Leading Through Change: Practical Lessons with Gregg Frederick

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Gregg Frederick, executive coach, leadership consultant, speaker, and organizational development expert who helps leaders and organizations unlock their full potential through intentional leadership, strategic thinking, and people-centered growth. Drawing on decades of experience working with executives, business owners, and leadership teams, Gregg shares practical insights on developing high-performing leaders, building cultures of accountability and trust, strengthening communication, and creating organizations where both people and performance can thrive. We also explore the importance of self-awareness, continuous learning, coaching as a leadership tool, and the mindset shifts required to navigate change while driving sustainable business success. Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or aspiring leader, this conversation offers actionable leadership strategies that can help you inspire others, make better decisions, and create lasting impact.

You can find him on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/greggfrederick/
https://www.g3developmentgroup.com/
https://www.instagram.com/gregg_frederick
https://x.com/g3leadership
https://www.threads.com/@gregg_frederick
https://bsky.app/profile/g3leadership
https://www.facebook.com/people/Gregg-Frederick/1021604597/
https://www.tiktok.com/@gregg_frederick

Transcript

Gregg Frederick 0:00

For me, to your point, Pedro, what what drove me to success in the sales career, like same thing, closing sales. It's like winning the day. How am I going to win the sales today? How's my team going to win the sales this week, this month, this year, you know, this quarter? It was all about you know hitting those KPIs. And now as a coach, what the lane that I've picked, whether it's the high-end athletes or the high end, the VPs of sales or the high-earning salespeople, again, they're very competitive people, right? So for me, playing to my strengths is helping them play to their strengths.

Davis Nguyen 0:41

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're gonna learn lessons that took RS years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is going to give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:26

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Greg Frederick, who believes success is rooted in two fundamental elements: a peak performance mindset and an uncompromising focus on human strengths, whether you're scaling a global brand, competing for Olympic gold, or navigating life's most profound personal challenges. Greg brings 20 plus years as a sales enablement and business development leader with a track record that includes 18.5 million in new businesses, scaling a client from 3 million to 13 million, and achieving 38% average first-year revenue growth through his strengths-based approach. As founder and principal of G3 Development Group, Greg works as an embedded, fractional enablement leader for enterprise, private equity, and high growth companies, while also developing Emerge Coaching, a proprietary platform combining Clifton Strengths with neuroscience-backed mindset training, originally built for Olympic athletes. His credentials span from an MBA in executive leadership development to neuroscience in business certification from MIT Sloan plus recognition as a selling power top 25 sales consultant, proving that peak performance principles apply across every arena of human achievement. Welcome to the show, Greg.

Gregg Frederick 3:01

Thank you, Pedro. I appreciate you having me.

Pedro Stein 3:04

Yeah, great to have you, you know. And Greg, I I gotta be candid with you. I'm somewhat of a comic book nerd myself, right? So I love the first editions, the origin story. So let's backtrack a little. Okay. Because every coach has that moment where they look at the life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you, Greg?

Gregg Frederick 3:26

So interestingly enough, I think some things that sparked my interest in coaching was I I went to early on in my sales career, uh-huh, dating myself, I think it was back in the 90s. I saw Brian Tracy speak in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and I actually saw him a couple times, but you know, watching him command the room and and get up and and for me walking away with with all these nuggets of information that I could use in my in my business and help me in my sales career. Um I I was always, I wouldn't say envious, but I I always enjoyed that listening to someone with authority speak. And then a couple years later, working in in sales, but doing some uh sales training for for retailers that we had when I worked for Giant Bicycle. And there was a guy named Rod Ronnie Tomlinson, and he was very similar to Brian Tracy, but he he much smaller group, but he was so engaging and and he he would speak in front of the group and then he would take each of the uh retailer attendees and and coach them one-on-one. And sitting through those those coaching sessions with him, it was again just kind of planted that seed in the back of my mind. I was young, and just watching the impact that he would have on during those coaching sessions. And then finally, for me, I when I got my MBA from University of Nebraska, Gallup Leadership Institute, part of that was Gallup gave you a coach, a one-on-one coach for five years. And my coach, her name's Jackie Merritt. He's she's one of the uh top executive coaches in the world. She she coaches high, like world leaders, really high-end CEOs, top Fortune 50 CEOs. So I was fortunate to be coached by her for five years and and really learning her craft and her putting me through the coaching process, like that really was the the switch for me is okay, now as a leader in in the sales arena, how do I become a coach to the salespeople? And then I know you and I had spoken a little bit earlier about in 2008, I was transitioning from being a field rapper and account executive into management. And part of that transition was becoming a sales coach for the sales team. So early on, probably before I should have been, I before the formal training that I got, I was started in uh doing some sales coaching. But you know, that's kind of been my over the last 20 years, something that's always interested me. And and now being able to make impact on others is you know, I I have the dream job, to be honest.

