Career Coaching Secrets
Career Coaching Secrets is a podcast spotlighting the stories, strategies, and transformations created by today’s top career, leadership, and executive coaches.
Each episode dives into the real-world journeys behind coaching businesses—how they started, scaled, and succeeded—along with lessons learned, client success stories, and practical takeaways for aspiring or established coaches.
Whether you’re helping professionals pivot careers, grow as leaders, or step into entrepreneurship, this show offers an inside look at what it takes to build a purpose-driven, profitable coaching practice.
Career Coaching Secrets
Why Career Coaching Matters More Than Ever – Lessons from Susan Edwards
In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, Rexhen speaks with Susan Edwards, founder of Forwards Career Services and a seasoned HR leader turned career coach. Susan shares how she built her coaching business from a side hustle to a full-time practice, the biggest industry shifts she’s seeing, and why aligning values with your work matters more than ever. Learn how Susan balances recruiting, coaching, and entrepreneurship — and her advice for aspiring coaches navigating today’s workforce.
You can find her on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/forstersusan/
https://forwardscareerservices.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
because I'm an advocate for podcasts. I love listening to podcasts and just absorbing as much education, information, stories from others and hearing what works for people and what didn't work for people and trying things that they've done successfully. And when I hear things that repeat over and over, then I know that's something that I should probably look into more on my own versus just listening to other people talk about it.
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.
Rexhen:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host Rexhen and today's guest is Susan Edwards. Susan is a strategic HR leader and certified coach who empowers professionals to align their work with purpose and lead with authenticity. With deep expertise in HR, leadership development and career coaching, she partners with high potential individuals and teams to unlock clarity, confidence and direction Business coaching style is grounded in empathy, a real-world business insight. and a people-first approach. Whether guiding career transitions, strengthening leadership presence, or helping professionals reclaim meaning in their work, Susan creates space for intentional growth and sustainable success. Her mission is simple, to help people show up fully and thrive in the work that they're meant to do. And it's my pleasure to have her on the podcast today. So welcome to the show, Susan.
Susan Edwards:Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Rexhen:It's an honor for us always to be able to interview coaches who have been in the space for some years. So tell me a little bit more about what inspired you to become a coach and start your coaching business.
Susan Edwards:So I am actually lucky enough to live in a beach town. I live at the beach in a resort area. And my early HR career days were spent noticing a lot of behaviors that applicants would do when they would come in for their interviews. And I say that very loosely because we're a beach town, so people would literally come in for their job interviews with bathing suits and their cover-ups and flip-flops. And they would come in for job interviews thinking that that was totally appropriate. And so that's actually what inspired me the most was almost a lack of education around the whole process of obtaining a job and how to showcase yourself. I mean, you're marketing yourself when you go in for a job interview. And so there were a lot of experiences like that that really kind of shaped my thinking around helping people perform well when it comes to not just the interview, but everything leading up to the interview, you know, filling out online applications, having a resume that performs really well. And so I got really lucky in 2020 when COVID happened and the world shut down. And as an HR professional, we get to do a lot of creative projects, employee activities and events where we're surrounded by a lot of people. And when COVID happened, all of that was taken away from us. So we were basically forced to to shut our doors and work in our office in silos. And so I was really missing that piece of people interaction and helping others and just having conversations and watching people learn new things and seeing the light bulbs go off for people and everything from I mean, I can remember having health fairs where we would bring in vendors from, you know, medical insurance companies and the dental people and the vision people and just seeing workers that would normally never take time off work to go have these screens done. And you see that light bulb go off. Oh, I can get this done while I'm at work. And I was missing that whole piece, that creative piece. And so in 2020, I was basically just, I had half of a job ultimately as an HR director. I was missing that piece. So that's ultimately what what caused me to start my company, not really knowing I would become an entrepreneur and that this was a whole world of itself. So that's what led me to start and just seeing the deep need that people needed help with writing resumes and interview coaching and negotiating for benefits and higher salaries and those things that you really want, but you're afraid to ask for, especially in the beginning. So that's what led me to actually start my journey as a career coach.
Rexhen:And like we mentioned at the beginning, it's been about four years and eight months so far. And from the moment you started it to today, how does that look like?
