Champion Mindset & Leadership Culture with George Dupont

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets our guest is George Dupont, a former pro athlete turned leadership & performance coach who now helps organizations build high-performance teams, align culture, and unlock their full potential. Learn how George applied lessons from locker-room leadership to boardrooms, why culture is more important than talent, and how to create sustainable success through clarity, trust, and commitment.

You can find him on:

https://georgedupontleadership.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-dupont/

Email: georgedupont@leadership.com

Transcript

George Dupont: 0:00

Yeah, so you either so you either shouldn't have them or they should be dragged in by the others, right? So, you know, what happens is you, you know, as your nucleus gets stronger, people get pulled closer and closer to them, right? So you know, uh people are inspired by other people, generally speaking, right? So if there's people that are success and they create a strong environment, somebody on the outside says, Well, I'd rather be with them than this guy over here, right? So they move closer to the center. And and and the less variance you have on performance, the stronger your team is. And that goes to, you know, I teach floor and ceiling performance, right? And and what you want is you want to continue to raise the raise the ceiling. So, hey, we're always getting better and we're always looking to push the ceiling. And what you want to do is raise the floor as well, so that your distance between your ceiling and your floor becomes narrower, right? So there's less variance on your bad days.

Davis Nguyen : 0:53

They're not really that bad. 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 David Swin, 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, go discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business.

Pedro: 1:26

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is George DuPont, founder of George DuPont Leadership. He's a former pro hockey captain who learned leadership where pressure is real and results are public. After years competing at the highest levels and later leading complex turnarounds as a senior operator, he has built a career helping CEOs and senior teams perform when the stakes rise. So today he installs pressure-proof operating systems that sharpen decision making, strengthen culture, and create alignment that holds under stress, driving measurable gains in revenue, execution, and team performance. His playbook turns live experience into simple, teachable systems leaders can rely on. Welcome to the show, George.

George Dupont: 2:20

Thank you for having me, Pedro.

Pedro: 2:22

Likewise, I'm very excited you're here with us. So that's fun. And I like to rewind a bit. You know, every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now. So the origin story, when was that for you?

George Dupont: 2:44

You know, being a hockey player my whole life, I I, you know, I was I was fortunate enough to be on a lot of good teams, and I was fortunate enough to be a captain of a lot of those teams, right? And and you know, a lot of times the captain is is kind of just picked, right? You know, not necessarily because he's a great leader, but more often than not because he's one of the better players. And I, you know, I was lucky enough to have good people around me and and realized that you know, if we wanted to be a good team, you had to lead by example. So that was the very first lesson I learned about leadership. And then eventually it just seemed like the next step in my career at some point would be coaching, right? You know, I didn't know how or where or or when, but uh, I knew that that would be the next step, logical step, because I had a passion for it, right? I had a passion for performance, I had a passion for improvement, I had a passion for development, and you know, I wanted to be able to put that passion to use. And so I knew that the next step ultimately at some point would be coaching.

Pedro: 3:41

It's interesting that your evolution it was almost like it was a natural evolution. It's something that just naturally organically happened, right? You you you're in the hockey team, then you're a captain, and then you you you venture yourself into the business world, and now you're a coach, right? It sounds like well, yeah.

George Dupont: 4:00

I went I actually went from playing to coaching right away. So my I went from playing to coaching professional hockey right away, and you know, it it was a it was a difficult experience having to go from playing to now coaching people that the year before with you were playing, right? So I was a head coach of a minor professional hockey team in Tupelo, Mississippi, and I was now recruiting and coaching people that were you know only a couple years younger than I am, some were near the same age, and and now you're coaching them, right? So, you know, there's a lot of growth in that first experience as far as just learning how to separate yourself from being a member of the team to now being the you know the leaderslash coach of the team, right? Now, I always feel it's a better example to say people work with you than for you. So, so but there's still a separation that needs to happen from being being the coach slash leader from being a captain per se, right? Now you're all kind of rowing in the same direction, but there's a little bit of separation. So it was a unique experience coming out and getting right into coaching, and and I did that for a number of years. And chasing the dream in minor professional hockey was a little hectic, right? You know, our our team folded because we weren't doing well financially, and that happens a lot in minor professional sports. So eventually we decided, okay, we'll settle down, I'll get into the corporate world. And you know, once I made my way into the corporate world, it just seemed to be a natural progression again to take on a leadership role and coach other executives and and members of our team.

