Origin Story w/ David McIntosh Jr"I Had Dinner With The King. I Was Once Homeless" | John McCalla-Leacy
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 1:03
From Windrush roots to a wildly non-linear life path
David sets the scene with a rapid overview of John’s improbable journey: from South London hardship and homelessness to elite sport, global travel, corporate leadership, and friendship with King Charles. John reflects on how surreal it sounds—and that the story is still true.
- •Windrush Jamaican heritage and South London upbringing
- •Homelessness, Prince’s Trust support, and elite canoeing
- •International life across Europe and Asia; multiple careers and businesses
- •KPMG rise to senior partner and Global Head of ESG
- •Tease of the royal connection and dinner with the King
- 1:03 – 4:47
The “leaking canoe” origin: pride, fear of water, and choosing to persist
John recounts being challenged by a teacher to try whitewater canoeing—despite not even knowing what canoeing was. A humiliating early capsize reveals his fear of water, but the embarrassment becomes fuel to keep showing up until he improves.
- •Teacher John Novak challenges John to try canoeing
- •Early failure: capsizing quickly and panicking underwater
- •Discovering a fear of water and confronting it
- •Pride and being laughed at becomes a motivating force
- •Decision to persist purely to prove he could get good
- 4:47 – 7:24
Growing up in a crowded immigrant household: community as safety net
John paints a vivid picture of a large family with hardworking parents and a home that often extended beyond the immediate family. He describes South London toughness, racism around school, and church as a central social support structure.
- •Nine siblings; parents’ Jamaican migration and sacrifice
- •Dad: builder with strong memory; mum: multiple care and day jobs
- •House as a hub: taking in homeless friends, cousins, others
- •School environment marked by racism and street-level danger
- •Church as enforced routine but also crucial community support
- 7:24 – 9:10
Immigrant lessons that stuck: work ethic, values, and mutual aid systems
John explains the transferable principles he absorbed: relentless hard work, doing the right thing, and sharing even when resources are tight. He also highlights “hands” (partner savings circles) as an example of trust-based community finance.
- •‘Nothing is given’ mindset and discipline from parents
- •Principles-driven values even amid hardship
- •Generosity modeled by his mum: always someone worse off
- •Hands system: community pooling to help people reach milestones
- •Community mindset as a lifelong foundation
- 9:10 – 15:42
Sport as escape—and a crucible for resilience and elite performance
Canoeing becomes both an escape from stress at home and an intense outlet that shapes John’s mental toughness. He describes quickly progressing from novice to international success, then into a culture of excellence where top athletes helped each other improve.
- •Using sport to cope with family turmoil and stress
- •Training beyond comfort; recognizing unhealthy extremes in hindsight
- •Winning an international race at 14; pathway to British team
- •‘Golden age’ of UK slalom and training among world best
- •Shift from competitor to coach; excellence through shared learning
- 15:42 – 18:44
‘Twice blessed’: why helping others makes you better too
John shares a formative lesson from world champion Richard Fox using a snowball metaphor: your rivals will eventually overtake you, so help them grow because it forces you to run faster. He generalizes this into a philosophy of service, coaching, and community reciprocity.
- •Richard Fox ‘snowball chasing’ story: support accelerates your own growth
- •Coaching as self-correction: teaching reinforces personal standards
- •Service as a tool for mental wellbeing (serving to break depressive states)
- •Practical link to family/community support patterns
- •Reinforcement of mutual uplift rather than zero-sum competition
- 18:44 – 23:26
Privilege myths, real hardship, and the ‘drag’ metaphor for adversity
David challenges the assumption that canoeing is a privileged sport; John explains competing in a leaky boat and traveling by bike/train with a kayak. He reframes hardship as ‘hydrodynamic drag’ that builds strength—like resisted training that later makes you faster.
- •Canoeing included people from many backgrounds; John wasn’t ‘posh’
- •Competing in damaged boats; duct tape and improvisation
- •Logistics grind: cycling with a kayak, trains, long travel to train
- •Leaky-boat ‘drag’ becomes a resilience metaphor
- •Reframing friction as a strength-building advantage
- 23:26 – 38:48
Elective hardship, process over outcome, and learning from defeat
They discuss intentionally adding friction in a convenience-driven world and why shortcuts can erode resilience. John emphasizes focusing on controllable processes (not outcomes), breaking skills into parts, and treating wins/losses as data for the next cycle.
