Yianni Breaks Silence: The TRUTH About Yiannimize Closing, Trading, Moving Abroad & Being Robbed

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Better than anything.

What did you think of the way your audience reacted when you said that you were going to close the rat business?

A lot of people think I was closing it because we wasn't busy.

We were still fully booked. The unit was supposed to go three years ago. That was supposed to be the end.

I was under the impression that it was going to be Dubai that you headed towards.

What is your primary reason for wanting to get out?

People think the first reason or the main reason is tax. I've been paying tax for 30 plus years.

Your video with DMO.

Was that video hard for you to make because you didn't know the result?

You say Yanomise, car wrapping. You say DMO, scammer.

I was praying it was not going to be a scammer because if it was, it would probably kill our friendship.

Cars and nostalgia. Two things for me that go together hand in hand.

Every time I see a wrapped vehicle on the road, on an industrial estate, anywhere, I can't help but think of you.

It's the same for many people in many other different things.

However, Yanni, in your own words, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Yanni. I own a company called Yanomise.

I've been around 20 plus years and we wrap cars for everyone on the planet, but we're known for wrapping them for the rich and famous.

Which you've done a lot of here, quite literally here where the van is parked in front of one of the doors of the building that I know from all of the videos I watched in my teenage years growing up.

But it looks very different today when we've turned up here because there's less people, there's less activity, there's a lot of things in bubble wrap.

It's not how I would remember this place to be in the videos and that's because this site is no longer going to be.

So how does that make you feel?

It's sad. It's strange because people have known this growing up.

So I've been at this site, I think just under 15 years now and people remember it with the GTA background, which was incredible.

And then we turn it to very, very white wall, big bright lights.

And I've had people message me saying it was part of my growing up.

I went to school over there. I used to walk past.

I see all the cars. I see the celebrities that used to turn up here.

So it's sad, but it's time the journey comes to an end.

I'll move into a different direction.

Because didn't you even get people turning up and you had to have like the gates installed and all the rest of it?

Because you couldn't kind of have the privacy of making the videos because of how mental this place got, especially in what like the late 2012, 2014?

It was the KSI era.

Was it?

Yes.

The Tron Line era.

Yeah. So when KSI came here and a few other sidemen came in, Harry wrote to show the school would spot him and literally they just all came over.

And then we had the people at the school complaining like the teacher saying, oh, you've caused this.

I'm like, we're in our own place.

Like just because the school is it, that's not on us.

But yeah, JJ would cause havoc wherever he went.

He's huge.

And he was, listen, we're talking 10 years ago where I've done 10 million views of him on a video.

Now he's gone off the planet.

He's a different scale now.

So you've mentioned one person that came here.

That's clearly very well known by everyone, but just gave me, give me five or 10 others that you can't believe is set foot on this site.

Okay.

Anthony Joshua, Pierre Emerick Obama Yang, One Direction, Stormzy, obviously the KSI, the loads of the YouTubers, even someone like Paul Hollywood, Gemma Collins, James Arfa.

I consider a name drop all day long.

Lethal B, Derek Chazora, Connor Ben, Rupert Grint, Harry Potter, Stavros Felatly.

Okay.

Go in the Greeks.

Remember from Britain's Got Talent.

Yeah.

He did a son, didn't he?

There you go.

JLS, Rachelle Humes.

I consider a name drop all day long.

I'm very fortunate that these people have turned up to a place in Enfield where we wrap cars.

Remember, it's a wrap business.

It's not, it's not anything exciting.

It's a wrap business.

The reason I asked you who would set foot on this Hello Turf is because you made that happen.

And many people, when they're trying to achieve a road to success, it's all about connections.

How can you grow what you're doing because of that?

You clearly got all of those people because of the thing that you built and the thing that you offered and the did and you sold a dream to set foot on this site.

But where did that start?

What's one moment in your earliest kind of teenagers that without that specific moment wouldn't have led you to be able to get those people here?

A big person I always mention is Bakri Sanya.

Bakri Sanya used to play for Arsenal, the Man City, and now he's retired.

But he was a really good friend of mine when he first came to Arsenal.

And doing his car and me going to the training ground and then meeting all the other players was insane.

And he introduced me to so many different players and it becomes that snowball effect.

So I got Bakri and then William Gallas was there.

And then William Gallas used to play for Chelsea.

So he gave me John Terry and then I've done Jayless's cars and then Jayless had a Christmas party in one direction.

We're there.

And then I've got Simon Cowell and then Gordon Ramsay.

And as I said, it's snowball effect.

When you get one person to do a really good job, they will recommend you and especially a football player because they spend so much time together and they're bored.

On a Friday night, they're really bored.

And I'm a person that I don't work nine to five, you know, people at five o'clock, six o'clock, are they turned their phone off?

And I'm not going to answer my phone.

I'm like, really?

These football players were mentioning me eight, nine, ten, eleven o'clock at night saying, yeah, and I'm sitting on the internet.

And I'm like, should you not be going to bed?

You've got a game tomorrow.

Yeah, don't worry, don't worry, I'll go to bed in a bit.

I've seen this car.

I've seen this rap.

And that is what I've done most of my work and most of my business in the evening on a Friday night, Sunday nights, midweek games.

And I look back and I think, wow, what I've achieved and I'm proud of what I've achieved because again, I go back to it.

It's a car rap business.

It's not anything that was famous or sexy as such.

But you could only move in those circles and energize those people if you had a personality that was like that, that was outgoing, that was crazy, that was big, that was larger than life.

To have that personality, where did that come from in your earliest years?

I was very good at networking.

I was very good at speaking to people.

I was in sales for a long time, so I worked in recruitment for years and I was like, I think for two and a half years, I was a top biller.

And it was the early days of recruitment.

So you'd wear the suit and you'd have the big, big tie and the cuff links.

And when you've done a deal, you'd ring the bell.

Okay.

Do you know like the Wolf of Wall Street sort of thing?

Yeah.

And you'd ring the bell and I'd be like, oh my God.

And then all week you'd see all your deals on the table, on the board, should I say?

And then on a Friday, if I was doing a deal, yeah, I'd hold my deal back and I wouldn't put it through because I wanted it to stay on the board for the whole week.

So first thing on a Monday morning, boom, I ring the bell so that it stays on the week for the whole week.

And I'm all excited.

And people were like, okay, Jan's top boy.

And I just, I was good at speaking to people.

I just networked really well.

And people would say to me, even with the animized business, they're like, well, you weren't on the tools and the business would never be anything without your staff.

Yes and no.

Staff are incredible.

And we talk about Nico and Mark Philly, my two of my little brothers.

But if someone's not growing the business, if someone's not on the phone, if someone's not networking and you're on the tools, how do you expect the business to grow?

The phone will ring, but I'm working on a car.

Who's going to do all that work?

Who's going to have meetings?

Who's going to talk to people?

People don't see that.

And that's a nine to five thing.

I think if you're in a job, you don't understand what it takes to become an entrepreneur.

And it is not easy.

It's really, really difficult to become an entrepreneur and a businessman in this world.

What's the animise your dream?

What is it my dream?

I wanted to do acting.

I loved, I loved TV.

I loved acting.

And I put a video out recently.

With Ali G?

I was in Ali G movie where people don't know that.

And that was 20, 25 years ago, I think it was.

I was in the bill.

I was in EastEnders.

I've done an army advert.

I've done loads of stuff and acting was something that I really enjoyed.

But cars was my passion.

Cars was something that I always loved.

And the fact that I got into that industry, it never felt like work.

But when you started Yanomise, you made that decision to start this business.

And then it grew to what it become.

It kind of corresponded with social media being a thing.

And the reason I asked that is because Yanomise has become a social media business,

an events company without social media.

I think it's fair to say the business wouldn't survive now.

Yeah.

So did you have any idea when you first started out on social media doing those cars

that that's what the business was one day become

and you've moved away from the rapping?

The biggest indicator for me was with Twitter.

Obviously it's X now.

But Twitter was early days of social media.

And I would put stuff on social media on Twitter.

And then I would have the likes of James Corden or One Direction that would retweet.

Or they would write, I took my car to Yanomise.

He's the guy.

And I'm like, okay.

And then it'd get loads of retweets and loads of messages and comments.

This is the long before the days of Instagram, TikTok, even YouTube.

So that gave me a really good indication.

And then when Instagram arrived, I got an Instagram really, really early.

And that was like a hallelujah because it's pictures and it's visual and cars.

Everyone loves cars.

Doesn't matter whether you're a man, a woman, a boy, old, young in the UK and another country.

People love cars.

And when you've got visual and you've got bright coloured cars and you've got real cool cars,

it went viral very, very quickly and it grew like that.

One of the things I remember you talking about from my earliest years of watching the Yanomise channel

was the day that you were stood in there and you said,

I can't actually rap like my boys can rap, but I can't rap.

And you had to go and it didn't go very well.

So why did you start a rapping company when you couldn't actually rap?

So first of all, Richard Branson, Don't Fly the Plains.

So, and I can do that with so many different things.

You don't need to be able to do the exact thing that you own.

So I owned a hairdresser's, couldn't cut hair.

You understand?

I owned a milkshake shop.

Okay, I could make the milkshakes, but not to the standard that my staff could do.

I loved cars.

I was passionate about it.

If you hire the right staff, you can have a really good business,

but they've got to believe in you and you've got to believe in them and they've got to trust you.

