Authentic Achievements Episode 2 with Special Guest Michael Tobin OBE
Authentic Achievements Episode 2 with Special Guest Michael Tobin OBE – originally posted on www.authenticachievements.com
From Bestselling author, currently writing the forthcoming book Authentic Achievements – The 7 Secrets to Building Brave Belief, Unstoppable Sales, and Turning Your Leaders Into Talent Magnets for Guaranteed Sustainable Growth, this show shares advice, stories and inspiration to help you achieve exponential growth personally and for your business. Featuring interviews with industry leaders and a separate series on #confidencehacker to help you build authentic confidence.
In this episode, I was thrilled to be joined by Michael Tobin OBE. Michael’s story is an inspiration from the streets of Bermondsey to Serial Entrepreneur his journey includes living in a squat, swimming with sharks and an expedition to the south pole, and we are only scratching the surface. I promise you this is one not to miss. To find out more about Michael please visit www.michaeltobin.online
If you want to find out more check us out at www.kimadelerandall.com or https://lnkd.in/dbXMF6Am or subscribe to our YouTube
Full Transcript:
Authentic Achievements- Interview with Michael Tobin OBE
Kim-Adele
00:00:01
Hi, and welcome to authentic achievements. Today I’ve got the absolute privilege of chatting with the fabulous Michael Tobin, who I’ve had the privilege of talking to once before and learning a bit of your journey. So thank you so much for agreeing to put up with me twice.
Michael Tobin
00:00:21
Good to see you
Kim-Adele
00:00:22
Again. And she, my lovely, so what I’d really love to do is be able to share a little bit about your journey so far and the things that you’re most proud of. So I’m going to hand it over to you because you’ve got such a fascinating,
Michael Tobin
00:00:37
Well, I guess being sort of from the east end of London, there were, there wasn’t much expectation anywhere other than the survival, I suppose, but it was quite a, quite a rough environment back then. And, and, you know, my, my father was in and out of prison and quite a violent individual. And so it really was about survival sort of, you know, the gang that he was in was not an aspirational place for me to want to end up. Thankfully, my mother kind of escaped with me to Africa when I was about seven, so kind of ran away from him when she had an opportunity, but that was moving into what was then called Rhodesia now, now called Zimbabwe. But it was right in the middle of the civil war. So from, from the east end to a civil war, you know, getting petrol-bombed and shot out was, was, was suboptimal out there as well.
Michael Tobin
00:01:37
It is. Yeah. So, and then by the time I got back to so managed to get escape there when I was 12 and, and back into the UK, but they took everything from us as we left the country. So literally we landed back almost like a refugee back into, into the UK with no money, no, no, no, no basis of, of support. And we, we lived in a squat in Stockwell for, for a couple of years, making money, breaking into condemned houses, waiting for demolition and seeing what you could find very often in those days, as people moved out, one thing that all the old, all the old homes had and, but were kind of trending out, was an old piano. And so we’d find these pianos and, and tune them up and sell them on the east street market for 20 quid apiece.
Michael Tobin
00:02:24
And, we’d roll them down the road, you know, so, so that’s how we survived for a couple of years. It was just, just kind of doing that until I, until I got an apprenticeship at the age of 16 and moved into a business called Rockwell automation, which was a, it made robotics, which, you know, again, there was no kind of design in life at all about that, but it was, it was a job. And I was earning, I think my first pay pack, it was about 34 pounds a week, but it w you know, but that was the start. And I always wanted to kind of make money, but the, you know, the concept of an apprenticeship wasn’t even, I didn’t even know what, what value that would or wouldn’t be to me at the time. It was just something that got me, into learning.
Michael Tobin
00:03:13
And, so when I finished my apprenticeship, I was, I was applying for jobs, you know, that I knew I on paper, I had no ability to do, the first one was technical manager for a computer company in London. And, you know, if you, if you do enough, you end up getting a bit of lock. And I went down there and I said, yeah, great. Let’s do it then. And I thought, well, how hard can it be? You know? And so within a short period of time, you either learn or, or sink and fortunately, most things in it, unless, unless you’re a brain surgeon or something like that, you know, that you can learn to do pretty much anything very quickly. And so, I mean, I started working there and then, then eventually, you know, one thing led to another and I was before, you know, I was, I was doing deals in Europe and traveling around.
