From Burnout to Balance: Career Coaching Insights with Murielle Ungricht

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Murielle Ungricht, a certified career and life coach dedicated to helping professionals design careers they truly love while embracing balance and purpose. Murielle shares deep insights on navigating transitions, redefining success, and aligning your professional goals with personal fulfillment. Tune in as we explore how to create meaningful work without burning out, and discover practical tools to take control of your career path.

You can find her on:

https://www.muriellemarie.com/

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

Transcript

Murielle Ungricht: 0:00

And what's really important in my work is I don't make my creatives choose. What we do is we combine. Because from my own experience when I was starting, you know, as a coach and figuring out what I wanted to do, the reason I initially went to coaching was really because I could do all of these things under that one umbrella. And one of the things plaguing multipassionate creatives the most is that society has told them over and over and over again, choose, picketing, stick to it.

Davis Nguyen: 0:34

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: 1:05

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Kevin, and today we are joined by Murielle Marie. She's been a coach for over a decade, going on 11 years, is also the founder of Coach Mila.ai. Welcome to the podcast.

Murielle Ungricht: 1:21

Hi Kevin. It's so wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Kevin Yee: 1:25

I have so many questions about all of the things that you're working on, but let's start at the very beginning. Let's start at the origin story, the lore. How did you become a coach and turn it into a business? I love that question.

Murielle Ungricht: 1:39

Well, I didn't set out to be a coach, even though I think at the same time I was always meant to be one. I started off with a master's in philosophy, and even before graduating, like when I was in the final months of that master's, I started consulting for a couple of companies that were doing the transition from paper to digital at the time. I'm disclosing a little bit about my age when I say these things. This is really around like the year 2000, so that's a long time ago. But so I have a history with web development and technology. I had a web agency for 10 years, which I exited a few years after my parents passed away. And I want to say that moment in 2010 was really pivotal for me. Before that, I'd always been like, I need to build this career and I need to do the you know, like the corporate, and I'm gonna have my business and it's gonna be awesome. And I was running, running, running and building, building, building, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, my mom passes away. And five weeks later, my dad, who was sick, he had cancer, passes away too. Everything stops. I get chills when I think about it. Especially today, as we're recording, is the day of the dead. So I've been talking to them quite a bit today and remembering them. And so all of a sudden, I find myself in this very, very dark place where I wonder what I am really doing here. I have been working so hard because I wanted to make them happy and proud, and now all of a sudden, the people that I was doing all of this effort for, they're gone. So it took me about a year and a half to really get back from that. It was a really dark night of the soul, really difficult moment. And as I'm getting back on my feet, I start to realize maybe I don't want to go back, maybe I don't want to be, you know, this like person that just builds and but maybe I want to do something else. And that's when I went in search of who I really was, and where I discovered what was important to me. And so for the first time in my life, instead of letting me guide myself by the degrees and the accolades I could have and what other people were expecting of me, I stopped and I did quite a bit of work. This is 10 years ago, so coaching wasn't what it is today, but there were a few key people, key books out there that really got me going, and they asked some pertinent questions around but what do you really like doing? And who do you want to be, and how do you want to serve, and you know what is your purpose? And all of those things, doing all of these exercises, led me to wanting and wanting alone. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the kitchen and I was doing the final exercise, and all at the bottom I wrote in big capital letters coach. Yeah, so that's how it started.

Kevin Yee: 4:41

What was it about coaching that resonated so much with you during that time?

Murielle Ungricht: 4:46

It was a combination of things. In the meantime, I've become a coach myself, a career coach. I mostly helped creative generalists, multipassionate creatives, so people with a lot of different interests and passions. And when I did the work myself to figure out what I wanted to do, I realized that I wanted to keep learning, that I needed variety, that I needed to be able to share the knowledge that I was gathering, that I loved living on purpose and supporting people and helping them through things as well. I wanted versatility in the sense of I wanted to coach, but I also wanted to write, I wanted to speak, I wanted to do all of these different things. And when I really did like the little checklisting, coach was really spot on, and that thing that would allow me to do all of those different things under one umbrella.

