[#009] Make Millions for Others and Then Walk Away
Oct 12, 2025
Picture this. August 2023.
I'm sitting outside a small bar looking at Porto Old Town from the Vila Nova de Gaia side of the Douro river in Portugal, waiting for my lunch.
It's hot. People are everywhere. The street food smells amazing and the folk festival that is in full swing has music coming from everywhere.
Truth be told, there is so much going on, it's so busy, but in this place I find real peace in this moment.
I had just spent 3 days on my own in the courtyard of the hotel I was staying in.
It's where I went over all my thoughts and ideas about what to do with my business. A few days of strategy planning, on my own, away from the business.
All of my "thoughts" that I worked through came from a number of photos I took before I left to travel to Porto.
I spent time putting every idea and thought onto post-it notes. My wall was completely covered. Literally a good hundred or so. Each one represented either a step in a funnel, joined to something else, to make a machine that I could create to move the needle and change the way that I wanted to run my business. I took photos of the wall so I could take the ideas away to work on them.
I had all these ideas. My calendar was packed. The systems were running. Everything looked successful from the outside. The reality is I was exhausted and I was miserable.
A good friend asked me one simple question a few months earlier... "Why are you still running your agency?"
I didn't have a good answer.
In this short trip to Porto I found my answer though. That was the peace that I found in this bustling city.
Spending the time on my own, in the sun, away from the office, looking back over projects and clients that we had worked with, seeing that my agency had generated over $76 million in sales for clients in their businesses and looking at the winners and losers in terms of campaigns and funnels.
Looking at all of this, that's where I really feel that God downloaded to me a new way of looking at the business and what I should be doing moving forward.
Everything was going to change when I got back to the UK.
My book was going to get started. I wanted to stand for something different in the marketing world. Away from the hustle and complexity. It was really the birth of "The Simplify Way" for me.
And change came.
I'm writing this now, looking out over the Devon countryside from the deck outside the cabin that my wife and I have rented for the week to relax and celebrate her birthday. It's 6:20am and I can't just lie there. My brain ticks in places like this, so I had to write this for you.
Since that trip in August 2023, lots has changed.
- My book "Simplify The Funnel" was published and is on Amazon if you want to get a copy.
- My business no longer has any full-time employees and no offices either. The only two team members I have are my daughters who work part-time for me around their University and College studies.
- I've spent 20+ years on the agency side of the marketing business, building the dreams of only the few in my agency. Now it's time to build my dream, the one where I have impact in thousands of business owners' lives and businesses, not just the odd one or two able to get on my agency roster.
- I've stripped back my systems, made my funnels simple and have helped many others in my community do the same.
The moves have been to do one thing above all... Simplify.
If you are reading this newsletter, and you have gotten this far, I've shared my journey and transition from complexity chaos to simplicity. That's what I want for you too.
In the rest of this newsletter I want to give you some of my thoughts from my Simplify Manifesto that will be published on 1st November 2025.
Everything you'll get from me in the future from this point onwards will be focussed on saying goodbye to the culture of complexity and the cult of hustle that so many entrepreneurs are trapped in.
Content, in-person events, online training products, webinars, mastermind sessions, community Q&As... everything is about doing one thing... Simplifying.
It's time to Simplify. And the time to start that in your business is now.
The Manifesto That Going To Change Everything
Last week I shared how having only two meetings transformed my perspective - click here to read.
This week, I want to go deeper into the philosophy behind that transformation. It all started with the clarity that I got from that time in Porto about the importance of Simplicity. It ended with me writing a personal Manifesto. You can read it in full when it is published on 1st November, but here is a snapshot for you...
1 - Complexity is the enemy of progress.
If it's too hard to explain, it's too hard to sustain. Think about your business right now. How many tools are you using? How many steps in your funnel? How long would it take to explain your entire system to someone new? If the answer makes you uncomfortable, you're not alone.
2 - Busyness isn't productivity.
Movement means nothing without direction. I spent years in perpetual motion. Always doing something. Always learning new tools. Always "productive." But motion without meaning is just expensive chaos. I see it as the biggest curse of being an entrepreneur in the online world today - with every new update and feature being brought in by AI. It's a cancer of complexity that is invading every business by keeping us all too busy.
3 - Success without peace isn't success.
If it costs your sanity or your family, it's not worth it. This one hit me hard in Porto. All those millions generated for clients. But at what cost? Missing dinner with my family. Working through weekends. Living in a state of constant stress. That's not success. That's a well-paid prison sentence.
4 - Simple doesn't mean small.
Simple means clear, focused, and effective. Here's what people get wrong about simplification - they think it means playing small. But the opposite is true. When you simplify, you create space to scale.
Make sure you are on my newsletter email list to get notified about the release of my manifesto on 1st November. Click here to subscribe for free.
The $137,916 Simplification Story
Let me show you that this Simplify thinking isn't just philosophy.
A consultant came to me completely overwhelmed. She'd invested in a "proven system" that had been sold to her by some bro-marketer. His system to create a successful online business required her to create...
- Daily content on 5 platforms
- At least 14, 30+ step email sequences
- A fairly complex webinar funnel with 4 different follow-up sequences
- Endless automation setup
- And the use of fake scarcity with user-based deadlines (Deadline Funnel - I'm not a fan!)
