Building a Legacy Through Educational Innovation

My conversation with Adrian Knight is one you won't want to miss; it's a candid look at how personal investment can transform a life marked by addiction into one of triumph in business and athletics. Adrian doesn't just talk about his journey; he gives us the blueprint for the morning rituals that have been the bedrock of his metamorphosis. Whether you're looking for inspiration to tackle your own challenges or simply curious about how discipline can lead to greatness, this episode holds the keys.

In our discussion, Adrian, a father and entrepreneur, shares his leap into the world of children's education and how his personal experiences shaped his approach to nurturing young minds. His story is a testament to resilience, showcasing how he went from multiple startup failures to educating thousands of children across the UK. It's a powerful reminder that sometimes life's greatest accomplishments come from its most formidable obstacles.

The episode rounds off with an intimate reflection on legacy, a concept that has evolved for Adrian over the years. He enlightens us on shifting focus from future milestones to the richness of the present, a perspective gleaned from personal trials and triumphs. For those eager to connect with Adrian or learn more about his innovative approach to children's education, we highlight how to engage with him and his community-focused initiatives. Join us for this profound dialogue on growth, legacy, and living with intention.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:02

My guest today is Adrian Knight. Adrian is an accomplished acquisition entrepreneur, adventurer and endurance athlete. Adrian buys and sells businesses for a living and uses acquisition skills to build a multi-million dollar children's education group from the ground up in less than three years. He spent almost a decade traveling the world to run away from his addictions and inner demons. It was only when he started to be true to his authentic self and prioritizing his personal development and well-being that his life started to turn around. In 2022, adrian ran, cycled, kayaked across Scotland and then, in March 2023, he participated in a multi-day endurance event in the Arctic Circle. In June 2023, he ran across Northern England and in November 23, he is competing in the Spartan World Championships in Sparta, greece. In March 2024, adrian is on a 14-day jungle expedition across Panama. Today, he leaves. He leaves running to his children's education group and others, while he spends his time working on his own personal development and mindset, which he undoubtedly recognizes as the secret sauce to his business and endurance success to date.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Welcome, adrian to the podcast. Well, it's so good to have Adrian. I'll show you doing the. Adrian. I'm very well. Thank you, keith. Very well. Thank you for having me here. It's good to have you on Good to start the new year off with good conversations, so I'm looking forward to talking to you.

Speaker 2: 2:36

Likewise, yes, likewise.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Hopefully the Russes rubbed out both of us. We're ready to get it.

Speaker 2: 2:43

Well, we were just saying it's the first yeah, the first conversation back since new years. So I've literally been at work following the Christmas in the new year period about 30 minutes, so I apologize in advance if there's any lagging from my side.

Speaker 1: 2:58

So there, you go Well, too much, too much new year celebration, but that's okay, We'll make that work. Yeah, thanks. So I'd like to ask my guest this question what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2: 3:15

Best piece of advice has been to invest in yourself and if something about, really, when I first heard that and was given that, I took it to heart quite quite literally, and it's never failed, never failed, and I'm sure to you know the listeners, they would resonate with this. But you know, personally I've taken that really to heart, to the point where you know I get up at 4am and spend the first three hours of my day seven days a week you know I don't have day off from this but just investing in myself and it has made all of the difference. So, yeah, it really does come back to we are the greatest assets we'll ever own.

Speaker 1: 4:02

I love that because I do the same thing. I get up probably about five and just spend some time connecting first of all with God and connecting with you. Know what am I going to do today? Trying to figure out my schedule, because if I do that, if I start the day out that way, it makes the day go better. If I don't do that and I just kind of get up and go off to work, it just seems like everything is off and I spend the first hour just trying to figure out the stuff on my desk and I'm trying to go through. Oh, I want to go next.

Speaker 2: 4:33

It's so true, and I was a sucker for this for years and it took some very hard lessons for this to really hit home for me.

