Purpose, Growth, and Impact Redefining Career Success with Elena Tecchiati

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Elena Tecchiati, a career and personal development expert dedicated to helping professionals align their work with purpose and long-term fulfillment. Elena shares her insights on navigating career transitions, overcoming self-doubt, and building a path that reflects both your ambitions and your values. Whether you're feeling stuck, seeking clarity, or striving for more meaningful growth, this conversation offers practical strategies and powerful mindset shifts to help you move forward with confidence.

You can find her on:
https://etecchiati.com/en/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenatecchiati/

Transcript

Elena Tecchiati 0:00

I learned that there is a let's say a daily fee, which is in Spain quite let's say from zero to ten. Ten is the highest and zero is the lowest. I'm more about 7.5. Okay. This is my daily fee.

Davis Nguyen 0:22

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, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro Stein 0:54

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm excited to introduce Elena Tecchiati, whose mission is helping people communicate clearly and effectively while appearing confidently on any stage. As an organizational psychologist, executive coach, ICF PCC, mediator, communication trainer, and author, she brings more than 15 years of international experience across Europe, the USA, and China. Through over 3,000 plus 500 coaching hours and 500 workshops in multinational companies, business schools, and universities, Elena has guided leaders, teams, and expatriates in their global development. Her intercultural background and fluency in German, English, Spanish, and Italian make her uniquely positioned to help with leadership development, public speaking, difficult conversations, and intercultural communication. Welcome to the show, Elena.

Speaker 1 2:03

Hi, Pedro. I love this introduction.

Pedro Stein 2:11

Well, you're the one to blame, okay? I'll put it like that. You're the one to blame about the intro. It's yours. Now, Elena, I'm excited that you're here, you know, from the day we met. And before we we get into what you do now, I'm curious how this actually started, right? What was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Elena Tecchiati 2:37

I was a singing teacher many years ago. You like the story, I know that I remember.

Pedro Stein 2:45

I already love it.

Elena Tecchiati 2:46

Um and one day a manager asked me to train him or to coach him to speak in front of an audience. No, no, no, no, no. I sing, I teach singing. And no, no, but I need that, I need voice. I saw you singing, I need you, because up, as you know, I'm a singer as well, right? I'm a singer songwriter. So, okay, I can't do that. I went home and my husband said, Do it. It was at the time, it was my boyfriend. He said, Hey, you can earn more money than singing, teaching singing, but it was not about the money, it was how can I do that? Okay, so I accepted and gave him some tips about how to breathe and so on. But then I realized that I needed more than that. At the same time, I was quite curious about what was coaching. We are speaking now about um 2006, okay, more or less 2006-2007. And so I started. Now I didn't start a certification, I did a weekend first to see what coaching was. It was just a weekend. And the trainer said, Oh, yeah, you can find tips for presentation skills, coaching people. Well, great. So I started the certification. I remember it was systemic coaching in Germany. And by the end of the certification, I realized I could do more than singing, teaching, or yeah, uh teaching singing. And I asked this manager to yeah, to give to do more. So he asked me to coach the people in his company. I started successfully because I had anyway uh presentation skills, and I did um other things before about presenting and PowerPoint and so on. But then I I realized that I needed more to coach people when they have stage fright, for example, when they are um when they don't know how to structure a speech, when they don't know how to meet the needs of an audience and all these things. Okay, how can I do that? Then I met a very important leadership trainer in Germany, that a leadership coach at the moment in Germany. And I asked him, How did you become um a coach? Well, I said I studied psychology, I did a couple of certifications. So the day after that, I went to University of Cologne and I started to study psychology because I realized I really want to be a serious coach, I want to do seriously because I saw that people looked at me as somewhat important for them as a guide. I cannot take the responsibility of these people not having profound knowledge about what coaching is and about accompanying people. So that's how my journey started. And I remember this coach said, Oh, international coach is very hard. Nobody can make it. I would like to call him now, but um, that was for me not a challenge, but it was for me a mission, became a mission. It became a mission because of my personal life. I speak four languages, as you know, it's not something that I really actively chose to do. I speak English because I studied when I was a child, and then working in an English environment. I went to the States for a couple of years. I went to Germany to study German, to learn German. I stayed there 17 years at the end, and my husband is German, and we came to Spain because of his um profession, and I speak Spanish as well, and I'm Italian. I forgot to say that I'm I was born in Italy, I'm Italian. So, also this part of my private life brought me to meet new people, to work um internationally, and to touch different topics about communication, interpersonal and intercultural communication.

