Career Redefined: Reinventing Your Life on Purpose with Iain Morrison

[00:00:00] LuRae: Welcome to the show. Today I have a special guest, Ian Morrison. He's the co-founder of The Imagination Collaborative. His high tech studio is behind some of the world's largest outdoor events from Taylor Swift to Coldplay to Complex Festival productions. I. Ian is a true entrepreneur. He blends hands-on operational grit with cutting edge digital innovation, and this is gonna be a candid conversation about his entrepreneurial journey and the lessons he's learned along the way.

[00:00:34] LuRae: So, Ian, welcome to the show. Thank you, Leroy. Great to be here. Talk a little bit about, you're in, that's like apex cutting edge of like the of technology merging with events and talk about how you even got into this space.

[00:00:53] Iain: Um, yeah, well, I started, I I, I'll say 35 years ago, but I think I've been saying 35 years for a while now, so it might be a little bit more, but I, uh, I, I started out in school and, um, I went to a, um, uh, private school in, in Brisbane, in Queensland, and I think my parents probably paid a lot of money for it, and, um, I'm very grateful now for that.

[00:01:18] Iain: But, uh, I, I, um. When I was, uh, I think probably in grade five or six, I had to do some, um, some electives and, and I did some backstage work and, and I absolutely loved it. So when I then went to high school, we had to choose like three full-time electives and, and the backstage work was one of them. And I was like, nah, that sounds good.

[00:01:40] Iain: I, I like that. I'll, I'll give it a go. Um, and then so, so I did that and I loved it and I've never left. So I was very fortunate that. Other kids above me were, were working in the industry, in the events and entertainment space professionally, and we, I got exposed to that. So I started working on concerts and festivals when I was in my teens and.

[00:02:08] Iain: Graduated school. Barely. I mean, I left, I finished. That was, I was, I was really, I was working in the industry. I was having a great time. School was not my thing. Schoolwork, all of that. Just, you know, not my thing. So I graduated and I went to university and studied theater at production at university. Wow.

[00:02:32] Iain: And, uh, then started working at the Opera House in Sydney. And, um, from there, I, I left in the late nineties and went and did, um, some corporate work and I was made redundant in, um, 2000. And at, at the end of 2000, it was, I was, I was made redundant just before Christmas. Had a young family, two, two very young kids, absolutely gutted.

[00:03:03] Iain: And I was like, you know what? I'm not letting anyone control my destiny again. I'm gonna open my own business or start my own business. And then I can do the, the gigs I want to do when I want to do them. And, um, I went to, to work sort of with somebody else for a period of time, for a year or so after that.

[00:03:24] Iain: And they sort of fell over as well. They, um, they took on an event they probably shouldn't have taken on and had to let everyone go. But I, I was contracting. I had my own business and I was like, you know what? That's it. I'm done working for other people full time. I'm gonna go out and, and do my own thing.

[00:03:43] Iain: So for 22 years then I, I went and was, I worked in operations essentially event management, site management for big concerts, festivals, spectaculars, sort of public. Events. And from there, just before COVID, my business partner, um, who had brought into the business over a period of time and I did a deal to, to sell the company, and COVID hit and we were sitting at this forecourt of this full court of the Sydney or prayer house.

[00:04:18] Iain: We, we'd had a couple of shows cancel in the, the lead up a, a couple of. Asian K-pop shows. Uh, and we were like, oh, this is crazy. It's never coming to Australia. This an overseas problem. Very naive of us. Very Australian. Mm-hmm. We'll. It's not gonna be here. And, and I remember the day we got the phone call, we were sitting at Circular Key, looking at a big cruise ship that had just pulled in and all the people from the cruise ship were all around us and we're building a stage at the opera house.

[00:04:52] Iain: And we got got a call from the client saying the artist has just turned back their jet. They're heading back to America. The shows are off. Oh my start packing up. It's over and we just stood there looking at each other going, oh my God. We're, we're in some, we're in some trouble now. Um, so anyway, we, we sort of rode out COVID a little bit and, and eventually went through with the sale in, in December right, of 2020.

