“I love seeing people succeed. When things are tough, I’m down in the ditch with them, looking for solutions, but when things really take off for them, I am shouting with joy,” says leadership, management and business coach DAVID CAMPBELL.

“MOST business owners start a business because they want to be their own boss and create their own work life balance,” says leadership, management and business coach David Campbell. 

“Unfortunately when they get two, three, five years down the road they are working harder than they ever have and they have lost the vision that they started out with.” 

David works with business owners to help them establish the momentum they need to move their businesses forward through his consulting and coaching business, David HF Campbell. 

With 20 years experience as a naval officer as well as an extensive career within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, David says he has always used coaching as a primary way to build teams. 

He studied under the John Maxwell Coaching Organisation and became a certified Maxwell Leadership coach. 

“There is a mentality in Australian culture of ‘I can do it myself’ but bringing a coach on board makes it so much easier,” he says. 

David can coach people through all aspects of their business: “I talk to them about the gaps and issues where they need to address. 

“Often I find that business processes are poor and the owners need support. I can help them to navigate bringing on a new employee and work out what type of person they need to hire. 

“Our natural human reaction is not to change… there is a level of discomfort involved with change. I have clients tell me that I challenged them to really think outside their usual pattern and step out of their comfort zones. They had the potential all along but they needed someone to believe in them.”. 

Having experienced his own health challenges with a cancer diagnosis and treatment, David says that he is now back on his feet and has grown his business back to beyond previous levels. 

He believes there is a tremendous opportunity for others to bring their businesses back, or pivot to get to the next level with a new mentality. 

“Your business might have been in dry dock and now with a new lick of paint it’s ready to launch again and travel even faster,” he says. 

David says that it was during his cancer treatment that he had a “lightbulb” moment when he was looking at his four-foot model replica ship of the “Blue Nose”, a Canadian schooner from the 1920s. 

He says that as he pondered the design of the ship, he could see parallels with running a business. 

“From the outside, you can see that the ship has nice paint, clean decks but you don’t see what’s really going on inside. And that’s the same for businesses,” he says. 

Using the “Blue Nose Effect” as an analogy, David can coach business owners to appreciate all the elements of the business and how they work together to propel the business forward. 

He says he has had a lot of success with helping businesses if he can get the business owner to step away from their business and think about the ship. 

David also uses an assessment tool called DISC personality profile. By using the tool and the four pillars of personality, David says he helps people understand others and how to adjust their communication style to get people on board. 

“It’s about drawing the best out of people,” he says. 

“Meeting with me involves an initial discovery conversation and if I can help them they would typically sign up for a program, usually for 12 months. This includes at least monthly meet ups, regular check ins and homework,” says David. 

“I love seeing people succeed. When things are tough, I’m down in the ditch with them, looking for solutions, but when things really take off for them, I am shouting with joy”

David HF Campbell, visit david-campbell.com.au for more information.