Speaker 2: 4:42

I mean, it wasn't really that long ago, it was probably two, maybe just over two years ago, when I was waking up at sort of 2, 2.30 in the morning having extreme panic and anxiety attacks like extreme, to the point where I'd be lying in bed for the next hour and a half two hours in a state of complete and utter dread, convinced, utterly convinced, that you know, my world was like everything was caving in, like everything was terrible, was going to happen, and it was going to happen that you know that day when getting up, and it would take me that long sort of an hour and a half two hours to sort of talk myself around to realize that you know everything's okay and what I sort of can see now in hindsight, it was because I was waking up early and going straight into work mode and then dad mode and partner mode and it was just relentless. And since making that switch and putting myself first, it has truly made all the difference.

Speaker 1: 5:45

That's amazing. I'm always curious. We're going to get into your story, but I'm always curious when I talk to my guests about people in your life who have served to either inspire you or maybe come alongside and mentor you along different stages of your life.

Speaker 2: 6:02

It's interesting. I think about this a lot and you know I'm one of those people who like, but there's a big sort of craze at the moment about like coaching, for example, and you tend to see a lot of it on social media. But I've always had not just one coach, but like multiple coaches in different areas of my life, like throughout my life. So, for example, I've got a right. Now I've got a award winning bodybuilder who I work with on the fitness side of things and even though I'm not a bodybuilder, I couldn't be further from a bodybuilder. You know he has a great deal of knowledge that is helping me with some of my athletic endeavors, and the same with business coaches and life coaches. And I think one of the most significant sort of people like mentors that I've had has actually been a therapist who, funnily enough, like when I was going through those those sort of anxiety and panic attacks that I just mentioned, I've sort of recognized that something like something needed to change here and I went to see this therapist that came highly recommended, and he was transformational in helping me to make some very small but fundamental shifts in my life and he made me realize that when we're looking to change our lives.

Speaker 2: 7:31

We quite often think it's about big, monumental changes and his sweeping ideas and sweeping changes. But that wasn't so much the case. He had this analogy where he said you got to imagine that you are an oil tanker and you're moving along and if you make a one degree sort of change in your direction over a period of sort of thousands and 10, 10 to 1000s of miles, that oil tanker is going to be into very different places, probably different, you know, sort of other sides of the world from each other. And he just made me realize that you know, change is a fascinating thing. You know we as humans we tend to despise it, we're scared of it, but it's not nearly as scary as it can be. And I think he made me realize that it's in our nature to change and it's okay to change.

Speaker 1: 8:25

I love that there's a. I always try to work with work with other organizations and I said if you really want to make a monumental shift, just do a one degree change in your and your true north and you'll see amazing results. If you just make that small degree, you say what was thinking about. You said you just said change in a monumental way of I got to change 90% of my life. Well, that's not going to happen, but you might be able to change one degree of your life and it may have a huge impact on direction of your life.

Speaker 2: 8:54

Absolutely and because we tend to think in you know, when making these changes, that they are monumental changes. They are like we blow them up so much in our mind that all we do is paralyze ourselves and so no change happens and the only change that does happen is the changes that are forced upon us from you know external circumstances, whether that be all of a sudden you have a health condition, cancer, scare, you know a variety of different things you made, you made redundant, you're out of a job. Now, like it's those external changes. But I think having you know, having control of that internally, and recognizing that it's not about big sweeping changes, it's about those smaller ones that can make that can make all the difference.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Love it. So I read your bio and your story was fascinating to me. So I like, if you share your story with the audience, kind of tell us about your journey.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Absolutely so I tried to be as sort of concise as I can keep because it's it's multifaceted. But a long story short I've always been an entrepreneur Professionally. Now I buy and sell businesses. I typically buy and value to them and then sell them. However, I've used that that sort of skill set to build a small group of companies in the children's education space. So we've gone from a standing start to sort of like a multimillion revenue group. It literally took 24 months to get up to that scale and we currently educate 10,000 under five year olds every academic term here in the UK. It took me a long time to get there. Like the precursor to that was that I had 12 failed startups.

