David Thexton: Absolutely, John. If you wait until tonight and you look to the southwest on the horizon, you'll see the flames coming from New Zealand.

John Lee Dumas: I love it! David and his partner Mandy own a global business called ConsultX. This business provides systems, tools, and training entrepreneurs who wanna become successful business consultants, helping business owners to improve their profit, growth, and business value. David, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

David Thexton: Mandy and I live in New Zealand, just south of Auckland in the countryside. When I look out the window I can see trees and grass everywhere, so it's fantastic. We've got three kids, 21, 22, and 25, and we've got two dogs, Molly and Tess. We operate a global business where we train entrepreneurs to become business consultants who help business owners and managers to improve their businesses, profit growth, and value. We also provide a huge amount of resources for them and a powerful online application called ConsultX.

We both have a lifetime worth of business experience working in corporates and owning a large beverage business that was sold to a multi-national a few years ago. Now, this large beverage business that I owned for 20 years, for me, what it became was a 20-year apprenticeship on what to do and what not to do. Mandy and I have been business consultants since 2005 and we've developed a program called the Business Success Program. That includes everything that we've learned from our consulting network, which we've built up over the years.

And JLD, Mandy and I have been listening to your podcasts around three years and it's great, we really appreciate the work that you're doing in helping global entrepreneurs.

John Lee Dumas: Thanks for those kind words. David, I don't know if you know this, but I'm going to be taking my first ever trip to my southern hemisphere. I'm gonna be visiting, with Kate, New Zealand this coming October, so are we gonna hang out?

David Thexton: We can do, yes! I understand you're talking at a podcasting conference in Australia, as well?

John Lee Dumas: Yes, I'm going to be spending about half of October in New Zealand – well, more about 10 days, and then heading over to Australia to speak at We Are Podcast. Then, heading off actually for London for Chris Ducker's event which will be a blast, too. Pretty busy, but it's gonna be a seven-week trip and we'll be all over the place. Hope we get to link up in New Zealand.

David Thexton: Yup. Yeah, we'll try and jam it in.

John Lee Dumas: That'll be great. So brother, what is your area of expertise? If you could just break it down into one thing.

David Thexton: Over the years, we've learned and observed that around 80 percent of businesses close down or go broke within their first 10 years after starting. As you'd imagine, this causes devastation to families and stakeholders in the business. This is mainly because the business owner doesn't have any training in how to run a business. The government just gives out licenses for a few hundred dollars.

This is where our global consultants come in. they bring order and clarity to businesses where today there is none.

John Lee Dumas: Within that, though, David, what's something that we don't know as entrepreneurs that we probably should? That would really help us out with our business, with our life?

David Thexton: Well, I talked about clarity and order, what we find it that so many business owners don't correctly measure the progress of their business on a monthly basis. They just let it run as it is, and it's 12, maybe 18 months later their accountant brings them a set of accounts and says, “Sorry David, your business has lost $400,000 this year and you're insolvent and you're gonna have to wind up.” That's typically what happens and it's terrible.

John Lee Dumas: David, you've found a great niche. You're helping a lot of great people. You live in a great part of this world. But, you've also had your struggles throughout your life. That's kind of where I want to go to now is your journey as an entrepreneur and within that, your worst entrepreneurial moment. So brother, take us there, tell us that story.

David Thexton: There's been enough downs to fill a small book. I'll tell you a humorous down, we'll call it. One of my first business forays was selling yo-yos. What you don't know is I was the New Zealand Yo-Yo Champion in 1973. Ten years later, in '83, I decided it was time for the craze to return. Many people around the world will know that Coca-Cola made these Coke yo-yos and they started the craze years ago and that came to New Zealand, but it hadn't been for 10 years. I decided I'd make my own yo-yos. I got them sponsored and branded and I had a sales team for New Zealand.

We were monitoring the sales daily. One guy was a rock star in sales. I had the graphs on the wall and his line on the graph shot through the top of the graph and he was well ahead of the others. But, my receptionist would ring him every day and say, “Bring in the money! Bring in the money! Bring in the checks and the invoices and all those sorts of things.” He'd say, “I'm too busy, I'm too busy.” Anyway, about two or three weeks went by and he owed us about $20,000 in paperwork, we'll call it. Yeah, it's huge. $120 for a box of yo-yos, it adds up.

