Career Coaching Secrets

Doland White: Leveraging Relationships & Substack for Coaching Growth

• Davis Nguyen

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Host Rexhen Doda interviews Doland White, "The Empowerment Guy," a leadership coach, author, and former CEO. Doland shares his 40-year journey from managing large teams to coaching, focusing on empowering leaders across six generations in the workforce.

He finds reward in building trust and helping clients uncover new insights. Doland's ideal clients are founders and leaders scaling businesses from $3 million to $100 million. His engagements typically start with a 90-day contract, aiming to teach clients to be self-sufficient.

While he uses LinkedIn for content, Doland emphasizes relationships and masterminds as key marketing channels. He also finds success with YouTube Shorts and Substack for valuable, actionable content. Doland advises coaches to continuously invest in themselves, join communities, and network outside their field.

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Doland White:

That's a good question, Regin. So there's a little bit of art. There are assumptive questions that you can use pretty much, you know, depending upon what you're coaching for. I would imagine for all coaches have got a box of questions that they can ask that lead to it. But I think a lot of it really comes down to your intuition and really listening carefully to the answer. And when you hear the answer and I don't know which podcast is related, so I will only say this one. I might use profanity in your podcast, but I will.

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 $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight figure career coaching business myself, and I've been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over a hundred million dollars each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business. Nice.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Regan, and today's guest is Dolan White, also known as the Empowerment Guy, a leadership coach, author, and former CEO with over four decades of experience helping businesses turn leadership potential into performance. He's the founder of Dolan White Consulting, host of the Next Interview podcast, and author of Lead with Confidence, where he shares his signature four pillars for building trust-driven, accountable, and growth-focused teams. From C-suite strategy to hands-on coaching, Dolan helps leaders lead boldly with clarity, confidence, and systems that actually work. And it's a pleasure for me to have him on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Dolan.

Doland White:

Thank you. Thank you, Regin, and thank you for that fantastic introduction. I'm humbled. It's good to be here with you.

Rexhen Doda:

It's a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for coming. What I want to know is when it comes to Like it's been so many years. What inspired you initially to become a coach and then start your own coaching business?

Doland White:

Well, great question. Great starting question. So as you can tell by the color of my hair, I'm an old guy with many, many years out in my career. And, you know, it's across the body of my career. I was blessed. I used to confuse managing people with leading people. And across my opportunity in a couple of different industries, it's funny, I had a a great conversation with one of my clients today, and we were talking about the fact that the plans that we make to go this way aren't as straight as we think they're going to be, that they kind of weave left and right, no matter how hard we try. And early in my career in managing people, and I was blessed, I had an opportunity to manage large teams, a couple of thousand people and carry big numbers and was CEO and president early on in my early 30s of a boutique consulting company, technology company, and ultimately sold that. And one of the things that I kept learning was the difference between managing and leading. And it really made me inquisitive about, so what is the gap between managing a person and actually leading a team? How do you develop teams that are extremely effective? And so in my career, I had a chance to go... develop courses and programs and teach engineers, lead engineers, which is hard to do, software engineers, go lead software engineers on becoming very effective inside of teams and to start to build that engine that creates teams that are founded on ease and elegance. About on April 1st of 2024, I officially retired. Up until that point in time, I had been CEO, CEO had been involved in different acquisitions and a lot of different activities of my career. And my intention in life really is to take the lessons that I've used to build teams inside of companies to help them scale and double their income and triple their income and take them to the outcomes that they were looking for. Definitely go out and found a consulting organization and consulting team with me, by the way, and coach executives on what it really means to be a leader. My personal mission is to empower 1 million leaders. In the introduction, you mentioned the empowerment guy. It's a moniker I just stapled on myself with LinkedIn and they let me keep it. So That's kind of what I... That's who I describe myself. But that's my focus. And I really believe now more than ever, we're in this unique period of time where we actually have about six generations all in the workforce. And it's that generation that's growing into... you know, becoming the lead of economics, the lead in leadership that really I'm focused on. And how do I help that generation? I don't forget old people like me. I help them sharpen their saw. But how do I help develop that generation so that we really are creating leaders that are able to take organizations forward, to create the outcomes that they create? Because it changes lives. It changes their life, their family's life. You know, it creates outcomes that are far bigger than scaling the company. So that's what prompted me to go start Dolan White Consulting and spin it off. My wife periodically comes in and reminds me I'm supposed to be retired. I don't have time to be retired anymore. So this is what I do. So good, good, Regin. That's a long answer to your question, but that's why I do it.