Pedro Stein 7:10

Hmm, I love how you are kind of pushed into this, but at the same time, you're like, you know what? I gotta improve my skills, I'm gonna study psychology and all of that. So, in a way, it is organic, it is natural, but it's also part, uh, I would say, like in a growth mindset point of view, it's like, yeah, I need to hone in my skills, you know, I have this good, solid foundation, but I need to improve even more. So I love that. Now, I want to understand, and I always ask this, it's like, at what point did it stop feeling the coaching side, right? Like a side thing or a calling, and it started feeling like an actual business you are responsible for. And we were talking about that, right? The first invoice, when you start you're looking at yourself, you know what? I kind of can make money with this, you know, even when I'm helping people, there's also that uh financial component, right? So, when did it felt like you, you know, that shift that you were like, this is a real profession for me?

Elena Tecchiati 8:12

Actually, uh, quite quite at the beginning. Um, I told you October 2008, I wrote my first invoice, and um 2009 I did a pilot program in an international, multinational company, making 50 sessions, 50 hours, uh at a low price, just to see how good I was. It was quite new at the moment. I wanted communication coaching together with voice and body postures, or executive presence all together. Okay, I did it, it was quite successful, and after that, and I remember it was the 9th of March 2009 that I started this program because it's 9.39, that's why I remember that. And uh at the end of the program, which was more or less after the summer, I started with full fee, and yeah, that's why I'm saying that it was quite yeah, well, after one year, more or less, right? Yeah, my first um, my first invoice, and then it developed with the time, getting more knowledge, having new programs, leadership, women-female leadership, expatriates programs. In the COVID time, I was working online with a lot of people that needed someone to talk to. So I cannot say it was always coaching. Sometimes this was just accompanied and being there, but it's also part of a coach, uh being a coach sometimes. So I did a lot of programs just um because it's part of the game, yeah, it's part of the journey, and that made me rich, really made me rich. Um, not money, I'm not talking about rich, but money, but I'm talking about this experience. Because as a coach, I touched many souls, I guess. And they touched mine, and that's that's that's great. It's not always me accompanying them, but it's always also part of their story, touching mine. You know, it's I learned from them, my clients, a lot. This is always what I say to my female clients. I learn a lot from men as well, approaching, approaching things in another way. So, yeah, I'm I'm happy about this. It's it's something that we'll never want to miss.

Pedro Stein 10:51

That is very, very powerful, you know, the way you frame it, about being a companion, you know, that's part of coaching, and sometimes it's just about holding space, right? Let that person vent, let that person speak without giving them answers necessarily. It's just about you know, being, like you said, like almost like a partner friend. So that I I see that I I can tell that, and you speak from the heart. Now, what I want to understand, right, is because you've been in a game long enough. So once you were out there helping people, and especially in the early days for coaching, like we see a lot of coaches trying to help the entire world, right? Like, and they're like, Yeah, I can I can coach you, yeah, I can coach, and that's not a problem. I'm not judging, okay. But who did you naturally end up attracting? You know, when did you realize, yeah, I I guess this is the people I can serve best, you know.

