Ben Camille’s €1,000,000 Strategy (Nobody Saw This Coming)

I love problems. Reputation for me is key. I'd rather make less to start off, but reputation, cuz then the snowball effect is massive. I think the education and system needs a whole new approach. So the question is, when is it the right time to work less and enjoy life more?

[Music]

I'm a bit nervous to be honest, because I've been running after you for a while, and today I got the chance to meet you, Ben Camil, a Multist TV rep. I'm actually going to read this because I already got stuck--a Multist TV icon, a host of Family Feud Malta, and executive producer of LA Malta, Ben Camil. Thank you for coming. I'm supposed to clap, as yes.

I'm really excited about this, man. I really am. Um, uh, I'm so happy to be here. Honestly, man, we've spoken a bit. I'm already taking a real liking to you because I can see ambition and entrepreneurial skills just oozing out of your skin. So, thank you for having me.

Thanks. I've been running after you for a while. I mentioned this, and I didn't give up. I didn't give up. I peddled a bit, and you're sitting down here. So, I'm really happy for this. I'm I'm really nervous because, to be honest, looking at you, you're young. You have a very healthy family, thank God. And and yes, you've you've built something really, really cool that people look up to. So yes, let's start with from the youngest, from the younger Ben to older Ben.

Okay. Yeah. So how did you start? You obviously were brought up in a private school. I made a bit of research about you, and did you Luca? Did you? Okay. So how did I start? So I come from a very lovely, humble family. I had a lovely upbringing, a lovely crazy mom, and a lovely calm dad, if you wish. And I think the beauty of it was that they were so different that you kind of see the goods and bads in in in in both their um characters, I guess. And and I guess I'd like to think I try to be somewhere in the middle, if you want. So I will have beautiful memories of of of my childhood.

Um, I take a moment to pause about this because it's a very sensitive subject, to be honest, in the sense--um, now that I've become a parent, you look back and you appreciate your parents more, but life is a cycle. So the one second you're there, and your parents are your world, and you're taking advice from them, and before you go and buy a pencil box you ask them if it makes sense, and then things change, and and you kind of become the parent to your parents, and they come to you for advice, and they ask you before buying not a pencil box but other things and other arguments and and their differences, and it's challenging, you know, because there are two people you love very much, and if they're not on the same wavelength anymore, it becomes it becomes a challenge. I come from a very humble upbringing. I mean, my dad was a hairdresser um, till today I'm not sure exactly what what is this my mom does apart from get me into a lot of trouble. No jokes apart, my mother is probably where I get a lot of my ambition from. I think one thing I'm very grateful for my towards my mom for is that she always taught me that it is totally fine, actually encouraged, to be different, and and I will forever be grateful for that. She always made me feel like I was the best, possibly when I was not.

Okay. Can I pause you for a second?

Go for it.

When you say you were the best but you were not at the same time, what was the situation?

Okay. No. So I didn't say I was the best. I said my mother thought I was the best, and um, what, but no, no, it's it's a great question you're asking in the sense--um, she made me believe in myself, right? And when I I'm exaggerating here, but if I was playing football, then she would be there to support me and be at every game and never miss a training session and take me to hips and take me to the national team and support, right? And she made me feel like the best because if she was willing to support me that much, then she made me feel the best--everything it was, you know, and and and there were things to I weren't good at, for example, at school. I don't think I--well, I definitely was no A student. I studied hard because I really wanted to do well, but I have a form of dyslexia which set me back at school, so but still I didn't I was never made to feel stupid, right? I think the school I went to--I went to San Andrea, my kids go to San Andrea now--they valued the holistic approach towards school, so they rewarded sport, and because I was good at sport, I was made to feel intelligent, and I guess what my mom did was focused more on what I was good at, made me feel good at that than than the rest of it.

So great upbringing. My dad, on the other guy on the other on the other end, is is a guy. You never know today's world. My dad is a a lovely calm person who didn't push me towards places where I I I I um so wasn't one to push me. So my mother would push, push, you know, go training, work hard, do this to that. My dad wasn't--my dad till today is very relaxed, very calm. Um, uh, what I am grateful for my dad for is that he always encouraged me to do what I enjoy.

Okay. And in fact, people till today ask me what did you want to become when you grow older, and I answer, I'm still figuring it out. Quite strange, huh?

Quite strange.

I know I joke about it, but it was a truth for a long time, you know, and I think it's a question that scares people growing up. And my message here is don't be scared, because figure it out as you go along. But what it did allow me to do was not get myself into traps. So as I grew up, I love sport. Sport was my life. Still is my life. And I'll talk about sport for hours if you want. But I went to school. I played football. I studied physical education and graduated as a PE teacher. Very few people know this about me. Never got the chance to work in PE because my life took me in a different direction. But the course of having my parents allow me to do what I enjoyed allowed me not to get myself into a trap, as I said, and not go into medicine because they want to become a doctor, law because I want to come to a lawyer, drown myself in work and not allow me to do other things. It gave me the right balance, and life took me in directions that were meant to be.

Now I'm a big believer--and you and I just talked about this very much um briefly before we started--in every problem is beautiful. You're saying, "What the hell is this guy saying?" The more I live and the more I grow in business and the more I grow in life, I love problems. Reason being is because I truly believe that opportunities are created. And this is my life story. You ask me how I started. I was 16, 17, 18 years old playing football with hips um at university at the time. So older than than 18, 18, 19. Um, and always looking for the next best thing. I was ambitious. I I I was very ambitious. Still am, but life changes. And I'll tell you the story--very hungry. I want to build. I want to make more money. I didn't come from money, right? So I have great memories as a child, but definitely far from the richest person in class. Did go to a private school. My parents worked very hard to send me into a private school. Now again, I don't want to make it sound like I was poor or homeless because I wasn't. I had a great upbringing and I'm very grateful, but I didn't come from money, right? But what I did come from was a great support system where, as I said, my mom, my dad were always there to back me up. And for some reason, I had this hunger in me. I wanted to become rich and famous, if you want.

Okay. I wanted that, you know, it was an ambition. What that meant and what that means now, totally different. But I remember saying, I want to make money. I want to be known.

What age was this?

I think when I was 3 years old, probably there 16, 17, 18. I remember days saying, you know, I want the financial freedom. I I enjoy the limelight. I remember saying this.

So, you always wanted to be under the the spotlight. Was it that case?

Um, I'll answer that later on because that comes with pros and cons, right? But I do have clear memories of saying I want to be financially comfortable and not have to worry about money. I guess a lot of people say that, right? But to me it was never really about the money in the sense it was about the process of making money. So at that point in time, if you probably came to me and say, "Listen, I'll give you a million euros, but you can't tell everyone how you made them. You can't um make another million euros, but I'll give you a million euros," more than enough to live a lifestyle, right, a life--a million euros, that's more than enough. I wouldn't have taken it. But if you gave me that at that point in time, the same opportunity, said, "Listen, I'm going to allow you, I'm going to give you the resources to make a million euros. Work hard for it. Build a network, build relationships, make mistakes, [ __ ] up and make it, make it up again, [ __ ] up and make it up again." That's what I'd have taken. And that's kind of what I did, right? So, what happened was at the age of 18, 19, um, how did I get--Yeah. Okay. I have to start remembering. Very bad memory. I have--you learned that about me.

What happened was I was playing football with hips at the time, and um, was it pro level premier?

Yes.

So, I I know you play with Zabar, and well done. I know you've you've you've had a great season.

Thank you so much.

So so have to, and wow, for being playing at at the age of 19, right? You are 19, premier goal and goaler is is even harder because it's one place. I had 11 to try, 10. So I was playing at 16 with hips. My my debut was against Valeta. Um, I loved football, still do. Unfortunately, my body doesn't--playing paddle at the moment, and and I still train every single day. But at that point, I was at at a peak. So I peaked very, very early and then just flopped very soon afterward with football, but football gave me a network, a relationship, and you'll hear me talk about this a lot, and the relationship he gave me was with my supporters, with my team, my coaches, and there was one person who was a supporter of hips who happened to be a bank manager, and he said, "Listen, come and speak to me," you know, at the time I was looking into property, but I had no money, right? I had a stipend of €80 a month. I wasn't getting paid to play with with hips at the time, so no money, so I was like, "How am I going to buy a house?" And this guy says, "Come and speak to me." He came, and he opened his door because of the relationship he had with me from him. So he knows he knew I was a good boy. He knew that I could um he saw potential in me, right? And uh, he said, "Listen, go and look for a property, buy a property which is currently being rented, and then with the rent you can actually pay the loan." He kind of worked it out for me. I remember at the time the rent was €250 a month, and the loan was €275, and I said, "You know what? I I I I'll try. I I'll manage to get €25 from somewhere to to to pay the rent." Did what needed to be done. Found my first property, a one-bedroom in zero, not your loose street, I remember. And um, I bought it. First time I went to collect the rent, the person who was renting from the person I bought from told me that they're in massive arguments and he's not going to pay the rent. Like, "[ __ ] I don't have this €275 right now to pay my bank. I'm not going to default on my first bank payment. I don't want to go asking people for money. I don't want to put this stress on my parents." So what do I do?