Pedro Stein 6:13

Okay, so 2008, you actually started uh being a uh a sales coach for sales reps, and I mean I was a sales guy, right, for a while, so high ticket, closer, and all that. So I'm already invested in this conversation, by the way. And I'm also a coach, so we have that in common. Now, I want to understand a shift that happens, you know. You were exposed into corporate towards coaching, like we're coaching those guys, but eventually you launched your own business, right? You launched G3 development group. So, can you walk me through first the identity shift from employee coaching to business owner coaching? That's a big one, right? And was it scary to you know make that that leap of faith, that that jump towards your own stuff, you know?

Gregg Frederick 7:05

So I'll answer the second question first. Yes, it's a going from a corporate job where you've been a VP of sales and business development for 18 years for a two billion dollar company to being on your own is a scary jump. Um, kind of a quick backstory to that is uh I had just had my wife and I had our third child, and he was kind of a surprise. He's he's nine years younger than his brothers. Uh, and I was traveling 150,000 miles a year on an airplane, and you know, I was just getting burnt out with having two other children that are a year apart and managing the I was going between Taiwan, L an office in LA and my home office in Orlando, Florida. So just constantly traveling with two young ones and now a baby, I was I was burnt out. So I was for about a year, I was trying to figure out how I was going to transition. And I had some some people that I was doing business with that said, hey, if you ever leave, we'd love to be your first clients. So that's a little bit of reassurance. But until you pull that band-aid off and and you leave, and they actually sign those contracts that saying, you know, back up what they've been saying for a couple years, that's a very scary transition. But fortunately, I'm gonna knock on knock on wood or glass. Um, it worked out. But going back to your to the first question, you know, for me, the the transition, what what transpired? So again, going back to my work with Gallup in the University of Nebraska, part of my master's program was implementing coaching and strengths-based coaching into the sales team that I ran as part of my degree program, and then getting the coaching from Gallup on how to do that. So, to be honest, the results we grew, our sales team grew 48%, which was real dollars. It was a $40 million, $40, $42 million increase in three years from 2008 to 2011. That was during the if you remember kind of the last recession, um, with a home home collapse here in the state. So to grow that much, we were taking a lot of market share, but doing it through coaching and through the strengths-based development. So making sure everybody on the team was aligned, making sure we were coaching each person on the team to play to their strengths, and then seeing that employee engagement raise, you know, and then you know, that that instant growth in revenue because of our employees being engaged. Like that, that we had so much success with that, which was the plan, but that gave me the confidence to say, okay, now I really like I I it's not just something I learned, but I've implemented, saw the business outcomes, tied it to the KPIs, and that gave me the confidence as a coach and as a business owner. Okay, now I have my framework, I can leave corporate world and then pass that on to my clients, whether through the consulting or the coaching side of business.

Pedro Stein 10:01

You know, it's well, I worked in corporate, right? I worked in banking. You mentioned uh the 2008 thing that I lost my job at banking because of that, right? Uh, and then I went to a consulting firm. But the thing that I felt, and I'm a coach too, right? Is like I would I was like so used to say what I do for a living. I'm not sure if you write there with me, but I was like, it's automatic. Like if someone asked me at a birthday party, what do you do? I'm like, it's this. Right. And then I became a coach and a business owner. And whenever I was at the start answering those questions, and I was like, hmm, what do I do? And and there is a little bit of lack of confidence in the way of ice saying the stuff, right? Because it's almost like a clean slate. Yeah, you're like starting from scratch. Did you felt like that too? Like it's uh so weird.