Susan Edwards:It's changed drastically. I originally started it thinking I was just going to be a resume writer and I could help people write their resumes. And as I was having conversations with various people back then, I didn't know anything about niching down or, you know, choosing really one Do you say I work with women? I work with men. Do I work in this industry? Do I work in that industry? As an HR person, I just naturally wanted to help everyone and realized quickly that I was getting a lot of questions, but my expertise really lied in a certain area. And the further it progressed and got away from COVID, and I took a couple of different positions, worked in a few different settings as a full-time role as my HR director position. I was in settings that I was... very much not aligned with intrinsically. And so I was able to answer a lot of those questions. And so that's really how a lot of things have transitioned over the years is that just going from my own experience and learning what I was really good at and the conversations that I really enjoyed having versus forced conversations. And five years ago, I would have coaching someone from California in the tech world, I wouldn't have really known what questions to ask. Whereas now, that's the bulk of who I speak to. Not that that's necessarily my target audience, but I do coach a lot of individuals that are software developers and from that Silicon Valley area. So that's essentially how it started as a resume writer. And then I added on as I've you know, answered and answered and answered and realized what the needs actually were. So
Rexhen:you kind of like where you find your offer over time with your coaching. And do you typically find yourself only working with software developers or is this that just happens to be the case? You're just not going after them?
Susan Edwards:Yeah, I think that's just this year. And I think that AI probably plays a large part in that. I think there's been a lot of layoffs in that whole industry this year. So I think that's why I'm seeing a lot more influx of folks from the tech industry. My preference, honestly, my background is all hospitality. I mean, I worked at a beach resort and a country club and an outdoor recreation company. And then prior to that, when I was growing up, worked in restaurants. So my whole background has been service-based. And so that's ultimately my language and I can talk it in my sleep. However, I've learned from working with so many tech professionals. I've learned what the nuances are. I've learned where the biggest struggles are and where the bottlenecks are for them. And right now, unfortunately, there's not really light at the end of the tunnel yet for the tech world. And I think that's just simply because of where we are at this day and age. And I think maybe this time next year, we'll be talking a different story. But yeah, ultimately, my My goal is to work with those that found themselves in similar situations as I did, where I'm a Christian and my faith is something that is very important to me. And from COVID until now, as an HR director, it's my job to enforce policies. And COVID caused a lot of new policies to be rolled out and a lot of question marks. And some things that the companies that I worked for were okay doing, I didn't did not feel comfortable doing that. But I was supposed to be the biggest advocate for certain procedures and certain And when you find yourself in those situations, you really find yourself questioning your purpose and questioning if you're doing the right thing or should you be here. And that's ultimately what I found was that I wasn't in alignment with the company, the values of the company, the culture of the company. And so ultimately, I needed to be out of those situations. And that's where I really thrive in conversations with my coaching clients is having those conversations and helping them see that there are a lot of opportunities out there for especially Christian professionals that you do want to align your faith or align your value system with the values of a company. And over the last several years, we've seen a big political divide and that's played a big part as well. And so that's ultimately what I really enjoy talking about, if you can't tell. But that's where I really enjoy those conversations and diving deep into what is it that really makes people happy and what are you really looking for in a company versus a job because a paycheck's a paycheck it'll pay the bills but are you going to stress at night are you going to lose sleep at night and are you going to hit the snooze button 20 times in the morning just to make yourself get up to go to work the next day you
Rexhen:feel that currently the industry is getting most hit is the tech industry or you find that in other industries as well
Susan Edwards:There's been three major industries that I've seen this year specifically since the presidential changeover. And that's, you know, anytime you have a new administration. So every four years, this typically happens. But this year has been very heavy with changes in terms of, yes, the tech industry has changed. seen a lot of impact. AI, the technology, that was going to happen regardless of administration. So I don't think that administration change has had necessarily as much to do with that. But I think companies are trying to, they weren't very proactive in thinking things through, especially the larger companies, you know, Salesforce and Samsung and IBM and these bigger companies that aren't necessarily the metas and the Googles that you typically think of. Ultimately, they just didn't plan ahead for what's going to impact their workforce. So I think that's what's impacted the IT industry. But we're also seeing when Doge was doing their audits, all the federal funding was basically on pause. Now I'm starting to see that open back up. And there have been a lot of contractors, so big especially Department of Defense contractors that are now starting to hire again or bring on more independent contractors for however long the length of the contract is. Sometimes it's months, sometimes it's years. But federal funding, you know, that was a big hit this year. And then, of course, the tariffs. So the tariffs, the retail operational world, and that goes everything from agriculture. When you think about farming, even U.S. farmers, what are they importing? What are they exporting? You know, what kind of pieces are needed for these manufacturing plants. When you think about, I mean, look at a phone case, you know, all the pieces that, you know, are to make this phone case and, you know, where are they getting these little circles from and the plastic piece. And then the, all of those things come imported. Right. And so when you think about the tariffs, it's not just big, big companies that trickles down. You know, when you think about all the retail stores that we've seen go out of business, there's obviously a lot less brick and mortar store. So there's a lot changing in that whole industry as well. It's been changing for a couple of years with obviously inflation and just prices. People aren't shopping as much as they used to, but also quality of products has really decreased just from having so many accessible goods. When you think about Timu, companies like Timu and Sheen and those types of companies that have lowered quality. Now these companies are starting to say that they're putting the tariffs onto the buyer, right, the consumer. But there's still a lot to be seen and a lot to come with that whole industry. So a lot of different people that I've worked with just in the few months of 2025 that we've been in so far. And so a lot of different industries have been impacted.
