Spotlight On: Dan O'Connor

Dan has spent more than 28 years as a manager, leader and strategist in the corporate world, which involved leading projects, developing strategies and solutions; together with supporting individuals and teams. He is a life coach, hypnotherapist and founder of Clock and Compass Coaching. In this interview we find out what makes him tick and what drives his passion for helping people.

What was your journey that brought you to where you are today?

I was born and brought up in West London, the youngest of six children. So quite a big family, four older sisters and a brother. All my childhood schooling and my first 10 years of my work life, were all based in the hustle and bustle of London. I moved to Northamptonshire in the late 80s and joined Snap-on Incorporated in early ‘89, which would turn out to be the last company I would work for.

I enjoyed a successful career, spending more than 28 years with the company until I decided to take the leap of faith and left them in 2017 to become a full-time student with the intention of starting up my own business. I studied for two years with The Coaching Academy, where I qualified as a professional personal performance coach. At the same time, I also studied person centred counselling, which again was very important for me because it’s very much about working with the individuals, the connection, the rapport and the relationship.

During those two years, I not onlylearned a hell of a lot about coachingand counselling, I also learned somuch about myself. Learning aboutmy personality: why I do what I do,my values, my beliefs, and just somuch more. It was a really deep andvaluable journey of self-discovery.

Hypnotherapy has become an important aspect of my business as well. I work with individuals, either through coaching or hypnotherapy areas where my clients are looking to make a positive change in their lives: career change, confidence, self-belief, motivation, project planning, fitness, well-being and improving work-life balance. I know from my 28years in the corporate world, my work-life balance was pretty much all over the place.

Do you think every business should have a coach? And if so, what do you think the benefits are of having someone that coaches you through your business?

I didn’t have a coach while I was in the corporate world. I’m a firm believer that everybody would benefit from having a coach. I have my own coach - I’m coached once a month by my own personal performance coach. It helps to keep me on track, helps me with any projects I have and any goals that I‘m looking to achieve. This is really important for me making sure that I’m checking in with myself and that I’m aligned with my core values.

There are always things in life we would like to be, do, have or change in some way. Having studied and personally coached hundreds of people now, as well as being coached - it’s such a powerful thing and such a major benefit. We think that we can do everything on our own, but many people fail in what they want to try and achieve. Or they may be getting there; perhaps not quite the way they want to do it, or it takes much longer for them to achieve it. Coaching is such a powerful thing.

What’s your “why”? What drives you, gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates you to do what you do?

My “why” is around becoming less of a manager and more of a leader.I became focused on working with and helping people. It was clear to me that I wanted to live a more balanced, happier fulfilling life. One that wasn’t possible for me in the corporate world with the ever-increasing demands and expectations and the long hours.

I came across a quote that is one of my favourites – “create a life that you don't need a vacation from”. That is such an important thing for me.

I love my life. I’m passionate and driven to keep moving forward to keep learning and developing to be the best version of me. In that way I can help my clients in such a powerful way. I get an amazing feeling of satisfaction when I can see the transformation in my clients, and I celebrate that success with them.

There are a lot of coaches out there, there’s life coaches, business coaches, there’s business advisors - all sort of like shapes and sizes. What do you think makes you different from your competitors?

I believe what makes me different is I’ve been on this journey of personal development and growth for more than 30 years. It was 1994 when I first got into this through management course I attended by the late, great Stephen R. Covey: The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People. I started investing in my own growth and personal development and learning; to the point where I feel that the work that I do is very, very natural, very intuitive. When I’m working with a client I don’t need to turn on the “I’m working” switch – it’s my life, this is how I am 24-7.

Because of this, my work is very intuitive, which has been helped through many of my life experiences and is enhanced through my spiritual journey of self-discovery. I started attending meditation and mindfulness groups. I found a real deep inner calm and peace within myself, and in turn with the world around me. I then took this a step further with Reiki healing. After first receiving Reiki, I then went on to study it. I studied the history, the techniques, and I was attuned to the energies, passing my level one, two, and ultimately becoming a Reiki MasterPractitioner. I am very much about the energy side of things within my life and work. When I work with a client, it’s not only about working with their mind, it’s working with the whole of the person - their mind, their body and their energy. I find that so important. Having that connection with a client, where you can work on so many levels.

Through my studies I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted the person to assess and grade me in all my live coaching sessions to be the Director of the Coaching Academy. This is a man who has assessed and graded more than 10,000 live coaching sessions. His comments at the end of my final assessment captured the essence of how I work with my clients when he quoted Carl Jung, by saying- “Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul.”Absolutely. That’s what I do!

Since you started your business, what would you say has been the biggest challenge that you faced?

When I worked in the corporate world I was very focused, but almost blinkered in some respects, on my area of the business in finance services. Even though I knew all the other areas of the business going on around me: sales, marketing, etc - I didn’t really need to know about them because my focus was on the finance departments. The biggest challenge for me when I came into my own business was to learn about these areas as much as I could. So, what I did after completing my studies, was to sign up to a number of business workshops

Also networking through The Business Community, I’ve met some amazingly talented people - small business owners - it’s enabled me to make some great connections and collaborations. I’ve received so much support through networking: workshops, mentoring and found suppliers to help me with my branding, website and marketing.

For any business owner out there, what is your top tip?

Over the past year or so I’ve been networking and I’ve heard the term so many times now: “people buy from people” and how important that is to our business. My tip is to keep on the road of growth and personal development – think about who we are, how we think, what we do, how we connect with others – it all comes from within. Many of us don’t think twice about spending 10s, if not hundreds of 1000s of pounds on a house, or a car or a holiday. How much do we invest in our own personal growth and development, our well-being, or our health? We can be so busy in life that we lose sight and disconnect from what matters most from our core values. Take a little time to step back for some quiet reflection - think about your core values, what the most important things are to you in your life, and how aligned you are to your values. If happiness is a core value for you, how aligned are you to this in what you are doing in all areas of your life? Within my coaching I help my clients to align with their core values, so they spend more of their time doing what matters most to them. I’ll leave you with a quote from the world of personal development: “the best project you will ever work on. is you” - Sony Franco.

This is an extract of a video interview – to watch the full session, visit: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=BS20jMFFw7I