September 10, 2024 • 24 mins
What would you do if a sudden business split sent your life into uncharted waters? Join us for an incredible conversation with David Greer, who turned such a setback into the adventure of a lifetime. Hear how David commissioned a sailboat in the south of France and embarked on a 5,000-mile journey through the Mediterranean, all while homeschooling his children. The episode unpacks the invaluable lessons and skills David imparted to his kids, ultimately strengthening their family bond in ways they never imagined. From an early fascination with business and computers to the unpredictable highs and lows of entrepreneurship, David's story is one of resilience and transformation.
But that's not all—we dive into the nuts and bolts of strategic planning for business growth. Learn how to effectively set long-term goals and break them down into actionable steps, inspired by Vern Harnish's scaling-up principles. Hear firsthand how personal resilience and self-care play crucial roles in maintaining momentum, featuring insights from Kevin Lawrence and personal anecdotes about overcoming alcoholism. The episode wraps up with a compelling discussion on the value of coaching, underscoring how external guidance can spark those transformative "aha" moments. Whether you're steering your own ship in business or life, this episode offers a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here we are, another episode of the best of the best.
Therese, who do you have heretoday?
Well, we are in for a specialtreat.
Today we have David Greer, andDavid has an amazing story to
tell.
So I'm really excited.
David, welcome aboard.
The Best of the Best podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thanks so much.
I'm thrilled to be here today.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yes, I was looking over your background and one of
the things that just kind ofjumped out at me right away was
your trip sailing andhomeschooling the kids.
What a dream that is.
Tell me a little bit about howyou got there.
What took you to that direction?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What took me to that direction is, after 20 years
building a software company, Isuddenly unexpectedly ended up
on the street.
My former partner and I had amajor disagreement in 20 plus
years, but it was a doozy and itended in divorce.
So he ended up.
The way we settled thedifferences in strategic
direction was he bought me out2001, and someone way smarter
(01:05):
than me sat me down and said,david, your kids will never be
11, 9, and 5 again.
Do you need to work right away?
And I go no, I got a prettygood check in my genes.
I'm not done, but I don't needto work right away.
And you know, we hatched thisplan to commission a sailboat in
the south of France andhomeschool our three kids while
(01:26):
sailing more than 5,000 miles inthe Mediterranean.
And so I'd been a sailor fromwhen I was young, had boats on
the West Coast here I'm based inVancouver, canada, for, at that
point, 20 years, and I'd readmany books about families who'd
cruise long term, and I didn'trealize how much it was actually
(01:51):
a dream until we started.
We talked about three ideas.
One was to get a barge and kindof barge through Holland,
belgium, france.
The other was, to, like, rent aseries of houses kind of a
month each per year.
And then we decided on the onthe sailing, and once we did
(02:11):
like I, I just um, I suddenlyrealized like just how much this
had been a latent dream and Ithink if I'd continued with the
business I probably never wouldhave like realized it, right, um
, I think that happens to a lotof people, right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You get so caught up in the day to day and going on
with what's happening and thenyou know family life does suffer
.
Kids suffer Um, not that theysuffer, I mean it's.
Obviously we take great care ofthe kids, but they don't get
your time and at the end of theday, that's the thing that they
need the most, especially inthis world we're living in today
.
And I just read that and I waslike, wow, that is just so
awesome.
(02:47):
I'm so happy you had thatexperience with your kids.
Is everybody really close now?
Do you feel like that broughtyou guys closer together?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, as a friend of ours who did live in a barge the
year before we left for a year,she likes to say you know, it's
like being in a pressure cooker, like one of two things happens
Either the lid blows off orlike the parts become greater
than you know.
The whole becomes greater thanthe parts as you kind of meld
(03:14):
together.
I mean your children see youlike in ways that most children
never see their parents.
Also, several, many people havepointed out to me that we've
spent more time with ourchildren than most parents will
spend with their children intheir entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Just the values and the core values that you can
teach them.
You know, and they're your corevalues instead of someone
else's is just awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Well, and just operating, like we were 18
months without being in anEnglish speaking country Wow,
country, wow.
And like, just like buying food, you know, like just practical
things become, you know, andI've got three growing, you know
, and a couple of them turnedinto teenagers while we're.
We're out there and like, like,just feeding everybody.
(03:57):
Plus, you know, you got to bean engineer, you got to be a
root planner.
Like, there's so many things youdo and your children like just
take part in this, like it'sjust um, you know it's not
conscious, but they just learnso much and uh, yeah, it's, it's
a legacy we've created as afamily together and it's a core
bedrock that we still draw from.
(04:18):
Um, and, yeah, we're still, uh,we're still close In fact.
Uh, our whole family, we and,yeah, we're still close, in fact
, our whole family.
My wife's brother and his sonjust came out.
We went up for a fishing fourdays up on an island just north
of Vancouver with my daughter,son-in-law, two grandchildren,
my middle son and his wife andtheir new puppy, and we just had
(04:42):
a fabulous four days and caughta lot of salmon.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's awesome, that's fun, very nice.
So I think everybody's got achance to know you just a little
bit better there.
I want to go back to some somequestions I have for you.
So what started you off inbusiness originally?
How did you get started?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When I was in grade eight or grade nine I got taken
of a tour of the Albertalegislature government buildings
.
