Hello and welcome to the Business of Executive Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Ellie Scarf, as you know, an experienced coach, and mentor to other coaches.
Now, I'm so delighted today to have the opportunity to share an interview. With an extraordinary coach, Sue Bush. So just to do a very high level introduction of Sue before she introduces herself.
Sue is an experienced and highly qualified coach who comes to coaching from a long corporate background in tech, leadership, and business, and she now works as a coach and facilitator and much more.
So I'm gonna let her tell us her story. But I can share that Sue is deeply passionate about the work she does.
She has so much insight coupled with a very practical lens, and that means that not only does she do brilliant work, she makes it really work for her client base. And she has a very cute dog. So all, lots of things in her favor. So welcome, Sue. It's great to have you here.
Oh, it's lovely to be here, Ellie.
Yeah, thank you for that introduction. That was really nice too.
You are so welcome , all very true. So I'm gonna start with the big question that I start with. Can you take us through your corporate to coach story?
Yeah, definitely. I was reflecting on this and I think I've loved my career so far.
I've still got a long career ahead of me, but my career started back, , as an accountant when I worked full time in an accounting firm and studied accounting at uni.
I'm not sure I knew that.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so amazing. Yeah. For six years I worked as an accountant and then at the end of my qualifications, I went, oh, I need a break.
So I went traveling, went and lived in London and traveled with my accounting skills, which was brilliant. Worked at Reuters and worked at some big companies in the uk, which was fabulous, and traveled a lot. Met my other half there. We relocated back to Sydney and lived there for quite some years.
I think that is, and slowly, is that the age old story of the Australian , traveling to the uk having a lovely time, doing great work. finding the husband. Bring that. Yep. Definitely. So yeah, we lived in Sydney and slowly technology started coming into play. And that shows my age, I know, but I loved coupling technology with the accounting and the finance things and seeing how we could do things better.
I love Excel, and I know not everybody does, but it was my favorite tool to use. And then big systems came on board. And eventually we outgrew Sydney and wanted to come, I wanted to come back to Perth. I've been away for eight, nine years. . And we relocated back here and landed in the mining boom.
So ,I worked for Argo Diamonds for quite a while, and the consultants that I had worked for me at the time in the system space. I ended up leaving Argo and going and working for them,and was very blessed to be working on a part-time basis and had two kids as I went, and I worked with them for about 12 years.
So we grew as an IT consulting business , as an Oracle partner. And I did everything. I tried development, which I pretty much sucked at really. But I could certainly understand them. The technology speaks between the finance people and our developers, so I could be that conduit and talk to each other.
And I did project management, tried to improve lots of processes and procedures for people so I didn't have to get the systems to work harder than they needed to. So it was all about people, processes, and systems.
And then eventually we did so many implementations, and everybody needed support after their implementation.
I started up to support the business and grew that over the course of, probably half my time with those guys. And eventually we grew to a point where we couldn't grow anymore by ourselves and we were bought out by a big multinational corporation. And I stayed there for about a year, and it wasn't really for me.
I was all about the people, and I was in support. I was all about customer service and that sort of thing. And it became a little bit more about paperwork than about the people. . So I left corporate at that time, had some family incidents happen, and stood away from work for a good couple of [00:04:00] years.
And just was there, and present for my family and for myself. And then I was like, what do I wanna be when I grow up? I tried going back into the corporate space, back into consulting, and I knew it just wasn't for me. So one of my good friends, who had been a coach for many years, suggested, why don't you try coaching?
I think you'd be fabulous at it. And I went. So I flew to Sydney, did a couple of levels of IECL coaching and found my place. I then started up my own coaching business and have been running that for the last few years, and I absolutely love it.
And so, you know, obviously, I have an advantage that I, I've known you for a while, Sue.
Yeah. But I suspect that throughout your career as a leader and working with customers, there were probably threads of coaching that you may not have necessarily called that. Do you look back now and see that was always part of who you were as a leader?
Yeah, I was very blessed in my career to have been placed in leadership roles right from the start, even when I was an accountant here in Perth, back when I was about 19, 20, I had to help people and train others that were coming up, that were younger than me.
