Scott Saunders on Leaving The Apprentice UK on a Winning Task

Jordan Lally:0:00
Welcome back to the [High Ticket AI Systems] Podcast. Everyone, please welcome the one and only Mr. Scott.

Scott Saunders:0:07
It's okay, man.

Jordan Lally:0:11
Welcome back to the [High Ticket AI Systems] Podcast. Everyone, please welcome the one and only Mr. Scott Saunders. Scott, how are you doing today, my friend?

Scott Saunders:0:18
I'm not too bad at all. Thank you so much for having me on today. Been really excited about this all week.

Jordan Lally:0:22
Absolutely. Absolutely, my friend. And you have a very, very unique story. Now, on our initial call, you said that you were part of the the apprentice show out there in the UK and people, you know, fight tooth and nail to try to land and s land a spot on that show when you're one of the lucky few. How did you manage or I guess you can go into the whole story on what you did to audition, how you landed the h how you landed it.

Your experience on the show and obviously life after the show.

Scott Saunders:0:53
Okay, so this guy is going back about ten years now. I was a massive fanatic for the show. Anything to do with Donald Trump back then and Lord Sugar, which is the UK's equivalent of the billionaires. these guys are serious in business, and the shows are serious business too. So I always dreamt of actually going on the show. What happened was I was working one day and a previous contestant messaged me on LinkedIn and I couldn't believe that someone Like that had messaged me, said, Look, you know, I'm looking for some help with some stuff. I was like, wow, this is amazing. And at that moment I kind of felt, do you know what? I think this might be something that I would like to go on. At the time I had this idea, this vision of a comparison site for in my space, which was a payroll kind of accountants, that kind of stuff. And it was a comparison site which allowed loads of people to be able to compare rates, which no one had done yet. So I thought, let me apply for this.

So when I got home, I had my office. I've been working for a long time on this project anyway. And I I went to apply. And I didn't do it. I kind of thought actually maybe I could do this myself. Anyway, I went to sleep that night at three o'clock on the dot. Okay. I woke up and I walked myself into the office and I just applied. I knew I had to do it. So I did.

And the process was very lengthy. So it actually starts way before TV. So you expect, you know, everyone's on there fighting for it. This goes way beyond when you guys actually see it. So there was a hundred thousand people that applied. I think it increases every year. And essentially, you know, we had to do multiple different things. We had to do calls, then we had to go to London and do all these different tasks, you know, and slowly but surely I got through one stage by the next.

And funny enough, on the first stage when I walked in, being a younger businessman myself, not so bullshy or kind of, you know, I was myself and I always make sure I stay to keeping that way. When we done our first ever thing, we had all these different people with numbers in front of us, and we had to explain who we was. It's like 10 seconds each. And you got the people that were just really ballsy, over the top, and I thought, I've not got any chance here, but I'm not gonna be like them, I'm gonna be myself.

Scott Saunders:3:12
So then they split you up and they go, right, you guys one, six, five, you go that way. And the rest go to this way, which was to the lift. To me, the lift means we're going home. There's a few of us, we went inside. And I was like, look, well done, guys. At least we tried. And then the lady who was chaperoning us says, you're actually free to the next round. And I like, Wow, okay. It goes on for a while. And then you get that magic phone call. You're either in, a standby, or you didn't make the cut.

I got the call and I made the cut and they were excited and I was excited. And it was a big moment right then because that was a time for me which I always visualised and knew I was going to be doing something like this. But the reality kicked in that actually I'd made it, you know? And then that was just the start. So yeah.

Jordan Lally:4:02
That is so amazing. Do you remember kind of what the trial was that allowed you to push to the next round? Like what like the problem that you had to solve or the thinking challenge that they gave you?

Scott Saunders:4:14
Yeah, one in particular came up was flat packed furniture, right? So when we got to the final, final stages, this is quite intense now. You get put together with different people and you have to choose an elector, you know, a manager, and someone else who's going to be the sub team leader. And essentially what we had to do was just put up flat-packed furniture with people analysing and watching what you're doing. And then after five or ten minutes, you have to kind of say, look, this is what we've done, this is how I've managed it.