Kevin Yee: 5:38

Let's fast forward to today because you mentioned the type of people that you help. You said multi-passionate creators. What are some of the problems or symptoms that these creators come up to you?

Murielle Ungricht: 5:52

So, my big thing is helping them get unstuck. So they come to me when they lack clarity, when they lack direction, when they are overwhelmed by the amount of ideas they have and don't really know what to start with or where to start or how to continue something or how to finish something. So it's really at this point of you have a creative brain. Because you have a creative brain, you have a multitude of ideas, and especially these days, a multitude of entrepreneurial ideas, of artistic ideas, right? I'm sure Kevin, you understand what I'm saying, of creative ideas, and the problem is they can start really screaming at you, and they can make it really difficult for you to stay in action. So what happens is a lot of these creatives who are not afraid to work because that's not where the problem lies, they're action takers, they're goers, they're doers. The problem really is about yes, but what am I supposed to do? They also double very often as perfectionists. So what they want to do needs to be perfect. So there is a lot of stuff they want to do, and then all of that stuff needs to be perfect. Very often use the analogy of it's like building a mountain in front of you, right? You have a new creative ID, then because you're such a visionary, you have a perspective of what that ID needs to look like in real life. It's a Rolls-Royce, it has all the whistles and bells, it's gonna be absolutely perfect. But because of that, you stall and you procrastinate because there is a disconnect between you having that idea and then figuring out what is the first step I need to take here to actually get to this, you know, five-star thing that I want to achieve. And that's when I come in. So I clear the overthinking, I help my clients with clarity, I have like tools and tricks to really discover what it is they should be doing. And what's really important in my work is I don't make my creatives choose. What we do is we combine. Because from my own experience, when I was starting, you know, as a coach and figuring out what I wanted to do, the reason I initially went to coaching was really because I could do all of these things under that one umbrella. And one of the things plaguing multi-passionate creatives the most is that society has told them over and over and over again, choose, pick a thing, stick to it. And it's really hard for us. So they don't have to do that with me. We combine.

Kevin Yee: 8:42

Man, it sounds like you're describing me to the T, honestly. Like and I kind of relate to this because I have my own business, and so oftentimes we are taught to like, oh, choose a niche, and you're like, oh my god, I have so many interests, how can I just stick with one? And I think you hit the nail on the head. When I started combining things or just noticing where I was having the most fun or most flow in my life, that's when they made the decision really easy. Versus like choosing one, and I feel like I'm missing out on so many different things. Interesting. Okay. I want to ask you though, how do these multi-passionate creators like myself, like how do they typically find you? What kind of marketing are you doing?

Murielle Ungricht: 9:26

Okay, so I've worked really hard on content marketing, and my website produces a lot of really good organic traffic, very qualified as well, and there are many ways on my website to get a free consult with me, which I'm also very generous with. Like anybody can come and have a conversation with me, I'll never force anyone to work with me because of it. Another thing that has been really successful for me over the years is word of mouth, but word of mouth with a little bit of impetus from me, in the sense that I have a system where when someone graduates from working with me, I will give them a gift they can give somebody else if they feel like someone could benefit from working with me. So it's almost like a win-win, and that has been very successful. I also have a newsletter, I send out newsletters every other week. I'm on social media, but I have to say the most successful campaigns that I have done are around really working very hard on articulating very well what my client needs, so really learning who they are, and then translating that into valuable content on my website or on LinkedIn or my book. I have a book called Get Unstuck, which is also part of this marketing mix, and then continuing to upgrade, fine-tune the SEO on my website, and now also the GEO, which is like the SEO for LLMs, right? Which is really what we have to do now to make sure we also in the results or in the conversations that people have with AI. And that has been really interesting because I've done that work on my website and I do it consistently, and I have clients now who come to me through conversations they've had with Gemini or ChatGPT or you know other LLMs.

