Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / The King Dems Podcast - Ep. 3 with Jo & Roy, Co-founders of Augment Business School.

Transcript

The King Dems Podcast - Ep. 3 with Jo & Roy, Co-founders of Augment Business School. · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

• 0:02
  Hello wonderful people, you once again welcome to the Kingdom's
• 0:06
  Podcast. I am happy to tell you that the
• 0:09
  Kingdom's purpose is proudly endorsed by the Augment Pieces
• 0:13
  School, courtesy of the partnership between the
• 0:16
  Kingdom's Forecast and the Augmented Peter School.
• 0:19
  Listeners who subscribe or who enrol to the NBA programme are
• 0:26
  entitled to or 30% discount open enrollment for the programme.
• 0:34
  Simply sign up using the code King names Port 30 as it appears
• 0:39
  on your screen. The the the Code is also going
• 0:43
  to be shared on the description of the podcast.
• 0:49
  The Open This School brand is a brand that connects and aligns
• 0:55
  with my personal values and the premium that I place on
• 0:59
  practical business education. I'm currently on the growing my
• 1:04
  Master's in Business Administration in the urban
• 1:07
  business to programme and I can tell you Authority TV that the
• 1:14
  programme is of immense value. It's of immense benefits.
• 1:19
  I have definitely improved my business acumen by being taught
• 1:25
  by seasoned, top notch, world renowned business leaders.
• 1:31
  Here's a word from our sponsors. Is way more important than
• 1:35
  sales. You're not going to know what's
• 1:37
  going to be the problems and what are the challenges that
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  you're going to face. And my job is to help you
• 1:42
  understand how sales helps you succeed at life.
• 1:46
  By the end of that phone call, my hand was shaking so badly I
• 1:49
  could not hold a pen to write. I called my manager, John, and I
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  said I might have just killed Jeff Bezos.
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  The end result of Google acquiring YouTube for $1.65
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  billion is compressed into 5 days.
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  You're being taught by actual people who have done it.
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  The founder of Shazam, the founder of Line, the founder of
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  Eventbrite, the founder of Waves, the founder of YouTube,
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  and others are going to help you understand how they did it it.
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  Is the best experience that you can have.
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  You're going to see some truly remarkable results.
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  Let's go. This is a lifetime lesson, so
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  start now. All right.
• 2:33
  OK. Ladies and gentlemen, you want
• 2:34
  to get Welcome to the Kingdom's podcast and today I have a
• 2:39
  really fantastic guest with me. You know, it's it's a double
• 2:42
  special. Today I have with me the
• 2:44
  founders of the Augment Business School are the sponsors of the
• 2:49
  Kingdom's podcast. How are you Joe and Roy, How are
• 2:53
  you guys doing? Joe, go first.
• 2:55
  I'm all good man. Thank you very much for having
• 2:57
  us here. It's a it's a privilege for us
• 2:59
  to be able to be part of this podcast.
• 3:01
  Like it's the reason why we endorsed it as well is because
• 3:03
  we believe in these kind of entrepreneurial, proactive, you
• 3:07
  know, initiatives that you're going through.
• 3:11
  And yeah, it's a it's a pleasure for us.
• 3:12
  It's the first time that I'm doing a podcast with Roy.
• 3:15
  So I mean, it's a it's a pleasure that goes both ways.
• 3:19
  Thank you so much for for having us today.
• 3:22
  It's a great honour for us to to participate in the podcast of
• 3:25
  our one of our students. So we are very excited for this
• 3:28
  conversation with you. Wow, interesting.
• 3:32
  Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much.
• 3:33
  I really appreciate it. You know, the, the podcast today
• 3:36
  is about you guys, right? But then, you know, let's talk
• 3:38
  about me first, right? I think I met with Joe first
• 3:43
  virtually actually. And we, we kind of connected,
• 3:48
  right. We connected well.
• 3:50
  And you know, when you meet somebody virtually and it feels
• 3:53
  like you've been friends with them for a long time.
• 3:55
  So I want to, I want to put you on the spot, Joe, like what?
• 3:59
  What is your opinion of me as a person?
• 4:04
  Honestly, man, and just so everyone knows, Adele didn't pay
• 4:07
  for me to say this. This is the truth.
• 4:09
  It's coming from my heart like I I agree with you.
• 4:12
  I had a good feeling. No, it's not.
• 4:17
  I mean, I totally agree, you know, and I think when someone
• 4:19
  feels something strong, it usually it's reciprocated on the
• 4:22
  other side as well. And yeah, I felt like our
• 4:25
  conversation was very long. I remember, I think it was two
• 4:28
  months ago, almost now. And we spoke for a very long
• 4:30
  time. We talked about.
• 4:31
  Nigeria, we talked. About your country, we talked
• 4:34
  about the importance of education in developing
• 4:36
  countries. I mean it was it was really a
• 4:38
  good thing and I I agree with you we we we had a very good fit
• 4:42
  and that's how you kind of introduced me very quickly to to
• 4:44
  your friend. And I remember that day where we
• 4:48
  had a group conversation after our our kind of 1 to one call
• 4:52
  and it was yeah it was really nice.
• 4:53
  I felt like you seemed like a very good fit for our programme.
• 4:58
  Honestly like and I'm not saying this from a commercial kind of
• 5:02
  argument. I'm saying this seriously.
• 5:04
  I honestly felt like, you know, with all of your background, I,
• 5:07
  if I'm not mistaken, you did economics as a degree at that
• 5:11
  time you were working as an auditor and and I mean,
• 5:14
  everything you said kind of resonates with what we were
• 5:17
  trying to do. So I mean, I totally agree.
• 5:20
  Like it was a pleasure to meet you, and it's going to be an
• 5:22
  even bigger pleasure to finally be able to meet you face to face
• 5:25
  next week. OK.
• 5:28
  OK. Thank you very much.
• 5:29
  You know, it is actually very important to be endorsed by
• 5:33
  brands that you actually connect with and not just, you know,
• 5:36
  brands that pay you money to to say good words about them.
• 5:40
  And that is something that I really am happy about, you know,
• 5:44
  being connected to the Auburn brand.
• 5:46
  So congratulations on your recent 6,000,000 dollar
• 5:51
  fundraising for the AUGMENT Business School.
• 5:53
  How are you guys celebrating this week with and you know,
• 5:56
  what are the plans for the future and I'm not sure let Roy
• 5:59
  take that. Yes.
• 6:00
  So of course we, we just announced our 6,000,000
• 6:03
  fundraising. It's a testament to the good
• 6:06
  work of the all augmenting. So we are very proud.
• 6:09
  It's a big milestone for us and it will allow us to to develop
• 6:14
  one thing that for sure we will do first is to create more
• 6:17
  content, more classes with more incredible speakers that will
• 6:21
  teach new subjects and and be added to the programme.
• 6:25
  And we would invest a lot for the community.
• 6:28
  As you know next week we'll do a first event in London, a real
• 6:31
  live event. We will organise webinar, we
• 6:34
  will organise live session. So the communities obviously a
• 6:38
  very strong component of any MBA and we will try to replicate
• 6:42
  that. And so the reason why we raise
• 6:44
  that amount of money is to invest in the content and to
• 6:48
  invest in our community And how we did to, to celebrate that we
• 6:52
  went to the restaurant with the whole team.
• 6:54
  We had a great time and we are just so excited for the long
• 6:58
  journey that is ahead. Fantastic you.
• 7:01
  Want to say something to? No, no, I just agree obviously
• 7:06
  with everything that Roy said. I think it's a testament of the
• 7:09
  trust that people put on us as he said it.
• 7:11
  And it's, it's really been something of a privilege to be
• 7:14
  part of this adventure for all of us, you know, and I think
• 7:17
  it's a big win for sure. But I also think that, and this
• 7:20
  is a state of mind that we all share here, is that we remain
• 7:23
  calm and focused because it's really only the beginning.
