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The 7% Club
The 7% Club
Episode 42: Be Brilliant with International Best Selling Author Michael Heppell
In this episode, I interview Michael Heppell. Michael is the best-selling author of nine books, including the Sunday Times number-one best-seller Flip It.
His books have been translated into 27 languages and are available in 80 countries. He’s worked with everyone from premiership footballers to Category B prisoners, over half of the FTSE 100 companies to TV personalities, including Davina McCall, Sara Cox and Patrick Kielty.
He has coached over 1,000 new authors on how to write, publish and sell their books. As a customer service expert, Michael is in high demand working with many organisations who want to raise their game in the service stakes. Described as one of the top three professional speakers in the world, Michael has presented to more than half a million people across multiple countries over the last 30 years.
He lives in Northumberland with his wife, co-author and business partner, Christine.
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/michaelheppell/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/michaelheppellofficial/ Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelheppell/
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💡 Need help scaling your business from 7 to 8 figures? Get in touch jenny@jennystilwell.com.au
Remember: Better strategy, better business, better life! See you next time!
Hi there, this is Jenny Stilwell and welcome to the 7% Club podcast. For the 7% of business owners who break through 2 million in sales and for those on track to join this club, this podcast is to help you upscale. In today's episode of the 7% Club podcast, I'm talking to Michael Heppel. Michael is a bestselling author of nine books, including the Sunday Times' number one bestseller, Flip It. His books have been translated into 27 languages and are available in 80 countries. He's worked with everyone from premiership footballers to Category B prisoners, over half of the FTSE 100 companies to TV personalities, including Davina McCall, Sarah Cox and Patrick Kielty. He's coached over a thousand new authors on how to write, publish and sell their books. As a customer service expert, Michael is in high demand working with many organisations who want to raise their game in the service stakes. Described as one of the top three professional speakers in the world, Michael has presented to more than half a million people across multiple countries over the last 30 years. He lives in Northumberland with his wife, co-author and business partner, Christine.
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Speaker 01:Michael, hi. Welcome to the podcast. It's going to be great. I'm really looking forward to having you on.
Speaker 00:Me too. I've been looking forward to this one for weeks, Jenny, because I think what you do is you do something a little bit special. It's a bit different from most podcasts, and I'm really excited about getting deep into some things today.
Speaker 01:Fantastic. Well, I have two of your books sitting here on my desk. Fortunately, I'm a fast reader, so I've been through one in more detail than the other. But I just think what you've done, like all the books you've written and, you know, they've been sold around the world and you've spoken to so many audiences on a global stage. And I just think that to have achieved that is brilliant in itself. I really do. So I'd really love to, I guess, start from there, but go back to what's led you to this point that you're at?
Speaker 00:Well, let's see if we can do it without having that boring backstory.
Speaker 01:Oh, you're not going to be boring. You're not going to be boring. I know you're not. It's going to be brilliant.
Speaker 00:Well, it's a classic thing is when people kind of go, well, I was dragged up and I lived in a shoebox and all that type of stuff. And I didn't. I had a lovely childhood. Oh, good. With loving parents. I mean, what the heck am I doing in the world of personal development when I got off to such a good start?
Speaker 01:Great to hear. And
Speaker 00:I left school and I started to work in my dad's business. I was a roofer. Actually, I realised after about a week, I'd made a terrible decision and I didn't want to be a roofer. But my dad had promised me that one day, son, this will all be yours. Now, when you're about nine years old, the prospect of owning two vans and six ladders is quite exciting. And then when you're 16, you suddenly think, oh my goodness, what have I done? So anyway, I didn't quit. I stuck with it. I did it for seven years. I did an apprenticeship, which is a really good discipline, actually, learning an apprenticeship to do something. And then I became a team leader and I learned a bit about management. But my real heart was in helping people, not putting roofs on. And I became a youth worker. So I used to be a volunteer youth worker, and then I got a chance to have a job as a youth worker, and I did that. And then I was involved with a project to manage the charity's involvement with a big festival that was taking place in the UK called the National Garden Festival. And I worked with all these charities, and I thought, wow, I love this. What these people are doing. And I wanted to get involved with charities. So I became a fundraiser. And first of all, I did the community fundraising for a big children's health charity. And then I set up a community foundation. in the area where I live, a place called County Durham in the north of England. And when I was doing that job, I met some very successful people, Jenny. And I don't know about you, but when I meet highly successful people, I want to know what makes them tick. And I used to raise money from these people, but then ask them lots of questions. And one guy totally changed my life. He's called David Brown. He's the guy who invented the caterpillar, you know, the big split axle trucks that you see in quarries and things like that. So that was him. And And he gave me a donation of £125,000. So it was a good day. And then I started asking him questions. And after about two hours of peppering him with questions, he said, Michael, it's time for you to go home. But before you go, let me ask you something. I was like, yeah, yeah, certainly, Mr. Brown, what is it? And this is the moment that changed my life. He said, what are you doing right now for your own personal development? And I didn't understand the question. And so I said, well, what do you mean? He said, what was the last book that you read? And it was probably some fiction book or whatever. And he said, OK, I'm going to suggest you read two books. One's called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. The other one's called How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Speaker 01:Really? They're
