Faith, Fire, and Scaling Without Burnout | Jim Diebold

Jim Diebold isn’t just a business coach—he’s a man on a mission. 

After a career spanning electrical engineering, high-level sales, and entrepreneurship, Jim found his calling in helping faith-driven entrepreneurs scale their businesses without losing themselves in the process. In this episode of MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers, Jim shares how his values-first approach to growth is changing the game for founders and leaders who want to do business with heart.

You’ll hear how a personal journey through engineering, independent business ownership, and deep spiritual reflection led Jim to become a Certified Master Business Coach with Focal Point. His story is both inspiring and deeply practical—especially for those trying to balance the demands of scaling a company with the desire to live in alignment with their core values.

Expect to learn why Jim believes Christian identity is a business advantage, how to niche down without selling out, and why integrity should be baked into your brand strategy. He also breaks down the misconceptions about personal branding, the real impact of intentionality, and how bold decisions don’t just inspire others—they multiply success.

This is more than just a conversation about business; it’s about legacy, purpose, and putting people first. Tune in for a refreshingly honest take on leadership and growth—and learn why scaling doesn’t have to mean burnout.

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Focal Point Business Coaching – https://www.focalpointcoaching.com
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Transcript

Paul: 0:29

Ever wonder how to grow your business without losing sight of your values? Jim Diebold shares how faith-driven entrepreneurs can scale with purpose and integrity without the fluff. Jim is a certified master business coach, leadership trainer, and is a partner of Focal Point Business Coaching where he helps faith-driven entrepreneurs and executives scale their business with purpose. With a background in electrical engineering, Jim's journey took an unexpected turn when he moved into sales and leadership roles and eventually running his own business. His coaching practice is built on integrating faith and business. Helping leaders navigate growth decision making and leadership while staying aligned with their values. Jim's passionate about creating a community of business leaders who want to build success through biblical principles, integrity and strategic planning. Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim: 1:20

Paul, thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here.

Paul: 1:24

It is a, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. I, there's an interesting side to this in that. I'm agnostic, right? I'm not a faith based person myself, per se. I'm not a disbeliever. I don't particularly believe anything myself, but I don't disbelieve in other people's faiths I find faith really interesting and fascinating and I'd like to think that I live by a lot of the values that most people have faith lived by also, which I think a lot of good people do, which is why I find this conversation really interesting because we talk a lot. In business about authenticity and being ourselves. And most people are very anxious about what authenticity means in different situations. And I think having those principles and ethics and morals that guide us are really important in those moments to help us see what's important. So I'm looking forward to getting into this with you, Jim. Let's rewind back to the beginning of your story. So you started out as an electrical engineer. What. As a kid, is that something you wanted to be, did you want to be an electrical engineer or is that kind of something that you fell into in the first place?

Jim: 2:24

No, it's an interesting story, Paul. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just knew that I enjoyed math and science. I. And not really having a great say, guidance counselor or whatever in high school, and neither of my parents went to college. My dad comes from the quintessential blue collar family where you did everything yourself. gene did not land in me anywhere. I did not like working on the cars or pulling things apart and stuff like that. So my very engineering logical process to figure all that out was I looked at various jobs that were available, or I should say disciplines that were available and what they earned as a median income. I went and order from top to bottom. Top was doctors, which was no more, no, no more school for me. So I wasn't going that direction. lawyers again, no more school, so I wasn't going that direction. Third category engineers. That was my logical process for deciding to become an engineer. then the funny part is I've actually never sat at a desk and engineered anything.

Paul: 3:32

But I think you've told a story there that so many of us have struggled with in our early lives, right? Like, doesn't matter where I can't speak for the eastern hemisphere of the world, but I know in the western world, career guidance is terrible generally, right? It's terrible for young kids and. We still don't seem to have moved on in many instances from you are you need to pick a career path. You need to follow your career path for the rest of your life, and that is it. You need to pick it at 7-year-old and you need to work towards it. And you need to know what you want. And if you don't know what you want, you are a, you're a weird person, like why don't you know what you want? And yet, the vast majority of people, nevermind children, don't know what they want. You know, I, I didn't realize what I wanted to do till I hit 35, 40-year-old. And I see lots of examples of that throughout the world. You know, a lot of people hit their stride in their midlife because they've experienced the world and they've found what is enjoyable. And I think that's the crux. Look, what's interesting is you've almost seem to have done what I'd advise most young people to do is to kind of forget about what you think you should be doing. Look at what you think you'll be good at. And you've obviously identified really early that you didn't want to do anything hands-on. You wanted to do something a bit less, hands-on, a bit more strategic thinking. You've obviously recognized that in yourself early, which is brilliant. So you started as an electrical engineer, but you then you didn't engineer anything. Well,

Jim: 4:55

Yeah,

Paul: 4:55

Where did that go?