Um, I called the contractor. I said, "Listen, this guy is saying he's fighting." He's like, "Tatishka, so don't take any notice of him. He's not right." The tenant is saying, "No, he's not right." I'm like, "Okay, I'm in the middle of this." So I did what I knew. My dad, apart from being a very good hairdresser and a very creative hairdresser, was a very creative photographer and owned the camera.

Okay. I got his camera. I went to the apartment and I took photos of the apartment. Another person I knew, relationships again, had told me how he was renting his palaton Valeta, a very nice older guy, and how he was renting rooms. At the time there was no Airbnb. There were no booking.coms or booking.coms were just for hotels. So the shortlet industry in Malta was very different. But what this guy told me and this network I built, this relationship I had with this guy was very valuable for this problem was that he used another website where he posted photos on this website and rented his rooms on a short basis. So I'm going to try this. Took photos, borrowed another €25 because I had to pay to be on this site, ownersirect.co.uk. I don't know how I remember that. And what I did was without knowing I started a business, and I advertised this apartment um on on short-lived basis. I was lucky it was during June. Within a matter of a few days, booking started coming in. I had a bookings within 48 hours. So I told the guy who's living there, I said, "Listen, I'll give you back your deposit since you don't want to pay the rent." So he was happy, but you need to leave within 48 hours. He said, "No problem. I'll leave tomorrow," because he wouldn't want to be there anyway. So solved his problem with the tenants. These two were happy. I had a guy coming. Went there, cleaned the apartment myself, my girlfriend at the time, so they--my wife came there, helped me clean the apartment. Her mom came as well. I remember this. This is like a therapy session for me. I'm enjoying this more than I thought. Um, and um, this is how my short business started. People came, they enjoyed the booking. I went for them at the airport with Christina as my wife's IQ. I go, I had the IQ. Hilarious. Like the love just couldn't fit in. I'm trying to drive two people. But again, you know, I I was honest with these people and I said, "Listen, you my first booking. This happened," and I told them the story. They gave me a tip. That was the beginning.

What happened was we kept on marketing the apartment, and we marketed it so well that we were booked all summer, and more bookings kept on coming in. So what did I do? I called the guy who technically wasn't possibly the most honest, clearest person with me in at at first, who was the person who sold me the apartment, who fought to the tenant who owned another 10 apartments in the block just like mine.

Okay. Was a developer, right? And I said, "Listen, I have these bookings coming in. Would you like me to pass these bookings on to you? And then you know you can think of a commission. We think of a business structure that works." And he goes, "No, I have no time for this." He said, "But do you want to take the apartments and you handle it?" And I said, "Listen," I said, "Ten's a lot." I said, "Let me start with two." And he gave me the keys to two of his apartments. And I started putting people in his apartment, putting people in mine. Ten year, well, 10 months down the line, I was going to say 10 years, 10 months down the line, I had 80 apartments. 80 apartments. When I say 80 apartments, they weren't mine. But I would rent the apartments. You were like subletting, and then I would sublet. So at first I was working on a commission basis. One thing I liked to do in my life was to grow very organically, right? So I could have taken the 10 apartments. I could have rented the apartments and then subleted them. But I started to work on a more cautious basis.

Okay? So it was calculated risk. Reputation for me is key. I'd rather make less to start off, but reputation because then the snowball effect is massive. And that's what I did. So I started um first working on a commission basis. So, for example, with rent an apartment €1,000 a month, I take my cut, the owner takes my their cut, they make more money, I make my commission, everyone's happy. As I progressed, you start to realize, yes, that the business model that works is you rent, you take the risk, you say, "Listen, I'm going to give you instead of €1,000 a month, I'm going to give you 1,200. I'm going to pay you in advance, whatever, but give me the right to sublet." I did that. And at the point, I had 80 apartments. I think it went up to about 120 at a time. And the business grew very quickly.

What happened then?

Next, when you say quickly, what was--I'll tell you. The quickness of it was that people were coming from all over the world. And what happened next was people would start asking for apartments in Valeta. At the time, I'm telling you, this is 12 years ago, 12, 13 years ago. You'd be scared to go to Vallet at night. I don't know if you remember a time like this.

No, no, no, I don't. I just about remember it.

So, probably Valeta was not what it is today. Valeta is a gem today. It always was a gem. Today we just appreciate it more, the way it should be. So I'm saying, why are these people asking me if I have property in Valeta? You know, we had this the the St. Julians, the Slemas, the Xeras, the normal places. And I said some--they were Valeta. So something must be right. So I literally started going around Valeta knocking on doors asking if I could buy property because I was able at that time. I made some money and I could buy my next property. No one would answer me until finally someone did. And I bought my first property in Valeta, which was a corner property, rundown property with like--took 60 trucks of rubbish out of this property. Changed it completely. If you do a before and after, I'll show you some photos of this property and and and because of the experience I had in the short industry, I built, if you want, I divided the property into two, and I started renting them out on a short basis in in in Valeta. And at the time, renting for like €60 a day. 60 times--€220 a day. Good money--€120 a day. You're looking at what €3,000 a month, uh, €4,000 a year. It's good. Good tax incentives with the property. 15% final withholding tax. It was good. It was good.

What happened next was I recounted a problem when buying this property in Valleta. Another problem where there was a structural issue, an architectural issue, and it was close to unsolvable. Again, this is with loans. I didn't have the money to take the risk, and I couldn't bleed because now you learn in business that more longer you can bleed, it just gives you more time to to success. Problem is always there, just about bleed, bleed, bleed, bleed until you stop the bleed, and then you can be successful. But you need to have time to bleed. I didn't have time to bleed at that time. I was literally taking screenshots of the water and electricity meter to make sure that it's not too high so I can pay the next bill. Massive problem. I don't want to get into detail, but again, this problem um turned into an opportunity because I met an architect, an architect who helped me solve the problem, and without going into too much detail, this architect and I have been doing business for the past 15 years--never met him before that day--very totally different as people, but is a great person and an honest person, which you start to appreciate in in in in business um of course we disagree 100 times a day, but we know that we are good people.

Who come from good places, and I've built now a number of blocks with this this this architect, and we have a lovely, um, relationship. But that started from a problem, not between us, a problem, um, which turned into an opportunity because I met him.

So after that, I I had these two apartments in Valeta. After these two apartments in Valeta, I got an opportunity because I was working in the area to buy another rundown property in Valeta, which they turned into a guest house. So today, I I own a guest house in Valeta, which, funny enough, I've gone 360. I now rent to someone else to sublet.

Okay. Why do I do that? What happened with the sublet business, with the sorry, with the property management business, was it scaled so fast, and and by scaling I mean it's from 80 apartments, 100, 120, it kept growing too fast. I didn't have time to structure myself at the time; I was still playing football; uh, I was still at university for the part of it; um, it was very hectic. I started developing, but what that did was it gave me an insight into the the development market as well, right? So we started seeing how um the return on investment on buy to sell made sense, you know, you're looking at 30% margins at the time. Um, so this other partner of mine, the architect, gave me insight information to that.

Was he older than you?

Yes. Yes, he still is. He's older than me. And I think that's one thing I really believe in partnerships. I feel someone told me this, by someone I mean my dad. My dad and my mom, um, again, always supported me, but only recently kind of I think my dad came up to—It was a very emotional moment—and he said, "Ben, you should be really proud of yourself." You know, I get emotional when I talk about this. So, but one thing he said and it stuck with me was was, "I feel you're really good at building good partnerships." And I took a step to think about that and I said, "It's true." I realized not everyone might agree with this, right? Someone might tell you, "Don't get into a partnership. Do it on your own." I think I've been able to grow in so many different businesses because out of luck or out of I don't know what it is. I've met great people, and I've managed to make a relationship work really well. It's not not is it not always easy, it's never easy. And I think the fundamental things I keep in mind are: don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. Own up to mistakes. So if you [ __ ] up, say, "Listen, man. I [ __ ] up, but I'm gonna make up for it. Allow me to make up for it." And just be a good soul, I guess. Be a good soul.

So back to my journey. I talk a lot. Okay, Lucas. So stop me whenever you want.

Actually, I'm just sitting down here and enjoying the story.

So today's a—I'm almost there. I'm almost there. What happened at that point in my life? um, when I was—okay, I've take you a big a few steps back to to to to to allow you to understand how I got into media.

Yes.

