How Steve DeVries Helps Business Owners Build Companies That Run Without Them

 In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, host Pedro welcomes Steve DeVries, a former multi-site GM and COO turned executive coach, for an insightful conversation about leadership, manufacturing, business growth, and building companies that thrive without relying on the owner. Steve shares his journey from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, the challenges of starting a coaching business, and why helping leaders create freedom inside their businesses is more valuable than simply increasing profits. They also explore networking, succession planning, coaching vs. consulting, scaling without burnout, and the mindset required to build a business that lasts.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevedevries7551/
Website: https://stevedevries.focalpointcoaching.com/

Transcript

STEVE DEVRIES 0:00

business that can run without its leader and not just survive, but but thrive. And that's what I coach my that's what I coach my clients on is how can you make your organization successful without you? When you do that, you have the ultimate power. You can call the shots. And I live that, right? I I've lived that in my career. I've worked tirelessly to help my team get ready for life without me as their, as their leader. And when they when they get to that point, again, it's given me options. It's allowed me to jump to the next challenge in my career. It's allowed them to make the next jump in their career. And to me, again, going back to what I started this conversation with, it's about helping people get where they want to go, right? Be successful in in their role or beyond their role.

Davis Nguyen 0:46

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swain and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six figure, seven figure, and eight figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're going to learn lessons that took our guests years to learn and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is going to give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:30

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro and today I'm joined by Steve DeVries, a former multi-site GM slash COO who spent 20 plus years in the trenches of industrial and manufacturing leadership before building a six-figure advisory and coaching practice dedicated to helping SMB manufacturing owners navigate growth, transition and succession. Steve has partnered with founders, CEOs, and next gen leaders across US, UK, and Canadian manufacturing businesses, bringing hands-on guidance through everything from ERP and digital transformation to lean upgrades and ownership transitions. His expertise is rooted in lived experience, having led turnaround manage PL ownership and operated as both a leader and advisor through 15 plus years of sustained growth in some of the most demanding industrial environments. Welcome to the show Steve thank you very much Pedro I appreciate you having me on it's great to have you you know and uh you could be doing so many things, right, Steve. You could be a chef you could be a plumber but here you are you're a coach.

STEVE DEVRIES 2:43

So let's rewind a bit go back to the origin story so you can walk us through why coaching and when that started you know why coaching I suppose that it's it's something that I've done throughout my career and I I've gotten better at it as my my career went along but I think it comes down to to one simple thing right I love business and I want to help people be successful in business. I I fell in love with business during when I had my first job. I was 14 years old and I was so interested in how all the different pieces of a business fit together. And then as I got into business leadership it became you know just a much bigger puzzle with lots more pieces to to fit together. But there was always this one common theme and that's you know you can have a killer app, you can have a killer product, you can have a killer service, right? But it requires people in order to make it successful. And when you can align the success of the people in your organization with the goals of the organization, you know, whether you're a manufacturing company or a nonprofit, you're going to have a successful entity. And why coaching? It because I'm helping people get where they want to go and I'm helping an organization get where it wants to go. And so marrying those two philosophies together felt like a natural fit. So five years ago when I started this kind of crazy journey, right? I I've never been an entrepreneur. I've always run businesses for other people it occurred to me that coaching offers the best of what I've enjoyed throughout my career which is again helping businesses and people get where they want to go and maybe less of the the stuff that comes with you know running a business. And and so I gave I I gave it a shot.

Pedro Stein 4:24

Okay let's backtrack a little you you told me five years ago you started a business right and there is a shift that happens you you brought it up right you were an employee you were helping managing and all that but then you turned yourself into an entrepreneur right and that's almost like an identity shift to a certain level like there is a leap of faith uh when you're joining a company I worked a corporate right uh there is this big well loyal machine in the background running that we sometimes we don't even realize it's there but it's there doing a lot of things for us. But then the shift happens you you you made the the leap of faith and now you're the owner right so can you walk us through when the the leap of faith was made how did that fell for you right uh was it scary did you realize okay I'm gonna have to wear a lot of hats you know how that how that transition went for you.

