The Power of Story: Richard McCann on Connection, Curiosity & Transformation
In this powerful episode, Richard McCann shares his extraordinary journey, from a childhood marked by trauma to becoming one of the UK’s most impactful motivational speakers. His story isn’t just inspirational; it’s a masterclass in the art of connection.
Richard reveals why storytelling matters more than spreadsheets, especially for accountants, bookkeepers and coaches. He challenges the traditional perceptions of these professions and urges us to lead with empathy, curiosity, and emotional impact.
This conversation is a timely reminder that behind every number is a human being. Richard’s insights will leave you rethinking how you show up for your clients, not just as a professional, but as a catalyst for transformation.
We also get a sneak peek into what Richard has planned for ProfitConUK 25, where he’ll inspire us all to think bigger, bolder, and more meaningfully, in business and in life.
Key Takeaways:
- True transformation is possible, one step at a time.
- Storytelling is a powerful tool for building trust and connection.
- Your clients don’t just need answers, they need understanding.
- Self-belief matters, for you and the people you serve.
- Curious conversations create breakthroughs.
- Incremental change = lasting impact. Just like Profit First.
Transcript
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Speaker B:Welcome to Profit first beyond the Book, a podcast that takes you beyond the book with Profit first brought to you by Tim Duncan and the rest of the Profit first professionals UK and Ireland.
Speaker B:And welcome to an extra special exciting episode today as we are joined by the one and only Richard McCann.
Speaker B:Richard, thank you so much for taking time out to join us.
Speaker B:And for the viewers, would you please introduce yourself to everybody?
Speaker A:Well, it's Richard McCann and it's a father of three, I have to say that's the most important thing.
Speaker A:I've put them first.
Speaker A:But I'm a UK, one of the UK's busiest motivational speakers and my times number one best selling authority.
Speaker C:Amazing.
Speaker C:Thank you, Richard.
Speaker C:And you have a pretty incredible life story.
Speaker C:What do you give us a, a flavor of, of your journey?
Speaker A:Well, I mean for those that don't know my story, it is, you know, it is an incredible story.
Speaker A:It's one I actually wrote about 21 years ago.
Speaker A:It was a defining moment on my journey.
Speaker A:Just the boy, the true story story of a stolen childhood, I should say a chaotic childhood.
Speaker A:In fact, I'm not going to give the whole story away here, but it's fair to say that it was, it was a turbulent upbringing in not far from here, in fact in Leeds on the at risk register, you know, there was drinking, I was given drugs as a child, tragic loss of my mom, and then grew up in care, then my dad.
Speaker A:Basically I grew up with low self esteem in a very chaotic, well, life, shall we say.
Speaker A:And you know, it wasn't the only thing I went through.
Speaker A:The Celtic upbringing.
Speaker A:I know, 28 years ago, I can't believe I'm old enough to say this, but 28 years ago I ended up in prison on a drugs charge and, but you know, 21 years ago I decided to, to make a difference and, and, and, and, and write a book about my life and put it all behind me and start rebuilding a different life for myself.
Speaker A:And I guess that's what some of your clients do for their clients, I suppose.
Speaker A:And, and then that led to my speaking career, which I've now been delivering versions of my keynote for 21 years.
Speaker A:And 15 years ago I was asked by one of my clients, can you teach or our leadership team in fact, how to speak, how you speak?
Speaker A:Which I thought, I wonder what that's about.
Speaker A:So I, I looked into, I've been doing that ever since.
Speaker A:I've, I've coached 7,000 people to be better communicators, more engaging storytellers.
Speaker A:So that's me in Two minutes.
Speaker A:A bit of a flavor of what I'll be sharing at your event.
Speaker C:In fact, I'm one of those 7,000 people.
Speaker C:I've been one of your.
Speaker C:You have.
Speaker C:And I can personally attest to your, to your amazing content.
Speaker C:So, Richard, your life story is incredible and inspiration to everybody who is fortunate enough to get in front of you.
