The Best of the Best
Each week we will seek out the best of the best in every imaginable business and explore the secret to their success. Prepare to gain insights and perspectives that will help you propel your business and personal growth forward. Hear how these leaders started, the stumbling blocks they overcame, and what’s next in their journey.
The Best of the Best
Navigating Life's Storms: Lessons in Business and Sailing from David Greer
What would you do if a sudden business split sent your life into uncharted waters? Join us for an incredible conversation with David Greer, who turned such a setback into the adventure of a lifetime. Hear how David commissioned a sailboat in the south of France and embarked on a 5,000-mile journey through the Mediterranean, all while homeschooling his children. The episode unpacks the invaluable lessons and skills David imparted to his kids, ultimately strengthening their family bond in ways they never imagined. From an early fascination with business and computers to the unpredictable highs and lows of entrepreneurship, David's story is one of resilience and transformation.
But that's not all—we dive into the nuts and bolts of strategic planning for business growth. Learn how to effectively set long-term goals and break them down into actionable steps, inspired by Vern Harnish's scaling-up principles. Hear firsthand how personal resilience and self-care play crucial roles in maintaining momentum, featuring insights from Kevin Lawrence and personal anecdotes about overcoming alcoholism. The episode wraps up with a compelling discussion on the value of coaching, underscoring how external guidance can spark those transformative "aha" moments. Whether you're steering your own ship in business or life, this episode offers a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice.
Here we are, another episode of the best of the best. Therese, who do you have here today? Well, we are in for a special treat. Today we have David Greer, and David has an amazing story to tell. So I'm really excited. David, welcome aboard. The Best of the Best podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much. I'm thrilled to be here today.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was looking over your background and one of the things that just kind of jumped out at me right away was your trip sailing and homeschooling the kids. What a dream that is. Tell me a little bit about how you got there. What took you to that direction?
Speaker 2:What took me to that direction is, after 20 years building a software company, I suddenly unexpectedly ended up on the street. My former partner and I had a major disagreement in 20 plus years, but it was a doozy and it ended in divorce. So he ended up. The way we settled the differences in strategic direction was he bought me out 2001, and someone way smarter than me sat me down and said, david, your kids will never be 11, 9, and 5 again. Do you need to work right away? And I go no, I got a pretty good check in my genes. I'm not done, but I don't need to work right away.
Speaker 2:And you know, we hatched this plan to commission a sailboat in the south of France and homeschool our three kids while sailing more than 5,000 miles in the Mediterranean. And so I'd been a sailor from when I was young, had boats on the West Coast here I'm based in Vancouver, canada, for, at that point, 20 years, and I'd read many books about families who'd cruise long term, and I didn't realize how much it was actually a dream until we started. We talked about three ideas. One was to get a barge and kind of barge through Holland, belgium, france. The other was, to, like, rent a series of houses kind of a month each per year. And then we decided on the on the sailing, and once we did like I, I just um, I suddenly realized like just how much this had been a latent dream and I think if I'd continued with the business I probably never would have like realized it, right, um, I think that happens to a lot of people, right.
Speaker 1:You get so caught up in the day to day and going on with what's happening and then you know family life does suffer. Kids suffer Um, not that they suffer, I mean it's. Obviously we take great care of the kids, but they don't get your time and at the end of the day, that's the thing that they need the most, especially in this world we're living in today. And I just read that and I was like, wow, that is just so awesome. I'm so happy you had that experience with your kids. Is everybody really close now? Do you feel like that brought you guys closer together?
Speaker 2:Yeah, as a friend of ours who did live in a barge the year before we left for a year, she likes to say you know, it's like being in a pressure cooker, like one of two things happens Either the lid blows off or like the parts become greater than you know. The whole becomes greater than the parts as you kind of meld together. I mean your children see you like in ways that most children never see their parents. Also, several, many people have pointed out to me that we've spent more time with our children than most parents will spend with their children in their entire life.
