How Intentional Leadership Creates Extraordinary Teams with Paul Casey

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Paul Casey, executive coach, leadership trainer, keynote speaker, author, and founder of Growing Forward Services, where he helps leaders become more intentional, effective, and influential through practical coaching and leadership development. Drawing on decades of experience working with executives, managers, entrepreneurs, and organizations, Paul shares valuable insights on developing coaching skills, building high-performing teams, improving communication, fostering accountability, and creating workplace cultures where people can thrive. We also discuss the importance of intentional leadership, emotional intelligence, productive feedback, time management, and continuous personal growth, along with practical strategies leaders can implement immediately to inspire trust, empower others, and achieve lasting business success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or aspiring leader, this conversation is packed with actionable leadership lessons that can help you grow yourself while developing those around you.

You can find him on:
https://www.growingforwardservices.net/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldcasey
https://www.facebook.com/GrowingForwardServices/
https://www.instagram.com/growingforwardservices/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/growing-forward-services/
https://x.com/growingfwd
https://www.youtube.com/@growingforwardservices

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

So uh when I'm with that client, I'm with you. So I am like I am your biggest fan as your coach when I'm with you, even if I know you're part of the problem, which you probably are, right? And so I am still gonna try to help you improve.

Davis Nguyen 0:15

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, a 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 gonna 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 0:59

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Paul Casey, executive and leadership coach behind growing forward services. Paul works with CEOs, business leaders, and nonprofit executives on decision making, culture, and building stronger teams, and has spent over a decade helping leaders grow. Has been featured on CU TV News, Radio Talking Leadership, among other channels. Welcome to the show, Paul.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Hey, Joe, it's so great to be here.

Pedro Stein 1:35

Dude, I'm excited. Okay. We were having a blast pre-interview. I'll just say that out loud. Right now, you guys miss so much. But back to business, okay? I want to understand one thing. First of all, a little bit about myself. I am a comic book nerd. Okay. So I love the first editions. Okay. So, origin story. 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, Paul?

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Yeah, I started out as a teacher, a fifth grade teacher, became a vice principal at a school, then a principal at a school, and uh started learning about this thing called leadership. And I'm like, I really like this. I thought, okay, I'm gonna file that one away as I get better, start reading leadership books, start getting stronger at this skill. Realized that in the organizations I was at, I kept hitting a leadership lid, you know, and it's just like I want to grow more. Like I want to take this school and make it the best one ever, right? And people were just like, eh, settle down, dude. You know, just like keep it right here. We're all happy with where we're at. And I'm like, no, it could be better. And there was just something inside me that made me want to leave then. It was just like I got this restless feeling and I had to get out. So I moved to another place. Then I moved to another place. And, you know, three or four jobs later, still getting more leadership experience. I'm realizing like, I want to do something where people really want to grow. Not that they're forced to by their boss, but they really want to grow. And then I heard about this thing called coaching, and I thought, like, oh, life coaching sounds a little woo-woo, you know, what is that? Don't know what it is. Met with a coach in a in a coffee shop and he told me what it was. And I went like, yeah, that's what I love doing naturally, like helping people get a vision for their life or their company, and then develop goals along the way. That's what I do naturally. I love doing that. And that was the moment that I was like, I need to become a coach.

Pedro Stein 3:41

Okay, so from now on, what you basically told me is that I need to call you Mr. Casey, right? Because you were a principal. Yes, yes, nobody calls me that anymore. Well, I'm not a teenager, but I would love to pretend I am one. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. So, Paul, interesting. I want to understand a little bit about the shift of when someone goes from I'm helping people, advice giving, you know, I I'm I'm looking to this leadership stuff, but then eventually you start you realizing that you're building a real business around this, right? It's not just advice giving, people are actually paying you to do so. And you're like, hmm, this is actually a thing. Okay, I can charge people for this. So, can you walk us through first? I would say the identity shift that happened from you know, teacher to coach, business owner. That's a lot of things going on there, and also the realization, the moment in time that you're like, mmm, something changed. I'm not sure if it's the first paying client, if it is the first invoice, that you're like, ah, I have a business of coaching.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Yes, I went to a seminar, a conference in Los Angeles by a secret millionaire named James Malinchek. And so his shtick was if you can get here, it's free, right? And then while you're there, of course, you get upsold to all these other like things, right? But I just needed to get there. So I got there, three other of uh people that were thinking about coaching, and I just got my notebook out and I just took a million notes. Like, you can build a business, you can write a book, you can use Facebook for marketing, you can develop more seminars, make money from them. And it was just one seminar after another for three full days. And I went like, I think I could do this. Like, this is so exciting. And I think I've got like already the presentation skills to be a seminar speaker, and then this new coaching thing that's coming on. And maybe if I added team building on here, uh facilitation, I could have a three-legged stool and start an actual business. Because I'm not really confident that any one of them could maybe make me a full-time salary. So I'm gonna just sort of stack the deck with three services, and that's when Growing Forward Services was born was that day, 14 years ago, and I came back from that seminar, got the website, got the tax ID number, got the bank account, got the business card, and I just started going for it.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

