Career Coaching Secrets

The $100K Goal: Dr. Shaya Kass on Scaling a Coaching Business

• Davis Nguyen

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Rexhen Doda interviews Dr. Shaya Kass, a transformational life coach and educator with 40 years of teaching experience. Inspired by his students' need for motivation, Shaya began coaching 12 years ago, focusing on solo entrepreneurs. He finds clients through a coaching school and online platforms.

Shaya aims to build a $100,000 coaching business and create a course. He learned to overcome self-imposed limitations and emphasizes time management. He advises coaches to help more people, not just make money.

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Shaya Kass:

My three-year goal is a $100,000 coaching business. And I can start moving away from teaching and go full-time with coaching. So that's my goal. And also creating a course is another goal that I have for my three-year plan.

Rexhen Doda:

And when it comes to investments that you've done so far, what resources or support has been most valuable in growing your coaching business to the point that it is today?

Shaya Kass:

So I would say that the website said... find clients for you that you have to pay a percentage or whatever it is.

Davis Nguyen:

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 Nguyen, and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. Before Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight figure career coaching businesses myself and consulted with two career coaching businesses that are now doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or just building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Rexhen Doda:

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. Today, my guest is Dr. Shaya Cass, a transformational life coach, educator, helping professionals bring intention and balance to their careers, families, and personal growth. Shaya specializes in supporting young professionals and entrepreneurs, especially those in the first 10 years of their journey, who are juggling the complex puzzle of career, ambition, family time, health goals, and personal fulfillment through his Welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.

Shaya Kass:

Thank you very much for that wonderful introduction. It's touching that people think of me that way.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you, Shay. You're more than welcome to be here. Tell me a little bit more about what inspired you to become a transformational life coach.

Shaya Kass:

So I've been an educator for 40 years now. I've taught in middle school. I've taught in high school. I've taught in university. And what I learned was with many of my students is that I could give them the information that they needed. That was not a problem. I had to motivate them. And very often they needed help with the motivation, with the organization. It needed coaching, basically. So when I realized that, I learned life coaching so that I could help my students become more successful as students and in life. That's what inspired me to become a life coach.

Rexhen Doda:

And how does the journey look like from the moment you started your coaching business to where you are at today?

Shaya Kass:

So it's been a long journey. I took my first coaching class about 12 years ago. um and i didn't quite finish the certification and i tried here and there a little bit um i took another class coaching course about a year ago and that coaching course was in a school where they also find clients for you guys uh all along so i can continue with that so that's been my coaching my coach journey where i started didn't really do much with it and now i'm getting much more into it again

Rexhen Doda:

and Who do you typically work with? What kind of clients are you mostly focused on working with?

Shaya Kass:

So I like working with solo entrepreneurs because if you work in a corporation, which is fine, there's certainly lots of stresses and things there, but you're barely told what to do very often. When you're working on your own, You have to figure it all out on your own, obviously, which is also true for coaches. Coaches also are solopreneurs. And we all have to figure out how to grow our business, how to manage our business, how to keep improving with our clients. And it's a lot of work to do. And there's no one telling you what's the next step. You have to figure it out on your own.

Rexhen Doda:

And where do you find your clients? Where do you find these solopreneurs, entrepreneurs?

Shaya Kass:

So now I'm getting many through this coaching course that I took, this coaching school. And that's very good. I've also signed up with two or three different websites along the way where they find clients. They do a lot of internet marketing and they send clients your way. And while... Along the way, I was never quite sure if it paid. When you look back at it, it has always paid off. So I've never had a bad investment when it comes to that.

Rexhen Doda:

And also when it comes to your LinkedIn, are you actively working on your content there or is there any strategy within LinkedIn?

Shaya Kass:

So I try posting three times a week. On Monday, it's a video. On Tuesday, it's a carousel. On Wednesday, it's a post. And I'm trying to do that consistently. And when you do that consistently, what happens is people notice you. And even if it's not clients who are noticing you, for example, like this podcast. And I'm on this podcast because someone noticed me on LinkedIn, and I may get some business from that. So it's just being exposed, getting out there. And I can assure you, you will do it wrong at the beginning, without a doubt. And you'll get better at it. It's a learning process.

Rexhen Doda:

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Have you found that this combination of video, carousel, and then post, have you found that it has to be a combination like that that works best? I

Shaya Kass:

don't know that in perfect. I figured I would try it. And part of being on LinkedIn and all of marketing is looking at your numbers, seeing what gets looked at, what doesn't get looked at, how the viewers interact with it. So it's a lot of work. And again, I don't know exactly what I'm doing on LinkedIn. I see a lot of posts. I do the best that I can. I

Rexhen Doda:

keep on moving. Do you have any goals you're working towards for the next one to three years that you'd like to share?

Shaya Kass:

So my three-year goal is a $100,000 coaching business. And I can start moving away from teaching and go full-time with coaching. So that's my goal. And also creating a course is another goal that I have for my three-year plan.

Rexhen Doda:

And when it comes to investments that you've done so far, what resources or support has been most valuable in growing your coaching business to the point that it is today?