Rexhen:Yeah. Yeah. And when you think about tariffs, obviously putting it on the buyer is not helping with the budgets, right? You're just decreasing your conversion there by increasing the price because you're getting still something from Teemu, which you don't expect 20 bucks for, you expect to be $1 for. So you're getting so much for it. And now... All of a sudden, we have less revenue. We cannot keep that many employees. So yeah, it does affect the whole system in a way. So yeah, and when you think about Apple, especially now, the price of an iPhone, thinking if you were to do that all in US, what would the price be? And they come up with some ridiculous numbers that no
Susan Edwards:one
Rexhen:would
Susan Edwards:pay. I know, I know. I saw a new product that is probably going to be very much affordable in five years. But it's like the first flying, almost like a motorcycle thing that kind of looks like a snowmobile where you can, it's like a flying car, but it's a single person, you know, motorcycle. And it's $500,000, I think is what I saw. But it gives you, I don't know, like, 30 minutes or 40 minutes of fly time. So if you live in a big city and your commute is only, you know, five minutes with no traffic, is it worth the investment? You know, I don't know. Maybe for some billionaires, I'm sure.
Rexhen:Potentially just for like, for billionaires that want to just have fun.
Susan Edwards:They're not commuting anywhere, I'm sure. Yeah.
Rexhen:So right now, what would you say is the marketing channel that is working best for you in terms of people finding you or you finding them and getting them to work with you in your coaching business?
Susan Edwards:Yeah. So for me, it's two ways. It's having a partnership with a larger company that feeds you, your clients, as well as word of mouth referrals. I still, you know, I live in a very small community. I'm kind of like in a little bubble here, you know, at the beach. So I can't complain, but I get a lot of referrals, just word of mouth referrals, people that I work with or previously worked with. And they know me as an HR person. So they know that I'm going to give them, you know, good guidance and the expertise. from both sides of the field. So sitting on the table as the interviewer, plus sitting on the side as a coach and a friend and actually giving them the insights as to what are the good things to do and the not so good things to do. What are they really looking for? You know, if your salary ranges is, you know, ABC and their posted ranges is XYZ. I mean, that's basketball and baseball, two totally different things. ball fields, right? So, you know, just helping people that I know personally, you know, word of mouth referrals has been key locally. And then All over the US and even internationally has really been partnerships with larger corporations that feed me clients. So I think that's the one thing I think I wish I would have known about five years ago was introducing myself or getting in front of the right partnerships that already had the base. They have the marketing departments. They have all of those things, the funnels and the systems and everything that's needed rather than going through the growing pains of of years and years of struggle to try to figure things out and having this as a side hustle for really up until a year ago, I was still working full time. And this has been a side hustle up until last summer.
Rexhen:So for anyone who wants to do the same thing, basically work with companies that I imagine is like a contractor, independent contractor agreement with these companies.
Susan Edwards:Yes, some of them are independent contractors and some you can actually be an employee of, you know, and still, you know, coach as their employee, but still, you know, getting your coaching hours and continuing to stay within the practice. And you're able to a lot of times kind of narrow down your target audience or specific industries for that particular partnership. I leave it wide open. And I think that that's where I've actually seen the biggest, the most broad clients from all different industries. And that's where I hear all the horror stories of well, this is what happened with their layoff and this is what happened with their layoff. And it's crazy. Companies will do different things. Some companies I've seen them pay severance for a year for people. And then I've seen some tell them the same day and two weeks of severance. And it's not even really severance. It's like, we're going to give you a full paycheck if you would have shown up for the next two weeks. And that's about it. So I've seen companies do it both ways, just from working with so many different sectors of people with that partnership. That particular one, though, I'm an employee, but I also have partnerships with a couple of other organizations where I'm an independent contractor.
