4 Things Gordon Ramsay Taught Me In Vegas
Or: what could you build over the next 10-30 years if you really gave yourself the time?
Gordon Ramsay is everywhere here in Vegas.
And I mean everywhere!
Gordon Ramsay Burger.
Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips.
Gordon Ramsay Steak.
Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill.
Love him or hate him the guy is a personal branding genius.
Personally I have no strong feelings either way about him. I quite enjoy the odd episode of Hells Kitchen, he’s obviously very good at what he does, and as a fellow Brit, the ‘F’ word isn’t nearly as dramatic to us as it might be overseas.
What I’m more interested in is how a Scottish chef ended up with his face on half the billboards in Vegas, restaurants on three continents, dozens of bestselling books, and a personal brand that without doubt out-earns the cooking itself?
And even more importantly what can we learn from it for our little brands in our little corner of the internet?
Here’s my thoughts:
1. What Do You Plan To Do With Your One Wild And Precious Life?
I love this Mary Oliver quote. Particularly now as I hurtle into my mid 50s.
Here’s why:
Ramsay opened his first restaurant in 1998. That’s nearly 30 years ago. Everything he’s built — the TV shows, the empire, the licensing deals, the global brand — has been the work of three decades.
I’m 53. If I’m lucky, I’ve got another 30 years ahead of me. Possibly more.
Now, I don’t want a Ramsay empire and if I know my audience I doubt you do too. But what could you do in the next 10, 20, 30 years?
Build a highly engaged newsletter audience of tens of thousands of subscribers paying you to write about what you love?
Write the books you've always wanted to write, and see them on bookshelves around the world?
Build a portfolio of income streams that lets you choose your hours, your work, and your location for the rest of your life?
Most people massively overestimate what they can build in a year and drastically underestimate the power of time.
Instead of thinking in months, think in years.
What would you love to pour your heart and soul into for the next decade or two?
What would light you up while filling the coffers at the same time?
What mark would you truly love to leave on the world?
As we get older, our business choices are no longer just about money, but about fulfilment and spending our days doing things that bring us joy.
(NB: I don’t know about you, but as I’m aging I’m getting almost bolshy about what I now refuse to do! 😂)
2. He Built Restaurants. What Will You Build?
Ramsay’s foundation was restaurants. That was the asset that everything else got built on top of.
Thankfully, that’s not the game we’re in. And technology these days means we don’t have to take those kinds of financial risks, which is why it’s much easier now to create an income doing something you love.
So what will you build?
A newsletter, a book, a coaching practice, a product range, a course, a community, an app, an Etsy shop, a podcast.
The online world is your oyster, but you need to pick your lane(s) and start building assets. In other words the things that actually make you money.
You may not need 90 of them (which is what Ramsay’s group now operates), it depends on the business model you choose. But you do need tangible products or services that can compound over time.
3. He Did TV. What’s Your Distribution Engine?
The restaurants alone wouldn’t have made Ramsay the household name he is today. That’s what television did.
Hell’s Kitchen. Kitchen Nightmares. MasterChef. The shows were the engine that drove people to everything else.
For most of us the engine looks more like an email newsletter, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a social presence, or a Substack you publish on consistently.
But whatever distribution channel you choose, be prepared to show up for years, not months. We don’t have a huge media machine investing millions in advertising for the odd reel we publish. It’s just us and a very noisy internet.
So as with your asset building, pick your lane(s) and start creating and publishing content that attracts your ideal audience to you.
I’m well aware this is the most challenging part of the gig. Most of us just want to write, or cook, or coach, or build, not constantly tell people the work exists.
But distribution is the bit that separates great work nobody’s heard of, from great work that funds your freedom.
4. Make A Decision, Start, And Let Time Do The Work.
This is probably the most important takeaway.
Most of us run our businesses on absurdly short timelines.
We start a Substack and expect results in six months.
We launch a product and panic when it isn’t taking off in month 1.
We compare our month two to someone else’s year ten and quietly conclude we must be doing it wrong.
We’re not. We’re just impatient.
Ramsay didn’t build his empire in two years. He built it in 30. The same is true of almost anyone you admire. The audiences, the income, the freedom, the reputation, all of it compounded over decades while they kept showing up.
I’m well aware as we get older that time becomes the one thing we realise we may have less of in front than we do behind, but don’t underestimate what you bring to the table.
You have decades of experience, knowledge, self awareness, organisational skills, perspective and talent!
Trust in your ability to make it work.
Decide what you truly want to do and achieve in the next decade, (not year), start building and creating and listening and engaging and let time work its magic.
It Can Be As Big Or As Small As You Want
At some point Ramsay stopped being a chef and became a brand. Cookbooks, product lines, licensing deals, TV shows, partnerships & restaurants on three continents with his name on them.
We don’t have to go this big (thank god, because it sounds exhausting).
But here’s the equation:
Topic + Assets + Distribution + Time = the freedom income you’ve been after.
Get all four ingredients in place and at some point the work you’ve already done starts earning without you having to actively make it happen. The stage where what you built keeps paying you while you’re at the beach, on a flight, or fast asleep.
That looks different at our scale than at Ramsay’s.
Maybe it’s a book that keeps selling years after you wrote it.
A course people buy without you having to teach it each time.
A community that runs itself once it’s established.
A product line that ships orders while you’re travelling.
Affiliate partnerships that pay you commission while you’re out for dinner.
The size and scale of it is up to you, but this is the part the ‘gooroo’s’ sell under the guise of ‘passive income’, which everyone chases too early, and wonders why ‘making money in their sleep’ is the buzzword, but they’re working their socks off.
You don’t need to be Gordon Ramsay. You almost certainly don’t want to be. But you can learn from his path. Decide what you want to build, pick your distribution engine, start now, and give yourself the next 10 - 30 years to let it grow.
That’s the magic formula! 😉
📍 Las Vegas, Nevada 🎰