Nick Leighton | [Top Agency Series] Getting Held Hostage and Breaking into the Playboy Mansion

John Corcoran 10:30

So in the champagne moment, you mean like a celebratory moment where you’ve achieved something,

Nick Leighton 10:35

right? So it could be buying your first home, if you’re, you know, starting up, or it could be building a second home in you know, the town you grew up in or Holiday Inn as a kid. Or it could just be I want to go to the Kentucky Derby, or I want to go and live and work in Italy for three months, it could be many things. So that is something unexpected I do with myself. Every year, when I was running the agency in the Middle East, I did that,

John Corcoran 11:03

and or some of those champagne moments for you.

Nick Leighton 11:05

So I mean, typical ones that I’ve had that other people, you know, writing a book, that’s a great champagne, but that’s a lot of things are gonna happen for that to happen. My wife champagne moment last year was let’s just get our kid into a good college without getting anyone pregnant without getting arrested. That was his, you know, it was personal to you, right? So you can make it whatever you want to do. But once you have that vision around that, you can really start planning things because things don’t happen by accident. So I realized that I had a humanitarian interest because at the time I was living in Dubai, which is a very hollow, shallow, non community place to be living. It certainly was.

John Corcoran 11:44

Yeah. Anyway, you live in Los Angeles now. So you would know nothing. Exactly. It’s completely from LA. So I can make that joke.

Nick Leighton 11:51

Right? Exactly. Yeah, even worse, I live a little bit further south. So now I’m never more than three minutes away from a target. So I mean, yeah. See, when I say we weren’t. So when I was living in the Middle East, I realized that was lacking that sense of community and the humanitarian interest, which people have just wasn’t being given to me in the surroundings, I had to go and create it. And at that time, there were a number of large charities moving into the region and using Dubai as a hub. So it was as simple as finding someone in the United Nations World Food Programme, contacting them and saying, look, what can we do to help you? And it started with really simple things like, Oh, we’re going to do an awareness campaign with schools with kids during pictures, can you bring awareness to that? Or oh, we’re going to do a charity run, you know, if you run something like that. So it started with little things like that. But then it kind of grew to actually giving them exposure to global level. So that’s how it Yeah,

John Corcoran 12:47

yeah. Now I know, you coach a lot of business owners now. And they’ve talked to a lot of business owners who talked about the importance of having some purpose behind their business, how that helps with team morale, and recruiting and you really motivating the company to have a larger purpose. So talk a little about how that has impacted your agency having this larger purpose that you’re working on 100%.

Nick Leighton 13:16

And a lot of you brought that up because it takes someone who’s obviously been around people, you’ve been around to recognize that working for the United Nations was the single best recruitment strategy that we had. There were other agencies who were doing what we were doing bigger, smaller, they were there, they existed. And sure, we will have funky offices of beanbags and reception and create stuff like that. But someone would come and be interviewed. And we’d say, well, you know, we’re a PR agency. We specialize in technology clients. And we have one pro bono client, we do work for the United Nations. And people would say, yes, I want to come and work here and how simple I can work with that. Yeah, that’s cool, man. It’s really cool.

John Corcoran 14:01

Yeah, yeah, we, you know, we’ve kind of done something similar. We had a veteran entrepreneur scholarship for a bunch of years, when we were doing events where we would cover the costs for a veteran entrepreneur, to come to one of our events and be able to meet some of the, you know, the highly successful business owners that were at these events. We also have our Shining Light Project, same thing where we bring, you know, focus on a worthy organization. And yeah, it’s great. It’s just, it’s a wonderful way to be able to get back and, and also get the team members to, you know, be able to contribute as well. Talk to me about how you ended up in Dubai in the first place. I know that, you know, you were recruited and ended up there, running a marketing agency and then decided to start your own marketing agency. And I love this turn to you having five friends who are marketing directors for tech companies, it turned to them and those are your first five clients. Yeah. So and what a crazy time to do it to this is around the turn of the century 99 90,000 time period when Dubai was just booming like crazy. So take us back to what that period of time was like being in Dubai and starting a

Nick Leighton 15:06

company. Oh, yeah, I mean, the pictures I could share with you. At one stage, I was working for a technology company and I was doing marketing that seemed to be as technology companies were really booming. And that technology company, which was an American base, couldn’t find the people they just couldn’t find. Because all the English was going, everyone was very competitive about how to get good people. So they took me on, they took me young, they trained me, they gave me huge responsibilities over large countries. And they moved around a number of different countries and eventually ended up in Dubai. And the time to play was very, very, very quiet. All the large developments that you know, have right now just do not.

