Leading with Authenticity and Impact with Alexandra Popkova

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Alexandra Popkova, a global business leader, leadership coach, and advocate for authentic growth and empowerment. With years of experience guiding professionals through transformation, Alexandra shares how self-leadership, clarity of purpose, and resilience can help you build a career and life that truly align with who you are. She opens up about the importance of redefining success, embracing growth through challenges, and leading with empathy and authenticity. Tune in for actionable insights that will inspire you to step into your full potential both personally and professionally.

You can find her on:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrapopkova/

https://www.instagram.com/empower_leaders/

Transcript

Alexandra Popkova: 0:00

It's fine in them. I feel like many coaches and myself included here, we want to do what we're good at, but then we find ourselves in a position where we need to think about marketing and LinkedIn and Instagram and posting and sales speeches. And it's like, can I just focus on like my expertise and clients magically appear at my door and I have lines of them waiting for me to be available.

Davis Nguyen: 0:26

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 Wynne, 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, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Kevin Yee: 0:58

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Kevin, and today we are joined by Alexandra Popova. She's been a coach for 10 plus years. Welcome to the show, Alexandra.

Alexandra Popkova: 1:08

Thank you so much for having me, Kevin.

Kevin Yee: 1:09

Yeah, let's start 10 years ago. Let's start at the origin story of the lore. Oh wow. Tell me how you got into coaching.

Alexandra Popkova: 1:16

I enjoy sharing my story because I feel like that that's something that I haven't even dreamt about 10 years ago. You know, I used to work for this international NGO, ISIC, and I had a one-year contract in Nicarawa there as my last year with them. And I used to get feedback that I'm really good with people. Like team members from other departments wanted to join my projects. I would get feedback from my peer managers that I was really good with feedback and coaching and just general like team management. And I also was really good in making sure that people from my team get promotions after my project. But you know, when you're good at something, it's usually something that you don't necessarily see. Like it's like obviously, who is not? What do you mean you don't know how to just manage your team? You just go talk to them and magically happens. Right? So for me, it used to be like that. And then one point of time, I really sat and said, I've been getting this feedback for quite a while now. Maybe, just maybe, there is something special about it. And I really like I feel that it's easy because I'm good at it. I then I started to pay more attention, and then I had an opportunity to work with a coach back in Nicaragua. He was my mentor. I'm really grateful for that experience. And he had his own firm. And back then, his goal was transitioning from a personal practice to more of a corporate expanded offerings. And I pretty much helped him do everything that he didn't want to do, you know how it goes in startup projects. So everything that has to do with sales, proposals, and the logistics back office, co-facilitating, preparing LD materials, everything. And I would look up to him and thought, oh my God, he's so amazing. Like when I grow up and become this strong independent woman, what should I do in my life to be even close to this holiness? You know, he was a professional certified coach by International Coaching Federation. And I remember his office, it had various diplomas and certificates, but that one in particular was very special. He would always make a point to say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got lots of courses, I got, you know, all this education, but this piece of paper is really what matters. I was like, oh my god, this is I cannot even dream, like I cannot even picture myself there, but just oh my god, what can I do in my life to be just similar to this, close to this, you know? And then fast forward 10 years, I'm a professional certified coach. Yes, surprisingly. And I had this really inspiring aha moment when last year I got my accreditation and I got my diploma, and I was just looking at that email. Like, wow, like I couldn't even dream about that. And I'm there. I am the strong independent woman that I wanted to be, you know, 10 years ago. And I think that's really important. I feel I see that a lot just from my clients and my peers and colleagues, that it's so easy to get lost in our day-by-day. And of course, in this journey, our standards get higher every time because we get more experience, we get more exposure. So something that used to be our goal. It's like, yeah, obviously, like I'm there. I've achieved that, right? So what's next? What's it's always about what's next? What's the next chapter? What's my next step? So I think it's really important for us to just take a step back and pause and say, hey, like I am where I wanted to be. This is a milestone. Let's celebrate this.

