Career Coaching Secrets

The Ripple Effect of Executive Coaching in Organizations with Gerald Bush

• Davis Nguyen

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Executive coach and culture strategist Gerald Bush joins Career Coaching Secrets to share how he built GBKB Consulting, scaled his impact through community, and reframed coaching as a business benefit — not a cost. Learn how he grew a referral-driven business, added complementary offers, and embraced partnerships to build trust and scalability.

You can find him on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerald-bush-shrm-scp-icf-pcc/
https://www.gbkbconsulting.com/


You can also watch this podcast on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/@CareerCoachingSecrets

If you are a career coach looking to grow your business you can find out more about Purple Circle at http://joinpurplecircle.com

Get Exclusive Access to Our In-Depth Analysis of 71 Successful Career Coaches, Learn exactly what worked (and what didn't) in the career coaching industry in 2024: https://joinpurplecircle.com/white-paper-replay

Gerald Bush:

And so I think organizations who understand the value of coaching sees it as a benefit. Organizations who don't understand coaching sees it as a cost. And I think where we can get those organizations to see coaching as a benefit instead of a cost, I think as coaches we win because now we're able to help organizations understand that it's important that your leaders get the things they need because when your leaders are supported, if your leaders feel valued in that journey, then they're going to step out and do the things they need to do, and they're gonna do it with joy, they're gonna do it with happiness, they're gonna do it with engagement, and then that impacts their team, that impacts their leaders, that impacts your organization, and all of a sudden now you have this ripple effect where it's, I'm confident in who I am, I'm confident in what I'm communicating, I'm confident, and now that confidence of the leader started to trigger throughout the organization, so now I have a confident organization or a confident team, whether it's marketing or finance or HR, and now all of a sudden, those ripples start to flow through the organization, and it's like, what happens if we give other executives coaches? What would happen? What happens if we give other leaders coaches?

Davis Nguyen:

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is Davis Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. Before Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and consulted with two career coaching businesses that are now doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or just building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business. Thank you.

Rexhen:

Hey everyone, welcome again to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. Today I'm excited to welcome Gerald Bush to the podcast. Gerald is a people and culture strategist, an executive coach, and the founder of GBKB Consulting, where he helps leaders and organizations navigate change, build resilient teams, and align people strategies with business goals. With certifications from SHRM and ICF, Gerald has not only built a thriving consulting and coaching business, but also has positions himself as a trust advisor in leadership development and emotional intelligence. I'm looking forward to diving into how Gerald built his consulting practice, the services that fueled his business growth, and his approach to balancing executive coaching with fractional HR leadership. Welcome to the show, Gerald.

Gerald Bush:

Hey, thank you for having me. I'm excited to chat today.

Rexhen:

Yeah, excited to have you on. Tell me a little bit more about what inspired you to become an executive coach and also start your own consulting business, the GBKB Consulting.

Gerald Bush:

So a little bit of background. I spent about 20 years in corporate HR and leading teams. And in 2018, I made the decision to leave corporate America to start my own business. And I think it was really generated by the need for family. I wanted to be a better father, a better husband. I had three younger kids in my household and just really wanted to be home more with the companies I worked for, a lot of traveling, leaving home on Mondays, coming home on Friday. And that just fueled me to step out and do something different. But I think the conversation about coaching was I worked for a lot of great organizations, a lot of really big organizations. And through those journeys, I had an opportunity to have coaches as a part of my learning and my development and my growth. And I saw the importance of being able to have that person to walk along beside me and to give me the freedom and the flexibility and the courage to be able to step out and have some of those more difficult conversations. Because oftentimes when you're working with teams and you're working with people internally, there's things you need to say or want to say and you're not sure how those things are going to be interpreted or heard. So by having that coach, I was able to communicate and share some of those ideas to get feedback to determine what works and what does not work. So as I started to think about what do I want to do next, coaching was a part of that, but also wanting to really understand how can I better impact organizations and individuals. So I do individual coaching as well as team coaching, but that coaching is really centered around the executive teams that I work with.

Rexhen:

How has your journey changed from the point that you started your own business to where you are at today?