Speaker 1:Just the values and the core values that you can teach them. You know, and they're your core values instead of someone else's is just awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, and just operating, like we were 18 months without being in an English speaking country Wow, country, wow. And like, just like buying food, you know, like just practical things become, you know, and I've got three growing, you know, and a couple of them turned into teenagers while we're. We're out there and like, like, just feeding everybody. Plus, you know, you got to be an engineer, you got to be a root planner.
Speaker 2:Like, there's so many things you do and your children like just take part in this, like it's just um, you know it's not conscious, but they just learn so much and uh, yeah, it's, it's a legacy we've created as a family together and it's a core bedrock that we still draw from. Um, and, yeah, we're still, uh, we're still close In fact. Uh, our whole family, we and, yeah, we're still close, in fact, our whole family. My wife's brother and his son just came out. We went up for a fishing four days up on an island just north of Vancouver with my daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren, my middle son and his wife and their new puppy, and we just had a fabulous four days and caught a lot of salmon.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's fun, very nice. So I think everybody's got a chance to know you just a little bit better there. I want to go back to some some questions I have for you. So what started you off in business originally? How did you get started?
Speaker 2:When I was in grade eight or grade nine I got taken of a tour of the Alberta legislature government buildings. I grew up in Edmonton, alberta, canada, and that's the provincial capital, and we went and walked by a computer computer room and I remember seeing all of these computers and all of these spinning tape drives and at the same time I got taught in math octal arithmetic. Like you can't count 10 because it's 10 digits, you actually count in any base, eight, two. In fact computers are binary, so they actually count in zeros and ones. And at that point I just had this vision I wanted to combine business and ones. And at that point I just had this vision I wanted to combine business and computers.
Speaker 2:I don't know exactly where it came from. I come from an entrepreneurial family. My grandfather started a hardware store in downtown Edmonton in 1923. So that was my norm, right, but I didn't. And my dad put a lot of pressure for me to take over the sanitary supply business, but I knew that wasn't going to have many computers.
Speaker 2:So then I eventually went to university to get my computer science degree, took all of my electives in the business school in management information systems and I got a summer job where I was working with these really advanced computers.
Speaker 2:Up where I was working with these really advanced computers and then I met this consultant who was rewriting this application for the cable company in Vancouver and he started a software company and before I graduated I joined him as the first employee after the founders Like, we were just having fun and we were in a new market and it really growing in a very innovative computer from Hewlett Packard.
Speaker 2:And you know like a condition of my employment was I had to write a technical paper and apply to the 1980 international Hewlett Packard user group conference to to, to, uh, speak and uh, that was accepted. And then the fourth year I had, I took a week off of school and flew to San Jose and I gave my first technical paper and I, you know, with my former partner Bob Green, we were standing on the San Jose convention floor telling everyone about this cool software and what it could do for them, and later I learned that's kind of the essence of selling. Yes, yes, we had no idea, right, like we're just, we're just these geeks with a bunch of other geeks, but we're doing really cool stuff and we did have some products that were very impactful in that marketplace.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, you know, one of the things that you said that I love and it kind of goes to what you believe in and what you teach is culture and helping organizations with their culture. You said that you were having lots of fun, and I talk to people and I have fun every day. I love what I do, and sometimes I tell people that and they look at me like I have two heads and they're like what do you mean? You have fun at work. I'm like well, you should have fun at work. If you don't have fun at work, it stinks, right?
Speaker 2:You're going to life is way too short.
Speaker 1:Yes, and real estate obviously is one of those careers where you know it is one of those things you put in and you get a lot out if you, if you have passion for it. But that's just like any business, right? So talk a little bit about what you help companies with and the culture and what that all means to you.
Speaker 2:So my belief is that really high-performing companies focus on culture, and so, first of all, I help entrepreneurs and their senior leadership team discover their culture. It's not so much like defining it, it's usually there. And you know this comes from Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. This is not new stuff and you know asking questions like who is an employee you would hire again in a heartbeat, like, tell me about them, tell me about their characteristics, um, and then you know becoming conscious about what your culture is and what you stand for. It, like having fun might be one of your core values. It's like everybody you know we want everyone in the company to have at least one time every day where they have some fun.