Michael Tobin
00:04:05
So, yeah. And then, you know, managed to get back to after sort of few years in Copenhagen few years in Frankfurt, many years in France, 11 years in France, setting up businesses around Europe ended up back in 2002 back into the UK found this business that was bankrupt virtually. It was listed, but it was, it was burning cash at an alarming rate. It was a penny stock. People believed it was going to go bust managed to turn that around that in 2015, it was sold for 3.6 billion. So a good 13 year journey, but it was where I learned everything about sort of leadership and what not to do and what to do and how to engage with people and how to inspire them. But it was a good financially sort of good, good thing to do as well. And then since then, I’ve been doing investments, non-exec staff and lots of fun, things like that.
Kim-Adele
00:04:58
I love it. What do you even, I, you even dig into that because, I mean, there are so many things that could have been the thing that made you go, oh, it’s just not for me. So clearly I’m never, I’m never going to get anywhere, but I loved the fact that you’re, you kind of motto is, well, how hard can it be? I’ll give it a try. What, what, what’s the worst?
Michael Tobin
00:05:23
Yes. Fear is, is a, is a completely irrational concept. Really, if you think about it and we, we never fear the past, cause it’s happened. We tend not to fear the present because you’re in it and you’re dealing with it. So, so we fear the future. Now we invariably apply all the negatives we possibly can think of to the future because that’s, that’s the kind of default position. And it seemed variably never as bad as we’ve, as we’ve kind of built it up to be in our minds. And, and you know, if you think about it, if there’s something you can do to augment or improve the future or to de-risk it, then you should do it. And if there’s nothing, then what are you fairing? What are you worried about anyway? Right. And it’s like, worry and fear about the future is like paying interest on a debt you haven’t even drawn down on. So it’s, it’s kind of, it’s, it’s just getting on, just get on and do stuff. And if it doesn’t work out, then get on and do something else. Right?
Kim-Adele
00:06:23
Yeah. Because I think, you know, one thing that I’ve taught me is everything in life is either a lesson, a blessing or both. And even if at the time, it doesn’t feel that much of a blessing look for the lesson, because if it’s not a blessing, it will be the lesson.
Michael Tobin
00:06:36
It’s absolutely true. And so at home with the kids, we, you know, we tried, that was kind of a thing. I tried to install in them that first of all, we try not to use the word mistake or a failure. Those things kind of don’t exist and there’s either you succeed or you learn. Yes. And so in all, in all cases, there’s not failure. And the fear thing is so important though, because, you know, I, I remember when, when this business, I mentioned to you, they descended into the city. And when I told them that I was going to merge two businesses, that would, that had been competitors for years, obviously in their minds. The first thing that we’re thinking about is, oh, you know, that, you know, consolidation means, you know, what’s, what’s going to do, what’s going to happen to my job, you know, am I safe?
Michael Tobin
00:07:29
And, oh, what’s the fear or this irrational fear. And so I took them up to Scotland for a board meeting, and we took a trip up there, but they thought they were going for a whiskey tasting beforehand. But I don’t know if you’ve been there, but as you go over the, old Firth of forth and do a U-turn and coming back and going north, you turn, and there’s a massive aquarium in the F in the Firth. And it feels like it’s in open water. It’s that big, it’s huge. And so we stopped there and they went, what’s going on, you know, w why we stopped. And I brought them in, yeah. I brought them in and said two by two. Okay. Get into your wetsuits, get the Viet breathing apparatus on, and they’re going to w what’s going on. And so they did it and blindly, and then, and then I told them to buy, to get into the, into the, into the tank.