Rexhen Doda:

Well, I love that. And like you mentioned, there's six generations now, also for the first time, right, in the working force. Yeah. Hasn't been the case before. So I feel like, yeah, it's a big challenge for leaders when it comes to how you approach each generation, because there's different styles, I guess, of communicating with each generation. For example, I had a coach about a week ago and he was explaining to me how, for example, the generation of baby boomers, like you can just call them on the phone. Some, when you talk about the generation of millennials, you can email them when you talk about the generation of Gen Zers. There's a different kind of treatment. Yeah. Millennials don't want to put themselves and work more than 40 hours or 60 hours. They want to have more balance in their lives. Well, Generation Zers are like, they are able to put in the work, but they want to be appreciated while they do that. They want to feel like they are appreciated. Yeah, for every generation, there's something different. So I feel like it just makes it a little bit complicated for leadership teams.

Doland White:

It can. You know, when I talk to my clients about it, one of the things that we talk to them about is go where they are. So at any day I'm on WhatsApp, I might be on a Zoom, I may be, you know, really, and it's really where that is. And I think that's important. I mean, we tend to forget, I think a lot of leaders tend to forget that the general rule about it's not about making people come to us. It's about going to people where they are. which is part of recognition. Yeah, I love it. And I have five sons and they're all down to across multiple ages. Youngest is 32 now. So I get to live generations through them and see what's going on. Although they don't listen to me either and they all owe me money, but that's okay.

Rexhen Doda:

So how would you, like when through the coaching journey with a client, which part of that coaching journey do you find the most rewarding since you started doing this?

Doland White:

Yeah, great question, Reginald. And so for me, every coaching journey with a client is intimate. And I know there are coaches that probably will listen to the podcast and there's a very rote kind of methodology that they apply to their clients. And I learned the lesson that no one single methodology solves all of the problems. It takes multiple approaches. So a wide depth of experience comes in the end. So you can recognize that it's really going on. But I think part of it is when you are... there's kind of two or three stages. Like the very first stage I always kind of refer to as the dance. And that's where, you know, you're really trying to determine if you're the, when you get contracted as a coach and there is not all coaches are for everybody, not all clients are for all coaches. And no matter what happens kind of during the early interview stage, there may be an affinity and you agree to work together. But once you begin working together, there's this dance that occurs where you begin to develop trust. And trust is that there's law around trust trust takes five to seven interactions to develop in about three to six months to complete then it takes one interaction to shatter it as you're so kind of in the beginning you're learning trust and you're also doing that kind of developing that intimate conversation because a good coaching relationship talks about everything and that's because it's not about money it's money is an outcome that sits out over here it's all of the other things that lead to that outcome much much contrary that's completely contrary to a lot of clients for perspective. You're not there for the money. You're there to help them get things solved. So there's that piece where you're in trust with the client and you're also building that ability to communicate clearly so you're both understood. And one of the things that I really like is when you can tell both people, it's kind of like in any relationship, you can tell when your trust is hit, when you're at a place where that can begin to take effect. And that's one of my favorite spots. The other is then once you kind of cross through that door, there's two things that a good coach will do with their experience and one is help them accelerate things that they already know so they may have a problem with operations or a problem with team or trust or communication or accountability all of the things that go into it but the other side is then to help is to expose them to things they hadn't thought of before and it's kind of that duality so it's the that trust it's kind of that dance at the beginning and then helping them and you want to help them with things they know very quickly. If you've hired a coach, anybody hires a coach and the coach doesn't help them within the first two calls, go get another coach. You got the wrong coach. Go find somebody who's going to help you immediately come away with some kind of an outcome. But once you kind of get to the point where you've helped them with things they already know, then it becomes that longer place where there's things that they recognize and then how they prioritize them. Do they fit in the strategy? Do they fit in their long-term outcomes? Does it align with their core values? and you begin to help them through that process and that's where the relationship gets wide and deep and then I think when you cross into that domain as a coach then you've really built something that's solid and that's when the relationship goes beyond six months or a year to a long time because you're really spending them time helping them see things they can't see