Speaker 00:the books he recommended? And I got into this idea of investing in my own personal development. And I started going on lots of courses. I read lots of books. And then I got a chance to teach what I knew to kids. So I had a youth work background. I got involved with this organization that was doing personal development programs for children. And then we started to teach teachers. And again, that's when everything changed because teachers already know everything. So the idea of me teaching teachers when they already knew everything came across as a little bit arrogant. I would walk into schools, I'm going to change the lives of everybody in this school, starting with you. And they were like, arms folded, not interested. And then again, the right people turn up in your life at the right time. I met somebody called Professor John Macbeth. At that time, he was head of quality and education at the University of Strathclyde. He went on to be the head of leadership in education at Cambridge University. The guy has a brain the size of a planet. And he said, Michael, you've got it wrong. You're trying to teach teachers the same way that you teach students. kids or motivate other people teachers need facts they need knowledge they need to know that you know your stuff so rather than reading the personal development books read the scientific papers and he gave me all these papers to read and it was dull my goodness it was dull it was boring but it gave me the foundations jenny and and that was what i needed so i could then stand in front of an audience explain why positive language would make a difference and and explain the science behind it. And I did that for about two years. And then I decided it was time to start my own business. So I started the imaginatively titled Michael Heppel Limited. But actually, that's not true. When I first started my business, it was called Zoom. And I owned zoom.co.uk and I let it go. Can you believe it? LAUGHTER I owned it for two years and I just let it lapse because I changed the name to Michael Heppel Limited. And then we set this goal, this crazy goal to positively influence a million lives and that's when everything changed.
Speaker 01:That is absolutely incredible. Like, you know, a lot of the time I think people get to that self-development gradually. You know, they read a book or they hear someone and then they start to build on it. But it just– It was like your purpose, your thing quite quickly, wasn't it? And it really took off.
Speaker 00:Once I knew what I wanted, I've always been like that. Once I know what I want, I really go for it. You know, when I was 12, I wanted to be in a band and I wanted to play keyboards. And the only way that I was going to do that would be to buy a keyboard. And I decided I was going to make enough money in a month to buy a keyboard, to buy a synthesizer. And I didn't have a job or anything, but I just went out like an absolute machine. I used my lunch money. I did jobs for friends. I sold stuff. I got a couple of side hustles going. And in one month, I got about 80% of the money. And my dad, bless him, an entrepreneur, he said, I'm going to give you the rest of the money because you've done it. So when I get something in mind, I am going to make it happen.
Speaker 01:So with all the books that you've written... Did you start speaking on stages when you had the first book under your belt or did you just, was that a natural extension of working with kids and teachers and it kind of went from there and it all happened? Yeah.
Speaker 00:So what I did was I started to present and I created a program called How To Be Brilliant and then in those days you used to buy CDs with personal development stuff and it was a company called Nightingale Conant I remember yeah six CD packs or six cassette packs when I used to originally buy them and I always had this goal that I wanted to have my own CD pack so I went to Nightingale Conant and they turned me down so I thought right I'll do my own so I created this six CD pack of my own and then I met somebody again you know you meet people and I always put it out there when I meet somebody I'm not going to be a pain in the backside with it but I'm going to be interested I'm going to spend time with them. I'm going to be the person who walks up and introduces myself to somebody. And I was doing something called Common Purpose. And I met a guy called David Bell. And David Bell was director of people for Pearson, the publishers. And I asked if I could go and visit him the next time I was in London. just to talk to him. And he was like, yeah, I'd like that. I'd welcome that. So I went to visit him, Pearson's head office, and I gave him a set of CDs as a gift. I said, thank you so much for seeing it. I'd like to give you these. And he looked at the title and he saw How To Be Brilliant. And he said, Michael, is this a book? And I said, no, but I want it to be. And he went, yeah, I'm going to introduce you to Rachel Stock, who's our top publisher. I mean, what a way to get an introduction. Who's our top publisher. I didn't know, but at that time, Rachel had, out of the top 10 business books in the UK, six of them were hers. And that's how good she was as a publisher for Pearson. And I met Rachel and I had this, I had a written goal that I would have a book published by the end of that year. And this was Easter. And I remember meeting her in this hotel in Leeds and talking about this idea, how to be brilliant. We're going to do this and we're going to do that. And it's going to be this in the book and all my passion, all my excitement. And she said, look, it sounds great. I want to do it. I think we could get it published next year. And I said, oh, no, no, no, it has to be published this year. And she said, well, we can't do that. It takes 15 months from signing a contract to the book being published. I said, oh, no, no, I've got a written goal. It has to be published before the end of this year. And remember, this is Easter, so it's April time. And she said, well, there's no way we can do it. I said, come on, Rachel, there's always a way. And I mined word for a little bit. And then she said, actually, the only thing we could do is if by any chance you have already got the manuscript, then we could have done it because I've actually got another author who's missed their deadline and you could go into their slot. And I said, I have got the manuscript. It is written. She went, really? You've never mentioned that. I went, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all done. And she said, well, I would need the manuscript by Tuesday next week. This is the Thursday before Easter. So I said, yeah, no problem at all. I'll send it down. I left that meeting and I rang my wife, Christine. I said, cancel everything this weekend. We're writing a book. And we wrote How to Be Brilliant in four days.
