Career Coaching Secrets

Michelle Gilbert on Turning Messy Leadership Moments into Competent Action

• Davis Nguyen

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In this Career Coaching Secrets episode, host Rexhen interviews Michelle Gilbert, a certified leadership coach and founder of Purple Engine Coaching. After a long corporate career, Michelle launched her business to help high-achieving leaders with "messy leadership moments."

She works with established managers who are struggling with skills like delegation and communication. Michelle's marketing is organic, relying on her network, referrals, and LinkedIn, where she builds authentic connections.

To grow, she plans to launch a series of free webinars. Michelle advises coaches to be patient with themselves and to invest in their own development, highlighting that investments in her own coaching and community have been the most valuable.

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Michelle Gilbert:

Yes, absolutely. I will share this podcast. I love our conversation and I know that my audience will enjoy it as well. I will tell you also that I do a lot of networking. I go to networking events. I do a lot of one-on-one lunches and breakfasts and just staying connected to people in my community. And that helps because they may not need me tomorrow, but they may need me six months from now or they may not need me at all. but they might know someone.

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 businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million 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.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Rejan, and today's guest is Michelle Gilbert. a certified leadership coach, communication expert, and the founder of Purple Engine Coaching and Consulting. Again, for the editor, for that sentence, I'm going to start again. After more than two decades leading PR and corporate communications at Fortune 50 companies, Michelle made a powerful pivot to focus on what lit her up most, helping high-achieving professionals turn messy leadership moments into competent action and influential outcomes. Through one-on-one coaching, group programs, and dynamic workshops, she equips managers the Thank you, Regine. It's a pleasure to be with you

Michelle Gilbert:

today.

Rexhen Doda:

So we were talking about and first of all it's a pleasure for us to have you here but we were talking a little bit earlier and you were explaining to me how long you've been in corporate america and i wanted to know like the story of like how the coaching got started i also talked a little bit about it in the intro, but I want to know what actually inspired you to make that move.

Michelle Gilbert:

Sure. So throughout my entire career, one of the things that I have enjoyed most is helping other people grow their careers. I've almost from the get-go led teams and really mentored people. And as I get older, my youngest daughter is now going into her senior year of high school. And I knew that eventually I was going to want to hang up my corporate cleats, if you will, and find something to do that would give me more flexibility so that I could finally travel and see the world and just not come back on a Sunday and worry about 500 emails that were in my email box. But just do things more on my terms. I... started a journey to earn my coaching certification. This was in early 2023 and little did I know at the time, but the company that I was working for was going to go through a reorganization and my job was impacted by that restructuring along with many other people. And so my choices were that I could stay with the company and try to find another position or I could leave and write my next chapter, figure out what I wanted to do next. And all I can tell you, Regine, is that every intuitive bone in my body said it was time to finally take a chance on me. And so I fast tracked my plans by about two years and I decided to go out on my own and start my own coaching business. And so that's what I did in early 2024. I really just wanted to be able to set myself up to have more flexibility and more ownership for how I spent my time.

Rexhen Doda:

And it's been around like one year and a half, one year and seven months or something. And you've been already working with many clients so far, right? What do you find most rewarding going through your coaching journey with your clients right now?

Michelle Gilbert:

I would say hands down, the most rewarding part is watching people step into their confidence, especially when they didn't think it was possible. Last year, I listened to a meditation on confidence and one line really stuck with me. The woman said, confidence is is your birthright. And it really hit me how often high achievers in particular, we let our inner critic and those limiting beliefs hold us back from owning that truth. And so for me, as you asked me what is the most rewarding part. It's really helping leaders quiet that noise and see their own strengths more clearly. That is so powerful. And when we all start showing up with more presence and more clarity, more conviction, everything shifts, not only for ourselves, but for the people who we lead and the people who work around us.

Rexhen Doda:

And now when it comes to these leaders, Do they fall into a specific demographic, a specific industry, or do they have something that brings them together, such as do they fall into a niche or they have similar issues? How would you like for any leaders listening to us? Because by the way, I didn't mention this in the beginning. This podcast is mostly for coaches, but what happens is a lot of coaches that we get on the podcast often share the podcast episode with their audience. And so some of these people might even be listening. I want to make sure that they know the type of audience that you're typically serving.

