How Coaching and Leadership Transform Organizations with Shawn Doyle

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Shawn Doyle, executive coach, keynote speaker, leadership expert, and author who has spent decades helping leaders, teams, and organizations improve performance through stronger communication, employee engagement, and people-first leadership. Drawing from his extensive experience working with businesses across a wide range of industries, Shawn shares practical insights on developing exceptional leaders, building high-performing teams, creating positive workplace cultures, and inspiring employees to perform at their best. We also explore the role of coaching, accountability, emotional intelligence, resilience, and continuous learning in today's rapidly evolving workplace, along with actionable strategies leaders can use to strengthen trust, boost engagement, and achieve sustainable business success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or emerging leader, this conversation offers valuable lessons for leading with authenticity, purpose, and lasting impact.

You can find him on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-doyle-executive-coach/
https://shawndoyletraining.com/
https://www.instagram.com/shawndoyletraining/
https://x.com/Motiv8er
https://www.linkedin.com/company/shawndoyletraining/

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

What I care about is who they are as a person. Their values. I can teach them how to run a restaurant, but I can't change their values. We hire for values, we don't hire for experience. I'm like, wow. That that that was such a smart statement.

Davis Nguyen 0:16

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 Swin, 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 1:20

With 68 proprietary programs covering everything from leadership and communication to creativity, negotiation, and customer service. Sean founded Sean Doyle training on a simple but powerful belief. Learning isn't an event, it's a process. And that philosophy has shaped how he helps individuals, leaders, and organizations achieve breakthrough results. As a certified speaking professional, Sean delivers high-impact keynote presentations that equip audiences with practical strategies. They can apply immediately, whether the focus is leadership, resilience, sales, or personal growth. His three-decade track record of helping organizations succeed through training, executive coaching, and inspiring keynotes has earned him a reputation as one of the most trusted voices in professional development. Welcome to the show, Sean.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Well, thank you, Pedro. What a great intro. I really appreciate that. And I'm really looking forward to our conversation today.

Pedro Stein 2:29

Sean, let's backtrack a little. Let's hit the brakes here. This was all you're doing. I was in Brazil chilling. Okay. You are doing everything. I was like, dude, stop being such a high achiever, right? But anyhow, okay, blaming you on the intro, but a little piece of information about myself. I am kind of a comic book nerd. Okay, Sean. So I love the first editions, the origin story. So let's rewind a bit because every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you?

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Well, I was born a small child. No, I'm just kidding. Uh that's probably a little too early in the story. Uh, actually, the the real defining moment for me, Pedro, was I was I worked for a company in sales, and I'll admit it, I liked sales, but I didn't love it. It was okay, but I didn't love it. And so one year the company was having a national meeting, and they said, We'd like to have people volunteer to give presentations in front of 600 people. So I stepped forward and raised my hand and said, I'll do one. And my colleagues are like, Are you crazy? I have you lost your mind. Why would you volunteer to get up in front of 600 people and give a one-hour presentation? I'm like, I just think it'd be fun. And they said, Well, you know, and all the negative comments, you know, uh, they don't pay for this, it's not your job. And I'm like, you know, just stop. I think it'd be fun. So I got up at the national meeting, I gave a one-hour presentation, and I knocked it out of the park. And two weeks later, the phone rang, and it was a director of training at the company I worked for at the time, and he said, Sean, we loved your presentation. I'm like, thanks. He said, We'd like to offer you a position in training and development. So I moved from sales to training and development, and Pedro was like, the clouds open up and a big ray of sun came down, and within two weeks I knew this was my life's work because I just loved every part of it. And so that's really what started. And I'd often say, you know, when I describe the story, that it's really a story about initiative, but if you take initiative, you don't know what's going to happen as a result of taking initiative. So just try it, take initiative. You don't know what's going to happen. And that really was the birth of my training and development career is moving into trading with that company.

Pedro Stein 4:53

Oh, super cool. I love it. Okay. Now, I know you're 37 years in the game. We were talking about pre-podcast, right? And 23 in your own business. And I would love for us to dive in into that, the shift from employee to business owner, right? Um, sometimes in the coaching space in the early days, we're like helping people, giving some advice, testing waters, right? And wondering if we could make our own business uh on this stuff. But eventually we're like, oh, wait a minute. I'm actually building a real business around this. This is ready for me to launch and spread my own wings, right? So, can you walk us through how that felt like the I'm not sure if it was a pivot, if you launched it and you were having that part-time, but it's always such an interesting point uh on uh the entrepreneur's life, it's when he starts his business, you know. So I would love to for you to walk us through that.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

