How Top Leaders Drive Performance Without Micromanaging with Karl Klausewitz

In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets our guest is Karl Klausewitz, a leadership and culture strategist who shares powerful insights on building championship teams, empowering top performers, managing misalignment, and creating elite company culture through accountability, ownership, and intentional leadership. Karl breaks down why great leaders shouldn’t spend most of their time managing the wrong people, how to drive real performance through empowerment, and why conflict when handled correctly is necessary for winning teams.

You can find him on:

https://www.karlkoach.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlklausewitz/

https://www.instagram.com/karlklausewitz/

https://www.youtube.com/c/KarlKlausewitzCoach

Transcript

Karl Klausewitz: 0:00

I like to coach people. I don't think it's good to try to coach people on things that you haven't done yourself. I think you have to really coach yourself first. So, you know, with diet and exercise and you know relationships and things like that, I really stuck to my own experience.

Davis Nguyen : 0:15

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 Wynne, 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.

Pedro Stein: 0:46

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today's guest is Carl Klosewitz, CEO of Success Marketing, a strategist who works with founders who have hit the external milestones yet feel misaligned inside. With a decade of creative strategy and over a hundred entrepreneurs serve, he helps leaders cut through burnout and noise so they can clarify their message, refine their model, and build a business that feels true to who they are. His work blends sharp strategy with creative depth, installing systems that protect energy, strengthen storytelling, and realign the brand with founders' mission. The result is grounded, purposeful growth guided by simple frameworks founders can actually use. So welcome to the show, Carl.

Karl Klausewitz: 1:31

Thanks. Thanks a lot. Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Pedro Stein: 1:34

Oh, great to have you two. All right. So let's rewind a bit. I like to backtrack a little bit, go back to the origin story. You know, every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, you know what? I guess this is what I'm doing now. When was that for you?

Karl Klausewitz: 1:49

I worked in the the corporate world for about 20 years, and I got to a point where it started feeling kind of stale, and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get to do the things in life that I wanted to if I continued to work for someone else. So it just made a lot of sense to me to start my own company. And I had prior experience coaching in sports and, you know, kind of some jobs I had had in the past. So when I started looking around at internet marketing at first, when that was becoming popular in the early 2000s, I was noticing that all the marketers were coaches. And so it just made a lot of sense to me to give that a try. And the more I got into self-help and personal development, you know, coaching training specifically, it just all clicked for me. And I started working with family and friends and just kind of branched out from there.

Pedro Stein: 2:42

Okay, so you left corporate America and started your own business. And it all started with working with family and friends and the closest ones, right? And usually that's actually what happens. And when did it shift from I'm helping, you know, family, friends to I'm building a real business around this? When was that shift for you?

Karl Klausewitz: 3:00

I think it was really when I decided to start running ads, uh, got started on LinkedIn and I was just started out charging, you know, very low rates and doing a lot of free sessions, and I kind of grew from there. You know, I think it's important to provide as much value as you can to people. So once I started to develop my coaching practice and came up with plans and exercises and more things for people to work on, then it grew a lot faster for me.

Pedro Stein: 3:30

Okay. So some pro bono work, some free coaching, also start testing with ads, right? So after you got rolling, who are the people that kept showing up? You know, the ones you realized, okay, these are my people.

Karl Klausewitz: 3:42

Right. Yeah. I really focused a lot on people who were trying to transition from the corporate world because it just made sense to me to stick to my own experience. And so I looked to founders and entrepreneurs who wanted to improve their own life, their own business. And I really focused on helping those people as much as I could. You know, you want to help people who have enough money to pay you. So ideally, you want to help more people who are more successful, then you become even more successful.

Pedro Stein: 4:15

I mean, the being there than that makes sense, right? You left from the corporate America, and then you're, hey, I've been there than that. Why not help people do the same? Right. So that makes a lot of sense.

Karl Klausewitz: 4:25

Yeah, and in my personal life too, I like to coach people. I don't think it's good to try to coach people on things that you haven't done yourself. I think you have to really coach yourself first. So, you know, with diet and exercise and you know, relationships and things like that, I really stuck to my own experience.

