Episode #1 - Intriguing Insights from Andrew Codd's Diverse Career Path

Discover the inspiring journey of Andrew Codd, the President of AVF Worldwide. Andrew generously shares his insights on transitioning from sales to entrepreneurship, the importance of mentorship, and striking a balance between his career and personal life. He discusses his unique philosophy of integrating an 'ecology of activities' that resonates together and his personal experiences of achieving work-life equilibrium.

Get ready to be intrigued by Andrew's approach to maintaining his fitness regime and its significant impact on his life. His insights on getting back into shape, adopting a healthier lifestyle, and the mental clarity that accompanies physical fitness are truly enlightening. He also shares his thoughts on taking risks, his EQI assessment, and how engaging conversations with people can provide insightful perspectives.

We discuss the importance of taking the first step even if you are unsure of your path, the role of support systems in preventing burnout, and how creating the right environment is pivotal for growth. Tune in to this captivating conversation where we discuss Andrew's optimistic outlook and the power of positive self-talk.

Connect with Andrew at [e-mail] or via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcodd/

Check out Andrew's podcast at Home - #SITN Strength In The Numbers (sitnshow.com)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
You need to have the right environments to match
strengths or adjust theenvironment or the type of
things you're looking to achieveto align with the capabilities
of what's there as well.
I think there's probably betteranalogies out of it, but you
can't get elephants to climbtrees and things like that I
love that one.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
You are and will always be your most valuable
asset.
Welcome to the MeeYank podcasta series of conversations with
individuals living happy,healthy and engaged lives, while
exploring the importance ofemotional intelligence to thrive
in this ever-changing world.
My name is Nigel Franklin, aCPA MBA and a certified

(00:43):
emotional intelligence coach.
My mission and passion is toenable others to be that best
version of themselves byunderstanding the importance of
making investments in theirphysical, mental and spiritual
well-being.
Let's start the show.
So for our first conversation,we have Andrew Codd.

(01:04):
Andrew is the CEO of AVFWorldwide, the president of
Fanatics.
He is an award-winningpodcaster of the Strength in
Numbers show, which is availablein more than 170 countries.
He's a best-selling author anda failed Navy aviator.
That's very, very true.
There's got to be some failuresin there along the way.

(01:26):
Andrew, welcome to the show.
Super excited to chat with you,Excited also that you're
willing to mentor me on thispart of my journey for the
audience.
So the MeeYank concept startedfrom my travels in 2017, as I
traveled more internationallyand was trying to figure out how
I can be my best self andperform at my best level.

(01:46):
I think I'd done it for about ayear and I just talked about
seeing yourself as the mostimportant entity in the world
and making investments in yourspiritual, mental and physical
well-being on a daily basis, tokind of constant view towards
your goals, and I had theopportunity not just to present
it at the AICPA conference butshortly after to be a guest on

(02:09):
Andrew's podcast.
I credit you with breeding lifeinto it, because there was
value and I appreciated talkingabout it so much and the energy
that we exchanged.
I think it was so exciting thatI've moved it forward.
So here I am, Thank you.
Thank you for breeding lifeinto that idea.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I appreciate you saying that.
I suppose that we'd like tothank you for arranging this
today and hopefully the audienceand those listening in get some
value.
I hope they do.
But what a fantastic conceptand you're right, we're great in
it.
I see that day, yeah, and sincewe know we've kicked it around
a bit and yeah, the time's flownin between.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's crazy, yeah, I know, but you know it's
interesting, though it's fromthat conversation and I think
they try to live a connectedlife, but we've connected and
helped each other in differentways over that time.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
So it's actually been this nice two-way relationship.
Yes, it has.
It has been yeah, and I reallyhope I again, as I said to the
audience, you get something fromthat today as well, because I
know we have yeah.
So, yeah, curious to see wherethis goes.
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
It's 6.15 am in Cork Ireland, and what was actually
pretty cool was we didn't meetuntil now.
So, Tom and I we flew in tohave this conversation in person
because I figured that would bethe right way to get the energy
and thank you again foraccommodating that because,
again, we're in Ireland for what?
12 hours.
So tell us who's Andrew.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, yeah, good question, nigel.
I would say okay, the audience.
After the fact that we're inCork, ireland, that's a rock in
the Atlantic Ocean for somepeople who may be not familiar
where it is.
We have a great heritage hereand it's actually where my
journey probably began, becauseI grew up in Ireland.
I've lived in a few differentplaces and spent my career

(03:53):
supporting companies andorganisations in various parts
of the world.
So from a family perspective,I've four kids, we've got a
lovely family set up here, asmall holding of land, and it's
great to be able to show up, doloads of really cool things
around the world in the businessworld or like the podcasting

(04:14):
with the writing even and see myfamily grow up, and it's one of
the coolest things.
In the morning I get to seethem.
Sometimes at lunch dinnerthere's a bit of travel with the
work we do, but that'sunderstandable as well.
I really appreciate the timeswe are together and, as you said
earlier, the failed Navyaviator.
So during my first in growingup here in Ireland, I did want

(04:34):
to.
Actually, I was just inspiredby the whole Top Gun thing, so I
said, yes, that's exactly whatI want, I think when I grow up.
I never thought I'd become anaccountant Instead, but before
we got accounting.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
accounting is just as exciting, andrew, so let's just
there are areas.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I did try sale All my uncles were in sales
actually and I grew up on theroad with them, my weekends and
holidays at being out with themon their own selling different
products to retailers and so on.
And yeah, I could do that but Ijust was never really drawn to
the sales.
I really love numbers butseriously, my first love was I
just had loads of posters of F15 Eagles around my bedroom wall

(05:10):
and I know they flew Tomcatsand Top Gun, but no, I, the F 15
was for me and I was a greataviator on a computer, but just
I never really followed up thatdream of mine.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
So you never know.
You never know.
I've only my forties.
You never know, you can stillget there professionally.
Then your podcast is on financeand creating value within
finance, but you mind sharing alittle bit about your career arc
and some of the things thatyou've done?

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I wouldn't regard it as really exciting.
But I dabble with the idea ofbecoming an accountant because I
was advised by.
I used to play.
I used to play the church organ.
I remember one of the nunstelling me asked me questions
about me and it hadn't quiteexplained to her about the
failed Navy, navy, navy, navy,aviator concepts and I'd
actually that's what I reallywanted to do.

(05:57):
But then she said after a fewquestions I said I was good at
numbers and whatever.
She never thought aboutbecoming an accountant.
I didn't think that's whatwould have happened.
But the cool thing withaccounting is I love business.
I love understanding howbusinesses work, what they do
well, where they could better,how do the numbers flow?
And accounting teaches you thetransactions, how they flew
through an organization and alsothe language of business, which

(06:17):
revolves around the numbers.
And I suppose, with the salesside of the things that I had
growing up, I was very good thenat the telling stories about
the numbers and I just foundmyself increasingly in front of
investors or senior managementin these companies.
So I just ended up workingacross loads of industries.
I felt a bit like the guy, theguy, the robot from short
circuit, johnny five for some ofyour listeners input.