STEVE DEVRIES 5:18

So it was absolutely scary and and I'll explain why in a minute but I I've I've always wanted my own business and when I was running businesses for corporations or or private owners I treated it as if it was my own business but I always kind of knew that it wasn't. The thing was is I never really knew what I could build a business around. Right. So I think I always had that little that little yearning to have my own thing. Right. I think the entrepreneurial spirit's been sort of simmering for a long time if you will and and it just got to a point where you know the last couple of roles that I had, they weren't great and I wanted something more. And that's when you know focal point and and coaching presented itself right but it was incredibly scary right personally one kid going into college when I started right that one's out of college now the the the next one is going in and financially speaking you know it to start a business regardless of what it is you know there's there's a risk to be taken there. So that was scary. The wearing of multiple hats doesn't bother me at all. I mean as a general manager you are wearing multiple hats constantly depending on the size of the business or at least you're shifting your attention in in multiple directions constantly. So that part didn't bother me. What what my real hang up was and and and I took a lot of months to explore coaching and and focal point and what scared the heck out of me the most was having to do my own business development. Early in my career I I was asked to you know have an ops manager in the I was a general manager. My parent company said your your comp your business is running great. We just want it to grow more we want you to focus on business development. We'll give you an ops manager to keep the train on the tracks but go out and do business development. And at that time in my career I didn't want to do it. I fought it I I was upset about it. I I didn't want to do it and so I still had that those scars if you will from my business development days you know and this was 15 or more years ago when I was thinking about starting coach from when I was starting coaching. So that was the part that I was really hung up on. Can I do the business development? But here's the thing I've I've always bet on myself in my career. I've won more than I've lost I've I've lost my fair share but I've won I've won more than I've lost so I said you know what now's the time let's give it a try right if it doesn't work out I can go back and and and find another general manager type of role so let's give this a give this a shot it's something I've always wanted to to try at least have my own business coaching just felt like a natural fit.

Pedro Stein 7:45

Interesting okay now I know you're with focal point right which is a franchise but I want to understand one thing because in the early days of coaching sometimes we're testing waters right we're like trying to help everyone we're trying to you know serve as much people as we can to really understand who we can serve the best right I'm not sure if that started immediately with you. You you got your ICP or ideal client profile dialed in but eventually some people keep showing up at our door we kind of attract a certain type of people. So what I want to understand is the evolution of who you serve and today who you actually help. Can you walk us through that?

STEVE DEVRIES 8:25

So my ideal client profile was very much the types of businesses that I came from right so revenue of 20 million and under OEMs that's that's that's those are the types of businesses that I ran along with I I did a a heavy equipment dealership that was the turnaround that you mentioned in that fantastic intro. But I I understand blue collar types of businesses with white collar you know management. And so my ideal client profile really was businesses who make things right so you could be an OEM you could be a contract manufacturer that's the ideal client profile. But when you get started you know as well as I do you'll you'll take on all comers. So my very first client is a B2B service provider in the accounting field not the ideal client profile but we met in a networking group and she listened to me week in and week out talk about how focal point can change the trajectory of your business. And finally one day she came to me she said you know I've been going through group coaching. I don't like it. I want one-on-one coaching I want to have a plan I want to know that there's something behind what we're working on. Do you have that? And I said yes. She said okay let's get started like literally that's how my first client landed and she's still with me right so we we started a couple of months after I opened for business and we meet every single week. She is not my ideal client profile but what's interesting is I've taken a lot of my manufacturing background and applied it in different ways to her uh to her business right and it's it's all about optimization of your output. In this case the output is professional service rather than a widget but there's different ways you can look at a services business and think about it almost as if it were your manufacturing hours at that point and you want production efficiency. So the journey from who I work with today versus who I can work with or who I have worked with, I I've I've gone into into organizations that I never thought I'd be working with. One of my other longer running clients is a nonprofit that serves the homeless community and people with food insecurities and they needed organizational leadership development. And I was introduced to the executive director and I've worked with him and his staff for the last three and a half years. Nowhere close to my ideal client profile but I'm helping them run a better organization. Now you know as far as the journey is concerned I tend to spend more time at industry events where I know I'm going to meet people in that ideal client profile the OEMs, the contract manufacturers, that sort of thing. But you know as time, you know as as you network, as you get exposed to new people, as you share your success stories, people latch on to that and they say, well can you do that for me? And one of them is a is a B2C business. This company makes cornhole boards you know the game cornhole? You beanbag toss and all that it it's he he he does this on the side it's a B2C business. I'm a B2B guy but he came to me and he said I don't know how to run a business. Can you help me run my business? I said sure no problem and and I think you can have your ideal client profile as a coach. Maybe you're lucky enough to to have all of your clients fit that ideal client profile for me that would be cool but I'm also very happy working with businesses that are outside of that that ICP I do have some some things that I won't do like I I'm not gonna work in a restaurant or with a restaurant. I'm probably not going to work with medical practices or or law firms right I I know people who are really good at that because what they want is they want your expertise they want your experience not just lessons or theory they want to know that you've your clients I mean that you have been in their shoes that you have experience that they can draw from and so that's why I why my my ideal client profile is what it is but I can often translate that into other other areas.

