
Career Coaching Secrets
Career Coaching Secrets is a podcast spotlighting the stories, strategies, and transformations created by today’s top career, leadership, and executive coaches.
Each episode dives into the real-world journeys behind coaching businesses—how they started, scaled, and succeeded—along with lessons learned, client success stories, and practical takeaways for aspiring or established coaches.
Whether you’re helping professionals pivot careers, grow as leaders, or step into entrepreneurship, this show offers an inside look at what it takes to build a purpose-driven, profitable coaching practice.
Career Coaching Secrets
Traver Butcher's Secret to Team Dynamics: Understanding Culture and Personality
In this Career Coaching Secrets episode, host Rexhen interviews Traver Butcher, a cross-cultural consultant, coach, and founder of All Shores Consulting. With over 20 years of experience, Traver helps individuals and businesses navigate global transitions and cultural collaboration.
His work spans international relocations, domestic moves, and company mergers, using frameworks like DISC to help teams understand different cultural and personality dynamics. His coaching engagement for individuals is a 13-week program with a follow-up option for a full year.
Traver admits his marketing is still in the "startup phase," relying heavily on relational investments and word-of-mouth. He's now focused on creating short-form video content to grow his business. He sees all his investments as valuable learning experiences and is working to use technology like AI to enhance, not replace, the human connection of his coaching.
His goal is to make All Shores Consulting his full-time business within the next 1-3 years, expanding his team and traveling for in-person client work. His advice for other coaches is to "keep going" and use technology to enhance their services.
Connect with Traver Butcher:
- Website: https://www.allshoresconsulting.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traver-butcher-553036a
You can also watch this podcast on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/@CareerCoachingSecrets
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When I started, I knew I wanted to start. I knew it would be slow with the type of work. The leads that we got previously or that I got previously came to us from that organization I started or that I was working with. Having started All Shores, I knew I'm having to go out there. I'm having to figure out where do I get these individuals? What companies do I go to? I am a one-man person and company at the moment. So I'm not necessarily...
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 $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.
Rexhen Doda:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Regan, and today's guest is Trevor Butcher, a seasoned cross-cultural consultant, coach, and DEI strategist with over 20 years of experience guiding individuals, businesses, and nonprofits through the complexities of intercultural collaboration and global transitions. As the founder of All Shores Consulting, Trevor specializes in helping clients navigate cultural acclimation, strengthen team dynamics, and build inclusive equity-driven workplaces across borders. With a deep foundation in organizational strategy, personality frameworks like DISC, and real-world cross-cultural coaching, Traver brings a powerful blend of empathy, insight, and actionable frameworks to his work. And it's a pleasure for me to have him on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Trevor. Thank you. Pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure for us to have you on, Trevor. So I wanted to ask you, when thinking about your beginnings, it's been now looking at LinkedIn three years and 11 months, almost four years since you started All Shores Consulting, which is a consulting and a coaching business, both, right? So when thinking about that, what inspired you to do such a thing or like to become a coach and then start your own coaching and consulting business?
Traver Butcher:Yeah, absolutely. So it really started, I was coaching for an international nonprofit and specifically coaching for their individuals who are relocating internationally. And during that time, I did that for almost a decade. And during that time, I was meeting people who were, that was nonprofit. But I was meeting people who are working in the for-profit sector. And one of them left two weeks after getting the job, never having been out of their own culture or their own country. And their employer was expecting them to thrive the first day in a new environment with new everything. And I thought this makes no sense. And as I did more research, I realized There's a high percentage of individuals that don't make it for the length of time that their employer wants them to be in that new place. And I thought, well, this is what I do for this company, for this nonprofit. And I thought one day I would like to do that on my own. and just had that idea of way off in the future. And it was about three years later, three and a half years later when that actually happened after leaving that nonprofit during COVID and everything that inspired and transpired during that. Left that and then about a year later is when I actually started All Shores. But it really came from seeing and meeting those individuals that were taking those jobs and having no experience and no resourcing from their employers outside of the help to relocate. But that cross-cultural piece wasn't there.
