From Bartender to Millionaire: Harry Sardinas on Leadership, Freedom & Unstoppable Success

Success Leaves Clues—and Harry Sardinas Has Plenty to Share.

In this powerful episode of Unstoppable Success, Jaclyn Strominger sits down with entrepreneur, business growth strategist, international speaker, and founder of Speakers Are Leaders, Harry Sardinas.

Harry shares his remarkable journey from working as a bartender in London to building a million-dollar business and becoming a global authority on leadership, entrepreneurship, and public speaking.

You'll discover:

✅ Why success isn't measured by money alone

✅ The leadership mistake that keeps entrepreneurs trapped in their businesses

✅ How ego can limit business growth

✅ Why empowering your team is the key to scaling

✅ The surprising connection between public speaking and personal success

✅ How to overcome fear and find your authentic voice

✅ The mindset shift that helped Harry create financial freedom and global impact

One of the most powerful moments in the conversation is when Harry explains how surrendering control and developing leaders within his organization allowed his business to thrive without depending on him every day.

If you're a business owner, entrepreneur, executive, leader, or someone looking to unlock your next level of growth, this episode is packed with practical wisdom and inspiring insights.

Connect with Harry Sardinas:

🌐 https://speakersareleaders.com

🌐 https://harrysardinas.com

Connect with Jaclyn Strominger:

Learn more about Leap To Your Success and the Unstoppable Success Community.

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Transcript

Introduction — Meet Harry Sardinas, Founder of Speakers Are Leaders

Jaclyn Strominger 0:02

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger. And on this podcast, we hear from amazing leaders, their influence, what they've done to have unstoppable success. They shared their tips, their tricks, their strategies. And today I am so excited to share Harry is in the house. So Harry Sardinas Let me tell you a little bit about Harry. First of all, he's a business growth strategist, empowerment leadership, and business coach. And he is in London. He is a true super connector. He's an influencer with oh my god, I always like 280,000 followers. He's the founder of Speakers Are Leaders. It's public speaking, branding, and marketing workshop. He's a podcast host, unstoppable success. I can tell you lots of different things, but I want you to hear it from Harry himself. So welcome, Harry.

Harry Sardinas 1:04

Thank you. Thank you,

How Harry Defines Success — It's Not What You Think

Harry Sardinas 1:06

Jaclyn, for the invitation. I love your energy, and thank you so much for the work you do to uh help uh your audience in order to create this magic, which is the unstable success. And I think the first, the most important thing that we have to enhance in order to be to have unstoppable success is your mindset. I think that, and the way that we measure success. A lot of people think that you are successful because you have a million dollars in your bank account, and because you are a millionaire, right? And the most interesting concept is how you have this millionaire lifestyle, which is not necessary. You need to have that million in your bank account. So what makes you happy and how you want to define success? What is actually means to you. And on the pursuit of happiness, success, it will be measured, but the difference that you can make in other people's lives. I think that if when you change someone's life, when you transform someone's life, and as an example, this transformation podcast that you do just link, right? The audience listening to it, and it's something that has been said here can make a difference in their life that's gonna give us so much fulfillment, so much happiness that you get paid in a different currency, uh, which is love, appreciation, and fulfillment. So, how we define success is important because um sometimes we uh we we take the wrong parameters. So for me, success is live your life on your terms and do what you love, and from there you can build um something uh something unstoppable. Success means to be able to don't have to prove anything to anybody if you are on the space that you try to be in this rat race trying to grow your business, how to make millions, how to make billions, how to achieve this and that, because you want to prove that you're good, and so they you people can love you because you prove that you're good. The good news is that you're already perfect and complete and amazing as you are, and you don't have to prove anything to anybody, you just need to follow your heart and and do what you love, and of course, uh one of the elements of live your life on your temps is eventually you need to build a business or become an investor so you can create that finance that will give you freedom to do what you love and to a small I have a podcast previously, and it was a guy that was telling me, uh Fabri, I love to help people, and we were discussing, okay, if you really want to help a lot of people, you have to become really wealthy so you can help a lot of people with it, right? So it's mainly guestling how we define success and what it really

Passion vs. Profit — Why Doing What You Love Isn't Always the Business

Harry Sardinas 4:25

means to to the person.