Michael Tobin
00:08:19
And it was huge. It was literally like you’re in open water. And then of course, as they were putting their, legs over and doing, doing, as they were told, you could see the shark fins circling around in front of them. And they suddenly realized that this is not going to be the thing that they, they, they, they thought it was. And I was called all sorts of names and, you know, where’s HR at the time, but they all went in and we sat with these sharks with no nets, no cages. And they literally had huge, like, four meter sharks, huge things coming right up to your face. And, then when everyone came out again, it was like, okay. So what did you, what, what, what were you thinking and feeling when you realized what you’re about to do? And it’s like, I was terrified, oh my God, I hated you.
Michael Tobin
00:09:03
You know, what on earth was going on? And I said, well, how did you feel when you were actually on the seabed with these sharks around you, and you were beginning to realize that they weren’t going to eat you. They said, well, I’m still terrified, but it was actually quite exciting. And it was kind of an, you know, I was really, oh my God, I’m actually doing this. And I said, how did you feel when you got out? And they said, well, oh, you once in a life and life changer, I don’t want to do it again. But once in a lifetime experience, amazing something, I can tell my grandkids. And so I said, well, if you, if you apply those states of mind to any particular dynamic that you have in life if you’re like that, that effectively starts with the fear of a future event.
Michael Tobin
00:09:51
Right. Then imagine, you know, first of all, that, that kind of irrational fear because you’ve got out and you’re learning, right? So it was by default, the excitement that you will feel going through something that is obviously out of your natural comfort zone, therefore it’s a massive learning curve on you, from your own perspective of yourself, but also it’s an exciting journey. And then, you know, when you came out of it, you realize that actually, it wasn’t as bad as, as, as you originally perceived, but you felt enriched by having gone through that process. So, so, you know, it’s, it’s something I write about in my first book. It’s, it’s kind of this irrationality of fear and how, by going through these things, you become a bigger person in your own ways, right? Not in other people’s eyes and your own eyes, you become a bigger person, so you’re surmounting your own kind of fear.
Kim-Adele
01:10:47
And then that’s how we grow. Isn’t it? Because if not, we hold ourselves back. Don’t we all those times where we think like, I can’t do that, couldn’t possibly because w w what’s the, what’s the worst that can happen. And I know I must admit, I live my life that way with me saying, and what’s the worst that can happen and can I live with it. And as long as the answer’s yes. It’s like, why could they go with that?
Michael Tobin
01:11:07
Yeah. So, you know, getting an answer very often, people are shy to ask for something. Right. And, and, and getting, getting no, as an answer is perfectly reasonable getting yes is great, but no is a perfectly reasonable answer and, it should be followed by. Okay. Absolutely fine. Why, and then when you start to learn around, you know, the whole sort of, can I do this or can I have that? No. Okay. Why, what, because X Y Z are right. Okay. I’ll come back tomorrow, having resolved, XYZ you again, you know, so, so it’s sort of, you’ve, you’ve got to have the nose, you know, I always find, we’ll tell the kids most sports that, you know, I like to think of myself as competitive, but in most sports, you know, it’s the fastest, it’s the, it’s the, you know, the one that can lift the most, but, but there’s interesting, you know, I always look at sort of high jump and pole vault as, as the woman’s sport where it always ends in failure.
Michael Tobin
01:12:10
Yes. Because only, you know, cause you can, you can win a race, you can win a hundred meters, but you could feel disappointed by not getting your personal best or something else is still be victorious. But you find that the high jump champion always ends because he’s failed the last. Right. And even when he knows he’s beaten everyone else, they keep going because they want to see how high they’re going. Right. And it’s only at that moment, you really see your ultimate position and be happy with that as your ultimate position. And so failure has an important role to play in success. So we shouldn’t be scared of failure. We shouldn’t be scared of a no, because it, it kind of frames the yes if that makes sense.