Speaker C:You've gone from an extreme level of chaos to one of clarity and impact for your, for your audience and for all the people who are lucky enough to work with you.
Speaker C:Do you think there are some parallels between that journey and what accountants, bookkeepers and coaches do for their customers?
Speaker C:Because as an accountant, often someone will come to us, they'll dump on a lot of jumbled information we've got to make a sense of before we can really provide our impacts.
Speaker C:What do you think?
Speaker A:Actually, I'm smiling there, if you notice that I'm smiling because my own daughter, who's just turned 18 and just set up her own business, she's just had to go to my bookkeeper, actually, not my accountant, my bookkeeper, and take a load of receipts and chaotic, chaotic pieces of paper to do for the very first time to start doing her books.
Speaker A:So I do see some parallels with, with my own journey, not just my daughter, as in I've had to find, I guess, some order in the chaos that I've had, not just my childhood, but, you know, as a young adult and as a young business owner as well.
Speaker A:So I do see some parallels there.
Speaker A:But there's a second part to this.
Speaker A:So both the, you know, bookkeepers and accountants and coaches and their clients, I think what's really important is for me not having belief in myself as a, both as a young person and as a business owner, that's taken a number of years to get that belief.
Speaker A:And I imagine for some of your bookkeepers and such like, they'll be on a similar journey, maybe doubt themselves.
Speaker A:And for some of their clients they'll possibly have some doubts as well.
Speaker A:So there's, there's many things that we've got in common here.
Speaker A:It almost is irrelevant what roles they've got.
Speaker A:But I do lots, see lots of parallels there.
Speaker B:That's, it's really interesting actually.
Speaker B:And one of the things that accountants and bookkeepers struggle with is sometimes communication.
Speaker B:It's easy to hide behind emails and send emails of results for your end accounts, etc, which is not the best way to do things.
Speaker B:And you know, is there, is there a, a principle of how they can improve their communication?
Speaker B:Do you feel?
Speaker A:Well, well, first of all, people don't remember for years graphs and facts and figures.
Speaker A:What they remember for years is story.
Speaker A:So, you know, if we can all, if we can ever find a way of incorporating some story into that communication, it's just going to be remembered and felt.
Speaker A:But for me, when I first started speaking, I just shared my story.
Speaker A:It's all about me.
Speaker A:It was about my story and I just shared it and what I've learned over the years and I'm in my 21st year now, you've got to make it about them.
Speaker A:So when they're communicating, you've got to make it about them.
Speaker A:Whether it's a podcast, whether it's an interview or a one to one, or maybe speaking at Expo somewhere, you gotta make it about them.
Speaker A:And so, so that's one thing that I think they could maybe have the back of their mind when communicating, make it about then what's in it for me?
Speaker A:What's for me is the kind of thing they need to be thinking about.
Speaker C:Yeah, and one of the things that you taught me, Richard, was about, you know, the art of stock, the art of storytelling.
Speaker C:We know we as councils, we tend to be quite numerate and we want to get the information across and we're quite logical.
Speaker C:And actually that's not how you, that's not how you achieve impacts, it's not how you sell, it's not how you, how you make, like you say, people remember how you make the field rather than the facts and the figures and you develop the ICANN philosophy.
Speaker C:How can proper first professionals, how can our members use your, your techniques, your, your mindset for their own, to shift their own perception from number cruncher to.
Speaker A:Change maker to change maker?
Speaker A:By the way, there's two things we're wearing, we're talking about two different hats here.
Speaker A:One is the ICANN philosophy.
Speaker A:That's that self belief, that's that, that growth mindset.
Speaker A:What else can I do?
Speaker A:Where can I take my business to the next level?
Speaker A:That's the ICAM I.
Speaker A:There's a caveat here.
Speaker A:It's not just I can, it's I can and it's I will, I can's the start of the process.
Speaker A:And then there's communication.
Speaker A:That's the I can speak training or the influence retreat that I run.
Speaker A:And they're two different things.
