Why A Community Is The Secret Weapon In Every Entrepreneur’s Life, with David Braithwaite

Shannon Waller: Hi, Shannon Waller here, and welcome to Inside Strategic Coach with very special guest, David Braithwaite. David, I am so excited to be talking to you today. You are a phenomenal coach in the UK for our workshops, and I actually got to know you before you were a coach, which was really fun at a bunch of events, some of which were in the UK where I got to go, so that was super fun. But I'm excited to kind of share your perspective on your entrepreneurial journey, how you got here, why you're a Strategic Coach Associate Coach, I don't think I've ever actually asked you that question before, and kind of your take on entrepreneurship. So thanks very much for joining me today.
 
David Braithwaite: It's a pleasure. Any excuse where I can talk about myself, I'm quite happy to do that. But also share the love of Strategic Coach as well, because it is an amazing community. And I read this the other day, the definition of community is a group of people who agree to grow together. And that, to me, is what we are. So the more conversations that we can all have, the better.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh my gosh, that is the best definition I've ever heard. And that perfectly describes Coach. Thank you. There we go. That was a big gift to my day. I love that story. All right. So because you and I can both back [inaudible] and all things Coach, but let's start with you. You've been an entrepreneur for a very long time. So how did you become an entrepreneur? How did it start? Was it something that propelled you? Was it there was no other choice? How did that land? How did that work?
 
David Braithwaite: I think it was a combination of all of those things, really, and it's interesting. I was just having a conversation earlier on today with a client of ours, because their son's just finishing university and all this sort of stuff, and we got talking about education, and I was rubbish at it. I hated school. I couldn't see the point of school because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And when you're a young boy, young girl, often when you're that small, when I grow, I want to be, you know, it's the whole thing, isn't it? And I think originally we all want to be superheroes, you know, I want to be Superman or a pilot or a racing driver. And the older and older that we get, the more you get told, no, you can't, you can't, you can't. And it almost gets not beaten out of you, but you start seeing the world for what it is, which is you've got to fight, you know?
 
So, I was never that intelligent at school enough to see the point of why I was sitting these exams, because I didn't know what I wanted to do. So, I did the exams, but at the same time, I was more interested in earning money for myself. So, at one point, I had, I think it was four different jobs while I was at school. So I had a paper round, my grandfather used to buy second-hand cars and I used to help him do them up and sell them and split the profits. I sold posters from a sports shop to people at my school and I worked in a local electrical retailers and in a kitchen. All right, all different times but a lot of them were at the same time. I love the thought of actually going out there and trading my time and expertise for money. And that was where it was. And my grandfather was described, I suppose, here in the UK, we call it a wheeler dealer. You know, he could turn his hand to anything and make it into gold. And a little bit of that, I think, is rubbed off on me. So I was at school, got a couple of jobs, and went down the employed route, and that was fine.
 
Until one day I was working in a bank, and I was sitting there in this bank, and there was another bank who was a competitor of ours, dead opposite where I was, and we're talking about sort of 10, 12 feet away from my front window, was their front window. So, looking at me out of the window was all their posters for the interest rates that they had for their savings accounts, or their mortgage borrowing rates, or their loan rates, all these different things. Now, there were times, Shannon, when I was there looking at them going, yeah, we're better than you, but there were lots of times when I looked at their rates and thought, what I really want to do is tell the customer in front of me, you know what? Cross the road and you can get a better deal over there. But of course, you can't do that because you're representing the institute that you work for. So I thought, how can I do this where I can actually just tell people what I want to do? And if I was them, what would I do?
 
So that was where it all started. So it was a leap of faith. I set up in 1994 in October and became a self-employed financial advisor and zero clients. I didn't want to approach friends and family because that's traditionally what everybody does because I thought eventually, you're going to run out of friends, and you're going to run out of family, right? So, the real work's got to start. And they're only doing something with you because they're trying to, quote, help you. But actually, it wasn't help. So, I had just used the friends and family and said, look, pass my name on. And that was where it all started.
 