Gerald Bush:

Yeah, so this is year seven. So I think I'm a lot smarter than I was in year one versus now. But as I've gone from year one to year two, what I've really learned is when I started my business, probably about 70% of my business was coaching. I really centered my business around coaching because I thought that's the place I wanted to spend time and play. As my business have changed from year one to year seven, right now, probably about 20% of my business is coaching. And early on, I spent time coaching at all levels, frontline managers, entry level, middle level, as well as executive. And as I've migrated my business now, that 20% of coaching is really spent with the executive teams. So 20% is executive coaching where I'm centering that around how do I help those executive leaders create the space to grow themselves and to grow their teams. And then 15% is keynote speaking where I'm around the country doing keynotes. And then the other 65% of my business is around organizational agility. And I say that's all the fun stuff around helping organizations create a fun space for their employees to thrive and grow, right? So that's change management, that's culture work, that's leadership development, That's mission, visions, values, and it's all of the strategies around HR that companies need. And especially those companies who don't have a senior level HR person in their organization, I'm able to go in and not just work with their leadership team, but also bring an HR presence to their organizations to help them sustain their growth, sustain development, and build the culture that they need to be successful.

Rexhen:

Is there a specific... type of uh industry that you're after when it comes to these companies or it's broad

Gerald Bush:

yeah so that's interesting i think originally when i started my business it was find an industry stick with that industry growth be the subject matter expert and you'll you'll live forever and you'll make a lot of money and i think the point the pandemic taught me was that i need to be industry agnostic right and that gives me an opportunity to be more broad focus And over the last few years, I have clients in retail, distribution, in the medical field, for profit, not for profit. So my clients are pretty diverse. But what I would say is that my client is what I would say is a medium to large size company, because I really want to focus on how do we grow and sustain an organization. So I'm really targeting those mid-sized companies, mid to large. And that gives me an opportunity to go in, build some foundation, create and sustain growth. A lot of times the small companies don't have the investment dollars or don't have the commitment to long-term growth. So early on it was, you know, you take what you can get. And as I met my business over time, I'm more strategically aligned now with that mid to large size company. And that gives me the opportunity to go in, set foundations and help them through some of those challenges and through those cultural evolutions to help them be successful over time.

Rexhen:

And when you're approaching to them initially, is your offer mostly like your offer is mostly focused on coaching or is it focused on that 65% that you mentioned, which is helping them on the HR side mostly?

Gerald Bush:

I think it's been a combination of both because I have some clients where I started off as their executive coach and I spent a year, 18 months with them, leading them through their personal journey. And then that evolution from personal journey went to, can you help my team? And then from can you help my team to now can you help my organization? And then on the other side, going in to do some of the culture and change management work. And that led to coaching as well, because it's we have a team of people and they're all different. They all learn different. So it's can you help us work as a team? And some of my team needs individual coaching. So for me, I think they refute each other. in reference to the coaching has led to opportunities in culture and change management and the change management and culture opportunities and leadership. has led to some coaching as well. So I think it's been a really good feature for me. So both parts of the business support each other and it's really helped me to be able to build the right client and be able to sustain the growth that I've been trying to do because the organizations understand the value of development, understands the value of change, understand the value of culture, understand the value of positioning their teams and individuals for success. So when an organization truly understands that, then it gives me both, I can do some of the coaching work and I can do some of the leadership work with their teams.

Rexhen:

So they're kind of like complementary to each other. So you can start with one, let's say culture and change management. And then as a complementary to that, you'd offer coaching to leadership or exact coaching to some of the employees as well. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. That's an interesting approach. I guess it comes also from your background in HR especially, right?

Gerald Bush:

No, absolutely. I think being able to navigate that space and help leaders understand the value of development. And development is not just a one-time event or just a one thing. It's a combination of a lot of different things. And some people learn fast, they learn quick, and they learn in groups. Other people learn slow and they need individual time. So I think when organizations understand that complexity and are able to invest the time, it creates the space for their teams to be successful.