• 7:27
  You know, this is a long run what we're trying to do here,
• 7:30
  and it's really just the beginning of a very long endower
• 7:35
  and adventure. We're trying to improve the
• 7:38
  educational landscape in a really concrete way.
• 7:41
  So it's just the beginning. We're focused.
• 7:44
  We don't, we're not, we're trying not to get too excited
• 7:46
  about it. You know it's, it's investments
• 7:49
  also means a lot of work because now, yeah, we have to be, we
• 7:53
  have to be. We have to live up to the
• 7:55
  expectations of the investment now and it means a lot of
• 7:58
  pressure, but we're happy to take it.
• 8:00
  And I mean, I think everyone here is very excited for what's
• 8:03
  next, particularly next year. Oh wow interested.
• 8:07
  I think Joe you you mentioned the the team where Maruka
• 8:10
  recently you know is that is that part of the celebrations
• 8:14
  because you you gave me the recommendations you know for for
• 8:17
  the restaurants in Morocco and you know I did also have a good
• 8:20
  time in Morocco. It's it's interesting for for
• 8:22
  all of us you know on this podcast have been in work
• 8:24
  recently. So how's the time in America?
• 8:27
  And, you know, was that also part of the Six Million
• 8:30
  Celebration? It was more of a team building
• 8:35
  moment for us, you know, for to plan everything that was ahead
• 8:38
  in the next, you know, six months that we've been going
• 8:41
  through. We went to Marco beginning of
• 8:43
  September. It's true that our fundraising
• 8:45
  had already been completed because it was completed in
• 8:47
  August, but it wasn't really something to do with the
• 8:50
  fundraising. It was more about us being
• 8:52
  together and making sure we're on the same page with
• 8:56
  everything. Sorry for that.
• 8:58
  So it was more about that. It was, it was amazing,
• 9:02
  honestly. Roy organised most of it.
• 9:04
  He did it pretty well, I have to admit.
• 9:07
  And team went there and it was more about, yeah, just making
• 9:13
  sure we're aligned from a content perspective and
• 9:16
  marketing perspective, a sales perspective, all the operations
• 9:19
  in the business. And it was truly a very good
• 9:22
  time. And I I would recommend to go to
• 9:25
  America. OK.
• 9:28
  Yeah, I was in Marcus as well, you know, like you said, Tim,
• 9:31
  bonding and teamwork makes the dream work, right?
• 9:34
  You, you guys tend to speak French, right?
• 9:37
  The language barrier wouldn't have a little problem for you.
• 9:39
  It was indeed, you know, a big one for me.
• 9:41
  But then you know, the people were quite fantastic friendly
• 9:44
  and you know for me as well I would, I would recommend for
• 9:47
  people to go to work or Habibi, go to Morocco.
• 9:51
  These are our next question, right?
• 9:55
  How do you guys describe yourselves on a personal basis?
• 9:57
  You know who who wants to go first?
• 9:58
  Like in a nutshell, like who? How would you describe
• 10:01
  yourselves? I'll go first and then I mean, I
• 10:06
  don't know. I think on a general basis, I'm
• 10:10
  a very curious person. You know, I'm a pretty
• 10:13
  passionate person and the things that I do from a business
• 10:16
  perspective, but also from a personal perspective, I tend to
• 10:19
  approach it in a very similar way.
• 10:21
  You know, I really enjoy communicating with people, you
• 10:24
  know, and trying to understand and trying to help people.
• 10:27
  I'm very serious about that. It's one of the things that I
• 10:29
  really enjoy the most about what we do here at AUGMENT because at
• 10:32
  the end of the day, it is about helping people.
• 10:34
  It is about trying to have an impact on people's lives and
• 10:37
  it's something that really drives me considerably.
• 10:40
  And yeah, then I would say probably very adaptable and
• 10:42
  flexible for cultural reasons. I've lived in multiple
• 10:45
  countries. I come from different countries.
• 10:47
  I can talk about that later, but it makes me pretty open minded
• 10:51
  and very flexible. So yeah, I think in a nutshell
• 10:55
  that's what I would say. I probably probably forgetting
• 10:57
  some things, but that's the main things I think.
• 11:01
  I'll adjust that Alan does that. You know, right from the very
• 11:04
  first day we had a conversation I I did, I did pick that.
• 11:08
  So you did not even have to say, but I just need to know Roy or
• 11:12
  what's up with you like. It's it's not very easy to to
• 11:15
  decrybe myself, but I would say that I'm an entrepreneur at
• 11:19
  heart. I always wanted to to be an
• 11:21
  entrepreneur, to build a project, to to be with people
• 11:25
  that I love, that I like, that I love working with.
• 11:27
  This is for me like a chance and I'm very happy to to be able to
• 11:32
  to to do that every single day with amazing colleagues, Amazing
• 11:36
  co-founder. So I would say that I'm very
• 11:39
  intense, I'm 100% in everything that I do and yeah, I try to to
• 11:45
  make things happen. I love to take risk.
• 11:47
  I don't care about what people think and I just go for it.
• 11:52
  Fantastic. Fantastic.
• 11:53
  So, So what would you guys say are your common interests like
• 11:56
  in terms of your interests, your personality similarities, and
• 12:00
  are there any differences between you guys as well?
• 12:03
  I I just want to to to to tell them a story that is actually
• 12:07
  funny. So Joe and I were both from
• 12:09
  Belgium. And.
• 12:11
  From the exact same city Brussels and our schools were
• 12:15
  like 15 to each other since we moved both to London to study at
• 12:21
  King's College where we met. So this is something very
• 12:24
  interesting and and now we have we have become very good friends
• 12:28
  for for like 6-7 years since we met in London I think.
• 12:32
  What are our common points? There's a lot of, I mean, first
• 12:35
  of all, this is a funny story because it's the truth.
• 12:37
  I mean, we literally, we met on the first day of our bachelors.
• 12:40
  Literally. I remember it was in 2015.
• 12:43
  As soon as we arrived at our campus, we we met each other.
• 12:46
  And since then we've been extremely close.
• 12:48
  And you know the relationship has only been growing from
• 12:50
  there. I do think The funny thing about
• 12:52
  us is that although we have a lot of differences when you know
• 12:55
  us very well in terms of what Roy just said when he described
• 12:58
  himself, we do have a lot of similarities from that
• 13:00
  perspective as well. And I think that's one of the
• 13:02
  reasons why we have such good synergy when we work together.
• 13:06
  We're both pretty sensitive people, you know, and I mean
• 13:08
  this in a good way. I mean like we it can backfire
• 13:12
  sometimes because it's never good to be too sensitive.
• 13:14
  But I think you know we're pretty thoughtful.
• 13:16
  We have serious amount of compassion about people and I
• 13:19
  think it builds up on a on a pretty good emotional
• 13:22
  intelligence and I say this with absolutely no arrogance.
• 13:24
  I think it's it's the truth and I think Roy mentioned intensity
• 13:28
  and I completely agree that he has it and I have it as well.
• 13:32
  It's probably one of the reasons why you know Augment is going on
• 13:34
  the right track. We're very intense at work and
• 13:37
  it's true that once we start something we can go on it very
• 13:40
  hard and we push ourselves to the limits.
• 13:43
  And now I hope it stays that way in a healthy way.
• 13:46
  But for the moment it's been, it's been a hell of a ride and
• 13:49
  yeah I think our similarities are the intensity.
• 13:52
  I think it's the sensitivity part and and yeah, I mean.
• 13:56
  And I think that one of our main differences is that, let's say
• 14:00
  there is a room full of people. It's 10 times easier for Joe to
• 14:04
  make friends and to talk than it is for me.
• 14:06
  So this would be like our main difference I think.
• 14:10
  So he said he seems to be more of the sanguine, and he probably
• 14:15
  another temperament. The outgoing and the extrovert
• 14:20
  was introvert. Yeah, I wouldn't call Roy an
• 14:23
  introvert, though. I think it's different
• 14:24
  communicating skills. It's a It's a different
• 14:27
  approach, but combined it's very complementary.
