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BRX Pro Tip: What is Your Prospecting Strategy?

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BRXmic99
BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: What is Your Prospecting Strategy?
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BRX Pro Tip: What is Your Prospecting Strategy?

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Today’s question, Lee, what is your prospecting strategy?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think a good prospecting strategy has some fundamental things that I’d like to discuss here. One is a clear understanding of who that ideal client is. Number one, you have to know who that person is and you have to know where they hang out. And once you kind of determine that and you get a handle of, okay, these are my ideal clients, this is where they hang out, now I have to come up with some sort of elegant and effective way to meet them in order to build a relationship.

Lee Kantor: And then, once I have that way to meet them and they’re into kind of my database or they’re into my circle, I have to have a way to keep following up with them over time. And there are so many automated solutions to that. And then once you have that going and they become a client, you have to figure out a way to get referrals and/or testimonials from them as well.

Lee Kantor: So, if you have a prospecting strategy that gives you that clear understanding of your ideal client, you identify where they hang out, you have a way to communicate with them in order to build a relationship, and then you have a way to move them into sharing their success with other people and/or helping you get referrals, then I think you have the fundamentals of a good prospecting strategy.

BRX Pro Tip: 3 Effective Time Management Tips

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BRXmic99
BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: 3 Effective Time Management Tips
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BRX Pro Tip: 3 Effective Time Management Tips

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, give us some tips from what you’re learning about managing that all too precious resource – our time.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think a lot of times people are just taking time for granted, and time just slips by and it moves so fast. And as we get busier and busier, and our time gets kind of squeezed more and more, it’s important to kind of understand where you’re at, what you’re doing, what you’re trying to accomplish.

I think the first thing to do is just assess your situation. So, kind of have some sort of time tracking system or use your calendar. Make sure if you’re going to use your calendar as a way to assess your situation, then put everything in there. Put your workouts, put your eating, put your meetings, put your work. Whatever you’re doing, kind of document it so you can really assess what your situation really is, not what you think it is because a lot of times, you think you’re doing some things, but if you look back, you’re really actually not doing those things. So, put everything down in a calendar because the calendar is not going to lie. The calendar is showing you the day, and you’re just putting in everything you’re doing during that day. It’s like a food journal. If you write down everything you’re eating, you’re going to know what you’re eating.

Number two is once you kind of have that assessment, see if it’s possible to kind of try and implement some of these techniques to get work done faster. I like using the Pomodoro technique, which is I kind of timebox an area, and then I’ll put a timer, and then I will work for, in this case, in my case, 25 minutes straight through, no interruptions, just focus work. And I find that that that improves my productivity, and it gets more things done faster than if I say, “Oh, I’m going to do that,” and then just kind of, throughout the day, try to do it. And then I realize, I didn’t do it because I never really marked the time, and I didn’t identify the area, and I didn’t kind of just got the work done. So, it’s important to identify the areas that will move the needle in your business, block out the time, and then get it done.

And then, periodically review and prioritize the tasks that need to get done because a lot of times, you need to get something done and then you don’t need to get it done anymore because it’s done. So, then, make an adjustment and put something else there to get done. So, those are some easy ways to get started with time management.

Camille L. Miller With The Natural Life Business Partnership/Soul Professional Business School

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ALR-Camille-Miller-Feature
Association Leadership Radio
Camille L. Miller With The Natural Life Business Partnership/Soul Professional Business School
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Naturallife-logoCamille L. Miller is a 3x bestselling author on soul-driven entrepreneurship, founder of the Soul Professional Movement, and a sought-after Business Designer & Strategist.

She is dedicated to helping soul-led entrepreneurs worldwide design businesses that align with their values and purpose.

Her mission is simple: to inspire and support others in bringing their gifts to the world.

Connect with Camille on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The rise of professionals leaving corporate careers to follow their passion
  • What it really takes to build a soul-led business that aligns with your expertise and purpose
  • How Camille’s business school is supporting entrepreneurs in this journey
  • Why Camille believes mid-life is the perfect time to become an entrepreneur
  • What inspired Camille to create the Soul Professional Business School

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Camille L Miller, and she is the Strategic Soul Aligned Business Design for Midlife Visionaries. And her organization is the Natural Life Business Partnership and Soul Professional Business School. Welcome.

Camille L Miller: Thank you. Lee. How are you today?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your business. How are you serving folks?

Camille L Miller: Um, so I am a strategic business designer, but I work very Strategically with solid visionaries. So they’re usually very logically brained and they’re in corporate structures. So doctors, scientists, lawyers, CPAs, engineers, lots of teachers right now. And they’re in a job. They did the thing, they made the title. And it just doesn’t make their hearts sing anymore. So in this next chapter of life, they’re like, okay, I want to do work that has more purpose and impact and gives me the lifestyle as I want. And I am usually hired as their thought partner in figuring out what that looks like, taking an assessment of what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, what do they want to do? Who do they want to serve, and help them design a life that they can take into retirement? And I call it wisdom to wealth. So and they usually do that into retirement.

Lee Kantor: And to be clear, when you’re saying soul, it’s not s o l e it’s s.o.u.l.

Camille L Miller: It’s s.o.u.l. Yeah. We say like your soul’s purpose, your destiny, what you want to do. So it’s this blending of very logical and spiritual, but more purpose driven, I would say.

Lee Kantor: So what was your path to this point? Why did you why did it become important to you to build a community around this thinking?

Camille L Miller: Yeah. So my background is actually in not for profit management. And the job I had before I created this company, I was a CEO for the State of New Jersey, for the Northeast Organic Farming Association, and it was in that role that I met incredibly spiritual people that were in these very corporate jobs. But I felt like they left a piece of themselves when when I was meeting with them. Right. They were eating organically. They were doing all this, these healthy things. They were living a spiritual life. And then they kind of left that at the doorstep of their corporate job and then went and did the thing and then had a different life. So they were like living two different lives. They weren’t in alignment. And I saw that a lot, like a lot, a lot. And that job was defunded in 2015, and I was kind of deciding, well, what is next for me. And I knew money wasn’t really my motivator anymore. It was impact. And I was like, how can I help other people bring their gifts to the world in a way that feels in alignment, that they can still make money, they feel very happy and satisfied. And that’s how I ended up creating. The original umbrella company now is called the Natural Life Business Partnership, and it was, um, a global mission to bring everyone together and just have conversations across borders about, um, spiritual and financial potential when we’re just being authentic in life.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re having these conversations with these folks that are maybe struggling with, Um, you know, their day job and their their dream job. Um, how do you kind of provide, like, what kind of services are you providing to help them maybe ease out of one and into the other?

Camille L Miller: Yeah. So the biggest program that I have, I run what’s called the sole professional business school, which we launched, not this, this past summer. Um, and it was it’s really to teach, like, MBA style business fundamentals through a soulful lens. So if you’re designing a business, one of the one of my signature programs in that school is called the Business Accelerator and Mentorship Program. So I’m literally doing an assessment with you and then building the business out with your mission statement, your vision statement, your unique value proposition, your messaging, your branding, your client, mapping your funnels like literally building the entire business and teaching you how a business actually runs, how we do cash flow statements and PNL statements. So it’s an MBA style education, and I should say I have been an adjunct professor in university teaching MBA students. Um, and that’s why I was able to do this, to take that education and weave it into actual business strategy, like really work with people that want to do this.

Lee Kantor: So what’s an example of somebody who, you know, was an accountant and now they’re an artist? Like, do you have stories you can share? You know. Oh don’t.

Camille L Miller: Name.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, yeah. Don’t name the person. But maybe explain where they were at and where they got to.

Camille L Miller: Right, absolutely. Um, and some people stay in their field. They just do it differently. Like, I worked with a psychologist, an MD, and they really believed that their clients or patients, then the patients Were better off if they also used sound healing. So we had to incorporate sound healing. Now insurance doesn’t cover that. So that’s a big jump. And sometimes they have to leave medical licenses behind and become coaches or advisors or called something else. Um, but they um incorporated not only the talk therapy but sound healing into their practice. Right. And now they can be a coach or a guide. I had another therapist who has become a writing coach. Um, they had at least 25 New York best sellers. They wrote under a pen name, and they decided that this is what they wanted to do going forward and not be the therapist, but be a writing coach. So that’s, you know, another one that did that. I’ve worked with an attorney that was doing, um, uh, real estate contracts, but really wanted to be an environmental science, right? So they had to reorganize their life, kind of close down one of their practices with another partner, open up their own practice, and now is in a world of, um, wetlands and organic agriculture and hop farms and doing the work that they love.

Camille L Miller: So it’s it’s not always leaving what you’re doing, it’s how you incorporating it into your next step. We have financial planners that leave big organizations and then start maybe giving help in sustainable companies, or only working with women or something like that. So it’s really narrowing their focus sometimes. It’s not always completely stepping out, but we have both and it’s really how the other person wants to design what that looks like. Usually they’ve always had an inkling of what is possible or I shouldn’t say what’s possible. I should say an inkling of what they might want to do, but not understand how that could be possible. And the biggest time when they come to me is how do I replace my salary? Because that’s what I really need, right? So sometimes we’re also working on exit plans, which we do a lot of times with teachers that come to work with me in the fall because they’re planning on June to exit. Right. So we have to work on an exit plan and building up the new career to let the old one go.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody who’s listening is maybe in that point of transition, or is considering that point of transition, what are some ways that they can test? Is it possible even to kind of, um, dabble in this a little as maybe a side hustle to see if there is any traction? Because like when you made the leap from, you know, working at the association to I’m going to do my own thing here. Um, at some point somebody has to buy something. Um, so how do you kind of test the waters to see if if what I dream of or what I think I dream of is actually something the market will purchase?

Camille L Miller: Yeah. So for most people, not myself, because I just took the damn leap all my own. Uh, but for most people, when they have a full time job and they need that salary, we do it as a side hustle. Like, we build up one as we let down the other. And most jobs will let you go like three quarter time, half time if you’re in a senior position. And those are usually the people that I work with. Um, you know, and we do it slowly and we test the waters and we test packages. But I’ve also designed thousands of businesses over the last ten years. So I usually have an inkling of this has worked before. This is, you know, usually how we set them up. Um, although it’s, um, very individualized for each person. Um, so that’s usually how we do it. We usually have like an exit plan as we build one up and people can go out there and try it. You know, sometimes it’s nights and it’s weekends as they’re testing the waters and seeing what works as we test packages and pricing and we test it all. So, um, yeah, it’s.

Lee Kantor: Is there, um, kind of a common fear that people have when they’re looking for this soul based, um, oh, gosh experience. And they’re, you know, they, they haven’t kind of, um, done this before. And it seems like a leap that might be too far. Is there some mistakes you see them making? Um, kind of consistently, or is there a common thread that you see like that that they’re struggling with?

Camille L Miller: Yeah. The biggest one is the fear. Fear that, uh, people don’t make money doing this. It’s kind of a limiting belief. Not kind of. It is. It’s a limiting belief. Like people don’t do it this way or no one will pay me for doing this because their specialty. They’ve always been paid doing something else. Right. So usually it’s a common belief and we have to work to get them over that. Right. So it’s really an inner game as much as it is an outer game. Right. So the inner game has to believe that you are worthy and deserving of whatever you’re creating, right? But we’re creating real businesses. We’re not, um, we’re not creating things that are kind of like airy fairy. We’re creating actual coaching or consulting or advising businesses. Um, and we do determine a market ahead of time.

Lee Kantor: So you’re not just so you’re not.

Camille L Miller: Just throwing spaghetti at a wall.

Lee Kantor: Right? So your client isn’t somebody who’s like, I want to be, you know, the next Banksy or the next Dave Chappelle. Like, they’re not trying to be, you know, kind of an artist in that sense. They’re more looking for a more fulfilling job in kind of a similar place they were, or in an area they’re interested in.

Camille L Miller: Um, sometimes they switch completely, sometimes they go, uh, it’s just like a dovetailing of who they are and who they want to be. Right. If you’re if you’re I see it a lot in like, an attorneys and CPAs. Um, if you’ve always done like the numbers or law and that’s what you know, and you still love a piece of it, we can bring it over to the next business. You may still be doing law, but doing it in a different way or doing it as your own firm. Right? So sometimes it’s just creating your own business in a way that feels in alignment with you, like taking the clients that you want or going into an area of expertise that you prefer. Right. So it’s different for absolutely everyone. And sometimes people come to me after they’ve tried something for a year or two, and they just really haven’t had traction. It’s because they are lacking the business fundamentals or a real strategy on how do we actually do that? How do I find my clients? Where are they? Right? What is my messaging? What is my branding? Because most people didn’t go to business school, right? They don’t they don’t really know how to run a business. Right. They’re throwing, um, money into programs and things that they probably don’t need, right? Like lots of social media. And they may have lots of followers, but no one’s actually coming in and being a client. Right. That’s a big problem. Right? So those are the things that we have to talk about and understand, because it’s really it’s right. It’s running a business in a very different way. And if you’ve been getting a paycheck your entire life, there’s a lot to being an entrepreneur. And it’s scary. It’s scary and it’s lonely, right? Because you have to have a support system that’s saying, okay, sometimes you have bad months, sometimes you have great months. The idea is to get it steady, right, and to create all those things along the way that keep you afloat.

Lee Kantor: Is there a trigger or a kind of a point that people reach where they’re like, oh, I better contact Camille. Like, is there something that happens where they’re like, like a near-death experience or like, oh, is this my legacy? I’m just going to be an accountant. And like, that’s not what I’d like on my tombstone. Like, are there certain things that are triggers that people say, hey, you know, life’s got to be more than this 9 to 5 that I’m at.

Camille L Miller: Yeah, it’s mostly in midlife, like they’re contemplating or they’re showing up for work every day and they just hate it, right? Or they’re missing a piece of their life. We did realize that during the pandemic, a lot of people went through this and they’re just like, I don’t want to go back. I didn’t realize how much I was commuting or how much I was missing my family or my friends or all of this other things. And I think that has grown over time. We’re seeing mass exiting now. We’re also seeing a lot of younger people. So my target market used to be like 48 to 62 people that have made the money and they’re like, yep, I’m ready for something new in my life. And they have that security, that financial security. Now I’m seeing people in my 30s coming into my programs. They’re just like, I’m not doing this anymore. Um, so it’s usually that curiosity, that awakening to there’s got to be more to life than this, or I really want some more time to myself or with my family, or I want to start to travel or live somewhere else in the world. We have a lot of digital nomads coming out now. Um, a simpler life. Um, so it’s usually that type of thinking that starts it all, and at some point they get introduced to me or my services, or it could be someone else’s. Maybe they’ve tried programs. Um, you know, and and that’s I find that they usually get introduced to me and they hang out in our community and they meet people that are doing it because we have a very free community, part of our soul professional movement, uh, that we represent. It’s like 28 or 29 countries right now of people doing this. And we’re all micro entrepreneurs, so they’re usually solo entrepreneurs, or they have very small teams and they’re doing really great things in the world making big impact. And they’re like, hey, I think I want to I want to try this. What’s possible over here? And that’s usually how they start.

Lee Kantor: So then so walk me through like what. So I go to your website so professional.com. And then what’s what should I do next.

