Let’s Go Bluefishing With Steve Sims

Andy Splichal  0:02  

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count Podcast I am your host, Andy Splichal. Today's episode is the final episode of season two. Make sure you join us next week as we kick off season three with a series of exciting guests. Speaking of an exciting guest today is featuring a best of replay of one of our most listened episodes ever. So last October, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Sims, the man dubbed the real life Wizard of Oz by Entrepreneur Magazine, the author of Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen . Steve talks about his long journey from being a bricklayer in East London to a bar bouncer to eventually becoming an event concierge to some of the most powerful people in the world. Keep on listening to discover what Steve's experience taught him about life and about business. Okay, I think I've sufficiently built it up with that introduction, and hopefully you can feel my excitement. So without further delay, here is the encore presentation of last October's exclusive interview with the always entertaining and equally insightful, Steve Sims. I hope you enjoy it to Steve Sims. How are you doing, Steve?

Steve Sims  2:02  

I'm doing well. Thanks for the intro. Try and live up to it.

Andy Splichal  2:06  

Okay, great. You know, speaking of that, the real life Wizard of Oz . That's, that's got to be one of the most fascinating titles I've ever heard. Do you ever drop that title when you introduce yourself?

Steve Sims  2:18  

Do you know is a weird one, it gets a lot of attention. And it certainly is a great moniker for people to go wow, in the real life Wizard of Oz. But it's also a double edged sword because bearing in mind, the real life with the Wizard of Oz was a fake. And it's kind of weird because he was this creepy old guy that literally sat behind a curtain and never actually did anything. So when Forbes came out with it, everyone was like, wow, that's brilliant. And I was impressed about three seconds before was like, well hang on a minute, that guy never actually did anything. So you've got to be careful. You've got to reword it. And you've got to, you got to call it out as much as you can is a nice little title. But you've got to let people know that he didn't know that. He didn't do stuff I do.

Andy Splichal  3:02  

You know, I never thought of it that way. So hey, you know, I, my ears don't see me. I hear just a bit of an accent. Where are you? Where are you from?

Steve Sims  3:12  

Can it's just a British mic. Yeah, I'm, I'm an East London boy.

Andy Splichal  3:18  

Okay, great. Now, your book, the Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen, I've actually I've read it twice. And for those that have not read, read this book. It's a great blend of stories and lessons. And before we get too far into the interview, can you tell us about your book, in your own words?

Steve Sims  3:36  

I yeah, I was very fortunate to know some very powerful people. And I always say you are the combination of the room you're in. I ended up speaking with one of the heads one of the largest publishing companies in the planet at a party. And a week later, they decided to do a book on me. The beaut the reason I say that is because a lot of people out there that are trying to buy books will hate you down story because they have to work so hard to get a deal. To be blunt, I didn't. And so I was very fortunate there. But it gave me it removed all the liability I had and all the stress. And I was able to write the book that I wanted to write, I wanted to call out all the fake gurus. I wanted to have people stop spending a fortune on a CRM program and start spending their energy on that client relationships. And I wanted to really expose the fact that if a brick lab from East London can be working with swell on John Elon Musk and the Pope, then you don't have any excuses. And that was the whole thought process behind the book. And I seriously had no thought when I say I had no thought it wouldn't be as successful as it is. We didn't even have a website. The book came out there was no website for you to go and get it. It was only available on Amazon. I think it was available in Barnes and Noble. I think you will was available in Barnes and Noble for a while. But you know, we didn't put any major push, I didn't do a promo. I didn't go out marketing, but I didn't do any of that it was a case of, hey, if this resonates for you, great. And for the first couple of months, it sucked. And we were told by the publishers who had paid me very well, you got to put a website together, you got to put a page. And we did just now we did a page and here's something that will make you smile. And I don't know if you've seen him. But have you seen our and I'm used in air quotes here. Have you seen our book launch party video?

Andy Splichal  5:34  

No, I've heard about it. I haven't seen the video. 