I've been doing that ever since. and grown the business to where we are at now, but also got a couple of other side businesses as well that are related, and some property which I rent out as well. So it turns into all sorts of things, but it all starts with that initial leap of faith of going, I'm going to do this and you know what, there's a gut feel that you just think sometimes when you're going to do something it just feels right and almost all the negative that's there you think I can deal with all that because I'm so positive about what I'm doing and I know why I'm doing it and that's a big thing isn't that? What's your why, you know, why are you doing it? And for me, the motivation was really basic but just tell the truth, you know, that was what it was so that was where I started.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh my gosh, I love that story. A couple of things I want to pull out. Dan and I actually just recorded an episode, it will be coming out shortly. And the thing is, what if entrepreneurship is simply the best expression of your Unique Ability? What if that's your Unique Ability in the world? And that is exactly what I was thinking of when you were talking. It's like, yeah, the other things that you tried, including school, just didn't fit. And then you leaned into, you trusted your instincts, your gut. Fortunately, you had the model of your grandfather to kind of lean into that. Now, here's the interesting thing. You said you were rubbish at school, David.
 
David Braithwaite: Oh, I was beyond rubbish. There's rubbish and there's below rubbish. I was lower than that. So just to give you some context here, Shannon.
 
Shannon Waller: Do you know how much fun it is for a Canadian to say rubbish?
 
David Braithwaite: We'll see if we can throw a few more words in.
 
Shannon Waller: I think I want to adopt it as a UK expression. But to become a financial advisor, there's some more hoops to jump through. And if I recall, you weren't exactly rubbish at those. Can you talk about that?
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah, I mean, we have to sit exams and qualifications and stuff to do what it is that we do. But it wasn't so much, yes, it's about turning the trip, but it wasn't so much that I thought I want to be a financial planner. It was I want to tell people the truth and then get paid for it. And oh, by the way, I'm a financial planner. And I think now that what I enjoy is the thrill of growing something. It just happens to be in financial planning. So I'm an entrepreneur, really, but I just happen to have an expertise in financial planning. I've also got other couple of businesses which are linked, and I get just as much joy out of seeing them do something great with the people. And it is all about the people. I love the fact that we are very privileged that I get to sit down with clients and talk to them. They tell me all of their secrets and everything about their dreams and hopes and ambitions, good news, bad news. You're there through all of them. That's a really privileged place to actually be, from my point of view. And yes, there's products, but no one cares about the products. They just care how much you care, really. And if you can get that relationship with people, you can engage with them. And that's what I enjoy, is the relationship. The products are secondary stuff, really, to me.
 
Shannon Waller: And I appreciate that you say, because this is a distinction we make in Coach, is that you're an entrepreneur with a specialty in, and then fill in the blank. And it's interesting because your experience at school, you are not alone. I mean, it has nothing to do with intelligence and it has everything to do with interest. Like if it's not relevant, why are we doing it? I cannot tell you how many times that crossed my mind. I'm like, this is stupid. And I'm not dumb, but there's things where I didn't want to apply myself, I didn't see the point, the rest of it. And yet I think when you did see the point, because it was a means to having those honest conversations and having the privilege of hearing people's hopes and dreams and fears, that you aced all of those things. So I think your experience is not uncommon. It might even be gross generalization, a bit of a sign of an entrepreneur is like, unless it's relevant, why am I doing this? And that much higher tolerance and much more questioning about the status quo than most people have.
 
David Braithwaite: Definitely. And I think, certainly from my point of view, is that a lot of people, they leave school, and especially in the academics, you know, if they say, well, I'm going to be a chemist, so I'm going to do all the qualifications in chemistry or whatever it is that you do, and that's your thing because that's what you're passionate about. So my subject, if there was a qualification in running your business, I would have done that. It's just that I had to go through all the other stuff of learning French that I've never used ever in my life and all the other things that you have to do because that's what school is. But they don't teach you things at school. I think they're better now, but they don't show you at school or teach you how to run a business, what is being an entrepreneur as a career path, because you don't fit a certain box. And I think that's a shame, because there's an awful lot of people out there that could do really well at that, but maybe feel like they're pigeonholed into, that's the vocation you're going to do. And if that's what people want to do, there's nothing wrong with that. But it would be interesting if you had all those things, like all the job titles that you could have.
 