Shaya Kass:

So I would say that the website said, find clients for you that you have to pay them a percentage or whatever it is, have all paid off. So there are a few of those out there and you should try those, I would say. Those have worked for me.

Rexhen Doda:

And is there something you'd wish you had known when you first started scaling your coaching business even 12 years ago what what is like an unexpected lesson learned

Shaya Kass:

so i thought that i could only do a certain kind of coaching and basically what it is is that i now live in israel and i thought My Hebrew is not good enough to coach in Hebrew. I can only coach Americans and people from Great Britain, from Britners. And I found that was wrong because I'm coaching people here in Israel in Hebrew and I'm doing fine. I coach people in London, in England, and that's fine. I coach people in America and that's fine. So don't think that you have more limitations than you do. If you think you have a limitation, try it and see if it's actually a limitation or not. If you think you can't do something, the only way to find out is to try it. So try things, work on things, see if it works. And worst comes to worst, you'll fail and move on. It won't kill you. And I'm sure that's what every coach would say to their client anyway. So take your own advice.

Rexhen Doda:

When it comes to challenges, you mentioned you want to grow to like $100,000 coaching business, create your own course. What are some of the challenges that are... pushing you back or slowing you down to get into that goal right now?

Shaya Kass:

That would be time. I don't spend enough time on LinkedIn. I don't spend enough time on Facebook. I don't spend enough time on Instagram and threads. And the more stuff you get out there, the more people will see you. So I would guess that my limitation right now is time and therefore I have to learn how to manage my time better and I have to learn how to be more efficient with the work that I do. But every entrepreneur has that same exact problem, I think, in my opinion.

Rexhen Doda:

Which brings me to the next question. Currently, how are you handling the balance between delivering great brand results and managing that business growth? I know you're saying that there's a limited time you can put into, let's say, marketing yourself. Apart from marketing, there's also other aspects of running your business. How do you handle the balance right now?

Shaya Kass:

A very good calendar system. It's always the same thing. Sometimes it's 10-hour days or 12-hour days. Sometimes I have to make sure to walk away from my desk so I can spend time with my wife and do all the other things that I have to do. But it's a very good calendar system. And it's also... that when you're working, you have to make sure you're working well. And there are many different ways to work well, but make sure you have a good system that you know what you have to do and you get it done. And if it's not working for you, either figure it out on your own, how to make it work better, how to manage your time better, or get a coach to help you. Almost every career coach probably went to a school and has friends who went to coach school with them. So lean on friends and ask for help. I do that myself. I go back to people in my course and I say, hey, I'm having this problem, talk it out with me, figure it out with me, and they do.

Rexhen Doda:

Is there any aspect of running your coaching business that would figuratively, quote unquote, keep you up at night? Any worries?

Shaya Kass:

Thank God I have a very good job at university, so I'm not worried about the money, so really not. Thank God I'm blessed when it comes to that. But for most coaches, if I don't have another job and this is my only business and my only income, that would keep me up at night.

Rexhen Doda:

Okay. So, yeah, definitely having a full-time job initially until you get to the point of scale could be helpful in ease, like having less stress about it. and eventually want to move out from the full-time job and go to the coaching business full-time, right? That was your initial goal.

Shaya Kass:

That's my goal, yes.

Rexhen Doda:

Is there, like, throughout your 12 years, almost 13 years of experience in coaching, what advice would you give to other coaches? In this case, the people who are going to watch this podcast are going to be mostly career and executive coaches. What advice would you give to them when they're looking to scale their impact?

Shaya Kass:

So the advice I would give to you is to keep on getting out there and keep talking to people and offering to help. And keep learning yourself. Keep taking courses. Keep reading books. And don't be afraid to try things. And we tell our clients to not be afraid to get out there and do it. And sometimes we don't take our own advice. It's simple to tell others. But it's really true. If you get out there and you meet people and you learn new things, you're going to make more connections. And the more connections you make, the more people you'll be able to help. Because when you think about scaling, if I was a graphic designer and I wanted to scale, it's because I want to have more clients. Maybe it's also to create more beauty in the world. I'm not sure. But for us as coaches, it's not just a business to make money. It's a business to help people. And that's another way, actually, to think about it is I want to help more and more people. And along the way, I'll make a living. So think about it that way to take a little bit of the pressure off and just get out there and help more and more people. And I, for example, with LinkedIn or most of our marketing, what we're doing is we're helping people, even if they aren't our clients, get the information out there and help people and enjoy that part of it. And along the way, you'll make some money.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Shea. And for anyone who wants to find you and connect with you, they can find you on SheaCast on LinkedIn, and they can also find you on your website, mindfulaboutlife.com. Let me know if there's any other way they can connect with you if they wanted to.

Shaya Kass:

Mindful About Life is also on Facebook and Instagram, but the best way probably is through LinkedIn or through the website.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you so much, Shea. It's been lovely having you on the podcast. So thank you for coming and sharing your advices.

Shaya Kass:

It's been a pleasure.

Davis Nguyen:

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This conversation was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to seven and eight figures without burning out. To learn more about Purple Circle, our community, and how we can help you grow your business, visit joinpurplecircle.com.