Rexhen:

where do you find your clients how do you connect with these companies like in terms like marketing channels what what is the main way of you connecting with potential clients

Gerald Bush:

yeah so i'll probably cover different areas so one i would say social media so uh linkedin is a spot of mine that i spend a lot of time with um and i get a lot of leads through linkedin that helps me a lot on the second one i have a newsletter that i've had for a while that i network with a group of people and that creates leads for me. And then probably the third thing is I have a couple of different communities that I'm actively involved in that do a lot of referrals. So True You is a community, Peer Run Network is a community, and then the coaching base is a community. So those three communities are referrals for me, and I'm generally getting referrals from them. So with my business, I'm generally getting consistent referrals, and I like that because the referrals I'm getting are referrals that align with who I am, what I like to do, and those referrals are generally ones that don't require me to jump through all the hoops because there are people who know who I am, know what I'm looking for, know the type of organization that I'm looking for. And they're generally referring those to me from that perspective.

Rexhen:

And I wanted to ask you also, what are some of the goals that you're working towards for the next one to three years when it comes to JBKB Consulting or your business?

Gerald Bush:

I think right now, as I've evolved over the last few years, most of the work that I've done has been through me. It's me doing the business, me doing the work. And so as my business evolved over the next few years, what I really want to focus on is how do I bring others into the work? You know, whether it's consistently more subcontracting from a coaching perspective as well as from a leadership development perspective. Really, how do I get away from just solely about doing the work because I think most of us struggle with I'm working in the business or working on the business and sometimes there's a struggle to do both. So I really want to get to a point where I'm working on the business. So probably about 30% of the time in the business and about 70% on the business. So which means that that's work that I'm bringing for other people to do the work and then I'm just more of the engagement person and really just generating the leads and then bringing work to my partners or bringing work to people around me to help them sustain their business as well.

Rexhen:

Thanks for sharing that. And when it comes to investments, what resources or support has been most valuable in you growing your own coaching business or your own consulting business? By the way, what would be the best way to describe it? Consulting in this case, since it would include that. But yeah. mostly wanted to know like in terms of like investments what has been the most valuable for you over the years

Gerald Bush:

yeah so a couple things one is my virtual assistant i have a virtual assistant that does a lot of work for me and that person um does a lot of my social media does a lot of the day-to-day tactical things or transactional things that's needed so i can really focus on more strategy from that standpoint so that person does some lead gen for me that person does all of my marketing efforts on all of my channels. And that's been a true help. And then secondly, I'll reiterate the importance of community because I think oftentimes as coaches, as consultants, we go out thinking that, oh, I can do this all on my own. And I think my biggest thing was once I learned the value of being in the right communities, That helped me to propel my business and help the growth in my business to be exponential. So instead of focusing on one client at a time, in the groups that I'm associated with or the communities, I am in communities where the people in my communities are referring customers. clients to me. They're working with similar clients. So as their clients need things that I'm an expert in or I'm a subject matter expert in, they invite me in. So when I go into their work or go into their clients, it's already a relationship. So I don't have to go and build that relationship because I'm working with clients for them. So with the three communities that I'm a part of, that's the work I do. So it's this situation where it's abundance. So we're all operating in abundance. So it's not like I have to do this by myself. It's more of Who's the best person to do the work? Who's the best person to service a client? And if I have someone who can do the job better, quicker, faster, then that's the person I want to put in front of my client. Because if I'm costing the client more money because I have to learn it, figure it out, but I have somebody who has that skill, who has that knowledge that can come in and do the work, then it's more value for me to get that done. So I think those are the two things that I've invested in over the last three years. And as I've invested in those things, because communities cost me time and they cost me money. My virtual assistant cost me time and money. And those are the two investments that I would say, as I look at my business from year three now to year seven, those are the things that have taken my business from, I'm not sure, to, oh, this is a no brainer, in point of revenue, in a point of referrals, in relationships to client renewals and all of that, right?

Rexhen:

Yeah. And you mentioned three communities. One of them was TrueYou. I just want to make sure that I note them down. All of these are paid communities, right?