Speaker 01:No.
Speaker 00:And it was published that December. It was published that year.
Speaker 01:Oh, my God. So this was the first book, How to Be Brilliant.
Speaker 00:Yeah. I mean, this was the first one. This is the first edition. This is the very first one off the press. And then It went into the top 10 business books in the UK and it stayed there, not for a week or a month, it stayed there for two years and four months.
Speaker 01:Wow, that's fantastic.
Speaker 00:Yeah, they asked me to do a personal development version, which is the one that you've got there. That went into the top 10 personal development charts for another year. And then the whole writing thing took off. And, you know, as you mentioned before, I've written quite a few books now.
Speaker 01:That's absolutely fantastic. So, you know, I could sit and talk to you about writing and publishing for a long time, but that's not the purpose of this podcast. I want to talk about the book and the title, How to Be Brilliant. It's not, you know, how to be better or how to be, you know, the best version of yourself or anything like that. And, you know, you go out and talk to corporates and all sorts of people about this. Where did the title come from? How to be brilliant and the whole concept of being brilliant. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 00:I used to do a course when I was with Zoom, when I had Zoom, and it was called Optimize Your Life. But Optimize Your Life really doesn't mean anything. And as part of the course, I used to do this thing called brilliance benchmarking, where I talked about this concept of being dissatisfied with doing a good job. And I was saying, to optimise your life, you need to be brilliant. People used to say, I love that brilliant stuff. And I used to get people to say, how are you today? Brilliant, as a stimulus response. So I became known as the brilliant guy. And then somebody said, why do you call your course Optimise when everybody else is calling it How To Be Brilliant? And I went to a branding agency and I said, I need a new corporate logo for Zoom and I need to look at my courses and things like that. They came back and they said, first of all, we've talked to loads of your clients. Nobody's been on a Zoom course. They've all been on a Michael Heppel course. So you should change the name of the company to Michael Heppel. And secondly, your primary course is How To Be Brilliant, not Optimise. optimize your life and so I took external advice and I thought that's a good idea and I'm really pleased I did because it served me very very well
Speaker 01:it's great advice well I've been reading this and I've also been diving in and out of the edge how the best get better but what I would really like to explore with you are mostly some of the concepts in how to be brilliant So five characteristics of brilliant people. Can we touch on those?
Speaker 00:Yeah sure. Which one do you want to go with first?
Speaker 01:Oh well there's several I like here.
Speaker 00:Since I wrote the book that's changed a little bit. I now have extra ones that aren't in the book which when I do a keynote I always talk about. So we might A couple of those in as well.
Speaker 01:Okay, great. Well, I love one that really resonates with me is language, the language that people use.
Speaker 00:Yes.
Speaker 01:You know, I love that.
Speaker 00:It's huge. I mean, there's a million words to choose from in the English language. The average person has a vocabulary of around about 10,000 words. The average Category B prisoner has a vocabulary of 600 words. So words define who you are. Words change worlds. And the more that we understand that we can use language to be a better version of ourselves, especially with things like self-talk. You know, we go around, we tell ourselves, we instruct ourselves that we can't do something. I haven't got the time. I'm tired. Now, I'm not saying that you should go around and start going, I'm energized. Because, you know, where we live, you get put away for a little while for that. But if you just subtly change language and say, I could do with more energy. Now, what a slight difference that is. But the key word then becomes energy. Rather than saying, I haven't got the time to say, I need to find some time. As soon as you say you need to find time, your brilliant brain will find time. You know, when I first started teaching this in schools, we had a very, very challenging school and I was teaching the staff about language. And one of the tables suddenly started to laugh. I said, what is it? And said, well, we've got this pupil who we call Nightmare. That's his nickname. The kid's called Nightmare.