Kevin Yee: 11:26

That's beautiful. Yeah, I was gonna ask you since you're so website dominant, right? Are you worried about the whole shift away from SEO and into these like LLMs? Yeah.

Murielle Ungricht: 11:37

No, I I'm not really, but it does require, I think, proactive work. I think you have to stay on top of what is being done and you have to really apply it as as soon as you can. Because I think one thing that's happening right now, and I see this too when I'm developing Coach Mila, right? That it's going so fast and there are so many updates that everybody's still thinking a little bit about okay, but how do we do these things? But one source of knowledge that I think is really interesting is the LLMs themselves. So I have a lot of conversation with Claude and Gemini asking the LLMs, like, okay, how can I do this and how is this going to benefit me? On top of that, I'm also in a graduate program right now, a master's in management, and one of my classes this semester is digital marketing in the age of AI. And that has been extremely useful because we are looking at every change that is happening in digital marketing, which I think is foundational for any online creator today, any online entrepreneur, any business. We have to know, you know, how to do these things, unfortunately, and how AI can support us.

Kevin Yee: 12:47

Speaking about AI, I think we were talking earlier pre-podcast, and you said we started Coach Milo, and you just mentioned it just now. For listeners who don't know what it is, can you explain like what it is and why you started it?

Murielle Ungricht: 13:01

So, throughout this decade, coaching people have really seen a transition in not only how people relate to coaching, where career coaching comes in, but also how the industry has changed. And of course, with the dawn of AI, especially with my experience as a web application developer, that's a company I used to run before my parents passed away. I felt like it was time to sort of bring these two expertise areas together. And that's when the idea, so I incubated for a long time. I thought about what I wanted to do with AI coaching in the future pretty much for a whole year, talking to a lot of people, other coaches, trying to figure it out. And eventually I landed on I want a tool that is not going to replace coaches, but that's gonna help coaches to qualify potential clients better, and at the same time offer a way to democratize coaching for those who perhaps one don't know what it is, have never had a coach, are afraid of coaching, don't have the means to purchase the services of a skilled coach. So it's a very low pre-entry level into a coaching experience that can later on be translated to a matching with a human coach that can help you with you know career, but also with other things. We're focusing on career, but in theory, it could be for any type of coaching.

Kevin Yee: 14:36

And so thanks for describing what Coach Mila is. It sounds like a really interesting project, and I love how you practice what you preach. Instead of just choosing one or the other, you combine something that you're that, yeah, those two domains. I love that. People are finding out about you, and they're probably raising their hand on wanting to work with you. What do your coaching engagements kind of look like? Because some coaches they offer one-on-one, some do group trainings. How do you usually coach people? What's your preferred method?

Murielle Ungricht: 15:06

So for me, like a very tailor-made one-on-one is really my bread and butter. I have done that for the past 10 years, and I feel, of course, with the tools that I've developed throughout the years, really understanding my client better, their brain better, their needs better. I feel like that gives me the most flexibility to really help somebody as much as I can. And so I work in packages of three months and a half. There are seven sessions in there, and then I have three tiers on how creatives can work with me. The the top top tier is you not only get the seven sessions, but you get full access to me in between sessions. I almost become your secret business partner. Because one of the things with multipassional creatives who either want to build a project or want to go on off on their own or want to build a business or grow a business, very often it's a very lonely, solitary adventure. And I realized a few years ago when I was checking in with clients, and that that check-in was so powerful, and very often they had been waiting for such a long time to ask me a question that I was like, okay, let's see how I could package this, that I could be working alongside you, not only as your coach during the sessions, because I'm not a consultant, it's not up to me to tell you what you should do. You have to, you know, figure that out yourself, but I can help you. But then in between those sessions, if you have specific needs either to you know, like transition into a new career or to build a business, I can assist you in doing that. So that's the top tier. And then there are two tiers below that that are equally seven sessions, but where the amount of high-touch support is a little different. So the middle tier has a few touch points, and then the lowest tiers is just the sessions. That's really for the people who are self-starters and they're like, I don't need a secret business partner, I can do this on my own. And then I will see them during the sessions. We will articulate what it is that they want to do, and then they will go off on their own. But so those are the three, and I have found that very often the even the middle package with the few touch points is really beneficial to clients, and especially after 10 years in the full package, there is also access to my Rolodex where I introduce clients to other clients, and I do quite a bit of very warm introductions. After 10 years of working with creatives, I have a lot of people internationally that are in creative fields that are really interesting for you know new clients or repeat clients. So that's a little bit how I structure it.

