Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to the Good Listening to Show on UK Health Radio with me, chris Grimes, the feel-good show that brings you the clearing, where all good questions come to be asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they are all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing a tree, a storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, some alchemy, some gold, some Shakespeare and a cake. So, yes, who are you, what's your story and what life's lessons learned along your way would you like to share with us? So welcome to a GLT with me, cg. See what I'm doing there and we're recording and we're recording and we're laughing because I've just had a false start. So welcome, I'm Chris Grimes.
Speaker 1:This is the Good Listening to Show here on UK Health Radio and also it's part of a broader podcast as well, called the Good Listening to Podcast, and I'm very, very excited today to welcome to the Good Listening to Show Clearing, a very lovely, warm, kind, awesome human being, colin McGill. So, colin, welcome to the Good Listening to Show, clearing, hurrah.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Chris. Thank you Good morning. Love it to be here.
Speaker 1:Lovely to have you here and I've been very excited researching you as well because you've got a particular energy to you where one of the conversations we had recently was where you said you're at the most exciting or excited time of your life. We're going to come on to some Shakespeare later on and the Seven Ages of man and that sort of inspiration, but I'm really intrigued to talk to you about your sort of secrets to a passionate and engaged longevity of connection to purpose, which is what you're all about. So you are the MD of Turbo Change, which is about being an international business growth facilitator. You are really warmly recommended to me by a mutual friend of ours called Dave Stewart, who's also featured as my first program here on UK Health Radio. But I've been really struck in the connection of just how warmly disposed towards really really deeply helping people you are and indeed we'll talk about this. You've been a great specific help to me too during the pandemic and I know one of your business sort of missions is to help people recover from what a lot of people experience where things went off a cliff at the beginning of the pandemic.
Speaker 1:So this is the show where I'm going to take you through the normal structure where we're going to welcome you to a clearing. Then there'll be a tree within your clearing. Then we'll shake your tree to see which storytelling apples fall out. That's where the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 comes in. Then there's some alchemy, some gold, some Shakespeare and a cake. So it's absolutely all to play for Colin McGill. So let's get you talking. How's morale? I see you're sitting in your caravan there.
Speaker 1:You're the first guest by the way to be speaking to me from a caravan. So get you. So what's your story of the day? How's morale?
Speaker 2:It's very good, actually very good. I'm sitting in my caravan in South Oshar. I'm looking out over Colleen Castle to my left, turnberry, lett House to the middle, ilsa Craig, which is a big sort of a big many mountain in the middle of the ocean, and are into my right and the beach 50 yards in front of me. So it is the most wonderful place to be. The weather's not great, mind you, it's been. It was, goddess, just a bit rainy this morning in Bluay. So yeah, this is a weekend retreat.
Speaker 1:Lovely, and tell me the name of the lighthouse again. I've always liked lighthouses, so what's the name of your lighthouse?
Speaker 2:It's Turnberry, it's the turnberry golf course. Yeah, famous the famous Trump, trump, turnberry, golf course.
Speaker 1:So my favorite children's books, by the way, was the lighthouse keepers lunch. Did you ever see that book?
Speaker 2:I didn't know, I didn't.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, that's something you should buy for your grandchildren. I was on your Facebook, by the way, researching you as well, and there's lovely posts about happy birthday to this wee maniac and this wee monkey. So you've obviously got somebody very important to you who's just been six.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, my grandson Aaron. He's a great wee guy. He's just turned six. He's losing teeth left, right and centre, so he's very, very gumsy and he's wired to the moon.
Speaker 1:I love that Losing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little maniac, as his dad calls him all the time.
Speaker 1:I like that losing teeth right, left and centre. That sounds like they've all gone. And, by the way, I love your accent and, as we know, the Celtic or the Scottish accent is always really pleasing on the English ear. And in helping me grow and develop you know my own business, second curve and even helping me with what I'm doing in the podcast space. I was really, really struck. Something that really hooked me was you asking me a particular question several times, but in your wonderful dulcet tones you would keep saying to me so what, so what, so what? And so I think of you as Captain, so what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting, your first two guests have been Scots. That's very interesting, isn't it? With David, david and myself.
Speaker 1:Well, there's something about the great outdoors of Scotland that I'm really, really obviously, you know, seduced by. I just love it whenever I get the chance to get up there. So you sound like a perfectly situated caravan as well, in Ayrshire, you said, didn't?
Speaker 2:you? Yep, yes, sure, just a bit. It's about 50 mt of Glasgow, south of Glasgow. You're bang on.
Speaker 1:And if the first question is a deliberately clunky one, if a fellow human being as we all experience sidles up to you and they're a stranger to you and they suddenly turn and say oh hello, what do you do? It's a really clunky question, I know that, but what do you do, colin McGill?