Camille L Miller: So I always recommend that people start over in our free area. They can come to free masterclasses that I do every single month. Uh they’re also on YouTube. So if you can’t be there live, you can go see all of my work. And it shows how I talk, what I think about what my core values are. Um, so you can see what this community is all about. We also have free networking every single month. We have a free Facebook group. So you can start to have conversations and talk to people that are doing it, um, and see what’s possible. Um, there’s an online learning academy where you can take, um, courses. I have a really great one that, um, was just put out a few months ago. It’s called Corporate to Calling. It’s a 28 days. It’s called the Corporate to calling 50 manifest the life and business of your dreams. In 15 minutes a day, it goes over 28 days. And every day you have, like, a 5 or 10 minute video and an exercise that’s really thought provoking. So like journaling, right? And it goes through your assessments of your strengths, your weaknesses, your purpose. What do you think that you might want to do? Who would you want to serve? And all of these questions that at the end of 28 days, you have a pretty good idea if this feels in alignment for you. And then, of course, from there we can start to build a business. But it’s a very inexpensive way to really go through the process. Um, if someone was working with me personally, I always start with, if you were to win the lottery today, what would you do tomorrow? And it’s in that answer that they’re telling me their life dreams. And that’s where we start. It’s like, let’s build a business that allows you to do that today.

Lee Kantor: So. So there’s a bunch of stuff that’s free that people can sample and experience, and then if they want more in depth or more personal care, they can pay for a different services and different there’s different levels of membership.

Camille L Miller: Absolutely. Yeah. So they can go into the school, they can see all the school programs. If that’s where they want to go. They can, you know, start very simply in an online class. And all of those online classes have access to me as well where I’m answering, they can go into free communities and just ask questions. Right. So my mission here is to really help other people bring these gifts to the world, because I feel that they’re needed. Uh, so we try to make it as easy as possible for people to explore what’s possible.

Lee Kantor: So are you finding that there’s a real hunger for this, that the people are just getting kind of frustrated about being on this hamster wheel, and that there has to be more.

Camille L Miller: Yeah, yeah, more and more. I mean, 100% of my work is word of mouth. And the the thing that I hear most is, oh, my God, I didn’t know you existed out there. Right. So they’re finding that belongingness, right? They’re finding that purpose. And when you’re surrounded by other people that are all doing this together, there’s a comfort to that, right? It’s like a big soul family and across borders, right? It’s really about being a more global citizen and serving people around the world with your gifts. So and there’s a big comfort in that.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wanted to learn more and have more substantive conversation, what’s the website one more time?

Camille L Miller: Uh, soul s o u l professional.com, and they can look up everything they need.

Lee Kantor: Well, Camille, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Camille L Miller: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: All right, this Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association leadership Radio.

Tom Applegarth with Preferred CFO

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HBR-Preferred-CFO-Feature
Houston Business Radio
Tom Applegarth with Preferred CFO
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Tom-ApplegarthTom Applegarth with Preferred CFO is transforming organizations through strategic HR process improvement.

He’s an expert in talent management, recruiting, compensation & benefits, performance management, labor relations, HRIS, and global mobility. Proven success in aligning culture and processes to optimize talent, driving leadership development, and fostering business partnerships at all levels.

In a conversation with Trisha, Tom discussed the vital role of HR partners for small businesses, the challenges of remote work, and the importance of benchmark data in understanding employee sentiments. Preferred-CFO-logo

He emphasized the risks of employee terminations, the need for proper documentation in severance agreements, and the advantages of outsourcing critical business functions.

His insights focus on educating small to medium-sized business owners about affordable and effective HR solutions.

Connect with Tom on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. So I want to introduce you to my new friend. We were having some fun before we started recording here. I’ve got Tom Applegarth on the line with me today from Preferred CFO. Tom, I’m really excited to have you on the show with me today.

Tom Applegarth: I’m glad to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: So let’s talk H.R.. But first, tell us more about Tom, and then let’s dive into Preferred CFO and the services that you’re providing to businesses.

Tom Applegarth: Absolutely. So I’ve been in HR my entire career. After graduating from business school, um, I went to work for BP Amoco and was with them in an HR role. And and then then I moved to Payless Shoesource. Uh, you know which at the time that I worked for them in the 90s, they sold one out of every five pairs of shoes in the United States. Wow. Today they sell zero. So it’s still a mind blowing for me. Um, but I was there for, uh, for eight years and a bunch of different HR roles. Um, I was, uh, worked for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, where I was the head of HR for one of their divisions. That was about a billion in sales. Um, and 8000 employees. Um, I worked for a company called Belden, um, that did about 2.5 billion in sales. And I was the head of HR for one of their divisions. That was also about a billion in sales. I was the head of comp and benefits for them. Um, I did a lot of recruiting. Um, and, uh, and, and then then I was the chief people officer for a company called Potter Electric. And a couple of years ago I joined preferred CFO. We do outsourced finance, accounting, HR and payroll for small companies. And then we also do a fair amount of recruiting for big companies. Um, and, and a few HR projects, certainly willing to do HR projects for big companies as well. Um, but but you know, we have a great team that’s just providing air support to, to companies.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. It’s fantastic. So very diverse background where you get to be on the other side of all of the things that you’re doing now, you’re providing the service to people like you.

Tom Applegarth: Yeah, absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Tom Applegarth: Fantastic. And and we’re, you know, just a fractional HR leader for small companies where it doesn’t make sense for them to hire an HR professional full time because they’re too small. Well, we’ll we’ll put in an HR manager, you know, who’s only working part time. And it just saves them a lot of money.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s talk about the importance of that. So small small businesses don’t necessarily need what I would consider an HR partner or service, right? Where because they’re small, maybe they don’t even have any employees, or they have 1 or 2 employees. Now they’ve grown. Why is it important to allow a service like yours to be a partner in their business?

Tom Applegarth: Yeah. So I think I think once a once a small business hires their first employee, they’ve now taken a step into the government is now a partner with them because there are all kinds of laws around how you treat your employees. And and you can you know, it’s kind of like speeding. A lot of times you don’t get caught, but when you get caught, you’re going to wish you hadn’t got caught. Um, we have we have a client that, uh, that that, uh, became a client of ours, um, you know, in the last 6 or 8 months. And they had a they had somebody doing payroll and HR that, you know, didn’t really know what they were doing. They had they were doing lots of other stuff. So, you know, not necessarily expected to know what they were doing. And we got in there and we found all kinds of laws, including they have, uh, they have about 100 employees spread out amongst 10 or 15 states. Well, and they’re using paychecks to do their payroll. Well, paychecks is a great software and and works really well, but you still need to know what you’re doing, and you got to jump through a few hoops with paychecks to have them actually pay payroll taxes in certain states.

Tom Applegarth: And this company hadn’t done that. And so we we joined them and said, oh, well, first thing we need to do is clean this up because you haven’t paid payroll, you haven’t paid taxes in, like, you know, 5 or 6 states for a year and, you know, cost them a lot more money to clean that up. There’s a few other things that were cleaning up that hopefully, hopefully nobody from the government is listening. And they don’t they don’t, you know, come after us anytime real soon. But but some of those things can I mean, even for a small business like that, a few of those things can add up to 50, 60, $70,000. Um, you know, and so I think it’s important to have somebody that knows what they’re doing. And then the other thing that we really help with is coaching and counseling of the management team. You know, employees don’t often go sit down with their boss and say, hey, boss, you’re really screwing up. And here, let me tell you how. But that’s really one of the roles that the HR manager needs to play is understanding what’s going on, getting feedback from employees, and then coaching management on how they can be better.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow, what a concept, Tom.

Tom Applegarth: There you go.

Trisha Stetzel: A feedback loop, right?

Tom Applegarth: Exactly. Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: The employees are doing so before we started recording. I’d like to shift just a little bit to the conversation that we were having about bringing everybody back to the office. So what are your thoughts around that, especially from an HR perspective. And payroll. It does. It makes a difference, I think.

Tom Applegarth: Yeah, it does. And so I speak with a lot of CEOs that are both clients and prospective clients. And then, you know, a few of my friends that that are CEOs today. And I have yet to meet the CEO that actually has an office. I have a few, a few clients that you know are totally virtual and don’t have an office. Um, and, you know, I’ve never had an office. Uh, um, but but the ones that actually have an office, I think it’s they all all of these CEOs want to bring people back in the office more. And the question I always ask them is, you know, help me understand why. And a lot of it’s around, you know, I’m not sure we’re getting the creativity, the teamwork. You know, there’s something about being together that we’re missing and and I agree with them about that. But I worry about, okay, if you force people back in the office that don’t want to be there, you know how much creativity and teamwork and, you know, do you think you’re really going to get. And so, you know, I think that if you tell, you know, I think if a manager so, you know, in some of these small companies, the CEO is the manager and I give them a lot more weight in, in their decision of whether or not they ought to bring people back to the office. Um, I think back to the, uh, the CEO of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Tom Applegarth: I was the head of HR of $1 billion division, and I shook his hand like, maybe three times in two years. He had no idea what was going on in our business. We had 8000 employees, a billion in revenue, you know, great guy. And and you know, and Goodyear was like 15 billion in sales. So, you know, we only had 1/15 of his business. So I didn’t necessarily expect a ton of face time with him, but he had absolutely no idea what was going on in the business. And so in that scenario, when that CEO and and I have no idea what Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is doing from a work at home perspective, because it’s been 20 years since I worked there. But, you know, a CEO that is not managing the team, mandating that everybody come back in the office, I question whether or not they really know whether or not that’s going to be the best thing. And in most of these organizations that are doing that, that are a little bigger, and the CEO isn’t managing all the employees directly, um, almost all of their managers disagree with the CEO and don’t think they should force their team to come in. Me personally, I think the manager probably has a better feel for what’s going to help them achieve their goals and objectives. Then the CEO, who may be, you know, three, four, five people removed from that work team.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And, you know, it’s that feedback loop again, where you’re talking about having this HR person really understand what’s happening with the people in the business and able to convey or relay that message to those who need to hear it. Right. Um, what? Tell me how this shifts the way your business is operating with these businesses that are going back to the office?

Tom Applegarth: Yeah. So, I mean, we’re we’re we’re coaching the, the the CEO and and and sometimes I’m, you know, we’re we’re more successful. Sometimes we’re less successful. Um, but then one of the things that’s an easy sell that I think is really good is all right. You know, you’ve you’ve decided you want to bring people back in the office. Well, before you just totally make that mandate. Let’s do a employee engagement survey, and we’ll have some questions there about coming back to the office. But then we’ll have lots of other questions as well. But I I’m a big believer in employee engagement surveys because they they really help people provide anonymous feedback, which is the only way you really get, you know, even semi honest feedback, right? I mean, if people have to put their name to feedback, rarely it happens. But but most frequently people are going to pull their punches a little bit. And so I think that kind of anonymous feedback is good. I think I think I think that companies should get help when doing an employee engagement survey, because benchmark data is important. Because and I’ll give you my favorite example, most companies, if you ask the ask employees, um, do you think your compensation is, uh, you know, high low or about. Right. Almost. You know, usually way more than half say. I think my I think my pay is too low.

Tom Applegarth: But when you can benchmark that against other companies because I had one client that, you know asked that question, you know, came back, they were like wow 45%. I mean 55% of our employees think they’re underpaid. Tom, what are we going to do? I’m like, you ought to feel pretty good because the benchmark is like 40%.

Tom Applegarth: You guys are overindexed. You know, you guys are are they’re in a good spot doing really well.

Tom Applegarth: So don’t worry about it. You know, and so you need you need some kind of stake in the ground to understand and interpret the answers that you’re getting from your employees. But but I think that’s a good first step is, you know, let’s see how strongly employees feel about coming back to the office. And, you know, and there’s a big difference between telling everybody, I want you to come back to the office one day a week, and I want you to come back to the office five days a week, you know? So. So, you know. Hey, Ken, is there some middle ground here? Let’s let’s talk about this. Let’s not just, you know, pull a Jamie Dimon and say, nope, everybody’s back in the office five days a week or you’re fired, or I guess an Elon Musk as well for our federal.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, yeah. Then you have a bunch of employees stomping around and then you have a bigger HR problem, right? I mean, that’s the if you’re not careful.

Tom Applegarth: And and ultimately, to me, um, you really need to measure, you know, what are the 4 or 5 metrics that help us as a company understand whether or not we’re successful? Okay. And then if that’s what we’re measuring, what are the 4 or 5 metrics for each one of the CEO’s direct reports that help us understand whether or not their team is successful? And then you ought to be able to take that all the way down to every single employee in the company. And, you know, certainly there’s some some job functions that are easier to measure than others. But but the question I always ask myself is, if you cannot identify the 4 or 5 metrics for that job that tell you whether or not it’s being successful, are you certain that you need that job?

Tom Applegarth: And so and ultimately if you’re managing an organization I think you’re much better served to manage the 4 or 5 metrics for every person going down the organization. So, so if you’re a CEO and you have eight direct reports, each one of those direct reports ought to have the 4 or 5 metrics that help you tell if they’re successful, if they are exceeding the goals and exceeding your expectations, you ought to go play some golf, because all you’re going to do is screw this up. If you get in the middle of this, go play some golf, enjoy some work life balance. Go think about where your organization should be in five years. But don’t get into the day to day because you are green on all of your metrics now where you’re red. All right. Now dig in and figure out what’s going on. And if you’re only measuring the 4 or 5 metrics of the people that report to you as the CEO, what, how what percentage of their team is in the office probably isn’t going to be one of those 4 or 5 metrics that really tell you whether or not your organization is being successful?

Trisha Stetzel: That’s right. So, Tom, if someone’s interested in having a conversation with you about this, about HR, about all of the work that you’re doing out there for these companies, how can they find you?

Tom Applegarth: So you can go to preferred Cfo.com, or you can just Google Tom Applegarth and it’s Apple like the fruit. And Garth is in Garth Brooks. So very phonetic. And luckily my last name is unique enough that if you Google Tom Applegarth, Human Resources. I’m the only one who comes up.

Trisha Stetzel: The only one that comes up. Your face will be all over the screen. Tom.

Tom Applegarth: That’s it. That’s it.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, can we talk about the importance of outsourcing something so important to a business? So. And I believe unless you’re an expert at payroll or HR, you shouldn’t be doing it. So tell me. Tell me your thoughts on that.

Tom Applegarth: Yeah, I agree with that. I think that goes for every function. You know, I mean, every small business owner is an expert in some things. And if you’re an expert, well, there’s absolutely no need for you to bring on another expert. Right? You’re the expert. Yeah. Um, but if you don’t think you’re the expert in HR or payroll, you’re probably right. And you’re going to potentially there’s a lot of lot of people I’ve worked with over the years that have spent five, six figure sums Because they didn’t have an expert. And if you’re a small company, generally if you have less than 100 employees and maybe even less than 200 employees, going and hiring an HR and payroll expert is probably costing you more than it needs to. Um, because if you have, especially if you have less than 100 employees, you don’t really have a full time job for an HR expert. You’re either going to be overpaying, or you’re going to pay somebody who may say they’re an expert, but you’re not paying them enough for them to really be an expert. And, you know, I’ve there’s a lot of clients that that we bring on that had a, you know, somebody who, you know, wasn’t an expert but doing the job and they’re just not they’re just not equipped to do it. It’s not their fault. They’re an expert in something else. But you know, and definitely in HR everybody seems to think that that they know what they’re talking about. Um, usually, you know, 5 or 6 minute conversation. I can help them understand. They don’t really know what they’re talking about. But it’s one of those functions probably a little bit like marketing to, you know, everybody thinks they’re an expert in HR and marketing. And, you know, most of them are probably wrong.