My careers thing, I did a careers where you sit in front of a, I think it was barely a computer when I did it, but it was a computer and it spat out what I could do for my career and it was bank manager, architect, or, this is the best one, funeral director. Apparently I could have done any of those three things, but the thing is that every time anyone sat that, not test, but sat that sort of aptitude thing to find out what sort of career you might want, I bet you anything you like, entrepreneur or running your own business would not be an outcome. And I think that's a problem because there's a whole load of people out there that could be incredible people, but they feel that they're fitting into something they ought to fit into instead of going out there and sort of spreading their wings and seeing if they fly.
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. You've already talked about a few key aspects of entrepreneurship. So having an instinct that you can overcome the obstacles is one of them. And we talked about relevance and your interest determines how much effort you want to put into things. So if you were designing a course, David, in terms of mindsets or how to think about being an entrepreneur, other than adding that as a potential role title, What are some of the things that you have learned in your, you know, 30 years of being an entrepreneur? What are some of the essential mindsets or skills? What do you see from that perspective?
 
David Braithwaite: Risk. A lot of people don't take enough risk in what they do. Sometimes you might fail when you do things, and it's the fear of failure, especially when you're running your own business, because people on the outside are maybe judging you. My parents, up until fairly recently, used to still say to me, oh, it's working out okay then, you having your own business, is it? It's like, well, I've been doing it 20 years and it's doing okay so far, right? But their mindset was different because they were not that risk aware, maybe. And that was fine because they did what they did and they were really successful at their roles, but because I wasn't quite in that mould that they were in. So, I think with a lot of entrepreneurs, it's about risk. It's about teaching you that actually, you know, it's going to go right a lot more than it's going to go wrong. But a lot of the great things that we do come around because at some point, it feels like we've stepped off a cliff and trying something. And you've got to be able to face that fear of potential failure and go, actually, you know what, I'm going to pick myself up and dust myself off and carry on. But around us, the world, a lot of it is telling us that we can't do it. You can't, you can't, you can't. And entrepreneurs, we can. And that's the thing. And we can make a fundamental difference out there in the world.
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. And you talked earlier about how the really important thing for you is around the people. So it's the impact. And your bank story is really illustrative. It's like, yeah, actually, you should be going over there. And it's interesting. So that being free to be able to connect with people, genuinely give them valid information, not having to tow a party line, so to speak. So, tell me more about that, because I think that sounds like some of the joy of being an entrepreneur for you, is the ability to have those real, genuine conversations that can have an impact.
 
David Braithwaite: Yes, to have those real conversations have an impact, but also to experiment as well with your business, to play with it a little bit, to say, well, actually, what if we did, I don't know, what you're thinking about a marketing idea, or what if we did a podcast, or what if we did a new brochure on this, what if we wrote a book, what if we … How do you know? Well, you can go out there and just do it, can't you? You haven't got to go through layers and layers and layers of management who will largely probably take the credit if it's a good idea and tell you it's you when it's a bad idea. You can just go out there and try it. And that's what we should all be doing a lot more of, is just going, actually, I'm going to try something where you can just test it on the market. You know, as Dan says, test it on the check writers, is what he says, isn't it? So you go out there and go, will this work? I don't know. Well, let's do it.
 
there's something quite fun about the adventure of seeing, and if you do get some business from it, it feels like all those efforts gone in, it feels like you've got, I've got something for free there. I created that, I made that happen. And you can't beat that as a buzz as an entrepreneur, where something happens as a result of an idea that you've had, that's made a difference something, and you've got an order, a new client, whatever it is that we do. That's a real buzz. I love that. I love the fact that we should all experiment a bit more and we can test things and try things and who knows where it could lead.
 
Shannon Waller: As you're talking, I'm thinking about all the things I made up, right? Team Success Podcast, 10 years doing the Inside Strategic Coach podcast with Dan, nine years writing my books. It's like, yes, there's something. Why did I start a podcast? Because I saw Paul Cullen do a nine-minute podcast during his 10-minute talk at a Joe Polish Genius Network event. And I'm like, oh, that looks a lot easier than writing a blog, which is what I've been thinking about. And then I did it. I was the first one to have a podcast. I just made it up. And it turns out it's a super fun way to have amazing conversations with people like you. And there's something else. So let me see if this resonates with you, David. I needed an outlet for my creativity. I needed an outlet for my insights because I love talking about team success and entrepreneurial teamwork. So I needed an expression of it. And writing was going to take too long because I'm a much faster talker than I am a writer.
 
David Braithwaite: We are so alike, I can't tell you.
 
