§ 01 · The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Aaron Knightley is walking a sun-bleached countryside path, talking into a body-mounted DJI camera, and he sounds annoyed. Not at you — at LinkedIn. At the colleagues who celebrate a new job title like it is a life milestone. At the culture that treats permission-asking as normal. What follows is twenty-four minutes of someone who built his own staircase telling you exactly what it feels like to live on it.
What the video promised.
stated at 00:08 "Stop celebrating work promotions, climbing the corporate ladder, bragging of a job title on LinkedIn. Instead build your own staircase." delivered at 23:20
Where the time goes.
00:00 – 02:00
01 · Stop celebrating promotions
The title hook as a provocation: promotions are the wrong thing to celebrate. The real win is building your own thing.
02:00 – 05:00
02 · No alarm clocks, no dress code
Perks 1-2: waking up naturally, wearing what you want. The small daily freedoms that compound.
05:00 – 07:00
03 · Off-peak living
Perks 3-5: off-peak supermarkets, protecting your energy, easy parking. The invisible dividends of self-employment.
07:00 – 09:00
04 · Never asking permission for holidays
Perk 6: booking Tenerife on a whim, Disney, Mallorca — no request forms, no denied holidays.
09:00 – 12:00
05 · Income that pays when you step away
Perk 7: passive income from YouTube, consulting, brand deals, products, Exit 9. The Exit 9 mid-roll pitch lands here.
12:00 – 15:00
06 · No dread, no Sunday feeling
Perks 8-9: no back-to-reality holiday dread, more peace and contentment, no office politics.
15:00 – 17:00
07 · Never missing your kids
Perk 10: being at every school play, football match, karate belt ceremony. The Jingle All the Way reference.
17:00 – 20:00
08 · Choosing who you work with
Perks 11-12: turning down NatWest brand deals, saying no without guilt, declining London events.
20:00 – 22:00
09 · Avoiding human interaction by design
Perk 13: a small intentional social circle, only engaging with business/fitness/family topics, no small talk.
22:00 – 23:50
10 · How to escape: know your number
Closing argument: it is not about the money amount, it is about what that money allows. Reverse-engineer the life you want. Final CTA for Exit 9.
Visual structure at a glance.
Named ideas worth stealing.
11:32
concept
Life by Design vs Life by Default
Most people are living a life assigned to them by default. The move is to consciously design your own.
Steal for Any content about escaping conventional career paths; works as a newsletter tagline or video title template
21:05
concept
Know Your Number
- Clarify what income you actually need
- Identify what that money buys (not the amount — the life)
- Reverse-engineer how to reach it
Do not chase money for its own sake. Determine the specific number that funds the life you want, then work backwards from it.
Steal for Discovery call openers, financial freedom content, goal-setting frameworks
Lines you could clip.
11:32
"Remove yourself from the life that was assigned to you and start designing one you truly want."
22:40
"What's the point in driving a big Mercedes Benz on finance when you gotta drive it to a corporate job?"
10:12
"Life is saying do something. I'm testing you, I'm pushing you, I'm pouring vinegar on the wound — what are you going to do about it?"
08:04
"Being able to build income that you can step away from is just an absolute blessing of the times that we live in."
18:44
"I literally do. I avoid all human interaction."
How they spent the runtime.
Hook length120s
Info densitymedium
Filler15%
Sponsor blocks
- 08:04 – 08:50 · Exit 9 / exitnine.ai
Things they pointed at.
00:00productPeak Performance Events
How they asked for the click.
23:00
product
"If any of what I just said has resonated, take two minutes to click the link of Exit Nine in the description."
Direct response close after full value delivery. First CTA at ~8:00 mid-video with branded graphic card, second at end. Both point to exitnine.ai. Clean and unhurried.
Word for word.
HOOK opening / re-engagementCTA the pitch metaphor story
00:00HOOKI built and designed a life I do not have to escape from, and that's what we're talking about on today's walk and talk video. It's normal to celebrate people when they get promotions, and they can change their LinkedIn
00:11HOOKjob title, but we don't celebrate enough when people actually build their own success. They're able to escape the nine to five because everyone says that business is risky and, oh, you shouldn't do that. And what if it doesn't work out?