Michelle Gilbert:

Sure. Oh, well, thank you for asking that. I primarily work with established leaders. So think of managers, directors, vice presidents. They're already great at their jobs. They're very well thought of. But internally, they're struggling with some of those tricky parts of leadership that we tend to shy away from. So it might be effectively delegating. It might be giving constructive feedback. Or it might be managing up to maybe clients or our bosses or managing across to colleagues. And so I don't necessarily work with one specific industry. My clients are both men and women. I would say the age range is usually somewhere between mid-30s to maybe mid-50s. And that's because they've already had some leadership experience. They've been around the block. They've fallen. They've figured out, you know, they're stumbling and they're trying to work through something. And they understand that doing it by themselves is just harder than it needs to be. When I first started my coaching journey, I really wanted to work with young professionals and even college students. because I have such a passion for helping the younger generation. And I know they need it. The problem is they don't necessarily know what it means to invest in themselves. And I'm not trying to generalize. There are some who do. But in general, they don't necessarily have the budget or the mindset that investing to get that external support is going to help them get to where they want to go faster. Whereas people who've already been working for five, 10, 15 years, they've already struggled on their own. So they know how hard it is and they're ready to make that investment.

Rexhen Doda:

And how does the coaching look like for them? I did mention one-on-one coaching, group programs.

Michelle Gilbert:

So I customize my coaching program for each and every client because I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all approach. Most of my clients are one-on-one coaching, but I'm also doing some group coaching initiatives for businesses that hire me that have a group of leaders who may all be struggling with a couple common themes. It might be around the way in which they communicate. or building their confidence or learning how to be more productive. So in those instances when I'm doing group coaching, I come to each session with a set topic. So there's a little bit of instruction and then there's coaching that goes with it so that everybody gets to participate, share their feelings, share their questions. The more that people participate, the more everybody benefits because when we allow ourselves to get vulnerable in a group coaching environment, not only do we build stronger bonds with our colleagues, but we learn 10 times more because that question that you ask, I guarantee you, even if it wasn't on the minds of other people, they're all going to benefit from the question you ask. Everything is customizable based on who my client is.

Rexhen Doda:

Generally, they're gonna pay for it. Sure.

Michelle Gilbert:

So I have two different versions of one-on-one coaching. I have people who come to me and say, hey, I need some support and I'm not even going to ask my company to pay for it because I don't want them involved. I will pay for this out of pocket. That we just work one-on-one. Then I have businesses that say, hey, we've got some leaders who could really benefit from some external support and we're going to sponsor it. We're going to pay for everything. And you work one-on-one with each leader on their specific goals. And that is a phenomenal relationship. I love working with businesses that like to invest in their employees. And the biggest, the most important piece of that relationship is the understanding of confidentiality because, and it can be tricky because the sponsor, the business needs to understand that I'm not going to come back and tell them everything that was discussed in a coaching session. On the other hand, they need to know that this was a good investment. So we have to have some level of measurement. So in that type of relationship, the sponsor, the client, and me, the coach, we all come together for an alignment call so that we understand what the goals are. We agree on those goals. And are there any topics that are off limits? So for example, I've had that conversation with the sponsor and client that says, okay, do we all agree these are the goals that I'm going to work on with Joe? I'm just making up that name for the purpose of our conversation. Yes, we all agree on that. That's Joe's goal. And then I say, are there any off-limit topics, sponsor, that you want to make sure that Joe doesn't bring up with me? So for example, if Joe comes to a session and says, you know what? I want you to prepare me for an interview that I have with another company because I'm thinking about leaving. I'm going to say to Joe, that's an off-limit topic. that you're thinking about leaving, but we can't use the time in this session to talk about it. And once there's clarity at the front of that relationship, it makes it very easy to follow suit. Now, that doesn't mean that Joe can't add another goal. Joel might say, you know what? I've noticed that I'm really struggling with my own self-worth and I'd like to add that as a goal because I think that's going to make me a stronger leader. Great, we'll add that as a goal. And we will make the sponsor aware of that with Joe's permission, but we stay away from topics that the sponsor has decided we can't, we don't want you talking about this.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool, thank you. Thanks so much for sharing that. That definitely clarifies how it works. And is there a specific program or, well, not program because they're customized, but is there a specific length that you usually find the clients going with?