Nick and Mark have been with me 12 and 13 years.

Gina is 13 years.

Gus is eight years.

I've had my pavs 15 years.

I've had my staff for a long time.

People think, oh, your staff, you never paid your staff really well and your staff wasn't from the UK

and they've even got a British passport.

So I'm like, okay.

And that was years ago.

They've been around me for a long time.

What does that tell you?

It tells you that they got paid very well.

They got treated very well.

And I built a family at Yanomize.

And that was a real big thing.

And the audits on YouTube could see that.

And then we had like, oh my God, T-Way this week at Yanomize.

And you'd see all the staff.

You'd meet them all and you'd get a real good feeling of what it was like to work here.

Yeah, you have good and bad days, but overall, we're one big family.

So when you picture that, that idyllic picture that you've built of a wonderful team,

social media is growing, there's so much traction behind everything.

When did you first get that query in your head?

That I'm not sure if this has got longevity in doing the wrapping.

I'm not sure that it can sustain all of these staff.

I'm not sure about the industry customers are hard to deal with.

What were those first?

I'm not sure that we're coming into your head at night.

When I would go to certain car shows.

So you've got people that have got big company, modifying companies.

And they would say to me, oh, wrapping, that's not going to last very long, is it?

In the early days.

And I was like, no, I think it's going to be okay.

No, it's not going to last.

Paint will come back.

So people would always plant those seeds in my head.

But I believed in the product.

I believed in the business.

I believe that if you want to change the color of your car,

it's going to cost you a lot more money to paint it.

It's going to stay in the body shop for a long time.

Plus it's going to devalue the car.

The fact you can put a vinyl wrap from a black car, make it white or green or purple or yellow.

And you can make it as crazy as you want.

You enjoy it.

And then when you get bored, take the wrap off, the car is protected.

And then you sell the car on.

It's a no brainer.

When you paint the car, you've got to repaint it again.

So people didn't really understand the wrapping world.

And I really believed in it.

And now the way it's evolved.

And listen, there was only a few wrap companies when I was doing it.

Now there's a wrap company everywhere.

And obviously there's PPF now as well.

I think to get in this industry now is very, very difficult because there's so many people doing it.

Is that what one of the killers were?

The fact that there's so many people doing it, it kind of waters down the overall demand.

But also it kind of naturally brings the price down a little bit because it's like,

so and so said they could do it for actual up.

But it's not Yanomize.

Is that a big thing that was a part of it?

Honestly, it didn't affect me.

And people be like, oh, you're so cocky, so arrogant.

Yanomize is the brand.

Yanomize has been around for so long.

I can dictate the price.

And people say, well, why should you dictate the price?

Why should you charge more than anyone else?

Well, the team are the best on the planet.

I had a team that wrapped cars and also stripped and fitted cars.

You can't have the best people that strip cars and wrap cars together.

It doesn't work.

Nico and Mark can't strip cars.

They wrap cars.

I had Mike.

I had Pav.

I had...

Who else did I have?

I can't remember.

That would strip the cars.

And then they put them back together.

I had a really good team, a polished team.

Yes, the vinyl material may be the same if they're not getting it from China.

But the quality of the work, the warranty, the fact that my building was in shorts,

if something went wrong, you're covered.

And also, you get the social media exposure.

If I'm putting up my Instagram, they wanted to feel like, yeah,

I went to Yanomize and got my car ready.

It felt like a...

Yeah.

In the heyday of vehicle wrapping, Pete,

what would a crazy event at all wrap cost?

In a normal color or a chrome?

Chrome.

Chrome was big, though.

Chrome could have been like seven, eight grand.

And people would be like, oh my God, I would have done that car at three grand.

Do you know what the thing is?

The vinyl on its own would cost two and a half grand.

So people are making a 500 pound to a thousand pound markup,

which people can say it's a lot of money.

I've got a lot more overhead here.

And also, if something goes wrong, what are you going to do?

I would stand on and rewrap the whole car under warranty if I had to.

These lot can't afford to rewrap a wing or a door.

So when you ring them and say, I've got a problem with the car,

you'll hear all the excuses under the sun.

You ring me, so I've got a problem.

All right, bring me the car down.

Let's look at the car.

If it's on us, we will rewrap your whole car or the panel

or repair whatever we need to do under warranty.

We'd warranty our cars for three years.

These other companies weren't standing on like we were

because we could afford to.

But you built in the process of doing that one hell of a brand.

They were getting the social media exposure then,

but the numbers now are just like even more, even more,

even more, even more and growing.

But if you'd have asked me back in 2018 as a fan,

oh, in 2025, 2026, this building's going to be no more.

The team is going to be much, much, much smaller

and no longer going to be wrapping cars,

but the thing that's going to be making the money

is the marketing and moving forward with that.

I said, well, it's not possible.

How can you stop wrapping cars and still continue?

Was that your biggest fear when you decided

to close the rap business?

No, because the rap business didn't make my money.

People don't realize that.

I was in property for years.

I made money long before owning Yanomize and a rap business.

The people think, we made you.

We made you because of social media.

And it's like, if you look back and again,

people, people will have their perception of me.

They always do it because I'm quite confident

and it's not arrogant.

It's confident and it's real facts.

I had a Gallardo or Gallardo.

I was going to ask you about that car in 2006.

That was before Yanomize.

You understand?

How did I have that car then?

I had a Ferrari in 2003.

I had a Porsche in 2000.

I had money.

I was doing okay before I built Yanomize.

Then Yanomize brought the fame, the exposure,

the awareness, the social media, the TV show.

So it just added a few more stripes to me.

But I'd already done loads of stuff before I got to that stage.

People don't understand and people have this perception of me.

And I always say to people when they talk about me,

if you know me, you can have a perfect opinion.

No problem at all.

Because some people don't always get on.

But if you don't know me, but you've got this big...

Oh, Yanis this and Yanis that.

I always say to them, ask them if someone's talking about me,

if they've ever met me.

If they've ever had a conversation with me to see what I'm like.

And I promise you the majority of people, when they meet me,

they're like, actually, you're not what I thought you were like.

You're actually really cool.

And you're like, you know, you're down to earth

and you take time out to speak to people because I do.

And I do it all my car shows as well.

And I'll always stop and have a picture with someone.

I'll always sign something because I know what it was like

being young, looking up to people, thinking,

Oh my God, I hope that person speaks to me or

that 10 seconds that you spend with a young kid,

that can change their life and their thought process and their mindset.

If you're me and you don't give them any sort of time or day,

they won't forget that.

I still remember the first time I ever met you.

Oh, really?

It was at Topaz Detailing.

Okay.

I have a photo which I hopefully will put on screen now

of, I'm going to think it was like a satin champagne

with the 76 YC play.

The first iteration of the updated sport that's not the latest sport.

If you know what I mean, that one.

So I remember the first time I was anywhere before I ever started making videos.

So what you're saying is completely correct.

It has a massive impact on people.

When it has an impact on people, it's because it means something to them.

So what did you think of the way your audience reacted

when you said that you were going to close the rat business?

A lot of people think I was closing it because we wasn't busy.

We were still fully booked.

I'm still fully booked now, even though I don't necessarily wrap here anymore

and I send it all to Nico and Mark.

Me as Yannemise and Yanny, we're still fully,

I've got five cards at Nico and Mark's right now that are being wrapped,

but because they want to come to me, they know I'm taking it there now,

but it's still, Nico and Mark will always be Yannemise,

as much as they have their own business and they're Philly Mise,

which the name still lives on because obviously they've got the Mise on the end.

They're my guys.

And it is sad.

The unit was supposed to go three years ago.

So when I've done those videos and I set up for Nico and Mark,

set up on their own and Bert left and a few of the other staff left,

that was supposed to be the end.

And then I found out that,

nope, you're not leaving here, you're stuck here for another three years.

I was like, okay, what do I do?

I was like, you know what, I'll turn it into a media.

I made downstairs white wall, like the white finish, the infinity wall,

so we could film content here.

I made upstairs just all content offices so we could film.

And I just passed everything over to Nico and Mark,

Pav on the security side, Mike on the servicing side.

You've got Darren at the back who does like the PPF for me.

So I just passed everything around.

So when they work with Rio and Dion Twin Charge,

so whenever work used to come in, I'll just pass it to my guys

and just give them the love.

But the business was never finished.

We're still fully booked today, but people think,

oh, you shut your business down.

I really didn't.

While many of you are watching this very podcast,

the team at GarageStyle are busy transforming my garage at home

from a dead space to something that looks out of this world.

They have worked with so many guests that have been on this channel

already including Chris Slicks, Yanny and even Matt Armstrong.

They have flown around the world, fitting out garages for Jake Paul,

DMO and even Justin Bieber.

For my garage transformation, I'll be having Garage Styles

vented tiles that were color coding around each one of the cars in the garage.

All the walls, which are currently white and completely battered,

are going to be painted in black.

And the old tube lights that I've got in there that look awful in photos

are going to be replaced with Garage Styles Hexicon grid lighting system.

You know, the one that you see in detailing bay is looking unbelievable.

And the best thing about Garage Style, in my opinion,

is the guys offer supply and fit,

meaning you can get all of this done under one roof and in just one day

if you've got a double garage like mine.

Garage Styles supply flooring, doors, toolboxes and lighting.

They kick out everything from single bay garages that can also be used as gyms.

They do gym flooring too, all the way up to huge commercial workshops.