I grew up in Edmonton, alberta,canada, and that's the
provincial capital, and we wentand walked by a computer
computer room and I rememberseeing all of these computers
and all of these spinning tapedrives and at the same time I
(05:24):
got taught in math octalarithmetic.
Like you can't count 10 becauseit's 10 digits, you actually
count in any base, eight, two.
In fact computers are binary,so they actually count in zeros
and ones.
And at that point I just hadthis vision I wanted to combine
business and ones.
And at that point I just hadthis vision I wanted to combine
business and computers.
(05:45):
I don't know exactly where itcame from.
I come from an entrepreneurialfamily.
My grandfather started ahardware store in downtown
Edmonton in 1923.
So that was my norm, right, butI didn't.
And my dad put a lot ofpressure for me to take over the
sanitary supply business, but Iknew that wasn't going to have
many computers.
So then I eventually went touniversity to get my computer
(06:08):
science degree, took all of myelectives in the business school
in management informationsystems and I got a summer job
where I was working with thesereally advanced computers.
Up where I was working withthese really advanced computers
and then I met this consultantwho was rewriting this
application for the cablecompany in Vancouver and he
(06:29):
started a software company andbefore I graduated I joined him
as the first employee after thefounders Like, we were just
having fun and we were in a newmarket and it really growing in
a very innovative computer fromHewlett Packard.
And you know like a condition ofmy employment was I had to
write a technical paper andapply to the 1980 international
(06:52):
Hewlett Packard user groupconference to to, to, uh, speak
and uh, that was accepted.
And then the fourth year I had,I took a week off of school and
flew to San Jose and I gave myfirst technical paper and I, you
know, with my former partnerBob Green, we were standing on
the San Jose convention floortelling everyone about this cool
(07:13):
software and what it could dofor them, and later I learned
that's kind of the essence ofselling.
Yes, yes, we had no idea, right, like we're just, we're just
these geeks with a bunch ofother geeks, but we're doing
really cool stuff and we didhave some products that were
very impactful in thatmarketplace.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, Well, you know, one of the things that you said
that I love and it kind of goesto what you believe in and what
you teach is culture andhelping organizations with their
culture.
You said that you were havinglots of fun, and I talk to
people and I have fun every day.
I love what I do, and sometimesI tell people that and they
look at me like I have two headsand they're like what do you
(07:52):
mean?
You have fun at work.
I'm like well, you should havefun at work.
If you don't have fun at work,it stinks, right?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You're going to life is way too short.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yes, and real estate obviously is one of those
careers where you know it is oneof those things you put in and
you get a lot out if you, if youhave passion for it.
But that's just like anybusiness, right?
So talk a little bit about whatyou help companies with and the
culture and what that all meansto you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So my belief is that really high-performing companies
focus on culture, and so, firstof all, I help entrepreneurs
and their senior leadership teamdiscover their culture.
It's not so much like definingit, it's usually there.
And you know this comes fromJim Collins in his book Good to
Great.
This is not new stuff and youknow asking questions like who
(08:43):
is an employee you would hireagain in a heartbeat, like, tell
me about them, tell me abouttheir characteristics, um, and
then you know becoming consciousabout what your culture is and
what you stand for.
It, like having fun might beone of your core values.
It's like everybody you know wewant everyone in the company to
have at least one time everyday where they have some fun.
(09:07):
And then as you really developthe culture, really culture
defines behaviors.
So it's really about how peoplebehave and most of our
behaviors come from, you know,our family of origin, our early
teachers, our early coaches.
So stuff is baked into usreally deep and what I remind
entrepreneurs andhigh-performing people and
(09:29):
leaders is that it's almostimpossible to change people's
behaviors.
It's possible, but it's reallyhard.
It's way easier to teach them askill.
So once you figure out whatyour culture is, then, as you're
bringing new people on board,make sure you filter first for
cultural fit and it actuallymakes the company go faster
(09:51):
quicker, because everyone hasthese similar behaviors.
Right, you don't need as big anHR manual.
If everyone has a similarbelief system about you know
what's important and really highperforming cultures.
If you make a mishire, usuallythey eject that person like a
virus.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes, and sometimes people that aren't exactly the
perfect fit in the beginning.
It's contagious culture, youknow.
They learn to grasp on or, likeyou said, they just don't last
really, really long.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yes, exactly, um, this, this idea.
Like people are always lookingfor the skillset first and I'm
like, no, look, look for yourcultural fit first.
And yeah, like you know, ifthey need to have a computer
science degree, you don't havetime to teach them a four-year
degree.
Like they still need to haveand maybe a lot of skills, but
(10:42):
if they don't fit into yourculture, you know, like, if your
culture is a high communication, you know connecting with
people, believe me, I've been acomputer scientist.
I've worked with a lot of techgeeks in my time.
There's a lot of them who areincredibly skilled, but that is
not one of their behaviors.
And it's okay to you know ifthey fit in a culture where it's
(11:05):
okay to kind of feed thempizzas under the door and let
them work 24 hours a day, butit's.
I want you to make consciouschoice about that.
Like, is that really fittinginto your culture?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I love that you know you talk about the culture
getting that right, so theorganization needs to know what
it is and what theirexpectations are going to be and
how they're going to run andwhat they're going to accept and
not accept.
But then you also talk abouthow do you find your ideal
customer.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah.
