Challenges of the C-Suite with Simon Alexander Ong, Episode 7s

Hello everybody, guess what? It's CB Bowman Live! And you know, we sort of have go in and out of when we're doing shows on Thursday now because I'm so popular, I just couldn't keep up. So Tuesdays we do for sure. You'll see us on Tuesdays except this Tuesday, uh, which we're taking off for a little short vacation. But, uh, after that, every week on Tuesday, you know, to come in and check me out. And but this week we have a special show. We'll do these special shows on Thursday, right? Today we have a Clubhouse powerhouse. Now, if you don't know what Clubhouse is, you've been living under a rock. And it's got to be a big rock, maybe more like a boulder. Clubhouse is the social media platform that took the world by storm because what it is, is it's like old-fashioned— I heard about this, I didn't experience— though, the, uh, talk radio. So people call in and they have a conversation with other people. And there's clubs and there's this and that. And I have to say, I've met the most fascinating people. I became addicted to this. I had to stop. My husband said, what about me? We now, starting later this month, we only have our Clubhouse Saturday morning, 9 o'clock Mountain Time. And tune in, we renamed it, it's called Solopreneur CEO. Isn't that a good one? We're gonna talk about all the ramifications of being a solopreneur. And for those of you that the term is new, it's like today's version of entrepreneur except you It's businesses that usually have one captain and, you know, less than 10 people working for the organization. So we're going to do a whole show on branding and working smarter and how to beat those big guys, you know, the Fortune 100s, right? But let's quickly now, let's go to Simon. Simon is calling in from our mother country, England.

London.

Indeed. So you'll hear his cute accent. Oh, I'm not supposed to say these things, but you know, I'm not necessarily politically correct. I'm just—

Well, CB, you know, this is why I love traveling to America. I've had the opportunity to speak in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and I'll tell you what, the accent always goes down well. So it's why I always feel like I'm welcomed in America.

You are, you are. So, okay, first, Simon, tell us a little bit about you growing up.

Sure. So when I was a young child here in England, I grew up with the belief that when I eventually graduated from college, I had to become a banker, a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant. I grew up in a very, as you can imagine, a very traditional family. And also my surroundings were very much geared to this typical path that many of us embark on. However, I decided to choose the banking route. And in hindsight, it probably wasn't the best choice and the timing was a bit off because I joined the industry in the middle of 2007. And this was a year before the financial crisis of 2008, CB. To make matters worse, the first company I joined was Lehman Brothers, which collapsed into administration in September 2008. So talk about a volatile start to your career post-university. And so began me going in and out of work for nearly 10 years, moving from job to job, company to company, because the industry was going through quite a rough patch. And I had the fortune of being out of a job for just shy of a year. Now, at the time, it was a very scary position to be in.

Right.

When you've got no income coming in, but all your savings is going out. In hindsight, however, it's one of those pivotal moments that thrust you into a story that you will never look back from. It puts you into a totally new direction that you become grateful and blessed to the universe that this event occurred. And what that did, CB, is it set me on the path of walking the longest journey that we humans take, which is the inches from our heads to our hearts. It is never an easy journey, but it is the most fulfilling that we will ever embark on. It is the most important journey that we will ever embark on. And I remember going to— it was a 2-day seminar in London that was explaining the world of coaching, explaining the concept of coaching, uh, and how we can use this skill to improve the lives of others. So I went along with an open mind. I blocked out 2 days on the weekend. I didn't really have anything planned. And by the end of that weekend, the question that I had in my mind as I walked away from the venue was, could I build a career in this industry? I had thought about it before because since a teenager, I was always interested in personal development. One of the first books I read was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And since then, I've just been reading and reading and reading. And so it got to this point where I thought, could I actually make a career from coaching? And so after that event, I decided to sign up to start getting my qualifications, to start understanding, well, how can I develop myself as a coach? And since then, it's been— I'm going to be honest, CB, since then it's been an absolute roller coaster of a journey. So I transitioned out 3 or 4 years after I graduated with a qualification. I transitioned out of being an employee and to becoming an entrepreneur, or as CB, you like to call it earlier at the beginning of this session, solopreneur. I was the business at the beginning, and since then I've gone on to coach people in leadership positions from Michelin-star chefs to TV presenters to C-level executives to entrepreneurs. I keynote speak, having been invited to some of the planet's most successful companies: Salesforce, Google, Facebook, Virgin, Canon. And more recently, in addition to becoming a parent for the first time, I had the opportunity— thank you so much— I had the opportunity to write my first book. which is called Energize, due for release April next year. And the book is really sharing my journey from where I was to what I now have the privilege to do today, and how when you transform your energy, both physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social, you begin to transform your life, your business, and your career.

Okay, that's a lot. First, the most important part we have to go back to. You have a boy or a girl?

I have a girl. Uh, her name is Sienna, and, uh, she was born April 2020.

What a beautiful name. What a— you have a picture?

Uh, I do. I, I can bring it up on my phone. Let me see if I can show you here. This is my—

there we go.