00:23HOOKWell, here's the truth. It did work out for me, and it can work out for you. And do know what?
00:29HOOKWe are gonna celebrate all the perks that come with it when you build a modern online business that gives you autonomy and freedom.
00:38HOOKAnd, as you all know, if you ever watched my walk and talk videos before, this is one of the things that I love doing.
00:45HOOKI've set my outside stepper on my Apple Watch. So I've already been to the gym, but I'm getting in some extra steps while we do this.
00:52HOOKAnd, we are gonna celebrate entrepreneurship. It's not all about clapping for the people who got the next promotion
01:05HOOKSo here we go. I'm gonna share with you my favorite 14 things that I get to do and benefit from because I'm no longer in a job.
01:25HOOKReason being is I really like that time because basically the rush has been in the morning, no one's there. I get to go on all the machines
01:39HOOKI might get up and go at, 5AM, do my cardio, and then I might go back for, say, 1PM when it's still pretty quiet, to be honest with you.
01:49HOOKAnd I'll only really do that if I've got, like, a busy day ahead. Right. Let me just switch hands.
01:58HOOKThis is one of my favorite things is that I do not have to be on the road at, say, 8AM, and let's just call it 5PM.
02:07I don't have to be on a train. Haven't got to be on a bus. I haven't got to compete
02:13with the chaotic peak times of rush hour people to and from work. And this
02:19I'm very grateful for because I witness it too much. I was a part of it once upon a time. I've been into London during rush hour where people are barging into each other, actually being dangerous all because they're rushing to a job.
02:33And I like to be able to take a step back and not involve myself in that rush hour. I don't think it's necessary
02:41to drive dangerously just because you're scared of being late. And the reason most people are scared is because then they don't wanna be told off
02:50by their manager, get put on report, or be grassed up by a brown nose
02:57coworker. And believe me, haven't we had many of those? Right?
03:00I I've had many, and I'm sure you have that one coworker that sees you come in late, and then you look at them thinking, oh god, you're gonna grass on me.
03:10Absolute nightmare. Number three. This one I love because I've literally just done it.
03:14So just to let you know, it's 12:47 at the moment. Oh,
03:18let me just carry on with my Apple Watch, my outdoor walking. Is going shopping
03:26when no one's in the supermarket. So I've just come back from the supermarket buying all my weekly food for my diet. There's no one in there.
03:33Haven't got to compete for the fresh apples, the fresh raspberries, the strawberries. Haven't got to do any of that.
03:41It's just peaceful. And really, like, that's all I want for my life now, me and my family. I just want contentment
03:49and peace. So being able to go to the supermarket, which actually ties into one of my other points, is being able to
03:57park wherever I want without thinking that someone's gonna dink my car or knock it.
04:04That's one thing that's always bothered me is having to fight for a car park space. And what is nice is during the day, I haven't got to do that. You've got so many more options.
04:14And I'll be totally honest, I'm actually guilty even if I'm not with my family or we haven't got our son in the car. I actually do park in the family spaces because I like to make sure no one's gonna knock our car.
04:27Number four, going to the cafes after the mad rush where people have been queuing up twenty minutes. So I love a cafe.
04:36I'm like a real big fan of coffee as some of you might know now. Gotta change my hand. You know, it's tiring holding up this
04:44DGI Osmo Mini. So for anyone, yeah, wondering, I get asked that normally on these videos.
04:50What camera is it in it? Yeah. It's the DGI Osmo.
04:53Comes with a mic if you buy the Creator Pack, which is what I've got. And I've got it on the head tracking at the moment as well. It's a really good budget camera.
05:02I think mine was like £700 for the entire package. It's well worth picking up.
05:07So, yeah, being able to go to the cafes when I haven't got a queue up for ages, and I don't like sitting in cafes now when it's really busy and noisy. I'm very much a hermit.
05:19I'm only 33, but I think where I've been out of a job for so long and I have minimal human interaction, which is actually one of the points I'm gonna share with you in a minute, I just like to go to places where it's quiet and it doesn't really disrupt my peace.
