Career Coaching Secrets

Staying Relevant at 79: Randy Block's Secrets for Lifelong Learning & Coaching

• Davis Nguyen

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Rexhen Doda interviews Randy Block, a Certified Professional Coach and career plan advisor with decades of executive recruiting experience. Randy pivoted to full-time coaching, driven by a passion for helping individuals. He focuses on empowering clients to help themselves and navigating their self-discovery.

Randy works with diverse clients from early career to near-retirement, finding them primarily through personal referrals and Blue Steps. At 79, he emphasizes staying relevant, continuous learning (including AI), and purpose, with no plans to retire. His biggest lesson was realizing he cannot control or "fix" people. Randy advises coaches to listen deeply and understand clients' motivations.

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Randy Block:

Well, one of the things that is important, and I want to say AI at GBT and Claude is my guy, you know, people used to hire me prior to AI. People would hire me for information. Okay, yes, there was the internet, but I knew what a CFO did. I knew what was going on. I knew trends. And in large part, people would hire me because I was knowledgeable. Okay, I think the biggest thing now is you have to assume that

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 Doda:

Welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. Today's guest is Randy Block, a career plan advisor and professional certified coach who believes it's never too late to create a career you love. With decades of experience in executive search and recruiting, Randy made a bold pivot himself, leaving a successful corporate path to follow his calling as a full-time career coach. Now he helps others do the same, break through doubt, align with their values, and build that truly fit the life they want to live. Whether you're navigating career change, burnout or boredom, or simply yearning for more purpose in your work, Randy brings clarity, strategy and heartfelt encouragement to the journey. His clients range from early career professionals to seasoned executives and near retirees, all seeking something more meaningful, more aligned. If you ever thought, is this really it? Randy is the coach who will help you answer what's next with confidence and direction. Randy, we're so glad to have you with us. Welcome to the show.

Randy Block:

Glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Rexhen Doda:

It's a pleasure. Randy, tell me a little bit more about what inspired you to become a career coach.

Randy Block:

Essentially, after all the years of being a headhunter, I was really becoming more interested in what my clients were, what my candidates were about. And it wasn't I was losing interest in the companies. It was just I found people a lot more fascinating towards the end. And I felt like, been there, done that, got the T-shirt. And so I was ready to make a change. Not that I was bored, but even my clients, or I keep saying clients, even my candidates knew, and my clients for that matter, knew that I was going through the motions. And I was headed towards burnout. It was time to make a change.

Rexhen Doda:

And... Can you tell me a little bit more about your journey from the moment you started your coaching business to where you are at today?

Randy Block:

Sure. Bottom line is that I had realized, first of all, that coaching is not really helping people. Coaching is helping people help themselves. And so I went into it thinking that I was going to solve people's problems. So what I realized that me as the coach could come up with the right solution, but they had no ownership in it. So as soon as I got over that hurdle, that to discover, to have them just a discovery process in themselves and what they would need, that became then my coaching business. Also, it took off. It started to really address a specific market. So they weren't just another, we always say the cognitive and the brain, excuse me, the cognitive and the heart. I tell people I weave together the two. I am a brain-based performance coach, so I use a lot of that to overcome hardwiring that doesn't work for them. That was all really exciting to me. And then, so part of the problem was people still saw me as a headhunter. And so you would think that I would be able to just quickly call them, hey, knee coaching, and That's not how it works. So that's what I discovered also. And then from then, I pretty much, I like to move when I want to move. I like to go check in. I basically have been working on a straight commission since 1972. So I thought about building a career path. I went into this capital raise firm for a while thinking that that might be another path. And I was the people guy in this firm. And I learned a lot. So I think the key for me has always been learning and staying relevant. The key word here for everybody, whether you're just out of college or you're looking at retirement, everybody in between, is how relevant are you? What's your purpose? Why the hell are you on the planet?

Rexhen Doda:

And it's been almost like it's been more than 24 years that you've been doing career coaching. 25 years, more than 25 years. Yeah. And it's been...

Randy Block:

You can say journey. Journeyman, that's okay.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah. So I talked a little bit about this in the intro in terms of who do you work with. Is there a specific industry or demographic part from what I shared, meaning early career professionals to seasoned executives all the way to near retirees?

Randy Block:

That's a pretty good description. In terms of industries, I have been all over the map. In my search business, I was in high tech. And it was the chips, it was software. I mean, it was pretty much everything in that sector. So, but now, I mean, I really enjoyed the green industry, learning all about that, because I had to, because my client was in that industry. I learned a lot, not just from reading and researching, but I also learned a lot from them. So the key for me, you know, like, again, the brain likes to keep learning, and that's how it stays active. Did I answer your question? I'm assuming you're going to come in. No, that wasn't the question that I have, so don't be afraid.