Pedro: 5:33

Okay, that's interesting. And and when did it shift from, you know, at least on the bit the business side, from I'm helping people to I'm building a real business around this. Whether you know, I know you've been in uh in corporate America. I know you you went from player to captain and then from employee to coach. I want to understand when that shift happened towards the coaching space.

George Dupont: 5:58

Well, you know, you know, I think I mentioned earlier that it was always a passion to kind of you know bring up the people around me so that together we could accomplish better things, right? And and I always recognized that that you were you were only as as strong as you know every team member was, right? The best teammates were ones that did their job to the best of their ability, and and the ones that kind of challenged and held each other accountable. And when I got into the business world, I happened to initially take over an area or a region in our company that was underperforming and uh that was you know recognized within the company as a as a misaligned region with a lot of chaos and a lot of people that weren't kind of they were all going in their own direction. And when I was hired, I was tasked specifically with, hey, can we turn this region around? And you know, what I remember one person saying, well, hey, you're gonna have to change a lot of the people on the team if you're gonna have a turnaround. So start evaluating and look at who you have to eliminate. And before I ever think about eliminating somebody, I always try and think about what I can do to empower them and give them all the tools they need to be to be successful within the team. And you know, through a lot of conversation and and and through a lot of you know, kind of working through some issues, you know, I was able to discover you know that a lot of the problems uh you know weren't with the individuals, it was a misalignment from the leadership and the culture that they had created within that region. And you, you know, I'm I'm a firm believer, and this was really the start of it, where you know, I really believe leadership and culture is a performance multiplier that that you know you know, that talent sets the floor and that leadership and culture, you know, set the ceiling. Uh, so I spent a lot of time, you know, working with the people within the region, you know, to understand what the barriers were that were stopping them from being successful, and then and then trying to provide them with the tools and the understanding of the things that they needed. And over time, you know, and relatively quickly, we went from an underperforming, misaligned region with chaos to a region that was functioning at the highest end of the company. And and you know, I gave a lot of that credit to you know the new culture that we created within the area of openness, empowerment, conversation. Um, and that was really kind of the start of you know, a little bit of my leadership philosophy.

Pedro: 8:18

You know, one thing that that's very interesting. One thing that caught my attention based on your experience is that we see a lot of people not thinking twice about getting, I don't know, a soccer coach, a hockey coach. But sometimes we see that on in business owners. Hey, I know how to run my business, right? They have the some I'm not saying everyone is like that, yeah. But have you seen the I would say noise to get a business coach, but not so much in the sports environment? Do you do you see that that friction, or am I tripping here?

George Dupont: 8:51

Well, I actually feel that that that for whatever reason there's some resistance to getting a business coach, right? And if you look at any high performing individual, um, you know, most of them have some kind of coach that they they they they that they they've assigned, right? Like so in professional sports, right? It went from I'm an athlete, uh, you know, I do my training, uh, you know, I have my coach that helps me out. Then it went to okay, I uh you know, I now have a uh you know physical coach that helps me train, right? Now I have a mindset coach that helps me think, I have a nutritionist that helps me you know stay fit, and and they look at all these different things that provide an edge that lead to peak performance. And you know, one of the biggest challenges leaders have is awareness and understanding, right? And I think awareness and understanding are are are absolutely non-negotiables. They're something that you have to have to be able to lead. And the one thing about a coach is that they can help provide some of that awareness and understanding, and they can provide simple principles or simple uh philosophies or insights that allow you to think through some of your decision-making patterns, some of the way that you you you manage people, some of the way that you manage leadership. And you know, having a coach isn't a sign of weakness, as a matter of fact, I think it's a sign of strength to be able to recognize that, hey, you know what, I want somebody because I want to be the best I can be. I want somebody now. That doesn't mean that you have to find a leadership coach that and and say 100% of what he says, I've got to do, right? You know, because I think the benefit of having a coach is being able to work together and find areas where you need improvement and areas where you say, Hey, you know what, I I hear what you're saying, but I do think in my situation this works best, right? Because the challenge is actually giving it thought, you know, and being able to provide insight so that builds the awareness, then it builds the understanding, and then you know, and then hopefully uh leads to to action, right? And the fact that you've now had somebody who says, Okay, I I wasn't aware of that. Now that I am, I understand what I need to do. And and I think that those that coaching is is critical. You know, I went through a lot of different, you know, uh company built coaching platforms, right? We've gone through Myers Briggs, Colors, Disc, you know, all these ones that provide assessments and say, well, as a leader, you need to learn that Pedro is a blue green and you're a and you're a green yellow, and and and there's a communication gap between the two of you. And I do think that awareness is is is important, but I do believe that there's there's things that go beyond that that leaders need to understand not only about themselves but about leadership, right? And and first it's lead by example, uh, and then there's a number of different things that fall into lead by example, and then it's and then it's you know, then it's your influence, which is relational leadership, and then it's impact, right? Which is your your your impact on performance. And there's there's certain things that fall in there that from a leadership standpoint that are non-negotiable. You know, you can't tell somebody to show up on time if you're always late. You can't tell somebody, you know, that here's a deadline if you're always missing deadlines, right? So, you know, you know, there's things that you have to have when it comes to lead by example, or else your team loses faith in you, or or or at the very least, you you know, loses some belief or optimism in outcome, right? And optimism and outcome are are essential to teams playing at their peak performance.