Kevin Yee: 4:54

Yeah, that tends to be a pattern of overachievers where they're like, okay, I can't. Oh, absolutely. Right. Yeah. And so I'm kind of curious these days. Like, I know that dream was like 10 years ago. And you learn so many great things, right? And you mentioned that you're like, oh, I like people are giving you feedback that you're really good with people.

Alexandra Popkova: 5:11

Yeah.

Kevin Yee: 5:11

But there's this famous quote that you can't read the label with inside the bottle, right? And it's like it's so easy for other people to point it out. And it's so beautiful that you know, this person that you really looked up to eventually you kind of became that person. So what I'm really curious about is like, what are you doing these days? Like, who are you kind of coaching and how are you running your whole business?

Alexandra Popkova: 5:31

So I most of my clients in coaching are leaders, executives, and also expats, international professionals, people who are looking to move in a new country or have already moved and trying to just figure it out and stay sane. It might sound like to different audiences, but ultimately when you get into it, it's all about how do you manage the complexity and uncertainty in your life, in your business? How could you be a resource to yourself and people around you and enjoy the process and get to your results and goals faster with less drama?

Kevin Yee: 6:12

And I'm really curious too. Like you mentioned leaders, executives, expats, people moving to a new country. What is unique to that experience? Like, what sort of problems do a lot of the people coming to you do you kind of notice?

Alexandra Popkova: 6:24

A lot of topics that I work with have to do with cross-cultural communication or adaptation. Like, how do you design your new self in this new cultural context without feeling that you're losing your essence, that you're betraying yourself? I think that's the main trend that I work with.

Kevin Yee: 6:45

What are some examples of betraying yourself look like?

Alexandra Popkova: 6:48

Sure. I could share my experience. I'm originally from Russia, but I've been lucky enough to live and work in five different countries, very different cultures. India, Bahrain in the Middle East, Nicaragua in Central America, and now in Colombia. And when I moved to Nicaragua, it was my first country in Latin America. And as I usually say, it's as far as it could possibly go from Russian culture. It's black and white. The communication, how do you build relationships with others, how you relate, how you show respect, how you're being polite, the behavior of all these values are the exact opposite. So it took me a while to find my own answers and adapt and find my place in that new reality. Because obviously, when you land in a new country, nobody meets you at the airport with onboarding manual. Things to keep in mind.

Kevin Yee: 7:43

What are some cultural nuances between the two cultures that you have? Yeah.

Alexandra Popkova: 7:48

Of course. I think a lot of it has to do with communication. So in Russia, the way you show respect would be just going directly to the point. Like if I give you a call, I don't know if you're a busy, if you're in the middle of something, I respect you and I respect your time. I'm grateful that you picked up your phone. So I'm just gonna say, hey Kevin, I have a question. Oof, never do that in Nicaragua. Because you're too much, you're too direct, you're not being respectful, and nobody will ever want to work with you. So you need to do a small talk, you need to connect. Everything is around personal relationships and personal connections. People need to like you to then decide to help you by doing their work. So the argument that it's your work, you're being paid for, so please send me that report is not an argument.

Kevin Yee: 8:38

Yeah, I've noticed that. I fortunately like lived in uh LA and I specifically worked in West Hollywood as a pharmacist. And a lot of my patients they were Russian, and so I had to really adapt to that directness. Whereas, you know, American culture and even a lot of South American culture, it's like tactfulness and all this a little bit. It's really okay. And so uh let's go back to your target market. You mentioned leaders, expats, and executes. How do these people find you in the first place?

Alexandra Popkova: 9:09

What is the Oh that's uh a painful question for every coach. I think as of today, a lot of my clients come from recommendations, honestly, but obviously it took me some time to build that network.

Kevin Yee: 9:24

Yeah, mostly recommendations. How did you get the ball rolling? Because usually with referrals and stuff, it usually starts with like kind of like a disease outbreak. You need patient zero first to refer to you. So how did you get the first one?

