No Bollocks with Matt Haycox

Hosted by Matt Haycox

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245

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Welcome to No Bollocks with Matt Haycox, the business podcast for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and anyone who wants to build big without the bullshit. I’m Matt Haycox: investor, founder, and straight-talking business mentor. I’ve funded nearly £1 billion in UK business loans, bounced back from bankruptcy, and now own and advise multiple 7- and 8-figure companies across sectors, from property and e-commerce to finance and hospitality. This podcast cuts through the noise. No bollocks. No gurus. Just raw conversations, real strategies, and the lessons you actually need to succeed in business. Each episode features unfiltered insights from me and guests who’ve built it, lost it, and built it back bigger. So buckle up. It’s time to learn how to do business, properly.

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October 2, 20261 hr 12 min

Why I Never Push a Deal, Even a Million-Pound One | Matt Haycox

He bought an apartment listed at 20 million for 7, and he doesn't think he's a great negotiator. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@NoBollockswithMattHaycox Repurposed from a podcast Matt recorded in Bali, where apparently a gym session is two and a half hours of talking and thirty minutes of lifting. His take: raising capital is just high-ticket sales in a different suit. The richest buyers will ghost you for two years, then ask for the contract. And a dinner on a boat every Thursday paid for itself several times over. Course sellers trying their luck in B2B might want to look away. Then it turns to AI, which Matt is, in his own words, ramming down everybody's throat. His team got one week to come back with something. His monthly bill does the work of £70,000 of staff. And he's got no sympathy for anyone still waiting to see how it plays out. Stick around to the end for the one money habit he'd undo if he got his time again. Chapters 0:00 Coming Up 0:14 Catching Up: From the Gym in Bali 1:16 Bali vs Dubai – Why He'd Choose Bali 6:39 Capital Raising Is Just High-Ticket Sales 12:12 Listed at 20M, Bought for 7M – Why He Didn't Care 14:33 How to Build a Pipeline Full of Leads 18:18 £1,500 Boat Dinners That Paid for Themselves 20:36 Building a Network From Scratch in Bali 22:40 High-Ticket vs B2B: What Actually Changes 26:43 Why Course Sellers Get Eaten Alive in B2B 30:38 Is "I Need to Think About It" Ever Real? 33:20 Why Traditional Businesses Have No Funnels 40:28 Selling to Business Owners Who Won't Listen 46:59 Why Almost Nobody Is Really Using AI 50:04 How He's Forcing AI Into His Team 52:03 The App He Built in 15 Minutes 57:16 Rebuilding His Lending Business in Six Hours 1:02:02 A £700 Bill Doing £70,000 of Work 1:04:55 AGI – and Why Relationships Are All That's Left 1:07:24 Spend Like You'll Make More? His Money Regret Follow Matt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themathaycox/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthaycox/ Website: https://matt-haycox.com/ ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

September 28, 202650 min

Investing in Bali Property: Freehold, Financing and Why Developers Go Bust | Rasmus Holst

Coco Development Group founder Rasmus Holst is fine with Bali having almost no mortgages, while Matt thinks it will stunt growth. Rasmus Holst joins Matt Haycox to explain how a Danish kid who made his first million kroner at 12 reselling second-hand luxury goods, ended up founding Coco Development Group in Bali. He arrived three and a half years ago, flipped a rented villa, then built his first co-living project of three villas and 14 apartments. Coco now numbers 1,500 people and has hired someone new every day and a half on average. Its Coco Lifestyle Resort opened on 1st June and ran at 96% occupancy, with almost half its bookings coming direct. They talk about what works in Bali real estate right now, from why so many developers have gone out of business to why Rasmus thinks nine out of ten build for the investor rather than the guest. He explains the casino logic behind Coco's public facilities, how a 200-strong marketing team puts out more than 5,000 pieces of content a month, and why leasehold versus freehold matters more than headline returns. The few mortgages on offer carry around 16% interest and can't be used off plan, and Rasmus makes his case for keeping it that way. Chapters 0:00 - Coming Up 0:15 - Intro 0:46 - Zero Meetings in the Diary 5:02 - How Rasmus Recruits A-players 10:18 - Office vs Remote Teams 11:40 - His First Million at 12 13:22 - The Festivals: Selling Out in 40 days 17:38 - From Festivals to Bali 19:17 - Getting into Bali property 24:33 - Who's buying: Investors vs Living in 26:13 - Where the investors come from 26:59 - Price points & what €90K gets you 31:08 - How the units get rented out 32:17 - Why Bali developers go bust 36:27 - Leasehold vs Freehold 40:19 - Mortgages & Financing in Bali 45:22 - The New Licensing & Airbnb Rules 47:45 - What's Next: Lombok & Other islands 50:03 - Final Thoughts & Where to find Rasmus About Rasmus Holst Rasmus Holst is the founder of Coco Development Group, which builds lifestyle resorts and co-living in Bali. Before property he ran festivals in Copenhagen and built Accounting Hero, doing the accounts for more than 1,000 Danish companies and growing from zero to 35 people in six months. As a kid he was the sixth-best table tennis player in Denmark, and he says he has never had a job. Follow Rasmus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rasmus_holst__/ Coco Development Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coco_development/ Coco Website https://cocodevelopmentgroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusiholst/ ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