Shannon Waller: Really? Oh my gosh, that's so fun. So what are some of the things you've made up? What are some of those expressions of your creativity?
 
David Braithwaite: Well, some time ago, I used to listen to a guy who was doing a phone-in on a local radio show, and it was a financial advisor who used to go on there, and it was fairly early in my career, around about the year 2000, and I used to listen to this slot every week, because I'd learn things. It was like, oh, that's a really interesting way of saying that. I could use that with a client, because I was still learning. Then one day they said on the radio, unfortunately, the financial advisor we're going to bring you today. So, I used to time my diary to make sure I was in the car on a Wednesday lunchtime when he was on. And so, unfortunately, we can't bring you the normal piece today in the show because, unfortunately, the advisor's died. So, I saw this as an opportunity. Now, it's very sad for the family and everything else, but I thought, hang on a minute, I could do this. So, I literally experimented. I rung the radio station up and said, I can do that. And they said, have you done it before? I went, yeah. Right? Had I? No. But in my head, I had. In the car, I'd been doing it. I'd been talking as though it was… So two weeks later, I find myself at a radio station, and she says to me, aren't you going to put your headphones on? I'm like, oh God, because of course she thinks I know what I'm doing. I've been winging it now for nearly 25 years. I'm going on the radio every week and doing a radio show live still to this day.
 
But if I hadn't have had that, oh, what about, what if I just, it's like sliding doors, isn't it? Maybe it'd gone to something else. I don't know. But I'm forever grateful. And doing that, I discovered my Unique Ability, right, by doing that. So, those sort of things where you can just experiment. I'm thinking, actually, what's the worst that's going to happen? They're going to say, no, we're not interested, thank you very much. Well, I'm no worse off, am I? But you don't know until you try some of these things or experiment with some of these things. And a lot of the things where you just think, this is my gut feeling, I'm going to experiment with this, could turn out to be the best decision you've ever made. And that was fundamentally one of the best decisions I've made in my career, to ring up that radio station when I didn't know what I was doing.
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. So what I'm hearing is that like, don't be risk averse, just be willing to experiment, be willing to try, be willing to test and also be resilient. Like, no, you can dust yourself off. Failure is not an end. What was the expression I've heard for fail? It's like first attempt in learning. If you want to make it an acronym.
 
David Braithwaite: Or you can call it, it's a great story to tell your friends and family.
 
Shannon Waller: 100%. The failures are actually more interesting sometimes.
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah, people love adversity. You know, imagine you have a motivational speaker on stage who said, well, I've built this business and it all went well. What? You don't want to know that, do you? So, for people that are listening, Shannon, at least, spat her water out then. But, you know, people want to know, well, how did you triumph over the adversity? What did you try? How was it for you? Where did you fail? Because people want to learn from other people's mistakes rather than make their own. But it makes for a far more compelling story and a certainly more interesting life. You know, a lot of people, they strive to get all these wonderful things in their life. It could be the car, the house, and everything else.
 
And there's this brilliant poem that, if you want to look this up, it's called “The Dash.” And this poem, “The Dash,” it's all about a person who dies, and he's born in this age and he died another year, and it's all about how did that person spend their dash. And we all strive lots of these things for the cars and the house and everything else, but actually, if I wasn't here anymore, this is being really quite morbid now, I'm not trying to make it morbid, but what are they going to say about me when I'm not here? Oh David, it was great, I had a lovely house and car. They're never going to say that. They're going to remember you for what stories that you had, what you did, and what difference that you made out there in the world, and what positivity you brought those people around you that loved you. And that, to me, is really, really important. So, material things are great, but actually doing, trying, testing, failing, winning, that's what life's all about, is grabbing it with both hands and along for the ride and just going for it. It's just, it's great. You know, we're very lucky. What the chance of us being alive right now is huge. We need to make the most of it.
 
Shannon Waller: I read it. It's like you're the combination of hundreds, if not thousands of people who loved each other. If you don't think you're unique or loved, you are, which is really cool. You'd mentioned Unique Ability, David, in your Unique Ability. You said out of that, I discovered my Unique Ability. So is there a way to easily put that into words?
 
