Personal Success Magazine interview David Key

Editor of Personal Success Magazine, Marie-Louise interviews people like Jack Canfield, author of the Chicken Soup for Soul series, now interviews Managing Director of Auspicium about his journey from VP of Sales at an IT Company to Head of Training and Development at Auspicium.

Coaching Success Story - by Marie-Louise

Until he found coaching, IT sales specialist David Key had been on a long search to discover a way to make a positive difference to other people’s lives.

On his journey to discover a way of making a difference, David Key attended many motivational seminars and read countless personal development books but it wasn’t until he attended one of The Coaching Academy’s training courses that he discovered the right path that would lead him to his goals.

‘I had been looking for something for many years,’ he explains. Then a friend suggested he read Unlimited Power by motivational coach, Anthony Robbins. ‘I read that and thought, “Wow, fantastic. He gets people to walk on hot coals, isn’t that amazing. I want to experience some of that myself.”

Although quite sceptical about coaching and positive thinking, he was prepared to investigate further. Two years later, he and several hundred other people attending an Anthony Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within seminar, stood barefoot in a Belgium carpark. They were preparing to do a symbolic ‘fire walk’ in which they would walk across a bed of burning coals and use the power of their minds to prevent getting burnt (and lest it sounds too much like an easy stroll, it’s worth pointing out that the coals are burning at temperatures well over 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit). David completed the fire walk and felt ecstatic but the effects didn’t last long.

‘I was like an elastic band – I stretched myself over that weekend and pinged back to my old habits and behaviour shortly afterwards.’

The element of the course that did stay with him was coaching. ‘I spent the next five years reading about coaching, looking into it, and writing goals but still not achieving the outcomes that I desired. I had set myself an outcome of becoming a coach but it didn’t come to fruition. I hadn’t taken the right steps. I wasn’t too sure if I could or if I was even capable. So, as I discovered later, I had some limiting beliefs about my ability.’

Finally, he made the decision to enrol on a weekend coaching course with The Coaching Academy. It made such a dramatic impression that he resigned from his position with an IT company shortly afterwards. He had been in the IT industry for about 20 years and at the time of doing the Coaching Academy course was Vice President of Sales for an IT software reseller and systems integrator.

The IT company had been struggling for a while but the real reason for his decision was discovering that coaching really worked. ‘Seeing the results that I was actually helping other people achieve just by acting as their guide and asking good questions, I thought, “Wow, this is pretty good stuff. Maybe I can make a difference after all.” That’s when my journey began really, following that weekend.

‘Until then, I had been going to motivational seminars and didn’t understand why I was paying all that money and they weren’t working. Actually, I didn’t understand what was behind coaching, the methodology.’

There is a big difference, he says, between motivational seminars and coach training. ‘Attending a motivational seminar is an experience - it’s like you are dragged along on a current of emotion with a big group of people. It’s like a big party and that’s nice but when you wake up in the morning, you might only remember a few little snippets. Going on a training with The Coaching Academy was about learning how to coach and there’s a fundamental difference. The seminar is showing you that you can achieve stuff in your life and The Coaching Academy teaches you how to achieve it.’

Three months later, he returned to The Coaching Academy and became one of the first 65 people in the world to do the Corporate Coach Training. It was to have an equally dramatic effect on David.

‘I thought, “Actually I’ve been in sales and working with UK public companies and global multinational companies for 20 years – maybe I could take some of the skills that I have and combine that with coaching and go back and make a difference within those companies. I saw a lot of dissatisfaction in those companies.”

By then, he was a certified Master Coach in Corporate Coaching and had set up his own corporate coaching company, The David Key Coaching Partnership. ‘I contacted a company I used to work for and they were having some challenges and I won a 20-day coaching contract with them. That was in 2004. I then provided that organisation with one-to-one coaching with their sales team and helped the salespeople realise that they could achieve their targets if they just looked at things differently and followed different strategies.’

But things didn’t go quite to plan. ‘I found I was getting all sorts of stuff coming up from the people I was working with and at that point I recognised I wasn’t quite as well-equipped as I’d like to be. People talk about coaching and say, “It’s not therapy. It’s forward facing, it’s about achieving outcomes and the past doesn’t equal the future. However, certain things used to crop up … challenges where a traditional therapeutic approach might be useful. To give an example, imagine working with a sales guy who comes to you and says, “Look, my performance is abysmal right now and what I want instead is to start achieving my numbers more consistently. Maybe that’s my outcome.’ It then transpires during the coaching session that he has a fear or phobia of public speaking or giving presentations. That could be the difference that made a difference to whether he achieved his business targets or not.’

