welcome to new beginnings with care and where we celebrate the creativity courage and wisdom of people creating change we highlight those who charge you pause make new life and career choices and face turning points bell and i am so pleased to have joining me today simone sloan who is a fellow coach and business strategist and we're going to have an excellent conversation around what it's like to be  executive coach and business strategist and then how we rejuvenate ourselves so welcome civil samone how are you thinking so much good morning thank you yeah so i wanted to have you on and when we met a couple of months ago we talked about how we rejuvenate ourselves given the climate that we're in we're helping you know people who are stressed for friday of  reason not to mention just you know work but but other things that are going on in the world as well and we conceived of this idea that i think is going to be fantastic for our viewers but before we get started i thought it would be good to hear a little bit about you what led you into this work sure i my background is that i am a pharmacist and i do have a business degree a bent being a lot of my businesses training and development really in the health care and pharmaceutical realm and really when you look at it from that perspective and what i do you know the real themes around it has always been in service and helping people either it's in their health or in terms of their business but getting to that next level of greatness what it led me to get to in terms of stepping back and going into the coaching or strategy realm was really around what was my next act and what i really want to do and when i secondly it was such a great gift like i want to share this with so many other people and so the best thing for me was to marry the business as well as the big element and really bring that gift to this community because i remember when i was doing my corporate gig starting tutoring company and you know the many hats to you wear the different decisions you have to make it was just like wow and not having a partner or someone there to sort of you know things off of i'm just having to hav strategies person there to kind of help guide you through that process was something that i said it definitely is needed here so so that's was my reason for doing what i'm doing today that's great so you know as tou entrepreneurs the filipinos are doing with small business owners in the corporate world where this business strategy piece comes in with the with the the entrepreneurs and the small business owners because either in terms of business acumen or in terms of where they are in their state that's where it  leadership workshops team effectiveness and then like the one on one coaching individual joe wonderful wonderful so what are you finding words what are the trends that you're seeing now with your you know the two client groups the entrepreneurs what are some of the things that they're faced with in the leadership realm and corporate what are some of the things they're face and if i were to step back and look at it i would say that it's the speed of change technology and the how quickly you really need to act in order to be competitive and so with that comes a lot of with on the business side of the business acumen that would come along with it to be able to have that your value prop be able to  and making sure you have the structures in place where you can thrive and be sustained so i'm going to go back so it's not all of our viewers or in corporate speak so the value prop is the value proposition value proposition and by that we mean really in terms of your uniqueness really getting in contact with the pain points of your target so you identify your target understanding the pain points being able to connect to those pain points and showing the value that you bring and the benefit of working with about really how unique you want because you can have several technology i t people but then it comes down to well what's your true uniqueness what makes you differentiated and how who do you serve and for the in the corporate community they're faced with this also in the in the corporate community it's a really of around the the speed of which technology and how quickly you have to print things to market but also to come down that's where you want to get the true results so it's really around looking at where the core beliefs are about the business one of the experiences of the culture that as they have to validate this what actions you need to do differently to get those results so it's not always focused on the results but it's kind of like the how you get to the results and are you finding that because there's two dynamics and i you know you're speaking on the people dynamics and i you know i love organizational design organizational strategy so i like to look at the structure and the systemic nature of how change happens how cultures form so there is this tension as you're say with you know do more faster but is the culture are you finding in the in the corporate world is the culture really conducive to that because i know that people are seeking you out to say i'm being asked to do x but sometimes i find there's not alignment between what people are being asked and where the culture is so can you touch upon that yeah i think you hit that nail on the head also especially when you're looking at in the space of like health care for example where you do have the compliance and regulatory pieces that come into play where you are told that you need to  interesting oriel create more but then you have the regulatory piece kind of holding you back saying wait a minute we need to see proof first you know before we can put that out there so yeah i do believe that there is at the union like you said in terms of that but what the culture allows versus what and in terms of the actions that they present the experiences that