Rexhen Doda:And do you see that? So have you seen that with people even moving from one country to another or like within the US from one state to the other?
Traver Butcher:Actually, it fits both of those. So the initial thought when I launched and when I started All Shores was solely international. That was my experience. and working with individuals who were relocating international. But I met somebody, I live in the Midwest part of the United States, and I met somebody who moved here from California. And they said, I wish I knew about you when we moved here three, six months ago, whatever it was. We would have hired you in a heartbeat. And that's when I realized, and I've lived in different parts of the United States as well. And kind of that realization or that light bulb moment, if you want to say, of just realizing thinking, wait, this could be domestic as well. This could, because especially the United States is so vast, so big, and our regions are so unique that it really could be something that is domestic as well as international. And so I really kind of grew it so that it would incorporate both of those.
Rexhen Doda:Yeah. And
Traver Butcher:when you
Rexhen Doda:think about it, like after... After COVID, when everyone was remote, there were some people that started remote and then had to go back to the office. So there's like, it could be the same culture, but it's just like used to doing a different type of work. I feel like that could also be a challenge for some people. Yes. Yep. Absolutely. So if we were to define exactly the ideal client profile that you work with, how would you describe them? Is there a certain specific industry, demographic? Or would you say it's kind of like broad as long as they are actually moving to a change in culture when they're relocating or something
Traver Butcher:like that? Yeah, so that's a great question. It's more, it's really broad. So in my head, when I first started, it was going to be just those moving internationally. But again, that was then, okay, let's bring in the domestic. And then even bringing, and I was challenged by... One of my mentors to look at, well, personalities are also, could be looked at as their own culture. And so I actually, that's where DISC comes in. That's where some of these other things come in as far as personality profiles to be able to then look at teams and do training with teams of how do these individuals work together best by looking at you're this type of person, you're this type of person. Very similar, there are obvious differences. But, but there are similarities of you come from this country, you come from this country, you come from this religion, you come from this religion. How do you work together? There's a lot of things that, that are overarching for that. And so really my target would be anybody when it comes down to it. The thing that I really want it to be is, are those individuals moving from one culture to another? specifically internationally, but could be regional. And so the target would be that client would be the company because they're the ones sending. And they're going to be sending more than one individual or family unit. But I've worked with individuals who my company's not interested in hiring you. I'm interested in hiring you. And so I will work with those individuals as well. And then I've worked with companies who said, we have these individuals. We're merging. I purchased these companies and we're merging them together. Can you come and help us understand how do we work together? Because we're coming from different companies. company cultures, but then also personality cultures. And so being able to do that as well.
Rexhen Doda:Interesting. So there's one one on one coaching that happens with the individuals, but there's also group coaching. Does that happen often?
Traver Butcher:The group would probably be more training than coaching unless it's a family. If it's a family that's moving, then that would be a little bit more where we're working together and that's a coach. and not necessarily consulting or training. But that would be, yeah, the majority is going to be one-on-one coaching. And really that would be, I would consider that a family unit being one-on-one as well, even though it might be multiple people. Whereas if it's going to be a group, it would be more training than coaching.
Rexhen Doda:And right now, generally the company is the client that is paying for it, right? Only in certain cases, some people where they know the company is not going to pay for it, they come to you directly, right? So how would you describe the engagement for both the companies and the individuals when working with you? Is there a certain, when it comes to coaching specifically, is there a certain program of certain length? How does the engagement look like for them?