Speaker 2:I suppose if I talk professionally, what do I do? I help. I get very frustrated over People and organizations slow pace and adapting and responding to what's happening in the world and their reluctance to make change happen. You know, change is the only constant that we have in our lives. You change death and taxes, so you're changing, and actually the pace of change over the pandemic period is probably acceleration sort of 10 times in many, in many areas. So I get frustrated when I see the slow pace that people in businesses move at in terms of getting making change happen.
Speaker 2:So my mission is to help as many folk create the environment that allows them to achieve what they want to achieve in their lives and to help businesses achieve what they want to achieve in their business lives as well. So this is to really help businesses accelerate the pace that they remove the speed bumps. We all have speed bumps in our lives that slows down. We do find that something crops up and slows us down. It could be attitudinal, it could be a whole bunch of things, and the same is true of businesses. So basically we I'm all about myself and my small team is all about helping businesses understand the speed bumps that holding them back from getting where they want to get to and flatten them over.
Speaker 1:I love your use of speed, by the way, even in your LinkedIn banner profile, because it's called Turbo Change, you've got a lovely. There's a really iconic image of speeding towards a light which is about recovery, I would assume.
Speaker 2:It is absolutely right.
Speaker 1:Towards clarity.
Speaker 2:I think mantra is speed breed success. And you think about the vaccine rollout. We were on our knees with the virus until the vaccines came on the scene and all of a sudden, the incredible speed that the UK in particular has gone with and it's just transformed the whole situation. So I think it's probably the best example I can think of that the speed actually brings you incredible success.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that's what drives me as a person and as a business person.
Speaker 1:And energy is like a precious pot of golden honey. It's the elixir of all connection and I have noticed, I have experienced because I apply the same currency of using a lot of energy to get where I'm trying to get to. I've really enjoyed how you absolutely resonate and chime back with that. You have a tremendous energy in what you bring.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So there's been that lovely spin on the Darwinian quote that I've enjoyed over the course of the pandemic and of course everyone knew that it was. The survival of the species isn't necessarily the fittest, it's the most flexible and adaptive, and I think that's what you have really helped me even though I knew that to realise that one needs to be flexible and adaptive to change.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir. Thank you, yes, that's really important, that's really important.
Speaker 1:So I'll invite you to talk about turbo change later. Turbo change is limited explicitly. But what I'd really love to do, colin McGill, is my gift to you for your moment in the sunshine. We're going to welcome you to a place called the Clearing, where all good questions come to be asked and all good stories come to be told. So let's get going with the storytelling metaphors on the Good Listening 2 show. So, colin McGill, it may or may not be the great outdoors, we'll find out but where and what is a clearing like to you, literally or metaphorically?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so literally a clearing for me is some place that I'm very fortunate being here. I can walk 200 yards to the beach or at home, I can walk 200 yards and I'm out and just complete an absolute countryside. And actually I find myself particularly during lockdown. I've gone through a massive transformation because the business was not structured for this new world that we're now in. So I spend vast amounts of time restructuring the whole organization and how we do things.
Speaker 2:And there's so many times people talk about writers, talk about writer's block, but you see pictures on television with a big pile of crumpled up paper in the waste paper bin and I find myself getting into this sort of thinking and mental block so many times.
Speaker 2:I just go for a walk and literally 200 yards from me is a lovely lane along something called the Ferry Glen and down in among the fields and past the sheep and what have you, and I find myself having that simple walk and it was like you turn your phone on. You know when it's been asleep it goes ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Lots of things fly in For me. What happens is lots of things go, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Lots of ideas just flow into my head and oh, hadn't thought of that, I could do that, I could do that. And after a half hour walk I go back and I fixed it. I would spend days trying to fix it. You know, thinking about it but just not thinking about it, letting the brain relax, ideas just flow, and the countryside does that for me.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite Nietzsche quotes, by the way, is the best ideas happen outdoors. Link to another quote that I got from our mutual friend, dave Stewart, which is if in doubt, walk it out. And that's great. And, by the way, I experienced you ringing me on a walk when I really really had hit a metaphorical window. I felt like a sort of majestic swallow that had just gone twonk. I was in a major slump and you happened to ring me when I was almost like a sort of fish on the hook, trying to sort of slip off, if you remember, not because I was trying to avoid you, but I was just in a really so do you want to tell me a bit about that, because that was just an extraordinary instinct you had.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean just, I've done that a few times. I've phoned people and they said you know, funny should ring. It's funny how often I've had the term funny should ring and I don't know. It's just I can't explain it. Just sometimes it tells me no, it's maybe. I just maybe it's maybe the, the, the, the email communications, or sometimes the lack of communications, and you say somebody's not quite right here. I can't put my finger on it, but somebody's not quite right here.
Speaker 1:So I just think I'll pick up the phone and have a chat and yeah, what that tells me, what that tells me deliciously, is what a great, well, a great human being you are, but what a great father and what a great partner you must be, because you just have this instinct to know when it's time to talk.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't go that far. You know I can't take that one. I think I'm probably far, far more instinctive, far more tuned professionally than I am as a, as a husband and father, because I can do massively better in both of these areas.