Alexandra Popkova: 9:37

Absolutely. So when I started with coaching, that was my parallel story to my corporate career, honestly. And I was lucky enough to be in a position and have a great manager who gave me the trust, responsibility, and support needed that I could explore my coaching within the organization. So I did a lot of that and I built a name for myself there. And actually, when I left that company, I got a few of my ex-colleagues reaching out for coaching. Wow. Yes, I think that story was really important. And another thing that I did that I find really helpful in the beginning of my practice, I just offered free coaching for three clients. I really did like harsh face control. I had meetings with them, I shared my expectations, we made sure we were on the same page, we're aligned in terms of their commitment, the schedule, how many sessions we're gonna do, assessments, because it was really important for me to go through the whole cycle and not just have random sessions here and there with clients. And then once I got this experience, first it made me feel much more comfortable saying, oof, I know what I'm doing. My clients are happy, this is a result, and I could sell them. And also not only, you know, use it for external marketing, but just having this self sense of grounding and kind of like professional confidence. I think that was quite a booster for me to then feel comfortable saying, hey, this is what I do, how can I help you?

Kevin Yee: 11:07

Yeah. You mentioned a few things I want to touch upon. It's really amazing how that you took your previous corporate career and got clients from that. And you mentioned a really good thing about especially going through the reps of coaching as well. Because business in itself is already hard enough, but imagine the uncertainty of whether your coaching works and running a business. I can imagine how uh overwhelming. And so if you get in the reps, I guess you can eliminate that first part of the equation. Yeah. But something's still in my mind. Sure. You said painful. I quoted it in my really crappy Dr. Hymn writing. Okay. As you reflect on your journey, what are the most painful or challenges that you're kind of noticing when it comes to finding clients? It could be right now or previously.

Alexandra Popkova: 11:50

Just finding them. I feel like many coaches and myself included here, we want to do what we're good at, but then we find ourselves in a position where we need to think about marketing and LinkedIn and Instagram and posting and sales speeches. And it's like, can I just focus on like my expertise and clients magically appear at my door and I have lines of them waiting for me to be available, but unfortunately that's not how it works. So if you are having your own coaching practice, then it's just part of the realities that you need to accept and find a way to deal with it.

Kevin Yee: 12:28

Thank you for sharing some of the trials and tribulations because I don't know. Sometimes people make it seem like, oh yeah, once you're a coach and like everything is like peachy and it's great. Just happens. Okay. But still, people are still finding you through referrals. Yeah. And so let's talk about the business reality. People are finding you. What do your coaching engagements look like? Do you mostly do one-on-one? Do you do group coaching, organizational trainings? What do you offer?

Alexandra Popkova: 12:53

Yeah. So I do mentoring, coaching, and consulting. In consulting, I work with organizational development, talent, learning and development, NHR, because of my corporate background and experience. Coaching, one-on-one group, and mentoring. And mentoring, I mostly work with women in tech. So depending on the clients, if we're talking about just private coaching clients, most of them are one-on-one. I had a few group engagements, but that was mostly corporate contract. I see.

Kevin Yee: 13:25

And you mentioned women in tech. I assume. Was that your previous career? What was your previous career, if you don't mind sharing?

Alexandra Popkova: 13:32

I was working in learning and development, a broader organizational development. In one of my last corporate positions, I was in charge of Latin America and Caribbean region, responsible for nine countries, and to end learning and development.

Kevin Yee: 13:46

Interesting. Yeah, because I feel like that part is really, really important because you refer to it like twice. You're like, oh, I got my first clients from there. Then you also mention when they attack. Okay. The other thing I'm very, very curious about because you're talking about kind of like the problems that your target, the challenges that your target market is having as well. And you mentioned like the cross-cultural communication and adaptation. Yes. When I think about that, it's not like sales or marketing where there's like a hard KPI and like a hard RPI for it. And so a lot of coaches, from what I see, they struggle with like things like pricing, right? Because it's hard to kind of price these things. And so obviously you've done it. And so I'd love to kind of hear like how did you structure your pricing? Obviously, you don't need to give any hard numbers, but there's so many different ways for pricing. Like there's packages, value base, retainers, there's so many different things. And how did you what was the process of coming up with that initial rate for yourself?

