ellie kelly schmidt
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching Podcast. I am thrilled to be here with Kelly Schmidt. Kelly is a coach and consultant, but before I go too deep into her story, I think it'd be lovely to hear it in her words. So Kelly, welcome and would you be happy to share with us your. Corporate to coach Story.
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, Ellie. so I am 25 years in the corporate space in, uh, life sciences. started as an IT professional and had a whole lot of career in technology. And I like to say I love to build cool things, but I. I started to find, I really liked it better when people use those cool things.
So I started getting more into like organizational dynamics and how to get people things. So I kind of took a detour into a bit of change work kind of as my side job. and then, about two years ago, I left the corporate world and. Realize what I was missing was that [00:01:00] connection to teams and people, and so have moved into the executive coaching space and bring to that, aside of consulting, really focusing on people in the midst of digital transformation, big transformation, just all aspects of that in, you know, the, the health, the life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical technology kind of space.
Where, . People don't go to work to do it stuff specifically, but they're, they're enabling a lot of things. And those are often the places where you're doing big transformation. You don't necessarily spend a lot of time on the behavioral piece, uhhuh, and I think coaching can help a whole lot in all of that.
Oh, absolutely. Thanks Kelly. And the thing that strikes me, first of all, just hearing that piece of your story, and obviously I, I know you quite well, is that we talk a lot in coaching. Often we are facing, we're working with people who have gone this through this transition of being a technical expert to being a leader.
And it occurs to me that you've lived through that. Yeah. That [00:02:00] transition, how does that, how does that help you in, in your work, having, having been there and done that? It's so funny because I've been working with some new managers lately. And the way I show up in that is just thinking about what do I wish people had told me way back then?
Not so much people to tell people, you know, when we were come to coaching, the whole point is activating. Yeah. What. They know, but you also go into new levels of leadership, think I should know everything. And so I just kind of use that personal experience to go, oh man, I remember when I was doing that kind of system consolidation, or I remember bringing this new technology in, not knowing how to ask the question.
And so I just kind of channel that lived experience to go. You know what, some of you're in the room are probably thinking about this, especially when I work with groups. How can I ask that question? How can I be comfortable and giving kind of the space and the perspective to go, who's experiencing this right now?
And it's [00:03:00] hard when you're in the middle of it and feel like you should have all the answers to feel vulnerable enough to say, I don't, like, most leaders don't, you know? So I think especially having lived through it like I've been on. The build side of leading new technology implementations. I've been on the leadership side of leading new technology implementations.
I've been on the business side of leading new technology implementations as well. And. There's a whole lot of perspective you bring to that, that you can't appreciate necessarily while you're in it. And so I just, I bring that kind of perspective and that mirroring back to people when I hear they're stuck in the midst of an gnarly transformation.
Yeah. Let's, let's unpack that and try to ask the question a few different ways to help shift their perspective around. And figure out. You know, it's not all about you in it. What could other people be experiencing? How do you interact with them? That's one of the best descriptions I've heard about the importance of perspective taking capacity and how that [00:04:00] is a journey for us as leaders, as we shift from technical expert into, into that space.
I really, I really love that. And so when you were, you know, hands-on in, in the businesses, did you get an experience of being coach? Did you have a coach or did you have to discover that through your own learning? I discovered that through my own learning, I was a part of a number of leadership development programs and even in college I worked in a leadership development, student activities office.
So I've always been kind grounded in leadership in some way and like middle management. I was in a mid-level managers leadership program and we did actually have, I guess in hindsight, I hadn't thought about this in years. I did have a coach at that point and I didn't realize what it was. It was one of those things where.
It was part of the program and they assigned you somebody and they did, I think I did a Hogan assessment for like, you know, psychometric Wow. And all that. And so I remember getting a lot out of that and being really kind of puzzled because they didn't talk about [00:05:00] what is this engagement with a coach.