Rexhen Doda:

absolutely and how would you say like how how do you go about helping them see things that they don't see is it by asking the right question at the right moment because some Sometimes I feel like the answers are easy if you had the question to begin with. The question is that unknown, unknown, someone else has to bring in sometimes.

Doland White:

Yeah, that's a good question, Regin. So there's a little bit of art. There are assumptive questions that you can use pretty much, you know, depending upon what you're coaching for. I would imagine for all coaches have got a... box of questions that they can ask that lead to it. But I think a lot of it really comes down to your intuition and really listening carefully to the answer. And when you hear the answer, and I don't know which podcast is related, so I will only say this. I will not use profanity in your podcast. But I will say bullshit. So it's important that you call the client on their bullshit. Because a lot of clients, we're to fail publicly. And so there's this fear that goes on. So if I tell you this and I know it's not going well, are you going to think of me as a failure? And there's that paradigm, that thinking that has to change with your client. And then it gives you the ability to ask deeper questions that really start getting down into the core of what's going on. Because most of the time, if something's really going sideways in your business, at the end of the day, that leader has to reflect inward. It starts and ends with us. They don't do all of those things for you. therefore, which is to help them think beyond today, think more into the future. Does that make sense?

Rexhen Doda:

It makes a lot of sense. And thanks so much for digging into this. This is very helpful. And I feel like a lot of coaches that are listening also might find this very helpful as well. So for the audience that we have that is not coaches, that is just the audience that happens to listen to us because of the coaches that we get on the podcast. For any leaders out there, executives, just so we specify a little bit, who is the ideal client profile that you typically find yourself working with, how would you define that?

Doland White:

Oh, boy. Question, Regin, again. So my clients, the people that I work with are varied. They're from founders, anybody that's trying to get from $3 million to $10 million in revenue, revenue a year. And there's an art nuance to that. And then I also work with some clients that are you know, $50 to $100 million in size. It really is. So from a revenue perspective, it's nuance of where they are in the revenue and what their goal is as they move forward. What I really look for and where Spot is with and working executives is to help them help the skills that they need to develop as leaders to create that team that not just direct reports, but throughout the organization. There's four layers, right? There's high, low, left, and right. So they can create an organization that really is empowered. And empowerment really means you're giving people the permission to go try. that they can go make mistakes. They can do without worrying about punitive things. That's hard for a lot of leaders because they've created that company and they're gonna put that piece of coal in their hand and they're gonna make a diamond out of it. So it's hard to let go and trust your team to do that. And I spend a lot of my career is focused on the process on how do you go from being that person to developing a fully empowered, trusted organization Because then at that point, you can get velocity, scale. You can then grow your business by factors of 10 at that point.

Rexhen Doda:

Mm-hmm.

Doland White:

So that's kind of my, that's really the sweet spot that I look for in clients is really not the size, but the need. And that's where I probe is what is it that you're trying to do and what has prevented you from doing? Why haven't you solved it yet? Yeah. What's, you know, what's your cost if you don't solve it?

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And so how would you describe working with these or them working with you? Is there a certain program of a certain length?

Doland White:

A good question.

Rexhen Doda:

How would you describe the engagement?