[00:05:24] Iain: Ah, and, um, from, from there went to work for the people that, uh, bought the business, but mm-hmm. Was one of those. Things where we were, we kind of went through with the sale and, and did a longer handover because of COVID. Yeah. And, um, we just, our values didn't align well with the people that bought the business.

[00:05:44] Iain: Right. So we exited early. We, we actually forfeited a lot of money in that exit and, um, I, we went our separate ways. My business partner and I had been to sort of working together 18 years at the time and decided we'd go our separate ways. She went and, mm-hmm. She got a government job and had babies. Oh.

[00:06:04] Iain: And uh, I started another event company and at that point. I was approached by a, um, colleague that I'd worked with before who asked me to do some work on, on some international projects remotely. Right? And we got going on those and, and realized that there was a real gap in the market for the technology that we're now working on.

[00:06:30] Iain: And, and so over a. The 18 month period, we, we started working and developing this technology and we were so busy that delivering events and running a startup, right. That my wife and I were like, you know what, we gotta gotta give one of them up, right? And there was that moment in time when we were standing in a stadium just sort of having this conversation, almost surreal, just going.

[00:07:01] Iain: Well, what are we gonna give up? We can't do both of them. Right. So we, we decided to give up the event management business mm-hmm. And go all in on the tech startup. And we, as the 1st of July, 2024, we, uh, we were all in on the startup. And now we're, we are 10 months in and holding onto the rollercoaster. I feel like I'm at the back of the rollercoaster holding on.

[00:07:25] Iain: Flailing in the wind behind it, but it, it's a really wild ride having a ball, so, you know. Yeah. So that's probably a bit more longer overview, but, uh, yeah, that's, that's what got me here today.

[00:07:38] LuRae: It's so interesting to started in elementary school and, and still be passionate about what you're doing, and now you're the, I mean, you're the captain of your own ship and you're not having to.

[00:07:52] LuRae: Bow down or answer other than to the client. I mean, the client is your, is the person, you know, they're, they're the ones that you keep happy, but you, you've taken the reins and, and I'm, I'm just thrilled to hear your story. I think it's just inspiring and yeah, motivational and all of that rolled into one.

[00:08:12] Iain: Thank you. And, and at some point, you know, you, you're probably always gonna have a client, unless you are, you are one of the few people that is the, the ultimate client. And at the end of the day, even if you're, you are the ultimate client, you, you're still gonna have some pressures around you. So you know, it, it really is about making your own journey and, and Right.

[00:08:33] Iain: For me, that's sort of what my. Career has been about, um, in the early days, excuse me, in the early days, it was really about. Me just having control over not being made redundant again and doing the gigs I wanted to do and live the lifestyle I wanted to live. And I was never in it for business, for building a business.

[00:08:54] Iain: Right. I was in it just for, let's be frank, Ian, and, and making sure Ian's life was as good as possible. Uh, now it's a little bit different. We're, we're in it, we're building a business and, and we're, um, being very deliberate about that. Right. Oh, exciting. At the same point in time, it, we've got goals and ambitions and Right.

[00:09:16] Iain: We are doing it with purpose.

[00:09:18] LuRae: Yes. Yes. Which makes all the difference. What are some of the key lessons that you would say were pivotal as you were on your path, getting to where you are now that were Aha, like,

[00:09:33] Iain: ah, there's been so many. I, I think the. Big lessons for me, really were around. The difference between being a manager and a leader is within my own business.

[00:09:44] Iain: And, and for many years, I, I, and I was a manager managing people, I. Pretty badly at times, but not being a leader. And you know, that, that comes from, as I said before, I was, I was running my business for, for me, and I had, you know, a team of people and it, it, it suited me, it suited my lifestyle. It, you know, um, it was great.

[00:10:06] Iain: But at the same point in time. The leadership side lacked. And, and so now I've, I've taken a lot of time to be more, more conscious about leadership and, and what that means. But I've also, um. I think there's been so many pivotal lessons along the way that we could probably be here for days talking about them.