September 18, 202644 min

The AI Blog Post That Spooked the Whole Industry | Gael Breton

Gael Breton spent 15 years building a business on SEO. Then one Google update wiped out his sites, and he shut the whole thing down overnight. In this episode, Matt sits down with Gael Breton, co-founder of Authority Hacker, about what he did next, going all-in on AI two years before most marketers did, and building a training business now over 1,000 members strong. Gael is blunt about the hype: he's downloaded plenty of the AI skills being handed out free on LinkedIn, and reckons almost all of them are barely tested. He spent 60 hours building one of his own, wrote 90 articles testing versions against each other, and deliberately prompted it like a drunk person to see where it broke. Matt and Gael also dig into why AI amplifies whatever you already are rather than fixing what you don't know, why website builders and design agencies are in real trouble but developers aren't, how to decide which AI subscription is actually worth your money, and the blog post that had the industry asking to be slowed down. Plus the unglamorous stuff, how Gael has stayed in business with the same partner for 15 years. If you're using AI every day and still not sure you're getting an edge from it, this one's for you. Chapters 0:00 - Coming Up 0:05 - Intro 0:54 - 15 Years of SEO, Then He Stopped Overnight 3:00 - Why 12 Downloaded Skills Won't Replace Your SEO Team 6:14 - AI Can't Fix a Lack of Domain Knowledge 9:24 - A Year Ago This Was Genius. Now It's Basic 12:13 - Do We Still Need Web Developers? 16:48 - Sauna Idea to Finished Product in a Weekend 20:52 - "With Today's Tools I Could Have Been a Billionaire" 24:43 - Where Most People Get Stuck With AI 29:58 "We're 6-12 Months From Agents Going Rogue" 33:46 - ChatGPT vs Claude: Which Should You Pay For? 40:29 - 15 Years With the Same Business Partner 43:01 - Where to Find Gael Where to Find Gael: Authority Hacker Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/authority-hacker-podcast-ai-automation-for-small-biz/id1073349789 Authority Hacker on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AuthorityHacker AI Accelerator: https://www.authorityhacker.com/ai-accelerator/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gael-breton/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbretonah ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

August 21, 20261 hr 3 min

I Borrowed From 80 Different Lenders Before It All Collapsed | Matt Haycox

Everyone borrows. Almost nobody borrows from eighty different people Repurposed from Jigar Sagar's podcast The Hidden Code, this one is about money - how you get it, how you keep it, and what happens when the people lending it to you all want it back at once. Matt takes it from a kid asking his mum whether the doctor was a millionaire, to running the biggest strip club group in the UK by 28, to a perfect credit rating in June 2008 and personal bankruptcy by September. He walks through what the borrowing actually looked like: 24-month terms instead of ten years, 20% instead of 8%, 200 finance agreements across 80 lenders, and every one of them personally guaranteed. Then the harder part - why the lenders wouldn't restructure, what he learned about leverage that he still uses, and how the man who owed £45 million ended up being the one deciding whether other people are worth lending to. Jigar also gets him on Dubai: why it's a terrible market to borrow in and a brilliant one to raise in, whether the new bankruptcy laws have changed anything on the ground, and why Matt would still put 85% of what he owns on the line today. Chapters 0:00 - Coming Up 0:18 - Intro 1:02 - Too Many Businesses to Have One Title 2:17 - Growing Up in Leeds 4:00 - "Is He a Millionaire?" Matt's Only Metric of Success 8:02 - Leaving University for a Failing Uniform Business 10:50 - What You Could Learn About Business Before the Internet 14:32 - Getting Into the Bar Trade at 21 18:18 - Buying Bars With Cheques That Hadn't Cleared 21:02 - Why Bars Don't Make Money and Strip Clubs Do 24:03 - Where the Courage Came From 26:07 - 200 Finance Agreements From 80 Different Lenders 32:20 - Cross-Collateralised: Signing Personal Guarantees on Everything 33:28 - Bankrupt by September and How the Comeback Started 37:15 - What to Do When Your Business Runs Out of Cash 40:43 - Why Matt Moved to Dubai 44:18 - Does the UAE's Bankruptcy Law Actually Work? 47:14 - Why Dubai Feels Safer Than Europe 52:58 - Would He Take the Same Risks Today? 55:10 - Dubai as a Network 56:07 - Rapid Fire: Raising Money, Red Flags and Bankruptcy 01:00:24 - Final Thoughts: The One Industry He'd Bet On Now ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

