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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Marla Bace, who is the founder of Marla Bace Coaching. Welcome.

Marla Bace: Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Marla Bass coaching. How you serving folks?

Marla Bace: Sure. Well, I spent the better part of 30 years working in small, midsize, and fortune 500 companies. Everything from starting my career as a CPA to TQM, um, head of marketing, head of customer experience, and a bit of time as general manager for American Express Concierge. So I am taking all of that knowledge and I am working with my successful and accomplished individuals and or business owners in helping them bridge the gap from successful to fulfilled, one goal at a time.

Lee Kantor: So then how did you make the transition into kind of working in that type of industry, or in the variety of industries you work into now saying, okay, you know what, my new customer are these top performers, and I want to help them kind of become successful.

Marla Bace: It actually isn’t a new career. So when you start in public accounting, literally from the first day of your second year, you are mentoring and coaching people underneath you. And then throughout my career, I was fortunate enough to help from the inside and leadership teams, so many different companies. Between divesting, merging, acquiring that, I wound up with a lot of non-competes between gigs. And so I have always had my own LLC and I’ve worked with small business owners, whether it was, um, strategic marketing planning, growing their teams, creating employee engagement programs. So with 2020, um, I had been working in a small marketing strategic consultancy business, and our clients there were working too much on excuse me in their business and not on their business. So I wound up just pulling all my tools from all those years of expertise in helping them, identifying the right people to place under them to get something done, to create more time for themselves, to become more efficient in the areas they brought us in for marketing, sales, customer experience. And it just became sort of a natural evolution, where I then decided to go back and get credentialed by the ICF so that it wasn’t just through internal experience, but actually external experience that I stepped into the world of coaching. So I really leverage my hands on experience. And I’d say it’s a melding, if you will, of consulting and coaching. So a little different than the ICF, where they really teach that all of your clients have the answers within themselves. I work with those people who should have the intuition to have the answers, but they just need some validation or a sounding board from someone who may have done something similar to what they’re doing now.

Lee Kantor: So you’re working both with like an executive enterprise level organization that wants to be promoted, say, and then also an entrepreneur who wants to grow a business. So those are.

Marla Bace: Exactly, exactly. And I have a client who’s been an entrepreneur for 33 years and has decided to exit the business, but realized they need to grow their business first so they can get the right valuation. So when we say entrepreneur, I don’t just want people to think a startup.

Lee Kantor: And then, uh, so let’s talk about each one kind of separately, because I would imagine there’s different strategies if I want to be promoted, uh, as opposed to I want to grow my business to an exit.

Marla Bace: Yes, yes.

Lee Kantor: Um, so let’s tackle the, uh, enterprise level, um, person. That person is typically in mid management, upper management and one to be permanent. Or can it be a young person that says, I don’t even know how to navigate a career? Can you give me some guidelines and some some objectives so I can kind of accelerate quickly?

Marla Bace: It could be the younger person, but oftentimes, um, they’re not who comes to me, it is more the individual who’s manager doesn’t get to director or director and doesn’t get to VP. Or more often than not, because of my networking and my affiliation, it’s the SVP or the C-suite person that I’ll hear them say, I have a great right hand person. I just wish they would do X better so I could be more efficient. Um, so it can be an individual raising their hand, um, to get to the next level or sort of their boss or the HR department saying, um, this is a high performer. They just need work on 1 or 2 skill sets. And it’s usually around competence communication and leadership presence.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding that, um, as you’ve been in industry for a while, or is coaching just now commonplace, that more and more folks have a coach, whether they do individually or the companies are investing in them on behalf of the individual?

Marla Bace: Um, you know, that’s a really interesting question. Um, because I was fortunate enough that throughout my career I had two amazing Coaches. Um, one who really helped. Uh, I wound up in a C-suite position really young, and, um, it was in a mostly male dominated company, and, uh, that individual sort of fell into my lap. The company paid for it, and it was just really a great experience for me. And oftentimes I will ask myself, what would that person have done when I’m coaching? And that’s going back almost 20 years ago. Um, I think what we’re seeing now so much more is, um, with the advent of zoom and post Covid, everybody is working remotely and so many people went back just to, um, get certified. Or a lot of times I hear people saying, you know, their life coach. Um, so it’s become, I’d say, more prolific from a tapping people on the shoulder and saying, hey, I’m a coach. Are you interested in being coach? Versus probably 5 to 15 years ago it was HR or your senior manager saying, I want to invest in you. So I don’t know that it’s necessarily become more commonplace as much as it’s just, um, more talked about.