Jim: 4:56

I'm fortunate to have all of the uncles on my mom's side of the family went to college and I. Everybody I think in their family has that one, like really successful person, stands out above everybody else. And having a conversation really with all my uncles, but him in particular, he always said, Hey, if you really want to be successful in the financial sense, you have to get into sales. know what I didn't know, so I didn't even ask questions. I'm like, meaning. I didn't ask questions, meaning like, what does that even mean? I was just like, okay, must get into sales. Like that was it. I, that's how simply I processed things. And so when I was getting, when I was doing interviews, getting out getting graduated with my degree. I really did not know what I was setting myself up for to be an electrical engineer. And all of these interviews I actually started to nod off in one of them. I was tired and it was not an interesting interview at all, literally was concerned about what choices I had just made and spending all the money I did to get the degree I got. thankfully, I did wind up with a a nice role. And one of the, you know, proverbial questions, what do you want to do in three to five years? And I just said sales. I wanna be in sales. And that really kinda launched everything for me. My wife and I are from St. Louis Missouri. to give the sales role is what moved us here to Cincinnati, Ohio back in 1999. And the rest of my career really has launched from that decision.

Paul: 6:40

What was their reaction when as an electrical engineer? You told them you wanted to be in sealed, because I can't imagine that's a natural career progression for many, right? I'd imagine they're a bit surprised.

Jim: 6:50

That's actually a great question, but interestingly enough, organization that I was interviewing with engineers, or used to back in the day, hires engineers to be their salespeople because at the time I. Our primary responsibility was to go into engineering firms or to talk with design engineers at a electrical contractor or whatever. So they wanted us to be able to have, you know, a at least relational information commonality with each other so we could talk the same language. So actually back in the day, the title was district sales Engineer. Yeah, now they hire whoever. I mean, it doesn't, you know, it's,'cause the process is totally different than it used to be. I was on the tail end of all of that, so.

Paul: 7:37

But it makes sense to have that subject matter expert doing the selling. Because what I see a lot of the time, especially in B2B and certainly around SaaS or technical products, is the salespeople get armed with a veneer of knowledge and then inevitably they go into to, to sell the product or service and the client asks a deeper question and the sales engineer kind of. It falls off the rails a bit because, oh, I don't know. I'll have to go and find that out. And immediately the trust's lost you. You need to make that incredible first impression. You've already lost it because your salespeople don't understand the next level.

Jim: 8:12

I would agree. There's definitely. Some level of knowledge on the on the front side is important. But a trap that salespeople will fall in is the more they know, the more they'll start spewing facts about stuff. And that's really not the important part's, the relationship. So we can get to facts and features and all that stuff later. But it is an interesting thing that I've seen over the years now having been through a sales role myself and. owning a sales organization and now being a coach doing a lot of sales training, people really like to get stuck on features and benefits and the what's and the how's and all that. And your point they miss the why of what they're doing and creating that relationship. So been very educational over these last 30 years.

Paul: 9:01

I often say to people that we have a big problem in sales, generally in that the most successful sales person gets promoted to the sales management position, but because you are good at selling doesn't necessarily make you a good leader. In fact, quite often it doesn't make you a good leader. It means you are a very kind of aggressive metrics oriented, not very leadership, not very people person, but you're good at building relationships with the clients. So obviously you had that. Where do you think that ability to lead came from?

Jim: 9:32

Honestly for me, there was definitely training that was needed that I got from Focal Point. But even before that, do believe it's my ability to relate to people listen. now don't get me wrong, I was definitely the person that fell into the camp of listening to respond listening to learn. Earlier on in my career, but my ability to just connect with people, the empathy, and the genuine care to understand what they're going through, I really, as I look back on it, I really do believe that's just something that I have and it has served me very well. So while I can be the, what's that? The can't think of the word. The press into things and move forward and get things going. I'm more the attract more flies with honey than vinegar kind of guy. And I have seen personally I've just seen more results around that type of approach than having to be, you know, the type A personality, which I can do. I just prefer not to.