Trisha Stetzel: I would agree. And there’s so much liability alongside of being your own HR person. Right. Or hiring somebody with from within. And that happens often. Somebody gets promoted. Now they’re the HR person right. And they don’t know. And they’re not looking at the laws like your company would and know all of the changes that are happening every it’s not even just every year. It’s every few months there’s something new out there. And that is exactly why someone would want to, um, engage with you. So let’s talk about not everybody understands this whole idea of fractional. So you do a lot of fractional work. Air. We talked about the CFO work and some of these other areas that you can do fractional work. So first explain what that means fractional. And then tell us the services that you offer in that fractional space.

Tom Applegarth: Yes. So fractional means getting you know somebody that has 20 plus years of experience in an area and is an expert and, and has lots of experience with, you know, big companies, small companies, all sizes of companies, and you’re basically hiring them on a part time basis because you can’t afford them on a full time basis, and you probably don’t even have 40 hours a week worth of work if you’re if you’re a small company. So. So that’s where preferred CFO for CFOs, controllers, CPAs, HR managers and payroll managers. That’s what that’s what we do is we have people that are working for us full time, but they’re working for 3 or 4 different small companies, and we’re it’s just like having your, you know, a full time employee in that we pick up the phone 24 over seven, just like a full time employee. You don’t always get us on the first ring, but we’re calling you back really quickly because we’re part of your team and and we’re we’re embedded. So it’s it’s really the best of all worlds that you’re you’re not paying as much. You’re getting the expertise, but you’re still getting somebody who’s going to return your phone call within, you know, a reasonable amount of time, usually hours. I mean, you know, you call just like just like when the CEO of of Potter Electric used to call me, it might take me an hour or two to get back to him if I was in a meeting or whatever. Um, it’s the same with the CEOs of small companies that are now giving me a call or giving somebody on my team a call. I mean, we’re returning that call as soon as we can.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So bringing this expertise at something affordable for these small businesses, I think that’s so important for people to hear. You can have amazing experts on your team and not have to pay for them to be an employee on your team. Right. You can use them as a fractional service. And I think that’s so important. So as we start to get to the back end of our conversation, I’d love to hear your favorite story. It could be a client story, some part of you figuring out what you wanted to be when you grew up, I don’t know. So tell us a story, Tom.

Tom Applegarth: Well, my my favorite story. And and it’s I mean, it’s it’s the one I, I, I tell the most because I think one of the things that companies do that can cost them a ton of money is when you terminate somebody, every time you terminate somebody, there’s a potential risk. And so the story I always tell to help people appreciate this risk is when I was involved in it, we had a plant manager who was managing a plant of about 100 employees and a horrible plant manager. Um, but he had worked for the company for 30 years, been around forever, but, you know, retired. My my hypothesis is he retired, but just didn’t tell anybody. He kept coming to work, uh, occasionally. Um, and so, so, you know, so his boss was like, we need to fire this guy tomorrow. I’m like, well, you know, he’s been here for 30 years. We probably need to first, you know, if not from a moral perspective, from a legal perspective, we need to give him firm guidance on What are the 4 or 5 metrics he’s not hitting that he needs to hit, or we’re going to fire him and let’s do it in writing and let’s you and I do it together. So we have witnesses. So if this thing ever ends up in court, you know. So we gave that to him. And a couple months later his boss is like, all right, I need a firing today. He’s not hitting those 4 or 5 metrics because, well, he worked here for 30 years. He’s, uh, you know, it’s only been a couple of months.

Tom Applegarth: He’s got, you know, he’s turning a little bit of an organization. It’s not like it’s just him personally. Right? He’s trying to change. So let’s, let’s, let’s give him another written warning and tell him, here are the 4 or 5 metrics that your organization needs to improve. Or we’re going to going to have to fire you. So we did that a couple months later. All right. Let’s fire him right now. I’m like, okay, all right, I think we can fire him. But and I’m a firm believer in this and this this incident helped, uh, helped reaffirm it. I’m like, any time you fire somebody, especially if they’ve been with you for 30 years, we ought to give them severance if they sign an agreement not to sue us. Just think of it as insurance. This guy was like, no, you’ve made me waste four months. We’re not giving him a dime. I’m like, oh, dude. So I went to his boss. You know, the division president. And I’m like, hey, come on, 30 years. We need to do it. And a division president is like, no, we’re not. We’re not a dime. I’m like, it’s a mistake. And then the mistake I made is I didn’t go to the CEO. I should have. I said, oh, it’s a mistake, but I guess, you know, you’re a division president. I’ll let you make a mistake. Made a mistake? Of course. The guy go, gets a lawyer, sues us. That cost the company $1 million. And the CEO came to see me and said, Tom, what happened? And I’m like, I’m sorry.

Tom Applegarth: I should have. I should have come to you. I knew this was going to turn out bad. I made a mistake. I should have come to you. I didn’t, um, you know. And, hey, that’s what happens. You get a jury of 12, they only need nine. They do crazy stuff. And, uh. And there’s no doubt in my mind that we weren’t discriminating against him based on age, which was his allegation. But that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what’s true. What matters is what a defense attorney who’s I mean, a plaintiff’s attorney who’s working on contingency can convince nine of 12 jurors. That’s all that matters. And that’s why I think you need, you know, uh, the certainly a well written agreement. Severance agreement. And you don’t have to give people a lot of money. A week’s pay, two weeks pay. I mean, you don’t have to give people a lot of money, but give them a little bit of money, have them sign a properly documented severance agreement. There’s a lot of rules there, so make sure you know you don’t just write one out on a napkin. You need to know what you’re doing for it to be enforceable in court. But but literally in my 30 plus years, either me or somebody who’s worked for me has probably fired over a thousand people. And, um, and, you know, most of them have signed a severance agreement, and no one who has signed a severance agreement has ever, um, got an attorney to be willing to take their case.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Wow. That is a very expensive lesson to learn. Tom.

Tom Applegarth: Expensive lesson.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you for sharing that. So if people want to just remind us how they can find you, if they want to have a follow up conversation with you.

Tom Applegarth: Yes. Go to preferred CFO. Com or Google Tom Applegarth. Um, and the human resources and you’ll see my LinkedIn and everything else there.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. And I love that you made reference to Garth Brooks because I kind of like him. And it’s Houston rodeo time.

Tom Applegarth: I’m just saying I like him, too. In fact, my my wife with our first born child said maybe we should name him Garth. I said, come on, Garth, Apple. Garth. No, that’s I have to veto that one. That’s awful.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s not a good parenting decision. I’m just saying. Tom, thank you so much for being on with me today. The work that you’re doing is really important to small businesses, medium businesses, giant businesses. And I think the more we can educate our small business small to medium sized business owners, the more they can take advantage of these really great services that are actually affordable. Yeah.

Tom Applegarth: Thank you. It’s good to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

 

Andre Paradis with Project Equinox

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Houston Business Radio
Andre Paradis with Project Equinox
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Andre-ParadisFrom a professional dancer to a global relationship coach, Andre Paradis has dedicated his life to helping others build healthy, lasting connections. His passion for teaching took him from Japan to Bangkok, and in 2006, his deep curiosity about relationship dynamics led to a powerful discovery.

Through Project Equinox, Andre shares his insights, equipping people with the tools for excellent communication and fulfilling relationships. Now in the ‘third phase’ of his journey, he is committed to making a lasting, positive impact worldwide.

In a conversation with Trisha, Andre, a relationship and NLP coach, discussed the importance of understanding and respecting traditional gender roles to improve communication and relationships.

He emphasized balance, trust, and vulnerability, using the metaphor of a dance to illustrate his points. He also offered two gifts for listeners and expressed his passion for helping modern, long-term relationships through coaching and podcasts.

Connect with Andre on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. I have the most amazing opportunity to talk to Andre Paradis today, who is a relationship and NLP coach and President and CEO of Project Equinox. Andre, welcome to the show.

Andre Paradis: Well thank you. Good to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited to have you on. So first tell us who Andre is.

Andre Paradis: Uh, Andre is a, uh, an ex-professional dancer. Kind of traveled the world. Uh, Michael Jackson, Prince, Paula Abdul. I was really made it to the top. It was a fantastic journey. Um, ended up, uh, starting a family, which got me grounded. I didn’t want to travel the world and not be present. So stage two of my life was a auto repair shop in Los Angeles. I’m a car freak, so? So that was stage two of my life. This is when. And then. But that allowed me to stay grounded, be home with my family. Uh, the business was six minutes from my house, and the kids school was two blocks away. So my I set it up. So both my wife and I were at every recital, every parade, every, every. Because I didn’t have that as a kid. Right. So that was important for me to set it up that way. But I’ve been in personal development my whole life, and I took a workshop in 2006 called Understanding Women Completely Random. I was it was a gift I had. No, I wasn’t looking for any of this. And at the time, I’m married with two little kids. We’re doing great. But I realized in that workshop that I knew nothing about women, which scared the life out of me because my siblings are divorced and married like three and, you know, went on four. I have my family. We just have a baby and a toddler.

Andre Paradis: We’re doing great. But I realized I knew nothing about women in that special workshop, which then I realized that means I’m not thinking about my wife. And to me, that liability was insane. Like, it just it worried me. And I thought I didn’t want to be a statistic because I didn’t know. Now I’m a curious guy. I want to know everything. I’m just my brain. So after that workshop, I ended up taking all their workshop, the company that was providing. And you know, after you pay for all the workshop, I think it was 11 of them. After paying for the workshops and attending, you get to come back, come back and assist and be in the space. Right. And I was in a workshop every freaking weekend because it was the content. It was so much more every time it was more and even the same workshop, the teacher would teach us differently. The question would be different. The answer would be, oh wow. And I just the more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know anything. So that’s how this whole thing started in 2006, 2009. I started Project Equinox and the business exploded because there’s a lot of confusion out there, so much so that I had to sell my other business. It was like completely took me over. So that’s how we get to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, now you got to dig into Project Equinox. What does that mean to you?

Andre Paradis: Well, the Equinox is the perfect balance between day and night, right? So I thought masculine and feminine, the dance. I thought it was clever. So, Equinox, a friend of mine came up with this, and he goes, dude, it’s perfect. Like, I like it. So.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. All right. And now you’re out spreading the word. You are talking to everyone about this topic. And what is the topic?

Andre Paradis: The dance of relationships I call it. If you look behind me like I’m going to show you this, this is my wife and I, ballroom dancing.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh. That’s beautiful.

Andre Paradis: So my life was started as a dancer. I was a ballroom dancer into a commercial jazz dancer, but my wife’s also a ballerina, so we met. Dancing and the metaphors for dancing in relationships are exquisite. So I used that that in my teachings to understand how to dance together. Because there’s no, you know, the, the typical ballroom, you know, frame is two entities that become one relationship and marriage is two becoming one under God if you’re that person. But there’s something magical about this, how do we, you know, and the difficulties I see is that men and women are completely different, as you know, not a little bit completely different. So often it’s difficult to become one when the other each is thinking the other one is misbehaving. Right? Women are like hard driven, feeling driven. Men are head driven, you know, logic driven. And often we collide because women will say men are insensitive, They’re cold and distant. They give you the one word answer. They don’t want to share their lives with us. Well, no, that’s being masculine. Stoic. That’s kind of the standard, right? This is what my brain, our brains go to. Now, there’s a way to pull us into you differently.

Andre Paradis: But if you leave us alone, we’re in our heads. Right. So women think we’re shallow, disconnected, selfish, self-centered. That’s not it. I mean, I’m up in my head. That’s how we survive as a species. But. And on the other side, men will say, I don’t know, I. She takes everything personally. It’s not what I said. It’s not what I meant. I never said that. I never, you know, you know. So. And we often think you’re a little crazy. So men think we’re crazy. Women think men are shallow, and that’s that’s the the polarity of us. But, you know, however, the polarity is essential for us to come together. It’s the complementary of that that works. Right. So we’re not equals. We’re equally important. But as human beings, we’re completely different. Just like our genitals. The complete opposite, but made to fit our personalities or yin yang is made to fit. So most people are struggling with this because there’s so much equality stuff out there that we’re trying to make the other person like us, and that’s what doesn’t work anyway. Ooh, you got me going.

Trisha Stetzel: I know, no, I love it. And and it’s a lot. We talked about this before we started recording. Everything that comes out of your mouth is based on science, right? This is not your opinion. It’s actually truth. So I’d like to back up just a little bit because I introduced you as a relationship and NLP coach. Not everyone may understand what NLP is, so can you define that?

Andre Paradis: Yeah. Nlp stands for Neuro Linguistic programing and I think it should be called neuro linguistic reprograming because that’s what I do with my clients is like and the psychology, this is psychology part of my work. Um, human beings are very interesting. And when I get to heaven, we’re gonna have a conversation about that design, because that’s kind of unfair, not cool. I’m just saying it’s not cool. It’s not cool. So what happened is, is if you when you’re born, your computer is blank, right? If you look at your brain as a computer hard drive, it’s blank. And within the first years of life, we have no thoughts. We only have feelings. That’s how babies and toddlers, you know, express themselves. As we get to start learning to speak at the age of three ish, by the age of five, this is fascinating to me. Like, this is this is the stuff. By the age of five, this is when our consciousness come online. Like when your thoughts and your feelings can meet.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Okay.

Andre Paradis: Right. So most of us are five years old so it’s a little bit earlier. For some it’s you know six kind of realized the world that they live in. Right. And and if you weren’t love right. If your family system is off we think it’s us. We take it personally and then we again that’s the first belief on the hard drive. So if you believe that you’re not lovable, there’s something wrong with you as a woman, then it becomes your computer imprint, number one that’s that was driving the computer. Even if you add some apps and anything, books and the computer drivers, the belief is in place. And so then if you think you’re not loveable from that five year old, as a seven year old, as a nine year old, as an 11 year old into adulthood, you’re going to find yourself attracting people who will confirm that for you. That’s a terrible design, but that’s how it is. So mine as a kid was, I don’t belong here. I was an accident. My mother didn’t want me. I was born with that knowing. So I’m a mistake. I’m not supposed to be here. So I actually didn’t think I was going to be here for very long because everything was wrong. Right? But my my belief is it’s a conclusion.

Andre Paradis: It’s not the truth. It’s the conclusion. This is what kills us. It’s the conclusion by our circumstances when we put it all together, consciousness and feelings and come together. Belief system number one. So I ended up literally living a life of struggle? Because I’m not supposed to be here. And so every encounter, every job, every relationship was, why are you here? Like. But like discard it, discard it, discard it. Crazy stuff until I fix myself. Nlp does that. So NLP is a way to take the trauma of your childhood, right? And literally just throw it off your nervous system. It sounds it sounds like it’s so effective, if efficient effective. It’s so and it’s quick. It’s not three five years on the couch. It’s 45 minute sessions times half a dozen and poof, clear. So and the reason why it’s so, oh, I’m such a believer. Because I cannot get anybody in a healthy relationship until we clean up that baggage. Your childhood stuff that kind of led to a life of bad relationships in every way. So clean that up and then are you actually get to think for yourself to not be driven by this false belief? And then what do you what’s what’s the dream? Let’s go. Let’s go for the dream anyway. So there it is.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. Okay, that’s a great start. So first question. Hardest one.