David made the decision he wanted to be the person who dealt with those non-coaching issues too. ‘I thought, “I am not equipped to help people work with these type of challenges and maybe I can enhance my own skills and from there build that into the coaching sessions so that anything coming up I am equipped to deal with.” It also saved them having to go away and find a therapist and then having to come back.’

He took a Diploma course in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) then studied to become an INLPTA NLP Practitioner and loved it so much he became an INLPTA Master Practitioner and then completed his training to become an ABNLP Certified Trainer. He is also a qualified hypnotherapist and qualified Time Line ™ practitioner.

‘My real passion is coaching. I started asking myself some questions because while one-to-one coaching is nice I can only do so many in a day, a week, a month and in a year. So using NLP, I asked myself, “How can I make a bigger difference to more people in a shorter period of time?”

The answer was to set up his own NLP Academy and training company, which he did. It is called Auspicium, which is Latin for bird divination, omen, guidance, or leadership. That was in October 2006 and it was launched five months later with two other directors and five trainers. He also has a call centre handling enquiries.

David says he has two targets for his company - one is to provide personal development for the public and the second is to provide corporate development for businesses. He signed a one-year contract with his local radio station in Hertfordshire, Hertbeat FM to advertise the free Auspicium workshops and seminars in personal development. On the corporate side, he is targeting UK companies with salesforces of 10 or more people and will offer Auspicium’s unique ‘Excelling in Selling with NLP’ training and coaching.

Auspicium have clients in a variety of sectors from the construction industry to the food industry and he says. ‘We’ve also been contracted to deliver NLP training to BRE. (Business Referral Exchange) and they have over 2,500 businesses as members.’ The BRE is a national organisation with a multitude of local business development and networking groups. ‘They want us to deliver a series of communication excellence trainings for 2007. A consequence of this relationship is that we regularly get new coaching clients who want to train and develop with Auspicium.’ It works the other way where private clients can become corporate clients, he says, giving the example of a woman who had suffered for years with anxiety. ‘She had been to therapists and doctors in the past. She flew over at Christmas from Texas and I worked with her for three hours. She’s gone back and she’s clear of all the anxieties and is now a Managing Director of a recruitment firm and wants me to coach her weekly to realise her business outcomes. So the therapy side of the business has helped that person to realise, “Hey you know, maybe this stuff can help my business too.”

The short-term goal for Auspicium is to expand the corporate side of the business and create strategic partnerships while the long-term goal is to offer a range of products and services on personal growth.

‘I still do a small amount of one-to-one coaching but the real results are coming from training people to become practitioners and master practitioners of NLP. That makes a real difference.’ He’s so far trained several hundred people.

The success of any coaching business comes down to networking, he says. ‘It’s about forming alliances. When you are on your training, it’s so important to be open to communicating with other people on your course because you all have one thing in common – a shared passion for wanting to make a difference and help other people. So, network. Get their numbers and keep in touch and find out what their interests and passions are… you never know you might have an opportunity to work with one of them in the future.’

David built his lucrative network by joining the BRE, sending fliers and letters to people, going on training courses, and seeking out people who had achieved success in his field. ‘For example, I phoned up Sue Knight – [international consultant and author who pioneered the use of NLP in leadership in business] - and asked, “Can I buy you lunch? I’m interested in finding out how you do what you do.” Pick up the phone and do it. What’s stopping you? If you find out what’s stopping you and get through that then you’re going to make it easy for yourself.’

He’s come a long way from that cold carpark in Belgium and today, at 39, says he really is living his dream. ‘Don’t get me wrong – there are days when it is tough. There are days when I’m working on a tax return or something that I feel less than passionate about but I always ask myself the question, “What’s the big picture? What is this boring task taking me towards?” and then I feel inspired all over again. If I was to give one message to anyone considering becoming a coach, I’d say, “There are going to be deep lows and some lofty highs, and as you develop yourself, those highs will become more frequent and bigger and you probably won’t even recognise the lows as being lows any more. And you’ll be living your dream!”

Further information please visit http://www.auspicium.co.uk for further information.

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