News / Life coaching
‘It’s time for a complete rewrite of what good leadership and human progress means’
In the fast-paced and competitive landscape of modern business, success often hinges not just on strategic acumen or technical expertise, but also on personal convictions and self-awareness.
This realisation has led to the emergence and widespread adoption of life coaching within the business world, transforming the way individuals and organisations approach professional growth and leadership.
Bristol24/7 speaks to two life coaches about their place in the modern business landscape.
David Nettleton and Jamie Pike are Bristol-based business founders with a combined experience of more than 40 years and are passionate about sharing their expertise for the business ecosystem in the region.
They joined forces to create the coaching hub Launch Pod to in a bid to help businesses find their inner voice and purpose alongside profit and growth.
David highlighted the importance of unlearning cultural conditioning and reconnecting with oneself, while Jamie focused on the connection between learning and leadership.
David Nettleton, who graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in marine sciences, founded Clear Water Revival in Bristol, where he also led the company for 15 years – photo: David Nettleton
Although they are both accredited life coaches, their insight and expertise stem from their experience in business for the past 20 years. They don’t see life coaching as ‘telling people what do’, but an emphatic exercise of finding one’s calling in spite of the pitfalls and challenges along the way.
David Nettleton, who graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in marine sciences, founded Clear Water Revival Ltd. in Bristol, where he also led the company for 15 years. During this period he won a patented license for the technology that went on to be used across the English speaking world.
The chemical-free water filter action system for swimming pools didn’t go unnoticed and received a financial boost from UK Research and Innovation grants and private investors.
David said: “I was a scientist in my 20s and then I moved to Bristol. And set up my own company when I turned 30, an eco-technology company. We invented a chemical-free water treatment system for swimming pools but were also building essentially natural swimming pools. So that was a little startup in Bristol back then.
“In 2006, there weren’t many people setting up individual little startups like that in Bristol. I was in one of the first incubators in Bristol actually called the Hub. And I was running that for 15 years.”
Jamie, on the other hand, has been involved in several business ventures in Bristol and is keen to mentor businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs irrespective of the stage of their journey.
Jamie is the founding director of several local business which include, The Canteen in Stokes Croft , Assembly Bakery, Buoy Events and Old Market Assembly.
On his experience as a life coach, working closely with local businesses, he said: “It’s time for a complete rewrite of what good leadership and human progress means. In my own small way, I’m supporting a new and a regenerative story for human systems to unfold.
“For me, the coaching is about how do we transform ourselves on the inside and how do we transform ourselves in community so that we can be useful and helpful to the world. We’ve been sold a story in our education of what is a success or what it is like to be good and often that vision of the world or that vision of self is not your own.
“It’s like this projection. It’s like the Instagram of what it means to be healthy or happy, or well or successful. And I feel we need to find new ways of finding their own meaning.”
When we asked David to sum up Launch Pod, he said: “It’s a transformative journey designed to ignite purposeful career transformation and new venture creation. The programme offers a unique blend of coaching, collaboration, and inspiration.”
David is leadership coach by practice and speciality, coaching business owners through CEO transitions and developing their teams (in the 10-100 staff range) and life coach by training.
He added that participants don’t often arrive with fixed ideas for the nine-month program as it is a “space for exploration and sharing”.
Jamie added: “It’s this idea that you can’t have a proper professional life and be abundant. It’s the idea that business versus charity or something, you know. And it’s like there’s this weird breakup, whereas the deep belief in that Launch Pod is that you can do something that’s really good for people. You can do something that’s really good for the planet. You do something really good for yourself in your heart, that’s really motivating and rewarding.”
Jamie Pike is a founding director of Hamilton House in Stokes Croft – photo: Hamilton House
The concept of life coaching in corporate sphere has been present over 30 years.
The term “life coaching” gained prominence in the 1980s, primarily within the realm of personal development and self-help. However, it wasn’t until the late 1990s and early 2000s that life coaching started to gain traction in the business world.
Initially, life coaching was viewed with skepticism by some within the corporate sphere. However, the overnight popularity of titles by authors such as Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen R Covey and Peter Burwash on personal growth and leadership has made an indelible impression on the business world.
The complexities of modern work environments became increasingly apparent, businesses began to recognise the importance of addressing not just technical skills but also the personal and interpersonal aspects of leadership and professional development.
Life coaching is a collaborative process where a trained professional works with clients to help them identify their goals, overcome obstacles, and create actionable plans for personal and professional development. Unlike therapy, which often focuses on healing past traumas, life coaching primarily looks towards the future and empowers individuals to create positive change in their lives.
When we asked how does Launch Pod differ from an acclaimed podcast such as Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett, David said: “They are amazing. We can learn a lot alone. What’s really important about this is, it’s about being together in a community of people. And each of us is a teacher to one another.
“So we each have something to learn from each other. But the most powerful thing is being together with other people who are on a similar journey. That’s the part that you can’t hear on a podcast and you can’t have a conversation with a podcast, you can’t ask your most personal questions or your most difficult things. So I think it’s all about that quality of each being a teacher to one another.”
“Whether you have a dream, an idea, or a burning project, life coaching can provide that rocket fuel to propel you toward meaningful impact and growth” – Jamie Pike and David Nettleton – photo: Launch Pod
According to them, by nurturing self-awareness, enhancing communication, fostering goal achievement, promoting wellbeing and empowering leadership, life coaching can help personal and organisational growth in impactful ways.
They concluded : “Whether you have a dream, an idea, or a burning project, life coaching can provide that rocket fuel to propel you toward meaningful impact and growth.”
Main photo: David Nettleton
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