And we had to kind of go against each other in that experience because we're working with people. This is the thing about it, you're working with people, but you're also working against them because actually you're the one that has to shine. But you also have to kind of work with these people in order to get to the next level. so luckily enough, you know, we did pretty well, but it was all about the management and who I think they really put the teams together well in who's got a clash and how you're gonna deal with those clashes.

And you know, that was one that came to mind, but we've done various different tasks. I excel mostly in things like marketing, you know, strategy, innovation and technique, you know, sales. That was my big one, sales. So I was pretty good at that too. Yeah.

Jordan Lally:5:34
And then you told me something even not more interesting, but something also as interesting where you landed on the show and you essentially kind of realized, you know what, this not that it's not resonating with me, but you decided to pivot. Was that live on the show? You decided to just walk away from everything, or yeah, dive into that if you don't.

Scott Saunders:5:58
So technically it was life to me. So I got towards the very latter stages of the show. And I had slowly started to realise that actually I wasn't really getting much understanding of who I was or respect for what I was doing. I was carrying people, I was doing things, but they weren't really mentioning any of this stuff. And as I got towards the show at the end of the show, it does it did start to get difficult. You know, the sleep patterns, sometimes you'd be up at you didn't know what time you'd be waking up, okay? So They will walk in with cameras whilst you're sleeping, like, right, the next task, it could be 4 a.m., you know? And it started to grain, and over the time, I just thought I don't believe that this is the right place for me to be, and Lord Sugar to be my business partner. Now there's also a reason for this, and that's because the way I felt I was being treated at the time. I felt like I wasn't being seen for the good things I were doing. and I decided to stand up for myself and feel that actually.

The one thing I said was, Lord Sugar is a billionaire, okay, but he's old. Okay, he's a billionaire, he's done these things, but I'm young. Now the only thing you can't pay for is time, okay? So I equaled myself out. We had this task, we'd won the task, and they gave me a grilling. To be fair, you know, they really grilled me. And I don't remember anything else happening. So when you win a task, you you go on to do these great things like go on a s you know, speed boat and stuff like that.

Jordan Lally:7:08
Mm.

Scott Saunders:7:25
I don't remember any of that stuff. And as my teammates got up to leave, I stayed there and I just looked them in the eye and I said, I don't want to be here any longer and thanks for the opportunity, but I'd like to leave. And it was a long time coming, I think, because you know, I'm the little man in this scenario. But what I will always do is have self belief and self respect in who I am and where I want to go. I'm not always gonna be somebody that's gonna be like, Please give me the opportunity.

I will always have the decorum and respect for my vision and what I can put into this. I gave everything up to be there. And for me, what's valuable is he did it by himself. So I'm gonna go and do it by myself. That's it. And it made a massive uproar. And in fact, I think it was one of the most watched scenes, even on YouTube. I think it's got a couple of million views. You know, I'm I'm I'm very well known for that. And I think it's because I respectfully declined to.

At a time when no one else has even thought about doing that. So it's the first person to ever leave on a winning task. And he wasn't very happy about it. He actually he actually tweeted Donald Trump about me whilst drinking wine, saying Donald Trump had done a he said you'd done a Scot from the Apprentice. So he he actually tweeted Donald Trump about me at the time, which was which is quite amazing really. Yeah.

Jordan Lally:8:49
No, absolutely, that is super badass, man. That that's an incredible story. So, once you leave the show, how does life look after that? Like the next with within the first year of leaving, the show being aired, what kind of changed drastically for you? Or w what had the most impact on?

Scott Saunders:9:04
So things were pretty steady for me before that. I had you know, house partner and you know, had a really good job, the car, everything's all there. Now I decided to cut everything off and start my business. I didn't save much, although I was only a lot of money and stuff, that's you know and I ended up moving back to my flat at the time and I pretty much had nothing. Now the hardest part is When you become famous overnight, and that's what happened, you're not just Scott Saunders, you're Scott Saunders from The Apprentice. Everyone knows you personally. They've been, you know, cheering you on throughout the series. And people think you're rich before you're rich. You know? Maybe you're rich inside, but I wasn't a millionaire. So the hard thing for me at that age was I had the determination, I had the gift to go and push things.

