Today, I’m sitting down with Will Polston, a coach with a knack for unlocking what’s holding entrepreneurs back and helping them create lives they love.
From lessons learned during his early ventures to how he’s inspiring big shifts for his clients today, we’re talking about the real stories behind success, self-mastery, and finding fulfillment.
Believe me, this episode is one you won’t want to miss!
Highlights:
(2:17) Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
(4:10) Self-Worth and Fear of Success
(11:04) Influences and Personal Development
(16:53) Building a Support Network
(22:21) Challenges and Embarrassing Moments
(35:57) Future of Coaching and Personal Development
Connect with Will:
Connect with Dawn:
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- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dawnamcgruer
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessconsort/
- Web www.dawnmcgruer.com
This podcast is in association with @HerPowerCommunity – The #1 Female Founders Global Community where connections flourish & growth is intentional.
Transcription:
Dawn McGruer
Hey, it’s Dawn McGruer, the business growth coach.
And welcome to Dawn of a New Era, the podcast where we talk all things health, wealth and happiness and where founders share the good and bad and ugly of being an entrepreneur. Welcome, Will, to Dawn of a New Era, and thank you for traveling to meet us in the studio in Manchester.
So before we go any further, obviously we’ve met multiple times. I wasn’t aware of the first meet because I was on stage. Second time we were in a room, part of a network.
But share a little bit about who you are and what you do.
Will Polston
My name is Will Polston and I help driven entrepreneurs to have more time and less stress. Is the. The short. Is the super short version.
Dawn McGruer
And when did you first start your business?
Will Polston
So, my coaching business, I started nine years ago. It’s kind of in a business of two halves because Covid, for a lot of people changed a lot of stuff. It’s really funny. So only Monday, I was.
I was chatting someone, they were talking about how can you get started with producing online videos? And I said, literally, just start and get perfect later. And I actually was able to find my first ever video.
I did it on the 31st of December, 2015, and it actually made me cry. And it made me cry for two reasons. One, it was how bad it was. No, I’m kidding.
It made me cry because the exact same message that I was talking about then is the same stuff I talk about now nine years later. And I cannot for the life of you tell me what I said in that video if you had. Do I remember doing the video?
Absolutely, because I recorded it about 12 times before I actually posted it. But talking about the same thing then as I do now, which is helping people to live their, what I call North Star, which is a mission in life.
That’s the equivalent of trying to empty the sea with a spoon. So, yeah, that was all the way back then, but it made me cry just because it made me realize how raw the passion was.
And I had no idea how I was going to do stuff. I just knew I wanted to do it. And I just looked at that next step and that first step and went back and went, wow, that’s.
I had no idea back then, but I just did it anyway.
Dawn McGruer
See, I always think it’s so interesting when you talk to entrepreneurs because one of the commonalities I see a lot is the vision. So when I first started at 21, I was so passionate and I was just so eager that no challenge was a challenge.
And I think it’s interesting when you talk about the way that your business started because what we have in our mind is we’ve taken away some of the limiting beliefs and we’re kind of prepared to step past them. And I see this in a lot of entrepreneurs journeys. What do you think has been the biggest limiting belief that you’ve encountered on your journey?
Will Polston
That I’m not deserving. Like lots of beliefs that we have, they come from our programming as children and whatnot.
And I think that there was a maybe even sort of subconscious unconscious way that my parents brought me up. And this is not, not blaming them by any means.
They only wanted the best, which was you get rewards when you’ve done certain things and there’s a combination of wanting to do things and have a reward because you’ve done it, which I get, I understand the element of that. But then there’s this part of me going, well I can’t do that yet because I don’t deserve it because I’m not X yet.
And I think that there’s so many people that have this belief of I don’t deserve it, I’m not good enough yet.
If you continue to believe that you’ll never be good enough, every single month there is something that I will maybe not I’ll be resistant of putting out on social media or saying because I think, oh, am I good enough to say that? Can I, can I even ask that question? Can I do that? Yeah, I think that’s definitely one for sure.
Dawn McGruer
I think self worth comes up a lot for men and women in business because a lot of us are busy building the businesses, doing things for others that we forget about our own self care, our own self compassion. And I think as business owners it’s quite tempting also to have the negative self talk that we are very critical on what we’re doing.
And as we’re moving forward there’s almost a kind of a belief of like, well, what happens if it all gets taken away? Have you experienced the fear through success?
Will Polston
I see it more and more and more. So the majority of my private clients are entrepreneurs that are turning over seven, eight, nine figures.
One of my clients had a multi nine figure exit.
And what’s interesting is it’s the same drive that gets them going and enables them to achieve success, quote unquote traditional success that they then find themselves going, well I still need to, I need to do that next thing, I’m not there yet. I call it when then syndrome. When I achieve this, then I’ll be happy when I Get that? Then I’ll be content when I get this, then I’ll be at peace.
And it doesn’t. Like, they keep driving and driving and driving some obscene amounts of success that a lot of these people have. And you ask them, are you successful?
They go, no, not yet, because I’ve not done this part or this part. And that’s the big difference between switching to focus on the gain of what you’ve already achieved, rather than constantly looking at the gap.
But it’s the gap that drives them in the beginning for so long.