So my experience of you knowentrepreneurs especially I work
a lot with owner foundersstarted their business, grew it,
and you know, when you're firstout in business you kind of
take any customer.
(11:50):
You can get, yes, like you needcash flow right, yes, been
there, done that, You'refiguring it out, and that's good
and it's great.
But as you get success, not allcustomers are created equal and
there are some customers whoare either way easier to deal
with or who value your goods andservices way more so they'll
pay you more.
They're easier to work with.
So I say you know, as you growlike it really start looking at
(12:14):
your customers Like, who do youlove calling you to ask for
things and who do you like trynot to answer the phone?
Yes, right, and we all haveprobably had that.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We have, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And that you seriously consider firing some
of your customers.
Yep, and you know, I say likeif your perfect customer walks
through the door right now, whatis everything you could tell me
about them?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Oh, that's a great question.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Right, yeah, you know , are they?
Is it a man, is it a woman?
Are they tall, are they short?
I mean, some of those don'tmatter, right, but it's what are
the characteristics of thatperson that would lead to say
this is going to be a fantasticcustomer?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yes, we call that the missing person report here.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Ah, yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It's like who's missing from the organization
and what do they ideally looklike?
And then everybody startedlooking for that person.
It gives you some direction andguidance.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And then you know, as you grow your business and you
become clearer about thesethings like an ideal customer.
Then you start working on yourmessaging and your marketing to
attract those people who aregoing to be ideal and hopefully
self-select out some of thepeople who are not going to be
ideal.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely so.
I want to go on to then.
Another question I have for you, because obviously I work with
a lot of entrepreneurs.
Another question I have for youbecause obviously I work with a
lot of entrepreneurs and one ofyour.
One of the things I want to askyou is in what ways can
entrepreneurs plan their weekfor maximum impact?
Because as an entrepreneurialmind, you know high D I
personality.
Most times we are always ontothat new shiny toy or it's off
(13:53):
we go.
I'd like to hear a little bitabout you know how could you
plan for maximum impact andmaybe avoid some of those
distractions?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So here's the longer answer.
A little bit longer answerbecause, like I work with
scaling up this process by a guycalled Vern Harnish, who and I
specialize in facilitating forplanning.
So I remember when I first wentto Vern Harness Training and he
let me back up For Robel for 20years, we did what we did last
(14:24):
year and do it a little better.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
When I first went to a training session with Vern, he
said where do you want to be inthree to five years?
Start there.
What are the key thrusts orcapabilities you need to build?
And like, if you're a soloentrepreneur, that could be like
your own skill and capabilityso that you can, you know, or
(14:46):
maybe it's like I want to spendmore time with my family Well
then you probably need a PA whohas to be really, really skilled
and really good, and that'slike a capability you need to
build.
So, where do you want to be inthree to five years?
Then, what do you want toachieve this year so that you
can get to where you want to goin three to five?
And then, what do you need toachieve this quarter?
(15:07):
And I'm talking like four orfive goals, like small number of
goals for the year, or three tofive years, like four, maybe
five key thrust capabilities,like where you're going to end
up.
Um, same for the year and samefor the quarter.
I, most people write down toomany goals and then they're like
spinning their wheels, tryingto, you know, slice, do a little
(15:30):
here, a little here, a littlehere, and nothing really moves
ahead substantially.
Yeah, their focus is toodivided yeah.
And then, when you're planningyour week, you need to dust off
your goals and you need to sayyou know, am I spending at least
a quarter of the best time eachworking day working towards
those goals?
Right, yeah, because if I'm not, then you're probably not going
(15:56):
to achieve them.
That's right, right.
So that's why I say theprioritization actually has to
be in the context of a biggerplan, like where you're really
trying to go Cause then it getsa lot easier.
It's this planning processactually makes it easier,
because it limits your choices.
And then you have to builddiscipline to avoid the shiny
(16:16):
red ball center which we allhave.
Believe me, me too.
Oh, look that new business.
Oh, maybe I should get involvedwith that.
Oh, that might be cool.
Yeah, I know You're right,you're right.
Oh, gee, I don't have any timein my calendar.
Oh, I wanted to spend time withmy grandchild, oh, right.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So that wasn't a priority.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I think that's really smart advice.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Future casting, you know.
Looking out and deciding, youknow everybody.
A lot of people plan for oneyear.
But really planning for thatone, three, five and even beyond
is very interesting.
I had a coach ask me one timewhat does my what does my legacy
look like in?
100 years and I'm like greatquestion, my legacy look like in
a hundred years.
And I'm like great question, ahundred years.
Like it really makes you stopand think, holy smokes, what am
I doing now?
That's going to actually beremembered then, cause I'm not
going to be here unless thingschange a lot in the world.
I'm definitely not going to behere at 150.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, and it's a great question, and so what
legacy are you leaving?
Like and and and it's also okaynot to want to leave Like in
150 years I'm gone and that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I did what I did.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's okay.
Like again, it's just more, I'mall about conscious choice.
Like that's the number onething I ask of my clients.
Like, do whatever you want, butdo it with intention, rather
than just like reacting to thecurrent event.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The other thing, my, my former coach, Kevin Lawrence,
and his book your oxygen masks.
First, which I highly recommendGreat book.
Um, I worked with Kevin fornine years and helped him build
a lot of these templates.
