From Debt to Wealth: How Mike Crofts Built a Financial Coaching Business

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, host Pedro sits down with financial coach Mike Crofts, a former touring musician turned certified financial coach, to explore how he transformed personal debt struggles into a thriving coaching business focused on financial freedom, behavior change, and long-term wealth building.

Mike shares how burnout during his music career led him into a deep financial collapse after the 2008 crash—and how that moment ultimately became the turning point that pushed him into the world of financial coaching. What started as learning how to get out of debt evolved into helping clients build sustainable wealth through intentional planning, mindset work, and disciplined investing.

A major breakthrough in his marketing journey came from a single webinar that resonated strongly with his audience and became the primary source of early client acquisition. From there, Mike grew a coaching business that has helped clients eliminate millions in debt and transition into wealth-building strategies.

Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-crofts-4167bb131/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneycoachmike/

Transcript

Mike Crofts 0:00

The biggest driver of my marketing was I had one webinar that I uh put out there that resonated with a lot of people. And that that's where the majority of people found me uh in in the beginning. That's where they would have found me. Great question. So we've shifted a little bit from the from the early days of just helping people get out of debt. We've helped a lot of people get out of debt. Um, eight figures of debt paid off. It's been amazing. The problem we ran into is after people got out of debt, they were like, What's next? And that's where we naturally start to shift over to investing. So let's just say you came in on the investing side, because that's where we spend a lot of our time now. We still have the debt stuff for people for sure, but a lot of them within a couple of years become debt free. And then we spend a lot of time, many years on the wealth building side. So what that looks like for a lot of people um is pretty simple. We've got uh we've got uh a coaching program uh where people come in. You know, the classic coaching program, they learn as a group, right? They learn the concepts in a group, they ask questions in a group, they uh uh implement in the group, but then we have one-on-one where we help them get over the mindset problem, the self-sabotage, the scarcity. And that's where the one-on-one comes in for a lot of our clients here. So we'll teach them in a group setting um the overall concepts, how to implement all of that stuff with them.

Davis Nguyen 0:59

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 Wayne, 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 1:30

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Mike Crofts, a former award-winning touring musician who learned the hard way that the hustle mentality doesn't always lead to financial freedom. After the 2008 financial collapse, Mike found himself drowning in consumer debt, despite believing he could borrow his way to wealth, until a friend introduced him to a completely different approach that builds wealth without debt. Mike transformed his financial disaster into expertise as a certified financial coach, now teaching others their intentional planning strategies that took him from paycheck to paycheck, living to true financial freedom. His message is refreshingly simple yet powerful. Be intentional, work a plan, and live debt free, proving that anyone can break the cycle of financial stress and build long-term wealth. Welcome to the show, Mike. Come on. Hey, great to be here. Excited that you're here, man. And you know, before we get into what you do now, I'm curious as how this all actually started, Mike. Well, so what was going on in your life when coaching became more than just an idea, you know?

Mike Crofts 2:43

Oh man, uh burnt out. I remember literally couldn't get out of bed for weeks. You know, going back to those touring days uh led to that. Uh but while I was on tour, I learned a lot about finances and stewardship. Uh you gotta think about it. You know, we do a show, we play one, two hours a night, and then you got 22 hours for the rest of the day to, you know, do whatever you're gonna do. So we just did a lot of learning during those years. And it was during those years we learned about the you know principles of living debt-free, how to build wealth, you know, well without leverage, and started to apply that during those years here. So, anyways, it was 20, gosh, 2015, lying in that bed, couldn't get out, completely just like burnt out. And I had a moment where I just one of those, you know, almost like a uh a god bomb or whatever, where just this idea pops in your head and your heart just resonates with it. And it was go down to Nashville to learn about this event on helping people get out of dead and all that stuff. So I did that, and that's where the business started. Now it took many years to get the business rocking, but that's kind of the origin of where it started.

Pedro 3:43

Interesting. So it's like Dave Ramsey picked up a guitar or lost a guitar in the middle of the and is like, okay, I'm gonna do this. Now this is super interesting.