So football was my life—was your life—was my life. It's a big it's a big word—was my life. No, I thought I was—oh, I thought I wanted to be the next Lion Messi. So T Lion Messi or the Benino on TV like [ __ ] that Lion Messi, hands down, you know. I didn't even take—um, I don't know, I was going to try to mention a bad player, but I don't want to offend offend anyone. I take any player and like top-level player. I wanted to be I wanted to be a football star. Um, I loved football. I mean, I know you do too, but um, again, massive problem. I had a very bad injury, an 8 cm tear on my hip joint, which I suffered till today, and the doctor said, "Listen," I mean, this is after a lot of other injuries, and it was clear that my body was not made for football, and I believe that, you know, I mean, there are different body shapes for different sports. You probably experienced it too with with—I mean, I compare other brilliant players I played with, players like Andrew Cohen, players like Terrence Sherry. I'm mentioning them because apart from being brilliant players, they played in similar positions to me. And I'd remember like a player like like like Andrew Cohen, right? Who was technical, who was who did the same training I did, who did the same things I did, would never step foot, luckily for him, I can say it now. He doesn't play anymore, into the the doctor's room or the physio's room, whereas doctors and physios are my best friend. So you know, it's body shape, it's physique, it's it's it's it's the the biology I think of the body makes a difference. But again, um, I this this was at the time was a massive problem for me when doctors said, "Listen, you can't keep on playing football," and and I knew it. My body was telling me—depressed. That was at a time in my life where I was very sad, very low in my life. Very, very, very low. But again, I look back and I say, "Wow, what an opportunity." And listen to this. I was a very low point in my life. I was still at university, and at that time the dean of the faculty came up to me and he said, "Listen, this is life. Um, why don't you try and go on Erasmus? Erasmus is where you can go abroad and you can study." like, "Oh, I know. I want to give it another time. I'm going to miss my family. I'm going to miss my friends." You know, I was in like, "Listen, go try it out. You can go for six months. You study there. Get away from it." He convinced me.

Life-changing. What happened there was, well, what first happened was I got totally homesick. And the first week I was literally crying for mommy. And I wasn't 12, I was 19, right? So, I missed my mom, I missed my dad, I missed my friends. I was homesick. I wanted to come back. Somehow managed to stick it through. And I met a person who worked in the drama section, you could say. They organized the panto for a lot of the area, the pantoine. And this guy said, "Listen, come and join. Come and join it." And I said, "Listen, I I just play football, you know. I can't do anything apart from that."

You had stopped football, right?

Yes. Well, it was just, you know, I just stopped. But that's what I know how to do. He said, "Come and join the drama club. You'll make friends."

Okay.

And I went and I applied for backstage. The director there took a liking to me. He said, "You're not backstage—like, I want you to participate in in the pantomime, which was be—not Beauty and the Beast. What's it called?" My god, my memory. Sleeping Beauty, right? Cinderella. Cinderella, one of them. Anyway, and he said, "I want you to take part in this this Phantom." And I go, "I can't do anything." He's like, "No problem. We'll send you to singing lessons or dancing lessons to acting lessons." I still can't sing, dance, act. But what it did was it opened a new total industry for me, right? So, I met lovely people. I made new friends. I did end up getting the lead role in this pantomime. who I was. It sounds better than it is. I was the prince, but the prince didn't have much lines. I think they kind of used me for the wrong reasons, but I I took part in this pantomime. I'll try and give you a clip which you will—I'll get crucified for, but totally fine to give it to you, and if it helps you in a way with your views, I'll be so happy that that that um people get to laugh at me and and you'll get to get to to be helped. But I did it. And what happened there was um I loved it. I had fun, and a friend of mine who's one still one of my best friends still today, his name is is Matthew Paris. He's my best friend and and is a great lawyer as well. I'll charge him for this product placement. He was at KSU in the time and he said, listen, he said, you know, now that you're acting, he's like, I need you to act for me. I'm like, "What do you know about?" He's like, "Students fest, we're doing students fest. I want you to come and be part of students fest." Like, "Matt, this was a onetime thing, you know, forget it. I'm not getting on stage again." "No, you need to do it." And I did it. At the time it was OMA, a twist of Mamma Mia. And I took part in students fest and I enjoyed it again. It was fun. Like, "What's this acting, singing, people clapping? Oh, I like this. Oh, okay. This is something I'm enjoying."

During um OMA, the students fest, a a part a person who today is my business partner, Martinez Amit, who's on the radio, a DJ host on Magic. Okay. um, who funny enough owns a company called VSQ. Martina saw me there, and she she gave me a call. We were friends socially. We knew each other, and she said, "Listen, now that I've seen you on Students Fest, I don't know you did this. We have this new idea for this new TV program called El Clicker. Would you be interested?" That was the first time I didn't say no right away. I'm like, "Hm, let's meet, let's talk." And when we did this program, I click, which at the time was a mega success. It was supposed to be a program I believe about a group of girls, but my character Thomas at the time was liked, and the character grew from Ilika. I went on to another TV program called Stardusta, and that was massive, a massive massive production by sharpshoot media. Great people, fantastic people to work with, and they exploded the scene, and in that sense from Strada I got to um present the multi-vision song contests, and I did it badly—now that I look back—badly.

Okay. This is the time when I I said—instead of—I imagine, right, live on TV, messed up the language, but I didn't give up. I believed in myself. I had this, which is probably coming back again from my childhood, you know, thinking you're better than you are at times, believing yourself, the confidence to do it, very always willing to learn, so I was always very humble, right?

In a sense, were you English spoken?

Definitely yes. So people ask me this a a lot, like why do you speak a lot of English, not Maltese?

Thank you for asking me this. My dad is practically English. My dad was taken to the UK when I was eight months old, a baby, and so he speaks English, you could say, with the accent and all, right? Um, my mom is is is Maltese and speaks perfect Maltese, better than Maltese than me, which isn't saying much. So, yes, I grew up speaking English at home.

You know why I asked? Because I had the same I had the same problem as you. I was invited on live television and they told me to speak in Maltese. Now my Maltese is not that bad, but when I come to express my feeling and express a story, I cannot—I can, but the words don't come to to mind.

Yeah. So I sat down and spoke in Maltese, and that had to change—had to change to English. So there was a bit of a controversial situation. It's a reality and it's a very sensitive topic, but I learned from it—opportunity.

Yeah. As you said.

Yeah. I mean, in my case it was football who taught me Maltese. So I can speak Maltese thanks to that. I can't write Maltese to save my life, but I can speak Maltese because at hips, if I didn't speak Maltese, I just have no friends. But the truth of the matter is, and I was trying to do this with my son recently, I I I tried to introduce him to different football clubs who would be more inclined to speak Maltese. However, when I did that, I I saw the coaches were still still speaking to the kids in English. And I asked the coach, "Why are you speaking in English?" He said, "Because half the team are foreigners, so if I don't, they won't understand me." It's a reality we're living in. We become a cosmopolitan—I like to say—city because Malta is a big city, but we become a cosmopolitan country where in your day—think about it—you meet as many um locals as you meet foreigners. So it's it's it's a reality we live in.

I'll talk about Peppa Pig if you want, and it's the reason I created Peppa Pig. The reason I came up with the idea for Peppa Pig in Maltese in Maltese because to me the only way to solve this problem—what you just mentioned yourself now—is if we tackle it from the zero to three-year age gap. So it's no point going on to programs and asking Ben Camille to speak in Maltese, and the importance of speaking in Maltese—okay, could help a bit, but 1%, 2%—if we really want to save our language, we need to invest in the zero to three-year sector because that's when they absorb the language, and how do we do that? Entertainment. I mean, I I may ask—um, your parents are are are probably 40 plus, 50 plus?

Yes, yes.

Do they speak Italian? Understand Italian?

Yes. Understand?

Yes, there you go. And that's probably why because they were exposed to Italian entertainment.