Rexhen:And because I've had people in the podcast that don't like doing marketing and sales, what has been efficient or what method has worked for you in terms of reaching out and connecting with these companies and trying to get them to work with you?
Susan Edwards:It's a lot of trial and error. That's kind of what it's been for me. For the employee one, I got lucky. And that's a fairly large organization. If I said the name, you would probably recognize it. So I won't actually name drop. But they actually had several advertisements, oh gosh, a couple years ago. And I happened to see it for a career coach. They were looking for a career coach. I thought it was like, you know, I was going to just be one. I was one of about In my group, I think there was about 80 of us that got hired together and went through orientation together. And so I got really lucky and got in at a good time. Whereas the independent contractor partnerships that I have, those came from two different ways. Referrals just through the various industries that I've worked in and meeting people by going to different conferences. And then of course, my HR background has led me to a lot of partnerships because businesses know me. I've written some articles local magazines. I've had some features in local magazines here. And that was actually a marketing thing. One of them was where I had to actually pay. I didn't even know this was... Here's a funny story. In the beginning, you get targeted when people learn about new businesses and then they look you up and you're a legit person and you've got all this history on LinkedIn. And then they ask your your former boss and they start asking around and realize oh this is a real person let's get her in and do a feature on her right so they sell it to you like oh we want to feature you we're going to do this full it happened to be a full two-page spread with pictures and everything i had a photographer and they did professional photos and it was basically like a q a session but It was great exposure that really, you know, allowed me to put more of a footprint out there, which allowed me to get picked up by some other magazines that were just about an hour away from here. Those were also local magazines. So that first one ended up costing me several hundred dollars. And I didn't even realize it, you know, because they approached me and they were like, we'd love to feature you. So but it ended up it was a marketing thing where basically they I agreed to it, not really knowing what I was agreeing to. I thought it was great. I was going to get some exposure. But they were actually filling pages with their advertisements, which was the advertisement. But it was it looked like an actual article of a local expert for HR and for career coaching and starting my own business and that sort of thing. So that's actually kind of what led to the beginning part of the growth. And that was actually back in twenty twenty one. Yeah, 2021.
Rexhen:That is an interesting way because I haven't thought about, not like in your case, but trying to get featured into big magazines, not just local ones, could have a benefit in people reaching out to you for potential contractor work. So it's not impossible to get featured into websites such as Forbes or all of these big media, either newspapers that have gone into a website or the Wall Street Journal. I've had an experience before because I come, like my marketing background is that of an SEO. So I started as an SEO specialist So I've gotten a lot of people to be featured into these companies before. It's not impossible. It's very tough. I've never thought about utilizing that to actually get contractor work from the perspective of a coach. So that is
Susan Edwards:interesting. It wasn't my goal. It was just, I was excited to be featured, you know, and that was actually just what happened afterwards. And a couple of other magazines reached out to me and I actually, since then, one of the local, we have a magazine magazine called Local Biz. It's basically business advice, business stories, and that sort of thing. And so I'm one of their regular subject matter experts. They'll call me when they want to do an article, if it's specific to interviewing or if it's specific to something involving human resources, but they know that I really specialize with career coaching. I do HR consulting for small businesses. That is an aspect of my business as well. And that's ultimately kind of the umbrella because The business kind of came to me and I didn't want to say no to people. You know, I want to help everybody that I can. But my time is also very valuable. And, you know, having kids, that's also any time that I'm spending on my business, especially when it was a side hustle, was pulling me away from that time with my kids. So I needed to be compensated for that as well. And so that's kind of a trickle effect of, you know. getting that phone call that one day. And I can actually remember where I was when she called. And I was like, I'm sure I'd love to, you know, just being nice and sure. And then it turned into, you know, a little bit more. And I was like, okay, I can handle that. No problem, right? So that's how it started.
Rexhen:Interesting. And right now with your coaching business, what are some goals that you're working towards with it for the next one to three years?