August 11, 20265 min

Mic Drop #12: Scammed, Banned, Deleted - £30k Later, His Business Survived | Will Brown

In these ‘Mic Drops,’ I’ll be spotlighting my favourite, most impactful moments from past episodes of No Bollocks with Matt Haycox. These are the moments that hit hardest, offer the most value, and deserve to be heard again. Will Brown built and sold a £16.4 million online education business, then built a second one doing over a million pounds a month teaching others how to do the same. The same week he was celebrating his biggest month yet, he lost access to both his Instagram and YouTube — years of followers, content and customers, gone overnight. In this Mic Drop, Will breaks down the £2,000 scam that started it all, why his own account got flagged and deleted, what he's paid in the past to get a platform back (£20,000, seven weeks of waiting), and the shady telegram network quietly offering to "fix" account bans for a fee. If you don't own the platform, you're just renting your business from someone else. Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:05 - Losing YouTube, Instagram & the Danger of One Platform ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

August 5, 202610 min

Mic Drop #11: Don't Give Your Kids a Business, Give Them This Instead | Matt Haycox

In these ‘Mic Drops,’ I’ll be spotlighting my favourite, most impactful moments from past episodes of No Bollocks with Matt Haycox. These are the moments that hit hardest, offer the most value, and deserve to be heard again. Matt Haycox is an entrepreneur who went bankrupt at 27 - with a wife, a one-year-old, and the safety net he'd quietly assumed was underneath him already gone. Now 45 with three daughters, he's determined they'll learn about money from him rather than from a collapse of their own. In this Mic Drop, Matt breaks down where real risk tolerance comes from, why he set up a company for his 18-year-old daughter, and the boring £250-a-month habit he pushes on her instead of pushing her into business. Because your kid doesn't need to run a company to end up wealthy. Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:05 - Bankruptcy, Resilience and the Safety Net That Disappeared 3:30 - Setting Kids Up to Win ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

July 28, 202612 min

Mic Drop #10: 5 Personal Branding Mistakes Keeping You Invisible | Alex Shaw

In these ‘Mic Drops,’ I’ll be spotlighting my favourite, most impactful moments from past episodes of No Bollocks with Matt Haycox. These are the moments that hit hardest, offer the most value, and deserve to be heard again. Most people are building a personal brand the wrong way, and they don't even know it. In this Mic Drop, personal branding expert Alex Shaw breaks down the five mistakes that keep business owners invisible to the very audience they're trying to reach. From trying to be known for everything, to outsourcing your voice, to chasing viral views that never convert - Alex covers why 9 million views left him broke, and what he changed to make $23,000 from just 180,000 the following month. If you're posting content and getting nothing back, this is probably why. Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:05 - Mistake #1 3:21 - Mistake #2 5:23 - Mistake #3 8:47 - Mistake #4 10:36 - Mistake #5 ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

July 23, 202610 min

Mic Drop #9: The Real Reason Men Are Lonely - And What Ryan Herrington Built to Fix It

In these ‘Mic Drops,’ I’ll be spotlighting my favourite, most impactful moments from past episodes of No Bollocks with Matt Haycox. These are the moments that hit hardest, offer the most value, and deserve to be heard again. Ryan Herrington went sober, lost all his friends overnight, and found himself alone in Bali with no one to call except a stranger from a podcast he'd listened to two years earlier. What happened next became the Bali Brotherhood. 1,000 men, zero marketing, built entirely on word of mouth. In this Mic Drop, Ryan breaks down why men are lonelier than ever, why the pressure to look strong is quietly costing them everything, and why whatever you're dealing with right now, you're not the only one. Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:05 - The Birth of the Bali Brotherhood 6:13 - What Happens Inside the Brotherhood? 8:41 - Have Men Changed Over Generations? ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