But what I realised quite quickly was it was harder than I expected. It was harder than I expected because you've got a face to show, you're your public property, you have to be out on all these, you know, beautiful events which are amazing with all these great people, but then you've got to work your ass off in the daytime to make your business start. And I hadn't started a business at that level at that time. So I had to really focus and knuckle down on becoming and building a business that was worth something.

Jordan Lally:10:06
Mm.

Scott Saunders:10:30
And I remember the early days, I actually had too much ego, and I can happily admit that now. I was like, right, I'm this guy, I don't really need to do much sales, I don't need to do this, that and the other. And I looked at my board in my office and I looked at it and I thought, I'm not making any sales. Why wasn't I making any sales? What am I good at? I'm good at making sales. And what do you do? You to pick the phone up. You have to speak to people. You have to do ten, twenty calls, build, rapport. You need to ensure that people are willing to know what you're selling.

But what did I do? Nothing. I was just kind of sitting there thinking, I thought, nah, no more. That's when I picked the phone up in my s by myself and I started making the calls. One thousand pounds target. Done. Ten thousand pounds target done. Then I got my investment. And because I this at this moment actually where I got offered this job, as well as I was going for this investment stage with some private investors, I got the investment and the job on the very same day. Right? And it was it was incredible, but it was a slug. It was it was a tough time because you can be quite lonely in periods like that. You know, you can't go and talk to many people because you're this guy doing this stuff. You know, so it was it was an amazing experience, but also, you know, it's very few that go through a process like that. And I also always kind of have respect for people that have gone onto TV because actually there's no more going back to work in the same level you used to, you know.

You're kind of like that guy now. So I took it seriously and it was hard. It was a very hard slug, but then once we got the investment I took on a team and we started to grow.

Jordan Lally:12:10
I can relate on the being the guy overnight and then kind of getting humbled. Very different scale. I was never in the public face. But for a long time I played elite level baseball. I was like the dominant pitcher on every team that I went to. Projected to get drafted out high school. And then as most athletes, they suffered injury and like life changes. So basically what happened to me, and I went from being the guy to like being the fucking bench warmer.

In the same season. And it was just very, very humiliating and and humbling. And yeah, for a long time, for several years, my friend, I fell into like this, this slump, one might say. And I asked myself a very similar question. What did I do to become the guy? Well, I fucking worked. I worked my ass off to be that guy. In your example, I picked up the phone, right? So I found a sales job. I was actually knocking on doors, selling solar at the time.

Scott Saunders:12:40
You will.

Jordan Lally:13:08
And I pivoted to cold calling because I'm like, there has to be a faster way than knocking on somebody's door. So I've been cold calling. And for anyone that like doesn't go to college or just has the entrepreneur spirit, I recommend sales ten times out of ten. That is the closest thing to becoming your like being in business for yourself because you essentially eat what you kill, right? so love that story. And I think everyone, well, not everyone has.

Scott Saunders:13:13
Yeah.

Scott Saunders:13:32
Absolutely.

Jordan Lally:13:37
to go through that, but it it it changes your perspective and it it helps I think it helps your ego when you go from being the guy to going into a slump and kind of humbling yourself. I I'm glad I won

Scott Saunders:13:49
One hundred percent. And and and I like the fact that you said humbling, but you also said y you also said the the word which was not embarrassing but Humiliating. Now humiliation, okay, and humbling are in one of the same. And only until you're in a period where you're exposed to be able to start again. All right, it's usually rock bottom. You can hit that rock bottom, okay? And it's it's a hard place to be. But only until those times happen and you realise there's nowhere else but up. What worked? What ingredients did I do That made that cake work before. You track back and you start day by day working on those ingredients again. And then what do you get? You get the perfect cake again. So it's like you have to be humbled. You're always gonna come up and then you're gonna come down. And usually it's when you get a little bit too big or you know, you're not taking things seriously, you take the foot off the gas, right? And then all of a sudden things start to fall apart. You kind of sit.