(06:37):
I just wanted to be exposed toloads of different businesses
and learn, so I got to workacross loads of different
industries and I suppose towardsthe end of my sort of days
working as an employee, I was agel for a good period of time in
the technology sector andworking with them on the
services side, and I had quite alarge business, a unit area
responsibility in the manybillions, and I've got this

(07:00):
opportunity now to become how doyou say, hopefully develop a
very well known brand of financesoftware amongst the community
as well, because again, with thepodcasting and the connections
that have come off the back ofthat, you get to understand,
talking to other CFOs, otherleaders out there as well, what
their challenges are and there'ssome thinking out there that
there's a lot better we could bedoing in finance team

(07:22):
supporting our organization,supporting the decision making,
and that's where I startedputting some ideas on paper,
getting a group of developerstogether, developer developers
and we came up with thephonetics to complement the
services was we provide us atAVF worldwide.
And it's just a really cooljourney Again being able to do
this and this rocket andAtlantic Ocean and from Cork,

(07:43):
it's like our neighbors ournearest neighbors are cows
around here, freezing cows, soit's like there's not that many
people around here.
It's just cool, it's justreally not.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
So where has your career taken you?
You said you, and I'm going tocome back to how many different
things, but I do believe thattravel and exposure to different
cultures, different people, itdoes shape us right.
It solidifies and approach theworld.
It solidifies an appreciationand understanding of your
journey.
So what are some of the placesthat it's taking you?

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose the country wise, I suppose
most of the time it's been spent, like I guess, in the UK,
ireland and the US, so Eastcoast of the States and then
across Europe as well.
We've had a pleasure workingwith a number of different
management teams, so we got towork with German teams based out
of Frankfurt, france, paris,dubai, cairo.
Weird enough, unlike yourself,nigel, I've not been to Asia

(08:36):
ever, even for vacation.
Really, yeah, no, seriously.
So that's something I've notdone, although my eldest son has
moved over to Perth inAustralia, so I do hope to get
out that way within the nextyear.
So, it seems we're having agreat time out there.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, I think it's actually so.
We just flipped it all the wayaround, so a lot of the places
that you've experienced have notexperienced as well.
So it's one of thoseinteresting things.
I'm hoping to get to thoseplaces while you're hoping to
get there.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
No, it's like, yeah, it's like track.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, it's, but it's interesting, right, how it's
almost like supplementing your,your experiences as you go along
.
But so you've grown up.
I think you an entrepreneur now, right, how do you get?
How did you get there?
Is it something that you'vealways been into?
Because one of the things thatstrikes me about you and from
our initial conversations, youdo a lot of different things.

(09:26):
What I wanted to talk about isthe mindset to do a lot of
things, because, from anaccountant's perspective and I
apologize to any accountants whoare listening think in a very
structured manner the mostaccountants we're used to
operating and what happened, notwhat's happening.
I think it's a very differentstandpoint.
Accountants, again, aren'tnecessarily the population, the

(09:47):
largest population ofaccountants are not
entrepreneurs, are not peoplewho will step out and do things.
So what's the mindset and howdo you, how do you talk about
that?

Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, I would say like I probably would have gone
down like when I was atuniversity I did actually,
before I even went to university, actually, and I left school.
All my friends went off touniversity and I didn't no, I am
stay behind.
It wasn't that I was just toocool, it's just really didn't
know what I wanted to do.
So I just fell back into asales job and so, yes, I hadn't

(10:16):
quite embarked on being anaccountant just yet and I set up
my own business and as part ofthat journey I realized I didn't
have the skills to run abusiness.
It was profitable, reallyprofitable, and it was based out
of London, in England, and theywere selling soft drinks and
snacks into schools andretailers around there.
And I just again the way I wasable to interpret the

(10:38):
profitability I could source thegoods at lower costs and I
could be much better connecteddistributors and undercut them
on price.
But they were selling a lot ofvolume, is very busy and I just
wasn't very good at delegatingand stuff like that.
So I didn't have the skillslike you'd expect to find in a
corporation and I didn't havethe understanding to run a
business properly, or confidence, for that matter.

(11:00):
So then that's when I startedto embark on the accounting was.
I went to college to learnthose skills and then apply them
on the summers in variousbusinesses and then started on a
career path with that.
So I actually did start out asan entrepreneur and now I know
more what I'm doing, what'sexpected of me, but it was a
very slow journey.
But I guess, like one thing maybe, nigel, I'm never really in

(11:23):
a rush that way, if that makessense.
I may have a sense of urgencyat the time, but if I look at my
career, I was never really in arush to go back to being an
entrepreneur.
I like the safety of a paycheck.
And then, interestingly enough,when Katie, my wife, wanted to
move back to Ireland, based ourkids there and so on, it was
like, okay, it's not really anysort of real jobs at moment.

(11:43):
It was around the time of therecession in 08, I think, and I
said, look, I'll set up my ownbusiness again and do some
consulting work.
And it worked out really well.
It was really lucrative, so Iwas able to dip back into that
at the time and then I saw howto say an opportunity, come up
with a Forerunner for Dellcalled EMC, and then I went to
work for them again.
It wasn't.
It wasn't about the money,because there was a massive pay

(12:04):
cut involved with that, but itwas just nice to spend time and
see my kids go up.
So, yes, I was having a career,but I think we've talked about
this before this idea of ecologyUnderstanding what things you
want out of on a very differentscale so it could be your from a
learning perspective, or itcould be from a career
perspective, or familyrelationships or money
perspective, and thenunderstanding how much you value

(12:24):
each of those and then aligningwhat you're doing with those.
So sometimes in my career wasthat entrepreneur route.
Other times it was to be asalaried employee, which doesn't
sound as exciting but it justwas.
It just suited where we were inour lives at that time.
And now I'm at a stage where,yeah, it's something I feel is
the right thing to do for whatMyself and my family are looking

(12:46):
outside the life and have outof life and the things they want
.
And, yeah, it's working outreally well and that's another
cool thing.
It's like even down to thefirst sale, right when you start
out.
I spoke only left corporatelife like three weeks and I'd
already had the first sale inthe new company.
And it's just like I had noreal plans.
It's just, you just fell in,and I think it's because you