Steve Sims  5:37  

Alright, so this sounds like a shallow plug. But you know, we've already mentioned the box and we're not plugging anything else. If you visit stevedsims.com, and there's only one M in Sims, Steve D sims.com. You'll actually see a video on like the second panel down there. When we launched the book, the publishers actually sent me a check for two and a half grand and what I did was I signed over the cheque to a regular cocktail bar that I go to. And I said, Look, when it runs out, turn the lights on and kick us out. I'm going to invite some friends down Are you okay with that? And they were like, Yeah, you know, we wouldn't we knew each other. I was a regular alcoholic and, and so then what I did was come the night, the Simon & Schuster sent me a box of books. So we literally stuck them on the edge of the bar, just so that we could call this our launch party. We didn't have any press. We didn't have any news report. We had nothing. And I just contacted a bunch of my friends and said, Hey, come down and get drunk with me. And they did so I had like, Caleb Maddix, who wasn't drinking at the time, he was young lad, Greg Reed, Lewis Howes, invited Jim Kwik, Cole Hatter, your whole bunch of people turned up so you had some pretty impactful people. But they turned up and we just got drunk and there was a very evil little vixen in there. Pretty impactful people. But they turned up and we just got drunk and there was a very evil little vixen in there called Sonja Hara, who actually videoed this went around, she'd sent me up, she actually had this tiny little GoPro thing. It wasn't a GoPro, but that kind of size by high quality camera. And these guys are very good at doing videos. They interviewed people will say, Have you watched the video? At the beginning of it, everyone's like, it's such an honor to be here. And it was polite, and sober. And then as the night goes on, everyone's just trash. And that's where on average, so if you're scared of the bomb, don't watch the video. But when Simon Schuster told us to put a video up and saw our webpage, we thought screw it. We're going to put the video up and Sanyo had sent me that video and I thought it was really cool. We put this video up and everything took off. So you know be careful what you put out in the world. It made it so that scary.

Andy Splichal  7:59  

So tell me is Jim Kwik partier?

Steve Sims  8:04  

Is he is he oh partier? I thought you said a part of. Jim Jim's great. I love Jim ease. He's a dysfunctional creative disrupter. I've known Jim and I'm proud to call him a friend. God 15 years. And now he's got his book out. So now he's kind of like going crazy. And everyone's following him as they should. But  Jim Kwik, just a call guy just a call real dude to hang out with.

Andy Splichal  8:30  

Cool. And your book. And for those that haven't read it, it's really about your story going from a bricklayer to to a bar bouncer to concierge to billionaires, is that how you and just a lot of stories in between? Is that how you would summarize it?

Steve Sims  8:48  

Yeah, stories validity and prove that you know you don't need to be a genius. A friend of mine. Again, I've been very fortunate to have some phenomenal friends. The second if you like but one of them was Jay who still alive. One of them is Jay Abraham, who beautifully told me one day that I had a far greater I can than I do an IQ. And that's the way my life has always been.

Andy Splichal  9:13  

Now out of the book, one of the lines that I really liked that resonated with me was when you said that no, no one ever drowned from falling into the water. They drowned from staying there.

Steve Sims  9:26  

My dad, my dad was the one that said that not me.

Andy Splichal  9:29  

Yeah, no, that's a that's a that's a great line. Now, how did you use that? As you go through life and the stories in the book?

Steve Sims  9:41  

It's life life is this this massive monster that comes at us from all different angles. And so sometimes when life is treating us well, we don't have the chance to reflect and look. We don't have to check wants to reflect and look. And then when something goes wrong, we can sometimes wrap ourselves up in a pity party or start moaning that the world's coming to an end or my life or my business. So that statement, that single quote from my dad has often caught me in the midst of crying into me old fashioned that, hey, I can get up. And the beautiful thing about entrepreneurs with a beautiful and this to this sadistic thing about entrepreneurs, is we've picked a really crazy life, we've leapt out of the frying pan into the volcano. And we are laughed at jeered, mocked, ripped off sued, we get money we go broke, we get money we go broke, then we go broker, you know, it's a, it's a helter skelter of of a journey. But it's the world of an entrepreneur, not a one intrapreneur,  intrapreneur is the one that runs away the first time they get a hate on a social tweet. But the entrepreneurs, the one that keeps going, might fall over because I lost money, I go, well, okay, I lost money. But let's think about it. To lose money, you had to have made money. So don't focus on, on how you lost it, focus on how you made it, and then focus on what happened for you to lose it. Now, it may be COVID, it may be a recession, it may be a lawsuit, it may be whatever, but focus on what went wrong. And then you'll show yourself up. But it's a classic elastic band, when you keep stretching that elastic band into the territory of being uncomfortable. It never attracts to its original shape, you become empowered. And that's where that sentence has kind of helped me get empowered so many times.