So only recently I had my company which was doing the the comparison site we sold in twenty twenty one. but we ended up keeping our clients and we have company called Paylift. Now the comparison engine we had a couple of clients, high playing high paying clients. And I had a small team, it's probably about six of us, and on and off. And only recently I've been humbled once more. And this time it's been A a most overwhelming experience where I feel like I'm even more ready to go and take on what I can do for the n for the next chapter. And how I say this is in my industry, the legislation's changed. So within like payroll and stuff. And overnight, my company, the c I actually started payroll supermarket from scratch. There was nothing that existed like it. I had to teach Google what it was, I had to come up with a whole business plan.

Scott Saunders:15:59
Create the website myself, this is how I got into tech, and understand how marketing really works, sales, the whole shebang. And then lots of competitors came on and then they started to use what I'd built and copy it. So we had payroll supermarket, they would have payroll payroll shop, or you know, they'd use variations. Now here's something really great. So Google Google's highest paid Google ads. was my sector that I created. And some of my competitors spent a hundred and sixty thousand a month on what I generated this this system. And it only helped us. But then recently like I said, everything collapsed. Our business literally overnight had fallen along with o lots of other people. So I'm in a position right now where well not now. Maybe only a few weeks back, a couple of months, the start of the year, everything bang.

My investments tanked because I don't know if you were crypto, but crypto tanked. My company tanked. And then it's a domino effect. And then it was the family. And then wasn't looking after myself. And I'm so glad I got put through that experience again. Because what was I doing before? Coasting. Sat there coasting. I built something up. Lasted ten years and I didn't really have to do too much with that, you know.

So that's where I pivot. That's where I start to see. No, hold on a minute. What does this mean? This means that I go and do something bigger, go and take what I want to go and create and go and do it. Here's the greatest time on earth to be able to do that. And I started again to some extent, which I'm really enjoying right now. So yeah.

Jordan Lally:17:47
That is so I'm not sure if you're philosophical, but I not a very religious man, but I love philosophy. And I always feel like life is testing up. It's like, you think you you think you're the guy now. you're coasing for the last ten years. Let me just fuck up your world for a second. Let's see let's see how bad you want it. Or or or let's see what what what your mindset can truly become, you know? And I I think everybody goes through that. So definitely don't feel alone in that journey, my friend.

And I'm excited for your second path or your third path, whatever path you want that you want to call this right here. But I'm excited on your behalf. And I it's just interesting to me because I like I said, everyone goes to that. Everyone builds up something. They're proud of it. And it's like, well, why do I like I'm good right here? Like I I I I'm I'm enjoying this. I I don't necessarily need more. Do I have the desire? Maybe, but like here is good.

Scott Saunders:18:14
Mistake.

Jordan Lally:18:43
You know, but I always feel like you you can be more, you can become more, you can help more people. And that's the thing I think people that are like they view money and success as the enemy. I don't think they truly fucking realize how many other individuals you help when you become the ultimate version of yourself. Like you naturally raise vibrations in your inner circle. When they raise their vibrations, they help more people. You are fucking selfish. Форна біг суцісо.

Scott Saunders:19:12
Not doing it. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And you have and you'll you'll see you know, stories like this, some of the biggest people in the world, you know, who I do admire and also am on my way to becoming, okay, they go through and have been put past so many different trials and tribulations. But that's the thing. The things I worried about ten years ago that were so big to me.

Jordan Lally:19:16
You know what I mean? So it is it's interesting. Go through.

Scott Saunders:19:41
You know, how am I gonna do this? They're tiny, they're nothing now. And it's the experience and how you can take the impact of pressure, okay? And under pressure, great things are built. And when even something is broken, it means that it could be fixed and built back even stronger and bigger. And that's where I'm at. So yeah, I've obviously I'm I'm in AI automation, but I also have my baby which is feed, it's F E A D, it's social selling app. And that's what I've been working on for a couple of years in the background.