Speaker A:So first of all, the belief that something is possible is, is only the start of the process.
Speaker A:They need to do something, take some action.
Speaker A:And it's like, that's why you attend events like yours isn't it by taking some action and being in the right space, so does that.
Speaker A:But when it comes to communication, right, and influence, yes, those facts and figures, of course they're important in your game.
Speaker A:Of course they are.
Speaker A:But according to Aristotle, that Greek philosopher, right, there's three pillars to influence, to making it, to becoming a change maker, essentially.
Speaker A:One, there's ethos and that's the credibility.
Speaker A:Do you look and sound the part?
Speaker A:Is your website looking and sounding the part?
Speaker A:Is the, the, I guess the correspondence you put out there, does that look and sound the part?
Speaker A:Now let's assume that does logos, does it make sense?
Speaker A:I would assume that the facts and figures and the stats and whatever else that you're presenting does make sense.
Speaker A:And often the missing piece of that jigsaw is pathos.
Speaker A:Just in simple terms, it's the emotion, the emotional connection.
Speaker A:That's where the story comes in.
Speaker A:That's where, for example, you might want to start being a bit vulnerable and talking about how maybe your clients suffering from something, maybe self doubt or whatever it may be.
Speaker A:And if you've got an example on your story, on your journey where that was a thing for you, and if you can be vulnerable and share that and, and share how you dealt with that and how you grew or overcame that thing, that's that, that's connection.
Speaker A:That's, I mean that's different to just being presented with some facts and figures.
Speaker A:And I imagine, well, not imagine most people in most roles don't they miss out that pathos, that emotional.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker B:I think, sorry, Duncan, I, I, I think being vulnerable when you're telling your story and also sharing their problems, if they resonate with that particular, you know, vulnerability, I think that really helps to deliver the message, doesn't it?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:So, so Richard, people may be wondering why you're on our podcast Profit first beyond the Book with us.
Speaker B:And of course we know, and maybe they're going to know now they listen to this, that you're going to be one of our amazing guest speakers at our annual ProfitCon UK conference in September.
Speaker B:So without giving too much away, what can our audience expect to take away from your session?
Speaker A:For me, in one word is transformation.
Speaker A:It's transformation.
Speaker A:Either transforming the way they start transforming the way they communicate, because this is a, my session is a blend of inspiration and it's the communication.
Speaker A:So with a bit of work, I mean, I've been doing this for 21 years now.
Speaker A:Over a million people have been, you know, inspired by the ICANN message.
Speaker A:They'll go away transformed in their thinking or understanding.
Speaker A:If they've got teams how to transform the thinking of their people.
Speaker A:But also we're going to help them transform the way they communicate.
Speaker A:And, and it's not, it's not in a very monotone way either.
Speaker A:It's you're going to do it with feeling know, it's that it goes back to that connection.
Speaker A:We can say the words, the A to Z of bookkeeping, or we can feel those words and we want our audiences to feel those words.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:I want to work with this guy.
Speaker A:I want to work with this lady.
Speaker A:She really gets me.
Speaker A:And that's what you're looking for.
Speaker A:So without going into too much of the detail about how we're going to get them there, it's transformation.
Speaker C:I love that.
Speaker C:I love that.
Speaker C:We've been in my, in my.
Speaker C:I run an accounting firm as well and we, in our marketing materials, we always talk about we're in a business of transformations.
Speaker C:We're trying to persuade people that we are there.
Speaker C:It's not necessarily a big bang.
Speaker C:It's often a series of micro transformations over time achieve a gear change.
Speaker C:I'm trying to find a different one of the transformation.
Speaker C:But over time, the cumulative effect of these achievements is immense.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Well, there's a speaker I saw that spoke about that subject.
Speaker A:But, but essentially it's the, it's marginal gains, 1% increases.
Speaker A:And, and so people might look at me and go, oh, look at you.
Speaker A:You speak it all around the world and thousands of people at a time.