Elena Tecchiati 11:53

Look, I um made, I took a diary in the last years, more or less after the after the co after the COVID time. 75% of my clients are women. Women are sending. Well, um, as you can imagine, with different challenges. And 90% of these 75% struggle with self-confidence. More or less, they come to me, and in many, in many situations, where as you can imagine, some companies present me like with an email, they look into my website, and then they choose me, or in some platforms, they read my they read my bio and and whatever. So many of them tell me because they have the feeling they am self-confident, they come to me. I've never been like that. I had to develop it. So I guess this is something that they see. And coming back to the question, I'm attracting people that from the nature maybe they are not self-confident, they are not from the family or for greedy, whatever, and they go through difficult times struggling with power, gender bias, age bias is if you want to say that way. So these barriers, and they see in me an ally. I don't know if I can answer to your question this way.

Pedro Stein 13:40

No, you did. Okay, you did. Now, let's zoom out for a second and touch upon a topic that I like to, which is the marketing aspect, right? And you kind of browse through it. Uh, you mentioned the website, they read through your bio LinkedIn. So, what I want to understand is like those women ascending, right? You mentioned usually who you attract, how do they usually find their way to you in the first place, you know, marketing-wise?

Elena Tecchiati 14:07

I um work for multinational companies, and that the great thing is, Pedro, that um it's important from the beginning to do a good ethic work as a coach because people speak about you, and uh it just a director of human resources who's changing the company and take it with you, take you with her. Some these things happen to me. Um, someone as a client, a coachie giving my name to the HL director or to someone else. This is the way I did marketing, so I did not make marketing, if it's the question. So it's looking for opportunities and then do your job well, but it doesn't mean that you take your coaching sessions too bad. What does it mean? I need to learn also to cut, as you know, in coaching, also I have my responsibility, my client, my coachia's his her own responsibility, and this is a healthy attachment, and they feel it, they feel it, and there is someone accompanying them, but it's a healthy attachment, so ethic, so healthy attachment, ethic. Um, and marketing maybe is giving my visit card every now and then, or LinkedIn, maybe connecting and get so uh telling people I'm here if you need me, but nothing more than that. In my case, um it was more important to enter some national in multinational companies, which I did at the beginning, and then I went with the flow.

Speaker 3 15:59

Interesting. Okay.

Pedro Stein 16:01

Now let's talk about the mechanics behind the scenes for a moment, right? Let's say I am your ideal client profile, okay, and I I'm not sure if I would refer to you because you mentioned the community, the network, and all of that, or even if I landed on your website, right? So let's say I resonated with your work, okay? And I want to know what working with you looks like. So when someone decides to work with you, what does that actually look like from their perspective, right?

Elena Tecchiati 16:33

If I'm being on board as a client, so from the first session, I'm very clear when I'm in communication. This is also part of my mission. So I uh clear up expectations, as you know, is very important, and I'm very open in my communication, sometimes direct or too direct. But they are expecting um challenging questions. Look, this morning, it was exactly what we are talking about. It was twice the first session, and my two clients at the end of the session, they were so into the emotion that they cried because they found out things that they did not realize before. So this can happen. So I go very deep sometimes, and um just let me guide you if you want to, if you're open to this, because you can change your life if you want to change your life. This was clear to me at the beginning when I was starting my certification or my accreditation when I started to read many other books about leadership, about coaching, but nobody can change your life unless you don't want it. So um, yeah. So I maybe a new perspective, also, Pedro, is expecting my clients, devils advocate for my side. I decided many years ago after supervision of um, yeah, as you know, we need sometimes supervisors as well. So I I go on um um doing courses myself as a coach, and one supervisor said, You are not the nice girl here, you are not helping if you're only the nice girl. And it was like wow. So I play many times devil's advocate and the bad girl because I know that helps, yeah.

Pedro Stein 18:44

Yeah, I think that's part of coaching, right? The pushback it goes with the relationship and with the alignment piece you mentioned at the start, right? So this is leveling the playing field is like this is what engagement looks like working with me, Elena, right? And how we're gonna move forward. I think that's very important to to set up the standards right off the bat. So yeah, I got that. Now, I mean, your work seems pretty involved, right? We're talking about one-on-one sessions, we talk about some team training, also corporate, right? You mentioned that. So, how do you think about managing your time and energy so the business doesn't start owning you, for example?