Susan Edwards:For my own goals, I also, crazy enough, when I stopped working full-time for others last year, I went ahead and started another business. So I technically own two businesses now. Forwards Career Services, that was my baby. That's me. That's a combination of my maiden name, which was Forster, and my married name, which is Edward. So Forwards. But it's also great because you can find tons of cute little trinkets that say, keep moving forward. And it's a great little slogan. like, that's perfect. And so I came up with the name Forwards Career Services. That's all my HR related stuff. And then I realized I really have a passion for recruiting. I always have. And that's all part of interviewing. It's part of that whole process. So I started a recruiting business last year and I've questioned on what do I do with coaching? Do I continue to coach? Because I only do one-on-one coaching. I don't currently offer any group coaching or anything like that. So it's all just one-on-one and there's only one of me and I don't have enough hours in the day to, you know, to give as much as I would like to, to, to all three aspects, you know, of the business. So the newest business is called American Visa Exchange where I recruit seasonal workers out of Puerto Rico for the hospitality industry. So again, combining all of my loves together. And so I have questioned and every time I question it, I know that it's not something I can quit. I love it. I love working with individuals. I love getting the stories. piece of my business that I can, I foresee myself giving up at least not anytime soon. So, you know, when I think about my goals for the next one to three years, it's continue to do what I'm doing. You know, if I can expand, I would love to be able to add group coaching. I would love to be able to get more people together and have these conversations together, almost like mastermind groups, you know, and maybe that's the solution. I mean, I know there's tons of ideas and tons of things that are possibilities. It is making sure that I allow myself the time and energy to dedicate to it that every single client deserves. And that's that empathetic character in the back of my head. It's like, if I were this person, would I want to be in this group or could I go choose another group? I want to make sure that I'm offering something that is very valuable and that people feel that they're getting their dollars worth and they're actually... getting big takeaways from it. So whether or not that's mastermind groups, whether or not that's group coaching, or if I continue to do individual coaching the way that I am now, my goals are really unclear. I'm open to all of it. There's no end goal. I know a lot of entrepreneurs and just from podcasts and things that I listen to, they start with with the end in sight. And I don't have an ending to my businesses. I don't want to get out of my businesses. I don't want to sell them off. I don't want to step away from them, at least not anytime soon. And my children are young. They're in elementary school. So hopefully one of them finds HR is their passion. My husband is in the medical field, so they may end up going that route. I don't know. I'd be happy either way. Or if they choose their own path, I'd be happy with that as well. But, you know, 10 years from now, I think I'll know a little bit more about what their goals are. And I think their goals are going to drive my goals in the long run.
Rexhen:Interesting. Thanks for sharing that. And yeah, you are right. It is not easy to scale when your time is limited or when you're just doing one-on-one coaching. How we've solved that or like ways to solve that is obviously if you were to hire other coaches that do coaching for you. And yeah, That way that your hours would expand depending on how many coaches are within your company. So that is also one way to look at it. And you also mentioned group coaching. That is also another way to look at it or with masterminds. So yeah, I think you just wait for these opportunities naturally. But yeah, I feel like these are the ways that we've seen with coaches that are in our community and work mainly basically through either hiring other coaches. So expanding the one-on-one or expanding through doing group coaching and minimalizing the one-on-one time. So both are effective and both do impact people that you're coaching. So, yeah.
Susan Edwards:It's a win-win for both coaches, you know, especially you build those partnerships and, you know, it's like, you lean on me, I lean on you and, you know, bring kind of a partnership. I've never actually thought about that from a coaching perspective. I have tons of HR consultants that, you know, I share business with and they share business with me, but never actually thought about that from the coaching perspective. That's interesting. Definitely something to do some research on for sure.
Rexhen:Yeah. And I wanted to ask you when it comes to your business, right now your coaching business, has there been any investments that you feel has helped you grow the coaching business. I could be any coaching programs, masterminds or communities that you found that actually have made a difference in you growing it or that have good investments that you'd like to share with us.