Doland White:

Yeah. So the engagement process, The engagement, I don't do year-long contracts with people. I just don't believe in it because the moment we come together to work, we don't know. So generally, initially, I'll do a 90-day engagement. And part of that is just so that we can do, I talked about the math behind trust, kind of doing the dance and the things that have to come through that process. And that engagement allows to kind of create a structure. In some organizations, I'm working only with the founder or executive. In other organizations, I'm working with the founder and executive and their leadership team so we're doing kind of parallel work and generally the founder is slightly ahead of where I am with the leadership team and that's so they can generally it's a larger organization that way it can be I guess permeated is probably the word I'm thinking of it can be you know taken down taken to the organization so I look that the kind of as the the initial from any client is let's work together for 90 days and I'm on a very and I'm a very straightforward coach look if at any time you feel I'm not the right coach for you then tell me, I'm okay. I'll be fine. And I'll help you find somebody who is. I think that's all incumbent to help each other. So that's where I start. Generally, those relationships expand out over time. There's one gentleman I've been working with for about eight years, another company a couple of years. It really just depends upon the needs of the organization. The one thing that I try to speak to is not to create a dependency. So I'm not on your payroll, never will be on your payroll. Matter of fact, I'm completely unemployable at this point in my life. My job is to help you, is to teach you how to fish. And if I can do that at some point, candidly, I've done a good job when I teach you how not to need me. And I think that's the role of a great coach.

Rexhen Doda:

It's so interesting because the coach works their way out of the relationship towards a successful coaching. Yeah, it's interesting.

Doland White:

Yeah, and it's fun. Inevitably, you create the relationships are intimate, right? So you ultimately, and they never ever fully go away. And matter of fact, I'm reengaging with it now after three years. So it's kind of like we're at this stage and now this makes sense. It's like, okay, let's go do this. So it's really more about not what can I do for you today. If you're coaching and that's your attitude, Regine, and you're thinking about or any coach listening to the podcast, if you're thinking in today, then you're coaching your client wrong. At the end, it is how do I make them self-sustainable? How do I make them the best possible, get them to the best possible outcome they can get to where they don't need me? And then when they do need me, I can coach them at a different level. Rather than coaching here, I can coach at a higher level and bring more value.

Rexhen Doda:

So for all the coaches that are listening now, when it comes to marketing channels, which one do you find working best for you right now?

Doland White:

Yeah, that's a great question. It's an interesting time. I think, you know, most coaches are going to say, oh, LinkedIn. I use LinkedIn. And you'll find me on LinkedIn, and I'm out there, the empowerment guy on LinkedIn. And I think one of the challenges, and having been a CEO of a marketing firm for a few years, I watch marketing very carefully. But, you know, one of the challenges with single marketing approaches is there's a lot of noise on LinkedIn. There's a lot of people out there who think they can help you. There's a lot of, you know. There's a lot of talent out there who really isn't quite ready for prime time making a lot of noise. So I think LinkedIn is good. My focus on LinkedIn, as an example, is I just really do content. I was a very soft offer on LinkedIn. They look, if you'd like to talk, call me and you want to listen to my podcast, this is where it's at. I focus on that. Where I focus on opportunities is in relationships. And that's either, and it can be a little precarious because not all of these are appropriate for everybody. But I would, any coach that is looking for leads, look, if you're doing it by yourself and you're not participating in an industry-specific mastermind, whether it's a leadership mastermind or coaching, working with, you know, there's other people out there, then you're missing an opportunity to develop relationships. Coaching is based on trust, and people will ask you to come coach when they see something about you that they trust, right? The three components of marketing, know, like, trust. So I would recommend, the most important thing I would, coaches, and that I'm finding that helps me a lot is just coaching. Be authentic with your content. A lot of times, you know, my content is I'll pick my cell phone up and I'll do a quick 60-second video, and it's just me talking. Don't get too hung up on it. And those moments of authenticity are really the moments that I find that people reach out. And I've been experimenting lately, you know, on different platforms, platforms like Rumble, which is a little bit of a different audience. YouTube is still, you know, the number one search engine on the planet. because it's because of the entertainment value. So people end up on YouTube. So I would recommend for coaches that are better than that, focus on those. Don't do omni-channel stuff. Don't put all your eggs in on LinkedIn and expect the phone to ring. It's not gonna, but focus on it. And for me, LinkedIn is all about content to answer your question directly. Content is LinkedIn. YouTube shorts are great. They help me with stuff. I'm finding great results with Substack. Substack and they're, you know, There's things coming out of Substack that I'm really pleased with. And then it's really all about relationships that I've built over years and years, which are people saying, hey, you've got a challenge, call Dolan, call that guy and talk to him.