(13:08):
just developed the connectionsalong the way.
So it was just it, justeverything just seems to fit in
together for us, or?
maybe it's because we are sofocused on having that ecology
of putting our time into theright things and making sure
we're not surprising one at thebehest of another.
Yeah, and we might havedescribed it, say, up and down,
nigel, like in the past, likeyou're doing all of these things
and it's a bit all over theplace.
But I think the common threadto a lot of it is trying to find

(13:31):
that route back to ecology, thefit of all those Activities, in
a way that works.
And yeah, there's beensometimes I felt really burned
out, no one energy and I've beenable to very well course,
correct because I've got a goodgroup of people around me, good,
good connections, acquaintances, friends and family to keep me
grounded and people I can talkto.
Yeah, I think that's very key.
I think you were the mentorwould mention the word mentoring

(13:53):
, such an underrated thing.
I wish I don't cover thatsooner.
In my career I come across amentor.
Till I was like 25, I would saysomeone I could call a mentor
and that's where the podcastgrew up actually was and I was.
So I was getting all thesequestions from people is like,
how do you do this and finance,or how would you do that and I
really I don't have all theanswers.
I am the worst person to beasking because I'm trying to

(14:15):
figure all this stuff out Right.
So I said, why not just?
Why not just like I?
I'm quite happy to ask peopleon behalf of others and I'm
interested in learning myself,so, like I'll just record all
those conversations of peoplethat know stuff more than I do
and then I'll put them up onlinefor other people to access.
And, by the way, nigel, Iactually brought this idea to
some of the main accountinginstitutes out there.
They just weren't interestedand I just got frustrated with

(14:37):
that.
You've got these amazingnetworks of finance accounting
professionals more better than Ihave.
And then so I just Screw youguys, I'll just go do it myself.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
What's interesting now is that back to the
accountants.
In the way that we think andbehave, it's not a very forward
thinking profession.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
That's the thing right.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
So it's not.
You don't have to be asinnovative as you need to be,
and that's one of the fears thatI would have Be becoming
entrenched in all the ideasbecause then you don't actually
move forward.
Yeah, but what you actuallyjust shared, you shared and I'm
if I want to make sure I'mfollowing you because I'm
excited to Dig deeper into someof it.
You talked about starting outfrom a place where you didn't

(15:16):
know what you wanted to do, butyou still made forward movement
with it.
You're able to fall back on onthe sales portion of it because
that's what you had like.
That's where you were.
You grew up, but as you foundyour way, you gain capabilities,
you gain confidence, and youtalked about and I'll get back
to you talked about running onall cylinders and getting closer

(15:38):
to burnout, sometimes Having asupport system, but I think the
ecology portion of it I want to.
I wanted to make sure weexplored a little bit more and
one of the times you werespeaking, I think you shared
that.
Um, as part of one of your downtimes, you have a greenhouse,
all right, and I think you tiedthe idea of the greenhouse Into

(16:03):
the ecology and backed it into away of looking at life.
I say these things like how doyou remember?
That's the exciting part abouthaving those conversations, but
the way that you actually talkedabout it was in a in that way
of creating conditions that areconducive to growth.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Yeah, exactly right.
There's actually a bit storyabout the this greenhouse or
some people like my color thepolytunnel.
So I went to my brother-in-lawand he has one and it's like on
a commercial grade and I waslike I had no idea the work
involved.
So, anyway, I went away andordered it.
But one of the cool things Iwas looking forward to it wasn't
quite flying a fighter jet, butwas actually driving one of
those mini diggers for a fewdays.
So I just cleared my diary andI just had great fun with a mini

(16:43):
digger during the, the pandemicto clear a load of earth and it
was really good fun.
But how do you say so?
Yeah, so that was the fun bitof it.
Putting up this huge structurewasn't as much fun.
It's like semi commercialpolytunnel.
It's 40 foot by 18, so it'squite a big big deal.
And then once you put it in,you've got to put the raised
beds in.
But all the things you need todo inside of that if you think
about growing a garden, even ifit wasn't like vegetables or

(17:05):
fruits or anything like that wasyou need to provide the right
environment for things to besuccessful.
And I guess when I startedtransitioning from being an
accountant or maybe a financeleader or business leader.
Then it came to me.
I felt like I had to like go upa level and just be able to see
the full field of play and comeup with a strategy and create
an environment where we could,as one of my previous mentors

(17:27):
said, goes, andrew, you seem tohave this in a creating whether
he called a performance,execution environment, but what
I think he meant by that is, ifyou think about a greenhouse or
a polytunnel and what goesinside, you basically got to
make sure that you got goodgroundwork in there.
That one, the polytunnel, isnot going to blow away in a wind
and we got a lot of wind inIreland along a lot of gales.
I think we had a.
It was 100 kilometers the othernights, about 80 mile an hour,

(17:50):
70 mile an hour winds orwhatever does a night.
So we get a lot of wind, so itneeds to have solid foundations,
but also that it's going tohave to say a structure going
forward, some sort of structurearound it, and then inside of
that you got to look after thesoil.
And polytunnels or greenhouses,you might have raised beds
because they're easier to workon.
So you raise it up a bit.
So let's stress on the back youneed to have the right mix of

(18:11):
soil for the right conditionsand make sure that it's
regularly watered.
If you see weeds, 10 to theweeds so that you're not
stirbing the growth of the, theplants, the fruits and the
vegetables that you've got there.
So it's like I didn't reallyhave time to go in and out and
so on.
As much but um, but anyway.
So look, it's uh, it's a but.
It's also a nice way of doingdowntime and just reminds me of
analogy.
It's like sometimes I feel likewe're gardeners tending to our

(18:33):
gardens and again it's aboutmaking sure there's good
foundations, we're looking afterthe environment or planting
stuff that's appropriate for theenvironment as well.
This comes back, maybe, to theidea of people's strengths and
weaknesses.
Frustrated, I always wonderedfor years why, when you do like
these development programs, theytend to hone in on your
weaknesses, like Like we did,like an assessment together
night.
I, like I've always known myempathy isn't great.

(18:55):
Oh, it never has been, and foryears people were trying to get
me to do better at that.
And I actually married someonewho's got amazing empathy.
She could just look at you andfeel you straight away.
She knows exactly what you'rethinking.
I'm not like that.
I have to ask loads ofquestions and even then I might
not get it.
Find it very hard to put myselfin other people's shoes.
But uh, but there's other.
But there's other strengths Ido well and that's a bit like a
garden, like you're not gonnalike an island.

