Lead With a Story, Not a Title

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Simon Alexander Ong is a bestselling author (Energize, Penguin), keynote speaker and one of the world's leading personal development coaches. He left a six-figure finance career in 2017 to build a coaching practice from scratch, and has since grown a YouTube channel to 130,000 subscribers in under 12 months, a viral video with nearly 4 million views, a Sunday Times bestselling book, and a global speaking career.

In this episode, Simon breaks down the exact playbook behind every part of his business. From landing his first coaching client to engineering a viral YouTube video, getting a Penguin book deal, and commanding premium speaking fees.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Simon Alexander Ong

01:00 Why Simon left a six-figure finance career

03:00 The journey from the head to the heart05:00 Going full-time into coaching in 2017

08:00 Warren Buffett's #1 most important skill in business

09:30 How Simon got his first coaching clients

13:00 The Third Door framework and how to use it practically

17:00 How speaking grew organically from coaching

22:00 Building a personal brand before social media

28:00 How to answer "what do you do?" with a story

32:00 The YouTube strategy: outlier videos explained

40:00 How the "I'm 40" video happened (and nearly didn't)

48:00 Why it ranked 9/10 for 3 days then hit 1.5M views

52:00 Ad revenue breakdown and YouTube monetisation strategy

55:00 LinkedIn content strategy: hero, educational and interactive

01:00:00 What Simon's business looks like today

01:05:00 What's possible in coaching at every level

01:10:00 How to land speaking gigs and what fees are realistic

01:14:00 The truth about book deals and why royalties aren't the point

01:18:00 How to write a book (and why marketing is 50% of the job)

01:19:00 The James Bond opening — how to hook any audience

01:24:00 Simon's favourite coaching questions

01:27:00 The stories we tell ourselves and how to rewrite them

01:30:00 Why "making it" is a trap — and what to focus on instead