Jaclyn Strominger 4:27

You know, so there's a few things that you said that I think are so important. First of all, you know, Harry, you said you know it's like doing what you love, right? You know, and and even you said, you know, in actuality, you don't need to have a ton of money to really help other people. You have to have the passion, you have to have a voice, right? So, I mean, I I am truly passionate about helping people be better leaders, be successful, you know, truly giving them those tips and something that you said. So, how do you how how do you think, or why do you think people get caught up in the doing what they love part? Because everybody does, right?

Harry Sardinas 5:18

Well, there are some fundamentals, and I had uh the out of the 500 millionaires that we interview in our podcast, there are people that show up and tell me, hurry, I'll buy, expand loads of businesses. I make a ton of money, and none of them have been my passion. None of them, I didn't I didn't do it because I love it, I did it because the number works, the magic that were amazing, and I made a ton of money doing this. Say so doing what you love, not necessarily could be the channel. For example, let me give you an example. I love to help people, right? And I love to help entrepreneurs to navigate the challenges of from zero to one million and from one to ten million. This is what I'm passionate about. I love it because when I started my fan business, I was alone. I didn't know anybody, and I have a very traumatic experience in my in my process to making my first million, so I don't want anybody to go through the struggles that I went through. So this is what I'm passionate about, and I love it. And I travel all over all over the world doing those conferences in Singapore, Dubai, Mexico, Peru, Patuquino, US. However, I can tell you that in order to finance the my purpose, okay, my first business was in property, and the the income that I that I made during doing this business, create the platform and create the foundation for me to start to do what I love. And today I do what I love, yes, and I also do property also, which is not I'm not passionate about, I'm not love it, but it can give us the the finance to actually do and create platforms for you for you to do what you love. So sometimes you need to find the vehicle around, and let's face it, no, oil CEO with that that says, Oh, you need to do your business about what you love, this is a little bit uh a little bit of a stretch because when it comes to business, there is no is not enough that you love to do it. You need to have financial sense, you need to have the margin has to be there, the market size has to be there. So it doesn't matter how much you love to do something, if there is no market for it, and your clients are not willing to pay enough to solve the problem that you love about it, uh it will it would be an amazing hobby, but we never turn on to a business. So we have to figure out, and sometimes you get left, and what you love is also an amazing business because your margins are amazing and you can create wealth and money out of that, but you can have it in parallel. I have done it all my life, and uh having my passion and and and and the other business in parallel, and I think they can coexist very well. One actually supports the other, right? And it's amazing.

Jaclyn Strominger 8:18

So let me so in in property and real estate, I'm just gonna say, do you did you ever feel like you were

177 Tenants, 28 Houses, Zero Rent Issues — The Property Origin Story

Jaclyn Strominger 8:27

helping people in that business?

Harry Sardinas 8:29

Yes, absolutely. With the when our uh first business in real estate, it was exactly this. So we were doing landing services in London. So there were a population of students, okay, that they're actually very vulnerable because nobody wants to rent them because they don't have a job, they just can't just try in the university, and they were coming from abroad, especially from Europe. Okay, and so we have this one over population there that people don't want to give them the accommodation. And I'm thinking to myself, these guys are amazing, they're university students, right? And why nobody wants them? And if they find something that will give me the worst place. So we built the business around, and we at some point we have 177 tenants, under 28 houses. It was a big operation, a lot of young people around, and we managed to give them something decent for them to stay over in the US and in UK. And guess what happened? They were uh uh there were no problem whatsoever with rent. No problem, never ever, ever. I knew that they don't have income, but I knew that the parents were supported because they they were sending their sons to learn English to London from Spain, from Italy, from Netherlands, from Germany, from everywhere. So, and the issue was that about help helping them. Imagine if you if you're doing landing services and you give them the room, this is the only phone number they have, yours. So anything, what is the doctor, what is this, what is this that they only call you because they don't know anybody in the country. So, yeah, we have to um uh little by little we have to create uh some welcoming pass and give them the phone numbers and where is everything is is so they uh they have a little bit before because we uh we find out that we didn't see it is coming, right? But yeah, go ahead.