Pedro Stein: 4:42

Okay. I mean, that resonates a lot with our audience. That makes sense. And I mean, that's the coaching side, right? And I know we talked a little bit about where I'm trying to introduce here. Now let's talk about the part nobody escapes, right? You mentioned the ads, and the part nobody escapes, it's marketing, right? So, yeah, how do people usually find you?

Karl Klausewitz: 5:00

Well, you know, like I mentioned, I started out just on LinkedIn and I branched out to Instagram. And with all the marketers who were coming to me on LinkedIn, I started asking them more questions about how they got started and why they do what they do. And that led me to starting my own podcast that I was then publishing on YouTube. So that helped a lot of people to find me, you know, just spreading out on the different platforms with short form video mostly is really popular now.

Pedro Stein: 5:32

Okay, so you ended up trying some LinkedIn, some Instagram. Now you have a podcast. That's how you figure out how to reach people. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Okay, that makes sense. All right. So let's talk business for a second. You know, 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 actually becomes a client, what does that experience look like right now?

Karl Klausewitz: 5:56

Well, I have a coaching plan that I've come up with. You know, I call myself a purpose coach because I help people to find and embrace their life purpose and build off that, build more meaning in life. And that alone is good, but it wasn't really quite the focus that I needed just yet, and went more towards monetization because everybody was coming to me with business problems. Some people were more comfortable talking about business problems than they are personal problems, so it's more of an in. And I started focusing more on growing and building a business as I had more experience with that after a while. So helping the people to monetize their purpose became more of my focus later.

Pedro Stein: 6:43

And just out of curiosity, because we see our audience and they have this question because we see coaches do one-on-one work, group coaching, program-based, let's say an online course, right? So that structure, how that looks like for your business right now.

Karl Klausewitz: 6:58

Yeah, I started out with lightning coaching, I called it. So it was really abbreviated, you know, shorter time for less money, which kind of opened up more audience to me, but also more problems. I think people who aren't willing to pay premium costs have a lot more problems, and you end up dealing with a lot more people that way. So, you know, later I kind of toned that down a little bit and started weaning more into group coaching and premium rates and charging more. So I focus a lot on helping people with integrating AI into their business now. You know, that's kind of the elephant in the room of the business world. Everybody who doesn't have it knows that they probably should. So, you know, once you once you get your own stuff fixed and integrated, then it's kind of, you know, you're drinking your own champagne and you have something to show other people, you know, look, here's how I set my appointments and use automation, and I can help you do the same thing. So when you get the details ironed out in your own business, that's really, you know, I think you always fall to the level of your weakest system. So it's really important to be organized and detail oriented.

Pedro Stein: 8:09

I mean, that's very interesting that you mentioned and the fact that you implement AI and then your clients' businesses and also that you do group coaching. So your work seems pretty hands-on, you know, like despite the fact you're implementing AI, you have to teach them, right? Right. So, how do you think about capacity so you don't stretch yourself too thin?

Karl Klausewitz: 8:28

You know, I try to do a lot with as much as I can with scheduling, and it's important to outsource, I think, and ask for help. You know, a lot there's kind of this myth and business about the one-man show. I can do it all myself, and I'm self-made. And I think turns out nobody really does it by themselves. And if you're not willing to ask for help, then you're never gonna get to the next level. So it's I think it's really important to ask for help on things that you know maybe you're not as good at and admit your weaknesses and realize that the things in your business have to get done no matter what. So I think that's an important part of growth.

Pedro Stein: 9:04

You know, and one thing every coach wrestles with at some point is pricing. And I know we touched this a little bit, you know, the fact that you did free coaching, that you had that lightning coach that you had gave you more headaches than actual revenue, right? But you've been through a lot. So what I mean is how do you package your work now? You know, how do you think about it today? And were there any lessons along the way that shape how you landed there?