She was drowning in all the implementation she needed to create. And the pressure of having spent all that money on this "new" system for building a profitable online business was bearing down on her.
In one Simplify Strategy session, we stripped it all back and I mapped out for her, her own Minimum Viable Funnel™...
- One Traffic Source - We picked LinkedIn (where her clients actually were)
- One No-Brainer Offer - A $27 audit that delivered massive value
- One Conversion Event - Simple 30-minute strategy calls with her (not a bot or a salesperson)
- One Core Offer - Her $5,000 group coaching package - a new cohort starting in a month's time
Three weeks later, just before she closed her offer for her next cohort opening up, she sent me an update...
- 108 paid leads (not freebie hunters) - buying her $27 offer
- 27 paying customers for her program from 32 sales calls (An 84% conversion rate)
- A total of $137,916 in revenue
Yes, the hustle of those sales calls for her next coaching program took some time, but this one program pays her for the next year. All completed within one month of our call with assets she already had and without needing to implement everything that millennial bro-marketer told her to do.
This isn't an anomaly. It's what happens when you reject complexity as strategy.
Most people who are reading this now...
1 - Will have things they can sell
2 - They do have time to do sales calls and bring the human back into the funnel
...and...
3 - They can learn to sell using my Selling Without Selling™ framework to convert
If that's you... it's time to SIMPLIFY!
Your Business Should Give You Life, Not Take It
There's one thing that took me 20 years to learn that I can share in just a few moments.
Your business exists to fund your life, not consume it.
If you're working 60+ hours a week...
If you can't remember the last weekend you didn't check emails...
If success feels like a trap rather than freedom...
You're not building a business. You're building a prison.
And the bars? They're made of complexity.
- Complex funnels that need constant tweaking
- Complex systems that break if you're not watching
- Complex strategies that keep you guessing about what's working or not
- Complex teams that require endless management
- Complex tools that talk to each other sometimes and break often
Every layer of complexity you add is another bar on your prison cell.
Simplicity is the way forward.
The Simple Life is a way we can all build our business and enjoy the freedoms that come with success - success we define on our own terms.
Here's Your Escape Plan - The Minimum Viable Funnel™
Forget those highly complex multi-step funnels. Forget the automation madness. Forget the "proven systems" you keep being sold, that only prove how complicated things can get.
You need four things...
- One Traffic Source - Master one before adding another
- One No-Brainer Offer - Low-cost, high-value (and PAID - no more freebie hunters)
- One Conversion Event - A simple way to present your solution
- One Core Offer - Your main thing that transforms lives
That's it.
If you can't explain your entire funnel in 60 seconds, it's too complex.
If it takes more than a week to set up, it's too complex.
If you need a flowchart to understand it, it's too complex.
How do you learn how to set this up? Read my book Simplify The Funnel® - grab a copy today over on Amazon.
Simplify - This Matters More Than You Think
In the entrepreneurial world, it's the desire to find a way for technology and AI to remove the business owner from the function of funnel building and content creation that is causing all the problems.
When you have those moments of realization that you're exhausted, the instant reaction is to turn to technology and AI to find the answers.
But when you think about how you can block time to think strategically instead of just firefighting...
When your business starts giving you energy instead of draining it...
When success doesn't cost you everything that matters...
That's when you start to find joy in your business again.
This all comes from finding the time to get clarity and then taking action to simplify.
The true focus should be on how to Simplify.
Not about making more profit first (though that happens).
Not just on finding ways to find more time (though you'll get that too).
Simplification brings in the cash and creates the freedom for you that you want - in the physical and in your mind. It's the kind you started your business for in the first place.
Your Next Step (Simpler Than You Think)
I've taken everything from those 20+ years of being agency side, all those millions generated, all those complex systems built and torn down, and condensed it into frameworks that actually work...
- SEED Marketing™ - Creating content that positions you as the obvious expert
- Minimum Viable Funnel™ - The 3-step funnel for maximum conversion
- Selling Without Selling™ - Converting 90% of qualified calls naturally
- The Complexity Audit - Find where complexity is costing you most
These aren't theories. They're battle-tested systems that work.
Two ways to go deeper...
- Get the book - "Simplify The Funnel®" on Amazon. Everything I know about building simple systems that scale.
- Apply to work with me - From just a 90-minute call or multiple sessions, just you and me, we can map out your simplification plan and I can support your implementation. Clarity and direction. Your best move to Simplify. Click here to apply to work with me.
The Future Belongs to Those Who Simplify
In Porto, surrounded by chaos, I found peace.
In Devon, watching the sunrise, I'm writing about how I am building something better.
Not bigger. Better.
A business that serves thousands instead of dozens.
A life that has space for what matters.
Success that doesn't cost me my soul.
That's what's possible when you simplify.
The question is... Are you ready?
Let me know your thoughts and reflections on anything I share. DM me on Instagram @anthodges or message me over on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/anthodges.
It's time to Simplify. And the time to start that in your business is now.
Keep it simple,
Ant 🐜
Comment below and tell me... What's the ONE thing you're going to subtract from your business this week? I read every reply personally. No bots. No VAs. Just me, probably with a coffee, actually caring about your answer.