The founder of Garage Style, Harry, has actually been on this podcast before

telling his story about how he grew and built Garage Style from scratch.

So if you've got a garage and you think it's in need of a transformation,

it could be a lot cheaper than you think.

Head over to Garage Styles website and take a look at their quick quote tool,

all their brand new configurator tool to price up your dream garage.

And you can use code RTS for 10% off the whole order.

Thank you for Garage Style for not only making my garage look insane,

which will be showing you guys an upcoming podcast,

but also for partnering with us for this podcast.

Back to the video.

A massive decision I've just made in my life was to exit a business

I've helped grow over the last two years.

And there was a hell of a lot of staff in it, up to 86, there was six when I joined.

And it becomes so stressful dealing with a lot of stuff

because a lot of people are on minimum wage.

It was hospitality, but there were some real key absolute gems

that will be there for the test of time.

But I made the decision to move away because I feel a lot happier doing what I do now.

Road to success and media and speaking to people and my brain just feels free.

Was that the same for you?

Were you seriously busy managing all those people wrapping all those cars?

And you still mentioned Nico and Mark being the OG.

You still mentioned Pav.

You still refer to Bert.

You still refer to Bav all the time, especially when he joined the business.

But is the rest sometimes just stress and noise and hell?

At one stage, I think I had 30 staff.

Staff are one of the hardest things to manage.

And you have some incredible staff like your genus or your Nico and Mark's way

or your Gus that give you no problems whatsoever.

And then you have your other staff that it's like they have a chip on their shoulder.

They feel entitled.

And this happens a lot with staff.

Now, my argument is, you know, you're not doing me a favor by coming to work here.

You know, I'm paying you to come to work.

But it was like they would do me a favor by coming to work.

So at the end of the month, I'm paying you to do a job.

And at the end of the month, you expect to be paid because you've done a job.

Staff in this world nowadays want more and more and more.

And it's never enough money.

It's never, it's never enough.

Whatever you do for them.

So what I've seen over the years is that you can give them everything

and they will still have a problem.

Now, when the business of that is peak peak and we were making so much money,

everyone would be like, oh, look at all the cars.

I want more money.

I would give more money.

But when the business goes quiet and we're not making that money,

could I say to you, you know, I need to reduce your wages down?

Of course you can't.

Oh, but it's happy for you.

You're happy to take all the money when we're at our peak.

Give and take.

Did you also struggle with people coming in trying to grow their own personal

brands in front of the cameras like they were coming in to try and be in front

of the camera rather than go to work?

I didn't mind that.

I was happy to help people.

That is why I had this week at Yanomai.

So I would give them all their own platform.

I would try and push them.

I try and give them their own social media.

I would app them.

I would share content with them.

I love doing that.

I'm happy to push people.

I've done it for years.

If you look over the years, Lenny, you understand urban,

I consider a name drop five, six companies and I've always pushed them

and I help people.

Well, I'd actually like to play a little video that somebody sent me just

for this podcast just because you mentioned their name.

So I was sent this earlier for you to watch.

I want to see your reaction to this.

Go on.

Right, Ben.

I was really struggling with this one.

When you said that you needed a question from me to give to Yanny,

I've known Yanny now for 11, 12 years.

So I don't really have any questions for him,

especially anything that I need an answer to.

So I've probably got more of a statement in the fact that if it wasn't for Yanny,

I wouldn't be at urban.

He's been like a big brother that I always wanted.

He's helped me out a lot in a lot of situations and yeah,

take away the social media side of Yanny and you get him on your own.

And he's just a very kind hearted gentleman.

Not the same as what we see on social media that loud, brash entertainer.

But yes, no questions really, mate.

Just that statement.

How does that make you feel?

Lenny knows me.

He knows the real me.

I'm an emotional guy.

So I like to help people.

I do my best for people.

I have this persona online because you've got to protect yourself in this world.

So I try not to show this side of me.

Yeah, it's nice.

Listen, it's nice to hear that people that know me personally

know I go out of my way to do everything for my friends.

So yeah, it's nice.

I've got one more.

So this might tip him over the edge because Lenny's actual words were

Ben, he's great, he's a zippery, they're emotional.

The Mediterranean's off.

Oh my gosh.

You'll get him.

This is the other video that I've got because I wanted to mention

another character that's been significant in your story

and probably significant in your story around the time that we're talking about it.

I know he basically did something where he either gave you a car,

you were right involved right at the start when urban was a thing,

when it was an embryo and that was a massive part of the journey with Yanomizer.

If there was a rain driver here, it wouldn't say rain driver on the bonnet.

So is one more.

So the podcast that everyone is waiting for has happened.

Well done, Ben, for getting Yan over the line.

Now, Ben has asked me to give 30 seconds of my time to tell him how much I love Yan

or anything about him, but 30 seconds is nowhere near enough.

I probably need 30 minutes to tell the world how much I adore this guy.

When the right beliefs, the right morals and trust come together,

it forms an unbreakable friendship and that's exactly how I feel about Yan.

The business and everything to one side, that all comes naturally

just because we think the same, we've cried together, we've laughed together

and I know that we will do the same for many years to come.

I love you, my brother.

So talk me through that story.

Talk me through why he feels that way.

Where did it start and where are you now?

This is not the kind of podcast I thought I was doing, Ben.

I think you're very good at your job, mate.

Well done.

Simon, where do I start?

Simon is...

I put a post up about him the other day because he's just moved to Dubai

and obviously Urban has now been sold.

That's my brother, one of my dearest friends, that's my family.

Someone said to him, at the time I had an overfinch Range Rover and I just sold it

and someone said to him, Yan is looking for a body kit

and I approached all these brands, didn't even know about Urban

and I said, do me a deal, do me a deal

and everyone was like, no, don't really want to do you a deal

and people didn't understand social media at the time

because I'd be like, hi guys, it's Yan and I'm from Yanamize

and they used to take the piss out of me, yeah?

They all do it now, by the way.

And someone said to Simon, you need to go for Yan.

He will really help your brand.

He was a young, young man.

I can't think of his name at the time.

I didn't know him, he was just a fan.

And Simon sent me an email about 10.30 at night.

I looked at the email and I was like, okay, this guy wants to send me a car

to use for a year and to do prime.

I was like, okay.

And nowadays, people do that all the time.

But 10 years ago, people would not do that.

They wouldn't risk that.

You're giving a stranger a car.

So I called him straight away and I was like, is this true?

He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, because but I need to come and meet you.

I need you to sign a contract to say that I'm giving you a car

and you're not going to sell it and blah, blah.

I was like, come and see me.

He came down to see me and we just started talking.

Just off the bat, we started talking.

And then he left me the car.

I didn't sign no paperwork.

Literally just left me the car.

So there's the keys, Jan.

Enjoy it.

And off he went.

So he trusted me and believed in me and I saw the product.

I met him and he was, he's, he's honestly, he's one of the best people in the world.

He's one of the most humble, nicest people you'll ever meet.

And I helped him build the brand.

Now, yes, I gave the social media exposure, but you can only give someone social media

exposure and for it to work if they've got a great product and a great brand

because people believe in it.

I can promote anyone.

I can promote anyone tomorrow, but it doesn't mean they're going to blow up

because people may not believe in them.

So I'm going to have this great business, great product.

And after being together a couple of years, he was like, yeah,

and we need to do something together.

So we ended up becoming partners.

He was a man of his word with Urban.

When Urban sold, he remembered me because I was involved,

which I won't go too much in, but everything he said he was going to do,

he never forgot.

And to this day, me and him are still as close as ever.

We had Nero together.

We had Yanomai as an Urban together.

I was set up there for years.

And even that, I didn't leave that business because I was kicked out.

It was because I knew Simon was leaving and it wasn't the same.

The people that own Urban, great guys, it's not Simon.

You understand?

And my connection was with Simon and I wanted to work with him.

So I didn't really care about the Milton Keynes setup anymore.

But your Urban is an absolute beast.

It's the biggest out there.

It's the best modifying company for all the great cars.

And now Simon's in Dubai and I'm moving to Cyprus.

Well, this was the next bit to get onto because I was under the impression,

like many others a little while ago, that it was going to be Dubai that you headed towards.

Now, your average viewer, I'm just going to put them,

that's maybe not in the same circles, conversations, WhatsApp chats,

information that you and I get from being around some amazing people on a daily basis,

may still struggle to fully understand reasons for leaving the UK.

We can all be on board with it's like the second most miserable country in the world fact.

People aren't happy on the whole at the minute.

Things aren't making entrepreneurialism very easy.

We're not very believing in one another.

When I go to America and see my friends Will and Captain Crancheshaft

and even have some drinks with those guys in the evening, they're like,

oh my God, bro, you got a yanny, you got a yanny, you have a bollocks.

We're here, they'd be like, oh, is he a dick?

Immediate negativity.

What is your primary reason for wanting to get out?

OK, people think the first reason or the main reason is tax.

I've been paying tax for 30 plus years.

I've already paid the tax for such a long period of time.

They're like tax evader in your lip.

What do you mean?

Because I'm leaving now.

So I'm not going to pay tax moving forward.

What about all the 30 years that I've been paying tax for?

Firstly, weather, quality of life.

I'm a big sun worshipper.

I love sun.

I need sun.

It's too cold here.

That's why me and you differ.

You're like Lenny as well.

The sun probably won't work.

Your Dubai is not good, bro.