• 14:30
  OK, so So what are the factors you guys reckon make you guys?
• 14:34
  Form such a strong. Team at Business School.
• 14:38
  Like, what are those factors you think you know make the team
• 14:42
  teeth? I think one of the main
• 14:46
  advantages of this team is that we are all young, we are all
• 14:50
  hungry, we want to to make things happen.
• 14:52
  We are very ambitious and we just get things done and I think
• 14:58
  it's very important just I can trust my team when they say I'm
• 15:03
  on it, they're on it. When something is supposed to be
• 15:06
  done, it's done. And I think this is like basic
• 15:09
  things. First principle, you say that
• 15:11
  you will do something, you do something and when it's done it
• 15:14
  can point and over time it makes a successful company.
• 15:19
  And I think we have all of that at AUGMENT.
• 15:21
  I completely agree. And I think there's, I mean I'm
• 15:24
  taking quotes out of other people but there's a relentless
• 15:27
  aspect of the team. You know, and I think I remember
• 15:30
  in Morocco we talked about this and it's the idea of being
• 15:32
  relentlessly resourceful and it's a, it's a profound idea and
• 15:37
  something that whatever manager or whatever CEO would love to
• 15:40
  have only employees who are relentlessly resourceful.
• 15:44
  And it's truly what I believe our team is.
• 15:46
  You know it's it's there's a ruthless aspect about it but
• 15:49
  honestly in a very positive way like people have a very strong
• 15:52
  energy. They believe in pushing the
• 15:54
  boundaries all the time and as Roy said, they just make things
• 15:57
  happen. You know, we we invest in in in
• 16:00
  in young talent here you know more than you know profound
• 16:03
  experience and people learn and learn very quickly.
• 16:06
  And as Roy said, it compounds and we see the results, you
• 16:10
  know, just getting better and better.
• 16:12
  And yes, I think that's really the reason.
• 16:15
  And of course when you have a non experienced team, so there
• 16:19
  is some, some default we have do not have that experience.
• 16:23
  But the fact that you do not have that experience is that
• 16:25
  sometimes you do not know how hard it is and because you do
• 16:28
  not know how hard it is, it makes it easier to go for it.
• 16:32
  And then are you hungry? And then you you you find a way
• 16:37
  and I think that's our chance at AUGMENT.
• 16:39
  We believe that we can do anything and so we will go for.
• 16:43
  It I totally agree. Like we dream big because we
• 16:46
  don't. Until we're proven, it's not
• 16:47
  possible. Well, we're always gonna believe
• 16:50
  that it is and it's just and all the time.
• 16:52
  That's the approach that we have for for all sorts of subjects
• 16:55
  here at AUGMENT. It's keeping that kind of young
• 16:58
  mind. And you know, yeah, I totally
• 17:01
  agree. Yeah, I I I know it's something
• 17:04
  with you guys you know that the learning spirit and that's
• 17:07
  something that has actually been very responsible for my own
• 17:11
  success as well in my life. You know when you you are open
• 17:14
  minded, you're open to learning, right?
• 17:16
  You have endless possibilities you know but then when you feel
• 17:20
  like you, you already know, right.
• 17:21
  It limits the extent to which you can actually, you know go
• 17:25
  for as a person. And interestingly probably
• 17:29
  something I I did not tell Joe at some point in my life I I I
• 17:33
  used to be a teacher. I used to be lecturer, actually
• 17:35
  selected professional students, right?
• 17:37
  I select your financial, accounting, financial reporting,
• 17:40
  corporate reporting, right? And then I noticed something
• 17:43
  with my students, right? The ones that did not have a
• 17:46
  finance background tend to do better than once with finance
• 17:49
  backgrounds because the guys without the finance backgrounds
• 17:52
  tend to feel like they do not know anything, so they feel like
• 17:55
  their tabular. Their minds, you know, are clean
• 17:58
  slates when it comes to finance and they're very hungry and
• 18:01
  passionate to learn. But those ones with the finance
• 18:04
  background feel like they already know what finance is
• 18:07
  about, right? And the do not tend to have, you
• 18:10
  know, the kind of good results that you know the guys without
• 18:14
  the background tend to have. That's my own personal research
• 18:17
  and study from lecturing. Hopefully in the future I'll
• 18:21
  also be a lecturer in the upgrade Business School.
• 18:23
  We'll see about that. Nothing is impossible.
• 18:27
  Yes, definitely. So the.
• 18:30
  Next question, one one thing I want to add, just about what you
• 18:33
  said is the flexibility as well. Having youth is we're very
• 18:36
  adaptable to the situations, you know.
• 18:38
  And so if you realise that some things aren't going the right
• 18:41
  way or we're we're and this is something that you can have
• 18:44
  because of the maybe a lack of experience, you know, we're not
• 18:47
  stubborn about things. We are very happy to react and
• 18:50
  to adapt and to be extremely flexible and it makes us go fast
• 18:55
  and be pretty efficient in the things that we do and that can
• 18:58
  be related to any sorts of any parts of the business.
• 19:03
  It's it's really something that I think, yeah, identifies us a
• 19:06
  lot. Of Interesting.
• 19:09
  So you guys grew up around the same place, but then separately.
• 19:15
  Yeah, until you got to meet in London, Right.
• 19:17
  So the next question basically is about how childhood you know
• 19:20
  and growing up worse like for you and who get your early life
• 19:24
  influences. So who goes for us too, to go
• 19:28
  first? Yeah, I mean, we.
• 19:31
  So I had a pretty turbulent childhood, to be fair.
• 19:34
  Just because my parents divorced, honestly.
• 19:37
  And it defined a lot of the things that, you know, came
• 19:39
  after that. I lived in three different
• 19:41
  countries during my childhood cities.
• 19:44
  It's, it's probably the reasons why I have certain traits in my
• 19:47
  personality as well. It comes with good and bad
• 19:50
  things, to be fair. So yeah, I have dual
• 19:53
  nationality. I'm half Brazilian and half
• 19:55
  Belgium, just like Roy. So I lived, you know, I studied
• 19:58
  in London, then I went to San Paulo, then I went to Rio, and
• 20:01
  then after that I went to Brussels.
• 20:03
  And yeah, and I mean as everything in life, it's a trade
• 20:06
  off. So it comes with a lot of
• 20:07
  positive things. It allowed me to have a very
• 20:09
  open mind, you know, from a cultural aspect, but also just,
• 20:13
  you know. Being comprehensive with every
• 20:15
  type of people and being able the relationship with all sorts
• 20:20
  of different types of people. And it also is complicated
• 20:23
  because, you know, my family is always part of my family, is
• 20:25
  always very far away. And I know you can understand
• 20:28
  that having family in Africa and I suppose maybe family in the
• 20:32
  UK, it's something that, yeah, it has pros and cons.
• 20:37
  So that's Roy and I grew up in Brussels for for for I I I was
• 20:42
  there for seven years and and yeah, then we went to London and
• 20:46
  that's where we met. So yeah, I think that's
• 20:49
  basically my childhood definitely defined a lot of the
• 20:52
  things that I do now and a lot of the things, a lot of the ways
• 20:55
  that I am like everyone to be fair.
• 20:57
  What do you think? Yeah, and I think for me it was
• 21:01
  a bit different. I was born in Belgium.
• 21:04
  I went to the same school, a small Jewish school in Belgium,
• 21:07
  for 18 years. So I had a very small circle.
• 21:11
  I knew the whole community. My friends were the same since
• 21:14
  six years old to 18 years old. So I would say a very kind
• 21:19
  childhood, very happy childhood. And then I decided that I needed
• 21:23
  to to move, that I needed to travel, that I needed to to meet
• 21:27
  other people from different countries, that I had to learn
• 21:30
  to speak English because I was very bad in English.
• 21:34
  I think one of the main thing that defined my childhood, I was
• 21:37
  part of a youth movement in Brussels, and I always dreamed
• 21:42
  to become the the head of the youth movement.
