Edward Gorbis With Career Meets World

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to our Ambassador Dotcom to learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a good one today, we’ve we have with us Edward Gorbals with Career Meets World. Welcome, Edward.

Edward Gorbis: [00:00:43] Thanks so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about career meets world, how you serve in folks.

Edward Gorbis: [00:00:51] Absolutely, so for me, career, my world is really about empowering both immigrants and first generation leaders who really want to thrive both in business and life. For me, it’s really been a journey around understanding that as an immigrant myself from Ukraine, having grown up in the US and having everything my parents afforded me, it’s really just been a journey about serving that demographic and empowering those individuals because they really are the backbone of the US. And oftentimes they have kind of the work ethic, the discipline and the tenacity. But what I found is they don’t necessarily always have the tools and strategies to truly play an effective game within this business game that we all play now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] Talk about your back story. How did you get involved in coaching?

Edward Gorbis: [00:01:42] So coaching is just kind of a core part of my DNA. It’s something that I found myself doing very early on, even let’s call it middle school, high school, college. It’s just something I’ve always enjoyed doing informally through mentorship, facilitation, through internships, and basically throughout my entire corporate career and over the last 10 years, I really enjoyed spending time in leadership positions, growing teams. And I realized that I actually want to create a lifestyle for myself where I can do this all the time because I just enjoy helping people so much. So once I had that realization is kind of important epiphany. It was just a combination of all the skill sets, all the experiences that I’ve had. And I packaged it into coaching. And now I’m fortunate to work with both founders as well as executives at a variety of different companies and really help strengthen their ability to both lead and grow their organizations.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] So now we’re always working primarily with immigrants.

Edward Gorbis: [00:02:48] So I was and it’s not necessarily something that I will say that I formally have to work with immigrants or FirstRand is just naturally I can empathize with their story more. I understand it more and can understand where they’re coming from. But that being said, I work with other individuals who don’t necessarily fall into that bucket.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:07] Now, when you’re working with first generation professionals and entrepreneurs, do you find that they proudly identify themselves as that or is that something they kind of keep on the down low?

Edward Gorbis: [00:03:19] So it’s funny that you ask that, because what I found, especially over the last year, we’ve had this heightened conversation around just different race and backgrounds and ethnicity. What I in speaking with a lot of people is that companies, for example, have employee resource groups or urges that focus on specific individuals, whether you’re black or Latino, X or some other demographic. But oftentimes there’s this underlying pin that I found, which is people don’t necessarily want to be bucketed as being Luddin X or black. They might come from Nigeria or Ethiopia or somewhere in South America, whether it be Chile or Argentina. And they simply understand that they came to America like many immigrants, due to be hyper successful. So it’s not something that they traditionally identify themselves. But as I put out more content, have more conversations like this one, people simply realize I’m an immigrant, I’m a hard worker, and I came here for a very specific purpose. So I’m starting that conversation with a lot of companies with different voices. And it’s been really interesting to see this narrative shift, at least through the conversations that I’ve had with a variety of different folks.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:38] Now, when you’re working with those folks, are do you feel that they have maybe a greater sense of urgency than folks that have been around for multiple generations?

Edward Gorbis: [00:04:48] One hundred percent. I always tell people that if you don’t struggle, you don’t appreciate. And for me, I’ve realized that oftentimes most immigrants have some level of struggle. You don’t have to be an immigrant to struggle. But oftentimes they come to America because their life, wherever they currently are, is not as good as they believe it can be. And it’s that struggle that gives them that drive that edge to really be successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:15] Now, where did their parents come into play? Is it something that the parents are like, look, dude, I sacrificed a lot to get you here and Nasier, so don’t screw this up and I need you to have the pedal to the ground.

Edward Gorbis: [00:05:29] Absolutely. It really obviously depends on at what age do you immigrate to the States? For me, I moved here when I was five. Other people move here when they 20, 25, 30 are really just depends on who and what is driving you. But oftentimes a lot of that edge does come from your parents. Even ancestral kind of experiences really push people to want to continue to flourish and do other things and propel themselves to that next level. So it really depends on the individual story to understand where that edge really kicks in.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] But there is some kind of you find a consistent when you’re dealing with these folks, a consistent kind of. I don’t know if I want to use the phrase, but I’ll say it anyway, like chip on their shoulder, that I got to prove something quickly. I don’t want to let down my family. There’s a lot of pressure on me to succeed and I’m going to do whatever it takes. There are less about victim blaming and more about I got to make this happen any way possible.