Well, first of all, I was very fortunate because when I was in corporate America at Comcast, I had the greatest litter ever reported to. And he asked me every year what's your goal? And I trusted him so much that when we got to the later years, I said, I want to be a professional speaker. He said, I will help you get ready for that. Now imagine a boss helping you get ready to leave. I mean, it that's just an incredible thing, but he that's the kind of boss that he was. And so I actually started writing my first book when I was still at Comcast. So when I left Comcast, I the reason I left Comcast is I I loved it. They did they, you know, so those of you outside of the States, Comcast is the largest cable company in America and now owns everything. They own movie studios and TV networks and amusement park, all sorts of stuff. But at the time they were the largest cable company in America. So I left there simply because I felt like I'd done all that I could do. And so I said, I want to take what I've done at Comcast, and I want to do that for the rest of the world. But my first book, called Jump Start Your Motivation, uh, actually was released. I left Comcast in June and it was published in August. So people are like, How'd you do that so quickly? I'm like, I was preparing in advance. So my advice would be for those listening that don't wait until you leave to start, start before you leave. So build the foundation. So obviously, I had credibility being a vice president of learning and development at a big huge corporation and the co-founder of a corporate university. But as soon as I started my company, you know, a book came out, and I think a book gives you tremendous credibility. And so that first book came out, and people are like, How did you do that? So that was number one was the book. And number two was I took advice from a lot of people, and some people said, you know, the best way to start is to contact everybody that you know and say, Hey, I don't know if you know this or not, but I'm now on my own. I've started my own company. And as a result of several of those calls, lots of people said, Well, could you do training for us? Could you do coaching for us? Could you do this for us? So a lot of the calls from people that I already knew that liked and trusted me, uh, said, Yeah, we we it's funny that you called. We need a leadership development program. You have one? Of course I do. And so that's how I started was one with the book, and two, just contacting my network of all people that I knew that already liked and trusted me and knew what I could do.

Pedro Stein 8:21

So it sounds like we're pretty ready. Where you you were ready to launch. It was like you hit a ceiling at Comcast, and like, what's my next move? Um, great that you have a leader that helped you, you know, with your goal. That is like, I think that is very important as a reminder. Um, I'm curious about one thing because we're talking about 23 years in the game in your own business, and there is sometimes an evolution on the ideal client profile. And in the early days, we're sometimes not saying it's your case, uh, I see a lot of coaches out there helping everyone, and eventually they niche down, or even they don't, right? Really depends. But the evolution of who you start serving and who do you serve now?

SPEAKER_04 9:03

That's well, that's a that's that's probably, in my opinion, the the $100 question, the $1,000 question, the million-dollar question, right? I think a lot of times when I talk to people, because I could I I coach not only uh executives in corporate America, but also coach entrepreneurs who are founders and they've started a company and they've gotten it to you know five million, ten million, but they want to get to 30 million. That's where I come in. I help them get to the next level because they're great founders, but they don't know how to lead. They're they're great founders, but they don't know how to grow a company and manage a culture. So our evolution was we used to say, you know, we want to work with big companies like the Comcast and the Disneys and ABMs, and we have worked for all those companies, but what we soon realized was the reality was our ideal customer profile, some people call it an ICP, right? Ideal customer profile, is not the size of the company, but the mindset of the leader. And what I mean by that is we had to identify is the leader of that company willing to invest in the development of their folks in order to get the results of profit, sales, and revenue. We've met many leaders who do not invest in their employee development and they're successful almost despite themselves. But the ones that we really love working with are people to go, I know that if I invest in my folks, that we're gonna increase productivity, we're gonna increase retention, we're gonna increase revenue, we're gonna increase sales. Those are the folks we're looking for is the mindset of the senior leadership that's willing to invest in the development of their own.

Pedro Stein 10:37

That is so interesting. Like I always think about it's almost like a filter for behavior, right? And I'm also thinking out loud right now, it's you know, when you have those type of people that they they seem on the outside that they're investing, that they're willing to invest, but when it comes down, when when when it comes down to willing do the work, they don't. Like, for example, having a business and you have that beautiful frame uh in the background with your mission, your near values, but in reality, nothing of that really happens. So it's not just about uh looking like you're playing a part, it's about really doing the thing, as it sounds like.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Got the plaque up there on the wall, we know what it says, but how does that operationalize? You're like, well, what do you mean? I'm like, well, it's very fancy on a plaque, but how does that impact how you operate your business? How does that impact how people do their work, you know, yearly, quarterly, weekly, daily? Is it operationalized? And the answer often is uh what there is no operal, you know, it's on the wall, but it's not turned into action, it's not executed into tangible steps. And so I think that's critically important.