[00:10:29] LuRae: What

[00:10:30] Iain: about like, it really is,

[00:10:31] LuRae: sorry. Yeah. Yeah. What about like, you know, starting, starting out at the point that you, you know, I think, you know, made that, I think there were some lessons in. Selling the business. And I, the irony of running into COVID, I mean, that's just like in itself is a, a, a dynamic. But as you started out again, um, in the, your latest venture, what is different this time around how you're approaching things on what you learned and,

[00:10:59] Iain: and selling a bi, selling the old business and the whole process through COVID, um, has really, it, it's.

[00:11:09] Iain: Taught me so much about what is important now, especially when starting a new business and making sure I don't make the same mistakes again. Um, we are not in this business to sell it now, but. It. I never was in the start with the other business either, and I think the difference now is everything I do is I think, well, and what would that look like if we sold it?

[00:11:33] Iain: What would that look like if investors come in? What would that look like? You know, how, how does that present? And it's, it's really about making sure that the model we have is a sustainable model,

[00:11:46] LuRae: right?

[00:11:46] Iain: That we can scale. Um, the old business really relied on, on me or my business partner, being in the business, delivering events with a support team of people.

[00:11:58] Iain: It was a very hands-on. Gig. Mm-hmm. Whereas now we are building a, a technology that's scalable that we don't need to be hopefully in the business every day. I mean, we're in it right now. We're in it, you know, we're in the trenches. But that's short term pain for, for essentially what we hope will be a long-term gain as we scale and grow and, um, you know.

[00:12:27] Iain: Build a, build a global enterprise.

[00:12:29] LuRae: Right. And what were the criteria that you used to decide because you were holding two, two hands with different things in each hand and making that decision of which direction are we gonna go? What was instrumental in helping you make the decision to go the visualization route versus hosting events and, and managing.

[00:12:51] LuRae: Managing the events on the ground? Yeah.

[00:12:54] Iain: It was, what is it going to look like in 10 years time?

[00:12:58] LuRae: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:58] Iain: What is the opportunity from, from now to 10 years? Where will, will we be? Mm-hmm. I'm in my fifties. Mm-hmm. And it's like, okay, well. Delivering events, I'm still gonna be delivering events mm-hmm. On site in 10 years.

[00:13:14] Iain: If I keep the event management track, yes. I, I'll, I'll get people and I'll maybe be able to, to, um, to, to grow that. Mm-hmm. But at the end of the day, the clients look to you as, as the event manager or the event producer or, or whatever that role is. You are, you are the person. And no matter how many people you have around you, at some point you.

[00:13:37] Iain: You have this expectation that you'll have touch points on it.

[00:13:40] LuRae: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:41] Iain: With the, the technology business, the Imagination Collaborative, we are really. About scaling, we're about the, the technology and the product. We're not about Ian Morrison, right. It's, it's not, you know, it, and, and we're really being mindful about that and making sure it scales accordingly, that this is a product we have developed to solve a problem that is within an industry that I recognize very clearly because I look at it and go, well, wow, I could have.

[00:14:14] Iain: That's a huge tool I could have made so much use of over the years. So it was very easy decision to make in the end. Mm-hmm. Whilst not being an easy decision to make, because walking away from something you do and you know, intimately into a world, and I, I don't think I, I realized at the time what I was, I.

[00:14:37] Iain: Walking into in a startup world, it's like, I think it's, from what I hear, it might be a bit like childbirth. If you knew what the pain was, would you really go through with it?

[00:14:49] Speakers 1: Yeah. Because you're like a tech founder now. Yeah.

[00:14:53] Iain: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I just, I didn't think of it like that. I didn't think, oh, I'm gonna be a tech founder and I'm gonna be, you know, knocking on people's doors and selling technology products.

[00:15:03] Iain: And I just thought I was, you know, we were leaving to do something. Exciting. Follow a passion. Right. Right. And, and deliver a problem. Solve a problem. Sorry. That right. You know, a lot of people have, and we are, and, and it's been incredibly well received and we're very fortunate for that. Mm-hmm. At the same point in time though, it is a lot of hard work because we have a technology that not a lot of people are aware of.