Right. Exactly. My mom the same. Um, a lot of the older generation—older—be careful. A lot of the generation of the 50 plus generation would understand or or speak Italian because the older part is very fluent. Very fluent. But then why am I not—I can't speak Italian to save my life—because I had access to um cable TV, to to to the internet. And now more than ever, right now it's even more accessible than it ever was. I mean, it cost $9.99, right, a month to have endless hours of YouTube and um Netflix and Amazon Primes. It's crazy. So, why would my kid choose a local production which is given a budget of 30, 40,000 euros to produce Maltese content over a multi-billion industry like Peppa Pig in English? Why? It's it's it's not a coincidence that people watch these type of productions. They watch them because they're studied. They watch them because there's a theme park which then reminds them of how cool it is. You can't compete. And this is why we decided to take this route. We wanted to produce our own product in Maltese so people have an original, but it's like with all due respect to Hazabar—trying to compete against Real Madrid—you don't have the resources, but if Hazabar compete in the Premier League—which they did a brilliant job in—because Hazabar had a fantastic welcome to Rexom story, right? From the third division—third division—was it Premier League—within their own competition, then yes, and that's a game changer. So what we're doing is now we're competing with the foreign productions because we have the rights to Peppa Pig here. We produce it in Maltese, and my son now, Jamie, who's two years old, doesn't mind watching Peppa Pig in Maltese, but my daughter who's seven was exposed to the Peppa Pig in English and would prefer to watch the English one because it's too late. So we need to focus on zero to three. But here we need government to help. And the reason being is that there's no money in uh children's programs. Why? Because children have no spending power. So unless government come in and say, "Listen, we can fund this," if they really want to save the language, because maybe we decide it's not a priority anymore, and people give us a lot of crap for for Love Island being in in English, and um I would love nothing more than to see Love Island totally in Maltese. I would love it. Why? Why? Because I love my language, and people will probably be very surprised to hear this. I think it's lovely, but I think the reality is we're going to lose it. And I think it's so sad, but I think we're dealing with it the wrong way. Um, I I I my tongue—my—I I have to be careful how I say this, but people spin things wrongly. Um, recently I was—a message was passed on to me, right? That a board member within PBS was angry at at at something that I said. He was actually right because I think the way he interpreted it was the way this media company spun it. So what I did was I I I put on a video on social media and I asked, "Would you think it's a good idea to have one English program on TVM so we can address other people who living in Malta?" a big portion of people living in Malta who don't speak Maltese. Is it fair? Should they have access to a local product in English? That's what I asked. A particular portal um spun it and they said um Ben Camille proposes to switch the TVM to English. So they—and the board—because they read the title I believe. I don't think they took the time to read the whole article. However, what I was proposing was to do it in English. Er, and there was a bit of a a problem around that. However, whether we do one program in English, whether we do two programs in English addressing the demographic I have in mind, right, which are an older demographic, I don't think is going to affect our language being saved or not. They are two different problems which need to be treated with two different solutions. Yes, I believe we should cater for an audience who only speaks English because there's a market there and commercially it makes sense. But yes, I believe we should give as much energy and as much investment to saving our language, and I have a plan how to do that. We can do it, and it doesn't mean we need to have all our programs in Maltese. We can still have other programs in in English, but we can still save our language because there are two different ways of doing it. Two different rows that need to be taken. Peppa Pig is a start, and we're seeing it. It's working. I receive hundreds of messages from people being so grateful about that. I can see it with my own kids. George, because he was at the right time when Peppa came, can count one to 10 in Maltese. I send you a video. It's amazing. We had amazing elan.

Perfect.

Jamie is just about doing it. He's been just about doing it.

Can I ask you a question?

Please do.

Sorry, I talked too much.

No, no, it's it's fine. It's fine. Don't worry. You mentioned that obviously you're you're locally well invested into the into this country with regards to language, regards to business. Me personally, obviously not the dressing room vibe and the young generation vibe. I want to go abroad. I want to go abroad. I want to do this. I want to do that. Why did you never—if you didn't speak about it yet—but why didn't you never say, "Listen, now to expand abroad?" Like, what what's the idea around it? Is is Malta the right stepping stone to then go abroad, or is it the right stepping stone to continue your career here?

H—that's a very good question. I don't do regrets. But if there's one thing I'm curious to know how it would have turned out is exactly what you asked. At the age of 15, when I was still playing football and at my peak, the only time I was at my peak, the national team director, Horse Heath, at the time, okay, gave me an opportunity to to go on a trial with Bayern Munich. My closest friends know this and they tease me about it. I went there, spent five days, and they loved me and they asked me to stay for another five. You know what I did? I got homesick and I came back. I remember being there, 15 years old, and feeling totally at par with people at Bayern Munich. And I can say this now because if I had to go there right now, I'd be the worst player by far. So, it's not blowing my own trumpet. But at the time, I was very comfortable. I did well. Bayern Munich asked me to stay there for another five days. I don't think I ever said this publicly, and I said no. I came back because I was homesick. I'm really curious to know what would have happened. And that's probably a problem. I just told you I don't do regrets, but I'd love to know what would have happened. And as things went along, I did look back and I said, you know, that was a real missed opportunity. But I really do believe that if you keep a positive mindset, and you'll hear me talk about this, I talk about it a lot with my team. I'm a big believer, and it might sound—