And so throughout every role that I had, ever since I had a team lead role or a managerial role, or very senior leadership roles. So in my own way, I was coaching, mentoring, and I loved developing people and developing cohesive teams that could grow together. There was a cross.
They could learn from each other and grow. So there's that leadership thread and that, that team building all throughout my career, and as much as I probably thought I had been a coach, I was probably more of a mentor and a leader and a trainer and that sort of thing. But being in that pure coaching space and taking the step back and going.
If the client has it in themselves to come up with their own journey forward.
Shutting off my advice giving to, , asking the next best question and that sort of thing, that's taken a long time to actually try and practice. Yeah. But I love it. I don't have to have all the answers.
The clients have that for themselves, so it's just gotten them. No, and it's such an interesting tension that I think so many coaches develop who've had this background in quite deep leadership experience is that.
It is that experience that makes you so credible and empathetic,for a lot of your coaches and bringing in this new skillset, of coaching or this slightly different approach, because we know it works so well.
Is, yeah. It's a really fascinating journey. Yeah. Did you ever get trained as a coach during your professional career? Was it the language that was spoken in the organisations you were in?
No, to tell you the truth, it was only once I started investigating it for myself after I'd left corporate that I really knew what coaching was. Yeah.
It was, yeah, I never had any leadership training. I was never, I had some fabulous leaders to learn off and I had a lot of great mentors. My dad was a brilliant mentor, especially when I lived in London. Dad, what am I doing? And being able to call him and ask him, I've got this team of people and they're all way older than me and multicultural and all these things.
He was brilliant. He was just like, you just gotta get to know them. Let them know you and get to know them on a one-to-one level and take it from there. So yeah, those sort of bits of advice that were dropped in along the way have stuck with me for sure.
I love that. And, we'll talk through the work you do now, but I suspect that the blend you have of coaching as well as that mentor that you have,are so valuable in the work you do.
So. I've led the witness, but tell me about your business now. If you're happy to start, like how do you describe what you do to other people?
that's morphed over time. I think , when I go to networking events and things like that, I say I help those that are stepping into leadership for maybe the first time or those that are in leadership and not feeling that they're filling the shoes particularly well.
And I help them by coaching them, , by asking them questions and by guiding them in terms of. How they can actually tap into their strengths and how they can be an authentic leader that feels like them, rather than emulating somebody else , or being like a leader that they've seen before.
So I provide one-on-one leadership coaching. I've coached a lot of different people in the last few years. I've coached a CEO that's trying to come up with his exit plan from the organization and retiring. I've coached a lot of people that are, maybe they're doing okay at what they're doing, but they can see that they want to step into leadership in the future.
And how do they get themselves there? More recently, , it's been focusing on that emerging leader, somebody that's technically brilliant at what they do. An architect , an engineer, an accountant, an IT specialist.
They've done a lot of training in what they've actually done. They've been at the place for a long time, and sometimes they're just promoted because of longevity of service.
Somebody seen a spark in them that says, yep, you can be a team lead. , And that is a very different skillset. To what they have been practicing in their expert roles. And it doesn't always come naturally to people, those people skills, how to communicate, how to delegate something and how does it feel when I'm gonna delegate it to somebody?
How am I gonna manage somebody who used to be a peer to me? How does that relationship actually play out? And so many different factors that come into play. So. The emerging leader is where I'm niching and trying to specialize in helping out because if they're just given that role and left to go off on their own accord, sometimes they flounder and they don't enjoy it.
They'll end up leaving an organization, , through no fault of their own. But I just wanna provide the support that they need to be able to enjoy their leadership and thrive in it, rather than feel like they don't belong there.
And. I think we all know, like ,we can really tap into that feeling right , of that first, maybe for some of us it's that first big job or that first transition into leadership that we had.
How do you talk to organizations about that need? Why is it important for organizations to invest in this work?
Yeah, I've thought long and hard about that, and it's the managers that have placed their new leader into a role that are now having to maybe support them more than what they thought they were gonna have to , that they have to.
Guide them a lot more. Maybe , the team is floundering a little with this person in leadership. So there's a lot more support and a lot more caregiving needed by those managers than what they potentially expected.
Some of the team that. This new leader has been appointed so that sometimes people leave because they're not being guided, they're not being led the way they thought they were gonna be led by this new leader.