Dawn McGruer
See, I think it’s also interesting that we’ve had conversations in the group we’re part of, where people have different understandings of success, which I love. And the fact that success is not, you know, a monetary step, like it’s part of it.
You know, every business needs to be profitable and sustainable and even sellable. But sometimes I think we get caught up in the online focus of this kind of 7, 8, 9 figures.
One of the things that I love is that I’ve kind of hit a point where I feel like I’m in balance and I don’t need to go further on the financial side of things. I’ve got more of a focus towards enrichment and experiences rather than monetary. What’s been your shift in terms of, like, starting a business?
How old were you when you first started.
Will Polston
First proper business was 24.
Dawn McGruer
So what’s been the difference in your values and your motivating factors then? Because mine have changed a lot since 21 to 31, to 45?
Will Polston
Yeah. Well, I suppose it’d be interesting if I. If I go back and give you a bit of the backstory. So I grew up with a belief that money equal happiness.
I’ve got two very wealthy uncles. One’s a billionaire, the other one’s a multi. Multimillionaire. And my dad always used to say they just got lucky. That was his thing.
They just got lucky. They just got lucky. I was very fortunate growing up.
I always had clothes on my back, food in the fridge, went on holiday every year, albeit they weren’t always big, crazy, lavish holidays. But I had a very fortunate upbringing. But what I remember growing up was how much my dad hated his job.
So he would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, get on his bike, ride to the station, go into London, do a job he hated, come home and bring the stress and the frustration home with him.
And I don’t know if anyone listening to this can relate to someone in their life that when they’re around that person, they can just feel the tension. It’s like a. It’s a force field that they can feel. And that was the case of my dad.
And then I remember I must have been about 10 years old, and one day my dad came home from work and I was home from school, and he was there already. I was like, this is weird. Dad’s never normally home this early.
And it’s because he’d quit his job and he’d quit his job to set up a business with one of my uncles. And at the time, I was like, yes, this is gonna be amazing. Dad’s gonna be just like Uncle Steve, and he’s gonna be happy and content.
Cause my Uncle Steve in particular, he’s this real extrovert, great character, always full of energy. He was gonna set up that business, Fast forward a few months, he’d already quit his job. I was the eldest of four.
I had two brothers and sisters who were seven. They’re twins. And then a baby sister who was not even one. Then my mum. Then there was no job, no income, and my dad fell into a.
What we would call a depression. You know, curtain, shuttle day, didn’t leave the house. Very stereotypical in that respect.
And I was 10 years old, and I just started to connect the dots. It was really obvious for me, Uncle Mark, billionaire, really happy Uncle Steve, multimillionaire, really happy dad.
When he worked in London, okay, he was stressed and frustrated a bit, but he was a lot happier when he was working than now. He has no money, doesn’t leave the house. So for me, at 10 years old, it was obvious, money equals happiness.
So I went off on that journey to make as much money as I could as early as I could. I was the kid in school buying and selling suites and buying stuff off. I was looking for stuff in the paper, seeing what it was priced at ebay.
And if I could get it for more money on ebay, I would buy out the paper and then put it straight on ebay and do it, doing all this stuff. I had two or three paper rounds, I think, when I was 13 or 14.
Yeah, there must have been 12 or 13, because then I started working in a bar when I was 14. And that was my thing, money equal to happiness. And I started making money.
I remember being 14 years old, and this is now 20 years later, being 14 years old and making £200 a week cash. The time we’re recording this is. We’ve just heard about the budget. And the budget for certain age group is £10.
I was earning £10 an hour 20 years ago. So it’s a lot of money. And I would just buy stuff and that’s what I would do. I would buy stuff.
And I then started buying clothes and I really like clothes. And then fast forward a little bit. I ended up wanting to run my own clothes shop.
And the reason I wanted to own my own design a clothes shop was because the guy was a multimillionaire. And that’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a multimillionaire and do something I loved, which was being involved with fashion.
And there’s a long winded story, but I’m not going to it all now. But I ended up leaving that industry and then working in financial services and I was a broker.
By the time I was in my late teens, early 20s, I was making 20 grand a month. And that went on for some years.
I stumbled across personal development when I was about 18 and I love personal development because the more personal development I did, the more money I made. And that went on for some years. And then it was 11 years ago that I went to an event with Tony Robbins.
And many people listening to this would have heard of Tony Robbins. And that’s when I had my lightning moment. And bam, it just hit me and I cried my eyes out for about 15 minutes.
Because in that moment I realized my real driver was nothing to do with money. It had never been about money.
It was to do with my dad and how my dad hadn’t achieved certain things he was capable of and the impact that had on him and my mum and me and my family and the host of other people.
And I vowed I don’t want anyone else to ever have to go through the suffering that he went through and we went through from that moment 11 years ago, it completely altered the trajectory of my life. So to your question, have I ever had any belief values change?
That moment there was a pivotal moment and life went in a completely different direction.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, I think it’s so interesting, isn’t it? Because when we start a business, obviously money and cash is the king.
We need to focus on getting consistent cash flow and building the business and again with clients. And you’ll know yourself that it’s often the biggest worry and the biggest scaling factor that they’re focused on.
So if you think about your values now, what is it that lights you up in business? Like, what is the true dream that like is why you do what you do.
Will Polston
So for me, still is around self mastery. I love.