But he breaks your life downinto like career, you know,
finances life, like therelationships and that
(18:02):
connection with people.
And as high performers wealmost always squeeze ourself
out in the middle, like wesquish ourselves out.
So we don't.
We sacrifice our resiliency, wesacrifice our physical and
mental health.
We sacrifice our resiliency, wesacrifice our physical and
mental health.
And so his third category forplanning in any given year.
So he's about setting goals.
(18:23):
So we talked about like oneyear goals and three year goals.
He does his template, does itin these, in three areas the
career, kind of finances life.
But self, like what do you do?
That's just resilient,resilient, you know.
Like is just for you.
Like I had a client I wascoaching yesterday and he's
(18:44):
bought this sports car and he'sgoing to take it to a racetrack
for the first time this weekendand it's that's just for him,
right, right, and he's soexcited about it and, you know,
just thrilled.
So like what is it for you?
That is fun, that renews you,gives you energy back.
(19:08):
Sometimes it's doing thingswith other people, so that can
be kind of a combination withthat life relationships.
But again, it's something thatreally um cause.
Again, I for years, uh,squeezed myself out one,
especially like I'm a recoveringalcoholic.
So you know, for a couple ofdecades I was a daily drinker
and was, you know, hurtingmyself every day.
(19:32):
Um, until I finally that coach,kevin Lawrence, was the first
person human being I admitted Ihad a drinking problem to and he
coached me to go to 12-steprecovery and now I've been sober
for 15 years.
Amazing Congratulations, thankyou very much.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I think one of the things that, especially you know
, the world's changed so muchand it's so fast, right,
everything's so much demand onpeople and kids and I love when
you, when you give yourself areally good, solid goal plan and
you meet benchmarks, you rewardyourself.
I really think a lot of peopleforget to do that and I'm glad
(20:09):
you talked about that becauseyou've got to have.
We're all human.
We need to celebrate.
You know that we've achievedsomething and sometimes that
achievement is for yourself andit feels weird sometimes to
celebrate yourself, right, butyou know what your friend is
doing.
I mean that's awesome, it'ssomething that's going to be
exciting and fun and he earnedit, so now he's doing it for
himself.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So I think that's really cool and I will say I am
terrible.
I'm really guilty of likeachieving the next big thing and
it's like literally 30 secondslater I'm like into the next
challenge, into the next bigthing.
Like this idea of a pause, oflike soaking it in like gee, you
worked for this for three years.
(20:48):
Maybe you should like could you?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
take maybe a minute, two minutes, yes, and nobody
does.
I mean I don't want to saynobody does it.
People don't do that enough.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
They definitely For me it's still a very ongoing
part of my personal growth is toget better at at just
acknowledging some of thesegreat things that are going on.
I mean, I do and I writegratitude lists, but it's really
pausing enough to really let itcome into my heart.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, not just be in my head.
Yeah, you're very, I must sayyou're very easy to talk to.
Um.
You know I just met you and Ifeel like I've known you forever
.
Um, can you tell everyone alittle bit about uh?
You know how they could connectwith you um, how you could help
them in their business that youdo like that elevator pitch.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Sure.
So my website iscoachdjgreercom.
That's coach D, as in David J,as in James greercom.
Every webpage at the top it hasmy email address, it has my
phone number.
Awesome, awesome.
If you're stuck on something,reach out to me.
I offer free one-hour coachingto any entrepreneur that's stuck
(21:57):
and I'm happy.
No obligation, we'll just spendan hour on the phone and you
know my promise to you if youspend one hour with me, you'll
have three ideas that accelerateyour business in the next 90
days.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Love that.
That's worth the hour rightthere.
Yeah, right.
All right, so I'll be callingyou.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
You said you already had a coach.
I do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I do.
But you know what I?
I've had so many coaches in mylife, but I have a, you know, I
have my, my physical coach formy training, and then I have a
mindset coach, um, but I I'm notworking with a business coach
at the moment.
Um, you know, kind of in in thesearch for that right now and
I'm at a point where I think alot of people get I've been in
this business for 30 years andI've built my empire.
(22:42):
We're the largest real estatecompany in the area, we have 250
agents and you get to a pointwhere it gets a little tiring
and you need that new stretchgoal or whatever it is.
So I've been talking to peopleand a lot of people are where I
am and they've kind of succeededto where they always wanted to
go.
But then they get there andit's like now what you know
(23:05):
what's next.
So that's what I want to talkto you about is what's next for
Therese?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Great and I would love to do that.
And as I remind people, likeyou know, I don't know what I'm
going to grow up to become,Right Like it's.
Isn't that awesome though I'mstill working on it, and
sometimes it's reallyfrustrating.
And then I remind myself, likethink of all the opportunities
you have, like just how rich youknow a life and all the things
(23:31):
you've done.
I've done all these things andyet I still have an amazing set
of opportunities in front of me.
It's more about like choosingthe right, the quote right, but
you know, choosing them becausethere still are so many
opportunities in front of me.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, I think that you know, just starting off your
day realizing how lucky we allare to have the life that we
have and still have theopportunity to grow it to
something more and bigger.
But again, like I said, I thinkit does take having someone
else to talk to and having acoach who can direct you,
because we get so caught in itat certain things.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It's really hard, yeah, it's very hard to have
that self-reflection, and it'salso hard to see.