• 21:45
  And when I was 18, I became the head of the youth movement.
• 21:49
  I would say it was my first entrepreneurial experience.
• 21:51
  It was like the goal was to have as many kids as possible going
• 21:55
  to your youth movement. So the the the number of kids
• 21:59
  were like your currency and so if you had more kids it meant
• 22:02
  that you did a good work. And I think that's why I really
• 22:06
  fell in love with being an entrepreneur, helping people,
• 22:10
  having a team, organising event, organising educational
• 22:17
  activities for the kids basically.
• 22:19
  And I think that defines me a lot.
• 22:22
  And moved to England and that's where we started studying
• 22:27
  together with Joe in the UK. Who are interested?
• 22:32
  Speaking of your Jewish background, right, I once read a
• 22:35
  book called The Jewish Phenomenon.
• 22:38
  It's about 7 principles that the Jews utilise in leaving leading
• 22:44
  a very successful life, you know, in the judicial
• 22:46
  communities. So one of the principles I
• 22:49
  learnt that book is that successful people are either
• 22:52
  professionals or entrepreneurs. So do you agree with that
• 22:56
  principle right? And did you see that principle
• 22:59
  playing out in your Jewish community?
• 23:03
  What are the 2 words that you say?
• 23:05
  Professional. Yeah, professionals and
• 23:08
  entrepreneurs, yes, they're successful people.
• 23:10
  That the definition of success to Jewish people is either you
• 23:14
  are a professional or an entrepreneur and you know the
• 23:18
  family set up is actually built towards ensuring that the kids
• 23:24
  in the in the society so to speak, end up as either
• 23:29
  entrepreneurs or professionals to reducing that was actually
• 23:35
  applicable to you as well. I don't like to do
• 23:39
  generalisation, but I will talk for me and for the people that I
• 23:41
  know. It's true that personally I was
• 23:45
  only around entrepreneurs. My father is an entrepreneur and
• 23:48
  all his friends are entrepreneur, so of course it
• 23:51
  had a big impact on me I think. And as I said, I don't like to
• 23:55
  do generalisation. But education is like the most
• 23:58
  important thing and everything starts with education and being
• 24:02
  curious and wanting to learn. But one said that I would say
• 24:06
  that was very important for me personally and I have to thank
• 24:09
  my parents for that. They put in my head since I was
• 24:13
  a kid that everything is possible and that nothing is too
• 24:16
  big for me and I and that I can dream big and that I think is
• 24:21
  very important. Oh wow, interesting.
• 24:25
  The next question on my leaves right now is about your academic
• 24:29
  background. So can you talk us through your
• 24:31
  academic backgrounds? So let's go with Joe first.
• 24:37
  Yeah, So as I said, I mean, I I went to different schools when I
• 24:41
  was when I was a kid and then growing up as a teenager in
• 24:44
  Brazil in the developing country, I I started in the
• 24:47
  English system. That's how I learned English
• 24:50
  from a very young age. Then I went to the French system
• 24:52
  when I moved to Rio, you know, another city in Brazil.
• 24:55
  And then I went to Brussels. I finished, you know, I went to
• 24:58
  the French school there, which is a pretty, yeah, prestigious
• 25:02
  kind of French institution. And it allowed me to make, you
• 25:06
  know, all of my best friends and amazing people, a lot of
• 25:10
  entrepreneurs as well, who kind of pushed me to be where I'm at
• 25:13
  today as well. I really acknowledge the
• 25:15
  importance of my best friends and their ambition that I share
• 25:19
  with them. And that allowed me to kind of
• 25:22
  thrive in the way that I wanted to.
• 25:24
  And. And, Yeah.
• 25:25
  And I'm really thankful for that.
• 25:27
  And then I went to London. Yeah.
• 25:29
  I went to King's College. I studied International
• 25:31
  Development with economics. I was always very, very
• 25:33
  interested in the developing world and the emergent economies
• 25:36
  and what makes a country to develop itself quicker than
• 25:40
  another one. You know, what are the
• 25:41
  fundamental factors that defines, you know, the
• 25:44
  development of a society? I really think it's something
• 25:47
  that I was very interested in because my will was to go to
• 25:50
  Brazil, was to go back to Brazil and help my country.
• 25:53
  I know, it seems, you know, very big, but it was really my, my
• 25:56
  dream since I was an early teenager.
• 25:59
  And then, yeah, I went to Paris, I went to a Business School, to
• 26:03
  one of the very famous business schools here in France, because
• 26:05
  I realised that economics was, I really recommended.
• 26:09
  I think it's extremely important to have the economics knowledge
• 26:12
  because it's the way that the whole world operates.
• 26:15
  But I felt like I needed some, I don't know, practical business
• 26:18
  goals, which is ironic considering what we're doing
• 26:21
  here at Augment. But then I went through the
• 26:24
  Business School. It was amazing.
• 26:25
  I met a lot of people and now I'm here.
• 26:30
  It kind of, yeah. Aligned itself pretty naturally.
• 26:32
  And for me, as soon as I graduated from high school, I
• 26:36
  went to London as well, where I met Joe to King's College.
• 26:39
  I studied mathematics. To be honest, it didn't interest
• 26:44
  me that much, but at the end it allowed me to to go to my dream
• 26:49
  school which was HSC Paris. And HSC Paris is actually where
• 26:54
  we had the idea for for Augment and we might talk about it a
• 26:57
  little bit later, but I had a great time.
• 26:59
  I did ask Joe, a master in management.
• 27:01
  I met amazing people. I had two amazing years, but I
• 27:06
  was extremely disappointed by the quality of the classes
• 27:09
  because all my teachers were either academic, sometimes
• 27:13
  consultant, but none of them had built any businesses in their
• 27:17
  life. For me that always knew that I
• 27:19
  wanted to be an entrepreneur and learn how to build a successful
• 27:23
  company. It wasn't interesting and it
• 27:27
  wasn't anchored in the real world.
• 27:31
  And that's why we decided to to go for Augment and to create an
• 27:36
  alternative that we believe is much more appropriate for anyone
• 27:39
  wanting to learn the real business skills.
• 27:42
  I felt the same. I agree.
• 27:43
  There was a discrepancy between the theoretical reality that pH
• 27:48
  DS and researchers can teach you at business schools.
• 27:50
  Even the best ones. Exactly.
• 27:52
  Yeah, yeah, the actual practical reality, you know, it said
• 27:56
  there's just a huge gap between both and we felt like it was a
• 28:01
  void that should be filled. You know, it's it's something
• 28:03
  that was was honestly pretty impressive to see how far from
• 28:07
  the reality sometimes the concepts that we were taught
• 28:10
  were. So.
• 28:12
  So I completely agree. I felt.
• 28:13
  I felt the same. It's quite interesting to see
• 28:16
  how business geniuses actually get bored right by abstract
• 28:22
  concepts in school. It's it's played itself over
• 28:25
  time. The Cadillacs of Steve Jobs, the
• 28:27
  likes of Bill Gates, you know, they get bored, you know, which
• 28:30
  could not because they're not academically brilliant, but then
• 28:33
  they're more interested in the practical stuff, right?
• 28:36
  And I think that's also playing out with with you guys.
• 28:39
  And here, kudos to, you know what you guys are doing Business
• 28:42
  School. The moment, you know.
• 28:44
  I told Joe the moment I saw it. I think I saw it on an
• 28:47
  Instagram, umm odd, right? And then I forgot the name.
• 28:51
  But then I saw the concept and I knew this is a right concept,
• 28:56
  This is what a Business School should be.
• 28:58
  Because for me, I've actually been delayed, you know, doing an
• 29:01
  MPAI started one in Nigeria, but I suppose when I moved to to the
• 29:06
  UK I had to stop, you know that that programme.
• 29:09
  But then when I started I said yes, this is what I have been
• 29:12
  looking for. You know, being taught business
• 29:15
  by people who have actually built a businesses right from
• 29:21
  start up to become, you know, unicorns.
• 29:22
  And that is really what business is about.
