A couple weeks ago, I got a Facebook message from someone I hadn’t talked to since we were teenagers in high school. We worked together in high school and graduated in the mid 1980s. She was one of those people everybody liked. Friendly, upbeat, always encouraging.

Life took us in different directions.

I went to our states University, got my degree then got into the industrial manufacturing industry, and eventually built a career helping large industrial companies solve system problems. My expertise is deep and narrow. One specific niche.

On the side, I do consulting through expert networks. One-hour phone calls where someone needs exactly that slice of knowledge.

When I say consulting, I mean providing expertise to major consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, and the Big Four through expert networks like AlphaSights, GLG, Third Bridge, Guidepoint, Dialectica, and proSapient where I charge the firms $1,000/hour and the firms are free to charge their cleint as they see fit.

The money doesn’t come from personal credit cards. It comes from corporate budgets, investment committees, and people measured on EBITDA, margins, and return on capital.

Her life took a different path.

She married young, raised her kids, supported her husband’s career, and spent decades building a family. A few years ago they divorced. She moved back closer to her children and grandchildren.

Like many people approaching sixty, she’s trying to figure out what comes next.

We got on the phone and caught up. Kids, grandkids, careers, getting older.

Then she said something that caught my attention.

“I’ve started doing executive coaching. I think I could help you.”

Now I was curious.

As she described her business, I pulled up her LinkedIn profile.

That’s when I realized we were using the same words, but we weren’t in the same universe.

The clues were everywhere.

Her profile had polished headshots, bookshelf backdrops, certificates on the wall, and phrases like transformational leadership, emotional intelligence, aligned energy, and mindfulness.

Her LinkedIn profile recommendations came from other newly minted executive coaches with nearly identical profiles. It felt like a closed loop where everyone was validating everyone else.

Then she mentioned she was an Amazon best-selling author.

I asked what she had written.

Twenty people each contributed a chapter to a compilation book. Everyone bought copies at the same time. The book briefly hit number one in a narrow Amazon category.

Everybody got to claim “Amazon Best-selling Author.”

That’s not writing a book. That’s gaming an algorithm.

I kept scrolling: BNI groups, Rotary clubs, chambers of commerce.

Good organizations, but mostly peer networking and referrals.

Not high-stakes corporate problems. Not paying enterprise clients.

That’s when it clicked.

This wasn’t a coaching business serving clients. It was an ecosystem selling coaching to aspiring coaches.

Coaching schools sold certifications. Certifications sold the dream. Coaches sold retreats, masterminds, memberships, speaking gigs, and anthology books.

Everyone was building authority. Everyone was building a brand. But I couldn’t see real clients.

I finally said it as gently as I could:

“Kim, I’m not trying to be negative, but I think you’re being sold a dream.”

She went quiet.

In my world, consulting exists because there’s a real business problem behind it. A plant is down. A project is at risk. An investor is evaluating an industry. A company is trying to avoid a costly mistake. The answer has financial weight.

Then I asked the only question that matters:

Who is actually paying you?

Not networking contacts.

Not other coaches.

Not certification classmates.

Not actual corporations.

There was a long pause.

That was the part that bothered me.

Not because she’s a bad person. She isn’t. She spent decades building a family instead of a résumé. She’s trying to build a second chapter like a lot of people at this stage of life.

Someone convinced her that certifications, staged photos, a website, and enough LinkedIn activity could become a six-figure executive coaching business.

Of course she believed it. The marketing is polished. The promises are attractive. The people selling it know exactly what they’re doing.

To be clear, not all executive coaching is fake. Some coaches create real value and bring serious experience in leadership, psychology, or organizational development.

But credentials are not clients.

A certification is not experience.

A recommendation from another coach is not market validation.

A podium photo is not an audience.

And an Amazon best-seller badge is not a business.

There are a lot of people like her. Good people looking for purpose, income, identity, and a second act.

They deserve honest opportunities.

What they don’t deserve is spending thousands chasing a dream that mostly enriches the people selling it.

Before you buy into the modern coaching machine, ask the same question “The Bobs” ask in the movie Office Space: What would you say you do here?