Yeah, and I've done my Emirates ID.

I really did look at Dubai.

Dubai was really a big option, but I'm from Cyprus.

I've got family out there.

And I think I've got a lot more or different opportunities in Cyprus

than I do in Dubai.

Unfortunately, because I have a social media, I'm trusted, I'm respected.

I've been around a long time that I can do loads of stuff in Dubai.

But I can also do loads of stuff in Cyprus.

And I want to bring more tourism to Cyprus.

I want to bring more people to Cyprus.

I want people to understand Cyprus is amazing.

Yes, you might not have the 0% tax.

But I don't mind paying tax.

It won't take the piss out of us, though.

Here, 45%, 50% corporation tax.

Capital gains, 28%.

You're taking the piss out of us.

We haven't even got safety here.

We've got nothing here, but we're paying all this tax.

So guys, here's a quick break.

But if you're enjoying this episode, please subscribe to Road to Success.

It's a great channel.

Cheers.

Back to the video.

There's things that you and I are both wearing on this podcast.

When you say the word safety is something that comes to mind.

When I go and do a podcast anywhere inside the M25 these days,

I'm usually not wearing one of these on my wrist.

You had one of the most scary stories I've ever heard back in the day.

Do you want to go into it a little bit?

Yeah, for people that don't know, I got robbed in my house, tied up.

Nine years ago, they came for my Richard Mill.

I had a watch that was one of 50.

And they didn't get it, luckily, but they got other watches and they got some cash.

They tied me up there in my house for about 11 minutes, beat up, smashed over the head, blew my eye open.

Yeah, it was very tough.

I was set up and I was too flash on social media with regards to my watches.

So early days of when people had a nice watch, they'd do that and they'd take a picture in front of their steering wheel

or whatever it was.

It happened, I'm alive, my kids, Mrs, no one was in the house.

So I only had to worry about myself, which is probably the best thing.

But as I said, it happens and sometimes things do happen for a reason.

That was probably a blessing for me.

I look back now and I think, OK, cool, at the time, it's like the worst thing could possibly happen.

Why? What did it teach you?

Not to be so flash with watches.

I'm the car guy, so I'm always going to have a flash car.

So you can't people say, oh, look, you haven't learned nothing.

Look, you're still driving around these cars.

I'm the car guy.

You know, it's like being a jeweler and not wearing a real nice.

You don't see me wearing a big chain.

You understand.

Yeah, I'll wear a nice watch because I like watches.

I'm not going to let them dictate what I should wear and what I shouldn't wear.

But you won't see me flash it around.

Do I have really nice watches?

Yes.

Do I wear them in the UK?

No.

Do I have them abroad?

Yes.

So in Dubai, you'll see me wear.

Not my Rolex.

You'll see me wear a really nice piece or in Cyprus.

Would I wear it in the UK?

No, because I'm not stupid anymore.

But the world has changed a lot since when I was younger and how people were growing up

and the fact that both my sons now have gone to Cyprus as well.

It's much better lifestyle for them.

And they can walk around my son on his bike.

His bike got nicked.

My G-wagon got nicked.

Fortunately, we got them both back with the help of social media and connections.

But it's mental out here.

It's the Wild West.

Was that your scariest experience from social media?

Yes.

I think it was.

As I said, I was tied up.

Three guys came in and I was tied up and they were walking around my house looking for the

safe, beating me up.

But again, I go back to the fact that no one was in my house.

So if you've got kids in the house or you've got a missus in the house, you've got to think

about protecting them because it was only me on my own.

I'm good.

I'm on my own.

So what's the worst you're going to do?

You're going to kill me.

Okay, cool.

But you can't hurt anyone around me.

So I don't have to protect no one.

I've just got to protect myself.

Do you always think about moments like that when you were making the decision to leave?

No.

I think it was nine years ago, but I'm still conscious.

So if I drive around and I'm pulling into my house, I will look at the mirror and if

I see a car that I feel that's been behind me, I'll go past my road and then I'll double

back.

You understand?

When I'm going to my car, I'm always conscious of what's around me.

If I'm on my phone or I'm doing stuff, you don't ever forget and there are things that

will trigger you.

Oh my God, I remember that.

Oh my God.

You understand?

So you never forget.

And is it like PTSD, they say, but I've learned a lot.

I'm at an age now where the world has beat me down enough to know I'm not going to let

it happen anymore.

So I do my best to protect myself, my family and my friends around me and I'm fully aware

of what's going on.

You can never say it's never going to happen again in whatever country you're in, but you

try and prevent putting a target on your back.

How hard has it been to move abroad?

Has it been easier or harder than you thought it would be?

Easy.

And shall I tell you why it's easy?

Without being arrogant, I have money.

When you have money, it's easy to do whatever you want.

You understand?

And a lot of people have messaged me online saying, oh my God, I wish I could move.

I had the money I would move.

Money is not happiness, but it makes your life so much easier.

And that's the honest truth.

My kids have already gone.

Myself, Mrs, baby, my daughter and son, they're all coming next year as well.

So is everyone's going out there, I'm going to move my parents out of my dad's in a home

at the moment costing us nearly 10 grand a month to be in a home in the UK.

Is it the best home in the world?

No, but a 10 grand a month, you'd expect it to be some sort of level.

I can move my dad and my mum to Cyprus, put my dad in a lovely house because he needs

24 hour care.

And it's going to cost half the amount of money.

My mum gets her life back because she doesn't have to go to the home every single day because

they'll be in the same house.

The weather's better, so it'll be better for him as a whole, better for him mentally.

He's all there, just can't move around.

But as people don't know, people don't know what goes on behind the scenes.

People see Yanni from Yanomai's cars, flash watches, look at image rich, but they don't

know what goes on with my parents, what goes on with my family or how my kids are and what

issues I go through.

They just see the show reel, the highlight reel on social media.

But behind the scenes, there's a lot that goes on.

How do you decide how much to include your family and your social media presence?

Stopped.

I pulled Mrs. Off, pulled everything off, so people think I split with Mrs.

and this, that and the other.

I think what you want.

I pulled her off, fully off social media because all the shit that was going through.

So and even I'm limited with both my sons, my daughter will pop in and out, but I try

to limit my kids.

Andreas is doing really well on TikTok, so he's online and he's killing it now.

So I try and help him and push him, but I limit my family on social media now because

you just put the target on your back and you put the target on there, but even like videos

on YouTube, pulled them all off.

So you mentioned a minute ago, people see the cars, people see the watches, people just

see all of it, they see the money.

On the whole, when people see that and they can't figure out the how, how is that possible?

What do they think?

Um, this is a generalization, not just you, but I just, if I base it on myself, I think

the fact that I've been around for so long, I think people know that I am.

I'm an honest person.

My businesses have always been public and I've always been online and everything I've ever

done is always been online.

So they know what I've done over the years.

I think you have so many things nowadays where people, you have that scam, scam culture and

that cancel culture.

People want to cancel you very, very quickly without any evidence whatsoever.

And I see it all the time.

People will say, this person's scammer, that person's scammer, I will then reply to them.

Cause I try and reply to a lot of people on DMs and I say, why they're a scammer?

Cause they are fine, but how are they a scammer?

Oh, just that they are, they are, but you're not telling me why they're a scammer or how

they're a scammer or what they've done or why they're a scammer.

And it's like, you saw it online or you heard someone say it, so you're just going to run

with that narrative.

You understand?

I'm going to tell you a question.

No, I'm going to tell you a question that I asked a guest only a week ago in this van.

And it is potentially one of the favorite questions I've ever asked.

And it was to Schmi 150, a name that doesn't definitely not go with scammer or anything

legitimate.

But the question was, Tim, you've probably visited more car collections, more wealth than

any other YouTuber that I can probably think of in your time.

How many of those cars collections were from illegitimate money versus legitimate

money? And his reaction instantly to that question was.

So clearly it happens.

Clearly it's a thing.

Of course it is.

I recently watched someone that also gets a hell of a lot of rep online, your video

with DMO.

When you speak about Lenny and Simon, you speak about them with such a friendship tone

because everything you've done together has been right and proper and legit.

Was that a video actually hard for you to make because you didn't know the result of

it?

DMO is my guy and he's been my guy for a long time from early days for when my kids

were really, really young.

Before he even had kids, he lived at a place, a Beaumont in Collindale, him and Merti.

And long before the days of him having money.

And then he went for a stage where he lost it all.

Me and him fell out, which a few people know and we stopped talking for a period

of time. He knows that he made a mistake.

He was honest enough about the mistake.

And I was like, cool, let's draw a line under it many, many years ago.

And then me and him become really good friends.

And he's gone from really having nothing to got a center, lives in Dubai.

He's got all these cars.

He's got all these businesses.

He's got all these watches.

He's like, well, how has he done that?

Has he rocked the bank?

Has he done some big fraud scam?

And is that, are you thinking that even as it's made?

Everyone thinks that's what everyone thinks.

I don't think that because I know him personally.

So I will have real conversations with him, meaning we'll sit, I'll go to his

house and I'll sit down with him and his wife Alice.

And we'll have adult conversation.

I'll be like, we'll talk to me.

What's the real deal?

And he will be honest with me.

So the more you'd hear about the trading thing and you say, you say Yanomai's

car wrapping.

You say DMO scammer, you understand.

So me, Gus, Si, my son, Andres was like, let's shoot a video.

Let's shoot a video.