• 29:24
  Business is practical, not abstract, right.
• 29:28
  It's quite, it's, it's quite where you guys are doing.
• 29:31
  So I think that leads us to the next question on the script.
• 29:36
  So it says how did you guys get into business and you know, what
• 29:40
  were your motivations? Go ahead.
• 29:45
  Ray, I mean as we said, I think it was very natural for us
• 29:49
  personally. It wasn't even a question.
• 29:51
  I always knew I wanted to, to go into the business world and it
• 29:55
  finally it happened that we decided to create a Business
• 29:58
  School. So it went even further than
• 30:00
  just going into business. But yeah, something very natural
• 30:03
  for us, whether it's being an entrepreneur, working in a
• 30:07
  startup, in the tech scene, but always about business.
• 30:11
  I think that that's what we like and that's why we always wanted
• 30:16
  to do. Yeah.
• 30:17
  Did you guys abute any visas before AUGMENT or AUGMENT was,
• 30:26
  you know, the very first startup that you guys built?
• 30:31
  So personally I had a first company.
• 30:34
  It was during the COVID I was in My last year at Hecci, was doing
• 30:39
  a master in entrepreneurship and I created my first company.
• 30:43
  It was a 3D printing company we used to to print during the
• 30:48
  COVID and maybe, you know, because you wear glasses, maybe
• 30:51
  you had a lot of toys. That's a real story.
• 30:56
  It's amazing. Just so you know, my glasses are
• 31:00
  not, what would you call it. They're not medicated glasses.
• 31:04
  They're OK for the comic lens, for the computer, because I use
• 31:09
  the computer screens for long hours, right.
• 31:12
  Then I used to have, like, I used to have migraines.
• 31:14
  Yeah. So that's yeah, Olivia's
• 31:16
  glasses. When I'm in front of my
• 31:18
  computer, you will see me in real life with the glasses.
• 31:24
  And So what? We did.
• 31:25
  We invented a little clip that you could put on the mask to
• 31:29
  prevent the fog to go on your glasses, because it's like here.
• 31:33
  It did like this. And so the fog couldn't go to
• 31:35
  the glasses and it started as a side project.
• 31:39
  But then we started setting to pharmacies in France, in
• 31:42
  Belgium, even in Ivory Coast, in Switzerland, and it became quite
• 31:49
  big to be honest. We started the year with one 3D
• 31:52
  printer. We ended the year with 33D
• 31:55
  printer. We sold 1,000,000 clips all over
• 31:58
  Europe. So it started very small, but it
• 32:01
  became quite big at the end of the year.
• 32:04
  So that was for me my first entrepreneurial experience.
• 32:06
  Yeah, I I I I. Followed it very closely.
• 32:10
  I remember very well, unfortunately well not
• 32:13
  unfortunately because I learned from failure as well.
• 32:15
  My entrepreneurial initiatives weren't as successful as we
• 32:19
  build which is the company Roy is referring to, the 3D printer
• 32:23
  company. I actually tried 2 ventures.
• 32:25
  Both were didn't necessarily, I mean didn't lead to what I
• 32:30
  wanted them to leave. You know, I tried doing a food
• 32:33
  truck company in Brussels in 2018.
• 32:36
  So it was like five years ago and I was honestly close to
• 32:40
  doing everything. I almost bought the truck.
• 32:42
  I had agreements with the local government and everything.
• 32:46
  I had my chef and my suppliers. I just didn't have enough
• 32:49
  funding at that time and I regret it.
• 32:52
  But I also learned a lot through that endeavour.
• 32:54
  I always dreamed of launching my own food truck and my own
• 32:57
  restaurant. I'm really interested in the
• 32:59
  food industry. So, but I think it's important
• 33:01
  like obviously Roy had his success with Rebuilt and now
• 33:05
  obviously AUGMENT is going pretty well.
• 33:08
  But I think for all all entrepreneurs out there, it's
• 33:11
  cliche to say this. I know it's cliche, but it's
• 33:13
  cliche for a reason. It's cliche because it's through
• 33:17
  failure and you really learn as well what it takes, you know, to
• 33:19
  truly kind of reach that next level that you want to
• 33:22
  accomplish. And our instructors, the
• 33:24
  teachers that we have at arguments completely agree with
• 33:26
  this. It's something that they teach
• 33:27
  as well. So although my food truck didn't
• 33:30
  work, Augment is working now. So I mean you have to just keep
• 33:34
  believing as Roy said at the beginning and you have to just
• 33:37
  keep that, you know, self-confidence and confidence
• 33:39
  in the things that you believe in.
• 33:40
  And I do believe that at some point it will pay.
• 33:43
  And I mean this in a very honest way.
• 33:45
  I don't mean it as like a stereotypical kind of
• 33:47
  motivational speech. So I'm serious.
• 33:51
  I I think I learned a lot from the faders that I had.
• 33:54
  I I tried launching a company when I was at school as well.
• 33:57
  It was hidden hoods. Again.
• 33:59
  We sold a bit of it. We made a bit of money, but we
• 34:02
  didn't scale it to where we wanted it to go.
• 34:04
  Still big learning for me. So, so that's what I think and
• 34:08
  that's how I went to the business world.
• 34:11
  I was meant to go slightly more into a traditional corporate
• 34:14
  world. I actually specialised in
• 34:15
  finance, doing my Business School and then, you know, I
• 34:19
  just realised that, you know, after working for a year and a
• 34:21
  half in the financial ecosystem and the traditional corporate
• 34:24
  world, honestly, developing a small business is something that
• 34:28
  I consider to be far more exciting and far more
• 34:31
  interesting and drove me much more.
• 34:34
  Interesting. I do hope that the up and comers
• 34:36
  that are watching this or listening TV's would actually
• 34:38
  learn from the experience. I tell people that you should
• 34:44
  not be afraid to fail, right? And in life for me as a person,
• 34:49
  I have learned to to own up to my failures and my successes as
• 34:54
  well. Because the failures of actually
• 34:56
  put me beat my character, beat my resilience, right.
• 34:59
  And if you feel at, you know, endeavours in life, right, it is
• 35:07
  just a lesson. It is fuel for you to move
• 35:09
  forward and, you know, learn. It's it's only bad when you do
• 35:13
  not learn from your failures. But then you know, never be free
• 35:15
  to feel because even the most successful people you know in
• 35:19
  life, right, have actually filled out multiple things,
• 35:22
  right? But then people in society tend
• 35:25
  to put more focus on the successes without, you know,
• 35:30
  second back to see that you know people have actually, you know,
• 35:33
  field in the past and it's it's it's a beautiful thing, you
• 35:37
  know, to have you guys share these experiences of your
• 35:41
  feelings in the past. When you look at the the
• 35:44
  description of the podcast, right, it says it's about
• 35:47
  sharing the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary
• 35:50
  things. Right.
• 35:51
  The extra to the ordinary is, you know, is about a beautiful
• 35:56
  series from the failures that you've actually had in life and
• 36:00
  and you know, impacting people with the successes that you
• 36:03
  have. It's really, really fantastic.
• 36:05
  You know, you guys are talking about that, the feelings you've
• 36:08
  had. I'm proud of you guys.
• 36:10
  I'm proud of you. So good to see you guys.
• 36:14
  So the, the, the, the next question we have is why do you
• 36:20
  guys choose the online business education right out of the
• 36:26
  different business models, right.
• 36:28
  You could have, you know, decided to scale up the glasses
• 36:31
  thing, you know do something, you know that involves tangible
• 36:35
  goods, right, going to FMCG's right.
• 36:39
  Why Online business education, right?
• 36:43
  Teach you guys. Choose that.
• 36:46
  I think it's a mix of reason and there is not one single reason.