So there's flow on effects to the organization for sure. And, just being able to step in and help them. In terms of coming up with , how do you think you're being perceived around the leadership table?
How can you communicate, look over, look up and see the look on other people's faces?
Are you applying way too much detail in your, , in your conversation?
Yes. That's the trap of the technical expert moving into leadership. Yeah.
Yeah. Know your audience, and read people's faces. Don't just, verbally. Tell 'em what they need to know, so yeah. Yeah.
There's so many factors. It's not just the person, it's the organization, it's the manager, it's the team, it's the flow and effect.
Yeah. , And for the organization, like really. We often have to boil it down to that financial or reputational imperative. And yeah. And it's true that these people, if they're not well supported, we are seeing the younger generations.
They're not gonna stick with a leader , who's not looking out for them, who's not able to communicate with them, who doesn't support their development and their growth. And that can be true. Like mission critical for organizations. Really, I think that's so important. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we invest in professional development in terms of , if you don't know that software, I'm gonna send you on a course and I'm gonna develop your skill set in that,why are we not doing the same sort of development in people skills, in the, how do I lead somebody? How do I step out of being that expert and step into that leadership role?
Yeah. That's such an investment, professional development's point.
Like there's so much investment into using AI at the moment. And I do wonder if, I think all coaches have had this frustration with how do we get people to invest in organizations to invest in this. Maybe we just need to call it leadership.
AI enabled leadership or something. Yeah.Even though it may not be, , in that Anyway, I was just thinking that as we went through. , So what makes you so passionate about working with these sorts of folks within organizations?
I think I have coached a lot of the emerging leaders and those mid-tier managers in the last couple of years, and.It takes a long time to break down some of the barriers that they're presenting with. It takes time to get to know the people and along the coaching journey it can take probably way too long in some respects for them to be able to show up as a leader the way they want to show up.
So I think that's maybe a good segue to say I've started developing a program that I'm about to release and its leadership foundations.
So it is allowing people to come and experience what it's like to have a difficult conversation. Maybe do some role playing in a facilitated event that is a couple of hours of your time where you can just come and actually.
Learn some really cool techniques and tricks. , Not too difficult. You can tap into your strengths and look at what you've already got in your tool belt to then go, oh, I've actually got some of this already.
I just need to change my mindset a little bit in terms of how I'm gonna show up in that difficult conversation as a leader, as opposed to being somebody who's being led.
So. This Leadership Foundations is really gonna be a program where people can experience it for themselves and then go back to the workplace and put it into play.Yeah.
And then we pair that with coaching, either one-on-one or a group facilitator coaching event. So then they can reflect and go, what's working, what's not working?
People can learn from each other, learn what's working for others, and hear what's happening for other people, and know that they're not so alone in their leadership as well.
And ,so sort of, if I'm hearing right, the program is like a combination of, some facilitated training events plus coaching. Can you tell us a little bit more about the training piece of it?
Yeah, the training is, there's a whole suite of workshops that I've already delivered that I'm pairing together. So there's topics like delegation, time management , leveraging your strengths for success, difficult conversations and goal setting.
Wow.important. Looking at your why first before you actually go ahead and create some goals for you. So they're sustainable. They're things that you're actually going to achieve.
And I love it. What I love about that is it sounds like it is this combination of. Helping these leaders to do that inner work and the self-reflection coupled with a very practical approach that we know is gonna have a difference to the organizations they work in.
Yeah. I think the way I've structured it is that you learn to lead yourself first. Yeah. Look at yourself and then you let, how can you go about leading others then?
Yeah.
So if you learn a little bit about yourself, learn about what your strengths are and about what you're bringing to the table already, then you can actually apply that and how you can actually lead others.
So , there's a lot of practical tools to take away. There's things about how you can manage your day. You've got eight hours in the day, how can you actually leverage that to go, yeah, I've got eight hours in the day , I'm gonna make the most of that time, , and stop doing , and delegating some of the tasks and things like that.
So there's a lot of common threads throughout the workshops. Yeah. , But there's a lot to take away and practice and to do as well. Love that. How would people , who've, , experienced you as a coach and facilitator, how would they describe you?