Andre Paradis: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: What makes a love relationship last?

Andre Paradis: The dance. You have to learn the dance. And you know, back in the days we, you know, for for millennia, the men and women’s role were very obvious. You know, like, in order to survive as a species, men were there doing the outside. I call it dirty work outside. When the women did the inner right, the interior work more, as in taking care of the children and the food and the berry, you know, like so hunter gatherer. That was a survival mechanism. That was that was we didn’t make it. Otherwise a woman in the world alone was dead. Dead can’t survive by herself. So they needed men to protect them, but also to provide for them. Men would go hunting and come back and bring the food, plop it down and go. So, uh, you ladies take care of that, please. We’re going to sit by the fire and talk about how little Johnny almost lost his arm. It was great. It was funny as hell. And men sit around the fire and the woman, like I say, thank you for the hunting. We’ll take care of the food. And when the men recover, because men need to recover in order to do it again the next day. So that is nature at its best. So. So what’s happening in our culture is we decided that that’s old school.

Andre Paradis: It’s on. It’s, you know, not important or that we lost the depth of why that works so well. And so we talk about 5050 and go girl boss babe, that’s all fine. Right? And then we like shame men out of being masculine because they’re toxic and dangerous. Well know that the boys are dangerous. And that’s a whole different topic. There’s different types of men, right? The boys are the ones that are dangerous and toxic. Those are the rapists, the killer, the the con men. Right? Men are not like this. Men provide, protect, cherish, give support, lead. They put their arms around their family and protect it all instinctually. No manipulation needed. We lost track of that. So what’s happening that I see where people struggle is man is still the man’s role in culture is not changed one bit. In order for a man to be respected by women, other men and the culture, they have to get their lives together. They have to conquer something. They have to fight for something, build something that’s relevant, makes them feel relevant. That’s difficult. The more difficult, the more respect he gets, right? Self-respect and respect from the world. And we go, wow, look at him go. It’s amazing. That was a good way to go. So men are still expected to be traditional that way.

Andre Paradis: That’s very traditional roles. So men are expected to still be traditional provide protect cherish give support pay pay pay pay pay pay pay pay. Now I have no problem with pay. That’s my. That’s part of my makeup. I will kill myself to make money, to keep, to keep my family in a comfortable state. That’s. That’s no problem with that at all, right? As my wife takes care of my my, my, the inside world more because we do both. But she does the inside world more. The yin yang of that is beautiful. She gets to be with my kids when they were little, right? She gets to be a mother. She gets to be oh my goodness, she she gets to work less because I do the brunt of the big work. So we lost track of all this. So again, men are still expected to be traditional. Traditional. Nowadays our role is not changed. But women have been taught to not be traditional and or to refuse to be traditional. So that’s a problem we don’t. We stop understanding the dance and the modern way is women masculine, men feminine, and that that’s the worst that’s ever happened to culture. Look what’s out there. So I could do this all day long. You got me going, all right.

Trisha Stetzel: No, I so I’d really like to understand how this plays out in the workplace. Right? And I’m not talking about building relationships and falling in love in the workplace, but because women have assumed these different roles or been taught to take on these different roles or avoid the other role. Yep. These are different in the workplace. Yeah. So let’s talk about that.

Andre Paradis: Hold on. It’s funny you say this because I just pulled something that I was working on. Oh, yay! Woo! Okay. Just in case there’s a backup. It’s so cool. So. Well, the thing is, again, the same issues, the same problems that we we face in relationship. Men and women in close relationships. The same thing happens at work. Okay. Women are more emotionally driven. It’s just a fact. There’s nothing wrong with that. Men are more logically driven. That’s just a fact, right? So, but when you consider oh, we’re going to go there, let’s go there.

Trisha Stetzel: Let’s go there.

Andre Paradis: So if you consider That, as simple as it is, men have two worlds and women have one world. And let me explain really quickly. So there’s two. I am two people. There’s me at work and me at home. Okay? Right. There’s me at work. The conqueror, the fighter, the warrior. The the busting every door down. Like I’m a I’m an animal, right? But not at home. So at home, it’s God. You get daddy energy, you get husband energy, you get pulled back energy. You get community energy, right? Same man. Two different energies. Right? You ladies have one world, okay? It’s. It’s all connected. It’s all together. It’s all of us. It’s it’s sweet. It’s want to be pleasing and pleasant, right? And so in that there’s a lot of talking because that’s how you ladies connect. And you do this to us at work, and we look at you like, why are you talking? Get to the point. So the same thing you do to your husband when he comes home and he’s tired. But you want to connect with him by talking. Often you’ll see him glaze over and you feel, oh, he doesn’t care, doesn’t love me because he doesn’t want me to know he’s tired. He’s tired. Right? So not understanding our very basic kind of instinct and drives as opposites will have us collide. So at work women in bringing all. So I’ll give you an example. Right. If I’m working with my buddy John, you know, and we’re at work, let’s say. Right. And I go, dude, so I need this on my desk by 4:00, please. Is it urgent? Got it.

Andre Paradis: Got it done. Right. Now, if Susie brings John the paper, she goes, hi. How are you doing? What? Good. What’s up? They’re like, oh my goodness. So how was your how your your your weekend. Because then you guys go out of town with little Johnny. Is he okay by the way? I know he was sick last week, right? He’s like. And and about. How about little Lillian? How how’s she doing? Oh, she’s. Oh, she’s such a darling. And he’s looking at her like, what the are you talking about? What are you doing? Why are you talking? Right. But this is a woman bringing the personal. The personal connection. Because this is how you connect. You have to connect first before you get to the point. You have to connect first. Your connection often will have you go in circles and not even get to a point, just because the point is the connection. But at work it kind of inappropriate, right? So men will get frustrated, men will get irritated, and then you go, he doesn’t like me. He doesn’t want to hear from me or he doesn’t. If she’s in a position of power. Right. She’s a manager. She’s going to think he doesn’t respect me. 000. Right. And now, often you get resistance. Can you get to the point? Why? What do you want now? Oh, he’s got the tone. So now he’s actually again being disrespectful and rude. Right. So we have to write him up. So that’s what’s difficult because the work that same dynamic we don’t understand that we’re operating different operating in different places.

Andre Paradis: And then women joining us in the workforce now want us to adapt to their way because it’s more comfortable. And often men will go really like so I’m going to say something terrible. Are you ready? This is terrible. Are you ready? Go for it. This is so, so uncool. But they’ll get triggered. Let me explain it. I think you’ll understand it right away as soon as I say it right. Men naturally, instinctively know how to work together again. Because we get to the point where we’re working side by side. We don’t speak. We like Hunter’s side by side. We get it done right. There’s a hierarchy to us. We need somebody to lead us, you know, and the guy underneath. And everybody knows their place. Just like a football team, right? Everybody’s got their position. You know exactly what to do. And there’s a coach that’s natural masculinity. So men know how to work together instinctively. It just works. Right? You put them. You put ten men in prison, jail 24 hours. But by the time you open the door 24 hours later, there’s a whole hierarchy that took place that actually lines up with the testosterone. That was freaking amazing. It’s nature. It’s beautiful. So when you put women in the workforce with men, now we have to be sensitive. We have to be, you know, we have to like, uh, what’s the word? We have to be sweet and kind and connected and. Right. There’s a lot of feelings all of a sudden, which we don’t know what to do with, and it’s irrelevant for productivity. So we ended up with HR.

Speaker4: Mhm. Mhm.

Andre Paradis: And I’m saying this this is the terrible thing I’m going to say if, if we remove women from the workforce or to work with men HR goes away.

Speaker4: Mm.

Andre Paradis: Interesting isn’t it.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: So my next question for you is I do a lot of work with assessments. So disk drivers, PCU, EQ, you name it. Do you think as you were describing people, generally speaking, men and women, do you think there are different versions of these human beings that they’ve learned something differently or they’ve been raised a different way. So they’re driven by something different, or they have better EQ or higher, uh, positive intelligence. Does that play in this space as well?

Andre Paradis: For sure. And I should have said that upfront. Right. Like to have these conversations, you have to allow huge generalizations. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely not. There’s no such thing as all men and all women. There’s no such thing as ridiculous. However, there is a norm, right? Which is typically about 80 over 20. Everything in life has a 80 over 20 rule, right? There’s 80%. That’s normal. The other one a hybrid I call them like or different. All right. So in this world of men and women, even though women are more emotional and men are more logical, the big the big generalizations, there’s all the mix in between because there are women who actually understand man’s world, that he’s different at work, that he’s different at home and do not bring their they you know what I mean? They know how to do this. And the women who are really good at managing or management position kind of instinctively know this. I’m going to say it. Typically they have fathers and brothers.

Speaker4: Okay.

Andre Paradis: Because fathers and brothers will teach a woman about accountability and get to the point and what’s appropriate or not, right? If she was raised by a mother only and daughters and sisters, I have them as client that doesn’t show up on the radar. It’s not you know, they pulled that feminine card because that’s how they drive. So there is a huge amount of flex. But the rule the norm is 80% 80 over 20, right? And ultimately we know that we both have masculine and feminine within us. So it’s even the balance within ourselves and how we show up in the world, in relationships and at work. That kind of differentiates you, me, from this one or that one and that one. So I have to be as a man. I’m a leader. If I’m going to lead my, excuse me, my wife and my family in the dance, I have to lead.

Speaker4: Yeah, but.

Andre Paradis: But like the dance, if I have to lead them, my wife excuse me with sensitivities. Otherwise I could bully her. I could crank her. I could break her arm. You understand? So if I’m a bully. Only without sensitivities. Yin yang, masculine and feminine within me. In order for her to let me want to dance with me. What? Like for her to want to dance with me just to and be vulnerable to my leadership. She has to kind of be comfortable with me and trust that I’m not going to hurt her. So I have to lead for her to know, to be able to get on the horse with me and we get to dance. I have to be sensitive to her. I have to be aware of her. I have to respond to like I, I all this signaling within the fingers without words. There’s a huge amount of finesse in that. That’s my feminine on the other side, you know, she’s got she gets to release and let go to be in a feminine. But she’s controlling her body. She’s doing everything I’m doing backwards and in a dress and high heels. It’s not easier, it’s different. And a lot of it is her masculine. Having to hold her space and be able to write, to be able to take, take care of her part. But in that when she’s vulnerable, she trusts me because she knows I’m not going to hurt her, and I’m not going to spin into a wall or a table, right. Or another couple that she can just completely let go of control. Surrender control completely.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Andre Paradis: The light inside of her comes on. She gets to be present in the moment, completely feminine. And she shines with this beautiful, like, glorious feminine glow. It gives me goosebumps. And no one’s looking at me. They’re all looking at her like she gets the glory of just being in a pure feminine. Because she could be in the flow and let me lead and trust. And she’s happy and she has to control nothing. She has to think about nothing. She completely gets the flow, which is the ultimate feminine. That’s the beauty, that’s the relationship. That’s men and women.

Speaker4: The dance. I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, okay. So if people are already interested in connecting with you, what’s the best way to find you?

Speaker4: Oh.

Andre Paradis: All right. So. And also, I have two gifts to your listeners. What if you want? I have two gifts.

Speaker4: Okay. It’s exciting.

Andre Paradis: I think so. I think so, but again, you and I talked about this. My, my my God mission is to spread this to the masses.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Andre Paradis: You know, everyone’s confused. It’s difficult. You know women are women are hurt and men are lonely and vice versa. Right. And they do a lot of podcasts. I’m just trying to spread the hope. There is hope. There’s a modern way to do classical relationships, or there’s a modern way to do this that works long term. So there’s hope. Let’s do it, huh? It’s out there. You don’t get that right. Yeah. So anyway, so I do a lot of podcasts for that reason, to kind of open the channels and get people kind of hopeful. And I noticed when I do podcasts, I do many a week. Um, there’s two types of listeners. So I have two gifts. That’s okay. Okay. And let me let the listeners qualify themselves. So if if people have show up the first time typically in. Information seekers, they’re just trying to poke around at this masculine feminine stuff people keep talking about. I don’t get it. I’m a girl, right? I’m a girl. What’s the problem? So information. If you’re an information seeker, I’m going to send you directly to my email. This is my personal email. You go to Andre Coaching number one at gmail Andre and Dory coaching. Coaching the number one at gmail. And the subject box write irresistible book. This is the ladies. I will send you a copy of my how.

Speaker4: I.

Andre Paradis: Sell This on my website. This is called are you ready? Get this. It’s called the five feminine qualities high value men find absolutely irresistible. Ladies, this is my work with men. I do a lot of men’s work. This is man speaking. It’s 30 pages. It’s a workbook. You get to fill it in with your thoughts and your understanding of things, right? You get it? Just email me. I’ll be coaching one irresistible ebook. Boom. I’ll send you a digital version of it. It’s good, it’s good. It’s a gift. So information seekers. There you go. The other type of listeners that I notice are people who kind of go, oh, I get it. Yep, yep. Like it resonates. Like, this guy’s got something right. So NLP super super intriguing for people a lot. So if you’re a action taker right. Takes a little courage, but it’s kind of temperamentally typically if you’re an action taker on coaching one in the subject box. Right. Talk now. I’ll send you my calendar link. You find a place that’s open, and you and I are going to have a conversation for an hour or so about, you know, people call, people call and set up appointments like, you know, because something is not working. They find themselves in a loop. That’s the loop I’m talking about from the beginning, right? That NLP like that loop of childhood that we can continue to prove as adults.

Andre Paradis: So in 15 minutes, we find out what the loop is. Uh, because it’s simple, right? And then when you understand that there’s nothing wrong with you because a lot of people come at me with, you know what’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me? There’s something wrong with me, right? Because I can’t always attract the same. And it’s never going anywhere. And I’m hurt and I’m feeling abandoned and alone. We find a loop. And now and then. When you understand there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just a product of your past and the false belief you create about that. We can clear it, you know. And then from there. What’s the dream? What’s the dream? Marriage and kids. If you’re younger, right? If you’re older, like, it’s long term relationships, companionship for the rest of your life. Yes. And then I’ll tell you, if you’re. There’s different ways to work with me to jump in. There’s many, many different ways. So. And then it’s up to you. But for some people, just that call changes their lives because they kind of understand it. And how broken are liberation. So those are my guests.

Trisha Stetzel: That is very liberating. Okay, I’m not done with you.

Speaker4: I still have some more questions. Oh.

Andre Paradis: Oh. Okay. Beautiful.

Trisha Stetzel: I have a a lot of conversations around women in the workplace. And how many of us, particularly in my generation, will just call it X genders, right? That that, um, that particular generation where women didn’t have women friends in the business place. Right. Because we were all vying for the same position and we were trying to be very masculine. Let’s talk about that. Like when I bring that up, I see you, right? You’re like, okay, I gotta get ready for this. Um, what are your what are your thoughts around that? Because there’s so many conversations that I have with women just like me having this same conversation.

Andre Paradis: Okay, so again, not sexy, just nature. Right? But sometimes nature is ugly because it’s about survival, right? But so as much as men are competitive with each other. Right. Instinct and history has taught us to work together. We work together. Everyone survives, right? Women competing for men, typically, or for the attention of men to protection. Protection of men compete with each other.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Andre Paradis: In the. You know, if you’re looking at my man, I want to kill you. I want to push you to the tiger myself. I’ll watch him eat you and smile. Right. Men can’t do that.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Andre Paradis: Just against the survival instinct. Right. So at work, when competition and getting ahead and survival is on the radar of ladies at work, which.