Speaker 02:And
Speaker 00:it was the secondary school and they'd go, oh God, I've got physics next with Nightmare. And they said, we just thought we'd change his name to Could Be A Dream. Right. So I said, oh, that's brilliant. And they were laughing about it. I said, it'll work because you've made it fun. I went back to that school four weeks later. The deputy head came out and met me at the school gate, a lady called Jackie Purdy. And she said, Michael, it works. I said, I know it works, but which bit? She said, that language change. So that kid was a nightmare. For the first week, we were just kind of going, oh, it could be a dream is next. I'm having could be a dream. Nothing much happened. Second week, he started to change. Third week, I mean, boy, we all saw a change. By the fourth week, last week, that kid had completely changed. Jenny, who changed? Who changed? They changed. They weren't looking for a nightmare. They were looking for a dream and they found a difference. That's the power of language.
Speaker 01:It is incredible, isn't it? And I think people get very lazy with language. As you said, our potential vocabulary is massive. Our actual is quite small. And we do get lazy. We use words like very or okay. It's unimaginative. It's kind of a downer. But when you really start to focus on using positive language, it does make a difference. But that's an amazing example. It really is. Okay, what about some other traits of brilliant people?
Speaker 00:Well, you know, one of the ones which isn't in How To Be Brilliant, but I've really thought a lot about this over the last few years, is the ability to make decisions. And the more I've thought about it, decisions are going to happen whether you like it or not. If you make the decision, that's you going towards your goal. If the decision's made for you, that equals stress. So with a mindset of the decision is going to happen, If you make it, it's going for your goal. And if you don't, it equals stress. Why don't more people make decisions? And it's because of fear. And that goes back to one of the other things on the characteristics of successful people. They step out of their comfort zone. They overcome the fears. And by doing that, you get a bigger comfort zone. Same with decision making. The more you make decisions, the easier it is to make decisions. So when I'm coaching somebody now and somebody goes, oh, I don't know. I'll say, well, if you did know. because they usually know. And I encourage people to make a series of small decisions and to create that habit. It's like the true will muscle. If you do something with true will, that you're really going to do it, you're much more likely to be able to do it with the bigger things. So decision-making, I think, is really important. And then another one, which again comes up again and again as we go through life, is this ability to be able to manage your state. So you're in the right state rather than a right state. And just to be able to say, is this a helpful place where I am right now? And if not, what can I change? So could I change how I'm breathing? Yes, you can always change how you're breathing. Could I change what I'm focusing on? Yes, because we're usually back referencing or we're looking at what's wrong. Could I change my language? Yes, I can. You change those three things, language, focus and physiology, you instantly change your state. Loads of people know this. You know, people like Tony Robbins has been banging on about this for years. What they don't tell you how to do is how to make it effective in everyday life. And that, again, means practicing when you don't need it so it's there when you do. It's like the karate kid, wax on, wax off, paint the fence. Why am I doing this? Because when you have to fight, you'll do it without thinking about it. So don't wait until you're in a situation where you need it. Practice it with the smaller things, smaller decisions, smaller state changes, smaller changes to language so it's there and available when you do.
Speaker 01:Yeah. And you mentioned comfort zones and fear. And it's interesting because... We all like to be in our comfort zone, but when we step out of it, that's when we make progress and life gets better and we go through the difficult bit and then you can't come back from that. Once you've expanded, you can't come back. And even knowing that, people can still be really reluctant to step out of their comfort zone. Is that fear? Is it taking the easy path? Is it failure to make a decision? Is it all of those things together? Even when we know that there's great benefit in stepping out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 00:It is all of those things, but in most of it, most of the fears are false evidence appearing real. That's what fear stands for. When we look back and we go, oh, actually, it wasn't that bad. Oh, actually, it was enjoyable. Oh, actually, I felt great after I did that. So a good way to be able to tap into that is by journaling. So if you capture how you're feeling about something and then you look back at that a couple of weeks later and you go, oh, actually, I was worried about that, but there was nothing to worry about. But you've got written evidence. It's such a powerful way to help you out of your comfort zone because it's never, ever going to be quite as bad as you think. So we used to run a program called How to Be a Super Speaker. which taught people how to do public speaking. And I remember, you know, even though it was a safe environment, the terror on people's faces when they had to stand up and just talk for a minute about anything. And then afterwards, it was like, oh, that was easy. I said, okay, well, remember this moment. Anchor this moment, you know, kind of capture how you feel right now so you can go back to that. The other thing is you mentioned it before about writing books. So I ran a program called Write That Book, and I actually wrote a book called Write That Book, which has done very, very well, teaching people how to write, publish, and sell their books. The reason why it did so well was it helped people to overcome that fear of publishing. We call it pushing the button. Loads of people have got half-written books. Loads of people have got great book ideas in their head. But how do you get over that terror, that fear, of pushing the button and having your words in print so somebody can buy them, take them home and read them. And we show people how to do that. And it's baby steps. But boy, oh boy, that feeling when somebody opens the box and in there is their book.