Speaker 1:I like the fact that I tried to blow a bit of extra smoke at you, but you weren't having it.
Speaker 2:I'm not taking it much of that at all, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. You've just sort of sort of coughed the smoke back at me, but anyway. So we're in your lovely clearing, which is the outdoor. So be specific, because it's your clearing and I'm going to arrive with a tree. So which specific part of that lovely scape you've just described, would you like me, with your permission, to arrive with the tree?
Speaker 2:There's the end of this thing called the fairy Glen, where there's a lovely, a lovely clearing and you you walk over a bridge, over a stream, and actually probably just stopping at that stream would be just lovely. There's a wee bridge and and and it's a small, more of a, you know, a babbling brook running, running below it and it's running by trees and you can. You can see some sheep and sometimes there's a couple of horses in the field. That might have you as a lovely. It's a lovely spot and, yeah, that's a great spot for me.
Speaker 1:I love that. That is a clearing at ladies and gentlemen right there. So, if I may, by the way, for an extra million points, no cash attached. What's the name of the bridge, please?
Speaker 2:I can tell you no idea. It's smaller wooded.
Speaker 1:Everyone's a winner, but you actually lost that particular point. But anyway, if I may, we're arriving now in that gorgeous babbling.
Speaker 2:It's called Collins Bridge. I've just named it all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:You see, you also think fast too. I like that. So here we are at Collins Bridge, near a babbling brook, and that's a beautiful clearing. Thank you for positioning that. Okay, arriving now with a tree in your clearing and we can use one of the actual trees you can see if you like. We're going to shake your tree to see which metaphorical storytelling apples fall out. This is the 54321 exercise, where you've had five minutes, or as long as you've needed, before we are doing this conversation, to have thought about four things that have shaped you, colin McGill, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, which is the hoopsquirrels at the moment, borrowed from the film, if anyone remembers that. And then a quirky or unusual fact about you we couldn't possibly know until you tell us. So it's your tree to shake, but don't panic, you haven't got to shake it in a wanna, so just crunch those apples as deliciously as you like, in the ordering which you like over to you.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's two that were very experiential and at a big formative part in my development as a human being and certainly as a young adult. One was, and I can still remember, I can still experience all the emotions. I can still picture myself doing this. Probably I was maybe 14 or 15 years of age and I was in the Scouts and I was a second in the in my particular patrol. So you had a patrol leader and this was a unit of maybe six or seven guys. I was second, I was a second command, I was the you know they called me the second and I remember I had to give some tuition to a young troop member to help move towards a badge he was working towards and we'd arranged to do this on I think it was a Wednesday evening and there was a. You know, I lived at the time fairly close to Hamden Park, you know the Scottish football football park, and there was a Scottish match on that and the Wednesday night I quite fancy going to that and I was talking to the young guy and young guy said look, I probably can't make it on the, you know on the Wednesday. So I just decided that well, he's not going to be there, so I would bother you. You know you're going to the Scout hall as well and thinking, you know, as a 14 year old, that was that that was entirely fine.
Speaker 2:The week after I went to the usual scout meeting and I was asked him by the scout leader and basically he, he demoted me for not holding up to my responsibilities. I said, but you know, the young chap wasn't going to be there and so I didn't see the point coming. He says it is not the point, it's not the point. You made a commitment to be here. Yeah, and in life on you can have this is very important, very important part of the values that we try to, you know, in view within people in the scouting, the scouting movement. And remember, sitting there, you know he had this Union Jack sitting over the over the over the table. And if I myself, you're picking you at the corner of the Union Jack, remember saying you're talking about me, omson, the third person, you know, sitting there, you're playing at the Union Jack and and he says I'm going to, you know, demote you back into into the pack.
Speaker 2:And at the time, probably thinking about, now, just thought about, since, you know, since you asked me these four questions I thought about was that was that harsh it probably was, you know, for for a first offense, but actually it had a massive impact on me as a person at that time and I guess it taught me that you have to honor your commitments. Yeah, and I guess I've lived by that my entire life, probably annoyingly. So, you know, my wife will say we have to do so. So I say, well, we did, say we'd go. Now I can't say that I always do it. There's something say I don't want to do that, but some but I, you know I always say look, no, I said I'd be there, but what you? Why do we have to say I said I'd be there?
Speaker 2:It could be a business thing, it could be, you know, bad weather. I'd see this often in things like weather. You know I've got to be in Manchester for, you know, for running a session for a company and the weather is dire and there's no guarantee that I'll get there. And I'll say, but I said to be there, but the weather is terrible. I said I know it is, but I said to be there. Yeah, and I see myself fighting through all kinds of horrible weather. And I remember recently, you know, a couple of years ago, you know, having to get a taxi to Carlisle to catch a train to Manchester, things like that. Luckily it's paid for by the train company, but it's things like that, it's just. It's just embedded this. You know, if I said I'll do it, I'll do it.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's almost yeah, it's just it's pretty, it's a pretty intense part of who I am and I think it's quite an important part of life and how somebody in our lives can say one thing at a particular formative time in our lives that we never forget. Exactly right.
