Turning Vision into Results: Insights from Martin Cunningham

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Martin Cunningham, a seasoned leader and expert in bridging the gap between strategy and execution to create meaningful, lasting impact within organizations. Martin dives into what it truly takes to align vision with behavior, foster strong workplace cultures, and lead teams that not only perform but thrive. He shares powerful perspectives on leadership accountability, the importance of situational leadership, and how investing in people’s growth can transform both individuals and businesses. Whether you're a leader looking to elevate your team or a professional aiming to grow your career, this episode offers practical wisdom and actionable strategies you won’t want to miss.

You can find him on:
https://www.competencybasedcoaching.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@MartinCunninghamCoaching
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martincunningham1/
Email: mc@competencybasedcoaching.com

Transcript

Martin Cunningham 0:00

So people need to pivot at pace. Organizations and teams need to be agile. And I can help them with that. And that's exciting for me. You know, working on how individuals and teams elevate themselves to perform at a higher level. And it's anyone can get success. For me, how do we get you to achieve your full potential?

Davis Nguyen 0:30

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 1:02

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Martin Cunningham, whose career coaching expertise was forged in some of the world's most demanding environments, supporting leaders at director, general, and my ministerial levels in Afghanistan and the Western Balkans. What sets Martin apart is his deep understanding of high-stakes decision making, having worked with senior leaders from the United Nations, NATO, OSCE, and European Union, and where clarity, resilience, and accountability weren't just leadership qualities, but operational necessities. Martin's approach to career coaching is grounded in real-world experience where decisions carried genuine consequences, and leadership demanded unwavering focus under pressure. He specializes in helping professionals navigate major transitions and career progression, ensuring they can think clearly, communicate their value with confidence, and secure roles where their contribution genuinely matters in advancing global initiatives like the sustainable development goals. Welcome to the show, Martin.

Martin Cunningham 2:19

Well, thanks, Pedro. And I have to say, listening to that, I want to listen to that podcast because that guy sounds interesting.

Pedro Stein 2:26

Yeah, I mean, we're gonna dive into that, you know, the origin start. This is this is basically the the thing that I think I love the most, you know. Um, before we get into what you do now, you know, I'm curious how this actually all actually started, you know. So, what was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea?

Martin Cunningham 2:49

Well, I I guess I guess I've done it all my life, all my working life. Um uh I start career uh policing, both military and civil. And as a as a senior corporal, you took the junior corporal through and let them know. Um as a police officer, uh you became a probationary police officer, you learnt your craft, and then a bit later on you started to teach, or I started to teach others. Um, then I I kind of there's a momentous failure in it uh in some uh courses and other things that I did and I failed and I learned better. And because I learned better, other people came to me for advice and I freely gave it. Uh, so uh throughout all of my career, I've kind of been coaching people or mentoring people without even realizing it. Um, and then uh I had a bit of an implosion uh at work and I went back to some basics. I'd had a really good career progression, and then I kind of imploded because I didn't like the politics and other things were going on, and I went back to basics. I became a firearms corrupt commander and I did critical incident command. That's high risk end of policing business, and that ends careers sometimes, and people shy away from it sometimes. But I threw myself into it. And my son was on his second tour of Afghanistan as an EOD search specialist, and I thought, what can I do to help bring the boys and girls home? And I applied for international work, and I was able to go to Afghanistan to help set up the Afghan National Police Staff College there. Uh, and training some of those guys was really humbling. I I remember one time uh we had some riots in London, and I'd been home on leave, and I came came back to Afghanistan, and I had these majors, colonels, and generals from the Afghan National Police who had some of their officers dying every day. Uh, and they came up to me and said, Are your brothers and sisters okay uh back home in London? Uh and that camaraderie was was so powerful, and I really enjoyed coaching them. And whilst I was there as an instructor, I've always had more of a coaching ethos without really knowing it. Um when I came back to the UK, I'd kind of outgrown UK policing, and I was asked what I wanted to do by the head of um Kent Police uh Human Resources, and I said I want to go back out internationally, so I spent another year in the UK and then went back, uh went to the Western Balkans um helping to set up the police region in the north of Kosovo following what was called the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Uh so um that was very much structured under the European Union, um, and I had to monitor the closure of Serbian parallel structures and help a new regional commander set up a police region in the north. On the back of the work I did there, I got promoted and became the head of the strengthening division, uh, which is the capacity building element of the largest EU mission that was that was available at the time, and that was the capacity building of all of the rule of law sector um of Kosovo, and that included uh uh ministers of justice, um minister of interior, the head of the prosecutorial council, director generals, etc. And and I was I was on a EU high-level course, uh, and Friday I was pretty much guaranteed getting a really high-level job within a European um crisis mission. That was on the Friday that I'd completed that course, and on the Sunday was the Brexit vote, and my career completely imploded. And I knew that I had two years where I would be leaving in that two years I'd be leaving the European Union. Um and other and I I went through this thing where and I take my clients through it now, and it's a little bit like Ike, that Japanese way of of living, but I amended it. I just did three columns and one row below and the stuff in the in the left-hand column is all the stuff that you love and you energizes you. The second column is what what you're skilled at, and then the third column is your innate skill, and I couldn't get what my innate skill was, and I don't think we always see it in ourselves, and I couldn't get it. Um, my partner she said to me, we we weren't uh with each other at that time, uh, but she said, Why don't you do this coaching? Why don't you why don't you coach people around interviewing careers and stuff like that? And I said, You can't make money at that, that's just what I do. Well, apparently you can, uh which is what I do now. Uh and I tinkered with it from about 2019 to 2020, and an opportunity came to go back to Afghanistan, uh, which I took, uh, and I decided that was going to be my last mission. Um, and initially uh uh I uh I'd started coaching women in security and justice sector reform, and I gave that a bit of a pause, went back to Afghanistan, and when I came back, I thought I've really got to do this coaching now because I came back May 2021, and we all know what happened in Afghanistan then. Uh, and for me it was about revitalizing what I could do for me and for others. So I no longer go on missions, but I coach people who are predominantly making the world a better place. It started with women in security and justice sector reform, but then moved to people from UNESCO approached me, and then people from other walks of life, uh, all of whom are working towards the UN sustainable development goals. So that's pretty much how I got into coaching.