[00:15:27] Iain: Right. So we're having. We we're in a lot of places, we're a first mover, and, and one of the things about first movers is you need to educate people, right? There's a lot of time and effort that goes into that education process.

[00:15:41] LuRae: So what would you, what's your elevator pitch? What, how do you, how do you pitch it and explain it to someone you know, for people who are listening, maybe curious, like, you know, what is this technology product that that works to help events run smoother or come off better, or, you know.

[00:15:57] LuRae: Talk about it a little bit.

[00:15:59] Iain: We, we help people visualize events before they sign a budget, before they sell a ticket. So we build a fully immersive 3D model of an event. A lot of people call them digital twins. Mm. And we can show people exactly what the event is gonna look like, how it will behave in a real world situation, but we do it virtually in advance.

[00:16:22] Iain: Mm-hmm. So we can show things like the time of day, the weather, the what will look like in the fog or the rain. We show people what the crowd will look like and, and we're working on technology to, to show exact crowd movements around the event. We can show your sponsors what their banners are gonna look like from their corporate suites.

[00:16:41] LuRae: Mm,

[00:16:42] Iain: so much, you know, we broadcast is what the, the broadcast cameras will look like. And, and with events like golf, where. It's not a stadium. You are in a, what we call a greenfield site. Right. It's very hard to see exactly what that camera will look like when you're standing at ground level.

[00:17:00] LuRae: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:01] Iain: Um, you know, and, and you've gotta fly across the world to look at a golf course and stand at ground level and not really get exactly the picture that you, you need to get.

[00:17:12] Iain: So we can put them in the. TV tower with the right camera, with the right lens, and show them what the view's gonna be down the golf course and what the signage will look like in the background. And so it's, it's taking that technology that's used in, in a lot of places for manufacturing and automotive.

[00:17:32] Iain: And, and applying to events.

[00:17:35] LuRae: Wow. Which is so cool because a picture's worth a thousand words. I mean, for, you know, I just think of sponsors wanting to buy something. They want to try to, if I can visualize what I'm spending my money or I'm gonna invest my money in, or even the event planner, if I can visualize it, I can see it.

[00:17:50] LuRae: It brings it to life in a way that, talking about it, or as you said, like, you know, flying there to, or someone may know the location, but not really what's it gonna be like once they can feel that. I'm sure it's gotta be speed up the process for people to make a decision. Like, yeah, yeah, this, this is it, you know?

[00:18:10] Iain: You were in advertising. Yes. I mean, I'm sure you know the power of visuals. Right? Exactly. And exactly. One of the biggest things we, we, I've heard through my career is, but I just don't see it. I don't, I don't, I can't see what it's gonna look like as, right. Even when we showed people renders, you know, just static renders, it, it, they, they weren't relatable.

[00:18:33] Iain: As much as the technology we're using now, because the technology we use is, is like a video game where you can navigate around the the event in first person and really see it from every angle. Wow.

[00:18:48] LuRae: So good. So good. We'll have to, I'm sure you've got some demos of it, that links that we can include in the show notes.

[00:18:54] LuRae: So if somebody's curious they can, they can take a look. Absolutely. Or get, or, or obviously get in touch with you. So what advice would you have for people out there who may be listening to this and. They started down a career path and I mean, maybe, maybe they, they're in the next round of being made redundant or they're just hanging on, you know, for the paycheck, but it's not really what they wanna be doing.

[00:19:18] LuRae: What advice would you have for them?

[00:19:21] Iain: My passion. What, what makes you sing? What, what, what fills your cup in? Mm-hmm. In. Life. And life. Sure. Right. And you know, I mean, right now we're working hard. I'm probably working harder than I've ever worked in 35 years of rock and roll. But I, firstly, I, I do enjoy it.

[00:19:47] Iain: As hard as it is and as stressful as it is sometimes it's, it's enjoyable because I work for myself and I, you know, we sit there at night, we. What's the vision? Where, where do we want to be? Right? And we know we are very clear about our vision most of the time. Sometimes it gets a little bit foggy, but I think if, if you are not clear about your vision and, and you're not sure where you want to be, I.