Speaker4: Is.

Andre Paradis: Masculine, that that mechanism kicks in 100 and all of a sudden, like, women will do what women do when they are competing or trying to get ahead is men use their fists. That’s how men resolve problems. Women use their mouths. So all of a sudden we have gossip, reputation, destruction, the smile on your her face, stabbing in the back when she turns around. Right. So this, this, this this is kind of how you fight. So at work with a bunch of women on the same floor often is that tension of she’s trying to get on top of me. She’s trying to get my job. Let me, let me just. Right. And then all this stuff kind of takes place, which is again, you know, something that the masculine at work doesn’t understand. Why is why is this an issue? You know what I mean? Why is it a problem? No. Okay. Air again. Really? Like, how do we get here? You see it?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah I do, so what would be where? Where do we start? Andre? So, um, I’m a pretty smart person. And, you know, I realize that that type of environment wasn’t good for me, so I’ve removed myself from that environment. I have my own business. I run my own business. I do my own thing. I’m really happy with what I do, which is nurture others. And I have also started to build these groups of women that I can have conversations with, right, that I didn’t have in my past life. So I’m doing those things. But what are other things that you think we should be doing as a society to get back to being where we’re supposed to be?

Andre Paradis: Well, I mean, it’s supposed to be right according to the nature. And again, if you go against nature, you could go against nature all day long. Men and women, feminine men, masculine women, it’s against nature. But eventually it will bite you in the butt. Nature will win, and it’s going to cost you something that. Excuse me, you don’t want to pay for. I promise you, I could tell you stories, so I’m not going to go there. But again, if you go more in the flow of nature and understand each other. So I call it gender intelligence. Okay. Right. So as a man, if you want, you know, women will say stuff like, you know, I need so little, how come I can’t you can’t give me what I need. You know, I’m a dad. I get this, and men don’t understand what that means, because men quantify everything. This is our instinct, right? Big action, big rewards, big work, big money, right. Big Buffalo down. We get to eat big for a long time. You know what I mean? So men quantify it. This is instinct, you know. Naturally everything. So when you say I need so little like what the hell.

Andre Paradis: Like so I have to teach men that part, right? So it’s understanding each other’s instinct that is essential. Because if we talk about equality, which is, you know, equal rights, equal pay, of course. But what happened is now it’s become an equal being. Men and women are supposed to be the same. This is where everything falls apart because women are trying to make men like women. And men are like, why are everything like this, you know, and be more logical. And now we’re fighting again. So gender intelligence is if you’re a man, walk yourself over the bridge into women world and you learn, this is what I teach. Learn what motivates a woman, why they do what they do right. Her instinct. When you understand her instinct, you understand why she takes things personally. She’s not crazy. She’s a girl. It’s beautiful. But you have to understand, you know, as opposed to shaking your head. Oh, that’s what’s going on over there. This is what happened to me in that workshop, right? Like, oh, that’s what that is. Oh, that’s what that. That’s how this works. Wait. And you.

Speaker4: Just.

Andre Paradis: Do it. And all of a sudden, she’s lovely. She’s warm, she likes you. She’s feminine. She wants to be close. You get all the goodies. Understanding where she instinctively needs. And same thing with the ladies. If you cross the bridge into man world and understand what motivates the man, why are we stoic? Why we give you the one word answer? There’s a bunch of good reasons for this. There’s a lot of instinct and a lot of training for society and our parents in our life, you know, a lifestyle, her childhood. So get this. When women understand men more right, when you understand really our instinct. This is fantastic. 50% of everything you think personally falls.

Speaker4: Mm.

Andre Paradis: 50% of everything you take personally with men. I mean, your husband, your boyfriend, your boss, your brothers, all man On the ground because you go, oh, look, he’s just okay. He’s. And then when you know how to feed his instinct, right. Protect cherish give support, love, support love support protect protect, protect. Go. They’ll give you everything. The men will give you the world if you get, you know, provide what he needs instinctively to his nervous system, to his psyche, to his body. Like it’s just. It’s not that hard. It’s just we don’t know. So we have to learn about each other, and then we get to be we get to walk on the bridge from both sides, in the middle of the bridge where we actually have some understandings, some tools, some trainings and start dancing. And it takes practice because in the middle of the bridge, you know, it’s awkward because we’re so different. We step on each other’s toes, but then it gets a little smoother, and then we start communicating and using our tools. Right? Just like dancing. And so you get the flow of things and the more you practice, the easier it gets the stock in the communications. Right? That See how beautiful that is? So I always say modern relationships are like ballroom dancing. You cannot become a ballroom dancing couple unless you learn. You have to be taught this now. Back in the days, there was masculine and feminine. That was it. You made babies and you went to work. That’s not the way it is anymore. So how do we do this in a culture? You know, new culture is it’s tricky. But if you want this, it’s actually quite beautifully easy. Just say.

Speaker4: It is.

Trisha Stetzel: It is. And relationships take work. Right.

Speaker4: They just do.

Andre Paradis: Just understanding the other side is essential. You have to start there and start making each other wrong for not being the same as you, right? Like it’s not. That’s the exact opposite of what works.

Trisha Stetzel: This has been a fantastic conversation. I I’d love for you to share how long you’ve been with your wife.

Andre Paradis: 32 years.

Trisha Stetzel: 32 years.

Speaker4: So I’ve been my husband.

Trisha Stetzel: For 34, I.

Speaker4: Think.

Andre Paradis: 34. Okay. You win, you win.

Trisha Stetzel: No, know I’m not winning.

Speaker4: You are trying to win.

Andre Paradis: I’m a boy.

Speaker4: You win.

Andre Paradis: I’m a boy.

Speaker4: You win. Okay, I win there. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. There’s so much to learn about this topic. I would love to have you back on the show.

Speaker4: So that we.

Trisha Stetzel: Can, uh, dive into some of these areas deeper. I really wanted to focus on the workplace today, because I think that that’s a great place for us to start to have this conversation and then bring it into our own personal relationships with some of some of us are better at, uh, playing the dance or doing the dance right than others. And I think there’s so many people out there who want to learn how to do the dance. So thank you so much for being on, uh, folks, listeners, if you didn’t catch it, I’m going to put it in the show notes as well. But Andre is offering two things. One, if you’re just an information seeker, you’re going to send an email to Andre. It’s Andre coaching one at gmail.com. You’re going to put in the subject line irresistible book, and he’s going to send you that amazing book that he told us about, which is really amazing. If you’re an action taker, send the same to the same email address. Andre coaching one at gmail.com and put in the subject line talk now. Andre, thank you for being so kind to my guest today. It was a pleasure having you on.

Andre Paradis: Same to you I Trisha you did I do a lot of these and this is like the funnest this month. I want to say.

Speaker4: I told you you did. I win, you did.

Andre Paradis: And you win again. That’s true for you?

Speaker4: Yes.

Andre Paradis: You’ve had a trophy. I would give it to you.

Speaker4: Oh, good, I like trophies. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much again. Andre. Andre parody. Thank you for being on my show today. That’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

 

From Corporate to Coach: Unleashing Your Career Potential with Scott Doyne

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Greater Perimeter Business Radio
From Corporate to Coach: Unleashing Your Career Potential with Scott Doyne
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In this episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, Lee Kantor and Rachel Simon talk with Scott Doyne, a certified career coach and author. Scott shares his journey from a 20-year career at Turner Broadcasting to becoming a career coach. He discusses the importance of coaching and mentorship, especially for mid-career professionals feeling stuck. Scott highlights the emotional aspects of job searching, the value of networking, and the significance of finding fulfillment in one’s work. He offers practical advice for navigating career transitions and emphasizes the power of small steps and personal networks in achieving career satisfaction.

Scott-DoyneScott Doyne is a certified career coach who has conducted over 1,000 career coaching sessions with emerging and executive clients in career transition.

He is a former sports media executive including his time as senior vice president of Turner Sports & Bleacher Report where he partnered with the NBA, MLB, NCAA, NHL, PGA Tour and NASCAR.

In total, Scott has 25 years experience in General Management, Digital Product Management & Analytics. He is the Author of the Amazon bestselling new release Exploring the Midlife Career Crisis: Navigating the Four Stages of Career Transition.

Scott generously offers his expertise to non-profit organizations such as Partners in Change and 21st Century Leaders, as well as students at his alma maters, The University of Michigan and Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Doyne-Career-Services-logo

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn and follow Doyne Career Services on Facebook.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon. This episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots Dot digital. Welcome back. Rachel, how you been?

Rachel Simon: Hi, Lee. I like the new name I know. Good stuff.

Lee Kantor: Things are greater now.

Rachel Simon: Things are greater at the perimeter here. No, that’s very cool. I went to the greater Perimeter Chambers annual inaugural annual meeting, and it was awesome and packed and lots of energy.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, we were there. We did. It was a personal best for me. 15 interviews in 90 minutes.

Rachel Simon: Wow. That’s awesome. Yeah, I saw you kind of perched in the in the back nonstop. That’s good. Well, there were a lot of people there, and the speaker was awesome. I thought he was a great speaker. I got a lot out of it. So new name I love it. Great guest today. So I think we’ll have a fun conversation. All right. So I’m happy to welcome Scott Doyne to our show today. And he is a certified career coach and author. He facilitates workshops. He has a very cool story on his own career path. And so we’re going to have a good chat. So welcome.

Scott Doyne: Thanks Rachel and Lee. Great to be here.

Rachel Simon: So we always kick it off with tell us a little bit about you and what you do.

Scott Doyne: Uh, thanks. Yeah, I love that this is a local podcast because we can we can talk about, you know, words and terms that that we understand. The audience hopefully follows. I had a 20 year career with Turner Broadcasting and anybody in Atlanta. Now before ever, hopefully we’ll know the legacy that Ted left and I was super fortunate to be part of that. I studied sports management in college, wanted to work in sports and after working in production for a while, got an MBA at Emory at the Goizueta Business School, and then got my foot in the door at Turner Sports. And that started with an internship at NASCAR.com, right when the internet was exploding. And I just sort of stuck around and refused to leave. As I say, I got to run the NASCAR.com business, the NBA.com business, a product strategy team as direct to consumer was growing. And then the last team was research and analytics. And I learned a lot from that job, including about the struggles of the cable business. I got caught in those struggles a few years ago and was laid off. And as I was thinking about that possibility, ran into this career coaching thing, absolutely fell in love with it, started training, working towards certification before I was laid off. So I was very fortunate in that way to to feel prepared. And when it did happen, within a few months I launched my business, which has now been live for officially two years last week.

Rachel Simon: Ooh, congratulations.

Scott Doyne: So thank you. I really am still in love with it. It’s. I think it’s a calling. Working in sports was my first calling, and I got to do that. And I can’t believe I get to do a second calling where every day I get the chance to help people with their careers.

Rachel Simon: So while you were in your, uh, your roles at Turner, did you have opportunities to work with coaches, like what was your exposure to the coaching kind of community?

Scott Doyne: I did not. I had sent some of my staff to coaches, and I was aware of it, and I was doing tons of mentoring and talking to the leadership and development team internally. At one point, I was part of a pilot program for mentoring across the organization, and, um, they started talking about coaching and I fully did not understand the difference at the time. And so I was intrigued because they basically were telling me I couldn’t be a coach internally. I wasn’t trained or qualified yet, and I like a challenge. And so I started looking into what that might be. And so I think that was the the beginnings of those thoughts that something that I might be interested in. But I buried that for a couple of years, you know, went on with a lot of professional development, a lot of mentoring. I liked working with interns, so I was always into making the most of my team members and helping them become what they wanted to become. And even working in sports, I’d say the last 3 to 4 years, that became even more obvious to me that that was what was getting me out of bed in the morning, was helping my team members become their true selves, and I was less excited even, about going to the great sports events NBA All Star weekends or golfing or, um, you know, baseball games, whatever it was, I’d sort of done it, and it sounds incredibly spoiled. But that was my reality was I was more excited about the people side. And I think that coincided with, um, a session with an executive coach finally. And that was during this exploration period where I thought a layoff might be coming. And in that session, I got a lot of value out of it in terms of articulating something for myself I hadn’t been able to before. But then I also thought, I think I can do that. And so I started looking into it even more, and that’s when I really signed up for the training course and just kept going step by step further in that direction.

Rachel Simon: That’s very I mean, I love kind of hearing that story because a lot of people, a lot of professionals don’t know why coaching can be incredibly valuable in their career path. And, you know, there’s sometimes resistance to it. There’s lack of understanding, lack of exposure. But I do believe that everybody can benefit from some sort of professional coaching, whether you’re in seated in your role or you are kind of in career transition or whatever the case may be.

Scott Doyne: Yeah, I’m obviously there at this point. I’ve retained my own coach for sure. Um, the way I like to think about it, for folks that aren’t as familiar is it’s it’s like having a partner in the process and, you know, and the rest of your life, you might have a partner for, um, personal training, you might have a partner in your business, you might have a partner, um, and a team project at school and, and working with somebody else. Period. Gives you a greater chance of success working with somebody who’s a trained coach who, you know, I very much believe in the ICF code of ethics, which is I don’t tell people how to do things. I don’t tell them what to do. My job is to be the partner, ask the right questions in the right way, at the right time, so that they come to some of those conclusions themselves, which I think is is truly the path to empowerment, which was always my management style. And so I, I really try to create that environment where people gain more confidence in their own path. Um, but I have to be there to, to coach as best I can in that way.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were making that transition, at least mentally from, okay, I have a corporate job, I’ve worked a corporate job forever. Now I’m going to make this leap into coaching. Were you? Um, how did you land on career coaching as the niche rather than, you know, leadership coaching or executive coaching or any of the other things that you’ve had kind of first hand experience doing?

Scott Doyne: 100%. Those were all in consideration. Um, I do still do some leadership and executive coaching. Executive coaching? I don’t love the term, to be honest. Because if you’re not an executive, are you just left out, right? And because I like working with people of all ages and all stages, um, that’s a little bit off for me. Um, leadership. I do claim to be a leadership coach for people that are in role that want to grow for emerging and executive leaders, but career to me, if I were to pick one designation captures it all. Um, whether it’s career transition, which I’ve fallen into a lot of because of so many layoffs in the last few years, um, doing a lot of transition coaching, but career overall really hits where my heart is. And I think because of my corporate career and variety of different roles and functions that I had, I think career is where I have the most to offer.

Lee Kantor: So how did you kind of build out that matrix to land there? What was kind of the process you went through to end up there?

Scott Doyne: Thank you for that. I researched a lot before I launched. I talked to 30 different coaches, took lots of notes. It’s such a giving community. I, I was lucky at Turner that it was a warm community, but the coaching community is like a thousand times even more warm. Very giving. And so I would ask about tools, pricing models, the designations, you know, what, what type of coach is out there. And then the ICF has a lot of research. So I looked at the research to see what what types of coaches are out there, what the compensation is, what the certification looks like. Uh, and so I think that was the external research is talking to actual coaches, doing the secondary research and then finding the intersection with my passion and skills. And that really led me to that career with great confidence.

Lee Kantor: So when that time came, you were like, okay, I’m going to be a career coach. What were then the first steps it took to launch that? Because now you’re not in an enterprise organization that has help desks and all kinds of infrastructure, it’s now you. So true.