Speaker 1:And do you remember his name? Even the scout leader. Was it just experience?
Speaker 2:Mr Stewart.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Lovely, lovely man, lovely man. I think I think that he taught me a viable life lesson. Yes, and I think that semantics whether you know, we say it was the right thing to do or not was a bit tough or not, and it may have been a milder way of giving me a lesson, but actually it would not have been as profound, yes, so I thank him. I thank him for that, for that experience, and thank him for giving me that, you know, massive, massive legacy.
Speaker 1:Yes, wonderfully articulately put.
Speaker 2:Lovely, next, Next one is probably in my I remember as 25, I was, I was, I was in sales and I was. My home was Glasgow, my, my folks have moved up to our growth up in up near Aberdeen, just off the Dundee, and I was living and working in in Cal Isle. I met my now wife and I was traveling. I was traveling over the whole north of England. You know, in this company that I was, I was a salesperson for and I was living. I was sleeping on, you know, on on friends couches and I was, I was, I was bunking up with a friend of mine who had a flat down there as well and I was traveling up to Glasgow at the weekend to see my girlfriend at the time and then up to see my parents up in our growth and doing massive of traveling.
Speaker 2:And I came down I just one day I just felt really, really bad. You know, not physically, I just felt mentally. I just felt I can't cope with this anymore and I can now, with something they called nervous exhaustion and basically just so many things flying around. And I was 25 at the time and this affected me for probably what? Maybe four or five months, and I then had probably a few years later, I had an issue around stress manifesting itself, almost thoughts having a heart attack, but it's purely stress, and so I think probably over that, maybe five year period, you know, I would throw some you know, probably mental health challenges. I guess if I'm looking back now say that's probably what it was.
Speaker 2:And actually since then I've been incredibly robust, incredibly resilient and actually, you know, pretty much nothing. Nothing gets me away. Okay, you know I, you know I worry about things occasionally and things will concern me and I've stopped having sleep this night. Used to have lots of nights, I stopped having them anymore. I guess I've learned to manage to manage my mind to a much better degree than I did in that in that time. But I think what that did was it took, it taught me, it made me much more resilient. Experience and fairly early stage, if you like, you know, stop, you know made me very resilient mentally, physically and and yeah, so that's that's again. It was a very profound stage in my life. I remember, you know, in great detail and not for a lot of passion, I have to say.
Speaker 1:And it's very relatable because at any one point, apparently one in three people are suffering some sort of form of mental anxiety or panic attacks or just some trials and tribulations to their mental well being. And very relatable because, ironically, you know me too. I can relate to it. But I remember not 2542, I'm 58,. 42 was what I call my year of the wibble, when I just had a real wobbly wibble, but it's very, very profound and formative. It happened, you know, at a really right page of 25, when you knew you had to make some, some significant changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then there's a couple of things that just you know, they just kind of evolved and happened over the time and it actually became sort of you know core, you know core beliefs and core values that drove, that, drove my life and actually they drive everything I do professionally and it was around. You know, I've always been a great believer. In fact, I was talking to one of my clients yesterday and they were talking about recruitment and can't find people with straight skills, recruit for attitude. You can teach people skills. It's hard to teach them attitude. You know, if you get a person with a great attitude, then they will develop the skills. Yeah, because their attitude will make them do it.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I really understood, probably in my 30s or thereabouts, was that actually, if things don't go the way you want them to go, stop pointing the finger at other people, stop blaming the economy. You know there's two hours in the month. Or the other person did do so and so, or this boss wouldn't do so and so, or you know this condition went right. Now, what I learned was if somebody goes wrong, start by looking in the mirror and just saying what was my part in this? And I've done that all my life and I still do that now.
Speaker 2:If somebody goes wrong, my first protocol is saying what's my part in this? I go look in the mirror and I say, okay, what did or didn't I do? That actually helped to make what I don't want to see happening happen, and I can't think of many situations where 80% of the responsibility hasn't laid with me. Okay, others will have responsibility, but very often because you know, in my role, you know I'm able to influence and lead and guide other people. So I do day in, day out. So when things don't work out, I say, okay, what's my part in this? And it's usually something I have or haven't done, and the person's part in it is usually caused by the thing that I actually have or haven't done.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So actually understanding that, taking personal responsibility, you know, you can't lie on your death bed and say, oh look, I've had a better life. It wasn't that rotten boss and all that rubbish weather we had and the chance of independence and you know, and all the top breaks I had in my life, life would have been great otherwise. It's your life, it's your career, you know it's up to you to make the most of it and you know, if it goes badly, then look in the mirror. So you know we are responsible for our lives. We're responsible for what happens in our lives.