Mike Crofts 3:51

Yeah, I got down there, got certified, came back. You know, it was one thing to get certified and know what to do. It's a whole nother thing to build a business on how to actually make a living, teaching people how to do what you know, what you're passionate about, or in my case, get out of debt and build wealth. Um, and that was a whole that's a whole nother story. But yeah, that's where that happened.

Pedro 4:08

Okay, well, it sounds like you can future channel as well, because that's my follow-up question. Because in the early days for coaches, right, uh, most of them are trying to help people and all that, and just asking the water to see how that looks like. Now, when did it start feeling like an actual business for you, you know, when you that you were responsible for? You know, is it sometimes the first paying client, the first invoice? How did that play it out for you?

Mike Crofts 4:30

Yeah, um, it's funny because I probably hustled hard for probably about four years of like making a little bit of money, but never enough to serve you know, support the family. Was you know, like I think most coaches have problems similar stories. But I do remember the first time I got paid. It felt so good. It was like, wow, that was like a milestone. And at that time in my brain, I said, man, if I could just have eight paying clients a day, I'll replace my current job, my current income. This will be great. Now I look back and realize I don't want eight paying clients, I don't want eight hours of coaching every day. Uh you know, that's another way to burn yourself out fast. But, anyways, that was the origin. Yeah. So that first, that first pay, that first check that came my way, um, and then shortly after that, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. And it became a good side hustle, good side, side, side uh income. Uh, and then it was around 2019 where it blew up and became a full-time gig, started to hire staff, uh, bring on team members, is where it kind of that's where it pivoted.

Pedro 5:22

Nice. Once you were out there helping people, you know, who did you naturally end up attracting? When did you realize, okay, these are the people I work best with? Yeah.

Mike Crofts 5:30

I you know, I don't know if it's just my industry, uh, but there's a lot of women. Funny enough, a lot of uh, you know, women's 40s, 50s, um started just connecting uh in those circles and referring other their friends and all that. There's obviously some families as well. Uh, but with the debt thing, uh, a lot of single actually, sing a lot of single parents became asking this crew.

Pedro 5:53

Okay, now I got a little bit curious, you know, because well, you help people in the financial side. Did you have a lot of you know, a lot of family asking, hey, can you help us out, Mike? You know that feeling you're the money guy, right? You got that type of approach.

Mike Crofts 6:05

Yeah, there, you know, there's always gonna be a few. So I had some family ask a couple times for help. And, you know, I I kind of came to a thing it it gets awkward trying to coach family. I found like because like, you know, you give them advice, they don't do it. You're like, hmm, what do we talk about? You know, let's find the next thing. And so really early on, I said, listen, I would love to help you. My business will more than help you, but one of my team members is gonna work with you that way when we have Thanksgiving dinner, we can talk about everything else but your money. Okay, okay.

Pedro 6:31

Now, marketing-wise, Mike, I want to understand one thing, right? If someone ends up working with you today, yeah, how do they usually find their way to you in the first place?

Mike Crofts 6:40

Okay, so today email us is pretty big, so that's usually uh the first spot or you know, the socials, Instagram and YouTube and uh a little bit of Facebook. Um, but the the biggest driver of my marketing was I had one webinar that I uh put out there that resonated with a lot of people, and that that's where the majority of people found me uh in in the beginning. That's where they would have found me.

Pedro 7:06

Okay. Now let's pretend I'm one of those people, okay? Yeah. I looked at your socials, Instagram, whatever, your so LinkedIn, whatever, or and eventually I got into your email list or even your webinar, right? That you mentioned. And I'm I'm through the sales process, whatever that looks like. There's alignment. I see it, I like it. I'm being converted as a client, okay? Now walk me through two things. First of all, what it does it look like to work with your company, okay? That's first. And what are the outcomes I should expect from it?