Gerald Bush:

Yep. So TrueYou is a paid community. A peer-run network is a paid community. And then the coaching bench is a paid community, right? And the coaching bench is one that I run with another partner that we have a group of coaches on the bench. And those coaches work with us on some of the larger projects. clients, right? So as we think about doing more, you know, the coaching bench has been a vehicle for me to put coaches together, right? So as a community of coaches, and I believe that as a coach, there's certain people that I work well with, and there's certain people that need a different type of coach, and I'm not the right coach for everybody. So with the coaching bench, that's a space where we have a community right now of about 20 coaches and growing, and we invite those coaches in. So when I have a opportunity for coaches is an opportunity to say, hey, what kind of coach do you need? What are the skills that you need? What experiences? And now I can bring that coach to the table to ensure that the client is getting the right type of coach instead of just getting a coach. Because what we know is that when we have the right coach and there is a degree of trust and there is a degree where the person know that that coach has those skills, it expedites the learning and the development of the person that that's working with the coach.

Rexhen:

So there's a lot of collaboration when it comes to these communities. What is something that you wish you had known when you first started scaling your consulting business or coaching business? What is like an unexpected lesson learned that you learned along the way throughout these seven years? I

Gerald Bush:

think the biggest one is when you start off, everybody needs to make money, right? You need to make money. So everybody is... grabbing as many dollars as they can, right? Whether you can do the work or not do the work, you're just grabbing the dollars and figuring it out along the way. What I wish I'd known early on was the conversation of operating in abundance, right? Operating in abundance for me is I don't have to be able to do everything and be everything to my client, but if I can provide the best level of service to my client, that's going to keep that client coming back. That's going to help that client renew year over year over year. So as I've gone from year one now to year seven, over 90% of my clients are renewing every year. Where in year one, maybe about 20% was renewing because I was trying to do everything. And now I'm able to put the best person in front of my client. So my client sees value in not just in me, but sees value in the people that I bring to them. So what that has helped me to do over time is that my clients see value in not just me, but they see value in the partnership. They see value in, oh, he does not just do the HR work, but if I need work in finance, if I need work in technology, if I need work in systems, there's somebody in his network. So instead of dealing with eight different people, they're still dealing with me, but they're dealing with people around me, right? So they're getting trusted advisors, they're getting trusted people, and they're still only communicating with me, right? So I think if I had known earlier the value of community, the value of partnership early on, I think that would have helped propel me early on. But I think, you know, just like with anything else you start new, it's I need the dollars and I need to make money versus I need to build the relationships that's going to sustain me and the money will come.

Rexhen:

And apart from those, right, the community and the partnerships, there's, I think in your case, there's also a lot of value in having complimentary offers. So people can extend in a different offer after a year. So they can go into coaching after they've been into the HR item that you mentioned in the beginning. So the other thing I wanted to ask you is what are some of the biggest challenges that you faced in scaling your coaching business or that you're still facing today? I

Gerald Bush:

think one of the two things. I think one is helping organizations understand the value of coaching. I think that's the biggest challenge with scaling, right? Because when you talk about coaching and you talk about individual coaching, there's a cost. And so when you start to talk about cost and you're talking about an hour for coaching and a cost over time, 100 hours or 200 hours or 300 hours for an organization becomes extremely expensive. So I think the biggest challenge is helping organizations understand the value of coaching. So that's why a lot of times when I go in, I do group coaching or I do the leadership development piece and that gives the organization An opportunity to learn the importance of development, the importance of keep an opportunity to grow. And once they've seen that, now they're starting to be open to say, what would happen if I give some one on one time to my people? What would happen if we were able to take some of the strengths and opportunity areas of key people on my team and develop those? What would be the long term impact on growth? and development and on productivity and all those things. So I think it's really helping organizations understand the value of coaching because again, coaching can be extremely expensive. And when you're talking about that expense and it's, if I'm going to invest 450 to $800 an hour for coaching, what else could I do with those dollars? And so I think organizations who understand the value of coaching sees it as a benefit. Organizations who don't understand coaching sees it as a cost. And I think where we can get those organizations to see coaching as a benefit instead of cost, I think as coaches we win because now we're able to help organizations understand that it's important that your leaders get the things they need because when your leaders are supported, if your leaders feel valued in that journey, then they're going to step out and do the things they need to do and they're going to do it with joy They're going to do with happiness. They're going to do with engagement. And then that impacts their team. That impacts their leaders. That impacts your organization. And all of a sudden, now you have this ripple effect where it's, I'm confident in who I am. I'm confident in what I'm communicating. I'm confident. And now that confidence of the leader started to trigger throughout the organization. So now I have a confident organization or a confident team, whether it's marketing or finance or HR. And now all of a sudden, those ripples start to flow through the organization. And it's like, What happens if we give other executives coaches? What would happen? What happens if we give other leaders coaches? What would happen, right? So all of a sudden, that ripple happens. So again, so it's understanding the value and the importance of coaching for teams and for individuals is what I think is the biggest challenge for me when I look at coaching because I'll get a call and someone says, hey, I would love to have a coach or have a team that needs coaching. Can you put something together for me? And I'm like, what do you need? How long do you need it? What's the impact? What's the long-term goal? What does success look like? And put something together. And the first thing I hear is, wow, that's expensive. And I'm like, well, the results that you wanted or the things you're trying to achieve, if you achieve those things, what would be the impact on your bottom line? What would be the impact on productivity? What would be the impact on profit? And when you start to have those conversations and they're like, well, this cost is probably only 10% of that. Okay. So if I told you, if you invest 10% that you could get 30, 40% increase in some of these areas, would you be willing to invest? Most companies say unequivocally, absolutely. Yes. So again, it's that learning the importance of the impact of coaching.

