Career Coaching Secrets

Scale Smarter, Not Harder: A Conversation with Adam W. Barney

• Davis Nguyen

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In this Career Coaching Secrets episode, host Rexhen interviews Adam W. Barney, founder of Scale Smarter. Adam, a growth strategist and certified energy coach, transitioned from a corporate career at companies like Microsoft after realizing high performers were burning out.

He coaches executive and emerging leaders, including founders, using tools like Ikigai and the Odyssey Plan to build a holistic vision. His unique approach includes continuous support via text or Slack between one-on-one sessions.

Adam's business grows primarily through authentic networking and referrals, as he advises against using paid ads as a starting point. He sees his best investments as learning from past mistakes, such as hiring a lead-gen company without a clear offer. His future goals include reaching $200k in revenue, launching a second book on the concept of "grace," and scaling his visibility through speaking and partnerships.

His advice for coaches is to get specific with your offer, protect your energy, and stay visible because "you're only unknown to people that you haven't helped yet."

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Adam W. Barney:

It's incredible what the belief is and what actually works. What's really worked for me over the years is using my genuine, authentic networking to build that network up and find my tribe. We're moving away... in a broad marketing lens, and especially when it comes to coaching from that, you know, going on Instagram and getting a million followers. That's not what's happening anymore. We're moving towards finding those people who are in your tribe and bringing them in.

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 business myself, and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over a hundred million dollars 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. Hey

Rexhen Doda:

everyone, welcome to another episode of Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm your host, Regin, and today's guest is Adam G. Barney, a growth strategist, certified energy coach, and author... of Make Your Own Glass Half Full, The Path to Empowered Optimism and Autonomy. He's also an agency advisor who's helped manage over a hundred million in ad spend for brands like Goodyear and Bank of America. Now, as the founder of Scale Smarter, Adam partners with growth stage agencies to sharpen positioning land better fit clients and scale sustainably, blending deep operational insight with mindset and energy coaching. He's also the co-host of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising, a podcast where he brings real talk to a noisy industry and a trusted advisor to founders looking to scale with clarity, not chaos. And it's a pleasure for me to have him on the podcast today. Welcome to the show, Adam.

Adam W. Barney:

Hey, Regam. It's Great to be here. I'm excited to be here. I love what you're building with this show, especially because coaching has, what I would say, exploded in recent years. But my understanding and what I've seen is that the real impact, of course, comes from consistency, depth, and showing up energized. That's where I try to live.

Rexhen Doda:

Absolutely, yeah. And I appreciate you for coming to the show and bringing some more insights. I actually got excited when I saw that you have put quite a lot of time and paid a advertising and maybe hopefully there's some angle there that we could utilize for the coaches as well. So yeah, I'm looking forward to the conversation. But before I get there, I want to know when it comes to you starting your own business, what inspired you to do so? What inspired you to become a coach and then do this as business?

Adam W. Barney:

Sure thing. So I think like many coaches, you know, I didn't definitely, I definitely did not have energy coach on a vision board when I first started this out, right? So I spent years in corporate leadership. You know, I worked across enterprise scale global companies like Microsoft. and Akamai Technologies, agencies like Digitas, but also venture capital backed startups. And across each of those experiences over almost two decades, I kept noticing something. And that was really that even the best people, the highest performers ended up running on fumes. You know, they had the skills, they had the ambition, but the systems that either they use personally or that the organizations they worked within, they weren't built for sustainability. I think one of the biggest turning points for myself came from two sort of different angles. You know, in a lot of different cases, I saw high potential team members who became very quietly burned out and left their roles to go somewhere else, but also I experienced it. And I chronicle a little of this in my book, Make Your Own Glass Half Full, that you mentioned. You know, it's not only the journey that I was on. you know across working across all those experiences I was laid off twice in that career and the way that you recover from those setbacks no matter what the challenge is it's about getting back up and trying again but you know going back to those people who I saw burn out and I was even someone who burned out it wasn't because they or we or I wasn't good enough it was because no one was helping them protect their energy and that's something that really truly struck me and stuck with me I really I'd always been coaching as a leader within each of those roles that I held, but eventually I decided to make it official and build something that helps leaders stay energized and thrive with that state of optimism and autonomy.

Rexhen Doda:

Right now, how would you describe like The typical ideal client profile that you coach with, if they're in the audience, how would you

Adam W. Barney:

describe it? I love to describe it as I love to work with both executive, but as well as emerging leaders. And that crosses a few different realms, right? So founders and entrepreneurs who are building businesses or building platforms to make the world a more just and equitable place. That's one realm that I love to play in. I'm also a white male in this world. for decades across my corporate career. I wished that I could bottle up the confidence in the experience of that and hand that to people who don't come from that background or experience. So I love, even at a deeper level, to work with underrepresented founders who don't historically get that equal seat at the table and be that energy pack, that battery pack, that cheerleader in their back pocket who keeps them energized and accountable. I also, that doesn't Mm-hmm. classified as a mindset or a vibe to have, but I view resilience as a skill. And to be that energy coach, that battery pack in people's back pocket, that's where I come in and help them stay marching towards the center of that path. And if you don't vary too far to the left or right off of that vision and that path, then you're that road eventually leads to a successful place.

