Connecting people who want to find their pathway to prosperity, Arthur hosts free meetings once a week, encouraging strategic innovation between successful CEOs and business beginners alike
Taking your first steps in business is one of the most exhilarating time frames in any entrepreneur’s life.
With each new day, the vigour of a toreador engulfs every thought and action with the hope for independent success. The rush of such can quickly overtake rationality and drive you back to square one with a broken heart and an empty pocket, but not to be discouraged.
Having learnt a few innocent but difficult lessons the hard way throughout his past endeavours, Melbournes valued entrepreneur Arthur Lee, with his heart of gold, puts his entire experience out there on the table, welcoming both neophytes and experts to sit side by side with him, to bond their minds together over a humble coffee and erudite discussion to come up with out of the box solutions on how to take their next steps productively.
“Your business is an extension of yourself.” Said Arthur. “It is your painting. Don’t care how everyone else is painting their picture.”
These coffee catch-up business meetings go on tour across Melbournian suburbs each week. They are easily accessible for most at least once a month, and the experience present at each of these meetups is invaluable to both business fledglings and those perhaps feeling like they are banging their head against a brick wall at the mercy of significant appearing obstacles popping up in their plans.
Does this sound like you? RSVP to his next meeting here, and let’s start figuring this out together!
It’s worth appreciating that success looks different to everybody. For some people, success is about having the freedom to toy with your capabilities and live your days how you wish. For some, it’s having millions of dollars and fancy toys; for others, it’s about providing for your family. As many people as there are on the earth, it equals the number of variations of what success can mean or look like.
When Arthur and his wife had their first child, his priorities shifted for the first time away from his reputable physio practice towards a lifestyle that would bring him closer to his offspring. With this leading his path, he began doing voice-over work for YouTube videos, proving him the finances and flexibility to be around his children and have the mental capacity to host these meetings. He built the life he wanted with fulfilment, with priorities sitting right at the front of his mind. At. All. Times. And he wants you to know that you can thrive and do it too.
The group uprise a sense of comradery in the business sector, null the feelings of isolated confusion, equipping each attendee with a plethora of new perspectives and ideas to test.
“It’s the best business group I’ve attended so far!” Said Healthcare communications expert Shweta Ramkumar. “Being a small group, I’ve been able to build intimate and authentic connections with other business owners. A real sense of belonging and community support is felt there and I love how he (Arthur) encourages us to mingle with everybody naturally. No elevator pitches or need to exchange business cards.”
Shweta helps non-native English-speaking healthcare professionals communicate their knowledge and dissolve misunderstandings between themselves and patients arising from language barriers. Attending Arthur Lee’s weekly meetings allowed her to network and learn how to expose herself to a broader scope of aspiring internationals, letting her personality lead the way.
Sous Chef of Melbourne’s notorious Arbury Afloat, Valerio Vestita, also lent praise towards the functionality of the groups:
“Arthur’s coffee catch-ups are very exciting! He manages to bond with people from different backgrounds, experiences and intel to deliver a wide range of industry knowledge.
He is a confident and skilled communicator; I enjoy sharing ideas with him and his many guests. I always leave very happy, motivated and willing to go and catch up again.”
Mr Lee needed someone like himself as he was growing up. Someone with passion and an engaging, strategic way of communicating, as he explains with candid excitement,
“I created something that I would have loved to go to myself. Personally, I don’t have the patience to sit through a seminar. I just want to go in and chat with other people. See what good things are happening, see what struggles they’re going through to know that I’m not alone. I might hear something that could be so normal for your industry and go ah! I can apply that to my own.”
Hosting an average of 10-20 professionals each time offers the opportunity for focused one on ones or targeted group thinking, and it’s free to attend. Making knowledge accessible to anyone who wants it at whatever stage of their business journey.
Arthur explains his concept with realistic humility.
“Some people will sit me down to ask me, what are you getting from this? You have got to be getting something from this! And this is where we talk about people’s different points of view. I learn a little bit from everyone and realise, hey, my life isn’t the centre of the universe. There’s a whole lot of people out there to listen to. And there’ll be things that I’ll be listening to, like, wow, that’s amazing. That’s very wise. I’ve got to remember that. You can’t put a price on these things.
I know that sometimes business doesn’t go well. You could be in a low, and we could have all the motivation bottled up for you. Being around other business people helps give you that boost to go back and say, “You know what, I’m going to do, go for it. Instead of pure education, it’s educational from peer to peer. People of like mind, who understand what you’re going through. Some of us have had the opportunity to meet really successful people with international distribution chains. They come to have a coffee and share their lived wisdom.”
Mr Lee needed someone like himself as he was growing up. Someone with passion and an engaging, strategic way of communicating, as he explains with candid excitement,
“I created something that I would have loved to go to myself. Personally, I don’t have the patience to sit through a seminar. I just want to go in and chat with other people. See what good things are happening, see what struggles they’re going through to know that I’m not alone. I might hear something that could be so normal for your industry and go ah! I can apply that to my own.”
Hosting an average of 10-20 professionals each time offers the opportunity for focused one on ones or targeted group thinking, and it’s free to attend. Making knowledge accessible to anyone who wants it at whatever stage of their business journey.
Arthur explains his concept with realistic humility.