05:32I'm very, very big on protecting my energy. Again, you may have picked up on that by watching some of my videos.
05:39Number five, again, it was parking becomes so much easier. So I mentioned about parking in a supermarket
05:46and having so much more, um, you know, options on where I can park. But even if we go into, the city center or we need to nip somewhere, we can just park up on a high street. There's not loads of people about.
05:57It's not like it's a Saturday or a Sunday, and I can just freely move about. Number six. This is by far one of my favorite perks
06:05of working for myself, is I can book a holiday whenever I want without having to request holiday, essentially asking permission from another adult
06:16who may wanna cause me some problems. They might wanna deny me my holiday.
06:21They might just be feeling a bit of an idiot that day and think, no. I'm not gonna grant it. I might grant it tomorrow.
06:28I haven't got to deal with any of that. You know, we're heading off to Tenerife soon. We just booked that holiday in an afternoon, and then next thing you know, we're just going to Tenerife for ten days.
06:37It you know, like last year, we did Disney, Mallorca,
06:41Tenerife. We went to a lovely cottage in The UK. So, yeah, we just we we just book holidays whenever we want, and that is one of the biggest perks.
06:49Number seven, building income that pays you when you step away from it. So this is one of the benefits of the world that we live in.
06:57You know, I can't even hold this camera up for too long. I did arms at the gym today, so my arms aching. But being able to embrace the online world, which I'm in, and I know there'll be some people in the comments that will say, well, Aaron, not everyone has the capabilities to do what you're doing, build an online business.
07:13We're not all built that way. No one can say that unless they've tried. And the thing is everything is freely accessible,
07:20so it's not like there's an excuse that you can't do what I do. Again, I have to remind everyone, I'm no one special.
07:27I haven't got some ability that other humans can't instill. You know, this is the thing that we've got to remember. Right?
07:34We all have these possibilities. We all have social media at our fingertips. So, you know, if you embrace it, you learn about it, you can do exactly the same.
07:44But I am able to step away from what I do, and the likes of my businesses, consulting, YouTube,
07:51my brand deals, my long term retaining sponsorships, my events company, all of my products, my books, my programs, exit nine.
08:08CTAI guarantee you, it will help you build a life by design, whether you're just starting out, you have an idea, you're a start up business, or perhaps you've already scaled, but you need to pivot and you need to assess and evaluate whether you're gonna be able to survive and thrive in the future with all the changes, exit nine dot a I is for you.
08:27CTAAnd just to let you know, this is how crazy it is. It's for the price. Well, it's less than a coffee per day.
08:33CTASo if you're buying a coffee or you're buying quick food in a shop and you're spending 5 to 8 pound every day, exit nine's pro version is less than a coffee per day. Just remember that.
08:48CTAincome that you can step away from is just an absolute blessing of the times that we live in. Number eight, never having that feeling of I've got to go back to reality.
08:58That depressed sort of, oh god, our holiday's coming to an end. I know too many people who live that life where, you know, essentially
09:07they fear. We'll turn around here. Essentially, they fear
09:11going back to the job that they really don't wanna be in. It's a really, really nice and blessed feeling to be able to go on holiday, enjoy every single day,
09:22but also look forward to coming back. You know, I used to work with many people who would say, oh, god. Yeah.
09:28I can't wait to go on holiday. They'd go on holiday, and then it'd be like that Sunday dread feeling.
09:33It'd be the last couple of days of their holiday, and they'd be thinking,
09:39oh god. I gotta go back to my job. Oh, man.
09:43You know? And reality kicks in, and then they don't enjoy the last couple of days of their holiday. And as soon as they get back to their reality,
09:51they're already thinking about the next holiday holiday that they can book to escape that reality. You know? And if you've ever felt that, I have as well by the way, you have to change, like, let that be an indicator.
10:04That right there, that emotion, that feeling, as I said in my previous video, that is life saying do something. I'm testing you,
10:14I'm pushing you, I'm prodding your pain points, I'm , What are you going to do about it? That's what life is saying.