Cliché. I really believe in mindset. I believe in self-visualization. Today I practice, I meditate, I journal. Listen, there are lots of techniques you can use, and I think different techniques work for different people. Whatever it is, it needs to be positive. And today I look back and I say, yes, it was a missed opportunity, and I would encourage people to follow what they they they feel is right in their heart. Um, if it is going abroad and trying things overseas, yes, why not? Um, what I do suggest is don't let a problem get you down. In the sense, I'll quote Moa Mo Gaudat Mo Gaat, a ex-CEO of Google X, a lovely human being. And on an interview with Steven Barllet, dire CEO, he said this one thing which I kept on remembering, and he said he did a social experiment where he asked a group of people: if you had a magic button and you could press this button right now to erase all the bad things that happened to you, but with erasing those bad things, you'd erase all the good things that came on with it, right? Would you press it? And 99.9% of the people said, "No, I'll do things just as I did because all the bad things I did came with good things afterwards and made me the person I am today." However, when I ask the same question: if right now you are in the worst position in your life, you know, someone you love died, you've just lost a lot of money, a business deal went wrong, that second if you had that button, would you press it and then that's gone away? Everyone said yes. So, that's like really confusing. Why did everyone say no, and then they'd say yes? And the fact is time mindset. So now that I know that 99.9% of the times people will not press that button in hindsight, now that I am in the situation, embrace because there's no magic button, right? You can't really press this button. Yeah. No, no, but but but but stay with me. What we're trying to say here is you know that one week down the line, one month down the line, one year down the line, you're not going to want to press the button. You can't press the button anyway, but you're also knowing you're not going to want to press the button. So embrace the situation. And when I have a massive problem like that, I go through certain steps. Step number one: is it true? Is it really a problem? Because sometimes it isn't. Okay, it is a problem. What do you consider a problem? I'll tell you. Step number two: accept the worst-case scenario of this problem. This is the worst-case scenario that can happen with what just happened now. I lost this business deal. The worst thing that can happen is I need to close shop tomorrow. I'm not going to die. I'm not going to uh lose my wife. I'm not. That's the worst. Step number three: do everything in your power to make the worst-case scenario not happen. So if the worst-case scenario is 10, try go for nine, eight, seven, six, five. And you're winning. Number four is action it. You ask me a question. What is it? What's the problem? What What do you consider a problem? That's a really good question. You know what? Today I consider nothing a problem. I I know it sounds cliché. I consider everything an opportunity. If you want me to give you a direct answer, I think anything related to health is a serious problem. Yes. To me, health is is is key. And now I've got to a stage in my life where I've I've done a lot of what I wanted to do. I'm financially in a happy place. You mentioned before that you're mentioning a lot of health. Is there a situation where you said listen it is a priority right now? Totally man. Right now. Right now, I'm a place where nothing is more important than health. And and I can tell you and I I don't think I've ever spoken about this. I went through a time when I'm so I I I I talk like I'm not hungry for for work anymore, right? It's it's in me and it will never go away. And I'm dealing on three four different business things right now as I speak to you. But I give them different levels of importance because there was a time when I was doing extremely well from a business point of view, um from a financial point of view, but I wasn't happy or content because happy is a an ambiguous word. I wasn't I wasn't at peace, and the more I looked into it the more the answer was was was health. So, I was I was eating a lot more. Um, not consciously, but it's you get into because of stress, you get into comfort eating, I guess. Um, I'm not a big one for alcohol, but you'd have a lot more events. So, socially, you know, have a drink here, drink there. Um, and exercise. I was exercising less. I think I just put on a bit more weight. I mean, nothing out of this world, but because I came from a sporting background, it it it I was feeling inside me there was something which was not right. And it was that it was it was totally health. So now I prioritize. I train every single day. I'm playing paddle as I said, and I'm doing this intermittent fasting which works well for me which I call was why I couldn't taste your beautiful. But now you can. Is it one yet? Is it? It's one. Yes. Okay. I I can if you want me to. Okay. So I want to explain a bit the So one of our sponsors of this episode is Gilong. Okay. It has 40 grams of protein in one packet. Okay. It's fresh beef and he dries it. It's homemade. Malta, right? This guy is How old is this guy? Around 21. Bravo. I love these people. Yes. That's why. That's why. This is like cutting the beef himself at home and he has dryers, homemade dryers. I love that. It's it's it's insane. Yes. He has a website. You want to go check that out. Go for it. They have all all of you guys who are watching, you have a 10% discount and the code is CC05. So, in a second, try it. Yep. Go for it. Let's go. I love the packaging. What's it called? G's G's Bong. Okay. Nice. I just go for it. Go for it. Give an honest opinion, right? Yeah. Yeah. Very salty. I like it. It's all right. I'll be honest with you. I like it. It all depends on how healthy this is. So if this is super healthy, I'll have this white. Super super super. Is it super super? Listen, you found me at a real anal time. I wasn't like this, right? I would before eat anything and not think twice cuz super. So I would dissect the the the the calories and all that. How much calories are in this? 173. Yeah, for all of it. That's good. No, no, it's an insane product. It's an insane product. I'm taking this. Thank you, George Strickland. Shout out to you for creating such an insane product. No, listen, whatever it is, I really do admire people and and and um I do admire people who come up with these initiatives. It's not easy. Not easy for sure. And people just see the journey and I love it how people just grind, work hard, don't give up. I mean, what you said as well, right? You have me here today. You you you chased, you sent me emails and it's not because I didn't want to be here because I'm so happy to be here, but like everyone else is busy. But you didn't give up, right? You you got through a friend of your mom who contacted me and then and and when I see people like you, I am in awe. I am in awe because I feel it's not as common in today's world. Or now with the company that I'm that I'm a major shareholder in which I spoke to you about before, Media Exclusive. Um, we employ a number of people, right? And we're always looking to employ a number of people and we love having different talent. And I'm not a person to look at degrees. I'm really not. Why is that? My god, so many topics. Because I think the educational system needs a whole new revamp. Revamp. Revamp. That's a good word. Do you think do you think we're stuck in the old age of of teaching? Someone recently told me something was going to answer that question. He said, "If someone comes into this world from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and he goes, oh wow, you know, Skype breakers. Oh, you have cars and you have mobiles in your hand and like you can watch films on your mobile." I be like, "Wow, so many things changed. This is amazing." He said, "But one thing has not changed." And he goes, "What?" Schools. So, totally right. We need to really do that. What if you Okay, cuz we're going on two different topics. But I want to ask I want to ask you this one question. One sentence that you'd give to the school system to change. How you suggest the first change? Sorry, I'm taking a pause for about this. Well, I would say reward different forms of intelligence. Right now, the way the educational system is set up, it really does a good job at rewarding people who have a good memory. Now, I just told you I have a horrendous memory. And it's true. I I I I do. And it's why I was not far from academically top in my class. Far from it. However, there are different forms of intelligence. Some people can be more creative. Some people can be more logical. Some people can be better when it comes to working with their hands. Neverending forms of intelligence. Some people can be better at negotiating. If you offer different um if you're able to reward different forms of intelligence, meaning you have to cater for different forms of intelligence, then people will feel more intelligent, they'll feel happier, and they will produce better um they'll produce better stuff. I mean we meet people today who let's I'll leave this part out because it's a very long sensitive subject. And why is that? What were you what were you going to just hint it out a bit for us? Because I don't want to offend anyone. In the sense, when interviewing people there are a lot of qualities I see in people which u are great, but there are some which aren't so great. Um, I feel there is this this this softness in a in a younger generation where people want to become millionaires overnight, who don't want to get dirty and do the work, who don't want to sacrifice. Um, I get asked by I would say a lot of people on a daily basis through my social media, I'd like to come and work with you and grind and do this. And I think they they just see the the the glory and the nice part of it. But when they come to do the work, then it's and not everyone. Right now I have and one thing I've promised myself to give back is allow people to come in and and and learn, and this is advice I would give to anyone who wants to strive in business. If you want to make money, if you want to uh become successful at whatever it is, number one, aim to be the best. You have to be the best whatever it is you do. Whether it is becoming the next best football player, whether it is washing windows, whatever it is, I have to be the best. I want to open up a company washing windows. You'll make big money if you're the best, but be the best. Take pride in it. Number two, find someone. So, number I mean, you can't get to the best, right? Who you can't be the best instantly. So, what do you do? Find someone who is the best and become their best friend. But it's not easy to become the best friend of the best. It's like you're you're forcing yourself to be the best friend. You have to be careful as well. You know, I'm totally agreeing with what you're saying, but you have to be careful. Very careful. I think that's why that's why you're not friends with everyone. If we're friends with everyone, you know, I can I want to be I can be your best friend cuz I want to become some someone like you. But is the connection there yet? No. So, I have to build a connection and then we'll become friends. And should I tell you how to build that connection? Yes. Offer me value and you become my best friend today. Give me value and tomorrow, today you'll be my best friend. Find a way to be valuable. Now, valuable can mean that right now you're making coffee for me every day. But you got your foot in. Is making coffee every day fun? No. But that's your value and you got your foot in. Do you want to be making coffee every day? Definitely not. But then you have an opportunity to build your way up. And without getting into a lot of detail, I've done this all my life. I love until today I still do it. Maybe not for different reasons. Now I like to meet people who are of a much more intelligent mindset to me and who are on a different level when it comes to maybe um positive thinking and um health. I listen not like today, but That's something I really encourage. Become best friends. Offer value to someone who you want to be like. Don't you think the first step should be take action? Because there are people come up with so many ideas, so many valuable ideas. Well, then don't Okay, let's wait till next week and then we'll start for example have the first meeting. Why don't you start right then and that will take you to the destination you truly want. No, totally. I am I think in the world we're living in in the digital age where we're we're living in speed is very important. If you want to do something you need to action it, um always be aware that your actions have consequences and always be okay to accept your consequences. I mean this is a thing that we see all the time right now right? So people are very fast right now to go on social media and say rubbish and do rubbish to get a few likes and hey listen if that's your game that's your gameplay and you're okay to suffer the consequences or to more than suffer to accept the consequences then that's your gameplay. Um, if you want to be more long-term, then think long term. So, be okay with the consequences. That's up to you. But definitely be okay to make mistakes. Be ready to make mistakes. I I I always forget the quote of the guy, what's his name? Thomas, who invented the the the light bulb, Thomas something Edison, but his quote something on the lines like, "I didn't make any mistakes. I just found 10,000 ways that a bulb doesn't work." Yes, exactly. I saw I mean I'm definitely not quoting it word for word, but that's what he meant. You know, he probably did it did it tried it 10,000 times or however times he's saying and then the 10,000 time first time it worked and you know the beauty of that so we spoke about before the the the not beautiful part of it is that people see the polished version right so people see where you are social media the pictures you know they see that now right but they don't see the journey they don't see how many times you messed up and how many times you failed so they don't see that they just see that and that can be annoying and you can be like you know you're just you're giving me [__] cuz I'm here now, but you didn't see all I went through. But the beauty of that is that people don't get to see that. Get it right once and then you're laughing. This is like when it comes to property, right? And and um I work with a lot of of of estate agents because they they they try and sell my properties and they try and I speak with them a lot and it's very demotivating to be an estate agent because you probably get a million nos, right? But these guys work hard. They work with no salaries. They only work on commission basis. They go to appointments where people don't turn up. They're working with people are trying to totally go behind their back. It's not it's not an easy industry. But what I tell them when they come and because a lot of them are my friends and I say, "You know what? You can have a thousand nos. Get one yes and you've sold the property. It doesn't matter anymore. You to and this is real. You forget the thousand nos. It doesn't matter, right? Because you have that one property. You've sold it and that's it. So, don't let the thousand nos get you get you down because that one yes is all you need. And that's something I really give give advice to. Speaking about this, I bumped into Alex Pereira. You know, Alex Pereira, the double UFC fighter, the the champ. Oh, no, I don't. But okay. I a fighter. Yeah, exactly. And I bumped I bumped into him. I was like, can I have a picture with you? Okay. Like, yeah, sure. I went home because I'm obviously I was like you. I know who the guy is, but I didn't know his journey. This guy used to repair tires. Oh wow. A few years ago. And yeah, he he followed his dream. Yeah. So now pictures, spotlight, you know, all everything he wants and needs. He's healthy. He's And the everyone has a different story. Yeah. Sometimes people say, "Thank God you started young. You can start at 70 years old. It's only just one opportunity." Yep. Totally. You know, so it's not it's not a matter of age. My brother's 15 years old, for example. He had already started his journey, photography, right? He's helping me with all the setup. Maybe someone can in 25 take on the same situation and become more successful than he can. You know, listen man, I'm telling you, life is about um to me relationships, network, and this is why I love the football community, and I want to get back into the football community. I was talking to you about this. All right. the network and the and the respect and the love you get from the football communities. I I still use my football network till today. I'll give you my example to explain myself. Um, one of my closest friends at the time playing football with me, his name is Jonathan Pearson. We call him Choco. Um, lovely guy, great player. Um, I was going to say cheeky better than me, but he probably was. Great friend of mine. And today he owns an aluminium company. He produces aluminium. My life's taking me into the property world. I develop, I build, and now, you know, he's a call away. So, what would have taken me probably a week or two weeks to get a quote from someone I don't know, I don't have a relationship with, I get a quote or even an unofficial quote sometimes with him over a 30 secondond phone call. And speed is is is money. Money is success if you want. And these things Yeah, exactly. You know, relationships lead to success. I I I I I I'm very I was being very um materialistic here when I said money is success, but for this example, you know what I mean, right? That if you want to get if you want to make uh if you want to be successful speaking financially if you want to be successful in the business world speed is key and to be fast you need relationships and relationships are key if I could tell my kids to attend one lesson only throughout all the lessons of school say can I say two P and relationship building now I know there isn't a lesson but build relationships get to know people now Of course, you need the maths, the English, you need basics, right? But to me, relationships are key in whatever it is you do. I can't stress that enough. And everything I've built in my life, go back and see all the problems I mentioned, right? It it came to relationships. You mentioned you want to come back into the football industry. In what part, what sector? That's that's definitely not as a player. I actually pulled my hamster coming up the my my car coming up the stairs here. I don't know. The truth is I don't have a quick answer to it. The the the the idea. Let's say the idea. I'd love I'd love I mean one of my best friends I mentioned Matthew Paris before is currently the vice president of of of the of the Malta Football Association and and I've given him my full support and and um he know he knows we we're we're we're talking about building his profile on social media because obviously where do I offer value? There you go. I need to receive where I can offer value. It's I'm very good at building brands, right? So um everyone is a brand nowadays. Everything is a brand and so I've been working hand in hand with him to do you agree with this.