Rexhen Doda:

Cool. And how would you like describe typically the engagement with working with you? Is there a certain program of a certain length? Is it One-to-one coaching, group coaching. How would you describe that for anyone's listening?

Adam W. Barney:

The majority of the coaching that I've done has been one-to-one coaching. It's where I really get in as that partner who gets in there and builds that vision. I actually like to use two tools early in that visioning process. The first being Ikigai, which is the Japanese concept for a reason for being that merges together what you're good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for. And that's where that holistic transitional coaching comes into play to build that vision, build that path. I also, though, do like to pair Ikigai as a fantastic tool. It gets a lot, a lot of, you know, it's spoken about a lot these days, but I actually like to tie it directly to an odyssey plan. And an Odyssey plan takes the center of that vision and then ties together a view five to 10 years in the future and then establishing three different paths. The first path being everything that the path that you're on remains consistent. The second path is option. The first path just gets obliterated. It disappears. What's the alternative? And then the third path is the no limitations, no constraints. We all have those things that limit us, whether they're family obligations friends, household income that can guardrail us. If you use that imaginative view, if you didn't have those guardrails, that's that third perspective. And when you tie that center of the Ikigai with each of those five to 10 years in the future views, that lays out the systems that then the roadmap of the more tangible goals get into for that holistic transformational change that I like to guide people on. So I'd love to say that we can do this with work in 60 days or 90 days. It's really about that long-term transformational work that happens. And it's not just about the professional side. It's about maintaining that balance, again, on a holistic level on the personal side as well.

Rexhen Doda:

Like I said, is it mostly just one-on-one, I believe, in this case?

Adam W. Barney:

It is mostly just one-on-one. I've tested a couple of times over the last few years of doing group coaching programs as well, where I bring in small curated groups of 10 to 15 to follow the same path in a cohort-based environment. I don't see that that's been necessarily as effective in the way that I can guide people compared to that one-to-one coaching where we do have that dedicated time. And sort of the format can vary based on the needs of the specific client that I work with. Because I come from that deep marketing background, I'm built on that flexibility and that transparency. But one other unique value proposition that I bring within my coaching is we don't just have our coaching call that could be every other week and then we walk away. I follow up in between. I bring a lot of my clients into a deeper communication where I'm texting them. A lot of my clients live in Slack, so I have a Slack community that I bring them into. But that allows them, no matter what time of day it is, to ping a question back to me or identify a gap that I can help to work on and meet them in the middle of where they are at the time that they need be.

Rexhen Doda:

And where would you say that you're finding your clients right now in terms of marketing, which marketing channel or channels are working very well for you right now?

Adam W. Barney:

I have to say, you know, the biggest thing that... over the past four years of having this business has been referrals. You know, coaching is a crowded market. It's hard to break through the noise. I think that's one of the biggest challenges that I've faced. I'm sure a lot of coaches who are listening here today feel that same way. You have to try to break through the noise. The referral engine has been fantastic with the clients that have come in at the right time and the right place. But it's not like you can build a business. You know, my background is grounded in performance marketing. It's grounded in paid search. It's not like 10 years ago when you could go on to Google Ads, for instance, and spend $50 a month on a highly targeted list of keywords. And then you find your clients to build a coaching business, whatever the business might be. It's about building that organic audience. It's also, you know, it's using social media. It's using video content. Even my podcast is an opportunity to bring different people to my doorstep to help balance away from that referral-based business growth that I've experienced over the last few years.

Rexhen Doda:

And for the coaches listening, let's say either career, executive, leadership coaches, is there any typical... paid advertising channel that you've seen working well for that type of coach? Or you'd say that it's not really that easy of a question.

Adam W. Barney:

Can I bring that question of is anything real in paid advertising? You know, it's funny that you ask that because I think so many of us believe that we can go spend money on whether it's meta ads or it's Google ads or any other ad platform and we get that return. I actually just was interviewing someone for my podcast this morning, though, who spent seven thousand dollars Did not get one sales qualified lead from managing that and running that across meta ads with that platform. It's incredible what the belief is and what actually works. What's really worked for me over the years is using my genuine, authentic networking to build that network up and find my tribe. We're moving away now. in a broad marketing lens, and especially when it comes to coaching, from that going on Instagram and getting a million followers. That's not what's happening anymore. We're moving towards finding those people who are in your tribe and bringing them into a curated community where you can directly speak to the people who need your help. And the advent of different platforms have helped to scale that perspective up. you know, whether it's using things like Circle or School to bring communities together, or even at the basic level Slack, I would say, bringing those people into community where they can communicate together and be a part of you. That's one of the things that, as I look at the future of coaching and the future of how I grow my business, that's where we really need to find our people, find our tribes, and that's how we find those clients and grow our businesses.