Traver Butcher:Yeah, absolutely. It would be different for company versus individual. Company, it would just be, that would be dependent on what they're looking for. And so that would be... kind of a case by case, really, I want to build a relationship with anybody. And so no matter who that is, whether that's the overall company, or if that's the individuals that that they're sending, and that I'm working with, I want it to be a good relationship. So if it's with the company, I want them to continue to send people. But if it's with the one on one, they, so the coaching, it's a three month, 13 week, once a week, and for about an hour. And that would be a little bit different That's a one-on-one. If it's a family, that's a little bit different. But if it's an individual person, then one-on-one, 13 weeks, and then they are able to sign on for another additional 12 months where there's automatic check-ins for three, six, nine, and 12 months. And then they actually get access to schedule time with me if they need to talk through things. I'm having difficulties with this person or understanding this. I just need somebody to talk to to talk through it and that understands it and and so that's where they can schedule and and have access to that that's something that they're paying for if they want a one-off kind of a one-off time that's an option as well but that's that's something that they would have to to come in and ask for it's not something that they would automatically pay for
Rexhen Doda:okay i see So in your offers for the companies you have coaching separately and consulting separately, or sometimes they're both together.
Traver Butcher:I see them as separate. So there's the coaching of the individuals and I would put training in there as well. So training teams. And so the coaching is kind of those two tiers, the three months and then the 12 months. And if they want more, we can discuss that. That's one nice thing. It's, hey, we're looking at this. Can we talk about that? Absolutely. I want it to work for them as a company and for their individuals. But for training, it would be typically one hour, four hour and eight hour sessions. If it's longer than that, if it's something that would be like a weekend or workshop, like multiple days, that's something that we can discuss as well. And then consulting would be kind of bigger picture. So as a company, we're looking at doing this, not just as a team or as individuals, but As a company, we want to expand. Whether that's expand to a new region, a new office, new clientele, whatever that might be, that's where the consulting would come in. And that's done by case to case basis as far as what that would look like.
Rexhen Doda:Cool. And right now, how would you describe like for every coach that's listening out there and wants to know in terms of marketing, what have you seen working well for you? Is there a certain marketing channel, any strategy there?
Traver Butcher:I am still figuring that out. So even though for Almost four years in, I'm still what I would consider the startup phase. It's easy for individuals and for businesses, small businesses that have a tangible product to say, hey, you have a vehicle. That vehicle needs maintenance. I have a business. that you need. What I do is a little bit more unique. And so it's having to come in to a company and say, let me help you see that you have a need and I can help fill that need. And so it's been a little bit more strategic in how I market. I've tried a couple of things that I've tried newsletters and I've tried things that I've tried golf courses and their little pamphlets that they hand out when people go for their courses. Those haven't worked so well. But yeah, I am in the midst of trying to figure out how to get my business out there. What I've heard and what I'm currently working on and working towards is using social media a little bit more. doing more video more if i'm the expert in this how am i getting out there to show people that i'm the expert and that i've uh that i know what i'm talking about and so some of that is is a trial and error like some of these others other aspects or other other ways of marketing but but yeah now i'm trying to figure out how do i get how do i do videos how do i and and video reels video shorts and getting those out there. So I'm in the midst of figuring out a new marketing strategy.
Rexhen Doda:Cool. Great. Well, I got good news for you there because we're also doing a workshop on that. It's going to be, well, we have one today and there's one in the 7th of August. So I'm going to send that to you to check it out. And yeah, I feel like that's going to be helpful. But I wanted to, I feel like, yeah, marketing is definitely, even based on our previous research that we've done, which I'll send your way as well, is a lot of coaches were, in fact, in terms of challenges, they were struggling with having a consistent flow of qualified leads in their funnel for them to scale to the next level. So I can imagine also for you, if you ever were thinking of like doing this full time, that would be like one of the bottlenecks that you'd be facing as well. And you're facing even now. I'm going to send that to you so you can check it out. But yeah, definitely a very valid pain point there. Right now, and keeping this in mind, for the next one to three years, how do you see the future of of your business, are you thinking of like going full time maybe eventually once this continues to grow or do you want to keep it outside?