One second.

Over the other way. Move over. Oh my God, she's gorgeous! Oh, she's got—

she's a cutie.

In the palm of her hand, she's got her dad. Oh my gosh. Ah, I love it, I love it. Uh, so congratulations. That's so exciting. Thank you. Yes, yes. Um, so tell us a little, what does your wife do?

So my wife now is involved in marketing. So like myself, she also came from the corporate world. In fact, when I started CB, I couldn't afford to pay, uh, people to help me with the business side of things. And so whenever I did speaking, my wife would be taking photos for me, she would be recording videos for me, and just being in the audience. You know what it's like, CB, when you are at an event When you're hearing from some incredible speakers on stage, there is an energy. There is an energy that is in the room. And after she was helping me for a number of events, I remember one Sunday afternoon she turned to me and she said, Simon, I think I might quit my job as well and look into starting a business. And the reason she decided that was because there was that energy in the rooms. It inspired her to see what is possible rather than focus on limitation. And I think when we operate from this space of possibility, and abundance, we start to realize there is so much out there in the world that we can explore. And well, you just want to itch and get out of there. You don't want to stay where you are. You want to start itching your curiosity and see where that rabbit hole leads.

Wow, that's exciting. So you kept it in the family. I love it. I absolutely— okay, now Simon, You have how many followers on Clubhouse?

I think coming close to 3,000, so probably around 2.7, 2.8 now.

Okay, I can barely get to 1,000. So I want to know, and I'm sure the audience wants to know, with this— and you're on LinkedIn— how many people do you have following you on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn, last I checked, is probably around 5,200, 5,300.

Wow. Okay, so you are technically an influencer, and I would like to know— the audience would love to know— how did you get there?

Well, a great quote I would like to draw from Denzel Washington, which will help introduce some ideas I'll share with you, CB, is when Denzel Washington accepted the award for his performance in the film Fences, he said to the audience, Without commitment, you will never begin. But more importantly, without consistency, you will never finish. And I think it's that second part that is important, whether it is LinkedIn, whether it is Clubhouse, whether it is Instagram or Facebook. The more consistent you are at showing up, giving value, sharing content that touches people in some way, what happens is people want to come back for more. People want to come back for more because now they see you as someone that they can learn from. And the way you want to think about it is this: all of us are a walking personal brand. We've got all these social media platforms available at our fingertips that cost you nothing. What that means is you've got the resources now to amplify your brand and to share what you stand for, to share what you're about. And ultimately, our value is determined by how much more we have given to the world than we have taken from it. So when you go into a Clubhouse room, when you are on LinkedIn, you want to think about, well, what is the experience that I am giving people on this platform? So 2 quick examples to show you how you can do that, and I'm sure we can explore further, CB, around these areas, is On LinkedIn, if you and I have connected, or if you send me a connection request and we end up connecting on LinkedIn, I will, in about 95% of cases, send you a voice note, maybe a 7 or 8-second voice note to welcome you.

You did that to me and I'm like, what?

And that is to welcome you into my network, just to say hello, good to connect with you. A very short sort of voice note. Now, what that does is it shares with you my energy. It is very different to sending you a text message because, well, you can't really feel the emotion from a text message. So that is the first experience people get when they land on my profile and they connect with me. Now, if you then scroll down my profile, you will see some videos I've shared on my featured section. So if you wanted to see some videos of me speaking or me on the national news or in the press, you can get a feel for what I do. Now, that helps you to see if I am someone that can be valuable in your network. And if you look at my content, you can see the last 7 posts I've shared. And again, if it resonates, you want to come back for more. So you want to think about what am I sharing, number one, but number two, what is the experience I'm giving people when they land on my profile, when they connect with me? Because that is the basis of all powerful connections and relationships. At the end of the day, whatever platform you are connecting with people on, it all comes down to the fact that it's human-to-human relationships. We connect with others through the fact that we can share human values. That is how connections are made. And it is the same on Clubhouse. You know, on Clubhouse, it is slightly different because you have to keep in mind there can often be many people who want to speak. So it's like being in a meeting room where you've got multiple voices and people are sharing their thoughts and ideas, but you've got to practice being concise. on a platform like Clubhouse, because the attention spans of an audience can be very short. And a story I often share, CB, just to show you how powerful it is to be concise, uh, with your answers, your wisdom, and your tips, is from a story about a bet that Ernest Hemingway supposedly won. Um, it's legend that says that Ernest Hemingway, uh, said that he could write a 6-word story that would move the audience emotionally. And so he wrote these 6 words down and he read it to the audience, and these 6 words were simply, for sale, baby shoes, never worn. And what he wanted to show in writing that was you don't need a lot of words to portray emotion. Emotion, after all, simply is energy in motion. How do you bring out the energy in your listeners, your followers, your audience? And it comes down to simplifying your message in a way that anyone can understand. That is the beauty of social media, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's Clubhouse. How can you take somewhat complex ideas, and it may be complex ideas in your industry or that you've grown accustomed to, and simplify them in a way that anyone gets. They listen to you, they read what you share on social media, and they get it. And they get it. That is the greatest challenge for us because nowadays we are all content creators. We are all in the position to create content. We can shoot videos on our phone. We can take photos on our phone. All of this is content. But how are you deciding what messages that you want to share with the world? And how you do that is very important. You know, just one final example, CB, before I throw it back to you. If you look at the Dalai Lama, the Dalai Lama is one of the most recognized individuals on this planet. However, his mission has been to free Tibet. However, he doesn't go around telling you about the complexities of the relationship between Tibet and China. What he does is he talks about the universal theme that we can all relate to, about happiness. His talks are all about happiness. Now, you and I, no matter your race, your religion, your country, your domicile, what industry you're in, you can relate to those universal themes of happiness. And that's what he writes and speaks and shares thoughts on. And that is something that allows us to connect with him at a human level. And then when he talks about the stuff about Tibet and China, We listen because he has gained our trust. So social media is a powerful platform, whatever applications you're using, to build a powerful brand, because this is the way that people understand what you do. It is your window shop, if you will. It's the window shop to what CB does, what Simon does, what you do. And the question you've got to ask yourself is, what is the feeling I'm giving people when they come across my page, read my content, listen to me speak? And if there is value, if there is insights that make them stop and go, I've got to write this down, I've got to start applying this, then what's going to happen is you will gain an audience, you will gain a following, and that's how it all begins.