Pedro: 12:21

That's interesting. Okay. So after you got rolling, you know, who are the people that kept showing up? The ones you realized, okay, these are my people. Because at the early days, I know coaches struggle a lot with that. They're try to to get the entire world, right? So were you able to pinpoint exactly who you who are your people?

George Dupont: 12:43

Well, so I developed a I developed something called the alignment operating system. So what the alignment operating system does is it says, okay, what's the culture that we're trying to create? What's our mission? What's our vision? So you become very clear about that. And then what you're doing is you're defining people based on their alignment to the culture. And you have your core contributors when it comes to your culture and your mission and your vision. And then you have people that are that are core, but maybe they're not as vocal, maybe they, you know, they don't hold others accountable, but they certainly leak, you know, carry themselves the way that you wish. Then you have some people that kind of can go either way, and then you have the people that are on the outside that everything's a challenge, everything is, you know, they're misaligned with everything. They have they they recognize problems before they find solutions, they do all these other things, right? And what most people do is you know, they have this this group of people. What you're trying to do is bring people towards the middle, closer to your core values, and and people lose sight based on talent. Somebody's talented, but they're misaligned. You're better off to have somebody who's aligned and maybe a little bit less talented. And what you're trying to do is give yourself some insight on where people fall within that circle, and the closer they are to the middle, the stronger your team is, and ultimately the better performance you're gonna have. And so, what you're trying to do is recognize the people based on their commitment to culture and their commitment to the company's vision and mission and see the big picture, and you're trying to empower them and have them pull people together and hold others accountable, right? So that it becomes a system that ultimately, you know, people follow you know, uh strong leaders and you're trying to create a strong nucleus. And what happens is you limit the chaos, you limit the noise, you limit the misalignment. And ultimately, if people don't become pulled in, then they don't belong on the team, right? So where most people make the mistake is you know, they get somebody who has, you know, maybe a little less character, a little less aligned, but great talent, and they want to hang on to that person, right? Person is actually you know taking away from the whole a little bit more, right? So what I try and do is give people a vision of where their people land on in that circle, so they have an understanding of what kind of performance their team is gonna have based off of where people are falling. You know, and there's assessments that help with that, but there's also you know, in your heart, you know, you know in your heart whether Pedro is Pedro a guy that you know you know understands the company mission, understands the vision, holds people accountable, holds himself accountable, takes ownership. And if he is, then we need Pedro on our team because Pedro is going to get the guy next to him to follow and do the same thing. And and so that teaches you as a leader where to put your energy, right? It's too many people spend their energy on the misaligned when their energy actually needs to be focused on the people who are aligned with what the company mission and vision is.

Pedro: 15:38

Right, it's not about the right or I'm sorry, not about the the good or the bad apple, it's about the right apple, right? That fits the culture you're trying to implement. Okay.