10:22Don't continue and just accept it. I think that's the problem. When you've been in a job for so long, you become quite .
10:28You know, your people become very good at doing as they're told and just accepting what is considered in the eyes of society as normal.
10:40This, honestly, this to me is life.
10:47I I absolutely love this, and I I want more of you to have this. And I and the reason I want more of you to have it is because you can, and I think more of you need to believe that you can because this type of freedom where I'm being paid right this very moment as I record this YouTube video doing something that I love. And as soon as I stop, I'm gonna carry carry on being paid.
11:07When I go to sleep tonight, I'll carry on being paid. This can be your life as well. Again, remove yourself from the life that you've been assigned
11:18that was given to you by default. Start designing one that you truly want. Now the next one, eight.
11:25Oh, no. Sorry. We've done eight.
11:27Number nine, more peace in everyday life. So this is something I touch on all the time is that
11:35by having less drama, less noise, I'm not involved in all these external happenings, office drama, politics,
11:44who said what, who did what, having to compete with other people, feeling like you're in survival mode, being able to remove yourself from what I call society's norm, their reality.
11:56When you start forming your own bubble of protection and you put yourself in a state of peace or as I call it contentment, not only does your mental health clear up, and I've never had any mental health issues or anything like that.
12:09I've never suffered in that way of panic attacks, anxiety. But if you are someone who's quite anxious and apprehensive about your life and what's coming around the corner or what is around the corner, when you are able to remove yourself from a nine to five
12:24and you understand what you truly want in life and what makes you happy, you suddenly start finding peace, and that's a really big thing for me.
12:33Now number 11. Sorry. Number 10, never missing moments
12:38with my son. This is really important. My dad worked a lot when I was younger,
12:44so there were times during the week I'd only see my dad at the weekends. I've been able to be there when my son has had a Christmas play at his school, a football match, his training,
12:56his boxing training. When I grew up, I used to love and actually, this is still one of my favorite Christmas films, is Jingle All the Way. Now if you've ever watched Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger
13:07and his son, when he plays turbo man, is that Alex, his son, would always want his dad to be there, but his dad was always working. When his son had a karate lesson or he was getting a certificate or, you know, upgrading
13:20within his belts, his dad, oh god, what was what was Arnold Schwarzenegger called? Howard.
13:27Yeah. I said Howard. I always remember that because I remember the wife going, Howard?
13:33Yeah. He would never be there, and I never wanted to be that dad that when my son had a play and he was like, dad, are you gonna be there? And I would say, yes, but something would happen at work.
13:42And my son would look out into the crowd, and he wouldn't see his dad there. And we've been very, you know, very blessed in the sense that both of us as parents,
13:52my myself and my partner, is that we've been able to be there every play. So when he looks out, he he always sees us.
13:58And the the smile on his face is, I mean, it's priceless. You you can't buy it. It's, you know, something that I'll always remember is how mad he goes when my son would see me, you know, and he'd be waving, and he'd just be so pleased that, you know, his parents are at his play, and and that really means a lot to me.
14:15So that's something that really kept me on my toes and, you know, really drove me to be able to create that sustainability so I didn't have to go back. Now number 11.
14:25I don't even know where we are with the numbers, so I'm just gonna carry on reading them. Not having to work with people I don't want to. This is a big one for me because as I've said, as I'm getting older, I'm not becoming a grouch.
14:37I'm I'm really not a grouch. I I'm so close to eating a fly.
14:43I have to talk like this and they're on. I don't have to work with people I don't want to. We've all been there.
14:49You've been there. I've been there. You know, the workplace, you didn't pick these people.
14:55You didn't go out one day and your employer said, right. You got before you start your job, you can hand pick.
15:01Here's a list of all the people you can work with. Choose the ones that you like. Yeah.
15:07We don't get to do that. You get thrown in the mix with people that you would never associate with on a normal day,
15:15and you've got to try and make it work. You've all got to try and get on. I
15:19wasn't really keen on that to be honest with you. I was very picky on I am quite picky on who I like to be honest with you. I have a very small social social
15:27circle. So that's one thing that I love.