Mike Crofts 7:38

Yeah, great question. So we've shifted a little bit from the from the early days of just helping people get out of debt. We've helped a lot of people get out of debt. Um, eight figures of debt paid off. It's been amazing. The problem we ran into is after people got out of debt, they were like, what's next? And that's where we naturally start to shift over to investing. So let's just say you came in on the investing side, because that's where we spend a lot of our time now. We still have the debt stuff for people for sure, but a lot of them within a couple years become debt-free. And then we spend a lot of time, many years, on the wealth building side. So what that looks like for a lot of people um is pretty simple. We've got uh we've got uh a coaching program uh where people come in. You know, the classic coaching program, they learn as a group, right? They learn the concepts in a group, they ask questions in a group, they uh uh implement in the group, but then we have one-on-one where we help them get over the mindset problem, the self-sabotage, the scarcity, and that's where the one-on-one comes in for a lot of our clients here. So we'll teach them in a group setting, um, the overall concepts, how to implement all of that stuff. But then we usually try and meet with them once once a month or um at least once a quarter, depending on where they're at, where we dial in the mindset and get them to actually take action on the stuff they know they need to take action on, but they're not. Which is what I think a good coach does. I help they help, you know, most people I find don't don't lack the uh information. What they lack is a transformation. And I think a lot of that transformation only happens when you're able to like have someone sit with you and challenge you and say, Hey, by the way, that's really good, but you should be doing this now. This is where you should be growing to. Let's stretch you just a little bit more here. And I think that's where people get the huge results is in the transformation.

Pedro 9:13

You know, I've been listening. I I do like to listen this type of show, you know, financial and all that. And I've been following this guy, Caleb Hammer. And and you one thing that you mentioned really caught my attention. It's like, and he always says this too, it's like changing behavior, right? If you if you go bankrupt as a tool or something like that, you're gonna go again if you don't change the way you're doing things, right? So is that something you guys are diving in? Is that what I did? I got that right.

Mike Crofts 9:38

Yeah, that's that's you you got the hit the uh nail on the head there. Uh and I've experienced like I've experienced it not myself, but with my coaching clients, is where they've done multiple bankruptcies, they've they've done stupid on steroids again and again and again and again. And what we find is to that statement, it's exactly true. The uh habits and behaviors haven't changed. And so the so you know the input hasn't changed, and so the output stays the same, even with a reset. Um so yeah, the again, and that comes back to the transformation. Usually, this is a general broad statement, but generally you won't see a transformation in your life until those habits and behaviors adjust.

Pedro 10:13

Okay, Mike. Now I have a question, right? Because I'm picturing myself, I'm projecting my hat that I'm a potential client, so something came to mind, right? Yeah. You're a coach, and then this space specifically, financial we we're we have a lot of financial advisors and planners. So, what is the main difference, you would say, from coaching people into a financial, just the standpoint of a financial advisor or planner?

Mike Crofts 10:38

Yeah, yeah, great example of that right now. I'll give you um uh literally a current example. The markets have dropped, you know, since October, the markets have been down, going sideways, and for the year we're still down, although we might make new all-time highs coming up here shortly. Um during good times in the stock market, everyone looks like great, everyone feels amazing, everyone looks like a genius, like you can't do any wrong. What happens when the markets start to turn around or go sideways? People get scared. They want to get out. And so, what I've been doing, and again, this is where that mindset stuff comes in here, is I've been coaching my community, my crew, this is where we buy. When everyone's scared, when everyone's selling, this is where we look to start buying and getting in. You know, so that's probably a big difference between a financial advisor in most cases is you know, managing the money. That's their job is to manage your money, but they very rarely do I find they manage you very well. Uh, and you call the shots. So, Pedro, you initially at the end of the day, you call the shots. Um, and a good financial advisor or a good coach is gonna help you on the mindset on the mindset side of things so that you know, like we just had this huge pullback, it's time to start putting money to work, not pulling money out. So I think that would be a great case. That just literally happened in the last month. Um, and um, you know, today we're thankful we did put money in because a lot of us are making a lot of money right now as the markets rebound and shoot back up, and people are now getting in. But uh yeah, that would probably be a huge difference.

Pedro 12:03

Okay, now I have another question because I'm getting to my own head, right? Thinking I'm your client. So I'm thinking now about the sales process as well. Like, let's play it like that. You know, I understand that investment is more towards what you're working on right now, but there's always still the that guy. So yeah, absolutely.

Mike Crofts 12:20

Yeah, absolutely.

Pedro 12:21

So how do you how do you I'm not saying convinced, but how do you present to someone that spending money on X, Y, and Z, and let's say you're a program, is a viable option considering they're already broke, you know?