David Braithwaite: Oh, I've got lots of that, but my Unique Ability is being able to communicate with empathy to people in a way that's genuinely connecting. It was along those lines. So by doing the radio work, I have to put complex things into simple words, but also make it kind of fun. And I do the same with clients, you know, so it's doing what I love. And if I go on and do it, like recording this with you today, doing radio, doing a conference speech, anything I do like that, time flies. I am just loving life. So, if you're in your Unique Ability, you will never look at your watch.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh, what a good line. It's so true.
 
David Braithwaite: You don't look at your watch, do you? But if you're doing something tedious or something you're incompetent at, it sits on your to-do pile, drags, doesn't it? Oh, what can I do? Excuses happens when you're doing something incompetent as well.
 
Shannon Waller: And you procrastinate because you hate it. And anything else looks like more fun, like cleaning out the closet.
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when I was a kid again, I remember when you had homework to do, suddenly you had the tidiest bedroom, didn't you? It's still work, right? I'm still doing something. I'm tidying my room. Mom, I've tidied my room. I can't really tell you off for that. But your homework's rubbish, you know, but …
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, exactly. So tell us the journey to Strategic Coach, because if you're listening and aren't aware, every single one of our coaches are clients first and still, actually. So, David, how did you find Coach or how did Coach find you and what made you decide to jump into the community as you talked about?
 
David Braithwaite: So I first discovered Strategic Coach when I was at a conference in the States for financial planners, and I think it was in Chicago or New Orleans. Anyway, there was a stand there with Strategic Coach, and I'd heard of Strategic Coach because a friend of mine who was another advisor used to fly over to Toronto to be coached by Dan. He's still in the Program now. And I remember being, you fly there for a day, are you crazy? And I was like, I couldn't. And at the time, you know, the cost of doing that was just like crazy. I'm thinking, this is just another planet. This is way off for me. But you know what, people raise your idea of normal. You think, well, actually, that's what he's doing. So I picked up some information about a Strategic Coach at this event because I'd heard of them from this chat. I have still got it here somewhere. It's a cassette tape of Dan.
 
Shannon Waller: Okay. Someone found the cassette tape, a client who's been around for a long time, handed Babs a pile and I picked out the one that you're talking about. I'm like, this is the one I used to send out to people. It was amazing. I know exactly the one.
 
David Braithwaite: It was in like a blister pack, like you would get a VCR thing. It came in something like that, mounted in there. So I remember I had that and at the time it was so far off my radar in terms of where the business was at and the cost and everything else. And it was always there, and I came along to a couple of taster workshops. It was like, oh, I don't know what to do. And then something changed in my personal life when I realized that so many things that you hear when you're at the taster workshops about people being present and actually, is it a business that you've got or is it a job? And for me, I recognized a lot in that because I started off my journey as an entrepreneur, we're full of excitement. And it was like, oh, this is the best thing ever. And you do everything in your business because it's just you. And it's kind of fun about it. And it grows, which is good. But with the growth becomes complexity and you start getting bogged down in more stuff.
 
So you realize that you've got to kind of—and my solution to that was working a lot. So I used to work evenings, weekends, everything just to try and stand still. But then to actually build your business or to be more successful, the solution is only 24 hours in a day, you know, and you still need to sleep and everything. So I was getting frustrated, and the life change for me was that when we were expecting our son, who's now going to be 15 this year, and I recognized that I didn't want to be one of these people that when I came home, he said to Claire, well who's that strange man that comes round our house every now and again? Which was me, you know? I wanted to be the dad that was at the sports days, at everything that he could possibly do and be there, but I had to completely reinvent or break something. So that's what I needed to do. I can't carry on on this treadmill that's getting faster and faster. It's going to spit me out the back.
 
Also, I recognize as well as a financial advisor, one of the things I advise on is retirement planning. I was the financial advisor that was paying the most amount into his pension. The reason for that wasn't because I wanted to be really good with my financial planning. It was because I was trying to build an escape plan as quickly as I possibly could. I needed to get out of this. So I've got to go. And it was just, I had mental health issues, all sorts of things. And then with someone coming along, it's like something's got to shift. Went along to a taster workshop in London. And it was one of those things I thought, I keep looking at this. I keep looking at it. I'm either going to do it or ignore it. So I thought, I'm going to try it.
 