Kevin Yee: 18:00

That's interesting, and especially with the highest tier, right? Because if they can call you between sessions, it's really, really highest tier. It just seems like the work is pretty intimate. So, how do you think about managing your client capacity and whatnot?

Murielle Ungricht: 18:14

Well, I used to work like oh man, I remember in early in my career, like my full days of coaching, like really full days, and at the end of those days, I would like sit on the couch, and then somebody would say something to me, and I would be like, I'm so sorry, I can't talk right now because I've been doing this for you know the entire day. I need a break. So now I'm much more mindful of the amount of energy that I need to bring to the table in order to do this work well. So I have the joy and the luck that I have a lot of people wanting to work with me, so I can limit the amount of people that I work with on a daily and a weekly basis. Also, because I really want to give them what they need to succeed, right? And this hybrid model I find works really well, especially when people want to either transition into something really different or when because for me, career coaching, especially for creatives, is also building a business, right? It's also like doing your entrepreneurial thing, becoming a freelancer. A lot of people come from corporate and will transition out of it, and I want to be able to help them fully and not be thinking about the next person I need to help, or so it is a very, at least to me, very personal endeavor. Of course, I abide by the ethics code of you know our coaching industry, and that's also very important to me. But I will say that a lot of the clients, even clients that I supported 10 years ago, tend to come back to me when they have a new challenge or they want to do something new, and that is to me my biggest reward because the only reason I do what I do is because I really believe that being stuck, Kevin, is agonizing. And I believe that as a creative who has multiple interests trying to fit in a world of specialists like the world we live in, is agonizing. And so it's my way. I always joke, it's like, I don't know, maybe that's an autistic joke. I'm autistic, I apologize in advance. No, actually, I don't apologize, I love being autistic, but I'm going off on a tangent. I often say, you know, it's my little way of helping us achieve world peace because I believe that if somebody can do work they love with purpose and not feel as if they're underutilized, burned out, bored out because they are not at the right place with all of their passions and interests, we're a little closer to people being peaceful and happy.

Kevin Yee: 20:52

I love that kind of mission behind that. I didn't expect that coming from that question. But I love it. I do want to ask you too, because the work you do with multi-passionate cleaners, right? The burnout and the overwhelm, underutilization, right? The things that you just mentioned. These are the things that feel like really transformational in our soul, in our hearts, and stuff. But we also live in a capitalistic society, too. And of course, you don't have to give any hard numbers about your tears or anything like that. But how what are your thoughts about how to price something like this type of coaching? Yeah, how do you kind of figure out rates? How like what pricing strategies have you gravitated to? I would love to hear your journey with that if you're open to it.

Murielle Ungricht: 21:38

Yes, of course. When I started 10 years ago, I would give everything of myself to a client for three and a half months, and they would pay me about four hundred and fifty dollars for it. So that was the beginning of my career. Yeah, that was the beginning of my career. And I would work late nights, all of it, you know. Now, like a full-blown package, like with all the whistles and bells, is around 4,500. So it's like a 10x. So it's like you know, reasonable considering the experience I have. However, I do believe we need to make our work available to as many people as we can. So that is also one of the reasons why I wrote the book. The book has the full method, right? And you can get the book if you get the Kindle, I think it's like six, seven dollars. You won't get me, but you will get a lot of my insights and ten years of my work in there or nine years, right? Because it came out last year. So that's one of the things I do. Another thing that I do to make it more affordable is you have the three tiers. So, of course, the less high-touch I am in the process, the more affordable it becomes for people who cannot, you know, pay the full amount. And then I also have scholarships. I believe and I do every year, and I've been doing this for 10 years, I will do three full pro bono series where the person doesn't need to pay me anything. I do it because one, I believe in what they do, two, they cannot afford my services, and three, I think it's our civil duty to, you know, along the fact that we live in capitalism and have to make a good living, that we also have to try and help where we can. So that's a little bit how I like marry asking enough for my expertise and my time with being willing to also volunteer my time and see how I can meet my clients where they are.