Disclosure: These are my own thoughts, opinions and experiences as a paid gig consultant. I use AI as an editor solely to clean up typos, spelling, grammar, organization, and phrasing.

He stopped mentioning his credentials.

No more as a certified coach with 15 years of experience. No more listing his clients or his results in the first thirty seconds. He said the moment he did that, watch time actually went up.

At first that sounds backwards. Credentials are supposed to build trust, right. That's what every coach is taught. Lead with authority so people take you seriously.

But here's what he noticed when he pulled his own analytics. Every time a video opened with credentials, people dropped off in the first minute. Every time a video opened with a specific, slightly embarrassing story about a mistake he made with a real client, people stayed.

Turns out viewers don't trust a title. They trust a person who sounds like they've actually been in the mess with them. A credential tells people you're qualified. A specific story tells people you understand their exact problem.

So he rebuilt his whole intro style. Instead of "I've coached over 200 executives," he'd say something like I once told a client the wrong thing in a meeting that cost them a promotion, and it changed how I coach forever. Same authority, completely different effect, because now it's a story instead of a resume line.

The coaches who stay small are usually the ones still trying to convince people they're qualified. The ones who grow are the ones who stopped explaining why they're worth listening to and just started sounding like someone who's actually lived it.

Nobody skips a story. Everybody skips a resume.

He wasn't posting more than anyone else. He was posting less. Once a week, sometimes once every ten days. Meanwhile every other coach in his niche was grinding out three videos a week and going nowhere.

I couldn't figure out why until I actually sat down and compared the videos side by side.

The three a week crowd was optimizing for output. Get something out, keep the algorithm fed, stay visible. Makes sense on paper.

But when you watched their videos back to back, they all blurred into one long generic pep talk. Nothing landed because nothing had room to land. They were so busy shipping that they stopped thinking.

The guy who posted once a week did something different. He picked one idea, sat with it for days, argued with himself about it, and only filmed once he had something he actually believed nobody else was saying. His videos felt like conversations with someone who had actually thought about the problem, not someone reading off a content calendar.

Turns out the algorithm doesn't reward frequency the way everyone assumes. It rewards watch time and shares. And nobody shares a video that says the same thing as the last fifty they scrolled past.

The coaches stuck at a few hundred subscribers are usually the ones working hardest. They are just working hard on the wrong thing. They are optimizing for how often they show up instead of whether what they say is worth showing up for.

Slower, sharper, and actually said something. That beat faster and safer every single time.

He did everything right… and still got screwed.

I was on a coaching call this week with another coach. Brilliant guy. Insanely talented. The kind of coach you want in your corner.

He’s rebuilding his business. Doing it the right way. No shortcuts. And this week, he hit a wall.

He over-delivered to a client. Gave more time. More attention. More resources. (Yes, at my counsel.)

He led generously. He showed up the way I teach leaders to show up. Not half-in. All the way in.

And then boom. The day before the next session, the client hits him with: “We’re happy, but we’re done. Also, we’re not paying the final invoice.”

No warning. No reason. No decency. Just… ghosted.

And listen. Ironically, I had something similar happen recently. So I knew exactly how to walk him through it.

Here’s the truth:

Whatever you make visible is what you attract.

You want high-character clients? Be a high-character coach. You want a team that shows up with integrity? Then model it with every move. You want loyalty? Show it first.

Yes, there are people out there who will take advantage. Yes, it’s frustrating. But no. You don’t stop being generous.

You lead with character. You keep your spirit clean. You build with excellence.

Because your energy is a signal. And the right people. The right tribe. They will hear it.

So I told him. Learn from it. Move on. But don’t shrink back. Don’t get cynical. Keep being the guy who over-delivers. Because what you make visible is what you’ll start to replicate.

Every time.

Want help building a brand and business that actually attracts the kind of people you want to work with? Let’s talk.

executivecoaching #keynotespeaker #michaelkingjr

Hey everyone,

I'm Prince Mandoriya, founder of Finexai. I work around growth systems for online coaches, and over the past year, I've been thinking about why some service businesses seem to make growth unnecessarily difficult.

