Helping aspiring entrepreneurs & side-hustlers to build the business they dreamed of

weslinden It was a real pleasure to introduce former world boxing champion Johnny Nelson MBE to more than 1,000 entrepreneurs at our recent Mastermind Event. Johnny lost 10 of his 13 amateur fights. For most people, that record would have been enough to walk away. But rather than treating it as a verdict on his potential, he used it as fuel, and went on to become the longest-reigning world cruiserweight champion in boxing history. What impressed me most was how he connected with everyone in the room, whether they loved boxing or had never watched a fight in their life. He was funny, honest and refreshingly direct, and with an audience where over half don’t speak English as their first language, he didn’t just tell his story. He made it relevant to theirs. And away from the stage, with hundreds of people wanting a moment of his time, he was humble, generous and completely down-to-earth. A true professional on and off the stage, and a real privilege to work with. Thank you, Johnny. #johnnynelson #mastermindevent #mm2026 #boxing #speaker

weslinden “I just don’t have the time at the moment...” I hear that a lot, and I believe people when they say it. Most of us genuinely feel busier than we’ve ever been. But I’ve noticed something over the years. When I sit down with someone and we go through their week honestly, the time is usually there. It’s just been quietly spread across a hundred small moments that don’t feel like anything while they’re happening. When I started out in the late nineties, there were four TV channels and no phone in my pocket. If I wasn’t working, there wasn’t a great deal else competing for my attention. Now the distractions are endless, and most of them have been designed by very clever people to keep us looking for as long as possible. I’m not immune to it either. I’ve sat down in the evening to make a few calls, picked up my phone to find a number, and twenty minutes later I’m still scrolling with no real idea how I got there. I’d have told you I’d been working that night, and in a way I had been... I just hadn’t done any of the work. Something that’s helped me enormously came from a friend who’s spent decades in this profession. Every weekend, take fifteen minutes and map out the week ahead. Where the appointments are, where the family time sits and where the gaps are quietly hiding. Because once you look properly, you nearly always find hours you didn’t know you had. Find five extra hours a week and that’s around 250 hours over a year. If ten people in a team do the same, that’s 2,500 hours of activity that was always there, just being spent somewhere else. I don’t think the people who build something meaningful have more time than anyone else. They’ve just learned to protect the pockets of it that most people let drift. #time #timemanagement #buildingabusiness

weslinden Standing in the tunnel before my first live game on Sky Sports, one thought landed right before I walked out: how have I got here? Do they realise I’m not good enough for this? It lasted a few seconds. Felt like about ten minutes. I get that same flash before I walk on stage now, and for years I let it win completely. Early on I turned down every chance to speak. Told myself I wasn’t a ‘stage person’, that I’d rather build quietly and let other people do the talking on the mic. Then I got put in a spot where saying no wasn’t really an option, and I stood there absolutely dreading it, convinced I’d freeze or say something stupid in front of a room full of people who knew more than me. I didn’t freeze. I got through it, badly by my own standards, but I got through it. What I’ve learned since is the nerves never fully disappear. Which is a good thing as they guard against complacency. I would always rather be nervous than complacent. So yes, that same thought will still show up, right before I walk out. But now I manage it better. I treat it like an old friend passing by. I almost say to myself, with a smile “ahh there’s your old pal talking nonsense - he’ll be gone in a moment”. By the way, I think the same way when I come across closed-minded people, cynics, doubters, or internet trolls. Smile - thank them for passing by - and move on and do what you’re good at. Experience doesn’t always change whether you get nervous, but it does teach you that you’re more than good enough and you don’t have to let it stop you. #nervousness #speaker #experience #football

weslinden When I was 20 and just starting out, I thought the way to bring people round was to argue with them. Someone would say it wasn’t for them, and I’d push back, list reasons, try to win the point like it was a debate I could actually win. I lost a few friends that way before I worked out what I was doing. So I swung the other direction completely and started begging instead. Practically pleading with people to just give it a go, to trust me, to not let me down. That was worse. I could see it on their faces, that mix of pity and wanting to get away from me as fast as possible. For a while I took every single no as proof there was something wrong with me specifically, like I’d been personally rejected rather than just... told no to a business. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to separate the two. Neither arguing nor begging ever changed anyone’s mind. What changed was realising a “no” is rarely about you at all. Most of the time it’s about timing, or fear, or something going on in their life you know nothing about. Once I stopped taking it personally, the conversations got easier, and somehow the answer changed more often too. #rejection #sayingno #speaker