And so I remember vaguely feeling puzzled, like, you hooked me with this person. They should teach me something. And all of it was about questions. Yeah. And. I did get a lot out of it after I did, like, they did a 360 and then they did Hogan. Wow. But as I think about it now, like there's some nuggets I got there that I've used in the rest of my career.
I didn't actually think about that for a long, long time. And, and then I kind of hooked back up with coaching a few years ago, and had heard of other leaders doing it. And, you know, honestly it was one of my, Oh, that might be interesting to do as like a, a next step. Like in my retirement, I never wanted to like stop working, but it was one of those, oh, that's, that's a later thing.
So yeah, it's, it's, I had had an experience, but I, more of my experience had been training and like on the job kind of leadership learning. Yeah. and I think in the last several years I've really kind of gravitated to trying to help people find their voice as leaders and understand how to [00:06:00] curate that.
And that's one of those things that I really missed when, when I switched. Out of corporate life and into, into more independent work, and really wanna formalize that. So, yeah, it was around me, but I didn't necessarily think about the fact that I had been coached so, so long. It was probably 15 years ago.
And do you think that you were, your natural style was to be a coach even before you had the language around it? Do you think that was your natural leadership style? I do think that I've often been the one to provide space for people to get things clear. when we've been going through large scale transformation and people were kind of all up in knots, I could ask a different question.
Even in leadership teams I was a part of it was kind of sitting back and watching what the dynamics in the room were and then being able to ask just the question in a different way. Yeah. To get people to hear each other. So I didn't realize it at the time. I thought coaching was. Like a soccer coach, right?
You're yelling at not yelling at people, but trying to [00:07:00] help somebody learn sometimes the technique. Yeah. But then when I went through my coaching program, I had to unlearn a lot of the telling people what it is and really just focus on holding the space and asking questions, which were skills that I had.
But I think just some of the terminology was crystallized as I went through my coaching program, but I've kind of always just naturally been the person that somebody, four o'clock on a Friday, somebody's kind of stressing and like, I would spend my Friday afternoons. Catching up with people. 'cause that's where I got my energy back.
Yeah. And for them, they always felt, oh, you know, this is somewhat therapeutic and I could vent and now I have an action plan. And so I, I . Did it before I knew what it was. I love it. And it's interesting, I find that coaches who, who step into business for themselves, they, they usually tick a few of these boxes and the boxes are.
I've always been interested in people, right? And, and what makes people tick. I've found myself naturally drawn to a particular style of leadership where people wanna come to me to hold space, [00:08:00] or that they had a, like a, a life changing experience with a coach early on. And, and although it doesn't necessarily sound like you, you had that one, but, but may maybe it was in there and it just didn't have that label of coach.
Yeah. I, I think in, in that case, like it's. I've always gravitated to the people-centric side of things. Yeah. Even being in technology, one of the reasons that I was successful in my roles was because I could. Understand the interpersonal dynamics and help people figure out how to do something. And the more I grew in my career, the more it was like, oh, well you build really amazing teams and how do you help them through?
Yeah. We went through certain different types of reorganization and people could be reorganized and still feel okay about it afterwards. And it was amazing. You know, part of that was helping people kind of look at the different dimensions of what was going on, and so, Just really, I've always had a soft spot for the peopley side of things, whether it was leading a people manager's forum or, you [00:09:00] know, side stuff.
Hey, this is my extracurricular gig. and so now it's fantastic to be able to do it full time. It reminds me back, back in my days when I, when I was a lawyer, you know, I, I did, I wasn't a lawyer for very long, but when I ended up meeting up with the HR manager, who was my, my HR manager when I was a lawyer and, you know, maybe five years later, and she said, oh.
Yeah, you always were in more interested in the, in the training and the development and, and I was like, yeah, that was probably true. There's a reason why I'm not a lawyer anymore. So it's, it's, yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things where when you do that and you're not actually, you didn't grow up in an HR community.