Andy Splichal  11:38  

Yeah, I like that. Another thing I've heard, it's kind of similar that you never really lose money. You've just bought the experience. So you know better next time. 

Steve Sims  11:48  

Hey, oh, that's exactly what it is, is the education. I've always I left school at the age of 15. And I would say that I am an incredibly educated human being. Education, I've always, I left school at the age of 15. And I would say that I am an incredibly educated human being now. But I will also shout out the school had nothing to do with it. My PhD and MBA came from losing money failing fuck ups and all the rest of it.

Andy Splichal  12:14  

Now Bluefishing the name of your book, how can you tell the listeners how you came up with that name?

Steve Sims  12:21  

Yeah, so I never went out to launch one of the world's leading experiential concierge firms. I never intended to do that. And just to give you some context, I've sent people down to the Titanic. I've had them walk Oscar parties with Swell and John. I've had them doing drum lessons with Guns and Roses, guitar lessons with ZZ Top. I've had them close down museums in Florence for a private dinner party at a fee of Michelangelo's David and then Andre Bocelli, come in serenade him during their meatballs. So I'm basically the Make-A-Wish Foundation for people with really, really big checkbooks. I never went out of my way to build that firm. Can I be in a room of people, richer then me? How can I be in a room with people that are more powerful and influential, and turn around and go, Hey, how come you're rich and powerful and successful, and I'm not? That was the whole reason I did anything. I just happen to use the concierge world as the platform to do it. And so I literally just went out to try and find a way of doing now one of the early stages, as the doorman I knew where all the bars were, I knew where were the best clubs are, because this was the 90s. We didn't have Yelp, Google at the time. So I just used to advise them. And then I started throwing my own parties and hey where's the key? I only, I only invited which people I was always stunned why people even today, they'll market their product on serve or service to people that can't afford them. How many times do you see people they and I was talking to a client a while ago and slapping him around for I do coaching on this. And the client was like, well, I've got this product. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna break it down into like, you know, 18 easy payments, and I'm like, hang on a minute, you build a product of severe value, something that's going to impact people. And then the first thing you're going to do is aim to sell it to people who really can't afford to action in it. So instead of trying to focus like two weeks on building up a payment schedule, and like, you know, discount repayment plan, you just can find clients that don't have to worry about it, they see the value and they just want the credit card. So I always get people to focus on clients, they can afford them. That's what I did. I would throw parties. And one of the things I would do was to help people at the beginning I would say hey, the party is $1,000 but all your drinking food is included. Now two things happen there. I didn't need a liquor license, if I'm given the food and drink away. So I didn't need the license. I was the way of me getting away from that. And also Nobody drinks so nobody drinks $1,000 worth of drink and food. They just don't. So and but also what it does is it gets rid of the people that can't afford it. So all of a sudden, you've got people in there that didn't care about paying $1,000 for a night. And Bluefishing, funny enough, the word blue fish was one of the passwords that we used to use to get people to come in to the parties.

Andy Splichal  15:22  

Now, how did you go from the bouncer to be in the experience connoisseurs? What What was the first experience you put together for someone?