Rexhen Doda:

It's totally clear to me. I just wanted to make sure that we have the full picture. And when it comes to finding your clients, I think that probably has changed a little bit, maybe from the beginning of the 25 years to where you are today. How do you see that working now versus how it was working before?

Randy Block:

I get a lot of emails. I'm hit on LinkedIn at least three or four times a day. They guarantee so many. They'll use bots, whatever, or AI to find the ideal client for me. And I looked into a couple of those. And It seemed okay, but a little voice in me was saying I was unwilling to do upfront money. I would rather pay for results. And so I've been able to change some of them away. And I might as well give a plug now that I am associated with an organization called Blue Steps, and I'm a coach for them. And that is strictly on a referral basis. They've got They're basically the partner of the American Society of Executive Search, which I was a member of at one time. And so the clients and et cetera go in between them quite a bit, and I get referrals through them. And I only pay them when I'm engaged. So that seems to work. But it's amazing. I stay in touch with clients that I've worked with, especially the ones that I've had a special relationship with. That's hard to define other than they're not really friends, but then again, you can't be friends with your therapist. But by the same token, they trust me and I trust them.

Rexhen Doda:

And

Randy Block:

when I get referrals from them, it's based on trust. So when I get referrals from them, it's great. I rarely get a referral from somebody that, say I coached five, six years ago. It was a decent coaching experience, but... it wasn't meant to last for whatever. And there are those two. So the personal referrals, I learned as a headhunter that like people have a tendency to refer like people. I have a pretty high hit rate when a former client of mine refers someone that they know and that they're reasonably close to. So anyway, it's worked the best for me.

Rexhen Doda:

Thanks for sharing it. And when it comes to future goals at this point, do you have any goals that you're working towards in the next let's say one to three years, maybe?

Randy Block:

I'm only smiling because your editor can edit this out. It's his or her call. I don't care. But on April 15th, I celebrate, I start my 79th orbit around the sun. I could be your grandfather, but it's true. I learn a lot. I stay relevant. You'd think I'd be hanging out in retirement. I do some of that. But I'm now coaching the children of my senior clients. I like to tell people, When my senior clients start referring me to their grandchildren, forget it. I'm out of it. But no, I love what I do, and I think I'll have purpose. I'll have the love of the job, love staying relevant, what's going on. I don't plan to know it all, but it keeps the brain active.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah.

Randy Block:

If I had one thing to tell people, the brain likes novelty. And boy, am I learning it with AI. I learn as much as I can with that. So my first response, he said, what do you want to accomplish in the next three years? And I was saying, how about staying alive? I don't want one foot. But I so jazzed. about what I do. I know at some point it's going to end. I always told people that I could be on a coaching call at age 81 and have a heart attack and die. And my last word, be sure to get a refund. But anyway, I just love it. I have no intention of retiring. That's a bad word for a lot of us. I'm a boomer. I'm one of the first boomers. And I really care about what happens to my clients, although I could have written a book, you know, coaches that care too much.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, I really appreciate that. I really like that. Continue to do coaching. Are you right now coaching? How many clients are you coaching? It's five, six?

Randy Block:

That's about all, you know, it's pretty intense. I mean, not every call is intense, but we do get into it. And I think sometimes, you know, I took a life coach course, which doesn't, but life coach. And ever since high school, I've been interested in psychology, you know. And I sometimes see the world of coaching and life coaching kind of coming together. And also in a way, I hate to say this, but therapy or psychology a little bit, you know. It's not so much what people say, it's where they come from and how they say it. And I pay a lot of attention to that. I don't know. I'm here indefinitely. One day he'll say, I'm self-employed. He'll say he's no longer with the firm. You go, whoa, my God, he must have died. Anyway.

Rexhen Doda:

So you're passionate about it, that's for sure. And when it comes to the last 25 years that you've been doing this, what would you say other people, career coaches who are looking into making an investment to improve their coaching business. What resources or support has been most valuable for you growing your coaching business over time?