Traver Butcher:Yeah, I would. When I started, I knew I I knew I wanted to start. I knew it'd be slow with the type of of work. The leads that we got previously or that I got previously came to us from that organization I started or that I was working with. Having started all Shores, I knew I'm having to go out there. I'm having to figure out where do I get these individuals? What companies do I go to? I am a one man person and company at the moment. So I'm not necessarily, I would love to be able to extend that and offer more services, be able to work with more companies and more individuals, have a staff as well. So starting out, I think that's helped me know and not run into, especially Being the founder, being the starter of this and the creator of this, I've not been as disappointed and as depressed that it's taken as long as it has to start because I knew it would be slow. So, but at the same time with that, the goal is for in one to three years, I would love for All Shores to be my full time and to where I'm able to work with individuals, able to, where I'm able to travel. And I was able to actually go to Africa last year, had the opportunity to do that. I had never been to that part of the world. And part of it was to experience some of the culture. And that way I've interacted with people from there, but to be able to be there, see it, have my feet on the ground, smell the smells, taste the tastes, feel the feels. and hear the sounds to be able to then help explain that to individuals I'm working with. So to be able to go and explore places, understand cultures a little bit better. All of those things I would love to have the opportunity to do in the next one to three years, where it is my full time and I'm able to, whether that's I have a company that sends me to work with their individuals in person. That would be amazing. The power of virtual. I mean, even you and I meeting across the world and you being in Eastern Europe and me being in the Midwest of the United States, having this conversation. This is possible. It's not the same as in person and face to face. And so I would love for that to be a possibility if that's something that a company would desire as well. But yeah, the hope is full time. I'd love to have one to two staff as well to be able to bring people in so we could help more companies. Cool.
Rexhen Doda:Interesting. I like that. And most of the coaches I've interviewed who I have not yet moved, definitely want to move. It's very rare that, well, actually I've had a couple of cases where coaches were moving out of the coaching career, but that was because they were either retiring and wanted to pursue something else. But those are very rare cases. So yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah. But when it comes to investments, even though you're doing it part time, has there been any investment that you feel like, oh, that was a very good investment? Or has there been any investment where you feel like I should have avoided that one? It wasn't a good investment. Do you have any
Traver Butcher:of those? I feel like most or I think that most of the investment that I put in time or finances, it's all investment. really all a learning game. It's trial and error. And I think if you put the time and energy into it, so I mentioned paying for ad space in golf booklets. That was one of those, I was like, man, those are the target individuals. The people who go to these golf courses and these golf clubs, they're most likely the people that I'm going to want to connect with. So it was worth trying it. I don't know, it was not worth financially to do that. because I didn't get any gain from that. But at the same time, I should say I didn't get clientele gain from it. I got experience gain from it. And I think that to me, first starting out, I had to be okay with some of that. I'm not going to get the return of investment or there's a possibility I don't get that ROI. I have to be okay with that. I have to put those feelers out there and try certain things. to see, is this worth it? Is this going to be? It was really one of those, if I get one client, I'm getting my money back. So is that worth it? It's worth it to try for a year. And now looking back, it's like, I wouldn't do it again, but I learned from it. And so I'm able to come on here and say, I've tried this. It might work for some, it didn't work for me. But I think, so some of those things would be the benefits and those risks that I tried. So I don't know that, I don't know that there's anything I would say was a failure. I see them all, especially being in the beginning part, in the startup phase, I'm learning and I'm growing. And as an individual, as an entrepreneur that I never thought I would be, and I never expected to, to start my own business. So some of that is I'm learning as I go because I have no idea the business part of it. And so I'm learning that. I knew I'd be working with people. I didn't know I'd be starting a business. So I think anything that I've tried has been a benefit in, yes, let's continue that. Let's rethink that. Let's redo that in a different way. or a, I tried it, I learned from it, and I'm not going to do that again. Yeah,
Rexhen Doda:and these lessons are very valuable because although you might lose some with the investment, it's just like always a lesson there for everything. And I like that you're seeing it on a positive light because, yeah, I feel like that's going to help you feel more confident for investments in the future because sometimes the return might be there. It just might be delayed. It might happen later. We never
Traver Butcher:exactly. Exactly. And I think that's where I would say the investments that have been worth it are relational. Any relational capital that I can build. I have had people come back in six months later and say, I have somebody for you. I have, like we met six, eight months ago or a year ago and I've kept you in mind and I met somebody that I think would be a good possible client or a good company for you to work for or work with and partner with. And so I, and honest, the biggest thing with that are people who get what I'm doing and get excited and say, that is really cool. Like, and as I get to know individuals and those relationships are built, those individuals are coming back in the times there, there might not be major depression or major down emotionally down times, but there still are, man, this is, when is this going to pick up? And so there are still those times of where it's you're, you're, you're, I'm just down. And I'm just not as excited about what I'm doing because I don't have any clients at this time or that time. But it's those conversations with people that get it and are excited for me that then help build my excitement back up. And it's like, no, this is what I want to do. Yeah, I do want to continue doing this. I'm not going to shut my doors just because it's been a dry spell. Mm-hmm. And so being able to build on that relational investment and build that relational capital has been huge in that. And those people then coming back and saying, how's it going? Let me challenge you in this. Or here's a connection that I met that I think would be good for you or whatever. Those are the things that whether that goes anywhere or not. But by building that relationship and keeping those relationships, that investment has been huge. Cool.