Kevin Yee: 23:38

Is that also another reason why you started Coach Milo?

Murielle Ungricht: 23:41

Yes, absolutely. I think you caught that very well, Kevin. I think offering something that democratizes coaching and not the full-blown experience, because I am a firm believer you need a human coach to have a full coaching experience. Let's not like you know be crazy about that. But I do believe you can already do quite a bit with technology at a very affordable price.

Kevin Yee: 24:05

Maybe it's not a Zach 101 analogy, but it's like watching your favorite creator's vlog about going to Disneyland versus actually going to Disneyland and experiencing the whole thing, maybe.

Murielle Ungricht: 24:16

I like that analogy. That's awesome. Oh, I'm also a big Disney fan, I have to say.

Kevin Yee: 24:21

Oh, are you?

Murielle Ungricht: 24:22

Yes, I am. I took a shot, and I guess I'm autistic special interests.

Kevin Yee: 24:30

As I think about this, right? Because you have these two things going on. I guess where do you want this coaching business to take you in the next few years? Do you have desires to scale up your coaching practice? Do you have desires to kind of like you know slow it down and focus more on Coach Mila? Like I'm very, very curious about how you're thinking about the future.

Murielle Ungricht: 24:50

Well, you know, I am currently giving my attention to both, with I would say it's not entirely 50-50, but almost. And I want to put a little bit more, of course, in the new venture moving forward, but I don't want to stop what I've built, and I don't want like there is a lot of potency in in the coaching work I do. So, right now, just to tell you what the roadmap looks like, I'm looking to develop my own get unstuck certification. So, based on the work I've done for 10 years and the method I use, etc. And to actually engage coaches that can be trained in what I do and that can take over a little bit of the work that I am doing with clients now. Now that comes with its own set of question marks, of uncertainties, of because you know there is an element of quality in there, how are they gonna coach? How can I teach them? You know, all of that. And also, how can I grow this in a sustainable and heart-centered way?

Kevin Yee: 25:59

For Coach Miller or both projects?

Murielle Ungricht: 26:02

No, for this is really for Muriel Marie. Coach Miller is an apple startup, so that's different, right? Of course, there I also have a financial roadmap and I have a lot of things that need to happen, but that is not a business where I still am the one delivering the service. And so now with after a decade doing this in as a coach myself, I'm really starting to look at and think of okay, what like what is the next step? What can I do to continue to service customers and clients the right way and maybe not have to be the one doing all of the coaching all of the time?

Kevin Yee: 26:40

And when you say scaling in a heart-centered way, right? What does that mean to you, I guess? Like, I'm sure that can be interpreted in many different ways, but what does that mean to you?

Murielle Ungricht: 26:53

Well, for me, it has to do with ethics, values, and purpose. Like how you work, how you deal with customers or with clients, how you bring your own self to the table, and you know, basically what kind of coach are you? And will that work with the work that I've been doing and the methodologies I've developed? And because nobody's for everybody, right? So it's also a matter of figuring out okay, who would like working this way, and what kind of relationship would that be for me with the coaches and then with the clients? And I find that to be a very interesting journey because you have again quite a few questions that you need to answer because you need clarity before you can start doing those things.

Kevin Yee: 27:43

As you think about scaling in a heart-centered way, as you put it, what are some challenges that come to mind?