Speaker 2:And then as you really develop the culture, really culture defines behaviors. So it's really about how people behave and most of our behaviors come from, you know, our family of origin, our early teachers, our early coaches. So stuff is baked into us really deep and what I remind entrepreneurs and high-performing people and leaders is that it's almost impossible to change people's behaviors. It's possible, but it's really hard. It's way easier to teach them a skill. So once you figure out what your culture is, then, as you're bringing new people on board, make sure you filter first for cultural fit and it actually makes the company go faster quicker, because everyone has these similar behaviors. Right, you don't need as big an HR manual. If everyone has a similar belief system about you know what's important and really high performing cultures. If you make a mishire, usually they eject that person like a virus.
Speaker 1:Yes, and sometimes people that aren't exactly the perfect fit in the beginning. It's contagious culture, you know. They learn to grasp on or, like you said, they just don't last really, really long.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, um, this, this idea. Like people are always looking for the skillset first and I'm like, no, look, look for your cultural fit first. And yeah, like you know, if they need to have a computer science degree, you don't have time to teach them a four-year degree. Like they still need to have and maybe a lot of skills, but if they don't fit into your culture, you know, like, if your culture is a high communication, you know connecting with people, believe me, I've been a computer scientist. I've worked with a lot of tech geeks in my time. There's a lot of them who are incredibly skilled, but that is not one of their behaviors. And it's okay to you know if they fit in a culture where it's okay to kind of feed them pizzas under the door and let them work 24 hours a day, but it's. I want you to make conscious choice about that. Like, is that really fitting into your culture?
Speaker 1:I love that you know you talk about the culture getting that right, so the organization needs to know what it is and what their expectations are going to be and how they're going to run and what they're going to accept and not accept. But then you also talk about how do you find your ideal customer.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my experience of you know entrepreneurs especially I work a lot with owner founders started their business, grew it, and you know, when you're first out in business you kind of take any customer. You can get, yes, like you need cash flow right, yes, been there, done that, You're figuring it out, and that's good and it's great. But as you get success, not all customers are created equal and there are some customers who are either way easier to deal with or who value your goods and services way more so they'll pay you more. They're easier to work with. So I say you know, as you grow like it really start looking at your customers Like, who do you love calling you to ask for things and who do you like try not to answer the phone? Yes, right, and we all have probably had that.
Speaker 1:We have, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:And that you seriously consider firing some of your customers. Yep, and you know, I say like if your perfect customer walks through the door right now, what is everything you could tell me about them?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great question.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, you know, are they? Is it a man, is it a woman? Are they tall, are they short? I mean, some of those don't matter, right, but it's what are the characteristics of that person that would lead to say this is going to be a fantastic customer?
Speaker 1:Yes, we call that the missing person report here.
Speaker 2:Ah, yes, I like that.
Speaker 1:It's like who's missing from the organization and what do they ideally look like? And then everybody started looking for that person. It gives you some direction and guidance.
Speaker 2:And then you know, as you grow your business and you become clearer about these things like an ideal customer. Then you start working on your messaging and your marketing to attract those people who are going to be ideal and hopefully self-select out some of the people who are not going to be ideal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely so. I want to go on to then. Another question I have for you, because obviously I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. Another question I have for you because obviously I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and one of your. One of the things I want to ask you is in what ways can entrepreneurs plan their week for maximum impact? Because as an entrepreneurial mind, you know high D I personality. Most times we are always onto that new shiny toy or it's off we go. I'd like to hear a little bit about you know how could you plan for maximum impact and maybe avoid some of those distractions?
Speaker 2:So here's the longer answer. A little bit longer answer because, like I work with scaling up this process by a guy called Vern Harnish, who and I specialize in facilitating for planning. So I remember when I first went to Vern Harness Training and he let me back up For Robel for 20 years, we did what we did last year and do it a little better.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:When I first went to a training session with Vern, he said where do you want to be in three to five years? Start there. What are the key thrusts or capabilities you need to build? And like, if you're a solo entrepreneur, that could be like your own skill and capability so that you can, you know, or maybe it's like I want to spend more time with my family Well then you probably need a PA who has to be really, really skilled and really good, and that's like a capability you need to build.