they allow to help see you know validate and help see that there is proof in that putting that what i said is that here is the how we're going to do it and then actually celebrating the successes of those individuals who are living it and breathing it and and getting the results through this whole new culture that they've allowed yeah so there's a pathway that you're talking about and i think you've touched on one is you've got a state with the messages then to leaders and they don't all have to be appear right some of the leadership could be informal leaders at the middle level but they're influential people they figure out how to operationalize that message and they create the path by which people can see how it's done and i call that you know walking the talk so they're walking the talk meaning that they're they've got the message and now they're actually implementing  it and then identify who those people are so that they can be to your point celebrate right so that other people see oh this is the way this gets done and this is being you know supported and recognized and celebrate so i can do it as well absolutely and i think it's the key thing is not only the is the experiences that you're creating which is what you're basically saying but celebration piece around it and really owning those  about it as it relates to you personally so you have a farmer background worked in a corporate setting and you chose to go outside to be an entrepreneur right what led to that for me you know it's interesting because i think it starts from where when i was like really younger i'm an immigrant and around that the conversations at home my parents were staunch educators but not only that too they also have business on the side so the conversations in the home was always about business in terms of revenue expenses something where you always had the conversation around and and growing up really the key things that i remember at least as the terms of business efficiency is relationships how do you negotiate as i was always on those calls with my parents when they were doing their business so i think that was kind of in my bones turning point too because it was like i said trying to figure doing a strategy doing something like a thousand miles away understanding of all different type of you know environment and culture and putting together the structures in place that i was operations the finance the marketing the sales graphics design you know all in one and so for me that was sort of also my first kind of like foray into that business and i really really enjoyed it so coming full circle again in terms of what i'm doing currently it was really around what are the themes that resonate with me and so service helping others grow going back to my core values about you know and thriving sustainability integrity piece and just being really proactive about what you're doing and collaboration which is what i love all fits ties right in the so this is like a perfect fit for me to do that if it's great so know how do your clients find you it is sounds like you have two in you may have more than that but but at least two distinct client groups you help small business and then you help corporate so how do they find some of the ok great question i do a lot of networking a lot of referrals work comes to my way but in terms of the client that comes towards me i would say from the entrepreneurial side they're the type a individual on that hamster wheel going miles and miles and miles and they're getting at results and then doing the actions but they're not maybe not going t desired results so it's a matter of taking them off that hamster wheel and having them sit back do that three sixty assessment of their business i look for power leaks and the like to find out where your power leaks in your structures and the key thing over with me is that once we serve and kind of why they why they find you when you provide the support beyond your expertise tell us a little bit about that that finance marketing what is that right in terms of the when i do the they're not really putting together a good p and l so they really don't understand the ins and outs so i can help them to a certain degree but then in terms of establishing structures moving forward so you can start doing metrics and adding metrics to your business that's where i would bring in the accountant for example if you're looking at it from the valuation a piece of your business then that's what i'm bringing in the finance person piece so it all depends if it's like i said in terms of what their needs if it's a supply chain issue that's not me i know who to bring in though to help you bring those things it just depends upon what the leaks are in their business and what they what they think their needs are versus what they were the reality is in terms of after we've gone through that assessment of the business and it's kind of like oh i didn't think about that so that's kind of nice to have that peace essentially the key issue around this one was in terms of how to what was what i loved about this piece is that it was the health care professional who wanted to go entrepreneurship  helping them put together that business plan and really drilling them down on the parts that they really didn't like the financial pieces and the team how do you put your team together and all these other things around the circle that i know that the p c s are looking for that definitely help her get to that point so she can pitch so we partnering with her work with her for about a good six to nine months on those and then to actually see her stand and pitch her business to this venture capital person that was amazing  wonderful and was she funded she well she has a lot more work to do i got my feedback right frame remains that to get her to that point with what wonder you know it was good feedback around it and ok that's great and that's great so