Murielle Ungricht: 27:51

Not being willing to do anything to get there, but wanting to do it in a way that aligns with my values, right? Like because there are many ways to achieve growth, but I don't want it to be to the detriment of my own well-being. I want it to be an environment where people thrive. So those are really important questions for me. But it is certainly true that if you care about work-life balance for everybody, if you care about sustainability, if you care about heart-centered service delivery, you will spend quite a bit of time and money putting these things in place. And somebody who doesn't consider those things so much might not have to do that. They might go about it in a different way, they might be willing to use other methodologies to develop and grow. But in my case, it's not like I need to do it, it's an all or nothing thing. No, I believe that being an entrepreneur is like it's your life, right? So it's a day-to-day activity. I'm a coach every single day, and not only when I coach somebody, you know, I'm an entrepreneur every single day. So everything I do sort of needs to add to how it feels to me to be creating. And that's why I always say, you know, deadlines are such an interesting thing. Deadline, all deadlines are man-made, right? Yeah, we really don't have anybody who came down to earth, or maybe an alien at some point, we don't know, but who said, like, oh, you guys need to do this by then, like it's absolutely necessary. No, and the worst deadline givers usually are ourselves. We're like, we're putting these deadline. So what I very often say to people and to the people working with me, everybody, is it's not urgent, but it's important. And I think this aspect of it's important to me to do this well precedes. I need to have it by then. Of course, as a multi passionate creative who has a tendency to procrastinate, I also have to remind myself that sometimes it becomes urgent. But if I have to choose between the two. I won't do it at all costs. I will try and do it well. Because I believe that everything we do, and I'm really going on the philosophical like thing now, but I believe that everything we do as entrepreneurs is really part of the creative process, right? Being an entrepreneur is really problem solving at the heart of it and solving challenges and building things. And so there is a way I wasn't like that in my 20s or in my 30s. It's really the last few years that I've understood that there is a lot of joy to be found in reflecting on and how we are gonna do something, and then really practicing doing it in a particular sustainable and fun way.

Kevin Yee: 30:41

Speaking about entrepreneurs, by the way, I would like to play a game with you if you're open to it. It's a very popular storytelling game, but I want to do it through the lens of business investments because so many entrepreneurs we invest into things like coaching, training, marketing, team members, a lot of different things. The list probably goes on forever. So, what I want to do is I want to prompt a phrase and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Kind of like a psychologist, like when you're lying on the couch and stuff and they show you a picture. Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. If there's a story, then you can tell the story if you like. Okay?

Murielle Ungricht: 31:15

Okay.

Kevin Yee: 31:16

First business investment you remember ever making.

Murielle Ungricht: 31:19

Total failure.

Kevin Yee: 31:21

Total failure.

Murielle Ungricht: 31:22

Total failure. This was a long time ago, but it was a total failure. I had to want a little bit of backstory on that one. I'm willing to share. It's okay. I'll give you the short story. So the short story was I invested in a franchise business. And I was promised, you know, a lot of a lot of things. And I didn't have this, it was early, early in my entrepreneurial career. I think I had been, I had my own business for what, maybe a year, not even. I was young, very young. And I didn't read the small print, I didn't get any help going over the contract. I was just like so sure that I knew everything about everything. So I signed, I paid, and all of a sudden I never heard of the person again. The only time that I heard of them again was one time when they send me a picture of the jet ski they'd bought with my money. Total failure. Yeah. Never did that again.

Kevin Yee: 32:19

Okay. Last business investment you made.

Murielle Ungricht: 32:22

That is one that I've made not a long time ago. I'm actually in the process of incubating a new business. I can't really speak to it too much, but it's really interesting because this time I've gone off the technological track into something very tangible. And it was interesting because you know, with AI, it's like a lot of stuff is changing, right? Like a lot of jobs are being retaught, a lot of people are having a hard time getting into industries. And as a career coach, I really like I get a lot of that feedback, right? And I'm sure you do too, Kevin. I don't know where you're at with that, but at least I'm hearing that a lot of things are changing. And I've always wanted to, because everything I've done so far has really been digital. And okay, my coaching business is a service, so it's not that digital, but it's my website, it's my content, it's my online marketing. So I wanted something earth-bound to sort of you know balance it out a little bit, and it's really interesting how I'm feeling about it. It's unknown territory, but it's exciting, so we'll see. I'll be able to tell you more in a few months.