George Dupont: 15:49

Yeah, and you're trying to allow that good apple to have some impact and empower them, right? So you're trying to allow that person because you know, you don't need policies and procedures for the right people. Policies and procedures are generally put in place to manage the 20% that are misaligned, right? So, so if you're the right person, you're gonna try and do what's right for the company. So I need to empower you to have an impact on the company. So I'm trying to empower you, I'm trying to allow you the freedom to be able to make decisions, to be able to have an impact on the company going in the right direction. And that's where my time and energy should be spent on people who are gonna actually drive performance, drive impact, and and try and create an environment that's a winning or championship environment. And then, you know, because too many leaders get caught up in trying to manage the misaligned. So I spend 80% of my time on the misaligned people, and what happens is the people that are truly passionate about the company and and truly passionate about having an impact feel a little left out, and and as a result, you don't get 100% of their effort, you get you know, you get good effort, but you don't get 100%, or you don't get as much impact from them as you possibly can. So, my suggestion is to people is to manage to understand who's in that nucleus and try and bring people closer and closer to that nucleus by empowering more and more people. Oh, it's and and by doing that, ultimately your performance rises.

Pedro: 17:18

Yeah, that's interesting that you mentioned because uh the 80% rule about the misalign is because my father was a teacher at a university and he always remembered the the bad apples, right? The bad students, because the good they just went by and had success. He never remembered his their names. So that's funny you mentioned, right? It's exactly like that. You have a bad team, you're focusing on the guys that are not producing, you're focused. Oh my god, how can make X, N, Y, and Z produce? But at the same time, that's almost a shooting, you're almost shooting yourself in the foot because you shouldn't have them in the first place, or they they are misaligned with the company culture, right?

George Dupont: 17:56

Yeah, so you either so you either shouldn't have them or they should be dragged in by the others, right? So, you know, what happens is you you know, as your nucleus gets stronger, people get pulled closer and closer to them, right? So you know, uh people are inspired by other people, generally speaking, right? So if there's people that are success and they create a strong environment, somebody on the outside says, Well, I'd rather be with them than this guy over here, right? So they move closer to the center. And and and the less variance you have on performance, the stronger your team is. And that goes to, you know, I teach floor and ceiling performance, right? And and what you want is you want to continue to raise the raise the ceiling. So, hey, we're always getting better and we're always looking to push the ceiling. And what you want to do is raise the floor as well, and so that your your distance between your ceiling and your floor becomes narrower, right? So there's less variance on your bad days, they're not really that bad, right? Um, and and often when you get misaligned teams, you get chaos, you might have a great day and think everything's fine, but then tomorrow you you might bottom out, and it's like chaos all over, and you're putting out fires, right? And and the closer you bring that floor and ceiling, you know, the less chaos you have to deal with, the more you can concentrate on on continuing to raise that ceiling. You know, so so you you know, that's why I I look at trying to teach leaders where to spend their time and how to manage people and manage the right people. You know, if you're managed spending most of your time managing the wrong people, you know, one is they're harder to get to the point where you're you're bringing them into the mix, and when you have the mix, your mix isn't as strong anymore because you know, as as somebody who wants to lead a team, you also want to feel appreciated, right? Like, I mean, if if you if you're leading a team, you want your coach or or or your or your manager or your leader to say, Hey Pedro, great job, right? Keep it up. Here's what I love about what you're doing, and and hey, you know what? Hey, can you also help with this? And and and the good people and the passionate people. People are looking for more responsibility, they want to be empowered, and they're looking for you know, not necessarily recognition as far as putting them up on a pedestal, but at least some kind of hey, my manager or my coach or my leader is is is is noticing what I'm doing, right? And and you feel appreciated.

Pedro: 20:16

Okay. I mean, that's the coaching side. Now let's talk about the part nobody scapes, right? Marketing. So how do people usually find you?