John Corcoran 15:49

They weren’t there when you got there, right?

Nick Leighton 15:51

Yeah.

John Corcoran 15:52

Dubai, quiet is not a word that I think of when I think of what year did you lend at landmark events?

Nick Leighton 15:57

So only seven is probably when I moved there full time. And I’ve been traveling in and out for two years before them. Well, okay. So you know, back then I would say people moving to Dubai, they say it was to place and it’s in the United Arab Emirates. They say, well, where’s that? I’m like, in the Middle East. They’re like, Well, can you place that in the map? I’m like, well, it’s between Africa and India. I mean, like, really, no one heard of the world’s or two planes at City or the palm all these crazy things that exist now. So I got there very early.

John Corcoran 16:21

And so you went from Paris to Prague to Dubai? Did you feel like you’re going from, you know, the big game to something smaller and smaller.

Nick Leighton 16:30

Device always been a hub. Definitely, if you think about marketing and environment and everything. It’s very different. I mean, if you go on the mattress, improv, that full frontal nudity is normal, then you go to Muslim society where you can’t show your upper arms, that’s a very different environment to be a Yeah. But you know, if you can go to different places, then that’s awesome. And absorb all that. Very cool. So it was very quiet. But it was still hard. And you could see that there was this frenetic energy of bounce to happen. But what I did realize very quickly working for a tech company was I could not find agencies, and I couldn’t find people, no one who could understand technology, and do it at a western standard, and still know the Middle East region. So I’m like, well, it’s those three factors. If I stopped the agency, would anyone use me? He said, I went to five of my friends who were marketing directors of public companies, large blue chip listed companies and said, If they started, would you use me? And they said, Yes. So I was very fortunate to be in a situation, I could start with great clients, because there was no risk for them to go out. He had to prove that I could do the results for them, which we could do. And then within about a year they launched their Dubai Internet City initiative, which then attracted more technology clients and internet clients to the region to Dubai. And we were very fortunate to be the agency in the right place at the right time. But back then it was all relationships, everything you know, and I know you talk about a lot . We knew every single press person in the region, we would go and have a drink with them or whatever. And that was really important. And then we knew the clients very well as well. So it was all about building those relationships.

John Corcoran 18:11

Yeah. Now I know you ended up there. Well, first of all, let me ask you about how you sell the company. And at the last minute, you end up selling everything except for the name and holding on to the name. So tell us that story. And then after that, I want to hear this. Playboy Mansion story.

Nick Leighton 18:27

Right. Okay. So I was going through the process of moving to the US. And if you ever meet someone who’s moving from one country to another, the question is, are you moving, running away from someone or you’re running to someone? In this case, I was running to someone else, and moving to the US because I wanted to be with the person I wanted to marry. So I went through the process of building my agency, putting in a managing director, and then ultimately selling the agency and selling it to another agency, an agency that had multiple offices wanting to move into the region.

John Corcoran 19:02

So it sounds like it was a very deliberate, multi year process, putting the person in