Rexhen Doda:

I see. That's a very good, that's a very good point of view that you're bringing out. So you're not, and we've seen that also in our case. So our career coaching business, my consulting offer, we're also working in setting that community up, getting it. So having two communities, actually thinking of a free community and a paid community as well. Yeah. Basically having that tribe in, just like you mentioned, instead of going into the paid ads. Although we've seen them work for us in certain types of funnels. So I've seen them work for us with challenges and we've seen them working for us, especially with retargeting. But at that point, it is because we've built that audience over time organically, we were able to retarget it. But for someone that's thinking that doesn't have either the referral network or is just getting started, you would say that paid ads would not be something you recommend to start first. You first want to get some people.

Adam W. Barney:

You need to build that organic audience, right? You also need to validate your product, right? That's another piece of it that's important before you go and spend money on paid ads. I think there's so much noise in the marketplace for how you can build your lead engine, right? And it's not about going out there and spending $5,000 a month on paid ads to build that audience. You might get some You might get some marketing qualified leads. You might get some people who are interested. You might get a solid click-through rate and a handful of people who visit your website. But how many of those are actually converting? It's probably not. It's not going to be 100% no matter what you do. But I would argue that conversion rate is not going to be at the level that you need it to grow your business.

Rexhen Doda:

It's not going to be sustainable if you start there. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. So right now... With your business, where do you see it going for the next one to three years? Do you have any specific goals you're working towards?

Adam W. Barney:

You know, I would love to get to that level where my revenue reaches what I left, you know, in the corporate world. Targeting, you know, reaching that 200. US dollars a year would be fantastic for my business. But it's not just about the money, right? The money is one part of it. I have a busy household with controlled constant chaos with two young daughters and two dogs in the house. I have to keep everyone happy. I've got those obligations. But it's about building that visibility as well. And doing it organically, as I was speaking about a few minutes ago, is so critical. And that's to bring more paid speaking gigs, build more partnerships, partnerships, you know, taking the podcasting to the next level. That's a big part of it. And I also, you know, I I want to launch my second book. There's a place where I want to go that brings this concept of grace that typically comes from a religious context. I think that there's an opportunity to re-envision grace and we could use more of it. We've experienced so much of how the world has picked up speed with technology and even, I would argue, the impact of the global pandemic that we faced a few years ago. Everyone's trying to work harder for faster. If we have that level of grace and it's grace of ourselves, the grace of others and the grace of the world around us, for the world around us, and we lean back into it, that's a critical changer for us to slow down and give each other a little bit more space, but especially give ourselves as individuals a little bit more space.

Rexhen Doda:

Absolutely. And so right now, where do you see the challenge when thinking about your goal as well? Where do you see that Chad, what is the bottleneck for you right now to getting there?

Adam W. Barney:

I mean, part of it is definitely offer codification. That's part of it, right? I've dabbled a couple of years. I also think I've seen it myself. I've spoke with a lot of other coaches. I think we underprice ourselves. We undervalue the value that we bring as individuals with unique experience and backgrounds to the table. That's a limit that I've I've faced as well. I think we also have to really understand the value proposition. I think I struggled, honestly, in the first couple of years of this business. What's the value proposition of being an energy coach? How do I prove out the level that I can... I used to say that I could double your energy in 60 days, right? Proving out that value in a tangible way is exceedingly, exceedingly difficult. So that's a challenge that I've had to work around as well, is how do I build the value proposition? How do I truly tell the value of what I bring to the table? And doing that work has opened up those doors because that's how you build... an amplified version of case studies or client testimonials builds that engine. That's that boulder as it starts to roll down the hill. But if you can't quantify the impact, that's extremely difficult to sell to someone new who's coming into the fold, the value of what you're bringing to through your coaching. Absolutely. So right now,

Rexhen Doda:

and I feel like this question will be interesting for the coach especially. When it comes to investments that you've done so far, what have been some good investments that you feel like you've gotten a good return on and what have been some investments that you feel like you would have preferred to have avoided maybe? I

