In the early stages of 2021 we started actively following entrepreneur Simon Squibb over on TikTok. We were absolutely fascinated by his growth on the platform with nearly half a million followers doing exactly what we always talk about here at Yellow Tuxedo, talking to his audience and sharing his adventure. There were no awkward lip sync videos, no silly dances, just him talking about his passion.

So right back in June we decided that we wanted to follow his adventure with him. We didn't know him personally and we were PRETTY sure that we were no where close to the Simon Squibb radar. There was no way that this successful entrepreneur who professed to be in the top 1% of wealthy people would know the Yellow Tuxedo name. But nonetheless we quietly decided that it would be a fabulous goal to have if he was aware of us and our business by the end of 2021. Perhaps he might say hi on one of his videos or even reply to one of our comments...

And thats what we did. We took our ethos of #besocial and said hi to Simon on the socials. We commented on his social media, we watched along live to his Livestream videos, we got involved. And when one day he actually started following our Instagram account back? We sent him a voice message to say thank you just like we do to each and every single one of our followers on the platform!

And then, back in December, realising that these people we follow are all human just like the rest of us, Alan decided to be a bit ballsy. He picked up the phone, sent a voice DM to Simon Squibb, said hi and asked him if he would like to collaborate on a short YouTube video with us. What was the answer? "Sure, why not!"

We were absolutely delighted that he agreed to speak with us and earlier this month Alan had the absolute pleasure of recording a livestream with him to hear more about his fascinating story about how he went from homeless at 15 years old and starting a gardening business to "retiring" at 40years old after having 19 businesses.

Do watch the full interview above. Simon really does have an incredible back story and we loved hearing about his Purposeful project and how he is building a 1billion dollar business in 700 days in front of the public itself.

Of course we want to share this story with you and we would really encourage you to follow Simon on social media but really todays blog post really is to encourage you all. If you have a desire, a goal, a target, big or small you can absolutely make it happen when you put the groundwork in.

A couple of things we have learned from securing the Simon Squibb interview..

1] You'll notice that even though he is HUGE over on TikTok we decided to search him out over on Instagram where he has a much smaller following. Therefore comments and messages were less likely to be drowned in a sea of other comments.

2] Get to know who you are following. Understand their work, their passion, the way in which they choose to interact with their audiences. If they go LIVE on a Friday? Be there on that Friday. Listen to what they have to say, get involved in the conversation. Leave MEANINGFUL questions and comments to stimulate the chat. STAND OUT.

3] Bloody well ask. The worst they can ever say is no and if thats the case you've not lost anything. So many people we speak to in our business use the excuse that they are not big enough yet. 'When I have X amount of followers I might..." Stop that right now. Why on earth would you wait? If you want to speak to anybody, regardless of size, stature or notoriety just ask. We are all human, you are downright amazing and they would be lucky to have the chance to speak to you too! Who knows, that next collaboration, video, podcast, blog or interview could be the tipping point for your visibility that gets you where you need to be.