"But the biggest piece of advice I could give is give yourself time each day to tune into your inner self and trust the guidance it (he / she) is giving you every day"
In January 1997, the day after the funeral of his oldest brother, Andrew McCombe flew to Australia to attempt to qualify for the Sydney 2000 Olympics – with only $1000 to his name Andrew spent the first 6 months of his journey in absolute grief & his motivation for his sport – beach volleyball had temporarily abandoned him.
During this time Andrew, who has a Bachelor of Physical Education (BPhEd) degree, could feel an inner calling to set up a personal training studio, which lead to a 12 year journey of owning & managing 3 health clubs, which lead to writing books, creating online programs and coaching many individuals & business owners how to experience EASE in their Health, Wealth, Relationships, Business &/or Careers.
After this 12 years and with a new found passion for golf, Andrew pivoted and created the world’s only golf travel tv show – Golf Getaway, followed by the world’s premiere golf improvement program Golf University, followed by the Search 4 Scratch Documentary and creation of the world’s only Golf TV Subscription Channel – The 19th Hole, which all continue to this day.
In 2019, after enduring the glacier like speed (and mindset) of the golf industry for the past 10 years Andrew has now returned to his tribe to create the Outlier TV series and Outlier Coaching / Consultancy in a bid to inspire Outliers everywhere to tune into themselves and live life on their terms – outside the comfort zone!
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Andrew McCombe: Hi Guys – my name is Andrew McCombe and I am the founder and CEO of Outlier TV – where we share the inspiring stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things with their businesses and their lives – outside the comfort zone – in a bid to inspire other potential Outliers and Entrepreneurs to do the same.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Andrew McCombe: Ever since I started in business in 1997 I have been the CEO.
My first foray into business was as a personal trainer and owning 3 health clubs, I then put everything online and coached, spoke and authored globally then I started Golf Getaway the world’s only golf travel show, and Golf University, the world’s premiere golf improvement programs and golf schools, followed by the 19th Hole Golf Channel and then Outlier TV
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Andrew McCombe: My wife (who runs our co-owned multi-million dollar cold pressed juice company) – Nectar Cold Pressed in Australia www.nectarcoldpressed.com.au and www.synergyfoodgroup.com.au
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Andrew McCombe: I have always been a CEO – to me it’s a mindset that I do not want to be told what to do by other (as I am very creative and would feel stunted by others directions) – the biggest difficulties I faced early on was trying to do a lot of tasks that were not in alignment with my natural way of operating – I learned very quickly to stick to my strengths and outsource the tasks that I di not like ding or was not good at doing.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Andrew McCombe: Outlier TV shares the inspiring stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things with their businesses and their lives – outside the comfort zone – in a bid to inspire other potential Outliers and Entrepreneurs to do the same.
We do this via our Online series which is also made for tv and Video On Demand channels and we also then coach potential and existing Outliers and Entrepreneurs to Unleash their Inner Outliers and turn it into a business.
My prime roles are Executive Producer and Presenter for the Outlier series and head coach for the Coaching Programs plus I am involved in the day to say strategy and direction of the business
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Andrew McCombe: Chief of Inspiration and Drive
The creator of all strategy and direction for a business
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Andrew McCombe: When I first became a CEO – I guess the biggest realisation is the level of responsibility and that ultimately the buck stops with me – which wasnt really different to what I expected but at times was overwhelming
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Andrew McCombe: Strategy and Direction – for me I have countless examples but the best one was coming up with the idea of the world’s only golf travel show based on my passions and talents and ultimately answering the questions If I had all the time and money in the world what would I do – at the time it was travel the world playing amazing golf courses and sharing the experiences with other passionate golfing tourists via the medium of tv
Team Harmony and Productivity (at an exec level) is also very important – so ensuring the team buys into the vision, knows what their roles are and what is expected of them and then supporting them to make it happen
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Andrew McCombe: To me it was stopping the tv series Golf Getaway as I had never been so passionate about anything in my life – but the industry were not innovative enough to understand the immense benefits it had for their businesses within it – it took me 5 years to let it go and stop banging my head against a brick wall dealing with people who were on a totally different wavelength to myself and our company – the benefit was we adapted and created Outlier which now allows us to deal with amazing entrepreneurs every day.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Andrew McCombe: Being a fully expressed version of yourself – Wealth is what you have when you have no money so essentially if you were to tap into your inner wealth (eg your passions, talents and values) and then apply them daily and be rewarded for them because you are offering them to others who value them in return for money – to me that is real success
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Andrew McCombe: Intuition and thinking outside of the box is innate but understanding how to get the best out of people has taken years of personal and professional development
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Andrew McCombe: Adaptability and creativity was paramount and totally necessary – we had to look at our situation and see how will we adapt to fill the current needs of the market – from an Outlier perspective we had just finished filming 12 episodes of Outlier and most were tourism businesses in 5 different countries so they were shut suddenly which meant they couldn’t benefit from the viewership of the show as no-one could go and stay at these places – so we actually put the series on hold and did a lot more coaching of clients to help them through the pandemic – plus we set up other businesses relating to my Juice company (eg trucking and Juice Cleanse Home Delivery Business)
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting out on their journey?
Andrew McCombe: Define what success looks and feels like to you as if it already exists and then ask yourself quality questions at all times about what you feel is needed to achieve this success, then trust the answers you get and take inspired action around them –
Also surround yourself with great mentors who have achieved the same or similar success to you – these could be actual people, or books, podcasts, youtube lessons, seminars / workshops etc
But the biggest piece of advice I could give is give yourself time each day to tune into your inner self and trust the guidance it (he / she) is giving you every day
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Andrew McCombe: The one skill Id love to acquire is being able to score a century (100 runs) in a Boxing Day Cricket Test in Melbourne in front of 100 000 fans – I was good enough to do so but diverted my sporting path to indoor and beach volleyball at the age of 18 because my school principle told me I had to choose cricket over volleyball – as aa true Outlier and CEO who did not like being told what to do stuck it up them and went on to represent NZ and Australia in these sports – but in hindsight if I had stuck to Cricket I could have acquired the skill to play at the MCG in Melbourne on Boxing Day
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Andrew McCombe: Freedom Fighter!
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Andrew McCombe for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Andrew McCombe or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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