Mike Crofts 12:32

And most people are. Right? Most people are. What I have found, so I I used to work as a postman, believe it or not, uh, deliver mail. And I used to deliver mail in some of the richest areas in the city and some of the the brokest areas in the city, like just welfare. And one thing I noticed um in the welfare communities is every house had a big screen TV and Jordans. The kids were all wearing Jordans. He's like, how how can these guys afford like it doesn't make sense? You guys are on welfare. And what what I concluded after years and years and years of seeing that pattern again and again and again is people will pay for what they want. Um, and if what they truly want is transformation, we always find a way to make that happen. Right? So you might not have you might not have XYZ money in your account, but oftentimes we can find ways to go find that money. Sometimes it's you know, sometimes, you know, believe it or not, it's on a credit card, right? And this is the last time we're ever going to use this credit card because my craft is not only gonna show you how to get debt-free and get you there in the next 24 months or less, but he's also gonna show you how to change your habits and behavior so you don't pull up the credit card every single time life happens. So sometimes we do that. Sometimes, you know, mom and dad have it hanging out for us. I mean, we go to mom and dad and ask sometimes, you know, you it it it's this whole idea uh if you truly wanna want it, you'll go find a way to get it.

Pedro 13:52

There's a will, there's a way, I guess.

Mike Crofts 13:54

There's a will, there's a way, and uh everyone has everyone's way is a little bit different, but for the majority of people, we were always able to find the resources because it's not about resources, I find it was about resourcefulness. And so some people always like, hey, we gotta go hustle aside hustle for another month and a half to do this. Let's go do it. Um, you know, and then other people's just reallocating the resources that they didn't know they had.

Pedro 14:16

Yeah. Now you remind me of Alex Hermozzi. He has a training about, you know, objections and yeah, exactly what you mentioned. Does he say resourceful? Yeah, the example is basically uh, well, it's resourceful. You you nailed that. But the example is like if I had a Ferrari to sell you for 5k right now, would you you you'd find a way.

Mike Crofts 14:35

We would find a way to get that 5K. Exactly. Or the analogy I use, if you had a, you know, for those of us that have kids, you know, if your kid had a terminal illness that was not curable, but you if you could go find 5k to get the treatment, what would you you you would move heaven and hell to go find that 5k, right? So I think the idea comes down to like again, it's not about resources, it is about resourcefulness and how much do we truly believe in that transformation. I think oftentimes will be uh what sets us either moving in the direction to do it or you know, to Yeah, that's true.

Pedro 15:07

You know, I want to shift gears for a second. I feel like I would love to high highlight your experience about it, right? Because there's a lot of money topic involved here. And one topic that I really like is like pricing, you know, in the coaching space, but not necessarily hard numbers, okay? It's more about the mindset behind it, and especially in the early days, since you're more established, right? Of course. Now, that's a thing that most coaches struggle with, right? It's like there's it's a lot of a self-worth path. Like, am I charging enough? Am I not charging enough? You know, am I placing myself out of the market? So, how do you approach that now? Pricing, and what did you have to learn the hard way to get where you are right now?

Mike Crofts 15:48

Yeah, so for me, and this isn't for everybody, for me, I charge based off the transformation I know they can get. And if I don't think they can get it, I usually don't make them an offer. Okay. So I don't enroll everybody, I don't make an offer to everybody. But if I truly feel I can you can be that person that gets transformation, that's what I base my price off of. Okay. Didn't always do that. I used to be super low ticket. You know, if I could just get 10,000 people at $5 a month, you know, there was a period in time where that was like like I think it was like early 2000s, 2019, 2018, 2017. It's very much like a volume, just push through volume. And for me, like it makes sense. And if that's someone's model, that's someone's model, that's great. The problem I had is I was never able to deliver transformation in that model. I could give you all the information you wanted, which is great. And back then that might have been, you know, that might have been a cool feature, but today we've we live in the information age. You can get any information you want on YouTube university, right? You go go into your car, pop on YouTube, you can find anything on any topic, all the information is available for free. To me, information is valueless. It's what can you do with that information? And so I had a shift in about 2019-ish, 2019, 2020, where okay, I I was like, I gotta stop trying to coach a thousand people at once, or ten thousand or twenty thousand. I gotta go find the one to two this month, one to two next month, two to four the month after, and really give that individualized approach. That's where the transformation's happening. I mean, so that's where I had that shift for me. That's where that shift kind of poop. And I went from selling like a $49 course, a $7 like cheat sheet, to like I did start charging high ticket, but the transformation followed it pretty closely. And everyone I worked with, my goal was that within three months, they would 3x what they paid me. So whether that's 3x your debt payoff, 3x your investment side, whatever I'm charging you, I wanted you to 3x. That was my goal. Now, some people with 2x, some people with 1x, some people with 5x. You know, it was different metrics. But I was like, whatever I charge you, you need to at least get that back in the next 30, 90 days, maybe 180 days, but then above and beyond that, you need to see that return. That's that's what I shifted to. Interesting.