Sometimes I point out things topeople that to me are like
they're so obvious yes and it'sand to them it's like poof, like
it's no, no, I'm not really.
Well, you know, you told me Aand B and C and D and E, so
(24:30):
aren't you like this?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Oh shit, I am.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yes, absolutely.
Well, David, it has been anabsolute pleasure speaking with
you.
We'll get this out and we'llhave all your contact
information for everybody toreach out.
Thank you so much for having menow.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Just thanks so much and thanks to your listeners for
being there thank you, have agreat day.
Here we are, another episode of the best of the best.
Therese, who do you have heretoday?
Well, we are in for a specialtreat.
Today we have David Greer, andDavid has an amazing story to
tell.
So I'm really excited.
David, welcome aboard.
The Best of the Best podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thanks so much.
I'm thrilled to be here today.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yes, I was looking over your background and one of
the things that just kind ofjumped out at me right away was
your trip sailing andhomeschooling the kids.
What a dream that is.
Tell me a little bit about howyou got there.
What took you to that direction?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What took me to that direction is, after 20 years
building a software company, Isuddenly unexpectedly ended up
on the street.
My former partner and I had amajor disagreement in 20 plus
years, but it was a doozy and itended in divorce.
So he ended up.
The way we settled thedifferences in strategic
direction was he bought me out2001, and someone way smarter
(01:05):
than me sat me down and said,david, your kids will never be
11, 9, and 5 again.
Do you need to work right away?
And I go no, I got a prettygood check in my genes.
I'm not done, but I don't needto work right away.
And you know, we hatched thisplan to commission a sailboat in
the south of France andhomeschool our three kids while
(01:26):
sailing more than 5,000 miles inthe Mediterranean.
And so I'd been a sailor fromwhen I was young, had boats on
the West Coast here I'm based inVancouver, canada, for, at that
point, 20 years, and I'd readmany books about families who'd
cruise long term, and I didn'trealize how much it was actually
(01:51):
a dream until we started.
We talked about three ideas.
One was to get a barge and kindof barge through Holland,
belgium, france.
The other was, to, like, rent aseries of houses kind of a
month each per year.
And then we decided on the onthe sailing, and once we did
(02:11):
like I, I just um, I suddenlyrealized like just how much this
had been a latent dream and Ithink if I'd continued with the
business I probably never wouldhave like realized it, right, um
, I think that happens to a lotof people, right.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You get so caught up in the day to day and going on
with what's happening and thenyou know family life does suffer
.
Kids suffer Um, not that theysuffer, I mean it's.
Obviously we take great care ofthe kids, but they don't get
your time and at the end of theday, that's the thing that they
need the most, especially inthis world we're living in today
.
And I just read that and I waslike, wow, that is just so
awesome.
(02:47):
I'm so happy you had thatexperience with your kids.
Is everybody really close now?
Do you feel like that broughtyou guys closer together?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, as a friend of ours who did live in a barge the
year before we left for a year,she likes to say you know, it's
like being in a pressure cooker, like one of two things happens
Either the lid blows off orlike the parts become greater
than you know.
The whole becomes greater thanthe parts as you kind of meld
(03:14):
together.
I mean your children see youlike in ways that most children
never see their parents.
Also, several, many people havepointed out to me that we've
spent more time with ourchildren than most parents will
spend with their children intheir entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Just the values and the core values that you can
teach them.
You know, and they're your corevalues instead of someone
else's is just awesome.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Well, and just operating, like we were 18
months without being in anEnglish speaking country Wow,
country, wow.
And like, just like buying food, you know, like just practical
things become, you know, andI've got three growing, you know
, and a couple of them turnedinto teenagers while we're.
We're out there and like, like,just feeding everybody.
(03:57):
Plus, you know, you got to bean engineer, you got to be a
root planner.
Like, there's so many things youdo and your children like just
take part in this, like it'sjust um, you know it's not
conscious, but they just learnso much and uh, yeah, it's, it's
a legacy we've created as afamily together and it's a core
bedrock that we still draw from.
(04:18):
Um, and, yeah, we're still, uh,we're still close In fact.
Uh, our whole family, we and,yeah, we're still close, in fact
, our whole family.
My wife's brother and his sonjust came out.
We went up for a fishing fourdays up on an island just north
of Vancouver with my daughter,son-in-law, two grandchildren,
my middle son and his wife andtheir new puppy, and we just had
(04:42):
a fabulous four days and caughta lot of salmon.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's awesome, that's fun, very nice.
So I think everybody's got achance to know you just a little
bit better there.
I want to go back to some somequestions I have for you.
So what started you off inbusiness originally?
How did you get started?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When I was in grade eight or grade nine I got taken
of a tour of the Albertalegislature government buildings
.
I grew up in Edmonton, alberta,canada, and that's the
provincial capital, and we wentand walked by a computer
computer room and I rememberseeing all of these computers
and all of these spinning tapedrives and at the same time I
(05:24):
got taught in math octalarithmetic.
Like you can't count 10 becauseit's 10 digits, you actually
count in any base, eight, two.
In fact computers are binary,so they actually count in zeros
and ones.
And at that point I just hadthis vision I wanted to combine
business and ones.
And at that point I just hadthis vision I wanted to combine
business and computers.
(05:45):
I don't know exactly where itcame from.