Elena Tecchiati 19:26

I learned to say no. Um, I learned to say no, I work with priorities, I um work with Cal Sync, Calendar Sync organization. So um, yeah, I'm um now, for example, I'm in three leadership processes, leadership training. And if I look at my um at my notes, I am more or less in two 22, 23 processes, coaching processes, with a media of 12, 13 hours, sometimes 15 hours uh a week of coaching. So I don't want more than that. I told you already, Pedro, because when I have more hours, I'm not able to pay attention to listen well. So you can say, oh, train your listener skills. No, it's not about that. I'm trained, um, but I know myself and I know my barriers. So I had last week a day with six hours coaching spread during the day. So I had my lunch, I had my afternoon break between one session and another, so I was doing good, but if I know it, I need breaks and I'm very aware of it. So time management, important counseling. I I use my calendar, I have time for myself. Um I do sport, I do my music, as you know, I'm a singer songwriter, I'm a singer, so it's part also of my of my life, and I learn to say no and I take care of myself.

Pedro Stein 21:23

Yeah, I always like to ask that because in the coaching space, more often than not, we see coaches wearing all the hats, right? And sometimes that scarcity mindset of hey, I'm just uh I can, it's just my time, right? I can book it, and that's the client. And then when you're looking at it from that perspective, and then you realize you're working 10 hours a day, and you're like, well, wait a minute, I'm advocating about um against burnout, and I'm burning myself out. So that's the reason why I I tend to ask that.

Elena Tecchiati 21:57

I have some weeks with 25 hours. Hours of coaching. But that's because uh I spread them during the days, but that's because I I don't know, I'm on holiday the week after, or because I I have to travel or whatever. So I I'm aware of this and I distribute my hours properly.

Pedro Stein 22:17

Interesting. Now, one thing that I like to would like to talk with you since you, I mean, you've been more than 18 years in the game, and um this is always a hot topic, right? Which is pricing. But we I we don't need to talk about hard numbers, right? It's more about the journey because that's a very self-worth path. Like, am I charging enough? Am I not charging enough? Because at the end of the day, service-based industries are based on your time, right? So, and then sometimes you have those weeks that you don't have a lot of booking. So, my question to you is how do you approach that now, that topic, right? The price, and how would what did you you have to learn the hard way to get where you are right now, you know?

Elena Tecchiati 23:03

I learned that there is a let's say a daily fee, which is it in Spain quite let's say from zero to ten, ten is the highest and zero is the lowest. I'm more about 7.5. Okay, this is this is my daily fee for training, for example. Then it depends on preparation. So I spread this, I I divide this, and I have my coaching fee personally. Personally, it means if I go to Barcelona, if I go to Madrid, or if I go somewhere here to Matarão, but people don't do that anymore, so it's online. So I went down with my fee because a little bit because I prefer to stay here with a laptop. I must say that video conferences um coaching, people are more punctual than before. So I realize that. Um, and so yeah, that's it. So I I I try to, and then there are some platforms that you cannot negotiate the price, that's the way it is. And some companies they tell me openly the budget that they have, and sometimes it's more than my than my hours. That's good, that's great. That's thank you. Okay, I'll take that. Yeah, don't worry. Uh sorry it depends. Um, but I learned as I said, to be to have make a benchmark, understanding daily fees first. If someone is starting, you cannot maybe take the the fee of a piece PCC or MCC, surely, or someone has so much experience, but um, not one euro, surely, because there are certifications, there are hours of work behind that, and because coaches are not like friends taking a coffee with someone and and chatting about something. This is this is very clear. People think I earn my money making nice questions. This is not what we do, so it's much more than that, and we need to realize it and to to to to see it as a job, it is a profession.

Pedro Stein 25:23

Interesting. Now, looking forward a bit, you know, Elena, what's the direction you're aiming this business towards? You know, are you thinking more about growth, leverage, building a team, or refining what already works, you know, what feels most exciting right now?