Steve Sims  15:35  

Well, most of the time, people would say, hey, I really liked the way you do parties. Do you know anyone in Monaco? Do you know anyone in LA? Do you know anyone in New York? And, you know, rich people float around the planet. So if you meet someone who's really affluent in Paris, nine times out of 10 they're gonna know people in other countries, okay, because rich people travel. So I had I had a Rolodex of width. But I think the first thing was actually a handbag. And someone said to me, Oh, can you give me a Birkin handbag? No bearing in mind, you know, if anyone's ever seen me, I'm a big thick Irish lad the rides around on motorcycles, with eyebrow piercings and stuff. I didn't know what a Birkin handbag was, you know, I didn't know what the Birkin handbag was. And then I discovered that you had to be invited by Hermes to actually be able to buy it. So I always thought to myself, it's gotta be an angle. You know, I've always believed there's, there's two ways to get in a house, the front door and the back door. And then there's windows, and then there's a chimney. But there's multiple ways to get into a house. So there's got to be multiple ways of getting this done. So I just started inquisitively trying to find out how I could shortcut it. And I found out I could, and then I found out by doing that, that eight grand handbags, we're now going for $30,000. The markup was ridiculous. And then people started to ask me, well, do you know celebrities and fond at and use?  I know celebrities. So I just found that my rolodex was growing. And as people asked me to do things, I was now having a far wider reach to be able to achieve them.

Andy Splichal  17:09  

Did you ever advertise your service? Or was it just always word of mouth once once the ball got rolling?

Steve Sims  17:17  

So let's, let's refine that. I think we all need to advertise our service. Okay. But did I do paid advertising? No, I did not. I did a lot of leak. And I did a lot of word of mouth like I would always have connected people leak about, you know, the fact that Bluefishing was involved in this event, or Steve Sims was doing this, I would always have people leak it, and therefore it be a bit more of a discoverable thing. How many times do you see on the TV? You know, this private party, you know, and it was, it's only available to the rich and famous, and you hear on the TV. Well, let's be blunt, if it was only available to them, and it was that problem, if it was only available to them, and it was that private, they wouldn't tell anybody about it. But have you ever know is that those private parties talk about that guest list, because they want to keep the euphoria up. So the the guest list the following year, will be just as challenging and exciting. So I never did paid advertising. But I always did word of mouth, I was very focused on the platform, and it's even true today. What platform is gonna get your message out there. So if you're learning fine argument's sake, a software business, having an article written for you, in a in a publication, which bear in mind publications don't come out like three or four times a year now. But so far, gonna say you have some great software? Do you really want an article written about you and penthouse? You know, what's the point in that? But at the same extent, do you really want that article written about you in a nautical magazine. So people go after media, yet they find it? You should focus on what is the best platform for you. It may be no media, but it may be sponsorships. It may be not sponsorships, it may be podcasts, it may be throwing your own events. There's many ways to advertise outside of paying for a page in a magazine that no one reads.

Andy Splichal  19:15  

Yeah, no, that's great. You know, another chapter out of your book didn't really be the impression on me that I really liked was when you were talking about asking why three times. Now do you have a story about that a bit that you'd be willing to share?

Steve Sims  19:32  

Yeah. Yeah, the bottom line of it is I've always said never give a client what they asked for. We're in a transactional society. So we're being raised with a habit whether or not you realize it or not, that we are now commanding and receiving transactions. And some of the most popular companies out there, Siri, Alexa, DoorDash, Amazon, these this DoorDash on Amazon, these these people react to your request DoorDash doesn't find you up at night and go, Hey, what do you fancy to eat tonight? Amazon doesn't go, Hey, I saw you put the toilet bowls in there. Don't you know these ones over here are cheap, cheaper. They don't do any of those things. They don't have conversations, they react to your question. If you order something stupid on Amazon, you ordered it, they've got no liability. Now you may be able to return it. But you're the idiot that ordered it. Okay. So when I focused on the fact that I want to make sure that I can't be replaced by Amazon, and as a friend of mine, Dave Savage says, you got to do everything Amazon does, and everything they don't. And as entrepreneurs, what they what they don't do is create a dream, and basically disrupt, that's what you've got to do as an entrepreneur. So when someone asks me something like, Hey, I want to play with this, or I'd like to meet this celebrity, I'd like to go on holiday. The first question is the most offensive word in the planet. If someone says to you, hey, I'd love to get a coffee with you next week. If you look at my go, why? It will knock them on that they'll be looking at you going well, you're a prick. And I've had people, I've literally had people hang up on me and stop calling me or actually was respond to my message going? Well, that's rude. You our good. I thought you were cool. I just want to understand the context of the meeting. And I want to understand the core. And I'll give you a story, if I may, that hopefully will set this up perfectly. Do you mind? 

