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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio in. This is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Hope Yin, who is the Founder of Blueprint Coaching. Welcome, Hope.

Hope Yin: Hi Lee, it’s a pleasure to be here with you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Please share a little bit about Blueprint Coaching. How you serving folks?

Hope Yin: Hi. So I have been working in technology for my whole career for almost three decades. What I found is that it’s very difficult for women in technology to get promoted and to get recognized. And so I retired from my corporate job last year and working on blueprint coaching full time. My mission is to import to support a million women in tech, to get promoted, to step up into leadership roles, to help them elevate their power.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were in the corporate world, were you doing mentoring and coaching at that point?

Hope Yin: Yes, I was doing a lot of mentoring. I also being mentored by my own mentors. So I truly value the importance of having someone who can guide you, who can share their experiences. But coaching is more than mentoring and we can talk a little more. What’s the difference about coaching in the next step of being able to transform lives? Which which is really what I love.

Lee Kantor: Now, was it a difficult transition to go from being in the corporate world to now being an entrepreneur as a coach and this, you know, building your own practice.

Hope Yin: I wouldn’t say it’s difficult, but I also wouldn’t say it’s just a smooth sailing. I feel that for me, because I made the decision myself. I choose to do that transition. I have been working on my coaching business for the last 4 or 5 years. Four of the years were part time and the last year was full time. So there was a ramp. It wasn’t just all of a sudden I quit my job and I’m doing coaching. Um, so there was transition, but I also think that I already made up my mind. I am prepared mentally. I know that what I love to be had for corporate. I was an executive in technology with high pay, high title and global team that I was managing and then transitioned to the As a solopreneur, I know there will be vast difference, but I was prepared.

Lee Kantor: Now, did something happen in the corporate world? That was the trigger that got you thinking that maybe I should be looking at towards an exit and then, uh, kind of pursuing this, uh, kind of redirect into coaching now.

Hope Yin: Um, if I wanted, I can continue to climb the corporate ladder. It was more of many years of thinking what I want to leave behind. I knew that more than a decade ago. I want to pay back to the community. I want to share my experience. I want to share what I have learned in my career journey. I didn’t know what that venue would be until five years ago when I went to the coaching school. All of a sudden I found the vehicle. So once I found a vehicle, like I mentioned, I was doing that part time. The more I do that, the more I realize how satisfied it is to change another person’s life through coaching. So eventually, I just made the leap and jump into coaching full time. And also, if you think about technology, it’s just a tool, right? Technology for me. I love technology, by the way. I it’s a tool for me to serve other people too. It’s a tool for me to serve the customers. I worked in financial services. It’s a tool for me to serve the everyday people, how they use the banking applications to do their daily work. Really. But coaching is my vehicle to change another person’s life for me. And I’m more than myself. I’m more than my family, my community. I want to impact more lives and to contribute to the happiness of their journey.

Lee Kantor: So do you find that a lot of your clients are also looking for change in this manner, to live a more purposeful life and leave a lasting legacy for sure.

Hope Yin: I wouldn’t say that maybe they’re already thinking about a legacy per se, because if you think about legacy, truly, um, I think it takes determination. It takes planning to to make that shift. A lot of people struggling in corporate world. I don’t know whether you know this or not, but, uh, the corporate world work isn’t easy. Technology changes all the time. Geopolitical, uh, unstable stability, the, um, natural disasters. All of that together, right? The companies want people to do more with less. The pace of change is faster and faster. Master AI is here, so there’s a lot of changes. And plus we don’t have great leaders in companies. I wouldn’t say we don’t have any. We don’t have enough. The leaders in the company determines the culture, determines the environment, whether it’s a toxic or it’s pleasant. A lot of people are struggling with how can I do more with lives? How can I keep up with the trend? How can I have a great relationship with my managers? How can I get the promotions that I deserve? So I coach a lot of people on that.

Lee Kantor: So in your opinion, what are some qualities of a great leader?