Rexhen Doda:

So yeah, referral network as well. Absolutely. How, like when it comes to Substack, because that's a channel that often gets mentioned in the podcast. It's a channel that I don't, I'm not in. And so how, how do you describe the strategy behind it? Is it just content or?

Doland White:

Yeah, it's a little richer content from my experience. It's, it's a bit of a different nature. It's not a, so one of the challenges, I think we'll use LinkedIn as a poster child. LinkedIn originally started out as a business when Jeff started LinkedIn, the CEO of LinkedIn started it before the meta acquisition. It was really a platform for business people to connect. And then it's evolved into kind of business people connecting, social stuff, ads. So it's kind of been diluted. There's a lot of noise on LinkedIn. And it's still a valuable platform. Platform's great. What about Substack is it's a little more pure and people are really looking for the content.

Rexhen Doda:

So

Doland White:

I've seen growth in readership or reactions to my podcast or short clips or notes, greater growth on Substack because people are there, they're exploring for content and exploring for value. LinkedIn tends to be, if it shows up in your, kind of like Instagram, there's an algorithm that runs and it shows up in your feed, right? And based on a lot of different factors and not hashtags, by the way, for you coaches that are thinking hashtags solve all your problems, they don't. But If you haven't looked at Substack, I'd suggest it. Go take a look at Substack, and I think you'll find it is interesting. I'm always looking at, one thing, Regin, is I'm always looking at where are people? Yeah. Because if my mission is to empower one million people, I can't make them come to me. And the only way to get there is through multiple platforms. And if you're putting good content out that's a value that helps people do something, like don't just write to write, Put out content that tells people, here's an action step you can take today. Apply this. Then you'll build that know, like, trust, and people will come to you, and you'll, from that following, you'll develop engagement, and engagement develops clients.

Rexhen Doda:

Absolutely.

Doland White:

Not to give a lesson in marketing. There you go.

Rexhen Doda:

Well, I do like some lessons, too. I feel like everybody in the audience would prefer to have some. It's like for free. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Thank you. Thank you so much. So in terms of looking into the future, what are some, do you have any specific goals that you're working towards just in the next one to three years?

Doland White:

I do. Both a mix of personal and professional, always personal and professional. There's a, there's about work-life balance and there is only life. There's not, there's no work life. It's only life. The, yeah, so, so professionally, I'm to be, to have an opportunity, I'm partnered with a brilliant gentleman named Blaine Bartlett. We're launching a mastermind. It's his fourth year. I've been co-teaching with four years. We're now in a partnership. So we're looking at moving this mastermind. It's about mindset and not about the vision strategy. It's about the mindset of business. And so we're moving that to a global platform. on that mission to empower a million leaders. So that's, you know, that's a professional goal along with I'm now writing another book, two books, matter of fact, which my wife keeps reminding me I'm supposed to be retired. So I'm writing two books, coaching clients, running a podcast. So from my professional perspective, it is the, you know, while I have this time here and I'm 72 and I'm drawing breath, my focus is to take what I learned, the goods and bads of stuff that I've screwed up in my career and done well, because I've screwed a couple things up, and go help people be better leaders. On the personal side, I have a bunch of grandkids and 40 years of marriage, and so I have a great time hanging with those people and getting to be a different person. Have a good time. That's my life. They're my goals.

Rexhen Doda:

I like to say there's no work life. There's life. That is a very interesting way to put it. I mentioned in the beginning, but might have done a disservice because I said millennials only, but it's not that I'm trying to. It's just like information that I got from a coach.

Doland White:

Yeah, no, it's perfect.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah.