And I was praying it was not going to be a scammer because if he was, it'd

been very awkward to put that video out and it would probably killed our friendship.

But based on all the conversations I've had with him, he said to me, and listen,

I'm legit.

I'm honestly, I'm legit.

It's not a scam.

So we said, let's look into it.

And we did and we made a full video on it.

And then I went to Dubai and confronted him.

Granted, I wasn't 100% honest with him because I said, we're going to shoot

some car content.

And I don't want to say I put him in a corner, but it was the only way I could

get the real DMO to come out.

And DMO is very good.

Like he's, he's firing.

He switched on.

And if you're not lying, you will come out all guns blazing.

And I pulled him up on the FCA thing.

I'm like, mate, you're on the FCA register.

You're saying I made 80 grand today.

Well, how is that possible?

And it's true.

He did make 80 grand, but he's trading with a 1.7 million pound account.

So he will make 80 grand, but a normal person trading might have

made 80 pounds or 100 pounds.

So is he a scammer?

No.

Does he make you believe that you could make loads more money?

Yes.

But you've got to trade with, it's all relative.

You understand?

I've now been involved in it in six months.

And this is not, I'm not trying to promote trading, but it's the real deal.

Okay.

But you can make money, you can lose money.

Are you going to become a millionaire overnight?

No, you're not.

You understand?

So you have to be realistic.

To me, you've still got to graft and do work.

Forget that's a side business that you can make a little bit of change there.

But people want to get rich quick.

And that's the issue.

No one wants to work.

But is that the problem?

Do they see the total?

I'm going to call it artwork, because that's what we see through our phone.

They see the total picture.

You have DMO and they think, I do that equals that.

Yeah.

Is that the biggest problem?

Yeah.

And is that the mismatch?

They can't believe that it's possible that you've gone from no money to having

millions of pounds in a million pound house and you live in Dubai and you have

this incredible lifestyle.

People can't believe it's just like, well, you must be doing something dodgy.

It's actually not.

It's just the way he goes about it looks dodgy.

And the problem is when people don't like someone, it's very easy to be like a

scammer and then you've said it, he said it, he said it, he said it.

Now you're just classed as a scammer.

See, you're lucky to have that relationship with him where you can say

something and you know, like he might put the phone down on you for two minutes,

but you know, you'll call off and give me a ring back.

I did a podcast with DMO that is actually unreleased.

It's one of the only unreleased episodes I've ever done.

There'll be some pictures here of him sat in the van with me.

But we've still got a long way to go.

Now, Toby, yeah, year and a half.

Okay, so really long time ago.

Probably when he fell out with them with Switzi.

He won't mind me mentioning that we did the podcast together, but something I

say to you, any guest that comes in is it's just the rule I have and it's good

for the audience to know is the guests don't want their episode out.

As far as I'm concerned, that's their decision.

Like they've come in, they've given me their time.

Done the hour.

If you don't enjoy it, don't go out.

Simple as that.

We just pull up in a van.

We don't need for much more.

And he phoned me a few days later and said, I don't think that you fully researched

everything that you needed to about the trade in.

I don't like this question.

I think this bit needs moving.

We need to cut this.

And I said, the one rule I have is that I don't cut.

So it goes out as it goes out as is.

Right.

We either recorded, we didn't.

If you don't want it out, then go out.

And we said, well, we're going to re-record.

We're going to re-record.

We haven't re-recorded to this day because I don't have a van in Dubai that's capable

of dealing with 55 degrees yet.

And it might, it may well happen.

And Kudos for giving him his time and coming on.

But I know from that experience is what I'm saying.

There is a very challenging individual to have a debate with.

Would you agree?

Yeah.

He listen, he's, he's got ADHD.

He's, he's, he's on the spectrum, but he's, he's no fool.

That's, that's what I'll say.

He's very, very sharp and everyone wants to work with him.

But everyone nowadays, they've gone past the scam things.

They're like, actually, he's been around a long time now.

He's not scamming people.

And you've got big YouTubers like your Matt Armstrong, your Whistling

diesels, big people like the Jim Shark owners.

Like you're not going to be around a scam or someone that's dodgy if they're

the real deal and you're a proper person.

So it's fully gone full circle and he's now on, on a, on a rocket flying.

But talking about who you're going to be around and who you

aren't going to be around, this leads me on really nicely.

So I love to make comparisons between our earlier years and where we are now.

You said, oh yeah, me and DMO were mates at school.

He's like my, I know you weren't, I know you weren't, but I could picture that.

I could see you two being boys.

You and the footballers, the big personalities, actually guy, I could

picture that, but someone that the internet has seen you become extremely

close with in Atlanta is Mr. Matt Watson.

Now, a guy that when he came on recently, his telly story describes

himself as an introverted accountant like mathematical figure.

Now I'd picture that as the kid you bullied at school.

Would you agree?

Yes.

Oh, Matt.

I love Matt.

Matt's my guy.

Me and Matt have been doing car work stuff for.

Copy eight, nine years.

Got to be that long, maybe longer.

Early days.

Get into that.

Tell us the story.

So they were, car work was early days doing drag races.

And I think a friend of mine, Vijay, said, Jan, they want to see if you

can take a car down there.

And so I was like, yeah, I'll go down there and film with him.

And I think I took my, at the time I had a chrome turquoise, urus and my

ventador.

So we raced them.

And I remember we raced my ventador against a Tesla.

So this was early days of Tesla as well.

And I remember going on car while filming with Matt.

And I was like, yeah, the guy's cool.

Not my, not my people, but he's cool.

And we've done the video and we've done quite a few videos then and then

a few weeks later and a few weeks later.

So there must have been four or five videos.

And people on car didn't like me.

They were like, no, we don't like this guy.

He's too flash and he's all fake and like the way he's holding this

steering wheel when he really wants to win.

And okay.

And then I said to Matt, Matt's like, don't worry.

Just, you just get, I love film where you just keep coming.

Anyway, so after about 10 or 15 videos, people like, we love Jan.

Don't do any car while without Jan.

I was thinking, what turns?

And do you know what it was?

People believed that is actually me.

So where I'm holding the steering wheel, I'm going to pull it off the car.

Or I really want to come on.

Listen, they were like, actually, no, no, that's him.

He's not putting it on.

And if you watch all my videos, the hundreds of videos I've done on car

while I'm the same in from the first video to the last video, I want to win.

I don't like to lose.

I'm like a sport brat.

Me and Matt will have bans and we go up against each other.

He chooses the faster car.

Me and him will, will cast each other and it's real.

It's a real relationship and our, our connection, our bond.

We are two different people from two different walks of life.

But when we come together, it's like a, it just works.

It really does work.

He actually, he messaged me today.

How fun is that?

Was that a big thing when you were deciding to move away that you'd have

to give up some of those experiences?

I won't give it up.

Don't worry.

So I'll listen.

Matt, Matt said to me today, he goes, Jen, have you left yet?

And I don't know.

I'm still, he goes, like, we need to film some content before you leave.

I was like, no problem.

I will fly back in for car.

Well, so we put a video up, um, ages ago when the original talk of me

leaving the country and Matt's like, if Yanni leaves, he can never come on car.

Why again, the problem is people only, um, listen to that snippet.

They didn't actually watch the video.

Whereas a minute later he was like, now, of course he can whenever he wants.

So they've just run with that little snippet.

I'll always be on car.

I'll always shoot with Matt and Matt, Matt is my guy.

He's me and him.

We've got a really good relationship.

Is that one of your favorite things about what you do?

The ability to go and have those top gear days?

I love Carl.

Well, I really, I really have fun.

Me, Matt, um, racing driver, Sam, Tommy, you understand, Mark, Mark,

McCann, the great guys when we're on there together.

Do you know, do you know what Carl is?

Carl is a massive window of people that see you from around the world.

So I remember going to Vegas and I've got my own following.

I remember going to Vendetta, you're Yanni, you're the Carl.

I'll go and I'm like, how do you know?

And I'm walking around Vegas and in the UK on the rap guy.

Yeah.

In the UK, everyone knows me.

So people will know me for different reasons in the UK.

They know me one, because I wrapped KSI's car.

Two, because I've got Yannemise and I've got a rap business.

Three, because of the celebrities.

Four, because of the TV show.

And now because of Carl.

Well, so I've got five different ways people know me.

If you know me from TV, you're usually an older person.

If you know me from KSI, you were really young and obviously you've grown up now.

If you know me from the rap game, you've because obviously the celebrities

that have come here.

So I've got different ways how people know me.

But I was always embarrassed because famous.

What is famous?

And I remember putting a TikTok out recently about the people went on

Slep Jungle and I got slated for it.

And I wasn't trying to say anything.

I was just like, what equates to being famous now?

So I was like, well, TV show, big social media, recognise when you go out.

That's famous.

Is that a household name?

No, because not everyone knows who you are.

But I was embarrassed when people knew me because just from YouTube.

But when I got the TV show, I felt like, OK, you know, at least I've been on TV

because I'm old school generation being on TV.

Yeah, you're famous.

Having a big social media is not being famous.

It's just being recognised.

So is that it's a weird gray area?

Did you always want to be famous?

I didn't want to be famous.

I wanted to have money.

I wanted to be successful.

I wanted to have my own business.

Would I tell people now to have their own business?

Probably not.

I think it's very difficult to own your own business in the UK.

I think everything works against you.

Now, if you can go and work somewhere on 100 grand a year or 150 grand a year,

believe me, that's probably better off.

