The Fun Side Of Business
Let’s keep it real, business life isn’t all boring meetings and stiff suits. Behind the polished pitches and fancy titles is a whole other story!
We’re talking about the real stories, the unfiltered, uncut moments you won’t find in any polished promo video.
Behind every brand is a story—unexpected, totally entertaining, and 100% human. So here’s to the real ones: the dreamers, the grinders, the risk-takers.
Business life? It’s not what you think. It’s way more fun.
The Fun Side Of Business
Waynes Journey - The Hidden Years of Sacrifice
This episode is only available to subscribers.
The Fun Side Of Business - The Extra Slice
Exclusive access to premium content!While many see his current success—luxury cars, impressive home, enviable lifestyle—few know he once drove a BMW convertible so dilapidated he drilled holes in the floor to drain rainwater that leaked through the roof. When launching his company Platinum, he committed to surviving on just £500 monthly while barely covering bills and supporting his family.
What strikes us most about Wayne's journey is his absolute refusal to quit. When marketing letters went unanswered, he made calls. When calls weren't returned, he knocked on doors, leveraging his natural charisma to create opportunities where none existed.
His story serves as powerful testimony that real success requires sacrifice most aren't willing to make, persistence through countless rejections, and the courage to choose the difficult path when easier options present themselves. For anyone battling through the challenging early stages of building something meaningful, Wayne's journey offers genuine inspiration and a reminder that the most impressive success stories often begin with drilling holes in car floors just to make it through another day.
Good morning. Welcome to the Extra Slice.
Speaker 2:Hang on, what the Extra Slice.
Speaker 1:I just thought I'd throw it out there and see if it worked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hang on a second. Oh yeah, welcome to Domino's. Here comes your Extra Slice. I do not like the Slice, it's just the Extra Show, gem.
Speaker 1:Okay, welcome to the Extras. Good morning, do you want to mention?
Speaker 2:the podcast, or should we just say Extras, extras, extras, extras? If they're already here, I guess I'm another podcaster. They know exactly why they're here.
Speaker 1:They're here because they're one of our thousands of subscribers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but if they listen to this, in a year's time then we will have thousands.
Speaker 1:The fun side of business podcast. This is awesome, this is so rehearsed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, obviously we can see. This is great. We're 42 seconds in and we haven't even mentioned a word about the guest. Right which is the whole purpose of being here. Do you know?
Speaker 1:he's sitting there listening to this right now and going can you just get on with it and tell me what you thought about me? Yeah, so this is the extras, and we are talking about the amazing Wayne Wayne. What do you think?
Speaker 2:of Wayne, the amazing Wayne. The amazing Wayne Because he is going to be listening, wayne, I can't say the dickhead Wayne, can I?
Speaker 1:I just did.
Speaker 2:When you say you can't, you just did. So that's all right, we've covered that one off. Yeah, what's to say about Wayne?
Speaker 1:Wayne is a character.
Speaker 2:Okay, so once again, I know we mentioned this when we spoke about Barry, but I've known Wayne. Probably, hang on, I haven't known him longer than Barry, but I've probably been closer to Wayne than I have to Barry.
Speaker 1:And I've known Wayne longer than you, but you're the maths guy I knew Wayne when I was 16, without giving my age away.
Speaker 2:Was it five years ago? Well, you're now 21. Yeah, yeah, hang on, jen. Remember these are extra people, which means they've heard all about your story going back the last 46 years or whatever it was.
Speaker 1:52, 71 whatever it was um. So yeah, we've known wayne a while.
Speaker 2:Let's just say that but again, you know this kind of opening about how? Because? Because you, you just assume everyone is going to have these like bum around jobs. Right, you know, you leave school and you go. I've got a job in retail or doing McPizzas or Zenith Windows, or who was it? Who did the Cool Connect, was it?
Speaker 2:James James Roper, yeah, yeah so whatever, by the way, other people are available and if you haven't heard that episode, sorry, but we haven't spoiled it. But yeah, but respected, appreciated, driven, whatever it may be to get to that point, to be the youngest store manager.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what. Whatever retail job he was in, he worked his way up to the top.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like quickly.
Speaker 2:And when you're talking about, I mean we're talking before he was 21, they asked him to go and run Lakeside.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's not a small store?
Speaker 1:Of course it's not.
Speaker 2:No, and he's, yeah, extremely driven, extremely motivated do you know, if I'd have known that, I probably would have made my business, my um decision to help him out with his business, much, much faster. Yeah, because I think when you go along and you know, everything always works with social proofing, so everyone can go along and say I'm the best or I'm the greatest or whatever it was yeah but when you get social proof, when other people will go along and have that recognition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And obviously when you're talking about in his corporate world, where Wayne is being recognised as he's that good, promote, promote, promote, promote. That's his kind of social proofing of how driven he is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've seen him do it on his journey with Platinum, which I guess he hang on. He didn't really talk too much about. We stopped when he started Platinum.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, the majority of the time I've seen him. So obviously I saw him on the business before Platinum. I saw him in the business where he worked with for whatever it may be, with his brother, His brother.
Speaker 1:yeah, he mentioned that.
Speaker 2:But I've seen it all the way through Platinum, where he's so determined he just refuses to fail.
Speaker 1:And he did mention, when he did briefly speak about Platinum, the way he speaks about his staff, the way he credits his success to the people around him.
Speaker 2:And me and you.
Speaker 1:Obviously, obviously. He credits his success to the people around him and and me, and me, and you, obviously, obviously, but I, I to hear that is.
