Here’s the full transcript of leadership speaker Caspar Craven‘s chat with Jane Farnham of Great British Speakers:
00:00:08:24 – 00:00:17:33
Jane Farnham
Hi, I’m Jane Farnham from Great British Speakers, and I’m here today chatting to the amazing High-Performance teamwork and leadership speaker Caspar Craven. Hi, Caspar.
00:00:17:56 – 00:00:19:15
Caspar Craven
Hi, how are you today?
00:00:19:28 – 00:00:38:49
Jane Farnham
I’m good, thank you. You look dapper today, so I’m really looking forward to finding out more about you because for anybody doesn’t know, you do have a great back story in terms of personal adventure and entrepreneurship and that gets you to, you know, have a really great story to tell. So tell me about your life prior to speaking.
00:00:39:55 – 00:01:00:36
Caspar Craven
So prior to speaking. So I got a whole bunch of different stuff. So I worked in large companies, I’ve worked in small companies, but I think the thing that generates most interest is that in amongst all of that I’ve managed to find time to sail twice around the world, first time competitively, and then a second time with my family, a wife and our three kids under the age of ten.
00:01:01:30 – 00:01:08:29
Caspar Craven
So a whole mixture of different experiences. So entrepreneurial and adventure and a whole, whole mix of different things.
00:01:09:09 – 00:01:23:34
Jane Farnham
Tell me about that journey. Three children on a sail, sailboat, under ten. What were the highs and what were the lows because that’s an adventure, isn’t it. I bet it’s something they’ll never forget and you’ll never forget.
00:01:24:00 – 00:01:44:04
Caspar Craven
Yes. No, it was definitely, as I like to say, it was a big, bold goal. Most people think I’m a little bit crazy, by the way, to go do that, which I understand. So look the highs and the lows, the, I think that the highs were that whole notion of setting something that everybody else says impossible, saying, okay, how are we going to go and do this?
00:01:44:04 – 00:02:20:24
Caspar Craven
How are we going to tackle this challenge? And then on the back of that is actually getting to go and spend time with our kids and go and experience the world, getting, doing different things and just really taking ourselves out of our comfort zone to do something different, unusual. And so, yes, it’s time with the kids and and grappling with the many challenges and and things that that that brought up and then the lows probably spending a huge amount of time with my kids and dealing with sort of that you know we will we will learn this with kids learn a little bit of homeschooling during COVID and all that sort of stuff.
00:02:20:24 – 00:02:31:29
Caspar Craven
Doing that for two years, that was quite tricky, was a bit challenging. So, yeah, just figuring out how do you sort of, you know, get on with life, with all those sorts of things. So yeah.
00:02:31:49 – 00:03:02:07
Jane Farnham
Well the life lessons they would have learned were phenomenal. I mean, you know what? What you learn is, you know, as you go through parenthood, you realize you’re never going to get that time back. You know, they grow up so quickly. I know that’s a bit of a cliché thing to say, but I do have to ask you one thing. What was your most favourite stop along the way? Yeah, because you went around the world. Yeah. I’m sure there’s a, you know, route that you took, but was there really a place that you got on that was just amazing?
00:03:02:42 – 00:03:27:27
Caspar Craven
The, there were several places. The one, the one that jumps to my mind is this tiny little island in the middle of the Indian Ocean called Cocus Keeling. And it’s the quintessential sort of beautiful desert island, sort of palm trees and and crystal clear blue seas. And there’s not much there. There’s no, there’s no there’s hardly any shops there.
00:03:27:48 – 00:03:38:16
Caspar Craven
And yeah, pretty much like in Paradise and the sort of far flung parts of the world. So it’s a lot of swimming, diving, snorkeling and swimming with turtles and stuff like that. So that’s pretty cool.
00:03:38:43 – 00:03:45:28
Jane Farnham
Oh, gosh, it sounds idyllic there. I like there’s places like that that still exist. I say…Oh, sorry, carry on.
00:03:45:41 – 00:03:54:39
Caspar Craven
I was going to say sort of beginning to sort of back back in the UK and sort of cracking on with with normal life. That seems like a long way away now. So.
00:03:54:40 – 00:04:04:46
Jane Farnham
Well, I tell you what, I’ve actually been in the sea this morning and it’s that yes, I only lasted 2 minutes, but I actually did it. So, yes, cold water swimming, it’s therapy.
00:04:05:09 – 00:04:12:37
Caspar Craven
You know, I was I always challenge people to take up cold showers. So it’s like you’re my hero because I didn’t do the cold water swimming. I do the cold water shower. So it’s amazing.
