Agent Rainmaker founder Sally Lawson recently spent a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, his family, and a select group of global entrepreneurs – an experience she says will have a lasting impact on her approach to business, leadership, and helping agency owners succeed in their business.
Invited by Branson’s nephew, Noah Devereux, Lawson joined the group for this year’s STRIVE Challenge, an initiative that combines endurance activities with personal development and fundraising for the charity Big Change.
“If you’d told me a year ago I’d be swimming nearly five kilometres through open ocean alongside Richard Branson, I’d have laughed – or panicked – probably both,” Lawson said. “But last week, I did exactly that, during one of the most intense, inspiring, and surprising weeks of my life: STRIVE Week on Necker Island. It truly is a living example of what can happen when purpose meets action.”
Lawson described the challenge as “a full-body, full-mind, full-heart experience” that pushes participants to their limits both physically and mentally, while supporting a cause that creates long-term social impact.
Lawson says she returned from the experience with three key lessons that she believes will resonate with estate and letting agency owners: Leadership, Resilience, and Building Businesses That Matter.
Having coached leadership for years, she says STRIVE offered a new perspective, and made her realise that true leadership starts when you take ownership of your energy, focus, and decisions.
She explained. “We often idolise the lone leader. But I’ve come to realise the strongest leaders build strong communities. They draw strength from each other and offer it freely when needed. Great teams don’t just aim together, they endure together.”
She also reflected on the importance of resilience and personal growth through discomfort.
“There’s no shortcut around this one. Every meaningful shift in business, in mindset, in personal development happens on the other side of discomfort.”
For Lawson, the trip also reinforced a belief central to her work with Agent Rainmaker – that people are the true engine of business success.
She continued: “Growth happens when you empower others to think, act, and lead differently. When your people feel seen, supported, and stretched, your business multiplies in value. And the return on that investment? It goes far beyond the bottom line.”
Agent Rainmaker founder Sally Lawson recently spent a week on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, his family, and a select group of global entrepreneurs – an experience she says will have a lasting impact on her approach to business and leadership.
Lawson says she’s bringing these lessons back to her own work – helping agency owners build not just profitable companies, but purposeful ones.
“As I return to strategy sessions, team meetings, and growth planning, I carry STRIVE’s lessons with me,” she added. “To build not just profitable companies, but meaningful ones. Ones that matter and leave a legacy.”
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