Karl Klausewitz: 9:29

Yeah, I I think it ends up being about your self-worth, you know, how much you charge, and it's also how you're perceived in the marketplace. So that's why I think it's important to have a premium price structure. And I think the more that you offer people, then the more you would want to be charging. So I like to have a tiered stair step approach. So I might help people with just the basic platforms at first and their web presence. And then as I might add on more automations or website or something like that, then I would add on more layers to the basic package. So, you know, maybe start at two grand, you know, people were very comfortable getting their feet wet at that rate just to see how things go for a month, and then you know, maybe add on like another three and then add on another seven, you know, to see how things go as you provide more value over time. Clients are more comfortable with you to add more payment to the structure.

Pedro Stein: 10:30

I mean, that's a solid look into how you approach price and structure, especially the self-worth, you know, pricing, I would say, angle, because that really resonates with coaches because at the end of the day, we're talking about your time, right? It's about how much you invested in yourself that prepared you to actually do the coaching. Right.

Karl Klausewitz: 10:48

Really think it's bad to relate it to dollars per hour, you know. That's kind of the employee mindset. And it's not just the time that you're putting in right then, it's all the preparation leading up to it that is a lot of the value is. So, you know, all the training and resources and books you had to read and conferences you had to go to and people you had to talk to to know enough and internalize all that to be able to pass it on to someone else is really where a lot of the value is, I think.

Pedro Stein: 11:16

Yeah, that's so true. And sometimes when you're charging by the hour, you're considering yourself to the market as a commodity, right? So they can compare yourself easily to other coaches, and that's not always good, right?

Karl Klausewitz: 11:28

Yeah, it's very nickel dime, you know. Right. Did I get the full hour or you know, was it the full rate for the full hour? And I think it's good to get away from all that and just use round numbers and say this is what it is for the month, and we're gonna work together as long as it takes and do whatever it takes to get you what you want and get you where you want to be.

Pedro Stein: 11:48

Yeah, that's so true. And if you're being measured by the hour, we're not measuring the results, right? We're you're just measuring by the clock. So and I'm curious about, you know, discussing pricing, structure, what you just said. I'm curious about where you're taking all this, you know, 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?

Karl Klausewitz: 12:08

Yeah, I'm partnering up right now with another coach, and we're building out a new company. So we're hiring more people to help with, you know, things like video editing and design work, you know, stuff that we are not as specialized in. And there's really so much more you can do when you have more people, you know, the personal private entrepreneur by themselves. It's great to be uh, you know, your own entrepreneur and stuff, but it's kind of like you can be on two different ships, you know, you can be on the ship with everybody, a great big, huge entrepreneurship and get everything done, or you can be by yourself in a little canoe. And so you can just really leverage your time and earn a lot more and help a lot more people, actually, if you partner up. So that's kind of the direction I'm going now.

Pedro Stein: 12:55

Right. That's interesting. And you know, of course, whenever we're aiming toward a next chapter, there's always something we're refining the present. I know you mentioned hiring, I know you mentioned you're partnering up, right? So, what are you currently trying to improve or tighten up in your business? It would it be the hiring process? Would it be how is this gonna work with a partner? What that that looks like for you.

Karl Klausewitz: 13:16

I think finding really reliable help is important because everybody who works with you ends up improving their skills anyway. So it's I think the skills are maybe not quite as important as finding someone who always shows up on time and is always there when you need them. So that's really what we're looking for now is people that we can rely on a hundred percent.

Pedro Stein: 13:38

Okay. Changing topics. I want to switch gears for a second and do something a bit more fun. I know hiring is fun, but I want to try a game here if you're down for it. You know, got a quick game for you. So we'll look at this through the lens of business investments, okay? Things like coaching, training, marketing, team, masterminds, you name it. So it's simple. I'll give you four prompts and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. If there is a story behind it, even better. Okay. So what's the first business investment you remember making?