Pedro Stein 12:06

Oh my god, you're you're hitting a nerve here, Sean. Take it easy. It's like sometimes in the coaching space, I see people I want to impact like their mission, whatever. I want to impact 100,000 people. My follow-up question tends to be okay, when was the last time you guys brought that to a meeting? How do you where's the counter, right? How do you measure that? And is this like where you're at with that? Because it's so interesting that you you you brought up uh and and something like your mission or whatever, and and or division even, and you're like not doing anything about that on a day-to-day basis, right? Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_04 12:48

It's it's crazy. I I've traveled all over the country doing training programs on leadership and many other topics, but on leadership particularly. I always ask this question Do you guys have a mission and vision statement? Yes, we do. And of course, you know what my next question is. What is it? And I get this like blank stare. Well, it's um it's it's on a plaque in the lobby. I'm like, okay, but what is it? And they're just baffled, they don't even know what to say. I'm like, well, if you don't know what it is, I am absolutely sure that the people that report to you don't know what it is. And I'm sure that the people that report to them don't know what it is. And why am I pounding on you on this very important point? I say to them, because if this is critical, but but I've seen this sped around in countries all over America that either don't have a mission and vision statement or have one, and nobody knows what it is, and they don't know have any idea how to make it, they don't know how to turn it into human behavior or actions. Not a clue.

Pedro Stein 13:54

That is so true. And then because that's the thing, I it feels like it's backwards because yeah, you you want to generate revenue, that's obvious. But generating revenue means to an end. You need to have a purpose. If you don't have a purpose, now you're talking about culture, you're talking about fit, and people in the top level, they don't know how what the mission or the values are. I mean, that's a main problem, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:17

You know, when I interview, I should be interviewing to the culture, I should be interviewing to the mission, I should be interviewing to the purpose. But if that's not part of the fabric of your culture, you're not interviewing for those qualities because you know um Trig Cathy, who's pretty famous here in the US, who's the the uh founder of Chick-fil-A, very famous chicken restaurant chain, the most profitable and the most revenue of any fast food chain in America, once said, I don't care about if somebody has experience running a chicken restaurant. What I care about is who they are as a person, their values. I can teach them how to run a restaurant, but I can't change their values. We hire for values, we don't hire for experience. I'm like, wow. That that that was such a smart statement on his part.

Pedro Stein 15:09

But at the same time, so basic, right? It's just like you want to connect with people that are actually cool, man. It's just not like aren't they decent? Like, do they have values? It's not just about numbers, and then they wonder why they have so much turnover, why their culture sucks, why people are getting, you know, burned out. I mean, no wonder why. They're just chasing numbers, they have no purpose, right?

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Exactly. Chick files very, very imbued with their purpose and their mission.

Pedro Stein 15:36

Love that.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Everybody knows that they're okay.

Pedro Stein 15:38

I love that loses.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Uh I bought one, but I'm having this problem. I bought a new one, but moving forward, okay? Um, love that. Now let's do a little bit of a game of pretend. Okay, Sean. Let's pretend I'm your ICP, your ideal client profile. Okay.

Pedro Stein 15:57

I am one of those leaders, uh, executives in corporate, but I I I do have that um behavior thing. I want to improve myself, you know, I want to improve the people under me on the business and all that. So I am some people would say coachable. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

That's a good quality.

Pedro Stein 16:16

Okay. Now, let's say, first of all, how would I be able to find you, right? Marketing-wise and your business.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Well, there's a lot of different ways that we that our clients find us. One is obviously through my books. I have 24 published books. Often people read my book and they they contact us. We have social media, we have uh YouTube channel, and also a lot of clients refer us to other clients, or somebody is at company A and they leave and go to company B and they go, Hey, you know, four years ago you spoke at our national meeting. I'd love for you to come and work with me at my company I'm at now. So we have a lot of people who move around and they kind of take us with them, which is great. And uh those are probably the main ways that we find clients uh that are attracted to our message and our methodologies.