00:04:13:01 – 00:04:23:36
Jane Farnham
Yeah, I do that most days. But yeah, and it didn’t help with getting into that water this morning, let me tell you. Oh, so you came back from your travels and is that when you got into speaking?
00:04:24:16 – 00:04:50:24
Caspar Craven
It is, so so actually so we ended up staying about San Francisco is splitting our time between within the states in the UK and I got asked to do an after dinner talk. It was only about 20 minutes. And I remember just having this overwhelming reaction from from people afterwards as I was sharing some of the insights, some of the things that we learnt and people basically saying, you know, I’m going to go and do something different.
00:04:50:24 – 00:05:07:17
Caspar Craven
I’m going to go and approach things differently and to think about things differently. So that whole notion of being thought provoking and and challenging and just getting that feedback, it just stopped me in my tracks. And I realized that actually using the power of stories that you can sort of, you know, make a positive difference to other people’s worlds.
00:05:07:39 – 00:05:22:44
Caspar Craven
And I realized that actually all the work that I had done up until then, it just didn’t compare to that, that the feeling that that that that gave me. So that was the point. I said, actually, this is all I want to do for the next 25 years is to use the power of story to have insights, to make a positive difference to to other people.
00:05:22:44 – 00:05:30:28
Caspar Craven
So that whole thought provoking thing and different ways of thinking about things. So that was basically where it all started from, sort of doing a 20 minute after dinner talks.
00:05:30:28 – 00:05:54:32
Jane Farnham
I love it when things slot into place and come together from not necessarily something that you planned to do, which is it almost feels like it’s predestined almost that you, you know, you follow a certain path, but obviously we’ve seen huge amounts of change over the last two years. So have you had to adapt your talks, you know, recently with everything that’s gone on?
00:05:54:32 – 00:06:20:45
Caspar Craven
Yes. So my talks I don’t really talk about sailing these days the so my whole, so actually so so my whole theme is all around big bold goals and you can see where the theme comes from, from the past. And so on, but over the last seven years, I’ve spent a huge amount of time doing such a deep dive research into sort of some of the most successful leaders on the planet and saying, okay, what have they done differently to go and achieve their audacious goals?
00:06:20:45 – 00:06:45:46
Caspar Craven
How do they think as a leader, what’s the teamwork they apply, so I take my experiences in this like, what are other people doing? And so all the talks that I’m doing now are all around, yeah,, leadership, teamwork and going after these massive goals. And I think, yeah, that’s what I’m really seeing, is what people are most interested in, we live in a very disrupted world these days and, you know, doing what we used to do is not going to get us any further forward.
00:06:45:46 – 00:07:04:37
Caspar Craven
One of my favorite sayings is that you can’t navigate a new world with an old chart, and I think that’s what an awful lot of organizations and businesses are doing. So my my interest is sort of saying, okay, well, how can I provide some thought provoking ideas around that and how do we lead ourselves? How do we lead others to to go and do that?
00:07:04:37 – 00:07:06:59
Caspar Craven
So that’s really where it sort of ends up being at the moment.
00:07:06:59 – 00:07:25:31
Jane Farnham
So when you do, you know, agree to do a speaking engagement, you obviously offer an opportunity to speak with a client. And is that when you decide, how do you decide what they need? Is there any sort of, is it just from chatting to them and finding out what they’re missing, what they’re lacking?
00:07:25:53 – 00:07:44:20
Caspar Craven
Yes. I mean, like every every every event, every set of leaders, they’ve they’ve got obviously a bunch of things going on, bunch of challenges, bunch of priorities. And, you know, I always think that when as a speaker, when you step into somebody else’s world, they’re not really interested in you. They’re interested in their own problems, which is right and that’s how it should be.
00:07:44:38 – 00:08:06:52
Caspar Craven
So therefore, for me, it’s imperative to understand what are the things that they’re facing. And then I say, okay, well, I’ve got some different ways to think about doing that, some thought provoking ways, and then some stories and some insights. So literally every single thing is tailored to each client, to each organization and it totally depends on what’s going on in their world and their issues.
00:08:07:12 – 00:08:09:36
Caspar Craven
So that that’s where it has to begin and end.
00:08:10:30 – 00:08:18:37
Jane Farnham
Okay, then I’m talking about the realities of speaking. What frustrates you?
00:08:18:37 – 00:08:42:17
Caspar Craven
So the most frustrating thing that I’ve found as a speaker is that, you know, you get, you know, 45 minutes, an hour, to go in and speak, speak to an organization, and you go and share insights, ideas, stories, and you can see in the feedback that it’s really thought provoking and the it gets people thinking about how they can do things differently.