They're not quite sure what to do with you because I was technology but then moved to business and so I was not technical enough for the business or for it anymore. But then I was. Too businessy for the technical folks. Yeah. And kind of kept weaving the peopley stuff in. He's like, you know what? I'm just gonna weave together the parts of my worlds that I've really enjoyed and have always done is the extracurricular stuff, and [00:10:00] let's make a go of it.
As you know, the the fun stuff that I get to do. And be pro choiceful about that. Yeah. Well now we look at that and that's actually, you are probably well ahead of your time because I think there's a clear recognition that we need to factor in the people into all of these. Yeah. You know, growth and transition programs.
But back then, was it hard to, to be this people person in a technical world or, or did you find it was appreciated? It was appreciated, I think so I always kind of was the bridge builder between groups, whether it was taking a step back and not being as technical to be able to communicate to my business partners.
Or in a room full of business partners who were talking to business new things and being a bridge builder back to the technical teams. Or even just trying to influence, you know, how are we going to work through this change? And there's a whole lot of feelings around it being the one to kind of hold that.
And reflect it back and say, I hear you saying this word over and over again. And you over on the other side of the room are [00:11:00] saying the same word. Tell me what you mean by that. and so that it kind of became my superpower from an IT perspective. Because I could relate to both groups. And then when, after, I don't know, 15 years in it, I moved to a business side, business facing role, or actually in, in a business role, but still kind of techno speak.
And that still was a good superpower because it was creating the space to listen really intently and realize where there was friction and dissonance and. And even then harmony between, oh, we're actually saying the same thing. So I've kind of fused different aspects of that over time. It was never seen as a derailer.
It was more of a how do we get her on the team to be able to, I got parachuted into all sorts of projects and, and craziness. Yeah. When people weren't listening to each other. And so I didn't necessarily have to solve the technical problem. I had to solve the people problem around it really.
Big friction filled, environment. And I mean, having someone like that must have been such [00:12:00] a, a massive advantage for the organizations that, that you were in. So, given how valuable you were in your organizations, how did you make the decision to, to start your own business, to step away? Well, to, to be fair, I didn't make the initial decision on my own.
I was, laid off after a number of years and I, I had seen that coming 'cause I was part of actually the transformation work. Yeah. But it was a really good point for me to say, you know what, let me take a step back and figure out what I want next. You know? Yeah. 25 years in business, I didn't wanna jump to the next thing that I.
Could have done or should have done. Yeah. And I think the thing that I was really trying to listen to, that a career coach actually helped me with and just kind of held some space, was getting really comfortable figuring out what I wanted. Versus this is what I should do. you know, early in your career it's like, oh, it's the right thing to do.
You graduate from college, you go take this good job. It's a large organization, really good name. You're gonna like be a lifer there. And when you have that chance to then say, what do I want next? I [00:13:00] recognize that I was privileged and not having to have a very nice separate package, and it was a great space.
To be able to say, okay. If this is what's possible, what do I really wanna do with this time? . And so I took a little time to get really quiet and kind of listen, which sounds really kooky and woo woo for people that know me. but it was, it was one of, but not for coaches. I think coaches are okay with that.
That's not too. But, but people that that knew me were like, wait, you haven't, you haven't gone out and gotten another corporate job yet. I was like, you know what? I just, I wanna take some time and figure out what this looks like. So yeah, it was, it was a lot of like coaching frameworks and thinking about it and figure, okay, what's, yeah, what's the through line of all this?
And I really came back to helping people get clear in really gnarly situations. And even more specifically, like I missed. Helping teams get clear in really gnarly situations and, and, you know, helping. Fractured organizations. Some of the work that I do now is with organizations that are, [00:14:00] on both sides of, of kind of friction filled tension,
And like, how do they, they're technical organizations that aren't listening to each other. How do you Yeah. Diffuse some of that stuff? How do you help leaders through some of that stuff and, and do some perspective taking with them? So, all of that through line was like, ah, there's a problem here and I could solve it.