At least you've got peace of mind every month.

You know exactly what you earn unless you've got a commission basis, business

or job, should I say?

I can earn five grand today.

I can earn 10 grand next week.

I can earn 500 pound the following week.

And the tax man wants to take it all.

And I always say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we work for them.

And Friday, we work for ourselves.

And I think it's an absolute joke in the UK.

I think I think Rachel Reeves is an idiot.

Kirstar Ma, terrible.

And Sadiq Khan, how does he keep getting in?

It's insane.

What he's done to the UK, what he's done to the roads, 20 mile an hour.

Now we've got paying for the electric cars.

You know, I'll pay whatever you want if you let me drive my cyber truck.

But no, they won't let me drive my cyber truck.

I'll pay you 10 pound a mile if you can let me drive my cyber truck in the UK.

It is insane and it's getting worse.

How quickly did you think you were going to get that taken off of you in reality?

I love it so much, honestly.

And I got stopped by the police before all the big social media hype around it.

And they let me go and then you had an MP, someone from the in the parliament,

say he should have never been let go.

They should have taken the car of fear and then the police are after him.

And then I had the police commissioner ring me saying, we're not after you,

Yanni, but you can't drive the car in the UK.

You're not theoretically allowed to.

So it's a lot of it's my fault.

I made the car too famous too quickly.

And then it's obviously backfired.

And one of my powers obviously managed to get his car taken off him.

And I've still got it.

It's just come back off the movie set.

She was on in a movie with Jason Statham.

But was that the goal with owning it?

I wanted I wanted to drive it around.

I loved it. It's a car to cause carnage, to get the brand,

to get the views, to get the followers.

It's a media business, right? Correct.

If if I could go back, if I didn't do the social media and I was allowed

to drive it around, I'm happy to pull all the social media away.

The fact that I'm not allowed to drive it now, I'm glad I did all the social media.

So could you do the car?

Well, stuff, the crazy challenges getting out in the cyber truck videos.

Could you do all that now if the building where sat behind

was still running at full steam?

No, no, you've got to be here.

You've got to be here.

A lot of my stuff, you say to me, Jan, why are you here every day?

You don't need to be here.

You're here at eight o'clock in the morning with us.

You leave at six o'clock, seven o'clock at night.

I'm like, I've got to be here.

I've got to monitor what is going on.

I've got to manage customers, staff.

You've got to network, speak to people, answer the phones.

As much as I had my team, I was still so, so hands on.

But that's not necessarily a good thing.

Because if you're so hands on, you can't grow the business

because there's only one of you.

So it's been in the business and being on the business and the stands.

What do you want to do?

People talk about goalposts and you said a minute ago

that you your dream was to have money to be successful,

to be able to do what you wanted, where you wanted.

OK, pick.

When you go back to 2003, 2006, you already had the supercar part of that.

So where do you put your goalposts now?

When you're sat at night in bed thinking about what you want next

out of life, what is the target?

What is what you want?

What what are those goalposts?

You know what it is?

I like to handpick what I want to do and who I want to work with.

In the early days, you're restricted because you're trying to grow up

as you've got to work with everyone and try and smile,

even if you think I'm not quite sure.

And now, unfortunately, I can handpick who I want to work with.

If I want to do a podcast, I can do it.

If I don't want to do a podcast, I don't have to do it.

I don't need big social media exposure.

I can handpick what I want to do.

I just want to be happy.

I want to enjoy my life now.

I'm an age where I've had a great life, great, great life.

But now I'm at a stage where Nico Mark, you do the raps.

Continue on that.

There'll always be my little brothers and they will have an incredible

business now for the rest of their lives.

But for me, I want to handpick.

I want to do stuff in Cyprus.

I want to go to Dubai.

I want to go to Australia.

Australia.

There's so many Cypriots, so many Greeks out there.

I've got an incredible fan base out there.

I need to go.

I need to go to Australia.

I want to travel the world as much as I'm leaving the UK.

I've still got Gus, still got Cy, still got Georgina,

still got Elliot.

I've still kept my team.

We just won't be based here.

So they're all coming.

No, they're not coming to Cyprus, but they'll all be based from home.

But I've kept them all.

They're still getting paid.

They're still my team.

So like Gus has travelled the world with me.

Gus is like, Top Boys, Cy's been around.

We've got the Yanomah's Grand Tour that I do every year.

That's happening next year.

We finish an IB for.

We start in Lisbon.

Which we're going to get on to, by the way.

I don't worry.

But I'm just saying that there's loads.

I've got a new business with Jeremy Lynch.

You know Jeremy Lynch Football Freestyler, HP1.

So I'm still doing loads of things, but everything is now handpicked

rather than let me just try and do everything.

Is that also because you love to be in control?

I love business.

I love being an entrepreneur.

I love.

But are you a control freak?

Yes and no, because we'll use Bav as an example.

Bav came into Yanomah's very, very late on and he's involved

in the Yanomah's live events and the Yanomah's Grand Tour.

The other stuff is me.

He's not involved in that.

Those two things he's involved in.

Bav deals with the data that he controls that.

I'm like the guy that will turn up on the day.

I will answer questions or Bav will ask me certain things that we need

to be involved in, but he will manage that.

He will do that.

I don't need to dictate what goes on.

When we had Nero, me and Simon, Simon would do that.

And I would just add what I needed to add as my role.

When you've got two people, if you're in business together,

if you both do the same job, it doesn't work.

Me and Bav are different.

Me and Simon are different.

Me and Matt Watson are different.

So everyone's got to bring what they need to bring to the table.

I will bring the table, the fork and the knives.

And then they will bring the food or the chairs or the table.

You understand?

So I love what I do.

I love business.

I love making money.

I love meeting people.

I love new ventures.

As a creator, I love asking this question.

I've had both the likes of Matt Armstrong to Mike Brewer in the van.

And the reason that I mentioned Mike is because all Mike knows

from a content perspective is TV.

Who knows how to do TV knows how to do TV really well.

Matt knows how to do YouTube and knows how to do YouTube really well.

I'm that opposite someone that's done both YouTube and TV.

And the reason that I was asking about the being in control question

is I have had a window to understand what TV is like.

Did you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?

So when I got the TV show, I actually thought my social media

is going to go through the roof.

Do you know what happens?

Social media doesn't cross over to TV and TV doesn't cross over to social media.

People that watch YouTube don't watch TV.

And people that watch TV don't watch YouTube.

And do you know when I experienced that many, many years ago, I went to Top Gear.

I went to the first Top Gear when it was.

Oh, my God, when it changed in the studio.

But when it changed over, it was the first episode with the three new presenters.

I can't think who it was.

The first was it was was Joey, the first new presenter, Matt LeBlanc.

OK, yeah. LeBlanc, Chris Savins and Rory Raid.

Oh, correct. There you go.

So there you go.

And I remember going there and I'm very recognized whenever I go anywhere.

Hardly anyone recognized me when I was in that Top Gear studio.

And I was like, this is strange.

I'm filled with a place full of car people, but no one knew who I was.

And it wasn't an ego thing.

I was just like, strange.

And I remember asking a couple of people, like, do you watch YouTube?

I'm not really, I might watch Chris Harris, but no, not only watch TV.

And that was my big eye opener to realize, you know what?

They don't cross over.

You've got an audience here and you've got an audience there.

And that is why when the TV show came out, I had an old audience

that would watch me and they tell me watch it with the family,

whereas social media and YouTube is a young audience.

So it is trying to you have to evolve and you have to understand

what the different things are.

Unfortunately, I've done both.

I love TV.

It was great.

I'm old school generation to be on TV.

Yes.

So when we when we when we got the TV show, they said, oh, we might need to

script some stuff.

I was like, don't script it because you know, they want drama.

They want things to go wrong.

I said, trust me.

Long enough, things will go wrong.

Like we wrapped a car the wrong orange.

Like what the hell?

Someone crashed their car.

We had another.

I had two of my staff have a fight.

I said, trust me, things go wrong.

So the only thing that was scripted on the TV show was timings.

So when the cars would turn up, obviously, we were ready to meet the people

and when the cars had to leave.

But besides from that, everything was real and legit.

I remember watching it on my favorite channel.

It's quite funny.

You talk about the fact that a lot of people that watch YouTube don't watch TV,

but there was a crossover for me and so many people are going to be going.

Yes, yes, yes.

If they're listening to this in the car, no, you're the same as me.

There was only one channel I'd watch on TV and that was Dave.

Like anything good on TV is on Dave.

It's as simple as that.

Everything from scrappy challenge all the way through to the top gear replays

all the way through to your show.

Everything good was on Dave.

And that was clearly a goal post.

Yeah, right at the time, having a TV show, being on the teller.

What about Netflix?

What about Amazon?

What about setting the goal post even higher, doing a bigger challenge?

You've done a lot of I'm going to use Mr.

Beast style challenges and got people involved in rap challenges and all sorts.

Where's that goal post for content now?

That's a really good question.

And the answer is I don't know.

I don't know if I've got it in me to keep pushing that hard.

I really wanted the TV show and I really worked hard to get that TV show

when they approached us.

And it was the most incredible experience to have three series.

We had over 40 episodes and it was called Yanny Supercar Custom.

It was called my own name.

When they said I said, what's the name?

Maybe they said, we can call it Yanny Supercar Custom.

I was like, really, you're going to put Yanny in the tub?