00:08:42:43 – 00:09:02:27
Caspar Craven
And one of my biggest frustrations is then that sort of six months later, a year later, how much that stuff is actually being actioned. So actually the last years we’ve been building a whole team, basically saying, actually we’ll come in and help you run programs and so on to make sure those ideas embed. So actually my core frustration has been making these ideas stick.
00:09:03:23 – 00:09:21:27
Caspar Craven
I think it’s so much stuff in this world where people are sort of saying, and it’s the same old, same old. We’ve heard all these different things before and so it’s like, well, okay, let’s have some thought provoking stuff and then find ways to make it stick. So that’s really, the my frustration for what I’m working very hard to try and address.
00:09:21:48 – 00:09:23:52
Caspar Craven
So yeah, that’s probably been the main one.
00:09:23:52 – 00:10:01:31
Jane Farnham
So it’s, it’s all very well sort of sitting and chatting to somebody, for a team of people for an hour, but you know, and inspire people and motivate people. But yeah, kind of sometimes it’s difficult to kind of move things to the next level where they need to go. So that’s great that you offer that. It’s almost like retraining and giving people targets and challenges to overcome and just thinking differently. I mean, thinking, yeah. So what is it? This first sign, what is it? The sign of stupidity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It just doesn’t happen.
00:10:02:15 – 00:10:18:37
Caspar Craven
Absolutely. I think that’s the, I think the other thing that’s associated with that is this whole thing about relevancy as well. Like if someone’s going to go and do something, they have to be able to relate to it. And it’s like, well, what can I understand about this? How relevant is this to my situation? So it’s getting that because I think that’s the first stage.
00:10:18:37 – 00:10:35:11
Caspar Craven
So if you don’t have that relevance in, that’s quite hard to try and make it stick. And then as you said, it’s that thing about like what am I actually going to do differently with this. So, so yeah, so I always give people challenges, just small things, just to start them on the journey.
00:10:35:24 – 00:10:37:26
Caspar Craven
So it’s…
00:10:37:26 – 00:10:45:54
Jane Farnham
It’s baby steps isn’t it, just like 15 seconds a day and then 20 seconds and then, you know, and gradually. it’s habits and it’s habit forming and creating new patterns and pathways.
00:10:46:57 – 00:11:03:07
Caspar Craven
One of the other things actually, I mean, so much the stuff around sort of leaders and teamwork, it all boils down to the conversations that we have with the people around us. It’s how we think. and then what are those conversations? So, so one of the things that I talk about is this notion of a thing I call past, present, future.
00:11:03:19 – 00:11:16:10
Caspar Craven
So this question that I developed, I’m actually at home and it came out of the whole notion that I would say to my wife, Let’s go and do this in the future. And she would say, But we’ve always done it this way in the past. And I don’t know how many organizations I’ve come across where people look at things differently.
00:11:16:24 – 00:11:31:55
Caspar Craven
So I ask this question of 100% of your time, energy and focus, what percentage to the past, the present and the future? And everyone’s always got different answers. And so one of the things I always encourage people to do is to go and have a conversation with someone else around that and to understand your own perspective and to understand somebody else’s perspective.
00:11:32:04 – 00:11:46:37
Caspar Craven
And it’s in that dialog, it’s in that interaction that we start to generate more insights. Because if you’re just holding in your head on your own, you’re not going to get that far with it. But when you start debating it and grappling with those ideas with other people, then I think that really starts to unlock interesting insights.
00:11:47:16 – 00:11:56:02
Jane Farnham
And then things happen. So you’ve taken this all into another sphere with big, bold goals. Tell me what’s on offer there.
00:11:56:02 – 00:12:20:22
Caspar Craven
So it’s big, bold goals actually came out of the book. I handily have a copy here. Be More Human. Yeah, exactly. So it came out of this book here and for me that was the rethink about High-Performance teamwork. And I think one of the core notions of that, we’re all building two teams, a home team and a work team, and it’s exactly the same skills that we need to thrive in both areas.
00:12:20:33 – 00:12:47:01
Caspar Craven
And actually I developed most of my skills at home and then put them into the workplace, such as doing values at home and creating a mission at home, creating a story at home and so on. And so so it’s taking those ideas and then helping organizations to go and embed those. So one of the programs we run is it’s called the Leadership Experience, which is either a half day or a full day program where it’s like, Hey, we’re going to take some stories.