So, uh, hold on one second.

Um, no worries.

At my door, my audience knows already that I am Uh, you know, I do this from home. Thank you. See you next week.

Okay.

Um, so in my area in Colorado, I'm so fortunate they make sure we're well fed. They have, um, corn groves— I guess you call it a grove— cornfield. Yeah, plum groves, apple groves. Cherry groves. And what's the other one? Pear groves. And so I went picking corn and plums and apples. The cherries aren't ready. And so bad. I picked 32 ears of corn, right? I got them from my neighbors and I got them from my friend who cleans the house, and she just came to pick hers up. So the most delicious corn, it's the sweet corn. What we say in Colorado, sweet corn, which means it's yellow and white and so like pure sugar, right?

Wow.

That's, uh, she was gonna come at 1 o'clock. I guess it is 1 o'clock, right?

Indeed. Perfect timing, isn't it?

Hey, uh, what I want to know is What is it that you do? You're so wise.

Hmm. So it's interesting, CB, because when I first started transitioning out of the financial industry, I started coaching people. So that was what I started doing, just coaching people one-to-one, right? And I really enjoy that. I still coach.

We know that there— sorry to interrupt— there's so many coaches and we know you love them. So what is it that you do I'm asking like, I want to see you.

So me, I think through my work, and again, I'm going to go straight to the benefits. So through my work, whether it's coaching, speaking, or writing, my singular goal is to open people's imagination to what is truly possible and to energize them to take action because Let's be honest, CB. We all know deep down what our next step is. We all know deep down what we must do, but for whatever reason, we don't do it. And we must discover the courage to do it. Once we discover the courage to take on the next step, well, we build momentum. But it is taking that first step that stops so many of us. And so we end up falling into this trap in which we live as if we're never going to die and then die having never really lived. Which often results in this quote. I don't know who mentioned it, but there's a quote I have on my wall that says, the definition of hell on earth is getting to the end of your life and the person you became meets the person you could have become. And so for me, it's to really shift people's perspective out of their current reality because fundamentally, CB, Reality is perception, perception is reality. And so what that means is that you and I don't live in the same reality. There is no such thing as one reality. There is what I call customized realities. So the way that you might interpret an event will be different to the way I interpret an event and different to whoever's watching this live. And so what that means is that as humans, we have a power. And for me, in the work I do, it's to tap into that power and remind people of this superpower that we all have, which is any given moment, you and I have the ability to choose one thought over another. There is no good or bad. There is no evil or good. There is only what we make things to be. And so if we have this superpower, how can we use that more in our daily lives so that we can, if for, for better of words, we can bend our own reality to suit us? and the sort of vision and goals we want to achieve. So for me, that's essentially what I do. I mean, I can do this through coaching or speaking or writing or whatever medium, uh, that I might operate in, but ultimately that is what I'm aiming to do, uh, with the audience, with clients, uh, that I get the opportunity to work with.

So can you give us an example of— and then we'll get back to Clubhouse. Can you give us an example of a client that you helped? What happened? What was the, what was the problem they came to you with? And what did you do? And what was the result?

Sure. So one of the biggest challenges I get from clients, I'm going to refer to this particular example, but I want to broaden the challenge because this is something I know many people face, is a lack of self-belief. And we don't realize how much that is costing us in terms of the trajectory of our future. And so I remember I was speaking to this one client early on, and in the session we mapped out the sort of vision that he wanted to work towards. And I simply asked him, so what has stopped you in the past exploring this? What has stopped you making the sort of steps and progress you would like to make? And then he started listing out a series of reasons, which mostly were self-limiting beliefs.