Rexhen:

Yeah, totally. And I think a lot of also other coaches are going to be watching this are going to resonate with that in one way or another, because it's an issue not only with organizations, when you're working with organizations, also when you're working one-on-one, I think it's still something that a lot of people need to learn the value from. So yeah, I also wanted to ask you, how do you currently handle the balance between delivering great client results and managing business growth. I know you leaned on it a little bit when you mentioned that some of the admin stuff you give to your VA, you also get some help when it comes to lead generation from the communities that you are part of. But yeah, I wanted to make this direct question as well on how do you handle the balance?

Gerald Bush:

You know, early on, it was extremely challenging because I would have a lot of work And then I'm not spending time working on the business. And so I'm like, oh, I need to work on the business now. And so it was a tricky balance. And I think now at year seven, I'm a lot more engaged and a lot more intentional about that. So what I've tried to structure my workaround is about 20% of my time every week is working on my business. And that's intentional. So I have about four hours every Friday and then four hours every Monday that I set aside that I block off my calendar where I am working on the business. Whether it's engaging social media, whether that's looking at what are my stats and numbers out on social media? Is it looking at client referrals? Is it looking at number of clicks on newsletters? Looking at some of the numbers. And then that gives me an indicator of am I doing the right things? Do I need to do something different? Is there something else I need to try? Is there a different tool, right? And then so I look at it and say, okay, what are tools out there that I'm not using? What are tools that I need to be more invested in? And the other thing is that what are the strategies I want to look at? So like this year, one of the strategies was more podcasts, right? I do a lot of speaking. So I wanted to increase the number of podcasts that I wanted to be on. So my goal was like last year, I did about nine or 10 podcasts. My goal this year was I wanted to double the number of podcasts. So ideally, I wanted to do about two podcasts a month. I'm a little behind on that goal, but I think as the season goes, I'll ramp that up. So I think about, okay, I want to do more podcasts. Boom. I want to speak at more conferences. How am I there? So I look at the strategy around what I want to do and then focus intentionally on those things. So it's applying for different conferences around the around the country, applying for different stages, applying for TEDx, applying for podcasts. So looking at the things that's going to help me on the other side to keep me front of mind. So looking at the strategy piece. And then the other thing is I do is work in my network. spending time intentionally building those relationships. So in those communities, attending the meetings in the community, speaking in the community, showing up, engaging, doing one-on-ones with people in the community. So those are the things. So I think with me, as I'm spending that time weekly intentionally, that keeps the wheel burning. So I'm intentionally scheduling the time. And I think oftentimes we get focused on the work And don't have the intentionality. So I try to make sure that there's eight to 12 hours a week where I'm intentionally focused on my business. And it's not just doing the work. It's focused on the business. I think that has helped me to do that. You know, I've tried a lot of different things to move pieces and move parts. And I stress myself too thin. I'm like, yeah, I can't do everything or be everything to everybody. So how do I focus my energies in the right places from that perspective?