Speaker 1:That's profoundly simple, but not simplistic, and extremely sage-like and wise. It's a bit carpe diem. Right there, have a good look at yourself in the mirror.
Speaker 2:There's a quote that resonates.
Speaker 1:I've discovered recently which is the difference between what you want and what you get is what you do.
Speaker 2:Exactly right.
Speaker 1:And I love that carpe diem sense of my own personal accountability to what's happening.
Speaker 2:Don't make the world take responsibility. Yeah, yeah, and so many folks. Just you know. I guess we can live in a nanny state where you know if somebody goes wrong, the state will look after me. If I get sick, the hospital will get me well. No, we're responsible for our well-being. We're responsible for our health, physical and mental health. Yes, and you know, take that responsibility and you'll have a much happier life.
Speaker 1:And it's all about the choices that we make, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. That's all we can choose is how we choose to behave and how we choose to respond to what happens to us.
Speaker 1:So I'm loving all of your formative experiences so far. They're actually embedding a different value and core belief, which is just lovely stuff. So it's alchemy and gold already which we're coming on to. So back to you in the tree shaking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess the other thing it was almost it was a realization that probably shaped what I've done, you know, for the past 30 odd years, and that was actually understanding that I appeared to have a talent for inspiring and motivating people to do the things that they really should be doing, to get with the viewer, to get to, and that's why I guess you know I started the business back in the early 90s, because I really, really wanted to help people make the most of themselves, you know, to cut through a lot of the crap that flies around and to empower people to make things happen for themselves. So, yeah, I guess that was the big realization that actually shaped what I've done over the past, you know, probably 30 years now.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's so profound that you've directly experienced the adversity that you're there to help with. So there's a real mentality of I've been there. This isn't our first rodeo, I've been on that horse, I know what to do. And your beautiful honesty as well sorry to interrupt the honesty you had in the last year you too went back to that place of oh, what do I need to do to change, because the world has changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I've made every mistake known to man and some that are not yet known to man.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, that's one of the things that most, most, drew me to you when you first got in touch was the fact that you too were experiencing adversity in the pandemic as I was, as a sort of supplier, facilitator, coach, that sort of thing. But you have been. You know anyone listening. You should get in touch with Colin McGill. This is fantastic stuff that you I just love.
Speaker 2:I love change. Change excites me, the future excites me, you know, and you know I'm not as young as I used to be and actually I'm probably as as as open to and drawn by change as I ever have been in my life. You know, I just think that the ability to constantly adapt and constantly change ourselves to suit our environment I think is is one of life's most important skills. I would argue that the ability to change is probably, for organizations, one of the most critical skills and capabilities and, as human beings, I think it's true of us as well.
Speaker 2:Recently, I attended a webinar run by one of the banks and they were saying that the pandemic has has increased the pace of of online, of online use by something at six, six years. The use of the move towards being a cashless society has accelerated by something at 10 years in one year, you know. So we've never seen as much change as we as we have over the past, the past year and the year. The year so ahead is going to be enormous. The world is changing. We've got to respond to it.
Speaker 1:And then, ironically, at its core there's a really interesting quote, which is the only human beings that actively look forward to change are wet babies. The rest of us find it much, much, much more difficult. But you're absolutely right, the pace of change. You know change is absolutely inevitable. You know we have to adapt. Absolutely yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love, I love change. I get really bored with things being the same as I've always been. So, yeah, let's just yeah. Okay, I'm talking my professional life. I don't always apply that principle in my private life. So I can be pretty laid back in my private life, but very impatient, very, you know, very driven in my business life, but I can be quite the reverse of my private life, probably because I'm so accurate with the end of that.
Speaker 1:Do you know what? That's very relatable. There's a maxim in our family which is patience is a virtue daddy doesn't have. So I find that very relatable. It may surprise our listeners Colin McGill and Mikra's Grimes. We're not perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm extremely imperfect, but I'm aware of my imperfections and you know they frustrate me and I do my very best to fix them. And actually, interesting, I set something out called Project Colin, and there's things in my life that I've recognised are not being well. So I've made me a project, so I'm working on a whole bunch of stuff just now. I'm calling it Project Colin.
Speaker 1:And it's a delight to be here helping you with Project Colin, so I really wanted to give you this moment in your sunshine because you've been very helpful to me. Anyway, we're back to your tree, I think one of the three things that inspire you now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean interesting, tough, tough challenges, I think, always inspire me. You know, usually tough professional challenges always inspire me. You know, I remember the first time I was asked to go and do some work in China for a company in South Africa and being faced with and they were both very tricky challenges and these things really excited and really inspired me and I mean I probably had more adrenaline flowing at these times than anything else. It's just professional challenges that say, wow, how the hell am I going to do that? And I don't know how I'm going to do it. But you know, I know I'll get there, so how am I going to do it? And these things really, really get my juices going. And I just love these really tough professional challenges to help fix things that are not working for people and organisations and help me get to a better place where they can create what they're trying to create and get what they're trying to get.