Elena Tecchiati 25:39

I would love, I'm I I wrote a book in Spanish. It was it's a diary of positivity with a journey through life, values, positivity, good attitude, and I'm writing other books. I'm writing about performance, how to raise performance. So another book in professional development. My vision coaching, writing, presenting my books, and getting more clients. That's it. Does it make sense? And that happens because, Pedro, I did the presentation of my book and a direct review of my resources was there. I can't imagine that. Now I have a new client. That's that's it's great, isn't it?

Pedro Stein 26:26

Yes, it is. I mean, I can see the synergy, right? It's like one thing complements the other. I think it it makes sense, okay? And yes, it does make sense. Now, even when when things are going well, right, there's always something under construction. And and what's the main thing you're actively working on or trying to improve in the business right now?

Elena Tecchiati 26:48

Um, yeah, you were talking about time management, and that's that's it. I met yesterday also someone who's interested in presenting my book as a concept for coaching, positivity. So this person has a company, consulting company. So we are gonna work together to present this concept of positivity, resilience as a coaching process with my book. It can be a good business. Um uh has the same model. Let's see. Let's see. Um, and I'm working on the other book about performance, and um I'm having some interviews in Italy to be a coach uh for two Italian companies. So let's see what, but it's always, yeah, you're right. It's actually if I think there is always something going on, a training with coaching. When I do leadership training, for example, all the participants, um, wow, your coach, yeah. You should we should have a session of coaching after the training. Um, so and that's a good, also a good business model that because coaching is a great way of learning, we should be aware of that. It's the best way of learning individually.

Pedro Stein 28:10

Yes, a lot of spinning plates. You can't stop writing books, having your coaches, scaling that, you know, the you know, building the systems. Yeah, sounds like Elena has got a lot going on. Now, I mean, Elena, you've been uh in the game, like I said, around long enough, right? To see trends come and go, and and people give business advice non-stop, especially in social media. I always emphasize this. It's like you're browsing and it's like AI is dead, next topic, AI is gonna take over, you know, that kind of duality. So, what so much noise out there? Now, what's something you hear repeated a lot, you know, that you think people misunderstand or maybe they overvalue about our profession, or about what do you mean exactly about our profession, or about I would say business advice, you know, could be the profession, you know. I'll I'll throw it one out there, okay? Yeah, uh, people are trying to, for example, replace coaches with chatbots, yeah, yeah, or maybe people are that there's one thing that I I hear a lot is like about the grinding mindset, and sometimes it's not just about grinding, it's about working smart, you know, it's not about putting 10, 12 hours in the day, it's more like being more efficient. So it really depends on the advice you're you're you're looking at. Depend, and you can use that whatever works for you as your lens, you know, as business advice or maybe in the profession, whatever rocks your boat, I would say.

Elena Tecchiati 29:48

I jumped into an ad instagram a couple of weeks ago about someone who is telling coaches and therapists and psychologists how to make the business, and I was curious because I was thinking it was maybe a system for calendar, whatever. No, no, no. He coaches them how to get clients and how so um when I saw actually the pieces of advice, I would I would say be careful, be careful because um everything there, if it's AI looking for clients, it's not that I go, I do an advertisement, and then people are coming to me and like you know, like selling bread. No, it's it's not the way it is. It as a coach, also we need to grow. And I remember I'm not the same in 2008 or 2009. It's not just having an advertisement or having uh a landing page, he will send in landing pages with whatever. It's it's not that way that you grow as a coach. You can do advertisement and you can have a great landing page to at least to start communicating with potential clients, but it's not and I have 10 sessions more every week, it's work. Um and and the oh, and then it was the other one, the these people in LinkedIn which are writing to help you finding new clients, okay, with AI and with database and all these things. It's I don't know. I'm quite skeptical about that, and I prefer the right or the normal way because it's more sustainable when you do your job and you have really real contact with companies and with people, it's sustainable.