Pedro Stein 9:55

Wow. Well, first of all, it sounds like I'm not living enough. Okay, I'm just putting it out there. Jesus Christ. I mean, Martin, you're all over the place here. I mean, it that is so interesting. I mean, we're talking about first of all, skin in the game, right? Career transitions from one place to another, and then from police to you're in the Afghanistan. Um, and then uh you mentioned um the Eastern, the uh it's Kosovo. Is that that right?

Martin Cunningham 10:24

Yeah, yeah. The Western Yugoslavia.

Pedro Stein 10:27

Uh yeah, the full fall of Yogoslavia. Yeah, perfect. I remember that. Now, I mean, that's a lot to process. I'm still processing. Okay. Um then again, I love that you started so organically and you realized by it, you realize that down the road, right? You're like telling me you you were already coaching, you're just not aware of it. You know, it's like I was helping people, giving some free advice, and uh it was just happening. It was there in the background, you know, in the shadows, but it was there. So I love that. And I want to understand one thing, because there's a pause, right? You started in 2019, 2020, you go to Afghanistan and then you go back that it's your last mission. What I want to understand is, because you mentioned this yourself, it's like, ah, you can make money out of this, right? So at what point did it stop feeling like a side thing or a calling, and it started feeling like an actual business, right? A coaching practice. Is it the first invoice? Is it the first paying client? You know, that feeling that you you grab the hat and put it on, like, hey, sounds like I'm a coach now.

Martin Cunningham 11:37

Okay, so I've actually got because I can remember exactly when that happened, and now now I'm changing it as well because I need to I need to refocus on who I want to become. Um I'm I'm invoking Amy Cuddy here, fake it till you become it. Uh yeah, really visualize that. Now, when people in Kosovo were asking me, uh international community, everybody said, Oh, what do you do here? And we all talk about, oh, uh, I'm a lawyer, I'm a this, I'm a that. And uh I was saying all the way up until after I came back from Afghanistan, I said, Oh, I used to work uh in ULEX, uh, and I used to do this, and now I do coaching. This one guy in a local bar said said, Oh, what do you do here? I said, Oh, I'm a career coach. And I took a moment because I realized I'd made that transition.

Pedro Stein 12:40

You said it out loud.

Martin Cunningham 12:41

It was big for me, it was big because I did it without thinking. It was huge. My partner kept saying, Um uh you're not in Ulex anymore. Why do you keep saying it? Why do you get but I had to make that switch myself? Uh and and it's one of the things one of that learning point actually I take my clients through. I get them to visualize the future that they want, um, and I take them through a pointing exercise as well about priming the brain for success. Uh, and it's it's amazing when you actually start visualizing the person you want to become and show up for the role you want, not the role you're in, you make the transition before the the role changes, and other people start to see you in that role. Other people saw me as a coach before I saw myself as a coach.