Oh, that's a good question. I think, A lot of coaching clients say that they walk away calm after a coaching session. Oh, I love that. We do practice some mindfulness at the start of sessions. If I notice people are coming, running to the session , and I'm like, let's just take some deep breaths. I know I need it today. How about you?
So , some of that starts the session well and guides them throughout the session too. Walk away with things that they're gonna work on, but in a calm manner because life doesn't have to be all chaotic for them.
Yes, I'm sure that there's plenty of chaos. So , any opportunities on the ground are very gratefully received, I'm sure.
Yeah, that's right. They also, , I also check in every session with people to see where their level of challenge is at, because I think. They're given this space and this time in an hour to come and talk , and explore things, and I'm all about pushing them a little as well. To make sure that they're stretching themselves to make sure that they're, I'm meeting them where they need to be.
So there's a lot of questions around, , how are you feeling today [00:17:00] in terms of, , in terms of that challenge. And generally it's like, yeah, gloves are off, bring it on, type of thing. So people are there because they want to be stretched and they wanna be pushed a little bit. But I can also register when people are not coming like that.
Yeah. , And I meet them where they're at. ,I think that's lacking. Like such an important skill for a coach, but also for a facilitator.
Yes.
Being able to read that for an individual in a room is so important.
Yeah. Yeah. And facilitating for me is. Oh, it's not really presenting, it's just opening up the conversation so that people can actually, they can contribute and, and be part of the room and be present.
Setting the tone so that they can do some sort of reflection and then share with the person next to us and then ultimately share with the whole room and creating that, I don't really like saying safe space, but it's that space where people can actually contribute and feel okay to actually raise their hand and say, I want to contribute.
So again, I think there's a bit of a calmness to the sessions, but I also like to bring a bit of energy to the room too.In some of the activities that they do get them up and moving and,yeah.
And enjoying,and I don't think those two are contradictory. I think that sort of, that groundedness coupled with, you know, engagement and like the vibe I think Is really important.
And I think for a facilitator for organizations assessing, you know, who to bring in to do this work. I think we need both of those things. And I think it's true that like we're building as safe a space as we can, but we're also recognizing that when we come in for a, you know, an event, we're also coming into existing dynamics, right?
So we need to make it safe for them to share. What they can in light the dynamics, unless we're there for like a really lengthy team for, you know, team process.We have to work with what we've got, which is ,yeah, which is a massive skill set.
Yeah. And I like bringing lightness. I mean, I love having a good laugh.
Yeah. There's nothing better than having a bit of a laugh. And I know there's a lot of heavy topics that come to the table, but it doesn't mean you can't make light of it as well. Yeah, I love that. I, yeah, my bad jokes are. How well known in my facilitation, , whether or not other people know that I'm even making a joke.
I'm not sure.It's not all about the room, Ellie, sometimes it's just about you. That's right. If I have a little chuckle to myself. Exactly. That's all I need. Here I am. I'm just chuckling away now. So tell me a little bit about it. We're gonna talk a little bit about you and your business, but sort of , to join the dots between what you do and how you've built it.
Whatcha most proud of in terms of, , the client impact that, that you've had?
I think , as I was preparing this leadership program, I was trying to look back on all my testimonials and it's just lovely to read them and to reflect on all those sessions that I've already held with people.
It's been lovely to see people progress in their careers, and people moving up , in the corporate ladder that they wanted to do. So the achievement that they've had, and, I was part of.A mentoring program, national Women in Construction mentoring program in the last couple of years.
And I facilitated at the start of the year , and we had checkpoints throughout the year. And at the end of the year wrap up last year, somebody came up to me , and actually replayed my words back to me from my facilitation at the start of the year. And she goes, oh, it just stuck with me the whole year.
And it's just, it's made such an impact with the way I am showing up. And I was like, oh, that's pretty heartwarming to hear that you've made that impact and somebody has taken your words and remembered them. And plays them out.
Oh, I love that. That's such a good example. And , I think for any coaches listening in, I think we all know that feeling, which is that, , we do this work because we are so purpose driven.
Right? We wanna have an impact. And when we hear that, it's like It's like just, oh, magic nourishes the soul. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think clients actually realize how much a coach takes away from a session as well. Yeah. Both in facilitation and in coaching.Yep. We all do the work because we love coaching, we love helping people.