Kim-Adele
01:12:57
It’s changing how we label it, isn’t it. Cause yeah. How we define the label is how we live it, you know? So if we, if we see it as an opportunity to become even better, then actually you’re, you’re not so disappointed with the no, ’cause you’re like, okay, well I’m a step closer. I’m going to have learned something that gets me is a little bit like you go for a job interview. And I’ve always said to people, there’s no downside to a job interview and they clearly think I’m crazy, but there are only two possible outcomes either. You’re going to get the job in which case brilliant. Or you’re going to get really, really good feedback about what you need to do to get the job next time, either way, you’re one step closer
Michael Tobin
01:13:37
And also interviews, you know, they, they should be bi-directional so you may find in an interview, you don’t want it anymore. Right. So, you know, there’s all sorts of things that are helpful, but I mean, your point there about the step. I mean, when I was back in my early days, I was, I’m lucky enough to be taught how to sell effectively by a brilliant guy who was Brian Adams’s cousin, Brian Adam’s the singer, and that’s another story, but one of the things he said is, imagine you’re a broom salesman, right? And you come to a street with terrorist houses, right. A hundred terrorist houses in front of you, and you’re a broom salesman and your broom is good. Right. And you’ve worked for the company, it’s been a hundred years.
Michael Tobin
01:14:23
This company has been selling brooms. So you’ve got a hundred years of data. And so you say, statistically, I know that out of these hundred houses in front of me, 98 of them are going to have a broom already. So they won’t need one. One of them is not going to have a broom, but can’t afford yours. Right. And one of them is not going to have a broom and can’t afford you as it’s going to buy it. Right. So wherever you start knocking on doors in that street, right. The likelihood is you’re going to knock, knock, knock. Hi, Hey, no, thanks. I’ve got one column now. That’s not a demoralizing dynamic. Let’s say yes, because I’m one step closer to my, yes. Right? So the quicker you can get rid of those nos, the quicker you’re going to get a sale.
Kim-Adele
01:15:11
I love that. I heard somebody once called it monetizing the No. So you, they would work out how many no’s they had to get to get the yes. And therefore they had a monetary value to it. So that every time they got a No, they went yes I’ve just…
Michael Tobin
01:15:28
You know, most people in business have a pipeline, a funnel, right? Like they call it prospects. All of those prospects are in a funnel, but then they get whittled down into, you know, likely, and then you’d close. And the number of closes versus the number of people you have in your funnel is a, is a proportion. It could be a hundred to one. It could be a thousand to one, whatever it is. And you can then by definition say, well, if that sale is a thousand pounds, then I can attribute one pound. So each of those people that have just said no to me. And so there’s always a way to actually turn what is initially perceived or could commonly be perceived as a negative, into a real value to you?
Kim-Adele
01:16:14
Yeah, I live. Cause it does. It changes how it changes, how we view it, it doesn’t and how we feel about it. And as a result, how we feel about ourselves, because I think that’s part of, that’s a big challenge, isn’t it? Where our own often our own worst critic. And if we can find a better way of labelling things so that they surface rather than hold us back, then that’s when we can, I guess, go and do things that we never would have dreamt of. I mean, you’ve done some amazing, amazing things. What terrified you the most, but you’re now the proudest of?
Michael Tobin
01:16:48
Well, I dunno whether the thing that terrified me the most is the thing I’m most proud of. I would say, you know, the fact that I have three amazing kids that are completely saved and will more than do nice things and say, thank you for things and say, please, you know, and, and I’m proud of putting into a, you know, sort of any group of people that can, like they can hold their own in conversations and that in, in, in their ability to sort of engage in that, it sounds very soft, but that’s, that’s an amazing achievement, you know, and I’m very proud of that.
Kim-Adele
01:17:23
That is an amazing achievement being a mum myself, whenever anybody see’s your little girl and says isn’t she polite or isn’t she kind, I think I’m doing all right here. Maybe I’m doing what I’m supposed to do because my role is to help her be the best little human that she can be. And you don’t feel pride like anything in any level, in the same way you do for your children do you.
Michael Tobin
01:17:51
And look, I’ve done lots of fantastic transactions with, you know, we’ve very lucky in business, you know, getting in at the right time, getting out of the right stance for hard work, but, you know, but nothing compared to, you know, seeing, seeing the kids engage in a, in a room full of people and, and, and those people sitting there actively and avidly listening to somebody’s opinion and that human being that was crapping on its label years ago, and then you’re wiping out, you know, and now they are as an individual that in their own right. And a great one at that. So, so that’s, what I would say is, is, is kind of pride, you know, fear again, you know, no one can completely eradicate the concept of fear, but it’s something that you have to constantly work out to, to, to, to be in control of.