Nick Leighton 19:06

preparing for sale. Yeah, very much. So it was I need, I have a reason for leaving, therefore, I need a plan to make that happen. It’s not going to happen in three or six months. And you were doing that. Right. And that’s one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs, business owners, and particularly people who are in agencies is how do we extract ourselves, so we can sell something. So too much too often companies are around that owner. And we need a way of doing that. It amazes me how often you see an agency where the agency name is the person’s name, the founders name, and that amazes me is like, ultimately if you ever want to get out of this, then you were doing so I was going through that process. I was selling to a competitor and he came from Okay, they wanted to be in the region, they saw the opportunity that was great. At that time, there were a lot of limiting factors, you couldn’t just move into the country and start doing what we were doing, mainly because you couldn’t get an office space, you couldn’t get people, you probably could find the clients, but you couldn’t get those two elements. So it makes sense for this agency to come, they will bring our client base, our employees and our office space. And we’re getting close to the end of the deal. And they said to me very clearly that they were doing this to expand their brand, like expanding the brand. So that means you don’t want to buy the brand that we developed. And they said, No, we’re not really interested in that. And I’m like, That’s cool, then I’ll continue the sale, that’s totally great. But I’m gonna take my brand, my company name off the table. And they’re like, that’s cool.

John Corcoran 20:43

That’s interesting that they that they were okay with that, because in many cases, with a company acquiring another company, they don’t want to lose that, because then you can well, I guess if I guess you could have you could keep the the name of the company and still have a non compete, perhaps.

Nick Leighton 21:01

Absolutely. You know, that was a non compete. And, you know, I wasn’t not do any work in the region, yourself paradigm. So that’s fine. You know, as far as I was moved to the other side of the walls. Yeah. So pretty good. Right? Yeah. And I said to them, you know, what, I’ve got this brand, can people use me in the US, you know, take it away. So what eventually ended up happening is that they had to contract us, the economy didn’t expand as quickly as they wanted it to. So they actually moved out of the region. So while I wasn’t in the region, I still have people coming towards me and doing all kinds of requests for work. And up to that point, I always push notice can’t do that, sorry. Then I realized that the people only want there anymore. And you know, it really took no time to turn a website back on and to start accepting the calls. And so essentially, we own the agency again, and plants came back to us because we had those relationships. 

John Corcoran 22:00

And at that point, you’re living in Los Angeles and managing it from afar. So talk a little about those challenges, because that’d be really challenging as well. Did you find someone good to manage it at that point?

Nick Leighton 22:09

So interesting how that’s kind of picked and flowed? Because I’ve made a deal with my wife who’s based here. And at that time, she was pregnant, so I would not go back to the Middle East. I mean, literally would not ever not go in there.

John Corcoran 22:22

She was afraid to go why? Because of security or,

Nick Leighton 22:26

yeah, let you do he, oh, I, I was in EO in Dubai. There are a lot of stories of a lot of entrepreneurs and stuff happening. So yeah. And so she was like, Yeah, this is probably not something I mean, when you’re single, too, we want them as family kids. Yeah. Yeah. That’s not for our family. Okay, that’s cool. So I started working, working remotely, having people like a class of people that was not so hard. And I was always kind of hiding the fact but just never very open that I wasn’t that they weren’t

John Corcoran 22:59

there. What year was this, that you launched it back up again? Before four years, like years ago? Yeah. It’s interesting, because the world has changed by this point, it’s a lot easier to do work where you can be located in a different part of the globe, would you say?

Nick Leighton 23:15

Definitely easier? Yeah. When I first went through, having a mentioned director of that fight sold, even the communication was hard. I mean, 10 years ago, I could barely get Skype in some regions. So now layout, but the perception was still that if I was running an agency, I should be there. Now. That’s out of a window. Since I mean, completely out of the window. I don’t think I’ve spoken to someone that says COVID pretty much took hold of everywhere. Who has said to me Yeah, I think I moved to Argentina next week, because I can carry on doing that work from there. I mean, yeah, yeah. So yeah, it’s a different place. Now, it’s not an issue. If anything, I’d like to travel around and meet the clients. So I’d rather because we do a lot of technology clients, I’d rather be close to technology hubs that are actually where the media is. The only challenge is this time difference. So if I have a full time team on the timezone, that’s great. It just means there are less hours that I can actually physically speak to people in that region.

John Corcoran 24:14

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that can be challenging as well. So tell me the story. How do you end up at the Playboy Mansion and, and your wife? How does she end up there? 

Nick Leighton 24:27

And how the end of meeting her sounds a little nutty question. So obviously, I’m not totally American. So I’m like, well, as an English person, how do you find an American wife? Now, just like with business, like, did you feel like you’re ready to settle down? Do you just leave it to chance? Or do you kind of have a game plan? Gotta have a game plan. Now this is before internet dating was big.