00:12:47:02 – 00:13:05:43
Caspar Craven
We’re going to get really practical and get you thinking about these different things in the digital follow ups that go on after that. But again, it’s just starting to plant the seeds and the ideas and then get people talking about it, thinking about it, taking the ideas home and just finding lots of different ways to try and make it stick rather than just being.
00:13:05:58 – 00:13:07:15
Caspar Craven
Oh that was an interesting set of stories.
00:13:08:36 – 00:13:13:24
Jane Farnham
And what are other topics that are quite popular and resonating with audiences these days?
00:13:13:24 – 00:13:35:43
Caspar Craven
So the, a lot of stuff around around teamwork in every organization that I speak to right now, they’re facing a ton of challenges right? And you know, how do we get our employees engaged? How do we deal with cost of living crisis and inflation? We’re being disrupted by new competitors, coming into our marketplaces. So how do we deal with those challenges?
00:13:35:43 – 00:13:55:58
Caspar Craven
How do we become more resilient? How do we become more agile, to go and deal with it with those things that they were facing? So it’s basically, it’s working with any of those things. But the core does come down to the leadership, the teamwork and the resilience and how do we, how do we deal with that. So I’ve been working with Johnson and Johnson recently.
00:13:55:58 – 00:14:15:00
Caspar Craven
They are spinning out their consumer division to new company called Kenvue. So a lot of work I was doing there is, how do you think as a leader and you know, how do we develop that leadership mindset and get that running through the organization? So again, it’s been thought provoking. Is being challenging and presenting different ideas to, to be able to deal with the challenges in front of us.
00:14:15:45 – 00:14:45:10
Jane Farnham
Yeah, and you know, the resilience and leadership skills, they’re things that will take you through, regardless of what’s going on, whether it’s, you know, the economy is doing well, economy is doing bad, or there is a war or there’s a, you know, a pandemic. All those things happen, need to happen for a successful business at any any one time, really. So, you know, they’re the core subjects, aren’t they, that you keep on coming back to. And really if you haven’t got those in place then, do you have a successful business?
00:14:45:36 – 00:15:06:08
Caspar Craven
Absolutely right. Absolutely right. I mean, you know what, it basically it comes down to two people, isn’t it? And, you know, one of the things that I realized and in writing the book Be More Human, doing the research and speaking to amazing leaders around the world for that, is the more I seem to understand humans, the better I think we seem to do at business and others.
00:15:06:16 – 00:15:33:21
Caspar Craven
There’s a there’s a neuroscientist. I’m Antonio Damasio and he has a lovely saying that we’re not thinking creatures who feel, we’re feeling creatures who think, and understanding what’s going on about that emotional underneath it all because all the logic follows after that. And so it’s this notion about really understanding what’s driving the different people in your team, people who do things for their reasons, not your reasons, says finding and finding those areas.
00:15:33:21 – 00:15:45:09
Caspar Craven
And that’s what I find incredibly fascinating, is being able to unlock those keys so that we can then go and achieve all the things we want to get and do find what fulfills us and, you know, hit our hit our big, bold goals.
00:15:45:09 – 00:15:48:21
Jane Farnham
And and is that what gives you the biggest buzz about speaking?
00:15:49:46 – 00:16:09:23
Caspar Craven
The, you know what gives me the biggest buzz is just hearing the the feedback. People are going to go and do things different. I had I had I did an event two weeks ago for an association and I had the briefing call with the the chair of the association. She said, Do you know why we booked you? So I said no I’ve got no idea.
00:16:09:37 – 00:16:30:01
Caspar Craven
She said, You probably don’t remember that four years ago you ran a workshop for 15 CEOs, and she said you changed lives that day. And I was just like, Oh my God. I’m like, Yes, I say that now and I get tingles. And it’s just sort of it’s that thing there, that making a difference to other people’s lives by being thought provoking and giving people things they can actually do stuff with.
00:16:31:24 – 00:16:36:12
Jane Farnham
Well, it’s been absolutely a pleasure to talk to you this morning, Caspar. Thank you so much for your time.
00:16:36:52 – 00:16:38:36
Caspar Craven
My pleasure. It’s been lovely to chat to you, too.
00:16:39:10 – 00:16:58:03
Jane Farnham
And if you’d like to book the fantastic leadership speaker Caspar to come and help you with leadership, empowerment, change motivation, simply contact myself or Steve at Great British Speakers on 01753439289 or you can email bookings at bookings@greatbritishtalent.com. Lovely.
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Caspar Craven, leadership speaker at Great British Speakers