Paul: 10:37

I think that's, yeah, I think we can all do that, but yes it's not a, for the vast majority of people, it's not a pleasant. Style of leadership to, to drive forwards with, and we'd would all rather work with the former. I wonder, so we're gonna come back to faith in a moment, but at this point during all these years I assume that you had faith behind the scenes as well, right? Like do you think that was a guiding principle that led you towards that loot, that relationship building and that value first relationships.

Jim: 11:08

I really do believe it. So I will say. That a lot of my understanding now is looking back on things. I grew up in a household that was, were Catholic, we went to school or went to Catholic school, we went to church all the time. So faith was certainly a big part of our everyday life, but in all objectivity, I would say it was a little more accidental than intentional. So it's one thing to go to school or go to church, but it's another thing when you're away from those environments, what are you doing? how are you living out those principles other than just being nice or just being good? Right? Those are not the same thing. Hence my whole progression here recently as a business coach serving Christian business owners. So yeah, I do believe that was definitely a part of it, but it was more subconscious. More reactive than proactive. And through this whole journey of mine, I can see where certain things happened for a reason and certain things didn't happen for a reason to put me where I am today, which there's no doubt in my mind, I'm exactly right where I'm supposed to be, at least for right now. And it's been an amazing journey and everything right now has been best thing ever. So it's really phenomenal.

Paul: 13:06

What was the turning. Point for you where you decided to give up on the sales leadership role itself and start to coach people? Because I assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, I assume that you moved into sales coaching first and the business coaching came with that. Is that fair?

Jim: 13:22

It would it all simultaneous. So I will give a quick part of the story. I was able to have an independent agency here in Cincinnati, a partner and I, was the stint where I was a business owner and I was the guy working 50 hours a week and pretty miserable. I was drained when I got home. know I wasn't a good dad or husband during that time, and at about the five year mark, my partner left. I closed the company it was, honestly, it was the best thing ever. But then I spent about 10 months doing some independent work and not very well, and I spent eight months doing nothing. And that was a big part of my faith journey as well. A lot of wrestling and a lot of crying and yelling and all kinds of, certainly a lot of praying. And I ran into a franchise broker. Who was representing Focal Point and we started to have this conversation and I met one of the local guys everything just resonated. And so here I am in this capacity as a business coach where I get to help people not be like I was, which was 50 hours a week, and very unintentional about how I was going about business. It was all putting out fires and running from opportunity to opportunity with. With, like I said, no real intentionality. And so through the focal point in training, I have all of this content and this process at my disposal, not to mention a whole team of people to help. The coaching was automatic, obviously,'cause that's the whole premise of the organization, but for me, given my background. The new content that I had, and honestly, things that I had never learned before, even in 20 years of having been in a sales role was, I'll even say revolutionary to me. And it has greatly helped that I've been able to serve over the last five years. so they really go hand in hand. So when I start having a conversation with someone and we start going through what their challenges are, I. No owner says, I don't need to grow anymore. Like none of no one ever says that. So we talk about how are we getting our leads and how are we closing? That's the big part. How well are we closing our opportunities? And so we get to work through that and one-on-one coaching with an owner or with other leaders in the organization. And then doing sales training for a team or leadership training for up and coming leaders. It's fantastic. So it all, it's all intertwined

Paul: 16:04

It sounds incredibly rewarding and it's clear to see that you enjoy and mean. Like, and this is why I love video so much, right? I can look you in the eyes and I can see the passion and energy that you've got for what you do. And as a courty, I can imagine that's really powerful to know that you've got that belief in that side of things. One of the things that we, we draw back to quite a lot is personal brand and you know, there's a big misconception out there that personal brand means how you are on social media. Like you've got this personal brand, you've got all these followers, right?

Jim: 16:35

Right.

Paul: 16:36

brand is something that follows you around no matter where you go and what you do. It's how people perceive you when you are not in the room. Which I think, you know, if I align that with your, you know, your focus on values and morals as well as. Strategy and mission. I think that's really important for the business owners you work with. Is that fair?

Jim: 16:53

Yeah, absolutely. and this transformation, if that's the right word or metamorphosis, is over these last five years have been sprinkling in my faith because I. Interestingly enough, and really by no surprise, most people are believers. They just don't overtly talk about it or whatever. And so opportunities would present themself. so I could just speak in a little biblical truth and it was always a oh yeah, that's right. It's like,'cause we're not being intentional with those

Paul: 17:28

Yeah.