Jaclyn Strominger 10:33

Yeah, so I actually think though, even though it may not have been your absolute ultimate passion, you love to help people, so that's where it came from. It came from your heart, right? It came from your heart wanting to help people, and now you get to take that heart and do it on a bigger scale, and that business can right, that business can fuel it. It's it's amazing though, like, and you probably have seen this when people get into a field or a career that they're just not they don't like, they don't like going to their their job.

Harry Sardinas 11:09

So yeah, I can say you're right, Jaclyn. You're right that the what happened with the property thing is that I'm not able to help so many people, only 177 tenants. And if I want to help more people, I need to have hundreds and hundreds and thousands of houses, which is a huge operation. Whether with the workshop speakers and leaders, it's completely different because we literally have been in front of thousands and thousands of people all all over the world. You feel like you're a rock star, you know, you arrive there, they pick you up, you go to a hotel, and then you have hundreds and thousands of people waiting for you in different when we do in Peru, for example, in Mexico, you go through the country, right? And uh and you speak with a lot of people, and that connection is amazing, especially when you speak with leaders and when you do some talks that they are charity of, especially when I go to Latin America. I love to I ask over to a promoter to to arrange some talks that they are for charity, just for the for the people, which is that sometimes they're not happy about it because you know they don't make any money out of it. But we we always ask them, please. Um those talks, those talks that we do as a charity as for the organizations, but they are the most amazing, the more the biggest break to I remember one that we did in Peru. We were 500 women and they call they call it the women of the glass of milk. So turn out that these women, the community leaders, and any kid that doesn't have resources to drink a glass of milk, they as a community leader, they go to the place, they collect the baking powder, they create the glass of milk and they give it to the kids. So imagine how you have an audience with 500 women community leaders like this. So it was so the experience that we have out of this audience, and how uh we trained them and we talked to them. And I remember the the we finished, we couldn't even move because we were surrounded by uh by all these women, and they were so they were so grateful and so so that we came from London to talk to them, right? And I'm thinking, wow, they are grateful for us to come and talk to them. I'm more grateful for the love and the the appreciation that they are showing us, right? So and a room full of leaders. When you talk in front of a room full of leaders, the energy change, they have relationships, and these women, yeah, they're making a difference every single day. So their energy is amazing. So sometimes you go there and and and and you get something back from the audience that is priceless, that you cannot count with money. Is that fulfillment, is the happiness that we're talking about at the beginning.

Jaclyn Strominger 14:16

So I want to ask you, so you know, as you said, you know, you made from you know zero to like that first million. What was it? What do you think that it

500 Women Leaders in Peru — The Charity Talk That Changed Everything

Jaclyn Strominger 14:27

was for you that helped you have the push to keep working to get to that first big job?

Harry Sardinas 14:39

It was a challenge. It was a big challenge. Like I said, it was a traumatic experience because when we are entrepreneurs and we don't know what we're doing, most of the entrepreneurs, when you hear the story, they don't become entrepreneurs, they become an entrepreneur by accident, right? So in my case, in my case, the rent was too expensive in London. I was working as a bartender making like around 1,000 pounds, and then when every time every month the spends come and I'm spending 650 pounds in rent. So it was a lot of money. So I'm left with nothing. So I'm thinking, if I don't solve this rent problem, that I gonna I'm working on paying, working on paying, working on paying. So parallel we had to to develop these landing services, which at the beginning removed that overhead for me because I was renting the road individually. There was enough capital to uh for me to pay the rent, and after we pay a few few houses that I didn't uh it's also become a profitable. However, when you become an entrepreneur like me by accident, you don't know what you're doing, and you don't know anybody that's an entrepreneur, you first you stumble in the wrong perception that you think because you're not making