Scott Doyne: So true.

Lee Kantor: That’s now running the show. You’re the one who’s, you know, making copies. You’re doing everything at that point. So that transition for a lot of folks, especially even in your situation, you said you’re in your career coaching. You talked about how it’s a lot of transition. So a person was laid off in an organization, and now you’re doing an entrepreneurial venture which is not the same animal like they you know, they’re both ways to make money, but they’re not doing it in the same way.

Scott Doyne: It’s remarkably different. And I’m still learning about that, learning about myself and how I feel about it, learning how to augment what I do. Um, I think what I fell back on, which was so, um, helpful was that I was in product management and business management and being in the entrepreneurial space, especially in digital sports media, for 20 years, we were launching, we were developing and launching and managing new businesses all the time. And so I don’t even know how many call it dozens of new product launches, new business launches. And there was a process to that. And so I took the process we used to use as a corporation and applied that to myself. So product management, um, very much based on the the MVP model, minimum viable product. So what is good enough to get to a launch where I can then get real consumer behavioral feedback. So by example, March 1st of of 23 I launch with LinkedIn only. I didn’t launch a website from the beginning. I didn’t have a logo yet, but for me it was what I considered to be enough to get to market. Get some feedback and then iterate more or less on a quarterly basis. And then I take a step back every year, gather my data, um, conduct surveys of my clients and prospects, look at the marketplace, come up with ideas, and have a strategy for the next year. So that iterative model is very much within me.

Scott Doyne: What was different and still continues to be a struggle is, is those coworkers doing it all myself? I don’t mind doing things all myself, and I have the versatility to pretend to be able to do lots of things, but sometimes that can be my worst enemy. That that is a wake up call that I continue to get. And so, uh, you know, accountant and lawyer was sort of obvious to me to compliment, you know, at the launch of the LLC and get everything sort of in order that way. Hiring somebody for the logo was really important for me because I don’t have those design skills. I played with I to try to figure out it just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t what I wanted to be professionally. And so I hired somebody for that. When I wrote my book, having a professional editor involved made it light years better than if I had just sort of published what I had. So there are certain things along the way that I have to remind myself like, oh no, no, you’re not actually great at that. And I was surrounded by people that were so I should know the difference. But I forget sometimes. And of course, as an entrepreneur, it’s your own money. And so deciding what to spend money on. And then the humility that comes with partnering with somebody on the right thing, I think that really is important.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, there’s a lot of having been doing this for nearly a decade. Uh, there’s so many misconceptions on entrepreneurism like, oh, it’s great. You just work when you want to work, you know? And it’s really like.

Lee Kantor: Be your own boss.

Rachel Simon: Be your own boss, right. So much flexibility. Um, but it’s the things like Every time you need to invest in something to help support your business, that’s money out of your pocket. It’s there’s a lot that goes into it. And I’ve seen the whole spectrum, right? I’ve seen from like the way you’ve done it, where people start small and kind of build their brand. I’ve seen other people who are launch their business and have a personal brand photo shoot, but they don’t even know what their brand is yet. So, you know, there’s no right way, wrong way. Everyone kind of does it their way. Um, but it is a it’s not for the weak. It’s not for the faint of heart. I will say.

Lee Kantor: Well, it’s like your assets are time and money. So if you have more time, then use that. If you have more money, then use that. Exactly. It’s your. It’s the trade offs.

Scott Doyne: Yeah. But in what direction. In what. What are you going to use the funding for I think continues to be a challenge.

Lee Kantor: Well that’s where prioritization and you know those kind of skills matter.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And it I mean, it took me many, many years to be ready to invest in my business, like in, you know, coaching programs, mastermind programs to help with that. And I just wasn’t ready for many years. So it can be a scary investment to make when again, you are the one dependent upon your, your revenue. So, um, very you know, there’s so many I’m sure you talk about that with some of your clients because I’m sure some people are going into their own business. Um, you know, you have a specific like a focus on sort of that mid-career professional. So tell us a little bit about like, what are some of the unique challenges that the mid we call it midlife or mid-career. Um, that would be those of us, those Gen Xers out there. Sure, sure.

Scott Doyne: And you’d be surprised how many millennials consider themselves midlife okay in a way, and feel under crisis. Um, but I, I think what’s in common is the, the words I hear the most are stuck in lost. You know, I’m stuck. I’m lost. Um, as a coach, my my job is to sort of help them reframe that. If you are feeling stuck, how do you want to feel? If you are feeling lost, how do you want to feel? And so with one client, I remember, you know, who was feeling lost about we started about a year and a half ago together. You know, we developed something called the found scale. What what would found look like if you were a ten on that scale today? And so that that took a lot of trial and experimentation. Um, but I think that that was one commonality is they, they had ended up down a path that didn’t feel right. Some something’s off about it. It’s hard to sort of quantify that. But if if they’re frustrated, they at least raise their hand and say, oh, maybe a coach can help. And so we can talk through that of getting unstuck or finding yourself in a certain way.

Scott Doyne: So, um, we’d probably call that a pivot at some level. That’s probably, you know, that’s a really common term for it. Uh, the, the stuck part can also be like in a bad situation under a boss that doesn’t see my value in an environment that feels toxic. I hear that word a lot. And so, you know, the energy it takes to change your situation. I respect so much. At the end of the day, I had an involuntary departure. And that forcing function is a blessing in a way. Um, nobody wants to be laid off and it certainly doesn’t feel like a compliment. But for the people I’m coaching that are in role, it’s hard to find the time and the courage to commit to an exploration process, much less an application and interviewing process, which is very grueling these days, but at least to find some space to be open minded about what you might do next. That’s where a lot of my work tends to be, is helping people get out of their own head and remember some of those passion areas or interest areas that might still be realistic to pursue, even though you’ve been down this other path for so long.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, nothing’s worse than sort of that feeling of either boredom or burnout or that feeling. I mean, I know people who have, you know, been in there with their company for so many years and are looking at, okay, you know, at this point in my life, there’s maybe I want to work for like another ten years. Is there really a point in moving at this point, at this, at this stage, even though I’m not loving what I’m doing?

Scott Doyne: Right. Moving the three main variables of a job search to me are function, industry, geography. It’s part of a model I have called Figure it out Fig. and changing all three at the same time is talk about not for the faint of heart. That’s tough. Um, you know, in a way, I did the F and I, but I also am still holding on to my sports and media and tech experience, because that’s a lot of the people that I’m coaching. So if you pick one to maybe change at first, you know, which one might it be? And sometimes it’s not a drastic change that gets you into a better situation. It might just be the sector of the industry you’re in, or the subsector, or a slight deviation in function where you get into an organization or a department, or have colleagues that you feel like you’re just better around. Yeah. And so it doesn’t have to be drastic. You know, maybe a baby steps approach is okay.

Lee Kantor: So what would be an example of that. So like you say, a lot of your clients are, I guess, people in the industry or you were acquainted with in your previous life. Um, so they’re coming to you. And I would imagine, at least I hear a lot that people don’t quit jobs. They quit bosses. I’m sure that’s a motivator for is that the majority of the people that have a boss situation they’re not thrilled with, or is it more existential?

Scott Doyne: There’s a lot. But I’d say, you know, if we say quiet, quitting was sort of happening five years ago. Um, not as many people are leaving right now. They’re just sort of sucking it up and staying as the market moves, because it’s a tough time to enter the, you know, the job search. So that tough boss situation for me, you know, there’s been a developing development in side hustles that I think creates some of that emotional space for people to feel more fulfilled. Like, yes, maybe you have a day job where you’re not satisfied. And granted, some people don’t have time for anything else in their life. But if you can find a window of time within your role or outside of your role, where you can tap into some of that stuff that feels better, makes you feel better, you smile at the end of the day, um, that’s what I suggest or talk to them about.

Lee Kantor: So that’s the baby step.

Scott Doyne: That’s that could be a baby step. You know, I remember a time in my career where I wasn’t in the greatest boss situation. Um, and, uh, we ended up having a startup incubator out on the West coast. So it was called Turner Media Camp, and it was a phenomenal outlet for me outside of that day job, because I got to be with entrepreneurs and surrounded by their energy.

Lee Kantor: And optimism.

Scott Doyne: Oh my gosh, idealism even. Right? Um, where, you know, the role I was in in business operations or business development, a lot of it was, you know, what can’t we do? And those filters we put on us just because it’s part of the job. And they got me thinking about anything is possible again. Right? And so that created an attitude shift. It got me to the Bay area, which I love, you know, just sort of created a, you know, maybe took some air out of the balloon. And that to me is a at least a Band-Aid while you’re you’re maybe stuck in a situation that you can’t get out of.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, let’s start giving advice to folks that are listening. Say, so you’re at that. You’re in that kind of midlife crisis or a midlife career crisis. At least those thoughts are entering your head. What are some of the other than, you know, call you? Yeah. What are some of the things they some action they could be taking to at least start exploring or just seeing other, you know, instead of being locked in into woe is me. This is terrible. Like, how can they maybe expand their thinking a little?

Scott Doyne: I think I think journaling is the next best thing to coaching. And in between those two, it’s talking to other people in your life and just sort of getting it out verbally. So the journaling side, I did start on myself when I had my wake up call that something might be coming in terms of a layoff. I started a Google doc called My Next Chapter, and that was just a laundry list of possibilities. Some logical, some illogical.

Lee Kantor: So you’re just like a brain dump? Yeah.

Scott Doyne: Kind of. Yeah. Especially on worst days or or where I saw the, the, you know, the quarterly earnings come out from the company or I saw some research and I was like, oh, this is not going to go well, uh, or an acquisition was happening, which was a couple times in that last five years. Um, and so the journaling was helpful. Yes. To brain dump. Get it out of your way, get it out of your head, relieve some of that pressure. And that was the beginning of the process. But also on that list, I had a list of people’s names that I might talk to. And some of those were pre layoff off, and some were, um, t plus one. You know, if that day comes, who are the people I’m going to call that? You know, you don’t want to walk into new job interviews with angst and anger and resentment like it’s a terrible look when you’re going into the job interview process, if that’s where you’re going. And so, uh, the list of ideas and then the list of people, uh, and with those people, there’s an exercise in the book called Personal Board of Advisors. And it’s different types of people for different things. And some people would allude to this as mentors, which is fine.

Scott Doyne: It could be people in your life, it could be friends or family members. But there’s four types, you know, one’s more around tough love ones, more of your cheerleader ones, the lifelong friend. And like those different types. If you can think about making a list of some of those people I know asking for help is hard. Like that’s very real. I know it even more now as a coach, but if you’re willing to raise your hand and be vulnerable. Um, a lot can come your way that isn’t on your own, and I don’t fault people that have trouble with that. But I hope you know they have people to reach out to. If not, there are coaches that, like me, have a free, you know, 20 minute or 30 minute session that you might even be able to get something out of that. Um, there’s also nonprofits that do some coaching. So there are free ways of doing that. And there are other resources. You know, even besides my own book, there are resources out there. Um, you know, designing for life. Um, the ikigai book, I think is really good. There are resources, but I think journaling and talking to other people are probably my my two favorite.

Lee Kantor: Now, you know, people say that your network is your net worth. Do you see that kind of coming into play when people actually land jobs? It’s very easy to apply for jobs, but to actually get the job. Are you finding that’s done? Uh, maybe in more. Maybe it’s happening more often through. Maybe not your best friend, but that kind of that one plus one, you know, the. Yeah. The weaker tie.

Scott Doyne: That came up recently.

Lee Kantor: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: Those weak ties that comes that’s come up a lot lately that that concept of weak ties.

Scott Doyne: It’s, um, the way I’m thinking about it is the second ring. Yeah. So you’ve maybe got your first ring of friends and family members, mentors, advisors, and and those are more open ended conversations. You can be completely vulnerable. You can talk about your loss in the process, whatever you need to talk about to sort of get it out of your system. Those are not people that are judging you at the time. Once you talk to that ring, um, and formulate a hypothesis about what you might want to do, then you can be very targeted about who they might be able to introduce you to, or who else you might reach out to. That’s in that function industry. Geography. Uh, and so when once you get to that second ring. That’s a very targeted conversation of people that might be able to help you out. Um, and to answer your first part. Uh, networking is critical. And certainly in sports and media, you know, the industries I came from, it really is who you know, not what you know. And it’s sad to sort of say it that way because it means it’s not a meritocracy. Um, but, you know, I try to help my clients find their own way to go through that. One of the concepts I really like is called networking as a research project. You don’t have to ask for the job. That’s like the hardest ask you could possibly have. But if you can identify somebody you might learn from about which function or industry you could be interested in. Um, that’s just curiosity. And I learned a lot of this from managing a research team. It’s a lot of introverts on a research team, and they’re not going to know about this stuff the same way anybody else would. But if you introduce it as a research project. They love research, they love asking questions. And so that can be a more methodical way of getting to the point where there might be somebody that can help you land that internship or job.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And you just never know. I mean, I talk about this all the time. I participated in this panel on Friday for an association, and it was on networking. And you know, what happens all too often is you have that person who’s been in their job for ten years, and they have let their network kind of sit there. They’re not actively out there talking to people, meeting for coffee, going to networking events, and then something happens where they either again are in a layoff situation or realize they need to make a change in their career and their network has to be like, reinvigorated, right? And it’s so much harder to have to Start it back up. Then if it’s just kind of humming in the background and you’re just just constantly just, you know, attending to it, tending to it all the time as opposed to when you need it because you do actually need it always.

Scott Doyne: I remember distinctly from 2008 when, when we had the financial crisis then and I had a couple of mentors out of work, and I asked them that question, you know, what would you do differently to be prepared? Because I knew it wasn’t performance related. These were all stars, rock stars, phenomenal at what they did. And yet they were out of work. And and they just said, always be networking. And I baked that into my brain that the good news is I like networking, but I can’t put that preference on others. You know, that is not everybody. And in the younger generation, it’s incredibly uncommon because they’ve grown up with digital, virtual social media live through the pandemic. And so finding their way through that, um, takes even more sort of nuance that feels organic to them doesn’t feel like bragging or self-promotion, and that’s okay. You know, at some point, I don’t even want to call it networking because it’s such a turnoff. But it is what it is. It’s just, can you make that your own and and take it step by step? It might be a multi-step process in that way. Not immediate.

Rachel Simon: It’s relationship management. It is. I mean, it’s all about relationships and just making sure that people don’t forget you. And again, there’s a million different opportunities to, you know, network doesn’t have to be a BNI meeting. It can be a, you know, coming to going to just an industry event, a lunch, sending a couple of messages on LinkedIn. I mean, it does not have to be overwhelming, but if people wait until they need it, it’s too late.

Lee Kantor: Well, because then it’s like you mentioned earlier, like you have that kind of aura of desperate, and no one wants that. Like you.

Scott Doyne: Could. Yeah. It is an odd thing about presenting yourself is confidence is contagious. And so, um, you know, people talk about the green badge a lot, uh, open to work and how people feel about that or the very controversial. It’s very controversial. Um, and I think it’s very individual, like, everything. Everything to me is super client centric and custom, you know, what is it you’re trying to accomplish? What are you comfortable with? Get them comfortable with their own process first versus mandating. I really am allergic to advice. Like I think that’s, you know, people give advice from a very warm place and we’re programed to do it because it feels helpful. Um, but I think, you know, it’s a band aid. And finding a way to let people find their own way is so much more empowering long term.