So I signed up and I'll be honest with you. I thought, I'll give it a year. I'll give it a year. I'm only doing this for a year. That's all I want to do. I want to get all this stuff in place so that I'm there for when my son was born. I did one workshop, had to miss workshop two because that was the day he was born. So that was the timing and made up the workshop and then have been going ever since because what you find is you're in a room full of people who are just like you, feeling just the same as you, to a degree frustrated or they want to grow, they recognize that they need something just to shift their gear from where they are. And that's what I found. So, as a result of joining Strategic Coach, I haven't missed a sports day, haven't been away for anything, and I've got a great relationship with my son. And that, to me, is priceless. Yes, it's about growing a business. That's happened anyway, but that's almost a by-product. The main reason was to keep the family together, being truthful, and that's why I did it.
 
Shannon Waller: That's amazing. I was thinking window shopping when you were talking about checking it out and hearing about it and all the things. And finally, when you had a powerful enough why or motivation, you're like, okay, something's got to shift. And you already knew you were on that treadmill. And it was like how you said, spit you at the back, because we've all seen pictures of that. And something had to change. So that's powerful. And you were flying over to Toronto, and you still do.
 
David Braithwaite: I still go to Toronto, yeah, but there was workshops started in London.
 
Shannon Waller: Right, we did then.
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah, so I was able to go to a workshop in London. I remember actually going up to the coach, who's still a coach of ours, and saying to him, look, if I join this, this is what's going on in my world at the moment, is it going to help me or hinder me? Because I don't want any more on the plate. And he said, no, it will definitely help you. I said, why? And he said, here's how. And it did. It did everything that was promised, and more. And I wished I'd joined sooner, because what I found was that it was almost to the point where something's got to shift. The decision was much of panic. Rather, I'd wished that I'd had perhaps a less complicated business and a less complicated mindset, because I would have probably implemented things better and faster, and maybe been ahead of where I am now. But everything happens for a reason. I am where I am. I joined when I did, and I don't regret it. But you just think, oh, I wonder where I would have been if, but, you know, I can't deal with it anymore. It's all good. I'm here.
 
Shannon Waller: Darren wishes he started Strategic Coach when he was six. You're not alone in that one. Yeah, it's always like, what could have happened? But it's important not to put yourself into The Gap as we talk about it.
 
David Braithwaite: No, no, not at all. And I'm eternally grateful for you, the team there. And also it's the people, as I mentioned at the beginning, the community. That is so incredibly powerful to know that you've got a whole resource of people that want to help and freely to do so and are happy to share because actually we're all in the same thing together. And it's just immensely powerful. It's that community of people is just absolutely staggering.
 
Shannon Waller: It's a very generous community. Oh, yeah. When you're part of Coach, it's like the amount of support, help, encouragement, sometimes like, yeah, don't do that. You know, I always called it when I went, I still go to my workshops, positive peer pressure. Because they're going to remember what I said I was going to do. Like, hey, Shannon, how'd it go? And I'm like, I did it or I didn't. But I had people invested in my success. I cannot tell you how many times people have kept me on the right path or I'm going on the wrong path. And then I get to do the same for others. It's so cool to be in a place where you can just be so open-hearted. I think that's one of the things I love about Coach.
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah, and the people in the room all, I would say, share with enthusiasm. It isn't I have to say, oh, can you help me? It's like I can help with that. I can do this with you or for you. I could help. It's that you don't get that in any other place. You know, otherwise you're like a little island on your own fighting your battles. And actually, why do that? You need the help that you can get. And to I would say building a proper business. We've got a business now that's way more valuable because we've got so much stuff sorted out now that we didn't have, but also elevating myself by being around people that are successful. The balcony people, I call them, not the basement people. You know, be around the balcony people because they'll raise you to their level and help you instead of trying to kick you down and push you down because, you know, we're competing. It's like there's no competition. There's no competition at all. It's just a good place to be.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh, that's so true, David, in such a great way of putting it. So you're a client, and then you became a coach. So that's another jump. So tell us about that. How did that happen?
 
David Braithwaite: So I got a call, and this is strange, actually, because one of the things that we do in Strategic Coach is we look ahead a lot about planning for the future. And one of the things I wrote down in one of my very early years when I was a Coach client was about where I wanted to be into the future. And I wrote down a coach, but I didn't think for one moment it would be for Strategic Coach. I just thought I could start an academy or something where we can help train people and make people, you know, better versions of themselves, including me. So, when the call came through, I was like, well, you got the right number. First of all, no, it was all fine. I was like, well, me? You know, because I never think that I'm that particularly clever or anything different to anybody else at all. So, I was very sort of humbled by it. I was like, wow, okay. So, I then went over to Toronto, had an audition, and I prepared, prepared, and overprepared, and prepared a bit more. And I went in it thinking, if this doesn't happen, it was the right thing, but it won't be because I didn't do enough to make sure that the odds were in my favor.
 