Speaker 01:It's fantastic.
Speaker 00:You know, there's no feeling like that of seeing your words in a book, in a box, and the smell of the box. Everything is just incredible.
Speaker 01:It's a brilliant experience. Yeah. Okay, let's touch on goal setting, brilliant goal setting and the three P's. Can you take us through that? Because I love that.
Speaker 00:So often if we're doing a live event, I'll say, you know, we talk about goal setting. And I'll say, everybody's heard of SMART goals. You know, what does SMART stand for? And everybody goes, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timed. How many people have heard of SMART goals? All the hands go up. I'll say, keep your hand up if you're currently living your life's vision because of SMART goals. All the hands go down. Without fail, all the hands go down. So I said, there has to be something else. See, SMART goals are great for outcome setting. not goal setting. That means if you're running a project, use smart goals to help you daily on the project. But I talk about the type of goals so you wake up on a Monday morning and you think, yes, come on, it's another week, rather than thinking, oh, nine more minutes and pressing snooze. So to do that, I came up with this concept of the three Ps. And the three Ps are make your goals personal, positive, and in the present tense. So, I love team goals. I love company goals, all that type of stuff. But at the end of the day, who's the most important person in the world? You are. So a goal needs to start with I. I am. I have. Positive. Positive with the language that you use and positive with the outcomes that you want. So we've talked a little bit about positive language. If you have a goal, I am no longer in debt. What's the key word in that sentence? debt you've got to think about debt all the time I am now financially free I am now financially secure they're different words so choosing your words is very important and then the outcome that you want is equally important so sometimes people will think about something to be successful other people have to suffer that's like to have the tallest building in the town you have to tear other people's buildings down no build your own tallest building It's not about what anybody else is doing. It's about what you're doing. That's what's important. So that's the second part of personal. And then present tense is to think about the goal like you've already achieved it. So to see it like it's already happened. And when you do that, you start to create gestalt. So that's your brain's way of seeing things and making them fit the order that you're thinking about. So if you're like my wife and cushions have to be a certain way on a sofa, if one of those cushions is wrong, she looks at it she has to change it that's the gestalt it's like the same with the goals if you have a goal if something isn't quite right you're going to take action to do something about it you're going to pick up the phone you're going to move closer towards it you're going to be more aware and conscious of the opportunity so i don't believe in the nonsense of just mentally think about it and it will come you know hey the secret's lovely but it's a bit la la for me you know if you want to achieve your goal you've got to go out and do it you've got to take action you're going to make things happen and having a goal that's using the three p's will make you more likely to do that
Speaker 01:and there has to be emotion in there doesn't it as you said smart the smart method is great for projects to stay on track and you know make sure it's achievable but for goals that are going to galvanise action and get us going, there has to be real emotion in there. And then things like decision-making are a hell of a lot easier because you can see what you're moving towards and you really want it as opposed to, you know, something that you set as a goal but you don't really want it. You're not really going to put the effort in. But the other things that really drive you forward are I find it's easy to make those decisions and it just creates this massive momentum because of the decisions and because you keep moving forwards and taking great action. So yeah, I find goal setting just in itself a fascinating area and how people approach it. Okay, now I wanted to ask you about this. Stepping up to be brilliant. Now in the book you say when you set a brilliant standard, you've got to step up continually, right? When you set a new standard for yourself and you understand why you want to be brilliant, it keeps you on the edge all the time. That's where the fun is and that's where the enthusiasm for life comes from. Can you just talk about being on the edge, stepping up, probably being a bit fearful, being out there, and then the fun and the enthusiasm kicks in?