Pedro Stein 17:07

Okay. So I'm still in that game. I'm still pretending I'm your ICP. Okay. And uh let's say I read one of your books, I was referred to work with you, you know, or even looked at social media, one of your speaking uh gigs, and I'm like, dude, Sean is so cool, his business is cool, I want to work with them, right? I reach out and I'm like, hey, I want to work with you. Uh let's say there is alignment. Uh, we can speed up the sales process a little bit or not, really depends up on you. But what I really want to know is like structure-wise, first, like how how does it look like to work with you? You know, if I'm wondering, if someone listening wants to is wondering how does it look like a little peek behind a curtain, right? And the outcomes I can expect.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Well, we have something called the PowerFive Rx system. Uh, and it's five steps, but the first step, which is the most important, is diagnosis. So let's say somebody calls and they say, We'd love for you to come and speak at our regional meeting on a certain topic. I'm like, okay, that's great. But can we back up? Let's do a diagnostic. Because I'm not sure that that's exactly what you need. It may or may not be what you need. But let's do a diagnosis because they're coming to me with saying, Here's the prescription, and I'm like, but we haven't really done a diagnosis. Maybe, maybe, there's a better way or a different way. And so we are very big on diagnostics through a discovery meeting, right? Via Zoom or on the phone to say, well, you know, what's what's the issue? What's the problem? What's the situation? Is it solvable with training? Is it solvable with consulting? Is it solvable with the keynote? Is it solvable with executive coaching? And so I I I kind of kind of back up and say, let's do a diagnostic, because I may have. And we have a whole suite of solutions. So maybe there's a better solution. And I often say that that training is not an event, it's a process. And I think the big mistake that companies make, in my opinion, based on 30 plus years of experience, is they, you know, I'll give you an example. So a client calls from Chicago and they go, We're having our national meeting, and we want you to come in and talk about team building. I'm like, okay. So what's the problem? Well, they don't feel like a team. I'm like, let's do a call. So after a whole bunch of questions, they say, Well, they don't feel like a team because there's 30 different offices spread out across the United States. I'm like, so they're never together. I'm like, well, that would probably be one reason. But let me do this, let me interview a bunch of those offices before I commit to doing anything. Let me interview a bunch of those offices. We'll come to find out. Guess what? All of them, this is shocking, had different mission and vision statements. All of them. So I call back the client, we have another me. I'm like, well, I've discovered the main problem. There is no one mission. There's 30 of them. And so I gave them a diagnostic and said, I believe you should do the following. This, this, this, this, and this. One of the elements will be me speaking at your meeting. But I think there should be a pre-assignment, an article, an assignment, or this, a post-assignment, a webinar. So rather than just doing a singular event, I helped them design a process that took like 18 months for them to start to feel like a team. And that really worked extremely well. But too often we go, okay, three hours and the problem is solved. Check. Well, that's that's that's an event. There was no problem solved. That that that was not a process, that was an event. And we checked the box. Oh, well, we did three hours on team building. I'm like, yeah, but when people went back to Nashville, Tennessee to their office, did anything change? When they went back to Alabama, did anything change back to Ohio? Did anything change? And the answer is no. There was no process in place to make sure that all that uh was executed. And so I work with a lot of companies on designing a whole plan, making it more of a process and not just an event.

Pedro Stein 21:12

Wow. I'm thinking, right, wait, you're not just trying to push them into something, you're actually trying to help. Take it. Wait a minute there, Sean. You know, like back to the basics, right? Listening to people, uh listening to their blind spot. They didn't they're not even aware. They're coming already with a prescription of something. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's break here. Let's try to understand where we're coming from with that mentality. So we can actually help you, right? Love that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Like, what's what's going on? The analogy I use let's say you walk into a doctor's office and she comes in and says, Hello, here's your pill. You're like, Whoa, wait a minute. What do you mean, here's my pill? You you haven't even diagnosed and talked to me out. You're already giving me a pill, really? That would be malpractice. So I think I think doing training without diagnostic is kind of a form of malpractice.

Pedro Stein 22:04

I'm going to counter on that analogy. I think for your specific situation, it's like they're going to the doctor's office and they're saying, Hey, I I broke my foot. My foot is broke. And you're like, okay, not really. You're going to do it. What you're going to say is like, we're going to have an X-ray right now.

unknown 22:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Maybe it's strange. Maybe it's not broken.

Pedro Stein 22:27

Exactly. They're coming into your office saying, hey, I did uh I need X, Y, and Z. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Okay. Love that. Now, that's one thing that I wanted to ask, right? Because I am a business graduate. I'm from Brazil. And what I learn most of the time, the problem is that the top level leadership, right? I might be off here. But I wonder if you had any clients that hired you and they're like, Sean, those guys can't perform. They're blah, blah, blah. I need help with my team. And then you joined ranks. You're looking at you're doing your diagnose stuff. And you're like coming to the conclusion, the problem is not the team. The problem is the paying customer who is blaming everyone else. Okay? That's the leadership. I understand you're like been long enough in the game so you can navigate those conversations today easily with them. But how did that look like when you started, right? For coaches that need to navigate that. Is it hard? You know, can you give me some examples?