Michelle Gilbert:

Yeah, so I typically say, start with three months and three months can usually have somewhere around six sessions. And the reason I like to start with that amount of time is because I think it's long enough to see progress and to feel like you've accomplished something, but it's also a short enough period of time so that if for whatever reason the client switches gears, doesn't feel I'm the right fit, they're not locked into a six month coaching program because I never want anybody to feel like they're stuck. They have to want to show up ready to engage. And if for whatever reason, it's not a fit, I don't want to collect someone's money if that fits not a good fit for them. So three months is a typical starting point for me.

Rexhen Doda:

Three months and then they can extend if they needed to. Absolutely. Yes. Cool. Thank you. And now I want to move into a question that will interest mostly coaches themselves, other coaches in a similar boat. In terms of marketing, and we talked a little bit about this in the beginning, what is currently working for you?

Michelle Gilbert:

So I'm just going to warn you, Regine, that my marketing and how I find my clients is not super sophisticated. And I'm sure that I have plenty of opportunities to learn from your other guests here. But honestly, I find most of my clients through my existing network, relationships that I've built and nurtured over time. I use LinkedIn as my primary platform for sharing news about me. sharing tips, things like that. And I have actually been able to attract some clients through LinkedIn. And I try to use LinkedIn, not just professionally, but a little bit personally as well. And I'll share a short, true and funny story. So I actually just signed my first client because I'm a dog lover, meaning not my first client, but the first client who said he chose me because I'm a dog lover. And I asked him, I said, so, you know, he found me from LinkedIn. I said, so why me? What is it about me that attracts you? And he had seen a few of my posts where I feature, I actually have three Australian shepherds. And I said- What is it about me? And he said, well, you like dogs, so you have to be a good person. And my first thought was, well, these dogs cost me a fortune, so it's about time they start pulling their weight. But it was really a great reminder that people are paying attention to the whole you, not just your credentials, but they want a personal connection because let's face it, there's a lot of leadership coaches out there. And there are a lot of leadership coaches who probably have thousands more hours than I have in coaching. So what is it about me? Why is someone going to choose me? And it comes down to personality and relatability. And if people relate to me because they love dogs too, then there's a connection that we have there. If someone loves cats and they hate dogs, I may not be the coach for them. So It really, I try to build my business organically. I know it's going to take me longer to build the business doing it that way, but it's what feels right and authentic for me. I get a lot of people who reach out to me and offer to work with me. I could outsource lead generation to them, but that doesn't feel natural for me. And so I've turned down those opportunities. I just feel in my heart and my soul that I need to do it the authentic way.

Rexhen Doda:

And so people just naturally find you on LinkedIn or they know you or see some posts. It's never Outreach or something like that is always people coming into you and looking to learn more on how this works and hopefully even this podcast.

Michelle Gilbert:

Yes, absolutely. I will share this podcast. I love our conversation and I know that my audience will enjoy it as well. I will tell you also that I have, I do a lot of networking. I go to networking events. I do a lot of one-on-one lunches and breakfasts and just staying connected to people in my community. And that helps because they may not need me tomorrow, but they may need me six months from now, or they may not need me at all, but they might know someone who does. And so they make that referral and referrals for me are gold. That makes a lot of

Rexhen Doda:

sense. And actually, from what I've interviewed, most coaches, a good, not majority, a good part of it does rely on their network, basically. or on referrals for their business. And some people have relied on it 100%, just getting business from referrals from past clients or current clients. There's definitely probably some strategy required there because sometimes you just have to let the clients know that they could do that because they don't always have that top of mind. So yeah. Has there been something like that? generally any strategy or maybe it's just like an email or nudge or something keeping in touch with your clients in order for

