Hey, I'm John
Productivity nerd, entrepreneur, and board game geek
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Welcome to my corner of the internet! For those of you who don't know me yet, I am an award-winning entrepreneur turned business coach.
Last year I helped my 6-figure clients earn an additional $24,000,000 in revenue and saved them 21,840 hours. Talk about a win-win.
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I help entrepreneurs to make 6-figures+ while they work less than 20 hours per week. Learn more below:
My Story
You have less time than you think. Unfortunately, this is something most people only realise when they experience the death of a loved one.
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As a child, I was no stranger to loss, having witnessed the deaths of numerous loved ones. The weight of those experiences instilled in me a profound awareness of time's preciousness. It led me to be hyper-conscious of my time. I became driven to make the most of every moment, seizing opportunities with unwavering determination.
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I wanted to get as much done as quickly as possible, which spurred me to take action on the things I wanted - I headlined small festivals as lead signer and guitarist in a band, started the world's first brewery to specialise in ancient alcohol, orchestrated educational events at elite universities worldwide, and won countless awards.
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But it all took so much time.
My first time as best man at a wedding
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I found that I was working all the time and missing out on other important things. I found myself engulfed in the relentless demands of work, sacrificing meaningful connections and cherished moments with family and friends. I might see them but I was rarely 'present', often thinking about my business or worried that things would stop because I was away. ​
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Everything changed in late 2018 when I watched a short video about Jelly Beans.
I was a little burned out from leading a remote team of 30 to deliver events at universities across 7 countries. That video made it clear to me that, on my trajectory at the time, I was likely to see my mum just 20 more times before she passed away. Something had to change.
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In 2019 I shifted my strategy and embarked on a transformative journey, immersing myself in the realms of time management. I have spent untold hours and tens of thousands of pounds discovering and implementing the best time tips and systems. I mastered the art of reclaiming time. My focus shifted from collecting accolades to enjoying life. I implemented systems, automated tasks, and stopped doing things that I didn't enjoy or that didn't produce exceptional results.
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I now work an average of 15 hours per week across 4 days and enjoy the freedom of a fully remote lifestyle. I take multiple holidays per year and take a day off whenever I want to.​
In 2022 I lived in Valencia, Spain, for most of the year, spent a month exploring Bulgaria, 6 weeks at home in the UK with family, and a month in Italy (Sardinia and Rome) with friends. Despite all the travel and multiple months off, I smashed my revenue record and achieved the most profitable year of my life.
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Naturally, people took notice of my remarkable lifestyle and asked for help to do the same. I have now helped well over 200 people to grow their businesses while reducing their working hours.
In 2022, I helped clients bring in an additional $24,000,000 in revenue and reclaim 21,840 working hours.​
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So, what do I do with all my free time now?
I spend time in the company of cherished friends and family, I embark on adventures (I recently got back from Kazakhstan!), I devour captivating books, and I indulge in the immersive world of modern board games like Terraforming Mars and puzzles like Puzzled Pint.
My partner and I started a board game community in 2021 to play board games in the park with friends. We grew it, and within one year it became the largest weekly board game event in Europe. We do things we enjoy. So can you.
Life is meant to be enjoyed, and I now get to guide people toward a business that brings both profit AND fulfillment. Why have a business if you cannot enjoy it?
Horse riding in Kazakhstan
First anniversary of our board game event
My businesses
Relic Brewery
I started the world's first brewery to specialise in the revival of ancient alcoholic drinks. Mead is the one people have normally heard of, but I liked making things like the ancient Egyptian drinks or Braggot the most.
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I did EVERYTHING in the business myself - branding, labels, website, sales, marketing, even brewing and bottling (though my mate Liam pitched in with bottling in exchange for pizza a couple times).
I won some prizes, but running the business kind of sucked. I started it with the plan to become a millionaire, but I realised that money wasn't my main thing when three things happened:
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I managed to land a super rich mentor. He had owned some very well known brands before, and a hedge fund, and was worth hundreds of millions. Nice guy, but kind of unhappy with his life. It made me realise that money doesn't make you happy
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A friend of mine from school came out to me as an alcoholic. It was hard to reconcile that with me promoting and selling alcohol. I knew my drinks weren't exactly what alcoholics were after, but I had my first nightmare in years about it and realised I wanted out.
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Did I mention that running the business kind of sucked? It was a lot of work tied to a specific physical location and didn't really fit the lifestyle I wanted long term. Why be miserable for years building something I don't like that much in the hope of maybe selling it and then being happy? Life is too short. I opted to do something that would be fun and make me happy now.
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I managed to "exit successfully", selling the brewery. Not what I had originally planned, and it took me a while to get over feeling like a failure, but in hindsight it was definitely a win in my book. I learned a lot. Still think the brewery is a good idea, just not one for me.​
The start of Relic Brewery
My mead, ready for stores
Me giving a talk at FutureLabs
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​Global Digital Week​
After Relic, I had a little money and a desire to do something to make the world a bit better. I was pretty miffed about realising most of the stuff I had learned in my business degree didn't actually apply to real businesses - running Relic made me realise that - so I set out to fix the education system. ​
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I started Global Digital Week - a social enterprise - with a friend of a friend with the explicit aim of making university education more practical and relevant to today. "To fix the digital skills gap".
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I recruited and led a team of 29 volunteers across 7 countries to deliver 20 events to over 1,192 attendees in just 8 months, achieving a verified economic impact of over £1m.
I also led the creation of over 46 partnerships with world leading academic institutions (such as the University of Oxford and the University of Mannheim), and companies (such as Google and LEGO).
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After the first year of events, we struck a partnership with another company and ended up helping to sell world-leading coding training to universities, companies, and governments available across 92 countries worldwide. Additionally, I became an expert contributor to the UK government's remote working courses (2 whole years before Covid!) that has since been taken by more than 100,000 people.