While I had the day job, I was doing this like the dream job was starting to rise.

Pedro Stein 6:21

It's almost like prom day, right? You're like, you take a shower, you've you put the suit, and you're like, this is like immediate validation. I'm ready for this stuff. I love that, those moments. Okay. Now, after you got rolling, who are the people that kept showing up? You know, because there is an evolution to it, like 14 years in the game, and at the start in the coaching days, most coaches, and I'm saying it's your case, they're like just trying to help people, trying to everyone, yeah. I can help you, right? But eventually, first you start attracting a certain type of people, right? And found your your tribe, the evolution of who you start coaching, walk us through that and who you serve now.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

So when I started out, it was exactly as you said, Pedro. It's like, I'll take anybody, like I want to get my coaching chops, right? Like, I wanna anybody that's willing to pay. And I charge like $35 an hour, which is solo, right? And I remember that the first clients like, can you do it for even less? And I was like, it's only $35 an hour. And you know, so those first clients, you're right, you just start attracting people that are willing to pay for personal growth, but those folks just wanted to talk. It was sort of like a therapy session, right? They just wanted to talk, they didn't want to grow, grow forward, right? Which is my brand, right? They didn't want to grow forward, they just wanted to talk. Now, of course, I could just take their money, but that was not my ideal client. So over time, I started putting it out there that I'm gonna niche in leadership and self-leadership coaching. And now that attracted a different crowd, right? And I remember the first client that was willing to pay me $100 for a session, and I was like, I actually said to him, like, what would you be willing to pay? And he said $100 a session, and I'm like to myself, like, that'd be awesome. I remember inside going, like, that would be so cool. Like, I hit the new threshold. 100, like that was amazing, right? But even he wasn't my ideal client, right? He was just like checking a box, like, well, I probably need a coach, you know, it probably is gonna make me a better uh he was like a CPA, you know, a certified public accountant, you know, and he's like, uh, but that he didn't last long either because he wasn't willing to work hard. So yeah, the evolution of attracting the right kind of client, then it's like, ooh, that's the person. They come with their pen and paper ready, like they're they've done their homework, right? They are ready to dig and talk about real issues in their life and their leadership. That's my ideal client.

Pedro Stein 8:54

So it's to an extent, it's not necessarily a demographic. We've talked a little bit about behavior here. It's like they need to be cultible, they need to be willing to put in the work, right? Okay. So let's pretend I do. Okay, let's pretend I'm your ideal client profile. I know it's gonna be hard, but let's pretend I am willing to put in the work, right? And I am facing leadership challenges, right, in my business. And I'm like, okay, first of all, in this game of pretend, Paul, how would I be able to find you marketing-wise, your ideal client profile?

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Yes, so several ways. And at the beginning of the journey, I just threw everything at the wall. Like, okay, I need to be on every social media platform, I need a website, I need a flyer, like a brochure to I need a business card, I need to network everywhere I possibly can. And I just tried everything because it's year one. You know, when I launched uh 12 years ago as a solopreneur, like your income goes to zero really fast. Right? So it's like you got to get the word out and shake a lot of hands. And so the number one way that I get my clients is through local networking. So in my area in Washington State, 95% of my clients are local. They're they're around me. I don't have to travel, I don't have too many virtual, long distance clients. I have found them the old-fashioned way, and that is going to Chamber of Commerce meetings and networking groups and having coffee with people one-to-one in a coffee shop and seeing if we resonate and if there's a need that I can meet. That's the number one way. And if they check those boxes of like that we just talked about, we're probably gonna work together.