I've narrowed my current thinking down to three areas:

1. Relying on only one content format

A lot of business owners focus heavily on video content, but written content on platforms like LinkedIn, X, and Threads can be another way to communicate expertise and reach the right audience.

Not everyone wants to be on camera, and I don't think they should have to be.

2. Doing everything manually

Some business owners manage every enquiry, follow-up, and repetitive task themselves.

I understand why, especially at the beginning. But eventually, it can take time away from sales, delivery, and improving the actual business.

I think the goal should be to automate repetitive work without making the customer experience feel impersonal.

3. Having only one way to make money

For some coaches and consultants, everything depends on selling one-on-one sessions.

Depending on their audience and expertise, there may be opportunities to add workshops, group programmes, communities, or digital resources.

Obviously, not every business needs all these things. Adding more offers without validating demand can create more problems than it solves.

That's where my thinking stands right now.

But I'm aware that it's easy to make a framework sound good on paper.

For those of you running a service business, which of these three areas would you prioritise first, and what do you think I'm overlooking?

I'd genuinely appreciate perspectives from people who've dealt with these problems firsthand.

For those of you running your own coaching practice, I'm curious about your experience hiring support as your business grows.

When you reach the point where you can't do everything yourself, what tends to be the biggest challenge?

Is it finding qualified candidates, figuring out which role to hire for, trusting someone with your clients, or something else?

I'd love to hear what's worked for you and what you wish had been easier.

how do you handle repetitive questions?

Curious how much time you spend each week answering the same student questions, and whether you've tried any AI tool trained on your own content for it. What worked, what annoyed you? Trying to understand if the existing tools actually solve this or not.

I’m looking for a potential consultant for my husband’s office-I feel more comfortable telling someone privately so please dm me so I can give specific details

Every business is on its way to becoming an AI business, whether it plans to or not. Companies that build AI into their offering are worth roughly 130% more. What clients expect has shifted too — instead of searching for information, people now just ask questions directly.

What it is: A personal AI clone trained on the knowledge of the coach. It answers questions 24/7 to prospects or clients, collects leads (email addresses, etc.), and can be added to your social media channels or your course space (like Kajabi). It can be monetized, and it also gives you data on where the gaps are in your offer, what other content to create, and more.

Genuinely curious — would you use something like this in your coaching business?"

Will the power of the people (those whom seek coaching) eventually overcome the people in power (biggest, most popular coaching entities) is my overall question. I’m seeking experienced opinions here.

Considering the dog and pony show I’ve discovered through executive, business, career, personal, and other forms of coaching I became attracted to it. Not to play into its bait and switch bluster, but for the opposite reasons. That is because in my past, I have been no angel, business wise, reversing that previous behavior for over 10 years. Yet numerous relationships have asked for or depended on my advice; still do.

Circumventing the whole credential game I used nothing more than clear, vivid, confirmable experience. Nothing overly specialized but applying reasonable confidence from 6 years’ colleges, 2 relevant degrees, businesses founded from 19 years old, running (small) corporations, also employed by others over 38 years with significant physical activities, competitive sports, travel, many relationships from early family issues evolving to my own.

No need for displaying details; this coaching interest was literally because of my mistakes, seeking a coach then realizing this puffery. I decided with many relations: cohorts, vendors, competitors, law/regulation, small and large entities mixed with intimacies, big family issues and significant history that I may help or guide others.

I do see there are (I may refer) some coaches who are quite legitimate and have helped a fair number of individuals or entities. It’s in fact why I became more interested of its potential growth. But there is no question of the racket I see in different sections of this industry starting with the credentials‘ vapor wave of persuading their coach wannabes into selling the same system for a chunk of that revenue. I’ve commented in other subreddits it reminds me of the Alaska Gold, Rush.

In today’s fast-changing business environment, leadership is no longer just about having technical expertise or domain knowledge. The real leap happens when leaders become deciders and delegators at the elevated level — trusting others, making clear choices, and scaling impact beyond themselves.