Andy Splichal  21:28  

No, no, please. 

Steve Sims  21:29  

So I was in Palm Beach, and I get a phone call. One of my team had got this phone call from someone who wanted to meet Sir Elton John, and I was working with him on his Oscar party in Hollywood. So I took the phone call and said, Hey, how you doing? And they said, hey, you know, I forget what his name was. And he said, Yeah, I want to I want to go to the Oscar party. I want to get a photograph with Sir Elton John. So I said, Ah, you know, that sounds fantastic. That sounds great. Why do yout want to get a photograph was Sir Elton John. So I said, Ah, you know, that sounds fantastic. That sounds great. Why? And the guy turns around and says, Well, you know, he's a living legend. He's an icon. He's known as Elton, you know, he's one of the last living great is going to die soon. And I want to get a photograph with him. And that was it. That was the entirety of the depth of the request. It was all superficial. And it was discovered by me asking him why rather than selling him the opportunity to do it. So I said to him, Hey, let me see what I can do. And I'll come back to you. I didn't even keep the guy's phone number. I can't even remember his name. About a month later, we're now a month away from the Elton John party. And a month later or a month earlier. We get another phone call that come into my team and this girl contacts me she says, Hey, do you remember last month? That idiot the phoned up wanted to get a photograph with Sir Elton  because you're gonna die soon. And I went, yeah. She said, well, we've got someone on the phone. She said, can you take it? And I went, Yeah, put it through. So it was a different voice. And said hey there, this is Steve Sims, I believe you want to get a photograph with sir John . He's like, Yeah, I do. And he's all confident and brave. And I said to him sounds fantastic. Why? And he says, well, I'm out once known as La, he's living legend and basically went through the same stuff, as the other guy had said, and he said, well, you know, he's, I don't know how long he's going to be around. He's brilliant. You know, I want to get a photograph with him. I you know, I want to talk to him for a couple of minutes. And you know, there's, there's things. And it was that last thing as the energy dropped off, and he started to get a bit more vulnerable when he said, and there's things. And I said to him, just quietly, I said, What things?

And he went quiet. And he turned around totally different tone of voice. And he said, When I used to go, Dad would drive me. It was our thing. Never my mom, my mom would see me off at the door. But my dad would take me to school and he would be there to pick me up from school. Every single school day of my life. My dad took me there. My dad brought me home, all the way up into high school until the day I got a car and I drove myself. Now the first car we had had a cassette in it, and it was stuck. It couldn't come out, but it could play. And it was Elton John's hits. And as a young kid, we would drive to school, singing Elton John. And then as he would pick me up, we click play. And we'd sing out and John all the way back home. And this happened and then my dad got a new car, and it had a CD player in it. My dad went out and bought Elton John's Greatest Hits. And we did the exact same thing. On the way to school sang Elton John on the way back singing out and John I can hear Elton John playing as I would walk towards the car to get anyone to go home. And even when I was a teenager, this would bother the crap out of me and I'd be looking out the window. And even when I was a teenager this would bother crap out of me. And I'll be looking out the window pretending that my dad was so embarrassing and stop doing it. And all he would be doing is singing his lungs out to Sir EltonJohn. He said, Now my dad died 25 years ago. He said, number one, I'm driving down the road with my family on the way to a business trip, coming home from work. And Elton comes on the radio. For those three minutes, my dad is sat in the passenger seat, singing his lungs out. And I want to thank Elton John for bringing my dad back to life for random three minutes each week. Now that's a why, that's a call. I can work with that. So I always say, no matter what someone asks you don't take it. So that sounds great. Sounds brilliant. Why is it important to you? Why now? Why do you want this house? Why do you want that yellow car and get to the why?

Andy Splichal  26:02  

Wow, that why gave me chills.