Michael Tobin
01:18:43
Right. And, and, you know, when I, when I, when I did myself track, you know, that was three weeks in minus 50, 60 degrees temperature, no way to be saved in any particular, you know, impossible to be saved, that your colleagues we had, there was nine of us, you know, all of us had frostbite. One of them collapsed with hypothermia and one of them’s tooth exploded in their mouth cause it had the two frozen sign. And so all these different things were happening, but you knew that you had to work together to get out of this. And there was no, you know, the worst case scenario was you couldn’t carry on, you would have to be strapped to a sledge and be pulled by one of your colleagues for the next week or two weeks. And the hope that you might survive so that there was no, you know, it was really scary.
Michael Tobin
01:19:36
Right. And I’m one of these sort of things like, you know, the sort of the Churchillian comment of when you’re going through hell, the worst thing you want to do is stop. Right. Isn’t it, when you go, were going and sort of during that time, I felt really, I mean, there was no, you were never remotely warm, right? It was, you feel the ends of your extremities of your body. And you was trying to sleep at night because you were exhausted of dragging 150 kilos behind, behind you for 12 hours and like shivering like this. And, and, and that was as best as it was going to get, you know, you looked forward to, and you, you know, you have to kind of put yourself in the, at some point, I’m going to be looking back at this. It will be over. Right.
Michael Tobin
02:20:33
And it was quite interesting because I, that’s not at a, a charity thing years ago, which was the CEO. Sleepout where I’ve got a lot of CEOs to pay 10,000 pounds each for the privilege of sleeping on the streets. And we used to do that outside some balls. And, and a lot of them would say afterwards, you know, are this amazing what an experience to, you know, because you don’t sleep, you know, there’s rats, there’s foxes aside from the dogs coming and sniffing around. And, you don’t think about these as important, you know, there’s, real homeless people, you know, trying to steal your shoes and, and, you know, and the dustbins come around at 4:00 AM and wake you up. And, so all of these things that, you know, you just don’t realize the dew, even on a dry night, the dew everywhere it is, makes everything soaking start your day.
Michael Tobin
02:21:22
And one of the CEO said to me, it’s amazing, really, thank you so much for having, for allowing me to have this experience and now understand, you know, what homeless people are going through. And I said, well, you kind of do, but also you don’t because you knew it at 6:00 AM. It was over. Yeah. Right. A homeless person doesn’t know that he assumes that, oh, she assumes that tomorrow is exactly the same as today. And there isn’t an end. Right. And then plus this of the dynamic is a bigger challenge to overcome than the actual physical challenge of sleeping out in the street, in all those negatives. So, so once the south pole was unbelievably painful, very difficult, I knew that there was going to be an end to it. And, and that’s what drives you through things. So I guess in any situation, try to identify the kind of the next thing or the day at the end for this on that. Right.
Kim-Adele
02:22:32
And finding the thing to be hopeful. Obvious. Next, the only thing greater than fear is hope. That’s probably the bit that’s that differs, isn’t it? When people have still got hope, hope that it could be better hope that it will come to an end, but yeah. Three weeks we’ll get home.
Michael Tobin
02:22:49
Yeah. Obviously hope. Right. But then what is in your power can you do to make that hope more of a reality? Yes. Right. So if there’s nothing you can do, then, then, you know, don’t worry or don’t have fear to whatever extent possible. But, but if there is the tiniest thing that can augment the possibility of that hope becoming reality, then you should get on and do it. Yeah.