Pedro Stein 13:33

Yeah, that friend, right? That friend told you, hey, you should be doing this. It's interesting how that works out. Hmm, you know, and uh once you were out there, you know, helping people, coaching people, who did you naturally end up attracting? I know we kind of browns through it already, but I want to understand the early days, right? There's a lot of trial and error. We're like sometimes not saying it's the case, but I see a lot of coaches that are trying to help everyone, right? And sometimes they niche down, sometimes they don't. So when did you realize, okay, this is my tribe, or even if you got to that point already?

Martin Cunningham 14:12

So I I I think I made a conscious decision that I wanted to focus initially on women in security and justice sector reform. And the reason for that is all of my experience working internationally, all the studies I've done show showed and evidenced that if you include uh diversity of thought in the solution identification, you are more likely to get the results you want, and they're more likely to be implemented more quickly and more likely to be sustainable. When you avoid that diversity of thought, you get uh short-term wins and ticking boxes, but no sustainability. It just doesn't work. Uh and there's a lot of credible women working internationally all around the world, trying to make the world a better place, but quite often they're not heard at the table, and I wanted them to be heard at the table. So because I knew if I served those women, they'd go on to serve many. And although I'm not doing missions myself, I can serve many through the work I do with a few. Um so and my first paying client uh was a woman who was a lawyer. Um and her father knew me. Uh she kind of knew of me, um, and she was put in contact with me. And her father said, uh, I'm not sure, I'm not sure he's a coach, because of course I wasn't then, and I never portrayed myself as a coach. Um, but she came to me and and she already had all the credibility, and this is one of the learning points for me. All the people I coach already have the credibility within them, they already have all of the skills and the resources they need, but the coaching just draws it out of them. And the one element she didn't have was persuasion, but she had it within her because she had all this all the skills, knowledge, and experience around the subject matter. It's and it was simply this when she was talking, she was speaking really credibly, but she was looking down and not in the camera, and it was as simple as just getting her to switch some of that stuff. Then on the back of that, I had a guy who was applying for a job, and he said, I know you coach women, but would you coach men? I said, Yeah, I will, but you've got to you've got to be working towards sustainable development goals, and you've got to believe in the ethos of diversity of thought leads to better solutions. If you believe in that, I'll happily support you. Um and I coached him. And on the back of that, I then I was approached because of my LinkedIn profile, it was all organic outreach. I was approached by a couple of women from from UNESCO, and they they came in and said, Would you would you coach us? And I said, Yes, I'll coach you. Um and and I did, and that was interesting because it was different. Uh, then I had a woman from uh who was working in China and wanted to work in the EU. Again, she wanted to make the world a better place through working with the European Union. So I start I coached her and I really went in depth with her. She was probably the first um client that I took from a real sort of foundational phase to building her into the person she wanted to be, and a lot a year-long coaching uh arrangement with her. Uh, and she wanted to get into the European Union within about two to three years. She got there in a year. Um, because she and this is the thing uh this is the thing that I think all of your listeners need to take away. It's not the coaching that makes the difference, it's the coachability of the client and their willingness to do the work in between the sessions when no one else is looking. Because they have all of the resources within them. That's my belief. But some people don't take the uncomfortable, consistent, and focused action towards their goals, and they don't achieve what they want to achieve. The ones that take the uncomfortable, consistent, and focused action towards their goals when no one else is looking, tend to achieve it, and the coach just supports them in that journey. I think that's answered your question.

Pedro Stein 19:05

It does. Interesting. Okay. Now, I want to zoom out for a second because I want to understand basically how those people women, usually, right? You did coach some men, but usually women are trying to make up the world a better place. Let's put it like that. How how they uh end up finding you today, you know, how they usually find their their way to you in the first place, you know, marketing-wise.