Rachel Simon: I agree. Yeah. And it’s interesting why that open to work banner on LinkedIn is is very polarizing. Some people are like, don’t ever use it. And then others are like, you’re putting yourself out there and asking, letting people know if people don’t know, they can’t help you.

Scott Doyne: Yeah. So I see a lot of gray in everything. I think that’s that’s, you know, helps me understand different types of people in different ways. Right. And then eventually I’ll have conviction about something and you’ll know.

Rachel Simon: I don’t have a strong feeling about that one way or the other. Like, I think it’s a very personal super position.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, we mentioned a little bit about the weak ties versus, I guess, like your first level connections. Why do you think that weak ties are more effective in maybe landing the job? Is it because you know, your friends know you, so they know you like the good, the bad, the ugly, and maybe they’re kind of self-selecting out for you because they know certain things where a weak ties like, oh, they’d say they can do this, or they’re like, throw their name in the hat. And that’s where the job happens.

Scott Doyne: I’ve talked to a couple of people about this recently, because I hadn’t thought about it much about why that second ring is is working. Um, the first ring, if they are close friends. Um, I don’t think it’s because they don’t believe in you necessarily. I think they might just be too close and don’t want to screw it up sometimes. Like, I want to believe it comes from a, you know, a heart filled place. But by the time you get to the second ring, um, it is more targeted because you’ve got a hypothesis about where you’re heading. And I think that focus is incredibly powerful. And it and it doesn’t have to be the thing you do for the rest of your life. I actually publish something today called how do you Maintain focus without FOMO? Because that’s a tough thing for people, especially with social media. And LinkedIn is no different. There’s just a lot of noise and people showing their best selves and so.

Rachel Simon: Or what they think is their best selves?

Scott Doyne: Absolutely. Isn’t that true? And so, you know, finding your your own hypothesis creates a focus and focus, as I’ve learned from every great marketer I’ve ever worked for, is the most powerful marketing tool. Because then you you have a segment of the audience or a person in your audience, and you can build your story crafted for that audience.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. No, it’s, um, it’s so like all of this, I think there’s so much to unpack with everything that you’re talking about, because it’s really how are we using all of these different tools and resources at our disposal? And I think, you know, my big takeaway is use do something right. Don’t just if you’re unhappy in your current role, you’re feeling stuck or lost. You don’t have to feel that way. There’s so many different things you can utilize in order to change your situation, because that just bleeds into every other aspect of your life.

Scott Doyne: I totally agree. I don’t have a ten step process. I have a four stage method, but in those stages there’s options for exercises. And um, the way I go about it is still question based. If you want to learn more about that space, what are some steps you might take to better understand if you’re a fit for it? And among that list, then which one do you think would be the most valuable next step for you to take? Then come with the time bound. These are all Smart goals. Come with a time bound. You know when is it realistic for you to take that step? What might help you take that step in terms of your organizational tools and process? What might distract you from accomplishing that? And how do we build a contingency plan for that? So it’s still Procedural, but question based.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And Lee, to you know, your question on the weak ties, I think the way I look at it is that if my friend who knows me well makes an introduction to somebody in their organization, I’m, I’m vetted already.

Scott Doyne: It’s an endorsement.

Rachel Simon: I’m endorsed. And so I may not know that person, but they already have a thumb. Like I’ve got a thumbs up from them. And so that that’s where the first circle group can really benefit you. Because I agree, I think sometimes in close friendships it’s like you don’t want to you don’t want to overstep boundaries and sort of right mess anything up with your relationships. But you can happily make those introductions that could benefit people totally.

Scott Doyne: And if you’ve nurtured those relationships bilaterally over time, the willingness will be there. I want to also believe that all of us, if people reach out to us, would also be helpful because it feels good. I know I feel that way. Maybe I don’t do it for every single message I’ve ever gotten in my life, but if you can get that across to somebody who’s a little nervous about asking for help, realize that that might be the best part of that person’s day is it makes them feel good about helping somebody else.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s the for your clients? What’s the thing that’s happening right before they call you? Is there some some trigger that usually leads to a better call?

Scott Doyne: Yeah. It’s layoff is the most obvious right.

Lee Kantor: So they’re they get a sense that it’s coming or they were told correct.

Scott Doyne: Either it’s just happened or they’re they’re nervous or scared that it might be coming that I call the get ready package. You know, some people just want to have that peace of mind that if it comes, they’ve got some stuff on the shelf ready that they can pull off then and be more prepared, like the Boy Scout method. They’re more prepared when it happens. The people it’s happened to already. Um, a lot of times, you know, even people I know that have been laid off from my former company, I’ll reach out just to be a warm ear. Um, let the venting happen. Uh, it needs to. And I respect that stage because there’s there’s such a variety of reactions to that step. Um, you know, most often it doesn’t feel good or feel great, and you need to sort of get some stuff off your chest. Some people do feel liberated and are ready to go. Some people are more ready than others. Um, but I think that’s the two steps. Either feeling because of something happening that they need to get ready or something has happened. Um, for people in internal roles, because I still do some of that leadership and executive coaching. Um, a lot of times that’s been a discussion with their manager. Um, they maybe have had a 360. Uh, or they’re, they’re stuck at senior director and aren’t sure how to get to VP. What is executive presence mean? So a lot of times, you know, they’ve gone through a review cycle and didn’t get promoted. I see that a lot.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, what’s the best way to connect with you and get Ahold of your book?

Scott Doyne: Um, LinkedIn for sure. I live there several hours a day, and then my website is doing services.com.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Rachel. Great show.

Rachel Simon: Good stuff. Um, so normally I give a tip. I’m going to give a little plug. Um, because we’re talking about networking. So one of the other things that I do is I am a cohost of LinkedIn local ATL events. So a LinkedIn local event is just an opportunity to meet your LinkedIn folks in person.

Lee Kantor: That’s right.

Rachel Simon: In real life. And so we have a happy hour on March 20th in Roswell at Voodoo Brewing. It’s free to attend. You get one drink ticket. You can learn more on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, local ATL is the company page or just go to my LinkedIn. I posted about it today, but particularly for maybe our Gen Z folks, it’s a lot easier to just talk to people with a cold beverage in hand and get some good introductions and a very sort of chill environment, and we’ve had a lot of fun at these events, so maybe people will come.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work. We appreciate you.

Scott Doyne: Thank you both.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We will see you all next time on Greater Perimeter Business Radio.

 

About Your Host

Rachel-SimonRachel Simon is the CEO & Founder of Connect the Dots Digital. She helps B2B companies close more business by leveraging the power of LinkedIn.

Rachel works with professionals, both individuals and teams, to position their authentic brand on LinkedIn so they can connect organically with ideal clients, attract the best talent, and stand out as a leader in their industry.

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Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.

 

Executive Business and Leadership Coach Michelle Cox

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High Velocity Radio
Executive Business and Leadership Coach Michelle Cox
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Michelle-CoxMichelle Cox is the founder and CEO of an executive coaching firm that utilizes an ontological approach to accelerate Leadership and Personal Development.

Cox has been coaching for a decade, holds a Professional Coaching Certification (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation, and provides coaching to corporate executives and entrepreneurs in the United States and abroad.

With over two decades of experience leading and building teams, Michelle spearheaded innovative thought leadership and drove strategic initiatives across organizations. She’s adept at leading and inspiring teams to deliver unprecedented results. And today she leverages those experiences and skills when working with her clients.

Michelle’s coaching is designed to enhance her client’s leadership skills and careers by equipping them with the necessary mindset, tools, and resources necessary to develop both themselves and their teams. Michelle-Cox-logo

The ultimate outcome, empowering executives to lead with greater impact, create a career they love without sacrificing their well-being.

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon and this is going to be a good one. Please join me in welcoming to the Broadcast executive, business and leadership coach, Michelle Cox. How are you?

Michelle Cox: I’m doing fantastic. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Oh, man, I got so much. I want to talk about a ton of questions, but maybe to begin with give us a little bit of an overview. How are you out there helping folks, Michelle?

Michelle Cox: Yeah. So I work with executives, usually at director or above level and really looking at elevating their leadership. And I find that there’s a huge correlation to your leadership as well as your role. They go hand in hand. So if you’re looking to go to the next level, then it’s let’s start with your leadership. How are you leading.

Stone Payton: When you’re getting your arms around that and trying to help them think through it? Or I’m sure the answer is yes, but I’m going to ask anyway. Are you seeing some patterns, like what are some of the most prevalent things that you feel like are maybe are holding some of these leaders back?

Michelle Cox: I would say that one of the areas that I see the most is that the higher you go within an organization or and quite frankly, if you’re a business owner in itself, the that you aren’t receiving feedback, you get less and less and less feedback. And so you you lose that sense of awareness. Where do exactly do I need to work? Where do where do I need to grow and develop? What’s what is impacting my team? What’s impacting my peers? And that is a huge piece of it. You think you’re doing really good, and then all of a sudden it’s like, well, are you? Let’s kind of dig in and see, are you doing as good as you either think you’re doing or as other people are quote unquote, telling you you’re doing?

Stone Payton: Well, it’s an excellent point, because I guess many of us have heard the saying that it’s lonely at the top, but I guess the dynamics are such that just that’s just the way things are. It is lonely, at least in terms of getting candid, practical feedback that you can turn around and learn from and act on, isn’t it?

Michelle Cox: Yes it is. As an example, I spoke with an executive this morning and he’s like, yeah, I don’t really receive feedback anymore. And he he said to me, he was like, you know, I might get maybe you might want to say something like this or say something like that, but it’s not that elevated type of here’s a trend I’m seeing. This is what’s going to take you to the next level and having a different type of conversation with somebody at that level.

Stone Payton: So what is the key? And I you know, I certainly don’t expect you to try to reduce your work to a cosmopolitan article, but is is part of the key to to opening this vault up, equipping them to ask questions of the people around them in such a way and in such an environment that they will get that feedback. Or what’s the what’s the master key, you think?

Michelle Cox: Well, obviously hiring a coach like me is fantastic. Not to put not not to put a plug in there for myself now, but honestly hiring an external point of view so you’re able to get back because somebody externally is able to see the trends and see it, they’re not attached to whatever it is you’re doing. So they’re they’re the people that are going to provide you that type of honest feedback, because they have no skin in the game other than to make you successful and help you be successful. The second piece is Cases like you had said, asking powerful questions. If someone if you’re asking your team, hey, is there anything else I can do to help you if you’re stopping at that question when they say no, you’re doing great, but you need to take that question a step further. What’s one thing I can do that will truly support you in what you’re up to, whether it be your professional development goals, whether it be your, um, your personal goals, whatever that looks. What’s one thing? And usually when you’re asking that question, someone’s like, well, I could think of one thing that you can do to support me differently. So it’s starting to peel back the onion just a tad bit. And if they’re not providing you anything, keep asking, don’t wait. And don’t just look for your team or your boss. Look at your peers. Look all around you.

Stone Payton: The the first time a leader exhibits that behavior is probably. It might feel a little bit clunky, but I bet with a little bit of repetition, repetition, and with a and maintaining the discipline to make it as safe an environment as possible to have that conversation, I bet it is truly powerful and pays some real dividends.

Michelle Cox: It does, it does. And I would say that you’re you’re right. It is a little bit from an executive. When you first start having that conversation, part of it is prefacing, listen, I want you to be successful and I really want to set you up for success. And I’m not perfect. I have blind spots, just like you have blind spots, or anybody else in this world has blind spots. And so I really want to find out what my blind spots are so I can enable you. And when you make it about you, not about them, like, hey, you know, there’s that correlation. So I want to support you. And it’s also saying I’m going to have a vulnerable conversation with you. And really exposed myself to say, I’m open, I want to grow, I want to develop. And your feedback is helping me do that too.

Stone Payton: So what’s the backstory, Michelle? How did you get involved with with coaching?

Michelle Cox: You know, initially I was part of an amazing organization and they really focused on developing their leaders. Their their business model was if you take if you develop your leaders, they’re going to develop your employees. Employees are going to take care of your customers. And at the end of the day, that’s going to drive business results. So they really set up that structure where I was getting constant, constant development as a leader. And as the years went on, I was with the organization for 16 years and the initial CEO, he retired. And so when he retired, new CEO comes in, they have a new philosophy and you start seeing some of the structures start going like further and further away. So I decided to go out and find my own, let me find my own leadership development and growth. How do I help all the people I’m working with? How do I help my team the most? How do I continue to develop? And I was working with all executives inside our organization as well as outside our organization. So I found an executive coaching and leadership development. I had no intention of becoming an executive coach.

Michelle Cox: That wasn’t necessarily what I went in there for, which people always laugh at because I was like, I didn’t go in there saying, hey, I want to become a coach. And I was one of 20 people that was in that room that said, I’m not here to become a coach. I have no ambition to become a coach. And in that program, I had my own coach and I, my sister passed away three months into it and it really started shifting my perspective of how how you can support a leader, how you support somebody who is has a lot of circumstances going on, whether it be personal or professional circumstances and supporting them despite to move forward, despite what’s happening and really grow from it. And it completely shifted my perspective. And that was a turning point for me. So year in, I was coaching and I’ve been coaching for the last ten years or 11 years, actually just had my 11th anniversary and I’ve been on my own for over eight years now. So it’s it’s just kind of a marriage made in heaven here.

Stone Payton: Well, and you, you not only had to build out this practice and continue to hone your craft, but the. Oh, by the way, you got to learn how to run a business too, right?

Michelle Cox: Yeah, very much so. Very much so that that was definitely a learning curve. Definitely a learning curve for me.

Stone Payton: Was it tough in the early going getting the new work like finding the people or creating an environment where they would find you. I mean, I’m sure you’ve cracked that code in the last 11 years, but maybe in the beginning.

Michelle Cox: Uh, definitely difficult. I would say that for for me, I started building my practice while I was still in corporate, so it was in tandem. So I get them together and I because I was working with executives already, it was my niche that I hadn’t said, oh, I’m this is my niche at that point in time. But that was who I was working with. So when I was telling them what I was up to, they’re like, oh, I could really use a coach. And so it was sort of naturally being that some of the people I was working with professionally wanted to hire me for coaching and developing, and so that’s kind of where my practice was bred from and started building from there. Now, I won’t say it’s all sunshine and glory, right? It’s not all sunshine and roses. I and you know, and I’ve hired I’ve always throughout the last 11 years I’ve had my own coach, and so I’m ensuring that I’m okay. If I’m saying everybody can use a coach, I’m modeling that behavior for people I’m working with. So it and hiring another coach, like ensuring that I’m leveling up my skill set in marketing business. How do I go to sales? How do I go to market? All of those different pieces of the puzzle has really been key for me in order to grow my business.

Stone Payton: So over a decade in now, and I’m sure this has changed some over the course of you building out this practice. But what are you finding the most rewarding at this point in your career? What do you what’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Michelle Cox: Oh gosh. So my why I will say this my why behind working with executives is really clean. I want to create a trickle effect within organizations, within businesses. So if I’m working with an executive leader that what I’m teaching that person. They’re taking that and they’re pushing it down throughout their entire team, organization, what have you to their peers. And that’s my why. And that’s what drives me. And when I see an executive that’s moving forward, I see an executive that wants to get promoted. They get promoted. I see an executive that was working 80 hours a week and they’re like, Michel, I’m I’m no longer working 80 hours a week, and they’re down to a manageable time frame that they’re working. They’re taking vacations, and the other piece is taking care of themselves. I see so many executives that don’t take care of themselves and when I can, and they go hand in hand. How you take care of yourself is how you can take care of others. And ultimately, all of those pieces. Every time my client has a win, that’s a win for me.