Edward Gorbis: [00:06:30] Absolutely. You’re spot on because oftentimes those people really understand how short and precious life is and there’s zero time to waste to go into the complaining game or victim game. It’s really about a growth mindset, opportunity mindset. And that’s really a big part of how I try to partner with people is making sure they’re focused on the right things and channel their energy in the right way.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:54] So what are some of those things you’re helping them focus on? So if they have the work ethic, they have the desire, they have the kind of can do attitude, what is it that they’re lacking in order to take their career, their life to the next level?

Edward Gorbis: [00:07:11] Yeah, it’s a great question, and I think, again, this applies to anyone, but in general, especially for the immigrants, and first then it just boils down to, yes, you have that energy, that work ethic. But oftentimes what I find people and I tell people is that they need personal guidance. They really need that personal GPS system to help steer them in the right direction. So for me, it’s about one making sure that we pour the right foundation together, which is really predicated on having the right type of mindset. So, again, even though they have this hunger and desire, it’s not always fixed, meaning sometimes it deviates into our world of complaining or playing the victim game. So strengthening one’s mindset is the core of what I do. And then beyond that, it’s really understanding what do they want to achieve, having that goal alignment, having that clear crystal pathway to what do we need to tweak, improve, elevate, kind of further educate them on and get them the right tools and skill sets so that they can actually flourish and go out and achieve whatever it is that they want. Most people, and let’s call it failing or not achieving what they actually want is because they flounder and they kind of wave through life and they’re not sure of what they really want. There’s no clarity. So I try to get some of that clarity. I try to elevate their minds in a way that they’re showing up in a powerful way every single day and having that growth mindset through and through.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:39] So now this mindset. How did you kind of develop this is this something that you did on your own or you read a lot of books or had a lot of mentors or had a lot of coaching yourself and then kind of put it all together? Like, how did you kind of come up with this philosophy?

Edward Gorbis: [00:08:56] It’s probably a cocktail of all of them, to be honest. The truth is, I’m a huge mindset nerd and I have always loved reading psychology, books, neuroscience books, metaphysics, spirituality. And I’ve kind of kind of combined all of this into my own format of mindset. And what really makes sense to me has worked for me. And now I spend a lot of time teaching others as well through conversations such as this or through talks through one on one coaching, through just group coaching at companies as well. It’s just really helping them understand how do we look at life in a way that makes sense, that isn’t actually taught in school. Right. I think you and I both wouldn’t have had the success that we’ve had in different ways if we don’t look at life in a particular way and shown up with the right energy. So for me, it’s about helping people understand how the mind actually works. It doesn’t need to get hypertechnical, but it’s helping them understand how your brain thinks. So why things a certain way. And then once we unpack that, then we can really curate what you want your conscious mind to look like.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:06] So you believe this is universal, like this would work here in America? I would work in any country, any group. If they followed this kind of methodology, they’d be able to achieve some level of success.

Edward Gorbis: [00:10:18] In my opinion, one hundred percent, I’m not going to say that we need to 100 percent replace classic Western medicine in the sense of just any sort of mental health practices. People deal with different things. But if you’re ambitious, if you’re hungry and you are ready to actually do the work, then yes, I 100 percent believe this would work across the board.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:41] So let’s give our listeners some homework. What something they could be doing today that could help unlock some of this.

Edward Gorbis: [00:10:50] Yeah, so one of the first things that I share with anybody is that it’s really important to understand where our belief system comes from because our beliefs are decisions that we have every single day and they drive our results or beliefs, drives our thoughts, our thoughts, drives our feelings, our feelings, drive our actions, our actions drive our results. So in order to actually understand how we’re showing up every single day, we have to unpack what our current belief system is. So the homework assignment that I often give to people and I would share to anyone listening is take a piece of pen and paper, spend five, 10, 15 minutes. Just give yourself permission to do this exercise. Sit down, write down. What do you actually believe? Right. It could be I am not a great public speaker. I will never get a job. I will never get a promotion. It’s OK to write down what we call limiting beliefs. Write them down. Now, I want the next step is actually give yourself permission to come up with any belief that you actually want for yourself. So flip everything upside down. I will get that job. I will get that promotion. My success is inevitable. My life is abundant, money is abundant. Whatever it is, you can go down the list. You can have one belief. You can have 50 beliefs. Write them down. And the next column, I want you to really write down all the supporting evidence in your life to prove that these beliefs are true. Do this every single day, and the reason this is important is because we will actually start to change all of the neuro synaptic connections in our brain and start to operate more powerfully. This exercise works. It is kind of the first step that I have everyone go through, every client go through. That’s what I write about in my book, Unbreakable Mindset, which is free to everyone. And it’s really about changing the way we look at life because our beliefs drives every single result in our life and it is so important to show up powerfully.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:56] So the activity of. As if as behaving as if is what helps kind of unlock the mindset and break some of those preexisting biases and kind of inertia, it may be in the wrong direction for people.