Lee Kantor: I remember something someone told me a while ago, uh, they were in HR and they were talking about training and coaching, and they said, um, do we want to like, what’s worse, investing in the person? Um, and they leave or not investing in the person and they stay.

Marla Bace: Okay. Yeah. That’s an age old quote.

Lee Kantor: But so.

Marla Bace: Yeah. Um.

Marla Bace: Yeah, it’s it’s interesting though, because I was more apt to stay, you know, so like I said, I had two opportunities and for me, it always meant that I gave the organization 150% because if they saw that in me, I wanted to give them a reason to keep investing in me, and I hope that’s still the case. I see it more for associate level people in the financial services world. Um, so some of the larger private equity firms actually have coaching benches where they give those associates. I think it’s 2 to 3 times within the early parts of their career, the opportunity to work with a coach. So I think it depends on the industry, the size of the company. Um, and probably how, um, proactive the leader is. Um, and I know for myself personally, I don’t know about you, Lee, but how many times in our careers do we get sent for training? And you sat in a classroom for eight hours and it might have been inexpensive, but how much of that did you take away? And then you went back and worked. No differently tomorrow than you did the day before. Um, whereas with coaching, there’s a bit of accountability and, you know, it’s personalized. So it’s to the benefit. It’s really to your benefit to, um, absorb it and work with it, at least in my opinion anyway.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And it speaks to the culture of the organization.

Marla Bace: Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re working with your person in corporate, what? So is the objective always. Okay, I want to be promoted. Or is it sometimes, should I even be doing this?

Marla Bace: I have two clients recently. One would fall into each of those camps. So. And in one case, it wasn’t promoted so much as the individual had been literally tapped by the CEO of the company to come over from her prior organization. And she’d been working with them for two years. And she came to me because she’s like, I like, I haven’t gotten a raise. And I was like, okay, are you communicating the value you add? Are you making this person aware? And we went through and we realized in her case it was a lot about communication and engagement, working with the team and doing things to make that CEO realize what it was she was doing. And in the three short months of working together, we realized it wasn’t only so much that the CEO needed to know what she was doing. She needed to get the confidence in herself, to believe that she was adding value so that she could ask for the raise. And by the time she walked into his office and asked, she had this, you know, whole laundry list of talking points and everything else. She asked and he said, yeah, how much? And she said, 20%.

Marla Bace: And he goes, I’ve been waiting for you to ask. So a lot of times it can just be helping that individual, um, get a raise, get to the next promotion, get seen by their organization as far as, um, the individual within the enterprise. And then the other example I’ll give you is another client that I have that was working a bit in the nonprofit world and with all the changes in our geopolitical climate, really hated going into the office every day, she said. It went from being something I really liked to, not an environment I’m comfortable with, but needed to get out of her headspace, change of mindset for her to realize that she could go from the nonprofit world back into working for a law firm. She happened to be an attorney, and we just really worked on her mindset and shifted her perspective. Um, cleared, cleaned up her resume and cleared up her thinking process. And within a couple of weeks, actually wound up, um, back in private practice with a law firm, so it can really be across any of those things you talked about and even just mindset to get again from being successful to fulfilled.

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned asking for a raise. Is there any tips or tactics you can share? Maybe low hanging fruit that a person should be doing or could be doing in order to be ready to ask for the raise? You know, the next time that they have the opportunity.

Marla Bace: Yeah, sure.

Marla Bace: Oftentimes, and I’ve seen this throughout my career, my best performers who worked for me were usually the ones who weren’t telling me all of what it was that they were doing. Um, they just assumed that I, as their manager or boss, had a bird’s eye view of everything that was going on. And if you are someone who is keeping the lights on and going above and beyond, and you are not making sure that the people around you, let alone above you, are aware of that. You may not get the credit for doing it, and it’s not because your manager doesn’t want to give you the credit. It might be that we’re in an age of do more with less. They themselves can be swimming, and they could be feeling that as long as they’re keeping, you know, the environment enjoyable for you to operate and acknowledging what it is they know you’re doing, um, that they’re doing their part. But if you haven’t, um, been your own best promoter in a very diplomatic, articulate and, um, non self-promotional way. And I know that sounds like an oxymoron. Um, you are probably not going to have as easy a conversation as someone who is doing that. So to me that’s the lowest hanging fruit. Um, and then the other is to really make sure that you’re aligned. Are you doing what you believe your job description is? Or are you doing what your boss and the organization believes your job description is? Plus, are you going above and beyond? Are you raising your hand for special projects, or are you doing the things to be seen so that if you were to ask again, it’s a no brainer.