I come from an entrepreneurialfamily.
My grandfather started ahardware store in downtown
Edmonton in 1923.
So that was my norm, right, butI didn't.
And my dad put a lot ofpressure for me to take over the
sanitary supply business, but Iknew that wasn't going to have
many computers.
So then I eventually went touniversity to get my computer
(06:08):
science degree, took all of myelectives in the business school
in management informationsystems and I got a summer job
where I was working with thesereally advanced computers.
Up where I was working withthese really advanced computers
and then I met this consultantwho was rewriting this
application for the cablecompany in Vancouver and he
(06:29):
started a software company andbefore I graduated I joined him
as the first employee after thefounders Like, we were just
having fun and we were in a newmarket and it really growing in
a very innovative computer fromHewlett Packard.
And you know like a condition ofmy employment was I had to
write a technical paper andapply to the 1980 international
(06:52):
Hewlett Packard user groupconference to to, to, uh, speak
and uh, that was accepted.
And then the fourth year I had,I took a week off of school and
flew to San Jose and I gave myfirst technical paper and I, you
know, with my former partnerBob Green, we were standing on
the San Jose convention floortelling everyone about this cool
(07:13):
software and what it could dofor them, and later I learned
that's kind of the essence ofselling.
Yes, yes, we had no idea, right, like we're just, we're just
these geeks with a bunch ofother geeks, but we're doing
really cool stuff and we didhave some products that were
very impactful in thatmarketplace.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, Well, you know, one of the things that you said
that I love and it kind of goesto what you believe in and what
you teach is culture andhelping organizations with their
culture.
You said that you were havinglots of fun, and I talk to
people and I have fun every day.
I love what I do, and sometimesI tell people that and they
look at me like I have two headsand they're like what do you
(07:52):
mean?
You have fun at work.
I'm like well, you should havefun at work.
If you don't have fun at work,it stinks, right?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
You're going to life is way too short.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yes, and real estate obviously is one of those
careers where you know it is oneof those things you put in and
you get a lot out if you, if youhave passion for it.
But that's just like anybusiness, right?
So talk a little bit about whatyou help companies with and the
culture and what that all meansto you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So my belief is that really high-performing companies
focus on culture, and so, firstof all, I help entrepreneurs
and their senior leadership teamdiscover their culture.
It's not so much like definingit, it's usually there.
And you know this comes fromJim Collins in his book Good to
Great.
This is not new stuff and youknow asking questions like who
(08:43):
is an employee you would hireagain in a heartbeat, like, tell
me about them, tell me abouttheir characteristics, um, and
then you know becoming consciousabout what your culture is and
what you stand for.
It, like having fun might beone of your core values.
It's like everybody you know wewant everyone in the company to
have at least one time everyday where they have some fun.
(09:07):
And then as you really developthe culture, really culture
defines behaviors.
So it's really about how peoplebehave and most of our
behaviors come from, you know,our family of origin, our early
teachers, our early coaches.
So stuff is baked into usreally deep and what I remind
entrepreneurs andhigh-performing people and
(09:29):
leaders is that it's almostimpossible to change people's
behaviors.
It's possible, but it's reallyhard.
It's way easier to teach them askill.
So once you figure out whatyour culture is, then, as you're
bringing new people on board,make sure you filter first for
cultural fit and it actuallymakes the company go faster
(09:51):
quicker, because everyone hasthese similar behaviors.
Right, you don't need as big anHR manual.
If everyone has a similarbelief system about you know
what's important and really highperforming cultures.
If you make a mishire, usuallythey eject that person like a
virus.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes, and sometimes people that aren't exactly the
perfect fit in the beginning.
It's contagious culture, youknow.
They learn to grasp on or, likeyou said, they just don't last
really, really long.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yes, exactly, um, this, this idea.
Like people are always lookingfor the skillset first and I'm
like, no, look, look for yourcultural fit first.
And yeah, like you know, ifthey need to have a computer
science degree, you don't havetime to teach them a four-year
degree.
Like they still need to haveand maybe a lot of skills, but
(10:42):
if they don't fit into yourculture, you know, like, if your
culture is a high communication, you know connecting with
people, believe me, I've been acomputer scientist.
I've worked with a lot of techgeeks in my time.
There's a lot of them who areincredibly skilled, but that is
not one of their behaviors.
And it's okay to you know ifthey fit in a culture where it's
(11:05):
okay to kind of feed thempizzas under the door and let
them work 24 hours a day, butit's.
I want you to make consciouschoice about that.
Like, is that really fittinginto your culture?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I love that you know you talk about the culture
getting that right, so theorganization needs to know what
it is and what theirexpectations are going to be and
how they're going to run andwhat they're going to accept and
not accept.
But then you also talk abouthow do you find your ideal
customer.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah.
So my experience of you knowentrepreneurs especially I work
a lot with owner foundersstarted their business, grew it,
and you know, when you're firstout in business you kind of
take any customer.
(11:50):
You can get, yes, like you needcash flow right, yes, been
there, done that, You'refiguring it out, and that's good
and it's great.
But as you get success, not allcustomers are created equal and
there are some customers whoare either way easier to deal
with or who value your goods andservices way more so they'll
pay you more.
They're easier to work with.
So I say you know, as you growlike it really start looking at
(12:14):
your customers Like, who do youlove calling you to ask for
things and who do you like trynot to answer the phone?