Jim: 17:28

But when it comes to the brand and the faith. You at least here in the states, more and more you see folks with some type of symbol Christian symbol on their trucks, on their vehicles, on their website, on whatever marketing medias. So people are becoming more willing to overtly show that they're Christians. I think it's great just in this, even if, just from the sense of. no reason to not promote that, right? There's just no reason to not do that. There's no reason to feel like we can't or shouldn't, right? It is part of who we are. So why wouldn't you do that? I mean, we're having this, ultimately this conversation around purpose and values and why, which typically is because something happened. And I don't want people to, or the person doesn't want to have other people fall into their same circumstances. Like me, I don't want people to work 50 hours a week. We can actually scale businesses and work 40 or less hours a week if we do it right. need a little collaboration and guidance to do those things well. So same thing with those principles those values creating your brand around. Being comfortable with the fact that you're a Christian and just saying, you know what? I am. And that's part of how I operate in my business. Look at my core values on the wall. Look at my vision and mission statement. It should encompass who I am as a person. And that's my guiding force, right? Even if you're not, and you said something great at the beginning, absolutely correct. You, you don't have to overtly say that you're a Christian in order to live with great moral principles and things like that. And not to go down a tangent, but the piece would be like, where did those morals come from? Like, are they written on us somehow? Or where do they come from? That's a whole different discussion though. So, but I love that. I love that comment. I.

Paul: 19:31

It is a different discussion, but it's also intertwined, I think with marketing and I can't help but wonder how much of that. It helps make it really incredibly clear to business owners what they should be using as a guiding principle when they're setting out their stall. Because like I said at the beginning, most business owners struggle to show how they unique what makes me different to everybody else in the marketplace who does what I do, if there are others that do what you do, and to showcase why people should align with you as opposed to others. And I think your journey into faith-based. Support for other business owners is fairly recent as well. Right. You've been doing it, you've probably been doing it unintentionally for a while, but this is something you're now much more focused on. What was the turning point for you to decide, right. I need to be unique in this way.

Jim: 20:17

Yeah, no, great question. It is recent, actually less than two months ago. the morning, it was February 6th and like I shared just a minute ago, I have been kind of in faith components. But that's more reactive. The client would say something or express something, and then I would offer, like I said, some of the truths from the Bible I was going. I was driving on my way to a meeting on the morning of February 6th. Then it just overcame me. It's like, you just need to say that you're helping Christian business owners, period. Just do that. I was like, okay. I mean, I'm not a hundred percent sure exactly what that looks like to be honest, but I know in talking with people what they're hungry for, what they're thirsting for in their business lives, and that is more intentionality around who they are as Christians. And so for me, it's even a journey. It's always a journey for us. And read in the Bible, God doesn't let you know what the plans are. He really only lets you know what the next step is. That's why they always call it a step of faith. So I've taken that step of faith and I've made that proclamation that's what I'm doing. And ever since I've done that, more and more opportunities are coming forward which is just amazing in and of itself. But it was that morning where I told, and he was the first person I told, I said, you're not gonna believe. And it's another Christian who's doing some other Christian work with Christian business owners and, so I told them what happened on the way, and it was, we just had a great conversation around the whole thing. so what's important to me, what I've realized is how many business owners are wanting to do this and be more intentional. So I always have conversations with my clients when we are not controlling what we're doing throughout the day. You know, things go off the rails. The thing is, no one drifts into greatness, right? We drift. Off the proverbial cliff. to be very intentional to get great. the same thing holds true for faith, we're not going to drift into demonstrating our faith. We have to be intentional with the things that we're doing. And so that's my plan as of February 6th, is to help people, including myself, more intentional with how they are demonstrating their faith and living by those principles. Through their business, but it'll ripple into their entire life and out from there.