- •Introducing friction deliberately to build capability
- •Process-focus in elite sport: execution excellence vs uncontrollables (wind)
- •Breaking complex skills down (speaking, performance, preparation)
- •Defeat as feedback; continual cycle of improvement
- •Community + process discipline as transferable career advantage
- 38:48 – 41:19
Homelessness and squatting: surviving instability with perspective and generosity
John describes the moment his family abruptly left home, squatted on the Peckham Rye estate, and later moved through tough council housing. Even in scarcity, his mum’s generosity persisted, reinforcing a relative, reframed view of circumstances.
- •Sudden displacement: ‘We’re leaving’ with nowhere to go
- •Squatting in the Peckham Rye estate for an extended period
- •Family dispersed across London due to limited space
- •Council housing in Brixton felt like ‘moving up’—relativity of hardship
- •Continuing generosity despite instability and poverty
- 41:19 – 42:01
Identity as a verb: reinvention, curiosity, and entering fashion via Benetton
David highlights John’s non-linear identity—homeless, canoeist, then fashion designer. John explains moving to Nottingham for training, failing then redoing GCSEs/A-levels, and pursuing knitwear design, which led to Benetton through curiosity about emerging design technology.
- •Relocating to Nottingham: training epicenter and life balance expectations
- •Academic turnaround: resitting exams through sport discipline
- •Creative pull: art foundation and knitwear degree
- •Curiosity about CAD/CAM and specific knitting tech as entry point
- •Benetton placement becomes career launch
- 42:01 – 55:31
Mastering the ‘break it down’ method: Italian interview, comfort-zone expansion, global moves
John details learning Italian fast to pass an all-Italian interview—by anticipating questions, scripting, translating, rehearsing, and memorizing. He then maps how one opportunity led to another across countries and industries, driven by calculated risk and living on the edge of his comfort zone.
- •Structured learning system to pass a language interview quickly
- •Comfort zone model: one foot inside, one foot outside to expand capacity
- •From design to commercial buying and technology/project management
- •Moves through Italy, China/Hong Kong, Thailand; then IT and consulting
- •Pattern recognition: disparate chapters connected by curiosity and process
- 55:31 – 1:00:55
Imposter syndrome, being underestimated, and turning difference into an advantage
They reframe imposter syndrome as evidence of uniqueness and a competitive advantage. John shares how being ‘the only Black guy in the room’ can be turned into memorability and swagger, and he tells a story of being mistaken as not the keynote speaker—then winning the room.
- •Imposter syndrome as universal—and reframable
- •Leaning into quirks and authenticity (comedy parallels)
- •‘They’ll remember me’ reframe when feeling like an interloper
- •Enjoying being underestimated; using it strategically
- •Sweet spot framework: uniqueness intersecting with what people pay for
- 1:00:55 – 1:14:38
Financial independence vs the hedonic treadmill: controlling lifestyle inflation
John explains why chasing money alone never feels like ‘enough,’ even at very high earnings. He outlines choices that protected autonomy—living well within means, resisting status spending, staying intentional—so he could step off the treadmill and take purpose-led risks.
- •High income doesn’t automatically remove scarcity mindset
- •Lifestyle inflation: avoid leasing/status traps; define ‘enough’
- •Two coaching lenses: calendar (time) and finances (freedom)
- •Bonuses should be bonuses—not necessities
- •Retirement as reclaiming control to drive bigger impact
- 1:14:38 – 1:22:22
Loss as a turning point: 2016 grief, health, and reorienting toward meaning
David brings up a pivotal period marked by sudden deaths of close family and friends, plus John’s own health challenges. John recounts receiving life-changing phone calls and how grief forced a reassessment of work intensity, priorities, and the urgency of living intentionally.
- •2–3am call: brother Roger’s death; questioning the importance of work
- •Sister Pauline’s accident and death; returning home from abroad
- •Death of close colleague Mo and lifelong friend Graham in 2016
- •Confronting mortality, humility, and the limits of ‘later’
- •Choosing experiences, wellbeing, and service as responses to grief
- 1:22:22 – 1:41:18
Meeting the Queen, gratitude to the Trust, dinner with King Charles—and turning pain into service
John explains how a KPMG anniversary event led to a virtual meeting with the Queen, where he insisted on speaking authentically and thanked The Prince’s Trust for funding that changed his path. That thread led to multiple meetings with (then) Prince Charles and a dinner together; John closes by describing how hardships (racial profiling, disability in family) became catalysts for public service and inclusion work.
- •Queen meeting: etiquette prep, rejecting scripted lines, speaking from lived experience
- •Prince’s Trust funding as a major pivot: from leaky boats to real progress
- •Queen’s line: ‘Yes, I shall tell my son’—leading to further royal engagements
- •Dinner with King Charles: rough ‘working’ hands and down-to-earth conversation
- •Reframing adversity into action: lay visitor work, disability inclusion leadership, community-first impact