Pedro Stein 12:10

Okay. Now let's do a game of pretend here let's pretend I'm your ideal client profile right I'm a owner or from a blue collar business 20 million and under OEM whatever that looks like your ICP I'm your avatar okay so first of all you already browsed a little bit but how would I be able to find you right marketing wise like how do I would be able to get my way into your stuff you know well I spend most of my time using LinkedIn to share with people kind of who I am and what I'm about there's also a website I don't know how many people find me there usually it's it's through networking right I get a lot of introductions through networking or attending industry events.

STEVE DEVRIES 12:52

I've I've sponsored some events where you know I get to have a table and you know you'll have five six hundred people in attendance and oftentimes they're the business owners who fit my ideal client profile so I oftentimes find them um or they stumble into me at these types of events. That's really how they find me.

Pedro Stein 13:10

Okay so I'm still that guy okay I looked at your your content on LinkedIn or even was referred to you some people told me hey you gotta talk with Steve right or eventually I went to one of those industry events you had a table there like hey this guy seems cool I resonated with what you got out there basically okay I'm like reaching out right now uh we're going to the through the sales process let's put it like this let's say there is alignment to speed speed up a little okay you see that you can help me I see that you can help me right we're aligned so can you walk me through a little peek behind the curtain how does it look like to work with you okay and uh the potential outcomes I can expect.

STEVE DEVRIES 13:53

So if you're working with me it means we're meeting every week sometimes every other week it depends on how quickly the the client wants to get wherever it is that they want to go. Sometimes they're just feeling stuck right and I need to help them get unstuck. Sometimes they have growth goals right and and they're not quite sure how to take the next step. They have a tiger by the tail and they just can't seem to they they feel out of control right so the the outcomes are all about what is it that you want right and everybody wants something a little bit different. And and I don't I don't coach to a program or a curriculum. I figure out what is it that you really really want and I help you go get it right for small business owners they want freedom. They don't they they they love their business but they're so tied down by it. They would just love a little bit more freedom. In fact my call earlier today was with a client that is in that exact situation right now. He's been in business 20 years it's a successful business but he is so entrenched in everything and he doesn't know where to begin on on in terms of extracting himself because his wife wants him to start thinking about retirement. This is a business in the UK they have a dream of coming to the US and spending six months in the U.S. He he's not there yet because he can't let the business run on its own without him and that's what we're working on. I am helping him to find freedom from his own business. And that means different things to different people some people just want to take a week long vacation and know that the the building isn't going to burn down without them right some of them want to be gone for six months some want to retire. Some want to pass it on to the next generation and their family some just want the the freedom to go and and get out of the day-to-day weeds and maybe go buy another business to to bolt on you know it's it all of those things require the same thing and that's a business that can run without its leader and not just survive but but thrive and that's what I coach my that's what I coach my clients on is how can you make your organization successful without you when you do that you have the ultimate power you can call the shots and I live that right I I've lived that in my career I've worked tirelessly to help my team get ready for life without me as their as their leader. And when they when they get to that point, again it's given me options. It's allowed me to jump to the next challenge in my career. It's allowed them to make the next jump in their career. And to me again going back to what I started this conversation with it's about helping people get where they want to go, right? Be successful in in their role or beyond their role right and helping that using that to make the business successful. So I could share stories about that if you want but what it's like to work with me, it's all about making a better organization. And every single week we're gonna work together tirelessly on what do we have to do next in order to develop the people in your organization and give you some freedom to do something different higher value or simply take a break.