What everything is a brand? These, I think this last couple of—I think this past year, past two years—people have been focusing on building their personal brand. It's very important, but I don't think there's the right guide to it. I think personal brand is, is grown by time, for sure, by time and experiences.

So, for example, if I'm building a personal brand, I can say it's my football career and also what I'm doing right now. Let's say it like that. So you can't just build like something like, "Send you go on, you put on the camera. Listen, let's let's—I'm going to teach you how to make 1k a month from your phone." You know, that's what people are doing, which is okay, but okay, you, you're just a normal guy who hasn't made it yet. So, how you going to teach me how to do it? And people try to build personal brands like that.

So, what do you suggest to someone who's trying to build a personal brand? I think back to the three things we mentioned before. First, find out what you love to do; aim to become the best at it; and do whatever it takes in between to reach your goal. So I mean, if you are this person who's saying, "I can get you a €1,000 euros in a minute," or whatever he's saying, and it's not true, I believe it's short-lived and it just won't work, but it will work for a short amount of time.

Yeah. Yeah. So I said it's short-lived. You know, no, listen. We're living, no doubt, in a day and age where credibility is extremely important, and it's becoming very hard to tell the difference between reality and, uh, what's not real. You know, I still get calls today from people telling me like, "Bitcoin—like you didn't tell me you made 50 million from Bitcoin." And I tell you, I know as much about Bitcoin as much as I know about cooking, and uh, cereal is my fine dining dish. So, uh, but, but there are scams out there claiming that I made millions from Bitcoin, which I didn't, and people fall for it, right, because it, it looks really real. So credibility is key.

And I think one thing we really need to focus on from a national point of view is how to educate about this. I actually sit on a board, which, which is called a—which is a media development literacy board—where it's a government board, right, where the aim is supposed to be to educate exactly about this. Now, um, I was not used to working in government boards. I've always worked in private entities. So the way of doing things are a bit different and a bit slower than, than, than I'm used to—working at a slower pace. Doesn't mean it's at a bad pace, because maybe at times, um, I'm very impulsive and I want to get things done quickly and I, you know, which has its pros and cons. Not let's hurry it up in a way, because that's that, that's a difference. No, definitely always do things properly, but I want to be fast, rapid. You want, you want to have ammo. We need to get there. Ammo. Let's do things. Let's, let's, let's not sit on things. Let's make things happen. Let's create. Let's build. Let's make mistakes and learn from them. Let's not hurt anyone in the process. And if we do, let's apologize and make it right. But let's get things going.

Yeah. So, would you like to go into the quickfire questions? Go on. These are basically short questions that you can answer in a… Okay.

What's your funniest blooper on live television? Falling off stage on the X Factor, for sure.

Really? I never saw that.

You knew that. And it's 15 years old.

Yeah. People thought it was a joke. People thought it wasn't true. Till today, they ask me. M. And I'm like, "It is real."

Can I, can I put it on the, on the…

Yes. Yes. I'll give it to you. Anyone, anyone who plays paddle with me today knows I still can't smash to save my life because of it, because it's my shoulder is still very tight. It was bad. It was big high stage, right? And it was two, was it 2m, 3m high? And I was just walking back. Um, I was trying to buy time to see where the judges were because there needed to be called off the screen. Walking back was like, [Music] but what happened was it was recorded, this, so technically we would have cut it out, but I remember at the time the producer calling me and saying, "Listen, this is so funny." He's like, "Do you mind if we get it?" I'm like, "You know what? [ __ ] it." And again, you know, this is another problem opportunity, man. Because I tell you, the amount of times this thing saves me as an icebreaker. And you know how you were telling me you're nervous before you started this podcast. I still get very nervous. So what I do when I'm nervous, I make a joke. Recently, I presented the awards for BOV, massive event, right? Sea level people, hundreds of people, very corporate event, and I was nervous. Wasn't well prepared, in the middle of Love Island and crazy things going on. Didn't see the script; had to go there, deliver a show. It was big, but [ __ ] it. Game on. Have to do it. And the first thing I did was there was obviously a stage that go was a, a small stage. And I went on and I said, and you see it did that. The room just bellowed down. They, they laughed, and, and, and it initially gave me a breather and opportunity, another opportunity. So take these advantages, take these mistakes, you can say, into opportunities, lessons maybe. But again, sorry, I don't want to stop you, but take the button example again, right? If at that point, right, when I fell off the stage, right, then you gave me a button to press and I could rewind and not fall, I would have one million percent pressed it. One million.

No, listen, I mean, I'm playing cool about it, right? When I fell, I was embarrassed as [ __ ] Okay. I was in pain.

Did you, did you get back up? I never saw this video.

Yes, of course. No, I get back up and had to continue the show. Totally. People coming to help me. But I was embarrassed, right? It was embarrassing. I mean, there were two, three thousand people watching live at the time. It was a lot. Imagine. No, no, this is it, it's, we talk about now and I can joke about it. So, I would have pressed that button. Today, if you give me the button to press, I would definitely not press it. It's, it's great. It's fantastic. It was good content. I don't know how many followers and likes I probably got at the time over that, you know, just, it's just so, don't be so quick to want to press the button. Crazy.

Okay, nice. What's your dream job for one day?

You know, I don't mean to sound cliché, but I think I have my dream job.

So, it's your dream job and you enjoy it every single day.

Yeah, but I'm referring to being a dad.

Okay. To me, that's a job more than a full-time job, if I can call it that. But that's what came to mind because it's not really a job, but yeah, it…

No, it is. It's a comic. You're doing your, you're doing your, and that's that, that whatever it is, it's, it's, it's my dream.

It's your dream. Okay. Great. Okay. Very good.

So, the next one, what's your favorite Maltese tradition? Very questions. Our replies. Uh, my favorite Maltese tradition. The language. I'll go for the language. The language. Language. I'm very proud of our language. The language.

Contrary to what you said.

Yes. Thank you. Okay.

So, what's the best part of hosting TV live? Is this our best part or is it just constant cons?

No, I love it.

You love it?

I love it. I love the, I, I, I, I love it when it's done properly, right? Because it makes a massive difference, and that's what made me to form my company today, Media Exclusive, because I feel there was a big gap in the market with regards to production and the level of it. But when done properly, live television is, is, is amazing because you're reaching mass audiences. And what I think is the best part of it, the part I love the most and the reason I keep doing it is because it puts smiles on people's faces. It makes people happy. I love it. I love meeting people in the street every day. It's happening so much right now with Family Feud. And they just go, "We love watching it as a family. You make us happy. It's funny." And again, I'm going to repeat, but there's nothing more important than relationships to me in life. So when I help people build relationships and maintain relationships and maintain love, because love is a big part of relationships, that's why I keep doing it.

Perfect. Great response. We… Okay. I asked you what was the funniest thing that happened on live television. Y, but know was the most awkward. It's the same thing. But you know, you know, you probably do a better job on asking your audience that. And I'm sure you'll get like a hundred million answers in…

Let's go with that. Let's go with that this time. Let's go with that. Mention in the comments the most awkward thing that Ben Camille did on live television. You're going to get many more answers.

Okay. So, the last one, one show you'd love to host someday.

