Inspire Someone Today
Inspire Someone Today
E127 | Conscious Leadership | Mike Handcock
What happens when you're orphaned at 15 but determined to climb the corporate ladder against all odds? Join us as Mike Handcock, chairman of Circle of Excellence Group, shares his inspiring story of resilience and triumph. From being the General Manager of Sales and Marketing at New Zealand's largest financial services company to taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, Mike's journey is a masterclass in self-accountability and seizing life's opportunities.
Mike opens up about transitioning from corporate life to becoming an entrepreneur, highlighting the importance of self-reliance and resilience. Learn how his early challenges fortified his adaptability and conviction, enabling him to navigate various roles from musician to corporate leader, and finally, a mentor to many. He offers a striking contrast between his real-world experiences and today's overprotective societal norms, arguing for the strength built through facing adversity head-on.
Discover the essence of conscious leadership as Mike shares fascinating insights from ancient wisdom and modern challenges. Explore the three E's of conscious leadership: Energy, Environment, and Enterprise, and find out how these principles can lead to a more purposeful and impactful life. With compelling stories of entrepreneurs turning visionary ideas into thriving ventures, Mike offers practical advice and timeless wisdom that promise to inspire and empower. Don't miss this enlightening episode that harmonizes the lessons of history with the demands of modern leadership.
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helping people to play a bigger game than they ever believed possible. Because I think why I left corporate, why I did this three count, is because I saw a lot of people with massive potential, but they just weren't tapping into even half of that potential and I knew that they were going to get to the end of their lives and go what was that about? And have regrets, and I didn't want to ever be anybody with regrets. Therefore, I realized that the only true security in life was to take control of your life yourself and not put it in the hands of other people.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Inspire Someone Today podcast, a show where we dive into the stories and insights that has the power to create ripples of inspiration in your life. I am your host, shrikanth, and I am thrilled to be with you on this journey of inspiration. Hey, my dear listeners, welcome back to yet another episode of Inspire Someone Today, a platform where we create ripples of inspiration. Joining me today is mike hancock, chairman of circle of excellence group. With clients in over 50 countries, he's traveled to around 15 each year. More than that, mike hancock shares five companies. He is on the board of three not-for-profits and is the incoming president of the Global Speakers Federation for 2526. It's an absolute joy to have Mike join us on this episode of Inspire Someone today. Mike, what a joy to have you here.
Speaker 1:Srikant, it's lovely to be here and hello to everybody who's listening in.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we have lots to talk, mike, starting with how you have reinvented yourself from early childhood to where you are today. So let's start right in.
Speaker 1:Well, reinvention's a big word. I think it's more a journey, and the old saying is that every journey starts with one step, and so I think for me it was initially. I was orphaned at 15. So I had to go and live with my best friend's parents for the last two years of high school and because of that I didn't have an opportunity to go to university, not until I was in my thirties. So I went out, found a job In fact my first job was driving a forklift and then I sort of did that type of job for a couple of years and then I looked further.
Speaker 1:Opportunity came up in financial services. So I went into the insurance, superannuation, financial services field. I was a salesperson for a couple of years. Then I moved into management years. Then I moved into management and I sort of finished my career in that business, 18 years later being the general manager of sales and marketing for the biggest financial services company in New Zealand. At that point and that stage I made a significant life path movement and went into entrepreneurship, which was owning different businesses, speaking, training, coaching and consulting on that, and that's taken me to the journey that you mentioned, which is every year. We're in somewhere around 15, maybe 20 countries 21 it was last year, nine so far this year and helping people to play a bigger game than they ever believed possible.
Speaker 1:Because I think why I left corporate, why I did this three-count, is because I saw a lot of people with massive potential but they just weren't tapping into even half of that potential and I knew that they were going to get to the end of their lives and go what was that about? And have regrets. And I didn't want to. Going to get to the end of their lives and go what was that about? And have regrets, and I didn't want to ever be anybody with regrets. So sometimes people read my bio and go hell, you've done a lot of stuff. But the reason why I've done a lot of things is because if I've got an idea and I want to do it, I'll find a way to do it. I don't sort of sit there and go, oh, it's out of reach or anything like that. I don't sort of sit there and go, oh, it's out of reach or anything like that.
