it recognizes patterns. If you get it into your subconscious, you will make some conscious moves and somehow connect with people, and you will just get things coming into your life that make like you've not planned for it, but you're ready, you've opened yourself up for these situations to come. And I think that's how I've got like the success. You could say it's luck, or you could say you've actually got yourself in a state, in a vibrational state. The funny thing is, when I stopped doing that, I didn't make any more money for many, for a few, for like for many years. And because I thought this is like I work so hard, like I feel I'm smart, I feel like well, so I just gotta pray for stuff, and then it comes. So it's irrelevant how hard I work, all of that, how smart, like you know, how much time I put into learning. And I was like, no, I can do this myself, I don't need to like imagine stuff, like this is rubbish. And and I worked 10 times harder for the same amount of money coming in. No more money came in. Like, like it's the money was coming in, but it wasn't like it wasn't like things weren't growing for some reason. Um, and now I'm kind of going back to that. I was like, actually, is there so is there something in that? Is there something in Did you really believe you could hit that next milestone in what you wanted? Yeah, I believed it. But so I think there's something about you imagining a goal and you keeping that goal focus every day. But then when I stopped visioning a goal, when I was just busy, I was just busy, I was just working, selling clients this, clients that I was just busy. There's no goal. There was no like, right, I need I'm I'm hitting this and I believe I can hit this. So I really believe that people like need to set a goal. And I think I listened to Kevin Hart's podcast last night, and he said his mum said, when you start something, don't quit.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

And it's a brilliant podcast.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

Yeah, I loved it. And um I I started web design and my mum was like, look, what are you doing? This is rubbish. Like, you're not making any money. Like one of my first clients, I was in the living room cutting up flyers. She was like, What how much are they paying you? 20 pounds? I'm like, she's like, just stop it. Like, there's there's that look on on TV, we we believe Wix, like you can build websites. Nobody wants websites. Do something else, Anton. And I was just like, are there agencies making money in this? Yes, is there people make it? Look, I'm I'm I've started about 200 different businesses, like or ideas, you know. I'm always starting something, we're always starting something new, something new. I was like, right, no, I'm until I get to as there is there is there a company making a million pounds a year or something in this? Is there? I bet there is. So if there is, I'm just gonna stick with this till I get that, and I'm not gonna change and that decision to say, and I I hated it. It was client work, it was dealing with everyone's emotions, everybody's dramas of like uh everyone's misxpectations that like it was client work, it's so stressful because you've got so many different um personalities you have to deal with. I just wanted a business as you sell something, it's like a shop online, you just sell stuff and money just comes in the bank. I was like, I'd love to just do that. I was like, no, I'm gonna stick with this. And I think because I just stuck with it and I believed, no web design, I'm gonna stick in it, and I'm I I think it was that decision. And Kevin Hart said it's the decision to say, I'm gonna do it, and you see it through. And if you and he said, why start something if you don't want to see it through? Um, so I think there's something in that. I think that I think there's I think it's all I think it's all mental. I I I think we think it's all this, like you doing what you're doing. And and yes, there isn't you have to do stuff, like you can't just sit on your sofa. But I believe there's a magic. I feel I feel it's 50-50. I feel you have to do stuff, you have to take action, action, action, action. Uh Grand Cardone says massive action. If you think it's gonna take this amount of time things to hit your goal, times it by X. You do that, and you and you you should hit that. But then believing you can do it, and believing like you already have it, like you believe you can do it so much that you're just waiting. You're just you're just waiting for it to uh you're waiting for your delivery to turn up like that. So that that that's what I think. I think that's a secret to success.

SPEAKER_02 47:19

And just going back there very quickly to your mum saying, like, what are you doing? Do something else. Because there'll be a lot of people maybe listening to this who who are young professionals and they're thinking about taking the next step. And I can definitely relate to that, the amount of times, you know my dad said to me, like, but are you making any money yet from this presenting Malaki? What has anybody paid you yet? Is that and the amount of times that you know it's tough industry to get into, it's a tough thing to do, what you're doing. Are you sure you don't just want to come work for the family business? Are you sure like, and it's like a constant, and it's only because I believe sometimes you know they want the best for you and they just they want to make sure you're secure. And just for just even from my experience, that can be quite hard to like, you constantly have to believe. Yeah, no matter what anybody says to you, you have to have this firm belief of there's other people out there that have done it, so why can I not do it? Yeah. And so, what would your advice be to anybody watching this who genuinely really believes and has got the work ethic, has got the ambition, is willing to embarrass themselves in order to get there, who wants, who's hungry for it. What would your advice be when it's somebody close to you that is discouraging from and for good reasons on their end, you know, not saying it's malicious, but what would your advice be to people watching who who are coming up against that?