Speaker 2: 10:44

I've also battled a lot with like personal demons, so addictions. I had a nervous breakdown at 19 years old that I don't think I've ever fully moved past, but I've used it as a catalyst to grow and to become, yeah, like more of I kind of want to say like more of a man, if that makes sense. Let me know where that word come from. Alongside that, I have traveled quite extensively, so I've been to nearly 50 countries now across the world. I'm in a place where I participate in fairly extreme endurance events.

Speaker 2: 11:25

So last year I was in the Arctic Circle. I was also in the Spartan Race World Championships in Sparta, greece. In 11 weeks time I'm heading to Panama for a two week jungle trek, going from the West Coast to the East Coast and a variety of other trips. So there's, yeah, lots of different angles, but it fundamentally boils down to just this insatiable desire to live life to the full, like my aspirations has never been to be the richest person on my deathbed or anything like that. My aspirations has always been to minimize the amount of regrets I have when you know that they come, which we all have when we're on our deathbeds. And for me personally, that is living a full and interesting life to every possible extent.

Speaker 1: 12:21

I love that. I want to learn more about your education group because you know education has become, especially in the last year here in America, it has become a hot button issue of how do we educate our kids? Who really has the power to educate the kids? Whose responsibility is it? So tell us a little bit about your group and what your goals are in educating children.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Yeah, we have a central mission that guides everything, a central purpose that truly guides every single decision, big or small, within within the group, which is fundamentally it's about. Is is about the children and it's about building a complete and integrated learning experience for children. And it's sort of funny how the whole thing came about, because I had no aspirations whatsoever to get into the children's sector. I knew nothing about kids and it was only when I became a dad for the first time, in full ignorance. I put my hands up like complete ignorance. I knew nothing about the sector, I didn't really have any interest in it. I had all of these assumptions about the, the sector that were completely wrong. But it was only when I became a dad and, as we're talking prior to, prior to recording, if you know, it really is, you know, for me it was, as for a lot of parents, just completely life changing and reset my priorities in a whole different way.

Speaker 2: 13:51

And it was when I was going to these children's activities group with my wife, vicky and our daughter Evie, who's now four years old, and I was going there purely because I've you know, I've always seen myself as a hands on dad and I want to be that hands on dad. But as I was going to these groups, I was looking around, thinking there's something really not right here. It felt as though the groups that would be in run for the children. It was primarily about getting bums on seats, like and in so many ways, and so many of the groups and events that I've been to, it was more about pleasing the parents because they were the one who were paying, and it almost felt like the children's education was coming last. On the flip side of that, I was also learning that certainly the early years so from from birth up to five years old, they are the most formative years of a person's life like they will significantly impact the trajectory of that person's life, and it just felt that at a time that was so critical in our lives, it was, it was yeah, it was just completely underserved and and it also felt very disjointed.

Speaker 2: 15:04

So we went to classes over here for, you know, like art and you know fun, messy stuff that that sort of under five year olds do, and then classes over there for ones that were building like spatial awareness and like a deeper understanding of the world, and it just after sort of probably about three or four months of soul searching and various serendipitous events that happened to me. It just brought me to a place where I realized that I wanted to play a part in this sector, however small. I had no aspirations of building a group, had no aspirations of having like a real commercial entity here, other than I just wanted to touch these children's lives. And if I don't just one children's lives in a positive way, metaphorically speaking, then it would have all been worth it.