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Well, I always say to my clients, because I do a lot of executive coaching, both for entrepreneurs and for corporate, I always say to them, the one thing that I promise, well, there's two things that I promise. One is I'll be completely honest with you. Now, I may say things you don't want to hear, but I will be honest with you. That's number one. Number two, let's look at some objective data. So, in other words, let's say a company says, Well, we have a leadership issue. We don't we we our our leaders are struggling. I'm like, well, why is that? So we need to do assessments and and other, you know, look at other things to diagnose what it is. So I say that uh number one, if I'm coaching you, for example, almost every single person we put through executive coaching takes at least two or three different assessments at 360, and then we have over 40 different assessments that they can take. Maybe they do an assessment on emotional intelligence. They're like, well, so I go to coach someone and they go, Well, I need I need to work on this. I'm like, well, let's find out what you really need to work on. And so through assessments that are objective data, we can find out what their strengths are. Very important to identify the strengths so they can continue doing them, right? And also what they need to work on, how they need to improve, and then we develop an action plan for each one of those items of improvement. And so we use objective data plus conversation plus interviews to determine what the real need is. And you know, sometimes I have to tell an executive, well, we have the 360 here, and guess what, buddy? The the overwhelming feedback, both numerically and in writing, was that you seem to be arrogant. And they go, Well, I I I'm not arrogant. I understand that. Uh, and it doesn't even matter whether you're arrogant or not. What matters is how do people perceive you. So, what we need to do is change the perception because the perception's not serving you. Remember, I told you I'd be honest with you, right? So the perception of arrogance is what matters. So, what behaviors can you change to change the perception of arrogance? Because arrogance is not helping you. And it's amazing what happens when people identify specific actions they can take. And it could be something simple like when you're in a meeting, don't be the first one to speak. Ask questions, let everybody else speak first. Then give your opinion. Now people say he's not arrogant at all. Only because he or she gave people a chance to speak. So just by pulling one little lever, everything changes in terms of perception. Which is pretty amazing. But it's again, it's data driven, it's not just somebody's opinion. Like, well, I I think I need to work on this. I'm like, well, let's find out what you really need to work on, and let's give you specific tools and techniques to fix whatever that is to help you get to the next level. And they love it because they get you know, we almost all of our clients get promoted, you know, they grow. Uh the entrepreneurs, you know, we have one entrepreneur who's increased the revenue tenfold in one year just through our coaching. Tenfold in one year.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Okay. That's so exciting.

Pedro Stein 26:54

Yeah, it is. Okay, now I I want to tap into your experience a little bit more, right? Uh, we didn't establish this in the podcast, but let's just confirm here. You do have coaches under your arm, right? We have 17 coaches or something like that to deliver to?

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Yeah, we have 17 facilitators and several other coaches, yeah.

Pedro Stein 27:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:14

Yeah, some of our facilitators do facilitation of training and coaching. Some of our coaches just do coaching, some of our facilitators just do facilitating.

Pedro Stein 27:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Okay.

Pedro Stein 27:25

So here's my question to you. We have uh some coaches out there, and I think this serves uh both people that hear us, which are people looking for coaches and coaches, uh, which is when you started, right? Well, first of all, how to keep quality control? I feel like a lot of coaches are afraid of that, you know, uh, because they hit a ceiling, they're they're they're handling delivery. So that's one uh question, how to keep quality control in check. The second question for you is walk us through how that looked like when you you had your first facilitatorslash coach that you were like letting go a little bit of your own thing, and and was it scary, you know, to tarnish your brand and all that. So I just want to hear your perspective on both.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

What's that's those are both great questions. I think number one is finding the right people first. So it's you know, you know, Pamela, who's on our team, uh, just as an example, she's been doing training for 30 years. So she's a stone cold expert already, right? She's a stone cold expert in training and development and facilitation. Then all we have to do is bring Pamela in and say, okay, here are our brand standards. You know, here's how we facilitate training, here are the learner guides, here's our content, and I walk her through every single program about how it operates and how it works and all that to maintain integrity of the brand, to say to the brand standards. But you know, once I take someone like that who has a great deal of experience, I just add in the brand standards and some of the operational things. I give her a learner guide and you know, go observe her first session, give her a little bit of feedback, but she's off to the races. I don't have to worry about her because she has a great level of experience working for a lot of big companies. And so that's what we really look for is people that are experienced, certified, that already come to the table with a lot of experience and expertise, that we just have them, we just make sure now they stick to the brand standards and the way the training is facilitated or the way the coaching is facilitated back to our brand. And they love it because there's there's nothing in doubt, there's no questions, like they get a facilitator guide, they have a timetable, they have a learner guide, that's a facilitator guide, I go over with them in depth, like literally page by page. Well, they go to do that for a session, they're ready because they already have tons of experience, and they love the content that we've developed over the past 20 plus years. So great content, great facilitator, and the the clients love the session, and it's very easy when you have the right people back to Chick-fil-A, right? And you say, This is how we operate, and this is our brand. Clear, very clear, and spending time with them to make sure they understand it.