Hope Yin: Oh, uh, it’s very hard to say what kind of leader is a great leader, but there are some commonalities, right? Commonality would be a leader need to be competent that they have, uh, confidence to solve problems when there is a difficult decision need to be made and they have the courage to say, I talked to this person, this person and this person, and in the end, I believe this is the decision we need to make and this is the direction we need to go. But there are times that the decision may be incorrect or wrong. Then the leader will have the courage to say, oops, we made a wrong decision, let’s correct the course. And the other trait would be communication. A lot of people believe that as a leader, as long as I’m capable that I would be fine. And that’s not enough. Communication is such a dynamic skill, depending on who you are talking with, whether you’re talking to your team, even your team, maybe someone is, um, they love communication. Uh, more, um, caring. The other one would be to tell me what I do. Right? We’re we’re dynamic people. So to be able to communicate to different stakeholders and telling them your vision and telling them where you’re going and what’s in it for them. It’s a great skill that leaders need to grasp. And there are other trades as well. For example empathy. Do you care about your team? Do you care about your customers? Do you think about your customer’s experience and other traits like this decision making. We talked about also prioritization. There’s so many things we can do. But why are we doing this? Why are we not doing the others? What’s the impact that we’re going to create? How can we do less but create bigger impacts? All of those agree to leaders choice.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with your clients, I’m sure a lot of them would like to become great leaders. What is the kind of the challenge that they’re coming to you for? Are they coming to you at a certain that something happened that triggered them coming to you, or are they frustrated or they they didn’t get the promotion they wanted? Like, what is that reason that a person kind of reaches out and connects with you in blueprint coaching.

Hope Yin: All of the ABA League. And, you know, great leaders are always great learners, and they know that in order for them to continually lead bigger teams or bigger success, they need to develop themselves, their leaders, that they may not have a lot of struggle at work, but they want to be better, right? They want to be the next level executives, and they’re just looking for ways to continue to improve themselves. If you think about whether you’re a leader in corporate or your parent at home, we’re a leader. In that case, how can we have a better relationship with our stakeholders in the corporate. How can we be better parent to our children? I have two children myself. It’s absolutely a journey for me to know about myself, to know about my children, to learn new techniques, how to communicate with my children, to know that how to influence instead of instructing because people do not like instructions, right? They want you to care about them. How do you show that to them but also influence them to the direction of we believe, you know, great leaders need to do this, not that.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the transition from corporate to entrepreneur. Has your actual transition into this full time role as an entrepreneur? Is role modeling that behavior? Has that impacted your home life, your children?

Hope Yin: Um, I would say that certainly allowed them to have the freedom to know that, um, when I was retired, I was 52. It’s too early for people to retire from corporate, right? So I absolutely believe that I gave them the role model. Um, at any age, you can choose the life you want to build. And so I, my children, they are all high achievers, high performing. They know what they want. One of them is actually fighting the wildlife fire, uh, in Canada and now in Oregon. So they know that they have the power to choose the life they want.

Lee Kantor: And then by you role modeling these two different examples and thriving in each one of them, that shows them a path and that it’s achievable.

Hope Yin: That’s absolutely right. And, uh, if I talk about my personal life, I was a single mother for more than a decade, and even that at the time of divorce, I told my children that I’m a Chinese American and divorce is not a common everyday thing. So. But I told them, I said, look, I choose to do this because it’s good for me, it’s good for you. And whenever you don’t feel that you need to stay in a relationship, you have the power to get out of it.

Lee Kantor: That’s great advice. And then you’re actually kind of living into those words and showing them that it’s difficult, but it’s possible. And if you work hard and you, um, kind of just keep focused on the goals, then you can achieve pretty much anything you say your mind to.

Hope Yin: That’s exactly true. And by the way, I got remarried to my current husband and he is amazing. Wonderful. So sometimes I think about all the adversary that I went through, all the hardship I went through. Build another life in a different country. Um, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because if I did, then I don’t have the life that I love right now.

Lee Kantor: That’s right. Um, now, when you’re. Do you have advice for maybe some people out there that are doing the same transition you did from corporate to coaching? Is there some do’s and don’ts when you’re trying to ramp up your coaching and your your speaking business? Are there some things that you’ve learned along the way that might help other people? Um, kind of build the same practice that you have?

Hope Yin: Sure. I can certainly share what I have learned, but I also know that we are on our own journey, right? When I was first starting my business, I observe other coaches, how they develop their business. Uh, I think this is being said again and again. Coaching or speaking, it’s a business. So if you only say, I just love coaching, I just love speaking. Well, that’s not enough. You have to think about how can you create a business that’s a continuous. So since day one, I didn’t do this alone. I had always have a business partner doing this with me. And I also connect with other platforms that they have the members like tens of thousands of members, but they need coaches. So I don’t believe that in this world that we can do things alone. You know, there is a popular, um, proverb is if you want to go faster, do it along. If you want to go far, do it together. I tend to do that too. If you want to do fast, go fast. Do it together. If you want to go far, do it together. Basically, the world is changing so much. A one person’s ability is not enough to do big things.

