40% of first-time CEOs fail within their first 18 months. David Roche has spent 30+ years around books, boardrooms, and businesses — as CEO of Borders and Books Etc., product director at Waterstones and HMV, and group sales & marketing director at Harper Collins. Today he’s an executive coach and mentor at Grey Area Coaching, and the author of Become a Successful First-Time CEO (Rethink Press, 2024).
In this episode of Book the Business, David joins Joe Gregory to unpack why he wrote the book, how one word in the title (“Be” vs. “Become”) completely changed its impact, and why he believes leadership is ultimately about relationships — not frameworks. David also breaks down how the book has tripled his coaching business, why he refuses to charge by the hour, and what actually causes new CEOs to fail once they land the job.
Whether you’re a first-time CEO, an executive coach, or an expert thinking about writing a book to build authority in your field, this conversation is full of practical, honest insight.
🔗 David’s coaching/mentoring: greyareacoaching.co.uk
📖 David’s book: Become a Successful First-Time CEO (Rethink Press) — available on Amazon
What You’ll Learn
Why “being a generalist” is actually a specialist skill once you reach senior leadership
The difference between coaching and mentoring — and how to know which one someone actually needs
A simple technique for helping someone unstick their own problem (the “anecdote trick”)
Why David built his entire book around stories instead of frameworks or advice
How changing a single word in the book’s title transformed its impact
The real reason most new CEOs struggle — and it’s not what the board prepares them for
Why David refuses to price his coaching by the hour, and what he charges for instead
How a book can pre-qualify and pre-sell clients before you ever speak to them
What it actually costs a company when a CEO fails — and why coaching should be a given, not a luxury
Chapters
00:00 Intro & David Roche’s background
01:01 Why “generalist” is a specialist skill (the conductor analogy)
04:13 What Grey Area Coaching actually does
06:15 The “anecdote trick” for stuck CEOs
08:16 Why the book needed to exist
09:28 Wanting 3-4 high-value clients, not scale
10:44 Why David avoided the typical business-book format
12:42 Seeing the whole picture as a leader
13:18 The best leaders are the best storytellers
16:11 Why legacy matters more later in a career
18:28 How the book changed David’s client pipeline
19:55 The one-word title change that unlocked everything
21:01 The four levels of a book’s promise
21:29 Why new CEOs actually fail (it’s not the 100-day plan)
22:23 The book as a client filter (plus a readiness quiz)
24:03 Why David never prices by the hour
25:31 How David structures a 6-month engagement
26:51 The real cost of a failed CEO hire
27:55 How much the book has grown David’s business
29:17 What David learns from his clients
30:04 David’s #1 tip for aspiring author-experts
32:06 The Jimmy Greaves story: “I can’t write a book”
33:57 Experts don’t need to be great writers
34:24 Where to find David + free book offer
35:19 Closing story: coaching vs. mentoring, free-diving edition
Joe Gregory
An entrepreneur at heart, Joe Gregory started his first business at just 19 and has spent the years since building, scaling, acquiring and selling companies across a range of industries. Today, he is a publisher and Authority Strategist at Advantage | The Authority Company, home of Forbes Books and Entrepreneur Books, where he is responsible for the UK and international markets. That early drive to build led him into publishing in 2006, when he launched…
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