Pedro Stein 10:39

I'm thinking, right? Well, first of all, I'm thankful that you started 14 years ago, or else you'd be doing TikTok dances today, right? You're trying everything. I'm just like, what's happening? Oh, that's okay. That's we didn't have to step into those days, and then 14 years ago, that's good. We cleared the air and that. Now I'm still at your ICP, okay, in this scenario. Let's say I looked at what you have out there, social media or even the local networking, right? I was just shaking hands. I'm like, this guy's cool. Uh, I eventually do the outreach myself, so I'm in an inbound lead, and I'm like, hey, Paul, how does it look like to work with you? Right? I heard it was $35 an hour. No, I'm just kidding. And let's say, in a way, we can speed up the sales process or not. Really up to you. I would say if there is alignment, there is alignment. I'm coachable. But my real question to you is like, could you give me like a peek behind a curtain, an idea of how does it look like to work with your business and the outcomes I can expect?

SPEAKER_03 11:43

If we had our first call, that intake call, I want to hear their story first. So I I always start with if we're in a coffee shop together, I'm gonna as soon as our our bottoms hit the chair, I'm gonna say, So what's your story, Pedro? Before they can even ask me a question. Because I want to hear the background, what led them to where we are, where they are today in need of a coach, and where are they struggling today, or where do they want to go to the next level? Right. And so when I get that information, I'm already filing all that away. Like, okay, I think I could probably add some value to this person if they're willing. So then I explained to them like, coaching is organic. Like, I am not trying to ram you into a system. You probably know the grow model, uh, Pedro. It's the probably the oldest one, you know, where your it's goals. Like, I want to know your vision and your goals for whatever we're talking about. Then there's R reality, like where are you stuck right now, or where do you want to grow forward? There's a gap between G and R, right? So as a coach, I jump into the gap with you and we do O, which is options. Now I'm gonna pepper you with all sorts of questions. What's working, what's not working, what do you want more of? And then the W is the way forward. Now I'm gonna pin you down and I'm gonna say, You want to make that into an action item? What's your next step? What are you gonna do about that? Right. And then they're they're gonna make an action item, and I'm gonna hold them loosely accountable to that. I'm not their boss, not gonna bang them over the head if they don't get it done. This is all encouragement, but I will ask, and we're gonna explore if you don't get it done, like what happened? Because you said you really wanted this. So I explained as just the basic model, and then I say, here's a typical session, what it's gonna look like. Okay, we're gonna start with wins always. I'm gonna say what has gone well since the last time I saw you, because there's something about putting that positive, you know, injection into their psyche that says, like, yeah, I got some stuff done. Like, I'm feeling good about this. Great. Second thing I'm gonna say is how'd you do on your last action items? Okay, we're gonna check those off, we're gonna explore some stuff. Third, I'm gonna ask you some icebreaker questions. I'm actually gonna send those the night before to give you some little time to noodle on it. They're all gonna be leadership or self-leadership questions. You can either prepare for them or you can wing it. I don't really care, but we're gonna talk about them. So I'm I'm hoping it'll just tease out some topics for today. And then if you've got a topic you want to go there, Pedro, like we're gonna go there first because I can't coach what you don't say. So if you bring up the topic, I'm going there with you. And if it takes the whole hour, great. Time well spent. If we go six different directions in an hour, time well spent, right? And at the end, we want to land that plane with the action items going into next time. So that's a little bit of behind the scenes of a typical session with me.

Pedro Stein 14:19

Bad Pedro steps in. Okay, Bad Pedro is a client from hell. Well no, can we get rid of this guy? Yeah, we gotta get rid of it, but it he have like we're gonna have a twofold at Bad Pedro. First scenario for from Bad Pedro. Hop on a call. You mentioned action items. Bad Pedro is like, dude, I mean, this is the first call. He says he haven't done anything about the homework. The second call, he no shows. I'm sure that never happened to you, right? So how how to navigate that bad Pedro? Like, doesn't do the homework, starts to no-showing.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Yeah, because the first time it's like grace, right? Like, you didn't do your homework. We all we all have stuff that comes up in our life, right? Your dog died, uh, you've been sick, you went on vacation. There's just stuff that happens, right? I'm gonna give you grace out of that. I'm gonna bring you back to like this is what you wanted to do. Bad Pedro. Uh, do you wanna do you wanna continue down that path, or do you want to change your goals or whatever? Ready to re-up, right? Sometimes I'll ask a scale of one to ten, how committed to you are are you on these goals? And I want to hear that eight, nine, or ten, or else I'm gonna backpedal again and go, what's up with that? I mean, you hired me, you're paying me money. We might as well like maximize our time together, right? Now, if I get the no-show, then I'm like, hmm, these are really two bad signs, like strike one, strike two, right? Two red flags in a row. This doesn't really happen often, Pedro. I probably have had like twice in all of my 4,000 hours of coaching. I've only had like two people ever do that where they just go, like, uh, I didn't do my homework and now I'm not showing up. I would probably uh try to try to get them back on my calendar though and say, like, so what are we what are we doing here? Like, like, like, I'm all about helping you grow forward. What's your commitment level on this? It's okay if you don't want to continue coaching. Like, that's that's totally cool. But if we are gonna do this, let's do this, let's go for it and be able to take this super seriously.