Speaker 2:that speaks volumes of the character he is yeah, and, and that's the thing I think that you know do you know what? I'm going to go and release some bits and pieces that's not even on the podcast so exclusive.
Speaker 2:So we're going to go exclusive, exclusive so I'm going to go along and tell you the story about wayne, the person where he was and the person where he now is. So everyone will now see wayne and, depending when you catch him and depending where he is and where he's going, you don't know which car he's going to drive, but let's just say that he has had a number of cars that people would be very envious of.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:We'll put it that way yeah, he has a house that many people would be very envious of. Yeah, and he has a lifestyle that I think a lot of people would be envious of you know, in terms of holidays and things like that, but also to know the story about where Wayne started.
Speaker 2:So when he first started Platinum and sorry about this, wayne, but we talk openly about anything, so I'm going to just spill it so when he first started Platinum, he had a BMW convertible, which everyone goes, ooh, really nice, but it was almost like a bucket that you used to collect water, so the roof leaked, which he couldn't afford to fix.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think he even drilled holes in the bottom of the car To drain the water, to drain the water back out again that it was collecting. He was struggling with paying his bills in terms of, you know, just general life, yeah, and that was the point where he started platinum, so everyone can go along and see this. You know, oh, he's got this, he's got this, he's got this, he's got this.
Speaker 2:But he was so driven but to see where he yeah you know, and and he, he had an easy opportunity and he easily could have just gone and taken a job where you know. Problems would have got solved, everything would have been finished he just he would have ended up with a yeah, he would have ended up with a okay car.
Speaker 2:He would have ended up with a. Yeah, he would have ended up with a okay car. He would have ended up squaring off his bills, life would have been okay and he could have coasted. But he refused to do that and he went out and I and again I'm going to embarrass him because not, he probably won't tell this story to most people but he started off saying he needed, he was going to try and live on 600 pounds a month to support his family, and that was what he was prepared to do for six months to try and get his business started. But he refused because I was involved in some of the original mail shots he was doing. He just refused to quit and it didn't matter. There's many people that can send out 100 letters and they sit there waiting for the response. But he would send out 100 letters and then if the response didn't come, then he'd phone them and if the phone calls didn't come, he'd go and knock on their doors.
Speaker 1:If you don't know Wayne, Wayne is such a cheeky chappy, such a people's person.
Speaker 2:He would just market this shit out of a high street when he yeah, he doesn't but it would be like in places and it's like, oh, um, I think. Did you reply to my letter?
Speaker 2:no, oh well, I'm here now and and that was how he would follow up his mail shots and it didn't matter what it was anything to get his foot in the door. So every single thing that that guy has I'm here to testify there wasn't a single bit of luck. There wasn't a one-off big contract that he happened to get, or you know something that fell into his lap. Everything he got he grafted and he worked really hard for.
Speaker 2:So I can't ever kind of have that moment of going oh, I can't believe you've got that and you know all you've done yeah because that guy, for the probably the first five years, I don't think he had a holiday, I don't think he switched off, I don't think he um took a break and you know and people, like you said, people don't.
Speaker 1:People will see the person who they see. Now, yeah, face value. Oh, nice car. I don't know the watches, I don't know what watch he wears, but he had something blinging on his wrist. To whatever holidays, wherever they live, people don't know the backstory, how they got there and that's the thing you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can sit there and say he had no huge investor, you know?
Speaker 1:yeah, I probably have something to say a little bit about that one, but that's for another story.
Speaker 2:Um, but he didn't get you know, oh, he got an inheritance or he got this pot of money or you know it was. He didn't even have support from the bank yeah, now he did this he's built it from the pretty much on a you know beg and borrow. I'm not going to say steal, because probably there's probably something where I could get done for slander or something and there was no stealing so, but yeah, it was begging and borrowing and finding that angle, anything he could do to build what he built, um.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, for me he's a. He's one of those crazy modern day inspirations that you wouldn't know it. And, by the way, I hope Wayne doesn't pay for the subscription because he's going to be coming in going.
Speaker 2:Oh, the inspiration's here, yeah if you need any motivating people are coming we haven't helped ourselves, if he, if he does it, we'll do a redo over on this one and just like change it entirely. But yeah, honestly a joy to have him on. Yeah, it was really lovely to hear his journey yeah, thank you, wayne, um and wayne.
Speaker 2:If you're listening, thank you very much, buddy, um, and if you're not, then stop being so. Wayne, if you're listening, thank you very much, buddy, and if you're not, then stop being so tight. If you can afford these nice cars, you can afford five dollars a month, right? Yeah, if anyone knows him, just send him a message. Okay, I can't believe you're so tight. Definitely listen to the podcast. Yeah, guys, thank you so much for listening thank you very much thank you for your time undying support.
Speaker 1:Ears.
Speaker 2:No, I want support as well. At the end of the day.
Speaker 1:these guys, you were trying to find a nice word. I'm shouting out ears.
Speaker 2:These guys go along and admittedly we've tried to make this so affordable that really people are sacrificing a coffee a month, but they're still sacrificing something Of course they are, and we really appreciate it Massively.
Speaker 1:So, guys, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Any feedback you want to give us, let us know. Do feel free to reach out to any of us LinkedIn. Whatever Slide into your DMs on Insta Gem.
Speaker 1:I get too many, you get too many. Now I might miss it.
Speaker 2:It's like you and Lady Gaga I don't know which ones get the most DMs right, yeah, but yeah, guys, thank you so much and we'll speak to you all soon.
