Accelerate Positive Progress In The World – Exclusive Interview With Brent Lowe
Brent is a leading performance coach helping founders show up as their best selves within thriving, purpose-driven teams. As the Scale Coach for Founder CEOs, Brent works with entrepreneurs and leaders who are growing the size and impact of their businesses to tackle local and global challenges. He is also the lead coach at BASE Associates, a premiere provider of support to early-stage businesses, and co-author of Lead Together: The bold, brave and intentional path to scaling your business. Brent's purpose is to accelerate positive progress in the world, one leader, one conversation, one aspiration at a time.
Brent Lowe, Scale Coach for Founder CEOs
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Thanks for asking. I’m a helper. Helping others is what gets me out of bed every day. For 30 years I have been finding ways to support others – first as an entrepreneur, then as an HR professional and for the last decade as a coach and author. My North American home base is the outskirts of Toronto, Canada where I live with my wife and two children. My family also spends time in Lille, France.
When not working, I enjoy cycling or heading to the ocean to explore life underwater as a scuba diver. We are a family of avid travellers always on the lookout for new cultural experiences.
What is your business and how do you help your clients?
I am the founder and lead coach at BASE Associates. We are a business coaching and consulting company. Our team helps companies between 5 & 40 people to scale their operations. Over the last decade our team has become a trusted source for founders within the climate innovation space – especially those wanting to grow a healthy organisation culture based on freedom and responsibility.
What inspires your work?
The short answer is nature. We find ourselves at a unique time in human history. A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change indicated that, to avoid climate catastrophe, human civilization must undergo a radical transformation of unprecedented scale. Can we do it? It’s a big undertaking, and I’m optimistic. If we are successful, it will be due – in large part – to the efforts of bold, brave entrepreneurs.
The best way I can help is by lightening the mental and emotional load for those working to preserve, protect and regenerate our ecosystems.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
My first experiences as an entrepreneur began when I was a teenager. My knowledge was low and my anxiety high. The absence of entrepreneurs within my family left me without a support network – with one exception. A family friend was (and still is) a therapist. She took me under her wing helping me manage the emotions that come with the entrepreneurial roller coaster. My time with her was transformative. Ever since my focus has been on marrying together business acumen and psychology to support entrepreneurs.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
I’ve had the privilege of supporting over 100 founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and executive directors. In turn, I have learned from their stories. Along with co-authors Susan Basterfield and Travis Marsh, I captured my learning in our book Lead Together: The bold, brave, intentional path to scaling your business. As with any creative endeavour, putting a book out into the world is a vulnerable thing. I’m happy to say that Lead Together has been well received. The book has since released in audio and been translated for Chinese readers.
What would you like to achieve for yourself and your business in the future?
Our company vision is to meaningfully contribute to 50 ripples – businesses that have a sizable impact on local, regional or global climate improvement. So far we have supported some big successes and we have more work to do.
Personally, I’m continuing my learning and development journey. To be of most help to my clients, I need to keep deepening my expertise. When our clients come to us, they need help and deserve the best support possible. 95% of our business comes from referrals. Each referral is a measure of trust. A core component of trust is my competence as a coach and thought partner. A successful future is more ripples and more referrals.