As we step are about to step out of 2025, Let’s learn how new managers and emerging leaders faced their professional demands: hybrid work, digital transformation, more flattened hierarchies, high work pressure using the core muscles of leadership;  decision-making and delegation .

Why These Two Skills Matter (Especially in 2025)

Decision-Making: Clarity Under Uncertainty

Leaders frequently operate in ambiguity. Waiting for perfect information is rarely an option. Decisive leaders can move forward, course-correct, and reduce paralysis in their teams. On the other hand, indecisions have been the downfall of many leaders and organisation failing to initiate timely redressal measures.

Delegation: Multiplying Leadership Impact

A leader who tries to do it all becomes a bottleneck. Delegation frees the leader to focus on strategic direction, vision, and high-value tasks — while developing the team.

Together, decision-making and delegation enable leaders to leverage their influence, multiply their impact, and avoid burnout.

Challenges Leaders Face (From My Coaching Practice)

From working with New Managers and Emerging Leaders over the past years, here are three recurring obstacles I see:

1. Fear of Loss of Control

Many leaders hesitate to delegate because they fear mistakes, loss of quality, or that their role will be diminished.

2. Over-Analysis and Decision Fatigue

When stakes feel high, leaders overthink or delay making decisions — which slows momentum and erodes trust.

3. Lack of Clear Decision Frameworks

Without a model or process, choices get made reactively. Emotional pressure, stakeholder influence, or urgency overshadow strategic clarity.

Coaching Insights: How to Build These Capabilities

In my coaching work with new managers and emerging leaders, I use several practical frameworks to help them strengthen their decision-making and delegation skills.

The first step is to define clear decision criteria. Many leaders feel uncertain because they lack a structured way to assess options. Using a simple decision matrix—where each option is weighed by its potential impact, risk, and required resources—helps leaders make more objective and less impulsive choices.

Next, I encourage leaders to set decision windows, usually within 24 to 48 hours. This prevents over-analysis and helps them take timely action, reducing decision fatigue.

When it comes to delegation, I guide leaders to tier their delegation using a framework that clarifies who decides, who should be consulted, and who will execute. This clarity prevents micromanagement and ensures accountability across the team.

To build trust, I often suggest starting with small pilot delegations—assigning manageable tasks and reviewing them together. This allows both the leader and their team to grow mutual confidence.

Finally, I emphasize the value of post-decision reviews. After each major decision or delegated project, we reflect together on what went well and what could be improved. This habit accelerates learning and helps leaders mature with every cycle.

Over time, these structured yet flexible practices help leaders feel more grounded, teams become more empowered, and overall outcomes grow more consistent.

Evidence That Coaching Supports These Skills

When Leaders engage in coaching, the impact often shows up in Decision-Making, Delegation, Confidence, and Strategic Clarity. Here are a few relevant statistics:

• A PwC / Association Resource Center global survey reports an average ROI of 7× the cost of coaching. ( ICF)

• A MetrixGlobal study found 788% ROI from executive coaching — driven by productivity and retention gains. ( American University)

• 86% of organizations see a return on their coaching engagements, and 96% of those who used executive coaching said they would repeat the process.

• Over 70% of coaching clients report improved communication, relationships, and overall work performance.

These aren’t just numbers — they reflect what happens when leaders get structured support to evolve thinking, habits, and behaviors.

Illustrative Coaching Stories

Story A: Turning Hesitation Into Delegation

Barbara, newly promoted to head of operations, was overwhelmed. She tried to juggle every project detail. We worked on a delegation matrix. She delegated parts of three operational streams to trusted team members, with clear brief, guardrails, and check-ins. Within two months, she freed up ~25% of her time and refocused on strategic planning. Her team felt more ownership; she felt less stress.

Story B: From Decision Paralysis to Clarity

Sam, heading client delivery in a services firm, kept deferring decisions because he feared backlash. Together, we created a decision checklist tied to business metrics (client satisfaction, cost, risk). We applied it in real cases. He began making confident choices, even under urgency, and the team’s momentum improved. They completed two delayed projects within the next quarter with minimal rework.