Speaker 1:You're a real serial fixer and your ability to turn up One of my favourite leadership coaches. Leadership is how you turn up every single day. Colin's going to be there because of your own volition. You said you will make sure you're. If you say you're going to be there, you'll turn up and fix it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember the first time I went to South Africa I was running a workshop at one o'clock in the day and there was all kinds of problems and hassles. I met me the night before All kinds of problems and hassles to get there and I got there. I actually arrived in the building in Johannesburg at 5 past 1 with the group waiting for me, but it went fantastically well. So yeah, it's turning up and then saying I guess one thing that it also taught me to do was to be a good winger. I've learned over the years. I remember someone say to an Athmedian you're so spontaneous. The person says it takes years of practice to become spontaneous.
Speaker 1:That is indeed true.
Speaker 2:I've had years of screwing up and what having. I've learned to wing it and be spontaneous and making it up as I go along.
Speaker 1:I'm loving the image of being a winger and chipping it in On the edge Colin McGill on the edge back of the net. We love that.
Speaker 2:It might be the bum, but that's another matter.
Speaker 1:I love that Mud on the bum is OK. It means you've been in there having a good old, which is wonderful, great stuff. So we're still there in the inspirational stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another thing is I can be really moved and I can quite emotional and re-inspired by great sporting achievements. I'm a massive golf, golf, golf fiend and fan. I remember the first time Britain and Europe won the right of cup from the Americans. I was watching a pub at the time and I remember myself dancing about the place punching the air. It was so embarrassing in the room. But I can be so inspired by great, against the odds of achievements. I can watch something where a person who is in some way disadvantaged achieves something amazing. I can be wow, this is incredible. I can be almost brought to tears by it. I find people achieving things. I still see it in my professional life where someone says, wow, how did you manage to do that? That's amazing. Well done you. Wow, I just get such an inspiration.
Speaker 1:The embelliance and enthusiasm that you constantly bring to the surface is like a sort of geyser or a ground swell. It's a spring of energy and enthusiasm and passion and connection.
Speaker 2:It's a wonderful, you know, I'm glad to do amazing things with people and to given such access and such freedom and such openness and such honesty with people. And it's just sometimes I just think, sometimes I'm having a lot, think, wow, I'm so incredibly fortunate, you know, having held our minds to do these things and get people to allow me to invite me into the things that you know I'm able to help them do. So I find that so, so inspiring. Another thing is live music. You know I haven't been to too many concerts over the years. I went quite a lot when I was younger, but over a few years my son and I have gone to. You know, we've tried to go to a concert, you know, every year, but we haven't done it, obviously the past two, you know, past 18 months, but we went to see Coldplay. I've been a great.
Speaker 2:Coldplay fan, for you know, for as long as I've been around and we went to watch Coldplay at Hampton Park, it was very open. There was 40,000 folk. I'm doing the sums 40,000 times I thought, wow, there's a lot of money in this.
Speaker 2:Wow, yes 1,200 quid, you know, 40,000 for 300 pounds. Wow, you're in the wrong business. Anyway, it was the most beautiful night you can imagine. It was about, you know, half past eight, still a bit about 70 degrees, beautiful, you know, beautiful sunset, and the music was incredible and I thought, wow, this is just you know, and I was bouncing at the end of it. I just get really inspired by, you know, by watching live music of somebody that I like, a band that I like or somebody that I like.
Speaker 1:I'm a big Coldplay and Chris Martin fan myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just. It just gives me such a buzz.
Speaker 1:And ironically they were the first band to go public saying we can't tour anymore because of the carbon footprint, and then the pandemic happened. So there is that sense of be careful what you wish for, Because everyone's gagging to get back into the arena again of live music.
Speaker 2:And something I do on a Saturday morning is I'll have breakfast and have my daily workout and then I'll stick around some headphones and I'll put on Mr Brightside for the killers. And that would jump about the room like a mad thing. But my wife doesn't know I do this because she's up in bed at that time. I'm practicing about like an 18 year old playing Mr Brightside and things like that.
Speaker 1:A lovely image for his older conjure. I love that.
Speaker 2:Not a pretty sight, but I think live music really re-inspires and you know, it excites me. Yeah, I guess these are the few things that really inspire and excite me.
Speaker 1:Okay, two things that never fail to hope squirrels. Get your attention, colin McGill.
Speaker 2:Golf courses. I played golf since I was eight. I used to go and work around with my dad. My dad was a very good player and I used to, you know, and I remember him buying me my first golf club. It was a wooden club that he cut down to size. He probably heard of the Barrows. It's a famous yeah, the Barrows in Glasgow, yeah, you know, a famous, you know market. And he got me this golf club.