Adam W. Barney:

mean, I have to say that, you know, I'll frame this in the fact that I really truly feel that any stumbles we have, as long as you don't fall down and not get up again, allow you to build and grow. I've made some misguided investments in terms of my business. I've hired a lead generation company to bring leads into my plate, but my offer wasn't codified. I didn't have my pitch codex nailed down. I didn't realize I didn't have those things ahead of doing that. I've also signed up for some things that aren't paying off in terms of the value that they deliver. But I actually have talked a lot about this with with people. You know, it's a short list that I call my sort of tuition payments to the school of trial and error, right? That's the way I think about it. I might have overinvested in branding and sort of design work before, again, I had clarity on my offer. The visuals might have been beautiful, but the message was not genuine and it was mushy. You know, I've honestly bought high ticket courses that promised funnels and six figure beyond blueprints, but they didn't really reflect the relationship Thank you. the business. So, you know, each of those experiences has taught me how to choose and iterate over time to get better with aligned opportunities that allow me to elevate. And, you know, another thing that I've learned through that is that no tool, no template or tech stack replaces the clarity and momentum that we each have with inside of ourselves. And I think it's also something I've learned is that I try to validate where I can with small bets and test before I scale and then only invest in things that solve a, not an immediate constraint because you can't really solve for these things immediately. But, but, but a constraint that, that I can see the value and it's not about the hypothetical one. It's proving it out before, before digging it in. Right. And, you know, the best, the best ROI that I've found is, is that talking to ideal clients early and often really beats out the worst ROI, which is waiting too long to ship because everything I wanted needed to be perfect. I actually have done work over the last year or so of running everything through my own energy filter. And if it doesn't fuel me or the business, it's a no-no, no matter how shiny it is.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah. And when you say it's a no, it's basically... don't do it at all? Or is it like delegate it, not use your

Adam W. Barney:

energy? It can be different versions of that. I actually love to talk with my coaching clients about how do you delegate, how do you eliminate, or how do you automate? The AI tools that are out there allow us to automate a lot of the conversations and the follow-up need that we have from conversations. But yeah, maybe it's Maybe it's not about just saying a straight no to something. Maybe it's saying the way that this is being presented to me isn't how I can do it, but here's a different way that I can imagine it through, whether it's delegation, you know, we're at an incredible time in the value of the internet where we can find highly affordable virtual assistants halfway around the world, pay them something that might be affordable for us, but it's game changing for for what it allows the person on the other side of the world to earn and bring back to the world that they live in. That opens up doors of finding incredible talent and connecting with people. And you don't have to go and spend $5,000 a month on a virtual assistant. You can literally spend, you know, 10, 15, $20 an hour, get someone for five hours a week to operationalize pieces of your business that are repeatable. and do more with not that much more set of resources ahead of us.

Rexhen Doda:

Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks so much for sharing that. That is such a valuable piece of advice there for coaches who are thinking of also delegating. And most coaches that I've interviewed actually, when it comes to their first hire, it's either a sales rep, it's either another coach, which helps increase the capacity, or it's a VA. And generally, a virtual assistant has been the case for most coaches. But in your case, how would you describe your team?

Adam W. Barney:

My team right now, if we're talking about today, is just me, myself, and I basically, you know, regging. I've tried different things. And right now, I don't feel like paying for those things is right. But as I scale up, I know what the things that I'm going to use first in the future are. That's maybe a vague way to answer that question. But it's basically, it means I'm not sure what that is right now, because I've done a lot of testing in the first half of this year. And I'm not at the right point in my scale, other than having my tools in my back pocket to necessarily know need someone directly to help with pieces of the business. Cool.

Rexhen Doda:

Yeah, that makes sense. Especially when you haven't yet pinned down where you need that help versus, yeah, yeah, obviously you need to have the hours that you want to fill, you have this person fill out. Yeah. Thank you so much, Adam. And is there any final advice you'd like to give to other coaches who are looking to scale their impact?

Adam W. Barney:

You know, one thing that I'd love to leave people with, you know, it's about... You've picked up on this without I just saying, but get specific. The more generic your offer, the harder it is to grow. I really believe in building belief systems, not just offers. That's a piece of how we help our coaching clients believe in themselves. I also would guide on protect your energy. Your business only works when you're energized. That's critical. I'd also... advise on doubling down on what's working and not just chasing those shiny objects. And then it might be hard for some of us to stay visible, but post, speak, show up. You're only unknown to people that you haven't helped yet.

Rexhen Doda:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Adam. And thank you for coming to the podcast today. For anyone who wants to connect with you or find you, they can go into LinkedIn and look up Adam Barney, they'll be able to find your LinkedIn account there. And there's also, I believe a website, but I want to, I want to mess the URL. So what is it?

Adam W. Barney:

Sure. Yep. If you're looking to grab my book, Make Your Own Glass Half Full, The Empowered Path to Optimism and Autonomy, you can grab that at makeyourownglasshalffull.com. And then in addition to LinkedIn that Rega mentioned, you can come find me at adamwbarney.com. Thank you. Thank you so much,

Rexhen Doda:

Adam. Thank you for coming to the show.

Adam W. Barney:

Awesome. Thank you for having me.

Davis Nguyen:

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.