And that's where I'm really focused on pushing now as well. So I'm really quite excited about that. It's kind of a mixture between Fiverr and LinkedIn. Okay. It's completely built, you know, by myself and my team, and it's to help people either create their own community and get paid, set sell your services, even if you've got an idea, you can sell your service on there within a couple of clicks, okay? And then start making money from it. I find that these days There's so many hoops you've got to jump through. As an entrepreneur, business owner, someone that wants to take something or do a side hustle, you've got to jump through, pay for things, do this, do that, and I'm sick of it. Okay. LinkedIn's great if you want to inbox the stuff. And it's kind of developing. What I've got is something where you jump on, I've got my idea. I you can even use AI to write it for you, okay? And then within like literally three or four minutes, you can start selling your product or service.

Or even start your own community and start getting paid from it. So I I'm really big on helping others to be able to like connu connect and build with each other, share experiences and work to building something even bigger. And that works in community.

Jordan Lally:21:26
Now has never been a better time to actually start something like that on the back of communities because we live in a very digital age. Like I really do wish I can shake your hand, Scott, and have and like feel the energy in real life, sit down and get get some lunch with you afterwards. But a lot of us live in a remote digital world. And because, you know, some of us doom scroll at night, we feel less connected with real human beings in in in reality and in real life, right?

Scott Saunders:21:36
Yeah.

Scott Saunders:21:51
Right.

Jordan Lally:21:54
But where the future is going, our communities are are surrounding yourself with like minded individuals. And I'm not saying that social media is a bad thing. It's it's a wonderful thing. I'm we I'm sure you and I both have made a fuckload of money because of social media. But I but I know other people, especially in my inner circle, myself, sometimes we do feel that that loneliness, that isolation.

Scott Saunders:22:07
Yeah.

Jordan Lally:22:20
Because yes, we talk through people through through screens all day, but sometimes in our our our real world, it's not as I guess human interaction, one might say. Nonetheless, the point I'm making here, Scott, is that communities are everything. And I don't really have a lot of like close friends, but the friends that I do have very, very similar mindsets. And I think that's where communities have has the strongest potential. It's like Everyone in this community is just like me. We're we're we we think like X, our goal is Y, and we do Z activities. Like how can I not befriend these types of individuals? So I'm really I'm I'm happy for that journey. If you want, I guess, what what led you to to to to start that or go down that path? And what do you feel like is coming next for that?

Scott Saunders:23:00
Yeah.

Scott Saunders:23:11
So to be honest with you, I've been wanting to do the first thing I said I'd do was take over a product or service in the UK. Right? That was my old vision. It's like if I can do that, if I can have something where the whole UK knows and is using something, then I'm on something and I did that. The next thing that I said, once I did it and I look and I go, I created this from scratch. It's helping thousands of contractors, it's been copied multiple times.

And I'm always at the top because I started it, right? If I can do that, then I want to take over something in the world. And people might go, my visions are too big for people to comprehend. So I don't really speak to people anymore unless they're like-minded individuals. So one of my one of my mentors is called Kane Kramer, and he is he invented the iPod. Every single every single piece of technology that you see in news from Apple, Samsung.

Every tiny intricate thing, even the internet, was patented by my mentor Kane Kramer. Okay. It's really worth looking into. It's insane with what's been done. His first his first person to put money into investor was Paul McCartney. And I mean this was in 1979. So I've seen the first ever digital images that exist on the planet. Okay. Now the reason why I say this is his vision at that age.

Was to create something where the world would advance. And he's done that and he's owned and written the concept and every element of that. And to spend time around people with that vision makes you believe that actually anything is possible. Steve Jobs, you know, James Dyson. I mean, look, every one of these guys that had a vision and it's important to protect it at all costs.

And that's what my next stage is, and it's to become known worldwide for something that helps people in a time right now where things are difficult to earn money in a in a like minded place and to be able to actually thrive without the cost of all the shit that you don't need. Right? All those little hidden things. My stuff is positive, it's not doom scrolling. If you are, you're learning as you go through.