George Dupont: 20:26

Um, you know, so I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, you know, trying to trying to build a profile on LinkedIn and reach out. So, you know, I but I do find LinkedIn a very time-consuming way to try and meet people, right? Now I do think through through articles, I'll get some people that hey, like the article, want to reach out and have a conversation. Hey, I'd like to learn more, and I'm happy to share. And and then really, I'm starting to do a little bit more speaking engagements, podcasts, get up in front of people. And generally what I'll find is you know, that if my if my message resonates with somebody sitting there and they go, you know what, I I I hear what he's saying and I'd like to learn more, or hey, I recognize that's happening to me and I'd like to learn more. You know, I do find that that's the best way to get warm leads and and people who have some understanding of what it is that I'm trying to do or trying to deliver, right? You know, so I think that the warmer the lead, the better. And so I'm I'm I'm doing a little bit more making myself visible, reaching out to people who speak at Chamber of Commerce events, business events, leadership events, and and then you know, somebody in the audience, fail none, comes up and says, Hey, I want to talk to you about you know my company or or myself or or where I'm at with with within our team, right? Uh, and do you mind you know putting aside 30 minutes to have a chat next week? So that's that's generally what what's working for me, and you know, I like it. And like I said, I I don't mind LinkedIn, I do think it's a good platform, but I do think there's a lot more cold outreach that goes along there, and trying to do a little bit more selling yourself from a cold standpoint rather than a little bit of a warm standpoint.

Pedro: 22:08

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, the speaking engagements, LinkedIn, which sounds like a good place. All right. So I want to talk business for a second, you know. So people find you, they resonate with your work, and eventually they want to know what working with you actually looks like, right? So everyone builds their coaching business a bit differently. So when someone someone actually becomes a client, what does that experience look like right now? Is it one-on-one coaching, group coaching? How do we structure that?

George Dupont: 22:40

So uh, I mean, a little bit of it depends on on who and and why, right? So uh if it's an individual, uh, we'll discuss what the goals are of the engagement, right? To make sure we're aligned, right? Okay, so if somebody comes to me and says, George, you know you know, I heard you speak, I want to, I want to, you know, engage you and and and kind of go through it. So uh let's say we decide to work together, we're on the same page, we're looking at uh trying to give the person some leadership guidance on how to manage his team. Start with an assessment, then I do an evaluation, I do interviews, and then I sit down, I I I I build out a plan that says, okay, here's your here's here are your strengths, here are areas that you might need to improve on, right? And then we go through and we identify them into again self-leadership, so identity, and then uh uh relational uh leadership, which is influence and then impact, right? And we go through and we put this all together. And like I said, I have a I have what I call the dynasty DNA operating system, which says, hey, if you want to become a dynasty and you want to you know lead a dynasty and create a championship team, here are the things they fall under the 12 non-negotiables of championship leadership, which are divided into influence, impact, and identity, right? And then we work on where you where are the leadership gaps that you have, and let's try and understand why you have these leadership gaps and what can we do to improve them. Um, and so it's all about again building awareness and understanding, and then working through the things that will help uh improve them. And then the other thing is is that if it's an individual, it's also being honest with your team, right? Saying something like, hey, you know what? Hey, I I I recognized, hey, maybe in the last year, hey, some of you might think that I don't do this or this. Well, look at it, I'm I I'm I've hired a coach, or hey, I'm trying to make steps towards that. So if I'm not doing it, please make me aware, right? And and recognizing that openness to your team is essential to some of this because perception lags reality. So you might say to me, Pedro, hey George, let's work on this. And you could start today and you can be dedicated as you want, but depending on the amount of interactions you have with people in your team, they might not recognize that you've made changes. Could take one month, it could take six months, it could take a year, depending on how often you interact with them. So making people aware that you're trying to change, uh, and and this is what you're you're trying to become, and this is why, uh is also a good strategy. And then if I get hired because of company culture, we do an overall assessment of the company, we do an overall assessment of the leadership team. So it generally goes by you know, beyond more than one just one leader, and we look at okay, what are our gaps between what we say our culture is and how we're acting, right? Because you know, I was brought in a lot of times for bits business consulting, and I always found that it was people and leadership and culture generally not business per se, right? So the easy thing is coming up with a strategy, the hard part is executing the plan, right? And uh and so when you execute the plan, it usually comes down to people and the way that they communicate, right? So, so you know it's it's not a surprise that two companies that offer the exact same service or product, one's extremely successful and the other's not, and it has nothing to do with service or product, right? Um, so why are why is there such a gap between the way one person's doing it and the other? Uh, and generally it comes down to leadership, culture, and and people, and and so that's where we kind of turn around and start start identifying that, and then look at the areas where we can kind of close that gap and and uh uh you know make make the proper uh adjustments and take the proper action.