Pedro 17:59

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

Mike Crofts 18:13

For me, the wealth building. Yeah, huge growth in that area right now. A lot of people are excited about it. We do it pretty well, like we do it really well. We're, you know, better than than you know most financial advisors. So people really like that, and we do it in a cool way. Um, and one of the strategies I'm doing right now that a lot of people are really excited about, is we've started helping people make a passive income, not being in the stock market, but through the stock market. So, what's happened was, um, and maybe you've experienced this as well, but I I love passive income, you know, just being a money guy, I like to leverage uh ways to make more money, rental properties, add hustles, all that fun stuff. And what I found was in the last probably 10 years or so, the whole rental um world, in my opinion, is fallen apart. And what I mean by that is um the spread is not what it used to be. So you go look at a rental party, put 100k down, whatever, 50k down, whatever, you know, prices are gonna be a bit different here. After your mortgages, after your property tax, after your insurance, and blah, blah, blah, blah. I find most people are aren't even coming out ahead anymore. Most people are losing money on properties. If they are making money, it's a couple hundred bucks. And to me, that just to me, the problem is to put 50k in a property to make a couple hundred bucks a month, it doesn't seem worth it. And so I started teaching people how to make a passive income in the stock market without investing. So that's the cool number one is your money isn't tied up in any investments. Um but we start to teach them how to make a passive income on that side of the business is like blown up because everyone wants to make a passive income. But right now, a lot of the passive income that we used to do back in the day or that's still being taught, at the end of the day, after, again, expenses and taxes and all that stuff, people aren't walking away with much. Where with this passive income we'll be doing in the stock market right now, you know, we're making there's no fees, a very or actually there's there's a couple very little fees. Taxes are taxed very little, and people are making, you know, a good consistent income every single month on it. So that's one that we've been really shifting towards, and a lot of people have really been liking that one.

Pedro 20:07

Okay. And I uh I imagine your your clients are usually based in the US because I know you're in Alberta, Canada, right?

Mike Crofts 20:14

Uh, Canada, Europe, that's some some in your you know, European is kind of where the majority is, yeah. But if you if you have access to the market, you can do this from anywhere in the world.

Pedro 20:24

Yes. And usually the Brazil, yeah. Well, and so usually you're tied up with the US stock market. That's what we're talking about.

Mike Crofts 20:31

That's what we do it in the US stock market, yeah. Okay, right. Yeah, because that's firefighters. Because that's where the most liquidity is. So whether you look at Japan, China, you know, European, TSX, Canada, uh, you know, South America, the liquidity is in America. Excuse me. And so what you want is you want to be in uh you want to be in a market that has a ton of liquidity. That's how we're able to move in and out really fast and make our passive income and not get stuck.

Pedro 20:56

Okay. Again. So even when things are going well, Mark, there's always something under construction, right? So what's the main thing you're actively working on or trying to improve in the business, right?

Mike Crofts 21:06

Uh, probably right now we're we're updating a lot of our webinar and sales process. Um, as well. We we we've had a really good process that I learned in 2019 that that's carried us for the last six, almost seven years. It's been really good. Market has shifted. Um, I'm fine. You know, maybe you've heard this term trust recession, right? Uh and it's it's I've seen it. I can I can feel it, right? There's people who are just less trustworthy, a little bit more skeptical, and I get it because there's been a lot of bad actors out there. And so right now what we're working on is updating our um mostly our webinar and just our process for um really just helping people get to know us a little bit better, get more comfortable with us before they come on the call and you know we do the sales side of things.