So yeah, I walk away quite energized from coaching and facilitating. And do you have a favorite, is there part of the, that you enjoy , more than the other?
If I'm honest, I love one-on-one coaching.
I think the ease, , the questions come naturally, it's just such a lovely space to hold for people.
And when somebody reflects back to you at the end of the session, how much their mind has shifted from the start to the end, all those sort of things, it's just, yeah. I love coaching.
Yeah. It's perfect. I think a lot of coaches will relate to that. It's like we love all the other stuff as well, and we know that they're all interconnected, right?
There's no, it's a bit like choosing your favorite child, , but
My dog. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, maybe it's not saying, well, actually just hanging out with my dog is even better. Yeah. No, I love that. Can I ask you a little bit about, you know , the shift from being employed to running a business? What's that been like for you?
It's challenging. I've loved it because I have learned so much and if I reflect back to my corporate career, I focused on developing my team of people. I really didn't focus on developing myself much at all. I never did any coursework or training or anything like that, and I have just been a sponge for knowledge since I started the business.
So. Podcasts and learning, marketing and learning how to build a website, and I've done all of it. Pretty much solo. I think. You and I met like 12 months before I came on board to your program, and in that 12 months I just did so much work myself. I built all my finances in Excel , and just, , I developed my own website and.
Just the sheer growth , and the thirst for knowledge has been fabulous. So,
Always wanting to improve my coaching , and reading up about coaching and different questions and all those sorts of things, it does light me up and it motivates me to come back to the desk every day. It doesn't take away the challenge that is always there, that it's pretty lonely.
In comparison to the corporate space. , But that's where you've gotta fill your own cup up and make those catch ups happen. Yeah. Being part of the corporate coach and having that coaching community around you is great. Having other contacts in the coaching world to leverage and to check in on, .
And just on that note, can you share a little bit about the, , is it the Breakfast Club? The breakfast made up? Yeah. Group that you are so integral. Can you share what you do in that?
Yeah. Well one of my core values is connection and connecting with people. And , a gentleman in the US, Ben Diets, I think his name is, started up at Breakfast Club.
Post COVID times where I was trying to bring people back together to have deeper conversations and just about the weather , and that sort of thing. So , yeah, we meet once a month in Perth, CBD, and we have a coffee and we have lots of eclectic conversations. Wow. It's a whole group of different people.
Some people I've just met via LinkedIn.
Some people are from the coaching group. Some people are personal friends and we all just come together for one purpose to have that conversation. And is it open to anyone? Sue, open to? Absolutely. Anybody. Okay.
We'll put a link in the show notes.There's absolutely no pressure. It is next week. And yeah, everyone is invited, oh, that's amazing.
And that's so yeah, the turn up for 10 minutes, half an hour, the full hour, it's eight to nine o'clock, and I just walk away energized after every one of those meetups.
I love it. And it's not like a business development.
Not at all for anything. It's just really an opportunity for connection. I think for so many of us as business owners , that is really important.
It definitely is. It just gives you that time to go, , sometimes people ask you what you do, which is fine, but it's not a networking event per se, it is just a connection event.
And time to step away from the desk and to just start your day in a different way.
And actually, if anyone is here in Perth, in Western Australia, , check out the suit on LinkedIn. 'cause I just noticed you put a video up talking about it. , And do know this is not any sort of marketing activity.
So if you just are in Perth and you want to connect whatever your role, , yeah, , do look it up. And I assume it's global as well. So there may be breakfast clubs in your,
there's breakfast clubs.Region.
Yeah. I will send you the link after this. But there is a, you can look up now where all the breakfast clubs are hosted.
So they're all over Australia. They're all over the world. Yeah. ,
Amazing.So amazing as well. And it's just, it's really fun to post the, what we've spoken about afterwards. I tend to record the conversation topics and then make a post. And if you read the. The list of them, it is just , oh my God.
How did you go from that, to that, to that, to that, to that. So, yeah. Yeah. It's good fun.
Oh, I love it. I love it. Okay. And , so growing a coaching business, what have you learned about yourself?
I've learned that I'm pretty resilient and W to just grow a bit of a thick skin. I've learned that , people, you will get the rejections come through, but that's okay.