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Global Digital Week ended while we were preparing our second year of events. My business partner had "misled" me about an important contract which many of the other contracts relied on. I found out and told the other parties, and they promptly pulled out and our funding collapsed. A damn shame, as it was going well, but we did have a good impact and I do believe we made a lasting difference. I paid everyone their dues from my own pocket, and split from that partner and business. A painful ended, but probably positive overall. We did do some good, universities did significantly change how their courses were after they saw and experienced our events and training. A worthwhile experience.
​​Miscellaneous
After Global Digital Week ended, I found myself in a sticky financial situation. I had just moved to London - one of the most expensive cities on earth - and all of my money just evaporated.
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I spent a year "hustling" and started multiple businesses. I started a photography business, an English-teaching business, and AirBnB experience, a university student support business, and others. My favourite one at this time was my "Puzzle Hunt", an experience/team building event which was like a fusion between an escape room and geocaching. I hid things around London and created clues between each place for people to find them like a scavenger trail. I took people on that tour. It made some good money, we even did away days for some banks!
Anyway, overall it was a rookie error to try many things rather than focus on one, but I was panicked. I have since learned. I stopped all of these micro businesses when we moved to Spain and my other businesses took precedence.
One of my puzzles (and poem clues!)
A thumbnail from a podcast I was a guest on
​​​​​ZeroSmart
ZeroSmart is a simple subscription service to easily reduce your carbon footprint to zero. It helps people and businesses across the UK to plant trees and fund climate solutions.
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It started because my partner and I wanted to reduce our own carbon footprint, but it was a pain in the ass to do - you needed to be able to understand the scientific literature and be able to invest at least £10,000 up front. We decided it needed to be easier, so we set out to make it easy.
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It is a fairly unique way of working it, but we kind of collect all customer funds together to increase our buyer power and then fund the most impactful environmental projects.
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The business still exists and still runs. I still co-own this business, but it takes me around 3 hours per month to run (thanks to some clever automation, good systems, employees, and my wonderful partner). My partner is the person who actively runs ZeroSmart now. ​
John J D Munn Consulting
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This business, for the website you're reading right now. I help entrepreneurs to start and run 6 figure businesses without it taking all their time. ​
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It started because people regularly ask me for advice. They had seen that I had some success in business and that I was in the fortunate position of not having to work much. I was working, and still work, around 15 hours per week on average. I am very flexible, and normally go on holiday 4 or more times per year. People wanted to know how I did it.
I helped some people, they recommended others, and word spread. It got to a point where it made sense to start charging money, so I did. I started taking it more seriously and added a profile on Fiverr to get clients from outside my circle of contacts. I grew it step by step from there. The vast majority of my clients come from referrals, but now those referrals come from many different people across 6 continents.
I am pretty happy with it, my clients are great, I get to work on interesting businesses with interesting people and help people build their dream lives. I look forward to continuing this work and helping others, maybe even you.
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Happy consulting life. Taken in Valencia
My Awards
I have been fortunate enough to be nominated for, and even win, awards across the years. Some of my favourites include:
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Social Enterprise of the Year '22. Issued by National Start Up Awards
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Great British Entrepreneur of the Year - 2019 Finalist. Issued by GBEA
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Best Digital Changemaker '19. Issued by the European Union.
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Best Mentor. Issued by the University of Leeds.
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You can see other awards on my LinkedIn profile here.
We won!
My Style
I like to have a friendly, casual-but-professional, relationship with the people I work with. Often, it should feel like talking to a friend at the bar - a freedom to chat without worrying about time, knowing that the person has your back and will provide helpful advice. I always tell clients that they pay for my expertise, not my time, and I never cut clients off. Time is my cost, not something for you to worry about, I am here to provide you with value and I am here for as long as you need me.
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In sessions I do swear and I do like to be able to have jokes with clients and laugh together, as well as have more serious 'switched-on' moments together. We are a team, and I think teamwork should be both enjoyable and productive.
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I have a mixed style, employing both consulting and coaching techniques.
Screenshot of a session with Denis
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​Sometimes, I “consult” - I answer questions directly, I tell clients exactly what the right course of action is. I tend to do this when clients are really stuck and facing a crunch point. Often, clients need “consulting” when we first start together and that is absolutely fine. We need to get you to a point of safety before it is reasonable to expect you to consider bigger picture stuff.
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Other times, I “coach”. I make people aware of things they might not otherwise be able to see - be it because of lack of understanding of things like data, or they don’t know what options exist, or because they are too close to the problem. I help people find the solution to the problem themselves. This helps bring about real epiphanies, lifechanging insights that impact everything, and it reaches much deeper than consulting can. I find that the vast majority of people know the answer, they just need the right question.
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Both consulting and coaching have their place. The information “sticks” better when it is coached, the lesson tends to be more fully absorbed and a more lifelong and more positive change takes place. However, it takes longer. It isn’t much use to somebody to have an epiphany after everything has collapsed around them because they didn’t get the help they needed in time. Consulting fills that gap. With consulting, I provide an answer quickly, knowing that it is a temporary fix to get people into a point where they can do the important stuff. I flex to fit your needs at the time.
My results
Already this year I have managed to achieve some great wins for clients.
I have helped two different agency owners go from earning $2k per month, to earning well over $25,000 per month within 3 months of working with me (one took 8 weeks, and the other guy took 10 weeks).
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I have also helped a successful coach earning $500k per year to reclaim his time, regaining 13 hours per week for him (within 7 weeks of working with me) which has allowed him to spend his time however he wants.
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You can read more about my results at the following links:
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I am always happy to help, whether it be a quick question via email or a video call.
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