Speaker 2:I just find a way. I think that's a great attitude to have. You find something, you just go about doing it. But where is this stemming from? What is the driving force behind it? A couple of things you mentioned about tapping into potential and, given the history that you had, you were often at the age of 15. It's very easy to kind of go the other way as well. How did you kind of channelize yourself, kind of see that big picture, wanting to do what you have been doing? So what were those pivotal moments for you?
Speaker 1:Well, I think a critical moment for me was I was 39 years old, I was in my general manager role in corporate and a 55-year-old marketing manager worked for me. He was our marketing manager and this is a big company, you know. They're turning over billions of dollars a year. And he came in and we were going through some changes and he came in and he was crying and I said what are you crying about? Like it was, I'd never seen him cry. I'd worked with him for probably at that stage, nine years, years. And he said I don't want to get retrenched. I have two children I'm sending to university, I need this job. I, you know, please don't retrench me. And I looked at him and I said Rod, you're never going to get retrenched, you're well needed, you know. And he was there, I think, until he was 70 years old in the end. But I realized that I didn't want to be that person when I was 55, worried about what somebody in a faceless office was going to do to me because some other person in a faceless office decided to make changes in a company, and therefore I realized that the only true security in life was to take control of your life yourself and not put it in the hands of other people. So over the next 18 months or so after that meeting, I managed to get out of corporate and got into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:And you know, entrepreneurship comes with its own range of dramas and things that are twists and turns and everything like that. But in the end you are accountable and you are responsible. People go oh, you know the economy's bad or you know government changed or the market's turned. All of that's just externalizing things. In the end, it doesn't matter what you own, you're accountable. That's just externalizing things. In the end, it doesn't matter what you own, you're accountable and that gives you great power, and in great power lies great security, great power, lies great security.
Speaker 2:But that also needs to come from great conviction. So how do you go about building that strength, conviction or confidence?
Speaker 1:I think it was built for me. So I do feel for other people who are questioning that. So in my situation, as I said, being alone at 15, I didn't have any grandparents, I didn't have any aunties, I didn't have any uncles, I didn't have any parents, I didn't have any brothers, I didn't have any sisters. So I went oh okay, there's me right, this is the sum total of my family. So I couldn't go to somebody and say, hey, I'm a bit short this week, can you lend me a few dollars? Whereas somebody would go to their brother or their mother or their cousin. I couldn't do that. I couldn't say, will you help me do my homework? Even because there wasn't anybody there to do that. So that I had to become very resilient or else I was going to just crawl up into a ball and die.
Speaker 1:And I think that at that point in my life I was very lucky to have amazing friends, which all of them are still friends of mine today, and those amazing friends just treated me as normal, where they didn't treat me as if there was something wrong or dramatic in my life or anything like that. So we just got on and did the things that teenage boys did, you know played a lot of cricket. You know poke fun at a lot of things and you know, and everything that teenagers do, and I think that that helped me establish a solid base for which to trust in myself that I can get through this and the fact that I did get through it and that you know I was able to get a job and that you know I was able to then get a better job and in my 30s I was able to go to university and do my qualifications and all of that sort of thing. I think that just built up a natural resilience in me, that I think that people these days in me, that I think that people these days, in the world in which we live, where everybody is so politically correct and everybody you know India is a very different country. I think it's much more real than most of the world. But I mean you would appreciate this Srikanth, being Indian is that nobody is going to make it fair for you. Nobody's going to tell you horse recurrence will change everything to make it fair for you.
Speaker 1:But in a lot of the world at the moment, this is what's happening with children at the moment. They're saying like in parts of australia at the moment. You know there's no winners or losers in a cricket match, everybody just competes. I mean, like what the hell right? So every strength taken to an extreme becomes a weakness. So if you replace competition with collaboration and no competition, it becomes a weakness.
Speaker 1:So I think I was lucky enough to have to survive and therefore had to lead, to thrive, and I think a lot of teenagers and young people these days have been so supported by their parents, the system, et cetera, et cetera, that they're going to get a big surprise because they might go and get a job.
Speaker 1:And then they get in a job and they find hang on, this is not equitable at all. There's bullying at work, there's violence, there's all sorts of things that people are going to have to deal with and they find hang on, this is not equitable at all. There's bullying at work, there's violence, there's all sorts of things that people are going to have to deal with and they're not equipped to deal with them, and that's a shame. So I'm not suggesting that we go and make the world a rough, tough place. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that I think I was blessed that I had that experience, because it's allowed me to every time I got got knocked down to be able to get up again, and a lot of people can't and as you did that, through your journey, you have traversed multiple facets, by being a musician to the corporate, to entrepreneurship, and speaking surgeon as well.