Kevin Yee: 33:29

Best business investment you made.

Murielle Ungricht: 33:30

Myself. That would definitely be the best investment I ever made. Investment in learning, growing, becoming a skilled business person, coaching, I had a lot of coaches because I really feel that you know a business can only grow as much as a business owner. Right? You were speaking of how holistic it is, and I feel that all of the failures in my business were really because of me and a lack of knowledge and experience. Let's be clear, experience is golden. But so now that I've learned that and that I have quite a bit of experience, I also know where the gaps are. The stuff that I feel I'm not really skilled in this area when it comes to making decisions. How can I one hire someone to make them for me and teach me? Or two, how can I learn how to make better and more informed decisions in this area? And that's proven to be incredible just in in general.

Kevin Yee: 34:27

Okay, this one's the kind of cheeky one. The worst business investment that you kind of wish you got your money back from.

Murielle Ungricht: 34:34

The worst business investment that I kind of wish I got my money back from. I don't really know because I look at see, I have this particular way of looking at investing throughout the years. I've invested a lot in my own businesses, not always with success. Let's be clear. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I've invested in other people's businesses, I have invested in franchises that didn't turn out to be anything. And what I have learned to do, because otherwise I feel like it produces too much stress and anxiety, is before I invest in something, I really ask myself, like, what would happen if this went completely wrong? Basically, and I never invest a lot of money, let's be clear. I mean, I'm not like a super rich person or anything like that. I have to work hard for the money that I that I make. So I invest small amounts or medium amounts, and I always ask myself, can I really live without this money? And I will only really invest when I am okay with losing it. And I know that sounds like I don't know, maybe not very capitalistic. I don't know how that sounds. But and the reason I'm saying that is because investing in business building is really a tricky business, right? Like there are so many moving parts, there is so much you have to do. That is it a bad investment when it doesn't pan out? Not if I have great lessons. Is it a bad investment if I tried something and it didn't work? Well, I mean, at least now I know. What do you think about that, Kevin? I'd love to know your take on it.

Kevin Yee: 36:06

I always think there's a silver lining to a lot of uh even the worst investments I made, right? Personally, right? Did I think things weren't worth it? For sure, but then I think about like what exactly wasn't I getting? What what are kind of my needs? Was it the right solution at the wrong time? That can happen as well. Right. So I'm a lot like you, but then I asked this cheeky question just to get, you know, like to make it kind of not so serious because sometimes when we think bad investment, we go into the whole trauma dumping like I got burned by my ex-partner, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that's why I say kind of wish you got your money back, because you know, it's not as significant. So that's my thoughts at least. Yeah.

Murielle Ungricht: 36:47

Oh, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Yeah. What's your your worst almost you wish you got your money back? One.

Kevin Yee: 36:53

I'll tell you top of mine one. I spent like $20,000 on an MA like retreat or something. It was for like one week. I was learning about MA, but I was just so new that I was just like, I just think it was like maybe a right solution at the wrong time, you know, of my business journey. And it's like taking on something too advanced when I really just needed something way simpler. So it's like when I was like year two or something in my business journey. So yeah.

Murielle Ungricht: 37:20

Yeah. I would agree with that. I think that investments in so the best investment you can make is investing in yourself, but you have to time it well. You are not ready for everything immediately. Like there are masterminds that now I feel like okay, I belong here, but 10 years ago or in the beginning of my career, I would have been so lost, and it would have cost me a lot of money because you know there is return on investment too. And return on investment requires us to put what we learn into practice in a way that's gonna make sense. And I agree with you, it depends on where we are in our journey.