you know one of the things we had said in the onset is talk a little bit about you your business the clients that you help and that was a great example of a client that you've helped we're also in a political climate that  in the helping profession as you like them that phraseology that you have you know we're impacted by what we see out there both with our clients the corporations that we're you know working with we can see the stress level of as you said they're being asked to do more with less they're being asked to come up to speed on new technology and you know there's just layer and layer and layer and layer of change with speed and you know teaming in maybe everybody doesn't get along very well ration is a great word but it's not you know you may not be able to collaborate with people that you you know soon discovered they have some different views that you weren't aware of or you know rudeness has become ok and so let's talk about that you know but what i do you know i have like i like i like i'm consistency and being very regular so for me in the mornings i first thing i do is i get up and i go to the gym and that's like my coffee and i'll do it for days and weeks so that's the first thing the kind of help  body so that's another thing but i do another technique when i do get triggered and i'm in that in it's if you become a say yeah that's what i do like focus breathing and i'll just close my eyes and just one more focus on my breathing and just count backwards to ten very slowly and then thinking and things of that nature that me trigger you in terms of some things that they may say that's definitely when i step back and go ok i think i'm getting triggered let me just take a breather now and realize it's not about me it's just sharing how they feel in the space  and you're consistent and maybe you can't do thirty minutes but you do ten minutes and you make sure that you kind of got that check off the box for me i exercise every morning as well  i like to actually walk outside and i so i see the changes and if it's raining or snowing or something like that i still try to get out there and i have shoes that you know help me stay ground but i think that's i think you're right about that and i also try to read something that is inspirational that and i try to leave that with my clients as well so that you know it's it's easy to become overwhelmed this isn't easy there's there's the you know pace of change is beyond fast i mean it is like a super  you know a super charged rocket absolute and you have to gain control you have to i have a sense of ok what am i going to occupy my mind with you know given that i have clients i need to satisfy i have my own needs you know i think we're both you know we have  and and i want to be in the world but not necessarily of the world i want to operate there but i don't want to become overwhelmed sometimes that means turning off social media sometimes that means turning off the news but being in control of what you surround yourself with i think is is one of the keys and that's that's what i share with my clients as well because they are impacted by the same things you and i are impacted be the best we can be for our our client absolutely and that really comes down to the self care piece absolutely and if you don't have you being the forefront you know i don't give you can i serve you're just you know an empty shell that's right and so that's i think the key thing for me also is around the self care yeah yeah now you do speaking and writing is that correct yes so talk a little bit about that sure i do i write i bring to case connected to my pharmacy  do contribute some articles on a monthly quarterly basis to that community so it can be anything and whatever i'm feeling like for i think accountability or drown their career aspects and things of that nature i'll write about but when it comes down to it the things that i'm very passionate about is that the leadership piece which i do write about essence and really understand the connection and the trust and collaboration that has to go forth because you know you don't miss one of those component and i think i'm just cool you know  and then also when it comes down to it too in terms of entrepreneurship i love writing about that and especially with the younger kids and really exposing them to that early age just to get the mind set and having them start thinking differently and i do write about and they you know take a variety of opinions which is nice so you have many things that you're juggling yes and how do you keep track of it all  i'll take a piece from stephen koby with me so start with the end in mind so be for the begin of the year what i do is kind of map out what it what i want to see at the end of the year and by every quarter i put out certain themes that i want to either talk about speak about or whatever whatever i feel my clients might be going through and i can sort of express in different ways and have them hear it in different ways so i think i do put my roadmap together and my little journey and then from there kind of pick out what i'm a very high level but then look at it from a monthly basis in terms of what do i need to do to get to the end of the quarter what kind of whatever i preach to my clients i'm actually doing to try to make it but that's pretty much what i kind of build that road up and i also like going to a conference this afternoon tell us a little bit about the sure moncler state university they're having a panel on entrepreneurs and really talking about to college students sharing with them how to start a business from nothing can be lots of fun just to sharing all those and hearing from the other panelists you know in terms of their experiences so i'm looking forward to that that's corey that's great well we thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come visit thank you for tuning in to new beginnings with care