Susan Edwards:Yeah, I, you know, there was one that I, And the very first investment I made, I think it was like a $5,000 coaching program. I don't know that it was necessarily called a coaching program. Ultimately, what it was, it helped me lay out my blueprint. You know, week one, this is what I'm doing. Week two, this is what I'm doing. These are the exercises. It gave me all the other things, the fundamentals on sales calls and the follow-up and almost what a funnel really is when it to learn about you. But for me, what was important early on was I knew how to talk about it. I knew how to tell people, yeah, you have to, you know, apply and then you, you know, follow up and then, you know, you're going to get called in for an interview. And then, you know, there's all these things that you do. But when you lay that out and you actually look at it, when you think about all the various planners that are out there and, you know, some that are monthly, some that are weekly and people need that almost kind of like a task list. Like these are the things that we need to achieve this week. Everything from having a professional value proposition to, you know, a solid resume. And nowadays, you know, technology is so important that are using AI to help you create that resume. Is it going to be optimized for ATS systems? Are you actually following up on these applications? You know, are you just kind of throwing your resume out to a million people hoping that, you know, one person catches it and calls you for the interview? Or are you having a more targeted approach? And just, you know, having these conversations and laying out the foundational pieces was really important to me in the beginning because I wanted to come across as professional and organized. And I didn't feel that way because all the information was in my head, but I needed to get it out on paper. And that particular program, oh gosh, I forget the name of it. I remember the guy that did it. I think he still does it. And as a matter of fact, I still stay in touch with my coach. I live in South Carolina. My coach actually lives in North Carolina. I follow him on Facebook. On Instagram, he follows me on Instagram. And so it's just nice to, you know, that original connection that was made from an investment. And he kind of walked me through, you know, each week we had our calls and, you know, we would set things up. And of course, there were there was an online course that kind of went, you know, took you through the modules and gave you templates and things like that. Now, nowadays, I'm sure it's way more robust than it was. And that was back in 2020. So, you know, all of these things were very helpful to me early on in trying to get myself set up. up for success. There have been several other things that I have invested in, I'm not going to lie, that have turned out to be duds. And so it's hard. It's really hard to know what the good investments are versus the not so good investments. And it's trial and error. Everything for me has been trial and error. But that very first one is the one that stands out to me the most. And then I've also invested in one other business project. mentor sort of, less about coaching, more about being an entrepreneur. And so those two things for me have been very helpful. The first one I found by doing just online research. The second one I found because I'm an advocate for podcasts. I love listening to podcasts and just absorbing as much education, information, stories from others and hearing what works for people and what didn't work for people and trying things that they've done successfully. And when I hear things that repeat over and over, then I know that's something that I should probably look into more on my own versus just listening to other people talk about it.
Rexhen:Interesting. And I like that you shared all of these with us. And when it comes to that company that kind of helped you in a structured way, do you mind sharing what that was called just for anyone who might be
Susan Edwards:interested? Yeah. Yeah. So in the beginning, there were the guy's name that owns it. His name was Xander Fryer, High Impact Coaching Academy.
Rexhen:Cool. Are you familiar? Yeah. I've heard of it. I haven't researched that myself, but I'll definitely take a look. Thanks for sharing that. And you are right. And I feel like you don't always know when the investment was bad. You obviously know when it's good, but sometimes there's delayed return on that investment. You can see the benefits, but you'll not see it immediately. So you're right when it comes to you don't always know.
Susan Edwards:I know. And it's hard patel especially nowadays now i just use my ai assistant and i'll use all of them you know i'll use chat gpt and then i'll go to claude and then i'll go to perplexity and you know i'll use all of them and i'll say is this a legit program what do you think about this program you know what have you heard about this and just try to get as much information that's ultimately i don't use google anymore as much as i do chat gpt and i essentially use it as my research tool to help me either solidify that i'm thinking the right way or tell me don't do this stay away from it. And it's done both for me almost on a weekly basis, especially, you know, the last several months as it gains and gains popularity. So, but yeah, High Impact Coaching Academy, that was a really good one.
Rexhen:And by the way, it sucks for Google.
Susan Edwards:I know. Although there is, from what I'm hearing, I actually sat on a webinar earlier this morning. They are really stepping their game up with their AI tools. So I think that it's only a matter of time before they really start to compete in that space as well. Yeah.
Rexhen:And if you were to ask that question, like maybe three, four years ago, that people are no longer Googling, that would be so weird. Like that was like, I find it so strange. It's still strange that people have moved away from Google in a way and are now currently focused on AI. Well, at least still going Google or like anything that's local. They just want to know the AI. Like Google Maps.
Susan Edwards:I know. Or Google Translate. There's still not really like a translation thing that is pretty beneficial as well. So, you know, times are changing. It's crazy. We don't say MySpace anymore, right? Now we're not even saying Facebook hardly ever. Not to age myself, but I guess I've been around since MySpace. You probably don't even know what that is, do you?