And so when I figured out what I wanted to do. Next. I also needed some flexibility just because of life situations that I wanted to, to create more space. So, When I put all that together, it's like, yeah, it's time to do this, in my own way. And how did the people in your world react to that? Like, was there a lot of support among your close network or was it something people were like, woo, are you sure?
No, it was really funny. The people that I was closest to were like, that makes total sense. Yeah. And to me that has always been the, whenever I got a promotion or something, I always wanted PE wanted this intrinsic need to have people go, yeah, that makes sense. I could see why that is. And so it was very affirming when I did my, [00:15:00] like, you know, here's what's next kind of thing.
Yeah. Had so many people like, oh, that's perfect for you. so that was validating. and then the other contingent was. That's so scary. Yes. You know what? Yes. You know, corporate life doesn't prepare you for, no, it wasn't it. And then tech adjacent roles. I did not spend time doing sales calls and things like that.
So the people, I got a lot of calls from folks after I did that saying like, tell me what you did. How, how have you decided to do some of this stuff and how is this possible? So I would say overwhelmingly it's been supportive. Yeah. It just is different I think, than. That I even expected what I was gonna be doing.
Yeah. So, oh, I'm, there's so many rich places to go with this. So tell, tell us firstly a little bit about what the work you do now. So, so I think I heard, you know, that that through line that you mentioned obviously informs a great deal of the work you do. But how would you describe like an elevator pitch of this is, this is what I do and who I do it with?
So, I would say I anchor first in [00:16:00] consulting and as a consultant I help. Teams and organizations through change. Oftentimes it's digital transformation or really new ways of working. Basically, people need to get from point A to point B, and classically we focus more on the stuff they should do, not how they should do it.
So I spend time helping them kind of think about what behaviors need to be in place, and then how are we gonna have evidence of those behaviors. Yeah. Where my coaching comes in is. Really breaking it down with people, what's getting in your way and doing it in a, oftentimes in a group sense or working with leadership teams to help them describe for their teams, how are you gonna measure it?
What, what second, what kind of support do you need from me? And so it's this really kind of amazing mix of, I get to put on my consulting hat and show them how to do something. But then we hold space in these group sessions and then even one-on-one with leadership team members to say. How do you need to navigate this change and what's hard and, and how are [00:17:00] you doing some of this stuff?
So, Yeah, that's kinda the groups. And then independently, I also work with private clients on, you know, they're leading those changes and their organizations just don't happen to fund it for them. And so how do you navigate those? Changing transformations or organizational difficulties.
Or I just stepped into a role and I hear that there's tension between these groups. How do I navigate that? How do I get my team to gel? Yeah. So it's kind of, it, it's a great mix of all of those things. And oftentimes it just happens to, to focus on, life sciences spaces. I, I, so I was gonna say, do you enjoy the, the diversity of the work that you do?
Because, you know, I, I, I think a lot of coaches come in thinking they're gonna do just coaching, but in fact. The blend of consulting, workshop, facilitation and coaching is actually a really, you know, amazing mix. I'm curious on how you experience it. Yeah, so for me, I am, if you're into working genius at all, and it's like one of my, my favorite things to do.
I am an. Innovating discerner, [00:18:00] so What that means is I love the creative aspects of like, setting up a workshop and I'd even like, how are you practically gonna do this? So for me, the consulting coaching match, and I have introduced myself before as a coach consultant. Helped me bring a, a lens to things that.
Allows me to be creative, allows me to get really curious with folks and think about the practical way somebody can do something. So for me it's a great mix of practical stuff. There are some days I don't necessarily enjoy rolling up with, you know, slide decks and things like that, but as long as I have a mix in my week of,
Really just being able to come and show up and hold space for people in a coaching way. And some conversations just kind of naturally turn into more of a coaching lens. For me, it's a great mix of trying to get things, you know, get things done for people in a way that uses the right. I think of it as, you know, my toolbox, when do I need to put my consultant hat on versus my coach hat?