Speaker A:It's taken me 20 years of those micro steps that you talk about.
Speaker A:So yes, transformation is possible, but you're not going to transform completely as much as you could overnight.
Speaker A:It's about setting the intention, the belief that it's possible, the willingness to put the work in and understand it's going to take some time take.
Speaker A:What's the next two or three steps I need to take to take me, myself, my team, my business to the next level and then going out there and doing it.
Speaker A:And of course it might not go according to plan, but the growth mindset we learn, well, that didn't work.
Speaker A:What do we need to adjust?
Speaker A:And then let's do it better.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So yes, I'm really looking forward to working with the team there and, and helping them on that journey and hopefully being one of those micro steps to the next level for them.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:I'm excited for what you're going to impart to all of our attendees.
Speaker C:And as you know, profit first is very much an impact through habits.
Speaker C:You know, we often say to new members, we're not here to wave a magic wand and make your problems go away.
Speaker C:You've got to do the hard work.
Speaker C:We're going to guide you.
Speaker C:But if you do the right things at the right time, this is what's going to happen over a period of time.
Speaker C:So with that in mind, what top tips in terms of habits would you, would you like to, would you like to impart today to the listeners of this, of this podcast?
Speaker A:I'm smiling a little bit to myself because my daughter who's become this PT instructor, she's got me into the habit of going to that gym.
Speaker A:I was there this morning, six o' clock.
Speaker A:I mean, I've been going to the gym, right.
Speaker A:But it's taken her to, to give me, give me the inspiration to get there every month.
Speaker A:Well, not every morning.
Speaker A:It's four days a week.
Speaker A:That I think one of the, A great habit for I suppose any business owner is get into the habit of being curious.
Speaker A:Curious.
Speaker A:What is it the client needs?
Speaker A:Rather say you need this.
Speaker A:Ask them what would success look like for you?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And then gearing what you do for them down the avenue.
Speaker A:So it's like when people come to my retreat, I don't say this is what we do.
Speaker A:I mean, I know what we do, but I want to know what is it you are looking for specifically?
Speaker A:And if it's storytelling or if it's, I need to win the hearts and mind or whatever it may be and make sure that they get that.
Speaker A:So my habit or my thing to consider is to get curious.
Speaker A:What do they want?
Speaker A:What's driving them?
Speaker A:Rather than just tell them, here's what you need to do.
Speaker A:Find out first what it is they want.
Speaker A:That would be a great habit to have.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:Thanks, Annette.
Speaker B:I just want to pick up on something you said just before Duncan's question about increasing things 1% at a time that fits in so perfectly with the profit first mindset of, you know, take 1% of your profit, take 1% of your sales income, put it into a profit pot and gradually you'll watch that money grow.
Speaker B:And you said about marginal gains and you mentioned 1%.
Speaker B:So I just wanted to reflect that back from a profit first perspective because we often talk to our members and talk to people that are thinking of joining us about how we help them.
Speaker B:Just take one step at a time and one small step.
Speaker B:If you keep taking one small step forward, how it helps you get to where you want to go without being overwhelmed.
Speaker B:And feeling it's this massive mountain you've got to climb.
Speaker B:So it sounds like how you help, how you help people break free from their limiting beliefs as well.
Speaker B:You know, it's amazing work that you do.
Speaker B:And what limiting beliefs do you think holding back accounting of bookkeepers as far as you're aware?
Speaker A:Well, I, I think a limit in belief that most people have, not just accountants and bookkeepers is and I, I, I don't speak in schools very often, but I used to say this when I first started speaking 20 years ago, that we forget that we are all walking miracles and we will never do everything we have the potential to do.
Speaker A:I include myself in that, incidentally.
Speaker A:And yes, I'm a busy, successful speaker, but there's always more we could do and we sometimes forget that walking miracle that we are.
Speaker A:The infinite potential is what we've got.
Speaker A:Just in fact, somebody was telling me, I was at a funeral yesterday and somebody was telling me a story, another speaker, about an, an apple seed.