Pedro Stein 30:13

Okay. Now let me ask you.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

And then I never have somebody do the first session all alone. I always go on the first session and you know, sit in the back and help and support them and meet with them the night before and you know, coach them through all of it. But we've never had a person on on the first session who struggled. They're like, you know, off to the races, and after that, you're good.

Pedro Stein 30:34

Okay. And how to manage the handoff? Like you have 24 books out there. They want to talk with the author. They want to talk with Sean, but Sean has only 24 hours in a day. There is business development. There is sleeping, having fun, having a life, right? So how do you manage that? When when uh it's almost like a how do you manage the handoff so they can trust the process and not just you?

SPEAKER_04 31:01

Well, I I basically say, gosh, I'd love to work with you, but I'm already booked, which is true. Uh, and secondly, I have hand-picked and hand-trained every single person on our team. And I've thought about you and your and your your situation training or coaching. I think the perfect fit for you would be this person. So what I'd like to do is set up a Zoom call with me and you and them, and find out if there's a fit. And once you have the conversation, I'm sure you'll be completely convinced that there'd be a good fit for you. You know, they're personally trained by me. And uh once they have that conversation, they they don't have any doubt and we're good. But it's really a matter of letting them know that they were trained by me, certified by me, coached by me, you know, and our standards and for the quality. And often they'll call and go, Well, can Pamela come back? I'm like, Wow, they forgot about Sean. That's good though, right? Like they'll they'll request that facilitator over and over because now the facilitator knows their culture, they understand their company, they know what happened before, so then they can go back again and again and again. It's just that initial reaction of, well, uh I want Sean, right? Well, there's only, like you said, there's only so many days of the week.

Pedro Stein 32:21

That is true. Well, it goes back to hiring good people, as it seems like. And also the handoff needs to be a little bit tactical on leveraging them, right? Their skills. Because at the end of the day, uh, I love you, Sean. But if they're like doing delivery 24-7, they're gonna be very good at it, right? If you're doing a lot of things, it's like it's it's the harsh truth. Like people get good if they're very focused. So that's not even a lie.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

You know, myself, I've done 4,000 presentations in my career. But you know, if you look like somebody like Pamela, she's done 3,800 presentations. So, you know, she's not gonna walk into a room and experience anything that she can't handle. Because she's a pro, right? We hired a pro who has a lot of experience. Now we do have people who approach us that go, well, I've never done training and you know, uh, like to get into training and development. I'm like, well, that's great. Uh but we need you to get some experience first, and you know, then come back and talk to us after you've had you know at least 10 years of experience training and facilitating.

Pedro Stein 33:28

Got it.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

Because again, it's very important to our brand that the person has a lot of experience.

Pedro Stein 33:32

Okay. Now, shifting gears for a second, right? We'd love to understand your point of view about future for your business, right? I'm curious where you're taking all this. Looking at do you see the where do you see the business going? Are we thinking about scaling, hiring even more people? Is there a next step you're excited about?

SPEAKER_04 33:51

Yeah, we're excited about building an empire. And sometimes people chuckle when I say that. But I'm like, am I laughing right now when I say that building an empire? Right now, I'm like, we really would love to build an empire where we can affect people across the world. So we can see, you know, with our training programs, having 50 facilitators in the future, we can see having uh affiliates at other countries, you know, that are that are facilitating our programs. I already have 24 books. I'm working on book number 25. We also have built the first online program called Presentation Power, How to Present with Power, Authority, and Credibility. And we also see that in the future, not only will people be able to experience live training, executive coaching, me doing a keynote, but also to be able to go to our website and click and take an online program, you know, of me or one of our facilitators doing a like, for example, presentation power has 12 modules. It's like everything you need to know about presenting effectively. So you can just click on it, you know, pay a very modest fee, and and actually be exposed to me through 12 modules on how to become a great presenter. And so we see that as a big future opportunity. We could have 20 or 30 or 40 programs on our website where people can experience us through our books, through our online programs, through executive coaching, training, or speaking, or through you know, some of our other offices around the world, uh again, spreading the messages and the techniques and tools that we've developed over the past 20 plus years.

Pedro Stein 35:27

Interesting. Exciting as well. Okay. Yeah, empire. I love that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

Why not, right?

Pedro Stein 35:34

Why not? Well, dreaming big and small costs the same, right? Like, why not dream big? There's no reason why not to. I love that. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:44

It's funny, Pedro, because when I coach entrepreneurs and ask them what their goal is, you know, for the year, like, well, I want to get to 250, and I'm like, 250? Well what 250? What do you what are you talking about? Like, why I I think you could do a million, a million and a half, and they kind of sit back in their chair and they're like, oh. Well, we have one of our clients right now I've been working with for two months, and he's already said they're gonna get to 1.2 million this year. It's just a mindset change, right? Like you said, you could do the same work, but what you know, if you're gonna work that hard, why would you aim for 250 when you should aim for 1.2? And I'm like, you know, in in three years, you know, you're gonna be at four or five million, and you and your wife are gonna be sitting on the beach while your team's generating revenue when you're on vacation.