That's a learning experience. , And that helps you prepare for the next time that you do a pitch or you write a proposal or whatever it is that you're doing. . I've learned that perfectionism just needs to go out the window. , And that was a really tough learning, but 80% is okay. It really is.
And that's not to say that it's not near perfect. , But yeah, if you were to try and write a post, which I used to do, it used to take me a full day to write one LinkedIn post. , And now , sometimes it takes 10 minutes. And it's good to go. So just seeing that growth has been amazing , and getting things out there.
But yeah, I've learned a lot about myself in terms of building websites, , marketing. And all sorts of things. So. It's been a huge learning curve for me, which is great.
And so for a lot of coaches , those things are sometimes the hardest bits, right? Yeah. The website , getting on top of the tech and all of that sort of stuff.
Like what's your tip to how, what would you give, what advice would you give to people who are finding that stuff really hard? get a bit of help. Like, , even within your program, there's a lot of people to draw upon that have some expert skills in systems.
That's true.You know, do your own Google search.
How do I do this? Yeah. , If I was gonna set myself up, use ai, leverage ai, how am I gonna do this? What's the best way I can go about doing something? Yeah. To streamline it because. You don't want things to take too long. , You don't wanna be Yeah. Hemmed to the desk doing the business development stuff when you just wanna coach.
Yeah. And
I've seen coaches put off doing any business development for, , nine months to a year because they didn't feel like their [00:28:00] website was ready or something else wasn't ready.
Yeah. I would suggest just get it out there. , Don't. It's not lax to say , don't focus so much on the words, because what website do we ever fully read?
That's so true. You're gonna pick up bits and pieces, keywords here, pictures there, and whatever else, but you never sit and read a full website end to end. So don't harbor on the words.
And get it to us 80% and get it out there. Get it out into the world. Start posting before you're ready. All those sort of use it to my ears.
I know I've learned a lot from you.
Interesting. I'm pretty sure I say 75%, but Sue's a bit of a, you know, high achiever. So she, a high achiever, bumped me to 80. I used to say do B minus work, but. Like the real high achievers, most of the coaches I work with really can't handle the minus, so we had to go B plus.
Yeah,
B plus please. Yeah. Yeah. B plus I'm with them.Yeah. Yeah. That feels a bit more comfortable. What have the hardest bits been about, you know, starting and growing a business?
I Look, , the chunkiness of the work that comes in , and the income. You know I've just had to step away from death due to illness and not being paid for sick leave and things like that.
It's hard. Yeah. . Being able , and that loneliness. I think just being in it for yourself and feeling a little alone. I used to get my other half to read every LinkedIn post and we would scrutinize it and, , so it would take days , and whatever to get it out there. So it's just having that extra pair of eyes or somebody to bounce something off is missing sometimes.
Yeah.So finding your people that you can connect with on a regular basis, that you can bounce something off. , , and check in and that sort of thing.
Yeah, I think , just the end-to-end learning that you've gotta do to run a business. It's a lot. Yeah. And obviously , you've been with me inside the corporate Correct Accelerator for a while now, and we've been in each other's orbit for ages.
Yeah. How has the Accelerator helped you with those challenges?
Yeah, providing that whole cohort of people to actually check in with, you know, having , the coaching from yourself , the LinkedIn coaching and then the coaching supervision. They've all been bundled together. It's a great combination of, , coaching that's provided.
I think the biggest thing for me is seeing,opportunities that I don't see for myself. I can see them for everybody else. Yeah. And I can't see them for myself. So when I bring something, you're like, what about this and what about this? And sometimes it's too much. I'm like, okay, let's just reel that in.
But it is having those thoughts in the first instance that I don't even see.
And having my blinkers exposed. So that's been the biggest thing for me to go, what if you did this and what if you did that? The accountability has been great as well. The check in at the start of the week, what are you gonna set for yourself, and then check in at the end, how did I go with those things?
You know, making sure that you're focused and targeted with where your efforts are going. In particular for that business development stuff that you've gotta do. Yeah. You know, I didn't really know anything about a pipeline and about warm outreach and all those sort of things. It's just not my skillset.