Speaker 2:And ever since eight, you know, I've been hooked on golf and it drives me pretty crazy, I had to say. It's the most frustrating, annoying, inspiring, energizing sport and it's it's like life is full of most incredible highs and the most most terrible lows. It's a great metaphor for life in many ways. And, you know, anytime I'm, you know, if I'm driving by someplace, I'll spot a bunker, I'll see a golf course or something. On television, it's countryside I'll be looking at. Oh, that looks like a bunker. I'm just drawn to what it would be. With golf, I have a fixation about it. It it, you know, was it. You know it said that men think of it sex every five, every five, every five minutes of that, and I think it would go off course every five minutes, and the former as well. That's another matter.
Speaker 1:And if it can happen in the bunker, all the better. Lovely, as long as they stand on the rake.
Speaker 2:Obviously no, no no, I think one of my best friends my best friend, I think, maybe probably had that experience one time.
Speaker 1:he told me but on fair, I can tell you my favorite golf joke, which you don't know. That I know, but I'll tell you off air later on. Wonderful, wonderful, thank you. And now we're into either the second thing.
Speaker 2:Second thing is, I guess it's family, it's things that I'll never fail to grab my attention of, things like things, my, you know my family, you know my, my son's doing well in his career, so if he gets a promotion of things we go really well.
Speaker 2:That really really gets my attention, inspires me, um, you know, my, my grandson, he went to school and we're concerned about you know, you know, because, because when my son went to school, you know it wasn't great. It wasn't great the first, first, first few a while. Um, but then, uh, he went arm into school, he settled in fantastically well and he started to get, you know, top pupil on a regular basis and that really, you know, gave me a real buzz and you know that spotted that really. And my wife, she's, she's very, very involved, she's, she's trustee of a few things in the village and she's on about three or four committees and she's somebody once said, uh, this is Ivy and she runs, she runs, torrance, she runs everything so I always think, yeah, she's very community spirited and she's always doing things that really I keep on saying this is your work.
Speaker 2:She hasn't worked for a long time. I say, but this is your work, I don't, I don't work. She does something. We can chartie shop, but this is your work, you know it, really. It it, it, it it in in grossies and engages you the same way as as my work does me and yes so, you know, I'm always, you know, I'm always, always, always interested in, and my attention is drawn to, things that she's achieving and things that she pushes forward.
Speaker 1:So, um, so, I guess these are the things that never failed to to grab my, my attention there's the, there's so much the currency in the elixir of energy throughout your interpretation of this exercise, which is so lovely. Okay, now one quirky or unusual fact about you, colin McGill. We couldn't possibly know right, okay, um can.
Speaker 2:Can I give you two? Yes yeah, um, okay, one was um. I left school at 15 without any qualifications wow and, um, I suppose it was.
Speaker 2:I suppose it it's always been trying to prove myself because of, you know, that confidence element, that not being well educated. You know, I think I'm a pretty smart guy, but you know I'm not academically, although I was doing very well academically, and then, you know, I just fell out of love with school and hated the whole environment, um, so I guess that was always a bit of a a dragging anchor. So I guess what it's, you know I'm not alone in that. You know there are many other people who've been successful that have done, you know, massively more so than I have been, that have come from a very, a, very modest, you know, educational background. So I guess what, what it's taught me is that and I see it, I see it a lot is that you know there's so many incredibly educated folk who don't make a lot of their of their lives, either professionally or personally, um, and there's a lot of people who are very ill educated, actually going to achieve really good things. So you've.
Speaker 1:Maybe you remind me of David Bowie, who apparently left with an two O levels, one in woodwork and one in art. That's all you need and you have that so but in all seriousness, it's about emotional intelligence.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that's going to be, that's going to equip you far better absolutely right, that's right and it's that personal drive, that personal energy, that that desire and that I think it's that. It's that having that mission, I think having a mission like is so, so important and purpose yes, a purpose, and I don't actually think about these terms a lot of the time, but yeah, but I guess I think you know everything I do has been very much mission and purpose driven, if you like.
Speaker 1:Lovely.
Speaker 2:I probably had that, but for a reason it probably wasn't that active until maybe my late 20s. I would think it really really blustered me at that point in time.
Speaker 1:What I've just heard there is you're all about mission possible rather than mission impossible.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. I live in the future. I live a lot in the future. I'm very future focused and that's sometimes going to be a challenge, but yeah, so, yeah, sometimes I'm not always in the present, but I'm actually working part of a project called to be in the present. Whatever I'm doing now, let's do it. Well, if I'm with my wife or doing something, let's do it now. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting better at it because my mind is always flicking to the future and stuff like that what could be, what's possible, what could be done.
Speaker 1:So let's bring you into the, as you are being very present here in the clearing. We've shaken you three. We've got to get a slight lick on now because this is a really wonderfully rich, full of alchemy and gold conversation. Anyway, we're going to move away from the tree now and talk about alchemy and gold when you are at purpose and in flow. Colin McGill, what do you most like to bring to the world?