Martin Cunningham 19:32

So this is one of the things I've got to get a lot better at because uh I used to I used to have teams around me because I had high-level jobs, I had teams around me that did all of this stuff, and it just happened. Now I have to do all of it, and I've had to learn, I haven't just had to learn about coaching, I've had to learn about branding, around marketing. Don't get me wrong, that all helps my clients because then I can give them that information as well and support them in their journey. Uh, but marketing is one of the things I'm really falling down on. You know, people say you've got to have an email list. I'm not very good at that. You've got to maintain the email list, I'm not very good at that. You've got to keep the the flow of information consistent in your email list, you've got to keep feeding the the beast. I'm not very good at that. What I but what I did do was I posted a lot on LinkedIn, um, and I messaged people on LinkedIn, and a lot of people found me on LinkedIn. The interesting thing for me is everybody's turned me out, I've only got this many, this many impressions, this many likes. I think I could I think one person who became a client of mine had ever like liked or commented on a post. Everyone else never liked it, never commented on it, they just observed. So for me, they they find me through my shop window. My shop window happens to be LinkedIn. And I'm now I'm now just going through the process of revamping my website because I've changed slightly now. I now work towards individuals, teams and organizations, and now I'm uh I'm also going to be doing some courses online. So that's about learning and community. So those are my three pillars now: individuals, teams and organizations, and learning and community.

Pedro Stein 21:41

Okay. Well, to be candid, most coaches didn't turn themselves into coaches to be marketers, so that's pretty common in the space, right? Uh, another thing that you mentioned, I feel like it's very interesting to highlight is the fact that engagement doesn't mean. Alliance or conversion, because at the end of the day, we're talking about sometimes, depending on the niche, right? Uh, it's it's like exposing yourself, right? Yeah, I want to change my career. Well, on LinkedIn, most people are already employed if they're your ideal client profile. So they feel exposed to, you know, show that they're unhappy at their workplace, for example, or even if they're a leader, you know. Oh, I am burned out. You know, an employee uh reading that could potentially read that and like, hey, what's going on? You know, so I completely get that. I understand that. So I see a lot of coaches um making that mistake, you know, considering that the engagement metrics are sometimes, you know, failures because they don't have a lot, but there's always someone looking behind the scenes and observing what's happening. Okay, now what I would love to do is for you to walk me through uh the client experience, right? Like let's pretend I'm one of those people, your ideal client profile. I resonated with your your posts on LinkedIn, for example, or even a referral, right? Someone told me, Hey, you should talk to this guy, he's pretty cool. And we ended up come, we ended up converting. I'm you close me, I'm a client, whatever you want to call it. I'm in the onboarding process. So, how does that look like from my perspective as a client?

Martin Cunningham 23:18

Okay, so each experience is different. So if it's let's go through the lens of interview preparation. So the interview preparation, and I used to do it where I just did this one package, but I have found that that some people don't want the one package. I won't do the 45 minutes that some some people do because all that does is create fear. So, what I do is I do an onboard, uh basically a uh uh part of the experiences, the call that you do with me just to see where you are, what what's your current situation, what is it you want, and what are the obstacles to that? What uh and what resources do you already have that are supporting you in that? Um from that, we decide whether or not it's career orientation or application support or interview preparation. If it's interview preparation, only interview preparation, I look at the job description and I draft, I give a few videos for them to watch that I I've got on YouTube uh around how to present yourself in an interview. I then spend a little bit of time drafting up a workbook that is specific to them and the job they're applying for. And I tell them to steer away from all this nonsense on Google. Uh the vast majority of advice you get around careers and stuff like that is rehashed from the 1980s when we didn't have the internet, we didn't have the resources. And I've actually had it where I've had three people, one after the other, come in and at the end of the interview, you know when you turn around and say, Uh have you got any questions for the panel? All three of them asked the same three questions in the same three order, in the same order, and and because they searched it on Google, and those were the first three questions that came up, so they just asked the same, and it's rubbish, and so many, so many organizations that are in career orientation are saying, do that. No, don't do that. Only ever ask a and this is just one for your listeners if they're going for an interview, if you don't mind. Only ever ask a question if you are genuinely curious about it, and uh if you've researched it to the nth degree and you really just want that little bit more information because that will show that you're really interested. If you just say, Oh, can you tell me what you expect me to achieve in the first 90 days? I'm sorry, I'm not, you know, I want you to come in and tell me what you're going to achieve in the first 90 days. Excite me. So I take my clients through that, and that's one of the conversations I have with them first off. So uh we're still talking about the clients, that's part of the onboarding process. Then I go give them the workbook, and through that workbook, we work on we do six sessions. If they're buying the if they're investing in the ultimate package, it's usually six to eight sessions, 90 minutes long, and we focus on that opening opening um that they're doing when the first meeting and the first answer they give because that's all about likability and credibility. Once we've got them through that lens, we develop the bibliography of evidence, which is um like a pack of playing cards, if you like, lots of different pieces of evidence. And when somebody asks you a question, you look at the available evidence you've got and you lay down the best hand you've got for that particular question. If you've got enough of those, 10 to 15 of those, absolutely brilliant, and they're all achievements all through the star L. So situation, task, action, result. That's an old method, it's really good. The majority of people use it, but that looks at your previous performance as a predictor to your future performance. I've added learning to it because learning, if you take the learning from that and say how that will change what you will do in that organization, in that job, that suddenly shows I've got the experience and I know how to use it in your organization to meet your pain points. And suddenly that elevates one of my clients said that's so good it should be unlawful. And uh and it really elevates the answer. And then I do the clo and then I take them through the closing and I talk them through. If you really must ask a convers ask a question, feel free. But I've stolen this one with pride from Mel Robbins. She said, Why are you asking a question at the end? Why don't you make a pitch for the job because nobody makes a pitch for the job? So now I take my clients through this. I said, I know the conventional wisdom is to uh ask a question at the end to show my interest, but I've already shown you I am motivated for this job. I already know I want this job, and hopefully my answers have provided you enough evidence that I've done my research. I still want this job. I don't want to waste your time asking a question I already know the answer to. What I'd like to do is just reiterate the values, the three values points that I'd bring to this. One, two, three. And if I was to ask you one thing, it's let me have the job and let me prove it to you. Drop my walk away. Because nobody does that. If you're pitching for a project, people always are. If if you're pitching, if you're marketing, you're asking for the the job. But when we go in, we forget that we're two things in an interview with a salesperson and with a product, and we need to pitch the product, and we need to ask them to invest in that product.