Karl Klausewitz: 14:08

Probably paid ads. I think paid ads are important because people think that you can get free marketing from social media, but it turns out it's not really free in the end, and you probably won't end up with results, the results right away that you're looking for, because there's a big it's kind of a big runaround, you know. You get the likes and you get the shares, and then you start focusing on metrics that don't really move the needle in your business. And the only thing that does is results. And so when you move the paid ads, then it's kind of direct results. Like you are just focused on getting the clients in the door, and you know, that allows frees up more of your time than to focus on what you need to say to those people to retain them, which is you know really kind of where the rubber hits the road.

Pedro Stein: 14:54

Yeah, that's so true. Because, well, if you're not investing money or investing time, right? If you're trying to build the audience by yourself, it's not free because you need a post, you need to do all the things, you have to do all the hard work. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Karl Klausewitz: 15:06

And it devalues your time too. You have to pay yourself for your time. So if you're not doing that, then you're devaluing yourself. So it's kind of a trick.

Pedro Stein: 15:16

Yeah, I get it. Okay. Moving forward, what's the most recent one you made? The most recent investment you made.

Karl Klausewitz: 15:22

Oh, oh, I would have to say in automation and getting my scheduling and my messaging all set up with Chat GPT so that I can lean on that for more of the redundant work. That's where I think a lot of the power of AI is, you know, people want to go with the generative AI and have it write posts for them. And I I think that is not a good idea. I think it's good to use for brainstorming and to give you ideas to write about, but I think a lot of the power in it is doing the kind of the grunt work stuff that, you know, the reminding and the redundant messaging and things like that that you may not have time to do on your own.

Pedro Stein: 16:01

Yeah, that's so true. You know, uh last time I saw a post from a coach, he had this long text, and someone commented, Hey, thanks, chat GPT. You know, sometimes it reeks of AI, the text, right? So yeah, that makes sense.

Karl Klausewitz: 16:14

But yeah, you read enough post, you can tell.

Pedro Stein: 16:17

Exactly. Unless you set it up properly, use as a brainstorming tool, like you said, then right, you find your voice, right? So, yeah, that makes sense. So, what's the best financial business investment you have made and why?

Karl Klausewitz: 16:31

I think probably just having good equipment, you know, having a good laptop and a good microphone and nice office space to work in really makes a difference in how you feel, and that you know, anything that makes a difference in how you feel makes a big difference in how you come across to people and your confidence.

Pedro Stein: 16:48

Yeah, that makes sense. It's like you're feeling legit, right? You're like, I'm running a business, not in my PJs trying to work this desktop or this notebook doesn't really work well. Yeah, that makes sense. It gives us confidence, right? Yeah, okay. So what's one investment you wish you could get your money back on? Like, oh my god, that was a waste of money.

Karl Klausewitz: 17:09

Probably VA help, you know. I went that direction a little too soon, maybe, and ended up spending a lot of my time just telling the person what needed to be done, and it ended up being more time doing that than actually getting any completed work back. So it was like every single thing I wanted was another, you know, twice as long telling someone how to do it. So I think that's an easy trap to fall into these days because there's so many virtual assistants out there, you know, vying for your time and your dollars, and everybody knows they need help, but they don't know what help they need. So it makes it pretty easy to invest where you shouldn't, maybe.

Pedro Stein: 17:48

Yeah, you know, I got mixed feelings. The past two coaches that I interviewed, they told me that was the best financial business investments. It was the VA. So I have a follow-up question for you. Do you had like, and this is just out of curiosity, did you have like SOPs for them to follow? Did you have it properly structured? Or do you feel that could be lacking that turn that's yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

Karl Klausewitz: 18:11

That is kind of what I was lacking. I think that SOPs are super important. You know, the goal I think is to have your business running so that you can step away from it and not have to be there all the time and still have it run. And if you hire the right people and you have all those things ironed out in great details, that's when you're able to do that more.

Pedro Stein: 18:31

Okay, so looking at those, you know, how has your approach investing in the business changed over the years?

Karl Klausewitz: 18:36

I think I've become more cautious and I've seen how important it is to really focus on how you want things, visualizing the way things should be is a really important skill. And you know, a common problem is people just don't know what they want. They know they want they want growth and they want money, but they don't know how to get there. And when you have a vision and you really know what the steps are, then everything else kind of falls into place. That makes sense.