I’m obsessed with anything to do with self mastery, particularly mindset, I’m fascinated by because I always come back to how can you have two different people that get the same information, but one goes and does stuff and one doesn’t. You know, I find that fascinating. So that’s something that lights me up. I have a real interest in business and building businesses.
So I suppose that’s, that’s one of the reasons why I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners because I have the very fortunate position of being able to parachute into their businesses and understand what’s going on and love that variety. So is essentially unlocking people. Is unlocking people what, whatever the barrier is to achieve their dream life faster.
You said it earlier, success is subjective, right? Success for every single person is different.
So if we can get them really, really clear on, well, what does that success look like for a point in time? Not necessarily it’s going to change in a bowl over time.
But if we can get clear on that and then we can just break down those barriers and remove them or make them them smaller, then they’re going to get to where they want to get to faster.
Dawn McGruer
So from a mindset point of view, obviously you’ve invest in that and a lot of people will be kind of newer on their journey. So when you see people talking about like top books and things online or podcasts, like what are the things that you remember?
Like really you listened to or you read that changed your thought process, you.
Will Polston
Can read the same book over the course of three or five years, you know, read it each year and every time take something different.
There’s one book that I’ve read, I’ve read it every summer holiday since I very first read it, which is a bit of a cliche personal development book is a book called the Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It’s about the law of attraction. And the reason why it was so profound for me was not because it introduced me to this new idea.
What it did was it made me realize that I’d been doing this thing that had worked for me. I mean, when I was in my early teens, mid teens, anything I wanted, I got. I wanted a mini motor, I’d get it.
I wanted electric, I wanted a petrol scooter, I’d get it. These things, I’d visualize it, I would see it, I would, I would do the work to be able to get it. And I went, ah, so that’s what I’ve been doing.
I think that for so many people, when you ask them what’s the most Profound personal development book. For the majority of people it’s almost always the first book they’ve read. So for some people it’s, I mean it’s normally one of the classics.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People think and grow Rich in my instance, the secret because what it does is it, it has the biggest knowledge jump and then everything else is incremental gain others as time goes on.
If people are getting a little bit bigger for particularly the people in their business right now that they’ve got lots of work, they’re very busy then a book called the E Myth by Michael Gerber is really good. And if people are a little bit more experienced, if people are, I would say a million quid plus even 500k plus in running their business.
A must read book is the Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham.
Dawn McGruer
Have you seen the hype now for Green Lights? I think everyone’s reading it.
Will Polston
I’ve just read it on holiday.
Dawn McGruer
What’s your view? Read or not read?
Will Polston
Read. I thought it was going to be more of a personal development book for some reason.
I think it’s because it was promoted so much in personal circles and whatnot. What really impressed me was my God, that guy’s lived a life. He has absolutely lived a life.
And it’s very easy to look at Hollywood actors and think, well, when they’ve made it, they’ve taken off and they’ve really had it. But from a very, very young age and don’t get me wrong, he’s had some tough times growing up and those things have definitely been a factor.
Yeah, it was an interesting read is getting a bit of an insight into his life with some lessons along the way. And what fascinated me, I’m a big journaler.
On the way up here I was journaling but for, I can’t remember how long it had been at the time when he wrote the book.
I think for 35 years he’s journaled pretty much every day and real detailed stuff which a modern day version of that is like going on Facebook and looking at your memories, isn’t it? You know, you go back and see 10, 15 years ago. Imagine doing 35 years of that. So yeah, incredible.
Dawn McGruer
So I’m so passionate about the world of neuroscience and one of my first books that I read and absolutely loved was Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter. It kind of really got me into understanding the psyche of people’s behavior and habits.
So I wanted to understand why people did things and why we would have maybe such different belief systems or values around things and what I talk about now really is all about sort of, you know, healthy habits, changing habits, and switching the environment rather than the habit. What would be your biggest sort of growth habit, whether it’s across health or wealth or happiness?
Will Polston
I actually think it’s the importance of. And I do this weekly reviewing your goals. I think it really is as simple as that.
So I have a process called creating a North Star, which is this mission in life. And then we reverse engineer it, which is what I call a North Star trajectory. It’s essentially a plan of goals that you’re working towards.
And I like to read it every week. And then I color code the progress on the time frame that’s ahead. So, for example, it might be the month ahead. I’m color coding green if it’s done.
Amber, it’s in progress. Red if it’s done. And it does two things.
One is that it gets me to acknowledge the progress that I’m making, because there’s so much that we forget when we think of the seven areas of life, how many things that we’re doing that we just don’t even acknowledge that we’re doing. This is one of the things that I see a lot in a lot of high performers. It’s always next, next, next. What’s the next thing? What’s the next thing?
They haven’t taken stock and just gone, do you know what? Actually, I’m gonna bask in what I’ve done. So that’s definitely a factor.
The second one you talk about, neuroscience, is a part of the brain called the reticular activating system, which enables you to focus. So if you had that experience where you really wanted a particular bag because you think, no one’s got this bag.
You get the bag and then you see it everywhere, or you get that no one’s got that car in that color. You get the car and you see it everywhere. That’s the reticular activating system, which is the. Like I say, the part of the brain that helps us focus.
And if we can constantly stay focused on those goals, not only does it. It can help us keep disciplined, but it can also help us see opportunities. And.