Pedro Stein 16:48

Okay. Interesting well I'm still that guy in this scenario and I'm trying to to understand their point of view because whenever I'm thinking about manufacturing guys and all of that I'm I have one word that keeps popping out in my head which is efficiency. Okay. They tend to be very data driven to make decisions. Okay. And now you're adding an abstract component into my role you're saying coaching. So how do you deliver or even show them the ROI of coaching considering they're not as used to potentially to understand are they going to get out of it. You know what I mean? It's like it's hard to pinpoint a number in coaching it's like oh you're gonna improve XY and Z.

STEVE DEVRIES 17:33

I understand the strategy the exit plan and all that but I'm still that guy I'm like hey Steve but I'm not Sherman how do I even evaluate your work you know what I mean yeah so what what I when I hear you describe it in that scenario you know the ROI for example coaching is a very personal and and emotional scenario. It's not consulting. And this is something that I've come across since I started my practice people use the idea of coaching and consulting interchangeably oftentimes and I don't think that that's correct. You know when you're a consultant you're hired to solve a particular problem it's gonna cost X amount of money and you're going to get high results right and that's all calculable and and measurable how do you put an ROI how do you put a value on being able to take a vacation with your family without worrying about the business right now I if if I if I'm gonna come in there and wear an operations hat I can I can help you come up with some with some KPIs or or you know calculate an ROI and that's fine. It's a little bit different when you're coaching right so it goes back to what do you want from the business? Do you want to take time off? Do you want to grow it by a million dollars right do you have a profitability challenge right we'll we'll use all that data. So you wanted to peek behind the curtain here's where I'll start. I will go and get industry benchmarks for your type of business your size business your industry and we'll do a run through on on your PL. Oftentimes business owners under 20 million in revenue they're not the strongest when it comes to PL management right they don't know how to use it effectively. When you run a publicly traded or a division of a publicly traded company like I have you know how to use the PL. You have to you talk to it every single month. But most of these business owners don't have that background so we'll start there and I'll say okay well your your net operating profit you know should be five points higher based on industry standards. So let's set a goal of hitting that within a certain amount of time that's an easily calculable number right I can I can get you to that you know to that improved profit margin no problem if that's if that's what you're looking for is is more profit. I mean who doesn't want more profit but it might not be your pain point. Your pain point might still be I need to take time off right what's your how do you calculate that it's not measurable right your your your mental health is is not necessarily measurable and I see that with my clients right so if I tell them you know it'll cost you you know some amount of money to work with me and by the end of of one year you'll be able to take a week long vacation right or whatever whatever the case may be that's a tough number you know that you have to decide for yourself is it is it worth Steve's coaching fees in order to to get there. But if you want to grow your business by X percent if you want to grow your bottom line by some percentage if you think that you've got too many people in your organization and you need to figure out how to streamline it, those are all things that you can come up with metrics and KPIs for and I and I can help you with that, right? But so can consultants, right? What a consultant isn't going to help you with and what you may not be able to come up with that ROI on is how do I lead an organization that is so strong and independent they don't necessarily have to operate with me at the helm every single day. Right. And I I think it's that value is in the eye of the beholder right some people get it some people want it and others don't and I and I really think that that's what differentiates a good coach from a consultant. Right. And each has its place by the way I'm not I'm not trying to put down the idea of consulting right I'm not a consultant. I'm a coach right and I will call in consultants for my on behalf of my clients when they have a very specific problem that you can see and measure and define and have some kind of a measurable outcome. I would rather bring in a a specialized consultant for a situation like that. Right. And interesting yeah that's that's just how I how I see you know the needs of the of the business leader.