Pedro Stein 16:23

Right. Back to purpose, right? Why are we what are we doing? Why are we doing? Yeah, I'm just FYI. Bad Pedro says he's all in and no shows again, okay? But it's all good. That's Bad Pedro, man. But moving forward, okay, we have another scenario for a different Bad Pedro. This is like Bad Pedro number two. You went through the sales call, the guy is like pretty cool, pretty chilled, coachable. He's like, you know what? I would love for my team to perform more and all that, and you start doing that kind of work, right? But you realize eventually. I'm not sure if you interview the the who's underneath him, you know, or whatever that looks like, but you start picking up on the fact that bad Pedro is kind of in a bad apple, okay? He's not a great leader, he's blaming everyone. He's like, they are not performing distant language, he's got nothing to do with that, right? So, how to navigate that to his attention? I'm very curious because he's the pain customer, and you're like, dude, you're the problem, right? So, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Yeah, now that's this does happen, right? In all those hours of coaching, right? And because I'll hear often from the the periphery, the people, their boss, you know, their colleagues, you know, they'll sometimes I'm within an organization where I'm coaching several people, I'll get to hear about the others, right? And I gotta file that away because that's all secondhand information. So uh when I'm with that client, I'm with you. So I am like, I am your biggest fan as your coach when I'm with you, even if I know you're part of the problem, which you probably are, right? And so I am still gonna try to help you improve. So it's trying to raise their awareness that they have some growth areas. So if I can do a 360 evaluation where other people can speak into their life, if I can get them to do that, that's gonna be an easier segue for me to go, hey, here's the data. And oh, it looks like we got some patterns here. Like, would you like some help with that? Right. And then I can I can sort of suss out if they're gonna be like, yeah, it looks like I need help, or like, oh, defensive, defensive. No, I don't, no, that's a bunch of baloney, and I don't know who said that about me. And those are the really hard ones. You know, if they just keep it, like you said, it's those people or the problem is out there and it's not, it's not here. But the ones that say, like, hey, let's let's work on these things. Obviously, I've got some issues here. That's the ideal again. We go back into that ideal coaching client who's willing to work on stuff.

Pedro Stein 18:56

Here comes the first curveball, business-wise. I'm sorry, I don't want to be that hard on you. I'm trying to do my best here, but sometimes I get excited, okay? And the first, and you mentioned a lot of in-person engagements, right? If I got it right. Uh, even on networking. And Paul, I see a lot of coaches out there. I'm one of those, right? Sometimes I'm working my butt off. I really love coaching. Uh, and I see a lot of coaches advocating against burnout, right? But sometimes they're burning out themselves. We're wearing a lot of hats in the industry sometimes. We're like the marketer, the sales guy, you know, delivery. There's a coaching itself. That's just a part of it. It's not just about the operations and the coaching and the craft. It's all it's about a business development side, too, right? So, how do you think about capacity? So don't stretch yourself too thin, you know.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

It's a really good question. Adjacent to that question is when is enough? Like, you know, when do you have enough clients? When do you have enough revenue? I'm always wrestling with that one. That one's really tough because in a in a down year, I mean, you might be scraping a little bit. So you got to say yes to everything, right? And an up year, it's like, oh, I should probably scale way back, you know, because I don't want to burn out. But then, oh, what if the down year's coming? Right? What if a government decision makes people start bailing on coaching or their company goes, yeah, yeah, Paul, thanks, but we can't afford you anymore, right? So it sort of makes me want to say yes to just about everything, uh, any any new client. So I'm always this is attention. It's a really good question because it's attention to uh to manage. One of the ways I manage it is to get other people, hire contractors to help me with all the things I don't want to do that's non-client facing, right? So I've got my bookkeeper and CPA, I've got a social media person that helps me with that. I've got a website manager, I've got some virtual assistants, two of them that help with a lot of admin things. One of them I just hired is looking for leads uh for me, uh, more in a regional area. So I've got all these like people that are helping behind the scenes so that I can stay in my sweet spot, which is helping clients grow. So that is probably the best way that I beat Burnout is to have a support team wrapped around me doing the things that I don't enjoy doing.