They're like, yeah, because you've got big social media.

So we believe it will cross over and then shooting it with all the staff

and all my staff getting famous and getting recognized.

It was amazing.

It's the best feeling in the world.

I love YouTube and I love social media.

But TV is TV and TV will always be TV, no matter what you do.

And Dave was a great channel and then BBC Three bought it.

And you got to remember, my show was sold all over the world.

So I had people messaging me from South Africa, from America, from Chile,

from Spain saying, I just watched your show and I'm like, what do you mean?

Do you know what I do? The maddest thing for me?

I'm excited now.

I went on a British Airways flight and it was on there.

It was on there.

You know, you scroll through and it's like,

babe, Yanny Supercar Custom has like four episodes.

I was like, how am I on the plane?

And that was just like a mad surreal moment.

I thought, wow.

And I remember sitting, sitting in a flight.

And obviously I used to fly a lot.

I remember looking to the left, like two seats down, I could see.

And he was watching Yanny Supercar Customise.

And I thought, he doesn't realise that I'm like two seats away from him.

And it just felt really nice.

It's just, it was great.

That feeling is a drug.

Yeah, that feeling is a drug.

It's like opening your phone, which I'm guarantee you do every day

and look at what a 10 your videos are.

No, I like that.

No, no, no.

Matt Watson is obsessed with it.

He is. I'm not anymore.

I'm not anymore with it.

No, I'm not.

When I put the video up, I'll be obsessed with it for the first two days.

And then that's it.

I'm not cool.

And I'll reply to loads of comments because I love.

I love replying to people's comments, good or bad.

But yeah, after two days, I'm like, yeah, OK, stop now.

But that feeling, that on the plane feeling,

there's not much that can probably kind of beat that when you're bringing

everybody along and making all of these guys recognized.

You can see they're happy.

They're smiling.

Things are moving.

Be very real.

You talk about how difficult businesses, how you've had to make difficult challenges.

You've had things that have succeeded.

You've had things that have succeeded for a period of time.

And then they've kind of gone away because like the markets changed

or the atmosphere has changed.

What has been your biggest ever challenge to overcome?

The one that was the hardest that would make you go.

Crave that British Airways flight feeling.

When you say I won't ask me that again,

because I'm trying to understand the question, you know,

the feeling you felt on the British Airways flight.

Yeah, how good that felt.

Yeah, bringing all them people with you.

It feels like a drug, right?

Yeah, when you're winning.

Have you ever felt the feeling of that slipping away

or the time where you've had it the hardest and the most fearful?

Yeah, I think when you put a YouTube video up and it does 100,000 views

and when you hear it does 100,000 views and you're not happy,

that's more than Wembley Stadium.

So you've got to put things into context and try and make it make sense.

Because if you're used to doing a million views and it does 100,000 views,

you're like, oh, well, it's a disaster.

It's a flop.

It's actually not.

I've changed over the years.

I'm not I don't crave it as much.

I do look at the views on TikTok or on Instagram.

And it's not it's not what it used to be to me.

I don't I don't I don't need the YouTube money.

You understand, you know, people do it because they put content up

because they need to make money.

I put content up because I enjoy it.

If people like it, fantastic.

If they don't, it's not the end of the world for me.

So.

Listen, getting a million subscribers on YouTube

and doing the million subscriber rap on my Lambo

and putting all the little faces of the million people on my car.

That was insane.

Having the TV show was insane.

Hitting the first 100,000 on my personal Yanni channel on YouTube.

Amazing.

I don't have the same drug like I used to.

It's about being happy.

It's about having less stress and being around really good people.

I handpicked now who's around me.

If someone brings really good energy or they're nice people,

I want them around me all the time.

If they're always negative, there's always a problem.

I don't really want to be around those people,

unless you're my friends,

where obviously I'm going to support you and help you.

But I want to be happy.

I want to enjoy what I do like today.

As I said, I'm on this podcast because I know who you are.

I like you and it's cool to shoot something different.

It's nice.

Whereas I get asked to do podcasts.

I promise you every day of the week and I turn them down.

I turn them down.

One, because I don't have the time and two,

I don't really think that person is going to.

We're not going to have a nice conversation.

It just doesn't feel right.

The crazy moments I have now in this van,

which is obviously very weird,

asking people to get in the back of the van.

So it helps if they've seen what you're doing.

But it's the times that I was stood outside of Topaz Detail

and as a 15-year-old at Supercar Driver Me

that the guests that are now sat in the van pulled up to.

And I think it just helps give context

when you reflect on someone's whole journey.

You see how they change.

You mentioned the Yanomai's Grand Tour a minute ago.

See, for me, that was you going on Gumball when I was younger.

Yeah, correct.

How different is the Yanee that would have gone on Gumball

to the Yanee that went on the Yanomai's Grand Tour?

The Yanee that goes on the Yanomai's Grand Tour is the owner.

So you don't enjoy it as much

because you're worried about the people

that are going on there paying big money.

People are paying 20, 25 grand, 30,000 pounds

to be on that tour.

You need to make sure they're enjoying it.

They're happy.

It's everything going to the pan of the staff doing the thing.

You've got to hope no one has a car accident.

So like when we done in 2019, we had 50 cent.

People are like, oh, you must have paid him.

No, he was in Barcelona shooting power.

And we managed to get him.

He was like, Yan, I'll roll with you.

And because I knew him from before

for a friend of mine called Tony Touch,

that's the mad...

I was driving around with 50 cent

and we're driving through Barcelona.

People are like, 50 Yanee, this and I'm just like,

is this really happening?

I wish I had more content of it.

Yes, my guys filmed it, but I wish I had so much more.

And then obviously COVID kicked in and then we'd done it again.

And then we'd done the tour last year where we had the track.

And God, no one crashed on the track.

I came off the track because it's me

and I've got to be extra extra.

Like I'm telling everyone, drive safely.

We don't want any accidents this or any other.

And then me and Daniel are going cutting grass with the Ferrari.

The tour is amazing.

It's an amazing networking event.

Yes, the roads are amazing.

The hotels are incredible.

The cities are amazing.

But the people you meet, everyone's handpicked to go on that tour.

The networking is insane.

And people make millions of pounds

and they do incredible business with people on the tour.

And that is why we do it.

It's great.

So that goes on again next year.

Yeah, next year, Lisbon to Ibiza.

Are you is your goal, like with everything,

to make it as big and as crazy and as nuts as it can possibly be?

Is your goal to be the biggest and best road trip company in the world?

No, no.

Gumball, listen, it's like someone trying to become bigger

than Yanomai's in the rap game.

Yanomai's will always be known as the biggest.

Gumball will always be known as the biggest in that arena.

I just want to be who we are and handpick who we have.

So if we have 30 cars or 40 cars or 50 cars at the most,

we wouldn't want any more than 50 cars.

We pick the right people.

We pick couples.

We pick brothers.

We pick sisters.

We pick family.

So it becomes a real family unit.

Another city.

The best thing is when someone really said,

yeah, and you know what?

You know, I'm still doing business with someone

that I met in the 2019 tournament.

No, we're like, yeah, yeah, and we've made so much money to go.

I'm like, amazing.

That is why we put the tour together and the people are the best.

The reason I ask about the Gumball.

Yanni versus Yanni these days.

We know that you're explosive.

You like the wraps sometimes.

That is your personality is a KSI Chrome rapper.

It certainly was when I was growing up watching back in the day.

But have you learned to also calm down a bit with time

in the sense of back in the day,

you might have picked a small battle with a YouTube.

There's literally nothing now.

Yeah, literally nothing squashed.

But now does your brain work through experience in going?

Do you sometimes hit the brakes a bit more?

Is what I'm saying, even if some it's on like, oh, there's a lot of it.

Do you get that a lot more now?

I used to battle with everyone.

If someone come for me online, I'm coming back for you.

I don't care anymore.

I'm past it, unless it's real personal.

I think, yeah, you've gone a little bit too far.

And even then I'm a bit like,

do I really want to give you the exposure or give you the cloud?

I'm like, you know, I just rather stay quiet.

Does that really matter to you?

So I've heard you say that a few a few times.

So I don't really want to give you the exposure and give you the cloud.

Is that because you feel that you've worked so hard to build what you have

that others have to be deserving of it?

People come for me because they want the exposure or the cloud.

It's funny when people come at me and they say,

oh, you're only doing that for cloud.

I'm like, I've got a big social media.

I've already got the cloud.

So what am I trying to do?

If I'm saying something, it's facts.

There's a recently to do with a car business.

I said something and then everyone's like, are you doing it for cloud?

No, a lot of my friends got ripped off

and I wanted to save loads more of my friends.

So where the people online, the young people or the people

that don't understand business are saying to me, oh, Yanny,

you're trying to do it for cloud.

I've got big, big car people, multi-millionaires saying, Yanny,

thank you so much.

You saved me 100,000.

You saved my Ferrari.

You saved my Lambo.

That to me is the best feeling in the world.

I don't care what the people online are saying.

They don't understand the bigger picture behind it.

And there's loads of people that have fallen out with over the years.

I promise you, I am 100% straight.

Everything I say is facts and the truth.

No one can say, I owe them any money.

I've never not no one.

I've never scammed no one.

I've been around 20 years.

The mask could eventually fall off.

If I'm a fake or I'm not the real guy,

you can't keep that mask on for 20 years.

Eventually, something would have given.

No one has anything on me in life.