Speaker 2:So, where do you want to be in three to five years? Then, what do you want to achieve this year so that you can get to where you want to go in three to five? And then, what do you need to achieve this quarter? And I'm talking like four or five goals, like small number of goals for the year, or three to five years, like four, maybe five key thrust capabilities, like where you're going to end up. Um, same for the year and same for the quarter. I, most people write down too many goals and then they're like spinning their wheels, trying to, you know, slice, do a little here, a little here, a little here, and nothing really moves ahead substantially. Yeah, their focus is too divided yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, when you're planning your week, you need to dust off your goals and you need to say you know, am I spending at least a quarter of the best time each working day working towards those goals? Right, yeah, because if I'm not, then you're probably not going to achieve them. That's right, right. So that's why I say the prioritization actually has to be in the context of a bigger plan, like where you're really trying to go Cause then it gets a lot easier. It's this planning process actually makes it easier, because it limits your choices. And then you have to build discipline to avoid the shiny red ball center which we all have. Believe me, me too. Oh, look that new business. Oh, maybe I should get involved with that. Oh, that might be cool. Yeah, I know You're right, you're right. Oh, gee, I don't have any time in my calendar. Oh, I wanted to spend time with my grandchild, oh, right.
Speaker 1:So that wasn't a priority.
Speaker 2:I think that's really smart advice.
Speaker 1:Future casting, you know. Looking out and deciding, you know everybody. A lot of people plan for one year. But really planning for that one, three, five and even beyond is very interesting. I had a coach ask me one time what does my what does my legacy look like in?
Speaker 1:100 years and I'm like great question, my legacy look like in a hundred years. And I'm like great question, a hundred years. Like it really makes you stop and think, holy smokes, what am I doing now? That's going to actually be remembered then, cause I'm not going to be here unless things change a lot in the world. I'm definitely not going to be here at 150.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a great question, and so what legacy are you leaving? Like and and and it's also okay not to want to leave Like in 150 years I'm gone and that's it.
Speaker 1:I did what I did.
Speaker 2:That's okay. Like again, it's just more, I'm all about conscious choice. Like that's the number one thing I ask of my clients. Like, do whatever you want, but do it with intention, rather than just like reacting to the current event.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:The other thing, my, my former coach, Kevin Lawrence, and his book your oxygen masks.
Speaker 2:First, which I highly recommend Great book. Um, I worked with Kevin for nine years and helped him build a lot of these templates. But he breaks your life down into like career, you know, finances life, like the relationships and that connection with people. And as high performers we almost always squeeze ourself out in the middle, like we squish ourselves out. So we don't. We sacrifice our resiliency, we sacrifice our physical and mental health. We sacrifice our resiliency, we sacrifice our physical and mental health. And so his third category for planning in any given year. So he's about setting goals. So we talked about like one year goals and three year goals. He does his template, does it in these, in three areas the career, kind of finances life.
Speaker 2:But self, like what do you do? That's just resilient, resilient, you know. Like is just for you. Like I had a client I was coaching yesterday and he's bought this sports car and he's going to take it to a racetrack for the first time this weekend and it's that's just for him, right, right, and he's so excited about it and, you know, just thrilled. So like what is it for you? That is fun, that renews you, gives you energy back. Sometimes it's doing things with other people, so that can be kind of a combination with that life relationships. But again, it's something that really um cause. Again, I for years, uh, squeezed myself out one, especially like I'm a recovering alcoholic. So you know, for a couple of decades I was a daily drinker and was, you know, hurting myself every day. Um, until I finally that coach, kevin Lawrence, was the first person human being I admitted I had a drinking problem to and he coached me to go to 12-step recovery and now I've been sober for 15 years. Amazing Congratulations, thank you very much. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that, especially you know, the world's changed so much and it's so fast, right, everything's so much demand on people and kids and I love when you, when you give yourself a really good, solid goal plan and you meet benchmarks, you reward yourself. I really think a lot of people forget to do that and I'm glad you talked about that because you've got to have. We're all human. We need to celebrate. You know that we've achieved something and sometimes that achievement is for yourself and it feels weird sometimes to celebrate yourself, right, but you know what your friend is doing. I mean that's awesome, it's something that's going to be exciting and fun and he earned it, so now he's doing it for himself.