The Ego Trap — How Harry Went From Burnout to His First Million

Harry Sardinas 15:57

money by yourself, and so if you make some money, you think that that you're a big deal and you're a big boss, and everybody had to do what you say. And I got it so wrong in the first two years, like that, right? So without knowing, you build that ego, that persona that the business is you and it's all about you. And after two years, I'm exhausted. I'm so tired because all the clients want to speak with me, all the team want to speak with me, and I'm thinking, when am I gonna sleep? So by accident, again, I surrounded to that big ego person that I been. Yeah, I remember they were even going for a drink without me. They think that was my biggest nightmare. And I saw them and said, Oh, you want to the pub without me? That's ridiculous. I'm thinking, that's how bad I am. That they even let me out to go out. This is this can happen. And without knowing, and then my I had to read leadership into the organization because I started to tell them our team, okay, if you have any problem, you can try three solutions and try whatever in works works, and like that, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter. We try something else. So they they start to develop that leadership into the organization, and that's what gave me to the million. I couldn't do it in the step one when I was sick ego and everything was about me. But when I surrendered that ego and they can tell them into leaders, I remember when I go when I go for a trip, they want me to show me that they can do better without me than with me. They are all uh less shocking that that we can do better uh without him. And that's why they all organizations that become a great leader, they they were better than me anyway. So but now they I give them a space. I start to be to I allow them to be then themselves. And one day I arrived to the office and they told me, Harry, go home. We don't need you here anymore. We're gonna see you once a month to tell you what we're doing with the company, stay there, try the wall if you want. It was amazing. So again, we are in business. We want at the beginning, we think, oh, we want to make a million, I'm going to do this property thing, I'm gonna make a ton of money. But if in that process you don't surrender that ego and you allow your team to become leaders and to develop leadership into organization and give them the space, the thrust of the framework, and create the framework so they can expand, you're gonna end up doing the whole job all yourself, and it's gonna be very difficult, almost impossible that you make one million like this. Yes.

Jaclyn Strominger 18:50

You know, it's so important that you say that because it's so true. Because you went from you went from working in the business to working on the business, right? And so having that leadership and letting your team flourish, right? It's it's it it they bought into the business, they wanted to see it flourish, and that's what you want. You you want your teams to want to do better, you want the team to want to show you, right? To show you, oh, you want them to say, oh, let's show him how awesome we are, right?

Harry Sardinas 19:27

And that's and I was super happy about it. I was telling everybody you won't believe how great they are, right? So it's not about you that the beginning, you see, you don't know what you're doing. So you think that you have to develop that character, that you are the big boss, and everybody has to do what you say. What this creates a toxic culture in your organization. You are exhausted, you're tired because you're doing everything. They are the reflection of you, so they start to underperform, and then you attract wrong people to organization also because you in that energy, this is what you attract. But if you're able to shift it and make them the protagonist, you know, Warren Buffett, when you said when you are several times they have been asking asking, What is the key of your success? He always says thanks to my team. Without them, I won't be able to be what I am. So it's all it's never about you, it's all about them. And the faster that you got clarity in this, the faster you're gonna get to a first million and and more.

Jaclyn Strominger 20:32

You know, it's so true. I was thinking about this the other day because it's true. I, you know, was asked when the when a person says, you know, if you if you ask a person, you know, who helped you get to where you are, and if they say it was just me, you most want to take your hand and slap them across the face because it's never just you, right?

Harry Sardinas 20:56

Like, you know, if you see successful people never talk like this, right? The the people that is really wealthy that they are successful, that's what you know that they are really successful is for the way they talk, for the way that they really are grateful for for the people working with them, because you have to think that they wake up every day. I'm sometimes I'm thinking this, right? Wow, these people are waking up every day to contribute to to my project, to the idea, to so the the leads you have to be grateful and and to and to treat them well. So, and that becomes to leadership. It's very easy to create the product, sell it, and make a profit, but and this is can make you like a tiny entrepreneur that can make a living, or you can have a very good lifestyle business. Like, if you want to grow an organization and you want to expand it, you have to pay yourself. To lead the other question that everybody's asking me all the time is Arya, I want to attract leader to my organizations. And I always tell them there is no shortcut. In order to attract leader to your organization, you have to become a leader yourself. There's no other way around. There's no chocolate. That's what I'm here, by the way, because you're amazing and your podcast is amazing. And I love the topic. And leaders attract leaders. This is how these dynamics work.

Jaclyn Strominger 22:30

Well, you know, it's so true.