Pedro Stein 21:23

Okay. Interesting. Now I want to shift gears for a second right talk a little bit about future Steve. I'm curious about where you're taking all this you know looking ahead where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

STEVE DEVRIES 21:37

So for me, uh I definitely am not thinking about hiring right my my scaling is all about my capacity. So recently I brought on a virtual assistant because I found that you know with all of my networking activities I have lost control of my of my network and staying in touch with people who I meet and really enjoy talking with and feeling a connection and potentially wanting Wanting to be able to help each other, you know, identify new opportunities. But I do I've done so much networking, and there's a reason for that, but I've done so much networking that I just it's become unruly, my my CRM or my database where I keep everybody's information. So I hired a virtual assistant and recently I've started working with a LinkedIn expert just just to manage the content and the posting for me because I've found that the busier I get with clients, the harder it is to keep up with those things. And there are people out there who can do it for you, frankly, do it better than you can. And so that's the extent of growing my team. It's, you know, using contractors, if you will, who have a domain expertise that can help me manage sort of the back end of the business. Where I want to grow it to, I want to be coaching clients Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, right? I want to have two to three in the morning and I want to have two to three calls in the afternoon. And Mondays and Fridays are for networking, for development time, any anything that I need to do in either either to support my clients or to go find other clients or to help my networking partners find opportunities. That's what Mondays and Fridays are for. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That I want to get to a full plate. So, you know, in the next year or so, my goal is to have the equivalent of 12 full-time clients. Where I've got four each day of those three days a week. That's the goal. And I'm close. I'm close. I'm not there yet, but I'm close. Okay.

Pedro Stein 23:28

So mainly we're talking about a one-on-one practice, right? Yes. Uh there is no group component, and your aim is to the goal is to get at capacity working mainly with your ICP, and uh, we'll we we'll go from there, right? Okay, makes sense. And of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, always something we're refining in the present. You mentioned LinkedIn, right? Engagement and all that, the VA. So what are you currently trying to improve here or tighten up in your business, right?

STEVE DEVRIES 23:57

Well, so again, the the staying in touch with my networking partners, number one. I started a a networking group through an organization called Nexco. And, you know, I I'm so I'm really busy with that. And it occurred to me recently, you know, I've I've I've done a lot of networking up to this point. I've met a lot of great people, you know, and I've had a lot of misses. We all do. If you network a lot, you you you know, you you take a lot of swings and misses. But what I'm trying to tighten up is staying in touch with the people that I can help, staying in touch with the people who might be able to help me, right? People who I find interesting, right? People who find find me interesting, right? We we connect, we click. That to me, that's that's been a great byproduct of of coaching is being exposed to so many different people who think differently than me, who have different, you know, experiences than me. I can learn from them, they can learn from me. You know, that that's I'm enjoying coaching from from that perspective, or the coaching business from that perspective. It's not just about me working with my clients in in that way. And and so the reason I want to keep it a solo practice is I want freedom. I want what I described, you know, earlier that that oftentimes my clients want. I want that for myself. And and so I have found after almost five years now, I'm actually going on vacation next week. And this is the first time that I've felt like I really needed a vacation. My activity level has been so high. And so what I really need to do is rebalance the activity level. And that's ultimately what I what I need to be working on for the next year or so is just balancing out the activity level, making sure that everything I do brings value to me and that that I bring value to the people on the other side of the conversation. Because let's, you know, as you know, as coaches, it's all about relationships, it's all about, you know, I think value to people. And if I'm not doing things that I value, then what the heck am I doing this for? I could go back and get a nine to five job somewhere.

Pedro Stein 25:45

Okay. Now, shifting gears again for a second, I want to uh step into kind of a sci-fi thing right now. Okay, let's pretend we do have a time machine in front of us. We're gonna have two stops, okay? The first stop, we're going back to the day you started a business, okay, and you can give yourself past Steve one piece of business advice you wish you knew back then, okay, five years ago.