Speaker 2:I like to help people work out solutions for themselves. What I know about what my clients do you can write in the back of a small post. You can write but what I love doing is actually helping people figure out the solutions to their own problems or figure out sources to get to where they want to get to, because 99-tenths of a hundred you knew what you had to do. All I did was I brought some youth thinking, some youth tools and new approaches and it helps you figure things out for yourself. I see that when I'm in full flow, I just love to work with a group and have a group say, right, we're doing now. Okay, when are we starting? Let's get going tomorrow.
Speaker 2:I just love to work with individuals and groups of people to help them just get to that aha moment. Right, we know what to do, we know what the way forward looks like and let's go do it. I just love seeing people going at this like a bullet of gates and making things happen. I'm interested in making things happen in days and weeks, not weeks, months and years and or never. Sometimes things just never change. So we want to make change happen in weeks, days and weeks. That sometimes will never change if it's not for our input or might take forever, a long long time, without it as well.
Speaker 1:You've got the perfect, perfect name for your business, by the way, and what you've just described, Turbo Change Limited. It's get it there quickly with the wonderful optimism and energy that you bring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but thank you, but I love doing that. I just love the privilege of being able to work with people and help them get to that great place.
Speaker 1:Lovely answer. I just wanted a little silence to hang in the air there as we go. Colin McGill, he's awesome. We're going to award you with a cake now, colin McGill. This is for gracing us with your presence here in the Good Listening To Show Clearing, and you can get to put a cherry on the cake now. This is a multi-layered cake, open to interpretation. It could be the best piece of advice you've ever been given. Going back to your Scout Master, you may have covered that Could be something different. It could be inspired by Shakespeare and all the worlds of stage. How would you most like to be remembered you like your legacy to be? But it's over to you as to what you'd like the legacy of this conversation to be with your time here in the Light of the Clearing.
Speaker 2:I'm very motivated to. I don't really care what people think about me, what I do. It's not quite true, but it is not high in my. I used to be very sensitive to what other people thought. I think as you get older you become less concerned about that perhaps. But what I'm concerned about is what people do. I think my big legacy would be that it's the knowledge that I've really helped a lot.
Speaker 2:A lot of people get what they want to get, become happier, more fulfilled and more successful in whatever their endeavours are. And if they think of me, then the think of me as being, you know, as somebody who acted with integrity, as somebody who actually was influential in helping them get what they wanted to get to. And I think if I was to be remembered, then that's how I think I would like to be remembered. And above all else, you know, I'd like to be remembered as a loving, caring father, husband and grandfather and friend. Again, part of Project Colin is that sometimes I get so engrossed in my work that these are really, really important people in life. I actually don't get my attention. So one of my big focus just now in Project Colin is to start to pay more attention to the folk that in my life are really important to me, that I give scant attention to sometimes.
Speaker 1:I think anyone listening Colin sincerely is just going to overwrite their own name to their own project because it's such an inspirational thing to do. I'm thinking Project Chris in what you're saying about Project Colin. So that's so alchemically golden and awesome and what a great legacy. Where can we find out more about Colin McGill? On the internet? And this is an invitation to go as deep as you like, as hard as you like, on your URLs, Vika, so go where you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is Colinmigill at turbocouk. That's probably the best place to get contact. The website is turbo changecouk, so you can visit either of these two areas there. I was going to mention just one final thing. You know a couple of quotes that I was going to mention to you. I think I mentioned it.
Speaker 2:I think it's useful to for me to understand all the time and hopefully those who are listening just now to understand nothing changes into what you do. Nothing changes into what you do. You know, I think, as human beings, if we get that message, understand that, internalize that and say that you think this is not working well for me. This is not going well, that's not going well. We can't change some of this stuff. We can't change other people, but if we change ourselves, other people will respond automatically different to us. And I think if there's one big message is nothing changes into what you do. If you want things to be different, nothing will change until we do. And a mantra my wife opened up with in fact she says this many years ago she says you die if you worry, you die if you don't. Now she's a bit of a warrior. I keep on reminding her of that, but actually so many people just now are worried about the future and recognizable things and it doesn't actually get. All it does is make us feel crap.
Speaker 1:You die if you worry. You die if you don't. And just reincorporate that lovely quote that you said before that about change.
Speaker 2:Nothing changes until you do.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to the wonderful, warm, gorgeous man that is Colin McGill. I'm so happy to know you, colin. I've been Chris Grimes. This has been the Good Listening To Show. Do tune in next week for more stories in the clearing. Thank you very much indeed, and good night. You've been listening to the Good Listening To Show here on UK Health Radio with me, chris Grimes. Oh, it's my son. If you've enjoyed the show, then please do tune in next week to listen to more stories from the clearing. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, then please do so. There's also a dedicated Facebook group for the show too. You can contact me about the programme or, if you'd be interested in experiencing some personal impact coaching with me. Carry my level up your impact programme. That's chrisatsecondcurveuk On Twitter and Instagram. It's At that, chris Grimes. So until next time for me, chris Grimes from UK Health Radio. I'm from Stan. To your good health and goodbye.