Following the success of our Thoroughbred Business Breakfasts in 2025 and 2026, I am delighted to announce our next event… 📅 Wednesday 2nd September | Newmarket There are networking events… and then there are experiences. The Thoroughbred Business Breakfast is an exclusive opportunity to step behind the scenes of one of Britain’s most prestigious industries, opening doors that are rarely available to the public. This is your chance to: Be welcomed into the historic, private members’ club, The Jockey Club Rooms, for an unforgettable morning. Travel to the famous Warren Hill Gallops in the heart of Newmarket, where a leading trainer will guide you through the history of this iconic training ground while you watch racehorses exercising. Return to The Jockey Club Rooms to enjoy a full breakfast around one beautifully laid table, giving you the opportunity to connect with fellow business owners and leaders, share ideas, build relationships and gain a fascinating insight into the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry. You will also enjoy a private tour of the Rooms, discovering their remarkable history, art and heritage. Visit an exclusive international breeding farm, home to some of the world’s most valuable stallions, for a private behind-the-scenes experience. Finish the day at Tattersalls, where you will witness the excitement of a live bloodstock auction from the world-famous Park Paddocks sales ring and experience an atmosphere unlike any other. This is more than a networking event. It is an opportunity to go where most people cannot, learn what few people ever experience, and leave inspired by an industry built on passion, excellence and tradition. Whether you have an interest in racing or simply enjoy unique business experiences, this is a day that will stay with you long after it ends. 📅 Wednesday 2nd September 📍 Newmarket 💷 £249 per person 25% discount for bookings of four or more people. Places are limited, and previous events have been extremely well received.

How often do you rely on discounting or price promotions to win new clients, and is it actually helping you build a sustainable business long-term? Procter & Gamble (P&G) recently took a very firm stance on this. Despite a sharp rise in promotional discounting across Europe, they are refusing to play that game. Instead, they’re doubling down on winning through product superiority, innovation, and strategic communications. Their CFO, Andre Schulten, put it bluntly: “We don’t believe that promotion, in any way, shape or form, is a way to build the business or to acquire users on a sustainable basis.” This got me thinking about how we approach this in our own businesses: - If you agree with P&G: How are you currently communicating your unique value clearly enough to your target market so you don't have to compete on price? - If you disagree: Why? What kinds of discounting or promotional strategies have actually worked for your business long-term? Curious to hear where everyone lands on this!

Today, hundreds of thousands of 18-year-olds will open their A-level results believing that one envelope, email or screen could determine their entire future. It won’t. That doesn’t mean exams aren’t important. They are. Set goals. Work hard. Prepare properly. Aim high. Do everything you can to achieve the best result possible. But never confuse the result of one test with the measure of your potential. It is one snapshot of where you are today… not a verdict on who you are or what you can become tomorrow. A quick glance through the guests on my Success Is a System podcast proves it. - Alfie Best left school with no qualifications and became enormously successful. - Charlie Mullins, - Neville Wright, - Kevin Byrne and many others I’ve interviewed built extraordinary businesses without degrees, A-levels or, in some cases, even O-levels. My own academic journey didn’t follow the conventional route either… yet decades later, I received an honorary doctorate in education. Your starting point does not determine your finishing position and neither does age Ray Kroc was 52 when he began turning a small restaurant concept called McDonald’s into a global phenomenon. Colonel Sanders was in his sixties when he began franchising the recipe that became KFC. Success doesn’t have an age limit. Nor is it decided by one exam, one driving test, one military assessment, one university degree… or one difficult day. Whatever appears on that results page today, celebrate it or learn from it… but don’t let it define you. The most important result is what you choose to do next. Because one day can measure your current position. But it can never measure your potential .

Ray Kroc never made his money selling burgers. He was 52. Diabetic. Selling milkshake machines out of a car. Then he noticed one hamburger stand had ordered eight of them, drove two thousand miles to find out why, and built the biggest property empire on earth. The burger was never the business. It was the traffic generator. Most owners I mentor have the same thing going on and have never spotted it. The thing that pulls people in is rarely the thing that makes the money. This week’s Book review: 12 lessons from Grinding It Out, plus my honest take on why the film gets Kroc badly wrong. In the classroom now 👇 link in comments

YOU CAN’T WIN NEW GROWTH WITH AN OLD TEAM, AN OLD ATTITUDE AND OLD SYSTEMS Every business owner says they want growth. - More customers. - More revenue. - More profit. - More freedom. But many are trying to create a new future using exactly the same people, thinking and systems that created their current results. That doesn’t work. If you want something new, something has to change. That might mean: - Developing the team you have… or accepting that some people cannot come on the next stage of the journey. - Challenging attitudes that resist change, avoid accountability or settle for “good enough”. - Replacing outdated systems that waste time, lose opportunities and depend too heavily on you. - Growth isn’t simply doing more of what you’ve always done. It’s having the courage to question what, and sometimes who, got you here, but won’t get you there. If you want something new, you need to do something different. So, looking honestly at your business today, what most needs to change: the team, the attitude or the systems?