Edward Gorbis: [00:13:12] That’s exactly right. The ultimate goal is to Dehghan betrayed a lot of these old thinking patterns

Lee Kantor: [00:13:19] And that that’s what is holding people back by kind of falling into these, uh, kind of, uh, it’s almost like a record stuck on playing the same, you know, kind of thing over and over again. They can’t kind of get the escape velocity to to skip to keep moving.

Edward Gorbis: [00:13:40] That’s exactly right. I think oftentimes people hear this type of thinking and they brush it off or they might read it in some sort of inspirational and motivational post, whether it be on Instagram or LinkedIn or Twitter. But it’s not something to gloss over because how we think and what we believe really dictates and produces our destiny. And oftentimes people end up on the hamster wheel because, look, our mind really works like a search engine and whatever questions we ask ourselves. Right. So if you wake up and you’re asking yourself, how do I show up the right way for my clients, how do I put out the best podcast? How do I show up powerfully in this interview? Your mind is going to find all the right answers for you through all your previous experiences. Well, if you ask yourself bad questions, you’re going to get all the wrong answers because your mind only has access to everything it’s experience before. So we have to do the work if we want to actually show up better, more impactful and more powerful every single day.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:41] So can you share a story of maybe somebody we’re working with, whether it’s individual coaching or group coaching or maybe what happened at a keynote that you gave or business you were coaching where you were able to help take that person or that organization to a new level? I don’t name any names, but maybe talk about what their challenge was and how you helped them through it.

Edward Gorbis: [00:14:59] Yeah, absolutely. So one of the examples that comes to mind is I was working with a woman who works at a multinational company that will stay on name, but she was working in their L.A. office and essentially they were heavily headquartered at a New York bar. And I’ve been working together. She’s just a high performer, super motivated and really wanted to step into that next leadership position. She’d never been in one and she wanted to take that next leap of faith for self and her career. The reality was when her and I were working together. Yes, there are some mindset tweaks that we had to make along the way. But she kept telling me this narrative, the story about all the reasons why she will not get picked to be that next leader in the West Coast because of geography reasons, because she’s not getting noticed. There’s not enough eyeballs. There’s politics within the company, you name it. We’ve all heard these excuses about why something will not happen. I’m sure anyone listening can come up with those for themselves. I’ve had them in the past myself as well. So all we did was just have a conversation about what are the right questions to ask yourself.

Edward Gorbis: [00:16:14] What does she actually believe? The she believe that she is an incredible leader. Does she have all the actual evidence in her life to prove that she has been successful? Are there ways for her to show up? So the leadership team in the New York headquarters actually sees what she does. When we started asking all of these questions and she was doing all the work, all that prompted her to do is simply ask herself the right questions. She started to find ways and opportunities to get in front of the leaders, to show herself off to everyone within the company so that people can actually understand what she was doing. Well, when that happened, within 30 days, she got the promotion that she wanted. So what I always tell people is that oftentimes we overcomplicate things to ourselves because we’re not asking ourselves the right questions. We’re not operating through the right belief system. We’ve tell ourselves a story that’s not being true and it’s actually hurting us day in and day out. And we cause more self-inflicted pain than we need to. So if we do the work, we show up and we commit to it, things start to show up for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:23] And then so this sounds like for most people these are kind of self-inflicted wounds. This isn’t really the universe collaborating against them. It’s us kind of collaborating against ourselves.

Edward Gorbis: [00:17:36] Exactly. I always tell people that life is working for us, not against us. And things don’t happen to us. Everything happens for us. So if we understand that if we show up the right way, everything will show up for us as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:50] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation about your work, your courses, your book, what is the best way to connect with you?

Edward Gorbis: [00:17:59] Absolutely. Thanks for asking me. The easiest way to find me is I hang out in a couple of places on the Internet, but you can visit my website at Career Meets WorldCom. Everything is available there for you and you can always contact me through there or via link. Then I spent a lot of my time there connecting, collaborating with folks. So find me on LinkedIn, that Edward Corvus.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:24] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success, Edward. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Edward Gorbis: [00:18:30] Thanks so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:31] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you next time on Coach the Coach Radio.