Alexandra Popkova: 14:40

Sure. I work with two models. The first offer that I give to my clients, if we're not talking about corporate, right? Just private clients that reach out directly to me. It's just one time standalone coaching session. Most of the engagements like this happen when the client is not sure that coaching is for them or that they want to work with me as their coach. Then I offer, okay, try it once, and then you could make your decision, right? The second option that they give is a package of nine sessions with midterm and final evaluations, pulse checks on the process, the first session where we mainly discuss what's our goal, what's our big picture, what's our intention, what are we working towards, and how we're gonna measure our progress and results. So these are my main two offers.

Kevin Yee: 15:31

Nine seems awfully specific. Why nine? Why not ten or eight?

Alexandra Popkova: 15:36

Honestly, because I like that number. No. It's just in my experience with client, this is the average time, the average amount of session that it takes to really work with some deep personal transformations. Obviously, in the very beginning, I do sit down with my clients and discuss: hey, we could finish before the nine sessions. You could tell me, hey, thank you so much. It's been great, I've achieved my goals, moving on. Or we work all nine sessions, and then you still want to do some follow-ups. And then we could review our future dynamics. Either it's gonna be the next nine sessions because your situation in life changed, then you have new priorities, or like once a month, or once in two months, whatever makes more sense based on your reality and your life challenges.

Kevin Yee: 16:25

Yeah, and something interesting. You're saying the transformation, right? What kind of outcomes or like transformations have you kind of witnessed through your coaching? Like, where was somebody when they first started with you and after those sessions?

Alexandra Popkova: 16:38

Sure. I want to give two examples. The first example that I'm gonna share is about that one of the first three clients that I had in the beginning of my coaching career, these three engagements. She reached out to me. She's the mom of two beautiful kids. She's been on maternity leave for three years, I think, when we started our uh work together. And she was really lost because before the kids, she used to be this top-level executive, professional, like very professionally realized, and now it's just not part of her reality. And she lost that sense of who she is in her life. Like, okay, so my kids are now grown up enough to go to kindergarten and you know, for me not to be there at 24-7. So, what do I do now? Who am I? I'm not the person who used to be there three years ago, but I have no idea what's my next step. How do I identify? Okay, do I go back to corporate? And if yes, where? What do I do? Do I do my own business? What it should be about? Like, I don't have any hobbies. And then at the end of our engagement, she started her own marketing agency. And that work was 10 years ago. She's still a successful owner of that business. 10 years after, I'm following her on social media, and every time she pops up, I'm super happy to see where she is right now in her life. The second example that I would like to share is a client of mine. She reached out because she got a job offer, and in her mind, that was quite a step up for her. It was a senior executive position. Obviously, she accepted that was amazing, fantastic offer, but she was lacking that sense of self-confidence. And I think in one of our first conversations was something about like, yeah, I know they they gave this offer to me, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time they're gonna find out that I'm not who they think I am. You know, this classical imposter syndrome conversation, and like I'm not able to deal with everything that they want me to deal with, and the company is just a matter of a few months, and you know, I'm gonna leave, or they're gonna fire me, and that's it. And then she also, when she started on that position, she had the team, the full structured team that used to work with the previous manager. So that was quite a challenge on top of just the rest of the context that she was dealing with. And we focused on that self-confidence and maturity, and how do you find stability within yourself and also how do you show up in challenging situations in front of others? And in the end of our work, she it was like black and white, you know, this classical images before and after. She was sure in her abilities and her skills. She uh had tools in her disposal that she could use in her day-by-day at the office and personal life to navigate through all the stress and all the challenges. And she was really comfortable with her career. And I think that's quite impressive.

Kevin Yee: 19:41

Yeah, it's kind of amazing. Uh, what you're describing seems like a uh professional, like a professional glow-up, you know, like there's I love that. Yeah, one interesting thing too, it's like the self-confidence, and like the first example was kind of like clarity on like what this person wanted to do. The second example was like self-confidence and belief in themselves. I'm kind of curious too, because since you focus on women, what challenges do you feel like are unique for women? Because I'm not like, but I love it.

Alexandra Popkova: 20:12

I have a list ready for you. I think the main honestly, as a coach, the main difference that I see in the very first session when I meet with my women or men clients, the difference is very obvious. Men come to the first conversation saying, I'm great. I've been in this position, I've been a leader for the past 200 years, I've done it all. How could you help me? What could you offer to me? I'm great, I'm already great enough. I understand that maybe I could be even better, but I'm amazing. Usually that's a tone. With women, it's the opposite. It's like, okay, so I need help with, and they just give you the whole list that they've already prepared of their problems or challenges. I oh I think my communication, career development, this, this, this. And they give you the whole speech of how they've already reflected on that and what are their personal challenges and the feedback they got from other peers or managers or colleagues. And everything is very, I don't want to say negative, but it's like, okay, these are my areas of development. And my role in the end of this conversation is to shift the attention a little bit and help them see, hey, let's talk about your strengths. Great. Like you have all this list of things that we could focus on. Amazing, but what you're good at, right? And helps them really own this. Because I feel like for women, this is one of the major challenges overall.

Kevin Yee: 21:38

Yeah, I can potentially see that. So it seems like women suffer from underconfidence. Men tend to be overly confident.

Alexandra Popkova: 21:46

Absolutely, yes.

Kevin Yee: 21:48

Dunning Kruger effect and ego, probably need the ego dissolve. But it makes sense too, because like I'm in a lot of combative sports. I do MMA, I do jujitsu, I do a lot of different things, right? And it typically takes like that masculine beatdown for people for us men to like really reflect a lot of times. I think it takes that ego dissolving. So it's really interesting to hear. Okay. So now that we understand how people are finding you, uh, who you help, what you help them with, what you offer. Let's talk about your future goals because I'm actually really curious about this. So you spend 10 years building your current practice, but where do you want this coaching business to take you in the next few years? Do you have desires to scale, hire a team?

Alexandra Popkova: 22:30

Secret dreams no one knows about secret dreams, of course. Right now, I actually uh I recently counted. I've been working with clients from more than 35 countries.

Kevin Yee: 22:42

Wow.

Alexandra Popkova: 22:42

Yeah. Like, wow, I need to be proud of myself now. Like in every opportunity, I share this information. I think that's a really uh great outreach and impact, also considering my audience and my personal and professional experience. What I'm looking for in the future is really expand this further. Most of my work right now is happening online, and that's great, it's flexible, it gives you lots of freedom, but I really miss that face-to-face contact. So I would love to move maybe 30% of my practice in face-to-face engagements. Either it's coaching or corporate training or consulting, like regardless of the dynamic and the offer, I just feel like that real life connection is super valuable, and I've been missing it a lot to be honest with you. Yeah.

Kevin Yee: 23:29

What is it about face-to-face that you feel is very unique?

Alexandra Popkova: 23:32

I just feel like it gives opportunity for a deeper connection, and therefore it increases my ability to support my clients because they better understand where they are, who they are, what's going on around them.

Kevin Yee: 23:47

You know what I noticed about face-to-face? Like, especially if you're like, so just for context, like I'm shooting this while we're on our purple circle member retreat right now. And there's something so beautiful about like spending time together where not everything is about business, there's a bit of lull, and you share like small details, random details, and it builds a deeper connection with people. Not only with our internal team, but even the numbers and things that we have to do. So I feel like there's something very, very special about that. I agree. As you think about the future, I'm also very, very curious. What are some challenges that you're kind of noticing in your coaching business like right now? Like, what's top of mind for you?