Speaker 00:Do you know, Jenny, that is the real key of how to be brilliant is If you think that you're going to get good results by doing a good job, you are going to be disappointed. People do a good job, they get poor results, and then they fall by the wayside. It's like, I did all this. I did this effort. I did a good job. I'm still not getting the pay rise. I'm still not bringing in the clients. I'm still not having the relationship that I want. And it's because good is no longer good enough. People's expectations have changed dramatically. You know, people want more. They want to pay less. They want things bigger, better, and bolder than ever before. And your job, being brilliant, is to aim for that. I would argue that you can't be brilliant at everything. A lot of times people will say, oh, I want to be brilliant at everything. Choose three things. Choose three things that you really are committed to that you want to be brilliant at. And then ask yourself, how would somebody who is brilliant do this? So I tell a story in How To Be Brilliant about giving my daughter a Valentine's gift. And it became a bit of a legendary story in terms of, I used to tell it from the stage, I don't so much now. But one year, I gave my daughter a Valentine's card and I wanted to be a brilliant dad. And I went to a service station and bought a card the night before and Valentine's wrote something on it and tucked it under my daughter's pillow and the next morning she opened it looked at it and put it down and went thanks dad that's not being a brilliant dad so the following year when I understood what brilliance meant being a brilliant dad I arranged to get tickets to go to a concert and I knew that she loved kittens. So I managed to get a card a month beforehand that had kittens on the front. And then we did this date night and we went to see Steps and we were in the best row possible. And I queued up to buy the tickets rather than buying them online so I could get the right ones. Everything about it was perfect. And Sarah, at the end of that day, she said, Dad, today has been the day of my life.
Speaker 01:Oh, really?
Speaker 00:Yeah. Now, that was when she was maybe eight or nine. She's 32 now. And she still talks about it. That was one of the best days of her life.
Speaker 01:Oh, wow. That's amazing.
Speaker 00:Now, if you want that, that's effort and energy, but it's worth it because the results are extraordinary. And it's that thing where, you know, I teach customer service as well as one of the other areas that I do a lot of work with organizations on brilliant service and what that looks like. And people kind of go, but we're doing everything and we're not getting particularly good reviews. I said, because you're not doing everything. You're doing some things. You're not studying the best in the world. You're not thinking transferable. Well, we're not a hotel, so it's harder for us. BS. It should be easier for you because hotels have a higher expectation. You know, if you run a building company or you're... a plumber or a gardener or you're a marketing agency or whatever and you're learning from the best in the world who might be hotels or they might be restaurants or they might be, you know, somebody else and applying that into your brilliance, that's when you start to get results. But Jenny, the number one reason why people don't do it, it's hard work.
Speaker 01:I was going to ask you that. I thought that would be it. Yeah.
Speaker 00:It's hard graft and that's why you need a strong goal to motivate you, to want to do it. It's also why you need to understand that it will not be a quick fix. It takes a long time. One of the things that I wanted to be brilliant at was speaking. I don't want to be a brilliant author. If I was a brilliant author, all I would do every day is write. I wouldn't have time to speak. I wouldn't have time to coach. I wouldn't have time to do stuff like this that I'm doing with you. But as a speaker, I hone my craft all the time I work with an events producer on every single presentation that I do and after that presentation I get a full review from her on what was good what could have been better things that we could tweak for next time and then when I design the next keynote for the next client we take that knowledge and put it into the next one so it's tiny marginal gains each time and then I'm described as one of the top three professional speakers in the world And people go, oh, wow, that's because you've been doing it for a long time. No, it's because every single time and because it's important to me, I want to be brilliant at it. And I look at what does that mean.
Speaker 01:That's fantastic because I was going to ask you at the end of How to Be Brilliant, there's a chapter on how to be brilliant-er, like what are the next steps. And listening to what you've just said and choosing three things that you want to be brilliant at, not everything, but just choose three and really focus on them. And that's what you've done with your speaking. And I don't think many people would do that, would take that effort after every talk, every keynote and debrief and further improve the next one when you're already brilliant. And that does take a lot of effort.
Speaker 00:Let me tell you how far I take that. I got an opportunity to coach a brilliant UK stand-up comedian, a guy called Patrick Kilty. Patrick now hosts the Late Late Show out of Ireland, one of the top-rated shows in Ireland. He's done acting, he's done all sorts of, but as a stand-up, he is incredible, one of the best communicators ever. And I coached Patrick and helped him with some stuff, and I said, you can help me with something. I'd love it if you would review one of my keynotes and let me know what I could do better. He said, yeah, it'd be a pleasure. So I did an event for the London Business Forum. Now, the London Business Forum is one of the best Best places a speaker could ever go to. It's like the creme de la creme. The audiences are always great. Everything is just perfect. They find fabulous venues. I did this job. It was in the British Library in their theatre there, which is superb. I was on fire. Honestly, I nailed everything. Got to the end, went out for lunch, sat down with Patrick and I said, so any pointers? He had six answers. pages of notes and about two of them were that was great
Speaker 02:oh
Speaker 00:it was things about where how i was using the stage where i stood how long to do a pause he said one thing to me which i just has stayed with me for so long he said don't chase the laugh he says you are funny but you're not there to be funny you're there to change people's lives if you get a laugh that's a bonus so Stop chasing. And there was a couple of times I looked back and I thought, and I watched the video of this particular event. I thought, yeah, I was. I was chasing the laugh. I was trying to be funny when I shouldn't try to be funny. And six pages of notes and I bet three quarters of it was bang on valid. And it was a bit of a shock. And I did feel a little bit low. And we had to have a couple of strong gin and tonics at lunchtime to get over it.
Unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Well, you would, wouldn't you? You'd feel a little bit, well, low is one word, but once you'd recovered from that and you'd, as you said, you looked at it and you thought, yeah, I was chasing the laugh and you took that on board, that would have taken your next keynote to a whole other level.
Speaker 00:I bet that was 10 years ago and I've thought about it before every single event.
Speaker 01:Wow. Fantastic. That's really amazing. I did want to ask you the two things I want to go through. I'd love you to share with us one of your, say, client stories, someone who has a brilliant life and what you've done for them. I
Speaker 00:know who you're hinting at.
Speaker 01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we talk about that?
Speaker 00:Yeah. So this is, for those people who don't know, I'm And I have coached Davina for a long time. And I know people listen to this all over the world. So she's probably one of the best known TV presenters in the UK and does other stuff that globally as well. And Davina got in touch because I actually coached somebody else, met her husband at a dinner. gave everybody at the dinner a copy of How To Be Brilliant. This is the power of having a book, by the way. And then three weeks later, four weeks later, one of those Sunday magazines had run a feature with Davina and it said, what are you reading right now? And she said, I'm reading this book called How To Be Brilliant. My husband gave it to me. I thought, cheeky sod. I gave it to him. Never mind. And it is brilliant. So I just got in touch with her and said, Davina, thank you so much. If there's ever anything I can do for you, let me know. And she rang me. A couple of days later, she picked up the phone, rang and said, Mike, I just want to say I love your book. It's great. I said, well, look, why don't I give you a coaching session just on me to say thank you for doing the thing in the magazine? She said yes. And then she tried to cancel it. And she tried four times to cancel it. And I wouldn't let her because I just knew what she was going to do. And then we eventually got together. We sat down. It was the first time I'd met her. And we started the coaching session. And this is me not speaking. I would never talk about what happened in a coaching session unless the client offered to. And she's written about this in her autobiography. Within 20 minutes, she was crying her eyes out. She said, look, my life is an absolute mess right now. I'm hosting Big Brother, but I don't want to. anymore i don't want to be identified my identity is just that i'm terrified if i leave that would i get more work i don't like my manager he's a bully and i want to change from there but i don't know where to go to do that and i said okay let's get going with it right now who would your ideal manager be she said simon fuller so simon fuller managed the spice girls and managed portion Becks, you know, the Beckhams and all that stuff. I said, okay, well, give him a call right now. And the look on her face, she went, I can't do that. I said, why not? I said, just give him a call. I said, you're Davina McCall, give him a call. So she picked up the phone and she rang his office, said, hi, it's Davina McCall here. I'd love to have a meeting with with simon at some point is it possible they said well he's not here at the moment he's in america but i'm sure he'd love to hear from you said okay thanks very much and here's my number bye-bye but she was like oh god i did it i did it i did it i did it i bet four minutes later a phone rang and it's a u.s number she went oh my god hello Hi Davina, Simon Fuller here. I hear I've had a missed call from you. I'm so sorry I wasn't there. What can I help you with? I've got a coach and he's encouraging me to get a new manager, which I really want to do. And he said, come in and let's have a chat. She went in a week later, met with him. He said, look, you don't need me. This is what you need to do. So Davina went on to do coaching. Amazing stuff. I mean, absolutely incredible things. But here's what a lot of people don't know about Davina McColl. I'll tell you just a three-minute story, Jenny, but this sums up why it was so important that she was able to go out and do other things. I was out for supper with her. It was about a year and a half later, and we were at a place in London called The Woolsey, which is a lovely restaurant.
Speaker 01:Oh, I love The Woolsey. Love it.
