“We’ll look back at this period in ten, twenty, thirty years time as the moment of opportunity” – Ben Francis

In this first ever episode of Deep Dive, Ali sits down with Ben Francis, the founder and CEO of leading UK Billion-Dollar fitness brand, Gymshark. Ben founded Gymshark at only 19 years old while studying at Aston University. With only his £5 an hour pizza delivery shift money in his back pocket, Ben went from hand making and screen printing clothes in a shed with a group of friends to owning one of the fastest growing global brands in fitness.

Once the antidote to what Ben calls a “selfish-problem”, Gymshark is now the host of a global community of athletes, artists, visionaries, and innovators with a mission to inspire individuals to achieve the extraordinary. But the question is, how did he do it? In the episode Ben and Ali have a candid and in-depth conversation about building a viral brand, self-development and why the age of entrepreneurialism is now. Ben also gives Ali advice on his new business structure, offering tips on hiring, distributing control and how to reinvent yourself as a business person.

“Once you have that confidence that you can make something from nothing, then the ideas start to flow” – Ali Abdaal [06:24]

“Granted there’s some incredibly talented people…but everyone is winging it has they go along, even up to the multi-billion dollar corporations” – Ben Francis [13:07]

“And this was the moment it hit home because we went from doing £300 a day to £30,000 in the first hour of the website being live…” – Ben Francis [23:51]

“Every great business person needs to reinvent themselves over and over again…” – Ben Francis [39:22]

“Pick five key facets to the business and then you need individuals that are better than you in every single one of those facets…” – Ben Francis [57:11]

“If you don’t aim at something you can’t meander through life and expect to be something…” – Ben Francis [01:09:23]

“Nothing great is achieved in the short term, it’s over prolonged periods of constant progression…” – Ben Francis [01:10:54]

“Inspiring people to build businesses, start businesses and be better in themselves is incredibly fulfilling…” Ben Francis [01:16:03]

“You have to do what you love otherwise you’ll end up giving up. There’s no niche too small so whatever it is double down on it an genuinely give it a go…” – Ben Francis [01:34:07]

“It’s a consistent theme from everyone else who is successful who I’ve met, they’ve failed miserably so many times and they’ve been endlessly optimistic about it and they’ve gone again and again and again…” – Ben Francis [01:34:43]