Speaker 2: 15:55

And and yeah, you know, fast forward now, just over three years, and no one's more surprised than me that we are where we, we are and we're educating children at the scale that we are. And the most exciting thing about the whole, the whole sort of place, is that we barely got started, like we barely scratched the surface here, and it just happened to, happens to have come at a time when there is a lot more spotlight on children's education and certainly seeing the effects of covid and how that's impacted our kids and the lockdowns, it's yeah, it's a pretty scary, scary time. I think so.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Oh for I know your system is probably a little different than ours. So explain to us, like explain to me, when you got this education group. How does that work as a? We have public school, private school. Kind of tell me how that fits into that sector of private versus public school absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 16:58

We also have private and public school and our children in England they go to. They go to, like it's called primary education, so essentially like sort of kindergarten, I believe, normally when they're four or five years old. So there's this gap from Newborn up until five year olds. Five years old, where they are children are fundamentally with the parents and you have a lot of parents at work, so they go into like nurseries or preschool settings. Now the government here Publishes an academic framework at all levels of education, so from Sort of early years all the way up to like higher, like higher levels of education, degrees, phds etc. And in the UK our framework for under five year olds is called EYFS. So it's the early years foundational, like system, like framework, and that framework has seven objectives, so seven key areas where our educational institutions need to be Developing our children. So you have, for example, mathematics, you have a speech and language, communication, you have sort of spatial Awareness and understanding the world, and these are like the core areas where all academic and non-academic institutions that serves children. They're measured against.

Speaker 2: 18:27

And so with a spectacular group which is the name of my children's education group, the, the original idea and it hasn't changed at all was to have a Essentially like a suite of children's brands that cover each one of those seven key areas.

Speaker 2: 18:46

So we currently have our two main sort of flagship brands One which is focused on speech and language communication from under five year olds, so we squarely on like hitting one of the Educational objectives, and the other one which is music and movement.

Speaker 2: 19:04

So again, it's like understanding the world, it's developing like social skills and but children together, and so the idea was to have five more Brands that sit alongside each other. But then what we can do, with a bit more of a commercial hat on, is start to centralize Operations. It's to is to bring the whole learning experience together, rather than being this, just this Disjointed sort of experience and business. We could bring the whole thing together and in fact, you know, begin to do things such as you know we can offer, like a single ticket where a parent can take their children to all of the classes to cover in the whole framework. We can interlink classes rather than compete against them. We can bring the the whole thing Into one place, which I believe will have a sort of a synergistic impact on our kids and their education and how they develop as people.

Speaker 1: 20:08

You're always trying to solve a problem, so what? What gap were your digital children's education group solve in your community?

Speaker 2: 20:20

I Think it's in terms of the gap, it's fundamentally the children's education, like there are gaps between Our children's education and the institutions that are delivering that education and I hate to say it, and I don't believe this exclusive to the to the UK. I think this is a worldwide thing. It's very hard gap to feel, but there is a gap and particularly in the UK there's very, very strong bureaucratic ways in which these organizations have to be run and I think a lot of these institutions, the people who run them, like our schools, are, you know, sort of early year settings. The people running them have their best interests at heart the children but they are restricted and so come and edit from an entrepreneurial angle we don't have those same restrictions.

Speaker 1: 21:14

I love that as you think about what's the next step, because you've kind of found yourself in that early under five or five and under space, are you looking down a road to expand to other levels of education we would call elementary, you probably call secondary education? Are you looking to take what you're doing and run that through the entire education system?

Speaker 2: 21:42

Absolutely so. There's two angles with this. The first one is that the businesses that we own are franchisors. So we own the franchise network and I come from a franchise in background. But what I've come to realize is that that franchise and network is key really, because it gives us a distribution system that can essentially go outside of the UK. So we've got franchisees who deliver our classes in Australia, in the Middle East, for example, and we know how to take that further. So geographically expanding wide is the first thing. But also I don't want to lose sight on my daughter, because she was the reason that this whole thing got moving.

Speaker 2: 22:34

Essentially it was because of EV, and what I'm finding fascinating is that EV's now started elementary school. It's a primary school here. She's one of the oldest in the class, she's like a baby really. But it's now exposing myself to this whole new world again of schools, which up until now, the last years, it's been nurseries and preschools and children's activities group. But we're now starting to get this whole new exposure. It's like, well, wait a minute, they've still got these problems here and here. So we've already started looking at schools. We've already had and done business with schools. We kind of know where we're going and where we want to start with schools. But I would suspect that is going to sort of follow EV's as she progresses, purely because it's allowing me to see it from a parent's perspective and the children's perspective as best we can as parents.

Speaker 1: 23:37

If somebody is hearing this, who's an educator going? This sounds really interesting. How do I tap into this? How would someone find out more about what the curriculum looks like, what the process is? How would they tap into this?

Speaker 2: 23:52

I would say the first step would be to reach out. So LinkedIn I'm normally very active with regards to spectacular group and sharing what we're doing and what's going on. We've been very fortunate to build up quite a nice group of supporters who are actively encouraging us. Also, what's been fascinating by this as well, for me personally, is that the core mission of what we're trying to do here has attracted some amazing people to our business, like some very experienced high level people who, quite frankly, have operated businesses many levels higher than I have, who are looking to step in and to help take control of different aspects and to bring different aspects to this, and it's very much a collective effort. So I would suggest reaching out and having a conversation, and I can share a lot more and would love to learn more as well.

Speaker 1: 24:53

Great If you are speaking to, or had a message to give to, parents who maybe are at the same place you were. They're starting to figure out their kids are going into school. They're like there are gaps here. There are things I notice. I really want to improve, but I'm not sure where to start. So what would one message you have for parents?

Speaker 2: 25:15

Didn't? The main message would be to act on your instincts, really to act on your instincts. And I've seen this a lot where not just sort of school systems and that, but also our healthcare system, where we're being told by people who we see as professionals and I'm certainly not, you know, not approaching this from a disrespectful way at all you know we're being given what, in their opinion, is their best advice, but then a lot of cases not a lot of cases, but there are cases where that advice hasn't been quite right or they'd missed something. And as parents, we know, you know, we know our children and we know ourselves.

Speaker 2: 25:55

And for me it was looking around and thinking this is an entirely different world. I know nothing about this, but my instincts they just wouldn't, they wouldn't ease up, like I just knew that there was something I had to take a step forward, and it was just one step and that led to the next step and that led to the next step, but it was that initial back in those instincts and just understanding. You can't always see the big picture and you don't know where it's going, but just to take that next step. And I think a lot of people in life in general, convince myself not to take that next step, because they're trying to look at that big picture and everything we spoke about, about the monumental sort of changes, and that is that one degree. You know, just that one degree. It makes a difference.

Speaker 1: 26:44

I'm curious what are you most excited about in this phase of your life?

Speaker 2: 26:56

I never been asked that question, keith, but I really like it and what I'm most excited about is I. So I'm 38 years old. Next year, next September, I'm 40. And I kind of feel like it's this fine balance where there is a good 20 years of like experience, like real world experience behind me and I've been fortunate to live a lot of life and to go and experience a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2: 27:28

But on the other side of that, I feel like got the energy of a 25 year old as well and say there's still a lot of you know. Hence some of these like like stupid adventures and stuff like that. I feel like there's a nice sweet spot there of experience and energy to make stuff happen and to move stuff, but also the self awareness that you know I can't do it by myself, I really don't know everything and I'm quite happy to put my ego aside to do what's best for you know the children to the group for what you know, whatever aspect of life it is, ultimately it's about that you know what's best for this rather than what's best for me. So yeah, just sort of making the most of that really.

Speaker 1: 28:18

Right. I love to ask my guest this question You've accomplished a lot so far. You are on a path to do some really interesting things. When it's all said and done, what do you want your legacy to be?

Speaker 2: 28:36

Oh, the reason I so.