Randy Block:

attend, oh boy, I'm sorry. There's a group that has every three or four years, they have a conference. It's a video conference. And their topics are amazing. And it's current. I mean, the way that I do really stay current, I attend these conferences and I'll tell you, I will email you with the name of the firm, recall us what it used to be. But nonetheless, they've been helpful. Of course, you know, and also I use the resources, Blue Steps as well. And I also, I oftentimes will actually help them stay current as well. So it's a mutual. Other resources. Well, one of the things that is important, and I want to say AI at GBT and Claude is my guy, you know. People used to hire me prior to AI. People would hire me for information. Okay, yes, there was the internet, but I knew what a CFO did. I knew what was going on. I knew trends. And in large part, people would hire me because I was knowledgeable. Okay, I think the biggest thing now is you have to assume, the coach has to assume that people are not going to hire me for information, how to interview, how to network, how to promote yourself within an organization, you know, succession planning, all that stuff is available. I mean, because I know because I've checked it out. Okay. And I'm just saying now, I could be wrong. But it's not like that. I've actually headed to what Claude says. Here, pass this along. You know, like one of the things is every employee is completely responsible for their own development. It's not the company or their manager. Nothing to do with them. I gave a talk to Microsoft on that. It sounds like a big deal, but it was called Your Call. It's always your call. Waiting to be promoted is passe. It will not happen. I mean, that's some of the things that I bring. And it's still relevant today as organizations flatten out more. I have a whole rap on this one, Cooper Jones.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah.

Randy Block:

Go ahead. Did I answer your question?

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the question. And especially, like, when it comes to recently and your investments with Blue Steps, that is something also that– could be valuable for anyone's watching. Is there something that when you first started this coaching business, when you first started scaling it, is there something that you wish you had known at the beginning or like an unexpected lesson learned?

Randy Block:

Well, the first thing is I wish I'd known that I can't really control people. Nobody can. And I can't fix people, but I thought I could. And I got frustrated because, you know, you get right down to it. We really don't have any control over people. I was facilitating the San Francisco, I'm out in the Bay Area. I was facilitating a San Francisco execs group. And I listened to these all president, you know, CEOs, you know, all C-level people. And I listened to them. And finally, I couldn't hold it in anymore and said, what makes you think you can control a human being? Human beings are intangible. It's not a car or a vacuum cleaner. You don't control them. You can empower them and what have you, but ultimately, they make the decision. You don't make the decision for them. I mean, I really got, and it took a while to get there, but they were good with it. You know, they'll pour their coffee, they'll throw their coffee at me when I said that. But no, seriously, what it's really about is who are they, what are they capable of, because you can't coach anybody. There's an old adage, they're never ready until they're ready. So when I talk to a prospective client, I have ways of figuring that out. Yeah, I wish I'd known earlier. I would have gotten a two-year head start, but I kept trying. This person isn't executing. Yeah,

Rexhen Doda:

I do hear that a lot, actually. I'm not a coach myself, so I wouldn't know, but I do hear that a lot from other coaches when it comes to some– clients not executing. I just wanted to ask you what you meant by control, but that actually explained it. Basically, they're not pulling through with what you're providing. I have to

Randy Block:

interrupt for one second. I do this really well. I coach who interrupts. Warren Buffett, who said the last person to speak at a meeting is one that everybody listens to. I think listening is important. Certainly. But the people that will have a tendency to repeat, you know, whatever, there are so many lost souls out there. I mean, I truly mean that, lost souls. And I don't know when this is going to ever be up for broadcast, if at all, but I'm just saying there's a lot of fear right now. There's a lot of confusion that we're dealing with. But the only thing you can really control is about having ownership and defining the problem. your stakeholders, and then having ownership in what you do. It's me. I'm responsible. I'm totally accountable. And I really work on that with them, with my clients. It's key. Even if you give them an answer, they're probably not going to execute because I've always felt 90% of unsolicited advice goes unheeded anyway. I learned a lot in those 25 years.

Rexhen Doda:

I can imagine. And Apart from this one that you mentioned, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges you face in scaling your coaching business? You

Randy Block:

said scaling. When I hear scaling, it means I hire people and build an organization. thought about doing that. As a matter of fact, I had researchers. As a headhunter, I decided not to do that. And then I established liaisons, partnerships with other coaches because every coach has the same style and we exchange information. So that's been helpful. But in terms of coming up with clients, I'm pretty active on social media. Not that I'm bragging, but I think I'm getting up to 19,000 connections online Although I personally think LinkedIn is becoming, the requests to connect are pretty amazing from the people. But anyway, it's the biggest, the 800 grill in the room, you know, so. Yeah, no, I can't say that I've got a trick or a secret to find new clients. I give a lot of speeches. It comes in that way. I write a lot, you know, comes in that way. Hashtags are my friend. You know, but I just don't have any, quite frankly, At this stage, if I had about a dozen clients a year, that's with everything else I've got going, which I know this isn't about finance, but with everything else I have going over here, thank God Trump pulled this out. Sorry. He's stopping some of those tariffs. But, oh, God. Anyway, it's really amazing. I had one guy, they interviewed one guy on TV who said, ah, I lost $19 million. Really?