Pedro Stein 31:48

Yeah, I think it's about the hook, right? It's like it sounds so simple when you you you're reading the ad or you're going through a video, but at in reality, more often than not, it's not simple. For example, if you have someone promising legions and call bookings, well, are they qualified? You know, is this the type of people I should be talking to? They how can they assume this are qualified leads if we if we even had had a conversation about it, you know? I think that's uh it's the easy hook, right? That's always been there, always in the market. It's like, hey, you're gonna do X, Y, and Z more, we're gonna 10X your stuff. So click here. So yeah, I I'm a hundred percent with you on that. It's like, well, first of all, needs to be aligned with who you are, what you do, you know. If it feels zeky and you're like, eh, this is really this is not really my thing, not my voice. I think just by you can filter that just by the style of the ad. So yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent, you know. And um on the flip side, Elena, what's something boring or not hyped that you wish more people actually paid attention to, you know, in coaching, business advice, coaching. I I liked your first one about the ads. I think that's a very powerful that's a business advice for everyone if you're thinking about it. It applies to coaching, yes. So you can pick whatever feels like it, like you feel like people should pay more attention to, you know, and more often than not, you they're not really paying attention to.

Elena Tecchiati 33:30

Let's see if I if I understood right, what I believe, and it this is now one of my uh we talk now about beliefs, it's good. So we try to find something new to be to make innovations, to find some new techniques or whatever. We are human beings in coaching. There is the human touch, and I find really boring people also LinkedIn or whatever, the new system coaching with, and then they find the acronymous for I don't want to speak about growth, growth, I follow it as well, but there are some new things like I can't remember what is it, and I thought, what is it? I mean, this is what we do actually as a coach. It's it should be a new model. So people try to find something new to be to catch attention, to to show that they are innovative, but there is nothing new here. The process is clear, the process is clear, the human touch is clear. Um, touching human souls, it's it's the same, and it's and it's not boring. What is boring is when people try to find something like, hey, I'm a best coach because I have now the new method. There is nothing about that, and that is something that disturs me a lot. I don't know if I could answer to your question.

Pedro Stein 35:00

You did. I love it. I I love the fact that you're like, I'm not sure, but you you hit the nail in the head, and and the reason I feel like it, it's like it's just old stuff with new names and people trying to pretend to be more smart than they actually are, right? It's a different frame. It's like at the end of the day, it's human connection, there is a human component. You're just trying to put, you know, in a way that sounds innovative, but it's really not, you know, it's just, and sometimes when you think about it and you look through it, you can see the BS, right? You can see the oh okay, I got okay, I know what you're doing, you know. And uh that is so interesting. I love it.

Elena Tecchiati 35:43

I remember when I started, and I did almost my PhD. I did, I just did the first part because I would I prefer to coach, I prefer to work, and I was doing my PhD in inclusive leadership. So I read many things about leadership, many things, and I remember my professor said, Yeah, just take one book about leadership and take the other one, take the other one, and they're saying the same. But I don't want to say that they're saying the same, but the concepts, okay, uh following. So surely the concept of leadership has changed, so it's not bossy anymore. Leaders are uh helping, whatever, they're supporting, but there's nothing new in that. I mean, leadership is is creating followers. That's the same. What I'm saying is in academic in the academic world, they well, me too, we are aware of this that the human being has the same processes, um, body language hasn't changed, the human mind is changing because of social media. Okay, I agree, but the brain is the same and emotions are the same, so yeah. I was venting my frustration.

Pedro Stein 37:02

Yeah, no, I get what you're saying. I love the the losing weight analogy for this. It's like there people are always trying to find the magic pill, right? The magic wand. It's like you're gonna have to eat less, exercise, and you're gonna be healthier. It's that simple. There is no uh, you know, magic diet, and then you're gonna start taking showers at 3 a.m. And you know, that type of stuff, crazy stuff. Oh, you're gonna eat just eggs. So it's not about that, you know. The the the the main thing, the main idea is like you're gonna have to eat less, you know, you're gonna have to exercise more. And I at the end of the day, it is that simple. Nobody's saying it's easy because if it was easy, those hooks you we are talking about, they wouldn't work, right? Everyone would have that solved, right?