SPEAKER_05 48:36

Yeah, um I think people have it a lot and you want to play safe. And I'm just thinking, you know, if we had kids, we'd want them to have a safe life, we'd want them to do well. So I think it's almost a reactionary parental thing to do to say something like that. And and your friends as well, but you've got to you've got to think what is the mindset of that person. Like, um, are we in a different generation? Have they run businesses before? Um who are you asking this from? And I think um possibly uh change who you're asking. So starting a business, uh most parents will say, Oh, it's a bit risky, just get just get a safe job or something. Um, ask a business owner, he'd be like, it's the only job in the world, like you need to do this. It depends who who you're asking. So I think if you want to, whatever your goal is, I think you need to uh stick with it. And I think um, regardless of what your parents say, Gary V is a great person to listen to. He's like, look, if you've tried your best and after five, after X amount of years, you've not made a penny or something like that, then maybe you can question it. But look, if you're if you're young, you know, and he's like, he's like, if you're 50, you're still young. Uh so Gary V was somebody I grew up with, and and and he's from Russia as well, actually. And actually, Gary V helped me leave my job. One of his videos was like, quit your job and go do go do that thing. And because I did door-to-door sales, I was doing the sales on the on the weekend or the evening, and I tried to do client work in the day. So I'd be doing in the daytime, then in the evening, I'll be going door-to-door selling uh selling hello Hello Fresh boxes at the time. And uh so I was made, that's how I was paying uh bills. So I think I think it's um it's it's situational, but I think I think if you're on the journey of I want to succeed in a certain way, even if the thing that you're doing might not be the right thing, I think, I think you just know, I think you know internally. I think you know, I think, I think you gotta think of your heart, not always mentally. I'm I'm very heart person. If it feels right, if this feels like the right thing, and you really sit with it, then I will I will go, I will, I will trust my feeling. And but if you sit with it and it goes, something's off, this ain't right, even if logically it sounds like a right thing to do, if it doesn't feel right, then I wouldn't do it. But if this is me, this is what I'm about, literally, I can I cannot imagine like me, I mean me doing business to to solve this charity thing, I'm like, that is my only purpose in life. Like, I don't even I even mind exchanging any uh everything else, and I just want to solve this thing in life, but yeah, I do I do then question like what is life where if we're in dark times right now with so many like wars and stuff like that, and I really believe like I can change it with Raffleade. Like, I think you need to have a level of uh insanity, like you you I think you can't you cannot be sane and want to change the world. You have to be a little bit like I can do this, and everybody's like, even like my cousin.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

It's coming back to that belief, isn't it? Yeah, you don't believe you can really do it. How are you expecting other people to believe that you can really do it?

SPEAKER_05 52:12

Yeah, so I'd rather spend the next, hopefully I live till I'm at 80. I'd rather spend every waking day trying to achieve the thing that I was praying for when I was a kid, of like, look, I just want world peace. I want everybody to love each other, and I just want I think love is the answer to um Elon Musk said on a on a Joe Rogan podcast. Uh, he said, uh, love is the answer, and it it is. I think I think we're all supposed to be working together in the world, not against each other, not trying to have one up against the other, not trying to steal or take the steal. Or I feel that there's so much uh technology we can all work together to create a better world.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

In a year's time, where do you see the charity in a year's time? Obviously, in this just over a year now, two years, just over a year? Yeah, just over a year.

SPEAKER_05 53:02

Uh yeah, December another three months. So, yeah, it's uh 15 uh months.

SPEAKER_02 53:08

Yeah, so in that time frame, you've gone from barely having anything from the raffle site to now having a van that has got its own systems in place. You go out in Bolton, St. Peter's Square, you're physically getting people to, you know, you've got a set a set amount of things that you're able to give out on a on a daily basis now. Yeah, and you've got all those processes in place that's really come a long way. And it's great to see where do you see that now in another year's time?