Paul: 22:50

It will, and it's a great example of I'm gonna use the British pronunciation of it.'Nicheing', it's a great example of nicheing right down into what you want to do with your business, with your life, what resonates with you and what your values are. And being very specific about so many businesses out there. You know, you talk to'em and who, your clients. Well, it's all of these people here, but that, I mean, yes, that's a subsection of the great wide world. Fine, but. Within that there are people who align with you, there are people who don't. What separates those people off? And how can you find more of those people to talk to'em more directly? Because you try and talk to everyone. You talk to, no one. You know, and I'm quite vocal about, you know, I love to work with ADHD business owners, whether they realize they are or not. Inevitably, most of my clients are ADHD or neurodiverse because I am. I find it easy to communicate with people who are, because we connect the dots so easily and share those things with each other. And so that's, you know, but you've got it. It takes courage. I think, and I, if I'm honest, I haven't quite made the same leap of courage that you have, right? Like, I haven't gone all in on ADHD business owners yet. Maybe I will, I dunno. But how much. Guidance do you think most business owners need in order to make that leap? Do you think it's something that helps when it comes from the outside, or do you think they already have it within them? They just need that transition moment, that transformation point.

Jim: 24:12

Yeah, I would say the answer to that question is still probably a work in progress for me in that I don't fully know because the, I haven't had enough of those conversations just yet. It's other conversations I've had'cause I'm certainly not, this is not unique, right? I'm not the first person to go, oh my gosh, what a great opportunity. I should do this. I'm the first one. Oh no, I'm like the millionth one. Right? There's plenty of coaches or organizations that are centered around the Christian faith that do this, but there are so many business owners that are looking for a way, and to your point or I should say maybe a component to your point is even within the niche. I'm not gonna resonate with everybody. Not everyone's gonna resonate with me and that's okay because there's just no shortage of opportunities for any of us to have an impact in what it is we're doing, whether it's products or services. it's a fantastic opportunity to just focus and as a marketer you understand like focus. The smaller fishing net we use, the more we catch, which is like counterintuitive. But it's true. And I will say that I'm not intentionally excluding anyone either. By the way, this isn't to say I wouldn't work with someone that's not a Christian or an overt Christian. Maybe I'll say it that way because my heart is to serve. I love helping people. I always have folks that are on the gosh, what's the word? Pro bono side of things. I just, I love giving back. And so it's a real, it's a real passion of mine and so I get to help people every day. Like, I literally just get to help people and it's amazing. But yeah, having that niche is gonna be big as far as helping others. A really cool story is communicating with another friend of mine. He's like, you know what? Your boldness has emboldened my partner and I. do a similar thing because they're also believers. And so just by me taking that step and verbalizing it

Paul: 26:21

Yep.

Jim: 26:21

given them the confidence to do the same thing. So, I mean, that alone, to me is a win. It's really cool to kind of be a part of that. And from a Christian faith perspective, we would call that being used by God to make things happen. And so it is really cool and humbling, and gratifying and all kinds of great adjectives to be used to be able to be a small part of someone's process like that, just like being a coach and helping them unlock their mind around the things that are going on in their business. yeah, it's all very connected to me yeah, it is fantastic.

Paul: 26:56

It's genuinely humbling to hear you talk about these things. Like, I just think that, you know, if you were to take religion outta the equation, the conversation stays the same for so many people like

Jim: 27:06

It does.

Paul: 27:07

religion, you know, it's. The shell that you put around it. It's not a shell. I have around it. There's some people have different shells, but ultimately it's about the values and the morals and the ethics that lie underneath it all. And if you can set those free into your marketing, into your business mission, your strategy, your outlook, your authenticity, it just becomes so much easier to be you. And find other people like you. And I think that's the critical thing for most businesses is being able to reach those people on a, on an emotional level to know what makes them tick so that you can speak to them as one of them. And I think that's really important message for people to take away from the deer. Jim, I've thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. If anybody's listening along and they wanna find out a bit more about you, about your coaching, how can they reach you? What's the best way to contact you?

Jim: 27:57

Yeah, so, they can reach out on LinkedIn. Of course, the my extension is just Jim Dbol the LinkedIn extension. They can certainly get ahold of me depending upon where they're at in the world, but they can get ahold of me on my cell phone, which is(513) 444-0067, or email of course is easy. It's JDiebold@ focalpointcoaching.com, all one word.

Paul: 28:27

Brilliant. We'll make sure all that's in the show notes for you as well. Thank you very much, Jim.

Jim: 28:30

I

Paul: 28:30

Appreciate you having a, having you as a guest today. Thanks for coming along and spending your time with us swirly in the morning. I hope you have a fantastic day and we'll speak soon.

Jim: 28:38

You too. Thanks for the opportunity.

Paul: 28:41

And thank you at home for watching along and joining us. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and I'll see you next week for another fantastic guest on season two of MarketPulse Pros and Pioneers.