An appetite for risk and positive procrastination, with content agency CEO & Founder Daniel Andrews
Daniel Andrews shares how he was able to create an award-winning marketing agency at a young age, and how he’s able to endure a number of “bloody noses” throughout his career as an entrepreneur, coming back stronger and wiser each time.
Daniel joins me in this episode and we discuss:
- How to create a big picture goal for your business and break it down into smaller, practical steps
- Whether you should self-fund or seek investors for your business
- How Daniel overcame various “bloody noses” along his path
In this episode we discuss:
00:32 Introduction to Daniel Andrews
- Daniel’s background [00:44]
- What Daniel is focusing on right now [01:09]
02:41 What led Daniel to start his business
- Why being clear about your short and long-term goals is important [05:34]
07:29 How the tree grew to be a successful self-funded business
- How to decide on whether to self-fund or seek investors [08:10]
10:10 Daniel’s biggest failures and other “bloody noses” from starting and scaling his business
- Why you should always go down the route of informed action [15:28]
16:14 Has Daniel achieved freedom at this point in his career?
19:36 How Daniel creates a work/life balance
- How to create a team that works on flexible schedules, yet are still able to be there for their clients whenever they are needed [23:49]
25:54 What Daniel considers to be his winning habits
- What skills and attributes did Daniel have to work on improving the most? [29:12]
Quick Juice Questions
33:49 What do you invest in, and why?
A small number of crowdfund propositions across different sectors, different cool startups. I look for creativity in my investments—businesses that I think are creating an opportunity to solve a need—that’s something that I look for when I invest. Also, as a business we are currently looking for potential acquisitions; so that may be distressed businesses that we think we can help turn around and improve, or businesses that we think have got a complementary offer to our organization. On the flip side, we’re currently going through raises for our technology products; so it’s really interesting to be sitting on both sides of the fence.
34:51 What’s the need for investment in your particular product?
the root technologies is a content management and ecommerce platform. We’ve been working on it and building on it over the last couple of years, as well as incubating it through the tree itself. The investment raise that we’re currently looking for is to help drive that next piece of innovation within the technology, and also scale up the marketing potential so we can keep growing those recurring revenue streams. I want to have an investor on board that has additional experience in that space and isn’t all about cash. Investments aren’t necessarily always about money. It’s about potentially finding people that can come in and support. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and challenge business decisions if their motivations are aligned with yours. It’s more about a partner-investor rather than somebody that’s gonna come in and chuck some money at the problem.
36:04 What most inspires you and where are you most inspired?
One of the things that I’ve gotten real excitement from, more and more recently is when I see the people around me—my team—absolutely nailing it.
37:11 Which book has inspired you and changed your thinking the most?
One of them is The Jelly Effect by Andy Bounds and The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani.
38:48 If there’s one last bit of Executive Juice you can share for people who want to get to the top of their property game, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to learn from other people around you. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, not yet started on your journey, someone dreaming up an idea—just give it a go. There are lots of ideas sitting on the shelf. There are loads of people that don’t do it. You’ll never, ever experience it if you don’t take that first step.
Quotes:
- Planning is really important, particularly when it comes to knowing your long-term vision and practical first steps. Think big, then decide what you need to do one day one.
- The chips are never completely down. Whatever you go through—whatever hiccups or road bumps you may hit—there is always a solution. What you should always try to do is to learn from that “bloody nose”.
Connect with Daniel Andrews:
Books mentioned: