DESCRIPTION
Internationally renowned magician, Luca Gallone, joins Jay on the
podcast and reveals one of his most secret tricks: How to generate job-
replacing income doing what you love! An in depth look at Luca’s rise to
success, the power of mentoring, monetising, brand building and
leveraging social media on a global scale.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
We’ve got a magician in the house, we’ve managed to get hold of Luca
Gallone. Not only has he been on Britain’s Got Talent, he’s also performed for
royalty and celebrities.
I got into magic as a kid, about six years old, I think a lot of people get
a passion as a kid. I got one of those little magic sets and I really got into it, I
really got hooked on it and I think we all get obsessed with certain things in our
life at different stages. Some people it might be football, some people it might
be gaming, but not many manage to turn that into a career.

Could you tell us a bit about how we first met please Luca?
So I went to Prince’s Trust and set up as a business, and then you get given a
mentor and fortunately for me it happened to be Jay.

How did you come across the challenges that young entrepreneurs just
starting out in business who have their doubts, how did you overcome
them, how did mentoring help you Luca?
A lot of young people really struggle with the pressure their under from different
sides, from society, from their family, from people at school, from the friends
they hang around with.
You can set up a business up tomorrow. You could set one up pretty easily
with stuff like ClickFunnels and Fiverr.
With yourself being the age of mostly where mostly all of your friends
will be going to university, what are your thoughts on that Luca? My
thoughts are, if you want a certain career that requires a university degree, like
a doctor, lawyer, dentist or whatever it might be, then obviously go to
university. Before you make that decision, ask yourself, “Is that really what I
want?” To start with, because if Daddy wants you to be a doctor, and you decide
well OK, I need a degree to become a doctor, just ask yourself, “OK, do I really
want to be a doctor or am I just following what my parents or somebody else
wants?” And I didn’t go, it was a really tough decision and it really disappointed
him.
He didn’t take it well at all but the bottom line was, and this is for any young
person listening to this, you’ve got to live your own life.

You can’t be successful part-time. You’ve got to put the effort in, you’ve got
to put the grind in, I know you were doing seven days, travelling around the UK,
even abroad. But putting the effort and the work in, which made you successful.
Now you couldn’t do that if you said, “Right, I’m going to work 10am-4pm, then
I’ve got a shift at Sainsbury’s from 4pm-12am, you know what I mean? It’s
difficult.

After a while you were getting paid a lot more to do your magic, rather
than doing card tricks in your bedroom and at small parties and things.
How did you transition into that mind frame Luca?
When I was in Sixth Form, I’d do a few gigs at a little parties or at a wedding,
probably get paid you know, £100/200 and I got the taste for it. I got a little
website set up, business cards all kitted out. I’d proven to myself in little bits
that I could do it and for some reason I knew I could do it if I had the time to
push it.
Then obviously I did the Prince’s Trust and met you, I’d say it was a few things.
It was one thing just having the vision that I wanted it and then two; having the
work ethic to really outwork the people who’d already been doing it for ages.
I remember we discussed upping your rates, and I think it was 25% you
increased them, maybe 30% or 40. You were a lot higher than people than
people who’d been on the circuit for decades. You valued it.
I know other peers in the industry who’ve always charged peanuts and
I’m not really sure why that is to be honest. I think there’s a few ways you
can go in business when you’re setting prices. One is trying to go in at the
lowest, which can work but it’s a very dangerous game to play. Let’s say you’ve
got a product or service that’s scalable, because there can only be one lowest
priced person in the market. It only takes someone who can do it cheaper.
We’ve all seen people from China can come along and instantly price people out
with no problem at all.

What’s the difference between a magician charging between £300-350,
and a magician charging £600? You’ve just got to ask for it. If you don’t ask
for it, you’re never going to get it. That’s the question. That’s Jay’s favourite
phrase, ask the question!

Tell us what you learnt about show business, because a lot of people
watch Britain’s Got Talent, X-Factor, and they only see one side? So,
basically, yeah, a lot of the people on these shows are headhunted, and they’re
scouted, rather than just turning up on the day as it’s portrayed on the show.
I’m going all in on social media, you’re going all in on social media and I
think now there’s no gatekeeper. You don’t need Britain’s Got Talent or
America’s Got Talent. You don’t need a TV show. You can do it all yourself and
get even more success than the people who’ve gone the traditional route.