Steve Sims  26:05  

That's pretty good story. I That one's still John talking. That's like 15 years old. That thing that story. And even when I can still remember the guy. And even when I when I introduced a new outline, and they spoke to each other and he told him the story. And everyone had to I because we were in a party. I couldn't even hear what he was saying to out and out and started tearing up. I started tearing up everyone else that was around us that knew why they were meeting started to tearing up. It was a it was a hell of a moment. 

Andy Splichal  26:35  

Wow. So the name of this episode, I named it let's go Bluefishing with Steve Sims and using Bluefishing as a verb. And I did it because I've heard you describe a couple of times how your movement has become an action. Can you can you go into a bit of that for the listeners?

Steve Sims  26:53  

Yeah. So being a doorman, basically, to kick people out when they start getting a bit larry. Okay, that's the only thing a doorman is we used to be paid for. And I you know, I'm a big lad. But I don't want to have a fight. I'm 54 now, so I definitely don't want to but even then, I didn't really want to have to go in swinging or dancing with anyone. So I used to focus on the front door. And I always had this belief which I still carry with me now into my consulting world. Protect your front door, as though it means everything because it does. If you can be careful who comes through the front door, you will remove 99% of the problems inside. So if a guy's got a couple of beers in him, and he started getting lippy, tell him to come back the following night. If the girls are a bit mouthy and bitchy, tell him to come back the following night, trying to reduce the problems coming through the front door. And you reduce 99% of the problems inside. So I had this these passwords because no one creates trouble when they're smiling. So one should pay Joe, I had this, these passwords because no one creates trouble when they're smiling. So once you'd paid your money for the party, I would send you a password. And the password woud be would be finished his sentence One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, the answer be blue fish or another one of the things I used to say was the password is the name of the lion from 

 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. So people would come up to my party and they will lean in they would go Aslan and we'd let them in. Now the funny thing is just like you, they would walk into the party smiling and I had my team tell me, they used to love the fact that everyone walking through the front door of one of our parties was smiling. And smiling is contagious. And so no way. We never had a single piece to problem with having that we would get people come to the front door. And they'd be like, Hey, I'm here for the party. And the whole party is going nuts behind me and my my fellow me and there's a big line of people getting in. And I would look at these people and be like, I'm sorry, man, I think you got it confused. I don't think there's a party here tonight. And then be like, I've gotten to that party. No, I don't think you are. And we would just blank them. And the funny thing is everyone in the lineup behind him love the fact that we kept that standard that if you could have gotten a here's the funny thing with we're talking about the early 90s You didn't have your iPhone to give you the answers you want. When I asked the one about Aslan, we had to stop using that password because people couldn't remember what the bloody line was called. So people would literally come up to us and they'd be like, Oh, the lion? I I don't know. Um, is it? Is it more? Or is it Barry? And can we be like No, it's not but because they had tried, we would still let them in. And we would have people like the head of the Bank outside giggling because he couldn't remember what the bloody lines name was. Or you could hear people on the line and you would get certain people that would lie to the person behind them getting yes dynamite Cedric. And so then they would come to us. And it's like, it's Cedric. And we'd be like now, that bastard in front, it's because everyone was smiling and happy we let it go. Now, we didn't expect bluefish to be the thing that they picked up on. But speakers, we use that password. So many times, we became known as that Blue Fish Company. And then people used to come up to us, and it became a movement. And people would say, Hey, I had a party the other night, and I could have done it just an ordinary party, but no, I believe fish the hell out of it. Because we constantly would give surprises. And we would always give people more than what they expected, again, never give anyone what they asked for, given what they dreamed, desire and lust for. So we would always go above and beyond. So this whole mentality of Bluefishing and something caught us very unaware. And people are concerned, I bluefish my way backstage. And here's a picture of me with Taylor Swift. And so we realized that we now had an adjective on our on our hands. And it created a monster that we didn't own anymore, we just fed and released into the world, and it was going for gold.