Mm-hmm.

And then we picked out the ones that he felt were most dominant. And then we took each of those, and I simply put it back to him, and I asked him, firstly, what has this been costing you by this belief dominating your thinking? So then we looked at the past, and we looked at all the things that maybe he could have done, but he couldn't because of this belief dominating his thinking. And then we looked forward, and I think this is where perspective really starts to come in, CB. I then asked him, if you were to continue with these top 3 beliefs for the next 5 years, What would that be costing you in terms of where you could be? And so the purpose of these questions was to raise his awareness.

Yes.

Um, and you can't have self-development without self-awareness because you simply can't change what you're not aware of. And so the process of these questions was to raise his awareness, and then it was to shift it to the positive, the possibility side. So I simply asked him, well, Let's assume these beliefs were not true. What could be possible if you no longer had those beliefs? And so what happened is he started sharing a lot of things that he could do if he didn't hold those beliefs. And what happened is he started to feel lighter, because when we have limiting beliefs, it's like you're carrying boulders on the back of your shoulder.

Mm-hmm.

But as soon as you realize the possibilities that lie ahead, the moment you drop them, suddenly you feel lighter in energy. And so with something to channel his energy towards outside of the self-limiting beliefs, he felt more focused to move forward. And then the challenge was to then break things down to the tiniest of steps, because so often when we're working towards a goal, we focus too much on the goal, which can be overwhelming. It's like running a marathon. You're focused so much on crossing the finish line. finish line, but if you've not done the training and the nutrition and the exercise behind the scenes, well, of course it's going to be overwhelming. And so it was about taking a step back and breaking it down to the simplest of steps that became a no-brainer. And fast forward a year since we had that first meeting, now he's thinking bolder, bigger, and as I like to say, CB, more galactic than ever before, because on top of that— In order to keep consistent in this sort of way of thinking, we began to outline and design for him an environment that would make it impossible not to succeed.

Wow.

I.e., how could he shift his physical environment and his social environment to support the new him? Because once we shift our identity, everything follows from there. You work from identity, the right habits come into place. You work from identity, you start attracting the right people into your life. You work from identity, you show up differently when you come to the stage, when people talk to you. You have a very different energy when you are out in the world.

Hmm. Wow. Can you give us an example without revealing a name?

Well, this example was in the culinary world, uh, so it's within the cooking world. And, uh, for him, he had achieved a lot. But one of the issues we find, CV, is as we achieve things that we didn't think we would before— so that may be you rising to become a C-suite executive, it may be you receiving an award in your industry, uh, or maybe you receiving some sort of recognition— once you've got that Your insecurities can riot because now the world is watching you, and that is when he sought my counsel to work together because now there was a very different sort of pressure. Before, he had nothing to lose. Now, with the recognition and the attention, there was a lot more to lose because now people's eyes were on him and how he would build from there. So that's what I wanted to share, and I think that. When we start trusting ourselves, the power we have, what we're capable of, we end up moving forwards quietly confident that we have what it takes to navigate whatever challenges are thrown our way.

Simon, how do we know that we're in the mindset of limiting ourselves? Because isn't it sort of an unconscious behavior?

It is. But CB, I think there is always an element of some conscious understanding that we are limiting ourselves. Otherwise, people won't know that they want to seek out coaches, or they want to seek out mentors or books. So there is an element of the first stage, if you will, is feeling that tension, that where you are isn't aligned to where you would like to be. That's almost the first step when you feel that tension. So it could be you feel unfulfilled in a job, or you feel lost, or you feel like your career is not going anywhere. That's usually the first step because it triggers a tension inside of you. You start questioning yourself, am I where I want to be? Is this really where I wanted to be after I graduated? Is this really where I wanted to be by the time I'm 35 or 40 or 50 or whatever age? Now, that's usually the first step. Now, the challenge is then following through with that and starting to journey inwards to understand why you're feeling that. Because a lot of us would have that feeling and then we brush it to one side. We don't listen to what I call that wisdom CB speaking to us. And we all have it, whether you call it your gut, your intuition, your inner compass. It's why when we meditate or when we slow down, the answers come to us. You know, there's a great saying that silence is never empty, it is full of But let me—

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it occurs to me this is, this is really interesting because right now we're going through what's been coined as the period of the great, um, resignation, right?

Hmm.

People are not going back to their jobs. It's almost become like a new pandemic, right? Now, the reason why they're not going back to their jobs is twofold that we can automatically see.

Sure.

One is they felt unfulfilled in their job, and now that they've had— and this realization has really hit hard since they've been able to work from home. You know, it's no longer the hustle bustle of traveling And to work in the morning and traveling home and running to get lunch. And, you know, it's the hustle bustle of maybe your dog is walking in the background, or how do you get the kids to be quiet while you're in a meeting on Zoom? But that sort of quote unquote extra time that we've gotten allows us to spend that in—

Hmm.

analysis mode, self-analysis, which says, you know, I've been running like a rabbit or a hamster on a wheel, and now that I've taken the time, this is really not the job for me. This is— this company doesn't represent my morals. It doesn't represent— what I'm doing doesn't represent really what satisfies me, right?