Pedro: 26:25

Okay, so considering you're doing interviews, you're doing outreach, speaking engagements, you know, in leadership conventions, I mean your work seems pretty hands-on. How how do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself too thin?

George Dupont: 26:42

Well, so we are trying to scale through uh like CEO, you know, support groups, kind of more or less, where we're where basically if you're a CEO running a business, uh you know you know, we we try and get eight to ten together, keep them together. We're just starting this now, as far as a capacity thing, where now you know, because most CEOs you know are going through the same things, or are or you might be one stage behind me, or I might be a stage or two ahead of you, you know, so so you can help guide each other through certain experiences, and then trying to do more workshops um uh as far as you know an event. So we're looking at trying to start with some events, you know, and and workshops where individuals who are either CEOs or senior executives can can do, or somebody aspiring to be a senior executive can attend. And and again, it goes through a little bit more of the philosophy of how you should think and manage your teams, right? And and it a lot of times it's easy, you know, if conflict. I call conflict a catalyst, and I call it necessary. I think conflict is necessary to be a championship team. Conflict isn't the issue, it's how we manage conflict that's the issue, right? And most people avoid conflict, and most people don't have the courage to get enter into difficult conversations and some of these other things. So we teach people you know how to handle conflict constructively, how to have the courage to enter into conversations that'll be productive that are necessary for the success of your team, and then try and give them tools for all this other stuff to give consideration on how they manage their team.

Pedro: 28:21

I like that, especially the conflict is necessary for a championship team. That really resonates. That's really cool. I I've never heard of that, but yeah. Okay. One thing every coach wrestles with at some point, and you you don't need to give hard numbers, okay? This is about structure, yeah. It's pricing and how to package their work. So, how do you think it about today? You know, and were there any lessons along the way that shaped how you landed there?

George Dupont: 28:48

So, you know, I at first I underpriced because I thought it was necessary to enter into the market, and then I landed on on something that I think is fair on both sides based off of what I think the return on investment is for somebody else, right? So, you know, if I said to you, hey, you know what, I'm gonna create you, help you create a culture, you you know, your your turnover is reduced, your production becomes higher, you know, as a result, your margins become better. What is that worth to you, right? And and ultimately, uh, you know, I landed on what I think is a fair price in relationship to the impact that I have based off value, right? And what I also don't do, what I used to do is I I don't spread myself too thin anymore. And that's why I end up charging a little bit more uh for my service, so that I can dedicate the necessary time to the individuals and the and the and the groups and the organizations. So I don't do more than three clients a quarter, you know, on a on a one-to-one basis, and I uh and I and I try and engage them for at least 90 days. Uh, because at the end of 90 days, I think that I can at that point measure the impact that I'm having, whether it's through a reevaluation and an assessment of of culture and mindset, you know, whether it is starting to see a you know a reduction in turnover or key members contributing a little bit more, or whether it's starting to see the margins become a little bit wider because people are doing more for the company, right? And and as a result, you don't need as many people. I used to talk to people all the time, are we hiring because we're we truly need to hire, or are we hiring because we're allowing people to be inefficient, right? And and what happens is when you when you get into this kind of organization where there's no conflict, everything seems harmonious. Often we end up hiring too many people because the minute something becomes challenging, instead of challenging the people to do more and find ways to become more efficient, and maybe even giving them more tools to become more efficient, we hire an extra body, right? So you teach people how to kind of work through that. And actually, if you do it right, what ends up happening is people are able to do more in less time, and they're more productive, they're more satisfied. There's all these different things. So you know, so I think it's important that I'm able to deliver on what I say, so I take less clients, but I charge more for it. So I charge a premium dollar and I try and get 90-day, you know. If I'm doing an individual client, I try and get a 90-day commitment.