Scott Saunders:25:38
You know, it's about having those people understand and feel like they're part of something, but only that, I'm gonna be earning money from this. It's early days, there's an early start. But I'm telling you from my vision, I know exactly why I was given this and it will it will go beyond. and that's and that's basically I always wanna help people in a situation like myself. Yeah, and that's that's that's exactly that's basic what basically what I've done. I've put everything it's actually taken a a long time to build. So

Jordan Lally:26:09
I I I could imagine so. That's that's super badass. I I'm dying to know. How did you manage to meet your now mentor? Like how how did how did all that transpire? That's super

Scott Saunders:26:17
So funny enough, I was actually with I was I was with his daughter for f for six years. And when I was at yeah believe it or not, yeah. So we that's how I got to know him, but when I was at nursery I was I was being told, you know, he's gonna be an inventor. I was speaking to to him yesterday about this. He said, you know, I said, Kane, I find it crazy how I'm on the phone to you right now.

Jordan Lally:26:26
My God.

Scott Saunders:26:47
And we're having these conversations about things that people don't talk about, okay? And I was told I was gonna be an inventor. And your kid, it's like like attracts like. Isn't it funny? And the whole of the world, one of the key parts of how all this stuff comes together, and he's my mentor, you know, an amazing guy. But one thing he has is integrity beyond anyone else I've ever met before. B above money. above anything else is his integrity. And that's something that I've always pulled here from from what he he does. You know? so yeah, it's it's it gives you the ability to be able to believe in yourself when you are around people that have and have done things that have been unth remarkable.

Jordan Lally:27:41
What is some of the and you can ponder on this, but like pieces of pieces of advice that you're willing to share that you learn from him. And an an anything that comes to mind. 'Cause I feel like you don't you don't just run into that man walking down the street, you know, and I feel like he said some really powerful things to you, you know? Or things that you picked up along the way.

Scott Saunders:28:01
He has. Like I said, integrity. There's there's no need to do things that aren't true to you. If you have your vision, start small, build on it, and only go in your lane no matter what anyone says. When he designed the first iPod and iTunes.

But by the way, this is a really small part. I'm talking every part of technology that we use, even the up, down, left, right buttons. Okay. It's insane. So Tim Bernard's Lee couldn't actually patent the internet because it was held in Keynes back then in nineteen seventy nine, no one had a fucking clue what he was on about. So his his his brother was married to Olivia Newton John, okay?

Now she had a song out and it was on vinyl and they were getting pyrocopied. And essentially what happened was she said to him, Wouldn't it be amazing if there was something out there that would be able to like, you know, fix this? And that's where it began and he started. it's called Ixie. It's a really remarkable story. But what I'd say to you is, yeah, is no matter what, if you have a vision, protect it. If you have The ability right now with technology to be able advance, do it. If you are being told by other people that don't share that vision, move into a place where people do. And if you can't find that, they will find you. Protect it with everything you have. Because actually at that moment in time, that one thing that you thought could work, just because it's not here now, our whole societies all around the world are built by innovation.

You know, and it's the key parts of that, the people that took those to the next levels, protected it, pushed it and believed in it so far that that's why I'm able to speak to you over the phone and you're all the way in America and it's in real time. And that's because of these remarkable people that have protected and pushed something that they've believed in. So it's about believing in yourself and protecting that energy.

Jordan Lally:30:16
Scott, I absolutely love that fucking message, my friend. No, no you could not have spoken that any better at all. That said, if they wanted to connect with you, you know, dive into your mindset a bit more, where should they go?

Scott Saunders:30:30
Feed. Go to my social app and that's where you'll find me. I'm obviously on all other socials, but that's my place where you can just message me. It's very easy to sign up, so just check me out on there. It's F E A D dot AI. So it's feed, as in like a scroll feed, but I've trademarked the name feed.ai. So you can find me right there, guys, and I'll be more than happy to help you. And I also have a community in there too.

Jordan Lally:30:55
Scott, thank you again so much for hopping on, my friend. I love the story. I love the energy. Obviously love the mindset. We'll have to have you back on in like nine to twelve months to see how business is going, to see if we picked up on any more things. But nonetheless, thank you again, my friend.

Scott Saunders:31:08
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed being with you and also good luck to yourself, man. I really had a good time and I wish you you need anything at all, any help in the UK, got ya.

Jordan Lally:31:20
I appreciate that, man. I appreciate that.

Scott Saunders:31:22
All right, cool.