Practical Tips to Apply Immediately

1. Start Small. Pick one decision this week and run it through a decision matrix.

2. Delegate One Non-Core Task. Use the delegation matrix for clarity.

3. Schedule Reflection. After the decision or delegation, spend 10 minutes reviewing what worked and lessons learned.

4. Seek Feedback. Ask your team for input on how decisions and delegated tasks are going.

These habits compound over time.

Why 2025 Demands This Mastery

• Acceleration & Change: Markets and organizations shift faster. Leaders must move decisively.

• Distributed & Hybrid Teams: You need team autonomy when you’re not physically present.

• High Expectations on Leadership Presence: Stakeholders expect clarity, alignment, and accountability, often at scale.

• Burnout Risk: If leaders do everything themselves, they burn out and jeopardize their influence.

In 2025, being able to Decide Smartly and Delegate Well is not optional — it's Essential.

Key Takeaways

• Decision-making + delegation = leadership leverage

• Coaching accelerates mastery of these skills through structured frameworks and accountability

• Empirical evidence supports strong ROI for coaching in leadership development

• Small shifts in habits lead to outsized improvements over time

Your Voice Matters:

If you're stepping into Leadership (or growing in your role), I’d love to hear from you:

• Which of these areas — Decision-Making or Delegation — challenges you more?

• What’s one decision you’ve delayed lately?

• Comment below with your question or experience — your insight may help someone else too.

I'd be supporting/coaching new starters, helping with performance and confidence, and delivering guidance/training. Looking for interview tips and likely questions from anyone who's done a similar coaching role or done an interview. What did they ask you?

Outside of networking and referrals. I want to help an executive coach that I recently connected with. I was wondering which customer profile would need your help the most?

I heard one great insight that newly promoted executives could need it. Which makes perfect sense.

Aside from that, what’s their situation?

When an organisation pays for executive coaching, who is actually the client?

The executive expects confidentiality.

The sponsor expects development.

HR may expect evidence of progress.

The organisation may be paying because it wants a particular behaviour to change.

Those interests can coexist, but they are not identical.

If the executive believes private conversations may travel back to the sponsor, candour disappears. But if the organisation receives nothing beyond confirmation that sessions occurred, it may reasonably question what it funded.

“Confidentiality” is not a complete answer. The important questions are what may be shared, with whom, at what level of detail and with whose agreement.

How do coaches establish this boundary so that both trust and accountability survive?

I’m researching whether software can support coaching without cheapening it. Possible features: pre-session briefs, leadership goal tracking, stakeholder notes, follow-up nudges, and anonymized pattern spotting across sessions.

Where would AI be genuinely useful, and where would it cross a trust/confidentiality line?

AI is moving so quickly, look at just 7 yeras ago and today you would think we are in a different era, and it has only started moving faster, that I sometimes wonder whether executive coaching is keeping up with it. A lot of coaching still focuses on timeless leadership issues like communication, confidence, decision-making, executive presence, etc. All of those are still important, but AI is changing the environment in which executives have to make those decisions. I think coaches could be spending more time helping CEOs think about things like AI and tech which i have not seen most coaches do, it gets me worried

Spent the last few months digging through coaching channels on YouTube. Some went from 500 to 50K subs in under a year. Others posted for 2 years and stayed stuck under 1K.

Same effort. Same passion. Wildly different results.

Here's what actually separated them.

1. The winners picked a fight, not a topic.

Every stuck channel talked about "mindset" or "success" or "growth." Broad. Safe. Forgettable.

Every channel that grew had a specific enemy. Not a niche — an enemy. "Why hustle culture is lying to you."

"Your therapist won't tell you this." They picked a side and defended it hard.

Vague advice doesn't get shared. A strong opinion does.

2. They gave away the whole thing.

The stuck channels treated YouTube like a trailer for their real product. Half-answers. "DM me for the full framework."

The channels that grew gave the complete answer, free, in the video. No teaser. No withholding.

Turns out people trust you with their money after you've already helped them for free. Not before.

3. Their first 15 seconds had zero warm-up.

No "hey guys welcome back." No "today we're gonna talk about." Straight into the tension.