STEVE DEVRIES 26:09

What would that be? Go where your ideal clients are. And and I can expand, I can certainly expand on that. I mean, I I spent a lot of time networking, doing trying trying to do business development in the wrong places. And it's because I was I was new to the business development side of things for coaching. And I was told you have to be part of a networking group. So I found one locally. I I went to the one that was that that met closest to my house because I work out of my home and I loved the people and it was great, except for the fact that none of them work with my ideal client, right? And most of them weren't even B2B, right? I'm a B2B guy. A lot of these people are were professionals, were are B2C. And so, but you get close with them. I mean, I like building relationships and friendships and so forth. And I was adding value to them, right? I was I was doing a lot of different things for the for that networking group. And but I I was getting less in return, certainly not business referrals, no matter how much they liked me, no matter how much they trusted me, they just weren't in front of the right types of prospects for me. And I wasted a lot of time. Well, I wasted. Wasted is a strong word. I built some great relationships and I'm doing business personally with some of those folks today, and I'm and I'm really happy about that. But for my own businesses development, I wasn't in the right place. Whatever your business development activity is when you're starting out, make sure you're in the right place. If you want to work with manufacturers, go to events where there's manufacturers, right? Or network with people who are directly working with your ideal client profile. It sounds so basic, right? But it's so easy to get swept up, you know, in the in the networking world. I've I've said the word networking many times, and because it it it has dominated the earlier part of the growth of my business, but it hasn't always been efficient.

Pedro Stein 27:53

Okay. You you gotta be a little bit more intentional, it sounds like that's the lesson. Like understand a little bit a little bit more where you're placing yourself to network. Although networking is great, you just gotta pick the right rooms. Sounds like we're talking about that.

STEVE DEVRIES 28:07

Okay. And that's exactly what we're talking about.

Pedro Stein 28:10

Okay. Now, second stop. Okay. You can go back to a certain point of the of time since the you started the journey in your business that you felt in a way the most fulfilled, okay, when you got your cup filled up. Like you're like, oh, this is why I'm doing this. You know what I mean? You have one of those moments?

STEVE DEVRIES 28:29

I've had several, but I'll share one from very recently, and I I posted about it uh on on LinkedIn. So I recently quote unquote graduated a client. So this is, and actually, this is in that nonprofit organization that I mentioned earlier. So I've worked with the executive director there, but he also had me working with one of the directors who report to him. All management development, leadership development, organizational development. And so after a couple of years, right? So we could we could just bundle it under, you know, executive coaching, right? Trying to develop this person into being less operationally minded and more executive minded. And and so, and how do you do that with someone who's in the trenches constantly and is in quite frankly a very personal type of industry? So two months ago, this person, uh, her name is Hannah. Hannah came onto a call and she had anticipated every single question that I was going to have. Right. It was almost like, and she described it to me in the at the end of that call when I when I commented, I said, You had all the answers today. And she kept saying to myself, what would Steve ask? Or what would Steve do, or what would Steve say? Because we've been working together for a while. So she was starting to filter everything through our coaching time together. And she said, when I started doing that, I realized I already knew the answers to a lot of these questions. I just wasn't anticipating what the questions needed to be. I said, Well, that's interesting. And I said, So, you know, graduation day might be coming sooner than later. And and and so we kind of had a chuckle about that. We went through a couple more sessions and it was the same thing. And so I I met with the executive director and and uh his name's Mike, and I said, Mike, I think Hannah's ready to graduate. And he said, you know, we were just talking about that. And she's she I can see the confidence in her, I can see the execution coming from her, and she's like a different, a different professional now. And she knows where her weak points are and she knows how to address them and get out in front of them when she finds herself in those situations. I've seen it and she's adjusted very, very well. And and so, yeah, he says, I'm feeling pretty good about where she's at. So we just finished uh we did her last session last week. Now we may get together from time to time, you know, to do some problem solving together. But that was a pretty great, it was a little bit bittersweet, right? Because you no coach likes to, you know, see a piece of revenue go away, but ultimately it was way more satisfying to see the look on Anna's face and to hear her just say thank you. Right? Like I I feel so much more confident in what I do. I feel like I'm ready to to take the next step in my career whenever that opportunity comes up. That felt great, right, from from my perspective. And, you know, I there's longevity in coaching, as as you probably know. It's you're not working with someone for a month or two and then sending them off. That's not how coaching works. Right. It's there's a relationship there. You you get inside people's heads, you you sort of live and die with some of their successes or or or failures, and then help them, you know, recover from that and move forward and on to the next step. It was amazing to to have that conversation with Hannah and that realization that, yeah, she's ready. And I and I helped her get there. And and so that was that was a really great moment. And I mean, I've I've had other situations. I've had clients, you know, one of my clients uh is a soap manufacturing company, and he gave me, he gave me a testimonial and and it was very simple. He said, I used to drive to work thinking about what do I have to do today. He says, now when I drive to work, I'm thinking about what do I have to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. I'm way more strategic. And and that to me, you know, that was a person who was living in the business, fighting fires, playing whack-a-mole, you know, if you know that reference. Yeah. And now he's controlling his business and it's growing because he's focused on the right things to grow the business, which was his goal. You know, he wanted to go from five million pounds in revenue to 10 million pounds in revenue. And he said, when I get to 10 million pounds, you know, I'm I may entertain selling. Now that he's at 10 million and he sees how much more is out there and how much more control is happening in the business, he's not ready to move on from it. He wants more. He's excited about it, right? Those are some success stories that I've really enjoyed watching the success of my clients. They just, they're they're doing a great job.