Pedro Stein 21:16

I love that. You know, something that I got really curious about now is like you have that teacher background, and I was wondering, right, do you see any patterns when you're talking with leaders and you use skill sets that you had when you were a teacher or even a principal that you're like, oh, I'm tapping into that, that I've been there and done that, because I know they're a different demographic, but I'm curious if you you eventually you pull out a tool of the tool belt, you know, from that time and space.

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Yes, for sure. Because I'm still an educator, like I'm an educator at heart. So, as I told you, one of the three prongs of my business is speaking, training, right? So I am when I'm not coaching, I'm usually training. So I am using training. Techniques. I'm using teaching techniques in my training all the time. For instance, like every eight minutes, you got to switch something up. Like then nobody should hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, for more than eight minutes from me without showing a video clip or asking them a question or having them turn to their partner and ask them a question, like, what are you getting out of this? Or having them do an activity. So that's from my teaching background, right? Is to keep mixing things up. For coaching, it's my question asking. Like that comes pretty natural for me to ask questions because I realize they're not learning unless they're grappling with a question. Otherwise, they're just parroting back information or just listening to me. Right. So it's the question asking skills of a teacher that I use in my coaching.

Pedro Stein 22:47

Love that. Yeah, okay. Now I'm curious about where we're taking all this, you know, looking ahead, future, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Yeah. I think that I am close to capacity in what I have the hours in my day to do. And again, that could change tomorrow, right? But right now, if I were to say, uh, well, how full are you? I would say I'm about 80% full. And what I know about the 80% rule is like that's when you need to make a change. Like you need to think about like in order to scale, I'm not gonna get above 80 unless I make a change. So I am pondering bringing on other coaches under the Growing Forward brand, other trainers and other facilitators. And they would maybe be an employee, but I'm thinking they're gonna be more like a contractor at first. I'm gonna test out, right? And then we'll do some type of split of money. Like 75% would go with the person who does the work, 25% would stay with me for the for the lead, right? And dishing up business and doing all the admin wrapped around getting that person in front of a potential client. So I'll in the next one to three years, I've got one guy already that's done it a few times for me, and it's worked. So if I could get five or six, then I would be a little bit more of a CEO-ish over a fleet of coaches and trainers and facilitators. And I could work as much as I want, and they would work as much as they want, and we'd all be happy, and we would be giving value to lots of people. So that's my scaling strategy right now.

Pedro Stein 24:25

Yeah, okay. And you know, of course, whenever we're aiming towards the next chapter, always something we're refining, right, Paul? So, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business? I know you mentioned a VA, you bring in more leads, yeah, so you can, you know, maybe feed that other uh coach, but I don't know what are you working on?

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Yeah, that's exactly it. And that's like right now, right? It's been three weeks now of a virtual assistant, and she's looking for leads for me because if I get an influx of speaking opportunities, then we trigger this scaling strategy to work. So that truly is what I'm working on this moment to grow my business.

Pedro Stein 25:03

Now, I would love for us to step into some sci-fi territory here for a second. Let's pretend, Paul, you have a time machine in front of you. We're gonna have two stops. The first stop is going back 14 years ago. Okay, you can give past Paul a business advice, one business advice that you wish you knew back then that you know now. Why would that be?

SPEAKER_03 25:27

I think I would have established more systems that I've had to just sort of figure out over 14 years, and still there's some that need working on. That if I were to win the lottery today and not needed as coach anymore, nobody could just step in and do what I do because there's not enough systems built. There's some during those lean years at the beginning. I would have done more systems instead of just throwing a whole bunch of stuff at the wall and going like, oh, what sticks? Like, ah, that one sticks. Okay, let's keep doing more of that. There's still wisdom in that, right? Could go with what's coming toward you, but I think I would have developed more systems from the beginning instead of just sorting a wing it for a while.