Gregg Frederick 10:55

And again, being at a company for 18 years, like I was in a sales role, everybody just assumed that's what I continue to do, right? So, you know, telling people what you do, even you know, 12, 13 years later, people are still like, oh, you work in the bike business or you work for giant or whatever. I'm like, no, no, it's like that's so 12 years ago, you know. This is what I do now. So it it I'm with you on that, Pedro. And I don't know how you get over that, other than you know, just without sounding salesy. I'm not I'm not that type that's like in your face salesy, uh, just selling yourself and and telling your story, you know. Okay, but to be honest, it's take it's taken a long time. It's interesting you're asking this question because I'd say in the last 12 to 15 months, a lot of the people that I had worked with back then have now finally started to come around into back into my orbit and are like, hey, what are you? Like, I I see what you're doing on LinkedIn, I hear your podcasts. Like, now I want to be a part of that. So it's like, wow, I it felt like I left that world behind, and now those stars are starting to align back in into my world.

Pedro Stein 12:12

Interesting, yes, and that is one thing also uh that at least it clicked for me. Maybe this will resonate with you. Like I was in sales, and at the start, where I was very outcome driven, KPI metrics, right? Losing sale, getting sale, closing deal, not closing deal. And something really clicked for me when I start distancing myself from the outcome, right? I was just like, I'm just gonna chill here, either way. You know, this is happening. I'm gonna do my homework, but I'm just showing up and I'll be serving people, whether I'm closing them or not. And whenever I moved to coaching, I felt the transition was easier because I already had that mindset of like, dude, I'm going this way, whether you like it or not. You want to hop on and let's go together. I know I can help, but it is what it is. Did you felt like that when you moved from sales, sales coaching, and then being a coach, like playing coach?

Gregg Frederick 13:12

So interestingly enough, if you know anything about strengths, there's a strength called competition. And I I'm high competition. So people that are high competition and mixed with high achiever, um, not and not to say that anybody that isn't that can't succeed. That that please that's not the not the case. But for the high competition, high achiever, for me, to your point, Pedro, what what drove me to success in the sales career, like same thing, closing sales. It's like winning the day. How am I gonna win the sales today? How's my team gonna win the sales this week, this month, this year, you know, this quarter? It was all about you know hitting those KPIs. And now as a coach, what uh the lane that I've picked, whether it's the the high-end athletes or the high end, the VPs of sales or the the high-earning sales people, again, they're very competitive people, right? So for me, playing to my strengths is helping them play to their strengths, whether they have high competition or not. But I I tell my clients all the time, and they know this, I win through them. Like if they're succeeding, my competition, my achiever strength is being checked off because of what they're doing. It's not so much I'm not checking those boxes. I'm I somewhat am, but not as competitively as I was when you're working for someone and you're trying to grow their business. For me, helping my clients be the best version of themselves and succeed in whatever it is that they're doing, like that that checks those boxes for me as a coach. So again, transforming like internal to more external.

Pedro Stein 14:59

It's almost like you're honing in your way of seeing things so you can align with what they want and the way they shape things. It's like you're picking up in your own strengths and seeing how I can be most useful towards their goal, some life. Absolutely. Yep. Okay, interesting. Now, after you got rolling, right? You started your own business and all that. Who are the people that kept showing up? You know, because in the early days of coaching, sometimes, I'm not saying it's your case, we're trying to make it, right? Uh, we're we're helping a lot of different people, we're just like trying to help everyone and all that. But eventually, uh, we realize or we kind of attract a certain type of people. And you already mentioned the high-end athletes, the VP of sales. So my question is twofold at first. The evolution, right? On your journey of who you serve and who you serve now.

Gregg Frederick 15:51

So they uh it's pretty much the same. That hasn't that hasn't changed at all. You know, here and there you'll pick up clients that are outside of your scope, and and that's fine. Like I find that challenging. But again, I think after initial conversations, I I make sure that whoever, if someone calls or has interest in in my coaching, you know, we we have long conversations before we ever agree because I need to make sure it fits for me. And I have a whole network of coaches behind me that that work that are subcontracted under us, that I can kind of feel, okay, this person, I'm not a fit for this person, but I can refer this person to one of the other coaches that in our network. So for me to be the best version of myself, to help somebody be the best version of their self themselves, like I'm looking for that high competition, someone that's that's measuring their success, whether it's on the field or in their athletics or the scoreboard showing uh you know, in sales, you know where you stand every day or every week, right? So for me, that's that's where I thrive, and that's where I think I'm I can best serve people. So that hasn't necessarily changed, and it wouldn't be true to again as a strengths-based coach, it wouldn't be true to myself or my authentic self to really be outside of that.