Yes, right, and we all haveprobably had that.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We have, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And that you seriously consider firing some
of your customers.
Yep, and you know, I say likeif your perfect customer walks
through the door right now, whatis everything you could tell me
about them?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Oh, that's a great question.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Right, yeah, you know , are they?
Is it a man, is it a woman?
Are they tall, are they short?
I mean, some of those don'tmatter, right, but it's what are
the characteristics of thatperson that would lead to say
this is going to be a fantasticcustomer?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yes, we call that the missing person report here.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Ah, yes, I like that.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It's like who's missing from the organization
and what do they ideally looklike?
And then everybody startedlooking for that person.
It gives you some direction andguidance.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
And then you know, as you grow your business and you
become clearer about thesethings like an ideal customer.
Then you start working on yourmessaging and your marketing to
attract those people who aregoing to be ideal and hopefully
self-select out some of thepeople who are not going to be
ideal.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely so.
I want to go on to then.
Another question I have for you, because obviously I work with
a lot of entrepreneurs.
Another question I have for youbecause obviously I work with a
lot of entrepreneurs and one ofyour.
One of the things I want to askyou is in what ways can
entrepreneurs plan their weekfor maximum impact?
Because as an entrepreneurialmind, you know high D I
personality.
Most times we are always ontothat new shiny toy or it's off
(13:53):
we go.
I'd like to hear a little bitabout you know how could you
plan for maximum impact andmaybe avoid some of those
distractions?
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So here's the longer answer.
A little bit longer answerbecause, like I work with
scaling up this process by a guycalled Vern Harnish, who and I
specialize in facilitating forplanning.
So I remember when I first wentto Vern Harness Training and he
let me back up For Robel for 20years, we did what we did last
(14:24):
year and do it a little better.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
When I first went to a training session with Vern, he
said where do you want to be inthree to five years?
Start there.
What are the key thrusts orcapabilities you need to build?
And like, if you're a soloentrepreneur, that could be like
your own skill and capabilityso that you can, you know, or
(14:46):
maybe it's like I want to spendmore time with my family Well
then you probably need a PA whohas to be really, really skilled
and really good, and that'slike a capability you need to
build.
So, where do you want to be inthree to five years?
Then, what do you want toachieve this year so that you
can get to where you want to goin three to five?
And then, what do you need toachieve this quarter?
(15:07):
And I'm talking like four orfive goals, like small number of
goals for the year, or three tofive years, like four, maybe
five key thrust capabilities,like where you're going to end
up.
Um, same for the year and samefor the quarter.
I, most people write down toomany goals and then they're like
spinning their wheels, tryingto, you know, slice, do a little
(15:30):
here, a little here, a littlehere, and nothing really moves
ahead substantially.
Yeah, their focus is toodivided yeah.
And then, when you're planningyour week, you need to dust off
your goals and you need to sayyou know, am I spending at least
a quarter of the best time eachworking day working towards
those goals?
Right, yeah, because if I'm not, then you're probably not going
(15:56):
to achieve them.
That's right, right.
So that's why I say theprioritization actually has to
be in the context of a biggerplan, like where you're really
trying to go Cause then it getsa lot easier.
It's this planning processactually makes it easier,
because it limits your choices.
And then you have to builddiscipline to avoid the shiny
(16:16):
red ball center which we allhave.
Believe me, me too.
Oh, look that new business.
Oh, maybe I should get involvedwith that.
Oh, that might be cool.
Yeah, I know You're right,you're right.
Oh, gee, I don't have any timein my calendar.
Oh, I wanted to spend time withmy grandchild, oh, right.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So that wasn't a priority.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I think that's really smart advice.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Future casting, you know.
Looking out and deciding, youknow everybody.
A lot of people plan for oneyear.
But really planning for thatone, three, five and even beyond
is very interesting.
I had a coach ask me one timewhat does my what does my legacy
look like in?
100 years and I'm like greatquestion, my legacy look like in
a hundred years.
And I'm like great question, ahundred years.
Like it really makes you stopand think, holy smokes, what am
I doing now?
That's going to actually beremembered then, cause I'm not
going to be here unless thingschange a lot in the world.
I'm definitely not going to behere at 150.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, and it's a great question, and so what
legacy are you leaving?
Like and and and it's also okaynot to want to leave Like in
150 years I'm gone and that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I did what I did.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's okay.
Like again, it's just more, I'mall about conscious choice.
Like that's the number onething I ask of my clients.
Like, do whatever you want, butdo it with intention, rather
than just like reacting to thecurrent event.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The other thing, my, my former coach, Kevin Lawrence,
and his book your oxygen masks.
First, which I highly recommendGreat book.
Um, I worked with Kevin fornine years and helped him build
a lot of these templates.
But he breaks your life downinto like career, you know,
finances life, like therelationships and that
(18:02):
connection with people.
And as high performers wealmost always squeeze ourself
out in the middle, like wesquish ourselves out.
So we don't.
We sacrifice our resiliency, wesacrifice our physical and
mental health.
We sacrifice our resiliency, wesacrifice our physical and
mental health.
And so his third category forplanning in any given year.
So he's about setting goals.
(18:23):
So we talked about like oneyear goals and three year goals.
He does his template, does itin these, in three areas the
career, kind of finances life.
