The Story Behind Maximy: An Interview with Co-Founder Robert Frost

Sheena: Hi Rob. As a starting point, tell us a little about yourself, who you are?

Rob: At 46, I’m very grateful for a life that’s filled with relationships that mean the world to me. I'm married to a wonderful American guy (with Latvian heritage), I'm a son of two loving but divorced parents, a sibling of two sisters and one brother, an uncle, a great uncle, a nephew, a cousin, a stepson, a son- and brother-in-law and a wider family member. And hopefully, soon, a dad.

In my day-to-day working life, I have many different hats. I'm an entrepreneur, a business owner, a business partner, a consultant, a coach, a manager, a colleague and supplier. In each of these roles, I bring curiosity, kindness and commitment to helping others.

My background and life span the UK, Europe,Canada and the USA and I think of myself as a global citizen – someone who draws inspiration from different cultures and experiences.

Each of my roles, each relationship keeps me rooted in what matters – connecting, supporting and striving to make a positive difference. And, of course, having fun and sharing experiences!

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Sheena: Thanks for sharing. Let’s now turn to Maximy. How do you describe Maximy?

Rob: Maximy is a whole-of-life leadership development and empowerment company. That helps people to better identify and seize potential for even greater success, wellbeing & positive impact –which in turn strengthens their leadership. That’s it in a nutshell.

It's focused on people who strive to be the best they possibly can be in all the different roles they play - and want to identify and seize opportunities for even greater success, wellbeing & positive impact, on an ongoing basis.

They want to live the fullest and most impactful lives possible. And when they come to the end of their lives, they want to be able to say to themselves, "hand on heart, I gave life my best shot. I tried, I learnt, I envisioned, I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone, I experimented, I solved, I supported, I connected, I innovated, I had a voice, I inspired, I experienced, l failed, I picked myself up, I persevered, I evolved, I succeeded, I loved, I had a lot of fun, I made a difference.”

This is what great leadership is about. It isn't about titles. The success of organisations, teams, groups and families depends on the strength of their collective leadership.

Our overall proposition is really quite simple. We empower individuals, teams and groups to build and strengthen the habits, cultures and capabilities where they...

1. Regularly step back from the busyness of everyday life, by themselves and with their stakeholders in their different roles and relationships, to IDENTIFY potential for even greater success, wellbeing & positive impact – for themselves, their loved ones, their teams, their organisations, their communities, their countries and the wider planet.

2. SEIZE more of the potential by prioritising the opportunities and carrying out actions by using the best possible mix of resources available to them – driving results, increasing engagement, and making a bigger impact.

By creating such norms and capabilities, people are more skilled and confident to engage, think, learn and collaborate together. Where people both at home and work ask each other, on a frequent basis - "hey, how can I better support you? What is the potential for us and our wider stakeholders? What lenses / tools can we use to better see opportunities? What are the high-value creation actions we can take - individually and collectively?”

They seize more and more potential by going through individual and collective cycles of IDENTIFY and SEIZE – strengthening their leadership each time.

These habits and cultures aid people to be the best they possibly can be – increasing proactiveness and courageousness, helping them to build stronger relationships, expanding the number of roles and tasks they can do, and assisting them to be much more flexible, adaptive, experimental, innovative and responsive. All of which are needed to thrive and be potent in these highly uncertain and volatile times in which we live.

We are able to do the above by bringing together great science and resources - coaches, tutors, guides, actors, analytics, content, and more.

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Sheena: It’s certainly a very empowering proposition. Where did the inspiration for Maximy come from?

Rob: The inspiration built up over the course of my life. It started at school. I struggled with dyslexia, which made learning difficult. I was shy, socially awkward, and, fora long time, confused about my sexuality. That confusion added to a sense of not quite fitting in – not at school, not in friendships, not even within myself.

Then, there was this defining moment: an educational psychologist told my mum I wouldn’t do well at school and shouldn’t even consider university. That lit a fire in me. It felt like my potential / my possibility was being taken away because I didn’t fit a certain mould. I thought, “If other people can succeed, why can’t I?” That became my mantra.

I focused on my strengths – creativity, problem-solving, constructive challenge, drive and big picture – and found ways to work around my challenges. With determination and the right support, I worked through those early doubts. I went to university and worked for multinational companies.

My early experiences gave me a deep empathy for people who feel stuck or unseen.

As I progressed through life and my career,I saw so much untapped potential within individuals, groups, teams, organisations, industries and countries. I experienced numerous cultures and behaviours that hindered growth and development. But I also experienced some great cultures and saw what was possible.

When I met Deborah Tom, our shared individual experiences and passions, led to our joint inspiration to form Maximy.

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Sheena: I know Deborah meant a great deal to you. I would love you to tell me about Deborah and how you met.

Rob: Meeting Deborah was transformative. It was2015, and I was working at Accenture. Through her daughter, Eliot, I got the chance to meet Deborah at The Ivy Club in London. What was meant to be a casual meeting turned into a life-changing conversation.

Within an hour, we were sharing our life stories, values, and visions. Deborah was one of the most inspiring people I’d ever met. She was a force of nature – not just incredibly qualified, with accolades like Chartered Psychologist and Master Coach, but also someone who radiated warmth and energy. She had this passion for helping people thrive that was utterly contagious.

By the end of that meeting, we’d already decided, in principle, to create something together. Deborah brought deep expertise in leadership development, while I had expertise in business strategy and transformation. Together, we wanted to create a company that didn’t just teach leadership – but made it visible and accessible to everyone.