Oh, that’d be a great opportunity to connect up with that and out of sight, out of mind. So I think that can be definitely one of the. The most powerful for people looking to accomplish more personally, professionally, or financially.
Dawn McGruer
No, I love that, and I like the strategicness of it. I think one of the things that I always think about in terms of, like, growth habits, if someone said to me what’s like your number one, do or die?
It’s like stepping out of our heads and getting out of the weeds. One of the things that I think happens, and this has happened to me numerous times as an entrepreneur, is that we get so attached to the doing.
You know, there could be a to do list of like 5,000 things, but, like, why are we doing it? And I think the thing is, is that as I’ve grown older, I’ve got calmer and just more kind of considered.
I think in my approach to things, where you see people dashing to do things or something is not working, I have adopted a far slower approach to things because I think when you step out of the situation and you look at the bigger picture and you look at your values and your beliefs now and your motivators, it’s like, why are we doing these things? What is the biggest piece of advice you could give entrepreneurs in terms of, like, just moving the health forward?
Will Polston
Get around bigger thinkers. Yeah, get around bigger thinkers. So don’t get me wrong, it’s a blessing and a curse, like most things in life.
A member of the family that’s achieved extreme success, extreme success. And it’s very easy to then go, well, comparison, right?
But what it’s also done is it’s given me this amazing glimpse into what’s possible because lots of people go, well, that’d be amazing. But that doesn’t happen to people like me. I can’t say that. I just. I don’t have that ability to do that because we’ve seen it happen.
So being around big thinkers, I have had a process for, I don’t know, however long now, where I used to keep a list of people that influenced me, I admire and trust. So people that influence me admire and trust. And there’s two types of these people. Some of these people will be people that I know.
So it might be a friend of mine, it might be somebody in the local area that I look up to. For me, it was some people that were a bit older than me that I used to play rugby with that I really respected.
So they’re what I call direct mentors. And then there’s indirect mentors.
So people I’ve never met and probably will never met by it, I can still connect with them because I can read their autobiographies or I can listen to their podcast, or I can watch them on YouTube or I can go to their events and getting around these people.
And it’s amazing that when you surround yourself with their world, even just by listening to them, it starts to give you a bit of an insight into how they think.
Yeah, I think being able to think bigger is great because more often than not, many of us will realize that thinking bigger isn’t about doing more, it’s just about doing different.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, totally. And I always think about community and connection as my marketing plan. It’s like the absolute pinnacle of everything.
So I think detaching ourselves from the actual process and thinking more around the benefit, I think one of the things that when I talk to entrepreneurs that it fascinates me is that we forget how powerful our networks are and the people that we know. And there’s always somebody who has influenced the direction or the trajectory of where we’ve gone in business.
Who was your biggest influence in terms of like a big growth change in your business or like a complete juxtaposition of where you were going?
Will Polston
I suppose in my life it was Tony Robbins when I had that, that big event way back when. Some of the people that have, have helped me change are. Because I’ve modeled them from a fast.
They’re not even people like coaches that have actually paid, said, do this, do this, do this. But they’re people that I’ve modeled and gone, oh, well, they do that over there. What about if we did this here in a different industry?
I’ve said for years that champagne is a blend of different grapes, right? So if we can take those different grapes and squeeze it, we make champagne. And so there was a. There was a guy, Mark Davis, he had a TEDx license.
And people were talking about this guy Mark, and he was really well respected. There was a big organization that still exists, albeit in a different way, called the yes Group. And he used to be the yes Group, London leader.
They used to have like 800 people come. And I really wanted to run these events.
And I had this idea of imagine a personal development sort of big seminar, the ones you go to in London or Birmingham, big city, over four days. I thought, well, what if we just had that every month and it was just two hours or three hours, and we had two guest speakers at every event.
And I had one major issue in that I didn’t know any speakers. So I thought, well, Mark owns a TEDx license and he used to be part of this thing called the yes Group. Maybe he knows some speakers.
And I reached out to him and we sat down and we went through it and he said, yeah, this would be great. And then he said, and I know what you could do. You could look at adding another layer in which would be a mastermind group.
And at the time he likened it to an organization called Vistage, which are sort of peer to peer, sort of board peer groups. And I was like, yeah, I can see why that would work. And that was what started my first ever Mastermind.
So that’s an example of having some influence from somebody. I had no idea. But he said, well, what about. And I think those, what about this? Or what about that?
Sometimes you can just, just back the ideas away and sometimes they could be great runners because we’ve, we’ve now got a number of different mastermind groups that have been going for eight plus years.
Dawn McGruer
I think sometimes it’s not always like the most influential people. It can just be a circumstance or even just one person saying something at the right time that can change our whole way of thinking.
Now we always talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of entrepreneurship and you know what’s coming.
I always like to ask for the most important embarrassing story because I think the thing is I always share my stories and anyone on my mastermind or retreats knows a lot of embarrassing stories. But what was the most embarrassing story in your business life?
Will Polston
One that stands out and it’s not even that bad really. But at the time it really haunted me was I talk fast, I type fast, I do certain things at speed a lot of the time.
And I sent out this email about setting out your stall, and the subject line was setting out your stall, only to then send it out to however many thousand people on the email list and get. I couldn’t tell you how many dozen replies saying, I think you meant stall as in s T a double L.