How can people listening like young entrepreneurs or young businesses,
how should they leverage social media? You need to decide whether to do
a personal brand or a business brand. There’s advantages to both, maybe
disadvantages to both but I’d say there’s a big value for everyone now to create
some kind of personal brand because you’re basically building equity in yourself
and for me that’s really important.
How did you start building your personal brand?
I think first off, if you're going to build a personal brand you need to look at
what your personal brand’s going to be about. What you need to do is sit down
and think about what the business model is, why you want to build it You need
to have some value that you’re going to bring. Once you’ve done that obviously,
first thing, snap up all your domains on the different platforms, Instagram,
Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, all of them.
Basically Instagram comes down to the algorithm, understanding it,
studying it and using it to your advantage. This is all I did was to figure this
out and leverage this to my advantage. So, a few quick tips; you’ve got your
Instagram page setup, it’s looking good, get some content out there, nine posts
minimum to fill up the page, now if you’ve got something that you want to send
viral, first thing, it’s gotta be good content. There’s no other way around it.
I just want to ask you what does a mentor mean to you, what benefits
has it brought you, and also could you name a few people who’ve
inspired you and put them on this podcast? A mentor to me is someone
who’s done something, achieved something, achieved success in a certain area
of life, who’s learnt the lessons. They’ve been there and done it, what they can
do is offer you the guidance, they can offer you a different perspective from
where you’re looking, even little tactics and tricks but overall it’s more the
bigger picture stuff. I’d read a Grant Cardone book and he’d say something in
the book that’d just make me think differently or act differently. All these
influencers, you take all the bits that you like and it adds up to amazing success.
I found an influencer on YouTube called Tyler and watch a lot of his
videos. His perspective on life and stuff like that will really open your mind, it’s
so deep, what he goes into and stuff like that. I was watching one today and I
felt so present there with him. He’s got this energy about him and some of his
stuff will literally change your life.
BEST MOMENTS
JD: So Luca’s been one of my, I wouldn’t even say clients. He’s a friend
now, we’ve been working together for five years on the mentoring programme
when we first met.
LG: I wouldn’t say client; I haven’t paid any of the invoices!
LG: I saw David Copperfield’s show as a kid in Las Vegas, it was
spectacular. I managed to show one of the magicians a trick after the show. I
had a few cards in my pocket and showed him a quick card trick and he started
laughing and said, “You know what Luca, you could be one of the best magicians
in the world one day. Because your good.”

If I had the information back then it would have been a lot more helpful after
spending a lot of money on mentoring and getting the wrong mentoring it’s good
to get the right person.
You don’t have to wait to start living the life you want to live when
you’re past it and you’re old. You can live it right now and you can reject
what society’s giving to you because actually in most cases it’s the wrong
advice.
JD: You got four yeses on Britain’s Got Talent.
LG: I did well. I performed, it was a really nerve wracking experience and
whatever. It was in front of Simon Cowell and that kind of thing, in front of all
those people. I did well but I wouldn’t do it again. The reason is because I don’t
think I need it. I’ve got a belief that I will have a more successful career than
probably most of the people who go through Britain’s Got Talent. I’m telling that
now, knowing that’s going to happen. This is the problem with Britain’s Got
Talent, the problem is, it’s like the lottery. It basically reinforces a belief that it’ll
be overnight success. We all know that there’s no such thing as an overnight
success. Even the people who’ve done really well. The people who’ve done really
well on the show, are the people who had things going on before. This was just a
bit of a boost at the time.
Quality over quantity with social media sometimes, if you can do both, that’s
better, but focus on putting out good quality content.

VALUABLE RESOURCES
Jay’s Website
Jay’s LinkedIn
ClickFunnels
Fiverr
www.businessmentorpodcast.com
The 10X Rule

ABOUT THE HOST
Jay Dhillon is a well-established entrepreneur and has built up many businesses
from start-up to success.
In 2005 he built a business from 0 – 500 employees with a turnover of £5
million per year and this with no investment apart from his savings. This
business brought in major clients such as Land Rover, Jaguar, Toyota and New
Look just to name a few. His passion and skills have since allowed him to build
many more businesses.
Today Jay has multiple business in various sectors. His achievements for his
work have been highlighted in a visit to Buckingham Palace to meet with Prince
Charles.

From humble upbringings, Jay feels that anyone can be successful in the
business world. With over 18 years in business, he is now sharing his knowledge
and skills to help other inspiring entrepreneurs succeed in the world of business.

CONTACTS
Jay@businessmentorpodcast.com
@LucaGallone on Facebook, Twitter