July 17, 202645 min

Why Most People Are Bad Negotiators And Don't Know It | Lousin Mehrabi

Lousin Mehrabi has spent two decades in high stakes negotiations and says the best negotiators are all calm, composed introverts. Lousin Mehrabi joins Matt Haycox to strip the aggression myth out of negotiation. She started in finance on the trading floors, handling M&A, IPOs and lobbying, until a year of corporate training in 2013 under professional negotiators, one from the French special forces, covering lie detection and profiling, changed her direction entirely. She now works from Dubai with companies, governments and hospitals on high stakes deals, divorce cases and suicide interventions, and reckons that in over 90 percent of cases what people say they want is not what they need. Donald Trump gets a proper dissection: his habit of taking agreed deals off the table and making you beg for what you already had, and why it only works with authority behind it. Hostage negotiation comes down from the movies to everyday life, from why negotiators never work alone to why you keep unreasonable people talking for the intel, with lessons from her mentor George Kohlrieser, the hostage negotiator who wrote Hostage at the Table. Matt puts his own deal record through her three pillars of credibility, competence and composure, and picks a fight with the Starbucks discount method of building a rejection muscle. Chapters 0:00 - Coming Up 0:16 - Intro 1:28 - The Truth About Negotiation: It’s Not What You Think 8:30 - How to Get the Best Deal: Business & Life Examples 17:53 - Is Donald Trump a Good Negotiator? 24:19 - Hostage Negotiation: How It Really Works 34:01 - Overcoming Fear of Rejection in Negotiation 39:17 - Mastering Everyday Negotiation: How to Get What You Want for Free 42:08 - Final Thoughts & Where to Learn More from Lousin Mehrabi About Lousin Mehrabi Lousin Mehrabi is a professional negotiator, keynote speaker and negotiation advisor. She rarely works with the public, sharing free content on LinkedIn and YouTube instead, and previously hosted a podcast interviewing fellow professional negotiators. She has trained leaders at a week long summit in Gstaad and holds that negotiation, leadership and emotional intelligence go hand in hand. Follow Lousin: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lousinmehrabi/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lousin-mehrabi/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lousinmehrabi ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...

July 10, 202649 min

Franchise Expert Reveals How Franchising Really Works | Cliff Nonnenmacher

Most people think buying a franchise means buying a business. It doesn't - and the gap between those two things is where most franchisees lose money. Cliff Nonnenmacher has spent 25 years and owned 12 different franchise brands, and in this episode he pulls back the curtain on how the industry actually operates - from why you can never truly own a Chick-fil-A, to why food franchises carry some of the worst margins in the business, to what really happens when a franchisor decides to take a location back. Matt and Cliff also dig into where the real money is being made right now - a wave of home services and trades franchises riding a labour shortage most people haven't clocked yet - plus the real numbers behind buying in, financing a franchise with an SBA loan, and why going it alone without an expert is one of the fastest ways to pick the wrong brand. Chapters 0:00 - Intro 0:47 - Matt's Franchising Backstory 5:21 - Does the Owner Have to Work in the Business? 6:25 - The Big Players: PLCs and Mega-Franchisees 14:03 - How Corporates Decide Which Units They Keep 19:19 - When a Good Operator Still Can't Turn a Profit 23:42 - The Chick-fil-A Model: Operator, Not Owner 28:50 - Cliff's Pick, the Feminisation of Men Thesis 36:04 - The Real Numbers on Buying a Trades Franchise 40:49 - Territory Length, Renewals and Who Actually Buys These 43:43 - Why Use a Consultant 47:41 - Closing Out Follow Cliff LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliffnonnenmacher/ Beyond the Brand Book: https://amzn.eu/d/095Ovio5 ======================== Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur. I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win. On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox , I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business. Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make . 📩 Get Matt’s free business newsletter for weekly strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes lessons → https://nobollockswithmatthaycox.beehiiv.com/subscribe ▶ Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thematthaycox/ ▶ YouTube – No Bollocks Podcast - YouTube ▶ LinkedIn – https://www.linkedi...