Pedro Stein 17:18

Okay. So basically, we're talking about high-end athletes and VP of sales or C-suite level, something like to that extent, right? Yes and I want to do a quick game of pretend. So let's pretend I'm one of the your ICP, your avatar, but specifically the VP of sales. It's gonna, I'm gonna have a hard time for people to to understand I'm one of the high-end athletes. I'm not sure if you're looking at this at video, right? Um but let's say I'm the the VP of sales. Okay, can we do that?

Gregg Frederick 17:51

Absolutely.

Pedro Stein 17:52

So, first of all, how would I be able to find you, Greg, like uh marketing-wise?

Gregg Frederick 17:58

So it's interesting, most of my marketing we just started putting implementing systems into our marketing program because almost all of our marketing has come from or business has come from referrals or podcasts or speaking. I haven't done much speaking lately, um, but the previous 11 years I was doing six to seven, eight speaking engagements a year. So a lot of that came from there. But um, you know, the on the sales side, being active in the sales communities, um, being active, I sit on a board of sales and marketing executives international. So I have a lot of involvement there. So having that just making yourself available in those circles. Again, going focusing on your ICP. So being active in those circles where your ICP lives is you know what brings those clients.

Pedro Stein 18:54

Okay, so let's instill in this.

Gregg Frederick 18:56

So if you look at look at my posts or look at anything that I've done, you know, it's very high performance, KPI oriented. So if you're not that, you're probably not seeking my help. But if you are, you probably you know, you're probably picking up the phone or sending an email.

Pedro Stein 19:16

Okay. So I'm still that guy in the game of pretend, right? So I was referred to work with you. Uh I or even I listened to one of your podcasts, you were a guest or a speaking event that you were in, right? And I'm like, hey, this guy, this he seems cool. That resonated with me, right? Whatever you put out there. Uh, like you said, high performer, you know, and all that. I'm like, I'm I'm that guy. I reached out. Let's say I reached out in this game, and I'm like, hey, Greg, uh, we talk. Let's say there is alignment, even with your sales team, however, that looks like the sales process, okay? Sure. And there is alignment, you guys can help me. I sense you guys can actually help me. I'm being on boarded. So, what I want to do here is for you to give me a little peek behind the curtain, right? Yes. For what does it look like to work with you and uh potential outcomes I can expect.

Gregg Frederick 20:08

So, for to work with me under our mer what we call the EMERGE Executive Coaching Program, um, first off, we always do a strengths assessment, a Clifton strengths assessment. That's the very first thing that we do with any new client. So, what that does when that gives me shows me as someone that's trained in strengths, as a strengths-based coach, that shows me how you're innately wired. So if I get your strengths assessment, Pedro, and it says you're high competition, high self-assurance, high empathy, high relator are your top five strengths, I know exactly how you're wired. So my coaching is is literally individualized, and I'm trained to have specific language around each one of those strengths to get the best out of you. So every every single conversation we have is geared towards bringing out the best of you through your strengths. So it, you know, if you're struggling, I I said high relator. So a lot of people that are high relator in sales struggle with prospecting because they don't trust well, right? It takes a long time for them to earn their trust for someone, someone outside of their group to earn their trust. So high high relators don't prospect well, and most people don't know it, right? So they'll go their whole sales career going to trade shows going, I you know, I'm walking away with three or four good conversations while while Amy over here is walking away with 50 business cards and opportunities. I I have three or four that I met really well and I had really good conversations, and I'll probably close one or two of them where Amy's got 50 and she doesn't know much about any of them, just knows that she has a stack of business cards. Well, Know as someone that's high relater, I know that that's how you're structured. So I'm gonna coach you or matt if I'm managing you, if you're the VP of sales, you know, I know that about you. I'm not gonna put you in a situation where I'm gonna say, Pedro, you I need 50 business cards at the end of the day of people you meet, because that's not how you're innately wired. So again, it's about creating expect when you know someone's strengths, it's about creating expectations that align with them, and then it's it's coaching them to fill in the gaps. So if you are high related and you're trying to hit all these certain metrics, again, using the trade show thing, you know, meeting other people or getting at we have to coach you to get out of your comfort zone to do that, or lean on someone else on your team to do that, and they're leaning on you to have those deep conversations. So it's a it becomes a team building exercise when you know people's strengths. So, you know, we we like to say your top five strengths are your dominant strengths, so that's how you're innately wired. And if you think of it as a star, right? There's five points on a star. We want your strengths, we want you to be very sharp on those edges, but we want other people to fill in that around that star to to create that consolation. Does it make sense?