(19:16):
Lemons can grow given the rightconditions, but it's a lot of
work.
I've actually got a lemon treeand it's actually growing.
But I had one once and itdidn't grow very well because I
didn't have the rightenvironment for it.
You need to have the rightenvironments to match strengths
or adjust the environment or thetype of things you're looking
to achieve To align with thecapabilities of what's there.
As well you can I think it'sprobably better analogies out of

(19:37):
it, but you can't get likeelephants to climb trees and
things like that.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
I love that one.
You can get elephants to climbtrees it actually can try, but
it's not going to work.
I don't think trees are goingto be able to take it Now.
I backed up the idea.
It's the foundation.
It's watering it to grow theweeds, weeding out the weeds and
also Managing for rodents.
Right Like the weeds and therodents could be your mind, and

(20:04):
the weeds maybe the weeds andthen the rodents can be just
people who are not Not helpingyour progress or actually
detracting away from it.
But I like the idea of aperformance execution
environment and also, I actuallyliked that one.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
You didn't have the watering right Fact for you.
I actually didn't realize this.
You can actually over waterstuff and it does it damage?
You don't want to do too muchwatering.
It's just like a bit likeGoldilocks and the porridge is
she wants it to be just right.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I like that idea the performance execution
environment or an environmentfor growth.
That's a mindset that I want tosay, that I'm going to keep
running with as I talk to myteams and as I think about how
we can actually be moreeffective.
One of the things you sharedthat Earlier in your career you
didn't have the confidence orthe capability.

(20:51):
What were some of the failuresthat you had in the early years?
And I know you talked about theempathy part of it and maybe
just for the audience, this willtalk a little bit more about
the eqi definition of empathy.
In a little bit you shared itwas that you were always goal
oriented and you wanted to getthings done and you drove hard
and I think that's from some ofthe conversations.

(21:11):
But, yeah, what were some ofthose, those mistakes that you
said that you looked at thatlike looking back at now you go,
you know what?
Yeah, this was actually not.
This was a, an opportunity or anew plane for me to operate
from.
I needed to learn this so I canbe better.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, I suppose maybe my, I hid my my like a
confidence up in sense ofentitlement, or maybe that was
just the fact I was in my 20sanyway, Going to that a little
bit, a sense of entitlement,because you see that a lot now
teams are multi-generational.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
It's one of the growing up, so when you say a
sense of entitlement, help alittle bit with that.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I remember I was really I would really go to
Employee.
I really love working there,love the teams.
I felt I was learning loads andI'd actually qualified as an
accountant.
But whatever way the industrywas at that time, they couldn't
offer a salary rise to alignmentmarket value because once you
got your letters I think it waslike a probably a 25 percent,
maybe 30 percent increment,which was a lot for a young

(22:10):
family.
I was about to get married aswell at the time.
We were looking at our firstmortgage, so it was a fairly big
deal to get paid a bit more andso I actually ended up leaving
the company.
So I felt I was entitled tomore, but obviously I hadn't
made the case in the right wayand so on.
So I just moved company Withoutreally thinking much about what
I wanted to do and turn it tothe worst career movement, my

(22:33):
mind.
I move for money.
I hated the environment.
I was working 60 70 hours aweek and completely upset the
ecology of my life.
My Say I was even lucky I'vegot married at that stage and
start having kids.
So I was, but luckily peoplearound me to help course correct
after.
But I think I started lookingfor a job after five or six
months and rather than asensible entitlement.

(22:54):
I then looked into myself whatvalue could I offer?
What type of position do I needit next to get me to where I
wanted to?
And I met this amazing mentorwho showed me this framework, a
way of thinking about a careerthat started with the end in
mind, which is great advice fromSteven Covey start with the end
mind.
I get a really strong pictureand get emotional about what

(23:15):
type, which would get us hardfor me, but get a picture about
the type of life you want tolive.
And he started like with acareer angle, but then I valid
it over the time.
I said no, not just about yourcareers, like what type of
relationships you want to behaving, saying three years time.
Or like what type of where doyou want to be living.
And like what type of role areyou doing, who you're talking
with, what type of money you'remaking, what type of activities

(23:35):
you doing outside of work anddoes work allow you the time to
do the activities?
Because you've got to make itrealistic.
And then you got to go back toyour strengths and it's the next
step.
It's okay.
What are your certificationsand strengths in your networks
and what are you doing now andyou want to keep on doing, and
then the gap in between isbecome solvable.
It tells you what your nextmove might need to be.
So then I was able to figure outwhat my next move was, and then

(23:57):
all my moves since were verywell thought through, purposeful
, and it gives you that sort ofsense of purpose and then I just
felt I was able to take thingsthrough another level.
Of course, I still have all theright answers, but I felt like
I was making progress to sortsomething that was worthwhile.
Yeah, and I've not only beenable to do that for myself, but
with the podcast and I did a bitof coaching along the way as
well that's actually helpedthousands and thousands of other

(24:19):
people in their career and noncareer activities, and that's
that's one of the things Idefinitely will look back on in
my own all the years and say,yeah, if it hadn't been for
those mistakes and those maybenot making the best career
choices earlier on because I wasgetting entitled and so on,
then then I probably wouldn'thave stumbled across this and To
been able to influence not onlymy own life, my family's life,

(24:41):
but others as well, which hasbeen yeah, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
If you're enjoying the content.
I hope it's not too much to askthat you like, follow and even
share this podcast with someonewho you think might find it
beneficial.
Let's jump right back into theshow.
I I really like that frameworkand maybe that's the accounting
to me again, or the formerathlete going back as framework.

(25:05):
I think structure breedsdiscipline and discipline breeds
performance right Disciplineover time, but it's one of the
things that that's striking mein.
the framework is it's likethings break down in that
framework, it seems dynamic andit's okay to start with the end

(25:26):
in mind, but it can be a verybumpy road.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, and the way we line up the model and maybe I
could share some of the links to.
I actually took people throughit on the podcast because we
have a Monday memo section on aMonday which, like, we just go
to an idea that's emerging orwhatever, or sharing a framework
or something, and then, withthe main interview done on the
Thursday, but just on that one,the model itself is like linear.

(25:49):
It's like a step up stairs.
We take one step at a time thatso you go upstairs and a safe
and effective way, but thejourney between is definitely
not linear.
I think a lot of your listenerscould relate to that.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Sometimes I think it's, and it may be one of those
naive things, but we do expectit to be linear.
So, talk to me about.
In that framework, what aresome of the challenges that you
found over time?

Speaker 1 (26:15):
So you've lived this experience.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
You've lived the framework now for 20 years but,
what have you found to be thosetimes when the system would come
off track?

