Success Dynamics - Debii McKoy

Debbii left school at 15 having decided that she wanted to do her “own thing” rather than continue her education.  Even at such an early age, Debbii had already developed an appreciation for commercial success having established flourishing car washing and baby sitting businesses.

After leaving school, she joined a YTS scheme which provided her with an insight into basic book-keeping, typing and general office skills.  After a year she became interested in working in a computer based business and following the advice of her careers officer, she moved onto another YTS scheme this time in Electronics and Computer programming.

One year on, Debbii’s appetite for computer related work had not dwindled and she was considering a computer programming type role, until she stumbled across an engineering apprenticeship opportunity with British Gas.  She won a place on the scheme but quickly realised that the smell of soldering actually made her feel physically sick!  It was also around this time, aged 18, that Debbii discovered she was pregnant with her first child.

As a young mother, Debbii took the decision that she did not want to relinquish the care of her baby to anyone else and that she would accept her role as a full-time mum for the foreseeable future.  Unable to take on a conventional job, she turned to her love of music and spent every scrap of free time composing lyrics and writing poems as a means to personal fulfilment.  

Nineteen months later, Debbii fell pregnant with her second child and continued to plough her energy into being a great mum to her two young sons, whilst still finding the time to maintain a commitment to developing her musical talent.  Although mildly frustrated by the constraints of motherhood, Debbii knew that she would only be happy if she was able to find a career that offered her the flexibility to combine hands on parenting with working.

In 1995 Debbii decided to make a return to the academic circuit and undertook a short course in Royalties and Contracts for the music industry, with a view to developing a business in the music publishing sector.  Such was Debbii’s enthusiasm for learning, she quickly enrolled on a BTEC national diploma in Popular Music which she successfully completed in two years.

By now armed with a strong academic as well as creative background in music Debbii was seriously considering managing herself as a performing rap artist, with a long term view of offering her rapping / song writing services to other recording artistes.  Armed with this vision she secured a much sought after place at Bucks New University to study for a BA Hons in Music Industry Management.

Whilst Debbii loved the course itself, after enduring a year of gruelling commuting, long hours and the added complication of caring for two young children, she felt that she had no option other than to drop out of the course.  Taking the advice of her lecturers who recognised the fact that Debbii already possessed a wealth of knowledge in relation to the music sector she decided to step out on her own.  Prior to joining the course, Debbii had placed an ad in Loot looking for an opportunity to speak to record producers / fellow artistes who might be interested in the lyrics she had been writing over the past five years – and also in her talents as a rap artist.  

By exploiting the contacts she had made as a result of the ad, Debbii was able to secure regular studio work as a session rapper / songwriter.  At one point she looked set to join a girl band in Germany but when this opportunity failed to reach fruition she returned to her studio work, whilst at the same time developing an interest in the growing garage music scene.

In August 2000, Debbii gave birth to her youngest son, and not wanting to end her music career, decided that her baby would accompany Debbii to the studio on a regular basis!  Around this time, she was introduced to the infamous So Solid Crew who invited Debbii to join their band.  Although Debbii rejected the offer she became good friends with the band and in particular developed a great working relationship with their producer A C Burrell, working with him on a solo basis producing garage music under the recording label Pure Silk.  Pure Silk offered Debbii a recording contract but, in typical entrepreneur fashion, she decided to go it alone instead choosing to put her records out independently via the numerous pirate stations operating within the underground music scene and showcasing her work at local gigs.

It was at one such gig that an A&R representative from Virgin spotted Debbii and she and Hidden talent a production duo she was working with were signed up to the reputable Virgin label, which brought with it a healthy £50,000 advance and the promise of high profile promotion via an established major label.

The heightened tension that surrounded So Solid Crew came to a head when a shooting took place at one of their events and sadly this incident had long term implication for anyone in the garage scene, since radio stations took the decision to no longer playlist garage music.  This forced Virgin to withdraw their offer of a video and promotion to kick start Debbii’s new career as a signed recording artiste.

However, fate stepped in and just as the whole relationship with Virgin came to an end, a contact of Debbii’s from her BTEC days was selected to appear as a featured artist on a Jaimeson recording and decided to lay down one of Debbii’s songs.  To cut a long story short, the track went to no4 in the national charts and suddenly, Debbii was in the enviable position of earning royalties from a song she had written some five years earlier.

Having parted company with Virgin, Debbii went on to set up her own label working on a Sale or Return deal with independent record shops.  However, as the garage scene began to change to produce a much harder sound, Debbii began to sense that perhaps a career in the music sector was no longer what she really wanted.  Disillusioned by the negative impact the industry had had on so many people around her, eventually she decided to totally pull out of the music scene.

In typical fashion, undaunted by the turn of events Debbii decided a total change of career was required.  Keen to set up her own business she eventually settled on buying the franchise to run a cleaning business based in Streatham, south London and within just one year, she was running a highly successful enterprise, with 4 full time staff and a weekly turnover of £3,000 per week.

A chance meeting whilst accompanying a friend on a business meeting provided her with an introduction to the world of psychometric profiling and an opportunity to meet Joe Adams, managing director of Success Dynamics.  Totally wowed by the phenomenal accuracy of the profile done on her, Debbii was keen to embrace the power of psychometrics in a business role.  Psychometric profiling provided Debbii with the tools to define her own personal happiness since it enabled her to understand her own personality better and in what environment she would be most likely to thrive.  Equipped with the skills to run psychometric profiles herself, Debbii recognised that the business could offer her the chance to reach out and communicate with people, which in itself was not a million miles away from what she had hoped to achieve with her song writing.

Now Debbii has finally found her niche she is passionate about the future potential for her business “I want to take psychometric profiling to the masses” she enthuses “people need to appreciate that this tool can help to unlock people’s future personal happiness – and it should not just be restricted to the recruitment process.  For example, I profiled my sons to help me improve my understanding of how they operate so that I can communicate more effectively with them”.

Such is her commitment to the power of psychometrics, Debbii has already written a book “We - the new me” which she hopes to publish this year.  She has also recently undertaken a Life Coaching course with The Secret’s Bob Proctor life training programme.  Her long term goal is to roll out a comprehensive consulting service offering a combination of psychometric profiling and life coaching, to help clients not only improve their understanding of themselves but to then go on to achieve their full potential in both their personal and working lives.