Pedro Stein 23:22

It makes sense. Very interesting because I'm not you don't want me to try to be like Amy. You understand in this scenario, you understand if I'm the other guy, you understand that I'm an individual, so you need to hone in of what I'm good at, not necessarily try to fit me in a box to get the 50 business cards, whatever that looks like. I got that right.

Gregg Frederick 23:45

Yes, absolutely. So making you very sharp where your where your strengths are, and then coaching you around how to manage. We because it's uh based on positive psychology, we don't say weaknesses, we call them blind spots, right? So you you know, managing around your blind spots with some intentionality. So that intentionality is either, okay, I know this is going to be a grind for me to hit this number or do this aspect of my job, or I can make it easier on myself and outsource that part of my job to someone that is good at doing that, right? So, and then I'm gonna focus on what I do best. And going back to the giant example in those three years, when we started to do that, put people in the right place, you know, that that synergy starts to come together and everybody starts to lean on each other, and then everybody's playing to their strengths, and then the employee engagement rises, and then you start to see people doing things like staying working 10, 12 hours a day if they have to, or staying late, or going that extra mile to hit the number as a as a group.

Pedro Stein 24:55

Okay, I'm I'm trying to think, I'm trying to place myself in that VP of sales still. Okay, and uh I'm thinking I brought you your team or you in, right? And I'm like realizing that my team, it's not that they have a problem, but they may have not the ideal um strengths to move forward with this particular way of doing things that I tend to do. Let's put it like this. How do you navigate that? Because I'm not sure if we replace them, I'm not sure if we we uh you would add like a customizable plan for each player. I'm trying to understand how you gel everything when you already have a setup that you didn't pick the players specifically, right? But you actually still are involved in the ROI and you want to deliver, you want to help them. How do you do that?

Gregg Frederick 25:49

Yes. So from the coaching perspective, what we do, so Pedro, if you're VP of sales, you obviously have either sales managers or sales team underneath of you. So if you know their strengths, you know what I would coach you on is how to get the best out of them, and we tie that to KPIs. So we can say, okay, you've got four sales managers underneath of you, and you're trying to hit this revenue number or whatever those KPIs are. So we start to align who's gonna help you do that, right, based on their strengths. So you know, for instance, the high competition guy or girl, we keep going back to that because it's kind of the easiest one in sales, but the high competition person is you know, they're 60% the quota with one week left. It's a quick phone call of, hey Joe, you're at 60% quota. Well, what am I gonna see? I need 40% more of your quota in a week. What do you got for me? Knowing, you know, it's a simple phone call that motivates them because they don't want to lose. Like at the end of the month, they're keeping score. The high competition, high achiever person knows exactly where they stand all the time. So they're not going to want to lose. So they're going to take that as motivation that hey, my manager's looking at where I'm at. I can't let them down. I need to win. So they're going to pull out all the stops to get to that number and hopefully pull the team up. The question is, how do you get somebody that's high in empathy or high in some other strengths that aren't competition? That, you know, so it's like, okay, somebody that that's high in relationship building strengths. You're calling them and say, hey, who do you have in your pipeline? Who do you have that they have a really good relationship on with that you can lean on to help you close some business this month? Forget about the other ones, but who are you really close to? Who are you going to pick up the phone with and say, hey, I really need an I need some help this month, or I need, you know, can we do this? Can we do that? Leaning on those relationships. So all of those, knowing exactly how people are wired and leaning onto them to get the same result, right? Because everybody's responsible for their quota, but it's knowing how to push each person's buttons to get theirs, is what you know, the game of it.

Pedro Stein 28:16

Interesting. Okay. Now let me shift gears for a second here. Let's talk about future, right? Um, and your business. I'm curious about where you're taking all this, like looking ahead, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about, Greg?