Speaker 00:And it was one of those classic nights. Three or four people did the classic thing in the middle of her eating, came up, hi, can I have an autograph? Can I get a selfie? She always says yes. She stands up, steps away from the table so it isn't interfering with the people who she's with, sits down to our cold food, you know, but always says yes. When we came out, there was a guy sat, homeless guy sat there and he said, oh, I just want to give me some change to start and find somewhere to stay tonight. And she went up to this guy and said, where do you want to stay? He said, oh, I want to stay at St. Mark's or whatever. And she said, oh, is Greg still there, whoever it was? Yeah, yeah, Greg's there. I said, okay, great. How much do you need? She says, I need £28. How much have you got? Three. She goes, okay, I'm going to give you £25. I want you to go and see Greg, say that I said hi. And he went, oh, you're Davina. Oh, my goodness, it's Davina. Oh, wow. Can I get an autograph? Well, between Davina, her husband, me, my wife, the guy at the door, and the guy who's homeless, not one of us had a pen or paper. So anyway, I know he stood up and she said, I tell you what, instead of an autograph, how about a hug? And he went, oh, that would be nice. And she hugged this guy. And Jenny, when I say properly homeless, you'll know what I mean. This guy, bless him, he was lifting. He was filthy and the smell and all that. She took a hold of this guy and she held him. It must have been for at least 30 seconds. And then suddenly you could feel his shoulders just drop and this exhalation. And she let go really slowly. Step back with this incredible smile. I could cry thinking about it now. This incredible smile. And she said, how's that? And he said, better than an autograph.
Speaker 02:wow
Speaker 00:and off we went now that is a person who is remarkable absolutely remarkable and I'm still great friends and we still do a coaching session about once every six months and she'll come along and she'll say right this is what I'm thinking about doing next she did this incredible thing for comic relief here in the UK and she was terrified she was absolutely terrified she was terrified about open water swimming she was terrified about riding a bike in the night and we're talking about language you know and it was in February when she did it and she said I hate the cold I hate the cold I said well stop saying cold instead say could be warmer I could be warmer I could be warmer and at one point she was cycling through the night in the highlands of Scotland and she was on this bike and the ice was sticking to her face it was that type of night and you could see it on Comet Relief when they did it and she's just going could be warmer could be warmer could be warmer and I was like yes yes she's doing it she's doing it
Speaker 01:what a great story
Speaker 00:yeah she's adorable she's brilliant she really is
Speaker 01:Well, let's finish on some words because I saw a post you did the other day and I laughed out loud at the made-up words that you had in there and I thought it would be just a quirky thing to end our podcast with. There's a few in here. There's a couple that I really love. Pre-planning, the act of making excuses before anything has actually gone wrong. I love that, pre-planning. Snorecasting, giving overly detailed plans or predictions that bore everyone rigid.
Speaker 00:Yeah, we've all met a snorecaster, haven't we?
Speaker 01:Absolutely. Opti-gloom, a special kind of pessimism masked as just being realistic. I love OptiGlue.
Speaker 00:I mean, honestly, everybody knows somebody who is so OptiGlue-y and that wonderful thing where they say, I'm just being realistic. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 01:Oh, yeah, right, whatever. And one of the others that I really love is fluster casting.
Speaker 00:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Giving advice while clearly overwhelmed yourself. That just made me laugh out loud, that one. Fantastic. Fantastic.
Speaker 00:But you know, Jenny, I love, this is language, you see. I
Speaker 01:love making up words. That's why I love this
Speaker 00:so much. And every, about every four or five years, I do a newsletter where I've just made up some words. And what I tend to do is I keep a little set of notes on my phone. And if something pops into my head, I'll put one in. I'm so tempted to share them there and then, rather than waiting until I've got a list. Somebody said, oh, they should be in the dictionary. I said, no, they shouldn't. They should be our little secret. Just ours, just for us.
Speaker 01:Special. Well, thank you so much. This has been the sort of discussion I thought we would have. I've really, really enjoyed it. And thank you so much for making time for it. And I just think everyone should go out and buy at least one of your books, if not several, because what you talk about and what you've done and, you know, the impact that you've had is really It is. It's quite brilliant. And I love the content of what you're writing about and I think it's fantastic. I really do.
Speaker 00:Thank you, Jenny. And can I say as well, you know, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this type of stuff. There's not many people who are consistent with their podcasts. There's loads of people start and finish and they've done three, then they get a bit sick and you continuously develop with the work that you do. And it's amazing to see how your podcast has developed. But I think also I'm the type of person who, I want to help people as much as possible. So if you see me on LinkedIn or if you see me on socials or whatever, don't just do a follow, do a connect. Connect with me. If I can help you with something, ask me the question. If I'm unable to, I'll say, I'm sorry, I'm not the right person for that. But if I can, I'll point you in the right direction. Or if there's a little bit of advice in it and take me 30 seconds to do it, I'm going to do it because that's what I want to do. My original goal was to positively influence a million lives. I achieved that a few years ago. My goal now is to positively influence everyone I connect with. So if you can help me to achieve my goal by positively influencing you, that would be great.
Speaker 01:Well, I feel very positive all around after talking to you tonight. So thank you very much. And I will, I will absolutely do that.
Speaker 00:Thank you.
Speaker 01:Thanks, Michael. And that's all for today's episode of the 7% Club. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, wherever you are in the world, remember, better strategy, better business, better life.