Speaker 2:So I think that's really cool and I will say I am terrible. I'm really guilty of like achieving the next big thing and it's like literally 30 seconds later I'm like into the next challenge, into the next big thing. Like this idea of a pause, of like soaking it in like gee, you worked for this for three years. Maybe you should like could you?
Speaker 1:take maybe a minute, two minutes, yes, and nobody does. I mean I don't want to say nobody does it. People don't do that enough.
Speaker 2:They definitely For me it's still a very ongoing part of my personal growth is to get better at at just acknowledging some of these great things that are going on. I mean, I do and I write gratitude lists, but it's really pausing enough to really let it come into my heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not just be in my head. Yeah, you're very, I must say you're very easy to talk to. Um. You know I just met you and I feel like I've known you forever. Um, can you tell everyone a little bit about uh? You know how they could connect with you um, how you could help them in their business that you do like that elevator pitch.
Speaker 2:Sure. So my website is coachdjgreercom. That's coach D, as in David J, as in James greercom. Every webpage at the top it has my email address, it has my phone number. Awesome, awesome. If you're stuck on something, reach out to me. I offer free one-hour coaching to any entrepreneur that's stuck and I'm happy. No obligation, we'll just spend an hour on the phone and you know my promise to you if you spend one hour with me, you'll have three ideas that accelerate your business in the next 90 days.
Speaker 1:Love that. That's worth the hour right there. Yeah, right. All right, so I'll be calling you.
Speaker 2:You said you already had a coach. I do.
Speaker 1:I do. But you know what I? I've had so many coaches in my life, but I have a, you know, I have my, my physical coach for my training, and then I have a mindset coach, um, but I I'm not working with a business coach at the moment. Um, you know, kind of in in the search for that right now and I'm at a point where I think a lot of people get I've been in this business for 30 years and I've built my empire.
Speaker 1:We're the largest real estate company in the area, we have 250 agents and you get to a point where it gets a little tiring and you need that new stretch goal or whatever it is. So I've been talking to people and a lot of people are where I am and they've kind of succeeded to where they always wanted to go. But then they get there and it's like now what you know what's next. So that's what I want to talk to you about is what's next for Therese?
Speaker 2:Great and I would love to do that. And as I remind people, like you know, I don't know what I'm going to grow up to become, Right Like it's. Isn't that awesome though I'm still working on it, and sometimes it's really frustrating. And then I remind myself, like think of all the opportunities you have, like just how rich you know a life and all the things you've done.
Speaker 2:I've done all these things and yet I still have an amazing set of opportunities in front of me. It's more about like choosing the right, the quote right, but you know, choosing them because there still are so many opportunities in front of me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that you know, just starting off your day realizing how lucky we all are to have the life that we have and still have the opportunity to grow it to something more and bigger. But again, like I said, I think it does take having someone else to talk to and having a coach who can direct you, because we get so caught in it at certain things.
Speaker 2:It's really hard, yeah, it's very hard to have that self-reflection, and it's also hard to see. Sometimes I point out things to people that to me are like they're so obvious yes and it's and to them it's like poof, like it's no, no, I'm not really. Well, you know, you told me A and B and C and D and E, so aren't you like this?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, I am.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. Well, David, it has been an absolute pleasure speaking with you. We'll get this out and we'll have all your contact information for everybody to reach out. Thank you so much for having me now.
Speaker 2:Just thanks so much and thanks to your listeners for being there thank you, have a great day.