Our desire was to empower people to be the best possible leaders they can be –where being the best possible leader isn’t about perfection. It’s about striving – striving to be the best version of yourself in every role you play.Whether you’re leading a team, raising a family, or mentoring a friend, leadership is about enabling success, wellbeing, and positive impact for yourself and others.

We worked together building Maximy’s services and testing them until her tragic death in 2020.

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Sheena: Her legacy clearly lives on in Maximy. How did her passing shape your journey?

Rob: Deborah’s passing was heartbreaking. She fought cancer with extraordinary courage, but losing her in 2020 was the hardest experience of my life. Her impact on Maximy – and on me – was profound.

She taught me so much about people, coaching, and life itself.

I also learnt a massive amount about myself. Including deep insights into my weaknesses, bad habits and strengths.I, like so many others, hadn't explored my blind spots and behaviours that made me difficult to work with. Holding up the mirror wasn’t at all easy, but the deep work I went through was so valuable. Like so many who have experienced this kind of work, I wish I had done this so much earlier in life.

Deborah had an incredible way of bringing out the best in people, of making you believe in your potential even when you couldn’t see it yourself. That spirit is still at the core of everything we do.

Deborah’s values, her wisdom, and her belief in the power of leadership are woven into Maximy’s DNA. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about her or feel her influence. I like to think of Maximy as part of her legacy – a way to continue the work she was so passionate about.

Sheena: With so many resources already out there, why is there a need for Maximy?

Rob: We believe that leadership is both the world’s biggest challenge and opportunity. When leadership thrives, everything flourishes: success, wellbeing, and a brighter future.

There’s probably £trillions worth of untapped potential in the world across the world’s 8 billion or so people, 195countries, and 360+ million organisations.

Unlocking and seizing this potential is dependent on…

·      Having the best possible leaders and teams at the top of governments and organisations

·      Each of us being the best we possibly can be in each of our different roles and tasks in life and career.

Achieving the above is extremely difficult! We all have busy lives, with different challenges, pressures, demands, motivations and limited time, energy and resources. It’s also easy to fall prey to common human frailties and phenomena.

There are millions of resources, globally, that could help each and every one of us to be even better. The challenge with so many ideas of how to be successful, how to have wellbeing and how to make a positive impact is where to start? Who to believe, what to use, how to measure value?

We aren’t here to reinvent the wheel; we provide a holistic approach that aggregates resources (coaches, tutors, actors, guides, innovators, analytics, content and technology) to help people to better identify and seize potential in their different roles. How much potential they want to seize and how far they want to go on their leaderships journeys is up to them.

We want everyone to experience leadership development, starting at school and continuing throughout life. It isn’t for the few; it’s for the many. We provide a structure and approach built to support households, schools, universities and organisations – making leadership development more accessible and visible.

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Sheena: How can individuals, groups, teams and organistions use Maximy’s services?

Rob: We have designed our services to be used with varying degrees of touch – from high level with light touch support to highly detailed and supported. They have also been created to work with many different leadership and role-specific competency models.

We have two main service areas:

·      Identify Your Potential

·      Seize Your Potential

Through these service areas, we help people create enabling habits and cultures – which includes building and enhancing their ‘resource kits’ of capabilities, behaviours, analytics, tools and people to identify and seize potential / opportunities. The stronger the ‘resource kits’ are, the more individuals, teams and organisations are likely to achieve.

It’s a useful exercise, just to pause, and ask yourself: how strong and full is my ‘resource kit’ to help me identify and seize potential / opportunities for even greater success, wellbeing &wellbeing? What about my stakeholders? Alternatively, ask; What do my stakeholders and I use to identify and seize our potential?

We offer various services to get started with us – to get a taste of our services and what’s it like to work with us. One of them is called Enable.

This service helps individuals, groups and teams develop the fundamentals needed to start creating enabling habits and cultures where they regularly step back, skilfully engage and think together to identify and seize potential.

Aided by a coach, they develop reflective practices, increase their abilities to create atmospheres that foster psychologically safe engagement and high-quality thinking, and add tools to their ‘resource kits’.

With the value-creating fundamentals in place, clients can decide if they want to go deeper with us to identify and seize more and more opportunities for even greater success, wellbeing & positive impact.

They can go deeper by looking at and strengthening such things as their:

·      Core Support & Capabilities

·      Leadership of Self, Others, Organisations and the Wider Community & Planet

·      Roles & Relationships

·      Different Tasks, Activities, Capabilities, Skills and Knowledge.

We also offer Specialist Services that focus in on specific areas and activities. All our services are explained on our website.

Sheena: Finally, what’s next for Maximy, and how can people support our mission?

Rob: We’re entering an exciting new chapter. For years, we’ve been a ‘development house’, testing them with amazing clients.Now, we’re stepping into the spotlight with renewed energy and focus. We’ve grown our team. In May 2024, Eliot (Deborah’s Daughter) joined us, after 10 years at Accenture. And I’m really excited that you have recently joined us as our CEO, after 19 years at Accenture.

Our mission is simple yet bold: to make leadership development visible and accessible to everyone. Achieving it realises on the support of our clients, associates, suppliers, investors and champions.

We want to help people thrive in every role they play. When people thrive, the world thrives. If you are reading this and share our passion for making a difference, I’d love to connect – whether as a potential client, a collaborator, a supplier or a supporter.

Thanks so much.