15:31I don't work with anyone I don't want to. I don't collaborate with people that I don't want to. I recently turned down a brand deal offering me thousands
15:40for a YouTube video. I said no to the YouTube video. They wanted me to do a TikTok and an Instagram,
15:46and I had I just had no interest. I just had no interest. The amount of brands that I turned down,
15:52um, just because I just don't wanna work with them. Not because they're bad companies, but I just think I just can't be bothered.
16:01And I know that might seem silly, but I literally have been offered thousands and thousands of pounds. And I just say, just honestly, I just can't be bothered.
16:11I can't be bothered to sit down and create that type of video, especially when banks reach out to me like NatWest. I've turned down NatWest in the past because of, you know, how many words you have to say and AER percentage and all of these scripts that they want you to follow, and I just think, honestly, it's just disrupting my peace going back to whatever number that was.
16:31I don't wanna disrupt my peace. So next one is being able to say no without feeling guilty,
16:38which just ties into what I said. I say no all the time. Um, I've been invited to two events in London.
16:46One on the eighteenth, the other one on the June 13. I haven't decided whether I'm gonna go yet,
16:53but what's holding me back from saying yes is the thought of I gotta get on a train. Granted, one of them is gonna pay for my travel.
17:03Can I really be bothered to go to the train station? Am I really gonna meet people that I wanna see? Me and my business partner, Paul, for Peak Performance, we went to an event,
17:15um, a couple of months ago, and I just said to him, I just can't be bothered. I just said I really don't wanna be there.
17:25This is when I got there, and he was laughing about it because people were wanting to talk to me, and I I just had no interest. Again, I probably came across as a bit of a grouch. I'm not, but when people were saying to me, oh, so, you know, what what is it you do?
17:39I I just my answer was not a lot. And they were like, what do mean not a lot?
17:44I said, well, I just do what I want really. And they went, yeah. But what what is that?
17:48And I said, sit in my garden, do a bit of gardening every now and again, and I record content. I run a couple of small businesses. That's it.
17:57And they were really wanting me to, like, to elaborate on it, and I just I just didn't have the energy. So but that's just the way that I've become. The next one is and this, again, they're all flowing into each other quite nicely.
18:10Don't judge me on this one because it's a bit weird based on there we go. They obviously follow me.
18:19I avoid I I like to avoid all human interaction. So
18:24I know that sounds crazy. I have said this before, but I I literally do.
18:29I avoid all human interaction. I'm not interested in meeting people I don't know.
18:36I don't really want to expand on my very, very small social circle. I'm not really interested in having conversations outside of the topics that I like, which is business,
18:48you know, entrepreneurship as a whole, content creation, management of money, impacting people's lives,
18:56personal development, fitness, and family. And if it doesn't fall into those categories, I actually have zero interest,
19:05which is why I avoid human interaction because I understand that around about 99% of society doesn't have interest in dieting, health, fitness,
19:16money management, business, growing, personally developing. So I just don't involve myself in many social circles even when I'm at the gym.
19:27I don't talk to anyone. You know, which is again, I suppose weird in a way because I'm doing this YouTube video, which goes out to thousands of people. I you know, I'm very blessed that I can impact thousands of people's lives,
19:39but you're not walking with me? Now don't get me wrong. If someone was here walking, we were having a chat
19:46about, you know, things that we both enjoy, sure. Why not?
19:51But I'm just very particular on time. I would always think, well,
19:56why would I walk with, say, someone I don't really know when perhaps I can either go on my own, give myself some headspace, or go out with a family member. I quite like being on my own with doing stuff like this.
20:10Like, when I finish this YouTube video, I'm probably actually gonna do another lap back and forward because I know it takes me around about twenty minutes to do where I go and then come back. So, yeah, those are all the perks.
20:22We need to celebrate entrepreneurship. It's not all about getting the promotion, and I'm not gonna feel bad
20:28for anyone that perhaps this did, you know, get their back up a little bit, that I am singing the praises of people who are able to escape their job and create their own form of success. And I have to remind you as well, it's not about the amount of money you make. Like, don't worry about how much money I make a month.