Rexhen:No, I've heard of it. I haven't had an account on MySpace yeah so yeah i know that it was like kind of like similar branding to facebook yeah yeah
Susan Edwards:the original facebook
Rexhen:Cool. And what would you say right now with your coaching business is the biggest challenge from you getting from where you are at now to where you want to be ultimately with your coaching business, either if you were to scale further with coaching or masterminds or even currently as you're doing one-on-one coaching, what would you say is one of the biggest challenges that you're seeing or noticing?
Susan Edwards:Yeah. something that I've seen and I'll speak to this from the very beginning is that I don't think The value of a career coach has been articulated properly in a much broader sense. I wish that companies would invest in their people the way they provide outplacement resources. So when they go to do these big layoffs, they'll provide you with a career coach. They'll provide you with all of these resources that are available to you that provide From the beginning part of, you know, when people are getting hired, the companies like job boards, when you think about Indeed and you think about ZipRecruiter and you think about those types of companies, they have a lot of opportunities for growth in this space. And I feel like if they were to develop on placement services, almost kind of like just placement services, however, with helping, you know, Match people up with a career coach that they can have these conversations with. You can use technology to create your resume and to do all these things, but you ultimately have to speak to your skill set. You ultimately have to go in dressed appropriately for whatever reason. culture of the company allows, right? And if you're not having the proper conversations, you're not even going to know to research some of these things beforehand. So it's important that, you know, it's great that these companies offer outplacement services. However, if there's a way to get in front of job seekers, the people that are actively pursuing other work, whether they're currently employed or not, but they need some help, but they can't afford it because they're individuals, right? If bigger companies could actually take that burden off of job seekers the same way that big companies do when they lay people off and they're paying for these services for the workers that they're laying off, I don't know what that looks like in terms of, you know, on a broader scale, how to get the indeeds and the and zip recruiters to cover those expenses. I mean, that's cutting into their marketing and advertising and, you know, the funds that they get from that way, as well as, you know, companies sponsoring their jobs and things like that. But it would have to be from companies that are willing to take that risk and actually help job seekers land those positions. But with a real person, with a career coach, because there's so much value in career coaches. And there are so many different career coaches out there that no matter who what industry you're in, no matter what type of work you do, whether it's senior VP level all the way to supervisor level, you know, even hourly. I've worked with folks that are supervisors in manufacturing plants, you know, and they prefer third shift. And there's coaches for everybody that can talk your language and can walk you through the process and not only help you land a job faster, but get you the dollar that you deserve from the beginning, right? rather than having to ask for it at your annual performance review and your annual salary increase, you know, and making sure that you're actually getting what you want at the very beginning, rather than maybe some of these companies having to go through these layoffs, right? If you're providing the value upfront, maybe you don't have to lay off as many workers as is happening now. So that's the biggest struggle. And that ultimately is what what we all struggle with is lead generation, right? It's how do we get people to see the value in a career coach and have the money to invest in a career coach? Because there's not very many career coaches that charge hundreds of dollars. Most career coaches charge thousands of dollars. And that comes from years and years of experience. It's years and years of practice. It's years and years of data and actually seeing all of these things in action and being able to take their expertise and share that with you is invaluable. And trying to explain that to people and they don't have, you know, they don't know how they're going to make rent. Three months from now, they've got just enough to get through to that next position until they can land another position. It's a very hard conversation to have. So ultimately, it is that lead generation part. It's having the value shared more when it comes to our whole industry and what we as career coaches really do provide. And yeah, I do agree. And I like that you took a
Rexhen:perspective of not just individuals, but also companies, where how companies could potentially benefit from maybe offering coaches in there, like these big platforms, like you mentioned. Yes. Thank you. Thanks so much for sharing that. Yes. Is there any final advice you'd like to give to any potential career coaches who are going to be watching this and are looking to scale their impact further?