• 36:49
  But before starting AUGMENT, we knew that we wanted to have a
• 36:55
  big impact on the world. We knew that education was
• 36:58
  extremely important for us and we knew that we were extremely
• 37:02
  disappointed by the quality of our classes and one of the top
• 37:05
  Business School in Europe. And so we wanted to impact the
• 37:09
  most people and that's why Edtech digital online learning
• 37:13
  is so powerful, because you can impact as many lives as you can
• 37:20
  and sky is the limit. And that's why online education
• 37:23
  is so powerful and I think it will change many thing in the
• 37:28
  education sector in the in the next 10 years, people will be
• 37:31
  able to learn anything online. People won't have any excuse.
• 37:36
  If you want to succeed, you can find anything online.
• 37:38
  But we wanted to create the platform where you will find the
• 37:42
  best business course on the Internet because it starts by
• 37:45
  the greatest entrepreneur for generation and the highest
• 37:48
  production quality. And so that's why we wanted to
• 37:51
  do we wanted to create the best business classes by the best
• 37:54
  people and to impact as many people as possible.
• 37:56
  And that's why online learning was the way for us.
• 38:01
  Yeah, I. Interested.
• 38:04
  I think you have something to say about that.
• 38:08
  I totally agree with what Roy is saying is to emphasise it even
• 38:11
  more like, and this is something that we've been going through
• 38:14
  for the last, you know, 10 months now, is that when we see
• 38:18
  that our product, our platform and our programme, how it can
• 38:21
  impact people's lives. And I, and I mean this extremely
• 38:24
  seriously, like the tangible results that we see in people's
• 38:27
  lives. And as he said, the scalability
• 38:29
  of our product as well, and I'm serious about this is something
• 38:31
  that we almost slightly underestimate.
• 38:34
  We operated in the US and the UK and market.
• 38:36
  We started with those markets for the most obvious reasons
• 38:39
  because the NBA was more famous there and more expensive there.
• 38:43
  But then we started receiving enrollments from people all over
• 38:45
  the world. And you're from Nigeria, for
• 38:47
  instance, we have a large Nigerian community.
• 38:49
  We have people from across Africa, all over Europe and
• 38:52
  Asia. And I speak to these people
• 38:54
  almost every day. And when I see that our value
• 38:57
  proposition is so useful for them, although we don't know
• 39:00
  anything about their culture, like I don't know what a pain
• 39:03
  point is in the middle of Vietnam maybe or in Dubai for
• 39:06
  example. And still they identify to what
• 39:09
  we're trying to do just as much as people who we grew up with
• 39:12
  and are in the same city as us. And that is the ultimate
• 39:15
  satisfaction to see how helpful we can be for people across the
• 39:19
  entire world, regardless of where you're from and your
• 39:21
  culture. And that is something that is
• 39:23
  very impressive. And I think very quickly from
• 39:25
  more of a macro perspective, having studied International
• 39:28
  Development, I really believe and I, and I've always believed
• 39:31
  this since I was a kid in Brazil, that education is
• 39:34
  probably the most critical factor for any development of an
• 39:38
  economy and of a country. It really is the best investment
• 39:41
  that you can make is the investing on your own education.
• 39:44
  And just to always keep learning, it's something that
• 39:47
  will pay the highest dividends and I and I truly believe that
• 39:50
  so. So I mean that's one of the
• 39:52
  reasons why I'm so excited about what we're doing here at
• 39:54
  AUGMENT. OK, Jess, before we move on to
• 39:57
  the next question, just achieve this thing.
• 39:59
  You know, you mentioned Nigeria. Education is a big part of the
• 40:02
  culture in Nigeria. I must tell you, you know, like
• 40:05
  if you're not educated, if you're not educated in Nigeria,
• 40:09
  you know, people look at you like you probably don't know
• 40:12
  what you're doing here with with your life.
• 40:14
  I think it's just something to push you, to really push you,
• 40:17
  you know, to to go to school. So a lot of people in Nigeria
• 40:21
  even go to school without even knowing the essence of, you
• 40:23
  know? While they're going to school,
• 40:25
  but I think for a lot of people it gets to make sense you know
• 40:28
  later on in life. So it's it's something that I
• 40:30
  appreciate, I appreciate that that culture of education.
• 40:34
  So also the next question, right.
• 40:37
  So, So what are the great things you know you guys are expecting
• 40:41
  from the AUGMENT Business School project, right and what are like
• 40:45
  the long and medium term goals that you are going to share?
• 40:53
  I think the ambition for AUGMENT is to become the standard, the
• 40:57
  standard in business education. We want to become the go to
• 41:01
  place the go to website where you want to learn about business
• 41:04
  and that anyone who has the AUGMENT Business School on CV on
• 41:07
  his LinkedIn profile can become more attractive to any employer
• 41:12
  that want to employ anyone. And so that's the big vision for
• 41:15
  us. We want to create synergies
• 41:17
  between our students. We want to our student to create
• 41:20
  companies together. We want to create a great
• 41:22
  community and to become the standard in business education.
• 41:25
  And of course it won't be done in one or two years.
• 41:28
  This is a 10 year plan, a 10 year ambition and we want the
• 41:32
  traditional MBAs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars
• 41:36
  that takes two years to complete to become obsolete because of
• 41:39
  us. Because we are able to change
• 41:41
  the game, we are able to to make that revolution and we are able
• 41:45
  to create a programme that is more affordable, more practical
• 41:50
  and better than traditional MBN. So that's our ambition that
• 41:53
  augment. Wow.
• 41:56
  So would it Would it be correct that I say you are a disruptor
• 42:00
  in the space? We are.
• 42:02
  We are exactly. OK.
• 42:06
  So So what are the major highs and lows of the AUGMENT project
• 42:09
  thus far? What would you say are the highs
• 42:12
  and lows that you've had thus far too?
• 42:16
  There's there's there's multiple things to say.
• 42:17
  I mean things you know, as you we talked about it when we were
• 42:20
  talking about success and failure.
• 42:21
  You know people see the accomplishments and the
• 42:23
  milestones. They don't see what it takes
• 42:25
  behind the scenes. You know, and I think, you know
• 42:27
  success makes the noise, but failure is on the background.
• 42:31
  And I think to to be where we're where we are today requires you
• 42:36
  know an amount of dedication and of work that is you know just
• 42:41
  honestly tremendous. And we went through lows like
• 42:44
  yeah, it was difficult even to go through the fundraising
• 42:47
  process. It was a very intense we.
• 42:49
  We weren't absolutely guaranteed that we were going to make it.
• 42:52
  Honestly, like at the beginning, we didn't have anything.
• 42:55
  It was only an idea. We had to convince people that
• 42:58
  we were going to change the educational landscape.
• 43:01
  But we at that point, we didn't have any students, any
• 43:03
  instructors. So people will laughed at us.
• 43:04
  You know, they thought we were kind of crazy.
• 43:06
  And the reality is you have to keep pushing.
• 43:09
  So I mean, there's multiple lows.
• 43:10
  I don't think there's one specific one.
• 43:15
  There, there isn't. And I think that we all know
• 43:17
  that laws are part of the game and just a way to get there.
• 43:20
  And so we don't see lows at as lows.
• 43:23
  Of course, individually we have time that it's more difficult.
• 43:27
  We have our own problem and the laws are like more personal than
• 43:32
  collective, I would say. And I have a good one for.
• 43:35
  You. Yeah, I'm not sure who said it,
• 43:38
  but it's like it's something that we're, I don't, I'm not
• 43:40
  sure it's exactly like that, but it's along the lines of and I
• 43:42
  think it's a good state of mind to have throughout your life in
• 43:45
  general is that when things go bad, it's never as bad as it
• 43:49
  looks. And even when things go you know
• 43:51
  very well, it's also not as good as it looks.
• 43:54
  Things are always in the middle and I think it's a matter of
• 43:56
  equanimity of keeping it balanced.
• 43:58
  So even when we were going through difficult times, we just
• 44:02
  try to remind ourselves that it was not that bad.
• 44:04
  You have to put things into perspective.