Speaker 2:How have you managed some of these transitions? What are some of the skills that have carried from one industry, one sector to another, or how have you unlearned something to learn something new?
Speaker 1:Well, both are very good questions. So I think the first question about transition is that it doesn't matter where you came from or what you did in the past. You have had some great learnings that can easily carry forth and there's a degree of astrology in this as well as to what your natural way is on the planet. But let's just tuck that one aside, because that's a big question. But I think my first job driving forklifts, stacking boxes, things like that, making sure shelves looked nice you know, 18 years old, doing all of that has carried forward to today. I feel that everything should be in its place. So I feel that you know, I need to constantly declutter and not be surrounded by stuff, so that serves me very well. So, like you know, my work desk is my laptop. I still use a paper diary, a pen and my phone. That's it. You don't see, I don't have any documents lying around or anything like that. There's nothing. So I think that came from those years. So I think what came from my years in financial services. I learned how to sell, I learned how to present myself, I learned how to speak in public, I learned how to go into uncomfortable situations and make them comfortable, and that served me tremendously, and from everything from the politics of a global board to going to a country I've never been before and trying to organize things there.
Speaker 1:The second part of your question, which was first part, was really about transferring of skills. The second part was about really critical moments. And I think, coming back to those critical moments and I think a critical moments for me is there's two when something's not fun, then you probably shouldn't do it. That's number one. So if your job's not fun or your business is no longer fun or something like that, probably time to move on. And the second thing is that there's a natural flow to things. It's seasonal, so autumn, summer, summer, or autumn, spring, so autumn, winter, spring, summer. Now I've got my seasons right Autumn, winter, spring, summer. Or if you're in India, it's monsoons at the moment, right, so in parts of the country.
Speaker 1:So from that your business goes in through those cycles. There's time where your business is in summer and, like every day, you're picking daisies and it's a happy place. There's time your business is in winter. There's time your relationship is in summer, there's time your relationship is in winter. And I think the thing about being resilient is that unresilient people go. Something's not working so I have to change everything, Whereas I'm more likely to go. Something's not working, so I have to change everything, whereas I'm more likely to go. Something's not working at the moment. I wonder if this is winter and after winter, how can I move this to spring? And just understanding that there's natural cycles and I think in business, being prepared to move with those I live most of my life in New Zealand At the moment with those I live most of my life in New Zealand At the moment, the New Zealand economy is in winter, the property market is in winter.
Speaker 1:From the whole of 2004 to 2018, the property market was in spring and summer. It had a very short autumn and then it went into winter. So people are going oh, the property market's in winter and businesses are closing and all that sort of stuff. I'm going. Well, just leave New Zealand, go somewhere where it's summer. Oh, but I can't, because this is where I live. Well, live somewhere else. You know, people attach themselves to a place, to a thing, to stuff too much, and I think if we became more fluid and were prepared to flow, then we would have much better lives and we would have much richer experiences. And when the time comes that we're all going to die and move on to the next place, wherever that is, we don't drive our Mercedes-Benz there and we don't go there and live in our beach house. We take our memories with us. So life is about creating memories. We take our memories with us. So life is about creating memories. It's not about creating stuff.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Life is about creating memories and talking about memories. One memory I want you to jot down was your book around conscious leadership. What is it? How did it come out into being? And, for the benefit of our listeners, a quick overview of conscious leadership?
Speaker 1:Wonderful question. Thank you so much for asking, srikanth. So when I first started in business just over 20 years ago now 22 years ago like as an entrepreneur it was all about being an entrepreneur. And then I realized at one point that this wasn't about me at all. This is about what I could contribute. This was about my purpose. This was about what I wanted to do on the planet. And then all my businesses changed, and that's when I got into doing what I'm doing now, and so it went through another level.