And I’d put setting out your stall S T double O, L as in poo. So that was one of those moments where your sort of heart sinks and you go, oh, why didn’t I just double check that email that I sent out?
So that’s one example that comes to mind. And it is one of those things because I really did go, oh my God, I can’t believe I’ve done that. And just felt so ashamed for a few hours.
Dawn McGruer
It’s funny though, isn’t it? We put such pressure on ourselves and we’ve all done it.
Even today, we’ll have in probably the past week or months, done something or sensed something that wasn’t right. And when you said that, it just reminded me of when we were doing captions on a video.
And when I say the word popular, for some reason, it recognizes it as cop killer. Thankfully, just before it uploaded to YouTube.
We noticed it, but, you know, we’ve all sent these things out, but we beat ourselves up, don’t we, that an email wasn’t right. And I think I used to hold on to that a lot more when I was younger. Now not so much. I think, you know, we all make errors.
What’s your view on obviously people who are very controversial online?
Because we see a lot of this and a lot of people are trying to carve out a brand around being super controversial or we see a lot of people jumping in on comments and you know, and I see it online, I have to kind of distance myself because I find it quite harsh some of the times that people are naming shaming, condemning. There’s, there’s a lot of opinion. But what is overstepping the mark these days?
Will Polston
It’s the rants. The irony of what we’re about. What I’m about to say is one of the things that I can’t stand is people that just ran and.
But rant for the sake of ranting because they know it’s whipping up a storm and there’s a particular guy that I’m, I’m doing some work at the moment and in part of the content plan, it’s. And on this day you do a rant and I’m just not doing it. And I appreciate the irony in what I’m saying because the thing I’m ranting about is ranting.
Right. So, but, but yeah, it’s. It’s people that are whipping people up for frenzy. And a perfect example of this is the political situation.
Without going into politics in, in the UK and definitely over in the US at the moment, it has gone so far that there is just no rules anymore for these. There is no moral line that people can cross to be bad.
And I think that’s a dangerous position when you’ve got the major political parties of, of major economies that are operating that way. And yeah, people do it for the likes, they do it for the engagement and that they do what they do.
But I know that I generally take a bit of a vanilla stance. Not because I am afraid of being shot down or anything like that. It’s not a fear. Well, at least I don’t think it’s a fear of tall poppy syndrome.
It’s more just. I just can’t be bothered with it. I just can’t be bothered with it. And I really attempt to have a balanced view on things.
And by having that balanced perspective, it means that I don’t have judgments one way or Another, because ultimately there’s 4,828, I think, human traits, and every one of us have them.
So if people are saying, I can’t believe that person is making fun of other people, well, there’ll be a time when you’ve made fun of other people, so you end up just becoming a hypocrite.
Dawn McGruer
I read something of the day that has stuck with me. The fact that we have about 4,000 weeks in our life that is quite scary.
And when you start to quantify it with a number, you start to think like, well, next week that will be like, 3,000. Whatever. What is your biggest mission in terms of leading a life that has impact, but not just for other people, but for you?
Like, what is the legacy you want to do for Will?
Will Polston
Well, and this is a good one to talk about, because people Talk about that 4000 weeks and beliefs are powerful. You know this, Dawn. They’re so powerful. And if people are told something enough, whether it’s true or not, they’ll believe it.
And I think the fact that 4,000 weeks maybe of what people have lived to until now, but that that definitely isn’t going to be the case moving forward.
There’s going to be people in our lifetime, our generation, that are living to 120, and not just living to 120, as spending 40 years as a decrepit old person with a walking stick or being pushed around a wheelchair, but as active as we are today, like, that is happening. And I’ve got a real interest in life longevity. And one of my things is I’m gonna live till I’m 150 years old.
And there’ll be people that listen to this now going, who is this delusional guy she’s got on the podcast?
But actually, if you looking into the sciences and you look into epigenetics and you look into the developments in the human genome, and there’s an amazing book called lifespan by Dr. David Sinclair. And there’s a whole bunch of people that are.
Mark Hyman and a whole bunch of others are doing really great work on this that are making us become aware that this is going to be more than possible, women in our lifetime. So that’s one of the first things. But for me, it’s. It’s about empowering people to live a life that they love and giving them the.
The tools to be able to do that. Because I think that so many people, we all get schooled, but we don’t all get an education, right?
So if we can get this knowledge and the Stuff that you’ve learned over the years of being an entrepreneur that just imagine if you’d have been taught that from five years old like you are maths and English and some of these other topics, and mindfulness and the Power of mind, the book that you mentioned. You know, if you’d have been given that when you were 11, I know you started super early and super successful really early on.
And I know you built networks, you used to run your events at Aston Martin garages and you were doing those things and they were so powerful. Imagine knowing that stuff at 11.
Dawn McGruer
Oh, it’s crazy.
Honestly, I feel that I’ve been always passionate about bridging the digital skills gap, talking about, you know, women in tech and gender pay gap and things like that.
But I think what is changing and we’re seeing a shift is the amount of women who are speaking on stages, starting podcasts and actually scaling businesses. Because I honestly feel that from the age of 20 to like 35, it was a very solo journey in a male dominated world.
Every time I showed up on stage it was men. Every time I was going on podcasts it was men. And even now there are very few female speakers in comparison to men.