• 44:06
  And when things are going very well, which is the case now,
• 44:09
  very honestly, well, still we're still at a scale where we want
• 44:12
  to keep growing. As I said, it's only the
• 44:14
  beginning. So it's a matter of keeping it
• 44:17
  balanced and in the equilibrium. And I think we try to do this
• 44:21
  every day. And yeah, I agree with Roy some
• 44:24
  more on an individual level, I would say the lowest not from a
• 44:26
  macro for the business. Interesting.
• 44:29
  You know that the paints behind the gains, right?
• 44:32
  The stories behind the glories, right?
• 44:34
  Interesting. So Speaking of convincing
• 44:36
  people, you guys have a really fantastic programme.
• 44:40
  The founder of Ray's, founder of Shazam, founder of Wikipedia,
• 44:44
  top executives Uber with meta. How did you guys convince this
• 44:51
  top notch entrepreneurs right, this topic business leaders to
• 44:57
  to to come on board, you know? Uh just uh does the snippets
• 45:02
  just a stupid? Just share a little with us, you
• 45:04
  know. Like, I think Roy can answer
• 45:07
  this. I'm just going to want to say
• 45:09
  one thing before I can guarantee you that they didn't do it for
• 45:11
  the money. Like, you know, the founder.
• 45:13
  Exactly, exactly. I, you know, I am on the
• 45:16
  programme, right? I'm thinking particularly in the
• 45:19
  programme, I can see the passion, I can see right through
• 45:21
  them the passion with which you know they they are passing the
• 45:26
  message right. And that's something about me as
• 45:28
  well. You know, when studied my
• 45:30
  partners as well, I told you I think we had a discussion like
• 45:34
  if for me it's not about the money, it's about the impact,
• 45:37
  right. And then, you know, when you do
• 45:39
  things, because of the motivation of the impact, money
• 45:43
  will find you. That's, you know, one thing my
• 45:45
  father always will be growing up like do the right things, you
• 45:48
  know, offer value to people. And money is something you get
• 45:52
  over time by being somebody who offers value to people, right.
• 45:56
  So a lesson for my father, so for you, for you guys, right.
• 46:00
  Like how? How did you go about it?
• 46:03
  Just just a snippet. That so obviously this is our
• 46:06
  secret sauce. But at the beginning when we had
• 46:10
  nothing, we had no website, no, no other courses done
• 46:14
  previously, no nothing. We had to go for it.
• 46:18
  And we called e-mail everyone at the Silicon Valley.
• 46:22
  Everyone who thought we thought would be a great first
• 46:25
  instructor for Augment. And one day the founder of
• 46:29
  Shazam answered to us. He was interested.
• 46:32
  Yeah, yeah. Chris is a great friend of ours
• 46:35
  now. And we discussed.
• 46:37
  We had a few phone calls. We tried to convince him that we
• 46:40
  were the right person to to tell his story for his legacy, that
• 46:44
  we will do high quality production that he will lose.
• 46:47
  Great. And then he told us, guys,
• 46:50
  please come to San Francisco, let's have dinner.
• 46:53
  So with my co-founder, we went to San Francisco, we met him.
• 46:56
  And at that moment it was all about trust, all about
• 47:00
  convincing him that we were the right person.
• 47:03
  And because we had, we had such a great night, such a great fit,
• 47:07
  he decided to trust us. And he said let's let's go for
• 47:09
  it. And after that it was much
• 47:12
  easier to convince the other top instructors that we were serious
• 47:16
  about it because we had that one big name that was so difficult
• 47:19
  to have at the very beginning. And then because we invested so
• 47:23
  much into production that the quality of our videos and I
• 47:27
  think that you you can talk about this are the same quality
• 47:30
  as master class or as Netflix well one.
• 47:33
  Word, one word. Sorry to interrupt you One word.
• 47:36
  This one is our cinematographic. Cinematographic.
• 47:41
  You know, I, I, I use an iPhone 14, right.
• 47:44
  And then you know that there's an option on the camera to have
• 47:48
  a cinematographic video that it's it's some level of high
• 47:53
  definition that I cannot explain.
• 47:54
  I'm not, I'm not a tech expert myself.
• 47:56
  Right. But then you know those those,
• 47:59
  those videos are better than life, so to speak, so.
• 48:04
  So this was very important for us.
• 48:08
  It was very important for us to create high quality production
• 48:11
  with high quality instructors. And because we have that high
• 48:15
  quality production, then other top instructors are interested
• 48:19
  to do classes with us. And that was the case for
• 48:21
  example with the founder of YouTube, Steve Chen.
• 48:24
  He was very impressed by the quality of our production.
• 48:26
  It was. He was very impressed by the
• 48:28
  quality of the classes that we did with the others that he
• 48:31
  wanted to participate and to be part of the Augment story.
• 48:34
  We could leverage it now much easier obviously like now that
• 48:38
  we have, you know, a pretty significant faculty member team,
• 48:40
  you know, it's easier for us to leverage that and for us to be
• 48:43
  able to convince other high level industry experts to come
• 48:46
  and work with us and participate in building the curriculum.
• 48:49
  So yeah, I mean, it's. Interesting.
• 48:53
  OK. So the next question is 2
• 48:56
  pronged basically, right? So how do you guys actually work
• 48:59
  life balance? And, you know, what are your
• 49:00
  hobbies and personal interests? I mean.
• 49:06
  We don't have work life balance to be honest.
• 49:10
  Work with balance we are. Young, we are young, we want to
• 49:14
  succeed. We want to have the ambition.
• 49:16
  We will have a lot of time in the future to enjoy.
• 49:20
  So of course we have our girlfriends and we try to make
• 49:23
  time for our families. But apart from that we are very
• 49:25
  much into the work. And for me, it's my hobby to go
• 49:29
  to the office with the team and to work.
• 49:31
  So yeah, work life balance is not my priority today.
• 49:36
  Yeah, I agree. You Same thing goes for you, Joe
• 49:40
  as well, right? I don't know.
• 49:43
  I don't think it's the case for everyone.
• 49:45
  I think everyone works differently and I respect every
• 49:47
  types of methods. But I think it is a price to pay
• 49:50
  at the beginning and I think we're young.
• 49:52
  As he said, as Roy said, you know, we have, we'll have time
• 49:54
  to rest and to enjoy. Now we just go, want to go for
• 49:58
  it, you know? And if you want to really go for
• 50:00
  it, you have to go all in and we're all in.
• 50:02
  And yeah, it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort,
• 50:05
  takes a lot of energy, but it is what it is and it is satisfying.
• 50:08
  So we obviously have hobbies and things that we like, but I mean.
• 50:14
  OK, so So what are your hobbies? What?
• 50:17
  We're big fans of sports, Roy and I I'm a big football fan,
• 50:21
  you know, I really enjoy football and tennis.
• 50:23
  I like. I enjoy watching a lot of
• 50:24
  sports, to be fair. And Joe is very good at chess.
• 50:27
  I really enjoy. I have an obsession with chess.
• 50:30
  I have to say it's almost an obsession.
• 50:31
  I sorry are. You a grandmaster?
• 50:36
  No. Yes, now that takes.
• 50:38
  I think that is a significant investment of time.
• 50:41
  Not yet. I hope one day I reach, you
• 50:43
  know, a pretty serious level. But yeah, I really love it.
• 50:46
  I would advise everyone to try to play chess for a bit, it's
• 50:49
  really useful. Yeah, it's quite, quite an
• 50:51
  intellectual game. You know what you guys are
• 50:54
  saying? It reminds me of the title of a
• 50:56
  book I read growing up. It's titled Invest Your Two
• 50:58
  Years. You know, it's it speaks about
• 51:01
  how people tend to have a lot of energy and time in their 20s and
• 51:07
  their 30s, Right. But if you let that part of
• 51:11
  time, you know, go without, you know, having invested it into
• 51:15
  something productive, something resourceful, right, you would
• 51:19
  believe in, you know, in very big regret going forward.
• 51:22
  And I think that actually leads people into meat like crisis.