[00:20:12] Iain: In five, 10 years, then sit down and work that out first because it's probably not going to be a job that you don't enjoy, that you might be micromanaged in, or you might, you know, have some toxic work, workmates or whatever it is. What really makes your heart sing and, and then work out how you can monetize that or, or how you can get into that.

[00:20:35] Iain: It might be another job,

[00:20:37] LuRae: right?

[00:20:38] Iain: How do you reach that job? What are the steps you need to take? How are you going to, you know, get from where you are now to, to where you would love to be? It's, it's just a case of sitting down and, and thinking about that and, and planning and, and then actioning it. And it is actually as scary as it is, it's incredibly liberating once you do it.

[00:21:01] LuRae: Right. Right. And I, I, and I hear everything you're saying and I. I think because people can become skilled at something because they've been doing it for a while and they maybe like it, and as you said, it may not be like the environment that they want or just, it may be, they may, may have a, you know, kind of a micromanager for a, a boss or whatever.

[00:21:23] LuRae: The other thing that I'm realizing because of the, you know, study that we do now that AI is coming out, I mean, it's like leverage AI in a way and see and go do some re I encourage people, go do some research on what is it you know how to do and what new businesses, new ideas, new ways, can you leverage that technology to step out and do your own thing making.

[00:21:49] LuRae: As much or more than what you're currently making. Doing it, like manually or by, you know, just chugging away because the, the whole AI field is opening up like ti job titles and career opportunities that didn't even exist like a month ago, six months ago. You know? So I'm kind of bl What are your thoughts around that?

[00:22:13] Iain: I think AI right now is like standing in a farm 150 years ago with your horse plowing the field, watching the factories being built around you going, I don't see the point. I. What's that gonna do for me? Right? Mm-hmm. Or you are looking at it going, oh, well it's gonna take over my job. Or there's, there's so many ways you, you can look at it, right?

[00:22:39] Iain: And that farmer with that horse had no idea that he could plow 10 times the amount of field with a tractor and, you know, not have to rely on the horse getting tired or breaking, you know. Right, getting old, whatever it was that you, you need to look at ai like that opportunity of AI's not going to take your job necessarily.

[00:23:06] Iain: I mean, it will take some jobs, but somebody using AI is more likely to be taking your job than AI itself, and it's this huge opportunity that you. We'll probably never get again in our lifetime, right? To absolutely revolutionize the way you work. I mean, in, in the last, since, since leaving the events industry to, to where I am today, AI has become such an integral part of our business.

[00:23:35] Iain: We're proudly AI first, and, and AI first means, what's the first thing we do? We go to AI and see if there's a way to automate it, to solve it too. It support us, but at the same point in time, we are not looking for AI to do what we do. We are looking for AI to support us so we can do our highest and best use.

[00:23:54] Iain: We can get the most value out of our time to deliver what we need to do. And there are so many incredible opportunities right now with ai, and frankly, it's not that hard to learn and understand it's ai. The beauty of AI is AI can teach you about ai, you know, just start asking it about how it works. It's honestly, you, you can, you can get self-taught in AI by using ai, so why wouldn't you?

[00:24:25] Iain: You look at that as, as, uh, an amazing tool instead of a barrier, and I think. For where we're gonna be in five or 10 years, who knows. But if you don't know how to use AI and, and you are not comfortable with it, then you, you need to be.

[00:24:46] LuRae: Mm-hmm. And you

[00:24:46] Iain: just, it's, it's like anything though, Luray, it's about getting out of your comfort zone.

[00:24:51] Iain: It's, it's quite comfortable to go to a job you hate. Right. Oh gosh. And get a paycheck at the end of the week. Mm-hmm. I, I know I did it for a while. Right. But it's not rewarding. It doesn't fill you up. It doesn't give you meaning. Right. And it's quite, there's a lot of fear around stepping out of that.

[00:25:16] LuRae: Right.

[00:25:17] Iain: And the hardest thing is, is breaking through that fear. And, and you need somebody to support you. You need people around you that can help you and, and let you know it's it, everything's gonna be okay right the end of the day. I mean, a lot of people are, are comfortable and might not wanna move, but there are a lot of people that.