And also even if you look at the charts, the amount of podcasts that are in the top 50. So it’s a real passion for me to see women move forward. How have you seen women in business change since you’ve been in business?
Will Polston
I run a group of entrepreneurs and one of the three rules that we have is that they have to turn over a million pound plus and there is probably only between bouncing between 15 and 20% of people in that group that are women. And that’s not because we’re trying to keep women out. There are just not that many of them that are turning over over a million quid plus.
Now the irony is out of the 140 odd people in the group, the person in the group that does 200 million is a woman. Right. So you, you go from one extreme to another. What I’ve seen is that there’s a lot that’s changed in, in years gone by with technology.
So technology enables us to be able to do more faster. Covid made working from home acceptable for a lot of people. So they’re right. They’ve been able to do certain things that, that they’ve wanted to do.
And I think for a lot of women, and I’m really interested in your opinion on this, is that a lot of them get caught in this dilemma between. Well, I would really Love to do this, but also I do really want to be able to be there for the kids and do this and do that.
And in years gone by, they’ve had to make, not had to, but there’s been a choice that’s been made and technology is enabled and working from home and doing these things has enabled that, I believe, to become easier.
Dawn McGruer
I think there’s probably a lot of like, stigmas and societal norms that women have felt maybe compelled to adhere to because there is that kind of guilt that if they do have a family that should they be working and going out and about. And last week I heard a story of a lady who had a baby who was in my network.
She hasn’t even announced it on social media because she’s working in tech and she lost one of her investors because she was pregnant. And I think this is really quite scary that we’re seeing this now. It’s like, what can we do to shift these mindsets and challenge these norms?
And I think this is an interesting conversation because obviously I talk to men and women about it. Where do you see the change coming to get more women to scale to a million?
Will Polston
I think it comes back to what do they want? You know, if they want to do it, great.
Well then in the same way that you equipped people to be able to move into the digital environment, you were one of the really early adopters. You created your training schools and your curriculums that enabled people to go, I want to do this.
And what you’re able to do is you’re able to bridge that gap. And I think the more people go, well, I would love to do this, I just don’t know the how.
For the majority of people, people, it’s not that they don’t know what they want to do, it’s just they don’t know the how. And the more those bridges can be gapped and go, well, this can be done. And here’s an example of somebody that’s done it.
Here’s an example of somebody that’s done it. And it’s the same for guys as well. You know, I’ve got so many. I’m at an age where a lot of my friends are having kids and they’re the same.
They want to be able to do the school run, they want to be able to be there for after school clubs and to be able to watch whatever. They want to be able to do these things. And it’s a case of just knowing, well, how and who’s done it in a way where they’ve been able to do both.
And I think that’s the difference.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, finding the flexibility so that it works. And I think it is. It’s like balance. I mean, there is no true work life balance.
I think, like, sometimes work wins, sometimes home wins, sometimes there’s a blend. But I think now with technology there is more opportunity.
And I guess it comes down to understanding or having the belief that, like, infinite success is possible for all of us. It’s just a choice.
And I think maybe perception is now that, you know, there are more people doing it and there are more people kind of, you know, bridging that gap. I’m not saying that a million has to be the milestone.
I mean, it could be that someone has a business that’s a hundred thousand and that’s their absolute dream. Where is your dream, like your vision for Will in the next five, ten years? Like, where do you want to take your business?
Will Polston
What I’m attempting to do is create the go to platform for personal development for entrepreneurs in the uk. So in terms of online resources, having everything where people can come together, the community element is a huge component.
Content is a huge element.
I’m a massive believer in collaboration and having great people, great minds with great knowledge that can come onto the platform, share via the platform, have the community element that connects people, have the coaching for people that want to maybe accelerate that and bridge. Those are not bridge, but have those three elements to help people bridge that transition.
So if they don’t know what they want, we can help them get clear on what they want to do. If they know what they want to do, but they don’t know how to do it, we can help them do it. And that’s really something that I do feel.
Feel passionate about. You mentioned it early on. You know, vision is. What is that vision? What does it look like? Like practice.
If you were to close your eyes and imagine waking up on your ideal day, where are you waking up? Who are you waking up with? What’s the next thing you’re going to go and do? I know you love your Wellness Wednesdays.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, Wellness Wednesdays and Free Time Fridays.
Will Polston
Wellness Wednesdays and Free Time Fridays. And being able to have these things. Well, that’s what I want to be able to do.
And then I want to go and do a bit of this, and then I want to come do a bit of this. And it comes down to choice.
And I think that’s why so many people go into business, the majority of them, even though they might say they go into business for money, they’re not going into business for money, they’re going into business for freedom. And the money, money they perceive gives them the freedom in, in the majority of cases.
So how do you create that life that gives you the freedom, whether it’s the holidays, whether it’s this, whether it’s that, whatever it might be that enables you to do things, or other people’s freedom.
So for a lot of people it’s, they want to be able to earn a certain amount of money, to be able to give their children or their grandchildren or their grandchildren’s children the freedom to be able to do what, what they would really love to do.
And, and that’s where I think that we will see more and more people when they’ve got those role models of being able to say, hey, look, I was able to do really well in business, but I didn’t sacrifice my family for 20 years.