Lee Kantor: Right? So you want to make it as easy as possible for them to say yes. And this is a logical next step.

Marla Bace: Yes, exactly.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk a little bit about the entrepreneur or the person. I think the example you mentioned was someone getting ready to exit when you’re working with them. Um, how do you help them get ready to exit? Like you, I would imagine you have to know pretty a good amount of their business so you can give them some direction or next steps.

Marla Bace: You know what’s interestingly, it doesn’t.

Marla Bace: Matter if it’s someone who’s been in business 5 to 7 years and they’re truly looking Game to start to put the right processes in place to grow efficiently and effectively. Or this person who I mentioned, who’s been in business for decades and is looking to exit. It’s and it’s funny because I probably would have self-selected myself out of my current clients case because of their industry. And it’s not always the industry. A lot of times it is being the people person and how you go about working with them. So for me, I tend to, um, read a room pretty quickly. So the people involved, the boss, where things are working, where they’re not, lift up the hood, identify what processes are missing, what can be enhanced? Are the right seats on the bus defined in the organization? And do you have the right people in those right seats so that you can effectively. Um, grow where if it’s someone in that 5 to 7 years, oftentimes I get the entrepreneur who the idea of growth is actually scary because they see it as more work and having even less time and all the reasons they wanted to be an entrepreneur to begin with don’t feel like they’re coming to fruition, and it’s usually because they haven’t structured the team around them efficiently. They don’t have, um, the right contractors and or, um, staff in place.

Marla Bace: They haven’t trained people. There isn’t the right, um, HR person in place so that there are leadership challenges, performance reviews, all the things that you think of automatically or organically in a larger organization can be done at a much smaller scale for a small organization, so that they have great environments and they have the right people in the right place, and they’re working efficiently and effectively. And then the organization is positioned for growth. And whether that’s for ten years or 3 to 5 years because someone’s looking to to sell. And then oftentimes it’s about bringing in the right advisors. So I have a very vast network because I’ve been inside for so many years. And for me, networking was about really building relationships, not making sales. So if I have, um, a CEO, for example, asked me for the right marketing organization, having still my tentacles into the CMO club as well as, um, some of the other networks, I’ll reach out and I’ll say, I have a client that’s in this industry that has this need. Who’s your top, you know, referral for a marketing agency. And I will bring to them 2 or 3 and then let them interview and get the right chemistry fit for them.

Lee Kantor: Is this is this an example where kind of the blurring of the lines between coaching and consulting, where it’s not just asking them, asking, asking them, you’re giving them actual actionable kind of next steps. And here is a list of names. Yeah.

Marla Bace: Yeah. So it’s like okay let let’s get a full service. You know, you’ve grown far enough that you shouldn’t have, you know, three different virtual marketing Vas, but you need a full service marketing agency. You’re in this industry you can afford about you know, they’ve shared with me their budget. I will open my network and, you know, identify, um, 2 or 3 people. And then like I said, I’ll. And usually we’ll go through the coaching process and it happens organically. They’ll look at me and be like, do you have a recommendation or do you have a referral? Because I don’t know anyone. I’m, you know, I’m this I’m the head of a law firm or I’m the head of accounting firm, or I’m the head of a manufacturing firm. They, you know, they’d be opening the Yellow Pages, so to speak, or, you know, typing into Google. So yes, that is where the lines get blurred.

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned several industries. Is there a sweet spot of kind of industry? It sounds like it’s industry agnostic, but but you also have expertise obviously in marketing. So is that an area you lean into?

Marla Bace: For me, I am industry agnostic, but I can add the most value in the professional services space. So I’ve run marketing and customer experience for accounting and financial services companies, and in both of those roles have partnered directly with heads of marketing and the legal in the legal space. So working in those areas, I’ve had clients who are coaches. I have had clients who were other corporate employees who wanted to start a side hustle and helping them identify what that would look like without losing traction at their current job because that’s important too. I mean, you don’t want to jump before you’re ready to jump. So it’s helping people prioritize, figure out what their purpose is, and make every important decision, you know, based on what their ultimate purpose is.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice that you can give when it comes to choosing the right coach for you? I would imagine sometimes maybe in a corporate setting, just a mentor would be beneficial. And it’s not necessary to have a coach per se. But is there a certain kind of, um, ways an individual can decide? You know what, maybe I should be pursuing a mentor rather than a coach. Or maybe I do need a coach. Uh, the. Can you explain the trade offs?