Speaker 1 (26:25):
I know, yeah, and that's annoying because it's
such a systematic mindset.
It's about making a betterenvironment or system actually,
and how to interrelate.
But know the one thatimmediately comes to mind
because my wife, kati, neverlets me forget it.
On that first time implementingthis way of thinking, I felt
like I needed to get into amultinational type role,
leadership wise, and I felt thatthe accounting was a really

(26:47):
good qualification.
But some US multinationalcompanies they wouldn't
recognize the qualification Ihave.
It's like they they'd thinkyou're like a bookkeeper.
So I had to go and get like anMBA from a good university.
So that was one of the things Ihad to achieve on it and the
reason why my wife would neverlet me forget it because we had
a young kid at the time I justwas so on purpose from a career

(27:07):
perspective that I just had mysite set on.
I'm going to achieve this and Igot, when I got my MBA I would,
a distinction.
I put so much effort.
So I think I got an A in everysingle module, except for one,
which was marketing.
I got a B but everything elsewas an A.
I tended to be very disciplined.
I had before that the symmetryor something probably not to the

(27:29):
same level or standard toyourself, nigel, but I was a
semi-professional athlete in asport called rugby, played it to
a very high standard, gotinjured and then but again, that
was at the time I didn't have alot of direction, but if I set
my mind to something I wouldhave achieved it.
And it was the same with thisframework out of this plan, and
nothing was going to stop megetting there.

(27:49):
And no, I achieved everythingon it which was, which is really
cool, but it was verycareer-orientated and that's
where we came on.
Stock was the stuff going onoutside.
I was neglecting my family, myyoung family at the time.
It started off really well atthe beginning.
So that's why I've adapted theframework over time to include
this idea of ecology and havinghow do you say, non-career

(28:10):
perspectives in there as well.
Coming back to these other areasof values, the things we value
in life, so our own growth, ourown learning, our relationships,
the money or hobby side of theequation, like you don't really
say live to work, you work tolive.
So I have to turn that aroundthat way and so, yes, I've
adapted the framework over timebased on the hard lessons I had.
But yeah, kati never forgetsand she was had a really hard

(28:33):
time because I was busy awayeither working and networking,
learning with the NBA anddriving towards that and she was
left bringing up these kidspretty much on her own as a
single mother.
It was.
We probably lost a couple yearsof our life together on that
one and thankfully she had thepatience to stay with me.
Honest, she probably knew thatI probably would have achieved a

(28:53):
few of the things like themoney side and the career side,
and that's this.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
I don't think she would like hearing that.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Adry, but I don't know like she's got good taste.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I'm gonna say the ladies all think about athletes
and here Katie is thinking aboutthe accounted right.
So just give her that that,give it those flowers.
But it's interesting to like,and I don't when I say I don't
like it's not celebrating it butI like the fact that you said
you lost years of your lifetogether and is that concept of
and I know we chatted about itbefore but is that concept of

(29:27):
being professional at certainthings in your life and then
amateur at other things?
right, yeah, so it's like yougive all right it's like you
give all your effort to your jobbut then you come home and it's
something that's totallydifferent and I joke about.
I think it's in the it was inthe book by Marshall ghostman,
triggers, and it was that ideaagain professional at work and

(29:48):
being amateur at home, right, soyou give patience at work, we
give effort at work, and then wecome home and we're like you
know what I'm tired, so I'm notgonna give it.
But you're the first personlike who've talked about it, who
shared it, as I lost years oflife together with my kids and
my wife by just focusing singlyon me.

(30:09):
And now there are sacrifices tomake, but I don't think all the
time that we can find.
It doesn't always have to be onthe fringes, it doesn't always
have to be one or zero, there'ssome in between.
Right, as life's not binary.
I joke about it.
I have friends who have oneswitch in life.
It's just either on or off thatthere is some part of it in
between.
But what you've learned on thatone right, because that's the

(30:30):
family part, but you still haveto manage you throughout that
poor process and I like when youtied it into hobbies.
What are some of those?
What are some of those things?
What are some of those lessonsyou learned about you and caring
for you?

Speaker 1 (30:41):
yeah, that's a very good point actually.
Yeah, cuz actually, just so youwere talking there, nigel like
an image came into my head ofcars and gears and stuff and the
only thing, friends, be on andoff switches.
There it's like I was thinking,yeah, like probably the better
thing is gears, and maybe that'sthe way I approach this
actually is.
There are different segmentsthat we can value, so obviously
hobbies and ourselves is one forme, didn't.

(31:01):
Even so, I'm so focused on thecareer.
I wasn't even that focused onmy own personal state, whether
it be spiritual, mental orphysical, so that really went by
the wayside as well.
They do say when you get married, you do tend to put on a few
pounds, and I put on a lotactually.
So I have to say I'm a bitprobably in better shape, though
mentally and physically.
I didn't burn out even then orhave a crisis or anything, but I

(31:23):
suppose.
Coming back to maybe the car aswell, actually I'm very lucky
at having good people around meand there was some people seeing
where it was going and theystarted bringing some awareness
to it and that was reallyhelpful.
I even look at what we do infinance and accounting as a bit
like a like a car analogy.
So I'd ask you, nigel, in youraudience, if you were driving

(31:44):
your car right along, say that,the freeway or the highway, how
fast would you drive it if youdidn't have a brake pedal?
Like, how fast would you go?
Would you go at a snail's placeor would you go hell for
leather, a hundred mile an hour?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
yes, that's an interesting one, right.
You will actually probably go.
It depends on the person, right, because there are some people
who don't care about crashing.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
There are cases out there, yeah yeah, I know if
you're actually would probablysay how fast they could try it.
But the point is you need abrake pedal on the car, because
the brake pedal is actually thething that allows you to go
faster with confidence.
Right, I think that's the samewith these frameworks is is you
need to have the people aroundyou that act as that brake pedal
that can help you have theconfidence to go faster, that

(32:24):
they've got your back.
If they see something going outof kilter, they'll talk to you
about it and I'll bring it yourattention.
They're not going to hide.
And I suppose, look, we werefairly young in our relationship
and that's how much.
Katie was one of them, my wifewho was calling it out, but I
had other people as well thatfriends have been around for a
while, and then I startedappreciating the value of
mentors more and had otherpeople calling it out as well,

(32:44):
and I keep saying my empathywouldn't be very strong, so I
couldn't see it in myself andthat's why you need a network of
people around you inside andoutside of work as well, because
you're still one whole personand I think I suppose in later
years I've probably spent a bitmore time now going back to
church a bit more, not not likea regular go or anything, but I
find it very good place togather thoughts and just listen

(33:07):
to just perspectives, like forour guides.
And again, whatever your faithis your faith, but I've just
found that something that that'swork for me and actually on the
statistical side.
I saw this study because I'vegot most my kids now sort of
teenagers or our elders in his20s and it's the red something
that actually a good indicatorof a teenager's happiness is

(33:27):
actually whether they still goto to church or service.
So there is actually thatbenefit.
As well as dragging the kidsalong, it's apparently for their
well-being too.
This is fine.
It's about the activity.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
It's one of those things, that it's the little
things that make you feel goodabout yourself, right, good
about your journey, good aboutwhere you're at at that period
of time.
I want to make sure, though,that I do believe in that same
evolution of the me and concept.
I think that definitely there'sthe body, mind and spirit, and
one of the things that I'vegrown to appreciate having a
partner who's there to go alongfor that ride with you as a

(34:03):
support system is also somethingthat's very helpful to put in
the break pedal on rejuvenatingand getting going, and, in one
way, shape form or another, I'mgonna go into it.
Like.
You touched on a parallel aboutgaining the weight, so my I
gained about.
From my athletic days to thetime, maybe around the time,
that I was married, I gainedabout 30 pounds, and you would

(34:28):
laugh about this pivotalwatershed moment in life, right?
So my ex-wife and I redated andI'm tying it back to you, but I
was smiling when you said itbecause I lived that experience
and we dated off and on sincecollege, so she knew me when I
was in tip-top shape in my life,and then I think it was in the
peak of the financial crisis.
We were just married in thefirst year.