Pedro 21:49

Nice. You know, Mike, and um, you've been around long enough to see trends come and go, okay? And people give business advice and investment advice. I would, I would, I would like to highlight that non-stop spec. Especially online, right? So what's something you hear repeated a lot, especially the the financial side, okay? That you think people misunderstand or overvalue?

Mike Crofts 22:09

We're talking business, we're talking like specific finances, but like on the money side.

Pedro 22:13

You can drop me both because you're very unique. I would love to hear the financial side too.

Mike Crofts 22:18

Okay. So um yeah, you're right. There's been a lot of cycles. I think in business we've we've cycled back to low tickets. Um a little bit here, that's definitely become more popular, and even I've sat there and like, ooh, maybe I should do it. Um, and then again, there's nothing wrong with it. I think if you're looking for transformation, low tickets are gonna be very hard to get transformation in. Um, especially when people have been through the cycle a few times. So that's number one is definitely low tickets become a become a thing. And I think information has shifted where 10 years ago you did pay for information. Like you wanted up to date, you wanted the new thing. It was like pay for the information where today you can find all that on YouTube, you know, shorts, reels, all that stuff. You can find anything you want. So information I think is worth, you know, I don't want to say it's worthless, but it kind of feels that way. You can find it anywhere, you're not paying for information anymore. I think if you're gonna pay for something today, pay for transformation. And doesn't mean if you you have to pay a high price for it, but you gotta find the right model for it. And I found that, you know, an information model, a feed me more stuff model, does not usually get transformation in people's lives. So that'd be the first one on the business side, you know, as we've gone low ticket again, but uh we have not gone transformation.

Pedro 23:24

And how about financial advice, you know?

Mike Crofts 23:26

I think it's the same, man. I I think I think people get bored of what works, the slow and steady wins the race. And we're always trying to find a new way. So on the finance side, and what I'm noticing is a lot of the day trading side of things is picking up again. Um, and I found the stat the other day, and I've done some day trading, I've dabbled in it to see what it's like here, to see, you know, what are the ins and outs. And it's been the hardest strike. I've been in finance, I've been in investing since 08. Day trading's been the hardest one I've ever done. Out of all the different everything that's out there. And I found the stat the other day that said uh if you day trade for three years, consistently, 97% of people lose their money. 97. It's nine out of ten people lose their money here. Um, and so I'd say uh, you know, when it comes to investing and building wealth, there's there's no uh magic goose, no magic egg that's gonna get you there. See, long term over time gets you winning.

Pedro 24:17

Okay, and on the flip side, what's something boring or not as hype that you wish more people actually paid attention to you?

Mike Crofts 24:25

Excuse me there. Um yeah, something that's not as hype, long-term, uh just buy and hold investing. Buy and hold great companies, buy and hold great ETFs, I'll give you that 30, 40% year over year growth. I know some people are listening right now, like 30, 40%? Oh yeah, crack, that's crazy. There's a great ETFs out there that are since 08, 09, have averaged 40% year over year growth, uh 20% year over year growth. And if you'll stick with those, uh, it will take you 10 to 15 years to become a millionaire.

Pedro 24:52

I think it was Warren Buffett that said something like, I wish the get quick slow schemes are were more popular, right?

Mike Crofts 25:00

Get rich slowly. Now, um I'm not I'm not I'm okay if you if you can get rich fast. Faster, right? I'd rather get rich in 15 years than in 40 years, but yeah, to get rich in one day. Like the the whole remember, remember, I don't know if you're around for this, but remember the crypto when crypto was super hot, like it was like the hottest thing. I mean, it's still around, but it's definitely not as hot as it was even five, ten years ago. I watched so many people lose money, not because crypto was bad, like Bitcoin, I've done some Bitcoin stuff, but because they didn't know what they were in, how it worked, and they got they they got taken and hoping they'd become rich really fast.