Speakers Are Leaders — Born from His Partner's Fear of Public Speaking

Jaclyn Strominger 22:35

I've said it before you know before our energy attracts like energy. Or you could say your vibe is that attract your tribe, a tribe. And the way that you the energy that you put out is so important. So, you know, one of the things that I'm curious is, you know, now you've you've had great success. What made you start the speakers? Uh, you know, our leaders?

Harry Sardinas 22:58

Uh, speakers are leaders, I think it's only started because my partner has uh uh she has a great fear of police speaking. Uh I would I would get to a conference and of course, you know, if you're in a conference and the speaker asks a question, I used to raise my hand and say, My name is Harry, I'm the founder of this company, and this is what I do, and this is my question. So I got in a free publicity over the road audience. So I was uh telling to our partner lady, look, uh this is a great space for free publicity, you should do it. And I remember trying to raise the hand, and she was scared, scared, scared. And it turns out that the fear of polling speaking is the biggest fear that human beings can have, and everybody have it because the reason is very simple. When your kid, if your parents are gonna take you, hey, don't talk to strangers. So speaking with the strangers is strong. And of course, after you go to the school and the teacher will tell you the same thing, hey, don't speak with strangers, just speak with the people in the class, yeah? Uh and then you are in business, and all you have to do is speak with the strangers. And if you're speaking in public, you have to speak in front of hundreds of thousands of strangers. So it goes, is you don't even know that the fear is there, but it's definitely definitely in your unconscious mind. And it takes uh a process to help the people to welcome that fear. We have reached over a million people in COVID and over 10,000 people all over the world, how to not only to welcome that fear, but also to speak up and what to shed the message, whatever it is. And it doesn't matter if it's in your community or in front of 10 parents or 10 people or hundreds of thousands, but at least you find your voice. And turns out that that fear of polling speaking is showing up everywhere, it's showing up in your relationship, uh, it's showing up at work, it's showing up in your pan account, it's showing up everywhere. So when that fear is gone, you a new form of you uh appears, and this new version of you is more powerful, more confident, and more focused in order to achieve the goals. We have a student graduated that they've been working, and let's say, for example, they sell yachts and then they go to a course to a workshop Saturday and Sunday, and one day they're calling me, look, I saw six yards. I'm like, What? You haven't sold anything in the last year. No, but uh, today I made a phone call. I told the guy, I said, Lee, if you buy it, or I'm taking them away from you, I'm the person for it. So things, things like that. The the uh the energy keeps growing and growing, and the people find the power. I think the biggest problem that we have in society is people live in fear, people live without the power, that inner power that they have, and it's tough them to achieve their goals. And then that's a result, people are unhappy. She's a shame.

Jaclyn Strominger 26:11

You know, it's so funny, it's so interesting that you talk about this. So, you know, I find it fascinating because I think it correlates like even when you get to you know high school or in middle school, some kids are just afraid to raise their hand, they're afraid to speak up. And I almost think that this is something that we should be bringing to everybody at every age, right?