Doland White:

Yeah, and I think, you know, people ask about, oh, so tell me about your work-life balance. Do you feel like you're working too much and living too much? And I think people forget about, regardless of your generation, that there are moments when you work more and work less, and so the balance that occurs. all of it impacts our life. Like when we work a lot, it impacts our relationships with our significant others, with our family, with our kids and the other way around. So yeah, just one old man's opinion.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you

Doland White:

for

Rexhen Doda:

sharing. And so in terms of investments, what would you say have been some good investments in your coaching business, maybe investments in yourself, investments in the coaching business, like coaching programs, masterminds, communities, or anything else that comes to mind? And if any, what have been some maybe not so good investments that you'd like to have avoided? A couple

Doland White:

of those, couple. Let's start with the good ones. So the first is as a leader, one of the things I learned early on is to continuously invest in yourself. And you invest in yourself in three ways. The first is stay in the study. which means, so I read a book a month, generally on average, I'm reading a book a month and I study two books a year. So one book a month, reading the book means I'm just going through it and seeing all this stuff. Studying means I read it every day or I read a section of a book every day for six months to a year until it's ingrained. You know, and there's great books out there, things like Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill. That's a book I study. I don't just read Think and Grow Rich. I study that book. So I stay in the study. One of the investments is stay in the study. And that is, you know, which requires rigor and focus that you do allocate time to go do that. I do believe in masterminds and gatherings in the room. People, I always caution because some of them can be not what you're looking for. I won't use the word I was thinking of, but some of them aren't exactly what you anticipated them to be.

Rexhen Doda:

Mm-hmm.

Doland White:

So when you're thinking about that, you know, you do want to be in there and you want to be in there not for the purpose, singular purpose of contacts and getting something. It's about what if I participate, what is it that I can give into the group that I can contribute that brings value? By bringing value, others are going to want to engage you. You don't have to ask because they'll ask you. It's a fun law how that works. The other thing, too, that's been an investment for me is go hang out with people who don't do what I do. Yeah,

Rexhen Doda:

that is an easy thing.

Doland White:

Yeah. Go hang out with people who don't and watch them to them about how they do things and see, and it could be anybody in any organization. I mean, it's fun. You learn things, how they do it, and it gives you those moments of kind of wonder child-like discovery on, hey, maybe I could try that in what I do, or I could try that. I would suggest that you go do that. Go hang out with people who don't do what you do. I feel

Rexhen Doda:

like,

Doland White:

and

Rexhen Doda:

I want to interrupt you just for a second, I feel like that's where, because we're so invested in a certain field, When you go and talk with someone who is in a completely different field, you feel like that's what he's doing. What can I do with my knowledge that would like advance that what he is and go to the next level? And then you feel like, oh, I have some unfair advantage if I were to do that. Or like, if you just stay in your field, then you're just limited by the information of that field. So yeah, for example, for me, marketing, I feel like marketing, just marketing, what should I do? There are people that have a service. They have the skill, they're just missing marketing. I wish I could hang out with those people more. So yeah, sorry for interrupting.

Doland White:

Go ahead. Yeah, no, no, no. It's good on you too, Reggie, for thinking that way, because it's funny that we take away through those conversations. And the other thing too, is in those conversations, there's no intent. You're not there to sell them something or do something for them, or there's no intent other than just to have a conversation and learn, which is cool. It kind of makes it nice and it makes it easy.

Rexhen Doda:

For

Doland White:

me, the bad thing on things I've invested in before in my career that weren't as good is probably the biggest lesson I would tell people is when you hear people with an idea, this is Dolan making stupid mistakes in his career a couple of times. When you hear people with their ideas and you're attending a mastermind and you're not necessarily in sync, you feel sometimes like you want to come away with value because I've spent money. I need to come away with something I can go do. Therefore, I feel like I can feel good about the 10 grand I spent or 20 grand or 30 grand I spent to be in this mastermind or 100 grand in this particular case I spent. You want to come back and apply that. Well, you can, you can, the assumption that, well, if it worked for them, it's going to work for me. Well, then it doesn't work that way. Because where they were at the time isn't where you are or where your organization is. And so you're, you know, I've blown up my team before coming back and implementing stupid ideas, good ideas, stupidly at the wrong time, thinking that it was, you know, oh, he did it, I can do it. And coming back and doing that. And that's a... And those investments, so the flip side to making the investment in yourself is be, you know, be what you're investing in and what you're going to do with it. And I had a great interview the other day, and it was a CEO, and she was talking about there's really only two buckets in the business, good stuff and stupid stuff. So invest in the good stuff and try not to do the stupid stuff.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for that. Right now, what would you say is a challenge that you're trying to solve for next in your coaching business? Thinking about the goal in mind as well. So short term challenge.