Michelle Gilbert:

them? So I am in the process of putting together an email list and an email campaign so that I can in fact keep in contact with my existing and past clients. I've asked a lot of clients for testimonials when they've expressed their satisfaction. I have not been bold enough to ask for referrals and I need to start doing that. I think it's one of those parts of selling myself that just feels uncomfortable and I don't want anybody to feel pressure, but I know that's also a silly thing to think and I just need to be bold and ask. Even I am a work in progress.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah. Yeah, generally it's just like if you know someone that would also benefit from this, it would be cool, but yeah, nowhere pressure in there. Yeah, I think it's definitely something that a lot of coaches have done. And if you see some of the previous episodes, I don't know exactly, but there's like a number of them that have created a strategy where they can consistently ask clients. And some of them have done it in a very strategic way where I think the guy's name is Ed. One of them that I, Ed Samuel, that I interviewed on the podcast, he utilizes many marketing channels, but he also makes sure that he gets can get not necessarily testimonials, but get on LinkedIn. There's something else where they leave a, what's it called?

Michelle Gilbert:

Recommendation.

Rexhen Doda:

Recommendation. Yeah. So they basically, yeah, they're leaving comment, endorsement and something like that.

Michelle Gilbert:

Yes.

Rexhen Doda:

Got it. That has also been a thing. So yeah, he shares a lot about that. And yeah, feel free to check that episode as well. I

Michelle Gilbert:

will.

Rexhen Doda:

Other thing is I wanted to ask you in terms of like goals, where do you see your coaching business going for the next one to three years? Is there any specific goal that you're working towards?

Michelle Gilbert:

I would say that my goal. is because I'm still, like you pointed out, you know, I'm 18 months into this. So I still feel like I'm a toddler in the coaching world, still learning, still growing. So one of my goals for the next one to three years is to get to a point where I'm consistently spending anywhere from five to 10 hours a week in coaching sessions, because obviously that's what I love the most is being able to work with my clients. And I know that the business building part will always be there, but I'd really love to see that ratio shift so that I'm spending less time, I hate to say chasing the business because that sounds so aggressive, but going after new business and more time I've earned the business. So I'd like to see that shift a little bit where I can really spend more time actually with the clients because I those referrals are coming in and the repeat business is coming back.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. That makes a lot of sense. Has there another question that I always ask is, and this will go again to the research is, what investments in terms of investments, is there any investments that you've done that you feel like that was a very good investment either on yourself or in your coaching business? Or has there been any investment that has been maybe terrible that you'd like to share? Because I'm trying to get good at that.

Michelle Gilbert:

Yeah. Okay. So let me start with the good investments that I've made. And I think it's so important for coaches to invest in themselves and to drink the Kool-Aid that they're selling, right? We're talking about how important coaching is. Well, what makes us think we don't need coaching? Because we do. And so I'll share a couple of programs that I've participated in that have been incredibly valuable. The first is there's a woman named Brenda Meller, M-E-L-L-E-R, and I joined early in 2024 her program, which is called The Recipe for Social Selling. And she taught me how to use LinkedIn with intention. I always thought I was good at LinkedIn, but I didn't realize how much better I could become until I took Brenda's course. So I highly recommend people follow Brenda and learn LinkedIn better from her. She offers a lot of tremendous free value add before you even have to decide whether you want to work with her. The second program that I invested in is I took a group coaching program from Nicole Kramer and Andrea Daniels. They lead an exactly what to say program that was designed by Phil Jones, who's very well known. And they gave me the tools to talk about my business in a way that feels natural and authentic and less cringy because before I wasn't really talking about myself. I wasn't selling myself because I didn't know how. And so I've learned how to have a conversation with intention thanks to them. And then separately, I joined, Nicole has a mastermind group where I'm in a group coaching program with other new coaches. And that has been invaluable because being an entrepreneur and working on your own day and day out, having a community has become everything to me. It really gives me a place to learn, a place to stay inspired and know that I'm not doing it by myself. So those investments in me have been invaluable. An investment that hasn't been so valuable I'm asked a lot, sponsor this, sponsor that, get your name out there. And I've done a couple of those things, and they have fallen flat. Because I think it's because I'm not taking that approach where I'm trying to advertise and sell myself through ads. I'm going a more authentic, organic route. So trying to build in sponsorship to that organic approach, it just doesn't work for me. So I'm not really doing that anymore. And I feel bad because it's not that I don't want to help other businesses grow, but it just is not a fit for me. And I I've got to be smart about how I spend my money.