And even then, like. Maybe it's just a well placed question in a, in a facilitated session. [00:19:00] so for me it's a great mix, where I don't get bored, and there's always something new that I get to do. Amazing. And then the other mix that occurs to me that it could be somewhat tricky is how do you blend the delivery aspects with all of the other parts of business building, right?
So the marketing, the sales, the metric, gathering the. You know, the data, the outreach, how do you, how do you handle all that? I'm still working on that. I'll, to be fair, I think, you know, especially when I think about I am here to provide a service to people and I have different techniques I can use to help solve their problems.
Once I kind of reconciled myself with that, it's like, you know what? I have a very deep network from 25 years at the same company. My role is to come and. I show up at sales calls, you know, with, with a coaching attitude. Like, tell me about your pain, what's going on in your world these days? and so I think the, the hardest thing has been trying to take a little bit more intentional approach to [00:20:00] who's the right sales call?
Who do I spend my time with and how do I do that? And so that's where I think some of the materials in your accelerator help. It gave me a framework. I love a good framework. but I think before that was very scattershot. And so once I started to recognize. That intentionality to it, it all kind of fell into place.
And so there are some weeks, yes, I should probably be doing a few more outreach, you know, calls and things like that. But what's worked for me is starting to compartmentalize. There's a certain amount of time each week that I'm dedicating to that. And there's other great things like, you know, I have kids in high school.
And I always need a ride somewhere when I'm waiting for a kid. Like I'm connecting with people on LinkedIn or I'm drafting content. So I think for me, the reconciliation of time and work. I'm trying to repurpose my, how I use different spaces and when. When do I think best? Like I know, I don't think best sitting at a computer, I think better like hanging on the couch or in the backyard or whatever.
So just having my phone by me to take notes is helpful and then I can kind [00:21:00] of reconcile. Oh, I need to reach out to that person because I just thought of them and, and you know, so I, I try to connect the dots and just be, yeah. It, it's really more of a, a reconciliation of time than it is the reconciliation of business development with delivery, because I think a lot of the delivery I do has opened doors to.
Like, Hey, this was a great project. I should tell this person about it. 'cause they might like it. Yes. And I think a lot of that has been like dot connecting. Yeah. I love that. And another aspect of it that isn't so much just a, a matter of how do we find time is, is visibility. Mm-hmm. And this idea of how do I show up in a different way that is, that is getting more and more comfortable with putting myself out there and, and showing not just, you know, a few select clients, what I do, but also the world really.
Yeah. How have you, what's that journey been for you? Well, you know this 'cause we've been working together for a, a while. I do. It's a lead, a leading question. It is. So, yeah. In corporate life, I have never been the one to toot my own horn. and so that's, that's been a real [00:22:00] shift, you know, thinking about, getting visible.
And so, I rarely, intentionally, Earlier this year, I, I picked a word of the month and it was visible. I was like, everything I do needs to start to point to creating that visibility. And again, kind of, kind of kooky thing, but a word of the month was really kind of guidance, like, why am I doing this?
I'm doing this because people won't reach out if they don't know what I'm doing. So I had to get over some of my own feelings about like, oh, thank and all of that. And then, I think one of the things that helped was like from our, our group coaching calls that, that you have is, I am not alone or all scared of this.
Yeah. It's really hard. So by, I think by kind of compartmentalizing my, my month, like what's my focus this month? Okay, I'm gonna get visible. What's that gonna mean? All right. I'm going to. Post a certain number of times. Trying to figure out ways to reduce the barriers to me getting online. So for example, I don't know what to write about, okay, how do I make a [00:23:00] content calendar?
What ideas do I have? I mean, my good friend at GPT and I spent a lot of time brainstorming together. Yes. But not writing my posts, but rather capturing some of those ideas. And I put those in, and then I was able to generate like a, a three month content calendar with three different themes. So I at least had like, thought starters.