Good question. Tough last enough. I'd love, you know what, if we ever had to win the Eurovision. So I, I hosted the Junior Eurovision. So when Destiny won, Malta won the, the Junior Eurovision, we were lucky enough to host it, and I got to host the junior division, which was amazing. Um, so I would love to host the Eurovision because it's like on an international platform, right? Um, other than that, I think Musa, Musa is doing a great job. However, I, I Keith, who's the current host together with Moira and Claire are phenomenal, and I love watching them, apart from being lovely human beings. So the last thing I'd want to do is step on anyone's toes. But because of the level of production of Musa Musica, I would have no problem hosting that. I'd love it. So to me right now, it's anything which is, which is well produced. I guess you're mentioning local more than…

Okay. Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um… Oh, you meant international. But even internationally, I, I honestly would not know exactly how to answer. Um… Love Island UK. Put a wig on.

Okay. Okay, so that's the end of the questions you can say. Okay.

What's the biggest lesson learned with regards to your career so far?

I love it. These questions, how hard they are. They are quite hard, and I think they're very valuable to our audience to see what you've passed through. Okay. It's about balance. I think balance. Yeah. And I, and, and I'll elaborate, and I, I will elaborate, but try and keep it short. So, I've always tried my best to find the right balance between being taking risk but being respectful. I saw, I, and I did some research about you obviously before coming here, and you leave gaps for family time. Am I right?

Not a lot of people know that unless you have access to my calendar. I went all in on you.

So, okay. Like a, a security breach.

Yes, I do. Um, to me it's so important. So, okay, you actually helped me answer my other question, what I've learned in life. I want to be careful how I talk about this because you need to understand that today I'm a 36-year-old person who's done a lot of things and, um, have no regrets in the sense I'm happy for what I've done. But I don't want to discourage people who are possibly 19 at a different form. So let me be very clear. I think there are phases in life. Okay. From zero to 16, enjoy the hell out of life. Have fun. Party. Don't do silly things. Make mistakes. Learn from them. Enjoy life. Enjoy life. From 16 till 20, you know, start possibly having a bit of a plan, start thinking a bit more, still have fun and still enjoy life, you know, enjoy it always to sports. So that's from zero till when you die. From 20 till 30, I think you need to start grinding. I think you need to do whatever it takes to again be the best at what you want to be. Figure it out what it is you enjoy doing and work hard, make money if you want that. If that's what you want, boom, boom, boom. You know, I've had sleepless nights and so many of them and problems and situations where my mind's going to explode and doing so many different things, but same quality as I was mentioning before. So, what I've learned, work hard, don't give up, keep going. Then there's a time in your life, I think maybe 30s to 40s, which is probably where I am at now. If you've managed to do what you want to do between your 20s and your 30s, where you say, "Okay, what really makes me happy? What makes me content?" And a lot of times we confuse happiness with short-term lived materialistic things. So had this debate with my friends recently, right? So, um, happiness is, is one, is, is one word we can call it. I like to talk about being content, about being peaceful. So, does money make you happy? You know, I'd be lying if money doesn't make you happy short term, you know. So, I have money to buy a nice car. I mean, I drove a Toyota IQ for all my life and I loved it, and I have no regrets. Today, I drive a different car which is a bit more expensive. It made me happy when I bought it, but two, three months down the line, it's as valuable as my Toyota IQ. It gets me from A to Z, right? A to B. So now 30 to 40, I'm at a stage in my life where to me contentment is more about again relationships and family and love, and I'm just so grateful to have three kids who I love to bits, and it's really hard, I tear up every time I talk about this, but it's really hard for me because I still love what I do, the media company I have, the property business I have, the other 101 things I do. I enjoy every single thing I do when it comes to work. You [ __ ] me up as well. That's, I really don't know why, but I love, I love, um, seeing my kids grow, and I'm very hands-on. So, I'm with them every single day. I do take, um, moments in my calendar which are literally set for family time because that's the way I want to value my family the same way I value my businesses. So, they deserve the time and respect that my businesses get. And it's a real tough battle for me to find. It [ __ ] me up as you, you know, because it's a tough journey to get where you want to get in life, and you do make a lot of sacrifices that people don't see. And people like my wife, like my kids go through the journey with me, right? My close friends. And I'm ever so grateful. And these are happy tears, right? I don't mean to play like victim. They're really happy tears. And, um, I'm, I'm grateful for, for where I am today. And I think that balance is one lesson I've learned. So it's okay to sometimes be down and have a really bad day as long as the next day you find the balance to get back on and have a really good day. Find the right people to help you get back to your right place. If today you've worked 18 hours, then make sure the next day if you can work less. If you need to work another 18 hours, do it. But listen to your body. There needs to be a day where you work less hours and you rest. Balance. Don't be scared to ask for help. You'll be surprised to know how many people there are out there willing to help. There are a lot of good people. And this is my 99% rule. 1% of the people out there are [ __ ] Fact. But 99% are very good people. And this relates to social media. One challenge we find with Love Island is people being scared or worried about comments. What's going to happen when people comment? And I say, listen, I'll guarantee you 100% comments are going to be there. 100%. I guarantee you that. But what I'll also guarantee you is that that's the 1%. And what I mean by that is statistics. So, if we put a video out on social media of, of Love Island, right, there are like what a thousand comments, right? On, on, on a, on a video, I say there are 2,000 comments, easy 2,000 comments. I'm exaggerating just to make my point. Let's say out of the 2,000 comments, half of them are horrible, negative hate comments. That means there are a thousand horrible comments. Out of these thousand comments, let's say, I don't know, I would like to probably think half of them are bots, fake accounts, but let's say they're not. Let's say all thousand are genuine people who have horrible things to say about that person. Think context. This video statistically, because I can show you the numbers here on my phone, would have been viewed by, let's take an average, a minimum 100,000 people. So, think about it. That's 1%. 1% of the people watching that video had a horrible thing to say. I would be worried if they didn't because that means something is wrong. But why focus on that 1%? That also means that 999, you know what I mean? 100,000 minus one people watched that video and either had nothing to say or possibly had something nice to say but just didn't say it. Focus on that. I mean, if you gave me right now, if I was hungry, right, and you gave me a big pizza box, but in the pizza box there was a po portion of it not there. You probably wouldn't realize 1% of the pizza wasn't there. Would I say, "Oh, I'm not going to eat because 1% of pizza isn't there?" No. But be grateful and embrace and enjoy the 99% of the pizza, eat it, and be so happy.

You're mentioning Love Island, and I don't take much of, of the time of this. Season one was a very, very, very cool success. Obviously keeping it consistent then is the toughest part of all of this. Obviously the, the engagement was it the same as the first? Probably not. Um, let me, from a numbers point of view, it was very similar. So the viewership was fantastic. I mean, that show blows my mind. It just works. It works. People ask me why, and I can give you 101 answers. It just works. Statistically, the numbers are, are there. They're watched. I love it. I love still producing it. We have a fantastic team. We're so well structured now. I love it. But obviously, yes. I mean, season one was season one. It will always be. It will remain in my heart. I'll never forget the sleepless nights I had over season one. Today, that is the biggest investment I think there was at the time with local TV. I mean, I'll give you an example just to put things in perspective. When we're producing shows, um, earlier on like a—let's not mention names because it's, it's irrelevant—but with a, a local production, if you were given a 60,000 euro budget, it was like, okay, not great, but we'll try. If it was a 100,000 budget, we're like, okay. A 300,000 budget was like, whoa, we have a good budget to work with here. 300,000 euro to produce a local production. We're talking about much bigger numbers here, seven figures, okay, to produce Love Island. So, it's massive. At the time, there was nothing here, Malta. Yes, Love Island, Malta. Now, I can say it and I can be like, "Yeah, okay." Because we have partners who believe in us, who sponsor us, who get a great return on their investment. It's amazing. But ask me this question three years ago. Private equity that I invested together with, with my partners at the time, big risk, massive risk, massive. I look back and I say, "Wow, we had 40, had 40% of our audience watching TV, watching Love Island Malta, which had never watched local TV." Think about that. 40%, 40% out of every 100 people watching, 40 people had never watched local TV or hadn't done so in the last 10 years. We brought back a new audience. We revolutionized the industry. And now it's amazing. I mean, the ripple effect this has had. Other productions have come, but other franchises have come. It's, it's proved a concept. It's proved the concept. And this is, and I love competition, and you'll understand because you come from a background. People don't always take, take competition the same way. I love it. I strive on it. It makes me better, faster if possible, and, and, and want to even improve my product or create new ones. Let me ask you a question that could maybe hit a bit deep to be honest, and you have to reflect a…

Bit on this. How do you want the audience and the world, let's say the world, to remember Ben Camil after all your successes?

You can say, "Okay, I think the..." Okay, because I I was going to... it's hard, but I think if I had to just say one thing, I want them to remember me for being a great dad. I don't know if that makes sense. I think I would love to be known... Oh, yes. Yes, it would be nice to be known as as as the TV guy and the guy who fell off stage, who um messes up every time he speaks Malden and in English, and and I would love to be known as being a guy who helped a lot of other people in the media industry, and that's where I am at now, trying to... but I'd definitely like to be remembered as a great dad.