“Some people will sit me down to ask me, what are you getting from this? You have got to be getting something from this! And this is where we talk about people’s different points of view. I learn a little bit from everyone and realise, hey, my life isn’t the centre of the universe. There’s a whole lot of people out there to listen to. And there’ll be things that I’ll be listening to, like, wow, that’s amazing. That’s very wise. I’ve got to remember that. You can’t put a price on these things.
I know that sometimes business doesn’t go well. You could be in a low, and we could have all the motivation bottled up for you. Being around other business people helps give you that boost to go back and say, “You know what, I’m going to do, go for it. Instead of pure education, it’s educational from peer to peer. People of like mind, who understand what you’re going through. Some of us have had the opportunity to meet really successful people with international distribution chains. They come to have a coffee and share their lived wisdom.”
But how to manage a family AND business AND help people for free?
“If I go back 11 years ago, when I had a busy physiotherapy practice. My wife, my one-year-old daughter, my parents and my wife’s parents all went to China to visit some relatives and show our new baby. Three weeks was a bit too long for me at that time to leave the practice, so I said, you guys go; I need to do the wages of new people incoming and more of that stuff. My little girl started crawling on the trip. I missed out on that aspect of life. And then I realised that, hold on. Business is one aspect of life itself.”
The voice-overs came from the idea that if I was a freelancer, I could spend a lot of time to, let’s say, school drop-off voice-over. Drive to swimming, do a voice-over. Kids go to sleep at 9:30; at 10:30, I can do a voice-over. So it has been a lifestyle matter that has dictated and given me the energy to say, I want this in my life. How can I achieve it?
I did the same with physio as well at the practice. I thought, how can I spend time at home? Doing home visits. Okay. So I’d drop the kids off, do a home visit, and pick them up from school. Everything is based on my values in life itself. Business is only one part of it. It’s more like how can I achieve my goals for the next season in life?”
Arthur continues excitedly, re-remembering his efforts to achieve the success he gets to share with us now.
“When I started setting up these meetings, I chose the closest cafe to school drop-off. So it’s no burden. I just go across the road. And I’m there. I’ve got my computer and if no one turned up, it was okay because I could still write emails. I’ll try to decrease the amount of burden that it takes on me. As I got to enjoy it more, that’s when I went out to other destinations. It’s a step-by-step process, just let it flow.”
In 2001, one year after he graduated from university, Arthur founded the ‘physio portal’ and gained the experience that has made his coffee meetings so successful today.
“I was too excited about it and I had no team at Physio Portal. I didn’t know how to celebrate victories. I manufactured a bedroom full of wheatpacks with a nice logo, but I burnt out.”
When Arthur later founded his Local Physio business, he looked back at his past errors with heightened acuity. This ability to self-learn, analyse and recover dabs calmness into the lives he enters.
His online books are a compilation of interviews he has held with successful entrepreneurs over time, covering how to begin sifting through the brain fog and landing on your idea, how to find your first customers, and how to cheerlead yourself during the days that feel lonely. Arthur genuinely gains energy from other people’s success. Precious and noble though he may be, what strikes me most is his consistent real gut-deep consideration for the quality of life of all those around him.
“Since I started hosting the meetings, I realised that people respond very well to learning from other people’s stories as do I. I interviewed people all around the world and there are people who started the business, flew then collapsed and they had to start again. And you look at things like they go through and think to yourself, well, my problems aren’t that bad.”
Arthur giggles.
Having hosted just short of 100 meetings so far and being a feature on hundreds of YouTube videos, the effects of his willingness to unite and teach remain undocumented due to the widespread influence that his selfless initiative continues to cause. Here is how he learnt how to celebrate,
“Having achievable goals that you can celebrate is essential. One of my earlier goals was to narrate for 10 YouTube channels. I’d reach that, fantastic. Let’s set a new goal. 100 videos. 500 videos. I kept on setting goals.
When you set goals, you can celebrate.
Let’s say the business meetings because It’s not something of commercial gain; my goal is that every time I hear a positive story that’s come out of one of these meetings, I will celebrate that myself. One person could give me a rundown of how many subscribers they have gained for their programme after being stuck on zero. I feel like a cheerleader! Let’s celebrate together.
Then the other attendees who have seen things grow will feel this is fantastic. And so automatically, the rush of the celebrations is what keeps you going. Every person that comes and says I had a great time, I wake up the following week when it’s time for another one and go, you know what? This is a good balance.”
They didn’t all start out booming. As with anything, growth takes time.
“It’s quite tough. You sit there with a list of three or four people that might turn up, and then you stay there for an hour. No one turns up. Or only one person turns up, and you can’t just cancel. That one person might be the person that’s going to make the most significant difference.
You have to be there. Just in case.”
If anyone will cheer you on in your corner, it’s Arthur Lee. His gumption to collaborate and inspire is precisely what each community of buzzing business heads needs to feel connected and stay enthusiastic during what many describe as one of the most lonely times in their lives—always listening out for the flickering light ideas that could be nurtured into fruition. Arthur encourages you to attend if you’re a professional and feel you have value. Likewise, this is the perfect place and company if you want to absorb and develop your ideas.
The links to Arthurs Linked In, where you can catch regular updates on his location and timetable. Or go directly to his Eventbrite booking page, you can visit that here.
Arthur, you legend, Melbourne is grateful for you and your soul!
TTFN