(34:49):
And why I'm on this journeyagain and why I started was we
didn't speak before going towork in the morning.
But I'm getting dressed in thedark.
One morning and I got from her,like I just heard.
Aren't we just bursting out ofour clothes?
lovely, it took me about twodays and I was working a lot of

(35:17):
the time and I came back and Ibought the P90X the videos back
then, right two days later about2 am in the morning, because it
really stuck with me.
But what came after was thebest year.
I started this in October andit was the best season, the best
busy season.
I had a KPMG, I worked out, Iwas in shape, we actually.

(35:40):
I accomplished so much more andmy team accomplished so much
more in that time that's quite ademanding environment, but how
did you find this point for that?
no, but that's the thing, right.
We make time for the thingsthat we find are important, and
I was saying that's just thephysical aspect of it.
There are other things that Iwas doing.
It's it was 30 minutes a day,sometimes an hour a day, and I
found the time to do that rightand it introduced me to so many

(36:03):
different things that thoseharsh words right, because
that's how I found yoga, that'show I found working out again,
it was like that pivotal part oflife for me.
So you gained weight and whatwas that turning point for you?
That you would say this.
You know, this is not the paththat I should be on a different
path because I like that from abehavioral change perspective

(36:25):
what changed for you?

Speaker 1 (36:28):
That's yeah, on the physical side, that's a really I
know I don't, I can't reallyput my finger on.
I said actually no, I don't Iknow what it was actually.
No, to come back to it, I hadthis really crazy notion I'd go
back and try and play some rugbyagain.
That's how I was it.
I was yes, I'll eat a rugby isa bit of a social scene.
Oh, I think we were living inEngland at the time.

(36:48):
There's a bit of a social scenewith it and I was doing a bit
of coaching and some of thecoaches said should go back
clean again.
It looks like you could.
I used to again be fairlyathletic.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
There's a lot of training involved with
maintaining that physique.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
You know, I was like probably well, I was, I'm just
under six foot Tall and Iprobably again, this would be
quite big at the time, becauserugby had just gone professional
at the time when I was younger,and so it was probably about
220 pounds and I didn't have apick of fat on me and I wouldn't
have been an Americanfootballer, but that would have
been a big size for a rugbyplayer.

(37:21):
So that's what I was constantlycomparing myself back to, which
was completely unattainable,because that takes a lot of
effort to stay in that shape Imaintain that muscle mass and
but when you're that shape andyou can do things and like I
always had there people said agreat set of lungs on me I just
keep going.
That was because my, my, I usedto a lot of athletics as a kid
and I had a really good set oflungs on me, which was again a
great benefit for last thing, awhole game and maintaining peak

(37:43):
performance and Then but but youhave this position in rugby
called the prop, which isbasically you're the fat guy and
You're the third and weight ofthe scrubs.
It's a bit like offensivelineman in.
So I'd gone for maybe sail, awide receiver or running back to
offensive lineman essentially.
And yes, you're pretty muchgood for nothing except for

(38:06):
adding weight in certainsituations.
And I think that was enough forme is I need to start getting
back into shape, because becauseyeah, so anyway I did and I
just set on the journey.
So I just started liftingweights again, which was a great
way of burning, burning fat,and then I just started a bit of
running again and and then,yeah, like even now and it's
amazing when you feel likeyou've got a load off of your
body, you can move a lot more.

(38:26):
You got a lot more flexibility,you can do a lot more with a
young family as well.
It was great being able to dostuff with them and taking
activities and not and not sayno, I need to stand back, or
anything like that.
So I felt being physically fit,I was able to enjoy life more
and probably had betterendurance during tougher periods
of work as well.
And the amazing thing is, evennow, to this day, I probably

(38:49):
would train maybe five or sixdays a week, not for any
specific outcome per se, butit's probably half an hour a day
, and during the summer I do itfirst thing in the morning, and
during the winter I start workearly, but then I end an hour or
two during the day to fit thatmaybe before lunch, and so
always find time for it, whereasbefore I certainly neglected it
.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah, I think the clarity of mind and the
confidence that comes withworking out right.
It's not the body creates itsown energy, it's.
It's so important that, if youare looking at your career as a
journey, that you make sure thatyour body, which is the vehicle
that's going to carry usthrough life, is actually in
tip-top shape.
Going back to that the caranalogy it's interesting how, I

(39:30):
think, sometimes we Neglect thefact that where we are from an
energy perspective is acombination of our diet, sleep
and exercise.
Getting to you now, what lightsyou up?
Or the mindset that you carryto keep you from.
You're doing all the things.
You have the structure in place.
You're dynamically thinkingabout where you are and where
you're going, but what's themindset?

(39:51):
And what's the mindset whenyou're meeting obstacles?

Speaker 1 (39:54):
All right, yeah, so yes, I'm actually as was the
mindset with most thingsnowadays is is, I suppose, look,
as a parent, it's I'm justconstantly mindful that I want
to be a good example.
My kids so as much as I madelack empathy a lot.
Probably that's the one thing Iwork really hard on.
It's just trying to say, look,how would they perceive me or
how would I want them toperceive me in terms of tackling

(40:16):
things that face up.
And it's even actually the samewith the client of working
recently, there was an obstaclecame up, I think we were
discussing about like forecastaccuracy was a challenge and and
again, for me it was just likehow do I want to be perceived in
this in terms of, and I startedstrengthening around areas like
optimism and I had this beliefthat everything could be solved.