Kim-Adele
02:23:17
It takes your focus. That’s I remember somebody saying to me once, say whatever happens to you, you’re always so positive. We don’t have to stand. And I was like, I can’t, I can’t change. And so maybe I’m just not very bright. I said, what if I can’t change it? I choose to ignore it because I can’t change it. And I focused on what I can change. What can I do? And I put all my attention there because keeps me occupied, asked me to move into a place. You never know. Every step you take changes your vantage. So something you can’t see now, you might come into view. So as long as we just keep moving, no matter how that step is or how small it is, if we keep moving, then we keep ourselves open to the opportunity that something’s going to change for the better. But,
Michael Tobin
02:24:02
And it kind of waste over my story very quickly there. But you know, how much of that do you think I planned? Right. There was nothing planned in any of my story. So, you know, it’s, it’s all about taking opportunities and seeing, excuse me, seeing the advantages of any situation. I think that if you, you know, people say, oh, that was luck. And you know, I certainly attribute a lot of my success to fortune. And I think that fortune seems to be more regularly occurring to people that, that are open to the possibility of things going well when it is through people that are close to those possibilities. Right. So if you’re, if you’re, if you have a negative view of life and you sort of, oh, I can’t do that, or that’s never going to happen or I’m living in probably it won’t right.
Kim-Adele
02:25:09
I mean, they say fortune favours, the brave doesn’t that has actually, you’ve got to be brave and do the thing you don’t think you can do to take advantage of the opportunity. And I think, yeah, we often look at those things around people. Yeah. People are looking, but actually, it didn’t happen on its own. You know, you’ve had an amazing journey, but it wouldn’t have happened if you’d not put the hard work in. If you’d not, if you’re not applying for the jobs, you couldn’t, you couldn’t do gone pay me. I’ll give it a try because these things don’t, they don’t happen. But if you do put yourself out there, if you do go, do you know what I’m going to get, I’m going to give it my best shot. And what’s the worst that can happen if I’m either gonna do it. And that’s brilliant, or I’m going to learn what I need to do to do it next time. All of that is about how we, how we develop and how we grow. Isn’t it.
Michael Tobin
02:26:01
And I, and I get on one super interesting thing that I’ve learned is having to try to say yes, as, as much as you can. Right. Rather than kind of the, so I try to tell people everything before the word but is bullshit. Forget. I really love that, but you don’t actually, you know, the next important, the next bit is the important thing you’re about to say. Right. So, so what I try to do is kind of think about positives and, and, or, you know, think about constructive criticisms and, and, and don’t fluff around those. But then secondly, and so, and the second thing is that I try to come at every scenario or every question with a kind of a yes mentality, right. So saying, ah, okay. Before I kind of immediately dismiss that as either something I don’t want don’t like can’t do, so what would I need?
Michael Tobin
02:27:07
Oh, that’s interesting. What would I need to be able to move this forward right. In a positive way. So try and say yes to everything and yes, engages conversations, whereas no stops conversations. And then when you engage conversations, you find opportunities, incredible. How many, you know, cocktail events and dinners and things that I don’t really want to go to. And I go to, and my wife always says, you know, again, I’m sorry, man. And then you go to them, right. Nothing happens. And years later, someone said, I met you at this and I’ve got this idea. Do you want to, you know, and literally out of a conversation years ago that I could have chosen not to bother with something happens. And then people go, oh, that’s lucky. Well, it is. But it’s also because I went to an event that I didn’t really want to go to. And I had conversations that I could have easily stayed at home and watched EastEnders instead of, and, and you know, all those things. And yet that’s when things happen is because of conversations and, and whilst, you know, you say, well, okay, it may be a long, that may be a long return profile of five years. But actually if you’re doing them all the time, right. Every day for five years, they’re happening every day. Yeah.
Kim-Adele
02:28:26
Yeah. And also with, you know, I, one of my greatest joys in life is getting to hear other people’s stories, hear their journey life because I learn so much. So it’s really selfish because I learn and therefore, hopefully I can, you know, I can have similar success. We could because you learn it. But one of the beauties is you never know where those relationships are going to going to end up. You know, I love the fact that one of my best friends has been my best friend since I was four. And really we shouldn’t still be friends anymore. Poor girl, would’ve got less for murder. One of my other good friends has been 25 years. And you just, you just never know where one chance conversation, one turning up to an event that you didn’t want to go to, or putting yourself out of your comfort zone and saying, what if I just listen, if I just really, really present and let them share their story? One thing I’m definitely going to do is learn something, but two, I might be able to help them, or they might be able to help me, but I think what’s need to be open to being to connecting and being present.