No one has anything on me unless it's a personal attack.

Oh, my personality.

Oh, he's so cocky, so arrogant.

He's so...

Is it arrogance if it's the truth?

If someone's been successful in their life

and they've managed to achieve without scamming anyone

or doing anything crazy, it's the truth, isn't it?

If we were to go back 20 years

and ask you where you'd have been in 20 years,

it would have been impossible to paint the picture

of where you are now.

Other than picking out words saying,

I'm determined and I believe I'm going to be successful,

I'm going to be a good person, I'm going to be X, Y and Z.

You can still achieve that because a word doesn't disappear.

You know, a personality trait doesn't disappear.

But the stuff, technology, the world,

the directions we choose, that bit changes.

So I'm going to ask you to say where you think

and what you think your life may look like in 20 years

based on the decisions you're making now.

Because there is a real chance

that we could sit down and talk about it one day

and it will be insane to think about

how much the world has moved.

So 20 years from today, where I'll be then?

Because if you think back,

you wouldn't have thought that Yanomai's

would be a media business versus a rap business

when you started it.

So what do you think 20 years looks like?

Just chilling and cypress, just relaxing, enjoying my life.

I'll always work.

I'll always work because I love work.

I love, as I said, I love business.

I love networking with people.

But again, it'll be what my life is now,

but just more hand-picked again.

Everything is hand-picked.

Everything I do now, I choose to do it.

I'm not forced to do it.

Nothing's dictated by money or by,

I have to do this.

I do everything because I want to do it.

So if I do it, if I'm around someone,

it's not because there's an angle.

It's because you know what?

I actually want to be around that person.

Because I had Tom Hartley in the back of this van.

You've done a lot of videos at the earlier stage.

Tom, senior or junior?

I've had senior.

Okay.

So I've had Tom Hartley recently in the back of the van

and he described a story when he was testing,

stopping working.

I think it was for like a week or a weekend or something.

He went away and it was a full test

that could he stop working.

And he ended up coming out in shingles and had photos

because his body could not deal with him not being on it.

Do you think that's you?

Yeah, I have to do something.

I have to do something all the time.

Because if I don't, I get bored very, very easily.

And yeah, I can't go on holiday for like two or three weeks.

You know, people go on holiday for two, three weeks.

I'm like, how can you do that?

Me, I'm maximum five, seven days.

And I'm a bit like, I need to get back and do something.

Obviously, my phone's always with me.

So I can work from anywhere around the world.

I love to do stuff.

I just get bored really.

Whether it be a car show, whether it be going to an event

or a networking opportunity or meeting up with someone

and coming up with a new business idea,

I've got to be doing something all the time.

And I'm on my phone 24 seven.

I know it's not the best thing to do,

but I look at my DMs, I see opportunities,

I speak to people, I help people.

People send me DMs and can you help me?

Can you advise me on this, whether it be a business

or whether it be where they should put some money

or what they should do?

I try and help people as much as possible.

And that is the thing you don't see.

That is behind the scenes that I don't tell anyone.

I just do it because I enjoy it.

The other day I came out of, I think you might be saying,

but I'll have to check afterwards,

a certain YouTuber's museum space.

And he said, oh, that road out there, that ditch,

I've got a story about that ditch and it involves Yanny

and his son.

Now, it brings me onto parentings.

I wanted to talk about you and your kids on the podcast

because like everybody that's watched the videos,

they'd have seen them when they were really young,

all the way up to now, oh my God,

what the hell, Yanny's kids are driving.

Like that's insane.

As a parent, have you ever been influenced

by what people say online?

Because there's so much noise or how you should do things.

Has that been tough to parent kids

with a social media spotlight on it?

So everyone knows my kids were playing rock, paper, scissors

for sitting in the front seat.

So that's how everyone remembers Andreas and Nicholas.

And now when they see them now,

Nicholas is like six foot, six foot one,

Andreas is six foot, they're like nearly taller than me.

They're like giants.

And people are like, where are those two little kids?

Having my two boys, because obviously my daughter's

only four and a half now,

but so my two boys were around the social media,

like they had their own YouTube channel,

50,000 subscribers on YouTube.

They got videos that done six million, seven millions.

It was insane.

I was always careful with how I brought them up.

I was brought up in a family where we weren't poor,

but we weren't rich.

And my son's first car was a fiesta.

I got slated for getting him a fiesta as a first car.

You're rich and you didn't get him a Lambo.

Why would I get my son a Lambo?

You know, Shaq says like, I'm rich, my kids are not rich.

They've got to work hard.

They've got to achieve something in life.

Both my kids are not very good at school.

They weren't good at school.

I wasn't good at school.

So I can't beat them down for not being good at school.

I can beat them down with regards to work ethic

and getting up in the morning and doing something.

Cause if my kids are sleeping until 11, 12 o'clock,

I'm like, get out of bed.

What are you doing?

Get up, go to the gym or go and be productive.

Go and film something.

Go and do something.

So I'm very disciplined with my kids.

And even from a young age, I used to say to them,

what was the thing like?

I don't even have my door as well.

Open your mouth.

And they're like, what's in your mouth?

Manners.

What are manners?

Please and thank you.

To me, basic manners.

People don't have that.

Respect your elders.

That generation's gone.

I will still respect my elders.

My kids have to understand.

When you shake someone's hand, shake their hand

and look at them in the eye.

You understand?

From the young one, we used to go to restaurants,

order the food.

So what are they like?

Andress you order at four years old or five years old.

You know, when people come up to me now, parents.

And this happens a lot.

Parents will come in like, my son's a massive fan.

He loves you.

Wait, does your son talk?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll be shy.

You talk to me.

Hi, Yanny.

Hi.

What can I do for you?

Do you want a picture?

Yeah, ask me.

Can I have a picture, please, Yanny?

No problem.

And I say to the parents, don't overpower the kids.

Let the kids talk to me, because I'm famous.

If they can talk to me, they can talk to anyone.

You understand?

And I always say that to the parents.

Let the kids talk whether it be the mom or the dad.

But they were so overpowering them.

Yeah, but they're shy.

Just let them talk.

Let them talk to me.

Let them enjoy the moment with me,

because they're the fan.

You understand my point?

And I do that a lot with younger kids.

And something that really, really touches me

and affects me is that a lot of kids are not well,

whether they have autism or they have something wrong

with them.

For some reason, they watch my videos

and they watch them back to back to back.

And their parents will tell me.

They're like, my son only smiles when he watches you,

but he's not well.

He has issues.

And I'm like, I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's my voice or if it's a specific video

or the sound or the tone of my voice.

And it makes me feel amazing.

And they always have, you know, around their neck

and they wear that.

What's that other thing?

When they have autism, is it green and yellow?

Do you know what I'm talking about?

The badge.

I don't, to be fair.

If you're something, I'm sure it's,

I don't know if it's autism or something,

but they'll have a badge around them.

And loads of kids that come to my concerts have that badge.

And I always talk to them about it.

And I'm like, oh, can I wear the badge?

And the parents are usually like,

oh, God, the kids are not gonna let them do nothing.

They always let me take the badge.

They always let me put it around my neck

and we have a real conversation about it.

That's an energy.

You can't buy that.

You know, like kids will go to someone,

they feel that's got good energy or animal will.

And these young kids, we've just got a great connection.

And that's the best feeling in the world.

Being an ambassador of rays of sunshine,

granting wishes to terminally ill children.

You can't buy that feeling.

It doesn't matter how much money you've got

or it's the best feeling in the world.

But I've granted wishes to kids that have passed away

quite a few now.

And it's very that we wrapped a coffin at Yanomai's.

Do you know how tough that was?

That was, we wrapped a coffin, a little coffin,

someone that passed away and the parents asked us

and I was gonna say no,

but because I knew the kid, I was like, okay, we'll do it.

Can't, some same people have this perception,

but they don't know things that really go on

behind the scenes.

But to be able to get the opportunity

to grant those things, to do those things,

to have those moments where you feel a sense of purpose,

determination, proudness.

What is the one personality characteristic

that not you've installed in your kids,

but was installed in you that you think without that

would pull the Jenga Tower down from an early age?

Respect, you've got to respect people.

You have to respect people in this world.

People have no respect for anyone nowadays.

The world has changed.

My mum taught me growing up said to me,

never ruin your name,

because you can't get your name back.

So my name, Janne, will always be a person

that people trust, they respect.

I've never done anything wrong to anyone.

Major, shall we say.

People will ring me and ask for advice.

Or if I say, listen, go and buy this product

because it is X, Y, and Z.

They will trust me with it

because they know that I'm an honest person.

Can't get your name back.

The minute your name is tarnished,

you're finished in this world.

And my name, fortunately enough, is clean

and it always has been.

And that's what my mum taught me.

Well, just like the beginning of most videos,

guys, it's Janne from Yanomize.

It's now the end of this video.

So I appreciate you after two and a half years of badgering,

finally giving me your respect

and coming in the van to have this conversation.

I hope that we got into a few bits

that people would love to

within the hour and 20 minutes that we've been chatting.

And I hope that we can sit back down in years to come

and reflect on what life looks like then.

So Janne from Yanomize, thank you so much

for coming on Road to Set.

Thank you for your time, man.

I appreciate you, man.

It's been great.

Thank you, guys.

Yianni Breaks Silence: The TRUTH About Yiannimize Closing, Trading, Moving Abroad & Being Robbed

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