So, I went, I thought, “I can't leave this like it is.” I went round to his house and his car was in the driveway. I went up and banged on the door about half past eleven and he came out in his pajamas. I said, “Hey, what's wrong?” He said, “Oh, I don't feel very well!” I said, “Well, you need to come in and bring all your paperwork and we gotta bank all this money.” He just burst into tears and he said, “I haven't got any money.” I thought, “Oh no, he's stolen it,” but he hadn't. He hadn't sold one box of yo-yos and they were all under his bed and in his garage. Piles and piles of these yo-yos.

That was a bit of a downer. That was about a $20,000 kick in the guts, really. I look at it humorously in history, now.

John Lee Dumas: I will say, there's a lesson to be learned from everything we do in our life. What would you, David, say the biggest lesson that you learned from that was?

David Thexton: I talked earlier about measuring things properly, but also two, don't give somebody too much rope, you know? He was a nice guy and he didn't steal off us, but he certainly got himself into a lying circle and couldn't get out of it. I'd just say if you've got employees and if you're really dependent on them, especially from a financial perspective, then do keep a close eye on them.

John Lee Dumas: David, if you would say one of your greatest ideas to date, what would that be? You've had the AH-HA moments, you've acted on some, they've worked out. Some haven't. What's one of the greatest ideas you've had to date? Take us to that moment, tell us that story. Specifically, keep going through on how you turned that idea into a success.

David Thexton: Well, after selling the large beverage company it dawned on me that there was a huge opportunity to help business owners to improve their businesses. In the early '90s, I kind of saw this because I was about 10 years ahead of friends and colleagues of mine in business. I set up a kind of a – I supposed you'd call it a mentoring group today. Every second week we had breakfast in a small hotel. I'd be talking to all these friends and teaching them what to do and what not to do. I was still in the beverage company and it was when I sold it, as I mentioned, that I saw this opportunity and it came like an epiphany, I think they call it, that there are so many business owners out there and there was a business opportunity.

I became a sole consultant – it was just me and Mandy helping. I went and built up, at the highest point, around about 18 clients.

John Lee Dumas: Wow.

David Thexton: All of our clients were on a long-term basis, we don't do project or assignment consulting, which is short-term. I learned how to be a consultant from the ground up. It was about 2009 that I then expanded it into teaching other people to use our Business Success Program and to do the same thing. I was limited, I couldn't handle any more than 18, there was only one of me and one of Mandy. That was really something that – it did dawn on me and I've taken that opportunity and we've really expanded it out. We'll talk more about that in a minute.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, sure. That's kind of what I wanna move into next, what you wanna make sure our listeners get from that AH-HA moment. From that breakthrough that you had, what can our listeners, Fire Nation, really absorb and take away?

David Thexton: What we've done is we have taken our business global, whereas last year we were only Australia and New Zealand – and we had a few people up in Europe, but not many. What we've done is we've taken it from – it was a franchise business and it's now what's called a SaaS business. SaaS means Software As A Service. It runs along the same model of like a Xero or MYOB, which you're familiar with. Now, there may be a lot of people in your Fire Nation who are interested in becoming a business consultant and I'd like to tell them that it's a low investment model where all you need a car, a phone, and a computer. Some people won't even need a car.

We provide the tools and resources and they provide the business experience, as we say, the six inches of real estate between their ears. We'll get into the contact details at the end of this podcast. We're really excited about it. It's about the most exciting thing we've done since we started this business in 2005.

John Lee Dumas: Well, that being said, maybe this is a good segue because I want to know what you're more fired up about today.

David Thexton: It is taking this business global. I can tell you a little bit about it.

John Lee Dumas: Sure.

David Thexton: We use Google and Bing to talk to people or, we'll call it advertise. We know that when somebody types into Google, “I wanna be a business consultant or business advisor.” they want to do that. That's what they want to do. We're working with an American Google expert and we're finding that the use of Google, if you have the right keywords and the right ads and the right everything, essentially you'll just get a constant flow of people who are really, really interested in becoming a consultant.