Hope Yin: And for me, coaching and speaking is more of a legacy. Of course, money is good. I want more money, right? I want money to support my family. I want to money. I want money to donate, donate to the nonprofit causes that I care about. But it’s not all about money. It’s it’s a plus. It’s a money. And I want to change lives. I want to support other people’s. So if you think about that way, I feel that it’s going to give you more power to push through any obstacles you may face. On the other hand, I also believe that if you think business is lonely, then it is. But I never felt that way because the mindset of even in the corporate. I never work alone. I work with team. I work with stakeholders. So similarly I apply those leadership skills into developing my business. So in summary, I would say that be prepared is going to be different. And also be prepared that there is a things that you may not like to do. Like marketing, like developing client base like create a continuous business. But those are the things that you may have to do to continue coaching and speaking as a business.

Lee Kantor: So how did you, um, find the right partners? Uh, because I’m with you, I believe with the right partner, you can do anything. But how did you kind of choose which partners to work with? Um, in your case.

Hope Yin: Yes. I think it is so important what kind of people we bring into our life. Um, I feel that I have the ability to discern who is the type of partner that I want to work with. So the person I partner with, she’s actually the one who brought me into coaching school, and we went through coaching school together. We learned together, we transformed it together, and we learned from each other. How do we collaborate and what do we mean by certain things? How do we communicate? We have different styles of working. How do we complement each other instead of conflicting? When we have a conflict, how do we manage the conflicts? All of that is a part of a learning process. So I think for people look for partner partnership, they have to be clear on. Um, do we have the same goal? My partner and I had the same goal. We want to impact our lives. We want to change the world We care about equality and equity. So if you have the large goals aligned and then the remaining is more tactical, right? It’s like we may have different styles, but how can we complement it with each other?

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned, um, kind of the ability to handle distractions and to handle the different types of things that are thrown at you. In today’s world, we’re hearing a lot about AI. Have you been able to adopt AI at all in your business? And maybe you can share a little bit about how others can benefit from it?

Hope Yin: For sure, not only adopt AI, I also have a lecture, uh, signature talk, talking about how speakers and coaches and pretty much anyone, how can they adopt AI in their daily life? I have been using AI since the early release type Tuesday, November 2022. I believe lost time. Um, so for the last few years I have been adopting different kind of AI tools, for example, and you and I just use the scheduling tool, right? If you’re not using scheduling tool, if you’re still sending email back and forth, that’s the old school. Uh, AI tools can help you to just save time in that case. And because I’m a code and speaker so I need to do research, I need to create a new content, uh, PowerPoint, all of that. I use AI tools, for example, perplexity. It’s a great tool for research, and it gives you a lot of, uh, links that you can do deep dive. It will also ask you any follow up questions that you may have. And when I do content creation, I use Google Gemini or ChatGPT, OpenAI or Microsoft Copilot. So it’s just different kind of vehicles. You can choose your own. And in the past, before I. I always struggle with video editing because I don’t have the patience and the ability to do that. Now, I can do that when I have a long form podcast or workshop that’s recorded or YouTube videos, I just drop in a link in Opus Club. It automatically create 30 a short and attractive short video for me. That’s lovely. I don’t have to do anything right. So all of those I can help us. So why not use the tool to be to make us to do, to be more productive, creative and only do the things that we enjoy?

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share about working with a client that illustrates the impact you can make with somebody? Don’t name the name of the client, but maybe share the challenge they had when they started working with you, and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Hope Yin: Yeah, so there’s so many of them. Uh, a recent one is, uh, a person was looking for a job, as you know, right now. The job in technology is not that rosy. It’s pretty tough. People companies are laying off of people. And so when I was coaching them, they were a little concerned. They were not confident about finding that job. So I went through the coaching session. Mainly. I was trying to get them confident about their own accomplishments. Accomplishments. I asked them to list out their accomplishment using numbers. What’s the impact of who you work with? What did you deliver? And in the end, they were able to find a very good job and match the way their expertise. That’s just one simple example. I have a lot on my website about my clients, how coaching helped them.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website? What is the best way to connect with you?

Hope Yin: Yeah, the best way. Would it be? Through my website I have a connect with me button. The website is blueprint-coaching.com.

Lee Kantor: Blueprint blue print-coaching.com.

Hope Yin: Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well hope thank you so much for sharing your story today doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Hope Yin: Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.