Pedro Stein 36:37

Oh my god, I thought she laughed me. I s I thought she laughed me for a second, Sean.

unknown 36:43

I'm still here.

Pedro Stein 36:44

Oh, we're talking about our wife. I know we're on the beach. Yeah. At least someone's having fun. No, I'm just kidding. Uh okay. Interesting. I loved Empire. I I'm right there with you. Um, but I I want to know a little bit more about something like whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, we're talking about an empire here. There's always something we're refining in the present, right? So, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business?

SPEAKER_04 37:12

I think it's a matter of maximizing my time. Um, you know, I I'm in a position where there's a lot of different things I could be doing. I could be coaching, I could be training, I could be speaking. So literally every week my team and I sit down and go through okay, what am I doing? What's my COO doing? What's my office manager doing? You know, what are all of our folks doing? Because I need to be super careful about how I spend my time to get the maximum result possible. You know, there's things that I like to do, but I shouldn't do. I mean, should I be creating a PowerPoint deck? The content, yes, but the the actual deck itself, absolutely not. Number one, it's a waste of my time. Number two, there's people that do much more beautiful PowerPoint decks than I do. Right? So if I'm doing a webinar and I need a PowerPoint deck, I'll give them the black and white content, and then I give it to an expert, and she makes these gorgeous PowerPoint decks. Well, that's much more valuable use of her time and my time rather than me doing it, and she's better at it. And so I think folks that are entrepreneurs or have your own business, I want you to think about what you should delegate. Number one, to get it off of your plate so you can concentrate on things that are more valuable. But number two, probably the person you delegate it to could do it better than you. Right? A person that does PowerPoint and learner guides, yeah, okay, I could get on Canva and create a learner guide, and I could get a PowerPoint. I'm really I'm really proficient on PowerPoint, but it makes no sense for me to do it. But so we could do it better, and I could be doing something that would be more significant to the growth of our business.

Pedro Stein 38:55

Right. So two things right come up to my mind. First of all, the word leverage, right?

unknown 39:01

Yes.

Pedro Stein 39:01

So that's one thing. It's like pulling the right lever. So being intentional, understanding where what's next, what's the next move. Second thing is like, I feel very important, okay? Because you're spending your time with me. So I'm using my executive hootie. And uh the third thing is the uh consultant, right? The time audit. That's a time audit. I was a an Ernest and young here in Brazil. That's a classic one. Uh so that's one of the first things we did. Uh funny, interesting, love that.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Um I think the most important thing I can do today is is interviewing with you.

Pedro Stein 39:38

Okay. Whoa. Take it easy, Sean. I'm gonna get emotional here, okay? Back off a little. Uh now, Sean.

SPEAKER_04 39:49

Exposure, right? I mean, yeah. I you know, how can I get exposure? Well, one of the best ways to get exposure is being on shows like yours where it's gonna go out to the world and people will see me and go, oh. Right? Right. That's the best way to spend my time today.

Pedro Stein 40:02

I love that. Okay. Now, let's do a little bit of game of a little bit of a sci-fi here, real quick. Okay. Uh I wanna I wanna pretend we have a time machine in front of us, Sean. Okay. You can go back in time. I'm gonna give you two options. The first option is when you started a coaching thing, right? Uh 37 years ago. You can go back there. Or you could go back when you opened shop twenty-three years ago in your own business. You can select pinpoint the time. The option I gave you right now is you can give yourself one piece of business advice. You wish you knew back then that you know now. Right? What would that be? And when would that be?

SPEAKER_04 40:53

Yeah, I can I can think of a defining moment. It was interesting because the first company that I was with doing training actually went up to Canada to do training for a group because I was a trainer, I traveled all over the country. And I remember very clearly when that training was over, the the manager of Canada was sitting in the back of the room and everybody left, and he's still sitting there. He's kind of like staring at me, and I was like, What's going on? He goes, sit down. I was like, Uh-oh. What did he not like the training? Like, what's going on? And he goes, I want to talk to you. I'm like, okay, what is it? And he goes, Why are you here? I'm like, What do you mean? He goes, What why are you here? I'm like, Because you asked me to come to training to do training in Canada? No, no, no. Why are you here at this company? I'm like, because I that's my job. He's like, no, no, no, you're missing the big point, Sean. I'm like, I guess I am. What is it? And he goes, You are meant to be on a bigger stage. You should be teaching the world. That was a defining moment because I got on the plane and I'm like, this guy just told me that that company's too small for me.

unknown 42:08

Right?