Yep. And then I sit down and I can pull out my, worksheet and go, all right, it's week three, it's Monday. What's, what was my prompt? And then I can sit down and, and, you know, fuss something out pretty quickly. Yeah. So removing the barriers to, to doing it. Removing the emotional noise of here I go, oh yeah, I have to do it.
Yeah. Yeah. The, and that, that crazy voice. I think a big chunk of this has been getting kinder to myself, like, yeah, I have never once seen somebody that I really admire and, you know, valued, valued person in my, in my network, post 'em and go, oh, what the heck are they doing? You know? And yes. I would, I would never say that to somebody that, that I'm [00:24:00] connected with.
So why am I automatically thinking they're gonna think the same thing about me? And so just working through that, getting like, all right, you know, be kind to yourself. It's not as high stakes. Even just looking at the, the pure stats of when you post. Of the algorithms, not everybody's gonna see it anyway, so like, it's not nearly as big and scary, you know, most people aren't seeing it until you start to build a followership.
So it's, it's not as scary as it really is, but having a group of people who are going through it at the same time, yeah. Cheering you on and going, just do it. It's great, you know. And have you, have you found that it's been worth it, like actually putting yourself out there? Like has it, has it translated to momentum or client growth or It definitely, followership at this point, I would say, when I've done some of my outreach calls to other people, I have had people commenting, oh, hey, you've been posting some really good stuff on LinkedIn lately.
Ah, which, so people are seeing they hadn't reacted. Yeah. So I didn't know that they had seen it and, but it's coming up in conversations. And so. Even. It's funny, I [00:25:00] was in a, a business meeting today with my consultant hat on, but some of the content that I was just writing about was useful in, in the course of my, my sales pitch that I was in the midst of doing.
So, hasn't led, I'm not at the point yet where I've been visible enough on LinkedIn yet that it's directly led to, New sales call. But I, what I would say is it's definitely helping with that visibility and, yeah. Me getting comfortable with this new voice because when you spend 25 years at a company and you have an identity, like
Putting on the new costume of you, just comfort, getting comfortable saying, I'm a coach or I'm a consultant, that feels really scary. And so like now, nope. This is what I do now, this is what I do. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And, and you know, I think that. There's also, I think it's good to reset expectations about what visibility means when it comes to particularly LinkedIn because when we're working with individuals, we can expect a little more active engagement.
But my experience has been that corporate clients are lurkers. [00:26:00] They're lurkers, they are not engagers. They're not necessarily gonna post, they're not necessarily gonna like, but like you said, when you're talking to them through outreach or however that's, that's worked, they're gonna say, oh, I really liked what you said about this.
And you'll be like, oh, it's all there. It's all sinking in. but that's a really interesting, Yeah. Interesting reflection. Thank you for sharing that. So what have your, what have you learned about yourself through growing a coaching business? Actually, I've realized I enjoy the business development way more than I thought I was going to.
Yes. I love that, that. Fascinating to find out. Yeah. Like, especially when I approached it from a coaching conversation I was like, oh, I can do this. This isn't nearly as scary. So that, that's been an really interesting learning. And I also realized that I, in the past part of my life, I didn't celebrate the smaller moments enough.
Yeah. and so even just the what am I working on this week? What's my priority this week? taking time to reflect on what's my [00:27:00] win. And some of those wins are as simple as I post on LinkedIn for the first time and it, nothing bad happened. Right? Yes. I think what it's taught me is you have to take the time to celebrate it.
And, and so it's kind of shifting my perspective of don't wait until the big milestone to celebrate, enjoy it now. I think that's actually an interesting piece of feedback I'd gotten in the past. Maybe she just kind of gets to the next milestone and we don't celebrate enough as a team. And so I've been really trying to lean into that, with, with this now.