Speaker 2: 28:40

I've been having this conversation about legacy all Christmas, and so I've got a it's so funny this question has come up and we're having a discussion because I've been having this conversation all Christmas. So I've got a group of like mindset coaching clients that I work with and we've been discussing it like all Christmas, literally about legacy and meaning, and I've certainly noticed the shift in me when I first started, one of the most well, probably the most influential book I've ever read in my life has been Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and in his other writings as well, as well as that book, he talks a lot about legacy and meaning, and so that was a major driving factor for me when I was in my early twenties. But as I approached, like late thirties to the early forties, legacy has also fallen, has almost fallen to the bottom of the list in the sense that, like I took my daughter Evie out this morning into town and we walked past this church and it had like a sundial on there for the clock and the imprint was 1727. And then we walked past another building where it had established, I think, about 1789. And I was thinking about that, thinking how many names do I know from that era? What can I actually talk about about that era?

Speaker 2: 30:18

The conversations having over the Christmas period. I kept asking questions, love you know, name me three famous, well famous actors or singers from the 1930s, and no one could answer it fully. And it just made me realize that and I don't mean for this to take a negative time, so I'm not approaching it negatively, but it just made me realize in a very pragmatic way, that a lot of what we do will be forgotten, and so that, in turn, has has caused me to approach life not so much from this is the legacy I want to leave, but more so I want to. How do I want to live my life while I'm here? And I think that drives a lot of like. Some of the like, the extremities with these adventures that I've been participating in, is it's less about how I leave my life and it's more about how I live it today.

Speaker 1: 31:14

Awesome, I love that answer.

Speaker 2: 31:17

So I don't know if it's the right time, but it's just where my head's been at you, it's just, it's, yeah, it's just like nothing's guaranteed, we not even a legacy. We just got to make the most of, like, this moment now.

Speaker 1: 31:31

Right, exactly, I love that, adrian. Anything I haven't asked you that I should have asked you.

Speaker 2: 31:42

I don't think so. I don't think so. There's, yeah, a lot of people will ask about or just be curious about, you know, some of the personal challenges around, sort of like thick shins and nervous breakdowns, and they are sort of where that stems from and how you overcome that. And I don't think you ever really overcome stuff like that. I think it is a constant thing. I think you become stronger as a person and you're better able to manage and restrain yourself from certain aspects, rather than, oh, it's completely gone now, but yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 1: 32:24

No, and you're right. I think we sometimes just hope we can move past it, but it's always a part of us and I think we have to learn to forgive that part of us that had that and not see it as a weakness but, if you say, see it as a part of who we were and it served a purpose. But it helps us to grow and move beyond where we were to where we can be now and build on that and learn from that experience.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Exactly that. I see it now as a source of strength. So by restraining myself from I don't know let's say you're some of the food addicts by restraining yourself from that extra serving of food, you've just built strength in yourself so that that addiction, that negative scenario, has now become the source of that strength. So it switched from, you know, like a negative, to a gift, essentially, that keeps on giving. And that was some of the changes in mindset I had was, yeah, rather than just, you know, fall into the addiction and then becoming a victim, thinking why me is stages past that.

Speaker 1: 33:36

Yeah, so where can people find your children education group and also connect with you on social media?

Speaker 2: 33:43

Absolutely so. Children's education group. I would definitely suggest going to LinkedIn. It's just Adrian Knight on there and the group's called spectacular group. You can't really miss me because I have a big banner saying spectacular group. So you know that's me. Personally, I'm very active on Instagram, so I post on there several times a day. I try to share as much as I can about you know what's going on the good and the bad, both in terms of like buying and selling businesses, but tackling the group and just just life in general really and the best handle for that is Adrian J Knight.

Speaker 1: 34:24

Well, adrian, thanks so much for being on, and may your trip to Panama, your 14 day expedition, be fruitful, and may you learn some things along the way about yourself and about you know, just life in general. I think we always learn on those journeys things we weren't anticipating to learn, but they are can be impactful, so may that be a blessing time for you and your family as well.

Speaker 2: 34:47

Thank you so much, and that's exactly why I do them. It's about yeah, it's about how I learn and grow as a person.

Speaker 1: 34:54

We'll have a blessed new year, and may God shower you with riches this year. Thank you to you, thank you so much.