Alexandra Popkova: 24:25

I think scaling again, like I'm a coach, I'm not a marketing expert, I'm not a salesperson. You know, I would love to be able to just focus on what I'm good at. So definitely when I think about future growth, I think about hiring a team of professionals so everybody could do what they know, you know.

Kevin Yee: 24:44

I see. Have you tried hiring before?

Alexandra Popkova: 24:46

Not for coaching, no. But I feel like right now I'm in that transition period where I start engaging with people, I start looking at different options because I feel like I'm ready for that jump, that next step, yes, and move my practice to a new level, right? Also thinking about growth, like you cannot really grow with just one-to-one engagement because your time is limited. So, okay, what are other offerings that I could create for my clients to add value?

Kevin Yee: 25:14

We are now at part of the podcast where I would love to play a game with you, Alexandra. Oof, okay. I would love more of a Japanese game show type of game, but we don't have any quite yet. But this one's a pretty interesting one. This is a storytelling game, and we like to do it through the lens of business investments because coaches we invest into like any entrepreneur, we invest into coaching, training, uh marketing team. Yeah, a lot of different things, right? So, just like a psychologist, what I'm gonna do is pop a phrase and tell me the first thing that comes to mind if there's a story associated with it. If there's a story associated with it, feel free to let me know as well. All right, first business investment you remember making.

Alexandra Popkova: 25:56

First business investment I remember making?

Kevin Yee: 25:58

Yeah, first business investment you uh remember making, yes.

Alexandra Popkova: 26:02

My post-grade diploma in coaching. That was my first business investment, specifically with the focus on my future coaching career. It was in the very beginning, and I studied in Spanish. Spanish is my fifth language, actually. Like now, English and Russian, but I used to speak French and Italian. I just lost my practice and I just smile and wave now. But I used to be fluent in them a long time ago. So Spanish was my fifth language, and I studied in Spanish, and then my final paper was about how you could use coaching and mindfulness tools and techniques to drive leadership development within corporate setting. And I wrote 93 pages in Spanish, very proud of it, because never in my life I wrote anything close to this number in Russian or English before. So yeah, you could feel my excitement about coaching. I think that says a lot.

Kevin Yee: 26:55

It does. Okay. Last business investment you made, most recent.

Alexandra Popkova: 27:00

Oh I think my ICF accreditation, the major one, really helped me because when I was transitioning from full-time corporate career more of my own practice, I really faced challenges of selling myself to my network. And also I was lacking that sense of self-confidence professionally every time I would meet somebody new and say, hey, this is what I do. I am a coach. I would usually get two answers. First was amazing, you're a coach, me too. We are colleagues. I'm like, tell me more about what you do. And people would tell me random things, starting from I help my clients update their CV on LinkedIn to like doing trainings. And it's like interesting, great for you. I don't think we do exactly the same thing, but great. Let's talk about that. And then another answer was very specific to Colombia. I would get people excited about the fact that I do coaching, and they would ask me, what type of coaching do you do? Do you coach with angels or mushrooms? And Kevin, trust me, if it happened one, two, three times, that would be a key. But when it happened 23 times, I felt like okay, I need to do something with it. Like, I, you know, it's a trend, it's a thing. So I really wanted to have something that I could just show to people and just not have to answer any more follow-up questions and explain myself. And for me, that was ICF accreditation, and that was my focus. And really, once I did that, it also brought me lots of new professional opportunities that just were not available for me before. So I would definitely advise from my own experience for anybody who is practicing coaching to look into ICF if you haven't done it already.

Kevin Yee: 28:48

These might overlap a little bit, but best business investment you made.

Alexandra Popkova: 28:51

Yeah, that definitely.

Kevin Yee: 28:54

Sure. I said what I said before because you gave a very in-depth explanation. Okay. And of course, worst business investment that you kind of wish you got your money back from. Of course, there's a butterfly.

Alexandra Popkova: 29:06

Honestly, nothing comes to mind. Yeah. I don't feel like I regret any investment in my coaching. Maybe I've been lucky.

Kevin Yee: 29:15

Either what people tend to say is like either A, you haven't tried enough, or B, you're lucky, but maybe you're on the lucky side, you know, who knows?

Alexandra Popkova: 29:23

Maybe I just believe that.

Kevin Yee: 29:25

Okay. As you're sharing these stories, I'm sure like memories are coming up for you. I guess when you look back, how has your decision-making process changed in what to invest in and what not to invest in?

Alexandra Popkova: 29:35

I think right now I'm much more brave in uh just opportunities I look for and opportunities I engage with. But I also think that it comes with time and experience. You know, like now I've like I have my clients, I have my practice, I got feedback, I have testimonials, I know that I'm good at it, I know the values that I bring, I know the people are willing to pay money for my services, and they keep coming back. To me and refer in their friends and colleagues. Right. So that really empowers me to say, oh, okay, maybe it's worth exploring new opportunities to take this business to a new level and impact even more people around me.

Kevin Yee: 30:12

Final advice from you. This section is also a game. It's called Overrated, Underrated. And so as a business owner, you've gotten probably a lot of advice. Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it solicited, probably 90 million, right? And so as you reflect back on your journey, what's the most overrated piece of business advice you've gotten so far? And what's the most underrated? Interesting question. Top of mind, at least.

Alexandra Popkova: 30:37

Yeah, I think the overrated one would be the advice that you need to find your own niche in the very beginning of your practice. Like find your niche and stick to it forever and ever. I think that just really how it's not how it works. I feel like it's very limiting. And I usually suggest the opposite approach for somebody who is just starting. Explore. Yes, of course. Like you need to think about marketing. You cannot say, like, come, everybody, come to me. I could coach you on any topic. That's not how sales work, right? But regardless of how you pitch yourself, your pitch could change depending on the context, your audience, like who's in front of you. And then just explore. Maybe you're gonna find more clients in the niche that you haven't thought about, and you're gonna really enjoy and you're gonna be recommended there, and you feel like you're making the difference, and that's gonna be your thing. But just taking time to really explore and also be authentic to yourself. Ultimately, we coach with who we are and not with a script, right? So bringing your full self to the process and learning how to do that and being comfortable with doing that. I think that's the major focus that every coach who is beginning their practice should have. Solid advice.

Kevin Yee: 31:49

About the overrated one, I totally agree. It's kind of like marrying your first crush when you're like, Yes. So it's always kind of like, yeah, and I think it makes sense there as well. Final question. Yeah, so Alexandra, how can people find you and connect with you?

Alexandra Popkova: 32:06

People could find me on LinkedIn, Alexandra Popkova. I'm there, or my Instagram Empower Lidders.

Kevin Yee: 32:12

I love it. You know, something that was as I'm like looking at my really bad handwriting, trying to decipher what I wrote down. No, I'm just kidding. There's just a lot of takeaways from this. Like, one, the cultural nuances between like different cultures. I think a lot of people kind of miss that, especially Americans, because we only speak like English for the most part, right? And so we miss those cultural nuances. And your vulnerability about like the painful stuff that is happening in your business, too. You openly mentioned the marketing and stuff. Because surprisingly, it's very, very common for a lot of coaches as well. And so thank you for sharing that. But then I think it was also really beautiful kind of sharing the transformations that you have done with coaching, and it's gonna be really exciting to see the next season of your business unfold. So, with that being said, Alexandra, I just want to thank you for the work that you do, for the work that you help other women in tech and maybe some men. Right? And then also thank you just for so kindly sharing your knowledge on this podcast too. So thank you. I appreciate you, Alexandra.

Alexandra Popkova: 33:14

Thank you for having me, Kevin. It's been my pleasure.

Davis Nguyen: 33:16

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community, and how we can help you grow your business, visit joinpurplecircle.com.