Speaker 1:And then, in 2016, I read an article in Forbes magazine about conscious leadership and it said this I still remember it to this day. I think it's the most powerful article that I've read on the subject and it said that conscious leadership is not about saving the world. Conscious leadership is about the leader's preparedness to do the deep inner work inside themselves to turn up as the best and most authentic version of themselves. And I went wow, that's really true, because if I'm truly conscious, then I am prepared to do the deep inner work inside myself so I can become the best and most authentic person that I can be. So, from a Hindu perspective, so I can live my Dharma. So Arjuna was born a warrior. He was never going to be anything else than a warrior. He didn't want to fight his cousins and his friends and people he went to school with. But Lord Krishna said to him that's your life's purpose, that's what you have to do. And the minute he understood that that's what he had to do, then everything shifted for him and he became the person that he was always meant to be. So that article about conscious leadership led that to me.
Speaker 1:And prior to that, eight years before that, I'd had a conversation with Sir John Key, who was the Prime Minister of New Zealand at the time, where we had a meeting, and he said to me Mike, there's not going to be any more Gundys and Mandelas. Those days have gone right. He said you know, politics now is a tough game. He said those people with those visions, they're not going to be allowed to live them out. We see that now in leaders in the world. And he's also said to me big corporate CEOs have too many stakeholders, too many things that they're not going to be able to make lasting change. He said lasting change is going to come from entrepreneurs on the planet, and the more conscious an entrepreneur can be, the better footprint that they're going to leave on a planet.
Speaker 1:So, for me, conscious leadership is about doing the deep inner work inside yourself, it's about having a collaborative vision, it's about values-based leadership, it's about making a difference, it's about legacy and it's about leading a purposeful life, and I think that's wrapped up in three topics that are in my book Conscious Leadership, three phases Energy so that's the energy inside yourself and that's the deep inner work that you're going to do inside yourself. Environment it's the second one, which is not only your physical environment, but it's your mental, emotional and spiritual environment as well, and how you choose to interact with the world. And the third one is your enterprise, and that's everything from how you're involving people, how you're involving your mission, vision and values and, these days, how you're involving things like technology. So it's all of those things.
Speaker 2:It is a three E's of conscious leadership, While we nudge our listeners to go pick up this book and read for themselves. If there are key practices that you would want to share, one or two practices that people can embrace, what would those practices be?
Speaker 1:okay. Well, I'm going to give you three quite alternative practices to what mainstream people were going to tell you. Firstly is there is no point having a to-do list, because the to-do list sets you up for failure every single day of your life. Because you never tick off everything on your to-do list. So every day you've got five or ten things on your to-do list, you do two day you've got five or 10 things on your to-do list, you do two or three of them. So every day you fail. You're better off in business focusing on the one big thing that you have to do every day and doing that right It'll get you a lot further. And if you want to know, billionaires don't have to-do lists. Billionaires focus on the one thing. Secondly, I don't believe in business plans. I believe in dreams. I believe in actions four or five actions that will get you closer to your dream. And I certainly don't believe in the question how. I believe in the question what. So I'm going to give you an example of that Shrikant. So I can't tell you how many people have come to me over the years I've been doing this and said how can I make a million dollars, for instance? And the answer is well. You could get a job, you could invest in property, you could go into Bitcoin, you could just work 100 hours a week in your business. There's a million ways you could do that. So how? Is a very unhelpful question. But the question, what is? What would be one thing that you could do today that could move you closer to making a million dollars? That is a much more specific question and as business people, we're too general. So the more specific we are, the much stronger we are at getting closer to our goals. And I think the third thing would be to be open-minded to what the universe is presenting to you as a sign or a symbol, meaning this. For instance, somebody will say I want to market to the CEO of Reliance. So they're constantly on the phone trying to get a hold of the CEO of Reliance to market to them. I'll go. I want to market to the CEO of Reliance. So firstly, I'm going to try and find a way to get introduced to him or her and then, if they won't take my call the first time, if it's not a natural fit, I'll go. There's no flow. I'm going to go and look at you know somebody else. So I think what we've been taught to do is to not follow flow, because sometimes it's just not natural timing. You know, maybe you want to make two phone calls, but if you don't get through in two times, there's no flow. Move on to the next thing, because I find when there's flow, you ring up and guess what? They take the call right there and then, and boom, you're in the meeting with them. That's when there's flow. So I think my third suggestion is to understand, follow the signs and symbols that the universe give you and that'll allow you to flow better.
Speaker 1:And if you want to make money, the original currency was water on the planet, going back over 5,000 years ago. That's why most of the words for money come from water. That's why most of the words for money come from water currency. We go to a bank, we are liquid or not, there is cash flow. It's all water. So if you want to know how to get rich, study water. You've got to flow, whereas most people think to get rich you've got to create a dam and try and order all the water towards you. That just becomes stagnant. So hopefully there's three and a half things there for your listeners.