John Corcoran 24:49

Did you want to move to the US and that’s why you wanted a wife who’s American?

Nick Leighton 24:53

I previously lived and I started in the US. I had a business in the US. I felt very comfortable in Los Angeles. So if there’s any place that’s going to move to Atlanta, Essentially, there’s probably going to be it. Most people don’t stay in the Middle East for life. So they move on eventually. So it’s a conversation every week, you’re going to go back to the country you came from, you’re gonna go somewhere else living expat life forever. So it was always around. Yeah, it was going to go anywhere else, it’s probably gonna be the place. So rather than just going out to your local bar every weekend and seeing if you get lucky, it’s like, what else can I do? Where can I go? Now? Yeah, and you remember the video at the time, I was a member of EO in Dubai. And they had a university in Los Angeles. I hadn’t met someone from New York’s I lived in Los Angeles before. I’m like, yeah, man for that. That sounds fine. So it was actually an EO University, one of the events was at the Playboy Mansion. So we went to the Playboy Mansion. So I was going to that, which was fine. And there’s a very long version of the story, but I’ll make it short and sweet. My wife at the time was working for an ER member. And he was part of the setting up of that event. And he didn’t invite her to go to the event, but awesome other people in the office who were male. And she found out about it. She’s like, when you invite me, and he’s like, Well, because your room didn’t pick up into it. And she’s like, No, I’m offended that you would not ask me during the setup process to come and help and stuff. And he’s like, Well, look, I can’t get you into the event, because it’s an eel only event. But I do know the caterer. So give you their phone number. So my now wife gatecrashed the body, she called up the caterer and was crouched in the back of the catering truck as it came into the Playboy Mansion. That’s how she got into it.

John Corcoran 26:34

I love it. That’s great.

Nick Leighton 26:35

That’s where we met. That’s great.

John Corcoran 26:39

What a cool story, talk to us a little about some of the work that you do now. So you’re you The Alternative Board, also known as tab. You’re involved with them, and you do coaching for marketing and agencies and things like that. Yeah, tell us about what you do.

Nick Leighton 26:56

So, I coach with owners of multi agencies, so I’ve taken the experience of starting, purchasing, running, selling agencies. And now I play that in a coaching system. So TAB, as The Alternative Board at a national and international level. 14 countries now have over 200 coaches here domestically, and certainly more in other countries. And normally, this coaching in these peer boards are settled around local groups. But obviously the world’s changed. So I try to have a more of a specialist approach, and just work with agencies. So if you are an agency and you want to help with sales, you can just go find a general sales coach. And that’s great, because that’ll teach you how to do sales. But if you want to work with someone to grow that agency, maybe you’re not getting enough revenue, and we’re not getting enough profit from that, maybe you feel like you’re just working too hard. We can’t get the people processes around, you don’t have any place to turn to. So a general coach can certainly get you so far. But a coach that only works with marketing agencies does have a slight insight into what you can be doing and what models work with the latest thing. So I do that one on one, with business owners only model agencies, and then I also bring them together, which is a peer board or a year of terms as a forum. So a board meeting once a month. So all those owners or agencies, they don’t necessarily compete. So you might get an SEO company with a video of a company with a digital marketing agency, you know, so there are different types of agencies, but a PR agency in there as well, you know, but they all have the same elements. They’re all pitching for work, they will have different models and strategies, which is really going to take their agencies to the next one. So yeah,

John Corcoran 28:42

yeah, very cool. All right, Nick. So Exactly Where You Want To Be is the name of the book. Where can people go to learn more about you?

Nick Leighton 28:49

Um, exactlywhereyouwanttobe.com will be a good place to start. That’s what it’s all about.

John Corcoran 28:55

Great. And get on his email list. You got a great email list to share some good content through, which I’m on your email list and read your stuff. So, Nick, thanks so much.

Nick Leighton 29:03

John, it has been fantastic. Thanks so much.

Outro 29:05

Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com. And while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.