• 51:26
  He gets it. But then when you invest your
• 51:28
  youthful years, you know, in something productive, something
• 51:31
  resourceful, it makes you relevant going forward and you
• 51:34
  need you now tend to spend less energy, you know, going forward.
• 51:38
  Well imagine trying to to get into like an entry level role or
• 51:43
  starting a business in your 40s like it's it's it's quite
• 51:47
  difficult and you know there are lots of distractions at that
• 51:50
  point in life. So good to see you guys you know
• 51:53
  for what you guys are doing. So before you guys go, what
• 51:58
  advice do you have for upcoming professionals, business people,
• 52:04
  young people in general? Like what advice do you have for
• 52:08
  young people? The up and coming Roy goes
• 52:11
  first. I think we are all unique in
• 52:16
  some way. We are all good at something and
• 52:19
  the key is to find what you are good at and to follow that and
• 52:22
  to go 100%. And of course we all have talent
• 52:26
  in something, but talent is necessary but not enough.
• 52:29
  Once you know where you have the talent then then you need to go
• 52:32
  100% and work harder, harder than everyone else to succeed.
• 52:37
  So my advice would be know your talent and then work harder than
• 52:41
  everyone else. Oh wow.
• 52:44
  Interesting. Well said.
• 52:45
  How about you, Joe? I think talent is the tip of the
• 52:48
  iceberg as well and I think you know it's it's a good image to
• 52:51
  have. A lot of people know this but it
• 52:53
  takes, it requires deep thinking in order to truly understand
• 52:56
  what it means. You know it's it's I do agree
• 52:59
  that I think everyone has something special about them but
• 53:02
  it really is the tip of the iceberg.
• 53:03
  It requires, you know, a lot of dedication, perseverance and I
• 53:07
  think you use the word yourself resilience, you know, serious
• 53:10
  amount of resilience. Exactly, yeah.
• 53:12
  I'll tell you a quick story before we go that is, Roy is
• 53:16
  concerned. It's the way that he kind of
• 53:18
  convinced me to join Augment at the beginning, when it was
• 53:20
  really only an idea, it was nothing more than that.
• 53:22
  And that's how I joined the adventure right at the Gecko.
• 53:25
  He said this to me. He looked at me and he said, I
• 53:27
  really believe, you know, people have something special about
• 53:31
  them. Almost everyone has it and it's
• 53:33
  only a matter of finding it as quick as possible, but no
• 53:36
  pressure, you know, And once you did find it, once you do find
• 53:39
  it, you know you have to, you just have to go for it.
• 53:42
  And that's what he told me. That's honestly one of the ways
• 53:45
  how he convinced me to come and join Augment from the get go.
• 53:47
  And yeah, I haven't regretted it since.
• 53:52
  I think an advice I give to people is that you know doubt is
• 53:55
  part of the journey. Whatever kinds of questioning
• 53:58
  that you might have. You know things won't always go
• 54:00
  your path which is obvious. But I mean you just have to
• 54:03
  understand and take a step back, put things into perspective and
• 54:07
  yeah, just admire what you've already accomplished because
• 54:10
  it's small as it is. It still is something I'm sure
• 54:13
  of it. So I think it's a matter as
• 54:14
  well. I think even point of
• 54:15
  confidence, you know, self self-confidence is is something
• 54:18
  that I thought was very hard at the beginning and I'm improving
• 54:21
  in that and I think a lot of people, you know have to work on
• 54:25
  that because it really makes a difference.
• 54:28
  I saw something this weekend that was really interesting so I
• 54:31
  want to share it. Someone said that career paths
• 54:36
  are are the worst thing that you can have because career paths
• 54:40
  are for lazy people that want to get somewhere in the shortest
• 54:45
  way. And so his logic was that if you
• 54:48
  want to have that carrier pass, I will go, I will do this, then
• 54:51
  this, then this, then this, then when you are in the first part
• 54:55
  of your journey, you are not open minded and so you don't see
• 54:59
  all the all opportunities because you think about the
• 55:03
  career path. So what advice would be do not
• 55:05
  have a career path and you might do bigger thing?
• 55:11
  Yeah, be open minded, right? Be open minded.
• 55:13
  So we have a tradition at the end of the podcast, right?
• 55:17
  So the the cast, the previous guest leaves the question for
• 55:21
  the current guest and the current guest leaves a question
• 55:25
  for the next guest. So interested, I think the next
• 55:29
  guest will have two questions to answer because two of you have
• 55:32
  to leave questions, right. But then you want to know the
• 55:34
  question that the previous guest left for you for sure you want
• 55:38
  to. OK.
• 55:39
  So that is a roughing start. That's the former Bellator
• 55:43
  interim battery champion of the world, so he's a fighter and
• 55:48
  then he's left this question for you, he says.
• 55:51
  What would you love your legacy to be?
• 55:55
  Well, that's deep. That's deep, requires some
• 55:59
  amount of thinking. First, I would say like that
• 56:05
  someone who has been a great partner, a great friend and then
• 56:12
  created something impactful to as many people as possible.
• 56:16
  Yeah, it gets simple. But I think I I actually agree
• 56:20
  it's very straightforward. You know, first there's the
• 56:23
  personal level, You know, being someone remembered as from your
• 56:27
  family, from your friends, your wife and your children, someone
• 56:30
  you know who obviously was a generous and nice person.
• 56:35
  And then, yeah, truly trying to have a positive impact in what
• 56:38
  you're doing and truly having adding, being remembered as
• 56:41
  someone who added value in one way or another with one
• 56:46
  community or multiple ones is something that I would find
• 56:48
  tremendously honourable to have as a legacy.
• 56:52
  And I hope, I hope I will get there.
• 56:54
  It's a lot. It's a long way though.
• 56:55
  We have time. Hopefully we have time.
• 56:59
  We're working on our liberty. Definitely so.
• 57:02
  So what questions would you like to leave for the next guest to
• 57:04
  answer? Do you have an idea?
• 57:10
  Let me think. I love that.
• 57:15
  What is the moment where you are?
• 57:17
  No. What is the thing that you are
• 57:18
  the most proud of? I think it's a nice one.
• 57:23
  OK, interesting. What's the theme that you're the
• 57:25
  most proud of? How about you, Joe?
• 57:28
  What question are you leaving for the next test?
• 57:32
  I would say maybe if you had a second life, what would you love
• 57:37
  to do truly? That you maybe feel regret that
• 57:40
  you're not doing, but maybe the second best thing that you would
• 57:43
  love to truly do but you just don't have time to to do it.
• 57:47
  Good question. That's a great one.
• 57:50
  That's a really great one. And Speaking of great ones, this
• 57:54
  episode has been really, really great.
• 57:57
  It's been a great one. So thank you very much for your
• 58:00
  time, Joe and Roy. You guys are the best and of
• 58:05
  course I would wish you the very best for the future.
• 58:08
  I wish you know, the AUGMENT Visa SCOOP project, you know,
• 58:12
  greater heights, you know, more impact.
• 58:15
  And of course you know everybody, you know, doing doing
• 58:20
  great. I'm really proud of you guys.
• 58:22
  I'm really proud of your journey.
• 58:23
  Thank you very much for once more for giving us your time.
• 58:28
  Thank you. Honestly, we're proud to have
• 58:30
  you as a student and I mean this like I was honoured when you
• 58:33
  contacted me as a student of ours.
• 58:36
  You know, being able to work and collaborate with the student is
• 58:39
  just it's one of the things that I'm most proud of.
• 58:41
  I feel like it's amazing and we have our own you know,
• 58:44
  relationship now and I I I I really admire what you're doing.
• 58:47
  I think it's very interesting and I I wish you all the best
• 58:50
  honestly. And if we can help, we'll
• 58:51
  always. Be.
• 58:53
  Thank you. It was amazing to to discuss and
• 58:57
  to speak and to share our story on your podcast.
• 58:59
  So thank you so much for everything.
• 59:00
  Yeah. Thank you very much.
• 59:02
  Take care. See you.
• 59:05
  Next week, Bye bye.