Speaker 2:That's a very wonderful different perspective of sorts. Well, all of this is great to kind of hear it in theory, and you are having work with a lot of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Have you seen this at play? And what is that example that you can share where people have embraced conscious leadership and thrive, not only for themselves but for their communities? Sure, here's an example.
Speaker 1:So Richard Hardiman is a client of ours. He's originally from Cape Town, south Africa, and he came to one of our events 10 years ago. And he came up to me and he said look, I've got a really stupid idea At the time. I want to share with you how I met him, srikanth. He interviewed me, just like you. He was a DJ on a local radio station. I was visiting South Africa at the time. I was invited into the studio. He interviewed me live on his show. We sat in the studio, lovely guy, got along well with him. We kept in touch. And then he came to this event and he said look, I've got a really stupid idea. I'm thinking of getting out of radio. I said okay, what do you want to do? He said I've got this idea and it's sort of this thing that's going to I'm going to put it in the harbors and it's going to walk around like a vacuum and chomp up rubbish in the harbors. I went what are you going to call it? He said I'm going to call it Wasted Shark. He said but I just want to bounce it off you because. He said I've bounced off a few people and they're laughing at me. I said, richard, I think it's the best idea I've ever heard. He said why? I said because it can be simple. I said it's so needed. I said it's technology and I've never heard of it before. I technology and I've never heard of it before. I said I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 1:That company is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Now, richard, in order to do that, sure, he had to work hard, there's no doubt about that. When his company listed, his wife said to him I don't understand how wealthy we are now are. And Richard said who's our wealthiest friends? And she told him. He said we could buy and sell them 10 times. So what he did was he followed a passion, he had an idea. He had no idea. He said I don't even know where this idea came from. I was walking along the bay and I saw a tin can in the bay and it triggered this idea and I talked to people about it and everybody said it's a stupid idea, except you. I said no, you definitely have to do this. And so he did what was needed. Of course, he got lots of help along the way from us and other people, and when he had to list the auditors and all the stuff that you go through, and of course, it was difficult at times.
Speaker 1:He doesn't live in South Africa. He's lived in Rotterdam in the Netherlands because it's the biggest shipping port in the world. He's lived there for the last probably seven years, I think. But that's an example of somebody who's leading a very conscious life. He's won major international environmental awards. He's often a guest on people's podcasts talking about what he's doing as well, so I think that's a great great thing. That's a macro. Here's a micro for you.
Speaker 1:Ian Hatton was a coach and trainer who was working for an organization out of the US as a contractor, flying around the world giving their training on their stuff, Having a nice life, reasonably well paid. But he had an alter ego and his alter ego is Morpheus Morpheus from the biblical scriptures, not Morpheus from the Matrix, although he identifies with Morpheus from the Matrix as well. So we encouraged him to dive into that alter ego of his and let himself express through that. That was five years ago. He's lost 70 kilograms. He weighed more than 150 kilograms before he's lost 70 kilograms.
Speaker 1:He's attracted the love of his life. He's written an international bestselling book called the Morpheus Method. He's part the love of his life. He's written an international best-selling book called the Morpheus Method. He's part-time still working in that other business because he enjoys it, and he's full-time running his own events, has his own clients and doing his own thing under the Morpheus brand and it's his topic. By the way, srikanth is conscious leadership because that's what he identifies with. So that's more of a micro than listing on the New York Stock Exchange, but it's incredibly profound.
Speaker 2:Incredible, wonderful stories. Thanks for sharing them. I know, along with this conscious leadership concept that you have, you're also a big, big proponent of ancient wisdom to solve most of the modern issues, right? What took you to the liking of the ancient wisdom and what is the connection between these two?
Speaker 1:I think I always loved history. So if I look back at the books I had as a child, they were the history of this and the history of that. There was a lot of those. A child, you know, they were the history of this and the history of that was a lot of those. And then, through through my travels, I started to come across great things. My very first trip to india, somebody gave me a copy of the bhagavad-gita so I read it. I thought a lot of people just put stuff on their shelves and go, that's nice. Oh my gosh, a religious book or whatever right, but it's, it's not a religious book, it's a way of, but it's not a religious book, it's a way of life. And I think, with my illustration of Arjuna and his story before, I think you know that I understand. In fact I wrote a screenplay with somebody for a film based on the life of Arjuna. So that's a story for a whole other time.