Elena Tecchiati 37:55

Sure, sure. My friend is doing yoga face, or this this face yoga, how does it call it? Yeah, and she's always looking for something new, but she said at the same time the exercises are always the same. This, uh, this so even though it's face yoga, something new, but the exercises are the same. Um, coaching, if you have a good school, the processes are the same, you can find new tools. I did, I don't know how many certifications in coaching, and actually I just did that also because the approaches of the trainers or the coaches were different, but at the end, the process is clear. I also did it because of the different states where I worked, I did it in the US, I did it in in Italy, I did it in Spain, whatever.

Speaker 3 38:51

But it is what it is, Elena.

Elena Tecchiati 38:56

It is what it is, you know, and it can be a great thing, just believe it. I mean, we all have our style, okay, and this is important. So, branding, and this is for all coaches who are listening. I have my branding, I have my style. I'm not okay, maybe for everyone, and that's okay. I'm aware of it, I have my style, and and that's also part of the game. This is like when you buy something, a t-shirt or a product, you like it, someone else doesn't like it. We need to be aware of this, but also to be aware what I'm good at and what I'm good at for. So, how can I support someone and what is my added value?

Pedro Stein 39:41

And this is important, yeah, and you know, accept that. I think that's part of it. It's like it's accept the fact that this is not a good client for me and it's okay, you know.

Elena Tecchiati 39:52

I rejected two clients in my life, yeah, I did, yeah, and I stopped some project processes. I guess three if I can remember, because people did not want to do anything, they were not they were not interesting, and even though you tried, say look, as I said, you cannot change your life if you don't want to change it. It's not a coach coming here and and and convincing you to have coaching. No, no, this is not the way it works.

Pedro Stein 40:31

Yes, you're getting me to a rabbit hole. And before we close this out, Elena, if someone resonated with what you share and wants to follow your work, right? Where should they go?

Elena Tecchiati 40:43

Well, my website is etekyati.com, which is E from my first name and then my surname, Tekiati, Elena, etekyati.com. You find me also on LinkedIn. I have a cousin actually, she has exactly the same name, but you can find she's not a coach. So happy to get in touch with anyone that would love to be to stay in touch with me. Great.

Pedro Stein 41:09

Okay, you know, there were a few moments from this podcast that I would love to highlight. I would say put it like that. First of all, your background as a singing teacher and the fact that you rejected, you're like, I'm not gonna help people, you know, and that to talk in public and all that. You're like, that's not really for me, I'm not sure. And then you realize, you know what, I guess this is something like I could be doing, and you were, you know, at that time that was your boyfriend, but turned out to be uh your husband. I I think that is so interesting, that's so organic, you know, it's not like you wake up a day and you're like, I'm a coach. No, no, it's like something that just happened, you know, based on the the raw potential you all you were already showing to people, you know. And uh another thing is like when you told me that you became rich because you touched so many souls and they touched yours, right? I think that is such a powerful reminder to ground people, you know, to anchor them to understand that this at the end of the day, you can name it as much as you want to. It's about human connection and it goes both ways, right? It's not just about you in a preaching mode towards your coachy, it's you growing alongside them, right? As as a partner, as even if it is as a coach, but making the right questions and keep moving forward, you know, really like that. Um, and last but not least, learn to say no, right? Like hold your ground, you know. Uh you you you're you're the business owner and you're a coach, but at the same time, you have to understand there is only you're not for everyone. You have your capacity, you you have your your limitations, and sometimes they're not a match, just that, you know. So uh Lena, this is my long-winded way of saying that. I really appreciate you taking the time and being open with this. Okay, it was great having you on.

Elena Tecchiati 43:20

Pedro, I love this interview. Thank you very much. You do a really great job. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Pedro Stein 43:25

I appreciate you.

Davis Nguyen 43:26

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.