And that’s the difference that I think online we’re only really starting to see, although we’ve been online since whatever it is, 1990, whatever year. But now I think it’s easier than ever to be able to create an online business that can help others.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, definitely. Like Covid was the catalyst there. But, but I would say that we’ve seen a huge shift in the online space and the coaching industry since then.
And maybe not all positively, there is a lot of talk about entrepreneurs being burned, having awful scenarios where they’ve been put off. Actually, you know, being in business, what’s your view of the online and particularly the coaching space right now?
Will Polston
Yeah, it is a big topic and, and I’m, I’m going to link it back to, to, to you and what you did very early on.
So with your academy, I know you jumped through loads of hoops that were really difficult and challenging, but it meant that you had to tick a lot of boxes and do a lot of things the quote, unquote right way. And that meant that you had to adhere to a certain protocol and code of conduct to make sure that certain things were delivered on.
And then also you had lots of these pop up people teaching digital marketing online that have maybe got a tiny little bit of experience and all of a sudden are delivering on that.
So the difference being is that you’ve gone and done the proper qualifications, let’s call it, and got the appropriate accreditations to be able to deliver it. But because it’s not something that’s regulated, other people could do it. The same things happen with coaching.
One of the things that I did really early on when I first decided that I wanted to become a coach. I spoke to a bunch of different coaches and asked how did you do it? What did you do again? Modeling other people.
And one of the coaches said to me, well, one of the things I highly recommend you go and do is go and do a training course, but make sure you go and do it with one of the companies that is ICF accredited. So the ICF is not the notorious West Ham intercity firm, the football hooligans, but is the International Coaching Federation.
And at the time they were regarded and arguably still are the gold standard of coaching accrediting body around the world.
And nowadays if people are coaches and they a lot of the time want to go into corporate, they will request for an ITF accredited coaches or if it’s uk, I think it’s called the AC association of Coaching. From off the top of my head, the sort of the two organizations and what that did was it took a lot longer but I went through a certain process.
Whereas now people hear the word coach and you could have someone that has learned to lay flooring and all of a sudden they’re a flooring coach. And we just use this term and it’s not a protected term. Interestingly, accountant isn’t a protected term.
Anyone can call themselves an accountant, but not anyone can call themselves a chartered accountant. And there’s lots of examples of chartership. So what do I think is going to happen?
I think that at some stage there will be some form of chartership that will hopefully come in because it will separate people. We will see there are some great organizations. So there’s an organization called CPD Standards.
They created a body to essentially, I suppose you could call it regulate coaches because the ICF deals with creating accreditation on what you’ve trained in, whereas what this particular organization we’re doing under the CPD Standards, which is called Coach of Excellence, they’re not helping you get qualified, but once you’re qualified, they had this really, really strict process and I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of the stuff that they wanted to get from me to prove that I’ve done a certain level to be able to get accredited in coach of excellence.
So they’re doing a great job, but they’re still, they’re a private organization that are, that are trying to, I suppose, quote, unquote, clean up the industry.
But until you see something across the board, that’s where, where people go, I want a coach, but I’ll go with this person because they’re cheaper only to then get Burned. And it’s the same. I say accountants as an example.
People have had a really bad accountant because they didn’t want to pay the money for the chartered accountant.
But the reason you pay the money for the chartered accountant is because if it goes wrong, you can claim on their professional liability insurance and, and all that stuff. Professional indemnity insurance.
Dawn McGruer
I mean, I don’t even think a lot of coaches even know what professional indemnity is.
And I guess it comes down to the fact that I suppose in the space we see people be successful in their business or the service they provide and then obviously think, well, I can teach that for me that I see that more as mentoring.
And you know, I think there’s a real tricky area that when you maybe haven’t gone with, and there’s multiple accreditations out there, we’ve got our own accredited, you know, growth coaching certification.
If you haven’t got the tools maybe to manage some of the things that come from coaching, which is often mindset led, this is where I think there can be some tricky territory because I’ve had a lot of people come to me who have gone to somebody who is maybe a traditional mentor and the biggest success barrier they’ve got is their own mindset. So regardless how much they learn, they’re never going to move past it or they’ve, they’ve gone to retreats and things like that open themselves up.
That person maybe has unlocked something and there’s been no one to manage that process through. And I’ve, I’ve had to step in myself and do these things at events and retreats and are even mine.
So I’m hoping or hopeful that we do see more of regulation around it because, you know, obviously people doing a digital marketing degree, that’s one thing, but doing a coaching qualification, you know, I think there has to be a line maybe carved out of how people present themselves. So if you think about where you’d like coaching to go, what would be your hope or vision that it becomes.
Will Polston
A recognized professional service? So solicitors is a form of professional service. Accountants is a form of professional service, just to name a couple of examples.
And for it to be recognized in that way. And there is an organization, isn’t there, the Chartered Institute of Personal Development from memory.
But it’s being able to have it as that recognized skill. You or I couldn’t do the electrics for this building that we’re in and sign them off because you have to be qualified in a certain way.
And I think that, that if it gets to that level where people have to have a certain level of training in the same way that an electrician would or a plumber would or anything else to be able to do the work with somebody. Every industry is going to have guys that aren’t as good as others and you’re going to have the, the rogues and whatever else.