[00:25:39] Iain: There's an amazing opportunity out there for them just to take that leap with some faith and, you know, some support.

[00:25:47] LuRae: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I just always said that, you know, you're, you'll realize your comfort zone wasn't that comfortable once you get out of it. You know, like it, like you said, like the, you know, just re doing it just for the paycheck.

[00:26:00] LuRae: And I understand people, I mean, I planned six years because I was a single mom the first time I stepped out and, 'cause I'm like the serial entrepreneur, you know, that I've, I've, you know, gone out and then, you know, for whatever reason had, you know, gone back and. And I was so relieved. I mean, once I stepped out, then the other trick is don't let your, you know, if you're consulting or doing client or don't let them entice you to, to come on as an employee.

[00:26:26] LuRae: 'cause that happened, you know, it's like one, you're into it and I'm, you know, it was like, oh, you would, you come on board and do that for us? And I'm like, ah, you know? And so then the next thing I knew, I was like, oh, I just repeated what I just. Left and didn't wanna be doing, you know, so thank God. Yeah. It, it, it worked out that I was just like, you know, I, I, I felt like I was losing myself again, you know, and as a mom with, you know, two young daughters and traveling a lot, and, um, I was able to step out again and, and just stay true to myself so that.

[00:26:59] LuRae: Ah. That's one of the other bits of advice I think. Yeah, is just as you're saying too, like, just be true to yourself and follow your heart, and don't just make decisions with your head because that's your ego talking more than your heart and where you're really meant to be headed. So,

[00:27:17] Iain: ah, yeah. It's, it's so true.

[00:27:19] Iain: I mean, the, the hardest thing I did was walking away from the business. It was an incredibly tough decision. It was a lot of money. There was a lot of money on the table for, for my business partner and I, and mm-hmm. It was, was life changing, but we had three more years and we were miserable. Yeah. And, and the people around us were miserable.

[00:27:41] Iain: The staff were miserable, the environment was miserable. And it's like, what are we gonna be like three more years of this? Right. Is it really worth it? Is how much, how much value do you put on your, your life and your time and and praise at the end of the day? Thankfully, we were both very aligned with how we felt and we were like, you know what?

[00:28:04] Iain: We need to get out. We, we need, yeah. So yeah, that was an incredibly tough decision and if I hadn't had amazing people around me, my wife and and business partner at the time, and friends supporting me and going. You're gonna be okay.

[00:28:20] Speakers 1: Yeah, exactly.

[00:28:22] Iain: It's, it's a lot of money, but it's, you know, yeah. You gonna be okay.

[00:28:26] Iain: It's the world's not gonna cave in. Right. So, yeah, it was, it, it was the, I remember the day we, we, we did it and it was incredibly liberating. This, it's like this huge weight was lifted off shoulders, and it's like, yes, now I feel good. I feel great. Yeah.

[00:28:45] LuRae: Because, yeah. Had you stayed in that, like, why, why do that?

[00:28:47] LuRae: As we had said, like, you know, there, there's a finite amount of time that we're here and we can either enjoy it and live all out and be doing something that, you know, makes us wanna get up in the morning or, you know, trudge through it. I, I, I choose even if it's. Challenging and makes me grow and makes me do things I've never tried before.

[00:29:06] LuRae: I'd rather be doing that than doing something that is sedating my soul. You know, I would say that in a, in a heartbeat, there's

[00:29:13] Iain: something about challenging yourself, and maybe it's not for everybody, but I find it's. It's very rewarding even if you don't make your goals right. This, yeah, there's something about, well, I, I challenge myself and I pushed myself to do things I never thought I could do.

[00:29:35] Iain: Right? Um, and sometimes imposter syndrome's a real thing, right? I mean, I'm running a tech startup. What do I know about tech? An event manager 35 years. I, I, I'm not the. A great tech guy. I mean, I, I, I get it at surface level, right? But as soon as people start talking about coding and other things right, i, I start glazing over.