That's what's exciting us. We've been using Google for about two months and every morning we wake up and there's 10-15 people there who wanna become a consultant. So that's – talk about exciting, that's exciting.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, those are just highly qualified, targeted leads. What could you really say to Fire Nation that could maybe help them out when they're looking for similar needs in their Nation, their area of expertise? How did you pull this off?

David Thexton: I'm sure that there are thousands of business opportunities. If you use Google, which I believe is about 85 percent of the international market – Bing's a bit smaller, but growing. If you use the right keywords and the right ads and the right landing pages and get somebody to help you – that's another piece of advice. I decided I was gonna take this on myself and it is so complicated in 2017 that we had to hire our own consultant, our own ad-words type consultant.

John Lee Dumas: Where did you find that consultant?

David Thexton: We did a bit of searching on it. The company – can I mention their name?

John Lee Dumas: Would love to.

David Thexton: They're called WordStream with wordstream.com. We're finding them really, really helpful. They've taken a big load off me because I realize that I'd jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, literally, when I tried to take on – Google 2017 is not like Google 2007 when I last used it. In a big way. I'd advise people to have a talk to them because they have the complete package.

John Lee Dumas: Sage advice, David. Fire Nation, we're about to jump into the frying pan and into the fire with a lightning round, so don't you go anywhere, we'll be right back after thanking our sponsors.

David, are you ready to rock the lightning rounds?

David Thexton: Absolutely.

John Lee Dumas: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

David Thexton: Nothing really because my first business was when I was six years old and my dad said to me – we lived opposite a sports stadium. He said, “If you go there and pick up all the drink bottles, the glass ones, and take them back to the shop they will give you half a penny,” this is in England, “half a penny for the deposit.” So, I did that. Then I thought, “Hold on, if I get all my friends to do it then I can basically manage all of them.” So, I had 10 friends doing and they got a quarter of a penny and I got a quarter of a penny, so it was kind of like a franchise operation. It went on from there.

John Lee Dumas: What's the best advice you've ever received?

David Thexton: Well, focus on one thing and do it absolutely right.

John Lee Dumas: Can you share a personal habit you think contributes to your success?

David Thexton: I've always had a streak of determination to be the best and to find a niche in something and really wring everything out of it that I possibly can.

John Lee Dumas: What's an internet resource that you're really enjoying right now?

David Thexton: It's Evernote, which I use every day. Which was under your recommendation.

John Lee Dumas: Can you recommend one book and then share why?

David Thexton: An oldie but a goodie – Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It's just the blueprint for becoming an entrepreneur, I believe. I go back and reread it about every 12 months.

John Lee Dumas: Yeah, it's the blueprint, Fire Nation. David, I wanna end today on fire, brother, with you giving our audience a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we'll say goodbye.

David Thexton: Focus on one thing and do it right, as I mentioned. I've always told my kids that they need to become an expert in something. One thing. This will provide them with all the money and success that they'll ever need for the rest of their lives.

If people wanna contact us, go to www.consultx.com and you can also download our podcast at iTunes or Stitcher and it's called Everything Business Consulting. Just a little plug for you – we're a part of your Podcasters' Paradise and I learned everything I know from you guys.

John Lee Dumas: I love hearing that! Now, are you even thinking about coming to We Are Podcast or is that not on the menu?

David Thexton: I went last year and they announced that you are coming and I thought, “Gosh, I better go next year, as well.”

John Lee Dumas: Love it! I'm excited to see you there, D.T., if not in New Zealand before that. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with D.T. and J.L.D. today, so keep up the heat. Head over to EOFire.com, just type "david" in the search bar, his show notes page will pop up with everything that we've been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz: time stamps, links galore, and, of course, check out what David has going on.

One more time, David, give us a call out to your podcast and your website.

David Thexton: Podcast is called Everything Business Consulting and the website is www.consultx.com.

John Lee Dumas: David, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother. We'll catch you on the flip-side.

David Thexton: Thank you.