Pedro Stein 32:41

Yeah, I love that. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with your follow your work, Steve, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, but what's the best way for people to find you and connect with you?

STEVE DEVRIES 32:51

LinkedIn a hundred percent, right? I really don't, you know, I have a website, to be quite honest. I don't do a ton with it. You know, I I think LinkedIn is is a great place where you can see the types of things that that someone posts and get a feel for who they are, what they're about, right, what it's gonna be like to interact with them. And so I'm very, very current on LinkedIn. Okay.

Pedro Stein 33:12

You know, there were certain parts of this chat that released it out to me, really stayed with me. I would say, first of all, when you started your first job at 14-year-old, right, kid, you beat me for a year there. I started 15. So it's interesting. Uh coming from that, and then uh we moved from talking to how scary it can be to, you know, open your own business. And you're very open about this the the feeling you had when you start you opened shop, right? And how that felt for you. So very vulnerable, very open about your own struggles to there. So kudos to you on that. Also, I I felt it was real interesting. You mentioned a client that told you, like, I am not a client that was a prospect at the time. She says she said something like, Yeah, group coaching is not really for me. I'm more into a one-on-one type of gal, right? And I always think about that, like, how different is group coaching? Because I've I've looked and I've seen people comparing very apples to bananas. That's my analogy here. I think they're just different, it's a different dynamic, so not really comparable, but I understand from the point of view of a client when they're like, this is more for me, not really the group setting, more of a one-on-one. And I always think that is very interesting because I've seen people thriving in the group coaching, and I've seen people shrinking in the one-on-ones. So it really is no cookie cutter, uh, one size fits all. It really depends, right? That she was not into group coaching. That's totally fair, totally fine. So that's one thing that I I I feel like it's interesting. And I would say, last but not least, the is the ROI that we were talking about very value-based, right? And uh, I worked in sales for I was a high-ticket sales closer for a business coach. And uh, it's sometimes it's sell them what they want, give them what they need. Sometimes they don't even realize the possibilities because it they're so into the weeds, right? They're putting fires out, and you're like, you know what? It's possible for you to take a vacation. And when you're talking with someone who's like hitting 10 hours, 11 hour, 12 hour days at work, working at you know, weekends and all that, it's hard to even grasp that possibility. But when you do that, and it sounds like you do, right? And people are like, my god, this is actually possible, and they start believing you can see the shift. And uh it's hard to pinpoint a number to that. I think you're it's totally fair what you said. It's hard to tell someone, okay, how much is it worth it to you in dollar figures that you can actually step away for six months, like your your client in the UK, right? So this is just my long-winded way of saying, Steve, that I appreciate what you do, and I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. Okay, it was great having you on. It's my pleasure. I come back on anytime you want me.

Davis Nguyen 35:59

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.