Finding Your Forte: An Entrepreneur's Journey to Business Coaching

In this episode of Founders Future, with host Olivia Sammons, we meet Matt Brookfield, a seasoned entrepreneur who has discovered his true calling in business mentoring. Matt shares his incredible journey from a 17-year stint in the British Army to building and scaling multiple companies, including a large cleaning and maintenance firm and a successful fire and security business. He opens up about the highs and lows, including the liquidation of one business, and how these lived experiences—from sleepless nights over payroll to rapid scaling—have equipped him with the practical, no-nonsense wisdom he now brings to his clients.Matt discusses his transition into mentoring, a field he found after years of informally helping others, realizing that his "forte" was guiding entrepreneurs through the exact challenges he had faced. He details his organic, problem-solving-focused coaching style and his ambition to build a mentoring practice that allows him to work from abroad. The conversation also touches on the current crossroads in his business: the critical decision of whether to niche down to the industries he knows intimately or to keep his services broad, highlighting a common scaling challenge for expert coaches.