So learning all of that from you was great. And learning a methodology to go about , approaching people and, . Doing that cell that is not in my nature at all. Yeah. , You know, I'm still learning a lot about that and learning a lot about myself as I go.
Yeah. Amazing. , And you know, , I think you're an amazing example, Sue of.
As coaches, we don't necessarily naturally know all this stuff. , But if we're willing to have a growth mindset about it, , we can really, you know, grow and develop and become so much more comfortable that, , so thank you for sharing. What tips would you give to a new executive coach starting a business?
Look, I think some of the successes I've seen from people have been starting before they've even left the corporate space.
Yes.And dabbing their toe and seeing what it's like because you've got the warm outreach there. You can start coaching people, you can start building up that business before you've even left.
And financially it's a more viable option for you.
So again, that's starting before you're ready. Approach, I think is, and that's hard work because you've got a full-time job and then starting a business. But to me, that's where I've seen people really thrive , and grow very quickly, , in those spaces where they've actually got clients already as they're moving into the business.
I did it. I probably did it not the best way where I'd stood away from work and then I started from scratch and it was, it's a hard slog. Tapping into your network from a long time ago, , realizing where your warm contacts are and things like that. So yeah, I would suggest starting before you're even ready.
I love that. I really love that. And you know, you're such a great example that , we start where we start, don't we? Yeah.
You know, and we make it the best it can be. But that's such a great tip. If you are. Thinking about or about to start your business, there's nothing stopping you from putting a lot of the infrastructure in place and starting the connections.
Yeah. You know, really Building, yeah. Building a. , From where you are and Yeah. This sounds like a plugin. I guess it is. We do have people who join us in the accelerator anywhere up to a year before they wanna start their business because of that , they wanna have, you know, done a lot of the learning curve before they make the leap.
So, yeah, I think, and you're right, like when they leap, it's a very different kettle of fish.Yes. When they've done that. Yeah. I also think having more than just coaching on offer.
Right from the start is gonna benefit you as well.Yeah.
And again, that took me a while to actually, not to realize it just took me a while to be comfortable, to be able to offer other things.Like facilitated events and that.
And now I'm just like, yeah, gimme more.Yeah.
So it is just the right time, right place, and right readiness, but. Yeah. Ex experiencing it and thinking about those things of having bundles of offers out there rather than just pure coaching.
Yeah, absolutely. I love that tip. And, you know, that works on , for a number of reasons. One is that it's often an easier sell. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Into organizations because it's bite-sized chunks. There's boundaries on it. It's an easier Yes.For someone in an organization, and it tends to then flow on to other opportunities like coaching, which is what I love as
well.Yeah. I think what I've found is a number of my coaching clients from last year have come from being. In the room, in a facilitated event where I've been facilitating and they've come to me afterwards and said, you know, I know you do coaching as well.
What is that about? Because they've already experienced me, they've already seen me in action, and maybe they like my personality or they like the way I show up.
And then that's floated on to coaching engagements, which have been great.
Yeah. No, I love that. I love that. Thank you for sharing. So , I want us to wrap up with a few rapid-fire questions. Yep.
And, just for, cause we haven't shared one of these episodes in a little while.
I am now giving people notice of these questions because I was really putting people on the spot. It's too hard to think on the spot. We're gonna have much, much better answers. All right. So first question, if you could coach anyone in the world, who would it be? I'd love to coach Pink. Oh,
I think she's an absolute powerhouse of an entertainer Just being able to fly through the air and sing. I'm just in awe of her entertaining abilities.
But she also seems like such a lovely person and she's gotta have a whole team of people supporting her and around her.And she always seems upbeat and I just think she's a brilliant role model.
Yeah. So I'd love to be able to spend time with her probably more than anything, but, you know, get to know her a little. And so pink, if you're up for coaching Yeah. Reach out to me.
Well, she's clearly a leader, got a big team and Yes. I think she must be an incredible business person.
I think so too.
Yeah, because she's like, her career has had longevity. Oh, that's a great answer. Yeah. , Okay. Do you have a podcast or a book that you would recommend to other coaches?
I think the one that has stuck with me right from the start of my business is the Imperfects podcast. There is so much strength in showing up and being vulnerable
And realizing that nobody is perfect, but there's beauty in the imperfection. , And it doesn't matter who you are, what you are, you are what you are. And I think that. You know, as corny as it is, that is leadership. You are what you are and you show up how you wanna show up authentically to you.