But self, like what do you do?
That's just resilient,resilient, you know.
Like is just for you.
Like I had a client I wascoaching yesterday and he's
(18:44):
bought this sports car and he'sgoing to take it to a racetrack
for the first time this weekendand it's that's just for him,
right, right, and he's soexcited about it and, you know,
just thrilled.
So like what is it for you?
That is fun, that renews you,gives you energy back.
(19:08):
Sometimes it's doing thingswith other people, so that can
be kind of a combination withthat life relationships.
But again, it's something thatreally um cause.
Again, I for years, uh,squeezed myself out one,
especially like I'm a recoveringalcoholic.
So you know, for a couple ofdecades I was a daily drinker
and was, you know, hurtingmyself every day.
(19:32):
Um, until I finally that coach,kevin Lawrence, was the first
person human being I admitted Ihad a drinking problem to and he
coached me to go to 12-steprecovery and now I've been sober
for 15 years.
Amazing Congratulations, thankyou very much.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I think one of the things that, especially you know
, the world's changed so muchand it's so fast, right,
everything's so much demand onpeople and kids and I love when
you, when you give yourself areally good, solid goal plan and
you meet benchmarks, you rewardyourself.
I really think a lot of peopleforget to do that and I'm glad
(20:09):
you talked about that becauseyou've got to have.
We're all human.
We need to celebrate.
You know that we've achievedsomething and sometimes that
achievement is for yourself andit feels weird sometimes to
celebrate yourself, right, butyou know what your friend is
doing.
I mean that's awesome, it'ssomething that's going to be
exciting and fun and he earnedit, so now he's doing it for
himself.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
So I think that's really cool and I will say I am
terrible.
I'm really guilty of likeachieving the next big thing and
it's like literally 30 secondslater I'm like into the next
challenge, into the next bigthing.
Like this idea of a pause, oflike soaking it in like gee, you
worked for this for three years.
(20:48):
Maybe you should like could you?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
take maybe a minute, two minutes, yes, and nobody
does.
I mean I don't want to saynobody does it.
People don't do that enough.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
They definitely For me it's still a very ongoing
part of my personal growth is toget better at at just
acknowledging some of thesegreat things that are going on.
I mean, I do and I writegratitude lists, but it's really
pausing enough to really let itcome into my heart.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, not just be in my head.
Yeah, you're very, I must sayyou're very easy to talk to.
Um.
You know I just met you and Ifeel like I've known you forever
.
Um, can you tell everyone alittle bit about uh?
You know how they could connectwith you um, how you could help
them in their business that youdo like that elevator pitch.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Sure.
So my website iscoachdjgreercom.
That's coach D, as in David J,as in James greercom.
Every webpage at the top it hasmy email address, it has my
phone number.
Awesome, awesome.
If you're stuck on something,reach out to me.
I offer free one-hour coachingto any entrepreneur that's stuck
(21:57):
and I'm happy.
No obligation, we'll just spendan hour on the phone and you
know my promise to you if youspend one hour with me, you'll
have three ideas that accelerateyour business in the next 90
days.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Love that.
That's worth the hour rightthere.
Yeah, right.
All right, so I'll be callingyou.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
You said you already had a coach.
I do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I do.
But you know what I?
I've had so many coaches in mylife, but I have a, you know, I
have my, my physical coach formy training, and then I have a
mindset coach, um, but I I'm notworking with a business coach
at the moment.
Um, you know, kind of in in thesearch for that right now and
I'm at a point where I think alot of people get I've been in
this business for 30 years andI've built my empire.
(22:42):
We're the largest real estatecompany in the area, we have 250
agents and you get to a pointwhere it gets a little tiring
and you need that new stretchgoal or whatever it is.
So I've been talking to peopleand a lot of people are where I
am and they've kind of succeededto where they always wanted to
go.
But then they get there andit's like now what you know
(23:05):
what's next.
So that's what I want to talkto you about is what's next for
Therese?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Great and I would love to do that.
And as I remind people, likeyou know, I don't know what I'm
going to grow up to become,Right Like it's.
Isn't that awesome though I'mstill working on it, and
sometimes it's reallyfrustrating.
And then I remind myself, likethink of all the opportunities
you have, like just how rich youknow a life and all the things
(23:31):
you've done.
I've done all these things andyet I still have an amazing set
of opportunities in front of me.
It's more about like choosingthe right, the quote right, but
you know, choosing them becausethere still are so many
opportunities in front of me.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Yeah, I think that you know, just starting off your
day realizing how lucky we allare to have the life that we
have and still have theopportunity to grow it to
something more and bigger.
But again, like I said, I thinkit does take having someone
else to talk to and having acoach who can direct you,
because we get so caught in itat certain things.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It's really hard, yeah, it's very hard to have
that self-reflection, and it'salso hard to see.
Sometimes I point out things topeople that to me are like
they're so obvious yes and it'sand to them it's like poof, like
it's no, no, I'm not really.
Well, you know, you told me Aand B and C and D and E, so
(24:30):
aren't you like this?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Oh shit, I am.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Yes, absolutely.
Well, David, it has been anabsolute pleasure speaking with
you.
We'll get this out and we'llhave all your contact
information for everybody toreach out.
Thank you so much for having menow.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Just thanks so much and thanks to your listeners for
being there thank you, have agreat day.
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