Rexhen Doda:Yeah. And you bring out such good points with this. And I feel like when you think about it, the types of these investments in people in conversations, they always, almost always will either yield some like other referral client, but even like having that relationship, Maybe that person, just like the timing is not right now, but it might be later. Exactly. Yeah. It works out very well. Exactly.
Traver Butcher:Yeah. And you have those individuals that I have, I have close friends that because I came from a nonprofit doing something similar, but now doing it on my own for for profit, the for profit sector, they say, they ask, how's your nonprofit going? I'm like, that's an, or, or, and that nonprofit was a religious nonprofit. Well, how's your religious business going? And I'm like, it's not, it has no religious ties. So I'm like, do you, Did you hear what I was doing? And so there's some frustration in those relationship things as well. But even with that, because they're friends, because we've built that relationship, they are excited. Do you see
Rexhen Doda:any other challenge that you're thinking of solving shortly? term, like try to solve for next.
Traver Butcher:The, how do I get out there? But then how do I use social media, but also how do I use AI? And so that's a huge thing of, I think those two, those can go hand in hand or those can be separate depending on how they're used. And, and so I think the challenge is how do I, as a coach, especially to me as a coach doing the work that I'm doing, how do I utilize technology to better enhance what I'm able to provide, get myself out there as an individual and as a company and really provide the best service and resource to the companies and individuals that are out there. And I think one way aspect is when working with cultures you're working with relationships and ai cannot do that they cannot build i mean and and if it is that they're not real relationships you can understand something but your interaction with people how do i get over that i am frustrated that and what was really cool and i loved that culture shock hits and now i hate it It frustrates me. How do I work through that? Having a person to talk through rather than an AI bot to talk through. An AI bot, it doesn't get it. And it's like, I get what you're going through and I can help you because I've gotten to know you and we've worked together. We can continue this relationship and help you work through some of these things so that hopefully that becomes something that you enjoy again. Thank you. Thanks
Rexhen Doda:so much, Trevor, for sharing that. Is there, when it comes to like, then this is the final question, is there any final advice you'd like to give to people Other coaches that are trying to scale their impact?
Traver Butcher:Yeah, I would say keep going. Keep trying. As mentioned, I think there are going to be things that challenge coaching as a whole. Doesn't matter what spectrum you are in that, what industry you are in that. And so keep going, keep learning, keep figuring out how do you utilize technology so that it doesn't replace you. but so that it only enhances what you do.
Rexhen Doda:Thank you. Thank you. Thanks much, Trevor. Absolutely. For anyone that wants to connect with you and reach out to you, they can go into LinkedIn, Trevor Butcher. They will be able to find you there. Absolutely. Is there also a website or is it allshore.com? allshoresconsulting.com?
Traver Butcher:Yep, allshoresconsulting.com. All Shores is on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram as well. And we'll put that also
Rexhen Doda:in the description of this podcast. So thank you so much, Trevor. It was a pleasure.
Davis Nguyen:It was a pleasure. 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 joinpurplecircle.com.