Rexhen Doda:

And also I've had a podcast. The guy was named Raj Kara. He goes into the details of content marketing and goes into how LinkedIn now also ranks on Google and everything else like that. The reason why I had to dig so much into it is because he built a tool that helps coaches with their content writing. So he had to actually learn on what works. So yeah, that is also an interesting episode and community, just like you said, I've gotten this feedback from many coaches that when they're not part of a community, you can feel lonely a little bit on what you're doing. So yeah, very good investments there. Thank you so much for sharing them. I also wanted to talk to you about challenges right now. So what is a challenge to have that you're trying to solve for next in your coaching business, short to midterm or short term?

Michelle Gilbert:

Sure. So one thing that I haven't done a very good job of is hosting webinars to give people who might be interested in me kind of like a taste of what I'm like. And so I'm actually working on launching a series of free webinars that will address common leadership challenges. Like some of the things I already mentioned, navigating difficult conversations, building confidence. I mean, the truth is I have all the content. I just need to carve out the time to package it and to promote it. And like many solopreneurs, I'm juggling a lot. So it's really easy to reprioritize and chase the next shiny thing. And And I'm learning how to prioritize those important projects and be more intentional with how I spend my time. So my goal, and now that I'm saying this out loud, it's going to have to happen because I'm committing to this on your podcast, Regine. My goal is that by September, I'm going to have a webinar series that people can join for free, learn from me, and decide whether or not I'm for them. And if they just walk away with some free strategies and it helps them, then I'll still feel good about what I've done.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. Great. In that way, you would have still impacted some lives, even though you haven't coached them directly. Yeah, that's a very good goal. And is there any final advice you'd like to give to other coaches like yourself that are trying to scale their impact?

Michelle Gilbert:

Sure. So I'm going to give you advice that I've learned and I would say I'm still working on because I think that sometimes even in coaching, when you're working on a challenge and you have a breakthrough moment, it doesn't necessarily mean you've mastered that and you're never going to deal with that challenge again. So the first thing I would tell other coaches is to be patient with yourself. It's so easy to compare yourself to others and feel like you're not moving fast enough. And I say that from my own personal experience, but I have to remind myself every single day that growth takes time. I'm only going to have referrals and never going to have to sell myself again. That's unrealistic. Also, remind yourself what you've already learned in your coaching training. I know in my coaching training, they always said, you're exactly where you need to be. And I truly believe that. There are things that I try and they don't necessarily go as planned. And I work really hard not to get frustrated with myself and just say, you know what? If you learn something from that, That's great, and you're exactly where you need to be. I've made mistakes earlier in my coaching career, and if I had made those mistakes further along, it probably would have been more impactful to my business. Finally, surround yourself with people who lift you up and who you can learn from. And don't avoid the uncomfortable stuff, especially selling yourself. Learning how to talk about your value in a clear, confident, and I'll call it a non-cringy way, this is one of the most important skills that you can build. So surround yourself with people who can help you with that, who you can learn from, and don't be afraid to invest in yourself because investing in yourself is the very best investment that you will ever make.

Rexhen Doda:

It'll be like the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you. Thank you so much, Michelle. And for anyone who wants to connect with you or find you, they can go into LinkedIn, look up Michelle Gilbert. They'll be able to find you. You mentioned a website. Is there a website?

Michelle Gilbert:

My website is purpleenginecoaching.com. Yep. And I'm happy to give my email address if someone wants to reach out direct. It's Michelle at PurpleEngineCoaching.com. Cool.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Michelle. So both of those, the website and Michelle at PurpleEngineCoaching.com. That's correct, right? We'll make sure to also put them on our description. So thank you so much, Michelle, for coming. It was lovely having you on the podcast.

Michelle Gilbert:

Thank you, Regin. You did a great job with the interview. Cannot wait to go check out your past episodes. I wrote a couple notes to myself of the ones that you mentioned that I know I'll get tremendous value from. Thank you. Thanks 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.