Gregg Frederick 28:34

So I think for me, we're always looking to grow, right? So the next one to three years, our growth plan is to is continue the growth of the of the coaching side of the business, continue the growth of the consulting. So the consulting side always always has coaching as part of it. So when we bid on a contract or we go into an organization, there's always the coaching side of the of the consultation. The consultation is more on how we align the coaching to the outcomes the business is looking for. Um, but so we're always looking for that growth. Um, more importantly, we on a granular basis, we're always looking for the growth in our clients. Right again, going back to how we're structured or how I'm structured is you know, how how do I get the best version of my client? How does my client win the day, or how's my client achieving what they came to us to succeed in? And then finally, from the athletic standpoint, the LA 2028 Olympics are are only a few years away. Uh, so we're we're hoping our we have five five athletes right now that are on that path to to being in those Olympics. Uh, those things change in in any given day with Olympic trials. So making sure that they're ready for that. And you know, hopefully we're they're representing their whether it's USA or Brazil. We we actually work with a lot of Brazilian athletes. Um so it if they're they're representing their country, we're we're proud to to be behind them and and get them ready to to compete.

Pedro Stein 30:12

Okay, now I'm a little bit curious around about the athletes, right? And how did that came up to you, right? Uh the VP of sales, you were in sales, that all makes sense, it all adds up. Now, you're bringing up also that you help like the high-end athletes. So can you expand on that? How did you guys got into that? And uh just so I can have a sense of things.

Gregg Frederick 30:32

Yeah, so uh I was two things on that, Pedro. One thing I know you mentioned earlier when you said you were using the avatar of VP of sales. So being both, so I grew up an athlete. I I I still continue, I've been racing BMX bikes for 41 years, um, and I still compete in BMX racing and and some mountain bike racing. So as an athlete, I raced BMX bikes professionally for 17 years. So that's where that part came in. So long, long story short, I grew up racing BMX bikes, always liked cycling, always around bikes. I I actually went to school to be a pilot. I went to college to be a pilot, but along that journey of being a pilot, I got hit up by the CEO and president of Giant Bicycles in the airport that I was at. And he was like, hey, I know you've raced bikes and you're a competitive guy, and I need somebody to move to Florida to be the sales rep in Florida. Do you want to do it? And I was like, hell yeah, because I was living in Philly at the time. I'm like, I want to go back to because I went to school in Florida. I'm like, yeah, I want to go back to Florida. And if this giant thing doesn't work out selling bikes, I'll just go work in aviation in Florida and kind of be in Florida where I wanted to be. So long story short, I never went back into aviation because I had a lot of success in the cycling side of business. And I was still racing, I was racing professionally at the time, so kind of working as a professional bike racer, working as a sales rep. So it kind of came together there. But the impetus, Pedro, for me, when I left Giant, so I was doing all the sales coaching and and we're starting to implement mindset training into the sales side of the coaching at Giant, just kind of at the forefront at the time. But when I left Giant and started to put the framework around strengths, leadership, and mindset that I use now, um, and doing the study around neuroscience. What I I had a lot of friends that were racing bikes professionally. And I I was I was still racing, but not at the professional level. So I took the that framework that we had from the sales side and I implemented it, ironically enough, into a couple Brazilian nationalist riders that I that I still train today uh on the mindset side. And right away we had immediate success. Like top three in the world, world Brazilian national championships, things like that. So again, it was almost like when I went out on my own, taking what I knew from corporate and applying it to smaller businesses that I was dealing with on the consultation side was the challenge, but also at the same time taking that same sales training, sales mindset training that I was doing on the corporate side and creating it for the athletes. It was it was a one-to-one ratio almost in how people are wired. Maybe people are that's the beauty about strengths-based consulting or coaching as well. It's not about what you do when you're starting when you get people to play to their strengths, you just applying their strengths to what they do, and that it's all the same.

Pedro Stein 33:43

Like the the path are I'm glad I asked, man, because that makes sense. That adds up now. I was like, ah, okay. Interesting.

Gregg Frederick 33:51

But the other side of that, Pedro, that sorry to interrupt you, where the there's not a lot of difference between the people, and that's why I focus on sales and and athletes. There's not a lot of difference between how high performance salespeople are wired to high performance athletes. And a lot of people successful sales careers.