Mm-hmm.

The second thing that's happened here in the United States is that unemployment during this time has been very rich for a lot of people who are hourly employees, and they're saying, I'm making much more money on unemployment than I'm— than being employed. What's, what's wrong with this picture?

Hmm.

Let me go over here where I can make $2, $5 more an hour. I may have the same nonsense that I have to deal with at work, but at least I'm gonna be paid better, right?

Yeah.

Let me resign. Now, how do we separate And maybe we can't, maybe it's the same. This inner feeling that you're talking about of unhappiness about work from a trend or pandemic. I mean, maybe there is no separate, maybe it's the— it now allows us time to have the truth.

Definitely. CB, I would echo something you said just now, which is Because of the pandemic, we as a planet have had more time than we've ever had to just really reflect on where we are and if we're doing what we really want to do. Now, you remember I shared with you early on that I was out of employment for nearly a year.

Mm-hmm.

And because of that experience, that kickstarted the journey to what I now get to do today. And that is because for the first time in my life, I had the opportunity in that year to ask myself, what did success mean to me? Now, when we are younger, we don't really get the time to reflect on that because society, parents, teachers, colleges, and schools all tell us what success means.

Yes.

And so what is happening is that we measure our progress and our success metrics on someone else's definition. And so that is why we have people comparing their grades, comparing what colleges they go to, comparing which company they work for, whether they got a promotion or not, because these are all metrics that we have been told define success. Now, when we have an extended period out of work, we essentially have been disconnected. Even if you're working, but you're working from home because you're not in, as you would say, CB, that sort of rush and the hustle bustle of the commuting, um, and your attention being diluted because you have a colleague demanding this or a manager managing that. But when you're at home, you don't have all that pressure and you don't have the commute. So suddenly you save hours every week from commuting. What happens is now you have that space to ask yourself the very same thing. Well, what does success mean to me? What does fulfillment look like? Am I making the sort of impact I want? And I think simply by having that time, it's helping people to realize that maybe this isn't for me.

Mm-hmm.

And this experience of disconnecting and slowing down is so important because I don't know if they're true or not, CB. I think they are, they are probably more anecdotal But I still think there's a lot of truth to them. When Isaac Newton discovered gravity, he was sitting under a tree doing nothing and an apple fell on his head. When Thomas Edison discovered some of his incredible inventions, most of them was because he went fishing in his local lake without any bait, so no one, not even the fish, would disturb him, and so on. So you've got all these anecdotal stories of how people pivoted their career or had a breakthrough idea or invention. Simply because they took the space to detach from work, to almost reflect on where they are. Uh, and I know a lot of people— I'm not sure in the US, but I know a lot of friends here in the UK who were in jobs— used the time that they had extra to read, to learn, uh, to just journal. And I watched a TED Talk recently by, uh, by this lady called Diana Chow And she wrote that writing is humanity distilled into ink. And so when we write, which I think is an analogy for reflection, because as we write we learn about ourselves, as we reflect we learn more about who we are as a human, then what happens is we're more connected to our soul. So when we're more connected to our soul, we're asking ourselves deeper questions. And then it's, what are we going to do with this information? And so because we're in a world now in which there's so— we're abundant with resources, what's happening is people are experimenting. They're trying things. There's never been a better time in history to try something. And so I think all of these features are coming together to create what we are seeing, whether we want to call it a trend or a big shift in the world and the way we work. All of these factors just happen to be coming together at the right time. The fact that people have this time to think for themselves, there's all the resources they need, everyone is online these days, we've got Zoom, we've got the capabilities there. And so all of these features being in place just means we have a really good foundation to build from.

Interesting. Well, it's, it's a sad, um, thing that's happened, these pandemics, but from many, I think it has woken us up.

Yeah.

To have, you know, breakthrough trigger point thinking, right? Those especially that have lost somebody, and people have lost their jobs, and people that have kept their jobs but have been, as I said, out and have time to think things through. So I would actually call you more of a guru to trigger thinking, right? Combining what I'm saying with what Marshall Goldsmith likes to talk about as trigger points. Yeah, you're almost like acupuncture.

You press here, Thank you so much, CB. You know, when I, when I got asked before, uh, what are some of the skills that come naturally to me, and I think one of the skills that helped me do what I do is I love observing successful humans and businesses and communities and governments and seeing what are they doing that is working and how can I codify what they're doing So I understand what is it that acted as a catalyst to what they do. So if it's someone who failed college who then went on to build a multimillion or billion-dollar business, what was it that put them in the best position to do so? And I love just reverse engineering these things and observing how it's done because these become teaching points. These become lessons that I can share through platforms like this or Clubhouse or social media or the clients that I get to work with.

So thank you, Simon. What's the name of your programs on Clubhouse and when do they come on?