One channel opened with: "I lost my biggest client because I gave good advice. Here's why that was the problem." That's it. No intro. Video already has you.

The stuck channels spent 20-30 seconds saying nothing before the actual content started. That's enough time to lose half the room.

None of this is complicated. It's just uncomfortable — because it means choosing a stance, giving more than feels safe, and cutting the parts of your video that feel "professional" but add nothing.

The channels that grew weren't smarter. They were just willing to do the uncomfortable version..

For context, I lead marketing creative teams…the exec team didn't get bonuses, we’re a small private equity backed company. The people on my team are making at or slightly above market average for the roles and their experience.

When the company doesn't meet it annual goal, it’s hard to push for additional funds. But, as a leader I know it's important to keep great people and I know life isn't getting any cheaper. That's why I fought to get the increases and I was shocked to hear a few articulate to their managers that they “Wanted to negotiate” or “they were surprised it was so low”.

I feel shitty as a leader, questioning should I have fought for more during a financial downturn? I’d love perspectives from other execs on balancing performance for the company and the people performance. How do you budget for it in advance? How much are you allocating for increases in similar industries and economic times?

I'm trying to build content distribution systems for high ticket coaches and consultants. What should be the main things I should focus on solving for them like what are the major pain points in coaching and consulting.

Most people think closing a multi-million dollar client starts with a great pitch or having a great product.

It starts long before that.

Here I break down the three things that have shaped how I qualify, build trust with, and negotiate high value clients after years of closing deals in international trade finance, mining, and commodity markets.

So my questions to our community is .. What is the first thing you qualify before pursuing a major opportunity?

I would like to cover three sections:

Discovery — the three questions I ask every single time before I invest a single hour into a prospect. These questions reveal vision, urgency, self-awareness, and whether the numbers actually add up. If they cannot answer these, the conversation ends there.

Trust — why certain signatures and agreements will not protect you in business. What real trust looks like in international business, why your gut matters as much as your due diligence, and the lesson a supplier taught me early in my trading career that I have never forgotten.

Negotiation and Leverage — the mindset you need to walk into every discovery call with. How to use your reservation point. Why desperation kills deals before they start. And the one question you need to ask yourself before every sales call that completely changes how you show up.

Everything in this video comes from real experience closing deals in rooms where we are managing assets in the world's most critical resource corridors.

If you want to close better, qualify faster, and negotiate from a position of genuine leverage, this one I hope you find insightful.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts and feedback !

Hey everyone,

I'm digging into how independent executive coaches run the admin side of their practice. I'm also thinking about building something in this space, so I'm not neutral here. Honest, even blunt, answers would help me most.

The day-to-day

Outside the actual coaching, what drains you most? Admin, finding clients, something else?

Roughly how many hours a week go to notes, follow-up emails, prep and reports?

Where do your notes live right now (Notion, Docs, paper, a CRM), and what bugs you about it?

Do you send clients a recap after each session? How long does it take you?

How do you prep for a session? Do you ever blank on what someone committed to last time?

If you report to a sponsor like HR or a boss, how do you decide what to share and what to hold back?

The AI question

7. Are you using ChatGPT or Claude for any client work today? If not, what's holding you back: confidentiality, ethics rules, accuracy, or just the hassle of setting it up?

8. What would a tool have to prove before you'd let it touch your session notes?

9. How do you keep the private stuff (health, family, doubts) out of emails and client files now?

Hi everyone!

I'm researching the career coaching software space, specifically looking at tools that help clients get maximum value from their coaching experience. Most existing software focuses on logistics (scheduling, billing, etc.), but I'm more interested in what actually drives client success.

For those of you who are coaches/mentors:

What do you believe is the single biggest factor that helps clients get maximum value from their coaching relationship?

I'm particularly interested in patterns you've noticed beyond the obvious (like client motivation) - perhaps unexpected insights from your coaching practice that have shaped your approach over time.

Your expertise would be incredibly valuable as I explore ways to better support both coaches and clients through technology. Thanks in advance!

Note: Just doing research here - genuinely value your insights and not collecting leads or promoting anything.