Pedro 25:36

Yeah, I to be well, I had a a pass in banking, right? I I worked at a bank and consulting firm. So I never went into crypto, and the reason I didn't was like I didn't feel it was reliable. There, you know, that and they got hacked along the years and lost trust and all of that. So as much as we always sometimes don't like the fact that there's a big corpor uh big corporate or government uh institution behind it, it's sometimes it's what gives credibility, right? Yeah, I mean this it could be debatable. I understand the other side too, but it's just something that didn't click, at least for me. You know, I'm not sure about yourself, but that was my experience at least.

Mike Crofts 26:12

Yeah, yeah, and and I I'm not against Bitcoin at all. You know, for me, I get it. I see how it works, but it's become more of like um as it's become more popular, as government have uh the governments have regulated here, it's lost, in my opinion, it's lost its edge. And there's a lot there's things out there that are a lot more safer that grow a lot bigger, a lot better than Bitcoin is right now. And uh I would say put your money into that. And like I said, you know, if you can average 20% year over year, you're gonna double your money every two years, 2.3 years, and you will become wealthy really fast. So yeah, take some time. Yeah, you won't be wealthy today, you won't be wealthy tomorrow, but 10 years, a decade from now, decade and a half from now, you can have a lot of money that otherwise you won't have because you're trying to do all the cool things of day trading and whatever the next trend's gonna be. Right now, it's pump and for the trend I'm seeing right now is pump and dump micro stocks. I'm seeing a lot of people get pump and dump schemes in micro stocks, and I'm just like, stay the course, stay boring, cues, triple cues, we'll give you that 20, 30 percent year over year, maybe using some options if you decide you're comfortable with that, um, and you will become super wealthy.

Pedro 27:19

Nice. And you know, and before we close this out, Mike, if someone resonated with what you shared and wants to follow your work, where should they go?

Mike Crofts 27:27

Yeah. Um, YouTube, Money Coach Mike, or some money coach, yeah, uh, YouTube, uh, just search out money coach mic, you'll find me there. Instagram, money coach mike, you'll find me there. You can always go to the website, moneycoachmike.com. Uh, you can find some stuff there as well. But yeah, you just search Money Coach Mike and the good and the bad will pop up, although there's a way more good and very little bad.

Pedro 27:47

Love it. You know, that there were a few moments from this chat, Mike, that really stood out to me. You know, you started with being burned out, you know, in the Orton story. I feel that is so powerful. I always say this on the episode is like the best coaches I talk to are the ones that are being the the most vulnerable, right? Because that's such a key asset for a coach to meet a client in the middle because you're gonna ask hard questions, right? This is not gonna be an easy conversation. So if you are as open as your client is and you're willing to go the the places that you're like it's not that pretty, right? But it's reality that will make everyone's life easier at the end of the day. But it just that that's just my opinion, you know. Um, also, like when we were talking about the shift, right? Like you and you told me about it felt so good being paid, you know, because the first child. Exactly, you know, because at the start, you know, I'm a coach too, right? And at the start, sometimes we're like, hey, what do you do? And you're like, you're you're you kind of have this, but kind of not, and sometimes you're like shying away from saying you're a coach, you know, yeah, I got a job here, and I kind of do this thing on the side, right? Yeah, but there's a moment that you're like, hey, no, I I do this, right? And sometimes it's like the case you told me, the aha moment when you got paid. And uh last but not least, the shift from 2020, you told me, right, about the price and how you you based out of transformation instead of you know a low ticket or whatever, because you noticed the most important part for your business was transform was to transform people's lives, right? And with a low ticket, doesn't that doesn't seem to land that often, you know. And not as much I agree with that. Not as much. Not as much. And I gotta be candid, I did a lot of mistakes too. Like I was like pricing by a yow or two, turning myself into a commodity. People were comparing me to whatever job they were comparing me to, like a cleaning lady, you know, the the plumber and the hourly rate and all that. So this is my long way-winded way of saying that I appreciate it taking the time, man, and being open with this, you know. Great having you on.

Mike Crofts 29:51

Absolutely, man. Great to be here. And I went out there like I would say, like, if you're just getting started, step into that. Oh, own it. If you want to be a coach and that's your thing, own it. Don't wait for it to happen. Go own it today and uh go out there and be that coach. And over time, your compensation will match how the transformation you're giving people in their lives.

Davis Nguyen 30:08

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.