And I thought about why I actually wanted to do it as well, which was so that I can stand at the front of the room using my Unique Ability, which is helping, you know, talk out in public or whatever, but also so that other people can have a similar experience to me, and I feel like a little bit like it's … like a conductor of an orchestra. So the orchestra is all in the room, and it's my job to make sure that everyone is getting the best out of each other and complimenting each other. And you see from workshop one, and I can still remember how I felt in workshop one, still remember it to this day. So I can really empathize with them and try and bring these people out of themselves a little bit and actually see the wonder in their eyes. And when they leave day one, they're like, oh, my goodness. And you think you've helped create that and the tools of the conversation pieces to bring in bits.
 
And so that was how it all started. And I love it. And I've made some brilliant friends. We've got somebody who met his wife to be through Strategic Coach in my first ever workshop. There's loads of things that have happened. You never know quite where it's going to take you. And I'm very privileged. It's like when I said about doing the radio. Every time I'm in front of clients to coach them, I think it's an amazing privilege and an honour to be able to do that. And they've chosen to share that part of their time, their world, their life with you and the community that they're with, the other people, participants at that point. And that's something we should never take for granted.
 
Shannon Waller: I love how you talk about that. The conductor is perfect because I know when I'm coaching in my groups, the nice thing about being a coach, especially with our entrepreneurial community, is that we're responsible to be prepared for our part of it, but it's a collaboration. It's a conversation. I'm 50%, you're 50%. The clients are the other 50%, right? And it's facilitating those conversations, that generosity, that openheartedness we talked about, and helping people, you know, what's the next step to having a Self-Managing Company? Once you've got the right mindsets, the behaviors follow that. And I love how you talked about, like, the business success, because I'm sure your company's growing exponentially. It's a byproduct. You have the quality of life you want with your family, in particular your son, and your business has grown as a result of that passion and as a result of that commitment and as a result of that drive. So people think this is the goal, but actually the goal is often a by-product of another intention that you have, which is really cool.
 
David Braithwaite: Yeah, it's living life in balance, really. A lot of it, you know, it's your, for what you do to bring in the money and the business that you have balanced up against your friends and your family and loved ones. If you haven't got them, the other bit isn't important. Without the other bit, the other bit's not important. So everything's in unison, which is why I mentioned that in the group that we've got, someone's found his future wife.
 
Shannon Waller: That's fantastic.
 
David Braithwaite: Now, I don't know how big his business is. I don't know. But that's the thing that's come out from it. But he's a lovely man and it's one of those things that I've made so many good friends with them. But yeah, I never take it for granted, always at the front of the room or in front of the screen and genuinely interested in people. And I think the fundamental difference with Strategic Coach as well is that we as the coaches, I'm running my own business, so I'm down there in the trenches with you. I've been there and got the t-shirt from lots of things and lots of people in the room have gone and got different t-shirts to what I've got. But we've all got one thing in common, which is to help each other and to grow and to be in that supportive community.
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. Now, you were building up your pension fund so that you could stop. Do you ever see yourself stopping? Because it sounds like you're having way too much fun, just saying.
 
David Braithwaite: No, could I answer that any quicker? No. I mean, there's plans for what we're going to do with the business, but what will happen is that the business will free me up from the bits that I don't necessarily want to do anymore, leaving me freer to do the bits that I really do want to spend more time in. So there is a plan for all of that to happen. And yeah, that will happen. I know it's going to happen. It just will. But without Strategic Coach, there wouldn't have even been a plan. It would have just been carrying on as you were before and frustration and all sorts of things. So what I've now got is a proper, I would say, I've got a business, I've got a Self-Managing Company, which, you know, my younger self would not have believed that in that day one in that workshop.
 