Oh, that's so beautiful. I I love that. I love that. And. My hope is that everyone discovers that actually they quite enjoy the business development. and, and there's something I feel, and I think I've, I've spoken on the podcast about this before. There's something about tapping into a bit of power in that as well, right?
Which is, if I'm owning my identity as a coach, I'm owning this ability, this, this, you know, this presence, this identity in a, in a, in a new way. And that, that's kind of, that's really empowering. I [00:28:00] really, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I would say that. Being able to choose what I want to do Yes. Is different than doing what other people expect me to do.
And I, I, you know, looking back, this is where I actually wish that I had had a coach back then who was like working with me, helping me to like hear the through lines and what was I trying to do and reflect that back. Did you realize that you keep talking about this. What is that bringing up for you?
I think had I taken advantage of a coach earlier in my career, and I don't know how, how out there they were, you know, when I was younger in my career, but one of those things that I think I could have done differently was kind of tapped into this sooner. Not that I would give up any of the, the experiences that I had in my corporate life, but it is just so different to be able to say, now here's what I do, here's what I'm good at.
Without having to try to fit, figure out what the. That square peg round hole, there's always this mismatch and I never really felt like it fit. And to be able to [00:29:00] claim that and say, you know what? I help you bring clarity in the chaos. I help you figure out what else is going on. And just, you know, I described it to some people, like coaching is kind of like taking all your thoughts, put 'em out on the table, and then you figure out what's there and what do you wanna do.
Some of the stuff you're never gonna put back in the, in the cupboard. And some of the stuff. We are gonna figure out, ah, here's what I can do with that next. And so, yeah. But it's been very empowering to be able to say, this is what I do and, and how do I, how do I help other people? Oh, that's amazing.
And you gave me shivers. I was like, yes. The, and the, the, you know, when people, when coaches get to that point of like, really feeling that this is, you know, very purposeful, very, very, almost meant to be like, there's just a level of conviction and being compelling, I think that comes with that and that filters into your business development and sales activity.
Of course. Yeah. I, I think it's funny there folks that work closely with me know, I have a couple of what I would call my soapbox speeches. Not [00:30:00] because I have them practice, but it's like I will hear a, a word and it's like, that's why we need to help new managers or that's why we need to think about frontline managers in the midst of these big transformations.
'cause we're spending so much time with executives. Yeah. But they know there's like these triggering words for me, it's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you in the most impassioned way why we have to pay attention to that population and, and why it's not just strategic bullet points, but really helping leaders know how to lead through some of these really crazy times.
Yeah. Oh, oh, I love that Kelly, and your, your clients are so lucky to have you. I, what tips do you have for new, new executive coaches who are starting businesses? I think, and I heard this from many people, and I didn't believe it until I really started doing it. Forget about being right. And forget about being perfect because there's mostly choices are not life or death.
I mean, we, we were talking, I think about picking a website for writer the other day. Like there's no right answer. There's the right enough answer right [00:31:00] now, and how do you make progress? And I think that's what. Between, folks that were in my, my coaching program To now I've really tried to lean into what's good enough right now, or how much do I need to, how hard is it gonna be to change this later on?
Like, is it the fundamental thing or can I make a gut decision and what that I'm, you know, I think so many of us are used to. Knowing all the things because we've been in the corporate life and you just, things are just second nature. Yes. And when we go into business for ourselves, it's like, ooh, well what's gonna happen if I make the wrong choice?
And it feels like a big commitment. Like most of these are actually pretty, pretty low stakes. And you can, you can undo quite a few of them. Yeah. and so that, that's the biggest thing I would tell most coaches is don't worry about Perfect. Yeah. You don't need to make everything happen overnight. Yeah, I think don't worry about it and don't wait for it, because neither of them are going to happen.