Speaker 1:But through there I started reading different books. I'd never even read the bible, so I read that. And then I went okay, the world is telling me, the media, cnn, is telling me that Muslims are bad people and that you know they blew up the twin towers and all that sort of stuff. You know what I'm going to read the Quran. So so I read the quran. I found less violence in the quran than I did in the in the bible, you know. So I started going hang on. This is all media and and political agendas and stuff. There is so much deep wisdom in the gita, in the quran, in the corpus somatic or in the bible, in the zohar, you know, in the Kabbalah, and it may not be that you have to read all of them, but all of these stories and things in here give you direction for your life today and they give you surety. They open doors for you that you may never have believed could open for you.
Speaker 1:Like, for instance, I love the story in the Gita where Arjuna's son I can't remember his name is killed on the battlefield. Abhimanyu yes, that's right. And Arjuna is crying and lamenting the loss of his son. And then Krishna says, essentially, do you want to see him? He's like yes, and so he goes into what we would call in the West heaven and there's his son literally sitting there, basically playing cards with a bunch of people and having a good time, and he says my son, my son. He stands up and he says to Arjuna he says oh yeah, I remember you. You were my father once, weren't you? Oh yeah, I remember you. You were my father once, weren't you?
Speaker 1:So the great learning out of that is this attachment that we have to who's in our life or our family or our friends, or our identity through our job, is just part of our journey this lifetime. It may be incredibly different in the next lifetime, and so our attachment should be to our cause, our purpose, and not necessarily the things around us. That was a great learning for me in that when I read that, I went you know what I'm way too attached, whether I was a president or a cheesemaker in my past life, and whether Landy, my wife and I had 10 past lives together or something like that. It is what it is, and what I've got to do is I've got to focus on this life and I've got to make this life the best life, because there will be others. I know that. What they're going to look like, I don't know. I guess I'll find out when I get to the other side, when I graduate.
Speaker 2:This is so meaningful at the same time very profound. It takes a lot of inner work to kind of get to that point of you having all of these realizations. What kind of inner work did you have to do or go through for you to arrive at some of these thoughts?
Speaker 1:I've gone across the border from turkey into iraq at midnight to meet with the local shaman. I've worked with gurus in India. I've met with Sai Baba, guru Nath, dada Vaswami and a few others there, the head of the Hare Krishnas. I've talked with Catholic priests in Mexico. I've met with shaman in Peru. I've met with the most senior Aboriginal elder on the planet at Ayers Rock in Australia. The list goes on and on and on and on and on in terms of seeking of wisdom and their opinion.
Speaker 1:Shamans in Mongolia, in the back blocks right out near the Chinese border. So I think and it's fun to really understand these people, and I think I want to share with you, as part of this, what the shaman in Mongolia said to Landi, my wife and I, which was profound. Well, she asked him actually, she said what's your view on religion? And he said that the religions of the world are related to the directions of the world. North, south, east, west of the world are related to the directions of the world north, south, east, west, and he actually went through and talked about what each religion was, what the direction that they were related to. So Christianity is a Western religion, obviously so, whereas, you know, buddhism is an Eastern religion. So then he said that nobody should compromise their religion, but what they should do is create a round table like King Arthur and sit around there and share the wisdom in their religion so that everybody can benefit. I thought that was so profound, coming from a 30-year-old shaman in the middle of outer Mongolia and I met with.
Speaker 1:Here's another profound thing I met in Delhi. I met with Gandhi's secretary Namala was her name. She died six weeks after I met with her and I was with a group of about half a dozen other people. She was in her 80s at the time and I asked her what was the most profound thing that Gandhi ever said or did that you experienced. She was 18 when she worked with him, I think um, and he said she said Gandhi had some foreign dignitaries at the house and they were walking through the grounds and he stopped and he picked up a stick and he said to them do you want to know how to become the best leader that you can ever be?
Speaker 1:And they said yes, and he took the stick and he drew a circle in the ground and he said that's the answer. And they said what is it? He said it's nothing being nothing. So the journey of meeting with these people, which is never going to finish, and learning just the absolute pearls of wisdom, like that from a lady who her lifelong memory of working with one of the most significant people in history is that that she can tell me, me, that's why we do what we do if you're ready, we'll get started with the power of three round.