Andy Splichal  31:10  

That's great. Now, you know, most of my listeners on this podcast that are business owners, and one of the business ecommerce owners that are always concerned, you know, they want to increase their conversion rates. And they do this to a change an Add to Cart button, do I change the website. But I've heard you've said many times that it's more important to solve a problem than just sell a product. Can you can you expand on that thought?

Steve Sims  31:37  

Yeah, and the bottom line of it is that today, we we've gone past the selling process, we don't sell anything anymore. Okay? People don't want to be sold. They want to be solved. So, you know, you're out there thinking, Should I put a click button here? Should I should I put make this button yellow? First stop, ask a stop. Ask everyone that's already page you. You know, if you've got clients, there's no better resource for marketing than actually caring about what they think, go to the people that are purchased of you and go, Hey, we're looking to do an event, we're looking at changing our button to yellow, or what was it that created you to purchase this product? Better still, what has it solved? How has this helped you? And would you mind if I actually told other people about it? I'll give you six months, extra credit on it, you know, but I don't want to buy the testimonial. But would you mind being the testimonial, so do it that way, but go out there. And the thing is, expose the problem you had. Now I had, as I say I do coaching. And I had a client of mine that runs a massive great plumbing industry. And all Plumbing Companies say and COVID hit. No, we were literally in the middle of him rebranding his message and his marketing and his website. We were going through all of that. And he was like I said to him, I said I we're gonna play on the asset, you've got your ugly. And he was like, Whoa, I said, Yeah, we're, you're rough around the edges. You know, you're a strong man who comes in to basically clean people's toilets, because they're backed up. So for many different reasons, people don't want to call you is that people don't want to see a doctor because they only see a doctor when they're not well, they don't want to see their accounting because they only have to see their account. And when they have to pay that taxes. You only order a plumber when you when your total has been dealt with crap. So we started doing a series of videos going, Hey, I want to show you how you can make sure you don't see me on your doorstep. And we start he started did his tips on how to look after your own plumbing during COVID. How can you make sure I don't turn up at your house? How can you make sure you don't see me? And it was a bit jokey. But he would reveal educational house. How can you make sure you don't see me? And it was a bit jokey. But he would reveal educational marketing, he became the solution or here's the damn thing. You can tell people how to do things. But people are lazy. Once you've created that all over the you are the authority and you are credible. And you've already given the answers. They're gonna hire you to do it. You know, I've literally gone out and I've done courses where I've got, hey, I'm going to spend the next hour free of charge telling you how you can get media. I'm going to spend the next hour telling you how you can get paid speaking gigs on stage. I'm gonna tell you how you can rebrand to the millionaires and billionaires and every single time I do that they got I really enjoyed that. How can I hire you to do it for me? And so don't think you're doing yourself are busy but for anyone out there that's looking at their their online business, take it offline quickly, and start speaking to the clients. I don't mean turn the website what I mean is taking them it'll surprise you should have them but phone them or text them with a video message. and let them know that you're actually trying to find a way of becoming better. I've actually found our clients to spend millions of dollars with me and I've gone Hey, what did I do wrong? And I like nothing. We see, here's the thing. Let me ask you this. All right. I hope you're ready for this. If I say to you, if I invite you over for dinner on Saturday, Andy, and then I found you up on Sunday. And I say to you, Andy, Andy, how was the meal last night?

Andy Splichal  35:31  

It was great.

Steve Sims  35:31  

Yeah, your natural response will be not to upset me or my wife. And you're gonna say, it's great. Okay, we were serving veal, and you're a vegetarian, but you're gonna tell me it was great, because you don't want to upset me. Okay. But if I find you said, Andy, thanks a lot for coming over to the party last night. Hey, I got a question for you. What could I have done to have made could I have done to have made that party better? Now something different clicks in your brain, and now you're having to think, okay, and two things are gonna happen. A, you're gonna tell me what I could have done better. And therefore, I've got brilliant feedback. Or you're gonna say, Are you kidding? It was, it was great. It was, it was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. Now on the first one, you go, thank you very much, I'm gonna use that feedback to become better. I appreciate you. And we'll speak again in the future, okay. Clients like to be asked their opinions, not a survey. They like to be asked their opinions. And the second thing is, if the client turns around and goes, you can you are brilliant. You turn around you say that is fantastic. Thank you very much, Andy. What 10 of your friends do you think should know that? And then you start working the referral market. Now, you said at the earliest stage, do I advertise? No. But I do focus my energy  focus my energy on advertising. And I would contact clients and I would ask them, What did I do wrong? And when they say nothing, it was brilliant. Great. What 10 clients could you introduce me to this should know that. And I would get clients out of it. And bluefish was a referral based company. Even now, my consulting, it's all referral based. So we don't do any advertising for my consulting at all. So you there's nothing better than speaking to someone who's actually spent money with you. And I go, and hey, introduced when someone else's should know what I've done with you. And that's great former credibly.