Rexhen Doda:

Really?

Randy Block:

Is that all? It's a neural perception. No, I haven't, but there isn't anything I wish I'd known except for what I've shared with you already. And I love scaling, but I really move too fast for anybody to follow me sometimes. Anyway.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, and currently, since you're still managing six clients, which... I wouldn't say is like a low number either. How do you handle the balance between delivering great results to these clients and managing the business growth on the other side? So it's like new clients coming in while you also have these six clients.

Randy Block:

One of the questions on my intake form is how will you know you're getting your investment for coaching? And I pay a lot of attention to that. There's one answer. There's one answer that's not acceptable. And that is I get a job. Find another coach. Because most coaches that I know and I'm aware of can't do that. They can't deliver. Because I've studied how to get hired. I've studied... What's that? Oh, your hand.

Rexhen Doda:

Oh, sorry.

Randy Block:

No, no, I think I just got a little distracted. It happens. I, yeah... A lot of people are not good at politics. Some people are. I'm not very good at politics. What I mean is I made some choices. As a matter of fact, I got so distracted with your hand. Get me back to the conversation again. I'm sorry.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah. So I was saying, how do you handle the balance between delivering great client results and managing business growth on the other side? So there's some admin work or there's some new clients that are trying to get in.

Randy Block:

Okay.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah.

Randy Block:

I think 90% of the world's unhappiness comes from lack of meaning expectations. So I make sure that I hit those. That's just the best results. I don't promise anything, okay, what they expect other than finding a job or throwing employment. And so I do that. And, you know, I use Quicken. I use, let's see, what else? You know, pretty much I'm the CFO. You know, besides running, I call myself an owner. And I'm just a sole proprietor. So I really have a huge need. I could do admin. I'm a smiling admin. And details like that are not my strength. It never has been. You know, I'm a minor in marketing and sales. And half my clients, when I was a headhunter, was marketing and sales. And, hey, I know you guys. I know you're full of it. Let's talk to each other, you know. But anyway, so no, it pretty much seems to work. I do record reports for myself because, again, Quicken allows me to do that.

Rexhen Doda:

Is there any final advice you'd give to other career coaches who are going to be looking at this that are also looking to scale their impact, even though that is not something you focus on? But what advice would you give to them?

Randy Block:

Well, in the second case, when you scale– And I've heard this. I heard this as a headhunter because I worked for a firm of how many people? We had about 10 recruiters. And he scaled. And there are inherent problems in scaling as a recruiter. The magic number is always five. When you get higher than five, it gets to be a whole different game. Not going to get into that. But I guess the thing for me is the advice would be Are you a good listener? Do you get what people, not only what they're saying, but why they're saying it and where are they coming from exactly? It's the why. And does that come easy for you? Or do you have that gift? You can always develop it. And a lot of times you do mirroring. This is what I'm hearing you say. We talk about feelings. I'm talking to a client saying, I'm really frustrated right now. Why is that? Well, because I'm not understanding where you're coming from. I own everything, and I want them to own it. We're not into the blame game. So that's another one is looking into coaching. And just lastly, remember you cannot solve their problem. You might be right. You might be dead on. But if they had no ownership in developing, in defining that problem, and executing and taking care of it. They have no ownership.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Randy. Was that all

Randy Block:

right?

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, that was all right. Thank you so much for coming today. For anyone who wants to find you or connect with you and have a conversation maybe just like this one, they can find you on Randy Block on LinkedIn. They can also find you on randyblock.com on your website. So it was a pleasure, Randy, and thank you for taking the time to come to the podcast today.

Randy Block:

Thank you. I enjoy it. Let's see, you're about 27, right?

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, that's

Randy Block:

accurate. All 27-year-olds do this. Oh, really? I try to reach you guys. I love talking to you guys. I really do. It's just... I have a 35-year-old son, you know, who he's in the Space Force and such that his clearance is so high. I say, how was your day? He said, Dad, if I told you, I'd have to kill you. He would. But anyway, I'm a parent, too. We talk about parenting, but I love being a dad and all that. So anyway, good luck to you. Thank you for your time. And hopefully this has helped you. And who knows, it might help me, too. So, all right.

Davis Nguyen:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Randy. Thank you. Thank you.