Pedro: 31:23

Okay, that's interesting how you approach price and structure now, especially with maxing at three per quarter, right? So now I'm curious about where you're taking all this, right? Looking ahead, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

George Dupont: 31:42

Well, so ultimately what I'd like to do is start onboarding, you know, the vision is starting to onboard coaches that that do what I do and and and take my system and say, you know, like you have a lot of these, you know, the five habits of highly effective people. You you know, they have a a curriculum that they teach, right? Uh, I'd like to teach uh coaches the dynasty DNA operating system, 12 non-negotiables of champion leadership and and the three pillars, right? Uh identity, influence, and impact, and have them go out and start teaching it, right? So that it can become scalable. You know, we do do workshops and we are now looking at doing live events, right? So we're looking at trying to get a lot more people to do events, you know, in in order to scale and make a little bit more money, right? Now, three clients quarter, you know, if I was to max out and you know, because the the the first quarter is is the most intensive, right? Just because you put a lot, I think there's a lot more effort and and stuff that has to go in to make the change, uh, to manage change. And and then after that, it's more of a consulting basis, right? So we're still on retainer and we consult. So as we go through it, you know, I would take on 12 new clients. Now they might remain clients all the way through. If you know, if they decide, hey, we want retainer, we want to be able to make a phone call, schedule a one-on-one meeting, do some of these other things, we make ourselves available. We're not a capacity for that yet. But you know, when I make the commitment, uh, it's more about you know the the intensive part of the front end load, right? The things that you have to actively be doing. You know, if you want to, you know, it's like habit creation, right? If you want to create a habit and you want to change something, you have to be very intentional about it and you have to do it all the time. Or, you know, if you if you make a misstep, you set yourself back, right? If you say I want to change things and and you make a few missteps, people are like, Well, hey, you said you want to change, but you haven't really. So we've got to be very intentional about it. So, so we follow up on a regular basis and make ourselves available to make it very intentional. And then, you know, after the after it's been intentional and we've created a habit, then we're more just advisory. And and our scalability would be, you know, to get more coaches eventually, and um, and then to create some of these groups, the CEO championship group, um, and and then some other workshops and events is kind of the way that we're looking at moving forward and and creating something a little bit big, a little bit bigger.

Pedro: 34:16

Yeah, that's exciting, especially the part that you're trying to, you know, get someone like a junior coach, so you can groom him into the position so he can take more of the ops, you know, and you and that would uh free up your time so you can focus more on the business. That makes a lot of sense. And of course, whenever we're aiming toward the next chapter, there's always something we're refining in the present. What are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business right now?

George Dupont: 34:43

You know, I so I follow a 1% rule. Uh you know, I and uh I always had something that I called incremental improvements or or trying to get better all the time in my mind, and then I listened to James Clear, and James Clear had atomic habits, which is one percent. And so I evolved that a little bit to you know, I'm always looking to be one percent better every day, and I'm always searching for that last one percent. The last one percent never comes, right? Because you're always searching for that last one percent, and it's kind of untainable, unattainable because there's always room for growth, right? You never you never hit the the ceiling, so we're always looking for ways to improve, you know, whether it's client feedback, whether it's uh you know, analyzing an event. And I do think that that as we kind of go through this, you know, the the one area again is is kind of the the scaling. How can we have more impact on more people? And that goes to some of these bigger groups or or things that we're gonna let people try and feed off each other, right? So we're trying to become facilitators where we facilitate constructive conversations that allow people to take insights. You know, I read a book years ago that said your job as a leader is to not lose the message and how it was delivered, but to make sure you understand the message that the person is trying to deliver you, right? Because people get emotional, you know, you know, they can be upset, they can be shy, they can be timid, you know. But your job as a leader is to make sure you thoroughly understand the message that they're trying to give you. I don't remember the book, I don't remember exactly when I heard it, but I remember the message, right? And that message I think has made me one percent better. Uh, because I've taken it and I'm like, okay, I gotta make sure I understand the message. I'm not gonna be offended by whether Pedro comes in here angry, screaming, upset, because there's got to be something that's making him feel that way. I need to understand what it is that's making him feel that way and what the message is. So, you know, I continue to try and apply that one percent rule all the time. And so I look at these groups that we're trying to create, and the the groups that we're trying to create are all about one percent better. So every time somebody comes to one of our groups, I want them to feel like I left with at least one thing that made me one percent better today than I was when I left the meeting, right? Like the worst thing you can do or have meetings where everybody feels like it's the same old stuff and nothing's gonna get changed, nothing's gonna get accomplished. What you want people to do is walk away going, Hey, you know, I'm inspired by that, and I got a great message, and I'm gonna go and start trying to imply that to my life or my business or my leadership.