Andy Splichal  37:28  

Well, that's, that's great advice. You know, I had another question. It's kind of fun. If you were going to go to you to fill your exotic experience event. What would you ask for Steve?

Steve Sims  37:44  

Can you be can you repeat or rephrase that question?

Andy Splichal  37:47  

Well, if Yeah, sure. If you were gonna go to somebody like you who, who worked on worked on making all these crazy dreams come true. And you had one that that you wanted somebody to fulfill for you? What What would you tell them you wanted?

Steve Sims  38:05  

Okay, okay. Sadly, this is not gonna be the answer you want. I wouldn't. You see, the weird thing is, I am the dullest man you'll ever meet. I barbecue, I ride around on motorcycles, I don't go out much. Never go out at the weekend and lesson with my family. You know, I live up here in the hills in Los Angeles, and no one's around me. I don't do anything. I live vicariously through my clients, and the kind of things that I've been able to get up to and be in 54 years old, and being able to tell you so many boring stories, it can throw you into a coma of the stuff I've got up to over the last X amount of years. I just have no yearning to do anything other than push the people that are around me. So my dream and it sounds clean. And it sounds corny, but you asked a question. My dream is to get other entrepreneurs to stop settling, and start working their businesses effectively start going after clients that can afford them. Not that they can relate to because everyone else had to relate to a poor person, because we've all been poor. But not everyone knows how to relate to a rich person. And there's a different tonality that's needed there. So my goal would be to go to me and go, Hey, what I need to do to get more entrepreneurs out of the way of themselves and create an impact because when I give a when I closed down a museum for a billionaire, hey, gives them a great story at their next cocktail party. But when I coach a client and they now suddenly start making money, and they are working less and they are more impactful, their family benefits, the staff benefit, the kids benefit, they benefit, much more impactful on a much wider reach.

Andy Splichal  39:50  

Yeah, no, I love that answer. Now, if somebody wanted to connect with you further, whether it be a speaker or a coach or not or consults or, you know, if they're a billionaire listening, they want to have their dreams come true, how would they go about contacting you?

Steve Sims  40:07  

What if you want something for free, I have a group called an entrepreneurs advantage with Steve Sims as my private Facebook group, or one of them. And you know, you can jump in and we do a lot of lives in there that would help people. But if you want to contact me for any reason, you can go through all of the social feeds, you know, Instagram, Facebook at Steve D Sims, or even just jump on the stevedsims.com website and fire me a message there from the contact section. 

Andy Splichal  40:33  

Great, you know, and again, I really enjoyed this interview. In 2020, I made a New Year's resolution to read three books a month, for the year, and I've been keeping pretty strong on that COVID to actually made it a little bit easier. But your book is been in the top three, I would say as far as inspirational this year. And you know, that's out of what are we're 10, we're 10 months and so 30-35 books, so I really enjoyed your book and and I really appreciate you having you on this has been great. 

Steve Sims  41:06  

Thank you very much for having me. 

Andy Splichal  41:07  

And so remember, if you liked this episode today, please go to Apple podcasts and leave a five star review and if you're looking for more information regarding Steve and his blue fishing movement, or a speakeasy events he didn't even mention was in our circle check out Steve's Facebook group. It's an Entrepreneur's Advantage Facebook group, or you can go to stevedsims.com. So that's it for today. Remember to stay safe.