Sure. So I'm part of a club on Clubhouse called Entrepreneurs and Leaders. Uh, there are rooms held every week, uh, but the best is if you, uh, connect with me on Clubhouse. Uh, the great thing is, is that when you look at my bio at the bottom, you can see when the next room schedule is. Uh, at the moment I'm just doing them ad hoc, so there's not a regular time. And that is simply because I'm channeling a lot of my energy at the moment to some exciting projects in the background, one of them being working on the marketing of my book, which will be released next year. So as we move towards the end of this year, which we're only a couple of months away now, I'm trying to focus a lot of my attention on putting together a marketing strategy to help give it legs when it releases in April next year.

Well, count me in as part of your launch team. That's for sure. Uh, so, all right, well, we're looking forward to you having your own program, and I hope, I hope, Simon, you'll be a guest speaker on my new Clubhouse called The Solopreneur CEO.

It would be a pleasure and an honor, CB. Your rooms are always packed with insight, wisdom, and advice that people can go and apply immediately. So it would be a pleasure to be involved in that.

Thank you so much. So, Simon, what advice, being very successful in media— I know that you, you said at the beginning, be conscious and be consistent, right? Um, it's almost like go with meaning, right? Because if you go with meaning, then it allows other people to absorb what you are pushing out there, right? Doesn't mean they have to agree with it, but they can absorb it, digest it, and decide, which I think the most important 3 things that you could do with information. Um, for those that are just starting in the coaching space, I know that my association, which is the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches, which by the way you have to become a member. We, we now have something for new people that are entering the coaching field. Now, our organization is special because it's only for master-level coaches.

Sure.

What we had to do is we had to create a win-win for new people in the coaching field so that, you know, we would not destroy our brand of master coaches. So what we did is we said, uh, new people could come in with little experience in coaching, but they had to be really successful in their previous career.

Yeah.

And that way, um, that energy, that, that success from your previous career, you can share with your mentor So that your mentor learns a new industry. And so when you come in as an associate, you're given a mentor master code, right? Sure. What advice do you have for new coaches coming in? Because you went from zero to $1,000 in 24 hours.

Sure. So 3 thoughts I will share with you, CB. I mean, this is a topic I love. I mean, as I've developed my own career, I mentor actually a number of coaches. They've looked up to me, they've followed me on social media, in the media, in the press, and they've said to me, Simon, I know you may not offer it explicitly, but I would love to be a mentee of yours to learn how you built your coaching and so I can do the same for mine. So this is a topic I could certainly talk—

I want to be a mentee too.

Yeah, so this is a topic I love and it's business development, which can be applied in any business. So it's stuff that I can share on your Clubhouse show, The Solo Entrepreneur or The Solopreneur. But more specifically within the context of coaching, CB, here are 3 tips that I would share that you can apply immediately. Now, the first thing I would share is something that I learned from Hollywood films. And this, what this would do is it would get whoever you are speaking to engaged, interested, and curious about who you are as a coach. And here's how you do it. When you are at a networking event or when you are socializing online, so let's say Clubhouse or LinkedIn, or now the in-person events, at least here in the UK, are opening, I guarantee you that one of the first questions you will get asked is, what do you do? What do you do? So my challenge to you is do not start straight away with a title. Do not start straight away with a title. Now, 99% of people, if you ask what do you do, will say I am an engineer, I am an architect, I am an accountant, I'm a coach, and so on. So we lead by title. Now, here's the problem. Your title tells the other person nothing about who you are as a person. So just imagine this for a moment. Imagine you said to me, Simon, what do you do? And I said to you, I am a technical accountant. Now, for most people who hear that, they may say boring in their head, or they may be thinking, how can I quickly move on to the next person and finish this conversation. Now, apologies to all the accountants watching, but what I want to share here is that it is not our fault. It is the way our brain works. What our brain does is when it hears a title, it associates a title with stereotypes, with societal adjectives for that particular career path. So if you were to say, I am a tech entrepreneur, Even though you may not be making any money, suddenly people see, wow, tell me more about your startup. So society has made that feel cool. So your challenge is don't lead with a title. Instead, and here's the bit from Hollywood films, lead with a trailer. And here's how it works. If you lead with a trailer, what happens is that if your trailer is good enough, you want to come back to the cinema and watch the full film. In this case, the full film is your coaching service. So how can you lead with a trailer that entices them to want to ask the question, tell me more, how does that work? How does one work with you? So that is your challenge. How can you lead with what I would call an origin story that details what you do and why you do it? So if I just run with the analogy of Hollywood for a moment, imagine I'm Peter Parker and you were to say to me, Peter, what do you do? Now, if I'm leading by title, I can simply say, well, I'm a superhero saving the world with the Avengers. That's a title. However, imagine I changed how I introduced myself and you say, Peter, what do you do? And I were to say to you, Well, when I was a teenager, I decided to skip the class and go to the science museum, sneaked into the laboratory there, and accidentally got bitten by a radioactive spider. This gave me powers that I could never fathom, and I learned from my great-uncle Ben that with great power comes great responsibility. And in that moment, I had to make a choice, and that choice was to use these powers to save those who couldn't defend themselves from the crimes of society. And that is what I now get to do today, and hopefully in the process ensure that we can all live a happy life. Are you interested in learning more? Now notice—

Oh, I am so interested. That is such a great story.