(40:37):
Because I comes back toprinciples We've discussed in
the past.
Actually, nigel is, you canpretty much if you accept that
measurement Is just the methodof reducing uncertainty.
He doesn't have to be perfect,100%, complete or accurate, but
it's just measurements in itselfas a task is a way of reducing
uncertainty.
Then you can measure anythingand then you can solve towards

(40:58):
that and develop progresstowards that.
I'm the same with forecastaccuracy.
Actually.
I always believe that you cansolve it.
Not only can you solveeverything, can measure
Everything.
Everything is to some degreemeasurable and uncertainty can
be reduced.
Now it doesn't it's noteliminated entirely, but things
can be.
Actually, obstacles can beovercome, if not at least bit

(41:18):
imperfectly.
Oh, by the way, I don't knowthe answer to get around it.
That's why I'm like I pull inpeople to help me understand how
to get around it.
That's a cool thing about beinga leader I didn't appreciate
when I was younger.
I don't need to know all theanswers, and it's really forced
me to rely on smart people.
Be not trying be the smartestperson in the room Like I used
to when I started out.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah, that whole idea that if you're the smartest
person in the room, you shouldchange rooms.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
But it's a really good one, actually, cuz that's
what should have happened sooner.
My career, and even outside ofmy career as well I didn't think
I was the best example I couldbe for my kids.
Yeah, I hope, as they theyremember more as they get older,
that they can pull in the morepositive experiences as part of
my development in theirdevelopment.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, one of the proudest moments that you have
Outside of the family and theregular finance works up and
maybe this is maybe getting towhat's in the podcast and why
and, and the fact that it'sstill not monetized or anything
else.
But yeah, that was another.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Yeah, we don't yeah, yeah, that's actually.
That is actually about think,being able to make it.
How do you say cuz, I suppose?
Look, it's not monetized.
But the way been able to coverthe cost of the podcasting was
was I wrote a book before thatand it just somehow became a
best seller, just seemed tospark people's imagination.
So that funds essentially thepodcast.
Because it did write a secondbook, and I probably should say

(42:35):
we wrote a second book becauseit was baby.
It was basically the first 200episodes.
We just rose up a lot of thenotes from them because it's
full of great advice and I wasexpecting that one to be an
amazing book, because Actuallythe first book was more my
thoughts and then the second onewas like all these really
interesting people's thoughts.
It's like how the heck is thatnot sell?

(42:56):
As well as the first oneprobably comes back to my lack
of marketing capability.
That's that maybe I didn't giveit a very good title or I
thought we promoted it reallywell, but but yeah, so no, that
that was nice moments, I wouldsay, but that's what keeps the
podcast going, but the product Ithink the like.
If you'd asked me part of thismoment, it probably would
actually be becoming a dad andhaving a family Right, so we put

(43:17):
that to one side.
Outside of that, I think it'sjust have been able to connect
with so many people in financeand understand their journeys
and Learn from them theirchallenges and how they're
overcoming them not just frominterviewing people on the show
that we save down this recordingso other people's can listen
into them have been listeninginto hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of times.
But is the it's really justmaking those connections and

(43:39):
learning from the people outsideas well that don't have them
recorded, the people they'reright in or just want to have a
chat and maybe being able tohelp point them in the right
direction.
And the cool thing we're havingall the podcasts there is I can
point them to various episodesthat were recorded, saying go
and listen to this personBecause they I think they had a
similar challenge and this ishow they over.
So I'm not relying Under anypressure at all to pull on my

(44:00):
own.
I think it's that sort ofservice to the finance community
.
I felt like I've been able togive back, but I've got so much
back in return in terms of thatgood feeling that's.
I feel like I've made adifference there and not made
any money out of it, but madesome great connections and maybe
I say maybe I say not made anymoney out of it.
Actually, indirectly I probablyhave, because that's how I

(44:20):
guess where those Declines forthe new company and the
connections and the potentialscoming from is people really
want us to see be successfulwith our new venture.
So actually, maybe there isprobably a lot of monetary value
in it as well, but it's justbeen deferred some somehow.
But yeah, I'm very proud of thecommunity service on that one
and I give them back to thecommunity.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome, right, youdon't necessarily always hear it
and I think someone asked youknow why the podcast idea this
me Inc podcast?
And it's that I've met so manycool people as I've traveled the
world and people who haveinspired me and helped me in so
Many different ways.
That helps with a differentperspective that I can say, okay

(44:58):
, how do I look at this or howdo I deal that, deal with that,
or even just in our conversation.
I've never thought ofmeasurement to reduce
uncertainty, but there's alwayssomething that you can actually
pull and gain from justconversations with people and.
I think that's why I'm here.
So the last part of the one ofthe last things we'd want to go
into is you were one of thepeople who were cool enough to

(45:21):
do an EQI assessment.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
And I know being cool should never go in the same set
.
I don't think, come on, I think.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I don't know if you want to call it brave right, but
not a lot of people, I waswilling to give it a go.
I appreciate it, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
I know you do exactly no, and I enjoy doing it
together.
I was just curious to see whereit went.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
And that's what happens a lot of times.
I think individuals how do Isay?
You have that curiosity forinformation, for self-awareness
that will move you forward, andI think that's what was actually
amazing about it.
So, actually, you were able todo it, or go through an
assessment.
We talked about your report.
What were some of the thingsthat you learned?

Speaker 1 (45:57):
I suppose, look, probably a lot of your listeners
have done assessments over thetime and it just gives them some
indicators.
That doesn't necessarily definewho you are.
Just as, look, based on howyou've answered these questions,
this is how we think you raisein these certain areas and for
me, it probably confirmed a lotof what I felt I'd been
developing towards, showedcertain strengths in certain

(46:19):
areas, particularly aroundindependence and, I suppose,
problem solving, and, if Iremember, I keep coming back to
empathy.
Look, it just suggests to methat there's probably some
credibility in the reportbecause the fact that it scored
me lowest on the air that I knowI am wouldn't try and hide it.
I probably made that point veryclear.
But then I think, but I think,okay, so it's just one step is
doing the assessment.
The second piece, which I thinkis probably more important than

(46:41):
the assessment itself, is whatare you going to do with it?
Because there was some reallywise person said information
does not use this knowledge.
But when you apply knowledge,that becomes wisdom.
But get wise and put it intopractice.
And that's the bit I enjoyed,probably, and got most value out
of it.
I was like, okay, let's usethis as an example of
self-awareness, take the stakein the ground, where you are now

(47:03):
.
What are you going to do withthat information?
So it was just a nice littlebit of an action plan.
Again, those smart objectivesI'm very much goal-oriented that
way and again, breaking it downfigure out what matters to you
and then measure what matters,because what gets measured gets
managed, that's our tagline fromour software.
That's how we did that, and so Iliked that piece because it

(47:24):
resonated very much with me.
So it wasn't the finding thethings, but it was taking those
findings and doing somethingwith them.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
I really liked that from just just as a reminder,
and from the report, like one ofthe coolest things about you is
that you have that positivemental attitude, so that
internal self-talk that you'dhave.
It's positive.
So let's say you'll get aproblem and you're like I can
solve it because I have thisexperience, I have the
confidence, I have thecapabilities to do it right,
which moves you forward.