Yeah. Yeah. If, if you don't [00:32:00] start to take a step, you're not going anywhere. So take the step course Correct. And like treat everything that you're doing as an experiment. I mean, I, when I was in. Pharmaceuticals the last several years. You know, so much of me working with other teams, like we are building medicines for patients, you don't, you don't walk out the door with, I have an idea for medicine and bam, it's there.
Like there's all of experimentation and all of this scale up. And a lot of what I used to do is talk to people about whether it's in technology or change, we're gonna learn something and we're going to screw some things up. And the whole point is how we handle that. And so trying to channel that back to myself in,
From a coaching consulting perspective, okay, so that didn't work out. What did I learn and what do I do? That makes so much sense. That makes so much sense. So, to wrap up, Kelly, are you happy to share what's your experience in the accelerator been like? Like, I'm not gonna lead the witness. What, what's it been like for you?
So I came into it [00:33:00] really intrigued about the group coaching call. part of it was I really appreciated the, having the structure of, you know, classes and assets and things like that. I'm a, I enjoy learning, so I knew I was gonna get something out of that side. I really didn't expect to get nearly as much out of.
The group coaching calls. But, and I say this, having spent almost three hours in the car today, I had your podcast on from our group coaching calls the entire time, because I love it. You know, it's just, whether it's my own questions or others in the group, I think the thing that I really value is.
Everybody's in there. They're not all brand new coaches. So there are some coaches, which I didn't realize when, when I first joined. Like there are coaches that have been doing this for a while, but they're kind of reinvigorating their business. Yeah. Or they're trying to shift from private pay to corporate work.
And so whether it's from you or from some of their experiences, always something that I'm getting out of it. Or even just like hearing and then tapping away, like tucking away for later of, oh, I should go pay attention to that later. I'm not there yet, but that's a good idea to save for [00:34:00] later. So it's just, it's so rich and that's, that's been phenomenal.
And I think the other big thing is, u accountability. You know? Yes. Just being able to come back to the team, and not that I'm gonna let somebody down, but being able to say out loud, like we were saying before, let's celebrate something. What did I learn and what's my big priority? It helps me. All of these different dimensions of my life, stay on track with something.
So it's been been such a fantastic experience. Oh, thank, thanks Kelly. And you tapped on the three components, the curriculum, the coaching, and the community. beautifully, almost like I I scripted you and I promise I didn't. yeah. Well, I mean, I love alliteration, so the fact that you, you have it listed out like that is, is perfect.
But yeah, it's, it's, it's, and, and having you in the, in the group is so, so rich for everyone. Kelly, I think you always have. Ideas. And I think one of the things I'm most proud of in the accelerator is that this, the, the coaching calls are much more than me giving advice. It is, it is everyone in the group coming together.
If there's something, if someone needs [00:35:00] ideas or has an issue to solve, that we all, we all bring our brains to, to those challenges, which is super exciting. And we'll be, we'll be adding, you know, from actually starting, starting next week, we'll be adding a LinkedIn stream to this, which is. One of the weeks of the month, the coaching calls are going to be on LinkedIn, which Kelly already knows, but I'm just sharing this, for anyone listening and Well, and that may be the other thing is, that I've been super impressed with is that it's not just this static content or static curriculum.
It really listen to those of us in the group and you are able to. Continue to add and grow the program to best serve the community that's there. So as a member of the community, I love the fact that there's always something new going on. Fantastic. yeah, and, and we, we love have having you Kelly. And so Kelly, I just wanna say thank you so much for coming on.
You know, your story is inspiring. It is an amazing, you know, I think your clients, as I said, are super lucky to have you and we're very lucky to have you [00:36:00] inside the accelerator. So. Thank you for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Alright, no worries. And so just to wrap up the episode, if you are interested in exploring whether the accelerator is for you, and you'd like to get in before prices go up for July, please just book in a an accelerator fit call with me and that's at ellie scarf.com/book a call or check out the show notes and we can talk about whether the accelerator is a good fit to help you go build your coaching business.
So thanks and I will be back next week. Or before that maybe, episode.