So , there's a lot of, there's a lot I've taken from the imperfections over the last, you know, two years since I've been listening to them. I love that. And , they're a good fun bunch of guys that just. Get together and have a chat. And they're very vulnerable themselves.Yeah.
No, , I've heard excellent things and listened to a few of their episodes, so yeah. Harshly agree. , And what is one tool or piece of software that makes your business life better?
Oh, I'm gonna go two, two, please. I love Excel and I have built a lot in Excel, so all my invoicing, all my finances, everything is in Excel.
My pipeline, my extracts of LinkedIn. , Data and all that sort of stuff. And AI leveraging AI for the benefit of your business. I get it to reverse coach me. I get it. You know, I write my own content, , and I put it in there to say, what's the tone you're getting from this? And I ask a lot of questions.
What it is that I've actually created rather than it getting to recreate what I've written. Yep. , So yeah, just making your life easier. And as you said, if you've got questions, AI's my go-to now to ask questions of it. How do I do this? How do I post something on LinkedIn if it's. A video type thing. So,yeah.
Amazing. , And I would just say Sue has even helped us out with our Excel formatting. We have a spreadsheet that we share with people to capture their pipeline in. And Sue was like, I think we could make this better. And she kindly helped us. So I'm very grateful for that. Sue, , can I ask, so I've moved into the Claude ecosystem from chat, db t have made that move, which, , LLM is your number one?
Claude.Yeah. Okay.Yeah. Right.
I think there's a time and place for lots of them. Like perplexity is great.
And gives you possibly more of a corporate kind of, if you're wanting a document prepared, an offering or something like that. Sometimes that's a bit better. But Claude, I feel like it gets to know you.
Yeah. Get to know your tone, your voice. Tell me if I've produced something that's not in my own voice now, , oh wow. You know, does it go at me back? And I'm like, okay. So I, yeah, I do use Claude As my go-to mainly.
Yeah. Yeah. , I'm, my next horizon is more of combining skills and co-work too. Claude to start actually doing some things for me, like summarizing emails and,
yeah.
Creating, you know, morning dashboards and things like that. But, oh, it feels like a big leap, but I,
It does, you just gotta start with one thing. I think, you know, here I'm gonna coach you, Ali, but yes, please. Starting with one thing as opposed to thinking I've gotta do this,and this.
Yeah, that's, try one thing, see how that works.
I did get it to build me a spreadsheet the other day, so it was very good at it. So much better than me.Excellent.There you go.
But yes. Yeah, no, my house, my husband's also like on a massive Claude deep dive, so much that he runs out of his tokens every day.
I, and I'm like, how much c Claude are you doing? My French? That's a lot of Claude.
Yeah. Yes. But he's using it for work applications, which is a lot of data crunching, I think. But,,
yeah. Fair enough. Amazing. I hope that the AI can create visuals for you now, too. Yes. You know, I loaded a lot of content yesterday. Try to create a one-page brochure for me.
And it's given me ideas. It's not perfect. Yeah. And it's not something I would use, but it's certainly something that is a starting point, whereas my brain was vacant when it came to creating it.
Oh, I do like the visual aspect of it too. Yeah.
That's, and I think. That's such a good tip for people, is that we don't expect it to do a hundred per cent, but it'll get us out of this place of overthinking and avoidance, so that we have something to work off, which is a very different place to be.
Definitely.
Yeah. So, yeah, I know. I love that. Okay, Sue, I'm so grateful for your time. It's been a delight to speak with you. How can people best get in touch with you, either potential clients or other coaches, if they wanna be part of your network? How best to contact you?
Find me on LinkedIn, Sue Bush on LinkedIn. There's also my website, https://www.suebushcoaching.com.au/
And all my contact details are on there, so it's my email and my phone number. It's everywhere.
Brilliant. Okay. So we will include both of those in the show notes, as well as a link to the Breakfast Club. Lovely. Make sure that everyone can get in touch. Wonderful to have you here and yeah, can't wait to see you again soon.
Thanks, Ellie. It's been great to chat.Bye.