(47:50):
But I think what empathy andwhen you say empathy is the very
, very pedestrian way of sayingit is that I need to feel what
other people are feeling.
And I think in your situation,and although you said you're not
empathetic is that you operatein the numbers.
It's what's in front of you andI think it's so.
When you say you didn't haveempathy, you're like I

(48:13):
understand what you're saying,but this is what the numbers are
showing me.
So it's not that it's detached,right.
It's not that it's thishorrible thing.
It's usually, yeah, I get it,but there's still this other
thing that we need to deal withthat's actually in front of us.
Yeah, you give a copingmechanism.
Say back to people you know whatI mean Really cool tip for your
audience.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
This is one Katie shared with me and it's really
good if you're like inrelationships as well.
If you feel like you're on theverge of an argument, just say
to someone you're probably rightand they go away feeling
validated.
But again, I have zero empathy.
I'm not felt a person's feeling, but I sense that there could
be an argument.
Just say you're probably rightand then it's like ah, okay,

(48:53):
I've been acknowledged.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
And it just completely diffuses the whole
thing.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
You're not saying someone's right, you're just
saying they're probably right,they could probably be wrong.
It's the same flip of a coin,but it's just how it gets
interpreted at the other end.
So I'm really bad now becauseI've been given too many of
these, these army mechanisms, soI'm like even disingenuous now.
Seriously, I'm hopelessly atempathy.
I have people who are muchbetter than me.
I've got a daughter and a wifewho are just amazing, just like

(49:19):
just you know they'll getexactly it's sent you when
you're walking in, candeconstruct and tell you exactly
how you're feeling just bylooking at you.
That good at it.
They know I'm useless, so Ihave these coping mechanisms.
Yeah, I like that too.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
But, again, I think it's one of those things where
we they're they're strengths andtheir weaknesses parts of it.
Right, they're things that willmove you closer to and there
are things that it wouldactually get you further away
from.
But at least in thisperspective also, I think one of
the coolest things just toremind you of is the optimism
that you showed, fact that,again, the experiences that you
have informs a an outlook onlife of no, it's going to be

(49:56):
okay, it's going to, I'm goingto figure it out.
So I think that is actuallysomething that I think is really
important.
It's actually super helpful aswell.
But, no, I appreciate youtaking the assessment.
Also, the idea that turningknowledge or awareness into
wisdom through practice issomething that I'm actually
going to pull with me as well.
now, oh, we're doing that toeach other.

(50:17):
Right, I take it, I appreciatethat.
But as we stand up now, as justas we try to land it amazing
conversation.
But I wanted to talk about whatlights you up now.
One, what excites you now?
And then, two, is there athrough line in life that's
feeding that motivation?

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yeah, look, I'm a curious, a curious animal.
I think you mentioned that worda minute ago.
I'll go with it.
I love learning stuff and Ilove applying.
Maybe we need no wholeconversation on this, but I've
recently found my way intorenewables and self
sustainability and stuff likethat.
So I love loving outside of thework and the family, just just
doing that, because I see myrole as a bit of a provider as

(50:57):
well, so I can tie things intogether, a common thread to to,
in effect, I think you get thebiggest bang for your buck on
all your sort of the things youvalue.
So, again, if I can tie anddoing things to help my family
provide some sort of financialreturn as well, spend time with
my family doing something thatinterests me that would align
with a hobby and, like with therenewable energy, try not to
electrocute myself as I'mplaying around with all of these

(51:19):
dangerous things.
Danger is a good thing as well,actually, but a danger has to
be with the adrenaline.
It's like I find like a goodway of how do you say, combining
stuff and finding the interests, and that gives you the energy.
So I think the fact that I'vegot this role as a provider, but
I've also got this curiosity aswell.
I like that.
I think that gives me reallygood purpose.
So it's purposeful action wetake.
And then there was a cool teamthinking about it.

(51:42):
A cool team, I could say, is Ipicked it up when I was doing a
bit of sales training again whenI was starting out was, and I
use this against overcomechallenges as well as thinking
about it is understanding whatwe do well.
A lot of people skip that part.
They're always trying to figureout what we can do better and
optimize.
So what do we do?
Never lose sight of that,because that is how you do those

(52:03):
well things.
It really is a really good wayof defining the value you're
contributing.
Now, never lose it.
You can always fall back onthis.
You've all got something tofall back on.
But then that better piece andhelping people come together to
do stuff better.
I think that's been over thelater years.
I've got much better at thatand I suppose that be the theme
is.
I love helping peopleunderstand what it is they do

(52:24):
well and where there'sopportunities to do better, and
figuring out ways on how we cando things better, and that gives
me a great kick.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah, that's awesome Because, just so you know, I
think you live those principlesin that every time that I've
reached out to you, you've beenan amazing resource, always
learn something and your energyalways comes through how you
living life and how youapproaching it.
I appreciate also the balancethat you have in that you do
speak to combined work lifeeffectiveness If you're so, your

(52:51):
family, your hobbies, your jobthat you're doing there's a
passion line that thatintertwines, or all those things
.
Andrew man, I so appreciate youtaking the time to sit with me
this morning and being flexibleenough so that Tom said, hey,
let's, we can actually do this.
Let's fly to, let's fly toIreland.
So this was something that weplan to do over the phone, over

(53:13):
zoom, and I thought that itwould be the best thing possible
to just do it in person.
Thank you, I appreciate you andI will actually, in the show
notes, will, have ways forindividuals to connect with you.
So, andrew, thank you so much.
Thanks a million.
I appreciate you and who youare and what you're trying to do
.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Likewise, feelings completely mutual.
So, yeah, I look forward tomore of our conversations over
the years.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
To wrap up this first episode of the me and podcasts,
I think the one theme thatreally resonated with me is the
idea that there's a cost foreverything that we do.
So the analogy that Andrew madeabout him being solely focused
on his career progression at theexpense or the cost of losing

(54:01):
years of time with his familyand his wife and that's probably
the first time I've heardprofessional articulated in that
way and it's really stayed withme and also the idea of the
break pedal and to go fast withconfidence, you need to have
people around to support you andto have through tellers there
in your life.
I think those are the thingsthat stuck with me from this

(54:22):
episode.
Thank you so much for joiningand I look forward to sharing
the next episode with you inabout two weeks.
Again, appreciate your supportand look forward to future
interactions with you.
Please comment.
Let me know what you think,your thoughts are, the
actualizations you have fromlistening to the show today.
Take it care, eni.
Me speaking with Luke from Iwas just around 20, 20 years old
with his family, who aresimilar out of all of you who'd

(54:43):
been isolated if I told youalready.
Thanks, stu.