Oh my God. So notice what I did in the second example. Instead of leading by a title, which can trigger a judgment. I lead with a story like a trailer that grabs your interest. It's like when you go to the cinema and you see a trailer and straight away there's an explosion. You're hooked. You want to find out what's happening next. And then if the trailer's done its job, you want to come back and buy the ticket to see it.

I love it. You know, I am now starting with my trailers.

So that is the first point. The second point is, as you are building your coaching business, especially if you're starting early, if you're at the beginning of your journey, don't see what you're doing on the business development side as selling. So don't see it as, how can I sell better? What is my unique selling point? My challenge to you is to switch the word sell to serve. What is my unique serving point. How can I serve people in a way that they've never been cared for so that they get an experience, a mini experience of what I can do with my coaching? And if you serve people so well, they will— even if they don't work with you, they will refer people to you. That is how this works. So I'll give you a real-life example. So a couple of years ago, I had a meeting with a prospect, and this prospect worked in the music industry, so he was a music executive. And a few days after our meeting, he was traveling from London to New York for a couple of business meetings. And we had this conversation, and he told me he was very stressed. Him and his wife were raising 3 children, and he was never busier than where he was at that point. So business was going good, but it was stressful. So taking that information, I sought to understand the individual at a deeper level, at a human level. And so what I did is while he was on his plane journey to New York, I put together a Spotify playlist. And this was bespoke to him because he works in the music industry. So I thought this would be perfect for him. So I put together a Spotify playlist, I sent the link to his WhatsApp, and I simply said, when you land in New York, check into your hotel. I suggest you give this 20-minute playlist a listen and just notice what you notice. A few hours later, after he landed, he sent me a WhatsApp and he said to me, Simon, that was so beautiful. I was listening to the musical pieces that you chose in that playlist as I was staring out of my room at the clouds and the skyscrapers of New York. It was beautiful and thought-provoking. When do we start working together?

Wow.

Now, what I did is I served him in a way that is not uniform. I would not clearly do that to every prospect, but because he works in the music industry, that happened to be a great medium to access him and calm him through the medium of music. Now, if I was speaking to someone in the film industry or someone in corporate banking or someone in a completely different industry, then clearly my approach would be different. But this is coming back to unique serving point. How are you serving your clients in a way that they feel deeply listened to, appreciated, and understood? Because when you go deep, when you understand them like no one has understood them before, they will never forget it. Again, even if they don't work with you, the question either becomes when, or they will send opportunities your way because they will talk about how they experienced who you are. So that's the second point. Move from a position of selling to a position of serving. How can you serve people better? And the third point is when you are in conversation with your clients, you want to come from a place of challenge. Remember, when you work with your clients, your goal is not to be their best friend. Your goal is to challenge them and to move them out of their comfort zone. So what I mean is this. As you get to know your client, their strengths, their weaknesses, their past, their future, what's important to them, what they're telling you they want to work on, as you get to know them through the way they act, through the evidence they're sharing with you, you will get an understanding of how you can challenge them. And the more you can challenge them, the greater the results you are going to get. And that is ultimately how you build a coaching business. Your coaching business is built on the results that you have achieved and that you can deliver. And that's why you've got to think about challenging your clients, because that is where growth comes from. I remember speaking to a client recently, and she said to me, I'm scared of rejection. You know, when I go out there and I get a rejection after spending hours with this client, I'm dwelling on why did that happen? What did I do wrong? What did I miss? Maybe I'm not experienced enough. So my response to that is I said to her, in the next 90 days, I want to give you a challenge. Your challenge is to get me 100 rejections. Get me 100 rejections in 90 days. Now, here's why this works, CB. Number one, I have gamified the negative. So I've turned it into a game, and we as humans, we love games. So I've turned the negative of getting a rejection into a game. So once she gets that first rejection, she goes to the second, to the third, to the fourth. But here's the second thing that gets triggered. Because she's now playing a game, she doesn't have the time to dwell on that last rejection. She's got to go and get that next one. Otherwise, she's never going to get 100. And here's the beauty. If you do this exercise well, And properly, you will never get to 100. And that is because the more rejections you get, the more yeses you will eventually arrive at. Because after each no, your brain is learning. Your brain is thinking, well, what can I improve next time? What can I do differently? So as you get to your 10th, your 11th, your 12th no, you might find your 13th becomes a yes. And then your 14th is a no, your 15th is a no, your 16th is a no, 17th is a yes. And so what happens is that when you play this game properly, you will start getting yeses. And you just need that first yes to begin. Because once you start getting those first yeses, and we never forget that first yes, when you get that first yes, you are now building momentum. And that is what we need when we are at the beginning of our coaching journey.