Speaker 2:The first of the power of three round question, my coming to you is what are three micro experiments that you can recommend to our listeners for them to do?
Speaker 1:uh, dream interpretation. Share your dreams with your significant other. The first thing when you wake up in the morning, spend some time in meditation or prayer every day. It doesn't have to be long, and don't get up and just go to your office or desk or something and start working. Take your journal and write your thoughts down before you pick up your laptop or, you know, spanner for the day. Great start.
Speaker 2:You had a fantastic career. I want to touch upon three setbacks that you had and the lessons learned from those setbacks.
Speaker 1:I got fired from my corporate job when I was 27, when I was the leading manager in the company out of 150. What I learned from that was that there are people that have agendas in the world and if they have agendas and all the money in the world and you don't, don't try and fight them. It's just going to take years and waste your time. Just close that chapter and move on to the next thing. That led me to, two years after that, probably go to the worst financial situation in my life, and what I learned through that was that there is always a way through things. The minute that you commit, the minute you commit to something and give it your all, there's a way through it. So that's the second thing thing. And give it your all, there's a way through it. So that's the second thing. And the third thing third setback I franchised a business once and then, because I did it and sold all the franchises two weeks before the global financial crisis, I found myself wanting to give people's money back not having to contractually, but but wanting to which cost millions of dollars and I think it was the best thing I ever did in my life, because, well, that might be arguable.
Speaker 1:I think I've done some other great things, but I think it was one of the best decisions I made in my life because A I don't think I could have lived with myself of taking money off people and just before we went from a period of really good highs in our economy in New Zealand to really big lows. It was a terrible couple of years after that and I also think that it helped me really shape what I wanted as a person at the same time.
Speaker 2:That's conscious leadership at work. So three pieces of advice that you have benefited from your mentors.
Speaker 1:The first one is what one of my CEOs told me when I was in corporate, and that is sometimes in life you've just got to grab onto somebody's coattails, go for the ride and see where it takes you for the ride and see where it takes you. And that means if you like somebody, if you are following somebody, you've almost got to go all in and just see where it takes you. That's been really good advice for me. Second piece of advice would be the best four-letter word in entrepreneurship, Next N-E-X-T. In other words, when things don't work out, just go next, move on. Don't go. Oh, the business partner ripped me off. Oh, my best client left, whatever. Just go next and move on. And the third great bit of advice I think that I've got is to believe 100% in who you are and in what your heart is about. Don't let anybody tell you what's in your heart and what's in your soul.
Speaker 1:You know nice three book recommendations or speakers to watch out for easy one, number one the book of sacred prescriptions by landy jack l-A-N-D-I surname Jack J-A-C. It's 450 pages of incredible spiritual philosophy that can be used as a guide in anybody's life. Second book the Celestine Prophecy, james Redfield the nine insights that will open your world to understanding how to interact with your world A very well-known book. The third book, the Alchemist, paulo Coelho, probably one of the best-selling books of all time. The story of somebody who goes into the world to find everything they want, only to miss that it was inside them in the first place.
Speaker 2:Lovely recommendations. I haven't heard of the first two. We'll definitely go look out for it. The last of the part of three round question for you, Mike what would three recommendations be for the future self of Mike?
Speaker 1:What would three recommendations be for the future self of Mike? Here's the first one Spend more time playing guitar. I have three of them within reach of me right here. Recommendation number two is make sure there is more space than ever before for relationships and joy. I do a lot of things, so I manage my time pretty heavily. We don't work Fridays, but we need more space. And the third one is to continue monitoring my health, as I have been for the last three years. I am very lucky. I'm very healthy. I never get sick touch wood occasionally, I guess, like most people, but I've never had any major illness, so, and I've still got the energy of a 30 year old and I'm 63. So but I work on it.
Speaker 2:You are a musician at heart. You still and that's one of the stuff that you mentioned about your future self as well. So here's a question for you as a experienced musician how has that piece of you, the creative piece of you, influenced your approach to business and leadership?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's just part of everything. I mean at a quantum physics level, srikanth, all matter comes from light and all light comes from sound. So you and I, your laptop, your headphones, they are just literally music at a quantum physics level. So a business and an individual is like a song. Some people are like heavy metal, some people are like country and western, some people are like a beautiful Bach melody. Your business has a rhythm, your business has volume, your business has a pitch, your business has a tempo.