[00:29:59] Iain: That's not my, my strong point. Right. And I have to realize that that's not why I am, I'm here and Exactly. I'm challenging myself to, to build a tech business and to. To, to do something that solves a problem in an industry I know quite well and quite intimately. Exactly. And, and that's, that's the superpower.

[00:30:21] LuRae: Yeah. Well, and that if there's

[00:30:22] Iain: understanding

[00:30:23] LuRae: exactly. There's that saying, you know, like surrounding ourselves with people that are smarter than us who can do the things that isn't in our core competency. That that is a sign of like leadership. You know, the, the person who is insecure by, oh, they know more than me and I don't wanna look bad, or I don't wanna look like, I don't know, something.

[00:30:44] LuRae: Those, those kinds of behaviors will keep you stuck. And, and you know, and as an entrepreneur, you know, you look for the best people you can find to do whatever that thing is that needs to be done. May not be your expertise, but you know, it has to be done. You want the best person to do it. And that's where that, you know, trust comes in and you take your leadership role and you're charging forward leading the charge of the people that are supporting and doing the work to make this startup come alive.

[00:31:19] Iain: There, there is a lot of benefit to being the dumbest person in the room, and I've said that for a very long time.

[00:31:26] LuRae: Right.

[00:31:27] Iain: I, I, I failed high. Well, I didn't fail high school. I got through. Yeah, but let's not say I did very well. I mean, for, you know, for many years I, I couldn't add up. Simple maths and yeah.

[00:31:41] Iain: I've had to teach myself because I, I just, I didn't enjoy it at school. And, and because I didn't enjoy it, I didn't apply myself. Right. So I've said, you know, I've, I've had this thing for many years. It's, I don't need to be the smartest people person in the room. Right. I just need to know how to get the smart people in the room

[00:31:59] LuRae: Exactly.

[00:32:00] Iain: And then work the rest out.

[00:32:01] LuRae: Right. And then there's that saying, if you're, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Yeah, exactly. You're not gonna go far. It's exactly right.

[00:32:12] Speakers 1: Right, right.

[00:32:13] LuRae: Oh, Ian, thank you so much. There's so, there's so much wisdom and I know over time, like we just, we pick up things that just paint the mosaic of how we go forward with the next thing we do.

[00:32:25] LuRae: And I, it is just brilliant to hear you, you know, sharing how you're using what you learned in those first experiences to, you know, do a checkpoint. Okay, how do I wanna make this decision? Because I don't wanna do what I did in that situation, you know, that situation. And it, it just takes you further than you would've gone if it was your first, you know, pony ride.

[00:32:48] LuRae: You know, this is not your, you're first time in the ring, you're, you're an

[00:32:52] Speakers 1: experienced, you know, entrepreneur. Yeah.

[00:32:55] Iain: You learn a lot from, from. I wouldn't call them failures, but you know, you learn a lot from failing. Yeah, right. The lessons from, from, yeah. Probably more. You learn more from, from your unsuccessful ventures than you learn from your successful ventures in life because they stick with you.

[00:33:14] Iain: It's, you know, I, I could quite comfortably tell you the 10 things I failed at before I told you the 10 things I, I succeeded at, you know, and I think that's just the way we're wired is, is you just, you remember those things because they hurt. But you learn and you grow and you don't wanna go back there.

[00:33:33] Iain: So you're sort of driven to to, to improve and innovate, to make sure you, you don't do that again, whatever the failure might have been.

[00:33:46] LuRae: So yeah, anyone out there thinking that they're not sure they're in the right spot, do take the first step? IE you know, I think Ian and I will both encourage you take the first step, like look at what the options are and go for it.

[00:34:00] Iain: Sit down and, and write what, what does your ideal life look like? If, if you could do anything you wanted with no limits, what would that be? And then work backwards from there. Okay, well, how do I get there? What, what, what do I need to do? There's probably gonna be some hard work along the way and some tough decisions, but they're worth it.

[00:34:25] LuRae: I love that so much. Thank you so much, Ian. This was so fun. It's been a

[00:34:29] Iain: pleasure. I love, I love our conversations, Laura, so thank you so much for having me on.

[00:34:34] LuRae: Yeah, absolutely. I.