Stone Payton: So say a little bit more about the what’s the right word? The the execution mechanism. Like how does the work take place? Is that a lot of one on one? Is there group work? Is there asynchronous work? I don’t know, maybe a little bit of all of it. Huh.

Michelle Cox: Well, I do all one on one in my coaching practice as it stands today. Uh, saying that there won’t be something different in the future. However, right now I found that there is a level of vulnerability and intimacy that comes when you are having that type of conversation with somebody, and you really want that person to open up, and you want to save space where you know that you can say whatever it is and that person’s not judging you. And that’s the environment that I create for my clients.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s incredible to me. I continue to find it fascinating. You know, we’ve been doing this coaching series for a little while now, and that does seem to be a theme of, um, creating a safe environment that is, uh, the level of trust that you have to create to, to provide for that vulnerability. Where you can really do that work is um, it strikes me that’s probably something you had developed well before you sort of went out on your on your own, but is are strategies and tactics and disciplines and those kinds of things. Is that part of why you chose to be formally credentialed and go through that, uh, that certification process.

Michelle Cox: With the International Coaching Federation?

Michelle Cox: Yeah, I wouldn’t say that. That’s the reason why, um, that I chose to get my credentials. However, for me, it was how do I ensure that I, I’m able to provide the best coaching possible and how do I continue to develop and all of those when I went out and got my credentials, you’re taking testing, you’re going through you’re having recordings evaluated. So you’re really going through a next level of development, even for yourself. And so that’s the reason why I chose to do it, is to ensure that I was able to provide my clients the best possible experience that they could have.

Stone Payton: So in the work, you know, you touched on early on when I was asking about kind of what it’s like the main thing that holds leaders back are you also, do you ever come across folks that are having a little bit of a challenge leading all these different variations in the same workplace? I certainly hear a lot about that. But is that is that real? Is that something that leaders are struggling with?

Michelle Cox: There are a lot of different variations. Yes there are. I mean, you think about there’s hybrid, there’s in-person, there’s there’s fully remote. There’s all sorts of different environments that are set up today. And so like physical location is one of the challenges, especially if you’ve never done it before. If all of a sudden you’ve been leading for the last 20 years in an environment that you’ve been face to face and now it’s 100% remote, and you would think that five years into being remote, that leaders have that skill set, but they don’t always they fall back. A lot of leaders fall back on. Well, this is what I know. And so I want my team together. I can’t get X if I don’t if I’m not in person, which or I can’t get Y, it doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t get me wrong, I love being in person. I love being able to see people in person. And I also think you can facilitate relationships. You can build a team, a cohesive team environment, even if you’re not. And so a lot of it is mindset and shifting that mindset.

Stone Payton: So you yes, you have these different environments. You’ve got another layer of this is, I’m sure, communication styles, generations. I mean, it’s a pretty it’s a Rubik’s cube. It’s not just a flat map, is it?

Michelle Cox: It is not. It is not. There are like so many different components go into being a leader, much like you said, generational leadership. Um, and a lot of that is, you know, we talk about communication, we talk about generation. And the interesting, most interesting part about it is if we think about communication or we think about generational leadership at the root of everything, it’s what type of relationship have I created with the person? How well do I know them? At what level do I know? How do they prefer to receive communication? How do they prefer to send communication? How do they prefer and really understanding who they are? What’s their what do they love that what are they passionate about and what the sooner you get to know that individual, that’s how you like. You get rid of the oh, they’re this generation or they’re that generation, and you start removing some of the the different challenges that you think that are sitting out there. They’re not really sitting out there. It’s just asking enough questions and getting underneath and building that relationship one on one with that person to know what the answers are. So you can work most effectively both ways, and it takes you to adjusting that. You can’t just say, this is how I do it, and this is the only way. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to adjust to your team as well.

Stone Payton: Okay, let’s talk about me for a minute. It’s my show.

Michelle Cox: No, sorry. I just went on and on. No, no.

Stone Payton: No, I’m saying that tongue in cheek, because as as I hear you describe this process, I’m kind of putting myself in the trying to in the shoes of a of a client. And I can see me working with you getting some tremendous insight. And then in a safe environment, being willing to take some risks, try some new things, and then and then go out and try on some of these new behaviors and then and then come back to you and, and share with you what I experienced. Um, but it also, it also strikes me as something that’s not just something I try on a Tuesday and then come back and all right, we got we checked that one off the list. Right? I mean, it’s a it’s an ongoing iterative process I’m sure.

Michelle Cox: Yeah it is, it is. And there’s multiple different practices that I’ll or actions and practices. And it’s like a layer upon layer building exercise. It’s not just a one and done. And a lot of times I will if you look at a person, how they’re doing something in their professional life, a lot of times they’re doing the same thing in their personal life.

Stone Payton: Ah.

Michelle Cox: And so when you start looking at the human combine and you really say, well, let’s just practice this in a safe environment at home. And they start getting reflections at home. They’re like, oh my gosh, I’m doing this at home. I’m doing it at work. It’s something that’s showing up everywhere. So it’s as soon as you start getting that awareness level and all of a sudden it’s like, okay, let’s practice something new and you’re able to practice in a safe environment and build that muscle and keep building it. That’s where it becomes the expertise.

Stone Payton: Well, and I’m sure just a little bit of forward progress starts to build some, some confidence and build on itself. I think that I think that’s marvelous. You just got to go in. Sounds like eyes wide open knowing that, you know, we’re not going to be hitting three pointers right out of the box here all the time.

Michelle Cox: Yeah, I mean I look at it in the fact, um, okay, what are the wins? And they may be small wins, but we actually celebrate and acknowledge the small wins along the way. So even as we have momentum here, you are saying, okay, so I’m throwing the pass to the ten yard line. I got the ten yard line. Now I’m throwing it to the 20 yard line. I’m getting there too. And so when you hit the touchdown, it’s that a much larger celebration. But you’re seeing your progress every step of the journey.

Stone Payton: And I absolutely do not want to dismiss this idea of, um, I guess my phrase for it back in the day was capability transfer. But you mentioned a ripple effect or the trickle down effect, if you can have that kind of impact with me as a leader of a, you know, reasonably successful media company. But then I go, you’re not just helping me if I’m engaging in those behaviors, exercising those disciplines. There really is an ongoing, uh, continuous effect throughout the organization, right?

Michelle Cox: There is. And even if you think about the next generation, the next level of leaders that’s coming up. If you if you’re an executive and you’re you have a team underneath you and you’re coaching your directors and then you’re coaching your that directors, coaching their managers and so on and so on and so on. Ultimately, every step that that that person will take, they’re going to take what they learned and take it to the next level that they go take it to the next organization that they go. And so it really does cause that ripple effect.

Stone Payton: So hobbies, interests, pursuits, passions outside the the scope of your work. Anything you nerd out about that’s not this.

Michelle Cox: Uh, well, yes. I mean, I’m a runner, so that is definitely, you know, and people think, oh, that’s exercise. But for me, that’s like my that is like my little, like meditation. That’s my place that I love getting outside. I love being able to I live right on the river here in Milwaukee. That is a big one. I golf, I golf, albeit it’s it’s awful golf but I love it. I mean nobody’s going to want to be I feel bad for the people behind me. It’s not a pretty pretty sport for me. But I love it. I love the peacefulness. I love the quietness. I love the guess what? It’s it’s not about anybody that I’m I’m having to rely on. It’s just kind of a place that I can just go and be, and I don’t have to do anything else and just enjoy it.

Stone Payton: Oh, I am so glad that I asked. I, I asked a gentleman the other day on the air and and we found out he played the bagpipes. You just never know what you learn about somebody when you ask him about that.

Michelle Cox: That’s amazing.

Michelle Cox: My uncle is a big pipes and I’m always like, wow, that’s that’s impressive. It really is.

Stone Payton: But you know, you touched on taking care of your self and to my way of thinking, you engaging in these activities outside the scope of your work is an expression of taking care of yourself. And I guess my personal experience has been, and maybe you would echo this. I really think for me, hunting and fishing and traveling and boating, when I go out and do that, I honestly feel like if I give myself that space, I feel like I come back a better practitioner and better equipped to serve my clients.

Michelle Cox: Absolutely, 100%. And I think that there is a misconception of that, like, oh, I have to push forward. I have to push through, I have to work. If I don’t work, then I’m going to come back and there’s going to be a million things that I’m going to have to take care of. But the thing is, sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.

Stone Payton: So what would you characterize as, um, signals for someone to what would they be seeing, hearing, experiencing where they ought to take a step back and say, hey, maybe I really ought to explore this idea of engaging a coach. Are there some some, like, telltale signs or. Yeah. Hit the brakes a minute and at least consider having a conversation with somebody like you.

Michelle Cox: Yeah, I would say this.If you have if you if you’re getting passed over for promotions, that’s the time to say, oh, shoot, I might have something that I actually need to work on. And that’s where I need to go out and see if there’s somebody that can support me and see if there’s some blind spots that I have, or if you’re losing passion behind what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Go out and find a coach. There’s a reason why you’re losing your passion behind it. It may be that what you valued ten years, 20 years ago isn’t the same thing that you value today. And what your aspirations are look different, so explore that. And the third thing I would say, if you’re working a crazy amount of hours, if you if you find that you’re not able to depend on your team. If you find that your results aren’t where you want them to be, and you find that you’re doing a lot of the work, and your team isn’t like you’re doing the work of your team, that is also a red flag. Go hire a coach. Let them help you through that process of it.

Stone Payton: Michelle, what’s the best way for our listeners to continue to tap into your work? Maybe have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team. Let’s leave them with some coordinates.

Michelle Cox: Yeah, absolutely. If they anybody can go to my website. Michelle L cox.com. And they can book a call with me. See more nuggets that come out. Linkedin is an amazing place to come out there. I post pretty regularly that a lot of thought leadership different articles. So another good place. And again you can find me to book a call there too.

Stone Payton: What a delightful conversation Michelle, I find you so engaging. I find your perspective inspiring and it makes me want to kind of reflect on my own leadership, which hey, look gang, if you want to get a little bit of free insight and wisdom, get yourself a radio show. You can talk to some really smart people. But this is I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. You’re clearly doing important work and we sure appreciate you.

Michelle Cox: Thank you so much. This is amazing. I think you’re doing a very important work as well. So it’s right back at you.

Stone Payton: Thank you. Alright, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Michelle Cox and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

BRX Pro Tip: Donald Miller’s New Book, Story Brand 2.0

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Donald Miller's New Book, Story Brand 2.0
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BRX Pro Tip: Donald Miller’s New Book, Story Brand 2.0

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, Donald Miller has a new book out, Storybrand 2.0. What do you think, man?

Lee Kantor: Well, I just got a hold of the book. It’s really a great update. I’m a big fan of the Storybrand model. I think it’s very relevant in today’s world where stories are so important. And at Business RadioX, that’s what we spend our time doing is telling stories. For those who aren’t familiar with the Donald Miller’s kind of thesis, he argues that the framework, his framework, business owners can create clearer, more compelling marketing messages, and that those messages are going to resonate with the customers, which will in turn drive more engagement. The Storybrand approach, they do a great job of just taking kind of a complex… People get in their own way when it comes to telling their own business story, and he helps kind of simplify it and makes it easier for you to have, kind of, soundbites and little snippets to communicate kind of what the core values and what the mission is of your business.

And some of the key, kind of, foundational elements of the Storybrand theses is number one, making your customer the hero, not your brand. He sees this as a mistake that a lot of businesses make. They’re talking about themselves. We’ve been around for a million years. We’ve done all this. We’ve done all that. That’s not what you should be talking about. You should be talking about solving the problem that your client or prospective client has. The client has to be the hero. You’re just there to kind of guide the customer to the outcome they desire. So, don’t talk about yourself. Talk about the pain that your prospective clients have and how you helped solve that pain. That’s relevant to them. They’re looking to get an answer and solve a problem. You’re just there to help them do that. You are not the star. They are the star. You are kind of, he likes to call it, the Yoda or the guide that’s helping kind of sherpa your client to the outcome they desire.

And then, the last thing is when you’re describing what you do, paint a clear picture of the positive outcomes that result from engaging with your brand, not you again. You’re talking about all of the great work that you do and have helped your clients get to where they want to go. That’s the stuff you have to talk about. You talk about how you help them achieve whatever it is they were trying to achieve.

And an exciting new element to their offering is they have an AI component now where they’ve taken a lot of their best practices and their learnings and put it into an AI engine, and that you now have access to, and you can kind of play around with it a limited amount. If you’re interested at Storybrand.ai, Storybrand.ai, go there, plug in some of your basic information, and then they’ll help you kind of craft some messaging, and you can kind of take it for a test drive and see if it’s the right fit for you.

BRX Pro Tip: 3 Reasons an Owned Audience is Better Than a Rented One

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BRX Pro Tip: 3 Reasons an Owned Audience is Better Than a Rented One
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BRX Pro Tip: 3 Reasons an Owned Audience is Better Than a Rented One

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we’ve spoken about an owned audience and the virtue of an owned audience, but dive into that a little bit more.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I see more and more people kind of playing on these platforms and getting big numbers of followers – the TikToks, the LinkedIn’s, the, Facebook’s, Instagram’s, the YouTubes, all the different places people are going to build an audience and get subscribers. And all of that is important. And people should spend time and energy doing that. But it is even more important to take some of those people that are finding you on these third parties and move them into your own kind of world. You have to own the audience. You have to be in control of how often you communicate with them. It is just critical. As you grow your business and your brand, you have to be able to move these people out of those third-party apps and into your own world. So, do whatever you have to do in order to do that. And here’s a couple of the reasons why you should consider that.

Number one, direct communication with an owned audience. You have direct line of communication to your most loyal followers and fans. That is critical. These algorithms change constantly. One minute, you could have a lot; and tomorrow, you can have none. So, you have to take control of this, and be proactive, and move people off of these platforms into your own world.

Second, there’s just greater control and stability. Like I said, these platforms are constantly changing their algorithm because their business, you are the product in their business. The fact that you can build an audience is good for them because then, they can put ads around it, and they might compensate you pennies but they’re picking up dollars from this. So, you’re at the mercy of their changing algorithms. Whatever suits them, they will do. They do not care about you and your audience, no matter how big it is.

And then lastly, while building an owned audience takes time, it’s more sustainable in the long run. Sure, it’s more work. You’re going to have to… You know, you’re doing the work on these individual platforms to kind of attract an audience, but you have to spend some time in creativity in pulling that audience into your own world. Then, you will, then, be able to reduce your dependance on paid advertising to reach your own audience. You’re going to have lower costs, ultimately, associated with kind of constantly adapting to whatever platform change happens, and it’s going to increase the lifetime value of your audience members and your business. The more people you’re able to put into your own kind of database, the more valuable your brand and business will be, and you’re not going to be reliant on any third party.

And that includes Business RadioX. If you have a show with Business RadioX, you should be moving the people who listen to your show into your own world. You should be moving all of the guests and all of the people that are part of the process of being part of Business RadioX into your own database. That’s for your own good. That way, you have control.

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