Abnormal behaviour 🟰 abnormal results.

Most founders do what’s normal, so they get what’s normal.

If you want what most founders don’t have, you have to do what most founders don’t.

I’m writing this under an olive tree at the Beretta factory in Italy.

I’m here for the company’s 500th anniversary celebration as one of their loyal customers. I’m shooting with some of the best businessmen and women in Europe, and I have an exciting 5 days ahead.

Birds are chirping in the background, I’m sipping a bitter espresso (Italians can’t do coffee), and I’m about to crack open a cigar.

Anyway…I wanted to share 7 lines of thinking that allowed me to disrupt an industry, impact over 12,000 lives, make myself a small fortune by the age of 30, and run a 3 day work week while still getting home every night to have dinner with my wife and my daughter.

1. Energy first. Cash second.

For years I optimised for cash. The cash showed up. The energy didn’t. Energy is your life force, and whatever age you’re at, it’s finite. Use yours wisely.

Two tactics:

• One. Write 3 lists. Fascinating, frustrating, okay. Every task in your week goes into one of them. Double down on fascinating. Delegate or delete the rest.

• Work with the highest quality clients in your market. The ones who’ve paid you the most, got the best results, and you enjoy. Make the list. Raise prices on the bottom 20%. They’ll upgrade or leave, and referrals from the top fill the space.

My week now is full Tuesday, full Wednesday, half Thursday. The rest is family, training, content, and thinking. The business runs harder than ever, because it’s built for energy first, cash second. Most founders flip that order and pay for it with their health, their marriages, and their kids growing up in the background.

2. The business is building you.

Every frustration in your business is a mirror.

• Team won’t follow instructions = forcing you to become a better leader

• Struggling with marketing = forcing you to get comfortable being seen and sharing your stances

• 11pm finishes = forcing you to delegate and let go of control

• Empty bank account = forcing you to face your relationship with money and self-worth

I used to blame the team, the market, the economy, the algorithm.

Every time I caught myself blaming, I asked a different question: where am I avoiding the real work?

Fix the boss. Fix the business.

3. Your team’s job is to give you capacity.

Your team handles the day to day. You handle what’s next. That’s the whole point of having one.

If you’ve got a team and you’re still drowning, one of two things is true. Either they’re not doing what they should, or you’ve never let them.

I held everything close for years because I didn’t trust anyone to do it the way I would. It cost me my time, my headspace, and my presence at home.

The day I let go, the business grew faster. Not slower.

4. Put a clock and a number on every task.

Most founders say, “I’ll work on the business today.” That’s why nothing gets done.

When you tell yourself, “I’ll work on it,” what you’re really saying is, “I’ll be near my laptop, looking busy, achieving little.”

Your nervous system is fine with that. It’s comfort dressed as work.

I don’t say, “work on content today.” I say, “produce 11 reels in 60 minutes.” I don’t say, “make sales calls today.” I say, “10 calls in 45 minutes, close 3.”

Time + Result + Constraint = Quality work

5. Be OCD about cash upfront.

The business that collects the most cash upfront wins.

Chase bounced payments. Shorten payment terms. Incentivise upfronts. Payment plans only when needed.

Use that cash to build a war chest. Mine hit £1.5m by my early 30s. Sitting outside the business. Pure cash. Untouched.

The day it landed, the fear of going broke went quiet. That fear had built me. It had also exhausted me.

The minute it went quiet, I started taking real risks. Real risks changed everything.

No war chest? You can’t jump on opportunities nor think straight during a downturn without cutting everything, including coffees at a few quid!

6. Filter criticism, don’t drown in it.

I’ve been criticised, slandered, and made fun of since I was a kid in school. It used to wreck me. I’d lose sleep over a single comment.

Now every comment runs through 2 questions.

Is this a real threat to my life or my family?

If no, ignore.

Is there anything valuable in it?

If yes, extract. If no, ignore.

That’s the whole filter. Most criticism is people projecting what they haven’t owned in themselves.

7. Never rest in a bad position.

If you’re struggling to get leads or make sales, fix it.

If you’re juggling everything by yourself, fix it.

If you’re starting to resent your business, fix it.

Fuck about and find out as they say.

The only thing that works when you're stuck is making hard decisions and taking action, fast.

Pause. Pivot. Move.

No business tactics today. Just life wisdom from an ex-workaholic, now lifeaholic.

You don’t install this kind of thinking alone.

You install it with the right environment, the right support, and potent playbooks built on battle tested experience.

That’s why I built Expansion Partners. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a room for founders who want to push past the ceilings they’ve hit on their own. Building £1m+ businesses that run without them inside 6 to 12 months.

If you’re a founder who wants to accelerate growth without compromising quality of life, it’s worth a chat with my team to see how we can help.

One of our new clients, Mike (works in consulting), grew his monthly profits by £34k last month whilst buying back 5 hours of his week to spend with his kids (nearly a full day a month).

Build the business. Build the life. On your terms.

Book your call

Right, the cigar’s calling.

Phil​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​