Oh my gosh. I love you. I so wish you were my mentor when I started. Wait, now, are you doing webinars, classes? I want to sign up.

Not at the moment, CB, but I'm going to be starting up my YouTube channel again soon. So I did my YouTube, but unfortunately, once I became a parent, I had to put that for obvious reasons. But I'm looking to get that up and running again, but so look out for those videos. But yes, I also do coach mentoring, so I mentor young coaches or people early in their journey, or even those somewhat more further in their journey to help them see how they can improve their business, how they can approach things differently. Because remember what I said earlier, we don't see the world as it is, we see the world as we are. So how can we start to see what we do through different lenses so we can try different things? And when we try different things, then we get different results. So yeah, those are some of the things I do, CB.

Well, I'm always a believer of what can I do better?

Indeed, indeed.

Simon, I have a lot to learn from you. So sign me up and please let me know what I can do to help you.

My pleasure, CB. It will be a pleasure and an honor to work with you in some capacity.

I love this. Gosh, I wish I had had this interview before the ACEC conference this year. I would have invited you to be a speaker. You would not have had the chance to say no to me.

Well, CB, I'm sure there is always a next conference.

And I was going there, and you are definitely on the board. Um, well, I think that we have gone past our time, but that's because this has been so fascinating. I am just loving it. I'm glad that I came back to do this special show on Thursday. And I'll tell you what, I'm going to share this interview with our new associates because this is something they must hear. They may be ringing your doorbell, but that's okay.

Well, CB, it will be an honor for you to share it. As I said, uh, I, I'm always glad to help. I believe that our value is determined by how much more we have given to the world than what we have taken from it. And I think if what I say, the words I've shared today resonates with them, uh, then I am glad, and that is the greatest reward for the work I do.

Well, I have to tell you, I've been in the coaching space for X number of years, and if I've learned today, I know they're gonna learn. You know, when you've been around a long time, it allows you to say, wow, that's something I didn't know. Oh yeah, I knew that. And you're thinking, no, I really didn't, but let me sound like I've known it all.

Totally, totally.

What are you— what are you going to do next on Clubhouse? When will we know when you have your own program on Clubhouse?

Sure. So as I said, the best way is to follow me on Clubhouse or even Instagram and LinkedIn. So Instagram and LinkedIn, I'm very active on, so you can see all the content I shared there. And my YouTube channel, just go onto YouTube, search for Simon Alexander Ong, and you will see that come up. From next month, so a few weeks' time, I will be starting to upload more videos, and those videos will be built around some of the things I speak around on leadership, energy, and business development. So some of what we discussed today, I'll be going into greater depth and also sharing with you— maybe this is something for another talk for us, CB, or even on your Women Clubhouse— about how you can seal the deal with a client before you've even had that first conversation. And that is something powerful that we can all begin doing now Uh, with regards to using our social presence?

Um, let's see. I will contact Anna Malikian. She's my partner in Clubhouse, and she is— you know what, I'm going to introduce you to her. She does mindset, and she's also a business psychologist. Um, she's from Portugal. She is a great woman. You should know each other. I'm going to ask her when we're starting Clubhouse again and absolutely, um, how to seal the deal. Yeah. Um, and in fact, would you come and talk to our 4— we have just a small number of associates because of the type of organization. I would love to talk to them.

Definitely. I mean, CB, send me details, uh, how it works, how the setup is. And we can take it from there.

Okay, I'll introduce you to Anna, and the person who is in charge of our associates is Barry Hinton, and he's in London.

Small world.

So, uh, I'll introduce you to him, and, um, I'd love if you could— because these— so let me just describe the typical associate. Uh, one Used to be a successful attorney, became a coach. Another one was successful in HR in San Diego area, very successful, became a coach. Uh, another one was a therapist and became a coach. So you see what I'm saying about very successful in their previous field?

Definitely.

Yeah, so great. Hey, we are way over time.

I've really enjoyed this conversation, CB. Uh, it's been a pleasure to be interviewed by you today.

Oh, you know, I'm just— I'm very grateful to have you as a special guest. And audience, you know, you forgive me that I have a mint. It's, um, we've got some fires in the air, so my voice is going a little bit off. But otherwise, you know, you have to come out to Colorado. This is one gorgeous state. It really is. And Simon, you have an invitation to visit us anytime. My husband is a chef, Italian.

Amazing Italian food, one of my favorites.

We got you covered. Let us know when you're coming our way. Okay?

Definitely, definitely. I can't wait to be back over to America.

Okay, good. All right, listen, everybody. Sorry we ran over, but you know, we saved the best part of the conversation to the end. So I hope you listen to the very end, and I will see you not next Tuesday but the Tuesday after. Bye now, this is CB Bowman Live. Oh, I forgot to give you a secret. Well, our secret is connect with me on LinkedIn.

Mm-hmm.

And find out when we restart our Clubhouse for the fall because Simon is going to be one of our guests and he's going to be talking about how do you land the client even before you land the client. Okay.

Indeed.

Take care, everybody. Have a good one.

Bye.