Pedro Stein 29:38

Yes. Well, I worked in sales, so I kind of know what you're talking about. Now, I appreciate you walking me through that entire experience, you know. I think it shed some light to your work and what people can expect from it. Now, I want to talk a little bit about future, right? So looking forward a bit, what's the direction you're aiming this business towards? You know, are you thinking more about leverage, growth, building a team, refining what already works, you know, Martin? What feels most exciting right now?

Martin Cunningham 30:12

Right. So setting up a membership site where I've got some courses, but where I go, I love doing the talk. I don't know if you've noticed about the me, but I'm not an introvert. So I like being the front of house. So for me, if I could have people doing my marketing for me and doing the sales calls for me, great. I don't mind doing the odd sales call because actually connecting with people in that early experience allows me to tailor what I'm going to do for them. But what I'd like to start doing, and I'm going to start doing, uh, is, and I've already started to redesign my website as a result of this, is take some people who can't invest in the higher ticket offers, but offer them something a little bit lower level where they can work with others in small workshops or even large workshops where I take them through once a week certain package, certain elements of the package, and then another day in that week I do a QA. Uh and taking them through career orientation, some leadership, interview preparation, application support, those sorts of things. And still offer one-to-one coaching and also coaching teams around adaptability and their ability to pivot at pace in what is a rapidly changing world. At the start of this um podcast, it was the slowest pace of change that you and I are going to know for the rest of your uh our lives. And it's already accelerated whilst we've been talking. So people need to pivot at pace, organizations and teams need to be agile. And and I can help them with that, and that's exciting for me. You know, working on how individuals and teams elevate themselves to perform at a higher level, and it's anyone can get success. For me, how do we get you to achieve your full potential? And for me, my full potential as a coach is having teams, individuals, and community groups doing all that learning, but then me having a team of people around me that do some of the other work that I don't like doing, but they do.

Pedro Stein 32:47

Hmm. Okay, so you're working in your zone of genius, is the way they put it these days. So you can focus on what you really love, you know, so it can deliver at a high productive rate, you know, if that makes any sense.

Martin Cunningham 33:03

So so this this thing I that three columns and one row underneath, I do the one row underneath is what drains you, and what I say to my clients is whenever you're looking for work, look for work where uh Pareto's principle at least 80% of it is energizing and you love doing, and less than 20% is draining because you need the draining bit to be able to grow, you need to build your resilience, so your resilience reservoir needs to go grow, but you need to be able to top it up, and that 80% resilience, yeah. Policing was 90% boredom and 1% excitement, but that one percent excitement was was uh was definitely uh the exhilarating part which topped up your resilience reservoir, and the other thing is you were constantly in the service of others, making other people's lives better within the skill set that you have. That would that's that's kind of been my ethos throughout my whole life.