Speaker A:How many apples can come from this one seed?
Speaker A:And, and we're trying to give them the right answer.
Speaker A:And it's actually infinite, isn't it?
Speaker A:And anyway, and I guess that's what some people forget.
Speaker A:They forget how incredibly, how much incredible potential they've got to.
Speaker A:And, and I guess that's why they need sometimes people to help them along on that journey.
Speaker A:Like my daughter is with me in the gym.
Speaker A:I don't mind saying I' wife, she's 18, and I'm being coached and inspired by her.
Speaker A:You never know where that coach and inspiration can come come from.
Speaker C:Actually, I love that, that analogy of the gym, it translates perfectly onto what we as finance professionals do.
Speaker C:Just turning up, doing the right thing, doing the right time, being consistent, being accountable.
Speaker C:You know, we, we call it showing up.
Speaker C:And our firm, if, if you do that, you, you will get a result.
Speaker C:You just got, you just got to keep going.
Speaker A:Consistency is key, as my daughter would say.
Speaker C:So if a, if a accountant, bookkeeper, coach is listen, listening to this episode and takes away one powerful action, other than, of course, coming to see you in London at profitcon in September, what would you want that action to be?
Speaker A:Well, do you know what?
Speaker A:I'm not quite sure that the action, what's required for a lot of people is a thought.
Speaker A:That's the action, changing that thought process, believing that more is possible for you and that, and constantly, you know, you're reinforcing that on a daily basis or even an hourly basis, that now there is more for you and your clients.
Speaker A:Is what I encourage them to take away from this.
Speaker A:There is more.
Speaker A:It's whether or not you're willing to, to take that step, to change those thoughts, to come along to the event or whatever it is you need to do to take yourself forward.
Speaker A:That's that we can, we can put on the events, we can share the words, the podcasts, but it comes down to the individual to do the work.
Speaker A:But it starts with the thought.
Speaker A:Somebody once said the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.
Speaker A:Is that right?
Speaker A:The first step?
Speaker A:It doesn't.
Speaker A:It starts with the thought about the first step.
Speaker A:So it's about changing your thinking.
Speaker A:That's what it's about.
Speaker B:That's amazing.
Speaker B:And look, if you want to come and see Richard, you just need to come along to Profitcon in September on the 22nd.
Speaker B:Duncan, where is, where is Profitcon being held?
Speaker C:It's going to be at Chartered Accountants Hall, Central London on Monday, 22nd September.
Speaker C:And Richard, I know, often speaks to large groups of people at this event.
Speaker C:Obviously you'll be able to get up close and personal the riches.
Speaker C:And you will, you will walk away with a headache in the best possible way because you're going to be full of ideas or things that you want to implement in your business when you, when you get back to your desk and having.
Speaker C:I'm super excited to have Richard speak at our event because like I say, I've worked with him twice now, actually, twice now I've volunteered my money to come and come and sit in a room with Richard and listen to him.
Speaker C:I know how impactful he can be and I want to spread that to work to our membership and to other attendees at the event because I know that Richard is incredibly impactful.
Speaker C:And we're really grateful to you, Richard, for being here today and for agreeing to come to our event later this year.
Speaker A:Pleasure.
Speaker A:It will be a joy to be, to be with you and your company, but to meet your members, your participants, and I'll tell you what, it will be.
Speaker A:Unforgettable.
Speaker A:That's what it'll be.
Speaker A:Transformational, but unforgettable.
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker B:Thank you very much for joining us, Richard.
Speaker B:We really appreciate it.
Speaker B:I can't wait to meet you in person in September and of course learn from you as well when you deliver your speech to our, to our audience.
Speaker B:So thank you very much.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you for joining us on our podcast today.
Speaker B:Profit first beyond the Book was brought to you by the Profit First Professionals UK and Ireland team.
Speaker B:If you'd like to find out more about Profit first or becoming a Profit first professional.
Speaker B:Head to our website profit first uk.co.uk.