SPEAKER_04 42:08

That I should be on a bigger platform. So I went from that company. I got a call from Comcast and went to Comcast, right? And again, a more prominent role. And then I left Comcast and got to this role. But here's a guy that, you know, 30 years ago told me he saw in me a gift and he shared that with me. He's basically saying, leave here because you this is too small for you. I'm like, but what a gift that was. So I always say to folks, if you see someone who has a gift, it's your obligation to tell them. Because if you go away and you don't tell them that they have that gift, uh, I think it you're it's irresponsible and it's it's not very kind. You should say to people. I was doing a presentation skills class and a woman got up in front of the room, you know, to do her little practice. Oh, she blew it out of the room. So she sits down and I said, I I I I I gotta tell you, you have a gift. Because for what? I'm like, for speaking. I said that that that's one of the best presentations I've ever seen in my life. You have a gift and you need to use that gift for something. You know, as a speaker, as a presenter. So on the break, she came over and said, Well, you know, can I talk to you? I'm like, sure, she's I'm you're freaking me out right now with that advice. I'm like, I'm just telling you. I never say that. I have never said to anybody that you have a gift for presenting. Like you have. I'm like, you could be an evangelist, you could be the we brainstormed. I said, but I'm just saying you're in this organization, you're not even doing training, you're not even doing speaking. This is a gift that you need to share with the world. She went, and like her head was spinning. But to me, that's an obligation to tell people when they have a gift and share it with them so that they can be inspired and motivated to do something with it. That it doesn't get wasted.

Pedro Stein 44:02

Love that. Okay. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with your follow your work, okay, Sean. And we're gonna have all the links in the description, but what's the best way to find you and connect with you?

SPEAKER_04 44:16

I would say that uh Sean Doyle Training.com would be the best place to find it. So it's Sean Doyle Training.com. Also, our newest book came out about a year ago. You might want to look at that on Amazon and maybe it could be in the show notes, but it's it's an interesting topic. It's how to get motivated and stay positive during tough times. It's really easy to stay motivated and positive during great times, right? But the question that we ask in this book is what if the chips are down? What if you got divorced? What if you lost your job? What if you have an illness? How do you stay positive and motivated during tough times? That's gotten great reception. So you might want to check that out as well.

Pedro Stein 44:54

Great reminder. Yeah, that's a tough one. Okay. You know, there were a few moments from this chat today uh that really stayed with me, Sean. I would I would say, and I'm gonna highlight them real quick, okay? When you started your journey, when you started volunteering, right? To to present to present to 600 people, and how taking initiative changed your entire path and your journey and all that. And that and that's also a reminder you carry for your own practice, right? That's something you preach because it you've been there, done that, and you've seen the transformation. It it can happen just by taking initiative, which is pretty simple, pretty basic at the end of the day. But most people don't like your friends, your buddies, your co-workers, where they're like, Are you crazy, man? Like, what are you doing? Well, that's what you got got you here today. That's one thing. Another great reminder I feel like talking about is the former leaderslash boss, as you call him. I'm old school too. I still have struggle to call people leader. I call them boss. Okay, so uh that guy helped you achieve your goals despite the outcome for himself. But at the end of the day, he got a great employee during that time. That oh that was almost like an overachiever, as it sounds like. And if you attract that type of person, they stay, they're loyal, and they will leave the right way, and they will remember you. You're building a legacy, okay?

SPEAKER_04 46:31

Incredible, yeah, absolutely. And he he said from day one, my obligation is to help you get better at what you do.

Pedro Stein 46:37

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 46:38

From day one, that's what he said in the first day. You're going to get development. And development is not optional. I'm like, Where have you been all my life? I love it. Let's go.

Pedro Stein 46:49

Yes, okay. Last but not least, I would say um the distinction you presented me between perception and reality, like how people are perceived as like arrogant, as in your example, but in reality he may not be, but that doesn't really matter. You know, what really matters is how people perceive you at the end of the day. So sometimes I I see that happen a lot, right? Even coaches. Uh I see coaches that are sometimes it feels like they're the best cap secret out there. I've seen people doing amazing pro bono work in the coaching space, and I've seen people doing terrible work and charging 15k, 20k, you know. So that's the thing. Uh it's sometimes you have people out there that are so good at what they do, but they're not being perceived as good because they're not, I don't know why. Maybe they're they're framing their their work as uh worthless, even with them without them realizing it. It's it's a very complex answer to that question, but just a reminder itself, very powerful. So I appreciate you. Okay. Now, Sean, this is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today, okay? It was great having you one.

SPEAKER_04 48:13

Thank you so much. I appreciate being here.

Davis Nguyen 48:16

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.