Susan Edwards:Yeah, so... If you're wanting to become a career coach, certainly if you're an HR professional, it's definitely something that you should certainly look into, especially if... You love the recruiting side. You love to interview folks. You love to meet and have those conversations. If you find yourself as the person that's always going to the job fairs and you're standing at the table and you're the one that's actually selling your company and helping people and getting them offers and making sure that they're the right person for the job, you're definitely well suited for this industry. I think that a lot of career coaches feel like they need to have this coaching certification and my certifications are HR certifications. I have my phr and i have my firm cp and i maintain those i keep those active i've been certified since 2012 and those are certifications that i will have throughout my entire life until i'm ready to stop working completely because they are so valuable you know so i would just say rather than you know looking into coaching certifications i don't know that that's necessarily the most beneficial for our industry i think it's more of the hr certifications and just staying relevant with things that you see on BLS.gov and things that you see in the economy and how it impacts the workforce, especially when it comes to layoffs and various industries. But that would be the advice that I would share with those that are interested in getting into this as a job, as a career. And definitely start slow. Don't invest in anything until you're starting to see some revenue. And I know it's hard, but you have to make yourself vulnerable at the beginning and put yourself out there. And you got to ask. You have to ask your friends if they know of anybody that would be willing to work with you. And even if you only want to charge $100 for your first client, or maybe until you get to 10 clients and you've made your first $1,000 and keep that full-time position until you're ready to take this on full-time. But it's definitely an industry that is needed. I think that I would love to see it grow even more. And for those that are seeking a career coach, if you're a job seeker that is trying to find somebody to help you, do your due diligence and don't just look up for websites. Go to their LinkedIn profile, see what kind of content they have. See how many people they're connected with. You know, do as much due diligence as possible and make sure that the person that you're working with is educated and they're going to advise you in a way that fits with your style. If you like the, you know, they say the same thing with like trainers, right? When you go to work out, if you don't want military style where they're yelling at you, you know, and if that's not motivating to you, then don't pick that kind of career coach either, okay? Find somebody that talks your language and that you see yourself working with. Every career coach is going to offer one free call I call mine a career clarity call. So it's a free 30-minute call. It's an opportunity to get to know me. It's an opportunity for me to ask you a lot of questions. And ultimately, it's to find out if we're a good match, if I can truly help you, and if you truly see yourself wanting to have additional conversations with me in the future.
Rexhen:Thank you. Thank you so much, Susan. It took me off perspective of the coaches and the people who are...
Susan Edwards:Both sides of the table. Remember, I sit on both sides. I'm so...
Rexhen:I'm just used to it. And I really like that you brought up a really good point when you said that for coaches who are looking to get started and are focusing too much on coaching certifications, one interesting find that we had with our research paper is that it turned out to be the worst investment in terms of return on it. So a lot of coaches were investing on it, but it just turned out to be a badge on the website. And a lot of people didn't care that much about it. The only ones that actually cared would be the companies who would hire you as a subcontractor for them. Maybe they would care because they feel like that would make it more legitimate that you are actually qualified to do that. But the people, individuals don't care about your syndications.
Susan Edwards:Yeah, I've heard those same things. Yeah, I've heard the exact same things, you know, and I'm glad that because I looked into it several times and I'm glad that I never did because I already know the foundations. I, I already have these conversations. And at the time, I was still working full time. I was doing this daily. I'm having interviews daily. I'm coaching managers daily. I'm literally having these conversations with people on a daily basis. I didn't need an institute to tell me Here's your certificate. Now you can go coach somebody. So I knew that I was already seeing the fruits of my labor because I was seeing results with people that I was already talking to. And that was just in my full-time job. I wasn't even being paid anything extra for that. That was just daily conversations that I was having. So if you're listening and you're in that situation as well as an HR director, doing this for years and years and years, that's what I would say. If you want to invest in something, get your HR certifications because those require you to maintain a certain amount of credits every year. And those credits are, it's continuing education constantly. And anything related to the world of HR is all going to be related to jobs. You know, so when you think about it, that's what human resources is. It's the, it's people in jobs for companies. So that's what my recommendation would be is the HR certifications.
Rexhen:Thank you. Thank you so much, Susan. And thank you for coming. Or anyone wants to connect with you or find you, they can go into your room LinkedIn at Susan Edwards (forstersusan). They can also go into your website, which is forwardscareerservices.com. That's where we'll be able to find you. And is there any other way they could connect with you?
Susan Edwards:Yeah, I mean, that's email and yeah, LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram, but I'm mostly on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my social media of choice. So if you look me up on LinkedIn, you'll see that I spend a lot of time there. So yeah, LinkedIn is the easiest way for sure. Just, you know, look, Susan Edwards and I'm in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Rexhen:Cool. Thank you so much, Susan.
Susan Edwards:Thank you.
Davis Nguyen:Thank you so much.