Harry Sardinas 26:38

Well, there was uh even in the university of law. I remember our Toastmaster Club in London. Yeah, we were doing it in the University of Law because there is no Polish speaking class in the University of Law, and they're supposed to persuade, they're supposed to speak and persuade, and there is that is not in the in the in the manner of the lawyers. I think it's a topic that because everybody's scared, everybody's even too scared to talk about it. Yeah, so all we keep it silent, and people don't even know that the fear is there in the first place. I remember in my university, it was the same thing. Like I remember I didn't I didn't like to do the studies or the homework and everything, but every week we had to present. And I remember from my team in the university, I was the presenter. Said, Lord, I it's easier to present than do the whole job. So there were six people in my team that they would work for a week in that lab of resources and creating all the graph and everything, and they preferred to do all that, that to face the crowd for 10 minutes. That was the presentation, and I think that that was very easy because I didn't have to stay the whole week presenting. So 15 minutes before 10 minutes, 20 minutes before the presentation, they will give me all the reports. How is the presentation? Is it what you have to say? These are the results and everything. You present it in front of the teachers and the audience. So I think that was the starting of my speaking career at the university to avoid to do the work, you know what I mean? So but it's a skill, right? The more you practice, the better you become. So you keep practicing and practicing, and that's what we want to do. The podcasting is the same thing, right? If you see my first podcast, you cry. It's uh it was a total disaster. I mean, the first hundred and I'm still working on the case, you see. Uh it's a skill, the more you practice, the better you become. You just have to embrace it and make sure you know perfectly. I remember in London everywhere, every time we have audiences, sometimes 1,000 people there also. And sometimes we have another speaker that is an amazing poverty speaker, British, very good-looking, skinny, very right. Like the guy said, Who wants me to teach you how to speak? And then, of course, a lot of people go there. Then I come in after and say, Okay, I'm Harry. And I also can teach you how to speak, how to become the fear of poverty speaking. Who wants me to teach you? And then a lot of people go and look, and the people that I'm attracted to, the people are looking and say, Well, look, you know what? This guy is not perfect, he's bald, chubby, not even good looking. And if he's there, he's not perfect. I'm not perfect, so I prefer him to be shitty rather than someone that speaks English fluently and and is flawless because they don't feel identified like they they they identify more than me. So sometimes my problem speaking English, a lot of people tell me, Harry, how come you learn people how to speak in public? You make a lot of grammar mistakes. Well, because I'm imperfect that uh uh attract them a lot, they feel more close uh to me. And at the end of the day, communication is more than that, it's how how you convey your message effectively. It doesn't matter in the competition that we have in London. I won twice the area club and the club and and the uh and the district, something like that, right? And all the judges are British, most of the speakers are British, and I'm winning again and again. How you explain that? So clearly have nothing to do with how you speak English, it's how you combine the right. It's how how you can put the idea into the audience.

Jaclyn Strominger 30:36

You know, Harry, I think what you're doing is absolutely spectacular, and I'm so glad that you that you are bringing this to the world because being able to articulate and being able to speak in front of people is so important. There's so many people that are out there that that that their six their success is hindered by the fact that they don't have that comfort of or the ability to get up in front of people to speak. So, how can my listeners connect with you, learn more about what you were doing?

Harry Sardinas 31:12

Thank you so much for asking, Jaclyn. So we have our website, https://speakersareleaders.com, and there you're gonna find you can find resources, and you can see where our next workshop is gonna be. Is something we do it all all over the world, and also you can follow in our podcast Unstoppable,

How to Connect with Harry and Take Your Next Step

Harry Sardinas 31:35

uh five steps how to make your first million. So we we talk about the our product market fit and how you can start your journey as an entrepreneur. And in my personal website, Harrysardinas.com, there is a lot of resources there where people can have for free and to overcome the fear of public speaking. And I we also have a small podcast speakers at least with with a lot of tips about uh these specific topics.

Jaclyn Strominger 32:04

I absolutely love it. Listeners, I'm gonna put all of Harry's information, contact all that stuff in the show notes. Please do me a favor, listeners, connect with Harry. Right after you listen to this. If you're doing, if you're listening while you're driving, do it after you drive. But if you're listening to it and you're stationary, go connect with Harry right now. And then do me the other favor and please share this podcast with other leaders, listen and your friends, associates, and business professionals who need to hear Harry's message. He has had unstoppable success, you know, zero to you know, a billion, and you know, he just keeps going and he's helping so many people. So share this episode with your friends and family, colleagues, and business associates. And then do me one other favor if you haven't subscribed, do that. And lastly, we just launched a brand new school community called Unstoppable Success. And in that school community, right now it is basically free to anybody who wants to jump in there, but we are putting in podcast content. We will we are going to start having inviting our school community to jump into the podcast and actually have QA sessions with our podcast guests. We're doing power hours so that you can actually make sales calls with people, social media contacts. We want you to have unstoppable success. So jump into that school community. That link is below. And listeners, I truly appreciate you for listening and helping our podcast keep on growing. And thank you, Harry, for being an amazing thanks to you, and everyone, please subscribe to the Unstoppable Success Podcast. I think that the way to uh beat success is always a success, live plus, right? And define your own success, that's gonna give you happiness, and from that space, you become unstoppable. You will have unstoppable success. I love it.

Harry Sardinas 34:15

Thank you, Jaclyn.

Jaclyn Strominger 34:16

Thank you so much. All right, listeners, bye everyone. Thank you so much.