Page 215 - James Caan - The Real Deal

20 · Investing in People

‘Doug, why don’t we get Tony Burn to do our training videos?’
‘You cannot be serious!’
But I was.
Doug had worked with Tony at MRI and he put me in touch
with him. I told him about our plans for Humana and suggested
it was a really good time for him to break into the UK market. I
offered to promote Tony in the UK in exchange for using his
training material with our franchisees. If persuading Doug to leave
MRI was a feat, then getting Tony on board was something of a
miracle.
For the next year Anthony Burn based himself in the office
above ours and I hired a PR expert to promote him, booking him
to talk at conferences and conventions and selling his books and
videos. Of course, even the great Anthony Burn wasn’t busy every
day, and having him in the building lent Humana credibility and
inspired the Alexander Mann team to greater success.
Looking back at the start of Humana now I’m stunned at what
we were able to achieve: it still seems crazy that we would be able
to sell a franchise of a business with no track record, even with
Doug and Tony’s talent on board, but four months after Doug’s
relocation we were ready to start advertising Humana franchises
for sale. We got a lot of interest as there was potentially plenty of
money to be made, but each time Doug fielded a call the
conversation stumbled when the potential franchisee asked how
many franchises we had already sold. But Doug had the bit
between his teeth and he wasn’t going to fail. ‘Let me buy you a
coffee,’ he would say, and when the interested party came to our
office he introduced them to me.
‘This is my colleague James. Basically, the Humana franchise is
a replica of what James is doing here with Alexander Mann.
James, tell Peter how you got started.’
Peter Denton was our first taker. He was in his forties and had
grown tired of his corporate career, was ready to start his own

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