Pedro Stein 34:16

Right, and that makes sense because you realize that by applying your framework, right? That that you created to understand the the strengths and all that, and you're noticing the patterns, I imagine, right? The they're very, you know, uh very driven and all that. And okay, interesting. Now, we were talking about future. Now, I want to understand one thing because whenever we're talking about future, there's always something we're refining in the present, right? So, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

Gregg Frederick 34:49

So for me, again, tightening up um more the the outreach, because that's changing so much all the time, right? Like now with AI, uh, we we have we have an AI agent in our coaching business. So every conversation we have is the AI is running in the background, but we feed it everybody, like the individual strengths of our client. So the AI is always listening for how well our language is aligning to their strengths and how well the client's language is aligning to their strengths. So we get that feedback from AI in real time as to okay, there this is outside of their strengths or this is within their strengths, you know. Here are some red flags, here are some things that key takeaways, here's some things that they should be doing more of, things like that. So implementing that in an ethical way, and I think the bigger picture is, you know, how do you in the coaching business is implementing AI ethically, right? But and that's one of our challenges as well. But for me, how do we continue to grow? And and the marketing side is always the hardest part. To be honest, going back to my strengths, there's a a whole set of strengths on execution. I'm a high strategic person and I'm a little bit lower in execution, so I I I'm really good at strategy, I'm not as good on execution. So, how how to overcome that lack of execution? That that lack of execution for me is is really sticking to the system side of the marketing of our business.

Pedro Stein 36:29

Okay. Now, let's step in into the science fiction theme for a second. Yeah, let's pretend, Greg, we have a time machine in front of us. Okay, we're gonna have two stops. First stop, you can go back in time from the day you launched a business, right? 14 years ago, and you can give yourself one piece of business advice you wish you knew back then. What would that be?

Gregg Frederick 36:58

I I think the one piece. So, what I've had to learn was two years ago we were merging with a larger company, and we had we had worked with them for 18 months, and we were starting to merge with a larger company, and they wanted us to divest more of our time, so divest a lot of our clients to to merge into their business, and literally on the day we were supposed to sign a three-year agreement, the day we were supposed to sign the agreement, they backed out. So I had divested a lot of my clients and a lot of the energy we had around a business, and I didn't start from zero, but it literally took us from you know going 100 mile an hour to 20 miles an hour. So being what what I learned from that is you know, really have a good lawyer, have really good agreements, and and make sure to trust your gut. Because I I think personally, you know, had a really good relationship with this company and and the CEO of that company, but something always felt a little off, like seemed too good to be true, type of thing, and then kind of got burnt by that that feeling. And I didn't act on it because you know a learning lesson, like I want to be transparent. I I'm super transparent about everything that I do. So yeah, I got burnt. I I didn't trust my gut. You know, the signals it's hard, right?

Pedro Stein 38:43

It's hard because we're we we tend to, at least myself, I tend to try to convince myself I am a logical driven guy. And and then we get into those type of situations that we can we cannot pinpoint what's off, but we know there's something out there, and we're like, yeah, but this logically this makes sense. So I'm I'm I'm going with that decision because this makes sense, but there is something in the inside that you're like, I am not sure. And then we sometimes we we make those, but I I don't blame you, right? I I mean all the time we do those. It's harder to to like say, oh, I mean I'm not gonna make that mistake again, you know what I mean?

Gregg Frederick 39:25

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's one thing to lose out on a you know a smaller $10,000, $20,000 client, that type of thing. But when you're talking high six-figure contracts, you know, and you're putting 90% of your eggs in that basket, and you know, next day you wake up and you're like, all the work I just did for the last 10 years is now compromised, and now I'm starting over. And and the second part of that, Pedro, so one of the things you asked me earlier about the transition from corporate world to myself, you know, and I had those people saying, Hey, I'm gonna join day one when you when you leave corporate world. In my case, they did. I and I'm super fortunate for that. But what I tell everybody, which what I wish I would have done, because my original goal when I left corporate was to take six months and really build the infrastructure of my business, you know, make sure the the website and the CRM and all of that was built prior to launching. But when people are like, you know, here's my money, take my money now. I want you to coach, or I want your consultation, like literally two days after you you you told them you left and that they were upholding their word, you're like, you can't walk away from that opportunity, right? So had I done that, I think you know, I I was always playing catch up on the the structure side of the business because we were executing, right? We're coaching, we're consulting all the time, we're busy, and you know, it's always an afterthought, or paying someone else to try to do all of that stuff for you. Uh, you know, if you're gonna make that clean break, make sure you do all of that. In my opinion, do all of that ahead of time, have that structure to help you scale. Because, you know, somewhere along the way, it catches up to you. And then when something like the contract fell through a couple years ago, when we didn't and we had divested that that part of the business, we weren't marketing like we were, we weren't keeping those those referrals up like we used to. When that fell through, we're I got caught flat footed for the most part.