Doland White:

The short term challenge, I think for me, just, you know, on a personal basis, Regin, is just it's that challenge. Talk about life balance. It is that balance between the direction of moving forward with, you know, creating a, you know, a platform that, you know, empowers leaders. And yet at this, without sacrificing coaching, I'm finding, you know, focusing on, you know, growing that sustainable platform through masterminds and other writing books and other things come sometimes at the sacrifice of being able to have the time to go coach. Because it's, there are two very, one is, one is, one is really intimate and And if I pick one challenge that I'm looking to kind of solve in my business is to grow a little bit more on the one-on-one coaching side because of the, I can see the accelerated results on that side there with individuals and executives.

Rexhen Doda:

And that's- You mean when you say grow, meaning just like serving more executives, leaders?

Doland White:

Yeah, yeah. Adding in more clients, I think on that side. Because my focus has not been there. And I think I struggle with that balance, you know, which is kind of part and part. We're talking, we hit go on the podcast. That's one I think that's pretty endemic for all coaches, I think, is that balance. And for me, it's that kind of that, you know, running the side to run Mastermind, run podcast, which is a mass kind of one to many. And it loses kind of the intimacy of one-to-one coaching. And I'd like to grow more on the one-to-one side.

Rexhen Doda:

Totally, totally makes sense to me. Thanks for sharing that. And my final question to you is, what advice would you give to other coaches who are looking to scale their impact? In a way, you're also looking to scale your impact through your books. So what advice would you give to other coaches, if any?

Doland White:

I would, yeah, you know, it's fun because everything is going to be in a different place, you know, kind of in where they are. They're in, you know, so...

Rexhen Doda:

Let me actually rephrase the question. Coaches who are around your place, around your level, since that would be like, think about it as an advice you'd give to yourself.

Doland White:

Yeah, focus on the give. There's reciprocity, and it's built around don't worry so much about having things come to you as much be more concerned with the gift. And I think when we really put ourselves in a position to where we become a servant to that, doesn't mean subservient, but when we serve that cause, when we serve that with the right intent, and we serve it authentically, I've been talking all day, it gives us the opportunity, then other doors open. So I find all of the time, every time I feel like I want to pull or push with my business. I take and leave it alone. And the business in turn answers its own question. Doors open, introductions occur, opportunities like this occur. So if you're a coach and you're really like you've got to push and push or pull, relax. Just take a breath and focus on what is it? Ask yourself one question. What is it that I am not giving? And give that. If it's time, give time. If it's content, give content. but what is it that you're not giving and allow that to impact the outcome and do it authentically.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you so much, Dolan. And thank you for coming to the podcast. For anyone who wants to reach out to you or connect with you, they can go into LinkedIn, Dolan White. They will be able. to find you there, the Empowerment Coach. They can also look into the website, dolandwhite.com, where they also will find you there or thenextinterview.com, the podcast. Is there any other way people could connect with you or reach out to you?

Doland White:

No, that works great. I'm hard. Like you mentioned, if you go to LinkedIn, I'm the only Dolan, I think, on LinkedIn, is the first name, which is a blessing in its own way. But just go search for D-O-L-A-N-D, and I'm sure I'll pop up. I'll pop up out there. And if I can serve you in any way, listeners or coaches or guests, you know, drop me a message. I'm happy to respond. And what's mine is yours. So just give me a ping and I'll let you know.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Davis Nguyen:

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit joinpurplecircle.com.