Pedro: 37:21

I mean, that meeting could be an email, right? Pardon me, like like people say, like they joke around that in that meeting could have been an email, right?

George Dupont: 37:30

Yes, yeah. And and I mean, there's so many meetings that end up that way. I mean, I remember I remember being a part of them, and finally, you know, as an in a company, and and this is the third or fourth meeting that we had, and we talked about the same thing we had four meetings ago, and things would be put on the agenda. So I finally pulled the the the uh the the vice president aside, and I said, you know, I said I've sat in on four of these meetings now, and we're at the exact same point we were basically three months ago, right? And and and there's no action, there's no follow-up, there's no uh and I said I can see people when I want look at the room and I can look at people's faces, there's eye rolling, there's people just putting their hands down, they're not speaking up anymore. Um, and when you get into a meeting like that, you're in trouble. So, you know, our goal is to create a meeting where people feel like hey, I've left with I'm inspired, and I'm gonna put apply one thing to my life, one thing to my job, one thing to my leadership, and and that's gonna that's gonna improve me or my company or my team.

Pedro: 38:33

That's very interesting. I love that. And George, if you if if someone is listening, wants to connect with you or follow your work, where can people find you and connect with you?

George Dupont: 38:45

So uh I have a website, George DuPontleadership.com. So there's information on the website. There's also a contact form. You can go to LinkedIn, and I think it's just backslash George Hyphen DuPont uh on LinkedIn. And then I have an email that's George at George DuPont Leadership.com.

Pedro: 39:04

Okay. Well, there were a few things you shared today that really struck with stuck with me, you know. Um I would say first, uh being, you know, player to captain hockey team, right? And then going to corporate America and then going to coaching, it sounds very natural. And that you don't have uh it not not that you don't have you do have that experience for more, I don't know, 20, 30 years. That's so cool. And it's in a way, it's not that formal experience, but you've been there and done that, you know, uh that nitty greedy part of coaching that I don't see most of coaches having, you know. So I would pinpoint that. And also the fact that you mentioned that the coach not necessarily is always right, right? Right. It's like a he will provide you a different lens into your business. So, like you said, it doesn't It's right, but that different perspective sometimes made you aware of something you haven't thought of, right? The client haven't thought of it now. Hey, hey, wait, maybe I maybe this will really move the needle, you know. And and last is I I even wrote the sentence, it's like conflict is necessary to be a championship team. So I really like that. It doesn't go away.

George Dupont: 40:29

No, and and and and conflict's not bad, it's how people handle conflict, it's bad, right? And so what you've got to do as a leader is teach people how to handle conflict. So conflict is just you and I having a dis difference of opinion, right? You're on one side, I'm on the other, we disagree. How we handle it is the important part, and and that's where great leadership ends up having a huge impact, right? Like so, if you're on a team, if I enter a business and they say, Oh, we we never have arguments or or or disagreements, and and hey, we love everybody here and it's harmonious, you know. At the end of the day, when you get deep down into it and you go get off into a water cooler conversation with somebody over on the side, and they're like, Yeah, it's good here, but and they follow it up with a butt and then they come out with their their problem, right? And they're either afraid to speak up, they don't want to, they don't want to rock the boat, uh, but their opinion could have a huge impact on performance and probably needs to be discussed, even if it's going to upset somebody. And as as a as a real good leader, you start to learn how to handle conflict because conflict is necessary. Uh, you know, if if the goal is to get it right and not be right, right? So if I want to get it right, I don't have to be right, I want to get it right, right? So I want everybody to offer opinions and insights, and then the goal is to get it right, there's gonna be conflict because not everybody's gonna agree on that direction. But if everybody is motivated by getting it right and not being right, and you take a little bit of pride out of it, and you take, hey, our goal is to be the best team that we possibly can, and the most successful team we possibly can, then you're gonna try and find the right answers regardless, right? And and and you take personal stake out of it, and you know, and then you learn how to handle that conflict. I'm a huge believer that conflict is a catalyst and conflict is necessary for championship teams.

Pedro: 42:21

George, I appreciate what you do. I appreciate you being here today and sharing so openly. Okay, it was great having you.

George Dupont: 42:29

Pedro, I appreciate you having me on the podcast.

Davis Nguyen : 42:32

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.