Pedro Stein 41:36

Okay, lesson learned. Now we have a second stop, and this is a I'm I'm sure this is gonna be a positive note. You can go back in time within those 14 years. Yeah, you can pick a specific time, top of mind right now, that you felt like, oh, this is the reason why I started this, you know, a moment of I'm not sure it's fulfillment of its freedom, joy, you know, could be multiple things. You started with your family and all that. It could be a client, it could be anything, you know. What would that look like?

Gregg Frederick 42:10

To be honest, it it's any anytime you get positive client feedback, you know, where that that as coaches we're always searching for that aha moment. So that moment where they're like, wow, it I did this, or you get the text, right? Oh my gosh, I I made this great presentation. Oh, I hit my number. Oh my god, we had a record this, or oh my gosh, I won, I won, you know, from my athletes, whatever, whatever it is, it's like, yeah, that's why we do what we do. You know, oftentimes with my clients, I'm the first person they call when something good happens, you know, outside of family, because we're always like, hey, we have that conversation with in our visualization of the in the coaching sessions, like who are you gonna call? What does that feel like? Like if they say me first, I'm like, okay, that's great, but don't forget about your wife, or don't forget about your mom, or don't forget about your kids. Like, call them first. Like, I'll I'll be here for you when you call. But oftentimes they'll they're so elated because they they now made the connection of of achieving to all the things that we talked about in in the coaching sessions.

Pedro Stein 43:23

Right. Okay, I love that now. If someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, Greg, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, right? Yeah, but what's the the best way for people to find you and connect with you?

Gregg Frederick 43:37

Anywhere from LinkedIn, so Greg Frederick on LinkedIn, the company's G3 Development Group on LinkedIn, on same on social, Instagram at G3 Development Group, or my personal is Greg underscore Frederick. Sending anybody here a note. Like it's pretty easy to get in touch with us. Uh G3 Development Group is is the website. So You can get in touch with me there. That's but yeah, DMs all most of the stuff is are DMs these days.

Pedro Stein 44:09

Okay. You know, based on the chat we had today, I feel the need to highlight certain parts of it. Okay. Um, let's go back to the origin story when you told me you were burning out, right? While being a VP of sales and you were taking so many trips and all that, and you missed family. So whenever someone tells me that I'm sensing purpose, right? I'm sensing real intention behind the next move. Like, what am I going to build here? That and how does that going to look like in 10 years from now? Is this sustainable? Is it not? So you realize it was not sustainable and you want to spend more time with your family. I mean, there's nothing greater than that. I'll put it simply like that. Uh, second, I would say is using your framework, but not just using your frame or strength-based framework, it's almost like honing in uh what you're capable of and detecting of how you're gonna be of service to your clients using your own strengths, understanding their own strengths, so you can actually, you know, hone in, use that power to serve be of service for them so they can actually get the results, and not just the results, but the right framework for them to get the results, not a cookie cutter. It's almost like, hey, let me understand who you are and how you you you you know you uh how your your mind works so we can actually get something out of it that will actually benefit you. So there's that too. Yes, also very transparent about your own obstacles, right, Greg. Uh you got burned, you know. Um, you're not you were not happy at as a VP of sales, you mentioned you you had made a change. It was scary. You mentioned also that. So you do own your own story, right? Um, last but not least, I I really like when you mention it's it's about the journey, right? At the end here when we were talking, it's not like something magical happens when you reach X, Y, and Z. It's all about the reps, the day-to-day things we have to do, the work we put in. So, yeah, that's also interesting. Now, this is just my long-winded way of saying, Greg, that I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you on.

Gregg Frederick 46:23

I I appreciate it, Pedro. And anytime, you know, you ever want to do a round two, I'm I'm an open book, so I I love talking about this. Uh I have utmost uh respect for the coaches that are out there. It's not easy. Um but yeah, if anybody if there's a group, I know you guys do a good job of that. Like I'm more than happy to be a part of that. Anything I I want to move the movement forward and and particularly on ethical coaching and making sure people are are striving for for purpose, to your point. Like, you know, it's a per should be a purpose-driven business. And you know, we're we have influence on people, so I I hope we do that ethically and and do it to the best of our abilities.

Davis Nguyen 47:11

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.