SPEAKER_05 53:32

So I'm itching to try and like, I'm even where there's storage, I'm looking for land and where I can get land. And um, I'm I'm trying to figure out the costs. I'm speaking with Sid from MSC Village, find out the costs of like what he's done, how we can reduce costs. He speak to about 50 different of these prefab house things. So I'm trying to get contacts with that, but I'm trying to like focus my time in the right places because if I spend too much time on there and not enough on the business, the very thing that's paying is going to crumble. Um, so I need to focus all my energy on that right now to get all the processes right, get more revenue coming in so we can donate. So at the moment, every time uh I'm budgeting, every time I get a sale, then I donate, we donate about 10% of that to Raffaelaid. So before we just take him money out, and I said no, right? Every time we get a sale, we will donate. So if we sell something for 5,000 pounds, we'll donate 500 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Um, so we've I've just been doing that and managing, but I see I really want to um we just just want to get the website upgrade a little bit more to try and make the donations a bit easier. We've got subscriptions, we've been waiting for that for a bit. Um, so I think the subscriptions is going to be key because if people subscribe to the monthly draw, which is at the moment a thousand pounds, when we get enough subscriptions, we'll keep raising that. So we get more and more people attracted to it. And how much is a subscription? Um starts from two pounds a month. So we've got um half a cup of coffee, a cup of coffee is four pounds, two cups of coffee is eight pounds. So I try to like match it a cup of coffee. I try not to make it gambly. So a lot of our clients gambly. So I didn't I didn't make the whole, oh, if you buy these, you get X more tickets. And I I try to keep it just plain, like not incentivizing. Some people say, but I thought you want more money, but I don't want to incentivize more like gambly kind of things. Yeah, it's more um a place where it's a charity raffle. Everyone knows what a charity raffle is. So if people can subscribe, they get entered into the drawer. And then if we get uh once we get like say a thousand pounds coming through, I'll keep raising that and I'll keep raising that till we get to I want to get to 10,000 pounds. When we get to 10,000 pounds a month of like say revenue coming in, I can potentially start looking at um well, I don't know, like um yeah, I could potentially there's a place I could lease or rent, so I might even look at a place to rent, or I might build up more and more money so we can give out better tents, better sleeping bags, better, better items. Um, but I do imagine this to be multi-million pound non-profit. I do imagine um seven figures coming through every month, and that's my goal. If we if we make it a million pounds a month, then I could start the village. I can I I really believe I can solve homelessness in Manchester. Um, even with the problems that people have. I really believe I can be their friend and and give them a home. And I don't know why with all the money that they don't have a home.

SPEAKER_02 56:29

And it's very clear from hearing you speak today that you have obviously a very strong belief in that. And I see the work that you do here, that you do week in, week out when I come in and out of the office. So I have every faith in you and wish you all the luck with it. Not that you need luck on your journey, and I hope that as many people, as many people in Manchester as well, being from Manchester and myself as well. I really hope that as many people as possible from Manchester can get behind this to help their city, the city that they're from, the city that we were all born in. This is it. Um because I believe, like you said at a time, you know, it's it's one it's one city at a time. So I'd love to have you back on the podcast in a year's time to see where you're up to. Yeah. But just before we finish things up here, I just wanted to ask you one last question, which I ask all my guests now on the Kinect cast, yeah, which is what's one lesson that life keeps trying to teach you?

SPEAKER_03 57:16

Um one lesson that life keeps trying to teach me.

SPEAKER_05 57:25

Uh it's trying to teach me to understand what matters and what is my purpose. So every time I try and stay one way of I get some money and I want this or I want that. Something it just something it reminds me, it was like Anton, I'm giving you this responsibility of this money, not for you to go and have a great time, but it's for the great of good. And it just feels like life is just trying to remind me, keep keep me on track, but also to keep trying to test you with that. Keeps trying to test me, keeps trying to uh uh educate me, keeps trying to throw challenges at me to help me, not to I don't look at a challenge and go, oh, I'm gonna cry about it. I'm like, oh wow, that's another rep at the gym. That's another that that's I've gone from yeah, 10 kg to 15 kg to 20 kg, and the problems get harder and harder and harder, and it's life actually training you for the thing you want. You want a thing up here, and you're not prepared to do all the work, then life's like, what are you playing at? But you want that thing, I'm gonna put you through the hardest training course you've had. You're gonna cry, you're gonna want to quit, you're gonna question yourself. But if you stay with it, like you'll get there.

unknown 58:53

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

Thank you. That was a great answer. And I hope that I hope you've enjoyed coming on the catch.

SPEAKER_05 58:58

I did, yeah, it's good. It's it's you know, everyone always likes to talk about themselves, don't they? So it's it's good to kind of therapy. Um no, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 59:08

It's been great chatting to you, and obviously I see you week in, week out, but it's nice to actually hear your story right from the beginning, and there's a lot there that I didn't already know as well.

SPEAKER_05 59:15

So yeah, there's so many mini stories out of those as well. But yeah, I tried to summarise it. You know, I talk a lot.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

Stories are what make the world go round, and that's exactly why I wanted to do this podcast. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 59:25

Yeah, and it could inspire somebody else.