Okay, nice one. I was asked this question myself in a conversation I had last week, and I answered it, and then I asked him the question—one of my friends—and he was like, "Listen, why do you care?" It hit me a bit, and I had this on some podcast as well; he told me, "If you care too much on how you want to be remembered, you're going to you're going to set yourself back. We pass away, we become dust, you you know, so why should we care on how other people should think about us?" Which is a good, very good response, but it made me think a lot. What do you think?

Yeah, I guess I understand what this person where is coming from. It all comes with the with the backlash of of comments that you mentioned earlier—comments, you putting yourself on social media, making the wrong move, what people think about you. You know, these are all the questions I asked myself before starting this this podcast. And if you go back to my first podcast, my first episode, I was so stiff. I was so stiff. I was like this. Look, in fact, I put a clip like this. I was super sick as well. Forgot to mention. And I I had to cough. So, [ __ ] it. I I still tried, you know. I still tried, and thank God we're here. We're here. So that's why I do... honestly, I'm I'm being very honest. I only listen to people obviously who are more successful than me, who I want to become, and who I care about.

Yeah. Listen, I think there's a difference between caring about what people think and caring about how you'd like to be remembered. And that's where possibly the distinction is. You're very right to say that you need to be less caring about what people think if you want to get to your destination. And I spoke about this before. Those people who probably said those comments are are most definitely the 1%. And you know, there could be different reasons. I mean, some of them might want to be there instead of you. Some of them might be fake accounts. Some of them might really not like how you're um being sat and and and they might just have communicated in a very aggressive way. It's it's totally fine, you know? I mean, please don't don't anyone don't let that get to you. I mean, I can never talk enough about this. It is the 1%. Statistically, right? It's the 1%. I challenge you to go and count how many bad comments you had. In your case, you might have had 10. I don't know. You might have had 100, but I'm sure if you had 100, and I have no idea how many people watched your your video, you're going to have a thousand views. Go check. It's 1%. 99% of people out there are good. The challenge is now to make more noise, and this is something which we really need to treat urgently in today's day and age where we call AI, but AI is a massive word, but let's talk about the algorithm. Yes, the algorithm does what we tell it to do. So if us 99% set up sets step up, if us 99% step up and show the algorithm that we are the good people, then it will feed us good stuff. If we allow the 1% to keep stepping up, then the algorithm is going to give us more of that. You don't agree?

No, I agree. I agree 10,000%. Because as I think you were discussing before we sat down here and you're mentioning that it's obviously a good conversation and it's funny, but the mobile here is what we're talking about. And it's it's really funny because I'll be discussing for I want to buy X, you know, and X pops up on my phone.

Yeah. You know, obviously you'll be scrolling, you'll be scrolling, you'll be scrolling and seeing what's going on, and the AI generated system feeds you what you want to see.

Yep. So, I totally agree with what you're saying. Totally. You know, but yes, I mean, caring about how you want to be remembered allows you to set a set of values for yourself as well. And it allows you to live the life the way you'd like to be remembered. Exactly. Without stopping you from doing what you want to do. So there's a big difference between how you'd like to be remembered and how you how what other people think about you. They're different things.

Ben, to be honest, this this episode was a very big not milestone, you can say.

Oh, sweet.

But I think it was something that I would like to share to the audience that don't give up. You can say I've been I've been chasing you for the past you can say two months, bugging your ass.

But not at all. I was like, "All right, it's one my last shot. I'm going to try it out." And and thankfully, you managed to share your story. Obviously, this podcast is created to share valuable stories and people who made it. You can say uh for free. So, in taking knowledge for free without me... listen, I mean, I told you that before we started, and and and I totally admire you for it. I mean, you literally are recording this podcast from a one-bedroom, what is it? Apartment. And it's uh if you can see this, it looks nothing like a podcast, but it looks absolute it it is and feels absolutely great. And I tell you, had I known that this was what you were doing, I would have come even faster because I admire people so much like you who do that. And I will do everything in in my power to help you because I know you're a good person. And I'm actually at a stage right now where um working with a lot of people who have different ideas. So people are coming to me with different ideas, and I'm at a place where I can afford to invest a bit and and and help with my expertise and um I I try my best to help as many people as I can in the industry, and if everyone wants to come to me and ask for advice, I'm happy to try my best to help because when I see people... I I was lucky enough to get these opportunities, and I think I'm at a point point where I would love to to to to give back as much as I can without sounding like some magician because I have a lot to learn myself and I'm still learning as I go along, right? But anyway, I can I I I'm so happy and grateful to be able to do that.

This is like a diary of a SEO moment. Yes. I actually took this off of Steven.

Yes. Steven Bartlett. Am I right?

Yeah.

Yes. You ready? So, the question is, when is it the right time to work less and enjoy and enjoy life more?

Good question. Quite hard. Thank you, Mr. Ferst. Go watch that podcast. I don't think there's ever a wrong time, and I don't think you should ever try and do one or the other. I think the trick and the magic formula is to be able to do both at the same time. Okay. And if we go back to what we said, which is find something you love doing, become the best at it. Then you should be able to find a formula which allows you to enjoy life and continue working. What's the expression? Never work a day in your life.

Yes. Exactly. What's that one? How does that never work a day in your life?

No. Love what you do and never work a day in your life.

Exactly. Something like that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um so I think there's there's there's there's there's never a right or wrong time to enjoy life. You need to be enjoying life throughout. If you don't have that feeling on a Sunday evening where you're excited for Monday, then something's wrong. You need to find what it is that makes you excited on a Sunday evening to wake up on a Monday morning. My friends joke about me with this. I have no Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I have no idea what day it is most of the time because if I want to enjoy my life on a Wednesday afternoon, then I do it. If I want to work hard on a Sunday evening, then I do it.

Balance. Balance. Exactly. I would like to ask you a question that could change the the vision of everyone watching right here. What's one piece of advice you'd provide to the audience right now? Very very short, but listen, I I'll finish with this because I feel it's a real important subject for who I believe your your demographics are.

Right. Yes. Um in this digital social media age we're living in. I think I've heard this quote recently, and it it it hit a chord. And I think one thing people need to develop is the skill to be okay with being unliked. And that's the only way you can be set free from the prison if you want of other people's opinions. So develop the skill to be unliked. Develop the skill. Okay. Be okay with being unliked. It's fine.

Can I mention this one thing? We So the the the league at the moment, the football league is they changed the whole format. I'm not sure if you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And basically we were challenging to be in the top six zar.

Okay.

And I was invited on live television, and I am a very like risk risk taker, and they asked me they told me, "Listen, do you think Zabar is a top six team?" And it was we had some games left, and I was like, "Listen, we're not we're not a top 16, we're going to be in top six, we're going to be in top six." Oh and and and I had one of the one of the staff of Zabar with me, and he was I saw him in the background like this like, "Oh, [ __ ] here we go."

Okay statement.

Yes. And we had a decider of the league. Yes. We're winning one zero till the 91st minute. They score in the 92 and the 95.

Oh no.

You were a goer.

Yes. Yes. And you can imagine the comments. Oh my god. And obviously they clipped the part and they did of of a donkey, you know, and it it was it was brilliant. Amazing. It was funny. But at the I was like [ __ ]

But yeah, I'll do it again for sure because I I believe so much in my squad. Yes. I'm not going to change it for anything. You know, you did nothing wrong. So, you did nothing wrong. It's it's a part of being hated. And the more you do, there was this quote. If you if you're not being hated, you're doing something wrong. Shahek, which which hit me as well, you know. So, and I go by I go by that as well. So, I like I like the advice. I like that—the skill to be unliked which will free you from other people's opinions, and it seems like you've developed this skill because you're fine to do it again and you'll go out there and you'll say the same thing, and next time you will be in the top six. And I actually did say it again because I had a postmatch preview, and they told me, "Do you do you still think that..." Nah, you you mentioned that comment, I actually put it here, and I said, "Yes, next year we'll go for top six," yes, so I'll do 10,000 times again. Listen, you didn't get top six, but you're still in the premier right, so well done because I know you guys work very hard. Kevin the president's a friend of mine and Fabio committee member as well as a friend of mine. So they're great, and you're doing a very good job. So Zabar is a big success story.

Yes. And it's Yes. I I hope it's documented. Imagine Imagine we document the whole story. Why not? That would be so nice as a club. Whoever is watching, please like, subscribe, leave a comment on who you want to see next. Ben, thank you so much for coming.

Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it. Do I need to write a question in that book or do I not get to do that?

So that's going to be after the episode—that you're going to leave a question for the next guest, okay? And a small note for the podcast story. And after this book is full, we're going to create a whole video about it where we're explaining each and every story that was written in this book. So Ben, can I shake your hand?

Yes sir, man. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Pleasure. It's been a great story, and yes, thank you so much. Champions connect out. Thank you very much.