Speaker 1:So all those aspects of music constantly with me, and I understand them and they're just part of me. So there's just like a song. There's times to be quiet, there's times to have space, there's times to be loud, there's times to have space, there's times to be loud, there's times to be full on, there's times to bring other people in, to add color to it, there's times to just be you. So, and it's managing that, and I think, and there's also there's a lot of formulas in music that are relational to our life. I mean, the whole basis of scaling business is a musical formula that goes right back to Pythagoras. That might be something for another time.
Speaker 2:And what are some of your practices to keep all of these things kicking, bringing it to the fore when you run your day-to-day operations?
Speaker 1:Some of the things I mentioned to other people. The minute we wake up, we share our dreams. We meditate first thing in the morning. We journal lundy my wife's much better at it than I am but we journal. We don't work fridays. We don't work weekends, and probably four fridays and four weekends a year we're working, but that's that's about it. When we have events, we try not to talk about business after hours, and after hours for me is I'm pretty much Monday to Thursday. I'm pretty much 7 am in the morning till 7 pm at night, so I do 48 hours a week basically in that time, but I do need to take more space in there because I'm back to back all the time with stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's just the nature of how I live my life and I think, apart from that, travel. Travel is the other way when you travel. We owned a travel company Strikhans for 12 years, so we've been involved in travel a lot. But we realized that the reason people like to travel is not because they want to take photos of another culture or eat their food or come and see the Taj Mahal or something like that. That's what they think. The reason people travel is because they love who they are when they're traveling, because they become authentic, they become childlike, they become inquisitive, they become curious, they become grumpy, and that's who they are. So they love that part of themselves. So that's how I keep on my straight and narrow path and hold it all together.
Speaker 2:And in all of this, mike, what I have seen read is you have also done a great job in keeping your tribe together, in building and nurturing those relationships. What are some of the secret ingredients that has gone in the way of keeping the tribe together?
Speaker 1:First one is be prepared to choose your tribe and say no to a lot of people. You know, we're not defined by what we say yes to in life, we're defined by what we say no to. So picking your tribe well is the first thing. And you're quite right. I mean, we have an amazing tribe, we have an incredible tribe. Sometimes we sit back and go how did this even happen? I don't think you can plan it. You can plan the the.
Speaker 1:It's like having a good restaurant.
Speaker 1:You can get the best designer in the world, you can put it in the best location, but it's a combination of a lot of things.
Speaker 1:So that actually makes it super successful, because there's a lot of great looking restaurants and great places that are empty. So I think it's bringing them together, it's allowing them to share, it's uplifting them, it's celebrating their successes, it's being there to commiserate with them when life turns bad, like I'm chatting with one of my clients yesterday about his father just died and he's back in france where he's from, you know, dealing with the family stuff. So I'm helping him deal with the family stuff, you know, as best I can. So it's a combination of all of those things and, I think, probably the most important thing is that everybody in that tribe understands and you cannot manufacture this, is it's not that tribe understands and you cannot manufacture this, is it's not manufacturable? Understands that you actually have nothing but love in your heart from them and you genuinely wanted them to become the best they can be when they know that they'll walk over broken glass for you mike, like we always do as we wrap up the show.
Speaker 2:I ask all my guests, before we sign off, as what is their, inspire Someone Today. Message to all of our listeners.
Speaker 1:My message is to not let anybody else tell you who you are, for you to decide who you are. If you have a dream or a goal, commit 100% to it. Find a way, keep going at it. If that means you have to move countries, change your friends, whatever. If that goal is important enough to you, do it. If it's not, you shouldn't have chosen it in the first time. That's it, just do it.
Speaker 2:JDI. Just do it Well, Mike. On that note, thank you so much. This has been a fun, fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for giving your time and sharing your journey with me, and my listeners Appreciate it, and thank you.
Speaker 1:Srikanth. It's been an absolute pleasure. If anybody wants to connect with me, they can either go to LinkedIn and go to Mike Handcock H-A-N-D-C-O-C-K, or they can go to our website, wwwcircleofexcellencebiz, and there's even an assessment there on the front page. If they're in business and they want to see what's going on in their business and get some assistance, they can fill that in.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us on this episode of Inspire Someone Today. This is Srikanth, your host, signing off. Until next time. Continue to carry the rulse of inspiration. Stay inspired, keep spreading the light.