Kevin Yee: 37:56

That's right, yeah. Which leads me to my last section, uh, my last game. It's called overrated, underrated. As a business owner, you've gotten a lot of advice. I'm sure some of it was good, some of it was bad, some of it was solicited. Probably 99% was unsolicited. So, what's the most overrated piece of business advice you've gotten so far, and what's the most underrated?

Murielle Ungricht: 38:17

The most I'll start with the underrated one if that's okay. So, the most underrated one would be to hire people based on character. I think that's actually really important, much more than skill, especially today. And I was educated in a system going back, you know, to the early days of my career where it was all about what are their degrees and you know, like, and not really about what kind of person do you have in front of you. When now I think if you really want an A-team, you have to have people who want it, are enthusiastic, all of that. But those are all character traits. It's not like oh they can put together the best sales funnel. If in their character trait they are quick learners and they love to learn new things and try them out, it doesn't really matter, you know, what they know or don't know because they can learn. So that I would say is underrated. At least it was underrated in my career, like in the way I made decisions for a long time, not anymore. And then in terms of the most overrated one, oh being ready, you don't have to be ready. I think, especially today, right? Like you don't have to have all your ducks in a row, and with that, I don't mean like having everything there, because of course that's not what we see or what people say today, but there is still this sentiment of you really have to know what you're doing, and you really have to know what your product's gonna be, and you really have to know what your server is gonna be. But the reality of it is you learn those things as you interact with potential clients, with customers, as you get feedback. So now what I like to do is I like to go fast, but I like to do it with others instead of trying to figure everything out in my ivory tower and you know, map everything out. No, no, no. I have a simple idea, I go out and I test it. Like, do people like it? Because I'm not gonna be the one deciding at the end of the day what my service is or what my product is, my client is, and so what I have to do is I have to bring it to them as soon as possible, and I have to talk to them about it.

Kevin Yee: 40:27

Moving fast with others. I feel like that is really, really solid advice, and it gets overlooked a lot of times. Because even as we're shooting this podcast, I'm with all the other purple circle members and we're talking, we're sharing the intimate details of what we're doing for Lee Gen, how we're hiring people, how we think about certain things. And it's really interesting. We are kind of in different areas of coaching and stuff, but it's really this is how great art is done. You take something from one area and you remix it and try to make it work in another area, experimenting, you're testing things. And so I think moving fast with others is so key. I love that. We're at this point where I have to ask you this last question, by the way.

Murielle Ungricht: 41:09

That's so sad. We're having such a good conversation.

Kevin Yee: 41:12

I know. How can people find you and connect with you?

Murielle Ungricht: 41:17

They can go to my website, obviously, which is murielmarie.com. They can also find me on Instagram, LinkedIn, I'm there too. And I would say those are my primary like places where you can connect with me. There is a free session that you can book on my website. I would say please, if you feel like I can be useful to you, do it. I always love to learn about people's dreams and ideas, so don't hesitate. And yeah, I would say any question is more than welcome.

Kevin Yee: 41:48

Muriel, I really enjoyed this uh conversation because one, I think your target demo is kind of like myself, where it's like, oh, multi-passionate creator, right? And so as we were speaking, I was like, oh my god, I feel like so seen right now. Even on the for those who might not be multi-passionate, for those who might not be as creative, I think the emphasis on like a holistic strategy that kind of resonates with aligns with you and your personality and stuff is really really important. And it gets me thinking about like, oh, and what I'm doing right now, like do I feel truly aligned and whatnot as well. And it's just and the other thing that sticks out is you're so generous with giving your like breaking down your packages, how you think about pricing and all the intimate details. So I just want to say, Mario, like, thank you so much for the work you do. It is very, very valuable, like as we discovered on this call. And then also thank you for just so generously giving your knowledge for free on this podcast as well. So thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Murielle Ungricht: 42:51

Oh, thank you, Kevin. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Davis Nguyen: 42:55

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.