Marla Bace: Yeah, absolutely. And, um, I think it’s very one needs driven, two chemistry focused and and three budget. Um, so I often say I don’t do sales calls because I don’t. I believe there’s so many coaches out there right now that have different areas of expertise that they focus on, and I don’t have content. I don’t do masterminds. I really work one on one. So what I will do with people is offer them a free coaching session. You can book on my site, and I spend 45 minutes with you. And I will say to people, you don’t walk away with 1 to 2 actionable items from our conversation, or a different way of looking at something that I’m not the right coach for you, because I’m not the person who’s just gonna sit with you every week and have a philosophical conversation and hope that, you know, it’s helping you make progress again. I started my career as a CPA, so I’ve always been asked as that head of marketing, to tie something back to results. And I work with the clients who want to cut through the noise and see quick results. So that’s the type of coach I am. I can also mentor people. Um, but it is. It really is about how much time and effort you want to put into your development. So there’s some coaches out there that will ask you to sign up for a year long program, and it’s once a week mastermind twice a month meeting with them one on one. That’s also a time and resource commitment. So these are all things you have to consider. For me, when I work with people, I say give me 90 days. Most, most big hairy audacious goals can be achieved with a 90 day plan, or at least the path towards it getting started with a 90 day plan. So I look to work with people, you know, for 90 days to to six months, and then oftentimes they’ll come back and work with me again. But I always look at it as success. As they’ve achieved their goal, they’re moving forward and almost like they’ve worked themselves out from under me.

Lee Kantor: And is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how it can work. Don’t name the name of the person, but explain maybe the challenge they came to you with and how you helped them get to a new level.

Marla Bace: Sure. Um, so I had one client who had actually been through many, many coaches and kept believing that she had a marketing issue. She didn’t, um, have enough leads coming in. And, um, when we sat down, um, and really had a conversation, I just asked a few eye opening questions and the first aha for me was, I said, do you have a financial dashboard that you can go to between when you sit down with your CPA? And the answer was no. And so I realized that this individual was making decisions in a vacuum and without facts and without data. So quite literally, it seems overly simplistic, but they happen to have been a solopreneur. But they had been in business 5 to 7 years they were well over $1 million. So, you know, you do the math and to say, oh my gosh, you didn’t have a financial financial dashboard. But it was in the spring of, I think, last year. And I had said to them, go back and take your American Express statements. And I had given them a very simplistic Excel spreadsheet for the last 3 or 4 months and fill this out over the weekend. We’ve come back together and take a look at it. And from that, I was able to see at a high level, they were operating at about a 20% margin and just by making some expense shifts. So instead of investing in every shiny new object, really looking at what your tech stack, what are the things that you need to have at your disposal versus what are nice to haves? How do we cancel some of those? How do we consolidate? We managed the majority of, um, overhead expenses. We took a look at the revenue. What’s ongoing, where are your spikes? Where are your troughs? And then realize what was really keeping them awake at night was with this idea of not having enough leaves.

Marla Bace: They were pouring a ton of money into advertising without a strategy. So we dialed back the pure ad spend to the point where we were able to see that on any given month, she could have anywhere from a 20 to a 40% net profit margin, depending on her, her revenue line. And then those months she could dial up the advertising if she felt necessary. But before we were even going to do that, then to take a step back and say, okay, who’s your ideal client profile? Where’s your clients coming from? What switched over the last six months so that your business is in a stable as it was? And it turned out it was their messaging. They were working in the technology industry right about the time all the layoffs were starting. Um, they had switched their messaging from Are you a successful tech individual that is looking, you know, that’s dealing with burnout or whatever that coach was dealing with to, you know, are are the is the environment and the industry keeping you awake at night? So what you wound up doing was instead of attracting the individuals who could afford to spend money and work with her, she was attracting the individuals who had just gotten laid off. So she was going through the same amount of sales calls, advertising and everything else that she had done six months earlier. But the reality of it was she was targeting the wrong audience. So we were able to get her, her income and her expenses under control, put a financial dashboard in place, work on our messaging and really turn things around.

Lee Kantor: And that’s a great example of of revisiting kind of fundamentals periodically is a good practice.

Marla Bace: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you. What is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Marla Bace: It’s super easy. It’s right at the top of the page. You can book a call. Like I said, I do free coaching sessions if you want to find out if you’re coachable or if you’re highly self-aware so that you can impact your career or your business. There’s also an assessment no obligation, no contact, the bottom of the page. So Marla Nbastore.com.

Lee Kantor: And that’s m a r a b a c e.

Marla Bace: Correct. Thank you Lee.

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

Marla Bace: Thank you.

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