20:45It it it's neither here or there. It really doesn't matter. What matters
20:50is what that money allows me to do, and that is live a life of freedom. It allows my family to live a life of freedom.
20:59We don't have to ask permission. It's not about the number that you make. You have to have full clarity on your number because if you don't know what your target is, what your goal, and your north star,
21:12you end up floating around trying to just make money for the sake of it. You have to assess and analyze what your end goal is, your life.
21:20What do you want it to look like for you and your family? And when you understand that number, and by the way, all of these assessments, all of these measurements, these evaluations
21:30are all done in exit nine under the first phase and the second phase of what we call our staple feature, the exit, is that once you have that clarity, then you can start to reverse engineer how you get to that point.
21:45So when I was in my twenties, I've always had an interest in money. I didn't come from a family that had money, but money was gonna be my escape.
21:54So I really immersed myself into learning about money. And when I started investing and saving and managing it, it actually gave me a buzz. And I gotta be honest with you, for most people, money is actually quite boring.
22:06I never stop thinking about it. And if you have an entrepreneurial flair about you, you'll understand what I mean by I never stop thinking about money.
22:15CTANot because I wanna be flashy. I mean, my god, you these glasses are battered. I've had my Apple Watch for years.
22:22CTAI'm wearing my Primark joggers again in the boiling heat. I've got my own company t shirt on Exit 9 here. I've got my events company hat on.
22:33CTAUh, you know, I'm I'm not about flexing materialistic things I couldn't give a monkeys. What's the point in having a Rolex if you're only telling the time when your workplace lunch finish when when it finishes? What's the point in driving a big Mercedes Benz on finance when you gotta drive it to a corporate job?
22:49CTAI'll say this. Um, I will be mentioning it in my videos because it's important because it was built and designed for you. I just stress now, if any of what I've just said to you has resonated,
23:04CTAHead on to our Instagram, which will pop up on screen here. Have a look at the highlights section of what people are saying. We're two weeks old today,
23:13CTAand it is the May 21. By the time this video comes out, it'll probably be a few days later than that.
23:31CTAI am rooting for every single one of you to achieve more in life. Take action. Ignore the noise.
23:40CTAGet going. Until the next video, let me know in the comments what resonated with you. Are you building a life by design, or are you sticking to the one that was assigned to you?
— full transcript
§ 05 · For Joe
The single-take outdoor monologue is a format worth stealing.
Production-zero, credibility-max
Aaron's entire credibility argument is delivered in one unbroken outdoor walk — no edits, no captions, no studio — and it works precisely because the lack of polish signals 'I don't need to impress you.'
- Record your next manifesto-style video in one outdoor take — no script, no cuts. The imperfection IS the message.
- Numbered lists give a rambling talking-head a navigable spine — each number resets viewer attention without requiring a jump cut.
- Title the video as a provocation against a target villain (LinkedIn culture, corporate promotions) to activate the audience who already resents it.
- Mid-video product CTA works cleanly when it follows an emotional peak — Aaron drops Exit 9 right after the passive income perk, not cold.
- The anti-flex wardrobe (Primark joggers, battered glasses, company t-shirt) is load-bearing brand identity — it proves the lifestyle claim without saying it explicitly.
- The off-peak living angle (empty supermarkets, easy parking, midweek holidays) is underused in creator content and resonates strongly with people in desk jobs.
§ 05 · For You
What you could actually change this week.
For the person in the job they hate
The Sunday dread is not a personality trait — it is information. Your nervous system is telling you something needs to change.
- Write down the number: what monthly income would let you leave? Most people have never calculated it — and it is usually lower than they fear.
- List three things you have tolerated at work this month that you would never tolerate in your own life. That list is your cost-of-employment.
- Off-peak living is available to anyone with schedule flexibility — even freelancers, part-timers, or remote workers. Start using it before you have quit anything.
- The Sunday dread is not a personality trait — it is information. If it is consistent, treat it like a signal, not background noise.
- Passive income is not magic: it is past work that keeps paying. Identify one thing you already know that someone would pay to learn, then write it down.