Michael Tobin
02:29:35
Absolutely conversations, lead to opportunities and, and the more conversations you’re going to have with a more diverse community. So obviously having conversations with one person you’ll, you’ll extinguish, it’s subject to any new news at any given time, you’ll all have the opportunity to have conversations with lots of, lots of people and from diverse environments, right? And, and when you have those conversations, you find new opportunities, you find, oh, so-and-so then, I mean, we’re having a, an anniversary party in, in March a 10 year, 10 year wedding anniversary. And we went to a chatting function. There was a famous celebrity singer, which I won’t name because I’m, I’m turning it up as a surprise for my wife. And then, and then the Zoso challenge conversation, because we’re a big donor of the charity, they then said, oh, I’ll give, I’ll put you in touch with this guy that in the U S who’s the manager he’s based in LA, but he’s actually an English guy allowed conversation with him and engage with them.
Michael Tobin
03:30:39
And in the end, we could never afford this, this, this artist, but he actually did us an incredible deal. And it turns out that, that his business has got the same address in London, as my business has got all these sorts of things near you. And then suddenly something that couldn’t be possible financially is suddenly possible, but because of conversations and, and things like this. And so, you know, without, without any element of those conversations going on, and without the fact that we’re engaged with the charity, and then, then it wouldn’t be happening. But because of all those conversations, because people like people because you know, suddenly all things are possible.
Kim-Adele
03:31:20
I love that. And congratulations on your anniversary. I could literally chat to you all day, as always. So, so insightful. Thank you so very much. I might have to get you back on because there are still so many questions to ask you because you add such value. But the bit that I’ve really loved is to think about, yes. So how can I make this a yes, what would I need to do to make this happen is such a great approach to life. So definitely going to be trying more of that.
Michael Tobin
03:31:55
When I interviewed people for roles, I very rarely look at their academic dynamics, right? And I’m looking for a, an attitude. And I think if we can change our attitudes, things happen differently to us.
Kim-Adele
03:32:11
That is so true. I’ve always said that I would much rather recruit for willingness and teach skill, then recruit for skill and teach willingness because you can’t,
Kim-Adele
03:32:22
It’s just never going to be there. But, actually if you get the right, if you get the right mindset at you, then actually it’s amazing what you can do. I mean, I’ve only got an NVQ in hairdressing, and yet I still made it onto the boards of the big banks, despite really not needing to be there. But it was because similarly in everything, it was like, well, how hard can it be? I’ll give it a go. Yeah, I’ll do my best. But it’s all about people. Isn’t it. Everything we do in life is about people and that, so comes through your story. You know, I deal with clients all the time. It was like, oh, well, I’ve got so many challenges. I’ve got suppliers -they’re people – I’ve got the team- they are also people I’ve got clients – again also people. So what if we come to it all comes down to, I’m a person, they’re a person. How do we connect? And then how do we find a way to move forward together?
Michael Tobin
03:33:13
So the interesting thing in my second book, live life and prosper it’s all about how work-life balance doesn’t exist and how you have to integrate them for it really, to work. Otherwise you’ll compromise one or the other, but the thing there is, look at your stakeholders, right? So your customers, your suppliers, your employees, but also put yourself as a stakeholder and put your family as a stakeholder because they’re invested in you doing your thing so that it all works for them. And so when you think about all these stakeholders, they all have needs and rights and, and, and you need to engage with them in an empathetic way, in all cases to try to sort of move their needs forward. And then, you know, people really appreciate empathy in life.
Kim-Adele
03:34:01
Yeah, they did. Cause I think our base, we want to be listened to. We want to be understood. We want to be respected. And if we can give that to somebody, then actually that they grow as well, because then they’re able to feel valued. It’s been an absolute joy. I am going to stop the recording now, but I would love to be able to interview you again.
Michael Tobin
03:34:21
Absolutely. The, yes, you’ve got a yes.