Here's the other thing as well, I think that I mentioned about how I felt in the first workshop, is I think imposter syndrome is a really good thing. If you're not feeling imposter syndrome, I think you're in the wrong room, because you've got to feel a bit uncomfortable. You should go into work, now it's not uncomfortable in a workshop, clearly, but I went in there thinking, all these people are far better than I am. I'm not worthy to be here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my self-talk was quite negative. I didn't want anyone to call on me. I hid, so I wasn't trying to draw attention to myself, nothing. And I still remember that feeling of being so uncomfortable and wanting time to … But you know what? After workshop two, workshop three, that is exactly where I need to be in the headspace. Because if I felt confident and really happy to be there, am I going to learn? I don't know. I wouldn't have learned so much. I wouldn't have listened as hard. But I certainly feel like that. And when I jumped to the 10x Program, I felt the same thing. My first workshop with Dan Sullivan, I'm thinking, what am I doing in this room? And I got really scared. It's just Dan, right? And you were probably there and other people. But to me, I felt scared. But I knew then I was in the right room again. Because I felt that, you know?
 
Shannon Waller: Being willing to be uncomfortable, and it makes me think of our 4 Cs growth process, right? So you made the commitment and then you immediately enter the courage phase, which feels crappy. That is the other word, but I like calling it courage because it brands it in a much more positive way. And then you develop the capabilities and then you develop the confidence. So it's that willingness to commit to a higher level where you do not yet have the capability. That's actually, we were talking about mindsets earlier, that's a critical mindset. I love how you've demonstrated it each time for yourself as you've gone through your whole 30-plus-year-career, is that willingness to make yourself uncomfortable, jump to a higher level, even though you know you have no clue yet, right? But you are committed.
 
David Braithwaite: Uncomfortable is where growth is. That's it. If you're comfortable, you're not growing. You know, the best things in life are on the other side of fear. I always say that. And if we're not feeling the fear, are we actually growing? Are we developing? Are we changing? You know, you've got to be a little bit scared sometimes, not in a horrible way. I think to be a little bit scared every now and again is a really healthy thing because you learn so much from that, how you deal with it, how you feel at the end of it, and it's like if you do anything where your people say, oh, how do you go and stand in front of people and talk? I said, well, I'm all good with that, but ask me how I feel when I've done it, and I can conquer the world, right? Because you do these things, because you don't do it maybe how you feel, but it's the process that you go through to get there, and how you feel at the end of it, and that wow, nailed it, I can take on the world, that's where your growth was. That's how you've grown. That's how you know you've grown when you feel like that.
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. And that allows you to kind of in terms of Self-Managing Company, expand your freedom of time and money and relationship and purpose, which is what you talked about for your future. So that's so that's exciting. That was a great coaching for someone, you know, looking at the next step for their business or even joining Coach. Any last words about coach? If someone's kind of curious about it, their window shopping as you were, any last words of wisdom for that?
 
David Braithwaite: I would say if you are a little bit nervous about it, that's the growth signal. We just talked about it. So do as I did and go join for a year. And then years later, you'll still be there. I guarantee it. But if something feels instinctively right, like you're thinking, I'm looking at this, um, I should be doing something more. You already listened to this podcast. You're already looking at Coach. There's a reason why you are. Okay, and it's just your brain trying to tell you something. You've just got to join up and see what it's all about. The magic is in there, and you will have a ball. You will have an absolute ball, and you'll wish, like me, you did it sooner.
 
Shannon Waller: Brilliant. Thank you so much, David. So if someone is thinking about it, wants to learn more, wants to have a great Discovery Call to see whether or not it's the right fit for you now, please just check us out at strategiccoach.com. That is by far the best way to get in touch with us. David, thank you, thank you, thank you. I love hearing about your journey, especially like your motivation for joining Coach is really cool, that trusting yourself to have a business, the mentorship from your grandfather, for me, it's really special to know those things and you've just laid out a really clear path and I can 100% see the through line. And I am grateful for your Unique Ability and the fact that Strategic Coach clients get a chance to benefit from that. So thank you, my friend, for being you.
 
David Braithwaite: Thank you for having me. It's been a joy. You know, it's lovely to have a chat with you and anybody about Strategic Coach. I'm very enthusiastic about it and I'm happy to help out at any time and talk to anybody. And I'd love to see people in the workshop when they come up to me and say, I listened to you on a podcast and I joined because of that and I'm here. That to me would be a real win.
 
Shannon Waller: Let's make it happen. I love it. Thank you, David.
 
David Braithwaite: Thank you.