But in the same way they got, or they’ve attempted to get rid of a lot of the rogue builders and the rogue trades people and all the rest of it, we’re just going to follow suit and hopefully sooner rather than later because it will just mean that there’ll be less people that, that are affected as a result.
Dawn McGruer
Yeah, and it is, it’s about the person who’s impacted because it can be quite catastrophic. I’ve always had to do CPD from a digital side of things and also for coaching and I do around about 120 hours a year.
So I think in any practice you would want or hope that the person was still learning themselves. What’s the biggest thing in terms of your own personal development around coaching that you feel is important?
Will Polston
Continuous learning. You know, Kite Kaizen Continuing, never ending improvement. That, that constant process of growing.
There’s stuff that I have learned now that I didn’t know five or six years ago and I. Mastery for me is not a destination. Yes, you can do.
If you, if you think in traditional terms, you do your GCSEs or whatever they call them these days, then your A levels, then you go to university, you do a degree, then you do a master’s, then you do a PhD. People are just getting more and more knowledge in a specific area. And generally speaking, you, you niche down, don’t you?
You do a PhD in a specific, really micro niche area. And that is what I love to do.
There’s, there’s a few key areas that I just love to go really, really deep on and learn more and more and more because it becomes the nuances. That’s the bit that I love is the nuances. And, and I think it was Albert Einstein that said, the more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.
Or something to that effect. It may not have been Einstein. And I’ve certainly found that to be the case. The more I’m learning, the more I’m going, wow, I didn’t realize that.
And it unlocks this little bit more information, unlocks a whole nother area of areas because now I can start connecting everything up together and create these little nuances that are tiny but actually can make a Huge difference for people. So, yeah, I agree.
Dawn McGruer
I mean, I’ve been doing a lot on holistic meditation, modalities, nlp, really kind of getting into delving deeper and deeper into neuroscience and really looking at not just the process of it, but things like the. The habits of highly successful people and linking that back to what we can do day to day.
So, on a final note, then, if you think about one parting statement or piece of advice you could give our audience, who are a mix of, obviously business owners, male and female, what would that piece of advice be?
Will Polston
To create a life or have a mission in life that you never achieve.
And the reason for that is so many people, they put all of this time, this energy and this effort into a particular point in the future, which is that going to be their pinnacle moment, their moment where they go, oh, ah, I’ve made it, I can kick my feet up now, I can sit back, I can relax.
There are so many people that we’ve worked with that have achieved, by pretty much everybody’s standards, incredible success, and they get to that moment. Is this it? Is this it? Is this what it’s really about?
Whereas if you have that mission, that’s the equivalent of trying to empty the sea with students. Why I call it the North Star? Like, what’s the North Star? Because. Because once upon a time, there’s a famous story involving a baby.
It was born in December in a stable and there was three men that. That found this baby and they followed the North Star, but they never went to the North Star, they just used it as their guiding light.
So if you can forever use this guiding light that you accept you’re never going to achieve, yes, you can create milestones that you want to achieve along the way, but you’re constantly moving forward and feeling fulfilled as you’re moving forward. And there will be challenges, but optimal growth comes at the border of support and challenge.
So you’re growing when you’re being challenged and you’re not growing. And in fact, you’re potentially, you’re not growing when it’s too comfortable as well. So it comes out.
If you’re not growing, you’re dying, that type of view. So have it having that thing and working towards it and it will happen, it will flow and it will change. You’re not going to stay perfectly on track.
But I think that that’s one of the most important things that people do to have a fulfilled life. Because when it comes to the end, whenever that is, whether it’s in 4,000 weeks or whether it’s 150 years old.
Dawn McGruer
I’m living to 150.
Will Polston
I think we all want to look back and go, do you know what? What? I gave it my all.
Yeah, sure, there were times when I was a little bit scared and sure, there were times when I thought that I wasn’t going to get through it, but you can go, I gave it my all. I absolutely went for it. And I had great fulfillment along the way. And as cliche as the saying is, enjoy the journey.
Because that, that’s what you can do when you’ve, when you’ve got that thing that every single day you’re working towards, no matter how small that tiny action is, it’s getting you closer and closer to fulfilling that mission.
I think of it like, you know, once upon a time when we used to use computers and they used to have the loading bars, you know, a lot of them don’t have them now because they’re so quick. Everything just loads so quickly. But it used to be loading, loading, loading, it gets to 100% and then it was done.
Whereas I think of it of a never ending loading bar and you constantly can look at it and go, wow, look how much blue there is. For example, if it’s the blue part that’s showing the progress, look how much there is. And we see it that way.
Dawn McGruer
I love it because it’s kind of like a ever evolving process, purpose, something that we’re like, it’s our mission, our vision, our passion. It’s like we’re constantly striving for something that we love and enjoy and really want to do.
So if someone wants to get your book or connect with you, where is the best place to find?
Will Polston
Well, best place to find will is willpolston.com if you want to sort of head to the website, you can get to all of the social channels from there and we’ll post them on. On everything on, on pretty much all the social channels. The book Book North Star Thinking. Master your mindset and live a life you love.
Easiest place for most people is Amazon.
Dawn McGruer
Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us.
Will Polston
Thank you for having me.
Dawn McGruer
Thanks for listening to dawn of a New Era, the podcast brought to you in association with the Her Power community.
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