Pedro Stein: 19:05

So no one might yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, it's not all sunshines and you know, it's not all perfect, and that's exactly why this podcast exists. It's so we can talk to each other and understand real challenges, right? And I appreciate that you're being so upfront about it because there are challenges, right? You can tell the next guy, hey, next coach, it's not that easy, right?

Karl Klausewitz: 19:26

Yeah, it does take a long time to get traction, and you do end up missing out on on what would be great clients if you don't have the right things to offer, you don't have a good offer, or you know, maybe you don't know how to close people on your deal. Those are really hard lessons to learn. You know, when you most need the revenues when you're starting out, makes it harder to get going, I think. So it takes a lot of patience at the beginning to really get those things nailed down with experience.

Pedro Stein: 19:56

Yeah, that makes sense. And I want to tap into your experience, you know, like Mentioned for a second because people listening can really benefit from this. You've been in the game long enough to hear all kinds of business advice, you know, some that sticks and some that really doesn't. So, what's one piece of business advice you hear all the time that you think is overrated or misunderstood?

Karl Klausewitz: 20:15

Probably the do-it-yourself myth that I mentioned before. You know, that people seem to glorify that a lot. And I don't even know where it comes from, but I think it never happens that people are completely self-made. I think everybody needs help.

Pedro Stein: 20:30

So that might be in I mean, that's so true because when you think about it, we don't come to this world alone, you know. We have a doctor that helps us, our mom, you know, so it's not like I also don't believe in the self-made myth. I mean, it's so it's such a myth, right? Y'all need help. Yeah, that's so true. So on the other side, what's a piece of advice you wish more people actually took seriously?

Karl Klausewitz: 20:55

I think just putting in the work, you know, it takes effort, and a lot of people have an aversion to hard work and to think that you're the things that you want are gonna happen without hard work is really an illusion. You know, the great things that you want in life are in the work that you've been avoiding. So if you want things to happen, then you know you have to put in the hours and the effort. There's no way around that.

Pedro Stein: 21:22

I love that. And in today's world, you know, social media, everyone highlights the pros, right? The good things, but not the cons. So that is so true, you know. And if someone's listening, Carl, and wants to connect with you or follow your work, where can people find you and connect with you?

Karl Klausewitz: 21:39

Sure, yeah. I'm on LinkedIn, as I mentioned, and Instagram. Um, you can look up my website, is Carlklausowitz.com. So should be easy to find. I think you can poke a time on there and we can jump on and talk and you know, work through whatever you need. I really pride myself in helping people to get what they want, whatever that is, you know, very quickly. So I try to get people deliverables within 24 hours. So, you know, however that has to happen, I make it happen. So anything you need for business, come talk to me.

Pedro Stein: 22:15

Okay, that's great to know. And there were a few things you shared today that really stuck with me. Well, first is the you know, the self-worth pricing topic we discussed, you know, because we see coaches, they struggle with that. Sometimes they're oh my god, I'm just starting. Should I can I charge to 2,000? Can I charge 5,000? You know, so it goes back to them, and that is so true because the way people perceive you is how much they're gonna value your work, right? Yeah, so that's one thing. The other was the you know, the just put in the work, man. You know, the idea of hey, everything's gonna be so easy and it's all sunshine and rainbows, and it's not like that, right? You need to put in the work, so that is such a good reminder, you know. And also, I really like the fact the way you stepped out of corporate America and got into coaching, and then you're like, hey, if I can do this, I can coach people to do that as well, right?

Karl Klausewitz: 23:09

So reading the books, you know, I think it's really important. It's listening to someone else's voice. Books are amazing, you know. You can put a piece of wood pulp and hallucinate other people's thought thoughts. It's really a miracle. So I definitely recommend reading all the business books you can.

Pedro Stein: 23:27

Well, I appreciate what you do, and I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. It was great having you, Carl.

Karl Klausewitz: 23:34

Yeah, great talking with you, Pedro. Thanks a lot.

Davis Nguyen : 23:37

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 join purplecircle.com.