Pedro Stein 34:04

Okay, now Martin, before we close this out, if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work, you know, where should they go?

Martin Cunningham 34:15

Um, my LinkedIn profile, it's Martin Cunningham One, basically. Um, so they should go there uh because that's where I put a lot of my content. Also, competency-basedcoaching.com. Uh at the moment it's in transition, uh, but I'm gonna be putting a lot more stuff out there. I've also got a YouTube channel. I don't feed that as regularly as I should, but I will be feeding it. And people who watch Linked watch me on LinkedIn and watch me on my website will be able to see that. And they can email me either at Martin or MC at competency-basedcoaching.com.

Pedro Stein 34:55

Okay, you know, all the links will be showed here in the description, different for our different channels, and I feel the need, Martin, to highlight certain parts of the conversation we had today. I will start with that quote that you mentioned. How can I bring the boys home? You know, when we were talking about your origin story. So that to me shows that it's not about you talking about people that want to make the world a better place, but it's like taking action, right? Taking matters into your own hands. I understand you have your own your own son there, um, but it's like always looking back to yourself and how can I do something about it, you know. So I commend you on that. That's really thank you, really cool that you did that and the way you you you you know you positioned yourself into that situation. Um, another thing that really caught my attention is like when we were talking about your ideal client profile, and you mentioned your your posts, right? And you're like, yeah, but not every client, actually, just one client liked or engaged my posts, you know, and that's a very important reminder to coaches out there because it's like we were talking, right? They're sitting uh like in the dark, they're watching, and they're like, Yeah, this is resonating with me. And he and it starts to build up to a point that eventually they want to, you know, talk with you. And then on on another side of that is like how you coached men too, because I see a lot of coaches out there saying, like, hey, I niche down, and that means in their mind, based on the positioning, that it cannot help, for example, men, if you're helping women. No, it's not, it doesn't work like that. That's just a marketing piece. If there is alignment, right, and it needs to have alignment, you can definitely help someone who's not necessarily tied to your positioning. Of course, it needs to be aligned, especially with the last but not least highlight I'm gonna make here is like when you told me about the clients and that the the ones that work best are like the ones that have focus action, right? The ones that do the work and the in, you know, uh not between not in the call, but in between calls and they're doing the homework. And um for a moment, you can always think someone could think like, hey, are you blaming the client? But it does it's not really like that. It's about commitment at the end of the day. And uh if you qualify people and you understand in the first call who they truly are and how that's gonna that's gonna play out in the relationship down the line, you can tell that this this gal or or guy will actually work and this relationship will actually, you know, uh get the results that both expected, you know. So I think that's a great reminder too. Um, and this is my long-winded way of saying, Martin, that I really appreciate you taking the time and being open with this today. You know, it was great having you on, Pedro.

Martin Cunningham 37:59

Uh uh and thanks for being such a great host, um, because you made it really easy for me. Um, and you know, we all have an inner critic. I even have mine.

Speaker 38:09

Mine happens to be called Gollum, uh, because he reminds me of my presses, you're going to go to the fire some motor and you're going to die.

Martin Cunningham 38:19

Yeah. I actually I actually did a blog. Uh so one of the blogs is is the inner critic blog, and I'd researched it and I wrote it over the period of the weekend. And on the Monday, I went to hit send, and I went, Oh, hang on a minute, nobody's gonna listen to you. Uh, I just went, it's all right, Gollum. I've got this. I have a little chuckle to myself. I press send, and the feedback on the blog was really good. So all of us have an inner critic. I had an inner critic coming into the podcast, it's something I uh uh I'm looking at doing myself as well. Um, and you have been a very great host. So thank you so much, Pedro, for keeping Gollum at bay for me and helping me through it.

Pedro Stein 39:06

Oh, I appreciate you. And I'm just gonna throw out a fun fact. I'm in Brazil, most people hearing us and know that already. And um, the first book I got from my kid who's seven years old, uh, the oldest, the oldest, is like his learning English, right? He speaks Portuguese, but his learning English first book is The Hobbit. Okay, I'm just gonna throw it out there in English. So just saying out there, I really love the quote and the golem and all of that. So I'm into that, okay? Now, great having you again, Martin. A pleasure meeting you today, okay?

Martin Cunningham 39:37

Cheers, Patrick. Thanks a lot.

Davis Nguyen 39:40

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.