Rexhen:

Totally, thanks for sharing that. And is there any aspect of running your business right now that would figuratively keep you up at night?

Gerald Bush:

You know, right now, I think my biggest part is I'm at a point where I maximize the number of hours I want to work, right? I'm at a point where I'm like, okay, I don't want to work anymore hours, but I still want to grow my business. And what I'm really at a point now is truly understanding what's the next piece there, right? So if I want to continue to grow my business, I don't want employees. but I want to grow my business. So looking at how does 1099 help me to do that? How do some of the communities I'm involved in help me do that, right? So right now it's, I want to not work more than a thousand hours a year, but my companies and the clients I'm working with are at a point where they want more. So how do I use my communities? How do I use my network to be able to provide the services that are needed and do it in a way that's going to engage my companies and what keeps me up at night, I think the foundation of the question is that I'm not doing the work. Is someone gonna do it the way I'm gonna do it? Are they gonna support my clients the way I'm gonna support them? Are they gonna deliver it the way that I'm gonna deliver it? So that's what keeps me up at night. So I'm really trying to lean into how do I trust more and how do I engage with my community and understand that everybody's not gonna do it my way And there's some people out there that can probably do it better than me. And I have to be OK with that. And there's some people out there that might not do it the right way or might not do it my way. And I have to be OK with that. So I think right now that's probably my biggest struggle is being able to release some of my business or some of the things I love to do and put it in the hands of other people and just trust that they're going to do the work the right way. Maybe not Gerald's way, but they're going to do it the right way.

Rexhen:

I really like how you're open about that, meaning some people might not do it as good as you, some people might do it as good as you, some people might do it better than you. So I really like that there's no limiting belief that nobody can do it better than you because we've seen that happen. We've seen in our community coaches hire other coaches to help with their business and it has worked out. Now, finding the right coach might be a little bit challenging, but it is out there. It's possible. It's not that is something that only you can do. Once you like systematize the type of work that you deliver, like the coaching that you deliver, then it kind of gets easier to pass that on to someone else. I also wanted to ask you, is there any other advice you'd like to give to, in this case, going to be career coaches and executive coaches when we're watching this? Is there any advice you'd give to them when they're looking to scale their impact?

Gerald Bush:

Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing I would say to coaches who are growing and trying to scale is that There's no one size fits all. And I think I'm on social media and it's try this, try this, try this. I got this, I got this, I got this. And I think there's a lot of great people out there, a lot of great organizations, a lot of great systems out there. The advice I would give to coaches is make sure you know what you're looking for. And if you know what you're looking for, then it's easy to align your growth and the things you want to do with the right places. Because I think If you're focused on just growing for the sake of growing, the question is how do you sustain that? But if you're focused on growing your business in a way that's sustainable, then you're able to do it the right way. So I would just challenge every coach who's trying to grow their business to understand their why, understand what clients are looking at, and then understand anything that I engage in and engage with, are they going to bring me the value that I need? Because it's so easy to to invest money that you don't have as a coach to grow your business, and it's not bringing the results. So I did mine incrementally, and did I invest in some things that didn't work? Yes, but I stopped those things. So just being smart enough to know that I invested, it didn't work, it's time to move on. And also knowing that what worked for one coach may not work for you, and just being open to that, right? Because I think you talk to coaches, oh, I did this, And so you do that and it's like, oh, that didn't work for me. And it's, oh, I did this. That didn't work for me. So before you know it, you've tried all these things and nothing works. So I think you have to just do the work, do the research, be patient and know that it's going to take some time to grow your business the right way.

Rexhen:

Yeah. Thank you so much, Gerald. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. For anyone who wants to find you, they can find you at Gerald Bush and LinkedIn. They could also find you in www.gbkbconsulting.com. It's been a pleasure having you on the podcast. I think a lot of people are going to find your insights valuable. So again, thank you so much for contributing to our community.

Gerald Bush:

No, absolutely. It was great chatting with you and looking forward to learning more about the community.

Davis Nguyen:

that's it for this episode of career coaching secrets if you enjoyed this conversation you can subscribe to youtube spotify apple podcast or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes this conversation was brought to you by purple circle where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out to learn more about purple circle our community and how we can help you grow your business visit join purple circle.com so