Pedro Stein 26:07

Makes sense. Now, second stop. You can go back in time, you can pinpoint an exact point in time between those 14 years that you felt so fulfilled that gave you that type of thought, like, oh, this is what I'm doing. This, this is why I'm doing this, you know. I potentially understand that maybe several, right? So, top of mind, which one comes up to mind?

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Like, you're like, oh my god, that was like it was last year where a company brought me in and used all of my services. So I was like threaded into the lifeblood of the company. So the company was like 290 people, and I got to meet with all the leaders. So I was doing executive coaching of the leadership team, I was doing coaching of the next tier down of leaders, one-to-one. I was doing training on leadership skills for all of them, and I was doing facilitation of group coaching, so three or four of them that have the same title. We would allow us for some peer coaching to go on, and I was just lit up because I was using all of the three areas of my business in one area, and then I was able to make connections with people like, oh, I heard in this meeting over here, this that might work well here. And I just felt like I was part of the glue of that organization for that period of time, so that was a big high point.

Pedro Stein 27:34

Nice, like full circle. Okay. And if someone less any wants to connect with you, follow your work, you know, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, Paul. But what's the best way for people to find you and connect with you?

SPEAKER_03 27:46

I'd probably say to go to the website growingforward services.net, and they could fill out the contact form there. It will probably get to me fastest. Of course, I'm on all the socials, Growing Forward Services, and LinkedIn's another fast way, Paul D. Casey. Don't go to Paul Casey because he's a professional golfer, and I'm just a hacker, like I'm not really that good. So so don't go to Paul Casey. Go to Paul D. Casey and uh you'll find me on LinkedIn.

Pedro Stein 28:14

Yeah, I'm just picturing that guy in a different podcast saying, Hey, don't go to that guy, he's a coach. I'm a golfer.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

That's funny. What's up with that guy? It's good.

Pedro Stein 28:24

Yeah, like feel the need to highlight certain parts of the chat today. Okay, let's go back to the origin story. Started as a teacher, and a principal heard about leadership, realized, okay, people here really don't want to change. And that's the thing that really caught my attention. It's just not like, yeah, it is what it is. What can I do? You know, they don't want to listen. No, you changed the environment. You're like, well, there must be some people out there they really want to change, you know, that really want to make a difference. So you removed yourself from that environment. So that really caught my attention. Really cool to watch the way you framed it, instead of blaming the external factors, just you know, I'm gonna do something about it. Then we move to pricing, right? You mentioned $35 an hour. That always hits home for me. I am a coach too, right? I am actually a career coach and help Brazilians and the taxile and jobs in the US market. The thing that caught my attention is that I was doing everything backwards, right? I was charging by the hour too. And next thing I know, people are comparing my hourly fees to the cleaning lady, to the plumber, to you know, the dentist, the lawyer. And I'm like, dude, what the hell? Does this have nothing to do with what I do? It puts you in a place of a commodity, and also something that I feel like it's very funny, is like if you're going over 10 minutes, the hour, right? Do they owe me money? Or if I wrap up 10 minutes earlier, do I owe them money? Does anything magical happen when the clock hits the 60-minute mark? Not really, right? It's not about that. So that really hits home. You're like mentioning the hourly race. So I thought of reminding myself of that. Don't do that. I don't do it anymore. No worries. Now, the last thing I feel like highlighting is like when I asked you about capacity, you're like, when is it enough? Right? Drawing the line on the sand and setting up some boundaries for yourself. I think it's very important. I worked in corporate, right, Paul? And uh you worked out of school and all that. So when you never sometimes you you hit the clock on that certain type of environment, it's just like Sayanara, baby. See you Monday, right? And you're heading off. But when you start your own business, it's just like non-stop. It's always going. You're always sometimes it's hard to turn the switch off. And I am a podcast host, not just a career coach. And sometimes my wife is hearing myself in the outside the office, and it's just like, is that even work? You're laughing so hard, right? And I'm like, yes, it is work, and it drains me because sometimes I'm working 10, 11 hours. I need to start listening to your advice because it's fun, and that's the thing. And you impact people as a coach, but at the same time, you can burn yourself out with fun stuff, right? No, you can. This is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do and I appreciate you sharing and today and being so open with me, you know, Mr. Casey. So thank you. It was great having you on.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Hey, good Pedro. It was a pleasure.

Davis Nguyen 31:39

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.