Daniel Ewers is a CFO-turned Certified High Performance Coach and a Leadership Development Programme alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 6 April 2023, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
[In the hour-long podcast, Daniel discusses his journey and ‘Adventure to Excellence’ and tells his very personal tale around burnout, recovery and high performance. It’s an amazing story and well worth a listen in full!]
Who is Dan? And what are you really passionate about?
I think I'm just a really caring person, but I'm also very driven and focused. I guess I've also had that entrepreneurial mindset from an early age, with my parents both being in business as well.
I’m incredibly passionate about helping people, especially in the health and wellness side of things. In business, with the 15 years of experience that I've had from being an accountant and CFO, I’ve grabbed all this information, and it's all sitting in me. Being in a platform of coaching just keeps me up and really brings me some purpose in life. And it's very exciting to get paid for doing the stuff I love.
Are there any challenges in the coaching work you do?
It's a hard question because it is challenging, but it's got all this love tied to it or growth for me too. So it's not a “classic” definition of a challenge. I've got a film over the top of me and maybe my mindset is so strong on that – that the challenge is the love as well. It’s quite a weird question. I'll probably do some journaling on that!
I think what actually does come up for me is when people are really struggling, and sometimes they're not in the space of even going through the coaching curriculum as such. When [people] are in that state of mind, and the stress that they're going through, it can get really difficult – and even for me, because I'm so empathic about it. But… after the calls, and they’ve got a big smile on their face… that's what it's all about.
How did you hear about The Icehouse?
When I had my role change in August 2019, someone on one of our advisory boards mentioned how great The Icehouse was.
It was a pretty quick decision in terms of making that choice, and it was quite amazing because at that time, we were going through a lot of struggles with systems, and you feel like as a business, you're really alone here.
Then you jump onto the Leadership Development Programme (LDP), with 23 other individuals, and you’ve all got similar issues. It was: ‘Oh, I'm not the only one’! It's like a flick of a switch, and that was quite a great lightbulb moment that went off for me.
What impact did LDP have on you?
It had a dramatic impact. I still use some of these tools today, and it helped me understand how I work and the different attributes that I have, and what I lean into now, which also align with my values, which is quite crazy.
I still distinctly remember going through one of the team management surveys, and it had these different modalities of ‘are you structured or flexible?’ or ‘are you analytical or creative?’ And I remember being with my pair, and he was giving me a bit of stick because I was the only accountant out of 23: ‘No you're going to be structured, you're going to be analytical’.
And I still remember the numbers. Out of a poll of 519,000 people at that time, there were only 2.3% more creative than me and 3% more flexible than me… if you get me to do any admin or organisation, it’s just banging my head against the wall, it's not my forte.
But when everyone else's stuff comes in together as a group, it's that classic thing of one plus one equals two – but it's actually not – one plus one equals five. It's greater than the sum of our parts… we're bigger and better as a whole.
What excites you about 2023?
Sometimes I keep phrasing myself as ‘a CFO that's gone rogue’ but, ultimately, I want to be there and help people. I want to share a little bit more around this burnout story… so the next challenge for me is entering the public speaking route.
My purpose is to fully express myself… so it's through those modalities of coaching and speaking. And I enjoy writing as well, because books had a massive impact on that learning process.
I want more and more of that out in the world, and to make my mark in some aspect... Ultimately, it comes with that grounded-ness of deeply wanting to help people, and people who are struggling – taking them to the next level in the high performance space.